Tag Archives: Cards

Spring Babies

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It seems that it’s not only the animals that are having all their babies at this lovely time of year. I have been amazed at how many of the school Mums have announced they are having a baby or have given birth. So I thought it was a good idea to start on some more new baby cards.

My daughter’s ballet teacher is also due to give birth in the next few weeks, and all the Mums have had a collection. I offered to make the card as my contribution, so I decided to use my ‘dangler’ card style but make it A4 to allow enough room (hopefully) for all the Mums to sign it. We know it’s going to be a boy, so that made the choice of colours pretty straightforward! I added some blue gems as well after I took this picture. I hope she likes it!

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I really am loving making this style of card at the moment and having made a blue card I wanted to even up the score so, I made a pink one as well. This one is 5×7 in size and will be on sale in my stand at the newsagents down the road.

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Pink pram

I can’t wait to make some more. I’m liking the idea of a yellow one, but I’m not so sure how popular that will be. Everyone seems to find out what they are having these days. I wanted a surprise, but I think I am in the minority.

I think I will go and enjoy some of the dry weather and add to my stock of baby blankets to go with the cards!

Happy spring crafting
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January Birthdays

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January and February are busy months for birthdays and anniversaries for us. So the beginning of the year is always taken up with family crafting. This year I’ve decided to have a real go at using up some of the numerous card-making kits I’ve bought over the years and see what I can come up with.

The great things is that all the people celebrating are of different generations and have totally different likes.

I started off with my in-laws. I was inspired by a visit to see the Flying Scotsman on our local steam railway and made this card for my Father-in-Law using a Hunkydory kit.

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I followed this with a card for my Mother-in-Law, using another Hunkydory kit, this time the little book of birthdays. Such lovely designs and I just couldn’t help adding some die cut butterflies!

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Next it’s my nephew’s first birthday. So not a card he would appreciate so much as one for his parents! I was given a set of balloon dies and some number dies for Christmas which was perfect for this occasion. This is a great card for using up offcuts of papers.

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I’ve also made cards for my Brother-in-Law, Sister-in-Law and my husbands Best man. The little book of birthdays and male images have been a great investment here!

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Finally for now is my other nephew’s fifth birthday in a couple of weeks time. He’s mad about Star Wars at the moment, so I made him a spaceman card. I hope he likes it.

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Well it’s time to get back to desk, I have my Mum’s birthday and Mum and Dad’s 45th wedding anniversary to make for, as well as Valentine’s Day!

Happy crafting
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Ramsbottom Pre-Christmas Craft Fair Review

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After all the panic this last week over making sure I had enough stock for my stall, and that my stall would look ok, I can’t believe the fair’s all over! It was a fairly early start as I had to get Alice ready for her dancing class fancy dress, before loading up the car with all my items. Fortunately the venue was only 10 minutes away. We arrived, and Alice decided she wanted to stay and help me set up. I discovered that I actually had too many items for my stall space! So there was plenty left in the boxes under the table. Anyway, here we are all ready to go.

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I was in a lovely little room with six other crafters, all of us with different items and a great variety of crafts on offer. I was surprised by the variety available across the whole fair, as I’m used to finding several cardmakers and knitters, so it was refreshing to see upcyclers, candle makers, there was a lady making keepsake boxes and pictures, and we had a lovely lady who was making up creams and lotions as well as giving shoulder and hand massages.

I took plenty of crochet to do, but never got anywhere near it. The fair was pretty busy, although many of the other stallholders said that the previous two days had been busier. We all put it down to being Halloween and children having classes and parties to go to. I wish I’d realised at the time of booking the stall that it was half term, but when you’re sunning yourself by a pool, it didn’t even cross my mind!! Never mind.

I found that this was a very different and positive craft fair experience when compared to others I’ve attended. It was so nice to be able to speak to the other crafters, everyone was so very friendly and we all got on well. So much so that I think we’ll be meeting up again soon. It was a great chance to swap ideas, network and I got some other suggestions on other fairs to do in the local area. I might do Bury Light Night next year.

Back to this fair and I found that I had a lot f interest in my knitted and crochet items, but the unseasonably warm weather combined with it still being October, meant that people seemed reluctant to purchase Christmas decorations or winter gifts. However, my cards did do well. I was particularly struck by how popular the owls were.

Pair of Christmas Owls

Pair of Christmas Owls

I came home with only 1 owl birthday card and a pack of owl Christmas cards left! So I shall be making more of those. I was also surprised at how well the gift tags were received, in particular the packs with poinsettias. It’s so nice to get some feedback on my items, and to see that other people like them was a great confidence boost.

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Right at the end of the day my daughter came back to help pack up, and she sold my last little knitted duckling! I’ve never seen anyone look so chuffed with themselves as Alice did at that moment – so much so she had to buy a sparkly blue knitted hedgehog from another stall!!

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All in all it was a great fair. I sold a few items but I’ve learnt a lot. Next time I think I will concentrate on my cards, and display them more individually rater than just having them in boxes. The ones that were out on the table for people to see where the ones that grabbed the attention. I could have done with a slightly larger table really, but that was the luck of the draw I think as some of the others did have larger spaces. I think I will also look into some more display items to bring height to the back of the stall. So there’s lots to think about, but now it’s time to get on with a couple of orders I took while there.

Happy crafting
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A touch of Autumn Colour

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This week I fancied a bit of relief from all the Christmas bits and pieces in my craft room. I finished reading the latest issue of Craftseller and decided to use some of the papers that came with it to make a couple of Autumn themed cards.

There seems to be no end in sight to the trend for woodland themes, so I thought I’d make these cards using the lovely leaves and woodland animal prints. It’s lovely to use some different designs and colours.

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It’s really starting to feel like Autumn as the nights are drawing in and we’ve just started to lose the leaves off the trees. I expect we will get some strong winds soon and the rest will descend to the ground all in one go. But for the time being I am enjoying the beautiful colours and the glorious Autumn sunshine.

I am very lucky to live close to farmland and there are lots of trees in the area too.  While I sit in my craft room listening to the radio, I can look out on several very mature trees.  We have a fabulous horse chestnut tree over the road which always seems to have a squirrel in it – he’s a real little terror, dropping conkers on passers by!  These papers are the perfect accompaniment to watching the squirrel running around.

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The colours work so well with some recycled kraft card.  Mixing the brown natural cardstock with bright white really makes the colours of the leaves pop.  A lovely chance for some Autumn colour.

Happy crafting
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New Christmas Cards

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I feel like I’ve been in full-scale Christmas production forever! It’s amazing how quickly the festive period sneaks up on you, and with my craft stall being only a couple of weeks away, I am pretty much in Christmas card mode exclusively. I made a few Christmas cards from this contemporary Hunkydory kit a few years ago, and I love the colours, so I thought I’d make some more.

These are all different concepts for me, very 3d in their design. I started with some little snowglobe style cards. These are so cute and have a little stand at the back.

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Next is the little row of houses. These have lovely glittered roofs.

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This is a square card where the decoupage stands out on a zigzag to give the dimension. They give a great perspective effect and these might be something I explore further at a later date (I have added it to my ever growing list of things to try further).

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Finally I was left with loads of fabulous designer cardstock and images to use. So I put together a few individual cards. I love this stylised Christmas fairy – as does my daughter.  She’s a definite winner with the girls.

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Time to get back to the Christmas makes.

Happy crafting
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Christmas Cracker Cards

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This year I have decided to get going with my Christmas cards a little earlier than usual. I made some poinsettia cracker cards from kraft card a couple of years ago and really loved the idea, so I thought I’d expand on it for my cards this year.

So I’ve been delving into my Christmas crafting box to see what I have in there. It’s amazing how much stuff I have accumulated and completely forgotten I have! It was nice to have a plan for a change though, so I was looking for ideas for making and decorating crackers.

I found some kraft card DL card blanks so started with those and decided to use up some of the craftwork cards kits I have purchased over the last few years.  The paper and card quality is fabulous and I loved the more muted colours in these kits. I also used some of the paper bows to add detail on the sides of the toppers, it was great to make some of them up and mix them with the papers.

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It was nice to make different cards for change, using sentiments as the main focal point of the card instead of images. Having made this I was eager to make some more in a slightly different style, so I made some little owls again. This time using some papermania Christmas papers and mixing the designs up has given some interesting effects. The colours here are a little more contemporary than the first set, but equally as stunning I think. I toyed with some options for the bows, using bakers twine or ribbon, but as I wanted to co-ordinate I decided to make the bows myself using the leftovers of the matching papers.

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This has now started a bit of a production line of different styles of cracker cards and really got my imagination going, out came the stamps, dies and papercrafting kits. I have a fairly large paper and card collection which have been saved for a ‘special occasion’, but I thought it’s time to start using some and I made some of my own card blanks as well. The patterned card makes a great backing for some handcut toppers too. I really love poinsettias at Christmas and making them up in different colours is great fun.

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I’ve been a fan of the Hunkdory cardkits for some time and have loads of them. The cardstock is so gorgeous though that I’ve always wondered what to do with it to make the most of the images. Now I’ve found a way of using some of the cardstock. So I’ve gone for some traditional images and as a compromise, there are some cute animals and some contemporary images too. There is such a great choice of colours too, ranging from very cool and crisp to the warm and cosy. I could just snuggle up by the fire with the little cat on the cushion!

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Finally I found this gorgeous Christmas kit. I have no idea where it came from but the colours are just gorgeous.

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The joy of making my own Christmas cards is that although the overall design is very similar, each one is individual. Once I’ve used up each paper design that’s it!

I will be taking all of these cards along to the Ramsbottom Pre-Christmas Craft Fair on Saturday 31st October, so they will be for sale. If you are in the area, it would be great to se you.

Happy crafting
x

New Baby Cards

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A few weeks ago I received a request to make a large number of new baby cards, for a church group that give out packs of essential clothes and accessories for new Mums. So I started on a few samples. As I needed to be able to make a large number of cards in a similar style, I had to look at items I had in my stash that would allow for this. So out came my stamps and inks, as well as packs of pastel papers and some small paper doilies.

These were my first three samples.

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The feedback was good for these, and I really enjoyed doing some stamping for a change. So much so I think I will be making a trip to Clark Crafts soon on the hunt for some new inkpads.

The group often don’t know the sex of the babies, so they asked for some similar in neutral colours. I was slightly surprised at this request as I assumed everyone finds out now what the sex of the baby is at their scans. I didn’t want to know, but I was a real exception amongst the people I know. I decided I wanted a surprise, so all my initial baby purchases and the nursery were cream and beige. Anyway, I had to hunt out yellows and greens for the set of cards. It was much harder than I thought it would be to find little toppers that would go with yellow and green, everything I found was blue or pink!

I managed to make up the following sets in neutral colours.

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I hope this will become a regular order, so I have ordered myself a set of new baby dies to make my own toppers from the papers in my stash. I can’t wait to get on with some more, as it has made a lovely cheerful change to all the Christmas cards I’ve been making!

Happy crafting
x

Hunkydory

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Over the last few weeks I’ve been inundated with family requests for cards, so many birthdays, anniversaries and we even had a wedding this year! When you get to my age all the weddings just seem to stop, now it’s 40th and 50th birthdays of friends and we’re all waiting for the weddings of our children – which will be some time off yet!

Anyway, I invested in some of the Hunkydory ‘little books’ a little while ago, and as I have needed some quick cards recently, I decided it was time to stop looking at the images and actually use some. As I have quite a collection of Hunkydory cardstock, these little books are brilliant to put with card I have already. The images are really lovely too and there are loads to choose from in each book. I have one for men, one for birthdays and one about birds and they seem to cover every occasion. The bird images range from paintings of garden birds to more contemporary designs, these lend themselves beautifully to wedding and anniversary cards.

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I’ve also had quite a few birthdays this last few weeks and these images have been great for all ages.  This ‘hipster’ image really made me think of my brother.  I’m not really sure why as he doesn’t have a moustache or beard, neither does he ride a bike, but the overall feel of the image was just right.  It’s such a cool colour scheme, the little hints of teal work so well with the bright red and black.  I love it!

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This was the card I made for one of my daughter’s friends birthday. It comes from the birthday book and looks so lovely, I just couldn’t resist making a card with it. It really reminds me of my daughter on her bike, full of life, and the butterflies set it off perfectly.  I found this lovely cloud paper in a back-issue of Craftseller and love the dreamy feel it gives to the card.
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My next card was for my hubby, he loves a glass of red wine, so this image was perfect. I coupled this with a bottle of rioja from a local wine merchant, and made up a hamper of cheeses, biscuits, snacks, pasta and sauce. It was very well received and we all enjoyed a lovely dinner with the contents.
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Finally here’s my card for an ex-work colleague who has a small boat that he likes to sail over the summer.
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One of the things I love about making cards is being able to make something individual for the recipient, and these little books are great as there just seems to be an image to suit every occasion and age. I am sure they will come in very handy over the next few weeks and months. Time to get thinking about Christmas cards next though!

Happy crafting
x

Bury Show 2015

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Somehow I managed to leave everything to the last minute this year. I suppose I could blame it on my operation and recovery, but I think I was actually just trying to cram in too many things at the same time! We had a pretty manic few days with dancing classes (not me) and a long-standing diary date to actually go out! So I was trying my best to get everything organised for my daughters’ school homework, that my entries for Bury Show just got pushed to the back of the queue.

Anyway, I did manage to make a couple of cards. I had already made one owl,
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but decided it needed something more, so I added a baby owl too and a little sentiment.

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I love the quirky faces on these owls, just a different position of the pupils in the eyes makes such a difference to their characters. They are a real hit with my daughter and her friends too, so I can see a few of these being made in the future.

I wasn’t happy just with this little owl though as although it was time consuming and looks cute, I wanted to show some different skills, so I decided to make a birdhouse card too. This was great fun and a bit fiddly at times. The birdhouse is quite straightforward a shape to make and it really lends itself to being made out of vintage-style papers. I then made a rosette using a papermania template and added some hand rolled paper roses. To finish off I added some paper leaves, an insert and a little bird on the insert.

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It was a race down to the show before judging started at 9:30am on Sunday. We managed it and had a look round all the other classes too. It’s always interesting to see what other people re making. The knitting and crochet class had lots of entries as usual. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to finish my blanket of knitted squares and crochet connections, so I entered one of my crochet baby comfort blankets instead. There were lots of toys this year and a few blankets, but not many clothes. This is probably due to the theme being babys and toddlers this time. Another well entered class was the photography, although some of the photographs were not very interesting (to me). My husband is a very keen photographer and he was very disappointed in the technical standards of the shots. There was one gorgeous picture of avocets which I would happily have had on my wall.

After a race to collect our daughter from Grandma and Grandad’s it was back to the show to see how I had got on.

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I have to say I was very disappointed this year. I spoke with ne of the organisers and they have a new judge this year, but she couldn’t really tell me anything on what the judge was looking for. Having examined the first place card I’m still unsure and just assume it was down to personal preference. I will try to do something different again next year as I got some lovely comments from visitors to the show, and I suppose if just goes to show that personal opinions are very different.

So next year I will try to finish my kitting project and show some more skills with cable and bobbles I think. I would also like to have a go at some of the baking classes as I think my scones would go down pretty well. It’s time to get thinking and planning again, but this year I must actually write my ideas down or else they will be lost in the Christmas madness!

Happy crafting
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Christmas in June! Not me.

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Many crafters are thinking about Christmas already.  I’m afraid to say I’ve only got as far as thinking about it.  It’s just too hard to think about making Christmas cards, when we’ve finally got some warm weather!  I have made a decision to make some owl cards this Christmas, not sure how they will look in Christmas papers, but there’s only one way to find out!

So while I’m supposed to be busy making all my Christmas cards, I’ve actually been making my entries for the 72nd Bury Agricultural Show.  I think I’m only going to be entering two classes this year.  As I was awarded first prize in the card class last year, I have a tough act to follow.  I’ve made one card already, and have an idea for another, both quite different for me, so fingers crossed!

I’m also working on something for the knitted / crochet class.  This year it’s an item for a baby or toddler.  I haven’t placed in this section before as the standard is always high, usually won by an incredibly intricate item of clothing.  However, this year I’m going to try and show my knitting skills with lots of different stitches.  I might enter one of my crochet baby comforters too, depending on how I feel on the day!

I shall post some pictures when everything is completed and the judging done.  Here’s hoping for some more places this year.

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Happy crafting
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