Alpine retirement...........

This card reminds me of our holiday in the Rocky Mountains! I was asked by Debbie (hubby's secretary) to make a couple of retirement cards for two colleagues who were retiring in June. This one was for a doc who skis in his spare time. I have a couple of cards with ski-ing related images on- skis' boots, ski poles etc, but I wanted to do something different. Then I found this great ski-lift image along with a snow-capped mountain range complete with trees. I kept to my usual 'commission card' layout using paper from my stash and white textured cardstock. The mountain range was cut from grey cardstock and white glittercard, and the trees from green cardstock. I prepared a central panel from white cardstock with a strip of blue adhered across the top. The mountain was adhered with foam tape over the join in the cardstock. The ski-lift was cut from black cardstock and adhered to the panel with foam tape. I added a length of silver card diagonally across the 'sky' tucking it under the top of the ski-lift. This gives the effect of the lift being suspended from a wire. Although they can't be seen in the photo I added some ski trails with glitter on the white portion of the centre panel. The wording was cut from bluey-green shimmer cardstock shadowed with silver mirri card. It was adhered to the crd with foam pads. Some silver card candi completes the card.

Carts used:

Mountain and ski-lift- Dude!

Sentiment-George (haven't used that one in a good, long while!)

Thanks for dropping by!

Heather

I'm back!!!!..........

.......from a brill 16 day holiday to Canada! Two days were spent on board the Rock Mountaineer, a very slow train, through the Rocky Mountains from Jasper to Vancouver. We flew into Calgary where we overnighted. Then took the bus to Banff where we bathed in hot springs and took a gondola (not the venetian kind, a cable car!) up to the top of Sulphur Mountain. Then we took the bus to Jasper where we went on a bear hunt, and found several, one of which came right up to the door of the bus!

Whilst in Banff we took a walk on the breathtakingly beautiful Athabasca glacier and drank ice cold, pure glacier water, straight from the glacier itself! It was delicious! That's me and hubby and our friends Imroz and Mary in the photo.

From Jasper we took the Rocky Mountaineer to Kamloops where we spent the night. Then on to Vancouver where we walked the Capalino Suspension Bridge high above the forest floor, then finally on to Victoria where we went whale watching and saw Orcas! What a blast! We finished our holiday in Seattle in the USA where we visited friends who live in a beautiful woodland home in North Bend.

We arrived home yesterday and are very slowly getting into the swing of things. Ain't jetlag a pain?!!!!

Well, it's nice to be back and I'll be back here tomorrow with a card .

Heather xxx

Congrats Graduate!!!!

My hubby's secretary Debbie asked me to make her daughter a card for her graduation this month. I actually made this one at work because I had a very small Cricut workshop a couple of weeks ago and was able to make something myself! The card is in the colours of Sophie's gown- blue and gold- her degree being in Occupational Therapy. I used papers from an old Papermania pack from yonks ago. The card was covered in blue paper matted onto gold mirri, with a white matted textured cardstock panel in the centre of the card. I cut a mortarboard from pearlised black card and added a blue pearlised tassel. The diploma was cut from ivory, white and gold pearlised cardstock with a blue ribbon. 'Sophie 2012' was cut from blue glitter card matted onto gold mirri. All the elements were adhered with foam pads. A smattering of gold pearls  and a blue Prima bloom over a white organza bow completes the card. Carts used:

Mortarboard- Everyday Pop-Up Cards

Diploma scroll- Wrap It Up

Sophie & 2012- Winter Woodland

I have a couple more Graduation cards to make. No1 son Krishnan graduates from Queen Mary's on 13th July (Law) and his lovely girlfriend Sofia graduates on 15th July (History & Politics) from the same Uni.

Thanks for dropping by!

Heather xxx

Maureen.........

One of my hubby's colleagues saw the cards that I made for  Debbie, and he e-mailed to request a card for his wife Maureen's 60th birthday. The only brief was that it should have a drama theme as Maureen is a drama teacher and enjoys AmDram (amateur dramatics) I had this gorgeous paper from a 12x12 pad from Papermania by Lucy Cromwell. The card base is an A4 and the layout is my standard for commission cards. I cut a beautiful filagree frame from blue textured cardstock. It was adhered with foam pads to the central panel, which was trimmed with a white satin ribbon and bow. I cut a scalloped square to fit in the middle of the frame, embossed it, then adhered it to the centre of the frame with more foam pads. A '60' was cut from greeny blue glittercard and adhered flat to the embossed square. The comedy and tragedy masks were cut from two different shades of glittercard and adhered to the top of the frame. I created a book from more glittercard and added 'Romeo & Juliet' to the front cover with teeny tiny gold peel off's (collective gasp of disbelief from the people who know how I feel about peel offs!!!) It was adhered flat underneath the '60'. 'MAUREEN' was cut from glittercard and adhered flat. An aqua bloom, punched glittercard flowers and a smattering of pearls completes the card.

Carts used:

Filagree frame- Ornamental Iron 2

Scalloped square- Elegant Edges

60 and Maureen- Storybook

Tragedy/comedy masks, book- Locker Talk

Thanks for dropping by!

Heather xxx

Mellow yellow........

I

It was my sister-in-law Karen's birthday a couple of days before her and my brother's wedding anniversary (see card in previous post) and this is the card that I made for her. I very rarely (if at all!) use yellow as the main colour on a card, but I had this lovely white card with pale yellow flowers on it and thought that it would make a stunning dress for an Art Deco lady. I dug into my stash and found some co-ordinating papers from Dovecraft's Tea House double sided paper 12x12 pack and First Editions Family Ties 8x8 stack. The card base is a standard C5 with about 1 1/2" cut off the front, then punch along the length. I covered the inside of the card with yellow Tea House paper, and the front of the card with glittery yellow Family Ties paper. I cut a piece of white card approx. 2" wide and punched one long edge. A piece of Tea house paper was adhered to it leaving a narrow white border on the un-punched side. Yellow sheer ribbon was added, and then the panel was adhered to the front of the card leaving a tall, narrow panel on which to adhere 'Sheba'. She was cut from textured cardstock, patterned card (dress) and silver paper (gloves). I gave her a  long pearl necklace draped down her back and some earrings. She was adhered to the card with foam pads. A WOC bloom was adhered to the bow to complete the front of the card.

'Karen' was cut from white pearlised card and silver paper then adhered vertically to the inside back with foam pads. A panel with punched corners was adhered inside the card for a greeting. A smattering of pearls completes the card.

Cart used:

'Sheba' & 'KAREN'- Art Deco

Thanks for dropping by!

Heather xxx

Serene swans........

It was my brother and sister-in-law's wedding anniversary last week and this is the card that I made for them. It's a whopper at 8" square - I've taken a liking to big cards since doing my A4 commission cards. I used beautiful 'Wedded' pearlised patterned paper from the Bella! Wedding collection. The paper was matted onto a square of silver mirri and adhered to the front of the card. A beautiful intricate panel was cut from more silver mirri and adhered to the front of the card with foam pads. I added an embossed heart and ribbon bow to the top of the panel, and in the centre of the panel are two beautiful swans cut from pearlised card. I flipped one of them so that they were facing each other. A computer-generated sentiment was trimmed to fit a silver mirri oval which was adhered below the swans with foam pads. I embellished the oval with a pearl heart and some plain pearls. A quartet of medium sized pearls completes the card.

Carts used:

Intricate panel- Ornamental Iron 2

Swans- Art Nouveau

Heart- George

Oval holding sentiment- Opposites Attract

Thanks for dropping by today!

Heather xxx



A giraffe for Emma!.........

This was the third in a trio of cards that I made for Debbie, my hubby's secretary. Apparently Emma loves giraffes, so that was my brief for this card. It's a biggun! A4 again. I used papers from Papermania with leaves and wood effects on them. The layout is simple with a central panel holding the cuts. I wrapped some pretty leaf shaped ribbon around the bottom of the centre panel then added the giraffe, cut from two shades of Bazill cardstock with a little chalk shading for definition. 'Emma' and '18' were cut from DCWV glittercard and adhered to the card with foam pads. I added a branch and some punched flowers to add a little femininity to the card. A smattering of pearls completes the card.

Carts used:

Giraffe- ZooBalloo

Emma & 18- Base Camp

Branch- Serenade

I'm hosting a Swarm tomorrow and I have a request to the ladies who are coming, from Lorraine. She has mislaid her Sweethearts cartridge and wonders if someone picked it up by mistake at a previous Swarm, and asks that if it was you could you please bring it along tomorrow? Thanks.

Thanks for dropping by today!

Heather xxx