My Favourite Five from 2010

So Debby over at A Scrapjourney is challenging us to choose our favourite 5 cards of 2010! eek, that's hard - but unlike many of my fellow crafters I don't manage 1 a day so at least there are fewer to choose from!

Nevertheless, it's still been a difficult challange to choose 5 favourites but after much contemplation here are my chosen selection:

This was the first card I made with this stunning sweetpea stamp and I fell in love with it! so much fun to use and really elegant - it sparked many more cards of similar design throught the year.

This was such a simple card to make for my best friend for her first house but who can resist Mo's images? they're such a delight to work with and the colours blended so well. It's one of my favourites because although its very simple I know how much it was appreciated

 

I think I've used this LOTV image to death this year - 3 separate wedding cards in 2 months with the same image but this is my favourite - it took so much work to make and so much patience but the results speak for themselves!

Another very simple card but it includes one of my all time favourite digi images and I just loves the layout of this card. Again this is one of those designs i've replicated several times now and I never get bored of it!

And finally, my first attempt at merging a stamp with a digi image! I love this card, I had so much fun making it, even if it did take hours to colour in! 

Ok, so this technically No. 6 but its not a stamped card so forgive me. I just had to share it again as I was really proud of this card. It was a commissioned piece and is now mounted and framed in the bedroom of the child it was made for! Now if that isn't reason to love your cards - knowing they're being treasured - I don't know what is!

Thanks for looking and take care!

Naomi

Men's Birthday Cards

What happens when you're home for christmas and you come to the horrifying realisation that you need to make not 1 but 2 mens birthday cards with limited crafting supplies and none of your old faithfuls?

Panic?! well yes, there was that option and then lightening struck - the cards are for 2 people highly unlikely to ever meet and so actually all you need is one feasible design. That in mind I went searching for inspiration and when that failed to appear it came back to good old fashioned trial and error and here is the result:

 

Not spectacular by any stretch of the imagination but at least they're done.

Everything is from my mum's stash and other than the small star being a woodware punch, the large star being cut with a friskers board and the sentiment being computer generated, I couldn't tell you the names of the paper and card - sorry.

I'm going to enter this into the allsorts challenge, which is anything goes!

Anyway, hope you like it - hope those who recieve them like it! and I'll be back in the new year with another birthday card I've got to finish making......

Take care and happy crafting!

Here’s to 2010!

Here’s to 2010! Here’s to the year where life went mad! So what happened this year?

January – I got a job with Pearson Vue and watched one of my brothers move into his own flat

February – I interviewed and got a job with English Heritage in Bristol

March – I finally saw Les Miserable performed live! I left Pearson’s, moved to Bristol and was told by one of my closest friends he loved me, but that he still loved his girlfriend too and the idea of an ‘us’ would always be a what if? (Not helpful)

April – Started work at English Heritage, interviewed 3 weeks later for a more senior role in the team and got it

May – Started in the new role with English Heritage and my best friend secured her first house

June – My grandmother was admitted to hospital for the 1st of three times this year and I had my first night out with the team from work (and nearly got alcahol poisoning from a vile creation called Chedder Valley Cidar)

July – I had my birthday and my best friend moved into her house

August – My grandmother was admitted to hospital for the 2nd time and I started a tradition of movie nights once a week(ish) with my closest friends from work

September – I was invited back to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery to do conservation work on the Staffordshire Hoard in early 2011 and my eldest brother was involved in a multi car pile up on the motorway

October - I had to re-interview for my job to extend the contract again! I went on my second cruise and had 19” taken out of the length of my hair.

November – My mother broke her ankle and my grandmother was taken back into hospital for the 3rd time and I spent every spare minute I could in Birmingham helping out the family, oh! and my dad finally got confirmed

December – I averaged 42 hours a week in the office, ate more food then I care to think of and realised for all the heartache that I had gone through this year, realistically – it’s been one of the best yet!

I’ve managed to grow closer to old friends from Cardiff, make some fantastic new friends through work and finally put faces to names of ladies I’ve know from the crafting world for a good few years.

I’ve realised that now, more than ever – friends are the family you choose for yourself and that family, no matter how much they drive you insane are the ones you need around you when times are hardest.

2010 has been one massive rollercoaster from start to finish and I can only imagine what 2011 will bring! But as always, things are sent to test us and what doesn’t break you only makes you stronger.

So my thanks to all of you who are part of my life, by following and commenting on my blog – you are part of my urban family and I thank you for your support from the bottom of my heart!

Merry Christmas! And all the very best for a brilliant start to 2011!

Christmas Envelope

Hi guys,

This is one of my latest projects, a christmas envelope - and now I know its arrived safely with its intended recepient, then i'm happy to share it with you all

So its obviously one of the winter tildas, coloured with whisper pens, covered in gloss to make it waterproof. Mounted on an oval I was kindly donated. Snowflakes from an old woodware punch, tag from ..... I can't remember the make (it's my mums punch), stamped with a SU sentiment, coloured over with a promarker to get the colour I wanted and ribbons from stash

That's about it, hope you like it!

Ok, so not a card - but it's still creative!

Ok, so I know this isn't a card - not sure i'm going to manage to get one of those to you today as I need to do an urgent piece of cross-stitch for my mum as a present, but you can't deny its not a creative effort!

This is (at last) the completed christmas cake for work - all 10" squared of it - and yes, it does weigh the same as a baby elephant! urgh! lol!

But anyway, here you go.

The cake - traditional rich fruit cake

 The cake after I'd marzipaned it

 The finished cake!

 Side on so you can see all the holly

Close up of the holly



I hope it tastes good after all this effort!

Thanks for looking! and happy crafting xx



Christmas Cards

Hello!

Well, as promised I have returned with a card! (at last I hear you cry!) and this one is this years christmas design.

 

 

So as many of you will recognise - this is Papermania's Christmas Carol stamp (or is it?!) now as much as I love this stamp- I find it too big to really do anything useful with, so i've cheated. Stamped the image, scanned it in and shrunk it to fit my card stock. I then added dimension by creating a raised section of the image and highlighting as many of the spots as possible with liquid pearls white opal.

And there you have it! hope you like it!

Thanks for looking and happy crafting xx



Missing In Action

Hi guys, I thought it best to drop a quick note explaining why im M.I.A after so many of you have dropped me a note asking where I've vanished to.

I'm fine - run down and counting down the days to Christmas (as is everyone else I suspect) but that's not the reason i've been away for a while. Most of you will remember that I mentioned my Mum broke her ankle in early November, well as a result of that - with my dad working a 6 day week at the moment and leaving at 6:30and getting back about 7, he's exhausted too. And then to top it off my grandmothers been re-admitted to hospital so they're visiting her at least 3 times a week!

So I've been rallying the troops (my brothers) who both live really close to my parents and they've been helping out as much as possible - but they both work 6 day weeks too and are both on overtime on the lead up to christmas!

Result? I've been running up to Brum every Friday night and coming back to Bristol every Monday morning for since the 2nd weekend of November.

So, throw in the fact im doing 9+ hour days too, my mojo has - to say the least vanished. I will be back and more active soon - I still need to make a couple of special Christmas cards- but for the most part I'm not really doing much crafting.

I hope you're all keeping well, I have been keeping an eye on the blogs and you all seem to be making some stunning cards so I'm sorry for not leaving comments for those.

Thanks for your concern and I will be back before the weeks out with my christmas cards for the year (I just want them to get to peeps before I share them on here, otherwise it'll ruin the surprise!)

Take care! keep warm! and happy crafting xx