So what have I been up to?

Hmmn, now lets see what I can actually post!


okay...some are still waiting to go to various people who might check my blog, but I think I should be ok posting these cards, as the recipients wont know to look here, so if you're peeking Linda, neither of these are destined for you!!!

Hmmn so what did I use?  Oh yes! White silk art A3 card, 300gsm, Cream pearlised cardstock, 300gsm, green card stock 350gsm, white pearlised paper 120gsm, green Mirri card, Ribbon, pearlised shell button, die cut flowers, mouldable plastic leaves, gold embossing powder, green detail embossing powder, Versamark ink pad, Cosmic shimmer, Stamps away Mica mist, A4 Stamps Away leaf mask, Hunkydory Cream Holly Flourish cardstock 300gsm, bits from stash, Happy Cut, Spellbinders dies and embossibilities.


so....A3 folded in half, for card base. Green cardstock covered with diagonal strips of DST, and then alternately glittered with Gold and light green glitter. This re-inforced the base, and provided a tie in with the darker Holly Leaves on the main card.
Next I used the Spellbinders Fancy Flourish Embossabilities on one sheet of the cream pearlised cardstock, and cut it using the Grand Fancy Frames by Go Kreate. Then I used the A4 Leaf mask from Stamps Away, and embossed it, then sprayed with Stamps away Emerald Green Mica Mist, before removing the mask. Then I used the first sheet and some shaker Tape to create a shaker card topper, using Hunkydory Snowfall Acetate, and bits from the stash for the shaker elements. Cosmic Shimmer Olympic Gold PVA for the pearls round the edge of the shaker.
Cream Pearlised cardstock was then cut using the poor old Happy Cut (It really took a beating making this card!),  using the Lattice Rectangles form Spellbinders, and embossed with the Fancy Flourish embossabilities die.then I carefully used the versamark inkpad through the die and then used the green detail powder over the top and embossed it . I then distressed it using the same embossibility die and versamark, but with Gold pearlescent embossing powder. I used the sizzix fancy frames to create 2 small toppers, one of green cardstock, which I then ran a gold paint pen round the side of, and some plain white cardstock, which I tripple embossed with some antique Gold embossing powder, into which I stamped Happy Christmas.
I used the spellbinders Poinsettia dies and some emerald green Mica Mist with some square headed brass brads from my stash, and a die cut paper Flower expert Rose (My Crfat Studio). Some die cut Ivy leaves, and some Mouldable Plastic Holly (MCS), with a die cut green mirri holly leaf, again a Spellbinders die.
Some cream/gold organza flowers from my stash, some trimming from the stash (coz I cant remember what the bead things on the clear plastic are called), and some ribbon threaded through a shell button to finish  the Topper.
The Stopper on the base is made from the Grand Hexagonal Petal Envelope die, again by Spellbinders, it was again embossed with the Stamps Away Leaf Mask, and I distressed the inside of the envelope with Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress ink before writing the greeting in the middle of the Envelope. I fixed that to the base of the card with Pinflair.
Basically, a LOT of work, lol, and its still not being sent to you Linda!! It was part of a Christmas card swap we arranged in the My Craft Studio Platinum Club, and Hubby wasn't overly impressed with what it cost to post either lol!


Next up is a commission for the Pet shop Owners Daughter.

This is a design By Debbie Moore, from the new Pick of the Week on Create and Craft, which arrived today!
I don't normally go for Debbie Moore, but this one was an interesting idea....Grotto Cards!


I wasnt happy with the colours on this, so I did import it into a pdf manipulation program, and then into My Craft Studio, who's software is so easy for me to use, I really cant get to grips with other graphics programs, too many buttons and switches for me!! So If I want to do something different I always use MCS, hence why it crops up so often in my posts.
So I wanted to do a card for a 17yr old girl for Christmas from her Father, all I have is her name and age........Ta Jimmy that helps alot!!
So this Debbie Moore CD seemed to offer possibilities. Firstly, I didn't like the original background, which was Mushrooms, and Snowdrops, so I imported an image into MCS from their Walk in Winter Wonderland CD, a snowy cottage, perfect, but it was blue. hmmn ok, then change the girls dress to blue then. I imported the template design from the DM cd into MCS, and cut out the middle so I could fit the image to the template. That done, it was a simple matter to then print and cut out the background image, which is marked with fold and score lines. I sprayed the whole creation with Crafters Companion Gold Spray and Sparkle, and cut out the decoupage. The Fairys wings, are highlighted with cosmic shimmer Midnight Blue Mica Ink, and the Blue Tit is highlighted with Denim and Sunrise Yellow Mica inks. The Snowdrops got a touch of Crystal Lacquer, and it folds VERY flat, and you can make the envelope boxes from the Debbie Moore Cd, although I do think it will be flat enough to go in a C5 envelope.


There is a box underneath to help support the whole structure, though it is very sturdy in itself, and that is where the sentiment is but you cant see it on the pictures unfortunately, and you can also make presentation boxes for the cards, which look fabulous I must admit,, but I havent done that with this one, as I'm not sure whether this will please the Pet Shop Owner , and he may want to post it, in which case, a display/presentation box will be too bulky.


Right one last thing for tonight.........a friend of mine, the infamous Linda, would love to reach 175 Followers, and is offering candy on her blog Here so please pop along and have a peek, she's doing really well, doing some DT work, and getting Blog awards.


I would really like to thank my handful of followers, you are great guys and girls, and I really appreciate your support and comments, thanks guys, mmwah!

Two for One

Crafters are supposedly very good at recycling.............

So here's two cards I made for the price of one, or rather with the scraps!!!


I was really fortunate to pick up quite a bit of Silk card this year at Summer Crafting, so I do tend to use it quite a bit, sorry. But it really does Squeak if you use distress inks on it!!!


Firstly I was playing with the Spellbinders Shapeabilities Ironwork Motifs dies one night, and using Happy Cut made an aperture in some silk art card. Then was stuck with a star / snowflake aperture that I hadnt got a clue what to do with, I did say that I was playing didnt I?
Well a few days of looking at it thinking "Ok, yep, really pretty, now what ARE you going to do with it?" Inspiration struck!!
A bit of Tim Holtz Broken China Distress ink, on a blending tool, took care of the edges. and I routed out the Ironworks Motif die, and carefully popped it back in to distress over it, again with the Broken china. A Piece of my secret stash of Hunky Dory Snowfall Acetate, not too much, just enough to cover the aperture from the inside, I may buy it every time I visit Inspirations in Preston (Every week), but you dont need to tell anyone else that!!! So now what do I do on the inside.................
So I routed out the peice I had cut out with the Happy Cut a few days earlier, and used it as a stencil on the inside of the aperture. The reason I did it this way was the die itself doesnt have a lot of detail to stencil, as such, and I wanted quite a strong image, so I used the Broken China again, and stenciled it using the blending tool. I found a very small rubber stamp, from the Crafters Companions Adorables winter rubber stamps from last year, and stamped in the middle of the star. Then to Finish the outside of the card, I used a variety of Peel off snowflakes, from my stash, and imported some christmas roses from My Craft studio Click Print go Christmas Flowers, into My craft studio, and adjusted the colour to a pale blue, and assembled them, a quick papermania Noel stencil and Hey Presto card done!!!


So to the second card. I had this lovely snowflake/star, what to do with it? In the end, I made a 5 x 5 silk card blank, distressed it again with good old Broken China, used a Papermania Snowfall embossing folder, with the Happy Cut, added some Papermania gems, and hey presto, a pretty little card made from the scraps as it were!!!