Mother's Day card for MIL

As you know I fell in love with the Dahlia flowers which were in one of my earlier posts. My Mother in Law is also a card maker (my fault entirely as I got her hooked about 3 years ago) and she does like Tea Bag folding so I am hoping that she will like the Dahlia fold I have used on her card......

My first Bind it All book

Well here it is my first ever Bind it All book. I had real fun doing this one and have even got a few spare pages to add other photo's to when I get a chance.

The obvious subject had to be my Great Niece Jessica as I have sooo many pictures of her to hand lol, add to that her favourite colour is pink so it was a winning combination.

My Easter Basket

I saw this basket idea at Jenny's blog and fell in love with it. I followed her links to Laura's blog and found Laura's tutorial here.

wasn't at all sure if I would be able to follow the instructions but within the hour I had made my very first basket. I am so thrilled with it and will now have the confidence to make some more for little gifts.

Obviously it is not perfect as I found the skinny strips quite tricky to start with but I wanted to show you all my very first attempt to show if I can do it anyone can lol.

Award from Jenny

Wow I got this brilliant award from Jenny over at Stamping Moments. Thank you so much Jenny, I am thrilled especially as my little blog is so new and I am still learning.

Thank you for all the encouragement you give to me and thousands of others and the inspiration and ideas you share with everyone. Your blog is a joy to visit.

No double sided paper ?

Here's one especially for Jenny. I had a bit of a brain wave with regard to my problem of no double sided paper to do the Dahlia fold cards. I got a polka dot sheet of paper in pink.....then using my new SU wheel ( the wheel I forgot to order the handle for) and stamped the reverse of the paper. How about that for determination....no double sided ? stamp your own ! No handle for wheel, ink it up holding with thumb and forefinger and then just roll it along slowly holding the sticky out bit on the sides !

I am actually very pleased with my creativety today in more ways than one ha ha

And this is the result.

Hampton Art lady on Moonshadow ink background

This card uses a piece that I scrunched and then I used a versamark ink pad, rubbed over the top and then sprinkled with gold embossing powder (it only catches the versamark and powder on the higher areas so the gold is random when heated)

Although this is only printer paper it has the feel of real hand made paper.

Hero Lady on Moonshadow

Well just couldn't resist having a play with some of the Moonshadow ink backgrounds I created last night. This is only a small layer between the lady image layer and the mirri card but the sheen is lovely in real life. It's a red clour as the base with gold highlights depending how the light catches it.

Moonshadow Inks

Got these Moonshadow Inks on Saturday and had a play with them last night. The sheen really is beautiful although the scan doesn't show it at it's best. I used plain printer paper, and for some I painted the ink on and scrunched it up. For others I used cling film on the wet ink, left it to dry and got almost a leathery look where the sheen is really deep in the creases.

I now need to use these on cards I think to see them at their best.

Dahlia card

Well this is my first attempt at a Dahlia card. I saw cards using this technique firstly on Jenny's blog and then on Debby Winters and thought they were very different.

I have done a couple of Teabag cards in the past but this flower is so pretty. I decided at 10.30pm Friday that I just had to have a try......bit of a problem I did not remember having any double sided paper. I went scrabbling around in my stash and found literally just one sheet of paper. By this time it was almost 11pm but I was determined so armed with my 1 1/2 inch punch I made a start. I cannot believe how easy it was to do and how quickly I had made the flower.

Although it is certainly not the nicest paper I thought I would post the results of my frantic 45min play. I now simply have to purchase some decent pretty double sided paper to make a better card.......

I think Jenny and Debby got the ideas from Split Coast Stampers and the link for the template is here

My new Jumbo wheel

I got my first SU wheel this week so had to have a very quick play. It is the watercolour vine and I am surprised how quickly you can stamp such a large area. I also added some grosgrain ribbon and used my new favourite tool, my SU scallop punch.

Simple Happy Harmony

This is a quick and easy card just using the flower stem image from Happy Harmony. The image is actually layered on silver mirri card which really lifts the card but it does not show on the scan.

Another Happy Harmony, this time in Pink

I had a very pink moment creating this one, again with the Happy Harmony SU set. I also used my swirls cuttlebug folder and corrugated some card for texture. I like this one as it's bright and cheerful.

Stamping up card Happy Harmony

This card was made using the SU Happy Harmony stamp set. There are many cards on the Split Coast Stampers site using this layout so I had to have a go. It's simplicity really works for me.

Creative Day

Creative Day

Well for once I have spent the day stamping instead of sorting my craft room. I made a batch of cards using just one stamp, a Dawn Bibby flower stem. Admittedly they are all very similar but I am pleased with what I have achieved in just an afternoon. I have also made two birthday cards for ladies on my Yahoo group. I will pop a photo of those on here in a week or so once I know they have received them.

I have done a group scan of some of the 10 cards I made today and a close up of a couple too.

Thanks for looking
Maria

Especially for my friend Ann

These are a couple of pics of my other cat "Zoe". They are especially for my friend Ann who is not a fan of Siamese ( shhhhhh I won't let Sapphire hear that comment) She asked for pictures of my Zoe so here they are.

Bind it All....my new toy

I just got my new Bind it All machine and heres my first ever project. It's a photo cube made for one of the young lads that I work with. I got the idea from the "Scrapbook Magazine" Issue 28.

I have put an acetate layer over each photo and laced it with some red raffia that I have had for ages and never used. It took me about an hour but that included printing the photos to start with. It was good fun and quite easy to make and I see all sorts of decorated mini boxes now appearing as storage containers on my cd tower storage.

My cd towers

Close up of my 3 cd towers....still got plenty of space as some items are only on display there temporarily.

More pictures of my craft space

Yet more pictures of my soon to be sorted craft room.

My Craft space

Well, following on from my shopping trip yesterday I have managed to make real headway with the clearout and revamping of my little craft space. Three new cd storage towers from Argos and some metal towel holder type racks from Ikea. My DH built the towers and put the racks on the wall and as you can see I have been filing them already.

Monday 4th February

Well it's off to the shops for me today.
I am trying to organise my craft space as my New Years Resolution for 2008. I have to go and collect two cd storage towers from Argos and then off to Ikea for other inspiration. Once I have finally got it all organised I will post pictures...that's if I ever get it finished.

Well here's to happy shopping and hopefully some really cool items from Ikea.

My Great Niece

Here's one of my Great Niece. Her name is Jessica, she's 4 years old and already becoming a proper little crafter.

The second picture shows her with her new scarf that I knitted for her for Christmas.

Well I am pleased to say I seem to have got the hang of uploading pictures thank goodness. I will have to try and sort out a few more over the next few days. At the moment I am tackling the mammoth task of sorting out my little craft room. I have taken delivery of 40 A5 storage boxes and am in the process of sorting all my stash into them. Where does all this stuff come from ? I reckon it's a bit like the tooth fairy.....we dream about all the lovely craft things we would like to own......and hey presto the craft fairy calls when we are out and just pops it into our craft space. Must have a quiet word with my fairy though....she really needs to learn to put it all away in the right spot instead of leaving it in a mess for me to sort out lol.

One of my Favourite stamps....wonder why ?

This one is one of my favourite Siamese cat images. The little cat at the top left is on shrink plastic.

More of my cards

This one was made for one of the ladies birthdays on my Yahoo group. Pink seems to figure an awful lot in my cards lately.

Here's one of my Christmas Cards. I love this Poinsettia stamp, especially when it's decaupaged.

Uuuummmm now what ?

Well have no idea how to set up this blog but will no doubt learn in time. Be patient please