The Other Side Of Me

Do you ever go on a bit of a journey with your cardmaking, where one thing leads naturally to another?  I know once I get an idea in my head (and it works!) I like to see where else I can go with it.  Let me explain. This card came to me in my sleep. My starting point was the dsp from Twitterpated, in the Island Indigo colour, so I sat for a while trying to decide what colours would go well with it, and it had to be this set again, ie Pool Party, Tangerine Tango and Rich Razzleberry.  I started by stamping the little flower arrangement in the top right corner, loving the fact that the leaves are in Island Indigo and not a green (because you get blue leaves, right?!)  Then I ran the card through the Bigshot with the honeycomb ef.  I was fascinated by the effect, and after that the rest of the card was a doddle.  The flower has been cut with my Sizzix flower die set, which comes with co-ordinating stamps and it rather cool!  ...

Good morning everyone!  It's actually a sunny day as I write today's post.  Maybe spring will finally put in an appearance soon. As promised, I'm now able to show you my wonderful birthday cards. These were all made by members of my brand new card swap group, plus an extra surprise.  There is some amazing talent out there, let me tell you!  Let the parade begin: This card is from my dear friend Ann Wall.  I blame her entirely for my addiction to Stampin Up!  She runs a wonderful craft group in Derbyshire, where I learned so much.  Fabulous use of the Feeling Sentimental stamp, don't you think?  I got this as a birthday present and can't wait to ink it up. What amazed me about these cards was that each one contained something significant that I love, whether it be a colour or element on the card.  In this case, it's the bicycle as I have a passion for  images of bikes.  I adore the stamped image on this wonderfull...

In our Wednesday night craft group we have been given a list of all the members' birthdays so we all make cards for each other.  It is Jo's birthday today, and this is what I made for her: The cardstock is Rose Red, which I've put through my Bigshot in a flourish embossing folder.  I'm sorry, I've never known what it's called as it came in the post last year, with another one, with no address of the sender (and I didn't order it!) so it's a bit of a mystery.  It's a very pretty folder, though. I've used my lovely Flight of the Butterfly stamp set.  I had such fun playing with this. I stamped the sentiment first, which says 'hope your day is as happy as happy gets', then stamped the plain butterfly in Pretty In Pink ink then stamped over it (using my SAMJ) with the little flowered butterfly which I didn't notice until after I'd done it, is the stamp with the butterfly's body on it.  The little strip of scalloped paper is ...

Oh boy, I hope I haven't over-egged this yesterday, and you're all disappointed with what you see! I was asked to make a card for a friend's mum, who is 81.  Because she is an Alzheimer's sufferer, she never knows how old she is, so my friend asked me to put her age on it.  The chances of finding a card in the shops with 81 on are slim, aren't they? So here's the card: I need to make it clear that I'm not saying the card itself is in any way exceptional. The bit that brought tears to my eyes is the stamped image: As I said yesterday, being told that you're not in the least bit artistic, makes it all the more thrilling when you produce something like this. This is from the truly awesome stamp set called Simply Soft, and it's beautiful.  I stamped the stem and outer part of the leaves in Wild Wasabi, then got the stamp that has the 'inner' of the petals.  I inked it in Rose Red first and stamped it onto my Stamp-a-ma-jig, as when I did i...

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...

I've been working on this, this morning: I got the basic idea from a magazine, and used it as inspiration for this layout, but when I went into the detail, the dimensions in the magazine were wrong, so the stamped image didn't fit with a frame round it, which is why I decided to put it on at an angle.  I enjoyed making it, though, as the backing card is brayered with Tim Holtz Shabby Shutters ink (which I thought was going to be blue when I bought it, but love the colour of it now), layered up with MME papers.  I think I'll have to buy another pack of these, as they're so versatile.  The flowers were a free digi image, coloured with Promarkers and then shimmer paints.  It's meant to be a stencil, but I wasn't happy with my colouring so I cut the top flower out and stuck it back in place with sticky fixers, to give it a bit of dimension. I've been watching some very inspiring You Tube videos, so it's 'all systems go' this week. I'm off to do...

The time has finally come to make my Granddaughter's birthday card, and here it is: After a great deal of dithering over what style of card to use, I decided to use the sketch over at Sunday Sketch and Stamp  .  I can honestly say I've never used anything like it before, but it was perfect for what I needed today.  The bunting at the top is part of the sketch, so of course I stamped the letters for 'Princess' on it, as she is totally into princesses.  I've known for a while that I would use this as a theme, especially when I saw these fabulous papers from Imaginisce.  The stamps are from Imaginisce too, and they're only 99p each! As planned, I've made her a door hanger with the same papers.  Here's one side: using the same papers as above, but this time the princess has brown hair.  This is the side that says 'Come in!' This is the reverse side: Here is the other paper (and don't forget, both papers were double-sided, so there was a lo...

As you know, I spent a bit of cash at the exhibition on Saturday, and today I've made a card using one of the stamps I've bought.  It's by Lili of The Valley and I liked it as soon as it came out a few months ago.  This is how I've used it: I've used the sketch from Sunday Sketch and Stamp  which I really enjoyed.  I actually coloured the stamp last night.  Usually I look at papers, Promarkers and the stamp all at the same time, to make sure there is some co-ordination going on, but it is such an unusual stamp that I decided just to colour it how I saw it in real life (but there's always the question, grey mouse or brown mouse?!) and then this morning I looked through my papers based on the colours I used.  This is just one sheet from my free Craftwork Cards vintage papers set, and the circular piece cut out from a sheet of October Afternoon Thriftshop paper.  Everything else is just a basic red card, but I love the colour scheme of blue and red toget...

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...

I've finally got around to making my card for the St Luke's Hospice Challenge this month, which is titled, 'Black, White and One Other Colour', so this is what I've made: Every so often I get lucky with peel-offs and have a good idea of what to do with them, but not very often!   I've put the bird peel-off onto glitter card, which is very shiny, even though it's hard to tell from the photograph.  I've embossed a bigger piece of card, which I'm glad you can see in the photo, and added it to my white card base.  I've taken the peel-off leaves and put it across the middle, then added my image with sticky fixers underneath.  After a lot of faffing about, I stamped and heat embossed the wording, 'A little bird told me...' which continues inside the card with '... it's your birthday,' and just backed it on a piece of black card.  I really enjoyed making this, it was one of those 'make it up as you go along' cards, but I...

I was amazed to see this image by Tatty Button in a magazine, then only a couple of days later to spot it in Blyth Craft Studio, and I grabbed it quickly.  There's something very appealing about it, but it's different from normal 'cute' stamps, almost goth, but not quite.  There's a lot more tree on the stamp and you could do it in a rectangular frame, but I decided to have a go like this first.  She's coloured in Promarkers, of course.  I am adding to my collection at the moment, with a few more greens.  The papers were free with Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine, and I've loved and used every single bit, they are so lovely.  It was the 'wishful' banner that started me off.  I die cut the flower and added a little tag sentiment, and there we are. Thanks for dropping by today, Enjoy the sunshine. Jane (thoroughly excited as I've won some candy from Donna's My Happy Place!   I can't wait to see what I've got...)

I am well and truly going through a pink phase.  Please bear with me, I'm sure it will pass!  But if you can't have some fun with your favourite colour, what can you do? This card sums up everything I've bought new recently.  The image is a free digi from Little Claire's.  I have had the papers for a while (MME).  I decided to colour her in antique pink and pastel green, which really matched the flowers and came out quite aqua looking. New things: The flower at bottom left is made with a Marianne Creatables die.  I am in love with these.  I think I'll buy a ribbon threader next, I've wanted one of those for a long time.  The top left corner has a corner die.  These are fab, too. Top right is an LOTV sentiment, 'Time To Shop.'  How perfect can you get, for an image like this?  I love it when a plan comes together. Hot News:  I have twisted hubby's arm, and he has agreed we can go to the Create and Craft exhibition at Do...

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...

This card was made with all the materials sent to me from Little Claire's designs for December but I've only just got round to making it. A very sweet image, I think. I've been wanting one of their elephants for a while and I'll be using it a lot I think. I'm glad I've got a grey Promarker as it's ideal for elephants (and mice!)