Crazicards Crafty Blog

I was having a play with the fabulous new stamps from Sheen Douglass and here are my 3 creations so far.

This first one I tried out on the back of centura pearl card and it is fabulous for painting. I totally enjoyed painting this and will defiantly be using this set a lot more in the future.


This next one was done on watercolour card and is totally different to anything else I have ever done, and it was so much fun.


This last one will eventually become a 90th birthday card it just needs to be matted onto the card base and a insert added. Another fantastic image from this brilliant set of stamps from Sheena Douglass, I can't wait to see what she brings out next.

Until next time, Happy Crafting xxx

Today I thought I would show you a birthday card that I made for my brother-in-law. I always get stuck for men's cards so I decided to try something different, for me anyway, and this is the end result.

I think that sympathy cards are one of the hardest cards we have to make as crafters.

So when I was informed that my sister's father in-law had passed away on Friday evening I knew I had better get my thinking cap on.

I eventually came up with these two cards which I think are quite appropriate:

Walter was a lovely dutch gentleman and I know he will be sorely missed. Sleep well Walter xxx

Until next time xx

I was recently asked by my mum to help her make some cards for a Children in Need Coffee Morning that her and her fellow residents at Phoenix Court in Darlington were having today 18th November 2011.



As it is such a fantastic cause she didn't have to ask me twice and I set to making a these cards for her to sell at the coffee morning.

I made 11 in total, with sentiments such as Just a Note, Happy Birthday and Thank you.

Each card was hand stamped using Memento Ink and then coloured in using Promarkers.

I matted and layered each card using bright coloured card to match each topper using my Spellbinder Dies.

And I cut out some mini tags for the sentiments and made some miniature ribbons to finish them off.

These fabulous little stamps were free on a magazine and were sent to me by a very good friend of mine Jane from Bonny Scotland, sadly Jane is not a stamper so had no use for them. They fit the occasion of Children in Need perfectly.

Fingers crossed the cards all sell and we make a good amount to make a decent donation for this fantastic cause.

I will update this post once the cards have been sold and we have a total.

Until next time Happy Crafting xx

UPDATE: All in all we made £40 for Children in need throught the sale of handmade cards.

Well at the ripe old age of 70 my mum decided that she wanted to move house again. Rather her than me is all I can say although I must admit I will glad when the day arrives that we can pack up and move to the seaside, when that will be is another rather long story which I won't bore you with today. I don't want you all falling a sleep now do I!!

Anyway I saw a similar card to this is a Chocolate Baroque newsletter so i thought I would give it a go.

I started by creating all my mat and layers using the cuttlebug, spellbinder dies and a sunburst embossing folder.

I used felt card for my base and my main mat as it has a lovely and rich texture. And I also used Black mirror card and plain Gold rainbow holographic card.

I stamped out my image from the Chocolate Baroque Home Sweet Home stamp plate a couple of times and then drew in the horizon and the sun rays before colouring the whole image in using my Letraset AquaMarkers.

Once I put everything together I decided that the trees needed to be decoupaged to give a lift to the image and I think it turned out just great. Mum loved it so I am a happy chappy.

I also made this small card for my sister who lives in Holland with another image from the same stamp plate.


I love this stamp set it is so easy to think of ideas how to use it so I have no doubt at all that I will be using it a lot more...

Until next time Happy Crafting xx.

Here are a couple of birthday cards I made recently using the Paint Fusion technique.

This first card I made for my mum's 70th birthday.

I stamped the leaves in a frame then using Acrylic Paints and Sheen Douglass's Paint Fusion Technique.

I left that to dry whilst I stamped the wheelbarrow image with Stazon ink before painting it with my acrylic paints.

By the time I had finished that the leaves were well and truly dry so I cut round the outer leaves using scissors then I took my craft knife and glass mat and cut out the centre of the frame to create a window.

Once everything was dry I matted and layered a holographic Gold card square onto a felt card base approx 7" x 7".

Then using my Collall 3D glue I assembled the card placing the wheelbarrow in the centre followed by the leaf frame. I had a few extra leaves that I made earlier which I used to decoupage the leaves of the frame giving the whole image a 3D effect.

To finish off I painted some Alphabet Soup Grungebord letters to spell MUM and number 70 in Gold acrylic paint.


This 2nd card was made in exactly the same way except I used a wishing well stamp. And instead of using my craft knife to cut round all the leaves I used my spell binder circles die set to cut out the aperture

I coloured in the wishing well using distressed inks,  ProMarkers and AquaMarkers and then added a little flowersoft for texture.

For the Sentiment I stamped Happy Birthday using my Versamark ink pad and then embossed that with Wow Rich Gold Embossing Powder.

I really enjoyed making both of these cards. And I have no doubt that I will be mixing Paint Fusion with other traditional images in the future.

Until next time Happy Crafting x

I have entered the top card from this post into the Polkadoodles week 39 challenge, pop on over and take a peek at all the beautiful entries so far xx

Fathers’ Day is on Sunday, June 19th this year. Have you made your card yet?

Cards for men in general are quite hard to make so I decided to try something different this year and this is the card I made.

I embossed the background using my cuttle bug and  the Creative Expressions Time embossing folder. Once I had embossed the card I dragged a Walnut Distressed Ink over the top to highlight the detail.

I then stamped my stamp stamps onto watercolour card and the masked them up using post it notes whilst I stamped a fob watch.

I then chose several stamps from My Chocolate Baroque Miniature Curiosities set and stamped into each stamp in turn masking as I went along.  Once I had finished that I used Tim Holtz Glossy Accents to make the watch faces look like they have glass covers. I added the sentiment and made an insert and there you have it, my Father's Day card for 2011.

Until next time Happy Crafting xx

I was recently having a play with some new stamps that I have and some others I haven't played with for a while and I made this little card for my Cancer Research fund raising project.

For this card I stamped the stamps with Archival Ink then I stamped the background trees using distressed inks which I then pulled out using a damp paintbrush. Once I had finished the trees and sky and they were dry I used the masks I had made earlier to cover each stamp in turn as I created a little scene with trees and flowers.

I love the effect that these stamp stamps give you, every card is different and you can theme the card to any subject you like. I will definitely be making a few more of these in different styles for sale on my fund raising page. I just need to acquire some more mini stamps to make the little scenes.

You can see this card and the others I have made for this superb cause and you can also read my own cancer story by visiting here.

I also accept donations for this worthy cause on my dedicated Just giving page which you can visit here.

I am keeping it short and sweet today so thanks for popping by, have a great weekend.

Until next time Happy Crafting xx

As some of my readers will know I was diagnosed with Cancer back in 2008 and thankfully things are going well on that front.

This year I wanted to do something to raise a little money for Cancer Research by selling Shopping Trolley Tokens and handmade items made by me personally.

One of the things I like to do when someone makes a donation or purchases one of my trolley tokens is to send a little thank you card along with the trolley token.

So this week I have been busy making a few more cards ready to be sent out. I decided on nice bright colours as the sun is shining and Summer is almost here. And I decided on the theme of flowers and butterflies as I love them both.

This first card was made by cutting out an aperture from a piece of copier paper then I used it as a stencil to make a coloured block background using a Big and Juicy ink pad, this one is Spice.

I then stamped and embossed a couple of doodle butterflies from Chocolate Baroque. And for effect I added a few little clear Rhinestones to each butterfly.

The second card was made by first of all stamping a leaf design directly onto the card using the same Big and Juicy ink pad.

I them stamped and embossed a fabulous little daisy stamp that I found in the bottom of my stamp box, I think I bough this one off eBay many moons ago. And to be honest I had forgotten just how pretty it was.

I then coloured them in using different colours again from the Big and Juicy ink pad and cut them out before sticking them to the card using 3D glue. I finished off with a Thank You stamp.

Nothing too flash but a quick, simple and effective way to say thank you to all my supporters for helping me to raise money for such a great cause.

If you would like to help me raise money you can purchase a shopping trolley token from my website fund raising page HERE. Or if you would like to make a donation straight to Cancer Research through my Just Giving page please visit my page HERE.


Thank you to everyone who has supported me so far, I appreciate your help more than you can ever know. Cancer research is such a good cause and every single penny counts...

So until next time Happy Crafting xx

I just love Art Deco ladies so when I came across the Debbie Moore Clear Stamps I just had to have them. This is the 2nd lady that I have and she is gorgeous.

This First card was a Mother's Day card. I stamped the Deco lady first onto plain white card using Momento Black ink and then onto clear acetate using Stazon Black Ink.

I then cut out just the dress and hat from the acetate image. And I also cut out the whole thing from the white card stamped image.

Once everything was cut out I coloured in the face and arms using my Promarkers and then used my craft knife to cut along the arms and around the hands so that I could lift the arms over the top of the acetate dress when I attached it.

I then took a piece of A5 Icory Pearlescent card cut from a sheet out of the Nocturne Pearlescent 12 x 12 Card Pad and scored diagonal lines from the bottom left to the top right leaving approx 1cm between each line at the right hand corner, this gave more interest to the background behind the Deco Lady.

I then printed a fabulous Art Deco flourish onto another piece of printable acetate and attached it to the Pearlescent card using gold brads. And then mounted the whole thing onto a piece of Gold holographic mirror board.

Next I used Variegated Red Gilding Flakes to cover the back of the acetate stamped dress and hat. And once they were dry I glued them to the stamped card image making sure to lift the card arms over the top of the acetate.


Once dry I was able to shape the dress quite easily before attaching the completed Art Deco Lady to the acetate covered base card using 3D Glue Gel.

The 2nd card was a birthday card for my sister. The Deco Lady was made in the same way as the first card except I used Variegated Green Gilding Flakes.

For the background I printed another fabulous Art Deco panel and I also used a fabulous Art Deco backing paper in Pale Green to co-ordinate with the gilding flakes. And I mounted this onto Silver holographic mirror board for a dramatic effect.

I finished off with a Big Sister Silver charm and some clear rhinestones. This is a beautiful stamp set and I just know it will get plenty of use.

Until next time Happy Crafting xx

If you look through my cards you won't really see anything too girly in there as I don't have too many girly type stamps to be honest apart from flowers. I love that grungy arty look more than anything else so I concentate on that style normally.

However, when I saw the Debbie Moore Art Deco Ladies on TV the other week I just had to have them. There is just something about that era I love.

Sadly only one was sent as the other went out of stock :O( But lucky for me the one I did receive was my favourite one so I wasn't too disappointed.

So over the weekend I set to and made this card with a wrap. And although I say so myself I really love it.. as it came out so much better than I imagined it would.

I wanted to try something different for this card so I made a cross over card, with a wrap around.

The little wrap around helps to keep the card closed as well as making it look good too. You can make this from anything you like such as vellum, card, lace, paper. And you can keep it really simple or make it as lavish as you like.

I went for the simple but elegant, using patterned card, black organza ribbon and string of pearly beads. After I took this picture I decided to add a tiny red rose and a Chrystal heart charm which were attached to the bow. Unfortunately I forgot to take another picture - sorry ....

The base card was made from 2 x A5 centura pearl card blanks. The front of each card was scored on the Hougie board to make a diamond pattern before cutting in half.

The half that was removed was then used to decorate the inside of the card fronts and continued the diamond pattern on the inside.The 2 x A5 cards were then stuck together with collall photo glue.

I love this glue as you can rub away the excess if it squishes out the sides, like it always does!!! The inside of the card was matted with Black glitter card and a punched out white glitter card topper.They were stuck together with collall silicon glue to ensure a good bond.

I then stamped the gorgeous Art Deco lady and coloured in the back panel using Sakura Gel pens.And I coloured the ladies skin in using my skin tone and skin accent promarkers.

Now for the fun bit. I took out 2 different colours of Cosmic Shimmer Fusible Film and a tiny bit of Angelina Fibres to create the ladies dress, feathers and hat.

I stamped and ironed the image first in one colour and then with the darker colour I just stamped and ironed the hat and feathers.

These were then cut out and put together over the original stamped figure. The great thing about the fusible film is that you can shape it with your iron. So you can really make the dress look like it has folds in it.

And one of the other unique things about the film is that it changes colour in different light. For example in the image the dress is Pink and Blue. If you turn the card more to the light the dress turns Green, and more to the other side it is a pearly White, it's fabulous...

To attach the film pieces to the original image I used a Zig Glue Pen round the edges. And to finish off I added a few gems to add some sparkle.

I shall definitely be making more cards like this in the future, I just have to hunt for some different art deco stamps...

Thanks for reading & Happy Crafting...

If you follow my blog you will know that I recently started fundraising for Cancer Research and that I have a few items on my website Crazicards that are for sale and a percentage of the profit will be donated to my Cancer Research fund . You can read all about it on my Just Giving Page here.

Things are going well and the shopping trolley tokens have been a hit so far. And as a little thank you I have been sending a little thank you card with every fundraiser item which have also gone down quite well.

Here are a few of the new cards I made ready to go out with the next items that are sold, I try to make each one slightly different is some way.

For the first two I used my Tim Holtz Distressed Ink Pads to create the backgrounds using my trusty cut 'n' dry foam.

I then over stamped with my Creative Expressions British Wild Flowers and Meadow Flora using two different colours of distressed ink before I sprayed gently with water to help defuse the background a little. The more you spray the more the ink will move so it's just a case of playing to see which effect you like best.

Once that had been dried I added a little shimmer to the buttercups and thistle with my Sakura pens just to give the topper some sparkle.

Then I stamped an Elusive Images butterfly onto some shiny card and coloured them in using my Promarkers. For the antenna you can either draw them onto the card as I have or you could use wire or waxed cotton if you have the time.

 
TIP: Use Momento or Adirondack dye based inks for Promarkers and Stazon ink for Aqua markers. Always make sure your initial inked image is completely dry before you start to colour in as the edges may bleed if it's still wet.

You can also emboss the image which will fix it fully, you can then use either type of Promarker to colour in.Once the butterflies were coloured in I covered both of them with Glossy Accents and left them to dry for an hour or so.

Whilst they were drying I used my Rich Gold WOW embossing Powder to highlight the edges of the toppers and sentiments. And once the butterflies were completely dry I cut them out and put the cards together.

For the third card I used the same techniques for the background except I sprinkled the back ground with a little water and dabbed it off to get a speckled effect. And I used one of the gorgeous British Butterflies from Stamps Away.

Well I am really thrilled to say that the card that I made during my tutorial sold instantly.  A "BIG" thank you goes out to Mrs S Buchanan,  from Kent, for her generous donation, I really appreciate your support. It means a lot to me and Cancer Research.

Luckily I did make a couple of extra cards and I have now added them to my Fundraising page on my website here.

Here they are:

This is an A5 Portrait card. Again using the Mica Mask leaves background but this time i used darker Cosmic Shimmer Mists to give a more earthy feel to the card.

I really love this Elusive Images tall trees stamp plate, it has a fabulous oriental feel to it. And the verse is just perfect for this scheme.

It reads:

A tree is known by it's fruit,
A man by his deeds,
A good deed is never lost,
He who sows courtesy reaps friendship,
And he who plants kindness gathers love.

Sadly 2010 ended on a very sad note as my partners mum passed away on 13 th December and the funeral was held on the 21st December. Thankfully Irene's passing was quiet and she is now at rest after a courageous battle with stomach cancer.

I made these two cards for John, Jan and Stuart.

This was the first time I had used the iridescent WOW powders and I must say they are brilliant and easy to use with minimal mess. The WOW powders change colour when you move them in the light and they look stunning. The stamps are from the Elusive Images range.

Now that 2011 is here I am hoping to be more active in the blogging arena, it's always been on my to do list but has never managed to get to the top spot, this year it is up there so hopefully you will join me on my journey of crafty things to come :O)

I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year and i wish you all Happiness and Health.

Well I think I have broken the back of my Christmas cards now. I only have 3 left to do yippee !!! I just hope I didn't forget anyone.

I as mentioned in a previous post I chose trees as my main theme this year as I wanted to do something totally different and not so traditional. Here are a couple more of the cards I have made using My Create a Scene Tree stamps by Sheena Douglas.

Can you believe it there is only 31 days to go before Christmas is here. I can't believe just how fast time seems to be whizzing by these days. So much to do and so little time...

I have been busy trying to get the Christmas cards finished so today I thought I would show you the end results to the previous toppers I showed you.

This is the little fold out mouse topper. For the card base I added some Christmas velvet ribbon in dark green (Christmas trees) and Burgundy (the stars) with some gold cord to tie it all in. Sadly my photographic skills aren't up to and the end result doesn't look as good here as it does close up.


And here is the finished Magnolia Tilda card. I made an easel card for this one which I stamped with snowflakes all over. For the base I also stamped snowflakes but this time onto silver paper an i embossed the greeting. To finish off I added clear rhinestones to all the snowflakes on the topper and a couple of red rhinestones so the front stayed upright.Again my fab photography doesn't show the bling on this card too well.

Oh my time is just whizzing by these days. Had a really bad poorly day yesterday but thankfully although not 100% I am feeling a lot better today. Sometimes wish I could put myself in a bag and give myself a good shake up LOL :O)

Anyway here is the next topper I made for my Christmas Cards. I got this set of Cute Companions ages ago and never got round to using them, so I thought I would give them a go this year. They turned out really cute although I say so myself :O)

Right then here's another idea for my pending Christmas cards... This is just the topper for now. Hopefully I will get the rest finished over the weekend.

 I quite enjoyed making this topper. I used my Big and Juicy Waterfall ink pad again for the background. Then I stamped my Christmas tree which has been glittered with clear glitter for the bling factor. You can't have a Christmas card without bling now can you?

Once I had finished the background I stamped this lovely Tilda Stamp in Momento before colouring her in with Promarkers. I coloured in the fur around the hat, the boots and Tilda's angel wings with a clear sparkle Sakura pen. Once everything was throughly dry I glazed the Red coat, love heart and hat with Glossy Accents. You would get the same effect from Crystal Lacquer.

I think this one will be for one of my lovely nieces who live in Holland. And I am in the throws of making another one which will be great for my other niece.

I can't believe that Christmas is just 51 days away, yikes!!!!! And I haven't made even one Christmas card yet... I think I had better get my skates on or else Christmas will have been and gone before I know it LOL...

I have been playing around with a few ideas to make something totally different this year for family and friends. I love the traditional style cards but I thought something more modern might be in order this year and it has to include trees as I just love trees.

Anyway I tried out an idea the other day and here's the result.

I just love this time of year, all those fabulous colours of Autumn are just magnificent. I recently made a little card for my mum using the Create a Scene Trees stamp set by Sheena Douglass and also using the Autumn Foliage stamps by Rubbernecker Designs.

I started by creating the coloured background using my stamping up dye based ink pads. I then stamped the leaves all over in a contrasting colour but a little faded. And then on top of that I stamped my bare trees in a fabulous rusty colour. Once the car was dry I used glossy accents to highlight the faded leaves and I am so pleased with the look as it makes the leaves just pop out of the page at you.



Once everything was dry I added a lovely dobby ribbon to close the card with and stamped another tree image on the back where I placed the sentiment. I then made a matching envelope which was stamped with the leaves.





After I finished the card I decided to make an ATC to go along with the card, mum and I have started to swap ATCs recently so I thought this would be nice to go with the card I made for her. I made the dangly from shrink plastic and beads and finished the corners off with brads.  made 2 ATCs as I couldn't decide on the colours to use. The spare one was sent to a friend who is in the same ATC club as I am.