Grape and Grey

I must admit I am loving these twisted easel designs, especially when combining them with 'off the page' elements like these purple flowers.  This card has been made from a Craftwork Cards goody bag in grape and grey, which takes out all the work of matching papers and embellishments.  Here's the view from the top so you can see a bit better how the card is held upright.

Hope you like it!

Also from the same kit I made the following 'basic' card to be added to the box!  Again all the items are from Craftwork Cards.

Simple Everyday Birthday Cards for the Emergency Box

You know the feeling? You suddenly remember someone's birthday at work or a family member and you need a card quick, but nothing too fancy, and the box of cards is running low. (Actually most of you are probably more organised than me and have digitised reminders beeping at you two weeks in advance so it the card actually arrives on time!) Anyway, I was having a play with some Craftwork Cards 'Card Candy' and thought I'd knock together a few of these simple cards for the box.  Here are a couple as an example:

I'm hoping to play with more Craftwork Cards bits and bobs at the craft group tonight so you might see a few more samples this week.  I really want to stock up the box and also I've promised my sister some cards as well...

Oh and I sent the first wedding card as chosen by Rochelle.  She will even get some blog candy for helping me with the decision...

Decisions, decisions - help needed ASAP!

OK I'm in a dilemma.  Got a wedding on Saturday. I've made two cards that are virtually identical but not sure which one to send.  The two are below and now is the time for you to show that you are reading this blog... please could you choose which one to send? On reflection I think I've put the ribbon on the wrong card base - which is probably why I can't make my mind up as neither of them are just right in my fussy opinion.  I'll post the results of the poll on Monday.

Card 1  (With ribbon on the 'Elegant Square' card base)

Card 2 (No ribbon on 'Notched' card base)

Please leave a comment if you have a preference - just Card 1 or Card 2 will do.  If no one responds I'll just have to hide them behind my back and get someone to choose... Thanks for being part of my interactive crafty world!  (Now to choose the outfit - won't bore you with that one or we could be here for days...)

Another 'Fascinating' Hair Clip

I'm getting quite into using my papercrafting bits and bobs to make jewellery.  This time it was a really quick and easy hairslide (or should it be 'Fascinator' seeing that they are so fancy!).  I made it out of necessity - 40th birthday party to go to, purple top and fabulous pink shoes donned ready, fringe too long and needed pinning back but had nothing suitable.  It was literally a few minutes to pop into the craft room, choose some pretty flowers and a sparkly brad and assemble it on a hair clip.  And to top it all as a result of wearing it I now have two commissions from friends for similar ones.  How cool is that?!

St Basil's Cathedral, Moscow

So I promised a picture from my nephew Robert, who is age 8. Here goes:

If you haven't seen a picture of St Basil's this is what it looks like in real life in Red Square, Moscow:

 I think Robert's 'Impressionist' painting in acrylics is pretty fantastic.  But then again his two aunties are are his biggest fans aren't they Linds?  More of my own creations next time...

On yer bike

I've just had a weekend back up north visiting my family for some birthday celebrations so couldn't resist a good ole northern phrase to open up this post! Had a lovely weekend, including shopping with Mum, opening belated birthday presents, lots of yummy meals made by Rochelle, painting with my nephew Robert and lots of laughter. Robert is really artistic for an 8 year old and did the most amazing scrapbook of his recent trip to Moscow. No wonder he got 10 house points, some of his paintings are amazing. I'll try to get a photo for the blog. The highlight had to be a Michael Jackson dance off on the Wii! It was so much fun but I'm paying for it today.

None of it relates to the card above, of course! This was a birthday card for my friend Jane who loves cycling. And thankfully she loved the card as well...

My New Favourite Ink Pad

This short post is all in aid of me discovering my new favourite ink colour! I've always loved purples and pinks but what about that lovely grey colour? This is the Tim Holtz distress ink in Pumice Stone, which I have seriously fallen in love with - just ask the girls at craft group! Sorry that I've also make others buy it... Initially it just looks like a muddy grey, or like concrete, but it goes with so many colour combinations. I also used Milled Lavender Distress, and Wild Plum Memento inks on the above image, and I love the colour combination. It'll be appearing many more times on projects methinks.

Jenny Wren

You will probably start to see from my blog that I love all things nature and marvelling in the wonder of creation! Birds, trees, wildflowers, animals etc. you'll find them cropping up time and time again in my creations. When I saw this little Wren stamp on special offer on the Joanna Sheen website it just hopped into my basket all on its own, rather like a cheeky little wren itself! My family are all nature-nuts too so it was the perfect little image for my big sister Rochelle's birthday card. And thankfully she loved it and has just sent me the picture as I was, shall we say, time challenged to get it to her on time so there was no time to take a photo.

If you want to know the 'recipe' the wren has been coloured in with water-colour pencils. I have used nesties labels 1 to mat and layer onto the craftworks cards base. The green card has been run through the cuttlebug in the swiss dots emobssing folder. A simple card but it actually took ages to get the colours and layout just right (and two rejected wrens that have gone on cards for other people!). Oh no I feel bad about rejecting the wrens now... they were reassigned to other more suitable projects. That's better! Can you tell I work in HR?!

It's your birdy...

OK so I've got 3 apologies to make:
1. Sorry for the terrible pun in the blog title - it could have been worse, believe me!
2. Sorry it's taken so long since the last post. It is related to...
3. Sorry the picture is such poor quality. It's taken with my naff mobile phone as I've managed to forget to buy batteries for my camera 3 times already. So apologies but thought it better to post with a bad picture than none at all and I can always replace the pic once my memory improves...

Anyway, about the card. The birdy is die cut with a Marianne die bought for my birthday by the lovely Karen. Isn't it beautiful. The stripy background was created with promarkers, as demoed by Amy Shaw here. I am loving this technique as I love being able to create my own coordinating backgrounds. I used Neenah card as it gives such a lovely finish with the promarkers and is easy to punch. The fancy borders are made using my favourite Martha Stewart punches. Cardstock and sentiment are Craftwork Cards (who else!). I think this little die will be used a lot as I just love anything to do with birds. In fact my next post might be featuring a little Wren if Rochelle can help me out with some photography!