New Arrival - A Nappy Cake for Elishia

There has been a new arrival in the family.  Elishia, the daughter of hubby's nephew arrived 10 days early catching me completely off guard in the pressie department - but at least the cards were made!

I'd seen the Diaper/Nappy Cake idea online and thought I'd give it a go - these photos aren't the finished article as I keep changing things.  Will take a proper look later and finalise what goes where and she might just get it by her due date!

My First Attempt Making Gemstone Jewellery

Here is my first attempt at making gemstone jewellery.  As you can probably tell from the photo, it's a necklace and earrings set.  

I've made as a Birthday present, the set consists of tourmaline chips, pale amethyst faceted beads, onyx faceted beads and black lava rock.  I added in some Swarovski crystals for some added bling - unfortunately you can't see the sparkle in the photo! 

The findings I used are all sterling silver.  

Making Jewellery - turning an Earring into a necklace

For the last few years I've had a broken bling earring lurking in my craft box awaiting that flash of inspiration that would give it a new lease of life.  Last week I received the gemstone kit I'd ordered and whilst playing with a few bits and bobs from it I realised that the earring just might make a nice pendant for some faceted black onyx rounds and some AB coated Swarovski crystals on the lower half and in the top section the onyx is "floating".  

I had a go at making a display stand with a trifold card - a bit on the wee side but it did the trick once I wrapped the wires round!

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.

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!

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.

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. 

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.

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!