Calling all gardeners.

I bet that this awful weather has upset a lot of would be gardeners. The cold has frozen the earth and stopped them all from going outside to get on with the winter work. To compensate for that I’ve made this humorous card for the gardeners in your life. Go on, give them a laugh.

To make the card you will need:
Big Daddy stamp from I Brake for Stamps. This can be bought here at Craft Fairy.
Art and Graphic pens to colour up the stamp.
A selection of papers to layer up the card
Foam pads to stick on the layers
Glue
Grosgrain ribbon which is available form Craft Fairy
Eazi-score board for making the perfect crease on your card.

I'm entering this card in the Sketch Saturday challenge. So wish me luck.

Sentimental verse freebie

Over on the Craft Fairy website we have started a freebie section. So far it has mainly been verses or funny quips. So today, I've added a verse, that I wrote, for a sentimental card. I hope that you like it. I've only printed half of the verse on the sample card but you can get the whole verse on the Freebies section of the Craft Fairy web site.
Happily this fits in perfectly with the theme on Allsorts challenge blog which this week is, Free and Easy. To see the challenge pop on over.

To make this card, use a 14cm x 14cm base card.

1 sheet of patterned paper 13cm x 13cm

1 piece of pink satin edged chiffon 9cm

A selection of flowers from Craft Fairy flowers section.

Tan brown leaves

Free sentiment from the freebies section on Craft Fairy

See the tutorial on corsages for a 'how to' on the rose corsage.

One important point.

The card was scored and creased using the Eazi-score board from Diamond craft.

if you want to see how to use it then click here to be taken to a set of video tutorials.

A Birthday Card for my Grandaughter

It's almost birthday time for my youngest grand daughter and I decided to get in early with her birthday card. I chose the gardening fairy for her as my littlest granddaughter may be only three but she really loves gardening. She also loves the flowers that I drew with the Kuretake pens so I decided to make a card that combines the two things that she really loves the most. Except me that is!

What you will need:
1 base card, 140mm x 140mm
Gardening Fairy Unmounted rubber stamp
Zig Kuretake tut pens in colours: 207 (for skin) 50 for stems and a variety for the fairy,
a saying.
Baby pink and pure pink Kuretake calligraphy blending pens
6 mm green gingham ribbon

This card is easy peasy to make.
Draw the flowers (see the 'Quick and Easy guide to drawing flowers with pens)
Put a strip of double sided sticky tape across the base of the card and stick the ribbon on to the card. Add a bow to the ribbon.
Stamp and colour the fairy, cut it out and use some foam pads to stick it to the card.
Add your desired sentiment and doodle around the edge of the card.
Finished.

Knitting is the new aerobics.

1. For all of you knitting mad people out there this card is just perfect.
2. She's made with Knitting Hats Hazel, a stamp from the wonderful I Brake for Stamps and she is available from Craft Fairy.
3. She is coloured in with Art and Graphic pens from Kuretake and
4. the ribbon is 16mm double faced satin from Craft Fairy
5. The saying is also from I brake for stamps.
6. If you make something with this stamp then please let me know.

Snowman and Holly for Christmas

Over the last couple of years it seems that Christmas has been geting colder and there have been far more snowmen around so the theme for this year's Christmas cards has to be: Snowman and Holly.
I decided to make it with some of the new ribbon that arrived with Craft Fairy last week.



To make this card you will need:

Snowman with checkered scarf rubber stamp from the Merry Stamper range on the Craft Fairy site.
Holly leaves
Candy Cane Christmas ribbon
Art and Graphic pens by Zig, Kuretake in colours 29 and 50
Some vintage Doodlebug paper : Jolly Holly stripe
Kuretake Calligraphy pen in silver for the border of the image and the card.
Stazon in Stone grey
14 cm x 14 cm base card in white plus extra for the stamped image
Foam pads
glue
Double sided tape

To make the card
Stamp (with Stazon), and colour your image on a spare piece of white card.
Edge the card with the silver calligraphy pen
Stick a piece of Christmas paper onto the bottom of your card.
Tie an esy bow in the ribbon and use the double sided tape to attach it to the card.
Attach the image and the holly leaves to the card with foam pads. Attahc a button to the holly leaves.
Draw a dot dash pattern on the edgeof the card as seen.
As an extra advantage I decide to enter it into the let it snow, Simon Says Challenge and the Paper Take Weekly challenge for Cut it Out.

Calligraphy Daisy Card

Some of you may have already purchased my new Flower drawing book and seen that there is a daisy added to the flowers that you can draw with the wonderful Calligraphy pens from Kuretake.




What I have shown you here is how to use the drawings to create a card.

The daisies are drawn on a piece of card which was 7 cm x 9 cm approx.
I used Butter and Rose to draw the flowers and Olive Green 56 in Art and Graphic pens to draw the stems and the leaves.
The daisy in the middle was drawn first when the second colour was at its strongest and the two others were then drawn. The lighter colour on the two flowers either side give some appearance of recession.
The card was then edged in the gold metalic calligraphy pen to make it look as if it had a border.
Finally I added someof the new 16 mm satin ribbon in willow to give the card some texture and luxury and a saying to finish it off.

Read My Lips Lucille

I just had to make a card out of this fabulous stamp, Read my Lips Lucille. I've had her for a while, but I really wanted a good saying to go with her. I found the one that I've added here and neadless to say, I'm over the moon. The stamp is on sale at my Craft Fairy site and it is made by the wonderful Della from I Brake for Stamps. Her Humerous Senior range is the original and the best too.

What you will need:
1 base card, 140mm x 140mm
Contrasting card for layering
Read my Lips Lucille stamp
Zig Kuretake tut pens in colours: 207 (for skin), 56, 23, 49
A button for the corner
A saying.
Feel free to copy the one that I've used. I printed it out on the computer, cut it out and layered it up.
16mm scarlet satin ribbon for the centre of the card.

I really didn't think that this lady needed my usual pinks so I went for no nonsense colours, but because it is nearly Christmas I added some reds too.

Super fun Christmas

This is a card for the grumpy old ladies in us all.

Are you all getting ready for Christmas? If you are then here’s a rather different card for you to make this month. It’s a funny one for a change.




You will need: 1 base card 140mm x 140mm,
I used white linen card.
1 piece of white card 1 piece of red card
1 piece of doodlebugs jolly holly paper
1 length of 9mm red saddle stitch ribbon
1 sentiment and the package lady stamp from the 'Censorship' sheet of unmounted rubber stamps.
Stazon in Stone Gray
A selection of pens to colour the image.
H2O waterbrush from Kuretake.
paper glue 3d foam pads.

To make the card Stamp the image onto a piece of white linen card. Colour it in and trim the card to leave a fairly generous border around the image. Stick the image card to the red card and trim to leave a thin border. Stamp the sentiment onto another piece of white card and mount onto red card and trim to leave a similar size border. Cut a piece of jolly holly paper to cover about a 1/3rd of the card and stick to the base card. Tie a knot in the ribbon and use it to cover the join. Stick the images to the card with 3d foam pads.

Getting ready for the NEC in November

Now, I know that it's a couple of weeks away, but you can never be too ready and the Hobbycrafts fair at the NEC is so big that it needs a lot of thought.

So.... if you can think of ways that I can make things better for the fair and your experience better too then leave a comment.

Port Sunlight and the Happy Stampers

Craft Fairy is off to Liverpool to set up at the Happy Stampers show in Port Sunlight. This is one of the best shows of the year as it is attended by such dedicated stampers and organised so well by such lovely people. I really can't wait!

See you all there.