More Card Reconstruction than card making I'm afraid

"&son" wanted to do some crafting today and the thing he wanted to use has been missing since last Christmas - I had a niggling feeling that I hadn't found all my Christmas stash yet so I thought I'd better have a look for it.  Found it.  OMG - how much stuff do I have so I've been galvanised into action on the Christmas card front.

To say I had made these cards would be pushing the truth a little.  I bought 10 boxes of cards for a pound on the last day of trading at my local woolworths.  Why??  Anyhow, I thought I'd send them to the school Christmas fair but when I looked at one box they were particularly awful - these were "hand finished luxury cards"

Now I know my finishing isn't perfect on some of my cards - things aren't sometimes straight and I'm by no means a perfectinist but really!  Look at the finish on this - the topper is not straight and the ribbon has been stuck down with white tape that has been out on so badly that it's clearly visible at the top of the card

So I've had a go at making them a bit nicer - I was thinking 50p each for these ones as a guide price for the school fair - what do you think?  I cut the front of the card, straightened up the toppers and added them to a window card embossed with snowflakes on my cuttlebug.

I've also been trying to make a Christmas card for a child - its a blog challenge somewhere but I've forgotten quite where and have probably missed the deadline but I need some help.  I started off with an embossed sheet of paper - I'm sorry, I don;t know the name as Saveapenny did  it for me a while ago on her bug.  I thought it was a bit too much all at once so cut out a couple of swuares for use on other cards but the remaining shape reminded me of a window so I thought I'd use that as the basis for the card.  The card blank reminds me of snowflakes and I've put a Christmas tree in the window.  But what should I put in the top of the window?  Any suggestions gratefully received.

Finally, I've added my card to my previous blog post - it was hiding in another folder on my PC.

Red Cross Box

Gosh, how time flies.  I've set myself a target of sending my sis a "red cross box" out to her every fortnight.  She's working so hard - 14 hour days, 7 days a week so I like to send her something out to cheer her up.  It was the notepad last time but this time I'm sending her some scrapbook pages to add to the scrapbook I sent out in her first box.

I don't think I've done 2 LOs in one night for a long time and I seem to have just lost 4 hours of my life but here they are.....

My sisters youngest is the spitting image of her when she was little so I've deliberately mixed their names up.  "& son" doesn't get humour that isn't toilet related so he thinks I'm going senile and genuinely can't see that one of them has 70s trousers on.  Background paper from my stash - I drew the question marks on myself.  Chicks also from stash.  Alphas by Stickopotamus.

And here's one pf her eldest with some produce from her garden that she worked so hard on all year and didn't really get to see the fruits of her labours as she was deployed before harvest time.  Background paper, flower and grass from My Minds Eye Bloom & Grow.  Letters and leaves cut out by cuttlekids machine - shh don't tell "& son".

I'll be sending this card out with the parcel too - its my first proper stab at "colouring in" for a while (since primary school maybe?) altho its amazing how things come flooding back.  "&son" was astonished by my ability to play both the main menoldy and the descant harmony of "utumn Days" a fave hymn from my prmary school days.  I'd not attempted it for 30+ years and got most of the notes right!  the lovely image below was sent in a stash swap parcel from cazarol and was coloured in with the latest love of my life - promarkers!

EDIT (DOUBLE DAMN - THERE WAS OBVIOUSLY A PIECE OF DST BACKING ON THE SCANNER - I suppose this could be a new gmae - spot the DST backing on the LO!)

Shabby Chic - Military style

My sis has now finished her first month on posting (5 to go - at least she's home for Christmas and thanks to excellent customer service from Harrods we now have our visit to see the "real" Rather Christmas once she's back) so I sent her out a little box of treats including these two.  She's mostly in an office 12+ hours a day, 7 days a week so I thought I'd make her something pretty to brighten it up.

The notepad on the left has a postcard on the front which is a reporoduction of a war poster from 1939.  I decided to put some typical "British" things on the card I sent with it, using ribbon to fit in with the red white and blue theme.

A major life event

You know how there are certain moments in your life when you realise that everything has changed - well I had one of those today and all becaue "&son" made me something.  Not your average crafty giftbut something even more important than that. 
Today "&son" made me a cup of tea for the first time!
He's been mithering me for a while to be allowed to do it but I've always been too worried about the potential for scalding.  Then over the weekend, he asked me to show him exactly how it was to be done.
Then today, we're sat watching yesterdays x-factor and he asks, and I say yes!  You only live once!
And here it is......

My little boy is all grown up (how long do you think before I could train him to iron his own uniform)

Wedding Cards + MSE Cutoffs Challenge

My box of cards at work ran out of wedding type cards just before I went on holiday so I thought I'd better make some more - I made the white card first but liked it so much I made a variation on the theme.  The pewter card is pearlescent - don;t know if that shows up too well and the die-cuts are by Lily of the Valley. 

I also made an anniversary type card.  Which I thought could also be used for an engagement.

Then another notebook - not so happy with this one - didn't occur to me that if I punched the bottom it would mean that paper would show quite that much - will have to remember to punch before sticking it to the pad next time!

And finally, my MSE challenge card to make a card from off-cuts from other projects.  I hope this counts - most of my cards are from off-cuts anyway - its very rare that I start a new piece of paper off.  Anyhow, I've been cutting any small scraps into squares for a while now as I've been meaning to do a mosaic effect on a scrapbook page.  The letters are off-cuts too in a way as they're cut out on the cuttlebug from a die that has 4 letter per die so you end up cutting out more letters than you actually need. You can see a 'P' and an 'H' came from the wedding cards and notepad above.  I keep them all in a box and was hoping they'd "come in useful" - and they have - although I did have to cut an 'A' and a 'Y' out I was short of those - I'm hoping those 2 letters will count as the die-cut I'm supposed to be using as part of the challenge.

Ladies Day

Don't worry I haven't been squandering my "hard-earned" cash at the races but the cards I've made today have definitely been for ladies.  I enjoyed making that purse card yesterday so much that I had to make another one. 
Then I made another card using a die cut from my super stash from Cazarol to make this card

And finally, I made another covered notebook but this one is a gift so instead of showing it to you, I'll show the others that I've made.  I bought the plain notepads for 99p for 20 in Home Bargains and have had loads of fun covering them (as has "& son" - must get some more!)

I've got some catching up to do.....

I've been awol!  I was planning a 2 week break from my beloved paper and dst and therefore a 2 week break from the blog but my eyes have consprired against me so I've been unable to see well enough to do much ever since I started my holiday.  Still, I've made the best  of it and decided to carry on making the cards - that's my excuse for some of the distinctly odd placing on some of them.  I'll post all my makes over the next couple of days but here's the start........

This is the super stash I received from Cazarol this aftrnoon (my postie doesn't do mornings!) from the crafty place September stash swap.  It's a very gereous swap and I set to it immediately, making the following card using one of the pieces of 6x6 Carol sent me.  The die cut was from a goodie bag I purchased at the Harrogate papercraft extravaganza.  More on that in the next couple of days.  I used my brand new promarkers to colour the clasp of the bag to make it stand out from the rest of the bag.  I'm very happy with my new pens but "& son" is sulking because I've told him they're off bounds for him. - poor boy!

I've also made this little covered notebok today for the little girl my Mum sponsors in an orphanage in India - 50% of the money I get from the cards I sell at work goes to the orphanage.