Bizzzy Doing Nothing - Dawnys Sketch No. 4 - Papertake Weekly Challenge

My Mum retired recently and was given a very nice send-off by her work buddies. To say thank you I made a card that she could send them. Whilst spending many hours trawling the internet, I came across this lovely sketch created by Dawny at Papertake Weekly Challenge. I didn't enter the challenge because it was set in December 2008 and I hadn't found the wonderful world of craft blogs at that time. I changed the layout slightly because I wanted my sentiment to curve across the page. It took me a good hour to figure out how to do the wording but I got there. I used K&Co paper for the background, Bazzil card embossed with the flower cuttlebug folder, Glitter card, although the photo doesn't pick up the sparkle (it was an overcast day) Spellbinder flower die Bee rubber stamp Star gems and a brad. My pre-order of the Gorjuss Girls has arrived this weekend, lucky me. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to play with them yet as I am in the middle of completing a wedding invitation order. That's it for today, I'm losing valuable crafting time.

I think I 've linked my design. I need a crash course in blogging.

Baby Girl - Friday Sketchers No. 48

Here is a card I have made for a friend who is due to give birth to a baby girl sometime this week hopefully. I have used this weeks sketch created by Kristina over at Friday Sketchers. It was a really nice design to use. It's not using a DL card as the sketch suggests just a simple 6" square card. This is my first attempt at using my new copic ciao pens and I'm quite pleased with the results. Choosing the paper was a nightmare as always, I never seem to have the right papers for the job. Here is a view from the inside.

Blogoversary Candy from All The Things I Love

Bev at "All The Things I Love" is celebrating reaching over 200,000 hits to her blog and is giving away some awesome candy. I'm not surprised Bev has had so many hits, her designs are gorgeous and very inspirational. Check it out, you may be lucky enough to win. You have until the 23rd April 2009.

Happbee Birthday - Friday Sketchers Challenge No.45

This is the first ever card I have made to enter into a weekly challenge and it was a challenge just to get it finished. I didn't have a blog at the time so emailed it to a very talented lady by the name of Claudia Rosa and she uploaded it to the Friday Sketchers blog. The backing papers were freebies from a card magazine. To create the punched detail I used Kreations 3 in-one punch. The ribbon was a pale yellow and I stamped a flower design, part of the flowers & tassels foam stamp set from QVC and then embossed. The flower was made using a Spellbinder flower die. The Bee stamp is by Impressions Picture Stamps

Friday Sketchers No. 46 Challenge

Here is a card I had planned on completing for the Friday Sketchers challenge a few weeks ago, unfortunately every day life took over and I didn't get it finished in time. Its now finished and I have used it for a Cousins birthday that is coming up very soon. I have used K&CO 12x12" Classic Paper and a Flower Fairy stamp that came free with a card magazine some time ago. I kept the insert simple, partly to do with my time needed for other things.

Excited - New goodies

I am really excited today, just before leaving for work this morning the postman delivered lots of goodies that I have been waiting for. It's going to be a weekend of Copic Markers, a beautiful stamp from Pink Gem Designs and Embossabilities from Spellbinder. There will not be enough hours over the weekend to play with everything but I will definitely try. More postings when I have created something. But first I need to read the copic tutorial over at "papercraftsbyrach" again!

Scrapbook - Silver Wedding

At last...... I've created the first two scrapbook pages to go in a 6x6 album. Its going to be a Silver Wedding Anniversary present for my Sister and Brother-In-Law, if I can get it finished in time. The problem is I don't like scrapbooking. The photos are not mine so I have to mess around scanning in the pictures I think I want to use, resizing them and improving the picture quality. By the way the faces are smudged because my family are very shy and wouldn't like their mugshots available for all to see. It's a start and I am pleased with them......only another 38 pages to go.

Items used Papers & Card - K&Company Classic Range, Brown Bazill Card Spellbinder Wizard - Flower Die Sketch layout taken from http://scrapsketches.blogspot.com/

Golden Wedding

It was my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary last year which needs to be congratulated as they argue like cat and dog. My dad never buys cards, even for an Anniversary so I thought I would make him something to give to my mum. He wouldn't be able to refuse as he would know how much time I had given to the project and mum would be happy. Again the picture is not good. There is a lot of dry embossing detail that just didn't come out on the photo. I made them a wedding cake box card. This was very easy, it mainly consisted of eating lots of those Italian chocolates, the name escapes me and then when the box was empty covering it in pretty paper. The papers were taken from the Reflections (Earthtones) Paper Collection, American Traditional Designs. I was sorry to use it but I knew it was going to a good home. The wedding cake tiers where made using the Ultimate Crafter, stuck together and then decorated with cream roses and ribbon. It sounds very quick but believe me it took me weeks. That's my problem, besides not wanting to cut up or use pretty papers, make a decision on the paper/card I am going to use, I can never make a card quickly. On the subject of cards made quickly, there are fantastic craft blogs that I view almost daily, "papercraftsbyrach.wordpress" and "bevscrafts.blogspot.com" . There are new cards on these blogs each day and their designs are amazing. Its from looking at these blogs that has inspired me to get involved in the blog world. If you get a moment take a look as you will not be disappointed.

Improvements Needed

Where has the time gone today? This morning I started to go through old photos to scan and crop ready for some scrapbook pages and have come across photos of some cards I made over the past year. Unfortunately, I am the worlds worst photographer as I obviously didn't have enough light hence the picture quality is not very good. I have found a few internet websites that provide instructions on how to make a photo light box without it costing the earth so I will need to get busy making one. Anyway back to the cards...... this is a 21st Birthday card I made for my Nephew's then fiancee. I used oriental peel offs which I stuck to Dovecraft Amethst - Floral Prints paper and finished with glitter glue. This was then attached to black card and matted onto gold mirri card. Continuing along the peel off and glitter glue theme here is another card I created, this time for my Auntie's birthday. I seem to have accumulated a lot of peel offs over time and I don't use them because they never look quite right. I think colouring them in with glitter glue changes how they look. I have other cards that I will upload but I haven't quite worked out how to set it all up yet. I wanted to just place the cards side by side but that doesn't seem to work. Oh well, I will post this and start a new post for more cards.

Inspired by so many talented crafters out there I have decided to join in and create my own blog. I now have to understand how it all works........it could take some time!