Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who's the Oldest Niece of All? ..............

At last I can upload photos of the card I've been working on this past week.  It is my oldest niece's 21st birthday at the end of this month and I made this card for her.  I had to wait until she had received it in the post.  She phoned yesterday to say it had arrived safely, so here it is.............

I used Mirror Mirror from LOTV as I have a photo of Larissa very similar to that image taken when she was little.  Coloured with Promarkers and the background is chalked.

I diamond glazed the necklace and I used glamour dust on the mirror and the bows of her shoes.  You can't really see from the photos but I went round the edge of each matt and layer with the Pale Pink Promarker (one I had used to colour the image with) to make the layers pop.

The flowers are a mix from my stash and the added stamens were bought at a show about 5 years ago, I found them during my Big Craft Room Clear Out (which is still on going). The "leaves" are a flourish cut on my Cricut, as is the "21".  The "All Growed Up" sentiment is computer generated.

This is the card with the matching box I made with my Crafters Companion Boxer used with my Ulitmate Pro....... fab piece of kit.  The flourish border and corners are also cut with my Cricut (another really fab piece of kit)

Everything else is from my stash, the origins of which have been long forgotten.

I was really pleased with how it turned out and Larissa loved it too.  And she made my day by telling me she's kept all the cards I've made her and treasures them................... such a simple thing but meant the world to me :-)

Makes me feel really old to say this but HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY LARISSA XXXXX.

On another note, having just received another LOTV order this week, I decided to catalogue all my LOTV and Sugar Nellie stamps, it's getting harder to remember what I already have........ and I am ashamed (or pleased) to say I have 52 of these, never mind the boxes and boxes of other ones ............... can you imagine the insurance claim if our house ever floods or burns down :-(

Until next time folkies......... Nicola xx

Seemed like a good idea at the time...........

Sorry, no cards this week. I've been busy packing and clearing out ready for the house move.  Hubbie leaves in less than 3 weeks so trying to get as much done whilst he's still here.  The kids and I have another 7 weeks after that.  We've finished packing the garage and the shed and re-homed the wendy house and wooden lifeboat.......... that was fun :-)

Mobile home ?????

Lifeboat rescue !!!

They were both transported to their new home at our friends house.

I'm making some headway with my craft room.  Look how tidy my desk is............

Isn't it funny how a picture taken at another angle can tell the true story............. this is what the room really looks like at this moment!!

Now you can understand why there are no cards made this week......... :-)  I'm having a good tidy up, although this seems to be taking much longer than anticipated as I seem to have much more stash that I thought ............ This was taken after I'd packed a lot of stuff into boxes, this is the essentials I have left !!!!

I also ordered some new storage as I'll have to craft in my bedroom at my mams so space will be tight - I have tried my hubbie to move into the garage but he refuses to - how selfish of him :-)

Anyhow, I bought 4 of these 12x12 Really Useful Boxes with files and I am ashamed to say not all my 12x12 papers would fit into them............  I sorted the papers into catagories (baby, traditional and modern) and also subdivided them into colours to make things much easier to find what I want....... you can tell I'm a Virgo ha ha ha.  I was so impressed at these boxes I think I'll order more of the range.

The piccie was taken before I'd finished sorting through the papers.

So, this week's job is finishing the craft room tidy up and get on with some cards I had to make - my neices 21st card and a new home card for our friend.  I also bought some new Whiff of Joy stamps, including Pregnant Willow as we have two friends who are expecting and I am desperate to ink these up and get these cards made.

See you all soon, and you never know I might have some cards to show you !!

Love, Nicola xx

Storage and My Daughter

No, I haven't stored my daughter away lol............

I had a moment whilst packing yesterday.  I found this old CD storage thing that the kids were using in the car for DVD's, I think it was about £5 from Asda's if I remember rightly.  I had been looking for a storage thingy (techinical phrase) for my unmounted and clear stamps as I was getting to the stage of forgetting what I had as there are so many - don't tell my hubbie that though lol.

This works a treat.  I do have some stamp sets that don't fit in, but for the Sugar Nellies, LOTV and Belles n Whistles it works a treat.  I sorted them out into some kind of order like, boys, couples, occassions etc and I just have to flick through like a book.

A close up of a pocket.  I'm still working on it as some of the stamps I don't know the name of so I'm making labels with designer and stamp name on them.  Can you tell I'm a Virgo ha ha ha.

Now just to find a storage thingy for my Promarkers......

This next photo is of my 5 year old daughter Eilidh.  She loves all things crafty as well and this was a card she made for her lion as apparently it was his birthday this week (!)

The picture is not a good one of her, she needs her hair brushed and what have you, but moments like this are not planned I'm afraid.

Ok, that's all my posts for this week............. off to pack up more boxes.

Nicola

Sunshiney Days.......

We've had some fantastic weather the past few days here, really warm and sunny........ and what have I been doing?  Some packing and lots of crafting ha ha ha.....

My colleague at work is having her wedding reception next week - it's her second wedding anniversary but as she married an Aussie, it's only now that his family is able to come over for "the wedding".  So this is the card I made for them.  The message inside reads "In celebration of your marriage and anniversary" to cover both occassions.

The photo's of this card didn't come out too well - the distressing on the edges looks a bit "odd" in the piccies but in real life it was a lot more subtle.............

The papers are K&Co (I love K&Co papers) - these are double sided so one 12x12 sheet of card was all that I needed for this card. Sentiment is from the foam set from my hubbie long time ago (2nd airing this week) and I've mounted it with foam tape to give height.

The image is LOTV coloured with Promarkers and I've distress inked the edges.  Ribbon is from my stash as are the lovely large pearls.  The edge of the matt under the image has been punched with a Stampin' Up edger punch.

I used scraps of the paper to make some flowers - I used a 5 petal flower, curled the edges of the petals with my bone folder and used Pinflair glue gel to give height.  The leaves again are punched from scraps of the matt card, then I added these fabulous large pearls to the centre.  These have a lovely lustre finish to them but the camera is not picking this up very well.

I finished this off by making a matching envelobox using my new Crafters Companion Envelopbox and Boxer additions to my Ultimate Pro.  The matt on the envelope has been punched with a beautiful Glasgow Rose corner punch I found at the back of a drawer - shamefully I had forgotten all about it - so packing has it's good points too lol.

Nicola xx

All Wedding-ed Out!!

Well I don't know about you but this weekend I have had wedding overload........ just what I needed NOT - as I have only just recovered from acting as Wedding Co-ordinator to a couple who decided to get married at the Sports and Community Centre where I am Co-ordinator (until the end of May anyway).  It was more stressfull than organising my own wedding but it all went well and the couple were delighted.....

Anyway, this is the card I made for the couple, from my workplace.

A single easel card this time, in white snowdream pearl card, double sided with a fleck of gold through it.  Matted with white glitter card and burgandy cardstock, both from my stash.

The main cake image is from Papermania, I think it came in one of their goody bags as I don't recall buying it.  The images are all mix and match so each element is stamped seperately.

The flowers are from Mei, and the ribbon is a scrap from my stash.  The pearls are from ebay and I've glamour dusted some of the swirly bits of the cake layers with a quickie glue pen.

The border punch is from Stampin' Up.  Sentiment stamps is from LOTV.

See you soon.

Nicola

And Now for Something Completely Different............

This week Hubbie asked me to make a Thank You card for some friends of ours.  He knew what he wanted - a triple easel card with a local flavour to it AND no flowers, glitter or cutsie images thank you!!!

The triple easel bit was easy...... but no flowers, no fairies and no girlie-ness not as easy.

I had to unpack the stamps I had packed up for the move (!) and found these beauties.  They are from Heritage Stamps in Edinburgh, and I've coloured them with coloured pencils.

The papers are K & Co and the card it all from my stash....  The green matt I ran through my Big Shot with a Fiskars Texture Plate (remember them lol), leaf I think.  The ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons.com - one of their 3mm mix bags.  The gems are from the Anita's 3mm gem wheel - well I had to put something blingy on it ha ha ha.

The sentiment stamp is from a foam mixed set that my hubbie bought me for Christmas many years ago.

And not a fairy, flower or flourish in sight!!!

Nicola