Mamie Rae

Monday 3 December 2012

Finishing Christmas off for 2012



Despite the post title I’ll actually be working on Christmas cards right through until at least mid February if not later in a (vain) attempt to get well ahead for this year’s crop as it really does take me almost 6 months to produce what my family/friends request of me every year plus enough for myself & some to hold over to the following year (somewhere in the region of 600 odd)!!   Not many if you’re young , fit & healthy – sadly I’m none of those – not one L!  SO I have to spend longer than most to get making as many as required.

But every year I continue to be captivated by the current crop of new designs to play with, and am forever amazed at how there’s always some new concept or twist on the previous year’s crop.   And this year was no different.  Last year I spent far too long working on my newly adored “Specials” – the easels with flowers, and got rather far behind with “ordinary” cards, so this year I turned things around and barely made any special style cards other than some really quick & easy ones that didn’t take anywhere near so long to produce.   Having given up on stamping (not by choice), it was much easier to produce easel cards using pyramage or decoupaged toppers and easier again were the diecut texts with a bow (below). 

I also invested again in CUP designs as there were some truly wonderful ones going cheap (when the site offered a 20% discount), and also started reusing the Squeezee designs but in a different way having had feedback that some weren’t overly struck on them as they were meant to be made.  So rather than making them freestanding, I decoupaged them up in layers which worked really well and again, produced quick and easy cards that went down a ton better.

Finally I made the usual batch of Dufex cards as these are a constant useful type being completely flat so highly popular given our hugely inflated postage costs, and with some of my family being pensioners, these are the ones they want most of.

SO here are a few of the designs for you to enjoy – I’d have put up more if I could find an easier method to do so, & where I would once have sent you to my website gallery to view them, I’m having to consider dumping the website because nobody buys from it anyway, & it’s costing me more than I can afford to maintain, so once the domain name runs out that’ll be the end of it.














To save me time, I've not put up any details on these, but if one should take your fancy & you'd like more info on it for any reason, please do just fire me a note - I'll be more than happy to provide it to you :).

In the meantime, blessings for the rest of this wonderful season, & trust you have a wonderful Saviour's Day and beyond.
Enjoy

Tuesday 29 May 2012

Spring Cards


Been a good while since my last post as, as ever, I’ve not been well again & battling all sorts of issues.  BUT I still try and push out at least 1 card daily or every other day for distraction therapy, so finally getting a moment to show a couple up here.

These are ones I made for my mum-in-law and in truth, I was grateful to have a reason to push myself to make some as I was just in such a low spot physically it was really hard to make the effort to be bothered to do anything :(.

The first one is a nice Thinking Of You card in her favourite colour – green and with an image from her favourite painter - Thomas Kinkade.  Papers are K & Co and the flowers as always are from Wild Orchid Crafts.  Greenery are MS punchies – I’ve never been able to afford or even find sometimes, the particular Branch punch that makes them, so instead I buy them ready punched from a wonderful girl in the US.

Then the 2nd one is a total change using a wonderful kit from Crafts You Print.  Can’t remember the exact kit details offhand, but if you’re interested in it, just email me & I’ll have a closer hunt for them.  It’s a lovely see through easel with floating butterflies, & I did it in both A4 & A5 sizes.  The larger one is going to be for my prayer partner’s birthday later in the year.  The kit comprises 3 sections which you just glue together to give it stability, and I used some additional heavyweight card too to ensure it would hold. 

 
I think it's a truly beautiful card but while the designer has other designs available, none were quite as pretty as this particular one.
 Enjoy

Saturday 31 March 2012

Arch Sympathy card


Apologies for so few cards going up on this blog of late but I wasn’t very well through the past couple of months for various reasons, and on top of that really struggled to get back into the mood for making general cards after such a hectic few months prior to Christmas feverishly pushing out cards to fulfil demand.

But I’m back with this card – one of a number of Sympathy cards I got stuck into making for my mum-in-law.  I was just grateful to have a reason to make cards as it was proving really hard to get bothered to make anything at the time, so knowing she wanted these helped get me kick started.  This card's rather simpler than my more extravagant easel style from last year but a lot more my usual style.

The card itself is a tri-fold arch style with a beautiful decoupaged floral image on one section with a cut out window at the front which you could cover with acetate if desired, but this way allows the decoupage to poke through which I think adds to the overall effect.    It makes for a very unusual and unique sympathy card that I think would encourage anyone getting it.

Hopefully from here on, I can upload more designs over the coming weeks, but with my health issues so variable, I'll just have to play it by ear.

Enjoy
 

Saturday 28 January 2012

Black Kat revealed :)


A total change for me with this post as I unveil one of my most enjoyable projects - an Origami Black Cat (originally called Halloween cat).  Those who know me, know well my love affair with black cats - ironically there was a time when I said I never wanted another black cat after having had 3 and yet somehow always seeming to manage to gain yet another one.  However, Tikvah changed everything and now I can't quite get enough of them. 

So, when I saw this challenge of Anything Goes (except stamps) on the UnstampaBelles site, & finally sourced this origami pattern (I'd made a similar one in my 20s & never forgot it), I figured it was time to recreate it.  


 
It's quite a complex design for a novice at Origami as I still am, but do-able and so enjoyable when you see it all coming together.  It obviously involves not just folding but some judicious cutting too and you have to really follow the instructions very VERY carefully or things can go pearshaped really fast and you can get to a point of no return, but I thankfully found it relatively easy again to get it done, albeit with some pieces like the feet which just would not behave themselves.
 
I'm going to be making another one again shortly while I can still manage to do so.  But I’m still finishing off (or trying to) the last of my C. cards for this season which is proving the most difficult task, as I’ve just really lost my zest for producing them at the moment, as ever, eager to switch to something new again.
And apologies for such intermittent blog posts – I’ve a lot going on between my health & my mum’s continuing decline, I really find I don’t have a lot of time for taking the pics & getting the posts put together that often, but will do my best to keep on top of it a bit better and keep the blog alive :) 

Enjoy






aka Black Kat :)

Monday 23 January 2012

Candy Alert

Pion Design is offering an awesome Candy - 2 of their wonderful paper packages.  Runs until Feb 14th so don't wait too long before jumping across to join in the fun: