Marlene's birthday card

 Hi all. Here this damp evening to share a card for one of Mum's friends. I treated myself recently to some new Penny Black blooms (like I really needed more new stamps lol) and thought these lovely roses would do the trick. 

Coloured with polychromos and some red glitter added to the little berries. I thought it looked a bit meh, so got my metallic paints out, added a few gold and pink splatters and it looks much more party time now! 

Penny Black Saturday January - something new 

We Love Stamping January - new things (my stamp)

Time Out #305 - favourite technique - I do love a splatter to give some interest to an empty space

Addicted to Stamps #509 - any occasion 

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. 

Leaving card for Laura

 Hi all. I was asked to make a card for a student in work who has been with us these past few weeks.  Luckily I had already coloured up this cutie I'd bought from Creative Depot and the card just kinda made itself!

 I printed off my sentiment in a paintbrushy font, added some brick stencilling and some die cut flowers.  Oh and some metallic paint splatters too, though I maybe got a bit carried away with my splattering! The little tiny daisies are from a cheap nail art set that I bought on Amazon. 

Addicted to Stamps #495 - dies/stencils 

Word Art Wednesday #704/705 - anything goes 

As you like it - sentiment? - I almost always add a sentiment and the only time I don't is if I think it would be a useful one for my stash and might be suitable for several different 'occasions'

Stamping Sensations - furry friends 

Leaving card for Ryan

 Hi all. I'm here this windy old evening to share a card for a work mate who has a new job with a company who makes films for the farming community.  I don't think I have any farmer stamps in my stash but figured these critters from an old MFT set would be perfect...

Coloured with polychromos and the pig and chickens popped up on foam pads.  Grass and cloud stencils for the background.

Addicted to Stamps #465 - die +/or stencil

As You Like It - cute or floral.  Looking through my stash I do have quite a few floral stamps, but they're definitely well outnumbered by my cutest ones! 

Allsorts #775 - for the love of animals 

Miss Molly is fast asleep on the sofa as I type here.  So in her usual fashion of looking not one bit comfortable (and very unladylike LOL)....

Cards for John, David and Gertie

 Hi all! A few spring Thank You cards to share this evening.  These were for a couple of volunteers in work just to mark their long service.  They've always volunteered in the same team together and I wanted to make them both the same but different, so out came my Lili of the Valley daffodil stamps.  

Allsorts #770 - Spring

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes 

 Little Red Wagon #745 - stencil power - I've used my cloud stencil on both but it's not a great photo     

And this one is for a lady who has just had an operation on her foot, so this oldie from Helz Cuppleditch was just right for the job.

Layout from MFT Sketch Challenge #687

Alexandra's birthday card

 Hi all, here this lovely spring day with a birthday card for my niece - I can hardly believe she is 14 already, it's absolutely no time since she was a wee tot!  

She's a St Valentine's Day baby, so this old Penny Black stamp with the heart balloons was just perfect.  Silver and blue metallic splatters added to the stencilled background. 

Layout inspired by Atlantic Hearts Sketch #563

Simon Says Stamp Monday - fun with stencils 

AAA Birthday #58 - hearts

Seize the Birthday #277 - splatter

When I was 14 on the 14th the Falklands War ended, that's a long time ago now!  I wonder will Alex remember in 40 years time what happened on her double-14 day! 

Some fishy cards for David & Greg

 Hi all, here this blustery evening with a few fish themed cards. This first one is for my brother - he keeps tropical fish so I thought these dudes from Simply Graphic would do the trick.  I stencilled in some bubbles using my snow stencil and added some metallic silver splatters too. 

Layout from AAA Cards #258 

My Time to Craft #526 hobbies

Allsorts #766 - from the grid I've used stencil / red / green 

And this is Greg's card ... I hadn't realised my stencilling was so wonky until I took the photo

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes 

Addicted to Stamps #460 - dies / stencil (sorry I can't remember the brand name of either)

For Greg's birthday I treated myself to a couple of days off work (let's face it, any excuse is a good one 😉).  Here's a wee photo of beautiful Ballycastle on a day out - the waves were so rough I could have watched them for hours.  Unfortunately it was blowing a gale and we had an urgent date at the local chippy LOL

Marlene's birthday card

 Hi all! Bit of a wild night here, we have Storm Isha visiting and it's blowing an absolute hooley out there!  Definitely not an evening for walkies! The noise from the wind is frightening and our lights are flickering away here, hopefully the power stays on!  Molly is fed up with the weather too as we're just getting over our first taste of snow and ice but thankfully it only hung about for a few days.

Anyway, I've I card for a friend of mum's to share this evening. I've used an oldie Penny Black stamp and some of my new flower dies from Creative Depot.  Some background splatters with metallic paints and the little flower gems have been in my stash forever so I'm glad to use them!  MFT striped paper.

As You Like It - favourite paper brand - I don't buy a lot of designer papers but have always loved any My Favourite Things pads that I've bought, they're great quality and always nice colours. 

Penny Black Saturday January - anything goes 

Snippets Playground #472 - unfortunately I missed playing in Di's 12th anniversary challenge so I'm making sure to play along this week!  My snippets on this card are my flowers cut from the leftover bit of the circle

My Time to Craft #525 - new stash (my flowers)

Baby boy and birthday card for Catherine

 Hi all, and a Happy New Year! It's hard to believe that's the holiday over already, but in some ways it's nice to get back to a bit of normality.  And I do love to get the tree and deccies down and my house tidied!

I've been playing with my new bunny stamp from Creative-Depot and I love how this turned out! The blue card has a bit of sparkle in it and I also added clear gloss to the balloon and then popped him up on foam pads.

Time Out Challenge #254 - new

Word Art Wednesday #629/630 - anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - something new

Moving Along with the Times #162 - a new craft item

And just recording this one for future reference.  I don't know why but I always really struggle with this stamp!

Catch up!!

 Hi all, sorry I've been missing in action again, I just never seem to have time for blogging and the old mojo isn't being particularly co-operative either! Anyway I've lost to post this evening ...

I'm waaaay behind in my Christmas cards and the overseas ones should have already been away so they're going to be very CAS this year!!  

I cut an aperture for this one, blended the background and then stencilled in some snowflakes.  Polar bear stamp from Creative Depot.

Layout from MFT Wednesday Sketch #674

Colour theme also from MFT Colour Challenge #224

CAS on Friday #271 - Christmas 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes

And a few more just for my reference as some of them are a bit samey to others I've done ...

Katie's 21st, using a Stamping Bella stamp

Baby Padraig (the Irish version of Patrick) using an old Lili of the Valley stamp

Sandra's birthday card using a Penny Black stamp. 

Andrew's wedding card and Jack's birthday

 Hi all, here this evening with yet more special request cards.  This wedding one is for a workmate and I've included his lovely little doggy on it too.  And yes, they do all have the same colour of hair LOL

Image is an oldie from Lili of the Valley and the puppy is from Eat Cake Graphics. Computer generated sentiment.

Simon Says Stamp Monday - text it 

Word Art Wednesday 617/618 - anything goes 

And this one is for a friend of mum's for her grandson.  Image from Penny Black.  I've used some bronze shiny card for the diecuts.  Background stencilled and bear popped up on foam pads.  The first effort at this was completely different and I didn't like the finished version, but at least I was able to cut out the bear and reuse him!

Penny Black Saturday October - anything goes (not sure why, but Inlinkz wouldn't give me the option to link the right card)

October calendar page and Lauren's birthday

Hi all, here this evening with Mum's calendar page (just a tad late!) I can hardly believe these calendars started as a one-off Christmas gift in 2015 and I'm still making them LOL

I've used a couple of oldies from Eat Cake Graphics and stencilled in some grass and clouds.  

I added some sparkle to the red part of his cape, shows better in this pic...

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - stencil fun

As You Like It - fairies or Halloween - I LOVE all the spooky Halloween images and always wondered why Halloween cards have never really been a thing here!

Daisy Chain Challenges #79 - Halloween 

And this card was a special request, similar to one I've done before, so just adding it for my own reference

Summer bees and weddings

Wow, I can hardly believe we're nearly at September already!  Our summer weather has been absolute pants, we could do with another wee blast of sunshine before it gets too late!  Plenty of bees and wasps about though!

I had a version of this card in my head, but of course the bee stamps have buzzed off somewhere.  I ended up using a mix of Paper Smooches and Janes Doodles stamps instead.

• Layout from CAS(e) This Sketch #387
• Your Next Stamp #146 - keep decorating ... I love a bit of bling and sparkle
• Simon Says Stamp - anything goes

I hadn't realised this was such a rubbish photo of this special request card, but it's away now anyway.  I kinda got a bit stuck with this one for a few days as it just didn't look right, but then I glued on my heart border and considered it finished, couldn't figure out what else to do to help it anyway!  ;)

• Word Art Wednesday #454-455 - anything goes
• Watercooler Wednesday #286 - all about occasions

Roses and snowflakes

Evening all!   I was asked to make a card for a 90 year old lady, it's not too often those requests come along!  After a LOT of deliberation I ended up using this oldie from LOTV - coloured with polychromos and sparkle added to the roses.  Luckily I had a few silver peel off stickers left and had enough letters to spell out her name.

• Layout from MFT Wednesday Sketch #499
• Colour theme inspired by the picture over at Inspired By #Beach Life
• the Flower Challenge #46 - summer or winter - I've gone for summer roses - my Mum has a fab rose garden with every colour you could want (hope she doesn't mind about my 'blue' roses LOL)

And of course I couldn't post without one from my MFT bears LOL!  The sooner they bring out this year's Christmas stamps the better, hopefully I love them (I usually do!)

• Layout from CAS(e) This Sketch #382
• Word Art Wednesday #448-449 - anything goes
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge #500 - anything goes

Workmates Leaving cards

I had a busy evening making cards for a couple of colleagues who are moving on.  Sometimes it's nice just to sit down and colour, there's nothing but bad news on the telly! Between Coronavirus, the environment, Brexit, the economy, wars and hardship, good news stories are few and far between!  It was nice to totally switch off with my biggest issue being how to create waves without adding extra layers ..... I used a wave border die and used the negative side as a template in case you're interested ;)

Now what has a dude on a boat got to do with a good luck card? Well, nothing! Other than Gavin has a beard and smokes!  I dressed him in his football team colours, he might but most likely won't even notice ;)
Images from Jane's Doodles; coloured with polychromos; sparkle added to their shirts and clear gloss to their eyes and the pipe.
I faffed about for ages trying to finish this card, cutting stuff out, throwing them away etc etc and then added the gems and hurrah, that it was all I really needed!

• Tuesday Throwdown #452 - good luck
• Daisy Chain #39 - use dies
• Your Next Stamp #134 - get lucky

For this one I used an oldie LOTV stamp and some gorgeous new dotty DP from The Range.  If I was making this again I would have used a white strip instead of the kraft, it kinda dulled the whole thing down :(

• Layout from Freshly Made Sketches #426
• Allsorts #563 - lots of dots
• Crafty Hazelnut's patterned paper challenge March 2020

Daily Marker 30 Day Colouring challenge

Some personalised cards - Betty, Derek, etc

I've been busy this weekend with a load of personalised card requests, so apologies for the long post tonight!

This first one is for my  Sister in Law - I usually make her something floral so thought I'd make something daft for a change!
Kitty from Penny Black - coloured with polychromos and clear gloss added to their beaks and his nose + tongue.  Snazzy rainbow DP is some super-old stuff I had in my love-don't-want-to-use pile!

• Less is More #406 - rainbow challenge
• CASology #353 - feather
• 
  

This one was a request from a work colleague for her friend.  This one's an oldie from Lili of the Valley - I added some sparkle to the blooms and to the '80'

• As You Like It - fave stitching style - mine's most definitely these stitched dies, I love how it frames your image with zero hassle! 
• The Flower challenge #37 - CAS

This one's another work request, this time for one of our client's, hope she likes her big sparkly age! 

Again another oldie Penny Black - I added some shimmer to the kitty's apron and hat and lots of glitter to the icing.  The card candy in the left corner are the wee snips from the numbers.

• Addicted to Stamps #362 - make your mark
• Daisy Chain Challenge #35 - I chose the Pink option
• Penny Black and More October - pretty in pink
• Layout from Stick it Down October

And this one's the card I sent to my Uncle - not entering it into any challenges as I 100% copied it from the Stampendous blog, but just wanted to post it to have a record of what I sent him!