Long Time No See

Been quite a while since I last posted, but life kept getting in the way! I'll post some pictures another time of the stuff thats been going on in the house, which is gradually getting sorted. But I thought I'd post a few pictures of stuff I've been doing over the last few months, and apologies to everyone who has kept up visiting, only to find nothing new.

These two cards were for the same wedding- always a problem making cards to go to the same people! Both of the people who ordered them wanted Easel cards.
 The flowers on both are the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals- I got the large & small versions,( Alterations & Movers & Shapers) which gives me even more adaptability when building up flowers. In the Gold card, I used a Celtic Horseshoe stamp. I think this came from the Aspects Of Design range, quite a few years ago, and I am pretty sure it is discontinued, which is a shame. Also used Tims Flourish die, and Nesties Labels 7. The centres of the flowers were filled with Glossy Accents and seed beads. The large Congratulations was cut out with the Silhouette.

The Black & White card has flowers cut from vellums and black & white pearl paper, triple embossed hearts in black & silver and Nesties Labels 4. I used black & white seed beads for the centres of the flowers again.

I'm also discovering that Blogger has changed a little while I've been gone!  I am not having any trouble posting any more, which is good, but I really don't like the changes they have made to the 'Labels' section. Maximum number of labels, ok, I was getting my head around that, learning to be brief, then I discover its a maximum number of characters too. What on earth is that all about? Its our blog, why does it matter how many tags we put on a post, or how many characters it uses? Not a happy bunny. Going to try another post using Livewriter and see if it applies through that too. I suspect it will, as its a Blogger rule. Off over to Blogger to find out what they are playing at, lol.

Another Easel Birthday

Easel cards have been a bit of a theme, as the person ordering cards off me lately really likes them and asks for them particularly.
Cards for men are never the easiest, so many stamp companies really don't cater for male images, so usually my go-to stamps are the Stampscapes scenics.
 This one features stamps from Nature Sheet 6, stamped onto a pale grey brayered background in Black Versafine. I matted that onto two colours of green card. The background paper is Shamrocks, downloaded off the net a while ago, and you can see I used a leftover piece as the sentiment background and also cut out a couple of Shamrocks and mounted them with silicone glue.
 I wrapped dark green ribbon around the card and created a folded bow, and finally added a green & gold flower.

Easel Birthdays

All three of these were for the same person, so it was hard work making them all as different as possible! Two feature the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals,and I love the fact that they will cut pretty much any material- I've been using up a lot of fancy papers that I have collected, and some of the flowers I really love- the green & gold in the bottom card is a particular favourite. That one also has a four panel image of the Penny Black stamp 'Aspire', matted onto gold & wrapped with a narrow gold organza ribbon. Nesties Labels 7 was used for the sentiment here.

 The top left card features a Chocolate Baroque stamp, Harlequin Rose, which is part of an A4 sheet.The image was stamped in black, mica powders smudged onto the background and chalks & micas used to colour the Rose & leaves.The background is an embossing folder, Creative Expressions' Lattice'. Wrapped with silver & black ribbon and embellished with Black & White Tattered Florals. I have to say that Black & White really is my favourite go-to theme. Nesties Labels 4 was used on this one.
 Top right, the background is another sheet of fancy paper, a vellum panel punched with Doily Dots and some Tim Holtz Rosettes, cut from black & white vellum. The Butterfly panel was made with Fusible Fibres, and I cut out a second set of butterflies to mount on top with silicone glue. the stamp itself is available from two places, Tanda Stamps, Far East Set 1, either as a plate along with other oriental themed stamps, or individually. It is also available from  De Stempelwinkel, as a Non Sequiteur Plate, Samurai Plate. The sentiment is on Nesties Petite Scalloped Ovals Large. On all the cards, the foil printed background paper on the bottom is from Craft Creations.

Anniversary & New Baby

Two cards here, I pictured them side by side as its not easy to tell the size of the baby card without something to compare it to. The Anniversary card is a standard A4 sheet of card folded. The Anniversary & new baby were not for the same person, by the way!

    
The New Baby was for a work colleague leaving to have her first baby, so I made an A4 sized card, which gives plenty of room for everyone to sign. I buy a pack of A3 card from Staples for doing these. Its not particularly thick, so I add a sheet of A4 card to the back, and by the time it has papers etc on the front, it is perfectly sturdy. The punched panel uses vellum punched with two different X-cut border punches, Looped Fringe & Doily Dots.                           
 I'm actually very impressed with these border punches, they give a nice crisp cut and are really easy to line up, although I always do this by flipping it over to double check. I used a pale blue, a blue gingham and then a darker blue vellum, and added a knotted ribbon over the top. The decoupage teddy is matted onto Nesties Labels 8, and the sentiment was computer printed onto vellum and then heat embossed with silver powder. I matted that onto a piece of white card overstamped in Brilliance Pearlescent Blue with 'Precious Baby ' a u/m word collage stamp from Artifacts (The Stamp Bug). Finally added a few punched & layered flowers, with Stickles centres.


The Anniversary card also has a panel punched with the Doily Dots border punch, and is wrapped with black & red ribbon. The background paper is from a Dovecraft pad,called Charcoal Prints. The Rose Heart stamp is from Chocolate Baroque, stamped and embossed in Gold, and coloured with H2o's. I added a clump of paper roses and red and blck feathers, and secured it with silicone glue. The sentiment was stamped and embossed in gold again, onto a small tag and tied onto the ribbon with some red cord.