About Me

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Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
I have been crafting since May 2008, when in desperation to find an unusual birthday card for my Mum, I gave up looking in the shops and decided to have a go at making my own. I soon realised that crafting is addictive and I haven't brought a card since. In 2011 I completed my certificate in papercrafting as a result of the work I did as part of the course I started entering challenges on line and in magazines. I applied for design teams and also started making samples for Ooh La La Creations for their shows on Create and Craft. I have now completed my Diploma in professional crafting and most recently been runner up in the Papercrafter of the Year 2013 a competition run by Papercraft essentials magazine, I don't have a particular style I like to use elements from lots of styles and techniques, although I do love all things vintage. In 2014 I started to move more towards scrapbooking to take care of the huge family archive of photographs that were stored in my attic. I have continued cardmaking and Scrapbooking through 2015 and 2016 but have also become interested in off the page projects. I hope to be able focus on these in the future.

Monday 25 June 2012

Mystical Magic at Ooh La La

Good Morning, we had some gorgeous entries into the 'Baby Baby' Challenge over at Ooh La La Creations last time. You can see the winners over on the blog. This time we are looking for your Mystical, Magical creations. My Fellow DT members have come up with some gorgeous designs so do check them out. Here is my offering


All the elements of this card came from the Ooh La La creations Femme Fatale CD. I printed the topper off twice on card and twice on pearlised paper, then fussy cut the wings from one of the card images (saving the fairy body for later) and both of the pearlised images. I then layered the wings up and covered the join with the fairy body I had cut from the card image. The papers were cut into two triangles and stuck to a 8x8 card blank. I highlighted the flower centres and swirls on the lower paper with pearlised paint, this reacted with the printer ink and has dried with a pale pink hue to it, not intentional but it does colour co-ordinate with the butterflies. I covered the join between the two papers with a strip from a third paper and then highlighted all the edges and joins with black peel off borders. A shimmery bow and a thin line of stickles glitter glue along the fairy's wings add the final touch.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the interpretations of this weeks theme so do drop by and join in.

I will be entering this card in the Make it Monday - Linky Party

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Welcome to the world Lily Rose

When I returned home from work on Monday evening I received a message to tell me that my friend Vicky had gone into labour slightly earlier than expected and that the new arrival was imminent. Lily-Rose arrived in the world at 01:23 hours on Tuesday 12th of June 2012 weighing in at 5lbs 15 1/2 ounces.  Although Vicky knew she was expecting a little girl she hadn't told anyone else so I had two cards planned in my head and two sets of stash on standby to go as soon as I found out. So at approximately 09:30 hrs on 12th June 2012 I went into labour with this card (I think I probably had a much easier time of it than Vicky, although it did last nearly as long.)


I wanted to make something really special for Vicky and her husband Steve to keep for years to come so I decided to make a boxed card. I already had the idea for the circular topper in my head so I decided to make a circular easel card. 

I started with the box to make sure that the corners were dry and solid before I decorated it. I used a glitter girls box making board to get the measurements right and secured the corners with gel glue holding them together with clothes pegs until the glue was dry.

The next thing I did was get the big shot out of it's storage bag and start die cutting. I used a number of different dies including, Nestabilities circles, two different flourishes, Anja corners and the ivy leaves from Marianne Creatables, fern leaf die from Kreassions, and finally the letter die is from X-cut.

I then moved onto making the base card and the topper. The base card started life as a 6x6 square card and I used the largest of my x-cut circle cutters to cut it to shape. Because I knew the embellishments would be quite weighty I then cut a piece of plain pink card and a piece of pink card I bought ages ago and can't remember where from but it is embossed with tiny little footprints. I sandwiched the bottom of the base card between these two circles and secured with glue gel ensuring that the embossed piece would be uppermost when the card was opened. This was then left to dry whilst I returned to the box lid which was by now dry enough to work with.



I cut a square of pink card and stuck this to the lid and added silver peel off round the edge and the Anja corners which had been which had been cut from white pearl paper. The flowers were made by layering up different size sequins from my stash, and the letters were stuck down using glue gel to allow me to get them lined up. Whilst this was drying I returned to the card.



I folded the front of the card to form the easel and used a piece of pink card stock as the front panel. I covered this with a beautiful paper from Ooh La La's Passion for Fashion CD which looks like a piece of satin and to enhance the effect it was printed on pearlised paper. I used two circles for the topper, sandwiching white crocheted lace between the two to give a fancy edge. The little dress is cut from vellum and I then used an embossing grid to add little flowers to it, before attaching to piece of white paper and then  sticking it to the centre of the topper. the tiny ribbon bow was then added to finish (Thank goodness for my bow maker I could never have tied it that small without it). Whilst the topper was drying I added the self adhesive pearls around the edges of the card and base. I put the letters spelling Lily-Rose around the front edge of the card, and added the tiny bootees I found in my stash onto a circle of card stock to make the stopper.


Once the topper was dry I added a floral arrangement, using roses from Wild Orchid crafts and lilies from my stash. 

To finish off I printed a verse on a sheet of the paper from the Ooh La La CD and stuck this to the inside of the lid. 



The verse reads.....

May your new baby bring you joy
And fill your hearts with love and pleasure
Congratulations to the both of you 
And welcome to your little treasure.
A gorgeous baby daughter 
With ten tiny fingers and ten tiny toes.
A dainty little lady 
By the name of Lily Rose.

The card will be delivered tomorrow.

I am entering this card into the following Challenges
http://ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything goes 

Monday 11 June 2012

Oh Baby with Ooh La La Creations

Blimey what a response to last weeks 'Make It Girlie' Challenge over 250 entries and I really don't envy Daniele as she had the monumental task of  picking the top three. You can see her choices over at Ooh La La Creations Challenge Blog, and check out the DT inspiration cards for This weeks 'Baby' Challenge.

Here is my card and it is a sneak preview of one of the images from the Ooh La La 'Everyday Occasions' CD which will be launched on Create and Craft TV on July 6th.



I printed the backing paper and the image onto pearlised paper to give a sheen to it and then decoupaged the image. The larger of the two layers behind the image is just a piece of white card which I embossed using one of my Glitter Girls embossing board and the smaller layer is a piece of pearlised paper which I embossed using a papermania 'patchwork' triple embossing folder. If you have never used the triple embossing folders the are lovely and really do add dimension. I have a few of them but this patchwork one is my favourite and I use it for lots of cards but it works really well with designs for new babies. The images from the new CD are so charming and delightful they don't need much in the way of embellishments so I just used a simple ribbon bow to embellish the tag sentiment and the four buttons were left overs from a cardigan I knitted for my one of my nephews when he was a baby - he is now all grown up with three gorgeous children of his own - just goes to show how long I keep items in my crafting stash for in the hope they will come in useful.

Anyway enough chatting I have to get over to the CRAFTfest at http://creative-connections.ning.com/photo/albums/alli-d-cards-crafest-stall to see if I have any orders. Today is my last day at my real job before starting on leave for a week so I get to make cards without having to think about going into work.

I am entering this card into the following challenges
http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - ice cream colours - I hope the teddies lovely pastel coloured jumpers qualify
http://ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything goes

Sunday 10 June 2012

50th Birthday Card and Tag



Next week  a good friend of mine celebrates her 50th birthday and I wanted to make her a special card to celebrate. Here's what I came up with.



I wanted a shabby chic/vintage feel to the card and I raided my stash, for anything that would work. Once I had collected everything together I narrowed things down a bit by deciding on the 'A little bird told me' theme. I found the image of the bird in a gorgeous little book of Victorian images I have in my stash and cut it out. The papers are from Paper Cellar and of course they have been distressed using my Ranger distress inks (where would I be without them) before being edged with a gold gilding pen. The bird cage was one I had left over from a previous project and I gilded this to make it match. Like wise the panel with the panel with the '50' on it was the centre section I had cut out of a frame from a previous project. The doily was one of several I liberated from a restaurant when we took my dad out for a birthday meal, they were on the saucers under the coffee cups and I rescued them, when I got them home I found that they were several layers thick so separated them - instant stash! I gilded the doily using the pen to keep to the golden theme. I used a small tag and added the hope wish and dream sentiments to one edge and the flowers to it before tying a bow in gold organza ribbon. The flowers were just from my stash and the delicate gold fern leaves were from a Christmas table decoration. The pins I made from recycled jewellery from a charity shop.
Finally the two butterflies were punched from pearlised paper that had been gilded with the pen.

Having had so much fun making the tag for the card I decided to go on and make a tag for Barbara's gift using more of the silk flowers and the butterflies.


 The leaves for the tag were cut from fabric and stuck down using aslan film.

I gave her the card and gift last night when we went out for a meal, which included excellent food, great company, much  laughter and Greek dancing!! Barbara was very good and resisted opening her card and present until her birthday next week - I hope she likes them and will forgive the copious amounts of birthday confetti concealed in the present.

I am entering the card into the following Challenges
http://fabnfunkychallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - go green recycled doily, Jewellery and Christmas table decoration.
http://wildorchidchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - Bingo Buttons and pins, Blue, and wings (bird and butterflies)

I am entering the tag into the following challenges
http://cupcakecraftchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - tag you're it
http://movingalongwiththetimes.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything but a card