Happy New Year!!

Wishing you all a very

happy & healthy 2014!!

Message from me: I am not sitting at my 'puter 1 minute into the New Year - this is a scheduled post and as this is posting I will be seeing in the New Year with a drink in hand!!

Merry Christmas

Lest we forget

Thank you time again

At the end of each dance season I make a thank you card for our dance teacher and the lovely lady who helps him.

I used my Sizzix teddy bear die and my hearts embossing folder to make these two cards:

The bear were shaded using copics and the gold hearts added as this year’s dance exam was our gold.

By the way, DH and I did our dance test just over a week ago and we both did very well.

Birthday

This was made for a friend’s birthday.  She has just taken up dancing and claimed she had no shoes with a high heel . . . .  well, she does now!

The ivory card blank was embossed using the D’vine Swirls embossing folder, the shoes were a Sizzix die (sorry, can’t remember the number) and the black “border” is paper tape (what a wonderful invention!!)  I shaded the shoes using Copics and added a few rhinestones to add a bit of bling.

Finally

It’s been a busy few months and unfortunately this has kept me away from my blog – but I’m back and hopefully, I will be around a bit more.

Now, where to begin – Mother’s day I think.

This is one that I made for my MIL.  Once again, I have made a parchment outer and stitched it to a lovely peach card blank.

This is another card that I made, this time with a parchment parasol and hand made paper roses.

First birthday of 2013

The first birthday of the year is my MIL.

Having spent so long in “Christmas mode” I was looking forward to making something different.  Going back to my much loved Pergamano, this is what I made:

I made a parchment outer, with the design on the front, which I then stitched to a deep red pearly card blank.

80th Birthday

In December, my FIL turned 8o.

As always, I struggle to design cards for men, so I cheated and used the same design (just different numbers, of course) as the 65 I made back in October (see here)

Christmas Bakes

It is always a busy bake time here on the lead up to Christmas, more so than when I lived in the UK, for two reasons:  I can’t buy mince pies here and DS has a nut allergy.

The week before Christmas saw me making mince pies and our Christmas cake.

Shame that the ‘s’ fell off the big mince pie (but nobody noticed). For the first time (ever), I made my own mincemeat, using a recipe from the “Hairy Bikers”. 

Our Christmas cake is a rich fruit cake, covered in fondant icing, with fondant icing holly.

A Christmas birthday

A friend of ours celebrates his birthday on Christmas day.  The challenge was to make a birthday card for him that was seasonal.

This is what I came up with:

First of all, I stamped  a pearly black card blank with snowflakes (one of my new stamps).  Then I added the copic coloured snowman (one of my favourite “old” stamps.  The greeting was done using the computer.

Crackers

As is tradition, I made the Christmas crackers again this year.  Each cracker has a motto, gift and cracker snap and I made 12.  I nearly drove myself crazy with the silly jokes!!

More Christmas cards

In keeping with tradition, DS has a Christmas card with his favourite logo on:

This card was made using the same fusion techniques as in my previous post.

And one for DH:

Christmas Cards

Each year I make a lot of Christmas cards for family & friends.  This year I tried something a little different – I like to call it “fusion”, simply because it uses multiple techniques.

 

Using a combination of heat embossing, rubber stamping (coloured with water colour pencils) and Pergamano, I came up with these 4 cards.

Mad about . . .

football.  Way back in November (well it seems like ages ago now!) I needed a card for my cousin (who has followed Arsenal forever).  This is what I came up with:

I used my new found Pergamano skills to design & make this card.  When DS saw it he politely informed me that I could make him the same for his Christmas card! Men huh!

Happy New Year!

 

Wishing all our readers a very Happy 2013.

Merry Christmas

 

October birthdays–part 3

I always find making cards for men difficult, but this one seemed to come together quite easily.  The ‘65’ was cut using the Craft Robo and then backed with matt silver paper.  The card blank was embossed using a Sizzix texturz plate, birthday circles  (Set#20 – 656372).

October birthdays–part 2

This time it is a card for my cousin.  Once again, my regular readers will know that my cousin likes all things oriental – this is what I came up with for her this year.

October Birthdays–part 1

This is one that I made for my Aunt.  She loves purple and butterflies (as well as other things, of course).  The butterflies are made in 3 parts, coloured with dorso crayons and then glued to the base design.  I was really pleased with the result and my Aunt was pleased with it too.

More birthday cards

DS celebrated his birthday in September too.  As my regular readers will know,  DS is a bit of slave to brands, so I always try to incorporate a logo somewhere in his card, although this is getting harder & harder to do.

Here are this years cards:

   

DS loved them (phew!)