Thursday, December 29, 2011

Sweet Baby ...

The challenge for Just Magnolia and Hanglar challenge is to create a card using white plus one colour and I chose Lilac for my accent colour.

Papers are Melissa Francis, seam binding, lace and crystal swirl are from Ribbon Girl, tag die and sentiment stamp is from Papertrey and I attached the tag with a tiny safety pin that I've had in my supplies for years and years. Little Hanglar is coloured with Copics and extra sparkle on her wings is stickles.

Hopefully my post published when it was meant to as I am out celebrating my birthday with my crafty friends :)

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

A Birthday Card ...

The final challenge of the year for Papertake Weekly is a sketch and this is my interpretation


I used my newest paper flower die from MFT to make the roses and the leaves are punched from my Mam's MS punch.  Lace, button twine and pompom trim are all from the Ribbon Girl and the sentiment and number stamps are Papertrey. I added a few Kaiser pearls to the centres of the roses and that sparkly/fibery paper stuff was something I picked up from the florists wholesalers last week (not sure what a florist would do with it but I liked it behind the paper roses)

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Ribbon Girl Colour Challenge ...

The new colour challenge at the Ribbon Girl blog is red, black and cream as chosen by Vicky.

This is the card and box that I made, it's another tiny 4 inch card





I used:
Digital Papers - Joy To The World by Kristin Cronin Barrow at Sweet Shoppe Designs
German Glass Glitter - 3DJean
Sentiment, kraft cardstock and tag die - Papertrey Ink
Distress Ink - Ranger


The challenge is sponsored by Lili Of The Valley and Ribbon Girl so well worth entering

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Little Angels ...

A few weeks ago a lovely friend gave me the link to this blog post and I was smitten :)  So last week me, my Mum and my Auntie spent a happy evening cutting, knotting, gluing and drawing faces onto wooden beads and hey presto! this is what we made ~




16 smiling, happy Angels with super sparkly wings (gold lame ribbon from the Ribbon Girl) which I took to work yesterday to sell as part of my fundraising to buy a bubble tube for my classroom at the special school where I teach (the one we want costs £900 so we need to do a lot of fundraising!!). 

All the Angels sold within 15 minutes so last night Mum and I made another 20 which I took to school today, they've been really popular and so quick and easy to make - always a bonus :)

Monday, December 12, 2011

Sparkle, bling and even more sparkle ...

I am entering this super sparkly card into the Cupcake Craft Challenge which is to creat e asparkly card - I think I got that one spot on :)




Papers - Glorious digital kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs
German glass glitter (oh my goodness this stuff is divine!) 3D Jean
Pins, lace, seam binding, twine, sparkly button and a Zva crystal swirl all from Ribbon Girl
Sentiment and tag die from Papertrey Ink
Star die by Sizzix

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Another little card ...

Following on from the pink baby card that I made the other day I've got another little 4 inch card to share today. I'm really loving using the smaller size and using softer colours - and sparkle and bling of course :o)




All the papers are from my newest Nitwit Collections digital kit , Holiday Charm and the ribbons, lace, felt, Zva crystal swirls, buttons, twine and pins are from Ribbon Girl

Today I spent a happy afternoon listening to Christmas songs, crafting with my Mum under the lights of our lovely Christmas tree and making more cards!

Friday, December 09, 2011

Baby ...

This week our lovely friend had a sweet baby girl and this is the card that I made for her to celebrate the new arrival.  Those gorgeous papers are from a Krystal Hartley digital kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs that I totally love (I've already made another two cards using the same papers!)




All of the ribbon, buttons, pompom, pins, lace and the crystal swirl are from Ribbon Girl
The dinky little tag dies are from Papertrey

Monday, December 05, 2011

A lot to catch up on ...

Goodness, it is almost a month since I last blogged! Life has been pretty busy here, lots of decisions to be made about my new house but in the 4 weeks since we got the key we've had a new heating system installed throughout, the windows have all been replaced, a few walls have been knocked down, moved and rebuilt to make the kitchen a little larger, the kitchen has been ordered and 3 rooms have been plastered and painted throughout. This weekend my brother put down the flooring in one of the bedrooms and he's there at the moment laying the floor in the other bedroom. Phew, lots of hard work :)

I've had a little time to spend making cards but I gave up on the idea of making all my Christmas cards and have bought some for the regular people and I'm keeping my hand crafted cards for the extra special people.

Amongst all the busy-ness of making the house look fabulous I squeezed in a weekend away with 7 other crafty friends. We completed several projects and this is the card that I taught to the group on the Friday night, it had a coordinating box to go with it but I forgot to take a photograph of that


Paper, sentiment and reindeer image - Pink Petticoat
Star die - Spellbinders

Whilst at the cottage we had a bit of a Molly Bloom fest - I love Molly Bloom stamps which is handy because so does Jane, Gail and Jean so we played swaps with our stamps for a little while and I cane home with several stamped images all ready to colour in

Stamp - Molly Blooms
Papers - Sweet Shoppe Designs
Ribbons and twine - Ribbon Girl

I've made a few of these little giftbags too, the die is a Papertrey Ink die and they are perfect for adding a giftcard or small items such as earrings and jewellery

Papers and font - Sweet Shoppe Designs
Die - Papertrey Ink


The kit I used for the gift bag and this card is Fa-La-La by Dani Mogstad at Sweet Shoppe Designs and whilst I was creating these projects I thought I would use it to make a festive header for my blog, I'm hoping we get some snow this holiday time!

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Not Exactly Playing With Paper ...

It seems like a long time since I updated my blog but I have been very busy - buying a house! My first house :) There is a lot of work to do - new kitchen, new bathroom, new doors and windows, knock walls down, build walls up, move walls, new fire and fireplace, plaster all the walls and ceilings, paint everything, new flooring. That's where I've been then - not exactly playing with paper but playing at being a builder :)  I have made a few cards though:

This was the card that I made for last weeks Papertake Weekly challenge which was to add a touch of bling.

I added stacks of bling to this card! The mermaid stamp is a Hanglar Stanglar stamp, coloured with Copics and her tail is covered with Stardust Stickles - my absolute favourite type of glittery sparklyness! The papers are all Cosmo Cricket and I've embossed the pieces with a couple of different Cuttlebug embossing folders, distressed and stiched the edges and then applied more generous amounts of Stickles. The pearl swirl has been coloured with a Copic marker to change it's colour - I love to do this with pearls and crystals - before I stuck it to the card. Even my ribbons are sparkly. I've used wide silver lame that I coloured with the same Copic marker as the pearls and over the top of this I've used gold glitter mesh which also got the Copic treatment. To finish I added a couple of metal embellishments from Stampin Up and a starfish charm and knot of button twine


Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Oops too late ...

Does anyone else always manage to forget to post their challenge cards until after the challenges have closed?  So, today I am sharing the card I made for this weeks challenge at Lili Of The Vallery but I missed the challenge and now it's closed. Nevermind though as I enjoyed making the card and now I have another Christmas card to add to my growing pile - the cloud does have a silver lining :)

Papers - Mr & Mrs Collection by Nitwit Collections
Cardstock - Papermania
Image - Lili Of The Valley
Dies - Spellbinders
Ribbon - Ribbon Girl

I've left the sentiment off as I'm not sure who will be recieving this yet and I may want to add their name. The gorgeous papers are the newest release from Nitwit Collections called Mr & Mrs Collection and it features the sweetest Santa Claus and Mrs Claus so I just had to use them both and some more of the papers in another Christmas card

Papers and image - Mr & Mrs Collection at Nitwit Collections
Sentiment - Pink Petticoat
Lace - Ribbon Girl
Cardstock - Papermania
Dies - Spellbinders
Glitter spray - Crafters Companion

Thursday, October 27, 2011

A Happy, Happy Birthday Card ...

Oops, almost forgot to share my Papertake Weekly card! I love this card, it's been sat on the shelf above my craft desk for ages because I din't want to put it in the card box


The challenge this week is to use a sketch



I used:

Stamps (Image and sentiment)  - Lili of The Valley (cloured with Copics)
Papers - The Sweetest Thing digital kit by Zoe Pearn at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Dies - Spellbinders
Pom Pom trim and heart pins - Ribbon Girl
Other - distress inks and sewing machine

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Jingle All The Way To Christmas ...

It's the 25th of the month so we have a new Christmas challenge over at the Ribbon Girl blog. I made two projects for this challenge

The first is a card using a Crafters Companion Christmas Humphrey stamp, I love this little elephant and it stamps so nicely. I coloured him with Copics and then sprayed it with Spray & Sparkle to make him glittery and shimmery. I added a nice big bow made with spotty organza, ricrac and a polka dot button from the Ribbon Girl and those papers are a recent purchase from Pink Petticoat - love them!





My second Christmas project is this fab wooden reindeer from Kaisercraft that I have covered with papers from Nitwit Collections. I added a jingle bell garland made from bells and bakers twine from the Ribbon Girl and cut out a saddle using one of the Spellbinders labels dies. I covered his antlers with Stickles to make them super sparkly. I bought my reindeer from Merly Impressions

Monday, October 24, 2011

Winter Wishes ...

Last week the postman brought us some gorgeous fairy stamps from Sugar Nellie so today I have made a card to enter into the Sugar Bowl Challenge which is a sketch.

Stamp - Titania from Sugar Nellie (coloured with Copics)
Papers - All I Want For Christmas from Echo Park
Sentiment stamp - Papertrey Ink
Ribbon and lace - Ribbon Girl
Cardstock - Papermania
Glitter spray - Spray and Sparkle from Crafters Companion


Sunday, October 23, 2011

In the pink ...

I love everything pink so guess how pleased I was that this weeks Just Magnolia/Hanglar challenge was to make a pink card!


Ribbon Girl pins and ribbon
Pink Petticoat sentiment
Papermania (I think) paper and cardstock
Martha Stewart border punch
Papertrey Ink scalloped border die
Spellbinders star border die
Cuttlebug embossing folder
Stickles
Crafters Companion Spray & Sparkle (I have no idea how I've lived without this for so long)

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

... and down came a spider

The challenge over at Papertake Weekly this week is to use spooky hues so I made the cute spider card.

I added black dewdrops to his feet to make them look a bit like shoes!

Papers and that cute spider - Jeepers Creepers digi kit
Ribbon and dewdrops - Ribbon Girl
Computer sentiment - Leftovers font

Monday, October 17, 2011

Getting Distressed ...

... well sanded and roughed up paper edges are about the most distressed I get with my cards but I think it fits the bill for the Just Magnolia/Hanglar Stanglar challenge this week.


I used all of my favourites (and new favourites!) on this card
Hanglar stamp
Coloured with Copics
Martha Stewart border punch
Ribbon Girl ruffle edge sheer ribbon (love this!) and fancy pins
Pink Petticoat Vintage Stars, Sprinkled with Twinkles papers and NewBaby sentiments
Lots of machine stitching and roughed up paper edges :)

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Ribbon Girl Colour Challenge

The colour challenge over the Ribbon Girl blog is lilac and green and we have a great prize of a £10 voucher to spend at Lili Of The Valley and either a green or a lilac ribbon mini kit from Ribbon Girl



This is the card I made using the lilac and green colour theme

My Minds Eye paper
Tiddlyinks digital stamp
Crystal swirl (recoloured with a Copic marker)
Copic Markers
Martha Stewart paper punch
Safmat

I love how you can recolour the crystal swirls to coordinate with any project by simply running a Copic marker over them

Okay, I'm off to get on with the mountain of school work that needs to be done before Monday morning - only 1 week to go until half term and a week off though. Yippeeeee!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

A baby card ...

I made this card for my friend who has a new baby boy, it was perfect for this weeks Papertake Weekly challenge which is to use 3 shapes - I've used a square, rectangle and star shape

Papers and alphabet - Baby Boy by Lliella Designs at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Lace, twine and baby charms - Ribbon Girl
Martha Stewart border punch
Lots of machine sewing and white cardstock

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Happy Birthday Papertake Weekly...

We're celebrating our birthday over at Papertake Weekly this week and we're doing it in style with a prize filled blog hop.  We have prizes from Dies to Die For, Sir Stampalot, Lili Of The Valley and Ribbon Girl as well as a few other prizes hidden around our blogs so you'll just have to hop around leaving comments and see if you are a winner!

This is the card I made for this weeks anything goes (with the option of adding something punched) challenge, a step card that I made with a lot of help from my friend Jan.  I wasn't a very good student and making the card was accompanied by several swear words and raised eyebrows. Jan - I think I'll go back to ordinary square cards!

Paper - October Afternoon
Punch - Stampin Up
Button - Ribbon Girl
Font - Leftovers

Now you need to hop onto Angie's blog and then add your card to the Papertake Weekly challenge

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Catching up and a new challenge ...

Hello, hello did you think I'd fallen into a big hole and was gone forever?  Just super busy at work which is leaving little time for crafting and blogging. But, it's Sunday and I have cards to share and news of a new challenge at The Ribbon Girl blog.

 The Ribbon Girl is having a Christmas Challenge on the 25th of every month during the run up to Christmas with a fab Christmas ribbon and embellishment prize


For my card I used the new Crafters Companion Humphrey's Corner Crafting CD. I love Humphrey and was thrilled to see the new Christmas designs, the latest CD and stamps dropped through our letterbox this week so watch out for lots of Christmas Humphrey-ness going on around here :)


See the diamante snowflake stick pin? *swoon* these are beautiful and new in the Ribbon Girl shop this week so I had to add one of those in as well







It's not all Christmas around here though, some people have had birthdays so I needed a suitable card for an owl loving friend and Nitwits came up trumps again with their Summers End collection. I made a shaped card with the owl element and resized the leaves to make them small enough to make him a little garland of Autumn leaves to hold