Seize the Birthday (Blog Challenge)

Hello again, my lovely crafty followers

Purely by accident, I happened to come across a new Challenge blog today and, I am so glad I did. They only do birthday cards... YIPPPPPPPPEEEE, which is fab because that is probably what most of us make on a regular basis anyway. They're happy for you to simply make an 'Anything Goes' birthday card for each monthly challenge OR, you can make one using their recommended 'toppings', which is basically an additional theme for you to add to your birthday card.  

This month, for example, the 'topping' is 'Hobbies and Pastimes', which could also be really cute.

That being said, I decided to make this card for this month's challenge, which, by the way, is also the last challenge of 2021. Boo hoo! I've only just found them, and now I have to wait two months before I can play again hahaha, shame but I guess everyone needs some time to themselves over December, as even Design Teams, have to have time to prepare for the upcoming festivities. Lol

So... without further delay, here is my rainbow bright 'Unicorn Birthday Card'. At the time of typing this, I'm afraid I don't remember who made the unicorn digi stamp. I will try to find out and will edit the post when I do, for your information.

I printed off some spotted coloured background paper and mounted this to plain white cardstock. Next I layered some bubblegum pink cardstock, which I first ran through my BigShot Plus in an unbranded spotted embossing folder, to which I wrapped some pink spotted grosgrain ribbon.

I then printed off the image, which I coloured with my Copic Markers using similar colours used in the background paper and finally, added one of my LOTV digital sentiments.

To add the highlights (candlelight reflections) I used one of my Prismacolour pencils to gently shade an area around the 'flame' of the candle, the unicorns face and horn and a small part of the icing, which was then blended with Sansodor and a blending stick.

I think my card is worthy of the Seize the Day Blog Challenge as both an 'Anything Goes' card and with this months 'topping' of 'Hobbies and Pastimes', as I love collecting anything to do with Whimsy i.e. mainly Unicorns and Faeries. Do you think collections count as Hobbies and Pastimes, I think it does, so I'm sticking to my interpretation hahaha.

I hope they like it and, if you would also like to take part in this challenge, click the link here and don't forget to upload your card.

Have fun, take care and be safe

Hugs, Fae

Another Bloomin' Lockdown...?

Hello, My Crafty Followers

I've been a little bit lapse in blogging recently haven't I? So much has happened, that I feel I haven't had a moment to catch my breath!

First of all, my laptop broke and it's not that easy posting to my blog with my iPhone, so I've basically been waiting for a decent Black Friday deal to come along, so that I could purchase the latest tech at a fraction of the price. Crafty eh? So, I'm now back online and raring to share with you all my cards and news from the past few months.

Lianne and her boyfriend Matt got engaged in October, so I've been very busy planning a party with her for the New Year plus, I've been creating her engagement invitations and looking at venues for the wedding! It's all very exciting, although I doubt very much that the wedding will actually be taking place in the very near future. I think they're hoping to have a long engagement, to really get saving for the wedding that they actually both want and to take a little bit of pressure off of me and her dad. Bless! 

Anyway, as well as that I have been very ill (on and off) for a few months but, I'm feeling much better now and feeling more like my old self. So, that being said... here's a few cards I have recently made.

I haven't made a monochrome card for a while. I actually forgot how much I enjoyed making these. I made the card to go with the sentiment...

'Every day may not be good...

but there is something good in every day.'

I thought that making the card in monochrome it would somehow reflect what was being said. Does that make sense? I hope so,  because I knew what I meant in my head... hahahaha

It's a swing card where the centre piece remains attached to the crease of the base card but the two sides and the bottom are cut away from part of the front, so it literally swings! Cool huh?

I obviously only 'coloured' the LOTV image using grey and black Copic markers and added some black flowers, ribbon and mounting card, plus a few black adhesive flat backed pearls. I really loved how it turned out in the end and was pleased to be able to send it to my 'Goth' Niece for her birthday, which was really well received. Bless her.

My next card is this rather cute digital image from LOTV, on Etsy. One of my favourites, as this image can literally be used for just about any card, with a few exceptions.

This card was made for my wedding anniversary. We've been married 29 years this year and, I wanted to make something cute for my husband, as he has been so supportive through various times this year, despite being rushed off his feet at work. I wanted a black and pink theme as I think the black really sets off this bubblegum pink cardstock beautifully.

First of all, I ran the black base card through my BigShot Plus, sandwiched between an unbranded A4 'spotted' embossing folder. I then coloured and mounted the image onto the same black and pink cardstock, and cut out some stars to match. 

After mounting, I adhered some pink and black spotted ribbons.

These lovely little digital images from LOTV are so easy to resize on the computer and print.  I like to download them to my desktop and then open a windows or pages document. Mainly because by viewing the document as one page, I can get a rough idea of how large the image is going to appear once printed. I usually, as a rule, like to print off two per page, as my preference is to make 8 x 8 inch cards, but that's just me... you may prefer to print 4 per page or maybe even one, if you're making an A4 card.

Once I had the images positioned where I wanted them, I printed them off onto quality cardstock and proceeded to colour them with my Copic Markers. As you can see, I made the little boy bear have a matching bow tie to the little girl bears tutu, ribbon and shoes.

I then added some sparkle with a little bit of unbranded glitter glue that I purchased from a company called The Works. 

Side note... The Works has a very large bottle of clear glitter glue for £2. I think it's approximately 500ml, which I think is a fantastic price considering I use the stuff on almost every card I make. Hahaha

I coloured the young gentleman bear in a grey pinstripe suit and coloured both of the bears brown. I appreciate that some people like to do their bears in grey but, I personally like to make them always in brown, as I have a lovely little brown bear, that sits on my desk who, I think, rather looks like these LOTV bears.

Quite a long post this evening, I hope that some of you are still with me? I hope that you have liked these two cards and I look forward to posting a few more over the next couple of days.

Please remember that from today, here in the UK, it's compulsory again, to wear face masks in ALL shops and on all public transport, until further notice.

Take care and stay safe

Hugs, Fae xx

Well... it's about time

Hello crafty friends. It's been a while, I know... I know!

I hope you have all been keeping well and safe and that you are finally starting to come out of the lockdown with some sense of normality. Its been such a crazy 12-18 months for all of us hasn't it? Things are just starting to get back to normal in the Campbell household, although for some of us, it's always been this way.  

Steve, my hubby, as you may or may not know, is an ambulance driver, so today is just like any other day for him, as he has been working as normal since the very first lockdown started here in the UK. Lianne, my daughter, is also a key worker and Lewis, my son, bless him, unfortunately was let go from his job about six months ago due to struggles at the care home where he was working. So times have been tough for him.  As for me, unfortunately, I haven't had enough mojo to go into my craft room. You'd think with everything on lockdown and not having much to do to keep busy, I would've been in there lots, but unfortunately this has not been the case.  Mum and dad are both disabled so I have been literally giving all my time to caring for them on a daily basis. Because they are both classed as vulnerable, I have been round there daily, making sure that they have everything they need in terms of shopping, cutting my dad's hair and doing various jobs around the house just to make life a little easier for the two of them.

Anyway, enough of my rambling and back to last weekend.  Saturday was the first time (in what feels like such a long, loooooooong time), I went into the shed to make something.

My son's girlfriend was celebrating her 18th birthday, so, as it is a special day, I decided to hand make her card, as whenever they go in my shed, just to chill and hang out, she's always admiring the cards I have made up on my desk or is looking at various projects I have started but haven't yet finished.

This is the card I made for Erin's 18th birthday.  I know it's the same image as the card I last made in my last post of last year but, that's because I already had a few of these particular images printed. However, I decided to use the black, white and red scheme as these are Erin's favourite colours.

The image, as before, is found on Etsy in the LOTV digi shop. Papers are from a pad purchased from The Range of no particular brand. I actually think they are just The Range's own branding.  The image was coloured with my Copic Ciao markers and I added some 3D white felt roses also purchased from The Range. The crystal embellishments were just from a left over stash I had, so can't remember which brand they are,  but they're fairly popular and can be purchased from any craft shop. I have a feeling that these were purchased from Hobbycraft originally or may have even been purchased at the last craft fair I went to at Alexandra Palace.

Anyway, that's my most recent offering. First upload of 2021. I hope to be able to get into the shed a lot more this year, I'm just building up my confidence a little bit more as I feel I'm a bit (okay, a lot) out of practice and just need to start doing a lot more instead of talking about it. Wish me luck?

Hope to see you again in the near future.

Regards, Fae