Special cards

 I have been making up a couple of Hunkydory cards using some kits that I bought quite a while ago.

The first one is for a special friend who has suddenly become very poorly.  I can't go to see her yet in case of spreading any germs.  I am sure I haven't got any but it just isn't worth the risk.  

Neither of the cards have scanned as well as I would have liked because of the many layers of decoupage.

Here is the first one:

The second is a Sympathy card for one of our UKSN members whose Mother sadly passed away recently.  

It seems to be a difficult time me at the moment.  An old and close ex golfing friend died on 22nd December.  My son and I are attending her funeral tomorrow.  My husband - from whom I have been separated for 25 years -  died on Christmas Eve and now my friend is very poorly.

It is crafting though that is keeping me going and sane and I will visit my friend as soon as it is allowed.

I hope all are well.

Hugs

Carol

xx

CD Sunday Plus - Challenge #81 - hosted by Pamela

I am still with the digital cards although I am noticing some improvement in my wrist after the jab.  A little less pain and almost no terrible pins and needles.  So hopefully it will continue this way.

I had a lot of fun making this card using one of my favourite characters - Boofle - from Docrafts.

So here he is.

It was fun choosing some favourite poses, changing sizes etc, and then thinking of some appropriate text/sayings.  The border was from my graphics programme.  Everything else was  'Boofle' from Docrafts Digital Designer.

The card was made for the Card For Kindness group on UKSN and is winging its way to its recipient in Australia. I am hoping that by the time this post appears it will have reached Sue.

I will be busy next week choosing my Top 3 for the last challenge and with the improvement hoping to find it all a mite easier.

I have a little story to relate  about my son - true - it happened last week.

I am taking a drug called Gabapentin.  Supposed to help with Carpal Tunnel Pain.  I am on quite a heavy dose and one of the side effects is to make you dizzy and unsteady.  I have been suffering - in spades - as they say, and had a long chat with medics about it and it is being reduced.

That bit is just background.  Yesterday afternoon I went outside the front door to the post box (separate from the house) to see if there was any post and when I bent down I started to lose my balance - big time.  In fact, in my mind's eye, I could see myself hitting the box and ground.  Anyway, I manage to get back up straight and all was well.

Later on, Chris  came home just for a moment and he asked how I was.  I told him about the incident and what I needed was one of those alarm bells you wear round your neck if you do fall.  But I said I couldn't have one of those because I am not on my own.  What I needed was one that just connected to him but such a thing would be impossible.

Ah says he. What you need is a Cow Bell.

I am just about still talking to him.

Hugs to all and please still be careful.

Carol xx

CD Sunday Plus - Challenge #79 - hosted by Jocelyn.

Another completely digital offering from me again I am afraid.  I am longing to be able to get back to 'making 3D style cards' again but having said that I am just glad that I can at least create something. I have been given some consultation appointments so I may have better news by the next challenge. 

I enjoyed making this card.  It is for a member of a group I belong to within the UKSN.  I used  my Serif Craft Artist 2 again.  The same folder as last time - just a different image.

I love the ghostly white fish. There are a few in the folder but I liked these best of all.  It was all part of  the same folder  I just added the borders with my ACDSee programme.  The outside border is just there to show the edge of the card for the posting.   It is not part of the card itself.

The wind is absolutely howling as I type this (Friday).  I noticed earlier on the news that the  S.E was the only area left with a red warning and the edge started just left of us - Guildford/Farnham.  I hope all are safe and everything is still in one piece.

Hugs

Carol

xx

CFK for the UKSN

 Here is my first Card for Kindness for 2022.  I was sent my 'name' a few days ago and I have managed to make a card but it had to be a digitally produced one I am afraid.  It could be that way for a while yet but I couldn't not make one.  If that makes sense.  Card making and crafting is what I do and I am so bored with the TV - I can't tell you.

Anyway I used my Serif Craft Artist 2 and produced this card.

 I did find some synthetic water drops in my stash to add for effect.

This is winging it's way in the post and I hope the recipient likes it.  I had to do the inside greeting using my Dymo Letratag.  A boon when you can't do any handwriting.

Hugs

Carol

xx

CFK for the UKSN

The coded heading stands for:

Card for Kindness for the United Kingdom Stampers Network.

Here is my card that I made for a fellow member of our club.  I have mentioned before that the members are monthly each given a name with whom to swap a Card for Kindness

Because of my Carpal Tunnel Syndrome I am - at the moment - using my graphic CDs and programmes more than usual in my card making.  Even typing this today is a problem as my whole arm and hand is tingling like crazy.

Here is the card together with a matching calendar.

I don't find it onerous to be making cards this way as I love all the Card Hut CDs and programmes. 

I just feel bad that I haven't managed to fulfill my commenting duties for CD Sunday Plus.  I can manage occasionally but not all the time.  With the major problems that the NHS is facing it will be many many months before I can get treatment for the Carpal Tunnel. I will just have to be patient.

In the meantime may I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a good safe New Year.

Positively the last Christmas cards for 2021

Some of you may have picked up from some of my postings that I am a member of the UK Stampers Network.  This lovely group are primarily about all things stamping but they do have certain internal little groups that you can get involved in and not use stamps - like the ATC group .  They also do craft retreats and on one of these they learned some card shapes - one of which was a 3 point card.   It was talked about on the blog and I loved what they had done.  I am known amongst some of my friends as an 'any shape as long as it is square' kind of crafter but I did like the cards they showed me.  So I had a go and here are my last two Christmas cards for 2021.   I love them and plan to use the shape more often when I am making my 2022 Christmas cards.

Now the blue one was my 1st go and I still have that one but the second is in an envelope ready for the postbox.

For them both I used backing paper from stash.  The images are die cuts.  The meeces are from Carnation Crafts and the Santa is from Tattered Lace.  The sentiments were cut with dies I have had for ages.

Admittedly I made the basis of the cards  some time ago (September) but with help of the new pain medication from my GP to help with the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome I managed to complete the red one yesterday but only because I had already cut out the images and they were safe and ready in my die cut stash.

I think I like the shape more each time I look at them.

Thanks for looking.

Hugs

Carol

xx

A small selection

Here are a few cards made using different methods for a couple of  UKSN groups to which I belong.

Firstly CCC#50

Theme: Easter Eggs, Colour: a mix of any you fancy, Letter: C

And now CCC#52

Theme: Newsprint or book print, Colour: Brown, Letter: K

This is a weekly challenge and before the next one is set  the names are drawn for the one that is now finished  and the cards are all sent to the winner.

As a special thank you to our team leader of the UKSN we all made a secret card following the theme of her loves and likes. This was labelled CCC#52B and this is the one I made and sent.

My card is to show her love of all things pink especially Flamingos. Mickey is small in stature but big hearted and bubbly and a dab hand at all things arty.

Now a couple made for our CFK group (Cards for Kindness).  Each month we are given two names and make and send off our offerings with any message or greeting we like to use.  Mostly , now we leave the insert blanks and don't put our names on the back so the recipient could use it themselves, if they so wish.

The ones I sent in April were cards that I had made for such an occasion and you have seen these on here so these are the two I made for March.

For this one I used the graphics programme and contents from one of my Card Hut CDs together with some die cut ferns from Tattered Lace. The 'hole in the wall' was garnered from the WWW..

For this card another Card Hut CD was used.  I was trying to show what I hope will be possible when all this madness has disappeared.

Stay safe.  We still have to be so careful.

Hugs

xx

UKSN - CCC Challenge Cards

Here is my card for  CCC #49.  I missed #48.  I think I got involved in other things like some desperately needed housework.

I loved making this.

Theme: Balloons

Colour: Orange

Letter: H

I went to where I have stored my Card Hut CDs on my computer.  Some time ago I asked my son to put them all there in one place so that I can go from one to the other more easily to combine all the wonderful images etc.

Here is the card:

Usually when I make these there is a little background story to the card.

"It is not a very warm day at the seaside as both the boy and his Gran are wearing coats. He has seen the balloon and hears the cries for help but his Gran, who is deaf, can't make out the shouts for help and is just waving a greeting. Let's hope someone comes to the rescue".

Hugs

Carol xx

P.S.  I have just learned that I won the draw so it will stay in my go-to box. xx

UKSN - CCC Challenge cards

 At UKSN this week we have reached CCC#47 in our weekly competitions.

This week:

Theme: Leaf/leaves

Colour: At least two or more shades of green

Letter: D

I used a real mixture of dies for this one. The two backing sheets have been cut with yet another new Carnation Craft set of dies - 'Crystalline'.  This is the first time I have used them.

The tree and leaves are made using a mixture of dies and the birds are part of the Tattered Lace Collection - Sparkle and Lace.

The letters for DREAM are cut using one of the small dies by Marianne Craftables.

Carol

xx

UKSN CCC Challenge cards

I haven't been keeping up to date with my entries into the challenges - so I will now .  The last one I posted was CCC #37 which I was delighted to say I won. So not only did I get to keep my own creation,  I received a few others.  When we are making these cards we mostly make them without any printed words and without our own handmade stickers so that that recipient/winner may put them in their own go-to box - if they wish.

The next challenge I entered was  CCC#38.

Theme:  New Years 2021
Colour: Yellow
Letter: H
 

Then CCC#40

Theme: Trees

Colour: Brown 

Letter: B

and the latest is CCC#41

Theme: Hugs

Colour: Pink

Letter: S

I have just read that I have been lucky again in the draw and will receive the entries for CCC#40

Carol

xx

UKSN - a new challenge

 One of our members suggested a new challenge.  She had obviously been working her way through a large tin of  very high quality sweeties during Christmas and  saved all the wrappers.  Her challenge was for us to make cards, or ATCs, or such like using similar wrappers as part of the project. 

Now coincidentally I happened to have the same high quality sweeties but I hadn't actually started mine.  But of course there was now a challenge, so I started eating a few - choosing the sweeties with the colour wrappers I wanted to use.

I really enjoyed this challenge.  First of all I thought of stained glass windows but although I searched my many many dies I hadn't got a suitable one.  Then I found just the thing and here is the card I made.

This was a die set that I bought quite a while ago but hadn't actually used.  It consists of the palette, brush and paint tubes together with tube tops, labels and squirts of paint. The  pieces of the coloured cellophane sweetie wrappers just needed to be cut to size and glued to the back of the palette die.

I knew where to go for the background - my trusty La Pashe CDs.  I added the tri-coloured border with my graphics programme.

Whilst I am posting about UKSN challenges here is the latest CCC challenge - #37.

The theme for this was Feathers, colour Purple, and the Letter - F

The background and the coloured part of the fan comes from an old Artylicious CD - Peacock Summer Party.  The background colour is more purple in real life.

It seems odd to wish a Happy New Year whilst we are still finding our way through all this mayhem so perhaps I should just wish everyone a Happier New Year and 2021.

Hugs

Carol

xx

UKSN Facebook

 I have three CCC (Captivating Card Challenge) entries to show you today.

#33 - Theme:  Penguins

          Colour: Grey

          Letter:   S

I used an image from La Pashe for this one.

#34 - Theme:  Reindeer

          Colour: Dark Blue

          Letter:   L

 The pattern is from Stitching Cards and is one of my favourites. I always make this at least once a year.

Lastly

#35 - Theme:  Any animal wearing a Santa hat.

          Colour: Red

          Letter:   J

 Again I used an image from La Pashe.  A favourite image as I am very fond of Meercats.  Three of the front ones are decoupaged.

 #33 went off to the winner of the draw.  #34 was sent to a member who is poorly at the moment and #35 has yet to be drawn.

Now waiting to find out to whom to send the 'Meercats' and what #36 will be about.

P.S.  The Meercats are off to Scotland .  I will probably give #36 a miss unless I find  some spare time from somewhere.

xx

UKSN Facebook

 We are now up to challenge CCC#32.

Theme: Background with stars

Colour: Red

Letter: C

Those above criteria can only mean Christmas -  so here is my entry:

I used a starry background design from a Carol Anne's Studios CD.  The Father Christmas image comes from La Pashe with the border and sentiment added using my graphics programme. Then I just added a few peel off red stars.

I wasn't the successful one in the last draw so my wonderful handsome Harrison Ford went off to pastures new. 😢

So with this little card may I wish an early Happy Christmas - and don't all shout at once please.

xx

UKSN Facebook

 Our weekly challenges seem to come round very quickly.

This time:

Theme: Hollywood Celebrity

Colour: Yellow

Letter: M

I have 'worshipped' this icon of the film industry from afar since he first appeared on the silver screen.

Hence the sentiment.

Carol

xx

UKSN Facebook

Here are my latest two entries into one of the challenges.

Here is CCC#29

Theme: Ice Cream

Colour: Green

Letter: U

I was the lucky winner of the draw so I get to keep my card and receive the other entries.

This is CCC#30 - this weeks challenge.

Theme: Lighthouse

Colour: Orange

Letter: C

For this one I found a sepia/grey scale print on the internet and coloured it myself using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. I also found the saying on the 'net and used my graphics programme to add it and the border to the picture. The backing paper is some rainbow paper that I keep for when I am backing parchment projects.  I printed out the finished image onto glossy photo paper which gives it a lift.

I enjoy these little challenges and have only missed a few at the beginning.  A change from Christmas/Birthday cards and ATCs.

Hugs

Carol

xx

UKSN Facebook

Here are my cards for the last two of our weekly themed card events.

CCC#26

Theme: Tiger

Colour: Yellow

Letter:   K

CCC#27

Theme: Rainbow

Colour: White

Letter: Y

Until I started to think about what to do with this theme I didn't know there were such things as 'white rainbows'.  They are very rare and apparently are referred to as 'fogbows'. Fascinating.  I love learning new 'stuff'.

Carol

xx

UKSN Facebook

Two more challenges to show.  Firstly CCC#24.

Theme: Flamingos

Colour: Pink and Black

Letter: R

I made two cards for this challenge. I seemed to get the juices going and couldn't stop. Here they are.

and

These have been posted to the winner of the draw.

The latest challenge is CCC#25

Theme: Bicycle

Colour: Grey

Letter: M

When I first read the challenge all I could see in my mind was Queen with their song - 'I want to ride my bicycle'.  I am a big Queen fan.  So I played the CD a few times but then changed my mind and the next thing to come to mind was E.T riding in the basket on the bike up towards the Moon.

So.....

I had fun making this and I hope whoever wins the challenge likes it.

Carol

xx

UKSN Facebook

We have now reached CCC#23 of our challenges.  

Theme: Silhouette Fairies - at night

Colour: Blue

Letter: O

Here is my card:

It was quite a quick one to make.  The little die-cut fairies are from Marianne again.  I have so many of the little sets.  They are so useful.

 

UKSN Facebook

Our new CCC#22 weekly challenge is now up and running.

       Theme:   Flowers in a Vase
       Colour:   Red
       Letter:     L

I have used Tattered Lace Wild Silk for the lace background and the two matt layers.  The back matt (white) has been folded over at the top and stuck to the gold matt so that the card stands up.

The vase is from the Illuminating Collection.  After I had made up the vase using the dies and charismas I reduced it in size and reprinted with photo paper.  The red flowers are die-cut. I bought these from eBay as I do not have the appropriate die.  I added a small amount of glitter to the flower centres.

p.s. I have now discovered that this is indeed a Tattered Lace die called Climbing Rose.  I have tracked it down after quite a lot of searching - finally on eBay and I have bought it.

The word ENJOY was made with my Marianne small Alphabet die set.

Here is the card.

This is my first time playing with the Wild Silk Collection.  I can't wait to start creating with the beautiful flower dies and charismas.

Hugs
Carol
xx

 

Here is a link to the site where you can get so many of these miniature die-sets by Marianne

p.s. I was chosen as the winner so I am pleased to say I get to keep my first 'go' with the Wild Silk.

UKSN Facebook

This weekly challenge is #21.

Theme: Angels
Colour: Yellow
Letter: L

This is my creation.  Not a card this time but an ATC.  I hope the recipient (winner of the draw) won't be too disappointed to get an ATC and not a card.

My little Angel was done in parchment.  I drew round a stamped image with a black pen and then embossed and coloured.  'Halo' is die cut from a sheet of gold glitter card.  I used my tiny set of alphabet dies by Marianne that is perfect for ATCs and other small things.  I have added glitter to her Halo and her wings.
There is a matching stamp that has the Angel with her halo on straight and looking Angelic but I prefer this one.
Carol
xx