Bits and Bobs

Goodness me, it's been a hectic few days!  Hubby has been off work ill, which has made it very difficult to craft and blog, but he's feeling much better and gone back to work today, so it's all systems go!  I did manage to make this yesterday though:

Another card without a stamp, you'll notice.  I've had these chipboards since last year and didn't really know what to do with them.  Keeping to my golden rule of  'never throw anything away' has been good because, on Saturday I found a book called '175 Fresh Card Ideas' by Kimber McGray in an Oxfam shop.  It is a brilliant book in which she uses very few stamps and more chipboard, die cut flowers etc, and it's very inspiring.  It was only published last year, so it's very up-to-date and I actually recognise some of the papers she's used.

So for this card:

I started off with basic white cardstock, but it looked too bright and clean for my purposes, so I distressed it with Tim Holtz Old Paper ink.  I embossed the large piece of pink cardstock and rounded the right hand corners to match the base.  I cut the plain piece of pink paper to look like a banner.  I am pleased because it's just a scrap of my Prima Melody paper.  This book is brilliant at showing you how to use up loads of scraps, actually.

I've just put a little strip of paper that matches the chipboard underneath the pink strip, after I've used a scallop punch on it.  These papers were free in the mag with these chipboards, but are still available on the Cardmaking and Papercraft website. 

Then I thought the card didn't really say anything, so I've stamped 'Sending You Hugs' on the pink paper.  I was quite nervous about it, as if it went wrong, the whole card would have been ruined, but it was fine.  I dithered about putting some card candy on it, one in each corner of the embossed card, but left it like this in the end.

It actually looks like the cover of a notebook, which has really set my mind racing, as you can imagine.  A few notebooks to add to the cards for the church sale would be a very good idea, wouldn't it?

I'm off now for a serious bout of blog hopping, hoping to catch up with what I've missed and have a look at some challenges.  So much to do, so little time!

Thanks for dropping by today, I really appreciate it.

Jane xx