A few photos of odds and ends

On CardScraps we had a Valentine card swap; we had to send the card to our swap partner's other half. The cupid is from Winnie, and below is the one I sent to Roz's Justin.
The next two are ATC's made for a pink and purple swap. They have arrived at their destination, but the incoming haven't arrived yet.

This is embroidery on canvas that has been painted with pearlescent paint. It doesn't show up particularly well, but all the thread is space dyed.
The next is a combination Get Well/Birthday card made for a friend who had a stroke and had to spend most of her birthday in the hospital. She was allowed home for the weekend, but has to go back again on Monday. Thankfully, she has regained the use of her limbs, but her speech is still affected.

A Little Bit Over the Top...

...but what the commissioner wanted... fancy Christmas cards to make up for the fact that they are getting M&S hampers rather than individual presents....She told me exactly what she wanted to say, and where, so the labels have computer generated messages in a dark colour picked from the backing papers. It doesn't show so well in the photo, but the ribbons are brown, coffee and cream on this one, and there is a discrete amount of glitter dabbed onto the backgrounds.



The second card has the same papers in a different colour-way, and a different type of ribbon. The papers are from Artylicious. These are both Easel cards, in case you are thinking that they look a little strange; the camera angle doesn't make it obvious. As usual, I can't do a job without making a mistake; I got the gold labels mixed up and the yellowy gold ended up on the red card instead of the gold card. As you can see, it doesn't match the peel-off colour like the other one would have done...

Get Well Soon...

...card made for a friend to send to her daughter. It is an easel card, and this is the first time I have made one. The background paper is Artylicious, run through the Textile Cuttlebug folder, the sentiment is cut and embossed with Nestabilities, then sponged with a little Colour Box Chalk. Flowers and ferns punched from scraps of paper with a little added bling. The butterfly was part of the remit, and is a layer of embossed plain over a layer of patterned paper, glammed up with gold peel-off.


I considered adding more flowers and bling to the base layer, but thought better of it; after all, it does have to be posted....

Try not to notice the apparent curve on the card as it is just an illusion caused by the close-up setting on the camera.

Christmas is coming...

...and the Christmas card making season has come round again. I'm just not one of those organised people who start their Christmas cards in January. Here is a group made with Pink Petticoat papers from the 'Tis the Season set, Magnolia and Polly Craft images, 2Peas Block font greetings and assorted punched and cut-out embellies.

It's nearly a month...

...since I blogged anything! I am blaming the heat of course, not idleness....

This is the card I received from Sue on the Cardscraps Group.

We had to create a card using a different fold from the basic fold it in half.

She sent me a version of the Star Book, with a tag in the pocket of each of the four sections. She has added a feather to the ribbon fastening.

This was not a straight swap, so my purple card with a Teabag medallion went to Winnie in Norway.

Friday Sketchers and Dare U2 Digistamp

Dare U2 Digi Stamps Friday Challenge this week is black, white and pink. I have combined it with Friday Sketchers Challenge to use this layout:



The B&W background paper is by Pink Petticoat, the cross strip is embossed with the Cuttlebug Divine Swirls folder, and the image is from Polly Craft's Cherry Kisses digi set, coloured with watercolour pencils. The little glass hearts were in a box of embellies given to me by my friend Dilys as a thank you for knitting some second sizers for her due-last-Tuesday-but-not-yet-arrived, great grandson.

Two for the price of one...

This fulfils the conditions for Charmed Cards' Crafty Goings On blogcandy as it has a digital download image that has been coloured. Why not pop over there and check it out?

Secondly, this week's Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge is to use embossing on your card, either dry embossing or heated embossing. The background paper and the large circle are from a Funky Hand CD. I used the Cuttlebug to emboss a piece of dusty pink pearl card, the image is from Polly Craft's Cherry Kisses digital set and the sentiment is a Cuddly Buddly stamp. The image and sentiment have been coloured with watercolour pencils. I had problems matching the colours in the background paper, and the close-up shows that I need to learn to be a bit less wishy washy with my colour, but I'm getting there...slowly! The flower and braid are from my re-cycled stash...the braid was once on a dress, and the flower was originally in a bathroom vase.

I'm the lucky bunny...

..who's name came out of the hat on the Funky Fairy Challenge #21....


...and I have won a lovely paper download from the Funky Fairy shop! Thanks a bunch FFs!

Funky Fairy Challenge #21

The challenge this week is to make a Christmas card using at least one item from Funky Fairy. I have used the snow paper from their Blue Christmas free download, a Winter Tilda and a computer generated greeting. I'm not sure what happened to the perspective in the photo; the card looks a bit wonky, but it isn't in real life...

Another card

Made with a free flower image downloaded from Mel Stampz and background paper from Artylicious.

Cuttlebug Challenge #36

This, my first entry into a Cuttlebug Challenge, is for a man's card. All the men I know prefer simplicity in their cards, and they don't come much simpler than this!

Long time no post...

...can't settle to anything at the moment, but I played about with some watercolour backgrounds last night, and this afternoon stamped up a couple of cards.

I made a mess of the third one, so I cut around the leaf and slipped in a little piece of lilac card to cover up my messy bit, then stamped some more over the top. My scanner has chopped a slice off the edge of the cards; they are centred on their backgrounds in real life.

Just under the wire...

...for the Papertake Weekly Challenge! Here's my Sunday night take on Dawny's Sketch #6.



Papers are Artylicious, base card, ribbon, corners and peel-off text from stash. The image is one of my hand-carved eraser stamps, inked up with a freebie four colour mini pad, and stamped onto textured card from a recycled Christmas card.

Thursday Challenges

The challenge this week at Cute Card Thursday is to "Have a Giggle", and this Sugar Nellie image of Cheddar reading his book of Big Cats always makes me smile. Then when I read on This Thursday, it's all about... that their challenge #36 was "Something with Whiskers" I realised I had killed two birds with one stone, or two mice with one cat....

Cheddar was coloured with watercolour. All papers used are Funky Hand.

More birthday cards

From Carolyn, with a jolly dotty ribbon.
From Carol with a cheeky feline.
From Chris L with a touch of the Glasgow School!

Some Birthday Cards

I am making a few scheduled posts while I am in the mood. I feel a needle itch coming on, but I don't know if it will be knitting or sewing needles yet...anyway, the first is a fabulous card from Jeannie. I think the dragonflies are peel-offs on fantasy film; the colours of the wings change each time I pick it up to admire it.

This one is from Marion; A Cuttlebug special I guess, with its Swiss dots and scalloped border.
This one is from Pam. So many layers! I love the stitched background with its variegated coloured threads. I'll show you more cards I have received over the next few days.

Cute Card Thursday Challenge #41

Background paper and the swirl are from a free Rhonna Farrar download, layered up by me in PS, then reduced in size and printed. Text plate layer is computer generated as well, using the colour picker to get the green from the swirl. I tend to do these plates in batches on a white background that I later colour in to match the card, but I coloured a couple of this batch before printing. The stamped image came in a swap lot, so I am not sure who it's by. Does anyone recognise it? I coloured it using ordinary felt tips scribbled onto my desk top and picked up with a damp brush, all except the skin; I did that with a watercolour mix of yellow and red from an old box of paints.

Just in case...

....you are wondering why I haven't posted much this week, it is because I have had my head down batch making Christmas cards. Those for the Craft Club girls were handed out at our lunch on Thursday, before I thought to scan one, but were assorted colours of Tracey (Fredshesaid)'s freebie medallion liberally adorned with coloured glitter glue.

The Bowling Club dinner saw me distributing variations on a theme of Joanna Sheen's Elf Sleigh silhouette. Some on a restrained dark green card, some on aqua, some on cream and some, like this one, on a vivid yellow that matched, more or less, the yellow of the halo. The backing paper is the one from the JS disk, but the greeting was made by C&P-ing a rectangle of the picture, deleting the sky and substituting the yellow picked up from the halo. If I was being pernickity, I would have tweaked the yellow to match the yellow of the card, but as these will be in the bin in a fortnight I didn't waste my time. The toppers come on a mixed size sheet, so the larger ones didn't have the backing paper, but had stamped swirls instead.



I have posted an wide assortment of hand made cards to the CardScraps girls, and friends and family abroad; as usual, not scanning in my haste to get them on their way. There now only remains Spanish mainland cards to make and post, and I have until Tuesday to rustle up a batch for the Winter Club.....next year I think I shall just design something simple in Photoshop and print, fold and stuff.....but then I say that every year, and because I know I won't blog tomorrow, I'm writing this on Sunday and scheduling it.

Christmas Cards...

...are arriving, but so are birthday cards and anniversary cards as the Teabag family like to get these things dealt with in one fell swoop, and they all fall in the one week...

People in the know make things easy by writing Birthday , Anniversary or Christmas on the back of the envelope, and these are some of those marked Christmas. Those unmarked can wait until Wednesday, my birthday, so I shall have a satisfying pile to open. These are all from CardScraps friends, who know the ropes!


This is from Carol; the red gems haven't scanned as well as I would have liked, but it is an elegant card. This next one is from Marion. She loves her Cuttlebug, and is an absolute perfectionist when it comes to finishing her cards. I wish I hadn't got it slightly skewiff in the scanner, but I have never claimed to be perfect...

Another simple and elegant card. This one is from Jane.

The next card is a beauty. Bron wanted to try something other than traditional Christmas colours, and she thought I would like them. Well she is perfectly correct; I am all for breaking the bounds...that doesn't stop me being jealous of her stamps, though!

Funky Fairy's Challenge #43

There are two challenges on the FF Forum this week. The first is the sketch, and the second is to make a card in pink and blue. You can do these separately or combine them. I chose to combine them in this get well card for a friend. The papers are from the Blue Christmas download from FF's Inspiration Blog, but I have turned the snowflakes into snow flowers by adding a pink punched centre. The image is a lovely freebie offered by IngerHarding. Please visit her blog and leave her some love! I have coloured it with watercolour pencils, but Inger also has a coloured image available