Simple Sympathy Cards

Two more commissioned sympathy cards. This time I used Sheena Douglas, A little bit floral - Magnolia as the main flower on the card after previously trying ideas using the Iris version.

I stamped the flower in Dewdrop Moonlight White Ink and then heat embossed using Stampendous White Embossing Powder. I coloured the flowers using my Gansai Tambi Watercolour paints.

In black ink I stamped the greeting which is from Hero Arts "Messages With Flourish" set. I then used a black pen to draw in a black frame around the card.   I actually made one with the flower raised using 3D mounting foam, and the other where the flower is actually single layer along with the other elements. I added a little shadow to give it some dimension too. Sequins added at the end.

Confessions.

Sometimes it's nice to make a kit card. Shhhh. Don't tell! I really like the twilight kingdom collection from Hunkydory, and finally managed to get the cat topper set to make for a friend who likes cats. It's not super inventive but it was so nice to have decisions made by someone else of what to put on! :)

Apart from the bling, card stock base and matting/layering card, all the other elements are in the topper kit. Just did cutting and sticking, hurrah for an easy make!!

Wrapping...

I have always admired people who have enough time to stamp their own wrapping paper! Because I needed a very small amount of cat themed paper to match another parcel I actually had a go! It's just distress inks, and nothing fancy, but I really like it. Not sure I have enough energy to do it for all my gifts throughout the year tho, lol.

Stamp: Inkylicious, Cat-Toby.

Wedding Invites.

Been a bit absent from the blog in April because I was working on a set of wedding invites. I have enclosed a few photos here, sorry about the non subtle removal of the personal info! My friends wanted a disney-style theme in cream and purple.

This is a purple glitter cardstock that doesn't shed. It looks amazing! Luckily it was a good match to the ribbon I had already purchased. The castle is a free silhouette file I found online and converted it into a cutting file to use on the Eclips cutting machine. I have made that process sound super easy but infact.... it was a bit of a mare! However finally I swapped to a different card/paper and it cut out great! Wish I had thought of that a week before!

So the topper is layered onto the cardstock using 3D foam, so the cut-outs show the glitter card stock underneath. For the finished invites I cut the ribbon shorter after I tied the bow. You can pull the bow to open the card, it's threaded underneath the topper and round the back of the invite. I wanted to make it part of the design, not just something to hold the invite together.

The fonts I have used in the invite are Monterey BT, Waltograph and AL Cinderella.

I downloaded the "Happily Ever After" from a freebie download site. I have hunted around incase it belongs to anyone but so far I have not found it, so hoping it was a genuine freebie!

I also managed to make a cutting and scoring file to make the invite folders and then stuck them together to make the pocket containing all the invite info. There were 2 versions of the invite.

I am so pleased I had to use my Eclips to make these. Although it was hard work figuring out how to overcome the problems & make it do exactly what I wanted it has MADE ME use it, figure it out & keep it plugged in!

This shows the three items included in the folder of the invite. The gift poem was a combination of several that are freely available online. We were also able to include a reference and phone number so people could directly give towards the couples honeymoon, a great idea!

We managed to make the wedding menu flexible enough so you could mark down what a family of five might be choosing to eat at the meal, well I hope we did - It was hard to leave lots of space for initials!

So yep, that's it! Can post these pics now the invites have all been sent out and the Bride, Groom and their families were happy with them! I have some more stuff to make for the same wedding but not until later in the year :)

Dragon Part 3.

Final two dragon cards using the Greyboard dragons from Inkylicious. Dragon's painted in acrylics and then Nuvo Jewel Drops used for scales. I've used some stickles on the red dragon and gilding flakes on the yellow dragon.

Both backgrounds are made using distress inks.
Dies are Grass Border from Lawn Fawn and aMemory Box landscape die.
Font on the left is Cleric, Font on the right is Blackadder.

Special Friend.

Card for a special friend who loves Jewel Mania. Just decoupaging images taken from google that I adapted to fit around a greeting, and make a background, embellished with some spotty ribbon!

Dragons Part 2.

Another couple of cards from the set of Dragon cards I made. Once again the Greyboard Dragons from Inkylicious are painted with acrylic paint and have scales made from Nuvo Jewel Drops. I also added some stickles to the wings on the red dragon.

On the green dragon's wings I also used some Gilding Flakes. Backgrounds are all in distress inks.

Font on the right is: Bleeding Cowboys.
Font on the left is: Bernadette Rough.

Diecuts are Joy Xmas tree and house border and Lawn Fawn Grass Border.

Dragons part 1.

I bought some fab Greyboard Dragons from Inkylicious at the last "Craft Shopping Event" we went to and got completely distracted making a set of inky dragon cards for fun! Here are the first two.

     
Backgrounds are distress inks and water. Dragons are painted with acrylics and then Nuvo jewel drops added for scales. Diecut trees from Joy (Xmas tree and house border). Font is Bernadette Rough.

Challenge 37 at the Crafty Addicts.

A new challenge has started on The Crafty Addicts Challenge Blog and the theme is ATG or Use diecuts.

Two smashing sponsors, Polkadoodles (Prize of Prize £6.75 approx 3 images) and Conie Fong Art (Prize of $10 gift card)!

I have made two cards, one from each sponsor. First -  have used Sally and Little Squirrel by Conie Fong.

Conie's stamps are a delight to colour and I am probably going to use this stamp a lot while I explore using different colour ways and styles etc. Love it! It's possibly meant to be a christmas image, but I am going to use it for a wintery birthday card instead.

The diecut I have used it called Leafy Tree Backdrop Portrait from Lawn Fawn. The leaves also come with the die and I used them with blue vellum.
Coloured with Polychromos Pencils on Kendal Buff Cardstock.
Tiny spot of stickles on the flower.
Posca pen to make the spots.
Blue baker's twine from the stash.

My second card is using Polkadoodles - Meribelle Rock It!  I've printed it onto kraft card and then coloured it with polychromo pencils. I also added in some white highlights using a posca paint pen.

The dies I have used as part of the frame are from a set by Sue Wilson called Fillables Fish Bowl. I added a touch of Nuvo Jewel drops to the sea horses to make a different texture.

Finished card -

Polkadoodles gave the Design Team a choice of three super digistamps for this challenge:

Meribelle Rock It

Female Painter Decorator

Foxy Friend

Sponsor Badges

Bit of a kit!

Needed a speedy anniversary card for a customer so cracked out a docrafts kit I had in the stash! It is an A5 decoupage kit from Docrafts called Bellisima-Cupcakes.

I haven't made a kit card for a long time, but really enjoyed making this. I actually used every single part in the kit aswell as the images on the packaging! Waste not want not! :) Not used to making things in pastels, so this was a complete change from the norm! :)

Added some stickles and some sakura shimmer pen :)