Little Angel...

Yes, I'm afraid I'm in full Christmas card swing now... and it's been really lovely to get time to sit and make some, and also share my makes on here with you all. 

So, what have I got to share with you all today? Well, it's this sweetheart here. The cutest little Angel there ever was. You can paper piece her, stamp and colour her, doodle in her, the choice is entirely upto you. 

But on this card below, I chose to colour her in very simply using my new Colourista pens and pencils - and as you can see, they work amazingly well. 

There are a few different things I've used on this card, and I will be sure to list them at the end of the post. 

These fab little sentiment tiles would have been so easy to make had I thought about it, but I didn't, so a random purchase a while ago from Hobbycraft bought them home with me, ready for that perfect card.

So here she is - my little Angel, in all her finery. I will list all details at the end. But as you can see, the base colouring was done by stamping in Momento, as I was using permanent colours to colour in.  

I coloured in using the Spectrum Noir Colourista pencils and pens. I found the pens to be lovely with the brush nib - very precise. And then topped it up with the pencils too to deepen the shades. 

On this pic, you can see where I opted to use the foils that I recieved from Stix 2. These are nice and so easy to use too.... and lovely to enable you to add a bit of luxury. 

So - here's your step by steps etc. 

1. Take your 8" x 8" card and cut some gold mirror card and patterned paper slightly smaller in layers using your Layer Perfect tool. Stick these together and attach to the card blank. 
2. Take a contrast paper and cut out with a circle using your Layer Perfect tool too. Really easy to do this!
3. Cut a strip of gold mirror card to around 2" wide x 7.25" long. Cut a piece of patterned paper to 1.75" wide x 7.25" long and stick together. Wrap a length of ribbon around the whole piece and then attach to the card. 
4. Stamp your image using Momento Tuxedo Black and colour in with your chosen pens or pencils. Add some sparkle with your Sakura pens. 
5. If you take your Stix 2 2 in 1 glue pen, draw around the pieces you want to foil and leave to go clear. (It goes on blue - permanent adhesive, dries clear - temporary adhesive) Then pop your foil sheet over the top and rub over to adhere the foil to the glue. 
6. Cut out leaving a small border, then layer onto a piece of mirror card. Trim to leave a small border. You can measure this very easily using the Layer Perfect. 
7. Attach the angel topper to your card using Stix 2 silicone adhesive. *I opted to use silicone because you have different depths underneath the topper, so the silicone will adjust the height accordingly*
8. Finish your card by adding a bow to match your ribbon, a central flower and a board sentiment. I also added a wooden heart and some pearl drops around the design. 

I hope the steps make sense... really, you can just have a play with the topper once you have coloured her in, or paper pieced her. She will look beautiful whichever way you play with the stamp. 

Here are the bits I've used in my card. I would love to see what you have made... please share! xxx

SHOPPING LIST

Stix2 S57321 Layer Perfect Tool

Stix2 S572269 Tape Runner

Stix2 S57109 Transfer Foil

Stix2 2 in 1 glue pen

Stix2 S57100 Silicone Adhesive

Woodware FRS223 Patch Angel stamp

Sakura Stardust pens

Colourista pens and pencils

Momento ink - Tuxedo Black (if using alcohol pens. Stazon if watercolouring)

Dovecraft Winter Blooms paper pack

Hobbycraft Mini Christmas Signs

Hobbycraft Wooden Heart Topper

Bauble time....

Morning folks.... 

How are you all doing? Things this week have been a bit busy - not too bad - just sorting out show products for upcoming hours on Hochanda, and also been out and about visiting a very lovely person... but more on that another time!

Today, I thought I would share a little project I've made for Stix 2, and I've used a few other Woodware bits on there... and a little bit of watercolouring. Who doesn't love putting away the alcohol pens and getting back to watercolour. It's such an easy way to start - don't get worried with your colouring with pens, they can be a little daunting... 

So here is the project for today. 

I will give you a full list of what I've used at the end, but I started by stamping the beautiful Jolly Holly stamp with cloudy grey Stazon ink. I used stazon because I needed a permanent outline as I was watercolouring, and I chose Cloudy Grey so it wasn't too harsh against the vintage papers. 

I coloured the stamped image in with Brunzeel Aquarel Expressions pencils - boy, these are gorgeous! They don't leave harsh lines, but if you are in any doubt about any pencils you have, just scribble off the point of the pencil to give you a softer start. 

After I coloured the bauble with the pencils, I took a little darker colour on the brush direct from the pencil and added shading to the side edges. As you can see, there is also a little glitter on there. This was from adding some of the Sakura Stardust pens and painting them out with water to spread the glitter. 

I had stamped two lots of the foliage around the swirl and coloured these in the same way with the pencils. I cut them out so I could add dimension to the finished card with the silicone adhesive. 

I added some shading around the bauble and the swirl by using a charcoal pencil and I blended it out with a paper stump. I chose to add some extra colour to the swirl with a Micron pen, and then used my Stix 2 2-in-1 glue pen along areas of the swirls. I left it to go tacky (it will go clear) and then added some foiling to give it some sparkle. I chose the dark brown foil from the Transfer Foil pack. 

Some finishing touches were the ribbons, flower and greeting board, and I added some already cut paper snowflakes which I had stuck around the card. 

Here's your quick step by step and shopping list. Enjoy!

1. Cut your base card to 8" x 6".
2. Use the Layer Perfect tool to cut layers of mirror card to 7.5" x 5.5" and the papers to 7" x 5". 
3. Use an offcut strip of paper to add the detail down the side, it doesn't matter what width and add mirror and white card down the edges. Stick your snowflakes to the card and trim edges. 
4. Stick these layers to your card with your Tape Runner. 
5. Stamp and colour your image as detailed above.  Foil the image if required. 
6. Add shading around the outside of the image with distress inks if you want a nice vintage look.
7. Trim to leave a small edge and layer with mirror card and white card. Use Silicone glue to the back of the topper to give height and attach to your card. 
8. Cut out the remaining leaves and shape with your fingers to give it a curl. Add silicone glue to the back and add to your card. Add some white dots to give details. 
9. Tie a large luscious bow and attach this, a flower and your sentiment board to the card with silicone glue. 

SHOPPING LIST

S57321 Stix 2 layer Perfect Tool. 

S57269 Stix 2 Tape Runner

S57100 Stix 2 Silicone adhesive

Stix 2 2-in-1 glue pen

S57109 Stix 2 Transfer foils

S57275 Stix 2 Snowflakes

JG5284 Woodware Jolly Holly stamp

White cardstock

Guillotine

Gold Mirror card

Papers (I used Dovecraft Winter Blooms)

Hobbycraft Mini Christmas signs

Stazon ink - Cloudy sky

Brunzeel Aquarel Expressions pencils

Sakura Stardust pens

Sakura Micron pen 0.1

Simple and spooky

Oooooh it's been a few days hasn't it?! 

I have had a bit of a busy week getting ready for my first few shows over on Hochanda. And do you know... I loved it. It has such a warm, welcoming feeling there and I felt at home straight away. There were so many familiar faces too, which was lovely. Anyways.. more on that later. 

I have also not been very well - I'm sure I've got the worst edition of Man Flu! It started last week with a swollen throat, developing into a full-on cold and cough. I've not felt so rough for years!! But here I am, and I want to share a little card that I made using this gorgeous little witch stamp I've had in my stash for quite a while. 

Isn't she just the cutest?? I chose to colour her with promarkers on this card, but added some shading with pencils to add a little depth and some shadows under her lovely shoes. 

The extra little bits and bobs in the stamp set - the bats, the moon - I chose to randomly stamp around and then finished off with a black liner pen around the outside edges to keep it simple. 

Birthday cuties....

Helloooooo y'all... 

How are you??

I've had a pretty busy week this week, preparing for my first ever show over on Hochanda - a little bit nerve wracking but everything was lovely, and the folks there are wonderful. Great atmosphere, familiar faces and a kettle. What more does a girl need, right?

Apart from being busy, I was creating a couple of cards to send off to my beautiful daughter for her birthday. I made two as she has a little furry friend in the family who dotes and loves her to pieces - that is our Scoobs. Her baby. He loves her to bits... but more on that later... 

The stamps I chose to use are Woodware and I chose the turtle and the puppy. The turtle is a private joke from years ago when she was in the air cadets lol, and this stamp is just so perfect. I love it. The little cheeky expression on his face is so cute. 

I coloured him with copics (I can give you the numbers if you need them) and added some shadows and white highlights for details. 

of course, all of my little characters have to have blushy cheeks - it's the law! So, he was given his blush and some white highlights to his eyes and cheeks to add some sparkle. This card was from the grown ups. 

The card below, was from the furbabies. Namely Mr Scoobs. lol. 

I coloured him in so he looked sorta spaniel coloured, and used the same paper pad as above so that the cards matched. The layouts I kept quite simple on both, as I didn't want to deter away from the great images. They make the focal point on any card. 

Again, I used the copics to colour, if you want to know the colours, just ask. I do have them written down. I added sparkle to the hearts, a few dots to the blushy cheeks and eyes and some details along the ribbon and top borders. 

Inside the card, Scoobs managed to 'paw' his little sentiment - yes really, all by his own fair pawsies! He even sent his favouritest person a gravy bone inside the card too. lol. She loved it and it made her giggle. 

I hope you like today's cards... they were so easy to make with the quality of the stamps, and I totally enjoyed getting back into my colouring (something I have missed of late!) 

I will be back soon to share a few more projects with you, but until then, Happy Crafting!!!

Dogs, dogs, dogs....

You know... there's so much that I love about life, I can't begin to tell you.... but when it comes to my furry friends - or not so furry in the case of my goldfish!!! - then dogs and cats have to be up there with the best. Since we have been together, Mr P and I have never been without our furry friends. He had a cat called Lucy when I met him, and she had babies which gave us a large ginger and white tom, called Thomas. Yes, I know... very original! 

When we married we got our first doggie, a beautiful dobermann called Tasha. She was our baby, but unfortunately she died aged 6months old. A day permanently etched in our memory forever more. 

Since then, we have had a few woofers, a few more cats, as well you know if you are a regular reader of my blog, and we now have three spaniels, two cats and three fish. All very spoilt, but all very loved. 

So when my crafty friend Pamela showed me the Crazy Cats collection of stamps from Tim Holtz, I immediately fell in love and saw some quirky things that our cats did. Albeit, I never had chance to sit and stamp, then colour them in as I had too much 'other stuff' to do. Obviously that has changed in the past few weeks, and I am starting to enjoy my crafting again for me - finding things that I have scurried away for a rainy day.. 

Pamela also showed me her new collection of Crazy Dogs... of course, I had to have them and invested in the stamps and the matching dies for these. I got them from my lovely friend Donald who owns Craft World Scotland, and I must add what fantastic delivery he does too!!! Ordered one day, delivery the next. 

So... these dies were put to one side and last week I got them out and coloured them up. This is what I came out with. Very simple cards, but I hope you like them. 

I chose to use some lovely papers from the Santoro pack to have as my base on my card. The layers were cut on my Scan and Cut, which made it so simple to do whilst I got on with the important part of colouring my image! If you don't have the Scan and Cut, I can give you dimensions for the matting and layering, please leave me a comment to ask. 

The pens I used to colour this little fella are Promarkers and they are listed under Single Dog at the end of the post. I chose an olive green ribbon to go down the side of the card and the wording was also cut on the Scan and Cut. Just a simple 'Hello' as I don't often put sentiments on my cards. 

In the centre of the ribbon bow is a button that I got in a pack from Hobbycraft. I just snipped off the back loop from the button (not too close as you don't want the top bead popping out!) and used hot glue to fix it into place on the ribbon. I finished off the little guy with white gel pen and a fine line of blue highlight around to add some depth. I added some Nuvo drops to the corners as my little gems. 

This card is not as simple as the first one, as I had to do some masking off and stamping over with different stamps. If you haven't done this technique before, just ask, and I will try to do a little video tutorial for you. 

I used promarkers to colour the animals in - two from the dog set and a cat from the Crazy Cats. I am just in love with the characters of the animals - I can see elements of the stamps in my dogs and cats here - all crazy.. but cute!

The background was cut on the Scan and Cut again, using one of the Christmas corners from the USB. I cut it four times and joined them in the centres. Again, I used the machine to do the mats and layers and also the wording for the card. 

You can see where I have used the white gel pen on the images to add a few highlights. I also went around the outside of the inner frame with a red pen to doodle a little interior framework. This was because the doggy had a red collar on and I hadn't included any red anywhere in the card. This just sorta finishes it off. 

Well... that's it for now... I will be back to show you a few other things I've been upto... but for now, here's the shopping list for the things I used. Happy Crafting everyone!!!

SHOPPING LIST - SINGLE DOG

Momento Ink - Rich Cocoa Brown  (available from the Craft Barn)

Santoro Paper Pack - GOR 160109 (Available from Stuff for Crafts )

 Stampers Anonymous CMS5271 Tim Holtz  - Crazy Dogs (Available from Craft World)

Promarkers - (Available from Art of Craft)

Raw Sienna, Cocoa, Burnt Sienna, Marsh Green, 

Pear Green, Cool Grey 5, Baby Pink, Antique Pink 

White gel pen

Black card stock

White base card 8 x 8 inches

Offcut of green ribbon

One fancy button

Black Nuvo Drops or black pearl gems

SHOPPING LIST FOR GROUP CARD

Momento Ink - Rich Cocoa Brown (as above)

Stampers Anonymous CMS 5271 Tim Holtz Crazy Dogs (as above)

Stampers Anonymous CMS 251 Tim Holtz  Crazy Cats (follow link as above)

Post it notes to use for masking of stamps

Promarkers (available from Art of Craft, as above)

Sandstone, Cinnamon, Henna, Cool Grey 1, Cool Grey 3, Cool Grey 5

Red Poppy, Leaf Green, Marsh Green, Denim Blue, Mustard, Gold

Raw Sienna, Baby Pink, Antique Pink

Black card 

White card blank 8 x 8 inches

Red fineliner pen

White gel pen

Me turtle...

Hello all.... a bit of a long post from me tonight..... have you got your tea?

Yes.. it's a funny ol' title for a blog post, but yes, I often feel like a turtle. And I would be happy if I was half as cute as this little guy... 

So why do I feel like a turtle?

Well, not for many reasons really, other than anxiety and panic attacks, and low vitamin B12 are usually to blame! Something I've come to realise over the past however-many-years that worrying about things you can't change does you no good at all. 

For a long time, like many out there, I feel I'm not good enough, I can't do it, have little self confidence and how sometimes you feel like you could just walk away from it all. 

There was a quote on Pinterest once, that sort of summed it up .... "Noone knows how many times I've lost hope. How many times I've been let down. Nobody knows how many times I've felt like I'm about to snap. But I don't. For the sake of others. Nobody knows the thoughts that go through my head when I'm sad, how horrible they truly are. Nobody. Knows. Me"

It's a horrible feeling... you can't make people understand, can't make anyone understand what is happening inside of you, especially when you can't explain it to yourself sometimes.. I often feel like my anxiety has anxiety!!!

However.. this last couple of weeks has given me an awakening of some sorts. I've actually managed to take my tablets regularly - upped the dose when I felt necesssary - and am feeling in control of things that went beyond my control. I've been talking to the hubby about how I feel and he's put me right on a few things. He's shown me the way, and although I'm not saying it's easy - it's definately helped to start opening up about things. 

I know there are many people out there who see me doing my job, and think I'm full of confidence, like other crafters out there, but we are not all confident. We are not all in control of what we think we should be thinking... it's difficult when you're in the anxiety phase to just 'get over it' or 'just get on with it' or 'just talk about it'. It's hard to even 'stop thinking like that' because 'it's stupid'.. because to us it is rational. 

So.. that's why I'm a turtle. I've grown up. I used to be an ostrich... I stuck my head in the sand and pretended things weren't happening... but now, I can retract into my shell and watch and learn and come out when it's safe. I'm happy being a turtle. 

Anyways... onto my little make for today... and yes. My little turtle fella... Isn't he cute. He's a woodware stamp and I thought it was just perfect to go with this little border from Be Creative. The 3d borders have always been a favourite but you can't often get them these days - there are a few from Be Creative at the moment, but others are in the pipeline I have been told.... !

He was coloured in with their alcohol markers and as I didn't have a blender pen to add the mottling on his skin, I just opted for a very pale grey to dot and dab, which sort of did the same thing. 

Of course he had to have little sparkly eyes and rosy cheeks, all finished off with a little dab of a white gel pen to add highlights - I don't know where I would be without my white gel pen!

As you can see, I made this a central stepper card. The papers were from the Nature pack of the Be Creative papers and so were the buttons. The border I added some extra adhesive to the base of the strip and took my anti static bag to 'un-sticky' the top section so it didn't catch when the card was closed.

I thoroughly enjoyed making this little card. It's around A5 in size, maybe a little smaller, but a great size for the stamp.

I hope it inspires you a little.... and just one last thing - as some people have asked - NO.. I haven't left Tonic, I am merely satisfying my thirst for colouring. Something I let go when I had my bad anxiety problems a while ago.

I have found it helps to sit, colour, and relax and do something just for ME. I'm sure you understand.

Until next time... xxx

It's your Big Day....

Evening all.... 

Phew - bed at last! It feels like a very long day today, I don't know why.... started off by visiting a special friend this morning, going to get a Gratitude Journal - more on that another day! Coming home to take receipt of a VERY special gift from my buddy Cheryl which had been sent home via the hubby's!  It's funny really how you come across people in life and immediately have that familiarity with... that's me and Cheryl. We've only known each other for a very short while, and our paths crossed via a cup of coffee being had in Barnsley and Create and Craft in Peterborough! Very wierd - both husbands knew each other from work, but we had never spoke! Now it's like we are very much alike - too similar in alot of ways it's scary!!!

Anyway..... What has your day been like?

I thought I would just pop along and show you two more of my Chalkboard cards. I am so glad that you've all been enjoying looking through the gallery on the Tonic Gold site, checking out everyone's cards - and there are some corkers on there too!

But I think the Chalkboard is my current favourite... I love the frames and the way they come with the sentiments that mix and match. This one is the 'It's your Big Day' set of frames and stamps, but as you can see, I've just changed the sentiments in the centre. 

I cut some of the card using the outside edge only, and left some card with the design only, then played with arranged the layout until I was happy with the layers then stuck it all together. 

Being a stamper and a colourererer.... lol.... I thoroughly enjoyed creating this little card below. 

I decided to use some of the Tonic background papers to match in with the colours I had used on the stamped image - a download from the Tiddly Inks website... love it!! 

The wording was taken from the inside part of the die set, cut from different colours then layered up and paper pieced accordingly. The topper I coloured was cut from oval layering dies and placed into the centre of the chalkboard frame. 

It's a perfect fit as you can see, so even if Chalkboard is not your style, there are elements of the sets that you can use to coordinate with your existing crafting arsenal. 

I hope that you like today's selection of cards.... Back to share more inspiration soon! 

until then... 

Happy Crafting!!

Chalk Dust...

What is it about chalk that makes me think of school?

I know that these days they have all the hi-tech stuff like whiteboards and such, but for me, school will always be about having things written on a proper blackboard with chalks of varying colours - and even having a blackboard rubber aimed at the head by a very grumpy Geography teacher!! If I'm honest, it was much better than being called an empty weetabix box... lol. Those were the days eh?!

Anyway.... onto today's post... and yes, you guessed it, I am going to share a couple of makes from the Chalkboard dies from Tonic.

I've decided to show you two ways to use the frames.

The first card that I want to show you is using the stamps and frames that come within the range. This one is called Special Occasion, and you will recieve the outside and inner designs, a lovely lattice insert and also the matching set of three stamps and the outside of the stamp which you can use to create a frame or just simply for placement of the stamps.

All of the stamps within the sets coordinate with each other and you can play to create multiples of different sentiments!

As you can see, I cut mine from black cardstock, then the inner section was stamp and heat embossed in white powder. I then took a white pencil and went around the outside of the wording to create a shadow... like the chalk had smudged ... and finished it off by colouring parts with coloured pencils.

Now... on the card below, I left it a bit more cute... and did what I love... came back to the stamping and used the dies as a frame to sit my Magnolia stamp in.

I chose Tonic paper and cardstock to layer and decorate, and the frame of the little Bumble was cut using the inner part of the die set.

I had to hold the die in place to draw around the edge where it met the feet, so that I could cut around them with a pair of scissors. This made them dangle on the outside of the frame so it looked like he was sat on it.

Little bumble (as I like to call this stamp) was coloured with the Tonic Nuvo pens, but I added a little bit of prisma pencil to the hair to give it a little extra oomph!

Glitter was sprinkled onto the wings to add a finishing bit of sparkle. And then I completed the card using a few dots of Card Candi from Craftwork cards on the corners.

Nice and simple... but this could easily have been a decoupage or other stamped image... the frames are so multifunctional and useful - and also very pretty!!

I will be back shortly to show you another couple of makes.... with a different frame set too!

Until next time. xxxx

Little and cute.... now what could it be??

I. Am. In. Love. 

Yep. It's official I'm afraid and I am certainly not ashamed to share.... !

A couple of weeks ago I was down at Sandown Racecourse doing Workshops with Tonic Studios and I had a little walk around before the show opened on the first day. I came across Gordon and Justin who own Once upon a Stamp, and the first thing I noticed on their stand was the new collection of Lawn Fawn stamps and dies. Have you seen them? 

Oh my.... they are the cutest ever! And anyone who has followed my blog for the last seven years or so, will know that I love any cute, adorable stamps.... and these are just that!

They asked if I could help them out with a few samples for the stand, and I had to think about it for a nano second to say of course, so I spent that first evening with Sharon, in the hotel room, colouring, cutting and generally having a bit of stamping fun. Thoroughly enjoyed it and here are a couple of samples that were made up. 

I love these little Alpacas... they are so cute and not something I ever thought about using on Christmas cards at all! But just in case you are wondering - easy to stamp, colour and you get a coordinating die to cut around the shape. 

The papers are also from the Lawn Fawn collection and the stamps which had the sentiment 'Merry Christmas' too. The wording is a long fine stamp which is very easy to mould around a die cut shape as I have done.

The alpacas can be used in a few different ways and as you can see from the card below, depending on the colours that you use and the layout you choose to decide to make, you can create something completely different.



The wording on this card along the centre was a die which I cut straight along the centre. I also cut one from black and one from white and did a drop shadow technique to give it extra detail.

The snowflakes are also Lawn Fawn and come on a strip to cut out the various sizes and shapes out all in one go.

The thing I love about these stamps is that they require very little colouring, are very simple to use, as they have the outer edge die to cut them out. And they're cute. Cute cuts it for me every time.

I hope you like the projects today... I have a few more to show you over the next week or so, so please check back and there will be more to inspire you soon. xx

Cheers!

Good evening you lovely folks.... 

Sorry I haven't been around for a while this last week or so, things have been a bit manic - what with decorating, work, appointments, family time and a bit of 'us' time - time has just run away with me and it's been over a week since I came on here... I can't quite believe it! 

It has been nice though - we had a lovely meal out at the Hare and Tortoise near Rossington, Doncaster, and I can highly recommend it.... beautiful food and lovely staff. A definate to go again!

So.... onto tonights little project bundle and as you may guess, there's a new Pick of the Day on tonight being bought by Tonic Studios, and our lovely Jodie. I thought I would share with you a couple of my samples for the show which shows how you can use the dies for boxes and cards. 

This little card is DL in size, which is an A4 card scored at 10.5cm and folded then trimmed to create a tall card.

I cut the front of the card with the outer edge of one of the panel dies from the wine wrap and then cut out a sentiment - I chose Cheers - from white card. I layered this onto the back of the aperture and  stuck it in place. I had also inked the embossing and around the edges, but you can leave it plain if you wanted to.

The letters emboss so is perfect to give a little extra detail to your project, and the leafy swirls around the letters are just so pretty. I layered it up onto pearlescent tan cardstock, then mounted onto the card.  I chose a ribbon to match the tan in the layers.

My topper is so cute... I totally enjoyed colouring this little beauty. She is a digi stamp from Tiddlyinks. I thought she would make a great topper to say Cheers....

In addition to the card, I also used the same colourways to create a wine box with the same dies.

I kept it quite simple, cutting out the wording from the base colour cardstock and also white, and layered them up to give them a shadow effect. a simple ribbon layer and some pearly Nuvo drops in white finish the centre of the bottle. 

I hope you enjoy the rest of the shows tonight and tomorrow... I know I will. These are fantastic dies with so much potential!

Until next time..... xxxx

Glitz and Glamour....

Evening all.... This ol' blogging malarky is getting a bit regular again isn't it? To be honest, it's lovely to get back into it.... coming lazing in bed on an evening, laptop on my knee, furbabies snoring all around and looking back on the past few days as to what to jot down to write has been great fun. 

So, what has this week bought me? Well, I've had a couple of birthdays - my daughter Martina turned 19 and my fluffy boy, Scooby, had his birthday the day after. I've also had a day down at Create and Craft bringing you the Girls Night Out Craftinator, which was quite a giggle.... and really not me. 

A bit like the title of this post. I can honestly say, I don't do Glitz and Glamour very well... give me an old jumper to chuck over my back and a pair of jeans and slippers, and that's me settled for the day ahead. Hehe. That and a pair of pyjama's - every girl needs a PJ day... and mine was today. 

So... onto todays post.. and it is all about the Bling!

For this card, the main focus of it was the sentiment. But I really wanted something to go with it, so I chose this lovely stamp from Crafters Companion, from the Frou Frou range - it is one of my favourites I admit... 

I also wanted to add a little extra sparkle, so I made some sparkly jelly tots with my glue gun and the Nuvo glitters, as well as adding some glitter card along the border in the centre, around the image and on top of the diamond in the sentiment. 

You can see just how the diamond was created on here. I layered up the wordings using the colours from the cardstock - pinks and purples, and I drop shadowed them to give it a glow. I then cut the same sentiment from the glitter cardstock, but positioning it mainly to get the diamond. I trimmed it out completely from the glitter card and stuck it to the top of the shadowed wording.

A little blingy or what?!

The only other extra thing I needed was for my little character to hold something in her hands, so I created a sort of blobby-splodgy-gluey-doo-dah for her to hold. I don't know what it is... maybe a vase.. but it finished the topper off with some shine. **smile**

The image, in case you are wondering, was coloured using alcohol pens.

I hope you like the project for tonight... until next time... happy crafting xxx

Handbags.... gladrags.... and fairies!

If I say so myself, this is a perfect little combination. I do love bags. Not too sure about the Gladrags - give me something oversized, frumpy and comfy! As for faires... who doesn't love fairies?? Not too sure about the real life looking ones, but cute looking ones are good for me. 

Large, oversized and comfy sort of describes my attire for the last few days - blimey it's been a little hot, hot, hot hasn't it?! So.. out with the crop trousers, floppy tops and maxi dresses. And what happens?? The rain arrives. But, I will remain positive and I know that the sun will come back at the weekend. lol. 

Anyway.. that's what tonight's post is all about. I have a little Chelsea handbag to show you from the Craftinator for this month, and also a little card that uses the handbag elements in a slightly different way. 

As you can see, the handbag was made from navy blue card, and it takes just TWO cuts to make the bag - fantastic or what?? They join at the base and then the pieces just fold up together. This means you can batch make the bases and just decorate as you need them.

I chose to do mine with a glitter card. It does shine blue, black and silver, although you can't quite see all the colours within the card which is a shame.

The lacework that comes with the bag will create a lacy section to fit in or on the bag fronts, flaps and sides. However, I chose the outside edge to cut the glitter card and then just decorated the flap up with the little fasteners you get (this was the silver bit) and I used a cameo from my stash, from Hobbycraft I think, and a small bow.

But... if you choose to use the various lacy elements of the bag on their own, on your cards, you can create something like the card below.....

The little triangular sections at the side of the topper were from the Chelsea bag, and these lace sections fit onto the top flap. That's if you chose to do that....

I also used the wordings from the collection to add my sentiment. And can you see the lipstick? That was one of the Rococo dies... it makes an awesome border!

I used the star layering dies to cut the stars to add some sparkle to the background. You don't have to add these, but I just liked it. Once I had stamped and coloured my fairy, I also added some of our fantastic glitters to add a little sparkle.

I am going to have to go and get some sleep now... the Craftinator is back on over the next few days and I am doing tomorrows shows... our lovely Jodie will be back on Wednesday xx

Just a note...

Oh what a morning it is.... after nearly a week of lovely, sunny and hot weather, it has decided to rain... and rain is a slight understatement!! It chucked it down!

So today, I have decided to dig into the past and find something really colourful and springlike. 

These two cards were projects I made for previous issues of Cardmaking and Papercraft magasine. And I admit, this top one is my favourite... totally different to something I would normally make, but I enjoyed using toppers and card candi, keeping the card quite simple but pretty. 

I added a little bit of glitter and sparkle to the outside edges of the layers to decorate it up a little more.

This was a simple little stamped image, made for a Thank you card. I opted for a lovely stamp of a cute little girl (Woodware, I think!) and did a bit of paper piecing for her dress and bow.

Paper piecing is a great way of adding colour to your projects if you are not brilliant at colouring. It can be a bit tricky, but is worthwhile persevering with as it can give you a great look on your project.

I added glitter around this one too, then finished it off with a few little gems here and there.

Onto today's schedule, I am back to making samples and hoping to fit in a little colouring and stamping later again. Yesterday, I did a bit of a one-to-one teaching with my sister in law, showing her the glories of colouring with pencils (bulk standard, cheap colouring pencils, or watercolour) and blending with a little bit of essential oils. I will try to do a video at some point for this this week, as I have been asked quite often.

It is a bit of a misconception that you need special pencils to do a blended technique, you absolutely don't. I do have prismacolour and polychromos pencils and the like, but generally just use my £12 box of steadtler pencils and they do exactly the same... !

Well... onto work ... and I will get back to chat a little more tomorrow...

Happy crafting everyone!!!!