Birthday

Nothing exciting but it's all I've got today I'm afraid.
Image is Lili of the Valley
Sentiment is Jane's Script by Woodware

Best Wishes

Another dull old day which means my colours are out of whack.

Image is Lili Of The Valley, I've added some glitter.
Sentiment stamp is 'Jane's Script' and I've mounted it using SU punches

Birthday

'Happy' stamp is from a Waltzingmouse set
Birthday die is PTI
Embossing folder is SU
Banner die is Die-namics

(nicer colours in real life, these dark days don't do much for photographing cards do they?)

Papermania papers and sentiment is Die-namics

Hello

Hello die is by Memory Box
Brads are Papermania

Celebrate

Topper is by Papermania
It was a struggle to find something to fit across without obscuring the roses or the writing, nothing looked quite right. I'm still not happy with the 'celebrate' but it was the only thing I had that didn't make it all look un-balanced.

The bottom left and top right corners have been sprinkled with Frantage embossing enamel. I love this stuff but have found it doesn't like melting through multiple layers! Also much easier using a hairdryer style heat-gun rather than the long thin type, the heat is spread gently so it doesn't blow the speckles off before they have chance to melt.

Good Luck

Papers and topper are by Papermania
Sentiment stamp is SU
Die is 'Elegant Flourishes' by Sizzix

Love

Patterned paper and rose both a recent magazine freebie
Sentiment is a Memory Box die
I added the gems to try and distract from the fact I glued the sentiment on slightly wonky...

Best Wishes

My stamping is poor on this one but never mind!
The french text stamp is SU
Shell/ fossil stamps and the sentiment stamp are all Hero Arts

Mini Album

My friend recently became a grandmother for the first time so I made this mini-album for the new arrival.

Everything I used, except for the ribbon, is by Papermania, including the acetate album.

Thanks

Same as the previous post really, cheeky recycling of a gift tag from Clearly Besotted. Embossing folder is Cuttlebug.

Many Thanks

Bit of a cheeky one here; I recently bought some stamps from Clearly Besotted and included in the package was a small card and tag. So basically this card is the small card but matted and layered onto something bigger.

Incidentally I can recommend Clearly Besotted for prompt delivery and a nice selection of stamps, plus some have matching dies.

Oops!

I seem to have 'lost' the last three weeks somewhere, hope to start blogging again in the next day or so.

This is basically a kit card.
I bought the Papermania kit and changed it slightly: re-mounting on to an 8 x 8 inch blank, adding some glitter, and the 'husband' is Sizzix Script.

Mum & Dad

Silky crush ribbon and snowflake embellishment are from Chloe's. I used 'invisible' mending thread to sew the snowflake on to the ribbon as it's quite heavy.

The bird/ bauble laser-cut is from Hobbycraft. I wasn't sure if I liked the original off-white colour so smooshed a Versamark ink-pad over one and added some gold embossing powder.
I then tried another version that used two coats of ink and powder to see if I could get a smoother finish, this worked except the laser-cut lost a little bit of definition.

The scallop die is Spellbinders and the alpha is Sizzix Script.
The card is 8 x 8 inches.

Lili

Very simple one today, I'm busy with Christmas stuff.
At some point this will get a sentiment stuck on, image is Lili Of The Valley.

So Grateful

Another sticker by American Crafts.
Card is DCWV

Hello

Scraps of paper and an American Crafts sticker (TKMaxx bargain pack)

Merry

Last week at card club someone casually mentioned they would be going to visit a mutual friend. I asked if they would be going before Christmas and they replied "Yes, but if want me to take a card then you'll need to give me it today".

I literally had minutes to design and make a card, with what I had with me, hate being put on the spot like that!

This was the very quick card that I threw together. The holly die is an old Sizzix one and the sentiment is by Papertrey Ink. The sentiment has been cut twice and layered up to add some depth.
I thought it was quite good for an 'instant' card but had a couple of comments along the lines of "Why are you just putting merry?"
Well that's because I don't have a Christmas die....

When I got home, with more supplies, I decided to make the same card but this time to add some glitter (the first one is glazed with Glossy Accents).

Then made a landscape version and went mad and added a peel-off, woohooo.

Advent Calendar

I bought this Kaisercraft advent calendar kit months ago.
I think it was September before I took it out of the packet, then took ages painting it all. The instructions I read said it would need two coats but I gave it three and still wasn't happy with the finish (but was extremely bored of painting by then)

Assembly was straight-forward enough but I was concerned as to whether the MDF would have swollen with the paint and then not fit properly.
After all this I read a blog post where someone suggested assembling it all first and then simply spray painting the whole lot....yeah, wish I'd read that before I started!

The calendar had been sitting about for a few weeks because, although I'd painted it dark brown, I had no idea how to decorate it.
I was hoping that the shops would start getting their Christmas decorations in and that it would inspire me.

Then, last week I realised it was December 1st (today) and that I needed to crack on else there would be no point at all in having an advent calendar.

I am a fan of the Tilda range of papers so eventually decided to use a combination in duck-egg/ brown.

I'm ashamed to say the calendar is still not complete but I have put some chocolates in anyway and it is nearly done ...

I need to number all the boxes (but don't like the huge numbers that come with the kit) and also I want to do something with the big area in the middle.

Maybe by next Christmas I'll have it done :)