I Made 'Him' a 'Her'!

Hope you all had a good weekend. I had a really good one - lunch with my lovely Mum and a spot of shopping on Saturday, and a really lazy crafty day on Sunday. The only downside is that I got a tiny cold. It is so pathetic though, I'm not really noticing it. Actually, it's kinda what I think man-flu would be like ;o)

So without further ado, I present to you a card I made on Sunday using the cutey CC Design bear. I'm loving the fact that all the CC Designs stamps have now been released in Digi form... can't wait til payday on Friday!

I made the bulk of the card by layering up DCWV card stock with pink and green Basic Grey papers (Sultry and Offbeat I think but I could be wrong!) I coloured my CC bear with ProMarkers and Copics and highlighted with white gel pen. To make my 'he' a 'she', I added a little hibiscus flower from the CC scenery set - how cute does she look?! My bear was then plopped onto white card using lots of 3D pads. I tied everything together with pink and green Poppicrafts ribbon and some sparkly bling gems.

By the way, check out my scalloped edge! I don't yet have a punch and I didn't cut it by hand... I used my Nesties! Apologies if you have all already figured out how to do this but I am super excited by this discovery as it means I don't have to buy a bulky punch - woohoo! Check out this blog for all the deets.

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Pink Cat Studio Contest - Lily the Fairy

Hey everybody! Apologies for the delay in posting recently, it's exam time at work so I've been a bit up against it. I've still been crafting in the evenings but I've just been really bad at getting things online!

I made this card a couple of weeks ago for the Pink Cat Studio 'Lily the Fairy' contest. You'll be pleased to hear that whilst I am late in sharing it with you, I did manage to enter it on time!

For this card, I used up some Pink Petticoat scraps that I had kicking around from a series of cards I made a few weeks ago. I love these Pretty Doodle papers! I used the positive and negative versions and layered them up with a solid darker pink paper. I'd love to tell you the exact shades, but I cannot for the life of me remember. Could be Sassy..... maybe Orchid.....! I coloured the gorgeous Lily image with ProMarkers and Copics and highlighted her wings with a clear Sakura Stardust pen and a waterbrush.

Although this is a pretty basic layout, I really like the card because it is so bold and colourful!

Only 1 more day to go 'til the weekend! Woo-hoo! Can't wait as I am meeting up with my Mum and we are going to be 'Ladies Wot Lunch'!

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A Spoon Full of Sugar - Challenge 33

So, how are you all? Not too iced up and freezing I hope! I haven't been crafting much the last couple of nights as the house has been blinkin' freezing and I have spent my time huddled under a blanket on the sofa! But, last night was a little warmer so I had a go at this weeks A Spoon Full of Sugar challange which features a sketch by one of my favourite blogging buddies, Nikki.

I started off by layering some brown Bazzill card onto my square card blank. I then took some funky orange paper from the gorgeous Basic Grey Offbeat series and inked the edges with brown ink. I'm pleased to report that I am having far greater inking success since I decided to sponge the ink on rather than attack the item directly with my ink pad! The fabby image is from The Greetings Farm (formerly known as Pink Poison) and is one of their new digital stamps. I coloured Anya with a mixture of Promarkers and Copics, cut her out and added her to a panel of white card with 3D pads (not that you can see it from this pic!). I coloured some flowers with Promarkers and added twill-tied buttons to their centres. I finished the whole thing off with a MFT sentiment and some fab ribbon which came off the box of a Caffitiere that I got for Christmas!

Hope you like my offering, I might try to get a better picture tonight when I get in from work! Thanks for a great sketch Nikki!
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My Favorite Things - Sketch 62

As you will know from my last post, I got some scrummy yummy My Favorite Things stamps for Christmas. I've been after them FOREVER so I was ridiculously excited on Christmas morning and couldn't wait to ink those babies up!

For my first MFT card, I decided to take part in a sketch challenge posted on the MFT forum section of SCS. It was a fab sketch and I had a great time working with it.

I started off by layering some red Core'dinations cardstock onto my square card blank. Onto this I added Basic Grey 'Cupcake' paper, into which I handcut a scalloped edge (I really need a scalloped punch....!). I coloured the MFT image using a mixture of Promarkers and Copics and added this panel on to a 'doctored' rectangular Nestie. I finished the card with Poppicrafts ribbon, adhesive gems and a MFT sentiment. I'm really pleased with how everything turned out as I love all the bright colours!

I'm off to do some blog hopping now, I need to pull my socks up as I've been a useless blogger of late!

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Am I a Scrap Addict? - Sketch #9

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a fun New Year. I have a nice quiet one with year but it was so lovely, I'm gutted all the fun is now over!

Unfortunately, as things got a bit hectic here, I has to miss sketch 8 of Am I a Scrap Addict. I felt really bad so I was very relieved that I was able to join in with sketch 9..... even though it was a real tricky one! As the 2nd January (today!) is my Dad's birthday, I decided to make a card for him to the sketch that Deanne provided....

I inked the edges of some Basic Grey 'Offbeat' paper (an absolute STEAL from The Glitter Pot at the mo!) and mounted this on to a side opening A6 card. I mounted on to this a Nestie circle and an owl coloured with Promarkers. I embellished the card using Poppicrafts ribbon and Hobbycraft adhesive gems. Finally, I used Doodlebug Simply Sweet rub-ons to create the sentiment which, as Dad turned 65 this year, seemed very appropriate! I'm dead chuffed with this card actually as, for the first time ever, I managed not to get in a horrible inky mess whilst distressing my papers! I'm hoping this means that I have 'cracked' this technique!

Right, I'm off to go play with the new stash I got for Christmas - you can expect to see some 'My Favorite Things' inspired cards shortly!

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On My First Christmas......

Hi everyone! So....are you all ready for Christmas?! I think I am nearly finished with all of the preparations now. All presents bought, family visited, food order placed, tree bought and decorated. All that's left is to wrap the presents and write my cards. Phew! For some reason, this years prep seemed 1000% more hectic that usual - I barely feel I've spent anytime at home the last couple of weeks! Anyone else feel like that or is it just me being a drama queen?!

I have managed to make a few things though. I made some gorgeous little gift bags and also some nice pieces of jewellery to give to friends and family for Christmas. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures..... Silly Stacey!

However, I did manage to snap a few pics of these cards which I was asked to make by the daughter of one of my colleages. She wanted cards for her little baby boy to give to his grandparents for Christmas. For both of the cards, I adapted one of the Pink Petticoat 'Sweet Cheeks' images simply by adding 'on my' in Paint Shop Pro.

I layered up some plain New Leaf Pink Petticoat paper onto a square card blank and matted onto this some Olive 'O Christmas Tree' paper. I coloured some white ribbon with Promarkers so that it coordinated and wrapped this around the card. The main image was altered slight in Paint Shop Pro and then coloured with Prismacolor pencils and Sansodor. I highlighted with Stickles, mounted onto a Nestie rectangle and added the panel to the card with 3D pads. I finished the card with adhesive gems in each of the corners.

This second card is {secretly!} my favourite! I matted Duck Egg Blue solid paper onto a card blank and then followed this with smaller coordinating layers of 'O Christmas Tree' papers in Merry Christmas and Snowflake designs. I tied white satin ribbon around the central panel and added my Sweet Cheeks image to the card using 3D foam pads. Once again, the finished card was embellished with adhesive gems.

I'm planning to do a little bit of blog hopping today as it is dead at work {naughty I know!}, so don't be surprised if you all get inundated with lots of comments from me as I try my bestest to catch up on all of the beautiful projects you have made over the last couple of weeks!

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Am I a Scrap Addict? Sketch #7

Hi all! We're back from Bath. Had a great time, ate, drank and shopped too much - heaven! I also upgraded my phone... After haggling lots (!), I ended up with a shiney new phone AND a Nintendo Wii for the grand total of £30! What a bargain?! I was (and still am!) feeling mightily pleased with myself, I can tell you. Although, after diving round the lounge for a couple of hours last night, my left arm is feeling decidedly sore today!


Anyway, onto crafty matters..... Here is my DT card for sketch 7 of 'Am I a Scrap Addict?'. Unfortunately, I really struggled with this week's sketch and I am not at all happy with the card I've made.... Here it is anyway though :o(

I made this one with a combination of Shabby Princess digi papers and a PC crafter download from the 'Santas Helpers' collection. I coloured the image with my Promarkers and added sparkle to the wings with some Stickles.

Although I'm not massively fond of this card, I am fond of how I altered certain elements of it. The flowers were originally pink and brown but I coloured them with my Promarkers so that they would coordinate with the images and papers. I used the same technique with the ribbon, colouring with a green Promarker. As for the brad holding the flower together, this was originally bright orange but I silver embossed it several times and voila! It became a silver brad!

It's always good to be able to see a silver lining to every big black cloud isn't it?!

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I'm Getting Addicted to CC Angels.....

Blimey it's cold....brrr! It has {finally} got me in the mood to make Christmas cards though! I've made quite a few over the last couple of days which I will gradually upload throughout the week. Don't want to bombard you do I?!

I made this card using my gorgeous My Minds Eye papers. I have virtually the whole set of these and I love this one in particular as my Mum used to read me this poem every single Christmas Eve when I was little. The image is from the CC Designs 'Angel' download which I am utterly in love with. All I can say is, you will be seeing these designs ALOT over the coming days ;o) Anyway, I coloured my little angel with ProMarkers and Stickles and mounted her onto a couple of Nestie circles. As always, I finished my card with ribbon and adhesive gems.

Thanks for all your kind wishes re: the Flutterby design team - what lovely peeps you are?!
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I've Gone all Girlie!

Well, I suppose thats not true as you can't say my previous cards are in any way manly, but even so, I think this creation is gloriously girlie! This was a commission for the daughter of a colleague at work and I really hope she likes it!

I covered my card blank with my fave Basic Grey 'Sultry' paper (can't get enough of this stuff!) and added a stamped Rubber Romance image, coloured in Promarkers. I created the sentiment on the PC and coloured it fuchsia (is it me, or does that work just look wrong?!) to match the paper. I layered the image and sentiment onto more BG paper and finished it all off with flowers and adhesive gems.

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A Late Mojo Monday #58

I'm a little late sharing this card with you I'm afraid as I completely forgot about it! And, it was made following a challenge sketch from last week, so I think I have rather missed the boat!
I made this card for Vicky with whom I did an image swap with last week. I mounted panels of Making Memories papers onto my card blank and added this fab Elzybells image. The girls are coloured with Promarkers and I tried my best to match this to the spotty DP. I made a circular sentiment using my nesties and a bargainous Studio G stamp set and finished the card with some Poppicraft ribbon.

Time for some good news. It is nearly Friday, which means that is nearly the weekend! Woo-hoo!

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Ismaki Challenge - Happy Birthday Bethany!

You may well be thinking, "I'm sure she said she was going away...." and I can confirm that you are right! I'm posting this on Thursday afternoon and if blogger is behaving, this should be appearing on Sunday morning!

I made this card following this weeks Ismaki sketch. The only problem is, I can't really enter it as I forgot to add the sentiment which is supposed to run down the right hand side of the card! Whoops!

I have been after this image of Martha for ages, ever since Kerry unveiled them on her blog. Lucky for me, Sam included a great stack of them in the images she sent me this week!

I coloured her with ProMarkers and mounted onto a (doctored!) Nestie rectangle. This panel was then mounted on 3D pads onto DCWV paper and Core'dinations CS, which in turn was mounted onto a top fold card blank. To finish the card off, I added Poppicrafts ribbon and flower and a wooden #3 which I coated in sparkly hot pink glitter. As the title of the post suggests, I made this card for my friends little girl, Bethany, who turns 3 this Sunday. Kerry's cutie pie image was perfect for the occasion!

I should be back Monday evening and I look forward to catching up with all your blogs then!

Lots of love,

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A Spoon Full of Sugar - Pink & Green

Sorry for not posting a card since last week - I've been too busy colouring up images with my new Pro Markers! Oh, how I love them! Such great colours and so easy to work with.

After several days of play, I finally decided that I had done far too much colouring and that I really did need to start turning the images into cards! So, without further ado, I present to you my entry into this weeks A Spoon Full of Sugar challenge - Pink & Green........

I started off by layering some pink Core'dinations cardstock onto my card blank. Onto this, I layered more Core'dinations pink card and three strips of DCWV Spring papers. I tied a bow around this panel and added a 'Thanks' metal tag from the Eyelet Outlet. I coloured my Alota image with Pro Markers (mmm, yummy!) and outlined the image to make it 'pop'. The image was then layered onto a Nestie rectangle (which I hacked a bit out of to make it shorter!) and mounted onto the card with 3D pads. The whole thing was finished off with some Primas and a silver brad.

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What a Week..... Time to 'Espresso' Myself!

Phew. What a week?! I'm pretty glad it's over! The string of ropey luck all started last Saturday when we went to Thorpe Park. Unfortunately, we got a bit caught out by the uncharacteristically sunny weather and I ended up closely resembling a lobster. Things perked up on Monday when I finally sorted out my hideous hair and invested in a funky new do......only to have my trusty (and now essential!) GHD's blow up on me the day after! Argh!?! I must say, I am surprisingly delighted with the replacements which were a 1/3 of the price I paid for my GHD's! Everything then appeared to be picking up. Until this morning when I realised I could no longer walk.....damn that Davina McCall and her perky fitness DVD's! It seemed so much fun (and so easy!) at the time, who would have guessed that all those squats and lunges were going to make me walk like John Wayne? Things are sure to improve this week though as we are off to Corfu on Friday! Woo-hoo! Sunshine! I'll be sure to pack my suncream this time round ;o)

Anyway, on to more important matters and indeed, the reason I am guessing you are here....... I've made a card! AND, I'm pretty pleased with this one I have to say!

This card started off being for Mojo Monday, then turned into the Ismaki sketch but ultimately ended up being......neither! Just a Stacey special!

I coloured my Elzybells image with Prismas and Sansodor and then matted it onto Core'dinations cardstock. The blind is also made from more Core'dinations and the scalloped edging is cut with Fiskars Cloud scissors. I highlighted with a ribbon bow and added grooved detailing to the blind using a scoring tool and my Enveloper. The whole thing was finished off with an Elzybells sentiment.
Right, I'd best be off now - gotta start that dreaded packing sometime! I hope that you are all having a great weekend and that none of you have been flooded by all this hideous weather!

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Whiff of Joy Guest Designer Call

As many of you will know, Katharina is about to launch her new stamp design company - Whiff of Joy. Firstly, the name is brilliant! Secondly, she has so many fantastic designers on board, the stamps are utterly gorgeous. I am going to be a definate customer!

Being the generous person that she is, Katharina is going to take a Guest Designer onto the design team every 2 months. In order to decide on the first candidate, she has produced one of her famous sketches. Here is my take on her design.......

This card was made with Laura Ashley contemporary papers and a Sarah Kay image from an online colouring page - thanks for the tip off Beth! The image is coloured with watercolour pencils and mounted onto the card with 3D pads for a little bit of dimension. I finished the card with a chipboard butterfly and a Stamps Away sentiment which is tied to the card with an eyelet and some ribbon.

I really enjoyed making this card as I haven't had as much crafting time as I would have liked in the last couple of weeks and I've missed it terribly! It also gave me a really good excuse to play with my new Laura Ashley goodies (don't you just love freebie gifts from magazine subscriptions?!). I do love the papers I have to say, so classy. The only problem is, I don't really have that many stamps that 'compliment' this style. I think I can feel a shopping spree coming on.....!

P.S. Apologies for the wonky picture, I took it in a hurry before I ran out of the door to work this morning. I'll try and get a better one tonight!

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Thanks a Latte

This is the last of my birthday Stamping Bella stamps that Ali bought me and I have to say, I love her! She's called Lattebella and Alistair reckons that she looks like me in Starbucks! Mmm, my favourite.......!

I made this card using yet more free digital papers. I layered these up onto the card blank with white paper. To add a bit of interest, I added some faux zigzag stitching round the edges. I really like how that aspect turned out so I shall be using that technique again! Once I'd stamped and coloured Bella with watercolour pencils, the white background seemed too stark so I made up a pale blue wash which seems to have softened things a little. The card was finished with a ribbon knot and some pearl brads.

Although you can't really see from the pic, the card is hinged at the top, rather than the side. This caused a bit of a problem as the card wasn't massively thick so once all of the card and paper was plastered to the front of it, it wasn't exactly what you'd call stable! So, I had to reinforce the back to keep it upright - whoops!

This one is currently winging it's way to someone.....hope she likes it!

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Simple things please simple minds......!

I've become a little addicted to the Splitcoast Stampers website recently and have spent literally hours going through all of the beautiful creations in the gallery. Despite my love of fairly bold and loud cards, I've been really drawn to the really simple cards that I have seen in the SCS gallery. So, I decided to give it a go myself......

I've made this card for the daughter of a friend at work. She has been through a hell of a lot in the last couple of years but despite all this, is due to graduate from uni this summer AND has just bagged herself a super-dooper graduate job. As we've kind of been through all of the trials and tribulations with her, I thought it would be nice to give her a congratulations card from our office.

For this card, I used Pink Petticoat random dots paper in 'Olive'. After somehow convincing myself that I had a martini glass stamp, I realised I definately didn't after 30 minutes of searching! So, I downloaded a clipart image which I then colour matched to the PP paper. I teamed this with a computer generated sentiment and some Poppicrafts ribbon.

I have to say, I really enjoyed working in this 'simple' style. What was especially nice was that it was super quick to make - great for a last minute make. I fear you may be seeing more of these....!

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Rubber Romance - Julia Loves to Read

Sorry I've not been around so much this week, it's really busy at work at the moment and I've been a bit too tired to do much card making. I have still been doing a little bit of crafting though as I've been making a Card Organiser which, I'm pleased to say, is nearly finished! I'm just waiting for some binder rings to arrive in the post and then I will then share it with you. All I can say so far is: I love the Pink Petticoat Big Dots papers!

I did however manage to make a card today though and here is......

I've had this Rubber Romance image for a while but as I've mentioned before, despite loving them, I always find them a little tricky to work with. I've been determined to persevere though and I'm glad I have as I really like how this card has turned out! The papers are from a free download called 'Tuscany' and I have paper pieced the image with them so that it tied into the background perfectly. I rest of the image is coloured with a mixture of watercolour pens and pencil. Although you can't really see from the picture, the image is then mounted on 3D pads. I finished the card with some ribbon bows.

Hope you've all enjoyed the weekend!

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Father's Day Card & Stamp Something Challenge

Happy Monday everyone. With Father's Day approaching, I thought that I had better start making my card for my Dad. I decided to make one with a giraffe on it because not only does my Dad like giraffes, he also knows that I absolutely adore them. I figured it was a good connection between the two of us and also showed him immediately who the card was from!

I was a little bit stuck for ideas and so went on to the Splitcoaststampers website and ran a 'giraffe' search in the gallery. I found this little beauty and I totally fell in love with it. Therefore, I really can't take much credit for the card below as it was very heavily inspired by Laura's card!

It's a bit similar huh?! The image is from Scrapnfont's Doodlebat Party Animals set and the paper is DCWV. I added some faux stitching with a fondue fork (who needs a proper paper piercer?!) and some ribbon and buttons from Poppicraft. The sentiment was printed from the computer. Apologies for the slushiness of the sentiment, it's what my Dad used to get me to say to him when I wanted something when I was little. Come to think of it, he still makes me use it now!

P.S. I've just realised that this card fits the latest Stamp Something challenge which is 'Wild'! I think Giraffes can be classed as wild (I couldn't keep one as a pet anyway!), so consider this my entry!

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"Oh What a Night....."

Crikey, what a night indeed. You know I can often be a little bit hard on myself as to whether my creations are 'up to scratch'? Well, last night, I absolutely excelled myself in the 'overly critical' stakes and got myself in a right old state! This is the story........!

Basically, it is my colleagues 50th Birthday today. I'd already decided to steer clear of anything 50 related as she is not exactly pleased about her change in age! I'd found a really great quote from Mark Twain which was totally appropriate. She likes blue, so I was keen to make that the colour scheme and {unfortunately} had a crystal clear view of how I wanted it to look in my head. It was going to be a distressed blue background with HOTP Fold-It Swirl flowers, a scalloped edge oval with the quote in the middle and then all finished with ribbon and some pearl effect brads. All I can say is that it didn't translate to paper at all well! Even Alistair said, "Is that finished? It looks a bit nothing." I was forced to abandon it at 8.30pm last night.

So, I had a bit of a think, came up with another idea and, keeping with the blue theme, I switched tact until 10pm when I realised that I had made a card for a little boy - not a lovely, dainty 50 year old lady!

In a blind panic {and near tears!}, I had a massive rethink and decided to go plain and simple {and maybe a little boring} as I decided that it was better to make that well, than do something adventurous and then mess it up!


So, as you can see above, I went for bright and sunny and overall, although it is a little bland, I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. In fact, it is probably the tidiest card I have ever made - there are no mistakes on it which I've had to cover up! I am also going to employ that old chestnut - it looks better in real life! So, all in all, a very stressful night. But I have realised something, I really do need to stop being so hard on myself. After all, this is a hobby and is supposed to be fun!

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Bright 'n' Bold - It's What Comes Naturally to Me!

Well, after struggling yesterday with my Rubber Romance card, I was feeling a bit flat and useless so I decided to make something that I knew I could do fairly well! Yep, you know what this means - I've gone all loud and colourful again!!!

I dug out an old cupcake stamp and coloured it with Whispers and Stardust pens. I then matted this on to some pink card stock. As I won't be getting my Cuttlebug (& Nesties!) til my birthday (2nd July - not long to go!), I handmade my scalloped shape using a 5p! Quite effective don't you think?! This then got layered on 3D pads onto some freebie Epson papers. I doodled some black and white checkered borders, added a scalloped 'footer' and some black ribbon.

I was so much happier working in this style and it felt far more natural and altogether more 'me'. Hope you all like it as much as I do!

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