Sunday 30 December 2012

Christmas with the Christies.

I can't believe Christmas is behind us and we are racing towards a whole new year full of exciting things.
 
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, we had a very relaxed and peaceful one, just how we like it. 
 
And as is tradition we made our cards to each other. I am ashamed to say hubby is a much better crafter than I am *hangs head*.
 
I used a Karber Digi for hubbys card and opted for Rudolph, as he supports Aberdeen FC and the fans are known as "Rudolphs". Probably because it is soooo cold up there, and you end up with a red nose lololol.  I coloured him(Rudolph not hubby) with Flexmarkers and Promarkers, and used Fluffy Stuff on his hat. I then popped him onto some delicious papers from the Santa's Workshop Christmas Kit from Sarah Hurley. I just love this kit and will be using it throughout the year as it is so versatile, and has more than just Christmas papers in it.  I embellished it with tiny snowflakes in white pearlescent card, popped some wee gems on them and added the word "husband" which I die cut from the Vintage Market die from Tim Holtz, I also distressed this using Black Soot DI.

 
 

Here is hubbys card to me, I love it. I will let you be the judge of which one is best ;-)
 
 
I may start encouraging him to make more cards.
 
I would like to enter my card(the top one) into the following challenges;
Di Digi Designs - Christmas
Craft Us Crazy - Merry Christmas
Hanna and Friends - Christmas

 



Almost a New Year, and a new DT.

I have some very exciting news to share with you all today, I have recently been asked to be part of another fabulous Design Team, this time for Willow Designs. To say I am delighted is a complete understatement.  I will be designing alongside a very talented team of ladies, and look forward to the weekly challenges on the Willow Sketchie Challenge Blog, and do hope lots of you can join us to win fabulous prizes :)  I adore Walter and Winnie, they are so cute :D And Winnie will have pride of place on my blog.





Thanks for reading my post and have a lovely New Year xxx

Sunday 16 December 2012

Exciting times.

Hello again,

Very exciting day for us members of the Sarah Hurley DT, as the second edition of the Lookbook went live this morning.  There has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes, and now I can start to show you my creations for this issue.
 
First of all I will show you a Christmas card I made using papers from the Tinseltown Digi Kit.  The options are endless, and I chose to make a green themed card.  I used a snowfall paper as my base layer and the petal dot as the bauble paper.  I embossed a sheet of white pearlised card with a Sizzix folder to carry on the snow theme. The dies are from Memory Box.  I had to add some bling onto the baubles, just to make it twinkle.  The sentiment is also from the kit.

 Ingredients
Memory Box Die
Sizzix embossing folder
Silver ribbon, twine, gems and pearls from stash.
 
I hope you enjoy the Lookbook as much as we enjoyed making things for it.
 
 
I would like to enter this card into the following challenges;
Guylou's Inimitability - Let it snow.
Raise the Bar - Let it Snow
ABC Christmas Challenge - Your favourite Die
Perfect Sentiments Challenge - Must have a sentiment on the front - Christmas
Crafty Sentiments - Snowflakes

 

Saturday 15 December 2012

Something magical.

What a busy couple of weeks it has been. I've had lurgy, toothache, multiple visits to the dentist and loads of crafting to do. Eek, never rains but it pours!!
 
It is always nice to make a card in December that is not a Christmas card, and this one is for my lovely crafty friend Anda.  To say she likes owls is a bit of an understatement, so I didn't want to make an owl the main focus of the card, so opted for one of her other loves Harry Potter...he does have an owl after all ;) And I can blog the card as it is her birthday today :D
 
I used this awesome digi from Karber, coloured him with my Promarkers and Fleximarkers and popped him onto an embossed Nestie shape.  The paper is from a digi kit, and I think it ties in perfectly. The stars are Framelits dies, which I love using. To "tie" it all together, I used bakers twine in Gryfindor colours, and had to pop a wee cute owl charm on it.  I made the sentiment myself using a Harry Potter font.

 
Ingredients
Spellbinders and Framelits dies
Circles embossing folder
Promarkers and Flexmarkers
Bakers twine, owl charm and papers from stash.
 
I hope this inspires you to make something magical today,
Carol xx
 
 
I would like to enter him into the following challenges.
 
Avadares Challenges - Use a Digi.
Polkadoodles - Birthday at Christmas/young adult.
Paper Play Challenges - You're a star.
I Love Promarkers - For the boys
LEJ Designs  - Use a sentiment
Tuesday Alchemy - Anything goes
Daisy Doodles Creative Challenges - Must use a digi, anything goes.
Whoopsi Daisy - Use up your stash(Charm, twine and papers)
 

 
 

Saturday 1 December 2012

December is here.

Today marks the first day of Advent and all the Christmas preparation that it entails. Soooo exciting if you are a lover of Christmas like me (I am convinced it comes with my name ;) ).

This months challenge over at the Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog is "Christmas", and Sarah has great kits to help you make cards, decorations, gifts, scrapbook layouts, digi scrapbooking and lots lots more.  For my card this month I used papers from Tinseltown and Documented365 December Daily Digital kit. Both kits are full of delicious papers, embellishments and much much more.

I tried a different type of card, one that you could see both sides at the same time, and made what I call an "inside out card".  I covered the insides of the card with holly stripe paper to make it look like a wall, and die cut some polka dot paper and linen paper and layered them onto the card. The other side I covered with holly paper and die cut a hole to hang a bauble in.  I used some more polka dot papers as the base of my bauble and popped some sparkly gems on them, and used sparkly bakers twine. Can't have too much sparkle at Christmas in my opinion. The sentiment came from the Tinseltown kit.


I hope this inspires you to join in with our Christmas Challenge this month.





Thursday 22 November 2012

It's "Girls Only"

Over at Cute Card Thursday Challenges this week, and this is my final one as a Guest DT member, and I have loved it.

I opted to make a vintage style sewing themed card.  I chose a neutral colour theme and used the Dictionary paper from the Sarah Hurley Curio Digi Kit, which is full of gorgeous vintage themed items. I lightly stamped Inkylicious butterflies over it using Vintage Photo Distress ink, and used the ink to distress the edge of the paper and the die cuts too.  The die cut is from my Tim Holtz Sewing room die.  I used a peice of cardboard that came as packaging from a recent stash buy, and embossed it with a butterfly folder before die cutting it.  I had some gorgeous lace from one of my crafty friends, Anda, and used that as an embellishment on the mannequin.  To add some more details to the card, I used my Martha Stewart Monarch Butterfly punch(I adore this) and a wee cheapy punch I got from Tesco.  To carry on the neutral theme, I used some linen twine from Stampin' Up around the bobbin, and finished it off with a pretty wee brass button. Phew, that was a long explanation!!

 
Ingredients
Dictionary paper - Sarah Hurley Curio Digi Kit
Butterfly Stamps - Inkylicious, Flutters 1
Tim Holtz Sewing Room Die and Vintage Photo Distress Ink
Martha Stewart Monarch Butterfly Punch
Linen Thread - Stampin' Up
Butterfly embossing folder
Brass button and brown paper from stash.
 
 
I hope you like this and it inspires you to try something different.
 
 
I would like to enter this into the following challenges;
Craft-Room Challenge - Punches and die cuts
Whoopsi Daisy Challenge - Die cuts and punches
Totally Gorjuss - Plain and Simple
Robyns Fetish Challenge - Make it vintage
Hotshot Craft  - Butterflies
 
 




Tuesday 13 November 2012

6 weeks today is...

Christmas day...eeeekkkk!!! And I am trying to be organised for my first proper year of making my own cards. So yesterday I had a play with some of my dies, embossing folders and some Sarah Hurley papers.  I opted for a really clean and simple look with white and turquoise.  I printed out a couple of different papers from the Tinseltown collection, and cut out some baubles using a Memory Box die.  I love these dies, they are really easy to use and the results are great every time. I embossed a sheet of white pearlised paper with a Sizzix folder to make the background look like snowfall, and layered it onto a sheet of "Snowfall" paper from Tinseltown. Hope you like the end result, it is completely different from my usual style of card.


Ingredients
Papers and sentiment - Tinseltown by Sarah Hurley Digi Kit
Dies - Xcut and Memory Box
Sizzix Embossing Folder
Pearlised paper from stash.


Hope this inspires you to try something different with your Christmas cards.



I would like to enter it into the following challenges;
Crafty Sentiments - Christmas
LEJ Designs - Seasons Greetings
Crafty Bloggers Network - Christmas - anything goes
Crafty Cardmakers - more than one die cut
Fashionista Challenge - Blue Christmas
Hooked on Craft - Christmas no Red or Green
The Pink Elephant - Use dies
Delightful Challenges - Let it snow.(snowflakes on baubles and snow on paper and embossed paper)


Thursday 8 November 2012

It's Thursday.

And that means a new challenge over at Cute Card Thursday, and this week it is a sketch.  The sponsors this week are the fabulous Whiff of Joy.   I have never made a card from a sketch, and that coupled with a bad case of sinusitis had left me puzzled as to what to make. So I used one of my favourite Digis from Lady Bugs Craft Ink, and used the Winter Limited Edition Promarkers, to keep the card clean and simple. I popped some glitter onto the flowers using Sakura Glitter pens.



 
Ingredients
Winter Limited Edition Promarkers
Sakura Glitter pens
Craftwork Cards sentiment
Paper from stash
 
Hope you can join us this week over at Cute Card Thursday.
 
 
I would like to enter the following challenges;
Stamp n Doodle - use a digi
The Squirrel and the Fox - Flowers, hats or horses
 
 

 

Sunday 4 November 2012

New challenge over at Just Some Lines.

Hello, there is a new challenge over at Just Some Lines this week and the theme is "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle".  There is also a change of rules and now you can enter the challenge as long as you have used a JSL Digi, there are some fab freebies here. I used Tea Party Time which is available as a free download, so no excuse not to join in.
 
For the "Reduce, reuse, recycle" theme, I made a bookmark and used an old cereal box as my base layer, the ribbon was used as wrapping on a gift from a friend.  I coloured this cute little girl with Promarkers and added some sparkly bits for something extra. The background papers are by Sarah Hurley.







Hope you like her and join in with us this fortnight over at Just Some Lines.

Thursday 1 November 2012

Remember, remember...

The 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot.  It's almost Guy Fawkes night, and the theme over at the Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog this month is "Fireworks".  So I decided on a night time scene using my favourite kit, Oz and a hot air balloon from Woodland Whimsies.  I created the scene where Dorothy is returning home from Oz and made some fireworks in the background from gems.
 
I printed out 2 hot air balloons from the Woodland Whimsies kit, cut them out, then used one as a template to make the Oz balloon.  I coloured the basket with Promarkers.  There are lots of amazing papers in the Oz kit, and I used the "Yellow Brick Road" paper as a base for the scene, and used the "Oz" papers for the balloon.  I also used the digi stamps in the kit to make the Wizard, Dorothy and of course ToTo. The fab sentiment is also from the kit, if you like the Wizard of Oz you will love this kit and use it time and time again.



I hope you like this card, and join in with us this month.

There is still time to get your creations submitted to the next Sarah Hurley Lookbook, with all the information you need here. Why not join in?

New month, new Guest Design Team Member.

Just realised that with it being the 1st of November, I can now reveal my crafty secret(I am usually rubbish at keeping secrets lol) I have been asked to be a Guest Designer for Cute Card Thurdays *happy dance* and their first challenge of the month is Fairies and Angels.  I love both, and tied my love of Gorjuss Girl stamps into my creation.
 
I coloured her using Promarkers, Fleximarkers and Kuretake Art & Graphic pens, I opted for lilacs and blues for a complete change, and made her wings sparkly with Stickles.  I stamped her onto a Nestie circle, and popped that onto a Nestie scalloped circle. I used some wee punches I bought to pretty up the white space on the die cut, they were a complete bargain at 3 for £1, and I am using them loads :)
 
I hope you like her.

 
Ingredients
Gorjuss Girl Stamp
Promarkers, Fleximarkers and Kuretake Art & Graphic pens
Stickles
Butterfly and flower mini punch
Circle and large scallop Nesties
Floral Paper from Forever Friends Spring Pad
Gems and card candi from stash.
 
I hope you pop over and join us this week :)
 
I would like to enter her into the following challenges;
Flutter By Wednesday - Fairies or butterflies.(I have both)
Totally Gorjuss - Things with wings
 

50th card and a Lookbook reminder.

I can't believe it is the 1st of November...where has this year gone?  Hope you all had a lovely Halloween, and are gearing up for Christmas and making lots of cards :)
 
It is almost time for people to submit their creations for the next Sarah Hurley Lookbook, pop over to the blog and all the information for submitting is there. I hope you join in, the last one was fabulous fun to be part of.
 
I have lots of creations waiting to be blogged, in the meantime here is a comission I received for a 50th birthday card for a lady who likes cats, green and sparkly things. I hope she liked this.


I shall blog again later with this months challenge over at The Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog.

Sunday 28 October 2012

It's almost Halloween...

And tonight I thought I would finally bite the bullet and enter one of the "13 Days of Halloween" Challenges over at Simply Challenged Challenges. They were ever so slightly short of entrants for a prize to be given out, so thought I would take myself out of my comfort zone and try a Halloween card. I am in the Simply Betty group on Facebook, and they are a great bunch of girls, I even met two of them today and had a great time.  The group also does swaps every now and again, and the gorgeous papers I have used came from my lovely swap partner Emily.

The theme I chose was "candy corn", so my card could only have yellow, orange, white and black as colours.  I used a Simply Betty digi Skeleton Peter, and coloured him with Promarkers. I then pop him onto a nestie cut shape, that I embossed with a Skull and brocade.  I added lots of diecuts(mostly from the lovely Anda), and tried my best to stick to the colour scheme. I hope you like him :D

 
Here is a close up(in better lighting) of the embossed die cut.
 
 
 
Ingredients
Nightlight papers by My Minds Eye
Oval Nesties
Cuttlebug Embossing folder
Promarkers
Sizzix, Cheery Lyn and Spellbinders Halloween Dies
Gems and bakers twine from stash.
 
 
I would like to enter him into the following challenges;
Simply Challenged Challenges - Day 11, Candy Corn
Robyns Fetish - use an Embossing folder
PanPastel UK - Halloween

CraftyMess Challenge Blog - Halloween
Di's Digi Designs - Halloween
My Time To Craft Challenges - Halloween
One Stop Craft Challenge - Halloween
Simply Create Too - Use Orange, Yellow and Black.
Sparkle and Glitter with Rick - Sweet Halloween
4 Crafty Chicks - Halloween
Milk Coffee Challenges - Halloween

Thursday 25 October 2012

Almost time to give thanks.

Now that Autumn is in full swing, Thanksgiving is well and truly on its way.  This is the first Thanksgiving card I have ever made, and I hope the client likes it.  My brief was for a modern floral card in traditional Autumnal colours, and I feel I have accomplished that with my creation.

 
Ingredients
Clear Vase of Delight Digi from Ladybug Crafts Ink
Thanksgiving paper from Samantha Walker
Coloured with Promarkers
Copper pearlescent paper from stash
Card Candi.
 
 
I would like to enter this into the following challenges;
Can You Digi It? - Giving Thanks
 


It's been a while

Since I blogged, so now I am back with a vengance.  First of all here are some fab wee Halloween items that I made this morning using Sarah Hurleys fab Witching Hour Halloween digi kit.  I love the idea of the embellishments on a stick for popping into Halloween cupcakes, so decided to try and make my own. I am really pleased with the result.

 
 I always have wee bags of sweeties ready for "Trick or Treaters, or "Guisers" as we call them in Scotland, and thought the journalling cards in the kit were perfect for this, I have added some images from the kit onto the cards too :)
 
I am really loving playing with the digi kits, there are so many things you can do with them, the only limit is your imagination  :)

I would like to enter them into the following challenges;
Decorate to Celebrate -Party Decoration(Halloween Party)
 

Friday 5 October 2012

The leaves are changing colour.

And that can only mean one thing...Autumn has arrived in Glasgow. There are so many beautiful colours around, and I just love the cold sunny days, nothing beats being wrapped up cosy and going for a nice walk in the park. Or being snuggled up indoors crafting.
 
Autumn is also the theme this month over at the Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog, and I had great fun making my DT card using the Farmers Market Kit. I wanted to create a scene using the fab embellishments in the kit, and chose a blue background and green for the grass. I popped a couple of the lovley trees onto it, and added lots of pretty leaves and acorns to give the impression of autumn. I also printed out a couple of extra trees to layer up using 3d foam to give some extra dimension.

 
Ingredients
Memory Box Cloud Die
Kraft card and orange pearlescent paper from stash.
 
I hope you like the card and join us this month. xx
 
I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;
Aud Sentiments - Use the word "fall"
DRS Designs - Fall Leaves
Dutch Dare Card Challenges - Fall is in the air
MilkCoffee Challenge - Welcome Fall
Crafty Creation Challenges - Colours of Fall
Sassy Cheryl's - Let's think about fall
There's Magic in the Air - Anything Fall
 
 

Tuesday 2 October 2012

An apple a day...

Keeps the craft bug at play. And today I have used the new Farmers Market Digi Kit from Sarah Hurley to make this card.  It is full of delicious autumnal goodies, from leaves to acorns and great sentiments and papers too.
 
I chose to create a scene using two of the different papers, then popped some apple trees and apples on it.  I printed it out, then 3d foamed another wee apple tree for some dimension. I used Glossy  Accents to make some of the apples shiny and I love the effect :D  I made the sentiment using banners from the kit and the sentiment also comes in the kit.

 
Ingredients
Glossy Accents
Kraft card blank
1mm foam squares

I hope you like this and that you have a look at some of Sarahs other items that are available n her Etsy shop.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges;
Dutch Dare Card Challenges - Clean and Simple
Moving Along With the Times - Seeing Red

Saturday 29 September 2012

Exciting crafty news.

Hiya everyone :) It is finally the weekend :D What a busy week it has been for me, from collecting a new car to the best crafty news *ever*.
 
As many of you will know I was a Guest Designer for the fabulous Sarah Hurley, and I was asked if I would like to be a permanent member...needless to say I didn't even have to think about my answer :D I love being part of this amazing Design Team of very talented and all round great girlies. 
 
Oooo, I also have a new DT badge *happy dance*

 
 
One of the highlights of my 3 months was working on the gorgeous Lookbook, which has great inspiration for using Sarahs range.  It has proved so popular that there will be a second one, and Sarah is looking for project submissions for the new Lookbook Volume 2.  Pop over to Sarahs Blog post to find out all the information, it is a very exciting time for us :D
 
 
Hope you all have a wander over to the website and have a browse, have a great weekend :D xx



Monday 24 September 2012

Today's the day...

We collect our new car *happy dance* Hubby and I are so excited, I have hardly slept.  I decided to  make a thank you card for the poor fella who has had to deal with us and our endless questions and requests ;-) 

As we are getting a Mini, I felt the Mini papers from the Sarah Hurley Britannia Kit would be perfect.


Ingredients
Thank You stamp from Papermania
Blue paper and card blank from stash.

I hope you like this card, and have a great Monday xx

Sunday 23 September 2012

It's been a while...

Since I last blogged. I have been full of the dreaded lurgy with an added bonus of conjunctivitis.  Feeling better now, and have lots of cards to make, due to being unable to craft with my dodgy eyes.
 
I made this card a while ago, but couldn't show it until the recipients birthday had passed.  The brief was for a man who loved gardening, flowers and bright colours. So I came up with this card.

 
I stamped a gardening teddy and coloured him in with Promarkers, I used a deckle edged ruler to create the edge on the "mud" and "grass". I used paper flowers and buttons to create the scene, I am really pleased with the result and I hope the recipient was too :)
 
Ingredients
Paper from stash
Personal Impressions stamp
Coloured with Promarkers
Die cuts Whimsy, Memory box and Die'namics
Buttons and flowers from stash.
 
I have quite a few cards to make to catch up with a week of no crafting, so no doubt there will be more blog posts later today :-)

I would like to enter him into the following challenges;
2 Sisters - Things with wings(my bee button)
Dude Time Doodles - Must be masculine plus sentiment
I Love Promarkers - Occupations(Gardener)
Perfect Sentiments - masculine plus sentiment on the front
Twisted Tuesdays 2TC24 - Things that fly plus 3 different embellishments(Buttons, die cuts and flowers)

Friday 7 September 2012

New DT announcement

And it's the weekend, happy happy happy!!

I am delighted to announce I am joining the very talented ladies on the Just Some Lines Design Team.  They have an amazing range of digi stamps in their store, and I will have lots of fun making creations with them.

The first challenge I am taking part in is "Use more than one colouring medium". I scratched my head for a while with this one, then realised I could use Promarkers and Distress Inks, result.  I used Paula Stands for my card and used autumnal colours now that the leaves are starting to turn.


Ingredients
Digi Paper
Coloured with Promarkers, Kuretake Art & Graphic and Sakura Glitter pens,
Distress inks in Broken China and Evergreen Bough
Ticket from Whimsy Stamps
Ribbon, gems and craft card from stash.

I hope you pop over to Just Some Lines and join us :0)

I would like to enter her into the following challenges;
Fab 'n' Funky Challenges - Colours of Autumn
Lexi's Creations - Autumn Colours
Lollipop Crafts - Fall Frolic
The Pink Elephant Challenge - Use patterned paper