Just Stamps!

It has been such a long time since I blogged and what is even more worrying it has been that long sice I actually got to craft too.  Bahh school holidays :(  However my gran asked me to make a card for her friends Gold Wedding Anniversary so I got my chance!

I really hate making anniversary cards - I never seem to get them right.  It took me 3 attempts and I finally came up with this:

The whole card has been created using stamps only!  No fancy backing paper at all - just a little bit of gold glitter card backing the sentiment!  And this fits in nicely with the Polka Doodles challenge (but sorry don't have any PD stamps :(  YET!!)

I cut a square appeture into a piece of white copy paper and placed it over the base card.  I then used a stamp from Banana Frog Totally Tropical range and stamped randomly through the appeture, to create the frame for the number 50.  I then cut out the number 50 using the doodletype font cricut cartridge and used the appeture and placed it over the card.  (Hope this is making sense!)  I then used a sponge to ink through the '50' onto the paper and again, using the same stamp for the frame, stamped through the appeture with a darker ink.  (I now realise that I should have taken photo's of this process much easier than explaining!) 

The Sentiment was printed out and then using the same set of Banana Frog Stamps, decorated around the sentiment.

The flowers surrounding the frame were stamped and embossed with gold embossing powder, cut out and placed around the frame.

I cannot tell you how pleased I was when I finished this card.  It is more my style than my previous attempt (for a giggle here it is!):

Yes terrible I know :( - Anyway I better go as my little un is looking for some attention as my other 2 are playing on their DS'  take care and I hope to be back soon.  Vxx

School Holidays

Well the school holidays have landed!  Yay at not having to get up early and do the school run.  Boo having even less time to get crafty.  Its great having the kids around though and they love crafting so must get started on their holiday scrap books.

Holiday started with a trip into Edinburgh on the train.  Its a journey I used to take every day before the birth of Lewis (my first kiddie) so did not hold much excitement for me other than the delighted faces of my three kids, who don't get on the train very often.  For oliver (my third kiddie) it was his first ever trip and he was really excited and excited shouts of 'choo choo' echoed through the carriage.

(not sure if OH was aiming for Oliver or my chest!!!)

My kids are fascintated with the trams that are currently being installed in the city so it was a must to go and visit the tram located in Prince's Street.  Still cannot understand the appeal to be honest at its costing a pretty penny too.  But alas there is no point moaning about it now!

Gemma and Lewis were impressed though.

We went for lunch at the Golden Arches (posh name for McDonalds) and then took a lovely walk to Stockbridge via the water of Leith and spotted this:

It gave OH perfect opportunity to try out the new camera.

Other than actually taking the kids out for a lovely day I also had another job to do... yes crafty.. a visit to a fantastic bead shop where I purchased some lovely goodies.  I have been making some stampboard jewellery and needed some findings.  A few beads just happened to pop in there too!!  Oops!!  Must have been browsing for an hour.  Kids were very good though and were helping pick beads for me.  However Gemma got fed up and went to see her dad who took this georgous photo:

She is such a pretty girl (takes the good looks from her Dad)

Will post some photo's of the finished articles (when I finally get round to finishing!!)

We then headed back up to Prince's Street gardens so the kids could have a play at the park and we could have a seat.

However, Oliver decided that he wanted to play on the big slide which required both me and OH to supervise.  Kids had a great time though and gave them an appetite for their Pizza Express!  Yum

Delicious it was too!  After that we headed back up to get the train and had a lovely journey home.

On the crafting front I was commissioned to do some baby cards.  I used the toppers (below) but then forgot to take a picture of the card!! Arg but the other two cards, made for the same set of twins, I did remember to photograph.

Anyway will finish this later OH just calling from London.  TTFN Vx

For the Males

Well a big thank you to team PD for picking my entry as number 2 in the Nursery Rhyme challange.  Its always nice to hear that others like what you are doing as I often look at my creations and think - it will do!  So thanks again.

Spurred on by my 2nd place I have decided to have a go at the male themed card.  Its my Dad's birthday next month so what better person to make a card for than your dad!  So here it is:

All the papers and toppers come from Candy Doodles. 

I have attached the dad toppers with foam pads so that they stand out and have finished the card off with some black raffia and a Happy Birthday dome sticker from PaperMania.  Once again the hard work in this card was done by Nikky in the design for her CD. 

TTFN Vx

Baby Baby

I have been asked to make a card for friends of my parents for the forthcoming addition of twins to their family.  I have a die cut of a baby head but always find it difficult to use them as you either have to create a body or it looks like a floating head on a page - not a good look!  So I have come up with this:

I was inspired by an image from Kirsty Wiseman's Colour Me Crazy cd of a baby all tucked up in a blanket.  So I thought I would recreate this using die cuts!  I am so please with the results and I thought I would share it with you.

The base was made using a nestie oval die, cut twice the second piece I cut into sections and I used the Martha Stewart doily lace punch and then layered it all up.  The baby head was cut from white card and coloured using promarkers. 

I have not actually finished the card yet and better get a move on as they are coming into this world on Tuesday.  Just thought I would share this with you.  Vx

Two Little Dickie Birds

This is my entry for the current Polka Doodles Blog challenge:

The theme for this weeks challenge is Nursery Ryhmes.  Again all my original thoughts had been so wonderfully done by the DT members so I came up with the idea of the Two Little Dickie Birds! I thought that I would try and recreate this little ditty by making my birds 'fly away':

I achieved this by creating pull tabs and levers which are attached to the birds.  By moving the 'tweet' tabs up and down, the birds appear and disappear!  I had so much fun making this card!

All of the elements for this card were printed from the Polka Doodles - Not for the Girls cd.  Anyway I have to go as my youngest has just woken from a nap.  If you would like more info on how I made this just leave me a message and I will get back to you!

Tweet Tweet. Vx

Red and Black

Well I have had another eventful week here.  Hubby was away with work again leaving me all on my lonesome with 3 children.  I am actually getting used to him being away now and it means that I can craft in the evening without feeling guilty about it!  However, on Wednesday evening I could really have done with him being at home... the first part of my red and black story:

Part 1 - My daughter had a fall in her bedroom and smacked her face off the end of her bed!  Ouch!!  I was getting my youngest ready for bed when I heard the thud and resulting scream.  I called NHS 24 asking for advice and was told that it would be up to 3 hours before someone would call back.  Ok I though they are busy and they obviously deemed that our case was not urgent.  So I duly waited up with my daughter until 11pm and having waited 3 hours since the bump thought it was now safe to get ready for bed and wait for the call. 

Part 2 - How wrong could I be.... at 11.15pm NHS called back.  "It's common practice that all children with head injuries are sent to hospital to be checked out so can you  please make your way there now...." argh ..... why could they not have told me that 3 hours earlier when all my children were up and dressed?  So I saw Red but somehow managed to keep my cool.

To cut a really long story short, the cavalry arrived so that I could just take my daughter along to the hospital and not have to wake the other 2.  Got home at 2.30am!  She is fine now and enjoying all the attention she is getting whilst showing off her 'stitch'!

Part 3 - Don't know if it was as a result of our experience but my latest card took on a red, black and grey theme!  I have made this card for my in-law's wedding anniversary and anniversary is the theme of the Polka Doodles challenge.  The card had to be modern/retro and this is my take on it:

The grey checked backing paper is taken from Polka Doodles Not for the Girls.  I have punched red and black card stock with a Martha Stewart checkerboard punch as I felt that this complimented the Rennie McIntosh stamp (which was bought from a fab stamp shop in York called Mark Your Mark).  I coloured in the stamped image using promarkers.

I added a bit of dimension to the stamped image by stamping the image again and fixing it onto the original image with foam pads.  The sentiment is a deco font downloaded from dafont and has been embelished with ruby gems!  Wish I had thought of this idea before as it was their Ruby Wedding Anniversary last year!  Oh well only a year out of date.  My in-law's love Rennie McIntosh so I am sure they will be pleased to receive this card.

Well its Saturday evening so I am off to have a pint and a sit down.  Take Care Vx

Brown, Cream and Pink

I would just like to say a big thank you to the Funky Hand Team for picking my card to be in the top 5 of the FH May challenge.  I really enjoyed making the shaped bunny card and it has now been re-homed to a 7 year old girl called Melanie.

June's challenge is to make a creation with the colours Pink, Brown and Cream.  I get so much inspiration from the blog challenges, but this one came at the very unreasonable hour of 2 am one morning!!  I was woken by my husband's snoring (again) and could not get back to sleep and thought that snoring was worse than coffee for keep you awake!  Then 'kazam' my idea for this month's challenge arrived and yes kept me awake for the rest of the night...

All the papers for this card are printed from the 'Now That's Funky' cd.  I made the mug by using shapes from Word, printing them onto FH paper and the cutting them out.  I inked up the edges and pieced it all together, highlighting some area's with a black sakura pen.  I cut 2 oval and scrunched the paper and then directly inked these to form the cookies.  I finished off the cookies with brads for the chocolate chips.  I have used a Martha Stewart Doily Punch on the pink backing paper and embossed the brown paper with a sizzix texture plate.

I swirled some cream paper to make the steam coming from the coffee cup.

I have cut the word 'Relax' with the sizzix pigeon toed die and attached them to a strip of card with chocolate coloured brads.

Well this card is making me long for some cookies - which I luckily have stashed away from my hungry hoards (who are in bed).  So I am off to sneak a few before its time to go to bed myself.  TTFN Vx