Something Old, Something New

Hello all. It's been a long time but I haven't forgotten my blog. It's more a case of real-life getting in the way. My Nanny, who's been ill the last 18 months passed away pretty suddenly last Monday. It has been an upsetting time as we'd all been spending a great deal of time with her recently; the week before we'd been to visit, taken her to hospital for an appointment, sorted out her new glasses, picked up prescriptions etc. and suddenly she's gone. But at least now she's not in pain. The funeral is this Thursday so we look forward to resting her in peace.

Onto brighter things. Today the sun shone. It was a beautiful day and we made good use of it. It was our lovely friend Lara's 30th birthday so we went along to celebrate with her at a BBQ. This is the card I made for her:

It was inspired by the Daring Cardmakers challenge this week of "Something Old, Something New". So to explain, the

Something old: the doily - classic and old fashioned in my mind

Something new: my new alphabet dies for my Big Shot arrived a couple of days ago so it was great to try them out.

Something borrowed: I recently borrowed the butterfly stamp from the set Strength & Hope from my lovely downline Diane.

Something blue: love that DSP in Night of Navy.

To add to the theme I used the pink and green from my wedding colours. I thought adding orange (the other wedding colour we had) was a bit much but maybe next time...

Envelope Basket

Here is a basket I've been meaning to share with you for a while! We made these at Nat's training last month. The basic basket is made using 4 envelopes cut on the Big Shot which are glued together. The main colours are Pear Pizzazz and Baja Breeze.

Just love this butterfly from Strength & Hope and we stamped two to give it a fluttery effect and finished it with pearls. There is also Springtime Vintage DSP. These are soooo pretty and they add an elegant touch to all projects IMHO.

Wouldn't this make a cute gift? I can just see it around Easter filled with chocolate eggs or for a child filled with a small soft toy....

The girl's a natural!

Yes this is made by my lovely Munchkin! She is such a talent. Her latest obsession is with gaining entry to my craftroom, so today I took her in there to craft. She LOVED it. We had paint, glitter, stamps, ink, stickers and patterned paper. This is one of her best creations from the session. I thought I liked layers but she is an absolute pro at layering!!!

N.B. All the products shown that Munchkin used are sadly retired.

Since it's been nearly a week since I posted something crafty, here is a card that I finished today! It's been stamped with the set Strength & Hope. The cute hearts are part of the same stamp so I used a Ridinghood Red marker to colour them and then coloured the rest Basic Black.

A few pearls and a large heart punched out of Ridinghood Red DSP raised with Dimensionals foam pads and voila!

Today we've had a nice quiet day with a little Zumba, cleaning and swimming! Tomorrow is the last day until Half Term!! Many of my colleagues are counting down the minutes they are so worn and I can't blame them; it's been a hectic time.

Welcome baby George!

On Monday my cousin had her second baby, George. It's very exciting as her pregnancy wasn't all that easy so we're very glad to hear all is well. I made this box (above) for her. It contains a little frame so she can have a picture of each child in it. The box is based on the pizza box design but I had to make it bigger to accomodate the contents.

Then a card to match was needed. This is a card I CASE'd from my upline's training session a few months ago. I missed the training but she showed the card on her blog. I adapted the card from pink/girly to blue/masculine.

The card has a fancy fold and then punches were used to make a small tug-along train with animals from Fox & Friends. I used the Nursery Suite papers and Curly Cute sentiment. I'm taking it along to see her later so I hope she likes it!

Blueberry Crisp Butterfly

We had craft club at work on Friday and this was one of the projects I made. It's great to squeeze a bit of crafting fun into a working day. Plus you get to catch up with dear friends!

This box is the pillow box die cut on the Big Shot in Sahara Sand with a strip of Blueberry Crisp DSP around it. The stitching was drawn with a Soft Suede marker. As you probably recognise now, the butterfly is from Strength & Hope; this time I coloured it with a Crumb Cake marker all over and then dabbed Soft Suede in patches to give a mottled effect. Am still mad about those little self-adhesive pearls so a row of them was added to give the effect of the butterfly's body. Cute!!!

Here is Munchkin during a quiet moment at the weekend. Don't you just love the top that her Grandparents bought her?

This was just a bit of fun I had to try and cheer up the little one. Normally she eats like a horse, especially when it comes to fruit. Sadly, due to her under-the-weather state she's not been eating as well so I thought some fun needed to be injected. This is what I came up with! Suddenly fruit became very appealing!!

Darling Bugs of May

Here is my challenge entrey for the Daring Cardmakers challenge this week.The theme is "Darling Bugs of May" and I couldn't resist sharing this card we made at training yesterday. My upline, Natalie, got the idea from heather Summers and we CASE'd it!. The stamp set used is Strength & Hope from the Spring Mini catalogue. Love the pretty stamps and by buying this set you're also giving to a Breast Cancer Research charity! Email me if you'd like more information about the set: blueangelcrafts@gmail.com Those of you who have seen me recently have heard how we've been struggling with Munchkin being under-the-weather and not wanting to sleep. Well, today's day time nap was a marathon and we finally found here alseep! Not her usual sleeping place but she seemed to find it ok!!

This is a cute photo of Munchkin I took earlier this week. Isn't she adorable? It won't be long until she can't fit into the sink so it was good to have this photo to remind us of her fitting!

Hope you are having a good weekend

Cate xx

Springy Strength & Hope

Hello! It's a beautiful day and there is a sunny card here to share with you.

The colours used are So Saffron, Certainly Celery & Whisper White. I love using my Big Shot to emboss and this embossing folder, Manhatten flowers, is just so pretty. The Strength & Hope set makes creating a card easy peasy. Even better, the set gives £1 to a cancer research charity. I will be giving my commission from this set to the Farnham Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice too, so there will be money going close to home as well.

The butterfly was cut out and raised on Dimensionals and had a few basic rhinestone gems to add glitz. As there is no main sentiment you could use this set to make cards for all sorts of occasions too.

We had a great day today with my in-laws visiting (they need a regular Munchkin fix!) and we enjoyed the garden and sunshine. Hope you had a great day too!

Mini Catalogue Launch Day

Hooray hooray it's Mini Catalogue Launch Day! If you'd like to peruse the mini catalogue in full just click here. I have been madly in love with everything, but I'm especially thrilled with the Big Shot arriving - SU have many exclusive dies that help you make gorgeous, unique projects with ease. If you'd like to place an order, please email me blueangelcrafts@gmail.com Anyhoooo onto my project that I've created to share with you today:It started with a plain wooden house frame that I painted with primer and then spritzed and daubered to my heart's content with Soft Suede ink. Then I used the Nature Walk stamp set and co-ordinating DSP to create the bases and use many stamps to make "fillings" for the rectangles. Below are some more close-up pictures of the detail. In addition to Nature Walk, I've used Artistic Etchings for the embossed key image, Clearly For You and the butterfly in the charity set, Strength & Hope. Yes, yes, I really went to town with all the new goodies! You can see some of the Champagne chunky glass glitter and a beveled window on the raspberry image. Yummy!

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