WORK IN PROGRESS: The Tip & a new card made

We've all seen photos of other peoples tidy, spick and span craft rooms...yeh right :o)
Well just for a reality check, have a look at my craft room ( or lack of room)  at the end of a session of making just one single card.
I'll have a tidy up before I start my next card...case of having to!

New Card made: Birthday card for female, Theme Art Nouveau, Alphonse Mucha images and Anja's Embossing stencils used in cuttlebug:
Amazingly, as it transpired, the lady I made this card for is a huge Art Nouveau fan, which I did not know! How's about that for intuition or jolly good luck?

The greeting on the back is done in Photoshop, as was 'Lisa' on the front of the envelope.

                                

Thank you to all plus good news

No new cards today, but I'd like to extend a big thank you to everyone who has commented so far on my work and for suggestions they have made. In particular I'd like to say a huge thank you to Marlene from 'Disguised as a grown up'  who made some really good suggestions about my work and new blog which I have followed up.

One site I use frequently is Splitcoaststampers, where I upload my cards. Today I received a totally unexpected message from another member, Michelle Vorke, who told me that she had put my Aunts Easter fairy card on their national scapbooking column. It can be seen on this sites slideshow: Scrapbooking and Stamping Examiner.
How about that then!
I hope you have had as good a day as me today!

Get well soon for my elderly French neighbour

Im so chuffed that 3 people are following my blog, THANK YOU!!! I'm both amazed and really happy.
4 comments have also been left which I really appreciate. For some reason though they are not showing. If anyone has any idea why this is then please let me know.
TODAYS CARDS:
The French do not really give cards....but I'm not French, any excuse eh?
My 86 year old very sprightly neighbour has just had a minor operation, so I made this 'get well soon' card for her today.
I used these pale green colours as they are easy on the eye..she had an eye op, and because it reflects the springtime.

I made an envelope for it, which turned out nothing like the card! Oh well. Both are on the 'various' page.
Also uploaded is the envelope for the wallpaper card, added again to 'various'
                           

New Card made from wallpaper

At long last I have managed to get hold of some wallpaper sample books. In fact, a local French guy got them for me, he went out of his way for no reason than that he could.
So I made him this card entirely from one of the wallpaper patterns as a thank you.
I've made a matching envelope which I will upload tomorrow

Paintings uploaded & a Comment lost!

I was so pleased to of received a comment on my new blog from Penny Duncan whose work I really like very much. I often visit her blog, her style of cards really appeals to me. Anyway, I pressed the button to publish her lovely comment and it has disappeared into Cyber-space. Not pleased!!!
If you come back again Penny.....sorry your comment is not showing, and thank you so much.
                                     


The better selection of my watercolor painting have now been uploaded tonight. I really must get round to doing some newer ones. Card making has taken over just about everything!

Recycled cards uploaded!

I pretty chuffed with myself tonight, I am a 'blogger' newby and I have just uploaded about 30 odd photos! I am gradually getting my pages full. I am happy.
All the recycled cards I have made are now on the recycled cards page...of course. At present they are all recycled Christmas cards. Some have been made using FREE wallpaper sample books. Decorating shops throw out their out of date sample books, usually around February, I just managed to get a few in time! There are some excellent textures to be had from these books.
The other cards I have uploaded are one for the 'Couples Page' which is a New Home card, done in the 'Never ending card' style, which was only the 3rd card I have ever made back in Decemeber 2009.
Also uploaded are 2 New Christmas Cards.
I hope you enjoy and get some inspiration from the cards I have made.
Tomorrow I hope I will get time to upload my watercolour paintings. Thats the only page that is incomplete, so hopefully after that this blog will not eat up so much of my time, as I have new cards to make which have to be done this week.
                                     

I finished an Easter card I made for my Auntie and and a fun decorated Egg Box for my best friend and her Husband which has inside apart from chocolate eggs, a fridge magnet flower for each, and a lavender bag. Its so full that I am going to have to tie it together with a ribbon

I have also uploaded a small thank-you card I made for someone who did me a small favour.

Today, buttons done but no visits

I feel a bit alone as no-one has visited my blog yet, another thing to look into: How to increase 'traffic'

Despite this, I have today managed to get all the new 'buttons' up and working, which I am really pleased about. I still have loads of cards to upload yet, and more cards to photograph that I've made this week. Its all go!

I did manage to get round uploading the (at the momeent) the last card for a mans brithday which I made February 2010. Details on the Cards for Men Page

Womens cards now uploaded

Eventually I have got round to uploading the photos of all the 'Female' cards I have made so far. They have all been placed on the 'Cards for Women' Page:

Card for kim: Letters K.I.M.
For Anna: Au Naturale
Tissue paper 'Stained Glass' Cat card
Native American Indian card

New Page: Cards for Men

I have tonight begun to upload photos of cards I have made for men, for various occasions. They are now located on a new page called "Cards for men"

I have placed all the Synthesizer, Get well, Valentines, Goth and Amur Leopard photos on this one page. I still have a few more other Cards to put on yet...maybe tomorrow.

Its rather a long page, and I dont like to see blogs that are miles long, they take forever to load. Thus I have to try and figure out how to split them up without using up the allotted 10 pages. I have not even started to load all the Female and Christmas cards yet. I also want to make another page for cards made for 'couples',  and another with the watercolour paintings I have done, making 5 pages earmarked already.

If Anyone knows how I can get rid of the massive gaps between the photos on the Mens Cards page, I would be extremely grateful if you'd let me know how, I've tried loads of things, and its driving me crazy, I hate the waste of space!

Anyway, all the photos I have of these cards have been uploaded tonight to the Mens cards page:




 Goth Card

Editing my blog

I have now placed my cards on new pages, one for cards made for men and another for cards I've made for Females. I hope this will make life a little easier.
I've only had this blog a since March 15th and I am still trying to make alterations to the layout..manually. So please bear with me while this blog shifts and changes...I am no expert!

The photos of the cards I have made are rather large, so I need to resize them down a little so everyone can see the whole card and not just part of it without scrolling.

I'll get there :o)

Get well soon for Pete

This Card was made for an 'old friend of mine who is an engineering teacher and has been on long term sick, hence the theme.
I ripped up a cardboard box, printed off a load of bits and pieces from my PC and added a few real washers and nuts here and there. I also made a matching envelope.

Pop up synthesiser for Rich

This pop up synthesizer card was only the 3rd card I have ever made. Everything was printed on my PC and glued on. Took a bit of working out getting the proportions correct to the eye. It was made as a birthday card for my friend Rich, he plays various music instruments in a heavy metal band.

For the 'front' of the card and the back, used alot of my printer ink and in places it did not print very well, but I could not afford to try and print it out again. In fact the back was worse. So I just had to leave it as it was.

On the back I even glued on little plastic feet, which amused Rich greatly.

I did make a matching envelope, it was just plain matt black with the capricaorn logo on the back, the same one as I used on the 'lid'

Card made for Anna March 2010

This lavish card is full of dried natural elements reflecting Anna's love of gardening and her 'pagan' beliefs. Some of the embellishments were taken from my own garden. The cardstock was plain white card, I painted the edges with watercolours. The papers were what I happened to have, including G45 paper 'Botanica' which I used on the back.
The right hand flower was composed by me, apart from the cream coloured rose. The bow was made from sack-cloth. Part of the flower has 'string' type petals which I pulled off the sack and glued together in the middle. Just about everything is distressed and edged with distressing inks.
Matching envelope also made.
Surprisingly this card folds up quite well, considering how much 'stuff' I put on it.
And if you are wondering about the verse line implying a 'choice' of date, that is because Anna does not know her date of birth and just chose March the 29th.
I really enjoyed making this card. In hindsight, I would of made it just as 3 folds instead of the 2 additional cuts.
Anna is an author of many books: www.myspace.com/annafranklin2