Friday, 18 October 2013

Birthday Calendar

Today's project is a birthday calendar rather than a card.

I've created a A-frame base in thick purple card, and designed a calendar page on my computer for each month of the year.  I've stamped mini images around the edge of the calendar to decorate it, and bound the top to my A-frame.

The pages flip over and you can enter the dates to remember on each page so you don't forget a birthday!

The image, featuring birthday presents, is Little Darlings Shop til you Drop from The Stamp Basket.


See my cards available to buy on eBay

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Project Recipe featuring items from The Stamp Basket:
I've been inspired by:
Happy crafting
Annette
xx

Thursday, 17 October 2013

Mia


The theme today at As You Like It Challenge is to use your favourite sketch.  I've got a couple of layouts that I return to regularly, but the sketch I've used most often, even months after I found it, is the one I've used today.  I love it because it is actually really simple, although it gives lots of layers.

Here's my card:



And here's the sketch.  It's a bit old and I got it from Creative Craft Challenges in February 2013.



Just to prove it's my favourite sketch, here are a few other cards I've made using this sketch in the past:








I think it's safe to say I've used the sketch a couple of times!  :0)



See my cards available to buy on eBay

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Card Recipe:
I've been inspired by:
  • Winter Wonderland - Wrap it up (the backing paper has presents on it, but it's mostly covered up sorry! but hopefully you can see them peeking through).
  • Simon's Wednesday Challenge - Christmas
Happy crafting.
Annette
xx

Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Jake with Snowflakes

StampFairy are sponsoring I Love Promarkers this week and as the theme is snowflakes, I couldn't resist making a card to support the challenge.

I've featured Jake the bear in a cute little winter outfit (although his paws are going to be a bit cold without mittens!).  He's glittered him up to the max with glamour dust and glossy accents.

I really love his cute expression and huge nose.  I've also used some of my favourite digis papers. I used them a lot last year, but haven't used them for a short while, so they've made a new appearance today!



See my cards available to buy on eBay
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Card Recipe:
I've been inspired by:
Happy Crafting
Annette
xx

Under the Tree

The theme today at ABC Christmas Challenge is U for Under the Tree.  This could be interpreted as Christmas presents, but I've chosen to feature my sentiment hanging under my tree image instead.

I've coloured the baubles on the tree to match the colours of the trees in the backing papers.



See my cards available to buy on eBay

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Card Recipe:
I've been inspired by:
Happy crafting.
Annette
xx

Tuesday, 15 October 2013

Black & White, with a Splash of Colour

The theme today at Top Tip Tuesday is Black & White with a Splash of colour.  I decided to use this theme to create a masculine card, and also kept it clean and simple.   All I added was some green bakers twine and a single green pearl.

I created the sentiment in Word, using text boxes to overlap the two words, and die cut them out to create the focal centrepiece.

To create your own sentiments in Word, use a separate text box for each word.  Consider using different fonts and sizes that match well.  

Overlap each word so that they fit together.  You can see on my sentiment that part of the 'happy' letters poke down into the top of the 'birthday' letters.  To do this, ensure that you have the 'fill' property of your text box set to 'none' so that the overlapped parts are transparent and don't cover up the other letters.



See my cards available to buy on eBay

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Card Recipe:
Happy crafting.
Annette
xx

Monday, 14 October 2013

Waiting for Santa

It's another Christmas card from me today (hubby already thinks we've got Christmas cards coming out of our ears), and I've kept the design really simple.

I've returned to my (current) favourite Christmas pad, First Edition's Silent Night, and a die that I'm really loving at the moment too, Cottage Cutz Holly Border.  I finished my card off with a few pearls, and an array of white flowers, stamens and pearl strings.

The image is matted onto silver mirri card, but it actually looks black in the photo as it's hard to get a good photo of the mirri card.  :0(



See my cards available to buy on eBay

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Card Recipe featuring items from The Stamp Basket:
I've been inspired by:
Happy crafting
Annette
xx

Sunday, 13 October 2013

George Perfect Trees

It's been a few weeks since the last new release, but there is a new set out this week at StampFairy featuring George the Snowman.

My card is a really simple design to showcase the images.  Hope you like it.



See my cards available to buy on eBay
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Card Recipe:
Please pop on over to StampFairy to see the newly released digi images.  There's also a 50% sale on at the moment, so you can get double the delight at half price.


Here's a preview of the set being released:

    I've been inspired by:
    Happy Crafting
    Annette
    xx

    Saturday, 12 October 2013

    Happy Birthday to Ewe

    The theme today at A Gem of a Challenge is a recipe of 3 papers, 2 embellies, and 1 image.  I've used a cute little sheep image and matching sentiment!!

    My two embellies are ribbon and pearls, both in a contrasting colour to my papers to make them stand out a bit.  I felt the card needed a bit more, but I managed to resist once I'd used some contrasting colours to add some interest.

    This card's for my MIL's birthday.  I know that she likes turquoise, so I used that colour theme for the backing papers.  Hope she likes it!



    See my cards available to buy on eBay

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    Card Recipe:
    I've been inspired by:
    • Papertake Weekly - 2 Of Something (2 diff width ribbons, 2 diff embellies)
    Happy crafting.
    Annette
    xx

    Friday, 11 October 2013

    Believe

    StampFairy are sponsoring Friday Sketch Challenge this week and I'm guest designing to support their challenge.  The sketch was quite a C&S design, but although I'm on a bit of a drive to appreciate the C&S style, today was not one of my better C&S days!

    Here's my card:



    And here's the sketch:



    See my cards available to buy on eBay
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    Card Recipe:
      I've been inspired by:
      Happy Crafting
      Annette
      xx

      Thursday, 10 October 2013

      Skiing

      My card for The Stamp Basket today returns to a Christmas theme, with some gorgeous new gold backing papers from Bo Bunny.  I've contrasted them with a rich forest green satin ribbon, a green button and some embroidery thread.



      See my cards available to buy on eBay

      eBay


      Card Recipe featuring items from The Stamp Basket:
      I've been inspired by:
      Happy crafting
      Annette
      xx

      Wednesday, 9 October 2013

      Happy Birthday Larissa

      I've got a just for fun card today, to celebrate the birthday of my blogpal and Stampfairy Teamie Larissa.

      I used a Tiddly Inks fairy image and added a personalised typed sentiment.

      Although I've used lots of layers, I've kept the embellies to just a few pearls, a couple of strips of spotty ribbon, and a length of lace.



      See my cards available to buy on eBay
      eBay


      Card Recipe:
      I've been inspired by:
      Happy crafting.
      Annette
      xx

      Tuesday, 8 October 2013

      Owl Wall Hanging

      I've got a bit of a fun project to share with you today.  It's actually meant for small photos, but I inserted little pre-coloured digis of these cute Christmas Owls.

      The frames are painted with Crackle paint, and then covered in glossy accents and a small sprinkling of crystal glamour dust to give them a lovely sparkle.

      I then emptied out my 'blue stuff' embellishment box, and added a few bits and bobs around each frame.






      See my cards available to buy on eBay
      eBay


      Card Recipe:
      I've been inspired by:
      Happy crafting.
      Annette
      xx

      Monday, 7 October 2013

      Retirement Card

      I've got a bit of a different card today, as it has a sentiment rather than an image as the focal point.

      When I received these gorgeous papers from The Stamp Basket I couldn't cover them up, so decided to make a C&S design which showcased the papers more than anything else.

      The card was requested by my hubby for his boss who is retiring in a few months, and the only requirement was to include some Swarovoski crystals, and preferably not a bear (hmmm, I can't think why he'd feel the need to say that)

      Anyway, here's what I came up with;  a shaped card base, with floral papers.   I cut out a central square, matted it onto contrasting paper from the same pad, and edged it with Stardust gel pen before wrapping it with strands of red twine and sticking it back down in place so that the flowers still match the base card positions.

      I then typed a sentiment in an elegant font, die cut it out and stamped flowers and leaves around the edge.  I layered that onto the same plain backing paper and used 3d foam pads to place it over the twine.  I then tied a bow in some more twine, threaded on a bead and a crystal onto each strand, and tied a knot at the end to stop them falling off.




      See my cards available to buy on eBay

      eBay


      Card Recipe featuring items from The Stamp Basket:
      Happy crafting
      Annette
      xx

      Saturday, 5 October 2013

      A huge THANK YOU, and a Blogger groan (& FIX)

      Firstly, the "THANK YOU".

      Oh My Word, the crafting community is so amazing.

      I've had a lovely birthday today, and have received some truly gorgeous creations from some of my closest crafting blogpals.

      I think (I hope) I've sent you all a personal message, but THANK YOU so much for all the amazing creations I have received today.  Your creations look stunning on your blogs, but are even more beautiful in real life.  It is humbling to receive such beautiful creations that you have spent hours creating, and I will treasure them long after my birthday has passed.

      I did take a photo of the little collection of cards I received, but then I thought that I probably shouldn't share their creations on my own blog.  Although I would have linked up their names, it's probably not right for me to display other people's creations without their consent, so I just wanted to say here that I love being part of the craft blogging community and am truly grateful for the friends I've made here over the years.

      Thank you.


      OK, secondly the grumble (but I do have a solution, finally!)....

      Has anyone else noticed that when photos are uploaded to blogger they seem to change in colour?

      I noticed it because I like to remove the backgrounds from my images so that the focus is on the creation, rather than the messy backdrop.

      Despite me spending time editing out the backgrounds of every photo to pure white (to match my blog background), for the last couple of weeks, when I uploaded the photos, the backgrounds appeared to be "50 shades of grey" (and I'm not talking about the popular 'naughty novel').

      Take a look at what I mean below ... on the left is the photo that I uploaded, and on the right is the photo that Blogger actually displayed:



      I thought I was going MAD.  It might not look too bad, but there is definitely a grey background to the second image, and the bright oranges in the image appear dull compared to the first image.

      I tried editing the photo again, uploaded it again, but still it was grey when it displayed on my blog.

      Arrgghhhh.

      I spent a week trying different functions, on two different photo editors, before having a breakthrough.
      I saved the 'grey' photo that blogger had uploaded back to my computer, and without opening it in any photo editing software I uploaded it again to blogger.  This time I noticed that the background became even darker grey.

      My conclusion was that the problem was not caused by my photo editing software.

      I Googled the problem, and found that I was not the only one having difficulties.

      Here is the link to the forum where I found the solution, (profh0011 wrote the comment which contains the answer) but effectively Google, in their delightful wisdom, apparently decided to enforce a new feature called 'auto-enhance' to all photos uploaded.

      Auto-enhance my @rse !!!  

      So, I went straight into the settings and removed the so-called auto-enhance, and hey presto, my photos are now exactly as I uploaded them.

      After logging a tactfully worded complaint to Google suggesting that they don't default their options to mess up my carefully edited photos without my approval, I reloaded all my affected photos again, complete with pure white backgrounds.

      So, if you want to ensure your photos are not similarly ruined 'enhanced' then you may wish to check you have not been given the Google treatment, and if so, consider if you want to remove the feature yourself.

      Here's a screen dump of the guilty option box that I have now unticked, but the instructions on the forum link above should also help.



      Okies, groan over, and I hope it's helped anyone who's had the same problem.

      I'm being taken off out for a slap up birthday meal tonight, so better get my skates on.

      Hugs
      Annette
      xx


      Men are most definitely from Mars

      Today's my first official challenge at A Gem of a Challenge, and the theme is :

       .....

      wait for it

      .....

      "Let's hear it for the boys".

      Oh my word.  This is a challenge indeed for me because I'm officially the world's worst at designing masculine cards of any kind.

      For male challenge themes I will often cheat and make a "baby boy" card, because I can still make it cute with flowers and ribbons (cos really it's for the mum rather than the baby, isn't it!!!).

      But this time I decided to use a proper boy image.  However, I opted for my favourite occasion (Christmas) to motivate me a little bit more!!!

      So :
      • no pretty satin ribbon, 
      • no flowers, 
      • no pink (ok, just a little hint of pink on the papers, but we'll gloss over that)
      • no bows 
      • no lace
      • nothing remotely girlie

      (Ok, I admit, the image is still cute, but hey, you'll cut me some slack, right?)

      To compensate for the lack of anything remotely feminine, I overdosed on die cuts !!!



      Anyway, I hope you like my first card for the team.

      And don't forget to pop by to see the other creations by my fab teamies and join in the challenge.


      See my cards available to buy on eBay

      eBay


      Card Recipe:
      I've been inspired by:
      Happy crafting.
      Annette
      xx

      Friday, 4 October 2013

      Take a Present

      I've used a cute Nellie Snellen image today from The Stamp Basket called Take a Present, and my new Magnolia Papers.  I really love the soft pink of the papers, and didn't want to matt them onto dark pink papers, so I matted them onto white card, and inked the edges to give them some definition.

      I cut out a square from the backing paper and re-layered it after matting it and stitching around the edge.  I also stitched around the image panel.

      The sentiment was typed and then inked over with a pink Stardust gel pen and cut out using a notables die.




      See my cards available to buy on eBay

      eBay


      Card Recipe featuring items from The Stamp Basket:
      I've been inspired by:
      • Sweet Sketch Wednesday - Sketch (rotated)
      Happy crafting
      Annette
      xx

      Thursday, 3 October 2013

      Meecy cracker

      The theme today at As You Like It Challenge is to make your favourite project that's not a card.  I've made a few of these crackers this year and have really enjoyed them.  I made them using my own template, which you can find here.  This one features a little Penny Black mouse stamp that I've had since I first started stamping.



      See my cards available to buy on eBay

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      Card Recipe:
      I've been inspired by:
      • Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Not a Card
      • Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Dotty (ribbon)
      Happy crafting.
      Annette
      xx

      Wednesday, 2 October 2013

      Trick or Treat

      Stampfairy are sponsoring Fab 'n' Funky this week and the challenge is to use Ribbon.  I've made some more of my little Trick or Treat pouches, both featuring a different Stampfairy character and a pretty satin ribbon to match the colour scheme of the treat bag.




      See my cards available to buy on eBay
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      Card Recipe:
        I've been inspired by:
        Happy Crafting
        Annette
        xx

        "Clearly" a mistake to emboss acetate!

        The theme today at ABC Christmas Challenge is T for Transparent, and OMG this was a hard one to make and photograph.

        Firstly I made the mistake of embossing the front panel of acetate, which warped it a bit, so I had to try to roll it back into shape.  It worked out ok, but probably only because the acetate was quite thick to start with.

        I will also apologise for the photography as it is just so hard to show the transparency and not get too much shine reflection.

        I popped a circle of white card on a purple matt on the reverse of the image for the greeting to be written, so that it would not show through when the card was stood up.

        The back of the card is also acetate (no base card involved at all!), but I left that plain, rather than embossing it.  I then stickled around the edge of the front to define the edges a bit more.

        Overall, not too bad, but I'll think twice about embossing acetate next time.



        See my cards available to buy on eBay

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        Card Recipe:
        I've been inspired by:
        Happy crafting.
        Annette
        xx

        Tuesday, 1 October 2013

        Sending a little love your way

        Our theme today at Top Tip Tuesday is flowers, but I'm also guest designing for The ABC Challenge who's theme is 'W for Words', so I've combined the two to make this pretty card featuring Mimi Hearts from Stampfairy, who are sponsoring both challenges.

        I'd also hoped to support the 'Autumn colours' challenge that Stampfairy are sponsoring at Ready Teddy Go, but unfortunately my card is missing one key component for that challenge; a bear!  I think I was having a dunce moment when I thought I was being clever in creating something to support all three challenges.

        By the way, we're having a DT call at Top Tip Tuesday, so if you'd like to join the design team, then let us have your application by entering DT after your entry.  Hope to see you there.




        See my cards available to buy on eBay

        eBay


        Card Recipe:
        I've been inspired by:
        Happy crafting.
        Annette
        xx