Yay! I've got the cricut again

I'm so obsessed with cricut's now - not far enough having saved enough money now to buy my own but luckily I have a good friend who was willing to let me look after hers whilst she is on holiday.  I really wanted to borrow it for cutting out the numbers and letters for the cards below - it's so time consuming to cut them out by hand.
One of my best friends asked me to make these months ago but I've run pretty close to the wire - they're for her Grandad's 90th birthday next week - one from her and one from her Mum.  The brief was simple - hers had to have 90 and Grandad on.  The other should have 90 on it too, preferably with Dad and maybe with some kind of musical theme.

So here they are

Background paper  Bella Boulevard - Sweet Celebration

Shapes cut from 'Sweet Treats' Cricut cartridge (5 inch) using coredinations cardstock.

Alphas by Pink Paislee

Card Candy

Letters and numbers cut from stash leftover paper using cricut 'Winter Woodland) 3 inch numbers and 2.5 inch letters.

Front background coredinations embossed with Cuttlebug 'happy birthday'

Manuscript paper - from stash - left over from my GCSE music (circa 1990)

The music is 'happy birthday - badly done by hand

Balloons by Jolees

Tweet Tweet

I'm not a birdy person at all - as anyone who's seen me go pale at the sight of a feather will let you know but I really love these little stylised birds from CraftWork Cards..

I made this card to go in the latest parcel sent out to Afghanistan and was very pleased to find that you can colour in the lovely pearlised paper with my promarkers.  You can also colour in their card candy if you have the patience of a saint. I chose to colour in the background and leave the birdie plain.  the card blank is a patterned one from a DCWV stack.

Sis has now confirmed she's got it so I can post it on here.  Even better she says that the minstrels I sent out survived the journey and haven't melt.  In her own words "they are, alas, no more!"

My "Special" Christmas Card

Ok ok I know all Christmas cards are special but I like to make an extra-special card for my Granny as I know how much she enjoys putting her cards out, counting them and showing them to her visitors.

You may remember that I recently made a thank you card using lollipop flowers and I said back then that I wanted to have a go at making a Christmas card the same way.  I've finally got around to it and was so pleased with the result that I had to take it into work just to show it off (I really don't know how they put up with me sometimes!)

So hear it is.  Base card is a trifold with the front double embossed with snowflakes and swiss dots.    I did both because it looked too stark with just one so the snowflakes are underneath with swiss dots on top as they are easier to match as I had to emboss in stages.  The die-cut "Christmas" was from Di's die-cuts and has been embossed with cuttlebug snowflakes.
The "snowballs" across the top of the hills are from a roll of wrapping ribbon tfrom Home Bargains (of course).  The lollipops were 'borrowed' from Costa Coffee because the top of the die-cut Christmas trees was too thin for a standard lollipop stick.  Background is black glitter paper (does anyone know where I can pick up some more without having to pay a fortune for p&p) with a glitter star.

I'm planning on making 2 or 3 more of these for close relatives and friends (just as long as I can find that glitter paper!)

Kitty Catrin is nearly 1!

Doesn't time fly - seems like only yesterday that she was pregnant but my best friends little girl is nearly 1. I'm travelling down to Cardiff over bank holiday weekend to attend her Christening and its her birthday the same weekend. I had planned to make 2 cards but I'm feeling a bit jaded and stressed so I've decided to make a birthday card and give her a shop bought Christening one. It's a cop out but I still have to make a card for "&son" before we go away on Friday and I only have 1 evening left to do that - I'm going to see U2 on Thursday!



So here it is.

Shiny card (what is the technical term for that? - its popped out of my head for a while!) and dark pink layer are off-cuts from smirk. Number 1 is cut from a 3 bugs in a rug paper. Card Candy from papercraft cards.
Have a vague idea what I'm going to fo for "&son" but it's not fully formed yet. I'm thinking pocket card.... but what to put in the pocket. hmmmmmm.......

3 cards in one night

Blimey! I've had one of those realisation moments where you know you have a lot of things to do but don't actually realise how much until you write them down.

So I've crossed a few cards of the 'to-do- list.

First up, a card for a friends Nan - thanks to the MSE girls for their help in giving me some inspiration for this card. You can't get much more inspirational than a page of templates and a picture to copy. There are 2 views of this card as it is supposed to be a shaped card but it seemed a bit wobbly so I've mounted it on a card blank for stability.

Secondly, a baby card for the same friend Her friend is due to have a baby boy whilst I'm on holiday so I said I'd get it ready before I left just in case.

Thirdly, a dinosaur card for my nephew. Guess how old he will be? It's not actually his birthday until September but his mum has to go away for a few months for her job so she'll miss his "official birthday". He's going to be like the queen and have 2 birthdays this year.

Birthday Cards

I've sold a few birthday cards from my box at work so I need to do some topping up.

The purple card uses papermania papers and sentiments.

The other cards are the easiest ones I can make - using a cuttlebug embossed die and pre embossed card blanks.

2 out of 4 aint bad........

Realised today that I had 4 cards to make this weekend (technically one should have been done for last Thursday) but, as always, when you add cardmaking to a to-do list it takes all the fun out of it so I've been struggling.

Anyhow, I've made the 2 most-urgent ones.

First up, a wedding card which I'm making to order for a friend at work. The colour for the wedding is Royal Blue so I've tried to colour co-ordinate it a bit. Will need to do an insert for it too but I'm going to ask for help with that as I don;t knwo the bride and groom. I've used thick mulberry paper down the left hand-sdie and a little scrap of paper I had "Swiss dotted" velum in the apertures. I can't go a whole day without using that cuttlebug if I'm crafting! The topper is from some stash received from the lovely Mrs Tidge in a crafty place stash swap.

Seond one is a get-well card for a work colleague who fell down the stairs last weekend and has damaged her back. The green paper is a left over from the scrapbooking layout I did at the craft den the other week. The lace border paper is by DCWV. Thanks again to Mrs Tidge for the topper on this card too.

And I'd like to thank......

Don't worry, I'm not going to do a Gwinnie Paltrow and burst into sobs (well I might - I've just realised there is no alcohol in the house but thats by-the-by).

"& Son" and I had a mammoth craft session today to get all the thank you cards and gifts for school done as he breaks-up tomorrow.

He's going to post the things he's made on his blog tomorrow so I won't steal his thunder but I did make this card for the lady who looks after him on the school bus. It's my entry to the MSE 'embossed' challenge. I embossed the card rather than papers and covered up the slight edge where the folder didn't meet with the border at top and bottom.

SO don't forget tune in tomorrow to see what "& son made" - I've also got a couple of things to post which I can't show yet as they're gifts to be given tomorrow so I may be able to post them too.

Seasons Greetings!

Apparently some people are organised enough to be doing Christmas cards now - I on the other hand have only just organised my childcare for the school holidays which start on Friday.

The MSE challenge this time was to make a Christmas card so I thought I'd better try and get in the spirit of things.

I've used a papermania card blank, penny black stickeroos for the image and sentiment and couldn't resist a bit of embossing and cutting with the cuttlebug (although you can hardly see the embossing but I know its there). Guess who received her circle frame dies today!?

Merry Christmas!

Louisa

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