Flowers in Spring!

Monday, 23 February 2009

I made a square card! I haven't made a square card in ages. I usually do A5 cards so it's a nice change for me.

I followed this sketch from Inspirational Card Sketches:

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This is my card:

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And the inside:

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I used my yummy flower shapabilities - all three sizes! and I used my pro-markers for the second time! I could quickly become addicted to using those little beauties! I can't believe I was actually scared to use them!!
The papers are Doodlebug (stripey) and K & Co. (Flowery).
The gorgeous stamps are kneeling Willow and friends from the new spring set from Whiff of Joy. Isn't she just lovely!
I haven't decided what I want the card for yet - there are a few birthdays coming up and mother's day etc so I'll decide when I need it and add a sentiment then.

Cute Card Thursday are looking for signs of spring in your card - a double whammy here with the lovely bright papers and the stamp from the "spring" set!! ;)

That's it for now. Thanks for dropping by!

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More Awards!

Sunday, 22 February 2009

Look what I got!!!

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I got all these awards from the lovely Sarah Jane at Cards and a Cuppa - thanks hun!!
Make sure you check out her amazing blog - and her blog candy which is being drawn today!!

I'm gonna pass these on to all my lovely followers - I really appreciate all your support and any comments that you may leave, so a big thank you to you all too :)

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An 80 on my ROBO...

I was asked to make a last minute card for a lady who has just turned 80, and I thought all the cards I've been making lately are a bit wee girly so I wanted to do something a bit different. So I went to Time 4 Crafting for inspiration and downloaded an "80" template to cut out on my ROBO. There are some fabulous templates and projects on that site - you should check it out.

So here it is:

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I also cut out the wording with my ROBO - I couldn't get a decent picture of it but here's a slightly closer picture:

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You can also see my dodgy faux stitching on that pic!
The papers are Basic Grey Sugared and I stamped the Serendipity rose stamp that I used the other day and embossed it with pink EP. A few swarovski crystals and that's it.
I didn't bother taking a picture of the inside as I didn't actually do anything on the inside! With the cut shape I couldn't really do anything without taking up space for writing a message (well I suppose I could've done something, but didn't I mention it was a last minute jobby!!)

So I'm still way behind on the invites, but tomorrow's a new day and I WILL get loads done!!

We'll see...!

Thanks for looking! I really love read your comments and thank you to those who do!

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My first attempt with pro-markers!!!

Friday, 20 February 2009

My brand spanking new pro-markers arrived during the week and I couldn't wait to have a play!!
I've read about so many people using pro-markers and copics and the like that I really wanted to try them - and as craft shops are few and far between about here I couldn't go to try before I'd buy. So rather than spend the absolute fortune that you'd need to spend on copics to get a good variety of colours (and having the possibility that I didn't like/couldn't use them), I decided to spend slightly less of a fortune on some pro-markers to see if I did like them. If anyone has used both pro-markers and copic markers I'd like to know the main differences (apart from the price!).

So I wanted to make sure that I would do them justice on their first try, so I went on the search for a nice sketch to follow. And I fell in love with the sketch from Just Christmas and Birthdays.

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And this is my card:

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The inside:

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As you can see, I've also used one of my first Whiff of Joy stamps - this is Willow with flower basket from the new spring set. A special stamp to colour with my new pro-markers! And the scrummy papers are Basic Grey Infuse. Ribbon, brads and charm from stash. The charm was silver but I coloured it with one of my markers to tone in better and I added a wee orangey red Swarovski crystal for a bit of bling - which fits in with the challenge set this week by The Pink Elephant!

And the last challenge was the colour - My Time to Craft's colour challenge was Pink and Brown - yummy! I love those colours together!

I'm busy, busy, busy for the next while - I'm making my cousins wedding invitations which are supposed to be sent out at the end of next week (=/) plus her hen party is then too - with preparations to be done for it too! So I'd better get stuck in.

But with all this lovely new stash it's a real struggle to leave it! (**whispers - and I'm soooo excited as I have some MSBP's on theire way to me too thanks to the link that Bev left on her blog!!)

So hopefully I'll get something else done in that time to show you - but if I don't you know why!!

I'm off to get started..

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An Anniversary Card

Tuesday, 17 February 2009

My brother and his girlfriend have been "going out" for a year now, and he wanted a card for her. I thought a rose would be nice for the occassion and decided to use my Serendipity rose stamp.

I followed the sketch from Sketch Saturday

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and I made this

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I coloured the rose with my water colour pencils and edged each petal with clear sakura stardust pen. I also embossed the same image with holographic EP on a panel and embossed another panel with my swiss dots cuttlebug folder. I edged each piece with gold EP and added a couple of Swarovski crystals to the centre of the roses.
I attached a heart charm to a couple of cut out circles on the inside.

The card also fits the challenge set this week at ABC which is anniversary.

It also fitted a couple of other challenges if I had have had the picture of the card on time to enter them...oh well.

I hope you like it!

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I'd also like to send my condolences to the Galligan family after their sad loss at the week-end.

Me...Get Organised....Maybe!

Saturday, 14 February 2009

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I saw a very handy wee book to make on Inspirational Tips, Techniques and Tutorials by Sharon Jeffs and thought to myself "I could really use that!"
So this is what I made:

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I did the corners by cutting the second smallest label nestie in corresponding cardstock and then cutting it into quarters and sticking a smaller nestie in the cover paper, again quartered and attaching them with foam pads. I don't have a binder so I just punched the holes and I only had 5 rings - so I used 4 of them! I also used some more of my grungeboard letters painted with H2O's.

This is the inside - you can download the insert pages from the blog.

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I have 20 pages in it - so it'll probably need to be re-filled fairly soon!

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I better go and start filling it in!!!

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A quickie...

Wednesday, 11 February 2009

I wanted to make some sort of a box to put Rachael's present into but, as I'm so organised, I ran out of time and had to make something extra quick. So I coloured this image that I had stamped - which is one of the brand new Sharing Sherbert stamps from Pollycraft -I thought it was perfect for a gift bag along with a few nestie cut circles that matched my card:

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That stamp is so versatile as the place where the writing is is blank on the main stamp and it comes with 3 different wording stamps - or you could write whatever you want.

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Another one for Rachael

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My Ma 'n' Da wanted a card for Rachael too. So I made this one from them:

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This is the inside:

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I followed this sketch from Papertake Weekly:

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I used the Sugar Nellie stamp "Wish" which I coloured with H2O's and stardust pens. The papers are from the DCWV "Once Upon A Time" stack and the brads are charm brads from Dovecraft. The wording was cut using my Craft ROBO

They were giving her tickets for her birthday and wanted something to put them in so I made this to match the card (also following the sketch):

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I got the idea for this from SCS but I don't know if it was done as per the instructions as I didn't read them because it said you needed a crimper - which I don't have! I used all the same ingredients for this as for the card.

She was delighted with her present!

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Happy Birthday Rachael!

I'll try to make up for being such a bad blogger by posting another card!!

It was my little sisters 12th birthday today (Tuesday).

So this is the card I made (eventually, that "r" has been sitting painted for weeks on my table!) for her:

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And the inside:

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I followed the sketch from Crafts 4 Eternity, which looks like this:

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I used the largest "r" from my set of grungeboard letters and I painted it with worn lipstick distress crackle paint. The papers I used are Basic Grey "Pheobe" range and I used my Craft ROBO to cut out the rest of the name and the "12". I edged everything with distress inks. The cute little flower is a charm brad from Dovecraft. And my circle nesties were nearly worn out with this card!!

Rachael liked the card and I hope you do too!

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Congratulations Hayley!!

I've slapped my wrists for being such a bad blogger...sorry!

So here is a card that I made for my cousin, Hayley, for getting an A in her 11+:

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and the inside:

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It has the gorgeous Sugar Nellie stamp - Pen pal, coloured with H2O's and stardust pens. I also used papers from DCWV rockstar stack and my label nesties. Ribbon, button and charm are from stash.

The card fits the challenge set this week by Cute Card Thursday, which is Metallica - which I really wanted to join as Metallica are one of my favourite bands!! The charm is metal.

I hope you liked it!

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Another Award!

Wednesday, 4 February 2009

Thanks to Andria for passing this award on to me...

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The awful thing about this award is that you have to list 10 interesting this about yourself!!! There really aren't that many interesting things about me!!!
But I had a go and jotted down a few things, so here goes!!

1. I'm from Northern Ireland.

2. I work in a quarry, which is a family run business and we're celebrating 50 years in business this year!! (although I've only been working here for about 10 years)

3. I have a gorgeous nephew - 17 month old Ryan - and a beautiful niece - his sister 2 1/2 month old Holly.

4. I didn't do art at school (can't you tell!!) - but I've always been a bit crafty.

5. I'm into Rock and Heavy Metal music - my favourite band is Queens of the Stone Age (Although I'm really into King's of Leon at the mo...Ha, Kings & Queens!!!)

6. I don't smoke - infact, I hate smoking & was happy when the ban came in!! (Controversial?!?!)

7. I bought my own house in 2003 - by myself - and I want to build sometime in the future (when I meet and marry a rich and handsome man!!!)

8. Not really about me as such, but - my best friend is getting married this year (and I'm making her invitations!)

9. I hate dogs. (love cats though!)

10. Ummm... I have a funny wee toe!!

So there you are, some insightful facts there about me! Now to pass it on... It's so hard passing on these awards as so many people have already got them, but as far as I can tell, these people have not yet got this one (sorry if you have already) and they all deserve it anyway!!

In no particular order...

Kym's Crafty cards
Pink Piggy
Passion for Crafts
Kirsten's Krsfty Place
The Messy Crafter
Ali's Stamp Heaven
Chrissie's Card Creations

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Queen of Hearts

Tuesday, 3 February 2009

I was very cross with myself for missing the second challenge from Sketch and Stash - So I decided to get in early with this one! I actually had it mostly made last night but just had a few finishing touches to do tonight.

This is the sketch:

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And my card:

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A really lovely sketch! My new stash??? Pretty much everything!! New (for me!) Sugar Nellie Stamp "choose", New papers - which were a freebie for subscribing to "Quick and Crafty" magazine, new ribbon (Anita's) and it's the first time I used those brads even though I've had them a while - don't know the brand, sorry! And I also used my new mega nesties!

I coloured the image with H2O's and stardust pens, shaded with distress ink and highlighted with a glaze pen.

Glancing down my list of challenges I see that it fits a couple of others too!

Charisma Cardz challenge was to use black and white and one other colour... mine was pink! I didn't notice that the card fitted this challenge until I had it made!!

Daring cardmakers wanted to see 3 different patterned papers, I have 2 on the front and another on the inside - I hope that counts!!

Our creative corner wanted to see heart and Papertake weekly wanted to see hearts and flowers (there are flowers on the backing paper!) It's hard to miss hearts on a card at this time of year!!

Here's the inside (with the third backing paper!!)

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So there you are! I hope you liked it!

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Nesting with nesties!!!

Monday, 2 February 2009

I was asked to make a card by my brothers girlfriend for her sister who's moving house. I then discovered that the only house stamp I had was of a birdhouse! (There's an excuse for another shopping spree!!) But then I thought that my new bird shapabilities would be perfect!!

I also wanted to fit a challenge into it as it's been so long since I joined a challenge.
There's a brand new challenge blog called Colour Create and their first challenge is to use the colours pink, green and brown.

So here's the card:

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Again, the lighting for taking my photo's is terrible - even though I've set up a big bright light, I'm still getting a yellow tinge.

Anyway, I hope you like it!

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Bev's candy

Sunday, 1 February 2009

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I'm a wee bit late linking this up - but Bev has some gorgeous candy on offer on her blog...again!
She's just so generous!!
It's being drawn later today!