Monday 28 December 2009

Happy New Year!

Now that the majority of the Christmas festivities are over, perhaps I will get back to something approaching bloggy normality!!

I am not often commissioned (in fact never I think!) to make cards for people so it wasn’t a good idea to forget that Dad had asked me to make some cards for his “hire a chauffeur” business!!  What he wanted was some cards (about 18 of them) that said Happy New Year so that he could send them to his main clients offering a 20% discount if they referred people to him.

Anyway, what with one thing and another I did indeed completely forget that Dad had asked me to do this – fortunately it was Dad and not a serious potential client!! Dad was quite understanding and said that I didn’t have to do it, but of course, I HAD to!! 

A quick rummage around the SCS website and I found this fabulous card that I just knew I could make my own.  Although there are only three cards in the photo below (with apologies for the quality of the iphone photo!) I did make five each of the designs seen below and five more of one similar to the middle card but with a plain gold background.

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I thought that I had taken another photo showing all twenty cards, but I can’t seem to find that one now!  In any case, I was very pleased with the way that these cards had turned out – just how Dad wanted – elegant and classy with no frills and furbelows!!  ;-)  For your information, I used the largest of the Labels One in the Nestabilities set and either left the light brown sections unembossed or used the swiss dots or the d’vine swirls  embossing folders from Cuttlebug to make pretty patterns!  A fine black pen was used to make sewing “marks” around the edges of the die cuts and then black ribbon that’s almost see through (I KNOW there’s a name for it but I cannot remember it right now – do enlighten me!!) was pinned to the card using black eyelets before the whole thing was finished of using peel-off Happy New Year stickers.

While I am very happy with the whole thing I think that I will never again attempt to mass produce (ok even if it is in small numbers!) cards in one day again!!!  But then again that’s all my own fault for forgetting that Dad had asked me!!)

Wednesday 16 December 2009

It’s that time again…

…no not Christmas, but WOYWW!!  Head over to the Stamping Ground to see more creative desks this Wednesday!  My desk looks like this today…

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Quite unusually there is chocolate on my desk, okay, okay, so it is not so unusual for me to have chocolate in the house, but I rarely have it on my desk cos I just KNOW that I will get some chocolate on a card that is just about finished!!

Anyway – there is chocolate on my desk because I am making little gifts for people! If you look to the right of the big yellow punch you can see a bag that I received on Monday (you may need to click to embiggen!) from the lovely Hayley at Craft Club – which is another post in itself – will get round to that eventually I hope!!

I thought that this was a lovely idea, so I am now in the process (factory style!) of making my own little bags of peppermint tree decorations for people to enjoy (you can see them just above the scissors next to the stack of ribbons)!  They look like this….

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And I am so pleased with how they’ve turned out!!

Sunday 13 December 2009

Wine Bottle Tag

I came across this rather lovely little tag for a wine bottle on Rose’s blog - “Rose’s World” and I just knew that I would need to  make my own bottle tag sooner or later!

Mine is not as fancy as Rose’s, but then I made in about ten minutes flat!! (if that – I was running late for the party on Friday!!)

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It just goes to show that even I can whip up something when time is short!!  If you go and look at the tag Rose made, you will see that she gave the punched hole a bit of a collar – that looks lovely and I must try that next time!

Wednesday 9 December 2009

Whoops….it’s Wednesday

And that means it’s WOYWW!!  I am rather late to this today but that cos I have a perfectly valid excuse (of course!) as I have been creating cards for tomorrows craft fair at work!! 

This evening I have been making cards other than Christmas ones as I got asked last year whether I had non-Christmas cards, so I thought that it would be good to have a small stash of cards completely unrelated to Christmas.  (unless you count the thank you cards I suppose….for after Christmas – ha ha!)

Anyway…..I think that I have said before that my desk was rather untidy (when it probably wasn’t all that bad), well I think that today takes the cake!  I have a little green mat where I am doing all the work and the mess just piles up at the side…well…see for yourself!

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And the floor is slightly better – I want to show you – if only to show you where the cat is sleeping! (keeping me company – at least she’s not trying to jump on the desk like she was the other day.)

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I have been slow in blogging this week, so I am  hoping that once the craft fair is over and the pressure is off a bit I will blog rather more!  Don’t forget that you can see more creative desks over at the Stamping Ground!

Wednesday 2 December 2009

WOYWW

Today’s WOYWW is a special one for me cos I have cleared my desk specifically to show you what I did on Sunday.  You see, I went all the way to a little place called Tidworth in order to take part in a Christmas Card Marathon as hosted by the Two Scrap Ladies (and two nicer ladies you couldn’t wish to meet!)

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These photographs manage to show all the cards that I made.  Unfortunately I did not get round to making all 24 as I just ran out of time!

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But I did learn a few new things, met some great people, got stuffed with good food – including some utterly delicious bite-sized brownies with buttercream icing and pieces of chocolate on top – utterly yummy!

I don’t think that I could pick out a favourite amongst these great cards, but I do like the wooden reindeer one, the two-candles one, the tree one in the bottom right hand corner and the very simple mistletoe on vellum.  (Heck I might as well name them all as favourites!!)

In any case, I want to say a huge thank you to Julia and Ally for organising such a great day!  (by the way there is a picture of the event on the Two Scrap Ladies blog – you can just about make me out in the purple rollneck at the top of the table on the other side of the table just by the window – did that make any sense – ha ha!!)

Tuesday 1 December 2009

SantaThing!

I have been a LibraryThing member for ages.  If you don't know what LibraryThing is, it's a place where you can catalogue your personal book collection and see what other people have (appeals to the nosy in me as well as the librarian!)
 
Two years ago the fabulous LibraryThing people started SantaThing and I joined in the first time around and got an intriguing book.  The second time around I was a bit nervous of what I might get that time because I wasn't all that keen on the book that I had (which was The Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin - a distinctly acquired taste I think!) even though it was quite interesting and I did enjoy it, but I would not choose to read it again if that makes any sense at all.  This year, I thought that I would get stuck in even though I am bit late to the party!!
 
So late in fact that the deadline for SantaThing is today at 4pm EST which actually means 9pm my time, so if you are British you have plenty of time to go and put your name down for SantaThing!!  Simply put, you need to be a member of LibraryThing which is free up to a certain point and then you need to plunk down $25 (£15) to put your name in the hat and then once the names have been distributed (no addresses given out) you can have fun choosing the right book for this other person that you are likely to never ever meet!! And of course you get to have fun opening a suprise parcel - only a surprise in that you won't know what the book is!!
 
You know you want to do it!! ;-)

Friday 27 November 2009

oooh the excitment!

It is not everyday that a crafting girl gets this message in her email box....

"Congratulations Samantha!  You have been randomly selected as a winner in the Spellbinders® Black Friday Giveaway!"

You really could have knocked me over with a feather!  I am sure that many of you already know that Spellbinders are having a giveaway on their blog today.  They are offering one of three sets of four Nesties to several lucky people.  You need to go and see their blog and  put your name down for your chance and believe it or not you still have two more chances as they are doing timed giveaways - go and see for yourself.

I do wonder which set of Nesties will turn up on my doorstep!  It could be any one of the following: the four octagons, the four flowers, or four labels - I will be sure to let you know which set arrives!

Thursday 26 November 2009

Penny Black Challenge

As usual with all the challenges I go for I am a bit late for this one!!  Nevertheless I love the PB stuff and this week there is a rather yummy blog hop going on that everybody should get involved with!
This is my card – the image is (of course) a Penny Black hedgehog!  As you can see I have been having fun with a new snowflake punch that I bought the other day as well as adding white brads that I bought although I think that they may be a little bit too big for this particular card.

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Mind you, before I put the brads on, I had taken the photograph below because I thought that I was finished.

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I thought that it was finished, but as soon as I saw the photograph I knew that it was missing something – so I added the six white brads – but like I said, they could be a bit smaller.  It’s funny though – for someone who hardly used embellishments at first, I really am using them all the time now – ribbons, brads, punched images, flowers, and that thing that I can NEVER remember the name of……eyelets!!

You have one more day to get involved with this particular Penny Black Challenge – so pull out those stamps and get going!!

Wednesday 25 November 2009

It’s another WOYWW

Wednesdays seem to come around pretty fast at the moment!! (only four more Wednesdays until Christmas - oh my!)

So, if you have a workdesk and want to show it off in all it’s glory then just pop over to the Stamping Ground and add your desk to the rest of them!

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I would say that this desk is fairly ordinary – full of ribbons, punches and stamps!  You can see that I have been working on three cards – these are fairly special cards because I have sent someone three card kits that make those three cards (as part of a bloggy exchange where we fill a box with five things that relax us!).  I am assuming that this other blogger has not made cards before, so I am making these cards for when she emails me to say “what do I do!?”  (Now I just have to remember not to add these cards to the craft fair that I am attending in a few weeks!)

You see those two edge punches in the photo?  One from SU and one from Martha Stewart – I have been having fun with those because before they arrived I’d never used edge punches – they are fun!! If I am not careful I may end up with a bigger collection of edge punches than I can actually afford!

Tuesday 24 November 2009

Copying!

I seem to be copying a few cards lately!  I do hope that people don’t mind – or perhaps that is why they post their cards online – so that uninspired people like me can share in some of that inspiration!!

Anyway, this card I found on Just4Fun2 and I really liked the simplicity of it and so I shamelessly stole it!!  Of course, it goes without saying that if anyone copies any card found online they should not submit the card for competitions or challenges – this is the standard text found on many card blogs and I wholeheartedly agree.

My card….
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And one done with purple ribbon, although I think that it doesn’t have quite the same zing as the one above!
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Many thanks to Pat who had the idea in the first place! ;-)

Monday 23 November 2009

Christmas is getting closer

Christmas is most definitely on it’s way!!  I have had one friend ask how many work days it is until Christmas, and another friend threaten to put her Tree up already!!

Of course, there are never quite enough days left for those that like to make handmade gifts or cards!  I made this card today….
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You can’t quite see the snowflake embossing on the white base card – how on earth do I take a photo of that – at an angle perhaps?  I quite like this card and it is relatively easy to make so I could easily whip up a batch in an evening.

Friday 20 November 2009

Clean and Simple

I love the clean and simple cards – they always look good and if you’re clever there is minimal work involved!! ha ha.

I spotted a lovely card over at My Stamping Addiction and so I asked if I could copy it.  This is my attempt – for some reason it doesn’t have quite the same elegance as the lovely card that I saw, but I could improve on it!
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For instance, I could probably use something other than sequins for the centre of the flowers, but it was all I could find that was remotely suitable in my craft box.  I also think that my sentiment is both too long and too far down – but hey, this kind of craft means that you can always try, try and try again!

Wednesday 18 November 2009

WOYWW

It’s another Wednesday and unfortunately not a good Wednesday for me as I have been to the dentist today – got a filling done and now the tooth is very painful.  But less about me and more about  my workdesk!!  (for more messy desks go and visit Stamping Ground!)
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This is a very honest picture of my desk – no pre-tidying or anything – I simply finished three cards (green stamped holly leaves with red buttons for berries!) and then grabbed my camera!  It certainly makes me realise what a clutter I usually end up working in and my actual work space gets smaller and smaller the longer I go before tidying up!!

Anyway, last week a couple of people asked what was in that red basket in the top right hand corner of my desk….this red basket…
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Well, it contains various bit and pieces to do with Christmas – you know what I mean – the freebies that we get from magazines…
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Or just the off cuts that I think that I might use later (not that I usually do!! ;-)  )
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By the way – please could you help someone win £10 to spend?  It might be me, but I am not going to tell you which picture is mine, as I don’t want to prejudice the vote, so you will make someone’s day if not necessarily mine!  Go and visit Something Sweet and vote for your favourite card!

Tuesday 17 November 2009

Card Poll

A few weeks ago my first Stampin' Up order arrived from Emma and inside this order there was a challenge to create a card using a very specific set of items that she had sent along with the order! This was both easier and more difficult to do than expected - easier because I didn't have to choose the right colours, shapes, etc, but more difficult because if I went wrong then I was stuck!!

In any case, the point of this challenge was so that the Stampers Six group could all enter their card using the identical set in order to try and win a free £10 for our next order. So...my card is now on Emma's blog - Something Sweet - please could you go and have a look at the four cards that were submitted and vote on your favourite!!

I will not tell you which one is mine as I don't think that that is very fair as each card should be judged on merit rather that who made it!!! ;-) Please go and vote though cos you'll help make someone's day, if not necessarily mine!!

Monday 16 November 2009

Craft Club

Tonight was the first evening of what the local craft club (mostly card making!) and it’s early days yet so I hope that more people eventually turn up!! There were only three of us tonight including Hayley who is running the club.

Still, the fact that there were only two people in attendance meant that we had the time to make something rather special in the form of this gorgeous box and three cards that go inside. I had never made a box before so I was very pleased to be able to try making one!

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Now that I’ve made one, I will most certainly make another one!

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I also got to make my first shaker card as you can see from the above close up. The other two cards were fairly simple ones, although I did learn a new way of making a ribbon knot – one that I will definitely use again! I am sure that most of you are already familiar with the technique of tying the ribbon around something like a bottle and then cutting the knot apart to make a fairly flat open bow. It was the first that I’d seen this method anyway and I loved it!! (Thanks Hayley!!)

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I am also quickly discovering that many card makers are also bloggers!! I got to meet Pam from Pam’s Space – also another regular on WOYWW!!

Friday 13 November 2009

SANDS Candy

This fabulous candy has been created for a good cause!

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If you go to a blog that is rather fabulously named Blue Jelly Too you can find out more about it, but essentially the blogger at Blue Jelly Too (love that name!!) is inviting you to send her some handmade cards or gifts that can be sold to raise money for SANDS – a UK charity that supports families that have been through stillbirth or neonatal death.

And in return for sending saleable crafts  you get entries into this blog raffle!!  So get crafting – you have until the 9th December to help support this charity and possibly win this candy!!

Wednesday 11 November 2009

WOYWW

I really have to think about that acronym and almost say it out loud to myself as I type it out – it isn’t one that naturally rolls off the fingers – not yet anyway! (In any case, if you want to see more creative desks this week – go and visit Stamping Ground - and with apologies to Millie's Marvels whom I linked to earlier - it was the wrong blog - sorry - but Millie's Marvels is a good blog nevertheless!!)

So, my desk this Wednesday isn’t as tidy as it was last Wednesday, but I still say that it’s not that bad!

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Those deckled rectangle nesties in the corner are part of a lovely birthday present from my brother and his family – I also had three more nesties from them (cos there’s a great company that sells them for a really good price if you buy four!) The other nesties are the small circle, the accompanying scalloped circles, and the small rectangles to go with the deckled ones – I did feel very lucky indeed!

What isn’t on the desk is the stash that I bought at the NEC last week during the hobbycraft fair – I had a great time wandering about and seeing what the offerings were – I really could have spent a fortune, but managed to restrain myself!! ;-)

But what you CAN see on the desk is the remains of this afternoon’s card making as I played with two new sets of stamps that I have – one Penny Black set from the NEC and one from my cardmaking magazine (that’s the purple thing that says “FREE”!!). I also have a bunch of copics out as I have been playing with those and still getting used to the way they blend.

In case you’re wondering what I made – here they are – you can tell that I am rather taken with a snowflake embossing folder that I have as I managed to use it on all three cards! (even if one of the embossed images is actually inside out cos I hadn’t yet worked out which way to put the card in the folder, but I don’t suppose it actually matters!!)

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Tuesday 10 November 2009

Thank you card

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This is no ordinary thank you card! The round die and the round scalloped die are part of the four nestabilities that I got for my birthday!! (what a lucky girl I am)

I was fortunate enough to get my wishes granted and get the small circles, the small scalloped circles, the small rectangles and the small deckled rectangles. However, the lovely people that gave them to me didn’t quite know what this weird metal shapes were supposed to do, so I promised to send them a thank you card using some of them – so there you go, that one goes in the post tomorrow!

Wednesday 4 November 2009

WOYWW

I came across this acronym the other day – it stands for What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday and is a bit of a bloggy get together where we all show our messy, tidy, creative and industrious workspaces. Whether we have a dedicated room, the dining table or a corner in the bedroom, this is our opportunity to reveal our creative spaces!

This bloggy exercise is hosted at Stamping Ground where you can find other desks, whether messy or tidy! My desk looks like this today….

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Which isn’t actually so very bad as I cleared it up over the weekend and so this evening I had a relatively clear space to work with in order to make a birthday card. What you can’t see is evidence of my utter frustration with my roller glue thingie (the remnants of that fury is in the bin!) While the roller thingie is still going, I think that I will need a new one before too long (any recommendations!?)

Anyway, the card that I made was this one…

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…and I like it – it makes me smile!! What I am most pleased with is the yellow balloon – I am practicing with my new copics!!

Sunday 1 November 2009

Stampers Six Club

Hi everybody on this wet and windy and perfectly horrible morning - weather wise that is - everything else is lovely, I am cosy indoors with the cat running around and I have plenty of chocolate left over from yesterday's trick or treaters!

Anyway, the point of this email is that a crafty blogger I met the other day at Hayley's open house is also a Stampin' Up devotee and she is trying to gather enough people to make up a Stampers Six Club.

If you don't know what this is, I will attempt to explain - six people get together (online via the Milly Moo Cards blog!) and commit to spending £25 each month (for six months) on Stampin Up products and what this means that each month there is a "hostess" who gets an extra £15 worth of products and their choice of the level one hostess goodies.

There are other people who could explain this better than me!! In any case - go and have a look at the Milly Moo Cards blog and all will become clear - I have signed up, but we need more people to make up the full six so that we can all benefit!!!

Friday 30 October 2009

Stampin’ Up Evenin’

I had a great time at Hayley’s place this evening! If you don’t know Hayley, her blog is over here at All Things Pink and Fluffy.

Hayley is a Stampin’ Up demonstrator that has come back to the fold after a little break and so to get started again she had an open house where you could come along and meet some like-minded crafty people, make some cards, have a cuppa tea and just enjoy a good old natter with friendly people!

I ended up making these three cards…

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I think that the first one below is my favourite, it is a z fold card and I just love that wintry looking Church on the front – you probably can’t see, but there are little bits of glitter strategically dotted about the place!

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This red wreath was the first one I made tonight and I rather like how it has turned out – clean and simple indeed.

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The last one looks a bit flat, but what you really can’t see in the picture is that the two green baubles are popped up on foam stickies.

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What this one probably needs is a bow or two on the tops of some of the baubles – the cards that Hayley showed us did have bows but I didn’t fancy putting a bow on at the time.

Although they are a bit expensive, the more I use the Stampin’ up stuff the more I love them – I just need to play a bit more! Anyway, thanks for a great evening Hayley, I look forward to many more!!

Tuesday 27 October 2009

New stamp!!

I, like many crafters I am sure, have more stamps than I know what to do with! But when I spotted some cards made using the rather fabulous Dasher stamp, I just knew I had to have it.

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Unfortunately my trawl around the internet did not immediately reveal where I could get it from – I looked in all sorts of online shops and blogs. Eventually I discovered that it was a Stampin’ Up stamp so I dashed to my catalogue, but it wasn’t in there!! Hmmmm, this was turning into a right palaver.

Well, what eventually happened was that I found a fab example of a card made using the Dasher stamp on Melissa’s blog – In Stamping Mode – and discovered that Melissa – alllll the way over in Texas was a SU person and after much discussion she agreed to to send me a Dasher stamp in exchange from some stamps from Elzybells! (and I am sure that she will eventually be showcasing her cards using the stamps).

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the Dasher stamp arrived the other day (thank you sooooo very much Melissa!) and today I used this weeks CPS sketch challenge to create a card with it – I am not keen on this card for some reason. (But as I have said before, we all have different tastes and so I am sure that someone will love this card!)

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Monday 26 October 2009

Stamp with us challenge

I quite liked the look of the sketch offered on Stamp with Us this week and I knew that I could definitely do something with this one, particularly as I had a a “do not open until Christmas” round stamp that would go perfectly with the sketch which looked like this…

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and the card I made looks like this…

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The presents are coloured in using my new copic pens (yes I finally bit the bullet and bought some through a fabulous company that has a good deal on copics - www.graphicsdirect.co.uk – and if you look carefully on the website you will also find a code for an additional 10% off – no, they aren’t paying me to promote their company but I have NEVER seen such a good deal for copics anywhere else!)

I have yet to blend my copics to create the fabulous colour shading I see on other blogs but I will get there, it is as much as I can do to create solid blocks of colour without feeling nervous that I am going to get it wrong!!

Sunday 25 October 2009

Square

There’s a square challenge on No Time to Stamp and that simply means that the card must have no rounded edges and use square shapes!

Well after spotting a rather fabulous card made using the star outlines of the nestabilities shape and entwining them together I thought that I would try something similar but using the squares nesties. (and I am so sorry, but try as I might, I cannot find that fabulous card!)

Anyway – this is my square card and I am not entirely certain that it is finished, but I like it as it is – do click to make it bigger if you can’t quite see the detail!

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I have to say that it was a bit fiddly trying to glue it down exactly as I wanted it, but I think that I managed it!

Monday 19 October 2009

Yes I won!

Like I said yesterday, some of us do actually win those amazing blog candys – they are most certainly not figments of your imagination!

I was fortunate enough to win some lovely Stampin’ Up goodies from the generous Amanda at Inspiring Inkin’. I won the Circle Circus stamp set, the mat pack, a stabby needle thing (!) and a choice of paper and ink – I chose the earth elements paper pack and it took me absolutely flippin’ ages to choose the colour ink!! After changing my mind several times I settled on Close to Cocoa and I think that the card I have made for my uncle perfectly showcases all of that!!

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I just love that colour and the mat pack…..I just love it – I have always liked seeing those pinprick effects on other people’s work but haven’t dared try it myself as I knew that I would go quite wonky. With the mat pack, I don’t have to worry – I can stab paper to my hearts content and know that it will turn out wonderfully!! ;-) You can’t really see it very well in the first photograph, but the second shows the pinpricking fairly well although I am quite surprised at how the two photos make the card look like two different ones with differing shades of brown. The right lighting is clearly important - naturally it looks better in real life!

Anyway…thank you so much to Amanda for sending me this, I will most certainly get the most out of these goodies!

Sunday 18 October 2009

Hmmmm….

….it’s been about a week since I last blogged – I just haven’t made any cards this week even though I have spent a bit of money on this fantastic hobby!! (by ordering SU stuff and visiting a small local craft fair)

But today, I am here to tell you about some candy being offered by A Crafting Journey. It looks like this….

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and you need to go visit before midnight on Halloween to be in with a chance to win!!!

I will be back tomorrow to tell about the lovely stuff I won earlier this week – you see – people do actually win the candy that is offered up by all those fabulous people!

Friday 9 October 2009

New Techniques

I like learning new techniques, particularly when they don’t require a lot of know-how!! I was looking at the Hero Arts Club Blog earlier this week and found out about paper piecing.

Now, I’ve always thought (or assumed!) that paper piecing was simply about using lots of different layers of paper on your card. I was wrong, or at least I was wrong in this case – perhaps other people do use that term for layers on cards.

Anyways, on the Hero Arts Club blog they used paper piecing to mean stamping a particular image on different pieces of paper and then cutting them out to make the one image. Well, I thought that was rather a good idea and so I took up the challenge given to us and made this trio of cupcakes!

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I really do like this card and will most definitely be using this technique again – with this card I simply stamped the image three times, cut them all out and then put them back together again! (I also stamped the image underneath onto the base paper in order to give me a guide to put the bits back together).

It is a bit fiddly if you have small images but the effect is really quite good and you can use different patterned paper to create an effect that you just wouldn’t get using colouring pens or paints. By the way - there is still time to enter the paper piecing challenge on the Hero Arts Club Blog if you want the chance to win some prizes - deadline is Sunday night I think.

Wednesday 7 October 2009

Mojo Monday challenge

Once again it is not actually Monday!! I get the feeling that I never manage to make a card on the appropriate day for Mojo Monday!! Still, the deadline for any challenges that have giveaways is usually a week, so I always know that I have some time to think about the card!!

Anyways, the sketch for this week is this….

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And I have just realised that I have actually done the sketch upside down as the piece going across the page is actually at the top of the panel on the right instead of at the bottom of the panel on the left!! And that's because I hand sketched a copy to take upstairs and must have turned it upside down when working on it!! ;-)

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I have used more methods in this card than I think I have in most of my cards! I don’t actually have any circle dies and I am hopeless at cutting out circles (don’t worry – I plan to ask for some circle nestabilities for my upcoming birthday!!), but I did remember that I had a Bigz die in the shape of a bauble.

It is, however, a very BIGZ die and I didn’t have a card big enough so I folded a piece of A4 white card in half!! The bauble was embossed with the dots cuttlebug folder, the ribbon on the cross piece is actually a second attempt because I had stamped and heat embossed a curvy Merry Christmas only to find the the embossing powder was falling off! (does it have an expiry date – is it no good after a while???!) I would have used brads for the little embellishments but haven’t got any silver or gold ones, so I used my eyelets instead.

I quite like this card, but do think that it is a bit big – I would have to scale everything down for a smaller card or use just the bauble as the main focus.

Monday 5 October 2009

Funky snowman stamps

I made the mistake of visiting one of my local stamping shops the other day!!! Amongst all the bits and pieces I bought this rather cool build your own snowman set…

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So I was playing around with it and came up with this….

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The background of this card comes from a small-ish snowflake block stamp that I stamped over and over and over (!) and I am rather pleased with how it looks.

I need to play around with it some more and find some lovely bloggy inspiration – I know that there is some out there – which is what I love about all those blogs out there as I can usually find some inspiration from someone who already has the stamp set that I have just bought!! In fact, I have just gone and had a rummage around and I now have lots more ideas although I am a bit disappointed that I just don't seem to have that creative spark that other people seem to have.

Sunday 4 October 2009

Inchies!

I was inspired by the first WCMD challenge on the CLASSroom blog, particularly as I had already done something similar last year even if I didn’t post any pictures then.

This challenge reminded me of what I had done before and so I knew that I had just the perfect stamp to use with this and here is the card…

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I do like this kind of creative thinking so I though that I would do it again with a different card, although I am not quite so taken with this one…

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The first one was simple, possibly toooo simple! And the second one – I love the girl hanging her stocking stamp, but I think that the rest of it has just made it too busy, perhaps I should focus on the girl alone and make her the point of the card? Whatever I do, I just know that I am going to have another go!!