A year in cards

No more new cards for 2011 but a look back at my personal favourites for this year instead.  I only started blogging during May so some of the first few cards are new to my blog.  I tried to pick only one card for each month but for some there a few as it was proving too difficult to make a final choice.  Hope you enjoy having a browse. 

January

 

February

 

March

 

April

 

May

 

June

 

July

 

 August

 

September

October

 

 

 

November

 

December

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and creative 2012.

Thanks for reading

Liz xx

I'd like to enter this post in the following blog hop

With an "i" For Paper - Review of the Year

Make It Monday - Anything Goes

WOYWW

 

This isn't what's on my table today but it's the reason why I haven't contributed to the WOYWW postings for the past two weeks.  A grand total of 96 Christmas cards which I've nearly finished delivering.  Fortunately I only had one domino effect accident when trying to set this up.

The three snowmen cards and the mouse card on the right were ones I made for Penny Black Saturday Challenges and the penguins card on the left was made for a Sugar Bowl challenge.  I liked how these cards turned out so decided to make batches of them.  The penguin image is from the Sugar Nellie stamp Warm Winter Wishes and has been really well received by my crafting buddies.  I think the non Christmas colour scheme clinched it.  I've seen this image in various colour schemes as it's so versatile to colour and adapt to any backing papers you might have.  The cards in the middle were made using duffex decoupage toppers which I CUT OUT and made up last year but never used.  They've been used this year to make up cards to give male friends and relatives.

This batch of cards was made from a Create and Craft kit I bought a couple of years ago.  The kit gave you forty cards, two each of twenty different designs, with envelopes, embellishments and stickers and die cut decoupage to layer up and attach to the card front.  I had intended to do just that but then did a Nancy Watt and chopped the front off the card and made an A5 card by layering it on top of mint green card  and red paper edged with the Martha Stewart holly punch around the page border punch.  I used the card alphabet embellishments, added some certainly celery and real red ribbon from Stampin' up, some dazzling diamonds glitter from Stampin' up on the fur and on some of the cards a sentiment was added.  A metallic red or gold elastic cord was tied round the spine.  On the back of the original card there was a smaller image of the one on the front so again I did a Nancy and used nestabilities to cut it out and attach to the back to the new card.  The duck and hedgies card at the front was another card I made for a Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

These cards were ones I made using toppers from a Fizzy Moon decoupage pad.  The pad allowed you to make three each of eight different toppers.  Still got six left to use another year.  These are my specials for family and close friends.  The Papeterie had an offer on earlier this year where you could buy a stamp set, brads, a 6"x6" paper pad and a decoupage pad for £15 so I've used elements from these plus I had bought some ribbon extra.. These batches of cards came to a total of 96 and then there were three more to make 99.

These three were made after I had started giving out the others so I couldn't do a complete table of all the cards I'd made this year.  I should have gone on to make one more to make the round 100 but ran out of steam.

Thank you for reading today and may I take this opportunity to say a Merry Christmas to those of you who have taken the time to leave lovely encouraging comments this past year and a thank you to those of you who chosen to follow my ramblings.  Hope you all have a lovely time over the festive period and I look forward to getting my creative hat on again after having my annual sleep in my cracker one.

Best Wishes

Liz xx   

Baby Girl

 

Just over a week ago a new little grand-niece joined the family and this is the card I've made to welcome her arrival.  Keira was a few days overdue but arrived safe and well and was home a few days later.  The teddy bear character images on this one are from a Cuddly Buddly download  Teddy Bear's Alphabet Pink.  I used the My Craft Studio graphics programme to resize and print them and then cut them out using square nestabilities dies.  Because the background looked rather white I used Stampin' up Pink Pirouette ink to colour it in, leaving the die in place to give a white border.  The pink gingham backing paper is from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers - Pink.

This was quite a simple card to put together and apart from using some ribbon, brads, pink safety pins and Quickutz button die cuts it basically involved layering up different papers.  The Martha Stewart punch around the page set, Eyelet Lace, was used to decorate the edges of the gingham paper.

The sentiment was computer generated and sponged around the edges with the Pink Pirouette ink as was the scalloped edged card.  To finish off a few crystal dot peel offs were added for sparkle.  This is probably my last card creation for this year and delighted that it's for a very happy occasion.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenge

Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Thanks for reading today.

Liz xx

Butterfly Girl

 

This is a card I've made for my crafting buddy Anne, from the Crafting Bee group, who celebrates her birthday today.  From the two little craft groups I attend there are five ladies with birthdays this month.  There must be a creative streak amongst Sagittarians and Capricorns.  I'd have to agree to that being a Capricorn myself.  Won't agree to being a stubborn old goat though.

This card is covered in butterflies galore from various sources.  The stamped image is from The Stamp Man and is included on one of their own Aspect of Designs unmounted sheets called Butterfly Beauties.  It's a lovely collection of stamps and it was because I had seen two cards which Anne had made using this set of stamps that I decided to buy the sheet for myself and then use it to make a card for her.  The image was stamped using Versamark ink and then embossed using Stampendous Disco Black embossing powder.  I just love the sparkle from this in night light.  Daffodil delight ink was sponged aroung the edge of the image but the result looked too yellow so I unearthed an ordinary brush pen which was nearer the colour, from a set of pens from Woolworths so that shows how old it is, and went over the top.

The black holographic backing card came from a Create and Craft Kit and was matted on plain black card and mustard/yellow card.  I was going to make this a black and white card but decided to add a dash of colour using Stampin' up grosgrain ribbon, which I think is so saffron, and card in my stash to match.  Some of the butterfly embellishments were cut from this card and white card using the Beautiful Wings embosslits die from Stampin' up.  This was a new technique for me as usually I've cut shapes and then had to emboss them afterwards in an embossing folder.  The cut and embossing together gave a cleaner finish to the die cut and even some of the butterflies had embossed borders.  I was delighted with the outcome.  The other butterflies were silver peel offs stuck to acetate, cut out and then after folding back the wings they were attached to the card with super glue.  There are a couple of black peel off butterflies too.

The final butterfly touch was to cut out backing panels and edge them using the butterfly punch around the page set from Martha Stewart.  The Happy Birthday paper in the centre of the panels is from a Cuddly Buddly download a Patchwork of Papers - Blue printed in greyscale.  The final touches were some crystal dot peel offs and a Happy Birthday  peel off.

Hope you had a lovely birthday Anne.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges

Make It Monday - Anything Goes

The Stamp Man Challenge - Techniques

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx

Dolphins

 

I haven't taken time to add to my blog lately as Christmas card making has taken over but in amongst it all this is an easel card I made for an order.  The brief was that the lady really liked dophins so that's what I went with although I had no images.  A google images search for dophin digital stamps took me to this image from Stitchy Bear Stamps called Leaping Dolphins.  I felt this image was appropriate to put on a card for a lady celebrating her sixtieth birthday and instead of colouring it I left it in the raw black and white format and selected embellishments and papers to create a monochrome card.

To frame the image I tried to create a porthole effect and used a compass cutter to cut out the circle layers and then decorataed it with eyelets and little dolphin embellishments which were made using a Quickutz die. Little crystal peeloff dots were added in between to represent air bubbles.  The Happy Birthday, gingham and spotted backing papers were from a Cuddly Buddly download, A Patchworwk of Papers - Blue, and printed in greyscale.

For the base panel I tried to create a scene of dolphins playing in the waves and layered up Quickutz diecuts of waves and dolphins and then personalised it with alphabet die cuts to spell sixty.  The final embellishment was some black grosgrain ribbon from Stampin' up.

The easel stops were made using layered up circles cut using Spellbinders nestabilities dies. Although it brought the Christmas production line to a halt it was a refreshing diversion from the glitter and snowflakes to create this card.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges

One Stitch At A Time Challenge 92 - Use a Digi

Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Thanks for reading

Liz xx

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 179 - Christmas/Red+Embossing

 

This is my entry for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge this week where the theme is Christmas with Red and Embossing.  For the main image I've chosed the Penny Black stamp Sweet Snowman once again and coloured him with Promarkers.  I'm not trying to sound like Bruce Forsyth but this one is fast becoming my favourite and I've bought a second one for my Mum to put in her Christmas parcel.  Hope she likes him as much as I do.  It's a great stamp to practice Promarker shading with.

 

The snowflake and Seasons Greetings card are from Kanban and the Real Red ribbon and Riding Hood red ink which was sponged around the main image and snowflakes were from Stampin'up.  The snowflakes were cut using a small punch and Spellbinders Create a Flake 1 die set and glittered using Stampin' up Dazzling Diamnds glitter.  I didn't have a red brad left to put in the centre of the snowflake so I took a silver one, dabbed it in versamark ink and then into Stampendous stamp-n-stuff red tinsel embossing powder and heat embossed it.  After a couple more coats I had a red glittery brad.  If you want to try this make sure you grip the brad using a wooden clothes peg so as not to burn your fingers.

The white card under the main image was embossed using an embossing folder and the Cuttlebug swiss dots folder was used to emboss little dots around the snowman.  First I held the stamped image up to the light and drew a pencil line around the snowman so that I wouldn't emboss any dots over him.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 179 - Christmas/Red+Embossing
One Stitch at a Time Challenge 90 - Seeing Red 
Ooh La La Creations Challenge 90 - Lots of Sparkle
Totally Gorjuss Challenge 108 - Sparkle
Creative Card Crew Challenge - Monochromatic 
Dream Valley Challenge 21 - Sparkle
Craft Your Passion Challenge 86 - Tis the Season 
Stamptacular Sunday Challenge 140 - Anything Christmas 
Inky Impressions Challenge 35 - Peppermint Twist (Red and White) 
Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Anything Goes
Totally Paper Crafts Challenge 94 - Christmas
Cards and More Challenge 42 - Snowflakes 
Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge 110 - Snowmen
Stamps R Us Challenge - Emboss It 
I Love Promarkers Challenge 94 - Snowmen and Snowflakes 
Make It Monday - Anything Goes 

Thanks for reading

Liz xx

Happy Birthday Angus

 

Today is my nephew's birthday and as you can see he is called Angus.  He's nine today and this is the card I've made for him.  I'm not sure if he'll have time to celebrate today as Saturday is taken up with football and rugby and then his sister goes to fiddle lessons and netball.  Hope he has a good day whatever else they get up to.

At one of our Crafting Bees Ann was making a stepper card using instructions from one of Carol's Making Cards magazine and between us we were trying to work out the measurements, cuts and folds to construct it.  She made a lovely card and so I decided I wanted to have a go.  Using the measurements from the magazine as a guideline I adapted them to make the panel sizes I needed for this one and then decorated it using a Kanban topper sheet.  This was a really easy card to put together once the stepper card was made.  The Happy Birthday backing paper and the gingham paper were taken from a Cuddly Buddly download, A Patchwork of Papers - Blue, and printed in greyscale.  Other embellishments used were Bling Bling self adhesive crystals to decorate the studded wrist band and I gave him an earring too.  Peeloffs letters, stuck on to half inch punched circles, were used to personalise it for Angus.

After the card was finished I set it up and after a while it started to splay at the more heavily decorated topper side so I attached a folded piece of card to the inside to act as a brake.  Hopefully you can see it from the side shot.  Will have to remember this when I next make a stepper card.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges

Cupcake Craft Challenge 169 - Teenage Boys 

Cards For Men Challenge 24 - Fancy Folds 

Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Thanks for reading

Liz xx

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 178 - Christmas/Trees and Green

 

This is my entry for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge this week where the theme is Christmas with the addition of Trees and Green. When I first read the challenge I thought that I'd have to miss it as I have no Penny Black tree images but I don't like to give in if there's a way around it. Eventually, whilst on another mission and browsing through the Craftwork Cards blog, I came across a card made by Enfys who is a member of their design team and took inspiration from her and created my own tree with one inch and half inch punched circles and a Quickutz fence die cut for the trunk. The circles were sponged with Encore metallic gold ink, glittered with Stampin' up Dazzling Diamonds glitter and decorated with peel offs. Little green holographic peel off dots were added between the circles. Die cut tree branches using a Marianne Creatables die were added to the top corner along with a bow made from Garden Green Stampin' up grosgrain ribbon. The tips of the branches were also sponged with gold ink and then a frosty sparkle was added to the very tips of the needles using a Sakura clear gelly roll glitter pen.

The main image is Penny Black's Slapstick Stamp Sweet Snowman and is coloured using Promarkers. He has been cut out and raised up on the card using foam pads. To add sparkle to the snowman's hat, scarf and parcel they have been outlined with a gold glitter pen and then glittered. The green parcels at his feet are peel offs which have been stuck on to green card, cut out and also attached to the card with foam pads.

For the backing papers I've used a green Happy Christmas paper from Kanban and various types of white, green and gold cardstock. The matt gold card was embosssed using the Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder and the white pearlescent card was torn and glittered along the torn edge to create a frosty edged snowdrift.

Thanks to the challenge I now have another Christmas card which would be appropriate for a male.
Looking forward to seeing what the next Christmas themed challenge will be.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 178– Christmas/ Trees and Green
Creatalicious Challenges 28 - Christmas with Sparkles 
Emerald Faeries Challenge 13 - Christms Green
I Love Promarkers Challenge 93 - Anything goes
Winter Wonderland Challenge - What a Cutie
Everybody Art Challenge 168 - Christmas Card 
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Christmas Crackers
Pollycraft Monday Challenge 120 - Christmas 
Lothian Crafts Challenge 20 - Christmas
Make It Monday - Anything Goes 

Thanks for reading

Liz xx

WOYWW?

Thank you for all the lovely comments left after last week's posting.  This is my picture for WOYWW? at Julia's this week and one word would describe it...   chaos.  Up until last night I had the Christmas card production line jogging along in a controlled orderly fashion but then decided to make a card for this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge and ended up doing a TYTT again (Trash Your Table Tuesday).  However, after thinking I'd have to give the challenge a miss this week, through lack of any tree stamps, I decided to create one for Snowy instead and there the cogs started to turn and bits and pieces crept on to the table to create this scene.   I'm happy with the results though.

I'm trying to limit time in blogland at the moment as Christmas card production is in full swing.  My poor finger joints are complaining about all the repetitive actions they're having to do to make batches of cards and my poor brain won't switch off at night as it keeps wondering what design to make for the next batch and then there's the Penny Black Saturday Challenge card to make and.......  and......... .  I'm sure this is a common complaint at this time of year for most crafters and then there's the mental lists of Christmas shopping which whirl around in there too.  That must be why, comes Christmas afternoon and after Christmas dinner, I finally relax and fall asleep with cracker hat still perched on head.  There are several photos to prove this and it's become an expected part of the Christmas day proceedings in this house.

Right, on with the good work and thanks for popping past this week.

Liz xx

PS  Have discovered that listening to Michael Buble Christmas helps with the mental anguish of die cutting countless snowflakes.

Ruby Anniversary

 

This is a card and box set I made recently for one of the members of our Saturday craft group.  Lorraine is the newsest member of the group and last month she and her husband David celebrated their Ruby Anniversary with a trip to Cuba.  Rather than posting this, and risk it sitting in the Post Office until they got back, I held on to it until our last group meeting and gave it to Lorraine personally.  However, this meant that it was rather late.

This shoe template has been used several times this year with three Pearl Anniversaries, two Silver Anniversaries, a wedding and a Ruby Anniversary to make cards for.  All that was needed was a Golden Anniversary but that will have to wait until next year as I have an Auntie and Uncle who will reach that milestone and also a cousin and her husband reaching thirty years.  In a few years I'll have to think up a different design as those celebrating their silver anniversary reach thirty years together.  Here's a closer look at the actual shoe and the materials and some hints and tips on how to make this project are on this posting.

No more shoe cards to make for this year so this Cinderella needs to put her slipper away and get Christmas card making in full production.  This usually means there will be chaos and glitter everywhere.  We need some sparkle with all this grey weather that's around though.

I'd like to enter this project in the following challenge
Make It Monday - Anything Goes 

Thanks for reading
Liz xx

Butterfly Quotes. Just Because....

 

At our Saturday monthly craft meet in October Sandra showed us how to make a meander book using one sheet of 12x12 doublesided paper.  She'd found a tutorial for it on Splitcoaststampers and thought this would be a good project for the group to try.  We did the basic cutting and folding on the day and started to decorate it using punches provided by Sandra and Susan.  Each page is only 3"x3" so it's a great way to use up scrap pieces of card and paper to punch from or stamp on to.

When I got home I was determined to finish it off and not let another project fester in the UFO ( UnFinished Objects Box).  However, other projects overtook and it was only last Friday, the day before our next meet, that I decided I was going to finish the book off and bring it back to show Sandra.  I had a great day amongst stamps, peeloffs, dies and punches that had been lying neglected or not even tried.  I decided the theme for the book would be butterflies and  hunted out and printed off some quotes using the computer.  By bedtime I had my pages planned, pieces placed on pages and all the mess tidied up again.  Here they are before I stuck it all together and in to the book. The last picture shows the front cover and an open page.  As you can see you can create apertures in the pages using punches.

 

Unfortunatley Sandra was unwell at the weekend so she didn't see it.  I'll have to bring it along next time for her to see.  

Last week my daughter Elaine had a few days off work and when Monday came around again she was really down at having to go back so I decided to give her the little quote book as a cheer me up, a just because pressie.  She loves butterflies and she also collects quotes from various sources.  To finish off the whole project I made a little box for her to keep it in.

  

It had the desired effect as I got a big hug in thanks.

I'd like to enter this project in the following challenge

Everybody-Art-Challenge 168 - Little Present

Flutterby Wednesdays Challenge 180 - Open Challenge

Ruby's Rainbow Challenge 16 - Something with Wings 

Crafty Ribbons Challenge 6 - Anything but a Card

Divas by design Challenge 15 - Monochromatic

Hooked on Craft Challenge 12 - Something Punched

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge 138 - Punch It 

Magical Monday Challenge - Use those Scraps

Make It Monday - Anything Goes 

Thanks for reading

Liz xx