This Girl is 5 Today

Last card was a cheeky little numbered Birthday card. The technique for making this card was to use a circle punch rather than a scalloped die , to mat the white circle onto. It worked really well and is great for those who do not have a die cutting machine.

The balloon was cut from a template, coloured to match the girls skirt and then covered in sticky back glamour card to give it that sparkle. 

In the original stamp the girl was holding flowers so I cut them off and put the balloon in their place. Here are a few photos of the class in action.

Back with some more soon xxx

Home Sweet Home

Nice and simple this one and the stamp was one of the freebies on the A4 stamp sheet in the Creative Stamping magazine this month.

The picture is not very good but I have added lace around the stamped embroidery hoop, stamped stitching around the edges of the matted layers and used red embroidery thread to make three little cross stitches on the card.

I think of all the four I made for the class, this one was the favourite. So many stamps on that stamp sheet. Well worth taking out a subscription if you want to bump up your stamp collection.xx

Happy Retirement

Such an easy card to make but so effective. I have loads of knitty friends who are coming up for retirement.

I matched the hearts to the colour I had chosen for the wool but I think when I make this again I might try more than one colour on the knitting creating a pattern. You could even extend the knitted piece by drawing in some more stitches. The possibilities are endless.

Putting the knitting on sticky foam pads added to the overall effect. Love it xx

Floral Happy Birthday

I've got a real liking for border punch edges on cards at the moment. This is probably because I am obsessively cleaning out my craft room and keep finding loads of beautiful punches which I rarely use. This particular punch is by Martha Stewart.

The flower design and 3d flowers are all made from a stamp set by Honey Doo Crafts. They have a fantastic selection of really usable stamps ideal for all occasions and well worth a visit.

The black sparklers really finish the card off. Enjoyed making this one. x

Craft Day/Crop 22nd April 10am to 4pm

My Craft Day (Crop) is a fantastic place to unwind and have a bit of me time. You can come and go as you please and learn a few new tips and techniques along the way.

Entrance is £10 for the whole day (over 16's only) and includes tea/coffee/ squash plus cakes and fruit for those who are diet conscious. Please bring your lunch with you if you want something more substantial.

You can bring along anything to do on the day like knitting, sewing, Scrapbooking, Cardmaking etc and it is a good opportunity to see what others are doing, catch up on all those projects you haven't finished, have a good chat and catch up with old friends and make some new ones.

A make and take will be available on the day. This will be £1 per go and the money from this will go into the Children In Need pot this year.

Please email ladiesthatcraft@live.co.uk to book your place.

It is a great, relaxing day so why not come along and join us. xx

Thank You Hearts

Now some of my class are very quick and finish before everyone else so when I have time, I try to make a fourth card for them to do while we wait for everyone to catch up.
I can't take any credit for this one though, I found many different versions of it on Pinterest. I will say that random coloured heart didn't work for me, I have to have some sort of pattern going on.

Here is the final picture of all four

Don't forget I hold Card Classes one Wednesday and one Thursday a month at Rainham Social Club, Station Road, Rainham, Kent. Please contact me at ladiesthatcraft@live.co.uk or use the contact form on this page if you would like more information. Class dates can be seen to the right of this page.xx

Happy Birthday

Normally I see an idea in one of my card classes and then make a scrapbook layout out of it but this time I did it the other way round. Here is the card

and here is the scrapbook page made for class at the beginning of February.

In hindsight I should have put cream circles under the border on the card but I think it looked good anyway. Here is what the main three cards look like together.

I did make a fourth card but that's for tomorrow. xx

Thank You Flowers

Random stamping is not always easy mainly because we are not made that way and plenty of people like to have everything straight. The technique this time was to be completely random and to incorporate double stamping. This is done by inking up a stamp, stamping first onto some scrap paper and then onto the card without re inking in between. Here is the result

Don't forget as well, save the stamped scrap paper for another day. You can use it for a background on another card.xx

Blooming Marvellous

At the previous card class we made two cards with wreaths and I noticed that some of our class mates were reluctant to use them because they reminded them of sympathy cards or even Christmas. The aim of this card was to show that a wreath could also be a bright and cheery birthday card by changing the colour ways.

I added the little bird for a bit of fun and to draw your eye to the greeting. Pleased with how it turned out. Card two tomorrow xx

Life Isn't About......

The second layout for Scrapping Your Family had to be a little bit easier because of time restraints

however I still managed to get in a few techniques like Colouring white die cuts; Making a tissue paper flower; 

Back filling a border punch design; 

using paper to colour a stamped image.

We even added a soft brick background to the white card using Antique Linen Distress Ink and a stamp. Whew....it was a very busy class but loads of fun lol. xx

Always Follow Your Heart

This was a technique layout for Scrapping Your Family last Saturday. The idea was to create a background using paper napkins and a pva/water mix.

This was allowed to dry and then stamped over.

We then added washi tape and stamped and cut out some tissue hearts to stick over the top.

To finish we added a stamped saying.
You can see a revised version of this layout and a bit more information on the Julie Wilson's Designs Blog xx

Dance Like........

With Valentines coming up it was time for a lovey, dovey layout but one that could be used for wedding, engagement, valentines, special occasion, etc as I know some people give the whole Valentines Day thing a miss.

This is what I came up with

Love that die cut couple

And the Kaisercraft stamp of one of my favourite sayings

Technique this time was stamping a background leaving a white border around each square. Looking at this photo it appears I forgot to rub out the pencil marks lol xx

Wildflower

Loved this background paper. It's really flower power which gave me the idea for the big bunch of wildflowers on the page.

Techniques this week were building and shaping flowers; Hand cutting stems and tying paper; Decorating punched borders.

I had already die cut the flowers for the kit in a 250gsm card which made them stiffer. The idea of this was to make sure they didn't collapse when put into an album.

Little gems finished the flowers off. 

Decorating the little butterlies on the border looked really cute. More tomorrow xx