A parade of baby elephants

So who knew that the collective noun for a group of elephants is a 'parade'? Makes sense when you see them walking all trunk to tail in a dignified row.  So what's this got to do with craft, I hear you say?

Well my lovely sister is soon to have a baby and I've been making her a heap of thank you cards for all the kind people who are showering her with presents already.  Like Christmas cards, I had to keep them quite simple to get the quantity done so I reverted back to my favourite Humphrey stamp and coloured them with promarkers, cut them out with a nestie, stamped a Paula Pascual 'thank you' and stuck it all together et voilà!

 So here they are. Sorry the light is so bad - it was crazy weather yesterday and taking indoors was too dark (I get too much reflection from the flash so prefer outside) and then outside the sun was coming through the willow trees so I was getting a dappled effect.  I so need some photography lessons to get the best piccies I can with my camera!  Anyway, at least the close ups are better.  And I can't complain about the sun shining through the willows.  I'm so privileged to be living next to a canal with beautiful willow trees and wildlife galore.

 I actually really love the simple design so you might be seeing more basic cards in the future! I've not been brilliant health-wise recently so these are a little overdue but at least they have been posted to my sister before the baby has been born!! I'm also working on some Peter Rabbit cards that will be winging their way to her soon as well so keep a look out here for their appearance shortly. 

I am beyond excited about meeting the little munchkin when the time comes... I love being an Aunty.

A Gorjuss Girly Card

This is an unashamedly pink and girly card!  It was made especially for one of the ladies at the craft group. I am loving the Gorjuss Girl Stamps, especially as it helps me to perfect the ProMarker colouring techniques. I made it into an easel card using a craftwork cards blank and layered the image using my scalloped nesties.

Here's a close up of the little girl:

She reminds me a bit of my middle sister when she was a little girl - with lots of unruly hair!  She'll kill me for saying that if she reads this... Oops!

Promarkers and Copics - Sepia tones

After being inspired by the very talented Nikky Hall at Polkadoodles, and having received some new ProMarkers to add to my ever expanding collection, I thought I would have a go at achieving a Sepia effect using a limited number of pens (as demonstrated by Nikky on Create and Craft).  The focal image is a Greetings Farm stamp called Dahlia, a gift from Karen which has been used and used.  As usual I've used my Martha Stewart punches, Nestabilities and a bit of ribbon to accent.  The oak leaves and acorns are Sheena Douglass 'A Little Bit Sketchy - Autumn Leaves' stamps. I know it is summer, but the sepia tones were just crying out to be mixed with autumnal leaves. And you know I love a bit of nature...  And the Oak tree being my joint top favourite tree (with the Weeping Willow) I had to buy these stamps when I saw them.  Bit sad having top favourite trees isn't it, but that's just me! Maybe I've got a bit of Ent in me.

Here's a close up of the image - click on the image if you want to see it close up.

I used a combination of Copics and ProMarkers. Still got to put in more practise to get perfect shading and 'shiny hair' but starting to get there.   As I'm on orders to try to relax and de-stress a bit this week, I think some colouring might just be the ticket. Any excuse hey?!

Easter Goodies

My friend at work was making some Scottish tablet (a bit like fudge) to do some fundraising and asked for me help with the display.  So I rustled up a few bag toppers using my nestabilities (labels 1 dies folded in half) and some really cheap stickers from Tesco.  And of course I couldn't resist popping them in my trug and adding a bit of Easter ribbon.  I really should have taken this picture earlier when the basket was still full! But I got there just in time as now there is only one bag left.  Good news for the fundraising though! 

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?!

Party Favours

My first project post in this blog was to show the post-it note holders I had made using the scalloped square nesties and some beautiful Laura Ashley papers. The picture was pretty rubbish and as I'd given them all away I was pretty stumped. One of the recipients of one of the holders has sent me this picture today (thanks R!). They were really simple and easy to make and something that can easily be customised to the recipients style and tastes. Most of mine were given out to friends at a special afternoon tea for my birthday last year, which reminds me, I must have a think about a little present for this year. Less that 10 days to go...aarrggghhhh....

Twisted Easel Card

This was a new type of card for me - a twisted easel. The image of the girl is a Greetings Farm stamp, coloured with Copics and Promarkers. The image has been layered using Nesties labels 1. Not sure where the paper is from. The corners are punched with a Martha Stewart punch. I was actually really pleased with the how the colours came together (finally!) for this card - it took me longer than you think! It was one of those cards that seemed to take ages to get the colours to work together.

Post-it Note Holders

Sorry for the quality of the picture - mobile phone! Really need to get a new digicam. Anyway here are some little post-it note holders I made for some friends. They are mainly using Laura Ashley papers. The scalloped squares have been die cut with a Nestability on my Cuttlebug.