Bad, Bad Blogger!

Thank you to everyone who continued to look at my blog since April. I will be much more frequent in my blogging now as the schools break up tomorrow and so I have 6 (yep 6!) weeks holiday.

So... lets cut to the chase, and here is a card! It was a commission from a colleague at work. It is 5x7. The grey font is computer generated and the pink is cut with my sizzix big shot. The cross is brushed silver, again a sizzix. This has been layered on vellum printed with silver leaves, then pink card, then pink handmade paper. (Is that what it is called? you know the stuff I mean!)

Next card!

This one was also a commission and also 5x7. The cue is made from a bamboo skewer and the beer mug is a Stampin Up stamp.

This one was for my Dad. My DS1 is always asking him to make robots with him and there is a family story regarding Dad 'mending' a lawnmower with a hammer, realising that we were all watching and calmly shutting the garage door so that he could continue to 'mend' without an audience. The man is an eat cake graphics stamp which I scanned in and tweaked a bit to make it look more like my Dad. The robot was just found on Google. I printed him twice on grey shiny card and then decoupaged him a bit. I added springs made by coiling wire round a cocktail stick.

Punny Mood

I don't normally make 'funny' cards, but I seemed to be in the mood today! (And I use the word 'funny' in the loosest possible way!) The first card uses a Stampin Up stamp. I have stamped it on blue flowery card, cut it out and embellished it with punched flowers. I added some white details with a gelly roll pen. I was planning on making it a male card, but the flowers got the better of me! I did try a red version, but I didn't like it nearly as much.

The second card uses my new owl die. I have been inspired to make owls by Erin who makes lovely stamped cards. As I am not usually a stamper, I paper pieced mine. Each owl consists of 4 layers (plus face details) and so their heads are quite 'thick'. I thought about them having an egg to look after - perhaps that will happen next! They seem very happy together! I think the sentiment is funny - although I had a hard time explaining it to my boys - only bodily functions are funny at that age!

More Butterflies

I really like this new cuttlebug butterfly die and embossing folders. This time I have cut the butterfly in white card and in parchment and then embossed them both. I have used a Versa chalk ink to colour the raised bits and stuck the two together in the middle. Although it does not show up in this scan, the parchment layer lifts up above the card layer giving a 3d effect. The paper is from a PM Colossal stack which was half price in Hobbycraft. The sentiment was stamped in the same blue ink and is a 99p Studio G stamp I bought yesterday in the range. Although it is quite faint, I like this as it has a cloudy / dreamy effect.

This next card is a combination of the above and the post below. I used the same papers / inks as for the retirement card but also added a parchment layer behind the butterflies to give them extra depth and give them a little more white so that the sentiment is not overpowered. I cut the butterflies in parchment and then cut them into 4. This meant that I could stick them behind the wings to give a shadow effect. The sentiment is straight - it is just my poor scanning!

Spread Your Wings

This card was made for a colleague taking early retirement. She plans to spend a lot of time travelling in the US, and so the sentiment 'time to spread your wings' seemed appropriate. This then made me think of butterflies. The card is 5x7 inches. The brown patterned paper is Stampin Up, the butterflies were cut and embossed in blue card with my new Cuttlebug dies and i then sponged some ink over them. The blue card has a slight shine to it. The sentiment was generated on the PC, but looked a little 'clean' so I sponged some ink over that too. I may have overdone the ink! Eyelets and some ribbon finished it off. I may make this one again, altering the sentiment so it is for a birthday.

Happy Birthday Mum

This is the birthday card I have made for my Mum (her birthday is Friday, but she doesn't read this and so I can post it now!) Last year I made her a really elaborate star card because she was having a really hard time - my 34 year old sister had just be diagnosed with breast cancer. This year things are much better as my sister has a clean bill of health now. However, I still needed a really good card for Mum. She buys a lot of cards from me and so knows most of my favourite layouts.

My friend Su got a really good deal on a set of the Sizzix Bigz serif letters and had offered to lend them to me sometime. I borrowed M and U and using the partial cutting technique (letting part of the die hang out between the plates - thank you Jay!) cut strips of very thick card in chocolate with an M or U at the end. This gave me a long strip of card with a shaped end. I put them together and trimmed 2 of them so that the letters were spaced correctly. I then used my bind it all to turn it into a book. I cut out more Ms and a U from Stampin Up paper which Su had kindly delivered with the letters and stuck these on to give more definition to the letters. The Stampin Up paper is gorgeous by the way, really thick and double sided too. best of all you get 2 of each sheet in the pack so I could safely cut into a sheet without having a panic attack! I used more of this paper to cut a sizzix Happy Birthday and also a daisy. I added a diamante and some ribbon to the spine.

I have been itching to use my bind it all and I was really pleased with the results. A smaller coil may have been better, but I only had the brown version in the ½ inch size. Now I just hope I can find an envelope to fit the card and that my Mum likes it!

I have added an embellished rectangle on the final M page for the message, but am not showing you a photo as I have already written on it!

Su has got another challenge, and again I am too late. This time it was the fault of the norovirus! The challenge is to make a valentine card using a heart and a Stampin' Up stamp but no pink or red. Here is my belated take on this challenge. I have cuttlebugged the background and then made a heart stencil to sponge Antique Linen ink through. (Actually I think I sponged then embossed). The birds are a new sizzix die and the branch is an old one. The flower is an SU stamp and I have punched it out (inaccurately). I then added glossy accents as that is another new toy. I corner punched and added dots and a faux stitched border. I think it would also have been nice with a darker background and lighter birds and the heart as a moon, I might try that later.

Stampin Up!

My good friend (and enabler!) Su gave me a beautiful birthday card yesterday which can be seen at http://sustampinstudio.blogspot.com/. She also gave me some lovely Stampin' Up stamps. So, I just had to have a play! I'm not sure if this qualifies for her challenge on http://stampinupchallengeuk.blogspot.com/, as my ribbon goes the wrong way - but I don't stamp often (I didn't own many stamps before!) and I had a bit under the knotted ribbon which was way too pale. The stamps are lovely quality and even as a novice stamper, I found them really easy to use. The set is called office accoutrement's. I have used brush markers to colour them and stamped off on scrap card to get a subtler effect. I then added glamour dust glitter for a bit of sparkle around the edges of the big flower and the centres of the little ones. I can really see the Original stamp on a male card and am going to play further with that idea. There is also a calender stamp in the set and I think that will be great for birthdays etc as well as scrapbook pages. Su, you may finally have got me hooked on stamps!