Cardmaking-Companion-Blog

If you are a regualr reader of this blog, or my website, you'll know that I make Cards for Charity, namely for mission work in Uganda & Macedonia.Last night I had the priviledge of hosting a "Meet & Greet" fundraising evening for 2 of the pastors from Uganda, Nicola & Silas Tayebwa.

These are 2 very special people ( to learn more about who they are and what they do take a look at King of Kings Ministries International).

I have to admit that all I really did was to provide our house as the venue - the superb catering was done by Chris & her daughter Amanda, who despite running a busy business provided the most superb champagne, strawberries & canapes.

In my dining room I set up the dining table as a card stall. Nicola also provided some Ugandan coffee,and handmade Ugandan bags.

About 70 people attended the evening and I'm pleased to say that I sold about 40 handmade cards. It's a good job that my friend, Sally, gave me so many cards as my stocks are running quite low - not that I'm complaining!

Nicola  also brought some handmade bead necklaces and earrings  - these are made by the Ugandan women out of magazines and cardboard. They take a long time to make and each set is totally unique.  The only problem with them is trying to decide which set to buy! Everyone seemed to enjoy the evening and didn't seem in a rush to leave - always a good sign!

Overall the evening raised £500 (approx $815) and Nicola & Silas were overwhelmed by people's generousity.

Luckily we only had only 1 minor mishap and that happened as we were preparing for the evening - the day before Chris dropped a beautiful floral display for the entrance hall. After she had dropped it off we went out shopping and came back home to find that the arrangement had been remodelled whilst we were out!

Our dog, Jazz, must have decided that all the sprigs of hedgerow berries did not add to the arrangement so he decided to eat his way around it! We got home just as he was about to demolish the last lot of berries. Luckily with a bit of readjustment from Chris the arrangement looked glorious.

From the way Jazz's ears are down in the photo I think he knew he'd done something he shouldn't have!

When I make cards for charity the proceeds all go to mission work, which is my particular passion. However why don't you think of raising funds from your card making for your favourite charity?

Whatever you decide to do "Happy Card Making"!

My friend, Sally, recently took the plunge and became an independent demonstrator for " Stampin Up". As part of her total commitment to "Stampin' Up" she made the courageous decision to get rid of all her products which do not belong to her "Stampin' Up" range - a brave lady! I'm sure I could not get rid of any of my goodies!

However as the old saying goes " one man's loss is another's gain", or in this case "one woman's..."!

Sally hosts "Creative Cafe" every Tuesday evening at her mother's coffee shop, "Delicachix" so last Tuesday I dropped by and managed to bag myself some real bargains. Sally was selling all her card making rubber stamps for half price or less, and some of them had not even been used!

The Penny Black tree on the right of the photo is a stamp I've been wanting for ages and I just fell in love with the baubles behind that - this year's Christmas Card design I think!

To make things even better for me Sally has donated over 100 of her cards to sell on my stall at Longton Community Church in aid of the Mission work.

Now Sally is a very talented lady and she has been making beautiful cards for years. Here is just a snapshot of some of the lovely cards which she has given. She apologised when giving them to me, saying that they were not her most elaborate, or her best work, but I'm sure you'll agree with me that they really are gorgeous! I just wish I'd bought the big daisy stamp before someone else had got hold of it!

Anyway I wish Sally all the best with her new venture and I'll keep you informed every now and then as to how she's getting along.

New rubber stamps can be very expensive so always keep a look out for good quality used ones - you might be surprised at just what you can find!

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Reaching 40 years of marriage is quite an achievement so when our friends, Bob & Linda , were celebrating their Ruby Wedding recently I wanted to give them a special card.

I didn't have a lot of time to work on the card so I decided to adapt the Golden Wedding Card design. You don't always have to come up with new and exciting designs every time - if you're pushed for time adapt something you've already done which you know works!

So for this one the card blank is, as previously, 8" x 8" with gold mirror card and cream parchment matt and layered onto it.

The centre piece is my good old favourite Sizzix "Forever & Always" embossing folder. Of all the embossing folders I own this is the one I use time and time again!

I tried many different ribbons on this card but decided to use this satin red polka dot one. Note that I fixed the strip to the parchment matt before sticking the parchment onto the mirror card - this enables the ends to be safely secured between the layers so there is no chance of fraying.

Ten paper red roses form the bouquet tied with the matching ribbon. I'm not very good at ribbon tying and it took me half a dozen attempts to get this one to sit correctly.

I slipped a silver heart charm onto the wire stems of the bouquet, twisting the wire to ensure that the charm does not fall off.

For the insert I went a bit over the top! I used a pearlised gold A4 sheet and then using a Martha Stewart border punched a lace edging out in ruby red card.

It's been a number of weeks since the Ruby Wedding but Bob says the card is still sat on their mantlepiece!

One of my friends is a radio controlled car racing enthusiast and on Saturday he was racing at a local event, Woodvale Rally. My youngest son, Mark aged 17, is also interested in the cars and wanted to attend so we duly set off. We arrived at 10am and I thought we would finish about 2pm at the latest - how wrong I was. By the time we left at 7pm I'd lost the will to live! Mark on the other hand said he'd had a great day.

However it was not all doom and gloom  as in the craft tent I met 2 lovely ladies- Sandra and Linda, with their card making business "Cards and More Cards".

We had a nice little chat and when I mentioned that I had a really bad headache they were kind enough to give me some headache tablets.

These 2 ladies are friends who are totally addicted to their card making and they have now decided to turn their passion into a little business.

They did stress tht they realise that they are unlikely to make their fortune but they certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves.

One of the problems they said they had was pricing the cards - infortunately the general public does not seem to understand just how much work goes into cardmaking.

They have their own Facebook page "Cards and More Cards".

I wish them all the best in their new venture.

Now Facebook is something I am slowly getting to grips with and I also have set up a page called "I Love Card Making" - I invite you all to take a look.

Recently at Longton Community Church we held a Promise Auction in aid of the Mission Work we are doing in Uganda and Macedonia. I "promised " 2 lots, each of 10 Handmade Christmas Cards. Both lots sold well but after the auction one of the bidders asked could she alter her 10 to a mix of everyday cards. I didn't have a problem with this and she duly presented me with a list of upcoming occasions - the first of which is a wedding.

Now handmade wedding cards are not something I tend to make a lot of, but I have to say I am rather pleased as to how this one has turned out.

The card blank is my usual "specials" size of 8" x 8" and I've covered it with a sheet of paper from the do crafts Papermania Confetti pad. I love all the sentiments on this paper, and although I did toy with  the idea of putting a sentiment embellishment in the bottom left hand corner I decided the card worked just as well without it.

The 2 hearts have been cut using Nestabilities from a piece of left overpale pink  background paper which has a manuscript design on it.

The scalloped edge is also from a Nestability, cut from a pearlescent pink paper.

The cardmaking embellishments are from a sheet of wedding card embellishments which I picked up from a sale bucket. When I see sheets of embellishments in sale buckets I tend to buy them by the handful as I always find they come in useful.

I also added a heart shape jewel stick on to each heart  and to compliment the pink rose embellishment on the bottom heart I added a pink paper rose to the top heart.

Each of the hearts has been stuck to the card using 3 dimensional foam pads to add more depth to the card.

The insert (not shown) is pink with a heart punch out in the bottom right hand corner and down each inside outer edge of the card I have stuck 4 punched hearts.

If you have any wedding cards which you'd like to share with myself and other readers of Cardmaking-Companion just go to the Readers' Gallery on Cardmaking-Companion, follow the simple instructions and upload your card photo.

I seem to be in a season of special occasions and parties at the moment.  This card is one I made for my dear friend, Pam, who recently celebrated her 60th

Her mother had organised a surprise party for her at Farington Lodge, a beautiful setting, where we all enjoyed a wonderful 3 course meal.

I'm delighted to say that Pam was thrilled with her card.

The card blank is the 8" x 8" size which I now use for all my "specials" - onto it I matt and layered pearlescent card in blue and pink and then used a very ornate butterfly design paper from K & Company, "Sparkly Sweet" speciality paper.

Unfortunately the camera hasn't picked up all the thick glitter on this paper, so as usual does not do the card justice!

The numbers have been cut using my Cricut and have been mounted using foam pads to raise them from the card.

Luckily in my embellishments box I had a couple of rubber butterflies which complimented the paper perfectly.

The finishing touch was the "Happy Birthday" tag which I embellished with 2 crystal gemstones.

For the insert I used the same parchment paper which I had cut the numbers from and then punched the doily edging using a Martha Stewart punch. A small butterfly punch in the bottom right hand corner completed the card.

I cannot believe it has been nearly 9 months since I last posted here. For any readers who do not get my monthly newsletter - in November 2010 my husband suffered a massive heart attack and since then he has been slowly recovering. I am only just getting back into my card making and blogging....

This is a card I made recently for someone to give on a Golden Wedding Anniversary. I thought the embossed Sizzix "Always & Forever" was very appropriate ( Golden = 50 years married!). I've previously used this folder on wedding cards.

The white card blank is 8" x 8" - I get all my blank card stock from Craftwork Cards. I like the quality of the card, the price is reasonable and delivery times are excellent.I have built the card front up with a series of mats and layers using gold mirror card, mottled cream parchment and a random off cut background paper from my stash which had appropriate sentiments on it. The embossed card is a pearlised cream.

I really love using these hand made flowers on my cards at the moment. I created the bouquet from a selection I bought during my recent visit to the North West Stampers Exhibition at Port Sunlight. The flowers have tiny leaves on them but the larger green stems are punched from a scrap of green card. To tie the bouquet together I used metallic gold ribbon - it's quite a stiff and fiddly ribbon to tie, not my favourite, but suitable for the occasion.

Inside the card I used the same mottled cream parchment I'd used for one of the mats.

The insert is made from an A4 sheet and is too small to fit fully inside this size of card so what I now do on larger cards is to punch a suitable border from a sheet of the same paper. I then glue the border down onto the outer edges of the base card. It looks very effective.

To finish this insert I added a "Happy Anniversary" peel off in the bottom right hand corner.

Although this card fitted neatly into the matching envelope finishing touches would have been to make a box for it and to have decorated the lid, unfortunately I ran out of time. If this card had been going to be posted it would have had to have had a box as it would not have survived the postal system!

In a recent Promise Auction to help raise funds for a Mission  Trip to Uganda I offered to make 10 cards, as and when, they were required by the bidder.

The successful bidder has just asked me to make a card for a 15 year old teenage "girly" girl.

Well I have to confess I've really struggled with this one - it's due to be handed over tomorrow and I've sat for ages trying to decide what to do.

Ideally I would have liked to have put a rubber stamped image onto the card but despite having boxes of stamps I soon discovered none of them were really suitable - so this is my finished result.

I've used a white 8" x 8" card blank and after searching through my stash I found this girly birthday paper.

After matting it onto some pink Mirri card I wasn't sure what to do next!

Finally I decided to cut out 3 of the pictures from another piece of the same paper and mounted each of them onto an inverted pink Mirri scallop cut with Nestability dies. I mounted them over the original pictures using 3D fixing pads.

To give the card a bit more "umph" I've embellished parts of the individual pictures with stick on jewels. I toyed with the idea of putting a lilac ribbon over the top of the parcel picture but after trying it decided it was too much. As usual I don't think the photo does the card justice!

For the inside I cut up another paper from the same pad and put a border of girls along the outside edges before using a pink insert with a punched heart in the bottom right hand corner.

I just hope the bidder likes it!

For those of you who are new to this blog , you may not realise that every month Cardmaking-Companion issues a FREE monthly newsletter called, "News and Views". With the newsletter comes 7 FREE digital background papers.

It's very easy to sign up for the newsletter - simply scroll down the right hand margin of this blog and you'll see the sign up box, or alternatively sign up directly from the main website.

Each month I show a card I have made with one of the free papers, and I thought this month I would share this with you on the blog.

I love this striking grey, pink and black floral paper. It's quite a busy design but lends itself well to either a plain card or a more elaborate design.

This 6" x 6" card blank has been covered with the paper. I have some pre-cut cream hammer finish circles and one of these has formed the centre piece of the card. Onto this I have mounted a scalloped edge circle, cut with a Nestability, from one of Cardmaking-Ideas' dotty papers.

I made a small bouquet of 3 rose floral embellishments and hand tied them with a pink ribbon, fixing them to the card with some PVA glue.

Around the edge of the circle I punched some butterflies, alternating a plain pink one with a "dotty" one. Small pink pearl embellishments were added to the body of each butterfly.

I decided to leave the card sentiment free but a peel off sticker would have worked in the bottom right hand corner.

Inside the card I used a pink insert and, as usual,  punched a design into the bottom right hand corner.

I have already sent this card to a dear lady called Emma, who is 80 years old, and has just undergone a 7 hour back operation. Thankfully the operation has been a success and Emma is expected to make a full recovery.

Tomorrow is the turn of yet another young couple from our Church to get married (what are they putting in the coffee!) - Rachel and Phil.

Here is the card which I've just finished making for them.

I've covered a landscape base card with one of our own very pretty heart papers. This was given away with July' edition of "News and Views" and will shortly be appearing for sale on Cardmaking-Ideas.  I think that it's a really pretty paper which works so well on a wedding card.

The centre panel is made from a pale pink pearlescent card ( in the photogragh it has lost its pink sheen) and has been embossed using my Cuttlebug and a Sizzix embossing folder.

The cake and wedding bell decoupage embellishments are ones taken from a sheet of wedding day handmade embellishments. These were very reasonably priced and most stores stock similar ones. Two self adhesive pink faux pearls decorate the remaining 2 corners of the panel.

The card was very easy to make and looks better in real life than it does here in the photo.