Merry Chistmas

Well I think I'm about ready now, we're off to my daughters in-laws for dinner tomorrow then I have everyone coming to me on Boxing day. So once this is posted I'm off to sit down in front of the TV. This is similar to one I posted last month but the colourway if different. The flowers have been made using Heartfelt Creations dies and the sentiment is from Crafters Companion all put together with silver mirri card and white card stock onto a 8x8 card base. I shall take myself off to the Allsorts Challenge with this card as the current challenge is Seasonal Flowers for the next two weeks. All that left to be said is I hope that all my followers and visitors have a wonderful Christmas and New Year. I look forward to seeing you all again in 2018.

Thanks for taking the time to visit and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

More 75th Birthday Cards

Today I thought that I would show you the two cards that I made for my friend, for Mother. For both of these cards I used Tattered Lace designs and Charisma dies. The first uses the free die off of the front of the Tattered Lace magazine from last month (Issue 48). This card follows one of the tutorials to a certain extent too. I started with a 8x8 card base and used green card stock for the matting, and printed off one of the pretty papers for the backing paper. I then printed the beautiful Fuchsia several times and cut them all out with the die. I cut a hexagon from green card and then cut in halve and done the same but smaller in white and layered these to make a basket. I drew some lines from my basket to the top of the backing paper to make it look like the basket was hanging. The sentiment that you can see was printed straight onto the backing paper and I added a bow to the top of the card too. Then it was just a case of layering up the fuchsias as though they were hanging from the basket.

The next card uses flowers and backing papers from the Magical Midnight Watercolours from Tattered Lace and My Craft Studio along with the Lotti Dotti Square from Tattered Lace. Again I printed the sentiment onto the backing card before cutting out with the die. Although you can't tell from the photo the flowers has 4-5 layers.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

75th Birthday

Wow the last week or so has just flown by and there is still so much to be done before the big day next week. Recently I was asked if I could make birthday cards for a friends mother who was turning 75 last weekend. When I say cards he wanted 5, one for wife, two for mother and 2 for Nan, his mother is also a friend so I also needed to do one from us too. Here is what I came up with for Wife. I used Heartfelt Creations flowers and leaves against a distress inked background. The sentiment is a Tonic die. Just a quick post from me today as there so much still to do.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Seasons Greetings

I'm just popping in today with a card for the challenge over at Addicted to Stamps this week which is Seasons Greetings. This card uses a stamp from Clarity Stamps designed by the late Jayne Nesterenko. I stamped onto watercolour card and then used aqua pends to colour the image. I'm also going to enter this card into the following challenges.

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge, which is Anything Goes
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge Extra, also Anything Goes

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Snowflakes And Pixies Snippets Playground

My card today covers a couple of challenges firstly the Allsorts Challenge where they are asking for Snowflakes on your cards. Then Pixies Snippets Playground where you must include scraps or snippets on your card  (I stamped and embossed Christmas onto a scrap piece of card) and then finally Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge which is anything goes with the option of sparkle. I used an embossing folder from Sheena Douglas to make this card, coloured the background with blue distress inks and then used silver gilding wax lightly over the top. Mounted it onto some silver mirri card and then a white card blank.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Pixies Snippets Playground

With all of the cutting of papers for my last post, needless to say there was a lot of bits and pieces that have found their way into the scrap box. So it was only natural that I would would reach for them to make something for Pixies Snippets Playground this time around. Everything except the card base has come from leftover Graphic 45 papers from the seasons collection. The sentiment stamp was from a set by Crafters Companion.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Results Of The Graphic 45 Workshop

You may remember me saying recently that I attended a Graphic 45 Workshop held by Clare Charvill (My Creative Spirit) in Kenilworth a couple of weekends ago. Well last weekend I finished the project that I started. We had a choice of projects that we had to pick from before the weekend and I chose to make the Seasons project. When we arrived and were given our projects, they came in a bag and looked like a jigsaw puzzle, it took all of Saturday to put the storage box and albums together. At this stage the storage box had papers on it but the Albums didn't.

Sunday arrived and we started to add the pages to the Album and to decorate them. I concentrated on getting one Album decorated rather than trying to rush and get them all done. Even so I still only got the front and middle pages finished and part of the back page.The rest were finished at home.

So far I've not added any photos to the Albums but I do plan to (maybe over Christmas).

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Winter Trees Or Flowers At Stamping Sensations

I was so lucky in October and my card was pick as the winner over on the Stamping Sensations Challenge blog, I won a lovey prize of  a £25.00 Voucher to spend at Stamp Addicts and also asked to be Guest Designer this month. The challenge is Winter Trees or Flowers and my card was made using stamps from Card-io. I stamped everything in black either with first or second generation stamping and then covered with a double sided sticky sheet and then sprinkled with iridescent glitter. I mounted onto some silver mirri card and an 8x8 white card blank. The design team over on the challenge blog have made some amazing cards for your inspiration this month do please pop over and take a look. The prize this month is a lovely bundle of goodies from Stix-2.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Craftaganza Makes

Well I have finally manage to find five minutes to take photos of my makes from the Crafters Companion's Craftaganza retreat. My crafting Buddy and I had 3 wonderful days at the Redworth Hall up in Newton Aycliffe in Co Durham a couple of weeks ago. The hotel was wonderful and catered for 170 excited women all there to craft. As well as the crafting we were entertained on the first night (Sunday) by Charlie Hawkins from Hochanda who as well as telling how he started in shopping channels as a presenter, he also played host to a game of Crafty Fortunes, between the attendees and the Crafters Companion team. This was very funny as it was played along the lines of Family Fortunes and it was soon clear that Charlie had never seen the program before. All to soon the 3 days came to an end, but as you can see from the picture below that we all had a great time and came away with some great makes. There is one other card that I can't show you yet as the stamps for this have not yet been released.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Last Rudolph Days For 2017

First let me say sorry for being absent for the last couple of weeks, what can I say except I've been off enjoying myself. First at Craftaganza, held by Crafters Companion, which was up in Durham. Then the following weekend I attended a weekend workshop held by Clare Chervill from My Creative Spirit, this was making a beautiful Graphic 45 project. I'll show you photos later. Now onto today and its time for the final Rudolph Days Challenge for this year. I managed to take part every month except May when I was out of the country. This has meant that I have managed to make quite a stash of cards already to pop into the post next month. I would like to thank Maureen for holding this fun challenge every month, it certainly helped me build my stash up. This year I have enjoyed playing with my embossing folders and distress inks to make some of my Christmas cards. Some of the folders have been new and some I've had hidden away for a while, they are great for batch making. Here are four that I had fun with.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Off On Retreat

Well my bags are packed and waiting by the front door for my crafty pal Elaine to come and pick me up, we're off to Crafters Companion Craftaganza. This is a three day retreat in a wonderful looking hotel in Durham, so quite a drive from here in the North of Hampshire. Before I go though I thought I would stop by and show you this card and enter it into Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Challenge this week. Recently I attended a workshop held by Martine Smith from Oyster Stamps where she showed us some wonderful techniques including shaping these wonderful Heartfelt poinsettias. As I have this set of stamps and dies when I returned home I set to making a collection of the cards ready for friends and family for Christmas. I made 9 altogether and changed the colour and the layout on all of the. Well that's enough rambling for now as I need to get this posted in the next few minutes.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

One Layer Christmas Card

I was thrilled when I clicked on the Stamping Sensations Challenge blog at the end of last week and found out that I had won the October Challenge. For this months challenge they are asking for One Layer Christmas Cards.This is a challenge for me as in all of my years card making, I don't think I have ever made a one layer card. Until now that is. I've used a 6x6 white card blank, a piece of masking tape across the middle, Tim Holtz snowflake stamps and Distress oxides. I used a technique that Tim showed us a his recent workshop at Art From The Heart, which was to stamp with the Oxides and then quickly blend with a blending tool. The sentiment was from a set by Sheena Douglas.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Buttermilk/Zodiac and Pixies Snippets Playground

My card today is for two challenges, Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge and Pixies Snippets Playground. The butterfly challenge asks that you use Buttermilk colour and or something from the Zodiac. Pixies Snippets asks that you use snippets/scraps. While rummaging through my scraps box I found some buttermilk colour card and some brown that went with it. I cut the card to size and then stamped a script stamp from Inkylicious onto the buttermilk card using Distress Ink in Tea Dye colour. Then I inked around the edges with the Tea Dye ink, I found a doily that had been cut sometime ago from scraps, I inked this around the edges too and stamped a Lily of the Valley sentiment stamp. There was a little brown card left over and there was enough to cut out two butterflies to add to the card, making it a Gemini card. I popped it all onto a 6x6 white card base.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Christmas Creatures

This is a Christmas card that I've made for my Mum to give to Niece for Christmas and it fits right in with the theme over on the Allsorts Challenge blog this week as they are asking for Christmas Creatures. It was an image that I found on the Internet which I downloaded and turned into a topper. I can't remember where the backing paper came from as I have quite a lot printed off ready to use. The sentiment was made on the PC. I used silver mirri card for the matting and embellishments. This also fits in with Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Challenge which is Anything Goes with the optional theme of Something With Wings. Which is covered by the wonderful snowy owl in the picture.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Birthday Card For A Friend

I made this card for the friend who we travelled during our trip to America earlier this year. My inspiration for the card was the picture below the card. While visiting Yosemite National Park we drove down part of a road and all of a sudden rounded a bend and the church nestled in the trees came into view. As soon as I saw the scene I said " I have stamps at home that look just like that Scene". So when it came to making a card for our friend this year I knew I had to use these Stampscape Stamps to make the card.  After stamping the scene I used masks and distress inks to colour it. I'm glad to say that our friend loved the card.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

October's Rudolph Days

Well Christmas is fast approaching and we have reached the October Rudolph Days Challenge already. I have quite a stash of Christmas cards made ready for the big day. My cards this month use 3 different snowflake embossing folders, distress inks, gilding wax and a Sheena Douglas die. These were popped onto some A5 card bases with some mirri card. Simple but effective, I think.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Halloween

My card today is for two challenges Allsorts and My Time To Craft, both are asking for cards on the theme of Halloween. I don't celebrate Halloween, but I love making Halloween cards.  This  year I'm part of a Halloween card swap and as I've made 6 different cards it was difficult to choose which one to put on here. For this card all of my stamps with the exception of the cobweb are from Chocolate Baroque, the cobweb was a Lavinia stamp.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue xx

Thinking Pink

Just popping in with a card for a couple of challenges today. First for the Allsorts Challenge this week which is Think Pink and the second is Craftyhazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge. For the card I've used Tattered Lace Charisma Dies and Countryside Garden Collection using the pink option for the flower colour, which I've teamed up with some Fuchsia coloured card for the matting.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Friday's Playtime With Friends

Very often on a Friday I have a couple of friends who come for the day and we have a crafty play. Both are quite new to crafting so sometimes we end up doing something they have not tried before. This Friday we ended up decorating these expensive Mirrors from the Swedish shop, I'm going to make a couple of these for Christmas presents so now I've made this one I only have one more to go. I'm sorry that my hands have got in the way on the photo. I'm going to enter this into the Challenge over at Pixie's Snippets Playground this week (I've not been for a play for a few weeks now as I've been so busy) as the embossed pieces used on this are all from the scrap box, also most of the home made chip board pieces have been made with scraps too. As everything gets a coating of black gesso it really does not matter what colour the card is that you use. I'm also going to enter the More Mixed Media Challenge too, which is Anything Goes with an option to use orange.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

All Hallows Eve

My card today has been made to enter into the Lavinia Challenge this month which is All Hallows Eve. I made the background using Distress Inks and then over stamped using Lavinia Stamps and a white pen. We have our grandson all week this week rather than the normal Monday and Tuesday that we normally have him. Last night he stayed the night as well, as it was his mummy's birthday and daddy took her out. Normally he's up at 6.00 a.m , so we feel really privileged that he slept until 8.00 a.m this morning.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Autumn Sun

I've made this card with two challenges in mind, first Stamping Sensations who are asking for cards on the theme of Autumn Glory and the second is the Allsorts Challenge who are asking for cards with the theme of Trees and Leaves. I started by blending distress inks in autumnal colours over my background and then stamping over the top with Lavinia stamps. I then popped it onto a piece of black card stock before putting onto a 6x6 card base.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

October, Already

Right own up who stole September? Not quite sure where September went, I can't believe that it's October already and hopefully it won't go as fast as last month. I'm rushing in today with a card to add to the NBUS challenge over on Darnell's blog, I made this card using a stamp from Chocolate Baroque which I bought a couple of years ago and have only just go around to using. It's stamped onto Kraft card and embossed with white embossing powder then coloured using pencils. Of course I made the normal four to go into the box ready for December which is approaching rapidly now.

I'm also going to enter this into the following challenges:
Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes/ Option Black, White and one other colour
Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

A Very Special Weekend

So back track a few weeks and you would have seen myself and fellow UKSN member frantically trying to get onto the Art From The Heart website to obtain ticket for a workshop with Tim Holtz. After 2 hours of trying we both managed to complete checkout getting 3 tickets each. However then came the news that the website had crashed and they were re-releasing the tickets later on in the week. However we had been lucky and had managed to complete as the website died. So fast forward to Saturday and four very excited ladies were driving up the M1 towards Harrogate getting ready to first meet up with two other members who were making their own ways there and attending the final workshop on Sunday afternoon. The photo below shows us waiting to go into the workshop.

All to soon the four hours were over and we had all managed to make 10 tags using distress inks, distress paints, distress crayons and not forgetting the new distress oxides. Tim was a wonderful teacher and had us all laughing most of the time too. Mario worked away in the background clearing away any rubbish that was made during the class and then handing out the goodies that Tim had bought over for us too. Below is a photo with Tim and the six of us that attended and underneath that
a photo of myself with the Tim.

We even managed to get three of us with Mario too. Six ladies went home on Monday very happy.

My card today was a order that someone had asked me to make, It made me feel old as I know the person that I made it for and he used to be a former Scout when I was a Scout leader many years ago.
It was made using stamps from Stampscapes, some masking, brushes and distress inks.

 

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Rudolph Days

Sorry I seemed to disappear off the face of the earth, but I spent a week in Cornwall while my Husband and Son were fishing. Normally I can get the Internet while we are there but this time the reception was awful. I then rushed home on Friday for an extra special weekend, but I will tell you about that later, for now I have this card for the Rudolph Days Challenge. I have used another image that I found on the Internet, I printed onto some matt photo paper and mounted onto gold mirri card. I then ran another piece of paper through an embossing folder and coloured with some red distress ink. I then added some gold guilding wax and mounted onto an A5 card base. The sentiment is from Crafters Companion and the die used was from The works.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

My Weekend Makes

At the weekend I headed up the M40 to Redditch and a Crafting Retreat that was held by Thompson's Craft Supplies. Although most of the people stayed at the hotel where the retreat was held there were four of us that stayed at another hotel near to the venue that was a bit cheaper. Our first project was to cover a very ordinary looking A5 notebook. We used all sorts of bits and pieces to achieve the finished result, including metal embellishments, chipboard and Lindy's stamp gang sprays. Once we finished these we made flip books using 6x6 scrapbook papers.

  The following day we started with a 6x6 by 4 inched deep white boxes and we covered these in a winter theme. There were some stencils provided for our use but I had taken my own Christmas stencils so decided to use these instead. Different embellishments were provided for decoration but it was put together very much the same way as the book.After lunch on the Sunday we were given kits and instructions to make a couple of shaker cards and star wands on a Halloween theme. All too soon the weekend came to an end and it was time to drive home again.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Another For Christmas

I thought I would post this while I'm waiting for a friend to arrive, then we are off to a retreat for the weekend in Redditch. This is being run by Thompson's Craft Supplies. My card is for the Addicted To Stamps challenge which this month is Christmas. The main die I used is by Poppy Stamps and the embellishment by Tattered Lace. The background is distress inks then stamped with Lavinia Stamps, I then die cut it with an oval to match the main die and stuck together before mounting onto a card base. The Sentiment is from Crafters Companion.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Indigo Blue and Butterflies

The new challenge over on the Butterfly Challenge blog is S is for Silhouette and/or the colour Indigo. So for this challenge I decided to go with some new dies I bought recently from Tattered Lace, the beautiful Barley and Butterflies and The Pearl Square. The butterflies are from All Occasions Dies and I carefully removed the Butterflies from the die without disturbing the bits that would normally drop out making them silhouettes. The background was made with Sheena's Stamping card and distress inks. I've not added a sentiment as I'll pop this card into my box for later.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Create A Card Die

Another card (or two) made for the box, this time using one of the new Diesire Dies from Crafters Companion. I've used a 6x6 card black and Sheenas stamping card slightly smaller and then slightly smaller again in silver mirri card. I cut the die from the mirri card then with the Sheena card I plotted where to use distress ink to make a background that suited the die. I then mounted them all together onto the card blank. I've decided not to add a sentiment, I shall just put a verse inside.

I'm going to enter this card into Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Challenge Extra which is anything goes.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Kraft Card

I love to stamp and colour onto Kraft card but don't seem to do it very often, so when I saw that the current challenge over at My Time To Craft was to use Kraft card I just had to get some out and have a play. I used a stamp from Chocolate Baroque which I stamped and embossed with white embossing powder and then coloured with pencils. I colour matched the card used for matting and then used a Kraft card base.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue