100 Today

In these very worrying times it is good to have something to celebrate.  The mother of a good friend is 100 years old today, sadly she is in a nursing home, spending 24 hours a day in her room for her own safety.  Of course, she is not allowed visitors, and only has the telephone to contact her family.

I  felt it called for an extra special card to celebrate her very special day.  I'll be honest, this was not my first attempt at a card for her, but none of the other cards I made seemed to be special enough for this occassion.

I used an 8 x 8 inch Craftwork Cards card blank with red glitter card from my stash.  I made the lettering out of gold card using a couple of dies.  The roses and leaves are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the happy birthday sentiment was from my stash.

As you can see, it is rather thicker and larger than a 'normal' card.  I went all over trying to find an open Post Office  (making sure I kept well away from anyone else out shipping) to have it weighed and measured but all of our local ones were closed because of the lock-down, so I ended up putting half a book of my precious stamps onto the card and crossed my fingers that it would be enough to get it there on time.

Happy birthday Jean's Mum, have a wonderful day.


Dionne

A Few More Fairies

For the last couple of days I have been sharing with you some quick and easy Flower Fairy cards, which I made from an old Create and Craft paper set I have stashed at the back of my craft room.

I am back today with two more cards.

I hope you are not finding lock-down too tedious, as a crafter I am sure you have lots of projects you just wished you had the time to get on with.

 Take care and stay safe.

Dionne

Flower Fairies

Thank you for popping by again, yesterday I told you about the old Create and Craft paper sets I have dragged from the back of my craft room and dusted off .

I have a few more cards to share with you today.  So little neeedd doing to these cards, I was tempting not to bother they are so pretty, but, I could not resist adding a few embellishments ... wouldn't you?

I have always had a soft spot for the Flower Fairies, they are so sweet.  The only thing missing from these sets are sentiments, so these ones, and the gems, came from my stash.

Dionne

Lockdown Fairies

Most of my crafty friends are aware that following the suspension of Crafty Boots Challenges I took some time off from card making, I had a massive pile of unused cards which I neded to use up and I wanted time to concentrate on my knitting. However, my reserve of cards has gradually depleted and with lockdown in forced I cannot get out to the shops to buy birthday and anniversary cards.

Now, many, many years ago (before my time helping to organize Crafty Boots Challenges) I bought a lot of paper sets from Create and Craft - and I do mean a lot of these sets. I am sure many of you also bought them, they were very popular.  They are not quite the same as card kits, these sets consist of pre-coloured images, matching card blanks, papers, ribbons, peel-offs, stickers and charms, how you use them is entirely up to you. When I joined the Crafty Boots design team, I packed all of these sets away and have not looked at them since. However, they take up quite a lot of space in my craft room and I recently got them out and refreshed my memory as to what was in the boxes. I probably have enough in the boxes to make hundreds, if not a couple of thousand, cards.

I need a couple of birthday cards for later this month - so last weekend I raided one of the boxes and made a few cards.  The box I randomly pulled from the stack contained Flower Fairy papers. They have a lot of detail on all the papers and cards, so I felt that this a case where less is more.

Here are the first two off the blocks.

Every thing I used came from the set other than the card blank and the happy birthday sentiment (even the insert came from the set).

Between you and me, I wish I had discovered this set a few weeks ago when my small niece had a birthday.

More tomorrow.

Dionne

Easter Egg Hunt

This is the last of my Easter card posts.  You may recall that on Friday I explained that it has been a long time since I last made Easter cards but, during these difficult times, shut off from my family and friends, I wanted to reach out to those I care most about. I found some very nice Easter card kits on the Hunkydory website and I ordered four sets.  However, when I sat down to make the kits I realised that I needed cards for more than four of my closest family and friends, so I had to get a little inventive.

Having made my cards I encountered another problem, I did not have any stamps to post them.  I have scheduled these Easter posts so I do not know whether I managed to get any stamps.  If you did not receive an Easter card from me, please do not be offended, simply choose your favourite card and imagine it sitting on your side, because most likely, I intended to send it to you, I just could not find somewhere to buy the stamps!

You cannot tell from these photographs but all of the images are decoupaged and, although I had to split them between the cards, there were still plenty of layers to go around.  This first card uses the backing card and sentiment from the Hunkydory kit, I simply added some flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and some flat backed pearls.

For this second card I used a paper from a K & Co stack of papers by Tim Coffey for the backing paper, such a beautiful paper, I love the stunning flowers and just look at that cute little bee.

All I added to this next card were some of the lovely flowers from WOC and some tiny pearls in the centre of the flowers.

Finally, more of those gorgeous Tim Coffy papers.  I added a bit of bling to the centre of the paperwhite narcissus using gold sequins.  Isn't that bunny cute?

Thank you for visit my blog, I enjoy reading all of your comments and thank you for taking the time to leave then.


Dionne

Easter Sunday

This year many of us are going to miss celebrating Easter in church, it cannot be helped, during this time it is more important to be safe now than sorry later.

Today I have some more of my Easter cards to share with you, these feature a country church in springtime.  My first card today uses the the backing paper, decoupage elements and image from the Hunkydory kit, along with some flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts, flat backed pearls and a sentiment from my stash.

For this second card I have again raided my K & Co paper stack by Tim Coffey for the backing paper.  The little mulberry flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the gems and tiny pearls are from my stash.

My final card today uses both the backing card from the kit, as well as one of the Tim Coffey papers, and flowers from WOC.

That's it for today, please come back tomorrow for my final instalment of Easter cards.

Dionne

Cute Little Lambs

I am back today with three more of the Easter cards I have made from four card kits from Hunkydory.  Yesterday I shared four cards I had made from a kit featuring daffodils and paperwhite narcissus, today it is the turn of the spring lambs, which we often associate with the arrival of spring and the Easter celebrations.

My first card today has a cute decoupaged lamb and I have used some of the backing paper from the kit, along with flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts, flat backed pearls and a sentiment from my stash.

This sweet little guy is mounted on some colourful backing papers from my stash and I added more of the WOC flowers, tiny pearls and a sentiment.

 

My final card today featuresthe rest of the backing paper from the Hunkydory kit, a matching tag and more flowers and pearls from what I had at home.

I hope that you are managing to enjoy your Easter holiday despite being shut in at home. I know that it is difficult stuck inside your own four walls but, as they say, better safe than sorry ..... and there is always crafting!

Come back tomorrow for some more of my Easter cards.

Dionne

Spring Flowers

Happy Good Friday.

It has been a few years since I last sent Easter cards but, at the moment, I feel we could all do with some cheering up. I spotted some very nice Easter card kits on the Hunkydory website recently and I bought four sets. However, when I sat down to make the kits I realised that at this difficult time I wanted to reach out to more of my family and friends than the four I had originally planned to send cards to, so I had to get a little inventive ....

I raided my very precious K & Co stack of papers by Tim Coffey for the backing paper on this first card.  I adore these papers and treat them like gold dust as they are now irreplaceable.  I realise that you cannot tell from these photographs but all of the images are decoupaged and, although I had to split them between the cards, there were still plenty of layers to go around.

The backing paper for the next card is the companion piece from the Hunkydory kit, I just added the flat backed gems and a sentiment from my stash.

This is one of my favourite cards, probably because it is my favourite backing paper from the Tim Coffey stack.  I just added a few flat backed gems and the sentiment.

The last card from this set has the other half of the backing paper from the Hunkydory kit, along with an Easter sentiment and gems from my stash.

I have a more cards to share with you, so please watch this space over the next few days.


Dionne

The Train Now Leaving Platform Seven

Do you even have a bright idea what doesn't work out exactly how you imagined it?  This project did not go how I thought but I thought I would nonetheless share it with you.

A few weeks ago, I saw some kits on the Hunkydory website which I thought might make fun cards for the young boys in the family, the series was called ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’.  Part of my problem was that I assumed that they were ‘cards’, I had imagined that you had to put them together in such a way that you could flatten them for posting and there would be a certain amount of self-assembly required by the recipient.   Wrong, the little steam train I decided to send to my nephew had to be fully assembled, it was difficult to do, my old eyes found the print size of the instructions was too small, I found it impossible to push the tabs through the slots and, when complete, there was nowhere to leave a message.   Oh, and there was no envelop or box to put the finished project in.  It does not really resemble a card, more a press out and assemble kit of a train but, in truth, that was my mistake.

There was much to say in its favour, it was made of good quality card.  It was printed on both sides, even the pieces which you would not see once the kit was assembled, and it was foiled.

I decided to make a simple paper box to send it in, it was being hand delivered* so the box did not have to be too sturdy.  I also had to write my message to a Post-It and attach it to the underside of the train. 

I am very tempted to pop another of the kits into my nephew's birthday present so he (or rather his mum) can experience the 'fun' of making one for himself!

Stay safe and well my crafting friends.

Dionne

* Now we are 'staying home' and self-isolating, I will have to leave his card and present on the doorstep, ring the bell and walk away.  The world has got very strange.