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

Happy New Year 2020

Hey bloggers

Happy New Year to you all.

I know it has been a while since I last posted, but, to be honest, my previous laptop was more trouble than it was worth to log in. Half of the keys didn't work, so putting in passwords etc was a nightmare. Anyway, I was extremely fortunate to get a new, fully functioning laptop from the Christmas Faerie and so I am a very happy bunny again. 

I am starting the new year with a promise (NOT a New Year's Resolution (as I always break those) to post every new card I make, this year, here, for you all to see (or not, depending on how many followers I still have) Lol.

I sadly, must confess, that my mojo has been somewhat lacking, as I realised the other day, that the last card I actually made was in January 2019 (a whole year ago)!!!

So, without further delay, here is my first card of 2020 and, hopefully, the first of many more to come.

All of the cards, made so far this year, have been commissions for my best friend, Maggie. She is the one solely responsible for getting my mojo back. So, thanks for that Maggie... hope you like them?

This card was made for Maggie's sister-in-law who celebrated her 60th birthday this week.  

I'm sorry but I cannot remember who the artist of the digi stamp is. I coloured her with my copic markers and mounted her onto matching colour cardstock.  I then cut out a circle of both white and then the same red again, just to give the background some interest. I then added some glitter letters and numbers from Hobbycraft and finally, I added a few red adhesive pearls. The inside was left black as Maggie wanted me to handwrite a personal message from her and her family on her behalf (as she likes my handwriting... awwww).

The second card I've made, so far, this year, was a thank you card for Maggie's counselling friend, Chris Barton. 

He is very good at getting someone to practice mindfulness and wellbeing and has his own clinic. Maggie also suffers with Multiple Sclerosis and so, Chris has literally been a godsend for her.

The digital stamp is by Mo's Digital Pencil, called 'King for the Day' and can be found here.  

I coloured him with my copic markers and added some texture to the chair by stippling, shading and highlighting. 

All of these techniques I have learned from Alyce Keegan of Kit and Clowder. She is a fantastic teacher and has an overwhelming number of members. Check her out, if learning better colouring techniques is high on your list of priorities this year. She really is amazing and is happy to discuss anything with you on a one-to-one basis if you are finding something difficult or need extra help. So don't be put off by her numbers of followers, as that alone should tell you just how great she is.

The final card of three, is another birthday card for Maggie's aunt, who will be celebrating her birthday on the 20th of this month. 

The image again, is from Mo's Digital Pencil, called 'Bronte Birthday, and can be found here.

Again, I coloured him with copic markers, and Prismacolour pencils. I used white card to mounted him, which I coloured the edges of using the same copic marker used on the tutu.

I then added some highlights using a Jellyroll White Pen and added some pink adhesive gems.  I used some pink sparkly background paper (from my scrap stash) and the card was finished.  

Again, Maggie wanted the inside left blank so that I could handwrite a personal message on behalf of her and her family.

So... that's it so far.  Looking forward to sharing many more with you in the very near future.

I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas and will have a very happy and healthy New Year.

TTFN, Fae xx

Windows

At the Crazy for Challenges blog this week, their theme is 'Windows'.  These can be any form of window i.e. a hole cut in the front of the card, a shaker card, a window in an image (including vehicles), anything basically that has or is classed as a window.

I chose to make the following card for this week's challenge as I have a few male birthdays coming up this month and next, so I needed to make a few masculine cards.

For this card I used another Lili of the Valley digital image called 'Under the Bonnet' in the Men and Boys section, the image can be found here.

Firstly, I used a piece of green scrap backing paper from my scrap box and ran it through my Big Shot in an embossing folder. The embossing folder is an after market one purchased on eBay. Had to wait ages for it to arrive from China, but it was only 99p with free P&P and it embosses beautifully. I then mounted this to the front of my 8" x 8" card blank.

I coloured my image in a similar colour to the embossed card using my Copic pens and mounted it first to green card and then to a beautiful green glitter card (purchased in a pack of glittered card from B&M Stores).  To finish it off, I simply added three white Card Candi to the top left of the card, I didn't want to add a sentiment to this one, which I normally would do, because I may use it for my daughter's boyfriend, if he passes his driving test - IF...

That's it... hope you like it.

Don't forget to pop over and visit Crazy 4 Challenges Blogspot if you would like to take part too.

Thanks for stopping by.

Fae xxx

Lazy Summer Days

Hello fellow crafters,

Here's a card I have made this week using a gorgeous image from Mo Manning called 'A Secret' and it can be found here.

I am entering this card into the following blog challenges:

Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes
Dragonfly Dreams - Summer
4 Crafty Chicks - Anything Goes (Summer)

I used Copic Markers to colour her and used Prismacolor Pencils and Sansodor to blend for the background and the sand. Kept the layout fairly simple and added the sentiment, which was included with the digi stamp.  Finally, I mounted her onto blue card and then again onto blue glitter card to finish it off.  Background paper was from my stash, unfortunately I can't remember / don't know which brand it is.

Hope you like her...?

Want to colour better?
The techniques I have used here, on her jeans and background, for example, have been learned through a Copic Colouring class I subscribe to, with the lovely Alyce through www.kitandclowder.com, she is very supportive, extremely talented and has so many different techniques on offer to assist you with your colouring growth.  If you want to join up, her classes are very reasonably priced and you are able to cancel at anytime. Kit and Clowder also have a Facebook group and Instagram.

Thank you so much for visiting today.
Fae xxx

A card for Oma

As promised, here's my second post for this evening...

I made this card for my beautiful Auntie Riet's birthday. She's Dutch - hence the Oma bit and the Dutch sentiment, which means 'Heartfelt congratulations for a Happy Birthday!'

Anyway, I can't post it on Facebook yet as all my Australian relatives will see it, whereas they don't know about my blog so I can post all their cards here and they wouldn't be aware of it.

Oma's birthday is in March, but I will have to post it shortly to ensure that it arrives in beautiful Loveday on time.  I really do hope that she likes it, as I made a card for my Uncle Colin's birthday last year and I think she was a bit disappointed that she didn't receive one too. So I wanted to make an extra special one just for her, as I really do love her so much, she's adorable.  My second mummy.

Here's a close up of the Stamping Bella image I used for the card. Unfortunately, the photo quality was a bit poor and editing the picture didn't do much for it either, but you get the general idea? I hope?

I used my trusty Copic Ciao markers and some gently blended (with Sansodor), Prismacolour pencils.  I love this image, and I hope that it will make her think of me, sitting in the park somewhere, reading and re-reading her letters.

Sadly, the lovely Oma, passed away this year, March 2017. She will be very, very missed. She was such a big part of so many lives.  RIP Riet Marie Alderson, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great-grand mother and loved Auntie Oma.

Thanks for visiting, as always.
Much love

2016!!!

Hi Bloggers
Okay, so don't faint...  I received a phone call yesterday from an old friend (Hi Claire) who thought she'd get in touch to find out why I hadn't blogged for a while. Maybe she suspected I was dead or something, as it has been a looooooooooong time since we were last in touch, but it was nice to hear I was missed so I thought I'd post something just in case anyone else (who isn't following me on Facebook and Instagram) was wondering the same thing???

So, I know it has been a while since my last post, that was in June 2015.  I went off to Australia to visit my rellies and while I was over there, Michelle (my cousin) announced that she was getting married to her long-time partner Mitch, in November 2015, so I just had to go back again so that I could be one of her bridesmaids.  It was a fantastic event and I was a very lucky girl to get to go over there twice.

Anyway, it is now the beginning of February 2016.  Since November, last year, I have had so much to do, it has been busy, busy, busy - with one thing or another. So I really didn't have much time for blogging. I'd like to show you all the cards I made after my return to England in December, but sadly that would take too long, and quite frankly, if there is anyone out there still following me, to be honest, I wouldn't want to bore you to death. So, for now, I am just going to blog this years' cards.  So here are a few I have made so far this year. Hope you like them, and thank you for your patience.

My good friend, Mike Murphy, has been ordering cards from me for the past 11 years now.  He is a teacher of upper school students, and every year, when term begins, he goes through his register, finds out when everyone's birthdays are, and writes them down for me (as all his students will be turning 18 or 19), he then sends me a copy of the list and I make all of his students and 18th or 19th birthday card.

Generally, they are all 18th birthdays, which is why you'll find there are quite a few in the 18th Birthday tag section.  Here's one I made a couple of weeks ago for his first student on the list.

The Image is from Stamping Bella and all my images are coloured using Copic Ciao markers and sometimes, a little Prismacolour too for added depth.

Another of his orders, was for a young lady, the following day. So I put together this one for her. Mike said she was quite a flamboyant young lady, with a zest for life, so I really liked putting this one together for her.

Another Stamping Bella image (I'm really into Stamping Bella at the moment - got quite a few for Christmas AND I managed to also spend a small fortune on just a few!!! Naughty!!).

Again, coloured with Copic Ciao markers and just used a little Prismacolour pencil, blended with Sansodor for the shading so she didn't look too 'flat' on the plain white background.

Added a few embellishments and a big old '18' on the front and I was really happy with the finished result.

This lovely image by Stamping Bella, happens to be my favourite at the moment. My Beagle, Ruby, bought it for me for Christmas, and I love it. She's just too cute (the image that is, not my dog - although she is rather, if I'm honest!)

Decided to go a bit girlie on this one, and, as you can see, one of the few 19th Birthday cards requested.

Kept it really simple with just a few embellishments and a sentiment, plus of course a '19' in the corner.

This young lady likes the 'old fashioned' way of communicating and Mike says she is always writing letters to overseas PenPals etc, so I thought I would use this image and call it 'Snail Mail'... Cute huh?

I decided to enter THIS card into the Passion for Promarkers Challenge, as this weeks theme is 'Show us your favourites' - well, this little beauty is definitely my favourite stamp at the moment (for the reasons above).  The challenge blog can be found here, if you'd like to enter your own little favourite something.  Good luck!

Anyway, that's all for now, otherwise this is going to be one heck of a long post.  I do have a few more cards to share with you, but I will add those to an additional post.

Hope you like the cards I have shared with you so far, and thank you for taking the time to visit, as always.

Much love

Busy, busy, busy...

Hi guys, girls and fellow crafty peeps.

I apologise that I haven't been on line for absolutely ages, I've been renovating my late Grandmothers' house AND it's finally finished AND we have some tenants in, who are absolutely over-the-moon with it.  I hope that they will be as happy in the house as my grandparents were.  They have a young baby so it'll be nice, I'm sure, to have some laughter in there after so long of being empty.  Anyway, it's all done.  Now back to some crafting.

Although I haven't been posting, I have still been making loads in my lovely, calm, craft room.  I'll post some pictures over the next few days, but in the meantime, here are a few I have made today.

My friend, Jane, is 50 on Tuesday next week, (St Patrick's Day) and it is also going to be her wedding day as she will be marrying her lifelong partner, Karen.

Hope the day is extra, extra special with double celebrations for you Jane.

The image is from the Sweet Tooth collection at Tiddly Inks, and is called 'Let Us Eat Cake'.  She can be found here.

The stamped sentiment is from Hero Arts, but I'm not sure who the papers are made by I'm afraid.  They are from my overflowing paper stash.  The card is 8" x 8".

I coloured the image with Copic Pens and added a few embellishments to finish the card off.

This next card was one I made for my sister-in-law's birthday.  I just love the way the colours worked out on this one as she loves yellow and blue and together I think they work really well.

Papers are again from a well overstocked pile of mish mash papers that have no markings whatsoever, to indicate who made them, so I apologise if they are something you would have been interested in purchasing.

The image is from Mo's Digital Pencil and I am entering her into the latest 'Anything Mo Goes' challenge.  She is called 'Bella Carrying the Cake' and can be found here.

Well, these are just two of quite a few I have made over the past few months, but as I said, its my first time blogging in a while so I will need to get back into the swing of things SLLLLLLOOOOOOOWLY, so please be patient with me.

A big thank you to everyone who has emailed me to make sure that I am still alive and kicking, it was nice to know I was being missed and thanks also to my followers who kept popping back regularly to see if I posted anything new. I promise to post a few new things each day for the next couple of days to make it worth your while.

Thanks guys x

Ooooh la la

Hi everyone

Just adding another quick card before I nip off to bed, as I really love the way this one turned out.

She's called 'Denise' and she's by Saturated Canary. She can be found here. Isn't she great?

I love her hair and she seems to be a little 'ooh la la'.  Coloured with Copic Markers and added some crafty paper, stars, numbers and ribbons.

This was made at the request of a Facebook friend, who got in touch and asked me to make a card for her. She really liked it and said that the photograph didn't really do the card much justice, so I apologise for that, but as you can't see the original card, I guess it doesn't really matter that much to you guys.

Anyway, I loved the way the whole card turned out (I have to admit, my favourite colour combos at the moment are black, red and gray).

I hope you like it too. Come back soon x

Laugh a Little

Another little gem from Lili of the Valley... God I love this cute little fairy lady.

I made this card a while ago and photographed it but never got around to uploading the picture to Blogland.

The sentiment is Hero Arts (I believe) and the background papers are scraps I had lying around. Sorry, I can't remember who, what, when or where they came from...

The image was coloured with my Copic Pens and I added some silver Card Candi from Craftwork Cards.

Humphrey's Corner 'Birthday Girl' Stamp Set

Good morning, fellow crafters.
It's such a beautiful day here in Hertfordshire that I got up really early and started crafting. Mojo is back, internet is fully operational...finally and I have a small selection of cards for you that I have made using my new Humphrey's Corner stamps. I just had to have them as they are just toooo cute.

I have made two cards with my first stamp so far, using different colour schemes.

Here is the first card:

I coloured her in with my Copic Pens and mounted her onto red, yellow and blue coloured cardstock. I then filled a white piece of cardstock with co-ordinating coloured dots (using the same colours I coloured the image with) and mounted that too onto red cardstock. I then mounted the whole thing onto a card base to finish. Really simply but, I think, quite cute card that can be used for any occasion.

The next card I made was using the exact same image but different colours and this time, I stamped two of the images and decoupaged her dress to give it a slightly 3D effect. Unfortunately, the photograph I took doesn't really do either of the cards any justice as the colours look so much more vibrant 'in real life' so to speak.

The blue colourway is also really simple but I really like the Humphrey's Corner image so I think, whether you like it or hate it, you'll definitely be seeing a lot more of them on my blog from now on.

Here is the 'blue version'. You can see that I have added some pink, green and yellow, just to liven it up a little and I have mounted the whole thing onto pink cardstock which is slightly glittered, but again, unfortunately you can't see much of it in the photograph.  I have stuck the dress down completely at the chest so that it is only slightly raised at the base of the dress.  Hope you like it?

Thanks for stopping by and paying me a little visit.

21 Again...

Hello again

My next card is one I have made for Mark's daughter, Emma, who is celebrating her 21st birthday on the 19th of this month. Poor Mark, it's his wife's birthday on the 17th and his daughter's 21st on the 19th. Expensive month for him! And he has just come back from Las Vegas, having flown out there with Tricia to celebrate HIS 50th birthday.

Anyway, the digi image is Coco with Heart from Digi Stamp Boutique. I coloured him with my COPICS this time and left my ProMarkers looking at me from their box, wondering what the hell they did wrong??? For the bear I used E71, E31 and E11. For the heart, I used R11 and for the ribbon I used R05 and R22.

Since I got a box set of 36 Copics for Christmas I thought it was about time I started using them, although from previous experience with a set of skin colours that I bought at Ally Pally a while ago, they ran out really quickly and I am hoping the same won't happen this time. Although I still prefer my trusted ProMarkers, I think the Copics blended just as well and are priced roughly the same. Whether I buy anymore, we'll just have to wait and see.

Anyway... back to my card... I drew and cut the letters and the '21' freehand and then used a little DP on the background. I mounted the image onto the same Cerise Mirri Card as I cut the letters from and then added some gems and some pins. The stamped sentiment is a cling stamp that I got in the Hobbycraft bargain bin for 99p and is made by Studio G.

Thanks for stopping by, hugs xxx

Forever Sparkly

Loving these papers that were purchased from AP. Added some glitter to the outline of the flowers just to create a little bit more sparkle. Added some more glitter to the champagne bubbles and coloured in the FF bear with my new Copics.

I love my Copic pens but have to say that although I have kept them flat, rather than standing up, as instructed, they still seem to be running out a lot quicker than my ProMarkers have. Either that or I am using my brown and grey a lot more than usual. Which seems a bit unlikely as I have used them no more than I have my ProMarkers...???

Christmas Bears

This is a great stamp that I bought at Alexander Palace. I loved it the moment I saw it and couldn't wait to use it with my new Copic pens. I did buy quite a few and Sarn gave me the background paper which seemed to compliment the colour scheme perfectly. I stamped the image twice and decoupaged the bears. I think it works really well and I love the finished result.

Although I love my ProMarkers, I have to say that I love using the Copics too. And they work really well together. So it's good that I still get to use both and don't have a preference. I added some glitter just to add a little more of a Christmassy theme to the card.