Happy Easter

Hope you all enjoyed WOYWW yesterday, despite being very productive and packing up the living room and all the photos in the house, I did manage to view a few blogs. Great for inspiration.

Today's main photo started out as a Happy Birthday card, but Ma saw it and she works as a carer and thought one of her 'ladies' would like it for Easter. I was happy to oblige. I like the idea of a non-traditional Easter card.

Not a big difference really, but here is the original version.

Pink lady birthday

The papers are all by Pink Petticoat, and as I can't take my printer with me and I have a nuclear war stash of ink, I will be printing like crazy - it's an awesome excuse. The ribbon is one of my faves and was a gift from JT. I learnt how to make these faux bows and they really work. I added some bling to the bow and the dress has glitter here and there.

It's all about dresses today :) I've been playing with some new digital stamps / images and think they are working out well. The new card magazine subscription is inspiring me to sew more and be a bit adventurous. The 3 cards that I am showing you today are my attempt to do that!

This card uses the same image as before, I wanted to try and use just one colour and see how it would work.

Green lady birthday

I think it's come out quite well, as you can probably guess, the images were too close to each other, so when I die cut the pink lady, I ended up with the scalloped effect on the green lady - I decided to make it a feature. The papers are all by American Crafts. Border punch by Martha Stewart, floral tape from Tiger and a couple of Candi's. I am not normally a big fan of gold peel-offs, but think with the green it works well.

The final card uses a digital dress form. I love dress forms, perhaps because I don't have the space for a real one, it is high on my wish list, like Hubby's piano :)

Dress form card

I wanted to experiment with different patterns and layers, I think this works really well. The ribbon was a gift from my MIL and it's beautiful, I thought it suited this card, has a kind of vintage feel. All papers are again by  Pink Petticoat. I like the random stitching, I've realised from things I've seen that it doesn't need to be perfect. The dress form was black, but I went over it with a pink fineliner, to tie it in with the card more.

So what do you think?

Happy Easter.

Cx

WOYWW #199 - It's Chaos

Hello everyone!

The title of my post does not relate to the state of my desk, which is reasonably tidy this week, but to the state of my home.....Hubby and I had our move to NYC confirmed and we leave in 5 weeks, hence the state of the flat. Boxes and stuff to go into boxes everywhere....

Let's forget about all that for a moment shall we and focus on my desk. Get over to Stamping Ground and meet Julia and the gang if you have no idea what I am talking about :)

Today you can see two layouts that I am playing with. I really want to try and use more different colours and patterns on one card, but without it being too hideous!! You can see an almost finished card. The blue version is done and these are for my Ma, I am making her a stash of cards for when I am gone... Different glasses, these are the ones that are normally in my handbag, no idea how they made it to my desk. A pile of doilies and papers and some flowers that I have been making. You can also see my shiny new hot pink stapler - finally one that works!

Here is the finished blue version of the pink card that you can see.

Layered Flower Birthday

I am really enjoying making these layered flowers in colours that contrast with the papers I am working with, it gives me so much more control. These cards were inspired by x2 scraps that I found that had the scalloped square cut out. I figured I could use these up, as there was so much paper left around the cut out. The border was made using a border die I bought, hated, forgot about. I quite like it here.

I'm off to get on with the packing, but not before I have a nose around some desks.

Cx

Trying new things

Hello, hope you all had a nice weekend. 

Hubby and I had an amazing dinner at L'escargot on Friday night as part of London Restaurant Fortnight and the rest of the weekend was spent doing NYC admin (we are leaving on 2nd of May - eeek) and crafting.

As Hubby bought me a new tablet to go with my digital subscription to Cards, I have been in the craft room flicking through the magazines and getting ideas.

I thought I'd show you some of the things I've been making this weekend. One of these cards is winging it's way to JT as part of Card Exchange, not telling which one though :)

The main photo was based on this idea - 

Robot example

I really like the general structure of the card. It uses a fair few techniques, but I think that is ok when you are making special cards.

Next up is a card that is quite straightforward and I think you can fussy it up a bit if you wanted to.

Card Example

My version is below, I like the different papers, I just happened to have a circular paper, which works well with the blue spotty paper. The glittery frame is new and part of the Making Memories Chips range, the floral tape is new too and from Tiger.

The final card is one I chose to make as I thought it would be easy to make using my fave Spellbinders label dies.

Hello Example

 I used Pink Petticoat patterned papers and a peach co'ordinations paper. The flower I made using the scraps and a Sizzix die that came with my Big Shot. I am really into making these flowers right now :) I do wish I hadn't bothered with the faux stitching, but I still like it.

My Hello Card

That's all for now, I have been working on some other great over the top girl cards, which I'll show you tomorrow.

Cx

Good Friends

 Hey there, I've been a bit distracted this week - I didn't even manage to participate in WOYWW :(

I have had lots of random things to do, but I have found time to make a few things and catch-up with some good friends.

I made the card in the main photo for JT, as part of our Card Exchange. I love this 1950's digital stamp - it's such fun to work with, I had to draw in a shoe, part of her face, her hairline and part of her belt, but this all made it more fun for me.

This is the card JT made for me -

Pinwheel Thank You

I love it, it's so me! I will be using it as a Thank You for my MIL. Here is a close-up, so you can see the glittery detail.

Pinwheel Close-up

I had dinner with JT last night and we had such fun, we are going to try and organise a stay-cation before Hubby and I leave for NYC.

I also had lunch with another good friend Suze, she placed a little order with me, so I thought I'd share a couple of things I made for her with you.

Dress Form Birthday

I keep the leftovers from the dress form die cuts and use them in various ways. I like this version, the 3 little pearls are a nice touch to balance out the card.

I had made a card similar to this one as a challenge entry and when Suze said she wanted Thank You's I thought I'd make another one and then she'd have a pretty almost matched set.

Butterfly Thank You

I really enjoy working with this sketch, it's so versatile.

Finally here is a Mother's Day idea that I had made and decided it was too much work for the website. So I modified it as a gift for Suze's Mum. I cut a contrasting oval scallop, stuck it over the original greeting, added peel-offs and had a set of 4 cards ready to go..I'll be rooting through my leftover special occasion stock and trying this again.

Flower Happy Birthday

It's fun to make things for people you know well :)

Cx

It's a Kenny K day for me :)

 I've been playing with some of the ones that I won a few weeks back and thought as well as entering the Kenny K challenge this week (#134 Happy Birthday) I would show you what I have been up to.

The main photo is Madison Attitude and my entry to the challenge. I've been playing around with the size of these stamps. I like the size of this one. The background was a free paper, I printed the sentiment using Harrington font from FontSquirrel and used a small oval scallop punch for a bit of stand-out.

This card uses the Lady Victoria stamp. The stamp is so intricate that I had to print it big inorder to see it properly so I could colour it :)

Lady Victoria

I like the contrast of the stamp against the black card.
Finally here is Bodacious Bev, as I was colouring her, I realised how perfect she would be for my friend Lora, so I left it blank, as I can see her wanting to frame it or something.

Bodacious Bev

Happy Saturday everyone, Hubby and I have dinner guests tonight, so off I go to bake something yummy.

Cx