Westie and Scottie dogs first cuts

I finally found a little space to play with my Quickutz dog die and boy did I have fun!!!
I made the white ones first in honour of our Lulu our Westie. Lula has a selection of Bandannas so I made a template to create the ones on these dogs! I just can't decide which way round I like it best as she wears them both ways and looks mega cute whichever way around. Our Lulu wears pink ones but I want to sell these on eBay so I gave them a classic tartan look! I made some black Scottie dogs too;0)
What do you think?

My New Fabulous Die

I know its a little late but...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I have had a break from blogging mainly due to health problems and general extreme busy - ness over Christmas so please excuse my absence. 

I can't get anywhere near my craft area at the moment as we have been having a clearout and guess where Kev has stored some "work in progress boxes?" yep right where I don't want them to be..... filling up my tiny craft area gggrrrrrrrrrrr ;o( But unfortunately I have no-where to move them to yet while we continue in our attempt to make more room in this tiny cramped little flat. This re-organizing is causing me a lot of frustration as I really want to play with some of my new dies I had for Christmas, especially this one.....

It's a Quickutz Revolution die and when I opened it I was shocked at how big it is. Whenever I think of Quickutz dies I think of those tiny little ones they are famous for. So the size of this die is a real surprise! This lovely image is on a 4"x4" metal plate and the actual dog will cut at approx 3.5" x 3" which is a fabulous size for card making and scrapbooking, One of the reasons that I am so thrilled with this Christmas gift in particular is that I am the proud owner of LULU.....

 

She is our adorable West Higland Terrier, and the most character-full dog I have ever known.

I can't wait to try this die using white or ivory card to see how much it resembles her. I may have to use a bit of colour and add a few hair stokes! but I think it will be super cool to send birthday cards to our friends who know Lulu with her image on the front. 

JOYFUL LAMB BAPTISM CARDS

We had baptisms in the afternoon at church this Sunday, so it was an extremely busy and tiring day with a service in the morning too and food etc to prepare, but I wouldn't miss a baptism at our church for anything even when I feel so weak and useless as I did yesterday. But at least I had a good reason to make some cards over the weekend LOL

My friend Angeline asked me to make 3 cards for her. The first one was for a male baptism candidate so no bling on this one! I like the texture on this card which was achieved using a Cuttlebug embossing folder...

I used an old rubber stamp by Stampendous (1994) of a very joyful leaping lamb for all three cards. I started with this image and the three cards kind of evolved from there! I cut a template for the clouds from scrap card and sponged the sky with china blue distress ink, the grass was created with a little grass stamp and distress inks, I used my Promarkers to colour the rest of the image and I used a Zig fine pen to create the flying birds.

For this one I used one of my my Marrianne Design Anja oval dies for the background and a punched cross which I added clear gems to, I was gonna add gems to the background but it just didn't look right. Each of the cards had the same computer generated sentiment.

I used my Martha Stewart lace border punch for this one and added some bling, think I will use this layout a lot in future its simple but effective. All three cards were based on a folded A5 white hammer card blank, 

I chose blues and aqua colours on each card (I had water on my mind LOL) 

I love the way each one turned out a little different but had the same image, that's a bit like the three people who were baptised, each of them were individual very different people but they had all found the same God, all filled with joy and so blessed at their baptism. I havent felt well for some time and struggled yesterday with a real lack of strength which to be honest really got to me. but I wouldn't have missed this baptism for anything, it was well worth the extra effort to see how God changes peoples lives.

CHALLENGES

I have entered these cards in the following challenges, although they are very simple cards some of them still meet the criteria, I will share the cards I made for kev and I to give in the next post

SOUTHERN GIRLS CHALLENGE  #56 Animal Crackers

BROWN SUGAR CHALLENGE  #13Anything Goes

FUSSY AND FANCY CHALLENGE  #74 Anything Goes

STAMPIN' FOR THE WEEKEND CHALLENGE  #20 Anything Goes

DO YA STACK UP CHALLENGE #95 Embossing (entering the first card which is embossed)

Psalm 91

Jesus loves me this I know for the bible tells me so.... my dad used to sing that little song to me when I was very young. The bible is the most encouraging, inspiring, amazing book that anyone could ever read. And on top of that, to know the God of the Bible in a living vibrant and personal way is beyond description.

 Sometimes God uses a scripture from the bible to speak deeply within our very spirit, to give us hope, faith and the trust we need to know that even though we are going through a rough time He will be our refuge, our source of strength and peace in the battles of life.

I made this centre step card for a special couple who are going through such a time. But they'rer facing it all with faith, turning to their God for strength and healing.

I am entering this card into some challenges..

'ABC' challenge (all beautiful cards)  New to You! 

well that little Marianne Design bird die is my newest die and my first use of it.

ALLSORTS challenge, they ask for Autumn Colours, well this copper and brown ticks that box!

CHALLENGES4EVERYBODY Anything Goes

The scripture on the front of the card is from a rubber stamp set by Our Daily Bread Designs, they in my opinion produce the best Scripture stamps available worldwide, 

I just wish I could afford more sets!

I wanted to show images of wings in the back ground to represent the feathers (echoing the verse inside the card...He will cover you with His feathers... computer generated)  

I stamped some wings from my psx bluebird and a small eagle stamps onto the front and back of vellum in cocoa brown ink, This allowed the wing image to reverse! then I attached the vellum to the card. 

I used my Spellbinders Parisian accent and motif dies for the copper coloured die cuts, and a scalloped circle for the stamped image.

To finish the card off I used my Marianne Design bird die, I cut it on cream card and used the die as a stencil with the cocoa brown ink, the leaves above are the same die turned round without the little bird.

Pretty Team Teddy Easel Card

I am really getting onto the flow with these easel cards! 

I needed to make a card for my friend Stephanie so here's the card I created for her and the Penny Black & Friends Saturday Challenge for the October challenge they have set a sketch which I have followed...

Embelishments and sentimenrts may be placed wherever I wish but I left it without a sentiment as I think my friend will want to leave this out on show for a while or even frame it!

I started to make this over a week ago but have been poorly and just not well enough to think straight!

I intended this card to be entered into a challenge that called for paper piecing, therefore I pieced the teddy arm, the gift, then the ribbon and bow and the tag on the gift then I used glossy accents on the bow to make the ribbon shine!

Here's the easel card opened up and showing the inside too. I wanted the sweet image of the teddy and the rose paper to really be the focal point of this card so kept embelishments to a minimum.

The image is a Penny Black stamp 3981K Team Teddy, 

I coloured  it with Promarkers. I have only used half of the image, masking off the other little creatures 

as there wasn't enough room for all of them to fit within the circle. 

I love the feminine feel of this card, it's just right for the friend it's intended for!

thanks for looking

I'm a Winner

YAY \o/ just found out that I have won a $10 gift certificate for the StampFairy.com (linked) my forever friends baby easel card was a winner on the  ABC CHALLENGE (linked) Y is for chromosome! male card. I am so pleased, I have been quite poorly this week and this was a nice surprise to cheer me up,  I have been over to the Stamp Fairy blog to take a look at their images, and to my delight they have a doggy that looks just like my Lulu (she is a West Highland Terrier) here's a link to the doggy images so I will choose the one with the ball as one of my purchases. this will make some fab cards to her friends!
Thank You to the ABC Challenge blog design team for choosing my card as one of the winners.

I have just signed up for Pinterest! I was a bit worried at first as it said I gave permission for it to post for me??? but then thought oh well if it gets me some sales in my Etsy shop then its worth it. If anyone has had a real good experience with Pinterest or Etsy I would value some advice please!
I have lowered the prices of most of my cards for a season just to see if it's the price that is stopping sales or that I am using the wrong place for my store. I am creating a very sweet easel card for a friend that will fit a few challenges so hope to be back soon when its finished and photographed
Have a good week everyone and remember don't just be blessed be a blessing too, what goes around comes around my mother used to say! what that really means is you reap what you sow!!!

thanks for popping by