Happy Birthday Son

All I can say about these stamps is WOW, Papermania have grown up! I have three sets of their Urban red rubber cling stamps, and two of them only cost me just over £5 each at Trago Mills recently.  They are ready mounted on cling foam and the design is on the back of the mount so you can see it through the acrylic block.  I picked places that Richard has visited, not sure about the pyramids though, but he went somewhere hot!

The inside is about where he is going on his birthday,which is the Harry Potter film set.

I made him a cake, a marble cake. I added chocolate chips into the plain part, which might be why it ended up very fragile and a funny shape.

Top view.

Side view.

Top removed ready for frosting, not impressed yet.

Cut in half for frosing the middle, now that looks like it should.

Finished with chocolate butter icing and chocolate greeting, and mini chocolate beans.

Quirky Flowers (and ribbons)

Don't you just love this cute kitty from Paper Pretties, one of our Quirky Crafts Challenge sponsor this time round, yes there are two prizes this time and the other is a great Bev's Bag from Crafty Ribbons. The Ribbons I used on this card are from the Bev's Vintage Bag that I bought from Crafty Ribbons. You have to make your own flowers for this challenge as well as use ribbons and I punched my flowers then embossed them with a couple of Nellie Snellen punch and Emboss sets in two sizes. I added K&Co gems, I love the smooth glassy gems and I must get some more. Image coloured with Promarkers and die cut with Nestabilities. The dark coloured card is actually plum and matches the ribbon well though it doesn't look like it in this photo.

So hop on over to Quirky and see what everyone else made, and join in with this easy peasy challenge this time round.

Happy Father's Day Dad

Happy Father's Day Dad.


Love you x.

Baby Boy word book

As you know I have recently become a Grandmother, and therefore a special card was called for.

I dusted off the ecraft and bought a cutting file from The Cutting Cafe for this baby word book. I cut it in fairly thin card because that was what I had in 12"x12", but now I know how it cuts I will try other card. I cut the letters in Papermania paper. Stamped Grandson using a stamp from a Papermania clear set and Sweet from a Basic Grey set. Ribbons are by Crafty Ribbons, I love the baby washing line ribbon and they have lots of other cute baby ribbons. Lots of embellishments from my stash.

Decorating inside was a challenge, I didn't want it to show through the letters when closed.

Cute stamp from Rubbadubbadoo, I think Celebrate is a Hero Arts stamp, not sure now.

Some more cute stamps from Wordsworth called Clearly Wordsworth, and the greeting in gold is two stamps again from Hero Arts, it was a bit late but they thought it was worth waiting for.

Here is the darling boy (Kenny) with his Uncle Richard (O.K. you are a darling too) and the Queen.

I bought another file that I couldn't get the ecraft to cut, will have to have another play. In between cutting the book and the paper letters the ecraft threw a wobbly and I had to wait for a new blade cap to arrive which seemed to fix the problem and I hope I don't have another problem with it now!

Up Up and Away (The Sky's the limit)

My challenge at Quirky Crafts is Up Up and Away and your project must feature something you would see in the sky, the more sky the better on this one as I will pick sky projects as my personal favourites.

The Sponsor is The Cutting Cafe and these pre-coloured kites and clouds are part of the Up Up in the Sky set which has LOADS for your money, balloons, kites and sentiments, and you could win two sets of your choice. I used Serif Page Plus to create a background using the clouds and kites, then cut out kites to layer them for a 3d effect. I used sentiments from the set inside and out of this card.

This is the inside.

Mum,'s birthday

Stamps used by U Mount, stamped in Vibrant Violet Stazon and die cut with Nestabilties, Happy Birthday is from a Hero Arts clear set and Mum is from a Papermania clear set, stamped with Kaleidoscope ink. Ribbon from Crafty Ribbons of course. The background cardstock was from Payperbox and was pick and mix, don't look too closely as it is upside down and I didn't noticed until the card was finished! Sorry Mum.

Using the same U Mount set and ink I stamped some wrapping paper then spritzed it with Glimmer Mist. 

Seeing spots (and stripes) before my eyes!

Quirky Challenge time again, and the lovely Lyn picked her favourite spots and stripes with ribbon this time.

Our generous sponsor is Robyn's Fetish and I have used an image from them called Five Little Froggies. I coloured the image with Promarkers and Trias and I decoupaged the roof of the well, some stones and the middle froggies though it is hard to tell from the photo. I painted on some Artists Iridescent Medium to add a sparkle.  The image is die cut with Nestabilities labels, the papers were free with the new issue of Card Making and Papercrafts magazine, spotty ribbon from Crafty Ribbons, sentiment is Hero Arts with Kaleidoscope ink, buttons are Papermania and froggie eyelets from stash.

So a nice easy challenge for you all to enter over at Quirky Crafts Challenge blog, and you could win some images from our sponsor.

Check out my new photo. http://ping.fm/1k5Rt

Post

Look what the postie brought this morning, apart from Card Making and Papercraft mag.

Lots of lovely ribbons and tassels from Crafty Ribbons, and some Sizzix Framelits stamp sets from The Craft Bag (which is the new web site for the Crafty Devils). The sets have Hero Arts cling stamps with matching dies.
I had a credit note with the Crafty Devils for something that was discontinued which I could put towards something on the new web site, and I put it towards these sets and it is the best price I have seen even before I used the credit note. Happy Me!
 

One for the boys

The latest Quirky Challenge is masculine with brown and blue as the colour combination. The sponsor is Paper Pretties, and I used Boat and the sentiment in the circle which is from the Zzzzzz set both from Paper Pretties.

The frame and circles are cut with Nestabilities, the sky and sea papers are by DCWV, sun is cut with an Accucut die. Striped card was some I got from Payperbox. Ribbon from stash is double sided and wired. The waves are cut with the wave blade on my Fiskars rotary trimmer. Finally if you decide to try stamping and embossing on ribbon it is probably best to try before you have the card fully assembled (and not as I did, afterwards)!

The Quirky team are expecting a wonderful response to this challenge, and you could win 6 digi images from our sponsor if you are picked as our favourite.

A mouse lived in a greenhouse in old Amsterdam...don't look if you are nervous about mice

oh, that was a windmill in Old Amsterdam!
Well my little mousey was in the greenhouse, I went looking for bird seed to feed the garden visitors, and to my surprise I could see a little mouse, sitting cleaning its whiskers inside an empty poly tub - with the lid on!

 I think it is a Harvest Mouse, I hope that is what it is. It had been there a while, look at the condensation inside the tub, and all the droppings!

 Just a couple more mug shots, and then away you can go back to the field next door.

Just one more question: how did you get in there and close the lid after you? Must be Supermousie!

Quirky Animal Challenge

   

Our Quirky paper engineer Diane set us a wiper card challenge this time round, with a layout or 3d project for non card makers.

This is my first ever wiper card, and I have to say it was pretty easy once I had watched the video at SCS a few times! I wanted to have a horse and pop up horse shoe, as the surprise element. I used Inkadinkado A Horse of Course, and a Quickutz horse shoe. The paper is My Mind's Eye and was free with a magazine. I stitched the edges in teal and used teal ric rac from Crafty Ribbons, I also used some mini buttons in shades of teal. I used a Martha Stewart punch for the side panel piece.

I don't have a Scorpal or Martha Stewart, or Hougie board (I have a few smaller boards with not so many grooves), but I have found I can do what Ineed to do more accurately with my Fiskars rotary trimmer and the scoring blade.
I haven't added a sentiment yet, this could be a birthday card or good luck card, and there could be another sentiment in the middle of the horse shoe.

To see more examples and enter your Animal Antics projects at Quirky Crafts Challenges hop on over now and you could be in the top three and win a prize voucher from Digital Delights.

Challenges entered:
Animal Antics at Paper Play Challenges (Thursday weekly)

Do you believe in love at first sight?

Well - I had an email from Crafters Companion which showed me three new stamps by Sheena Douglas, and wham - love at first sight!

Here is one of them, who could resist?

Stamped with Memento in Cocoa, coloured with Promarkers, edges inked with Cats Eye chalk ink pad, die cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities. The embossed tree is a Crafts Too embossing folder, ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons, and the sentiment is a Stampabilities stamp. Finally I added some Bling Bling gems to the cow's crown.

Challenges entered:
Sir Stampalot April Challenge: Happy Birthday (and birthday blog hop)

A Man's World

I made this card a while back, but didn't get to finish it due to the flu. I finally finished and photographed it.

 As soon as we made this type of card for a challenge I thought of this English Paper Company paper which was perfect for this. Front of card - busy man, gardening, BBQ, DIY. Sentiments are by Debbi Moore (the square Happy Birthday) from an A4 clear stamp set of Birthday sentiments. The seed packet stamp is from a small set by Personal Impressions, all small garden type stamps.

I tried to get the inside paper more focused and this is the best I could manage.

Inside the card - man sleeping, so tired after all his efforts, does it remind you of anyone? It certainly rings true here!

I have entered this card in the following challenges:
Joanna Sheen - It's a Man's World (of course) April challenge.

Happy Easter Sunday and new challenge day

It is my turn to set the challenge at Quirky Crafts and in honour of my soon to be born Grandson, I called it a Quirky Happy Event.

This card is made using two images from the challenge sponsor: Stitchy Bear Stamps, called Baby Sleeping and Toy Bunny. I paper Pieced my images with blue and white gingham, you have to use gingham in any form, and added novelty buttons - another must. The theme is either a soon to be happy event or a new baby. The background paper is by Dovecraft, the nursery rhyme ribbon was from Crafty Ribbons I think. Die cuts by Spellbinders, and coloured with Hero Arts Shadow ink. The gingham paper is some from a pick an mix merchant, I think Payper Box, and it is strange with a backing that looks almost waterproof.

I may manage another example soon, there is one more image to be shown that the DT didn't use.

To see more wonderful examples, see the full details and to join in with the possibility of winning a $10 voucher from Stitchy, hop on over to the Quirky Crafts Challenge blog.

This card is not what I started out making, I was going to make my first ever word book cut out by the ecraft, and use several images and sentiments, and I cut the card book but then came to cut the paper letters to decorate it. Well - I bought the ecraft when they first arrived over here, and at first there were a lot of teething problems, then there were software updates and it seemed to sort the problems out. Still I didn't really use my new toy, I tried it out a couple of times, wanted to design on it and just didn't get round to it when I was working full time.

Recently I decided that there are so many good cutting files out there to buy that I would buy a few and get started with those, then when I got more confident decide on some new software and get designing. The problems started when I tried cutting paper, it tore, it got all rucked up, it was terrible! So I thought I would check out the Craftwell site and there are some great video tutorials there now that weren't around when I first got the machine and one was on cutting paper. So I watched it and tried again, with a little more success, I needed to add a "mat" or stabliser in the form of a piece of card and change the tab settings. My file with letters A and B partly worked, both letters were cut out but the centres of the B were not. Then I turned the paper and tried on the unused part, disasterous effect, the paper all screwed up and got into a mess.

So I watched the video again, and saw that the paper was not the full width of the card mat, so I trimmed my paper to make it narrower. Now it feeds in perfectly and out again, and the ecraft traces the letters but doesn't cut them one little bit, oh dear. I posted for help on the forum and then started thinking what else I could make, and this was after waking yesterday with small migraine that became a large migraine and one I couldn't shake off all day despite taking co-codamols and trying to sleep which was impossible, we had a houseful for the weekend, and there was just too much noise even after they all went out in the afternoon, just as I was getting off to sleep (and I really needed to sleep to shake it) the phone rang and woke me up!

At least today my migraine was gone, maybe I should have gone for the Zapain right away yesterday but I feel so awful after I have taken them.

We had a lovely big family barbeque on Friday afternoon, the sun had gone by then unfortunately but everyone sat out in their coats and all enjoyed it. Today we had a nice roast lunch and mid afternoon all of our visitors departed leaving us alone again. So after making my card ready for the challenge we took the dogs out round the fields for a long walk.

I have entered this card in the Kaboodles Doodles Monday challenge - New Life

Remember When....

This is not my usual thing, I bought a couple of kits on impulse due to them being a bargain price I couldn't resist and I hate cutting out lots of bits! I decided to make a couple of cards up for my brother and father's birthdays, I only took a photo of this one. The kit is Remember When and it is from La Pashe, drawn by the very talented Jak Heath. There was a lot of detail to the woman's skirt and she is behind the bar which make me think that maybe I was supposed to use an aperture card, but then there is no bottom half to the wall behind the bar......

Check out my new photo. http://ping.fm/aq9xt

Card finished

Here is the card posted below but with the finishing touches.

I added a little more colour to Poppy's posy, and stamped Birthday Wishes from a Debbi Moore clear stamp set. I stamped Niece using a stamp from a Papermania set.

I added more of the K&Co paper inside, and stamped a sentiment from the Debbi Moore set, it was a great value set, a whole A4 sheet of clear birthday stamps, with something to suit most cards.