'Joy' Pop-Up Stepper......

I was watching Create & Craft (as you do) the other day, when I saw this style of card made. I thought it looked great so I got out a pad & pen and started drawing the design as the demonstrator was making it. After a few (!!!!!) aborted attempts I finally cracked it! Who needs polypropolene templates anyway?! The card format is like a double side-stepper, but the front section pops up due to an extra fold ( you can see the extra fold in the next photo). Now guess what people.... I can't stop making the blessed things!

They are really quick to put together (once you've done the measurin'/scorin'/foldin'!) and the panels give you lots of room to play with.

I used DCWV 8 x 8 paper/cardstock for this card, using gold card for the mats and 3 different papers for the panels. I cut a shaped panel for centre of the card from champagne coloured pearlescent card with a gold mat. I embossed the smaller panel with an embossing folder. 'Joy' was cut from dark red glittercard with a gold shadow, layered up, then adhered to the embossed mat with foam pads. A large poinsetta with some punched leaves were adhered above the word with silicone glue.

Beautiful red ribbon with a green centre stripe was adhered to the long, thin panel and a bow added. Two smaller embossed panels were adhered with foam tape to the side step panels and additional leaves and some gems were added to finish the card.

Carts used:

'Joy' & shaped panels- Winter Woodland

Thanks for dropping by and have a great weekend!

Heather xxx

Happy Birthday David.....

It was my nephew David's birthday yesterday and I made him this tri-fold card. David plays guitar like his dad, my brother Andrew, and they often gig together at one of their local pubs, so I thought that this record and guitar theme would be appropriate. I used some fab paper that I got from CraftsULove on special offer a while ago. It's by Imaginisce and called Live Loud. I used a Fiskars punch on the diagonal edge and 3 different papers. The LP was made from black mirri with an 'oil-on-water' finish, with a patterned paper 'label'. I added an embossed guitar and some punched stars.

'David' was cut from orange mirri card, embossed with a Tim Holtz embossing folder the adhered with foam pads. 'Happy Birthday' was cut from more orange mirri shadowed with black mirri, again adhered with foam pads. I added a plain sentiment panel to the inside of the card.

Carts used:

Guitar-Wall Decor & More

David-Opposites Attract

Happy Birthday-Stamping Solutions

LP,label & spindle hole- George

Thanks for visiting today!

Heather xxx

An owl for Millie.....

Another of the Girliez next door had a birthday and I made her this little owly card...the picture's not too good I'm afraid.
There are some lovely owls on several carts but I really like this one which was on one of the papers in the Honey & Hugs Papermania pack. I used 2 images for this card, decoupaging with one of them. I decoupaged the feet, wings and eyes to which I added some googlies.
I added a layered rose to the head to cover the original one on the print. The completed owl was mounted with foam tape onto a scalloped circle with green floral plain circle. 'Millie' was cut from pale green glittercard as was 'Happy Birthday' this time with a white shadow. They were both adhered with foam pads. I punched out 2 sizes of daisies from white glittercard,layered them up, added a large pearl to the centre of each then adhered them either side of 'Millie' on the stop.All the papers are Honey & Hugs and the punch is Martha Stewart.
Carts used:
Scalloped/plain circle & 'Millie'- Winter Woodland
'Happy Birthday'-ZooBalloo

Brrrrrr! wrap up warm........

Aren't these hat and mittens cute? I'd made the main body of this card but couldn't figure out what to put in the striped circle (I do that a lot!- I've got a drawer full of not quite finished cards because I can't decide what to put on them!) and flicking through the WW handbook came across these cute hat & mittens. I cut them from pink & white glittercard, added the snowflakes , then adhered them with foam pads to the circle. 'Brrrr' was cut from more glittercard and shadowed in white then adhered to the centre section with foam pads. Pink snowflake printed ribbon, some punched snowflakes & gems complete the card. The edger punch is EK Success & the papers are Honey & Hugs by Papermania.

Carts used:

All cuts- Winter Woodland

Thanks for dropping by!

Heather xxx

Happy Birthday Dan...2nd post today.....

It was my nephew Dan's birthday yesterday-hope it was a good 'un Dan!-and because he's Karate black belt I made him this card. I used a tri fold C5 card and edged the diagonal with a greek key Fiskars punch. The papers are from DCWV Natural Stack in lovely chocolate brown and copper. The karate figure was cut from black & white cardstock, 'Happy Birthday' & 'Dan' was cut from copper mirri card and shadowed with brown spotted paper, and I added a piece of black ribbon knotted to represent a black belt.

For the inside of the card I cut a Ying & Yang symbol from black & white cardstock, a karate figure frame backed with copper mirri, and added a sentiment square with rounded corners.

Carts used:

Karate figure,frame & Ying/Yang-Sports Mania

Dan-Opposites Attract

Happy Birthday-Stamping Solutions

Thanks again for visiting today!

Heather xxx

p.s Our boys are VERY happy bunnies this afternoon- they are the proud owners of a Hyundai i10!

Christmas Countdown Calendar.....

It was our first Swarm in the new shop yesterday...and as usual we had a great time! This was the project that I prepared for the ladies. There are a few of these floating around in Blogland and various publications, but this is my take on the idea.

My ladies oohed and aahed when they saw it....and boy did they work like trojans to finish theirs. They ALL did a fabulous job, and made something that they should all be proud of- the finished articles looked EXACTLY like mine!

The base for this calendar was a piece of card used as packing for 12 x 12 papers, but cereal packet card would be just as good. I cut out the shape by hand and covered it with patterned paper. The blue sky was just a smaller version of the main shape. The santa & sleigh was cut at 4" from black cardstock and adhered with foam pads over a glittercard moon. I cut 7 card tags and 14 paper tags which were adhered to the card tags, alternating patterns back & front. The numbers were cut from pink & green cardstock and adhered to 6 of the tags, one being left blank-although I did put a '0' on one of the left-hand tags it isn't necessary. There are 2 tags on the left hook and 5 on the right hook. The left hooks are number 1-2 (plus the blank/0 tag) and the 5 tags on the right hook are numbered 1-0. The tags are simply turned over each day to reveal the date eg. 21. 'December' was cut from pink cardstock with a green shadow and adhered with foam pads beside the tags. The hooks for the tags were made with jewellery wires (I think that they are called eye pins) bent over a marker pen to form a hook then fixed in place with white brads. A scattering of punched snowflakes complete the calendar.

Carts used:

Santa & Sleigh- Christmas Noel

Moon & tags-George

December-Designer's Calendar

Numbers-Winter Woodland (font shadow)

Thanks for looking today!

Heather xxx

From our house......

I just don't seem to be able to make a bog-standard card these days! When I see a C5 card blank it doesn't inspire creativity but if there's a fancy fold or a shape in there somewhere, well that's a different kettle of fish!....
I made a shaped card with this door cut. I cut 2 doors with blackout enabled @ 8 3/4" (this will fit a C5 envelope) from white card and joined them together down the left hand side. I then took off blackout and cut another door frame from cream card. The door itself was cut from 2 shades of red card. A gold key plate and doorknob was cut from gold mirri then adhered to the door. I painted a piece of aceteate with peel-off markers and adhered it behind the fanlight at the top of the door.The wreath was from a pack of Papermania embellishments from last year's stash. This was adhered with foam pads to the door. I cut 2 topiary trees from green, brown and terracotta card and added some tiny punched glittercard flowers, then adhered them with foam pads either side of the door frame.
I computer generated the sentiment 'From our house to yours..... with love at Christmas' onto Safmat, then applied it to a piece of white card edged with red cardstock. This was adhered with foam pads to the 'doorstep'. The rest of the sentiment is inside the card.
This card can be made on the Create too. Just put the machine into Portrait mode. A card this size cannot be made on the original Bug- sorry!
Carts used:
Door & frame-Christmas Solutions
Topiary Trees-Joys Of The Season
Thanks for looking and I look forward to seeing my ladies tomorrow for The Swarm!
Heather xxx