Emily's Card

As ever, I’ve not been very well once again –unfortunately after a good run of late, I ended up back in hosp from last Wed through Sun with another suspected chest infection which thankfully wasn't the case.  So hoping that's my token admission for the year as it just reminded me of all the tough issues I dealt with last year, which I really don't want to repeat any time soon!

This one is the card I made for my wonderful 2^nd (step) granddaughter, the firstborn of my youngest stepdaughter Christine, who turned 2 a while back.  As I couldn’t afford to buy her much in the way of presents I figured a keepsake card might be nice, and as she has a lovely little kitten to enjoy, this seemed the perfect design. As usual, it’s a beautiful Morehead image decoupaged up on 2 diecuts.

The background paper was matted onto a pink holographic iridescent card.  I used a small section of lace underneath pink ribbon behind the image, and used another diecut to mat the greeting onto.  Flowers as ever come from Wild Orchid Crafts & the MS branch greenery courtesy of a wonderful lady on Ebay.

On the inside I created a pocket into which to put the greeting  (along with the money in an envelope).

All in all hopefully a card that will be enjoyed by Emily in years to come as much as by her mum now.

I'm entering this into last week's WordArt Wednesday challenge despite (for once) it not having any WordArt :( - put it as a footer instead :).

Blessings!

  

 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches 

of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Colossians 1:27

WordArt Wednesday Challenge

This is my first ever entry into the WordArtWednesday challenge, & thankfully this one is “Anything Goes” so easy for me to have something to make for it.   I’ve chosen to provide these 2 cards as while the challenge doesn’t demand WordArt, it’s nice to be able to show off my chosen scriptures.

The first features WordArt by Karen Murray and I’ve used it on a wedding card as my brother & his partner are getting married later in the year.   I’ve  created the background sheet myself, using vector branch shapes found online, but think I need rather a lot more practice to make something that looks a bit more professional sadly.  But it did what I wanted.  It was then triple matted onto black/cream.

I diecut and embossed the WordArt using Spellbinders labels 4 and matted it onto some Shapeabilities Ironwork Accents cut from the label.   They’re not the shape I really wanted, but adequate to do the job.

Finished off with a cream double bow. 

Blessings!

Hobby House Challenge

This one’s a first for me as I’ve not entered any previous HH challenges before, but was tempted when I spotted it was simply “Roses” – how simple can that be!!!   Here's the link if you want to join in the fun - Hobby House Challenges.

The card I’ve made is for a 25^th Wedding Anniversary which proved a perfect opportunity for using Roses in abundance.  

I created an easel card using background paper from my digital stash (apologies as I’ve no idea where I got it from) matted onto red card & stuck onto cream cardstock.  I then stuck on a border of gold edged red ribbon and a border of deep lace bought in my local craft shop (but readily available in Ebay too!).  I printed the verse onto cream cardstock before cutting out with the large Spellbinders Floral Oval – I then cut a 2^nd one in gold mirri card, before cutting off the outside of the cream one to mat it onto the gold one (if that makes sense).

 
The roses are all from Wild Orchid Crafts (only because I’d won lots earlier in the year & needed to use them up before buying any more), and the bow & little heart charm from my stash.  It's not easy to see but the roses have all been blinged up with diamond "gold" glitter glue which puts a beautiful gold finish on them.

 

 Finished off with a red 25^th stuck onto a Spellbinders Shapeabilities label (borrowed from a friend so unsure which exact set it came from) in gold.

As usual I made a complementary tag holder & tag.

Enjoy!

Joys of the Season

(As ever, apologies for the minimal attendance this blog is getting from me of late, but I’ve had a tough year health wise, so like some others in the blogosphere, just haven’t been up to doing too much until recently.)

I love, Love, LOVE this time of year - I love the dark nights, colder weather (you can always warm up but SO much tougher to cool down!!), & especially the colours of Autumn, running into Winter, & all the glitz & glamour of beautiful Christmas cards.  What's not to love!!!

Because of my horrendous health decline this year I figured when I finally escaped from hospital (after 3 months in), that I might be safer to start into making my C. cards a little earlier than usual, so began them at the start of July (I’d normally have held off until August).  And just as well I did as I managed to end up spending most of September in as well ultimately :(. 

Unfortunately because of all the time constraints & my continuing poor health, I felt I really didn’t have the time luxury to make my boxed “specials”, plus few people really want them at Christmas unless they can hand them over, as the postage is just so prohibitive on them, esp for the elderly in my family.  So, I’ve concentrated on the quick & cheap for the most part, yet somehow seem to have managed to still spend an utter fortune on new stuff (utterly unnecessary but heck, it’s so nice to treat myself now & again, well ok, monthly!!)

So this is just a couple – I’ll put more up as & when I’m able.

The first one is using a downloaded vector graphic (can't find this particular one again, but many others are freely available online) which you literally just print and use. This design was very easily decoupaged by printing off a couple of extra copies.  There were quite a few of this style of design, some of which work wonderfully for decoupage, with others only suitable to use as single flat images or pyramage etc.  When I’ve more time I’ll probably add to this design by putting on some thin 3 mm ribbon around the baubles which would really work wonderfully I think.

This second one has rapidly become a favourite of mine for this season – so quick & simple, yet, to me, really effective & beautiful.  Easily made, you just print off a verse or quote onto A6 card, then cut that smaller than your A6 base card and border cut the bottom, before matting it on (same would apply if you want to make other sizes). I’ve just stuck the card mat at the top so that it has some movement, but you can obviously stick the entire card on if you prefer.  Then, put whatever you want in the space at the top or the side (depending whether you’re making portrait or landscape designs).  I’ve used the wonderful K&Co Glad Tidings Poinsettia & Holly Layered Accents for most of mine, although I’ve also used some smaller decoupage designs on some too.  But the poinsettias go so wonderfully with the red card & ribbon etc.  I then finished them off with some gold holographic peeloff borders & small snowflakes or stars etc.

These cards will all just get simple inserts rather than anything requiring more work, just so I can ensure I get as many made as possible.

I invested (LOL!!) in the wonderful Heartfelt Creations superb Christmas 12 x 12 pad which has lots (!) of readymade card fronts available just for the sticking on, so will show you some of those next time around, hopefully in a few days.

Enjoy!

 

Another TK card :)

I had put this card up months ago under a different title but for some reason it attracted TONS of spam comments, so I deleted it & am now reposting with a new title in the hope it doesn't have the same problem.  If anyone knows a good way to blocking such spam, I'm open to ideas!!
 ========================================
Another in the range of TK designs as I’ve just SO many of these to play with at the moment – hard to make my mind up which one to use – it’s just such a privilege to be able to access his awesome work in this manner and to create pretty neat cards from them.  I chose to make this in the horizontal fold style rather than an easel just for a change.

This one features a design called "Mountain Retreat" which depicts a wonderful bright woodland scene complete with pheasants & deer alongside a lovely waterfall and stream.   The topper image is matted onto brown & gold mirri paper to reflect the autumnal colours of the painting.  The background paper of the card comes from another K&Co pad - this time Brianna - & is also matted onto copper backing card. And again I've used my trusty Martha Stewart punch to provide a little strip to sit on top of a lace line underneath the topper, which adds a little more depth.

Flowers as always are from Wild Orchid Crafts & are a mixture of roses (25 mm, 15 mm,  & 10 mm) that again accentuate the colours setting off the card beautifully.  Finished off with beautiful gold "gypsophila" sprigs and punched leaves.  As usual I've highlighted the rosese with some Stickles glitter.

The inside is similarly decorated to complement the outside and features a cream rectangle panel for the greeting to be placed on.  

 

This card will be up on my Ebay Shop shortly.

Card for a tough occasion

One of my dearest friends, who’s also my prayer partner, is today sadly working through the 1^st anniversary of the death of her cherished husband of 12 years.   Stanley died suddenly of unknown cause, a week after a colostomy reversal.   There were so many tough moments from that day I know it will have been really hard to once again have to focus on the day’s events, as is inevitable at each such anniversary.

As I couldn’t be with her, I chose to provide her with a card featuring her favourite artist – Thomas Kinkade.   This particular piece is appropriately called “By Still Waters” but I deliberately chose green as I felt it hits the right note for the occasion.

 

I tried to match the flowers to the pictures colours so we have – 30 mm 2-tone lilac, and lots of 20 mm various colours, alongside some 15 mm pink & peach.   All readily available from the only good supplier around online – Wild Orchid Crafts.   I chose K & Co papers & used green seam binding ribbon to complement the colours.  All finished off with a nice little cross charm available from The Works online or in shopping centres. 

The stop was handmade & just printed out from Word & the Red Monarch (I think) butterfly finishes off the base.   Forgot to photograph the box but it was done in nice subtle green matching colours too. 

 

She was really pleased with it when I gave it to a couple of days ago, so that leaves me pleased too, as I truly wanted something that she could keep on show should she desire without it looking out of place, hence the verse on the Stop being for any time of year.

As she’s sold more of my cards than anyone else, I’m truly grateful to her & her friends for their inordinate continued support of my card making – but ultimately I praise God who has provided me with a wonderful gift to share so enjoyable with friends & family not to mention strangers J!  And if you’re one of the latter, hurry up and become a follower of the blog or leave a comment – be a stranger no more!!