Amelie's First Xmas Card!!

There's nothing like starting them young! This is Amelie this morning, making her Daddy's Christmas card - she loves colouring and gluing, and glitter was very popular!

And this is the finished card - not bad for an 18 month old, although she did have a bit of help from Mummy!

I've still not quite finished my Christmas cards yet - hopefully now she's asleep, I can make the last couple!

Thanks for looking,

Mum's Xmas Card!

I know my mum reads my blog, so hadn't originally posted this card - however, I missed the post collection on Saturday (official last posting day) so I have no idea if it'll make it by Christmas! Therefore, I've posted it here so Mum can at least see it before then LOL!! I'm also entering it at the last minute for the Papertake Challenge, which is monochrome. The embossing folder is the Cuttlebug Lace Tree, highlighted with gold glitter and a gold ribbon on white pearl card that has a hint of gold to it.

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New baby card

This card is for my friend Katie, who had a little girl, Isla Rose, almost two weeks ago. We met at antenatal classes, so her little boy, Jacob, is three weeks older than Amelie. The thought of having an 18 month old and a newborn to look after is more than I could cope with, but Katie's doing amazingly! I saw Isla today and she's still so tiny - she weighed 7lb 2oz when born on Monday 1st December, so is probably still smaller than Amelie was at birth, as she was 8lb 15oz!

As well as being a card for Katie, this also ticks off two challenges for the week. I love this week's sketch for Sketch Saturday and think I'll be using it a lot. The Penny Black challenge this week was a recipe - the card had to include three flowers, two papers and one ribbon, as well as a PB image. I adore this hedgehog and making the card brought back memories as I used this image for Amelie's birth announcement/thank you cards. The papers are from the Papermania "Raspberry Champagne" pack, as are the three flowers - I punched them from the pink paper I've used in the card.

Thanks for looking,

A new card at last!

It's been such a hectic week, what with covering extra hours at work, having loads of lessons to prep for my own modules and now Amelie being poorly, that I haven't really had any time for crafting :( Still, as I couldn't go to work today as Amelie was too poorly for creche, I managed to (almost) make a card while she had her nap and I've finished it off this evening. Apologies for the rubbish photo - I'll replace it tomorrow if I can get a better one in daylight! The layout is for Sketch Saturday, and I've incorporated two other challenges too. Cute Card Thursday's challenge is using punches - the snowflake embellishments are made with x-cut punches - and Secret Crafter is to use either dry or heat embossing, in this case the lilac part of the card is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder.

Thanks for looking,

New digital scrapbook layout

I've been playing around with Photoshop a lot recently, mainly because I'm teaching it from Friday, and partly because I want to do something with the hundreds of photos I have on my hard disk that never see the light of day. This page is based on a template I bought from Designer Digitals - once you've learnt how to clip and merge layers, they're so easy to use. The digital papers and alphabet are from a Shabby Princess free kit (Sweet Serenity), although I've recoloured the letters to match the page. I love this set of images of Amelie, taken in July this year, playing with a tunnel her Nannie bought her from a car boot sale. The fact that her top matches the colour of the tunnel was just a happy coincidence, but it made the layout colour scheme much easier!

Thanks for looking,

Card for a male friend

I must admit that I find men's cards the most difficult to make, especially when you can't use boats, cars or sports! I started one card for this friend then abandoned it half way through as it was too dull (greens and neutrals) and tried this one instead. Both sides of the card front are covered in matching patterned paper in reversed colour schemes, from the Papermania "For Him" pack, with a different paper on the inside of the card. The inside has a pocket made from the same paper and a tag, also covered with that paper, with a peel off on the front and the hand-written message on the back. I hope it goes down well! I'm hunting for stamps that I can use for men's cards but I'm not having much luck finding anything that doesn't revolve around boats, cars or sports, or shirts which has always seemed a strange theme for a card to me! If anyone has any recommendations, I'd love to have them!

Thanks for looking,

Apologies and a quick challenge card

First of all, sorry for the lack of cards recently! I've been snowed under with work and just too tired when I do have some free time to do much :( I've been given an award by Joanne too, which is fab and I promise I'll post it up as soon as I get time to work out who to pass it on to!

This card is for Sketch Saturday using Lili of the Valley die-cuts and papers, so was quick enough to do in between the washing and ironing while Amelie's asleep! Unfortunately, the new spray adhesive I bought the other day has stained through the papers and turned them dirty yellow in places :( I've tried to clean up the picture a bit in Photoshop, but think the card is destined for the bin unless it dries clear. It's annoying as it's specifically sold as a craft spray adhesive suitable for paper - I guess I should have tested it out first!

Thanks for looking,