First monthly box

First some very exciting news ... last week my Tea Dance card featured in an earlier blog was picked as the winner in the monthly card makers challenge run by Jo Street at Craftwork Cards. My win netted me £20 worth of CWC goodies so I can't wait to see what I get.

Last week also saw the arrival of my first monthly box. CWC have launched a new idea which you can sign up to and get a goody box delivered each month. Each box contains 20 blank card and lots of other bits and pieces including papers, message bands and tags, flowers (my favourite), ribbons and candi. I haven't had much time as I've ended up working during the holiday as we try and recruit members of the public to train as safety stewards for the Commonweath Games. I did find time to make a couple of cards to share with you.

The first card is very me; butterflies and flowers! I love the foiled, pearlised papers and the white look great when you add fluid chalk on the edges.

I then made up the die cut flowers that came in the box as I find doing  that very therapeutic after a busy day on the phones but I haven't had chance to do anything with them. However I have been saving the leftover card from the die-cuts to use as templates but I decided to try something a bit different this time. 

I used it as a stencil and used fluid chalk to create the background on a white square card. I then used a punch and punched out the small flower in a piece of scrap card and used this to stencil some small flowers. Using the template again, I drew a large flower on to white pearlised paper and then inked it in the same fluid chalk to match the ones in the background. I then punched some medium sized flowers in a patterned paper and added candi in the centre. I added a message band and message from the kit and a few gems in the centre of the small flowers.

I was quite please with the result and would love to hear your comments.

VS and retirement

It's been a while since I have updated my blog but it's been quite a busy time at work. Due to a voluntary severance scheme offered recently there are lots of people leaving. There are still some more birthdays to come and a couple of friends retiring so I have been making lots of different cards. Unfortunately I have  realised  that I have made and given out a couple of cards without taking photos but it's too late now.

Here is a card that I did remember to photograph . . .

This 5 x 7 card was based on the teapot template that I brought in a sale from Craftwork Cards (CWC). They have just released a new kit using the same shape if you want to have a go. Most of the papers used are from Docrafts. The beige backing paper is Beautiful; the teapot is covered in a paper from the Lucy Cromwell and the message tags are also from this range. The roses are handmade by punching circles, cutting spirals and then rolling and sticking. I then inked the edges with fluid chalk and added a pearl in the centre. The leaves were created with an x-cut punch.The gingham paper and ribbon are from CWC.

Birthday cards for friends and colleagues

Lots of birthdays this month as well as a few people leaving work having taken voluntary severance; so plenty to keep us busy.
The first card was for a birthday at  the end of May but I had to delay posting it in case the recipient viewed my blog and got a sneak preview. My friend is an avid gardener so the new 'Home to Nest' range from Docrafts was perfect. I bought the A4 Ultimate die-cut and paper pack and used the seed packet paper, one of the message tags and one of the die-cut toppers. One the inside of the card I used one of the pages from the notelets that came free with the Creativity magazine this month.

The second card was a request from  my colleagues at work for a card to help another colleague celebrate a special birthday later this month. As there are a lot of folk to sign this one I went for an A4 card. The inspiration for this card was the cherry blossom paper from the Lucy Cromwell A4 Ultimate die-cut and paper pack. I then used the Spellbinders  matching dies to cut some additional embellishments which I finished of by inking the edges and adding a pearl from the Anita wheel. The numbers were created using the Papermania typographical stamps on to two different colours of textured card. I embossed the lighter color ones using a floral folder and then lightly inked them. The frame was from the Craftwork Cards white embossed pad which was a inked around the edge to tie it in. 

That's all for this week.

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Tea Dance and Handbag

Bit of a busy week so not much time to craft. I made up for it this weekend though with three cards to show you. I started out by having a go at making some Candi flowers. A friend at work has a birthday at the start of June and she loves animal print so each year I try and create something for her with an animal print theme. This year I had a lot of animal print Candi so I decided to have a go at making some flowers with it. As usual I got carried away and made several in the different prints that I had.(Hold this thought as it will be put to good use later!) My original plan was to make a floral arrangement with them but then I remembered that I had also got a handbag template in the Craftwork Cards sale . . . what better for an ex-model! In anticipation of this annual challenge I had also purchased  a DCWV pad called Safari Chic when it appeared in a Craft Superstore sale so this was also put to good use.

Here is the resulting easel card . . .

Here is the detail of the tassel which I again made with matching candi and a couple of small clear beads.

Also this week I took delivery of the new Tea Dance kit from Craftwork Cards. I love anything musical and so these papers really appealed. I also took the opportunity to use my new flower punch to make some extra flowers although I did use some of the ones that came in the pack. 

Here is a close up of the large flower so you can see the sparkle

Finally I decided to use some of the bits and pieces laying on my craft table and came up with this card . . .

The shaped background piece was removed from a photo card I made last week and the flowers were the extra ones I mentioned earlier so this was a pretty quick make!

Transport

Well this week we took delivery of our new car so what better way to celebrate than with a couple of transport themed cards.
Both these cards were designed and made with the help of my 16 year old daughter. They were both made for her friends' birthdays and, if you have followed my blog, you will know that she has a habit of leaving it until the night before the person's birthday before announcing that a card is needed. Well this week was no exception so Thursday night was spent making a card for a school bus driver ...

We got an image from the Internet to create a template and re-sized it to fit an 8 x 8 square card . We then cut out the pieces from appropriate coloured card and reassembled them. Once the vehicle was assembled we found a suitable background and add a piece of kraft card for the road.

On Saturday night we used the same technique to produce a card for another friend who loves cars and works part-time at the local race track. This time we made a racing car on a 5 x 7 card.

If like me you are not brilliant at drawing, creating a template from a picture down loaded from the Internet is a great way to get a lifelike image without too much stress.

More flowers

Another week has flown by but, as this is a bank holiday weekend and I have an extra day off, I have given myself so time out to craft. But first my VERY EXCITING NEWS. My daughter, Emma, and I were featured in the Talent Spot feature in the new edition of Creativity magazine. You can find us on page 46/47.

But back to the job in hand ... My friend Angie has a significant birthday coming up next month so I decided to make her card so that I'll have time to get it signed by all her friends at work. This 8 x 8 was created using mostly Craftwork Cards products. I started by making up some flowers from the Sugerplum pad. I used one of the papers from the pad for the background and inked the edges to tone in with the backing card. I also inked the edges of a white border. The message and band were from the new Macaroon goody box. The large numbers were created using the Papermania Typography stamps - each number was stamped twice once on the pink glitter paper and once on the texture card. The two images were then cut out and stuck together slightly offset. Finally I added the butterfly which was part of a Kanban paper pack that I picked up on sale at the RSPB shop and some Docrafts pearls and Shimmer Domes to add a bit of bling. Et voila ...

And a close up of the beautiful flowers ...

I hope you can see the Spray and Sparkle.

My second project this weekend was the Floral Heart Easel kit also from Craftwork Cards. This card looked awesome and I love making up the layered flowers. I was a bit surprised that there were no instructions - just a picture of the finished product - but since I have made the flowers before I started by making up the 15 large flowers needed for the card. This was when I came across problem number two; there were not actually enough flowers in the kit to make the number of flowers required as per the enclosed picture. Luckily I had some of the same flowers from goody bags that I had previously brought and managed to create enough flowers to complete one of the two card blanks.

Whilst I waited for the Spray and Sparkle to dry I worked on the rest of the card. I started by covering the card with the paper provided and then started on the base of the project. I found this very difficult as it was tricky to see from the picture how to go about this so I ended up having to improvise. I managed to add the pleated ribbon which acts as a support for the easel part of the card when it is open. I then added a message and cut some hearts from some of the leftover small flowers to tie in with the larger flowers. I managed to make a small pocket and create some small flowers to sit inside it and again decorated it with a couple of hearts.

By now the large flowers were dry and ready to be stuck on to the heart frame to complete the project.

I am sure that you will agree that the finished project is stunning. The remaining card blank will definitely be a challenge though as I have one and a half sheets of 12 x 12 Bohemian paper, a small length of the beige ribbon, some tags, some small flowers but no large ones, a length of twine and a pack of mini candi. I think I will have to do something completely different so it will be interesting to see the end result.

Watch this space!

Monochrome Magic

This week's Docrafts Card Maker challenge was to make a card in black and white. My Spellbinders "Bitty Blossoms" arrived recently so I decided to use them to produce my entry. All the card, papers and embellishments are Docraft products. The background was created by layering a piece of white card, which was embossed using a folder, on to a piece of textured black card. The scalloped squares are shimmering card stock punched with a 2" Xcut punch. The papers are  from an older collections I have in my stash -  Papermania "Liquorice Sherbert". Here is my finished entry . . .

I'll have to wait until Thursday to see whether my efforts will be rewarded.

Better late than never ...

Hi. Long time no blog. I have been making several cards but haven't had time to post them in my blog as I'm at work full-time . . . counting the weeks until the summer break when I'll once again be a lady of leisure for about 5 weeks hopefully with plenty of time to blog.

The title of this blog refers to two separate incidents. Firstly my daughter decided to make a birthday card for her friend but in her usual style left it until the night before and once again it was a last minute rush. Having said that, I think our joint effort turned out not too bad in the end. What do you think?

We decided on an easel card which we created from an 8 x 8 square card. The horse and the horse shoes were made using templates created by finding and re-sizing an image on the computer. The various pieces were the cut out and stuck together. The lettering was some self-adhesive ones from my stash.

The second last  minute incident was when I realised about 5 minutes ago that the Craftwork Cards competition I was planning to enter closes today. I made two cards using the new Dolly Mixtures papers which was this month's theme. The first was a bird house shaped card using the Amy papers. . .

I created the flowers from the papers using a template from the Privilege Club Kit called Julie's Delightful Daisies. The ribbons came as die-cut elements in the paper pad.

The second one which I decided to enter was a card I made for my friends special birthday earlier in the month.

This 8 x 8 card was inspired by an entry on the Craftwork Cards blog where one of the designers had created a patchwork background for her project. I liked this idea and used it as the basis for this card using the Coleen pad. All of the elements are from CWC including papers and other paper elements from the pads, message tags and candi. The flowers were created by using some of the pre-cut shapes from the CWC kit (mention above) and then I again used the template to create the smaller ones by hand. I  used Papermania stamps to create the numbers. I created dimension by sticking some of the elements flat and raising other up using foam pads. Although it is hard to see from the photo, the numbers, flowers, banners and heart were also coated in "Spray and Sparkle" for a little extra bling.

Just off to email my entry before I really do miss the deadline.

Spring success

Great news yesterday; the card I made with the Docrafts downloads won the Spring card makers challenge this week. I'll look forward to receiving my prize of some All Aboard goodies.

Fueled by my success I decided to have a go at making the notelet/calendar which was an inspiration project from one of the Docraft designers. I have made loads of the handbag notepad using post-it pads as they are great sellers at our fund-raisers at work. However, I thought that this was a neat twist by adding an extra layer for a calendar.

The instructions on the project were a bit vague so I experimented a bit to find a basic design. In the end I found that the best way was to use the larger piece of card to make the outer layers and the smaller piece for the insert. The larger piece of card measured 17cm x 8cm and was scored at 8cm, 9cm and 13cm. This gives the base and the easel part. The smaller piece measured 8.8cm x 8cm and was scored at 8cm.

The small flap is then stuck on to the space between the 1cm score lines on the larger piece.

Your fully assembled base is now ready to decorate and should look like this ...

You attach your post-it note pad between the bottom two layers. I find that it is more secure to stick the back of the pad to the bottom layer rather than relying on attaching it to the top seam. The calendar goes on the top of the second layer. Here are the two that I made so you can see what you are aiming for!

I have a couple of friends with birthday this month so I thought that these would make a nice personalised extra gift to go with the brought present.

Spring - new papers and recycling

Here's hoping we've seen the last of the snow - well at least for the next fortnight whilst I'm off work! Thought I'd have a bit more time to make cards this week but I seem to have spent time catching up on all the chores. I did manage to download the new papers from the Docrafts Creativity Club and have made a birthday card for my good friend who has a major birthday later this month.

All the elements are from the Spring Blossom downloads apart from the table cloth which was from an earlier tartan download. I used the PC to resize the flowers for use on the sentiment and added a few gems to give it a bit of bling.

Yesterday was my wedding anniversary and to celebrate we walked across the Forth Road bridge and down to South Queensferry where we went for coffee and carrot cake. Obviously such an auspicious occasion called for a card ...

Tried for a more masculine feel by using the Gorjuss neutrals but added a ribbon/bow from the Forever Friends Black and Gold range. As you can see, we've been married a few years!

After watching the new episode of Creativity TV I went back to my Gorjuss 8 x 8 papers and incorporated some of the packaging in my design. As I was making the card I noticed some fabric samples that I'd got from M&S when I was ordering a new suite and also used one of these in the design. All the other papers are from the 8 x 8 paper pack. The buttons are from the Boofle bag. Here's the finished card . . . 

Off to St Andrew's to have a look around the university but hope to get back to the cards later in the week.

Gorjuss Neutrals

Quite a hectic weekend so only managed one card. Went shopping in  Hobbcraft  and managed to pick up some bargains. They were selling off some of the Gorguss tags so I brought a couple of different packs and then spotted the 8 x 8 pack which contains neutrals papers so decided to treat myself to that too. Came home and made this card . . .

The layout was Friday's Docrafts Creativity Club daily sketch (264). I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with these packs.

Mid-week Easter special

The Docraft Creativity Club downloads this week were some more lovely Easter papers with eggs, chicks and bunnies. I printed off a selection of them and made a couple of cards based on some of the daily sketches.
The first one was based on my favourite sketch of the moment which I featured in a couple of cards last week. The card features 7 of the 15 download papers which I embellished with various coloured gems in various sizes.

The second was based on yesterday's daily sketch (261).

The background yellow card was embossed using the Boofle patchwork tri-embossing folder. All the papers were from this week's download except for the the lined tag just above the flower which was a tag from last weeks collection.

A weekend of birds

I had a lot of new supplies delivered this week; the new Urban stamps from Docrafts; yet another 12 x 12 storage box from Craft Superstore full of goodies; a new butterfly die and some new bird and flower templates.
So, I was spoiled for choice but in the end I decided to try one of the birdhouse shaped cards from Craftwork Cards (CWC). I had seen some really lovely examples in the CWC gallery and blog so I have brought some of the card blanks in the sale.
I started by covering the card in the new Forever Friends paper, Kraft Notes. I then trimmed the bottom and edge of the roof with a contrasting card and then inked the edges. I cut out and inked the circle it but I was not happy with the result so I covered it up with a scalloped circle with a plain circle cut out to give the entrance a fancy edge.
Next I cut out some birds in contrasting papers but they didn't show up enough so I used some plain kraft card and again inked the edges. I then found the branch which I had cut out a few weeks ago (when I was trying out my new Spellbinders dies) and positioned it so that I could perch the birds on it. I also cut out one of the hearts and raised it up using a foam pad.  The love nest sign was made from the FF paper with inked edges. The letters are from the Papermania Capsule collection - Boysenberry. I added a couple of eyelets so I could suspend the sign so that it was free-hanging. This is the final card . . .

Here's a close up of the bottom of the card so you can see the detail . . . 

Staying on the bird theme I decided to try out the one of the new Urban stamps from Docrafts. I stamped the image on the chosen backing paper so that I had the legs without having to cut them out. Then I stamped the various parts on to contrasting papers/cards and then cut them out and re-assembled them on to the original stamp. I then found some message tags from CWC which I positioned on the right hand side and finished off by adding 3 contrasting eyelets to balance on the left. Here are the finished cards . . .

Well that's all for today.

Easter downloads from Docrafts

Had fun yesterday creating a card with the new downloads from Docrafts. There are three downloads this week although they are all on an Easter theme. There are also two different colour-ways, blue/green and orange/yellow. I originally went for the latter but ended up changing my mind as I was putting the card together. The card is loosely based on one of the daily sketches (251) from last week which I really liked as soon as I downloaded it but loved it even more when my daughter used it as the basis for my Mother's Day card.

Here is the final card . . .

All the papers are from the downloads, including the eggs! I  inked the edges of the papers to give more contrast and then mounted them onto silver mirri card. Finally I  added buttons, pearls, ribbon and  a bow from my stash.

Since there's football on the TV this evening I didn't feel too guilty making a card with the other colours. After getting told off by my daughter for making an Easter card - "...but mum we never send Easter cards ..." I decided to make a non-Easter card this time. I reverted back to my old favourites, flowers and a butterfly done in a shabby-chic style.

All the papers are downloads but the main background is from the Chronology part 1 selection rather than the new Easter ones.

Right, that's me done for the evening, better go and get the washing out of the tumble dryer before I get in to trouble ;-)

Photo inspiration

Have just finished my card for Katy's Challenge on the Docrafts site. The inspiration this week was a photograph of a beautiful cerise pink tulip against a background of bottle green leaves. I used the colour and the floral theme as my inspiration to produce this card as my entry . . .

I used a couple of papers from the Spring Green Part 1 download from Docrafts for the background and the strip. The flower was made using my new Spellbinders dies called Bitty Blossoms and the tag was a X-cut dies which I then embossed with a tri-embossing folder to give some extra texture. The finishing touches were some Anita's pearls and Papermania capsule collection buttons with darker thread. the message tag is from Craftwork Cards.

I'll have to wait until Tuesday to see whether it's a winner!

Happy Mother's Day

Yes, I know I'm a bit early but I had to get this card finished so that I can get it in the post as it has several hundreds of miles to travel before Sunday. My mother-in-law collects teapots ... and tea-plates. So when this template arrived in a collection I purchased in the Craftwork Cards sale I thought it would be an ideal starting point. My original thoughts had been to make a teapot shaped card but I was a bit worried about whether there would be an edge wide enough to take the fold. As I was short of time I went for a more traditional approach and will experiment with other ideas when I have a bit more time. As usual there are some flowers and a butterfly . . .

Now off to write in the card so I can get in the post tomorrow then hopefully it will arrive in time for the big day.

P.S. My card from the last blog was feature on the weekly Docrafts Creativity Club Newsletter ;-)

Docrafts Creativity Club downloads

Had a wee creative flurry this evening. I downloaded the new Spring Green part 1 papers from the Docrafts Creativity Club. I liked the bunting one and so decided to look back through the daily sketches to find one that needed this in the layout. I eventually found daily sketch 224 which included bunting so I used as the inspiration for this card.
I decided to go for an 8 x 8 square card because of the size of the bunting and then scaled everything else in relation to this. I used a few different techniques to make this card including embossing with a folder followed by a light sanding to bring out the pattern. I also added a bit of dimension by inking the edges of the background rectangle and the circle. I was struggling for a while with the letters as my dies are too small and so were the first few pre-cut letters packs that I found in my stash. Eventually I remembered an old Xmas range - I think it was called "Let it Snow". Fortunately I had the foresight to get a couple of packs so I had all the required letters to spell out an appropriate sentiment.

Having visited to Docrafts blog I've decided to enter the card makers challenge for the first time . . . if I can work out how to do!

That's all for today, see you again soon.

Weaving tutorial

As promised here is a tutorial explaining how I created the woven backgrounds for my cards. I have taken photos as I went along and I hope my explanations are clear. Unfortunately, once you have done something a few times you tend to make assumptions and forget to explain everything. I hope this isn't the case but you never know!

Anyway, here we go . . .
Start by cutting a piece of paper to size. I find it easiest to use a square and I usually make it a little bit smaller that the card I am going to make so that I can mount it. This is going to be the backing paper behind the weaving and you can determine how much will show by how closely together you do your weaving. I find it easiest to use a dotty paper as this helps me to position the weaving strips straight but you could use anything.

Use a contrasting paper (or 2) and cut your strips for weaving. I used 8 x 8 paper and cut strips about 1 cm in width but again you can vary this depending on your own design. You will need about 14 strips in total and I usually pick two different colours as I think this makes the woven effect more obvious but again this is personal preference.

Start by putting a small dot of glue at ONE END of one of the strips.

Position the strip on the backing paper, diagonally down the centre. I find it easiest to start in the top left hand corner. ONLY STICK DOWN ONE END OF EACH STRIP AT THIS POINT. This strip is going to be your guide for all the first layer of weaving strips so make sure it is in the correct position.

Continue adding strips at regular spacing along the top and down the left hand side of your backing paper.

Once you have finished this stage you should have something that looks like this. I have inserted the ruler to show that each of the strips is only attached at one end. You are now ready to start your weaving.

Using a contrasting weaving strip place it under the very first strip which you attached that runs directly down the centre of the backing paper.

Place a small amount of glue at each end of the strip following the line of the backing paper. Press the weaving strip down firmly and cut off any excess to use for the next strip. Make sure if you are cutting a strip off that you leave enough of the strip to over-run the edge of the backing paper. This strip is going to be your guide for all the strips in the second section of the weave so make sure it is in the correct position (that is, straight!)

Take the next weaving strip and thread it over and under the opposite strips to the first one. Place your glue at the edges of the backing paper and when you are happy with the position of this strip, press it into place.

Continue adding strips in this way until you are halfway across the backing paper. Now you will have reached the position where the original (in this example, red) strips are not secured at the end.

As you add the next and subsequent strips you will need to stick down the original strip as well as the strip you are weaving BUT ONLY STICK DOWN ONE (red) STRIP AT EACH END FOR EACH NEW (green) WEAVING STRIP THAT YOU ADD.

Continue adding strips in this way, remembering to stick down the original (red) strip as it is completed as well as the (green) strip that you are adding. Your completed weaving should look like the this. All that remains is to turn the whole page over and using the edge of the backing paper as a guide, trim off all the overlapping ends of the weaving strips and then you have it . . .

. . . a perfect woven background on which to build your project.

Here is a reminder of the completed project I made with this background . . .

You will see from my earlier blogs that I love this technique and have used it many times to create many different cards - although flowers and butterflies do feature in a lot of them! There are more examples in my Docrafts gallery at WWW.DOCRAFTS.COM where I am know as (surprise, surprise) kINGFISHER.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and have found it easy to follow. It would be great to get some feedback.