The Other Side Of Me

I've had very little time to make Christmas cards this year, something I intend to rectify in 2014, but I thoroughly enjoyed making this one for my card swap group recipient for December, Zoe Tant. There is a total mix of products on this card. The card base and the ribbon are from Stampin Up, in Baja Breeze.  The dsp is called Winter Wishes by Echo Park and I absolutely love it.  I had to wait for it to come from America a few years ago and it didn't arrive until the middle of January! I've used the Marianne doily die to cut the white shape behind the jar.  The jar itself is a Sizzix stamp and die set.  I've had it for months and this is it's first outing.  The actual snowman in the jar is from Little Claire's Designs and was the perfect size.  The sentiment and the snow in the jar are from my new magazine Get Stamping.  John has bought me a subscription for this for Christmas, which I am very excited about.  The lid of the jar and the backg...

Hello peeps, it's all go here, as usual! I didn't realise how many days had gone by since I last posted. I realised I'd completely forgotten to show you this little creation: I made it for Victoria Jefferies' birthday back in early April. She's one of the members of the card swap group I'm running, and a very talented crafter.  I don't think I've ever sat down at my desk and whipped something up so quickly (because I am an incompetant oaf who should have taken more notice of the date in the first place!) I literally finished making it and put it straight in the post so it's quite nice to revisit it again. Here are the deets: The card base is Baja (boo hoo!) Breeze, 5x7" Layer 1 is Basic Black cardstock. Layer 2 is just plain white cardstock, run through a 5x7 ef and trimmed to size. Layer 3 is So Saffron cut with the 3rd largest labels framelit Layer 4 A stamp from the Apothecary Art stamp set (luvs youuuuu!) which isn't colour...

Hello all! Just popping in with a quick post today. I've seen some beautiful colour combinations recently and had to have a go at some of my own.  I wanted to make a card for my Floor Manager at work, and this is what I came up with: It's a Z fold card made using Baja Breeze cardstock.  I inked up my Summer Silhouettes stamp set and away I went.  The colours are Early Espresso, Baja Breeze and Crumb Cake.  This was such a simple card to make.  The dsp is part of the Twitterpated set and the Happy Birthday is from the old Elementary Elegance stamp set.  A very sweet combo, I'm sure you'll agree. Well I think that's it really, thanks for looking in today.  Maybe you'll give these colours a try. Back soon with some card swaps. Jane xx

Hello Blog Friends! Is it snowing where you are?  I can't believe we woke up to about 4 inches of the white stuff this morning.  It's March , for goodness' sake!  But isn't crafting the perfect antidote to this ridiculous weather?  I don't know where I'd be without it at the moment. As you know, I've set up a card swap group.  The first card I made was to go to Sue Ralph, and this is what I made: I kept it nice and simple as I'd said to send out a card with 'Hello' or 'To brighten your day' or something similar just to get to know one another. The card base is Baja Breeze and it seemed to dictate the rest of the card, really.  The ribbon is Baja Breeze, too, and I've stamped and cut out the base of the flower, using my Sizzix set, then stamped on vellum for the top flower, in white ink, which I then heat embossed.  I am definitely not embossing enough and need to make a card at least once a month with a touch of heat embossing o...

I've recently bought the Designer Frames Folders from Stampin Up and I am having such fun with them.  I played around researched for ages, because I kept getting creases in my card stock and found an awesome video that really helped.  If you're suffering from the same affliction (!) you really need to watch this video , it's fabulous. This is the first card that I made: I decided to have a go at making a sympathy card, before I really need one and don't want to make it!  I bought the sentiment stamp a few weeks' ago in a local craft shop.  It's actually got a little flower at the beginning of the words that's very similar to the Summer Silhouettes stamp used at the top, but I wanted the wording to be symetrical, so I just inked the letters.  Here's a close up of the stamped flower in the frame: You can see the frame more clearly in this pic.  As you can see, there are no dents in the surrounding cardstock.  I cut a little piece of white ca...

Hello everyone, I can hardly believe it's been just over a week since my last post.  I have actually just worked nine days without a break, and although it wasn't all strenuous, I'm so glad to be having some days off.  I've completed my course work (what a relief!) so now it's time for some crafting. I've recently made this for one of the residents, whose birthday was on Tuesday.  If there's one thing you can say about Trudy, it's that she loves her cups of tea, so I had to go with this: Although I'm always saying I'm not very good at challenge blogs, when you make a card for someone you know, you quite often have a challenge of your own, don't you?  On this card, I knew I wanted to use my tea cup stamps (from Do Crafts, I think) and the papers from that set as I have so many left. Sometimes I might see a card on Pinterest and it's not necessarily the whole card I want to try, but just a certain aspect of it.  In this case, I'v...

I just want to make it clear that I have been sticking to my goal of doing a scrapbook page once a month.  I made this page in December, but there just wasn't time to upload it before Christmas.  I'd better get my skates on if I'm going to make one in January though, as it's the 12th already.  Does anybody else think January is whizzing past? Anyway, here is a view of the overall page: This photo was taken on a day that turned out to be a turning point in my relationship with Barnaby.  We went to a competition that had an orienteering phase, in which I got completely and hopelessly lost.  In the end I gave up (after over an hour of trying to find my way out of a woods) and said to Barnaby, "Take me home!" and within half an hour we were back at the starting point.  My love for him grew enormously that day, as you can imagine. Let's have a look at some of the details: Of course, a photo of The Boy.  The map at the top is the area where the com...

I've had to make two cards for residents very close together, so, with a need for speed I turned to Pinterest for inspiration.  I decided to case a card by Judy May, which you can see here  .  I love to case cards because I like starting out with a lot of the same stuff on the original card, then getting to the bit where you don't have something they used, so you have to use your imagination to think of something to use that captures the spirit of that card, the bit that impressed you, and then the card becomes your version.  Here's what I made: Somewhere between Real Red and Cherry Cobbler lies Riding Hood Red, and this is the first time I've used this lovely colour, and the papers from the Twitterpated dsp that work with it.  The base card is the beautiful Baja Breeze.  I wanted to capture the oval shape in the centre from the original card, but don't have those particular embossing folders - yet!  (Don't worry, they are on my shopping list!)...

Hello, hope you're all well.  I'm going to tell you the sad news, then move swiftly on, but I can't carry on blogging without mentioning it... John's horse Zak was injured last Saturday, with a tendon injury.  It turned out to be very serious indeed so on Wednesday we made the difficult decision to have him put to sleep.  It was totally heartrending and I never want to do it again.  I've been quite depressed over it as it was so sudden and such a shock, as you can imagine.  There is a big hole in my heart without him here. But I have been card-making, and need to do it more than ever now to cheer myself up.  So today, here is the card I made for my grandson's third birthday.  I'm sorry that the photo isn't great quality, I didn't realise until now and I've already posted it: The card is all baja breeze, and I can't remember now where I got the stamp from, but it's so sweet (coloured with Promarkers.)  I paper pieced the parcel from ...

I've recently sent two cards off to recipients before I'd taken photographs of them, what a fool!  One of them, in particular, was really nice, so I'm quite cross about it.  I've decided from now on I must take a photo as soon as the card is done and write a blog post for it while all the details are still fresh in my mind.  This is a project I did a little while ago, too.  Firstly, the card: I'm starting to really understand how SU! works for me.  I fall in love with a set of dsp, then I go and buy the plain cardstock that goes with it, some gorgeous stamps (and maybe dies or punches) and away I go and create!  This paper,  is called Twitterpated, and it's one of the most beautiful sets of paper I've ever used.  The blue cardstock is baja breeze, one of my fave colours, and the ribbon (oh the ribbon!) is ready pleated in blushing bride, what a fabulous product that turned out to be!   I've used the Apothecary Art stamp set and ...

I finally feel as if my mojo has come back.  I made a list yesterday of all the craft things I want to make over the next few weeks and there are 20 things on the list, which means my mojo is in full flow, do you know what I mean? The next thing is, I have to make a rule that I don't craft after 8pm, as it sets my brain alight and I can't go to sleep when I go to bed.  Last night I was up until 12.30 crafting.  That's no good, is it?! Anyway, here is the card that I made for my beautiful granddaughter this August: I was researching for another project and came across a tri-shutter card and decided it would be perfect for the project I had in mind.  There are different styles of shutter card, where the panels are rectangular, but the design I saw had square panels.  It took ages trawling the net for some instructions and dimensions to make one like this. Have a closer look at the stamped image: This image is from LOTV.  I was so thrilled wh...

Hello there everyone, hope you've had a good Monday.  I have, despite the pain in my hand.  I'm pleased to say it hasn't stopped me crafting one bit. I'm really pleased to have made a card that I can enter at The Paper Players blog challenge .  Here are their colours for this week: Such great colours, but it took quite a bit of experimenting before I was happy with my card: It looks a bit light in the photograph, but it's lovely in real life.  I've just received my order of card stock, including a pack of Baja Breeze, so that was my jumping off point.  I tried several different stamps before deciding on the Posy Punch set, as a lot of stamps didn't have enough impact in these colours, and I wanted to make a statement.  I've substituted Real Red for Poppy Parade as I don't have any ink in that colour. The base card is 5"x7", with a layer of Baja Breeze on top.  Then the bit that frustrates me:  I really, really need a 5"x7...

Don't you love it when you give your title a post and realise that a whole year has gone by since you last wrote that?  I can't believe how much my style has changed too, since I last made a birthday card for my dear friend Priscilla. I am the proud owner of the Stampin Up! dsp called Spice Cake.  It is the most gorgeous stuff (somehow I knew it would be!) Here's what I've made: The cardstock and ink is Soft Suede but the centre oval is Very Vanilla.  When I was playing I tried this first on white and can hardly believe what a huge difference it makes just changing from white to Very Vanilla.  But you want to know what makes this card different, right?  Check this out: Yes!  What a cool idea!  So easy to make, too.  You can follow a fantastic tutorial by Dawn Griffith here.   I expect my dimensions are slightly different to hers as I wanted it to fit into a C6 envelope.  Here is a shot of the inside: Are you anything like me...

I've had a break in packing to make a card for my son-in-law who's birthday is April 1st.  No comments about April Fools, please (after all, he had the  courage sense to marry my daughter!)  I've had to make it so I can post it, then I've got to pack all my craft stuff away (sob!)  Thank goodness there's my last craft group on Wednesday to keep me going. Anyway, here's the card: I've used the sweet Perfect Postage stamp set.  It's so cute, I could sit there and play with it in a most child-like manner, for hours.  I've used Baja Breeze ink, Marina Mist, Night of Navy and Not Quite Navy.  I've backed the 'stamps' on a strip of Marina Mist card stock, then stuck that onto a panel of Marina Mist stripy dsp, with a scalloped bottom.  The reason it's that height is that there are two horizonal score lines along the bottom with the Happy Birthday sentiment in the middle, but it doesn't show up very well in the photograph.  The who...

I've been asked to make a Valentine for a friend of mine. And this is what I made: Sadly I can't claim this was my idea, I've cased it from the awesome Darlene here .  She has even provided a video tutorial, so you can follow it step by step.  I started with a plain white 5x7 card which I distressed with Tim Holtz Old Paper distress ink, then stamped over it in Crumb Cake with my Letter stamp from Penny Black which is quite a big background stamp.  I also have a post mark stamp so I stamped that on a couple of times.  Then I made the envelope from a 4" square of paper, which I scored across each centre line and folded to make the envelope, which is slightly different to the way you'll see in the video. The hearts are cut out using various dies and punches in Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze and So Saffron, and placed around the envelope, as if you've just opened it and all these hearts have flown out.  I spent a long time playing with these until I was...