Wonderful Godchildren, again!

I really do have a special bunch of Godchildren!
Littlest Goddaughter has blossomed in school and begun to display musical talent, and this blog is about a celebration card I've made for her.

But before I start I need to boast that my pseudo Godson was spotted on TV again this week!

I started the card with a chipboard blank and inked in Distress Ink. But it didn't show. So then I inked directly from a Hobbycraft ink, but that was a bit stark, so I spritzed a little water on and dabbed with some paper to mottle it. Though it didn't work :-(

Then I stamped some background flowers on. Using my Hobbycraft inks again I inked two chipboard letters from my stash. While one was wet I sprinkled clear embossing powder and heated it. Then I rubbed in some ink, but this took longer to set than I thought, so I ended up with messy fingers and had to ink it again. The third letter came from a sticky set, but I mounted all three with pads to give some dimension.

I had a lion picture left from some other cards, and this was perfect as she gave a brilliant Lion performance at school, so I covered it with clear embossing ink and powder and stuck that on. Then I added the treble clef and note die cuts I bought a while ago, wrote on a Sizzix tag and tied it on with some lovely glossy, dotty ribbon.

Finally, since the little lady in question is such a star I added lots of stars. Some random and others in the middle of the flowers.

As predicted recently by a friend, if I can work out how, I'm entering this into a challenge, at Crafty Boots Crafty Boots Bowtastic, well, since I'd popped on a bow, how could I not!

Some early Red, White and Blue

This was a busy card month, with many other busy things too, so I've got lots of blogs catch up with too.

Mum's birthday was in May, and as her Mothering Sunday card was quite grungy, I decided on a more traditional birthday card.

I started off with a plain white card and decided on a red and blue colourway (along with the white, seems very of the moment now, but it was less so then).

I used some craft pads to give dimension to the dress (bought a while back in a sale), stamped Happy Birthday from a Papercraft set and then added a couple of fabric flowers, using my CropADile to fix the grommets (is that the right word) in place.

Mum liked the card, so I was pleased too.

Much as I love my CropADile, it does have a limited reach, so I'll have to come up with another way of making holes and fixing a bit further in (I wanted 3 flowers in a crescent, but couldn't achieve that).

I also sat in the wrong place to take the photo, so please ignore the shadow, oops!

My special Goddaughter passed her driving test, so it was time to make a card to celebrate.
But even after putting it into the envelope I knew I wasn't happy, so I started again.

I started off by cutting out a tag. I used a second hand box, which has a slight pattern on the back. I then used Weathered Wood Distress Stain, but it was too pale and not blue enough, so I sprayed the card and stained again while it was wet. It still lacked something, so I moved on to Stormy Sky, once again putting it on damp card. I dried it out with my heat gun.

Using Stormy Sky distress stain I stamped some stars (as she is one!), using an Anita's stamp, and, though I say so myself, I was impressed with the effect of stamping the same colour onto the background.

I cut out the frame from the same card, painted it with a Crayola kids paint, and then clear embossed it. Having glued on the frame I used a Hampton Art alphabet set (I was lucky C and M are missing, but I didn't need them) I stamped "Drive" in my Hobbycraft ink and clear embossed it.

I used some of the card that I cut the tag from to stamp Celebrate (from a Fiskars set) on, but as the card was very shiny I sandpapered it first to help the ink to bond. This meant that there are some scratches on it, but it works fine with the distressing.

To finish off I used another Fiskars stamp to add "Success" before tying on some ribbon, which was too "new" so I used my Stamping Up perforating tool to fray it a little.

A long description, I hope you enjoyed it.

Hope H likes her card too.

I've started :-)

The more I make paper cards, the more I enjoy it and the more I want to share them.
But I've been thinking my Facebook friends might not all be interested in the details I want to share about the cards.
So now I have a blog, which is a new skill for me to craft!
Plus, one day, when I feel brave and understand blogging properly, I'll be able to enter some on line stamping challenges!

I hoped to set it all up "offline" and then publish, but I can't work that out yet, so here, for now, is a little quick pic of a card I made yesterday.

The card was part of a super stash passed on my a friend who won't use them. A purple pearlescent, which inspired my colour choice. The die cut and the phrase were picked up in a sale in Dunelm Mill, as was the flower. The dress matches the card in colour, while the other embellishments are all navy blue.

Never one to waste anything (or indeed be brief with my words!), the ribbon is the bit you can use to keep clothes on a hanger, that I now cut out and pop into my craft box :-)