Land of the Pharaohs

Well it's a beautiful day here and for once I'm glad I'm not in the UK and having to cope with more snow!!! Well at least in Durham where my daughter lives. The grandchildren will love it though!!!

Now for this weeks challenge on CD Sunday........The Land of the Pharaohs. This made me think of travel and holidays, so what to do? I found a CD by Joanne Sheen 'Egyptian Adventure' with lots of fab images. The one that stood out with regard to travel was the one with the camels and oasis. Looks like they're 'camping out' in the desert.

Thoughts......Who would I send a card like this to?
                      Not sure.
                      I know I'll make an altered notebook for a traveller.

           I know someone who's off to Egypt very soon so this will make an ideal travel gift.

                                                            The notebook is 11 x 15cm.

I printed off the image and hieroglyphic backing paper and the 'theatre' card border and image.
The backing paper was adhered with DS tape over the front and back of the notebook.
I chose one of the smaller images and put it down right corner. I googled and found 'Land of the Pharoahs' in words. These were cut and trimmed and placed left and top sides to act as a frame for the whole layout.

I then made a tag using Tim Holtz distress ink, Vintage Photo. I put the ink on a palette  then I spritzed it., dabbed the tag on to it to give it a mottled effect. I then gently edged the tag with the ink. The whole thing has a subtle aged look. I added a brown ribbon and eyelet.

The small image at the bottom was framed with the 'theatre' border and I found a small map of Egypt....thanks again to Google....which I cut up and placed across the corner. 'Think these guys might need a map!!! You might just spot an Egyptian lady looking on from the side of the 'stage'. I smeared gold stickles across the image to glitter up the sand and the sunny sky.

Now I just had to find some appropriate words. So off to my stash of goodies and I found ....Vacation -  summer - memories - Bon Boyage - and a great shield which says Road Trip.......all very appro don't you think?

I hope my friend likes it and I'm sure it'll be very useful for jotting down memorable moments.

I'm entering this in challenges:

• CD Sunday challenge - Land of the Pharaohs
• Tuesday Alchemy Challenge 52 - Anything Goes

SPRING

Springtime...........new life, Easter bunnies,daffodils........lots of images spring to mind when Spring is mentioned.

This week's challenge at OneStopcraftchallenge is Spring. Well as I said earlier this conjure up lots of images. So no problem.....well yes actually as there was too many choices!!!  Finally I decided to finish making my grandchildrens' Easter cards before it was too late. And thought well if they don't make you think of Spring nothing will.

I found delightful image of a chick and a daffodil in a pot, so that was a start. I wanted it to be a bit more than just 'a card' as I like to send them something they can take time looking at. With this in mind I thought of a booklet card.

The main card is a 15 x 15cm square in a lovely fresh orange. I found a perfect peach mottled background paper to mount on top. So this was my base. The 'booklet' comprised of 3 pages of peach card 9.5 x 13cms. The chick and daffodil went on the front cover. On the second page I put an image of  chicks again but this time having fun swinging/playing in an Easter egg tree to which I added the words 'Hello Sunshine'......my usual way of greeting my youngest granddaughter.  Then on the third page I put two word straps 'Much Love' and 'Just for You'.

 Gold and Green peeloff lines edged the card and booklet to finish it off and 'Happy Easter' and 'Just for you' were put on the front. I also placed 3 gold spots down each side of the booklet. The booklet was then tied together with yellow organza ribbon. I hope she likes it as much as I enjoyed making it.

I'm entering this in:

• OneStop Craft Challenge blog
• trimmies C.R.A.F.T. challenge

Wedding Anniversary

This card was made for a very special couple whom we are friends with here in Cyprus.

The base is an A4 hammered cream card folded to make an A5 card. The main image is a beautiful pair of swans. I love how the bubbles float across the image giving it an ethereal feel. And the lovely lace edge looks so real. There really wasn't much to do to this card as the artist has given us everything. It's a CUP card but sorry can't remember designer.

In the top left corner a beautiful bouquet is added using the wavy pyramage technique which brings your eye into the picture. I added a silver diamond shaped peeloff border and art deco silver corners. Silver peeloff bows were added to the inner corners and 25th was put just below the two rings.

A beautiful image for a beautiful couple. I hope they have many many more happy years together.

Mother's Day

It's that time of year again when we let all Mothers everywhere know how much they are loved. Today's card is one I've made for my MIL.
It's a double back tri fold....I think lol. It started out as another fold which went wrong. But hey ho nothings ever wasted with us crafters.

The side images.....fans and roses....were from a CUP sheet but sorry can't remember designer. I printed it out twice and decoupaged them. These were mounted on gold paper which I'd embossed using the dotty CB folder. The corners are splodges from a peel off sheet.
The sentiment was originally an octagnol pyramage but I thought it may be too bulky for posting so I just used the one image. It's a design from karensdream@groovycart.co.uk
Sentiment reads.............'Mothers are a rose in the garden of life' Isn't that lovely.
I hope she likes it.
I'm going to attempt to enter this in the following blogs. Not tried this before so I hope it works......fingers crossed.

• One Stop
• Songbird
• Bearly Mine
• Creative inspirations

Butterflies

Well butterflies are much more me. So a great CD Sunday Challenge this week....love this theme. But what CD to choose as there seems to me so many that I'm spoilt for choice. I fginally settled on a La Pashe image. It's from a great value CD The Big One Decoupage and has all the La Pashe faves. There are 450 sheets of A4 decoupage.

For this challenge I chose an image from the Nice and Easel range. They are  really to be made up into Easel cards but I opted for an A5 card instead.  The main card is a beautiful green which matched the colour of the lilies leaves perfectly. I double mounted it on a bright shocking pink card.........matching the lilies but it was mainly to link up with the topper/sentiment which I got from a Making Cards Magazine as was the ribbon word strip along the bottom.....butterfly butterfly butterfly.

The sentiment reads:

       ''If you have the freedom to fly, why not take the scenic route'........what a thought!!!

I added gold stickle to the butterfly and placed two more butterflies which were 'stickled' and mounted with 3D fixers. Gold stickle was also added to the lilies.

And there you have it. Already to entered into the CD Sunday Challenge.
I hope you like it as much as I do.....oh I wish I was one of these butterflies at the mo!!

Anchors Away!!!!

Today is Monday and that means it's Craft Group Day. I along with another expat friend run a Craft Group at one of the local hotels. We don't get paid or anything it's just something we both enjoy and it brings fellow crafters over here together. We've only one 'proper' craft shop here but even that mainly caters for knitters and patchworking. So a lot of stuff is bought online ....if we can find someone who'll not charge an arm and a leg for postage. Others bring it over with them when they've visited the UK or friends bring stuff out. Or if like me  have some very special online friends who kindly send me yummy goodies from time to time......bless them all xx

Anyway I digress. Today's sesssion was lead by my colleague and she chose to demo a male card using an anchor template. Men's cards are not my faves but I went along armed with a lovely background of a lighthouse that I found in my stash.  I loved the colours. The template was used as the card front and 'hinged' to the background.

I used grey mottled background paper for the anchor and wrapped white chord around it as the anchor rope. I rolled the little bit that was left over and glued to one side of the anchor. I found some green net in my craft box.....the box where you put stuff just in case in might come in handy!!! I've lots of stuff like that.....typical crafter mentality!!....well a hoarder really lol I then added tiny pebbles from the local beach. I had some shells and sand too but I don't think it needed anything else. The greeting came with the background image. I don't know where from so sorry can't help. But if anyone wants it send me your email addie and I'll forwarded it on to you no probs. And that was it oh apart from the peel off edging which to me looked like rope or pebbles so fitted the theme.

So that was this week's man's card. So another to add to the stash. I'm off now to do butterflys for CD Sundays Challenge....much more me than anchors!!!

Sunshine and pots.

Now I know this is not cards or crafts but it is sunshine!!! And it is where I first began making cards and being crafty.

 I thought I'd let you take a peep at our lovely terrace of the house we lived in when we first arrived here in Cyprus. A beautiful house full of built in stone furniture. Now that may sound strange but it really did fit in perfectly with the surroundings.

Can you see peaking over the top of the house a bell tower. Yes we were very close to the village church with four bells in the bell tower!!! Sunday mornings and Festivals were not a time to have a lazy morning, they certainly made sure you knew it was time for church.

It had a huge almond orchard which was constantly needing attention and sadly it took its toll on us and we had to move on to somewhere with not so big a garden but it did have a swimming pool and was NOT next to a church. But more of that in a future posting.