My not so 'little' girls

my babies are growing up, Mya is 5 now and Grace will be 3 next month, so glad we'll soon have another baby to love.  Meanwhile back to my big girls, they are such good company and I love having them here.  The latest photos.....

At last some cards....

,,,,my mojo has gone awol again but I have managed to make a few cards, mainly because some important birthdays are coming soon.  It took me twice as long as normal to make these but I got there in the end...

firstly a card I was asked to make for a 60th, the front part opens to reveal a photo of the recipient.

and then a very important card - for my youngest granddaughter's 3rd birthday next month, the stamp is called Grace so I had to use it for Gracie's card.....

then it is my younger son's birthday next month, he loves to cook and he enjoys a good wine so I thought this was a good combination....

now a card for my sister-in-laws birthday......

and this one was purely because I was on a roll......

and finally two get well cards - I seem to have had a run on them lately and was getting low on stock......

now to try and track down Mr Mojo.

When a Wreath is not a Wreath.....

it's a mobile....

I saw a photo of a wreath made with these paper hearts and have to say I was not impressed but I could see potential.  So I set to work and made 12 hearts (dead simple) and set them out on my desk in the shape of the wreath.

No!!!!!!!!!!!  it quite simply didn't work, too big and not terribly substantial.  So I took 4 hearts away - ah that's better but what do I do with the spare hearts - ping light bulb moment - make a second tier.  But then it's not a wreath - it's a...........

............

............

mobile!!!!!

Well that sounded simple enough but the mechanics of joining the two tiers so that they hung straight was a bit thought provoking.  But after looking at it from all angles I worked it out and worked out how to hang it.  Now how to make it pretty and to get movement in it.  Firstly I printed off 4 of my Tilda stamp images and then I flipped the images and printed 4 to go on the backs.  Coloured and glittered them and fitted them to the centre of the mobile.  It still needed something else so I cut and glittered 8 little butterflies and fixed them to the mobile using thin strips of acetate so that they looked as if they were flying and voila.......one mobile.

Guess who is 5 tomorrow...

our big girl had a Tinkerbell party today for all her school friends.

Happy birthday for tomorrow Mya, we love you

xxx

and the third....

...the third special birthday next month is my younger daughter in law's and I showed you before the base card....

well here is how it ended up...

the front of the card....

unfasten the band across the middle and....

lift the first flap and .....

then lift the second flap and....

finally the actual inside of the card....

She makes cards too but she doesn't believe in the saying 'less is more' so I had to make sure I had plenty on the card.  Just as I finished it I realised I hadn't put the 30 on it so made the two pins for the front - hopefully you wouldn't know they were an afterthought.  I can now relax as I have plenty of stock cards for all the other January birthdays.

wow - another post and

the second important card for January is for my darling granddaughter Mya who will be five.  I never have a definate idea in mind when I craft - I just fly by the seat of my pants and it normally comes out fine, this one seems to have anyway....

however I am not at all sure how this next one is going to turn out.  It's for my younger d-i-l and is the third important January card.  I had this idea of wanting a multi fold front to the card with lots of hidden bits - well the base is done and below but where I go from now is in the lap of the gods, anything (or nothing) could materialise so you will just have to watch this space.

third and most important....

...we have three very important members of the family sharing January for their birthdays so I have three very special cards to make.  The first and to me the most important is my beloved Arn's birthday and I managed to sneak a few hours away from him to make this special card....

I wanted to use my favourite style of the moment - SteamPunk - and wanted it to be totally masculine so linked chain through the top decoration instead of beads and made ribbon to thread through from book print.  The two Tim Holtz word charms said it all.  Now all I have to do is make a box to pop it in and hope he likes it.  (He'd better).

A bit of this and a bit of that....

firstly a couple of cards that I made using acetate... I'm quite taken with the effect of these so you can expect more to be arriving this way soon...

then may I introduce the latest member of the crafting world...

little Grace with her first real creations, just love the intense concentration in the first picture - she was removing the backing from small squares of 3d foam, not easy for an adult but she is determined she will manage it and she did.

Then finally for now I decided to get a little bit inky and messy - not too much you understand as I dont like messy...

and I couldn't resist trying my latest Marianne die - an old model T Ford car...

nothing for a month then...

....2 posts in one day.  I have also been working on these recently.  I wanted to make card boxes for 3 of my friends as their Chanukah pressies, of course each box has to be full of cards and there are around 25 cards inside each box so you can understand that I have been a little busy lately.

Box #1

Box #2

and a change of colour for

box #3

no new stuff but...

...I know some are asking how I got on - well the answer is fine.  After over 4hours of surgery I was sent home 2 hours later admittedly with a list of do's and don'ts and a couple of boxes of heavy sedation but I was just relieved to be back home.  I'm in plaster and bandages from my toes to my knee and not really allowed to do much at all but it is amazing how we women can improvise a bit and still manage to get things done whilst following the doctors orders, I even managed a little ironing last night.  Despite all the warnings of terrible pain to be expected I haven't had any, in fact only took the pain tablets for 24 hours.  It's a bit sore now but I am putting that down to the bones all knitting and healing.  Back to the hospital next Tuesday and I will be begging and pleading for a walking plaster - would get down on my knees to beg but that's not possible at the moment - not sure I'll get a lot of joy but you dont know if you dont ask.

The only snag is I cannot sit at my craft desk at the moment but am going to have a try at the weekend as it is piling up with stuff coming in from my craft group girls.  However I am not entirely wasting my time and have managed to knit a cardigan for Mya and a scarf for myself.  A big thank you to all who have been asking how I am and for all the beautiful cards - I will get round to emailing people soon.  I am sure my recovery is going so smoothly as I have so many people on my side, thank you each and every one of you.  Hopefully normal service will be resumed very soon and I'll have stuff to blog but for now I'll leave you with a photo of my pal who watches nervously every time I try out my crutches......

Getting ready.....

.... trying hard to get all my crafting up to date as next week I am starting a new crafting journey.  I need to be able to concentrate on it and it would help if my craftroom was neat and tidy and I knew where everything is.  So I am having a grand clear up today and have just two cards to blog that I have made this week.  The first is a very important card as it is for my older son's birthday, so here is the card inside and out....

and then an equally important card for my younger son and his wife's 3rd wedding anniversary...

 

A card for a special person

a very special person was going through my card stock recently and came across a card that she loved and asked if I would send it to her for her birthday as she would really like to receive it.  Well you can't do that can you, so I refused stating that I'd already made her birthday card (which I had).  However you also can't ignore such a request so I made another card in the same vein this afternoon which will be sent with her other card.

The front of the card...

opening the first sections of the card reveals tags in the side pocket and a pocket in the centre in which I can pop some pictures of the Queen's head (aka money) which is her preferred birthday present..

and then when you drop the centre flap down the full interior is revealed..

now all I have to hope is she likes it.

A Special Order

from a family member for a 60th birthday card for their twin sister, and so after a couple of hours work I ended up with this...

the front of the card

 the first layer inside

then the full inside

 

and the 'stood' card.

I add lots of sister and twin quotes to the inside and adapted a sister verse to cater for a twin.

I hope both of the twins like it.