A Baby Shower, a Birthday and a Wedding

Good Afternoon Bloggers,

So since my last post I have had my Magnolia Stamp Club kit arrive, and all the stamps are just gorgeous!!  I have inked in a few already, however can't post all the pictures until these cards are given out for Mother's Day next weekend ;o)  It's rare for me to be so organised and so ahead of schedule, but these stamps so inspired me!!

So first up lets have a look at a prototype Baby Shower invite I did up for a friend of mine.  Jess wants to make all her own Baby Shower invites up, and came across this you tube video - 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWXD7vEaKeA

So I had a look, and downloaded the template and thought I can work with this!!  So using materials I had in my stash I came up with something so we could see the size, and give Jess an idea of what it is possible to do.  Jess isn't a scrapbooker, so we are entering her into a whole new world ;o)

So after a little play time, here is what I came up with, my apologies for the fuzzy photo.

The insert was just something I knocked up with some individual stamps I had, and the plan for this has already been modified :o)  So heres a clearer photo of the outside of the invite -

The little duck is called Souffle and is from the Bundle of Joy Popcorn the Bear Collection.  Unfortunately poor little Souffle isn't going to make the final invite as Jess would like to have an Owl instead - so Souffle is being put aside for the little owl in the Kaisercaft Tiny Woods Clear Stamps.  I will post an update once we have the finished product.

Next up is a birthday card.  I made a card for my friends Mum a couple of weeks ago, which she absolutely loved and she asked if I could make a couple more.  I happily agreed :o)  Here with have the gorgeous new Waterlily Tilda from the Summer Memories Collection.  Tilda looks a little like she has spent to much time in the sun to me, I tried the skin combination of Vintage Photo and Tattered Rose.. I think my technique for this still needs a little more practice!  However that being said, Tilda is still very cute with her curly hair!

Finally a Wedding card I offered for my friend Jan to use today for her Nephew.  Perfect for a Wedding is the Loving Bridal Couple from the Magnolia Wedding Collection, and I have masked this with the Wedding Rose Arch from the same collection.  To try and work out the colours for the card I asked my friend Jan if she knew the theme for the Wedding, and the invitations had been done in Purple and Gold, so I used this as my inspiration.

First up a picture if the inked in Loving Bridal Couple before adding any stickles or crackle accents -

Just love these two stamps together.  And now a picture with crackle accents and stickles added, unfortunately the crackle accents doesn't show up on the photo all that well.

finally the whole card :o)

Thanks for looking

x Milly

It's been awhile....

Wow, well it has been almost 3 months since I have been to Blogspot... and a lot has happened in that time!!

Some highlights... My sister's birthday at the end of January, I had my 30th birthday in February and we welcomed a new family member on 20th March with the birth of my 3rd nephew Alexander Lucas.  

Even though I haven't been on blogger the crafting has still been happening, and I will share some projects with you that I have worked on in my absence from blogging.

First up it was my friend Nicky's birthday and i made this for her.  Definitely very different colours from what I would normally use but very striking, and of course I wanted the image to be the focal point of the card...  This image is called Rose of Fire by Molly Harrison.

So next up is the card I made for my Sister for her birthday.  I wanted to try and ink in subtly..for once and i was really happy with the result.  I used two stamps for this - first up is the Tilda Sending Love from the Sweet Crazy Love collection and I have masked her over a Kaszazz stamp - Daisy Garden Edge.

The next two cards are simply beautiful.  First up is a card that my 3 and a half year old Nephew made for his mother.  With only a little help and guidance from me this is what he made - 

William tells me that is HIS motorbike ;o)

Next up is a car made by my 7 and a half year old Nephew James - also for his Mum's birthday.  I helped by painting the image, although he picked it out and told me exactly what colours he wanted me to use.  Everything else though was pretty much done by James with a little help from me.  You should have seen the concentration on his face when he was putting the smooch and glitter on the die cut frame!!

Pity Aunty Milly couldn't take a crystal clear photo for him!  Here's hoping me might have another Tim Holtz in the making!!

Next up we had a "we're not having a baby shower, baby shower" for my Sister.  Being pregnant with her third child she didn't really want a huge fuss made, but my Ma and I had to do something for her.  So one Sunday afternoon we sat down together to make cards for her.  First up is a card I made for her, it has both pink and blue on it as we didn't know what my Sister was having.

I love the little Chipboard teddy - she reminds me of Popcorn the Bear. I also used my gorgeous new Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page set called Flower Bunch.

I also made a cute little gift tag for her present - written on the back is "Welcome to our newest little cub" ;o)  Wild Tilda is also part of the Sweet Crazy love collection and simply adorable!!

Next up it was a good friend from work's birthday.  I've said it before and I will say it again, I find boys cards difficult!!  However I had my new Distress Stains in Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap and Weathered Wood I wanted to try, so I decided to make my own patterned card and tag to add.  I used my Kaszazz Compass Stamp, and my Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page set called Ribbon Loop.  The shiny edge on the tag was achieved with the Pewter Distress Crackle Paint.

So baby Alexander made his way into the world at 8:52 am on Tuesday March 20, weighing in at 9 pounds and measuring 53cm.  My sister had seen this stamp and told me she would like this inked up for the Baby's card.  Easy done - saved me having to decide which one of my stamps I was going to pick!!  Once again I have used Blues and Pinks as we weren't sure what flavour baby was going to be.

 The "Welcome Little One" is part of an uncut Kaszazz set called Adorable Friends.  The Unique wording is part of a Kaisercraft rub-on set.  The little metal charm was given to me by my friend Sammy and has Hugs & Kisses written on it.

Finally, I have a card I made for my mate to give his Mum for her Birthday.  I used my new Prime Nature Garden paper, a stamp from the Kaisercraft Chapter One Collection embossed with Kaszazz Coffee Bean, flowers from Prima and some I had in my stash and Tilda with Hawaii Flower from the Butterfly Wishes Collection.  

I was really happy with this card, I have struggled of late to put my pieces together and this one just flowed.  Everything just seemed to work and was easy, I finally feel like I might be back in the zone.  

So there we are - up to date and ready for me to share with you what I am working on next.  Here's hoping I don't leave it another 3 months!!

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks for looking

xx Milly

Sharon's Birthday

Good Evening Bloggers,

So tomorrow is my very good friend Sharon's Birthday, and I have hopefully created a WOW card just for her.

I purchased the Popcorn the Bear Thanks a Bunch Set a few months back now, and I have just inked him in for the first time.  I also partially tried out the "no lines" technique for the first time.  This technique is hard!!  This image took me about 5 hours all up to ink in, and I don't know that I will be rushing back anytime soon, although the finished effect is fabulous...however I might let you be the judge of that :o)

So onto the images, Popcorn was stamped using Colorbox Archival Ink in Cookie Dough, and I began with inking in the Sunflowers.  As usual, I used my distress ink refills.  The flowers were inked in using Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Rusty Hinge.  For the centres I used Tea Dye, Brushed Corduroy and Vintage Photo.

Once the flowers and stems were inked in I moved on to Popcorn.  I decided to use Walnut Stain to ink him in, which made the colouring very difficult as it covered up the stamped outline.  The only thing I can say is slow and steady wins the race - it took me almost as long to colour Popcorn as it did to do all the flowers.

For the card I went with a colour combination that is not normal for me - and yet I have made 2 cards in the past few months using these colours...go figure!!

So off to the scrapbook shop I went for yellow and orange cardstock, and I also bought some yellow and orange peel stickles.  I still had some Prima Fire at Sunset Paper from their Tropics Collections that would work well with this, and also in my stash was some Prima Gillian Flowers in Lemon.

Here is the finished product - as you can see it is very freshly made as the stickles border hasn't even dried yet... nothing like leaving my card to the last minute ;o)

The sunflowers were made using my 3 different size Daisy Punches.  The largest flowers were cut from yellow cardstock, painted with Smooch Sundance and absolutely smothered in yellow stickles :o) The medium sized ones were cut from white card and painted with Smooch Carrot, and also smothered in yellow Stickles.  The littlest Daisies were  cut from Orange Cardstock, painted with Smooch Carrot and then smothered with Orange Peel Stickles.

As you can see they are plenty shiny!

Now here's hoping Miss Sharon likes her card :o)

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges

Cute Card Thursday - Challenge #198 What's New
7 Kids College Fund - Challenge #38 Try Something New
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes with the Option of Something New
Top Tip Tuesday - Challenge #67 Anything Goes
Stamp n doodle's - Anything Goes this Week

Thanks for looking...

xx Milly

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Bloggers,

Yes, yes more Christmas cards. These are all cards I have made for my Family and my Friend.  As Ma and Nicky are followers of my blog I have had to schedule this post otherwise they would see their cards before I had a chance to deliver them.

So first up is a card I made for my very special Ma.  I decided to make her a card with very un- traditional colours.  This is the first one I made using the Metallic silver card, and loved it so much I have used it on a couple since :o)  So for Ma I decided to go with a Purple and Blue theme to make it very different.

The purple paper was from Allison Ellis Design and I love that it is just so different from the normal Christmassy papers we see at this time of year.

First up the cute Something for you Tilda from the Sweet Christmas Dreams Collection - 

This cute little lady has been painted using Distress Re-Inkers in Milled Lavendar, Dusty Concord and Pumice Stone.  With Diamond Stickles on the fur trim.

And now for the (almost) finished product - 

The swirl is from the Magnolia Doohickey's Leaf and Swirl set.  The snowflakes were cut using my Sullivans punch and coloured using Smooch in Pool, and then covered with Diamond Stickles.  They turned out so beautiful and bright.  I have since added some lovely light blue gems into the middle of each of the snowflakes to give that final finishing touch.

For my Sister and her family I have used the gorgeous little Reindeer Tilda from the Merry Little Christmas Collection.  I have probably said it a number of times before but this has to be one of my favourite ever Tilda's.  

Once again I have painted her using slighty unconventional colours for a Christmas card.  Her hair originally was even more orange than it is now but I have toned it down using Brushed Corduroy and by adding some shading using my Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

And the finished product - 

The third card up today I have made for my Brother and his Wife.  I have used the Snow Buddies Popcorn the Bear Stamp set.  Once again I have used liquid applique for the fur trim and the snow - the way that it has puffed up when heated is perfect giving an awesome texture to the card.  It makes Popcorn and his Mrs's hats look so warm and snuggly!

So for this card I didn't really have any papers that would quite match so I have made my own background paper using the gorgeous snowflake background stamp from the Kaszazz range. I embossed them with platinum embossing powder over a background I made by swiping Broken China Distress Ink over a plastic sheet, and spritzing it with Silver Glimmer Mist and dropping the card on top.

The final card is for my friend Nicky.  I have used 2 inked stamps for this one.  The Bildmalarna Mimosa Christmas Flower and Christmas Tree stamps.

I love both of these Stamps and how they have come together for this card.  I hope Nicky and Shannon like it also - 

Finally to finish up I have a birthday card, just for something different :o)

This card is for my Brother's wife and I love the blend of colours with Tilda, the paper, card and the Prima Flowers.

First up lets have a look at Butterfly Tilda from the Butterfly Wishes Collection.  This funky little Tilda with her Purple hair is very out there...

The die cut Butterfly in the background is produced by Cheery Lynn and is a beautiful die, I just love this!  It takes patience to pop out all the shapes, but makes a statement!

And now the finished card - 

I hope that you and your family have had a wonderful Christmas day, and hopefully the celebrations are not concluding just yet :o)

xx Milly

A wedding, a birthday, a little note and some practice

Hi Again Bloggers,

The celebrations in September continued with a friends birthday.  My friend Natu turned 31, and I decided to use the Magnolia Starship from the Winner Takes It All Collection.  It gave me the idea that I could use the cheesy line "I hope your birthday goes off like a rocket".  

So I inked up the starship and used some Basic Grey Circle Stamps I have to try and represent planets in the solar system.

Firstly a close up of the rocket - 

This was coloured with Distress Inkers using the   following colours
Starship - Pumice Stone
Bands and Accents - Stormy Sky
Window - Weathered Wood
Stars and Rocket Flames - Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade and Barn Door.

With the circles behind I stamped them with the Watermark Ink pad and embossed them with Kaszazz - Verdigris, Zing - Metallic Purple and Allison Ellis Designs - Platinum.
The Cheesy wording made it to the inside of the card...

The celebrations continued into October.  On October 1 my Brother got married, and what better occasion than to create a handmade card.  So on a visit to the scrap shop a couple of months ago I came across these adorable Wedding Stamps in the Popcorn the Bear range.  You can check out the Popcorn story here and see the stamp range here.  I bought the Romance - Wedding Day collection for my card.  I know I know I am biased, but they are way too cute and the card turned out beautifully!!

Stamp and sentiment came from my Popcorn Stamps. The paper I used is the Romance Collection from Kaszazz and it is called Flourish/Flourish Dots, I used both sides. Ribbon is from my stash, and the flowers are in the Delightful Day Collection from Prima - unfortunately the Dimmet range I used aren't shown on their website though.

A close up of Popcorn and the Mrs. - 

Now lets see if I can remember all the Distress Ink Re-Inker colours I used - 

Bears - Walnut Stain and Antique Linen

Rug - Small amounts of Weathered Wood

Rug Heart and Hearts in Ears - Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany

Veil - Small Amounts of Weathered Wood

Bride's Hat - Victorian Velvet

Grooms Hat - Black Soot and Weathered Wood

Flowers - Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany

Leaves - Shabby Shutter and Peeled Paint

Souffle the Duck - Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade and Weathered Wood

Not that it shows in this photo but I used Crackle accents on the inked roses and the band around the grooms hat, some Liquid Pearls in White Opal on the stitching holding the heart on the rug and Glossy Accents on the eyes and noses and of course some diamond stickles for some sparkle.

The second to last thing to show you tonight is a card I made for my Friend Nicky on Sunday. I have had this stamp for a few months now, and still hadn't coloured it in.  This stamp is by Hannah Lynn and is called Genevieve -  I purchased it from here.  I just love the detail on this stamp, and the coloured version shown on the page completely sold it for me!!  

As you will see my colours were no where near as bold -

So the colours I have used for Genevieve

Hair - Frayed Burlap

Skin and Lips - Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany

Eyes - Pine Needles, Bundled Sage used for eye shadow

Gloves - I started with them painted in Vintage Photo, but that was to yellow for the rest of the colours used so I painted over that with Walnut Stain.  The dots and Bows are Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany.

The finished product - 

Flowers used are a Prima Cottage Blossom in Pink Quartz and a Floret Collection in Sunshine. The smaller ivory rose and two rosebuds are from my stash.  The brown paper is from Kaisercraft and part of the Prairie Lane Collection called Hillcrest.

This card was just a little note to hopefully brighten Miss Nicky's day, and in a small way to say thank you for having me over for dinner.

So lastly yesterday Ma and I had a painting day.  I was working on another stamp I purchased when I bought Genevieve. This stamp is called Rose of Fire and has been designed by Molly Harrison.  There were two versions on the website of this stamp coloured, and i had to have a go at the red version - you can see it here, this card was done by Angela Sowell and i just loved the colours she has used on the stamp.

My attempt - 

I just love this stamp and I am looking forward to trying many more colour combinations!!

Well that is all folks, off to colour Butterfly Tilda from the Butterfly Wishes Collection.  So look out for this in the coming days.

Night all, as always please leave any questions or comments.

xx Milly