Birthday Boy

Hi Everyone,

I hope you have had a fabulous Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year.

We had a wonderful family Christmas, I had my three children together for the first time in sooooo long it was just magical.

Tomorrow is my Grandsons 10th Birthday so I will be climbing trees and walking nature trails for the day. With this in mind I am sharing the Birthday cards I have made for him, you will guess what his hobbies are from the images.

The images are digi images from Just Inklined and Mo Manning and the backing papers from my stash.

I have also been working on something top secret the last few weeks so watch this space and all will be revealed early in the new year

Take care

Love

Gill xx

I'm still here

Hi Everyone

Just a quick note that I am still here and am not going to give up blogging again.

I have had a lovely week in Cyprus but came home to a broken laptop so while I was sorting a new one I have not had a chance to save any pictures yet. I promise I will before the weekend.

I have loads of plans for 2017 crafting and will be sharing everything with you.

Take care

Gill xx

Engagement card

Hi Everyone,

I love making romantic cards and there is nothing like a challenge when your son calls and asks you to have an engagement card ready for 9pm that evening. So I got home from work at 6:30pm had a bite to eat and got going on the card.

I used some gorgeous hammered shimmery card to make a tent fold card blank. Mat and layers are blue card and Graphic 45 12x12 spotted paper. The hearts are X-cut dies and the daisies are Woodware craft punches. A little bit of lace and there you go a very simple engagement card.

Until next time keep crafting and take care

Love 

Gill xx

Nappy Cakes

Hi Everyone,

It has been a hell of a week this week, I have had an awful infection in my gum so have felt dreadful.

Crafts must go on though and once I felt up to it I got going on a new style nappy bike for a gift. This is the first time I have tried this one so hope you like it as much as I do.

I have added a couple of cakes as well. I love doing these and next time I am going to try a plane or pram depending on the sex of the baby

I have a few card orders to be going on with so must get going

Have a great weekend

Love 

Gill xx

Christmas Monoliths

Hi Everyone,

Last Christmas one for a while I promise.

I made a couple of Christmas monoliths for a friend to give her daughters this week after she had seen the one I made for my daughter so would like to share them with you today

I love these and am thinking of making one for myself.

I used some MDF shapes of houses and baubles that I have in my stash but you can get them from places like EBay. The papers are from Hunkydory and the monolith from Visible image. These monoliths are fabulous for all sorts of decoration for homes and weddings, Christmas and Halloween I just love them.

See you all next time

Love

Gill xx

A Tale of Two Christmas Cards

Hi Everyone,

Brrrr it's getting cold isn't it, winter has hit big time.

Last time I shared a vintage Christmas card for my lovely mum-in-law and this time I am going to share the card I have made for my mum. They are both very different just like our mum's.

Mum looks nothing like this pic but she does love her red wine lol!

The background papers are from Debbie Moore's Inspiration magazine and the image is a copyright free one from the Internet. Ribbons etc from my extensive stash ;-)

Have a great Sunday and forget it's Monday tomorrow and back to work

Take care

Gill xx

Christmas is Coming

Hi Everyone

I hope you are getting used to the dark nights but at least the weather is still good for November.

I suppose it is getting to the time to start thinking about Christmas and this year we are going to spend Christmas day with my daughter and her family so I am quite excited. Christmas excitement is not usual for me as I am usually a bit of a bah humbug.

Anyways here is one of my cards for this year. I went for a vintage theme for my mother in law so hope she likes it.

The beautiful image is from the Lost Family mixed media card stack by Indigo Blu, The flower dies are from Tattered lace and leaves X cut and the backing papers were printed from a cd a long time ago so I can't remember which one

I keeps saying I love this and I love that but to be honest if I didn't love the finished article I would never share it 

Take care until next time

Love

Gill xx

It's All About the Bride

Hi Everyone,

I am helping my cousin organise her wedding next July and loving every minute of it. So far I have made the save the date cards and her bouquet and just want to do everything now!

With this in mind I got to thinking about special thank you cards for the bridesmaids, grooms men and special people who help and support. I am sharing them below with you and I have used a lot of bits in my stash including tattered lace dies. I also thought that a really personal card with a special message is as good as a gift if you are on a budget.

I am so happy with the cards that I just had to share all of them with you.

I would love to hear what you think

Take care till next time

Gill xx

Flowers and Inks

Hi Everyone,

I have loved experimenting with inked backgrounds recently and have a couple of cards to share with you using different techniques.

For this one I have used Craft Card and coloured with Memento inks (Morrocco, Peanut Brittle and Toffee Crunch) I then stamped the edge with stamps from Craftwork Cards. I matted the stamped image of the flower from Crafters Companion Textures range and stuck it at a jaunty angle.

This card is so simple but I just loved the effect that I had to make two. It is simply masking off a strip at the side of a DL card and again using memento inks (autumn colours as above and the blues are Tim Holtz distress inks in milled lavender,weathered wood and shaded lilac) Don't be shy with the ink layer them up to get a lovely deep shade. I then stamped the card with the flower and sentiment from Woodware (Sunflower doodles).

Both simple but I am sure the recipients will be delighted whoever they may be.

Take care

Gill xx

Happy Halloween

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are all well. I have had a few health issues the last few months but all good now and I have loads to share with you over the coming weeks.

I think I am nearly done with my Christmas cards but you never know and I think it is a bit early to share them with you so lets talk about Halloween today.

I have created a small tray to hold the treat sweets and decorated a milk bottle and straw using Crafters Companion papers from the free cd in the Autumn magazine. The freebies you get in the magazines are amazing not to mention the projects you can craft along to. The Autumn mag is on sale for just £4.99 on the web site at the moment.

I am not a big Halloween fan really but loved creating this, I am sure my Grandsons will love it.

Take care

Love Gill xx

More Cards and a Bit of Journalling

Hi Everyone

I hope all you mums out there had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday. I met up with my mum , daughter, brother and families for brunch which was lovely. After that a visit to the Mother in laws where I made her a new hanging basket of silk flowers and the rest of the day making some custom retirement cards.

I can share the cards with you because they are all for blokes in work who won't even know I have a blog.

The script for this one was a man who loves to sail. Bit obvious eh!

This one was a little more difficult as it was astronomy and try as I might I struggled with inspiration 

As for the third one I can't believe I haven't taken a photo. What an idiot I am?

Along with the cards I have also been indulging in my new love of Journalling and joined the Mission Inspiration group on Facebook. This is my first mission

I am actually attending one of Mike Deakins workshops on Saturday and am really looking forward to it

Oh and I mustn't forget I have made three design team pieces for Personal Impressions but you will have to wait to see them when they are published in the next few weeks. Check out their blog if you haven't already there is some fabulous makes, videos and inspiration on there. 

Anyway that's it from me for now. I'll be back soon

Take care 

Love 

gill xx

The Final Touches

Hi Everyone,

Today we are putting the final touches to my craft area so as soon as we are done I will show you some pics. The hope is I will have a card making area and an altered art area to work in as I do need more work space. I am praying everything still fits on the shelves we are putting up but you know what us crafters are like.......... WE JUST NEVER HAVE ENOUGH!

I am going to share a couple of samples I made for Personal Impressions recently that were shown on Hochanda when Linda was demonstrating. I can't describe how excited I was for Linda and seeing my makes on TV. I am truly blessed to design for PI as I have been taken out of my comfort zone by not having a choice of products. I look forward to receiving my box of goodies so I can push myself a little further.

All the pictures here are using products available at Personal Impressions

This is my gorgeous grandchildren, daughter and son in law.

The speech bubbles are stamped with stamps from PI and the heart is stenciled with Tim Holtz stencil and distress ink

This little drinking jar has sparkly peel off letters and gold bling

This wedding card again uses lovely sparkly peel off letters along with Sweet Dixie Dies, white card and gold organza ribbon

Thanks for dropping by today

I'll be back soon (I promise!)

Love Gill xx

Charming Chaps

Hi Everyone,

Wow what a busy month February has turned out to be. It all started with a lovely trip to the Stitches Craft Fair with Linda from PI. We had a fabulous day and finished of with a lovely lunch and a bit of non craft retail therapy. I bought lots of stamps at the show and have been using them on my new craft fave of Journaling. My Instagram has loads of pics so you can see why I have not been blogging again. You can find me under Gillbran0151.

We have had lots of charity dinners as well and another lovely dinner dance tonight. Oh and I shouldn't really forget it has been my birthday but at 52 we will keep quiet about that.

Today I have had a couple of male cards to make for custom orders so I am sharing them with you. They are both made from the Hunkydory Charming Chaps Collection, One of my purchases at the craft fair!

Hope you like them

Take care

Love Gill

Working With Inks

Hi Everyone

Hope you have had a great weekend. I went on a nice long walk around my local park with my daughter, grandson and some new friends yesterday. The weather is so lovely in Liverpool at the moment it is like spring. We are so lucky where we are because we seem to be sheltered from all the bad weather..

Of course I also got lots of crafting in. My mentor and friend Linda Simpson from PI and Linda's crafty piece of heaven has really encouraged me to try new techniques and I am loving using inks and stencils on canvas and other medium to make altered art projects. Here is my weekend make for you.

I used memento and Tim Holtz ink on the background. I stenciled with CWS stencils using ink and Modge Podge sparkly glue. I then finished with a mannequin , some flowers and a bit of bling. I am so happy with the results

Don't forget you can also check out my work on the Personal Impressions Blog

If you like what  you see please share and comment I love hearing from you 

I am going to share this in the following Challenges:

Leinzlove Tear Bears Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

Take care xxx

Playing with Notebooks

Hi Everyone,

Tonight I am using my iPad to blog so am hoping it will be successful..

I finally had the drawers delivered to finish off my craft area today so by tomorrow it should be complete..

I am made up to be able to say I have had a lovely crafting day making some gifts to sell at a charity event my Soroptimist club is holding in February . They are notebooks and matching cards. I have used a variety of different papers to give different looks. The vintage papers are of course freebies from Debbie Moores inspiration magazine, also Graphic 45 and Recollections Fabulous Girl paper pad. I have posted them all over Facebook and Instagram as usual so you may have already seen them if you follow me. Hope you like them as much as I do.

Notebook gifts

Hi Everyone, 

Tonight I am using my iPad to blog so am hoping it will be successful..

I finally had the drawers delivered to finish off my craft area today so by tomorrow it should be complete..

I am made up to be able to say I have had a lovely crafting day making some gifts to sell at a charity event my Soroptimist club is holding in February . They are notebooks and matching cards. I have used a variety of different papers to give different looks. The vintage papers are of course freebies from Debbie Moores inspiration magazine, also Graphic 45 and Recollections Fabulous Girl paper pad. I have posted them all over Facebook and Instagram as usual so you may have already seen them if you follow me. Hope you like them as much as I do.

Take care

Gill xx

Happy New Year

Hi Everyone,

I can't believe I haven't posted since December and now we are half way through January. A bit late but Happy New Year to you all.

I was really busy over Christmas and the beginning of the month making samples for the fabulous Personal Impressions to take to the trade show in Frankfurt in February. I can't show you these yet but I will as soon as I can. Pop over to their blog though and you will see some of my samples there.

Today I am going to share a 70th Birthday card I made a while ago but I love it and it is in 'my style' using a Dr Digi image.

All the papers were freebies from magazines as well as a printed happy birthday mat from a cd I bought from Ebay. 

I am sure I have told you about my love for freebies and bargains to make my cards. You just can't beat it.

Anyway I need some tips on how to mange my time to blog regularly. I work full time as an Admin Manager so am on the computer all day, I have two grandsons who I like to spend as much time as possible with and I craft craft craft. Can you see why I neglect my blog or am I making excuses. Maybe scheduling is the way to go.

Take care

Gill xxxxxx