A Nephew's Birthday Card!

Hello sweet crafty friends and welcome to my blog!  So pleased you dropped by.
A very special welcome to my new followers.  So very pleased you decided to follow me and I hope I can give you a little inspiration now and then.

I'd like to share a card made for my nephew's birthday.

Still using up some older Kaisercraft papers.  Still have lots, so I'll be using them for a long time to come me thinks!   Distressed the edges and did a bit of inking with Gathered Twigs and Ground Espresso Distress Inks.

I had cut a panel with one of the new Tim Holtz dies but it didn't really fit into the design of my card so I got out my crackle paste and used it as a stencil instead .. am very happy with the result. 

Used one of the pop out labels from the paper pad as a graphic on the front.

 I also added in a couple of scraps from some Prima papers and a couple of Tim Holtz tickets as well.

 

The inside with pockets for a gift voucher and a tag on which I will write a personal message.

 .. and my card is done!!

Thank you so much for dropping by and taking a look at my creations and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

For everyone in Aus who is caught up in the terrible storms we are having at the moment .. stay warm, stay dry, stay safe.

Take care and God Bless.

The Last of my Cards for Christmas

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  Thank you so much for visiting.

This year has simply flown by and here we are with just two days to go til Christmas day.  Unbelievable!!  Happy to say though that I'm pretty well organised for the great day.  It does help that we are celebrating  at our son's house this year so I haven't had to worry about the meal or anything.  Really looking forward to it.

Well, I thought I would share a few more of my Christmas cards (seeing as I have nothing else to share at this point.  LOL!!)  Once again, these are variations of the original theme.  

The background is a little different on this first one.  I've still layered two sheets of DP (from

 Megs Garden of course) but, this time, I have torn the center out of the top layer to reveal the one underneath.  This is an idea inspired by Di Garling, an amazing scrap artist who creates the most stunning projects.  I visited her blog not so long ago and she used this technique on one of her scrapbook pages so, I thought I would try it out on a card.  I think it looks great!!  Thank you Di!!  You can check out her blog HERE.  

Did a little stamping on this one and also slightly changed the way I added the snow so as to make it look like its dripping (melting).  I have put snow on all of my cards this year, which may seem a bit ridiculous because we have been suffering through a heat wave here in Adelaide, but I really love the look.  Have to thank Pamelia Johnson for that.  I mentioned in a previous post that she has a wonderful step by step showing exactly how it's done and I'll give you the link again HERE.  Have to say, hers is so much better than mine, but I still love it!!

A bit of hessian ribbon added to this one and, once again, I have torn the center out of the top DP layer.  Also, I have been using some Quick Release Die Paper from Couture Creations while cutting my pine branches (it really works to release the paper from the die so much easier)   and, on this card I decided to add it to my branches under the flowers.

Added some deep red cotton ribbon on this card and again included the quick release die paper.

More of the hessian ribbon but, this time, no baubles, just a couple of berry sprays.

Using the same basic design made it so easy to make my cards this year and yet, just by changing the embellies and colours slightly on each one, they do look quite different.

This will most likely be my last post for 2015.  I am taking a little break.  I'll probably still do some crafting but, even if I do, I won't be posting anything until next year.  I want to take this opportunity to thank all you wonderful people who have visited my blog and especially those who have taken the time to leave me some comment love.  Thank you all for your support and encouragement and I want to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and wish you all the very best for 2016.

Thank you so much for visiting and enjoy the rest of your day!!
Take care and God Bless.
See you in 2016!!

More Cards for Christmas

Hello my lovely visitors and welcome to my blog.  I am also very pleased to welcome some new followers as well.  Thank you so much for joining me, it is so lovely to have you along on my creative journey.

I have some more Christmas cards to share.  There are three more cards in this post and, once again, they are all a variation on the same theme.  I am not going to bore you with a lot of photos as these are all very similar to each other and to what I've shown before.  

So here is Card No. 1.

Once again I have used Megs Garden papers for all of these cards with base papers and labels  from Kaisercraft.

This one has a half doily, some tickets, a die cut pine bough, flowers of course, and a bit of gold mesh some baubles ..  and some snow!! 

The insides are pretty much the same, just different papers.

Card No.2

This one also has the half doily as well as some strips of MG papers across the middle.  The same die cut, flowers and baubles, plus a little gold bow and a label instead of the tickets .. and more snow!!

Same inside.

Card No.3

Here we have some lace across the middle, same die cut, flowers, slightly different baubles and a couple of labels, one of which is made from some MG paper and almost hidden under the cluster .. and, of course, more snow!!

Much the same again on the inside.

I really wish the glitter would show up on the photos because it is really pretty!!

I had hoped to have finished all of my Christmas cards by now but once again fate conspired against me and I still have more to do.  I did manage to make all the ones that had to be posted, which I am pleased about but, I still need to make a few more which simply need to be hand delivered.  Next year I am going to try my hardest to make at least two Christmas cards each month, that way I should be  well ahead by the time December comes around again.

Don't laugh, I really am going to try.  LOL!!

Thank you so much for popping in for a visit and enjoy the rest of your day.

Happy Christmas crafting!!
Take care and God Bless.

Christmas Cards - Variations on a Theme #1

Hello everyone and welcome to my little  blog!!

A very special welcome to my new followers and a big thank you for joining me, I'm so pleased to have you come along on my creative journey. 

Well, it is December and another year has almost finished.  Where does the time go??  Is it just me, or does it really go by faster each year!  Getting scary!!

So, I'm back to share some more Christmas Cards.  Should have posted these a few days ago but better late than never!!  I don't have a huge amount of Christmas cards to make each year.  I really only make them for family and very close friends.  Everyone else gets the store bought kind.  Even so, it can get a bit hard to get them all done so, to make things easier on myself, I find a design or two that I like and then I just make variations on those designs (hence, the title on this post!!  LOL!!).

I have already shown the two designs I'm using this year in previous posts and here I am sharing two variations of one of those designs.

They are very similar as you can see, I simply use different papers and different elements.
The papers are mostly from Megs Garden's 'Tis Christmas Time' and 'A Musical Christmas' Mini paper packs,  although the base layer is from Kaisercraft.

This design has a wider back section so there is an extra piece on the side which is separate from, and yet still part of, the front view.  Means I can clutter up the front of it without having to worry where the heck I'm going to fit the greeting.  LOL!!

I gather a selection of flowers and also decide on which other embellies I want to use such as leaves, tickets, berries, etc.  All of these usually end up in a pile on my work bench ..

.. and then I simply pick out whatever I wish to use on the particular card I'm working on.

The insides of my card are pretty much the same.

So, that is card No. 1 and
here is No. 2

No lace on this one, just some strips of paper and I've used a half doily on the side.

The die cut pine boughs are the same, just cut from different paper.

Used some tickets again on this card but, used slightly different ones ..

.. and a different flower and bauble spray. 

Same greeting ..

.. and same inside.

Normally, I do use gesso quite a lot on my finished cards but here I've used a gritty texture paste and then, while it is still wet, I have sprinkled it with glitter.  It sparkles so prettily in real life.  Thank you again to Pamelia Johnson from whom I got this idea.  She has a great tutorial on the 'snowy' look HERE.

Well, there you are, two cards made practically the same, just with different colours and slightly different elements.

Thank you so much for stopping by and thank you so much to those of you who leave me such lovely comments.  I read them all and really appreciate them.  Enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.

Man Cards #1

Hello you gorgeous peeps and welcome to my blog.  

It's been ages since I posted last .. the last couple of weeks just flew by me and I hardly even noticed they were gone until today!!  Old age creeping in I think!!  LOL!!

I'm here to share another 'Man' Card.  Only one more to go and then I should be done for this year.  Of course, next year it all starts all over again!!  

This card, and the one I'm showing you in a couple of days, are both predominantly (been reading the dictionary LOL!!) made with Prima's Engraver Collection.  Love these papers, especially for 'male' cards although there are also pages in the pad that can be used for girly ones as well.

This particular card was actually the second one made and I just used the left overs and bits I didn't use on the first one (which I will show you second!!  Confused????  Me too!!).

Did a bit of doodling around the edges and 'rusted' the keyhole with some Patina Rust acrylic paint.

The inside .. added some doodling here as well ('cos I like it!!).

Some closies of the layers ..

.. and done!!  This card is fairly basic .. not a lot happening on it (no crackle, no stamping, no splatters) but, sometimes, simplicity is best!!  Did sploosh some paint and gesso around though, 'cos I couldn't resist!!

Hope you like and hope you'll come back to check out the next one in a few days.

Thank you so much for visiting and do enjoy the rest of your day.

Take care and God Bless.