A very SPECIAL request...

Heartfelt message from Dustin Pike...

He would really love to give this young lady a very special, worldwide, greeting to let her know that we are all supporting her, by giving her cards from around the world.  This is the message that Dustin has recently posted on his blog...

There is a young lady in my daughter's dance studio 18 yrs old, Just a few months ago she was diagnosed with MS(multiple sclerosis). She had lost her eyesight in one eye temporarily but it has since returned. Her family is awesome, her younger sister is my youngest's best friend at dance. On June 21st we have a swim party for the dance studio at a local pool, I would like to give her a box full of cards from all over the world that night. It's almost a month away and right now I can't give you all a set or a few digi's for doing it til I get these 3 books finished. but later I could. I know it's a lot to ask for some and others not so much. Her name is McKenzie, now I know my stamps aren't mostly for 18 yr old girls, so any card, any stamp will do, one card from everyone who could do it might just make her day, she's been struggling since dance is everything to her. If you'd like you can send them to me, email me dustin_pike@yahoo.com and I will send you my address, if you'd like to wait I will see if they can't be sent to the studio, but we are one a 3 week dance break (well deserved I might add) and so I don't know if they'd just sit there, so if you'd like send them to me and I will collect them all then find a neat way to give them to her at he party...There was a dance she was in as well as most of the studio titled "Stand By Me" and they dedicated the dance to her at every competition we did since learning what she had, I don't know if that will inspire anyone in the card making process, but if you could do this I would be really grateful.

******UPDATE*****

I only put that she was close to 18 or there abouts so you all knew what kind of card to make, these are cards of encouragement not birthday cards... :)

Also my inbox is flooded so I am adding my address for you to send the cards to so I can catch up on emails.

Dustin Pike

2486 N 890 W

Clinton, Utah 84015

Please support Dustin by sending McKenzie a card to cheer her up and make her day, especially for those of you who use Dustin's freebies, by way of thanks. perhaps you could pop over to Dustin's blog and leave him a comment too, but sending a card would be better.

Many thanks
Fae xxx

Bedtime Bear

I made this card for the Teddy Bear Stampers blog challenge which was 'bedtime bear'. They have some really cutesy images over there including a Care Bear (I haven't seen one of those for years, I used to love them).  Anyway, here's my offering for the challenge. A digi bear and a stamped sentiment. Really cute, I'm going to give this card to my friend who is expecting a boy in the very near future. 


Thanks for stopping by, Fae xxx

NOT a card...

Recipe is as follows:

• One candle (a white or cream one is better)
• One rubber stamp
• Suitable ink (I used Stayzon)
• One small piece of Tissue Paper (preferably the same colour as your candle)
• One piece of Greaseproof paper, no taller than your candle but enough to go all the way around, and then some, as you will need enough to grip tightly in your hand when heating commences.
• Colouring medium (pens or pencils are better but check on small area before colouring image)
• Heat gun

First of all make sure that the stamped image will be no bigger than the height of your candle once stamped.  Then stamp the image onto the tissue paper, I could only find baby pink...no white anywhere! But I think I got away with it??? (you might want to stamp it a couple of times just in case you make a mistake) and colour it in (I used ProMarkers).  Once the image has been stamped and you have finished colouring it in, carefully cut around the image, leaving only a very small border around the outside.  When the image is completely cut out place it onto the candle.

Take your greaseproof paper and place it carefully over the top of the image being careful not to move it and then pull the greaseproof paper taut over the image.  Gripping the paper tightly around the candle, switch on your heat gun and let it warm up a little, then run it over the top of the image for just long enough so that the image melts into the candle (take care not to hold the heat gun in one place for too long as this will distort the candle. We just want to melt it slightly so that the tissue paper melts into the surface.  Carefully remove the greaseproof paper and voila... you're done.

In true Blue Peter fashion...here's one I made earlier...  I then wrapped it in some florist's cellophane and added a pretty bow (see photograph).  The perfect handmade gift for my friend Claire, who celebrated her birthday today and has very kindly volunteered to accompany me to the hospital tomorrow so I don't have to be alone (Steve has to work).

Hope you had a lovely day Claire.  See you in the morning...

Thanks for stopping by, Fae xxx

Any ideas???

Here's a little something I have been working on this evening... it's a new digi stamp that I purchased from Mo Manning over at Mo's Digital Pencil (Digital pencil Too). It's just too cute. I have finished colouring it in and now I have to do something with it...watch this space.  I will make something with him tomorrow night, anyone have a challenge for me??? Something that they would like to see me make with it?

Answers by 6pm tomorrow please, or I'll have to make something using inspiration from my Inspiration Jar...

Thanks for stopping by
Hugs, wishes and faeries kisses, Fae xxx

Life of the Party

This card is one I made for the Penny Black Challenge, the Allsorts Challenge and the Create 4 Fun Challenge.

The Penny Black challenge was to create a card using a Penny Black stamped image and 'flowers'.  The Allsorts challenge was to make a birthday card to celebrate their blog's birthday and the Create 4 Fun Challenge was to make a card using the following sketch.

I made my card by starting with a plain white base card, I then took some Paper mania green card stock and ran it through my Big Shot with the Cuttlebug Dots Embossing Folder.  I added a red strip of card and used the same card to create the large scalloped circle. I then stamped the Penny Black image 'Life of the Party' onto white card and circle cut it with my circle nesties. I coloured the image using ProMarkers Ice Grey 1, Forest Green, Canary, Orange and Poppy. Finally, I added a Hero Arts sentiment and some flowers with centered adhesive pearls. Job done!

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Hugs, wishes and faerie kisses, Fae xxx

Neopolitan Delights

This is a card that I have made for the Teddy Bear Stampers Blog Challenge.  Their challenge this fortnight was to create a card using the sketch and the colours were blue, pink, yellow and brown.  Not a fabulous colour combo but I rose to the challenge anyway, oh... and of course, you have to have either a digi stamp or rubber stamped image of a teddy bear.

Initially, I was going to try and make this challenge combine with the Penny Black Challenge too, but I love this little Lili of the Valley bearsoooooo much that I just really wanted to use him for this one. And I think it turned out pretty good. I used my large scalloped circle nesties and created a pink and a brown layer (you can just about see the pink scalloped layer above the brown one but under the white circle with the image) and I stuck them all together.

I then cut some baby blue cardstock and border punched it with my Martha Stewart Doily punch and then added some blue and brown circle ribbon to it and finally I added the flowers with the pearls.  To finish the whole thing off I then added some brown and blue coloured gemstones to the top of the doily punch circles.

Faerie Heaven

Here is my latest offering.  The background stamp is 'Sketched Butterfly' by Stampendous and was a present from my good friend, Sarn and the fairy is by PSX. This is one I have had forever. Fae means Faerie and so I am a huge collector of faeries and such like and therefore this stamp is a definite keeper. I don't use her very often but when I do I am always happy with whatever I have created and this is no exception.

I stamped the background butterfly onto white cardstock with 'Impress Lavender' raised ink pad and then stamped the faerie with black Stayzon and added a little blue pencil to her wings and a few of the butterflies in her hair and then added some glitter. I then stamped the greeting from Hero Arts, which I cut out leaving a small border and mounted onto black card which also had a little border when cut. I then added the ribbon and the pearls and some more glitter to the background butterflies. Et voila! Faerie heaven. My work here is done!

I made this card for my sister-in-law, Dianne, who is celebrating her birthday tomorrow. Happy Birthday Di, have a great day!

Thanks for stopping by, Fae xxx

Fairy Flowers

This is a card I have made for the Daring Card makers Challenge. The theme was to use 'Bunting' and that was what I created along the top of this card.  I didn't think it would look right, but I think it turned out okay.

The main image is from Lili of the Valley and I have made the rosettes down the left side of the card myself using a technique on Split Coast Stampers. I really like them and think I will use them again in the future as they are really easy to make.

I would love to know what you think?

Thanks for stopping by, Fae xxx

Birthday Simba

This card was made using the Birthday Simba that came with the Birthday Bamboo (the panda) by Kanban and purchased through QVC recently.

I stamped him a few times and decoupaged various bits of him so he looks like he's popping out of the box. I just love him, he's so cute. Coloured with my Sandstone, Blush, Poppy and Aegean Blue ProMarker pens.  Background paper came with the stamps and the sentiment is something I copied from the dictionary.




Hope you like it.

Thanks for stopping by, Fae xxx

Birthday Presents

Just wanted to share with you all some of the pictures of my lovely birthday treats that I received.  The first picture is the bouquet that Steve (my lovely hubby) bought me home from work.  He bought them in London and drove home with them in the Ambulance (no he wasn't a patient, he was driving it) Bless!

The cake was a present from some colleagues at work (Kathy and Sharon), thanks girls it was deeee-licious! Marks and Spencers at it's finest! Absolutely lovely, not even a crumb was left to be eaten.

And the other bouquet was from my good friend, Antonina.  She even made me a birthday card herself to go with the flowers.  The roses and orchids were from Antonina but I have also included the tulips that Kathy and Sharon bought for me with the cake. Aren't I a lucky girl.?

I'm off out for dinner tonight somewhere. Don't know where yet but I'm sure it'll be lovely. I haven't eaten a thing all day so that I have plenty of room for pudding too. Yummy

Penny for Your Thoughts

I made this card for my friend Sarn to show her that I was missing her and looking forward to seeing her at Alexandra Palace this September if she has the means to travel down here. I wrote a really long letter to tell her what was on my mind and then made the easel card to house the letter.

The image on the front of the card is a freebie from the wonderful Mo Manning at Mo's Digital Pencil.  I just love her images and the freebie ones that she gives out to her loyal customers every now and again are well worth getting your hands on as they are equally as adorable as the ones you can purchase through her web site.

Anyway, after I created the outside with my mo' image and the various cardstocks used, I then visited TLC and picked up this lovely sentiment (which was also a freebie) that was perfect for the image and then added that to the bottom of the inside of the card.  I then added the adhesive gem flowers and then proceeded to make a sort of envelope for my letter which I then also added to the inside of the card (as you can see in the picture). I then decorated the envelope with my Stampendous swirly butterfly stamp and popped it in the post.

I have entered the card into the Dare U to Digi Stamp Challenge, 'Anything Goes'

Thanks for stopping by.
Fae xxx

Birthday Bamboo

Here is an acetate card that I have made this morning, using my new clear stamps (a birthday present) from QVC. They are from Kanban and they are the cutest I have seen for a while. There is Birthday Bamboo (a panda) and Birthday Simba (a lion) in the set and this image is using the panda (but you knew that already). Coloured with black, ice grey 1 and forest green ProMarkers and mounted onto black card and then stuck down on the acetate.  The bamboo card at the back of the card came with the stamps.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my cards.  Please feel free to leave a comment if you like them.

Hugs, Fae xxx

The Great Bake

Every time someone has a birthday in my place of work they have to bring in cakes to celebrate with members of their department.  This year I was challenged to MAKE my cakes myself and from scratch! Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not the world's greatest cook, let alone make cakes. The nearest I have got to baking is buying a packet from the supermarket and adding milk and an egg to it. Pop it in the oven and it's done! Well... this year I had to make them myself, with ingredients, and following a recipe... oooer I hear you say, but they actually came out pretty good AND they were edible.  I made a lemon Drizzle loaf cake, a chocolate marble cake and some blueberry muffins. AND they were all edible.  I even bought a Mr Kiplings Manor House cake on my way into work just in case, but no one touched that, they all ate MY CAKES!

This is a few photos of my cakes, I was very, very proud of them.
 

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's my birthday today! YAY! Yippeeeeeeee for me.
Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to meeeeee-eeeeee
happy birthday to me.

Gardening Goddess

Here's another of my favourite Penny Black stamps.  I stamped the background with a Banana Frog stamp in Black and then the Stampendous butterfly stamp in Magenta.  I then stamped the PB image and coloured it with my Promarkers: Blossom, Lime Green, Forest Green, Ice Grey 1 and Cool Grey 2. I then added a simple greeting with foam pads to finish.

Thanks for stopping by, Fae xxx

A Little Sympathy

This is just a really simple Sympathy card that I made for my box of cards that I like to keep as a back up at home so that if something like an unexpected birthday or a friend falls ill and needs a 'get well card', I always have a spare one at home that I can just write on and post rather than have to make one from scratch.

Anyway, this is just a really simple card that has a white base card and I ran a piece of marbelled pink cardstock through the Big Shot in a Cuttlebug embossing folder and mounted onto the card. I then just added the sentiment in the bottom right corner. Should be just right to let someone know I am thinking of them in their hour of need and also to let them know that I care.

Thanks for stopping by, Fae xxx

Two-Tone Putty Tat

Looking through my Inspiration Jar this week, I picked out the following inspirational messages, make a card using a Penny Black image, and embossed background, a charm or embellishment and only two colours.  This is what I came up with...  I used a blue and sandstone striped background paper and decided to use those two colours as my two tone colour combo.  I then took some beige cardstock and ran it through the Big Shot with a Cuttlebug embossing folder to create the dotted effect.  I then coloured in the image with Promarkers Sandstone and Sky Blue.  I know I have added a little black onto the card as well, but as the image was stamped with black ink, I thought it would be okay to use a little bit more, and after all, the challenge was only set by myself, so I could afford to bend the rules just a little.  So, I mounted the image onto black mirri card and then added the large eyelet embellishment onto black mirri cardwith a scalloped edge also.

Hope you like it? Thanks for stopping by,
Fae xxx

Penny Black Bathtime

This card was made using a Kanban printed cardstock and a Penny Black stamped image.  I love this cat in the bath, but the little mouse gets me every time, he looks really cute.  I matched the colours as best I could with my Promarkers, and I used maroon for the bath and for the sentiment (which was originally a white colour).  I added some mini gemstones and some glitter to finish the image off and the sentiment was mounted onto white card stock which I also coloured with the maroon Promarker and then mounted it again onto black mirri card, which I also used to mount the stamped image.

Communion Cards 1...2...3

I was asked to make three Communion cards this week for a colleague at work, for her Niece, as she had looked in the High Street and couldn't find anything 'special'.  I looked online and couldn't find any inspiration there either, and although I have only ever made two Communion cards EVER before, this is what I came up with...

This was the first of three cards, and it was quite a challenge.  Because they are for the same girl, I had to make three really different cards. The image was from the internet, which I mounted onto black mirri card and added some black and white polka dot ribbon.  I then added some white adhesive pearls.  I printed the image off twice and decoupaged the head and shoulders of Jesus and part of his cape, I think you can just about see this in the picture.

I then set about making the second of the three and again, needed some inspiration.

All I was told was that the girl in question DIDN'T LIKE PINK! So this card was made using a rose red and cream background.

I mounted the background paper onto cream cardstock and then added the image, which again came from the Internet and then I added the ribbon and the pearls as before.  I also added a pearl flower to the bottom left corner as an added finishing touch.  The wording was added after it had been mounted onto gold mirri cardstock.

The third and final card was especially hard to make as I didn't think I could possibly top the first two - I really, really liked them both and was really pleased with how they turned out.  Not wishing to blow my own trumpet or anything, but I really felt that these two cards were up in the top ten of all my handmade cards. I was that pleased!

So, onto the third card and this was cream and gold. I had a lot of gold mirri card left over and so decided to keep it simple but pretty.  This card was made with a simple verse and a lot of pearls.  A lot of pearls!

First of all, I ran some cream card through my big shot with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and then I mounted it onto gold cardstock with a very thin border.  I then did the same with the verse.  I added some gold ribbon and some pearls and then the card was done.

I made all three cards Easel cards and decorated the insides to match the outsides.  Jane was over the moon with all three and I hope that Jessica, the little girl celebrating her communion will be just as thrilled with them.  One is for Jane to send, the Cousin card is from Jane's children and the Grand-daughter card is from Jane's mother, who also liked the cards.  A job well done and as I said before, I am really pleased with how they came out, but please, don't ask me for any more Communion cards just yet, I'm all religioned out!!! Below are a few more images for you to see of the cards in black and white and at different angles, but I still don't think that the photographs are doing the cards much justice.

Thanks for stopping by, Fae xxx

Burlesque Butterflies

This is a craft kit I purchased from Sue on Watford Market.  She told me a really sad story about a lady that popped in to buy this kit because her daughter had accidently drowned in a garden pond and the garden was filled with many, many butterflies and now whenever she sees a butterfly she thinks of her daughter.

I bought the kit hoping to make something really special with it and this is the card I have made for my friend Jane, it's her birthday on the 4th May.  The black cardstock already has the butterflies in the bottom corner printed and the larger butterflies are pop-out die cuts. The sentiments are also included with the die cut butterflies.

I popped out a couple of the larger butterflies and curled the wings slightly around my fingers and then mounted them with black foam pads, which also come with the kit (400 of them).

The kit is from Kanban and includes 12 A5 cards, 6 white and 6 black, 12 white A5 envelopes, 2 sheets of white and black pop-out butterflies and 400 black foam square pads.

I then coloured the Kraftin Kimmie stamp with Ivory, Blush, Aegean, Forest Green, and Black Promarkers.  I added white adhesive pearls to the eyes of the feathers and coloured them with the Aegean Promarker and then added emerald green rhinestones to the dancers necklace and blue rhinestones to the base of her headdress.  The mounted butterflies add some definition to the card and I added some clear rhinestones to break up the black, like stars.  To be totally honest with you, this picture is not doing the card much justice but I hope that Jane will be pleased to receive it.

Burlesque Beauty

Here's one of my Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps, I just love these stamps.  I used the Pretty Please Spring Papers from My Minds Eye, which were a freebie with a craft magazine.  The mini rhinestones were purchased on Ebay and the ribbon was recycled from an old cardigan.

The colours used on this occasion were Promarkers Ivory, Blush, Cocoa, Blossom and Maroon.

I mounted the image onto cerise mirri card and also mounted the sentiment onto the same before cutting around the image so that it left a thin border.

I then added some mini coloured gemstones to each of the flowers.

For George

This next card was made with a Whipper Snapper elephant.  The background paper used was by Tracy Porter 'Make and Create' Butterfly Bouguet (using the reverse side).  I wasn't actually keen on the butterflies themselves but really liked the check pattern on the reverse.

The Promarker colours I used on the image were: Ice Grey 1, Poppy and Forest Green.  The little tiny coloured gems were purchased from Ebay.

The letters used and the glittered number were as before, Bug in a Rug Alphabet by Sizzix which were run through the Big Shot on Black Mirri card and then I cut a small scalloped circle and added the rhinestones and the glittered number from Tesco.  I added five rhinestones to the left and right of the number as George's birthday is in May (5th month, 5 stones get it?)

Happy 1st Birthday George.

Paddling Pool

This little fella is a digi stamp by Mo Manning at Digital Pencil.  She's very talented and I love her images.  I bought this one a while ago and it came in perfect on this occasion as it is my friend's son, Keegan's, 1st birthday this coming Wednesday.

Shame the weather actually isn't good enough for a dip in the pool but I'm sure that it will lift Tracy's spirits when she sees it.

The background papers used were Vroom Vroom by Frances Meyer Inc and Sky and Spruce Stripes by Scrapbook Walls which I ran through the Big Shot with the numbers Cuttlebug embossing folder.

The letters to spell KEEGAN were also cut on the Big Shot using my Bug in a Rug alphabet and black mirri card.

Promarker colours used were: Ivory, Blush, Sandstone, Poppy, Lime Green and Sky Blue.

I coloured the image and then mounted it with foam pads to give a little depth to the card.  The letters were stuck down using a glue pen.  I then added the glittery adhesive number that I got from Tesco and a small sentiment in the top right corner, I can't remember where they came from but it was an A4 sheet of different sentiments.