Away for the weekend

Hi guys

I was meant to send this weeks ago but for got to hit publish. It was only for my checking it on the computer I saw it was sill in draft mode. 

Originally typed on 16th March 2015...

There are no cards this weekend but I did want to share my weekend of peace and quite. 

My friend Kristy had a surprise birthday trip with her close friends. We organised a lovely trip to a spa hotel with afternoon tea just before mothers day for her. 

She loved it as the photos can tell. 

We stayed at the Chesford Grange in Warwickshire. They have great rooms.

Our afternoon tea with sparkling wine. Wonderful 

Me and Kristy toasting to her birthday surprise.

Me, Kristy and Andrea

Me and Kristy for dinner

A Busy Weekend

Evening all 

Hope you are well?

I have been busy this weekend. My mission is to make 2 Birthday Cards, 2 Mothers Day Cards and 1 wedding card.

As you can imaging that will take a lot of planning. So I went with Mothers Day first. its only 1 week away and one of them I need to post out to my mum. I look for inspiration in Magazines and web forums. 

You might recall in my previous post, I am currently selling a set of "I love you Mum" Cards on folksy and I showed a draft version of what I was selling. here is the final product which I am sending to my mum this week. I do hope you all like it?

I have added a red backing card to take off the white edge and trimmed it down a little. I wont know till Monday if my mum loves it but I think she will.








For my mother -in-law It needed to be more pastel and soft. I bumped into an email from crating.co.uk loved the photos and downloaded the free paper pack and made something similar.

I created the sentiment using My Craft Studio and found some lace boarders in cupboard. 

I loved making the flowers it came with the pack and the shaped them to have the 3D effect and brushed a pink shimmer paint to make them shine a bit.

Mother's Day card down 3 more to make. 

Inspiration for Mothers Day Card

My friends birthday is coming up there personality's make my ideas easy to come up with. 

My friend Kristy is a girly girl and who better to get inspiration the our lovely beautiful Marylin Monroe. The best thing about CD Rom's is that my cupboard is not stacked up with paper stock that might not be used for ever so I printed off the sheets needed and made this card. I would be able to give her card and present till next week but I know she will love it. 

Another card I have made today is for My friend Ben. We recently watched The Guardians of the Galaxy and we all loved that movie that most of us have been either quoting lines or Signing the old songs that were in the film. 

So you can imagine my surprise when I found a "Music Mix Collection" from Do Craft download files and became very excited. 

I was tempted to add Mix Tape Vol. 1 on the cassette but I did find much fun making this card and cant wait to hand over in a few weeks time. 


2 more cards down 1 to go. 


My final card was the one that took the longest.

A friend at work is getting married in 6 week's. She is a Lovely lady and we work so well together even though I have been working in the department for 6 months. I used to think making a wedding card is easy as long as you have a design or template. But I found it hard as I really want her and her new husband to like it. 

So with much playing around here is the card I made for the newly weds. 

My weekend is done there is a few hours left in my Sunday, so I am going to watch Stargate SG1 with a cup of tea. Have a lovely week guys. 

Mel xx

Showcase of 2014.

Hi everyone.

Here is all the cards I have made over 2014. Sorry I did not show it off sooner but I hope you all like them.

What to make out of a sheet of toppers?
When you have cratfers block I feel the best thing to do is print a few toppers and backing papers and start mixing things around. I eventually made 4 cards in 1 days over the weekend all ready for friends birthday's

Vintage 







a few more birthday cards I did in February and March. I went straight into my Art Deco box of goodies and made this lovely card using my deco embossing template for the mirror card it made a great addition to my topper.

This was my favorite card I made this for my dad for his birthday but I do not have any Distress inks to give the old vintage look I was trying to go for. My Husband reminded me of the old tried and tested trick tea bag.

so while making a cup of tea I made a weak version to put in my water bush and got to work on the topper. Had to wait a few days for the smell to leave the paper but I got the result I was looking for and was very happy to send to my Dad. :-)

Mother and Father's Day

For mothers day I decided to do an origami topper and use some free papers from do craft to make as a backing paper

 on fathers day I was reading my monthly magazine (cardmaking & papercraft) and saw in the issue a simple template. So I went into my stash of papers I keep from magazines and created this card for fathers day. 

I know it looks too simple but I promise you trying to get the size right and fit took me a while to get right. But I love the colors it was very manly. 

Weddings and Anniversary's

In May my husband's cousin got married so I made this shaker card and found this elegant silhouette of a married couple. I punched out some love hearts to illustrate confetti in my shaker card.  

This was my hardest card to make. 

My friend asked me to make a card for her friend's wedding anniversary. Her friend is a spiritualist / angelic artist, so I was asked to make a card but to have her art work somewhere in the card. 

I am telling you guys I have never been so nervous making this card so I decided that a shaker card might do the trick. 

not only did my friend loved it but so did her friend the moment she saw her angel on the card she was very touched. 

This was my favorite card I made, this for my 
in-laws I used every embossing techniques I had in my craft cupboard and created this card. 

June / July

Around this time of year its always busy in the Oliver household. We have 5 birthdays that's a lot of presents and cards to get and make. On top of them this year I was asked to create 2 cards for work. 

Cupcake card for my Aunty

Birthday card for my Sister-in-law
I love flower fairies

Birthday card for my Uncle
He knows his wine 

My mother-in-law loves her bears
so this was a pleasure to make a card
with something she loves

I made this card for my father-in-law
for his birthday. 

 















































In June I was asked to make a get well soon card for someone who was on long term sick. 

As you I do I went through my flower fairies CD-roms and saw this pretty design. 

I made this as colorful as I could as that would cheer anyone up when they get a card.










I recently changed jobs and there was a team members birthday. I took the challenge and made this card using my craft studio to design card. 

 

Family Birthdays

I don't know why but I thought doing a child's birthday card will be easy.

But when you try to do a card for a family member you do not see often. Its quite hard. But then I remembered that I bought some boys CD-roms from create and craft so was very chuffed with the result.  

I do love making a card with flowers. I am not sure why they are easy to make. 

I made this for a cousin of mine can you guess how old she is? :-)

As time passes and I get stressed make male cards ideas keep coming and this was very easy and enjoyable to make for my cousin for his birthday. 


















Christmas
I love christmas but I do find it hard to make all the family cards in time, clear my craft corner to do the decoration and put up the tree. 

What I love about planning the Christmas cards if getting the theme. This year I really wanted to be a bit artistic and though origami folding. 

The papers had to be durable but then not to heavy that I can't make the folds. I spoke to a colleague of mine at work who is the queen of paper and card and asked for her advise. She recommended a new paper stock she purchased for the college and we did some test printing to see if this would work for my card. so here they are each card had the same topper but I made each card different so they were not all the same. 

This card I made for my husband as he saw how much work I put in with the others and I like to surprise him and he did not expect it knowing how many cards I made for the family he really thought that he was getting one of the above. 













so there you go. All of my cards I have created last year. I do hope you enjoyed looking though it, I am going to do my up most to post them regularly 

Planning for mother's day

Hi All 

I know its been ages since I wrote a blog. But I wanted to show a beautiful card I have made. (Test print)

I plan to sell this card on Folksy which will be my first card I will be selling. 

How I did this card was really enjoyable, I have been playing with Craftartist because I got the Roald Dahl CD rom's for my birthday but there was no instructions how to use and print. But I got there and designed this lovely card. my origami folding is not the greatest but with this software there was a flat version which then allowed me to digitally impose the look like I have made it.

This week I have plans to make keyring's with Kumihimo cord. My mind has been buzzing with new designs so I might send pictures of them too. 

Half term Holiday

Hi all

Hope you are all well? And having fun crafting.

This week is half term which is great. Work has been stressful and I needed a break.

My husband and I went to London on Monday with a friend of our and his oldest daughter we had a great relaxing time and the weather was not bad. Considering the news reports, London was not that bad. Other than that been relaxing and watching old TV series on DVD... Such a great relaxing moment not doing anything.

I am starting to look at what ideas I can do for Christmas this year. So I have been looking at the do craft website, as you do for inspiration. So far there are ideas that I think I can do but not sure if I have the confidents do it.

I am planning to do a few cards to see which one I will make for my friends and family and I will show you all so start tuned.

Mel xx

Very Proud

Afternoon all

I wanted to show you my proudest work I have done this year.

So a few weeks ago, my boss has asked me to make a Congratulation card for someone we work with who is getting married  this week. I feel so proud of this last project that maybe just maybe my inspiration is coming back. so watch out guys I might be posting more photos for you to look at.

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you all like it.

Enjoy your weekend guys.

Mel xx

Its been a while

Afternoon all

I know its been months since my last post but it's been hectic at my end that it will be so long to read so I wont say anything. :-)

However my crafting skills has been little lack lately due to not being inspired. Its a said day when that happens to a crafter I think. So I ask my crafting readers what should I do?

Christmas is around the corner and I am not sure what I should make for my friends and family. I read magazine and forums but I am not as passionate as I have been in the past. I would love to hear what you guys do to get you in the mood to make fabulous cards?

Mel