Ruth's birthday and Carla's Anniversary cards

 Hi all. I'm back! I've got totally out of the way of blogging and haven't been making a whole lot of cards this past while, but I'm aiming to knuckle down and do better! 

It's been a busy old summer, the weather back in July was amazing, so there was a lot of gardening, fence painting and sorting stuff outdoors. August has been much more meh, so we've been painting and busy indoors. Work has been mad busy too, we did a lot of work with the Belfast Fleadh which was amazing, but glad to change down a gear and get back to normal business instead of being permanently flat out! And we're finally off on our holiday soon to Majorca, I'm sooooo looking forward to doing absolutely nothing for a whole week!!!!

Anyway, down to the cards... This first one is for my sister who loves Highland cows!  Cow from Unity Stamps, isn't he a cutie! The green hearts weren't planned, but Id decided to add some stencilled clouds and of course hit the striped panel so needed a cover-up.

Just Us Girls #838 - stencil

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes

And this one is for my neighbour's first wedding anniversary, I can hardly believe it was a year ago already! I used an old LOTV stamp and just added a few splatters and some diecuts - her husband is one of Molly's favourite people so I thought it was a good one to use.

Word Art Wednesday #766/767 - anything goes 

Addicted to Stamps #524 - any occasion

And finally, here's a wee pic of Molly sunbathing in the garden back in the hot weather 

(Under the sun lounger Lol 😂)

Alex's birthday and Greg's Valentine

 Hi all, here this evening with a birthday card for my lovely niece who turned 16 yesterday. Hard to believe, it feels no time since she was a wee tot! I had to do a last minute addition of the heart border as I cut my base panel of pink totally wonky and could not get it straightened, and that kinda threw my placement of the silver 16 so it looks more squished than I had planned!  She a Valentine's Day baby, so there's always a heart or two on her card.  Stamp from Lili of the Valley, coloured with polychromos. 

Addicted to Stamps #510 - dies +/or stencils 

Word Art Wednesday #738/739 - anything goes 

We love Stamping February - hearts

And this is Greg's Valentine using a real oldie Whipper Snapper stamp.  I had gone on the hunt through my stash for a pack of red card and came across a pack of kraft card that I had absolutely no recollection of buying! The love die is from Penny Black.

As you like it - cute or elegant - I'd say 90% of my stamps are cute so an easy choice for me!

Sweet Stampin' - no designer paper

Let's Craft and Create #228 - from the heart

Crafty Calendar February - love is in the air

 

We've had nothing but rain all year so when a sunny day coincided with a day off work, we treated ourselves to a wee trip to the beach and fish'n'chips by the sea. It was absolutely Baltic though, and snow on the Antrim Hills on the way up, definitely not a day for a paddle! It must have been a very rough high tide as the beach was covered in sandy foam (and not a sinner on it but ourselves!)

Greg and David's birthdays - a twofer

 Hi all, roll on Spring... apparently we've had the wettest January in almost 150 years, and February is shaping up not much better.  We'll be going rusty soon!  Anyway, here this wet evening to share a couple of cards for Greg and my brother. Their birthdays are close and I was chasing time, so they ended up the same but different!  I've dug out this 20 year old stamp from Whipper Snapper - isn't it fab when you still love them after all this time!  

For Greg's card I went to the bother of masking off my stamp and double stamping it so his neck would be even longer ... and then went and and stamped it in virtually the same place 🤣. Oh and I was delighted to come across some lost googly eyes on a recent hunt through my stash! 

Cut it up #349 - this makes me happy - my stamp and googly eyes!

Addicted to Stamps #510 - dies +/or stencils

For my brother's card I used this nice blue and silver shiny card and run it through an embossing folder.

Word Art Wednesday #738/739 - anything goes 

Simon Says Stamp Monday - add some texture 

Cards for Marion and Chris

 Hi all, I have a few personalized cards to share, so here's the first two

This one is for a neighbour of Mum. My colour theme was entirely inspired by this sheet of cardstock, so I was quite pleased with myself for getting the colour of my flowers reasonably matched! I did have a time of it getting the sentiment right, the one I settled on was version #4! My stamp is an oldie from Colorado Crafts - coloured with polychromos and a few gold splatters added to the background, along with some gold sequins.

Addicted to Stamps #508 - birthday 

Word Art Wednesday #734/735 - anything goes 

Sweet Stampin' - bright and beautiful 

Snippets Playground #524 - my snippet is my sentiment cut from leftover card from the base

And this one is for my brother-in-law - it turned out to be quite apt as when I sent it we had 6" of snow outside. It was the perfect 'sticky' snow and I don't believe I've ever seen such big tall snowmen everywhere before! Thankfully it only hung around for a few days, quite enough for me! Stamp from MFT. Not entering into any challenges as it's similar to one I saw online, but just uploading it here for my records. 

Last Christmas cards and Mum's birthday card

 Happy New Year! It's a cold one here and blowing a blizzard at the minute, definitely an evening for my PJs and the heat on. Miss Molly loves the snow but it's no fun for either of us defrosting the snowballs from her wee legs! 

Anyway here to share a card that was sent to my aunts, using this new-to-me set from Penny Black. Coloured with polychromos and the girl in the centre popped up on foam pads. For the sky I used a snowy stencil and just coloured through the holes with a white gel pen. 

Simon Says Stamp Monday - sparkle and shine

Word Art Wednesday #730-733 - anything goes

Penny Black Saturday December - anything goes/ something new

And this is Mum's birthday card - I had an absolute stinker of a cold when I was making it so it's not my best work, but better than expected!! I only thought of it after but I wish I'd had the numbers spelling out her birth date instead of just random. 

Cut it up #346 - anything goes 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - add a sentiment 

Birthday card for Aunt Cilla

 Hi all, I've taken another break from my Christmas card order to make a card for my mum to her sister.  Mum has a beautiful rose garden with every colour of bloom, so I thought I'd send Cilla some roses from her garden!  

This Penny Black image does take a while to colour but it's worth it, though I'm never entirely happy with how I colour the vase, some day I'll take some time and learn how to do it LOL.  I happily found some DP which kinda matched the roses, I've added some metallic gold splatters to the background and then some pink, red and gold gems to pull it all together. 

Layout from Freshly Made Sketches #712

As You Like it - favourite embellishment - mine is definitely these little gemstones which I use on a lot of my cards for just a wee bit of sparkle 

Penny Black Saturday November - anything goes 

Word Art Wednesday #724/725 - anything goes 

Cards for Sandra, Betty and Ryan

 Hi all, I've been missing in action again ... but I've been flat out making an order for 50 Christmas cards. Thankfully I'm on the homeward stretch now, so hopefully I'll be sharing them soon.  (And then I need to get a shift on with my own Christmas cards!!) I've also squeezed in a few birthday cards too so I apologise for not having any blogging time!!... 

This one is for my friend in work, my buddy for almost 35 years! I've used this tasty looking image from Lili of the Valley, coloured with polychromos and clear gloss added to the cherries.  I got my gold metallic paint out for the splatters in the background, spots on the wrapper and then touched up my die cut flowers too. 

Word Art Wednesday #724/725 - anything goes 

Seize the Birthday #316 - birthday+ fall treat (well a cupcake is a treat any time of the year LOL)

Just Us Girls #800 - anything goes 

This one is for my sister in law with this Gina K stamp - I love it, but it does take me an absolute age to colour...

This one is for my nephew (who works for an aerospace company) - I would have liked a more grown up image but this was all I had LOL 

A three-fer!

 Here's 3 cards for the price of one LOL!

I made a card for my Aunt Jean, liked how it turned out, so amended it for my card to my sister, and then Mum was looking one for her friend (also called Ruth) for her 80th.  It's not very often I'll make cards virtually the same but figured I'd get away with it as none of them were likely to see the other's cards! 

My image is an LOTV stamp, coloured with polychromo pencils and then popped up on foam pads.  I've also added some splatters to the background with silver metallic paint.  For the numbers, I stuck an extra set together to make them a bit stronger and then covered them with gloss and lots of glitter. 

 

AAA Birthday #75 - summer birthday 

Word Art Wednesday #706/707 - anything goes 

Let's Craft & Create #221 - use a die

Seize the birthday #309 - food or drink

We've had a glorious few days with wall to wall sunshine and temps kicking 30 degrees - a nice change as we're usually on the wrong side of the Jetstream and miss all the sunny weather!  Molly was a nightmare though, no matter how much shade we created in the garden she'd find the sunniest hottest spot and cook there until we chased her into the house! Here's a rare moment of her in the shade... Back to normality tomorrow though as it looks back to usual and rain due. 

Ruth's birthday card #1

So this is card #1 for my sister's BIG birthday, requested by my BIL. 

I thought for ages and ages what I could make and then the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches made me think of birthday candles.  I knew I had some digital images of candles from Lili of the Valley, so all I had to do was print some out. Easypeasy. Right? WRONG!!! Every time I printed them they were too small.  I must have printed them maybe 7 or 8 times - each time I'd start colouring and cutting them, only to realize they were still too small, so I'd have to go back and edit the images to make them longer. Of course I turned my laptop and printer off every time in between LOL.  I think I spent 8+ hours making this, good job I don't charge by the hour! 

Ah well it was good exercise climbing the stairs to the printer and it's done now and I do like how it turned out. 

Freshly Made Sketches #693

Snippets Playground #510 - my little stars were cut from some leftover sparkly card that I cut my numbers from

Word Art Wednesday #706/707 - anything goes 

Haven't shared a pic of Miss Molly for a while, so here she is on a recent trip up the beautiful Antrim Coast road.  She absolutely LOVES the beach, the more smelly seaweed on it the better! 

Cards for Renee, Andrea, Edmond and Shona!

Hi all! I'm caught out every year with all my June birthdays, you'd think I'd know better by now and not have such a mad rush every year!  Anyway, apologies in advance for the long post....

First up is this one for my Aunt using this Gina K stamp, which I love but it does take me an age to colour.  I hadn't intended to have sparkly butterflies but I lifted clear gloss instead of glue (they're decanted into the same design bottles), made a mess so just went for it and got my glitter out instead! 

• Allsorts # 825 - what makes you happy - I find 90% of my pleasure in making cards comes from colouring the images
• Addicted to Stamps #494 - any occasion 

Next up is for my Uncle's 80th birthday, using a Penny Black yacht, a couple of stencils and some sparkly silver die cuts.

• Just Us Girls #779 - word week - number 
• Cut it up #332 - masculine 

Third is this Whipper Snapper cutie for my sister-in-law with a few die cut flowers to finish it off...

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - fur, feathers +/ or flowers
• Fab'n Funky #618 - use die cuts
• Word Art Wednesday #702 - anything goes 

And lastly some Gerda Steiner chickens for my friend.  The dude in the middle is popped up and a few clear sequins to finish.  Not adding it to any challenges as it was inspired by one I saw on Gerda Steiners blog, but wanted to post it for my own record.

Alexandra's birthday card

 How can it be the middle of February already, and how can my niece be turning 15!!!! It really is no time at all since she was a wee tot!  

Her card was a bit of a rush job, so I used one of the Lili of the Valley images that came as part of a bundle offer.  Coloured with polychromos; stencilled clouds; clear gloss added to the flowers.  (I usually put some hearts on her card somewhere as she's a Valentine's baby, don't always remember to though!)

Next job is to make a Valentine card for Greg, a bit lastminute.com so it's not going to be too fancy LOL!! 

Seize the Birthday #299 - add a heart

As You Like It - stamps or digis - I know I've used a digi here, but I'm definitely a Stamp girl!  It just seems a lot less faff to get the inkpad out rather than trip upstairs to my 'office' where the printer lives! 

Word Art Wednesday #687.688 - anything goes 

Addicted to Stamps #486 - make your mark

Greg's birthday card (and Chris and David's too!)

 Hi all! I struggle with masculine birthday cards, and thought this Gerda Steiner stamp would be a useful one to have.  My brother and brother-in-law and Greg all have birthdays pretty close to each other so they all got variations of this card!  I hadn't quite intended to add the clouds originally, but had made a rubbish attempt to draw some 'go faster' lines in the sky to give the car some movement, and the clouds and stars were a good cover up LOL

Coloured with polychromos; clear gloss added to the window and their glasses.

My Time to Craft #552 - masculine 

Snippets Playground #499 - my clouds were cut from leftover white card after cutting my card base

Sparkles challenge #184 - monochrome blue

Addicted to Stamps #485 - dies/stencils 

We survived Storm Eowyn unscathed, but it brought down a LOT of trees round the country.  I guess it was a good job they didn't have their leaves yet or it would have been a whole lot worse!  We have a lovely walk down through our estate that we do most days so it was very sad to see 10 trees down in the one spot, they would have been 50+ years old.  I wonder if it was the same gust of wind felled them all at the same time. It was definitely a good call for the government to request that folk stayed home that day!

Birthday cards for Priscilla and Jean

Hi all, isn't it great seeing the evenings starting to get a wee stretch, I hate those dark days of winter so much. Glad our snow and ice didn't hang about long, a week of that malarkey is enough for me!! 

Anyway, here's a couple of cards made for mum to send to my aunts.  Both use Lili of the Valley stamps and coloured with polychromos.  This first one was a pleasure to colour, I've added some clear gloss and glitter to the flower centres and the spots on the vase for some sparkle 

Fab'n Funky #608 - all things bright and beautiful 

My Time to Craft #551 - use a sentiment 

And this one I faffed about for a long time with, feeling it needed something, until I added these die cut flowers and a few sequins and figured that was enough! Bunnies popped up on foam pads and sparkle added to their tails.

Daisy Chain challenge #92 - no designer paper

Addicted to Stamps and More #484 - any occasion 

Mum's birthday card

 Hi all, well that's Christmas done for another year!  Doesn't it just fly by, can't believe it's nearly back to work time after being off for a fortnight. We've had a chilly spell this past few days, I don't mind a skiff of snow but hate it when it melts and freezes - no good for a wee dog who likes her walks and 2 slaves in danger of breaking hips 🤣!  

Anyway, I'm here to share mum's birthday card using a new Lili of the Valley stamp - I love their images as most of my enjoyment from card making is actually the colouring in! 

Coloured with polychromos; sparkle added to the flame, clear gloss to the cherries and chunky glitter to the bunny's tail.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - something new (my stamp)

Addicted to Stamps #483 - birthday

Word Art Wednesday #681/682 - anything goes 

Just Us Girls #756 - use a die

Molly had a great time on Christmas morning and had a blast opening her presents!  Think she is glad to see all the decorations down though and everything back to normal!

A birthday bear for Sandra, and Betty's birthday card

Evening all!  Well such a beautiful bright sunny Autumn day we had today, made a nice change!! And I doubt it will be like it tomorrow with Storm Ashley on its way and gales and rain due.  We've had lots of Brent Geese arriving this past while, so hopefully the wind doesn't blow them off track!  I absolutely LOVE to see them flying in formation overhead, honking away to each other. 

Anyway, I haven't been very inspired recently so was pleased that I actually enjoyed making this card!  Image from Lili of the Valley, coloured with polychromos.

Layout from Tuesday Morning Sketches #778

Addicted to Stamps #479 - any occasion 

Fab'n Funky #602 - fur or feathers

Word Art Wednesday #669/670 - anything goes 

And just sharing this one for my own records, but it's very similar to another I made a while back... 

Ryan's birthday card

 Hi all, here this evening with my nephew's birthday card.  Unbelievable that he's 21 already, it's no time since he was only a wee nipper!  I was totally stumped what to put on his card so got out my star dies and got a bit carried away LOL 

The blue card has a bit of sparkle in it and the shiny numbers are double mounted and popped up on foam pads.  I also added some metallic paint splatters to the background, and a few red gems for good measure.  

Seize the Birthday #292 - celebrate 

Addicted to Stamps #478 - birthday 

Word Art Wednesday #667/668 - anything goes

Feel better soon

 Hi all, I'm back!  I've taken a bit of a break from blogging and haven't been making an awful lot of cards, but I'm determined to get back into the swing of things now the darker evenings are here.  

So here's a wee get well card - I couldn't think of what to use for a bloke but came up with this and then the inside reads "hope you're back to full strength soon", I think it works ok 🤪

Image from MFT, coloured with polychromos and popped up on foam pads; clear gloss added to the weights and his tache.

As You Like It - favourite die - my favourite die is usually my latest one (this burlap die) but my most used die is my stitched square set and I use them on 99.9% of my cards, mainly because I'm rubbish at cutting anything straight LOL 

Addicted to CAS #268 - masculine 

We Love Stamping September - colour something 

Ruth's birthday card

 Hi all, here this wet cold summer's day to share my sister's birthday card.  I can't believe it's almost the middle of July and we're STILL having to put the heating on!!!  Mind you, looking at the heatwave in America I don't think that would please me either! 

I've used my bunny alpha's from LOTV - coloured with polychromos and clear gloss + glitter added to the letters.  

Colour theme from MFT Colour challenge #240, a shame that they're stopping their challenges ☹️

Addicted to Stamps #471 - make your mark

Cut it Up #307 - critters

Snippets Playground #484 - my flowers were cut from some leftover card