MSE Challenge December 09

Over on the MSE forum card making thread, Rainmac suggested a challenge using a sketch.



This is the sketch (from CPS-Card Sketches) and the only rules are that it can be anything but a Christmas card.





Well, I'm up for it seeing as making any card is a challenge to my non-existent artistic skills. Just choosing papers and images takes me ages, thinking of a layout takes me even longer then before you know it three hours have gone by!


So as the layout was already decided, this card only took me two hours! The papers are from a pad that came in the post today, on sale at The Glitter Pot, and very nice they are too! The image is something I had in my stash, given to me by Linda in NZ. The flowers are Papermania, a recent purchase and the first time I've used anything like that as an embellishment. This is such a change from previous cards I've done but I did promise myself I'd update my style and I do like these sort of layouts.

Of course, now it's finished, I've just thought of something else I could have done with it but it's too late now! Never satisfied am I?

Bookatrix cards

Looking back for some cards I've made which I feel are good enough to show on here, I found these Bookatrix cards. They were all made using co-ordinating colours of pearlised card, the lacey ones then had silver card, then one or two layers of vellum which were stamped and printed onto. These first two are for my great nephew and great neice:











When grandson Jack was christened, age 5, Deborah wanted a Bookatrix card for him too. It wasn't really appropriate to make a lace trimmed one for him at that age, as I had previously done for the babies, and this is the best I could come up with using photographs of him (age 1 and 5) printed onto vellum for the front page, the page behind I made using a photograph of him as a newborn. Pity I'm not clever with a computer as I'm sure a better job could have been made of putting the photos on!

Christmas cards 2009

Here are a few of the cards I've made for this Christmas.

This one is quite hard to see as it's a white card with a slight gold shimmer to it. Two Cuttlebug folders were used for the background, Snowflake and Divine Swirl, and I've used a silver glittery ribbon where they join. The Christmas tree is the Cuttlebug folder Lace Tree which I've decorated with Bling Bling diamantes I bought from Joanna Sheen's website. All the mats are silver holographic card. It's so much better in the flesh, the photo doesn't do it justice. Two of my special friends down under got a similar version of this card which was inspired by a card my friend Angie made at her card making club. This one was for my daughter Deborah.

Deborah's daughter, my grandaughter, Jessica (14) received my first ever easel card, papers from a pack I bought locally (DCWV I think) and a topper I had in my "Christmas box for quick cards". I came across easel cards on the card making thread on MSE and quickly became addicted to making them, probably because they're very simple to do!

I found some rub-ons I'd had for years and really didn't expect them to still work. I was rather surprised when they did and Jessica's brother, grandson Jack (6) was thrilled with his snowman surrounded by tinsel. This was the first card I made this year and I decided I needed to update my style and push myself a bit more.


This is an easel card I made for Tracy and Neil (d-i-l and son). The stamp is Winter Hoot from Pink Gem and has my first attempt with Flower Soft (the new Polar White) as the fur trim. More of the same papers, glittery silver ribbon as before, and silver snowflakes from the die that came with my Cuttlebug.


This card was for Luke, my 14 year old grandson. It's a digi stamp, which I have recently discovered, and you can probably tell my colouring technique needs some practice! The embossed card and snowflake paper were in the same pack as previously mentioned. The spotty paper was a freebie I downloaded and printed myself.


This was made for Daniel (10), Luke's brother. It's another easel card, another digi stamp, more papers from the same pack and a snowflake I found in my stash.




To complete the family, this card was for Molly (6). Yet another digi stamp with more papers from the same pack and some lovely spotty ribbon which I bought from The Secret Crafter. I love this combination of colours.



Rodney Reindeer from Pink Gem (sorry for the quality of the photos, they've turned out rather light)












and this polar bear stamp is an Anita's (I think, I've had it so long!). This is another easel card but I don't have a good photo of it open, they all turned out too light! All the papers are from the same pack already mentioned, the snowflake from the Cuttlebug die and some lovely irridescent organza ribbon.

A couple more stamps I have in my stash, the green glitter card was from a card stack in the same pack as the DCWV papers.

My new card blog

Now I've almost finished my house renovation blog, (for anyone interested you can find it here: http://westbroke.blogspot.com), after a couple of years in the craft desert I'm starting to get my mojo back. I've found a nice friendly craft community on MSE and have many old friends on the CI forum so I thought I'd start a card blog to show some of the new (and maybe some of my old) creations.

I've just treated myself to a Cuttlebug so am busy finding ways to use it. I've had a bit of a shopping spree to fatten up my craft stash and I've been looking to see what are the latest styles of cards.

I managed to get my creative juices flowing again just in time to make a few Christmas cards for close friends and family so now I need to change direction and start thinking about upcoming birthdays and anniversaries. Father-in-law is 88 on 1st January but he doesn't appreciate what goes into a hand crafted card so it's a shop bought one for him, which reminds me I must dash out and get one in the next couple of days. Plenty more birthdays coming up in the next couple of months to keep me busy, and I really need to get my thinking cap on for my daughter's 40th in February seeing as she has asked for a "special card".

So, that's my first post on my new blog. I'm off to find some pictures so that I can come back and post again.