Cardmaking-Companion-Blog

It's a sad fact that often our lives are so busy that we take our friendships for granted.

That is why I want to share this card with you. It was made by a lady called Linda (not the same Linda I have previously written about) who has recently joined our card making team and she is making some really lovely cards for us to sell at Church. This one particularly caught my eye because it is so bright and jolly and just immediately makes you want to smile.

I think it is a great card to send to a friend to just to let them know that you do not take them for granted and that you do value their friendship.

I like the way Linda has combined her use of rubber stamping with the torn hand made paper and the printed background paper.

It was really refreshing for me when Linda showed me some of her cards and asked to join our team because her style is very different to mine and she has jolted me into thinking how I can freshen up some of my card making.

So my suggestion to you all is to make some Friendship Cards and let your friends know how much you value them.

At Church recently we had a Celebration Evening to celebrate what has been achieved in the last 6 months and to look forward to the next 6. As part of the evening our choir performed  a special song and I'm going to share it with you here because I think it fits in with this piece on friendship - I know many of my friends have been there for me in tough times ( you know who you are ladies!) and I was grateful for their support.

I hope you enjoy the video - all the singers are amateurs and rehearse together for just a couple of hours a week. I thnk they did a great job on a great song!

Wow, I can't believe the last time I posted here was 3 weeks ago! In case you're wondering what's happened - I've been away on business. Part of the time I had to stay in a 4* Spa Hotel, the Grosvenor Pulford, just outside of Chester. It's a hard life but someone's got to do it!

Anyway the upshot of it all is that I haven't had much time to blog or make cards. By the time I've got in at night I've been exhausted. So to get back into the routine again I thought I'd share another of Linda's cards with you.

This handmade card has been made using the same rubber stamped image as in the previous card.

It really is a beautiful card without being over fussy or complicated. I particularly like the way Linda has used the Martha Stewart punch to create the ribbon border.

Hopefully I'll be getting my own card making back into full swing, especially as I've pledged to make 10 cards for a Promise Auction which is being held in July to help raise funds for our team's next mission trip to Uganda. These will not be "£1 specials" but more elaborate so I'll have to get those creative juices flowing again!

Technorati Tags: card making, rubber stamped

I just want to share with you this card I made for my friend Margaret who was 60 yesterday.

Margaret is a very special lady so I wanted to make her a very special card. What makes her so special is that she has recently donated one of her kidneys to another member of our Church who was in desperate need of a kidney transplant.

Margaret is not related to the other person but felt directed by God to put herself forward for kidney matching. Now if you are not religious you might say that this is a load of rubbish - I'm not here to argue the semantics or rights of this I'm just reporting to you what Margaret felt she had to do.

None of the recipient's family were a match but Margaret was so the operation went swiftly ahead.

Margaret has saved the recipient's life because she was failing to respond to dialysis.

What a selfless act - at 59 years of age Margaret knew the risks and was prepared to take them.

Could I be so selfless? The honest answer is I'm not sure - I would like to think I could be but until faced with the situation I do not know how I would react.

As you can see on the card I have made a little bouquet from the floral embellishments which I got at Port Sunlight and I've used lots of pink gemstones to add life to the brown and pink cardstock I've used for the Toppers.

The backing paper is a spare sheet I've had in my "stash" and I thought the brown and pink made a nice choice rather than standard floral, silver or gold based papers.

The words and numbers are cut from the Cricut George cartridge. The base card is cream and I added a punched pink insert.

Anyway I hope you like it and after telling her story you can see why I think Margaret is so special!

Saturday was Fete Day in Longton and along with Anita and Hilary I packed up all the cards we had and off we went to raise funds for our mission work in Uganda.

The weather was glorious, apparently the temperature reached 86 ' F (30'C). Luckily we had a gazebo which we set up to protect the cards - and ourselves!

In this photo Anita is on the left and Hilary on the right ( sorry it's a little dark but the camera was compensating for the bright sunlight).

Unfortunately the Fete has not been well marketed for the past couple of years and this year it was hardly publicised at all. We were told  to be on the Memorial Field where it was held at 9.30am with the gates opening at 11.30am, however the start date has

previously been 2pm and that is when most of the people arrived!  It was actually very poorly attended which was disappointing and we only sold about 30 cards, whereas other years we've more or less sold out. Other stall holders we talked to hadn't done any better.

Despite the poor results we enjoyed ourselves - we all lead very busy lives so it was good to have the luxury of just sitting and talking for a few hours.

By the time I got home I was exhausted - relaxing is so tiring!

Anyway here are just a couple of photos of 2 of our stands -see what you can spot.

Technorati Tags: card making

I've spoken before about my friend Linda who makes the most beautiful cards, well I thought it was about time that I showed you some of her work.

This is a large card, 8" x 8" , which is one of Linda's favourite card sizes. The card front has been covered with a plain pink and then a floral background paper, leaving just a border of white card showing.

Two strands of  deep pink organza ribbon have been wrapped around the matts and tied with a centre bow.  Two rose embellishments have been attached to the bow.

The rubber stamped Sugar Nellie image has been beautifully coloured with Copic Markers on a matt cut from a circle Nestability.

This has been mounted onto a floral matt on which Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page Combo Double Loops set has been used.

The floral matt has then been layered onto a pink matt where just the corners have been puched.

Finishing touch is a  pre-printed sentiment has been matt and layered onto a pink scalloped edge Nestability. Linda let me into a little secret about the positioning of the sentiment - it covers where she made a mistake with the ink, but you'd never know!

There is nothing difficult about this card - Linda just has a lovely eye for composition and has the knack of knowing just what works well.

Becuase it is known that I make cards for charity I am lucky enough to sometimes be given card making supplies from different people. Recently I was given a few boxes from an elderly lady who used to own a craft shop.

It was quite exciting rooting through everything - some of the stuff was very old and had discoloured but I found a few sheets of these cute toppers.

The paper they have been printed on is quite flimsy so I mounted them on silver Mirri card, and because the images, although cute, looked a bit flat I aded a sprinkling of glitter. In the photogragh the glitter looks a bit clumpy but on the actual card it adds a delicate highlight.

The landscape card blank has been covered with the blue multi dot paper from cardmaking-Ideas, which picks up the blue from the Topper.

I've used a corner punch on the bottom 2 corners to add interest to the card and added  tiny blue gemstones as an embellishment below the punches.

The sentiment is a peel off sticker mounted onto pale blue card, matt and layered onto the Mirri card.

The cream fabric flower tucked behind the Topper adds a finishing touch to the front of the card. This is one of a lot of fabric flowers which I bought at the Port Sunlight Show.  They come in bunches of about 9 flower heads on wire stems and I really like them. The down side is that they do make the card bulky so ideally you need to make a box, rather than an envelope to put the card in.

Finishing touch is the card insert which is in cream to co ordinate with the flower embellishment.

This ballerina topper was also part of my find. It is so sweet that it makes a great card for a young girl.  Again I have mounted it onto silver Mirri card and I've highlighted the flowers with a pinch of glitter. The card is covered with Dusky Pink Swirls, from Cardmaking-Ideas, which I think suits the Topper perfectly.

The sentiment has been matt and layered onto the Mirri card and the finishing touch is a dusky pink organza ribbon. Inside the card is a pink insert.

The card on the right has been made using the same Topper and paper but I've just altered the layout slightly by only partcovering the white card blank.  A silver peel off edges the paper.

These Ballerina cards were made prior to me going to the Port Sunlight show. Had I been making them now I would also have added some of the flower embellishments which I bought.

I've just got back from a really good day out at the North West Happy Stampers Spring Stamp Festival. The show is held twice a year and I also went to the Autumn show last October.

As you can see from the photograph the event was very busy. It is a ticketed event and was completely sold out. Most stalls had demonstrators and it was just a case of being patient and gradually working your way to the front so you could see what was going on.

I went with my friend, Jean, who is relatively new to card making, and we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

I had set myself a budget before going but there were so many good offers the budget just went out the window!

Among other things, I bought quite a lot of miniature floral bouquets embellishments so I think you'll be seeing them on quite a few cards in up and coming blog posts.

With regard to actual rubber stamps I was very controlled - I bought a bargain set of Penny Black baby stamps, 3 wooden sentiment stamps, and 1 really cute  character stamp!

I also treated myself to a couple of new punches to make some grunge flowers with -  so as soon as I've finished writing this I'm going to have a play!

This weekrnd is the Bank Holiday Weekend here in the UK. The weather is glorious and I've been having a bit of a Spring Clean through the house trying to get rid of things we no longer need or use.

However Spring Cleaning needn't be just about housework - it can extend to your card making as well!

Here's a quick card I made last night ready to replenish the dwindling supply of cards I sell at Church (another 38 were sold yesterday so that means another 38 children will be clothed, schooled and fed for 1 day).

The feature tag was made by my good friend Linda, it was the gift tag she gave me on my birthday present a few years ago. Like all of Linda's work this is beautifully done and I just couldn't throw it away so it has sat in one of my drawers ever since.

Anyway last night I decided to use it as the feature topper on a card.

The background paper has been fixed to a 6" x 6" white card blank and then I stuck the tag firmly down with double sided sticky tape. The ribbons compliment the colours on the tag and I decided to just let hang free rather than tying them into a bow.

The rubber stamped image has been coloured using water based inks and it has been matt and layered onto Mirri card, leaving just a narrow border.

The finishing touch is a sentiment topper, and inside I have used a pale green insert.

Because the topper was already made this card probably took me only about 5 minutes to assemble.

So the motto of this story is always to look at things that you might be able to recycle for your new cards!

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.