Personalised Christmas Cards 2017

Friday 28 February 2014

Ultra White Pearlised Card


Good morning all,  another week and another offer at The Papermill, this week we have 300gm ultra white pearlised card, which is ideal for wedding invitations and anniversary cards.   There is also a competition to win a box of buff card,  this is great for boys/male cards. I love pearlised card for blending distress inks you get a smooth and a shimmery finish to your backgrounds, and the buff card is fabulous for use with creams, whites or browns and black for added contrast.

Here are a few anniversary card ideas using the pearlised card and using buff card and pearlised card for a different effect.








White pearlised card, with a computer printed greeting.  The card was embossed and decorated with sequins and a gilded butterfly.








Buff card embossed and a white pearlised panel embossed and decorated with buff Marianne die cuts and crystals.













And here is a birthday card using the buff card and black, I used a stamp from the Sheena Douglass Oriental Silhouette set which was stamped in black archival ink, the greeting is from a Stampers Anonymous Simple Sayings set.


I love these colours together, they are ideal for male cards.  Pop over to Papermill Direct to check out the Special Offers.  The competition details can be found HERE.  

Friday 21 February 2014

Here Comes The Easter Bunny - light embossed white card



Hello to my trusty followers, and welcome to my new followers who have joined recently.  Today I have an  Easter card and two stamped cards for the men, all made with card from the Papermill.  They were made using this week's special offer card which is a lovely weight white lightly embossed card, details below.

Small Box A4 White Delicately Embossed Card 270gsm

£5.00




Midi Box A4 White Delicately Embossed Card 270gsm

£15.00





My Easter card was made with three stamped bunnies, cut out with a 1" square die and the edges highlighted with distress inks, Papers from my bits box sewn together and stamped with an embroidery stamp, and a flower cut with the Silhouette Cameo.



These two gents cards were stamped and coloured with distress inks, the banner was embossed and also coloured with distress inks, the chevron trim was cut on the Silhouette Cameo.

Back to the cleaning now, visitors again this weekend so no more crafting for me until next week.

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Q&L Challenge - Strong and Miss



Hi everyone, hope you are all surviving the terrible weather, not a bad day here in Somerset although the water levels are still rising.  Another two weeks are speeding by so it is time for me enter my postcards for The Craft Barn Q&L Challenge, the words for this fortnight are Strong and Miss.  Not easy words as I don't want to do all sad songs with tears and heartache.  Lots of music came to mind but either too early or too late for the 60's, in the end I went with "That's How Strong My Love Is" by Otis Reading from 1965 (the original version was by O V Wright 1964) for Strong and "Have I The Right" by the Honeycombs, their debut single which went to No 1 in the UK charts in 1964 for Miss.



Watercoloured rainbow background, Tim Holtz  stencil and Sheena Douglas Willow Tree stamp.



Distress ink, Tim Holtz honeycomb embossing folder and stencil, die cut hearts and Googled lips. 

Off now to amuse the grandchildren - Sophie wants to make a secret diary what a good way to use up my paper scraps (I have boxes of A5 paper which have been hiding in my cupboard for years).

Monday 17 February 2014

Bright and Snappy Birthday Card


Good morning everyone hope you had some sunshine yesterday like we did, unfortunately we are back to wet, dull and drab.  Today I have my DT halfway inspiration card for The Crafty Bloggers Network Challenge, another bright snappy card to lift the drab day a little.  This month we are sponsored by Just Some Lines and our theme is All About Boys. 

this month's winner will receive a fabulous $12 gift certificate to their store.



My card is for my Grandson who will be 5 this month, I wanted something bright and fun so picked this crab image from Just Some Lines to work with.  I was inspired to use the rainbow colours by an article in February's Craft Stamper. The background was coloured using the Tim Holtz bubble mask and bright coloured alcohol inks, the edges of the card were blended with DI.  The crab was printed onto yellow card and a second crab printed on white card, coloured with Promarkers, fussy cut and stuck over the image with sticky fixers.  I trimmed the card down so the eyes poked over the top and blended some DI over the corners.  The numbers (Stampers Anonymous) were stamped in black archival ink, a piece of orange card and a number 5 were added then over stamped with a Michael Powell stamp in black archival ink. The crab was layered over the orange card and a computer generated sentiment added.  The crab was added to the insert too with a verse for a 5 year old.  All card used was from Papermill Direct.

A nice bright card to brighten a special little boy's day, hope it has brightened your day too.

Thursday 13 February 2014

Daisy, Daisy Birthday Wishes


Morning blogland, here I am with a nice bright birthday card to cheer up the day.  This is another Papermill Direct DT card using the the most recent special offer post box red card.

'Post Box' Red 240gsm A4 card

£2.00 for a pack of 20  


A saving of over 60%
compared to the usual cost of £2.75 for 10 sheets!




I used the special offer post box red to make a tri-fold card with two equal panels and a slightly wider back panel.  Using some papers from my scrap box I matted red dots paper onto the back center panel and green dots paper onto the front inside fold, a strip of green dots was added to the inside back panel.  An aperture was cut from the center panel using a Spellbinder Nestabilities die.  The flowers used to embellish the card were cut using the Tim Holtz tatty floral die, edged with spiced marmalade DI and a spotty Docraft button was added to each flower.  The sentiment stamps are from Oak House Studio, first time I have used them and they stamp beautifully.  A half round was cut halfway down the back panel and a daisy attached over it to make the closure.





Using the post box red again I made an Easter goodies set, chocolate bar wrap, goody bag and Easter card. The image is from Pink Petticoat (not sure whether it is still available but there are some fabulous papers and digi images available). The dies used were again Spellbinder Nestabilities for the bag and card and a Spellbinders Edgeabilities for the choc bar wrap.  The images were coloured with Promarkers and glamour dust added for sparkle.

This set will go away ready to give to the grandchildren at Easter, will make a few more over the next month with different colours and images.  I am not a chocolate lover but those eggs are looking very tempting, will I last out until Easter, or will someone have to share with grandma? 

Friday 7 February 2014

Catch Up With Tim's Tags


Hi everyone, hope you are all indoors keeping warm and dry, and of course crafting.  The weather here is wet, wet, wet. The fields near our house where we walk the dogs are under water, so it is the beach for a few weeks.

As the weather has been so bad and Fergus is now back from the vet hospital, I have had time to catch up with Tim's Tags, two from 2013 and two for this year.  This has been great as it kickstarted my mojo which seemed to have deserted me.  I hope I can keep up this year and make a tag each month, we will wait and see, time seems to fly by I seem to have a lot less than 24 hours in each day!!

Here are November and December 2013 and this year's January tags:


and February's tag


As always there was improvisation, I tried to use up some of the bits I bought last year but did splash out on the frosting film and a splatter brush (which was an impulse buy but I love it).  February's tag was made using a home made heart stencil, some glitter I have had for about 10 years (unopened), an embossing folder instead of a stamp and for the bottom trim some heavy weight vellum (from my bits box) embossed and coloured.  My heart was cut from red card and curled a little as it dried, I should have used grunge board instead.

Birthday and Mother's Day Cards Completed


Good afternoon blogland, followers old and new, crafty friends and family.  After a bad two weeks I have at last found my mojo and have managed to make a few cards, inspired by this week's offer at Papermill Direct which is plain white card in 2 weights.


A  Box of luxury plain white A4 330gsm for just £5.00  (approximately 70 sheets)
This lovely thick card is also available in a Megabox at just £35 for 600 sheets. That's under 6p per sheet!
A  Box of plain white A4 240gsm For £5.00 (approximately 80 sheets)
A MIXED mega box of the two grammages for £35.00 for 600 sheets!


I  made a Valentines/birthday card for my OH (for his birthday which is today) using Papermill's white linen card, a Mother's day card using the 330gm plain white offer card and a note card with the 330gm scrapling left over from making my square card blank.


I have some lovely Mother's Day sentiments from Pink Petticoat and used one of these for my Mother's Day card, the sentiment was printed onto the 240gm plain white card, die cut with a spellbinder die and coloured round the edges with blue distress ink.  I layer patterned paper onto the 330gm card blank, attached a doily. the die cut sentiment and and a few Prima flowers with Sizzix die cut leaves.


My scrapling note card was coloured with worn lipstick distress ink, and then inked again through a Tim Holtz burlap stencil.  The springtime image was stamped in brown and clear embossed and edged with squeezed lemonade distress ink.  This was layered onto pale blue card then white embossed card, attached to the scrapling card and finished with string and a pale blue button.  


The 330gm card is ideal for card blanks, bookmarks, tags etc and works wonderfully with the Sizzix big dies, not tried it with thin dies yet as it is very thick.

Lots of catching up to do, posts to write and projects to finish, hope to be back soon with some Tim's Tags 13/14.

Monday 3 February 2014

Silence and Dazzle for The Craft Barn Q&L Challenge


Hi everyone, hope you are all warm and dry and not stuck in the terrible floods, it's dry here today but more rain is forecast.  Today I have my postcards for The Craft Barn Q&L Challenge, the words for this fortnight are Silence and Dazzle.  Working on 60's music I picked "Silence is Golden" sung by Frankie Valley  and the Four Seasons (1964), and "That Old Devil Moon" sung by Ella Fitzgerald (1969).


Silence is Golden
Music/Lyrics Bob Crewe/Bob Gaudio
Original 1963 Frankey Valley and The Four Seasons
Released 1967 by The Tremeloes who reached No1 in the UK charts

Silent movies came to mind for this postcard, I used Stampers Anonymous and Marriane stamps, downloaded a photo of Laurel and Hardy and splashed lemon juice onto my background and heated it to give the effect of the old celluloid film when it overheated and started to burn.


That Old Devil Moon
Music/Lyrics Burton Lane/E Y Harburg
From the 1947 musical Finion's Rainbow
Released 1969 by Ella Fitzgerald on the album "Sunshine of Your Love"

I used DI's for my background on this card, splattered white paint over it and dotted with glamour dust for the dazzle. The Sizzix movers and shapers moon was coverd with frosted crystal embossing powder and fixed with sticky fixers.

Really enjoying this challenge, will be over to see what evryone else has been up to over at The Craft Barn Challenge  later this week.

Saturday 1 February 2014

Valentine's Day Competition and a few Cards



Hello everyone, I must tell you about the new challenge at Papermill Direct.  Enter their Valentine's Day Card Challenge and WIN a YEARS subscription to Simply Cards and Papercraft Magazine! - That's 12 issues each with a free cover gift! 

***Please share this with your friends!***

Details of how to enter the challenge can be found  here - http://papermilldirect.co.uk/community/valentines-day-challenge-win-a-subscription-to-simply-cards-papercraft-magazine

Papermill also have an offer at the moment on great quality envelopes so pop over and stock up while you can, why not register for the Papernmill Newsletter HERE so you will never miss out on special offers.

Here are some Valentine cards I made this week using Papermill card and paper.

  






I will try blog my Tim's tags later,  hopefully relax a little and finish making my Q and L postcards.  Three nights of not much sleep looking after a dog in great pain is taking its toll!