These boots are made for walking

2 cards for a male in the family who's keen on the odd stroll '& son' followed my lead - he'll soon learn that's not necessarily a good idea!

I was hoping to use up some old OS maps that I bought at the car boot ale as background paper but realised soon after opening that they had all been marked so I downloaded a local map online and printed it out. The boots are clip art from MS office online.

I'm a little disappointed with mine mostly becaue I'd thought about it a bit too much and knew exactly how I wanted it to look but then circumstances conspired against me. In particular, in my head, my string was a bit thicker - it looks a bit weedy.

Never mind, it's the thought that counts!

Catty birthday card

I'm not a fan of cats myself (they make me sneeze!) but my friend is so I thought she'd like this card.

I love the big spots on this paper and although the tag and strip didn't some from the same place (it was actually from that sole craft magazine that I bought) it matches perfectly. The cat embellishment was left over from another project.

MSE Water Challenge Card

This is my entry for the MSE 'Water' challenge. It's a bit of a cheat really as it resuses an embelishment from one of the cards I got on my birthday last year but I figured that would fit in with the MSE ethos!

More Birthday cards

Made a few more cards for the box at work from scraps of paper I had hanging around. The black and pink one was made using a DCWV card blank I bought when they were on special offer a while back, a little tag with a brad and a strip from some 3 bugs in a rug paper I bought during my Easter weekend stash splurge.

I literally made the other 2 from scraps of paper and they should look like birthday cakes. I made the pink one first and then had a go at the second to see if I could make it work with more masculine colours. I think I nearly did it but it will have to do!

First day at new school

It was my sons first day at a new school today so I made him this as a good luck card (then in the excitement forgot to give it to him this morning!) He's got it now though and is pleased with it.

Very hard to take a pic because it uses holographic paper but you should get the idea. I got the crest from a 'sample' of wallpaper border form the owls shop. The only thing I'm not happy with is that the glue that I used to stick the stripes on has made the card bow a bit so if I was selling it or sending it in the post I'd probably put inside a heavy book for a while to flatten it out first.

Engagement Card using glass templates. Thanks Marg!

I posted an engagement card that I made for a work colleague a few weeks ago - well this is the card I was planning to make but just couldn't find a champagne glass template anywhere.

Marg from the MSE forum very kindly sent me some word art style images (now why didn't I think of that - genius!) and I used one of them as a template.

I doing to place it in the card box at work. I wanted to make it though as a thanks to Marg and because I never like to let a card beat me!

First attempt at a trifold card

Believe it or not this was going to be a dinosaur card! I cut the first 1/3 of the card into the shape of a 4 and then handmade some backing paper by writing on green card with a feint white marker and stuck that on the 2nd 1/3 with a few embellishments.

Mothering Sundaes

Shameless "borrowing" of ideas here but one of the girls on the MSE cards thread came up with the idea of a 'Mothering Sundae Card'. I used template from the only craft magazine I've ever bought ('You Can Craft no8) to make these cards. I made two because I wanted to play about a bit with the design. In the end I liked the ice cream colour on the first one better but overall I liked the second one so that's the one I gave to my Mum.

Oldies - part 1

Just taken some pics of my latest cards but the camera battery is on the blink so whilst it recharges, I thought I'd share some of my older stuff........

It was Mum's 60th birthday in March and we've organised a family photo shoot as her main present although finding a weekend when we can all get togther has proved problematic. We'll get there eventually.

I wanted to give Mum something on the day so I put some old pics of her in a montage frame that I got from Costco. It was a bit stark so I added some paper petals and velum butterflies.

My son and I both made cards for her. the ribbon on mine is from an old box of chocolates and the paper is Christmas wrap from the boots sale.

Another bright scrapook page on the way. I don't seem to be able to do subtle at the mo but I guess that's what happens when all your pictures are of boys!
This is one half of what will be a 2 page layout from my sons 8th birthday party. We took him and a few friends to see Horrid Henry.
The background paper is another one from bazzill. I've used some polka dot material and red felt in the bottom corner to try and stop is being too stark.

I really can't throw anything away!

I cut out some hearts a while ago for a wedding gift tag. Too many 0 you can see 2 of the spares on the engagment card I posted a couple of days ago. I couldn't even bring myself to throw away the smal pieces of cream card that I'd cut them out of.

I used them to make this card which I'm could be used for valentines day or as a Wedding card I suppose.

Cousins

Couldn't sleep last night. Must have been all the excitement of setting up my blog and spending most of the evening looking at my Dr Who (sorry Hamlet) pictures.

So dragged myself out of bed and did this layout. Very simple as I was very tired, using seven gypsies(outback range) paper laid over some bazzill cardstock in a mustardy colour.

The picture of these 3 cousins was taken at Christmas dinner and makes me chuckle. The eldest looks knackered - he'd been up since 6ish and had gone to bed really late. The middle one is to the forefront. He was really enjoying himslef by then. The youngest on the right had refused to play ball all morning (to the point of refusing to open his presents) but he suddenly came alive at dinnertime. Look at that grin!

Engagement Congratulations

A work colleague announced her engagement today.

I'm off next week so had to get her card done tonight.

Searched FOR EVER to find a template of some champagne glasss to cut out. Didn't find any but spent all the time I should have been making the card looking so had to cobble something simple together from my stash.

Lynne's blog: Scrapbooking Weekend

Lynne's blog: Scrapbooking Weekend

Craft Den Crop April 09

Whilst the cats away..........

Tom's off on holiday and has left me behind so I made the most of it and booked myself into a crop at the Craft Den.

It's the fist time I've been to a crop of any kind so I was a little nervous but Lynne and the girls made me feel very welcome and I learned lots of new skills and came away brimming with ideas and lusting after several items in Lynne's lovely shop.

We did 3 layouts on the day. I'm very pleased with all of them - they're way out of my league!

The first was browns and pinks - very girly but I loved it!

The second is so elegant. I used one of my fave pics of my grandparents and Mum.

The final one was very bright! With flowers and ribbons. I was convinced that one wasn't for me but I think it worked well in the end. Not too girly for a picture of my boy after all


Needless to say I've already booked in for the next one. Can't wait.......

Hamlet Scrapbook Layout - At last!

I've been putting off doing my first post as I was unsure whether to try and post chronologically (as I made things) or not. I have a backlog of things I'd like to post but have decided to start with my newest creation and 'catch-up' with the backlog as and when I can.

This layout has been on my table for what seems like ages but I seemed to have some kind of mental block. Either that or looking at the pictures sent me off into some kind of dream land so I never got anything done.

Finally though, I've done it. Not 100% happy with it as the pages seem a bit bare but its growing on me and, to be honest, it was starting to become a bit of an albatross around my neck.

I decided to brave it and attempt some tearing and patching )Thanks to Lynne at the Craft Den for the inspiration. The letters are cutout from word-art and could be a bit neater. I'd have liked to have inked the edges with some distress inks but as I haven't actually convinced myself that they are essential ~(yet!) I've managed without.