A Personal Story

Card Making Magic is now just over three years old and this has been the most extraordinary journey I have ever made.  I knew absolutely nothing about websites  and ...apart from sending the odd email  ... nothing about the internet either.

But I went ahead and dived in and, with a lot of hard work over those years,  it has gone from strength to strength. And then I had the idea  to add videos to the pages ... and that took it into another dimension... and the response from those tutorials has amazed me.

Through  YouTube  I started to get "followers" and some of the comments they leave me are wonderful.... some of them have been following me for a few years now.  They spur me on to do more and many many of my followers email me with questions and stories of their own.  I now have requests to do tutorials on things that people want and I do my best to accomodate them. 

One follower in particular asked if we could communicate more privately away from  YouTube and we started to email each other. We have built up quite a friendship and it was Naomi who encouraged me to start Blogging. She helped me every step of the way and I will always be grateful for that help. We went one step further and started to chat regularly on Skype.

And then she asked  if  I ... and my film crew  ... would like to visit her  in Canada.  Of course we debated this for a while and then we said "YES" and so then the planning started from both sides of the pond.

Last week we booked our flights to Nova Scotia and I am so excited to be going to Prince Edward Island.  It has come around so quickly and now it is just over one week away and I will get to meet Naomi.

She is like a kid in a candy shop and is planning all sorts for us to do in the two weeks we will be with her and her family.  On the 22nd  June we will fly from Heathrow and I can hardly wait, it is going to be such an adventure for us all.

In the meantime I have scheduled posts to go out for my Blog and I will be adding more to the pages from Canada ... and maybe show you a project or two that Naomi and I have created together.

Wish me Bon Voyage for the 22nd ....

Hugs xx

Spellbinders Bauble Blossoms

A little while ago I had an email from a lady who had bought this  Bauble Blossom die  and  was very disappointed with the result.

She said she didn't like the look and all the petals where bunched together instead  of flared out  form the centre.

So as a picture paint a thousand words I thought the best way to explain how I use the die was to .....
    make a video!

Spellbinders Bauble Blossoms  is a short tutorial on how to get a really good look for the flowers that you want to enhance your designs.

This is another of those Baby Fairies from Mo's Digital Pencil  and I hope you have taken the time to have a look around some of the cutest images there are.

I have used Spectrum Noir pens to colour the image and this has started off a whole new set of emails asking about the colouring of these.

So gues what I will be doing soon ....... more videos!!

The "Bling" as always is fromWant2Scrap  and the flattened look with the pearls was a happy accident I made a while ago.

But the mistake looked OK and so I have used it several times on other cards and decided to share the idea with you.... you may like it too.

Hugs xx

Baby Fairies...

I am always happy to pass on any good finds that I make and so I just have to show you these. Now this may be a website that some of you already know about ... but I have just joined the band wagon.

I  bought these delightful images from  Mo's Digital Pencil  and I  love, love, love 'em all they are so cute.  My favorite one is the baby with the ladybird that I have coloured with blue hair.

There are loads of really gorgeous images for you to choose from  and they are not expensive.

I have coloured all of these with  Spectrum Noir pens from Crafters Companion  and I am very pleased with the results.  They have all been matted and layered onto Spellbinder shapes.

There is a mix of images here. The top left and bottom right are from the "Baby Fairies" collection.

The child with the cupcake is "Kai is 1" and the other is "Girl on the potty"

But once these are made into a card ... well how could you not be pleased with the result.

The "Bling" as always is from Want2Scrap and I think it makes the card look really special.

I have used the pearly Finesse Swirls for this card and added them to the image itself... saving one pearl for the flower centre... and used the Diamante borders along the edges.

The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and I have dotted some glue along the petals and then sprinkled them with Glamour Dust.

I will be having a lot of fun using these images in the coming months ... so keep a look out for them again in different colour schemes to ring in the changes.

Hugs xx

Nestaboard ... Labels 20

This has to be one of my favorite shapes as the Labels 20 is so versatile.

I featured this card earlier in the year but it is well worth showing again.

This time the Nestaboard shape has been treated to a  technique using Silver Gilding Flakes.

You will find it explained in the video  Mosaic Card

For this I used two of the shapes from the Nestaboard Labels 20  and layered them together.  The lace along the bottom adds a really feminine touch.

The Roses are handmade and the  video Paper Roses  will show you how to make these for yourself.   You will always have flowers to match your projects if you use the same ones as the base card.

The Nestaboard is available from Want2Scrap  and they will ship worldwide so that you too can enjoy their lovely "Bling"

Hugs xx

Nestaboard ... Lacy Ovals

This pretty shape is created from the largest Nestaboard shape in the  Lacy Ovals  and gemstone Nestabling frames the shape.

Both of these products are from   Want2Scrap  and are explained more  in the video  Alternative Spellbinders

The Skeleton leaves,  White Gardenias  and Roses  are  from Wild Orchid Crafts 

There are also some stems of pearls on gold wire but I can't remember where I got them from ...  soreeee!

I have used Gilding Flakes to get the Gold effect and the bottom of the oval has had some tear drops from a pair of un-used earrings added to it.

I also glued into the oval some matching pearls to complete the look.

The sentiment is layered onto a Fluer Di Lis Accent and I cut another in gold card as a shadow effect.  I used the smallest peice of gemstones from the Nestabling to frame it.

Both shapes are suspended from one of the Elegant Posts.

Hugs xx