1st June 2014....Our Ruby Wedding Party! All hand crafted, I have been die cutting and baking for what feels like months! I so enjoyed the preparation and the day itself was beyond our wildest dreams. These pics are just for starters, but I will write more about it later.

Chocolate Baroque Guest Spot

I was delighted to be asked to make some cards for Chocolate Baroque, and I chose the wonderful 'Something Fishy' stamp set. This was because my little granddaughter had been given some goldfish for her birthday, and the whole family was getting a great deal of pleasure watching them swim around in their little tank. I wanted to capture the watery feel of their new 'home, so chose to make a background with spray inks, and stamped and embossed fish into the background in gold and silver. I stamped the seaweed onto parchment paper, so that you could still see through them, as the fish swam around.

I stamped the fish onto white card and cut each one out, after colouring them in with Promarkers, and after affixing them in place, I covered them with Glossy Accents, which really made the orange glow!

I like to work with a 'masterboard', which means covering a whole sheet of paper, and then cutting it up to see how many cards I can make. As you can see, from just one sheet of A4 design, I have made a lovely collection of cards and even a book mark. The way you mount each individual part of the picture can completyely change the way it looks.

Child's birthday

Set of cards

More Christmas cards!

I made these for my grandchildren, and really should have taken a photo of them all together, but I forgot! I managed to get a pic of these two though. Very simple to make, with various dies. I put glitter glue on the beards, and if you lift the beard up, the greeting is underneath.

Not cards...shoes!!

Amelie wanted to make some shoes for her new doll, so I racked my brains and found a pattern on Pinterest, but this was for polymer clay shoes! So we resized it, and cut these out of felt. We were delighted how well they turned out! I made the sole out of cardboard, covered it both sides with felt, then made holes with my punch and put in copper grommets. We had a little help from Ian when we couldn't work out how to fit the front in, and he managed it with the glue gun. I think they are quite lovely!

Christmas Card

I made loads of Christmas cards this year, and forgot to take a photo of any of them! Except this one that I made for Mike. I rubbed the inside of an embossing folder with a clear embossing pad  before running the card through. Then I white embossed the image, and matted it onto green card. The background was simply made of tiny Christmas themed stamps.

Happy Birthday Bro!

This card was made for my brother, who turned 50 in December, and also became a Granddad for the very first time! Congratulations Phil!

Telephone

Some simply lovely Sissix dies were used  for a friendly informal greeting card

Hello

Twins!

These two cards were made for seven year old twins. I wanted them to be the same, but different, so went for the same papers in a different order! I decoupaged a Crafty Individuals stamp, and coloured them in using Distress stamps. I use these a lot for colouring in now, rather than marker pens. I simply rub the stamp pad on a craft mat, then pick up colour with a water brush.

Art Journey Stamp

Julie Nutting Stamp

I had a go at making a 3D box card.The front was made from brown card, which was covered with Versamark, and put through a Cuttlebug folder. I then embossed it with clear embossing powder, giving a lovely leather effect. The heart was triple embossed with clear embossing powder, and then stamped into with a music stamp whilst still hot. The wings were embossed with gold powder. The brackets were distressed to give an aged worn look. The cover then fixed with a small Velcro tab.
Inside the card, I built up layers with different size dies.

Funny!

This card gave us all a giggle! Decoupage with die-cut window, which when opened shows the back side of picture!

Chocolate Baroque Iris stamp

 I have discovered masking tissue from Chocolate Baroque! It is a tissue paper backed with sticky paper, which you stamp on and cut out. You can cut out incredibly intricate stamped images without it tearing. So these cards were stamped first, and then the masks applied. I then sponged Distress Inks over the top, and also added interest with stencils and paint.When the ink had dried, I peeled off the tissue tape to reveal lovely sharp white images!
 I made eight different cards for each set, and matted them onto coloured card. With four images turned face down, I joined them together with washi tape, before adding the remaining four images stuck together with double sided tape.

Dragonfly

Using an old free stamp from Craft Stamper, I used Versamark then embossed the dragonflies in white.I then sponged Distress Inks over the top.
I die cut a large stamp shape, and stamped the dragonfly in black, then matted onto pink, then black card.

Bleached Out

The background was made with Distress inks, then overstamped with a text stamp dipped in bleach. I then masked off a circle, and bleached this area, too. I then stamped into the gap with a lovely Art Journey stamp.Quite a strange ghostly effect! I quite enjoy using bleach on my cards, but a warning! Always work in a well ventilated area, and protect any surfaces and clothes from bleach splashes.

Fun with Sprays

I masked off a strip of white card after printing the greeting on my PC, then sprayed it with blue, pink and gold spray. I then stamped over this with Indigo Blue stamps. I  added a few gems, and matted onto black card.

The Little Haberdashery Store

I found a lovely strong box, and wondered what I could do with it, then remembered that I had some fascinating stamps by Crafty Individuals, and thought I would make a little shop window. I stamped the store sign into polymer clay, baked it, and hung it from a silver chain.
Then I started to dress up the box. I dug out some beautiful fabric beads and little bottles. I then cut up some fabric to make a mini 'fat quarter', and the rest I wrapped round lolly sticks to make fabric bundles.
The fun bit was knitting a tiny sample, and slipping it onto cocktail stick knitting needles. A few stamped images,lace, transfers and buttons and my shop was complete. It took hours and hours, but it was fun to make!

Honey Bee

I was thrilled with my new stamps from Chocolate Baroque, especially in the middle of winter! They reminded me of long summer days. A quick spray of Dylusions Pure Sunshine Ink set the background for this card. I then used Wild Honey Distress Ink through a piece of sequin waste, and stamped the honeycomb in black.
Then I mounted a few small stamped images onto hexagon shapes. The flower is matted onto a piece of music tissue. The final touch was glitter glue to the bee's wings.