Me to You Tartan Christmas Card

Today I would like to share the first Me to You Christmas card with you. More cards are already prepared, but immediately after I took the photo for this one the sky went dark, daylight was pretty much non-existent and we got yet more heavy rainfall. Hopefully the conditions will be better again tomorrow and I can share the next images with you then.

Me to You is a brand-new Christmas collection by Trimcraft with gorgeous papers in three sizes, a die-cut glitter decoupage pad, clear stamps, card packs in two sizes and loads of lovely embellishments. The only other product I used for today's card is Joanna Sheen's pine cone die set, which I used for the fir tree pieces at the flower.

A product list and step-by-step instructions for this card are again available in my Trimcraft gallery.

A card I would have preferred not to make

As much as I love crafts, the reason for this card is just so sad that I would have preferred not to make it in the first place. What can you say to a mother, who unexpectedly and suddenly lost her daughter? And that at an age where everybody should still have most of their life to look forward to.

I did not want to make a standard sympathy card. I wanted the card and our words to show that we care and are thinking of her, but also wanted to start building a bridge from the current pain to treasured memories. My intention was to create a card that can become a keepsake after a while. So many things connected with her daughter, photos and possessions must be so precious now.

It took me a few days to finalise the card. I think initially I just needed to get over the emotional impact of the news. But even after deciding on the Santoro Mirabelle collection by Trimcraft due to its stunning products and muted colours it still took a while to work out the layout. I just wanted to get this card right.

For the front of the card I used:

• Santoro Mirabelle A4 premium paper pad
• Santoro Mirabelle glitter decoupage pad
• Santoro Mirabelle metal charms - butterflies
• Santoro Mirabelle metal charms - medallions
• Santoro Mirabelle metal buttons
• Santoro Mirabelle adhesive pearls
• 8" square kraft card blank
• Black cardstock
• Black spider web net
• Clarity word stamp
• Black Versafine ink pad
• Adhesive
• Toolbox basics

For the insert I chose an extract from the lyrics to the song 'Book of Golden Stories' by Runrig accompanied by our own words. The extract from the lyrics reads:

'Yes, as long as I can see the morning

And blossom comes to bud again in spring

It's enough to keep me still believing

Your memory is everything'

It was somehow heartbreaking to make this card, but I am pleased with the end result and hope that she will be able to appreciate it once the pain of the loss has ebbed down a wee bit.

Forget-me-not Tag Card

What a week this has been! Festival time in Edinburgh, some Commonwealth Games events and a number of incidents impacting on traffic have not been a good combination. On two days I actually spent more time trying to get to and from work then I actually spent in the office ... Fingers crossed that this will be better in the new week, but I will not hold my breath just yet.

The card above is again created using Dovecraft Forget-me-not products by Trimcraft. This time I used the beautiful 'bunch of flowers' stamp.

For a perfect ink distribution and impression I conditioned this clear stamp with a high quality eraser before the first use. I stamped the image using a Memento ink pad and coloured it in with ProMarkers. Step-by-step instructions and a product list for this card can be found in my Trimcraft gallery.

And for those who are wondering about the stapler: I used a normal office stapler and standard staples to attach the raffia string to the tag. 

Forget-me-not - So Versatile and Useful for Many Different Themes

Forget-me-not - Afternoon Tea

Could somebody please tell this weather that we are in Scotland and should not be bothered about a heatwave? We are just not used to such temperatures over a prolonged period of time. Even crafting is pretty much only possible in the morning. Afterwards it is just getting too warm with the risk of just sticking to card and paper ...

Today I used the morning hours to finish off instructions for the two cards featured in this blog post. They are created with the beautiful Dovecraft Forget-me-not collection by Trimcraft. And the card above does not even have a gardening theme, which shows that these lovely products also cater for summery cards for other occasions.

Product lists and step-by-step-instructions for both projects are in my Trimcraft gallery. Just click onto the links below the images to be taken through directly to the descriptions.

Forget-me-not - Live Love Grow

The dies, which I used for these two cards are a leaf die strip by Britannia Dies and the border, tag and corner die set from Sue Wilson's Italian collection.

Dovecraft Forget-me-not - Gardener's Summer

For the card, which I would like to share with you today, I have opted again for the new Dovecraft Forget-me-not collection by Trimcraft. The lovely images and soft colours are just perfect for a bit of summer crafting.

In this case I have covered both sides of the card blank with patterned paper, a technique that I have not used for far too long although it creates such beautiful and really sturdy base cards.

A product list and step-by-step instructions are again available in my Trimcraft gallery. The decorative border punch that I used is by Tonic Studios. For the leave section I decided on a floral die by Joy! Crafts. The small white fabric flowers and white beads are in fact from a deconstucted piece of white heather.

Further new projects will follow all this week.

Cards Inspired by the Summer

Forget-me-not - Liquid Pleasure

Here are now the next two projects created with the new Dovecraft Forget-me-not collection by Trimcraft.

And at least these cards bring a bit of summer into my life. After a lovely, sunny and warm Tuesday the weather suddenly changed completely. A dull, significantly cooler and very windy day with rainshowers in the evening followed. I really hope that we will get a few more nice days.

Forget-me-not - Birds of Summer

I added again product lists and step-by-step instructions to my Trimcraft gallery in case you want to re-create one or both of the cards. Just click onto the titles/links below the images to go directly to the projects on the Trimcraft forum.

Dovecraft Forget-me-not Collection

Have you already seen the beautiful new Forget-me-not collection by Dovecraft? The garden themed images in mainly pastel colours are so pretty and great for summer crafting sessions.

I started with the glitter decoupage pad. I just could not resist the gorgeous images with glitter effects. And I also just had to try out new items like the pockets and the adhesive garland flags. A full product list and step-by-step-instructions for this card can be found in my Trimcraft gallery.

This is only the first project of many. Other cards are already completed, but are still awaiting their project instructions. It would be great, if you could check back for more projects and inspiration over the next days.