Hang In There...

After all of the 'big card' fuss last weekend, I've been able to get back to something that's a bit more 'me'. What do you think?

The image is a freebie digi-stamp from Sassy Cheryl's over at Paper Craft Planet - here's a close up version

He's coloured with Promarkers (of course!), as is the cardstock used for matting, and the card candy - the perfect way to get an exact colour match.  The pink backing paper was in my goody bag from Craftwork Cards. Finished off with a computer-generated sentiment (printed directly on to the card before assembly).

Just a quick update on that wedding card though - I managed to make a box and a matching insert for the card just in time to take it to our tea-party! I wasn't entirely happy with the box but was told that I was being over-fussy and everyone else loved it...

I don't do big cards...

...so could someone please explain how I came to make an A4 size card???

I offered to make a wedding card as one of my colleagues is getting married on Saturday and we've clubbed together for her gift.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, until I realised that I know very little about this person's tastes,  not to mention the rest of my colleagues...

I decided to steer away from the lovely cute Lili of the Valley image I bought at Harrogate and had a picture in my head of an 8 x 8 inch square card with a 3D tiered wedding cake in ivory with red accents as the bride is wearing a red dress with full-length ivory coat.  Took the prototype in to show my colleagues the other day and got the impression they didn't approve of the colour scheme - eek!

Lots of hours later I ended up with this - the only thing it has in common with my original concept is the tiered cake

I finished it after midnight last night, then dragged myself off to bed knowing that I wasn't really happy with it.  So this morning I pulled it to bits!  This is version 2 - very little difference except the cake is now lower on the card and the springy wires connecting the hearts are gold coloured instead of silver.

I'm as happy as I'm going to get with it now so I think its time to make the box - I've got about 4 hours, lol!

For a large card it was incredibly cheap to make - the cardstock is from my bargain buy at Harrogate - pearlised A3 card folded in half to make the base card then decorated with a Rollagraph stamp wheel using Versamark and mica powder ( Harrogate spending spree again!). The cake tiers use Martha Stewart punches (yes, Harrogate!) with a bit of glitter and a few gems. The cake stand uses a couple of Fiskars punches - the curved sides were done using an oval punch. The glittered hearts were also punched from the same cardstock as everything else then run upside down through my mini Xyron before adding glitter.  And last but not least, the sentiment panel was created with my Craft Robo Lite - I love the gel-pen drawing function. Incidentally, the ivory cardstock used for matting and layering, and some of the cake elements is just the same cardstock but coloured with an ivory promarker!

On the subject of weddings I had to chuckle at this post last night by Kerry over at A Load of Old Pickle. Why do we volunteer ourselves for these things, lol?  I made my friend's wedding invitations last year, apparently I'd offered while under the influence of far too much wine (which I blamed on the shock of her finally getting hitched after 10 years together!).  I couldn't help but be struck by the similarities to Kerry's invitations, especially the insides

Can I just point out though - I didn't want the peel-off there  - that was a last minute addition when the bride's father thought a wedding invitation should feature wedding bells (even though it wasn't a church wedding...)

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone is enjoying their eggs and other Easter goodies :-)

Just a quick visit to share this card with you - not strictly an Easter card but it could've been...

I love this design, one of a set of cutting files for my Craft Robo, bought from My Scrap Chick.  Unfortunately, although it doesn't really show in this pic I had a bit of a disaster with the good old pinflair glue , put a bit too close to the edge when sticking it all together - if you look closely at the middle 'tuft' on the chick's head you might be able to see it. But, as any good crafter knows, there's always a way round - et voila (!) version 2...

...with a hastily designed and cut sentiment!

I managed to squeeze a bit of Promarker action in there too - instead of faffing about cutting the eyes and beak out of different pieces of card I cut them in yellow with the main piece and then coloured them in - genius, even if I do say so myself!

Off to do more tidying now :-(

No crafting today :-(

I've nominated today as the day to tackle the chaos that is my spare room, or the room thats meant to be my craft room.  Its so jam-packed full of junk that there isn't room to craft in there, meaning my crafty stuff is gradually taking over the rest of my (not very tidy right now) home...not good!

So, I'm trying to build up the resolve to get rid of stuff, not easy for me as I'm a first class hoarder!  I usually end up with a 'charity shop' box or 3 that takes ages for me to get around to dropping off at a shop so I'm tempted to be really ruthless this time - keep, ebay, dump, and possibly freecycle to get rid of my old tv among other things. Wish me luck...

In the meantime just a quick pic of a card I started months ago and only got round to finishing last week (apologies for poor image quality)

I love the simplicity of monochrome cards but really struggled to get the look I wanted on this one.  Sometime in December/January I rounded the corners of my backing paper and stuck it onto a 6x6 square card but then couldn't find a suitably strong image to go with it. Then I came across some peel-offs that I couldn't resist popping into my basket but wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with them. At some point my cluttered mind married the two together and this is the result.  It looks much better in real life...

Back to the grind now but I think I'll treat myself later to getting the promarkers out and colouring some digi images, especially if I get a proper chance to investigate all of the talent over on Paper Craft Planet...