Sapphire Anniversary and Die Cuts

I've just been asked to make a card for a Sapphire Wedding Anniversary card, which fell in quite nicely with two challenges. Make My Monday who are asking for cards to mark Anniversaries and CD Sunday who are asking for cards with Die Cuts. I started with an 8x8 card base and backing papers and topper from Debbi Moore's Art Deco Rome.  The backing paper has been mounted onto gold mirri card, then onto the card base. I added some die cut corners for a Marianne die to two of the corners. Next using foam pads I've added the topper and a sentiment which has been made on the PC then put through the foiling machine. The flowers and leaves are also die cut, are from a Crelies die . To finish I added some blue gems to the centre of the flowers.

Thanks for taking the time to look, and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Ist UKSN Retreat

I can hear you asking what UKSN is. Well it's the UK Stampers Network and recently I was asked if I would like to join them and go on their 1st retreat, which was held last weekend (14th and 15th June) just outside of Biester in Oxfordshire. I only live about a hour away so when I left home last friday afternoon at 2.15 I fully expected to be at the hotel by 3.30 - 3.45. Sadly that was not to be, due to an accident on the M40, which had a knock on effect on the A34, it took me 3 1/2 hours to get there. At one stage I had done 6 miles in 2 hours. However a good nights sleep and the next morning I was up and ready to get to the village hall by 9.30 for the meet and greet. At 10.00 o clock we started properly for a weekend that was packed with workshops.

Above are some of the things that I made over the weekend. A box card, a mini album, a flip card using wax paper as a resist for distress inking, a shirt front card. Also there was teabag folding and card consequences with a twist (we worked in groups of six with a pack each, containing all the bits we would need to make a complete card), we were given 2 minute to work on the card before passing all to the next person to add the next bits. All the cards made from this session were donated to charity. Sunday afternoon we all got inked up and paint covered when we had a workshop making cool backgrounds (sorry I've not added these), lots of different techniques and it was great fun.

I loved making this gorgeous canvas that Member Karen Rhodes taught us, and I have already bought some of the mini canvas's and sorted out some suitable stamps to make one here at home.

We were asked to take some photos so that we could spend some time doing Project Life. An easier version of scrapbooking (I still like the traditional way and 12 x12 papers) which is great if you have loads of photos to sort.

We finally finished and began our journey's home at about 6.00 pm sunday. It was great fun, I made new friends and can't wait to do it all over again next year I hope. A big thank you goes to Micky Woodcock for organising the retreat and to all the lovely ladies who ran workshops.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Craft A Scene - By The Sea Week 3

It's week 3 over on the Craft A Scene blog, and we're still asking for you to create a scene which is beside the sea/beach. There's still plenty of time to sort out those stamps and join us, we love to see your creations. For my scene this week I've used stamps by Sheena Douglas, and I've coloured it all using water colour pencils. I decided (in my mind of course) that this beach was in Cornwall, as the waves rolling into the beach look like surfers waves. In fact it reminds me of the beach near to where my In-laws used to live, with the sand dunes and the lighthouse. I do hope you'll pop over to the Challenge blog and take a look at the wonderful cards the DT has made for your inspiration this month.

Thanks for taking the time to look, and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Only Fools And Horses

Last week I had a lady ask me if I would make a 65th Birthday card for her husband, after saying yes, she says "he loves Only Fools and Horse's and anything to do with Del-boy". So earlier this week I sat at the PC and googled images and found this lovely one (actually I found a couple, but liked this one best). I made a backing paper by cropping a picture of the Trotters van and in my photo editing program made it a seamless tile. Then I took it into MCS and made a backing paper by tiling the workspace. I then faded it, so it didn't over power the card. I re sized the image also in MCS before mounting onto some mirri card. I cut out the name and age on the Cricut using silver mirri and black card. She hasen' seen it yet so I'm hoping that she will like it.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Lavina Challenge - Add Some Beads or Gems

I was recently asked if I could make a card with fairies for the customers Granddaughter, so I've combined it with this months challenge over at the Lavinia challenge blog this month. First I made a mask for the hills and using a brush and Adirondack ink pads I made a background to stamp onto. I've used Luna and the fairy that came free in a magazine last month with versafine black onyx. I used the slender mushrooms at the bottom and also the bluebell stamp, I added some flat backed pearls to flowers.The birds used are from a set from Inkylicious. Finally I used the fern leaf to add foliage to the top and some glitter to the wings.

Thanks for taking the time to look, and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue xx

Wedding Theme At Make My Monday

While visiting a friends blog earlier this week I saw she had entered the Make My Monday challenge, who are asking for wedding theme cards this week. I'd had a request for a wedding card using an image from the Holly Pond Hill CD from Joanna Sheen. So decided to get on and make it and enter this week. The flowers and Ribbon look a better match in real life than they do in the photo, Cameras seem to have a mind of their own sometimes. The card base is an 8x8, and I've used silver mirri card for the matting. The backing paper is the one that goes with the image. The image was taken into MCS and made bigger to allow me to cut it out using a die. The sentiment was computer generated and put through the foiler to match the silver matting. Flowers and ribbon are from my vast stash.

Thanks for taking the time to look, and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

CD Sunday - At The Seaside.

This weeks theme over at CD Sunday is almost identical to the theme at Craft A Scene. So as I had the stamps already out on the worktop I had a search about until I found the Cute Companions Summer Stories CD and put together this card so I could take part this week. I printed off the background, and placed on an A5 white card. Then I stamped out some of the cute little mice and coloured them in using Spectrum Noir pencils. I then cut them out and placed them onto the scene, and added the stamped sentiment to finish.

Thanks for taking the time to look, and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Craft A Scene - By The Sea Week 1

Another month has gone by so quickly, and here we are in June already. I'm glad to say that at least the weather is gorgeous today, if only it would last. A new month means a new challenge over on the Craft A Scene blog, and this month we're asking for your scenes to be By The Sea. For my card I've used some stamps that I brought some time ago from Joanna Sheen, and this particular one has never been inked before, which is a shame because it's such a lovely stamp. I started by stamping the images onto some white card, then masked off the images. I then place acetate at the top and the bottom of the card leaving a small gap in the middle for the sea. Using a brush and distress ink I brushed across the middle, then turning the top down with a lighter blue ink and a mask to make the sun I brushed across the top part. I then reversed the mask made for the sun and coloured the sun using a bright yellow. Last of all I turned the bottom mask up and coloured the sand using two tones of yellow. I then used a white jellyroll pen to make a foam along the seas edge be for removing the masks. I coloured the rest of the images in with promarkers, and added a Happy Birthday stamp. I know that the design team have made some super scenes for your inspiration over on the blog, I hope that you have time to pop over and take a look and maybe join us this month.

Thanks for taking the time to look, and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue