Hello Hexagons!

Goodness me, what a lot of catching up I need to do!  I hadn't realised quite how long I had been absent from the blogging world.  Life has been quite tricky recently, hence the absence, however I won't bore you with all the details. 

 

This card that I'm sharing today is from my card swap group.  The challenge was to use some sort of shape in the design.  Well, instantly I knew it would be hexagons.  I made a patch work effect with the SU Six Sided Sampler stamp set - one of my all time favourites, and I used Soft Sky, Pear Pizzazz and Smoky Slate as my colour palette. I am currently loving the Hello You thinlet dies, and lots of my cards are featuring one of the sentiments.  Finally, as you can't go wrong with butterflies, I popped one on the tag for added interest.  The challenge was hilarious, because nearly everyone used hexagons in one way or another, and butterflies featured quite heavily too!

 

 

I finished work today and am on holiday for just over two weeks, and I couldn't be happier.  It's been a bit of a slog of late.

 

Wishing everyone a happy Easter.  Take care

 

Michelle x

Jennie's Birthday Card

Good evening.  Just popping by to share a birthday card that I made for a member of my Card Swap Group.  I decided to try out the new SU Butterfly Basics stamp set, using Blackberry Bliss, Crushed Curry and Wild Wasabi.  I mounted the butterflies on 3D foam to give a little bit of much-needed dimension. 

 

I really like this stamp set as I think it has plenty of possibilities.  I do like to get as much out of my stamps as possible. And you can't go wrong with butterflies!

 

I hope everyone is having a good week, and staying safe in the horrible weather.  We don't have any snow yet, although I'm hoping that if it comes, we might get a snow day at work!

Take care

Michelle x

My Christmas Cards

Hi.  I know it's a bit late now, over mid-way through January (how did that happen?!), but I wanted to share the Christmas cards I made for 2014.  My colour scheme was a lot of white, with Smoky Slate, Soft, Sky, Pear Pizzazz and Lost Lagoon.   I really like the non-traditional colour scheme and look for my Christmas cards.

 

When I first saw the Autumn/Winter SU catalogue, I knew that my first order would be for the Festival of Trees stamp set and matching punch, as well as the All is Calm DSP.  I also fell in love with the Endless Wishes stamp set, as the sentiments have so many possibilities and I knew I would get plenty of use out of them.  And then a couple of other things were added: the adorable Frosted Sequins, the All is Calm Washi Tape and the Lucky Stars embossing folder.  I was all set!

 

I tried to keep my designs simple, I'm a real fan of Less is More.  But simple does not always mean quick!  The first two cards were the quickest of the batch.  Just two strips of washi tape, a couple of stamped and punched trees, a sentiment and some glitter glue.

 

This second design, however, was not so straightforward.  First I sponged the stars - two lots of sponging per card (and cleaning after each go).  The I embossed white card with the Lucky Stars and then cut circles, which I adhered to the front of the card.  Then I stamped and punched trees which went on top of the circle, then the sentiments followed suit.  After that I stuck on the sequins and finally added some glitter glue.  Oh, I neglected to mention that I had to cut out the white panel and the coloured panel first.  I made 22 of these cards!  Worth it though.

The final design (which I shamelessly stole from Vicky Hayes at Crafting Clare's Paper Moments), took the longest of the three.  It looks deceptively simple.  Cut a panel, then an aperture.  Pierce around the edge of the panel.  Stick a circle of All is Calm DSP in the aperture.  A little bit of silver ribbon, some glitter glue and a sentiment and there you go.  Simple.  But not when you make 22 of them in one afternoon.  My hands ached so much from the piercing, I really wished that had I scored some lines instead.  However, (and luckily) I was very happy with the results.

So, two weeks into term, four weeks until half term - yay!  We had to go to a Parents' Evening on Thursday for Edward - last one in Year 11.  Apparently, it's only 16 teaching weeks until GCSEs start!  Pretty scary stuff - well I'm scared.  Not too sure about Edward - teenage boys don't really give much away.  We are all hoping that his Xbox doesn't have to have a little holiday for the next few months!

Emily is back at University.  It was really hard taking her back, worse than September I think.  She has exams on Monday, so contact is minimal at the moment.  I really miss her but I know it'll all be worth it.  We are going to visit in half term and actually get to spend some time exploring Canterbury rather than just picking her up and dropping her off.  I think our dog Chloe really misses her too, she's so cuddly of late, although I'm not too impressed when she comes for a cuddle at 5 O'clock in the morning!

That's all from me today.  Take care and wrap up warm!

Michelle x

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year one and all!  Here's to a year of health and happiness.  I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and enjoyed your New Year celebrations.  I'm not going to dwell on mine, let's just say that they didn't go according to plan due to illness. However, I'm here to start the year as I mean to go on.

 

Looking back, I realise that my blog posts have been few and far between.  I really did lose my mojo, not just for blogging, but for crafting too.  I'm hoping that this year will be different.  In fact, this morning, I placed a Stampin' Up order for some of the new goodies coming up in the Spring Summer catalogue - I'm very excited.  I'm going to try and post more regularly - looking at my photos, there are lots of cards that I never got round to sharing. I'm certainly not promising to post every day, but hopefully I won't be leaving it for 2 months like my last post (hanging my head with shame!!).

 

Today I thought I would share the beautiful handmade Christmas cards that I received this year - they certainly are stunning.  Come and have a look.

 

 

This first card is from Jane, our Card Swap Group leader.  She does a superb job of setting us challenges each month.  Her card is beautiful - I really love the postcard image, and the red really ties in the background paper.

This card is from Lesley, using the gorgeous Festival of Trees stamps, as well as my favourite colour - Blackberry Bliss.

This gorgeous card is from Jennie.  I love the simplicity of the design, and the colour scheme is very me.  You can just pick up the hints of glitter on the snowflakes.  Beautiful.

A very stylish card from Zoe.  Again, loving the simplicity.  I didn't buy the wreath stamp set from SU, but I may have to!

This card is from Aileen and is fabulous.  I love the colours she has chosen, and the little pop of glitter on the bauble.  I absolutely love what she has done with this stamp.

Isn't this fab?  I love it.  Again, I love the postcard image, and the cheeky snowman.  I think this was created on MDS.  Thanks to the very talented Donna.

This beautiful card is from Alison.  Again, a stunning colour scheme, with a little glitter frosting the pine cones.  I love how the lace at the side gives it a feeling of vintage. Fabulous.

An absolutely stunning card from Sue.  My husband was very taken with the background by the way.  Gorgeous stamping effects, and I love the little stars in the sky.

A beautiful card from the very talented Vicky.  I love the graduated greens on the snowflakes, and the bright red sentiment really makes the card pop.  I'm very excited to see what Vicky will be creating in 2015!

This beautiful card is from Ann.  The colours look like Crumb Cake and Lost Lagoon - two of my absolute favourites at the moment.  I really like the little snowflake embellishment too.  Gorgeous.

And finally, this is the card my Mum made.  I love the violet card with the green and red, as well as a little touch of silver with the sentiment.  I may have to borrow that stamp set from her!

Well, that's all folks (for today!).  Thanks for bearing with me and hopefully I will be back in the next couple of days with the Christmas cards that I made.

Have a great day, and take care.

Love

Michelle x x

Box Cards

Hi everyone.  Hope you are all having a lovely weekend. Today is the last day of half term which is a little sad.  My house is very quiet.  Emily went back to University yesterday.  Mark has gone off to France for the week for work and I am left here with a teenage boy who doesn't speak much (grunts occasionally), and a sulking dog!  It's going to be a long week!

 

Half term was lovely, if too short (I know, we are never satisfied).  I spent time with my children, met a friend for coffee.  Mark and I had a lovely day in London visiting the poppies (mesmerising), I chilled out, I spent a day scrapbooking at the Scrapbags Autumn Retreat (couldn't do all three days) and I even made 22 (yes, 22!) Christmas cards.  I would say, it was a very successful week.

 

And, I have managed to blog twice :)

 

Today I am showing the box cards that I have made recently.  The first two were for friends having special birthdays.  I used the same colour scheme for both, and the same SU paper stack.

 

The final card was made for my parents' Golden Wedding Anniversary which was on Friday.  Not my usual style - I prefer silver to gold, but it was a "Golden" Wedding Anniversary!  So I thought I would go the whole hog!  My parents really liked it, my mum texted me from their cruise down the Danube to tell me so.

 

So, my next project is to make my mum a birthday card for her 70th birthday, which is in two weeks.  Two major events in her life, less than three weeks apart - she could have planned this better!  Joking Mum!

 

Anyway, thanks for popping in.  I love hearing you comments.

 

Take care

 

Michelle x

Some recent cards (from the last 5 months!)

Hi.  Just popping in to share some cards that I have made over the fast few months.  They are various birthday cards and Card Swap group cards.

 

I love this butterfly stamp from SU - now sadly retired. I've not done that much with it, but I love the simplicity of the white and the navy blue (possibly Midnight Muse??).

 

The next card was for the Card Swap group - the challenge being Pool Party with black and white.  You can't really see it, but there is a little bit of crystal glitter on the flowers.

I borrowed this idea from Pinterest, just changed the colour scheme.  I like the fading dots (stamping more than once before re-inking).

I went a bit crazy with the new In-Colours!  My favourite is Blackberry Bliss and I've been using it a lot (and wearing it stained on my hands!).  They are perfect for Autumn.  The only one I didn't use was Lost Lagoon, which is gorgeous too.

Another birthday card.  Like the bold flower (Blackberry Bliss), with the orange middle - glitter glue for dimension.

Hopefully, I'll be sharing a few more over the next day or so.

It's half term this week (hooray!).  It's been a long eight weeks of term.  I am pleased to say that my daughter Emily has settled into university life really well, and is having a very good time.  She is home this week as she has a reading week, it's just really nice to have her home (even with the cliché bag of washing!).  In September, I went away on a week long residential school trip to Wales.  Good fun but exhausting.  I even completed a mud challenge - an assault course with a sadistic instructor pouring buckets of muddy water over you.  I'm sure he had it in for me!  No photos luckily.  Edward has mock GCSEs coming up in about five weeks, so his half-term is going to consist of revising, poor boy.  We have to go to a sixth-form evening the week after next - it just seems too soon :(

Anyway, that's me done for now.  Thanks for dropping by and hopefully I'll be back soon.

Take care

Michelle x

It's been how long??!!

 

Well, that's the probably the longest gap in my blogging history!  The last couple of months have been pretty crazy, with not a lot of card making going on, sadly.  I have, however, had a new kitchen fitted, made a Technicolour Dreamcoat, been on two holidays and made lots of preparations for my daughter going to university in less than 2 weeks.  More of all that another time (hopefully!).

 

I did manage to make a card for my husband to celebrate our 20th Wedding Anniversary, which we spent in Berlin.  We had a wonderful time and fell in love with the city.

 

The card features the Kinda Eclectic stamp set - the first time I have used it.  My colour choices were Mossy Meadow, Real Red and Smoky Slate.  I cut a frame for the leaf border to give a bit more dimension to the card.  The sentiments were stamped on strips and cut into banners, and the butterflies are mounted on foam pads.

 

Two of our wedding photos.  I can't believe 20 years have gone by, it really doesn't feel like it.  We look like kids.

Thanks for dropping by.  I can't say when I will be back as the next two weeks are going to be very busy, and I'm back to work tomorrow. But I will try not to leave it so long :)

Take care

Michelle x