Nineteen, Eighteen ........

This is the card I made for our son who turned nineteen on the 13th of July.  It's a large easel style card and the idea for a patchwork front, using album covers, was taken from a tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.  I used Google images to find pictures of his favourite albums, transferred the images into an Open Office document and resized them to fit a square nestabilities die.  The nineteen background paper and greetings tag were also created on the computer.  Letter and record die-cuts were made using Quickutz dies.  A few peel-offs and silver mirri board were used to add a subtle bling.  It ended up being quite an easy card to put together.

Whilst taking photos of this one I realised I hadn't kept a record of the card I made for Ian's eighteenth birthday so I took photos of it at the same time and thought I'd share them with you in this post too.  Unfortunately his eighteenth birthday was tinged with sadness as his Granny had passed away just a few days before.  We'd planned a family holiday away for his birthday celebrations and although we still went, and tried to make the best of the day, our hearts just weren't quite in it.

   

The card was in the style of an album cover and was based around the album Octahedron (Octateen) by the Mars Volta which is one of his favourite bands.  These pictures show the envelope wallet, card front and mock record and sleeve, the back cover and inside the cover.  Backing papers were made by taking images relating to the band from Google images and making a collage with them in an Open Office document.  I printed them out on glossy photo paper in colour and also on matt white card in greyscale.

  

And here's a picture of the birthday boy.

This was one of the few moments of the day when the ukelele, which his sister gave him, left his hands.

Thanks for reading

Liz x

New Home - Mojo Monday 201

 

I really enjoyed making this card for a grand niece as she, her partner and little girl have just moved into their new home.  I've used the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge as the inspiration for the layout and the cardstock is a mixture of Dawn Bibby and Kanban designs. Recently my other half and I spent a weekend away in Kendal and during one of our days away I was taken to the Kanban Factory Shop in Shipley and had a great time filling a box of beautiful cardstock.  It really was like being a kid in a sweetie shop and was well worth enduring the winding roads to get there.

The house is made using a Sizzix die which I've had for ages and never had the opportunity of using but it fitted in well with this layout.

I'd like to enter this into the

MOJO201 - Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge

Thanks for reading

Liz x 

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Week 161 - Starburst

 

This is my entry to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge this week.  I decided that this week, by hook or by crook, I would not be last on the list of entries and with no card deadlines I set to and made this one.  The challenge this time was called Starburst, card entries could be adorned with any type of stars.  This card is going to be for a grand-nephew who turns eighteen next month.

The stamp I used for this one is from the Mary Sherry Collection and is called "Dressed Up".  The greeting and image are stamped using Stampin' Up chocolate chip ink and coloured using Promarkers.  The image was cut out using circle nestabilities and then framed using a Marianne star frame die.  The circle layers underneath were cut using a compass cutter.  The backing papers dictated the colour scheme for this one and were from a pack of 8x8 papers called Masculine by Dovecraft and matched the challenge theme and the image perfectly.  Extra stars were added by using peel-offs and brads.  The message was cut using oval nestabilities, corners and ties were quickutz diees and the small tags were punched using and x-cut punch.

I'd also like to enter this in  the

Passion for Promarkers Challenge 110 - Animal Crackers

Totally Gorjuss Challenge 90 - Punch or Die 

Die cut Creams Challenge Blog - Challenge 94 Animal Antics 

Totally Papercrafts Challenge - One For The Boys

Stampin' for the Weekend - Challenge 13 - Paws for Thought

Creative Card Crew - Animal Antics 

Fab 'n' Funky Challenges - Animal Magic 

Fuzzy Wuzzy Challenges - Get Punchy 

Stamp Something - Something Embellished 

Thanks for reading

Liz x

Pearl Anniversary

 

 

I had the pleasure of being able to make this Pearl Anniversary card for another set of friends who celebrated thirty years of marriage together on the 17th of July.  The husband jokingly said he could have committed murder and been released during that periond of time so I replied that I hoped he wasn't equating his marriage to a prison sentence.  

I love making this shoe card and don't think I'll ever get tired of using the template to make it.  There's another pearl and silver anniversary coming up soon so I'll be posting more of the same in the future.  This one had to be slightly tweeked as I had trouble getting the silver border peel-offs to stick and going around the heel of the shoe proved most difficult.  I ended up rubbing over the peel-off so much, trying to make it stick, that silver transferred onto the sole so some camouflaging had to be done.  I quite often enjoy the challenge of trying to hide mistakes and sometimes they turn out happy mistakes. Instead of having one paper rose decorating the heel, as I usually do, I continued a line of them around it and I quite like the effect.  It covered up wonky cutting and curling up peel-offs so I think I'll add this touch to the shoes from now on.

Materials used to make this card are listed in this previous post.

Thanks for reading

Liz x

You Rock

 

This is the third version I've made of this card this year and each one has been slightly tweeked to suit the recipient.  The set of stamps I used is from Inkadinkado and it also includes a drum kit so I was able to create a similar styled one for a drummer.  This one's destination was Colwyn Bay, North Wales, and is for Fraser who celebrated his fifteenth birthday today.  Fraser is an active lad and he and a group of friends have formed their own band.  Not only is he busy with gigs and practice sessions he's also in training for a Duke of Edinburgh expedition at the end of this month.  Amongst studies he's also fund raising for a school trip to Patagonia next year.

Details on how to make this card can be found on this post.  There are extra musical notes added to the version above which were made using a quickutz die and the stopper posts were cut using circle nestabilities dies rather than a one inch punch.  Much easier to cut through thick card.  I also stamped the string ends from the guitar stamp underneath the Happy Birthday message on this one.

Thanks for reading

Liz x

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Week 160 - Bunting

 

This is my entry to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge this week where we had to use bunting on our project.  This is being entered at the last minute again, and it has taken me all afternoon to put together, but I was determined I was going to get this card made.  All week I'd had an idea in my head about what stamp I was going to use and the card I was going to make but it was one of those occasions where it didn't quite gel together.  Looking forward to the next challenge though and off to clean up the trail of chaos I've left behind me.

Thanks for reading

Liz x

Wine Lover

This is a card I made for my sister-in-law's husband who celebrated his 57th birthday yesterday.  The topper on the easel card is taken from this Craftsuprint camera eye layering download but unfortunately my photographs don't show the clever effect of the layering.  The download consists of one A4 sheet with the topper, layers and two matching tags.

The easel stopper was made using a bottle label rubber stamp from a set by WS Designs with number peeloffs added to the centre to remind the recipient of their maturity.  The Happy Birthday sentiment was cut from black card using a Go-Kreate die.

Thanks for reading

Liz x

Birthday Boy

 

I find it really difficult to make cards for young lads, and probably men in general, so when I found a topper sheet with these two decoupage images on it they seemed ideal for a quick make.  Kanban products are of such good quality that each layer is firm and solid and not going to crush or crinkle in a hurry.

The blue version was for our neighbours son who turned eleven on Saturday.  He had hoped to have a camping party in the back garden but I think the rain scuppered that plan and it turned into a sleepover inside instead.  The green version was for my nephew's birthday last November.  The patterned backgound papers are also Kanban cardstock.

Thanks for reading

Liz x

Travel ATCs

Lady In Red - Card Inspired by a Mary Stewart print - Rosa Deep Secret

 

 

 This is a card I made for my son's girlfriend.  About a month ago my friend and I had a day out and browsed around the shops at Milton of Crathes, Banchory, Aberdeenshire.  Whilst browsing around the Wee Boorachie I saw this print and I immediately thought of Rowena, my son's girlfriend.  It was Rowena's lovely skin and beautiful mane of dark hair which first impressed me and I loved how she could pile it up on her head, just as the lady in this print.  With her birthday fast approaching I decided to buy it for her, brought it home and got my son's approval. However, I then wished I'd bought the matching greetings card.  This thought never left my head and two days before her birthday I phoned the shop to check if they still had the matching card and went back and got it to use as an element in the card I intended making for her.  This is the end result.  Hopefully because this is a personal gift and not for financial gain I haven't breached any copyright regulations.

I've tried to find a direct link to Mary Stewart to further promote her work but drew a blank other than the information below which I took from a site selling her greetings cards.

"Mary Stewart is a renowned artist based in Dunfermline in Scotland. She is a well known artist, producing a wide portfolio of illustrative prints. They feature whimsical characters and have a wide appeal, especially to those who appreciate a beautiful flower or two!
A number of the prints have been produced as greetings cards. Mary ensures that these cards are a close representation of the original art
© Mary Stewart Ltd"
Mary Stewart Limited Muircockhall Farm Kingseat Road Dunfermline KY12 0TQ Scotland. Telephone: +44 (0) 1383 732 626 

Hopefully this will be of help if anyone wishes to find out more about the original artist.

Thanks for reading
Liz x