2012 Calendar

When I found out the theme for CD Sunday this week was 'Around the World' I was a bit stumped. I wanted to include lots of images from around the world so decided a card was out as it would be too small. Looking through my cds for inspiration I came across one by Card Creations+ called Wild and Beautiful. There are so many lovely images of animals from many different places - Alaska, Russia, Australia, Canada, Greenland, Africa, Norway, Eurasia etc I knew I wanted to use as many photos as possible so decided to make a calendar for next year to hang in my craft room.

I thought you'd all be bored with 13 pictures in this posting so photographed the 12 monthly pages as one group shot:

The cover was printed onto glossy photo paper and the pages onto lightweight card. I bound it together using my Bind It All and added a hook to hang it from. I can't wait to see what everyone makes for this theme as it's quite 'open' and your cards are all so inspirational.

Favourite Tipple

The theme this week on the CD Sunday Challenge Blog is Wine Buffs. Well there's one cd that fits the bill - Wine Buffs from Katy Sue Designs! I decided to make a double easel card so that I could use two of the cartoon images.

I picked out the black and wine colours from the images in the card I used to mat them on. The base of the card is covered in a backing paper from the cd - don't you just love the wine stains! LOL! I used the same card to make the 'stopper' that keeps the 2 easels upright. I then cut out 2 of the wine bottles and put them on the top of the 'stopper'. Luckily I had Happy Birthday stickers that were a wine colour, so they went on the labels of the wine bottles. There's a surprise inside the card as I used a second BP to cover the back of the 2 easels:

Wine is hubby's favourite tipple so I'm saving the card for his birthday. My favourite tipple is Dandelion and Burdock pop. We're like chalk and cheese! LOL!

Butterflies..........................

............why do you think they’re so popular with card makers? I like butterflies in real life but rarely include them in my card making. So when I was told the theme of my first entry as a Guest Designer for the CD Sunday Challenge Blog was Butterfly Kisses I knew I’d find it challenging – little did I know how challenging! LOL! Along with the members of the Design Team I received a set of stamps from this month’s sponsors, Creative Expressions. The stamps were designed by Sam Poole and called Nature’s Wonders. The set includes several butterflies, some ladybirds, a large stamp with plants a moth and a beetle, a few sentiments and……….a spider on a web. I have a dread of all things creepy crawly but especially spiders (even typing the word I’m feeling nauseous). I’m not too bad if they don’t move but you won’t see me for dust if they do. Thankfully rubber stamps don’t have a habit of crawling along your desk so I did manage to make a card.

I coloured a piece of card with a distress ink pad, then ran it through my Wizard in an embossing folder. I used a folder by Provo Craft from a set of four called ‘Wall Décor and More’. I then coloured the vine with ink from a distress ink pad using cut and dry nibs. More distress ink pads were used to colour the main stamped image. I then stamped the large butterfly a second time and layer it over the original butterfly. For a BP from a cd I turned to Butterfly Bliss by Artylicious. There’s some beautiful backing papers on this cd but all the butterflies were to large to go with the ones on my topper. So I used a plain BP from the cd and stamped the small butterfly from the set all over it. So I got there in the end even though I had to colour in a moth and a beetle! LOL! Thankfully the themes for the rest of the month aren't likely to bring me out in a cold sweat. EDITED TO ADD: Houston we have a problem! LOL! The theme for this week's challenge was changed to 'Nature's Wonders' but I didn't receive the message. Sorry if I've confused anyone wanting to enter.

Guest Designer for CD Sunday

The lovely Design Team members over at CD Sunday have asked me to be a Guest Designer for the month of October. I was hesitant at first because life is very hectic and stressful looking after my FIL. But my darling hubby (known to a few as the Pie Man) persuaded me to accept. October is my birthday month and 3 of the 5 weekly themes were good subjects for me so I took that as an omen and agreed to do it. At this point I have made 3 'items' and have ideas for the last 2 so it looks as if I'm on track! I'd be so upset if I wasn't able to fulfill my commitment and let the DT down. So starting with this post I have to learn how to schedule a posting - fingers crossed this goes ok! LOL! I have a busy few days ahead as we're clearing out FIL's shed, but family are visiting and helping us out so despite the soaring temperatures it shouldn't be to difficult a task.

Business as usual!

After managing to post my entry for the CD Sunday Challeng Blog on Tuesday of last week, I'm back to tail end Charlie this week! LOL! I knew I was going to have a very busy week so wouldn't be able to make this week's card until today. But when I got up this morning I had a sore throat and felt really ill so after being up for all of 2 hours I went back to bed. I slept most of the day and when I eventually got up managed to quickly make this card for the theme of Winter Wonderland.

The card base is one I bought from the craft show I went to on Thursday from a company called 'Every Crafts A Pound'. I covered it with a BP from Xmas Snowy Wonders cd by FeeJ Designs. Not a good idea! I had to cut the excess paper from around the card base which was a bit stressful as my head was a bit woolly. The topper is from a Kanban card kit. It already had glitter on it but I added a bit more sparkle with a Sakura gelly roll pen. although I don't think you can see it in the photo.