DEN'S CRAFTY DEN

Birthdays, birthdays ....

2010-04-25T21:53:00.003+01:00

I was so pleased with this notelet, I actually made two of them as I'd inked a whole A4 paper. The intention was to send it to my gorgeous Godmother, Janet who lives in Shrewsbury. She recently felt quite ill suddenly and this was her get well card. I hope I made her day as I stuffed it full of photos and good wishes. In case you read this, get well soon Janet, thinking of you always. x

As I was saying, I was so pleased with it I couldn't resist making the other one for my lovely friend Tina, whose birthday was this week. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TINA!!!! I hope you had a brilliant day. x The card was made with three distress inks, milled lavendar, broken china and shabby shutters. I was quite recently taught better ways with inks and stuff by Linda Elbourne, www.acraftingjourney.blogspot.com who is brilliant at all that and I decided to spray mist my white pearly glimmer mist onto my swirly stamp and subsequently onto the blended inks to complete the background. It worked a treat so I am going to try different colours on some new cards in the next few weeks. I completed the card by ripping a rectangle and twice wrapping it with white organza ribbon, stamping a tree branch and birdy in black staz-on. To be honest I think it would have looked better in brown but you live and learn .....! I inked shabby shutters around the very outside of the card, stuck it all together and was pleased with the result. I hope you like it.

Over the next couple of months, I should be blogging a few more cards than usual: A friend of mine is having a charity day at her salon to raise money for children who are born with cleft palates in third world countries so she is going to sell some of my cards on the day too ... of course, all proceeds will go to her charity. She is hoping to raise £500 which will help 4 children to get much needed operations to correct them. So, it's busy busy busy for me ... watch this space!!!

It was Alison's birthday ... that came round quick again! Yes, yes, I know it was in February but I've only just managed to take photos of one of her birthday presents. I made her a tissue box to match her lounge. She was so pleased with it and I was so thrilled that when the girls and I went there for dinner recently, it was full of tissues and she was actually using it!!!! Isn't it brill, when a plan comes together like that?! I used some delicious papers bought from www.scrapbooksisters.co.uk especially for that use, covered it in full, went over the patter in glossy accents to brighten it up a little, added some ink to the edges, some minky coloured pearly stones and minky coloured ribbon. Et voila, one tissue box and a very happy friend!

Congratulations to my dear friend

2010-03-16T10:59:00.012Z

Yes YOU!!!!! Lisa!!! Many congratulations on making the huge decision to purchase your new home. This is the card I made for Lisa. She has very classic taste and I thought my new stamps bought for me by one of my lovely crafting friends for my birthday (thank you :-) ) would suit her perfectly. She loved it. I used background papers, walnut stain ink for the chair and chandelier and used gold glimmer mist. A brown ribbon in the corner and clear stones finish it off nicely. Good luck Lisa - I know you'll be very happy in your new home. x This is Louise's birthday card. Louise is the owner of Riley who is my Border Collie (Cassey's) husband!!! As many of you know, they both parented a litter of 9 pups on 5th November last year and all are doing very well. It is also lovely that we have made new friends with Louise and her lovely family. So thank you Louise and Happy Birthday. x The style of this card is similar to that I am choosing to make at the moment. Once I get my teeth into a style, I don't let go for a little while as the compliments keep coming!!!! Thank you for taking a sneaky peek at my blog.

Cards, cards & more cards!

2010-03-16T10:33:00.005Z

My oh my what a busy bee I've been. I've had a little more time on my hands due to lack of sleep at the moment and I've been making a few cards and keeping my new year's resolution in check. I cannot believe how good I've been. Making them on time, posting them on time and the happy recipients have been receiving them on time!!! Wow, it's just not like me!! Have I turned over a new leaf? Not yet I don't think ... wait til this time next year and if I've stuck to my guns then the 'good' habit will be well and truly affirmed. Here is a sneaky peak at what I've been doing. This is an 18th birthday card for one of my best friend's daughters. I have known Lisa since we were 11 so that was .... well, so many I've lost count!!! So her daughter, Rebecca and mine, Nathalie, although miles apart and don't see each other, have grown up in parallel worlds. I cannot believe where the time goes. Life seems to just fly by so quickly, there's no time to take it all in. Just goes to show, we must cherish every moment we are rewarded with. Anyway the card was made with the beautiful Pretty Please, another collection from My Mind's Eye. I punched out some large squares, laid them next to each other on the card and used a grey Marvy LePlume to draw (yes I cheated and drew ...!) the faux stitches. I used my Cricut for the 18, used double sided to lay some lovely matching ribbon and made a fan flower again with one of the papers. I siliconed a button on to the top and used a quickie glue pen and glamour dust round the edges of the 18. Et voila, an 18th birthday card. Simples!!!

2010-02-08T16:06:00.005Z

Hayley's card: made with My Mind's Eye papers Pretty Please, Cricut, glossy accents and ribbon. Amy's patchwork card: My Mind's Eye - Pretty Please papers, large and small square hole punch, black pen (faux stitching), cricut, glossy accents, ribbon. Hello fellow bloggers! Well well ... I am totally sticking to my new year's resolution - making sure my friends and family not only get their birthday cards but get them ON TIME too!!!! It's brilliant! I feel chuffed with myself as I have done just that so far and made 99.9% of them. The 0.1% is for the humorous cards I have taken to ordering off moonpig.com and boy, do they do some funny cards! New for 2010 I have something in the pipeline that may be good for all those people emigrating abroad, especially Spain and the Med where there are no card shops. Watch this space!!! Daren is also doing well with his newly formed website www.smartcarz.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk where he is transforming every day ordinary cars to personalised modified fantasy cars. He is really working hard and has some great ideas for 2010. Well here are a few cards I have made for this week: Firstly, it was my second cousin's 18th birthday and the girls' fellow dancer, Hayley's 16th birthday so here are their cards. I am also going to give you a little peek of my lovely friend and fellow crafter, Andrea's birthday card but have patience, that will come after her birthday which is Wednesday of this week. So it's party time .... my lovely craft friends are coming for a buffet lunch on Friday for mine and Andrea's birthdays and I am really looking forward to seeing them all :-))))) The birthday hats and balloons will be out and hopefully nothing will spoil the day - not even a drift of snow!!!! Cross fingers, touch wood etc etc ......!!!! So I'll bid you all farewell and leave you with the piccies I promised.

New Year's Resolutions ...

2010-01-12T23:10:00.005Z

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Better late than never as I always say ...! A new year's resolution of mine is to definitely craft more but to actually make my cards on time and for the recipients to actually receive them on time also (whoops!) I am so terrible at remembering birthdays, I usually remember them weeks before and then the date comes and goes and I forget thinking that when I did remember them weeks before, it was far far too early. It just goes out of my mind. So I suppose this is an apology really to all my friends and family who have had their birthday cards late in the past (and that's probably 99.9% of them) and hopefully, I will stick to my guns and make and send well in time for 2010.

An 80th birthday card

2009-08-17T11:11:00.009+01:00

At last I'm back! As you can see I haven't posted in a while. It's been a very busy summer for us .... I thought I was going to have to work all summer but we have been up north visiting relatives in the first part of the summer hols, we have just returned (sadly) back to Kent from the most loveliest place in Cornwall where we stayed in a cottage for a week and next week, we are off again to West Sussex to dog and house-sit for relatives. Cornwall was lovely though. It was just minutes from the gorgeous Daymer Bay where we laid on the beach every other day. Aaaaah bliss .... how I wish we were back there. There's always next year! :-) We visited lots of nice places in Cornwall, places we have been before but we cannot resist another visit .... Port Isaac, Padstow, Boscastle, we went in some lovely shops and ate in some brilliant restaurants.

When we went up north, we stayed just outside Uttoxeter in a converted barn, for bed and breakfast. We were made to feel very welcome, the rooms were gorgeously decorated, the beds were very comfortable, I would definitely go back again. It was a great place http://www.bandbthegrangestaffs.co.uk/and just a couple of miles from Alton Towers with all the stunning countryside.

Before I went to Cornwall, I was asked if I would make a 'wine' card for a male 80th birthday. Mmmmm .... I was challenged on this one. I remember one of my girls used wine papers for her French project last year but thought she didn't have any left. I was stumped. So off I went to visit my lovely friends in http://www.scrapbooksisters.co.uk/ for inspiration and a helping hand and I wasn't disappointed. There was nothing to be had at that time in the form of 'wine' in the shop, but the most beautiful new papers in, with colours you would like to eat so of course I had to spend a little whilst I was there ..... how could I possibly resist???!!!! One of the girls so kindly gave me a wine card from which I took my inspiration for this card. A million thank yous girls ...... I will return the card very soon when no doubt, I will find even more lovely things to buy!!!!

Luckily, after a little search when I got home, I managed to find the rest of the 'wine' paper that Lianne had used for her project so I set to work. The card is made with a Basic Grey background and the bottle and glass is decoupaged, although it is not clear in the photo. I marked faux stiches round the edge of the card and printed the greeting on my computer, then inked it in a matching green color box ink. I finished off with some green gro-grain ribbon.

My first Magnolia!

2009-06-16T20:26:00.003+01:00

I never have enough time for crafting. A year ago, I purchased quite a few Magnolia stamps after having seen Andrea's stamps and the lovely cards she made with them. http://www.inkingfeeling.blogspot.com/. So this is my first Magnolia card. June is a very busy month for me in the way of birthdays and this is for my second cousin Emily. I have to say a huge thank you to Andrea - she has been absent from crafting for a while and she kindly lent me her cuttlebug and bits and bobs to go with it. Thank you Andrea! And this is the first result, hopefully of many.

Happy Birthday Hels!

2009-06-14T21:25:00.005+01:00

I cannot believe a year has passed since I made the last card for Hels, but it certainly has - HAPPY BIRTHDAY HELS! I know I am a day late but I really wanted to blog your card. I love it, cupcakes, iced cakes and any cakes are just my kind of thing, I am sure you will find it easy to agree with me ;-) Yet again I have used my beloved Joanna Sheen cupcake stamp with cake stand. I coloured them all in using sakuras but used them as water colours, so they weren't so vivid. Some of the cakes are also covered in glossy accents to give them a bit of a sheen. I matted on candy pink glitter card, matted again on gorgeous striped paper by doodlebug designs and wrapped an organza ribbon underneath before laying the cakes on top. I printed out a greeting on the computer, matted it on candy pink and placed. I added a few lilac glittered bubble circles and edged in white glamour dust to finish it off. Yummy scrummy!!!

I am sorry the card doesn't photograph very well, the splatterings of glitter have reflected back from the flash.

Wishing the very best of luck to Andrea & Sophie!!!

2009-05-13T22:59:00.002+01:00

It's the 26 mile Moonwalk, Walk the Walk on Saturday from midnight and my friend Andrea, who has, in the past 10 months, lost a staggering 5 stone, is going to take part with her daughter Sophie. Nathalie and I decorated the said bras as a gesture as they are doing it for a very good cause and together have been sponsored for nearly £2,500. We wish them very best of luck and cross fingers it does not rain. xxx

Happy Birthday Mummy!!!

2009-05-08T11:49:00.009+01:00

My beautiful dear ole Mum will be ** on Sunday! Better not reveal her age, but I am sure some of you remember her special birthday :-) Anyway, this is her card from us .... the most used stamp in my collection, a Joanna Sheen stamp. I love cupcakes yummy and I just love the whole theme of cupcakes, cake stands, scones & cream on white linen table cloths with a nice cup of earl grey! It's that time of year again and it reminds me of my holidays spent in Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. I've spent many a summer eating Clotted cream, homemade jam and scones in a cosy little tea shop not far from the sea, among my favourite places being Lyme Regis, Polperro, Padstow, Port Isaac and Mevagissey. Oh gosh ... my imagination is wandering - if only I could be there now, come rain or shine.

Well that's your mind wandering as well by now ....! I haven't blogged for a while so I thought I would blog my Mum's Birthday card. I've used K & Co Sparkly Sweet papers with Sakura pens, water-coloured onto the cupcakes themselves. I printed out a greeting on my computer and inked round the edges with chalk inks. Hope Mum likes my card. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!

Happy Birthday Linda!

2009-03-19T16:56:00.006Z

This is a picture of my friend Linda's birthday card. Her birthday is early next week but tomorrow there are a few of us going out for lunch to celebrate. The card was made with My Mind's Eye - Bloom & Grow. It is a lovely collection with flowers, stems and a little damask all in greens and oranges. I cut the flowers from the middle sized pattern and secured them with eyelets. I stamped a small butterfly in green ink. Hope Linda likes her card. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDA!!!

A friend's birthday present

2009-03-19T16:45:00.007Z

It wasn't until the other day when I made the post below, that I realized I hadn't posted for over a month! Then it sunk in .... I hadn't done any real crafting for over a month either. As well as time flying, I never seem to have any at the moment, temporarily working full time and all. Well this afternoon I had to craft. As well as Mother's Day coming up on Sunday, I have 2 friends' birthdays over the weekend.

Anyway firstly I wanted to blog the scrapbook page I promised to. I bought a workshop as a birthday present for Alison who I'd previously made the canvas for and this is what we did! It was 12 x 12 acetate, a little sewing, we stamped acetate flowers, we used liquid pearls and learnt how to make some shabby flowers. We didn't have enough time to finish on the night, so last night Alison came over and we spent the evening finish off our projects and had an enjoyable evening. Alison used a picture of the hotel on Burgh Island where she was married to Brian last October. I used a bit more of an older picture of my girls who were then 12 and 9 when they were bridesmaids on our wedding day on 27th May 2005. Where does the time go .....? I hope you like them.

Team Kennard Walks the Walk

2009-03-16T13:37:00.004Z

After battling to lose weight a good friend of mine Andrea Kennard, I met through crafting nearly 4 years ago is beginning another battle: Along with her 16 year old daughter Sophie who is supporting her, she is in the middle of training for The annual Moonwalk. During the last 8 months, Andrea has been strong enough to lose over 5 stone. After caring for her family through 9 years of illness, sadly, Andrea's friend Marion lost her battle with cancer and she is now the inspiration for Andrea doing the Moonwalk. Andrea is still there for the family Marion left behind. Andrea's full story can be read in Chat magazine at the end of April but if you would like to help Andrea reach her goal and help find the cure for cancer, you are welcome to make a donation. Every little helps. Thank you. http://www.justgiving.com/andreaplussophie

My first canvas

2009-01-29T12:04:00.003Z

I've taken the plunge once again. This is my very first canvas for a very special friend's birthday coming up this weekend. She is an absolute shopaholic so I thought instead of using my many flower stamps, I would dig out my 'style' stamps of shoes and handbags. I am pleased with the result. I have used the colours of her house - chocolate brown and teal blue - so that it won't be hard to decide where she puts it. (Presuming she likes it that much, of course!!!) I used brown staz-on, sea breeze versamagic, aqua shade petal point inks and walnut stain distress ink. I UTEEd the stampbords after inking and stamping and set them on the canvas with silicone adhesive. I embellished the canvas with adhesive pearl cabouchons from http://www.scrappit.com.au/ where you will find every colour under the sun!!! I hope my friend likes it and I thank you for looking and welcome any comments. Denize

Birds, Bees, Butterflies and trees ... all add up to nature

2009-01-16T21:34:00.011Z

Happy New Year to everyone! Well, it's certainly been a while and I didn't realize just how long! Thanks for coming back. A lot has happened in the last few weeks. Obviously Christmas which was quiet in this house as I was suffering with a chest infection. It didn't ruin our Christmas, I did what I could in the cooking department and my gorgeous husband Daren enjoyed running around for me! It is much appreciated and although still not 100% better, I am up and about and doing stuff again now including some crafting! I managed to make around 90% of my Christmas cards, which I was really pleased with but some of them were posted in the very last post!!!! I am sure they got to their recipients in the end.

A really brilliant thing that happened to me over Christmas is I won a Cricut Expression from my favourite craft shop http://www.scrapbooksisters.co.uk/ in the raffle. When Daren and I went to pick it up, the lovely sisters, Karen and Julie treated me like a VIP and took some photos. It was so lovely, a huge huge thank you to them. It is brilliant to know it was all for charity too. I never usually win anything and was major chufties. I definitely had to have a tidy up and a move around in my craft room to house it! It is now in pride of place and I cannot wait to experiment and play.

The other thing that I was chuffed about was when I was watching the QVC craft day on 21st December, feeling ill, very low, coughing, weazing and enjoying the whole day of craft, they were demonstrating Sakura gel pens. All of a sudden, I saw my Christmas Card I had sent to Dawn Bibby and she was showing that I had used the pens on the card and how lovely they looked. She opened it and read my name out!!! I was shocked, never expected it, but all the same, flattered. It was one of the ones below with the snowy village. I later received a Christmas card from her.

By now, I have done a little bit of crafting and I thought I would share some piccies with you. This is my fourth tissue box and it is for a very special friend. I won't say too much as she may guess it's for her - she hasn't received it yet! It seemed to take me ages to do - I just kept looking at it, and looking at it, trying to gain inspiration. I got all my stamps out and decided on a 'nature' theme. I made some background paper using Distress Inks and gold Tattered Angels. I firstly cut out all the paper for the sides and top of the box and stamped the images in black Stazon. I inked the same distress inks and stamped some different images on 1-inch stampbord again in black Stazon. I used Walnut stain distress ink on the edges of the tissue box and then put all the paper/stampbord together onto the tissue box. I used some black stones for the owl's eyes. All I have to do now is get a new box of tissues to grace the box!

My snowy village

2008-12-21T17:17:00.006Z

These are two of the types of cards I have been sending out this year. I stamped the snowy village stamp on patterned paper, cut it out carefully and used white gel pen for the snowy areas. When dry I went over it with a glue pen and covered in glamour dust which is gorgeous uber fine glitter (that gets absolutely everywhere!) but gives a lovely finish. Meanwhile I stamped matching coloured snowflakes onto the card and stamped the icicle words Merry Christmas onto the card. Coloured in the words with matching sukura gel pens and did the same for the snowy tops. I put it altogether and voila ... waited for it to dry!!!

A snowy Christmas

2008-12-11T11:25:00.005Z

I am not sure it's going to be a snowy Christmas, but one thing's for sure - I hope it is!!! I love Christmas, I think all us Mums love Christmas, the shopping, the Santa visit, choosing the right crackers, Turkey, mince pies, the right colour decorations to go on the tree, and all the fine details. And it's just 14 days to go and still I have only made a dozen Christmas cards! Yikes ... best I get a moving. Well, the good news is, I just have a couple of Christmas prezzies yet to get ... phew, now for the wrapping .......!

Here's another card, made with Hels' Stichels snowman.

2008-12-01T22:29:00.005Z

Well, I know, I know, it is now December and I am definitely supposed to have finished all my Christmas cards by now. All in all I have about 120 to make but I usually end up making around 30 just for the 'special' ones. It is my mission at the moment to get further than 30 this year. All the time I have birthdays, I am not doing well though!!! So here's another birthday card. It is for another special friend a different Lisa, who emigrated to Spain at the beginning of the year and I miss her. I have only seen her 3 times this year as she is coming back every now and then. I have been making her birthday card for her this evening and this is what I have come up with. Firstly I stamped Stampendous Agapanthus Bloom all over the card with perfect medium stamp. I crystal embossed it and inked it over first around the edges, with Raisen Adirondack. Then I clear embossed a piece of stampboard with the stamp and another piece, the Happy Birthday stamp, and did the same to both with the ink and cut and dry foam. I pieced it all together, placing ribbon under the greeting and edged it with the thick Sukura Gold pen. Happy Birthday Lisa! x

Christmas again ....

2008-11-23T19:18:00.007Z

Thanks for returning to my blog. It just goes to show Christmas is coming, we had a nice inch of snow this morning, enough to 'play' in but not enough to keep the children off school!!! :-) By lunch time it warmed up and began to rain and all the snow melted, much to my disappointment. I hope we get a white Christmas this year, it would be amazing. I only remember a couple of white ones when I was very little. We had a lovely big garden and couldn't wait to get out there and play. It wasn't long before our teeth were chattering and we wanted to come in again!!

Here are anothe couple of simple Christmas cards. Both were stamped with clear gluepad and heat embossed with cosmic shimmer holographic glitter embossing powder.

For the snowflake card, I inked 3 large snowflakes and stampbord, embossed as with the background snowflakes, inked the edge of the card and stuck into place. Added papermania clear adhesive stones.

For the stichels snowman card I stamped him on white card with lilac staz-on, cut him out and coloured him in with lilac and jade sukura pens. I added sticky ribbons in matching colours and a greeting, again stamped in lilac staz-on. Finally, I inked the edge of the card. I think Mr Snowman is happy with his new coat and hat!!!

Naughty me ....!

2008-11-12T18:49:00.003Z

Ok, ok, I did warn you that it wasn't going to be a daily thing! BUT ... I am on my way now and this is my first Christmas Card of this year. I have dug out all my old stuff from Christmases past as I was determined not to buy much this year. The tree is a Dawn Bibby tree (bought this year!) which I have decoupaged onto DCWV christmas stack papers (bought for me this year!) embellished with pink christmas stickers (Anitas) and touched with clear papermania stones in the centre of the snowflakes and edged with my silver Krylon which I love. Hope you like it!

A friend's card

2008-11-03T11:19:00.003Z

Another one for Lisa's 45th birthday! This time it's from me. I don't do much with this stamp and have seen a lot of samples around so I thought I'd have a go. Firstly I stamped the image and cut round the edge of it, leaving a third of the inside of the card exposed. I put a gold mirri matt onto the inside of the card. I gold embossed the elegant lady and coloured it in with sakura gelly glazes. (Except the ickle doggy is a white gel pen to make him stand out!) I think gelly glaze pens work really well on black card and make the suit sparkle. I gold stamped happy birthday onto black gloss card and edged the left hand side with double sided tape and glitter. The pic does not do the card justice.

From Mum to Daughter

2008-10-23T22:52:00.008+01:00

My lovely new stamp! I have been trying to track down a chandelier stamp for ages. I love chandeliers and all their glitz and glamour. It's my friend's birthday today and her Mum asked me to make her a card from her. First I inked the background with distress inks and stamping the chandelier over the top with gold. I then used DCWV luxury paper stack and again stamped the chandelier, clear embossed it and added some bling for the lights! Edged it with gold Sukura pen and added organza ribbon and a greeting.

Voila! My first make for my blog and happy birthday Lisa!