April Rudolph Day

Well, I am really sliding in under the wire...for a while there I thought I might even not get my card submitted in time!

We have been busy in the garden this month...whenever the sun breaks through the gloom, we have been found in the garden, digging and dividing up our perennials...well...DH has been digging that is!
It hasn't been done for over 6 years so really was needing to be done. I will post some pictures when we are finally finished up with it.

This has put me quite a bit behind in the card creations department let me tell you! I have quite a bit of catching up to do with my visits as well...I try to catch up by paging back and commenting on any posts that I missed,  so hopefully I have not missed too much or missed anyone completely!

Here is my card for Rudolph Day. It is a Stampin' Up  image and the card has been kept simple to allow the simple beauty of the tree image to shine through. No patterned paper was used...just a bit of snowflake stamping with some  versamark ink and heat embossed on the brown card base...just to the right of the white scalloped border.
I played with the idea of putting stickles on the trees just to kid of sparkle up the filligree look but so far I have resisted...what do you think?

Recipe
Cardstock - brown, olive green, white, and red from stash
Ribbon - from stash; I think it is a Stampin' Up ribbon snippet
Punches - Stampin' Up scallop edge border punch  and scalled square  (tucked up under bottom right corner of the image) and the Word Window punch for the sentiement
Bling - from stash
Stamps - Stampin' Up Patterned Pines image  and sentiment

I am submitting this card to the following challenges:
1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets
2. Stamping For Pleasure (Rudolph Day) - must be Christmas

Crafting with friends

I've written before about how my next door neighbour and I get together once a week, to make cards or scrapbook. We take turns going to each others houses...but she keeps me posted if her husband is away on business, and then I just  pop over to hers those nights too. That way she does not need to get a babysitter.

A couple of weeks back, I came up with the idea of taking turns to design and make a card kit to assemble together We decided to keep the cards fairly simple as we both have projects of our own to keep up with.
Then, I promptly forgot all about it. Thank goodness it was Lisa's turn first! She pulled everything out of her carefully packed envelope and within about 10 minutes, our cards were inked, assembled and waiting for pictures to be taken!!!

We decided to keep the cards we plan for our "mini workshop" not only to be  fairly simple abut also quick to make. We precut the pieces and have everything in a small packet...that reduces our assembly time to maybe 10 or 15 minutes...depending on which one of us you are!  

Here is a card from her design night ....... I am thinking that this card would be nice for my Mom as she used to have a picture in her living room of children playing and crossing a bridge in the countryside. It had a vintage charm like this card evokes!

I got really lucky here as we had invited a  third friend but she had a terrible migraine headache and had to cancel at the last minute. Her loss was my gain...I got to make two cards!
The other one was a tranquil gardening scene...think it will be just right for a special friend who loves to garden. I will show it on my next post as I have just ran out of camera card room! I will have to get DH to download my camera photos to a clip and then I can delete them and start over on my camera card.

I will start mentioning which ones of mine are the cards I have designed for our crafty evenings. So far they have been the quick and easy's I have posted lately...

Off to do a little of the dreaded housework...can't seem to get the house to clean itself!!!!

No challenges or card recipe for this one as I did not create the design or the kit..

Lizzie's choice - Vintage Christmas

Now I know that I already posted a vintage Christmas card this month...but I was practising! Practicing for Lizzie's Vintage Christmas card theme for this fortnight's Christmas Card Club.
We each take turns choosing a theme. By the end of the year I will have a good supply of cards finished...I plan to address them in July and then again in early November! I am looking forward to a Christmas without that frantic feeling of trying to get the cards finished in time to post.

Here is my vintage card...I had fun doing this one. The image is another canvas one from 2006! Best part is I still have 3 canvas images left.

I chose a 5x7 card base this time. The image was so tall that it really needed the larger base. It would have been lovely on a 8x8 square but I do not have any of those:(   Now that would have been a fun size to embellish!   I kept it fairly simple as I wanted the image to dominate the page. Just a Memory box die and an Impression Obsession snowflake die. I did not pop anything forward this time. I am trying to make a few cards that will fit through the slot at the post office...this one has a button (from one of my husbands old shirts) and some diamond bling so I did not want to risk raising it any further. Fingers crossed!

Card recipe as follows:
Card base and envelope - from my stash; Michaels white 5x7
Design paper - from my stash;  MME Lost and Found Christmas Boughs Paper (brocade paper) snippet
                      -  MME Lost and Found Christmas Holly Paper (red and cream glittered stripe) snippet
                      -  Doodlebug Designs Flowerbox, brown woodgrain paper
Card Stock - kraft from my stash (snippet)
Dies - Memory Box; Frosty Border
        - Impression Obsession snowflake
Button - from my stash (the brown, beige, ivory etc buttons in my "Neutral" button jar are from old clothes
Twine - from my stash (a really small snippet as I could not locate my larger piece)
Bling - from my stash; Dollarama red diamonds (snippet)
Ink - Colourbox Chestnut roan (on edges of kraft cardstock)
Image - from my stash...Crafty Secrets Canvas image 2006 (snippet)

 I am entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets
2. Sister Act - Anything goes
3. CHNC Extra - Anything Christmas
4. Marks Finest Papers Christmas Card Challenge - anything Christmas
5.  Christmas at Sweet Stamping  - Kraft
6. 52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Father Christmas
7. Christmas Stamping all Year Long - Celebrating Snow
8. Joanna Sheen Challenge - Recycle (button from husbands old shirt)
9. Jingle Belles - Recycled

It's A Vintage Christmas

It's a Vintage Christmas at my desk at the moment, and I have enjoyed every minute of making this "old worldy" card. I have had some vintage looking canvas prints in my Christmas theme drawer since 2006!  I gave a quick rustle through and I found them right away.

Early in the New Year of 2012, my local scrapbook store had a huge Christmas clearance. I picked up several sheets of Bo Bunny brown and blue glittered paper at 70 or 80% off. Although I originally bought and used it for scrapbook layouts of the grandkids, I loved the way it seemed to compliment my vintagey image. Even though it is 12x12 design paper, it seems to work out OK for cards. Thanks goodness I bought about a dozen sheets!

I decided to throw caution to the wind and pull out my ribbon collection! Yep that's another one on the 2013 goals list...use more ribbon. You would think I have a ribbon shortage the way I am so stingy about using it!  I sometimes think I have decided it is prettier to look at rather than use...teehee
Found something suitable and it was off to the races.

I almost titled this post...The Oldest Embellishment Ever...but then Iwould have had to search out challenges for embellishments nearly half a centry old!   Sooooo...here goes the story....
When I was a teenager, (45 year ago!) my Aunt in Antrim, Ireland, sent my Mum 5 yards of gorgeous aqua Springbak Linen. My Mum was going to take it to a dressmaker and have a suit made. Luckily for me, she never got round to it! It was given to me about 30 years ago...I was planning to make some embroidered tea towels with it...and just like my Mum, I never got round to it. I cut off a generous piece of it a couple of weeks ago, and this is the first time I have managed to work it into a card. I cut the rectangle slightly bigger than my image and frayed all the edges. A piece of jute burlap layered on top of that,  just seemed to add a little more texture! Some punches and dies, a few pearls, a snippet of twine, and a well inked Bliss ticket finished it off.
You may be able to see the two layers of texture better here...

This shot shows the sheen on the DP and on those large snowflakes...they are quite shimmery!

I am pleased with the way this card turned out. I have left the inside plain so far as I am thinking about making a coffee gift card enclosure inside. The colours I used just remind me of the Christmas specialty lattes. A certain young lady will be home from Monaco at Christmastime...and she is quite the coffee lover!

That canvas sheet had several images so while I had it out, I trimmed them all up and chose paper to go with them. Expect to see several vintage Christmas cards this year!

Card Recipe

Card and base.- from my stash, originally from Michaels, Recollections brand, Kraft corrugated card sets
DP - from my stash; Bo Bunny's Back to Basics Snowfall Flakes and Snowfall Words 12x12 (snippet)
Cardstock -  Kraft, from my stash (snippet)
Ribbon - from my stash (snippet)
Canvas image - from my stash; Crafty secret 2006
Border - from my stash; K and Co, design motif Brenda Walton (snippet)
Punch - Martha Stewart Snowflake
Dies - Marianne Creatable Corner dies
Pearls - from my stash (used up the last of the medium size)
Ivory Glittered Snowflake - from my stash (originally from the Dollar Store)
Fabric - Aqua Irish Linen (sent from Ireland about  45 years ago)
Jute Burlap - from my stash
Twine - from my stash (snippet)
Stickles - StarDust
Ticket - from my stash (unknown as this is leftover stash before the days that I recorded manufacturers)
Chalk Ink - ColorBox Chestnut Roan on ticket and on all edges (my go-to colour)

I am entering this card is the following challenges:
1.  Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets
2.  Winter Wonderland - No red or green
3.  Jingle Belles Rock - Recycled Element (blue linen fabric)
4.  Crimbo Crackers - #38 Vintage
5.  Cards Galore - Vintage
6.  By The Cute and Girly - Vintage
7.  CRAFTS Challenge - Christmas
8.  Totally Papercrafts - #162 Get Krafty
9. Three Scrappy Gals - Earth, Nature, Recycling (recycling blue linen fabric; recycled jute coffee bag; also my Kraft elements are all 80% recycled paper)
10 . Sister Act - Always Anything Goes
11. CHNC Extra - must be Christmas
12. Shopping our Stash - Not your normal paper (Glitter Paper)

Purple???!!!

Back with the recipe for the card I had on my desk for WOYWW a few minutes ago.

As I mentioned on that post, this card is for a friend that loves purple. I have had the card base for years...the purple ones were fairly safe in the box for years! But The Times, They are A-Changin'...

Here is a close up of the flower...

Recipe
Card base and envelope - from my stash, mauve textured card on the front, and back, white on the inside
DP - snippet from when I made Dora layouts for Little Miss C...sorry info strip long since discarded
     - had a little giggle when she told me the other day that she doesn't ever remember loving Dora:)
Cardstock - from my stash, a snippet of white card, chalked with purple and edged with stickles
Teensy flowers - from my stash...a decade old I think...maybe really old Prima...they came in tall skinny jars that were a bi*** to get them out of...
Large flower - from my stash, originally from Michael's, they were blossoms on silk hydrangea bushes. They are sort of papery feeling rather than silky feeling, so they don't fray like the silky ones!
Stickles - Crystal
Sentiment - computer generated

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets
2. Sister Act Challenge - always anything goes
3. Totally Gorjuss - Anything goes with Sparkle
4. The Squirrel and the Fox - Song or Movie, mine is Song - Purple Haze
5. 2 Sisters challenge - #138 Anything goes
6. Clear it out challenge - Use your stash, flowers (mine are years old)
7. Use it Tuesday - must use hoarded supplies, my flowers were hoarded too long! I used glossy accents to stick down the big flower...I have had it for a couple of years and had never opened the bottle!
8. The Paper Nest Dolls Challenge - Anything goes

WOYWW and a few more flowers used up!

Managed to get 2 things crossed off my crafty list today.
1. Make birthday card for a friend who loves purple...gulp...you all know I am not a fan of purple...but I have decided that I need to get over it! After all, there is purple card sitting in the cupboard, there are purple flowers piled in the glass jars and there is even a spot of purple chalk in the box that has...wait...NEVER been used...hahahahha

2. Use up some flowers.
Now, I may have stretched this one a bit . . . I didn't have any teensy purple flowers...I think it is probably the only teensy colour that I don't have!  I dumped out both glass jars of teensy ones and swooshed around through the mess  array and no such luck.  It was only when I pulled out the petals to make the larger blossom that I realized the petals had green in them...back to the mess and plucked out some green ones. Nine to be precise...9 down, a zillion to go to meet my goal of "using up" some flowers...

Why am I rambling on about my teensy flowers? Well, just so you understand why my desk is covered with a sea of teensy blossoms. I am showing my desk to the other creative people who like to link up with Julia, our hostess at the Stamping Ground  and see just" What is On Your Workdesk" this fine Wednesday.

Here's mine!

Those of you with magnifying glasses may have spotted the second larger blossom sitting in front of my card.
Here's a close up to help you out

Most of my flowers are a bit sad and tired so while I was making one, I decided to make 2.  They were blossoms on silk hydrangea bushes at Walmart, on clearance just after Autumn about 8 or maybe 10 years ago! I bought every fall colour they had. It feels good to finally use them...they are not the regular silk ones...they are sort of a papery feeling flower, no "silk sheen" and they don't fray. Some of the blossoms even have a velvety feel... I combined it with a single green flower hoping it would look like the stamen. Held it all together with a teensy purple brad and put a drop of glossy accents between each layer to stop any shifting. A shot of Crystal stickles and here is how it looks up close...mind my chubby fingers!

Hope to get round to as many desks as I can. I usually visit the row I am situated on, any bloggers that I follow, and of course anyone who visits me!

Silver and another!

Silver and another colour that is! It's time for another challenge over at the Christmas Card Club. Sylvie at Gibmiss  challenged us to this gorgeous colour combination and I'm glad she did! I love working with my glimmery, glitzy papers and as I was rummaging through my Christmas stash, not only did I find this elegant silver damask patterned paper, I also found a highly glimmery, heavy weight red cardstock, suitable to make the card base.

It is really hard to photograph...no matter which way I tilted it, the background which is highly metallic, gave off terrible glare. I had flash switched off of course, but still had  it bouncing off the card.
Here is another view...slightly better for glare but i had to tilt the card at a funny angle...

Earlier this year I made my first folded card and I am hooked! Both papers I found were 12 x 12...usually these never work out for cards for me as the patterns are generally too big. In this case, I was lucky enough to be able to use them and therefore had enough paper to make a 6 inch square folded card.

I had a couple of the scalloped rectangles left from some Xmas cards in 2012, so decided to use it for the flap. The scallop is a really heavy weight as well, so will take the wear and tear of being the part that gets handled to open the card.
Here is the inside of the card. I left room for signatures and that's about it.

All in all, I am really pleased with how this card turned out. The only drawback is that it will never fit through the slot at the post office so I will use it for a hand delivered card.

Recipe
Card base - red glimmered heavy weight cardstock from my stash, 6x6 folded card
DP - Creative imaginations, Silver Damask
Matt Silver Scallop card front - from my stash, originally from Michaels
Dies - Memory Box, drop ornament and Emma ornament
Bling - teeny diamonds from my stash,
Peace Bling - from my stash, originally from Michaels

I am entering this in the following challenges:

1.CHNC Extra - must be Christmas
2. Marks Finest Papers Speedy TV Christmas Card Challenge- must be Christmas
3. Sister ACt Card Challenge - Anything goes
4. 2 Sisters Challenge - Anything goes
5. Jingles Belles - Shine on Shine on.
6. Speedy TV Friends of Speedy Tv - Song, Book or Movie, I heard the bells on Christmas Day Peace on earth,  Goodwill to men
7. Marks Finest Papers Speedy TV Simple Salutations - Anything goes
8. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets, my snippets are the ornament and the white card base offcuts that  the inside sentiment is on
9. Totally Gorjuss - Anything goes with Sparkle
10. Squirrel and the Fox - Inspired by a song or movie, I heard the bells on Christmas Day...Peace on Earth and Goodwill to men

Using up some stash..

I made a commitment at the beginning of the year, to use up some of my multitude of flowers. I am finally taking a proper stab at doing just that! Sometimes I feel like I could make a flower card every day for the rest of my life! That might be nice if they were the latest Prima flowers or some other type of drop dead, gorgeous blooms....but they most definitely are not!

Some are cute, a very teensy few are gorgeous, and the rest were bought when I was still working, so are a little tired and dated looking   This year, whenever I am bored but don't want to start a card, or maybe don't have time to start a card, I am going to try to just work on flowers...give them an updated look by combining them with some other elements.

In the meantime, I have picked out some of the prettier ones to do a few cards to give away to a friend.
They were originally paper flowers from the wedding department at Michaels and were part of that 90% off the last marked price sale I blogged about.  I liked the colours together, so thought they were a good starting point. I am making up a set of 6. I am using different bling on the centers to make them all slightly different. Well, truth be told, I am using different bling on each card as I am trying to use up the last bits of certain bling!! When you get down to 6 or 8 diamonds or pearls left on an acetate sleeve, it feels good to finally use them up!
The flowers have a sort of shimmery sheen to them...It looks quite nice with the shimmer of the silvery aqua flower outlines on the patterned paper.

This silver card will be mailed to my daughter in Monaco...I have started writing the letter in it already!

The gift pack of 6 are made with  aqua cards. I managed to use a few more of my stash of pre-folded card and envelope packs, raided my snippets bins for the DP, used up a variety of bling packages and used the new, pre cut wedding flowers...All in all, these were really quick cards to make. This particular friend likes notecards so the inside of the cards will be left blank and these lighter weight pre-folded cards work out fine for notecards.
Here is an aqua one from the set. This one has fairly small brown pearls from the bling. On the others I have  used clear diamond bling, aqua bling, brown pearls, white pearls and aqua pearls. I think these brown pearls are my fave.

As you can see, I have left these ones without a sentiment. They are more versatile that way and she can use them for whatever need arises! What do you think? Are they too plain?

I was also pleased with the using this particular patterned paper. It was left over from a scrapbook project from several years ago.I started with 4 and a half 12x12 sheets. Now there is only 3 and 3/4. Great that it worked out as I find 12x12 paper so rarely works for cards as the overall pattern is usually too big.

Recipe:
Card and base - from my stash (so old I can't remember where I got them. Either Michaels or Zellers
Design Paper - unknown...the only marking I can find is SB 7207...it does not have a strip on the bottom to identify it...just a sticker on the back
Flowers - from my stash, originally from Michael's wedding department
Bling - from my stash, originally Dollarama

I am taking this card over to the Pixies Crafty Workshop as I polished off a few snippets making this card.
I don't think it is fir to go into any challenges as I took the idea from Pinterest.
Off to finish up a few more!
.*** Update*** Just replaced the photos with slightly clearer, truer to IRL colours.

Happy Birthday Sophia

The little girl next door turned 6 years old. Birthdays are so exciting when you are that age.They are eagerly awaited and celebrated with abandon!
I wanted to make a card a little brighter than I normally do as this little girl has a very colourful personality! So get your sunglasses on,  here it comes...

I was aiming for a rainbow look at the bottom edge of this card...I thought these daisies gave the suggestion of a rainbow. I mounted them onto a strip of striped paper to continue the rainbow look. All the daisy colours are also in the stripes. I popped that onto a strip of teal wood grain paper and then popped that over a bold, hot pink, two toned, flowery paper. Since the daisies are from snippets of a hairband I disected (only 3 flowers left) I am taking this over to visit Di at the playground...hopefully there is still room on the swings! The embossed butterfly is from Sophia's birthday party invite and I popped that onto a Martha Stewart doily. Each year, I take apart her invite and make my card using one element of the invite. That way my card matches the theme and colour scheme of the party. In this case, Sophia had a butterfly themed party!

I added a bit of bling jewels to the middle of the butterfly and then added the swirly bling bit from my stash.
I had to roughen up the outer edges of my card as these Michaels 5x5 inch cards are not square. Even though I trim them, they are very hard to cut DP to cover the whole card. This one was a smidgeon off square, so I roughed up the edges to hide the teensy sliver of white that was on the bottom edge of one side.

Recipe
Card and base - Michaels 5x5 white textured card and envelope from my stash
DP - Doodlebug Designs , Flower Box
Die - Martha Stewart pre-cut Doily
Bling -   Dollarama from my stash
Stamp - Stampin; Up 2003
Daisies - Dollarama from my stash (this is my snippet as I now only have 3 or 4 flowers left
Butterfly - from the party invite...My neighbour cut it on her wishblade and embossed it

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Marks Finest Papers, Speedy TV Simple Salutations - Anything goes
2. Mark's Finest Papers, Speedy TV Inspirational Challenge - rainbow themed (my daisy is my rainbow)
3. Clear it out Challenge - Spring is coming theme, Stash is Flowers (the daisies are a snippet from my stash)
4. Pixies Crafty Workshop - Must be snippets
5. Emma's Cards UK - Butterflies
6. Ladybug Crafts - Leap into Spring
7.The Craft Garden - Inspired by Rainbows
8.The Paper Nest Dolls Challenge - Anything goes
9.Aud Sentiments Challenge - Card for a child, must include a sentiment
10. Simon says Stamp - Happy Birthday