Hi everyone.  Thank heavens it's Friday!  This week has seemed very long and incredibly busy.  At school we've been getting organised for our week away at PGL in Wales next week.  I'm really looking forward to it but there has been so much to do, and I still haven't organised home life for while I'm away, let alone begun to pack.  Well, that will have to wait until Sunday because I'm off to Scrapbags tomorrow!

 

Here's a card I made for a colleague at work who is celebrating a very special birthday today.  I used some Craftwork Cards products that I found whilst I was tidying up over the summer, as well as glitter and ribbon.  The sentiment is SU.

 

 

The next card was a commission from a friend at work.  I've made a lot of these concertina cards over the years, but never for a wedding.  It's very plain and simple, but I took the lead from their wedding invitation.  I didn't have any letters that were the required size, so with Mark's help, I braved it and dusted off my Silhouette die cutting machine (I've been too scared to use it!!).  I'm so thrilled with the results and will be using it a lot more, particularly in my scrapbooking.

 

I used SU card stock - Not Quite Navy and Very Vanilla. and my fantastic Simply Scored to make the folds.

 

And finally, just cos I'm so proud, Edward got an award tonight at his cricket presentation evening - Most Improved Player for Under 14s.  Well deserved (yes, I know I'm biased!).

Well that's me for tonight - I really must go and organise paper and photos for tomorrow.  If I don't see you before, I'll see when I get back from Wales - goodnight :)

Take care and thanks for popping in.

Michelle x

Card Swap Group - 3

 

Morning!  Today's card was made for Alison as part of a Card Swap group.  I decided to use an old hostess set - Simply Soft - that I've had it for ages and never used.  I cut three identical panels and stamped the flower outline in Always Artichoke.  I then stamped the petal part in Wisteria Wonder.  Considering I couldn't find my stamp positioner, I didn't do a bad job.  Think I may have to invest in a Stamp-a-ma-jig - it would have made my life so much easier!

 

I mounted the three panels on some Wisteria Wonder card stock which I then mounted on a white, square card.  I used some of the gorgeous Ruffled Ribbon in (WW) around the middle, and finished it with a sentiment from Elementary Elegance (old SAB set) punched out with the Ticket Duo Punch Builder.

 

 

I received a lovely email from Alison saying she loved the card.

 

I'm supposed to be scrap booking today but to be honest I'm not in the mood.  The weather is so depressing and the light is really poor, it makes it more difficult.  I did get up early to do a bit of work with Glossy Accents - you would think that an hour and a half later it would be dry - but no.  Oh well.

 

Have a good day and take care.

 

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

Betsy's Blossoms (Again!)

This is the card I made for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day.  I wasn't going to make her one, Mark was going to buy her a card instead.  But as you know, we've been under the weather, him in particular, so I thought I would save him the job of going into town.  I needed a quick design so though I would rely on "old faithful".  This is such a quick but effective card and I love it so much.

 

This time I chose Concord Crush, Wisteria Wonder and Lucky Limeade as the colour scheme, and used the Notable Alphabet for "Mum".

I've had a busy afternoon sorting through photographs for the final selection for Emily's album.  It was lovely looking back, but hard to believe that she is going to be an adult in three months.  She has no idea what she wants to do for her birthday or what she would like - helpful as ever!  The problem is that she doesn't want to grow up, she really wants to stay a child.  I think she would be really happy with some Harry Potter Lego!

Thanks for dropping by.

Take care

Michelle x

Hello

Well, apologies for the absence.  I won't bore you with all the details, but we have been a very poorly house recently, so crafting and blogging have taken a very large back seat.  I'm slowly getting round to visiting other blogs and leaving comments.  I feel like I have missed out on seeing lots of lovely inspirational work.  I've even had a box of new goodies from Stampin' Up sitting on my living room floor for nearly two weeks without barely giving it any attention at all.  Inside are all the lovely Hearts a Flutter stamps and framelits, as well as the More Amore DSP, intended for Mark's Valentines card - well that didn't happen!

 

Anyway, I'm back on track.  It's half term and I'm feeling crafty!  Robbie Williams is on the CD player.  I've set myself a goal to spend the morning scrapbooking and card making and then catch up on other stuff in the afternoons.  I'm having a little break to write this post - and feeling rather virtuous as I have completed a scrap book layout for Emily's album this morning.

 

I would like to share a card with you that I made a few weeks ago before the lurgy struck.  I've copied it from one I saw in Pinterest, so I can't take any credit for it at all, and all the materials are from Stampin' Up, apart from the gems.

 

The stamps used are from the Best of Everything stamp set, which I really love.  The colour scheme is dictated by the paper - a retired hostess set called Cheerful Treat - Lucky Limeade, Concord Crush and Melon Mambo.  I've used some matching stitched ribbon and a couple of gems for the middle of the flowers (punched with the flower punch  from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack - a very versatile punch).

 

So that's me for now.  I'm going to delve into that box of SU goodies and see what I can come up with.  Hopefully there won't be such a long gap until my next post.

Hope you all have a good day.  Thanks for dropping by, and as ever I really appreciate your comments.

Take care

Michelle x