A very special Christmas card

I really enjoyed making this special Christmas card.

The gold card blank is die cut using the square panel from the Sizzix die set #660845 – Thinlits plus Card, diorama Gatefold.  I use this die set a lot as it is so versatile.

The poinsettia is made using the Sizzix Thinlits die #658865.  Having assembled the card, I decided it needed a box to finish it off (oh, and it wouldn’t fit in an envelope!).

I find box making a bit of a challenge but this one was OK – I even managed an acetate window.

With love

One of my favourite techniques – Pergamano.

This was made for friends to let  them know we cared.

That time of year again

My regular readers know that DH and I are keen dancers (ballroom and Latin) and that the dance season finishes sometime in May, followed by the dance exam. I normally make a thank you card for our dance teacher and his assistant and this year was no exception.

The greeting was computer generated

and the heart was outlined using punched

flowers.

 

 

 

 

By the way. . . . . .

we passed our dance exam!

Project Hat

I am the sort of person that doesn’t suit a hat.  Simply put, if forced to wear a hat, I look like one of the donkeys on the beach (lol).

I needed a hat for the black & white ball and dreaded the thought of having buy & wear something unsuitable.  So I decided to make one.

I decided to base my hat on a record (and a hairband)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I added white & black gems to define the edge of the record.

White tulle

black & white tulle

I didn’t have any white tulle, so I coloured 3 pieces black with Promarkers.  I threaded craft wire around the edges (so that I could shape it) and covered the wire with ribbon.

I poked the tulle layers through the centre of the record and secured it all with hot glue.

Flowers ready to be added

Ribbon, coated in Mod Podge (so it would hold it’s shape) then stapled.

nearly done

My finished hat!!

It managed to stay on my head for the entire night and guess what?  I only won a prize for the best hat!

An old favourite

Once again, I used the dress form die - Sizzix Bigz Sewing Room die (#657186) and the card blank was embossed using the Cuttlebug Swiss dots embossing folder .  This time I cut the dress form from patterned cork and also plain card, so that I could colour the stand to match (using Promarkers).  I added a lace trim, and a flower.

60 years young

A friend of ours has just turned 60!  She is a lovely lady and we have been friends for a long time.  I wanted to make a special card and gift to celebrate the occasion. 

The flowers are made using a Sizzix sizzlits die, flower, bloom with leaves (#658501),the basket was a Sizzix Bigz die, egg & wire basket (#658960)  and the tag from the Sizzix sizzlits tag set small, crescent tag (#654487).  The number was a silver peel-off.

I decided to make our friend a wrap, similar to one that I had made for myself last year  (which was much admired by my friend).  I changed the pattern around a bit and made the edging different, so that it was completely unique.

Thank you time again – part 2

    
I made 2 of these dancing shoes.  The shoe was a Christmas decoration but it is sparkly enough to be a dancing shoe.  The flowers are made from vellum using the following Sizzix Thinlits:  Fuchsia (#658858), Rose & Rose Bud (#658411).
The lion was made from a kit, the mug & hat were shop bought.  The letters on the lion’s paws were cut from felt using a Joy Crafts die – alphabet & numbers (#6002/0139)

With love

I needed a card for someone who was facing a difficult operation just before Christmas (what timing eh?)

I wanted to let them know that they were in our hearts and that we were thinking of them without using “get well soon” .  I came up with simply, “with love” .

I have made other variations of this card and I enjoy making it so much.  It always amazes me, that each time I make it, that it is always so different.

PS.  The operation went well (thank goodness)

Thinking of you

I wanted to let friends know that I was thinking of them.  I wanted a cheerful (in an understated way) card.  I chose my colours carefully and was pleased with the result.

Birthday Poppies

I love poppies, have a garden full of them and even have a cat named Poppy!

I needed to make a card for my favourite aunty for her birthday and was delighted to see in the October issue of Parchment craft, a card with a poppy design.

I really enjoyed making this card and thought the little 3d butterfly was soo cute.  I added the happy birthday ribbon, I don’t usually use black for this, but I thought it would bring out the middles of the poppies.

Silver Roses

This year, I decided to teach my self to crochet.  It was something that I had been unable to master, despite my Mum trying to teach me, yet, she did teach me how to knit.
With much perseverance,  a bit of cussing and a lot of time on the web, I finally managed to make a shawl.  I was so proud of myself.  Two more shawls later, I decide to have a go at crocheting roses – silver roses to be precise.
 


Not bad for a beginner.

Parchment anniversary

Friends of mine celebrated their anniversary, the day before they came to NL to celebrate our anniversary.  I wanted to make another parchment card (I did tell you that I like working with parchment).  I found the basis for the design in one of my craft magazines, changed it to what I wanted and this is what the finished card looked like.

The addition of the washi tape along the top completed the card.

Anniversary & birthday

My friend celebrates her birthday and anniversary on the same day -  How lovely!

Mother’s Day

Made especially for my MIL – I had to use the boy with the tulips stamp (‘cos we live in the land of tulips!).  The daffodils are made using my new flower punch and the centres are made from paper rolled around a cocktail stick. MIL loved it (phew!)

Anniversary

Our dear friends are celebrating their anniversary today and as usual I made a card for them.
I wanted to do something a little different.  I started with one of my favourite stamps – a vintage style bride and groom.



I began by adding colour to the stamped image using my lovely Copic markers.  I then punched lots of tiny, tiny flowers and from these I made the groom’s buttonhole and the bride’s bouquet and headdress.  I used the left over flowers for the background (in the style of confetti).
The image was then trimmed, the corners rounded and I punched two holes for the ribbon.  Colour was added to the edges of the image with a Copic marker.  I threaded the ribbon and before tying the bow, stuck the completed image to a pale blue card blank.  I then tied the bow, trimmed the ends and the card was complete.

Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day to those celebrating today (our Mother’s day isn’t until May here).

Here is the card that I made for my MIL

I made each rose – time consuming but well worth the effort.

Back to oriental

I rescued the backing paper from a birthday present that DS had.  In fact, it was a gift bag and I fell in love with it and had a feeling that I could use it to make a card.
I needed to make a card for my cousin (we share a love of all things oriental) and decided to base my design around the “gift bag” backing paper.

I punched lots of little flowers in pink & purple.  I then folded them into quarters and glued them to the backing paper.  Using my small embossing tool, I opened the flowers to give it a 3D effect.  I them glued the backing paper to some matt gold paper to make the whole thing stand out.  As you can see, this was then mounted on a black, linen textured card blank.

Wow!!

This year we bought a hibiscus for the garden. The label said that it would produce big flowers (XXL to be precise!!) Little did we know that it would bloom as well as this.

Each bloom is about 19cm across and it looks absolutely stunning!

and still more

I then began work on the centre piece. I took my inspiration from a lady whose work I have seen on the internet. She makes the most amazing exploding boxes, beautifully decorated, and she uses acetate to add the most amazing 3d effects (my apologies to her if she is reading this as I cannot remember her name to give her credit).

Anyway, I adapted her idea so that I could make a flower arch. I cut a strip of acetate that was long enough to go from corner to corner and long enough so that there was enough height. This was secured to the base of the box and the covered base piece glued on top for both security & stability of the arch and for added weight to the base.

I then began the lengthy task of making the required number of flowers. For this I used my favourite flower punches (2 sizes) and my six petal punch to create the roses. Each rose is made from 3 punched shapes and each daisy (large and small) were made from 2 shapes.
Tiny seed beads were added to the larger daisies as centres.

After making lots and lots (and I do mean lots and lots) of flowers I then began to stick them to the acetate arch.

Then it was time to work on the lid.

In keeping with the pearl theme I sewed tiny pearl beads onto white ribbon, which I then glued to the sides of the lid.

I glued the large “30” onto the heart, added some ribbon and glued this to the lid of the box.

I then added some cream & peach roses to finish.

In tomorrow´s post, you will see things really taking shape.

A first

Every year our magnolia tree is just about to bloom and then it is hit by frost. We have never seen it in full bloom until this year. The blooms don't last long but whilst in flower it looks so lovely. I couldn't resist taking a photo (just in case we never see it like this again.

Anonymous said...

I just love the magnolia trees it is such a shame that they don't stay in flower longer. Is this another string to OUR bow taking pictures of a flowering tree. Give it a couple of minutes and I'll upload mine.Paul

15 April 2009 22:05