Kids birthdays...

Hello blogging friends!
You wanted it, so here it is... the presents/cards I made for the kids birthdays we went to this weekend. As I didn't have much time to take pics between finishing them and taking them out to go so the photos are not that good, but tbh, the actual cards and presents aren't that great either *lol* Remember I didn't have much time, so please don't judge my efforts for these things too harshly!


Well, my youngest, Jacob, was invited to one of his girlfriends (yes, he has several... little heartbreaker *g*) 4th birthday and her mum had said, she was very much into princessy stuff... So I made this little card with SCAL from Papermania Gemstones cardstock and added Stickers and Gemstones.

Then, while I still had the Cricut all fired up, I cut a little princess crown and blinged that up, too. I used the same cardstock as for the card.

I know Logan likes drawing and painting a lot I bought some felt tips and glitter glue pens and made a felt bag with her name and some flowers on it to put it in. The handles are dark blue thick cord and I blanket stitched the sides closed. When that was done I thought it would be a nice base to present the crown on and packaged it up before remembering to take pics... So sorry you can't see it too well.

That was for Saturday, on Sunday my oldest, Paul, was going to one of his longest friends 6th birthday - rock climbing! He loved that!

Hughie loves everything Star Wars and Ben10 and believe it or not, loves being creative. His mum had actually said he was very interested in making his own pop-up cards and so I devised this little card and gift.

I made the card on my computer and then cut out the aliens from a separate piece of card and created a pop-up inside. Then I made a little colouring book with colouring pages of Ben10 and Star Wars images and used my Bind-it-All to hold it together. 

I know it could have done with some more decorating, but time was short...

I packaged it up together with a box of felt tip pens, some card blanks to make pop-ups and 3D foam pads in this little bag so I didn't even need wrapping paper...

The bag was made from a sheet of A3 thick card and I made the handle with a large circle punch. The topper is a Nestie label and a Forever Friends decoupage image I had done ages ago for Creativity magazine and then didn't use. The name was done with Doodlebug rub-on letters.

Well, I hope you are not all abandoning me now and leave the blog disgusted never to return.... I promise the next post will be much nicer ;-)

Ta-ra for now!

Two cards...

Hello again,

it didn't quite happen to post again the next day but here are a couple of cards I did recently...

I had a christmas fair and it took a bit of my time. Maybe I can share a few pics of the fair with you soon.

This first card is made with a lovely Hanglar stamp coloured with Copic markers. The background was stamped with SU frost white fluid ink onto white card and coloured with Distress inks afterwards. Unfortunately I can't remember where I got the stamp from, it's an unmounted red rubber I bought from the US but can't remember the name, sorry!

The scalloped border is cut from Core'dinations with a PTI die. The mat is also Core'dinations and the ribbon is adhesive backed ribbon from Martha Stewart Crafts. Sentiment is from the PTI set "Signature Greetings" from Dawn McVey.

This next card is rather simple and I took inspiration from a card I saw on a blog a little while ago. Unfortunately I can't remember which one it was, if you know, please let me know so I can give credit! I cut the nativity scene on my cricut and I stamped a greeting on white card and stuck it to the front. The stamp is from the PTI set "A wreath for all seasons" and I drew lines to anchor it on the card.

I hope you like my offerings today and come back soon for more!

Birthday present for my other half - from the kids

Hello bloggers,

Yesterday was my husbands birthday and I wanted to give him a nice present from the kids as well. And Nichole Heady from PTI has given me the perfect inspiration! She made silhouette pictures of her kids and let them sign their names under it, then framed it. I did exactly that but instead of a picture frame each I bought one of those that hold 3 pictures in a row in apertures.

The kids cooperated very well despite them being still quite young and this is the result:

Jacob had a little help from me writing his name (after all he is only 3...) and Paul wrote the Happy Birthday-part in the middle.

One thing I didn't do as per Nichole's tutorial is the actual cutting part. I couldn't get a good enough photo of my boys in front of the white wall because the lighting in the place wasn't that great, so I went to Photoshop and fiddled quite a bit and made it into a black and white Silhouette right in the application. And then I just converted it into a cut file for my cricut and let the machine do the hard work for me.

I was really pleased with the outcome and hubbie loved it, too! Result ;-)

Quick cards...

Hello fellow bloggers,

I am a little miserable old mum at the moment because I don't get enough crafty time at all lately. I have had the odd half an hour here and there, but nothing "proper" for about two weeks now! Scandal, don't you think?

Well, as I still had to do some swaps and a birthday card to make, they all had to be quickies. I am usually rather not that fond of my quick cards, but some of these turned out better than I expected, considering none of these cards took longer than 45 minutes to make. I hope you agree ;-)

This first card is a birthday card for a friend of my husband. I've met him and he's a very nice guy, so I made him this. It only took 20 minutes, which I'm rather pleased with. I forgot to take a picture of the inside, where I stamped another sentiment in, but it's gone now...

Papers are Basic Grey Archaic, SU linen thread and star punch, Fiskars medium star punch, metal button from stash and sentiment(s) are PTI - Signature Greetings.

This next one is for a very nice lady in Germany that I "met" on a cricut yahoo group. Unfortunately the picture isn't that great, it doesn't show the glaze on parts of the focal image nor the pearlised cardstock or glitterpaper. Hope you still like it and that Ingrid does, too!

Not much I can say about supplies on this as image was donated and I haven't got a make, glitterpaper and pearlised cardstock are from PDA cards and crafts (I think...), I used a Martha Stewart punch set for the rings, Copics for colouring and Diamond Glaze on top, sentiment is from Whiff of Joy and Ribbon I found in the Range, no brand that I can detect, sorry!

This card didn't photograph too well, the base card is actually a leather textured black card with red/pinkish (Mica?) shimmer on it. It was made entirely from scraps and I am rather pleased with the outcome, although it looks better in real life.

The paper I used is Papermania Chatsworth Collection, Ribbon is very old stash, I used a MS border punch and Butterfly punch and a butterfly cutout made with my cricut that I glittered with Stickles. Sentiment is again from PTI - Signature Greetings and I added a couple of heart shaped gems for interest.

This next card was made to fit with the floral challenge on DoCrafts at the moment, which said to focus on a sentiment and put flowers on opposite corners of it. I think this fits the bill.

Paper is Papermania Chatsworth Collection, sentiment from My Sentiments exactly, placed on a cricut cut out. Flowers are from stash and I added some ivory and cappuccino coloured half pearls in the flower centers and around the card. The ribbon is recycled from a T-Shirt...

I liked the feel of those colours and made another card in a similar style but still different.

No flowers this time but some nice little birdies.

Papers are again Papermania Chatsworth Collection, sentiment is from PTI set "Out on a Limb Sentiments" on a cricut cutout that I threaded some more recycled ribbon through. The birds on branches are from an SU punch.

Baby season is truly upon us!

Hello bloggers!

I can't believe how many baby cards I had to make in the last few weeks! It has been totally crazy. I didn't have time to snap pics of all of them, but here are a few. Hope you like them!

This one is for my yet to be born niece! Her due date has passed and we are all waiting with baited breath. As we were there a few days before the due date I had it all ready to give then but so far it's still here with me...

I used the gorgeous future rock star image from Mos digital pencil and coloured it with Copics. I also used the sketch on Mos DT challenge blog but haven't had a chance to upload in time for the challenge end... oh, well, I'll try next time again.

Papers are Basic Grey, star punches are Fiskars and SU, Ribbon Anita's and sentiment is hand written.

This one is winging it's way to South Afrika at the moment, a friend of my hubs has given birth to a little girl. Image is again a Mo and coloured with Copics. I cut it with a circle Nestie, leving the foot/dummy and the guitar handle sticking out.

The little banner with the computer generated sentiment is cut by hand and all is layered, in parts on dimensionals onto cuttlebug embossed cardstock. The lovely twill ribbon is PTI and I love it!

It's a fairly simple card but I like it!

This one was for friends of ours who just had their second daughter. I didn't have a name yet then, so it is a bit generic... I love the image which is from adayfordaisies, I found it on etsy.com and purchased a couple of others as well. Watch out for them if you like the look of this!

For a change I coloured with Copics AND Prisma pencils and also added some spica glitter pens in the mix but they are hard to see on the pictures. Papers are Basic Grey again, so are the Rub-ons (baby), Ribbon is from stash but not sure what make... I used some Coredinations cardstock as well as a PTI alphabet set to stamp the sentiment.

This one I just LUUUURVE! It was fairly easy to put together, pink cardstock base, embossed with Scor pal and Scor bug to get the little dotted frame, layered dark pink cardstock and again Basic Grey paper (isn't their paper just perfect for baby girl cards???). Sentimemt stamped with PTI sets "Simple alphabet" and "Bitty Baby Blessings". Rub-on in the upper right corner is by Basic Grey.

Well, and that butterfly? Isn't it pretty? I can't get enough of it! It's quite heavy due to the chunky glitter on it but it still looks so delicate. It is inspired by one of those dies that I can never remember the name of, was it Marianne or Nellie Snellen??? No idea, but I guess you probably know what I mean anyway. I cut it on my Cricut though and it was actually a trial to test how well it would cut intricate bits. And I think it worked well. But when I covered it in glossy accents and tipped the chunky glitter on it it just became something else. Sorry, about the gushing, but it was very hard for me to let this one go. *lol*

Last but not least, a boy card! The only boy to be born lately *lol*

The cute onsie template was downloaded from the very talented Cathy on Mos Digital Pencil PCP site. I just placed a Mo image and sentiment on it on the computer, printed and cut it out. Coloured the image with pencils and added chalk ink to the edges, added a little bow to the top and stamped an coloured the circles for pop buttons.

Hope you like what I had to show you today and see you soon again!

My first cricut creations

Here are the first things I cut with my cricut. I love that machine! I found the templates through some yahoo groups and have also experimented a bit but nothing to show just yet from that...

Hope you like my pics!

Yay! I had a play today!

Just a short hello from me today to say I am still here.

After not even having time to even unpack my new cricut expression that I got with the money from my recent sale (THANK YOU! to all who bought, it was a pleasure!), I have done so this morning and had a quick play with it. First a test of the cartridge I got with it (home decor) and then I tried SCAL which I also bought. I have to say I am quite impressed at how easy it is! Love it! Have to stop playing now as we are going to Ikea, but won't be kept away for much longer!

Keep crafting!