Easter cards

A traditional feel to my Easter cards this year with florals by Anna Griffin to decorate them.

I used her cardstock in pastels cut out with stitched rectangular dies.

The die cut Easter was cut from white heavyweight card and layered to give the appearance of chipboard.

Simon Says Stamp tiny sentiments finished the message along with some sequins.

The last card has a cross and sentiment stamped with an Anna Griffin spring stamp set.

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).

Us Two

My son has been going out with his lovely girlfriend since back in January, but she has now headed north to University to continue with her second year.

At the beginning of September, just before she left, they asked me to take a photo of them so they could have a print for their rooms.  Of course, I printed one version for myself!

I went for a central columnar design for this page using Box of Crayons, the Venn diagram is cut from the journalling book.

The title is stamped using an Altenew ink using Stamps by Me script alphabetwith a couplle of addition Box of Crayon letters.  I couldn't resist using the inflated puffy stickers to page, love these!

Community Leader

On a trip to Birmingham in June, we went into The Mailbox where Midlands BBC broadcasts from.  It was a Strictly dress in the window that caught my eye, but Kev noticed this lifesize cardboard cut out of Citizen Khan (aka Community Leader!)

As he had been growing his beard over the summer term, he wanted a photo next to his 'twin'!  I think the papers are Maggie Holmes Carousel, I also added lots of stamping using multi-coloured Altenew inks and Ali Edwards stamps.

The title was die cut from a piece of chipboard covered with the paper and cut using a Sizzix XL die, and I finished the page with yet more American Crafts stickers.

Dug Up.

Last summer, I took some photos on a grassed area outside the front of my parent's house.  The council had planted lovely wildseeds, so the green looked really lovely. 

This year, Mum and Dad received a letter from Severn Trent in the spring, letting them know that major works would take place on the green to prevent flooding and that the road would be closed for 6 months.

When we took a look at the digging, I couldn't believe how huge the hole was, and the sign about ball games on the green still being present just made me laugh. 

No idea about the papers, I made the layout back in August, but Paige Evans Turn the Page is ringing a bell.

The stamps for the title are definitely by Paige Evans and I did cut embellishments from the 2x2" card pads.

Title Page

This photo taken inside Coventry Cathedral has been sitting in the first page protector of my Midlands album waiting to be scrapbooked for longer than I can remember.

As I decided to get this book up to date this summer, I began with this photo.  I found a ready made cut file in of my 12x12" Paige Evans books (I don't have an electronic cutter...or the time to work out how to use it.) The file looked a little like a stained glass window, so I used papers from the pad to back it and others to put together the layout.

The title is stamped directly onto the page using a Stamps by Me script alphabet and a few added letter tiles.

As the papers are a little old, I used more up to date stickers from the American Crafts booklet, so useful!

Another page done.

Back to Backs

In the centre of Birmingham is a yard surrounded by a series of Back to Back houses, one of the few left in the country.  There are not many working class homes left in Britain, so the National Trust have done a great job preserving the way of life of my ancestors.

We visited the yard during Open Heritage weekend back in 2104, the girls dressed up (as usual) and tried the games, washing dolly and sweets on offer.

I used Stamps by Me alphabet for the title, stamped direct to the page with a small amount of journalling underneath. The word Birmingham is cut from a Tim Holtz print block paper.

Many of the embellishments are also from the Tim Holtz range, the photos and die cut and coloured tickets, they all seemed to go so well with the theme of the layout. Old stash always comes in handy!

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.

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 Handmade Card

Every year I have to choose one of the cards I have made to go into my journal. 

This also makes for a really fast page as I simply mount the card onto some papers, add a few embellishments and the job is done.  I chose a card made mainly with stamping and a little bit of die cutting this year.  The stamp set came free with a magazine, I was pleased with how it turned out.

Inside the card is the journalling and a sparkly star.

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.

Stag Set of Cards

Lots of stamping on this set of Christmas cards.

The stamp and die set came with free with a magazine, and I liked them so much I decided to make a few cards using them.  The stag was stamped using Vintage Photo Oxide ink and cut out with the accompanying die.  I mounted it onto a shield shape, a Sizzix die.

I then cut a stitched circle from a nesting set, and drew lightly around it onto the die cut square card front.  Then I stamped the wreath over the circle, again using a variety of Oxide inks.  After mounting the stag's head over the wreath, I stamped a small sentiment and punched it out using an EK Success label punch.

Stamping onto Fabric

At the NEC earlier in the month, Hannah and I visited one of our favourite stands 'The Arty Crafty Place'.  We attended a workshop to make a stamped fabric bag, and both of us decided to make a Christmas bag for our upcoming festive shopping trips!

I stamped a repeat design on one side (this was my favourite) in red and green using the hand carved wooden block stamps.

On the other side I stamped a scene of Father Christmas flying over a forest on a snowy night.

A quick run of a hot iron over the bag once I got home, and it should be permanently fixed.  I might have a go at making a gift using the stamps maybe for my secret Santa.

Stamped Christmas Cards

I have been playing with inks and stamps to make cards for Christmas this year.

The cards are from a mix of manufactures, mostly old sets from years gone by.  When I make my Christmas cards I do enjoy getting out my festive stash, not seen since last January when I completed my Christmas Journal. 

The first card is a simple layered Christmas rose by Altenew with a sentiment from the Lyrical Script set a clean and simple design.

This card has a focal stamped image by Do Crafts, I used my MISTI to stamp it in a variety of colours and add sequins and Nuvo drops to finish it.  Underneath I stamped the design using an Anna Griffin Noel stamp in slightly lighter shades.

Next, a very pale stamped card with Pink Paislee stamps, the background was repeatedly stamped to cove the card front in a pale Altenew ink in pink, The lights and sentiment are also Pink Paislee, again sequins, pink this time, finish the design.

My final cards use a stamp set I use almost every year. I can't recall the manufacturer, but they were UK based, sadly my stamps are starting to degrade a little, I'm not sure how much longer they will last. I used a background stamp heat embossed in an irridescent gold; the words are Latin "Gaudete" meaning rejoice.

More heat embossing with the same Gaudete stamp in white this time used as a resist to Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens used as a watercolour.  The pictures were coloured very simply with Muji pencils...I'm not really an alcohol pen person!
Looking at the amount of Christmas papers and dies I have, I think I need to dip into these for my next set of cards.