A Pocketful of Good Wishes

 

This is a card I've made for Rhys, a friend's grandson.  His Mum Sarah was just eight years old when we moved in to this street and became friends with the family and as time went on Sarah began to refer to me as Auntie Liz.  Even at that early age she had a strong mothering instinct and when our Ian was born she would come round to play with him and take him for walks.  She became a mum herself at a young age and with the support of her family and husband she's done a brilliant job in bringing up her daughter and son.  They are two lovely young people and a credit to her.

It's hard to believe that Rhys is twelve already and as soon as I saw this digital stamp called Smitty, by Krista Smith of Saturated Canary, I thought of Rhys and decided to make a card for him using it.  Here's a picture of the birthday boy himself. 

The main image is coloured using Promarkers and then following on with a pocket theme I used the Woodware wooden stamp Jeans Pocket to stamp, emboss and cut out pockets to decorate the panels and also to make a backing paper.  The top of the pockets were left open to add a contribution to Rhys's birthday fund and tags with messages.  The gingham backing paper is from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers Blue.

  

The messages and personalised number and backing layers were printed from the computer and cut out using a red Sizzix tags die and circle Nestabilities dies.  The smaller circles, used to back Rhys's name, were punched using a Woodware half inch circle punch and the kraft corners were cut using a Quickutz die.

The edges of the card and some of the toppers were sponged with Stampin' up's Bashful Blue ink and their Nearly Navy grosgrain ribbon was added to the tags.  A few peel off crystal dot stickers were the final embellishments.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
That Craft Place Challenge - One for the Boys 
Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge 105 - Blue
Stamp,Scrap and Doodle Challenge - Birthday
Patti's Creations Design Challenge 42 - Photo Inspiration 
Saturated Canary Challenge 16 - Happy Birthday
Digital Tuesday Challenge 157 - Winter Blues
Passion for Promarkers Challenge 146 - Cut It Out
Shopping Our Stash Challenge 49 - Starts with a "B"  (blue, boy) 
Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 67 - One for the Boys
Daisy Doodles Challenge 58 - One for the Boys
Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Thanks for reading

Liz xx

Guest Designer at My Sheri Crafts Challenge Blog

This is the card I put together for my Guest Designer spot over at My Sheri Crafts Challenge Blog. I recently entered their challenge "A Birthday Card for an under Five" and as a result was chosen to be a Guest Designer in their "April Showers Bring May Flowers to Mum - Create a Mothers Day card/project and add Flowers" Challenge.

 The main image on this card was made using a stamp from Inkadinkado inked with Versafine Archival ink in Majestic Blue.  It was then cut out and framed using Grand Nestabilities Circles dies.  Whilst looking for the circle dies I came across the Sizzix/Hero Arts stamp and die cut Antique Flowers and Butterflies set which my daughter gave me as a Christmas present and realised that the flowers matched those in the main image.  This is what I've used to make the floral ring underneath the main image.  It's the first time I've used this set and I was impressed how clearly it stamped and how the die cut so cleanly.  An excellent combination.  The little flowers were punched using a Tonic punch.

The floral backing paper came from the Papermania Capsule Collection by Jesse Edwards and is the Burleigh Blue design.  This is a lovely selection of papers, some suitable for masculine projects as well as florals, and I also treated myself to ribbons, buttons and bows from the collection.  The navy pearlescent card and the diamond white card is from the Papeterie.  On the white layer under the floral ring I distressed the edges, inked them with the Majestic Blue ink and added a stitched border as an extra frame.  The edges of the scalloped base card, the sentiment and the small flowers were also sponged with ink.  The sentiment was printed from the computer and die cut and layered using a Nestabilities circle die.  

A few pearls from Hobby House, silver round brads, crystal dot peel offs and Stampin' up Night of Navy ribbon were the finishing touches.

I usually add a paper insert to cards but I decided to decorate the inside of the card using the same inks and papers.  The stamped image on the left is also from an Inkadinkado stamp and is the same lady as in the main image on the front.  On the right I printed a verse I found on the internet and die cut and framed it using Grand Nestabilities dies.  The floral paper is also from the Burleigh Blue paper pack and is the same design as the paper used on the front except the white and blue colours have been reversed.

I don't like having my photograph taken but the one of me on My Sheri Crafts Challenge blog was taken by my daughter as part of a portrait challenge she took part in at the local camera club.  You can check out more of her work here

http://www.wix.com/elainemiller/elaine-miller

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
Fussy and Fancy Challenge 61 - Die Cuts and Punches
PaperPlay ChallengesWeek 17 - Monochrome and Ribbon
Inky Impressions Challenge - Anything Goes
The Pixie Cottage Challenge 118 - For Mum and/or Sketch
Craft-room Challenge - Ink It
Deep Ocean Challenge 24 - Use Punches and Dies
Bling It On April Challenge - Monochrome
Make It Monday - Anything Goes
Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge 105 - Blue
Our Craft  Lounge Challenge OCL115 - Vintage
The Stamp Man Challenge - Shabby Chic or Distressed
Paper Crafting Journey Challenge 8 - Vintage

Thanks for reading
Liz xx

Guest Designer for Fussy and Fancy

This is the card I put together for my Guest Designer spot over at the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge Blog. I recently entered their challenge "Anything but Square/Rectangle" with this card and as a result was chosen to be a Guest Designer in their Punches and Dies Challenge.

The main image is called Whispy and is a digital stamp from Krista Smith at Saturated Canary.  It is coloured with Promarkers and to add sparkle I used a second image to make a mask, by cutting away the wings, the petal shaped over skirt and the leg warmers, and then sprayed Crafter's Companion gold glitter spray through it.  I used a gold Promarker pen to sponge ink around the scalloped edged card, the sentiment , the flowers and their centres and a backing layer.

The happy birthday backing paper is from the digital download A Patchwork of Papers Yellow from Cuddly Buddly and the floral paper is a sheet from the Citrus Colossal Paper Pack from Papermania.  The plain card stock is from the Papeterie and the glittered gingham cardstock was bought from Create and Craft.

 

To meet the Punches and Dies challenge I used Grand Nestabilities Labels Four Dies to make the frame and backing layers for Whispy.  The pale yellow layer was made by drawing around one of the dies and cutting it out.  I don't like putting my hand cutting next to die cut edges so I distressed this layer.  A Nestabilities plain oval die was used to cut out the sentiment and backing layers.  The sentiment is from Stampin' up's sincere Salutations stamp set.  The large and medium layered up flowers were cut using Quickutz daisy dies and the small flowers were punched using a Tonic punch.

This card is for my cousin's daughter Chloe who celebrated her 9th birthday on Tuesday.  To personalise the card for her I used letters from a Hero Arts alphabet stamp set to stamp out the letters of her name first in yellow and then with orange over the top to create a shadow effect.  The letters were then punched out using a 3/4 inch Stampin' up punch.  A Woodware 1/2 inch punch was used to make the centre for the medium daisy and the number 9 peel off added for her age.

A few pearls, a brad, crystal dot peel offs, lemon satin ribbon and gold elastic cord were the finishing touches on this card.

Chloe had her first birthday during my first year of card making which is why I can remember when I started this hobby.  It's fun to look back and see how far you've developed through inspiration from other crafters, learning new techniques and adding  to your crafting tools.  Here is that first card.

I don't like having my photograph taken but the one of me on the Fussy and Fancy Challenge blog was taken by my daughter as part of a portrait challenge she took part in at the local camera club.  You can check out more of her work here

http://www.wix.com/elainemiller/elaine-miller

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
PaperPlay Challenge Week 17 - Monochrome and Ribbon 
Saturated Canary Challenge 16 - Happy Birthday 
Creative Monday Challenge 6 - Yellow and Sunshine 
The Pink Elephant Challenge 145 - Hello Sunshine (Use Yellow)
Passion for Promarkers Challenge 146 - Cut It Out
Cardmadfairies Challenge - Pick a Number
Bling It On April Challenge - Monochrome
Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Thanks for reading

Liz xx

A Card for the Other Half's Birthday

It's my other half''s birthday today and this is the card I've made for him.  I'm not very good at coming up with ideas for masculine cards but quite enjoyed creating and personalising the little bird house on this one.

The inspiration for the card came from the bookmark panel sheet from Kanban's British Birds Collection.  Only half the sheet was used, as there are four bookmarks on it, so there's the possibility of making a matching bookmark gift too.  The plain coloured cardstock came from the Papeterie.

 

To make up the bird house I used a Kraft card base to cut four rectangles, two for the box with the top corners chopped off both to create a triangle shaped top and two for the base with the back one cut a little shorter than the front one.  A Nestabilites circle die was used to cut the hole for the front of the box.  The little bird houses spelling out Alan's name were also cut from the kraft card using the Marianne Creatables die set Bird with Ivy.  As well as cutting them out in kraft card I cut them out in brown to get the roof tops and hearts and also in light brown to get an extra heart embellishment.  The kraft card has a white core so I sponged Stampin' up's Chocolate Chip ink around the cut edges.  For the roof I cut strips of brown card, edged them using Stampin' up's scalloped edged punch and overlapped and trimmed them to create a sloped roof.  The edges of the roofs on the small and large bird houses were sponged with Encore gold metallic ink.  The ball at the top is a half inch punched circle and the house number plate was cut using an oval Nestabilities die.  You can guess why it's house number 54.

The bird image sandwiched between the bird house layers is from Stampin' up's Young Vermillion stamp and inked with their Chocolate Chip ink.  The sentiment, which is from Stampin' up's Sincere Salutation stamp set, was also stamped using Chocolate Chip ink and then die cut and layered using a Nestabilities Labels Four die.

The final touches were adding some gold round brads, gold peel off numbers, letters and dots and Stampin' up's Bashful Blue ribbon.  Bashful Blue ink was sponged around the edge of the base card.

Hopefully Alan will enjoy his birthday even if it's a working one.  At least he doesn't have my cooking to come home to as we're heading out for a birthday tea.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
Shopping Our Stash Challenge 49 - Starts with a B (brown, blue, brad, bird, birdhouse and bow)
Alphabet Challenge Blog - F for Feathered Friends
Crop Stop Challenge 69 - To the Birds
Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Thanks for reading

Liz xx

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 198 - No Patterned Papers

This is the card I've made for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge this week which is "No Patterned Papers".  Linda, who comes along to the Tuesday Crafting Bees, had a little boy on Sunday so I've made this card with her in mind.

The main image is from the Penny Black Stamp "Baby Hammock" and is coloured with Promarkers.  I used plain and scalloped circle Nestabilities to cut the frame and backing layer for it.  The sentiment was created on the computer and like the main image was cut and layered using the circle dies.

To add pattern on the card I used a nappy pin stamp from PSX and stamped it using Stampin' up's Bashful Blue ink on to squares cut using a square Nestabilities die.  For texture I cut and embossed squares using Papermania's buttons embossing folder from the Boofle range.  After adding a stitched border to all four squares Bashful Blue ink was sponged around them and also the scallops of the base card.

Buttons cut using a Quickutz die, satin blue ribbon from John Lewis and some mini blue safety pins were added for embellishments.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week198 - No Patterned Papers
Divas By Design Challenge 32 - Buttons and Bows
Bearly Mine Challenge 32 - Baby Days
Lolllipop Crafts Challenge 77 - Baby Baby
Penny Black and More at Allsorts - Oh So Cute
Passion for Promarkers Week 146 - Cut It Out
Stamptacular Sunday Challenge 160 - Loaded with Layers
Crafts and Me Challenge 81 - Embossing
Truly Scruptious Challenge 79 - Distress and Die Cuts/Punches
Timeless Tuesday #166 - Bingo (Buttons, Ribbon, Emboss)
Kaboodles Doodles Challenge 116 - Emboss It 
Crafty Ann's Challenge 64 - Stitching, real or faux
Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Thanks for reading
Liz xx

Another Awakening ...

 

This is the second card I've made this week using the new "awakening" stamp by Penny Black and it also means that I'll be able to enter the Penny Black Saturday Challenge for a second time.  Normally I'm running at the last minutes just trying to get there with one entry.  This weeks challenge is Spots and Stripes.  For the spots I've used a backing card from Kanban, round brads and pearls and punched circles and for the Stripes element I've used the Hero Arts Large Canvas Stripes stamp to create backing layers and corners.

The colours used in this one are Stampin' up's Pool Party, Island Indigo and Old Olive and I used card, ink and pens in these colours.  The sentiment is also from Stampin' up's Sincere Salutations set and the butterfly embellishment was cut using their Beautiful Wings embosslits die.  To personalise the card for Mum I used letter stamps from a Hampton Arts Alphabet set.  To cut the leaf stem embellishments I used a Marianne Creatables die and the final touch was co-ordinating satin ribbon from John Lewis.

To create the topper I used the Stampin' up Write Marker pens to colour the image and then spritz it with water before stamping to get the water colour effect.  I've got rather hooked on this technique after recently seeing how effective it is on projects using this stamp on Brenda's blog.  I took a second impression and used this as a shadow backing layer to the main image.  The topper was then distressed, the edges sponged with ink and a stitched border added to frame it.

This card is for my Mum's birthday which is the first of May but as she is coming to visit next weekend I wanted to have it finished to give it to her personally.  Hopefully she will like it and not think it's too arty farty.

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

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 197 - Spot and Stripes

Sir Stampalot April Challenge - Happy Birthday
Bling It On April Challenge - Monochrome 
Do You Stack Up Challenge 68 - Stripes 
Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Thanks for reading

Liz xx

Penny Black Saturday Challenge 197 - Spots and Stripes

 

This is the card I've made for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge which this week is Spots and Stripes.  The main image is the Penny Black stamp "awakening" which I bought after seeing how Brenda at Floral Fantasies had used it here and here.  This is definitely going to be a replacement for my Stampendous Agapanthus stamp which has been over used recently.

The Spots and Stripes are on the Stampin' up backing papers and ribbon.  The colour scheme for this card is Stampin' up's Wisteria Wonder and Rich Razzleberry and I used an assortment of their papers, card, pens, ink and ribbon.  The lilac and white card is from the Papeterie and the Happy Birthday backing paper is from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers Purple.  The sentiment was stamped using a stamp from Stampin' up's Sincere Salutations set and the personalised name at the bottom was stamped using letters from a Hero Arts alphabet set and then punched out using an X-cut tag punch.  Labels Four Nestabilities and Grand Nestabilities were used to die cut the main image, sentiment and backing layers.

Using Brenda's inspiration I used the water colour technique to colour and stamp this image.  Stampin' up's Wisteria Wonder, Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive pens were used to colour it.  I had a few attempts before I got an image I was happy with and used one of the mishaps as a backing to the main image.  After using the Nestability die to cut the main image I left it in place and used it as a stencil to sponge Wisteria Wonder ink around the image which then left a white border around the topper.

This card will be winging it's way to a friend in Colwyn Bay, North Wales.  Jan has already received one of my Agapanthus creations so the inspiration from Brenda came along just in time.

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

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 197 - Spots and Stripes   

Top Tip Tuesday - Spotty Dotty

Bunny Zoe's Challenge 23 - Ribbon or Twine

Craft Your Passion Challenge 106 - Die Cuts and Punches

House of Gilli Challenge 31 - Flowers

Lexi's Creations Challenge 63 - Punches and Dies

Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge - Anything Goes 

Sir Stampalot April Challenge - Happy Birthday

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge 159 - Freebie Week (Anything Goes)

Wags 'n Whiskers Challenge 77 - Anything Goes

Pixie Dust Studio Challenge 122 - Ribbons

Inky Impressions Challenge IIC55 - Birthday Creations 

Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Thanks for reading

Liz xx

Easter Craft Class

 

These are the projects we made, or started, at Carol and Ruth's Stampin' up craft class when we were keeping Carol occupied so that her family could prepare her surprise birthday party for her.  I don't think Carol can yet believe how we managed to set her up.  The two cards on the left and right and the bunny box were the projects we managed to complete and we had just started the zigzag fold card, in the middle, when we had to stop and tidy up as Ruth was having to go out.  That was the excuse to get Carol back home in time for her party.  

I'd never made a zigzag card before so decided to finish this one off at home.  It's been tweaked a little from the kit that Ruth had made up for us as somehow, in transit, I lost a few embellishments and I also wanted to cover up some wonky stamping and gluing.  Where that bunny rabbit tail went I do not know but I improvised with a chalking ball from Avec instead. 

As well as having made up the project kits for the day Ruth had made up Easter banner kits and had printed off a template and instructions for a basket as extras, in case we had time to pass before Carol's party was due to start.  I've put together the banner and will keep the basket instructions for next Easter.

Ruth and Carol are away to Glasgow this weekend for a Stampin' up training event so we're looking forward to seeing all their swaps and hearing their stories when they get back.

I'd like to enter these in the following challenge

Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Thanks for reading

Liz xx

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 196 - Case It

 

The card above is the card I've made for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge which this week was casing Helen's card below.

The inspiration I took from Helen's card was the layout, embossing, kraft card base, ribbon, pearls and a topper with a distressed border.  The stamped image I used was the Penny Black stamp Aspire and although I used Aquamarkers and Stampin' up pens to colour it and then mist with water to achieve the watercolour effect, like Helen had done, this isn't obvious as the image stamped quite cleanly.  After stamping the main image I re-misted and stamped the image a few times to create a background for the sentiment.  The image looked a bit bare when I layered it on to the coloured card so I decided to give it a hand stitched border as a frame.

 

Apart from the kraft card base from Craft UK Limited and the diamond white card from the Papeterie the other pieces of card, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery and Calypso Coral were from the Stampin up range.  Old Olive ink, marker pen and ribbon and Calypso Coral marker pen were also used.  The sentiment is from Stampin' up's Sincere Salutations stamp set and die cut using a Nestabilities Labels Four die.  From the AquaMarkers range I used Tangerine and Golden Brown.

Other embellishments used were brads and green self adhesive pearls from the Papeterie.  They have a lovely selection of embellishments in stock at the moment and I couldn't resist buying some coloured  and white heart shaped pearl embellishments.  I was so close to buying pearl pins too but resisted.

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

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 196 - Case It  

Crafty Purple Frog Challenge - Let's Get Distressed

CCEE1215 Challenge - Use three Embellishments (brads, pearls and ribbon)

Let's Ink It Up Challenge 22 - Distressing 

The Stamping Boutique Challenge 33 - Distress

Delightful Challenges - Delightful Stitches (real or faux) 

Paper Pretties Challenge - Use Lots of Layers 

Creative Card Crew Challenge 8 - Kraft

Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Thanks for reading

Liz xx