ONLY JOKING

Needed to make a few gift cards this year to send money for all the teenagers so here are a couple I managed to photograph. I love this die from Tim Holtz - it can be used on it's own but I decided to add it to a card to make it a bit more substantial.  Dug out my festive Pink Petticoat papers for these.

This is the second design for my 2018 Christmas cards.  More dimensional and a lot more work with ink blending etc.  Needless to say, these were hand delivered!

Chose to use two different designs for my Christmas cards this year.  These are the ones I needed to send in the post so had to keep them simple and quite flat.  Varied the background colours (Pixie Powders) and sentiments accordingly.

Catching up with my makes as I've been busy making presents, cards and decorations.  Here are two cards I was asked to make for a new baby.

This is the final card I have made (for the time being!) using the beautiful Lavinia stamps. This time, I chose to use green Brusho with some blue ink pads and the Fairy Hive stamp with the fairy foragers.  Back to Christmas card making!

Another fairy card and another very quick post!  Hope you like it.

Another card with another fairy from Lavinia Stamps.  Same techniques used with Pixie Powders and inks.   Sorry these posts are so short but busy making Christmas cards and presents which I will show when they are eventually finished!

Another quick post today sharing another fairy card I've made using Lavinia stamps and brushos/pixie powders and inks.  Must admit, this is my favourite out of all the cards I have made so far with these stamps.

The card I am sharing today is the first of a few I have made using my Lavinia stamps and using blending techniques with ink.  Hope you like it.

This is the final sample I have to show and have made something quite simple. This notebook is made from three pieces of greyboard.  I am sorry but I forgot to measure it when I made it, however, if you start with the size of notepad you are going to use and add about an inch around it, that will give you the measurements for the front and back piece.  You then just need to cut a thin piece for the spine which should be the same length as the back and front - hope that makes sense! I covered my greyboard with a piece of pink double glitz card and then layered that with pattered paper from the pink Garden Blooms pad.  I then die cut the letters to spell out notes and added some dots around them with a paint pen. Again, I covered the inside with patterned paper, leaving a slit for the pad to be inserted.  I cut a piece of the pattered paper and scored around three of the edges to make a pocket and then glued it to the inside. ...

Nearly at the end of the samples now and this is the final card I have to show. I've used a scalloped card and layered it with blue double glitz cardstock (rounded at the bottom).  I took a piece of the blue Garden Blooms paper pad and tore it at the bottom right hand corner, gently rolling it apart and then inking the edges.  I took a scrap of contrasting paper from the pad and glued it behind.  I then layered this onto the card.  I fussy cut the birdcage out of another sheet of paper, shaped it gently and then added it over the original image with glue gel. Again, using scraps from the paper pad, I die cut some flowers and made an arrangement in the bottom left hand corner with die cut leaves, berries and some smaller flowers I had in my stash.  As usual, I added glue gel thinly to the card and covered with Ice Crystals. Finally, I cut down one of the beautiful inserts and layered it onto the same blue double glitz card and fixed it i...

Back to cards and this is a simple one to make... I started with an 8" x 8" Mont Blanc base card and cut three different designs from the 12" x 12" pink Garden Blooms pad .  Please note that if you have a variety of the smaller pads, there is no need to cut them down.  I distressed and inked the edges, then added faux scribbles around them using a pattern marking tool and a pen. I then stamped a sentiment in brown ink onto one of the postcards , inked the edges and shaped it slightly before adding it to the card.  I die cut some flowers from scraps of the paper pad adding pearls to their centres and then arranged them in the top left hand corner with die cut leaves , stamens , die cut birdhouse , wheat and  micro beaded berries .  Finally, I added a thin layer of glue gel with my finger and sprinkled Ice Crystals over the whole card. Finally, I added one of the beautiful inserts to the inside of the card.

I love making something other than cards and preparing my samples for Anna Marie's shows was an ideal opportunity, especially when I saw the theme of the paper pads. Here, I have made a journal using the Eileen Hull Journal die. I covered the outside and inside with papers from the 12" x 12" pink Garden Blooms pad , then using some leftovers from the same pad, I tore two different designs and layered them down the journal front. I die cut a large flower using scraps of the same paper pad - Anna Marie has since produced her own flower dies found here - inked the edges and added a large pearl to the centre.  I made a loose bow with raffia , added some die cut leaves and wheat and one of the tags and placed the flower on top. I then printed the sentiment onto vellum and coloured the back of the vellum with an alcohol pen.  I crackled one of the frames which came with the shadowbox using Viva paints and crackle and then glued the vellum to the b...

Another sample using the Anna Marie Design products, this time a shadowbox frame with a scrapbook layout inside of it. To begin with, I selected a piece of the 12" x 12" cardstock from the pink Paper Blooms Pad and adhered it to the back of the frame.  I then assembled the frame and painted/crackled it with Viva chalky paint and crackle .  I took another piece of the same paper and fussy cut the flowers at the top, shaped them slightly and layered them using glue gel.  I did exactly the same thing with the birdcage, again bending it slightly to give it depth and adhered to the main area with glue gel. I applied Inka Gold to one of the frames which comes with the shadow box and also to the MDF word Memories , a lovebird and some hearts .  Using dries clear glue, I applied Ice Crystals on top of them. I cut my photo (which was not the original but a copy!) and fixed it to the shadow box and then glued the frame over it, positioning one of the po...

I have another sample to show today from the Create and Craft TV shows - this time a blue one! I started with a   5" x 7" scalloped card base and chose three sheets of paper from the blue Garden Blooms pad which I then tore and distressed the edges, inking with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink (my favourite!) and then layering them onto a piece of pastel blue double glitz card which had been cut to size with the bottom corners rounded.   I then took one of the blue postcards and stamped the sentiment in blue on it and of course, inked and shaped the edges!  I then applied Inka Gold to one of the frames from the Shadowbox Kit and glued it over the sentiment. I then proceeded to arrange a selection of flowers and leaves on top of some natural fibre on the top of the card and also inserted a cheeky little heart!  I dabbed on glue gel to the flowers, leaves and heart and edges of the card and covered with Ice Crystals . To finish, I cut one of the ...

Another 8" x 8" card this time using the pink Garden Bloom paper pad. I layered one sheet of patterned card onto the base card after the normal distressing and inking of the edges.  I then took the birdcage paper and made a tear on the left and gently rolled the paper apart.  More distressing and inking and then layered onto the card.  I fussy cut the birdcage from another sheet and gently curved it to give it dimension and added it on top of the existing image with glue gel.  Decorated the birdcage with some trailing ivy die cuts from green vellum and a couple of small flowers and a small section of pearl string at the top. I stamped the sentiment onto one of the tags adding a couple of pearls at either end and again gently curved the tag to give it dimension and fixed it to the card with 3D glue gel.  I then added pink wheat , stamens , leaves , die cut flowers, paper flowers and a  micro beaded berry to the bottom of the 'tear' ...

Here are another couple of samples from the Anna Marie Designs shows on Create and Craft this time using the blue Garden Blooms paper pad. I started with the smaller frame and painted it in Viva Chalky paint and adhered a feature piece of paper in the back of the frame.  It's always best to do this first before sticking the frame together!  I then decorated the frame itself on the front and sides with a different paper from the blue collection.  (NB trace the front of the frame onto the paper of your choice before fixing the frame together.)  I inked the edges of the paper with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.   I printed the sentiment onto the vellum from my computer and fixed it with glue dots to the feature paper.  I made sure that the glue dots would be hidden by further embellishments.  I fussy cut the three birds from another sheet of the paper and glued them in place with 3D glue gel, then I covered the two small frames and lamp post ...

I'm very late posting these samples!  A little while ago, being part of the Design Team for Anna Marie Designs, I had to provide samples for four shows on Create and Craft - this was very exciting for me as I've never had my work shown on TV before.   This is the first sample I am showing today.  All the products used are from Anna Marie Designs, just click on the links and it should take you to the product in the shop. I started with an 8" x 8" Mont Blanc card blank and added a couple of layers of the different papers from the new Garden Bloom 12" x 12" pink pad , roughing up the edges and inking them with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.  I then added more layers with scraps of the same paper pad and the Garden Bloom tags and postcards in the same colour, again inking the edges. Before assembling the card I took a few of AMD small MDF shapes, namely, a branch, lovebird, birdhouse and sentiment tag.  I covered the bird in Ceramic Effect...

A few weeks ago, I needed a new bookmark and decided to have a play with Pixie Powders and a napkin.  I don't often have time to sit and mess about with products so found this time very therapeutic.  I added some gold Luscious Powder to the edges and then dipped some plain white ribbon in the remaining paints and this was the result. Inspired by this, I then decided to make myself a note book for my handbag using the Eileen Hull Passport Book die using the same products.  At the time, I only had white elastic to hold the booklets in place, however, after a lot of useful advice from Members of the Eileen Hull Fan Club, I am now planning to paint the elastic gold using the Indigo Blu Luscious Powder.

I'm so behind with posting my makes at the moment so thought I would start with some baubles I have made.  It started with four for my Christmas tree and then I was asked by friends if I would make them some so here we go with the photos...there are a lot of them!