Purrfect Birthday Card

This cute stamp from Little Claire has been sitting unused in my stash for too long ... so it was time to bring it out and and have a play. I've used lavender, putty and plum Promarkers for the colour scheme and layered it onto a black card.

Dressmakers Mannequin

Sewing themed card made with dress makers dummy with gilding flakes, buttons and bows!

Wooden Birdcage Birthday Card

Another card with little wooden embellishments - this time a cute birdcage. The background paper was from Hot Off the Press and must have been in my stash for at least 5 years!

Little Wooden Embellishments

Love these cute garden themed wooden embellishments that I picked up in the Range recently!

As I recently celebrated my 50th birthday, I decided to have 50 new experiences over the next 12 months! 

I have set up a blog to recount these experiences and if you are interested - you can find it here!

Big Blooms and mounting excitement!

A couple of cards this week made with the big Papermania die cut blooms with button centres

Soon I will be off on a girly trip to New York to celebrate my 50th birthday. It will be hard to fit in all the sightseeing and shopping into just a few days, but we will! 

However, I will be foregoing a trip on the Staten Island Ferry to go craft shopping - and first on the list is Michaels!! I'm leaving plenty of space in the suitcase for a new handbag and lots of Christmas crafting items.

My sisters New York themed birthday card

My sisters birthday is just 4 days after mine and a week after my sons, so August is an expensive time for my family!

As I am 50 this year, we are going on a girly shopping trip to New York later this month with my Mum and Aunt - no boys allowed!

I have never been there before, so really looking forward to seeing the sites and grabbing a few bargains. I have had these Debbi Moore designs for a while but they are ideal for my sisters card, so I hope she likes it!

My Sons 20th Birthday Card

This year I am having a joint 70th birthday party with my son - he will be 20 and I'm 50 three days later!

This is his card and like most young men he loves his  black Converse boots, so when I saw these embellishments I had to get them for his card.

More Cards with Gilding Flakes

Got my gilding flakes out and had another crafting  session with them. 

One or 2 of the stamps didn't come out very well, as I chose the wrong colour background. 


 I think I will stick to using the gold and silver flakes on a black background from now on!

Pink and Girly!!

Got my trusty promarkers out and had a bit of a colouring session - and ended up with these very pink and girly cards! I used Craftwork Card sentiments with them, I love their products and often use them on my cards. 

I sell some of my cards at work and will take these in to add to the basket. This year I am aiming to raise £100 for the Blue Cross who want to build a new animal rescue centre nearby.

Bird on a branch

The 'small bird on a branch' is one of my favourite dies from Marianne Creatables, I love the silhouette of the bird and have used here on 3 different but similar square birthday cards

Waste not....

As I am on strike today and the weather is a bit miserable, I might as well make the most of it and do some crafting!

This card was made using the left over waste from die-cutting out some black scroll shapes as a background. Doesn't look too bad, does it!

Cards for a Baby Boy

I've had this stamp of a large teddy bear for ages and so thought it was about time it was used! The wooden embellishments were from from a Christmas pack, but thought they worked well with the bear.

Has anyone spotted the 'deliberate' mistake on the second card --- yes I've just noticed that the heart background paper is upside down!!

ATC's to Swap....

Anyone fancy a swap? I have made a few Artist Trading Cards recently so please contact me if you would like to swap any of them.

I really enjoy making these littler pieces of papercraft and they help to use up some of my smaller pieces of stash!

Lily of the Valley

Another vintage style card - this time featuring the beautiful Lily of the Valley flower, that always reminds me of my grandparents home - one whiff of it's scent and I feel like a five year old playing amongst the flowers again!

Gilding Flakes are so Messy!

....but I love the effect they make! You have to be well prepared with the bowl of water to clean the stamps straight away, all the windows shut to keep out the draughts and the doors shut to keep out the cats!!!

These cards were made with Cosmic Shimmer Silver Dream gilding flakes that have just the odd flake of gold as a contrast in them.

 I used a silver, blue and black colour scheme to try to highlight the silver shimmer.

This weeks cards..

I treated myself to a copy of July's edition Making Cards Magazine that I haven't bought for ages - I like the fact that the free papers are now separate and not bound in the magazine! 

Here's a few cards made with the free images and papers

This week I was pleased to sell 6 cards and pick up 2 commissions at work - helps to justify buying more stash, doesn't it?

More Vintage Style Birthday Cards

On a bit of a roll at the moment mojo wise! 

All my cards seem to be of a vintage theme and feature birds, flowers ribbons and butterflies

Can You Smell the Roses?

You can't go wrong with lovely blooms of roses on birthday cards can you? 

I cannot resist sniffing any roses that are by the path, as I walk by people houses. No perfume really captures their fabulous smell!

Three Little Dots ...

I've just realised that so many of my hand made cards have something in common - 3 little dots as embellishments! Usually mine are made from liquid pearls or card candi and I try to use co-ordinating colours.

They seem to finish off a card and stop areas from looking a bit plain. Often I have them in opposite corners to counter balance each other

Can anyone explain why 3 look better than 2 or 4 dots? 

Does anyone else have a' trademark' that appears on most of their cards?

Sew Lovely Cards

I have a big pile of Sew Lovely Papers left over from the Docrafts goodie bag from several months ago - I keep looking at them and putting them away! 

Well, this morning I finally got around to using some of them in these cards. They are teamed up with Craftwork Cards die cut mannequins

and free charms for Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine.

The Car Boot sale I was going to do on Saturday got rained off, so I had to console myself with a visit to The Range, where I tried not to spend too much. The boxes of stuff are sitting in the conservatory and I hope the weather next Saturday will be better!!

Not My Usual Style!

This card is not  the sort I would usually make, but the stamps came free with issue 17 of Creative Stamping Magazine - the set is called the Rose Garden

I enjoyed colouring the topiary trees and its quite a simple card .

I'm off to do a car boot sale tomorrow (weather permitting) and have sorted out some stamps and embossing folders that I'm unlikely to use again. If I sell them then I can justify buying some more craft stuff, can't I!!!

Wedding Bells are Ringing.....

......at least in my head whilst I was making these Wedding Cards! 

I've been asked to make a selection by the shop where I sell some of my cards, so dug out some stamps and suitable embellishments from my stash and had a play.