Christmas in July

It's time for another new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz and it's Christmas in July!! I used a NBUS Penny Black stamp and coloured almost exactly the same as the packet suggestion.

I have to say I was rather pleased with it. I embossed the sentiment in white to make it stand out on the black base.

The last few days have been very exciting and a bit nerve wracking. Those of you who are regular readers of my blog will know that I have been making Octopi for Octopus for a Preemie. I have also become the local coordinator for them for Frimley Park Hospital, which recently started to use them. Last week they issued a press release about them and as a result Radio Surrey did an interview with me on Friday morning( by telephone, thankfully so I didn't have to get up too early, even that was early enough for me). You can hear the interview HERE about 1 hour and 25 minutes into the recording.  Yesterday I had to go to the hospital again for BBC South Today filming a piece about them as well. It should be aired tonight on their programme at 6.30pm. It wasn't as easy as the radio one as he didn't ask questions, just got me to talk about them, which I wasn't really prepared for.

 

Eastern Medallions Z fold card

I have seen a lot of z fold cards in blogland recently so thought I would have a go at making one for my friend's birthday.

I used the Eastern Medallions suite of papers, stamps and dies from Stampin' Up! which I have had for some time now and never used. I also used Fresh Fig card from the new in colours as well. The card base is Very Vanilla. I am really quite pleased with how it turned out, so hope my friend likes it!

Italian Holiday

Hope everyone in the UK is enjoying this hot weather! Personally I'm finding it a bit too warm!  The challenge for the next two weeks at Make My Monday is Travel/Vacation., chosen by Joan.

I have been wanting to play with this Michael Powell stamp for a while, in fact ever since I made this card. I have used the same layout as it seemed to suit the stamp shape. The scene reminds me of a Tuscan scene, and I can imagine spending a holiday/vacation here.

Beside the Sea

A lovely summer theme for the next two weeks at Cardz for Guyz, is "Beside the Sea".  I dug out some little used Hobby Art Scene It stamps and built up a little scene.

I had to do some masking of the boat and seagulls to colour the background. I used Adirondack Butterscotch, DI Faded Jeans and Tumbled Glass and SU Bermuda Bay, all applied with ink dusters. the wall was stamped in DI Walnut Stain, then blended out with a water brush.

For more seaside inspiration check out my teamies makes on the challenge blog.

A Coral Anniversary.

The theme for the next two weeks at Make My Monday is "Use Bright Colours"  This fitted perfectly for the anniversary card I made  for some friends.

They invited us us to Sunday lunch a couple of weeks ago to help them celebrate theit 35th wedding aniversary. A quick Google search told me is was Coral - I guess Watermelon Wonder is fairly close to coral!

June Rudolph Day

These Rudolph Days seem to come round faster and faster! Now that the builders have finally started working on the extension I have been going through some of the cupboards to get rid of unwanted/surplus stuff. And there's a lot of it! One of my finds was a Christmas banner I made a couple of years ago with a SU kit. It was looking a bit sad so most of it went in the bin but I did save the rosettes from it and have upcycled them into Christmas cards.

I mounted them onto a piece of white card which was embossed with a Tattered Lace EF which looks a bit like cracked ice, then matched the base cards to the rosettes. I think they'll be hand delivered ones as they are not very post-friendly!

Hearts!

I have had this card sitting in my drafts just waiting for a suitable challenge and today I saw one!
The Alphabet Challenge log is looking for "Hearts"

This was made with a Simon Says Stamp kit quite a long time ago! I'm really pleased I do have some unposted projects as I can see my time in the craft room is going to become very limited for the next few months.

Stars!

Well I hope you're all enjoying this hor sunny weather we're having in the UK. Unfortunately it results in my craft room becoming like a sauna, so crafting time is a bit limited. Fortunately I have been working well in advance. The new challenge at Cardz for Guyz is Stars.

I inked through a stars stencil in rainbow colours then added a diecut happy Birthday across the front. Be sure to see what the rest of the team have made.

Quirky June mid month

It's time for a mid month reminder for Quirky Crafts. This time I used an image from Bugaboo who are kindly sponsoring us.

I printed out the image quite large then colored it in with Copics. I then scanned it and took it into Craft Artist, where I added it to a background all made digitally.

Octopi and friends

You may have seen my previous post here about Octopus for Preemies. On Friday last week I had the delightful opportunity to deliver a batch of Octopals (not made by me) on behalf of Octopus for a Preemie to the Neonatal Unit at Frimley Park Hospital. I also had a tour of the Unit and saw some of the very tiny babies who will be the recipients.

The staff were over the moon with them, and I'm looking forward to delivering the next batch next month. The photo shows the Senior Sister and Neonatal sister with me. If you would like to know more and get involved, the badge on the right will take you to the official Facebook group.