Sunday 13 July 2014

Lady Folk Birthday and Anniversary for a Friend

One of my friends celebrates her birthday and anniversary on the first and second of July so I continued using the Lady Folk Nitwit's Collection to make cards for each celebration.  The birthday card was cased from the one in the previous post using the Just For U stamp from Woodware.  Flat backed pearls in the centre of the flowers instead of beaded flowers was the only change made to the card.




On the inside the insert was decorated with one on the elements from the collection.


For the anniversary card the backing layers used were the same as those used for the Pearl Wedding Anniversary cards I made recently and the heart topper was replaced with layered oval die cuts using Spellbinders plain, scalloped and floral oval dies with a verse printed on the top layer.


Heart die cuts with self adhesive pearl heart embellishments from Hobby House along with the couple's initials were added to personalise the card.


The two cards together.


Thanks for reading today
Liz xxx

Wednesday 9 July 2014

Lady Folk and Just For U Combo

Recently I was asked to make cards for two Aunts who were to become 101 and 104 and for the 101st birthday I went back to the Just for U stamp and layout using papers from the Nitwit Collection Lady Folk.


Plain card in toning colours were chosen for the backing layers and the flower embellishments.  The Nitwit Collections are ideal to use with all their matching papers in colour and design.

The flower embellishments were made using a mixture of Marianne ribbon dies, layered flower dies and stitching dies with gold beaded flower embellishments added to their centres.  The little flowers were punched and double layered using the X-cut small flower punch and have crystal dot peel off centres.



The Just for U was stamped and embossed on to one of the subtle patterned backing papers using VersaMark ink and Disco Black embossing powder from Stampendous.  It was then stamped and embossed on to two of the bolder patterned papers from the collection.  Alternate letters were cut from each patterned paper design and paper pieced on to the main topper.  The topper was then dry embossed using the Cuttlebug Falling Snow embossing folder.  This welds the paper piecing to the card and adds texture which I hope you can see in the picture.  A stitched border was added before the topper was framed and layered using square Grand Nestabilities dies.



Although there was no reference to the age of the Aunt on the outside of the card one of the elements from the Lady Folk Collection was resized using My Craft Studio and had the age added to it to make up the insert for the card.

 
Hopefully this lady had a great day on reaching this milestone age.
Thanks for reading today
Liz xxx

Monday 7 July 2014

Double Pearl Celebrations

Two crafting friends and their husbands, Rhona and Susan, celebrated their Pearl Anniversary recently and these are the cards I made for them using the Nitwit Collection Lady Folk along with the Marianne Anja Filigree Heart die set.  The first card was for Rhona and Alistair.


Patterned papers and elements from the Lady Folk Collection were resized and flipped using the My Craft Studio programme to build up the backing layer and personalise it with their initials.


Along with cutting out the heart die layers extra layers of the solid heart shapes were cut to add behind the open hearts to build up the topper and add colour contrast.  Lots of self adhesive pearls in different sizes were added to the heart topper.



A stitched border was added to the printed backing to add an extra frame and added to the corners of the stitching were paper roses and rose buds in colours to match the patterned papers along with more pearls.  Gold satin ribbon wrapped across the card and added as a bow were also added to the card and this completed Rhona and Alistair's card.

Having saved the layout I only needed to change the initials to print out the backing layer for Susan and George's card.




On the inside of both cards more elements from the Lady Folk Collection were used to decorate the insert and a verse was added over the top with a message printed underneath.


Thanks for reading today
Liz xxx

Saturday 5 July 2014

Last Origami Box

This is the last origami box I made and this one too went to Orkney full of fudge with Alan.  An Auntie had recently had health problems so I sent this one home to her to enjoy whilst she recovered from surgery along with a bought get well card.  I'd intended to make one to match the box but time ran away from me.  I get such a guilty feeling buying a card now when I've got all these card making bits and pieces around me.

To find out how to make this origami box base then follow the following link to find an excellent video tutorial.  http://www.card-making-magic.com/origamiboxtutorial.html.



The base of this box was made from a sheet of 12"x 12" double sided patterned paper from Stampin' up.  The lid and sides of the box were decorated using Marianne stitching dies, layered flower dies and the English Rose die which are my favourite ones at the moment.  The small flowers were punched using an X-cut small flower punch with peel off stickers added to their centres.  A few self adhesive pearls and satin ribbon were the other embellishments.


Dark and light shades of purple card were used for the layers on the lid, the lining layers inside the box and to cover the base of the box.  Nestabilities and the first die from the Grand Nestabilities Labels 1 sets of dies from Spellbinders were used to cut these layers.  The lace edges on the triangle flaps were made using a Stamping up border punch and pearlescent card. Nestabilities circle dies were used to make the holder for the ribbon handle.


Altogether I've made six of these boxes and five of them travelled up to Orkney with Alan on his visit back in April.  I managed to capture a photo of them all together before he left.


Thanks for reading today and enjoy your weekend.  I'm off to catch up with some crafting buddies today to make shaker cards.
Liz xxx

Wednesday 2 July 2014

Happy Elaine

No crafting from me in this post as I thought I'd share another happy picture of Elaine when she invaded my crafting space last Friday.  It was the first day of her holidays and she'd brought out her scrap book and bits and pieces to add another page to her book.


It was a Christmas page she was building up with photos, wrapping paper, a tag and even practice pieces I'd stamped, coloured  and cut out but hadn't used.  


Once she had finished the page she turned it over and the look on her face said it all.  Yes, the book had been upsides down and what was worse was that the other side of the page had a layout on it too.  She decided to pull the pieces off the other page and then the page was cut out, trimmed and attached to the next page in the book.

I think we've all done this at some point and I'm sure that it'll be something she'll check the next time she comes to do a layout.

Elaine and Andy are in Orkney at the moment and on the first day of their holiday she found a Primula scotica plant in full bloom.  She's been trying to find this plant in bloom for some time but on each visit north the flower had yet to bloom or had already bloomed.  This year the timing was just right and here's another happy picture of her with the elusive plant.



Thanks for reading today and I hope to have some more happy photos of her to share soon.
Liz xxx

Monday 30 June 2014

Just For U Elaine

It was our Elaine's birthday back in May and this is the card I made for her.  I'd really liked how the colour combination of the Just For U card I'd made for Brenda, a crafting friend, had turned out so I cased it for Elaine.  Apart from the paper piecing on the letters being different the only other differences are the coloured insert and purple brads.


The patterned papers are from the Nitwit Collections Promises and Snow Princess Solids and plain card in toning colours were chosen for the backing layers and the flower embellishments.  The Nitwit Collections are ideal to use with all their matching papers in colour and design.
The flower embellishments were made using a mixture of Marianne ribbon dies, layered flower dies and stitching dies with Card Candi from Craftwork Cards in their centres.  The little flowers were punched using the X-cut small flower punch and have crystal dot peel off centres.



The Just for U was stamped and embossed on to the Snow Princess patterned paper using VersaMark ink and Disco Black embossing powder from Stampendous.  It was then stamped and embossed on to two of the patterned papers from the Promises Collection.  Alternate letters were cut from each patterned paper design and paper pieced on to the main topper.  The topper was then dry embossed using the Cuttlebug Falling Snow embossing folder.  This welds the paper piecing to the card and adds texture which I hope you can see in the picture.  A stitched border was added before the topper was framed and layered using square Grand Nestabilities dies.


A stitched border was also added to the other two panels on the card and along with the flowers, ribbon , a bow and brads were the extra embellishments.


Elaine's birthday landed on a Sunday this year so she and Andy set off for a weekend stay in Spean Bridge.  One of their aims for the weekend was to photograph the steam train crossing the Glenfinnan Viaduct.  They'd been on the train journey last year but wanted to capture a photo of the train whilst crossing. Three factors were making this aim difficult as Elaine had a sore hip, the weather over the weekend was wet and the train was still following a Monday to Friday timetable.  Monday morning was the only opportunity for the photo shoot.
This is a picture of Elaine during the soggy reconnaissance trip to work out the best viewing point.


This was the result.

 
  Happy birthday girl.


There are more happy photos of Elaine to come next time.  Thanks for reading today.

Friday 27 June 2014

Two Little Boys

Just recently Wilma, one of the ladies in our Tuesday crafting group, became Grandma to twin boys and this is the card I made for her.  At the last craft meetings at Janet's and Carol's both groups have been making pop up boxes and there have been some lovely cards made on birthday, baby and graduation themes.


As well as using lemon and blue card stock patterned papers from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers Blue and papers and elements from the Forever Friends Collector's Edition CDs were used.  Yellow and Blue stitching were added around the layered card and papers to add an extra frame.  The verse on the front was created on the computer and cut and layered using a Spellbinders labels die.


This card was made using a mixture of old and new crafting tools.  The new items used were the Marianne bib on the back of the card and the baby shoe dies used on sides of the box.  To make an extra top layer on the bib I drew around the inside of the die on to white card, cut it out and embossed it with a little hearts embossing folder.  The little bow from this die set is really cute and sponging ink through the die gives the bow more dimension


Marianne ribbon and stitching flower dies were used to make the backing layers for the framed ducky on the side panels.  The circle frame was made using Stampin' up's inch and three quarter inch punches. 


Buttons and bows was the theme for the pop up acetate strips.  The bows were die cuts from the Marianne bib die set and the buttons were cut from glitter card using a Quickutz die.  

The two little baby faces were made with an Eline Pellinkhof brass stencil from The Stencil House.  This was the old item used and one of the first purchases I made from Create and Craft when Alan and Barry were the presenters.  The light box was dusted off and after embossing the first face blue ink was rubbed over the embossing whilst the stencil was still in place.  To make the second face the stencil was turned over to make a mirror image of the first one.  Spellbinders nestabilities star dies were used to die cut and layer them.

 
A message was printed from the computer and attached to the back panel.  The beauty of this style of card is that it fold down flat and the flaps fold up to protect the pop up parts so that it can be safely posted.


Hope you've enjoyed this tour around my first pop up box.  Thanks for reading today.
Liz xxx

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges


Wednesday 25 June 2014

Nitwits Baby Girl

The last post was about Taylor's fifth birthday card but this one is about her baby sister Kendall who arrived on the last day of April to share a birthday month with lots of the family.  She had been due on her brother and Mum's birthday but obviously decided to have a date all to herself.


The layout for Kendall's card was taken from the baby boy card I made for her cousin Joe who arrived earlier this year. Along with shades of pink card stock the patterned papers and images used are from the Nitwit Collections Tickled Pink and Thimbles 'n Threads and were resized using My Craft Studio.   Pink stitching was added around the layered card and patterned papers to add an extra frame.  


Images from the Tickled Pink collection were also used to decorate the panel behind the front of the card.  Spellbinders circle dies and a Stampin' up 1" circle punch were used to frame and layer them.  These cute characters remind me of the Cabbage Patch dolls which were around when Elaine was little.  Satin ribbon, a bow and corners cut using a Quickutz die were added as embellishments.


On the inside a message and verse were printed from the computer and die cut and framed using a Spellbinders Labels 10 die and Nestabilities and Grand Nestabilities circle dies.  The little heart embellishments were cut using Spellbinders plain and scalloped heart dies.  Quickutz dies were used to cut the corner and button embellishments. Pink brads and self adhesive pearls were the added extras.


There were enough bits left over from the card to make a matching tag to add to the parcel.

Here's a picture of Kendall just home from hospital with her big brother Rory and big sister Taylor. 


This one was taken more recently when their Granny visited from Orkney.


Thanks for reading today
Liz xxx 

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
Bunny Zoe's June Challenge - Layers
Card Mania Challenge 49 - Babies
Crafting From The Heart Challenge 24 - Anything Goes
Cutie Pie Challenge 72 - Girls, Girls, Girls
A Gem of a Challenge 122 - For A Child
613 Avenue Create Challenge 77 - Anything Goes with option of using Pink
Crafty Catz Challenge 236 - Stitching