Sunday, 23 June 2019

New Baby Card



My Hubby asked me to make a card for a lady he knows well who is expecting a baby soon.

He didn't know at that stage if Mummy-to-be knew the sex of the baby so we went for a gender neutral approach and included pink, blue, green and yellow as the colours for the elements.

All papers used are from my scraps drawer. The card is 5 in size and I used a polka dot paper which has been distressed with an inkpad to knock the brightness back a little.

The layout of the card was from the last Tuesday Morning Sketches challenge. I am however too late to enter but wanted to thank them for the sketch anyway.


The base panel is some holographic card with stars on which provides a bit of twinkle and a nice contrast to the white circles that have been cut from the Nellie Snellen Flower Circles Dies.

All the dies are cut from 3 layers of white card layered onto one another and coloured with Promarkers, Flexmarkers, gel pens and Sakura clear glitter pens. This is a technique I had seen on a YouTube video that seems to make it into a 'Thicker' dimensional sticker and is a lot less fiddly to stick together with a Xyron sticker maker than adding 3d foam squares would have been. 

The baby head and bottle are from a Sizzlits 4 die set. The baby booties are a Marianne Creatable dies My First Shoes and the Baby Clothes Line is a Sizzlits decorative strip. Most of these dies I have had for along time and it is the 1st time I have used them. The clothes line I am particularly pleased with as there are so many elements that can be used on their own.

Just after I had finished the card we found out that the baby is due to be a boy so I made it with a blue insert and matching envelope.

Card Size - A5
Dies - Sizzlits 4 Baby Die Set, Sizzlits Decorative Strip Baby Clothes Line, Nellie Snellen Flower Circles, Marianne Creatables My First Shoes
Colouring tools - Promarkers & Flexmarkers, Gel pens, Sakura Glitter pen


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order):-



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Wednesday, 12 June 2019

Father's Day Golf Nut


I have been very fortunate to have won 2 challenge prizes recently where I had vouchers for the Bugaboo store. I have been a fab of Jodie's images for many years so was absolutely delighted to have such an awesome prize.

This card has been made using one of the images I bought Nuts About Golf. 

It is Fathers day in the UK this weekend and my Father in law is a bit of a golf nut so this image is perfect for him. The image is coloured with Promarkers and Flexmarkers with gold gel pen checks n the hat, and silver pen on the golf club.


I used the latest Stella Say Sketch from the Catch The Bug Challenge blog for the layout.

I used an A4 sheet of brown card for the base and added a panel of check patterned paper. To this a strip of brown card from a Papermania paper embellishment caddy that I have had in my stash for many years. This has been cut using a Fiskars border punch. Under this is is a layer of gold ribbon.

The image has been matted onto gold card and an offcut of a brown checked card from my scraps drawer.

The golf nut sentiment is from the same image set. It has a little heart which I coloured in with a gel pen but it smudged so I added a gem heart to it. He will never know :) This is was mounted into a circle frame from the Papermania caddy.

The Happy father's Day sentiment is a freebie from Desert Diva. Hannelie makes amazing Clean & Simple cards and is very generous with freebie sentiment digi stamps. 

I coloured the sentiment with a Promarker and mounted onto scraps of the gold and checked card. All elements have been layered using foam squares. Finally I added gold Card Candi dots from Craftwork cards to match the metallic layers.

Finally I used the same sentiment stamp and made a gift tag to match for the beer and whisky we have bought him. I added an eyelet using my Fiskars spring loaded eyelet setter. I haven't used it for absolutely ages.


Card Size - A5
Colouring tools - Promarkers & Flexmarkers, Gel pens
Sentiment - Father's Day Sentiments by Desert Diva
Tools - Diamond Border Punch by Fiskars. Fiskars spring loaded eyelet punch
Embellishments - Eyelet, ribbons, Card Candi by Craftwork cards. Heart Gem


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order):-
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Saturday, 8 June 2019

Silver Wedding Anniversary



This is a card I made for my wonderful next door neighbours who have just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.

I wanted to make something quite simple and elegant so opted for a more classic style than I would normally make.

I started out with A4 card creased to make an A5 card blank. I layered silver metallic card onto this. I used a glittery vellum with a small flower onto white card to make it more opaque. I used two different ribbons and thread through a belt buckle. The ribbon ends were stuck down onto the back of this panel with double sided tape before sticking to the silver card.

Using a Spellbinders Nestabilities die Heart Squares  I cut a panel from a glittery silver card. To this I added a heart shape which has been embossed with a Hearts embossing folder from Crafts-Too. The 25 numbers are cut for the same silver card using the Sizzix Round-a-bout alphabet die set.

The sentiment is from my stash and layered onto silver card. Finally all the laters have been out together with oodles of 3d foam squares to add dimension.

We gave them a gift of a Silver Anniversary rosebush and pot from the local garden centre and hopefully they will keep it alive for many years more as well as their happy marriage.

Card Size - A5
Dies - Spellbinders Nestabilities Heart Squares & Sizzix Round-a-bout alphabet
Embossing Folder - Hearts by Crafts-Too
Embellishments - Ribbons & belt buckle

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order):-
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Friday, 24 May 2019

Birthday Elephant


I made this birthday card for my sister in law who loved elephants. The image is Critter Balloon Elephant from Bugaboo Digi Stamps.

I used the latest Stella Says Sketch from the Catch the Bug Challenge as the layout.


The image was coloured with Promarkers and Flexmarkers with a 2nd decoupage layer on the head/trunk and balloon. I added a Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen onto the balloon.

The image was die cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities Reverse Wonky Rectangles and layered onto gold mirri card. All the papers have come from my scraps drawers and have been distressed with an ink pad on the edges.

The sentiment banner and heart have been die cut from plain card and gold mirror card and then I have added gold peel offs.

Finally inspired by the Crash Your Stash challenge over at The Outlawz I added some googly eyes.  




Materials Used in this Project are as follows:- 

Card Size - A5
Image -  Critter Balloon Elephant from Bugaboo Digi Stamps.
Dies - Spellbinders Nestabilities, Stitched Hearts, Stitched Banners form Ebay
Tools - Promarkers & Flexmarkers, Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen
Embellishments - Peel off stickers, googly eyes
Techniques - Decoupage, Die Cutting

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order):-
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Wednesday, 22 May 2019

Tea Time Thankyou



One of Paul's work colleagues is from Sri Lanka and recently went to visit family over there.

He brought a gift in for Paul of some Ceylon tea. He is not keen on tea but I love it. I had never had Ceylon tea before but found it was absolutely gorgeous. Such a fresh clean taste and completely different to my favourite Yorkshire tea.

Of course I dis some research and found it is not easy to get Ceylon tea in the UK and you certainly cannot get the plantation fresh Zesta. It looks like I might be able to get some from Whittard though so will pop in there when I next go to Birmingham shopping.

However, Sanjeewa surprised me by giving a second box of tea to Paul for me. I was so blown away by this lovely gesture from someone I have not personally met that I wanted to make a card to show my gratitude.

I had my car serviced last week and popped to The Range and found this little teapot die for only £1 so that was a perfect starting point.

I used the May sketch from STAMPlorations as inspiration for the layout although I didn't have enough space to get the layout quite on point. Hope you will forgive me for using a bit of artistic license

The card base is covered with some red spotty card which has been recycled from an old Christmas card. This was actually the inside of a card...... too good to waste in the recycling bin so recycled in my craft drawer instead. I have distressed the outside edge with an almost dry mini ink pad. I'm not really one for the grungy look but find this helps to knock harsh edges back a little.

The square white panels have been cut using a Spellbinders Nestabilities die from the Lacy Squares set. I drew around the inside of the frame with a gold gel pen. The Teapot is an Xcut Dinky die. I cut 1 out in red and another in a dark green to provide the contrast for the hearts. The etched lines on the teapot lid have been highlighted with a white gel pen and a Sakura clear glitter pen has been used on the hearts.

The second panel is embellished with one of the tags from the tea making it completely personal to the recipient. The third panel has a chipboard teacup embellishment from my stash.

I used a rubber stamp from Hero Arts for the sentiment. This was printed onto plain white card, coloured tea brown with a Flexmarker and the added a red glitter gel pen. This was then fussy cut an all panels mounted onto 3d foam squares. Finally a bit of bling added to the corners as it looked a bit too CAS for me....

The recipient loved his card and that makes me very happy.

Materials Used in this Project are as follows:- 
Card size – 6" x 4"
Paper – Recycled card from an old Christmas card
Die Cut - Teapot XCut Dinky Die (only £1)
Sentiment – Hero Arts Sentiment cling rubberstamp CG132
Tools – Rubber stamps, gel pens, Flexmarker, self-adhesive gems
Techniques – Rubber Stamping, Fussy Cut

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order):-



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Friday, 17 May 2019

Ikea Hack - Epic Pen Storage!


I had a bit of an epiphany a few nights ago when I experimented with 2 of the Ikea Ordning cutlery stands.

I thought they might make a good way of storing pens. I have had my Promarkers in a box standing on end for years and all of a sudden they have started to dry up. I thought it best to store them on their side to protect my investment and was racking my brains to come up with an affordable solution.

I had 2 already in my craft room so emptied them out and grabbed some cable ties from my hubby's stash.  


The stands are perfect for linking together with cable ties as they are drilled in regular places. Thus making them easy to link together in a configuration to suit your space. The above image shows how the cable tie was linked through each of the centre holes. The tie was then looped back through the bottom, pulled tight and cut off.


The picture above shows how the cable tie is looped through the holes on both cutlery stands. Once these are pulled tight with the ratchet nature of the cable tie it is tremendously sturdy.


This is what it looked like on it's side. I experimented with putting Promarkers inside with and without a cardboard divider. I could get easily 30 pens inside each one.

I decided I liked it better without the divider though.....


I went to Ikea on Wednesday to get 14 more. I had decided to do a display of 4 rows with 4 in each row for a total of 16 pots.

I started off making a row of 4, simply cable tie-ing each one together as the first example. As they are drilled in the same places on opposite sides of the cylinder this made it so very easy to link together in a uniform way.


Once you have as many rows as you need you simply need to link them together.

 Initially I preferred the idea of making them 4 regular rows sitting on top of one another like a Connect 4 grid. 


Offsetting them as in the finished image below proved to be much sturdier though. However it does mess with my sense of equilibrium as it is not centralised so rows 1 and 3 may be amended to 5 on each row on my next visit to Ikea. The the utter beauty of this system is that the stands are only £2 each so completely affordable. It is easily expandable so can be added to as your needs change.

When laying one row on top of each other you just need to cable tie through the corresponding holes. I made it really sturdy by adding them in the centre line of each pot where it touched the next one. I figured it would make it super strong so if I need to move it for any reason it will be a sturdy structure in it's own right. Please see below image of finished empty structure to see how the cable ties intersect from one pot to the one it touches.


Then finally I got to fill it. I have a small flower punch that I use to cut from the cardstock from Ryman that I print my digital images onto. This allows me to stick to the end of the pen and colour it in. I can then see the colour it will come out on my paper as it is not always the same as on the barrel. 

Over the years I have collected the full set of Promarkers and Flexmarkers. I wanted to separate them into colour families and then give me extra space to put my Sharpies, Sakura gel pens, other metallic pens and paint markers. I also have a pot which has got just normal pens in.

The pots cost me a grand total of £32 plus about a £1 for the cable ties. 

In comparison to store this many pens in the Crafter's Companion Ultimate pen storage black trays would have been around £100 more than that. Money I would much rather spend on supplies than storage.


I am sharing this idea with my fellow crafters as it might be suitable for your space too. I would very much appreciate it if you would credit me and link back to my blog if you do use this idea.



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