Mother's Day UK

It was Mother's day yesterday here in the UK, and I hope all the Mum's had a good day! We went out for a family meal with my parents, mother in law, my son and his girlfriend and I enjoyed it very much.

Now for Spot the Difference - can you see the differences between the two cards I made for our Mums?

I started this card back to front, it was totally the wrong way to start, by cutting the window with a Spellbinders die, adhering to some DCWV paper adding the paper roses - then try and assemble it to the rest of the card which had not been decided at that point! No, it is better to decide and assemble the card and do the window last! I mounted the DCWV panel on some Papermania paper. This was mounted on to a large scalloped square of pink. Then the spotty ribbon was applied and the pink square was adhered to the yellow square which had ribbon already applied one side, then the holes were punched through both colours for the brads, and this was attached to a Craftwork Cards 8"x8" scalloped card blank. I added some butterfly die cuts that came with the Papermania paper pack, a corner Spellbinders die cut and a spotty bow. I wanted to turn the plain end over but the glue I used to attach the bow was so strong I couldn't do that. A touch of glitter glue on the roses, butterflies and paper, then Happy Mother's Day was stamped on the paper (with a Hero Arts clear stamp) and heat embossed - and it was done.

 I lined the inside of the card with Papermania paper, I think it is called Rose Garden.

Same card, a few little differences, the papers are different, there is one large butterfly, the brads are a different colour - that's all!

I have entered the following challenges:

Allsorts - use those dies (Sat)

Craft All Day - anything goes (March)

Cute Card Thursdays - Flowers

Left of Center - flowers and or ribbons (Fri)

Quirky Spice Girls!

The Quirky Crafts Challenge went out yesterday, was set by Doris,  and it is called Spice Girls (Spice up your life with colour - girls), and is about bright colours and girls! It is supposed to be about big girls, Rose is a "Big Girl" as in she is 6" tall, which isn't what Doris meant at all so I hope she is OK to show you.  

Just after Christmas I won a prize from The Cutting Cafe of every new release for 6 months - that is one huge prize, there are so many files and my big regret is I sold my Craft Robo, and don't get on with the eCraft,  so don't have anything to cut the wonderful files on, but I am going to buy a new machine I have decided.

The challenge sponsor is the very generous Regina of The Cutting Cafe, and she supplied the team with the following files:

You Colour My World

All About Girls

All Occasion Banners

Assorted Banner templates

I added one of my files won in the prize mentioned above:

Big Girl -Elisha Jean and Friends

I managed to print the little girl's overalls onto one of the backgrounds from You Colour My World  and paper pieced it, the clothes are provided in this file seperately also the pockets and cuffs, and there are even clothes with tabs so you can make dress up dolls. I printed a different coloured background to use in the background. I used two sentiments from All About Girls, and the Happy Birthday banner from All Occasions Banners all of which I coloured with Promarkers. The girl is called Rose from Big Girl -Elisha Jean and Friends, I printed the uncoloured version and coloured her with Promarkers. Finally I found some pretty spacers and added them and some baker's twine. The lime green panel is cut with a Spellbinders Grand Nestability die.

I am a bit late posting this, I added the card to the challenge post at Quirky Crafts at 2am, it has been a tough few weeks, especially last week, and I am very tired! I don't know how long the blogs have been like it, but last night I suddenly noticed both of them were "naked" having lost their backgrounds - EEEEK! The website providing the free backgrounds and banners that I used seems to have gone, but I managed to find another with free backgrounds that sort of go with the headers - at least the colours do! I like the new backgrounds (thank you Hot Bliggidy Blog), but there are no matching headers etc, so it might change again.

I have entered the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursdays - flowers

I love Promarkers - anything goes (Wed)

Left of Centre - flowers and or ribbon (Fri)

Mother's Day cards.

I made a batch of quick (ish) Mother's Day cards all using the mini hats, and all with a panel of handmade paper under a scalloped or plain rectangle (or both) cut with Spellbinders long rectangles, and a couple of ribbons. I stamped and heat embossed the Hero Arts sentiment, and each card has either pearls or blooms or both.

This non fluffly Mum's day card is made using a Marianne stamp and die set, I am not totally happy with it, this is the first one. I need to make the top panel a different colour, maybe the patterned paper, or put this on a larger card so there is a gap. Anyway I was being frugal, the gold cup is cut from the centre of the gold panel, and the shorts and shirt are cut from the centre of the pink panel.

I am going to try different colourways. The panels are all cut with Spellbinders Card Creator A2 B set (I don't own the A set). The stamping is heat embossed.

I won a challenge!

I won a challenge on the Technique Twist challenge blog (although I was the only entrant lol), with this card using an image from The East Wind by Unky.

Happy Birthday Brother

 It was also my Brother's birthday yesterday, and he is a keen ornithologist so I made him a bird card. The background done directly onto the card blank is stamped and heat embossed in white and clear powder to form a resist, the stamps are Crafty Individual. Then I inked over the stamping with Distress inks and rubbed over the embossed images.
I stamped the branches, feather and bottom sentiment with Paperartsy stamps (rubbing over the embossed images again), and die cut then stamped the bird (I tried stamping then die cutting - which is when I found out the die is not the right way round to do that, I had to die cut, flip the die cut then stamp). Happy Birthday is a Hero Arts stamp, and Brother is a Papermania stamp.

Inside the card I used some Papermania Spring paper, also with blue and brown birds, and cut a slot to insert a gift card. Stamped sentiments are Paperartsy.

I was originally inspired to do the heat embossed background when a craft company on Facebook asked a question: if you used what you are wearing right now as inspiration - what sort of card would you make? I was wearing a dark blue fleece top with white silhouettes of birds all over it!

Happy Birthday Brother!

I have entered the following challenges:

Allsorts - All about the boy (Sat)

Cute Card Thursday - It's a wild world

Happy Birthday Dad

It was Dad's birthday yesterday, and I know he liked a Flippin' Men card I made for my brother once, so decided to get out the Flippin' Men (drawn by the talented Jak Heath) and make him a card.

I cut an aperture in the brown leather look card with a Spellbinders Grand Nestability label, I cut a larger size in acetate and made a frame from the two sizes to cover the edges of the acetate inside the card.

I cut and coloured the back and front man on a beer barrel using Graph'its for the barrel wood and Promarkers for the rest, before fussy cutting the top part of the image. I stamped Happy Birthday from a Hero Arts clear set in copper and heat embossed it. Dad is heat embossed also and is a Papermania stamp.

I thought this brown check card was perfect for an inside panel, and I stamped cheers on it and a row of beer glasses so they showed above the man's head when the card is closed. Dad is also stamped on the brown check card and die cut to go on the front. 

The quote from the set is stamped in brown on parchment which is torn and inked. In the side of the panel I cut a slit for a pocket to put a gift card in, this doesn't show when the card is closed.

Finally I added some baker's twine to match his suit.

Dad loved it, Happy Birthday Dad!

I have entered the following challenges:

Allsorts - All about the boy (Sat)

Have a lovely day

I recently bought a Sizzix Framelets and embossing folder set that makes a scene, clouds, sun and umbrella. I decided that the scene would be perfect for Warren Rabbit (by Craftwork Cards). The image is coloured with Promarkers and Copic glitter pens, and fussy cut. The background is embossed then coloured with Distress Inks for the sky and hills, and Promarkers for the rainbow and flowers and ground. The clouds and sun are die cut from Coredinations paper and then embossed and sanded.

The sentiment is a free stamp with the current issue of Craft Stamper magazine which I stamped, heat embossed and then die cut with Spellbinders. I know my rainbow colours aren't in the right order, I will do better next time!

I have entered the following challenges:

Craft all day - anything goes (March)

Avenue 613 - anything goes with optional 2d or 3d flowers (Sun)

What is in my Quirky Cupboard?

Whoo hoo, my turn to set the challenge and it is based on the image supplied by the sponsor Crackerbox Palace. It is all about cupboards, shelves or dressers, and they must have contents!

The team used the digi version of this but I had the stamp set which I won some time ago so I decided to use it and the sentiment it comes with.

I cut out and coloured two cupboards, and layered them together with foam for depth to add embellishments. I coloured the foam tape to match, colours used are Denim Blue blended with Cyan and Ruby Red Promarkers for the hearts. I added some "wallpaper and carpet" using DCWV paper and some card stock, die cut with a Grand Nestability scalloped square die, added gingham ribbon to cover the join (gingham skirting??) and mounted that on a panel of teal cardstock, which has narrow and wider heart ribbon top and bottom (all ribbon was from Crafty Ribbons), and faux stitching with a white pencil, and added the die cut sentiment to the bottom. Then went hunting in my stash for the mini cans, and found a few other embellies to use! This said Mother to me, so I stamped a Hero Arts sentiment and heat embossed it. 

I cut the doors off the underneath cupboard and stuck them to the back of the doors of the top cupboard, I scored the doors first so I could bend them forward, and then cut out two heart knobs to add to the doors. I wish they closed, I would have liked to have them as openable, but sadly they don't meet by a long way. Maybe they would look strange if the doors were big enough!

So hop over to Quirky Crafts to see more Cupboards or shelves and to join in the fun!

I have entered the following challenges:

Pink Gem - Mother's day 28th March

Cards Galore - use a stamp or digi (March)

Craft all Day - anything goes (March) I WON

Papertake Weekly - Bingo (die cuts, free, glitter) (Tues)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Mother's day

Stamping for the Weekend - anything goes (end March)

That Craft Place - Flowers and/or Mother's Day (end March)

Tuesday Throwdown - Faux stitching (now you know why I did that!)

Quirky Secret Garden part 2

This gorgeous young lady is Ashley, a friend of Unky's who has cancer and Unky is giving half the money from the sales of this image to her friend to fund her chemotherapy, how cool is that!

So I thought  would make my card about breast cancer, and I die cut the ribbon with a Sizzlet die, and added a sentiment using a Unity stamp, it says "Be brave, strong and courageous". 

Our other sponsor is Samaflora and the challenge is Secret Garden featuring flowers.

I set Ashley in a garden, the papers used are Rose Garden by Papermania and the rug is My Mind's Eye paper. I added some Prima blooms, and some Card Craft Card Candi as flower centres. Ashley is coloured with Promarkers, and her hair is coloured with Graph'its and she is fussy cut. Her sunglasses glass are made using Plaid Papier Glass Finish glaze in pink although it doesn't show us very pink. The flower in her hair has a small gold gem centre.

Inside the card.

This is my second example for the Quirky Crafts Challenge reminder, hop over to the blog to see some more gorgeous examples and join in to win some gorgeous flowers or Unky images.

I have entred the following challenges:

Cards Galore - Use a stamp or digi (March)

Craft All Day - anything goes (March)

Craft Mojo - Spring flowers (March)

Papertake Weekly - anything goes optional make your own flowers (Tues)

Passion for Promarkers - Flowers (Tues)

Stamping Sensations - Pretty in Pink (March)

That Craft Place - anything goes (March)

The East Wind - use a digi (March 10)

Quirky Secret Garden reminder part 1

The gorgeous Hipster Goddess is an image by Unky, one of the two sponsors of the Quirky Crafts Challenge that ends on Saturday. The other sponsor is Samaflora.
This image reminds me of me as a teenager, well the me I imagined I was, I had the long hair, and I even had the hot pants (which is what we called the fashionable short shorts) although mine were embarrasingly knitted by my Mum in red wool, which I think was the result of unpicking a knitted red suit I was forced to wear to church on Sundays (I also had a green knitted suit). Anyway I wore my knitted hot pants with a wide black belt, we didn't wear leggings or coloured tights under our hot pants, and I never realised I was far too fat to get away with this fashion! Nobody every told me. I was active, walking miles, disco dancing, horse riding, helping in the stables - but I did love school dinner puddings and finished up everyone's for them! I wasn't this thin until I was 18, after starving in an attic of a farmhouse where I had to live when I gave up my A levels in favour of a career with horses, which went horribly wrong (a long story for another day maybe), and the thin me didn't last for more than a couple of years. Maybe I will get back there in a year or so.
I am currently reading Dawn French's book, Dear Fatty, which is very appropriate for this image and got me thinking about it, as we have so much in common. I think I would have loved to be Dawn's school friend!
The card - I coloured the image with Promarkers, and used Graph'its for the hair. I die cut the image and layers with Spellbinders Card Creator dies 5"x7" which I bought this week. In the mid 70's when I married and had my first house we had bright orange wallpaper in the hall with a huge flower pattern of sunflowers, and in the bedroom we had purple wallpaper with a large pattern - the Victorian ghosts must have hated us!
Hippies, in my mind the song that includes the lyrics "If you're going to San-Franscisco, be sure to wear a flower in your hair". I added some Prima flowers and gems, with one in her hair of course, and some polka dot purple chiffon ribbon from Crafty Ribbons. I created the sentiment using Serif PagePlus.

Inside the card, you can see the physcadelic paper I found, it is by Papermania and years old, probably from 2004 but perfect for the theme.

I have entered the following challenges:

Cards Galore - Use a stamp or digi (March)

Crafty Ribbons challenge blog - anything goes with ribbon (Thurs)

Cute Card Thursdays - what a gem (Thurs)

Digi Sketch challenge - sketch optional (Mon)

Feeling Crafty - Use a digi and bling (March)

Papertake Weekly - anything goes optional to make your own flowers (Tues)

Passion for Promarkers - Flowers (Tues)

That Craft Place - anything goes (March)

The East Wind - Use a digi (March 10) 

Craft All Day - anything goes (March)

Fussy and Fancy - Birthdays (Mar 20)

Quirky Secret Garden

Monica chose a lovely challenge this time, it is called Secret Garden and must feature flowers. 

We have two sponsors, Samaflora who is giving some hand made flowers to two lucky winners, and Unky who is our brand new sponsor and provided the gorgeous images we have used - you really need to go see the rest on the Quirky Blog too!

For my first card I used Aurora Cherry Blossom, I coloured her with Promarkers and die cut a frame with Spellbinders. I put some Chatterbox ribbon top and bottom of the image and the pearlescent panel the frame is mounted on has some very pretty chiffon ribbon printed with daisies from Crafty Ribbons. 

I die cut the cherry blossoms with Britannia dies, and punched the centres with a Nellie Snellen punch, and added green to the ends, and Stickles to the middles. I haven't decided if I am going to add a sentiment yet. The frame is popped up and with the flowers this is very 3d.

Cherry blossoms make me happy, they are all about new beginnings and Spring. Our poor cherry blossom tree really suffered in the drought last summer, it lost all of it's leaves so early and we are hoping for signs that it has survived and will blossom this Spring.

I have entered this card in the following challenges:

Craft Mojo - Spring flowers (March)

ABC - G is for Girls (Sat)

Allsorts Challenge - Spring is coming (Sat)

Passion for Promakers - Make it digital (Tues)

The Technique Twist - Faux frames (Sat 15th) (Winner)

The East Wind Challenge Blog - Use a digi (13th March)

My second card features Vintage Dolly Girl Mon Amour Sitting in the Flower Garden, and I set her in her secret garden behind a green fence and gates die cut with Spellbinders DLites, and sitting on some HOTP paper representing a picnic blanket. I added some Prima blooms, and a die cut sentiment using a die free with a magazine. The image is coloured with Promarkers (I haven't mastered clothes yet, the hair is getting better) and die cut with Spellbinders.

I have entered this card in the following challenges:

Feeling Crafty - Use a digi and bling (March)

I Love Promarkers - Use die cuts but no punches (Wed)

That Craft Place - Anything goes (Sun)

Stamping for the weekend - Sparkle and Shine (Fri 14th and I really hope it wasn't me that posted too many entries last time, my memory is awful)