Orange Easel Card

I coloured this image from Joanna Sheen's Country life collection stamps, a couple of week's ago.  (Using Promarkers of course!) I thought I would use it on a card for my sister-in-law, but had no inspiration as to exactly what I wanted to do with it.

Yesterday we went to a DoCrafts event locally, and I bought the current "Goody Bag" - everything in it was colour co-ordinated in yellows and oranges.   Not colours I would normally use.  I decided they would be a good foil for my coloured image.

Base card is a cream 6" scalloped card from CraftWorkCards.  I decided to turn it into an easel style card.  I cut out the image with a nestability and also a larger piece of one of the orange papers from the pad in the goody bag.   As there were also matching brads etc in the kit - I used those too.

The base of the card uses another paper from the pad, a piece of spotted orange ribbon, matching ready-made bow, and a couple of flowers with a bronze gem in the centre.   The easel "stop" is a tiny matching orange spotted button - again all from the goodybag kit!

I also bought some rather nice white Happy Birthday peel-offs yesterday - and have used one of these along the ribbon.

As I said earlier not colours I would think of using, or even buy if I saw them on sale,  but it was a pleasure to have all the co-ordinating bits and pieces to hand, and choose what I wanted to use.  I hope any future "goodybags" are colour co-ordinated in this way - it would be a really great idea.

First Easel Card

I made this card for my daughter's birthday and confess it was very last minute, as I have not been feeling well this past week or so.

Not only is it my first easel card, but also my first go at ultra thick embossing!

The image and papers are from Joanna Sheen's "In Other Words" cd. The main topper from the floral toppers section, and the other paper from the patchwork topper/paper section. The base card was A4 plain Burgundy card from my stash.

I highlighted the sweetpea image with sakura stardust pens, applied with a koi water brush, and then did some double embossing using Cosmic Shimmer ultra thick clear embossing powder. The image was mounted on foam tape on burgundy corrugated card, and this was mounted in the middle of a strip of the patchwork paper, and some flora doodles with card candy centres added either side.

I attached a further piece of the patchwork paper, which I punched along the edge with one of my Martha Stewart punches. Two lengths of Ribbon - silver overlaid with burgundy were attached before adding to the base card. Another card candy button holds the "easel" up and a sentiment from my stash added to a piece of card edged with burgundy was placed on the ribbon.

In addition to making this today (her birthday is tomorrow) I also quickly knocked up a joint birthday cake this afternoon for her and her teaching colleague Kirsten. I had felt guilty at not making a proper birthday cake for Dawn - the first time in 36 years - and also for the past couple of years I have made a joint cake for her and Kirsten.

We had been talking about cupcakes last night, and suddenly inspiration struck - I would make a giant "Cupcake". It is not brilliant by my standards, but it is the thought that counts! (I hope). Definitely a case of using what was in the cupboard! Cake is chocolate victoria sponge, topped with fondant - but the mix- it-yourself with water type, as there was a packet in the cupboard!

I then discovered some left-over pink sugarpaste and cut out the numbers and initials, (from a kit I won in my sugarcraft club raffle at Christmas - so another first!) having first rolled a pretty floral pin over the sugarpaste. I then made some roses (what is known in the trade as "marzipan roses" - and probably the first thing I ever learned to do in cake decorating!) The numbers, initials and roses were then dusted with lilac frosted edible dusts! Voila - a 30 minute cake! Not brilliant I know - but it is the taste that counts! (well that's my excuse and I am sticking to it! - at least I have been brave enough to share the photo!)

Karaoke Card

A card for my nephew - although he isn't actually into Karaoke, he is an "internet DJ" (nlo don't ask me I don't exctly understand either), and this was the nearest thing I could come up with, courtesy of Andy Carolan's Pastimes and Hobbies cd.

He is known as DJ Soto, so have added those words to the card to personalise it. The bear , mike, speaker and picture on the wall are decoupaged, and the glass has been highlighted with sakura stardust pens.

The insert has a matching backing paper from the cd, which I created as a "watermark", and then added one of the smaller sized toppers.

I knew there was something wrong with this card when I looked at the picture - I had forgotten a greeting - proves I was feeling under the weather! It now has a "Happy Birthday! in the top right hand corner. I will try and remember to update the photo!

Never Ending Card Instructions

Well I wrote out some instructions, and hopefully if you click on the picture you will be able to see them. If you then right click you should be able to save them.

I used strips of 20 cm by 10 cm (8" x 4") but you could use any size you wanted. Basically you need two pieces of card the same size. One cut in half horizontally and one cut in half vertically. They are then scored at the 1/4 and 3/4 mark of the long side (a bit like a gatefold card).

You lay the two horizontal pieces one below the other. Put some glue in each of the four outer corners, and then attach the other two pieces that have been cut vertically to the corners. Then just keep folding and creasing. The front layer will open like a gatefold card, the next layer will open from top to bottom, and then the last two will repeat this sequence, until you get back to the beginning.
(bit difficult to explain - but do have a play. The result is quite fascinating.)


Have a look at Fiona's never-ending snowman card on: here It is brilliant.

Never-ending card!

I spent the afternoon crafting with my two youngest granddaughters today.

Obviously most of the crafting was done Bea, although Connie would have liked to have got her hands on my Cosmic Twinkles! (won't be long before she is crafting too - she was fascinated by what we were doing! I can see she will have to have her own craft box eventually).

We used her Cuttlekids machine, and Bea learned how to shade flowers with chalks and outline with Cosmic Twinkles, and she did some stamping and painted the images with Lyra Aqua Crayons and a koi brush (I am sure those crayons and brushes were designed with kids in mind!) (You can seen the crayons in Bea's hand).

But the "piece de resistance" was Bea's "Never Ending Card." (I had seen this on C&C in the Lili of the Valley Show, and was as fascinated as Nigel the presenter at the effect). I had a play with a piece of paper first to see if I had got the idea right, and before I left this afternoon I prepared some pieces of card, and found some Mr Men and Beatrix Potter freebies that were in my stash for just such a granddaughter's crafting session. I thought I would be a good idea to supervise to try this new idea with Bea as practise!

The backing papers, toppers and placement of same were all chosen and done by Bea, I was just in charge of the tape pen, and the paper trimmer!

front of card

which opens out to this

which then opens out to this

and then this

and finally back to the front and this picture shows the front slightly open

It was a fascinating thing to make. Shall now attempt to make a "grown up" one.

I suddenly remembered that I hadn't shared these two decoupaged pictures that I made as part of my sister-in-law's Christmas present.

I had originally intended to change the colour of the frames (which although they look different, are the same colour), but got a tad "scared" as I hadn't played with mica colours on wood before, and thought I had better leave them plain, until I had practised on something that didn't matter! lol!

The frames were deep ones bought from that well-known shop beginning with a "T" and the images were from Joanna Sheen's Eastern Treasures CD.

A trio of Birthday Cards

I have been playing with some of my Joanna Sheen stamps that I received for Christmas from my daughter, and have created a trio of cards with a variation on a theme, for birthdays due in the next week. I do wish the stamps were just a tad smaller so that you could mat and layer them with the nestabilities more easily, but having said that I love them to bits.

All the images were coloured with promarker pens, with some highlights done with Sakura clear glaze (although that doesn't show up that much).

Christmas Cake

I have only made one Christmas Cake this year - for my daughter Dawn. The design was chosen by her a few weeks ago, when I came home from a Sugarcraft demonstration by Pat Ashby with Pat's latest book and a set of snowflake cutters. She saw a similar design in the book and said I want that on my cake!

My granddaughter was supposed to come and do the decorating, but she has been a tad poorly this week - no doubt if she had done the decorating we would have multi-coloured snowflakes!

At least I know the cake is a good one, as I made it at same time as my pal Jacque's wedding cake. Definitely one of my better supermoist cakes!

Snow pictures - next year's Christmas cards?

As you all know most of the country has had snow today, so naturally I had to take few photos. I then played about with them - I am thinking maybe some might be used on next year's Christmas cards - particularly the bauble ones! (and of course some of them could be used as backing papers).

Image 1

and what I have created from it:

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Hope you like them.

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!