Learning from my mistakes!

I made a series of Thank You cards for myself too, and although they didn't turn out quite how I'd envisaged them, I am rather pleased with the outcome. As you can tell I love Pink Petticoat papers and normally if I was making A6 cards I would print off an A4 sheet, cut in two and fold to make two cards out of one pattern sheet. The pattern sheet I chose however was designed in such a way that I thought it would be a shame to cut it in two as it would spoil the flow of the design, so I decided to cut my card to A5 size first and print the whole design, just smaller. It wasn't until I had cut all my card and loaded in the printer that I discovered that printing at A5 wasn't an option so I had to choose the nearest size to it, which left a bare stripe down the right hand side of the card, which when folded would be at the bottom. I thought about cutting the white bit off but then I thought it would look nice with the "Thanks" sentiment rubber stamped there in black ink, it was just perfect. Each card had a different PP Christmas image stamp punched out, matted on a larger circle of turquise pearlised card and finally matted onto a white scallop which I edged with matching turquoise ink. It was very quick to churn out half a dozen cards, much quicker than it took me to write this convoluted explanation.

Thank You Cards

I whipped up these cards on Boxing day for my daughter to write her Christmas Thank Yous. They are all variations in a theme using the Lola's Bodoir collection from Pink Petticoat . I was rather pleased with them I have to say.

Here's a better look at my favourite one of the series

Super - Doopah Light show

You might have to click the button twice to get the video going

Last Wednesday I met my friend Ailsa in town so we could have a mooch round the new Cath Kidson shop that has opened there. It's all lovely stuff but bit too pricey for my liking. For example they had hot wheat bags at £18 - I have been pricing them because I had a slight accident with mine recently (I had gone to bed and was feeling a bit chilly so called down to my husband who was still downstairs to ask him to pop it in the microwave for me, and just lobbed it over the bannisters. The bag split, there was wheat all over the shop and the subsequent vacuuming warmed me up sufficiently that I no longer required the hot wheat bag) Anyway hot wheat bags anywhere else are about £6, so I maintain my position that CK are a bit pricey.

We then went and had tea and cakes in "The Mock Turtle" which is a wonderful old fashioned teashop with homemade cakes, proper tea in a brown betty teapot (tea leaves, strainer,the lot) It is a wonderful experience but not to be repeated too frequently as it is hazardous to the waistline.
We then trotted a long to the new(ish) library because Ailsa hadn't ever seen it which is where this post becomes relevant to my card blog. I bought the card in the video for my niece who has her 6th birthday tomorrow. I was going to make her one but thought that this looked far more fun - a bit pricey at £4.50 bt worth it for the novelty I think. I did make a card withmy craft robo using a pattern from the Just Cutters CD, for my daughter to give her but the photo doesn't show it off to its best advantage, and it has been posted now so no time to re-shoot. Please excuse the background noise to the vid, I had the telly blaring away watching "Grand Designs" and the strange noise at the end is a creaking floorboard as I walked across to turn off the camera!

Snowmen

I was fortunate enough to receive several handmade cards this past Christmas although I didn't manage to make that many myself despite my best intentions. These two arrived on the same day and both feature a snowman image and the same ice blue colour palette. The one above is from Angela and the one below from Linda.They are both fabulous - I wish I could come up with such beautiful cards.

Cheque Mate!

I needed to make the rather boring cheque we gave to our 16 year old niece for Christmas look a bit more glamorous , so I printed a Pink Petticoat design on one side of a piece of card (not shown here) and a Christmas Lola image stamp(also by PP) on the other side that I had coloured in PSP and "glittered up" a bit with some stickles. I folded the card into three and cut out a scallop shape with a punch so that Lola could peep through, and doodled around the edge of the cut-out. After popping the cheque inside with a greeting, I wrapped ribbon around the outside to fasten and added yet another little PP image stamp, again coloured in PSP. Et voilà - a gift!