Altered box for mince pies

This altered box was once containing gravy granules - it comfortably fits 4 mince pies now.

Autumn bird landing

The muted colours of this Thanksgiving card give it an autumn feel. At the moment the card is still "all purpose" - because I'm a little late now I have decided to leave the Happy Thanksgiving sentiment off. I might end up just putting a Thanks on it instead. Sometimes these general cards can be handy to have in your stack, for last minute calls on a card.

Challenges: 

DL.ART Thankful Thursday Ch. Thanksgiving; Craftysue's Easy Peasy "Anything Goes" Ch. next Fri. end of month

Christmas turkey

Christmas time brings a lot to be thankful for - the company of friends or family, a sense of celebration, good food... and who doesn't like a hearty meal when it's cold outside! So a photograph of bushy reeds at the Monterey seaside, looking a little like a shop display of soft, brand new feather dusters arranged to a fan, reminded me of turkey feathers, hence the choice of stamp for this card. I coloured in a free digi from Leigh's Paper Creations which is available here. For the frame I recycled part of a used Christmas card - waste not, want not...


Do you cook? Among the many ways to prepare your Christmas turkey, some can leave you with a rather dry bird... but not the Nigella recipe which involves pricking it and rubbing it in salt, then soaking it over night in orange juice flavoured with fresh parsley, cinnamon and clove. Tried and tested!


Challenges: DRS Designs Ch. #50, Joan's Gardens Weekly Ch. #41, Jingle Belles Ch. next Thu., DL. ART Thankful Thursday Ch. #15,

Fifties inspired birthday card

My inspiration for this retro style birthday card came from a photo of a jar of candy canes. They are part of times long gone. Not that I have ever seen anyone actually eating one - they seem to have lived on for their decorative merits - the cute stripes have become iconic. And I like stripes... so I made the background using this stripey stamp from DRS and accessorized with a decoupaged candle-lit birthday cake, chipboard hearts, a piece of upholstery trim and a fabric that is best described as some sort of faux-crocodile-skin plush.

Christmas: Reuse, recycle...

I had collected those christmas cracker wrappings as they just seemed too pretty to throw away. With some ribbon and a button they found a new use in a christmas card.

Challenges: DL.Art Thankful Thursday Ch. 25 10.11.2012;
Joan's Gardens Weekly Challenge #4 Fri; 

2012 Christmas Card Challenge Week #50 Sun; Sketchy Ch. #36 Thu next week, Jingle Belles Allison's Sketch JB:12:23 Thu,

Cascading Easter eggs

A spring theme is what came to mind when looking at those flowery papers in my stash... and what better occasion to use them than Easter, a time when we need to make many cards at once. Can you guess what they are: yes, it's wallpaper samples again!

After cutting out lots of different sized egg shapes, the big question was how to best arrange them on the cards - there are so many possibilities! In the end I took inspiration from a card that Kath created.

What I wanted was a clean & simple Easter card that doesn't take long to do... only this time it didn't turn out quite like that. After many experiments - attempting to shape the eggs and then fill the hollow I created so that they won't look dented after having been in the post - I had to find out the hard way that wallpaper is sometimes just not the best choice of material for card making. I had been trying to use sticky tape on the back which seemed to work fine at first, but the tape partly slid off after a few days, due to the waxy pre-pasted back side of the wallpaper. A bit of a disappointment after all that work!

In the end I ran out of time and decided to return to this fresh and uncomplicated version which is much easier to make ... and it works every time!

Challenges: DL.Art Thankful Thursday Ch. March 22 - Spring flowers - 8.4., Creative Inspirations Paints Ch. - Easter - next Mon., Creative Craft World March Mini Ch. - 20.4. - blue, Cards Paper and Scrapbooks Ch. - CASE - 31.4.

Purple baroque Thank You card

I chose a baroque theme for my Thank You card because I had fallen in love with this patterned paper a while ago but never got round to actually using it until now.

In my opinion, its ornate flourishes in matted silver are quite decorative already so the card didn't need much embellishing. Apart from the sentiment of course, I only added gems and a ribbon bow.

In order to make it easier to find colour matching embellishments to go with this reddish tone of purple, I decided to sort my box of purple embellishments into "blue hues" and red hues".

Challenges: Thankful Thursday

Glittery roses Thank You card

Thankfully this card was a quick one to make, once I had chosen the decorative patterned paper which has a slight vintage feel to it. All that was left for me to do was to enhance the roses with red glitter and emboss the sentiment.


Challenge: Creative Craft World - mini challenge - next Sun

Padded fabric easter egg

Making Easter cards while the snow hasn't melted yet led me to create this card, sporting a padded fabric Easter egg on a texturized snowy background.

There's no reason to stop using your three dimensional fabric paint after you finished your last Christmas card... The sort that fluffs up when ironed can be used on card as well. In order to get an even surface apply a thin layer with a wide paintbrush running along a ruler.

With the appliqué technique, I have found a fun way to use my fabric scraps on cards: just cut them into ribbons! I sewed the padding directly onto the egg and then glued the sides down onto the card with hot glue.

Because it's quite a long outline and the glue cools down quickly, it can be difficult to keep the egg shape.

I discovered that if you glue only the sides and the bottom, you get a pear shape - so maybe I'll be making summer cards with apples and pears at some point.

Challenges: DRS Challenge #11 - own backgr. - Thu, For Your Inspiration Ch. #23 - wavy lines - Sat -, Scrappy Chick Sketch Ch. #4 - Sat, My Scrapbook Nook blog Monday cards Ch. - the colours - Mon,

Monogrammed Valentine

Two projects posted on the same day - that's a rare one for me but I wanted to share this while Valentine's day seems to be on many crafters ' minds - I just hope "N" doesn't look at my blog before the 14th...!

It is inspired by the classic Sparks track: "Heartbeat, increasing heartbeat... This town ain't big enough for both of us..." .

I have cut out and sewn the double sided heart shaped pin cushion from satin fabric and stuffed it with leftover pieces from my mum's quilting - I don't know what you call this light, fluffy material they use inside their quilts but it's great for all sorts of cushioning.


Challenges: Our Craft Lounge Ch. #102 - heart felt - Sat, Thankful Thursday - anything - 19th Feb,

Thanks card: fabric with plastic flower parts

The image is a piece of curtain fabric which I matted on Kraft type card an embellished with bits from a bunch of artificial flowers which I disassembled, and a twine bow.

Challenges: Thankful Thursday Ch. - Kraft, flower, twine - 5h Feb (few)

Pink Thank You card with webbed background

... I was inspired to use scraps left over from other projects - bits of ribbons, a small piece of card, some fabric - waste not, want not! I should do that more often really!

Challenges: Thankful Thursday Ch. - scraps - Mon (few), Skipping Stones design sketch Ch. #112. Wed,

Sewn fabric with stickers

This is the first card I have run through my sewing machine, something I had planned to do for a while. It is actually very easy to do if you can force yourself to work super exacting! I was glad I had glued the background fabric to the card with PVC glue beforehand... Unfortunately the stitches had the tendency to go wrong when I sped my machine up - I had to find out the hard way, of course!

To liven up the subdued pattern and colours of the background fabric I added a second piece of fabric by layering red metallic net in one corner. I also added a few stickers which are printed on silver holographic foil, and completed it with a green metallic birthday greeting. The somehow contradicting combination reminds me of the song "I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair)"! What you unfortunately can't see because they show up as white in the photograph are the silver metallic lines in the background fabric pattern - they serve as a harmonizing element in the composition.

Challenges: The Scrappy Chick Sunday Sketch Ch. - Mon - (few)

Girl or boy - baby card with duck

Baby cards with their subtle colours are among my favourites to design. I usually make them monochrome and in as near to a clear and simple style as it gets for me. The whole process is pleasantly calming.

But sometimes you just need to break the pattern if you don't want to get stuck in a rut! The result is this baby card, less calm, a lot less serious, more fun and cheerful, still bright and light. And it can be used for girl and boy parents alike which I found to be very handy.

Letterpress ornament card with an upcycled curtain background

Would you have spotted the curtains if I hadn't told you that's what they were? Now it's obvious of course... I thought I would put some of those unwanted advertising brochures we get through our letter box to a good use!

If this has inspired you to try something similar, and would like to know what to look out for when working with thin paper like this, check out my tutorial (as well as my comment on that) on the Fiskarette's blog.

My favourite embellishment is - ribbons! Which is probably why I used not one but three of them... but the card still needed a center piece, so I have printed the flourish with my letterpress which was ever so quick and easy - as long as you remember to use only a minute amount of ink, that is! Else it will smudge, no matter how careful you are.

Challenges: Party time Tuesdays Ch. #51 - Bday - Wed, Scrappy Frogs Ch. - lace - Feb