Hmmmm....think you might have noticed, but....

...the Fickle Pixie is currently craftily distracted.  Why don't you hop over to see what the Other Fickle Pixie has been up to.

The Fickle Pixie will be back soon :-)

My LOTV cards!

I'm soo glad I've been introduced to Lili of the Valley Stamps! I love 'em. And I was lucky enough to win the blog candy recently....so just waiting for the new stamps to turn up. In the meantime, I've been making fairy stamps for my lovely nieces. We're going to Exeter to see them this weekend for their birthdays...

Nip over to the Other Fickle Pixie to check out her designs....

And this card is to wish my brother good luck in his new house. I made this card using my HobbyArt Town House stamps...proof that they're not just for Christmas :-)

Acetate cards!

I love acetate cards...and I think acetate is becoming popular again in card making. I made this card on our recent craftavan weekend. I've simply replaced a third of the front of the card with acetate so the greeting shows through from the inside.

I've decorated this with simple flowers made with my nestabilities, but having just won the blog candy over on LOTV I'm going to see what I can do with their new stamps...released today!

I'm so looking forward to our next craft day in a couple of weeks! Pop back later to see what we've made!

YAY!

Thanks to LOTV! I've been very lucky to win the blog candy of their new set, released tomorrow (1st June). Can't wait to get my hands on them.... :-)



In the meantime, I'll have to make do with looking at the inspiring cards made by the DT at LOTV....



YAY!

So much LOTV Candy!

Seriously! Could it get any better. LOTV are giving away complete sets on their Thursday Challenge. Nip over now cos you only have three days!

LOTV Rock!

I've recently discovered Lili of the Valley stamps (thanks, Phill :-) ) and they are fantastic! Just waiting for the new release before I place my substantial order :-)

Can't wait....and if you can't wait either, nip over to their BlogCandy now...er...actually, don't! That'll be better odds for me :-)

What I did on a wet Bank Holiday....

...enjoyed a very wet day at Sherwood Pines! We were wet through from the icy hail showers but we couldn't have had more fun looking for bugs and slugs under logs and playing baseball in what seemed liked subzero conditions! The bugs, by the way, had more sense and buried themselves well and the score...a draw, of course! The picture above shows Max at his happiest...covered in mud on the playground.

But after warm baths and bed for the kids, I actually settled down to make cards on my first Bank Holiday off in ages!

I wanted to make something quick....because it's been a long day and I've had these flower stickers knocking around for ages! I actually got them on the front of a magazine so if it all went wrong in my quick crafting session....not a big loss :-)

But I think they turned out quite well. I've used the popular easel card in A6 size.

To do this, you need to cut A4 card in half, longways. You then score one of the halves at A4 half fold and A4 Gatefold. The other half you need to cut in half to make two A6 size toppers.

For "Get Well Soon", I've used a brown and turquoise colour combination. I've added texture by running the brown card through my Bigshot with the Swiss Dots folder.



For "Just a note to say...", I've used a brown and pink colour combination. I've used Anita's spotty ribbon to cover the join of the cards and added a button threaded with string to the front.

For "Happy Birthday", I've simply used a jade green matted onto white and added an accent button.







Hope you like them....

A Man's Card?

No glitter or fancy bows, tongue in cheek insult and no pink in sight? Does that make a man card? :-)

I made this DL card by covering one third of the card with embossed swiss dots (Cuttlebug folder) and two thirds with chocolate Doodles paper from Pink Petticoat. Don't forget to ink the edges! I used a bit of "manly" ribbon to cover the join but left it flat!! No bows!!

I coloured in a Pink Petticoat image using my promarkers and matted and layed this using the Doodles paper and card and stuck this near the top of the card using foam pads. I made the greeting ("You're how old?") using tiny alphabet stickers, matted and layered this the same as the image and stuck this to the bottom of the card using foam pads again.

Normally I'd bling it up a bit....but we're reliably informed this is one step to far ;-) But I might try a more glittery version of this.

Happy birthday, Oriental style

....or at least that was thie inspiration! I made this card using my Sizziz dies and XCut punches.

Starting with an A5 brown card blank, I trimmed orange bazzil to fit, rounded the corners and stuck it flat to the front of the card blank.

Next I used my "Branch with Leaves" Sizzix dies to make a swirly branch across the front of the card and cut white and orange flowers for blossoms using the XCut punches.

I stamped the greeting using Timber Brown Staz on and matted and layered this to the bottom corner of the card. Then I layered dragon files to the top corner.

I finally added a bit of sparkle to the centre of the flowers and dragon flies.

I liked the end result so much, I made another using a different colour scheme...

My clever son, Max!

Can't help but brag about my son, Max! After studying a card I made his brother for his birthday, he came up with this to give to his nana:



He amazes me with every card he makes and I'm soooo glad he enjoys it. He's turning into a fantastic paper mechanic!

50th Anniversary Card

The printer wouldn't print, the colours wouldn't match and I couldn't decide on whether to go for hearts or flowers, but I eventually finished a 50th Wedding Anniversary card ready for my mum-in-law to take with her down south! It's always the same....you have a great plan, you've made similar cards before but for some reason technology conspires against you! Or maybe that's just my paranoia!!!!
:-)

Anyway, here it it:



It's an 8" x 8" easel card (I love that shape!) inspired by my very favourite Pink Petticoat papers. I added a 3-d poem on the base card as the stopper, a couple of sizzix champagne glasses on the corner and of course gold stickles to make it all shimmer.



I might have gone overboard with the gold but mum-in-law loved it!
:-)

In the Pink!

As The Other Fickle Pixie pointed out to me the other day, while reprimanding me for not updating my blog, I always start with "It's been a while...". But once again, it's been a while :-)

I've been very busy making Valentine and Mother's Day cards, some of which I hope to post later....but since I've just finished making my latest card I thought I'd take the opportunity!!

Here it is:



It's always difficult to make cards for people you don't know...but flowers are usually a safe bet. Here I've used my new Sizzix Tulips for the first time, shaded and sprinkled with Pink Pastel Glitter from Stampendous (Annie's favourite glitter) and matted and layered on a dotty, Labels 8 frame from Spellbinders Nestabilities. A bit of ribbon and bling in the corner of a shocking pink A5 card....and finished! Seems so easy! So how come it's taken this long! LOL!

My New Favourite Shape...

Once again, it's been a while!! We've been busy furiously making Christmas cards for our first Festive Fayre on 13th November. We're a little nervous but we're hoping it's going to go well.

I've been playing with this gorgeous card shape from Danielle at "Paper Inspirations by Danielle". (Check out her "On a Roll..." card).

I've adapted it for Christmas using my lovely nestabilities (Label One) and Woodware Clear Stamps ("Nativity Play").

I love 'em! They'll be ideal for kids (big and small :-) ) at Christmas.

A birthday Frenzy!

Had a mad rush on birthday cards....but it gave me a chance to use my Messy Rabbit Knight and dragon stamp!

I coloured the images with Twinkling H20's! Such a shame you can't get them any more! I desperately need a blue!

September is a busy month....

I can't believe we have so many September birthdays in my family! No less than 7! So it's been rather hectic. As my mum turned 65 this year I wanted to make her a special card. So looking around to make her something different, I spied my Bind-It-All and the outcome was rather pleasing!

Using my Inkadinkidoo swirly stamps, my trusty X-Cut flower punches and a bit of bling I made a "Happy 65th" birthday book.

Of course, it had to include pics of my kids!

Charlie....



Max....



and Annie...

All accompanied with a little poem describing them and thanking her for all she does! She loved it! And it made for a nice little photo frame when I bound it with acrylic covers.

It's a shame I couldn't keep it :-)

Chrismas is coming....

So no sooner am I back from my holidays, I'm sitting down making cards!

But what to make....?

Well, it's September already so that means only 113 days 'til Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And having recently bought the new Penny Black clear stamps ("In a Peartree") , I might as well give it a go :-)

And here they are...

Very simple but very effective, my plan was to make "affordable" handmade cards in packs for Christmas time. I don't think I'm far off the mark with these 10cm X 10cm cards.

I've varied the styles subtley....stamping christmasy words in burgundy Brillance ink on some backgrounds and leaving others blank.

I've coloured all the images using Twinkling H2O's ("Eqyptian Gold" really makes the pears stand out) and I've matted the images on to co-ordinating scalloped circles, cut using Nestabilities from Spellbinder. I've mostly stamped the images using Jet Black Staz'on, but occasionally, as in this one, I've used Timber Brown Staz'on for a less starker print.

And finally, I've finished the cards off with a co-ordinating grosgrain ribbon.



So what do you think?

Finally....

....made it to our first post!

As you might see from the profiles opposite, my name is Linda. I live in Nottingham with my husband (Paul) and 3 children , not forgetting our (not so) new addition Floyd...the cat!

I've been scrapbooking and card making for the last 5 years but since meeting my like-minded friend Jenny, card making has become somewhat of a (good) obsession. Aided and abetted by Phill from Honeypot Craft (who's class I joined nearly a year ago now) I have a fantastic time trying new things out and getting excited about everything...especially stamping and glittering! At work, we don't do coffee breaks! We do craft breaks!

The Fickle Pixie is something Jen and myself are playing with...it's our dream (she says, looking wistfully into the distance) and it gives us an opportunity to sell our cards to the guys in the office. We think they go down well :-)

So that's me...and what I'm about....hopefully we'll start building the blog up and making it more interesting...but in the mean time we have some examples of our cards on our website...http://www.theficklepixie.co.uk. Feel free to visit us there (although that too is under improvement).

Bye for now

Linda