First Card of 2011 (hangs head in shame at the lateness of it all)

Hello

So much for making one thing a week in 2011 ;-)

This card is for my friend Ann - I've not seen her for years - we used to go tap dancing together but I had to stop going when I got divorced as I couldn't get childcare.  Spotted her in her car at the traffic lights a couple of weeks ago and looked her up on facebook....and I'm off to her birthday party tomorrow.  Sounds very intriguing including a game called 'spite and malice'.............

Digi Stamp is a "little musing"

coloured in with promarkers and a little dash of glossy accents & stickles

sentiment and candy by Craftwork cards

Ribbon and paper from stash

I think the thing I am most pleased with is the background colour to the stamp.  It was white card and looked too dark so I coloured it in with promarkers but then decided it was too bright.  So out came the blender pen which I've never really used before and I just went over with the broad tip to make the marbled effect.  What do you think?   

One for the boys

I love this digi stamp from little musings - because it reminds me of my nephews and also a photo I have of my son in a teepee in our garden - ok it was made with a tablecloth and 3 canes but that was good enough for him so it'll do me too.
The card is for my bil - Dad to said nephews.

image by little musings coloured with promarkers (another one coloured in our journey through Europe last month)
matting from stash
sentiment and card candy from Craftwork cards

I'd like to enter it into the following challenges
MSE - B's challenge (spurious I know but it is blue and has boys on it - that's the best I can manage)
Cards for men - Outdoors
DareU2DigiStamp - Anything Goes
StampChallenges - Birthday somethings
Stampin for the weekend - A card for a male

Mothers Day & Mum's Birthday

Mum's birthday always falls close to Mothers Day - there was one year I remember it being on the same day!  As someone who finds it difficult to think of one present to buy her I really struggle to find two! 
I thought things were going well this year because she dropped some "hints" - well when I say hints - she sent loads of links to ebay items as she wanted to increase her "Old Country Roses" china collection.  The more I spoke to her though, the more fearful I became of buying the wrong thing - there's so much to bear in mind - whether its a first or second, whether its vintage or the new stuff.  In the end, I couldn't take the stress o have said I'll give her some cash to buy what she really wants.
I had to give her something to open on her birthday though so I made this......I was supposed to be making something else to go in that box but realised too late that an essential component was missing.  It's on order now so I'm hoping it will arrive in time for mothers day now.

Thanks to Debbie for the tutorial on this card and box in one

Mum made me laugh - she carefully pinned her ribbon brooch on to her jumper but soon realised she had placed it somewhere inappropriate.  I said I'd have to make her another for the other one.

Papers are coredinations jewel and crate paper blue sky collection.  Cutesy owl from Craftwork cards coloured in with my trusty promarkers.

I can't post her mothers day card yet as she sometimes checks my blog but Mum did ask me to make a card for her to send to my Granny.  So here it is.........

 

You'll see a lot of those card candy flowers over the next few days - they're on all the cards I've made today and another I have in mind.  They're so simple to make - 5 candies right way up with one upside down in the middle.  I've placed a 'jewel' in the middle of this one but I think it looks better with a pearl - you;ll see once I can post the other cards!

The butterfly was my bragain of the day - from home bargains - where else?.  It cam in a box of 6 - wired, probably for easter bonnets I'd guess.  All 6 for 69p!

They say it comes in 3s.....

If bad luck comes in 3s and I'm on my 3rd multiple but I was actually talking about my blog posts.  I son;t know you wait a month before posting and then post 3 times in 1 night!


Quick teabag holder card - thanks to CT19720 over on MSE for measurements.
Thanks to Rusty for sending me this gorgous stamp.
Inside there's a bag of twinings traditional English tea and the rhyme:

If I could take your Troubles,

I would toss them in the Sea.
But since I can't, I'm sending you,
My favourite cup of tea.

Paper and brad from stash
Stamp from Rusty coloured in with promarkers
Teabag from the travelodge at Gatwick!

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!"

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!)