Its a Baby Boom, baby Announcements

So far this week I've heard from three of my friends who are all pregnant and are all due in December and January....spooky. With all this baby talk going on I thought it perfect timing to get creative and make up some baby announcements.

I've made up two sets so far, one for baby boys, one for baby girls and have listed them on my Etsy store. I'm planning on making up a couple other sets and also some Baby Shower invitations and thank you card sets.

Scrapbook Embellishments

I like to make embellishments for my handmade cards and so I thought I would package some of them up to sell on my Etsy site for other fellow scrapbookers to use on their album and other crafts.

They are made from assorted cardstock and paper using 4 different sized flower paper punches. It was fun coming up with the different color combintations.

I'm hoping to make other items too so check out the store at http://www.lizfelgatecrafts.etsy.com/

Jelly and his friends

Yesterday I was down at my friend Sandra's house as I was helping her to get packed up for a move to Germany in the summer. When I got to her house I always take my dog Jelly along as he is good friends with Sandra's little pack of three Border Collies and they have a great time together.

While Sandra & I were busy getting things packed up all of the dogs were busy wearing each other out playing. There were five dogs in all as a nieghbors dog was being looked after too so it was a real house full. They are all such lovely dogs and I'm really going to miss them when they move to Germany and I know that Jelly will too.

When it came time to leave I opened up the trunk of my car for Jelly to hop into and all of the other dogs decided to hop in too. It was such a funny site and I happened to have my camera on me and captured some photos of the motely crew in the back of my car.

Unfortunately the others had to stay at Sandra's and I brought home a very tired looking Jelly on his own.

It took a couple of shots to get them all looking the same dircetion!

Meet the crew - Taran, Darcy, Jelly, Tess and Mardie

Flowers from my garden

I love being outside and I love gardening. I get my green fingers from my Mum who also loves to garden and has a beautiful garden back in England. When we moved into our house in 2004 there wasn't much of a garden or 'yard' as its known on this side of the pond.

Once the house had been renovated it was time to get the garden sorted and I've enjoyed designing and developing it over the years and still enjoy changing it and adding new items. I've created wide flowing flower borders and filled them with all my favourite plants like hostas, lillies, daisys, cone flowers, heucheras and lots more.

I'm just making up some containers for the front porch to brighten it up and I'm looking forward to the giant lillies finally opening as they are so beautiful and spectacular.

When my Mum came over for a visit this spring we spent lots of time in the garden and added a new flower bed in the front lawn...just an excuse to go and buy some more plants really!!

In my back garden I have my vegetable garden where I have tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, brocolli, corn, radish, lettuce, beets, onions, beans, peas, spinach, strawberrys, raspberries and blue berries. I'm just about to add some sweet potatoes, water melon and summer squash so I should have a plentiful harvest theoughout the summer of fresh fruit & veg.

Each day there is something new to look at and of course more than one weed to pull out so I can spend a lot of time just 'pottering' in my garden taking in its beauty and seeing the new flowers or plants.

My Jelly Boy

This is my dog Jelly who is almost three years old now. We got him from an animal rescue in February 2007 and we love him so much. He is a Border Collie and Springer Spaniel cross and certainly has the nutty parts of both breeds in him.

As he has beautiful long hair he just gets so hot in the summer and so its off to the petsmart groomers to have a full doggy pampering and have his hair shaved. He's in there longer than I am in the hair salon and comes out looking all lovely and smelling divine.

The first time I had him shaved it was quite a suprise to see him afterwards and rather amusing too, I must admit as he did look funny.

At least now he'll stay cooler and be easier to keep clean during the summer months, and there will be less hair around the house too which is good too.

Cards for those little boys in our lives

I love making cards for children as they are so much fun. I've made some new birthday cards for those special little boys which I think are so cute.

Whether they like aeroplanes, trains or cars, these cards will bring a smile to their little faces. I made three special cards for a lady who has triplet boys and personalized each card with their name to make them extra special.

Check them out along with other cards at www.lizfelgatecrafts.etsy.com

Away with the Flower Fairies!

I love trying out new crafting techniques and today I tried decopaging! It takes a while but I soon got the hang of it and I'm really pleased with the results.

These beautiful flower fairies really come to life when you transform them into a 3D image with the help of a very sharp craft knife, a very steady hand and some foam tape!

I'm now looking at what else I can use this technique with, maybe try it out with some photographs next.

Custom Wedding Invitations

I'm just finishing up some beautiful wedding invitations for a wedding in September. These were 100% custom to the Bride & Groom and I worked with them to create the exact and unique invitation that they wanted.

They knew what colors they wanted included and the bride wanted to make sure it had some bling so I set to work coming up with samples of different styles and we came down to the chosen design. I then set to work making 70 of these beauties!

Made of a gorgeous deep maroon cardstock that I cut into a petal style card. The insert is a pearl paper printed with chocolate text and highlighted with a tiny crystal on the monogram. This is mounted on a dark chocolate card and attached to the petal card. The invitation is carefully folded and held in place with a custom ribbon made made of stunning woven ribbon in gold, maroon and black and a large oval crystal adorns the center.

The invitation is complemented by a lovely gold envelope. I also wrote the guest names on the invitation and envelopes in beautiful calligraphy.

The Bride and Groom were over the moon with the invitations and I'm looking forward to working with them on the wedding programs and other related items for their special day.

Review from a very happy customer

Its always nice to hear how happy someone is with their purchase of one of my handmade cards and today I got an awesome review I wanted to share with you.

Check out Maureen's review of the three custom cards I made for her triplet boys birthdays

http://onlineshoppingboutique.blogspot.com/2009/05/get-your-unique-and-beautiful.html