Scalloped rocker! and tag cards

A couple of weeks ago we had some devastating news when we found out my 82 year old Father-in-law has cancer, after going backward and forward to doctors and hospitals for weeks because he was in a lot of pain and being told it was just an existing condition (he has polymyalgia) and him insisting it was more than that, they finally did a body scan which showed up shadows on his liver and in his bones. He had a biopsy last week and they are doing a second biopsy this Thursday before they start him on any treatment. Although the cancer is widespread and they have told him they can't cure it, they seem to think it can be managed for now with treatment.

He has just received a rheumatology appointment  through the post for May 2014, which he has taken as a positive sign, laughing that they must think he will still be here by then LOL!

Today I have the last of the cards I made with the Paper Creator Joy Ultimate kit. I made a scalloped rocker, which because of the scallops doesn't actually rock, so I think I need a more suitable name for it LOL! and used the tags in the kit to make a couple of tag shaped cards!

I re-sized the topper base (from the make me a topper set included in the kit) to fit the 8 inch width of an A4 piece of card, then printed it out directly onto Papermill Direct Linen Card, scored through the middle and folded to make a scalloped circle tent card. I re-sized another make me a topper set to fit on to this base and  once again printed it and a couple of paper designs onto more A4 Linen card. I used circle dies to cut out my papers and matted them onto the scallop base, then added the topper and layers with foam pads. The sentiment is also included in the kit. I finished off with lots of glitter, punched snowflakes and ribbon and crystals from Meiflower.

Included in the extras section of the Joy ultimate kit is two tags, one with the snowman and the other with the swirly design across the bottom. I took one of each into my graphics program, rotated one 180 degrees and then lined the two tags up with their tops just touching. I then re-sized the whole thing to fit the long length of an A4 sheet. I copied this to make a second card base as two fitted nicely on one sheet of card. After printing directly onto Papermill Direct linen card, I scored and folded to make two card bases and then printed a sentiment and make me a topper set from the kit and used some off cuts from the previous cards for matting to build up a design on each card front, finishing off once again with punched snowflakes and some ribbons, gems and a couple of jingle bells from Meiflower.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend

see you Tuesday,

hugs,

Colette xx

Ultimate kit part 2

Following on from Sundays post, here are a couple more cards made with the Joy ultimate kit.

This time around I made up the ready to print easel card that's included in the kit and a square card using the topper sheet.

I made an easel card base from white linen card to fit the ready to print kit, made up the card adding the decoupage layers provided to the snowman and finished off by adding a couple of ready made bows and some punched snowflakes

For this card I used a 6 inch square scalloped card base and printed out a paper and topper sheet from the kit. I cut a piece of the paper to fit the card front, rounding the corners before sticking on, then cut out the scalloped topper leaving a white border all around, which I glittered. I die cut a scalloped circle from the remainder of the paper and then used circle dies to cut out the snowman image and the centre from the scalloped circle to make a frame. I added the scalloped topper to the card front with foam pads and then layered up the image and scalloped frame again with foam pads, finishing off with an organza bow with diamante ribbon slider and punched snowflakes.

Joy Ultimate kit - Paper Creator

Lifestyle circle dies 

Sizzix framelits scallop circles die

X cut palm punch snow crystal - large and medium

Organza ribbon, ready made gingham bows, diamante ribbon slider and stick on gems - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Ultimate Kits

Hi there, this week Paper Creator is introducing it's new Ultimate kits, these kits are great value for money, containing a Sassy Cheryl illustration, a selection of colour matched papers, a ready to print easel card, a fancy layered topper which comes in two sizes, and a couple of extras too and all for only £3 - the topper is designed to be used with dies and the sheet tells you which die to use. If you don't have the correct dies then that's no problem either as the shapes can easily be hand cut which is what I did as I didn't have the matching die.

I was lucky enough to get a chance to play with some of the kits before their release this weekend and to show how versatile they are I decided to make a collection of cards all from one kit.

Today I will show you a group photo of the cards I made and one of the cards with some quick instructions for making up, and then during the week I will show the other cards individually.

I used the Joy Ultimate Kit for all these cards.

First up is the bow front card.

For this card I started with a white 6 x 6 inch square gate fold card.

I covered the front panels with swirly paper from the kit.

Next I cut out the scalloped topper base, then with the card closed, I laid the scalloped base centrally across the "doors" of the card, drew around the shape with a pencil and cut out.

I fixed striped paper from the kit to the inside of the card and then with the "doors" closed, added the topper to the striped paper, through the closed doors to match the shape. I used a circle die to cut a mat and  fixed the topper layers into place using foam pads.

I cut a piece of acetate the same height as the card but 2cms wider than the card base then put double sided tape around the inside of each door and fixed the acetate inside the card - this makes the bowed front.

I punched two borders from another paper from the kit, trimmed to length and added to the top and bottom of the card, fixing ribbon across one piece before attaching to card.

To finish off I added a bow, word art from the kit, some die cut hearts and a punched snowflake.

This picture shows a better view of the bowed shape.

Joy Ultimate kit - Paper Creator

Lifestyle nesting circle dies

Memory box Precious Hearts dies

Tonic geared border punch - Diamond swing border

X-cut palm punch snow crystal - large

Metallic edged ribbon and stick on gems - Meiflower

See you in the week with another card from the collection

hugs,

Colette xx

Satin ribbon flower tree and wreath

A while ago I made some Christmas samples for Meiflower to take around the craft shows and one of the things she asked me to use were the satin ribbon flowers. I ended up putting two cards together to show off the flowers, arranging some to make a Christmas tree and others to decorate a wreath.

Satin ribbon flowers and gems - Meiflower

Precious Snowflakes - Memory box die

Peel off wording

Papers and image- Fizzy moon Festive Fun Designer Paper Pack

Go Kreate - scalloped circles large frames dies

Lifestyle Nesting circles die

Universal embossing folder - Happy Holly

Die-namics - Photo corners die

Satin ribbon flowers, Ribbon, cats eye dazzlers and diamante embellishement - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Ho Ho Ho

Today I have a quick Christmas card to show you using a Sassy Cheryl illustration called Better Not Pout Santa. I used the alphabet set that came with the December Magic Digital Scrap Kit from Crazy 4 Monograms for the HO HO HO's

Santa's head has been decoupaged and decorated with glamour dust and a small pompom and is attached to the card with an Action Wobble spring which means that if you give him a little nudge or when you move the card around his head wobbles about.

Image- Better not pout santa - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Papers - Peppermint Patty digital scrap kit - Just So Scrappy

Alphabet - December Magic digital scrap kit - Crazy 4 Monograms

Action wobble spring - Woodware - Grafton Crafts

Grosgrain ribbon and pearls - Meiflower

Thanks for popping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Rosebud tree and tag cards

This is the third of the three Christmas tree card samples I made for Meiflower, (another of the ones that was printed while the yellow ink nozzle was blocked, so yet again the colours aren't quite right, ) this time using her Satin ribbon rosebud trios. 

The papers and tree came from a Nitwits kit and the tree decoration was actually inspired by a Nitwits tree graphic in a different kit (it's amazing how something can suddenly fire up the imagination). After decoupaging the tree, I decorated it with little groups of rosebuds, bows and punched holly leaves, then dotted crystals around the tree in groups of three. 

Papers and tree - Heart of Christmas - Nitwit Collections

Rosebud trios, gems and silver ready made bows - Meiflower

X-cut holly punch

Talking about where inspiration comes from - when I was adding the tag to the card above I suddenly thought to myself - that would make a nice shaped card base -so after doing a head clean on the printer and playing around in Photoshop to enlarge the tag to the right size and make some decoupage layers for the toppers, I  made these two cards, which are the proper colours that the card above should be.

Card base and toppers - Heart of Christmas - Nitwit collections

Ribbon and Diamante and pearl ribbon slider - Meiflower

Side view to show decoupaged toppers.

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Eat More Cake!

Today is the start of our new Paper Creator challenge and this time around the theme is

Birthday

now that couldn't be easier could it - we would love you to play along with your birthday creation, you don't even have to use Paper Creator products to enter and you could be the random winner of the £10 voucher to spend in store.

I have used the fabulous Sassy Cheryl illustration Avery Celebrates with cake,

The sentiment reads -

Birthdays are nature's way of telling us to eat more...

hmmm, but eat more what ? - 

see that little bit of ribbon hanging down from below the image circle, pull it down to reveal.....

...Cake, of course!

Image - Avery celebrates with cake - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Papers - My Birthday Girl Digital Scrap Kit - Just so Scrappy

EK success border punch

Grosgrain and Satin ribbon - Meiflower

 and I used this brilliant tutorial HERE (adapted to fit my design) to make the pull down wording.

Don't forget to enter the Birthday challenge and pop over to the challenge blog to take a look at the fabulous creations from the rest of my teamies.

Thanks for dropping by,

have a lovely weekend,

hugs,

Colette xx

Bow Christmas tree, bow Christmas tree.....

....how full of bows your branches be! LOL! - sorry bad pun, but I had to do it, I've had the - O Christmas tree - song going around in my head since Wednesdays post.

This is another freebie digi stamp from Birds cards (link under card pic) and I was inspired by the sample card that was alongside the digi stamp.

Do you remember on Wednesday when I mentioned I had printed out the papers and images for three cards only to realise afterwards that the yellow ink nozzle was blocked, well this is another one of those cards. The colours should be Christmas red and green, but they came out this teal and purple colour, which I totally loved. The bows came ready made, I just tightened them up a little and trimmed the ends, the card is a sample for Meiflower so I had to make it 6x6 inches but if it was on an A5 card the bows could probably be stuck straight on without trimming.

Image - Leaf Christmas Tree freebie digistamp - Birds cards

Papers - Peppermint Patty digital scrap kit - Just So Scrappy (should be red and green)

X-cut palm punch - Star large and medium

Digi stamp Sentiment - Bits of Ivory Christmas - Cuddly Buddly

Ready made gold bows, organza ribbon and gems - Meiflower

Thanks for popping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Icy Christmas greetings!

When I saw this Sassy Cheryl illustration of Maddie ice skating over at Paper Creator, the idea for this card immediately sprang to mind, I wanted it to look like she had written the greeting in the ice with her skates and then was just skating off.
To get the length I needed I decided to make a DL landscape card by cutting two pieces of card each
21 cms long by 10.5 cms wide, then scoring one piece from top to bottom 2cms in from a short edge, applying double sided tape to the 2cm section and fixing the two pieces together lining up the edges to make the DL landscape card base. I used my quickie glue pen to trace over the wording and then applied liberal amounts of glamour dust to give the impression of sparkling ice crystals.

Image - Figure eight style - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

White Linen card and red card - Papermill Direct

X-cut palm punch - Snow Crystal medium

Ribbon and gems - Meiflower

Thanks for looking,

hugs,

Colette xx

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree.....

...how blingy are your branches! Haha!

Here's a quick and easy card made using a freebie digi stamp of a simple stick Christmas tree, which has been covered with crystals and pearls.

This is one of three Christmas tree cards I made, which were all printed out together, only for me to discover once they were printed, that the yellow ink wasn't working, so they all came out slightly different colours to what they were supposed to be. On this one the colours should be more muted, but I liked the way they looked so used them anyway.

Stick Christmas tree freebie digistamp - Bird's cards

Papers - It's Snow Fun - Just So Scrappy

Bubblegum pink organza ribbon, stick on gems and pearls and diamante ribbon slider (used underneath a large stick on pearl to make the tree topper) - Meiflower

 I thought this card would be perfect for the following challenge

A Gem of a Challenge - #105 Gems, Gems, Gems

Thanks for popping in and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx

Teddy Bo Tuesday

Hi there, glad you could join me,

welcome to another Teddy Bo Tuesday - we have a new friend here in Teddy Bo towers, a cute little mouse, who, as I write this, doesn't yet have a name, but I'm sure the boss will come up with something soon.

I have two cards to show you today, (on was meant for Friday, but I had already scheduled a post for Friday, so decided to put both up today) both using the same image (in two different colours), and with a similar theme.

Image - Mice 2

Papers - Heavenly Christmas - Just So Scrappy

Die - Winter wishes Snowflake circle - Joy Crafts

Santa Silhouette - Stitchy bear digi stamp

Sentiment circle created by me

Grosgrain ribbon and gems - Meiflower

Snowflake circle and grosgrain ribbon were sprayed with Stick n spray and then covered with glamour dust.

This second card was inspired by a design I saw out and about somewhere in Blogland, I think it had a reindeer instead of a mouse, if you recognise it please let me know so that I can add a link.

Image - Mice 2

Snowflake paper - Nitwitville - Nitwits

Santa in sleigh and red paper- Twas the night before Christmas - Nitwits

Peel off sentiment

Check out the wonderful creations from the rest of my fabulous teamies at the Teddy Bo Challenge blog.

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Dear Santa......

...all I want for Christmas is about 4 more hours in every day, and an extra day in every week, LOL!

It's just over a week since I last blogged and I have no idea where the time has gone, is it just me or are the days flying by? there are only 44 days until Christmas and I haven't even thought about Christmas shopping yet, never mind anything else. 

I have been busily working away in the background, and have about a dozen cards that need to be blogged, I just haven't had the time to sit down and blog them, so I am going to do that right now with this post and then schedule a couple more for through the week.

Today I have a Rocker Stepper card, using a fabulous Sassy Cheryl image and an amusing and very apt sentiment that I found somewhere on my travels around blog land.

Image - Half moon Santa - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Papers - Holiday Hoopla digital scrap kit - Crazy 4 Monograms

Label template - Paper Garden Projects at The Digichick

Sentiment computer generated.

Holly punch - X-cut small palm punch

Flower soft polar white

Gingham ribbon and red stick on pearls - Meiflower

Circle stepper card - my own template printed onto Papermill Direct linen card

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Brown Sugar –  No. 67 - Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge - No. 32 - Anything Goes

C.R.A.F.T.  -#232 Christmas

Charisma Cardz - #44 Anything Goes

Fab 'n' Funky  - #192 Traditional Christmas colors

Bearly Mine Challenges - #111 Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Sassy Cheryl's - #191 Anything Goes

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Christmas Stackables

We are halfway through our Pink or Blue challenge over at Paper Creator, so you still have a week to get your entry in, if you fancy playing along and being in with the chance to win £10 to spend in store.

This week I have one of the new Christmas Stackable sets to show you, which after my blue advent calendar last week is in various shades of pink, so still following the challenge theme. 

These sets are easy to put together and you end up with a drawer which contains three matching cards (with inserts) and envelopes.

Christmas Stackables set 1 - Paper Creator

Here you can see the drawer, with the envelopes tucked underneath and the three cards surrounding it. I printed the included backing paper out three times and then printed the envelope template on the reverse, to make up the envelopes.

Satin rosebud trio, organza ribbon and tiny red pearls - Meiflower

Tiny holly leaves - old X-cut punch

Ribbon and gems - Meiflower

Star - old X-cut punch

Snowflakes - X-cut palm punch Snow crystal

ribbon and gems - Meiflower

There are 10 different stackable sets available in store.

Thanks for taking a look,

have a lovely weekend,

hugs,

Colette xx