Tuesday 9 November 2010

November Birthdays



So much to do, so little time!


I have quite a few cards to start thinking about, as I have 3 family birthdays all on the same day this month plus another 3 on other days and there's less than a week between all of them!


I have some ideas mulling about my head as to what to do for who.  I've been playing with a few ideas for a wee while now but nothing has got past the on screen design stage yet!  


Well, as the saying goes, I suppose it's back to the drawing board!  

And Now For Something Completely Different . . .


Wedding Flowers!


A couple of weeks or so ago I answered a request for someone to provide the bridal posies for a very brave and special lady for her very special day - today!  It just so happened I had enough flowers to be able to make them for her.

Above is the Bride's posy of ivory roses with an amethyst coloured crystal set into the central rose and a large lilac organza bow.


The bridesmaids posies are shown before they were finished off - the large one had a large lilac bow attached to match the bride's posy and the smaller ones had their ribbons changed from pink to lilac (I used my Amethyst Promarker to change them).


I kept the men's buttonholes very simple, just an ivory rose with a leaf and some white & lilac heather.  I once again used my Amethyst Promarker, this time to colour the heather so it matched the ribbons on the smaller posies.

Wednesday 25 August 2010

Art Nouveau Inspired Card

Been playing again!  MCS have launched a new CD called "Opulent" which has Arts and Crafts Movement designs on it.  However, being skint I decided to have a go at an Art Nouveau inspired card using what I already had available to me and here it is!  

The main background is a sunburst design of the main image made using MCS Pro, I have used Sakura Gold and Clear Stardust pens to add highlights to the "rays" (the effect reminds me of Tutankhamun's collar). For one of the mats I have taken a punched out design from the main image and tiled it and highlighted it in the Clear Stardust.  I printed the complete design onto a full A4 sheet and cut around half the mat and layer section so the centre section would stand upright.  I'd originally been going to leave it just as a flat print but having stared at it for a wee while decided to add layers to it.  I didn't give into the temptation to cut round the collar and shape the card further - will try that another day!

Thursday 19 August 2010

August Birthday Card No 4!



I've finally finished the August cards just in time for Hubby's Birthday tomorrow!  

Although I started working on this card first it's actually the last Birthday card to be finished cos I couldn't make up my mind what the punchline inside would be!  I finally settled on "...but never mind, I suppose you'll do!"

I've used the MCS Deco Follies for the background images and the Festive Deco Follies CD for the figure images.  I printed off an additional gentleman ("Clyde") so I could raise him off the page to give some depth to the card.
I've added some Sakura clear glaze to give the shoes a polished look and also some on "Clyde's" hair to give a "Brylcreamed" shiny haired look.  The young lady ("Beaulah") has had the Quickie glue pen/pearlescent ultra fine glitter treatment to her dress.  

Must admit I really like Nancy Watt's Deco Follies artwork, it's lovely  to work with.

Saturday 14 August 2010

August Birthday Card No 3!




August Birthday Card Number 3 is the one for Dennis, a friend of my hubby who's nickname, apparently, happens to be Bush Baby (no, I'm not sure why either!)

I managed to find a picture of a Bush Baby peeping out of a hollow tree and thought it may look nice as an invertage using the MCS Die Cut Studio template and matching card stock.


I've used 2 backgrounds for this card, the main one is from the MCS "Something Special" CD while the Happy Birthday overlay is from "Back to Basics".

The torn paper effect is an image from Craft "E" Christmas' "Crystal Sparkles" which, after a few attempts, I eventually managed to use the emboss feature on (kept telling me that MCS had stopped working!).

I've used Sakura clear gloss on the eyes and nose of the Bush Baby and on the "Chez Dennis" sign but also used Crafter's Companion Spray and Shine over the invertage die cut area.  I've used Sakura Stardust in gold to give a sparkle to the torn paper image and used a gold metallic pen to go round the die-cut to tie-in with it. 

Sunday 8 August 2010

August Birthday Card No 2!





Still playing with MCS "Tattered Lace" CD book designs!   This is the first of the cards I'll be making for Hubby's Birthday.  Still working out what design to use for my one.

On the right hand side, the Leo design and background come from "Simply Silhouettes" whilst the main background of the easel section and left hand "page" comes from "Enchanted Romance".  


I've used gold metallic ink to "gild" the pages and gold gel pen to add more definition to Leo.  The "grass" is some green tissue paper which has been coloured with Burnt Sienna Promarker to bring in the colours of the background.  The clear "bling" has been coloured with Orange Promarker in an attempt to make them look like carnelian, one of the birthstones for August.

Friday 6 August 2010

Birthday Card for Elaine




One Birthday Card down and another 3 to go this month!  

I'd just received the new MCS Tattered Lace CDs and decided to use them to make this card!  The "book" image is from the Tattered Lace CD2 and I printed off two copies, one was layered onto card and then cut out the other was cut out and the edges trimmed.  The trimmed "book" was placed on top of the other one and the "pages" arranged to give them a slight curved appearance and to give the card more depth.  The lovely rose image is from Tattered Lace CD1 and has been decoupaged.

I used Sakura Stardust in Gold to add highlights to the roses, while I used a gold metallic marker to give the edges of the papers a gilded and then gave the finished card a quick skoosh with gold Spray and Sparkle.  The velum "lace" at the bottom edge of the card came with the Tattered Lace CDs.  The finished card was made up as an easel card to enable it to stand up.

Had some more problems with the MCS Professional software, I do wish they'd fix it instead of tempting folks with new designs!  If it crashed once it did it half a dozen times. Weird stuff is also still happening - reported problems to MCS ages ago but there are some that remain to be fixed!

Friday 30 July 2010

Playing with Bookatrix!



Been playing again!  I was in Home Bargains the other day and found a set of 8 small cards with assorted girly designs in pink/black/white/silver.  Was bored last night and started to look at what I could do with them.  I chose the lady with the powder compact and cut out the oval design to use as a cameo and thought it would look nice on a Bookatrix.  


I wanted to add some flowers to it but didn't want to swamp the book so I decided to experiment with a stand that would allow me to add the flowers but not take anything away from the "book".  In the end I found that an "easel" made from a sheet of A4 white pearlised card was just what I needed.  I added 3 flowers made from white pearlised paper using the design on the reverse of the Bookatrix board, for the pink ones I coloured them using my Dusky Pink Promarker and finished them off with buttons as their centre.  I also coloured the peel offs and the bling on the bookmark with the same Dusky Pink Promarker.


All I need now is a Birthday Girl to send it to!

Monday 21 June 2010

Birthday Card for Gena - 1

Been busy making not one but two Birthday Cards for my friend Gena.  

Why two? Well this one is from my 11 year old to his (not so fairy) Godmother and the other is from my hubby and me.

I got a couple of Hot Off The Press CDRoMs containing tags and backgrounds as part of a kit so I printed off some of the papers to use on this card.  I found a really nice pale pink organza ribbon with some nice flowers printed on it and a cute picot-style flowered edge, I also dug out some lace from my craft box to use as a background to the main embellishment. The HOTP kit also had a template for some assorted flowers and flourishes so I used that to make the flower with contrasting papers.  The lower and top set of petals, the button centre for the flower and the ribbon for the tag were all coloured with a Dusky Pink Promarker.  

Birthday Card for Gena - 2

This one is from Hubby and me and the papers came from a Hot Off The Press "Paper Flair Pop Up Card Kit".  I didn't realise there was so much cutting out involved looked so easy when it was demonstrated on the telly!  I had to do it in several stages cos my hands were getting too sore!

I'm not sure if you can see it but I've used Sakura Clear Stardust and Gold Stardust pens to highlight some of the details on the front of the card including the butterfly wings and sections of the background. 

I layered the papers onto a heavy pearlised card but somehow, although the front fitted the front of the card perfectly, the inside piece seemed too small.  As the pearlised card was white, I used my Henna Promarker to go round the border to try and make it not so obvious and it gave the card rather a nice bronze metallic appearance. 

The only narrow ribbon I had for the box lid was a white organza so I coloured it with the same Henna Promarker used to colour the card to match with the rest.

Saturday 15 May 2010

Birthday Card for a JCB Driver

Hubby announced today that it's his friend Davy's Birthday on Sunday.  He also said that Davy is always telling people about the lovely Christmas card I made him last year (methinks this was a wee hint!).


What to do was the next problem but as he's a JCB Driver I decided to see what I had on that sort of theme that might just be suitable.


The brick backgrounds came from MCS Everyday Men's CD & the coloured plaques from Simply Silhouettes.  The brickwork was embossed to give a texture to the card and the JCB image is slightly decoupaged.  A couple of raised "bricks" are added to the flat section keep the easel part upright.  


As I went to print off the plain brick background for the flat part of the card the MCS Professional graphics programme decided to play up yet again.  This time it locked up and has frozen me out, won't let me do anything - can't even close the window it's in.  I ended up having to open up another window and start again.  Wish MCS would fix the problems and send me an update that actually works - 4th time lucky maybe!  

Wednesday 5 May 2010

Big Sis' Birthday




This is the card I made for my older sister's Birthday - I won't say how old she is though. 

I picked up some Indian handmade paper recently and decided to use it as the background over an aperture card from a pack I had in my craft box. I used some Sakura Stardust pens to pick out the floral embossed design on the paper. I then put a floral peel-off coloured with Promarkers on to some acetate and coloured it's petals with the Stardust pens then backed it with some matching pink glitter card.  Unfortunately the photo has actually come out quite dark, it looks so much better in real life! 


Thursday 29 April 2010

New Home Card


Our neighbours are moving house today, finished it about an hour before their Daughter came round to say "bye" to our Son.  They won't be going too far but it's sad to see them go.

For this card I've used MCS Countryside Garden.  I cropped down one of the ready to print DL cards and cropped the background from the matching "Element Sheet".  The envelope and tags were also cropped out, copied and then used as decoupage.  I used my Sakura Clear Star pen to go over the pattern and scalloped edge and followed this with the Sakura Clear Glaze pen to give a raised feel to the design.  I also used the Clear Glaze to go over the text to give an embossed look.

Wedding Anniversay


A wee bit late in posting this one, our 13th Wedding Anniversary was over a week ago and I'm just getting round to putting it on now.

I've used MCS Enchanted Romance images and backgrounds.  Decided to try something different by cutting out the main image and using a gold gel pen and an old mouse mat I went over the outlines to emphasise them and give a debossed effect.  The central heart is raised off the card, the leaves have been shaped and the flower decoupaged and the end of the lace strip rolled to give movement.  Sakura clear glaze highlights have also been added.

My fingers have been really sore recently and it seemed to take forever to get this finished as I kept having to stop and leave what I was doing to give them a rest - it was bringing a whole new meaning to suffering for your art!

Sunday 11 April 2010

Fab's Big Christmas Cards Challenge Wk 14

My second attempt in Fab's Challenge, the theme this week is Brads and/or Steel Gray (Grey) colour.  The backgrounds came from a freebie MCS Christmas CD and the metal, typewriter key-style lettering is a free download again from MCS - the "brads" are of the faux variety cos I didn't have any!



Friday 9 April 2010

Wedding Card


Finally got round to buying the Bookatrix Board I'd promised myself ages ago.  First card made using it is this Wedding Card with a matching acetate window box.  I really surprised myself at being able to take a photo of the acetate box without any glare on it.

I hadn't planned on my first Bookatrix card being a wedding card but as my sister-in-law surprised us all a few weeks ago by announcing that she and her partner had just got married it seemed a good place to start. Tomorrow we are having a small get together for them at a local restaurant to celebrate.





Monday 5 April 2010

Lothian Craft April Card Candy Competition


My entry into the Lothian Craft April Card Candy Competition.  A card I've just made to send to my cat daft friend (she has around 7 or 8 now - I've lost count!!!)

Backgrounds are from MCS "Back to Basics" CD, the Cats & Tag images are from the MCS "Enchanted Romance" CD. I've used Sakura clear glaze to outline the cats, highlight the text & the cat's noses while Sakura Stardust Gold has been used to highlight all the borders.

Sunday 4 April 2010

Fab's Big Christmas Cards Challenge


This is my first attempt at taking part in Fab's Challenge. Week 13's challenge is tone on tone. 


The images were downloaded last year from a site that had been offering free Christmas downloads - it was described as being red but looks more pink to me & I think the bird is supposed to be a robin! I printed it straight out on to a plain white card stock then printed out the embellishments onto a textured card stock.  The only other thing I've done to it is to run some rose pink Pro Marker around the edges.



Ella's Card

Next Saturday is our Niece's 6th Birthday so this is the card that I finished in the early hours of this morning.  Background images are from the MCS "Back to Basics" CD, the fairy is from MCS "More than Just Words 3", other images are from MCS "Simply Silhouettes.  Sakura Clear Glaze has been used on the wand and tiaras with Sakura Clear Star used to go round frames and highlight the main stripes on the background and colour the wings (not sure why the wings look so dark in the photo).  A pink ProMarker was used to go around the edges of the card.

The reason I was up until the early hours?   Someone next door was either 
a.  strangling a cat, b.  committing murder or c.  had pals round singing karaoke until gone 3 am. 

Liam is 11!

My boy is 11!
One of his favourite expressions these days is "Cool" so cool it had to be!
Background is from MCS "Back to Basics" CD and the image is Newton the Bear playing it cool.  I used "Snowcaps" font and added Sakura clear glaze to the "snow" on the letters, the lenses of the sunglasses and the scalloped edges.  Sakura "Clear Star" was used on the frames of the sunglasses, round the frame of the image and also round each patchwork square to give a faux stitched effect.  A blue ProMarker was used round the edges of the card.

For his birthday, yesterday the 3rd of April, we went to the local Chinese Restaurant for lunch and the restaurant owner very kindly lit the candles on the cake we'd left for him and came over to our table singing "Happy Birthday" by the time he got to our table all the other diners were joining in!  After lunch we took him to spend his Birthday money - he went to bed a happy boy! 

Monday 1 March 2010


This was a Valentine card for my Husband.  Inside it reads . . . someone special comes along.
Background and Acetate cover both have images from MCS Deco Follies CDRoM. This was my first attempt at using printable acetate, background image printed onto pearlised card stock.

Always wanted to have a go at a card that looks like an open book but don't have one of the "Bookatrix" boards.  However, I've sort of worked out a pattern for one (just smaller than A5) and here's the result - can only emboss the straight sides though.  Will try and make a larger one next time. Artwork - the lady is from MCS Deco Follies and the background is from MCS Wings and Things, both have been colourised to shades of purple.

Friday 26 February 2010

Play It Sam . . .

 
 I was looking through my MCS Hollywood Greats CD when hubby reminded me he needed card for Sam's 80th Birthday this week.  Sam, Bogarde -  it had to be Casablanca! The background for the card is a still of "Rick's Cafe Americain" from the film, I've decoupaged (of sorts) the canopy, "Bogarde" and the palm tree.   The box has sheet music for Happy Birthday and under the curl of the page it reads "Play it once, Sam. For old time's sake" (aka "Play it again Sam").


Card, and box for Sam.



Flying High!


This was made for a friend who has his pilot's licence.  



Images are from MCS CDs - the plane from Everyday Men's. I just stuck the cloudy sky background onto an A5 blank then cut out the image of the plane and put it on with acetate "springs" to lift it off the card and give is some movement.  One of the quickest cards I've ever made!

Sunday 21 February 2010

Just been informed by my husband, John, that one of the members at the club he belongs to is 80 at the weekend and would I make a card. Looking for inspiration I asked what the gentleman liked, "Grouse and lemonade" was the reply - that's not quite what I meant dear!!!

Cameo


Another of my creations, this one was for my Sister-in-Law's 60th Birthday.  I thought the diamond spring fold card set off the cameo very well, I printed a marble effect background directly onto the card which helped give the card the antiqued effect I was looking for.

Boy Racer

My friend's nephew is into Top Gear and motor sport in a big way so this was my attempt at a birthday card for him.  I used images from My Craft Studios Everyday Men's CD plus one of The Stig, the finished version also had the birthday boy's name on it. 



Handbags

A couple of handbag cards created from Papermania's Elements card blanks.  


The sections cut from the sides were used to make the "fastenings" for the handbags, a few peel-offs, bling and some ribbon handles finish them off.

My First Blog


My first blog.  Not sure what to write so I'll post some of my cards instead!


A couple of handbag cards created from Papermania's Elements card blanks.  

The sections cut from the sides were used to make the "fastenings" for the handbags, a few peel-offs, bling and some ribbon handles finish them off.








My friend's nephew is into Top Gear and motor sport in a big way so this was my attempt at a birthday card for him.  I used images from My Craft Studios Everyday Men's CD plus one of The Stig, the finished version also had the birthday boy's name on it.



Another of my creations, this one was for my Sister-in-Law's 60th Birthday.  I thought the diamond spring fold card set off the cameo very well, I printed a marble effect background directly onto the card which helped give the card the antiqued effect I was looking for.















This was made for a friend who has his pilot's licence.  
Images are from MCS CDs - the plane from Everyday Men's. I just stuck the cloudy sky background onto an A5 blank then cut out the image of the plane and put it on with acetate "springs" to lift it off the card and give is some movement.  One of the quickest cards I've ever made!






Just been informed by my husband, John, that one of the members at the club he belongs to is 80 at the weekend and would I make a card. Looking for inspiration I asked what the gentleman liked, "Grouse and lemonade" was the reply - that's not quite what I meant dear!!!
 

 I was looking through my MCS Hollywood Greats CD when hubby reminded me he needed card for Sam's 80th Birthday this week.  Sam, Bogarde -  it had to be Casablanca! The background for the card is a still of "Rick's Cafe Americain" from the film, I've decoupaged (of sorts) the canopy, "Bogarde" and the palm tree.   The box has sheet music for Happy Birthday and under the curl of the page it reads "Play it once, Sam. For old time's sake" (aka "Play it again Sam").


Here's the card, and box, I made for my husband's friend.