Quick Sister Card

Sister Card

Amazing how sometimes a quick card comes out better than one its taken hours to do. I had forgotten that my Mum wanted a Sister card for the end of the month. No worries. I added a background to a 6x6 pre cut card from book 5  www.craftyindividuals.co.uk . Lovely bright papers. Cut out a  shape with Radiant Rectangles Spellbinders die from an odd bit of pearl card after printing a greeting.A couple of layered flowers with the addition of card  candy and a glittery flourish.  There you have it simples....

Congratulation Card

Doesn't time fly? I had reason to visit my blog yesterday and was shocked at the length of time thats passed since I last posted.
In my defence I have been busy with my Wedding Stationery Business. www.whiteroseinvitations.co.uk  Setting up and getting the word out there isn't easy. Also I have just come back from a six week visit to Australia which I must say was fabulous and has given me the push to get back to my blog.

A quick card that I did when my daughter passed a marketing exam last year. Very easy to do just choose the words and change the fonts and colour.I have done several variations on this.Looks great on cream linen card.

 

Thanks for having a look. Hopefully will get to update the blog more often. Watch this space.

I'm back

Hi There.
Hope you haven't given up on me. I have some very exciting news.

 Last October I retired from my part time job as a Theatre Nurse after 30 odd years off and on. I wanted to set up a Wedding Invitation Business but was a bit apprehensive. No problem doing the stationery but setting up would be a big thing.
In January I decided to take the bull by the horns and got cracking with the wedding invitation samples and with the help of my husband I have now set up a website. Actually 'with the help' might be down playing his input somewhat as my technical ability is minimal. However we are still speaking and it looks great. I am a very proud website owner.

Take a look. www.whiteroseinvitations.co.uk

My first 'official' wedding has just been completed and the bride and groom are very happy with the results. I have had lots of positive comments from the recipients of the invitations as well. I can be contacted at whiteroseinvitations@gmail.com or 07716078088

 

Pocket Style Evening Invitations

A few of the Cheque Book Style Day Invitations

 

The Evening Invites boxed for delivery

 

 

 

 

Foil Printing the cheap (er) and cheerful way.

I am amazed at how time has flown by since my last blog. Not sure what happened but hey I'm here now.

You may remember I was having trouble  with my colour  printer.I had a result from HP after I e mailed  them about the ongoing problems. I have a HP Officejet 7500A wide format printer. The main problem was black ink printing, or lack of. Apparently there is a problem with print heads on this model so they sent me another print head and ink. That still didn't solve the problem so they replaced my printer. Took a week to arrive but its great to have a positive outcome. I rarely complain about faulty goods but I did this time and glad I did so.I bought it in May so it was still under warranty.

For quite a while now I have used foil to decorate and highlight text and graphics in my cards. This is how I do it.I think it looks great on  Anniversary and  Wedding cards and this year my Christmas cards are getting the treatment.Well until I get bored...

You need a laser printer   I have a Samsung ML 1860 Series Mono printer which cost about £50.

Toner Foil  ( http://www.patsymay.co.uk  has a good selection I think the 8inch roll is about £10 and smaller one about £6 but if you look around toner foil can be bought by the metre. Just to set you off.)

and a Laminator.( not a special one just a basic laminator this one cost about £14)

Print out your design with your Laser printer, I always turn the image black on my computer before I send it to the  printer but there are good effects to be had by leaving it coloured as well. Experiment.

Depending on the text use the darker setting if you have a choice.
In Properties go to Graphics
Quality -Normal
Font text -Medium
Tonor save-  Printer setting
Darkness - Dark

Heat up the laminator.

Meanwhile lay  the image on a sheet  of thinnish paper. Place the foil over the top make sure the entire  image is covered with foil,  glossy side up and then cover the whole lot  with another sheet of paper and pass through the laminator.

Leave to cool before peeling off the foil.

If its spotty it might be because your laminator isn't hot enough. put it through again.

I think you will agree that these simple designs are just great to add as a topper.

I've added a couple of finished toppers.Hope you like the effect. I'm off to finish off my cards now.

Just for a laugh ...this is my craft room when I'm in the middle of a session.I have been having a play with the panoramic app on my new phone.


Bye for now. Thanks for popping in.Come back soon. xx

Shrink Plastic Embellishment Mens Birthday Card

Thanks for stopping by

The road to Heaven is paved with good intentions. I think that may be a misquote but still the general meaning is there. I do have good intentions to keep this blog up to date but hey, life shifts at some speed and sometimes runs away with me. I can't believe I haven't blogged for so long.

I have decided to take a bit of a break from work at present. (long story) and I am thinking about making cards in a more serious way and actually getting paid for them. A lot of decisions to make. Any advice gladly received. I know selling cards can be a bit hit and miss and it certainly isn't the easy option but I do enjoy making them and the recipients seem to enjoy receiving them. I don't have to decide just yet so watch this space.

I seem to be having a bit of a Martha Stewart time and I am in the middle of  making chutney today. Does it really need 4 hours? I made apple jelly this morning and  just as I was about to drain off the juice I pictured myself throwing the whole of the waste plus my jelly bag into the rubbish bag last week. Yes! you guessed it the bin had gone. Help. I had a quick trawl around the neighbours but no luck. Didn't fancy using tights. In the end I used one of those lace fruit bowl covers.The jelly seems ok if a little overcooked and the cover seems to have recovered well. The best of it was I was in Hobbycraft the other day looking at Jelly bags and nearly treated myself to one of those with a stand. Mine was just a bag that you threaded 2 wooden spoons through and then rested it over a bowl on 2 rice crispy packets. A slight problem as we don't eat rice crispies but you get the drift. lol

 

 

My brothers Birthday a couple of weeks ago. The brief from Mum was to make a card reflecting his hobby of photography.

I decided to do something a bit different and made a Criss Cross card. Luckily I had a picture of my brother holding a camera. The embellishments are from  MCS Men y Happy Returns Graphics programme printed  onto shrink plastic and cut  out. I had great fun 'cooking' them in the oven. I usually use a heat gun but this time found it much easier in the oven.I must say I will do that again as I had forgotten how useful shrink plastic is. I've had it in my stash for ages. A verse on the back and there you go. Mum and Brother both happy.

I have entered this card in  http://cardsformen.blogspot.co.uk/

Hello again. Thanks for popping in. I have had a few busy weeks at work and play. A little bit of crafting but not had much time to publish.I don't know where the time goes.

Today has been sunny but quite cold. I have even put the electric blanket back on the bed and tonight we have lit the log fire.Wimps or what. Its only September.....

 A friend at work asked me to make a card for her daughter. The brief was 30th birthday,Cath Kidson and purple.I did my best by selecting various backgrounds that looked like Cath Kidson possibilites from the Craft Artist digikits and changing the shades to lilac and purple.The topper is from MCS countryside garden.
I think I met the brief and my friend loved it.I also did a box which you can see at the side. I eventually finished that off with some lilac ribbon around the edge of the box.

I also did another just in case she didn't like the first one.The topper is from a selection of digistamps from The clipart fairy.

Happy Birthday with Grand Calibur Florals

I am certainly making up for lost time. Ok The 'Lympix' is over. We have a bit of a break before the Para Olympics and I am in the mood for crafting.

Hubby and I have just had a weekend away in Yorkshire. Years ago when we lived in Oxford we used to go Letterboxing in Devon. For the uninitiated this is a mix of orienteering and treasure hunting. Once you find the 'treasure' which is a rubber stamp, you take an impression and leave a copy of your own personalised one. We are known as the  Dawdling Deans so thats what is on our stamp. In 1991 we moved to Bawtry in Yorkshire and discovered that someone had set up a similar thing in Yorkshire.So over the years we have been back and forth and have hundreds of stamps.We occasionally meet up with fellow'boxers' and had our 20th anniversary a couple of years ago.

Anyway to get back to my point. I do go on don't I? Last week found us in Masham. Staying in a lovely pub The Blue Lion.  On Friday we walked up hill and down dale- about 9 miles in total, but it felt much longer we managed to find all but one of the planned stamps and it was a gorgeous sunny day.So after all that exercise  I now feel I qualify for a day crafting. I am not a natural athlete....

Happy Birthday Circle Card

Have entered this card in the  http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/
For this card I used images and backgrounds from The ClipArt Fairy
Grand Scalloped Circles
Afew card candy and butterfly and ribbon from my stash