A Wedding

Yesterday my lovely niece was married. She is an ecologist and a bit of an expert on Dragonflies. I knew straight away which stamps to use when I started making her a card. The Hobby Art dragonflies were coloured with zig cleancolor markers and I added a little gelly roll sparkle pen and glossy accents to the eyes. When the eyes were dry I painted over the dragonflies with glossy slap-it-on from Indigo Blu. The reason I went for the two products is that they have different levels of shine. The background was created with ink dusters and then stamped with hobby Art wildflowers and dotted with white and stardust gel pens.

Here is a close-up of those eyes and the detail of the wings.
And here are a few photos from the big day...

Thanks for looking and please leave some love on my mid month inspiration post from yesterday too!

(Anyone would think I was on holiday - two posts in two days, lol)

A wedding card

A colleague asked me to make a wedding card for her niece. The wedding theme is herbs, which I thought was lovely, particularly as I grow lots! I really wanted to buy the Jane Shasky cd called herb garden that Joanna Sheen brought out a while ago, but it is no longer available! Time to stop kicking myself and start thinking!
Plan B was to find some herb like stamps amongst my collection and stamp something. this is what I came up with.

The sentiment and lavender stamps are from Inkylicious and the thyme and mint leaves are from Chocolate Baroque. I dusted the sentiment panel in faded lilac distress ink and embossed the sentiment with some lilac embossing powder that I have had for ages but rarely used! I added a ribbon and some liquid pearls. I think it is quite unusual for a wedding card, but I was pleased with the result, as was the lady who commissioned it.
Well, my dashboard seems to be fixed and is showing all the blogs I follow once more, thank goodness! Just when I have no more spare time and a busy weekend ahead visiting a university and preparing lots for work.
I hope I will manage a few minutes catching up soon
Thanks for looking!

A Wedding and an Anniversary

I've been busy making a whole host of cards for colleagues at work. A couple of birthdays, three people who are leaving and a wedding that will be happening over the summer. Here is the wedding card. I used Bearly Mine designs vintage lace papers, A Waltzing Mouse frame stamp, some punches (Woodware and Martha Stewart) and dies(Marianne Designs), some pearlescent beige brilliance ink (Embossed with clear embossing powder) and some Tea Dye distress ink.

The subtle colours on the papers don't show up on the photo, but they are beautiful! I'm entering this card into these challenges:
Allsorts - Free and easy July
Moving along with the Times - My favourite things (Roses, Tea Dye distress ink and anything with a vintage feel!)
Simon says Stamp and Show - Embossing

My second card is one I was asked to make for a couple celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. My friend had seen a card I had made with the lovely 'Jack and Ginger' image by Mo Manning and asked if I could use that. This is what I came up with.

 

I coloured it with promarkers and added a panel of pearlised card that I dry embossed in a diamond pattern and added gems. Not sure if I have gone a bit overboard with the bling, but 60 years is some going these days! Well, I'd better go. Thanks for looking!

Wonderful Weddings at Tuesday Taggers

Here is my DT card for this week's Tuesday Taggers where the theme is Weddings. I made this with a colleague in mind who likes simple and elegant cards, and often buys cards from me with trees and leaves on them. I'm hoping she likes it.
I began by stamping the fern (Rubber Stampede) in versamark onto the base card and around the nestie (labels 1) .I embossed it with clear EP. The left half of the base card was covered in a patterned velum and the edge was punched with Martha Stewart Doily lace. Around the fern leaves I sponged a bit of Bundled sage distress ink. The sentiment is from a clear set by American Crafts. I added a white ribbon too (it hid the adhesive!).
This week we are being sponsored by the Craft Barn and there is a fab £15 voucher up for grabs. Do pop over to the Tuesday Taggers blog and look at some of the fab creations from my lovely teamies! Thanks for looking!

By the Cute and Girly - something old, something new...

Here is my entry for this months By the Cute and Girly challenge, where the theme is something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. I have used an old music stamp I've had for about ten years, I made my shutter card on my score - pal that I had for my Birthday in May and I used tumbled glass distress ink which is blue. Didn't manage the borrowed bit though!
I must apologise in advance that I'm not going to be visiting blogs quite so often as I'm having a few problems with my eyes at the moment and need to spend less time in front of a computer screen. I'm sure it will all get sorted out before too long, but bear with me. Tomorrow Lynne, Meg and I are off to Sir stampalot armed with a couple of cakes for a day of getting messy with our blogging mates. I am really looking forward to it and I've saved up quite a bit of my birthday money to take with me too. Shopping, cake and friends - what more can we ask for?

Tag you're it - A whiter shade of pale

Are you singing now? I certainly was! The challenge on Tag you're it! is to produce a tag using mostly white.

I embossed a fern leaf (Rubber Stampede) in clear EP then added a bit of bundled sage distress inks over the top. I added a couple of ribbons, a few punched leaves and a rose I made from pearlescent white paper. This photo doesn't really do it justice, so I took a close up to show the detail. Not sure I got the colours quite right though!

I thought it would make a great wedding tag. Thanks for looking.
I'm feeling much more relaxed about Meg now, as she has managed to ring using a friend's phone. Her throat is no longer sore and she is having a great time. Free time seems to be filled with water fights to cool them all down! I've made a few cards, another carrot cake and done some gardening too, in fact I'm feeling quite righteous!

By the Cute and Girly - Celebrations

Here is my card for this month's By the cute and Girly challenge where the theme is 'Celebrations'. I've just made a wedding card for a workmate whose friend is getting married in the States. The groom is musical and the bride likes her roses so hopefully this will be okay. I've used Victorian Velvet Distress inks for most of it, with a touch of Pumice stone on the leaf flourishes (Hero Arts) and Pearlescent crimson Brilliance for the sentiments, both of which come from a clear wedding set by American Crafts.

I've used a Martha Stewart punch around the page set for the central square and the bottom edge. the central pendant is a shapeabilities die, as is the label. I bought the roses in Hobbycraft.
I'm also going to enter it into a new challenge for me - C.R.A.F.T.-  Where the challenge is Birthdays or Weddings. Thanks for looking!

A little gift and Allsorts

Here is the little something I was telling you about in my last post. I have spent a couple of days working on it and I handed it over to the lovely young lady my nephew got married to today. This is a view of the top...

here you can see the side, and inside ...

lots of very cute embarrassing pictures of him on a zigzag pull out! The whole thing started out life as an M&S 'curiously strong mints' tin. With the mini tag on the top I think it qualifies for my entry for Allsorts this week too! I used stamps from Crafty Individuals and Hero Arts, with a sentiment from Graphicus. The paper I made the roses with started life as white copier paper which I drenched in cherrylicious creative colour sprays from Crafty Notions, before scrunching it all up. My hands were a little red for a while until I covered them in purple, green and blue, after which they looked bruised! You can probably tell half term has been a bit of a craft fest for me! Today has been such a wonderful day too. My niece is home for the first time in four years after completing her PhD in New Zealand (Antarctica, Panama and probably other places I've forgotten too!), my nephew has married his true love, and the sun has shone all day!

Meg's Story and another wedding card

Today Megan was invited (with two guests) to a presentation and tea at County Hall. She received a copy of the book in which her short story has been published. You can read more about the competition here and find out more about the book here. Here she is with her copy. I'm a very proud Mum!

Now you know I still wasn't sure about the other wedding cards I did? Well I've made a third, and I think this is the one I will give them!

I used Rubber Stamp Tapestry stamps for the heart,adding a few punched flowers and some gold tulip paint. The base card is stamped with Art Impressions T2773 in aged mahogany. I used my MS doily lace border punch and a white organza ribbon. I hand wrote their names in the heart, because no matter how hard I tried with the alphabet stamps I own, I couldn't get them straight! I am in the process of making something else for them, which I will post soon. Thanks for looking!

Allsorts challenge - 3, 2, 1

This week's challenge at Allsorts is a recipe, to use 3, 2 and 1 of something of your choice on your card. It is sponsored by Digistamp Boutique.  I thought I'd use the opportunity to have another go at my nephew's wedding card. For my 'three' I chose roses, made with pearlised red paper.

My 'two' are two Crafty individuals hearts, stamped and embossed in silver and over-sprayed with crafty notions creative colour sprays in Cherrylicious. My 'one' is a silver organza ribbon. The stamp is one from the squiggly ink range by Paper Artsy, stamped in aged Mahogany Distress ink, which I also sponged around the edges. The sentiment is computer generated. Still not sure if I'm totally happy with it. I know I'm very hard to please! Thanks for looking!

Suggestions please!

It's been a busy weekend. Yesterday I spent the morning turning up trousers for my Dad. After lunch we went to see him and took his Birthday things. He loved the card, and we went for a lovely walk in the sunshine. When Steve came home from work we went out for a Chinese meal to Cheung's, where the food is wonderful and the spare ribs are to die for! His Sister had bought him a cake with the word Fifty in candles on the top, so we finished off with a slice of that some hours later!!!
Today I've made a couple of cards this morning and been out to look at cars this afternoon. We put a deposit on one and I will pick it up a week tomorrow! I'm so excited! This is the first time I've changed my car because I want to, not out of necessity. The previous one was barely more than scrap and the one before that I'd had to change as the baby seat wouldn't fit into the back being a 2-door!
Anyway, onto the cards. The first is a first attempt at a wedding card for my nephew, and I'm rejecting it as it didn't work. More roses will start to look like a funeral wreath, and less leaves didn't look right either. Any suggestions?

My second card is a cute one. The mouse is from Whiff of Joy and the papers are digi downloads. The swirly one was from Funky Fairies, sadly no longer available, and I'm not sure about the other. The sentiment is from Aspects of Design funky frames.
Don't forget to pop back tomorrow to see something I've been working on for a few days that I'm rather pleased with, nudge, nudge wink, wink!
I'm off to rethink the wedding card now, whilst cooking tea.

Allsorts Challenge - Weddings

Here is my entry for this weeks Allsorts challenge. I made it a while ago for a lovely couple, both of whom I have worked with over the past few years. The verse is the Apache Wedding Blessing (can be found easily using google). All of the stamps were embossed in fine detail EP. Thanks for looking!