Time to breathe a little..

..It's all been rather hectic over the last couple of months, but now I am gearing up for my birthday and a well deserved holiday.

I've been making cards, writing text and taking photos for the new website, making cards for Christmas (more about that later), making entries for National Cardmaker 2012 and generally working like a dog!

So where do I start...

Well today's main picture is of one of the Anniversary cards I made for various friend's anniversary's. I am so pleased with how they came out that I have used this idea as one of the new Ham'n'Mule website staples!

Here are a few more examples - I am loving the Woodware heart punch right now, the spotty backgrounds are my old favourites by Pink Petticoat.

I worked like a crazy person in August before I left for NYC to get all of the entries done for National Cardmaker, it was fun, as I got to try lots of new techniques. It was also the first time I worked with A5 cards and now I am hooked!

I entered lots of the categories, so fingers crossed..... The rules are you have to use at least one item from the  category on your card. Here are my entries.

Craftime

Craftime was fun, I cheated a bit with card 3 - as I only used ribbon... I loved working with the little dresses and I tried a new card format with card 1 and card 2 has a pull out at the top of the red die-cut.

Dovecraft

I did make 4 cards for Dovecraft, but my Ma felt one was lame and so I listened to her as a 'consumer' and the other one I didn't get to post before I went to NYC! My fave is the Union Jack Anniversary - notice the Woodware hearts again...

Paper Cellar

Unfortunately, I didn't find that many items locally for Paper Cellar, but the glittery shoes and bags worked well and I still have some left to play with at a later date.

Sizzix

At first I thought I was going to struggle to enter this category, but then I remembered - embossing folders! I have always loved the Thank You folder, but it's so big it's hard to work with. I used a coredinations card to emboss it, so I could sand it back to make the words pop. I really love the button and the ribbon. The blue/green card was fun as I got to use a new technique that I saw at the crazy craft fair JT and I went to. Basically you emboss an image, ink a brayer and then roll over the embossed image - voila! I like the tinge of  excess ink, it looks a bit shabby chic to me.

Stampin' Up

You can imagine my delight when I saw the Stampin' Up category! What a great opportunity to use the  Birdie, Owl and Bunting punches. I love these entries - apologies for the blurry joyfold Owl - I did take these photos every morning before work for a week! I love the birdie, it looks like a melon! I wish I'd made more for this category, but time was limited. Next year I will start earlier :)

Tonic Studios

Only one card in this category, but it was by no means the easiest! I used a geared punch and punched every strip on the front of the card individually and stuck them down individually! But I think the end result is a really wonderful card. I got the heart cards on sale at Craft Superstore and really wanted to use them some how and I had this idea to have an extra message on the front, which works I think. Obviously as this is Valentine's themed the Woodware punch came out again...

Well, that is the end of this epic post.

More later in the week, before I head to Tenerife for a week!

Cx