365 cards day 41: feel better Friday

Day 41 challenge on 365 was to make a 'get well' card with five flowers on it. I wasn't sure whether to count the layered blooms as one or not, so I did, so there are at least five flowers on my card.

The flowers were still on my worktop from making the Diamond wedding card, so I thought the background papers went well (the papers were a magazine freebie - been in the box for far too long!)

Btw, it's the scan that's crooked, not the card.

365 cards day 39: Wacky color Wednesday

The idea for day 39 on 365 was to use orange, purple and green on a card - it couldn't have been simpler with this DCWV paper for a base:

365 cards day 37: DIY dress up some chipboard

Having made the Diamond Wedding card earlier, I just had to make another card, so I decided to catch up with 365 (I'm a whole week behind now), so this is for day 37, using BG ambrosia papers for background and for covering the chipboard flowers, with distressed and inked edges.

Diamond wedding anniversary

I was asked to make a Diamond Wedding Anniversary card for a lady and her husband who has been a member of our WEF at church for many years. I think I'm safe in showing it here because I don't think the lady concerned comes on to the internet. If by any chance you do, Audrey, then please look away NOW!!!

The background paper is a pastel rainbow effect with an overlay of a 'material' feel paper that has sparkly swirls woven into it. The scan doesn't do it justice and the light's too poor now to get a reasonable photo. I'm taking it tomorrow morning to give to the leader of WEF to pass around and have signed, but if I can I'll take a quick picture before I go.

This is an A4 size card so that the insert is big enough for everyone to sign.

You can get a better idea of the detail if you click on the picture to see it larger.

Now I've started crafting again I'm tempted to continue, but I really ought to be disciplined and carry on with sorting my craft stuff. This morning I spent time sorting out sentiments and 'relatives' (no, not the real ones!) and putting each category in a little bag and boxing them all up - took quite a time, but will save time when I want to find 'husband', for instance, I won't now have to rummage through all of them to find a suitable one:

Salt

Just a reminder that Salt goes live now every Thursday. The challenges are still fortnightly, but on the in-between Thursdays there is an opportunity to get to know our DT. This week, Mona tells us about herself.

And, of course, there is still time to participate in the current challenge 'The real meaning of Easter' and, of course, to read what Esther wrote about this, as today we remember with thanks the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

I have no crafting to show atm because I'm having a real sort out of my craft stuff - spent time yesterday sorting, bagging, boxing, labelling all the little bits and pieces, like brads, eyelets etc - I like to have a place for everything and everything in its place!

However, there are one or two crafty tasks that need to be done over the next few days, so, hopefully, something to show soon. But I'm limiting myself to doing those until everything's sorted, so no challenges for a while.

BF April inchies swap

Since the weekend I haven't done much crafting, but I did manage last night and this afternoon to finish my two sets of inchies for the April swap on BF being hosted once more by Karen.

Karen said: 'I would like you to makes them all with BIRDS on and with WHITE AS YOUR MAIN BACKGROUND colour!!!'

So both sets have been done on white linen card which has a nice subtle texture.

On this first set, I've stamped part of a stamp that was within a BF kit - the stamp was an exclusive Bubbly design created by Caroline.

I stamped with Heritage dark walnut and lightly waterbrushed. picking up some of the colour from the ink pad and lightly coloured the leaves with Brilliance pearlescent ivy watered down.

This is what the whole stamp looks like:

For the second set I used a clipart bird picture available in Publisher, imported into Paint, where I changed the colours, and then printed out, finally using a Marvy pink pen to do the borders.

This is what the original clipart looked like:

I enjoyed making these.

I'm linking these for Sunday Stamper challenge 54: chirpy chirpy cheep cheep, which, of course, is all about birds! I'm also linking for Alphabet Challenge blog B is for ... birds! And also for Lots to do week 14: Art.

Yesterday we spent the day at St Thomas hospital for John to get his eye looked at (nothing serious, but disappointing in that the limited vision he had in his left eye has gone down further than it was and he also has a bit of an infection).

Today I met a friend for lunch and a catch-up, but did manage to get my second lot of inchies done when I got home.

Sheila's candy

I just love visiting Sheila's blog - so inspirational. I've met her irl and have watched some fab demonstrations - she has so many wonderful ideas and such talent. If you visit her here you have a chance to win some super candy - as Sheila says, 'You've got to be in it to win it!' And while you're there, why not have a browse through her blog - you will not be disappointed.

365 cards day 35: ad inspired

When I saw the challenge on 365 cards today, I knew exactly the paper I wanted to use. This is the ad that was given by Vicky for inspiration, together with her beautiful card (why not go and check it out):

The paper I used is Fancy Pants Dainty. The paper very much speaks for itself and it would have been a shame to have covered too much of it (I used the bottom right corner of a 12" x 12" sheet, so I've just added some turqoise ric rac and the sentiment.

Sympathy cards

At last, I've done a few sympathy cards. I always feel that these should be kept simple and I often opt for a couple of lilies on a background, but today I've abandoned lilies and used other flowers.

The background for the first two cards is a lovely embossed paper by K & Co BW which doesn't need much added to it.




This background is BG, with the picture printed on to linen card to give a slightly watercoloured effect:

The background for this one is Anna Griffin:

And the red paper backing the roses here is BG, surrounded by a piece of K & Co Brookfield:

and lastly, a very simple one:

They all have inserts that say 'with deepest sympathy'.

This is all very well but ...

... my next job was going to be making some sympathy cards - well, these are getting closer, I suppose - I just saw the 'You're in my prayers' stamp on the shelf and fancied using it (stamped with Brilliance pearlescent ivy and clear embossed - although you can't see the shine on here), so this is the result:

Off to make a cup of coffee now ... and then I must get on with some sympathy cards!

365 cards day 34: that's eggs-ellent!!

It so happens that I'm making some quick Easter cards to supplement stock ready for selling this evening for Tearfund (some more I made last night if you scroll down), so I've just added to the supply with a couple of cards for today's 365 challenge - particularly focusing on using ovals and eggs:

They are quite 'busy' cards, but sometimes people want something bright and cheery, especially if sending to families with younger children.

More quick Easter cards

I made a few more quick Easter cards last night. I apologise for the poor photos, but time is of the essence today.

The first one features a bunny, so I'm linking for DCM 'bunnies and chicks' and also for today's Alphabet Challenge Blog 'B'., not only bunny, but butterfly.

Challenge 8 on The Pink Elephant is Easter, so all of these cards are good for that, also for this week's Created by hand: 'Easter and/or Easter eggs.

Four more decoupage ones:

365 Day 33

On 365 cards today the challenge is 'white space': 'I would like to see you use only the top 1/3 or the bottom 1/3 of your card, leaving the other 2/3 blank.'

Mmmmm I think I've almost managed it.

I needed to make a couple of quick 'new home' cards, so what better than these. The first one just involved mounting a sticker on a couple of mats and the second one could easily have been done by a 4 year old - the cottage was bought just like that (it's been in my box of bits waiting for the day that it could be used).

I've also made a few more Easter cards this evening - about seven I think, but it's too late to scan/photo them - perhaps tomorrow, depending on time.

In the morning I need to make a few sympathy cards to fill the gap ready for my cards going along to WEF to hopefully raise a bit more money for Tearfund.

New Postage prices from 6 April

Thought I'd just give this a mention.

Info here.

Some steep increases.

John's just gone to the shop over the road to buy up some stamps.

This will effect the sales of thicker cards - I think I might now be considering making more cards without chipboard etc. The cost of a 1st class large stamp is going up from 52p to 61p - that's quite a big increase! (and it's not long ago that it went from 48p to 52p).

Salt: Easter

I found this Salt challenge difficult to do, not the subject matter, because Easter is so much at the heart of the Christian gospel, but the crafting for it.

Esther chose the theme for this time and you can read what she said and see the fabulous crafting of the rest of the DT here.

I did one LO that ended up in the bin - I'd tried to handwrite on it and it turned out as rubbish, so I went back to the drawing board and did something completely different.

The cross was cut from a 'Me and My Big Ideas' paper 'denim cross' (I'd originally intended to use the whole 12 x 12, but the rest of it went in the bin, so all I rescued was the cross).

The base paper is Pink Stems Garden from Colorflowers II Collection by Jennifer O'Meara, with her 'Garden Sunset' overlayed with the printed texts.

John 3:16 is a verse that I learned when I was so young I can't remember when it was - what profound truth it contains.

Water, water everywhere

The topic on 365 cards today is Imagine this: 'water', so here are three cards that have some on them!

The background paper is PDA.

I'm also linking for My Time to Craft 54: it's raining men!

Ruby Wedding Anniversary card

I was asked by a friend to make a Ruby Wedding Anniversary card. This is the invitation she received and she asked if I could do something appropriate that would compliment it.

I would normally associated Ruby Wedding with red rather than blue, but managed, hopefully, to combine to make this card.

The gatefold card blank is an ivory irridescent with a hint of a blue sheen. I didn't have any blue hearts, so I chalk inked some white ones.


I chose a font to match up with the invitation and added the embellishment in the middle with just a hint of red:

Unfortunately, the photos don't do it justice. The top right heart is the same colour as the bottom left one, although here it looks different!

This week's ABC challenge is H for hearts, so this is appropriate for that.

Yesterday I found the Creative Card Crew challenge blog and, although it's officially too late, I'm linking for their challenge 2: no paper, keep it clean, because I haven't used any patterned paper.

Rounding the corners

On 365 cards today the theme is 'I'm rounding the corner'. I found this sketch on Everybody Art challenge 33, which was just right to combine with this. And I deliberately used all BG infuse papers so that I could (very late, but still wanted to do it) link for BG 26: all round.

I can't believe that the challenges on 365 cards have now been going for a whole month - and I've done every one of them.

My new printer was delivered earlier today (the old one - well, it wasn't actually that old - packed up the other day). The new one is a wireless network one, so it is sitting behind me the other side of the room. I tried the printing a while ago and then decided to try scanning this card - not a bad result for a first try.

happy cake and ice cream day!

I had an idea for the challenge on Cuttlebug this week, inspiration 24: Cuttlebug meets cupcake. I had some sticky backed white glistening felt like material that I thought would be just right for icing, so I ran it through the d'vine swirls embossing folder, but you can hardly see the swirls. So I did the background with the hearts embossing folder, but, because it is glitter card, although it has embossed well, it's difficult to see it here, but there really is Cuttlebug embossing on this card!

The current challenge on ABC is G for glitter (gosh, G already and H tomorrow!), so this qualifies for that, and also Secret Crafter 23: have your cake and eat it; linking too for One Stop Craft challenge 22: bling tastic (more bling on this one than the one I linked earlier in the week).

The base of the cake was cut from a coffee cup holder and lots of Poundland bling added on to the icing.

Ladybug or ladybird

Yesterday's prompt on 365 cards was to include a ladybug. Do you say 'ladybug' or 'ladybird'? I think it depends which side of the Atlantic you come from!

Anyway, I used Friday Sketchers challenge 45 sketch for this card:

I'm also linking for Colour Create challenge 7: red and green, with the option of wings (and, yes, ladybirds do have wings - remember the little poem: Fly away, ladybird ...?) and also for Mixed Media Monday: come fly with me!

I'm not sure what the spotty paper is, but the bit behind the ladybird is Anna Griffin and the band across is K & Co.

The ladybird is another of those springy stickers from Poundland (had them for ages and ages - used a dinosaur a couple of days ago and now this).

There is a spring hidden between the two layers of the ladybird, so that she can go 'boing'!!

BF CJ School days

Postie brought me my CJ back today - this is from the group on BF that started last July. Thank you, girls, for such super contributions to this CJ.

Front:

Welcome:

Rules:Hazel:

Maxine (Maxia):
Ann:

Karen:

Rosie:

Tracey R:

Chris:

Kathy:

Di W (crazydaisy):

Sign in:

Back:

Once again, a great big thank you to everyone who contributed to make this a very special CJ.