Whight wick manor

Back in May we visited a lovely Arts and Crafts House just outside Wolverhampton run by the National Trust.

The parlour was set up for a suffragette's  meeting with a desk for the lady of the house to invite her friends to the gatherings.

I chose papers to match the William Morris wallpapers and used them from the Maggie Holmes Carousel range.

The title is a Sizzix die cut (Deco), I would like to visit the house again, I think before Christmas would be lovely.

Delivery by Stork.

The last of the old Sizzix die cuts on cards today. 

Although I don't know anyone who is expecting a baby, I did make three more cards for a welcome addition to the family using these die cuts. 

They all contain the age-old favourite image of the stork delivering a package on top of a Tim Holtz stitched rectangle along with a few clouds.

The sentiment is from a Lawn Fawn set, stamped onto a Sizzix banner by Pete Hughes. 

One of the cards has pink sequins upon it, and use papers from a Paige Evans set. Not sure if I will be giving these cards to anyone any time soon.

Glasses cards

Sometimes it is hard to come up with ideas for cards for men

. 

This set by Pete Hughes (Looking Dapper) can make interesting cards for them.

I cut out lots of the shapes to make a set of cards. The square stitched, backgrounds are by Tim Holtz and the banner is another Sizzix die.

I stamped a simple birthday greeting in grey using my favourite Versafine ink...

one card has a 'happy' script die cut by Hero Arts.

More Sizzix cards

I found a few baby die cuts in the cupboard last week and made two sets of cards. 

The first set has these little vests with added hangers and decorative shapes.

I made up the little vests and hand drew borders on each in both black and white pen after adding the decorations to the front.  Some of the vests were mounted on Tim Holtz stitched rectangles....

Others onto leftover patterned papers by Paige Evans, The white die-cut 'Congratulations' is an Xcut die.

Other cards have a Lawn Fawn stamped sentiment in grey onto  Pete Hughes Sizzix banner.

My favourite card from the set is this one, I like the colour combinations suitable for both baby boys and girls.

I'm Back!

Sorry about my absence online, but I am back for now!

I had a look in one of my craft cupboards last week and found a bowl full of shapes I had cut from card last year.  I had bought a few new Sizzix dies and wanted to play with them, but decided to make use of the old shapes cut out to make a few cards. I will be posting details over the next week or so.

The first card is made with a peacock designed by Pete Hughes, The little feathers on the tail took a lot of cutting out, but the effort was worth it.
I added sequins and a sentiment stamped in grey Versafine ink, partly direct to the card, and partly on another Pete Hughes banner die.

Wood slice backgrounds

One of my favourite issues of this year by Tim Holtz is the Wood Slice Bigz die and embossing folder.

 It has made some rustic style cards, but I can see it being really useful throughout the year. 

The die is a great match with an Xcut stag and wreath die set along with the winter greens.

The large Tim Holtz retro sentiment seemed to go well with the background too, so much so, it gave me an idea for my Christmas journal for this year- more about that later!

I also made use of the leftovers to my Christmas Journal from last year (Basic Grey), more cards coming up.

More Christmas Cards

When I saw this 'Home for the Holidays' die set by Tim Holtz, I really wanted to make a few of my Christmas cards using it.

There are many pieces to the images. so they did take a while to make, but I loved the cards once I had finished them.

I varied where I put the sentiments, but kept the rest of the cards the same.

To give them a retro look I used wood grain paper for the sides of the cars to give them a real 50s feel.  I have saved one to go into my Christmas journal, after all, they took so long to make I did want to keep one for myself!

Die Cut Cards

I made a start on a few Christmas cards last weekend using a couple of sets of dies and some fun foam. 

The papers are also by Sizzix, a bargain set of 6x12 papers by Brenda Walter I picked up in their sale last year. 

The sentiment dies are by Altenew, I also added gems and enamel dots to finish them off. 

Unlucky Fried Kitten

Ever since I have known Kevin, he hasn't been keen on fast food.  Unlucky Fried Kitten has always been his name for KFC!

When Hannah's rescue kittens decided to explore our brand new barbecue a couple of years ago, I knew this would be the perfect title for a scrapbook page.

The layout was made using a kit from one of the last that Basic Grey released, I added a few stamps dotted around the page, along with a cute set of kitty washi tapes from Hobbycraft.

The title is a mix of Thickers along with alphabet stickers from the Basic Grey set. I added a couple of Sizix die-cut cats by Katie Skilton to finish off the layout.

Christmas???

I rarely begin preparing for Christmas so early in the year,  October is my usual starting point, but this year I felt the urge to get ahead. I had picked up a few Sizzix dies in the sale last year, a nd saw them being used on the TV, so got cutting myself.

I love this Father Christmas by British designer Pete Hughes.  He makes for a lovely clean and simple card design, the only thing I needed to add  was  a few sequins for some extra sparkle.

The angel is also one of his designs, after cutting in a variety of different types of card (rose gold ,  textured and glitter ) I spent an enjoyable afternoon snipping and paper piecing them together.

Simple stamped sentiments by Tim Holtz and again a few sequins completed the cards.

Twelve down, a few more to make!

Baby Cards

My cousin's daughter is about to have her first baby in Canada -a little girl- and Mum asked me to make her a card for the new arrival.

I used Sizzix dies to make these, along with Lawn Fawn stamps for the sentiments.
This card uses baby vest dies from the new Sizzix range of dies for this year.

I think this one might be my favourite, the dies are by Katie Skilton; the  unicorn set.  The sentiment and sun are from an older Sizzix die set.

Now, all Mum needs to do is choose whih one she likes best to send over the Atlantic.

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!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I made a card using die cuts for my husband this year.  I also chopped up some of my newly arrived Anna Griffin paper 'For the Boys'. I have had many paper pads over the 12 years I have been scrapbooking, but I have to say, these are some of the best in terms of quality and design I have bought!

The pear die cut is an old Basic Grey design for Sizzix, and I added a Tim Holtz banner with some of my own brush script at the bottom.

Inside the card I added more brush script, and a pair of socks cut from a catalogue design from one of the papers.  Hope he likes it.

What? A card?

I know,  a card is a rare thing to be posted by me on here, but i found one I made a while back that I hadn't uploaded yet.

I used the Papermania Portobello Road range and a Sizzix freebie to make the card, and the die framelit is by Sizzix, as is the row of houses cut from paper covered chipboard.


If you still need papers to suit patriotic themes this year, the Sizzix ones are still available to download here.