That panic when you realise that it is the last Thursday in June and you need a pair of cards for twins whose birthday is on Monday and the cards have to be posted... I normally try and do something clever for their cards — link them in some way — but I was short… Continue reading Lacy flowers
I haven't made that many cards so far this year — I've been relying on my stash mostly — but it's now that time when I have to start again. There are quite a few men having birthdays in the next couple of months and, of course, there's Father's Day as well, and I just… Continue reading Stationery chameleon
The hungry hamster is another of those printed-out digis that have been in my to-colour pile for quite some time. When I'd finished colouring him, I fussy cut out his sunflower seeds to take the photo for Instagram, but then I started to worry that he would get separated from his seeds so, rather than… Continue reading Hungry hamster
There's nothing like a young girl's birthday to give you an excuse to break out the cute images and pink Copics 🙂 Okay, so a pink dragon might be a bit cliched, but it was fun to colour! I decided to combine making this birthday card with the February IG Crafty Crew hard challenge, which… Continue reading Cupcake dragon
My eldest nephew has just turned twenty-one (!). So I had to make a card. A masculine card. While terminally uninspired... I was just going to keep it super simple: fussy cut numbers from something shiny and then do some paper layering. Then my other half said that he could 3D print some numbers for… Continue reading 3D printed 21st birthday
Birka loves pink. And it was Birka's birthday. So the Happy Crafty Friends had a pink blog hop for her and invited everyone to make a pink birthday card. This looks nothing like I had envisaged. Apart from the background that is, that went as planned. It all started so well: the heat embossing and… Continue reading Pink flowers on pink
I just felt like having a play with Distress oxide inks and trying out my new sentiment die, so I made a quick birthday card. I masked off a diagonal band, blended Distress oxide inks across it and then flicked water drops over to lift some of the ink and add a bit of texture.… Continue reading Diagonal Distress
My mum's birthday means, as ever, finding some cute little critters (preferably rodents) for her card. Luckily, I recently discovered Isabel Cristina who creates some absolutely adorable digi stamps. I did the colouring for this during the Daily marker challenge, but I knew that it would end up on a card for my mum; I… Continue reading Mouse in a hot air balloon
Before I started the 30-day colouring challenge, I was >this< close to having got completely caught up with blogging my card backlog. I very deliberately stuck to colouring during the challenge so that I wouldn't end it with a stack of thirty cards that needed to be photographed and written up. I even blogged a… Continue reading Gilded triangle sunburst
I needed a birthday card for a bunny lover. My other half's sister's birthday is the day after my brother's birthday, so that's two cards that need that extra bit of thought put into them close together. I do have a couple of unused bunny stamps in my stash, but when I saw this bunny… Continue reading Teacup bunny
It's time to make a birthday card for my brother again and every year it gets trickier to find suitable images without repeating myself. I had a browse through my collection of digi stamps and came across this happy-grumpy pair of sheep. I wanted to work on the texture for the sheep so I started… Continue reading Autumn sheep
Why do I always leave making cards for challenges until the end of the month? It's not making the cards that's the problem, it's not even getting the photographs done — I've got that workflow sorted — it's writing up the blog post to go with them. Actually, it's more the "thinking about writing the… Continue reading Cake Monster
This was not planned. This was the result of having a strip of double-sided adhesive sheet and a bit of the rainbow foil left lying on my desk and my head already in glitter mode for the next Sparkle & Shine lessons. I stuck the adhesive strip to a scrap of card, applied the foil… Continue reading Glitter rainbow foil stripe
A friend of ours regularly buys techy stuff for himself only to turn around and sell it again shortly after; this inspired my other half to suggest that there should be a “for sale” sign somewhere on his birthday card. We had already decided there would be robots and this Lawn Fawn set has a… Continue reading Presents for sale
I love to try new crafty things. Whether it's following through on an idea that just popped into my head or being inspired by someone else's creation, stretching myself artistically or experimenting with a new technique, successful or not so much, it's all good fun 🙂 Nearly all of the cards I make are standard… Continue reading Napkin-fold card
Crafty Rat 