Embossed Gears card

Originally I had punched out the circle strips for the Pizza LO from yesterday's post, but they weren't quite the right colour, so I put them to one side for later use. I embossed some cardstock with a cogs and gears embossing folder (Cuttlebug?), matted it and added the circle strips. The sentiment tag and flourish are die-cut, sentiment to be added later - I may need a male 'Get well' card soon, if not then it'll be a stock birthday card.

This is a very plain and simple card, so much so that I am looking at it and wondering if it needs anything else - but I can't think what! Or should I just leave well enough alone?!

Pizza!

In February 2010 we all went for pizza after a crop because we had some sort of special offer voucher - can't remember what it was now, but we made the most of it by ordering the largest size pizzas possible! We couldn't finish them all, so had to take some away with us :-)

The papers are from stash, in fact they came from a mixed bargain pack as I recall and I never thought I would use them.....! I punched out some strips with MS and EK border punches, die-cut some flourishes and robo cut the title. I found some orange brads, bought in a sale ages ago because they were a 'bargain', but I got them home and thought well why did I buy them, never going to use that colour! LOL.

Finally I added some crystal swirls, had to cut them up a bit to fit round the title, but I like the way they have come out. The journalling box is a nestie, either wonky rectangles or reverse wonky rectangles, I can never remember which is which LOL.

I have to say it looks much better IRL than the photo, I just couldn't seem to take a decent picture of it!

First Christmas card

I know, I know - it's only July....... but we had a bit of a challenge going on, over on our forum. I challenged everyone to use a virgin stamp - one that had been bought (the longer ago the better!) but never used. I have quite a few stamps which fall into that catgory so it was a difficult choice :-) In the end I went for this Christmas holly frame, bought at Ally Pally in April from a bargain bin.

I stamped and embossed in gold, then distress inked the background with Antique Linen and Tea Dye. The leaves and berries were coloured with marvy pens. The sentiment may also be a virgin stamp - I can't remember whether I put it on any cards last year - it's stamped onto some swirly paper (Craft creations?), die-cut with nestie labels 4 and mounted onto a mat cut with the new labels 4 'small'. The whole thing was then matted onto some red card and attached to a pearlescent card blank. I kept it flat, no foam padded dimension, so it will post easily! A few pearls and a sentiment stamp to finish off.

I think I will be mkaing a few of these!

Chess

This is a picture of the chess set DH laser-cut as a present for a friend out of black and white acrylic. As usual with these things, it took far longer to design than to actually cut!
The page also took a lot longer than I thought it would - I had the idea about complete in my head, but I didn't realise just how long it takes to punch out 32 squares and stick them all down in a chessboard pattern! Then I added the gold frame, chess pieces, crochet lace, black ric rac and gold die-cut border. This was all done at the crop last month, but then I decided the pieces needed to be a different black and that I wanted a piece of black patterned paper at the side of the photo, so I took it home and added the black flocked paper and pearl swirl.
My robo then refused to cut the chess pieces and the (original) title because the carrier sheet had come to the end of its working life and I had to wait for a new one to arrive. Of course, once I had ordered it, I found the second of the pack of two I had previously bought......
Having cut the pieces and title in black, I realised that actually the black letters didn't look very good, so I looked through my stickers and found these American crafts thickers. Did I have all the letters I needed?? Of course not! I managed to find a supplier who still had stock and ordered a couple of packs.... then waited.... and waited..... They finally turned up a few days ago, but I had something on my desk I didn't want to move .....!
So finally, today I added the title, die-cut journalling box and two masks in black and white to represent the two opponents. I really like this black/ivory/gold combination :-)

Decorated Tray and Shelf

Something different today! DS1 is always losing his wallet in the mornings, inevitably resulting in a frantic search of the whole house to see where he left it last (it's usually underneath something..... LOL) so I dug out this shelf and tray from my huge stash of wooden decoratable items as a solution.

The shelf has only had a very simple makeover - it started life as a plain pine semi-circle, I painted it silver and added copper nailheads around the edge. I also put hooks underneath it to hold the items which are too long for the keyrack where DH insists on hanging them..... :-) I used Viva Decor precious metals paint in silver - worth noting that I had to varnish it, after 24 hours drying time, the silver pigment was still coming off on my fingers, I haven't had this problem with any other colour I have used from this range! But a coat of acrylic varnish did the trick!

The tray was glimmer misted in a couple of shades of brown plus bronze. Then I stamped various gears and swirls in Stazon, timber brown and cherry red. I added a piece of self adhesive green baize to the base to stop it rubbing on the shelf.

Ds1 has even remembered to put the wallet in it, ooh, a couple of times at least........

Birthday Bakes

This is just some of the baking I did to take to work for my birthday last year - didn't take long for them to disappear!

The papers are from stash, I think they may be K&Co, I doodled some faux sttiching around them - that's twice I have done that now, I must be getting brave LOL. I cut the swirls with a Sizzix die and the title is robo cut - the letters were cut in two colours and laid one over the other, slightly offset to give a shadow effect. I found some mesh in one of my boxes of 'bits' and added the brads, the date and a punched out journalling tag.

Blue and green card

I still have a few green card blanks left from the pastel set given to me a few years ago, so I will be trying to use these up over the next few weeks. A lucky discovery: they go perfectly with Two Scoops paper, of which I also have quite a bit left!

I cut a blue mat and used an inverted corner punch on the paper. The green swirly mat is die cut with a Nestie and I stamped and embossed the flourish, using a Dimension Fourth stamp. The white flowers are overstamped with a swirly pattern and have green pearl centres. A few tiny white pearls here and there to finish it all off, the sentiment will be added later.

I foresee a lot of very similar cards over the next few weeks LOL.

The White Stuff

I am starting to run out of titles for snow pages....... LOL. These pics were taken in January 2010, we had about 6" of snow overnight.

The individual snowflakes and the strips were done with Martha Stewart punches and the title was robo cut. Then I got very brave and doodled directly onto the page!!!! I am very pleased with the faux stitching swirls around the snowflakes, but all the time I was doing it, I was thinking of ways to cover it up should it go wrong!!!

Bowl of Cherries

Last year, for the first time ever, we actually got some fruit from our cherry tree. Usually the birds have it all, but for some reason they left it alone and we picked 20lbs of fruit! I had to send DH on an emergency dash to Tesco for alcohol and sugar while DS1 and I continued picking :-) We made cherry vodka, cherry brandy, cherry chutney, cherry cake and still had some left to freeze!

I used a polka dot paper from stash and decided to have a bold robo-cut title. The journalling blocks are die cut with Nestie deckled rectangles - I have just bought those and they are going to be so useful, they look great with the edges inked as I have done here. The photos are matted onto swiss dot cardstock, though it doesn't show up very well in the picture! I made photo corners by cutting two circles into corners, arranged a few pearls in swirls, and it was done. For a page that is really quite a simple LO, it took some time to finish!

Sadly this year, our tree has once more become a giant bird feeder and there are none left!

Large Birthday Card

This is the card I have made for DS2. I can't believe he is 20 !!!!!!

I smooshed distress inks around the edge of the 8" card blank, then overstamped in one of the darker colours. Then I added a 6" sheet of 'Timepiece' paper, and it sat in my 'cards to complete when I get inspiration' box for a while.

I didn't want to cover up too much of the lovely backing paper, so opted for two panels - the bottom crackled panel was smooshed and overstamped, while the top panel was stamped with a vintage clocks image and oversmooshed :-) Then I die cut the flourishes and sentiment tags, added the pearls and there it was, finished!

Hope he likes it :-)

Poinsettia

This is the cross stitch piece I finally finished last weekend, having started it in March 2010, and I have now put it into a frame. It's a kit from a magazine and came supplied with the green fabric - if I had had the sense to start stitching the green leaves first, rather than all the red poinsettia, I would have switched to ivory fabric as the green on green was quite tricky! But since I had done all the red, I decided to carry on regardless :-)

The original design had the frame and swirls stitched in gold metallic thread, which I found absolutely impossible to use, so I bought some ecru floss and mixed it with gold blending filament and it has come out rather well.

It has been going for so long now that I am quite fed up with it! But hopefully, by the time next Christmas comes, I will like it again :-)

Happy New Year 2010

New Year 2010 - we had our friends down to visit over the holiday and as usual ate and drank far too much! This picture was taken just after everyone had polished off our homemade pizza and they still demanded to know what was for pudding LOL.

I love the 'Timepiece' Collection from Bo Bunny and this is a perfect page to use it on. I put together four different papers from the range, robo cut the title and added a frame, making sure that it was 'interrupted' by the paper blocks and title - I really like that effect! The journalling block is stamped and I die cut the banner over the photo. A few pearls and the page was complete, just a bit of journalling to write.

I will be using quite a bit more of 'Timepiece' - it's the only range I have ever bought the complete collection of ...... plus some extra single sheets ...... plus the 6" paper pad ...... love it LOL.

Buddies

Last weekend was craft weekend, so I got quite a bit done, including finishing the cross stitch piece I have been working since March 2010 :-) And I have made a start on my 2010 album!

This is a nice simple LO of DS2 and his friend. Papers are from stash (possibly Daisy D's?), a bit brighter than I usually do - the photo has come out a little duller than the actual colours, but the one I took with flash was awful so this will have to do. I am wondering about investing in one of those portable collapsible photo studios, it would be nice to get some decent pics for a change!

The title is cut on the robo, it looked a little heavy so I doodled dots to lighten it up a bit. The zig zags are punched from the same paper as one of the mats, using an EK Success punch. I defined the blocks with pen, though it did occur to me afterwards that I could have inked the edges before sticking them down instead LOL. I stamped a journalling block but haven't decided what to write yet :-)

Belated ATCs

These are two ATCs which, embarrassingly, I was supposed to send out in a swap weeks ago ..... and I forgot :-( I'm really sorry Netty!

They are called 'Time to get in Gear' and 'Look into my Eyes....' LOL. 'Gear' has a smooshy ink background, overstamped with various swirls and a retro border. Then I added the embossed metal panel and the ribbon, bow and charm. The gears are the largest Nestie sprocket, cut up into segments - I outlined them with a zig pen as they didn't stand out enough. A few gems to finish off.

'Look ......' is much simpler! I stamped and embossed the owl - an old Elusive Images design now available from Chocloate Baroque - using verdigris embossing powder, then smooshed distress inks over the top. The embossed image acts as a resist so only the card is coloured. Two gems for the hypnotic eyes and it was done!

I hope the recipient likes them after all the time she has had to wait ........