Here I will show you some of the cards I have been making, chat about what's going on in my world, or share with you things that have caught my attention.
If you are looking for detailed intructions about how to make cards, or about a particular technique then you will need to pop over to Cardmaking-Companion for that.
Many of the papers I use are from our sister site Cardmaking-Ideas. You will be able to get them yourself, and the beauty of them is that because they are downloadables, once you have them you will be able to print and re use them time after time!
I hope you enjoy reading this blog -To view the posts just scroll down.
I'd love to hear from you so please feel free to leave your comments after each post.
Yesterday two of the founding members of our Church left. About 18 months ago, Mike, stepped down from Eldership because he felt God was directing him to move away from Longton and directing him down south to Torquay.
It has taken all this time for his house to sell but the sale is finally going through this week and yesterday was Mike and Penny's last Sunday with us.
As a Church we had a group picnic to wish them well and it turned out to be a lovely social event.
Normally I would make a "Good Luck" , or "New Home" card but in this particular case I thought this rubber stamp sentiment says it just right.
The background paper has been cut so that the design goes along the card, the rubber stamped sentiment has been mounted onto some silver Mirri card, and a silver cross peel off has been added.
The small flower has been coloured with a Copic Marker and after I had taken this photogragh I also added a jewel embellishment to the centre of the flower.
Inside I put a pale blue insert.
As you will have gathered if you have been reading this blog for awhile my preferred style of card making is clean and simple and that just about sums up this card. It may be simple but I feel it sums up perfectly what I wish for Mike and Penny in their new adventure.
One of the things which stood out yesterday was, as a Church we are a very diverse group of people, but we all stood together to wish Mike and Penny well. That led me on to thinking about card making - we are a diverse community of people but we share a common interest and I hope we wish each other well. The video I've posted below has nothing to do with card making techniques but it is to do with people. Take a look and maybe take a few moments to think about what it means for your life.
My favourite way of colouring in a rubber stamped image is to use Copic Marker Pens. I love the way these alcohol based pens blend together to give your work a sense of depth.
The weather here has had a real Spring like feel over the last week and to me this card also has a real feel of Spring about it.
The card blank is one which has been pre printed in a pale green with butterflies. (You can easily create this effect by background stamping).
The centre image is from Sugar Nellie, coloured in with my Copic Markers.
I cut round the image using a scallop edged Nestability and chalked the scallop edges with a pale orange to compliment the colour I had used on the girl's tunic.
Finishing touch was a "Happy Birthday" peel off sentiment.
Quick Tip: Always try to "ground" your rubber stamped images, rather than having them float in mid air.
Copic Markers come in a huge range of shades but you don't need them all at once - build up your collection over time.
Card Making Kits are probably the quickest and easiest way to make a stack of cards!
I'm under pressure to produce a lot of cards for sale at the moment. As part of the work I do for the Ugandan mission we've agreed to sell cards at our village fete in May and just after that we've agreed to set up a stall at Longton Garden Trail Day.
Longton Garden Trail is an annual event where people who have superb gardens open them up for the day, visitors buy a ticket (the proceeds of which go to charity) and this entitiles them to go and visit each of the gardens on the trail. And before you ask my garden is definitily not on the Trail!
Due to work commitments I haven't been able to make as many cards as I would have liked to have done over the last few months so as I said the pressure is on at the moment.
The cards shown here are from a kit which I got as a signing on gift from a magazine subscription. I made a few cards in December and then put the kit to one side until the other day when I sat down and made this little lot!
With a card making kit you can have the best of both worlds- all the components of the kit are co ordinated so you don't have to root around looking for things that work together well, but you can still be creative in how you assemble the kit. Some kits do come with ideas and illustrations whilst others like this one you let you get on with it.
I hope that you have all had a restful and peaceful Easter time.
I have had a really lovely break and found time to make lots of cards, some of which I'll be sharing with you here, and some of which will go directly onto Cardmaking-Companion.
Unfortunately over the Easter period my friend's Auntie died. She approached me at Church and asked could I make her a sympathy card.
Now thankfully I have not had to make that many Sympathy Cards so I sat and thought which was the best way to approach this. As I did not know if the deceased or her family were religious, or not, I did not want to make an overly religious card, neither did I want to produce a card which was too upbeat.
I popped to a local craft shop and found these beautiful black, white and grey (achromatic) decoupage flowers. The sheets did not have the manufacturer's name on them. They are all pre die cut so you just have to pop them out and then decoupage them using 3D double sided sticky foam pads.
As you can see I made 3 different versions so my friend could choose which she liked the best but when she saw them she bought all 3 - saying that at her age it is a sad fact that she will no doubt need to use the other 2 before the year is out.
My personal favourite is the single rose on the right. I think that this is simple but has a classic feel to it.
It has taken all this time for his house to sell but the sale is finally going through this week and yesterday was Mike and Penny's last Sunday with us.
The weather here has had a real Spring like feel over the last week and to me this card also has a real feel of Spring about it.
Unfortunately over the Easter period my friend's Auntie died. She approached me at Church and asked could I make her a sympathy card.
The sheets did not have the manufacturer's name on them. They are all pre die cut so you just have to pop them out and then decoupage them using 3D double sided sticky foam pads.
