A special visit with special celebrations

This year sees DH and I celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary and my Aunt celebrating her 80th birthday.

As my Aunt was over with us for a visit we decided that it would be nice if we could celebrate both occasions whilst we were together. I cooked a special dinner which my Aunt believed to be an anniversary dinner. However, the dessert gave the game away as it was a birthday cake with candles. This was followed by cards & presents for the "birthday girl"!

A lovely evening was had by all!!

Wedding time

A colleague of DH is getting married next week. The date and time have been carefully chosen - 09-08-07 at 6.05pm giving the following: 9-8-7-6-5!! How memorable.


Once again it back to the drawing board to come up with something different.


Chosing my materials was the easy bit (for a change), the design took longer and this is what I came up with.



















I cut an oval aperture in a pearly white card and used acetate to fill the gap.
The flowers were made with my favourite flower punch. The cake was made from an envelope stiffener, finished off with die cut hearts. It was my first time using acetate and I found it a challenge with the glue but all in all I was pleased with the results.

Hollandays!!

It's official - it's holiday time and in typical Dutch fashion, it's raining!!

Today sees the arrival of my Aunt for her annual visit, which makes for a special time for us all.

I always make her a card and I thought I'd share it on the blog. It is very similar to the blue birthday card that I posted last time, but with the sentiment "Happy Hollandays" (instead of holidays).

She hasn't seen her card yet but I am safe in showing it on here as she is currently sitting on a plane!!




















Until the next time - happy crafting!!

and now for some blue

Sometimes I see something and think "that would make a good card". This can happen anywhere, but usually when I am out shopping.

The inspiration for this card came from some wrapping paper. The wrapping paper was in the style of Delft blue tiles. Now I didn't want to just stick a wodge of wrapping paper on the front of a card blank, so I took my circle Sizzix die and cut some circles (clever huh?). I then mounted the wrapping paper circles onto larger circles in dark blue.


Then with my favourite Cuttlebug embossing folder (D'vine Swirls), I embossed a piece of white card.

The greeting was cut in white using my Sizzix alphabet (Cat 'n' Mouse).





The card was assembled using a pearly blue card blank.
Not bad eh?

Until the next time - Happy crafting!Y

Pink (& black)

I have had these feathers in hand for a while but had no inspiration as to what to do with them (please no rude comments!!) I needed to make a card for a friend. As I had no idea where to begin, I started by selecting the materials that I wanted to work with - the feathers, black paper trim and a pearly pink card! By limiting myself to just a few materials (and colours) I avoided the painful part of just staring at all the lovely things that I have to work with. I then decided that I was only going to work with the computer (for the greeting) and my lovely cuttlebug embossing folders (for the background).

I was pleased with the result and also pleased that I was able to get the card in the post the following day!













Until the next time - Happy crafting!Y

and the results are . . . . . .

PINK

Thanks to all those who voted either on the blog or via e-mail. It was nice of you to take part in this bit of fun.

DS is feeling quite smug about the results and DH is yet to comment - as for me, well I work with colour every day and what looks pink one day may well look red the next!

Until the next time - Happy crafting!Y

DH said...

Looks like I need to get some colour correcting specs! Pink it is then, must be due to the aging process :-(

29 June 2009 12:53

A bit of fun

Following on from yesterday´s post, I thought it would be fun to get your opinion.

POLL IS NOW CLOSED

(comments still welcome!)

Thanks to those who voted.

radiogael said...

i'm pretty sure they're burgundy, like a brown/red mix

25 June 2009 13:48

Anonymous said...

Hi Lesley, well Red? Pink? I'd say your both winding DH up ganging up on him to me they are like my cherries at the inbetween stage red going black ...lol.Paul

28 June 2009 23:18

Father´s Day Card for DH (with a twist)

A few weeks ago I asked DS what design he wanted for his Dad´s Father´s Day Card. In typical teenage fashion the answer was " I dunno." With time running out and inspiration having done a disappearing act, I was beginning to panic. Then DH gave me an idea. To make a long story short, DH bought himself some new earphones - he was sooo pleased with them (another of his bargains!), however, when he showed them to us he was just a little miffed at our response. DS said "what do you want pink earphones for" closely followed by my "was the light bad in the shop?" DH protested that the earphones were in fact red (and kept telling us this for the following week). Over the course of time they became "raspberry red" to which our response was raspberries are pink, strawberries are red. From this, his Father´s Day card came to be . . . . . need I say more!



























Until the next time - Happy crafting!Y

Happy Father´s Day

HAPPY FATHER´S DAY!

My creation for my FIL - Made using my new Cuttlebug embossing folders.

The same card - with a difference

I needed to make another anniversary card for today, so I took the card that I had previously made and added the couple´s initials.

I co-ordinated the initials with the colour of the printed text and the inked edges of the hearts.

Result: Perfectly personalised!


Until the next time - Happy crafting!Y




Anonymous said...

it's was a perfect card indeed!!
Thank you so much!

Greetings,
esther

25 June 2009 11:14

More to show

Having been busy recently making cards & keepsakes for anniversaries, I thought it was about time that I designed one for the shop.
I started with a pearly white card blank. This I embossed with one of my favourite Cuttlebug embossing folders. I added two simple white hearts, the edges of which I inked in lilac (not too clear on the pic). I added a strip of purple paper and added the gems.

The greeting was printed (before I embossed the card).

New Job

How lovely to hear that someone has got a new job, their first job at that. Of course that requires a card.

I didn´t have a lot of time to make this one and the tools are not quite the right ones - construction tools would have been more appropriate.

Still, I was pleased with the result.

Another anniversary - this time a silver one

Friends of ours celebrated their 25th Wedding Anniversary last weekend.

Once again the card had to be different and unusual. This is what I came up with . . . . .






























I used the robo (and it´s wonderful software) to create and cut this design. It was a little fiddly to stick to the card as it was all one piece. With a bit of patience I managed to glue it in the right position. Tiny crystals were added to complete the card.

If it doesn´t go to plan . . . . . improvise!!!!

We wanted to get something special and different for our friends to celebrate their 30th anniversary. After a lot of thought we decided on a rose bush, a white one (as you can´t get pearl coloured ones!!).

We bought it weeks in advance and put it in the greenhouse hoping that it would be in bloom for the day. Despite our best efforts, it refused to bloom, although there were plenty of buds.

I decided to improvise - I made 5 large paper roses and stuck them to the front of the cellophane wrapping.

Certainly looks different eh?

Finally - finished!!!

Here it is - finally complete, after lots of hours of work.


Starting from the top


















With the lid removed to reveal the inside.

Well, that´s the end of this huge project - months in the planning and 3 work days to complete. I hope that you have found this week´s posts of interest.

Until the next time - Happy crafting!Y

Anonymous said...

Hello!!I think it's amazing what you have made for my parants. Serge and I where very surprised when we saw this: wow!!Perfect job! Well done!My birthday card was also very nice, with all those flowers, very pretty, thank you for that!

Hugs, Esther

25 May 2009 10:27

more

Back to the car – before gluing the car into its final position I added a bouquet of flowers to the front and two horseshoes to the rear.


















With the arch complete the car is glued into place.

I had already cut six silver horseshoes which I tied together with white organza ribbon. I sewed two on three of the sides and topped them off with a bow (thanks to DH for his help with this!!)

On the fourth side I added my "handmade by" label.
The previously made panels for the inside were carefully glued in place.









Tomorrow I will show the finished box - see you then!

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.

and there´s more. . . . .

For the sides, I cut 4 pieces of pearly paper and 4 slightly smaller pieces of white card.

From the pearly paper I cut 1979, the date and 2009 (Sizziz night & day alphabet). I cut and embossed 2 hearts, in white card.

For the next side, I printed the poem and added some flowery clip art. This was mounted on the pearly paper. Daisies were used to complete the panel.

The third panel is simply a blank square, with a few daisies added. This was for our written message.

As I also design and make wedding ring pillows (shameless plug), I thought it would be nice to add a miniature version. Using the Sizzix heart die (and some careful measuring!) I cut the heart shape from the white card which was then embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder. The wedding ring pillow was made from white satin, edged with pearls and finished with white organza ribbon, and of course, 2 wedding rings.

I cut another heart and a large “30” (Ellison alphabet Tiffy Taffy). These were put to one side for later use.

Check back again tomorrow for the centre piece.

A big project continued

Now for the box – this was going to be a bit tricky – if I got my calculations wrong then the car wouldn’t fit in the box!!

After a lot of careful measuring and cutting, I had the pieces for the box. As the box was quite big (11cm x 11cm) I had to make the box from more than 1 sheet of cardstock.

The box beginning to take shape.

Next was the lid, again carefully measured and cut, remembering to add 0.5 cm extra all the way around.


Here it is, just waiting for the glue to set.

Then for the really fun bit – the decoration.

I cut a piece of card for the base, adding a diagonal piece of embossed paper and edged it with pearls.

Using my Sizzix wedding confetti die and various coloured tissue paper I cut some confetti. This was glued this all over the base.

Check back tomorrow for more of this project.

A big project

Special occasions deserve a special card – very special occasions require a very, very special card.

Dear friends of ours celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary yesterday and so I decided to make them a very, very special card.

I have been thinking about the design of this card for several months now. I have discarded a number of designs along the way for variety of reasons. The only criteria that I had for this card was that it had to be so very different from anything that I had ever made before and very personal to the recipients.

Where to begin:
Marriage year: 1979
Anniversary: Pearl
Other details: Wedding car was a red Citroen 2CV

Not much to go on but at least it was a start.

Six months ago whilst surfing on the net I found a paper model for a Citroen 2 CV. I saved the template for later use.

The next decision to be made was the type of card to design – rectangular or square, flat or 3d – the possibilities were endless.

I eventually decided on an exploding box, with the 2CV as the main feature.


















Using my previously found template and the print and cut feature on the Robo, I ended up with a flat looking 2CV which I then coloured with water colour pencils.


The assembled model.




Now as this was such a big project ( 3 work days in total), I will show the rest over the next few days.


Don´t forget to check back tomorrow for the next installment.

A week (almost) of Little Boxes

On Monday I was asked if it was possible to make 40 boxes. Tuesday saw me making some samples from which the customer chose her final design. Wednesday was "making day" and Thursday was collection day. Oh, and Friday was write about it on my blog day!!

The box is based on a takeaway box, the flower is made using my favourite Sizzix die, finished with co-ordinating brad & ribbon. The liner is a coloured cupcake case.




The chocolates are added.

The finished boxes!

All packed and ready to go.




Have a great weekend!



Anonymous said...

Wonderfull all those flowers! I sure know where I should go if I need anything like that!

Esther

25 May 2009 10:29

Another style

This is a card that I made a while ago but forgot to add to the blog.
Using the computer, I made a grid which I then printed. Using my lovely Dutch house stamps, I stamped a house in each box. The stamped paper was then cut to size, along with a blue border. The letters were cut with my Big Shot and glued to the border.

Three new additions

It has been a busy time here of late but still we have three new designs available in store.