Jo's Birthday Card

About a week ago it was my lovely buddy Jo's birthday.  As she is also a crafting buddy and one quarter of our Craft Stamping Quartet this card needed to be special.

Sometime ago Jo had admired a couple of cards I made using masking and blended Distress Inks together with overstamping so I decided to use this technique for her card.  I chose to use the Heidi Swapp hibiscus masks because I know they are one of Jo's favourite flowers.  Over the masked circle area I lightly overstamped with a beautiful script stamp from Elusive Images Antiquities plate.  I'd had this for ages and never realised how lovely and fine it is.

                                                     

The moths/butterflies were stamped onto acetate and heat embossed, cut out and attached just by their bodies which I decorated with sticky backed pearls.  These came from the EI Butterfly Poppy Collage plate and I love them stamped on acetate because they are so delicate.  The sentiment is from another EI plate called Birthday Words.  The only thing I used which wasn't from Graphicus was the hanging vine stamp which is a Lavinia stamp.
                                                                           

I've shown you two shots of the full card because I did this card the night before I had to post it (talk about by the skin of my teeth) so I took the pics in a hurry the early next morning before dashing to the post office.  Now I can't make up my mind which is the better shot so I've included both, Lol!

Thank you for visiting and commenting if you have time.  Have a good week everyone.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

My Mum's Birthday Card and a Doggy Trauma

My Mum is 81 years old next Sunday and I have to say I hope if I get to her age I'll be in the same sprightly condition. Somehow, I doubt it because she puts me to shame now sometimes, Lol.

Anyway, this is the card I've made for her and it's safe to post as she doesn't even have access to a computer let alone own one. She does delight in sending me text messages though, in text speak I might add, from her mobile phone.

Originally, this started out as an A4 card and I used my new Mega Circle masks by Heidi Swapp. I had just finished all the blending, flower masking and stamping and then ....................... I dropped a blooming DI inkpad onto it. The air was somewhat blue, I have to admit. The only lucky part was that I didn't drop the inkpad onto the actual masked circle so I decided to cut it out and mount it onto another card rather than waste all that work. As you can probably see from the detail close ups, I blended DIs onto the background first then used a HS daisy mask and blended some more, removed the mask and did a couple of layers of stamping using stamps from the EI DL sized Lily themeplate and the Fantasy Floral A4 themeplate. Then after cutting the circle out I distressed the edge a little and then inked lightly all the way round. I then used a complete contrast DI in Broken China to stamp the humming bird by Inkadinkado which I versamarked all over, clear embossed and cut out. Using the same contrast ink I stamped quite a few flowers in two sizes again from the Fantasy Floral themeplate, cut them out, curled the petals a little, layered arranged them onto my card before fixing with silicone glue. The pretty circle block is from EI again and is one of their newest plates called Damask Blocks along with the sentiment from their very useful new Birthday Words plate. I cut this out using my scalloped circle Nestabilities. I also punched some leaf fronds from Core-dinations card using my Evergreen punch by Floral Punch Craft from The Hobbyhouse.

Almost everything I used for this card can be purchased from Graphicus/Elusive Images, my favourite craft shop as everyone knows.

Before I finish this post I'd just like to share a little bit about the rather traumatic week we've had with our little Snoopy. On Monday evening Snoopy thought he could have a little chomp on a nice fat bumble bee and live to tell the tale. Within seconds his face started to swell and before long he looked more like a Bassett Hound than the Jack Russell/Dachsund cross that he is. The swelling was so bad we got rather worried that it might affect his airways so felt that a call to the vet was in order. Result - a quick OUT OF HOURS visit for a steroid injection to halt the swelling at a cost of £62! Well, at least it seemed to do the trick and although it took a while for the swelling to come down, by Tuesday evening we thought he was fine. Uh Oh! Thought wrong! In the wee small hours of Wednesday (3 am to be precise) we were woken by Snoopy's panicked barking because he wanted to be let out. We thought that he'd settle after that but we were wrong again. 45 minutes later he started again and when I went to him this time he had been sick (too much info I know). I spent the rest of the night on the settee having 10 minute naps then being roused by a very poorly little dog being ill.

I have never known our little bundle of energy be so still and so quiet for over 24 hours. It's taken him most of today to get back to anything like his normal self and, of course, as he has spent the greater part of the last 36 hours sleeping he has just started to wake up - and it's nearly my bedtime and I haven't caught up on the sleep I lost yet. Whether it was the poison from the bee sting (after all, he is only small) or something else entirely that made him so sick I don't know but I hope it doesn't happen again.

The first of the photos is to show what he normally looks like and the others are taken about an hour or so after the sting.

Hopefully after another night's sleep he and I will both be fully recovered in time to enjoy the weekend - I hope!

Night Night! Sleep tight!

My last two cute cards (for now)

I had a really busy weekend going to a great workshop at The Stampman in Skipton with my friend Jo and having my favourite visitors over the weekend too. I was absolutely shattered by last night so didn't get to post the last two cute cards I made in the batch from a couple of weeks ago, so here they are now.

The format of this card was pretty much the same as the previous ones, just a different image from Whiff of Joy and different colour combination. I do think their images are so sweet and they stamp beautifully, even though I used textured watercolour paper.

And now for the last one

This time I used a semi gloss card to stamp my image onto but still used the DIs to colour it. The result was much more muted but I still like it. I decided to keep this one clean and simple except for the layered flower and the lovely stickers which have tiny gems on. I think I mentioned before that I found these on a stand at the NEC but it's the first time I've used them. I hope I can find some more when I've used them all because they are really dainty.

Although I think I like doing more 'arty' cards, with lots of inking and stamping, best I have enjoyed making this batch of cute cards which is a good job as I have two little granddaughters who I don't think will appreciate 'arty' for quite a few years yet.

I'm hoping to finish my makes from the workshop last Saturday tonight and post them in the next couple of days.

Hope you've all managed to stay comfortably cool today. It's been a bit on the warm side for me and going to get warmer over the next day or two by all accounts!

Two More of My Cuties

This is another of the cute cards I've made recently and again coloured using Distress Inks, this time the image is a Whiff of Joy stamp which I bought from The Hobby House stand when I went to the Harrogate Papercraft show earlier this year. The papers I have had in my stash for a long time along with the flowers and gems. The Nesties labels die and CB embossing folder were again from Once Upon a Stamp. Finally the paper lace ribbon was from Graphicus.

and here's another one using the same pretty image

The only things I used that were different from the first card are my Fiskars Threading Water border punch and some lovely little stickers I found at the NEC in March.

My daughter and little Granddaughter are coming tomorrow and staying for the weekend and I'm also going to a workshop at The Stampman with my friend Jo on Saturday, so my last two cute card makes might have to wait until Sunday evening.


Have a lovely weekend everyone!

A Welcome to Baby Ava

This is a card I posted today to my niece to welcome her new baby daughter Ava.

The pink pearlised 8" x 8" base card is from Craftwork Cards together with the co-ordinating card candy which I've used in the centres of the flowers. First of all I used Versamark and a Rollagraph design down the left edge of the card and embossed with clear detail EP. Of course, this is so subtle you can only just see it IRL let alone on a photo.

Next I stamped the image (which is a lovely Whiff of Joy stamp called Melinda blowing kisses) onto plain white cardstock using Black Onyx Versafine ink and coloured it with pencil crayons. I actually used some really cheap crayons (£1.50 for a set of about 30) from what used to be Partners because I loaned my good set to my son and, of course, he still has them. I used OWS to blend the colours a little. I used plain Rectangle Nestabilities to cut out the image and then added a little Tattered Rose DI to the edges. Next I used the scalloped Rectangle Nesties to layer the image onto ivory pearl card.

I cut a strip of design paper by HOTP and used a Fiskars border punch down both edges, attached this to the card just to the right of the clear embossed border and then tied co-ordinating ribbon from my stash. I positioned the image and used 3D foam tape to attach to the card. Next I positioned the Jones Craft flowers and the Paper Shaper Wave Flourishes which were also punched from the ivory pearl card. Finally I stamped the little sentiment which is from the Aspects of Design : Little Trumpettes stamp plate.

In my hurry to get this in the post, I forgot to photograph the inside where I stamped the other half of the sentiment - Sugar and spice and all things nice - and added a couple more swirls.

I enjoyed working on this size card and I was really pleased with the end result which I think made a change from cuddly animals or booties and rattles.