Little Brother Layout

I'm discovering that having a blog is hard work!
I've been busy all day
making wedding cards
for a customer - I'll post
them soon, in the
meantime, here is a
layout that I did last year. it was before I got my
Cricut, and I used vinyl letters that I bought
in an office store, I know there may be archival question marks about using these, but they look
good, so I don't care. This was one of the first layouts I ever made, and remains one of my favourites - back to black, white and red again. The funny thing is, unlike most women, I hardly ever wear black or red. Black makes me look about 120, rather than the 40 something I am optimistically (and deludedly) aiming for, and red makes me look like an animated chilli, so I don't know why I am so fond of the combo for cards and layouts.

Penny Black Hedgehog

These Penny Black hedgehog stamps are so cute. I made this card look like an envelope with hedgie as a seal. The floral background stamps are by another great favourite of mine, Great Impressions. The hedgehog is coloured with Stampin Up watercolour pencils, the bees wings are sakura clear glitter pen.

Love - New Arrival

I really like using cartridges 'outside the box' and this love cut from New Arrival seemed perfect for a card which fits in with the weekly challenge on http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/ This is another first, I seem to be getting into this blogging thing and doing all sorts of challenges. Anyway, back to the card, I cut the 'love' out at 5 1/2", shadowed it in black, and used a black heart, which I ran through the cuttlebug - I think the folder is called dots. Tied the ribbon on with a fastenator which says 'love', added some adhesive stones for a bit of bling, and popped the whole lot on a background paper by Papermania. The doodling is a black sakura gelly roll pen. I quite like the way this turned out.
GD

All Occasion Card

A simple but stylish card in my favourite red, white and black. The base card is opalescent white - 5" square. I folded back the front and lined the back with a gorgeous black and white flower spray paper by Papermania. The flowers were cut from George at 3", one in black, and then a red one in silhouette. Stuck them on the front, and added a few jewels.

My weekend, as predicted was totally craft free, apart from a cardmaking session with Kiki - we cut out a monkey, giraffe and a chicken from Animal Kingdom, she loved them. She was as good as gold all weekend - I slept in her bedroom and on Saturday morning I could hear this little voice saying 'it looks a bit morningy to me......................' she was quite right, it was 'morningy' but a lot earlier than I usually open my eyes. When faced with a bright eyed, energetic three year old, there is no alternative, you get up! Pure joy, I am missing her today, so threw myself into playing with paper.

Just 'Peking'

Just stamping on this one - stamps by Great Impressions. The wording is computer generated. I think this little geisha is so sweet.

My cardmaking sessions this weekend will be limited to helping three year old Kiki squirt glitter glue onto paper - her version of helping me make cards, she is coming to stay for the weekend. Once, when she was here, we were looking after a friends dog for the weekend, and now she thinks Jake lives here too, so we have to borrow the dog to take him out for walks! Rent a dog...................! So a lovely weekend ahead, and more excitement next week as we have 8 month old Max coming to stay - lots of scrapbook pages to come.

Ric-Rac Birthday

This is for this week's designer challenge on the Bitten By the Bug site. We were asked to use the zig-zag from Plantin in lime green. The flowers are also from Plantin.

Embossing paste and stencil

I've been messing round with embossing paste. I bought this fabulous stencil and spread it all over thickly with the paste, it was VERY messy, and VERY satisfying! I sprinkled the wet paste with ultra fine glitter, and just mounted the whole thing onto bronze card, then onto a peach card. It's a pretty cool effect. I always like cards that can be used for practically any occasion - get well, just a note, thank you or even sympathy.

Heard you caught a bug........

This is the cute little ladybug from Walk in my garden, cut at 2" and then again using the border feature. The scalloped squares are from mini monograms and the random stitching down the side is about as good as my sewing gets!

Rock-a-bye Baby

A sweet little new baby card, I thought he would look cute swinging from the moon. Both cut at 3 1/2", paper is by wild asparagus.

You mean the world to me

I fancied using the globe from Going Places, and found the perfect stamp to go with it. I covered the globe in diamond glaze to make it glossy. The little heart is a punch.

Wedding Exploding Box

An exploding box made to take wedding photos, so I threw everything at this one - lace, flowers, bling!

Happy Birthday Son

This is my card for the designer challenge over on the BBTB site this week. We were asked to use the clipboard from fabulous finds. The happy birthday stamp is alphabet soup by Stampin up. The word 'son' was cut from the plantin cart. Paper is dasher by Basic Grey

This is one of my favourite scrapbook layouts. Prettier in real life, I wanted to do a wholly monochromatic page, using the black and white photos of my little granddaughter Kiki and her cousin Dolly all dressed up as flower girls. So the whole page is black, white, grey and silver. The flowers and hearts were cut from george, and the title from mini monograms and jasmine.

This was another challenge for the BBTB site. I used the matchbox from Tags Bags Boxes and more cartridge and used the fit to page option on the expression to cut it as big as possible. It made a good sized box, which I filled with an assortment of cards, made a matching card and gave to a friend for a birthday gift.

The leaves are the branch cut from zooballoo and the flowers are from george

Kiki is addicted to the little rides you get in town centres, and I had so many photos of her on them I decided to put them all into one layout. The little train is from Joys of the Season, the little cars are buttons. I found a photo small enough to put her face in the train window, so she looks as though she's the driver.

This obsession with rides came to a climax last summer when Mike and I took her to Drayton Manor Park, a small theme park close to where we live. She just could not believe that she could go on as many rides as she wanted, and turned into a theme park junkie. She watched the teenagers on the coasters, and started throwing her little hands up into the air and waving them about every time she climbed onto a baby ride!

Flower spray Card

I thought the flower spray from the Joys cartridge looked a bit Eastern, so I added a little lantern stamped and cut out, and a tiny dragonfly to this one. I used really bright, almost clashing colours but I quite like the way it's turned out.

Ballerina Girl

A card for a dance- mad teen. I ran her dress through the xyron machine upside down then sprinkled it with my favourite glitter - great impressions ice diamond - then ran it through again, that way the glitter was really even, so a lot of bling on this card - what a pity sparkly stuff doesn't show up really well in photos!

Another 'Joys' card, with the pears cut at 4" out of a tapestry pattern card which doesn't show up well in the photo. I covered them in diamond glaze so they are nice and glossy

Turtle Doves Wedding Card

I needed a wedding card for some friends who were married on the 22nd December, and thought the turtle doves from the Joys of the Season cartridge were perfect. I think this cut will be making an appearance for Valentines Day as well.

Elegant Swan Card

I love this elegant little swan from the Joys of the Season cartridge. I ran him through the cuttlebug, using the divine swirls and cut lots and lots of waves for him to bob about on. I didn't have any acetate for the window, so I used the protective cover off a cricut mat. The cardstock is DCWV metallic stack.

Now That's Something To Honk About.....!

Three little geese cut at 4". The saying is a stamp by Great Impressions

Just Chicken Up On You

I just love the Joys of the Season cartridge, and am having great fun finding alternative uses for it - Joy isn't just for Christmas...................................... This is the french hen cut at 4" out of Daisy D paper.

Umbrella and Zoo Animals Childrens Card

I'm on a roll with the children's cards. This one was done with the New Arrival cartridge and is for Kiki - it's in a safe place until August!

Elephant Happy Birthday - Cricut

This is a card I made for a challenge on the Bitten by the Bug site. I cut the elephant twice at 5" in blue card, and once in a spotty paper. I made a little flap out of card so that he would stand up, added googly eyes and a bow and made a matching envelope with a tiny elephant on the flap. This will be Max's first birthday card - I'm ahead of myself, he is only 7 months old.