Cute Christmas Owls...

Hello everyone!! :) And A Happy New Year to you all!! :) I'm popping in today after yet another long and unintended break- when will this 'Real Life' thing stop getting in the way of my blogging schedule?!?!! ;D - to share some of the few Christmas cards I actually managed to make this year... hopefully while the challenge that helped inspire them is still open!! ;)

I borrowed this gorgeous Lawn Fawn Winter Owl Stamp Set and Die from Jen after she made a few adorable cards with it last Christmas... and it took me 'til the week before the big event this year to do anything with them... but I loooove them now I have... so much I may need my own!! ;)

I kept it nice and simple as I needed to make several along the same lines, and enlisted some help (thanks, Mum!) in putting my SSS Stitched Shapes dies to good use for a simple frame, with some of my favourite Christmas/Winter paper pack, Winter Wishes from Echo Park :) A spot of CBS magic for the sentiment and banner die, a generous coating of Wink of Stella (of course!) on their scarves and the edges of the layers... and I had four *very* cute little 4" cards to add to my meagre stash :) Here they all are:

{The List}

Cardstock - Papermill Direct - White Smooth

Stamps - Lawn Fawn - Winter Owl; CBS - Many Mini Messages

Dies - Lawn Fawn - Winter Owl , SSS - Stitched Squares, Stitched Circles, Stitched Flakes; CBS - Keep in Touch Die Collection (banner)

Colouring Medium - ProMarkers

Inks - Memento - Espresso Truffle

Papers - Echo Park - Winter Wishes

Tools - Cuttlebug (plus one pair of stronger arms than mine!), Heat Gun

Embellishments - 3mm Gems

Finishing Touches - Clear Wink of Stella

I'd like to enter these in: Freshly Made Sketches #217:

 

Thank you for reading this (anybody who is still out there and following my little blog after all these interruptions, anyway!)... I always say it but it's always true... I hope I'll be back again before *too* long as I do so miss blogland and all you lovely folk when life gets in the way!! In the meantime, I hope you all had a good Christmastime and that 2016 brings you lots of precious moments!! :)

It's the most wonderful time...

Hello!! :)

I'm popping in with a last minute entry for the Clearly Besotted Stamps Challenge which is Christmas... and we all need to get on with a few of those right about now, don't we?!!

I have been putting off and putting off a Simon Says Stamp order for most of this year... but I finally caved last month after I saw the Stamptember release... which included a couple of exclusive (and gorgeous!!) sets from CBS... so this is what I did with one of them the very day it arrived :)

I stamped the wreaths from the set three times in three different green chalk inks then added pinecones and berries, with a little sparkle and shine to finish them off!! :) I love how they came out- and I'm not usually one for traditional at Christmas!! lol - and all three barely took me 45 minutes... perfect for the Christmas rush!! ;)

I also got slightly carried away with the photos, as you can see... this one does at least show the glaze on the berries as well as the Stickles on the pinecones!! lol

{The List}

Cardstock - Papermill Direct - Rich Cream Linen

Stamps - Clearly Besotted Stamps (for SSS) - Autumn Blessings and Holly Berries ; Clearly Besotted Stamps - Most Wonderful 

Inks - VersaMagic - Sage, Tea Leaves, Hint of Pesto, Red Magic, Jumbo Java & Sahara Sand

Embellishments - Docrafts/Anita's - 3mm Gems

Finishing Touches - Wink of Stella Clear brush pen, Sakura Clear Glaze pen, Stickles in Frosted Lace

Right, I'm off to link this up at Steph's blog while I still can... have a fabulous weekend everyone!! :)

Snowflakes and Sparkles... :)

Hello Bloggers!! :)

Well, it’s been sooo long since my last post that I am having major problems remembering how all this blogging malarkey works... but I’m back and want to wish you all a very Happy 2013 a tad belatedly- I hope it’s been good to you so far!! :)

Now, you may (or may not!!) have noticed that I’ve taken a bit of an unexpected break from Blogland over the last few months... I won’t go into it in too much detail but 2012 turned out to be a bit of a rollercoaster year for me- some additional health issues made for some very extreme lows but despite that, the few extreme highs actually left me feeling this has been one of my better years so I can’t complain too much... the health stuff has just taken a bit of adjusting to and something had to give- and unfortunately, along with a lot of other things, that was my little blog and, to a lesser extent, my crafting :( But I have still been creating, just at a slower pace and a little less of the papercrafts, and have been checking out your blogs when I have been able too... and since Xmas particularly, my blog has been calling to me so I am going to attempt to get back into it... I just don’t know how regularly I’ll manage to post for a while as I am very much still feeling my way in terms of what and how much I can manage and trying to find a better balance between the different things going on in my life... but let’s get on to the crafty stuff, eh!!lol

This year I didn’t make many Xmas cards- one of those rearranging priorities and being kinder to myself things!!- but I did make some gifts... and this little set of beaded snowflakes was one of them...

After being given one of these gorgeous decorations by a lovely friend a few years ago, I made some for friends and family but never got around to photographing them properly to share... so when I finally got this set made for some lovely friends (who visited me in the summer- one of the highs that helped turn my year around :D) I made sure to get some decent pics!! :)

They are pretty simple to make- just adding beads to a pre-bought wire snowflake form... I added the wire circles too, as I loved the effect of them on the one I was given, but you don’t even have to do that, just the six beaded spokes look lovely!! :)

The beads are Czech Firepolished Glass- Opal and Clear with an Aurora Borealis coating- with a few seed beads as spacers... and they are just beautiful when they catch the light!! :)

Which would be why I took so many pics and just couldn’t choose my favs... some things never change!!lol

Whew- well, I think I made it to the end of my first post!!lol Glad there was no big papercrafting supplies list to tackle this time though!! ;) Thank you so much for stopping by and reading this and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did- I am so happy to be back in the wonderful land of blog!! :)

{{{ Ooops- knew that was too good to be true- I forgot all about challenges!!lol I’d like to enter my snowflakes in my lovely friend Elaine’s fabulous All Crafts Challenge  and to Inspire Me Fridays #91 }}}

A Vintage Christmas... and Anything But Square at Dream Valley :)

Hello!! :)

Well, I’m finally here to share my card for our latest challenge over at Dream Valley- I’m exceptionally late with this as it should have been posted last Sunday but I’ve had a mixture of feeling really quite ill and trying to catch up with all the things I’ve not got round to doing due to feeling so rotten for the last month so have only just managed to get on my netbook to type this up... but, as we are a fortnightly challenge, you do still have another week to enter... so, I’d best get straight on then!! :S Our challenge this time is ‘Anything But Square’ and as always, any type of creation from cards to jewellery, scrap layouts and altered items will be welcome... just so long as it’s not square!! ;) We’re sponsored by OSCC and Meljen's Designs this time!! :)

And this is my belated offering...

It’s actually the card I made for my mum for Christmas last year... I had a pretty little circle card I made specially for this challenge, photos taken, edited and ready well in advance... but, when I came to upload the pic for the challenge blog... yup- I couldn’t find them anywhere!! How hopeless!! I’m normally unusually organised with my card pics- have to be with my permanently befuddled brain!! :S – but they seem to have disappeared completely... so I’ll share those when I’ve re-edited the originals and, in the meantime (whilst trying not to panic!!lol), I managed to find this one ‘not square’ card in my overflowing folder of as-yet-unposted bits and pieces...

It’s an A5 top-fold card with a panel of the same card matted on and is almost entirely made from Waltzing Mouse Christmas sets... I just love Claire’s Christmas designs so much- they really make me feel the magic of Christmas and it seems basically impossible to make anything but a lovely card from them!! :) I used a Spellbinder’s die with Claire’s co-ordinating stamp and a WMS sentiment for the focal point and then made a frame and branch for the bauble to hang from with the gorgeous Festive Foliage set.

The only non- WMS stamp was the ‘’Twas the night before Christmas’ poem from Inkylicious (another company whose stamps I love!!lol), which I stamped all over the background in Antique Linen DI to tone in with the AL edging around the whole panel. I also smeared some Antique Linen Distress Stickles all around the edges, too... I had so much fun with this card, I love doing things like this!!lol

And a close-up of the decoupaged pine cone branch and my six-loop bow (only meant it to be four loops but I was getting carried away!!lol) in gorgeous Venetian Red seam binding :)

The List:

• Top Fold A5 off-white Linen card blank (made from A3 card), plus almost A5 piece for image panel
• Stamps- Festive Foliage, Compliments of the Season & Vintage Ornaments from Waltzing Mouse Stamps and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas from Inkylicious
• Inks- VersaFine Vintage Sepia & Olympia Green and Antique Linen DI
• VersaMark, Gold embossing powder and heat tool
• Spellbinders Heirloom Ornaments Dies
• Venetian Red Seam Binding from The Ribbon Girl
• Antique Linen Distress Stickles

I’d like to enter this in the following challenges: Divas by Design – Christmas in July :) ; Crafter's Companion - Ho Ho Ho Christmas :)

So that’s it from me for now- do pop over to Dream Valley to see the fab creations from the rest of the DT... you still have a week to enter!! :) I’ll see you soon, I hope- if my brain and body play nice and let me get anything done, that is!! :S I hope you’re all well and have a good week- thank you for stopping by and bearing with me and my haphazard blogging habits!! :)

ETA: No idea what the strange and not very pretty white background to some of my text is but I can't get rid of it so please just ignore it, it's not intentional!! :/

Silhouettes for Christmas at Dream Valley :)

Hello everyone!! :)


I’m excited today to be sharing my first DT card for Dream Valley Challenges... I’m excited in advance, though, writing this post early and scheduling it (which will hopefully work this time!!lol) as it’s actually my birthday and I’m not sure I’ll get chance to get on the computer as I think I’ll need all the little energy I have left after struggling with a cold all week to cope with my lovely birthday visitors!! :) But, to get back to the point... lol...

We have a wonderfully easy challenge for you at Dream Valley this time (which is just what we need in this the ‘headless-chicken season’ as I tend to think of it!!lol) and we'd simply like to see your 'Christmas' creations... told you it was easy!! :) As this is such a hectic time of year for us all, this challenge is going to run for four weeks which will see us well into the New Year, ‘til January the 8th to be exact, so plenty of time to share those last Christmas cards after the event if you don't get chance before!! :) We have several sponsors for this challenge, too, including One Stop Card Crafts... pop over to the Dream Valley blog for all the details!! :)

Now, I haven't really been well enough due to the cold bug in my system to spend any time at my desk- or even try my usual trick for those bad times of crafting in bed!lol- but luckily I had a card just waiting to be shared with you and hope I'll be forgiven for not making a new one specially... so here it is...

I fancied getting inky and doing something a bit different the night I made this and so a play with some of my fab new stamps from Inkylicious was called for!! :) I started off trying to create the sky with my (barely been out of the drawer since I got it! :S) brayer a la Barbara Gray... not sure if it was the ink (I had to use DI as that was the only dye ink I had in the right shade and I've never seen Barbara use those) or just that I need a lot more practise, but it was very hard going for my arms after the first couple of tries and I really wanted to get a card made so I reverted to the old faithful Cut'n'Dry!! I kept the rest of it really simple to let the scene take centre stage :)

The beautiful images are ones I've had my eye on for a while and they're stamped in VersaFine (they stamped perfectly first time, too despite the town one being so big! :) ) and the panel then matted and edged with Stickles as it all looked a bit dark. I also used a waterbrush to paint a subtle shimmer of Clear Stardust over the moon (which I'd masked with a random Nestie circle I found in my desk... might have been a shade too big?!lol) but it's not showing well in the pics... v pretty in the flesh, though!! :)

I tied a double bow with two colours of seam binding and then stitched- yes, me, stitched... and stabbed myself, of course, trying to tie the knots, as my illness-addled co-ordination really seems to hate me trying to use a needle and thread for some reason!! :S lol - the little jingle bell to the back of the knot... I was trying to make a fairly flat card to start with but I seem to be unable to resist bows, and multi ones at that, at the mo' and there really had to be a bell on this card of all cards, didn't there!?! :)

And to finish it off, I added one of the gorgeous sentiments from the fab Waltzingmouse Compliments of the Season set again... they are all so lovely but this one really seemed perfect for this scene... and everytime I catch sight of it I start singing 'Walking in a Winter Wonderland' to myself- one of my fav Xmas songs!! :)


The List:

• 6"x6 Sq. Scalloped In The Edge card blank
• White card
• Scrap circle shape for masking
• Distress Inks: Stormy Sky and Dusty Concorde
• Stamps: Silhouette Town and Sleigh from Inkylicious; 'Sleigh Bells Ring' from Waltzingmouse Stamps' Compliments of the Season set
• VersaFine Onyx Black ink pad
• White paper coloured with Black PM for mat layer
• Sakura Clear Stardust pen
• Stickles: Frosted Lace
• Seam Binding: Lady Lavender and White (coloured with Midnight Blue PM) from The Ribbon Girl
• Jingle Bells
• Clear Gems

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges (which I'll link up as soon as I have chance to get online!): CES – A Traditional Christmas :) ; Joanna Sheen - Christmas Wishes :) ; My Mum's Craft Shop - Traditional Christmas :) ; SecretCrafter - All Creatures Great and Small :) ; Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes with the option of something dangly :) ; Pollycraft - Christmas Fun :) ; Stampin' For The Weekend - Christmas :) ; Sarah Hurley - Christmas (whoops- missed this one!! :( ) ; Little Claire's - Family Christmas :)



Well, that's my first card for Dream Valley- I'm still v excited and really looking forward to being on this lovely team... thanks, Melly!! :) Thanks for stopping by and I hope you like it!! :) Please pop over to the Dream Valley blog to see the fabulous work from the rest of my new teamies... there's lots of lovely inspiration for you!! :)


Not sure when I'll be back as I've got a fair few cards still need making after losing last week to this cold... think it's going to be quick and simple ideas all the way from this stage... thankfully, I have all but two of the special family ones sorted already, thanks to DT projects inspiring me earlier than usual!!lol Hope you are all keeping well, warm, dry and as little blown about as possible!! :)

It’s All Christmas-sy at Forever Friends!! :)

Hello again Bloggers!! :)

I'm back again as promised- if slightly later in the day than intended!!lol As it is now officially December- how!!??!! O_o - it is time for our next Monthly Challenge over at Forever Friends & Co. And it's an incredibly easy one for you as 'It’s All Christmas!!' is our theme and, if you're anything like me at least, then all you'll have the time to think about is getting those Christmas cards, tags and gift ideas made!!lol We are being sponsored by the lovely Di's Digi Designs for this challenge so come along and join in the fun!! :)

I went all vintage-y with this one, inspired by this lovely FF stamp and some new acquisitions from the amazing Waltzingmouse Stamps- their gorgeous Festive Foliage set to be precise!! :) - and made my own background paper by stamping on parcel paper... then I got out a host of Tim Holtz's Distress fabulousness and let myself play with DIs on the edges of everything and the absolutely indispensible Antique Linen Stickles on all the corners- in my usual 'spread it around with my fingers' style of application!! :) 

I must say that, despite spending ages fiddling with this pic in two different photo editing programs, it still looks a bit more green around the gills than it really is irl- the other pics probably show the colour better but this was the best I could do!! :S

I coloured on Kraft with my Prismas- my first attempt at colouring these lovely bears with pencils on any kind of card and it’s not great but I'm reasonably happy for a first attempt!!lol

The largest snowflake is another MS punch- which I got for just over a fiver in the sales last year!! :) - and the others are Make it Crafty Chippies which I inked with DIs, then covered with Distress Crackle Paint... I actually used White Picket Fence- thought I had some Antique Linen but apparently the day I remember putting that in my basket while shopping online was one of the rare occasions I managed to rein in my stash-addict tendencies!!lol But it didn't matter as it took on the colour from the inks anyway... so no need to buy any other colours after all!! :) I also added some Stickles to them after the paint was dry, too- that I really must get some more of!!lol

The lovely sentiment is from the WMS Compliments of the Season set- another stunning set!! :)

The List:

• 5"x7" Kraft card blank plus another to cut up for the image
• Image - Forever Friends wooden stamp from Docrafts, stamped in Memento and coloured with Prismacolor pencils, OMS and paper stumps
• Cream cardstock
• Martha Stewart PATP Cherish punches
• Kraft parcel paper
• Festive Foliage and Compliments of the Season stamp sets from Waltzingmouse Stamps
• Versafine ink pads in Olympia Green and Vintage Sepia
• Distress Inks- Vintage Photo and Peeled Paint
• Make it Crafty Chippies snowflakes
• Distress Crackle Paint- White Picket Fence
• Distress Stickles- Antique Linen
• Mink Flat-backed Pearls from Crafty Emma's
• Natural Jute Twine from The Ribbon Girl
• Sakura Clear Stardust pen (just a teeny bit on the hats) 

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges: Cupcake Crafts - Colour on Kraft :) ; Ready Teddy Go - Anything Goes :) ; Joanna Sheen (the first ever challenge!! :) ) - Christmas :) ;  Anything Goes - Cutting Corners (if the corner punches used for my image mat are enough and second entries are okay?) :) ; Pollycraft - Christmas fun :) ; Fab 'n' Funky - Anything Goes :) ; Divas by Design - Anything Goes :) ; Sweet Stampin' - Punches and Dies :)

Please pop over to the Forever Friends & Co. blog for a look at the gorgeous cards my teammates have created- we have some fab and talented new ladies joining us on the DT for this challenge, too!! :) - and we'd love to see you joining in with your FF images... or if you don't have any at the mo' then any animal on your card will do so long as you follow the theme!! :)

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of Blogland today- hope you'll pop back soon!! :) I have plenty of things just waiting to be posted so I'll try and be back soon... but I really do need to get a wriggle on with the ol' Christmas cards so need to spend some time crafting as well as posting!!lol I had some good news this week as I've been asked by the lovely Melly to join the team at Dream Valley- I'm really looking forward to my first challenge with them in a week or so- on my birthday in fact!! :) Thanks for all your comments on my card yesterday, too- I really do appreciate them all and am doing my best to make it round to a few people at a time whenever I can manage it myself as I know it's been far too long in most cases!! :)

Christmas is coming... and we’re making Christmas Tags at My Partner in Crafting Crime :)

Hey Bloggers!! :)

Well, two weeks since my last post... :( Sorry for going AWOL-  has been a pretty rough feeling few weeks here as our neighbours are having their garden completely dug out and re-paved so it has been three weeks solid of too early rude awakenings and then noise and vibrations all day meaning I’ve not been able to get the rest I need so have been feeling pretty ill and not managing to do much :S I have managed some crafting time (and an odd bit of crafty shopping to cheer me up!!lol) and have plenty of things I want to try out and share with you so I’ll hopefully get around to those soon, but for now...

... another two weeks have just flown by and it's time for another challenge over at My Partner in Crafting Crime... this will be our last challenge for now as we're taking a little break for the Christmas festivities... but what a lovely challenge it is to get us in the Christmas mood as we'd like to see your 'Christmas Tags'!! :) We're sponsored again by the fab Bows & Berries Digital Stamp Shop with the winner getting to choose some of their gorgeous digis to play with!! :)

I went a bit mad with this one as I made not one but four tags- I've not made a fancy tag before as I never really see the point knowing nobody would keep them, but I had a lot of fun with these little bite-sized projects and they were the perfect opportunity to experiment with resist embossing with different powders... something I've been meaning to have a play with for ages!! :) Heat embossing is what got me hooked on cardmaking after a teacher brought her heat tool, powders and some stamps into school to show me (about 12yrs ago!! eek!!lol)- I thought it was like watching a little bit of magic then and I still do!! :D

I was also in the mood to make something really pretty and sparkly and I think I achieved that... the trouble I had getting a decent pic because of all the glare proves I got the sparkly part at least- these shine from tip to toe!! :S lol

I used stamps that came free with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine last month and they really are gorgeous!! :) I embossed them with a silver glitter powder and watercoloured with my Brilliance ink pads... I had intended to make them more different in colour but when I looked at my inks I realised they are mostly purples and blues from my less daring, earlier crafting days!!lol I think it helped that I'd been watching Frozen Planet the night before I coloured these... such pretty inspiration!! :)

My mum and I recently bought the new Nestie bauble dies- I love that my mum has now passed from buying craft stuff she likes so that I can make cards with it for her friends, to buying stuff so she can make her own... really nice to share that enjoyment... not going to turn down offers to go halves on stash either!!lol- and I gave them their first work out for my tag shapes :) I stamped and embossed some gorgeous snowflakes in various powders so I could see the different effects and then inked over that... I think my fav is the Silver Pearl on the lighter of the large tags and the topmost one of the smaller two- but then I just love that powder anyway, it's stunning!! :)

A different image and ink colours for the smaller ones but the same besides that... :)

A couple of closer shots of the embossing (sorry the pics aren't brilliant, I took loads trying to get the right angle for showing all the shimmer without too much glare and still didn’t really get there!!lol) ... but isn't that Silver Pearl just beautiful!?! :)

The List:

For the images-

• Image stamps by Adam Prescott free with Cardmaking and Papercraft
• Silver Glitter embossing powder, Versamark and heat tool
• Brilliance ink pads: Pearlescent Purple, Pearlescent Lavender, Pearlescent Ice Blue, Moonlight White, Platinum Planet, Galaxy Gold, Pearlescent Lime, Pearlescent Jade, Cosmic Copper

For the tags-

• Spellbinders Heirloom Ornaments 2011 dies
• Snowflake stamps from Wild Rose Studio
• Clear, White Holographic and Silver Pearl embossing powders, Versamark and heat tool
• Brilliance inks: Purple, Lavender, Ice Blue
• Crystal Stickles
• Seam binding from the Ribbon Girl in Lady Lavender and Sky Mauve

I'd like to enter my tags in the following challenges: Crafty Ribbons - Anything But A Card :) ; Fussy and Fancy - Make a Gift/Anything But A Card :) ; Paper Sundaes - Beautiful Bows :) ; Crafter's Companion - Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow :) ; CES - Snowflakes :) ; Winter Wonderland - Awwww, what a Cutie!! :)

Thank you for stopping by today- I hope you like what you saw!! :) Please do pop over to the PCC blog to see the creations by the rest of our fab team and I hope you'll be able to join in with our last challenge of the year!! :)

I hope you're all well and have had a lovely weekend!! :) And thank you for all the lovely comments on my last cards!! :) I'll hopefully be back again soon as I've plenty to share... fingers-crossed we get some peace from next door so I can get some rest soon, too, cos I really need to feel better so I can crack on with Xmas prep or there will be people not getting cards or presents again... but I won’t be holding my breath as they’ve hardly started the back garden yet!! :S