Waste not ...

This is for my hubby's Uncle in the UK who is turning 65 soon. Recycling at its best, I've used materials that I had around the house! On a light blue A5 card I added some of the wave backing paper that I had used for the fathers day card - it was a 12" sq scrapbooking sheet so I had loads left over. With what was left I made the envelope for this card too!

The images were from a cardboard tissue box that I cut out and saved as they were too nice to just throw away! The edges of each were inked and arranged on the card by mounting with double-sided tape to give depth. To that I added blue buttons with ties of kitchen string and then hot-glued them to the picture. The tag was punched with a Fiskars tag punch in both white card and navy blue paper, trimming the white card to be slightly smaller and glued together. A rub-on sentiment was added and a blue, star shaped eyelet to finish off. A bit more kitchen string was used on the tag and the end tucked under the circle embellishment. That was made with circle punches (from the same card and paper as the tag, but reversed), more string to make the numbers (glued with PVA) and then silver dimensional paint dotted around the edge. Both tag and circle were mounted with foam squares.

Proud Girl

Our eldest daughter, Lizzie, was so chuffed with her latest drawing she said "Mum! Can you put this on your website pleeeease!" Well of course I had to! She did this freehand by copying the picture on the cover of one of her books. And considering she is only 7 she has done a wonderful job. Her drawing skills are coming along in leaps and bounds - we are very proud of her.

Belated Birthday

My hubby's Aunt had her birthday earlier this month but our kids were all very sick so I didn't get chance to make anything until recently. So here is a very belated card we sent to her. I started with A4 white base card and dry-embossed the patterns to the top and bottom of the front of the card. I used some chalk to colour the front of the card then sealed it with some spray gloss - it gave a lovely "pearl" finish to it which looked lovely. A piece of pink, Cuttlebug embossed paper was laid on top and the edges had some gold peel-off border added. To top it off was a 3D-decoupage of a lilac rose (used photo paper again and coloured the cut edges) and the peel-off sentiment.

Father's Day

A simple card - my hubby didn't want me to go to any trouble but I had to make something. A Stampin'Up image onto white card and simply coloured and cut out. An aqua base card with blue wave scrapbook paper as a background - I tore the top edge and it gives a "foamy" look to the sea. Then mounted the image with foam squares, used silver chain peel-off borders and simply added a few more birds onto the card with black gel pen.

Wedding Anniversary

My husband's cousin in the UK was celebrating their wedding anniversary last month so I created this lovely card for them with another fab 3D decoupage sheet I found on the web. Credit goes to Cathy for this lovely sheet - this is the site I found this on http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e38/cathy729/

Unfortunately the photo doesn't show the pattern on the white card base which is a shame. But the image was mounted onto pink card then layered with pink corrugated card before mounting on the card base.

Gold, heart-shaped eyelets were added to the side and threaded with white, 4 mm ribbon with gold edging and finished with a bow. A gold peel-off sticker was added for the sentiment.

Another Boy's Card ...

Well as it turned out, another UK relative's son was having his birthday only a couple of weeks after the first so it was thinking cap on again. But I was lucky enough to find this great image of the "Flying Scotsman", one of the most famous steam trains in the world. The image can be found at "The Lilac Garden" website - the address is under "My Favourite Sites".

Again, this image was layered with silicone glue but in this instance I also used several coats of gloss varnish as there were several fine pieces around the front section of the train that needed strengthening.

Peel-off stickers once again added those all important finishing touches. The young lad was well pleased!!

Boy's Cards

Since having all girls I find it really hard to come up with ideas for boys and men. But I was very lucky to find this great image for one of our relatives from the UK son's birthday. He is cricket mad so it was perfect. The image was printed onto photo paper and layered with silicone glue. Foam squares may have been lighter (air mail postage cost went up big time!) but I find they are too thick for multi layers.

The finished image was mounted onto navy blue cardstock and peel-off stickers used to add the final touches.

Rosy Birthday

Another paper tole image was used for this card and it was a real challenge. It only measured about 7 cm x 5 cm and was very fiddly to cut out! I had originally printed the A4 sheet onto 6" x 4" gloss photo paper (by using my printer's "fit to page" option) just to test out out new printer. Well it looked so pretty I thought hmmmm .... what can I do with this?? So I went ahead and made up the image after colouring the cut edges with permanent markers to hide the white of the photo paper.

I had to use it as it was too lovely to just sit in a drawer and lucky for me my other sister-in-law's birthday was just around the corner. So I printed a linen finish white card with the background roses and then put it all together.

Birthday Wishes ...

My first attempt at paper tole (or 3D decoupage - whichever you prefer) was with my eldest daughter's 7th birthday card. The card itself was white cardstock that was covered with pink, striped scrapbooking paper, then an aperture was cut out with the Fiskars ShapeBoss and cutter.

I used some pre-loved wrapping paper that I'd saved from previous years to get the layers for this lovely fairy. The base image was glued onto a separate piece of card and then mounted with foam strips inside the card. Silicone glue was used between the layers so that there was more flexibility to shape each layer and elements of the image overlapped onto the front of the card. Finally, a coat (well, several I should say) of clear gloss was applied to the finished image. The birthday wishes were heat embossed with gold powder.

My daughter was over the moon with it as she is fairy mad and because "Mummy made it just for me!" ... bless her!

Get Well Soon ...

This was another quick card I made when I found out my sister-in-law was ill. I used the StampinUp "Unfroggettable" set for the frog and flower images. The stream and lilypads were cut out with my Fiskars ShapeBoss and Cutter.

The frog was stamped directly onto green card and mounted with foam squares to make him "leap" off the card. The googly eyes really looked great so I added them too. Then I just coloured the flowers and added the grass to them with coloured permanent markers.

I wanted something that would put a smile on her face when she got it! It certainly gave me pleasure making it - must be one of the quickest cards I've come up with!

Wedding Card

Well this is the very first card I made this year for my brother's wedding. It was quite simple but looked elegant. The background was printed directly onto cardstock and the lettering was rub-on sentiments. I used decorative scissors to trim the backing paper for the photo image topper.

I guess it was my first attempt at cardmaking and at that stage I had hardly any tools or stash to use. But we make do with what we have!

Under construction

Hello everyone! I hope that you can bear with me while I put my site together. Hopefully I'll start posting some of the cards I've made so far very soon. Thank you for your patience!