Disco Diva

A bit of a fun card this one. As soon as I saw this flippin woman I knew exactly who I was going to make a card for using it. Our friend Bev, we met her & her husband in a bar on top of a mountain in Austria, during a snow storm, not much skiing took place that afternoon but we found a friendship that has lasted about 15 years. The first time we went to a round table ladies night with them she wore a dress just like this. The image so reminds me of her except for the ponytail..she's always the life and soul of the party. She loved it and immediately saw the resemblance.

The decoupage sheet is from La Pashe Flippin Women, although it doesn't show too well I used black and crystal glitter on each fringe of the dress. The disco ball was also glittered, I found the ball and the background on google images.

I really can't get used to this new blogger, images won't go where I want them to, and can anyone tell me where the spell checker has gone, 'cos I can't find it anymore, preview is nothing like what appears on the page either, I'll try again but think I'll have to switch back to the old one...

Thanks everyone for popping by and for taking the time to leave your comments, I really appreciate them

Another one a bit different for me and I won some candy..

Hi everyone, I know it's been a while since I last posted anything, although I have been trying to keep up with everyone's blogs,.... if I haven't visited you yet I am catching up  slowly and I'll get there soon...

 I made this for  Olivia, who loves drawing Manga characters, but as Ididn't have any Manga images I used the decoupage from a Rock Hard Fairies sheet, added a touch of silver stickles here 'n there and star dust on her wings. Printed the red sun burst and the greeting on photo paper, then used spray and sparkle over the greeting. Backing paper, black card and mirri paper all from stash. Coloured the little flower gems with permanent markers as I didn't have any black ones.

I know... I really should learn how to take a photo without making it look all wonky.

.

Hope you like it, Livvy did.

While I was trying to catch up I visited Jackie's blog Day's in the Life of...who is part of the LaPashe DT, saw there was a candy on offer, I quickly put my name down on Sunday, the draw was Monday and yippee I won it. Thank you so much Jackie and Jak. If you haven't visited Jackie before pop along to her blog to see her lovely cards and have a laugh at her posts about her granddaughter.
I received my candy today from Jak the Designer, you've probably all visited Jaks blog Crafters Kitchen  but if you haven't it's a must see, beautiful cards and lots of free downloads too, fabulous..and she is showcasing  some cards made with the new soon to be released sheets. I bought quite a few of the Remember when Christmas series last year, and love them now I can make more for this year, plus I won the whole set of the new Flippin Xmas, can't wait to have a play, if you want to have a chance of winning them Karen another DT member is offering candy till Sunday..I feel I'd be too greedy  to go and enter, but why don't you go and see if you will be as lucky as I was.

                Thanks for popping by..I really appreciate it..

Joe's 21st

I find cards for men difficult at the best of times, and this one was for one of my very special nephews, Joe was 21 back in April, and I wanted something different for him, this is what I came up with, finished it at the last minute, and had to give it to him that evening, I've only just managed to borrow it back to get a photo of it.

The front.....
As a youngster Joe loved the Star Wars Movies, Tony & I used to take him to the West End to see the films when they were released, so I put a photo of him as a child into the banner as a character from Starwars. He's just bought himself a new Mini, so I used an online graphics program and put his photo on one, printed it off a few times then decoupaged it, with quite a lot of layers. All I needed was a background so put another photo of him on a graffiti wall. Mated and layered it all onto silver and black miri card.

At the moment Joe works in a pub and I need something for the inside of the card, I had two images in mind, but I couldn't decide which one to use, so I used both of them.

I decoupaged a barmaid from a sheet I had and on the other side I used one of the Flippin Men sitting on a beer barrel, which you could spin around to see his back.

I didn't like the checked cap on the man so coloured it using a felt tip. This was a big card, A3 folded, just trimmed down on the length a bit. Weighed a ton, good job I didn't have to post it.

Would love to know what you think...

For My Mum

First of all I'd love to thanks everyone for leaving me such lovely comments, they are all really appreciated.

I know it's ages since I put a card on here but the weather has been so good lately, on my days off work I've been trying to sort out our garden... I've been slow in trying to catch up on all the blogs I follow, almost managed it last week but some of you are so quick, I never seem to have the time to catch up.... and I haven't had much time to go on the forum, but I have managed to make a couple of cards recently, I just haven't got round to posting them, still trying to grab one back to take a photo of it as I didn't finish it until the last minute.

I had a great day Saturday at a play day organised by a forum friend, we made a lovely stationery box and a beaded flower, will definitely make some more of them, I'll post some pics another time. She provided everything we needed for the makes, we had a lovely lunch and great company, it must have taken ages to prepare everything so well and taken a lot of effort. So I would just like to say to her, thanks a million for a fantastic day.
But for now here's a card I made for My Mum.......


This was for Mums 82nd Birthday....before I started making cards I was never really bothered about the picture on the front of the card, I always concentrated on the verse inside, I still spend ages looking for a verse that will tell her how much I love and appreciate her...but don't think I can show it here..

Anyway..I've had this decoupage sheet for ages, I added some flowersoft to their flowers and hats, and printed the sentiment, the little angel pin on the sentiment was Mums, she was having a clear out, and asked me if I wanted it to use on a card.... now she's got it back... I wasn't going to add the little flower gems, but the border punch got stuck and I tore the corner of the punching so I put a little flower gem on it to cover it up, then I as I was sticking down the flowers I managed to mark the ribbon with the pinflair glue, I tried to remove it but it left a mark , so I had to add some more gems to hide the mark.... sometime things never go according to plan,



Would love to know what you think...

A card for Lisa

I've been so busy lately trying to sort out my hard drives, I've just managed to catch up on the blogs I visit, I really don't know what eats up my time. Anyway here a card I made.

I wasn't really happy with this one. I'd really wanted these keepsake sheets so put them on my Christmas list and my nephew Joe bought them for me. I thought I'd better make one up.. then I couldn't decide if I like it or not so I took it down to my Mums to get opinions, my niece Lisa loved it and said she would love it for her Birthday card. I kept asking her if she was sure....

It's not what I would have chosen to make for her, it was just too mauve and dark for me. I tried to brighten it up a bit with some glitter, gems and flowers, but it still didn't ring my bell. I mounted it onto an A5 card so I could do an insert with some nice words.

She loved it though, and keeps asking me why it's not on my blog, so here you go Lisa..it's on here now.

Would love to know what you think...

Grown up fairy..

I love fairies and thought this one was an adult one, so I decided I'd use it for my niece Rachel.

I've had this image for a while, it was a sheet by Audrey from The Lilac Garden. I increased the resolution and made the image larger, and added a few more layers to the decoupage, then gave her a touch of glitter.

Now I don't normally use backing papers, but thought I'd give it a go on this 8 inch square card. So from my stash of hardly used backing paper pads, I used a purple script paper and a blue floral paper which I inked a bit with a purple ink pad. Made the tag, printed the greeting on it, then coloured it using the same the purple ink pad. Added a few pearls, brads, ribbons and some flowers.

Hope you like it..

For the No. 1 Arsenal Fan

My nephew is Arsenal Crazy, always has been, he's been working for them part time since he was 17, he coaches kids at the Arsenal on Saturdays, and at the Arsenal Soccer Schools during the school holidays and after school, so what do you do for his Birthday well it has to be an Arsenal Card.

I couldn't decide which image to use, so thought I'd make an A4 card and use both of them, did quite a few layers of decoupage & mounted them onto miri board. The verse I used on the inside was one Louise Emma posted on the imag-e-nation forum ages ago, I adapted it a bit for The Arsenal. Thanks for that Lou, I knew it would come in handy.

Oh and when it open it played Match of the Day, lol

He liked it, hope you do too.

Cartoon Time and a bit of a waffle

Wasn't going to put this on here as the photo's are terrible, then thought what the heck.. Made this for Mason, my great nephew back in January. I'd got the flu and felt awful, got home from work about 4 and had to be at his party by 6. I'd finished the card, only had to print the insert.

1st attempt.... The paper slipped and I had to do it again
2nd attempt... It printed OK, then I realise I'd made it in portrait and it should be landscape.
3rd attempt... Re sized it, moved everything around, re did the border it looked fine...I printed the top half, looked good, folded it the other way printed it, went to stick it in the card then realised that I'd put the fold to the wrong side.... so the top of the insert was upside down.
Now your probably thinking why did she fold the insert in half to print...well I was using an A3 sheet folded in half as I've only got an A4 printer, and why did I do an insert, with so much on it, well....I'd got all these other images that I wanted to use..my brain was just not functioning, I got it right in the end though.

Now for the photo's, It was dark, I was already late for his party...I snapped away, with a light shinning on it, didn't have time to look at them on the PC, so it ended up with me not getting even one that was halfway decent, shadows everywhere or too light. I really shouldn't have got up that day. I'll have to ask if I can have the card back and try and get a better photo. Anyway I've put 2 pics on here one very light and grainy the other full of shadows and grainy, can't make up my mind which is the better of the two, it's a shame I never got a better picture.

Now Mason just loves Tom & Jerry and 101 Dalmatian's, so I thought I make a card with them on it. Found the images on google, decoupaged them, then I searched for a background I could use as I didn't want them to be floating around in the air.

I had a photo of Mason and he was laying in almost the same position as Jerry, so I tried to cartoonize (think that's a word) the photo, decoupaged it and put him next to Jerry on the card.

As it was an A4 card I had a bit of space left so I added a few more decoupage Disney characters. Designed the greeting with design Master and cut them with Robo from sparkly silver paper with a blue miri card mat.

He was well chuffed.. Look Mummy that's me with Tom... he love the inside too, so it was worth all the faffing about, and he's still got it on a shelf in his bedroom.

Here is the original photo of Mason,which I used to make the cartoon image with

I would love you to leave some comments if you have time...

Bookatrix Fairy

My niece asked me to make a card for her friends little girl, as I hadn't made a bookatrix card for a while I thought I'd do one for Leila and it gave me the opportunity to use this lovely fairy, been dying to use the image but never had the right person to send it to.




This is the first time that I've used my nesties, I've had them for ages but never got round to using them, now I think I've figured out what sandwich to use in my big kick I think I'll use them more.


I can't wait to get my new camera then maybe my colours will come out right, it really was a pretty pink...I know.. a bad workman always blames his tools...
& I just can't decide what camera to get.

Hope you like it,
Your comments are always appreciated,

A couple for the men

Well what can I say about cards for men....not a lot...here are a few from La Pashe sheets.

This was for a friend who lovingly restored a 1930's AC car, his was white though with red leather interior.

For my brother in law,

who whenever you phone, is always in the bath!! he doesn't drink though.

Comments always appreciated...

For Louise Emma

Made this for a lovely lady who used to be a member of a forum I belong to. Hope you had a great birthday Louise. Check out Louise's blog here, lots of lovely cards to see. Didn't want to post it here until I knew she had received it,

The sheet came from Nikky, have a look at her site here. I was a member of her group, but unfortunately I couldn't commit to sending her a card a month made from her sheets due to other commitments I had, which is a shame as she makes some lovely sheets. Anyway I checked with her and she said it was OK for me to still use her sheet, so thank you Nikki for the sheet, it made up lovely.

I wanted the dress to have more layers than the original sheet had, so I cut out a few more layers and added a bit of sparkle.

Hope you like it.

As some of you know, it was my Birthday recently, I received loads of lovely cards and 3 of them were beautiful hand crafted cards. I think they are all gorgeous, and I really appreciate the time and effort that went into making them.

This one was made by my sister Dawn,

she knows I love it 'cos I told her,

This one was handmade by our Friend Kate.

Thanks Kate a lovely surprise it's gorgeous, I just love the image.

and finally,

This was from my forum friend Louise Emma, it's such a beautiful card, when I opened the envelope it was a lovely surprise, I had no idea that Louise had taken the time to make me a card...

Thanks a Million Lou, I'm well into these Deco Ladies at the moment.

Come back soon we all miss you.......

If you want to see more of Louise's cards pop along to her blog The Lou-natic Asylum

and check them out, she has made some stunning cards.

My sister Dawn and my friend Kate make lovely cards, but they never post them anywhere. Please leave them all some comments, so they know you love the cards as much as I do.....

Birthday Card for George...

Made this for my Uncle using one of the La Pashe Remember When decoupage sheet, thought it might bring back some memories for him as he is 86, and still wears a flat cap in the winter. It's the first time I've used the La Pashe sheets and I must say they are great, they have so much depth and allow you to position the characters wherever you want them.




Used an A3 card in Maroon, folded to A4, full height but I adjusted the width to suit. The decoupaged image was matted onto a beige/brown distressed paper then mounted onto the card. I made up the sentiment plaque using my photo editing program, printed it, then matted it onto the same paper I used for matting the image. Attached it to mat with brads. I got the memories ribbon as a free download from a scrapbooking site, adjusted the size to fit the card printed it and attached it along the bottom of the card with foam pads.


I felt there was something missing on the card, so just before I gave my Uncle the card I decided to edge it with a gold Pen Touch metallic pen, I love this pen, the gold is well...sooo gold...bought both the gold and the silver pens at Alley Pally last weekend from Stephanie, who demonstrated how to cut a slit in the nib of the fatter ones so it edges card perfectly. I didn't have time to take another photo so you can't see the gold, but it finished the card nicely.

I had a bit of a problem with the insert, as I've only got an A4 printer, I tried folding the A3 sheet in half to print out each side separately but my printer didn't like it, kept squiffing the paper as it fed in, so I had to print on 2 A4 sheets and stick them together, I must try and figure out a way to print on A3 paper as I'm making some A4 cards for Christmas, might try sticking the fold together temporarily..

If anyone has any tips for printing on A3 paper using an A4 printer, please let me know.

Hope you like it, he did...

I would love you to leave some comments.. if you have time

A Birthday Card for Tony

Here's the cards I made for Tony's Birthday, but with all the problems with my PC I never got around to posting it.

For the lower half of the card I used a navy blue stardream paper, embossed with the Perfectly Paisley Cuttlebug folder. Although the folder was too small for the length of the card, I managed to line it up and run it through twice, it turned out OK, you could hardly see the join (I hope).

For the top half of the card, I cheated a bit, it was a wallpaper sample I picked up from B & Q, it had large embossed hearts all over it, so I cut a strip of four hearts from it and stuck it onto the card. Used the Robo to cut out TONY from my favourite sparkly wrapping paper and matted it onto dark blue mirri paper. Did the same for the Happy Birthday. Added a some blue and white ribbon across the center,with a few diamond and blue gems. I made the embellishment with pearl strands that I had cut from some silk flowers that I had, made a little satin blue bow, and cut a tiny heart with the Robo which I glittered. Then I added a ribbon across the top, and attached a pretty dangly thing with a diamond brad. I bought the dangler with quite a few others at Ally Pally but I hate using them.... I like them too much, but this one was going to a good home...

My sister Dawn made this for Tony.

No..he's not a bricklayer but.... it's very apt as he is building our extensions at the moment and has been bricklaying for a couple of weeks.. We both thought it was a great card..


Hope you like them,
Would love some comments

Another 2 cards

A happy one and a sad one.




Sadly a friend of ours passed away, so I had to make a Sympathy Card.
I've never had to make one before, and hope it will be a very long time before I have to make another one. Amethyst Stardream card embossed with the Cuttlebug Birds & Swirls folder, which was matted onto purple mirri card, onto a Ivory pearlescent card, made a small bouquet of flowers for the embellishment, with some purple ribbon and punched the corners.
I tried to keep it simple.






On a happier note, a Birthday Card, cut & embossed using the Elegance and Fantasy Board by Keepsake, Anthracite Stardream Card for the base, for the segments I used the Centura Pearl Embossed Spiders Web card in Platinuim, added some peel offs and some gems, made a couple of little flower posies and a double bow to finish it.


Bye for now

A couple of more cards, Deco Ladies

Well I managed to sort out a graphic for the header, I'm not really happy with it, but it will do for now. I've been try to get it to stretch across the screen, but it doesn't want to grow, so I thought I'd leave it for now and put on a few more cards for you to look at, I'll try and sort it out another time.

I love using these Deco Ladies, both are from a sheet of wrapping paper.

The blue lady was decoupaged, then some crystal glitter was added for a bit of sparkle. The large peel off down the side was one from the Glitter Girls. I rounded the corners on the card with a corner punch.

I didn't decoupage this lady, just added some glitter. Backed it onto card then using silicone matted on a thick silver embossed card. A peel off down the side and a lovely marabou feather to finish.

Names and sentiments on both cards were made using Design Master and cut with Robo.

Hope you like them,

Here goes... My first attempt at loading some cards

You will probably guess this was for my Mum's Birthday.
I wanted something a bit bigger than the normal A4 gate fold card, so I used 2 A4 cards. The heart was made using a keepsake board. The sentiment was cut using Robo, this was the first time I'd really used the Cuttlebug embossing folders...........now I've fallen in love with them.

The heart on the box was the original card I made for Mum but once I'd completed it I just didn't like it, thought it was a bit OTT, and I didn't like the colours, I would never had sent it to anyone, so I thought I'd pop it on the box.

I enjoyed making the card and liked the way it turned out, as I had to make a few anniversary cards, I thought I would use the same format, this is what I came up with...

The names and sentiments on both cards were cut using Robo and welded using the Design Master Software.from. The photo's are not very good, as the gold one looks a bit washed out, and the Ruby was in fact a white ice card from Keepsake.

These are the boxes that went with them.

The bow on the Golden Wedding box was made using a keepsake board. The hanging triple heart on the Ruby Wedding box was cut from a template someone shared on UKS, sorry I can't remember who designed it.

Phew....I've still got to get my head around the layout process, hopefully I'll do better next time.
I'm going to try and add some blogs to the list next, and I want to change the graphic in the heading.

Hope you enjoy looking and I'd love some comments...