Digital Card for Amanda

Most of the cards I've made recently have used backing papers from various Nitwit Collections.  The collections are designed with matching papers and elements so that you can create digital scrapbook pages and so far I haven't used the kits in this way until I put together a birthday card for Amanda, my cousin's daughter.  Amanda loves animals and is particularly fond of the two dogs they have at home.  Earlier this year she had work experience with a local vet and took all the jobs, including getting hands on, in her stride.  Using this as a theme plus the Nitwit Collection Tail Wags I made up a scrapbook page topper for her birthday card.

The My Craft Studio Professional graphics programme was used to manipulate the different papers and elements of the Tail Wags Collection and also to add a sentiment to the tag.  To personlise it further I chose two photos of their family dogs Ruby and Buster to add to the layout.  

 

The topper was sized and layered to fit on to an 8"x 8" scalloped card and was printed on to canvas photo paper I bought from our local Lidl shop and although pleased with the print out I wasn't happy with the first version of the layout but used it to cut out a bone, a paw, love my dog sign and a button to layer on to the final version later.  After a little tweaking I was happy with the second version and also printed out an extra button and the letters for the dogs' names.  Stampin' up's half inch circle punch was used to punch out the letters.

 

As well as layering up some of the elements an orange border was stitched around the edge to add a contrasting frame and Stampin' up's Old Olive grosgrain ribbon and  orange brads were added as extra embellishments.  The edges of the topper were also distressed to add texture

 

There was a little more experimenting with the double layered insert for the card.  After printing out a message from the computer I masked it off, chose the same backing paper from the Tail Wags Collection as was used on the topper and put it through the printer again.  A frame cut using Spellbinders Grand Nestabilities rectangle dies was then set over the messagae and a bow and  paw print cut using a Quickutz die were added as embellishments.

On the other side of the insert a stamp from Stampin' up's French Foilage stamp set was used to create a mud splatter effect using their Chocolate Chip ink.

I really enjoyed making this card and experimenting with the digital kit to create a peronalised card.  Hopefully Amanda will like it too.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
Dream Valley Challenge 67 - Buttons
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge 227 - Cats and Dog/Pets/Animals
Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Floral Purple Squares

Today is Gracie's birthday.  Gracie is my friend's Mum and as our Elaine and Ian have been growing up she has remembered them on their birthdays so it's nice to remember her one too.  Recently she has had a lovely trip away with her daughter. The first stage of the trip was to London to visit Buckingham Palace and they also attended the recordings of two Christmas Songs of Praise  television programmes in the Royal Albert Hall.  The second stage was to visit her son-in-law in Paris where he lives and works.  She loved Paris so much that she's left her dressing gown there so she can come back.

It was back to the larger nine square layout for Gracie's card with more stamping to decorate the squares.  Patterned papers from the Nitwit Collection Promises and the Pink Petticoat Colour Collection Little Swirls were used as backing layers along with purple and lilac cardstock. 

The floral stamp from the Sizzix Hero Arts framelits die set Butterflies #3 was used to stamp the squares and also create the decoupaged flowers. 

Encore Purple metallic ink was used to stamp the images on to white and lilac card and Spellbinders plain and scalloped squares were used to cut out the topper layers.

The white stamped squares were embossed using a random dots folder before being attached to the scalloped lilac squares and then purple thread was wrapped around the corners.  A shaped punched purple circle was added to the centre of one of the flowers using a foam pad and a pearl was added to one of the corners.

The lilac stamped squares had two smaller die cut squares cut from white and purple cardstock added on top.  Flowers which had been stamped, cut out, shaped and layered were then added along with purple leaves punched using an X-cut embossing punch.  Purple ink was sponged on to the tips of the leaves.  Shaped circles were also added to the centres of these flowers and pearls were added to two of the corners.

The toppers were then place on to a stitched square grid of nine 5cm squares using foam pads. This topper base was then attached to the base layers using foam pads so that there were three tiers to the card.  Purple ribbon was used to wrap around two of the corners of the base layer and to make a bow.

The sentiment was created on the computer and die cut and layered using Spellbinders plain circle nestabilities dies. 

The verse on the insert was also created on the computer and the side edge masked off and decorated using the floral stamp.  A Woodware corner punch was used to round of the corners of the insert.

This is a picture I took earlier this year of Gracie with three of her grandchildren.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
Chocolate, Coffee and Cards Challenge 49 - Flowers
Crafty Ribbons Challenge 64 - Anything Goes with Ribbon
Happy Campers Challenge 22 - Show us your Flowers
Top Tip Tuesday Challenge 111 - Flowers

Evie's Mum's Birthday

In the last post I wrote about baby Evie's arrival, and the card I made for her, but today it's her Mum Lianne's birthday.  Yesterday we visited Evie's Granny and Grandad to deliver a card and present for her along with a birthday card for Lianne as they are visiting the birthday girl today and bringing tea along with them.  They were telling us that when big brother Finlay stayed with them, whilst his Mum was in hospital, he managed to keep it a secret that it would be a girl arriving and that she would be called Evie.  He must have been well primed as he let slip to Granny that Mummy was having a baby long before Lianne herself told her Mum.       

This is the card I made for Lianne 

 

Back to a squares design this time but on a smaller square card.  The toppers and sentiment were stamped using stamps from three different Stampin' up stamp sets.  The smaller roses were stamped from the Baby Blossoms set and the larger roses were from the Stippled Blossoms set.  Both of these are two step stamping sets.  The sentiment was a stamp from the Oval All set.  Their plain and scalloped oval punches were used to punch out and layer up the sentiment. 

I had decided that I wanted to make this card in shades of lilac but didn't have two shades of ink which worked together for the two step stamping  until I finally worked out that a paler shade could be created by making it a second impression instead of straight from the ink pad.  It takes this old brain time to work things out sometimes but we get there in the end.

Spellbinders plain and scalloped nestabilities dies were used to cut the layers for the toppers and lilac thread was wrapped around the corners.  Lilac peel off butterflies were attached to acetate, cut out and then had their wings folded back to make them three dimensional before being glued to the toppers.

The patterned paper used is from the Nitwit collection Promises and the card was finished off with my usual addition of ribbon and pearls.

Hopefully the birthday girl will have a good day today and enjoys being treated to her tea.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx

Baby Evie

On the 17th of September baby Evie was born on the eve of her big brother Finlay's fourth birthday.  Luckily Finlay was hoping he'd get a baby sister so he had an extra special birthday present to wake up to.  The day was made even more special as his Mum Lianne and his baby sister came home from the hospital to celebrate with him.

It seems no time since Lianne was Finlay's age and I still remember when, at the age of five, she visited on our Elaine's first birthday and the parcel she brought had been wrapped in white paper decorated with her drawings.  Lianne's followed a creative path since then graduating from Robert Gordon's University with a BA (Hons) Design and Craft, Textile Design to go on to interior design for a local company and now has her own Wedding Stationary Company ViVi Paperie which she can fit around being a Mum.

This is the card I made for baby Evie.

The images and papers for this easel card came from the Nitwit Collections Tickled Pink and Thimbles 'n Threads and were sized and printed using the My Craft Studio Professional graphics programme.  The It's a Girl paper, verse and sentiments were created on the computer.

The main image was framed and layered using Spellbinders plain and scalloped nestabilities dies and the smaller images were punched and layered using a 1" circle punch.  Martha Stewart's Doily Lace border punch was used to add decorative edges to the layered strip behind the main image.  The lace corners were cut using a Quickutz die.

The button stoppers for the easel card were embellishments from the Tickled Pink Collection and were punched out using a 3/4" circle punch.  The verse, the frame and layers for the name topper, the greeting on the back and their backing layers were cut using Spellbinders Labels 10 dies.  The letters for Evie's name were cut using Quickutz dies and shadow layered using shades of pink card. My usual additions of pearls and ribbon were also added.

The back of the card also had punched embellishments added.  To keep the card protected I made a box for it printing out another of the patterned papers to make the lid.

Here's a picture of baby Evie at home on her first day in the world

and this is Finlay with his birthday cake.

This is the card I made for Findlay which you can find out about in this post.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
That Craft Place Challenge - Baby

Andy's Birthday

It was Elaine's boyfriend's birthday this month and he was celebrating a special "0" one.  Although she bought him personal presents she concentrated more on arranging for Andy to achieve a couple of items on his bucket list and also to arrange two surprise gatherings, one with friends and another with family.

The first item off the bucket list was horse riding and here's a picture of them both on their mounts.

The second item was handling birds of prey and they went to the Huntly Falconry Centre for this experience.  After a week of Elaine worrying about the weather they had a fantastic time and even though it was a murky start to the day the sun shone before it was time to leave.

 

Unknown to Andy the day before his birthday Elaine had arranged for friends to come up from Newcastle and through from Inverness for an afternoon of cycling with some of them, followed by a meal at night with all of them.  Below is a picture of the cyclists ready to set off around Kirkhill Forest track.

On his birthday it was a surprise lunch with his family who travelled through from Hamilton and Dundee.  They all played along with the arranged surprise as his Mum had brought through his present earlier in the week when she came to house sit, his Dad called him at half past nine to wish him happy birthday and his sister sent a text.

Elaine did really well to make sure Andy had a birthday to remember and I think she succeeded as apparently he grinned all weekend.  This is a lovely picture taken of the two of them on his birthday.

Before signing off I'd better share the card I made for Andy.

To find out about the materials used to put his card together then follow this link.  The number 40 was made using clear Papermania number stamps.  Having used the Woodware 18th and 21st stamps to make birthday cards this year I then invested in a set of clear Papermania number stamps so that the same effect could be created on a card for any age.  It's a great set of stamps to have if you just want to focus on the age or if you're not sure what the person's particular interests are to personlise their card for them.  The 4 and 0 stamps were stamped using Versamark ink and then embossed using Stampendous Disco Black embossing powder.  The number 4 was stamped and embossed first and then, using Stampin' up's stampamajig to help with positioning, the 0 was stamped over the top.  Having an embossed outline makes it easier to keep the glue inside the number outline when it comes to adding glitter. Once this had set the forty was die cut using a square Spellbinders die and the insides of the numbers were filled with silver glitter.

After weeks of planning and scheming I think Elaine certainly succeeded in making Andy's birthday one to remember.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx

Birthday Card for Auntie Liz

In my family, and Alan's family, there are a few Elizabeths and when one of my cousins was a little boy he decided that our auntie and myself should by Auntie Liz and LizLiz.  He was born just nine days before Auntie Liz married and it's hard to believe that he's now been a grandad for four years and that one of his family gets married next weekend.  It must have been an exciting time for my grandparents this time forty-three years ago as during a period of six weeks three grandchildren were born and their youngest daughter got married.  It certainly was an exciting time for me as having been an only child for eleven and a half years I then had a baby sister.

On the 11th of September it was Auntie Liz's birthday and I went back to the box of roses to make her card.  

 

The patterned papers for Auntie Liz's card were from the Nitwit Collection Romance and Roses which were a good match to Stampin' up's melon mambo and marina mist cardstock.  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 are still my favourite embellishments to use at the moment and these ones 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.  

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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.  The sentiment set in the middle of the frame was stamped on to white card using a stamp from their Sincere Salutations set and melon mambo ink. It was then punched out using their extra large oval punch and around the edge sea breeze ink was sponged.

 

 

A border was stitched around the card and my usual embellishments of pearls, brads along with Stampin' up's Marina Mist grosgrain ribbon were added.

This is the last of the box of roses cards I've made but having bought some more Nitwit Collection digital kits in their recent sale it probably won't be long before I'm trying out the different papers to make up another box.  At our Crafting Bee yesterday Anne was making two boxes of roses cards in pink tones which were lovely.  It's certainly something you seem to get hooked on.

Before signing off I'd like to thank Chris for becoming my latest follower.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx

Cake Fundraiser

Last week Alan's work held a bring and buy cake fundraiser to help a local boy who is the classmate of another member of staff's daughter.  Adam Walker has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and since being diagnosed his parents have researched an operation called selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) which is carried out in the St Louis Children's Hospital, St Louis, Missouri.  Adam has been accepted for SDR by the hospital and is described as an excellent candidate for the surgery.  To cover the costs of the operation, travel and accommodation they need to raise £50,000 and so Adam's Aim has been set up.  If you'd like to know more about Adam then click on this link - Adam's Aim

 

 

This was my eventual contribution for the cake table.  The first batch of cupcakes had to be rejected as I forgot to adjust the temperature for the fan oven and, although not burnt, they were well cooked and are now in the freezer waiting to be used in trifles instead.

I've been enjoying the baking shows on Create and Craft and have bought some moulds and cutters with the intention of trying to copy some of their ideas and this gave me the opportunity to try them out.  The roses were made using a silicone mould I bought from an eBay seller. It was so easy to use and gave a brilliant finish.

 

Hope this has made your mouth water.  The event was successful and on the day they raised £182.  Pounds out of the pocket and on the waistline as there were so many cakes brought in that they had enough for two days of treats.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx

Thank you

Back in July Ian celebrated his twenty-first birthday and this is the batch of thank you cards I made for him to send to friends and family who sent him gifts.

The photo on the front was scaled down and printed in greyscale from a photograph taken of him on the day.  Stampin up's large oval punch and a frame embossing folder was used to create a frame from white leather effect card.   The corners were then punched with a Woodware corner notch punch and black thread wrapped around the frame.

Black, silver mirri and grey parchment cardstock were used for the different layers of the card.  The twenty-one patterned layer was created by stamping a Personal Impressions stamp on to black card with Encore silver metallic ink.  Stampin up's stampamajig was used to help with the positioning of the stamp so that the numbers could be seen along the border.

Black grosgrain ribbon from Stampin' up was used to make a bow and to wrap around the bottom layer of the card and then the photo topper was attached using foam pads.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx

Amanda's Wedding

On Saturday Carol's daughter Amanda got married.  Carol is our Tuesday Crafting Bee host and as well as having been involved in the organsation and the preparations in the run up to the big day she had also made all the stationery for it.  There's been no time for crafty play as invitations, menus, favour boxes, small gift boxes, table signs and planner and more all had to be made.  However all efforts were well worth it as the wedding went off perfectly, Amanda looked stunning and the sun even shone.  

This is the card I made for Amanda and Kenny and the colour scheme and ribbon choice was based around the colour of the bridesmaids' dresses and the tartan of the grooms kilt which was Modern Pride of Scotland.  This ribbon had also been used on their stationery.  The script patterned papers are from the Nitwit Collection Always & Forever printed in greyscale and also a textured effect backing paper from the Joanna Sheen CD Secret Garden.

 Shades of plum cardstock and the patterned paper were layered up to make the backing panel for the cake and a border was stitched around it to make a frame.

 

The cake tiers of the wedding cake topper were made from rectangles of Crafter's Companion centura pearl card which then had their two top corners rounded before being embossed using a swirls embossing folder. The pieces were backed on to the darker plum card to leave a quarter centimeter border around the sides and top.  Tartan ribbon was wrapped around each piece before they were attached to each other.

 

Foam pads were used to attach the cake to the backing panel and ribbon bows were added to each tier.  The hearts at the top of the cake were cut using Spellbinders plain and scalloped hearts dies and the couple's initials were added inside the hearts using peel offs.  The double layered trailing ivy was cut using a die from the Marianne Creatables Ivy die set LR0206 and attached to the ivy are 10mm paper roses from Wild Orchid Crafts.

 

A stamp from the Stampin' up set Petite Pairs was used to make the sentiment.  It was stamped with black Memento ink and then punched out and layered using Stampin' up's plain and scalloped oval punches.  Small hearts punched out using a Woodware punch were added to the corner of the topper.

 

 

Paper roses, rosebuds, self adhesive pearls and gems and small buds from a heather spray were added to the trailing ivy to decorated the cake.

 

 

Die cuts made using the Precious Hearts dies from Memory Box were used to decorate the panel behind the front of the card.  The couple's initials and marriage date were added to the hearts.

Attached to the inside was a printed verse which was framed using Spellbinders grand nestabilities circles dies.  On the opposite flap the couples names and date of marriage were framed using Spellbinders heart dies.  

I went along to see Carol and her family leaving the house and managed to take a few photos. 

The carriage awaits.

Amanda steps out in to the sunshine and the sun wasn't the only thing beaming.

 

Carol and her three beautiful daughters

Amanda with a very proud Dad

Finally it's time to go

 

Here's a link to an edited version of Amanda and Kenny's wedding video.  If you decide to view then I'd suggest to grab a tissue first.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx