B is for

Over at the Butterfly Challenge blog, the letter is B and a shaped card. 

I choose - buff green, baby pink and Bluebell, with a Birthday greeting and of course, the most important thing - butterflies!!

The paper stock was from a Card Making Magic Kit, The Secret Garden by Christina Griffiths, which was free with a magazine. I think the butterflies came from a previous prize by Mrs A. over at the Butterfly Blog and finally the White Pearls by Phil Martin.

Amanda xx

Welcome to Wonderland

A new month means a new Customer Challenge at the Gecko Galz and the theme for the month of July is 'Welcome to Wonderland'. So why not play along - join the challenge with the chance to win $25 at the Gecko Galz shop!

I had a ball with this theme, my finished designs were totally different to the projects I'd originally  planned, but I can use those ideas later on!

First up is a Wonderland in a Tea Cup - this was going to be in a much smaller cup which I picked up months ago, just the cup - no saucer- but the pattern was a blue rose which was so pretty I didn't care! So I was going to use that as the blue would have worked well with Allices dress.... until I nipped into an Asda Home store and came across this set whilst looking for a griddle pan, random I know. I only bought the cup & saucer although this fell into my basket when I wasn't looking!! (fill it up with lots and lots of ice cubes!)

This cup was perfect for what I wanted to do! I used the Wonderland Collage Set for most of the pieces though the White Rabbit came from Wonderland Dominos from the Whimsical Jewels Set and the sign came from the newly released Wonders of Wonderland Craft Kit. And the Queen of Hearts playing card came from a pack I bought especially to craft with. 

I resized the images I wanted to use, cut them out and stuck them on cocktail sticks to make then stand up, the only problem was that I was trying to use green paper for the 'grass' and I couldn't get the paper to curl up the way I wanted. 

After a good twenty minutes of scrunching, unfolding and having a good old cuss I gave up. I then thought of nipping to The Range and getting some flower arranging foam to use, but it was shut. So after more cussing and scratching of head I suddenly remembered my pom-pom maker. Yay!! and I had some green wool left!! (And we found out that George the Beagle is absolutely petrifred of balls of wool, which was hilarious) So I made a medium sized pom-pom, luckily I didn't run out of wool and it fit the cup! The sticks were easy to push into the wool. (by the way I'm currently resisting the urge to make more pom-poms, using the spool its so quick to do and very addictive)

The other embellishments - doily from All things Alice by Craft Box

white roses stem from stash dabbed with blue pigment ink

tiny bottle with green glitter from The Works. 

So pleased with how it came out.

My second make for the challenge was quicker - a set of traditional atcs.

Images from Wonders of Wonderland Crafting Kit

1) Be Free = black pigment ink, decoupaged butterflies 

2) Pink o'clock = clock & stencil from All things Alice by Craft Box, hot pink ink.

3) Torn around the Edges = paper from stash

I hope you'll join in and as much fun as we all did with the 'Welcome to Wonderland' Challenge, where the Winner gets a $25 shopping spree to spend at the Gecko Galz shop. (The only rule is that you must use at least one Gecko Galz product... this can be one of the freebies, or, of course, you can buy at the Etsy shop). 

If you sign up for the Gecko Galz monthly newsletter, you'll be kept up to date with new releases, Super Sunday monthly deals and be able to claim a free digital collage sheet. 

If you pop over to the Gecko Galz blog, you will see all the fabulous designs by the Design Team - and maybe grab a freebie or two. 

If you haven't a blog/and or/ on Facebook, head over to the Gecko Galz Papercrafting Group where there are more monthly challenges, with the chance to win a digital collage sheet. 

Amanda xx 

24 Tags of Christmas from Gecko Galz

It is the most wonderful time of the year with Gecko Galz our 24 days of Christmas tags and giveaways. Each day on the Gecko Galz blog we will share a fun tag using our products and one of our amazing followers will win a Christmas gift from Gecko Galz. All you have to do is leave a comment on our blog or make a purchase and you are in the drawing to win. 

And on Christmas Eve we will pick one lucky winner who will win our 2020 products lines!

Have fun!

Both images were from page fillers when I've made other projects - I don't like wasting printing card so I tend to have a quick browse and pick random images and make them different sizes to fill the A4 card up. Still have a few to use, eventually.

I used brown tags from The Range -the top one used backing paper from stash, a doily and a wooden snowflake embellished with Tonic Nuvo Drops in vintage green.
The bottom one I used a sample of wallpaper with an embossed pattern on it, DIY stores come in handy, and then a little blue to match the ladies coat. Another wooden snowflake - I absolutely adore these! - embellished this time with a sparkly peel off snowflake, last but not least I found a sentiment to bring it all together.

Don't forget to keep checking out the Gecko Galz to see all the amazing tags and for a chance to win!!

 Amanda xx

A pretty 60th birthday card and matching insert, I always find these quite hard as I want to do sparkle and shine but can't quite steer myself from vintage.... so I compromised with the blinging the age. Hope she didn't mind!! The backing paper came from a gorgeous paper pack by Jodie Lee designs and I used a matching one for the insert, always feels a shame to cover these up.

Guess its about time I got round to doing Christmas cards, surprisingly I have actually bought two presents, one for step mum and one for Andrew..... not leaving it till Christmas week this year! Ha! I've even wrote out ready for posting. Ok, where am I? and what have I done to myself? 

All images today from the Gecko Galz email freebies you receive when you sign up to their Monthly newsletter.

Wooden embellishments from The Range, love these! 

The bottom one is my favourite, totally not my colour for Christmas but it the pink just works with the glitter.And that description makes it sound horrible!! Please scroll down and see for yourselves! 

The Butterfly Wheel is C

Over at Butterfly Blog, a new format for the fortnightly challenge has begun with three colours & three themes, its upto the player to choose!

this weeks letter is C and I picked Butterfly with Cornflower Blue and Corners - with a bit of crimson  and cream thrown in! The backing paper which was a magazine freebie has cornflower blue and cream flowers on it. I used a piece of co-ordinating cream paper cut to fit the corner to contrast the card. Then die cut two butterflies, one to match cornflower blue and the other to match the darker blue ink. Lastly added a few red gems to highlight the crimson in the backing paper.

entering in: The Butterfly Challenge - #94 C

30 tags of December #2

Here's my 2nd tag for you, using a Gecko Galz image from the design sheet "Christmas Cuties' and bits n bobs from my stash, though the Poinsettias are a new purchase as I needed something small and Christmassy to fill the space on the tag and I didn't have anything suitable.

To see these designs and much more, drop by the Gecko Galz on Etsy

H is for handwritten and/or lemon

Fluttering in to show you a 30th birthday card done for a friend at work, who is the most awkward lady in the whole world to make a card & buy a present for!! I decided to make something which fitted the challenge over on  Butterfly Challenge blog, which I haven't entered for weeks and weeks due to overtime at work, less days off and the dreaded flu, and sadly the loss of three pets....

                 

White doily

Craft Box flowers x3

Tattered Lace mini dies

pearls

Went with just the colour this time - Lemon - as my hand writing is awful and I didn't want to spoil the card. The 30th is small as the lady in question isn't really...... feeling the birthday vibe, shall we say. 

entering in: H is for handwritten and/or lemon

Earlier on in the year, I used a decoupage image on its own, with no layers. I loved how it turned out so I did it again, this time in blue. love using it just with a doily and a few embellishments, a simple card but effective. Instead of a white card, I used one with a 'frosting' pattern, which looked slightly blue.

Christmas in summer link up

With the weather at the moment, we feel like we're in winter, so its apt that I felt in a christmassy mood this week. Over at Merry Monday christmas challenge blog, we're on a months 'catch up on challenges you may have missed' to cover the summer hols.

Image from Gecko Galz 'Blue Christmas' kit

white doily

blue ribbon

sentiment die

blue gems

This is similar to one I did earlier in the year but this time on a 5 x 7 card and I used my new sentiment die from Creative Expressions, I bought it to use on 6 x 6 cards but I think its a big too big unless I use it as a topper.

entering in - Merry Monday = Christmas in July Summer link up using the 'monochromatic blue' challenge.

Babies & Children / week 273 & 274

Over on the Gecko Galz facebook page, this is one of the challenges. I chose to go with children, as I tend to get 'card-tied' with anything to do with babies, maybe its because I'm not maternal.... show me a baby animal and I go all gooey.

6x6 card blank

pink doily 

white lace

pink ribbon

image  'Little Ladies' GG

Kept the card plain and simple as I thought the image worked well on its own.

Also cheekily entering in Pixies Snippets playground week 273/274 as the pink ribbon was a snippet left over from the depth of time.

Ooops!

With not much time left to enter a Vintage Valentine challenge, I decided to do a tag (which will later be turned into a topper for next years Valentines day).
Over at the Gecko Galz hang out on Facebook  one challenge was red & pink and another was to use Heather Hudson's freebie design sheet..... So yesterday afternoon I printed the sheet off and set too. This morning I faffed and fiddled with various layouts, bits of ribbon, lace, pearls and hearts till I came up with something along the lines of want I wanted. Out came the glue.

Sorry its a bit dark but the lighting isn't very good.

I fussy cut the girl out the middle of the heart, then cut the border of the heart out so each was a standalone image. 

At the last minute I decided to go mad and totally cover the heart border with pearls, happy with the effect. Then i decided to use clear nail varnish on the rose to make it look a bit dewy. This needed two coats to give it the finished effect i wanted. 

Ta-da, finally finished.

Went to upload my tag and realised I'd forgot to add an actual Gecko Galz image. Duh!!

Oh well, I really enjoyed making the tag - and that's what counts.

Wintery weather scenes

Beating the expected Snow storms with this card, designed to be for a friends birthday later this month until Andrew succinctly said 'it looks like you made a Christmas card then cheated and stuck Happy Birthday on it instead'
so now its aimed at December birthdays... and I need to make another birthday with no snow or Christmas vibe *lol*

 

Using an image from Winter Wonderlands sheet 1.

other bits from stash

 

entered in: Gecko Galz Papercrafting challenge Group (Facebook)

Angels

My first Christmas card make of 2017 done for Merry Monday Christmas Challenge #229.

Actually enjoyed doing it which surprised me as I ended up buying a couple of Christmas cards in the run up to Christmas week as I had lost my 'ho. ho. ho' and didn't finish my list of cards to make.

I used silicone gel to raise the Angel of the card.

Kanban 'merry Christmas script' backing card

DoCrafts 'Floral Muse' doily

Lunagirl Angel image

Tonic Rococo die & stamp

DoCrafts pigment ink Royal Navy

other bits from stash

 

 

entering in: merry monday = angels

purple or purple?

Not very often I dip into my Debbi Moore drawer, but decided too for the monthly swap over at Card Exhange UK on yahoo groups, knowing the recipient liked sewing & reusing things, this made an ideal theme.

 

All of the bits used came from Shabby Chic compendium.

feeling blue

A blue butterfly card today, I made this ages ago and forgot to upload a photo.... image from a Gecko Galz butterfly design sheet. The pack of doilies is still going strong *lol*

Winter holiday

One of the many Christmas cards done this week, using a Gecko Girls image.

 

Kaisercraft Christmas papers

green card

do craft doily

The Hobby House gems

embellishment

 

Although snow was forecast in some low areas of the Midlands overnight, we were lucky that by the time I left for work this morning - 5.15am, the little bit of snow we had turned to rain.

 

The challenge was 'feature the Winter Holiday of your choice' - I picked this as I would love to stay in a house in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fresh deep snow, plenty of warm fires, food and my family. Bliss.

 

entered in: Gecko Galz Papercrafting Challenge group om FB.

Anything Goes

This card took me hours!!!! And all because I wasn't happy with the right hand side....so I decided to add a flower...... dropped the bead box and lost the last matching flower for the middle....made a sentiment and stuck that on flower, looked naff so pulled it off......then chopped it up and stuck that on, looked naffer.......did another flower & sentiment, ditto.....did another flower......back in the bead box - found another white flower so then pulled middle off of one of the flowers, stuck the white on that and then stuck the original onto the new flower.  Phew!

And for the love of all things Craft, why is it when you want a gem to stick exactly where you put it, it keeps dropping off but when you accidently drop it on your work in the completely worse place possible it sticks like you've used the strongest superglue EVER???

 

patterned velum by Laurence Llewelyn Bowen

white flowers coloured by Almond & Pastel Blue promarkerx

Dovecraft 'Floral Muse' doily

image from Lunagirl 'Butterfly Cards'

gems, flowery middles, lace and pins from stash

 

Entered in: lunagirl = Anyhting goes for August

 

March colour challenge

Not a card this time, decided to do a tag as I haven't done one for a little while. Size of the tag is roughly 5" by 3.5".

 

 

 

 

 

Gecko Galz 'Linen Pack' backing paper

image freebie from Fripperies & Butterflies

Amethyst promarker

The Hobby House olive green & lilac gems

Vibrant Violet Stazon ink

white flowers

doily

lilac pre cut butterfly

 

entering in: Fripperies and Butteflies facebook page

 

Spring flowers & birds

I needed to make a special card for my dad's partner Delia, as she turned the good old age of 70 on Good Friday....... no Easter eggs for her birthday though - I always ended up with eggs as birthday gifts if my April birthday fell anywhere near Easter, always made mum mad as 'birthdays are birthdays no matter what date you're born'. At least as a kid I liked all the eggs, I feel sorry about people born near Christmas though.

Anyhoo, back to the card! I took the theme of spring flowers and birds from Lunagirls current challenge.

image Fripperies & Butterflies freebie

backing paper from Jodie Lee Designs

doily

resin & paper flowers

stick on gems

computer generated sentiment

 

 

entering in:  lunagirl = spring flowers & birds