Pretty Flowers

Decided to be ruthless the other day and began bundling up all the craft magazines I have accumulated over the years with a view to getting rid.   Surprise, surprise! ... I came across some pretty My Mind's Eye papers tucked inside a pile of mags hiding under the bed.  So I picked out a couple of sheets of my favourite design and made a few cards. 
 
The first is a Get Well card for my daughter's school friend who is recovering from recent surgery.  I cut a panel of paper and adhered it to a DL card blank.  The cute bear image reminds me of Boofle and was recycled from a 2012 calender which I cut out before adding some sparkle and the simple greeting is from the Personal Impressions stamp set - Double Sayings.  A few adhesive gems, and flowers add a touch of additional bling. 

A really simple but effective card idea is to take a square of design paper, mat it onto a slightly larger piece of coordinating card, (leaving a small border), and place it in the centre of a square card blank.  Then I added a stamped greeting from a set by Country Companions, (another magazine freebie found under the bed!), adhesive gems and a couple of pretty butterfly embellishments - job done!  Fingers crossed that this one qualifies for entry into DCC410 over at The House That Stamps Built but they're looking for Clean and Simple so this may be a wee bit too fussy.  No matter though 'cause I still like it and it does work for the Flutter By Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes 'cause there are 2 butterflies.

Finally I took one of the offcuts, matted and layered it onto pink, then knotted some pretty satin ribbon around the panel before matting onto white linen and silver mirri card.  A 2nd panel was created from the last remaining scrap of pink card matted onto silver and white linen panels, then decorated with gorgeous wire flower embellishments. 
Following the A313 Sketch Challenge at The House That Stamps Built, both panels were then glued into place on an A5 white linen card blank before ovelapping them with a stamped greeting from the same freebie set as before.  Pink adhesive gems add a little bit of blingy balance.

Am off to explore blogland and see what everyone else has been up to this week.

WELL!

After announcing my intentions to blog more regularly and join in with some challenges again, wouldn't you just know that the 'real world' would scupper those plans.
February flew past before I could even blink ..... March stomped in boldly and then charged out again taking Easter and Mother's Day with it ..... and as for April!   It's advanced at an alarming speed and is showing no inclination of slowing down any time soon!  
Sooooo ... I've decided to make some marks here before May makes it's presence felt or I get jumped by June.

Let's get things rolling with a card for
Crafter's Companion UK April Challenge - Flowers

I had printed off one of their free Valentine downloads, but never got around to actually making anything with it, so thought I'd just see if I could make it work for this challenge. 
Simple flower embellishments were made by cutting out some of the hearts and curling the edges. They make perfect petals when glued together to form a circle.  The large flower centre was made by snipping into one of the printed border strips and then gluing it onto a small punched circle ... both flowers were then decorated with a coordinating button to finish.   The fancy flourish doubles up as a very pretty leaf don't you think?  Hero Arts stamps provide the simple greetings and the little birdy gets a wing from half a leftover heart.

Inside is simply decorated with one of the downloaded backing papers matted onto black card and finished off top and bottom with pieces of the border strip. 
So there you are ... that's how you use a Valentine themed download for a flower challenge. I'd also like to submit to the following challenges...
Ladybug Crafts - Leap Into Spring 
Brown Sugar Challenge - Spring 
Crafts and Me Challenge - Spring Flowers 
Crafting For All Seasons - Floral Delight 
Allsorts - Spring Has Sprung 
Here are a few of the other cards I was busy with in February ... it was a fairly heavy month for special landmark birthdays with numbers on.

My Nephew became a teen

My Brother celebrated being 21 ... with 29 years experience!

For Naomi's bowling pal

Fizzy Moon For My Niece

A bit of Decoupage

**SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT**

I cannot finish without telling you that after 4 cancelled bookings since September 2012 due to bad weather, my 17 year old daughter Naomi finally got to do her Skydive from 10,000 feet on 23rd February 2013, raising well over £1000 for Edinburgh Sick Kids Foundation. 

Proud doesn't even come close!

If you'd like to see the awesome footage click on the photo.  The music is muted so as not to breach copyright.

Back To Blogland

YOWZA!
Where did 2012 go in such a hurry?
It's been such a long time since any crafty blogging has happened here ... so thank you to all the faithful followers who haven't jumped ship during my absence. 
It's fair to say that 2012 was a barren year for activity here at MCC,  although 'real life' was anything but ... being pretty hectic at times and frequently verging on chaotic!  My biggest problem was finding the time and enthusiasm to deal with it all effectively following my surgery. 

The intention for 2013 is to be more organised in all areas of my life and hopefully my mind will follow suit ... so fingers crossed I'll be able to do all the things I want to do, both crafty and otherwise and still have enough time and energy to share snippets of it all with everyone.

But  ... before that and to kick things off, allow me to share just a few of my 2012 cards that didn't get an airing. 
If you have any questions about techniques or supplies used, then leave a message and I'll do my best to answer your query.

Babies

(Kanban Kit)

(Stamping and Embossing)

(Stamping and Embossing)

(Stamping, Inking and Mirri Card)

(Inside View)

(Digital Stamping and Promarkers)

(Digital Image and Stamping)

(Inside View)

Birthdays

(Digital Image and Computer Sentiment)

(Inside View)

(Kanban Kit)

(Inside View)

(Kanban Kit with Butterfly Embellishment)

(Inside View)

(Kanban Kit and 3D Elements)

(Kanban Kit and Diamante Ribbon Buckle)

(Kanban Kit, Pearls and Glitter Paper)

(Inside View)

(Kanban Kit and Cupcake Wrapper Decoration)

(Inside View)

(Kanban Kit, Mirri Card and Ribbon)

(Inside View)

(Doodling and Stickles)

(Inside View)

(Easel Card and Diecutting)

(Recycling)

(inside View)

(Digital Stamp, Paper Roses and Ribbon)

Other Occasions

(Embossing and Stickles)

(Inside View)

(Kanban Kit with Black and Gold)

(Inside View)

Blooming June ...

... and it's tipping down!  Typical!
Have got loads'a' birthdays and other celebrations, including Father's Day, this month which means loads'a' cards to make so here are a couple of today's efforts to kick things off.

The first is for a special friend whose birthday is in a couple of weeks time.

An 'Elegant Ladies' Kanban kit  from QVC provided everything needed for this large A4 card except for the inside decoration, where I used some K. and Co. papers matted onto gold mirri card for the decoration and a FunStamps Happy Birthday Wish greeting.  

The smaller ... and much cuter ... card below was inspired by Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 22 which requires entrants to combine our least and most favourite colours.  Hmmmmm ... might be some unusual colour combinations for this one!
Actually, there aren't really any colours I don't like but I chose ORANGE as my least favourite option simply because I very rarely use it.  Obviously BLACK was my most favourite choice.  YES ... I know it is a contrast not a colour, but the challenge rules say it can be included ... PHEW!

The cute little characters are from Penny Black 'Hugs' set and are coloured with Promarkers ... as are the roses which started life a bland cream colour until I attacked them with vanilla and bright orange.  
The zingy orange/yellowy papers are Papermania Sunshine Collection which have been cut with Spellbinder Nestabilities and matted onto black card.  You'll just have to trust me that they are much brighter in real life as the photo doesn't show how vibrant they are - it is really dull and rainy here today and my camera skills leave a lot to be desired so probably that explains that.
The layout follows the Pixie Cottage Challenge 20 - Sketch and using buttons and flowers allows me to enter Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge 85 - Buttons and Blooms too.  Hopefully the weather will improve as the month progresses and we will experience some 'Summer Delights', which is the theme at Cupcake Craft Challenges 93 this week so am going to sneak in there too. 
So ... 'til the next time, take care and hope you have all enjoy a Terrific Tuesday, wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

Mother Love

I recently showed you some birthday lunch invitations made for a friend whose mother was celebrating her 90th birthday and the only instruction was that I must use green.  Last week I was asked to make a card and, once again, the simple brief was to make sure I used green.

The main background papers are predominantly green ... the ribbon is definitely green ... but I added just a hint of pink flowers for an accent colour.
The base card is 8" x 8" and the lovely double-sided background paper is from a K.& Co. collection.  The smaller panel is embossed using a swirls cuttlebug folder and the pretty paper flowers are from Prima.  Adhesive pearls were added to the centres and also to the embossed swirls.   K.& Co. alphabet stickers mounted onto nestability ovals create the simple greeting and gold mirri card is used for matting all the layers.

The remaining patterned paper matted onto more gold mirri card was used to decorate inside and the sentiment is a rub on transfer.
There are several challenges for which this card qualifies and they are listed below.
The Pixie Cottage #15 - Mother's Day/Special Lady
A Spoonful of Sugar #100 - Happy Birthday
A Crafter's Companion #8 - 3D Project
Creative Card Crew #48 - Happy Birthday