An 80th birthday card

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!

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!

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!!!

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!!!

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!

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

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

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

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

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!