When is a card not a card ...............

When is a card not a card ....... when it's a gift card holder

This is my DT project for this weeks Papertake Weekly challenge. Please pop over and be inspired by the fabulous DT projects - and the prize this week is a £10 voucher to spend in the Ribbon Girl online store  I used a diecut LOTV image enhanced with plenty of Stardust Stickles, the die ccut images are so handy when you're in a bit of a hurry!!

I adhered the image to the card via a flap and underneath made a little pocket to hold a gift of money

I was pleased with the end result becaue the card can still be on show as any normal card would be.

I used red and white pencil stripe ribbon, 18mm white cotton zig zag lace, a small red and white polka dot button and some natural button twine - all from http://www.ribbongirl.co.uk/ (and my sister will be very impressed that I made a card without using any flowers on it!! lol)

See you soon, Mary G x

One layer - leaves .................

This card is for the current Less is More challenge - one layer, leaves

I scored the lines on my  card, then stamped directly onto it with a Papertrey Ink image and sentiment using  Hawain Shores ink.  To be honest, the only other leaf stamp I had was a holly leaf! 

The only embellishment is a 7mm Berisford satin ribbon

(don't miss the Christmas Embellishmnt Give Away over at the Ribbon Girl blog!

Lest we forget .....

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."

 

Welcome Baby Nicole ...............

My niece Joanne had another baby girl,  Nicole Amy, who arrived on 1st November.  After a few worrying days in the high dependancy unit, I'm pleased to say that the baby is now well and at home with her Mum, Dad and sister Faye.  I thoroughly enjoyed making this pink and sparkly card and decorated it with Zva crystals, pink and white mulberry flowers and pale  pink silky crush ribbon.

I used a LOTV diecut square for the image and chose pink patterned papers and card

I used loads of Stardust Stickles and a gorgeous Zva crystal flourish which I cut into pieces and incorporated into the flower arrangement.  The green leaves and fronds were cut with Martha Stewart punches and the mulberry flowers were a 30mm pink/white two tone rose, 13mm pink/white roses, pink/white pretty blossoms, 10mm white rose buds

The inside was decorated to compliment the front

I made a box which I also decorated to match the card, and added a bow of the same ribbon,a mulberry rose and another piece of the Zva flourish

I was really pleased with how this particular card turned out
Ribbon, Zva Crystal Flourish, Mulberry Flowers are all from http://www.ribbongirl.co.uk/
I'm going to enter this into the LOTV bright and sparkly challenge. See you soon, Mary G xx

Blue and Pink Christmas Card .................

My pink and blue Christmas card is unusual but I think it looks pretty.  The image stamp and sentiment are both from Lili of the Valley and I am entering this card into the 'bright and sparkly' challenge over at LOTV challenge.

The image which I coloured with copics was stitched around the edge then I added loads of Stardust Stickles, a piece of blue twill stripe ribbon, and some gorgeous aqua and silver sparkle ribbon.

I finished with an arrangement of pink/white 30mm rose, 10mm rose buds, pink/white pretty blossoms, rose leaves, white paper frond cut with a Magnolia doohickey die and some green leaves cut with my Martha Stewart punch. Last embellishment was some stick on gems in the corners.  This is my DT card for Papertake Weekly - the challenge this week  is First Christmas (card of the PTW year!!) so please pop over and feast your eyes on the gorgeous creations by the PTW ladies - and do enter this weeks challenge and you will have another card finished ready to add to your Christmas card box!

Image and sentiment - LOTV

Mulberry Flowers, Twill Stripe Ribbon, Sparkle Ribbon - all from http://www.ribbongirl.co.uk/

See you soon, Mary G x

Red and orange, clean and simple .......

I made this card for the Less is More challenge 'red and orange' and it is clean, lots of white space, and simple, just an embossed Christmas tree (using an embossing folder which we've had for a few years and never used) mounted onto an orange and then a red background with a tiny piece of red twill stripe ribbon and stamped the sentiment straight onto the card  - then I went just a little bit overboard with the sparklies .....

I do like it, and was oh so tempted to add a gorgeous bow but I restrained myself lol!

See you soon, Mary G x

Anything goes with the option of sparkle ........

The challenge over at Papertake Weekly is anything goes with the option of sparkle, and as I love sparkle, glitter and bling I went to town on this card and co-ordinating box! 

ps  Can you see that large clear stick on gem trying to make a bid for freedom down at the bottom right hand corner?  I stuck it back on, and wished I had noticed it before editing the photos!

I coloured the image with Copics pens then glittered with Stardust stickles, added some white traditional fan pattern Cluny lace and some 12mm silver lame ribbon (which I coloured with a Copics pen to tone with the backing papers - which means you can have glittery ribbon in any colour you fancy!)

My usual flowers consists of 30mm and 13mm white mulberry roses with white pretty blossoms.  I tied a double bow with Wavecrest Seam Binding and added a snowflake charm and a silvery blue star pin.

Continuing on with the 'sparkle' theme, I added parts of a Zva sparkly flourish to my hand-made box (my box making skills are improving every day!!)

Seam Binding, Cluny Lace, Snowflake Charm, Mulberry Flowers, Star Pin and Zva Flourishes are all from http://www.ribbongirl.co.uk/

I was pleased with the end result and will put this in my Christmas card pile for someone special.

See you soon, Mary G x

Sparkly Pink Fairy Christmas Card ....

I followed Bev's sketch at this weeks LOTV challenge to make this very pink and sparkly Christmas card!

The image was coloured using Copics and liberally glittered with Stardust Stickles - the white circle and pink background were cut with a nestabilities die.

I used white 18mm zig zag cotton lace and pink ruffle edge sheer ribbon to tie around the card and I hung a snowflake charm behind the bow with a piece of candy pink divine twine.  The flowers used were 30mm pink/white Mulberry rose, pink/whiter pretty blossoms and pink/white semi open rosebuds.  The foliage was cut from green card with Martha Stewart punches.  I added the sentiment matted onto pink card with plenty of Stardust Stickles and lastly added a couple of silver filigree corners.

I made a box from white card and added co-ordinating papers to the top and sides plus more of the pink ruffle edge sheer ribbon.

I was really pleased with how this card turned out - I even decorated the inside of the card and stamped the image again but didnt colour it in this time and I was especially pleased that my box-making skills are improving!  Less 'oops and oh no's and trips to the recycling bin, and more 'oohs and aahs'

I will now enter this into the LOTV challenge, and also Totally Papercrafts, see you soon

Flowers, lace and ribbon are all from http://www.ribbongirl.co.uk/

Sentiment from Pink Petticoat

Silver corners from WOC

 Mary G x

Flowers for you ....... and a clean and simple card

This was my DT card for this weeks Papertake Weekly challenge which is a sketch. Humphrey is so cute with his bunch of roses! I decided on a bright sunny colour and added 18mm white zig zag cotton lace, 25mm large check golden yellow gingham ribbon and a couple of heart shaped pins (all from Ribbon Girl)

The image was coloured with copics and I added plenty of Stardust stickles.

Instead of my usual bouquet of mulberry flowers, I made my own with toning paper, added one small flat paper flower then finished it off with a flower shaped acrylic button tied on with lemon Divine Twine (both from Ribbon Girl).  The flower was then liberally sprayed with sparkle from Crafters Companion. I added some stick on pearls to finish the card.

This is my entry for the Simply Less is More challenge, (to use polka dots) and I used polka dot paper which was cut with a die for the christmas ornament ........

and small red polka dot buttons as holly berries.  The holly leaf die and the sentiment stamp are from Papertrey Ink.  The only other embellishment is a 7mm red satin ribbon and a bit of doodling with a fine black pen!

Mary G x

It's 25th so it's time for a new 'Jingle all the way to Christmas' challenge ....

As it's 25th of the month there is another 'Jingle all the way to Christmas' challenge over at the Ribbon Girl blog and this is my card:

I used a LOTV image which has been coloured with copics and smothered in Stardjust Stickles!

I added 30mm white zig zag cotton lace and 12mm silver lame ribbon - the flowers are a 30mm purple two tone rose, 20mm large white rosebuds and white pretty blossoms.  Lace, ribbon and mulberry flowers are all from the Ribbon Girl. A doohickey swirl and a nice sentiment from LOTV complete the card. I will enter this card into the Totally Gorguss challenge 'Pastel Christmas'

A close up of the LOTV image

So please pop over to the Ribbon Girl blog and take a look at the fabulous projects made by the mega talented Ribbon Girls DT - we hope they inspire you to get cracking with your Christmas crafting and you could win a really nice prize, see above, if you enter the challenge which runs for two weeks until 8th November.

A cute Sugar Nellie ......

I love my new Sugar Nellie stamp - I made this card for the challenge over at the sugar bowl challenge blog, 'clean and simple' following the sketch. 

I coloured her with copics and added loads of Stardust Stickles

I usually add as much stuff as possible to my cards, but to comply with the 'clean and simple' aspect, I only used one small paper flower with one purple two tone pretty blossom (from The Ribbon Girl) and I cut two leaf and heart branches with my Magnolia die.  Then the whole card was lightly sprayed with irridescent sparkle!

See you all tomorrow with a new challenge at Papertake Weekly and the Jingle all the Way to Christmas challenge at the Ribbon Girl!
This card has also been entered into the PanPastel Challenge

Mary G x

Tilda is in the pink .............

Here is a Christmas card in a non-traditional colour  - yes, it's salmon pink!  I've coloured the Magnolia Tilda in with pink copics and used loads of stickles to make her glitter.  I've gone to town on this card and even stitched around the image and frame!

I didn't need any excuse to get out my brand new Magnolia heart branch die to enhance my flower arrangement (small rose and some white pretty blossoms), and even managed to squeeze on a gorgeous snowflake cut with my new Magnolia die (I got a mistletoe branch and the snowflake in one pack - it'll be beans on toast for the rest of the month lol!!)  The background paper looks like sheet music, but toned in with everything.

I used 38mm white guipure lace and pink twill stripe ribbon to finish the card, plus some self adhesive clear sparklies and a light spraying of irridescent glitter from Crafters Companion  - looks even better in real life!  I popped one clear gem into the middle of the delicate snowflake, it really is very pretty and I can see it will be used lots.

Guipure lace, twill ribbon, pretty blossoms all from Ribbon Girl

I will enter this card into the Just Magnolia challenge which is to use pink - I think this fits the bill!! Also into A Gem of a Challenge .

Wedding acceptance ... and a beheaded sunflower .....

I wanted to make an acceptance card for a wedding invitation and thought I might make it to suit this weeks LOTV challenge - bingo - choose any line so I chose ribbon, flower and jewels.  Actually, when I looked at the new challenge at LOTV which is set every Thursday before I started my card, I was gobsmacked to see I had made the top three! wow, I am thrilled to bits and immediately got my badge to put in the side bar.

I used this really cute die cut square from LOTV, and cupcake paper and added a bit of Stardust stickles to the bunnies and the cherries and cake stands etc.  I added a swirl cut with the doohickey die, fuschia ruffle edge sheer ribbon on top of silver glitter mesh plus a pink/white two tone 30mm mulberry rose, a pink crown pin and a pink heart pin (ribbon, rose and pins all from Ribbon Girl) and you can see I love pink almost as much as I love anything that glitters!

I decorated the inside to complement the front and added our acceptance note

I typed the sentiment myself to make the card more personal and you can see the sweet cupcake paper here (sorry can't remember which pack it is from) but I thought it was relevant as I'm sure there will be yummy food at the reception 

and here is the poor beheaded sunflower - my hubby managed to empty the pots on the back patio yesterday afternoon when the wind had gone down, and I passed him the scissors with the request to cut the flowers so I could pop them in water  ................... I should have asked him to leave a stalk ...... poor flower!

See you all tomorrow,

Mary G x

Warm wishes ............

Well I got the weather wrong yesterday, as it seemed calm and cloudless when I got up but a while later it was blowing a gale again and showered most of the day - hoping for calm weather soon to get the big pots on the back patio emptied and refilled with the rest of the winter pansies and primroses.

These three little cuties from LOTV are gorgeous aren't they? I kept the colouring very simple, just coloured the spots and stars on their little frocks with Copics in various greens to tone with the background paper, and added loads of stickles to the holly wreaths on their gingerish bonde hair. The 'warm wishes' sentiment is also from Lili of the Valley 

The image was matted onto red card then white and added a big, beautiful red silky crush ribbon and bow and I even managed to tie the bow using Andrea's patented method - she must have shown me hundreds of time and I've no idea how it worked this time, perhaps I've got the knack at last lol!  I added a silver filigree corner and some clear stick on gems from stash, plus plenty of Stardust Stickles.  You can't have too much bling on cards, especially Christmas cards!

The flowers today are a small poinsetta and white steph (WO) and some white pretty blossoms with green leaves (Martha Stewart Punch) and holly leaves in various greens cut with a tiny die from Papertrey Ink.

I made this card for the current 'Warm and Cosy' Lili of the Valley challenge here

Back tomorrow, and if you haven't popped over to the Ribbon Girl Blog yet, the challenge is Lilacs and Greens, and at Papertake Weekly it is Spooky Hues

Bye for now

Mary G x

along came a spider, and sat down beside her ......

So glad to see the gale force winds have died  down - much chillier this morning, but clear and calm, let's hope it stays that way.  Another little treat bag today - this time with the addition of legs  -  both from Papertrey Ink dies.  The eyes are a small circle of white card with a black dewdrop stuck on.  On the handle I used tiny orange ric rac; 5mm orange and white gingham; narrow satin and purple loopy trim, all from here

'Spooky Hues' is the new challenge over at Papertake Weekly this week - please take a minute to check out the fabulous work by the PTW Design Team - the prize this week is a halloween themed mini ribbon kit from

See you all tomorrow

Mary G x
Edited to say that I prepared this post early this morning and left it to publish at 12 noon - it was calm etc at 7am but as I write this it is lashing down with rain and the wind is howling!!