A Nice Surprise

I popped over to Lisa Craft Fairy's blog this morning to check out this week's die cut challenge and was very surprised and delighted to learn my card from last week was awarded card of the week.  If you read this Lisa, thank you,  I'm glad you liked the card.

Anyway on to this week's challenge which Lisa has set which is to make a card featuring a scalloped square die cut. I wanted to do a card using the scalloped square as a frame but  I don't have any large Nestabilities square dies or punches.  As a substitute I modified a Nellie Snellen rectangle into a square and came up with this:

Ingredients:  Nellen Snellen die, Cuttlebug cake die and embossing folder, My Minds Eye papers, Nestabilities oval dies, Quickutz number dies, ribbons and pins from stash and finally pen stitching.

Yesterday was my Dad's birthday and so I had to venture into my least favourite card making genre: Men's cards!

Thankfully The Graphics Fairy came up trumps with a suitable image and here's the finished card:

I added 'Dad' to the Graphics Fairy image in Photoshop and printed it onto some canvas printer paper to give it a more vintage feel.

The other ingredients: October afternoon papers, Sizzix tag die stamped with a Papermania stamp, circle clip from stash, inking and pen stitching.

Thanks for looking.

Ruthie x

Vintage Style Card

I saw a fab tutorial for making paper roses on Monica Gayle's blog and just had to have at making some, even though I had no idea what I was going to use them on!  After they had been kicking round on my desk for a few days inspiration finally struck and I came up with this:

Ingredients:  Vintage image from here, Daisy D's papers, brown parcel paper, Nestabilities circle and scalloped circle dies, faux chipboard mat/frame*, Quickutz leaf die, paper roses made with Cuttlebug dies (Monica's tutorial here), twill tape and pin from my local market.

* The chipboard mat/frame was made by cutting a piece of scrap cardboard with a Nellie Snellen die which was then painted with acrylic and distressed using an emery board.

Following on from the Easter chick sweetie bags on my last post, I couldn't resist having a go at the bunny tails bags which Craft Fairy featured on her blog.  Here's my take on them:

The bunnies are made from a Quickutz die matted on Nestabilities circles.

Toffee bon bons always go down well in the office so hopefully my colleagues will like them.

Thanks for looking,

Ruthie x

Easter Sweetie Gift Bag {Inspired by Craft Fairy}

I was blog hopping the other day and stopped by Craft Fairy's blog.  She makes fab cards, and also fantastic gifts including sweetie gift bags.  (I paticularly like her Bunny Tails bags, they are very cute.)

I decided to have a go at making some myself to give as Easter gifts for my team members at work.  I popped into my local Aldi and managed to get some chocolate eggs and here's some of the finished products:

Ingredients: Chocolate eggs from Aldi, Boss Kuts little bird die, Nestabilties ovals dies and a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Thanks for looking and thanks to Lisa Craft Fairy for blogging her sweetie bags.

A Few Recent Projects

Here's some pics of my recent projects:

Free Standing Pop-up Card:

Ingredients: Papers - My Minds Eye (freebie with February's Card Making and Papercraft magazine), Cuttlebug, Quickutz and Nestabilities dies, Poundland stick on gems, Hobbycraft ribbons, Fiskars scalloped lace punch and finally a dreaded peel off!

The tutorial for the pop-up card is from Splitcoast Stampers HERE.

Easel Birthday Card:

This was a card I made for my mother in law's birthday.

Ingredients: Papers - My Minds Eye (freebie with February's Card Making and Papercraft magazine), Nestabilities dies, Cuttlebug embossing folders, butterfly punches, Fiskars scalloped lace punch, scrabble tile letters (Papermania I think), paper flowers from Sarah's Cards, Papermania pearl brad, lace from my local market and Making Memories pom-pom ribbon.

The easel card tutorial is also from Splitcoast Stampers HERE

Mother's Day Card:

Ingredients: Papers - My Minds Eye (freebie with February's Card Making and Papercraft magazine), Nestabilities and Quickutz dies, Cuttlebug embossing folders, paper flowers from Sarah's Cards LTD, Papermania pearl brads, Hobbycraft ribbon and heart pin from my local market.

Valentine's Day Projects:
For Mr Crafty Blogger's valentines card I decided to get my camera out and do a photocard. 

The first challenge was where to find Love Hearts sweets following the demise of our beloved Woolworths.  Fortunately Wilkinsons have stepped into the breach and I was able to get a few packets to set up my photo shoot:

About 500 photos later I managed to get this picture:

I cropped the picture down and printed it onto canvas paper (Aldi special buy a few weeks ago) to produce the final card:

The photo was post processed using  Coffee Shop's Butterscotch vintage action followed by a bit of my own tweaking.  If you use Photoshop Elements (as I do), you really need to visit Rita at the Coffee Shop blog, as her actions are FREE and they all work in PSE!!!! 

Mr Crafty Blogger did not fully escape my paper crafting.  I filled a Kilner jar with is favourite chocolates and made a little tag.

Ingredients: Cuttlebug and Quickutz dies, scrap paper and cardboard, Papermania stamp, ribbons and button from stash.

Mountain Rescuer's Birthday Card:

If in doubt with a man's birthday card, go back to the old faithful Sizzix doll dies!

Ingredients: Sizzix doll and winter clothes dies, Quickutz tools and toolbox dies, Dymo tape, Cuttlebug embossing folder, embroidery floss.

Thanks for looking,

Ruthie x

Fabric Not Felt

Just a quick post to show you a card I made for a colleague who had her first baby last week.

A bit of a departure for me as I didn't use any patterned paper or felt, just plain cardstock and some gingham fabric. I also dug out my Quickutz Bunny die, which is my usual standby item for new baby cards.

Ingredients:
Pink gingham fabric
Quickutz bunny die
Nestabilities oval dies
Safety pin from a pound shop pack
Ribbon from stash
Inking and pen stitching

Hope your Monday is going OK,

Ruthie x

A Couple of Cards & A Bit Of Girly Indulgence!

Well, my get ahead of myself campaign is continuing and I've done another couple of cards ahead of time. First is this one which is my Mum's Mother's Day card for this year. I'm so far ahead I don't even know what date Mother's Day is this year!


Of course there is felt on there, and some of it is thanks to my Mum. She found a load of pieces in a cupboard at home and gave them to me to use on my cards. Free felt, love it!

The pearl topped pin is from a new addition to my crafty stash. I've been meaning to get some for ages and found some on one of the haberdashery stalls on my local market. (Much cheaper than buying the 'Scrapbooking' ones). I also picked up some nice ribbons at the same time but I've not used those yet.

Ingredients:
Paper - Basic Grey 'Gypsy'
Felt flowers cut using Cuttlebug, Quickutz and Sizzix dies
Dovecraft brads
Coffee cup sleeve
American Crafts ribbon
Pearl topped pin
Inking and pen stitching

Yesterday was Daring Card Makers Challenge Day, and it was Lythan's turn to set the Dare:

I just love, love, love patterned paper so this week I dare you to join me in
Patterned Paper Passion
I want to see 3 different patterned papers on your card.And to be extra daring, why not see if you can use 3 different lines of paper!

Well I wimped out on using three different lines of paper and stuck with three from the Basic Grey 'Infuse' range:

It's another Mum card, but this time it's for my MIL's birthday next month; you see I am really getting ahead. My sister is getting married in August, at this rate I'll be making the wedding card next week!

Ingredients:
Paper - Basic Grey 'Infuse'
Felt flowers cut using Cuttlebug dies (leaves also cut with a Cuttlebug die)
Papermania brads
Papermania felt ribbon
Tag - Cuttlebug die
Scalloped and plain oval nestabilities dies
Lettering - Quickutz Katie Skinni Mini dies
Pearl topped pin
Inking and pen stitching

Now for the bit of girl indulgence - new SHOES!!!! Contrary to what Mr Crafty Blogger will say, I am not really a shoe mad girly girl, but when I saw these babies I just had to have them:

I have got them to go with a cocktail dress I am wearing for a black tie ball in a couple of weeks. The planned ensemble may end up looking hideous, and I may end up looking like I've gone in fancy dress at Dorien from Birds of A Feather (as Mr Crafty Blogger suggested when I told him about the shoes), but I 'll take a chance.

Just to prove I'm really not a girly shoe girl, this is a pic of how my feet are usually attired (when I'm not at work). Forget Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo, Dr Marten knows a thing or two about shoes!

Finally, I have moved my new DAB radio/I-Pod dock to it's permanent home in my craft room so here's a pic.

Have a good weekend,

Cheers

Ruthie x

HS:MS: HS and Mid-week Catch-Up

I thought I would just check in with a quick catch-up.

I am a regular reader of the HerSpace:MySpace:HisSpace photo challenge blog but I don't get to play along as often as I would like, particularly at the moment when it's dark when I get in from work.

Anyway I popped in today and the prompt was 'Tip'. I could have taken a photo of my craft room which is mostly a complete tip, however I opted for the tip of one of my new set of fineliner pens.

As you know I love doing fake stitching on my cards and so I have been on the look out for suitable fineliner pens so I can stitch in colours other than black, so I was delighted when I found a set of 10 0.3mm ones in my local Sainsbury's. They are in a really clever pack which means you can stand them up on your desk as I demonstrated here (can you tell I love stationery?)

My crafty mojo seems to be in residence at the moment and last night I set down to have a go with my new Sizzlits owl die. I only intended cutting one to see what it was like, but I ended up making a full card!

Ingredients:
Sizzix Sizzlits owl die
Ovals cuts using Nestabilities
Basic Grey 'Infuse' paper
Coffee cup sleeve
Papermania brads
Inking and pen stitching (using one of my new pens)

The lovely Ellen commented on my last post, asking about the recipe binder. Yes, I have started it, but it's still a work in progress. I decided to start the one for my friend's birthday first (as I am on a deadline with that one). Here's a quick pic of it as it is at the moment:

I have done the cover, and one of the dividers but I still need to do the rest of them and design and print the recipe cards themselves. I will post full details and more pics (taken in better light) when it's finished.

I found the idea for it here: http://cathyzielske.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/09/if-you-like-foo.html

I almost forgot, Ellen gave me an award too:

It's the Marie Antoinette Award, but Ellen if you read this can you let me know what it's for :)

Cheers

Ruthie x

Back To Normal

Well the holidays are over and things are back to normal for me. The trees came down yesterday and it was back to work this morning. I can't complain really after two weeks off.


I have managed one quick card since my last post. I am not really happy with it, but I needed to do something quickly on Friday night so I could get it in the post.



Cartoon image is a download from Tigerfrogg, paper is Basic Grey and the ovals are cut using nestability dies.



The reason I was in a rush on Friday night was because we went to Edinburgh for the day on Saturday. I did take the camera but most of the shots I came back with were quite rubbish it has to be said. However, I am prepared to share this one, just for the name of the shop:


I have to say that I was amazed at the amount of souvenir (or tourist tat) shops Edinburgh has, it seems like every other shop was one, but the name of this one did make it stand out. I really should have gone in here to add to my fridge magnet collection, but I didn't think at the time.


We didn't have that long in the City, but we did manage to wander down the Royal Mile; debate who would actually pay to go in the '3D Loch Ness Experience' and walk up to the castle and admire the view:

We also went to the pub for a very nice haggis lunch (no pic of that though).

All in all a very nice place to spend a crisp winter Saturday. Id like to go again when I have more time to look round, and I will remember to buy a fridge magnet too.

Cheers,

Ruthie x