still crafting

I've been concentrating on getting some of the 2012 challenges prepared for my craft group this month and have managed to get up to and including July's under my belt - sorry no pictures for now as they are all strictly hush hush.  So haven't really managed much other crafting but did manage a couple of cards for my stock....

I simply had to have a play with this stamp as soon as it arrived.

I'll try to get the others photographed during the week.

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

New Year - New Beginnings

I think I'll actually get round to entering some challenges this year so the Crafty Ribbons Blog Challenge of 'New Beginnings' sounded like a good place to start.  The metal bar has been sitting in my stash for a while and obviously was meant for this card.  I've made a cross over card of a sort, instead of completely crossing over each other I laced the fronts together and then slipped two tags inside the pocket.  It was a fun card to make.

and I used something new that I received over the holidays - angel glitter. 

I also entered in the Krafty Kool Kats challenge at
 http://kraftykoolkat.blogspot.com/

LadyBugs Challenge at
http://ladybugscraftsinkchallengeblog.blogspot.com/

the Digi Doodle Shop at
http://digidoodleshopsbest.blogspot.com/

Fab'n'Funky at
http://fabnfunkychallenges.blogspot.com/

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).

secondly look what I've got.....

I ran a Secret Santa/Chanukah Armadillo on the forum I run and look what the Chanukah Armadillo brought me....

I'm afraid I guessed who it was from as she has a style of her own and is always so generous with her time and sharing her talent.  It is stunning and each of the four 'milk cartons' contained a gift.  So a very big thank you to my dear friend *** - I will treasure it forever.  Now I need to work out how to make one and have a go myself - watch this space.

xx