The Other Side Of Me

Okay, I'm going to confess:  I was actually going to stop blogging at the end of 2013, but I find I can't resist it.  I realise this is the first post of the year, though.  This was the card I made for a resident in December.  The colour is Blushing Bride, which I really love. I am delighted to say that everyone in the Card Swap Group wants to keep going, so we will, which has cheered me up no end.  I am going to be more organised this year and send my cards off as early as I can.  I don't go into work on a Thursday until 5pm so I am going to use the whole of that day to craft. 1st Thursday: Card Swap group card 2nd Thursday: cards for residents 3rd Thursday: Christmas cards 4th Thursday: Art journaling. I am carrying on with my journal/smash book several days a week as well.  I'm finding it quite addictive. Back soon Jane xx

Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with your eyesight, you really are seeing two identical cards! One is for a member of the card swap group, Alison Pilkington, who had her birthday last month.  Around the same time, one of the residents had a birthday, so as I had everything out, I decided to make two of the same card.  I was on a roll!  The pink cardstock and ribbon are in the beautiful Blushing Bride.  I have a top this colour and absolutely love it.  This made it the perfect opportunity to use up some of my Twitterpated dsp.  The grey is Basic Gray and these two colours go really well together.  The stamp was actually a free one with a magazine ages ago. I'm off for a hop round to see what you've all been up to. Back soon Jane xx

Hello all! Sorry I haven't been here for a while, things have been so busy.  I've hardly had time for crafting, let alone blogging as well. But when I have had time, I've been really enjoying myself.  Take the top card.  Sorry I can't remember where the inspiration came from, but I had great fun making this.  The green is Lucky Limeade.  I still love this colour, especially with black. This was the next one, with a different colour combination: I sent this one to my son in law.  I like the texture on these hexagons, but there is something lovely about the smooth ones on the first card, too.  You'll probably know the stamp set is Tape It from SU.  This is such a versatile set I'm using it on everything.  The blues are Tempting Turquoise, Island Indigo and Midnight Muse, which match the striped stamp sections. The next step was to make this one: This was for my son's birthday at the end of August.  It's literally 3 strips of ...

I can't believe it's been a year since I made the first card for the residents at work, and now I'm back at the beginning again.  This is a card for a lady who is 91!  I was a bit stumped at first, but remembered her love for cats, and knew exactly where to go for what I was looking for.  Here's the card: This is a digi stamp from Little Claire's Designs, and it's very, very sweet.  I printed it out on paper, because of course, the beauty of digi stamps is that you can make it any size you like.  I just started playing and chose grey for the cats and it all came together from there.  The cardstock is basic grey and the paper is an old colour set from Papermania.  It took a while for me to twig that the sentiment is already on there, so I decided to keep it simple and left it at that. Oh yes, one more thing.  I decided to add a dash of another colour and plumped for red.  Then I coloured the fish in red and wondered what on earth I was ...

At last I'm able to start showing you the cards I've made recently, as there have been a cluster of birthdays this past week but I've had to hold back on what I've made. So here is the first one: This is for one of the members of the card swap group, Zoe Tant.  You can see her inspiring blog here .  I saw a card on Pinterest that inspired my creation, but I can't find the original artist, so if anyone knows, please let me know so I can credit them. I have a feeling the base card in the original is early espresso, but I thought it might look nice using basic gray.  The next layer is some of the beautiful blushing bride paper from the Twitterpated dsp.  (Can't wait for this colour to come back, can you?) I've stamped the delicate branch from the Simply Soft set in basic gray.  I'm amazed at how many times I still reach for this stamp set. I stamped the delicate image in basic gray in different directions on the white cardstock pieces (6cm x 4cm)...

Isn't it lovely when you remember making someone a card last year and a whole year has gone by and now you're making one for this year?  This is the card I made earlier this month for my eldest grandson Christian: Christian is football crazy, so once again I've gone for a football image.  This one is by LOTV and it's so sweet.  I dithered about it because Christian is 9 so I wondered if it was too young for him, but apparently he loved it. The stripe across this white 5x7 card is real red and the little flags at the bottom are basic black and basic gray, as is the border on the stamped image.  I've coloured the little boy with Promarkers.  I had a lightbulb moment with the inside of the card as I realised I could just ink the football and stamp it out by itself like this: That could be a very handy thing to have in itself anyway, couldn't it?  (I have four grandsons!)  I was very pleased with the finished result, it was a nice, sharp, clean...

You may recall me saying in a previous post that I have a thing about bicycles.  Well it's true, and sadly I can prove it!  Check this out:  I saw this card on Pinterest a while ago and immediately recognised the papers, as I have these.  They are Thrift Shop by October Afternoon.  I couldn't resist the opportunity to use some of them up, as I'm on a mission to use up as much dsp as possible this year.  The original card has stitching on the sections, but I felt this didn't really need it as I wanted to keep the focus on the stamped image.  I did like the touch of paper piecing the bike basket though, I've never done that before. I've stamped the bike in Basic Gray ink, just to make it slightly softer and coloured it with a grey Promarker.  I haven't used those for ages, I'd forgotten what fun they are. The cardstock is Very Vanilla, but I've gone over it with my Tim Holtz old paper distress ink. I've popped some black checked ribbon whi...

I promise I will be back later with a post showing my birthday cards, but I need to be quick to get this card on before the deadline. These are the colours for this week's colour Q challenge: I have been dying to use my new Clockworks set from Stampin Up, especially for my son in law's birthday on April 1st.  So I have a masculine stamp set in my hand, and then I see these colours, which shout 'masculine' to me, so I put them both together and came out with this: The cardbase is Lucky Limeade.  I've substituted Garden Green for Glorious Green, too.  I stamped the sentiments in the middle, covered them  up with a piece of card, then stamped various images around the edge of the card, which leaves this lovely border.  The two small cogs are stamped in Lucky Limeade, as is the clock.  I had great fun with this, here is a close-up: This is actually heat embossed.  My stamp-a-ma-jig got quite a work-out here, as I stamped the clock face ...

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...

Good morning crafty peeps!  At last we have some sunshine and I have a day off.  I have bought some new crafty goodies and am looking forward to doing some work with them later today, but in the meantime, here is a card I made recently: I saw a card like this on Pinterest and decided I really must have a go, as I obviously have this paper, from the Twitterpated set.  This set of dsp is actually quite diverse, isn't it?  Most of it is flowery, then this pops up.  This is the first time I've used any Basic Gray cardstock, too, which I really enjoyed.  I am fascinated by the yellow and grey combination, and want to explore this further, as one of the residents at work has a little box with grey and yellow flowers on, and every time I see it it makes me want to run home and start stamping! The original card doesn't have the section of embossed cardstock that I stuck down the front, but that's because I picked up the card as it was, and got grease on it!...

Hello all, I hope you've coped ok with the bad weather we've been having.  I've had a week off work and haven't ridden at all.  That's never happened to me before!  It's a good job I've got crafting to fall back on, isn't it?  I've been extremely busy in the craft room and am currently working on something extra special, which I'll show you as soon as I can. But for now, here's a card I've really enjoyed making: I've made it as a lovely way to use up the last of my Pear Pizzazz cardstock.  I've decided it's definitely time to give it a good home and move on.  I've searched and searched for the original card to give it some credit, but I can't find where it's come from.  I've used one of the stamps from the Simply Soft stamp set, which I stamped in Gumball Green, which I think was a bit powerful, but it's stll a lovely card.  By the time I'd put the Lucky Limeade ribbon on it, it didn't seem to m...