Smirk for Him Birthday Cards – Astronaut and Superman

These are the two decoupage pages I liked least in the Smirk for Him decoupage pad, I don’t know why, they just didn’t inspire me, but I wanted to use the whole of the pad up so that I wouldn’t have spare pages lying around forever.

Just because I don’t like the subject matter, it doesn’t mean that someone won’t be thrilled when they find just the right card when they rummage through my card box!

Gone Fishing Birthday Card

This is a card I made for my Father In Law’s birthday.

There’s no great skill to this creation, it’s just a matter of opening a packet of 3D stickers really and a bit of writing.

But it works! 

The background paper is by Carolyn Holt Designs called “Go Fish Fresh Water Wash” from Paper Adventures - 45p

The stickers were from WHSmith - £1.49

Birthday Beans

This sweetie jar is for my Brother-In-Laws 50th Birthday
The jar is from Poundworld and comes in a pack of three, which is a brilliant bargain! It’s really hard to tell them apart from the Rajtan jars in IKEA which cost more than double the price. Poundland have similar packs of jars too but to be honest the tops are not as nice.

Unfortunately, Poundland and Poundworld don’t have them on their shelves very often, so when they do I REALLY stock up ….. especially as I want  to make some more “Jingle Bean Jars” for Christmas. http://itsallfiddlefart.blogspot.com/2009/10/jar-of-jingle-beans.html

I’ve used my Stampin Up scalloped and plain circle punches for the labels and tag and a self adhesive ribbon strip for round the top of the jar.  The font is “Knits and Scraps” which you can downloaded free from http://www.dafont.com/knits-and-scraps.font.    The jelly beans are from Poundworld too and contain enough beans for two jars – so not a bad crafty make for 83p plus a few paper scraps.

Golden Wedding Anniversary Card

I generally only make “special” cards for people I know or work with, but now and again I get a lovely e-mail from someone who’s seen my work and  they are  so nice I usually  make them something when they ask ….

 

This is one of those cards for a friend, of a friend, of a friend, ….., I asked for a photo and built a newspaper round it using a template I created, building it up in simple decoupage layers, which I hope you can see in the picture below.

The champagne bottle and glasses were from a pack of embellishments from Crafts for Christmas (£1.49) – I didn’t realise there were 4 sets on embellishments in the pack, bottle, glasses and stars, so I have enough left over for  three more cards.  I’ve added a scattering of small clear gems for champagne bubbles and a smidge of translucent micro glitter on the cake. Done! 

Wedding March Place Cards

A very musical colleague at work showed me the picture below of a wedding favor she fancied, but the groom had said “no!”

But as a compromise she asked if I could “do” a similar place card. Below is what I came up with…(I hope my illustration makes sense)

It took a lot of fiddle farting on Publisher, but I sorted it out  in the end, getting  six  place cards on one sheet of A4 card.  The music I’ve used is one of the opening bars to Wagner’s Wedding March, and is on the front and back of the card, so the design can be seen from both directions.

As a finishing touch I have added a very small, sparkly flat backed gem just before the end of the music on both sides of the card.

As my sister would say ….. “It’s all in the detail”

A Wedding Book

A friend of a friend asked if I would make a small wedding book that could be given to the bride as a gift before the big day by her bridesmaids. They wanted it to be in navy and cream and to included the main details of the day.

These are a few of the  pages that I made using my Bind It All, various punches, and couple of sweep embellishments.

On the pages on the left hand side of the book I added pockets to put messages and small photographs in.

I included a small pack of blank cards for the messages so that all the papers matched.

The centre panel of the back page was decorated with two lucky sweeps but left blank for a main message from the bridesmaids.

I also made a box for the book.

Very plain and very simple because I wanted the messages that will be added to be the main feature.

Answers to Questions;-
*The font is Papyrus - I use it for most of my books and wedding cards - as it's elegant and classy.
*I've had the sweeps for years - they came in a pack of six - three of each design.  I think they came off one of those embellishment carousels they sometimes have in  The Works.

What’s In My Shopping Bag Wednesday.

I can’t resist a bargain … and this Wednesday most of my goodies have come from Primark.

Both the bangle and beanie hat were 10p each!  I’m going to sew a few pretty mother of pearl buttons on the brim of the hat. and  cover the bangle with either Decopatch papers or strips of Kath Kithson gift wrap (if it goes on smoothly) that I have and then perhaps a few flat backed gems

 

It was the wooden hearts attracted me to this £2.50 necklace, I think they are too chunky for cards, but will make lovely gift tags, key rings or Christmas decorations when split up, but first I may wear it for a while.

This set of Dr Who stickers and four Darlek badges were 30p from the rummage box in paper shop across the road. I am thrilled, as my daughter is Dr Who mad and these will be ideal for her birthday card in a couple of weeks time.

And finally, this Piece of Cake decoupage pad by Dovecraft was £6.99, not a bargain, but as anything with cupcakes disappears faster than I can make it, I just had to have it! The cupcakes are quite big, and I should be able  to make at least twenty four cards from the pad. I’ve already put all the cakes together, I just need to cut some card blanks and work out a design to use them on.

Needlecase – Mark One

I never know whether to post projects that I have made but am not 100% happy with ….. then I thought why not, it's not like you are going to bump into me in Poundland or Primark and say "Oi Fiddle, saw what you did on your blog today and it was pants!!!!"
So today I am going to show you a needlecase I made ever so quickly, while the idea was buzzing about in my head and bearing in mind that sewing (like stamping) isn’t really my thing!

The idea came from a Stampin’ Up felt flower set, too lovely to be put on a card, so I got some felt that was as close a match as I could find, with the idea of making a (some) needlecase(s).

 

I made some templates and cut out the felt......



...... and then  used my old Singer sewing machine on the first attempt, it looked rubbish and ended up in the bin!

I then decided to do some running stitches round the edges, on the front panel and to secure the inside by hand.

I added very small mother of pearl buttons to the flower centres.

This first attempt is very crude, well out of my comfort zone and done in about half an hour …. but this prototype will now sit on my desk begging me to do it again, but with a little rethinking and a lot more care.

Paper Roses and Pearl Pins

Last week I said I was going to try and use paper roses and pins on a card a bit like I had seen on other blogs ….

This is what I came up with, warts and all, it’s very, very plain and simple.  Other cards I have seen have used lace and fancy borders etc. but I thought I had better try to walk before I ran with the idea.

As I have used cream and gold card I painted the silver of the pin with a permanent green marker pen so it blended in more. I sort of think the pin should be pushed in a little further in, but it’s not too bad for a first attempt.

Gymnastics Card

I made this card for a little girl who is potty about gymnastics.

I apologise, because I can’t remember the brand of the background paper, but the stickers are from Mrs Grossman.  I used three strips of self adhesive ribbon across the card, placing four stickers on each row and making sure that either the gymnasts hands or feet were positioned approximately in the middle of them.

Stampin’ Up Birthday Cake Card

This is card made using a stamp from the Happy Moments stamp set from Stampin’ Up.

I’ve kept things very simple,  I am just thrilled that when I use a stamp it doesn’t splodge and smudge everywhere. Planning anything too fancy always seems to end in disaster.

I’ve done the basic in colouring, using  the fine tip end of my Whisper pens, adding tiny weenie gems from a nail decorating set from Poundland, for embellishing the fine detail.

I have then mat and layered the design on  pale pink gingham paper  and silver foil card.

Stamping – Top Tips

In answer to one of the comments left today about advice  for a newcomer to stamping, most regular readers know that stamping doesn’t come easy to me, especially when I see what other people produce for their blogs.

I keep things VERY simple,  almost always using a black Staz On ink pad because I have found it gives me the best results and dries very quickly, I then I do the  minimum of colouring in with Whisper or Pro Marker pens.

I usually stamp my chosen  design on Papermill linen card several times until I am happy with the result and then cut round it, to mat and layer – I don’t have the courage to stamp directly on a card blank.

As my friend Lisa is a Stampin Up Rep I tend to buy most of my stamps from her now and I have to say they do stamp like a dream.