Glittered birthday card

This was for a competition, using Papermania products. The pink scalloped circle was handcut, as I don't have a die that shape. The presents were stsmped and coloured, and the swirls in the background are double-sided sticky shapes covered in lots of different colours of glitter - I like glitter!

Winning card

I've just heard that this card won a third prize in the X-cut section of Origin Publishing's Cardmaker of the Year contest. I won the title of Cardmaker of the Year two years ago, so it's good to find the magic still lingers!

Glitter tree

It's that time of year again - time to make Christmas cards! The tree was traced from a template, part of a set included with the latest issue of Simply Cards and Papercraft. I love filling in shapes with glue and covering them with glitter, so I used lots of blue and greens here. I added a peel-off greeting coloured green with marker pens, and some blue and purple sequins in the corner. I love making Christmas cards!

Visiting Hallmark

I was lucky enough to be one of the winners recently in a DOCrafts Creativity competition to create a Forever Friends card. Our prize was a visit to the Hallmark Studio in Yorkshire, and it was brilliant! We saw all round the Creative section, had a play with DoCrafts Forever Friends products, and came away with stacks of goodies. My favourite bit of the visit was the big notice in the foyer welcoming us! I made a very quick and simple layout for my scrapbook when I got back, using some of the stickers placed on white card and cut around to make die-cuts.

Funky Hand Challenge

This was made following a sketch on the new Funky Hand Challenge blog. In the end I didn't add a sentiment as I liked the card better without one, but I've followed the sketch apart from that. The pink, lime and orange papers are from my favourite CD of printable paper designs, Funky Seasons. I added some gem centres, coloured with Sharpie pens - a great way to get matching colours from a pack of clear gems!

Happy 360th birthday Fiskars

This card was made to help celebrate the 360th birthday of Fiskars, the scissors and tool company. I have a pair of Fiskars (then Wilkinson's) scissors which I've had for over 20 years and they are still the best ones I own. I used some Funkyhand.com paper for the background, and cut the cupcake from a scrapbook catalogue - the bits I needed were so tiny I could use the sample squares printed in the catalogue!

Mermaid card

I found some Lili of the Valley mermaid images I had stamped a while ago, and decided to make them into cards. I had cut round the shapes rather roughly and this one didn't have enough white space at the top to cut into a neat square - so I used a plate to draw a shallow arch at the top of the image, and cut it out as you see here. I was really rather pleased with the effect - it's amazing how being stuck with something that isn't quite right brings out a creative idea!

Birdy card - and an exciting website!

I made this card with some free papers and embellishments that came with the latest issue of 'Cardmaking and Papercraft' magazine. All the colours are so bright and cheerful, and the kit had everything except the pink ribbon on the right, and the greeting. I often pop over to the blog at www.heroarts.com - they're launching their new website this week and there's lots of fun and freebies to be had. Go and take a look - the colours of the cards are so inspiring!

Fimo

The panel on this card was made with some Fimo I'd had for ages and thought I really must try to do something with. I wanted something simple, so I rolled it out thinly and pressed a Cuttlebug embossing die onto the surface. It made a very fine, clear impression, and I trimmed round it before poking holes in the corners with a cocktail stick and baking it. Some printable paper from funkyhand.com, and I'd completed a simple but striking card.

Birthday Card for the Queen

This was made for a competition, which asked for a birthday card to mark the 83rd birthday of Her Majesty the Queen. I based mine on an embroidered book cover stitched by the first Queen Elizabeth when she was a girl. It was worked in stumpwork, with metallic threads - I used foam pads and glitter!

Christening card

Next month is the baptism of a friend's little girl, so I wanted to make a special card for the occasion. I had the idea of a string of bunting spelling out Miranda's name, and originally thought the bunnies could hold it in their mouths. This would have made for a very low-level card, though! So I cut some birds freehand and strung the bunting from their beaks, and added a cut-out pram and grass. The letters were printed out onto different shades of coloured card, snipped into triangles, and stuck along a length of thread with seed beads in between.

Rainbow cupcake

This was made for a competition which asked for a card with a rainbow. I used up some of my stash of ribbon making a striped background, and added a cupcake on foam pads, onto which I'd added several rainbow gems. The white background makes it look fresh and pretty.

Sour Cream pouch

Over on http://www.pinkpetticoat.blogspot.com/ there was a challenge to make a 'sour cream carton' using Pink Petticoat papers, and decorate it. This ended up being much brighter than I had planned, and the pale pink heart paper is a bit lost under the paper-pieces trees and owls! I wanted a design that would make use of the twisting sides of the pouch, and went for the tree because they fill the upper part of the sides as they widen. I added a cheerful greeting printed out from the computer. The owl and tree pattersn are from the latest issue of Creativity magazine.

You are a Princess

This card uses some of the latest stamps from http://www.kirstenlappingdesigns.com/. Both the castle and the girl come from the 'Princesses' set, as do the small words on the ribbon. The background paper came in a pack from a pound shop - it's so pretty I wish I could remember which one! The buttons which spell 'Princess' were part of the prize from Craftime, and I thought they'd go beatutifully with these images. I added some sequin flowers and gem butterfly to the watercoloured images, and tied it all together with a ribbon.

Pink Petticoat challenge

This card was made for a challange over on Pink Petticoat. We were to dress up our backgrounds, but I don't know if it's very visible here! I printed out two Pink Petticoat papers and added red glitter dots to the lower spotty paper. The ribbon is a freebie from www.shabbyprincess.com and the flowers is a freebie from Pink Petticoat - I 'painted' them with PVA and sprinkled coloured glitters over the flowers, leaves and vase. I doodled a black and white check frame for the image, to match the ribbon, and coloured the peel-off black to contrast with the paper.

Folded shirt-dress

This was created for a competition that asked for a card with folded paper. I had included the instructions for a folded shirt in my scrapbooking book I folded the shirt and added a 'pleated skirt' from concertina folded paper. I added a pearl necklace and ribbon belt, matted it and rubbed down a greeting.

Irish buttons

This was made for a competition which asked for a card showing your New Year resolution. I have a friend in Ireland who lost her husband last year, and I hope I can see her some time this year, so I chose to make an ornage and green 'Irish' card. These Irish-themed buttons are one of the many sets I won when my card was picked as the first prize winner in the Craftime category of the Cardmaking and Ppaercraft Cardmaker of the Year competition. I have a tin box full of them now, so I'm not short of inspiration! The background paper is a Papermania one, which clever combines orange with a hint of green, and I always like adding ribbon to my cards.

Fairy Wishes

This was my entry for a competition asking for fairy or dragon cards. The fairy is actually a princess from the Princesses stamp set by www.kirstenlappingdesigns.com. The wings are made from the butterfly from the same set, stamped and embossed onto vellum. Both the princess and the wings have been glittered with Kirsten's very fine purple glitter. The greeting is from a set of Anita's peel-offs - most were 'good luck' but I thought this made the perfect greeting from a fairy. I colured it green, and the stars purple, with peel-off pens, and mounted everything on a background of paper remnants.