Happy Birthday Kyle

Tomorrow (31 December) is Kyle's 6th Birthday and I have made this card for him. I used images from Dustin Pike and coloured them in with Prismacolor pencils. I coloured it in a few months ago because I knew how long it would take (it is my second card of this type) but didn't want to post it on here until the right time.

Happy Birthday Kyle. Happy New Year to all of my friends and family.

Amelia x

Red bus

I was asked recently by a friend to make a personalised card for her grandson's 10th Birthday. He likes red buses so I made this card for him.

I have replaced the advertisement on the side of the bus with his name "Jordan". The number of the bus is 10 (for his age) and the destination says "Happy Birthday". The registration number is "10 2DAY"

He's making a list

I made a Christmas card for a challenge on http://www.charmedcrafttalk.com/ and thought I should post it on my blog as well with extra detail. The requirements of the challenge were a Christmas card using lace, glitter, an embellishment and for bonus points some wording.

I decided to use a cute Santa Claus image from Dustin Pike (http://dustinpike.blogspot.com/) on my card which I have coloured with Primacolor pencils and mounted in a 3D effect with foam stickers. He is mounted on white card embossed with a "snowball" effect made by using a Fiskars embossing template and then on red card. I didn't have any lace so that isn't included. The glitter is the highlighted areas on Santa's hat and jacket. I have used 3 silver wooden stars which are decorated with jewels to cover the embellishment requirement and I have managed to get the wording on too.

More Than Words

The challenge on Dottie's World was to create a card using a quote or a poem on the front of the card - not just a one or two word sentiment though! It also had to have Charmed download as well.

I did the challenge but missed the deadlines becuase I had problems with my computer and scanner. In the end I have taken a photograph to post it on my blog.

My quote is from a Boney M song because I thought it was appropriate. The Charmed download is from the Christmas collection of Dottie and George.

Dustin Pike

I was asked by a friend at work to make a 2nd Birthday card which has a character on it. Ruth (ooffee) directed me to Dustin Pike's blog where there are freebies as well as lots of exciting images at great prices to buy. This is my effort.

The images are all coloured in with Prismacolor pencils and mounted in 3D. I always like to personalise my cards where I can and I did this by typing onto the sign which has been attached to the crate.

I enjoyed experimenting with the pencils to create the sea effect as I didn't want to just go for a plain colour.

I am looking forward to creating more cards with similar images from Dustin Pike's blog and I think they would make good cards for small boys.

Windmills

Christopher and I have been away on holiday for the last week mainly in Norfolk which has been thoroughly relaxing. I have been sorting through our photographs and thought I would post this one. We spotted this windmill in Suffolk on the way to our caravan site and both fell in love with it. We even had it printed at the supermarket to create a postcard for my Mam and Dad.

While in Norfolk we took lots of photographs of windmills. We were on a bit of a family research holiday and in the past my family worked at some of the mills on the Halvergate marshes so it was exciting to see them all.

Birthday card

I bought some lovely material in a craft shop in Lincoln on Saturday and couldn't resist using it on my cousin's 40th Birthday card. The material is quite fine so I mounted it on to lilac card (the same as the border) so the colours would be more defined. I hope you like it.

Prismacolor Pencils

I was interested in purchasing some new pencils recently and asked Ruth to show me how she uses her Primacolor pencils to get the lovely blended effects. We sat down one lunch break and this is the result of my first attempt.

I started with the hat, then his fur (which I know I spoilt on his face but might go back and fix with a darker shade), the case and finally his jacket. It is quite easy to see the pattern as I progressed through the design.

I really enjoyed the pencils as they are so much easier to use than the ones I had at school when you want a nice blended effect (at school I would have bands of colour down my hand where it had been resting on the paper while I did lots of layering of colours).

I liked these pencils so much I have bought myself a small range of colours to get started. After a bit of practice I think I will be buying a full set.

I am off on holiday next week with my lovely man, Christopher, and I am sure I can get him to colour some wonderful Dotty and George pictures in for me (I had him stitching cards on our last holiday!).

All Things Bright and Beautiful

Over on Dottie's World this weeks challenge is to make a project using 'bright and beautiful' colours and embellishments - of course featuring one of the Charmed downloads too. This is my creation which I hope fits the bill. I used the love birds image of Dottie and George (separating them) and used colours to turn them into Easter chicks. I love the baby Dottie and George too and couldn't resist having Dottie popping out of an Easter egg

Easter

A friend at work recently asked me to make her a couple of Easter cards which she wanted a stictched flower. This is the card I created for her which she loved. I also made the same card with a purple Easter Egg.

The card is a square white base but I can't get it to show up any lines on the edges so it stands out. I'll have to ask Ruth for help on that one!

Visit to Graceland

Two friends asked me to create a card for a friend who is travelling to America soon to visit Graceland.

This is the card I created for them.

A small selection of my cards

40th Birthday

Christopher and I are going to a 40th Birthday party tomorrow night. The Birthday girl is Alison and we both wish her all the best as she celebrates with family and friends.

Here is the card that I have made for her. It was using a sheet of paper that I bought in a mixed pack (it was the best one too) and unfortunately I didn't buy more of them when I had the chance. Cards made with this paper are therefore limited and all the more special.

In fact, I think the last card I made with this paper was a 40th Birthday one too!

Kyle's Birthday Card

A friend of mine has a little boy who turned 5 on New Year's Eve. I made this card which was completely new for me. It represents a car number plate (which he recognised immediately and loved) using the letters of his name and his age.

I bought some letter stencils a while back and hadn't really had the opportunity to use them (althought the ideas were floating around in my head). This seemed like the perfect time and created a great birthday card for a boy. I drew the letters onto white card and painted them black, the background yellow. I also drew and painted another set of letters which I cut out and stuck over the top of the base so they stand out in 3D.

Pure & Simple

This week's Sunday Challenge on Dottie's World is to be PURE & SIMPLE! No use of patterned papers, just clean, fresh and simple. No fuss! You do of course have to include a Charmed digital download which is available from http://www.charmedcardsandcrafts.co.uk/. And they are all wonderful so you really should check them out.

My creation really is simple but it was something I had been thinking about for a while and as it uses the least amount of materials it fits in quite well with the challenge. It only uses the pre-coloured images (thanks Lou) which I have used repeatedly to make dominoes (you know the type little kids have with pictures rather than dots). I have used six images all from the Love and Marriage collection.

I have stuck to a really simple idea because I have a really busy week ahead at work with members of my team travelling overseas. If I didn't complete the challenge today, I wouldn't do it at all.

You can check out this challenge and all of the other entries on http://dotties-wonderful-world.blogspot.com/.

'ave a laugh - Sunday Challenge

Here is my entry for the Sunday Challenge on Dottie's World. The challenge was to "Start the New Year With a Laugh" where you had to incorporate something funny into your entry along with one of the Charmed digital downloads.

I have used the Naughty Dottie image from the Dottie at Home collection. The background image has been printed as a watermark and is from http://www.freefoto.com/ and can be found in the chocolate collection. The three smaller chocolates are copied from the larger image.

The phrase on the card is "We must all believe in something. I believe I'll have another piece of chocolate".

You can check out this challenge and all of the other entries on http://dotties-wonderful-world.blogspot.com/.

Happy New Year and all the best for 2009

I have just spent the most amazing Christmas and New Year with my partner Christopher. It was our first Christmas together and we have had a great time with my family. Christopher met my sister and her partner on Christmas Day and he was still meeting family members on New Year's Eve.

Even though he wasn't feeling too good he was determined that we would end 2008 and start 2009 as we mean to go on - together.