Birthday mice

It is my son's birthday today, and he really wanted a particular kettle so I thought this card would be good with the teapot!

This is a very sweet House Mouse stamp, used for the first time and easy to colour. I coloured the image with Promarkers, cut out with a Nestabilities large labels die, cut a panel with the same set and embossed it with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I added a different label for the letters Son to go on, the letters are a Sizzlet alphabet called Bounce. I added one small mouse and some Crafty Ribbons polka dot ribbon. I also love this very bright green card that I used for the card base and the letters. My son said he wouldn't fancy the tea with those two in it!

I just found the perfect challenge to enter this into: House Mouse Challenges Warm and Fuzzy and Passion for Promarkers Celebrations.

and another Quirky steampunk card

This image is called Three Christmas Trees from Stitchy Bear Stamps, and the cog snow has been added by me using Serif to copy the cogs from the Steampunk Corner, I hope they will forgive me! I cut these out with Nestabilities, and coloured them with Promarkers. Sentiments are from a mini Hero Arts set.

 I don't know why I cannot take a straight looking photo, I have the card standing in a mini photo studio with a flat floor, the camera is on a tripod and the spirit level says it is level, the guides I can see when I look through the viewfinder appear to be lined up straight and yet I had to straighten this more in PSE, and I still can't get it just right!

I have entered this card in the ABC F for Frost challenge.

It's a Quirky Steampunk Challenge from me

Yep, it is challenge time again over at Quirky Crafts Challenge blog, our sponsor is Stitchy Bear Stamps and the challenge is Steampunk Christmas or New Year. I used Big Ben silhouette with Steampunk Corner printed on acetate fixed to a panel of card embossed with a Tim Holtz Sizzix embossing folder, and dabbed with Distress Ink, and I die cut Distressed Clock by Tim Holtz which is a Sizzix Bigz die, from grungepaper and coloured with Distress Ink. The acetate is fixed with four brads, and the whole thing is fixed to a swirl pattern card dabbed with distress ink. Finally I typed Happy New Year  and added some cogs form the steampunk corner then printed it, and die cut that with a Nestabilities label die, also dabbed with distress ink, and I added one real cog to the corner of the sentiment label.

Its Quirky Snowing

Well it is according to Lyn who set the challenge! My first card is made with a Limited Runs digi called Snowman on the Cupcake, I love it.  Coloured with Promarkers and Trias and a little glitter glue to finish. Die cut with Nestabilities and the sentiment comes singly and in sheets ready sized to cut out with Nestabilities circle dies, how cool is that! The ribbon is by Crafty Ribbons and is exclusive to them, and the snowflake is cut from Create a Flake set by Spellbinders, the tiny snowflakes are punch waste.

My second card uses an image by Paper Pretties called Frozen Frog Legs, it is too funny! I coloured the image with Promarkers and Trias and put the image behind a Snowflake Frame from a Spellbinders set, which also contains the snowflakes, two of them are from the Create a Flake set.

So you have probably guessed it - we are sponsored by the two sponsors above and have a first and second prize over at Quirky Crafts Challenge blog this time. You better hop on over to see the other great makes by the team and join it, got to be in it to win it!

Baby Boy cards

I made a couple of baby boy cards last night, don't faint! I should be making Christmas cards really!

 I found this paper in a DCWV stack, and used Spellbinders dies to cut and emboss the shapes, mounting them on Nestabilities squares and rectangles and finally added some buttons. Simples!

Clean and Simple Quirky challenge

Yes it is time for another Quirky Challenge, and Caro chose Clean and Simple. This is my example using Claudia the Cow from our Sponsor Digital Delights by Louby Loo, and the sentiment was also from them and goes perfectly with the image.
I coloured the image and sentiment with Promarkers and Trias and cut the image out with Spellbinders Nestabilities rectangles with a blue scalloped mat, and finally I added some Crafty Ribbons ribbon that says Moo on it. Simples!

Quirky Attitude make 2

This is to say Happy Birthday to Charlotte. I used Emo Alice who I though should have pink hair. Coloured with Promarkers, gems added for skull eyes. Die cuts with Nestabilties, and numbers with Sizzlets Bounce. It's a Girl thing is a Penny Black stamp.

Quirky Attitude

I set the Quirky challenge today and I want to see as much attitude as possible! We have two sponsors, Crafty Ribbons and The Stamping Boutique who provided some great images to the team to use. I decided to use Cleopatra on a box, she will make a great present when I decide what goes in the box!  I painted the box with copper acrylic paint, and the image with Promarkers, Trias and a Whispers gold marker. I stuck the image on and glazed it with Decopatch, and I added K&Co gems and Papermania gems. Finally I added a bit of Crafty Ribbons ribbon from my little stash of ribbon, it is a gold edged chiffon and was the perfect width and colour for this project.

I hope to show you a second make soon.

Now hop on over to Quirky Crafts Challenge Blog to see some great project with attitude from the design team, and I hope you will join in and maybe win a prize.

Autumn leaves at Quirky and good news.

Another challenge over at Quirky Crafts, and I was late with my DT project again.The challenge set by Diane is  Autumn/Fall leaves and colour and our sponsor this time is the wonderful Stitchy Bear Stamps. I used Woodland, Park Bench and Brrr Lady on my card minus the snow! I coloured the images with Promarkers and Trias and I added some of my favourite polka dot sheer ribbon from Crafty Ribbons and made a bow with the Bowdabra. I punched out some leaves and embossed them with my new Nellie Snellen set.I added a bit of brown ink for realism, not sure it worked! I didn't copy Caro's, I just had the same idea, in fact I shared what I was intending to do.

Now the good news, I am going to be a Grandmother next Summer, how cool is that! Congratulations to my lovely Son and Daughter in Law.

Quirky Spookiness

It is Lyn's challenge over at Quirky Crafts challenge blog and she set Something Spooky with an alternative recipe for those who don't do Halloween. I used the sponsor's (Limited Runs) images and I just love the cup cake images, was tempted to have the eyeballs cupcake but decided on Witch Splat at the last minute. The sentiments are free from Limited Runs, I used Hanging Pumpkin and Snake inside the card. I had some spider's web embossed gold card which I used for the base card, some spidery ribbon from Crafty Ribbons, eyelets from stash, boo and bat sequins, and some punched spiders. All images coloured with Promarkers and die cut with Nestabilities squares.

Challenges entered:

Scrap Creations Halloween

ABC Challenges Anything goes

Crafty Ribbons Challenge blog - BOO-tiful Halloween Projects--Pretty Spooky

Cute Card Thursday - Time for cake

One Stop Craft Challenge - Anything goes

Stampalot October Challenge - Food

I didn't manage to make anything for my own challenge last time due to not feeling well which turned into a full blown migraine on the two days before the challenge when I planned to make my project. I tried to recover this and make it a week later but didn't finish it and then we were away on holiday. I will still make it and post it but not just yet. I had visited Exeter show on the Friday and a few goodies came home with me, then I was ill maybe due to the exertions and having to finish the journey in a tow truck when someone put the wrong fuel in the car!

 As you see I got quite a lot of nice goodies including some unique to Crafty Ribbons Christmas ribbons, and I had a little chat with Ali, nice to meet you Ali. I wanted more sizes of the Nellie Snellen Christmas flower punch but they had sold out. I also got a couple of Really Useful boxes and some white stamping card, and white printing card from Anna Marie's which I am very pleased with, it was buy one get one free. The printed card is so much better than I was using and the ink doesn't go right through like the very thin stuff.

I might be able to give you some exciting news soon, just a couple of weeks to go.....

Time for a little bit of Quirkyness.

 The challenge as set by Caro is ABC, or anything but a card! So time to make those quirky items like ATCs, altered items, boxes, bookmarks, and I, like a few of the DT, went for bookmarks but the bookmarks are all different! Our sponsor this time is Robyn's Fetish and we used lots of images from the NEW Back to School range, I used Bookworm and the ruler from the accessories pack to make my first bookmark, and Don't Rain on my Parade for my second bookmark. Both are coloured with Promarkers and die cut with Nesties. I decided to laminate them to keep them nice, that is when I noticed a mistake - whoops, it will have to stay there now!  I punched a hole and set an eyelet and added a tassle to each, though the cord could do with being a little longer.

My second effort was an altered plastic tub into a pencil storage tub, and I used the Crayons from the school accessory pack coloured with Promarkers again and with sticky back ribbons and kraft card. Looks like I took the photo of the wrong side of the tub, whoops again! So hop on over to Quirky Crafts to see what else the DT made, and who won the last challenge!

60th Birthday card

The stamp was one I found for sale on Crafters Bring and Buy on Facebook, but is available from Joanna Sheen. I had to have it, my SIL has the same dog and a little cat so it was perfect. I was a little disappointed that there was more fine detail on the picture with the stamp than the actual stamp. I coloured the image with Promarkers and Trias. I used some Kate Knight papers that were free with a magazine. The letters and numbers were cut with Sizzix Originals Shadow Box dies, with dark pink metallic shadow and paper letters. I decided to sew the paper on the front, this turned out to be a mistake as the size of the card (c4) was too big for my little pink sewing machine, probably the "big" machine would have managed it, so the stitching is very wobbly! There is a die cut horse in the bottom corner, it is hard to see and I should have made it lighter card. Susan is also not straight! My husband thought the horse was a hippo! Happy Birthday is from a Hero Arts clear set, and was stamped in gold Brilliance and embossed with gold EP. Finally I added some blooms and a gem. I think they are all Prima, but I am not certain. Inside I added two more panels of the paper. We went out for a lovely meal at Loch Fyne to celebrate the birthday, and there was a fantastic looking cake which was made by a friend of the family who does sugarcraft.

Parrot talk

This is another image from Stitchy Bear Stamps, which I added late to the Flourishes and Embossing challenge. I love parrots, I used to want to own one and I had parrot earrings and knitted a parrot cardigan on the knitting machine, the cardigan is still around though I don't wear it now and it probably is too small now!
The image was coloured with Trias and my printer decided to print on my best stamping card which normally doesn't feed through so it coloured beautifully apart from the fact that the new Trias come with a much finer fine nib which is so much easier for intricate images. The printer refused to repeat that trick, so I guess I am stuck with thin card! I cut the parrot and mat out with Nestabilties, the Sizzix flourishes are decorated with Prima Flowers.

The pale blue background is embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder then ink brushed over it, and the Hero Arts sentiment is heat embossed with gold EP.

Quirky Crafts challenge time again

The challenge set by Diane is Flourishes and Embossing, and our sponsor is Robyn's Fetish.

This gorgeous image from our sponsor is called Flights of Fancy, and I printed it on acetate then die cut it and a piece of patterned glitter card and joined the two with star eyelets. I cut a Nesties large label and used a Sizzix embossing folder to emboss the Black Magic Cordinations paper, which I then sanded. That was mounted on a rectangle of embossed silver card and metallic blue card blank I folded myself. I die cut flourishes with Sizzlets, and punched the corners of the silver card with a Kreaxions punch. I haven't added a sentiment yet.

Here is Sooty after yet another blood test sporting a green bandage and shaved tummy from the scans, poor thing.

Engagement card

I was commissioned to make a personalised engagement card and here it is.

 You can't really tell but the gorgeous purple card has an embossed pattern of flowers and leaves all over it. All shapes cut with Spellbinders Nestabilties, and border punched with Martha Stewart deep border punch. Words stamped and heat embossed in silver. Couple stamp is by One Rubber Room, Crackerjack Palace. I had the idea of the two hearts, the top one stamped with the word Love, which is  Rubaddubadoo stamp as is the On Your Engagement sentiment. The names are stamped with Stamps Away alphabet stamps but now some are missing sadly, I hope I find them. The heart underneath is stamped with the date of the engagement using Stamps Away alphabet stamps.

The ribbon was a length I found in my ribbon organiser and is now all gone, and I wish I knew where it was from as I would like some more. It took a lot of work to end up with the finished product and a lot of trial stamping and cutting to get here but finally it all came together beautifully and congratulations to Bethany and Ollie, I hope you liked your card!

Red Hat Society

Yes - another Quirky Challenge starts today, and it involves red hats!

Our Sponsor is Robyn's Fetish, and this image is called A Hunting We Will Go. I think it is good for a boy's card. I coloured the image with Promarkers, and die cut it and the mats with Nestabilities, added We R Memory Keepers Big Snaps with the Cropadile to the corners of striped green vellum and a greeting by Hero Arts. It looks out of focus on Blogger but wasn't before. So hop on over to Quirky Crafts to see what the rest of the team have done, it is worth it to see some lovely examples.

Now on the room sort out front, it is going well but there is a lot to do before it can truly be called tidy for 5 minutes, but here are the new shelves in place ready to fill. I have actually filled them now so need new photos, but I am still sorting and rearranging stuff and had a trip to HobbyCraft for more Really Useful boxes, and might need a couple more yet. But things are better in my eyes, and will continue to improve.

 

trapped in craft room, send chocolate

O.K. Confession time, I am a messy crafter, or just messy! My once lovely tidy craft room following the purchase of two Ikea bookcase pictured below, has become full of "stuff" again. and I have the opportunity of two free bookcases which are not Ikea so don't quite match either in colour or depth. They are actually deeper. I thought about it and decided that I could try one and see what it looks like, and then I could maybe get this room into a proper work room. 

The Ikea chair (you can just see one arm above) in the middle of my room is covered in stash right now, and quite frankly is in the way, I am reluctant to get rid of it because it is so good to sit on - but I can't remember the last time I sat on it! It is shoved over close to the mess and I had to pick my way through the tiny path between the mess and the chair to get here!

Are you shocked yet? I am behind this lot, well not at the time this was taken as I was taking it! I moved all of this out of the space next to my nice tidy shelves to make a space for the new shelves to go into, that leaves me with a bit of a problem as the green and purple crates are full of stuff relating to the knitting machine. The knitting machine you may remember used to sit where the shelves are covered in stuff, and with so much stuff on the floor in front of it I couldn't get near it. That was put away and into an upstairs cupboard which is a tad full. So I need to work out where I am going to put the crates or what is in them, or force myself to get rid of some of it to the charity shop. I keep thinking I will one day use the knitting machine again, and even if I did pluck up the courage to sell it I wouldn't get a lot for it and the crates and trunks of yarn, books, accessories etc that I have for it. The Really Useful tower which is made of two smaller towers was also in the space, so had to move, and then I found that it wasn't up to the weight of boxes and one wheel had buckled. The plan is the boxes will fit on the new shelves, and the tower will go. If I get rid of the chair too I can walk to all of my storage and get what I need. The other wall has a cupboard with lots of Lidl blue and grey drawer sets on top, then boxes of stuff on top again, and next to that a paper sorter which is staying, and more drawers on top and more stuff on top again, then a blue plastic drawer tower. The idea is that if I moved the paper sorter/organiser next to the work bench, and maybe get rid of the blue plastic tower and cupboard (that might go upstairs) I can get the second shelf unit in and tidy up all the stuff there. I might need more Really Useful boxes I feel.

Ikea bookcases, they look tidy now I have moved all the rubbish out of the way to get the new shelves in.

What's on your workbench Monday - EEEK!

More stuff I put in the dining room until I get the shelves, himself asked if it was for throwing out, how dare he, I need those folders for more UM stamps not yet sorted and catalogued!

So I cleared a path to where the shelves are to go, but when we tried to get them in between rain showers, I couldn't lift my end so we had to leave it for now, hopefully we will have reinforcements tomorrow! I have stacks of empty boxes for altering and packaging I guess it could go for the sake of tidyness, maybe..... I also have lots of packing I am keeping in case I sell any stuff which I am slowly doing on Facebook, problem is I am buying more than I sell! I hope that if I can be ruthless it will be more conducive to crafty productivity if it is tidy and I gain a space in the middle of the room again!

Christening card

A lady at work commissioned me to make a christening card, and here is the result. It took ages to finish as I kept taking bits in to show her and see if she was happy before assembling the finished card. The main stumbling block was getting all the wording in, and I couldn't find a christening stamp in my collection. So I had the idea of putting the words "on your Christening" and the date, which was a requirement, in the little Sizzix die cut prayer book, to which I added a ribbon, between the two layers, which matches the ribbon with the hearts on. The image is Sugar Nellie and I think it is one of the Gorgeous Girls, might even have been a charity stamp. It was the one that came to mind when I was asked for this card for this 1 year old girl. 

I tried die cutting the name at first, but then the customer asked for all three Christian names so I decided the best thing was to stamp them under the image, the letters are Stamps Away, the Granddaughter stamp is from a Papermania Family set and all the lettering is stamped using Versacolour ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. The image is coloured with Promarkers, and die cut with Nestabilities. The lattice heart is punched with a Martha Stewart punch. Various ribbons some from Ribbon Oasis. Inside the card we took a while to come up with the finished personalised verse which is printed on pale pink marbled vellum type paper. I rounded the corners to finish it off. The customer was very happy with it and now I need to fill her next order for an engagement card.