Sax time!

As my regular readers know, I am a keen saxophonist.  I needed a Christmas cracker gift (as I make our Christmas crackers too!) and decided to make these:

Two tiny sax card charms and some earring wires and the job was done

A new skill

My late Mum was a fantastic knitter and crocheter.  Years ago she managed to teach me to knit but never managed to teach me to crochet, the fault being mine, as the instructions were about as understandable as a foreign language.

In 2014, I decided to teach myself to crochet and had varying degrees of success.  I managed to crochet a few silver roses for our 25th anniversary, a shawl (that I am not ashamed to wear) and some granny squares.

I decided I wanted to crochet a snowflake table runner for our Christmas table.  After a few false starts, some patience, I finally managed to complete my aim and I am proud to say, it looked good on the dinner table.

Christmas Birthday

A dear friend of ours celebrates his birthday on Christmas day.  I always try and make his birthday card a bit more special, so that it doesn’t get lost in the Christmas cards!

. . . . and cards for our close friends

The theme for this year’s Christmas cards was . . . .  snowflakes.

All the cards had the same components:  metallic card blank; Snowflakes (Sizzix Frame, Snowflake #657906), crystal gems and a seasonal backing paper.

    

Christmas cards for my nearest & dearest

Christmas Gifts

I had a lot of “nice” coffee jars that were just too good to throw away.  I didn’t really know what to do with them then I hit on the idea of snowmen sweet jars.  This soon formed into the idea that I could make them for Christmas gifts, with different fillings & colours for friends, making a really personal gift.

Material assembled, ready to make a start.

Hats and scarves were knitted, pom-poms for buttons and snowflakes (Sizzix Sizzlit Seasonal set #654374 and Sizzix Frame, Snowflake #657906) were cut from self adhesive paper to decorate the jars. 


The jars were filled with scented tea lights, sweets and even dog treats (for a friend's dog)

First post of 2015

 

Wishing all our readers a very happy & healthy 2015!

Season’s Greetings

Wishing all our readers a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year

Christmas is almost here . . .

Christmas preparations are well under way (just as they should be).  This year we have been lucky enough to have two babies who are celebrating their first Christmas – how exciting!

I took a “1st Christmas Bauble” and personalised it with baby’s name and the year.

Of course, Baby’s 1st Christmas cards had to be made.  Whilst both cards look the same, they are both different, making each unique – perfect.

         

So nice to do . . . .

so I did it again.

I so enjoyed making the Art Nouveau style card for my friend, that I decided to make it again for my cousin.   Same techniques, just a different letter.

 

Lest We Forget

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.

Fabulous Four!

I needed to make a card for a fabulous 4 year old, who is a huge football fan.

I hand cut the 4 from a white card blank and from red metallic paper.  The stamp is one of my old favourites, stamped onto white card and coloured with promarkers.

Flower Birthday

I love making flowers from parchment paper.  This design was from an old copy of Pergamano magazine.

Wedding time

A simple but effective card for our friend’s son that recently married.

Friends

My friend (a colleague of DH), has got a new job.  We’re so pleased for her and of course I wanted to make her a card.
I went with an unusual design for a new job card but nonetheless, I think it works quite well.
It’s based on Art Nouveau, with a parchment letter, mounted on a Swiss dot embossed card blank and some wonderful black loopy adhesive tape, to complete the design.

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.

Birthday time

Time for DH to celebrate his birthday.

As a budding sax player, his first card was was easy.  A clip art sax image, coloured with Promarkers

Another Zentangle, this time using the word “Dad”

Silver Card

My card for DH – another pop-up box, but this time for our silver anniversary.

21

DS was 21 recently.  Mind you, I don’t feel old enough to be the mum of a 21 year old!!

The first card was a “pop-up”box card.  Three of the flaps were decorated with pics of DS at various ages,  and the front flap was covered in sheet music washi tape with a nice big 21.  Using a 2 and a 1 paper clip for the greeting part, 2 keys and a stamped quote, the card soon came together.  Please note: the personal greeting has been erased using paint shop as I forgot to photograph it before I wrote on it (duh!)

The second card is simply the outline for a number 21 printed on card, then using my Rotring pens, zentangled.  I had great fun doing the zentangles and was pleased with the result.  Mounted onto a gold card (embossed with my gear embossing folder & swiped with a gold ink pad) – a simple but effective result.