The Other Side Of Me

I have been having fun making some Father's Day cards, which I'll show you as I get time, but on Friday I put this together: I had great fun making the shirt.  I had to practise on some blank paper first.  There is an excellent tutorial here  (I use this website a lot.)  Once I felt ready, I picked some paper from my stash (it must be rectangular, but size doesn't matter) and hey presto, one shirt.  Obviously it's spotty, so I stuck on some card candy as buttons and cut out a bow tie shape, completely freehand, a first for me.  At first I left them white, but then decided to colour them a pale yellow with my Promarkers.  I was rummaging in my desk and found this paper, which was a magazine freebie last year, but it worked perfectly with the spots.  I cut out the sentiment and backed it onto contrasting paper, added the little photo corners, which you can't see very well, and there you have it.  I have found a lovely new challenge blog call...

I am thoroughly in the swing of these challenge blogs now, and am finding it quite addictive.  I have realised the skill is in seeing if your card is eligible for more than one challenge at a time.  For example, you could follow the sketch from one challenge, the colours from another and the embellishments from another and make one card to suit all three challenges.  But for today, this is my entry for the Little Claire's Designs Challenge blog.  I had great fun last night, in my poorly state, looking back through some of the beautiful stamps I already have, with a spark of an idea in my head.  It was a toss up between two stamps in the end, but this dear little mouse won the day, and came out to play on my card: The challenge is to use a shaped card, and in fact the instructions for how to make this sidestep card came with a Little Claire's stamp back last November, and although it's very effective, it's actually really easy to make.  Just lately I am...

I have been a big fan of The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady since my late teens.  I still have a jug and basin set that I bought with my first wages and it's now upstairs on the dresser all these years later. So imagine my delight when Cardmaking and Papercraft had a free set of Country Diary papers and tags recently.  They are beautiful.  Here's the first card I've made: Wild poppies are my favourite flowers.  The fields round here are full of them at this time of year, intermingled with the wheat. These papers are really lovely, I thoroughly enjoyed using them.  I am so glad I bought a butterfly punch (Woodware) as I use it all the time.  I really want to buy some charms to use on cards, but this little tag with the butterfly on was the perfect way to practise.  Thanks so much for dropping by today.  I hope I'll be able to leave some comments on your blogs soon, it's so frustrating not being able to, isn't it? Blessings everyone, ...

As you know, I've been doing a lot of blog hopping lately, and I've come across some very good challenge blogs.  Now I've had a go at one or two, I can see it could become quite addictive, especially as I am now going to add my second post of the day! The challenge blog in question is Sunday Sketch and Stamp .  I mean, what could be more perfect?  I love to stamp and I love sketches for inspiration, so hopefully I'll be going there regularly.  Anyway, enough preamble, here is my card for the challenge: These papers are called The Linen Closet by DCWV and to say they're exquisite is not an exaggeration.  They are almost too beautiful to cut up. I've spent a few days just gazing at them and stroking them!  Most of them have some sort of texture and all of them work really well together.  I wasn't going to make this the first card I showed you (more tomorrow!) but I've got to whack it on quickly or I'll miss the challenge deadline.  Th...

I'm on a roll with cards for men and boys now.  Last week I had to do a 40th birthday card for a male friend of ours.  He is very into ships, and we'd bought him a book on cruise liners for his birthday, so I decided to stick with that as a theme.  I wasn't entirely happy with the card, as I thought the finished result was a bit 'young' for a man, but I would definitely make one again for one of my grandsons, as the concept is quite clever.  Here it is: One of the sails has got 'Happy Birthday' stamped all over it, which I liked, and I like the idea of his initials and age being the registration for the boat.  I just think it needs a little more background or something, I'm not sure. I wrapped his present just in plain brown parcel paper, but I'd stamped all over it with boats, anchors, seagulls and lifebelts, which looked really good, but that's what inspired me to make this gift tag, which I really do like: It was really easy and fun to make...

You know how you start blog hopping and can't believe where you've ended up?  I started that yesterday and so stumbled upon a wonderful challenge blog called Moving Along With The Times  where I found a really good sketch challenge, which I couldn't resist having a go at.  First of all, here is the sketch they want us to use: I find sketches really inspiring and think I really ought to put a 'sketchbook' together that I can flip through when I'm a bit stuck.  Basically, they're saying 'make a card that looks like this', so I have: The image is from Lili Of The Valley and the background papers are from Basic Grey Lemonade range.  I originally bought these as they were featured in a magazine article I really liked, but when they arrived they were completely different, so whatever they used in the magazine it certainly wasn't these!  Of course, by then I was stuck with them, but I'm pleased to have been able to put them to good use and now...

I am in love. Don't panic - I am in love with a set of stamps! I know I probably shouldn't say this, but I'm really not keen on the Magnolia stamps.  They just seem a bit odd because the children don't have mouths.  It's almost like a 'children should be seen and not heard,' sort of thing going on. And then I discovered these Molly Bloom stamps, and I have fallen hook, line and sinker.  I'm not really a 'cute child' person, preferring teddies and puppies, but I find these characters irresistible.  Please give a warm welcome to Molly and George. I saw the idea for this card in Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine but it took absolutely ages to source the scalloped card and the papers (October Afternoon).  They must be incredibly popular as they've sold out twice! Now maybe you can help me out here.  I cut out the little photo corners myself, which is fine, but I know you can buy a photo corner punch (Martha Stewart for a start) but no ma...

I absolutely love card making, but scrapbooking must come a very close second.  Last year I started a project, just in an ordinary scrapbook, of my horse Barnaby, once a month.  For some reason I've taken ages to order the photos from a ride last October, but I've finally got round to it, so this is what I made yesterday: I have decided to do a proper 12x12 scrapbook this year, but I've looked back through this scrapbook and I'm very fond of what I've made.  Each page really reflects Barnaby's character and I can see how much my relationship with him has grown.  I must do one for the grandchildren, too, that should keep me busy, shouldn't it? Have a good weekend everyone, Mrs O.

I love this card because: I've been wanting to make a card that has some connection with music for ages. on which I could put the phrase, 'You rock!' I've used a digital image as I had exactly one day to make this card to take it away with me and give it to my youngest son for his birthday on Saturday. I have wanted to use this shape for a card for ages but wasn't sure how to go about it. I am delighted with this because: it's for my youngest son who is now 20, but who loves his guitar and playing on Guitar Hero, so this is perfect for him. I worked out how to do the fold and made sure it fitted in the envelope!  I kept thinking I was making an easel card, which of course, it isn't, but I got there in the end. I'm not keen on digital stamps, as to me it defeats the whole idea of stamping and colouring.  However, I had a day to make this, as I said, and I'd like to say a massive thankyou to Squigglefly, whose image this is.  I can also see th...

I must confess it's taken me a while to get an idea for this challenge this month, as they want us to use patterns, stripes, dots, zigzags etc.  I decided to get the weekend out of the way, and then knuckle down to it before it's too late. And so here is my card for this entry: This is my first ever attempt at a Father's Day card, but these gorgeous new stamps from Lili of the Valley are so sweet I couldn't resist having a go.  I am definitely on a roll with cards for men now (two more to come that I've made recently).  The papers are by Papermania, and this colour scheme is the Blueberry Pie collection.  As you can see, I've used stripes and polka dots from the range. I have also decided to enter this card into another spots and stripes challenge over at Mami Doodles  .  Fingers crossed! Mrs O.

As you know, I have volunteered to make a card for each member of our Bible study group as their birthdays come around.  This card was made for our lovely friend Rex who is in his sixties.  As you know, it's not easy to make a card for a man, especially an older man, but I've been dying to make a card with a Bible verse on it and this seemed the perfect opportunity to give it a go.  I've obviously used Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd, and added the little sheep at the bottom.  I decided to keep it simple with backing paper, there's no point getting all frilly for a man's card, is there?  In fact, I made one before this that seemed a little bit too feminine, so this is actually Take Two! The paper is from MME Wild Asparagus collection, which I've used a lot in both scrapbooking and cardmaking.  Everyone in the group signed the card, and Rex really liked it, which is what counts, isn't it? Time for me to hop round now and see what you've all been up to...

I went through a bit of a 'clean and simple' phase a week ago (before my computer went down!) as I've had some ideas floating around in my head for a while, about how to use these stamps, that I've had since last year.  The first card came out like this: The sentiment says, 'Peeking over to wish you... a happy birthday.'  The stamps and sentiments are all by Woodware.  I bought them originally to do hubby's birthday card last year, where I had a long line of the horses all looking over the wall.  We have drystone walls here, so it was very appropriate, and I coloured each horse differently to represent each horse here and it worked a treat.  This time I just wanted one horse in the centre and wanted the wall to run on so you couldn't see where it ended, hence the frame.  I very, very rarely stamp directly onto the card base, as the margin for error is huge (it is if you're as clumsy as me, anyway.  I've never actually cut myself with a craft ...

Hi there, I've just dropped by to add on a card which is my entry for Little Claire's Designs challenge this month.  They did a sketch which I've interpreted below: As soon as I saw this stamp I knew it would be perfect for my youngest grandson's birthday.  He will be two (not just yet) and this suits him down to the ground.  Who would have thought elephants could be so cute? This is only my second attempt at a blog challenge, so I nervously offer it up to them!  Have a great evening everyone, Mrs O.

Once I decided how I wanted my niece's wedding card to look, there was no stopping me.  I knew I wanted a lilac/purple colour scheme, as I know that's the colour of her flowers and her bridesmaids dresses.  I also knew I wanted to use this oh so sweet image from Lili of the Valley... I decided to keep it simple, with a sentiment that says 'Mr & Mrs' and a little embossed heart on the top right. The other thing was that I wanted a card in three sections, as I wanted space to put a sentiment (my computer was down at the time, so I couldn't print a verse off) so I decided to cut two hearts on my Sizzix like this: The middle section had to have a little pocket to hold an envelope so I could put a cheque in.  I found a sweet little piece of paper with butterflies on, and before you know it, I'd ended up with this: I found the little birds and flowers on a stamp with a teddy on it, so I just added glue to this section and heat embossed it in silver to fit i...

Finally, I am here now that our new computer is up and running. It's taken a bit of getting used to, I can tell you, but it is so much faster than our old one. And so, to my card for today. It's my sister and brother-in-law's 25th wedding anniversary in June and I've had some ideas floating around in my head for a while and decided it was time to have a go and see what I came up with. I've recently bought some silver embossing powder and have finally, after some practise, really started to get the hang of it. And so... I got out my Nellie Snellen heart shaped dies and cut out two hearts. I embossed the silver one in a flowers embossing folder, but I stamped the other one with a lovely flowers stamp and heat embossed it. The texture on it is fantastic. It's obviously an easel card. I've put organza ribbon round it and made a bow in the middle, then after rummaging around in my drawers (!) I came across the two numbers. I was thrilled, as you can imagine. I qu...