A Card for Mary

This card was created to hopefully cheer up a very dear friend of mine who had got herself ready to endure several weeks of being incapasitated, only to be sent home from hospital on Thursday not knowing if she was ever going to get her problem sorted out.

To make this card I used a Simon and Lola stamp called "My little Friend", I stamped it onto white card and painted it with my Artquest watercolour paints. After it had dried I cut it out with my Oval Nestabilitie Die and mounted this onto a piece of Pink Crystaline Card (one of the Glitter Girls), that had been cut with the large Classic Oval Scalloped Nestabilitie Die.

The base card was created out of piece of light green card I had left from my last card its about 6" square, along the side and bottom edges I have embossed two lines, and between the two I have stamped with my Stamp Tapestry Ginger Hearts Set, a border of leaves, hearts and flowers just to give it a pretty edge.

I then punched a ribbon tag out of a piece of the Crystaline card and mounted on top a piece of white card, stamped a greeting onto it, then threaded a piece of green organza ribbon through and cut along the fold and attached the ribbon to the inside, and on the other side I cut two lines and threaded the ribbon behind the border around the edge and attached this end also to the inside of the card.

The mounted stamped image was stuck to the centre of the card and two flowers were put above the image to the left to finish it of.

With Love

Todays card was created as a thank you to a young postgirl who's been helping out at our local sorting office. As most of you will be aware we are very reliant on our post for all our bits and pieces and Im sure without the help of my local postpeople I would be lost. The young lass remarked that her Nan would love one of my cards so I set out to make something a little special for her.

The base card was made out of A3 card cut to an 8" square, on top of this I have laid a smaller square of Cream Pearlescent Card, and then on top of this I have put a pale green one, but Ive also cut a circle in the centre and used one of my EK corner punches, Graceful Heart (I pinched the idea from Becca's Amazing Grace Blogspot) to give it an pretty edge.

I then attached this to, two of the corners of the cream card with punched out hearts made with my Scalloped Nestabilitie Heart Die and two staples, I did eventually put some glue in the other two corners to keep it from moving around.

I created the two Zinnia's with several punches, the raindrop, abstract heart, two sizes of Daisy, mayflower, small suns and the small flowers from my 5 corner flower punch. These were punched out and moulded with my deet tool, then stuck together and then arranged in the centre of my card, around the edge I used large Dahlia petals to create leaves which have been moulded to look more natural.

To finish of the card I have punched out a couple more hearts with my dies, and a tag for the greeting, these were stuck to the card with silicone and I then tied a bow and put this above the tag.

And the last thing I did was stick some green pearls to the hearts and the circle in the centre.

Springtime Mimi

Heres the second card created with one of the Pink Gem's stamps, this ones called Mimi and Daffodils.

The base card is made from a A4 white card folded in half and on top of which I have laid two pieces of backing paper which I got with my Just Great Papers magazine, on top of this I have layed a piece of white pearlescent card which I have put through my Cuttlebug and embossed with one of my embossing folders. Then I have trimmed either edge of this card with blue rik rak paper border.

The main stamped image was coloured with my Derwent Intense Watercolour pencils and again Ive used my Artquest paints to give it a shine. Once dried I have cut the image out with my Standard Oval Nestabilitie Die and mounted it onto a Dark Blue Mirri Card again cut with a Scalloped Nestabilitie Die. Then stuck to the card slightly to the right side.

Ive made three cornflowers with my cosmos punch and small sun punches moulding and layering each one. This was made basically from three pieces of each, and stuck on top of each other. The leaves were also punched out with one of my leaf punches, then arranged to the left of the stamped image.

To finish of the card I have used one of JustRite Stamps from the Harmony Classic Circle II set, and embossed it with Silver embossing powder and mounted this with the circle Nestabilitie dies in the same way as the stamped image.

Candy at Pollycraft

http://pollycraftdesigns.blogspot.com/ Has lots of lovely candy up for grabs, some beautiful new stamps they are gorgeous, I love using them for my cards, look at my Valentine Kisses Card (one of my old blogs).

Mimi

Todays card has been created with one of the Pink Gem Designs called Mimi in Hat and Coat, you can see several different designs on the website http://pinkgemdesigns.blogspot.com/, Janet has some really lovely ones.

I firstly stamped the image onto white card and coloured it with my Derwent Intense Watercolour pencils and then used a watercolour brush to blend the colours, but on top of this I used my Artquest paints to give it a sheen, I then left it to dry, after which I punched it out with one of my Oval Nestabilitie Dies.

The base card is a piece of A4 card folded landscape onto which I have stuck a piece of some of Nancy Watts papers from one of my magazines. I then embossed some Red card with my Cuttlebug and stuck this across the centre, I then used another of the Nancy Watts papers and a Fiskars border punch and placed this on top of the red card. Through the centre I have stuck a ribbon.

The main stamped image has been mounted on a large Oval Scalloped Holographic mount cut with another of my Nestabilitie Dies and placed in the centre of the ribbon.

To finish of the card I have made up some flowers and stuck a staple in the centre and mounted them to the left of the image, above this I have stuck a ribbon bow. I finished of the card with a tag which came with the Nancy Watts papers and stuck this to a piece of red card and cut around the edge with my scallop scissors and punched a hole at the top and put a piece of the ribbon left from the bow through and stapled them together. I then stuck tiny jewels along the edge of the punched out centre piece of paper and on the tag.

A Hug in a Mug

Todays card was created with one of the Elizabeth Bell stamps called A Hug in a Mug, I bought this from http://www.funkykits.co.uk .

I stamped the image onto a piece of white card and coloured it with my Derwent Intense Watercolour Pencils and then using a watercolour brush I painted them out, I also used my Artquest paints to give it a bit of a shine, then left it to dry.

The base card is a piece of A4 card folded just of centre to give a border, then on the front piece I stuck two different pieces of coloured backing paper and another on the border, to the edge of these I stuck a piece of lace, and I used a fine peeloff just to cover the paper edge up.

The stamped image was then punched out with my large Scalloped Classic Nestabilitie die, and this was mounted onto a Square of a darker purple Pearlescent Card also punched out with a Netabilitie die. I stuck this to the card, the Flower was created from some Silk Flowers that I have in my craft stash and stuck at the top of the card.

The greeting was created on my computer and printed then stuck to a piece of mauve pearlescent card and cut with my scallop scissors, it was then attached to the card under the mount.

Fireman Tyler

This card was created for coming 6 year old Tyler who has a real passion for anything in a uniform, his mum says he's forever dressing up in one uniform or another, so I thought hopefully that this card would be appropriate for him.

The pictures that I used I found on the Internet then I downloaded them into My Craft Studio program. I used one for the base card and tiled it to give a background and another picture for the insert.

The main picture was also one that I downloaded but this time I printed several copies of it and decoupaged it to give it some dimension. I then mounted onto the base card a glossy red card mount which was left long enough to put the greeting onto and then on top of this I used a glitter rainbow one, the decoupaged image was then mounted onto this.

The greeting was one that I created with my computer and printed it to fit beneath the main image, and the embellishments on the bottom were bought from Tesco's.

A Card for Georgia

Todays card is for a lovely young lass who's coming eleven and even her mother commented that the stamped image is quite like her so I thought it appropriate to make it for her birthday.

The base card is a white piece of A4 card folded in half and on top of this I have stuck a piece of printed paper which I had with my Just Papers Magazine, I then used two more of the papers and used my Fiskars Border Punch then off set them at the bottom, after which I fixed a ribbon across the top to cover the seam. I then punched out a large Nestabilitie Scalloped Circle from Pink Pearlescent card and stuck this on top, and then attached another piece of ribbon across the bottom.

The main image is one of the Elisabeth Bell's designs its called Pen Pal and I bought it from http://www.funkykits.co.uk/catalog/. I stamped this onto white card and coloured it using my Derwent Intense Watercolour Pencils, then punched it out using the smaller Nestabilitie Scalloped Circle die, and attached it to the white mount already positioned on the card. I also punched out a small Scalloped Tag, again with one of my Nestabilitie dies, and punched a hole out and fed a bit of the ribbon through it and attached it to the mount with a small brad.

I finished of the card with tiny jewels on each of the punched out flowers and made up two flowers and attached them to the bottom on the right hand side.

A Dinosaur for Sam

Todays card is one Ive made for a young lad for his 8th Birthday, and as its not always easy to think of things that will fire their imagination, I made this one hoping that it will do the trick.

Ive used one of the Robert Adams Pop-Up card templates from his Cd, and he gives you instructions how to cut the sheets out and build up the image.

I printed all the sheets, which there are 4 of them onto card to give it stability and then cut them out, and following the marks on the inside sheet you stick the two head pieces to them. Mind you I did stick the centre sheet inside the front sheet before I actually stuck the pop out head on. I wont say that I didnt make a few mistakes and had to reprint them several times before I actually managed to get it right, but I think the end result is hopefully is quite stunning.

I printed a verse on the inside piece before I stuck on the pieces of the head, I tried to make sure that I missed the body so it was necessary to move it right over by the edge of the card.

A Special Thank you for Danu

Todays card was created as a thankyou card for my step granddaughters mum, as shes only five months old it would be impossible for her even to say thank you for all her mum does for her, and I know how much young mum's like to feel appreciated for all their hard work and guidance. Danu's mum is a brilliant mum and is doing so many things with her little daughter and I thought it would be nice to thank her in a special way.

The Base card was created with My Craft Studio program, which I printed onto a A4 piece of white card, I also printed another lighter piece of paper with the same design for the insert, but I first used the Opacity button to make it lighter, on this I printed a thank you verse.

The main card was then folded in half and turned to landscape and across the centre I stuck a piece of Pink Organza ribbon, then I resized a photo of Danu and printed it to fit in a photo frame which I had also created with My Craft Studio program, I cut the photo frame out and put some foam tape on it, and then with the photo underneath I stuck it to the base card across the ribbon. As I had printed two copies of the frame I decoupaged some of the pieces like the ribbon at the bottom and the flowers at the top.

I also printed a greeting from my computer and stuck this onto a piece of Pink Pearlescent Card and used my scallop scissors around the edge, this was then stuck on the card with a bit of foam tape.

I finished the card of with a couple of embellishments which I had in my crafty stash.

Beautiful Peonies

Todays card is one that Ive created with my paper punches, its generally known as Floral Punch Craft. I have several photos that Im going to upload so that you can see the process of making the flowers.

Firstly I will explain how I made the base card, its a Red A4 Pearlescent card folded in half, on top of which I have put a piece of textured white paper, which I have put through my cuttlebug with one of the embossing folders, around the middle I have laid a piece of white embossed vellum which has been punch along the edge with one of the Martha Steward border punches called Double scallop, I bought this from http://www.diestodiefor.com/proddetail.php?prod=ms-doily. Around this I have placed a piece of grosgrain red ribbon and then I cut a Ribbon Tag with one of the Nestabilitie Dies and attached this again with the same red ribbon along the bottom of the card.

I then fitted this piece of white card to the base by firstly punching the two outside corners with one of my EK corner punches called graceful heart, which I bought from http://www.thehobbyhouse.co.uk/ and slipping the corners into the punched out pieces. I then made a Mount for the Flowers with another piece of the Red Pearlescent Card and one of the Label Nestabilitie Die, and the smaller white one was made with another piece of Emobossed Card which I had put through my Cuttlebug machine.

The two Peonies were created by punching out 12 medium Apple shapes, 3 medium Sun shapes, 3 small Sun shapes and two large Snowflake shapes. And I moulded them with the tools that you will see in the photos at the top of this posting. You then stick the moulded petals to each of the Snowflake arms, which are then mounted on top of one another making it two layers thick, the sun shapes are then cupped and stuck to the centre to create petals. After which you then arrange them onto the mount and stick them with moulded leaves around the edge.

A Card for Jack

My youngest daughter rang me a couple of weeks ago and asked if I would create a card for her partners young lad Jack.

As the boy was 10 it wasnt easy to decide what to do for the best, so I decided to use one of the Paper Nations toppers and backing papers called Football Boy, which I bought from http://www.pantilespapertole.com/.

I cut and arranged the two backing sheets onto a piece of A4 white card and used a peel off to cover the seam. I then cut the main character out and mounted this onto card to give it an extra thickness, I then cut all the rest of the decoupage and mounted it on top of this.

I then decided to create his name with firstly my Paint Accessories program on my computer and saved the file to my Tabby Cat Template Program, and opened it in this program. Its a bit complicated to describe here, but if you have this program Im sure you have already used it before, you make the letters by cutting them out singley with a special tool in the program and pasting it onto a new sheet and colouring them with their palette of colours and textures.

After cutting them out I then glued them at the bottom of the card, I also printed an insert for the card of my computer.

I also created the greeting with my computer and stuck this at the top of the card. I just hope it was ok with the lad, its always difficult to gauge how boys take homemade cards, but I know my own grandsons love them and carnt wait to receive and discover what Nanny has created for them.

Jak Heaths Blog Candy

http://crafterskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/01/blog-candy-flippin-men.html
Jak Heath of Crafters Kitchen is offering blogcandy, its the new Flippin Men decoupage, absolutely smashing.

Nannieflash

Pretty in many shades of Pink

Todays card was a bit of struggle for me to get it uploaded theres been so many things that have got in the way, anyway I think we might just be able to get it done now.

This is one thats been created from one of the Sarah Kay stamp images called Carefree, I firstly stamped it onto card and coloured it with the Copic pens, then cut out with the Nestabilitie Classic Circle die punch, and a Pink Pearlescent one was punched out for the larger size.

The base card was made with a pink A4 card folded in half and then on top I printed onto satin photo paper, one of Joanna Sheen's new papers from her Country Cottage Cds, mounted on a piece of silver mirri card, and stuck to the base card.

I then picked a piece of pink vellum and put it through my Summer Days Fiskars border punch and attached it to the base card with a little glue along the fold line. On top of this I placed my stamped mounted image and wrapped a pink ribbon around the card and tied it into a bow. I then printed a greetings on my computer, and mounted this onto another piece of pink pearlescent and stuck to the front of the card.

To finish of the card, I punched out from two shades of pink paper 4 medium Sakura flowers and cupped them with my deet/ball tool, and in the centre of each I put cream with pink tipped cosmos flower punches made to look like stamens. The smaller flowers are made from the small Sakura punch and made in the same way as the larger ones. The Leaves were punched out in two shades of green from two sizes of the 3 leaf spray and marked to give them veins. Then arranged as I have onto the card above the stamped image.

My Love Card

This Card was an image in my mind that I had designed and wanted to try and see if I could actually make it.

Firstly I used several different colours of my Glimmer Mists to create the background paper, this I had to leave to dry over night, as the paper becomes rather wet. I should have said that I used a textured card, a bit like the watercolouring paper, it actually absorbed it better.
I used several different colours on two pieces of Stampboard to create the background and then stamped the beautiful Rose Image, which is the new Harlequin Rose set from Elusive Images. I then triple embossed it.
The piece on the side was a piece that I tore from the remains of the background paper on which I stamped another of the stamps from the Rose set, I embossed it with Black Magic embossing powder though from the picture you would thing I had dont it with gold, and used a gold leaf pen along the torn edge.
The base card is a A3 piece of Red card cut down to 21cm x 21cm, on top of which Ive mounted a piece of black card just a bit smaller. I made the card up by sticking the torn edge piece to the right hand side and I actually stamped some edge stamps just under where Ive mounted the main image, but I then didnt like it so Ive stuck some lace around the edge of the Stampboard, which was mounted on top of the lace.
I cut one of the Nestabilitie Ribbon Tags out and stamped a greeting onto it and embossed it again with the Black Magic embossing powder, I used a piece of red and two tone brown ribbon through the tag and mounted this onto the bottom of my card.
After which I mounted the whole top piece onto the black card, Im reasonably pleased with the end result its more or less what I had in mind, card making always changes as you go along doesnt it?

Second Watercolour Card

I thought you might like to see another watercolour card made with the Art Impressions Stamps. I should have said yesterday that this range of stamps are called Back to Front, you get two stamps that make a front and back of either a person or an animal.

This card was made in the same way as the first one but with two little people instead of the cat and her kittens, I hope that you like it, and that it might inspire you to have a go with them, I find using them very inspiring as you can cover up quite a bit of the paper with the flowers and leaves.

Watercolouring with the Art Impression Stamps

Ive decided after visiting Jak Heath's Crafters Kitchen blogspot that I will post some of my own cards created in the same way that she has with the Art Impression Stamps.

To start with the fence stamp has to be positioned down the front page (preferably on Watercolour paper) about a third up from the bottom, this is stamped with Stazon Ink and then you have to cut out across the top of the fence, with a bit of jiggling with a Stamp Positioner you can get the fence stamped on the inside page to more or less come in line with the front page.

The house is stamped with Marvy Le Plume pens which have been painted onto the stamp, after youve placed it on the page you bleed out the colours with a nearly dry paintbrush, you then stamp with the leaf cluster stamp as many leaves which you feel is appropriate, and again using your paintbrush bleed it out to make it look like a full tree.

The Cat and her kittens are again stamped onto a separate piece of card with the pens and painted again with the paintbrush and left to dry. You then cut them out and put to the side to stick onto the card when youve finished painting.

You can give the impression of grass by rubbing one of the pens onto a acrylic block and mixing with water to create a wash and painting it onto the paper. You can do the same with the sky, how you create the flowers is for your own creation, I use many different flower stamps and also with different colour pens just to create the effect I have.

The cat was positioned on the fence and her kittens behind it, when I use the cards I put a greeting on the outside and write a message inside the card. Sorry that the top photo is a bit tipped to the side, but I hope it doesn't spoil it for you.

A Card for Leah

Again this card has been made using one of the Images from the Pollycraft Range of Stamps, this one is called Innocence.

I stamped it onto white card and painted it with the Artquest paints. While this was drying I created the main card from A4 textured card which I firstly put through my printer and from my computer I picked a paper from one of my Craft Cds and printed it onto the card, I also printed it onto a piece of paper ready to use for the insert.

I then embossed the edges of the card and folded it into a half gateleg shape. I firstly cut with my Nestabilitie Label Dies a mount with Pink Pearliscent Card, and stuck the Image onto it which I had punched out with the Classic Scalloped Oval Die, then this was placed onto the first fold of the base card which was positioned halfway over the edge. I also printed a greeting onto another piece of white card and mounted this onto another piece of pink pearliscent card and cut it with one of my scalloped scissors, this I placed below the stamped image.

The Insert was then embossed down the edge and cut to fit just inside the embossed edge of the card, I had previously printed a verse onto it, I then stuck this inside the second half of the front cover.

I finished the card of with a few different sizes of pink pearls, down the top edges of the card.

Anniversary Card for Ian

Todays card is the one I made for our Anniversary.

I cheated with this one really, I used Joanna Sheen's, Jayne Nestley Mayhew cds for this one, as I know my husband loves Meerkats, I thought this design was just right for him.

I printed out on a A4 piece of Card one of the background papers and then printed another of the background papers onto a piece of lighter paper for the insert.

The main Meerkat Image was printed onto a piece of semi-gloss photo paper and mounted onto a piece of Gold Mirra Card. I also printed a greeting which I created on my computer onto the same photo paper and cut it out and mounted this also onto a piece of the Gold Mirra Card.

I then printed the same backing paper design onto a piece of printable acetate and used this as a outsert, and fixed this to the card with gold ribbon.

The stamped Image and greeting were mounted straight onto the card leaving the Acetate free.

I cut out two of the extra Meerkats and stuck one to the card and one to the Insert. I printed a verse onto the insert and attached it to the centre of the card with glue, so that it opens with the card I always attach it to the front.