I've Been Busy

It's been hard to do much cardmaking over Christmas due to more people in the house, to say nothing for the Christmas paraphanalia that always seems to be left around. I even had to put some of my bits away that normally stay within easy reach! But, even though it's a couple of days until twelfth night, things have got a bit quieter - eldest is back at work and two younger children at school (My school doesn't start until tomorrow!) And I managed to take over the table for long enough to make some cards.


This card uses a digi stamp from Cute Daisy May and I've teamed it with papers from Papermania and tried out my new Martha Stewart punch. The image is coloured with Promarkers, and I even pulled out a punch I've had forever that does those photo corners. The sentiment is computer printed and cut using my circle nesties.


This one is similar in layout, but uses a Sarah Kay stamp. The paper's from the same pad as the last card, and again, I've done a sentiment on the computer and cut it with my nesties.


A different layout this time, although the Martha Stewart punch was used again. This time the image is a Sugar Nellie stamp, and again, it's coloured with Promarkers. I didn't have any ribbon to match this peach/brown colourscheme, so I improvised, using the papers I'd used for matting and layering, punching one and embossing the other using a Cuttlebut border folder. Like the others, the sentiment is computer generated and cut with my nesties.



This one uses some more of the Kars Oliphant stamps I got for my birthday. I masked so I could add the dog and some grassy mounds behind. Oddly enough, what I thought were grassy mounds turn out to be hedgehogs in reality, but it's amazing what a bit of green colouring does! Again coloured with Promarkers, and with some more Papermania paper, and finished with an embossed flower I made a while ago and kept as a spare embellishment.

Happy New Year

First, I'd like to wish everyone a very happy 2010.

This is the end of my first year on Blogger, and it's been easier to use than I thought it would be. On the other hand, I still think my other 'home on the web' has a better intrinsic structure than Blogger. (I've been on Livejournal for about six years, although with a different interest base.) I like the facility for replying to comments there, and I really like the community structure which allows you to 'friend' those people you want to know all about and find out about shared interests via community entries for those you don't. Having said that, and probably because you get a lot of personalisation free on Blogger, many people have multiple blogs for different subjects while single accounts with multiple subjects is more normal on Livejournal - or at least that's the impression I've had so far.

And of course, on LJ, this whole bit of waffle would be under a cut so that only those interested would be bothered with it, and the rest would just get the good wishes at the top. And that's probably my cue to stop.

Two More Challenges

I had the house (more or less) to myself for a while today, so I managed to make a card. It's done to fulfill two challenges - Colour Create which called for a lemon and lime colourscheme with an added element of spring or summer flowers. The other challenge was a sketch from Mojo Monday.



I used some stamps I've had for a while (sorry, lost the packaging so don't know whose) and coloured them with Sakura Stardust pens. I also used a dark one to overwrite the text so it had some glitz and I edged the circle with Versacolor ink. The papers are a combination of some I've had forever and some magazine freebies. I used my Wizard and nestibilities, and some ribbon from my stash. I finished it off with a felt butterfly from Mad About Cards and a butterfly brad which was kindly given to me by Shirl from Crafty Cardmaking.

Two Challenges

The first one is Friday Sketchers and the other is the Crafty Cardmakers Favourites of 2009.

I liked the simplicty of the sketch (although I did add to it.) And the Crafty Cardmakers challenge is to use my favourite products or techniques of the year. Well, that's a tough one. I like a lot of different products and techniques, but one of my favourites is definitely my Wizard with nestibilities. I especially love using the flower dies to make my own flowers. This particular die is Blossom 2 which was new at Christmas and I suspect it'll soon be my favourite of the Spellbinder flowers. The papers were decorated with radiant rain, Starburst Stains and Moonshadow ink.



The stamp is from Debbi Moore. Now I bought a set of butterfly stamps from her early in 2009 and I've always had problems with them. They're clear stamps, and they smell much more strongly (even now) than any of the others I've got. They also curl towards the image side. I recently got some rock-a-blocks and I used them instead of perspex blocks. That definitely made it much easier to get a good impression although the stamp still tended to curl off the block. So, I suspect I'll like the rock-a-blocks, although I haven't used them enough yet to give them 'favourite' status. I coloured the image with Promarkers - definitely a favourite for the year, and the papers include the one decorated with Radiant Rain and others from Papermania. The circle cut used a cutter I bought several years ago and use rarely, but when you want a circle cut, it's invaluable since it'll cut a wide range of sizes. And the flowers were finished with sticky gems - definitely a favourite!