Welcome back to Manchester!

I am now unpacked and back in my digs in Manchester. This summer has flown by! Whilst packing, I desperately tried to reduce the amount of craft stash to bring but it just couldn't be done. I still ended up with my caddy, several boxes and folders of stuff. *Sighs. 

However, on arrival, when I went to collect my keys, I was greeted with a parcel. Something that had been sent to me over the summer. Completely confused as to what it was, I left it until I had everything in my room before opening it. An unusual surprise turned into a very pleasant one when I opened the large envelope and found more craft stash!

It was only when I opened it that I realise it was from a prize draw I had entered in my magazine.  The goodies included GB themed papers, stickers, banners, chipboard pieces and some sequiny, really glitzy stickers all from Vintedge. Just imagine if I had won something bigger!
And the moral of that story is, you gotta be in it to win it. And it would be a better idea to send things to your home address, not university digs!

Before I left home, I had time to make a couple more cards, one as a commission and the other for a friend who was leaving for his first year at uni.
The first card had quite a specific requirement, albeit an unusual one (but I expected no less from my friend and next door neighbour). The card was for her sister's 21st birthday. She likes sheep.

I chose to make it a shaped card, and based my design on clip-art images of sheep. I loved the round body, creating a very cartoon sheep, and also making it easy to cut out but I felt it needed something a bit more than just white card. This was a sheep for goodness sake! And then it hit me . . . .

FLOCKING

No pun intended! I'm talking about the fluffy powder version of glitter. Simply cover the surface in something sticky and sprinkle. 
Like all the cards I make for landmark birthdays, I hand-wrote '21' onto the pink balloon and attached this to the sheep using white thread - it was already attached to the card at the fold. It's face and paws were simply black card with paper pieced detail. 

As well as creating it to my friend's specifications, I also added one of my own in order to fit into this weeks CAS-ual Friday challenge - Black and white plus one.

I learnt a bit from doing this card. I guess they were things that I should have known about before but never really thought about.
The first one is shaped cards: make sure it is a single shape, otherwise the card won't open fully. I should have made sure that the balloon was connected to the sheep in more ways than just the thread.
The second one is about flocking. Sticky pads DO NOT stick to flocking. Or rather, the flocking sticks to the pads alright but the the flocking comes of the card. I found this out the hard way and so had to scrape off some of the flocking from the sheep and get new pads to stick his face down. I was more careful with the feet and made sure it was attached to the paper, not the flocking. 


















My second card, as I said was for a friend leaving for university. This card needs little explanation. Students. Drink. Simple. So I covered the front of my blue card blank with grey circles decorated to look like cans. I didn't want any sort of order to them and to add to this effect, I raised some on sticky pads. I finished it off with an acetate label finished with a hand written sentiment and blue ribbon. I'm really please with the sketchy look of the cans and may do this one again for a birthday.

Exciting News

So, in my last post I mentioned having some exciting news. Well, I couldn't wait any longer to share so here it is.

A while back, whilst doing my card-lympics, I tweeted to my favourite magazine about them. A little later that day I received an e-mail from them saying that they wanted to feature my blog in the magazine on their blog feature page and wanted a photo of my card. This was one that I made for a very close family friend who loved shoes and was starting a new job. 
I was sent a proof copy of the article (which is what this is from) but I now have the actual magazine. With my card in! Still not quite come down to Earth yet! 6 months ago I barely had a Facebook page for my cards, let alone a blog and now I'm appearing in my favourite magazine!

Told you it was exciting!

Card-lympics Day 4

It's that time again and I would have posted a bit earlier but I stopped to watch the diving (gutted for Team GB). 

Today's theme is gymnastics and, like yesterday's card, I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like. I have always loved watching the gymnastics and especially the floor work but the image I had for my card fits into the rhythmic gymnastics, another one which I will be watching. 

Like my fencing card, I created a silhouette figure but added more movement to it by added ribbon, attached at only the ends, and attaching the figure to the card using foam pads. Pink seemed the obvious colour to chose (maybe because rhythmic gymnastics is a women's sport or because of the venue colours, I don't know) but the only ribbon I had was too close a shade to the card for my liking so I added some darker pink handmade paper and finished my card with stars (for all the glitz and glitter of the event) and my Union Flag tag.

I considered added a coloured leotard to the figure but I had difficulty choosing the right colour: Team GB colours would probably clash with the pink and if I chose another colour, it could show support for another team (and we can't have that! =P) and may be a bit too much pink. So I left it black.

On a related topic - Good luck to the Team GB Gymnastics lads tonight!!  

Busy Weekend

This weekend saw me making plenty of cards for various occasions, including my first proper order - my brother was talking about my cards to one of his friends who needed one for her mum's birthday later this week. The theme for this card was The Cat in the Hat.
I began by looking at the character on-line and sketching out some ideas. I decided to make (yet another) silhouette card but highlight his famous hat and bow-tie.
To make it, I drew out my cat onto black card and finished it off by adding a red and white paper hat (and tie) with pen detail. 
I finished the card with silver stars and a happy birthday foam sticker.

After I had shown it to mum, she wanted one for her boss' birthday, her boss who happens to like cats. This one was more or less the same, with small changes in the details.





My third card of the weekend was a new baby card for our brand new family member (a distant relation). This one required a bit of inspiration. I finally came across the perfect template.

I used some pink and cream spotted paper for the rabbit, finishing it off with a little pink ribbon and pen features. The card itself was decorated with a strip of cream ribbon and some pink gingham tape with a 'congratulations' foam sticker (there is a lack of 'new baby' or 'baby girl/boy' stickers in my stash).


My other creation was for a family friend who was starting a new job. This was a new theme for me, having never made a 'good luck on your new job' card before. So I hit my magazines once more. Unfortunately, they were limited and all included stationary or shirts and ties which wasn't what I was looking for. I did have one idea though and that was shoes. My friend, Jan, absolutely adores shoes, so I decided to make them the focus of the design.
Again, I chose to do a silhouette card but used brightly coloured paper from the Retro Rose range for the shoes and detail on the card. I am so happy with the design and love the colours. I think it definitely ranks up there with my favourite makes. I used Word to help me write the message, but typing it out, finding the right font and copying it onto the card. I didn't just want to write good luck but I was able to come up with this sentiment, which I thought matched my card perfectly.

CAS-ual Fridays

CAS-ual Fridays

Just a quick entry for this week's CAS-ual friday challenge. Pretty in Pink is the theme.

I made this card for my best friend a couple of years back. I found the quote on another card and thought it was perfect. I typed it up on Word, added some colour and printed it out.  I finished the card with patterned paper and a paper bra topper, decorated with a piece of paper doily. I added the 17 as a final detail in gold gel pen. I'm glad to say that the card got a chuckle from: it had the desired effect.