CASE Card

 

Greetings lovely people!  Don't know about you, but I'm finding it hard to believe that we are nearly at the end of October.  I know it's a cliché to say this, but where has the year gone?

 

I guess now I have to start thinking about the dreaded C word.  To be fair, I have made a good start on my Christmas cards, but I really must get my head around what to buy people.  I try to be organised each year - I like my lists - but this year I have the lovely SU Seasons of Style This and That Journal to help me out.  Hopefully it will bring me divine inspiration too!

 

I wanted to share some cards with you that I made at the end of the summer (yes, I'm appallingly behind!).  I was totally inspired by a card I saw on the very talented Jen Nelson's blog, The Tiny Blue Butterfly - check out her card here.  I was really struck by it and knew I had to copy it.  I particularly loved the die that she used - it's from Avery Elle in America.  I immediately had a little Google and found the die on the website and, oops, it just fell into my basket!

 

The card is cut from Crumb Cake cardstock, and the paper is from the Gingham Garden set.  I made a little pin wheel and found a tiny little brad to finish it off, and the sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Sentiments.  I'm really a fan of this type of card with the fold at the top (as you will see over the coming months!).  Jen makes a lot of cards like this and her blog is truly inspiring.

 

I used the smaller of the four dies to make the following card.  The card stock is Pear Pizzazz and the paper is still Gingham Garden.  Sentiment as before.

 

The final card in this selection is made using Calypso Coral card stock.  The paper is from This Is Me.  I added a stamped element along the bottom as my daughter said the card was too plain!  The chevron stamp is from an old SU set, Border Banter (stamped in Basic Grey).  I actually cheated and stamped it on an off-cut, cut it out and added it to the card afterwards - I was too worried I would muck it up and ruin my card!.

Well, it's half term for me this week, and I am enjoying a really lazy week.  I did actually make a card yesterday - for my parents' Wedding Anniversary on Thursday, 49 years.  And today I am in the middle of making a card for the Card Swap group I belong to - probably should have made that last weekend, but  we are still in the middle of University Open Days - only two more to go!  I'm hoping to get a little more crafting done over the next two days and then on Friday, I'm away at a scrapbooking retreat my Scrapbags, which I am looking forward to immensely.

I'll leave you now as my SU Envelope Punchboard has just arrived and I'm off to have a little play!

Thanks for dropping by.

Take care

Michelle x

Birthdays Galore!

 

It's been a busy time recently - lots of April birthday, and lots more in May.  The following cards are a few that I made for last month.

 

This first card was made for a good friend of mine who celebrated a milestone birthday.  I cut an oval in the middle of the card and pierced around the outside of the aperture and the edge of the card with a piercing template.  I attached a piece of green Twitterpated DSP behind the aperture.  I cut some chipboard numbers and coated them in Martha Stewart glitter and attached them to the DSP.  A Teeny Tiny sentiment and punched out labels in white and Pear Pizzazz completed the card.

 

This next card was made with a scrap booking kit that I have had knocking around for years and thought I ought to start using!  It was a card made in a hurry for the little boy next door.

An finally, another card made from a pad of scrap booking papers.  Actually I used offcuts from Emily's birthday album, to use them up.  The card was for a 14 year old girl and I hope I pitched it correctly - it's a funny old age, 14!

 

 

Hopefully I will be back soon with some more cards.  Because I have a lot of birthdays in May, I've gone in for some batch making sessions, and revisiting an old design.  But I do have something new to show you that I am very proud of - so watch this space!

 

See you soon.  Take care

 

Michelle x

Card Swap Group - 2

Hi Everyone

 

First of all, I want to say a big thank you to all the wonderful comments I have had about Emily's birthday album.  It's really lovely to have such great feedback and it has given me such a boost.

 

I've been a bit behind this week, too much going on, so all the posts I intended to make have not happened.  Anyway, today I would like to share the cards for the second month of the Card Swap group I belong to.

 

I made for Margaret this month, but she also had a rather special birthday so everyone made her a birthday card too.  The first card I am sharing is obviously her birthday card.  She likes natural colours, so I tried to keep this in mind.

 

I used a Kraft card as a base, then cut another panel in Kraft which I put in my Honeycomb embossing folder and ran it through a Cuttlebug.  I edged it with a couple of narrow strips of blue paper from the Spice Cake DSP.  I cut some hexagons from some scraps of the DSP and stuck them randomly to the embossed panel.  After attaching it to the base card, I wrapped some Pear Pizzazz pleated satin ribbon and natural twine around the middle of the card.  I cut a hexagon in Kraft card and stamped the 60 in Early Espresso ink from the Memorable Moments stamps set. I then mounted this on more Spice Cake paper and stuck it to the card with 3D foam.

 

 

 

This month Jane set a challenge to use left over DSP on our cards.  I really like the Tea for Two papers at the moment and have been using them a lot.  So I chose four designs that complemented each other and cut panels which I stuck to my square base card.  I wrapped a piece of So Saffron taffeta ribbon around the middle and tied a bow (which I'm very proud of!) on the left hand side.  I cut an oval from the Ovals Collection Framelits and stamped the sentiment from the Oh Hello set in Indigo Island.  I then cut a bigger oval from Lucky Limeade card stock and stamped the chevron design from Oh Hello with a Versamark pad.  I mounted them on the card with more 3D foam pads.

 

This next card is the beautiful card I received from Ann.  She picked my favourite papers of the moment and teamed them with Island Indigo.  I really like the little embroidery frame and cross stitch design, which ties in so well with the stitched edge on the patterned DSP.  Simply stunning.

 

 

Well I have finally got to the end of this rather long post.  Sorry I've rambled on a bit, hope you stayed with me.

 

Take care and thanks for dropping by.

 

Michelle x

 

Honeycomb Delight

Hi everyone.  Hope you are well and have had a lovely weekend (despite the rain).

 

I am sharing two cards with you today.  The first was made for my mum for Mother's Day, and features the new Honeycomb embossing folder.  Wow, this really does have lots of possibilities.

 

First of all, I ran a piece of white card through my Cuttlebug in the embossing folder and stuck it to the front of a card.  Then I cut up some scraps of the Tea for Two DSP and put them inside the folder and put it through the Cuttlebug - this gave me a guide to cutting out the hexagons and getting them the right size.  I stuck them down in a random pattern.

 

I then stuck a piece of Baja Breeze pleated satin ribbon across the middle of the card, followed by a piece of baker's twine (I borrowed that idea from Jane, at Eden's Tree - check out her blog here ).

 

The sentiment is from Notable Alphabet, stamped in black onto a piece of Tea for Two.

 

 

 

The second card is very similar (because I'm in love with it!!), and was for Jane (mentioned above), whose birthday was earlier in the week.

 

I used her favourite papers, Spice Cake, and teamed them with Pear Pizzazz pleated ribbon and brown baker's twine.  The sentiment is from the Hostess set, Stacks of Wishes, stamped in Early Espresso ink and mounted on the same colour card.

 

Jane has set up a card swap group and I received my first card this week - it's stunning and I will share it with you soon, as well as the card I made.  Jane received lots of handmade birthday cards this year - one from every member of the swap group - keep looking at her blog, as she is going to post them soon.

I've noticed that my three photos differ in quality - the first is a scan, the second I took and the third was taken my Mark,  I'll let you make your mind up which one is the best!

Take care

Michelle x

Happy Birthday Mum

Hi everybody, hope you are all well and have had a good week.  Mine has been pretty good for no specific reasons.  I have a lovely weekend ahead of me with a day of scrapbooking tomorrow, and a trip to the cinema on Sunday morning to see the final instalment of the Twilight Saga.

 

Today, however, is my lovely Mum's birthday and here is the card that I made for her.  I have to say that I am particularly pleased with this effort - one of my favourite cards for ages.

 

My new favourite Stampin' Up set is called Betsy's Blossoms and I love, love, love the big flower head in the set.  I think I will be using it a lot.  The colours I have chosen are Rich Razzleberry, Pear Pizzazz and Tempting Turquoise.

 

The flower was stamped twice in the Razzleberry and Turquoise then I stamped the leaves in the gaps with Pear Pizzazz.  I mounted a piece of seam binding (Pear Pizzazz) onto a strip of white card and added that to the bottom third of the panel.  I then mounted the whole lot on to Pear Pizzazz card stock, which in turn was stuck to the white base card.

 

I stamped the sentiment from the hostess set of Wacky Wishes in Rich Razzleberry and then mounted it onto Tempting Turquoise.  I used foam pads to give it a little bit of dimension.

 

 

 

So that's me done for tonight.  There will be no Christmas cards made this weekend, but I've still got a few more things to share with you over the coming days.

Thank you for dropping by and as always, I appreciate your comments.

Have a good one.

Michelle x

Happy Birthday Maria

Hi!  I'm just popping in quickly tonight to show you the card I made for my sister's birthday which is today.  It's also her wedding anniversary, but I'll share that card with you another time.

This card is a little bit different to my usual style, but I am very pleased with it. I covered the card with Pear Pizzazz textured card stock.  I added a strip of striped DSP, also in Pear Pizzazz, having cut a fancy edge on one side.  I punched out some Concord Crush plain card stock with the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch, then added a few flourishes from the same card stock (using a Memory Box die).

I stamped the dotted frame from the Four Frames set in Concord Crush and punched it out with the Decorative Label punch.  I added a sentiment from Create a Cupcake in Pear Pizzazz.

What do you think?

Thanks for dropping by.  I really appreciate your comments.  Hope you have all been having a good week.

Take care

Michelle x

Birthday Cupcake

I hope you are all enjoying your Bank Holiday weekend.  It was nice yesterday, to think that there was still another day until I had to go back to work.

It's been a productive weekend without being manic.  I've fiddled about with craft stuff, Mark's pottered about in the garden, we've done the ironing. We've even managed to get a few jobs done, a little bit of shopping too, and in an hour or so I'm off to the opticians for an overdue eye test.

Here is one of the cards I have made over the weekend.  It's for a daughter of a friend, whose birthday is tomorrow.  I've used the Create a Cupcake stamps and the Cupcake Builder punch from Stampin' Up - I love these, so easy to use and cute with it.  The colours I have chosen are Pear Pizzazz, Blushing Bride and Melon Mambo.  The dots across the card are stamped with one of the Borderlines stamps (also SU).  I added a little bit of bling to the ribbon around the cupcake and Bob's your uncle!!  I love this card!  You know when you just get that feeling that you've made a good one.  It hasn't happened a lot recently, so I am thrilled that this one has worked.  Hope you like it too.

Well, the crafting stash is calling.  Must not keep flicking through the Stampin' Up catalogue - must make cards!!!!

Thanks for dropping by.  Have a good day.

Michelle x