OMG so busy!!!

Good morning folks I have been so busy the last few weeks creating my stall ready for 9th June craft-fest
I have also been busy doing more commission cards this time for a holy communion,
unfortunately i didn't have time to photograph them (I forgot) I really must remember to do this in future,
I was a bit stuck on what to do as there were for two girls,anyway after some research I decided to do crosses using my spellbinders and flowers very pale soft colours,the cards turned out beautiful and the customers were very happy with them,
I have also been up to it in decorating, and de cluttering which sounds so easy but becomes a nightmare when you know you don't need to keep stuff but you do anyway just in case. so my de-cluttering didn't go to well,

my life seems to get busier the older I get,

Today's card

As its the jubilee this weekend i thought i would included a very British card
everyone knows Portobello road,
this was such a easy one to do,
starting with a blank card I edged using my favourite glue faux pearls,
I then using a spellbinder die to match the shape of the card cut out a black backing card and ran it through a embossibility folder to give texture
I had some union jack paper and again using a die cut the shape I wanted I kept to the shape of the card
in my stash of paper I found the Portobello road sign backed it again on black card added some gems on the corners and with foam tape backed it on my union jack paper at an angle,
I found a traditional London bus accent added that and made a bow using red white and blue ribbon,added 3 pins to the bow again red white and blue keeping my British theme going. to finish i used some silver peel of borders to edge my black card.

I hope you like the card, I think this could be used for any occasion, male or female,
anyway that's it for today folks visit my shop at www.taylormadecards.co.uk
see all the different cards available on site

I hope you all have a fantastic jubilee weekend what ever you all do to celebrate it,
and I hope you all enjoy your extra days off
that's all for now folks so
ttfn xxx

good morning all

Good morning folks, I think I am getting there slowly with  blogger. It still has few issues but i am hoping they will go away on there own lol

I have been busy uploading ready for the CRAFTfest in June I have a stall there so I am hoping lots of you will pop over and have a look There is going to be lots of stalls selling lots of different items so it is defiantly a date for your diaries 

I also ordered a window cling from http://www.studiocrafts.net/

and I must say its fantastic!!! 

ali did a brilliant job start to finish on the design I was wanting,it was a rather big design to go above my front door with my house name on it, and when she posted it guess what it arrived from Kent to Sutherland (highlands) the very next day now that is service,

as soon as I get the cling up (need a new piece of glass first) I will post the sign on here and on twitter as I think ali's designs and company should be spread around everywhere lol 

you can guess I love it I will also be ordering a rather unusual cling for my husbands car to which im sure she is looking forward to do. and she knows what i mean by that, all will be revealed soon!!!

so i suggest you all nip over to ali's and take a look at her site once you have one cling you will be clung.....

(hooked)

Today's card is using my new dies from spellbinders to which I am loving!!!

again this is another Sue Wilson inspired card so make sure you pop over to her blog to see more ideas 

This again is a simple one to start with as always I have taken a blank white card now I have cheated a bit on the matting and layering as I didn't have enough of the pink and gold card to go around, so all I did was cut thin strips 4 in total and just matted them on to the edge of white card.

 This is a good tip if you are running low.

I then pin pricked around the edge of the white card to add detail and texture

I embossed a cream bit of card  and cut out 2 shapes the same and inter locked them together

to create a nice ornate circle 

I add a Moroccan accent shape to the middle and stamped my sentiment on it dusted with pink distress ink .I added a bow and this ribbon is fab its one of my favs at the the moment , placed a little flower in the middle and added some pins 

and finished off with a few pearl glue drops around the edge 

Again you will find this card on my website for sale at www.taylormadecards.co.uk

be sure to check out the new added category where you will find my new designs

thank you all for bearing with me while blogger has been a beggar hopefully I can get back to normal now

Any questions, comment please leave as I would like to know peeps are following, also don't forget about the blog give away if I can get to a certain amount of members then one random member will get a card of their choice from the website, so join now you have nothing to lose ,

ok folks that's all for now 

ttfn xxx

Who or What Inspires You

Good morning folks, hope your in for having a  fantastic weekend.

I had someone the other day ask me where do I get my ideas and inspirations from to make such different cards, I found this one of the easiest questions to answer,

I started crafting years ago as I have said I was a florist and started making tags for bouquets etc, I have always been a crafter I do calligraphy, glass painting, cards, I make house signs from slate, paint, decorate etc,so the arty bit has always been there,

I started doing cards more serious a few years ago when I purchased a cuttlebug die cutting and embossing machine, I watched demo on it and was hooked, then not so long after I purchased the daddy die cutting and embossing machine, the grand caliba which takes A4 paper/card as apposed to the cuttlebug A5 size.

I was watching create and craft one day as I knew the grand caliba was appearing,and as I settled down to watch the demo's I was fixated to the screen as an american lady called sue wilson came on air, And from that day it was sue that took my card making to a different level,

Now if anyone knows sue wilson you will know she is the queen of spellbinders, what she can do with a spellbinder is amazing, What she doesn't know about spellbinder really isnt worth knowing,
and you can find some of her cards (which is well worth a look at her blog ) at http://particraft.blogspot.co.uk/, she runs little competitions for her members,and posts a different card idea everyday,
Her blog is a must to follow for anyone with a grand caliba or cuttlebug,

you can see her on create and craft to this week as again she is doing some fantastic demos again using a new set of dies from spellbinders (cant wait for mine to turn up)

so the answer to the question what or who inspires you  is a simple one, Sue Wilson is my inspiration,

I will upload a card in a while for some reason blogger is not co operating this morning so make sure you pop back to see another Sue Wilson inspired card....

Other news 
I order a window cling from
http://www.studiocrafts.net/

I have not long moved in to My new home in Scotland the house has been empty for 10 years or so and it needed a lot of work, I am glad to say we are now getting there with a few touches still need doing,
while was I looking around I popped to ali's site I had seen her clings and I really liked them, bright, colourful and some quite sweet,
I was wondering how I could use these on my home, or where I could use them, as I really liked her ideas.
anyway I have a piece of glass above my door and thought I would have ali design a house name cling,
I wanted the name two tone with butterflies as my whole house is filled with them, gave her the brief and wow I am over the moon with the design she has come up with,
its looks so stylish and includes my butterflies and two tone black with gold shadowing,
and I cant wait for it to turn up, and place above my door,
the service I received was second to none, she started work on it straight away, we had three drafts to go with to which I must say was my fault as I kept asking her to tweak this and that, I am a fussy bugger lol
not once did she say no cant do this or that my every  tweak was catered for ,
we spoke on the phone which was lovely she is a genuine lovely hard working lady that deserves to do well, and I for one will certainly use ali and her shop  http://www.studiocrafts.net/ again....
thanks ali for a great service xx

Toilet paper card???

Good morning to you all, as you can see I have now started to build up my blog, its now hopefully starting to look more like a blog.
today's card I am going to give you a technique using toilet paper but when its finished it does not resemble toilet paper at all but an expensive homemade paper,
I can hear you all saying bog roll????
but believe me its a great technique which once you have done you will adapt it in so many ways,
so now to show you the card.

 so now your saying well were is the toilet paper?
well I will tell you
break off about 6/7 squares of toilet and layer them on top of each other.you can half them to layer them or leave full.
once you have your toilet roll layered we now want to dampen it down, now at this stage we can add mica powder or distress inks.
so using a fine mister, spray the paper till it is wet all through (do not soak it) now once damp you will need a embossing folder i have pick a world map one, layer your damp paper onto the folder and roll through your die cutting machine as you would to emboss any paper ( you will get some moisture) so place the machine on a towel) (do not do this if you have an electric one)
run the paper through a few times.now open your folder and before moving it go around the edge to tidy up I usually use my finger just gently breaking the rough edges away.
once done you must now leave this to dry,I usually gently pull away from the folder and place the paper on a radiator, I wont take long to dry,once dried you can do what you want to it. I have rubbed my distress inks over it to give a rustic look, like maybe a old treasure map,
when it has dried and you have distressed it I don't think it looks like toilet paper at all, i even fooled my husband.
to the card now you have done the messy stuff, started with a blank card and rubbed distress ink around the edge. I used a lighter backing paper and added that on not central, i then took a swirl stamp and stamped around the edges added some ribbon and tied a knot in it,
i then added my toilet paper at angle, I stamped a sentiment and distress it with ink i tore around the edge to give a old look then i ultra embossed it to give a shine,
I added my twine and wood chip decors around the edge randomly to finish.
i ultra thick embossed my wood chip pieces too to add shine.
so that's it you might have thought what would she do with some toilet roll but i hope i have given a idea on how to make your own papers, i use this method quiet often and i think its great you don't have to use your expensive bog roll just the cheapest you can get.it will work on any,
you can also make you own paper using all your scrap pieces in your crafty bin, but that's a another technique for another day..
ok I hope you have lots of fun creating this card, would love to know your views so please leave a comment
or a question,

Thats it for today folks, so goodbye till tomorrow

ttfn xx

Another day flies by......

Wednesdays blog posted Tuesday night, 

I know I am not going to have time to post a card tomorrow so thought I had better do it now. the card I have chosen today I like doing, it takes a bit of time and patients but I always love the end result .You can adapt it in so many ways.

chose different colours, designs, flowers etc..and as ever I am back to using my spellbinders,

As always I start with a blank card,

then I chose my colours , silver and black. I do like adding black on a card I think it makes it look more stylish, I got my die cutting machine out and picked a em-bossility board some flower dies,scrolls, a border, butterfly die,and a half circle (if any one wants to know the dies by name contact me and I will look them up for you,but at the moment my dies are all in one big box unnamed) until I get my craft room sorted and my dies in there new home.

I cut all my dies out mainly using black card, apart from the large flower die. I left the butterfly in the die and rubbed over my versa mark and added some embossing powder on it to give the butterfly a bit of dimension and sparkle, I also added glitter to my flowers using a quickie glue pen.

I started with a black mounting card to cover the white,I then took a silver card cut it to size, I then placed my die exactly were I wanted it cut and embossed, so it left me with a filigree window,

I mounted the silver card over my black matting card to which you can now see the filigree window,

I embossed my black card to give texture, I cut two triangles out to fit over the bottom half of my silver card, so that was the base of my card done, I then started on decor,

I took my scrolls and placed them were I wanted and added my flowers, I then added my border on the left hand side,and placed my butterfly on the filigree window,stamped a sentiment,and finished off with cosmic glue faux pearls.

I have done a few variations of this card which can be found on www.taylormadecards.co.uk

again its always nice to get a comment so feel free.

also if you have spellbinder dies and are unsure an what to do with them again leave a note saying what the dies is and I will produce a card using that die and hopefully give you some ideas, I have many spellbinders and if I haven't got it I will still try and help by using one very similar.

that's it for today folks, again any questions, comment or advise please leave and I will get back to you.

I hope you all like this card as much as i enjoyed making it,and again many variations on my shop so nip over and have a look,

see you all tomorrow 

ttfn xx

Home safe and sound!!!

Well I am back, We decided to buy a car from Enfield, London, which may seem ok to the every day folk , The only difference is we live in Sutherland very North East Scotland. so I volunteered to collect it, which I don't mind as I like the south lol.
Got to inverness airport on Saturday, ready for flight all was so good,the flight was brilliant as you can see from my twitter picture stunning blue skies got to Gatwick, met who was meeting me and then got on the M25 omg!!! there was traffic lol being in Scotland the biggest traffic jam I have seen is 2 cars lol I forgot how hectic it was, I hated it, I was already dreaming of home lol.any way got the car which I must say was very nice lol little MG sport thingy lol I only drive the cars don't except me to know exactly what they are I am female lol
visited my old local pub (shocked everyone) then went ofF to my mother in laws for sleeps...
Set out at 9am for my 6 hundred and something journey back home.
All was going so well until I got on M74 boo my car had no accelerator nothing no power stuck in lane 2 great fun, hazards went on got to the hard shoulder, rung hubby and swiftly said ring AA, I have conked out lol
The AA rung me within 5 mins to confirm were I was and said patrol would be 45 mins as she said that I said I think they will be a bit quicker his here now, now that is service ,
He looked at engine see a HT lead had broke replaced it and within 20 mins of breaking down I was off again, Thank god for the AA they are very nice men lol.
I safely arrived back home at 5 past 9pm. after quiet a few stops as my daughter needed a wee every 10 mins lol.
so feeling pretty shattered today, needing lots of coffee to get motivated,
but all in all it was a great journey there and back and I must say the owners of the car bev and lincoln were very nice and I must thank them for the hospitality they showed me and my daughter, they couldn't have been more accommodating,
I will be sending them a card lol,

Which brings me to today's one, this is a thank you card
again this is a very simple card started with a blank white base card, found some green paper to cover the white, used a corner punch for two decorative corners, added sparkly ribbon with bow.
I then cut out a label using the die cutting machine, inked around the edge with a green distress ink, added my favorite faux (glue) cosmic pearls, stamped thank you, and in my stash I had some wooden pieces I just inked them added a few gems to make them sparkle and that was it, a 20 min card done,

simple quick and easy,

Any questions or comments please leave them, I am happy to get positive and negative feedback. Its always nice to hear your views.
anyway pop over to ww.taylormadecards.co.uk if your needing a special occasion card, there are loads on site, if you don't see what you like then contact me i do, do bespoke design too.
In need of more coffee now so I will see you all later,

take care folks
ttfn xx

Packing my bags!!!

Thank you myth for your comment yesterday,
 I agree it could be used for male/female in adding the right sentiment, and maybe slightly lightening the colour, I think cards these days are to formalised and if you look in a card shop you can instantly tell the men section from the girls but sometime girls don't want flowers or teddy bears on their cards, and something different is always nice, when I used to buy cards I would always choose the sentiment/verse first then look at the outside and more often than not the sentiment would be lovely and the card very twee,
today's cards are getting their but they have not quiet made it... I prefer hand made cards to the shop brought, because I think we understand there are men and ladies that want something different and we as crafters can do that,
I think we have a better range now with steam punk papers, Gothics papers etc that we can really play with, for male or female cards....
would be nice to see what everyones views are on shop brought design to hand crafted designs... and do you think us crafters can offer more choice than a shop?
leave your views on the comments...

Today I am packing for my little trip tomorrow, flying from Scotland to London picking a car up,driving to Northampton-shire seeing my mum in law, travelling back to Scotland Sunday ...am I looking forward to this? no is the answer lol its a long old drive it takes me 9 hours, so I may get back home early evening Sunday well that's the plan, considering I have looked at weather forecast around the counties I am  travelling through, and will have to contend with rain wind snow should be fun (not)
so there will be no blog now until Monday...

and if any thing exciting happens I will let you know....

Now back to cards

Today's choice is another card for a male, keeping the theme going as its Father's day in June,
its a simple card,and really its only the sentiment that makes it for a male so in changing that again could easily be for couple or female,
startered with a blank DL card
I used the linen distress ink around the edge I cut a piece of cream coloured card and then ran the card through the grand caliba with m-bossibility folder found a nice piece of black/grey card wrapped that around the embossed piece and stuck it down added a black bow with a gem,
stamped a nice sentiment reading " he didn't tell me how to live he lived and let me watch him do it"
cut it out using one of the small romantic rectangle dies rubbed distress ink (linen) around the edge and stuck it on using foam pads adding depth to the card,

its a very quick and simple card, and again as I have said changing the sentiment it can be for anyone or any occasion,

This card is on my site www.taylormadecards.co.uk for sale so nip over as there are lots to choose from, manager picks sale is still on so 10% off and free delivery..

So that's it folks for today....I hope you like the card,please leave a comment good or bad nice to get view from everyone.
see you all Monday
ttfn xx
http://www.etsy.com/shop/cardsTaylormadecards
we also stock cards on etsy so take a look