Two autumnal swap tags

After making 2 tags yesterday, I was still in the crafty mood and made both of my autumnal swap tags for October.

Both tag bases were made using cream pearlised card and stamping a Personal Impressions Chestnut leaf stamp, stamped using VersaMagic Mango Madnesschalk ink pad, Tim Holtz Shabby Shutters & Fired Brick distress inks. The tags were also edged with the Fried Brick distress ink.

This first tag was also stamped with Personal Impressions Swallows stamp using Fired Brick distress ink & the tag was embellished with coloured lace and leaf brads and finished with ribbon.

this second tag was embellished using tiny flower brads and die-cut leaves, and finished with thin red ribbon.

Two 'Back to School' swap tags

I am quite behind on my monthly themed tags for the swap on the scraboooking forum on the Do Crafts website, mainly due to poor health, but today I sat and really enjoyed making two tags for the September swap.

                    The first tag uses House Mouse decoupage.

I layered the decoupage onto Websters Pages 'Petite Papers',(a 6" paper pad which came free with Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine) then onto copper pearlised card for tag base.

I embellished the tag with a Docrafts 3D tag, a leaf brad, paper scrabble letters which came free inside a craft magazine, and finished the tag with chiffon ribbon from my stash.

This second tag, I used a donated stamped image of a schoolgirl (sorry don't know the brand name) and coloured her with Promarkers. I 3D'd her onto lined floral school paper and again used the paper scrabble letters (both free in a craft magazine), then onto copper pearlised card for the tag base. I finished the tag with East of India maroon twine.

I enjoyed my crafting afternoon and aim to make some more tags tomorrow, Fi x

where has the year gone since I lost my best friend Deb?

On 29th October 2011 my dearest friend Deb died and left many broken hearts behind, she was only 55 years old, she was so full of life and lived each day to the full, too young to die.

 Tomorrow those who loved her will cover her grave with wreaths and tears, these are my flowers for my best friend, love you forever Deb, RIP, Fi xxxx

Made 4 tags for monthly swaps this week

It a bit of a week, on Tuesday teatime our irgin tivo crashed, along with their internet and our landline phone. Most houses in our road were reconnected in 2 hours, but 2 houses weren't and one of them was ours! We were finally reconnected on Friday lunchtime, butonly after the 2 Virgin tecvh guys came back 3 times.

One bonus to not having any internet, meant that instead of chatting to my dear friends on DC, which I really missed, it gave me the excuse to craft whilst watching DVDs we had had for ages and never got round to watching, my favourite was 'Atonement', but I also loved the cartoon 'All dogs go to Heaven' (our daughter is called Anner-Marie, like the girl in the story, and she had the film on video as a child and then bought it on DVD for her daughter, and mum!)

I belong to a monthly tag swap on the scrapbooking forum on DC, but had had no mojo and some poor health recently so had got behind.

August's theme was magical, we make a tag for our swap partner and the host.
This first tag is the tag I made for Kelly

It features, a ready-made tag, fairy pyramage, holographic peel-off butterflies and Papermania adhesive gems, and finished off with pale blue satin ribbon.

My 2nd tag was made for June our host this month

I coloured a donated stamped fairy image with promarkers. The tag is made from white hammered card, I stamped a frame acrylic stamp with clear embossing powder and brushed over it with Perfect Pearls 'Blue Patina', the first time I've used Perfect Pearls, saw the technique when Chloe was demonstrating on her Ideal World craft show last month. I used 3D sticky pads to attach the fairy to the tag and finished it with blue fibres.

September's theme is 'Back to school', which had me stumped, then I found some pyramage of a teacher. This tag is for June, my 1st partner for September. I aim to make my 2nd partner and the host tag for September next week.

This is a very simple tag, just using pyramage and red satin ribbon.

In December we are going to make 11 Christmas tags, one for each partner we have swapped with all year, so to save postage I made June's Christmas tag.

I used a donated Penny Black Christmas mouse (adore this image) and coloured it delicately with promarkers, I embellished the image with Papermania adhesive gems and layered it onto pearl card then made the tag from Kanban 'Blue Christmas Paisley' card, I finished the tag with with pale blue fibres.

we are away all weekend visiting our son Dan and his partner who live in Bristol and are in their final year of their law degrees, so will try and leapblog a bit Saturday morning, before we go, but then will try and catch up on Monday, have a wonderful crafty weekend everyone, and thankyou for any comments, your comments are so encouraging and each one is so appreciated, Fi xx

a thankyou and a birthday card (both using promarkers)

This week Andy and I went on a mini break to Herefordshire and stayed in a superb 4* farm guesthouse for 2 nights, I took some of the dfonated stamped images and enjoyed sitting on the bed in the early evenings colouring with my new promarkers which I just LOVE and can't wait to add more colours to my collection. this first phot ws taken at a superb pub where we had dinner on Tuesday evening.

This 2nd photo was taken just before we left the guest house to come home on Wednesday morning.

The first card I made was for our church admin manager Mike who has been arranging for homemade evening meals to be brought round to us til I'm well enouight to prepare evening meals myself, either cooked by himself or from other memebers at church who know us, all have been yummy, I gave him this card card and told him  I tried not to make it too girly, to which he replied humourously "I'm in touch with my feminine side!"

6" scalloped card and floral paper edged with TH shabby shutters distress ink. donated image coloured with promarkers and embellished with London Line gems, card finished with red card candi, red spotty grosgrain ribbon and printed 3D sentiment. the message on bouquet of flowers says "thanks Mike".

The 2nd card was made for our great-niece Grace's 1st birthday, image coloured Friday evening, card made today.
I used another donated, diecut and embossed LOTV image and coloured it with promarkers, added grosgrain robbon, blue card, and London Line pearls, the paper is from Wild Rose Studio 'In Love with Japan' 6" paper stack, all on my favourtie 6" scalloped edge card base.

Been a bit of a month!! and first attempts using promarkers

As many of my friends already know on Wednesday 29th August I had a mild TIA (mini stroke) won't bore you with details, but got wonderful hubby and great support from family, friends and neighbours, excellent paramedics, fab new GP and superb pain consultant and slowly taking it a day at a time, I will recover. Still waiting for ressults of CT scan ths week from my ENT consultant. For now Carrie is living with her dad and other grandma as I'm not well enough to have her home yet.

Been left quite weak but hubby Andy and my mum gave me craft stash funds, so I bought tons of craft mags with fab cover gifts and also subscribed to Quick cards, purely because the subscription gift was 20 promarkers, which I've wanted for ages but couldn't afford til now. the other night, when unable to sleep, coloured my very first topper with promarkers and today made it into a quick card for a dear friend Sylvia on Do Crafts.

 Blogger won't let me upload the card, but this donated PB hedgie image was my 1st attempt at promarker colouring a topper, enjoyed it and it relaxed me, tho know I've a LONG way to go and so much to learn and more promarkers to add to my collection of around 30 so far!

I also received some die-cut embossed images from another DC friend and coloured 2 of them in this afternoon, making one into Andy's anniversary card, sorry don't know brand of stamps.(poor quality of images is down to scanner, and marks are on scanner, not toppers. Andy accidentally left our camera in our car and took it to work today, thats my excuse).

top image hasn't been made into a card yet, bottom image 'together forever' has been made into my anniversary card to Andy for our 28th wedding anniversary on 22nd September,when our daughter has booked a restaurant for 9 of us to go out and celebrate his 52nd birthday and its a double celebration as we got married on his 24th birthday! I've coloured the topper as close to our hair colours and the clothes in our fave colours too.

Promarker colours used:
Satin
Dusky Pink
Blush
Coral
Cinnamon
Cocoa
Pastel blue
Duck Egg
Amethyst
Aubergine
Poppy.

As Andy doesn't like anything too fancy I just added distress inks and put the topper on a pre-printed card

Tim Holtz distress inks used:
Shabby shutters
Tattered Rose

Happy anniversary and birthday Andy for this Saturday, you are my rock and so good to me, love you more each day and hope we have many more happy healthy years together, no matter what life throws at us!!
Fi xxx

Made 2 cards this weekend, a birthday card and a 1st day at school card

Finally I've made some cards this week. I've been so busy keeping Carrie entertained over the summer holidays and doing children's craft projects and baking with her and her friends, along with making a couple of scrapbook pages, I've not made any cards since mid July.

One card was straightforward, I used a La Pashe 'Mechanic's Workshop' Framin' Card kit. A framed decoupage card for Andy, my husband's birthday, next month. I sat in my comfy chair and it took about 1.5 hours to cut out and layer up the card. I just need to make and attach a stand at the back so the card can be freestanding (saw how to make one from a show on Ideal World's craft day this last week.)

the photo doesn't show the dimension of the decoupaged tools on the card.

The second card ( & co-ordinating decorated envelope) was a labour of love for a very special little lady.

 Next month my youngest niece Lottie is starting school, so I've made a card for Carrie to send to her cousin to mark this momentous occasion. It took me about 4 hours in total to make this card ( not including the time taken for the silicone glue to dry).

Products used to make this card
Crafters Companion 'Popcorn Bear' twisted pyramage & co-ordinating papers and embellishments.
Dovecraft silicone glue & finger lift DST
'Fired Brick' Tim Holtz distress ink
Habico adhesive pearls
Papermania 12" x 12" red scalloped cardstock (cut down  & scored to make A5 card base)
Papermania red spotted Capsule Collection mini buttons
'Summertime' backing paper (red spotted paper behind pryamage) - free with issue 108 (Sept 2012) of Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine
Wackytac Adhesive sheet
die-cut tags, border & scroll (all from craft swaps on Do Crafts forum)

I decorated a white envelope with co-ordinatingPopcorn Bear embellishments.

Now I'm off for a soak in the bath as I've sat up for far too long today and my back muscles really ache, thankyou for any comments youmay leave, Fi x

1st page of Mo's 40th birthday album

I made 1st page of Anita's 40th birthday album (previous post) this week, so decided I should also start her twin Mo's album as well. To begin with I will use the same photos, for their shared childhood, but in their preferred colourways. Anita loves, chocalte, browns, creams, greys and blues. Mo prefers pinks, blues and soft greens.

Details:

vintage blue/cream spotted 12 x 12 paper (maker unknown)

satin spotted ribbon bought from Susie D (on DC)

silver glittered chipboard alphas from Poundland

Boofle 'Big Bloomer' flower

handmade rose,die-cut flowers & circles from swaps on DoCrafts

blue pearls from The London Line (bought at The Range)

vintage buttons from my granny's button jar

1st page of my little twin sisters 40th scrap albums

In October, my little sisters Mo and Anita, identical twins, will be 40 and  its customary for me to make my siblings an album for their 40th birthdays. I've not scrapped since last November, so its well overdue that I got back into it, also having just 2 1/2 months to finish two 12" x 12" albums, theres nothing like a bit of time presure to get me crafting!

                     This first LO is the first page of Anita's album:

materials used:

12" x 12" vintage newspaper paper (maker unknown)

Dovecraft 'chocolate' floral paper

Vintage lace paper (maker unknown)

Boofle Big Bloomers paper flower

Papermania 'chocolate' brad

diecut flowers 

(journalling will be added later to protect my sisters privacy as it will give their full names date and place of birth)

details:

Poundland bronze glittered chipboard letters

K & Co Vintage Button vellum

metallic pearl paper (maker unknown)

vintage ribbon (maker unknown)

photograph of the day the twins and mum came home from hospital(mum had been in for 6 weeks and in those days children were banned from maternity wards, so we had bnot seen her in that time.

 (from left to right)

Me aged 7 1/2 holding my 2 week old baby sister (we can't remember who was holding who!);

Mum holding Fraser, aged 17 months old

Ian, aged 6 holding our other baby sister

Dad.

Posies Scrapbook kit adhesive journalling stickers (bought from QVC)
                   Hot Off The Press Soft Nostalgia backing paper

die-cut bird on branch, die-cut border & antiqued brad ( all from swaps on Do Crafts forum, details unknown)

I couldn't possibly start Anita's story without Mo (short for Morag) her identical twin. Anita was born just a few minutes after Mo and they are still inseperable.

Dovecraft chocolate paper
Posies kit die-cut letters
Vintage buttons from my granny's button jar (given to me by my mum when I got engaged, as part of my 'bottom drawer' 29 years ago!)

One down, 39 to go!!

1st blog post for 4 months - May, June & July swap tags

due to increasingly poor health I've barely crafted since April, but
today I finally thought it was time to update my neglected blog with some tags I've made for a monthly themed swap on DoCrafts forum.

May swap theme was monochrome.

This first tag was made with die-cut card and glittered vellum, glittered shoe topper, butterfly charm, die-cut swirl, black glitter embossing powder, black and white pearls and black and white co-ordinating spotted ribbons.

This 2nd monochrome tag was made with die-cut glittered card,paper & fabric flowers, pearl brads, butterfly charm, white pearls & black and white co-ordinated spotted ribbons.

The theme for June's swap was Summertime.

This first tag is titled ' Lazy Summer Days!' Its made from decoupage, pearl card, butterfly & green glittered border peel-offs, pearls, a sentiment & fibres.

This 2nd tag is titled 'Nasturtium Bouquet', its made from decoupage, holographic card, die-cut butterfly, gems and embellished chiffon ribbon.

July's swap theme was 'Teatime'

This 1st tag is made from free 'Celebrations' papers & toppers from Crafts Beautiful, Fired Brick & Tattered Rose distress inks, a doily, pearls, a glittered brad and  2 co-ordinating chiffon ribbons.

This 2nd tag is made from embossed card, Fired Brick and Tattered Rose distress inks, Toppers from Celebrations paper collection from Crafts Beautiful, brad and organza ribbon.

thankyou for any comments, happy crafting, Fi x

3 swap tags I've made & my new hair style

I've finally made both the March swap tags for Docrafts scrapbook forum monthly swap, the theme was mothers. This first tag is titled . 'Flowers for Mother' .

Websters Pages 'Petite Papers'

Papemania floral sprig stamp, stamped with

Tim Holtz Fired Brick distress ink

all other elements from stash

this 2nd tag is titled 'Mother knows Best!'

Vintage paper designed by Jenny Ellory.

K & Co Mom To Go sentiments, edged with

Tim holtz 'Tatered rose' & 'Fired Brick' distress inks.

Tiny Papermania brads.

all other elements from my stash.

the theme for the tag swap for april is Easter/Spring, this is my first of two tags

title 'Happy Easter'

Papermania Creative Tones 'Olivine Essence' paper

Papermania pearl brads

donated floral die-cuts.

all other elements from my stash.

New hair style 30th March 2012.

3 Easter cards Carrie and I made and swap tags I have received from DC forum

I've not blogged for over a month, life has gotten in the way and been way too stressful so thought it was about time to recify that.

This week I made an easter card for an easter card and chocolate bar swap on Docrafts forum

very fiddly decouapage, easter ribbons and flower ribbons on glitter carsd and green card base, all elemtns from my stash, makers unknown.

Last night Carrie (almost 8) made 2 easter cards for her cousins Lottie and Ellie. all I did was give her  ahuge pile of resources and cut the paper on the trimmer, everything else was her design, she cut out all the sentiments, not all can be seen as some are inside the cards or on envelopes, forgot to photograph them before sealing. the stamped images were won in a draw on docrafts from Samantha, she has coloured 6 easter images from Sam already, last night was such fun watching her share my passion for crafting!

Both cards use backing papers and sentiments which came free in April's 'Crafters Beautiful' magazine, (a mothers day gift from my daughter Anne-Marie. she also bought me simply Cards & papercraft mag, Quick cards mag, acrylic stamps and skeleton leaves, so chuffed!) 
host swap tags -

I belong to a monthly scrapbook forum tag swap on Docrafts forum. Each month we make 2 tags one for our swap partner and one for that months host. I was host in February and chose the theme of love, these are the stunning, inspirational tags I received which are displayed  on my wall in my craftroom and are all treasured.

thankyou Kay, June, Lesley, Gina, Donna, Helen, Svjetlana, Kelly and Karen.

got 4 more tags to upload but blogger is playing up, will try later