Bean Sidhe

Well a long gap since I posted.  My crafting mojo's still adrift somewhere but with the advent of snow I've finally had to acknowledge that yes, Christmas WILL soon be here and I've made a few cards.

My friends seem to be having eventful lives with grandchildren due and house moves so I've made appropriate cards.

I've used some templates from Sara's Cardmaking Paradise VIP magazine - check it out - you won't be disappointed.  They are available as PDF files, GSDand SVG  files to subscribers.

Firstly, baby cards.  (Sorry about the quality of the scanning!)

New Home Cards (my adaptation from the template - they are wonky on purpose)

HoHoHo

Window card

Jenny did the project at craft club last night - thanks Jenny!

It's a nice wee card that's quick and easy to make.  I chose colours too dark for the first one and I think my tags should have been larger but you get the idea.  This would be an ideal card for putting a packet of seeds or a gift voucher into the pouch.

Helena kindly bought some of my knitted and crochet hats for props for her photo shoots - she's just opened up her new website - wow, look at those little ones, aren't they gorgeous?  She's got a real eye for a photo.

Don't forget to contact her if you want good photos of your babies!

I've made a few more hats - I'm hoping she'll be able to add them to the ones she has already.  I'm not too good at judging sizes of wee ones yet so it's all experimental.  The plain white hat at the bottom is embellished with various different coloured crocheted flowers to suit the theme of the shoot.

No, I've not developed a purple addiction - i just happened to have a lot of that card.

Shaped cards - TIME FOR CRAFTING

As a VIP member and subscriber to Sara's magazine, I have access to lots of templates (GSD and SVG for people with cutting machines - and PDF templates for people with cutting knives and scissors).  She also has brilliant prize draws, last issue was for a Cricut and this issue is for a Dremel!

Anyway, here are some of the cards I've made this week, using her templates.

Shadow Box in a box

A window card, the image if from one of the Diary of a Country Lady CDs.

Some mini books I've made for the charity stall and for gifts

I've only done one in this style as it takes a wee while. Image from the internet.  Instructions here.

  I did the cover using UTEE and my Melt Pot.

These are maze books, made using one sheet of 12x12 card.  Instructions here.

Inside

More maze books

Birthday cards

Seems I've a lot of birthdays coming up - here are some of the cards I've made.  The first two are decoupage.

This one hasn't scanned well as it's mirri card.

I was given some shaped cards and toppers which were, I think, part of a kit.  I've made some up but I'm not at all sure I've grasped the concept fully.  I think they were supposed to be fancier than the ones I've done.

This card was made using a Woodware flower embossing punch and a Martha Stewart border punch.

50th Anniversary Card for a friend.

Crochet flowers

Just because.

More hats.  I thought the ears would be longer and floppier.  I've had two goes at this but still not happy with the ears so will hae to try again.  I tried embroidering a face on one of them but it's turned out a bit spooky - looks like a KKK hood!

Cardi

I've done this for the local show entry - category 'a garment for a child' but it may be a bit plain as an entry, altho' I'm quite pleased with it.  The crochet edging should actually be a rib but I hate knitting a long ribbed band so I improvised.

I made this cot card using a templage from Time for Crafting.  The templates are in PDF and for cutting machines too.

I made a mistake with the pink one and had to try to disguise it with lace.

Stitched cards - they haven't scanned too well and the colours aren't true but you get the idea.

Digistamped card - the colouring's not too good - I could have done with one of those puffy paint pens I think.  I got the image here.

This hasn't scanned well either - it's done using more of my peel offs.

Recycled topper card (the topper was from a shop card).

Crafty Individuals butterfly image and some odd bits and bobs from my card stash.

I've had some lovely crafty things sent and given to me recently.

Firstly, a lovely bead necklace from my friend Muriel.  Thank you Muriel, this will go nicely with my new yellow top (when summer arrives!)

From Sam, I got this lovely tag.  You can see this and other lovely stuff she's done on her blog here.  Thank you Sam.

I got all these lovely goodies from Linda.  I love the felted brooch and her digi art.  You can see them all in detail on her blog.  Thank you Linda.

Last month's smile swap on Time for Crafting was The Great Outdoors.  Here's the one I received - made by Marion.

Here's the one I made.

I made another wee baby cardi to put on my knitting web site.

I was asked to made a card for a wedding for one of my sisters in law to give - I've done three so's she can choose.  Here they are.

This one was hard to photograph - here it is fully open.

and here as it will be seen.

I made a couple of stepper cards for birthdays.  The fairy images are from Christa - thank you Christa.

Golden Wedding Anniversary Card

I used Nestabilities to cut out the ovals (thanks for the loan Dorothy).  The vellum on which the verse is printed has been punched around the edge using a Martha Stewart punch (thanks Barbara).  Isn't it good to have crafty friends?:wink:

Altered Art

I took the topic at our local art group last week.  As I'm not able to do any actual 'art' I spoke about scrap books and memory books.  I took along several examples, one of which was this book in a tin which I'd made as a RAK for a cyber buddy.  I coloured the original silver tin using alcohol inks.  You can see the whole thing here.

Stampin' Up Craft Day

Today, Barbara took me to the Stampin' Up craft day (thank you Barbara).  The event was organised and run by Zoë and Emma (sorry Emma, I don't have a link to your blog as I type).

It was a lovely venue, plenty of room.  The display boards showed a wealth of inspiration for us all.  I was particularly impressed by the folder holding real samples of the papers and ribbons - so nice to see the actual item rather than just a picture.

We were given tea or coffee with home made (still warm would you believe!) biscuits.  The materials we worked with were from the Petal Party kit - plenty of supplies with which to make the day's three projects too!

We spent the morning session getting to know one another (a lovely group of ladies I have to say) and making our easel box.  I tried very hard to be careful and cut it out properly and was quite pleased to find it wasn't too wobbly at the end of the morning.

This is the result of the morning's work (I don't think they are all here but this is most of them).  Mine's front row, third from the left.

After lunch (which was delicious!) we made a mini-book, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I finished this off at home as I'd added extra pages and although we'd been given ample card, paper, stickers etc, I was trying hard to preserve my last sheet of coloured card (how mean is that?) and I did the remaining pages using bits and bobs from my stash at home.

Afternoon brought more tea or coffee and the remaining biscuits (yes, there were some left over from the morning believe it or not) we made a little carry box/bag thingy which holds a selection of mini cards.  It would make a lovely gift but I'm not giving mine away - sorry about that folks!  This is one side of it - the other is with the group of three projects below.

And these are the cards I made to go inside.  Quite plain but effective, well I think so.

So, here are all my three projects together and you can see the mini book in full here.

To put the final polish on the day, I came home with a lovely wee stamp set which was part of the day and some gorgeous ribbon, which I won in the raffle. All who attended went home with a lovely gift and/or prize.

So, I've had a great day - many thanks to all concerned.

Firstly, thank you to those of you who have taken the time to visit my blog.  It is much appreciated, especially the comments - it's good to get some feedback.

Birthday Card - nothing fancy but it looks quite nice in real life.

A wedding card - I got in a bit of a muddle with this but I think it's turned out ok in the end.

Craft Club

Cindy did the project this week - thank you Cindy.  As usual, I didn't measure mine carefully enough so it's a bit wobbly.  When I do it again, I'll cut the piece out of one sheet of card rather than doing it in sections and sticking it together.

I'm not sure I've arranged it to best advantage but you get the gist.  We got some lovely papers and bits to make it with.

I have finally reinstalled my Craft Robo.  I haven't had it connected since last year when my machine crashed.

I used these lovely Robo cutting files from Sara's TIME FOR CRAFTING VIP area to which I subscribe - there's loads of stuff on there.

I did these for my son-outlaw's birthday.  I textured the card using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and used matt silver card for the blades.

This HUG for a friend who is in need.  Textured using another of my Cuttlebug Folders and coloured with distress inks and a sheen added using Glimmer Mists.

I've adapted this one (the original is actually a 21 which opens as a card on its own).  The font is gentle plum  from Lettering Delights.

I've made these stepper cards as demo pieces for our craft club for next month.  I've used Stampin' Up card and some odd bits and bobs from my craft stash.  The images are Crafty Individuals from one of their booklets. 

The words on this one are from a Crafty Individuals words stamp.

This is just a little 'get well' card I made for a friend.  I've used my Cuttlebug folders here again.  The colours look a bit odd on this scan but you get the general idea.

The Time for Crafting Forum have regular 'smile' swaps (what better to send out than a nice smile).  This month the theme was resolutions - I've put mine in a wee foldy out booklet.

This is the one I received in return, made by Jill - it's lovely and glistening - I think she's used something called BLINGZ (which I must investigate!)   Thank you Jill.

I was asked to make a child's  loopy cardi (well two actually) by one of the ladies at the craft club.  Now these cardis are lovely when done but they do take quite some time to make and I always seem to end up with sore fingers when I do them - maybe I'm doing it wrong?  This is the first one.  I'm quite pleased with it - I just hope it fits!

I've just updated my birthday calendar and there are 15 birthdays this month. 

Here are some of the cards I've made.  I can't blog them all as some of the intended recipients view the blog.

The template for this can be found here.

I made this gatefold with one of my new Cuttlebug embossing folders. 

The decoupage for this I picked up from Photobucket.  It's by dftunis@yahoo.com.  From the original sheet, using Paint Shop Pro, I made some tea bag tiles and a tiled backing sheet to finish the card.

This is another one using a new Cuttlebug folder.  I have added a greeting to the blank part since I scanned it but forgot to rescan before sending it off.

This cuttlebug patchwork is ideal for using up bits and bobs of cards.  It doesn't have to be all the same colour card of course.  I took the basic idea from a card Sara did on her Time for Crafting site.

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