Cupcakes

Have you noticed that cupcakes are all the rage at the moment?
These 2 cards are another offering for the very worthwhile project run by Post Pals and will be accompanying small gifts to 2 very special children later today, in the hope that it will bring a smile to their faces for a while at least.
If you would like more information about this project then click the Post Pals link above or the icon on my sidebar.

Simon Says Stamp is this week encouraging us to make multiple cards and projects for their Happy Mail Challenge and so if you want to join in then pop over there and show your support.

Bubbly Scrumptious are running a Cupcake Challenge throughout July so these are perfect for that and there is a fabulous prize on offer there too worth ... wait for it!!! ... approx £75.
EEEK!! Unbelievably generous.
To check out the rules properly, click on the links above or the cute wee blinkie that's flashing on my sidebar.
As I have no cupcake stamps or templates ... how sad am I? ... an oval scallop punch was used to create the topping from some button printed cardstock and this was inked around the edges. The cases were simply cut from blue gingham card and then foam pads were used to adhere them to the card.
Buttons and a teeny bit of ribbon provide a smidgeon of decoration and a simple greeting finishes them off. Doesn't get much quicker or easier than that.

Floral Birthday

My precious Mum celebrates her birthday tomorrow and she'd be disappointed if I give her a shop bought card so made this one for her using some lovely embossed cardstock from my stash.
Please forgive my camera work because the pictures don't do any justice whatsoever to this fabulous cardstock ... it looks very lush in real life.

The floral image is from Dover Publications and is simply printed onto premium paper, then matted onto heavyweight red card and gold mirri card showing the usual narrow border.
Simple but effective.
I trimmed a panel from the front face and used that to line the inside after wrapping some simple gold ribbon around it.
The greeting panel inside sits snugly behind the main image.

The Pink Elephant Challenge #21 is a colour challenge this week where you have to use a favourite colour combination. Tricky 'cos there are so many fabulous combinations which I love but Red and Gold together always look good to me regardless of the occasion so it's a safe one.

Now all I need to do is find a present for her before tomorrow ... which is easier said than done !
Why are mums always so difficult to buy for???

Sunshine On A Rainy Day

It's positively chucking it down here today ... grey, wet an horrid ... and this nasty weather is to continue for the whole weekend, (unlike the majority of the UK south of Newcastle for whom the sun will be splitting the sky ... sob ... sob ...).
Soooooooo to cheer up the grey mood I sneaked into my crafty space and played about with some paper. A bit naughty really when the laundry basket is screaming for help and buckling under the weight of washing ... but I feel rebellious today!

The base card is created from an A4 sheet of lovely heavyweight red card from my stash and provides a really stable base to work on. The pretty butterfly paper is from the Papermania Flowery pad and is double matted onto lilac card and gold mirri card, just showing a narrow border of each.
Offcuts of the same card was used on the folded front panel before adding a strip of fabulous shimmery ribbon ... isn't it pretty?
A simple greeting courtesy of a small Anita's stamp is added to the bottom right corner and the circle stickers down the ribbon panel are from a DCWV pad.

I wanted to join in with the latest Kaboodle Doodle Colour Challenge but as I don't own a single scrap of Stamping Up paper or ink, I had to attempt a colour match with what I had in my stash so hope they're close enough to count.

This card will soon be winging it's way to the parents of the little boy I made yesterday's Post Pals card for, in the hope that it will brighten their day a little bit.
NOW ... I'd better get off my lazy rear and tackle the washing.
Golly gee ... what a fun life I lead!!

Summertime Blog Candy & Happy Mail

My very dear cyber friend Ann from Craftroom Creations is offering some fabulous Penny Black stamps as blog candy to celebrate her upcoming birthday.
In order to qualify for entry to her draw, she has set a little task and it's one that I am more than willing to do.
Please pop over HERE and join in with her Summertime Blog Candy ... not only will you be in with a chance of winning brilliant blog candy, but you'll also help to bring a smile to a child's face and a little sunshine into their day ... believe me there's no better feeling than that!
Coincidently the Simon Says Stamp Challenge for this week is Happy Mail and is asking for cards for Post Pals and a similar project Make a Child Smile.
There are going to be some humungous smiles doing the rounds this week if we each step up to the plate and send just one little card or one brief letter to one sick child.

Here is a quick card I made this morning from a cute QVC kit called Patchwork Pals.
I do feel like I've cheated a bit because all I had to do was punch an aperture in a DL card blank, pop out the diecuts and stick them on.
I didn't realise the back and front images don't match exactly until after I'd already glued one half which is a bit of a nuisance 'cos it looks like I've misaligned the pieces but I didn't ... t'was naughty Kanban's fault!!

However, I'm sure the little boy it is intended for won't care a jot about that ... so I won't either.

I've wanted to get involved with Post Pals for some considerable time, but to my shame, I kept dilly dallying and putting it off ...
... but thanks to Ann's wee blog candy challenge I have finally been spurred into doing something and with the Post Pals direct link now a permanent feature on my sidebar, I fully intend to send a little something to a special child regularly from now on.
It really isn't difficult ... and you only have to read the messages on the site to know it means so much to these children and their families.

Fancy Folds

Whilst browsing blogland last week I spotted various different versions of this interesting card fold so thought I would have a go and see what I could come up with.
I discovered several different names for this fancy fold and found a few tutorials out there, but the difficulty I have is that they were all by different people and as I didn't have time to follow a gazzillion links to discover who had the idea first I'm not sure who should get the credit, so if it was you (or you know for sure who it was), then please let me know and I will give them a mention.

As for the card ... well I did enjoy making it and it is definitely something I would do again, but cutting the front and back panel shapes from the designer paper was a little time consuming and you don't need to look too closely to see my cutting is not particularly precise.
Soooooooooo .... I took the liberty of creating simple templates for future use and hopefully that will speed things up and improve the finished look because (fingers crossed) the panels will be a better fit. That's the theory anyway.

The pretty papers are K. & Co. Blue Awning and they are double sided so perfect for this card where matching papers are needed for the different panels. Gold mirri card provides a narrow border and the cute Forever Friends image was cut from the packaging of some free stickers and mounted onto a leftover scrap of paper.
I hand wrote part of the greeting (as if you couldn't tell) with a Whisper Brush Marker but the textured card makes it look a bit squiggly so would probably opt for smooth card in future.
A sprinkling of prima flowers and some liquid pearls add decoration but I'm unsure whether I may have overdone it with this particular decorative paper as it all looks very busy.
Not to worry though ... I'll know better next time.

Felt nice to be playing with paper and glue again after so long.

For the Boys

June is a pretty busy month for birthdays in our family and on Sunday 14th it's the turn of my nephew and my son to celebrate their special day.
I'm still working on our card for Niall ... GULP! ... it's not easy trying to work when he's hovering around and sticky-beaking into my space ... but I finished this one for Naomi to give to him. The image was in a folder on my PC and I added the text in PSP (Paint Shop Pro) before printing it onto plain white paper and double matting onto coloured card. The stripy paper is from a Paper Cellar pad.
Hopefully he will disappear to bed soon so's I can wrap his prezzies and finish his card from hubby and I ... if not then it'll probably mean a night shift for me.

This die cut decoupage car was completed on Friday and posted to my nephew so hopefully it arrived today ... nothing startling but fingers crossed he likes it.
Hope you are all enjoying a wonderful weekend ... wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

Grateful Girl

Just got time for a quick message today ... busy, busy, busy!
Here's another quick and easy card ... one of many I should be making to send to all the kind and generous cyber-pals who have been so thoughtful to me and mine over the last few months and to whom I am extremely grateful.

It fits in with The Pink Elephant Challenge #18 this week which is to use the colours Pink, Brown and White.
The papers were in my leftovers box where all the offcuts of paper from previous projects land and good old gold mirri card provides a shiny mount for the DCWV sticker greeting.
The flowers were included in a recent RAK and the felt butterflies were picked up from the bargain bin at my local craft shop last year as was the organza ribbon ... oh and pink adhesive gems add a lickle bitta' bling!

OK ... gotta go.
Thanks very much for visiting and if you have time to leave a message then double-thanks to you.

Dino-Decoupage

Regular visitors here will know that decoupage is not ... and probably never will be ... my "thing" but I really admire and appreciate other people's beautiful results.
I have a couple of Decoupage Sheets that were sent to me when I took part in a 'Tried and Tested' item for Crafts Beautiful magazine a while ago. So I thought I would just use them up and make a couple of cards for the Grab'n'Go box.
This one is Die Cut Decoupage so is easy peasy to make up ... just press out the pieces, add foam pads and layer it up.
Even I can't go wrong with that!

The characters are kind've cute and if you look carefully you can just about see the sparkle highlights which catch the light.
Just need to add a Dinosaur related greeting to the inside and it's good to go.

I think I may just about be in time to enter this into Creative Card Crew's Challenge #13 as the theme this week is 'Child's Play.'

Lazy Days

That expression doesn't apply to my life at the moment, in fact the opposite is true ... HOWEVER it is the title of this fabby Penny Black hedgie stamp which was one of a gazillion images received in a RAK recently from a very kind and special friend ... you know who you are.

He is coloured with Whispers Brush Markers and then I swiped the edge of the card with a blue Brilliance Dew Drop Pearlescent Ink Pad ... (these pads really do have a lovely sheen when dry by the way) ... before matting it onto pink cardstock which was also edged with an inkpad.

The blue base card was trimmed down the front edge and then embossed with Cuttlebug's Birds and Swirls folder.
A pink Brilliance Dew Drop Pearlescent Ink Pad was lightly swiped across the embossing and around the edges of the front to emphasise them a bit.
A strip of matching pink cardstock was embossed with a flower border and inked before being mounted on foam pads and stuck to the inside back.
3 dinky blue buttons serve as the centres for the flowers.
The sentiment was cut from a sheet of backing paper (I think it was Claire Curd's Signature Range), matted onto a small piece of pink card and then added underneath the image.

This is my entry for The Pink Elephant Challenge, which this week is a Recipe.
I've never followed a card recipe before so this was a 1st for me but I think I have all the ingredients ...
3 buttons, 2 layers and 1 sentiment.
I'm just pleased to have found time this week to make something to show.

Thanks for visiting and if you have time to leave a comment then that would be very much appreciated.

Fun In The Sun

Hi Everyone!

Like most of the UK we are enjoying some fabulous weather at the moment so I'm taking advantage and have ventured outside into the garden. Hubby did most of the major work when he was home, so I'm just tidying and tweaking but every little bit helps doesn't it?

Am just going to clean the windows (didn't realise how bad they were until the sun tried to shine through them ... *blush*) and hang out the washing before popping out to get some pretties for the window boxes. The hanging baskets have been done for a while but I ran out of enthusiasm before tackling the boxes ... this lovely weather has made me want to do them so better strike while the iron's hot.

Another busy day tomorrow as I have to go to fetch Niall and all his belongings from Edinburgh. We'd hoped to have found him a flat before now but hey ho ... no joy ... so guess what we'll be doing this Summer??

It's our Scottish Bank Holiday tomorrow so Naomi is off school and she will no doubt want to spend time with the horses up at the farm. Hopefully I can get to Edinburgh, do the necessaries and be back before she's ready to come home ... life's all a juggling act 'innit??

Anyway ... hope you are all having a Wonderful Weekend ... wherever you are and whatever you are doing. I'll pop round for a 'look~see' and catch up over the next few days ... if this weather continues it'll only be in the evenings though. Take care xx

Luv'n'Stuff
Max
xx

Make A Wish ...

This simple card was made using plain blue cardstock and papers from 'The Big One' paper stack which is part of the Claire Curd Signature Range.
I gave my new Star Nestabilities their first outing to cut 3 different sizes from blue cardstock and then embossed them with Cuttlebug Swiss Dots. The smallest star was then mounted onto gold mirri card using foam pads.

The brown dotty paper is from 'The Big One' stack and it was cut slightly smaller than a 5" x 7" blue card blank so there would be a narrow border.
The "Make A Wish" text was cut from another sheet of Claire Curd Signature Range paper and matted onto gold mirri card before being stuck to the stars with foam pads.

Inside ...
I again used the graduated sizes of Star Nestibilities with the dotty paper, blue card and gold mirri card, before layering them together and adding a quote.

The challenge this week at Stampin' Chic is to use the colours Brown and Blue, so this will be my entry.

Floral Fancy

Just Another Manic Monday ...
... but I managed to find time to make a card this afternoon and I'm hoping it will be eligible for a couple of challenges.
The layout for the card was determined by The Pink Elephant Challenge 16 which is to follow a great sketch by Robin this week. As always the Design Team over there have provided some fabby inspiration.

The theme this week at One Stop Craft Challenge 30 is 'Vintage' ... so hopefully I can do a double whammy and enter this card for both challenges without breaking any rules.

The background paper is from a DCWV card kit stack and the flowers are Prima to which I have added liquid pearls in the centre.
The vintage image is from a free image site and has been mounted on scalloped gold mirri card. I decided to add some 'faux stitching' by piercing holes around the outer edge and then drawing lines with a gel pen.