Nimanoo Cafe

Following this weeks sketch from Sketch Saturday, I’ve made this birthday card for my neighbour.

(Her birthday is tomorrow so hopefully she won’t visit my blog before then )

The butterfly stamp is from Papermania.   Stamped twice and layered for a 3D effect,  I have coloured it using Sakura Star Dust pens so that it sparkles, although again this does not show on the photo.   The border punch is  Martha Stewart’s  ‘Doily’, the flowers are X Cut punches dotted with a white gel pen and the backing papers are all from my stash.

A new sibling card made for a friends little girl for the arrival of her new baby brother.

The image is a rubber stamp from Tina wenke called ‘Opossum Pals’.  I coloured it with watercolours and sakura gels pens for a touch of sparkle (which doesn’t show on the photo at all! ).

Here is the last card for  Mothers Day, once again using the new butterfly punch.

I do wish punches had a longer in-let on them as I do get frustrated at always having to punch the butterflies so close to the edge of the cards.   I’m convinced there must be a way around it, I just have thought of it yet

The colour of this card actually compliments the gift I have bought for my Mum so she will now be getting this one and the previous card has now been sent to my Mother in Law.

I bought a new Butterfly punch from X Cut’s Dimension range.   I was having a play with it this afternoon and made this Mothers Day gate-fold card.

To get the butterfly on the right facing in the other direction I punched it on the underside of the card and pushed the wings through to the front.  (Poor description but I hope you know what I mean).

It was bound to happen that as soon as I sent the Cuttlebug off for repair, I would receive an order that required it.    But Fate has a cruel sense of humour and the order I received was for 30 wedding invitations and therefore 30 embossed embellishments were required.

I’ve held off doing the order as long as I could and kept on at the shop about the repair in hope that the Bug would be returned sooner but after still having no further information on an ETA , I decided I could not wait any longer.   So,  armed with a rolling pin and my Swiss Dots folder, I painstakingly hand embossed all 30 toppers last night.   Boy! are my wrists paying for it today!  Still, it worked and the job is done.

20 minutes ago I got a knock on my door.   And what should be delivered?    Yep, my replacement Cuttlebug.       AAAAAaaaaaargh!!

Anyway, the invitations are now wrapped safely in their box ready for despatch.    The theme of the wedding is diamonds and hearts with a colour scheme of purple and silver:

I actually forgot I had these cute digi stamps from ‘Cuddlybuddly‘ and just happen to stumble across them whilst sorting through files on my PC yesterday and thought they’d make lovely Mothers Day/ Birthday cards from children.

I have entered these cards into the following challenges:

Dare U 2 Digi Stamp – Use your punches                          Pile it on – Flowers

Bee Crafty – Sew Cute (real or faux stitching)                 Sassy Susie – Hearts and Flowers

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge – Mothers Day            Craft Challenge – Digi Colouring

My digi images are coloured using copics and I have added faux stitching with a white gel pen to the edges of the backing paper and around the petals of the larger flowers.   There is also a couple of stitches on the heart of the image.

I did one version of the card from a daughter:

And one from a Son:

Following the sketch from this weeks ‘Sketch and Stash Challenge‘ I have made another birthday card, this time  for a friend who has a serious passion for shopping!

I have also entered it into the ‘Totally Papercraft‘ challenge which this week is ‘lots of spots’

Backing papers are from Pink Petticoat, image from Penny Black and the ribbon, flower and gems are all from my stash.

I made a start on Mothers Day cards this week and some of them, like this one, I’ll purposefully keep the sentiment neutral so it can be used for other occasions.

This card fits into 4 current challenges:

Sketch Saturday – Sketch

Papertake Weekly – Check this out (gingham or checks)

A Spoonful of Sugar – Spring is in the air (springtime colours/ theme)

Allsorts – Recipe, 3-2-1 (I used 3 flowers, 2 different papers, 1 image)

I stamped the orange and bronze flowers onto the backing paper myself.   I should do that more often, I’m really pleased with the effect.

This card will be going to a friend I am seeing tomorrow for her birthday but it will be added to the Mothers Day card range on the Nimanoo Website.

Following the sketch on this weeks Sketch and Stash challenge, I have made this ‘New Home’ card.    The stamp is a new purchase from Rachelle Anne Miller and is called ‘Fairy Tale House’.   All other items are from my stash.

I think I may have gone a little too dark with the colouring and would prefer to see this in something a little brighter so I’m sure you’ll see another attempt at some point but here it is:

I received an order for a sympathy card.     I haven’t made many before because I struggle to find the right balance of decoration.   Too much seems inappropriate and too little seems to understate the sentiment.

Aiming for subtle elegance, here is the card I made:

The flourish stamp is silver embossed.   The embossing powder has glitter in it (which I didn’t realise  until after I’d heated it!) however, this gives a real ’shine’ effect when the light catches it so it matches the mirri card I used for backing.

I included a very subtle light grey lining to the envelope.