Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Cards I struggle with

Baby Boy

I can usually come up with ideas for most things, but I often struggle with baby cards.

I don't want them to be twee - so always blue and pink, but it does work!

Anyway recently I have been tackling baby cards. What do you think?

Close-up shows the alphas and the loopy border


1 and above - is pic of the day - 2 similar cards, made using papers from Michael's in the US. The card on the left is very simple, just different papers, cut into different shapes and sizes and a bit of bling to bring it alive. The card on the right has an embossed top dark blue section, using the Cuttlebug large dots folder. I experimented with the Martha Stewart punch around the page punches to make the square with the loopy border (thanks Mary Fish) I really like how it looks and the little alpha stickers bring it to life.

2 - Large Prams

2 - I like prams on baby cards - it's not implying anything - every baby rides in some sort of 'pram' so no worries about offending right-on parents! I like the blingyness (totally not a word) of the girl card, but the crazy foam stars for wheels on the boy card are really fun and make me smile. The corrugated card for the Pram's came from JT's stash on Saturday.

3 - Mini Prams
3 - Mini prams this time - it's the same technique, cut a circle - any size, then cut out a wedge and voila! A pram. These mini pram's are on small white textured cards, the backgrounds were punched using my 2inch square scallop punch, the wheels are coloured bling and I added matching sentiment tabs.

I'm quite happy with the results, I think I might have conquered that demon!

Cx

Monday, January 30, 2012

Valentine's Day

Mini Valentine's Cards


It will soon be Valentine's Day, unfortunately for Hubby I will be in Amsterdam with my goddaughter and best friend, so no celebrations for us.

HamnMule are already on the case producing nice things for Valentine's Day!

I spent Saturday with JT making lots of cards, basically just gossiping whilst trying out new ideas and new things from our stashes. It was nice to work with someone and to use bits and bobs from their stash, makes it all feel really new!

Picture of the day (1) is a closeup of the mini heart Valentine's Cards I made yesterday - I used a scallop square 2inch punch, adhesive felt hearts from Tesco and glittery heart stickers from Paperchase.

2 - The aperture cards used the same hearts, but I put coloured papers behind the aperture and added a sentiment.

3 - The bronze cards used circle and scallop punches and stickers from Tesco, bling from local craft store. I made these with JT on Saturday.

4 - Is another picture of the mini hearts, but you can see all of them this time.

2 -Valentine's Cards made using Aperture Cards
3 - Mini bronze Valentine's

4 - Mini Hearts 


Oh and last but not least, I mentioned JT's blog yesterday, she had this great idea to start a new project every week, they may not get finished in the same week, but you'll get to see how she progress through all these great projects she has started. Check it out here - 52 Weeks of Crafting.

I am aiming for 3 posts a week - that might be more manageable - so I should be back on Weds!

Cx

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Happy New Year!

A bit late!

It all got a bit hectic in my world after the HamnMule website launch. Moving office, Christmas, Vegas - quite a lot going on. Hence the lack of blogging.

Hubby and I enjoyed our holibobs in Vegas, but we were glad to come home and get some rest!!

But you'll be glad to know that I have been crafting away quite merrily and got lots of lovely goodies to play with for Christmas and I have bought a few things in the January sales for myself. I also managed to acquire a fair amount of craft booty from Michael's in Vegas. We are off to NYC this year and I can't wait to hit the Michael's there!

Anyway I thought I would make my first post of 2012 about my gorgeous nephew Otis. I decided to make him an advent calendar for 2012 and beyond. He was too young this year to get any joy out of it, so it seemed like a great thing to make for him this year.

I decided I would leave this until the last minute, as I bought a kit to cheat a bit, but that turned out to be a big mistake. The kit wasn't as complete as I had thought, so I had to trawl craft stores and sites the week before Christmas looking for self-adhesive felt shapes and numbers! Fortunately I had a fair few and MM on Christmas Eve delivered what I needed to finish it. Cue frantic sewing before dinner and the traditional trip to the Pub to see the MM Posse! Nightmare. However I must say I am really chuffed with the outcome!

Here a few pics (sorry some of them are not great) to show the process (note I changed the way the name tab was made). Once again, I am really pleased with the end result, but I doubt I will make another one in a hurry :)




I'll be back tomorrow with some Valentine's cards that I have made - some today and some yesterday when I had a craft afternoon with my craft buddy JT. More about that tomorrow and JT's new blog.

Cx