Getting prepared:-

What a busy social life we have at the moment, take this week.  Monday I was seeing the practice nurse at our surgery, Tuesday DH was having more tests at the hospital, Wednesday was a doctors appointment for me, Thursday was a doctors appointment for DH and Friday I had to see another nurse. Lol the excitement round here is at an all time high.

No one has said otherwise so at the moment we are still planning our month in the sunshine come March; with this in mind I am trying to get ahead with cards.

First I will show you my January cards (and no I do not have a sister, that was made for a friend who does). The card for my brother was made using Sue Wilson dies, Weaving dies, outer die from Genieva, and stitched flags.  The car was cut on my Silhouette portait and it and the backing to it were treated to Graphite gilding polish.  The lemon and peach card for a friend used Sue Wilsons Ornate Octagon Striplet die, exquisite poppies dies, and the sentiment from the Ornate Frames, Brighter Days die;  the bow actually matches the flowers lovely but they look rather dull on here and the bow looks almost brown lol.

and now for my February Birthdays.  Firstly is a parchment and decoupage card, made for my lovely aunt who will be 94.  I actually made this one a while back but liked it so much I saved it for someone special.

next comes my friend Nicola, this one was made with the Sue Wilson, Swizz collection dies and my new Pixie Powders – I was having fun playing with them.  I do not know who the embossing folder is by, as I often take a wad of plain card over to my daughters to emboss whilst I am using her folders which are all different to mine.  Have to make the best of all the resources available to you lol.

Next it will be my nieces birthday.  The circle was cut from a Spellbinders Grand Nestabilities Circular die, and the flowers are Sue Wilsons Cape Daisies , ( made from scraps of paper from playtime with the Pixie Powders) and Trailing Ivy. The topper of course was done using Serif.

Lastly for another friend. I made this using a prescored butterfly edge card in white.  I added Heather gilding polish  to the butterflies along the edge of the card, embossed with Ornate Butterflies – Embossalicious folder from Crafters Companion.  The butterflies  are from a die I have a love hate relationship with  it is by Marianne Designs, and though I love how it turns out I hate that there are no release holes with this die so it can be a swine to get out of the die. The butterflies were again treated to the Heather gilding paste, as were the letters which were cut from an old Tattered Lace set which I think was called “Carnival Alphabet”.

If you have not yet tried the Creative Expressions gilding polish, then please do.  I always loved the look of gilding wax but I hated the smell and found it difficult to apply.  With the gilding polish there is no smell and they are just so easy to use, the applicator sits in the lid of the pot and so no messy fingers, and any mess on my craft mat wipes away with a baby wipe or a damp cloth.

I have now started on my March birthdays so hope to be back to share them with you soon.

Hugs