Happy new year

Jasmin and Max/Birthday card

Only one year after I posted the last creation I finally made something. Not too complicated, as Eddie kept calling to me from his playpen "Mama, mama".
As it was Jo's birthday, I thought she might find it amusing if I pair her very own Jasmin girl with a partner. I drew him quickly with a Gelcolor black pen. The padded flowers come from a Mother's day kit I found reduced to 25p in Sainsburys, and thought they might come useful. Brads are from the Papermania V&A Hanoverian collection.

I am still alive...

But crafting is impossible right now, so my blog hasn't been updated for many months.
But I have a perfect excuse - my baby Eddie who is turning 3 months today. Between him and Sasha who also needs all my love and attention, I just don't have a spare minute to touch my beautiful papers and stamps.

She sells seashells...

For some reason this seashell stamp from Anita's reminded me of some exotic headdress, and that's exactly what I did with it. It is a (very distant) homage to Mersad Berber whom I admire immensely (I guess I need to win a lottery to be able to afford one of his works,lol). I am sure Monsieur Berber wouldn't recognise it as a homage, but then he spends days on each work, and I had about 20 minutes, what with Sasha demanding to change his DVDs and me getting more and more uncomfortable sitting at the table, that's the best I could do.
It is a birthday card for a friend who is an inspiration in every sense of this word.
Don't know if it counts as a girlie card for the Stampotique challenge, but when I was a kid, I always drew ladies in medieval dresses.

Stitch in time/Caardvarks Lace challenge

This is a birthday card for a lovely forum friend, who is talented in anything she puts her mind to: papercrafts, knitting, sewing.
Stamps: Sugar Nellie (main image) and Tim Holtz (background stamp). I stitched the thread on the stamped image plus lace, and attached all the tiny buttons.

Thumbelina/Spring Has Sprung at Stampotique

Too dark today to take a better picture, perhaps tomorrow will be brighter and sunnier. Here's my lil Thumbelina sleeping in her cradle among tulips.
The tulips as well as all the papers, flowers and ribbons are from Papermania range.
(I don't have any Stampotique stamps) The little snuggly girl is my own drawing.

Plant Kindness/Simon Says Girlie Challenge

I wanted to thank a friend for a fab gift I got in the mail last week, which left me all warm and fuzzy and emotional.
For the flower girl I used the free stamp that came with the previous issue of Craft Stamper, imo the most beautiful stamp they produced (unlike the little horror that comes with the current issue, tut tut, it's so poorly drawn, even my 8-year-old niece can do much better) as well as one of Prima flowers. Petals are TT stamps.

La cage aux folles/Caardvarks Photo Inspiration challenge

Caardvarks is running another Photo inspiration challenge, with cages and birds.
So here is my birdie in a golden cage. The main stamped image is by Kodomo.
The big button on the side is a fab bargain from the charity shop, I found these three huge buttons for 25p altogether, and they are perfect for stamping or altering.

Stop adding your junk links to my card, you know who I mean

This is a birthday card for a forum friend. Almost all the papers are taken from the big book of wallpaper samples that I picked up from the outside of the home interior design shop, a great freebie album with luxurious papers. Then there the ribbon with patterned leaves, which I think came from a box of Belgian chocolates. A tiny egg is printed on a curtain sample, another freebie from the interior design shop. And the twigs are the remains of some boxed Prima flowers. Gosh and golly, I should really pat myself on the head for being a recycling pro, lol.

Autism Mothers - The Final Cut

Standing together, we will win.

Blue Willow/Photo Inspiration Challenge

Basic Grey Challenges blog is running a Photo Inspiration challenge. As the photo reminded me of dainty porcelain sets and 5 o'clock tea, I thought my new Kodomo Blue Willow stamps would fit perfectly. Papers used: Basic Grey and Papermania, plus the old samples of wallpaper (I love its crackle effect, it makes my Blue Willow porcelain look more antique). Buttons are also Basic Grey, with Blue Willow designs stamped on them to look like porcelain plates. Plus I've added the remains of the antique ribbon.

Carol's birthday card

Now that the card has finally arrived to Carol, I might blog it. I used yet another vintage image.

Dance with me (birthday card for Deb)

I found this lovely vintage photo on ebay and just had to buy it. Stamp used is Tim Holtz frame. A few sparkles are added, golden mesh ribbon and lace to the skirts, plus an earring turned into a charm, and hey presto, a birthday card is done. :)

Павел Бабаков Выйду на улицу

Dance to keep warm! :)

Snowman and his family

Christmas quickies

As if I didn't know what date Christmas is, it approached surprisingly fast, and so I had to produce a batch of very quick cards. Even those felt like a conveyor belt.
Here are my quickies made with Stampington (Night town) and Tanda Stamps (tree/Christmas plate) stamps.
As I was also tempted to buy some new Snowman papers for Sasha's buddies' cards (and in the end they all got Mr Men & Little Miss cards), I felt that poor Snowman feels lonely and needs a loving family, so I added a wife and two kids next to him.

Birthday card

I just fell in love with this chubby face (and hope it wasn't too cold in the studio, lol). Makes me wonder what happened to this child, what was his/her life.
Each photo tells a story, but some of them are stories lost in time.
BTW, I've been recycling again: this printed butterfly with beads was a part of textile tag from a River Island blouse (or was it trousers? not sure. But I knew I'd use it one day.)

Glitzy Something challenge/Flowergirl purse

Stamp Something is running a Glitzy challenge. As any girl, I love a bit of sparkle, lol.
I did a similar purse some time in June but this time I changed the colours and added blitzy-glitzy sparkle bits to flowers. I painted stamped images with acrylic paints. The purse itself was a Boots freebie.

Dance the night away/Animal Antics

Blog-jumping, I found a blog called Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog, and as this week's challenge is Animal Antics, I thought my dancing cats would do just fine.
It is a birthday card for a fun-loving girl.
The cats come from Simply Cards magazine, they printed two pages of cats for anyone to copy, trace etc, and they remind me of cats my little brother likes to draw (though his are more quirky). I photocopied them on thick paper and coloured with watercolours. The lovely button is from Snowman series, and so is the background paper.
"Happiness is" stamp is Paper Artsy.

Discovering oneself/Out of the Hat Scrapping challenge

July challenge from Out of the Hat was to:
1. Use haberdashery on your page (flower buttons here)
2. Monochromatic type layout (sort of, I think I slightly digressed from monochromatic, lol)
3. Use felt on your layout (flowers again).
You can open the gate to read: What is a pure undiluted pleasure? Riding a horse.
Sasha is ecstatic in a company of horses and ponies. If he could talk, he would speak in verse at such moments. He is discovering the world, discovering himself.