Wedding Anniversary

This is a 20th Wedding Anniversary card that I made for my sister and brother-in-law.  I often overlook using embossing folders and die-cuts for cards at the moment but thought the Nellie Snellen heart-shaped dies I have would be perfect for this.  The background is a Cuttlebug 'Swirls' embossing folder. The numbers are from an old Basic Grey numbers and alphabet sheet - they weren't quite the right colour so I heat embossed with some Versamark pigment ink and shimmer embossing powder (not used that for ages!) to get them how I wanted.  Finished with some coordinating ribbon and a sentiment just printed from Word.

Thanks for looking! Gem xx

'Sweet' Sixteen

So my nephew turned 16 last week - how am I an Auntie to a sixteen year old?!

I made him a simple monochrome card, in 'fold back' (not sure if that is the right term) style.  I printed a large outlined 1 and 6 from Publisher along with the sentiments and used a black and white polka dot paper on the inside.  I mounted the numbers on some embossed dots card and finioshed the card off with some Craftwork Cards Card Candi:

Thanks for looking, Gem xxx

Cards for Mums

Once again my house is being hacked to pieces (out of choice this time, new windows) so I thought I would update the blog as I can't get in my craft room at the moment.  Although I have generally been good at remembering to take photos of cards I have made so far this year, as usual I can't say the same for remembering to blog. Hopefully, as I am off work til Friday this week I will try to get some of the cards I have made uploaded....

I thought I would start with four 'Cards for Mums' - these are the cards I made for mine and my boyfriends Mum in Jan / Feb and the Mother's Day cards I made for each of them in March,

Pop-up box card using Craftwork Cards flowers

Stepper card using a printed image from Digistamp Boutique, coloured with Promarkers

Foldback Mother's Day card with another Digistamp Boutique image, coloured with Promarkers

Mother's Day easel card with another Digistamp Boutique image (I bought quite a few of their floral images earlier in the year - they're perfect for mum cards!), coloured with Promarkers

Thanks for stopping by, Gem xxx

Christmas cards - part 3

And the final ones, while I'm on a roll......these are small cards that I used mainly for friends at work,  They are two sets of digistamps from Digistamp Boutique: Festive Flamingos and Festive Foxes; all coloured in with ProMarkers. It was easier to photo these in batches:

Festive Flamingos:




Festive Foxes

Christmas cards - part 2

And here's the second batch - more Craftwork Cards 'Festive Chalkboard' collection, with various card shapes:

Pop-up Box






Tri-folds










Stepper cards

Christmas cards.....part 1

So, on a cold January afternoon, what better to do while your house is being hacked up by a plumber than update my blog, after all it's only been 4 months since my last post......And to start the new year (I think I can still say that) - Christmas cards. I did intend to do this just after Christmas, got pictures uploaded, cropped and ready to go, but just didn't get round to it...

I originally intended to put all of the cards on one post but thought that would be a bit picture heavy (although it probably still will be), so am now going to try and split them into three. Most of my cards this year were made with the Craftwork Cards 'Festive Chalkboard' collection so I am going to do a post of 'normal' cards made using these, ie square and A6, and one of different shaped cards, ie steppers, pop-ups and tri-folds. I also did some smaller cards using digistamps from Digistamp Boutique - Festive Flamingoes and Festive Foxes which I will post on a third post.  So first of all, the 'normal' Festive Chalkboard ones:

Pink Floral Pop-up Box Card

I'm probably a bit late to the party with Pop-up Box cards but I got some blanks from the Summer Crafting show in Doncaster in July and finally got round to having a play with them a couple of weeks ago. This is the first one I did, decorated with Craftwork Cards papers, flowers and sentiments - definitely one for a fan of all things pink!!





 I'm currently working on my next box card for my Dad's birthday, pics to follow soon!

Thanks for looking,  Gem xx

Cake-themed Stepper Cards

I made a couple of cake-themed stepper cards last week using cake toppers and coordinating bits from Craftwork Cards - haven't made any cards in this style for a while and bought some blanks the other day - I'm planning on experimenting with various different styles tha I haven't used before or for a while.  These cards are planned for my Etsy shop which should finally be open any time soon!
As you can see they are both in lovely pink and matching pastel colours which I love working with at the moment.

This first one is using a three layer cake and is trimmed with some ready-embossed scalloped edging I had along with a couple of flowers and matching sentiment.

This second one is made with cupcake toppers and trimmed with some matching bunting, Card Candi and sentiment.

Have to say it definitely made me hungry for cake making these ones!!

Thanks for looking, Gem xx

Quick Cards

These are the 'quick cards' I have made so far for the MacMillan Coffee Morning I am joint-hosting next month,  I wanted to just make fairly simple cards for this to get as many done as possible, I also thought it was a good opportunity to use up some decoupage that I have had for a while.  The cards are mainly featuring toppers from the Craftwork Cards 'Warren' collection that I have made into decoupage and there are a few using up some Daisy and Dandelion and Onion the Elephant decoupage from DoCrafts. I've done the pictures in batches to save time, I'm hoping to get another batch done in the next week or so!

Thanks for looking, Gem xx

It's been a very long time....

.....almost four and a half years to be exact.  In those four and a half years quite a lot has changed since my last blog post. I'll try and make a long story short.  The main reason I stopped updating my blog initially was that I killed my laptop - spilt a glass of orange juice on it - and never got around to replacing it. The following year (2012) I split up with my fiance, this meant I had to sell my house, which I eventually did the following year (2013).  During this time I was still card making (when my craft room wasn't all boxed up) but mainly on a need-to basis for cards to give to friends and family [have to confess that during this time I did actually purchase a couple of cards too - the shame!]. My beloved pet rabbit also died earlier this year at the grand age of nearly 9 - for the last few years he had been living indoors in my craft room and after he passed away I foubd it very hard to go in the room for a couple of months.

Anyway, fast-forward to August  2015 and I am now settled in a new house with a new craft room - I got myself a new desk earlier this year, had a good organise of my stash and am now more full of enthusiasm for card making than I have been probably since I first began about 10 years ago!! Much of my card making is still just to give to friends and family.  However,I am currently building up a stash of cards to sell at a MacMillan Coffee Morning in September (we sold some at the one I did last year with my Mum and sister and they went down really well) and I am also planning on opening an Etsy shop to sell some cards on too - I am not expecting to sell a lot from this and know there is a lot of competition out there but thought I would give it a go as it won't cost anything to get set up etc; I just need to get a few more cards done that I am happy enough with to put on there and get them up - hopefully by the end of the month. I am also intending on keeping my blog updated (heard that before?!) at least on a weekly basis - it has taken me quite a while to jump through all of Google's 'forgotten password' hoops for this account too. I did think about starting a new blog rather than resurrecting this one but there are some cards on my previous posts that I really like, pus the name of this one fits,so I thought I'd keep it going,  I'll probably put another post on soon with some of the cards I have done recently.  And probably a picture of my new desk as I do love it!!

I'm not sure if I've even got any followers anymore but if I have and you read this - thanks!

Right, I'd better go and update my 'about me' now as it still says I'm 29... (I wish)

Gem xxx  

Valentine

So I haven't been updating my blog as lately as I said I would recently..... but this is due to a combination of not making that many cards and forgetting to take photos of a couple that I have made - last minute ones that got put in an envelope before I realised I hadn't taken a picture, lol!
Anyway I do have a couple of cards to upload, including this one which was my Valentine card for my fiance:

Tilda with Hearts image, coloured with ProMarkers; some quite old Papermania Valentine papers for the backgrounds. The die-cut hearts are Nellie-Snellen. The paper roses are also coloured with PM's. Embellishments are stick-on pearls and Card Candy. Finally, the large sentiment is a combination of a circular sentiment that the lovely Redrottie from DoCrafts forum provided and a Cuddly Buddly sentiment in the middle, the smaller sentiment is just a Cuddly Buddly one.

Thanks for looking

Gem xxx

Sailing Again

Another of the male cards I have to do for January - 3 down 1 to go!! This one is another card I made with the Magnolia 'Sea Background' from the BonVoyage Collection - a bit similar to the card I made last year with this image......

Image Coloured with ProMarkers

Mounted on a Scalloped Circle Nestie

Background is Cuttlebug Swiss Dots

A couple of Card Candy Embellishments at the Bottom

Sentiment is a Die-Cut Tag with Stamped Greeting

Thanks for looking

Gem xxx