A Magnolia Church Wedding

With my Nephew getting married last year, it inspired me to make a wedding table centre piece which I subsequently entered into a competition.
Sadly, I didn't win anything, but I enjoyed making it and thought I would show you.

It took a bit of planning and creating templates, but I was really pleased with the way it turned out.
I put a battery operated tea light in the centre to light the 'church' up, which looked lovely with through the stained glass windows.

The 'stars of the show' were the beautiful Magnolia stamps - Tilda and Bridesmaid and Edwin standing groom.  I seem to have neglected my stamps recently and have been spending a lot of time with my dies, but this shows that the two combine beautifully and is something I really want to spend more time with in the future.

In the Days Before Bright Heart Craft Lights

It has been an age since I last updated my blog, which was really down to work commitments and having two years of looking after both sets of parents.
In the first year my Father in Law had a small stroke while we were on holiday and was still recovering from that when my Mother in Law had to go into hospital for open heart surgery.
As they were both too poorly to look after themselves, they moved in with us for a while and all card making was put on hold.  Luckily they have both made good recoveries but then last year, my Dad, who had been suffering from dementia for a couple of years, had a fall which was enough to trigger something in him and suddenly, overnight, became completely helpless and lost.
Mum couldn't manage and we had to arrange for a care home for him which he was only in for a couple of weeks before being taken to hospital and being there for a month before he sadly passed away.
Hopefully, all that is behind us now and I was so pleased to be asked recently to join the design team for Tattered Lace.
I have yet to receive my first commission but watched with interest their Christmas show on Create and Craft this week and, in particular the new Bright Heart craft lights they have bought out.
It reminded me of when I used to decorate cakes and for two years I made Christmas cakes using the small strings of battery operated lights you can buy for home decorations.  Oh what a difference these new lights would have made!  Although I was pleased with the results, the battery pack was so bulky, I can't wait to get hold of some of the new ones and make special cards with them.
Here are a couple of pictures of the cakes I made

This is the first one I did and this is what it looked like normally, and once the lights were turned on this is what it was like:

The next one I made the following year, was of Rudolph and his sleigh on a rooftop - even his red nose lit up!

I hope you like these ideas and I will be blogging a lot more in future, especially if I can give you any sneaky peaks of anything coming your way!

Gothic Wedding

It's been ages since I've had the chance to add to my blog, but I wanted to take the time to show you an unusual request I had for a Gothic wedding card. The instructions were that it had to be in dark purple and black, with skulls and butterflies. 

This was the end result.   Not something I can say really appeals to me, I'm more a cutie sort of person, but each to their own.  I just hope that the bride and groom for who it is intended think it is great!

On Route to South Africa

Well it's 5.15 in the morning to us but we are sitting in a bar in Dubai airport waiting for our connecting flight to South Africa!  We have been looking forward to this trip for so long and are meeting my sister and brother in law there tomorrow as they are making their way from Spain.
We have so much planned for while we are there, I am sure I will come home brimming with ideas to turn into cards!
Just wish I was able to sleep on the flight here. Mark slept all the way, but I didn't sleep a wink! Hopefully adrenaline will keep me going until we get to our hotel later today!

On A Roll Now!

I have been busy making cards over the summer, just haven't had chance to put them on my blog, so here is another one I made for Joanna Sheen, using her gorgeous 'The Age Of Elegance' CD.

I used an 8 x 8 base card and layered green card on top.  I then cut some white card to size to layer over the top of the green card and embossed it with the Spellbinders M bossabilities 'Dainty Dots' embossing folder, which is just so versatile and elegant.  I tied a length of green ribbon towards the bottom of the white cards and then stuck it to the base card.
I printed one of the topper sheets from the CD and cut the main image using one of my Spellbinders dies, layering it onto cream and coffee coloured layers before fixing it towards the top pf the card using foam pads.
One of the smaller images from the topper sheet I punched out using my Epiphany tool from Crafters Companion and attached it to the ribbon with a tie, using the same ribbon as before.
I finished the card with some artificial flowers I had in my stash.

I am entering this card into the following challenge:

Joanna Sheen - Coffee and Cream
 

It's Been A Busy Summer!

Phew - what a summer!  It's been amazingly glorious of course, but also extremely busy both at work and at home and this is the first time I have had chance to blog for ages!

I just thought I would show one of the cards I designed for Joanna Sheen a while ago using one of the Grufflies stamp sets - 'Bearytastic Day'.

I wanted to show how a card can be made just using the small images which come on these stamp sets.  I randomly stamped the paper cases and chocolate image on white paper and coloured them in using Promarkers.  I cut the paper down to size to layer on top of a square card blank and brown card, colouring the edges of the paper with Antique Linen Distress Ink before sticking it down.
For the main image, I used the smaller images of the used coffee cups, which I stamped to the side of a computer generated sentiment and coloured again using the Promarkers.  I then cut the image down to size using Martha Stewarts Punch Around The Page punches along the bottom edge and top two corners.  I stuck a piece of striped coffee and cream ribbon towards the bottom edge and layered it onto another piece of brown card.
I stuck this onto the main card using foam pads, with a small doily placed to the top left hand corner.
I finished the card using paper flowers I coloured with my Promarkers and stuck pearls to the centre.
The colour combination for this card would go lovely with the blog giveaway by The Ribbon Girls  - use this link to visit their shop and see the amazing goodies they have on offer.

I am entering this card into the following challenge:

Joanna Sheen - Coffee and Cream

Wedding Belle

I haven't had chance to blog for a while as I have been busy with orders and work, but I thought I would show you one of the cards my sister asked me to make for her friend that is getting married in September.

They all live in Spain, although the wedding is in England and, as his job is arranging golfing holidays on the Costa del Sol, and she works for my sister getting apartments ready for their owners arrival, the brief was to have the bride and groom walking through a guard of honour of golf clubs and something to do with cleaning!

I had a golf club in my stash and managed to find this cute broom on Ebay from the dolls house section.  The figures were cut using my trusted Cricut and the background is a picture of the actual church they are getting married in.

I added to the theme by giving the groom a buttonhole of golf ball and tee and the brides bouquet is a feather duster! Finally, a sentiment was added to the top using a spellbinders banner die.

I hope they like the card as much as I enjoyed making it.

I have entered this card into the Bearly Mine Challenge - dies or punches

Also make sure you check out the great giveaway by The Ribbons Girls
giving you everything you need to beautifully embellish any wedding card.