Wedding Invitations

I have made two lots of wedding invites already this year, 53 of these and 80 almost identical invites with just the flower being a rose bud instead of an open rose, the colour and size were the same.  Both were for friends for weddings in August and December of this year.  I supplied them with the ribbon untied so that it didn't get too creased and left it up to them to "tie the knot" and trim after they had written inside.

A6 gate fold white pearlescent card with white pearlescent paper insert.  The paper roses were glued on and the gold hearts are an old "docraft" stamp and I used gold embossing powder on this.  Simple, but effective I think.  Both parties were very pleased with them, so that was good enough for me.

A baby card and some Christmas bells

I keep feeling guilty when friends ask me for my blog address and I have to explain that I haven't updated it for a while.  Note to self:  Upload a photo of something I am working on each week.......well we'll see won't we!  It's been a bit of a poo nine months really, my Brother-In-Law died of Cancer and my Sister looked after him at home right until the end so we (family and friends) took turns in supporting and helping her, he died at the end of June and then in November I had a heart attack, not a serious one, but one nonetheless and am trying desperately to change my bad habits and lead a healthier life, but the weather has not been kind to us.  

On a happier note my Son and girlfriend visited from Australia during December and in October they got engaged and are getting married March 2014 in Woolgoolga, Coffs Harbour, Australia, which is where she comes from......some something to get in shape for.....oh and to save for!

Friends of ours recently brought baby Casey into the world and this is a card I made for them.  I haven't yet had a cuddle with the new born and must arrange a visit.  I blame the weather, this snow doesn't inspire one to get off their backsides and do anything.....watching TV with a crochet hook and ball of wool is all I can muster these days, oh and snoozing!  

I succumbed and bought a Martha Stewart edge punch, mainly because I have been asked three times during the past year to make/design wedding invitations and thought that this lends itself to a romantic theme.  

I bought the gingham card at a show in Five Lakes, Essex (cannot remember the show's name) in blue and I have some in pink too, love it for baby cards.  The tile is a 2" square piece of stampbord coloured with alcohol inks and about four layers of clear UTEE  plus a little gold embossing powder that I stamped into with the foot stamp.  

I have also made two lots of wedding invites this year already, although they were almost identical, which made the second lot easier, just a slight variation with the flower, but made some mocks for them to look at.  I shall put them up here when I gather the photos together, some.  I never know whether I will find them on my camera, Andy's camera or my iPhone to be honest.......another note to self:  Be more organised!

I have also been sewing and made this little Christmas ornament to try out smocking, which I haven't done since my school days.

The one on the right is my one and the purple one I bought at the Warner Archive Christmas sale in Braintree, but it was made by a friend in my Thursday class.  I wanted to make more, but with the heart attack happening it changed a few things before Christmas, I shall make some more next year to give out to friends and family.  Some of the girls made Christmas crackers with the central body beaded and smocked, they were lovely.  

More to come from my crafting world.......

Carol xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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.

Alcohol Inks on Glass

It's a HAT TRICK

three posts in one week!!!!!!!

Inspired by the article in the last Craft Stamper magazine I decided to try out the Ranger Memory Glass that Janette gave me saying "had these for some time now and never really used them, thought you might find something to do with them"....thanks Janette and thanks CS.  You could of course use acetate and get the same effect, but the glass gives the whole card a lovely feel and the glass is cut perfectly square and believe it or not, the glass is less sharp than when you cut acetate.  You could of course use microscope slides, which are a lot cheaper and definitely what I will be buying next time; I saw a pack of 50 for something like £2.00 plus packaging on Ebay.  These pieces of glass were simply covered in two colours of Ranger Alcohol Inks (Butterscotch and Denim).  The blue has become lost when reacting with the butterscotch so mainly looks yellow and green.  On the opposite side I have inked up the stamp with VersaMark clear inkpad and added black embossing powder before melting with a heat gun.  Incidently my clear inkpad was brought back to life with a couple of small spoonfuls of glycerine that cost £0.80 in the chemist....I love saving money on craft, it leaves me more to buy new stamps or papers.

Anyway, gabbling away there.....this is the finished article which I will be handing as the card is rather big  (A4 folded in half horizontally) and I am not sure how the glass will fare through the post.

Hope she likes it :)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

This is Andy's card for Christmas 2010, quite simple but effective I think.  The main  body of the card is pearlised card, the background is a sticky DL sized piece of peel-off (which I never usually use, but this solid stuff is lovely for Christmas) and the boxes are just made from scrap card, a good way to use up your little scrap pieces that you never throw away and sits there forever!  I also punch a hole in the corner and use them as gift tags.  The red mirror card that I had made lovely tags this year, teamed up with red ribbon and red and gold paper. 

I would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and look forward to seeing your work in the New Year!

Carol xxxxxx

The same but different

I often have such a hard time thinking of a title, but this one I think sums it up!  A few of my Christmas cards this year.

This is a docrafts stamp, which was quite cheap for its size (under £6) this is an A5 card so you can SEE roughly how big.  I was also quite pleased that I had an old VersaMark watermark stamp pad and someone told me that she had heard that you can bring it back to life with glycerine, bought some costing about £0.79 and really pleased to say that IT DOES WORK!  All of the cards on this post were stamped with said VersaMark pad.