Snow is falling

Now we’re getting into the mood (!) here’s another couple of Christmas cards, The first one was made using Spellbinders dies and the blue section is cut from blue sparkly felt. A good quality felt cuts really well and adds dimension to your designs.

The second is with the background cut, again using Spellbinders dies, with a Clarity Stamp deer using Flitter glue and silver gilding flakes. Gilding flakes are so effective, once you’ve mastered the art of using them. Before that they end up on the floor, stuck to your fingers, in fact everywhere.

Christmas Card in Silver

Just in case you’re not quite in the mood yet here’s a Christmas card. I went a little overboard with making poinsettias so they featured on a lot of my cards this year. I used a Spellbinders die and my Grand Calibur, cutting them out with centura pearl snow white paper and loved the result.

 

 

A sleeping cat

I used to meet up with a couple of friends once a week and we would all do some artwork. The easiest thing for me to take with me was a piece of mountboard and some watercolour pencils. I used them dry and it involved a lot of tap tapping as each piece was worked on. Here is one I was quite pleased with and was very proud to win first prize at a local show.  I had a problem deciding how to spend the 50p.

Still learning

A friend wanted a birthday card for her son who is still learning to drive (at over 40!) so I came up with this one. Luckily, he has a sense of humour.

Boxing

My first image is of a box I made for a Christmas present. I was watching a programme about the Hougie Board (as modelled behind the box) and Kay, who invented it, mentioned it can be used to make boxes. Now, I have tried to make boxes before using the score boards designed for the purpose but with little success.  This time as I have the first project book, the Hougie board and some very nice Centura Pearl card, thought I would give it another go.

I had three presents to wrap that needed to look a little more interesting so opened the book to the right page and had a go. My first test piece was with some co-ordinations thick paper and I was quite pleased with the result.  I happened to have bought some A3 centura pearl that proved to be perfect for the size I wanted so cut it up and tried to concentrate to score in the correct places. It turned out to be really easy and I was so buoyed up by my success and being on a bit of a roll, I looked round for anything that needed a box. I have now boxed up four Christmas presents and have a couple of spare small boxes that might just be useful one day. I do like the Hougie board and, now I am trying out a few more ideas, can see it has even more potential.

This all reminded me of when my eldest daughter was small and used to sit avidly watching Blue Peter. I used to dread it when something was made as I could guarantee she would turn to me at the end and say ‘we could make that, couldn’t we mum?’ and most times we did.

My first post

I have been trying to think of something significant for my first blog but no luck so far!

Just to introduce myself, I work part time and, when not working, immerse myself in all kinds of crafting, specialising in designing personalised cards to sell on my website.

The idea behind beginning a blog is to share ideas and discuss subjects that might be of interest.  I have resisted getting started for a while as I felt as though it was just one more thing that I couldn’t fit into my day but it really looks like fun.

I just have to find out how to personalise my page with a background. After thinking about something for a while, I tend to jump straight in without reading the ‘instructions’. J

I’m just going to press the button now and see what happens.