Hello Friends,
Hope you are all well and enjoying some better weather than of late, wherever you are in the world!
I have next week off work - just me, using up annual leave before the end of the month - well, Tom will be in work, but the hens will be very pleased with the extra free range time, especially if the rain holds off! I am also sure that they will all get extra cuddles, except Lacey, our Speckled hen, who just refuses point blank to be cuddled (she much prefers to pull at my trousers and peck my legs!). So I will be crafting to my hearts content next week, getting ready for the craft fair - and I am so looking forward to it!
I am going into the office for a few hours this morning: one of my Friday volunteers recently left as she found a job, so I've been trying to pop in some Fridays to see my other lady, Kay, until we find a new colleague for her - well today, we are welcoming new volunteer Diana to the team (hopefully)...great news!
Before I go on, I want to say a big welcome to my latest follower Vikki, - thank you so much for choosing to join me in my crafty journey! Also more news, almost as soon as I had posted my project for Fantastic Ribbons last week, all us DT members got the news that the Company had decided to close the blog as it wasn't getting enough 'traffic' to keep it going. They have recently been using Social Media in the form of Twitter etc a lot and found this more beneficial. I wasn't surprised, as to be honest, we had been creating projects and none of them had been posted for months, but it's a shame nevertheless.
Talking of Design Teams, we would love you to join in with our latest challenge at Emergency Crafters: the theme is Flowers and there are some prizes up for grabs, so head on over and enter! The challenge is monthly, so you still have a few weeks. All winners are chosen, not randomly..but fortunately I'm not involved in the judging, which is just as well because when I go through the entries I have to comment on, I love them all!
My card today is one I made a few weeks ago for one of my cousins; she's in her 30's and loves shoes, so I thought this would be something that would make her smile!
I used a shaped card blank that was in my stash (not sure where they are from!) and folded it to make an easel. I then covered it with the paper (again from stash) and inked the edges with Worn Lipstick, distress ink.
I made the topper using double sided red card and Spellbinders Teardrop Circles die. I actually cut it twice and joined it in the centre to make it larger. The shoe is printed on glossy photo paper and is from the Katy Sue, Fabulous Shoes CD and die cut using Spellbinders Classic Circles Small. I only wanted a very small mat and layer for this, so I made a faux die cut, by drawing around the outer edge of the die and cutting freehand.
I then matted and layered on to the tear drop circles. The Happy Birthday sentiment is using a die that was free with a magazine. I cut it using the same red card and backed it with silver mirri.
To finish off I made the paper bow - I was thumbing through some old magazines one evening (as you do) and came across these paper ribbon templates. I decided that for this card, it might actually work better than real ribbon. I love ribbons and adding them to cards and I tried both on this one and the paper ribbon seemed to work better - especially as at the back of my mind, whilst my cousin likes fashion and shoes, she's not a girly girl in the sense of ribbons and lace. I used a gemstone brad to hold the bow together.
Well that's it for today friends, have a lovely Friday!
Love and Hugs,
Carole Z X
