Wedding bells!

My sister-in-law (sort of) is at it again! She's had about five different hen nights and weddings to go to this year, so I've been asked to make some wedding cards for her. This is the second one I've made and uses a 5x5" heart stamp from the Papermania Vintage Notes collection. The heart was stamped onto watercolour card with clear ink and heat-embossed with a Cosmic Shimmer Arctic Pearl Lustre embossing powder to achieve the subtle finish. The colourful (and old) BasicGrey paper is from my stash and the 'Happily Ever After' rub-on is from an old BoBunny collection. Teamed with lace ribbon, a white paper flower and a pink heart cut using my new Silhouette Portrait, I wanted to keep it quite simple.

I was really happy with the design and was pushed for time with so many various other commissions, so when my mother-in-law asked if I could make a card for a wedding she was going to, I decided to do a smaller take on the original card. This one is 6x6" instead of the original A5 size and I stamped and embossed the heart image in the same way, adding the rub-on to the centre of the heart instead of the bottom. I had used the last of my lace ribbon, so some pink baker's twine made a pleasant alternative, and I decided to use a larger paper flower to add some extra interest to the heart. These are some of my favourite cards so far... I've never mentioned it on here before, as things are still in the planning stages, but I am in the process of setting up an Etsy shop to sell my cards and ribbon boxes. Wedding cards along this theme, perhaps using a stamped sentiment instead of a rub-on, are definitely going to be a feature in my shop! What do you think? I hope you like it! Have a great weekend :) 

Simply Cards & Papercraft 127

Hello - just checking in with a short blog post to keep you updated - it's freezing here and I can feel autumn in the air, along with lots of excitement of course ;) Stanley has spent the last two Saturday nights staying with grandparents while we've been sorting, selling and binning unwanted items in the spare room, tidying and rearranging it to make it into my office. I've outgrown the dining table and I'm finally looking forward to having all my tools and materials together in the same room. My husband is setting up the PC, printer, Silhouette and Ebosser so they're all ready to go and I can really get cracking with both freelancing and making items to sell. Time is at a premium at the moment and I only have two afternoons a week to work while Stanley is with his grandparents, so I'm hoping having my own office will at least save me a little precious time looking for items and tidying the dining table after I've finished!   

As for recent creations, I've been busy again recently, this time for Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine, using Sizzix Life Made Simple dies to create a set of modern birthday cards. These dies are actually intended for Project Life albums but I have shown how they can also be used on your card projects. I teamed them with lots of yummy ribbon, buttons and even a dash of Washi tape. As pleased as I was with the finished result, imagine my surprise when I received a copy of the magazine only to find one of my designs as the main cover card! It's the first time for this particular magazine and I was so proud. The issue is on sale now if you want to take a peek, and it comes with a free BoBunny Christmas stamp set and 6x6" paper stack. Bye for now :)

Get organized for Christmas

Hello again lovely people :) It's time for another Polka Doodles challenge, and this week we're getting organised for Christmas. I used the brand-new Festive Hollybobs CD again for this one, but focussed purely on the lovely printable envelope sentiments to create this card. I printed the sentiments twice, once onto kraft cardstock and again onto a thinner white card, then cut my elements and layered them up. Doilies, sequins, thick twine and mini pegs are becoming a bit of a signature for me at the moment, but that's all that I needed to accentuate my design. Oh, and kraft cardstock - I love a bit of kraft cardstock ;) I hope you're all getting into the festive swing of things ladies - my Christmas cards will commence after my holidays next month! Bye for now :)

Scrapbook Magazine issue 83

We've had such a lovely day today - In the Night Garden Live came to town, and it was a magical experience. Both the mummies and the babies loved it! The staging was amazing - the light show, music and the puppets were all fantastic, so the babies were captivated. Being a natural little wriggler, Stanley started wanting to go for a wander around the auditorium about halfway through, but raisins and Quavers managed to keep him occupied until the show was over. Afterwards we all went for lunch, which made a real event of it. A thoroughly enjoyable day was had by all!
When I got home I put the finishing touches to a second wedding card commission (details coming soon!), as well as finding Scrapbook Magazine on my door mat! I'm featured in issue 83 with an article on dry brushing with acrylic paint, one of my favourite techniques at the moment. I've always been open about the fact that my natural creative tendencies lean towards scrapbooking, especially since my little pud came along - I find it so inspiring and feel like my scrapbooking style is definitely evolving. I'm really loving the bright colours and varied fonts and layers on this layout, as well as the textured dry-brushed circle! I hope you like it... I'll be sharing some more layouts from this feature soon :)

Fun in the Sun

Hello! It's time for another card for the Polka Doodles challenge blog, and this time the theme is Fun in the Sun. I know that for most people summer holidays is the obvious choice (and ours is still to come - yay!) but for this card I've focussed on how summer makes me think of flowers and pretty sundresses. I love the floaty skirts and bare feet of a warm sunny day!

For this one I used the Dolly Daydream Girl Talk CD, with the addition of a doily, some handmade flowers, pearl lace trim, ribbon and a stick pin. I also curled some purple twine with scissors to create my own tendrils for the flowers. The backing paper was distressed around the edges (admittedly something I don't do often but I'll keep practising!) and the sentiment ticket was decorated with some pretty pearls. Quite a simple yet oh-so-girlie make. That's it for now, thanks for stopping by :)

Commissioned wedding card

I must be the slowest crafter ever, as it's taken me what feels like all day to make this card. In reality it was probably only just a few hours, most of which was spent umming and ahhing over the finer details. The reason for the indecision is that it's a card commissioned by my (kind of) sister-in-law for a wedding at the weekend. It may sound odd, but most of my cards don't actually have a recipient, they're made as samples or for magazine features. Most of my friends and family receive shop-bought cards (shock, horror!) as I just don't have the time to make them! But, I am going to try and change that with my Christmas cards this year... I'm sure it will take me until about November to realise the magnitiude of this undertaking. I've recently bought a Silhouette Portrait so I'm hoping that will come in handy for bulk cardmaking, although I'm still just getting the hang of it and playing at the moment. Anyway... back to my card...

After I learnt to make handmade ribbon flowers for my Bloom and Grow shadow box, I've been itching to make some more. I had this beautiful May Arts ribbon leftover from the project and remembered a fab rolled rose tutorial I'd seen, so I had to give it a try. It did take a few attempts, but I'm pretty sure I'm master of the rolled rose now - I will definitely be trying it on some silk ribbon soon. The papers and tag I used are from the Papermania Vintage Notes collection, perfect for wedding cards. I do find some of the papers in this collection a bit stuffy but I did like this lace design, plus the quality of the lovely textured paperstock is fab so gives it a professional finish. I had an issue with a date stamp (don't ask) but this was expertly covered with the Congratulations banner - oh yes, I make mistakes alright! And I NEVER throw anything away... it can always be salvaged (mostly). I hope you like my card... and I hope the bride and groom do too!

Blue is the colour

Hello again. It's been a busy one here at Baby Squiggles HQ, not working but having lots of fun with Stanley! Saturday saw us visiting Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends on the East Lancs railway and Stanley had such a fantastic time. He loved it! It was a little bit chaotic and rather rainy and cold, but that's England for you. After weeks of boiling-hot weather it would have to rain on the one day we needed it to stay dry! Oh well. We've got lots of exciting things lined up for the rest of the summer, including In the Night Garden Live and a trip to Barcelona. But once all those things are over it's not the end of the excitement - autumn brings all kinds of fun days including Halloween, Bonfire Night, Stanley's 2nd birthday and CHRISTMAS!!

Of course, as crafters we've been working on Christmas cards already so the excitement is already beginning to grow! People will always protest about the mention of Christmas in August but preparations are already underway, with a few well-known shops opening their Christmas departments this week. I for one love Christmas, so I really enjoyed creating these samples. I designed them using the new Polka Doodles Work & Play Festive Hollybobs CD a few weeks ago but haven't been able to show them to you until now. As well as the lovely festive reds and greens you've already seen on some of my previous cards, this CD also offers blue and purple papers for cards with a wintry feel. So pretty! Thanks for looking and have a great week :)

Simply Cards & Papercraft issue 126

Hello lovelies! The weather has cooled a bit here and while I write this we're having a lovely refreshing downpour - much needed! I've had a quiet one this week for the first time in aaaages (no magazine commissions, no design team makes and no demo prep), so I've been catching up on all those little jobs I've been putting off. Always a lovely feeling to get organised! In between errands I thought I would show you the latest projects that featured in Simply Cards & Papercraft this month. This one comes with a fab Sheena Douglass A Taste of India embossing folder and stamps, which I will definitely be making use of soon! 

For this issue I was asked to make some cards with a pop of neon and oh! these pop alright ;) I used Glitz Design Finnley patterned paper and some Simple Stories enamel dots to add a neon yellow to the top and bottom cards, and for the centre card I even used a highlighter pen to create a border and some accent hearts from watercolour card. I had fun making them and I hope you like them! Bye for now :)