cards for great girls

Here we are coming to the end of another crafty week.
This week I have crafted two cards very similar in style but not content.

The first is for my daughter's 31st birthday at the end of April, I know a bit ahead of myself! What can I say? I am on a bit of a rool at the moment. Back to the project. I used Debbie Moore's Evergreen CD. Love it!
I printed out the elements I needed and spent one afternoon cutting them all out. The next day it all came together beautifully. I love matting and layering with gold mirror card, it really sets everything off.

The second is for a crafty friend of mine whose birthday is at the beginning of April. Again it was Debbie Moore who helped with the project. This time from the Art Deco CD. I chose red this time. I wanted a background scene so I used the Evergreen CD yet again to select a background scene and then used Photo shop to change the colour using the temperature setting slider. The Art Deco paper was from the Art Deco CD and once again the gold mirror card added to the opulance.

What next I ask myself?

Well I have one wedding car and two wedding cakes to make for June so while I'm on a roll I may well start them. Both templates are from Arty Farty Designs

Peaceful Sunday

My parchment lesson went well on Saturday. Tracing with the white pencil is so much easier than with the pen and ink. This months project features fushias in white work. I will post a pic when it is complete.
Peaceful Sunday afternoon started with grandaughter's card.

I used one of the La Pashe Flippin Kids for this card.

I love the way the reverse shows when you use acetate.

This shows the inside of the card.

Project 2 is my other grandaughter's card. She is 21on thursday. All projects are special but some are more special than others. ( a miss quote from Animal Farm) I love the exploding box and how it can be tailored to anybody at any age.


Side view showing 21st




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This shows the lid.



Inside shows the mini cake with the grunge rose sprayed with Crafter's Companion Spray and sparkle and the embedded 21 mounted on  small pieces of acetate.

Hope they like them!





Homework complete

Well I finally finished the Parchment homework.
I had to add a butterfly on top of one of the flowers. You would not believe it, I had sewn the parchment onto the folded piece of multi-coloured card and caught one of the flower petals on my wooly sleeve and pulled part of it away. To put all those hours of work into a project just to spoil it with a pure accident.
I had to realy think about how I could cover the mistake without it appearing too obvious. I used dorso crayons to put multi colours onto a piece of parchment paper and blended them together with dorso oil. Next I put a small peel-off butterfly onto the coloured parchment and then cut it out. A fold either side of the body and the wings stood up. Finally I glued the butterfly onto the parchment project covering the space where the petal should have been.
No A* for me from the teacher tomorrow if she turns the parchment over and discovers the missing petal. Let's see what tomorrow's lesson brings. I always follow the class with a visit to the local craft shop to see what goodies they have and to pick up my copy of this months Parchment Magazine.
Today is the third Friday of the month when I meet up with some retired friends from the school we all worked at. This month we met at a local garden centre that has a coffee cabin in the grounds. We had a coffee or tea with a toasted tea cake. Almost two hours later we went our separate ways except for Mary who came shopping with me to Tescos.
I had ordered a Wii U Draw tablet for my grandaughters birthday. Note to self........ make birthday card!
No sooner I finish one project, another one is waiting just around the corner.
The crafting life's for me!

Spring

Today started with sorting out all my jewellery findings and beads. They are all nice and neat now.
Next I remembered that Saturday is my parchment craft class. Whoops have not finished the homework!
A two hour lesson is not, of course, time to complete a whole card so we are taught the techniques we need and then let loose. Homework is to finish the card.

I spent the afternoon on the spring card which incorporates a Daff, a tulip and a little blue flower. I've been parching for about a year now and my efforts are certainly getting better. This is this month's homework .

While parching, I could hear the sheep and the new lambs over the road.
Part way through the afternoon I heard one lamb bleating away followed by a sheep answering it. This continued for 3 hours of light. When it got dark the crying continued. I'm a women and it sounded like crying to me. By seven o clock I could not stand it any longer. I phoned the farm up the road and spoke to the farmers wife, she was very good and accepted my womanly ramblings. She promised that she would send her husband and co, down to the field opposite our house, with torches to investigate.
Not long after the bleating stopped.
Hopefully the rescue was successful.
I will sleep easier now believing lamb and mum are safely reunited. Ahhhhhhh.

What's next?

I arrived home early from work yesterday and decided to use my time productively. As you know Sunday I made my daughter in law's birthday card, so today I was determined to make her a small gift to go with the actual birthday present.
A friend had bought me a bead set from WHAT in Cardiff containing shades of black. There are lovely little flower beads as well as leaves. I threaded some of the flowers and leaves onto head pins and complimented them with some small black crystals that I had. All these were then affixed to a simple chain with a lobster clasp. The effect was quite stunning.
Sorry forgot to take a picture as the finishing was a bit last minute.  Message to self:: always take a picture.
I had planned to go up to see my son and daughter in law to present my card and gifts.
The card was well liked as was the bracelet, the other gift is always welcome.
Both grandchildren were tucked up in bed so the house was quiet.
We soon fell about laughing when my son and I discovered how to make Face Time calls. He has an  i pod touch and I have an iPhone 4. The first time we connected we did not speak. Just fell about laughing.
We the proceeded to face time my daughter who is very ill with the flu.
She was amazed, if not a bit annoyed at being engaged in a videocall looking a wreck, in her own words. Once she got over the shock it was a very funny conversation. Eventually we signed off and left her in peace.
Having not been able to find anyone else to annoy with a Face time call I said my good nights and left to drive home.
Today the sun was shinning and I woke up in a very productive mood again: what to do?
I settled on making up a beading project I had ordered from The Bead Store. It did take up the best part of the day but I really enjoyed doing it and learnt some new techniques along the way.
Remembered to take photo. See below. Quite proud of this!


Crystals and various designs of chain are brought together for a very pleasing effect.

Tomorrow is another day full of opportunities for creativity. Looking forward to it!



Les crafting by the sea: 3d cards

Les crafting by the sea: 3d cards: "Hi as I said earlier I love 3D cards so I thought I would give you a taster. Pram by Arty Farty Wedding car by Arty Farty High Chair by A..."

Links and more

I have recently been asked where I buy my Arty Farty templates from so I thought I would share a link to Arty Farty where they can all be purchased along with any accessories needed. ie wheels and special papers ect.
http://www.artyfartydesign.co.uk/
A great company to deal with.

Next:
I spent Sunday afternoon creating a birthday card for my daughter in law who celebrates her birthday on Wednesday 9th March. She is great and deserves a great card. Art deco is very much in vogue at the present time and loved by lots of us which is why I chose one of Debbi Moore's Glitter and Glitz Art Deco range.
There is a fantastic CD where my sheets came from as well as inspiration from Debbi Moore's brand new Craft Magazine: Bringing Inspiration to you. The freebie designs and papers are stunning and certainly wet your appertite for more.

White A5 gatefold card.

The inside decoupage.

I used a plain A5 card blank which I gatefolded.Shiny black card and gold mirror card was used for matting and layering on the outside flaps as well as the inside.I always like to score a frame around the edge of my matts using my Crafter's Companion Score Board.
The backing paper is from the free collection in the Debbi Moore Magazine and the decoupage was from the CD. I used one part of the decoupage for the outside flap and the rest inside to tie the design together . The sentiment came from the Magazine's free pages and was layered onto gold mirror card before being mounted onto the front with shaker tape. For the decoupage I used my personal favourite Pin Flair glue. To finish off I used Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Star to highlight various areas such as the gold in the headress and the jewellery. I did toy with the idea of using a bit of black feather to further increase the effect.
As  Jak Heath, a lady I admire and have great respect for always says "all brought together with a little love"
Hope you like it Vic.