A couple of birthday cards

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you all had a brilliant week, it's been lovely here on the east coast - bright with a crispness to the air. I was supposed to do my spring cleaning two weeks ago but kind of lost heart in it when my mum-in-law wasn't able to come for Mother's Day and these bright days are making me wish I'd done a bit more than I ended up doing for just my mum visiting. (It's not that I don't make an effort for my mum's visits but she knows what a untidy moo I can be and she's seen me at my worst but I wanted to make a good impression on my in-laws!)

It was my mum-in-law's birthday last Sunday and it was my Gramps-in law's birthday Tuesday so I thought I'd share the cards I made for them.

The first card features the wonderful Verity Rose from Crafter's Companion. She was coloured in using Promarkers and Spectrum Noir Shimmer markers. I added details with a Sakura stardust pen on her hat and beads. The layering piece was die cut out using a Tonic Studio die and I ink blended over it using Salty Ocean and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks.

The second card was inspired by a card made by Christine Smith AKA CraFTiPoTeNTiAl  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl_yNA4vpuo - please click the link to see the original card that inspired mine. Like Christine I used the hobby themed stamps that came free with Creative stamping Magazine a couple of months ago. I stamped them onto 200 gsm card and coloured them in using Flexmarkers then I fussy cut them out which was rather challenging for the pinchers/pliers and the screwdriver because the thin parts curled up on themselves after I cut them. I die cut the pinboard frame out of white card using two stitched rectangle dies from eBay and I held them in place using some washi tape so the dies didn't shift as the card went though the machine. I also stamped out the tool box and coloured it in using the Flexmarkers and then stamped over it using the small wood grain stamp from the set and the Happy Birthday sentiment. Again it was fussy cut out and I used a scalpel to cut out the inner part of the shape so I could add some extra tools. These tools were cut out using a set of dies from the Sara's Collection of Just For Men dies. I cut a piece of adhesive backed cork to just slightly smaller than the frame and layered the two together as shown to form the pin board.I added the tools with tape runner to the board and added foam pads to the back of the tool box - the tools were stuck to these so that they peeped out from the tool box. I used papers from Papermania Mr Mister range and added them to a Dovecraft A6 card blank using a tape runner from Crafter's Companion. I added the board to the 'wall' of the shed and the tool box to the 'floor' using extra glue on the tools that covered the sticky foam pads.

I did make another card for my mum-in-law on my mum's behalf but forgot to take any photos of it so I can't share here. As always if you have any questions or comments about my latest cards then please leave them in the usual places and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

A card share

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you all had a brilliant Easter etc. Things have been rather quiet in my crafty nook which is why I've not blogged for nearly a month. It's partly down to the state of my craft space, I sometimes think there may be something in the feng shui principal of clearing spaces to increase creativity, I certainly struggle to create anything when my crudy is as messy as it has been in recent weeks. I still have a lot of work to do in my tiny craft space but I've made a start which is something.

I have managed to make a couple of cards over the weekend. It was my mum-in-law's birthday on Saturday and it's Gramps's birthday today (Monday). I made a Verity Rose card for mum and a Wine Buffs card for Gramps (he's notorious for being difficult to buy and craft for!) The Wine Buff stamp set has a number of accessories for him to hold so I decided to add a balloon to the image.

Sorry about the slightly out of focus image

Close up of Sunbeam Verity Rose Image

Close up of die cut Flamingo - comes with matching stamps

A bit of envelope art featuring the flamingo from the Verity Rose accessories stamps

All of the images were coloured in using Promarkers (some are getting a bit dry though) and I went over the shell and part of Sunbeam's hat with clear Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen - I take back all I said about the inferior sparkle, if you shake well before each use it's even more shimmery than the Wink of Stella! The shell paper is from a Craftworks 8" x 8" paper pack called Harbour Boulevard, I bought it last year for £6.50 (36 sheets with 6 designs) but it came out 2014. I didn't want to waste any of the paper so I cut out the inside of the paper leaving a 2" frame which I then covered with some striped blue paper from my stash (not a 100% positive but think it may have come from The Works in a scrapbook kit). After stamping and colouring the Sunbeam image, I cut it into a square and matted it onto silver mirror card leaving a thin border around the image. I die cut 4 flamingos out of holographic card and stuck them down in the corners using tiny blobs of glue and added the coloured in panel to the centre as shown. I recently got a Happy Birthday die from Tattered Lace so I die cut that out of the same card as the birds.

I've got all but one of the stamp sets available in the Verity Rose range and I love them so much, Sunbeam is only the second one I've stamped with so far but I'm very excited about what I can make with them. I hope you like the card I made for mum-in-law.

How Old! Wine Buffs Card for Gramps

Close up of topper

Fabulous Fellas Sentiment 

I stamped the Wine Buffs image onto a die cut circle of Sheena's Stamping Card and though I like it for coloured pencils I think I prefer my usual supper smooth card stock for Promarker colouring as I got a slight bleed outside of the outline something that rarely happens with my regular card (which is a heck of a lot cheaper too!). I coloured the image using Flexmarkers then added some clear Shimmer pen to the balloon (which you can't actually see on the photo). The blue large dot paper was from a pack of 6" x 6" Docrafts Basics Dots and Stripes. I added this to a 5.5" square card blank and trimmed off the excess.. The sentiment on the front of the card was from the How Old! stamp set and I added silver Shimmer pen to the nails after cutting out the stamped image. I added it under the circle panel of card using foam tape. The stamped sentiment inside the card was taken from the Fabulous Fellas Sentiment stamp set. Both the stamp sets used on this card were bought in the £1 sales from Katy Sue Designs a few months ago. If you don't already shop at Katy Sue Designs (Flower Soft is probably their most well known product) then check them out online and sign up for their newsletter, they regularly have sales on and unlike other sites they don't just sell unpopular (or old) stamp sets but ones that return to the full price after the sale ends. I've had some real bargains from the site and the quality of the stamps (clear acrylic ones for ease of use) is very good - these images were the first time I've stamped with them and they didn't need any priming.

I hope you've liked the cards, I had a lot of fun making them and the Sunbeam card went down very well (Gramps hasn't opened his yet). Hopefully it won't be quite so long between blog posts and I'll have some stamps and news to share soon (look out after the 20th for some exciting news!) As always if you have any comments or questions then please leave them in the usual places and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx