Crazicards Crafty Blog

Well as promised in my last update here are a few of the fabulous ATC's that I have recently received from my friends. I hope you like them.

Mum and I do a little ATC challenge between us each month and here is mum's version of Autumn. I just love the little squirrel nestled in the leaves. Really pretty for mum's 2nd attempt at an ATC.

This super ATC was sent to me by my friend Sara for this months "P" Swap the details is fab.

I joined an ATC swap group a little while ago and so far I have had some lovely ATCs sent to me from the other members. I never thought I would enjoy making ATCs but so far it has been great fun and I am now trying to get my mum interested too.

Here are just a few of the ATCs I have made and later in the week I will add a few I have received. I hope you like them as much as I enjoyed making them.


This first ATC was for my N Swap. I made by stamping onto stampbord and once dried I etched out some of the light and the stars. I named this atc Night Sky. I used a brayer and a big and juicy waterfall ink pad for th background and I stamped the trees with Black archival ink pad.

This next atc was a variation on my P swap. The original had just 3 ribbon roses where as for this one that I made for my mum I made 5 faux porcelain roses from paper. Once the flowers were made I dipped them into my melting pot to give them that porcelain look. The atc base was coloured and stamped using Tim Holtz distressed inks and I finished off by adding a few rhinestones.


 I'm looking forward to the next atc which is Q, but I haven't decided what to do quite yet.

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.

Can you believe yet another month has flown by since I last posted on my blog. I have no idea where the time goes. I do know that it feels like the older I get the faster the time goes.......

I think I need to invest in the software that types for you as you speak, I could do more things at the same time and would probably find more time to update my blog. I just wish I had more happy things to write about but at the moment that's not going to be the case as it would seem that Cancer likes the members of my family both near and far.

First it was me and now my partners mum has been diagnosed, her father is also suspected of having it and my sisters father in law is currently going through all the tests. So this 1 in 3 malarkey is not so in my family circle. Life can be so unfair at times...

Anyway on a brighter note things over at Crazicards.co.uk are going well. The site seems to be picking up a little and I am slowly but surely getting more products loaded up and even more are on their way. I am also working on a new gallery where I can upload my projects and I am hoping to have a section where all the customers at Crazicards.co.uk can upload their own art work for everyone to see, it's going to be great. All these things take time though so for now I have created an off the shelf gallery where I will be uploading some of my crafty projects. You can visit my temporary gallery by clicking the link here, I hope you enjoy your visit.

I know I have promised to do the box tutorial several times so I am not going to make any further promises as to when it will be ready to view, things are just to mad here to be able to say it will be ready any day soon. So I will just say that it is in the process and once I get some breathing space I will get it finished I promise....

Well doesn't time fly.  So many things have been going on in this neck of the woods that sadly the blog had to go on hold for a while.

So what's been happening? Well I continue to recover from my cancer operation and treatment. It's been 2 years since my operation and 18 months since the treatment finished and after dealing with the side effects caused by the treatment and medication I am now moving along quite nicely.

Still have a few issues going on but hey that's life and they will sort themselves out eventually, I hope lol :O) If not then they will be dealt with as and when I guess :O)

On a sadder note my partners mum is currently dealing with cancer and due to her age and the type she has it's not the outcome we wanted. She is in our thoughts constantly.

On a happier note the Crazicards website is coming along well and the site is up and running on my new host without any further downtime issues thank goodness.

I have just uploaded Martha Stewart punches and Tim Holtz goodies so please feel free to drop by. You can even say hello as I have now got live online help setup and working. I still have a huge amount to be getting on with but I am adding new products all the time and I am also working on a new gallery and a few project sheets for downloading. You can find the website "here", I look forward to seeing you soon.

I also need to mention the box project I promised a while back, I haven't forgotten and it will be here within the next week, all being well.

Here's a few projects I have done recently:

This card was inspired by a tag I saw in the Craft Stamper magazine, I just love trees and the Crafty Individuals Hug a tree Stamps a just divine. I changed a few elements from the articles tag design and attached the tag to a card blank.

This next project was a complete 1st for me. I made the Arty Farty Colin Car as a wedding card for a family member. I totally enjoyed making it and have had an idea to stamp all over the next one.

Well as I haven't yet had the chance to get my tutorial up and running I thought I had better upload a nice little card I made the other day from a new lot of shaped cards I have just got.

It's not normal for me to try a different shaped card, I usually stick to the straight edged boring shapes LOL so this quite suprised me when it turned out like this:

I coloured the flowers and butterfly with my Sakura Gel pens then glazed the whole butterfly with 3D glaze which really set it off nicely.

I finished off with a contrasting panel and some 3D flowers and left the inner panel blank until I can decide whether to add another panel or leave it blank.

Anyway enough from me for today, have a lovely Bank Holiday Weekend.

I have entered this card in the "Sunday Stamper 100" competion, make sure you pop on over to check out all the fab entries, there is some great talent out there :O)

Well I just don't know where the time goes. One minute it's January and the next it's April already and I will soon be 40 something.........

The new website is coming along a treat, although my service provider has been a big nightmare over the last week. The database server went down and no matter what you say to them they were oblivious. Anyway they eventually listened and everything is back up and running now thankfully.

So if you haven't been to visit already please feel free to come take a look and tell me what you think, all critiques welcome good or bad. You can find me here.

I recently decided to have a go at making an exploding box. I have seen many different versions of this type of box and I will be posting my version here along with a tutorial how to make a similar box once I get the wording right so that everyone can understand me that is LOL.....

I'm really pleased with the end result so pop back soon to read all about it.

Right enough from me Happy Easter.

I used a set of Get in Shape Chunky Numbers to make the layers for my card. Then I stamped music all over as the person this is for is heavy into Northern Soul music. I embossed the music in Gold. And then I decided to stamp the base with a large Happy Birthday backgound stamp using versamark again but this time I decided to use some pretty sparkly Gold perfect pearls.

After layering everything up I mounted everything onto Gold mirri board.  I always find it hard to make a card for a man but I think this one turned out ok.

I have entered this card into the Polka Doodle Special Birthday Challenge #10 this week.

Flutterby Wednesday #100

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #74 - Anything Goes

Daisy May Challenge - Anything Goes

Rosie-D's Challenge - Spring

The Pink Elephant #58 - Spring 

Stamp Something - Cream & Green Challenge

Just wanted to add a new card to my blog and it seems that it will hopefully also be one I can enter in the Polka Doodles challenge and one or two others too this week which is great. I am also an avid stamper and wanted to do something that involved stamping and origami flowers. And this is what I came up with.


I stamped the hummingbird and flowers with versamark then embossed them with detail White Opaque embossing powder.


Then I attached the vellum to the Black mat with brads which I had coloured to match, I only had purple to hand, and then added the black and white oragami flowers with half pearls to finish off. Oh and not forgetting my favourite spotty ribbon. I am well pleased with this card, I hope you like it.

 
Here we are with another card. I thought I might try making some origami flowers and this was the result. They turned out quite well and I will definitely be having another go at making different sizes and shapes.


I chopped off the bottoms and added the brad with a big blob of silicon glue to give them a bit more strength on the card. And finished off with the gold ribbon and sentiment. So my conclusion is making your own pretty flower embelishments is well worth it. I will be trying some other techniques out in the next few weeks and will report back with the results.

Well I finally got round to having a play with the promarkers I bought some time ago and I am addicted LOL....

Here is a card I made using them on a Sugar Nellie stamped image I did some time ago on Watercolour paper. I used Archival ink to stamp this image which is not the right one but I thought I would still have a go.

Quite some time ago I had a notion that I wanted to start crafting again but due to work commitments I was too busy to even think about it.

Then in June 2008 my life was turned upside down after a visit to the doctors several months earlier for dizzy spells turned out to be Cancer just under my right ear. Totally unexpected this knocked me right off my normally sturdy little feet. But I made a vow that same day that I wouldn't let Cancer beat me and after a rather bumpy rollercoaster ride I am still here 19 months later although a bid worse for wear LOL.

Once I got through my operation in July and was well into my radiotherapy I decided that my life had to change and that I needed to concentrate on me more rather than my business. And that I needed to find a more relaxing less stressful job that benefited me more. So I started thinking about what I might want to do and then the light bulb went on one day, I love to do arty things and cards so why not have a craft business.

Anyway to cut a very long story short whilst I continued with my treatment and then the recovery afterwards I was planning in my mind the how's what's and why's of my new business and I also had to think of a logo and the main thing a name for that business.

And that is basically how Crazicards Craft Supplies was born. It's been a long time in the making but I got there in the end. So if your reading this message please take a few minutes to pay me a visit or tell a crafty friend where to find me. I am adding new products on a regular basis so hopefully there will be something for everyone.

Onwards and upwards as they say, have a great crafy weekend.

Angie
x

Made this card for Christopher who is One today. Sadly my photography isn't up to much and you can't really see the detail of the popcorn bear too well as I embossed him in Silver.

It's been a while since I last posted on my blog, so it's time for a new challenge.

The theme this month is woodland walk, one of my most favourite things to do at this time of year, when I get the opportunity that is.

For this challenge I decided to use a lovely dark green background paper from the Funky Hand Word Book CD. This paper is adorned with lovely little flowers and the colour is just fabulous.

I decided on a tag design. I stamped some lovely little trees using my Clarity Stamp tree stamps and I also had a go with a little shrink plastic to add a dangly tree at the top. I added in some little birds by hand and there you have it my take on an Autumn Woodland.

Hope you like it, I thoroughly enjoyed making it.

This week I had 2 Mum's birthday cards to get sorted. One for my mum and one for my partners mum too, quite handy that both birthdays fall within a couple of days of each other..

The 2nd card was also made using coredinations but this time in Chocolate and Orange with a hint of gold. I added some really pretty peteloo flowers and butterflies and finished it off with a bit of bling.

This week I had to make a very special 25th Wedding Anniversary card for a couple who have been friends of mine for a very long time and who live in Holland.

Linda's favourites colours are Black & White so for this card I went with the Black & Silver theme and considering it took me forever to think of how I wanted to make the card it turned out better than I thought it would.



This is the front of the card which is A4. I used two sets of Black & Silver floral decoupage which I bought eons ago, they are so pretty when you put them together. I mounted them onto Silver mirri board and incorporated a triple organza ribbon bow in Silver , Black & White.

On the inside I made a double pop out with love heart apertures which I edge with those trusty old peel offs. I cut out the 25 numbers in both Black and Silver, the Silver is on the reverse of the numbers, and finished them off with peel offs and a squirt of Silver glitter spray. I also lined the back of the apertures with some pretty vellum which I bought which has a Silver leaf design on it.

After that I made the two side panels with names and the centre verse, printed straight onto the Silver pearl paper for those, mounted them on Silver Mirri board and again finished them off with a quick squirt of the Silver glitter spray.

And there you have it all I have to do now is make and decorate the box to put the card into and the job will done. But that is a job for Sunday so I will post the results here once it has been finished. Should be fun as I have never made a card box before.

It seems that things being a 1st this month is a common theme as it is also my sisters 1st wedding anniversary too.

So using the theme of using papers from Funky Hand I made this card for my sister and her hubby.

As you may have also gathered I really like butterflies too.........

I had a very special birthday card to make this month and decided to use the Funky Hand Challenge sketch as a basis for that card. This is my 1 ^st ever challenge so it might not be 100% to the letter of the sketch but I really enjoyed the whole process of making it.

Deciding on what papers to use was the hardest bit for me but eventually I decided to use the papers from the Funky Word Books cd. I just love that big Daisy backing paper, it's just so pretty.

The front is made from acetate which is also a 1 ^st for me, but I think it turned out great. I have added some extra images so you can see the depth better.

The flowers are made from watercolour paper and painted with Cosmic Shimmers and Sparkling H2Os. And the butterfly was cut out using a craft robo then inked up using the trusty makeup sponge followed by a light coating of pearl cosmic shimmers to finish off. And the finishing touch was a small tag with more flowers.

I am over the moon that ir turned out the way it has, I hope you like it.

When I started this blog I decided that I would enter a challenge or two just to get the crafty juices flowing again so what better than to start with the super challenge setup by Anice from the Funky Hand.