Christmas Trees

So much to do and so little time. I feel a bit like a headless chicken at the moment, I'm rushing here there and everywhere and not really getting anywhere. I've just noticed that the new challenge over on the Allsorts Challenge blog this week is Christmas tree's and I have just the card to enter into the challenge with. The background was made with Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens and then splattered with white gesso. I mounted it onto some silver mirri card and added the die from Spellbinders. The sentiment is one from Chocolate Baroque. It was a nice quick and easy one to make so needless to say I made more than one. Well I must dash still so much to do for the big day.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Fairies

I've made this card to enter into the Allsorts challenge this week, which is Fairies, Fantasy and Magical. Just up my street but I nearly forgot to post it with all the things to do for Christmas. The background for both of the flower shapes was made some time ago when I used them to mop up some left over ink on my work surface. It was just a case of deciding which stamps to use with them and for me there was only one choice, Lavinia Stamps of course. I must admit it made a change from Christmas.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Retreat Photos

When I went away recently it was to the Craftaganza Retreat that Crafters Companion hold every year, I said I would post photos of what I made when I returned. Well I spent the whole week away with a Crafty Friend doing Crafty type things. These included looking around some Craft shops we came across in magazines, attending a colouring workshop with Sandra Rushton, a workshop with Phil Martin and then another Craft Retreat with Clare Charvill from My Creative Spirit. My post today is to show you what is finished from the Craftaganza Retreat, I say whats finished because I still have about 4 cards to finish yet. The rest I will show you another day or when they are finished.

We had a great time with classes from, Sue Baker, Lizzy Curtis, Fiona Clayton, Debbie Fisher, Leanne Chivers, Sheena Douglas and Sara Davies. All with something different to show us. Sara's workshop was using the new Gemini Foiling machine. I have to say that I was very impressed with this and am currently waiting for mine to be delivered.

Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Last Rudolph Day of 2018

Wow, I really can't believe how fast this year has flown by and here we are with the last Rudolph Days challenge of 2018. Just one month to go until the big day, with so little time and so much to do.
Anyway here is my card for the last challenge this year, I've used a Crafters Companion Embossing folder. First I embossed some white card and then coloured with some distress oxides in three different colours, I then added some water droplets onto the background. Next I rubbed a little silver guilding wax over the raised areas then got out the Lavinia Stamps and made a little scene. The matting is some wrapping paper that  bought in Lidl, inexpensive but very effective.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

CAS Christmas

Well I made it back from my Crafty travels, but have yet to take photos of my makes so today I'm sharing a card that I finished just before going away. It fits into the current challenge over on the Allsorts blog this week. I made a background using two colours of blue sparkle pens and a Die that I bought from the Internet and came from China. I added a sentiment from Chocolate Baroque, a small bow made with some thin organza ribbon and matched the matting to the bauble.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Patterned Papers

With Christmas rushing towards us so fast now I thought it would be nice to put something on here that was not Christmas related. I made this card using images and papers from Debbi Moore's Decadence CD, I've used gold mirri card for the matting and the corners. The corner dies are from Tonic and I made some flowers in matching pearl paper using a Crealies die, adding some matching flat backed pearls to the middles to finish. I'm going to enter this into Craftyhazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge, which is all about using patterned papers.

Tomorrow my Crafty friend and I hit the road to travel to Crafters Companion's Craftaganza retreat. As we both live here in the south of England it's going to take a few hours to reach Durham and the hotel where the retreat is being held. Once there we are in for three days of crafty fun (this is our second year attending this event). As we are also going to a Graphic 45 retreat the following weekend with Clare Charvil (My Creative Spirit). We decided rather that driving all the way home on Wednesday just to turn around Friday and drive back up to Kenilworth we're going to take our time driving down to there, stopping for some crafty shopping on the way at various shops we've only seen on the Internet. I hope to have lots to show you when we return after next weekend.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Embossed Christmas Card

Sparkles Christmas Challenge this month is Embossing Heat or Dry so this card that I've made using Crafters Companion's embossing folder should be just right. I started with a piece of Sheena's stamping card first embossing it and then with three different shades of blue distress oxides covered the card. I then sprinkled some water over and blotted off before adding some silver gilding wax to the raised area. I added a couple of sprigs of holy die cut using a Tattered Lace die. Finally I added to a piece of silver wrapping paper that I bought in Lidl but was just too nice to use as wrapping paper and added to a white card base. I'm also going to enter this into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge which is anything goes with the option of glitter.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to you all. This is about as far as I go celebrating Halloween, but I really enjoy creating spooky cards. I belong on a group that exchanges Halloween cards (well 10 of us do) so all together I've made 9 different ones. However I did not remember to take photos of them all, those that I did have been shown on here now, this is the last one. I used all Lavinia Stamps for this card and am going to enter it into the challenge over on the That's Crafty blog which at the moment is Spookalicious, this should fit in just right. By the way Lavinia has some wonderful new stamps launching today on the website, I got my order in nice and early.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

October Rudolph Days

Wow, I can't believe that it's nearly the end of October already and time for the Rudolph Days Challenge. There's only one more now before Christmas. I have a selection of cards made using the Creative Expressions Papercuts Christmas Dies. I've used various backing with these cards, the top one is wrapping paper bought at Lidl, the second is Glitter card and the last one is Wall paper from The Range. All of the sentiments were made using dies from The Papercraft Boutique.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Halloween

Where did last week go to, it flew past me at a very fast rate. I was busy crafting among other things, I just didn't get around to posting anything. This is one of the cards that I made last week, not that I'm into Halloween but I do love making Halloween themed cards and belong to a group where we exchange Halloween cards. I made this card using dies from The Papercraft Boutique and although I hate spiders I love these that I made using the die included with this set.. I also used stamps from Chocolate Baroque to decorate the card. I'm off to enter this into the challenge over on My Time To Craft, which this time around is Halloween or Cats.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Wedding Day

As I'm sitting here at my PC writing this post Princess Eugenie and her groom are standing at the alter. My wedding outfit is hung upstairs ready for me to change into as today is also the day the my Niece gets married. I just wish that the weather was a little kinder to them both, especially after the wonderful weather we had at the beginning of this week. My card that I've made for the wedding is an 8x8 card base and silver card for the layering. I then used white card and Tonic dies along with stamps and dies from the Heartfelt Creations Dogwood collection. The swirl die cuts are from Tattered Lace. All my good wishes go to both Brides and Grooms for a long and happy life together.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Saturday Workshop Makes

Just a quick post from me today as I have a busy week ahead. On Saturday I went to a workshop at The Art Of Craft in Farnborough, the workshop was with the very talented Martine Smith, using dies from John Next Door. In the morning we made these beautiful lanterns with the flowers being made with silk foam. This was the first time that I had made flowers with this medium and I must admit to falling in love with it. Unfortunately the lantern did not travel home very well in the car.

In the afternoon we made this card again using dies from John Next Door  and the silk foam again. I had a fantastic day with like minded people.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Spooky Journey

My card that I'm sharing with you today I have entered into this month's Challenge over at Lavinia Stamps. Now I must admit that I made this card back in June when I had Maureen Kane (Scraps Of Life By Scrappy Mo) staying for a couple of days. We had great fun get inky and playing with distress inks and Brushos, while our hubby's were off playing Golf. This card was made while playing with water colour card and Brushos along with Lavinia Stamps. I had not posted this before in the hope that there would be a Challenge that it would fit into. This month's challenge at Lavina Stamps is Hocus Pocus. It also fit the Challenge at Back To Basics And Beyond which this month is Watercolours, the Brusho background fits right into that one.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Autumn Glory

The new challenge over on the Allsorts Challenge blog this week is Autumn Glory. My card for this challenge uses one of the new Lavinia Stamps and some from my stash along with some ribbon that I bought the other week on a trip to Costco. I fell in love with it as soon as I spotted it, however it did mean that I had to buy the reel which was 50 meters long. I think that this will be lasting me a long time. I teamed my colours for the background to the top leaf on the ribbon and then over stamped once I had made it. All of the seasons have some wonderful things to show us, but I think that the colours of Autumn have to be my favourite.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Rudolph Days September

I can't believe that we are at the end of September, I've just returned from Cornwall where despite having awful weather to drive down in we had the most glorious week. We went with my Daughter Son-in-law and grandson and managed the beach most days. I even managed to get sun burnt. Anyway enough of that, as it's the end of September it's time for the Rudolph Days challenge which I'm just going to have time to enter this month. I prepared these two cards before going away knowing that I would not have time to make them when I got back. Both cards are made using Heartfelt Creations Merry and Bright collection and the Poinsettia stamp die and flower mould. The sentiment dies are from the Sue Wilson collection for this Christmas.

 The stamped and die cut images were either coloured with Pencils or with distress inks and mini blenders.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

The Colour Blue

I didn't think that I would be joining any challenges this week as we are of the Cornwall this morning, but I had this card (just finished) for a friends birthday sitting on my desk waiting to be sent. It fit's perfectly with the new challenge over on the Allsorts Challenge blog which is Water or the Colour Blue. The stamp is a new one that is designed by Pip Art, Pip is Dali Grahams Sister and you can find her wonderful stamps over on the Dali Art website. I've used three colours of blue distress inks to colour my sky around the eagle and then splashed some water over and removed some of the colour, the trees used and the sentiment are from the same set. I coloured the image which has the scene inside of it with distress pens. Right got to rush as I have the car to pack now. 

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Inky Background

Over on the Back To Basics And Beyond challenge blog they are asking for you to make cards with Inky Backgrounds. This is something that I love to do, so out came my card and inks and this is what I have come up with. I used Peeled Paint, Wild Honey and Mustard Seed distress inks onto Sheena Stamping card. Then I dribbled water over the background to lift out some of the colour before using this beautiful Squirrel stencil from Sweet Poppy over the top. I used Tim Holtz's Black Soot Archival ink to get the image really black (this is a pad that you have to make up yourself from a reinker bottle and blank ink pad). I them mounted onto some cream card and then onto a 6x6 black card blank. The sentiment was cut out of scraps of Cream and Black using a Paper Boutique die.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Canadian Rockies

The end of April 2017 saw Hubby and I with a friend set off from Vancouver into the Canadian Rockies before dropping down into the USA for a wonderful road trip. Fast forward to now and the Allsorts Challenge blog are asking for cards with scenes made either with stamping or die cuts. This past Saturday saw me up at Ally Pally and while there some gorgeous new stamps from Inkylicious fell into my basket, well once they were there I had to buy them of course. As these were sitting on my desk, I used them to create this scene which reminded me of our road trip and the Rockies in particular. Although the cottage was from the snowy scene, I've changed the colours and tried to make the roof look like it is a thatched roof, therefore making it look like Spring/Summer, I also added some green to the tree. We saw lots of deer on our trip through the Rockies and did see a wolf, lots of Buffalo and Bears this was later on in the USA.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue xx

Steampunk/Goth Wedding

The other day I showed you a project made from the Creative Craft Academy, today I'm back with the project I made with some of the paints left over. The bit that was done with the same technique was the background, which I wanted to look like a piece of rusty metal. I've made this picture box for my Niece and her soon to be new Husband (they are getting married on the 12th October) who are both into Steampunk and Gothic. In fact this is the theme to their wedding. I saw the sculls on The Craft Box website and as soon as I saw them I knew that I needed to make them something with them, along with the cog corners which were also from The Craft Box. I had plenty of metal embellishments that I've put with them, just adding a bit of gold gilding wax onto the metal to make them a bit brighter. the paper roses were in my stash and I darkened that edge of those with distress ink. The circles in the other corners were left over from another project but seemed to fit in with this perfectly. I just hope that they both like it now it's finished. I'm off now to join in with the More Mixed Media Challenge.

Just need to make a card now.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Snippets And A Butterfly

My card today came together after receiving the new Tonic Mixed Media dies, while taking the dies out of the packaging I noticed that the card on the inside of the packaging was an Apricot colour, just the right colour for the current challenge over on Mrs A's Butterfly blog this time. So I quickly trimmed all of the packets up into usable sizes and used one for the matting on this card. A rummage through my snippets box found some gold card and a piece of precious Graphic 45 from the seasons collection, I layered these together and then from my ribbon stash layered some ribbons across the bottom part of the card. The flowers and butterflies were from a Scrapbook decorative strip that I won in a blog challenge sometime ago, it's been sitting on my shelf waiting for a project just like this. Finally I added a button again from my stash and a Best Wishes sentiment that was from The Paper Craft Boutique. A a lot of this came out of my snippets box I'm off over to Pixies Snippets Playground to see if there is still time for me to play.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

The Creative Craft Academy

Recently I signed up to the The Creative Craft Academy, this was prompted by my love of Mixed Media and the fact that I sometimes buy stuff without really knowing how to use it. So I thought this would be a great way of learning and playing at the same time. This was my first kit that I received in July. Due to the mess in my Craft Room (now cleared) and the fact that we looked after my Grandson two days a week, it was sometimes hard to find time and space to craft. My Grandson started pre-school last week and now goes there 4 days a week (he wasn't keen last week) so now I have time to get things out and play. I really enjoyed making this and learnt another fantastic rust technique which I have already tried on another project that I'll show you later. The only thing that I would have done differently was I would have swapped the pictures that I was provided with to some sepia family photos, if only I could find those. I thought that I would pop over and join in the current challenge at More Mixed Media, which is Anything Goes with the option of Brown. I'm sure that this rusty look comes under brown somewhere. Now just to make a start on the August kit.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Leaves

My cards today are for the new challenge over on the Twofer Blog, this month they want cards with leaves on. Last month the Tonic Kit (kit 12) was some beautiful leaf dies so this was a good excuse to get them out and used. I've teamed them up with some stamps that were on free with Creative stamper last month too. There was a nice collection of leaves that could be used as background stamps, some nice quotes and also some Halloween stamps too. The one exception to these was the Happy Halloween sentiment which was from a Chocolate Baroque set from a few years ago.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Bears

Bears - that is the latest challenge over on the Allsorts Blog. Because of my craft room clear up recently I knew just where to put my hands on a box with stamps featuring bears, this one is from a collection bought a few years ago from Crafters Companion. The Popcorn Christmas Collection. I stamped the image and coloured using Spectrum Nior pens, added a couple of snowy bumps in the background and then coloured the sky and edges with Distress Inks. The sentiment is from The Paper Boutique and the little snowflakes are some that I bought online. I've also added plenty of glitter to the hats and around the edges of the card it's matted onto.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Back To Basics

Back To Basics is a fairly new challenge blog this being their 11th challenge and seeing as Decoupage is a favourite technique of mine to do it would have been rude not to have taken part in it. This card has been made for My sister-in-law and her husband who are celebrating 48 years of marriage next week, so for their card I have used a Debbi Moore CD - Art Deco Decadence and this lovely image (I use Debbi's CD's a lot for Anniversary Cards as her images lend themselves so well to this type of card). I've matched the backing paper to the image from the same CD and the flowers were made using a Crealies die. The sentiment is from The Paper Boutique and the swirls are from Tattered Lace, the ribbon was recycled from a cake that was brought from my Birthday a couple of months ago.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Something Beginning With B

My card today is for my Daughter who's birthday is in October (good job she doesn't look at this blog) but it fitted in with this months theme over on the Stamping Sensations challenge blog, which is Something Beginning With B. This has Birds, Blossoms, Branches and it's a Birthday card. I've used stamps and Dies from Heartfelt Creations Birds and Blossoms Collection teamed up with papers from the Sweet Peony Collection (I had papers that I had already cut into from this collection and they went so well with the stamps and dies I used). After stamping everything out that I wanted to use I coloured using Distress ink pads and a finger blender. I teamed the papers with some gold mirri card and an 8x8 card base, the corners were cut using a Marianne die and the sentiment is from The Paper Boutique. The stamped elements were attached using glue gel and a little shaping. Now just to hide the card away until her Birthday.

I am also going to enter this into the Allsorts Challenge which this week is Things With Wings.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Butterfly Challenge and More

My card today has been made for the Butterfly Challenge which this time around is E on the colour wheel. Mrs A was asking for card using Embossing Folder, Embossing Powder, Embellishments, the colours Emerald, Eucalyptus and Electric Yellow along with a butterfly. I think that I've managed to use all seven elements on this card. The embossed card was coloured with the Electric Yellow and Eucalyptus and then the body of the butterflies has been embellished with Emerald Green Acrylic Accents and I've embossed the sentiment with gold embossing powder. I've also realised that this card also fits the theme over on the Allsorts Challenge blog which is Things With Wings.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue 

Things With Wings At Allsorts

This week the challenge over at the Allsorts Challenge blog is Things With Wings. Now when I think of things with wings I automatically think of Fairies and Lavinia Fairies are never far from my worktop. So it's no surprise that I came up with this card for the challenge. I've gone for deep yellow and orange to give an Autumnal feel to the card and I've not added a sentiment yet either as I shall pop it into my ready box. I'm sure that I could have come up with so many other things with wings had I thought about it longer, but I want to make sure that I got this made in time to enter.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

August Rudolph Days

I'm lucky enough to have a whole room to myself for crafting, but as it accommodates two hobbies  - that of buying craft supplies against actually using the craft supplies to craft with - my room was rather crowded. I have just spent the last week cleaning and clearing my room so that I can get on and craft and actually use some of the stuff that I've bought. However my card for the Rudolph Days Challenge this month uses a stamp that was given to me recently by a friend who said it was not her kind of stamp and she wouldn't use it  and the white card was some off cuts that were sitting in a pile of off cuts, so that makes this card also suitable for Pixies Snippets Playground too. I stamped the image using black and coloured just the scarf and poinsettia with just red. I ran a red pen around that edge of the white card and then mounted onto a craft card base. The sentiment which I stamped onto the edge of the card is from Chocolate Baroque. I'm not sure who made the stamp, but it was a wood mounted one. Finally I added some flat back gems to the star.

I would also like to enter this card into My Time To Craft Challenge - which is Christmas in August.

Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Boys to Men

The challenge this week at Allsorts is Boys to Men, so this card that I made for my son's birthday fits the theme perfectly. When he was younger all he wanted to do was to ride motorcycles, now that he's reached his 30's he's happier using a car in the colder and wetter weather. The stamp and sentiment are from Indigo Blu, I stamped it in Vintage Photo distress ink and then with a water brush dragged the colour out a bit for a vintage feel. I then distressed around the edges and mounted onto a piece of an old map of France that I had in the cupboard. A 7x7 card base was used for the card and with a stamp of a tyre tread I stamped randomly around the edges using another distress ink.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Another Mixed Media Tag

I so enjoyed making my last mixed media tag for the Allsorts Challenge that I decided to make another one, which I'm also going to enter into the More Mixed Media Challenge which is Anything Goes with Optional Brights. I started with the same size tag as last time but gave it a coat of white gesso this time. I then used a different Tim Holtz Stencil with some texture paste and this time I sprayed with distress sprays in three different colours. As they looked quite dull when they were dry I popped the stencil back over and coated the exposed with versamark ink and put some clear embossing powder on top, this gives it a bit more depth in colour and makes it nice and glossy. I added some lace, flowers a metal leaf and a butterfly button from my stash to finish.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Celebrate in Style

This card has been made for my Mother to give to my Niece on her Birthday and it's been made well in advance as her Birthday is not until October, but it fitted with the current theme over on the CD Sunday blog this time around which is Celebrate in Style. It's been a while since I joined in with one of their challenges (sorry Ladies) so it was the perfect excuse to make this now. I've used Debbi Moore's Art Deco Summer Moments CD and one of the design sheets and backing papers. The flowers are made with a Crealies die and had been made sometime ago (I have quite a collection in different colours) with a flat backed pearl popped into the middle. The corners are made using a Tonic die, again these were ready in a box. I finished it off with a sentiment made on the PC.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Mixed Media Tag

The current challenge over on the Allsorts Challenge blog for this fortnight is Tags and I had great fun making this for the challenge. I have a pack of grey board tags that I bought from Tando at a retreat earlier this year so taking one of the largest I started by giving it a coat of black gesso. Next I added so texture paste through a Tim Holtz stencil, when this was dry I added some colour using some Luscious from Indigo Blu (although you can't see a lot of it). Then I added a little guilding wax in gold over the stencilled part before adding some hessian and a little cardboard. Finally I had a rummage through my box of metal embellishments and added these over the hessian and cardboard. I added some thread that I've had for some years to finish the tag (this was left over from my Machine Knitting days).

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

July Rudolph Days

Due to Maureen's recent visit to the UK July's Rudolph Days challenge is running a little late, from today until 7th August. So if anyone thought that they had missed the July challenge you still have time to take part. My cards this time have been made using the new Paper Cuts dies from Creative Expressions (I fell in love with the dies as soon as I saw them). I've cut them out in just plain white card but teamed them up with some wallpaper (yes you have read that right WALLPAPER) that I found while on a recent visit to The Range. They have it in several different colours and it on the expensive side, but hey they don't charge for samples, so I had samples in all of the colours they had in the store. I even managed to find some card in one of my drawers that matched the wallpaper so I used this for matting.

 I feel another visit to The Range in coming up soon.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue