Henriette's birthday card

Gosh, two posts in two days! Hope you're suitably impressed, lol! Whilst listening to Any Questions/Any Answers I made this A5 birthday card for my neighbour's 94th birthday on Christmas Day. I've been playing with my Grand Calibur (latest toy!) and my Spellbinders' Lattice Accents dies and Daisy Flower Topper die. The addition of some scrumptious Japanese washi paper and a few adhesive pearls completes the design. I need to issue an apology to those crafty friends who leave such lovely comments on my blog. Due to the recent changes to blogger since I last checked in, I have been unable to find the place where I am alerted to your new posts on your blogs so that I can look and comment. Technology and I make poor bedfellows, I'm afraid! Bear with me until I have it sussed or leave me a tip - might be quicker!

I created a box......from scratch!

I have been learning how to make boxes from 3mm thick board and covering them. Here is my first attempt. The box measures approx 22cm x 16cm and is covered with a strong material called Skivertex which resembles leather/snakeskin/crocodile skin. The next one I make will I think be gessoed, painted and embellised. Watch this space.......though it could take some time as we have sold our house in France and are moving to the UK mid March. Exciting times!

Another very similar card

Here's another birthday card this time it's for my Dutch friend, Ingrid who used to live here in France but has now moved to Belgium! I hadn't realised that it is virtually the same as the card below but this time I used my new pan pastels for the background on some Clarity glossy card. I have a very limited palette of just 3 colours at the moment (bought on sale from JS)and need to have a lot more practice but I have to say they are a lot easier than brayering! The base card is cream A5 as are nearly all my cards. How La Poste loves me!

God-daughter's birthday

Here is a card that I made this afternoon for Helen, my beautiful god-daughter who will be 24 on 30 August. The stamp is from Indigoblu and the flourishes were cut from Joycrafts in the Netherlands. The Happy Birthday peel off was a necessary evil, sorry! and I coloured it with a black permanent pen. Hope it arrives in Melbourne, Australia in time for her birthday.

Birthday card for Arlette

Gosh, it is sooooo long since I blogged, I'll be surprised if any of you are still checking me out! My excuse is that the house if finally on the market and I have been trying to de-clutter - no mean feat especially in my craft room. I really don't want to part with any of it but I know my next craft space (note I didn't say "room", lol!) will be a fraction of this huge room I have here. Anyway, with a depressed market here as in the UK, it could take years to sell so until someone signs on the dotted line, I will continue to hoard all my craft stash! This is a very simple card, stamped flower is a La Blanche stamp coloured with Copics and the sentiment was created on the computer and mounted on Nestability dies. Hope she likes it! Did anyone note the French colours?

Shirley's leaving card and present

It's been a while since I posted and I was worried that I might have lost my blog so I'm posting this to check it out. My friend Shirley left last Monday to return to her home in California to live having put her French house on the market. I wanted to give her something special that I had made as she is herself such a talented artist so I made another notebook holder though a bit larger this time to accommodate the slightly larger notebook that I found in the UK. A friend had given me this yummy paper and I teamed it up with white skivertex for the spine and corners which I coloured with alcohol inks in Butterscotch and Terracotta to match the paper. The pencil gave me the most problems as it is difficult to get it to fit snugly into the holder. I finally came up with the solution to wrap beading thread around and have beads on the end to anchor it - result! She absolutely loved it and it will serve as a reminder of our friendship which I know will span the ocean! I have also included the leaving card I made for her. Thank goodness I had that so apt sentiment which came from thestampbarn.com. The dandelion stamps are by Inkylicious and the background is Distress Inks with water dripped over.

Twisted easel card

Here is my first attempt at a twisted easel card. The card measures 6" square (15cm). The stamps are Clarity allium stamps and were flitterglued and gilded. The base paper doesn't show up well but is a lovely beige mottled silky one. The "stopper" is the stamped Happy Birthday sentiment and gold mirri card was used to mat.

Just to let you know that I have received an email from Blogger who say that I have to go to their Legacy Migration page and jump through hoops and hurdles or I will lose my blog at the end of May. Well, I tried to comply but it doesn't like my User name or password...... Their initial email last year said that it was for people who hadn't used their blog since 2007 so I am hoping that I had attempted to set up another blog with them then and hadn't continued with it. If however, it applies to this one, it could be that I will have disappeared by the end of May so I wanted you to know the reason. Fear not though as I will return in another guise.........!

African card

I can't believe I spent nearly all bloomin' day making this card! Not sure it really works except for someone going on a safari holiday for their birthday! I coloured the elephants with my Inktense pencils (didn't wet them though for fear of the Neena card not supporting it). The vignette was made using a Clarity stamp and Barbara's famous torn hills and masked moon effect. The words were bravely done direct to paper!

Two very different styles

Have been to Potter and Mooch so long, it feels like I almost live there, lol! Finally managed to complete two cards today both very different. Not at all comfortable with the funky one, much more at home in my comfort zone with the pretty one! What do you think?

Beehive card

Watching the Clarity programme on Create and Craft this morning, I was impressed by the skep (beehive)that Barbara showed us how to make. As I have a little bee stamp I decided to make a card using this technique and this is the result. The flower and quote stamps are from my Sheena Douglass collection. The card is A5 size.

Mini book brooch

A friend of mine gave me a little book brooch at Christmas and well, I just had to try to replicate it didn't I?! I found making the covers easy enough due to my cartonnage course but the signatures (inside sets of pages) were more of a challenge as I had never done that before. With the aid of some video tutorials I managed to stitch them together and insert them into the covers. It was a good learning curve and although not completely happy with the result, I will certainly make one again. By the way, the little book measures 3.5cm x 4cm so really tiny!

My second notebook holder

Here's another little notebook holder that I started at home and finished off in class yesterday. Hope you like it!

Note holder

My craft journey has taken me down a different road lately. I have joined a weekly course in Cartonnage. I'm not sure how that translates into English but it is all about making things out of cardboard such as letter racks, boxes and notebooks etc. I have long wanted to make my own book from scratch, including the inside pages but this was my first project and I have to say I really enjoyed making it and I'm happy with the result. It measures 12cm square (just under 5 inches)and the paper is an Italian design called Fiorentina. I bought a little bloc of notes for the inside and recovered it in matching paper. Hoping to make a few more now that I have the hang of it!

Clarity demo card

I didn't actually see Barbara doing this demo but a friend kindly sent me the instructions and this is the result. It is a pity the camera doesn't do it justice because there was a final swipe of Encore Champagne ink across the crumpled tissue which really made it zing. It is similar in some ways to the Caught in Crystal technique but quicker to do so I think I may be making a few more in this style but with different stamped images. This is my first post of 2012 so I wish all my followers a Happy Crafty New Year!