Birthday cards for the men

I am very busy over the Easter time for birthday cards, all of them mens cards. Here are 2 I made, one for my brother -in - law and the other for a friend.

TV Birthday card

I made this cute TV birthday card for my nephews birthday from the Looney Tunes CDrom. There are loads to choose from and and great fun to make. They do take a bit of adjustment to get them to work how they should but got there in the end. They fold flat to post too.

Animal ATCS

I haven't made many ATCs lately. So for my Altered Pages blog post this month I decide to play with the cute animal images and make a couple of ATCs. All the images are available, as many 100's of others from Altered Pages.

Beaded heart

I made this little heart for Mum for Mothers Day. Make a heart out of a sturdy wire and then attach a length of thinner wire to the join in the heart and wire it close. Add beards to the length of wire and wrap them around the heart. Go around twice and tie it off to finish. A simple gift but looks good.

Mothers day card

My first card using my new Imagine machine! This was for my Mum for Mothers day.

Baby card

My German teacher left on Monday to have her first baby. Of course I had to make a card. I don't often get a chance to make Beatrix Potter cards and this one fitted the bill perfectly. From the Crafters Companion Beatrix Potter collection.

Altered frame

I found this frame in the £1 and thought it ideal to paint up using the Fressco Finish paints and the lovely new Lynn Perrella stamps from the Fruit Pixie. Full instructions and a supply list is available on the Fruit Pixie Fave book page.

Union flag card

Some thing a bit different here but I was sent some glitter card from Sarah at the Fruit Pixie and always up for a challenge gave it a go. Well if I was going to do glitter card I thought I might as well go the whole hog and made this very patriotic card. If you would like to make one the same then go to the Fruit Pixie face book page where I have left full instructions. If you need red, white and blue goodies for your jubilee or Olympic projects then The Fruit Pixie has a great selection, why not have a look.

Places I've traveled journal page

For this weeks page for the AJC I chose Places I have traveled. It was perfect for the wonderful image on a leaflet I hunted down and found in Austria last summer after falling in love with the image of the lady in her traditional dress. She was on a poster in our hotel and after looking in every tourist info in the area I found the leaflet while waiting in a que for the cable car to go up to the top of the Zwolferhorn to go walking. We had never had to que for a cable car before and perhaps if we had just gone straight through I would of missed them. The view on the right hand page is the Wolfgangsee with St Gilgan in the foreground. Austria is our second home and perhaps one day it will be our home.

Recipe book kit

My new kit for Altered Pages is a vintage recipe book. You can add any recipes you wish to this little book as you can label and custom the book to your needs. Visit Altered pages, link to the right, and find my kit in the kit section.

Dance journal page

I just loved this quote by Katherine Hepburn and it fitted perfectly with one of week 7s journaling prompts for the AJC.

Lifes too short journal page

I decided to change track with my journal for the Art Journal Caravan. I had originally altered an old book cover to form a ring binder journal. I t was working well but jut not big enough as it is almost full an we are only 2 months into a 12 month journey. So, I thought it would be a good time to switch to a traditional journal for the rest of the time on the Caravan.

So this is my first page in my new journal, really pleased with it, love the new shape.

Fashion Birthday card

I hadn't used this Joanna Scheen for a while but it was perfect for our friends Birthday card.

Wishing for snow journal page

For this journal page I had a play around with moulding paste and templates to give my my snowflakes, then added acrylic paint and hand lettering to finish off. It was the first time I had used moulding paste this way, took a bit of time to get it right but I must admit I love the affect.

Oriental cards

The wonderful Fruit Pixie has a great sale on at the moment, 25% off everything!! I have been using some of their Oriental range to make these cards. The instructions can be found on their blog and Facebook page if you would like to make one yourself.

Chinese Triptych

I don't know weather it is the book I am reading or the fact it was Chinese New Year last Monday but all things Oriental have been catching my eye again. The Fruit Pixie dose some wonderful oriental goodies and I have used some here to make this Chinese Triptych. Visit the Fruit Pixie blog for instructions.

Birdsong journal page

Week 3 of the art journal caravan and the wordography was Soliloquy. I played around with gesso, palette knives and my new watercolours to get this background, great fun!! it reads - Bird song is natures soliloquy, all we have to do is listen - by me!!

Christmas layouts

I must admit I have enjoyed playing with digital scrapbooking, something I can do in front of the telly in the evenings. Here are a couple of Christmas ones I have been playing with.

Fortune Journal page

The next prompt I chose for the Art Journal Caravan was - If i could write my own fortune cookie fortune it would say ? I found an ideal digi kit form my fave designer Tumblefish and created this hybrid mixed media page.

My brain map

The thought of mapping my brain was quite a scary one, hehe but I managed it in the end. This time using my favorite method, mixed media.

Art Caravan 2012

One of my New Years resolutions for 2012 was to do a lot more art journaling. So I have joined Tangies Art Caravan, a year long art journaling course, to help me with that. It began on the 2nd January and so far I am loving it, although a bit bewildered by the amount of wonderful prompts and ideas Tangie has given us and also the really beautiful work that my fellow travelers have already done, most of it digital. I have decided to do a mix of both, just to be able to keep up with everyone, so my first page, a letter to ourselves, I have done digitally. Its a bit of an odd shape because, as you will see later, I have used an old book to alter to use as my journal cover. More on that when it's finished. The overall theme for this years travels is Cartography.

Handmade Christmas gifts

Happy New Year everyone. I hope 2012 is a great year for you. I can now show you the things I made for Christmas to give as gifts, Andrew did think I had taken it a bit too far when I made a toy for Millie, my sisters dog but she loved it.

The felt monsters were from a pattern in Mollie Makes magazine. I made 3 in the end, these 2 for my nephews and then one for Andrew.

More Christmas cards

The fruit Pixie has some beautiful Christmas papers, the Blackmarket ones, though not my usual style, I really enjoyed working with and they have a wonderful feel and texture. Then the Bo Bunny Blitzen collection give a great traditional feel

Packaging decoration

When Sarah from the Fruit Pixie sent me the Jenni Bowlin Christmas chipboard buttons the second thing I noticed, after how lovely the chipboard buttons were, was what a nice shape the packaging was, I had to do something with that. Here is what I came up with. All the items, except the beads and snowflake dies, but I am sure you have some similar, can be bought from the Fruit Pixie.

Christmas bottle top decorations

I got the inspiration for this decoration form a cloths shop window in Westendorf Austria while we were on holiday. They had hung loads of bottle tops, unsquashed, in long lines in their window.I thought they looked great and thought of that when I needed a decoration to give to my Nephews ( I give them 1 each year so when they leave home they will have a set of decs for themselves) So here is this years HO HO HO decoration. All the things and the instructions from the Fruit Pixie.

Christmas cards

I was a very lucky girl this year, I was allowed a Cricut Expression 2 a few weeks ago. Unfortunately the machine was faulty, it took quite a while but it finally got sorted out and I am awaiting a new one, but we did manage to struggle through our cards, and it was a struggle at times. Here they are.

December art journal page

Well I got there at last. Unfortunately there were other projects that I had to get done this time of year but at last my December calendar page is finished. All the others will finish this month but I will go on to March to complete my year. Now where is my pen........

Christmas treat bags

When I sent in my Halloween treat bag kit to Altered pages, who I design for, Jean asked me to make some for Christmas. So now you can buy the kit to make these cute treat bags in a Christmas theme from Altered Pages. They have plenty of wonderful vintage Christmas images to buy for all you Christmas ideas.

Christmas fairy

We Have been looking for the right topper for our Christmas tree for ever, we have has a few but none of them looked quite right for our tree, a traditional red, gold and green tree. This year I made a felt angel for my friend in Australia and thought she would make a great tree topper so made her again in colours to match the tree and at last I think we have to it right!!

Little gifts

I like to give my German class mates a little handmade gift at Christmas and this year instead of the usual chocolates I decides to give them a couple of the flavoured hot choc sachets you can get these days. The inspiration came to me when I was making Andrew a coffee from his fave Starbucks sachets. It was the last one in the packet and as I took the box apart I thought hang on, I know what I could do .............

Football birthday card

It was my Uncles 87th birthday last week, here is his card. I remember him smoking players and have a collection of the cards he saved so the card was just right.

Advent house

When I made the Halloween witches house class up for Bristol I thought it would make a beautiful Christmas house. So here it is, made with the beautiful Bo Bunny limited edition glittered papers. Everything, including the instructions to make it, will be on the Fruit Pixie blog ( eventually, Sarah is having trouble at the moment with no land line ) The lid lifts up so you can get you chocolates out!!