A & J are Engaged!

Gosh, it's November already!  October simply flew past with so many things happening, no wonder I'm feeling just a wee bit weary, although at this end of the year, you tend to feel that way, don't you?

Last weekend I had my stall (with my BFF) at the local school's Spring Fair.  The weather was perfect, not too hot with a little breeze wafting around and a reasonable number of people attending.  Oddly enough most of my new handmade items for sale didn't but quite a number of my pre-loved stamps and ink pads did - sell that is.  I guess markets/fairs are a bit like that, sometimes the're successful while othertimes the're not.  My BFF didn't have much success either with her colourful children's backpacks, coin purses and quilted purses; and her daughter was selling friendship bracelets, all handmade - I felt quite disappointed for them both.  The upside was that I got to spend a whole day with my BFF!!!   Some of the other stalls around us didn't have terribly much business either as three of them had packed and gone by 1.30pm, and the Fair didn't finish until 3pm!

This weekend is the Paper Crafts Festival at Penrith which I'll be heading out to tomorrow.  Alice in Paperland has quite a large stall and I'll be demonstrating probably through to lunchtime.  I'm planning on decorating envelopes with Distress Inks and stencils etc.   I've made some samples to start off and hope my mojo doesn't dessert me 'cause it wasn't being terribly helpful yesterday!

A few weeks ago, one of my friends asked if I would make a card for a good friend who had just become engaged.   She wanted something fancy with initials of the couple, using pink, purple or red but definitely NOT green and on A4 folded in half (ie a big card).  So with a bit of thought, umming & ahhhing, this is what I came up with :

I find it quite difficult to do fancy/fussy cards, so I started with the letters.  I have a box of large chipboard letters that I've had for quite a number of years now (and rarely used), inked them up with SU's white craft inkpad, dried with the heatgun and added purple bling in different sizes.  What to do next?

I cut a tag from purple cardstock, folded a paper doily around it, and cut the butterfly using SU's embosslits die.  A few purple bling for the body ties in nicely with the letters.  I was trying to work out how to attach the heart which has a small hole to tie it on with, and then realised that the stem on one of the roses would go through perfectly.  Then I attached the ribbon and the flowers.

At this point with the main elements done, but not stuck down, there was still something missing - the background just wasn't working as it was too plain.  So out came my Cuttlebug and my collection of embossing folders and voila, all fixed and looking much better, which meant everything could now be put together to create the finished card.

Only the insides to finish off, and out came two of my favourite SU stamps, they just add a perfect touch of elegance to any card!  Finding an envelope large enough, ah now that's another story!!!

I couldn't post this until I knew the happy engaged couple had received their card, so I hope they like it !!!


Happy crafting!