Happy Birthday Jenni

Evening,

Today is a special day in our house, it's my eldest daughters birthday. Unfortunately she was working a split shift today, so not much celebrating, but it means that she can behave like the Queen used to and have a second birthday later in the year.

As you know by now, I am notoriously late with my cards, but since I retired I have definitely improved, so I am hoping that for once a card actually arrived on time.

I created the background to her card using inks and a fabulous stencil from Aall and Create.

Having added a little extra stamping to the background,

I then added a stamped, embossed, coloured and die cut image using a little silicon glue gell. I think the floral image is from Altenew but I really can't remember and it is far too late to go looking for the stamp.

A stamped and die cut sentiment and some gems complete my card for a special lady.

I hope that she managed to have a great day despite work and that the kids spoiled her rotten.

Thanks for stopping by.

Love and Crafty Hugs

Kimx

A Birthday Rose

Evening,

It has been perfect crafting weather today, not that I ever need an excuse to spend the day in the Craft Room lol.

I've been working on some samples for Creative Expressions, which are hush hush for now, so here is a card that I made a while ago using one of Jane Gill's fabulous Halloween stamp sets.

I stamped and embossed the rose onto black cardstock

and then coloured the rose and the spider with Iridescent Watercolour Paint.

I layered the fussy cut image over a piece of background from my stash.

The background was created using a stencil and paste along with some mica sprays.

I also found the die cut sentiment in my bits box, and added it along with a few gems.

Thanks for stopping by,

Love and Crafty Hugs

Kimx

Countdown to Christmas - Day 15

Evening,

I first started sending a Christmas newsletter nearly 20 years ago after I lost my Son and my Dad within the space of 2 weeks. It started as a way of letting people know about this, and has become a way of keeping friends and family up to date with family events.

It seemed particularly important this time because of moving in with my Mum, so it was a great way to let people know about the changes that have been made over the past year. As usual I added my return address label to the back of all of my cards. Today, as a direct result of these labels I have spent a very enjoyable morning with an old friend. I used to look after her son for many years, until he left to go to Secondary school. He was 30 this month, so it has been a long time since we spent any time together. She now only lives 5 minutes down the road from me, so we took a trip to the local garden center for a coffee and a long overdue catch up.

She too has retired, and is now able to start catching up with all of those crafty projects that you manage to have on the go when you are working. She enjoys needlework and belongs to a 'Stitch and Bitch' group which meets once a week to, as its name suggests, stitch, drink tea and coffee and bitch/talk about anything and everything. It sounds like fun, so we have agreed that I will join them in the New Year. That way I might finally get the chance to finish some of my numerous cross stitch projects.

I guess I really ought to share a Christmas card with you after all that waffle, so here is one made using the Letterpress Technique with a foiling plate.

I used Distress Oxide ink with the plate and as the ink remained very wet I also added embossing powder and then a few gems.

Thanks for stopping by and putting up with my ramblings.

Love and Crafty Hugs

Kimx

Countdown to Christmas - Day 7

Evening,

I've got some snowflakes for you tonight. I do hope that we aren't in for any, although it is definitely cold enough.

A little bit of letterpress with an embossing folder, if memory serves, and a little gilding wax.

I added a stamped and embossed sentiment,

die cut snowflake and a few well-placed gems.

Thanks for stopping by.

Love and Crafty Hugs

Kimx

Hello Sweet Fiend, Let's Celebrate

Afternoon,

Another trip out for me today. I've just spent a lovely couple of hours sitting in the local Wetherspoons.  Before you start to worry that I've turned to drink, I was nursing a very nice cup of coffee lol. It was the monthly get together of a Carers group that I belong to. A much-needed chance to chat with other people that know exactly what you are going through when caring for someone.

Here are a couple of cards made a while ago for the lovely Janice at SirStampalot.

I used the framed background die and an embossing mat to create the background to this card. I then used my ink blending brushes to add colour to the resulting piece of embossed card stock.

I die cut the frame from black cardstock and stuck it over the coloured and embossed panel using wet glue. I used some floral elements and sentiments to embellish the finished card. 

I used the frame die again for this second card. I used white cardstock and an embossing mat to create the background and then cleaned my brushes on the embossing to give a soft finish to the panel.

I added a fine black line around the embossing with a micron pen.

Once again, a couple of floral embellishments

along with a die cut sentiment and a little bit of bling.

No galivanting tomorrow, unless you count a trip to the local co-op for some milk lol. I certainly don't want to go anywhere at the moment, it's p...ing down!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Love and Crafty Hugs

Kimx

Best of Luck with Background Dies

Hello again,

I don't know what it has been like where you are, but it has been the perfect weather for crafting here........windy and pouring with rain. 

We woke up this morning to torrential rain, bins blown over and broken glass from the old greenhouse strewn around the garden. It's been too wet and windy to clear it up today especially since it is not in danger of hurting anyone. Besides which it's still blowing a gale so I might as well do the clean-up all in one go

So instead of cleaning today, I have been playing with my background dies in preparation for a crafty get together on Saturday. 

I have loads of larger background dies so it has been great fun trying to find lots of different things that you can do with them.

We all like to get more out of our supplies, especially when they are a little more expensive, like the larger style dies.

Here I have used my die with a rubber mat to create an embossed background rather than a die cut panel.

Same design, just different colourway.

I used the embossed panel across the card and then added a die cut floral image,

and a die cut sentiment which I covered with Glossy Accents.

I'm not seeing much let up in the weather here, so I can see more playtime in my future.

The physio came to see Mum again today, and while he is delighted with her progress, he has encouraged her to walk around the house at least every 60 - 90 minutes. I have been letting her do things for herself much more over the last few days, so we have agreed that I will just go in and nag her if she hasn't got up and walked around in the allotted time. It seems so harsh, but at least she agrees that it is for her own good.

Of course it will be much more difficult if I am out of the house for any length of time. You know yourself how easy it is to just sit and sleep when there is no-one else around, so I may have to rope in the rest of the family to take over on the nagging front at those times..........thank goodness for Facetime lol.

On that note it's time for another gentle reminder, and I need to get her pills ready so I will call it a day.

It's lovely to be back sharing things with you.

Thanks for stopping by.

Crafty Hugs

Kimx

Fabulous is What You Are!

Evening, 

We had a fabulous day today with classes on 3D Embossing folders and white inks. We also saw the long awaited return of a couple of the ladies after their various health issues. They both looked really well, and it was so nice to see them after what seems like ages.

I haven't had the chance to take any photos of class samples today, so here is a card from a while ago made using a 3D embossing folder and acrylic paints.

It was made for Janice and Andy at Sirstampalot.

The die cut sentiment is from Creative Expressions and comes with some co-ordinating stamped sentiments.

I have a box full of Goodies from Janice and Andy to play with tomorrow, so I had better get my thinking cap on.

Hope that you had a great day. Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

A Get Well Wish

Evening,

Another lovely, if hectic, weekend with the littlest Grandkids. No crafting I'm afraid, unless you count moving all mummy's crafting stuff downstairs for a little bit of room reorganization.

So here is another card that I made a while ago using some fabulous rub ons,

acrylic paints, gems

and an embossing folder.

The sentiment is from Creative Expressions. It is a die set with several small stamped greetings to compliment the layered die.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

A Birthday Commission

Evening,

One of my crafty jobs before Christmas was to make a birthday card for my Boss's daughter. 

I make her a card every year, and so this time I decided to use a piece of background made using my Gelli Plate and acrylic paint.

I added some extra distress inks to the trimmed panel and created a fine white matt and layer.

The decoupaged floral image is from a Crafters Companion paper stack and die set. I saw them on Create and Craft right at the beginning of the initial Covid lockdown and just had to have them.

There are several different designs which create stunning decoupaged panels. I added some black die cut pieces using dies from AAll and Create.

The decoupage dies add embossed detail and texture to each of the floral layers.

Boss always likes his daughters name added to her card, after all it makes it all the more special, and is impossible for him to find in your average card shop.

That is the beauty of making cards for people, you can personalize them. I also like to add a few gems and some glossy accents.

Thanks for stopping by today.

I hope that you have had a great crafty Saturday.

Hugs Kimx

I'm Thinking of You and Sending Love and Hugs

Evening,

I've had far too many of this type of card to send this week.

To my Cousins on the Anniversary of their Fathers death,

and to my Mum and siblings on the 20th anniversary of my Dads passing.

It will be a particularly hard week for my Mum with both anniversaries within a couple of days of one another.

Then there is one for a close friend, and another for a work colleague. It's been a week of hard anniversaries.

My 3D embossing folders have become go-to equipment for this type of card. 

It is very easy to create a card quickly, but one that still looks suitably impressive.

I have transformed a plain piece of cream cardstock by using a 3D embossing folder,

some inks, die cut sentiments and frames, along with a few well chosen sequins and gems.

I know that some of them have already arrived, on time for once I may add, as I have had a couple of text messages. I love being able to send a handmade card to brighten up somebodies day.

Thanks for stopping by.

Crafty hugs

Kimx