Happy Christmas Everyone....

Such a long time since I blogged anything at all and I miss it BIG TIME so in the New Year I will be back on a regular basis entering challenges again and maybe even opening the doors of Humbug Hall!!  Shhh don't tell anyone it's still top secret!
In the meantime Happy Christmas to all and a little look at some of the cards and stuff I've created this Christmas.

Two Santas using my Silhouette Cameo and a cutting file from the store.

Two more cards using the bits left from the first cards...

and loads of  cards from a huge Hunky Dory collection of stuff bought from Create and Craft.  I must admit that the collection saved my life this Christmas as I had so many cards to make and so little time that stamping and colouring etc was just not an option.  So easy to pick up a sheet of toppers and matching backing paper and just cut, mat and bish, bash bosh a card or two.

See you in the New Year.
Annie xxx

Top Tip Tuesday... Packaging

Sometimes when buying new stash the packaging seems too good to throw out.  Often I stash mine away thinking I'll do allsorts with it, but then I forget and it just clutters up one of my cupboards even more than usual.

This week, however, I had one of those light bulb moments when putting away one of my Inkadinkadoo stamp sets.  

My storage drawer for my stamping wheels and stamps was in a real state with some of the stamps in the bottom because they had fallen off their flimsy storage sheets and some were stuck on top of each other - not good at all.

Suddenly it dawned on me that the strong packaging that my Rocka Blocks came in might be a perfect storage solution for the stamps.

Yeah it worked....

The packaging for the Rocka blocks was one of those lovely packs that you don't need to cut to get open and after opening you can press to close them again.  One layer of stamps stuck to the top and one to the bottom.  All the designs can be seen and there is even a space inbetween for an extra set if needed.

My favourite word - FREE -  storage!

Call back next week for another top tip.

Ann xxx

Playing all day...

Had a lovely day yesterday playing with my Silhouette machine.  Wow it makes box making so easy!!!  It took me a while to do this as it was my first attempt, but I'm so pleased with the result I will definitely be making more soon.

 

The tea lights look a bit iffy even though they are new ones and real Yankee so I will be buying some new ones and a little tissue to overlap them too.

Materials...

• Silhouette cutting file by Tina on Facebook
• brown card with hint of gold
• papers from Christmas pad 
• flower and swirl die Marianne
• pearl brad
• organza ribbon
• tag die by Spellbinders
• tiny sentiment by Inkadinkadoo

Challenges...

• ABC Challenge - tic tac toe - ribbon, sentiment and pearl
• Alphabet Challenge - pretty petals

Ann xxx

Sad Day...

Today is the funeral of a very dear crafting forum and blogging friend - Tess Gully.  We are all thinking of you Tess and missing you.

Materials...

• butterfly tag - cut file from Silhouette Store
• sentiment and frame stamp Hero Arts
• black, white and silver mirri card
• butterfly bodies created using waste from peel off sheet

Challenges..

• Pixie's Playground Challenge - use your snippets (I'm thinking the peel off waste counts here)

Ann xxx

So organised...

This year no last minute present wrapping for me.  I'm going to wrap as I buy!  Famous last words, but at least my first purchase is wrapped and labelled.

Materials...

• plain lunch bag - from pack at Home Bargains
• Inkadinkadoo Stamping Wheel circle - Christmas tree stamp and sentiment stamp
• tag die by Spellbinders
• gems and gem brad

Challenges...

• Papertake Weekly - Repeat, repeat
• Totally Gorgeous - Bling

Ann xxx

Pretty in Pink...

Materials...

• A4 Swiss Dots embossing folder
• pink, white and silver mirri card
• words and baby gro cut on Silhouette machine using downloads from Silhouette
• tag die by Cuttlebug
• pearl embellishments and organza ribbon

Challenges...

• Allsorts - Pretty in Pink
• Crafty Cardmakers - dry embossing

Ann xxx

Another birthday card...

 

Materials...

• Lavinia Stamps and paper 
• Making Memories ribbons
• A4 Embossing folder from Sheena Douglas India collection
• gold peel offs and basic card for matting and layering

Challenges...

• Stamping Sensations - Things with wings
• Lavinia Stamps - add some ribbon

Ann xxx

Another birthday card...

This card was sent out quite a few weeks ago so it is safe to show and tell.  The fairy stamp is one I bought on the Facebook Craft Declutter group - infact it was the first item I actually managed to get to in time to purchase.  I love it!  It's by Rubber Stampede and has a sentiment on the top left which I masked off for this card.  

The background and all the foliage are by - a company who won't allow other companies to be used or mentioned on their challenge blog.  I find that really annoying.  I do agree that if you're entering a challenge you should have the courtesy to use the companies stamps, but to only use theirs in my opinion is very restrictive.  I'm debating whether to boycott the two companies I know of that have this ruling. 

I used one of Sheena Douglas's large embossing folders to get the embossed 8" by 8" background and added huge gems to add plenty of bling!  The central image is well and truly glittered, but that doesn't tend to show up well in photos.

Challenges...

• Papertake Weekly - anything goes
• Crafty Cardmakers - dry embossing

Have a great day whatever you are up to.
Ann xxx

Happy Birthday James...

A very quick card here as I've been out and about that much this week that the craft room has been sadly neglected.  I know we all tend to groan when having to create a 'man' card, but sometimes I think we worry too much.  Just a simple photo of something they love - add a sentiment and Bob's your uncle - job done!  Well at least I hope James will appreciate the card - he'll love the inside as there's tons of notes in.  Can't fail with those.

Materials...

• Cans of Carling to take photo of - camera - printer etc
• Scraps of silver and black card for matting and layering
• Circle dies
• computer generated sentiment
• black base card

Challenges...

• My Time to Craft - Food and Drink
• Pixie's Snippet Playground - use your snippets (large snippets used this time to matt and layer image and the sentiment)

Sun is shining here - maybe an Indian Summer is on the cards.  I do hope so.  Enjoy the day whatever you are up to.
Ann xxx

Workshop follow up idea...

Well at long last here is my variation on the card I made at the workshop check that card out here.  Quite a few little hiccups along the way including getting one of the letters stuck to my ruler before the Glossy Accents dried and although the finished card is not quite as I imagined I think it's turned out pretty well.

To say I dislike making gatefold cards I seem to have created quite a few lately.  This one was a bit of a pain to finish off neatly as I had to hand cut - eek - the back of the snow tag to make the inside a neat finish.  It would have been far easier if I had just had a rectangular shape on the front, but no worries it's done now and lessons have been learnt.
Materials ...

• Blue, white and silver mirri card
• Snowflake clear stamps by Wildrose Studio
• Letters cut on Cricut 
• gems, silver snowflake peel offs and Glossy Accents used to embellish

Challenges....

• Winter Wonderland Challenges - anything goes for Christmas 
• Sparkles Christmas Challenge - snowflakes

Just made it into both these challenges by the skin of my teeth.  Hopefully now I'm in the Christmas frame of mind I'll be entering more often.
Have a great day whatever you are up to.
Ann xxx 

Get Well Soon...

The challenge over at CD Sunday this week is Get Well Soon which gave me the perfect opportunity to use my Joanna Sheen House Mouse CD to create this very quick and easy to make card.
I've bought a beautiful card storage box from Home Bargains (only £3.99) and I'm hoping to fill it with an assortment of cards for a non card making friend for her birthday.  As I've quite a few to make they need to be fairly simple, but hopefully still lovely cards for her to send out to people.

Materials...

• Joanna Sheen House Mouse CD 
• photo paper
• two shades of green card
• organza ribbon and pearls

 Hope everyone is enjoying the Bank Holiday and the gorgeous sunny weather to go with it!
Ann xxx

Last card from the workshops ...

Totally unoriginal as this card was done step by step following instructions from Aly of Aly's Inky Fingers.  All the stamps used and the fabulous poinsetta die were items from her shop.  The card was such great fun to create and I learnt quite a lot of new techniques while making it or at least revisited things long since forgotten about.
I will be creating my own interpretation of this card over the weekend so watch this space!!
Hopefully my card is okay to enter into the following challenge...

• Polkadoodles Challenges - Christmas

Have a great weekend everyone.

Ann xxx

Another workshop project...

This is another item I partly made at a workshop I went to and then finished at home.  It sort of evolved from what we were supposed to do as there were extra parts hanging down which I've not added at home as they didn't match the quote I added to the main image.
The whole picture is on board and really needs adding to a frame, but I haven't got round to that yet.  Famous last words!
I really love the way we stamped on printed paper and added the cut out pieces to the edge.  Another thing I really liked was the stamp used to create the pattern round the edge, but yet again I forgot to write the name of the stamp set down.  Mental note next time I will take pen and paper.

At home I painted the smaller buds with distress ink, added the button and the quote.  It was a fun project to do.
No material list as most of the items were used at the workshop.

Challenges ...

• Oldie but Goldie - anything but a card ( my quote is one I've had years and has been used many times)
• Through the Craftroom Door - anything goes
• Try it on Tuesday - use your stash ( old stamp and one button - only another 5 thousand or so to use now)

Have a great day
Ann  xxx

Variation on Merry Christmas...

I was so peeved after making a card specifically for the IndigoBlu challenge to find out that you are only allowed to use their stamps in your design that I've had another go today.  Again I used an IndigoBlu snowflake border, but instead of stamping in ink I used flitter glue and guilding flakes to create the panels on my gatefold card.
This time the central image is not stamped, but using a double sided adhesive sheet I was able to add guilding flakes so that the die cut snowflake match my stamped border.
Materials...

• All stamps by IndigoBlu - snow flake border and sentiment on inner of card
• Flitter glue and guilding flakes ( Sheffield steel? - the one that is included in the starter set)
• double sided adhesive sheet
• snowflake dies
• Spellbinder circle and scalloped circle dies
• black card and silver mirri

Challenges...

• IndigoBlu Challenge - Christmas in July
• Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Christmas in August

Off to try and clear the guilding flakes up now.  It didn't say 'don't breathe while using' in the instructions.  One wrong move and they go everywhere!!
Ann xxx

Merry Christmas...

I really love making Christmas cards and it doesn't matter how much Christmas stash I have I can't resist adding to my collection.  All the stamps used to make this Christmas card were bought  on the wonderful Facebook group Craft Declutter.  In theory you clear out the stash you no longer want and gain some money.  In practice you sell one or two things and actually buy loads, but it is fun.
Today's Christmas card is a gatefold one and it was quite hard to take a decent photo of as it just wouldn't lie flat.  Here's another view of the card stood up...

I've even stamped the inner - getting really carried away these days.

Materials used...

• Black card and silver grey paper
• Indigo Blu snowflake border and sentiment stamp
• Wild Rose Studio clear snowflake stamp
• Snippets of black and silver mirri card for matting and layering
• Circle and scalloped edge die
• Clear gem stones 

Challenges...

• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - use a few of your favourite things - mine being snowflake stamps and clear gemstones
• IndigoBlu Blog Challenge - Christmas in July
• Winter Wonderland - Anything goes for Christmas
• Pixie's Snippet Playground - use your snippets (my black and silver for the matting and layering were all out of snippet's drawer)

Thank you so much for looking and commenting.  It was fantastic to see two new followers.  Welcome to you both.  Hope you like today's crafting and I will be popping over to your blog to see what you have been creating too.
Ann xxx

A special card...

This is the last of the cards made for my friends special birthday.  This one is from me!  It was started at a class I went to run by Mel Heaton - what a lovely lady - we had a great time creating with her.  
There was a lot of measuring and matting and layering to do so a lot of the card had to be finished off at home, but I think it was well worth the extra time.  
Pull the tag at the top and this is what happens...

 Cool eh?  I even added a back to the card so that the clever mechanism was covered up and also the card was able to be displayed standing up.

 Just need to make a box now and jobs a good un!


 Materials...

• mostly items used were provided by Mel Heaton at the class.  The papers were absolutely gorgeous as were the butterfly stamps but I can't remember the make of either. I should have wrote things down, but I was too busy crafting.

Challenges...

• Butterfly Challenge - Summertime butterflies
• Papertake Weekly  Spots and Dots
• In the pink challenge  anything goes so long as it is PINK

Have a fun day whatever you are up to.
Ann xxx

Twit Twoo...

I can't take full credit for this design as I spotted the idea in this month's Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine.  I just love the idea of the owl peeping out of the the hole in the tree.  It's another card for my friend who is celebrating a special birthday this week.  I always make the cards for my daughters to send as well as myself.  This is the last owl card for a little while though.

Materials ...

• Owl stamp from a clear set of stamps by Woodware
• Sentiment by Hero Arts
• Letters and bunting - clear stamps by Inkydoodles
• Coloured using Promarkers
• Wood grain paper from stash - plus orange and brown card stock and scalloped edge A5 card blank
• old gold brads and gold twine to hang the buntin

Challenges...

• Sweet Stamps - In the garden

• Crafting from the heart  anything goes

• Stamping Sensations - anything goes

Thanks for looking - would love it if you could find time to leave a comment or tick one of the quick comment boxes.

Owl week...

I have a friend who has always been a lover of owls and this week she reaches the grand old age of 60!!!  Scary - I am a couple of years younger, but it made me realise just how time is passing and that perhaps I ought to start being more sensible.

Hmmm, maybe next year!!

As it's a more special birthday she even gets a pull out tag - thought the hidden '60th' was a good idea incase she goes into shock and doesn't want to see '60' everywhere.

Materials used...

• Papers - magazine freebie Lilli of the Valley
• Flowers - die free in magazine
• Swirls - die maker unknown
• Owl stamp and sentiment by Woodware
• Sentiment on tag - computer generated 
• Tag - a Marianne die (I think)
• Coloured using Promarkers

Challenges ...

• Artistic Inspirations  pockets and tags
• Bunny Zoe Crafts  Summer colours
• Eureka Stamps  things with wings
• Polkadoodles Challenges  fun in the sun

Have a creative day whatever you are up to.
Ann xxx

I'm back....

and what could be better than coming back to Blogland on a Sunday and joining the fun challenge at Pixie's Snippets Challenge.
Just recently I found this gorgeous stamp with main part being the very large 'happy' and then smaller sentiments to place underneath.  Just perfect for using up snippets and making simple but I think cool cards.  Hope you think so too because I will probably be showing loads of variation of this card on a regular basis.
Additional Challenge...
Papertake Weekly - anything goes
Totally Gorgeous - nice and Summery

Ann xxx

Time to Celebrate...

A card inspired by a die used by Di at Pixie's Crafty Workshop .  I love the  'Happy Birthday' die she used in this post and the Christmas one I used on these cards, but now I have a Cameo machine I had a feeling I might be able to do something similar myself.
Sadly I couldn't work out how to do letters that fall into the box part (p and y for example) so I had to stick with words that stayed above the line.  Not bad for someone who has only had the machine for less than a week though - I am quite proud of myself.  Head is swelling here!   I did 'Time to PARTY' too, but that one isn't quite finished.
Challenges...

• Pixie's Snippet's Challenge - use your snippets (had to pull the tiniest snippets of the purple out of the bin (eeek) to create the candles.

Have a great week.
Ann xxx

On Safari...

One of my daughter's friends will be celebrating her 21st birthday in Kenya - wow how lucky is she?  Anyway I was asked to make a special card that suited the holiday.  Being on a lucky streak I won this gorgeous elephant silhouette stamp by Little Claire's Designs.
The designer paper is from a fabulous stack by DCWV and I believe is called Safari or something along those lines.  I love the really warm colours and used chalk on my background to echo the warmth a little.
Even went mad and made the inside a bit special too...

Again the papers were from the DCWV pad and the sentiment was computer generated and printed on to white card.

Challenges...

• Crafty Hands - Travel
• Little Claire - lots of layers (hope this counts as all the papers are layered and the stamped image is mat and layered many times.)

Thank you for looking and leaving some amazing comments.
Off to play now.
Ann xxx

A Castle for a Princess...

My first project using my Silhouette Cameo - what an amazing machine.  Thought I loved the Cricut, but wow this one gives out some serious competition.  The cutting file is from the Silhouette Store and was so easy to do. I think I may be making a lot of variations  of this kind of card.

Challenges...

• Daring Cardmakers - 3D creations.
• Papertake Weekly - white plus one
• Pixie's Snippet Challenge - The silver hearts that you can hardly see were cut from snippets of mirri card

Off to do some more cutting out.  
Ann xxx

More easy peasy cards...

I am just having so much fun with my Forever Friends paper pad and stickers.  So cute and so easy to use.  To create this card I used two sheets of the paper so that I could decoupage the main image.  As usual I printed the sentiment onto acetate which means I don't have to put thick card through the computer and also I can just use up a little scrap of the pink.
Challenges...

• Simon Says Stamp - Happy Easter and sweet treats.
• Fab n Funky - PINK
• Pixie's Snippet Playground - use your snippets

and here is my second offering made using the snippets left from my first make!!  My halo is shining big time this week as I'm actually using the snippets up before they even hit the snippets box.

 Have fun whatever you plan to do.
Ann xxx

Happy Easter...

Having a lovely time playing with a Forever Friends paper pad and some stickers bought in sale at local craft shop.  The papers are mostly double sided with one side plain and one patterned which is just fantastic when you want to make a card without having to rummage through all your paper stash to find a matching item.
Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy crafting!  I actually made 3 cards in a very short time which is not like me at all!  These are the first of the batch...

Challenges...

• Pixie's Snippet Playground - card no 2 uses all the bits left from card no 1
•  Card Mania - Easter
• Crafting from the Heart - Easter

Have a fun day.
Ann xxx

Happy Birthday...

  

At Simon Says Stamp this week they are celebrating their 5th year of challenges.  I can't believe that time has past so fast as it only seems like last year the challenge started.  Anyway here is my contribution to the celebration.  A gatefold birthday card using papers I've had for a long time and a central image created using a tiny cupcake birthday stamp and the Inkadinkadoo stamping wheel.

Over at Totally Gorgeous the theme is food and drink so I guess my paper emblazed with cake and all those cupcakes qualifies me for that challenge too.

Have a good day all.  I'm blitzing my craft room today as there was a ribbon landslide yesterday when the huge ribbon bin fell over and things are generally getting a bit messy.  I really don't know who it is who gets all this stash out and doesn't put things away as she goes along.  Dreadful! 

Have a great day whatever you are up to.

Ann xxx

Another shoe card...

Oh I've made so many of these lately - all the ladies my daughter works with have been asking for them.  They take ages to do, but I think it's worth the effort for a special card and also it helps in raising funds for the Little Acorns night shelter in Goa.

Materials...

• Shoe template
• glitter designer paper and matching plain by WRMK
• flower die 
• white ribbon, corner peel offs, white feathers and gems

Challenges...

• Papertake Weekly  anything goes

Ann xxx

Happy Mother's Day...

My last two cards completed.  Being in a bit of a last minute rush I had to do a little bit of batch making!  Don't really like doing the same card or very nearly the same card twice, but needs must when you leave things to the last minute.  I must admit it was lovely to use some of the flowers from my stash to fill these die cut baskets.  I really didn't realise how many flowers I've bought over the years and stashed away rather than using - so silly!

Materials...

• Designer paper pad - possibly Kanban, but bought years ago.
• basket and tag dies
• silver corner peel offs and organza ribbon
• Swiss Dots embossing folder
• vellum overlay
• Paper and silk flowers and leaves from stash

Challenges...

• Allsorts Challenge  use those dies 
• Alphabet Challenge  D is for dies

Have a wonderful weekend.

Ann xxx

Another one for Sunday...

Another one for Mother's Day.  I'm getting there slowly, but surely.  Both Laura and Shelley need me to make cards for their partner's mums and then of course Eli needs a little help with his cards too.

Materials used...

• Snippets left from yesterday's posted card - the snippets are really quite large when you start with 12" by 12" paper.
• Cricut Mother's Day cartridge 
• silver mirri card
• gems to decorate the cut out sentiment. 

Challenges...

• Pixie's Snippet Playground - use your snippets

Ann xxx

Mother's Day is getting closer ...

Back from India yesterday and about to panic big time as I have quite a few Mother's Day cards to get done before Sunday.  Luckily I completed most of my ordered ones before I went on holiday.  I really enjoyed making this 8" by 8" card which combines stash bought years ago and my new basket die.
More details about materials used...

• Mirri card - plain pink and patterned designer paper layered up to give depth.
• Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder to add interest to centre section
• Sentiment printed on acetate and layered over snippet of pink card
• Basket die - I believe it's a Marianne one but unsure as I've stored all my dies on magnetic sheets and not labelled them.
• paper flowers - old stash
• die cut tag
• organza ribbon and corner peel offs to draw the eye.

Challenges...

• Totally Gorgeous  MUM
• My Time to Craft  Mother's Day
• Daring Card Makers  use dies - (sorry not an Xcut one on this card - may enter again later in week)
• OLLCB - To a special lady

Ann xxx

Basket ball boogie...

Well I don't know about the boogie - think I just got carried away with the alliteration there, but no worries.  I was asked months and months ago for a 21st card involving basket ball.  Luckily I was given plenty of warning as I may have hundreds of stamps, but I haven't actually got one with a basket ball player on.  However, when I was searching for the muscle man image (don't you just love it when people ask for these things?) I found just the right image by Mo Manning.  Hurray problem solved in the nick of time!
I used the fantastic sketch at Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge to create my design and planned the card out in Serif Craft Artist, but used real papers to actually put the design together.
The challenge at CD Sunday is to use a quotation and I hope they will allow the use of the Craft Artist CD - feel like it's cheating a little, but I so want to enter this week.  
I love the quote on this card - so appropriate for someone right at the start of their life.

Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss you'll land among the stars.

My final challenge entry is for the Snippet Playground (can't miss that one out).  The snippets used on this card were huge off cuts from some bargain black  card I bought some time back.  Huge A3 + sheets of card sold at a pound an inch and by that I mean the depth.  Think I remember counting about 50 sheets in my bundle.  I love bargains - anyway everytime I use this stuff I end up with quite large snippets which I store in a bag to use later and then I forget and get a full sheet out, but not today.  Today I did all the matting and layering on snippets.  Yeah well done me - only another hundred or so bits to go now.  LOL.

Ann xxx

Ladies Day...

Over at the  Allsorts Challenge blog the theme of the week is ladies and the special cards we create for them.  I'm busy making Mother's Day cards at the moment so it seemed appropriate to show one of the cards I've made to enter this challenge.
This was such a simple card to make using Tonic dies from the large verso set of hearts I bought recently and really pretty pink papers.  The corner die cut embellishments were created using some of the bits that fall out of the main die cut - two little bits together to create a small heart finished off with a gem stone.

Ann xxx

More books...

These little books are selling like hot cakes at my daughter's work place, which is great cause it's bringing in lots of money for the Little Acorns night shelter in Goa.  We've raised over a thousand pounds now - not all from my card making I better add, but every little helps as they say.  We'll be handing the money over when we go on holiday.  
The original book that I made for Laura which led to people asking to buy one had a paper clay sunflower on like the one in the middle of the photo, but these books have different flowers.  The blue one is a wooden flower and the one on the left a paper one.
So glad I remembered the hundreds of ladybirds hiding in my stash from my Dawn Bibby days.  You may have been there too - you know when you get brainwashed into buying the TSV and end up with 100 ladybirds in red and about another 200 in lime green that you have no idea what to do with, but Dawn said they were wonderful so you handed over your credit card details.
Anyway 10 years later the ladybirds have been used - only another 97 to go.  Do you think I better stock up again?  
The stamped elements are all from a lovely set of stamps by Inky Doodles and the various shades of blue card are all from my snippets box.

Challenges...

• The ABC Challenge - F is for Flowers
•  Pixie's Snippets Playground - use your snippets
• Little Red Wagon - anything but a card using paper

Ann xxx

A slightly more girly version of the shoe card...

Oh my goodness this card has been voted as a pick of the week HERE - what a fantastic surprise - made my day - nope made my whole week!

This is my latest version using my lovely Coppernob shoe template.  It's more or less the same design as in the post below, but more girly and with punched flowers rather than ones cut from the designer paper.  The punched flower echoes the pattern of the designer paper by DCWV and I've added gems black fluffy feathers, a swirly die cut and some silver peel offs to trim the shoe.  By printing the sentiments and name on acetate it doesn't how small the piece of card is or how thick the card.  I attach the acetate by folding it around the small piece of card and sticking it down on the back.  I like the slight bend you get on the acetate by happy accident.
I'm entering this card into Brenda's blog celebration as my second version of a card using one of my favourite craft items.  If you haven't checked this out do pop over here to check it out.  There are some fabulous prizes up for grabs and superb projects on show too.
Just check out what's on offer...

Additional Challenges...

• Papertake Weekly  lovely layers and dimension
• The ABC Challenge  F is for Flowers

Ann xxx