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Monday 20 June 2011

My Mum

I know this isn't craft related but thought I had better post as I have been missing for quite a number of days and haven't posted my Design Team cards.

Well what an awful few days we have had.  A friend found my mum collapsed at home on Thursday morning and the paramedics were called.  After a few hours at the hospital we were told the devastating news that she'd had a massive bleed in her brain but it was too close to the brain stem so they could not operate.  My mum was on the organ donor register so we started the long journey of trying to see if her organs could be donated.  Late Friday evening a hospital in London said they'd have mum's liver so at 2.40am on Saturday morning mum's life support was turned off and she died five minutes later.  We are keeping our fingers crossed and will wait to hear in about a fortnight whether the final checks went OK in the hospital in London and there is someone there who may get another chance at a better quality of life thanks to my mum's liver.

The above photo was taken at the end of May when we went to Skegness.  We had a good laugh when I spied this ice-cream van as my mum was known as nan to her six grand-children so I made her stand and pose for some photographs.  We never imagined less than a month later she would be gone as she was only 61.  It is such a shock to us all.

I apologise for not visiting your blogs and also for not posting my Design Team cards.  As you can imagine, my cardmaking will be taking a back seat for a while as we have so many things to sort out and I need to take some time out with my family and friends who have been deeply affected by her death.

Tuesday 14 June 2011

Crafts and Me Challenge - 8 June 2011

 
 Over at the Crafts and Me the challenge topic is stamp something.  I recently took part in their Blog Hop and got to pick two images and one of them I have used on my card.  The image is called Natalie - isn't she beautiful?  I have coloured the image with Promarkers, highlighted areas with Stickles glitter glue, cut out with a Nestabilities die and distressed the edges with a chalk ink pad.    I have used some DCWV paper, some paper from a friend and other pieces from my stash including a ripped piece of Papermania Henbury Lane glitter paper - well it's such a lovely piece of paper so tearing it into smallish pieces makes it go further.  I used my alcohol inks on a tag, then stamped with a Creative Expressions scroll stamp and embossed with gold embossing powder.  The card is then finished off with various elements including a ticket sentiment from Crafty Ann's Digi Store, lace, dotty ribbon (which was originally white but I coloured bright pink with my Promarker to match the image), flowers, pearls and pearl pins.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Scrapbook Sisters - English Country garden
Do You Stack Up? - Birthday
Meljen's Designs - Pink and pearls
Ai Factory - Something new on project - new digital image and papers
Crafty Purple Frog - Favourite things - these include digital images, Promarkers, Stickles glitter glue, flowers, ribbon, lace and alcohol inks
Inspire me Fridays - Anything goes
Deep Ocean Challenge - Anything goes
Totally Papercrafts - Summer
Totally Gorjuss - Flower power
Cupcake Inspirations - Photo inspiration
Birthday Sundaes - Wet or dry embossing
Pile it On - What's your angle?
Kaboodle Doodles - Flower showcase
Happileigh Scrappin' - Embossing
Pollycraft - Ribbon and flowers
Whoopsi  Daisy - Free and easy
Stamp with Fun - Pearls and flowers
Totally Stampalicious - Anything goes
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Your distressed/torn edges
Bling it On - Embossing
Top Tip Tuesday - Open challenge
Anything Goes Challenge - Here comes summer
Crafty Sentiments - Add some sparkle
Addicted to Stamps - Summertime
Shopping Our Stash - SOS - I've chosen the second "S" and gone for Stickles, spots, swirls and shimmer
Crafter's Companion Monthly - Here comes the summer 
Scrap-Creations - Anything goes 
Emerald fairies Garden Challenge - Petals 
One Stitch at a Time - Tag it

Sunday 12 June 2011

Another Father's Day Card

 
I was asked to make another Father's day card.  I used my new Joanna Sheen's Furry friends CD and used this gorgeous bulldog as I thought he was a very manly image for a Father's day card.  I printed off two of the topper sheets so I could do some extra decoupage as this card doesn't need to be posted.  The flag backing paper is from the CD and certainly makes a difference to the card.  I used two scraps of card - one white and one red mirri - and put through the Swiss Dots embossing folder to add some texture.  The card is finished off with some ribbon, sentiment off the computer and two HUGE red brads - these are the biggest brads I've ever seen!!!
I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion - Anything goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything goes
Sisterhood of Crafters - Celebrate dad/man in your life
CRAFT - Father's day
Sew many Challenges - father's day
Inspire me Friday - Anything goes
Delicious Doodles - Father's day
Alphabet Challenge - F for Father's day
One Stop Craft - Father's day
Secret Crafter - Male card
Mark's Finest Papers - father's day cards
Crazy 4 Challenge - Masculine card
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle - Father's day
My Sheri's Crafts - Father's day
Little Claire's Designs - Cards for men
Creative Inspirations - Father's day
Sentimental Sundays - Father's day/masculine card
Dream Valley - Father's day 

Father's day card

 
I was asked to make a Father's day card.  I bought this car image from Crafts U Print.  What a gorgeous card eh???  I printed three copies of the sheet out so I could decoupage it a lot more seeing as it was going to be hand delivered and not put in the post.  The backing paper is a scrap from the scrap box.  The card is finished off with an insert and some fibres.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion - Anything goes
Crazy Challenge - Father's day
Papertake Weekly - Anything goes
Ambers Crafts - Special man
Sisterhood of Crafters - Celebrate dad/man in your life
CRAFT - Father's day
Sew many Challenges - father's day
Inspire me Friday - Anything goes
Delicious Doodles - Father's day
Alphabet Challenge - F for Father's day
One Stop Craft - Father's day
Secret Crafter - Male card
Mark's Finest Papers - father's day cards
Crazy 4 Challenge - Masculine card
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle - Father's day
My Sheri's Crafts - Father's day
Little Claire's Designs - Cards for men
Creative Inspirations - Father's day
Sentimental Sundays - Father's day/masculine card
Dream Valley - Father's day

Saturday 11 June 2011

Commissioned Birthday Card

 
 
 Oh sometimes the topics of my cards repeat themselves for my customers.  The repeating topics can be tigers, broomsticks (don't ask), trains and buses.  So yet again it was a customer's husband's birthday and requested a bus card.  I am married to a bus driver and am constantly surrounded by buses but I have exhausted all the photos my husband has taken at events/sheets I have bought so I had to buy another sheet from Crafts U Print.  The backing papers I used from Joanna Sheen's Thomas Kincade CD.  I printed out the sheet three times so I could do some extra layers and even put one on the back.  The card is finished off with a personalised insert, card candy, fibres and sentiment off the computer.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion - Anything goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything goes
Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT - Male theme
The Paper Variety - For the guys
Do You Stack Up? - Birthday
Shelly's Images - Anything goes
Inspire me Friday - Anything goes
Secret Crafter - Male card
Crafty Emma - Inspired by a movie (one of my favourite films - Summer Holiday - where Cliff Richard stars and him and his friends take an old Routemaster like in this card for a trip across Europe)
Crazy 4 Challenge - Masculine card
Rainbow Lady's - Ticket to ride
Little Claire's Designs - Cards for men

Thursday 9 June 2011

Aud Sentiments Design Team Card - Thursday 9 June 2011 - Summertime card with sentiment

Another fortnight has whizzed around.  We saw some lovely entries and click here to go and have a look at the winners.
Our challenge this fortnight is being sponsored by Revi Devi.  Why don't you click the link and have a look at the gorgeous images Revi Devi has for sale.  The topic this fortnight is "summertime card with sentiment".  
I have used various garden orientated images and cut them out, coloured in with Promarkers  and decoupaged them onto a My Craft Studio background which I had to import into Word as I still can't print with My Craft Studio Standard or Professional.  I used various scraps of paper from my scraps box.  The flowers were made by a friend for me and I think that they add a good final touch to the card along with a sentiment off the computer.

I am also entering this card into the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes - let's get sentimental
Crafty HO's - Summer
The Corrosive Challenge - Summer
Pear Tree Designs - Summer delights
Craft Your Passion - Anything goes
Tuesday Throwdown - Use an animal
Digital Tuesday - In the garden/outdoors
Papertake Weekly - Anything goes
Creative Card Crew - Wings
Paper pretties - Summer
Scrapbook Sisters - English country garden
Do it with Digis - Animal magic
Papercrafting Journey - Our feathered friends
4 Crafty Chicks - Handmade flowers

Friday 3 June 2011

Crafty Ann's Challenge #42 - 3 June 2011

Well we had some lovely entries for the Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog over the last fortnight.  If you entered please make sure you go over and have a look to see if you were the winner.
The challenge this fortnight for Crafty Ann's is to "use more than one image".  I decided to use Crafty Ann's iris digital image and wanted to use it twice.  I then had to go surfing the web to find out if irises came in different colours other than purple as I am not into gardening.  I then saw there were some orange/yellow varieties so that helped me pick the colour scheme.  Both images were coloured in with Promarkers.  They are both mounted on some corresponding Crafty Ann's abstract papers.  The card is finished off with some Crafty Ann's pre-coloured flowers and peel-off.

I am also entering this card into the following challenges:

2 Sisters - Anything goes
Catch the Bug - Bright colours
Cupcake Inspirations - Photo inspiration
Gingerloft - Tie a yellow ribbon
Ooh-la-la Creations - Happy birthday
Incy Wincy Designs - Nature
A Spoon Full of Sugar - Flower power
Top Tip Tuesday - Wrap it up with a ribbon
Divas by Design - Flowers
Inspire me Friday - Anything goes
Stamp Something - Digi day

Sweet Pea Stampers Challenge - 3 June 2011

Oh me oh my another fortnight has come and gone.  We had some lovely entries for the last Sweet Pea Stampers Challenge so make sure you go and check if you are a winner.
 
The topic this fortnight is monochrome.  I do love doing monochrome but decided to go away from the popular black-and-white.  Instead, I decided to go with tones of blue and decided to decorate a canvas rather than a card.  I used Tim Holtz's Faded jeans Distress ink pad to colour the white canvas.  The image I have used is a Sweet Pea Ching Chou-Kuik image called Dark Royalty.  Isn't she absolutely gorgeous?  I have coloured the image with promarkers and highlighted areas with my Sakura Stardust clear pen.  The edges have been inked along with all the scraps of backing paper/card that I have used.  I know I'm obsessed in inking the edges but I hate to see the white showing.  The mirri card I put through an embossing folder to add some texture.  The canvas is finished off with scrolls/flowers/tag sentiment/butterfly die-cuts, peel-off sentiment, card candy, pearls, pearl heart hat pins and a selection of gorgeous flowers highlighted with some Stickles glitter glue to add some sparkle and shine.

I am entering this canvas into the following challenges:

Crafty Emma - Embossing
Allsorts - Things with wings
2 Sisters - Anything goes
Cupcake Inspiration - Photo inspiration
Sentimental Sundays - Anything but a card plus sentiment
Dream Valley - Stamp something
Simon Says Stamp - Your favourite stamp
Pear Tree Designs - Sparkle
A Spoon Full of Sugar - Flower power
In a Sweet Pea Dream - Wings
Diva by Designs - Flower
My Mum's Craft Shop - Things with Wings 
I Love Promarkers - Sparkly bling
Flutter by Wednesday - Open challenge
Truly Scrumptious - Summer sparkle
The Emerald Faerie Garden - Lots of bling
Cute Card Thursday - Embellishment it
Charisma Cardz - Something that flies
Inspire me Fridays - Anything goes
Delicious Doodles - Texture