Black hair, black eye beauty

The black hair, black eye beauty in question is my gorgeous gt.granddaughter whose birthday is next Tuesday. I have been so busy lately, crafters will know what it's like, birthday are like buses there aren't any for a while then they all come at once. Plus it's half term, it's my sons turn to have his daughters and they have spent nearly every day here. I have also painted the down pipes on the outside of the house. Then I suddenly remembered Francesca's birthday, thank goodness once again for LOTV toppers. I do stamp and colour myself - honest! Anyway she loves the family cat so I thought this one was ideal. The background papers are also LOTV which I have mounted onto dark blue card, the topper is mounted in the same way. I have attached these to a ready decorated card by Woodware. The sentiment is also LOTV. The 4 Today are All Occassion Dies. A few faux pearls to finish. All ready to dash to the post office with it only to discover she flew to Portugal today along with Mum and Dad to spend her birthday there, last year it was Brazil! Oh well! There's always next year!

Sweet Iris

                             My friend in Cornwall, her great Granddaughter will be two at the end of May and this is the card I've made for her. The card and papers are cut using Spellbinder dies. The dark red rose paper is from LOTV as is the topper which I have cut out.the pink card is from my stash. The sentiment, name and figure 2 are All Occassion Dies. The banner is just scrap paper cut with a Stampin Up punch. To finish I just highlighted certain areas on the topper with Sakura Gelly Roll pens.

Wedding Day

My son asked me to make a wedding card for his friend who is getting married in June and this is what I came up with. I embossed some white card with a rose folder by Embossalicious and distressed the edges. This was mounted onto an eight by eight card. The very fancy die is Anjas Vintage Decoration by Marianne. I cut two of these and positioned them in the centre of the card leaving a gap in the middle which is where I placed the other two die cuts. This set is by spellbinders and again I distressed the edges. I have used All Occassions Dies for the names. The swirls are by Cheery Lynn and all the flowers are from my stash. The sentiment on the ribbon bow is by LOTV.

Disco Girl

It was my friend Kim's eldest granddaughters birthday last week and I thought this stamp was ideal for a teenager.  It is Creative Expressions Betty  Boots which I stamped and embossed then coloured with  distress inks  and distress markers, tea dye, brushed courdroy, rusty hinge, faded jeans, worn lipstick and preserved berries. Her top and the laces in her shoes  I coloured with clear Wink of Stella. The glitter ball has been stamped using Stazon onto acetate . This was mounted onto double sided sticky sheet and cut out. I then covered the reverse side with silver glitter. The two sentiments which came with the image have been coloured with Sakura gelly roll pens. Two of the background papers are by LOTV and the chequered one is made from scraps of card from my stash. I think you'll agree a swinging card!

Card for teenage girl

It is my friends youngest granddaughters birthday next week and as you can tell from the card she will be a teenager. The stamp is by Sarah Kay which I have coloured with Marvy La Plume pens used as watercolours. Cut image and mount with spellbinder dies. The background paper is LOTV distressed with faded jeans and brushed courdroy distress inks. The swirls are dies by Cheery Lynn and the flowers and leaves are from my stash. Her name and the 13 are from All Occasion Dies.
My blogs are like buses, wait ages for one then several come at once!

Get Well Ged

I love this stamp from Woodware  happy frog it is not only good for birthdays but I have used it a couple of times as a get well card which is what I have done here for my friend who is in hospital again. I stamped and embossed the images on watercolour card to which I have given a wash background using tumbled glass distress ink. For the frogs I used forest moss distress ink and painted them all over. I next went over the spots with bleach. Stamped the hip hop randomly over the background along with the hopping by stamp to which I extended the dots. On the inside I continued the dots then added my message on the end. The whole was mounted onto dark green card. The eyes are squiggly ones from Tesco. 

Still at it!

Here are more cards I have made from previous classes I have been to. I think I'm catching up! Four of these have been bleached out, a couple have been left, the other two I have part painted over. The fifth card, top right, has been stamped using versamark then dusted over with mica powder, mounted onto LOTV paper. Greeting to finish. Sentiment can be added to others as needed.   WHEN my bits box is empty I have promised myself that when I go to a class I will MAKE a card instead of just bits! ................. We will see, don't hold your breath                                                            

Peel Offs

My friends neighbour has been in India with her husband for the last four years. He was asked to go there for a special job and she always goes with him. It has taken very much longer than anticipated and they cannot wait to get home. Not having anything in my craft room with an Indian theme I got these peel offs of ceremonial elephants. The background is made using peel offs which are based on the pattern made when using henna to paint on the hands etc. I lightly stuck them to background card then used light brown chalk to cover the area. On removing the peel off you are then left with a relief of the pattern. The elephants I have painted with distress inks. So peel offs do have their place in crafting.

Easter

I don't send many Easter cards, as you can see, these three were for my daughter and family, my brother and my best friend. The cards on either side are Lili of the Valley stamps coloured with copic pens. The religious one in the centre ,I'm sorry I can't remember who makes it,  was also coloured with copics.

More Catch Up

I am continuing the good work and playing catch up with another half a dozen cards. Unfortunately because these were stamped and coloured at a class that took place a couple of weeks ago I cannot remember which stamps I've used. So I apologise to the various stamp companies. What I do remember however is that the card on the bottom left was made using tea and coffee. I really must try harder to finish them earlier but sometimes it is difficult with all the usual chores etc. today I was gardening nearly all day, repaired the drain, hopefully, and made a large cottage pie for my family tomorrow. We will wait and see.

Good Girl ??

 Just recently at Davina's classes tutored by Kim we have been making window cards. As always I go home with lots of bits that I have cut out or coloured, put them in a box, forget about them until it overflows! So I've decided to be a good girl (if that's possible) and go through my boxes and turn my bits into cards. Here are four that I've made recently. I haven't added any sentiments so I can use them as the occasion arises and put it on then. I have more to post later. See I have been doing my homework Kim x

Sweet Seventeen

Here is the card I made for  my granddaughter. For the background I used Woodware   Graffiti stamped with versafine and embossed. Using distress inks I watercoloured the background and the words. I drew some 17s  in the odd spaces. For the topper I used another Woodware stamp  Just for u. I coloured the letters  in to match the background. Drew some squiggly lines round the outside, some dots around the letters. Mounted on black card.        

Rotten year so far.

This year didn't get off to a very good start as my elder brother was ill for the whole of January. I cannot ever remember him being that bad before. The worse I'd seen him was when he had food poisoning. He was poorly for three days, if he gets a cold he shrugs it off in a few days. Never has a flu jab, never goes to doctors and this time he couldn't have got to the doctors if he tried. Well pleased he has fully recovered, back to eating and his old self. Then on 20th February my other son-in-law died from brain cancer, just like my other son-in-law who died last September.
Yesterday this was how my son ended up, in the trauma unit at St. Marys, Paddington after a three car rta. Phillip being in the middle got the worst of it ending side on down a ditch. Air bags didn't explode so hit his head on side window. Thank God no broken bones. Severe concussion, badly shaken up and in terrible pain from all the jarring. Phillip hates hospital after bad experiences when younger and wanted to come home. Once his memory returned and his ops were ok he was allowed home with instructions to rest both body and mind. They said his brain had been badly shaken and needed rest, no computers,etc. Car write off! - company car. Thank goodness he has a lovely wife who will ensure he does just that! Love you both.

Two for one

I made these two cards using a Magnolia die - rocking horse. I first cut the image out from white card. For the first card I cut a heart from the centre then using a Crafts 2 embossing folder of baby feet ran half of the card through the Cuttlebug. I selected a nice dark pink paper with stars on from my stash which I stuck to the inside of the card. I slightly distressed the image with Spun Sugar distress ink and affixed to the centre of the aperture.
For the second card I used the 'waste' after cutting the horse and mounted it onto plain pink card which I then cut out using a 'blossom' shape nestie. I lightly distressed with spun sugar and stuck the tiny hearts, eye and the centre of bottom of the rocker. Again I picked paper from my stash to mount it on. I haven't put any sentiment on either as they can be used for new baby or for my gt. Granddaughters first birthday.