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Sunday, 6 November 2011

Non-traditional colour Christmas card

I thought I would make a brown Christmas card for a change. Papers were freebies from a magazine, so this is another card for my challenge today for the Christmas card gang. The Inkadinkado reindeer stamp was inked with versamark and heat embossed with detail white powder. The ribbon, flowers and brad are from stash.

Colours are for Pals paper arts 118:

and for Tanda teaser 183: sepia tones.

This is also for:

Pixie cottage 94: get started - make a Christmas card
Mami doodles 37: Christmas
St Luke's November: Christmas is coming
Ribbon girl: jingle all the way to Christmas
Sundays with Crissy 23: Christmas card using non-traditional colours
Card and scrap 19: Christmas card with flowers, tag and text
Just add ink 92: just add a tag or bookmark
Fun with shapes and more 95: anamalistic Christmas
Create me pink 3: flower challenge
Stamps R us: masculine theme
Stamp n doodle: emboss it
Jellypark friends: non-traditional Christmas colours
The craft garden November: Christmas but no red or green
Glitter fairies 4: non-traditional Christmas - no red, green, gold
Ribbon carousel 27: anything goes
2 sisters 64: ribbon
Crimbo crackers 1: anything goes
Corrosive136: with a flourish
Papercraft star 69: a flourish
Divas by design 14: use metal (brads)
Meljen 83: use brads
ABC Christmas: V is for vintage Christmas
Addicted to stamps 17: make it shabby, shabby chic or vintage
Freshly brewed 71: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes (plus a bit of bling)

Saturday, 5 November 2011

Christmas gang challenge - freebie papers

It was my turn to choose the challenge for tomorrow for the Christmas gang (there's a list of us on my sidebar - if you'd like to know more and perhaps join us, just get in touch with one of us).

I asked everyone to make a card using something recycled or something that was a freebie with a magazine or in a swap or RAK etc.

For my card I used papers by Nancy Watts from the current Making Cards magazine. The poinsettia in the middle is decoupaged. I very lightly distressed the edges of the card with brown corduroy DI to give a bit of definition.

I'm also linking this for:

Pixie cottage 94: get started - make a Christmas card
Mami doodles 37: Christmas
St Luke's November: Christmas is coming
Crafts and me 59: let the music move you
Try it on Tuesday: unusual shaped card
Crimbo crackers 1: anything goes
Polka doodles 44: shaped card

Glistening gold

These cards are for For your inspiration 17 for this photo inspiration:

and also for Party time Tuesday 40 photo inspiration:

They were all made with papers, glittered embellishments and sentiments from Anna Griffin.




These are also for:

Winter wonderland: make your cards sparkle
Pixie cottage 94: get started - make a Christmas card
Delightful: a very sparkly Christmas
Mami doodles 37: Christmas
St Luke's November: Christmas is coming
Heidi's hobbystuggu November: Christmas card with bling/sparkle
Christmas inspirations 36: bows (4th card)
Ribbon girl: jingle all the way to Christmas (particularly 4th card)
Ribbon carousel 27: anything goes (4th card)
2 sisters 64: ribbon
Shelly's terrifically thrilling Thursday: monochromatic + ribbon (4th card)
Crimbo crackers 1: anything goes
Corrosive136: with a flourish (1st and 3rd cards)
Papercraft star 69: a flourish (1st and 3rd cards)
Di's digi designs: ribbons and bows (4th card)
Freshly brewed 71: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes (plus a bit of bling)

Elephant notebook

This is one of the notebooks I altered for my sale last week. The background is a sample piece of wallpaper that I acquired ages ago. The big elephant sticker came from the 99 store (I think, not sure).

This is for:

Cards for men 22: animals (don't know whether a notebook is OK - if not, please delete my entry)
Crazy challenge 91: inspirational photo:

Cooking it up with Katie 82: anything but a card
Bows n berries 13: clean and simple
Freshly brewed 71: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes

Christmas card designs

I've been given permission to show the cards that I designed and printed for my friends' Accountancy Aid business, so I'm now showing what I did for this year and then what I did for last year.

This year I was given a drawing of their premises to work on, so this is the scan:

I digitally changed the image, taking out the security camera on the left and adding some snow to give the picture a festive look. I then used elements from My Craft Studio Magic of Christmas CD to add to the picture. The biggest problem I had was that the print out from MCS had a crop mark in the bottom right hand corner and I couldn't get rid of it, so in the end I somehow managed to save the complete image as a PDF and then converted this to the Jpg to work on further to make it ready to print. I got there in the end, but the whole card took so many tweaking episodes that I was having to call the documents by lots of different names and found it quite hard to find the latest one to work on - my computer has so many versions saved!

This is what I was working on when I showed my workspace for WOYWW 126.

So 300 cards have now been delivered to Accountancy Aid and this is what the final card looks like:

I made cards for them last year, but didn't show them on my blog, so thought I would now. This is a photo that I was given to work on - looking up the road towards the Accountancy Aid building.
I digitally removed the blue car which was near the building and put a door in its place. I also removed the bit of the car poking out on the left hand side. I softened the edges and added the holly corners and the greeting - and then printed 300. This has actually got a white background - not sure why it's showing clear on here.

I'm linking these for the following challenges:

Pixie cottage 94: get started - make a Christmas card
Mami doodles 37: Christmas
St Luke's November: Christmas is coming
Crimbo crackers 1: anything goes
Freshly brewed 71: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes

CHNC challenge 45: bright colours and/or sparkle

For challenge 45 today on my CHNC blog the topic is 'bright colours and/or sparkle' - I thought this was appropriate as today in the UK is 'bonfire night', the day that's celebrating with fireworks in memory of the failed attempt of Guy Fawkes to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

For my card I've used a 7 x 5 card blank, matted with Anna Griffin papers - the red and white one is very glittered and sparkly. The Santa and robins are both slightly glittered with a bit of a fabric feel to them (they either came from the 99p store or Poundland - can't remember which).

I'm entering this card into these challenges:

Cute card Thursday 189: baby you're a firework - firework inspired
Winter wonderland: make your cards sparkle
The paper shelter 38: Christmas fun
Pixie cottage 94: get started - make a Christmas card
Delightful: a very sparkly Christmas
Stempelsonne 49: Father Christmas/Santa Claus
Mami doodles 37: Christmas
St Luke's November: Christmas is coming
Heidi's hobbystuggu November: Christmas card with bling/sparkle
Crimbo crackers 1: anything goes
Crafty boots: young at heart
Freshly brewed 71: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes (plus a bit of bling)

Friday, 4 November 2011

Make a note of it

An altered notebook using a piece of music and hearts paper that's been lurking in a box for a few years now and some Poundland 3D music stickers.

This is for:

Crafts and me 59: let the music move you
Southern girls 31: can you hear the music
Cooking it up with Katie 82: anything but a card
Your next stamp 54: anything but a card
Freshly brewed 71: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes

Sparkly snowman

This card is a 7 x 5 card blank layered with Anna Griffin papers, with the addition of a glittery snowman - clean and simple.

This is for:

Winter wonderland: make your cards sparkle
The paper shelter 38: Christmas fun
Pixie cottage 94: get started - make a Christmas card
Delightful: a very sparkly Christmas
Mami doodles 37: Christmas
St Luke's November: Christmas is coming
Crimbo crackers 1: anything goes
Pink gem 33: cold and frosty
Bows n berries 13: clean and simple
Crafty boots: young at heart
Freshly brewed 71: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes (plus a bit of bling)

November Chrysanthemums

Having left last week's Daring cardmakers challenge till the last evening, I decided I would do today's challenge on the first day rather than leave it.

So this is for DCM Chrysanthemum challenge - it is the flower of the month for November and also is in celebration of DCM's birthday as they move into their 6th year - way to go!

I used the sketch for Clean & Simple 165:

Colours are for Some odd girl nouveau challenge - they shared this beautiful inspiration photo:


The yellow papers - four or five different patterns - are unknown (I think I received them in a swap ages ago). I distressed all edges with spiced marmalade DI. The flowers are made from three different sets and sizes of nesties mixed up with American crafts pearl brads, glittered ribbon and gold foiled sentiment (sorry about the flash glare) from stash.

This is also for:

Crafty Ann 53: floral frenzy
Sketchy colors 91: yellow and black
Sentimental Sundays 79: birth flowers (for a November birthday)
Create me pink 3: flower challenge
Craft your passion 82: bingo - I chose flowers, free and bling
Gingerloft 28: bingo - I chose ribbon, glitter and flowers
Crafty ribbons 5: bingo - I chose dies, flowers and ribbon
Bows n berries 13: clean and simple
Crafty Ann 52: clean and simple
Cardmakin mamas 32: cut it out - die cuts
Divas by design 14: use metal (brads)
Meljen 83: use brads
PanPastel UK 6: distress it
Pink elephant 123: distressing
Creatalicious 27: distress your edges
Shelly's terrifically thrilling Thursday: monochromatic (can add a pop of colour) + ribbon
Paper players 70: anything goes fall theme
Crafty catz 107: anything goes
Freshly brewed 71: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes (plus a bit of bling)
Ribbon carousel 27: anything goes
Come and get it: anything goes
Lollipop crafts 55: anything goes
Paper playtime 59: anything goes
Pollycraft 117: anything goes

Thursday, 3 November 2011

Blue Birthday

This is a last minute entry for Daring cardmakers 'fantastic felties', using a felt flower with button from Poundland.

I've used the sketch for Clean & simple 164 (another last minute entry):

Papers are 7 gypsies baja journey and the corner piece stamp is Penny Black inked with stazon ultramarine. Paper edges have been distressed with a mix of broken china and stormy sky DIs. The sentiment is a craftime one.

This is also for:

Bows n berries 13: clean and simple
Crafty Ann 52: clean and simple
Stamp, scrap & doodle: monochromatic
Paperminutes 190: blue/white
Stamp insanity 79: chill out - cool as ice blues
PanPastel UK 6: distress it
Pink elephant 123: distressing
Creatalicious 27: distress your edges
Corrosive 136: with a flourish
Papercraft star 69: a flourish
Simon says: buttons
PaperPlay 44: button up
Freshly brewed 71: anything goes
Stampavie and more 155: anything goes
Sweet stampin: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes
Come and get it: anything goes
Dream valley 19: anything goes
Lollipop crafts 55: anything goes
Paper playtime 59: anything goes
Pollycraft 117: anything goes

Wednesday, 2 November 2011

WOYWW 126

It's Wednesday again and time for WOYWW 126.

When you see the picture below you'll think that it's nothing special - just three piles of card/papers, but oh!! the delight of those piles - it's a 300 Christmas card order for my friends' local accountancy firm.

I was given a scanned drawing of their building which I digitally altered, putting some snow on it and adding some carol singers, a Christmas tree and a border of holly and ivy. I worked on this for some time - in the end I had so many versions on my computer that I was in danger of forgetting which was which. Anyway, with a lot of tweaking I was finally satisfied with the design and started to print.

When I did cards for them last year I had to waste a lot because ink smudged from the front of one on to the back of the other. I took advice on the card that I used this year, which is supposed not to smudge with inkjet, but wasn't taking any chances, which is why the cards are interleaved with paper.

Today's job has been to score and fold each card - it's surprising how long that can take.

I can't show the cards here, but you can just get a little peep at the one on top that I'll be keeping for reference.

I just can't believe they're all done now!!

My next job this evening is to make a couple of baptism cards that I've been asked for - at least I've got a nice clean space to use when these piles of cards are moved.

Update: I've been given permission to show the card, do it's now here (and last year's too).

Tuesday, 1 November 2011

Two sporty notebooks

I was asked to alter a couple of notebooks for two sports mad boys.

The first is for a Chelsea football club fan, so I used a blue and white striped notebook, decorating it with a piece of PDA football paper that I've had for ages, a 3D die cut sticker football and a die cut Chelsea strip.

The second notebook is for a rugby fan - the background is HOTP paper and again I've added a die cut strip of the England rugby team and a 3D die cut rugby ball sticker.

These are for:

My Sheri 72: all about sports
The poodles parlour: let's hear it for the boys
Die cuttin' divas 39: it's football season
Cardmakin mamas 32: cut it out - die cuts
Papertake: anything goes
Come and get it: anything goes
Dream valley 19: anything goes
Lollipop crafts 55: anything goes
Paper playtime 59: anything goes
Pollycraft 117: anything goes

Thank you card

Last Thursday John's blind bowling club celebrated their 30th birthday with an afternoon tea party - it was very enjoyable. Their match secretary is standing down after 23 years and so I was asked to make a 'thank you' card for her.

I used a piece of Basic Grey paper for the background. I stamped the Jolly Nation bowls lady and coloured with copics, including the background, creating the mat and the bowl. Flowers, ribbons and sentiment from stash.

This is for:

Sassy Cheryl 88: just saying 'thanks'
Sweet stamps 39: so thankful
My Sheri 72: all about sports
Ribbon carousel 27: anything goes
Ooh-la-la 92: stitching

Monday, 31 October 2011

I just can't resist ....

... joining in a Circle Journal group. A new group starts today on CBC forum, so here is my 'When I was 21' journal which is going in the post today and will go round to each member of the group before being returned to me. I look forward to seeing and ready what others contribute.

Throughtout the CJ I've used retro papers from DCWV - they seemed to fit the era of when I was 21!

Front cover:

Welcome:

Rules:

My pages:


Sign in:


I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Come and get it: anything goes
Crafting when we can: anything but a card
Dream valley 19: anything goes
Lollipop crafts 55: anything goes
Paper playtime 59: anything goes
Pollycraft 117: anything goes
The paper shelter 37: anything goes
Simon says: anything goes
Charisma cardz 43: anything goes

Saturday, 29 October 2011

A busy day and a commissioned card

It was our church's minimarket this morning and these are pictures of my tables (you can get a closer look if you click on the pictures):



It's been a busy day (in fact, a busy few weeks) - we then went over to see mum for a chinese take-away. When I got home I needed to make a commissioned 90th birthday card, so I got out some decoupage and matching paper that I bought some time ago - there's also a matching lined envelope, which is a nice finishing touch - and used this with papers from Basic Grey marjolaine, a stitched ribbon, a craftime sentiment and gold numerals that have been altered with a purple copic.

I've used three different patterned papers, so this is for Critter 88 and also for Basic Grey 56: anything goes.

I used the sketch for CPS 241:

Colours are for Birthday sundaes 32: purple, green, white, black, also for Use it Tuesday 18: one or all: orange, black or purple (the unused items are the decoupage and the matching paper that I've had for ages).


This is also for:

Creative craft world: numbers and/or add a sentiment
Creative Belli 129: 1, 2, 3, 4 - 1 sentiment, 2 numbers, 3 patterned papers, 4 decoupaged flowers
Raise the bar 81: sew what -stitching
Pals paper arts 117: CAS ribbon
Lollipop crafts 54: embellish it
Paper pretties 177: embellish
Cardmakin mamas 32: cut it out - die cuts (the decoupage)

CHNC challenge 44: for someone special

It's time for a new challenge on my CHNC blog, so for Challenge 44 I'm asking for a Christmas card for someone special.

Today has always been special for me - it was my dad's birthday. Sadly, he died nearly eight years ago (actually on mum's birthday on 29 November) - so 29 October is still a special day for me, one to reflect on memories of the past and to think particularly of my mum who still misses dad.

I think a lot of us crafters tend to leave the 'special' people to last when it comes to making cards, so my challenge to you this week is to make a Christmas card for someone special, so that it doesn't get left till the last minute. You might want to try and make more than one (I'm going to try, but not sure whether I'll succeed this week).

On this special day of memories of dad, the card that I'm showing now is, of course, for my mum, so I'm linking this for Totally Gorjuss 104: I remember.

I've made a double twisted easel card (the first time I've made one). I've kept the design simple, letting the paper do most of the work - the main paper I've used is a 12 x 12 winter scene by Best Creation - you can see the whole paper here. It just goes to show that even a 12 x 12 paper with a scene can be cut and used for cardmaking.

The paper was already sparkly and glittery, but I added some stickles crystal ice on the base of the card.



Below is the back view where you can see that I used some g.c.d. snow day paper from their chill out collection - this was also used for the triangle on the front, which has the computer generated sentiment on it.
I'm also entering this for the following challenges:

Allsorts 127: Christmas easel card
Our creative corner: fancy folds
Jingle belles: not a creature was stirring
Meljen's 82: Christmas
Crimbo crackers 1: anything goes
Fab's big Christmas October: something shiny and/or snowflakes
Ooh-la-la 91: let it snow
Crafts and me 58: winter blues
Pink gem 33: cold and frosty
Winter wonderland: CAS Christmas - minimum embellishments
Sew many challenges 72: background paper - use two different background papers
SPCC 123: colour: pool party, very vanilla, wild wasabi
Stamp, scrap & doodle: monochromatic
Party time Tuesday 39: anything goes
The paper shelter 37: anything goes
Simon says: anything goes
Lothian crafts 19: anything goes

I haven't been showing much on my blog in the last few days, partly because we have been in chaos with decorating being done (all finished now, thankfully) and partly because I've been preparing for selling at our church's minimarket today, so I'm not going to be around much either today.

Big apologies to those who so faithfully visit and leave their very welcome comments that I just haven't managed to get around the blogs this week and leave comments. I'll try to do so soon, but I do have a busy weekend coming up.

I very much value the comments that are left on my blog posts, but over the past couple of weeks I've noticed some persistent trolls or spammers or whatever they're called - I can see that it is just innocent advertising, but I could do without it. I doubt it is going to make any difference saying anything here because these people don't even bother to read the blog posts. If the problem goes on I might have to consider using comment moderation. In the meantime, if I don't have a chance to delete them (which I am trying to do as quickly as I can) please just ignore them.

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

WOYWW 125

It's Wednesday and that means it's time for WOYWW - if you don't know what I'm talking about (is there anyone left that doesn't know?!) click on the link to Julia's blog and join in the fun.

Today I'm not showing my worktop space, but a new unit that I've got to house my Really Useful Boxes. Up until now most of my RUBs have been housed in the big cupboard in my craft room, which has meant that when I want something out of one of the bottom boxes I've had to move others to get to it, which isn't good for my back.

So, after much deliberation, I ordered a purpose-made unit to house the boxes. This had to be put together - loads of screws and bolts - I was helped by the lovely girl who comes to do our cleaning.

Now I can get to any box without moving the others because there are shelves in between. And now I've got room in the big cupboard to put other things that used to be on surfaces.

When I get time I need to sort out the boxes into an order that is more helpful (atm I haven't a clue which is where), but that will have to wait till next week because I'm selling cards at our church minimarket on Saturday and need to prepare for that - in fact, I need to alter some more notebooks and make some more sticky-note holders.

We've got the decorator in atm doing our lounge and inner hall, so we are in a bit of chaos (when aren't we?!) and we must be mad because we're going to have our bedroom and my craft room decorated in a couple of weeks' time which will mean clearing my stuff!

Hope I'll be back later with some crafting.

Sunday, 23 October 2011

Sparkly robin

Today's Christmas card challenge for week 47 is a recipe 2 designer papers, ribbon and a bird, so I've used two Anna Griffin papers, one very sparkly one and one that has a flocked finish - lovely to touch. The papers were mounted on to a gold 7 x 5 card blank, with the addition of an AG die cut silver foiled sentiment and a bow. The glittery padded robin is a Poundland sticker.

This is also for:

Christmas crafting October 4: little robin red breast
Christmas inspirations 35: die cuts or punches
Alota 69: Christmas
Corrosive 135: flying things
Try it on Tuesday: taking to the skies
Designer's challenge: cute critters
Take time for you 52: brown + another colour
PanPastel UK 5: glitter and glitz

Interesting statistics!

I love visiting Jules' blog on Sunday and seeing what she's been up to and what everyone else has been doing with their snippets. This week, Jules asked:

'Have you ever looked to see what the most viewed post is on your blog?

Do you fancy sharing your most popular post? to find it simply go to your dashboard and click on 'stats' ... 'posts ... 'all time' and at the top of the list will be the post that the most people have looked at.

I thought I would join in and do this - I've never thought of looking before - I discovered that my blogpost that has the mosst views is Digi Purple Christmas from nearly two years ago. It's had 553 pageviews, which is over 200 more than the next popular post. The strange thing is that there were 29 comments, whereas I've had lots of other posts that hae had many more comments than that. I can't help but wonder why Digi Purple Christmas got so many viewings.

If you haven't looked at your own statistics, it's quite interesting to do so.

Sparkly and vintage Christmas

It was Lizzie's turn to set the challenge for today's Christmas card for the Christmas gang and she supplied this lovely sketch for us to work with:

All my papers were from my offcuts box, so this is for Jules' crafty snippet challenge 42 and also for ABC Christmas: U for unused stash because I've used some lace that I bought quite a while ago from a market stall, a piece of very sparkly glittery ribbon and the lovely candlelabra stamp by Papermania, which I inked with versamark and heat embossed with detail silver. The sparkle is for Christmas stampin all year long: spark-ka-lay!

I love Christmas cards made with a combination of blue and silver, so I'm linking this for Stamp dreams 104: favourite colour combination.

This is also for:

Winter wonderland: a vintage Christmas
Alota 69: Christmas
Phindy's Friday 78: blue Christmas
Fab's big Christmas: something shiny and/or snowflakes
Crafty ribbons 4: ribbon and lace
Bunny Zoe 17: lace it up

It's my turn to set the next challenge for the Christmas gang (to make a card to be shown on Sunday 6 November) and this is my challenge:

'I'm asking you to use either something recycled or something you got as a freebie (with a magazine, or in a swap or RAK etc) - you can, of course, use other materials as well.'

If anyone wants to know more about the Christmas gang and join in with us, please get in touch with one of us - there is a list on my sidebar.

Saturday, 22 October 2011

CHNC challenge 43: make a scene

The weeks go by so quickly - today sees the start on challenge 43 on my CHNC blog - it's hard to believe that we are already well into October and getting nearer to Christmas.

This week I'm asking you to 'make a scene'. My cards for the challenge are very simple. I've used some more of the stamped images that I made when I borrowed this snow scene from a lovely crafting friend - this was inked with versamark and heat embossed with detail silver. The background snowflake paper is Craft Creations.

This is also for the following challenges:

Alota 69: Christmas
Sparkles forum Christmas challenge 9: Christmas song: I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Aud sentiments 39: winter theme
Phindy's Friday 78: blue Christmas
Jingle belles: softly falling snow
Ooh-la-la 91: let it snow
Fab's big Christmas: something shiny and/or snowflakes
Bah! humbug 42: with men in mind
The crafty pad 143: monochromatic