Baby Love, Baby Girl

I'd like to remind everyone about Emma's Crafty Challenge #19 where the theme this this month is "Floral"

We have had lots of fabulous entries so far, but we want more. This challenge is being sponsored by Crafty Queens and they are offering a crafty bag stuffed with approximately £30 worth of gorgeous goodies. Do pay the shop a visit, they have a wide product range, big brands and great prices.

There seems to be a lot of babies being born at the moment and plenty of lovely inspiration from wonderful crafters. I was asked to make a baby girl card for one of my husband's work colleagues and went straight to one of my all time favourite images for baby girl cards.

I used Kraftyhands striped paper matted onto silver mirri. The butterfly paper is from Josephine Wall's Enchanted Dreams CD and the adorable image is from the now retired Joanna Sheen Baby Love CD. I printed the image twice and decoupaged the baby and the bowl. I cut the doily with a Cheery Lynn die from textured card. The sentiments were made on the computer.

I wrapped lace around a panel made from a Kraftyhands polka dot paper and silver mirri. The "Baby" die is from Marianne and I cut it from textured card.

I made the three pearl stick pins and added them to roses from Wild Orchid Crafts. I finished the card with pearls in the corners and more roses at the top.

For a full set of rules at Emma's crafty Challenge please check the Challenge blog While you're there have a look at the wonderful, inspirational projects from the other design team members. We'd love to see your "Floral" creations but hurry up. You only have until the end of the month to enter.
I'd like to enter this card in the challenge at The Crafting Cafe - A baby is Born.

Enchanted Dreams Embossed Card

Well, another week managed to pass me by. I shan't be around much from this weekend until the end of the month, so, I've been very busy trying to get ahead with my DT  and commission work.
I did find time to make a birthday card for a female relative which happily ties in with the current challenge on Joanna Sheen's challenge blog.

I used Joanna Sheen's Enchanted Dreams CD which features the beautiful artwork of Josephine Wall. There is so much to see in every one of her images and I never tire of looking at them. 

I used a Papermania textured card for the mats. The white embossed layer is Centura pearl and a Sizzix embossing folder. The dark blue panel was created with Core'dination card and a Cuttlebug folder.

This wonderful image is from the Dragons and Unicorns section of the CD. I matted it and mounted it on foam pads for dimension. 

The sentiment was created on the computer and I finished off the card with a small Cheery Lynn leaf flourish and three sapphire coloured gems.

I'd like to enter this card in the Joanna Sheen Challenge "Embossing"

Hopefully I'll be back in a couple of days with another card to show you.

Birthday Boy

I have fallen seriously behind with my blogging and I have a backlog of cards to show. I wanted to post this one as I'm going to take advantage of a challenge that finishes in a few days.

I have made a birthday card for a young boy. He is at that awkward age between teddies and teens and he's not into football. I decided on this lovely digi image from the Joanna Sheen CD Daisy and Friends.

I started with an 8"x 8" card blank. All the backing papers are from the CD and the mats are Kraft card. I wrapped coloured twine around the die-cut panels before fixing to the card. The bunting is cut from another backing paper on the CD and attached with foam pads.

I coloured the image with Promarkers to match the papers and mounted it on foam pads. The sentiment was created on the computer and I finished the card with three small buttons.

I would like to enter this card in:
 Joanna Sheen Challenge "Boys will be Boys"
Creative Crew - Challenge 42 "Banner/Pennant"

Emma's Crafty Challenge #15 Reminder

I'd just like to remind everyone about Emma's Crafty Challenge  this month. It's proving a popular challenge and we're really enjoying seeing all the lovely creations. 

The theme is:

"Butterflies"

Our sponsor for this challenge is Stix2 and they are generously providing a goody bag of their products for the lucky winner. There is a picture of the prize at the bottom of this post.

Both the image and matching paper are from the Joanna Sheen CD Enchanted Dreams which features the amazing artwork from Josephine Wall. I used plain card coloured with Blossom Promarker for the mats. The beige cotton lace is from my stash.

There are several pages of embellishments on the CD and I cut out one of the butterfly sets to add to the topper.

Also on the CD are bookmarks. I took one of the blank sides of the coordinating bookmark and added a verse in MCS.

These are the goodies from Stix2 you could be lucky enough to win.

You have another 7 days in which to enter. Why not pop over to the Challenge blog to see more DT cards for your inspiration.

Mermaid Ocean

Here is another wonderful digi image from Jem's Designs that I was given to work with. Her name is Mermaid Ocean. I love mermaids and was keen to play with this one. I hope you think I've done her justice.

I first inked the edges of an 8"x8" card blank with a blend of Salty Ocean and Shaded Lilac Distress Inks. I had the perfect backing papers for this image, they are both from the Enchanted Dreams CD by Joanna Sheen. I matted them both onto gold mirri card.

I coloured Mermaid Ocean with Promarkers and inked the edges with the same blend of Distress Inks before mounting her on foam pads. The small gold die-cut on her shell headdress is a piece of waste from a Spellbinder die that I thought looked like a crown.

The die -cuts are Marianne shells, starfish and misletoe leaves, but I think they look like seaweed. There is also a small Spellbinders die-cut from a leaf set. I printed an oyster shell with a pearl a few times and decoupaged the image.

I finished by coiling some lengths of wired ribbon and fixed them behind the shells to look like seaweed.
There are more mermaids and other beautiful digi images available on the Jem's Designs website, please pay a visit and see for yourself.

Black and White Birthday

I have made this birthday card with the bonus challenge at Emma's Cards in mind. You can find the challenge here   http://www.emmascardsuk.com/p/sketch-challenge.html
The sponsor for this special challenge is the lovely Audrey from The Lilac Garden and the theme is based on a sketch which you can see further down.

I started by using a poppy digi from one of my MCS discs and tiling it to make the backing paper. I then layered that onto black card and matted them onto the front of an A5 card blank, leaving a thin white border all the way round. I took the image of the lady from Joanna Sheen's Dancing With Shadows CD and digitally cropped her into an oval,  then gave her a black border, again in MCS. I also created the sentiment at the same time.
I made the center strip by layering black card onto silver mirri card and wrapping some lace around it. I then fixed it to the card before mounting the oval image on foam pads and placing on the card.
I hand cut the number 30 twice, once from black card and again from silver mirri then mounted the silver 30, slightly off-set, onto the black one for dimension.
The embellishments include a Memory Box scroll and a couple of Crealies scrolls die cut from silver mirri, some Foundation flowers, coloured with Promarkers and some black fluffy feathers. I added Candi to the flower centers and a few Cosmic Shimmer pearls for the finishing touches.
This is the sketch:

New Home

Today I will show the 1st of two New Home cards I made recently. This one was for the adults and the frogs have a personal meaning for the recipient. I just couldn't resist the corny humour to go with them.

I started, as usual, with an 8"x8" blank and distressed the edges to match the colours in the card. The frogs are from the Jane Netley Mayhew Collection part 2 CD,  available from Joanna Sheen. The backing paper is from the Baby Love CD (no longer available) which I thought went perfectly. I took the frogs into MCS to position them together and create the border around them. I created the captions and sentiment at the same time.
I used foam tape to raise the middle of the captions and sentiment, everything else was kept flat. A Marianne die, some uncoloured flowers and Candi which I coloured yellow to finish it off. The flowers look a bit too much like fried eggs in the photo, I was aiming for them to match the lilies on the backing paper. Oh well...
Next time I'll show the other New Home card I made.

Red and Black Girl

I wanted to try colouring black hair on this girl as I thought it would suit her and I thought a vibrantly coloured dress was in order, hence the red. She is called Niecey and she's from the Joanna Sheen cd Daisy and Friends.

This was a very easy card to make, I coloured the image with Promarkers and did the same with the flowers and Candi. I matted the vintage writing paper onto an 8"x8" card blank and layered up a couple of swatches from Papermania Portobello Road paper pack. Spellbinders and a Memory Box die to finish. I was quite pleased with the way the whole card came together.

Another Anniversary

This is a card I made for some good friends for their wedding anniversary last week. I wanted a vintage feel and thought this image was perfect.

The image is from Joanna Sheen's Fashion Boutique cd. I printed it out twice and matted both onto a Kanban shimmery gold card. I covered an 8"x8" card blank with the same card and also used it to cut two scrolls using a Memory Box die. I designed the backing paper in MCS and Distress inked the edges, then used a LaBlanche music stamp on pink card and the ribbon. I fashioned the roses from die cut flower layers.

Sibling rivalry

To avoid any sibling rivalry between my beautiful daughters I thought I'd better post a photo of a Congratulations card I made for my older one. We, as parents, are very proud of this daughter too. She graduated from Chichester University last year after gaining her History degree. This is the card I made for her.

Every element of this card came from Joanna Sheen. The image and backing paper are from a Joanna Sheen CD called Furry Friends. The mortar board is from a different image on the same CD, which I printed separately, using MCS, and decoupaged. The sentiment was also created using MCS. Every thing was matted and layered onto silver mirri board and mounted onto an 8" x 8" scalloped blank. Dotty ribbon and Card Candi to finish. A simple but elegant card.