A Card for my Father

Here's a card I made a while back, it was for my Father's 60th birthday and was once again inspired by my love of art deco and Rennie Macintosh designs.

Claire

Scrapbook Pages

I have been very lapse in my scrapbooking recently, in fact the only time I have picked up a piece of 12x12 paper in the past few months has been to cut it up to make a card! Here's a double page layout I made to go in a scrapbook which I am going to give as a gift. There are no photo's - I've left all the pages blank so the parents can put in the photo's they choose. This is a mummy and daddy layout, with poems and space for photo's on each page. I have used hand made paper and autumnal colours to embellish round the edges. The poems are printed on vellum and then mounted on matching card. I took the photo's with the pages already in the album which is why they look a bit bent!

Claire

Money Tin

I have been making so many one off cards recently and I keep being paid in change for them. As much as I keep records of all money received I keep putting the coins in my purse and they disappear quickly. So I feel I have nothing to show for all the cards I've sold recently. I've decided to keep all the coins I receive in payment for cards in one place and save it up so that I can buy myself something nice - don't know what yet!

I was going to put the money in a spare purse but then I thought it would be nice to have a special place and decided to make a pot for my 'Card Money'. Here's my money tin which started life as a chopped tomato tin.

Here's a photo of the inside, I thought it looked a bit boring when you looked down on the tin so I added the label to the inside.

All I've got to do now is fill it!

Claire

New Baby Girl

A friend asked me to make a card for her to give to her niece who has just had a baby girl. All my friends seem to have had baby boys so I haven't really got many baby girl embellishments or paper. After a bit of hunting around I found some candy pink stripy paper and a short length of pink footprint ribbon. Obviously the little girls name is Melanie Rose and the letters are once again cut out using my Sproutsies Sizzix alphabet. I love the little bunny rabbit stamp which I got free on the front of a magazine a couple of years ago!

Claire

Some Jewellery

I don't think I have but apologies if I've shown you these before. I used to make quite a lot of jewellery but packed all my bits and pieces away a few years ago and hadn't got them out until earlier this year. I don't really know what inspired me to dust off all my old tools and wire but when I did I couldn't stop making things. In fact the only thing that stopped me was the sore fingers I have developed working with the wire! I made about seven rings all in different styles and colours and have worn them loads of times, here are a few of them.


It was probably about six months ago that I made these and I have to say my jewellery making box has seen the light of day since but just sitting writing this has made me want to get it out again and start creating other pieces of wearable art!

Claire

Art Deco Style ATC's

I made these a while ago but thought I'd show you. I think they are some of my favourite atc's because I have incorporated my favourite stamp and art period. I embossed the stamped image and then coloured them with mica pigments, it was the first time I had used the pigments and they took a bit of getting used to but I was happy with the end result.

I love anything art deco/nouveau. I just think it was a very elegant time and the architecture and design works from the period are stunning. I swapped these on the cm&p forum and asked for the same style in return; the swaps I received were fantastic.

Claire

Another Birthday Card

Here's another card I've made for someone on the birthday list on the CM&P Forum. It is their birthday during August. I love black and white cards and I think the bit of red really makes it stand out, I hope they like it.


Claire

Birthday List

I have recently joined the birthday list on the CM&P Forum. At the end of each month we are sent a list of members names who have birthdays in the following month. We then make and send birthday cards. The rules state that you do not have to send cards to everyone it is completely up to you how many cards you make and send each month. I thought this was a great idea, both the idea of a birthday list and also the fact that you do not have to commit yourself to making loads of cards each month. I am going to try and send to as many people as I can and I also want to try to make each card as individual as possible.

I have made a couple of cards for people who are celebrating birthdays in August, here's the first:


Claire

Anniversary Card

I was asked to make an anniversary card to be given by children to their Grandparents. It had to have the words Grandma and Grandad on it but other than that the design was completely up to me. The people are a Magnolia stamp, I water coloured the image and then cut the people out. I then mounted them on a gate fold card so that when you close it they kiss! I've also added a heart made from a shiny bronze card which I absolutely love, unfortunately the photo doesn't really do the colour of the heart justice. The lettering is a sizzix alphabet called spoutsies.


Post soon
Claire

Going away for a while

Hi all. I am going to be away for a while taking a much needed rest but also doing some consultancy work in Devon; my all time favourite place. I have scheduled posts to appear while I'm away, so do keep coming back. There will be new things appearing here and I'll show you a few bits and pieces I've made recently and haven't as yet got round to blogging.

I am taking the computer but the wifi connection is always very temperamental where I'm going so I won't promise I'll be able to log on but I will try.

Not sure when I'll be back yet but I'll post as soon as I am.
Speak to you all soon
Claire

Party Invitations

I made these a while back for a 21st birthday party. It was an order for 75 invites and at the time I didn't realise how fiddley they were going to be. I really like the design but it's not something I would do in bulk again. Having said that I thoroughly enjoyed making them and was very pleased with the finished result.

Claire

Another Birthday Card

I seem to have had a load or orders for individual cards recently. I'm still working on large wedding stationary orders but I love to do one off cards as well. I was asked to make a card for a birthday girl who was going to be 8. I was asked to put her name and age on the card and was also told she likes mermaids. So I came up with this:

The mermaid spins freely as you turn the card. This is the first time I had attempted a spinner card and I was all ready for it to go wrong but amazingly it worked first time! I am really pleased with the way it turned out and I love the lettering which is another Sizzix alphabet set.

Claire

Falling Behind

I feel like the little things are getting on top of me at the moment. The vintage vehicle swaps I showed you a while back are still sitting on my desk waiting for a RAK for the host and then to be posted. I'm keeping up with the big orders but the little things seem to be getting left behind. For this reason I am dedicating some time today to finishing off all the bits and pieces I have started. It seemed as good a place as any to start - so I have made the RAK for Sally the host of the vintage vehicle swap, there is a photo below:

I've really got into free hand doodling as a design embellishment on cards at the moment so I thought I'd give it a go on an ATC. I like the result but I think it needs something else I'm just not sure what that something is!

Claire

ATC Competition

Last month I entered a competition; we had to make an ATC using recycled materials. The competition was hosted by Gilligogs on the CM&P Forum. I made an art doll style mermaid, with moving arms, head and tail. She is much too large for an ATC but when folded up fits perfectly. I made the tail and her bikini top out of a flattened fizzy drink can, used a magazine picture for her head and also for the background and old sandpaper for the beach. Here she is unfolded:

Once all entries were in voting opened and was open to all members of the forum. The entries were all fantastic and I really didn't think I'd get many votes at all. If I am honest I didn't really like how she turned out, to me there is just something wrong, in fact I didn't send it in for a while because I just didn't think it was good enough. However, I am proud to say I came second but best of all I won the special prize from Gilligogs for the most unusual piece of recycling - the tin can. I was so chuffed to have won this and today my prize arrived. I want to say a great big thank you to Gilligogs for the fantastic papers she sent I am already thinking of all the things I could make using my wonderful prize.

Claire

My First Edwin

I showed you my first ever card made using a Tilda image the other day, now I've made my first ever Edwin card! I think I could very easily become addicted to these Magnolia stamps they are very cute and there seems to be one for just about every occasion. The only problem being I think I'd go bankrupt if I bought all the ones I like!

I was asked to make this card by a colleague; it's for her friend. When she said his hobby was fishing I immediately thought of Edwin. As I said before - I find it more difficult making cards for men but I am happy with how this one has turned out.

Claire

I am covered.....

in glitter!! I have just finished two birthday cards for one year old twins. One of my Mother's colleagues asked me to make these for her friends twin boys. She told me they liked anything to do with CBeebies but especially Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine so that is what they got! I stuck to nice bright colours and glittered the number one's hence why I am now covered in glitter. Thomas and Bob are both decoupaged and I cut the letters for the boys names out using the Sizzix machine. I love my Sizzix but I just don't get it out and use it enough. I always find it doesn't matter how many dies I have I've never got exactly what I want, however I love this alphabet and I think it is just right for the cards!

Here are the finished cards:

Post soon

Claire

Another Blog Candy Alert

There is blog candy up for grabs on Nikki's blog which is here. In order to enter the competition you have to make a card using at least one of the each of the following:

• Flower
• Button
• Ribbon
• Patterned Paper

Here is the card I have come up with which I think covers everything it has to:

This is the first card I've made with a Tilda image and I love her although I think I need more practice shading using water colours. I think I have used everything I was meant to; the background paper is patterned, there is a piece of black ribbon behind the image, I've used 2 yellow buttons as the flower centres and you can't miss the flowers!! I am really happy with how the card turned out.

Congratulations on a fantastic blog and thank you Nikki for hosting the competition and for giving us all the chance of winning some candy.

Claire

Vintage Vehicle ATC's

I have joined an atc swap on the CM&P Forum being hosted by Sally. It is for four atc's in the theme of 'Vintage Vehicles'. I have made my four atc's, choosing 2 steam trains, a car and a steam liner as my vintage vehicles. Here they are:

Sorry the photo is not great, I took it in a room I don't usually use for photography and the light is awful! Hope you like the atc's though.

Claire

Final never-ending card page

I've finally finished the card, it didn't really take that long if you add all the time I've spent on it together. It is just that I have so much to do at the moment that I could only spend a few minutes on it each day. This is the fourth and final side of the card. I'm really happy with the end result although the finished card has now become quite heavy!! This is certainly something I will do again.


I just can't stop flipping the card, it really is a clever way of putting a card together.

Claire

Next never-ending card page

Here's the third page. I can't believe how much time it is taking to fully decorate this card, it's certainly not something you could do in a hurry! One more page to go, hopefully I'll have that done for tomorrow.


Claire

Blog Candy Alert

There's some fantastic blog candy up for grabs over on Heather's Blog. Go and have a look and don't forget to have a look through all her wonderful creations while your there.

Claire

Inside my never-ending card

Finally it's stopped raining although it doesn't look like it is going to stay away for long, maybe it will brighten up for the weekend. I managed to find some time yesterday and have decorated the first section of my never-ending card. There's still quite a lot to go and I'll show you as I progress.

Claire

Another Birthday

It seems lots of my friends were born in June and July so I have yet another birthday card, which I have made, to show you. I was struggling for inspiration but knew I wanted to use my new Paper Mania Simply Elegant papers, so I had a look on the Docrafts website and came across a template which I thought was lovely. The template is here if anyone wants it. I've not really experimented with freehand doodling on cards before so I thought it would be a bit of a challenge.

Here is my finished card:



I love the colours and I'm happy with my doodled borders but I think if I ever did it again I would make the pink scalloped edge shallower, if you see what I mean! I love the flower and the button in the centre, I rarely use buttons even though I have a huge stash of them but I think this has inspired me to reach for the button box a bit more often.

Post soon

Claire

My first never-ending card

Another horrible day here today, it's still raining, it seems like it hasn't stopped now for weeks. I'm still hopeful that summer is yet to arrive but sadly I think the few nice days we had about a month ago may have been our summer!

I have seen never-ending cards being demonstrated before but have never really had the time to look into how to make them. Then yesterday a message was posted on the cm&p forum saying there was a video tutorial available here. Well, I watched it and thought it didn't look as difficult as I had imagined so I thought I'd give it a go. I've made the basic card and have decorated most of the front, although I think it needs something extra. Here's what it looks like so far.

The ribbons and the bold flowers are bright pink but for some reason look red in the photo. I've run out of time and need to be doing other things but I will complete the card and I'll blog the photos as and when I progress. If you follow the link to the tutorial there is also a competition you can enter to win some stamps.

Claire

Another Birthday Card

I was asked to make another card like the dressing room card I made last week. It is much the same but it has the birthday girls name on rather than an age and the inside has some slight variations. I really enjoyed making this card and like the finished result, even though it is quite a time consuming card to produce.

Here's the front:

And the inside:

Hope you like it.

Claire

June Mystery Swap ATC's

I hosted another mystery swap last month and as the closing date has just been and gone I've been sorting out the swaps and getting them all in the post. As before each person who signed up to the swap was then told what they had to use on their atc's. This month the three items which had to be used in some way were:

• A safety pin
• A pipe cleaner/chenille stem
• A J-cloth

Everyone's atc's were excellent as always with some very ingenious ideas of how to use the objects. Here's what I came up with:

I love the little kilt which is made out of pleated paper, but I'm not so happy with the other two. I found the items quite difficult to use especially as I hadn't started making mine until I had already received quite a few from other people and I was determined to come up with something different to everyone elses! Hope whoever receives them likes them.

Claire

Half way there!

I had to share my news. I'm half way there!

What am I talking about - the dreaded diet. I decided a while ago enough was enough and I needed to lose some weight in order to feel comfortable in myself and to hopefully be able to get into all my clothes which have been gradually moved to the back of my cupboard when they no longer fitted. I still live in my little cloud of denial that really it was all my clothes shrinking and not me expanding!! But I am determined they will fit again or in fact if I reach my goal they will be too big.

Anyway I set myself a target of a two and a half stone weight loss and today I have reached 1 stone and 4 pounds lost so I am half way there - yay!

Bye for now from a really happy
Claire

Birthday Card

I was asked to make a birthday card for a colleagues husband today. She told me his hobby/interest was scuba diving and asked if I could incorporate that and his name in some way. I decided on a humorous cartoon type image of a scuba diver and then simply added 'Happy Birthday Sandeep'. I think it is quite a simple card but I always find cards for men harder to make.

Here it is!

The caption under the picture reads 'Don't eat the hard bits on the back, they'll give you gas'.

Post soon
Claire

Black and White Inchies

As you know I hosted and took part in an inchie swap recently. I thought the inchies I received were fantastic and didn't want to hide them away in a box or such like. So I have decorated a frame and framed them all, they now have pride of place in my workroom above my notice board. Here's a picture of all the inchies I received, some are RAK's which were sent to me for hosting the swap and there are also a couple of extra ones of mine.

I hope you'll all agree they are fabulous and look great displayed in the frame, I'm really pleased with it and really appreciate every one's hard work that went into making them. I'm going to enjoy looking at it when I'm in the work room and am looking forward to displaying more of the swaps I have received.

Claire