Do you follow a sketch, Sue? It makes things lots easier! All you have to do is choose papers with colours which complement your photo, choose a background colour, and follow the sketch. The page 'Precious Friends' was a scraplift of a page I saw in a magazine, (I added in the film negatives as I found the result a bit too bare), and the page 'sunshine baby' was put together in 15 minutes, based on this sketch:



I added in a few extra bits when the basic page was assembled (mainly rub-ons in this case), but often I add buttons, eyelets, cord, stamps, etc ... I usually either scraplift somebody else's layout or follow a sketch, as otherwise I spend weeks and weeks hesitating over everything, and end up putting it all away again.

Another 'trick' is to use a neutral background (white, black or beige), and if you are having trouble matching the patterned paper colours to your photo, then go for a black and white or sepia photo. That way you can put whatever colour scheme you like with it.

The short answer is No but I go to crops and we normally have a kit to use and it will give the layouts and materials needed and you are told what you need in the way of photos.

This afternoon I finished the album that the pages I posted above came from. This is the title page. Sorry for the flash glare, but the pic I took without was far too fuzzy to share

aww I can't see it Liz. Can anyone else see it?

I can see it - it looks lovely!

Yep, clear as clear. Well done Liz, really nice

I can see it now .. wonderful!

That's fantastic, Liz! Love the floral paper from the BG Lemonade range!

Lovely Liz.

I found a cool tutorial to make an origami bow on You Tube recently, and couldn't wait to try it out. Here's the result on a colourful card I put together to set it off:

That is just lovely! The bow is wonderful.

A birthday card for my brother in law's birthday. So sorry about the flash, it is done on hologram card, with the added extra of mini playing cards

That's a fun card, Jane! Love the mini playing cards !

Here's a paper-pieced card I have spent my evening working on, next time I'll try to remember my son's birthday a little sooner than the night before the day itself! Snipping and gluing all those fiddly bits has given me sore eyes and a headache, but I guess it'll be worth it for the fun he'll get out of the thing, hehe:

Now that 22nd March has come and gone I can show you the card that I made for PurpleFan using a photo taken by flopsymopsy with her permission naturally. Thank you flopsy.

I loved my card and it is sitting here beside me on my PC tower.
I showed it to everyone who came over.
They were all jealous.
Thanks again Sue.xx

What a beautiful card, Sue! Belated birthday greetings, Purple xxx

Belated Happy Birthday, PurpleFan.




(I know I've seen it before but that turned out well, Sue - excellent job!)

This card weighs a ton.

There is a story behind it, I decided that I wanted an oyster shell so I jumped into my car and drove about 6 miles to a vivier (a place which sells fish) and asked a slightly bemused man how much an oyster would cost.

Man - "30p"
Me - "How big are they? Could you show me a selection please?"
Man goes to the tank and brings me three oysters of varying shapes and sizes to view.
Me - "That one is about the right size, could you open it for me without damaging the shell as I want to use it on a card? You can throw the oyster away, I only want the shell"
Bemused looking man - "You don't like oysters?"
Me - "No, as I said, I want to stick it on a card"
Man opens oyster very carefully, giving me strange looks
Me - "Can I have a few moules too please, just a few not a bagful and I don't mind if they are already open as I won't be eating them"
Man - "Would you like some of these shells too?" He was gathering up some shells from on a shelf, "and how about a scallop shell?"
He put the lot in a bag and handed it to me as I offered him a £1 coin.
Man - "No, that it fine, don't worry about that"

I think the poor man was traumatised, he will be dining out on tales of the demented old woman wanting to stick oysters on a card!

It is one for the pile that I am hoping to sell in April.

Great card and great story! Love it!

Well worth running the risk of being incarcerated in a psychatric ward, I'd say. Lovely card.

I had a lovely time making this one, again for this sale thing, I didn't really know were it was going until it was almost done. The image is in fact supposed to be a bookmark, the back of it is inside the card with the greeting on. The card is 5" by 9.5" and boxed.

Great stuff eveyone
Those cards are so 'classic' Sue .. lovely effect.

Now I find making cards like yours difficult, I simply don't have the flair, it is so stylish.

Here is one which is drying at the moment - the glue gel takes an age to dry properly but when it does dry it is like cement.

Love your cupcake, copago! How did you manage not to chop off the candle when you cut the frame? I'm presuming you used a Nesties frame?

Sut, amazing as usual! I can only imagine the number of hours you have put in to making that work of art!

Here's a batch of invitations I made last night, for my nieces forthcoming Communion:

Those are gorgeous invitations.