Friday 28 February 2014

Last Box of Roses for 2013

There were lots of box of roses cards made during 2013 but the last one was for a crafting buddy who celebrated her 70th birthday in December.  She'd also made lots of these cards to order or to give from herself so it seemed fitting to give her one in her favourite colours.


The patterned papers for Anne's card were from the Nitwit Collection Romance and Roses which were a good match to Stampin' up's melon mambo and marina mist ribbon.  There are some lovely papers and elements in this collection.  The box of roses fits on an 8"x 8" scalloped card and is raised up on foam pads.  The parts of the lid which don't overlap the box are on double layer foam pads.
Rolled roses made using the Marianne die English rose were cut from card printed on both sides with two of the papers, one dark and one light patterned, from the Romance and Roses collection.


The leaves for the roses were punched using an X-cut beech leaf embossing punch and then had their edges sponged with VersaMagic chalk ink in sea breeze.

An original Sizzix red die was used to cut the gift tags for the box and the top tag was embossed using one of Stampin' up's textured impressions designer frames.  Their large oval punch was used to add a patterned paper layer to the centre and the numbers added on top were cut using Sizzlits die.


A border was stitched around the card and brads added to the corners.


Anne celebrated her actual birthday with her family but the following weekend, which was the weekend before Christmas, her sons organised a lunch for her with family and friends.  The crafting group had the honour to be included in this gathering.  Although we all sat at the same table I think we all behaved ourselves although some of us were more entertaining than others.  

Just one more card from 2013 to post about and then it's catch up in 2014.

Thanks for reading today
Liz xxx

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

Wednesday 26 February 2014

Keira is 2

This card was for a grand-niece who was two in November.  Through the year each of the grand nieces were made a card in this style using pieces from a Create and Craft Kit as elements and chopping them up to make a bigger card or doing a "Nancy".  Nancy Watt used to demonstrate lots of the card kits on Create and Craft and quite often she'd show how the kit could be used this way.  Through the year I had enjoyed the challenge of finding co-ordinating cardstock and embellishments to use on each card.

The base of each panel on this card was made from layers of purple and lilac card and the Happy Birthday paper was printed from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers Purple on to pale lilac card.  Each panel also had a stitched border to add an extra frame.



This card front had a pretty decorated edge along the top and bottom and it was left as it was rather than being layered up.  Attached to the front panel is a personalised sentiment created on the computer and punched out using Stampin' up's scalloped and plain oval punches.  Self adhesive pearls and purple grosgrain ribbon were added as embellishments. The panel behind was decorated with flowers punched using Tonic's small flower punch with pearls and crystal dot peel offs added to their centres.  Keira's age was printed from the computer and die cut using a Spellbinders Labels ten die.



On the inside the little picture from the back of the original card was also die cut and layered using a labels ten die.  The verse was printed from the computer and layered behind frames cut with grand nestabilities circle dies.  More flowers and ribbon were added as embellishments.

Here is a picture of Keira with her Peppa Pig birthday cake.  What a little smasher she is growing up to be.


Thanks for reading today.

Monday 24 February 2014

One for Down Under

This card was sent off to Margaret, a sister-in-law who lives in Australia, who celebrated her 65th birthday back in October.  It was another of those squares cards which I'm getting as addicted to as the box of roses cards I made through 2013.  This one was in shades of blue and although it was a card for a female the blue and white with the gingham backing paper made it a very fresh and clean colour scheme.  More information on how this card was put together can be found in this post.



The patterned papers for this card were from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers Blue and the ink colours for the stamping were Encore Metallic Blue and Stampin' up's Bashful Blue.  Embellishments added were blue grosgrain ribbon, silver butterfly peel offs and blue self adhesive pearls from Hobbycraft.



Just before Margaret's birthday we were lucky enough to have a visit from her daughter Michelle.  Michelle had just finished her thesis and had planned a European trip before graduating and heading off to work in a University in Baltimore for two years.


With Michelle's visit being during October we almost had four seasons of Scottish weather in one weekend.  We did however have a lovely day out at Linn of Dee.  It was a chilly day but the sky was crystal clear and there was snow on the mountains.  Here are a few photos taken on the day.


Elaine and Ian.


Ian by the river.  He was our model for the day as he was the only one without a camera and could frequently be caught posing although he wouldn't admit it. 


Ian, Michelle and Elaine.


Michelle strolling along one of the paths.

The next photos were taken by Elaine and show the beautiful colours that were around that autumn day.




A group selfie


A lovely day to remember and thanks for reading today.

Friday 21 February 2014

Special Birthdays

There were three special birthdays amongst family and friends towards the end of last year and it was the large Woodware 18th stamp and Papermania's number stamps which were used for these ones.   Details of how the Papermania number stamps were used can be found here.

One of the three uncles who celebrated their birthday in November was turning 65 so the Papermania number stamps were used on his card and as he is a Celtic supporter then the colour theme was green.  The papers for this one was from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers Green.  Corner peel offs, Stampin' up's garden green grosgrain ribbon and green brads were added as embellishments. 



A cousin celebrated his 50th birthday and Papermania's number stamps were also used to make the main topper for his card.  The patterned papers used on this one were from Cuddly Buddly's download A Patchwork of Papers Blue printed in greyscale and Pink Petticoats Little Swirls design printed in silver.  Black grosgrain ribbon, silver brads and silver corners embossed with a Happy Birthday embossing folder were added as embellishments.




A friend's daughter celebrated her 18th birthday and Woodware's large 18th stamp was used to make the topper for her card.  the patterned papers used on this one were from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchsork of Papers Purple and the Pink Petticoat design Little Swirls printed in Lilac.  Lilac grosgrain ribbon, silver brads and keys and silver corner embossed with keys embossing folder were added as embellishments.  Details of how this card was put together can be found here.



Thanks for reading today
Liz xx

I'd like to enter these cards in the following challenges
Craftin Desert Deva's Challenge - Glitter
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Lovely Layers
Penny's Paper Challenge 165 - Lot's of Layers
Through the Craft Room Door Challenge 18th-24th Feb - Anything Goes
Penny Black and More January Challenge - Make it Glitter 

Wednesday 19 February 2014

Cats

Recently a new secondary school opened in Kirkwall, Orkney and within the complex is a new community theatre.  Last week the first show took to the stage and it was Cats.  It is almost unheard of for an amateur company to be given full production rights to Cats but Andrew LLoyd Webber gave his permission and as opening night approached he even sent the company a letter wishing them well.  All shows were a sell out and those who attended have all said how fantastic it was.

The reason I've posted about this production is that my niece Leanne went to the auditions and from there went through to become one of the cast.  We were so delighted for her and from this experience she'll have memories that will last a lifetime.  The impact of this whole event will be remembered in the community for years to come.

To wish her well I made Leanne a good luck card using the Nitwit Collections Me-Wow Too and Me-Wow-Lil Bits.  Papers and elements from the collections were transferred to the My Craft Studio programme to create an almost one layer card. 


This is the first almost completely digital card I've made and it took me just about as long to make as any other card, before all the elements were sized, orientated and ordered, but without the mess.


Only one embellishment was added and that was the Quickutz die cut paw.  Even the ribbon was a digital element this time.


The insert too was given the digital treatment although there were a couple of print offs before the message and pictures were the right way round when folded.


Elements from the digital collections were used to decorate the back of the card too.


Below is a photo of Leanne in her Cats make-up and costume.  She's the one in the middle.


Thanks for reading today and letting me have a proud Auntie moment.
Liz xxx

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



Monday 17 February 2014

Just For U 3, 4, and 5

December is a busy month for making birthday cards, as well as the last minute Christmas card splurge, and three of them are for crafting buddies from our monthly craft group.  Out came the Just For U stamp again, with the same layout, but with a bit of feminine treatment this time.

Check back to this post - Just For U - to find out how these cards were put together

This is Janet's card and it was put together using backing papers from the Nitwit Collection Time For Tea.  The flower embellishments were from my stash with flowers punched using the Tonic small flower punch added amongst them.  Brads and self adhesive gems were added to the flowers.





Next up was Sandra's card and it was made using papers from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers Blue and although it was a blue card it made quite a pretty female card embellished with the blue flower.





The next one was for Ann and uses papers from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers Pink and from the Nitwit Colletion Romance and Roses.





There's one more of these cards to share from 2013 but it will keep for another post.

Thanks for reading today
Liz xxx

I'd like to enter these cards in the following challenges

Sunday 16 February 2014

Just For U Two

This is another card made using the Just For U large word stamp from Woodware and it was made for a friend's son who celebrated his 29th birthday in December.  His birthday rounded off an exciting year for Niall because back in May he'd proposed to his girlfriend Steph at the top of the Eiffel Tower and since then preparations for a wedding in October 2014 had been, and still are, in full swing.

More information on how Niall's card was put together can be found in this post -  Just For U



The patterned papers used to make this card were from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers Blue, which were printed in greyscale, and the Pink Petticoat  Little Swirls design in the silver colourway.



Embellishments used were large silver brads, black grosgrain ribbon and a silver and black mix metallic thread was used to stitch borders around the topper and backing panels.  This stamp is fast becoming a favourite and still to share are some feminine versions I've made using it.


This is a lovely photo I managed to catch of Niall, on the right, with his brother and Dad at the surprise engagement party his Mum organised.

Thanks for reading today
Liz xxx