wooohoooo.....two posts in one day! I've been busy

I've been having a play today. These are a a few creations I was inspired to make after seeing this fantastic blog full of really useful video tutorials! Its a really great resource! take a peek if you havent already discovered it! First up is a bag of Reindeer Food. I've used some basic porridge oats mixed in with some red edible glitter. I've never really considered making these before, but they are so simple and I'm sure kids will love them! The little reindeer is the template that I used for the reindeer card below. I've just resized him in psp and drawn the rest of his face on! The little poem is really sweet.And the rest of today's batch!

My second and favourite project today was this Snowman Soup! I actually bought a bulk box of these hot chocolate sachets the other day. I have tried one or two of them, but I bought them with this recipie in mind! I've added a few white marshmallows and candy cane. I have lined the cello bag with the Doodlebug Winter Asterisks paper and have printed the snowman and sentiment from my pc. The top strip has been embossed with the cuttlebug snowflakes folder. This i the final version after having made a few attempts, this was the one I settled for.

Yummy!

Oh My Word...where has the last month and a half gone?

I'm so sorry for being such a bad blogger...I just dont know where the last month and a half has gone. It all started at the begining of May. I went to Cornwall for a week on holiday and I'm still not 100% back into my normal routine yet. After we came back from our holiday I had a couple of weeks to prepare for my stall at a local country fair. I've worked my socks off trying to get things ready in time! The show itself wasnt actually all that busy, the weather was great though and we have a really nice weekend away! It was nice to hear such lovely comments from people about my cards and gifts. Here is a piccy of my stall!

I've been asked to make quite a few cards recently and the first one I'm showing you is probably my favourite. I was browsing the docrafts gallery looking for inspiration for a Wedding card and I came across a card by Barbi which really inspired me. So I had a go at my own version and this is what I came up with. The colour scheme for the wedding is light toffee and cream so I thought I'd use these colours for the card. The wording is printed onto a cream pearlescent card, and I have personalised it with the bride and groom's name and date of the wedding.I really love this little girls first birthday card. I think it turned out really well! I've made a blue version of this card before, but this is my first go using the pink colour combination. The papers, card and ribbon are Doodlebug! who else?I was asked to make a thinking of you card for a lady recently and I decided to use a layout that i've used before using the cuttlebug embossing folders. This time though I thought I'd add a little extra to it by layering a stamped Tilda with Boquet in the bottom right corner.

And my final favourite for now! is this BBQ card. I have a stamp set from Studio G who I think are now being sold as Dovecraft stamps. They are the 99p sets. This is from "The Great Outdoors" set. I was inspired to make this card by lots of other cards on the Splitcoast Stampers Gallery. An invaluble source of inspiration!

I think that will do for today. I do still have lots more to show you, but I'll leave some for another time! Thanks for stopping by.

Handbags & Gladrags

Hi everybody! I've got a few cards to share with you today. I have two of my Nephew's birthday's within 5 days of eachother, and wasnt sure what to do for either of them! I had stamped this Sugar Nellie Pirate previously and just needed to colour him in. I'm not really sure about this card, but I think he liked it which is the main thing. The map is part of an Epsom kit which I've tried to age and distress slightly. The background paper is from the DCWV Rockstar Stack, which I absoloutely love but don't like to use! I have distressed the edges around the pirate, its my first attempt at this, I used the edge of my craft to do it but I think I may well have inhaled some of the dust!This card is a copy of a design I used last year. I thought I'd keep it reasonably simple and it only took a few minutes to make.And here are the Handbags & Gladrags! I was flicking through my Pink Petticoat Folder on my PC the other day thinking that I'd hardly used the Lola's Boudoir collection that I so desperately had to buy last year! So I printed off a few sets of shoes and matching handbags. I've also used one of the Pink Petticoat papers which I've just re-coloured to co-ordiante with the different coloured shoes. Each handbag and pair of shoes has been cut out and stuck on with foam pads. I've used my trusty scalloped edge punch too and simply added some ribbon and some adhesive stones.

I think this first one is my favourite. I love the combination of lime and pink together. It feels very fresh and spring like!
I really like this burgundy and grey one too. Not a colour choice that I would normally go for but i think they actually go well together. And finally a bit of a red and black spotty one!

I've admired this Penny Black stamp for quite a while now and it is on my "Wish List" but I thought I'd try it out before I make the purchase so I bought a few stamped images from ebay to have a bit of a play with. My colouring is not great though! I love the look of these baby cards. I don't normally like to leave too much white space on a card but I think thats what baby cards need!

Well my aim for this week is to get some Easter cards made along with a few Mother's Day cards, which is coming up on 22nd March. I have a couple of Ruby Anniversary cards to make to which I'm looking forward to making. I've just received a delivery with the supplies I needed so I'd better head off and start creating!

A Belated Merry Christmas & A Happy 2009 to you all!

Hello to you all! I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. I've had a bit of a break for the past few weeks as I was so busy before christmas that I think I completely ran out of inspiration! Back at the begining of December I was asked to have a little stall at the local pre-school Christmas Bazaar which I agreed to do, nervously! It went really well though and I sold quite a few cards and some of my card & candle gift sets too. I think I'll keep my eye open for some craft fairs and maybe do one or two throughout the year. Here is a little piccy of my stall!Santa was very generous to me this year! These are the crafting goodies he left for me! Mostly from my wonderful husband, Ian. I've got a few bits in the online sales too so I can't wait to have a go and get creating again! I will have to clear some of the washing and make the utility room my craft room again! Christmas was a bit more exciting this year, with Adam now being 2 and a half and quite enthusiastic about his presents. He was quite keen to open them himself but I had to help out where they were a bit too well wrapped! We had lots to open! Adam also started pre-school on Tuesday! My little baby is growing up! Where does the time go? He is only doing two short sessions a week to start with. The first one went really well, no tears, he just waved me goodbye and said see you later!

Here are just a few of my favorite cards I made leading up to Christmas.This is using one of Kerry's Stamps Harry Ski-ing. I've used some torn vellum as the snow and have added lots of glamour dust. I've used the swiss dots embossing folder and inked with my white stazon inkpad to make it look like snow. The snowflakes are cut using the cuttlebug die and I've added more glamour dust and an adhesive stone to the centre of each. I love this card! Adam gave it to his Daddy for Christmas!

The next two are cards I made for my friends Son's & Daughter's. She has 5 children all together! Again I've used Kerry's stamps. Harry & Martha with Snowmen. I've combined these with Doodlebug Papers and cardstock. I coloured the snowman with my glue pen and covered him with more glamour dust! This next card is made again with Doodlebug Card & Papers and embossed the background with cuttlebug snowflakes. I've used this sugar nellie stamp so much this year! and I got it for a bargain of about £2.50 earlier in the year when it was on sale. I needed to make some quick and easy mens cards and whilst browsing one of my many magazines decided to go with a tie theme and luckily I just happened to have the making memories set that the used to make them in the magazine which helped to inspire me!This card was so quick and easy to make and I love it. I gave one to my cousin for his birthday and he was very impressed!And finally, here is a get well card I was asked to make for a lady. I've used Kerry's Martha Nurse stamp combined with some of the Summer Driggs papers.

My first order for this year is for a Mamma Mia themed card. Not sure what I'll do yet, but I'll see what I can come up with. We got the DVD for Christmas, its great! We've watched it twice already. We also got WallE which I really love and Adam does too!

Right, well thats about all for today. Hopefully I'll be back again soon with some new creations to share with you! I need to catch up with your blogs too!

Thanks for stopping by!

.....more Christmas Cards...a few for the men?

First of all I'd like to say a big Thank You to Kerry for the Freebie Christmas Tree which I've used to make this very simple card. Thank You Kerry! I started by printing out and painting the christmas trees. I tried putting them on other cards with other images but I thought I'd like the tree to be the main focus of the card. I've added a few red and green papermania adhesive stars to decorate and then stuck it down using foam pads. The strip of dotty paper is doodlebug layered onto some red doodlebug cardstock. I've then printed the sentiment on the pc, again onto co-ordinating doodlebug card and layered this too. I really love this card. I can't beleive how simple it was to make! One of my quickest so far!I got the idea for this card after seeing this card on Tara's Blog! I really love the holly wreath and decided to have a go at making one myself. I've used doodlebug again! Paper & Card! and I've embossed each holly leaf with the swiss dots folder. I wasnt sure what to do with the wreath once I'd made it and one evening I had a flash of inspiration! So I went straight into my craft room and cut out circle from the card and hung a large round sentiment in the style of a hanging bauble!I bought the Papermania Christmas stack a few weeks back in Hobbycraft as i thought the traditional papers would be ideal for some more masculine cards. I've used the free template to cut out the holly leaves and inked all the edges. For the lettering I printed off a few christmassy words and made my own card templates so I can re-create them. I've cut them out using the same paper as the background paper. The font I've used is called Madfont and I downloaded it from DaFont I had the Idea for this next card when I saw the Ribbon Tree stamp in a magazine. I cut out all the different pieces of ribbon and stuck them down and then trimmed them into a tree shape. I added a small star brad to the top of the tree. Then I got stuck! and didnt know what to do with it, so I've kept it simple and a bit manly!

I decided to have a go at making some Christmas Baubles using the Papermania paper pack again. I've cut out the baubles using my nestabilities and finished them with some gold ribbon and a few adhesive stones. I think they have turned out really well. Very simple and easy to make.

More Christmas Cards

Can you see a theme running through my cards yet? Pink Petticoat? Doodlebug? I wanted to keep my cards all fairly similar this year to make it a bit easier on me. Its been far from easy though! Here are a few more.... For this card, I've made the holly leaves using one of the free templates that came with a magazine a month or so ago. I've inked all the edges and scored down the middle of each leaf before adding glamour dust and sticking them down with foam pads. I made a bulk batch of these and they've been really usefull!Another Pink Petticoat card using Lola Rose, combined with Doodlebug Holly Paper which ties in lovely with her christmas jumper!For this one, I thought I'd have a go at stamping up a Magnolia image to use on a Christmas card. I've used Tilda with Flower Boquet and coloured the flowers in red to resemble some kind of poinsettia type flower! I've gone with the same layout as above, using my handmade holly leaves and hand cut scalloped circle, and I wonder why it takes me so long to make my cards!!!The dotty paper is Doodlebug again! and to tie in with this I've used the swiss dots embossing folder. Then just a few adhesive stones to finish!

Whilst playing around with the Pink Petticoat images I decided it would be a good Idea to do something with just the Christmas Puddings, so I cropped them in Paint shop pro and printed off about 50 of them! I used my square punch to cut them all out and I spent a theraputic evening watercolouring them and adding glamour dust. I had a little production line going. I wasnt entirely sure what I was going to do with them once I'd finished so here are a couple of cards that I made.

I think this is my favourite of the two. I've embossed the bottom of the card with the cuttlebug snowflakes folder and sectioned the two parts with a nice piece of red ribbon. I printed the sentiment on the pc and layered onto co-ordinating card.

So many cards...so little time!

I've been asked to have a little stall at my little boys pre-school christmas fair in a couple of weeks time. Its the first time I've ever been asked to do anything like this and I'm a little nervous to be honest. I've been working really hard trying to get as many cards made as possible. Tonight I've got nothing left in me! I'm exhausted! so thought I would take a bit of a break and come and update my blog instead. I've got lots of cards to show you.

First of all I thought I’d start with a couple of candle and card sets. This first one is made using a Sugar Nellie stamp that I bought a couple of months ago from Funky Kits. I think I only paid £2.50 in the sale for it! What a bargain! I’ve used Doodlebug Winter Asterisks paper together with Doodlebug cardstock. The white background is embossed with the Cuttlebug snowflakes folder and the raised scalloped circle, which is all cut by hand, is embossed with the Swiss Dots folder. I’ve added a few adhesive stones and a sentiment I made on the PC. I really love this set. I think it’s my favourite out of all the ones I’ve made.
Secondly, I decided to make a candle to match my Forever Friends card. I have added small adhesive stones to the centre of the flowers and tied a pink bow around the bottom of the candle. And finally, another Christmassy card and candle. I made this one using Pink Petticoat’s Lola Rose with Christmas Tree. I used the printing direct onto tissue paper technique for this one! I’ve added glamour dust to the trees for an added bit of sparkle! The Christmas tree on the card is stuck on with foam pads to give it a bit more dimension but this is about as far into decoupage as I like to go! I’ve then embossed the top and bottom of the card with the Cuttlebug Snowflakes folder. The cardstock and paper are both Doodlebug and the ribbon is from Ribbon Oasis.

A little bit of Christmas!

I spent most of Sunday looking back through old issues of magazines looking for some inspiration for some christmas cards and was so frustrated as I just couldnt find what I was looking for! I didnt know at the time what I was looking for but I didnt find it! I did sit and cut out some snowflakes from one of the free templates that came with a magazine and also some holly leaves.

Here are a couple of the cards I've used my holly leaves and snowflakes on!
I was originally inspired to make this card when I saw the new stamp from Magnolia with the Silent night music background. As I already have a sheet music stamp I thought I'd save myself some money and have a go at using it! I've stamped it onto red doodlebug card in embossing ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I then took the Guitar playing Edwin and attached him using foam pads. The sentiment is one I've made myself using paint shop pro and Ive cut it out using my nestabilities and then inked the edges. This is also stuck down with foam pads. The stripey paper is from the Papermania set A Wonderful Christmas Time. The spotty paper is a download which I've recoloured from blue to red spots. I am really pleased with this card. Its got to be one of my favourites! I hope you all like it too.

And onto my second creation. This is one I made yesterday and this is the card I was looking for on Sunday but couldnt find! It all started with a sheet of Vellum which I'd torn and decided to use it as a layer of snow. I've taken a sheet of Doodlebug Whimsical Winter Asterisks paper and cut out of it 3 different sized triangles. I have inked all the edges in navy blue ink and then I'ved gone round the edges and also the edge of the vellum with my glue pen and sprinkled Glamour Dust to give them a snowy effect. I have to say that there is glitter everywhere now. I'm sure I will be finding it for months to come! But I love the Glamour Dust. I really wanted something that gave this effect last year but I only had quite a bulky glitter. The snowflakes are stamped onto a pearlescent navy card in white ink and then embossed with clear powder. The snowflake stamp is from another one of my Dovecraft/Studio G 99p stamp sets. I have covered the large blue snowflake I spent ages cutting out, in glamour dust too and then stuck the sentiment, which is another one I have created in paint shop pro, in the centre and mounted it on foam pads. In all, I made about 6 of these last night.

This card was so difficult to photograph! I must have taken about 100 photos last night and yet all it needed to show it off was a little bit of sunshine!