Lavender Liquid Pearls

I recently bought a bottle of lavender lace liquid pearls - I have had a bottle of Ruby Red for years, but have only ever used it for the holly berries on Christmas cards.

I dug out a few cards that I had made previously and had great fun adding a few dots of pearls here and there - I hope you think that they have improved the cards as little!

I had some great crafty gifts including swirl dies, a border punch and some more Promarkers to add to my collection, so I feel a crafting session coming on soon. 

I'm joining in with the new Creative Friday Blog link Party  - why don't you came and have a look what others have been up to? Dawn

Yuletide Greetings Winter Wishes Cards for Pagans

I know several people who are either pagans or non-Christians, so I always try to make a few cards for them at this time of year. 

I've gone for 'Winter Wishes' as the sentiment. The top card has an image from Joanna Sheens 'Dancing with Shadows' CD.

I now have a blog where I sell cards suitable for Pagans to send or receive over Christmas time at Pagancards.blogspot.co.uk

I would like to wish you all a Happy, peaceful and contented Christmas and if Santa visits you, that he brings lots of crafty presents!

Celebrations Collection

Occasionally I treat myself to Creative stamping Magazine - this time I was drawn by the Celebration Collection of freebie stamps which include a Rocking Horse and Bottle of Champagne and the sentiment 'Time to drink champagne and dance on the table'.

As usual, I couldn't wait to try them out and made these three cards. I hope 2014 will being us all lots of good reasons to celebrate!

Little Wooden Penguins - What a Bargain!

I found a pack of these very cute little wooden skiiing penguins in the Ipswich branch of the Range last week reduced to only 50p. There are 16 in the pack with 4 different types - and I couldn't wait to use them!

I coloured them with Promarkers and then teamed them up with bits

and pieces from my stash to make a whole set of blue and green based Christmas ATC's. 

Christmas Mints

I had a fun evening decorating these Elizabeth Shaw chocolate mints for Christmas, I think I will give one out to each of my friends at work with their Xmas card this year. 

These were inspired by the fab 'Fiddle Fart' blog by Helen which is full of great ideas using cheap and cheerful products from Poundland etc. If you haven't stumbled across her blog before, check out her cool penguins, robins and funky fish made out from these mints!!

Christmas Theme 2013 - Traditional & Reindeers?

Looking at the Christmas Cards I have made so far this year (approaching 200) a distinct style is appearing - traditional or reindeers, and sometimes both!

Last year I made far too many cute cards, and with lots of older relatives, they just were not suitable. Hopefully this batch will be better. 

The papers and embellishments from crafting magazines and shops also seem to be favouring an old fashioned, distressed and Victorian style. What types of Christmas cards are you making this year??

Inspired by Simply Cards Magazine

I received my copy of Simply Cards and Papercraft Magazine yesterday and had to drop everything and have a play with the free gifts. 

Not only was there a pad of yummy   double sided Kaisercraft Christmas Collection papers but also 10 luggage tags and at  beautiful 'Merry Christmas' stamp!!

I spent the whole afternoon making up these traditional style Christmas Cards with the addition of a few bows,wooden embellishments and brads. The stamp has some lovely detail to it and I really enjoyed colouring it in with my promarkers.  

If I get the time, I'm going to see if I can make some more today - This is one of the magazines I subscribe to and often has really good freebies. I've also won some of their giveaways in the past too!

Doves of Peace

This card was made from the Christmas freebies with Papercrafter Magazine.

I liked the traditional looking papers plus the sheet music stamp that came with them. Next I'm going to make up the gift boxes - even though I haven't bought any presents to put in them yet!!

Did I miss Christmas?

Because today I went into the Range and spotted not only Valentine crafty stuff but also Easter too!!!

I'm just finishing off my Christmas cards for the Local Hospice, they want them for an event on Friday. I was hoping to drop them off tomorrow, but I guess that depends on the Weather and if St Jude storm turns out to be as bad as they predict!

Red & Gold

I am really pleased how the gilding flakes have picked out the detail of this stamp - which has lots of swirls and fiddly bits! 

The sentiment is by Craftwork cards - this is just one of my Charity cards for the local hospice

Golden Reindeer

I loved the cute metal reindeer stencil that came free with  Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine, I don't use stencils very often, but sprayed it with gold Cosmic Shimmer Mist to get the outline for this card with a dot of  ruby red liquid pearls for his nose. 

I've also been approached by 2 local charities to make some Christmas Cards for them - so it looks like I will be able to make a bit of a dent in my Christmas Stash - I have papers and embellishments that must be at least 5 years old in there!

A Herd Of Reindeer

 Not sure why, but all the Christmas cards that I have made recently, seem to feature reindeer in them!

I remember that last year I made too many cute Christmas cards that were just not suitable for some of my older family and friends, so I seem to have concentrated on making some more traditional style cards this time.

After a bit of a slow start, I have now got in the swing of it and enjoy getting out all the mirri card, glitter and Christmas bling.

Scrappy Christmas!

A couple of Christmas cards using up those odd scraps of paper leftover from other cards!

A Bit Of Recycling

These 3 cards are all quick cheats made by recycling last years shop bought Christmas cards by a bit of mat and laying, plus adding sentiments and embellishments!

Christmas Mojo arrives!

Getting out my  big box of Christmas stash from last year helped to kick-start the Christmas spirit here!  This might be my first Christmas card this year, but I did find 37 cards left over from last year in the bottom of the box!

I used the Indigo Blu gilding fakes on an old reindeer stamp and the gold mirri card board helps it to stand out.  Hopefully this is the first of many Xmas cards.

Still not in the Christmas Mood yet!

Despite buying some new Christmas papers and stamps, I still not feel ready to break open the plastic crate under the stairs that has all my Xmas crafting goodies in it.

Perhaps the weather is still a bit too warm - or perhaps my Christmas mojo has gone walkabout. Until then I will just have to stick to birthday cards like the one above.

I do have to make an acceptance card tonight - just been invited to my great Nephews Christening!

Recycling Drinks Cans into Flowers!

My daughter had several projects to complete in the school holidays - one of which was to make something out of recycled objects.

Her first thought was to use drinks cans( we have plenty of those to recycle!) and make a windmill. But after checking it out on Google, they seemed quite difficult to make, so we tried flowers instead!

We cut out different sizes of blooms with the spellbinder blossom set and decorated some of the layers with glitter glue and smooch paints.

Then we fasten them together with a brad and sellotaped the flower to some old knitting needles.

Leaves were cut out of green cardboard.

The vase was made out of an empty bottle of Aspalls cyder ( my favourite) with the label covered with a piece of recycled envelope and finished off with an old cerise ribbon 

Sporting Birthday Cards

I wandered down to The Range yesterday to pick up some crafting essentials and a new cat carrier - one of my cats managed to break the door  of ours whilst we were wresting him into it for a trip to the vets - only for a check up and booster shot!

. 

I stumbled across a sheet of silver foiled sports decoupage figures - I really struggle to make suitable cards for my male relatives, so snapped them up!

Keep on Gilding!

I can't stop playing with my new sunshine gold and peacock gilding flakes and dandelion stamps, I'm almost tempted to get out my Christmas stamps for more gilding - but I try not to start Christmas cards until September when the weather starts to cool down a bit!

Ballerina Teddy Bear Birthday Cards

A couple of cute cards for young girls this time - Ballerina Bears designed by Gillian Flint, which I have mounted on Kraft cards to give a bit of a contrast. 

Coloured using my trusty Promarkers!