Commissioned Valentine's Card

My work colleague asked me to make a Valentine's card for his fiance and I was really touched so wanted to make it extra special. The only guidance he gave me was that it should be pink and cartoon type characters would be okay. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to use one of my cute squares from Lili of the Valley - the rest came together quite easily and I was really proud of the finished card. I really love this style and use Bev as my inspiration (check out the stunning cards on her blog).





The flowers wouldn't fit in a normal envelope so I made a matching box tied with pink satin ribbon for the card to be given in instead.



Supplies
Image - Love & Romance Cute Squares from Lili of the Valley
Papers - Madly In Love by Die Cuts With a View
Cardstock - Core'dinations
Sentiment - Stamp Calendars by Lili of the Valley
Ticket - Whimsy Shapeology Ticket Die & Ticket Sentiments Stamp Set
Punch - Lace Hearts by Martha Stewart
Roses - www.iamroses.com
Pearls - Nail Gems from Poundland
Ribbon - Pink Satin Ribbon from The Range
Card Blank - 148mm Square Scalloped Cards from Craftwork Cards


I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• The Crafty Pad - Challenge 109, Red, Pink and Black


• Scrappy Frogs Challenge - Love Is In The Air


• I Did It Creations - Challenge 43, Anything Goes


• Crafty Calendar - Challenge 17, Love


• Little Claire's - Challenge 1, Anything Goes


• Crazy 4 Challenges - C4C75, Use Dies


• Digi Doodle Shop - Challenge 47, Anything Goes


• Lili of the Valley - Challenge 84, Favourite Colours


• By The Cute & Girly Challenges - Red Is All Around Us


• Creative Cottage - Challenge 33, Fabulous Florals


• Craft Your Passion - Challenge 45, Pink

Secret Santa Swap

I know this is a bit late as Christmas was well over a month ago but we arranged a Secret Santa over on Crafty Place. Unfortunately it didn't quite go to plan and although I sent a present, I didn't receive one, so I was a bit disappointed. The lovely Melissa came to the rescue as we were in a three-way swap. She sent me all the goodies below, which was such a lovely and unexpected suprise to receive.



The best thing of all though was this absolutely stunning notebook which was included in the package. It's completely handmade by Melissa with a Bind It All and has loads of beautiful details. It really is special so I daren't use it and have currently propped it up on my craft shelves for inspiration...

Valentine's Gifts...

I'm ashamed to say that I didn't actually make my boyfriend a Valentine's card. Instead I made him a gecko friendship bracelet (he has two Leopard Geckos). I haven't made one of these for years and this one was particularly difficult with 19 strings! Lots of hours and two attempts later I finally had something to be pround of and he loved it.



Martin actually hand-made this card off his own back and I was really touched. He's fascinated when I craft and sometimes watches me so he's obviously been learning. Bless him, he had to cut all the decoupage out by hand as couldn't figure out the Craft Robo...

Paper Rosette Tutorial

Debbie (aka paddingtondoo) asked me how I made the rosette on my last card so I thought i'd put together a quick tutorial...

To make a rosette, you'll need a strip of paper just over 2cm wide by 25cm long (keep the offcut for later). You're also going to need a scoreboard, small circle punch approximately 2cm across and PVA glue.



Score the stip at 5mm intervals all the way along. If you have a Scorepal like me then I scored every 1cm then moved the paper 5mm to the right and again scored every 1cm.



Fold the strip along your score lines alternating the direction of each fold so that you end up with a zig zag shape (when looking from the side).



Apply PVA glue to a 5mm section at one end. You can also use double-sided tape if you don't want to wait for the glue to dry.



Overlap and stick the ends together to form a paper loop. If you've used PVA glue then I recommend holding the join to make sure it's stuck properly before you proceed to the next step.



Gather the loop at the top to form a cone and then gently push down in the centre to flatten out the rosette.



Punch or cut out two circles approximately 2cm in diameter in a co-ordinating colour to your rosette. This is where the offcut from earlier comes in handy!



Flip your rosette over and glue one of the circles to the centre with PVA glue or double sided tape. At this point you need to squeeze the edges of the rosette towards the centre to keep it tight.



Turn the rosette over and glue the other punched circle into the centre and you have your finished rosette:

Photo Light Tent

The natural light in our house is absolutely awful and I normally have to use flash when taking photos of my cards. I find this really washes the colours out and makes them look quite flat. Of course there's also the issue of glare from the flash, particulary with glitter, mirri card, etc.

Recently I brought a photo studio light tent kit from eBay for about £34, which came complete with light tent, tripod, two lights and four different coloured backgrounds. It's absolutley brilliant and is going to mean i'll be able to take much better quality photos (i'm also loving the black background as it looks really professional).

I used it to photograph my last card - what do you think?

Simply Sassy DT Card

As the title suggests this card was made for the Simply Sassy DT call, which actually ended on 29th January. When I came to enter my card though I realised I was too late and it had already closed :-( I was gutted so didn't bother posting my card and have only just got round to it. Anyway these stamps are stunning and an absolute pleasure to colour - I only own three but love them, especially their eyes! This card is very on trend with the bunting and rosette...





Supplies
Image - Simply Sassy Bella Bunting by Sugar Nellie
Papers - Tickled Pink by My Mind's Eye
Bunting - Friendly Flags by Hero Arts
Sentiment - Stamp Calendars by Lili of the Valley
Rosette - handmade using my Scorepal
Gems - Quixotic Paperie
Card Blank - 148mm Square Scalloped Cards from Craftwork Cards

ProMarker Colours
Skin - Apricot, Oatmeal, Blush, Ivory, Pale Pink
Hair - Black, Cool Grey 5, Cool Grey 4, Cool Grey 3
Outfit - Salmon Pink, Cocktail Pink, Soft Green