Heaven Scent

Good evening one and all - goodness me two posts in just a few hours!! My my, I must be making up for the past two weeks of silence! Anyway guys, here is the birthday card that I have created today from the images featured in the post below.
Very straight forward matting and layering using a swirly silver card and some coordinating backing papers from one of the digikits I used. As mentioned below the main picture is a hybrid of several digikits I bought on the worldwide web recently from here added a punched border (Martha Stewart) with black ruched ribbon and a black die cut flourish (Cheerylynn) oh yes and some added sparkle!!

Thank you for popping in, it was so nice to see you xxx

A learning curve in digi crafting

Hi everyone, it's nice to be 'chatting' to you again after being quiet in blogland for a fortnight lol!! but over the past couple of weeks I have bought several digi kits for CraftArtist and I have been experimenting, mixing and matching the kits, so these images I have created are 'a hybrid' the same but with slight differences and I'll be using them to make some greetings cards over the next few days.

This one is A5  and the one below is 12" x 12" but I can obviously resize them in My Craft Studio for my card making projects.
I do think they would also look rather nice framed to go on the wall somewhere, maybe the bedroom possibly.

Thank you for visiting . xx

When it's spring again

I'll sing again 'Tulips from Amsterdam' lalala la la . . . . . yeah yeah yeah, ok, so I know it's corny guys but quite appropriate I thought given the subject matter of this my latest card topper lol!!!
These tulips are made from a silky fabric, slightly padded and I bought a small bag full of them eons ago on ebay.

The base is a diecut using the fleur de lys rectangle from spellbinders, embossed with a 'damask' design cuttlebug embossing folder. layered with silver mirror card and a silver grey / pink backing paper.
The tulips are from ebay and I've just added a ruched matching pink ribbon and some faux pearls to the flowers and along the bottom of the card topper.

Thank you so much for visiting xxxx

A change can do you good

It has been a fair few years now since I started my own website and at the time, when it was all new to me, I met a lady called Tracy, a fellow website owner using the same host for her site. She sold me some crafting goodies and since then we have become firm friends.
Well over the years she too has changed her website as nearly as often as I do but has now joined forces with her husband and together they own this fabulous website called Finer China

A very innovative idea where you can buy or hire vintage bone china. But she also makes beautiful teacup candles as seen in the picture above, which would make a wonderful gift for someone special. They also sell broken pieces of china which can be used in arts and crafts such as jewellery making and mosaics. Well worth popping over to have a look and see what they have to offer.
A great lady and good friend who like me finds that a change can definately do you good.

Thank you for stopping by. xxx

A slight change of direction

 Hello there, been a bit quite for a couple of days but I have had my thinking cap on!!! Apart from seeing the look on peoples faces when they open the card, the next thing I enjoy most is what my husband refers to as 'all the frufru'!! By that he means adding all the embellishments etc to the card.

My next train of thought was - craft fairs, now unless I have a power outlet for my pc and printer how can I personalise the cards that peops have just bought. Possible but not practical I thought and if I take cards that are either already complete or blank, then they are not personalised. Then came my eureka moment lol.

There are alot of crafters out there who for a great many reasons, either financial or physical etc, who cannot make their own fancy toppers that may like to buy luxury toppers already complete for their own cardmaking and . . . I can take the completed item to sell at craft fairs etc! I shall carry on making cards too and if I can sell my toppers then it's happiness all round - yay!!

Have a great evening wherever you are and with whatever you are doing.

Thank you for stopping by xxx

Lucky Heather, Sweet Sixteen

Hello there and top of the morning to you all. I've been a bit quiet lately for various reasons but I have found time to do a little bit of crafting. As luck would have it, my son gave me my birthday present early which was some crafting cds from Jems Designs. Nothing like some new images and stuff to get the creativeness flowing!! The image I've used for the birthday card below caught my eye on the cd rom Elegance which is a triple disc set from jems Designs.

The lighter blue decorative backing paper and the image are from the Elegance cd rom. The topper I layered onto gold mirror card. Now I usually put blue with silver but for some reason, on this occasion, gold seemed to suit the image better!!. The young lady has been decoupaged, the topper glittered and bejewelled with faux gemstones. White silky cord has been wrapped around the topper finished of with a bow, white marabou feather and a sprig of lucky heather.

A couple of diecut shapes using spellbinders dies with white gemstones have the birthday sentiment upon them and add a bit of dimension. - This is quite an unfussy card for me I think, but I wanted to keep it simple and quite like the 'minimalist' approach.

Thank you for stopping by. xx

Scents of Arabian Nights

Sounds quite exotic doesn't it? and I hope that my latest card reflects a scents of the exotic!!! Carrying on with using up bits and bobs, I decided to make a backing paper using all those kanban borders that I mentioned in my previous post. Using a christmas bauble cutting die from the Tim Holtz range I diecut the shapes with acetate and mirror card for the top and bottom, turned them upside down trimmed off a couple of bits added a couple of tassels and gemstones and hey presto - perfume bottles!!

This is an 8" x 8" easel style card as you can see from the pics below. I added white twinkly organza ribbon to give a stark contrast then added the white feathers with silk flower and ornate button as the centre to balance the card. Rather lavish in colour I know but I was fairly pleased with the end result. 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by. xxx

A Touch of Eastern Promise

Good afternoon everyone from a sunny East Kent!! I've been continuing my 'being a good crafter' and using up the cutoffs etc from my scrap box, and whilst tidying up my card and paper drawers, came across some egyptian themed borders that I had forgotten about!
And it was these borders that inspired me to create the card below . . . .

The base card is 8" x 8" (my favourite card size to work with) layered with cutoffs of Tim Holtz grunge paper and gold mirror card, all edged on two sides with these borders from kanban.

A couple of diecut flourishes, marabou feathers and some contrasting turquoise blue gemstones with white pearly hatpins give it the bling factor, and the flowers (from my local pound shop) and an organza bow finish this card off a treat and hopefully I've captured a little taste of the eastern mediterranean with the design and colour choices.

Thank you as always for popping in. xxx

The Marionette - Puppet on a String

After reading someones blog yesterday I was spurred on to sort out my own card scrap box which was groaning under the huge mountain of cutoffs!! The card below was half done, well, the main topper of the Marionette was already made, so I decided to create a finished card with bits and bobs from my scrap box.
I can honestly say that everything on this card had already been made or from my stash, so it really was just a question of putting it all together on an 8" x 8" card.

The image is one of my favourites, The Marionette, from the Touch of Magic cd rom by card Creations featuring the stunning artwork of well known fantasy artist Linda Ravenscroft, and the song which inspired this card is - Puppet on a String by Sandie Shaw (Eurovision winner for UK in year dot!)

Challenges

 Creativecardcrew challenge #12 Song inspired  

Thank you for visiting, it's lovely to see you. xx

Orchids, Ferns & Fancies

I suppose most of my cardmaking projects start off with a general idea that pops into my head, and they seldom turn out completely as planned. In truth, my cards nearly always develope as I go along and this latest creation is no exception!! In fact it nearly ended up in the bin as before the topper and embellishments went on it definately looked like a pair of ladies knickers stretched over the ironing board!!
But as I added the topper and the embellishments, the knickers seemed to disappear - at least I hope they have lol. Anyway, enough mutterings - the bits and bobs that I used are listed below.

The base card is 8" x 8" and white semi glossy covered with a blue coredinations cardstock inked around the edges to 'take the newness off'. The backing paper and topper were created in MCS using their cd rom Tinkering with Steampunk. Black lacy edging was from my local haberdashers, glitter ferns from a local florist and the orchid was from ebay.

The faux black gemstone hearts, gold flourish and shell centre border hopefully bring it all together.

Thank you for visiting. xxx

Card entered into the Power to the Flower challenge at - So Artful

A little encouragement

is a wonderful thing, and thanks to all the lovely people who made such wonderful comments about my last card, gave me the urge to try my hand at more stamping. All of the papers used were from my stash and I've had them so long I cant remember where I got them!!! But the lacey panels were made using a Martha Stewart border puinch, the purple flourish was diecut using my Silhouette SD machine. Frame was diecut using spellbinders fleur de lys rectangle.

The steampunk figure was stamped with a stamp from the Kanban Jasper clear stamp set, onto card then cut out. I restamped the image on several coordinating papers embossing the image with silver embossing powders, cut them out and decoupaged them onto the original stamped image and finished of with tiny black silk roses on the waistband and hat.

Marabou feathers, lilac and purple silk flowers, black organza ribbon with bow and key fob charm, mauve butterfly and faux black gemstones were all added to make this (hopefully) a 21st birthday card that someone will love to receive.

Thank you, as always for stopping by. xxx

A bit of a mess!!

At least that is what my craftroom looks like especially when I've been stamping which is a rarity indeedy. But I do have a few stamps and on this card I have used one of my Kanban steampunk stamps with Tim Holtz distressing inks. I do think I was a bit heavy handed going round the edges of the topper and this kind of thing is what puts me off stamping more often. The topper was almost complete, I liked the main image so didnt want to waste it, and there I go . . .once on the ink cant be taken off!!!

The figures themselves were stamped onto white card and then I stamped the images repeatedly on some Tim Holtz grunge papers which I then cut out and decoupaged onto the original stamped image.

I also used Tim Holtz grunge papers for the backgrounds then finished off with ribbon, feathers, cogs and clock from stash with a couple of glittered roses that I made by twirling paper!

Thanks for stopping by, it's been great having your company. xx