PfP - WEEK 23

This weeks challenge on the Passion for Promarkers Blog allows you to use any colours, the only criteria is that there is an animal on the creation somewhere. 

My son's 3rd birthday is coming up at the end of November, so I decided to make his birthday card last night with the fab new 'Party Dragon' stamp I got from Crafty Angels. How cute is this little fella???  As he is technically an animal I figured I would enter the card in the challenge as well.

I stamped my image using memento ink, then coloured the wee dragon in using Apple and Meadow Green promarkers, his T shirt and ballon are done using a combination of Blue Pearl, Cornflower and China Blue (love these blue shades, they blend so beautifully together).  I shaded around the dragon image using blue pastel chalk.  I then double mounted it on green then blue glitter co'ordinations cardstock.  I embossed some white card stock using my cuttlebug numbers embossing folder and used some green pastel chalk to bring out the numbers. 

I mounted the embossed numbers on some blue shimmer cardstock from the pay per box stand.  I stamped a happy birthday sentiment on some white card stock, shaded this with blue pastel chalk and double mounted this the same as the dragon and attatched it to the card with some shiny string. 

thanks for looking!!!!

BIG BROTHER, LITTLE SISTER

Getting either of my little people to stand still long enough to get a decent photo is hard enough so getting both of them still, TOGETHER and looking at the camera is a major coup!!!  Love these photos of the 2 of them, was just before Beca took her first steps un-aided.....she was using a little push trollie and bombing around the place!!!  Michael is pretty good with her and on this day they were playing together so nicely!!!

I used another kit from The Scrap Room October mailing, this time the fabulous My Minds Eye, Abbey Road line.  I used one sheet of double sided paper (hate it when both sides are gorgeous) and mounted them on some brown cardstock and 'stitched' them together with cream ribbon (stitching is another technique than I am loving).  I used some American Crafts thickers and Pink Paislee alpha stickers to do my title and added a few buttons, some flowers and a wooden flourish to embellish the layout and then inked around my whole layout

Thanks for looking

SHE HAS NO FEAR

How GORGEOUS are the Basic Grey Indian Summer papers???  One of my kits in the October mailing from The Scrap Room had a selection of goodies from this line and I have been dying to use them on one of Rebecca's pages!!!  I had some pictures of her hanging over the side of her walker to pick up a toy and some how they just suited the bright and bold colours of the papers (cause she is sooo bright and BOLD)!!!

When she was smaller she used to bomb around in her walker like a race car driver and if she dropped the toy she was carrying she didn't bother to wait for us to get it, she would just hook one foot in the side of the walker and dangle out til she got it......OH THE HORROR!!!!!  Used to give us nightmares.......but strangely enough she never fell out and hurt herself!!!  She is one baby who has NO FEAR!!!!

I used two sheets of paper for this layout and tore and inked both (my favourite techniques) and used both sheets on each side.  I mounted the photos on some pink card stock and laid them at angles on the pages (can never lay photos straight!!!!).  I added some buttons and felties as well as a bit of string to the one side....somehow ribbon didn't look right!!!  I used foil alphas that came with the kit and mounted them in different ways to add a bit of character to the page!!!

Thanks for looking!!!!

South East Crafters Crop

Was at the South East Crafters crop in the Maldron Hotel in Wexford on Saturday.  Had a great day as always!!  We made 2 cards, the easel card using the gorgeous Tilda stamp (how cute is she).  I really enjoyed making this card, it was quick and easy yet really effective and so different.

We also made an envelope card similar to the one we made in the GBCE in Athlone except my kit was different (thanks Laura).  Love this Sarah Kay stamp, she is just gorgeous and I love the blue and brown papers!!!  Was really pleased at how this came out!!

Had a great day chatting and shopping as Laura had her shop Crafty Angels there as well!!  Got some fab new stamps and some gorgeous Magnolia papers!!!!

21st BIRTHDAY CARD

Am I alone in finding boy/man cards impossible to do???  I can do girlie/cute/neutral/bling but ask me to do a card for a boy or worse a man and I feel like I have been hit by a bus!!!!  A friend in work who ordered some cards off me asked me to make a birthday card for her son!!!  Worse yet it was his 21st so it needed to be special....and she needed it by today......EEEEEK panic set in when she asked me as

a) I had NEVER done a card for a man

b) I had no manly stamps

c) it was a 21st!!!

Plus his interests were guitars and rugby......the world of quickly obtainable stamps doesn't exactly cover these areas and a major blog hop campaign came across MANY girlie cards, lots of flowers and bling, loads of baby boy cards but cards for men......VERY thin on the ground!!!  As I hadn't a hope of getting my paws on a rubber stamp I decided to go the digi stamp route and the image I eventually picked to use was Josh's New Guitar by the greeting farm I had never used a digi stamp before but it was amazingly painless and given my decidedly hit and miss approach to the art of stamping made life easier.....sure it prints perfectly EVERYTIME and you can re-size it to fit your card......a real plus in my book.  Had a few seconds of panic around the fact that promarkers seem to bleed most inks.....but bless my printer ink it was grand!!!

Bless Basic Grey Archaic (sp) papers as well.......think ALL scrapbookers have this pad for the few manly pages we do......my paper collection is 90% girlie 9% little boy and 1% sort of manly.

Anyhoo, I coloured my image in with promarkers, cut the paper with my label nesties and mounted it on some corrugated card. I embossed some green cardstock with the music cuttlebug folder, added some twine and a button and the card above was the result.  Tis not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination but it looks ok.  Here is hoping Ann likes it!!!

 

1000 TIMES

I love this picture of my sleeping son.  It was taken while on holiday in Maderia.  He was fast asleep in his grow bag on our bed!  Looking through my pictures the other day I noticed that I had loads of pictures of him asleep as a baby!!!!  As a neurotic first time mom I was always in his room, watching him sleep, checking that he was breathing......often waking him up because of my fussing!!!  Even now that he is nearly 3 I will still check on him a couple of times a night......that little tickle of fear just doesn't go away!!!!

I made the layout using the absolutely GORGEOUS SEI Moriva (sp) papers that came in my October kit from the The Scrap Room.  The sketch is based on the Week 41 Challenge sketch on their blog .  I tore one sheet of the fab foiled paper and inked the edges.  I cut a partial circle out of the other sheet.  I mounted the large photo on some blue card stock and framed another version of the same photo.  I added an envelope and my journalling is tucked into this.  I added a few buttons and some gems.  My title is done in America Craft Thickers (my favourite brand for thickers!!!)

Thanks for looking

JESS'S WORKSHOP

Went to Jess's workshop on Saturday and had a great time.  It was lovely to meet Jess and put a face to a name, plus it was great to hear a familiar accent!!!  I also met Karina off the Cardz n Scrapz  forum and had a great day crafting and chatting and playing with Stickles!!!!

We made 7 cards in total (busy little crafting bees we were), 2 Hallowean cards and 5 Christmas cards. 

The 2 Hallowean ones were gorgeous, one was very Harry Potter, with a wizard, a cave, a cauldron, a fantastic spider web and some cute bats!!!  The second was using a Tilda stamp......how cute is she!!!  Love the embossed spider web and the spider web edging

3 of the christmas cards were embossed, haven't played with my heat gun in ages.....had great craic making these.  My favourite of the 3 is the Celtic Xmas tree.....sooo gorgeous, and I LOVE the other two images, the stamps were fab and I sooo have to get my little paws on em!!!  Jess had some absolutely gorgeous gold embossing powder and I must find out what it is.

The last 2 were stamped images which we coloured and then assembled.  I Loved the Sarah Kay Santa stamp and I adore snowmen so loved the second one as well.  I opted for the pink kit as I love to make non-traditional coloured Xmas cards!!!

Laura was also there with the Crafty Angels Shop, so I got em some retail therapy and added MORE stamps to my collection as well as a host of other bits and bobs!!!

thanks for looking!!!

MY FIRST SALE!!!

I had been telling friends in work that I had started making cards and they ask me to bring some in so that they could have a look.  I was a bit shy but thought 'sure why not'!!  So I brought in a selection and was pleasantly surprised when one of the girls ordered 5 cards!!!! 5, I couldn't believe it.....I was sooooooo chuffed, especially as 2 of the 5 she wanted were my more unusual cards, that I thought no one but me would like.

One of the cards she asked for was a baby congradulations card for a friend that was due to give birth.  As she didn't know what her friend was having she asked for neutral but cute!!!  I had just got another Penny Black hedgehog stamp (how cute is this little guy) from Crafty Angels so I decided to make a card using him and went for a colour theme of Lemon and Green.

I decided to use the card as my entry to this weeks challenge over at The Crafty Angels Blog.  The challenge this week is 'Buttons and Bling', two things I LOVE LOVE using on any project!!!  So I added some glitter card stock which I matted hedgie on and some gems as my bling, as well as some little yellow buttons.

My friend Ann was delighted with the card and I was thrilled to make my first sale!!!!

thanks for looking

ENVELOPE CHRISTMAS CARD

At the GBCE in Athlone I did Laura's Sarah K stamp class and in that we made an envelope style card, which I just LOVED!!!  Must actually take a picture of that one and post it up.  Anyway, last night I was playing with one of my new Sugar Nellie stamps (as you do) and decided to make another envelope card.

I used blue and green card stock which I covered with some lovely DCWV paper from their Christmas stack.  I stamped and coloured my wee angel with promarkers and added a bit of glitter glue (love glitter!!!) and cut her out.  I made a band to go around the card and tied some blue ribbon around it and added some gems (can never have enough bling).  I mounted my image on some foam dots.

The card insert is some white card stock mounted on green card stock.  I used my snowflake punch and punched out one snowflake in the corner and added a gem.  In the other corner I added a Merry Christmas sentiment.

Thanks for looking!!!

MY FIRST CALENDAR

Got my first Tilda stamp the other day......and believe me she wont be my last, she is sooo cute.  I decided to try and make a calendar using some 2010 calendar books I got in the Do Crafts goodie bag and some coasters I got from Crafty Angels. I covered the coasters using some gorgeous Doodlebug paper and added some gems and thick thread.  I coloured in my Tilda in Marine and Emerald promarkers then cut her out and sat her between the two coasters.

am quite pleased with the results though I need a bit more practice covering the coasters!!!!

HANDMADE CHRISTMAS??

So as thoughts turn to Christmas and the old pressie budget has to tighten its belt, I have been thinking of ways to make handmade goodies to add to the small token gifts I will be buying for close friends and family.  I know I will be making all my cards this year but am also going to make my own gift bags, tags and boxes!!  Sure why not, its an excuse to craft.....like I need one.....and a way to learn knew things!!!

My new Miss Santa stamp from Sugar Nellie arrived in the post yesterday.....and I just HAD to use her, she is soooooo cute!!!  I coloured her in Red promarker and then used Woodware Fluffy Stuff (how COOL is this stuff) to give her outfit a fur look!!  I double mounted her on Gold and Red card and added some gems and ribbon.

I had some holly paper left so I made this hanging gift box which you can put round a wine bottle (one of the token gifts I give) and add some handmade chocolates in the box (which is my plan) or you can slot in a small gift voucher.  So I have one gift idea down and about 10 to go!!!

thanks for looking!!!

HAPPY SCRAPPY SUNDAY

Got a couple of hours to myself last night so got a couple of pages done using my September Kit from The Scrap Room.  The first layout I did is one of my son who adores Fireman Sam......I used the fab Cosmo Cricket papers (Boyfriend line).  I love to tear papers (probably cause I never seem to cut straight) so I tore and inked one sheet, added some stitching detail at the bottom and scattered some buttons on the page.  I cut a journal sheet out which pretty much said what I wanted to say about Michael and finished the title off with some American crafts thickers!!!

The second layout is for my wedding album and was also made using papers from my September kit.  This time it was the stunning Saffrass Lass (Vintage yummy line).  Picked these papers cause the colours suited the neutral colours in my wedding plus the daisies in my bouquet!!!  This time I cut out circles and then a plain strip, I added some ribbon (hi my name is charmaine and I am addicted to ribbon), I made some handmade flowers and added a few buttons and gems.....and finished off with more American Crafts Thickers (LOVE their Thickers!!!!!!!!!!!)

thanks for looking

SCRAPBOOK LAYOUTS (GBCE)

Had a brilliant weekend at the GBCE in Athlone last weekend. 2 days of crafting, shops and chatting, what more could I ask for.  While I was there I did 2 scrapbook classes with Judy Addison.  They were both BRILLIANT!!!  The first one is where the layout above came from.  She was teaching us how to make different types of frames.  The papers were so soft and pretty and I had the perfect pictures of Rebecca to go with them!!!  I really love how the pages turned out.....expect to see LOTS of frames on my layouts in the near future

The second class was her Christmas class on the Sunday morning.  Again the papers were just STUNNING!!!  She was showing us how to use those pages where the page is divivded into four 6x6 squares.  I usually end up cutting these up but she showed us how to do a 4 in 1 layout which was just fantastic.  These pages cover off our first christmas as a family of 4.