The Other Side Of Me

I am loving using doilies on my cards.  Here's one I made earlier! The great thing about this card was that I found another way of using my beautiful Prima 'Melody' papers.  As soon as I saw these I felt that they are the sort of papers you want to use in their entirety, i.e. not cut up at all, but I wasn't sure how to do it.  This turns out to be a very good way. The card is 6x6 square.  I've covered the inside with one whole sheet.  It's got a beautiful space in it where you could write your greeting. Then I cut the front of the card in half diagonally, and covered the triangle with another sheet of matching paper, so when the card is closed the front and back line up exactly.  Quite honestly, these papers are so pretty, I could almost have walked away there and not done another thing to them. But no!  I've added a doily that I've stained with Old Paper distress ink and inked it round the edges.  I've cut a scalloped circle from another pape...

Hi there!  I've had a strange week where I've not been very well at all.  You know you have those times where you make something when you're ill and look at it later and wonder, 'What was I thinking?!'  BUT having said that, I have made a card for my middle grandson's birthday later this month. The papers are by October Afternoon.  The giraffe is something I've had in my stash since I very first started cardmaking.  The length of him suits this card perfectly.   The wording and the FIVE are stamped with Marina Mist ink, but the true significance of this card, is that it's a gift card, look: This is made from a piece of double-sided paper 12"x6".  Score it at 3", 6" & 9" and fold along the score lines.  Make sure the middle one points towards you.  Lay it down and cut along the centre score line, but not right to the ends.  Stick down the three sides and cut out a semi-circle with a circle punch.  Your gift card fit...

It is my eldest daughter's birthday at the end of this month, and my grandson's just before that, so I thought I'd better get a move on.  I hate being caught out at the last minute. I've finally sourced some Kraft card and I am in love with it.  I knew I would be.  You know you see pics in magazines and blogs and think, 'I could make that, if only I had...'  Well, here's my first ever play with it:  My daughter's obviously going to be 30, hence the numbers in brown Memento ink.  I've rounded off the corners, which I'm doing on most of my cards these days, I've noticed.  The papers are October Afternoon (Thrift Shop) and I've cut the sentiment out with my Sizzix die.  You can't see it very well, so here's a close-up: Kraft card is very rough and ready compared to normal card (they don't tell you that in magazines, do they?) but it's beautiful stuff to work with. It goes very well with red cardstock and papers. You can c...

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 ...

Do you ever have a situation where you buy some papers for a particular project, then don't know what to do with the rest of the pad?  I've done this recently because I've bought some Prima Papers called 'Melody' which I used one sheet of for the ruby wedding anniversary cards I made a little while back.  The papers are all works of art, but I haven't had a clue what to do with them.  Then on Wednesday I was thumbing through one of my old magazines and admiring some cards in there.  After a few minutes I twigged that the papers in the article were the very same ones I own. So I leapt to my desk and made this: I used my white jelly-roll pen to do all the stitching by hand.  It's the first time I've had the nerve to do it and I'm really pleased with the result.  Not a stamp in sight, I'm afraid, which is unusual for me.  I'm inspired now, and hope I can do these papers justice with future creations. Now, before I go, a quick question for yo...

I've been experimenting with aperture cards, as way back last year I made some little cross stitch cards.  Obviously at the time I didn't have a clue what I was doing, and once completed I put each one in the little card that came with it (which is a perfectly correct thing to do).  But the cards are very small, and I wouldn't buy one like that.  There's a lot of work involved, and you're never going to make any money back if you sell them. So I took one of the cross stitch pictures out and set to thinking, and this is what I came up with: So the image in the centre is cross stitched.  I've cut a piece of A3 card into a section 14cm x 42cm, scored and folded it into 3 equal square sections.  I've covered the centre piece in this red dotty paper (free from Cardmaking and Papercraft mag) and put it through the Bigshot to cut the circle out.  I've put the cross stitch in and stuck the back down, so now you have a normal card.  Now here comes the 'hap...

Hello there all, I hope you're getting some of the sunshine we're having, it's been a funny summer so far, hasn't it?  On Tuesday night I went to my craft class at Dolly Cottage Crafts.  I haven't been for absolute ages and really enjoyed myself.  Yes, we make cards, but we have such a laugh at the same time.  It was amazing for me to see how far I've come since I last went (I'm not afraid of the Bigshot, for a start!) We made a Christmas card, which I'll show you nearer the festive season, but I also made this: It looks quite effective, but it's very easy to do.  It's all about using double sided paper.  This is Bloom and Grow by MME.  I have a soft spot for this paper as it's the first paper I came across when I started crafting and had that moment of revelation of 'It's not just me!  Other people like paper, too!'  I never bought it, though, so it was lovely to have the opportunity to use some.  The variations of this card ...

Helloooo, I have got a card to show you but I just want to say what a fantastic time I had at the Summer Crafting Exhibition at Doncaster Racecourse yesterday.  And I need to thank those that gave me advice for coping strategies, like 'wear strong shoes' and 'sharpen your elbows' !  Ladies, all I can say is, "You weren't wrong!"  The stalls were all very close together, it was extremely hot and I can honestly say I've never seen so many women crammed into such a small space.  The cafeterias were so busy there were people sitting on the floor eating their lunch!  It was incredible.  Plus we queued for twenty minutes only to be told they only accepted cash.  'Strewth. All the cards and stamps seemed so much bigger and brighter in real life.  I was a bit blown away by some of it, and thought, 'I'll never be able to do that,' but I think it's because I was so overwhelmed.  I was thrilled to find the Lili of the Valley stand (but fancy...

Last September I saw some card designs in a magazine and smiled to myself and turned the page.  As if I was ever going to make those!  Just totally not my style.  Now, ten months later, I've flicked through the magazine again and realised that I actually have the papers and could make the card, (if I wanted to, if I didn't have anything better to do) so I decided to have a go yesterday, and here is the result: I don't really do vintage or retro or anything like that,  but when you've got this in your hand, there's something wonderful about it.  I may have to make another one.  The papers are from a range by October Afternoon called The Thrift Shop.  They're very varied, but I've used a lot of them. It just goes to show you shouldn't ever throw anything away, or dismiss a project thinking that you'll never have a go at it (even the dreaded quilling, I suppose!)  I've cut all my articles out of the magazines and filed them as individual proj...