A bit of watercolouring

Thank you Joy, Marlene and Ann for your comments.  I don't need anything right now Marlene, but thank you for the offer.

I did 2 sympathy cards today:-

The second one was a black and white image I printed off the internet (a free images site).  I coloured the flowers using watercolour pencils, applying a bit of water with a brush to soften the edges.

It would be nice if I didn't need to send the cards, but it's useful to have them if required.

I'm liking doing drawing, having previously never done any artwork since I was in junior school!  Mum was a talented watercolour artist, something we didn't know about until just a few years ago - she kept that quiet!  So perhaps I've inherited her interest, if not her talent.  I think I'll be printing a few more images of flowers and things and experimenting with watercolours for card toppers.

2 Anniversary cards

Two stock anniversary cards made yesterday

I've settled into a pattern of making 2 cards every afternoon this week.  Luckily I have enough supplies to keep me going for a long time yet.

3 more cards

A humorous birthday card for a man:-

Birthday card for a lady

And a pretty anniversary card

Motivational cards

Another two cards done today, kind of general motivational ones for people who might need a lift.  I got the background papers free with a card magazine, got a few more left and I really like them so will probably use them over the next few days.

The felt pens I used to edge the cards bled a bit, but that's fine, I like the effect.

3 birthday cards

More cards to add to my stock....I won't lack a ready to send card for any person or occasion this year, at this rate.  Well, I say ready to send....they just need personalising when I come to send them.

Funny lockdown card

Humorous card made this morning for my sister (who doesn't read my blog) - she'll love it, it's right up her street.

Mojo coming back

I know I've not done much cardmaking recently, hence the lack of posts.  Having made a couple of cards a week for my Mum whilst she was ill, I didn't feel like doing any cardmaking after she died at Christmas.

Over the last few days, I've gone through all my cardstock, backing papers and toppers and sorted them all into labelled folders, so I can find what I want easily....before, they were just in piles.  I told myself they were tidy organised piles....rubbish.  Well now they are properly tidy and organised!

I went through my cardstocks and chose about a dozen different card sheets, then folded them ready for topping and decorating.  Made 4 cards in the past 2 days:-

2 general purpose cards, the colours are rubbish as usual and not true to life.  I particularly like the one on the left, the card is bronze coloured.  The one on the right is grey and textured, I used a stencil cutter to cut out a flower border on the edge.

A birthday or 'special day' card, the background is green.

A get well card, using one of a set of character papers that came free with a magazine.  I like this one, it would make me smile if I received it.

These cards are all for my stock, when I need to send one I'll personalise it with name and an appropriate sentiment.  It's nice to have a stock of cards ready for all occasions.

I'm learning all the time, discovering new techniques and tips.  Am looking forward to being able to go out again once the lockdown is over, a trip to The Range or Hobbycraft will be nice.  I could do with some new crafting scissors and a larger cutting board, and some more glueing materials. 

Betty often comes in my craft room when I'm working, she likes to stick her head in the bin to investigate what bits I've thrown away, sometimes getting sequins or glitter stuck on her nose.  When she's finished nosing around, she gets on the bed and goes off to sleep.

Starting up again

I know, it's been ages since I posted....having lost my Mum and with loads of stressful stuff going on for weeks, I lost my cardmaking mojo.  I'd made so many cards for Mum to give her a lift when she was unwell, I just didn't feel like making any more cards when she died on Christmas Eve.  I did make a couple when birthdays were due, but forgot to take any photos.  

Things have settled down a bit now, so spent a bit of time in my craft room this morning and made 2 birthday cards, not for anyone in particular, just to add to my card stock:-

It's a bit of a cheat really, I can't take any credit for these.  They were both from card kits that I bought for pennies in a sale a while ago, it was really just an assembly job.  I did add bows and sequins though from my stash.

My desk has got a bit messy (I zoomed in to take the photo so the mess can't be seen!), I really need to get in there and sort it all out.  I've acquired a few shoe boxes (just went into a couple of shoe shops and asked if they had any spare boxes, they were happy to give me a few), they'll be useful for organising my supplies.  I'll do that this week.  I might even do some decoupage and cover the boxes, card making does produce lots of small odd shaped scraps of paper and card which I'm loath to just throw away, so they can be made use of.

A Halloween card

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog, not done a lot of cardmaking lately.

I did make this Halloween card though:-

The recipient really likes it, she adores Halloween (does nothing for me!).

We have some family and friends birthdays coming up, and I'm nearly out of the stack of cards I made for Mum, so really need to get stuck in again.

More finger painting

An anniversary card for our friends:-

Finger painted again......oh it's such fun!

Our favourite garden centre has a crafting section, it's been all yarn and sewing stuff up till recently but they now have a fairly large papercraft section - all products from one particular company, most of which are quite expensive and I know I could certainly get cheaper elsewhere.  However, they did have a small area of sale things, I picked up a pack of Halloween stickers for 64p, a quarter of the original price....why they were selling them off cheap in the run up to Halloween I have no idea, seems a bit odd to me.  No matter, my gain!

Halloween doesn't hold any interest for me, but someone we know is absolutely mad on it, so I thought of her when I saw these stickers and will make her a Halloween card.  Just an excuse to have a play around!

Finger painting!

I'm very pleased with my new craft room, it's working out well.  Betty comes in there with me while I'm working and lies on the bed....I'd like to say she watches me with great interest, but in reality she just goes to sleep.  I do have to make sure I don't drop anything on the floor, or at least pick it up straight away when I do....any stray bits of paper etc and she's straight off the bed and trying to eat whatever it is, she's such a scavenger.

Some large fun Christmas cards for friends and family:-

The last one I really enjoyed doing, it was such fun.  I'd been idly googling for card ideas, as you do, and saw some finger painted cards, figures of people, birds and reindeer done with fingers, then details drawn on.  Well, I'm not that artistic, but immediately thought of a wreath, I just used my ink pads as paint.  Not done finger painting since I was a small child, it was great!

Having a break from crafting now, not feeling up to doing it at the moment.

The elderly neighbour came round this morning for me to give her a crochet lesson.  Well, it was, erm, interesting.....she's never done crochet or knitting before and had no idea how to even hold the hook or yarn.  I think we both had a headache by the time she left!  But hopefully she's grasped the basics.....I just showed her how to do chains and then basic rows of doubles (single crochet for US readers).  I suggested she get some practise holding the yarn with enough tension in it, working short rows of doubles and turning her work before we move on to trebles, as she was having enough difficulty with just that.  She can do macramé and quilting, to be honest I think she might be better off sticking with those.  I can't do either of those!  Well, we all have talents in different areas.

My new craft area

My new crafting area in the small spare bedroom:-

You can just see the pine extension husband fixed to the side and back of my little desk, it's made a big difference.  He asked if I wanted it painted, but I'm fine with it as it is.  The two shelves he put up for me are a big help too.  I need to get some cup hooks to screw in underneath the front shelf, to hold my scissors, tweezers etc.

Some more Christmas cards:-

I've finished all the 'general' Christmas cards now, am just starting on large personalised ones for family and friends.

A craft room!

Thank you Tania and Angie for your comments on my stamped trees.  I am getting better at stamping, but still lots of practise needed.  Angie, the snowman came about to cover up a mistake!  When I first stamped the trees, part of that particular tree didn't come out, I didn't put enough pressure on that side, so there was a gap.  I couldn't stamp back over it, I'd never get it lined up correctly, but then I thought oh hang on, I've got a snowman stamp that's just the right size to cover that up!

I've quickly discovered that mistakes can be rectified or disguised by covering them up with stamps or stickers, or simply turning the paper over and using the other side, or even making a feature of the mistake!

Crafting is on hold for a few days.....which will suit my poorly back anyhow!  My work station up till now has been the landing, on a small desk....it has to be small to fit the space, but it's too small really, both the desk and the area.  As I've acquired more stuff, I need more storage space, and the desktop is too small when I'm in full crafting mode and have lots of card bits and equipment spread out, have to put some on the floor which Betty takes a great deal of interest in, sniffing and standing on it (perhaps I could put ink on her pads for authentic paw prints on cards!).

After some deliberation, I decided I would use the small spare bedroom as a craft room.  It still needs to have a single bed in, for visitors, which meant some rearranging and a bit of construction work for husband.  He also had the bright idea of building a wooden surround for the back and side of my desk, to make the surface area bigger, there's just about enough space in that little room to do that.  It also means the 3-tier wooden paper rack husband made me a few months back can sit on my desk without taking up so much room, and I can have a large shelf to hold supplies as well.  Extending the surface area of my desk was a brilliant idea, saves the expense of buying a new bigger desk (he already had some nice wood) and I really like my little desk anyway.  Hopefully, the room should be completed today.

Decorating the trees

I've had a lovely morning crafting.  The Christmas trees I stamped the other day, I embellished and added to with more stamps and some colouring in with gel pens.  Really pleased with the results....even if it felt a bit like being back at school!

They'll become four card toppers.

I made another layered Christmas card, using a mixture of papers and stickers:-

Think I've made 10 Christmas cards so far.  They're interesting and fun to do because there's so much scope, only limited by imagination.

Christmas trees

Some Christmas tree cards....I drew a simple fir tree, cut out a template and used it to cut out lots more trees in assorted Christmassy paper and card, mostly what Angie sent me.

The first card I used 4 layers on, it's nice but I think the 4 layers are wasted really, the bottom 2 layers aren't really visible.  So I've stuck to just 2 layers in subsequent cards.  I've stuck them on with a single strip of double sided tape down the middle, then raised the sides of each tree shape to give a 3D effect.

The 4 layer card

They're fun to do, I really like them.

Starting on Christmas cards

The craft shop was very nice, run by a lovely lady.  However, there's quite a small cardcraft section, it's mostly yarn, quilting and sewing things.  I did get a couple of Christmas stamp sheets and some Xmas stickers though, so it wasn't a wasted journey, husband took me to The Range to get the ink pads I needed.

I've spent some time yesterday and today cutting out and stamping a lot of Christmas sentiments, and made my first ever Christmas card - a simple one but am quite pleased with it:-

do you recognise the topper, Angie?

The sentiments toppers and practising stamping Christmas trees:-

I have everything I need to make lots of nice Christmas cards - well, any sort of card, actually, thanks to several lovely bloggers sending me supplies, and stocking up on mostly very reasonable stuff in a variety of stores, including some charity shops.  I have some ideas for festive cards and will make a start on them tomorrow.

Lovely gift and thinking about Christmas cards

A parcel arrived in the post yesterday, a boxful of goodies from Angie (Pensive Pensioner).  It was beautifully packed and smelt gorgeous, owing to a pack of lavender flowerheads  she'd thoughtfully included.  It contained many lovely card toppers and papers, as well as a couple of beautifully designed completed card toppers that Angie had made, which have given me inspiration for my own cards.  Lots of Christmas papers, how thoughtful.  Thank you so much Angie, I'm delighted with everything and shall enjoy using it all.

I'm going to visit that new - well, new to me, I think it's been there a while - large craft shop tomorrow.  I'm hoping to get a sheet of Christmas silicone stamps and a couple more stamp pads, and maybe some cardstock suitable for Christmas cards.

I've had a rest from crafting for a couple of days, I was getting shoulder pains from bad posture leaning forward over my desk.  I suppose the thing to do is to get up and walk around every half hour or so, rather than sitting there engrossed for 3 hours at a time!

Layered card and a simple Get Well card

Thanks for the info Hazel, I'll have a look at that stamping gadget.  I'm definitely getting better with practise.  

This morning I made 2 cards, firstly a layered one using several different papers, patterned and plain:-

I really like the look of cards with layered mixed and matched tops, think I'll be doing lots of those in the future.

The second one was a very simple get well card, using pictures cut out of one of the cheap calendars I bought the other day:-

For a dog lover, obviously.

Seeing and buying the calendars at 2 for a pound (I bought 4) was a great idea, loads of potential card topper pictures at a really cheap price.  Obviously each calendar has 12 large pictures, each the size of a 6"x 6" card, plus another dozen small ones and 1 bigger (the ones I used on the card above) on the back cover, so excellent value.  They were from The Works, if anyone's interested, lots of different styles.

Stamping sentiments

I cut out a load of small squares in plain card this morning, and stamped them with sentiments:-

My stamping's getting better, I'm more confident now and improving all the time.  I just need to remember not to lean on the stamp pads!  And wipe my fingers so I don't put smudges on the cards.....

Made a card suitable for a bloke:-

It's a simple card, just a topper on toning background papers.  I did a bit of stamping on the inside lining paper:-

Mystery commenter unmasked

I found out who the mystery Unknown comments were from....one of my best friends!  So sorry D, I didn't realise it was you! xx

Anyway, she was telling me about a papercraft she'd learnt at W.I., it's called Iris Folding, I've never heard of it before but am sure you experienced crafters have.  It's a method of folding paper and affixing it around an aperture in a card front, giving an attractive design.  This site explains it quite clearly:  https://handcraftedgreetings.com/irisinst.php

It looks good, I'll give it a go sometime.