Holiday memories...

Had two fabulous days scrapbooking holiday photos alongside Laura.  So brilliant to work side by side chatting about the holidays we shared last summer at the same time as scrapping the photos.  Huge amount of photos to do though - good job it's fun.

To create this page I used a sketch I picked up from a challenge last summer so I reckon I'm just a tad late to enter!  I had the sketch printed out on a scrap of paper stored with the photo, but I really can't remember which site it came from.  Great sketch anyway.

The card I've used is by DCWV and the fabulous matching brick patterned paper happened to be in my stash - not sure what company, but isn't it a good match?

Other materials...

• Cricut to cut title letters
• Xyron Design Runner to print journalling on tiny scraps of card
• Xcut star die

No challenges - sigh!

Back at work tomorrow so it may be weekend before I get anymore crafting done.  Might get chance to hop around blog land though hopefully.

Have fun everyone.

Hugs

Ann xxx

Oh my goodness it's 2012...

Happy New Year to everyone.  Let's hope it's a good one for us all.  One of my many New Year resolutions is to use more of my stash especially new stuff as sometimes I buy things and find a space somewhere in the craft room and simply never get round to using them even though I love the stamps to pieces.  Really silly to buy and never ink up so to start the year I've made a card using a really cute Molly Bloom stamp that Santa brought me.  I really love this stamp as it has so many possibilities.  I think it would fab paper pieced and would decoupage quite well too.

I used the sketch from Papertake Weekly as a basis for my design and papers that have been in my stash for a long, long time.  I like to use vellum over highy patterned paper as I love the way you can still see the design on the paper through the layer.  In this case I found a matching blue vellum to use.  The image was coloured using Promarkers and die cut snowflakes and gems complete the card.

Additional Challenges...

• Stuck on U Sketches - Snowflakes
• Rainbow Lady - Your Choice

Think I may start my other resolutions (less red wine and more healthy food) next week.  LOL! Have a great day whatever you have planned for the day. 

Love and smiles,

Ann xxx

Happy Christmas Auntie...

Eli may be only 6 months old, but already he knows that Grannie Annie will make him all the cards he needs to send out at a very good price - FREE!.  He's even conned me into buying all his gifts too, but he's just so cute I really don't mind at all.

This card is for him to send to Auntie Laura, who is quite famous for being rather fond of pink and bling so I'm hoping she will love this 8" x 8" card.

The stamp is a Nellie Snellen cutie that I treat myself to last week from the Joanna Sheen Special Offers section.  I'm always popping in there as you can pick some amazing bargains.  At the moment she has some fabulous silhouette stamps on offer at way less than half price.  I coloured the stamp with my new Fleximarkers alongside original Promarkers.  I must say I love the new brush tip.

Other materials used...

• DCWV papers from way back when
• organza ribbon and gems
• Xyron Design Runner to create personalised sentiment
• snowflake dies 

Challenges...

• Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog - Christmas Wishes
• Crafty Ann's Challenge - Bingo and my line is glitter, presents and ribbon (the present is the star for the squirrel)
• Raise the Bar - Christmas
• Hanna and Friends - the sketch.

Thank you for looking and for all the very kind comments.  It so great to know that somebody out there likes what you create.

Christmas hugs - only 22 days to go!

Ann xxx

Variations on a theme...

Rather than put away the images left from the sheet of Kanban toppers and then not be able to find them ever again I decided to use up both the toppers and the remains of the red gingham paper.  I used the sketch from The Sweet Shop - love their sketches - to create a card for Gran to give Eli at Christmas.  The papers are all the same ones as I used here and the personalised sentiment was created using my Xyron Design Runner.

My card is also for the challenges at...

• Make it Monday - Anything goes
• Designed to Delight - Baby

Card number two was made using the last of the toppers and the snippets of red gingham I had left.  I'm really trying to use things up these days instead of storing or throwing away.  Thank you Jules for keeping me on track with your Crafty Snippet Challenge.  My card is also one of the ones I will be sending to St Luke's Charity Cards for their fundraising sale.  

Back to work tomorrow so I may be quiet for a few days.  Enjoy your week everyone.

Ann xxx

I'm back!...

Sheesh where did September go?  Well, I suppose I spent most of it on holiday and I must admit I had an absolutely wonderful in time in the Dominican Republic - sigh - so missing the sunshine and palm trees.  The rest of the month was taken up with washing, packing and work and it just flew by.  Thank goodness my super buddy Max was able to keep Bah! Humbug! running single handed.  I owe her big time!

Anyway, I'm back now and ready to be challenged by our weekly Christmas theme at Humbug Hall.  This week sees us thinking about the 'Navity'.  My card uses an image from a sheet I printed years ago when I was on the Design Team at Ooh la la Creations.  See if you keep your print outs long enough they do eventually get used!  The card I made at that time using the largest image on the sheet can be seen here.  For my new card I used one of the smaller images and matted it on to an embossed layer made using the Swiss Dots folder.  To get the size I had to feed the card through the machine 4 times -eeeeeeeeek!  The sentiment was printed on to one of the scraps of green card left over using my Xyron Design Runner.

Do pop over to Bah! Humbug! to both join in and check out the fabulous work by my team mates.

My card is also for the challenges at...

• Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
• The Sisterhood of Crafters - Love that silhouette
• Celebrate the Occasion - any occasion - must use ribbon
• Shopping our Stash Weekly - Black and White plus one other colour.

Have a great weekend everyone.  I'm going to be making some Halloween cards with the ladies at work using some fabulous plastic skeletons I found at Poundland - so cool and 24 in the pack so quite a bargain.  Fingers crossed that the idea I have for using them works - if it does watch this space.

Ann xxx

Italy MIni Album...

Just finished this mini album for my friend Anne, who I went on holiday with earlier this month.  I used one of the brilliant sketches at Sassy Lil' Sketches as the basis for the front cover.  It's only a small album - just big enough to take 6" x 4" photos matted and layered on to designer paper, but I think she will love it.  Well I hope so anyway.

Here's a peak of the inside which I've kept really simple - well it had to be I've been at work most of the time since last Thursday.

All the papers I've used are by Kanban and I've kept to the monochromatic colour scheme.

I'm also very proud to say that thanks to Jules at Always with a heart I'm really trying to use 'snippets' left from other projects.  I do tend to be quite a wasteful crafter and although I don't throw the snippets away - they go to a good home (the ladies I work with at Mencap) I really should use more up myself.  So check out my frame and butterfly cut from this small left over piece of black glitter card...

Think using it definitely qualifies me for this week's Crafty Snippet Challenge.  

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and special wishes for my friend Max and her daughter who are over in Ireland.  Check out why HERE - wow how cool is that?
PS:  The 'T' in 'ITALY' has been suitably told off and is now standing up straight.

New Playmate...

While sat at a bar on the hillside in Zia waiting to see the famous view of the sunsetting over the coastline Laura made some new friends.  Good job she only had a small bag with her as I think this guy may have ended up being smuggled on to the plane home.  What a cutie?

To create my page I used a sheet of paper from a fabulous new paper pad I've just bought by G.C.D.  It's called Homespun Chic in the Melody Ross Designer Collection and has probably been out ages as I got it at a bargain price as usual.  Can't afford to buy things when they are first released - what a cheap skate!

It's double sided paper but I've only used the one side of this sheet with it's fabulous flowers that have a shiny coating on them almost as if they have been varnished or embossed with extra thick embossing powder.  I mat and layered my photo in matching colours and then slit around the flowers so that I could tuck the photo underneath. The bird was also already part of the designer paper.  Eeeeeeeeeek didn't leave me much to do really did it.

I knew I want to have cat prints on the page so after much cupboard searching I found a punch bought many years ago and started punching the paw prints out in the same paper as my matting and layering.  Then I remembered the Xyron Design Runner disk (that was part of a set and one I thought I would never use) with pet sentiments.  Eureka I spotted the 'Pounce' one and realised that it would be too small printed on my page, but with the power of the Cricut I could cut the letters and a circle for the 'O' and then punch the paw print inside.  Yay I'm so pleased with the result.    One of those moments when things come together with very little hair pulling out!

Sorry for rambling!  My page is perfect for the challenge at Stuck on Sketches where they have started a new challenge for people to encourage the use of die cutting machines.

I'd also like to enter the challenges at...

• Creative Craft Challenges - Anything but a card
• Try it on Tuesday - Anything goes
• Bling it on - challenge to have things beginning with ABC on project ...A = artwork, B = bird and blooms, C = cat.
• Sir Stampalot - Whatever you fancy!

Well I'm off to do the facing page to complete this project.  Have a great day everyone.

Later in the day and here's page two!

I was really lucky to find some WR Memory Keepers ring bound scrap books at TK Max a little while ago.  They had 10 pages in them, but they weren't the normal type of scrap book page.  Each page has a long slot at the top and 4 clear pockets for 6" by 4" photos.  At first I didn't think they would be any use, but actually I love them, because it means I can plan one full normal 12" by 12" scrapbook page and then on the other side use the 'strange' page to show some of the other photos.  The top slot gives a space to be a little more creative. On this page I've used the stripey designer paper and edged it with paw prints using the Xyron Design Runner.  I printed the sentiment 'Can we take one home Mum?' on to acetate and attached it to the top of the paper.

Love and hugs,

Ann xxx

Bah! Humbug! Day...

Our latest challenge over at Bah! Humbug! is Kiss-mas - ah mistletoe everywhere and everyone puckering up for their loved ones.  No wonder I picked this oh so cute image by Forever Friends as a centre piece.  I teamed it up with lovely Pepper and Co Christmas papers. The frame was cut out using a Wizard die and the sentiment on my tag was printed using my Xyron Design Runner.

My card is also for the challenges at...

• Fab 'n' Funky - It's Christmas
• Ooh la la Creations - Christmas

I'm working till late today so won't be able to do any blogging.  Looking forward to seeing everyone's romantic creations though.  Do check out what Max and our totally wonderful guest designers have been up to though if you get chance.

Ann xxx

A real page...

Yep I've actually broke away from using Serif Craft Artist and actually used real papers and embellishments for once.  Very brave of me I think especially as I included some of my own handwriting too.  Not sure about that, but my daughter always says that it makes the page more personal.  I'm undecided as I like things just so and my handwriting wobbles especially when I'm trying to be my neatest.

Yet again I used the sketch from Stuck on Sketches and this time (even though not an essential part of this week's challenge) there are plenty of die cuts.

Materials used...

• Cricut Story Book cartridge to cut letters and large mount
• Cuttlebug dies for shells and starfish
• Starfish charm (from Primark bracelet)
• Sizzix die for wave swirl
• double sided card from massive pack from Costco

My page is also for the challenge at Rainbow Lady's challenge blog where the theme this week is a special island.  Thank you Cynthia for coming up with the perfect challenge for me to showcase a page about my recent holiday on the very beautiful island of Kos.

and here comes the new improved version...

printed journelling and a couple of extra starfish.  Think I'm happier with the result now.  What do you think?

The little 'Goodbye' was printed using my Xyron Design Runner so it was worth spending a fortune on that piece of kit after all.  LOL.
Thanks for all the lovely comments about Eli on my previous post - so kind.
Ann xxx

Hedgie Thank you card...

The sketch at the Sketch and Stash Challenge blog this time is such an inspiring one (and easy which is always good) that I just had to give it a go.  It also gave me the chance to use my new gadget bought with the last of my Christmas present cash - a Xyron Design Runner, which I used to print the sentiment on this card.

Initially I was a bit miffed that it doesn't actually do the things they said it could when it was being aired as Pick of the Day on Create and Craft.  I was so excited about it printing on acetate and was gutted to find that like any printer it won't unless you use the special printable acetate.  However, having played lots I do like what it can do and don't regret buying it.

Additional materials...

• Penny Black Hedgie stamp - from a T for Transparent set - I was very naughty and cut some of the flowers off the main image so that I could stamp them where I wanted them in the circle.  
• Flower punch and matching embossing punch
• Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder
• Pearl gem stones
• Embossed purple card and matching designer paper - unknown make
• Scalloped and matching circle nestability dies
• Lace

Challenges.,.

• Sketch and Stash - sketch - new stash = Design Runner - neglected stash = flower punch not used for ages
• Crazy 4 Challenges - a thank you sentiment
• Penny Black Challenge - Choose 4 items from a card buffet (really brill idea for a challenge - I chose patterned paper, 3 flowers, 3 gems and ribbon - please use your imagination for the ribbon.  Imagine it on the embossed band on the card.  Somebody around here forgot to stick it on - whoops!)
• Crafty Ann's Challenge - Ring in the new, but don't ring out the old.  See above.

Whoops, nearly forgot to say if you pop over to Bah! Humbug! today there is a Top Tip Tuesday all about economising on paper and card.
Double whoops - no wonder I forgot the ribbon -check out the date on the photo - 18th Jan and I'm still putting 2010 on my cards.  Sheesh what am I like?

Have a good day everyone.

Love and hugs.

Ann xxx