Baby Owl...

 ...for Baby Boy card.

I love this owl punch from Stampin' Up.  I was commissioned to make a baby boy card for a friend (that's not scribble on the name plate, I just blanked it out a bit).  The lace border punch is also from Stampin Up, ooh and the pearls! I can't stop using them!

A little bit of shabbiness...

Wanted to make a birthday card for a friend, thought I'd raid my long neglected non Stampin Up stash to make something sweet and shabby for her.

Ingredients:
Paper Doily, Prima Flowers, K&Co paper, Martha Stewart Leaf and Butterfly Punch, Leone Em Fern punch, Fiskars threading water punch.

Summer days...

Had a busy few days with the children off school.  Had an "Open House" on Wednesday, where lots of children and mums came through the house to play and chat.  I find that the day goes so much quicker and peaceably when my children have some friends over to play.

I've been playing with more Stampin Up stuff and made a few cards, to see more click here.

If you would like to know how you could boost your stash for less, turn your hobby into a career or earn a little bit extra sharing what you love, please have a look here.

Waiting and sorting...

Well, it's been a busy few days in my head and home!

I've been thinking of what my approach and ethos to selling Stampin Up products will be and how I will share my passion of crafting with others.  Had a few late nights thinking and sorting through craft things I don't use, and trying to be strict with myself. More listings have gone up on ebay, and been showing piles of papers to anyone interested in buying.

Made this card the other day, it's a special commission for someone so I can't say more than that!

Stampin Up! Jewellery!

Last Monday I had a Stampin Up! Party at my house.  The lovely Claire came and demo'd a lovely basket "make and take" and made kits with enough to make two cards for some of my friends who had signed up to doing a mini workshop.  This was great as some of them aren't "crafters" at home, but enjoy doing it when they can.

I ordered the Butterflies die and the Baby Blossoms set from the Spring supplement, and because my friends and my sis had placed orders I earned a lovely stamp set and a circles die and a butterfly stamp!  Recently I bought some shrink plastic from Craft Obsessions, my son and I had played with it in the week to make a keyring charm.  So this morning I made these earrings. I coloured in the butterfly image with Derwent watercolour pencils, shrunk it and put matched them with these amethyst beads.

Made this last week.

DCM - The Darling Bugs of May!

Was commissioned to do a Christening card, and it just so happens I looked at the DCM challenge this week and Lynda writes

The Darlin' BUGS of May

I'd like to see some BUGS eg ladybirds, bees, spiders, caterpillars, butterflies, dragonflies - it would be lovely to see them taking centre stage on your card or be used as a lovely embellishment but I won't accept them if they're just printed onto your backing papers as that wouldn't be a challenge at all!

So I did as she said!  The butterflies on this card were stamped then I cut them out.  To see the creations of the DCM team click HERE

SALT - The Great Comission

I have to confess I have had this photo sitting in my camera since Thursday morning!

What with the Royal Wedding and us deciding to have a garden party and hooking up our projector to the computer in the garage so we could watch the wedding on a duvet sheet suspended from a line hooked on some nails - it's taken me a while to have a moment to type this up, still on aforementioned duvet sheet!

Lythan set the wonderful theme.  It was so apt coming after Easter.

What a wonderful thing it is to be able to share the person of Jesus with people who don't know him.  He is real, he is God, he loves us, he wants a relationship with us, and the amazing thing is that he made it possible by hid death about 2000 years ago!

Please head over to SALT and see the other pieces the girls have created.

Sadly, our team member Kim has waved goodbye as life has taken her onto pastures new.  I will really miss her and her contributions.

SALT - Servant King

Lythan's turn this week!  She choose the theme of Jesus being our Servant and King.

Last night as I was trying to encourage my eldest son to bed because I had this and other things to do, he said... you're just playing on the computer!  I told him I was looking for some inspiration to do with this challenge.  He proceeded to tell me that if I Googled "servant" and "king" I could go to images and get something! Then when I have a picture of a servant and a king I could put "&" in the middle and then "=Jesus". What they teach in schools these days, and what a clever boy! So that's what I've done for this card.  I think it makes quite a modern Easter card!  The verse reads

...the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many.  Mark 10:45

This is a card I made for a friend to give to another friend on the occasion of her daughter's dedication.

Using my scraps...

Got round to tidying my craft space, and as usual I ended up with a pile of bits and pieces I didn't want to throw away, but had no inclination to sort and put away.

I love this random way of working, as sometimes you can end up with some bits and bobs that look great together.

Here are two cards from bits...

Just so happens on the Magnolia/Hanglar challenge blog, it's anything goes this week.

I love looking at this blog, I am always so inspired by the talent of the design team.

They're having a design team call at the moment, look here if you're interested.

I love how this looks so Gothic, and I am really not into Halloween!

WOYWW 95

I know last week was messy, this week it's still messy AND I managed to make some cards in about an A4 space AND decorate some bags very simply but on the floor!

Son no 3 helped with some stamping and colouring in.

It's Mother's day in the UK on Sunday. I have to make cards for my mum and my MIL and a sweet friend who's daughter is too young to buy one for her (Hope you're not looking!)

Used the Card Patterns Sketch 108 for this, it's here.  Was inspired by Debby and used the punched lace border around the curve.

This one was made using the sketch on MojoMonday this week, you can find it here.

Made another card using the scraps on my table, and took apart a card that I made a while ago, and used some of the elements from it. (Bonus points if you can find it on my blog!) 

Some of the ingredients used:
Anna Griffin and Melissa Frances paper, Martha Stewart Doily Lace punch, Leaf and Butterfly punch. Prima Flowers.

You hold my heart...

Isn't she cute?

I participated in a stamp swap on Crafts by Carolyn forum ages ago.  Recently found her in amongst the various images I got back.  Been using my Derwent Water Colour pencils again, trying to practice my colouring skills!

Some Ingredients:
Basic Grey paper, Prima Flowers, Magnolia and Hero Arts stamp, Nellie Snellen leaf punch.

Decided to list some of the items I have recently made on Etsy, please take a look >here< and let me know if you would like to commission me to make you something special.

A fine young lady...

The other week I was thinking about trends in card making and what isn't being done at the moment. Also what would I like and enjoy using and seeing on a card. My childhood fantasy was to be transported back to an era when ladies more beautiful huge gowns. And later on in my life this turned into an interest in costume design and then working for a bridal wear designer Hayley J.

So, I begun a hunt for some images of ladies in lovely dresses. First stop Etsy, and I wasn't disappointed. I found this lovely shop packed with loads of images for sale. It's called

SistersScrapbooking.

I purchased 8 ladies, then by the magic of RoboMaster I programmed my Craftrobo to cut out the printed images, no fiddly cutting by hand!

Here is a card using one of the images.

Some ingredients:

Marianne Designs, Tim Holtz and Cuttlebug dies,

I'll fly away...

I'm still on a bit of high after my good news! (See previous post)

I've had a few cards waiting to be blogged. Experimented with new photographing set up this morning. I remembered I had bought this lovely book easel from a charity shop ages ago and thought that would be nice to put cards on. I am really fortunate to have a lovely bright (when it's sunny) conservatory, so I think that will be the room of choice. Kept the background simple for now with some large pieces of watercolour card.

The central piece was made using a collage technique with stamps, and then colouring with pencils and watercolours.

Some of the ingredients:

Anna Griffin stamps, Prima flowers, Marianne Designs dies and Nellie Snellen leaf punch.

Coming up roses...

Made this last night, and then sold it this morning!

Used a flower from a swap I took part on last year on UKScrappers.

Di Hickman sketch for February

Di Hickman is doing her card sketches again! Yay! This time she's doing the once a month, so no panic if you don't get it done in the first week. It's a lovely adaptable one, great for using this stamped piece that I did a couple of weeks ago, check it out HERE. I've been inspired to do more stamping and colouring, particularly to use lots of stamps in a collage style on a piece of A6 card, then chop it up into smaller bits, then colour, paint and add gel pen afterwards. It's a really fun, creative and non pressured process.

SALT - Loving our Enemies

It was Pauline's turn to set the theme, please have a look HERE for her thoughts. It was a challenging one about what Jesus teaches about dealing with our enemies. I often find that it is when the people closest to you offend, that they are the hardest to forgive. However when I remember what Christ has done for me when I did not deserve it, this makes it easier to remember to love, and to put aside hurts. This verse in Proverbs sums this up perfectly.

The pink polka is some recycled packaging from some lovely mugs I had for Christmas, I couldn't bring myself to throw it away!

Oh so shabby

Made this birthday card for a friend, thought I'd share before I sent it off.

SALT - Walking through the valley...

It was Lythan's turn this week to set the theme. Although it is not something people like to think about it is never the less one of the topics that we need to face. Please read what she wrote here.

It just so happened that a friend asked me to make a card for her Gran, she wanted some words of encouragement for her as she has not been well.

Catch up!

Hi there blog readers... if I have any left after my appaling lack of postings!

Christmas has come and gone, and 2011 is here!

My children and I had an awful flu like bug before Christmas, this means I am still catching up with making and sending presents to people, and also some Salt challenges that have yet to be finished and blogged.

Anyway, a belated Happy New Year to you. I've not made any specific resolutions as yet, but have been inspired by Kim's recent Salt challenge (see it here) and something my Pastor mentioned in a children's talk a couple of weeks ago. Basically that by putting Christ first, things in life will fall into place. So, probably just like every year, my aim is to cultivate a better relationship with God, and trust that in so doing, my heart will keep on being changed and have a knock on effect on the way I relate to people around me.

On with some creations... again apologies for the quality of photos. Have been resorting to my phone to take pictures.

Here is some bunting I made in response to Hazel's Salt challenge here. Used my new martha Stewart leaf punch and Marianne Designs flourish die I got for christmas :)




Here is the Wedding Anniversary card I made for Tom's parents, used the other leaf punch I got for Christmas and the Marianne Designs filigree shape. First time I've made the popular easel cards, quite enjoyed it.



And finally a quick card I made for a friend's birthday, used a Sizzix leaf die I got in their sale.

SALT - Believe

I'm afraid my original post disappeared somewhere!

This the card I made for the Salt challenge here.


Please feel free to use the graphic below for your own card or layout. Please respect my work by not reselling the graphic itself in a printed or digital format.