Thursday 20 November 2008

No cards, but fab news - for me!

Didn't have much time for crafting since my Marathon evening. I am slightly panicking now as I need to get a few more things done before next week Saturday, as there is a christmas fair I have a table at. Enough time to make something, you think? Well, it would be, if I didn't go on a short notice 4- day holiday on Monday!!! I am really excited as the last real and proper holiday is so long ago that I can't even remember when that was! Only seem to be going to visit family normally and that is still at least as much hard work as my normal routine, just without the chance to do some crafting in the evening.
So where are we going that is so exciting you ask? Prepare to laugh... We go to Centre Parcs Longleat Forest! I know, not exciting for most of you, but for me it is. I have never been to a Centre Parc in my life and heard so many good things about holidaying there with small kids! They even have kids entertainment, so I might get a bit of free time to myself! Now, do you think I should take some crafting stuff with me? And if so, what???? Wel, I still got the wekend to think about that and get a few things done for the fair as well... Take care and thank you for visiting!

Wednesday 19 November 2008

Most amazing blog candy!!!

Wow, I can hardly breathe for excitement! Look at Debbies blog and see for yourself, she is offering copics!! and sugar nellies and other yummy stuff, too!

Busy, busy, busy day!!!

Hello everyone! I have not had the chance to do much crafting lately but yesterday I had an amazingly fruitful day!! I made 11 christmas cards! Yes, that's right, 11!!! They were all quickies (obviously) but I am still quite pleased with most of them. 
I also included one I did the other day and that I hadn't had a chance to upload yet. Thought it wouldn't make much difference if I bombard you with 11 or 12 cards *lol* 

This first one is with a stamp by Rachel Ann Miller that I got in a swap, I think it's a really cheery image! Coulered with copics, matted onto coredinations cardstock with an edge punched with a Martha Stewart scallopped border punch. I punched a circle as well and heat embossed the sentiment (my own stamp design) with white embossing powder and adhered with brads. Backing paper is Basic Grey Figgy Pudding, ribbon from stash. The base card is inked around the edges a bit to tie in better.




This next one is with a german sentiment, as I need to make a few for my relatives and friends in germany as well... The image is from a swap again and coloured in copics with some diluted stardust sakura over the ice and then glossed afterwards. CB embossed pearlised card as a mat, layered onto some Papermania christmas paper with a bit of ribbon wrapped around. I lifted the image with foam pads.



This Tilda card is with one of the new Tilda stamps from the winter club. She is coloured with Distress inks, cut out and layered onto CB embossed pearlised blue paper and Papermania Christmas paper. I added a border (Martha Stewart zig zag punch) on the top, matted the sentiment (foiled, from a fellow do crafter, the lovely Christina!) onto the embossed blue paper, too and added a sheer ribbon bow. Not one of my favourite cards...



The next one is one of the quickest and simplest, but also one of my favourites. I like simple cards... (so why don't I do them more often????)
The main focus is a CB embossed panel of coredinations cardstock that I sanded down a bit for the embossing to show better. I stamped the sentiment (my own stamp again) onto cream cardstock, matted onto coredinations again and then onto some printed vellum. I mounted it on top of a simple tied ribbon from my stash.



The next 3 cards are made with a stamp I only got yesterday morning, it is from autumn leaves and I stamped it in different colours and played around with some coredinations cardstock and Papermania christmas papers.  All the other bits are pretty self-explanatory, but if you see  something that you would like to know what it is or what I did, just ask!




Another of my new Magnolia winter stamp club images: I coloured it with Distress ikns, cut it out (fiddly!) and layered onto a bit of 'ice' made from pearlised, CB embossed paper on top of Papermania christmas paper. Added foild setiment (edges inked with chalk ink) a glittered felt snowflake and .. presto!



I think the one with "Lizzie with choc box" would have needed a bolder sentiment, the one I used is somehow lost on the card, but for a quickie not too bad, I guess...
Lizzie was from a swap, coloured with copics, edges inked and layered with Basic Grey Wassail papers (one bit punched with doily punch and inked). Added ribbon from stash, a snowflake brad, sentiment is from PTI .






The image in this one is from a swap again. Coloured with copics and snow writer added to the snowflakes. Matted and layered with coredinations card and Wassail papers, sentiment my own stamp and a glittered felt snowflake added.


This one is a stamp called "Lizzie with muff" from Whiff of Joy and I got it from a swap. she is coloured with copics and layered onto papers I got in a swap as well. Added 3 snowflakes and a WoJ sentiment.




I also got this lovely image (High Hopes I think) in a swap and coloured it with copics and added white glitter for the beard and trim. Layered onto Wassail papers from Basic /grey again, ribbon from stash and own sentiment stamp again. Quick and simple. One of my favs.





I would love to hear which ones you think is the best/your favourite!


I had also done this weeks Magnolia challenge over at the do crafts forum, which was a holiday theme and to use 2 colours, two embellishments and something you don't usually use in papercrafts.
I chose relaxing Tilda, as I really like her and she seemed to be the right choice for the theme. My colours are pink and green, two buttons for embellishments and the unusual item is a paper cake doily. Coloured her with copics and added some stickles to the flowers and her hairbands. Cut her out with oval plain nestie and inked the edges with pink chalk ink. The papers I was given by someone so I don't know the make, sorry... I used my new Martha Stewart doily punch and some coredinations cardstock and the sentiment is my own stamp.





Thanks for stopping by and come and visit again!

Sunday 16 November 2008

I won an award!!

I am sooo pleased! The lovely Laura and the lovely Rica both gave me this fantastic award and I am over the moon to have received it!


Now for the rules for this award ..........

The winner may put the logo on their blog (oh yes, of course!! everyone should see it!!!)
Put a link to the person who sent you the award (both of them! Just click on their names and take a look at their fab blogs!)
Nominate 5 blogs and put links to their blogs (the difficult bit... choosing!)
Leave a message for your nominees
I choose :-

Mina
Eileen
Zoe
Caroline
Lesley

Off to let them know now...

Wednesday 12 November 2008

A couple of christmas cards and a panda...

I'm still not completely over my cold and couldn't face any serious housework or other activity today so I hung around with the kids and decided to make a few cards. Two christmas ones that I had in mind for a while since seeing the idea at a demo in the Glitterpot. The stamp is a Woodware one and I put lots of gems, buttons, brads etc. on the "bubbles" that make the tree. A bit of matting and layerin, some inking and a stamped sentiment later this is what I came up with:




Then I was dying to use a pattern I bought online here a while go and hadn't tried out yet. It was surprisingly easy to do and I am sure I'll do lots more like that. I haven't decorated the outside yet, but maybe I can do that tomorrow... this is the inside:



Thanks for stopping by and having a look. I always appreciate feedback, so leave a comment, please!

Tuesday 11 November 2008

Just a quick one today...

Hello and thanks for stopping by my blog. I've done a few cards and am quite pleased with them, but am pretty tired. So I will just put them on for you to see and if you do have questions, feel free to ask!
This one is a quick Tilda card (image received from a DC friend) which I coloured in copics. Papers are Basic Grey and from a magazine freebie. Ribbon from stash and sentiment stamped by my friend Julie for me! I added a Prima flower and a gem in the center.




The next two cards are made with PTI set "Made of snow" on Kraft cardstock, embossed with nesties. I coloured with Prismacolor pencils and Sansador and added a bow on the one and 3 tiny gems on the other. Simple cards, but I like the effect.





The last one is a Tilda again, coloured with Distress Ink and edges distressed with some ink as well. I then matted her onto bazzil cardstock that I punched one edge of. The base card is stamped with a Magnolia snowflake in white ink. It is tied with a length of ribbon from my stash again and I cut a ticket stamp out of Kraft cardstock (thanks Kathleen for letting me use your stamps!! I ordered them now!) and layered it up.


 Thanks for looking!

Sunday 9 November 2008

Blog candy madness...

You can find even more blog candy  over at Karins blog. She has a surprise backpack full of goodies on there, so go and check it out!
Also, there is gorgeous candy up for grabs on Amys blog. 3 cute stamps could be yours...

More fab blog candy!!!

Cathy is offering some amazing blog candy, head over now and see what she has on offer, you'll be glad you did as her blog is great!!

Had a fabulous crafting day yesterday!

I met with 3 amazing girls, Julie, Sarah(Kozmik) and Kathleen yesterday at the Glitterpot. We had the chance to see a great demo for the Bind-it-all and pick up a few goodies then headed over to my place for some lunch and serious crafting. Ok, we did chat quite a bit as well, but amazingly we did craft as well. I really enjoyed myself and if it wasn't for the long distances (poor Kathleen had nearly 3 hours train journey each way!) I would like to do this at least once a month!
I had prepared a little something for each of them but forgot to take pictures *doh!* Kathleen did bring some great instructions for a storage system and choccies, Julie made each of us a lovely paper book that I will have to take a picture of later and upload for you all to admire as well and Sarah had a box of gorgeous yummy belgian choccies for each of us. Throw in some cake and cups of tea and coffee and you can imagine that we had a fantastic day.
We stamped quite a bit and exchanged tips and I gave a little introduction to working with copic pens and then we made little books with the BiA and I have to admit that this was great fun and the results were so good in relation to how little work it was really... Thanks to Michelle Saxon who did the demo at the Glitterpot we were all inspired and she had made it look so easy (which it was, really...).
Here is my effort, which I also will be entering in this weeks Magnolia challenge over at DoCrafts. The theme is Winter Wonderland and we were supposed to use two colours only (shades of grey and purple in my case, I cheekily forget about the brown for hair and sledge). 
Tilda and sledge are coloured in Distress Ink, Papers are from Papermania, The snowflke embellishment I got from a lovely DoCrafter and I added a tiny purple gem in the centre. I cannot remember where the ribbon is from... 
 Let me know what you think!