More good-byes

Funny how it goes- its just non-stop retirement and good-byes at the moment. Cant keep up with the cards.  Today's card is for a US friend, Nancy, who is retiring and I wanted to do her a special card.  I used the new Debbi Moore oriental images which came in a stamping magazine with a set of transparent stamps. I'm not a great lover of stamps but these were very easy to use. I embellished the background and used the sentiment from the set 'May your dreams blossom' as I thought it very appropriate for a retirement. I finished off the card with some mulberry paper flowers in co-ordinating papers.

Bye Byes in Barcelona

A close friend based in our Barcelona office is retiring this week and I was lucky enough to arrange a quick trip over to see her last week.  She is a real anglophile so I decided to give her a china tea cup with a Yankie Candle and co-ordinating match box. The pattern is Paragon Victoriana Rose.

I also made her a Venice themed card using elements from the Debbi Moore Venetian CDs and embellished with one of the plaster masks which Lou brought me back from Venice.

Pink and Girly

I made this card for the birthday of Lisa, a work colleague, who is a real girlie girl, so the card just had to be pink.  I used the MCS Jewel Britannia CD again for the basic card and then added plenty of embellishments and bling,

Messing about

                   

I like to use vintage images in my cards but I get frustrated when I cant use my Spellbinders dies to cut out a decorative oval without losing some of the face.  Today I had a play and created some new images with bigger smudgy borders using Paint.  It was an electronic way of doodling as I copied an area of the background, enlarged it and then put the photo in the middle. I then used the colour picking and airbrush tools repeatedly to create smudges to soften the edge of the photo.

Chocolate Baroque download

Spent a great £1.99 on a Chocolate Baroque download called Chic Script Set 4. The colours immediately jumped from the page and I had to have it.  Left the 'boys' watching a comicbook film (not a genre I like much) and slipped away to the dining room to have a play. Here is what I came up with.

Will be using this set again really soon and will use the Cuttlebug next time rather than keeping straight lines.  Been meaning to have a craft afternoon with my friends Maz and Chris for ages and I think these papers would be a great project.