Busy Busy Busy

Despite having a hectic week ahead of me - uni work (already!), packing to go back on Saturday and a small collection of cards to make before I head on back to Manchester - I have managed to find some time to write an entry while watching the closing ceremony and I have to say, so far I am very impressed! I knew Coldplay were coming along but the steampunk intro was pretty awesome.

So, I have finally started making my Christmas cards. I aimed to do at least 10 before I went back to university and with about a week left, I decided to dedicate yesterday to making cards. I got 15 made so I am already ahead of my target. And as a bonus, my room has not only returned to normality, I have more or less packed up my craft stuff, although I can't guarantee it will all stay in there during the week!

Coldplay are on!! XD

(I should probably apologise for my seemingly random outbursts, finding it a bit difficult to contain my excitement!)

I digress.

Today I also volunteered my services for my church's coffee morning. Well when I say my services, I donated some of my cards to sell. Unfortunately, I won't be there - first week back at university. 
So to aid my efforts of procrastination, I packed the cards today and made my PoS for them to sit in (and to store them in), just because a plain ol' shoebox wasn't enough.
To do this, I wrapped up an old shoebox in some pretty wrapping paper. 

First Video

After seeing a Google Chrome advert today - the one about the satchels, if anyone else has seen it - I decided to put some videos on YouTube to show off my cards.

After sorting through my photos and getting them organised, the timings right and adding some music, I have finally uploaded my first video. I decided to do my female birthday cards first as they are probably my favourite ones to do. There will be plenty more to follow (I hope) and maybe some tutorials further down the line.

Take a look and see what you think!

A Stroke of Genius

This is a really quick entry to tell you about my amazing discovery this earlier this week.

Apologies for the bad photo, it was taken on my iPod. 
This is something I must have!!! I tried doing stitching on my cards by hand but despite giving the cards a lovely finish, it was such a pain that I promised never to do it again. But this changes things. I plan to get my hands on one of these when my student finances allow me!

Whoever invented this needs a medal!

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!

CAS-ual Fridays

CAS-ual Fridays

I realise that this post is well overdue. Especially seeing as this weeks CAS-ual Friday deadline is this evening. Oops. However, I did make my card on time. I got back from the Lake District last Friday and made my card that afternoon. However, after receiving my new project brief - with three weeks still left before I go back to university! - I was feeling very un-motivated to do any thing and nearly considered not entering at all this week.

But here it is.

So, the theme this week was Banners and Flags and as I had a friend's birthday also last Friday, I made this card with her in mind. I used a Me To You embellishment from a set I had lying around and added some matching coloured bunting made with card and ribbon. I finished it off with a swirly birthday message.

I have a surprise announcement coming up soon so keep reading. Very exciting! 

CAS-ual Fridays

CAS-ual Fridays

I am slightly amazed that I have managed to find the time to make this card today. In a matter of hours, I am off to the Lake District for a week with my family (Really, really, really hoping the weather turns out nice as we are hiking most of the week). 

So, the theme for this week's challenge is the Sea and things seen in or by it. I have done a few sea-themed cards recently: I entered another challenge a few weeks back and of course, there is the sailing card for the Olympics. 
I made this one a really quick card by using a pre-made embellishment as the central focus of the design. These dolphins were given to me by my German room-mate last year whose family owned a craft shop. I finished the card with some blue fabricy-paper stuff and some paper ribbon. A Happy Birthday tag was added to the bottom and as an after thought, I had an experiment with some glitter glue that my sister found by creating a wave pattern up the length of the ribbon.

Youth Culture Cards

I think I am still recovering from the last two weeks, although I think it's more the lack of sport than having had to make and post a card everyday, from Wimbledon to le Tour de France to the Olympics, I've been watching sport for the last two months! 

Anyway.

Recently, I decided on my target market, although I won't stop with all my other cards! Whilst I was at the Kanzi Kibera concert in July, one of my customers (that sound good!) was commenting that we didn't have many cards for teenage boys - luckily I had a couple of my silhouette guitar cards with me. 
That got me thinking a bit. Most of the handmade cards that I have seen are quite fancy and grown up, or brightly coloured and childish and mainly aimed at the female market. 
So, bearing this in mind, I set up an album on my Facebook page dedicated especially to those cards aimed at young people. These designs range from Batman to Disney to guitars and over the last couple of years this collection has grown quite a bit. I guess it helps that I am off that age group where all my friends fit into this category. I hope to expand this and I was able to add some more to the album today.
Last month, my brother requested a meme card for his friend's birthday. This proved to be a bit of a challenge for a couple of reasons. 1, his friend had already seen my first meme card - 'Like a Sir' (posted in April) so I couldn't give him that one and 2, I don't know that much about memes so I had to come up with a design that used the right meme in the right way (or else I would be in BIG trouble!).
I finally came up with my design:

This 'rage comic' as they are called comes with the caption 'Challenge Accepted' and of course, he is referring to the giant paper pieced birthday cake next to him. I believe it went down well and I think my reputation precedes me now. Whenever it's one of my brother's friend's birthdays (and he asks for one of my cards) as soon as he gives it to them, they say - before even opening it might I add - 'this is one of Emma's cards isn't it?' 

The other cards added to the album were hot off the cutting mat today. I have been reading a manga called Death Note. I began reading it last year but put it down and have only begun to read it again. It's quite thought provoking but is so, so good although you do have to pay close attention in order to follow the logic of the characters.
The two main characters, Raito and 'L' (he doesn't share his real name in the book) work together in order to solve a huge mass murdering mystery. However, we know from the beginning that Raito is the one that has been causing the deaths and wants rid of L. 
And this is where the inspiration came from. The main themes in the book are a bit of a Ying and Yang. The obvious one is good vs evil.

The design on these cards are silhouettes of Raito and L face to face. Those who are familiar with the manga, anime or film can (hopefully) see who is who and the significance of the apple in the middle (I don't want to go into too much detail about the story). The apple was made with red card and finished with black pen and white pencil to add detail such as shine and shadow.
I am really happy with these card, and I will probably end up making a template from the two silhouettes to make more of these cards (if needed). Once I had drawn the profiles - using the manga as reference - it was simply a case of cutting them out and sticking them in place and because I cut them out carefully, I was able to use the negatives to create a second card.