Fantastic News and Candy to Celebrate

Jacque has had the most fantastic news and to celebrate she is offering the most delicious candy.  Click on the piccie to go to her website and take a look, but most of all to celebrate in her good news :) 

Two Happy Birthday's - My Mum and our Dear Friend Vicky

Wishing my Mum a Very Happy Birthday today

This is my Mum with all the trophies that she won for her fuschias at the recent Fuschia Society Show.  Mum won five firsts, five seconds and three thirds, plus best in show!

The other birthday that we are celebrating today, is a very good family friend's, particularly of my eldest daughter Kimberley, our dear Vicky.  

Vicky and Kim spent the day photographing cats with Vicky's dad today, you may be thinking why? but not the domestic cat but wild cats.  tigers, lions, pumas etc.  It's a special wild cat reserve that is in Kent, England, that hold special photography days, which help fund the animals.  The center is not like a zoo and relies on funding and volunteer keepers along with the trained specialists.  

Here's one of my daughter's photos.

Bunny Zoe's Crafts Bog Candy

Well the lovely ladies at Bunny Zoe's are offering some delicious candy this week, as always, so pop over and see.  Click on picture below or link on side bar to blog.

Vixx Handmade Cards Candy

It will be Vicky's birthday soon and she is offering great candy to celebrate.

The candy ends 28th August at 9 p.m. so be sure to click on the picture above, or on he side bar, and pop across.

Wedding Card

OK, so this is the other project I've been spending my time on.  One of my very good friends is getting married, tomorrow!!!!!!! And this is the card gift that I've have made for her and her husband-to-be.

I made an easel card and their theme is Vintage Gold & White, hence my colour scheme.  Used the LOTV Bride and Groom stamp, which is very apt in style for the couple, as the bride works in a school and loves al the children and this image has that feel to it.  The card base is made from a pearlescent card stock, which I also made a matching gift box in. There are two sentiments, one which is from a multi-round stamp 'On your Wedding Day' written in a vintage style to match the theme and the LOTV stamp which supports the easel card says 'Wishing you a World of Joy', very apt.

This is a close up of the front of the card.  I trialled a few where I added colour to the image and shading; however, because the theme was 'Gold and White' and the image was clean and crisp, I decided that it didn't need colour this time.  I embossed the image using clear embossing ink and gold embossing powder. I used gold mirri-card for the layering.  The backing paper is, in fact, a stamped image.  It is a large wooden stamp that my daughter picked up once in a local store reduced.  I'm so pleased she did, because I love it :) The bouquet is assembled from flowers purchased from Wild Orchid Crafts and I added some pearl pins which I had in my stash.  I held them together with florists tape.  The bow is made from white chiffon.

The couple already had their own homes before they met and therefore did not require gifts for their new home together.  So we have decided to give them some money to put towards their honeymoon.  I therefore made a small pocket sleeve, from stamped backing paper to take the gift and set this above the sentiment to support the card.  This way I thought they would see the gift easily but it's concealed when the card is resting on the sentiment. If I had put it underneath the flap, which was my other option, I wasn't sure they would know it was there. 

This is the back/base of the card.  I printed the sentiment and cut the two layers with nestabilities; one layer of gold mirri card and the other of neenah as it took the print better than the pearlescent card stock.

I am really pleased with the card and can't wait to go to the wedding tomorrow. let's hope the weather stays fine.  My daughter Rachel has been asked to sing at the wedding, and the song chosen is 'The first time ever I saw you face'.  Rachel sung it at the rehearsal on Tuesday and it was decided that waterproof mascara would definitely be the order of the day, it was so moving and beautiful, there were lot's of watery eyes!!!!!!

Well I hope they like it - I enjoyed making it - please leave a comment and let me know what you think too :)  

Hugs x 

I have decided to enter it into these challenges 

LOTV Challenge 108 - Roses
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes (optional extra of metal)
Crafts & Me Challenge 46 - Anything Goes
Bunny Zoe's Challenge 15 - Easel Card

Baby Bouquet & Lacey Cardigan

I had seen a Baby Shower gift set that had used baby items folded and rolled to make a bouquet so I thought I would give it ago, with baby socks,  as my gift to go with the card that I had made for my friends new little baby and this is the result. Hope you like it :)

 

The bouquet is sitting in a box, which actually contains the lacey cardigan and a couple of sets of little pyjamas, then there is the layer of tissue paper and the bouquet of socks fills the box (bought from Clinton cards) with the little Miffy toy rattle.  I really enjoyed rolling the socks and you can find examples on You Tube of various methods of rolling.  I watched some and then did my own that worked with the socks that I had bought and that I thought looked like a rose when rolled. I was going to make little leaves, or add artificial ones to add to the effect, but I liked it better without in the end.

Well this is the lacey cardigan that is in the box with the PJs.  I spent a few evenings knitting it and enjoyed it as it grew quite quickly.  I made it with Bamboo yarn as it is more hypoallergenic than most man-made fibers.  the colour is a very soft pink, perfect for a 'little baby girl'.

This is the back view.

Hope you like this and it inspires you in your own crafting. 

A Baby Card & Gift

Hi All

Just thought I'd share why I hadn't blogged my crafty bits lately.  Well a good friend of ours has had a beautiful baby girl, who they have named Phoebe, and I wanted to make a special card and gift.  I started with the card. I decided to make it as a hanging frame, spelling the word Baby in pink gingham letters. My daughters a far better photographer than I and I'm afraid these pictures don't really do it justice, but you'll get the idea!

The reverse side of the panels looks like this.

The panels were made with a pearlescent card stock and the letters were cut out using my cricut machine.  I added the butterflies and flowers to each letter, but did not want to overdo the embellishments, so that it didn't detract from the letters.  The panels were joined together with pastel pink ribbon with a small silver bead at the top.  This is the box that I made for it.

Hope you like it and it inspires you with your crafting projects.  Of course the panels can be adapted for whatever you want to celebrate.

In my next blogs I'll show you what I made as the present.

Have fun.

Rachel Brett & Dorie Jackson

WOW! Whole week without a post but boy have we been busy.  Highlight last night though was of my daughter Rachel recording with Miss Dorie Jackson.  Rachel has been writing some new songs and is putting together an album, which will be released soon.  Dorie came to the recording studio to put down some backing vocals for Rachel; and the tracks are sounding brilliant.  Dorie is a lovely, inspiring lady and a fantastic singer and has worked with many famous vacalists and groups, including Chris Difford of 'Squeeze' fame.  It was a great evening and we were very grateful to Dorie for her time and input.

Rachel and Rachel also did a 'live lounge' style acoustic version of one of the songs, which hopefully I will be ale to post the link for soon. 

Rachel and Dorie at Appleyard Studios in Robertsbridge.

I'll be back to crafting & posting soon though!