I've been a bit lapse lately with my posts. Most of January was written off with vertigo, and February was spent catching up on all the things I should have done in January. I also made a new years resolution to focus more on scrapbooking this year and less on card making. However I've only finished 1 mini book with 2 other "works in progress".

Anyway June is fast approaching and most of our family have birthdays between June 12th and July 16th so it's a busy time for me. Usually I start panicking as soon as I see the poppies blooming (my father is affectionately know as Poppy to his grandchildren and his birthday is June 14th). However because we've had such a mild spring they're already bursting to life and I've started panicking early - probably a good thing as I'm far too much of a "last minute" person.

The timing has worked out really well as next month I am giving a talk about card making to our local craft group. To be honest I'm a little nervous (which is really bad because then I start to talk too fast and nobody will be able to understand me). I thought I'd concentrate more on construction rather than design - that's Jaine's department! We've come up with 3 styles of card which we feel are simple enough to talk about even to complete novices but also have that extra WOW ! factor.

These are

1. The Twisted Easel Card. This is one I made last week for a friend of Simon's. I've since done two others. I finally got to use my new Marianne D birdcage die as well - isn't it gorgeous! The best thing about these cards is that I made them from a set of card blanks I bought in the local Zeeman store for 99c for a pack of 10. The packs come in sets of co-ordinating colours (5 of each) with matching envelopes. Most of the designs I used meant sacrificing an extra card for the die cut and construction of the easel, but that still works out at 20c a card plus adhesives, papers and embellishments.

2. The Penny Slider Card. There didn't seem much point taking just a photo of this one - you have to see it in action. I mixed and matched two Zeeman sets to come up with this pink and black card. I had seen others on the internet which had either a horizontal or vertical slot but I thought I'd make my moth circumnavigate the flower. The stamps are from Paperartsy Hot Picks.

As this card only used only 1 and 1/2 cards from the Zeeman set, it was actually cheaper to produce than the Twisted Easel Card, though it did take quite a few foam pads and of course the 2 pennies (1 cent coins).

3. The Double Slider Card. When I saw this technique I automatically thought of this Writing set stamp from Clearly Impressed - it looked so much like a drawer being opened, and I thought of the nibs. I used a Crafty Individuals stamp as well.

I hope these get the creative juices flowing within the group and I can't wait to see what they produce ! Meanwhile it's back to the craft mat for me as I've still got many more cards to make including one for my friend Ruth who turns 50 next week.