30th Wedding Anniversary

Today is our 30th Wedding Anniversary - I just cannot believe that so much time has passed. Kev has arranged for a gorgeous bouquet of Red & Pink Roses to be delivered to our house this morning.

I have made him this card, using the Flippin Men decoupage image, mounted onto an aperture card but with a slight twist as I made it into a shaker card.

Kev asked me for a card for a friend at work who is in hospital at the moment. This was an easy card to make as he is mad on steam trains.

The image is from a range of Mega Decoupage which I was lucky to work on for Ideal World last year, making samples for one of their live shows.

Card for my Mother-in-Law for Mother's Day

This card continues the trend of beading and embroidery. The Rose image is from a Joanna Sheen cd-rom which I love.

Lovely weather again on a Sunday - miraculous - made the trip to Exeter Livestock Market & Car Boot Sale. Despite the 5am start - in the dark as the clocks had changed and the cold, the sun soon came out and it did warm up a tad. So pleased to sell 95 cards this week , together with a Create & Craft Trolley and two Create & Craft Tote bags which had been cluttering up my craft room. I also sold a brand new pack of six Paper (Jolly) Nation rubber stamps which I did not need.

I made a stationery set from my new Flower Fairies cd-rom from Crafter Companion and sold that to the first lady that visited my stall. She is addicted to them and collects all the china and has now bought nearly 30 cards from me.

Kev spent most of Saturday night rigging up a frame to hang a banner on, cut with my Cricut machine - so thanks Kev - it worked a treat.

My first outing of the year to sell my cards and I decided as the weather was so good on Sunday last to travel the 30 miles or so to Exeter Livestock Market and set up a stall there. Got off to a flying start and sold 20 plus cards before 8am. By the end of the morning I had sold 110 cards as well as some junk brought from home.
I am so pleased with this as this was a brand new venue for me and I was a bit unsure how it would go.
Being Mother's day I did sell at least 20 cards to lads, I made a conscious effort not to make Mother's Day cards as such, but when asked for them offered the box of blank cards and stuck a 'Happy Mother's Day' peel off on for them. That way I do not get left with loads of cards no use until next year.
Lots of ladies asked if I would be there next Sunday, but looking at the weather forecast my trip south looks in doubt. I will go again, roll on the next fine weekend.

Taking inspiration from Joanna's new book, I made a version of the bookmark card. Using the Apple Blossom images and bookmark from the beautiful Jayne Netley Mayhew CD-Rom. I also received my Frosty Dazzle Versamark pad from Joanna this morning so used it on the small apple blossom image. It gives a softer effect than a regular Versamark pad with a subtle frosty effect, truly gorgeous. The butterflies have acetate wings which flutter in the breeze. Not many people receive a tassel from me only the very special people in my life so it goes without saying my mum is one of those people. This card will be winging it's way to Spain tomorrow, as she lives far away.

A card for a special order for a baby's Christening. Made from images and backing papers from Joanna Sheens Victorian Companion cd-rom. I also use K&Co paper lace as an accent.

This card is made from an 8" blank which I inked with Brilliance Pearl inks in a variety of colours. The background papers and frame are from My Craft Studio - World of Watercolour cd-rom. The fairy image is a matchit - from Christine Bell (Princess Pinflair). Matchits are peel offs that you place over a matching picture which gives more depth to the image. This I have matted onto handmade paper using my Nestibilities dies.

I added gems and a trio of embroidered butterflies for good measure.

Hope you like, this is for a friend of mine's special birthday in a week or so.

Just a quick note to say a big thank you to Leann Chivers, for picking me to win her blog candy. This was the first time I had ever attempted to link blogs and comment so I am amazed to be the lucky winner.
Take a look at her blog, which is gorgeous, and if you like Flower Fairies then even better because she designs for Crafters Companion and did a lot of work on the new world launch of the Flower Fairies CD Rom which premiered on Ideal World over the weekend.
I bought my copy on Friday as I just love them and I always sell every card made with a fairy theme, they just are so popular.

A Spring Flower Envelope Card

I took inspiration from Joanna Sheen's new book with this card as I happened to have the cd from which the designs were taken. Tried out a brand new technique today of foiling and it worked a treat. I am so impressed with the results and amazed at how easy it is. First I printed out the words I needed from my computer just using a Word application. I then used a Quickie Glue pen as advised in the foiling instructions and traced the words onto vellum . The important thing is to leave this to dry for about 20 minutes then just place the foil (shiny side up)over the gluey words and rub lightly. Gently lift the foil away to leave the wording beautifully shiny.

This is definately one thing I will be doing again.

This card will be winging its way to one of the ladies on the Joanna Sheen forum for this month's card swap.

My First Huge Card

This is an A4 sized card made at the request of hubby Kev for a mate of his at work who is leaving this Friday. So Kev looks up late last night and says - "You couldn't do me a card for Bob could you?" Normally I hate cardmaking after dark but I came up with this one courtesy of My Craft Studio - Mens cd. It is not decoupaged just matted and layered for quickness.