Next Patient, Please!

This one is my daughter, Sarah, who starts a new job next Monday as a Practice Nurse in our local doctor's surgery. She was so chuffed to get the job as it means no more nightshifts, no more weekend shifts and no more commuting an hour each way to and from work. Only has to drive 8 miles each way.

Decoupage - Jolly Nation - Nurse Girl

Cardstock - BoBunny Sweetie Pie Squeeze

From my stash - Gems

Thanks for popping by.

Mr Fix It

This is the final card for just now as I am heading home to chillier climes for a wee break. Well that's I would like, but reality is different. Heading home to do some more organising for my daughter, Sarah's big day in August.

The card will be winging its way over the water between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to a good friend, who is a bit of a Mr Fix It. The decoupage image again came from Crafts U Print and designed by Cheryl Seslar.

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Mama Tone

This card is from to Lynn that I work with. Lynn is my commuting and gym buddy. She is a bit of a rock chick and is locally know at 'Mama Tone'. Her kids, Gary (guitar and lead vocals) and Gill (the drummer), are members of The Boxtones. So thought this image was quite apt, again it came from Craft U Print, designed by Chris and Steve.

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More School Birthday

A couple more birthdays at school this week, or should I say on Saturday.

The first one is for Celia. Used a decoupage image from Cheryl Seslar which I found on a great website - Craft U Print. The backing mats were just scraps that I had lying about and border punched one with Fiskars Threading Water.

The second one is for Lynn. Used another decoupage sheet from Craft U Print but this one designed by Rebecca Brindley.

Thanks for popping by.

Twisted Pyramage

An April birthday - my brother-in-law's stepson. Again I used free papers and images as I am struggling for inspiration just. I look at all my stuff and can't seem to see anything coming out of it. Anyway did a twisted pryamage, my first ever. Matted the pryamage onto cardstock in various shades of green and finally onto dark green cardstock. Finishing off the card with a birthday and football peel off.

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Heading to Saudi Arabia

These two cards are heading over the causeway to Saudi Arabia to our great friends Annie and Mike. Both card are made using freebie papers and images. The anniversary card papers and images came from Creative Cardmaking Issue 14.

The image is from Crafter's Companion Popcorn the Bear range and pop out decoupage which I layered using silicone.

The second card is Annie's birthday card. The decoupage image and papers came from the previous issue - 13- of Creative Cardmaking. From my stash I added three pink coloured diamantes. Pink being one of Annie's favourite colours.

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2 Challenges and a Birthday

Have now began on the cards for March's birthday. This is one for my daughter's boyfriend's mum - Rosemary - with the inspiration coming from two sources. The initial inspiration came from Simon Says .... Photo Inspiration Challenge - a photo of a red rose. My second source of inspiration came from Sketch & Stash Challenge 28.

How did I put my inspiration to use. Well, when I saw Simon's Say red rose, I remembered a red blossom decoupage set I downloaded a week or so ago. The blossom was designed by a wonderful cardmaker and designer - Jak Heath - who continually amazes me with her wonderful cards and who regularly offers freebie sheets to her followers. The backing papers apart from the red one also downloads from Jak. The red one was one I downloaded a long time ago is from Funky Fairy and which I have never used.

I couldn't think how to layout the backing papers and blossom until I saw the sketch over at Sketch and Stash. Although many challenge blogs seem to use square cards for their sketches I frequently adapt the sketch to a different base card.

So putting the card together, the base mat is 'butter iced dot'. The darker dotted paper is called 'creme anglaise dot' and which I have matted onto Funky Fairy's red velvet. All the mat edges are edged with a red pen. The two circular mats have been made using a plain circle and an inverted scalloped circle from nestabilities. To finish of the topper the blossom was cut out and the edges curled upwards and layered using foam pads. To make the black centre stand out I covered this layer of the blossom with glossy accents. The 'happy birthday' sentiment is a peel off coloured with a red peel off colouring pen.

Thanks for popping by.

November Birthdays

Again it has been a while since I posted mainly because I seem to have lost my mojo and also not knowing where the time has gone. Anyway I have managed to get all the birthday cards done for my November birthdays, 4 in the space of 8 days.

The first birthdays, my son Will's and my daughter's Sarah's best buddy, Kelly-Ann's are on the same day.

For Will's one used a La Pashe decoupage sheet from Remember When Series Two and for Kelly-Ann was as Kanban Decoupage sheet called Lippy Divas.

Then next one is for a long time family friend, Shona. This one I used a 'Snapshots' 3d Die Cut Iris Decoupage called Chihuahua. Just thought he was so cute.

The last November is my daughter Sarah. I used sheets from 'Say it with a Smirk' love and friendship set.

Thanks for popping by.

Cupcake Birthday

Spent the morning buried in my wee crafting corner, working on a card for a couple of challenges. The first challenge is over at Funky Fairy and had to be something girly. Well what could be more girly than pink. The layout came from the second challenge, Sketch and Stash.

One of the rules of the challenge over at Funky Fairy is that you must use a Funky Fairy download. I decided that I would use everything from there, well apart from the brads. The papers and images come from the Cupcake Crazy and Just a Bit ranges. Resized the images and papers to get the components for the layout. For the cupcake decoupage, I cropped and resized one of the cupcake frames to a suitable size and then made three copies. The bottom layer being all three cupcakes, the second layer two cupcakes and the top layer a single cupcake. Apart from the very pale pink mat, all the components were mounted using foam pads.

With all the challenges I enter I try to make a card for someone on my birthday list and this one is no different. This one will soon be winging its way to my great-niece, Abbie.

Thanks for popping by.

Thanks So Much and a Challenge

After having an excellent weekend with our friends in Ruwais over in Abu Dhabi, thought I would sent them a wee card to say thank you.

This week's challenge over at Funky Fairy, and which I have also entered, provided the inspiration. All the papers and images came from one of Funky Fairy's kits - Just a Bit. For the toppers, I reduced them down in size and included the sentiment before printing them off. Decoupaged the two leaves and the pink flower with foam pads. Used my latest purchase to do get the photo corners done, can see it becoming one that will be well used.

Thanks for popping by.

April's Cards Finished

Had two cards to do to get up to date for April. The first one, I decided to tackle was for my brother-in-law. Had an idea of doing a triangular card for him, but my mojo had decided to go walkabout and although I got a card done I wasn't happy with it. Then my memory kicked in. I had done a card last year for a spare and thought it would be suitable, so when I looked it out I decided to use it instead, particularly he loves music and playing the piano.

Luckily my mojo seemed to come back when I started on an anniversary card for our good friends in Saudi, Annie and Mike. Scroll through some of my downloads came across a sheet that had downloaded from Fred-She-Said - Dancing Daisy. As there are two dancing daisy images on the sheet, I decoupaged one of the flower heads and used Inkssentials Glossy Accents to highlight the petals. Nestabilities Classic Scalloped Rectangles were used to for the bottom two layers of the mats and the Classic Rectangle for the top layer.

Being a thrifty cardmaker, I decided I wouldn't throw out the triangular card I had originally wanted to do for my brother-in-law, I finished it off with a couple of peel-offs and use it for a birthday card that I need for May. So it now means that all the cards I need for now till the end of May are done.

On a roll today

As Billy was working today, the Refinery has a big shutdown ongoing, decided to spend the day cardmaking for the March birthdays. Managed to get four done.

The first card is for Grace at works birthday tomorrow. It will be a day late in being delivered. Used on of the images on the cd that came along with Papercraft Essentials Issue 37 and decoupaged the large butterfly and used Sakura glaze pens to highlight the wings.

The second card is for Marylin, aka Mog, who I used to work with in Stewart & Watson's. Again using an image from the cd and decoupaging one of the fairy queens and using white Sakura glaze pen to highlight the decoupaged wings.

The third card, is for Rita & Doug's wedding anniversary. Took out my 'Bug'. Using the heart die in the Olivia Alphabet set cut out three hearts in differing shades of red and pink. In the same shades of red and pink cut out a plain circle and scalloped circle using my nestability dies. Made a DL card and trimmed an inch off the front, matted on the front of the card a piece of Bo Bunny's Ella Strip. Mounted the hearts and circles so that they overhung the cut edge. The sentiment I printed off using Word.

The final card of the day, is my Dad's birthday card. He is 80 this year. At first I thought about doing something with the numbers 8 and 0, but couldn't get it to work. So decided to rummage through my Wendy Stenton templates and came across the wine bottle template and it seemed to speak to me. Cut it out as though I was going to use it as a card, but mounted it onto a C5 card trimming off the extra at the top. Using Word did the label '80 years old, What A Vintage'. Using the Sizzix Shadow Box to cut out 'Dad' in two shades of green. Once I had all these fixed onto the card, I felt it was still missing something. Ended up getting a photo taken of my Dad on his birthday a couple of years and mounted it on the same cardstock that I used for the bottle.

Mam's Birthday

My final family birthday card is for this year is my Mam's, two days before Christmas. Needed to get it done before I fly home for Christmas on Tuesday and won't have any cardmaking stuff with me.

The image and backing sheet are from a fellow imag-e-nationer, Jade Woodward. Mounted the image of the young girl on the same backing paper and gold pearlescent card. Printed the sentiment off, and used the classic rectangle nestabilities to cut it out, then mounted it on the same gold cardstock, the mat cut using the scalloped rectangle nesabilities. Finishing the card off with cream organza ribbon.

Tuesday's efforts

Haven't made cards for ages, so settled down this morning to get a couple of outstanding orders done.

This one is for a 60th birthday for a guy who is very much into vintage cars and Harley Davidsons. Printed off a photo of an vintage card and mounted it on red and black cardstock. Used the same red and black card for the sentiment. Under the car put the Harley Davidson slogan - 'It's not the destination, it's the journey'.

The second card a female on this time. Used Bo Bunny cardstock 'Cosmic snowdrop' to the backing and mats and Bo Bunny's Cosmic Poppy for the flower - Bosskut Large Daisy - and finished off the flower and mat with dewdrop gem stones. The sentiment was silver peeloff coloured with a green peeloff marker pen.

November's Family & Friends

Can't believe November is here already and ahead of me a busy month. Spent the last few days getting the cards done for November, so that I can spend some time with Will who is arriving on Friday for a fortnight. While he is here, we have the party to celebrate Billy and my silver wedding and his birthday. Then we finish off the month with the St Andrews Night Ball.

November is one of my busy month for birthdays and anniversaries, 5 birthdays including mine and 1 wedding anniversary all in the space of 8 days.

We kick off with Will's birthday and on the same day it is Kelly Ann's birthday, Sarah best buddy. Will's one, was a difficult one to come up with a theme for, until I saw the image of the Singapore Sling. All I did was matted the image on red and cream card and mounted on brown card stock and printed off the sentiments on cream card and matted it on the same red card as the image.

For Kelly Ann, used a Paper Nation Kimono Lady decoupage sheet and mounted it on chinese/japanese style wrapping paper and used the scalloped oval nestability to cut out the sentiment which I had printed out.

Then 5 days later then next on my card list is my mum and dad's wedding anniversary. Now looking at the card colours, I should maybe keep it for next year for their golden wedding anniversary. Used an image which I have used before which I call 'Lovers Kiss', matted it on the same brown cardstock that I used for Will's card. I embossed a piece of coffee coloured pearlescent card and use the bosskuts tag ties for the sentiment and finished it off with a cream ribbon bow.

On the same day as mum and dad's wedding anniversary, is Shona's birthday, a long time family friend.

The final one, 3 days after mum and dad's anniversary, it is Sarah's birthday. As Sarah loves shopping thought the image fitted the bill. The backing paper is from contemporary christmas range from Printable Heaven. Finished it off by printing off the sentiment and then used the oval and scalloped oval to the topper. Finally finished it off with a peel off saying which I coloured in pink.

Winter Village

Continuing with Bo Bunny's Back to Backs Homespun Holly cardstock created a Winter Village card. Used the Cuttlebug embossing folder 'Winter House' which I inked in royal blue then using scalloped rectangle nestabilities made the first layer of the topper. The second layer is a plain rectangle cut from Homespun Holidays Frost and the bottom layer scalloped edged rectangle cut out of Homespun Holly.

For the sentiment, stamped in plum ink on Homespun Holly and matted on Homespun Holidays Frost.

The topper and sentiment were matted onto a piece of Homespun Holly which was matted onto white cardstock.

Trying to get ahead!

This first card was a quick one I did yesterday for a friend who passed her driving test, which I would say would be no mean feat out here. The image I used isn't far short of how some people drive out here. Delivered it to her today and she was chuffed to bits with it.

Then I had to settle down to get a couple of cards done for birthdays in September. The first one is a friend's 40th birthday. The backing papers and kimono decoupage are from Lis.Christiansen. Finished off the card with a ribbon and chinese charm.

The final card for today is one for my eldest daughter's birthday and loves a cocktail. The template for the cocktail glass card is from Shirley, a fellow imag-e-nationer. The backing paper was a freebie from Artymiss for signing up for their newsletter.

On A Roll!!!!!

Much as I hate doing male cards, thought I would knuckle down today and make some, to have ready. Was really surprised that I managed to get four done.

These first two are done using the same elements. Backing paper from Crafters Companion Masculine CD. For the topper I inked one of the folders from the Happy Birthday Embossing Set before running it through the 'Bug', then matted it onto chocolate brown and gold card stock. Finished the cards off with some sporting peel-offs. For the golf bag one, just coloured it in with a Whispers pen, to get the darker shades, just coloured the area a few more times.

For the next one, used a backing paper and topper from Crafty-Jak's CD3, altering the image into a rubic's cube and backing it onto olive green card stock.

For my last effort for today, used Allegro embossing folder on gold cardstock. Decoupaged the image and mounted it on chocolate brown card stoch and finished it off with a happy birthday peel-off.

A good start to the week

Well pleased with myself today, managed to get three cards done.

Enjoyed doing the Flowering Vine from StitchingCards so much decided to have go at another one of their freebies. This time, the butterfly and combined it with flowers and backing papers from Fred-She-Said. Stitched the butterfly on a piece of card, on which I printed the same backing paper and stitched using DMC Variegated Threads. Added a bit of back-stitching to the butterfly just to define it a bit more then cut round close of the back-stitching.

This next one used just matting and layer. The backing paper is again one of Fred-She-Said freebie papers. Mounted the image, Sporty Chick, on plain white card, with tabs using the same white card, off cuts of the backing paper and colouring the peel-offs to match.

The last one for today is the Curvy Card using the curvy card template from WS-Designs. The Daisy is Sizzix Bigz Daisy #2 die and trimmed the card with black gift wrapping ribbon and added a double tag topped off with a 21st peel-off.

Thanks for having a look.