Marianne dies

Today will be the first day of our new format cardmaking club where we all take our own projects to work on. I'm looking forward to being part of it rather than being the one that produces everything for the others to do. After 5 plus years of producing 3 cards a week for them with only a couple of weeks off at Christmas and a couple of weeks holiday I am about out of ideas.  And when the cards had to last them for 3 hours it wasn't just a case of any 3 cards!  They had to be complex enough to keep them busy but not too hard for newcomers to have a crack at. It was a challenge!  Now it's time for me to take a back seat and enjoy the time myself!  Soooo I'm taking in the flowers to have a go at and enough for others to try if they want to. My super duper friend is going to show me how to make boxes by just folding... no glue. Watch this space!

I just love the Marianne Design dies. There is so much detail and delicacy about them. They can be a bit fiddly to remove the pieces but rubbing the die with a tumble drier cloth makes a world of difference. I'm also a big fan of the black and white look. This card needs some gems of some sort in the centre of the flowers and I'm leaning towards pearls rather than sparkly jewels.

Why is it.......

Why is it that whenever you have a new toy there are a million and one other things that just HAVE to be done before you can play with it?

I have been desperate to play properly with my Grand Calibur but so many other things needed to be sorted first.  I feel like a kid at Christmas who has been given the toy of their dreams and there are no batteries and the shops are all shut!!

At last it has come out of its box. I still have another problem..... namely the lack of any A3 card in any great quantity.  However..... I did manage to make one large card and a smaller one with  the only Grand dies that I have.  I'm sure you will all see the deliberate mistake on the scalloped circle card but I live and learn. Next time I will turn the die slightly so that I don't have to cut the bottom scallop to stop it from leaning drunkenly to one side.  This is your lesson for today!

Making flowers

Since I came back from the NEC exhibition I have been trying to find time to practice making flowers like the lovely lady who demo'd them.

At last I have a few offerings and I am now hooked on making them. I think I shall be filling boxes with these  - it is very addictive!  And as I have to go out to customers I am now wearing rubber gloves to save having multi-coloured fingers which don't look overly professional!

The lady used a scalloped circle punch but I used my nesties for the same effect.

You need 6 circles all the same size.

Poke a small hole in the centre of each and fix together with a small brad - doesn't really matter what colour as they wont be seen.

Next you colour both sides of each circle with inks, cosmic shimmer mist or whatever you like. I used Distress Inks .  Now, spritz with water and then, one by one,  screw up the circles around the brad.

Tease them out again to produce the shape you like.

I sprayed them with a glitter spray for a bit of sparkle.

Once they are dry they are quite "hard" and hold their shape really well

Hope you like my attempts!

Iris folding

I have to say that a lady at our cardmaking club makes the most beautiful iris folding cards and inspires me and the other ladies at what can be achieved. My first attempts were pretty basic and not very pretty with quite large cut out images which tended to dominate the page and I decided that this wasn't for me. But once I had seen the lovely designs and the quality which could be achieved by using the better papers and smaller patterns I could see the attraction.

The one below is a card which I reckon could be used for an anniversary, wedding, valentine or engagement if done in the right colour scheme for the occasion.  This would probably be good for a Ruby Wedding Anniversary.

I usually use Kings Foils for this type of work but this time I used some good quality pearlised paper. I think the secret is to get good creases on the folds.  I can't seem to find Kings Foils these days so if anyone knows where I can get them from I would be delighted to hear from you!

Sarah Kay Mother's Day

When I first gave up the day job to become self employed it took a while to get established in my new venture. This left me with time on my hands and my dearest friend suggested I might like to go along with her to a cardmaking club. It seemed like a good idea at the time....... I was totally hooked from day one. I am still totally hooked but now I'm mainly totally broke too!!!  The familiar story of a box of crafting supplies turning into a cupboard of crafting goodies, then a complete wardrobe and finally a complete room became a reality very quickly. I find I need all of the new tools and supplies that  I clap my eyes on and often come across stuff I couldn't live without which has sat in a cupboard for months on end!  I know... you are probably all finding this very familiar!

So, with Mother's Day coming up I checked out my supplies and came up with this.

I love the combination of "colouring in" with ProMarkers and the printing of the clothes onto patterned paper.

Saturday......

Well, this afternoon we were hospital visiting again as my father in law is still there after almost 7 weeks. He is now in the rehabilitation unit after having had pneumonia twice and at 85 it has taken its toll. He is very frail now and not very mobile so we decided that the 4 walls of the hospital ward were just too much. So we bundled him into a wheelchair and wrapped him up and took him outside for a breath of fresh air. That perked him up and we then hit the little cafe and got him some chips to try and encourage him to eat more. He seemed a lot brighter when we had to take him back and so we have decided to take a little picnic tomorrow for him (and us!) Just hoping for good weather now and we can sit in the grounds with him.

With a nephew's birthday looming I decided this might be a good card to send him. I'm sure it will go down well ..... but probably not as well as the money included in the envelope!



NEC Exhibition

Ooooh had such fun at the NEC yesterday. I always go with a friend or two but this time there were 4 of us!  I just love the demonstrations and seeing all the lovely cards that other people make. It really gets the inspiration juices flowing! 

I was, as always, full of good intentions.  "I'm not going to spend anything", "Only going to look and see the demos" "Haven't got any money to spend on even more crafting goodies"  Oh yes! the intentions were all good but did I leave the credit card at home? No!  Sooooooo...... what did I come home with I hear you ask!

It was just too good a buy to leave there.... and I had recently sold my Craft Robo which sat silently in the cupboard because I never had time to use it properly. So I did have that money to spend.... (note all the excuses!)  I succumbed to the Grand Calibur.  I was so excited to get home and give it a go. Of course there was no point in having an A4 cutter without any A4 dies to cut so I bought some of those too!

I love it!  I love my Big Shot as well and that won't be parted with as I still have the thick Sizzix dies that I want to use. But this is just wonderful for making those lovely large shaped cards. I bought the Nestabilities dies as I know they all cascade down through the sizes right to the smallest ones perfectly.

I did also pick up a really nice EK border punch which looked very versatile and was being demo'd.  In the past I have bought loads of stuff that I can't live without once it has been demo'd and then it sits on the shelf at home after either being tried and not getting the same result as the demonstrator or by the time it reaches my front door I can't remember what I bought it for.  One of those memorable products was a set of plastic things that if you placed them together would give you the most amazing flower arrangement. Well, hers looked fantastic..... mine looked like a load of flowers stuck in a lot of plastic pots!  Needless to say they hit the back shelf after the first attempt. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Anyway, my EK punch is a success,  I'm pleased to report! Lots of lovely borders, strips and even "round the page" toppers.

Now I'm off to make some more lovely flowers after watching a very talented lady make Carnation type flowers. They looked beautiful and my first attempt last night were not bad even if I do say so myself......

See you all tomorrow.......