Happy Birthday Everyone!

This is the month for all the birthdays of my daughters friends. It seems to be that of all her little friends (they are just all now turning four, so all grown up to them!) about 80% of them were born in January! As well as my self and my mother-in-law! So all in all it is a very busy month for making birthday cards for me, especially for 4 year olds!

Sending Hugs!

My new craft love just has to be Prima Marketing flowers! I love them all, especially these vintage 3d frosted ones! I think that they are a match made in heaven with these lovely papers and message plaques from Craftwork Cards. Pop them all on a shaped card and highlight with stickles and voila you have a lovely card for someone how is maybe has a little handbag fettish!

Dreams of Paris

I got a lovely set of images from Kanban cards recently and wanted to create a soft, romantic, travel inspired card themed around one of the most romantic cities in the world. I was really happy with the outcome and feel that it is suitabe for both male and female recipients, which is always an achievement. The Eiffel tower chipboard and gliiter I feel add a bit of dimension and much needed texture to the card.

My Proudest Crafting Moment!

One of my proudest crafting moments came when I received a letter with a short note and small gift to let me know that one of my cards was being printed in the readers gallery of Papercraft Essentials!

I had never been published in a magazine before and to see my card in printing was such a proud moment for me. It was the first card I had sent in and I couldn't believe it when I got the note, I don't think I did until I actually bought the magazine! Mine is the one in the bottom left corner.

It was a lovely card to make as it was glitter and mirri card matted onto a printed foiled card and the sleigh image was achieved using a dreamweaver stencil and embossing paste.

I will have to try may hand again at getting my work published.

New Toys!

I got some new toys when I was at the Harrogate show and I have been dying to play with them.......I know, I know, I hear you all screaming,"WHAT TOOK YOU SOOOOO LONG!". Well, I'm not sure exactly but here it is.

This is my first Stampotique stamp and I feel in love with her as she reminds me of my favourite character off my favourite tv show. I'm not sure if I'm the only one but every time I look at this stamp image it makes me think of Abbey from NCIS! Weird, but each to their own! LOL!

I also got a 7Gypsies stamp plate of "Disclaimer" text stamps that is A4 in size and can be used individually or as a single plate and some Dylusions paints and inks (which come in just fab colours).

I splatted the background with the inks and stamped it with the text plate using archival jet black ink, die cut it with a spellbinders shape and matted and layered it onto the card. I stamped the Stampotique image with distress ink and water coloured it then cut it out and adhered it to the mat. Now I can't wait to play with them all again! I am thinking maybe a haunted house as I have a chipboard house................we'll have to wait and see where my imagination takes me.

Creating with Memory Glass

I have been wanting to play with memory glass for quite a while now and was never very sure what to do. So I decided to try a couple of different techniques to see how they would turn out.

The photo above is using memory glass and incorporating a memory frame and memory capusle, then using a image transfer technique with a printed photo and clear packing tape. I then added a few pieces of text from and old book and put some micro beads in the memory capsule. I used gilding flakes on the reverse of the image to give some depth to the image transfer and make the reverse look attractive.

The photo below is using memory glass with a stamped image sandwiched between the glass slides and the sealed with copper tape. I them stamped on some paper flowers and coloured them with an ink spray, put a pearl brad in the centre and attached it to the slide with glue.

Altered Jewelery

Thought I would try my hand at altering a kilt pin. I love these pins that have the charm loops already on them, so I decided I would try and incorporate the memory capsules, glass and frames with some cute charms that I always seem to be collecting! I think that the image is from Crafty Individuals but am not a hundred per cent certain. The memory capsules are great when you want to add some dimension and movement to a piece using minimal effort to achieve maximum impact. I was quite happy with my first attempt and am definetly going to try this again.

Xmas Decoration Swap

Another first for me! I took part in a Christmas decoration swap this Christmas (which I guess is techniqually now last year! lol!) which I found really challenging. I chose to make a decoration using stampbord (which was another first for me!) and a Paper Artsy stamp. It was such fun to make and I love it on the tree (or in this case hanging on a doorknob!). The decorations I received were all really fab too!

So well done everyone and I hope you all had a fantastic Crimbo!

Happy New Year!

Seeing as it is the start of a new year I got all retrospecive and started looking through photos of my old projects. And I found a photo of my first scrapbook page that I made for a challenge a couple of years ago. It is of my daughters first Christmas using scraps of paper. I am quite proud of the result even now and of course have wonderful memories of that time!

So here it is....the first of a new craft on the first of a new year!

Here's wishing you all a happy and safe 2011 full of crafting inspiration and dreams!