Ali's card making blog

Snowflakes are coming!

2011-10-20T20:14:00.003+01:00

Thought I had better get cracking with my Christmas cards! Particularly thought it was time to have a go with my new Dreamweaver snowflake stencil. Have had lots of fun getting messy with embossing paste, glitter and mica powders :-) I'm rather pleased with the look of this card and it was really quick and easy to make, just what is needed for Christmas cards!

I am going to enter this card into the following challenges:

A Gem of a Challenge - sketch

Lothian Crafts - anything goes

Whoopsi Daisy Free and Easy

WOYWW 116 - It's been a while

2011-08-31T07:32:00.004+01:00

Wow, doesn't time fly when you are having fun! Can't believe I haven't posted for 3 months! Haven't really been doing that much crafting either unfortunately :-( Life is just too busy at the moment! I did manage to make the card you can see on my desk recently though. I've been playing with alcohol inks after a crafting friend recommended them. I'm rather pleased with how this card has turned out :-) My jeans weren't too pleased though when I squirted purple alcohol ink all over them, oops! Still, it has given them a new look, ha ha!

The other thing on my desk today is some digi stamps from a magazine. I was looking for something suitable for hubby - big Birthday coming up in a few weeks along with our Wedding Anniversary, so I need to get cracking! I rather like these digis as quite a few designs suitable for the men in our lives :-)

So, if you fancy a nosey round some other desks, visit Julia at the Stamping Ground to see what WOYWW is all about.

Have a good week everybody x

A card for my new sponsor child in Peru

2011-05-31T21:13:00.007+01:00

I've been sponsoring children through Plan International (www.plan-uk.org) for a number of years now, mainly in Africa up to now. However, when the time came to sponsor a new child recently I decided to choose a South American country for a change. My new sponsor child, Valery, has written to me first (as to my shame I have not got round to writing yet). So, as her Birthday is coming up I decided I would make her a card to wish her Happy Birthday as well as saying hello. I hope she likes pink (surely all little girls do?!)

I am going to enter Valery's card into the following challenges:

Paperplay challenges - blossoms and blooms
A gem of a challenge - sketch
Totally Papercrafts - Pink and Girlie
Papercrafting journey - anything goes (oh and I used my favourite, glitter, on this project!)
2sisters - anything goes

WOYWW - 103

2011-05-25T07:41:00.007+01:00

Morning fellow WOYWWers! Well I'm still struggling to balance work, new second home and card making, but I have managed to attend a couple of local classes recently and also managed to spend a couple of hours making cards on Sunday, hurrah! The results you can see on my desk. Feel like I've lost my mojo a bit though as because I haven't been at my desk for so long I can't remember where anything I need actually is, lol!

A couple of photos of said house for you also now we have some furniture! The wood floor you can just about see in the photo of the living room is now sanded and is going to be varnished by my own (probably very sticky!) hands over the weekend! I'm also planning a bit of a revamp of the curtains in the same room although sewing really isn't my strong point. Will share the results if they aren't too bad ;-)

So, if you have no idea what WOYWW is all about, pop over to Julia's blog at the Stamping Ground and check it out.

PS APOLS TO ALL MY FELLOW WOYWWERS BUT BLOGGER IS PLAYING UP AND I CAN'T LEAVE COMMENTS FOR SOME REASON. I have visited a number of you though x

A bright card for Spring

2011-05-02T13:32:00.005+01:00

I dug out all my pink stuff for this card, very girly! Heat embossed the image and then matched it with papers and a random butterfly I found in my stash!

I am going to enter this card into the following challenges:

Pollycraft Monday Challenge - anything goes

One stitch at a time - emboss it

Stamp something - something with wings

Enjoy what's left of the Bank Holiday!

The cat's out of the bag!

2011-04-13T18:51:00.004+01:00

To make up for my absence from blogland lately I thought I would enter this card I made at a class a little while ago into a couple of challenges. I think it is rather effective! It's off to be a birthday card for a work colleague who loves cats tomorrow having been in my cupboard waiting for her birthday to come round since I made it!

Still not doing much in the way of crafting at the moment. I am going to take the plunge and buy some alcohol inks on the interweb tonight though as I had a little win on the Grand National at the weekend! I'm also off to a Tim Holtz inspired class on Saturday as well so watch this space for some different bits and pieces hopefully!

The challenges I am entering my cheeky cat card into to:

Flashback Friday - faux stiching (flashback as the card has been languishing!)

Allsorts Challenge blog - anything but a square

WOYWW - I'm back!

2011-03-23T07:36:00.006Z

It's been a while! Have very busy with the house renovations as mentioned in my last post some time ago! Will take some photos this weekend now it actually has some furniture in it. It's not quite finished yet, still got living room floor to sand and varnish, curtains to alter and skirting boards to finish painting (boy am I sick of the smell of gloss!) but it's getting there!

On to the desk, I've finally managed to get a bit of time to do a few cards. There is also a new addition to the room as the infamous sofa is now in the York house temporarily until new sofas arrive (then it is going to sofa heaven, sniff :-( So I've invested in a new table/desk thing from Ikea. It's great having my Cuttlebug in the same room as everything else instead of having to head off to the dining room constantly!

The card I'm making is for a friend's Birthday. My mojo seems to have disappeared a bit, mainly because I can't find anything not having crafted for a while so am spending ages hunting for stamps, ink, paper....The stamp was free with a magazine, couldn't get the jeans legs to stamp properly, even with my rockablock, but got there eventually!

So, I will try and get round a few more desks this week than last time! If you have no idea what WOYWW is all about, head over to Julia's blog at the Stamping Ground and check out blogland's biggest weekly blog hop!

Have a great week.

What's (not) on your work desk Wednesday 89

2011-02-16T07:08:00.005Z

I thought I should explain my absence recently, you see we have been somewhat busy (no excuse really I know!) We have just purchased a second home (sounds extravagant but we had some money saved up and it wasn't doing very much just sitting in the bank!) and are now in the process of painting and decorating everything in sight!

We completed on 4th Feb and it has just been one big whirlwind of painting, shopping (:-)) and fixing broken boilers (;-( - well, hubby fixed it, not me!) The house is about an hour from where we live (we live on Teesside) and the house is on the outskirts of the lovely city of York. Looking forward to lots of weekends down there as the spring arrives :-) So I haven't done any crafting whatsoever (unless you count glossing skirting boards?! Maybe I should stick some sequins on?!) but I am intending to do a little bit of crafty stuff in the house, although I'm not the world's best sewer! I'm definitely going to do something with the plain curtains in the living room - we are going to sand and stain the floor boards (grotty carpet now gone) as well. Will post the results when it is eventually finished!

I did manage to buy some craft related stash on one of my many trips to Wilkos! Haven't actually opened the packets as yet though!

If you want to see some blogs where people have actually done some crafting this week, pop over to Julia's blog at the Stamping Ground and have a nose round!

WOYWW (well sofa in my case!) 85

2011-01-19T07:38:00.005Z

Happy New Year fellow WOYWWers! Not much going on with my desk this week really, there was at the weekend but have finished all work in progress! The towels are there as unfortunately there has been a bit of a leak coming through the window (just a few soggy papers, no major damage done!) Am hoping hubby is going to fix it but suspect it will involve going outside and hammering/drilling so a bit too cold for that at the mo!

More going on on the sofa this week than the desk. I have everything spread all over for inspiration and it seems to be working! I just go into the room with no fixed ideas of what I am going to make, pick random images and papers from the mess on the sofa and have made some rather nice cards as a result! Here is one I made with a decoupage image I've had lying around for yonks! Have teamed it with some freebie My Minds Eye papers I got with a mag and think it is rather pretty :-)

So if you are wondering what WOYWW is all about, pop over to Julia's blog at the Stamping Ground to join in blogland's greatest weekly blog hop!

What a cutie!

2011-01-17T19:28:00.007Z

Finally got round to spending a good amount of time on some cardmaking this weekend. Great to do something other than Christmas cards (although soon be time to start again for next year...) I'm trying to do a variety of different cards for the box at work and as there are a few babies due imminently thought I would do a baby boy and a baby girl card. Haven't got round to the baby girl one as yet but here is my effort for baby boy! I used a stamp that clever hubby got me not so long ago from a car boot sale (he is very good at picking which stamps I would like out, amazing really since he isn't a crafter!)

I'm going to enter this cute card into the following challenges:

One stitch at a time - 'new' (baby and stamp!)
Totally Gorjuss - cuddly (forever friends, what more can I say?!)
Pattie's creations - anything goesPaperplay - cutie
Paperplay - cutie patootie
Allsorts - teal blue and brown
Stamp something - anything goes

Have a good Monday evening, apparently it is the most depressing day of the year today so things can only get better now if you have had a rubbish Monday ;-) I certainly hope the light improves soon, it's really hard trying to take decent photos of my cards!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T18:48:00.005Z

Happy New Year to you all! Hope you have managed to fit in some crafting in between eating chocolate, drinking wine and going shopping in the sales ;-) I certainly have - have been in the conservatory crafting on and off for the last few days. Back to work tomorrow though unfortunately :-(

Here is one of the cards I've made over the last couple of days. I am going to enter it into the Cupcake Challenge - White is White. (Haven't quite got round to combining challenges again this year! I do have another card ready which I can enter into a few, but it is now too dark to take a photo of it, bloody winter!)

I think this one is rather cute, love Forever Friends - I've had this a while and have been rummaging through my stash so decided to use it.

Have a good Monday evening!

WOYWW - Merry Christmas!

2010-12-22T07:41:00.003Z

Hello all, a quick post to say Merry Christmas and to share a picture of my Christmas Tree and my strings of cards(a few handmade ones courtesy of my Craftrak friends, thank you guys!)

Absolutely nothing going on with my desk this week so I haven't even taken a photo sorry (you get the tree instead!) It's way too cold to even go in the conservatory really, although I am going to have to brave it soon as

a) Need to tidy it up and sweep all the paper and glitter off the floor in time for Christmas day as it is visible from the dining room!

b) Need to make a 30th Birthday card

Maybe if it warms up a bit in the next couple of days!

Just remains for me to say I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Thank you for your visits to my blog this year and for the friendships I have made along the way :-)

WOYWW

2010-12-08T06:00:00.000Z

I'm typing this on Tuesday night and the photos are actually from last Friday and Saturday, so hope you don't mind?! I won't have much time in the morning but have plenty of time tonight as am home alone as hubby currently stranded at work due to the snow :-( He thinks he may have to stay there all night as all the roads are closed but I am hoping not!

Anyway, as you can see from the photo of my crafty corner in the conservatory, it's not really possible to stay in there for long at the moment. It hadn't been too bad with the heater on up until Friday morning and then this was the scene which greeted me - ice on the INSIDE of the windows, eek!

Anyhow, I have moved back inside onto the dining room table and did manage to make a couple of cards last night (one of them in the previous post). This shot is of all my Christmas cards, just need to get on with writing them all now!

If you fancy joining in the weekly snoop around other crafters' desks, pop over to Julia's blog at the Stamping Ground and find out what it is all about.

Hurrah, an end to the Christmas cards!

2010-12-07T07:46:00.004Z

I've been putting the glitter away this week and getting back to stocking up on cards for other occasions, hurrah! Here is a quick one I made last night for a colleague at work, last minute card for her mother in law. I'm rather pleased with the flowers which I got from Create and Craft (don't usually do telly shopping, but couldn't resist these). They are plastic and you heat them with a heat gun and they go all curly. The only thing I'm struggling with a bit is moulding them before they go hard again, but not bad for a first attempt?!

I'm going to enter this card into the following challenges:

Totally Gorjuss - sketch
Patties - Ribbon plus 3 embellishments (paper ribbon plus glitter, gem and ribbon bow)

Off to brave the snow and ice on the way to work again now!

Not a Christmas tree in sight!

2010-11-28T18:43:00.004Z

Yes, that's right, I have actually made a couple of cards this year without Christmas trees on! This one was made with a cute penny black stamp I got with a magazine subscription. I'm rather pleased with the result, think the gold goes well with the red :-)

Loads of snow here today, not sure I will get the car out to get to work tomorrow! I was going to take a photo to show you but was too disorganised and it's gone dark now...oh well. Believe me when I say it is deep though!

Just a quick post today as I have a yummy casserole cooking for tea and need to got and see to it.

I am going to enter this card into the following challenges:

Paper sundaes - adorn those corners

Crafty Sentiments - Christmas

Crafty Creations - Christmas is coming

WOYWW 77

2010-11-24T07:39:00.004Z

Here we are again on a dark and cold Wednesday morning! Had to wrap up warm to pop into the conservatory earlier to take the photo! It is still ok at the moment for crafting with the heater on, in fact it gets quite cosy, but not sure what it is going to be like when the temperatures tumble further over the next few days.

Well, it's all a bit of a tip this week really! I'm thinking of getting rid of the sofa and getting a table instead seeing this is what it tends to get used for nowadays. You can see more of my glittery christmas trees in the foreground, I have had such fun making those.

The card on the desk is a quickie card I made last night for a bereaved colleague (made with a lovely Penny Black Stamp). Really need a good tidy up now, but think I will finish off the Christmas cards (it will be nice to make something other than Christmas cards again!) and then have a good blitz.

Bit of a quick post today as have to dash off to work. Pop over to see Julia at the Stamping Ground in order to be able to nosey at lots of other desks!

Have a good crafting week x

WOYWW 76

2010-11-17T07:35:00.003Z

Apologies for my absences the last couple of weeks, these were due to hectic.com and then ill.com (don't worry, nothing life threatening, just one of these horrible bugs that is going around). All better now though and hopefully will get back to crafting in earnest as I really need to bottom out the Christmas cards and get back to making something different! Not that I am fed up of all the glitter and christmas trees just yet, but I think it will be getting that way soon...

So, on my desk today are...drum roll...some glittery christmas trees! I am enjoying making these actually and tipping glitter all over the floor :-) (We were sitting at the dinner table the other night and I spotted glitter on hubby's cheek, oops!) The other card on my desk is a bit of a disaster, the one with the gingerbread men. I recently bought some Rangers Glossy Accents and haven't really got to grips with what I am supposed to do with it as yet (any tips would be gratefully received!) So I decided to put it on the gingerbread men but they went curly and then the glaze cracked :-( I think the paper was too thin, so maybe I should only use it on card or chipboard shapes. Bit sad about the gingerbread men though as I rather liked them and as they were out of a magazine I haven't got any more.

If you are wondering what WOYWW is all about, pop over to Julia's blog at the Stamping Ground and find out all about it!

Have a great week everybody!

O Christmas Tree!

2010-11-16T19:05:00.009Z

I do seem to be having a bit of a Christmas tree theme this year (although haven't posted many of the results here so far, will have to rectify that, lol!) This card was made using a Penny Black stamp I have been using a lot and my other favourite items of the moment - card candy (can't stop sticking it all over) and my gold leaf (well silver in this case) from which I have been making sparkly, glittery 'ribbons' for many of my Christmas cards. I am going to enter this card into the following challenges:

Pollycraft Monday Challenge - glittery Christmas

The Crafty Pad - Christmas sparkle

2 Sisters - Christmas

Ellephantastic - Xmas

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - my favourite things

Totally Gorjuss - traditional christmas colours

Secret crafter Saturday challenge - sparkle and shine

Baubles!

2010-11-07T18:20:00.005Z

Here is my latest Christmas Card creation, embossed baubles. I'm doing pretty well with the target of 30 Christmas cards and so far have managed 15, so half way there, hurrah! They are all different as well, despite me initially saying that I would make 4 or 5 different ones and then copy them!

Today's card is made with an embossing folder from do crafts, stamped greeting, buttons which I won in a challenge, 'ribbon' made from gold leaf (I'm really enjoying playing with that :-), spotty paper left over from last year and a ribbon bow.

I am going to enter it into the following challenges:

A Spoonfull of Sugar - a relish to embellish

Top Tip Tuesday - Christmas inspired

The Crafty Pad - Challenge 96 (2 ribbons and a circle)

Secret Crafters Saturday Challenge - red and gold

The Stamp Man - Christmas

Think that's it for now, lol!

WOYWW 73

2010-10-27T07:55:00.000+01:00

Ok so the pic wasn't taken on Wednesday at all as you might be able to tell from the darkness outside! It was actually taken on Tuesday night and I am having to put this post on schedule as I have to be at work early in the morning, boo. Upside is I am off tomorrow afternoon, yeah!

The conservatory is, I think, going to be an ok venue for crafting over the winter. I've set up my little heater and light and it is very cosy :-) The card in progress is a Birthday card for my cousin who I am seeing on Saturday. This isn't just any old meeting of a cousin you see, she has lived in Australia for years and has been living back in the UK for the last few months. I thought I had met her once when I was about 12 but she thinks we have never actually met! So I'm meeting her for the first (or second) time on Saturday. Her Birthday is on Sunday so I thought I would surprise her with one of my cards. Will upload a pic of the finished result when it is done (not quite there yet!) Unfortunately it hasn't really worked out for her in the UK so she is going back to Aus in the New Year so I probably won't see her again for another 30 years lol.

Anyway, hopefully I will still manage to get round a few desks! If you are wondering what all this is about, click on the WOYWW link on my side bar and visit Julia, the queen of WOYWW, at the Stamping Ground.

more 'C' word cards!

2010-10-21T20:53:00.000+01:00

Yes, I got busy during my week off last week and made a few more C word cards! I've still only done about a third of what I need to do though and really need to get cracking and do some more.

I was rather pleased with these as they were simple to make and I think look rather effective. (I make cards for a colleague at work from time to time who likes these simple type cards, she is very easy to make for lol!) They are made using some snowflake stickers from The Range and some die cut squares using the freebie die that came with my Cuttlebug. The sentiment is from a freebie sheet I got with a magazine.

I am going to enter the card into the following challenges:

Sarah Hurley - Anything but red and green

Top tip Tuesday 'Anything Goes' challenge

Crafty Cardmakers - use a freebie

I made a second, similar card with some more of the stickers, here are the pair together.

WOYWW 71

2010-10-13T09:12:00.003+01:00

Normal service has been resumed and I am back in blog land, hurrah! It has been a very strange few weeks, we had to all reapply for our jobs at work and be assessed and interviewed and it has all been very stressful. Hence my life just really went on hold for 3 weeks and I haven't done anything else very much. You will be glad to hear that I have kept my job but I didn't get the promotion that I could have got. Still, it could have been so much worse and I really am grateful to still have a job at all in the current climate.

Anyway, this week I am having a week off work to recuperate! I managed to get a a bit of card making done yesterday and my room is a tip already! I really love this Beer Monster digi stamp and have made quite a few with it. The other card is my first attempt at an easel card, not bad I don't think.

Hope to get round a few more desks this week, as I'm off work I don't have any excuse not to really!

Wondering what this is all about? Check out Julia's blog at the Stamping Ground to find out more.

Sparkly Christmas Card

2010-10-12T19:19:00.006+01:00

Ooops, I've been absent for a little while, more about the reasons why later...

Thankfully I have a week off work now so can get on with doing some Christmas cards as well as some more cards to top up my 'for sale' box in the office :-)

This card was made with my recently purchased stencil, glitter and embossing glue. I'm pretty pleased with the results and have made a few now, some in purple and some in turquoise. Here is one of the purple ones which I am going to enter into the following challenges:

A Spoon full of Sugar - Winter wonderland
Craftalicious - Anything Goes
Allsorts - song title (Rocking around the Christmas tree)
Ellephantastic - anything goes

Have a good evening people!

Embossing santa

2010-09-24T18:55:00.003+01:00

Have been busy with the Christmas cards, done about 10 now and as I need to do in the region of 30-35 then I think I am on track! Hubby very kindly brought me a present of several rubber stamps from the car boot sale the other weekend. This is one of them, he chose rather well didn't he?! The background is my first attempt with Cosmic Shimmer, am rather pleased with the result. I stamped the image and embossed with black embossing powder. The purple panel is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and the wire has been in my stash for yonks and haven't really used it very much! The gold stars were made with some gold leaf I got recently, am having fun playing with it.

I am going to enter this card into the following challenges:

The Corrosive Challenge blog - clean up the dust (on account of the wire)

and

The Crafty Pad - embossing

Off to Barcelona tomorrow till Tuesday, yippee :-)

Christmas cards for soldiers

2010-09-18T14:25:00.008+01:00

This is a great idea over at the Cowgirls Sunday Stamp'en challenge blog this week. Basically you make a Christmas card for a soldier to send to a loved one (no glitter as could cause safety problems - felt a bit weird making a Chrimbo card with no glitter, but I am pleased with the result!) So here is my card for the challenge which I am going to send off to the soldiers. It seems to be (I think) a US address to send it to so will check the postage at the post office (well, will get hubby to when he is sending off parcels from his ebay empire!)

The card was made with a cute Penny Black stamp (coloured with promarkers) which I got as part of a set with a magazine subscription recently and some cuttlebug embossed paper.

I am also going to enter the card into the following challenges:

Totally Gorjuss - Wild thing (the hedgehog)

Cupcake sketch challenge

2 Sisters - Christmas (also collecting cards for the soldiers, contains full explanation of the no glitter rule also!)

Sarah Hurley - polka dots and circles and last but by no means least,

Just Inspirational - Christmas