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!

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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!

A Bit More Gilding

Having fun using the gilding flakes, although things can get a bit sticky and its best to get organised with everything you need nearby! 
I am always surprised how crisp the images come out.

I quite pleased how these couple of cards turned out,

 the girl with the hair was a free stamp with a magazine and plant stems are from  Inkadinkado.

New Plaything - Gilded Flakes!

My Mum and I went to the Papercraft Fair yesterday in Bury St Edmunds and she bought me some great early birthday presents!

I was impressed by the Indigo Blu demonstration of their Gilding Flakes and bought a couple of tubs and their glue and had fun making these cards! 

She also treated me to a new stamp, so I thought this lovely dandelion head from Personal Impressions would look nice gilded up.



I am really impressed by these products -I'm guessing that I won' be able to resist getting some more of their yummy colour schemes to make some Christmas cards with.

Scraps Away!

I have several folders full of those poly pockets containing the left over pieces from various collections of papers - many of which were freebies from different magazines. 

The stickers and scraps of papers for these 3 cards, I think, were from a Making Cards Magazine collection - probably at least 2 or 3 years old!

I challenged myself to use them all up and after a bit of playing around, found they toned nicely with some large Papermania Capsule die cut flower shapes (which had been kicking around for a while too!) - so that just leaves about 30 more pockets of scraps to use up!!

Monochrome Seed Heads

This is my new Woodware 'Going to Seed' magic stamp that was an impulse buy last weekend.

I tried stamping it out in several different inks but think these monochrome black and grey cards look the best - 



especially when highlighted with a little stickles glitter glue!

Artist Trading Cards

I confess - I love making ATC's (Artist Trading Cards)! I started off just making them to use up those off-cuts from card making but have found I really like making those little bits of art work. 

The size (3.5 inches by 2.5 inches) just seems to lend itself to creativity plus its a good way to stretch yourself into a bit of experimentation!

The hot weather seems to kick started my mojo, so these are a few I have available to swap over on docrafts.

Most of them had been made with the freebie stamps with Get Stamping Magazine that I picked up yesterday.

One Swallow Doesn't Make a Summer

..... but this fabulous hot weather does! I enjoyed a fantastic day out yesterday in Hyde Park, London watching Paul Young, The Saturdays, The Beach Boys and JLS - despite been the oldest by a long way The Beach Boys put on the best show!

This little vintage thank you card used a few scraps of freebie papers from a magazine along with lace and  a pale blue swallow

A Few 'Cool' Birthday Cards

I bought Creative Stamping Magazine because of the free OMG Teenyboppers Stamps. I find teenagers are so hard to make cards for - especially the boys!

But these stamps of ipods, bikes, games controllers etc will hopefully appeal to them. It was also useful to use up a bit of my ever growing stash too!

I got a bit carried away!

My copy of Simply cards and Papercraft magazine arrived yesterday with the free Hot of the Press 'Home Grown' paper pack - I made a couple of cards with the papers ( see last post). Hubby was working, son was at a head banging festival and daughter was dancing on the Wii, so I had a bit of a crafting session and before I knew it, I had made 22 different cards! There were cards for Dad, thanks you cards, girly birthday cards -  the papers seemed to go with everything including Gorjuss, Diggity dog, Dandelion and Daisy!!

I just had to use up the last few scraps and so made another 8 ATC's to swap - the whole freebie paper pack was used up in just over 24 hours - think I will go for a bit of a lie down now.

Home Grown Cats

My copy of Simply Cards & Papercraft Magazine popped through the door this morning complete with a yummy HOTP 'Home Grown' paper set as the free gift - so guess what I've been doing this morning - yup, carpet still needs a hoover, but crafting can't wait, can it!!!

I've teamed them up with a black cat silhouette ( Poppy Stamps die) to make these couple of cards.

Cats and Trees, all in Silhouette!

Just been playing with my new dies - I treated myself to the Memory Box Arboscello tree that I have been lusting after for ages along with some curious cats from Poppy Stamps to make these silhouette cards. Three similar but different cards - hopefully suitable for any cat lover.

They have been layered onto a textured paper and finished off with craftwork card sentiments. 

I experimented with both black and white card and quite like both effects!