Emma's May Challenge

Today starts a new challenge over on Emma's cards. The theme this month is Pink and Blue and is being sponsored by Foil Play. Emma kindly asked me mid April if I would be a Guest Designer for this challenge and of course I said yes. At the time she asked me, I didn't know what the theme was but I agreed anyway. I found it difficult at first to think of something pink and blue and then remembered the Chic Boutique Cd.

This is my take on the theme.

 

I made this easel card from the berries shape from the Lacy Labels Cricut cartridge. I cut the shape from white card and covered this with the same shape cut in a centura pearl paper in mid blue. I cut some slightly smaller shapes in a pink backing paper from the Chic Boutique Cd from Kraftyhands and layered this on top of the easel and onto the base.  I wrapped a piece of coordinating blue ribbon around the middle of the card. The dies on the easel are Cheery Lynn dies - Butterfly In. I have decoupaged the butterflies and filled the centres with blue Pee Wee glitter (Reggae) although it is difficult to see from this photograph.

 

 

The image is from the topper section of the Chic Boutique Cd and is matted onto the mid blue centura pearl paper. I placed a card candy which was also covered in the same glitter, one in the bottom left corner and one in the top right corner.

 

 

 

I made a rosette stopper from a spare piece of the centura pearl paper and fixed a sentiment to it which reads 'Love'. This was also covered in the blue Pee Wee glitter. On each side of the stopper, I placed a flower flourish cut from the Pot Pourri Cricut cartridge, one in the normal position and the other flipped.

 

  

Inside the card is an insert which was taken into Craft Artist and a sentiment added - 'Just for you' which was then matted onto the centura pearl so that it all coordinates.

 

The challenge is open until 31st May, so why not pop along and enter. Your entry can be a card, scrapbook page or a 3D project and there is a maximum of three entries per person to make it fair. The prize is a £15 gift voucher from Foil Play. Emma and her team look forward to seeing your designs.

 

Thank you for popping by.

 

Wendy xx

Kraftyhands May Card Challenge

Hi there,
I can't believe we're into May already, this year seems to be flying by. Anyway, here we are with the May challenge over on the Kraftyhands Challenge. This month the theme is Flower Frenzy. Click here  and it will take you to the inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and the rules.

Here is my inspiration. I decided rather than make a card, I would make a box. The lid has been decorated as a flower garden.

For this project, I used the Sunshine and Smiles Cd rom. The box lid is a light green flower backing paper form the Cd. It is quite difficult to see from this photograph, but I have cut some flowers out from another piece of the same backing paper and decoupaged the flowers onto those on the lid. To make them a little different from the rest, I coloured the centres with a Spectrum Noir pen - CG1.

In order to have some extra support for the picket fence which I cut from white card using the Pot Pourri Cricut cartridge, I used one of the ribbon borders from the cd and fixed this around the top of the box, the picket fence was then just fixed to the inside of this.

 

 

I covered the join using a similar coloured ribbon from my stash.

The flower pots and flowers were taken from the decoupage section on the cd, decoupaged up and then fixed to the picket fence to make them stand straight. The two in the middle have been fixed using  a piece of card to make a stand for each. The sides of the picket fence have been decorated with a climbing vine which was also cut from the Pot Pourri Cricut cartridge and then fixed to the fence.

To hide where the ribbon joined at the front, I made a rosette from some of the spotty backing paper from the cd and fixed one of the sentiments from the border section onto the centre.

I fixed a ladybird to the top of the lid for added effect.

It would have been my Dad's 83rd birthday today, sadly he passed away 3 years ago, so this is for  him as he loved gardening and growing flowers. Happy Birthday, Dad. Miss you lots.

Hope to see your entry in the challenge.

Take care
Wendy xx

Pretty in Pink

Hi there,
Here's another card I would like to share with you from 'A Walk in the Countryside' from Creative Crafting World. The artwotk is done by Betty Davies and is superb.

The card is a circular easel card which is an unusual shape for me! I cut the shape out on the Cricut machine using the Wild Card Cricut cartridge.

I used the image and back from the plate card section on the Cd Rom.

For the stopper I used a flower from my stash and on the front of the card I placed a ribbon which was one of the embellishments on the cd.

Thank you for stopping by.

Take care.
Wendy xx

Framed aperture card

Hi,
Today I thought I would share with you one of my DT samples for the latest Creative Crafting World (formerly Cupcakecrafting) Cd Rom called 'A Walk in the Countryside'. The original artwork is by Betty Davies and it is beautiful.

I used an 8x8 card blank and cut an aperture in the centre of the front.

Some of the images were surrounded by a frame, as was this one. I printed out the image sheet more than once, so that I could place the frame around the aperture. I used 3D foam so that the frame stood proud. I stamped the front of the card with a flourish stamp in a purple ink to complement the frame.

Inside, I fixed another piece of card so that I could fix the image to it.

 

 

The insert was then printed and fixed on the next page. The inserts are on the Cd and are text editable.

 

 

The next photograph shows all the pages/leaves of the card.

 

 

Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment.

 

Wendy

xx

Vintage Bear Topper Card

Hi there,
Here is another card that I have found whilst looking through my stash. Yet another card that I haven't shown on my blog. I don't think I liked it at the time, it wasn't my usual type of card. I think it has grown on me though, I like it more now!!

Again, this is one from the Vintage Bear toppers from Kraftyhands.

This is an A5 card in landscape . I used one of the vintage backing papers and matted this onto gold mirri. I attached a maroon ribbon with gold edging to the left hand side of the card and added a bow. I matted the topper onto gold mirri and fixed this to the centre of the card where there was a frame for a topper. In the top right hand corner, I fixed a sentiment - Happy Birthday, also from the Topper set.

For the insert, I scanned the topper into the computer and then took the image into Craft Artist and made a matching insert. The topper image is in the bottom right hand corner. I added a border to match the card and added a sentiment - Happy Birthday To You.

Thank you for stopping by.

Wendy xx

For you Mum

Hi there,

Today is a sad day for me. It's 8 years today since my Mum passed away, so we're off back to our home town to put some flowers on her grave. This card reminds me of my childhood and the fields that we use to walk in when I was young. My Mum loved to walk and use to walk a lot in her later years to keep fit. Of course, when I was younger, we walked everywhere as we didn't have a car. When I think of the distance we used to walk in those days compared to how far I walk nowadays, I'm ashamed!!

Anyway, this card is from the 'A Walk in the Countryside' Cd Rom from Creative Crafting World, formerly Cupcakecrafting. It is an 8x8 card.

I printed some plain backing paper from the cd and matted this onto silver mirri. I then printed a patterned paper and made two rectangular pieces and matted these onto silver mirri also. I took one of the framed images and fixed using 3D foam pads so that it stood proud of the card.

I took a ribbon embellishment and three flower embellishments from the cd. I placed card candy in the centre of each of the flowers and one in each corner of the card.

Sadly, my Mum never saw any of my cards that I make as I started making them after she passed away. I think she would like this, she liked the colour purple. Miss you Mum.

Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment.

Take care.

Wendy xx

Vintage Treasures Wrap Card

Hi friends and followers,

I've found another card that I haven't shared on my blog before, so I thought it was time I showed it as I am busy making DT cards which I am not able to show yet.

This one is from the Vintage Treasures Cd and is a 'wrap' card.

I printed the backing paper onto two pieces of A4 card and then cut these down to make two 6x6 cards and then cut one side off each diagonally - if that makes sense. I then fixed the backs of the cards together.

On the centre panel of the card, when opened out, I placed one of the toppers from the cardmaking section of the cd and decoupaged this up with another centre of the image and the hat pin.  All the components are on the Cd.

On the outside of the right hand panel, I placed a fan which I cut out from one of the pieces on the Cd.

I decoupaged the roses on the fan to give extra dimension. In order to keep the card closed, I made a wrapper from the lace papers on the Cd. I printed this onto vellum as I thought this would look better than being printed onto paper.

Where the wrap joined at the front, I covered this with a lace topper, again printed onto vellum and topped this with a sentiment from the cardmaking section.

Thank you for calling by and leaving a comment. I appreciate it very much.

Thank you and happy crafting.

Wendy xx

Vintage Calendar

Hi friends and followers,
I've just been over to the Kraftyhands blog and Linda (Simpson) has posted a calendar which I made a while ago using the vintage toppers from Kraftyhands. I'd forgotten about this and never posted it on my blog. So seeing as I didn't blog yesterday and I feel under the weather today, I thought I would show the calendar. It may be cheating but I blame it on the chinese meal I had last night!!

Here goes.

I printed a backing paper onto A4 card from the Vintage Treasures Cd - I think it is called billowing silk - I love this backing paper, especially in pale blue!! This time I did it in pale green to coordinate with the topper. I made it into a tent shape and punched the sides with a Fiskars punch.

I then matted the topper and the calendar tab onto  a green card that I had in my stash - centura pearl from Crafters Companion if I remember correctly. I added a bow underneath the calendar tab and fixed a gem to it.

I have a similar one on the windowsill in front of my desk which helps me when I am doing my Feline Playful posts!!

Thank you for stopping by and for all the lovely comments left on the Kraftyhands blog.

Have a good weekend.

Wendy xx

Amanda - 50 today (Well yesterday, actually)

Hi all,

Here is a card that I made for my friend Amanda who was 50 yesterday. She told me that she thought I was only 1 or 2 years older than her. Bless her, I'm 5 1/2 years older than her!!

For this card I used the Art Deco Cd by Card Plus Creations. I've had the Cd for ages but can't ever remember using it!! I wasn't sure what to make her, but thought she might like this.

I decoupaged the image and matted it onto gold mirri and black card from my stash. The box for the chocolates is made from a template which I made and using a backing paper from the Cd.

I sent my hubby to the shop for some Ferrero Rocher and expected him to come back with a large box or one of those plastic containers that they sometimes come in. Instead, he brought a small box (well, two actually) with 5 choccies in each. This was so much easier to make the outer box for. When I made the card for my neighbour, the other day, the choccies were loose and they kept turning over if I wasn't careful, so this was much better. Full marks to my hubby!!

To finish off, I added glitter to her tiara/hat and her bangle and powder case. In the top left hand corner, I added '50' which I cut in black card and gold mirri with the Plantin Schoolbook Cricut cartridge. In the other three corners, I placed a gold gem.

Inside, I placed a backing paper which I matted onto black card and then printed out a sentiment on the computer for her and matted this onto black card. The backing paper was the same as the one used for the chocolate box stopper. I added a sentiment 'Happy Birthday' to the box. I believe this is a Kanban sentiment.

I was really pleased with it, but then I noticed that the glue gel was showing through. I used sticky buds on most of it but thought that because where I put the silicone, it wsn't the upper most layer that was showing, if you get my meaning, that the gel wouldn't show through. My hubby thought it was part of the design. I decided to take it apart and sat and cut out some more decoupage and then stuck it all together with sticky buds. It looked a lot better.  Does anyone else have this problem and if so, what do you do or use? I have tried different types of card and paper and glues but it nearly always shows through and then spoils the card.

 

I saw her yesterday afternoon, she was just off to work. She liked it, thank goodness.

Happy crafting.
Wendy xx

For Eva

Hi all, I hope you have all had a good weekend,

Today, I thought I would share with you a card that I made for my neighbour's birthday. She was 95 last week.

Unfortunately, she has had to move into a residential home as she was getting confused and wandering out of the house at night. The other night, we were awakened by the dog barking at 4am as he heard noises outside. When we went to investigate, it was Eva. She thought she had heard someone trying to break in so she had come outside, I guess for help. It's so sad. It turns out that she had a chest infection and that is what was making her confused, or part of the problem, anyway.

It's now worried the other older residents on the street about what will happen to them when they can't look after themselves. It's so sad.

Anyway, on a brighter note, my other neighbour, Audrey and I went to visit Eva at the care home. We took her down to the foreshore which was about a mile away and had a chat, reminisced and had an ice cream whilst watching the ships go by on the river. It was really enjoyable, especially as I thought we were going to be sitting in the home all afternoon.

I made the easel card using the Vintage Treasures Cd from Kraftyhands and used some of the components from the card making section on there.

 

 

 I decoupaged the image and added a '95' cut out from the Plantin Schoolbook Cricut cartridge and fixed this to the top left hand corner and in the bottom right corner I added a flourish in gold mirri which was from a sizzlix die.

 

For the stopper of the easel card, I made a box to house 5 Ferrero Rocher, which I felt coordinated with the colours I had used for the backing paper and image etc. I used the template that I had made for the tealight candles box, but just altered it slightly in order to fit the chocolates.

I added a sentiment - 'Happy Birthday' on to the left hand corner of the box, and then inside added a greeting.

 

 

Eva liked it, I hope you did too.

 

Thank you for stopping by.

 

Happy crafting.

 

Wendy xx

Man About Town - Mug of Chocolate

Hi there,

Today I thought I would share with you the third of my samples from the Man About Town' Cd from Kraftyhands.

I wanted to do something other than a card and came up with this idea that I had seen a while ago on the net (Coffee Cup by Kittie Franken) but never got around to making one. The backing paper on the cup reminded me of the backing papers on the new Cd, but I thought I would do it in a different colour.

On the site, it is described as a coffee cup but as I filled it with little chocolate balls, I called it a chocolate mug.  The backing paper that I used for the mug is from the cd.

The tag is also from the cd. I wasn't sure about the flower. I wouldn't normally send flowers to a man, I don't know why, that's just me, but my Dad loved flowers. He was always growing flowers etc in his garden, so I guess men love flowers as much as us women. (Sorry, didn't want to sound sexist or offend, it was just my opinion!) So I guess the backing papers and some of the sentiments on this Cd could be used for male or female - so versatile.

(Oops, think I must have had one too many when I took this shot!)

 

I thought it could be an ideal gift for Father's Day or for a male birthday/occasion. (Blimey, it's not like me to be organised and have things ready in advance. Unfortunately, I'm usually doing things at the last minute - like yesterday, when I realised that my inspiration for the May Card Challenge for Kraftyhands had to be in - yes yesterday - so I had to set to work and get it done. I kept looking out of the window at the beautiful sunshine, but it's my own fault, I should be more organised.)

 

There's still time to enter the Kraftyhands Challenge. It doesn't close until 12 noon, Friday 3rd May. The theme is April Showers (shades of blue), so why not pop over there and have a look. There's lots of inspiration and the 1st prize (if you use a Kraftyhands product) is £20 to spend at Kraftyhands,- not to be sniffed at!! There are three other prizes of a blinkie.

 

We hope to see you there and thank you for popping over to see my blog.

 

Happy crafting.

 

Wendy xx

Man about Town - Watching and waiting

Hi,

Here is another of my cards that I made for the Kraftyhands launch of the new Cd Rom - 'Man About Town' . Mike and Ian will be showing off this new Cd at 12 noon today and also at 3pm on Create and Craft today.

There will be lots of samples from Mike and Ian and the other Design Team members.

This is from the stepper cardmaking section of the cd. All the components are there ready to be printed off and ready to assemble on to a card to make the stepper. I cut out the stepper panel and mounted this onto a slightly larger piece of purple card. This is optional, the panel could be printed straight onto white card. The purple damask patterned backing paper was matted onto this. There were also two smaller side panels which I have fixed onto the side panels of the stepper.

The image is pyrimaged onto a purple card. I added a sentiment - 'Have a very Happy Birthday' from the set and also fixed four buttons - two to each side of the stepper. Each button was threaded with purple baker's twine for added effect.

I hope you can join the boys on their launch on Create and Craft at 12 and 3pm. See you there.

Happy crafting

Wendy xx

Man about Town Cd Rom

Hi all,
Just to let you know that Mike and Ian from Kraftyhands will be on Create and Craft tomorrow at 12 and 3pm to launch their new Cd rom 'Man about Town'. As the name suggests it is for the men in your life, because let's face it, they are a difficult bunch to make cards for. Although I must admit, the number of Cds etc in my stash for men's cards is increasing significantly recently, so quickly in fact, I haven't had time to try them all out.

Here is the Cd.

Here is a card that I made using the Cd rom. On the Cd, there are cardmaking sets to make stepper cards and gatefold cards. All the components are there for you to print out and make your card. There are toppers and backing papers etc so that you can make your own style card - in fact, all the things you would expect on a Cd.

This card is a gatefold card, from the gatefold cardmaking section. I love the colours on this one. I matted all the panels onto black card from my stash. I thought that the black would pick out the black on the Dad's trousers on the image.

I used blue baker's twine which I wrapped around one of the panels and also threaded some through the three faux buttons on the inside panel. Here you can write your own message by hand or take it into  a programme such as Craft Artist and add your own text.

Here you can write your own message by hand or take it into a programme such as Craft Artist and add your own text.

I hope you will be able to watch the shows and that you will get some inspiration from my teamies. Sadly, I haven't contributed to the samples for the show this time as I was on holiday and didn't have time to make any and get them to the studio in time for the boys to take them to Create and Craft. I am told though, that the samples that they do have are beautiful.

Hope you enjoy the show.

Wendy xx

Blogger Profile

Hi all,
I have seen a few comment about blogger and the things below. I have copied this from a friend's post and hope it helps. I haven't tried it yet but Donna (Ellis) seems to know what she's talking about!! She's also got some blog candy to give away for April!!

Many people dislike Google Plus because they have lost their Blogger Profile, making it more difficult for people to locate their blog via the comment name which was established with blogger.

To reestablish blogger, click here to revert back to Blogger Profile:

http://www.blogger.com/revert-profile.g

Some people had to do a few extra steps:

LINK :: https://www.google.com/dashboard [1]

Then Use the link below

LINK :: http://www.blogger.com/revert-profile.g

This will led you to a page where it will ask to "Change the Blogger Profile Display name" Change the name & Press "Continue To Blogger". The name will be changed. Again go to link [1] & check that your Blogger Profile Name is Changed.

I hope this helps anyone who is unhappy with google plus profile, and wants their Blogger profile back.

Hope this helps and works.
Wendy xx

Kraftyhands April Challenge

Hi Crafty Friends and Followers,

Thank you for popping over to see my blog.

This month's challenge for April over on Kraftyhands has just started and is April Showers (Shades of Blue). Anyone can enter our monthly challenges, the only criteria is that you must be a follower of our challenge blog, we know that taking part is 99.9% of the fun!

To be the monthly winner of the £20 Kraftyhands voucher, you must use at least one Kraftyhands product in the creation of your challenge project.

That's as complicated as it gets!

Each month 4 winners are chosen, the No1 winner will receive a £20 voucher (if they have used a Kraftyhand's product) to spend on the Kraftyhands webshop and the No1 winner's "blinkie", the other three winners will get a winner's "blinkie" for their blogs! So what are you waiting for.

There is lots of inspiration over on the challenge blog, but to give you a taster, here is my DT card using the Vintage Treasures CD from Kraftyhands.

I used the billowing silk backing paper from the Cd and printed this on both sides onto A3 card. Using the Arty Farty template, I cut out the box and aperture and fitted a piece of acetate into the inside of the aperture. I decorated the edges of the aperture using mini daisy braid from my stash.

 

On the bottom right hand corner, I matted one of the embellishments from the card making section onto blue card from my stash and fixed this onto a blue feather before fixing onto the box. I inserted a hat pin and tied a blue bow and fixed this onto the hatpin. The top of the box is tied with a piece of ribbon from my stash and a tag from the cd was added.

 

Tha parasol was also made from an Arty Farty template and I cut this out of the billowing silk backing paper. I added mini daisy braid to the edges of the parasol. This was originally white, but I wasn't happy with it so coloured it using one of my Spectrum Noirs, but still wasn't happy with the colour match. Eventually, I found the colour I wanted in a Promarker pen (Cobalt Blue) and coloured the braid in this. I coloured the kebab stick in a dark blue, TB6 I think from the Spectrum Noir range.

 

I added a silver bead near to the point and a larger siver bead at the 'handle' end. I also added two blue bows, one larger than the other. The smaller was fixed near the small bead at the 'pointy' end, (a technical term) and the larger bow was fixed between the parasol shade and the large bead.

Thank you to my son who helped me model this! (You can see his fingers in the top of the photograph!) Also thank you to you for taking the time to pop over and have a look.

Please come and join us on the challenge, it's a great prize. I should know, I was lucky enough to win it before I joined the Design Team for Kraftyhands. I look forward to seeing your entry.

Good luck!

Wendy xx