A Bounty of Blissful Blooms

Ahoy!

First a huge THANK YOU for the kind words sent to me following my first foray into crafting videos on YouTube.

I hope to do more soon.

 I made this card for my very special auntie Diane.

I started by stamping the floral images (MFT's Blissful Blooms) onto a piece of  6"×6" card and did some simple colouring with Promarkers. I then die-cut the name (Altenew's Bold Alphabet) from the coloured panel and also from some white Funky Foam. I stuck the Funky Foam letters back into the card and then the coloured letters on top to give some dimension. I stamped out a few more flowers onto a scrap of card, fussy-cut and added those too.

A few white-pen highlights & sequins to finish.

Thanks for stopping by and have a groovy weekend x

Bundles of Blossom

Ahoy! Me again.

With Mother's Day on the horizon, this is the card I've made for my MIL.

The background stamp is 'Bundles of Blossom' from MFT and it's flamin' gorgeous.

I die cut the word MUM using Altenew's Bold Alphabet dies but kept the letters in place while I coloured the pattern with Promarkers. 

Then I popped them out and stuck them back in again with foam pads for a bit of dimension.

To finish, a scattering of tiny 'Pink Peony' sequins from Pretty Pink Posh (Wow! That's a tongue twister).

See you again soon.

Last of the Polar Bears

Ursaphobics look away now!

Going back over my cards this festive season, you will have noticed that MFT's Polar Bears have been very popular. I promise this is the final lot, no more bears...this year at least.

I made this for my favourite New Zealander, Chrissy. I used MFT's Polar Bear Pals and Altenew's beautiful Calligraphy Alpha stamps. That bear has the most chilled out look about him.

Blues, pinks and purples have been my go-to colours this year too.  This is another stencil from Artisic Flair Crafts called Mosaic Border.

 I use little daubers to apply my colours as I find them so much easier than the blending tool. I used Mermaid Lagoon, Picked Raspberry and Wilted Violet.

This polar bear was from MFT's Cool Day set. I dottily coloured him with Promarkers.

The sentiment was from the Merry Everything set, also by MFT. 

My final polar bear card features a brilliant dotty die from Neat & Tangled called Punchinella. I used the sparkliest glitter paper I could find to add some razzle dazzle.

You need sunglasses with this one...lol.

So there you have it. Ursaphobes can return tomorrow safe in the knowledge there will be no more bears (at least until next Christmas).

Christmas Cards Galore

A whole heap of festive cards to share with you today.

I totally stole this idea from Jennifer Mcguire, using her 'Sentiment Backdrop' technique. The sentiment on each card is from Paper Smooches' 'Christmas Sampler' set, the Polar Bears are from MFT's 'Polar Bear Pals' and Santa is from their 'Merry Everything' set.  You can see how to do this technique here. 

For this card I used 'Festive Fir Cones' Majestix stamps from Card-io and a host of Versa Colour inks cubes. The sentiment is from Winnie and Walter's 'The Big, The Bold, The Merry'.

I used these stamps last year on some Christmas cards and I love it. It's 'Festive Greetings' from WPlus9.

A handful of simple, glittery foliage cards using MFT's 'Leafy Greenery' die set.

Another one using MFT's 'Merry Everything'.

MFT's 'Beast Friends' and 'Precious Polaroids' dies.

And finally, as I've probably bored you senseless, a bounty of baubles from MFT's 'Santa' Elves' with a sentiment from Winnie & Walter again.

Fav Rels

Ahoy and welcome back...you crazy fools!

This was one of those cards that took several attempts...ink smudges, mis-spelt words, you name it, I messed up this one so many times. 

But after a few expletives and throwing my toys outta my pram, I finally managed to pull it off...lol

 I used MFT's 'Beast Friends'  for the festive Yetis, Altenew's 'Calligraphy Alpha' for the wording and basic Promaker colouring.

Off to tidy away my toys😉

You're On My Nice List

Hello again.

My card today features stamps from MFT's 'Merry Everything' and Altenew's 'Calligraphy Alpha'.

Coloured with Promarkers with a layer of glitter from my Wink of Stella. The hardest part of this card was getting those sequins in just the right place.

I swear, getting those sequins postioned perfectly takes longer than the whole card making process...lol.

Cards for Romania

Hello there!

Today I have a heap of cards bound for Romania.

Regular visitors may remember that earlier in the year my daughter Sophie set about fund raising, with 4 other girls from her university, for a charity that helps orphans in Romania. As well as the many kind donations from members of the public, Sophie and her friends also ran their own fundraising events from selling popcorn and donuts to packing bags in supermarkets and selling my handmade cards. Everyone's efforts raised about £5000, which is AMAZING!!!

Their next step was to go out to Romania to meet some of the children who would benefit from the money. They spent 3 weeks this summer living in an orphanage helping to rebuild parts of the building, organising and playing games with the children, painting nails and faces, listening to them read as well as lots of arts n' crafts and sports activities.

If she'd been able to, I don't think Sophie would have returned home, she built up such a close relationship with the children. On the day she got back we just sat talking about the children and their lives and had a big ol' cry together. It really is heartbreaking.

However, it didn't end there. Sophie has continued to keep in touch with the children online and she and the 4 girls from her university, that she went to Romania with, have clubbed together and bought Christmas presents for all of the children.

These are just some of the gifts they bought for them.

(Sorry about the blurry photo)

I've made personalised Christmas cards for them all using these cute little Polar Bears from My Favorite Things and the brilliant Calligraphy Alpha set from Altenew. I stamped lots of the bears onto white card, coloured them with Promarkers and fussy-cut them before adding them to the card fronts with their names stamped on.

There are some cards you make that just give you that warm, fuzzy feeling inside and there are some things our kids do that make our hearts almost burst with pride.

Birthday Tweetings

Greetings residents of Earth and welcome back to my wee bloglet.

Today I have a card to share featuring a whole heap of fabness from My Favorite Things.

I used 'Bold Blooms' and 'Tweet Friends' (stamps & dies) plus the 'Cheerful Cages' dies to match.

I stamped the flowers with Versacolor inks in Canary, Orange, Topaz & Paprika. I love these little inks because a) they're dead cheap, b) there are so many colours to choose from c) the colours are really rich and d) they always stamp perfectly without blotching.

I then die-cut the 2 cages from silver card, used an adhesive spray to add glue to the back of them and then adhered them, the die-cut flowers & birds to my card base. 

I coloured the birds with Mango & Mustard Promarkers.

Thanks to Seven Hills Crafts for the inspiration in my colour choice. They have a challenge going on until the 25th October to make something using products that they sell in their shop with at least 3 colours from one of the options below.

I've gone for the middle option. 

A few sequins and a white, heat embossed sentiment from the 'Tweet Friends' set... et voila! 

I really enjoyed making this card.

Gardener-a-holic

I think I mentioned before that this is probably my favouritist stamp set EVER. It's 'Garden Grow' from Altenew, I just think it sums me up perfectly.

I made this card for one of my clients, a fellow gardener-a-holic, who was celebrating her 80th birthday. I stamped her name first using Concord & 9th's beautiful 'Sophisticated Script' stamp set before creating a background of gardening, gorgeousness from Altenew. 

I coloured with my trusty Promarkers, added white highlights and a glittery shimmer with my Wink of Stella pen. I could sit here all day playing with these stamps...sigh.

Psst!

It's Mr C's birthday tomorrow and here's the card I've made for him.

Thought I'd do something different from the usual manly themes....ice lollies.

Everyone loves a lolly or ice-cream, so hopefully he'll like it. 

Shock! Horror! The ol' Promarkers have been revived for this card. I can't remember the last time I used them but bearing in mind I've had them for over 7 years I'm delighted that they're all still working.

So what does Mr C want for his birthday?

A tea-pot!

Weirdo.

Oh Happy Day -Lia Griffith

Calligraphy Alpha - Altenew

Sentiment & Paper - MFT

Challenging Colours

It’s been a while since I took part in a crafty challenge but I rather liked this one over at Make The Day Special.

It’s a colour challenge, in fact a choice of 3 colour challenges, all out of my comfort zone. As well as picking a colour option, you have to use a product bought at MTDS.

I thought I’d have a go at 2 of the colour options.

I chose the colour challenge on the left for my first card and used stamps from the Paper Smooches ‘Botanicals 2’ set & sentiment from the Winnie & Walter ‘The Big, The Bold and You’ set

These were the closest colours I could get to using Versacolor pigment inks.

I gave a few of the leaves a bit of extra Va-va-voom with a white Sakura.

Feeling a little braver with a colour challenge, I thought I’d have ago at the middle colour option, this time using Promarkers.
Sheesh…it’s been a while since I used the ol’ girls & I don’t know why but they seemed a bit tired, dare I say ‘dated’. I think I’ve enjoyed working with inks & paints so much just lately that somehow they seem ‘so last year’ (d’ya get my drift?)

Anyway, I digress.
This floral stamp set is from Altenew, again from MTDS.

I had planned on tackling the 3rd colour option but I went down with a flu virus, so ran out of time but I might  have a go at that another day for my own personal challenge.

Catch yer next time