crafters card and a couple of family christmas cards

Today's offering is a card I made for my cousin's birthday next week, using Andy Carolan's new Card Toonz cd - Pastimes and Hobbies. I was spoilt for choice as my cousin is a crafter and a cake decorator like me. Decoupaged image was enhanced with sakura stardust pens and cosmic shimmer twinkles.

The two cat christmas cards are for my son and family and my daughter and family. My son has just got a new ginger kitten, and my daughter has 3 black cats! I fell in love with the images when we visited a tiny tiny little craft outlet at a village cafe. They are both "twisted" decoupage - must have made a good job of them - as you can't see the layers in the photos! lol!

Wedding Cake

This is the wedding cake I made for my pal Jacque's wedding (this picture taken by Ros at the Wedding Reception.

The following photos were taken just after I made the cake.

close up of top tier

close up of knife spray

and finally the card I made for Jacque and Ian using the Cameocrafts "To Have and to Hold" cd. Just a simple card, with a little decoupage, some sakura sparkle highlights, jewels and a ribbon bow made from the same ribbon as on her cake knife.

Miscellaneous Christmas

Today's selection is a few cards made from the papers from the December Making Cards Magazine. Yes I was very strong, and stopped stroking them and used them!

The second one uses my new Martha Stewart "Round the Page" punches - ooo do like these punches.

more stamped Christmas Cards

Another selection of stamped and coloured cards with promarkers, all very simple cards:

Lofty (Joanna Sheen Stamp)

An old wooden stamp from my stash - made by Stampendous

Another stamp from a sheet bought from Joanna's shop - can't remember the make - the image is much paler as it was stamped and coloured on Conqueror pearlised paper

Messy Rabbit (Joanna Sheen stamps)

Hoot (another Joanna Sheen Stamp)

A scenic card and a couple of others

Today's selection are cards made from a sheet of Glenda's stamps (Elusive Images).

All coloured with promarkers with some stardust highlights.

this scenic stamp is probably my favourite this year - have made a lot using this image

Christmas Cards - Poinsettias

Well the Christmas cards are all posted. Still have a couple to make for family. I thought I would share a few. I seem to have done a lot of stamping and colouring this year. So therapeutic to sit with the promarkers. In fact I haven't even touched my CDs this year. I doubt most of the recipients will appreciate the fun I had creating them, but they are all sent with love.

This first selection today are examples using the poinsettia stamp from Joanna Sheen, with variations. The first one is coloured water coloured with sakura stardust and the others are done with promarker pens. I must confess I made rather a lot of poinsettia cards, all different - just a variation on a theme.


The actual stamp included the flower pot, as in the last image, but I made quite a few cards just using the flowers without the pot as an experiment, which I rather liked as an alternative.

RHS cd cards

I had fully intended to do some cake decorating this evening, but somehow I got side-tracked, and decided to make some cards. They are all for birthdays next week, and two hopefully I can give to my son tomorrow to hand-deliver as they are for his future m-i-law and s-i-law, whose birthdays are both on the same day.

All the images are from the latest Joanna Sheen cd - the Royal Horticultural Society Collection, which for those that don't know about it features artwork from well-known botanical artists, the originals of which are all in the archives of the RHS.

this is the inside of the card, and as the recipient is a great flower lover, I thought I would also print the piece about the artist from the CD.

The next two cards are a variation on a theme, as I printed off a whole sheet of images. One A5 and one DL.

Poinsettias and Christmas Roses

This was an experiment, having played with my new stamps from Joanna Sheen. I used part of the poinsettia image and using artistic licence, my sakura clear, green and blue stardust pens and a koi brush. Cut out the image, and attached it to card with clear pads. The matching ribbon was coloured with a promarker pen, added some little stick-on sparkles to the ribbon and centre of the flowers.

I confess I love this unusual look, and am sure I shall be doing it again!

The Christmas roses were coloured with sakura stardust for the flowers and a koi brush, and the leaves were done with promarkers, and highlighted with clear stardust. (Don't know why the leaves look such a weird colour as used same pens as the poinsettia leaves below!)

The Poinsettias were both coloured with promarkers, and then the veins highlighted with clear sakura. The photos don't do them justice, as they really sparkle!

I should add that all the images were on 160 gsm paper - even the ones I "water-coloured"!

Birthdays, a Wedding and a First!

I shall start with "a first" . I have had my bookatrix board for a couple of years, I tried to use it when I first had it, and failed miserably. I was determined to try again. Well I have to confess that this may also be my last bookatrix - I just couldn't get on with it with the pearlised card, although the vellum layer was ok. Having eventually got the back part of the book cut out, I realised that it was bigger than an A5 card - botheration! After all that struggle! Fortunately I had some large A4 cards and envelopes in a goody bag the other week. Panic over! and another first in making an A4 card.

The wild rose stamp was coloured with sakura pens and a koi brush, with decoupaged flowers. I balanced this with a little verse I found which was so appropriate for this family member - my mum's second cousin. In 2003 we met Lily and her family for the first time, not previously knowing of their existence and living so near to us, and we had a wonderful day. My mum and her cousin were so alike. Do click on the photo and read it.

This second card is for a forum pal's birthday, this time image coloured with promarker pens, and the same image used as a background on the main card.

and finally a wedding card for a neighbour's son and his soon to be wife. My son is going to be best man at the Wedding on Saturday. This image and backing paper is from a Joanna Sheen cd.

Anniversary Cards - variation on a theme

Based on an idea that Suzanne did for a DL card on her blog, I created a couple of landscape A5 cards, the blue one for a pal, and the orange one for my daughter and husband, as she had this colour of lily in her wedding bouquet.

The images were both coloured with promarkers, and the first mount layers were created with colouring the edge of some white card with a promarker. The plaid paper in the blue card, was taken from a Joanna Sheen backing paper and recoloured in Publisher.

I seem to have a "confusion" of green's on this card. The first layer of backing were both done with the same colour promarker, but have realised one was on pearlised Conqueror paper and the one around the message on plain paper - the colours were supposed to be a near match for the punched strip - but they appear quite different in the photo! I also coloured the Lilies with promarkers to match the image.

Normally I print out the message in a matching colour, but this time I printed them both out in black and then went over them with promarkers to create a sort of co-ordinated colour shadow.

I also learned how to do a watermark for the insert - I scanned and saved the images I had coloured and then in Publisher converted them to a watermark, with a duplicate image of the flowers placed over the watermark on the "fly" of the insert, and the wording done with a clear background on the lower section. (Just realised, I forgot to take a photo of the inserts - duh!)