A couple of cards to share

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all well and are enjoying the weekend. Since I last wrote a few wonderful things have happened - my husband and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary and I became a great-auntie for the fourth time! My eldest niece had her third daughter about a week ago and she's called Grace which I think is a beautiful name.

Here is the card I made for Beth and her partner Tom.

I was a little late making this card because my little die cutting machine (Sizzix Side Kick) has been playing up and my full sized machine (Sizzix Big Shot) is pretty much kaput as well so I've been waiting for a replacement machine to arrive from The Works (a review on the machine to follow). This card is a top folding US A2 sized card so 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". For the life of me, I can't remember what paper pack I used for the background paper and envelope - I must be having a senior moment! The pram die, double heart and baby bottle (on the envelope) were die cut out of pink Centura Pearl card stock and I went over the metallic areas with a silver metallic Pro-Marker and the inlaid pieces were coloured with a Lavender Spectrum Noir Shimmer brush marker. I added hot pink flat backed pearls to the wheels of the pram and around the heart (on the latter to hide some glue that had oozed out). The baby girl sentiment was stamped onto white card stock, coloured with Baby Pink and Pale Pink Pro-Markers and then fussy cut out. The stamp set used was a Crafter's Companion Sara's Signature Collection stamp set called Little Angel. They were added to the card front using sticky pads. I added some sheer pink ribbon to the top and layered some crochet trim over it as shown. The matching envelope was made using my WRMK envelope punch board.

My next card is the one I made my husband for our wedding anniversary.

Sorry this photo is on it's side, I wanted to show the star borders that were added later

       I used Forever Friends Opulent A5 Paper Pack for the background paper, I love the combination of the dark blue and warm copper foil. The world stamp came from an unbranded stamp set purchased from eBay and is a brilliant set for masculine or travel themed cards. It comes with the globe stand and a number of different globes showing various areas of the world - I chose the most well known one that features Europe and Africa etc but there are stamps that show the Americas, Asia and Australia and one that I'm afraid I couldn't identify as geography isn't my strong suit. There's also quite a few sentiments and small add on images such as map pins, a paper airplane and hearts perfect for building up the card. I chose the sentiment And i think to myself, what a wonderful world (little i is how it's written on the stamp) as it's one of my husband's favourite songs. I used another unbranded stamp for the There is no greater love than ours sentiment and the Happy Anniversary stamp is one from a Crafter's Companion Love sentiments stamp set. I felt that the inside was lacking somewhat after I took the original photos so added some sparkly gold foam star strips to the edges of the inside to finish it off. Chris absolutely loved his card and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. It doesn't scream wedding anniversary on the outside but has a nice metallic feel to it which is the look I was going for.

I hope you like my latest creations, I hope to have a product review on the Make and Create die cutting machine up in a few days, I'm just waiting to hear back from The Works Customer Care team as I need to know where replacement cutting plates can be purchased as the machine will be pretty useless in a year or two without them and The Works doesn't sell them on their website as far as I can see. As always if you have any questions or comments then please leave them in the usual places and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx