HAPPY NEW YEAR....I'm back

Wow was it really 6 months since I've blogged, I am a let down to the female race, I'm not great at multi tasking!!! I have been quite busy and several things have been happening so I'm afraid blogging took a back seat, but the nice thing is Laura from Creation Fairies has given my blog a lovely new look...BIG THANK YOU LAURA!!! I do actually love it!! and thank you for being patient with me installing it!! especially as you now have your very exciting new challenge to deal with (Laura is expecting her first child!!).

Well I have been busy crafting....of course!! It truly is my escapism but I have also completed a couple of articles for Simply Cards and Papercrafting mag, which I enjoyed but I found quite challenging...mainly because I am quite critical of my own work, I love making but putting it on show is another thing and I constantly look at other blogs and see other cards and projects that are way beyond me. I have to constantly remind myself of my own advice .... card making isn't about who's best it's about the enjoyment and the personal fulfilment., and if I am honest with myself, I love to create clean and simple cards but unfortunately these don't make for really great show pieces....oh well I will continue to explore different things here on my blog.....still with the emphasis on budget creating!!

I have still been true to my blog policy and created a couple of cards without cardmaking things.
I need a quick card for my brother-in-law who was having an operation to help sort his legs out, as i had nothing suitable in my stash I went back to my origins of doodling and drawing cards......it has to be the greatest joke of all as I can't draw for toffee, I have no art training or art background but I found like most people I can doodle and the more careless and less authentic I tried to make it.... the better it looks.

I added some doodled stitched details on the panels after I had taken the photo as I thought it was not quite right and it's surprising how it "anchored" the panels and made them look more incorporated into the card.

This card I made for my "Honoury Aunt", the flower actually came from a table decoration. I pulled the flower apart, trimmed off the plastic stem holding it together, then reassembled it with a glue gun. The label was actually an old Christmas card which I trimmed off, then shaped the top corners to form a tag, The card was also a damaged card blank. I trimmed off the damaged side and added a co-ordinating insert. Again after the picture was taken I was a bit dissatisfied, so I doodled the visible part of the insert with a glue pen and sprinkled it with glitter, this time I just echoed the scroll and holly on the tag.

Well I've done it again...rambled on too much!!! some things never change.

Now just want to wish you all the best for the New Year and most of all... wish you health and happiness in the year to come.

Happy Crafting x

Banana Frog Hop - Summer Fete - Have fun

If you've landed here from the Banana Frog blog hop.......Welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and if you're just visiting, welcome to you too!!)

This is my quiet little corner of the internet. Where I mainly ramble to myself about my obsession with papercrafting. I am one of the world's worst with the amount I spend on my hobby so to redress the balance I have created this blog with the focus on economical crafting.

So with my niece's birthday looming I decided to make a card with the Hop theme of "Summer Fete" I thought the bright colours would sum up the theme and suit a young girl.

As with the other cards I made for Banana Frog I have kept costs to a minimum, using up scraps and ordinary waterbased brush/felt pens instead of ink. This actually works in my favour as I wanted to just use the pretty scroll detail off one of the stamps in the Take Note set. Not an obvious choice to make a card with but it has some lovely elements and I have loved playing around creating patterns and motifs with them.

To create the stars begin by inking the scroll detail and stamping it in the middle of a piece of card. Repeat this five times point to point, cleaning the stamp and changing colour for each impression.

Then repeat five times more with the stamp reversed and the point facing outwards.

Roughly cut the stars out.

Cut three different colour circles, distress the edges with some of the pen ink and daubers.

Add some details with the lines of the journalling tag

Tie bows at the ends of some strips of ribbon, attach these onto some strips of double sided tape.

Stamp the word "fun" with the small Pharmacy alphabet set, on small scraps of card and cut out irregular shapes

Mount the stars and letters on double sided foam squares (if you haven't got sticky foam squares use spacers cut from corrugated card).

Print the other word on the PC, distress with ink and embellish with stamps.

Thank you so much for hopping by, it's now time to visit Julie at Notes on Paper to see what fab project she has come up with.

If you've got time leave a little comment to say "Hi" or share your favourite economical crafty tip, I'd love to hear from you and you will stand a chance to win something from Banana Frog.

Have a lovely day....I'm now off for a quick hop around too....but then off to work....looking on the bright side it means I get to earn more which means I can treat myself to some more stamps...I have my eye on some of Bev's new Christmas stamps!!!

Apologies for the delay of this post......I have been doing battle with my scanner........it won!
I said in my second spot I would be adding a couple of scanned images to supplement the projects....unfortunately my scanner didn't want to play....it's working but then getting stuck at the point of opening the View and Use window.....if anyone has any suggestions I would be most grateful


Anyway that only left me with a short time to have a play with the fantastic stamps from Banana Frog. I have become obsessed with the Take note set. Originally I thought it was just a useful Scrapbooking journaling set but there are so many pretty element that can be used if you do selective inking


The scroll element from the large journaling panel makes a great scroll leaf.




The whole project was again salvaged stuff.

The card blank was damaged down the edge....so that was hidden by daubing ink over top with a very coarse sponge.

The flower is from an artificial bunch. Pull all the plastic parts away from the petals then reattach onto a piece of card ( I stitched it on). Then decorate the middle...I used some hideous green glitter nail varnish......I don't wear it honestly!!!




The greeting was stamped onto a page from a stamp album. I stamped the message on the page and on a scrap which was then cut out to form a mask. The smaller journaling panel was then stamped over top. Tear and distress the message before attaching.





Ribbon stamping


As I mentioned on the banana frog blog I have been stamping on ribbon (to make a cravat for Alexander!!) As the scanner is not working I have photographed my test piece) but it's not very clear.

Sorry for such a patchy post ......must do better next time!! perhaps the scanned will be working by then.....hopefully.

Banana Frog Guest Designer

I have been extremely lucky to be invited to be Guest Designer for the Banana Frog blog this month. The stamps I have been sent are superb...Totally Tropical.....Funky Paisley....and Take note....and I could not seriously pick a favourite, I loved them all, and they are definitely sets I know I will be able to use again and again and again.

The sets are truly brilliant value as you will be able to get so much from them and there are so many elements for the money, but I have stayed true to my blog and kept the costs to an absolute minimum for my projects. The main projects and details will be posted on the Frog blog but I thought I would supplement them with a little post on here, particularly as both the cards didn't have proper envelopes so I had to do some adapting. The little "Thanks! card was packaged in serviettes which I customised with inks from a pen and then tied with thread and finished with a co-ordinating tag (I even ironed the serviettes once they were dry from the splatting technique!!.....how dedicated was that).

The second card used an junk mail envelope, which i decorated with a stamped liner and matching panel on the front (to cover the preprinted address).

It's quite easy to line an envelope. Lightly draw round the envelope... there is no need to cut all the bottom section out....it isn't going to be on show.

Just glue the piece attached to the top flap.

The other thing I had to improvise with was the acrylic block......I hadn't got one on the boat so I used various things lids sides of jars....and in this case the bottom of a glass....I was leaning on the seat of my stool which is very firmly padded and this gave a great impression as the bottom of the glass wasn't totally flat.

I made a third card for a friend using similar techniques to the first card, but I also had to do a little masking. As I didn't have a post it note to stamp a mask on I stamped the image on paper and held it in place with some rubbish (not sticky!!) insulation tape.
I also decorated inside the envelope for this one but this time I lined it with a bit of recycled tissue paper. All my cards were made while we were out for a quick trip on our boat (floating shed) so I really didn't have access to any proper crafting stuff, but I so enjoyed playing with the stamps and just a few old pens.

This post is a bit hurried as we are off again for a week on the boat, if I get a chance I might supplement this a bit further with some more of the pen techniques.

Test Scan

This is just a quick test to see if it's possible to share scanned images!! The picture can be clicked on, then choose from, print, copy or save. I prefer to copy and paste in a word document. I create the smallest margins possible then expand to nearly A4. Of course if a smaller amount is required, the image can be resized accordingly.

Pocket Tag Card

Well I am on a roll, thought I would sort out details for the Pocket Tag card from the previous post. (but spot the deliberate mistake....Forgot to rotate the picture of the completed card, not sure how to remove it either!!). I have included a jpeg of the template which I hope can be copied if necessary.

It really is a simple wallet shape designed to fit in a standard C6 envelope.You will need an A4 piece of card for the main pocket and an A6 piece of card for the tag. But as with all design this can be changed. the front flap could be shortened considerably, the tag size and design can be changed, even a doubled (folded) tag/card could be used inside.

Cut the pocket out (thin card or stiff paper works well)

The side flaps can be glued and fastened at the back....

OR.... put the adhesive on the back of the flaps and hide the flaps inside the pocket

OR...if you want to insert a wider card or larger embellishments, fold the sides flaps to create a "w", which will create a expandable gusset.

The little stand is attached at the back and will fold flat, the bottom of the stand is designed at a slight angle, this again can be adjusted.

I did find it best to copy the template and paste it in "Word" I reduced the margins to 1mm and expanded the picture to fit the A4...maybe there is a better way..will have to put my head round the best way to share this sort of thing....I am so not techie...can you tell!!!!

BAD BLOGGER!!!

O.k I hang my head in shame, I am a disgrace to the blogging community as I have been a.w.o.l. I do have very good excuses!! some exciting some a bit traumatic but I do feel ashamed as I know lots of people out there seem to be far more successful at juggling, work, family, craft and blogging at the same time. I so wish I was more organised!!

Anyway apologies!! I know I mostly talk to myself but just in case anyone is out there....sorry!

I have been busy crafting, very exciting as I have now completed two commissions for Simply cards and Papercrafts, very time consuming and slightly anxious putting my stuff in print.

Next month I shall hopefully be the Guest Designer on the Banana Frog Blog. Bev makes some great sets which I think are fab for anyone especially if you are starting out. I recently used The Superlicious Set in conjunction with some recycled stuff. An old manilla file, Paper Primark bags, some emulsion paint and nail varnish. The only other thing needed is a black inkpad

First I lightly painted the bags, allowed these to dry before stamping the flowers and cutting them out.

I created a Pocket Tag card from the folder (I will post details next time if anyone wants further info).

Then decorated the card with strips of the painted paper and the flowers. I added some doodles and embellished the flowers and card with the nail varnish.

I made this for a friend at work, the tins of paint had been hanging around forever in a cupboard, and I volunteered to dispose of them as the colours didn't match anything anyway....but I couldn't help myself I had to use them, so they have now joined my little collection of testerpots, it's so great because I would never have used that colour selection in a million years. That's what I so like about recycling, it often takes you out of your comfort zone and different possibilites open up.

What was also fab was my friend who is not a cardmaker or considers herself arty, took the trouble to make me a card for my birthday and it was absolutely brilliant, she very simply doodled some lines and drew some lovely red Poppies, it was so effective.....Thank you Eug!!!