Another two cards....a personal record!

I have lots of birthdays this month...

With this card I combined the "caught in crystal" technique with the memory glass.  This is for my Brother who is a tiler by trade, so hope he likes his new tiles!  Applied alchohol inks, then 3D Crystal Lacquer, then white tissue paper, but this time I added some Glamour Dust, which reminds me of highly polished granite....hope he likes it!

This one is for a neighbour who is quite ill at the moment and I tried to make something cheery.  He loves being outdoors, hence the nature theme.  Sorry about the photo, it wasn't until I uploaded it that I realised that I hadn't cropped it.

Sometimes my photos don't do the cards justice and my photography lets me down.  I have said it before and I will again......I should get the tripod out more often!

There are another two cards to show but I haven't photographed them yet.  I haven't made this many in one week for ages....probably since last year, lol.

FIVE BIRTHDAYS!

  

Every year around the end of January I suddenly panic that I have five birthday cards to make for next week!  I am still in the "keep it simple" mode as I am trying to dedicate most of my crafting time to textiles at the moment as I attend a class every Thursday evening local to where I live and I am getting a bit embarrassed now that I am still on the same project that I started last May.  I still want to make cards, altered art and crochet so as you can tell I am spreading myself a bit thin, lol.  Here are my efforts for this year, four females and one male, the male cards always being difficult ones, but I remembered I could fold origami shirts and I hadn't sent him one before.  I think I've almost exhausted the Tiki Idol stamp for all my male relatives and friends which is a shame as it is one of my favourites and it makes a lovely card every time!

Oh......isn't it Valentines next week....another one to make on the quick!  Anyway......enough of my gabbling, here are my efforts: -

The Same, But Different!
Nothing much to tell here, I dyed the stems with Ecoline and used a rub on for the wording
you can see how I have made the rest of them

And the origami shirt folded with the wrong paper really, but I like this paper and didn't have any real washi paper

Their birthdays are tomorrow and Friday, so Janette if you are reading this, Happy Birthday my Darling x

5 Birthdays

 

I have five birthdays, four today and one tomorrow, I have only taken a photo of one of them as the others I had to get in the post quickly.  I know I use this stamp a lot, but find it is great for a male card and I always find that hard, so here is yet another made with my Tiki Idols stamp.

 

TIKI IDOLS

I have hardly crafted anything at all lately, what with the broken ribs and Mum-In-Law staying for the past three weeks, haven't had much chance to do anything.  I took the opportunity at the weekend with Andy away taking his Mum home to spend both Saturday and Sunday going through my craft stash and put it into some order, it was a mess and I wasn't enjoying working with it because I couldn't remember where anything was, doh.  Sometimes you just have to take the time to tidy it......I feel much better now it's done :)

A birthday card for our friend using and old faithful stamp that I love and a good one for men :)  Stamped up the image with clear versamark ink and carefully sprinkled with a variety of coloured embossing powders (shaking off the excess with each colour before selecting the next colour), the last colour being a matt gold.  I collect the mixed colours of powder and save in a separate container, which makes an interesting colour and it of course changes all the time.  Finished off with wobbly eyes and a sticker from Life's Journey.

The next is a card I made a while ago, but just sent it to a friend.  The flower is a chipboard flower from The Artistic Stamper, covered in various pigment inks and topped with a topping of clear embossing powder or UTEE (cannot remember now).  Unfortunately the photo hasn't come out very well, I must set up a little studio for taking photos, there is always the wrong light or I am using Andy's camera, which I am not so familiar with and I just lose patience!

 

An Old Card

My friend is visiting from Russia in just over a week and bringing with him his new bride, they got married in Russia in April and are coming here for a blessing and it will be their honeymoon It made me look at some old photos and I stumbled across this card that I made for his birthday a couple of years ago and realised that I like the picture of the butterfly and have never used this technique since. The butterfly was stamped with black ink, but not a StazeOn type ink, one that will bleed, then I coloured it in with chalks and splashed some glossy accents in places. and left to dry. I then dipped a thick paint brush in water and smeared it over the whole picture. The butterfly centre was filled with accent beads. It is very difficult to make cards for guys, but I know him well and knew that he would like this, some men you can give flowery or cute things to and he is one of them.

Usually, when I look back a year or two I find that I have moved onto different things and don't like the old stuff, but not with this one. Hope you like it too!

David's Birthday.....

Got into a bit of a panic las night before going to bed as I suddenly realised that I need to get a card in the post pretty quick for my Son, David's birthday on the 18th. He lives in Coogee Bay, Sydney and recently I sent a card to Canada to a friend and thought that 9 working days was enough time to get it there, but it happened to arrive late. Anyway....I woke up this morning with no idea what to put onto a card (guys cards are always more difficult) but found some old photos of Coogee Bay Beach taken in 1844 and this is the result of my card. I have put two more inside and pray that he enjoys comparing them with recent photos.

My stomach is rumbling and I can smell a lovely king prawn curry that Andy is preparing downstairs...mmmmmm YUMMY!

No Headache Today!!!!!

Relieved that I woke up with no headache, which is nice because I have to get ready for our weekend away. Yesterday I had to post three cards off as I have birthdays for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so thought I'd post them early. Decided what jewellery I would take with me and needed a pair of earrings, so after just one hours tuition was able to just "knock a pair up", very simple, but I needed matching colours and you just wouldn't find them when you need them in the shops.

Usually, the post takes ages, but Sod's law meant that yes, they got them this morning! This is made from one of my favourite stamps, the two angels hugging each other sums up friendship to me, so printed the word "Friends" through the computer onto some basic grey paper - I love Basic Grey papers. Have put some acetate over the top of a black stamped image and coloured the acetate with alcohol inks, gives a nice effect, I think. Janette gave me this stamp as she didn't like it much, but I have put it to much use.

The one below was made a while ago and when I went through my collage phase, I quite like the colours, which was made up of black stazeon and metalic paints.