Birthday Card for a Friend

Hi Folks, I'm safely back from Italy now, we arrived home last night. Lake Garda was as beautiful as ever, and the week passed very quickly. We visited Venice, Milan and Verona, as well as local towns around the Lake, with stunning views. We went with my Brother-in-law and his wife, My Mother and Father-in-law, and also my Son, so a group of seven of us. We didn't have a drop of rain all week, and the temperatures reached 32 degrees which was about as much as I could bear!

One of my favourite places to visit is Gardone, a town on the Lake, and a house there called Il Vittoriale, with beautiful gardens, reminiscent of Portmerion. I've been there twice now, and just love the atmosphere, it's so peaceful.

It's the Birthday of a very good friend of mine today. I made her card before I went away, and wanted to incorporate things that meant something to her. I created a background using some leaves from my garden, as she loves Nature, and her own lovely garden. Hopefully she'll come and see my garden IRL one day, and I'll get to see hers. We are crafting buddies, but long distance, only meeting at Craft Shows, and days out. I used a technique that I found on Marja's Blog. She gives a link in this  post, to where she found the technique. I sprayed some watercolour paper with Cosmic Shimmer sprays, after I had laid my fig leaves onto the paper. I then placed another piece of the paper on top, making a sandwich, and ran this through my Big Shot. The result is this lovely piece of paper.

I used a piece of background paper from a lovely 12 x 12 pad that I hoard in my stash with butterflies on  a teal background. I stamped the gardening lady stamp onto a piece of card coloured with Distress Inks, and matted onto a Nestie frame. I used a new Crealie Flower die to make the flowers from some left over card, adding large pearl brads. This image reminded me of my friend as soon as I saw it, and I bought it with her Birthday card in mind, several months ago. I bought it from an Ebay store that she herself frequents!

Some teal ribbon, and a butterfly charm finish the card off. I know that she has received the card, and I hope that she is having a very special Birthday.

Thanks for stopping by today, xx

Charming!

Just a quick post today, to show you the altered charms that I received back from the Altered Charm swap that I took part in recently. They were waiting for me in my post box when I got home just now. I got two pins from Roni, the organiser, and some charms from different participants. They are all really varied. It is great to see what different people come up with.

Only one participant I received a charm from has a blog to visit as far as I am aware, but they have given me email addresses, so I'm going to email them to say thanks, anyway. Roni is planning to do another swap later in the year, so I'll keep an eye out, as this was a lot of fun. I have some spaces on these two pins, which means that I need to make some more charms of my own to fill them. I'll post some pictures when they are finished.

I'm off to get on with some crafting, as I have a busy week, with lots of deadlines, back later, Judith xx

PDCC 68 and Forgotten Friday 4

This week Serendipity struck when I was looking to make my 'Forgotten Friday' piece. I had chosen a gorgeous heart stamp from Elusive Images, which was a Guild stamp at one time or another. I wanted to make a romantic card, as that was what I was covering with my card class this week. I decided to go for a vintage, shabby chic feel, with lace, and a faded peaches and cream feel to my card. The colours over on The Play Date Cafe this week seemed to fit perfectly. While blog hopping this week, I saw a fabulous card over on Helen's Blog with a lovely pleated ruffle and a dangly charm on it. As you know, I've been making charms all week, and the ruffle looked like a lovely idea to add to my card too. So, I gathered my stash, and set about making my card.

The colours for this weeks Play Date Cafe challenge were beige and pink, and cream seems to feature in most of the designers offerings too. So, I based my card on those colours. I used a treasured piece of Designer paper that I have had for an age, by Basic Grey, Porcelain in the Chatsworth range, it's gorgeous. I added a brown card pleated ruffle, and inked the edges with Vintage photo Distress Ink. I added some lace, and salmon pink velvet ribbon to this. I made two dangly pieces, and added heart charms to the ends. I stamped my heart out twice, and decoupaged sections of the heart, mounting it onto corrugated card to give it some height. Three flat backed pearls finish the card.

It's the first time that I have used this beautiful stamp, but it won't be the last. I love these colours, and the pleat effect is lovely, so I want to make more cards with this effect, so thank you Helen for your inspiration.
I've made two more charms today, with bottle caps that my OH flattened for me last night. He cut his finger in the process, so that's two of us with injured digits!

I had to make a minimum of five charms to send off to the swap, so I'm done now. I'll make a tag for my recipient, so that she knows who I am, and then I'll just wait to get some charms back in a couple of weeks time. I'll blog what I get, so that you can see them. Here are all of the charms ready to go now.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx



More charms

Hi folks, I made another two charms yesterday, in spite of the cut finger! It is still really sore, but Buzz doesn't care, she just wants her dinner, ah well, I'll recover.

I bought these tiny wooden cotton reels on Sunday from Stamperama, and thought that they would make really cute charms. I painted the tops and bottoms with precious metal paint, added some  TH tissue tape around the middle, and glued a metal rondelle to the top and bottom. I've added a clasp at the top, so that they can clip onto a hanbag if the recipient likes, or they can take that off, and just use the jump ring. At the bottom, I've added some beads, and a little brass sewing machine.

A fellow forum member, who is an Art Teacher, put out a call, asking for us to make journal pages for her students, on the subject of 'Time' recently. I haven't made any completed journal pages before, I've prepared pages, with watercolour backgrounds, stamped on them, and inked them, but this was a bit of a first for me. I had two ideas, and wanted to make them while the ideas were fresh in my mind. They are a bit more scrapbooky in style than most journal pages, because I have treated them more like a canvas. I have kept them as flat as possible though, as they are going in a book.

For the first one, I drew an hourglass, and stamped lots of clocks, which I wanted to fall down the hourglass, like sand, and pile up at the bottom. I covered them all with Glossy Accents. I found a poem called 'Time for Now' on the Internet, which I wrote around the edges. I used Elusive Images ATC stamps, sequin waste, and bottle caps to make my background.

For the second page, I wanted to use the phrase 'Tempus Fugit' time flees, or more commonly translated as time flies. I took an Elusive Images clock, stamped it, and covered it with Glossy Accents again, added TH wings and a crown. I covered the wings with tissue tape. I cut a Birdcage from Grungepaper and painted it with green metallic paint, cutting away some of the bars, as if my clock bird had escaped. I did a bit of my own journalling on this page, keeping the background a bit simpler.

It's been fun making these pages! I'd certainly like to make some more. I hope you are having a good day whatever you are up to today, thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Lots going on

I've been very busy this week, working on lots of different projects. I've been working on Design Team projects again, which is a lovely feeling. I can't tell you about those, but hopefully, there will be lots of news regarding the Company and the new stamps soon.

I've joined in with an altered charm swap in the United States. Last year, I signed up for a napkin swap with the same lady, it was a great idea, you collected some napkins, sent them off, and you got sent some in return. I got some beauties, and want to make something with a few, time permitting, ha ha! Anyway, this time, you make a minimum of five altered charms, send them off, and you get five charms back, with a pin to hang them on. I have made two so far.

I followed Roni's suggestion to use plastic tubing to look like fused glass. I'm hoarding bottle caps to make a couple more charms today, and eyeing up an old dice to stick a hook in to make another one! She has some fabulous ideas, I don't know where she gets them all from.

I've also made a card for this week's Bah Humbug challenge, which was 'Buttons and Bows'. My card is not in traditional colours at all. I have used a set of stamps from My Sentiments Exactly, with Gingerbread men, which seemed to call for reds and browns. I was trying not to use Kraft card this week, but it sneaked in there again! Hopefully next week, I can go a little bit more traditional.

I've got lots more projects on the go this week, so hopefully, I'll be posting some more very soon. Thanks for popping by, Judith xx