Christmas is here!

Hi there everyone

I've been playing in my studio with some cards and wanted to join in the fun over at The Sweetest Thing. I haven't joined in for a while now.  Karen asked us to choose our favourite sketch and make something with it.  Ooh, what a hard choice that was, all of her sketches are lovely.  I had no idea where to start!  I chose this one..

It's appalling weather here today so try as I may I couldn't get a decent photo, but hope you get the idea.  The little brad looking gems on the tree are actually swarowski crystals, so sparkle beautifully under light, but for some reason one looks like it has a black dot in the middle of it, and the rest all look matt, :o(  Very odd!

Firstly I distress inked the card base with Antique Linen (Tim Holtz) distress ink.  I then cut a strip of Cosmo Cricket patterned paper which I adhered to the border of the card, and I ran the reverse of the paper (sheet music) through my Big Shot using a nestie.  I then cut the other half with plain white cardstock and distressed it with Antique Linen distress ink.  I tied the big red ribbon around the centre of the label, and then pop dotted off the front of the card to add a bit of dimension.  Using my SU! hole punch I cut out the little tab in mint to match the mint on the holly leaves, and stamped it with my 'Seasons of Love' stamps from Waltzingmouse Stamps.  I inked the edges of the label with 'Fired Brick' distress ink and then added a Cricut Christmas tree to which I added the crystals and a mint star to the top. 

It seems strange to be making Christmas cards already, but it is very autumnal here today so I guess we have to say our Summer is over now.  What is good about that though is that I get more home time to play because there's nothing nicer than spending the day indoors crafting when it's horrid outside! 

Have fun, and I promise to try and be a better blogger now that everything is starting to settle down.  Thank you to everyone who has put up with my random blog postings.  I appreciate you staying with me, more than you perhaps realise! 

Hope your day is fabulous!

Hi everyone

I hope you popped over to see the creations from the PDCC team for the challenge this week!  Join in on the fun while you're there!!

Fingers crossed this post has worked and you should be seeing some more cards that I made for some challenges!

My first card was made for this week's Clean and Simple FTL 88 challenge.  I am really finding their clean and simple sketches inspiring.  I'm so glad I came across this blog!  Here's what I made;

I made my second card for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge.  I'm quite pleased with it, but I'm not sure about that baby's head, does it look like a lolly stick?!!  Also, the circle I've put the baby's head on, hmmm, not sure.  Anyways, it was fun to make.  I love that patterned paper, it's so colourful. 

When I'm back to normality, and released from my Florence Nightingale duties ;o) I will be back to posting more information about the products I've used.

Have a fab day.  Make sure you get lots of crafting in! ♥

Quick and simple card

Good evening! Well it is over here in the UK anyway!

This is going to be a super quick post, I just wanted to share a quick and simple card with you that I made a while ago. I have been quite busy making cards for challenges today, but haven't had chance to photograph them yet.  I'd intended to enter it into the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge, but missed the deadline!

If you'd like the information of what I've used just leave me a comment.

Enjoy the rest of your day/evening! 

Ciao for now!

You & Me

Hello again

Well all is well in the household this evening, dinner is finished and all the dishes are away.  One little girl is safely tucked up in bed, the dog is sound asleep and Ian is playing a computer game so I get to play, yay!

Here is the card that I want to share with you.  I am entering it into the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #51, see sketch image above.

 As soon as I saw the sketch this idea came into my mind.  Now, I seem to recall seeing somewhere a card with the words, 'you & me' on them, but I cannot for the life of me remember where otherwise I would give you the information.  It may have been in one of the 'Cards' magazines??  Anyway, that had obviously set off a lightbulb and then I knew I wanted to make something using my little 'toilet' people.  Don't they immediately remind you of the signs they put on the outside of toilet doors when you are out?!!   I love them, I think they are really cute.

Can you tell any difference in the brightness of this pic?  I dug out an old daylight simulation lamps that I've had for years.  I think it's made the photo look a bit better, do you? 

I REALLY enjoyed playing along with this sketch.  It was great fun playing with my 'toilet' people [giggle].

Ok, so I've been a bit lazy in not giving information on how I've been making my cards.  I just thought it would be a miracle if I actually blogged anything so didn't want to give myself any extra bits to do.  I've seen lots of people doing their cards as a list, so I thought that might be more interesting than me waffling again!  So, here goes...

1. Cut a large piece of green Bazzill cardstock
2. Round the corners and paper pierce a pattern in the top left and right corners
3. Cut out a strip of 'people pattern' paper and round corners
4. Before sticking to card with pop dots tie a bow around the card and attach using double sided sticky tape
5. Cut out a scallop in brown Bazzill cardstock
6. Cut out a circle using the reverse side of the 'people pattern' paper, attach to brown scallop
7. Cut out man and woman in red and brown cardstock, attach to ribbon
8. Cut out the ampersand  ('&' symbol) in brown and stick in centre of card
9. Attach alphabet letters 'y-o-u' and 'm-e' either side
10. Cut out three hearts in red and attach two randomly to top of card, and one to the scallop

Dies: Quickutz man and woman (not sure of the name), Sizzix Dingbats #2 & Circles #1, Sizzix Hello Kitty 'Lace Edging' 
Paper: Kelly Panacci - People Pattern (Sandylion), green, brown and dark in red Bazill cardstock
Accessories: SU! Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, L'il Davis Designs Vintage Alphabets in strawberry and chocolate chip, Woodware Craftware Collection scallop punch

Enjoy the rest of your evening.  I'm off to leave some lovin' on some other people's blogs :o)

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge

Hi everyone. I've managed to get some time to add my cards to my blog tonight. The first card is for the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #5. I really like the simplicity of this sketch. It's nice to do intricate cards, but sometimes it's refreshing to do something simple. I have used this sketch twice this week, once for this challenge, and again for another challenge on Papertake Weekly, which I will be posting shortly. For this challenge I made a simple Anniversary card.

I used a Sakura pen to add detail to all of the edges of the petals, and also to the Basic Grey patterned paper, but unfortunately the picture doesn't pick up on this detail. It actually looked quite pretty!

Dies: Sizzix 'Flower Layers, Lily', 'Decorative Accent w/Flower
Stamps: PSX - Happy Anniversary
Paper: Basic Grey, 'Sugared' paper, Bazzill Bling
Accessories: Swarowski gems

I'm off to post this now. Wish me luck. Not that I'm holding out much hope, I never win anything!!