Sunday 23 May 2010

Hot .....but loving it!

Hi, we have had some fantastic weather this weekend so we have been out and about enjoying ourselves in the hot! spring sunshine.

I packed a picnic, including 'chicken chunks' for our puppy, Daisy and off we went to Stodmarsh a Natural Nature Reserve, near Canterbury.
Daisy ..... Photographic Technician
We had a cracking day, saw all sorts of birds including Marsh Harriers and loads of Hobby's who were high in the sky catching Dragonflies. I was surprised Dragonflies fly that high ....!

We walked for miles and miles and Daisy loved it all until she felt tired and 'hitched' a ride on Ken's shoulders .
It is such a joy watching her find new 'sniffs' and delights in just .....living ! Plus of course...she is spoilt rotten !
Daisy our expert 'bird watcher'

Thanks for looking at my blog .....still tired from yesterday so I am going to have an early night and look forward to more crafting tomorrow ...no Monday morning blues for me!
Happy crafting
Eileen x

Thursday 20 May 2010

How to make The Art Deco Card

I have had a few e-mails about the Art deco card shown here that I posted a few weeks ago, asking for instructions.
So I have got to work and here they are.
This card using the Hougie Board is a doddle to do, however, writing the instructions was not so easy!

I hope you can understand them! e-mail me if you need HELP!


Take an A4 piece of card and fold it in half.

A4  Photo 1
Make a mark in pencil on both sides of the front of the card 5cms down from the folded edge.
Then find the middle point along the bottom of the card and make another mark. See photo .... 2.

Photo 2
I have' high-lighted'  the centre channel of my board using a black marker pen...trust me...it helps!


Open the card and place the tip of the folded edge on the black centre line and turn the card so that the mark on the half way point at the bottom of the card is also on the black line and they LINE UP See photo ..3
Photo 3

 Score down the channel.

Move both marks over one channel  and score again so you have two lines. See photo ...4.

Photo 4
Photo 5
Move the second score line over one channel and keeping an eye that it stays in the channel ! (check near the bottom of the card) pull the card across so that you line up the 5cm mark into the middle black line channel ( gawd, I am confused and I have made loads of these!!) See photo 5 
Score down and without moving the card score down the line next to it.
Phew!...this side is now complete. See photo 6.
Photo 6

Now start again on the other side to match.
See photo's 7,8,9 and 10.
Photo 7

Photo 8
Photo 9
Photo 10
Finally... you must fold using valley and mountain folds along the score lines ...starting with a mountain fold then a valley ...then another valley and one more mountain ....
This means the front of the card is smaller and part of the design is to layer a coloured card on the back, inside your card.
This will be seen from the front and I think it looks very attractive. You can then decorate as you wish ...I hope this makes sense!
Good luck and happy crafting ...x
My brain hurts!
Eileen x


Tuesday 18 May 2010

Quick Thank you cards


I hope you have the hot and sunny weather that we have here in Kent...what a stunning day.
Daisy and I had a great walk this morning ...I was so warm I removed my jacket! It was just after Seven when we left the house...everything smelled fresh and new after some rain we had yesterday...Glorious.




I have posted some very basic quick thank you cards today. Sometimes we need them in a hurry and these don't take long at all ..  All the cards toppers are made using my Quickutz dies, layered on Bazzil card and 'tarted' up with some sewing and a few pearl drops.

The sentiment was printed on my PC and a few glossy accents added here and there on some of them .......all done and dusted in double quick time .
Thanks for dropping by today...
Eileen x

Sunday 16 May 2010

Wedding Stationery.... all done!



Hello,
This weekend has been very enjoyable. I went to a crop yesterday and had a super day with all my 'crafty mates'.
We made cards, laughed a lot and ate cakes while we 'gossiped'
Thank you ladies for a great time and all the hints and tips, some of them to do with crafting !
I also have to say a BIG  thank you to Ikki who kindly put one of my cards into her 'Friday Followers Gallery' ....I have learnt so much from Ikki's blog ( link above) regarding all manner of Cuttlebug stuff including the two cards shown here as I was inspired by her work.

I have a few new followers and loads of visitors to my blog along with a flurry of e-mails ...thank you all for taking an interest and all the kind comments ....I am having loads of fun blogging ....why not try it ?

I made fifty of the wedding invitations and thirty of the Order of Service cards ...I enjoyed making them and I hope this shows in my work and adds to the wonderful day that I know the bride and groom are looking forward to.

So simple and easy to do but because I used the Nestabilities Hearts and not my Cricut they took a long time to cut on my big shot ...all three hundred and twenty of them !!!

Each card was embossed with the Divine Swirl Cuttlebug folder.
I scored all the lines using my Hougie board ( smashing bit of  kit) and rounded off the front edge corners.

Some pearls and ribbon 'lifted' the look of the cards. The bride and her mum think they look elegant. I hope you do too ....
Thank you for stopping by ...I am going to have a Clarity stamping day tomorrow, inky fingers and my trusty brayer.....bliss. Have a nice week .

Eileen x

Thursday 13 May 2010

A Peel-offs Post





I'm posting a simple 'Peel-offs' card today with an Oriental theme ....I have stacks of this type of stash ... the papers are so pretty that when I bought them it was ' must buy two...use one, keep one!! WHY...?  do you do that?

I made the vase from cardboard and covered it in pretty paper...The transparent peel-offs were placed on to some more pretty paper,cut out and mounted on to the dark blue card using foam pads.
I placed some gems in the middle of the flowers and on the side of the card to match....a gold ' health' peel-off along with gold faux stitching around the edge lifted the card a little and with the same gold pen I had added  some flower stems !

Thanks for stopping by ...
Eileen x

Monday 10 May 2010

More Lavinia!

 Hello, lovely sunny day here....
I have done a lot of domestic engineering today. I moved all the furniture around in our sitting room ...a bit ouch on the old back but as I have not changed things for some time, I feel I am living in a different house!
I said to my husband I have moved all the furniture but if you don't like it I will move it back ...(two chances here....fat chance! and no chance!) anyway, he cottoned on pretty quickly and said " oh yeah! asking you to change it back would be more than my life's worth!"....Smart move !

 I am busy this afternoon, doing some more wedding invitations, the last few of an order and all the inserts need to go in 'cos the deadline is Saturday!
As I need to crack on with them here are some more Lavinia cards I made last summer ....The red butterfly is stamped on acetate and coloured in with gel pens...It took all night to dry!
I have used a brayer and Adirondack inks on the backgrounds and Versafine inks to stamp the various images. All the stamps used are from Lavinia Stamps.
Thanks for looking today ...enjoy your evening.

Eileen xx

Sunday 9 May 2010

Lavinia Day...



I always have great fun with Lavinia Stamps. All three cards have been produced using Adirondack inks for the brayed backgrounds and Various colours of Versafine inks for the images. Two of the cards are copies from the Lavinia web site.Which ones are which ? Have a look at Lavinia stamps ! I am having a great weekend (except for Lewis in the F1 race in Spain !) Hope you are having a good time too.
Thanks for stopping by
Eileen x

Tuesday 4 May 2010

Wet,wet,wet !



White linen card embossed in my Big Shot with a Cuttlebug Swiss dots embossing folder.
The flowers are the Marianne Creatables ribbon flowers
The ribbon is threaded through slots in the flower,very fiddly but worth it.

I used my Hougie board to emboss the lines on the card
 and mounted the flowers,wire and a couple of metal flowers that I found in my stash
 onto one of my oval Nestabilities and that in turn was mounted onto a scalloped oval 'nestie'.

My second card was so much fun to do ..Pale cream linen card this time, embossed with a Cuttlebug 'Stylised flower' embossing folder. One Nestabilities circle cut from the cream card stock and placed in the middle of the card front. My Hougie board was again employed to score the lines at the bottom of the card.

I cut the flowers with a Tim Holtz Sizzix,'Tattered Florals' die using pages from an old book
 well ...I have to come clean here because I was in the caravan in the middle of nowhere
 my old books were all at home.
 However, hubby had almost finished a book he was reading about the Romans...so.......unbeknown to him I tore out a few pages at the front of the book and prayed he would never want to read it again!Sneaky eh!

The flowers were coloured using a Mountain Meadow, Big and Juicy ink pad applied with cut-n-dry foam.
I layered them up and a brad in the middle of each one held them together . The butterflies are Shapeabilities and I stenciled them, in the die, using the same coloured ink pad. Some black wire and a sentiment completes the card.
Thanks for popping by today. Have a good week.
Eileen x