Baby Carriage!

In my quest to try and use as many of my dies as possible this year , today I have a baby card made almost entirely from dies (5) - I used a couple of punches, organza and satin ribbon and some stick on pearls too.

White Linen card - Papermill Direct

Sizzix nesting hearts die

CREAlies CLCS11 - Leaves

Memory Box - Piestra Tile

Marianne Creatables - LR0218 Baby Carriage

Spellbinders - Decorative labels eight

X-cut palm punch - pointed butterfly - medium and small

X cut Daisy punch - medium and large

Liquid chalks ink pad - Ice Blue

Blue satin ribbon, White organza ribbon and various sized stick on pearls - Meiflower

I used satin ribbon for the hood and blanket of the baby carriage by applying a narrow line of Collall tacky glue around the edges and sticking the ribbon down, once dry I trimmed around the edge. I also did the same underneath the die cut border - for both the pram and border I used a piece of 25mm ribbon and 10mm ribbon. This could easily be done with coloured paper, but I liked the idea of fabric.

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Another sneak peek - First Love Ultimate Kit

I have a huge collection of dies, and when I say huge, I mean HUGE! I have hundreds and any of my friends who have been in my craft room can vouch for that fact LOL!

I have so many that half of them (probably more) have never been used, so my New Years resolution for this year is to use as many as I can, and I've made a start with today's card.

I've used the image, papers, scalloped topper and sentiment circle from Paper Creators First Love Ultimate kit - (which should be in store very soon).

I've re-sized the image (included in kit) to fit on to the sentiment circle.

Papers, Image, Sentiment, scalloped circle - First Love Ultimate Kit - Paper Creator

White Linen card - Papermill Direct

Embossing Folder - A4 Cascading hearts

Lifestyle nesting circles die

Spellbinders Borderabilities - A2 scalloped borders 1

Butterflies - CC Cutters die

X-cut palm punch - Pointed Butterfly large

Ribbon and gems - Meiflower

Woohoo! four different dies used, I'm off to a good start, I've got a couple more cards made using the papers in this kit with some more of my dies, so I'm on a roll, hehe!

Thanks for dropping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

I love you this much!

It's time to begin the challenges again at Paper Creator after the Christmas break, and for the first one of the year we are going to start off nice and easy with...

Anything Goes

We don't have much in the way of rules, just no back linking, a maximum of 3 entries per challenge and most importantly follow the theme, you don't even have to use Paper Creator products, but if you do, you get a second entry into the random draw to win £10 to spend in store.

Here's my card for the anything goes theme, using a gorgeous new Sassy Cheryl illustration called Come On Get Happy.

Digital illustration - Come on get Happy - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator
Digital Papers - Owl always love you digital scrap kit - Just So Scrappy
Go Kreate Large Frame Scallops
Lifestyle nesting circles dies
Die-namics die - Rustic Hearts
X-cut heart punch
Ribbon and charms - Meiflower I used split rings to dangle the heart charm from the O of the love charm

Don't forget to pop over to the Paper Creator challenge blog, check out the inspiration from the rest of my teamies and enter our anything goes challenge.

Thanks for stopping by,
Have a lovely weekend,
hugs,
Colette xx

Oh Baby!

Just a quick post today to show you a baby card I made using the fab Digi Darla image Blessings of Heaven 5. When I made this card HERE I printed the image out in two different sizes and used the larger image on the other card, so I put this card together with the smaller image and the left over papers, usisng the same layout but decorating it differently.

Digital Stamp - Blessings of Heaven 5 - Digi Darla (coloured in Photoshop)

Digital Papers - Bedtime Stories Girl - Crazy 4 Monograms

Lifestyle Alphabet Die - Lemon Drop - Maddy Lisa Crafts

X-cut heart punches large and small

Gingham ribbon, satin rosebud trio, polka dot buttons and heart dazzlers - Meiflower

I am entering the following challenges with this card -

Digi Darla- ABC challenge - (B is for Baby)

Fan-Tastic Tuesday - Must Be Square #19 Make It Feminine - It's got a baby girl, there's pink on it, a bow, flowers and bling so hopefully it counts as feminine?

Papertake Weekly W- Add A Bow & Use A Die

Party Time Tuesdays - #156 Use Ribbon

Through The Craft Room Door - Always Anything Goes

Thanks for dropping in and taking a look

hugs,

Colette xx

Love is in the air!

This post should have been done on Saturday but for the last couple of days I have had the stinking cold that is going around at the moment, today is the first day that I haven't been aching all over, it's also the first day that I have lost my voice too - made Eric's day LOL! Both Eric and Meg had it first, and then, as usual, once I've looked after them and got them better I come down with it -Eric is back in work, Meg still needs looking after and I've got my youngest grandson Charlie nearly every day this week, so no rest for me.

I have to admit that I've also been distracted by the darts on the telly - the first couple of weeks of the year when the BDO World Darts Championship is shown from the Lakeside Country Club is one of the things I most look forward to after the Christmas break, and have really enjoyed it once again this year.

Anyway back to the cards and with Christmas out of the way, the next big occasion, for us card makers is Valentine's day, and with that in mind I'm giving you a sneak peek at two of  the new Sassy Cheryl illustrations - First love and Smitten - which will be available shortly at Paper Creator.

Sassy Cheryl illustrations First Love and Smitten - Paper Creator

Papers - Lovebirds digital scrapbook kit - Just so Scrappy

Sizzix Hearts dies

X cut heart punch

Sentiment - Computer Generated

Ribbons and gems - Meiflower

If you like to match your papers to the colours in your image, you should check out the First Love ultimate kit from Paper Creator when it becomes available, as well as the image it  also contains papers, a build a topper set, a ready to print card, sentiments and decoupage.

For this card I used the image and a couple of the papers. The card base was made by printing both sides of  A4 Linen card from Papermill Direct with one of the plain papers from the kit, before cutting to size and folding to make a square card.

The card is a sample for Meiflower which is why it is bedecked in pearls and gems, plus I love a bit of bling on a card and couldn't resist encrusting the die cut heart frame with all things sparkly!

Image and Papers - First Love Ultimate kit - Paper Creator

Sizzix Heart dies

X-cut heart punch

Sentiment - Computer Generated

Stick on gems and pearls in various sizes and colours - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Teddy Bo Tuesday

Last week I took the very sad decision to step down from both the My Besties and Teddy Bo design teams, with all that I have going on here at the moment, I felt I couldn't give them both the commitment needed. Anyway, the Teddy Bo team have refused to let me go, and I am now lurking in the background and just doing what I can when I can, which I was soooo happy to do as I have been on the team from the very beginning and it was such a hard decision to leave the mad bunch.

I didn't for one minute think I would find the time to do a card this week, but thanks to our car having a major breakdown on Friday evening and my hubby spending most of Saturday sorting things out and getting it transported to the garage, instead of going Christmas shopping  (mmm... I'm wondering if he planned it that way hehe!) I ended up with the day free, so the first thing I did was colour up one of the new Teddy Bo images and make up a card.

Image - Bo Bea Nativity - coloured in Photoshop

Papers, star and word art - The Reason for the Season digital scrap kit - Just So Scrappy

Grosgrain ribbon and brown stick on pearls - Meiflower

The car is at the garage, transported there by the RAC, as the rear suspension has completely gone and they deemed it unsafe to drive. The garage can't look at the car until at least Thursday and then they may have to order parts to repair it, so we have no idea how long it is going to be off the road and as it is a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV) poor Meg is stuck in the house until it's repaired.

Luckily it's leased from Motability, so no repair costs, and they are trying to sort out the loan of a similar vehicle, until it's fixed.

Meg is in a panic as we are off to see Boyzone on Sunday and she is worried that if we don't have a car she won't get there, she is petrified of taxis due to a bad experience with the wheelchair in a taxi when she was younger, so we are keeping everything crossed that either the car will be repaired or we will have the use of another WAV before then.

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Ultimate kit part 2

Following on from Sundays post, here are a couple more cards made with the Joy ultimate kit.

This time around I made up the ready to print easel card that's included in the kit and a square card using the topper sheet.

I made an easel card base from white linen card to fit the ready to print kit, made up the card adding the decoupage layers provided to the snowman and finished off by adding a couple of ready made bows and some punched snowflakes

For this card I used a 6 inch square scalloped card base and printed out a paper and topper sheet from the kit. I cut a piece of the paper to fit the card front, rounding the corners before sticking on, then cut out the scalloped topper leaving a white border all around, which I glittered. I die cut a scalloped circle from the remainder of the paper and then used circle dies to cut out the snowman image and the centre from the scalloped circle to make a frame. I added the scalloped topper to the card front with foam pads and then layered up the image and scalloped frame again with foam pads, finishing off with an organza bow with diamante ribbon slider and punched snowflakes.

Joy Ultimate kit - Paper Creator

Lifestyle circle dies 

Sizzix framelits scallop circles die

X cut palm punch snow crystal - large and medium

Organza ribbon, ready made gingham bows, diamante ribbon slider and stick on gems - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Satin ribbon flower tree and wreath

A while ago I made some Christmas samples for Meiflower to take around the craft shows and one of the things she asked me to use were the satin ribbon flowers. I ended up putting two cards together to show off the flowers, arranging some to make a Christmas tree and others to decorate a wreath.

Satin ribbon flowers and gems - Meiflower

Precious Snowflakes - Memory box die

Peel off wording

Papers and image- Fizzy moon Festive Fun Designer Paper Pack

Go Kreate - scalloped circles large frames dies

Lifestyle Nesting circles die

Universal embossing folder - Happy Holly

Die-namics - Photo corners die

Satin ribbon flowers, Ribbon, cats eye dazzlers and diamante embellishement - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Ho Ho Ho

Today I have a quick Christmas card to show you using a Sassy Cheryl illustration called Better Not Pout Santa. I used the alphabet set that came with the December Magic Digital Scrap Kit from Crazy 4 Monograms for the HO HO HO's

Santa's head has been decoupaged and decorated with glamour dust and a small pompom and is attached to the card with an Action Wobble spring which means that if you give him a little nudge or when you move the card around his head wobbles about.

Image- Better not pout santa - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Papers - Peppermint Patty digital scrap kit - Just So Scrappy

Alphabet - December Magic digital scrap kit - Crazy 4 Monograms

Action wobble spring - Woodware - Grafton Crafts

Grosgrain ribbon and pearls - Meiflower

Thanks for popping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Eat More Cake!

Today is the start of our new Paper Creator challenge and this time around the theme is

Birthday

now that couldn't be easier could it - we would love you to play along with your birthday creation, you don't even have to use Paper Creator products to enter and you could be the random winner of the £10 voucher to spend in store.

I have used the fabulous Sassy Cheryl illustration Avery Celebrates with cake,

The sentiment reads -

Birthdays are nature's way of telling us to eat more...

hmmm, but eat more what ? - 

see that little bit of ribbon hanging down from below the image circle, pull it down to reveal.....

...Cake, of course!

Image - Avery celebrates with cake - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Papers - My Birthday Girl Digital Scrap Kit - Just so Scrappy

EK success border punch

Grosgrain and Satin ribbon - Meiflower

 and I used this brilliant tutorial HERE (adapted to fit my design) to make the pull down wording.

Don't forget to enter the Birthday challenge and pop over to the challenge blog to take a look at the fabulous creations from the rest of my teamies.

Thanks for dropping by,

have a lovely weekend,

hugs,

Colette xx

Bow Christmas tree, bow Christmas tree.....

....how full of bows your branches be! LOL! - sorry bad pun, but I had to do it, I've had the - O Christmas tree - song going around in my head since Wednesdays post.

This is another freebie digi stamp from Birds cards (link under card pic) and I was inspired by the sample card that was alongside the digi stamp.

Do you remember on Wednesday when I mentioned I had printed out the papers and images for three cards only to realise afterwards that the yellow ink nozzle was blocked, well this is another one of those cards. The colours should be Christmas red and green, but they came out this teal and purple colour, which I totally loved. The bows came ready made, I just tightened them up a little and trimmed the ends, the card is a sample for Meiflower so I had to make it 6x6 inches but if it was on an A5 card the bows could probably be stuck straight on without trimming.

Image - Leaf Christmas Tree freebie digistamp - Birds cards

Papers - Peppermint Patty digital scrap kit - Just So Scrappy (should be red and green)

X-cut palm punch - Star large and medium

Digi stamp Sentiment - Bits of Ivory Christmas - Cuddly Buddly

Ready made gold bows, organza ribbon and gems - Meiflower

Thanks for popping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree.....

...how blingy are your branches! Haha!

Here's a quick and easy card made using a freebie digi stamp of a simple stick Christmas tree, which has been covered with crystals and pearls.

This is one of three Christmas tree cards I made, which were all printed out together, only for me to discover once they were printed, that the yellow ink wasn't working, so they all came out slightly different colours to what they were supposed to be. On this one the colours should be more muted, but I liked the way they looked so used them anyway.

Stick Christmas tree freebie digistamp - Bird's cards

Papers - It's Snow Fun - Just So Scrappy

Bubblegum pink organza ribbon, stick on gems and pearls and diamante ribbon slider (used underneath a large stick on pearl to make the tree topper) - Meiflower

 I thought this card would be perfect for the following challenge

A Gem of a Challenge - #105 Gems, Gems, Gems

Thanks for popping in and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx

Christmas Stackables

We are halfway through our Pink or Blue challenge over at Paper Creator, so you still have a week to get your entry in, if you fancy playing along and being in with the chance to win £10 to spend in store.

This week I have one of the new Christmas Stackable sets to show you, which after my blue advent calendar last week is in various shades of pink, so still following the challenge theme. 

These sets are easy to put together and you end up with a drawer which contains three matching cards (with inserts) and envelopes.

Christmas Stackables set 1 - Paper Creator

Here you can see the drawer, with the envelopes tucked underneath and the three cards surrounding it. I printed the included backing paper out three times and then printed the envelope template on the reverse, to make up the envelopes.

Satin rosebud trio, organza ribbon and tiny red pearls - Meiflower

Tiny holly leaves - old X-cut punch

Ribbon and gems - Meiflower

Star - old X-cut punch

Snowflakes - X-cut palm punch Snow crystal

ribbon and gems - Meiflower

There are 10 different stackable sets available in store.

Thanks for taking a look,

have a lovely weekend,

hugs,

Colette xx

Christmas Fun

Still running around trying to catch my tail, but wanted to show you this card, which I had made as a sample for Crafty Devils. It's a stepper card with an acetate cover. The die cut decoupage image was made up and then attached to one of the "steps", which had been covered with strips of patterned paper and the snowflakes are actually dangling down inside the card on strips of acetate.

Everything used on the card is available from Crafty Devils

Forever Friends A4 Decoupage - Christmas fun

Country Companions A5 paper pack - Winter Wishes.

My Paper Stash Winter Sparkles Greetings AC306

Tonic Geared border punch - Diamond Swing

X-cut palm punch - Snow Crystal

Snowfall Acetate - Hunkydory

Ribbon, diamante slider and gems.

Thanks for dropping by and taking a look

hugs,

Colette xx

Teddy Bo Friday!

I missed Teddy Bo Tuesday this week as I have been really busy, mainly having murder with the local hospital, over a pair of shoes for Meg.

12 months ago she had casts made of her feet to send off to a company in Germany to make her some new shoes (we can't buy shoes for her as her feet are tiny (she's 23 and her feet are smaller than my 8 year old grandsons), and really oddly shaped). Although she doesn't need the shoes for walking or standing, she suffers from really bad circulation and her feet are always freezing, last winter she had to wear fleecy bed socks over her socks whenever we went out, just for an extra layer of warmth, she also has severe osteoporosis in her feet and legs as she has never walked or put weight through them, so the shoes are protection against knocks which could result in broken bones - anyway, here we are 12 months and a number of phone calls to the hospital later - heading into another winter - and Meg still doesn't have any shoes to wear.

It turns out that the company in Germany are saying they have never received an order, and the hospital are saying they have sent the order twice (which seems odd as Meg has only had casts made once), so we now have an appointment for Monday for Meg to be re-assessed, which probably means she will be going through another Winter wearing bed socks!

Sorry about the rant, here's my card.

IMAGE - Oli_008 - coloured in Photoshop

PAPERS - Big Top - Just So Scrappy

Lifestyle circle dies

Grosgrain ribbon, waxed cord, spotty button and stick on pearls - Meiflower

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Cascade cards

Here's a couple of  cards I have put together using the new Paper Creator Cascade card kits. They are soooo easy to put together but give you something a bit different from the usual card shapes, each kit comes with layers for decoupage and a matching envelope.

For the Halloween card I added the word Boo! - in die-cut letters - to the front of the cascade section and attached a bat to a strip of acetate so that it looks like it's flying out of the card.

Paper Creator Halloween concertina card kit

Bat - Halloween Hooligans - Nitwits

Die cut Letters - Lifestyle Splendid Alphabet

Charm - stash

Ribbon - Meiflower

With the cupcake concertina, I added a punched border to the back and front of the card, lots of glitter to the cupcake icing, a flower from a Nitwits kit, and ribbon and a cupcake charm from Meiflower.

There are more cascade designs available over at Paper Creator, you can find them all HERE

Thanks for popping by and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx

Fa la la la la!

Where is the time going? I swear it was only April yesterday and now it's October! (starting to feel like it here now too, cool, windy and dark). It won't be long before the clocks will be going back and we will be in the Winter.

Of course, Winter means Christmas, and today I have a quick Christmas card to show you. The  design was printed onto one sheet of paper, cut out, ribbon fixed into place, attached to a blank card base and decorated, only took about 20 mins to make.

Image - Fa la la la la Snowman illustration- Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Digital Papers and stitching - Winter Whimsy - Crazy Scrap Chicks

Circle frame - CR1248 Circle, flower and leaf stitch - Marianne Craftables

plus lifestyle nesting circles (to cut out the centre)

Sentiment - computer generated

Ribbon, gems, and ribbon slider - Meiflower

I'm off to the Sincerely Yours Craft show at Leigh today, need to stock up on my smooth printer card 250gsm, from Anna Marie designs, it's about £11 a pack on the website, but you get two packs for £12 at the show and there is no postage to pay, I'm sure I will probably buy lots of other stuff too, but the card is the main thing I want.

Enjoy your weekend.

hugs,

Colette xx

Christmas Wreath

My card for today once again uses Crystal blossom sequins from Meiflower, this time around I have used them in groups of three to represent berries on a Christmas wreath.

Martha Stewart Punch – Branch

Crafts Too embossing folder – 5x5 dots - Maddy Lisa Crafts

Wording – Whimsy Shapeology Die – Holiday sentimentables

Invertedcorner punch - Woodware

Gingham ribbon, diamante ribbon slider, crystal blossom sequins

and stick on gems – Meiflower

Thanks for taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx

Christmas Countdown!

Don't worry I'm not that sad, it's still a bit too far away to be counting down, although I don't want to worry you or anything but there are only 94 days to go - hehe!.

My card today is one of the fabulous new Christmas Countdown Stepper cards from Paper Creator,  it's part of the latest Mega Bundle, which is on offer at the moment, so you get 10 Countdown stepper kits for only £5. Each kit comes with a matching box and envelope and I did print out the matching box for this card, but forgot to put it together, duh! (I only realised when I was loading the photo up to the blog).

Christmas Countdown Stepper - Christmas Tree kit - Paper Creator

Snowflakes - Martha Stewart Snowflake border punch - I cut between the snowflakes

Gingham bow, Aurora Borealis and 2mm coloured gems (decorating the tree) - Meiflower

Hope you have a lovely weekend and it's not too cold or too wet where you are,

thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Wedding invitation #12

Hi there, I've had such a busy week that I haven't had much time to blog, so when I found a few minutes to spare, I thought to myself, go get something on that blog!

Today I have another of the wedding invitation samples, we still have a few to go, so it seemed a good time to show you another one.

Pearlescent silver card - The Range

Floral glittered Vellum - The Range

White Pearl card - Anna Marie Designs

Ribbons, gems and diamante ribbon slider - Meiflower

Unfortunately the photo is a bit rubbish and doesn't show up the gorgeous glittery patterned vellum very well, but it's very sparkly and pretty in real life.

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx