Another get well...book/album this time

Well, here we are, another first attempt at making an album or book, whichever it is classed as. Also my first attempt at stamping having purchased several used stamps, which in this case I used on the front of the envelope. Actually, this card is for the same neighbour, the man I made the 70th card for last week! So he's not doing bad, 2 cards in less than a week.
Anyway, he has just had some minor but important surgery, so an ideal opportunity to make another card! The theme as such is to encourage a very active man to sit still for a month, which he has to do, and which he is going to find very difficult! (Is he not Evelyne????) So it seems that  this card has ended up being rather humourous in content.
Really he is a 'Dog' lover hence the picture on the front. However no other animals have perfected relaxing like cats, thus pictures of cats in various relaxed positions. The overall message to him is:  "look at the pictures of how the grand masters of the art of relaxation do it and learn from them"

All the pages inside can be seen on the 'various' page plus the stamped envelope

                      

Am kicking myself

New thank you card made with a physically 'moving' decoupage image on the front.
I took a load of photos, but decided I did not like them. I was going to take some more, but forgot and went ahead and posted the card..........annoyed with myself for that!

New craft room!!!

You know how it is, clutter, clutter and more clutter. My craftroom (see photos on an earlier post) was just an area I squished everything into. Well, I decided to get rid of the settee that was never used and replace with odd pieces of furniture/ cupboards that we had in storage. So, I have what is in essence a new craftroom...Hoorah!

Everything now has its own place, even basic stuff like all my papers are now in one cabinet. It looks real tidy at the moment, you and I know exactly how long that is gonna last!

I've even got a space for the pazzles inspiration cutting machine, which I do not own, but I like to think maybe one day I can justify the cost.
At this very moment I am making labels for all the drawers and cupboards...well organised!  Seems a shame to have to wreck it when I come to make my next card.

 

70th French birthday card completed

Good afternoon/morning/evening depending upon your location. I hope you are having a great time???
Today I finished a card for a neighbours Husband for whom I do odd jobs for. Its his 70th on the 25th.
With this card I have aimed towards not just 70, but anything french to do with the year 1940.
Not wanting to do an ordinary straight shaped card, I opted for this style,  which I dont know what its called,  anyone know?
The 'backing' papers of burgundy and blue are wallpaper. The calender on the right is from 1940, I'm going to put a red circle round his birthday date, I must remember to do that!  I added chipboard shapes and letters, numbers, I love flourishes, they are so universal.


Of course, the stamps are 1940's french ones and the papers behind '1940', '70' and Bon Anniversaire are 1940's french franc notes. What was left over I used for the flowers.
The reciept in the middle, I found on the net, is from 1940 for goods bought in our nearest city. The 2 flowers are a mish mash of 2 styles that I found in a tutorial. I will add the links to the links column when I can find them again. I really like the spikey additions at the back of them. Takes a long time to make them though.


It may seem as if the envelope is on the rather large size, and indeed it is as this card when folded down is a very odd shape. In fact, the whole card will not stand up, I had to add flaps at the back of both the tall squares, I think they are called easels???


Many more photos now on cards for men page  Photos of things you cannot see in these few
Anyway, I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed making it.
Cheers for now.

 

      

Birthday Roses

Hello everyone. Today is my birthday 52 years old...nevermind. Today I received a bouquet of roses from my partner Bob. At the moment he is away fishing for a few days so these roses were a lovely surprise.

While he is away I was going to really crack on with some cards I need to make, mow, pot up seedlings, tidy up. Alas, I happen to have systematic Candida as well as experiencing the menopause, today I have not been well, no energy and my brain has come to a standstill. So mainly I have been playing with my PC and CS3 photoshop brushes as you can see in the photo of the bouquet I took. I thought in future I may do this with my card photos to make them more interesting to look at.

Thanks for visiting, I love reading your comments and knowing people have popped in to see if I have been up to anything.

Purple birthday bling-er

Had a nice day shopping today for crafty bits. There's no craft shops near me so I go to one of those shops that sells off cheap liquidation stuff so you never know what you're going to find. One of the major DIY shops has a small craft section at dreadfully high prices, its cheaper to buy off the internet than buy in France.  I tried 3 different decorating outlets to blag some old wallpaper books, but none to be had, oh well.

  Got a last minite invite to a surprise 60th party and had an afternoon to make a card, which is not much time for me, sometimes I can take a week to make just one card, so it was all a mad rush.

 The lady in question, from what little info I could get from her Husband who rang me, was that she likes purple and into sewing, and that was it.

So this card is covered on various materials.....in purple shades. I added glitter and lots of shiny things, flowers made in thin sticky back sheets of silver holo, and lots of gems. This is the first Bling card I've made, got glitter everywhere. I'm the same in the kitchen with flour, ends up more in the room than what I am actually cooking. Messy thing me.
                      

The price of stencils: DIY

Bonjour all,
You may be aware that I've only been making cards since Dec 09. Now, I don't know about you, but the prices of some of the things for sale I think are outrageous. Take stencils as a perfect example, be they for embossing/cuttting, whatever. Now I've worked in a few factories in my life, producing various products in a range of materials. However, stencils, be they plastic or brass must and can cost only pennies to produce, if that, especially as they are probably made by some 8 year old abused child worker in China, Taiwan or wherever labour is cheapest. Yet look at the prices of them. Someone, somewhere, is making a huge profit from us. Plus, stencils, never seem to be the right size (cuttlebug folders are a prime example of size and cost, in my opinion)
    What I am leading to is that, in the photo below, which I spotted in a French Card making magazine, really appealed to me. Not the center bit, but the patterned paper stencil round the outside. The magazine was printed in 2006, so a bit out of date. Nevertheless, I scoured the internet worldwide for this particular stencil and found only one outlet......10.99 euros plus the P&P. Forget it! Not only that, as much as I like the design, I wanted one with a circle in the centre, plus one about twice the size because I make BIG cards compared to most folk.
  Now having got the bit between my teeth I thought, it does not look too complicated, I will make my own. I intend to use Acetate for the actual stencil. Yes its going to be a right royal pain cutting it out, but once its done then I'll  have it for good, and made with clear acetate, its going to be real simple to position perfectly. And if I dont want it clear, I can always spray paint it.
So far I have only got as far as producing the drawing for it. The next few days I hope to get the actual stencil ready. If the acetate tears or does not work I may butcher up a cheap plastic document file, we'll see. I am hoping that I can modify the stencil for using with a square or any shaped center really. Also, I will be able to use sections of it for embossing.
No apologies go to the companies who are getting wealthy on our craft needs.
  Have a great day, and thanks so much for visiting.
Au bientot

Gate fold impressionists card

This was the card I made 'to order' for a birthday card for a 74 year old 'Mum'. I had terrible problems with it, as the colour scheme was to be pink and brown, and it just did not happen, despite spending a whole day trying to get inspired.
In the end, I opted out of a straight forward square card and had a go at a gatefold.....and then it all happened. I scrapped the colour scheme, but not the theme, which was impressionist art.
It looks fairly bland in the photo, but it turned out to be very pretty and my customer was over the moon with it, so I guess thats all that counts.

Got an order!!!

Today I took the 'Art Nouveau' card to the lady for whom I'd made it. As it happens she is seriously into anything Art Nouveau......that was a bit of luck! She loved the card so much she asked me if I'd make one for her Mothers Birthday, and she is going to pay me for it! WOW. It'll never cover the time it takes me to make the card, but its the principle eh? So, I am pretty chuffed.
Anyway, tonight I've uploaded the envelope for said card. Being as the card itself had no '3d' bits on it, I did it on the envelope instead, being as this card did not have to go through the postal system.