Altered bag

I'm back already to show you what I worked on yesterday.

I wasn't in the best frame of mind yesterday as I found out the night before that one of my oldest friends, who I went to school with, has just been given 6 months to live as she has lung cancer. To say I am devastated is an understatement.
Well, I didn't think that my brain would come up with much through all the tears and heartache, so I sat down to colour in and just chill out. When I'd coloured the image I saw the stack of plain bags I just bought sat on the floor and thought I'd have a go at decorating it. Well, the image and the papers just seemed to come together and in no time I had finished! This is the end result:

I know the stitching at the top is a bit wobbly but I think it adds to the charm. I've left the top left blank to add a message to when I decide what I'm going to use it for.

The image and the papers are from Polka Doodles. I coloured the image with my ProMarkers and FlexMarkers. I also added the Marianne die cut butterflies and distressed the edges with Tim Hotlz Spun Sugar distress ink.
All in all I think it turned out quite well.

oh dear!

I can't believe it's been 4 weeks since I blogged! How bad am I especially after saying I would blog more regularly!
I've had a bit of a hectic month to be honest, I went to Spain to surprise my friend who lives there for her 50th birthday, and she was well surprised! We had a great time although it did wear me out as I wasn't to well when we went, and I'm still under the weather. I've had awful bronchitis and am on my 3rd set of antibiotics, so fingers crossed this set do the trick and send it packing.
Then I've been back and forth to the hospital to visit my great uncle who is sadly not going to be with us for much longer. And on top of all that we have been trying to get drawings and plans sorted for us to have an extension built!

 I have however manged to do quite a few cards during all that, here are a few of them.
This is the one I made for my friends 50th. It's mainly using DoCraft products from the latest goody bag, and the base card is centura pearl from C&C.

These are a few cards that my friend asked for to go in her shop.
These are using the Stampin Up motorcyle stamp and papers.

 

And these are using Stampin Ups Beware Pirates stamps.

 

I will be back soon with more cards to show you and a few other things I am working on at the moment.

Matching cards

Good afternoon Blogland. I did do some matching cards for the baby frames I did the other day and I'm quite pleased with how they turned out!

I think they are really cute. Just hope the customers in the shop do!
Also here are the lastest cards I have done for MCS which were on QVC yesterday. They are using the Alphabet & Scrolls stamp set which can be found here: QVC
Unless otherwise stated, all the papers are also from MCS.
The text backgrounds on the cards are done stamping the text stamp over and over.

 I really like this one as I love using Tim Hotlz distress inks.

 I love this embossing folder, I think it's great for mens cards, especially on silver mirror card.

 This one is a DVD or paperback book box. The papers were a magazine freebie.

 Distressing but in a delicate girly way.

That's it for today, but come back soon for more cards I have been working on this week.

Great news, MCS cards and baby frames

I hope you are all having a great bank holiday weekend whatever you are doing. It's a typical bank holiday Monday here, it's really cold and the rain is bucketing down! Oh well, it's nice and cosy here in my craft room.

My great news is that I am now a stamping sample maker for My Craft Studio! I was on the sample team when they were on C&C but on their move to QVC they didn't think they would need as many sample makers so the team was cut to 3.  But now they are doing a bigger stamp range they needed another member so asked me back! To say I am chuffed is a bit of an under statement!
These are the samples I made that were on QVC last Wednesday.

Now onto the frames I've made to go in my friends shop.

The papers are from Stampin Up. I've used an old Sizzix die to cut the letters out and the ribbons and buttons are from my stash. I think I might make some matching cards for them as I'm quite pleased with how they have turned out.
I've got lots more stuff to make for the shop so will probably be posting quite a bit this week, so come back soon.

Something different

What a week last week! I managed to pick up this nasty virus on my puter from somewhere which attacked my complete C drive, and I lost everything on it! Thankfully my hubby had partitioned my drive so all my craft stuff was unaffected. I lost all my emails, email addresses and internet faves, as well as all my programs. So it has taken me a while to get things back to some kind of normal. I'm still lacking lots of things but I'll deal with them as and when I need them.

Now onto one of my latest creations.
When I saw this image I thought it would make a great card for someone who is ill, then I thought why not take it a step further! So as in the image she is reading a book I thought why not make it into a book box, so you could give someone who is stuck in bed the gift of a book. And I have to say I'm pleased with the result, what do you think?

The image is from Saturated Canary and is coloured with Copics. The papers are freebies from a magazine, as is the sentiment. The ribbon and flowers are from my stash. And I've used an X-Cut multi punch to create the doily and border. I've used the Tim Holtz Spun Sugar distress ink pad around the edge of the image.

Using the plaster flowers

As promised here are the cards I have made using the plaster of paris flowers I made using the MCS silicone mould.

The 1st card is made using My Craft Studio's Quintessential Country Garden, and I've added the plaster flower over a ribbon bow.
The 2nd card is made using the My Craft Studio's A Very Imprortant Date Paper Stash. On this one I've added the large orange plaster flower and leaves, and 2 small yellow ones and the green one with small leaves. I think they are fabulous, so will no doubt be buying the future moulds!

New from My Craft Studio

As promised here is what I was playing with yesterday

It's a silicone mould and a pot of plaster of paris so you can make your own embellishments.

It's very easy to mix, and takes about 30-40 minutes to set. This is what you end up with:

I did get a few air bubbles in the larger one, but nature isn't perfect is it!

I coloured one set with my FlexMarkers

And painted a few sets with some Martha Stewart stencil paints that I got from QVC a while ago

Some of the paints are satin and some are pearlescent. I think these give the flowers a really lovely finish. I've aldo added a bit of shading and some highlights.

I can see these moulds being a great seller, so if you see them on My Craft Studios website website or QVC I'd snap them up as I'm sure they won't be in stock long!

I'll make some cards up later and use them on it so come back soon for a peek at what I come up with.

Been a while

Hello blogland, it's been a while since I blogged as I have been in Spain since the 3rd July. We went over to suprise my friends daughter as she was going over to spend her 18th birthday with her Dad, her Aunt and Gran who live over there. She had no idea we were going so she was well chuffed when we popped out from behind a wall and surprised her! Her gran has her own pool in her garden so we did a pool party for Alicia, it was a great day. I made her a banner using some My Craft Studio artwork.

I also had the task of making her a birthday cake as she loves my triple chocolate cake!

I can tell you it was no easy feat baking that cake in that heat! It was over 50 degrees while I was slaving away over it! I kind of gave up in the end with the covering, there was no way of getting it smooth. And of course, no one had a cake tin so I had to compromise. I had to take over my baking tins and scales as no one over there bakes!
Anyway, she loved the cake and her party.

I think the look on her face says it all! She is an adorable girl and is growing into an amazing adult.

She is mad on all things 50's, especially Marylin Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. These are some of the pressies we gave her, a Marylin towel and lighter, a bottle of bubbly and a bottle of Jack Daniels all in a Marylin gift bag. We are also paying for her a tattoo of a 50's pin up girl doing when she is ready for it. I'm the one holding the towel up and that's my hubby at the side of me, thankfully you can't see what he is doing! Cheeky boy!
This is the card I made her:

 The papers are from Polka Doodles, and the image is from Charmed Cards and Crafts.

 The inside of the card is done in the style of a book using elements from the Polka Doodles Picnix CD.

Luckily it survived the journey over there in my suitcase!
Well, that's it for today, and a long post it is!
Come back tomorrow as I'll be posting something special from My Craft Studio that I am currently trying out for them! See you then xx



Polka Doodles card

Hello all from a dark dingy day here in Leeds, it was supposed to be cracking the flags today, but we have rain instead! I was hoping to get a few hours in the garden today as well! Oh well.
I've been playing with the new Polka Doodles Picknix CD again and have come up with this card

I just love these papers, they are sooo girly and lush. I've added a few Marriane die cuts and used a Martha Stewart border punch. I think my wide polka dot ribbon goes lovely with these papers. I've also slightly distressed the white images with the Tim Holtz Spun Sugar distress ink. The image is from Polka Doodles Candy Doodles CD.
Fingers crossed the sun come out a bit later on!

Mimic Creations

Hello everyone, it's shaping up to be a nice week here, it's about time after all that rain we've had lately. Luckily it hasn't caused us any problems, but my friend who doesn't live too far away was flooded. I hope you all have managed to escape any floods.
Anyway for todays card I have used the Card Creations Plus Mimic CD.
This has been added to the ones I am selling to raise the money for charity.

Of course it's the fabulous Aunty Gok. The papers are from DCWV, the sentiment was done using word. I have coloured the image with my ProMarkers. I've added a bow and a handmade ribbon bloom with a button centre.
See you soon.
x