A study of wisdom......

How gorgeous are these wise owls?

This is an A5 card for an elderly and much loved uncle who was once as wise as they are but is now, sadly, in residential care. However, he is safe and well cared for and I know that he will most definitely appreciate this Birthday card which has been handcrafted with love.

Resource - Materials - Method

Jem's Designs Cardz 4 Men - 3 cd set

Cryogen White card from Craft Creations

Gold Mirri Board

Gold peel offs

Finger-lift tape

3d foam tape

Pinflair glue

I imported the elements from the cd that Iwould be working with into my MCS graphics programme and printed an A5 background and two different sized toppers. Using the crop tool I picked a piece of colour from the topper and created a border strip and a background for my sentiment tag, onto which I printed my text and then cutting it with a Spellbinder die - Label A.

It was then a simple case of edging the main card and inking over the edges of the tag with Distress Ink - Tea Dye - before matting and layering all the elements.

I hope you like the finished design.

To see more from Jem's Designs please visit

http://www.jemsdesigns.co.uk/

You can also join our fb group at Jem's Designs where you can be assured of a friendly welcome.

Thank you for visiting - I would really appreciate your comments.

Haste ye back!

Crafty hugs, Sheenagh x

Sending Hugs...

This "Hugs" card is going to my brother and sister-in-law as my niece left yesterday for Australia to follow her heart and live her dream.

I hope it cheers them up a little.

Resource - Materials - Method

Elegant Inspiration "The Rachelle Anne Miller Collection" 2 disc set cds

Super Smooth white card.

Core'dinations blue card cut using Spellbinders - Grand Label One and

embossed using Grand Impressabilities - Butterfly Garden - and then sanded.

Topper from cd was imported to MCS graphics programme and resized and, using the MCS Digital Punch tool, I made a circle and a heart changing the colours to suit and then typed the sentiment onto the heart. I cropped a bit of the background, tiled it and changed the colour to make a contrasting but toning back layer I printed the topper out twice, cut away the border from one and layered it on top to give added depth. I created loops at each end of a length of bright spotty ribbon and glued this to the card before placing the topper on using 3d foam tape. The scarf is glazed with 3d Crystal Lacquer and mulberry paper flowers and adhesive gems complete this design.

I hope you like this and you can see more from Elegant Inspiration at

http://www.elegantinspiration.co.uk/

Thank you for visiting and I would welcome any comments.

Haste ye back!

Crafty hugs,

Sheenagh x

That little black dress...

Commissioned 65th Birthday Card

with a fashion theme

from my luxury card range

Source and Materials

MCS Fab Glam Fifties cd

Europa Ivory Pearl card stock from Craft Creations

Gold Mirri card

Spellbinder dies - Parisian Accents, Parisian Motifs,

Scalloped Circles, Grand Labels One

Gold organza crinkled edge ribbon

Flowers and gems from crafty stash

featuring a chocolate brown Gardenia and

2-tone tan Wild Roses from Wild Orchid Crafts

3d foam tape, finger-lift tape, Pinflair gel

Insert verse composed by myself

I haven't listed the construction method for this as it very much is what it is,

but should anyone want any more precise information, please feel free to ask.

I do hope you like this one.

Thank you for visiting.

Haste ye back!

Crafty hugs, Sheenagh x

I love these meeces to pieces.....

My Samples for Crafty Catz

Bubbles and Squeak cd

Now available from

http://www.craftycatz.co.uk/

For this card I printed an A4 sheet of Super Smooth white card with a different background on each side and folded in 3 to make an easel card. I then printed another piece for the back layer of the main area and matted this with a piece of matching red card made by cropping and stretching an area from the main design in My Craft Studio graphics programme. The main topper was heavily glittered and placed on using 3d foam tape. A strip of red card and a printed sentiment tag from the cd were raised on deep foam tape to provide the stopper bar. More glitter and gems complete this design.

This little drummer boy is an A5 card with printed background from the cd on Super Smooth white card. Again simple matting and layering on 3d foam tape give this design depth. His hat, jacket, drum and drumsticks have been glazed using 3d Crystal Lacquer on both the main topper and the ribbon tag which was matted onto a red circle cut using Spellbinders - Scalloped Circles. Using printable ribbon, I ran this through the printer in a matching red and added the text in my graphics programme. A silver number peel off and red star gems complete this design. This 8x8" square card is made with Super Smooth white card. I took the topper into MCS and created a background which I then trimmed with a deckled edged rotary blade. I resized the topper and created a red shape slightly larger to layer it on to and typed a hidden "peek a boo" message on it which is seen when the top image is moved to the side. Using printable ribbon, I printed part of the background onto it and using extra strong adhesive tape placed it on the front of the card folding a couple of pleats in it at the edge. I attached both topper layers together with a brad and secured them to the front of the card with 3d foam tape. I printed the text onto matching yellow card and cut it using Spellbinders die - Scalloped Circles. Some bright flower brads finish off this design. For this 8x8" square card made again with Super Smooth white card, I printed backgrounds from the cd and printed out the topper twice, having resized it in my graphics programme. I made a matching plain turquoise matt and cut it to size. I then scored it using my Hougie Board and pricked along the border using my Tim Holtz ruler and used this on the diagonal as the base matt. It was adhered to the card using 3d foam tape and the main topper was decoupaged and placed on top. I cropped the bluebird from the main image and resized it, made a copy and flipped it. I then glazed all 3 birds using 3d crystal Lacquer. The sentiment tag is from the cd. Some turquoise ribbon and gems complete this design.

I thoroughly enjoyed creating these and I hope you will visit the website and have a look at all the other goodies available from http://www.craftycatz.co.uk/

Thank you for visiting and I would welcome your comments.

Haste ye back!

Hugs, Sheenagh x

Little Firecracker.....

Jem's Designs

Fairy Cobblers cd

"Firecracker"

This post introduces my new Luxury Signature Cards range.

This is a commissioned 40th Birthday card which will be, as always, tissue wrapped and boxed.

It is 7.25" square as I have managed to source boxes to take this size of finished card - until now my commissions have always been A5 finished size - so let's see how successful the larger luxury range will be.

I have used Cryogen White card from Craft Creations Pearl card range and made a toning pink base colour by using the crop feature in MCS graphics programme to select a small piece of colour from the main image and stretching it to A4 size. I printed two A4 sheets on both sides for the base card and another piece sized for a layer. I also printed out two different backgrounds from the cd and cut away the corners using Fiskars rounding scissors, then these were all matted and layered to the front of the card with different depths of 3d foam tape or finger lift tape. I then cut a border from silver mirri board using Spellbinders edgeabilities - Classic Petal - and glued it to the front.

The printed topper was also matted onto silver mirri board and I cut out corners and a flourish using Spellbinder dies - Twisted Metal Tags and Accents - and glued the corners under each corner before placing it on the card. The fairy image was printed out again and was then decoupaged using Pinflair glue and highlighted with MCS Embellishment Attic Crystal Glitter.

I used the flourish in the floral embellishment along with pearl sprays, white and pink small flowers from my crafty stash and the beautiful large baby pink rose and pearl crown hat pin from my luscious new goodies from Wild Orchid Crafts.

I printed my own text using MCS graphics onto a blank sentiment tag from the cd.

For the insert I have made a pocket for a gift card/cheque which I embossed along the edge using a Glitter Girls board (which I've had for so long I can't remember what it's called) and then cut the scalloped edge. I also added a small tag from the cd with narrow red satin ribbon and my own printed text.

I hope you like what you see, and I would love to know what you think of my work - does it deserve the "luxury" label, please?

Thanks for visiting -please pop in again soon.

Crafty hugs, Sheenagh x

Time flies...

Jem's Designs

Cardz 4 Men cd (3 disc set)

"Time"

I made this A5 Good Luck/New Job card today using Cardz 4 Men cd from Jem's Designs. The base card is cream linen card stock and I printed a background from the cd onto Super Smooth white card. I then tore this and attached to the base card. Then, using Distress Ink - Tea Dye - I aged the edges of the torn element and also the plain section of the base card. I also printed out a tag from the cd to which I added my own text using MCS graphics programme, and then distressed around the edges of this before attaching a piece of raffia as a label tie and gold card candy as a brad. The main image is printed from the pyramage section of the cd and layered and matted on to a piece of dark brown leather effect card stock. I used Metallic Rub-Ons - Gold and Copper - to highlight some areas of the clocks and watch faces and added a Tim Holtz metal embellishment, gold peel off chain borders and peel off waste to finish this design

This is such a useful cd set, and what's more, it's on sale from http://www.jemsdesigns.co.uk/ for only £10 instead of £30! I love a bargain.

I hope you like this and thank you for visiting...you are always welcome!

Crafty hugs, Sheenagh x

Winning ways with inserts...

My samples for MCS Simply Sentiments cd

as featured on Create & Craft

13th January 2012

I'm just going to share the images in this post other than to say that I hope they show that what were initially intended to be printed out from the cd as Inserts, can, in fact, be imaginatively used as the main feature on the front of cards.

With different techniques and all of our crafty tools, machines and embellishments, they can be transformed to examples as I'm showing here, and I hope they inspire you to look at the humble insert in a different and creative way.

Friendship

Wedding Day

Birthday Congratulations Retirement

Special Birthday

I hope you like what you see here.

Thank you for visiting and your comments would be greatly appreciated.

Crafty hugs,

Sheenagh x