Christmas in June Part 4

And some more Christmas cards made this month -

Twilight Addicts Monthly Challenge - June

It was Carin's turn to set our monthly challenge and she gave us a lovely selection of sketches to choose from - I chose this one -

We also had to include distressing, stamping and a frame on our layout.  This is what I did and for a change I haven't stuck religously to the sketch.

I stamped around the outside of the cardstock and distressed all the edges with ink, plus I ripped the edges of the patterned paper.  I have framed Jules and Tara with a circle of gems.  I took these photographs at Sarah's Cards retreat back in March.

Christmas in June Part 3

I have been on a bit of a roll just lately with my Christmas card making and I need to be as I am a long way off of my target of 110 cards for my own use plus I need extras for fundraising too.  I have just heard from my Mum that the coffee morning that I normally do at her sheltered housing is going to be in September this year instead of end of October so I have less time than usual to get those cards done.

And yes I do realise that so far most of my cards are very cutesy, I need to have a look at my stamps and do some more traditional style as not everyone likes cute!!

Christmas in June - Part 2

And some more Christmas cards -

Carry on Nursing

I dug out some oldies for last week's weekly challenge on UKS.  I don't very often look at old photographs from my nursing days.  It is something that feels like a lifetime ago and often brings back some painful memories.  But it would be crazy to leave that 13 year period out of my albums as it was a big chunk of my life back then.

The layout had to be on the theme of caring so it seemed appropriate to use these photographs, you also had to pick two elements from old, new, borrowed and blue - I went for blue and 'borrowed' the idea for the layout from sketch 191 on Pencil lines.  You also had to use ink or paint on your layout - I stamped in white ink using a swirl stamp over the punched flowers and the circle cardstock frame - it looks really pretty and I might just do that again sometime.  You also had to include journalling on your layout and that was really easy as I journal on virtually all of my layouts.  The paper and cardstock came from Sarah's Cards December kit - the patterned paper is My Minds Eye 'Colourful Christmas'.

Happy Father's Day

This is the card that I have made for Dad this year -

I used a Penny Black stamp and K&Co paper - I hope Dad likes it as he goes everywhere on his bike - he is pretty amazing for 71 and it doesn't seem possible that it was five years ago that he was battling advanced prostate cancer.  It certainly makes us treasure every extra day, week and year that we get with him.

This is one of my favourite layouts about him -

Anita's June Class

Well this month's class ticked all the boxes for me - glitter papers, butterflies and lots of lilacs and pinks.  We used Bo Bunny papers for this layout and I had the perfect picture of my sister and her DH at her 40th birthday bash to use for the layout.

Thank you Anita for another lovely class.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 105

This week over on Penny Black Saturday Challenge we had a sketch to follow, I rarely use sketches for my cardmaking so it was interesting to use this one -

And this is what I did with the sketch, still a Christmas card as I was doing Christmas cards again this weekend -

I bought this stamp at Ally Pally back in April and I love it - I think I will give this card to my mum as she loves ducks and geese.

Thank you to everyone who bothers looking at my crafting and for bothering to leave comments for me, I do read them all.

Happy Birthday Richard

Richard gets the sulks if I don't make him a handmade card for his birthday, so this is what I did this year for him -

I used a lovely teddy stamp from Cuddly Buddly which I watercoloured with derwent watercolour pencils.  The flowers are made using a retro flower punch and dewdrops for the centres.  The paper used is K&Co.
As usual he is working for his birthday but next month I am taking him to see David Gray at The Dome in Brighton so we will go for a nice meal at one of the bars or restaurants  in The Lanes and have a belated birthday meal.  I will spoil him before he goes to work tonight and give him his favourite smoked salmon and prawn salad, sadly only I get to have a glass of wine.

June's Monthly Crop at Cardinal Colours

Last Sunday was our monthly crop day - my head was full of work stuff so I found it hard to actually knuckle down and do any scrapping so I only managed to do three layouts in total and one of those I did at home in the evening.

Anyway I managed to do this one -

This was using up the last sheet of paper in Sarah's Cards July 2009 kit (October Afternoon, Cherry Hill).  The little bumble bee sticker is in recognition of Melissa being Greek in origin for Honey Bee.  I coloured the chipboard apple with glitter gel pens and then gave it a coat of glossy accents.

I then did this one of my two cousins at my sister's 40th birthday bash - as soon as I saw Elaine holding the two glasses the page title just came to me (I wish that happened all the time as I hate trying to think up page titles).  The papers are Pink Paislee, Amber Road and the title has used a mixture of Creative Memories and Cosmo Cricket alphabet stickers.  The flowers are made with two different sized retro flower punches and a Woodware grass punch.

Christmas in June - Part 1

I am trying to make time each month to make some Christmas cards.  So far this month I have done 9 -

Creative Craft World - Fathers Day Challenge

You can find the challenges at Creative Craft World on their blog.  The challenge was to do a layout, so I have done this one about my Dad -

I have used papers from Jillibean Soup Minestrone range, AC thickers and Creative Memories and Cosmo Cricket alphabet stickers.  The stars were punched from scraps of Bazill using Creative Memories star punches.

My sister got a dog last year and he has now become my Dad's new best friend - it was so funny at Christmas when he was trying to help Dad to unwrap his presents.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Week 104

This week the theme was Swirls and as  I was having a day of making Christmas cards I did this card -

The swirly paper is from Card Creations and the gold swirls were punched using a Woodware punch.  I bought this stamp last year but didn't get time to use it on any of my cards - I think I will be using this one a lot this year.

Denise's Twilight House

Ages ago Denise sent me a page from her Twilight House book for me to decorate for her.  She must be thinking that I have totally forgotten to do it for her, so at last I can reveal what I have done.  It will soon be winging its way back to South Africa to her.

I do hope that she likes what I have done.

Twilight monthly challenge - Lu @ 40

We take it in turns in the Twilight Addicts group to set a challenge.  This month is it is Amanda Mary's turn to set the challenge and she asked for - no or hidden journalling, a number in the title, to use one main colour and to use a layout from your favourites as inspiration.

I used a photograph of my lovely baby sister at her 40th birthday party, as you can see the main colour I have used is pink.  I don't have much stuff in my favourites so instead as I was using Sarah's Cards May kit I took inspiration from two layouts in the design team booklet by Rachael Elliott and Louise Stevenson.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Week 103

The theme this week is In The Garden and here is my entry -

I used K&Co paper and scraps of cardstock to make the punched flowers and leaves.  The sentiment stamps are by Hobby Art.

Thanks for looking.