8th Birthday

It's my daughter's friend's 8th birthday in a couple of weeks so I thought I'd use the sketch on the C.R.A.F.T. Challenge Blog to make her card. The cow stamp is by Nellie Snellen which I've paper pieced.
The papers are by K&Co
The flowers are a mixture of paper punches and Marrianne Designs Die cuts which I used in my cuttlebug. The ribbon threading border is also from the same range.
I finished off with a few gems and a butterfly charm.
Oh and the sentiment was done on the computer... I think that's covered everything but if you have any questions please ask.

I do love the little Nellie Snellen calf, she's so cute don't you think?

Happy Mother's Day

I thought I'd start by showing you the cards my children made for me. This is Josh's card which he made on the computer at school.This is the insideand this is the back. Charming eh?! lolAnd my daughter raided my stash (with permission of course) to make me this cute card using one of my favourite Penny Black stamps.

This year I thought I'd make a photo frame for my mum. It didn't quite turn out how I wanted to. I think its because now I'm working I just haven't been able to spend the time on it that I would have liked to have done. Maybe it will look better when it has a nice photo in it?! Failing that I might ask for it back and re-vamp it for next year. ;0)

This is how the photo frame started out. and this is how it looked when I'd finished with it... or ran out of time to do anything else with it.

The papers, labels and sentiment are all from a set by K&Co. The flowers are made with die cut by Marriane Designs and two other paper punches.

For the card I used the same K&Co papers and the Marrianne Designs die cut to make the flowers. The rabbit stamp is by Penny Black and coloured with Twinkling H2Os. The Happy Mother's Day stamp is by Inka Stamp Designs.

For the inside I used a clear stamp by Inkadoo it says "You make me smile all over my face" which my mum does. She's the best mum in the world ever! :0)

That just leaves me to say Happy Mother's Day to all you Mums out there in Blog land. Hope you enjoy your special day.

Cards for Twins

I made these two cards for twins who turned 13 a few weeks back. For the card for Grace I used papers by Hot Off the Press. The stamp is by Sugar Nellie which I coloured with Twinkling H2Os. It's the first time I've used this stamp but I think it's perfect for this age range.

I tried to make Jake's card in the same sort of design to Grace's. These papers are by K&Co and didn't have the little tags so it didn't quite work out the same. The image is a Woodware stamp again coloured with Twinkling H2Os.

Cat in a Bra

This is one of my favourite Penny Black Stamps. It started life as my Mums' but somehow found its way to my house and decided to stay!
The papers are by K&Co. The cat in the bra stamp is coloured partly with Twinkling H2Os and partly by paper piecing. The "Hello Friend" is a Cuttlebug Die.

Birthday Boy

I recently started working at a day nursery and I offered to make the birthday cards for the children in the room I work in.

This is the one I made for Joe who turned two. The dinosaur in a Whipper Snapper stamp coloured with Twinkling H2Os. The papers are by K&Co. The sentiment is a combination of Go Kreate Dies used in my Cuttlebug.

Cream Challenge Card

I must admit I don't work with cream very often so when I saw a colour challenge on the Trimmies forum and everyone moaning about how difficult working with cream was, well I just had to have a go and see what I could come up with.

The image is a Sugar Nellie which I coloured with Twinkling H2Os and Distress Inks and a bit of paper piecing. The papers are a mixture of K&Co and something else which I've had so long I have no idea where is came from. The flowers are Primas and the fern leaves are a punch.

New Home

My friend Denise has been moving house today so I thought I'd make her a card to wish her good luck in her new home.
I used papers and lettering by K&Co and a mixture of Nestability Dies and punches to make the house.



For the inside I added a couple of peel off stickers on the left hand side and on the right I used some more K&Co paper and a Go Kreate Die.

Just wish we could find somewhere to move to now.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge

This week the Penny Black Saturday Challenge is a sketch challenge.

I thought I'd use the sketch to make a thank you card for my daughter's teacher.

I used papers by K&Co. The bottom piece I have scalloped the edge like in the sketch but you can't see it very well in the photo as the tag and the image cover most of it but the tag is free swinging so you can see it in real life when it moves.

The image is a Penny Black coloured with Twinkling H2Os. The oval and circle were cut using Nestabilites Dies in my Cuttlebug.

I swapped the text and the flowers places round from the sketch to make it work for my card but I'm pleased with the result. Hope Ellie's teacher likes it too.

I've now finished the tin to go with it. It started life looking like this.

And now it looks like this.

And this is the card and the tin together.

I bought some fudge and toffees from Thorntons to go in the tin - hope they last until Friday without me eating them!

Happy Birthday Irene

This is the card I made for my Auntie Irene whose birthday is today. I used this gorgeous House Mouse image that a friend sent me which I coloured with Twinkling H2Os. The paper is by K&Co and is double sided. I used one side for the layering and the other side for the leaves and sentiment. The leaves were made using a die cut from Little Claire Designs and the sentiment is a die cut by Go Kreate.

Sorry about the quality of the photo. I really need to get my photo studio set up again!

Card for Tanya

I started making a card for my daughter's best friend Tanya who will be 7 in May. I'd got so far with it and then wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Then I was looking through my favourite challenge blogs and found this sketch on the Truly Scrumptious blog. So I inverted the sketch and used it to help me finish Tanya's card. I think it works really well.

The papers are by K&Co, The image is a Sarah Kay by Stampavie and is coloured with Twinkling H2Os. The sentiment and name are all done using Die Cuts by Go Kreate, The purple ribbon is some that Tanya's mum gave me although I think it looks black on the photo?! I still haven't got my photo studio back.

Good news though we did get our first viewing today. She seemed to like our house but it's always difficult to tell. She did say her husband needs to see it before they can make a decision so we'll just have to wait and see if they make an appointment to come back again. Fingers crossed eh?! It would be great if we could sell to the first person that comes to look round but I think I may be being a little over optimistic.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge

I was making this card for my brother and I had already picked out the image I wanted to use but I thought as it was a Penny Black I'd just check out the Penny Black Saturday Challenge blog to see if I could make it to fit in with their challenge.

Their challenge this week is "Check it out" they want to see checks on your project. So I looked through my boys/men papers and found this great checked paper by K&Co to use. It's not the most inspiring card I've ever made but I'm trying to keep them quite simple at the moment so that I can get more done just in case the house sells and we have to start packing everything up and I can't get to my craft stuff for a while. It's not my brother's birthday until May 3rd but I don't think he looks at my blog so I'm safe!

Sorry!

I haven't blogged for ages! A lot has been happening in the last few weeks. I don't want to say too much on here just yet but one of the things that's been happening is that we are selling the house. This has meant a lot of sorting and clearing out and tidying up as had to be done in order to get the house ready and as the last part has been done today, we are now officially on the market.

I have been so busy I've not had chance to do any blogging but I have still been making cards. I thought while it's the Easter Holidays I'd try and catch up a little. However my photos are going to get a little dodgy as my photo studio as had to be put away so I'm back to the old method of natural light and a white sheet background! Not good!


This is a card I made for my new neighbour Charlotte for her son Bobby. She wanted a dinosaur and balloons on it which made my day as this Whipper Snapper stamp is one of my favourites but my son is too old for it now. It was fab to be able to use it again.

The spotty papers are all by K&Co. I love this set of papers for boys cards.

This is the inside of it.I'm now trying to get ahead on all my card making so that if we do sell quickly and I have to start packing everything up I'll already be enough ahead to not have to worry for a while and can move and get settled before I need to make any more. Hopefully once we've moved I will be back to a more regular blogging schedule. Until then I hope you will all bear with my irregular blogging pattern.

5th Birthday Card

My friend asked me if I would make a card for her daughter Evie who is going to be 5 next month. As Evie is having a chocolate party Denise wanted a chocolate themed birthday card for her and couldn't find one in the shops. So I took on the challenge! :-)

I used my Cricut to make the over sized chocolate muffin for Tilda to sit on. I ran the bottom layer of the muffin through a paper ribbler to make the muffin case have some texture to it then layered the top of the muffin over that on foam pads for a 3d effect. The chocolate sweets were also done on the Cricut. I added a flower to the centre of one and for the other I stamped out a Happy Birthday circle stamp then used my Nestabilities circle die to cut round it. I did a scalloped circle layer for it to sit on and then attached it all to the sweet adding a number 5 to the centre.

The swirls are a Sizzix die which I added pearls and flowers to. The letters for "Evie" are by K&Co and the papers are from a scrap booking kit but I can't remember who made them.

For the inside I used the same Tilda but cut her down to just the circle of her head and shoulders. I used the same papers from the scrapbooking kit and added another Cricut sweet to finish it off.

Ellie told me she thinks Evie's card is lovely so I'm pretty sure Evie will too. :-)

Happy Birthday Helen

It's my friend Helen's Birthday today but I forgot to take her card to school this morning with me to give to her so I'm hoping I remember this afternoon when I go to pick Ellie up.

I made this card for Helen. The backing paper I have had for a very long time and I think it's a K&Co one but I may be wrong. I'm on a mission to try and use stamps and papers that I've had for a long time but don't use or haven't used often enough. These papers and stamp both fall into this category.

Stamp: Personal Impressions

Paper: K&Co

Equipment: Cuttlebug ~ Nestabilities ~ Embossing mat

Embellishments: Prima Flowers ~ Brad ~ Lace Ribbon ~ Peel Off Stickers

For the inside I thought I'd do ovals for a change and I also thought it would then match the outside too. I think I like it although I could do with some bigger oval Nesties for the job.

Leaving Tag Card

Another Bunco friend has headed off back to the States and, as is now customary, I made a card for her with lots of little tags so that everyone can write their own private message to go in it.

The papers for this card are all from set by K&Co. The wording was done using Quickutz alphabet dies in my Cuttlebug. The lady stamp is by Crafty Individuals (I think). The flowers are all Primas.

The tags I made using my Cricut and I added some fibres to each tag. The papers again are K&Co and the flowers are Primas.
I may going a bit quiet for a while after this post. The kids are off school for 6 weeks and need lots of attention and also I have lost my crafting mojo. Too many personal things going off at the moment.

I have temporarily relieved myself of my DT posts over the summer holidays and I am going to take a well earned break in the hope that once the holidays are over and the children go back to school things will be looking much better and my mojo will have returned.

I found it so hard doing the teachers gifts and Meghan's leaving card and that's not like me. I also haven't felt much like blog hopping either so my apologies if I haven't visited your blog for ages either.

I hope you all have a wonderful summer and I will see you all again in September.

Hugs

Fe x

Altered Paint Tin

My daughter's teacher is retiring on Friday. I thought I'd make her a Retirement kit using one of the paint tins I ordered.

I started by covering the lower part of the tin with paper by Hot Off The Press.



Then covered the top of the paper with co-ordinating ribbon.


I used adhesive letters by K&Co to spell out "Retirement Kit" around the top part of the tin. Although it looks really wonky on this photo?! Hmmmm.



When my mum came over last week I asked her if she would bring over her "old lady" stamps, so that I could stamp some out to use on this project. I cut round a few of the images and coloured them with Twinkling H2Os. Then used them to decorate the bottom half of the paint tin.



I added a few ribbons to the handle to finish.

For the lid, I used my Cuttlebug and Nestabilites to cut a circle from co-ordinating paper. Then used another of Mum's Old Ladies to finish. Stamps: Old Ladies Borrowed From Mum
Coloured With: Twinkling H2O's
Paper: Hot Off The Press
Adhesive Letters: K&Co
Embellishments: Ribbons
Equipment: Cuttlebug ~ Nestabilities

I just need to make the card to go with it now.

Quirky Crafts Challenge

This weeks Quirky Craft Challenge is a recipe called 5,4,3,2,1. The idea is to make a project that has on it:
5 - Flowers
4 - Other Embellishments
3 - Papers
2 - Images
1 - Ribbon

I actually made up this challenge without trying it out first to see if it was do-able. It was a bit more challenging than I thought it would be, but then it is nice to have a challenging challenge now and again isn't it?!



For this card I used 5 Prima flowers, 3 brads and 1 charm for the 4 other embellishments, 2 papers by K&Co and 1 plain which I embossed, 2 stamped images - the fence is a Magnolia and the little girl is by Sugar Nellie and 1 length of green rick rack ribbon.

If you'd like to join in with this challenge please join us at Quirky Crafts HERE.

Hopefully see you there!

What a Day!

My daughter had a school trip to Tatton Park today which is pretty exciting in itself but it was also her teacher's 60th Birthday too and to celebrate that and also that she is retiring at the end of this school year while they were on the trip she bought them all an ice cream or ice lolly. How lovely is that?!

Of course, never being one to pass up an opportunity to make a card, I made this one for Ellie's teacher. It does say Happy 60th Birthday on it but you can't see it very well on the photo for some reason?! The little charm hanging off the flower is a dragonfly.
The papers for this are all by Hot Off The Press. I think they are gorgeous and are lovely to work with. They aren't as thick as the K&Co but the designs and colours are beautiful. The stamp inside says "Happy Birthday! How many fingers are you? Shane O'Donnell, Aged 4"
Ellie's says that her teacher giggled when she read it. :-)

This afternoon we had Joshua's statement review. I always dread it and work myself up into a bit of a tizzy over it. We always have to face the headmistress and I can't stand her and she can't stand me. We came to verbal blows over Josh and how the school was treating him a few years ago. I was trying to explain how they could help him as he was coming home very distressed every day (see previous post here for more info) and I was basically told that the school is perfect and that they couldn't possibly do any more than they were already which was incredibly frustrating to hear. Since that day forward we've both harboured a grudge and hate each other with a passion. So the Statement reviews as a result are always very stressful.

Anyway what completely failed to register with me this time around, is that the Head is no longer the SENCO! Hurray!

Last year she was in the process of handing over to Mrs S (Who is our angel and I love to bits because she's so fab!) so they were both at the meeting, this year Mrs S has taken over completely so no headmistress!!!!!!!!!!!

All that stressing for nothing! Bah Bl***y Humbug!!!

I don't mind saying though, it was such a different meeting without her there. It was so relaxed and informal and nice. A complete 180 from all the meetings we've had in the past. The atmosphere was great. In previous meetings it has been so tense and everyone as been on edge and everyone just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. Not good.

The SENCO from the High School was at the meeting this time and she took lots of notes on the points we made about Josh and where he struggles, and what he's going to need a lot of help with. She was so positive, as was Mrs S and Joshua's class teacher that he has now. I came out feeling really good about it all. It made a wonderful change. I'm actually sat here with a smile on my face and not chuntering about it at all which is what I normally do afterwards! LOL!

It's mad to think our next one will be at the High School. Wow! I wonder what that will be like?! Hmmmmm! :-)

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge

Pink and Green is the challenge for the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge this week.

I've made a very simple card for this challenge for two reasons.
1. I needed to get it in the post
2. I started with the Rose paper and then thought it was so pretty that I didn't want to cover it up with lots of embellishments/images.
Although I have to say the photo really doesn't do it justice. The papers are some I bought in my early days of card making. They are so old I can't remember who made them but judging by the quality and feel of them I'm guessing they are K&Co. The stamp is a Sarah Kay coloured with Distress Ink and Twinkling H2Os. The Happy Birthday banner is one I was given.

Happy Birthday Josh (for yesterday)

I hate doing decoupage - I love the end result but it drives me insane doing all the intricate cutting out to get it to the finished stage. So this just goes to show how much I love my son Josh. I was wondering how I was going to top or at least match the Tardis card I made him last year when I came across a website that had Scooby Doo decoupage papers. Josh loves Scooby Doo so I bought a sheet that had Scooby Doo in a Monster Truck and Scooby in an aeroplane. I gave Ellie first choice as to which one she wanted to put on her card and she picked the plane.

I used papers by K&Co for Josh's card. I do love the quality of K&Co stuff, I love the colour combinations and the designs of the papers too, especially the ones in this set. They are lovely to work with.

The "Happy 11th Birthday" was done using Go Kreate Dies in my Cuttlebug. The "Josh" at the bottom was done using my Cricut and the Tear Drop cartridge on the "Dropless" feature.

Papers: K&Co ~ Scooby Doo Decoupage Sheet
Equipment: Cuttlebug ~ Nestabilites ~ Go Kreate Dies ~ Cricut ~ Tear Drop Cartridge

It did pay off in the end though because Josh loved his card and spent ages examining all the layers! :-)

I also made Josh a card from Max (our puppy dog) for this card I used my Woodware Stamps for the boy on the beanbag and the dog. For the background I used some Scooby Doo paper. The Happy Birthday stamp is by Hobby Arts and the 11 in the centre I cut out using Go Create Dies in the Cuttlebug. The "To Someone Special" banner was one a friend sent me.Stamps: Hobby Arts ~ Woodware
Equipment: Cuttlebug ~ Nestabilites ~ Go Kreate Dies