Girl with flower

I'm back in purple mode today and have used this image of a cute girl with a flower.


I have used a 6" x 6" card blank and covered it with some paper I found hiding in my stash. The card used for the large mat was something I saved from an old birthday card I received, it was so pretty I just couldn't throw it away! The smaller rectangle going across the card is Core'dinations Whitewash which has been Cuttlebugged with Swiss Dots. The image has been coloured using ProMarkers and matted onto some purple card, same for the computer printed sentiment. The flowers are Papermania Capsule Collection, as are the spotty buttons.

I followed the sketch on Moving Along with the Times latest challenge and I'd like to enter it in the following challenges:
Moving Along with the Times Challenge #44 - Heidi's Sketch
Charisma Cards Challenge #17 - Girly card with flowers
The Pixie Cottage Challenge #16 - Lots of Flowers
Crafty Catz Challenge #30 - Spots (on buttons, girl's bloomers and on mat behind flowers)
Your Next Stamp Challenge #15 - Going Dotty (buttons, bloomers, mat behind flowers)
Digi Doodles Challenge #5 - Anything Goes

April Swap Card

The April swap theme over at Crafty Place was green and/or lilac. My swap partner was Alison (Alijj, or cjcockroft on MSE) and today I have received this lovely card from her.


How cute is that bunny in his green jumper and lilac scarf! There's green gems and gorgeous pale lilac organza ribbon by the spine and the most gorgeous green/lilac/cream spotty paper. Perfect - spotty is my thing! Everything is beautifully co-ordinated. Thank you so much Alison.

Milly and Lily

Here is a card I made today with the lovely digi freebie Milly and Lily from Pink Gem Janet's blog. Janet's also doing Promarker tutorials on her blog which are really useful for me as a newcomer to PMs.


The image is coloured with Promarkers. The papers I have used are from Monti's Pixel Playground Dragonfly Scrapkit. The pink scalloped circle was cut with Nellie Snellen's Multiframe round die, and I've used Martha Stewart lace doily edge punch for the two layers below the pink spotty ribbon (Papermania Red Hot Capsule Collection). The flowers are a mixture of Prima and Papermania, and the spotty button is again from the Red Hot Capsule Collection.

I'd like to enter this card in the following:
One Stitch At A Time Challenge #10 - Flowers
Aly's Sunday Challenge #16 - Animal Hugs
Sew Many Challenges #12 - Anything Goes
Our Creative Corner - Blooming Blossoms
Dare you to digi stamp #36 - Flowers
A Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge #101 - 3D (the flower plus the image is raised on foam pads)
Sophisticat Challenge #30 - Card for a child
Incy Wincy Designs - One Of My Favourites (as pink and spotty are my all time favourites, it has to be the pink spotty ribbon!)

My crafty bargain!

We went to Wrexham yesterday to stock up with food and see if we could find some bedside rugs for the loft bedroom (no luck there!), and as we were walking down the high street I noticed a new shop had opened. It's called Jotters and is basically a stationery type shop but I noticed a few craft items in the window so just had to go and check it out - as you do!

For a small shop there was a fair sized craft section, a few bargain rubber stamps, some 12 x 12 papers sold singly, some K & Co stuff, stickers, peel offs, etc. There was also a revolving stand with a sign "Build your own card" and everything on it was just 99p. Here's what I brought home:


From the 99p stand I got four packs of daisy type flowers on stems (12 in each), two packs of roses (heads only, 28 in each), three packs of ribbon - each pack has 5 x 1 metre of different ribbons in similar colours. These ribbons are almost the same as the Papermania ones in the Capsule Collection. There are also two packs of buttons - one pink/lilac and one red/pink. Each pack had four small boxes, one heart shapes, one flower shapes and two round shapes. I also bought a divided box for £1.99 as my Card Candy collection is growing and it's perfect for separating the colours.

We didn't get everything we wanted but it was nice to go home with some craft stash I wasn't even contemplating buying!

Sheltering from the rain

In anticipation of some April showers this little bear is sheltering from the rain. I expect we'll all be doing that soon after two weeks of sunshine here, but let's hope we're in for a good summer this year.

Truly Scrumtious has a challenge with the following sketch:


and here is my entry:

Truly Scrumtious Challenge #30 - April Showers which requires the card to follow the sketch provided and the theme of showers was optional.


I would also like to enter it into the following:
The Creative Cottage Challenge #7 - "Going Green" which can be the colour green or recycling something. I have gone for the colour green.
Fab 'n' Funky Challenge #20 "Get it all out" which requires the use of neglected stash.
Creative Inspirations Challenge #31 - Recipe Challenge: 3 Flowers, 2 Design Papers, 1 Ribbon

The striped and spotty papers have been languishing in my stash for far too long (scrapbook papers from QVC a few years ago) plus the blue pearlescent card for the mats were also from old stash. The ribbon is from QVC and is laid onto Core'dinations Whitewash card in green. The flowers were from my stash (some were coloured with ProMarkers) and in the middle of the flowers are Card Candy from Craftwork Cards. The digi image was coloured with ProMarkers.

Two new cards

I have a couple of new cards to blog today.

This first one is the one I sent to Alijj (cjcockroft on MSE) for the April card swap on Crafty Place, the theme of which was "green". Hopefully I haven't spoiled the surprise as she should have received it by now. I have covered the card blank with Core'dinations Whitewash card in yellow, cuttlebugged with Swiss Dots and sanded. A mat of green pearlescent card, overlaid with more Whitewash card but green this time, which I punched with my Fiskars leaf edge punch then put some ribbon on. The digi image is a freebie which I coloured with watercolour pencils but didn't use water, just coloured with the pencils, then chalked around the edges and matted on the same pearlescent green card. Finished off with green card candy.


This next card I made today and was inspired by a sketch I saw while browsing through a sketch challenge blog, it was an old challenge so I couldn't enter the card as it was some time ago. The papers are Zoe Pearn freebies "So Sweet". This is the first time I've printed off this paper and the colours are lovely. I've coloured the image with Promarkers, chalked the edge and matted onto blue Core'dinations Gemstones card. I've used my Martha Stewart Doily Lace edge punch and some blue spotty ribbon.

Hello Cupcake

I have followed the recipe on There's Magic In The Air with Paper Cupcakes for this card and I would like to enter it into their Magical Monday - Recipe Challenge.


The recipe is:
- any Paper Cupcake image
- a 4x4 size card base
- 1 ribbon
- 1 single type of embellishment (e.g., brads, buttons, clips, etc.) in ANY quantity (but only 1 type!)
- 1 stamped/printed sentiment
- NO patterned papers

I have used:
Free digi image "Hello Cupcake" from There's Magic In The Air, coloured with Promarkers.
A pale creamy pearlescent 4" x 4" card embossed with Cuttlebug folders Daisy Pattern and Swiss Dots.
Ribbon from QVC.
6 green self adhesive gems.
Sentiment printed on my computer.
Circles and scalloped circles were cut with Nesties.

I would also like to enter it into the following:
The Crazy Challenge Cupcake Challenge
Stamp with Fun Challenge #55 - Animals
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge Anything goes
Paper Sundae 14th Challenge - No people
Create4fun Challenge 16 - Circles

Childhood memories

Spotty and pink, two of my favourite things.


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Cupcake Craft Challenges #86 - Childhood Memories
Magical Crafts Fortnightly Challenges #13 - Something for the Girls
Charisma Cardz Challenges Week 15 - Monochromatic cards
Cute Card Thursday Challenge 108 - Touchy Feely
Stampin' for the weekend Challenge 36 - Ribbons and Bows
The Crazy Challenge Don't call me flat
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge - Anything goes

(This image brings back memories of my beloved teddy bear which my mother threw in the dustbin whilst I was on honeymoon, yes he was old and tatty but he didn't deserve that!)

All card stock from stash
Martha Stewart punch
Digi image from Marjies Malarkies and coloured with Promarkers
Flowers and spotty button from Papermania
Card Candy from Craftwork Cards and coloured with Promarkers
Ribbon from stash

Molly's card

Yay ... I can get back to my desk now Paul has finished laying the carpet tiles in the loft bedroom!

Molly is 7 years old soon and she is passionate about pigs at the moment. I had a set of pig themed papers and this digi image so here's hoping she's still into pigs by the time her birthday comes round!


I'd like to enter this card into the Pollycraft Monday Challenge #39, the theme of which is "Pink and Brown plus choose Yellow or Green".

6" x 6" card blank and brown card mats from stash
All papers from the pig scrap kit at Monti's Pixel Playground
Digi image is Hamilton from Digi Stamp Boutique
and coloured with Promarkers

I'd also like to enter it into:
Creative Card Crew - Challenge #48 - Happy Birthday
Stamp Something - Something Layered
Papertake Weekly - Cutie Pie
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge - Anything goes
Polka Doodles Week 15 - Animal Magic

Dog and bone

I'm very frustrated at the moment, I can't get to my craft desk as carpet tiles are being laid in that room and I really want to go and play as I've got some images and papers printed off ready to make a couple of cards.

Instead I thought I'd blog this card, made with no-one in particular in mind but it's another dog image I found when I was looking for a labradoodle and I couldn't resist it.


I used the same papers that I printed off for Neil's card as there were some left over. I used my new Martha Stewart Scallop Dot edge punch I bought from Craftology and the ribbon slider label is the smallest of the Nellie Snellen multiframe rectangle dies which I've threaded with black ribbon and just put a peel off sentiment on. I've glittered the centre bone on the circle in the top right hand corner of the card.

It's not really skewiff, I don't always take the best photos!!!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenge:

Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge - Anything goes

Neil's birthday card

It's son Neil's birthday on 16 April and I rarely make adult male cards. He has a labradoodle and I saw this picture which is the image of her so I decided this year he could have one of mom's creations!



All the papers I have used were downloaded from Monti's Pixel Playground Cat & Dog scrap kit.
Nesties were used for all the circles and ovals including the bone "buttons".
Image was found on Google images.
Cardstock, buttons and fibres from stash.

I would like to enter this card in my first ever challenge, Moving Along With The Times Challenge #41 - Easel card.

I would also like to enter it in the following challenges
C.R.A.F.T. - Buttons challenge
Pile It On - Easel card
One Stitch at a Time - Challenge #7 - Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday - Challenge #107 - Mono Mania
Pollycraft - Challenge #38 - Anything Goes
Paper Cutz - Challenge 36 - 3 patterned papers
Stamp Scrap and Doodle Saturdays - Week 35 - Birthdays

MSE challenge

The lovely OAP set us a challenge to make a card using 3 papers - 1 x plain, 1 x patterned and 1 x textured, plus either 3 buttons or 3 bows. A bit last minute but I've just about made it!


The plain and patterned papers were FSS and MMC freebies which I printed off, the textured is Core'dinations Whitewash Cuttlebugged with Swiss Dots. This is my first attempt with my new ProMarkers and also my first time embellishing with buttons.

Ruby Wedding Anniversary

With Jean & Brian's 40th wedding anniversary fast approaching and a card partly made and abandoned because I changed my mind, I had a rethink as this card needed to be special. Jean's a very special friend I've known for almost 50 years (ooh, that makes us sound old!) and here is what I eventually came up with:


The backing paper is from a pack of wedding/romance scrapbook papers bought at the $2 store when we were in Oz a few years ago. The stamp is an old Anita's one bought a long time ago. I stamped with grey pigment ink and embossed with clear powder. The man's suit has been chalked with grey and the bride's veil has been chalked with an ivory pearlised eye shadow. I went round the swirls with a Quickie glue pen and glittered with an ultra fine crystal glitter which is quite hard to see on this picture.

The image has been matted onto some Gemstones Core'dinations cardstock and the mat behind is the co-ordinating Gemstones Whitewash cardstock run through the Cuttlebug with Divine Swirls folder and sanded.

The lace has been threaded with a ruby coloured organza ribbon and the circle behind the sentiment has been chalked. The flowers and leaf are old stash.

Daniel's birthday card

I'm not very good at male cards and only do them for the grandchildren. It's Daniel's 11th birthday next week and he is mini mad. I'm fast running out of ideas for cards with minis on so I googled for images and this is what I've come up with.


The paper I printed off on the computer, it was a freebie from Simply Shaz. The poster I found on Google, printed it twice so that I could decoupage the mini in the centre. Paul suggested looking for an image of tyre tracks which again I found on Google, also the steering wheel. The sentiment I printed myself and used the font Jarman Dotted. I'm hoping he has another interest next year!

Lyndach's Easter Challenge

The lovely Lyndach over at MSE set a challenge to make a card using one of two layouts and it had to have some form of Easter eggs on it.

I chose layout A:













and here is my card:

I used a 5" x 7" card blank and Easter themed paper and image which were downloaded from Papercraft Inspirations. The matching blue card stock for the mats and the purple card stock for the scalloped circle were from my stash. The spotty ribbon is another from the set I bought from QVC.

This actually looks better in real life, the colours are brighter. I couldn't get a decent photograph.

Thanks for a great challenge Lyndach. I think following sketches is my favourite, saves me spending an hour pondering over how to lay out a card, I can get on and spend a couple of hours on choosing papers and an image instead!

Follow the leader!

I obviously wasn't concentrating the other day when I started to make this card. Thinking I'd made a pretty good job of positioning and layering everything up, I was quite happy with the result. That is until I tried to open it! Oops ........ I'd turned my card 90 degrees without realising so that the bottom part was towards the crease. No worries - rescue it by chopping the front off and layering it on another card blank. But the weather's been lovely and the garden called so my card laid abandoned for a few days. Today it hit me - turn it into an easel card! I haven't done one of those for a while so this is how it turned out:












I started with one of the lovely ribbons from QVC which determined the colours. The two papers are from the Daisy pad by K & Co. Green glitter card, flowers and green gems from stash, Core'dinations Whitewash card run through the Cuttlebug with Swiss Dots folder and a cute digi image (which I've forgotten, again, where it came from!)

Eugh, I really don't like this!

It started with the ribbon - one from the QVC pack. I really like the ribbon. I really like the stamp (it's the one where I cut down the image for the Mother's Day card three posts down).

I found card stock in my stash that matched the colours perfectly. I tried my hardest to do the modern sketch type thing with it. I really do not like this card. I can't think what to do with it, that's why the red oval hasn't got a sentiment in it yet! I'll stick it in my stock box for now and probably send it to someone who doesn't give a monkeys about hand made cards (like M-I-L lol!!!).

I think it's because these aren't "my" colours, they're just not working for me.
Now, if it was pink or purple..............

P.S. It's not really wonky at the top, it's the way I photographed it!

Mother's Day card for M-I-L

Because Vera (M-I-L) doesn't like anything modern, cute, humourous, in fact anything other than traditional, it was hard coming up with an idea for a card for her. I still had to like what I was doing. So, this is what I came up with, I didn't spend too long on it as she doesn't keep any cards. Very different for me but hopefully Vera will like it.

The papers are from a 6" x 6" pad by K & Co. The background paper has four squares of different colours. I cut around the flowers of the blue poppy paper and as there are six of each sheet I was happy to cut into a couple of other sheets to do a bit of decoupage of some of the petals and the butterfly. A bit of glitter glue here and there and the sentiment was printed on the computer and cut with Nesties.

Katy's card

I thought today that I'd better get on and make a card for great neice Katy's birthday next week. I bought a pack of 80 different ribbons from QVC last week and was itching to use some so the first thing I did was print off the spotty paper, chose the spotty ribbon as it went so well with the colour of the paper and went on from there.


Not quite sure where the last week has gone, and I've not really done anything to blog about. Deborah came for a visit and loved her 40th Survival Kit and her birthday card. Digital image was coloured with Brush Strokes used as water colours, except the teddy was done with water colour pencil. Dark burgandy card used for the mats, some pink paper found in stash (which came from an insert in a shop bought birthday card I received many moons ago) and some card candy. The flower has a button centre threaded with some hairy fibre (I'm sure there's a proper name for that!). I'm surprised I never thought to get the Cuttlebug embossing folders out, but I'm happy with it as it is.

While I was making this card Paul was busy making a cake. I love home made fruit cake and have given up making them as his are far superior to mine. I'll just have to go and do a taste test though, he's a bit out of practice and might have lost his touch. Yeah right!!!!!!!!!

MSE Mother's Day Challenge

Over at MSE the lovely Jailhousebabe set a challenge for a Mother's Day Card. Unfortunately both of the elderly mothers who receive mine don't appreciate hand made cards and I know they end up in the bin along with whatever else they've received for whatever occasion. This makes it difficult for me to want to make too much of an effort and use too much of my lovely stash which could go to a more appreciative recipient! Also, M-I-L is so very traditional and just doesn't "get" anything remotely modern, so with all this in mind this is my entry and it will go to my mother who is a bit more with it!

5" square card covered with some blue and white decorative paper. Core'dinations whitewash card run through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder and some dark blue ribbon wrapped round, embellished with a couple of buttons and some fibre I had in my stash. The flower is from an old stamp but I've only used part of the image, stamped with Stazon and watercoloured and matted onto some co-ordinating Gemstones cardstock. The sentiment was printed on the computer, cut with Nesties and layered onto the same Gemstones card.

Inside the card

I've spent the weekend tidying up the loft bedroom and putting my craft stuff away so that Deborah, Jessica and Jack can come and stay for a couple of days during half term. So, no real card making done but I did have to finish the inside of Deborah's card.


I copied one of the 8" x 8" papers in the Pepper & Friends pack and printed a message onto it. I printed off a recent photograph of Deborah and cut out the head and shoulders using one of the Nesties circles and stuck that in the flowery circle on the paper. I trimmed the page to fit and stuck it down on the inside of the card.

I hope it will live up to her expectations of a special card. I'm pleased with it and even though it wont be her birthday during her visit I'm hoping she'll open her Survival Kit as it would be nice to see her reaction to that.

It's not pink!

With Deborah's birthday fast approaching, panic set in and I had to get organised and sort her card out. She asked for a "special" card as it's her 40th - possibly hoping for a Bookatrix. With everything that's been going on with Mom being so ill my head's not been in the right place and I couldn't think what to do with a Bookatrix card. So I thought about making one of those cards that's like a book and do photos from when she was a baby plus other landmark events throughout her life, but again after sifting through and finding the right photos I just couldn't bring it all together.

So, as she's quite into cute I decided to use the Pepper & Friends papers that Angie gave me and try to make something extra special from that. It had to be bigger than normal so I cut down some A3 cardstock and was lucky enough to have an envelope that would take an 8" x 8" card, so that was a start - perfect for the 8" x 8" Pepper backing paper. So this is what I came up with:


I covered the card with a sheet of glittery butterfly paper, then cut a piece of the co-ordinating stripey sort of paper which I put onto purple Core'dinations Gemstones card and matted that across the front. From the sheet of large images I cut out the cat which I mounted onto a green mat then a purple mat from the Gemstones card. I punched a hole and titivated this label with some gingham ribbon. Then from the sheet of small images I cut out the matching cat and matted it onto the same purple Gemstones card, trimmed the sides with matching gingham ribbon and put a purple bling stone in the corner. I printed the sentiment on the computer and that's also matted onto the purple card. The label is slotted into a secret pocket behind the stripey layer so that it doesn't disappear completely behind.

And it's NOT PINK!

Phew, I'm glad I've got that done and dusted now. I have seven more birthday cards to get organised in the next two months for family and a Ruby Wedding card for my friends but I've got plenty of time to get those sorted. I've got two baby girl birthdays coming up and I have a feeling it might be back to pink.................

Deborah's Anniversary

Deborah & Dave's anniversary and Ann's birthday fall on the same day later this week so I've had to knuckle down and finish their cards.


For Ann I'm sending the Pepper & Friends card I made recently but I thought there was something missing. I put some more card candy in the bottom right hand corner and I cut out a glittery butterfly from the matching paper I had and 3D'd the top butterfly. I think the card looks better for this.



For Deborah and Dave I stamped one of the rabbits from the Candyfloss & Marshmallow set I recently bought and mounted it onto a scalloped circle of Core'dinations Gemstones card. The mat behind is Core'dinations Whitewash in the same colourway, put through the Cuttlebug with the Daisy Pattern folder then sanded. The hearts backing paper is out of a wedding set of 12" x 12" paper I've had for years but never used. I printed the sentiment on the computer, mounted it onto the same Gemstones card and finished it off with a little pink heart button I found in my stash. A bit of card candy in the corners and I'm quite satisfied with it.

I've just realised - pink again! I really must start using other colours, that will be my next challenge to myself but I think it's going to be hard!

Deborah's 40th Survival Kit

It seems ages since I had anything to blog about, I sort of put everything on hold while Mom's been so poorly, so the last couple of days I've been doing a bit of catching up. Ironing - well, yes, two weeks' worth needed to be done so I got that out of the way this morning then it was back to getting organised with some cards, etc.

Daughter Deborah has a wedding anniverysary next week so I'm about half way through that card, my friend Ann has a birthday on the same day but there are a few suitable ones in my box so no mad rush to make another one. I'm also half way through Deborah's 40th birthday card. Today, after thinking about it for weeks and collecting the bits and pieces, I made her 40th Birthday Survival Kit. Paul covered the box for me while I printed the labels. Thanks to Rusty from MSE for the idea, also CT and Thriftyscotslass who gave me suggestions for items to include. Also thanks to Karen who sent me a lovely post-it note holder with some marbles (for the kit) and I was so taken with it I wanted to include one in Deborah's kit.


Included in the kit:

Tummy tuck and bum lift pants (£4 bargain from The Factory Shop); Paracetamol; Rubber band; Matchsticks; Emergency penny; Reading glasses; Polyfilla; Toothpaste; Marbles; Paperclip;
Notepad and pen; Little Book of Big Days to Remember (free download courtesy of Cuddly Buddly); Sponge.

I still need Energy pills (Smarties??) and will get those tomorrow.

I did make another card for Mom seeing as I can't get to visit her but in my rush to get it in the post I forgot to take a photo.

This is the sheet I made it from, which was a free download from Cards2Craft. It was a bit of a challenge cutting around the letters, I'm not great with scissors, but I made a pretty reasonable job of them. Once the card was assembled I punched two holes at the left hand edge and threaded narrow pink ribbon through and tied it in a knot. I was really pleased with the end result, it made an unusual and pretty card which I think Mom will like.

Old Skool Stash Blog Hop

Reveal day has arrived. Lovely Kate at Liberty Cottage organised a fun blog hop, for scrappers or cardmakers, and we were challenged to use old stash purchased before 2007. Well, seeing as I've been off the cardmaking scene for a couple of years and only started again in December (just in time for Christmas) then virtually everything I have fits into this category.

I had a lot of fun going through what seems like an enormous amount of stash which had been abandoned in my cupboard for so long. I rediscovered stamps, papers, ribbons, eyelets, stencils, lace templates, decoupage papers, a couple of Glitter Girls embossing boards, boxes of card blanks plus lots of card, vellum, peel-off stickers, etc.

Here is what I eventually decided to do:













A 5" x 7" card blank has been covered with a sheet of paper from a writing pad bought on a holiday in 2006, bought with card making rather than letter writing in mind. The Penny Black stamp I've probably had for about five years and the sentiment stamp was bought at the same time as I thought it went perfectly with it. The check backing paper behind the stamp is from a 12" x 12" book of scrapbook papers I bought from the QVC outlet shop and the purple card for the mat from a card stock pack I bought from QVC again about five years ago. The ribbon and lace were bought locally when I made my first Bookatrix baby congrats card in 2006.

Next up is http://sh3ri3-mybubble.blogspot.com/

and here is everyone who joined in
http://libertycottage.blogspot.com
http://kscraftycorner.blogspot.com/
http://capturethememories.blogspot.com/
http://chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.com/
http://dropletsinarustybucket.blogspot.com/
http://itsnotterrysitschoccys.blogspot.com/
http://susanscards.blogspot.com/
http://sh3ri3-mybubble.blogspot.com/
http://clearingthebrambles.blogspot.com/
http://www.itsjennytime.blogspot.com/
http://ispeakmelsh.blogspot.com/
http://www.xnomads.typepad.com/blog/
http://scraphappens-dawn.blogspot.com/

Happy blog hopping!

A couple of new cards

I haven't been able to do much cardmaking for one reason or another the last few days but on Monday I needed to send a condolence card to some dear friends, his father had died aged 101. Knowing I had a couple of white cards from when I was experimenting with the partial embossing, I used one of these and kept it plain and simple with just a touch of black and no verse as I didn't know the father. Condolence cards are always difficult but I think this does the job.


My friend Angie came for a visit yesterday and brought with her a set of these Pepper and Friends 8" x 8" papers she'd bought on a recent trip away. There are some really pretty papers, some glittered, and she kindly gave me one of each (12 altogether) and said that I should make a card from them for when I next see her.


This is what I came up with. I used one of the scrapbook pages (I think that's what they are) to cover a square card, the one with the bird table but I didn't use that bit, I just wanted the butterflies. I cut the cat image from the centre of the multi-image page and mounted it onto a mat cut from pearlescent card with one of the Nellie Snellen dies. Prima flowers with brads for centres and some card candy finished it off. Maybe it's a bit plain, I'm not sure, but I like it. Perhaps some card candy in the bottom right corner? I think I'll see if I can find a matching butterfly so that I can 3D one of them.

Cutting the image out of the centre of the page like that doesn't leave much of a margin around the other images, I'll have to give some thought to how I will cut around them when I come to use them.

Nellie's Multiframe Dies

Ooooooh....... jumps up and down with excitement........... I did it!

I've spent the last two days playing with my birthday present from daughter Deborah, two sets of Nellie Snellen Multiframe Dies. I was a bit stumped to start with and needed to ask lots of questions, I was terrified of breaking my Cuttlebug and even managed to turn my B plate into something resembling a banana, but I got there in the end.

Of course, my dies didn't have the foam all over them that is shown on Nellie's site so that started off the confusion. There was foam in the little decorative cut out bits so I needed to find out if those needed to be removed - the answer is No! So after trying to use them all joined together (OK, probably would never use them like this but I'm a very curious person so I needed to try it), I eventually conceded defeat and cut the layers apart with my craft knife. That made all the difference, and after working out the sandwich I'm glad to say I eventually succeeded in getting the dies to cut through pearlescent card.


This is some of what I've done today. I still have to play around and try making some of the larger rectangular frames. I can also see whether my circle Nesties can be combined in any way, hopefully they're the right size to layer up with the Nellies.


So while I was having some "me" time I finished off grandson Jack's card which has been half finished for a week, I was waiting for the little label that's part of the Nellie's rectangular frame set. My scans always show things lighter than they are in real life and this one shows a little wobble with the ribbon - oh well, pobody's nerfect!!!!!!! All the papers were printed from the free CD rom that came with the current copy of Creativity magazine.


Now I've got this one out of the way I can concentrate on a special card for Deborah's 40th, it's a good job I've got a month to do it as I think it will take a while!

First attempt at Ikki's partial embossing technique

Today I've had another attempt at Ikki's partial embossing technique using the Cuttlebug Stylized Flower folder. I don't have any other folders suitable for this technique so I followed her tutorial and finished my card with a couple of Nesties circles. Hopefully she wont mind me showing my version on here.

I made two MFPs (modifying folder pads) following Ikki's instructions. Now I've used this smaller one a few times I think the layers of card have got a bit squashed so the embossing is not quite as deep as it should be so doesn't show up all that well on the photo. I'll add another layer of card tomorrow to see if it gives deeper embossing without breaking the Cuttlebug! I think I made a mistake in using some card from a box, thinking it was thin enough but not realising that it had a layer of corrugated stuff in the middle which has probably got squashed a bit in the embossing process. Lesson learned for any future MFPs!


I've used an A6 smooth card here rather than a textured card. While I was playing with different textures of card I think this one gave the best impression, no wonder my MFP is a bit squashed with all the playing I did! This card uses the embossing folder with the smaller of the two MFPs, turning the folder 90 degrees for the top impression. As it didn't seem possible to get the impression to emboss right on the bottom edge of the card I've finished it off with two score lines.

While trimming the layers of card I managed to slice into my finger with my craft knife, and of course I'd put a new blade in today hadn't I?!!!! So rather than get blood all over everything I decided to leave it for today. Tomorrow I shall try using the larger of the MFPs. This is the second attempt at photographing this card, the original one taken in electric light with flash wasn't particularly good so this one was taken in daylight and shows the embossing much better.

I can take photos again!

It's only been a few days since we sent for a replacement camera for the one I dropped (oops!) but it seems ages since I've been able to take a photograph. Well actually, I'm letting Paul do that at the moment. For a start he takes better photos than me, and I don't want to break another one, let him do it!!!!!!!

So this is a card I made a few days ago.


I've used a 5" X 7" raspberry pearlescent card blank and the scalloped circles are the same. The mat is Core'dinations Whitewash which has been embossed partly with Swiss Dots and partly with Stylized Flower and sanded, wrapped with some pink satin ribon with a sort of bow, just a knot really, plus some other pink ribbon with spots. The stamp is actually a Forever Friends Christmas one but by using different colours is suitable for other occasions I think. Two sizes of circles/scalloped circles cut with my Nesties.

I can't remember where I discovered how to do this embossing with two folders on one piece of card, I look at so many sites to try and learn more and challenge myself. If it was Ikki's then I'm blowed if I can find it again, but she is so clever and comes up with some fantastic ideas that it's a blog I'll be visiting regularly. You can see Ikki's work here. I'm already working on her partial embossing by making an MFP (modifying folder pad) and hope to crack it completely over the weekend. I haven't had a lot of time to play this last couple of days, I made a start earlier in the week and will get back to it then hopefully post a picture of the card I make.

Senior moment and a naughty card!

Well, that's my excuse! Over at MSE someone asked about instructions for tea bag cards. Well, seeing as I'd gone through a tea bag folding phase a few years ago I sprung to action posting links to sites with tutorials for making tea bag medallions and also for printing off tea bag tiles. It wasn't until another forum member posted that the penny dropped. Not tea bag folding but a card to hold a tea bag!

Is tea bag folding still popular? I've no idea, haven't seen any for ages. So off I went to my photo file to find a picture of a card with an example of tea bag folding, I did quite a few so surely I had a picture somewhere. No - can't find one, that's strange. So for anyone who has never heard of it and is wondering what I'm on about, these are tea bag cards, as in tea bag medallion. They're not cards that I made, they're from the gallery on Ruby's site.









These particular examples aren't from the CDs I bought but there are loads more that can be seen in Ruby's card gallery here (Ruby produces the CDs).

Right, stop wittering Susan and get to the next bit.

So, as I was searching through all my cards I came across this one:

A bit plain but this was done a few years ago before background papers became so popular. It's a freebie decoupage that I downloaded. When I used to sell cards (when we had the restaurant there were always some on show and I'd sell quite a few) this one was particularly popular for young, and not so young, ladies to give to their female friends. I think it's a hoot!

Enough of the old stuff, the new camera's arrived, Paul's had a play and is getting on OK with it. I'll try taking a photo of my latest creation tomorrow but I'll make sure I use the wrist strap from now on, we really can't be doing with another expensive accident!