Special wishes....

Well.... it had to be done... I've finally broken into my new Christmas stash that I bought from Create and Craft the other month...

I love elephants, so this collection was bought primarily for that reason! And aren't they cute.. ?

Because the topper was fairly large, I've made this into an A5 card and kept the layout quite simple. The flowers were added for a splash of bright colour...

These are just made from a little punch, and plonked together in three layers for depth. Love the red!

Anyway... must make a move - things to do today, cards to make, and research to do.. lol..

Happy Crafting everyone!!!!

Winter Greetings

How are we all? Another little christmas card to share with you all today... and because it's for a fella, I thought I'd keep it nice, simple and put it on kraft card.

Kraft card from Docrafts is perfect for the men - and women - in your life, as it's such a fab base for any colour paper and design.

So here we are....

Firstly, I chose some paper to go with the kraft card.. I went with green spotty to keep it bright and trendy. The image was stamped with some fab 'bitty' stamps I bought last year. All the elements - heads, feet, arms, bodies etc - are all seperate, and you basically can put them together as you wish. Great fun me thinks!

I stamped them with the new brown dye Docrafts Artiste inks (oooooh these are sooo lovely!) and then pulled the colour out a little with a water brush pen.

To add the spots of colour on the images, I used watercolour pencils but didn't blend them out with water.. I just layered up the colour to add depth.

I think they're cute... what do you think?

Back to the needle...

Years ago, before I started making cards, I did cross stitch... most cardmakers I've found seem to have fell into it through cross stitch.

I still love doing it, but don't tend to do it as often these days. However, I still have lots of lovely threads in my boxes, so decided to drag them out, grab a needle and start stitching.

The template I used has embossing and stitching detail, so I chose a colour from the topper I'd put together and tried to coordinate it as best as I could.

I kept the design quite simple, and just used a stamped bow for detail.

The sentiment is one I've had in my craft room for around a year, and not really used it. It's actually really nice but a wee bit small.

And here is the stitching and embossing in a little more detail.

Today, I'm going to get cracking on making some more Christmas cards... orders to finish and all that.. lol.

So.. happy crafting until next time!!

Die cut Inspiration #1

Hello again!

I told you I'd pop back and show you a little card. This is one of the first Christmas cards I've made this year (apart from demo samples of course) and I love how it came together.

This is one I did for Craft class the other day, and it was simply because I wanted to use my new die. See it? The one across the top?? Isn't it lovely??!!

I reckon I'm quickly starting to become addicted to using dies more and more, and this is one I knew I needed (it is a need, right??) when I saw it. Pretty much like the new ones that Docrafts have bought out this past week or so. Have you seen them?? Oooh they are lovely.

Here's a little peep of a couple of them..

This one is by the lovely Becky James... card designer extraordinaire... and features the new frame die.

And a fantastic scrapbook page from Beckie Dreyer featuring one of the birdhouses...

Great aren't they?

Anyway.. onto today's card, and my Die cut inspiration is the border die for this card.

You can see just how perfectly it frames the top of the card. (and I just noticed the bow has fallen off!) And I think it's really pretty too.

I've coloured the image in with pencils, then added a little bit of liquid applique and glitter glue to the hat rim.

I did dab down the liquid applique with my finger around the hat so that it didn't puff up too soon as I was heating it.

I am going to enter a few challenges with this card too.. just because I haven't entered any for a while..

• Paperplay Challenges - Simply Cute
• Anything Challenge - anything goes
• Papertake Weekly  - All creatures great and Small

It's getting nearer....

I really need to get a Christmas Countdown put on my blog - don't I??? I'm not too sure whether I do or not, but at least then I can count up exactly how many days I have to panic that I haven't managed to make my cards for another year... lol.

However, things have been a bit busy in the house of craft over the last few days... as I had an order come in for quite a few Christmas cards. Now. You know I openly admit I don't generally make my own, but I thought I ought to at least make a start on the cards for the order! I'm sure you'll agree...

So, here's a little peep at the ones I've been making over the past few days. I will show you them more in detail over the next few days.

As you can see, I've used punches, stamps, stitching, decoupage and toppers to create a variety of fresh looking Christmas cards.. I just hope they suit the recipients..

So, have you all been really good and started doing your cards? Do YOU have a Christmas countdown? Is it useful.... or plain ol' depressing? lol.

Back shortly to share an actual finished card...

Friday already?

Where is the time going this week?? It doesn't seem two minutes since I did my last post, and it's Friday already.... blimey.. it'll soon be Christmas!!

And talking about Christmas, I've been busy playing with the cutesy Boofle stamps. Here's one card -

I've just done a bit of layering onto mirror card with this one, then added some paper piecing for the wellies, scarf and hat. All finished off with a bit of glitter - because you just have to have glitter for Christmas!!

And here's the same character again, a little simpler background on this card using an older embossing folder from Docrafts. I inked up the folder with black ink then used it as a stamp which meant I could colour the background. Simple but nice.

 The texture for little Boofle was done with the older range of Boofle stamps that Docrafts bought out a while ago... you got quite a few different textures and backgrounds on this set, so I opted to use the wooly effect.

And here's that letterpress type of embossing a little clearer.

So countdown to Christmas then.... I will try to include non Christmas cards on my next few posts - the later I can leave the rundown to the big day, the better!! lol.

Until next time... happy Crafting!

What a mess....

This is the result of our little electricity disaster... the mains blew near the lamp outside next doors house. Great innit?!

ooooh what a day!

Isn't it strange how you rely on something so simple like a bit of electricity?

Yesterday was a bit of a disaster zone here - the house went very quiet with a little bit of a pop yesterday afternoon and we didn't have any more power at all until around half past two this morning. I think it's strange how desperate my darlin' daughter was getting because she had no phone charge, no computer.. lol.. just funny how you get to rely on things.

I spent the afternoon thinking, that's okay because I can make a few cards.. whoops.. no light. Oh well, I can read. Whoops. No light. Hey ho, I'll play games on my mobile.. oh dear. No charge. So it was quite strange doing things like 'nothing'.. lol.

So, there we have the reason we had no post yesterday, but I'm here today to share a few cards with you.

I thought I'd show you these fantastic fabric papers from Papermania today... I loves them loads!! They are a self adhesive paper - sticky on the back, fabric on the front! And they make your cards look awesome!

Here I've used the Home for Christmas hearts fabric onto kraft cardstock - the red goes perfectly with the brown!

I also decided to add a Dinky the Donkey to the card and one of the brilliant glitterments sentiment panels. These are all christmassy and glittery and have the most wonderful sentiments on them too.

See the texture of the fabric? It really makes your cards looks great and a little more tactile.
Here's another little quick card that I've made using a couple of different patterns.

My favourite pattern from the Home for Christmas set this year is the background on the above card. It's such a generic pattern, and the red and greys match perfectly. So lovely.

And here's  a little close up for you of the patterned heart paper.

 The decoupage on this little card was from the Moments of Faith christmas range. These are quite traditional images which again, match perfectly with the fabrics.

See that I also cut the circle? Yes.. the sticky back fabric also goes through your die cut machine, and you can turn it over and emboss it too - just like paper but very lovely!!

Until next time... xxx

Back again!

Oooooh where to begin??

Firstly, it has to be said.. I'm hating the new style Blogger - what's with changing things when the old stuff works so perfectly in the first place??!!

Oh well... today, I just wanted to share a little card that I've made for my demo's this last month. I'm really loving the Tulip Christmas range, it's so fresh and young looking - but suitable for that contemporary and traditional look too - see... it's red.. and green.. but has the pale blues and violets too!

For this card, I opted to use the decoupage pack - fantastic value for money too! Isn't she the cutest.. but guess what I like the bestest? Yep, you guessed it - the little doggy. He soooooo reminds me of my Mr Scoobs too.

The spotty paper that was in the pack is what I've used for the chopped up ovals at the sides, but I've taken a white gel pen and drawn across the spots with a ruler to create a little grid. I then added glitter glue to each dot (time consuming but soooo worth it!)  and finihsed it off with a few diamante papermania stars around the scallop edge. I love these gems - so different to the plain ol' round ones too!

Here's the gridwork in slightly more detail.

I'm also going to pop on another quick card, as I was asked to show it ... so here you are Jill - just for you. One of the acetate cards I did at the demo on Saturday.

The background on this one was created using the new fabby Artiste dye based inks - they mix beautifully to create a multicolour background. I used the same colours to stamp the baubles, then used clear embossing powder over the top to give them a little depth.

The stamps for this card are from the Home for Christmas range from Docrafts - it's lovely!! Loving the fonts on the background and the Nordic designs of the baubles. The holly stamp is awesome! One of my favourites me thinks for this past month - such a chunk of a stamp, but it stamps beautifully and fine!

Hope you like the cards for today - I will be back tomorrow with more ... they are finally edited, cropped and brightened, so ready to plonk on my page.

Ok.. now off to see how this posts....! I think I'll wish me good luck..........

a little time off...

Yes. As you may have guessed, my blog is now opened up again and ready for business.

I did intend to keep it private until I'd done it up with a bit of poshy-ness, but with one thing and another this is not going to happen for a little bit longer.. however, you can see there's nothing new going on here, no cards to show, no great exciting news... but at least it's open for you all to read. lol.

I've also still been pondering over the use of Facebook / Twitter and social networking as a whole. Now, blogging I like. Facebook I don't. Twitter - well, why????!!! There must be a reason for twittering, but I just don't see it... maybe it's just because my life isn't complete in 60 letters or less (or however many random letters I can use!)

But anyway. I'm back. Watch this space. Life is being planned out as we speak, and I will be back with things to show - alas, no samples from this months demo's as some unkind and very selfish person decided to pinch them off my table last week in Southport... but at least I can make more. Keeping cards safe when you're demonstrating, how do you do it?!

Until next time... toodle pip!