New Home, Peppa Pig and Deer.............

Hello everyone - thought I'd pop by to share some cards I've recently finished.  The first one is for good friends of ours who are moving to West Sussex next week - we have been friends and neighbours for 17 years and we will be really sorry to see them go.

I used Britannia Dies Lattice Edge and Open Window for the front of the card.  I cut the Open Window twice so I could sandwich acetate inbetween to act as the "glass".  I stamped the house which is from Chocolate Baroque on the base card and coloured with Flexmarkers.  I then shaped the front to give the appearance of a bow-fronted window.  The sentiment is computer generated and printed on my laser printer, then foiled and die cut with a Spellbinders Labels die.  Flowers and butterflies from my stash.

The next two cards are commissions from a friend.  The first is for her granddaughter who will be three and loves Peppa Pig and the second is for Darren who has started running his own deer herd.  Maria had seen a card I'd made earlier using my Taylored Expressions Birch Tree and accessory dies and thought it would be perfect for him.

So the first one is Peppa Pig - not something I had in my stash so had to go hunting to find some colouring pages etc.  Luckily I found a few so took them into CraftArtist and used them along with a digikit which had zoo animals in it. I decoupaged up the bunting and the characters to give a bit of dimension, added Diamond Glaze to the "sausage shaped" balloon and then made up a circle sentiment which was die cut with circle nesties and popped up on a scalloped circle.

The last card is the deer card.  I started off layering up the trees - there are actually about four layers starting with light trees and coming to the fore with darker ones sponged with DI's.  The deer are a combination of the Taylored Expressions deer and my Memory Box deer trio die.  They have been weaved in and out of the trees, again with some in the background.  They were all diecut from kraft cardstock and sponged with DI's. The signpost is part of the TE accessories set, as is the birdhouse, owl and bird.  I diecut Darren's name using Die-Versions Editor in Chief font.  I finished off using Clearly Besotted's grass die and Poppy Stamps Leafy Tree Border.

Thanks for popping by.  Hope you all have a great weekend.

Happy crafting.

LIM Challenge 102 - Sport or Exercise

Just managed to post this by the skin of my teeth............this week's challenge over at Less Is More is:

So it's everybody's favourite this week.... One Layer Cards... and we have chosen a fab theme for you....

Sports or Exercise

We would like to see sports or exercise themed cards.. this could be an image or even a sentiment or sporting quote.

I don't really have many sporting/exercise stamps but remembered this delightful digistamp from Mo Manning and I thought it would definitely fit the bill!!!  After all housework is exercise isn't it?  lol

I went into my CraftArtist programme and drew a circle on my page, imported the image and added the text.  I then printed it out and put it in my embossalicious e/f and placed my embossing diffuser over the top lining it up with the printed circle.  I then ran it through my eBosser and ended up with the surrounding card embossed leaving the circle and image free from embossing.  The image was coloured with Flexmarkers and I added Stickles to the wings.

On a slightly different tack I mentioned on Wednesday that it was my friend Darnell's 42nd wedding anniversary and posted a card for her and her Mister.  If you haven't had the delightful experience of visiting her blog then you really must!  She always makes my day and raises chuckles along the way.  Another blogging friend Ardyth at MASKerade got in touch with lots of Darnell's friends saying how nice it would be to make a card and also post our wedding photos.  I wasn't in a position to post any photos on Wednesday as I needed to scan/photograph my photos (as they are soooo old!!! lol).  So here is a quick snap of Tony and me on our wedding day back in 1990.

Thought, whilst I was at it, I would post a couple of photos I took this morning.  Here is the view out of my craftroom window:

Thanks so much for visiting - I hope wherever you are you keep warm and safe.  Happy crafting.

Addicted to Stamps - Monthly Scrapbook challenge

Hi Everyone

Welcome to our latest monthly scrapbook challenge over at Addicted to Stamps.  This month's challenge is entitled "Autumn".

For my scrapbook page I have used Serif CraftArtist and a mixture of digikits.  The main photo was taken by me at Stourhead in Wiltshire, a National Trust property whose gardens are a delight in any season - there is always something different to look at.  If you're ever in the area I think it's a must to go and wander round (there's a great pub in the grounds as added incentive!!! lol).

Please pop over to Addicted to Stamps to look at the scrapbook pages put together by other members of the Design Team.  We look forward to seeing your entries and popping over to visit you.

Happy crafting.

Wedding present

Hi Everyone - hope you're having a great weekend despite the weather cooling down.  As part of their wedding present I wanted to make Ian and Gill a collage box frame with some of their wedding photos.

I did all the main layout in CraftArtist.  I deliberately didn't put digital embellishments on the bottom left hand side of the page as I wanted to put "real" ones on before I framed the entire piece.  This is what it looked like when I printed it out.

And here's the finished gift after the addition of flowers, gems and pearl pins (luckily I actually had some the right colour to match Gill's dress).    I added ribbon and some self adhesive "studs" which are a real pain to put on straight as they stick to everything!!!  lol

A couple of close ups of the details.

 

Thanks for taking the time to drop by.

Is 80 the new 60?????? Happy Birthday Don x

We've got a lovely friend called Don who is absolutely addicted to all things Disney, especially the pins (of which he's got hundreds).  He and his partner Debbi visit Disney World in the States and also the European one.  He is also a fantastic artist who works in various mediums.  A couple of weeks ago Debbi gave me a ring and asked me to make an 18th birthday card for Don - now I've made a few 18th cards for them in the past months, so just asked which relative this one was for........then I was astounded when Debbi said no, not an 18th, I said an 80th!!!!!  Hence the question is 80 the new 60?  Cause we had no idea Don was anywhere near that age - he doesn't look it or act it - mind you with his fascination for Disney perhaps he's in his second childhood!!!

So, what to do for this special card..... well it had to be Disney incorporating Mickey Mouse and his favourite baddie Maleficent - who I can hear you say????  Well I didn't know her either but she was the baddie in Snow White.  Now although Disney have approved rubber stamps, toppers etc there is nothing out there in the digital world that has been licensed.  However, I managed to download some images that I could play with in CraftArtist.  In the main card for Debbi I have put a background of the fairy castle.  I found a free clip art of an artist painting and used cut-out studio to get a photo of Don's head which I then merged onto the clip-art and added the image of Maleficent so it looks like he's painting her. 

I also did a similar thing so he's arm in arm with Mickey.  I decided to turn it into a type of penny slider card but rather than a straight roll for the pennies I did nearly a full circle - and I didn't use pennies for this.  I was given a great tip which is to use the type of plastic bobbins you use for your sewing machine which can be bought in a certain low cost store for £1 for a pack of 20!!!  It really does work well as there's no sticky pads inbetween to catch on anything and the image on the bobbin spins round as it's going round the circle.  I also made a badge of some of the Disney characters which was topped with Diamond Glaze and decoupaged his name.

The card which I made for him from Tony and I was a digi image from Just Inklined which I've had for ages (Don loves steam trains and it seemed to go along with him being a big kid!!!).  The backing paper was created in CraftArtist from a couple of free digi images of old trains.  The embossing folder I've used is called Work Shop by Couture Creations; the cogs have been die cut using Spellbinders Sprockets set and I've used nesties for the main image and mat.

I actually bumped into Don this morning in Tesco's of all places and he had been absolutely delighted with both cards - not sure what he was doing there as it's his special day today!!! 

Thanks for stopping by.

Addicted to Stamps - Monthly Scrapbook page challenge

Welcome to our first ever Scrapbook Challenge. This will be a monthly challenge and we can't wait to see what everyone comes up with. Being that we have kicked off later in the month, this challenge will finish at the end of June so a brand new challenge can be introduced for July.

ADDICTED TO STAMPS SCRAPBOOK CHALLENGE #1

CELEBRATIONS WITH THE ADDITION OF BUNTING.

This is my page - I thought it would be fun to make one celebrating the inauguration of our new challenge blog Addicted to Stamps!  It's been made entirely within CraftArtist (what did I ever do without this brilliant piece of software???) and I trawled the net looking for photos of bunting with British, Australian and Greek flags on - as that's where all the girls from the DT live.

Happy crafting and thanks for joining us.

Really hope you will come over and join us in this monthly challenge.  Looking forward to seeing all your amazing creations.

Make My Monday Week 43 - Wheels

A really quick post today.  I wanted to join in the challenge over at Make My Monday this week and their theme is WHEELS.

I got this lovely graphic of the man in his flying machine from the Graphics Fairy and couldn't wait to use it.  (If you don't already follow Karen then it's well worth it - she has some wonderful graphics to give away.) I decided to use my CraftArtist to make this card..  Hope you like it.



PS....... just been over to add my link and realised the challenge finished at midnight last night!!!!  Ah well.............

Less is More - Week 61 Lucky Dip - card 2

I really love the colours of this week's challenge over at Less is More and so had a play today with the images they posted.

I went into CraftArtist and this is what I came up with - hope Chrissie and Mandi will forgive me for taking their inspiration for this challenge but I just couldn't resist!!!  lol

Thanks for dropping by.

Yet another 18th birthday card

Following on from the saga of making 18th birthday cards a little while ago I got another call from the same people saying could I make yet another!!!!  Seemingly the grandmother had seen the others and asked if I could make one from her...............  Unfortunately all the information I had to go on was that she was a college student into art and drama and seeing I had covered that in the last card I went off on a different tack this time.  I've used CraftArtist for the whole card in combination with the new Steampunk range of Digikits.  On the backing paper I have faded in a photo of Gabbie together with some text.  Everything else was printed out separately and then decoupaged and touched up with Diamond Glaze where needed.  The addition of some lace, flowers, a metal corner and gems finished the card off.  Hope she likes it.

See you soon.

Gifts for my great nephew

As I mentioned we went down to Portsmouth to see my new great nephew Charlie who is absolutely gorgeous!!! lol  I made a couple of gifts to take down; one for him and one for his parents, Keir & Lara.

The first is the teddy bear I made a while ago - couldn't think of a more deserving home and, although it was a bit of a wrench, I handed him over into the safe care of Charlie complete with label saying "I belong to Charlie Nolan".  The other gift was a box frame with images of Keir, Lara and Charlie which I created on CraftArtist using steam punk graphics and then added flowers, pewter frames that I'd die cut and embossed and a magnifying lens.  His name was made of chipboard which I covered with paper and then glazed with Diamond Glaze and attached to the front of the frame - glad his name wasn't any longer as it just fitted on beautifully!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend enjoying this glorious weather.

And here's the other one!!!

I promised to post the second card that I had made and sent to my sister congratulating her and Jim her husband on the birth of their first grandson.  However, as I hadn't heard if she'd received it I delayed posting!!!

The card was made using CraftArtist with some of the items being printed out separately and decoupaged.  Lots of flowers and ribbon plus some hatpins and metal corners completed the card.

Thanks for dropping by.

It's a boy...........

Well, for those of you who check out my sister Val's blog you will know that we have a new addition to the family in the form of baby Charlie who arrived safely on Saturday weighing 7lbs 10oz.  Mother, baby and father all okay!!!!  lol

I have made two new baby cards, one of which is here - I will post the other later in the week.

I have used the gorgeous digi stamp from Sugar Nellie called Bambino.  I coloured him in using Flexmarkers and then got my sewing machine out to stitch the image onto backing card.  I then pieced the backing card together (from my stash) and stitched that as well.  Then this was put onto an 8x8 card blank.  The sentiments were computer generated on CraftArtist; the top one punched out and matted using Stampin Up punches and the bottom one used Spellbinders Ornate Frames - the cut outs from the sides I added to the top and bottom of the frame for a different look.  I've added gems, flowers, hat pins and ribbon and the last touch were two baby feet punched out using a Dovecraft punch.

Thanks for dropping by.

Teddy Bear for a 2 year old

Hello everyone - I was asked to make a birthday card for a 2 year old little boy who loves teddy bears so where better to turn than to Tatty Teddy on the Me to You CD.  I used this in conjunction with the Docrafts Digital Designer programme.  The base card is an 8" square scalloped blank.  The decoupaged image is mounted onto nestie shapes.  The backing paper was from the same CD.  I punched a small envelope out of pale blue vellum (for some reason it looks really dark in the photo but it's a pale colour) and made a miniature card saying Happy Birthday Kian.  The circle sentiment was produced in CraftArtist and punched using Stampin Up circle and scalloped circle.  The name was computer generated and I used the pennant punch from Stampin Up and threaded through some blue rickrack ribbon.  The final touch was a pretty organza ribbon and bow.

I have put the Linky Followers on the side bar just in case we lose our Google Friends Followers at the end of this month as I would hate to loose all my lovely followers so if you want to continue following me please pop your names on the Linky Followers; its free to join......  Lot of bloggers have done the same thing just to be on the safe side...

Thanks for dropping by.  Have a great weekend.

70th Birthday card

Morning everyone - just a quick post today.  We are going up to Hampshire on Saturday to celebrate a friend's 70th birthday.  He has always been very keen on rowing and always used to attend Henley.  Soooooo - I managed to find some great images and decided to use a black and white photo of four rowers proudly holding their oars.  I took it into CraftArtist and with a little manipulation managed to extract Chris's head (from another photo) and place it over the seated rower.  Everything on this card was made using CraftArtist including the 70th badge (cut out using SU punches).  The sentiment on the front is continued on the insert and reads "but you are definitely on higher ground!"

Thanks for dropping by.

This is the last one..............

Front of card

Hi Everybody - well if you've been following the saga of the 18th birthday cards I have, at last, finished and this is the last one.  It's mostly been constructed in CraftArtist and the mechanics of the card was inspired by Dave Brethauer and his Heart Tuckaway Card.  The card has been made out of A4 card, printed on both sides with images of BMX bikers, grafitti etc.  I used the cutout studio in CA to isolate the biker which is along the bottom of the card and I also decoupaged him for a bit of dimension.  I have used my Spellbinders book pages for the cutout closure.  The cogs/wheels are from the

Back of card

Sprightly Sprockets set die cut from pewter mirri card.  I've added metal corners and a metal embellishment "go for it" - all from my stash.  The sentiment was again done in CA matted

Card closed

onto a die cut cog.  I partially embossed the tag using the Couture Creations Workshop e/f and then sponged with DI.  I've added a BMX biker and various items stamped onto shrink plastic to use as "danglers" from the tag.  The greeting on the back was made in CA, die cut using my book page die, sponged with DI and foiled using my foiling machine.  I've also made a box to match.

Thanks for stopping by.

Karen x

A 1940's card............

It's my friend Anne's birthday today.  She and her husband Andy are really into the 40's era and go to lots of events centred around this time - they are going away for a weekend in a few months where you have to dress up!!!!!  Perhaps it's their age.......... lol.  Anyway I decided to theme her card around this and used my 40's disc for CraftArtist.  Everything on the card, which is an 8x8, the insert and the envelope (which you can just see in the background) was made using CraftArtist - with the exception of some Tim Holtz Kraft Resist paper on the base and some lace which I coloured with Distress Inks - oh, and the photo of Anne herself.  I printed out the main layer which I then tore, crumpled and distressed and then printed all the elements which I decoupaged.  I've just had a phone call from Anne and she's over the moon with it!  So much so she wants to come over and see how CraftArtist works - perhaps we will have another convert!

You need a bit of humour when you reach 70...................

My friend and neighbour Annie had been hunting round the shops for a card for her friend's 70th birthday but couldn't find anything appropriate. So she asked me if I could make one and when I said what type she started off mentioning floral etc etc but then said her friend had a sense of humour so I knew just where to go with this one.

I made a stepper card and used backing papers recently received from Chocolate Baroque as part of my renewal of membership to the Guild. I then got out my set of "The Wrinklies" stamps from Dimension Fourth and stamped the lady with the turban and coloured with Promarkers. The sentiment is also from the same set.  I have used my Grand Nesties Book Pages for the mats, added some gems and a ribbon.  The circle sentiment was made using CraftArtist.

Thanks for dropping by.

Less is More - Week 26 Lucky Dip - Fruit

This week's challenge over at Less is More is FRUIT.  The only stamp I have with fruit on is a Stampin Up one which has already been used by Chrissie so I turned to CraftArtist and imported a photo of a lovely apple, had a play with the layout and made up the sentiment.  Very simple and I think it confirms to the CAS design theme.  I added Diamond Glaze to the apple to make it nice and shiny although I'm not sure if the photo shows it up to its best as I had to turn it sideways for it to show up at all.............. think I need to go on a photography course!!!  lol

Thanks for stopping by.

Contest over at Create with TLC

The lovely Paulette over at Create with TLC has set up a contest to celebrate her 300 member party and 1 year anniversary celebrations on Crafters Digital Art Centre.  She has provided us all with two images to chose from to use in a creation Icard, page layout, ATC etc).  The twist is that we have to provide an original sentiment to go along with the image.  There will be a total of 4 winners - a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winner using a random draw.  The 4th winner will be chosen by Paulette based on their sentiment and if it makes the grade Paulette will turn it into wordart for everyone to see and enjoy.

I've made my card using CraftArtist and decided to use this very feminine crab.......... she looked ready to go out for a night out so came up with the sentiment Hair's done, make-up's done..... all I need now is a manicure!  Hope Paulette likes it........

Thanks for stopping by.

Monograms

This week's challenge over at Less Is More is monograms.  I've got a slight problem with my printer at the moment and it will only print out in black and blue and as I don't have any stamps that would fit this challenge I needed to create something on the computer.  So, here is my blue card!!!  lol  I created the monogram, text and fairy image in CraftArtist and all I've added is some glamour dust.  It's been matted onto matching blue card and then onto white.  Both the mat and front of the card have been put through my Joy machine in a Stampin Up embossing folder.

Thanks for stopping by.