Happy Anniversary

29 years together just before Easter, here is the card I made for Kevin

The main image is made from a little set by Altenew called Brownstone. 

I stamped one of the houses in a different shade and added a little glitter pen over the top.  This then matched perfectly with my sentiment ( by Simon Says Stamp).

Shocking!

My eldest daughter reaches 27 today.  I know it's a cliché, but the years seem to fly by as the children have become adults. It's obvious she is grown up now as she asked for new bedding for her birthday!

I made her a card using Altenew layering dies (free with a Papercraft magazine), daffodils are perfect for the early spring...with the weather being unseasonably warm, they are growing quickly this year.

On the plus side, I made lots of flowers, enough to make Easter cards too.

The Next Step

I started this blog back in 2008, all of my children were at home and under our care.  Ten years on,  they are all adults, and at the end of August the next step in my eldest daughter's life began. She went on  short break with her boyfriend to New York, at the top of the Rockerfeller Tower he proposed and she said yes!

I made them a card to be ready for them when they returned, using altenew stamps and inks, and die cut the 'Congrats' from grey fun-foam using a Sizzix XL die- Deco.

We are hosting an engagement party for them in October and I think they are planning the wedding to be a year from then,

Altenew Cards

After going to the class run by Altenew I was inspired to make a few cards using stamps.

At church, our Parish Priest had an idea to give us £2 so we could take it away and make some money to support the parish.  I spent my cash on a set of blank cards and envelopes along with some plastic card bags.  I then took the made cards into work and sold them to raise money.

They were popular with my fellow teachers, I liked the silhouette leaves stamped in very pale colours...

with added sequins and a sentiment to complete the card.

My favourite card took the longest, stamping a series of layered flowers to make this floral spray...in fact, I liked it so much, I left this one at home in my own card stash to give to a friend or member of the family.

Altenew Class

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend a class run by Altenew and came away with a few cards and this layout designed by Lilith Eeckels.

The team brought along an Instax camera, so we all had a photo to add to the page.  Lillith scrapbooks in A4 size, so I added the finished page to a star paper by Paige Evans I found in my stash; it went well with the star embellishments die cut at the class.

I love the background to the page, we simply used the square ink pads and pressed them onto the cardstock. I added a doodled line around each square too.

We made  simple tag from left over card, stamping a layered flower, I put mine on the left of the tag to allow room for the journalling.  The title, tag and small words were stamped in black Altenew ink.

Mother's Day cards.

I used a new Altenew stamp set to make the cards for Mothering Sunday, one for my mum, the other for my mother-in-law.

I used different colours for each card, after stamping the cards I masked them to stamp leaves in both shades of green and aqua.

Each flower has four layers, I used a MISTI to stamp accurately. The centre of the flower has a set of layering stamps too that can be added in contrasting colours, but I chose not to stamp these.

I added wet glue to the middle of the flower and -after searching through my stash- I found microbeads and added them to the wet glue. The cards were finished with a sentiment stamped over the flower in Versafine black.

A Shared Birthday

My daughter and her boyfriend share the same birthday, so I made them both a card to celebrate.

Both are stamped using Altenew stamps, hers a stitched flower, his a cat.

I added sequins to Hannah's, and am loving the new stitched flowers with layers of stamps that lie next to each other to look like a cross stitched design.

UK Scrappers Christmas Countdown

Welcome along to the 24th of the UK Scrappers Christmas Countdown Projects: A Set of Stamped Cards.

I don't know if you are like me and sometimes find it difficult to come up with card designs you are happy with; I think it is because I am so used to working on a 12x12" canvas that I find a smaller one far trickier.

When I do find a design I'm pleased with, I tend to make a batch of similar cards, just changing up the colours and sentiments.  These cards were made with a set from one of my favourite manufacturers; Altenew, along with many of the dye inks I own.😉

I die cut card fronts as I find them less messy to work with, and if I get ink on the back it will be covered once I glue them to the card base.

I stamped using a MISTI first my background tree, in a light colour.  After cleaning the stamp I changed to another colour family. again the lightest ink and stamped onto a fresh card front.  I continued until I had stamped all of the five lightest images onto 5 cards and then removed this stamp from the platform.  The next image was lined up over the light image on the MISTI and stamped in the next darkest colour in each family, cleaning the stamps each time. I finished each tree with the most detailed stamp, again lined up and stamped with the darkest colour.

Using the colour families allowed me to experiment with unusual choices like pink and even orange.
I completed the stamping with bold scripted sentiments on top of the trees, some were from carols (Altenew) and others were by American stamp company Simon Says Stamp.

I completed the cards with either gems, sequins or Nuvo drops and a small star punched with an Xcut palm punch from gold mirror card.

So, if you have a lot of cards to make and are feeling bereft of inspiration, then just come up with (or lift) one or two designs 😀, and then just make sets of cards on a theme.

And do take a look at UK Scrappers to see what my fellow crafters have been up to this month in preparation for the festive season!  Tomorrow Jayem will be making a seasonal project.

Wedding Card

A friend of ours from church was married in Ireland over the summer.  She is returning home to receive a blessing in our church, so I have made her a card for the day.

One of the benefits of attending a blessing after the wedding, is that I saw photos of the bride and groom on their big day, this gave me ideas for making the card.

I wanted to spotlight stamp sunflowers, but didn't have a suitable stamp set.  Once I searched through my stamp stash, I found a set of daisies by Altenew which would look like sunflowers once coloured in yellow and orange.

After background stamping with the 'sunflowers', I die cut her new name using the Altenew Big Alphabet die set, and only coloured the letters of the name. The 'Mr and Mrs' comes from a Sizzix set.

 I added a few gold sequins to complete the card, along with a nice Anna Griffin sentiment inside.

A Quick One Layer Card

I love the floral stamps by Altenew, this Perennial Flower was bought for me by Kevin for my birthday.

With a little masking and simple layers it made a pretty card.

The inks are by Hero Arts and a few added sequins finished off the card.

Vegetables on Paper

When I saw these stamps called Farmer's Market by Altenew, they struck as being so unusual that I felt the urge to order them!

I had a play with them last weekend making some simple cards for my card box.  First, I started with the carrots, stamping in the common orange and brown/purple for a heritage vegetable too.

I went onto the simplest of all, an avocado!  I think this card might suit a man.

Finally, I stamped a whole background of veggies, looking at it, I think a second generation fainter stamp might have made a better card, maybe next time.

I had the idea that it might remind a poorly recipient of the joys of veggie soup. 🥄

Fruity Cards

I bought a lovely set of stamps by Altenew called Simple Fruits and had a play with them last weekend.

For my first card I was inspired by citrus fruits.  Although the stamp I chose was actually a  watermelon, when stamped in yellow, green and orange I thought it had the feel of lemons, limes and oranges.

Next, I decided to do a little masking to make a fruit bowl towards the top of the card.  I also masked the lower two thirds, and so ended up with a clean line below the fruit.  A line of gingham washi and a sentiment finished this one.

I finished the cards with this kiwi fruit congratulations card.  I stamped in Altenew parrot with a little mocha around the edges, and drew in the seeds by hand. The sentiment comes from Label Love. My daughter Katie loved this card so much that I gave it to her for doing so well in her second year undergraduate exams.

Water colour card

A friend of mine (another teacher) has been off work recently with stress; I made her a card to let her know I am thinking of her.

The background was coloured with glitter pens in rainbow order onto water colour card; I then took a brush of water and allowed the colours to blend together.  I used the water to move the paint around to make the moon.  The die cuts silhouettes are Wildflowers 2 by Tim Holtz, and the black heate embossed sentiment is by Altenew.  Teaching is a tough job... I should know. 😟

Sizzix New Home Card

I know I'm getting old...a former colleague of mine has five children, her eldest is just a little older than my Hannah and we first met her when she was around 8 years old. Now she has joined the property owning masses!

She invited us to a housewarming party for a lovely flat she bought in the city, so I made her a special card as a gift (along with a bottle or two!)  The card is a clean and simple design.  The background is stamped with Altenew splats in the lightest of shades.  I die cut a cross-stitched circle, and my Sizzix elements from the My Life: Home set.  I backed the house with blue card, and added die cut house, trees and sentiment to the circle.

April already, the year seems to be flying by!

New Tim Holtz Die Range

When I saw the new range of cityscape dies by Tim Holtz, I immediately had ideas about making use of them with my moon Altenew stamp set and distress inks, so this is where the inspiration for my cards came from.

I first stamped the moon shape onto some edge to edge Post it Notes and cut a couple out to act as masks.  After putting the masks onto white card, I gradually built layers of Distress ink onto the card, starting with yellow and red around the moon, then adding gradually darker shades of blue, grey and black soot to finish.  I splattered a little water onto the ink to redissolve it, taking off the excess with a paper towel to give the distressed look.  Finally, I removed the ink mask and stamped the moon in layers using the warm grey palette; all by Altenew.

Then it was time to add my foreground buildings.  I die-cut some from the Metropolis set, and others from the Skyline set. I added yellow card behind some of the buildings to look like lights in the windows.  I have to admit that the Skyline dies were far easier to use than the Metropolis set, some of the pieces were miniscule, and very fiddly to layer together.

They do look good, but I'm not sure if they are worth the time taken, I'll use the first card for my card to my husband on our upcoming Anniversary, so at least I know it will be kept, as I store cards I make for him (or those that the children make for me) in the pages of my scrapbooks.

An Altenew Card

I love the simple flowers stamp by Altenew, they have a really funky retro look.

They were my stamps of choice to make a card for my Mum's birthday in the middle of January.  I used the MISTI and masked the images to make the bouquet...

and finished off with a stamped sentiment from the painted set and a knot of ribbon.

Another stamped card

We helped tutor a 16 year old friend earlier in the summer in the sciences to help her get through her GCSE exams in June.

We were pleased to hear she achieved Bs.. no mean feat as the exams have got so much harder.
I made her a top folding card using Altenew stamps Spring Daisy and Painted Greetings. Hope she likes it.

Good Weather

...and the excitement of the Olympics in Rio meant very little crafting has gone on here. I made an 18th birthday card for my nephew on Friday...but have even been too lazy to sort and print my holiday photos :I  Well, here is my card.

A little die cutting,  camera an Altenew stamp, little words by All Edwards, text paper Anna Griffin and Kraft paper and banner by Papermania.
A real stash dive for this one!

Congratulations Max!

My lovely nephew picked up his A Level results today...two Bs and a distinction * for a BTec in business. I made him a card using the Altenew Trophy set and Kraft card.

I stamped pigment ink in white first then grey on top so the image sits on top of the Kraft. The card was finished with star sequins and Studio Calico chipboard.

Hope he likes it!