Wednesday, 17 January 2024

Happy New Year 2024

 




My goodness me..... I am so late wishing everyone a Happy New Year. 

It is the 17th January already and the month is flying by.

Last year went by in a bit of a whirlwind. Craftiness went pretty much out of the window due to issues with arthritis in my hands, issues with my hubby and taking on extra work. This all meant that I had so little time to be creative and to be honest I felt that I lost myself and want to do better this year.

I have got so many cards and projects I have done that have not been blogged. I came off 2 of the Design Teams I was on as I felt like a terrible team member and was letting people down.

I am hoping that this year will be better and at the very least I want to catch up on blogging what I have made..... we shall have to wait and see.

I was writing out my Christmas cards in December and was so grateful that I made so many the year before or there would have been very few people receiving handmade Christmas cards. I truly hope that will not be the case this year.

If anyone is still out there following me I truly hope life is treating you well and that 2024 will be full of love, health and happiness for you and your families.

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Wednesday, 15 February 2023

Woodland Hideaway

 



Over at The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up it is the midway point of our challenge. That means it is the turn of the Merry Maidens to share some more fabulous Christmas cards.



The challenge theme is any Any Christmas Card or other December holiday with an optional twist of Into The Woods We Go. The lucky winner's prize is any 2 Winter or Christmas paper packs from Decosse's Dynamite Doodles


If you link up 2 or more cards to our challenge you will get a free digital paper sent to you that our intrepid leader Lisa of Decosse's Dynamite Doodles has designed. 


My card this month is showcasing the gorgeous paper from Woodland Hideaway which is of the snowy cabin in the woods. I have never fancied skiing but always imagined that being in a ski resort with loads of snow around would be magical and this paper reminds me of that.



I wanted to add some sparkly snow so lots of loose glitter has bee used to highlight snowdrifts and swirling in the air. It is such a shame that glitter is so hard to photograph as this is so very sparkly.

The die cut deer was added to create a bit of foreground interest and then a peel off sticker added to match the silver card used for the matting layer.

The image on the paper is so very striking that the card needed very little else to complete it.

Digital papers and elements are fantastic to use in your projects. If they are good quality it is very easy to make a great card using a print out. I am loving using my new colour laser printer as it has opened so many more creative doors for me.

Card Details -


Size - 6” Square

Digital Paper - Woodland Hideaway (Decosse’s Dynamite Doodles)

Dies - Winter Wishes (Crafter’s Companion)

Embellishments - loose glitter, silver peel off sticker

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Saturday, 11 February 2023

Love you Beary Much

 


Kate Hadfield is celebrating her 16th Anniversary of creating great digital products. To celebrate there is an Anniversary sale running from the 10th to 13th February with 25% off the whole store. This is the perfect opportunity to buy all those packs you have had in your wishlist.





In honour of Valentine's day Kate has created a fab set Lovey Dovey Toppers. This is available as pre-coloured Doodles and also digital stamps you can colour yourself.


As soon as I saw this set I knew I wanted to work with the little bear. I created a sign for him to hold and added a sentiment from Imagine That Digistamp.

The background has been created by adding the small heart overlay from Everyday Overlays onto a red background. I also added some tiny pink smiley hearts from the 3 hearts image from Lovey Dovey Toppers. I then added these randomly onto the overlay.


This whole image was then printed with a colour laser printer. I covered the card blank with a snakeskin effect black paper. I created a decoupage card by adding a second layer of the whole image popped up on foam squares. A 3rd layer was added with just the bear. 

You can see this decoupage in more detail below.



I also decorated the inside of the card. The paper is a slightly marbled one from HOTP. The sentiment is a digital one, printed and coloured with a Promarker. I cut it with a scalloped edge die from CREAlies. The final touch was adding the 3 hearts with the smiley faces. I absolutely love them and so happy they are included.


Over at Kate Hadfield Designs there is lots going on. Kate is really generous with her freebies which are readily available. If you sign up to the newsletter you get access to an extra subscriber area the Doodle Den where there are loads more freebies. There is a gallery full of projects by the Creative Team and customers and so much inspiration for crafters and teachers. I would highly recommend you pop over there and join in the fun.




Card Details -


Size - 6” Square

Digital Images - Lovey Dovey Toppers Everyday Overlays (Kate Hadfield Designs)

Designer Papers - Cardmakers Classic Creative Pack (HOTP)

Digital Sentiment - Imagine That Digistamp

Dies - Crea-nest-lies XXL 70 Square with open Scallops (CREAlies)

Colouring Medium - Promarker



I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)


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Saturday, 4 February 2023

Becky's London Birthday


At Kate Hadfield Designs there are so many fabulous sets it is really easy to get inspired to use them. There are digital stamps which you can colour, coloured versions you can scrapbook or make into digital layouts. Papers, patterned overlays and doodles galore. No matter what your skill level there are so many goodies to play with.


This card is for my youngest niece who is 27 today! I have no idea where the years are going to. She has gone to London for the weekend with her parents so I thought a London themed card would be appropriate for her. 

I started off with the plain blu paper from Red White N Blue and made a border top and bottom with strips of the striped paper. 


I then added the crown border from the Jubilee Freebie. You can download this here


The rest of the elements are all from this great British & London themed pack Cool Britannia. I selected iconic landmarks, played about with the placement and then added text boxes. This was printed out with a black border and then added onto to white card base.


Becky sent me a message this morning to say she absolutely loved it so I am a happy Aunty right now.

Becky was born with learning difficulties, autism, ADHD and suffers with narcolepsy (that girl can literally sleep anywhere!) She works full time as a carer, has an amazing career despite being told she would never amount to anything. She has the sweetest disposition and we could not be more proud of her. Her childlike sense of wonder is so pure, she is just a happy person to be around and I love her to bits.

Over at Kate Hadfield Designs there is lots going on. Kate is really generous with her freebies which are readily available. If you sign up to the newsletter you get access to an extra subscriber area the Doodle Den where there are loads more freebies. There is a gallery full of projects by the Creative Team and customers and so much inspiration for crafters and teachers. I would highly recommend you pop over there and join in the fun.

Card Details -


Size - 6” Square

Digital Images - Cool Britannia (Kate Hadfield Designs)

Digital Papers - Red White n Blue & Jubilee Freebie (Kate Hadfield Designs)



I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)


 

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Wednesday, 1 February 2023

Merry Wuffmas

 


It's time for a new challenge over at The Paper Funday.
Our challenges are alway Anything Goes with an optional twist.
The twist this time is 'Lots of Layers'


We are very fortunate to have 2 sponsors for each challenge this year which means we get to choose which artist we would like to work with. This is really great as it gives us double the choice. We are very lucky with the amazing sponsors that are lined up this year, many of which are old favourites and some that are new to me.

This month we are sponsored by Newton's Nook Designs & QKR Stampede


For this card I have used a stencil from Newton's Nook Designs which has little pawprints on it. I inked onto my card blank with Tea Dye and Walnut Distress ink pads alternating between the 2 shades of brown. I bought some soft blending brushes last year and it is the first time I have used them. I am not an 'inker' really so was very impressed how crisp the result is and I was much lighter with my pressure. I am much happier with the softer effect I achieved so they are worth the pennies.

I was given a bag of Christmas cards by a neighbour who know I like to recycle them. The little doggies were from a much bigger card and I knew they would look lovely with this stencil. I used a CREAlies die which has a lovely scalloped edge. This is quite thick card and it always cuts so well. I mounted it on foam pads for dimension. The sentiment is another recycled element matted on a scrap of brown card.

Finally I added some sisal garden string to complete the brown tonal effect.

I hope you will join myself and our fabulous Team over at
The Paper Funday Challenge.


Card Details -


Size - 6” Square

Image - Recycled from an old Christmas Card

Dies - Crea-Nest-Lies XXL 70 (CREAlies)

Stencil - Pawprints (Newton’s Nook Designs)

Colouring Medium - Tea Dye & Walnut Distress Inkpads

Embellishments - Sisal garden twine



I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)



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Friday, 27 January 2023

A Very Very Merry Spider

 


At Kate Hadfield Designs there are so many fabulous sets it is really easy to get inspired to use them. There are digital stamps which you can colour, coloured versions you can scrapbook or make into digital layouts. Papers, patterned overlays and doodles galore. No matter what your skill level there are so many goodies to play with.


For this project I made a Christmas card for one of my bosses who is nicknamed Spider.  I used the spider from Too Cute To Spook Doodles and added a hat from Very Very Merry Doodles. The hat was printed a 2nd time to decoupage with foam pads. Stickles glitter glue and googly eyes were added to complete my too cute to spook spider.




The tartan paper and black leather cardstock are all scraps. It's always a nice feeling to complete a card without having to cut into a new sheet.

Over at Kate Hadfield Designs there is lots going on. Kate is really generous with her freebies which are readily available. If you sign up to the newsletter you get access to an extra subscriber area the Doodle Den where there are loads more freebies. There is a gallery full of projects by the Creative Team and customers and so much inspiration for crafters and teachers. I would highly recommend you pop over there and join in the fun.

Card Details -


Size - 6” Square 

Digital Images - Too Cute To Spook Doodles & Very Very Merry Doodles (Kate Hadfield Designs)

Designer Paper - Woodland Christmas 12”x12” (The Works)

Embellishments - Stickles Glitter Glue, google eyes



I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order







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Saturday, 21 January 2023

Elegant Deer

 


Over at The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up it is the midway point of our first challenge of 2023. That means it is the turn of the Merry Maidens to share some more fabulous Christmas cards.


The challenge theme is any Any Christmas Card or other December holiday with an optional twist of Out With The Old & In With The New. The lucky winner's prize is any 2 Winter or Christmas paper packs from Decosse's Dynamite Doodles




If you link up 2 or more cards to our challenge you will get a free digital paper sent to you that our intrepid leader Lisa of Decosse's Dynamite Doodles has designed. 


My card this month has a mixture of Old & New

Old is the digital papers which were offcuts that are from a previous project.
Old is the peel off line stickers & sentiment I have had in my stash for a million years.
Old is the Elegant Deer die I have had for at least a couple of years and not previously used.

New is the gilding flakes used to 'colour' the die cut
New is gilding which is a new technique for me.

I have used the following papers designed by Lisa



The base is a sheet of white A4 cardstock. I wanted to add gold as the metallic accent as this was a large part of the colour of the gilding flakes. I used a metallic mirri card to create a border around the plaid paper. I have some border stickers from Lakeland Limited that I have been using for years. There are an assortment of thicknesses in silver and gold and have proven so useful. It is a shame they don't do crafty things anymore as I got quite a few things from them over the years. I lad the thin gold strip along the thin black lines on the pattern as I felt it gives the paper a more opulent effect that enhances the gilding.

The deer is a Sizzix thinlits die that I cut from a double sided sticker sheet. It was a bit fiddly to remove as the curly sections of the antlers were very delicate. I added this 'sticker' to the crumpled Chrome paper and cracked open my gilding flakes from Indigo Blu.

Now having never used gilding flakes I am not altogether too sure if my technique was right as I got myself in a right mess. I had used an old ice cream tub and put a few flakes into it. I then grabbed a few and squooshed into the sticky shape. Once covered I started to remove the excess that stuck out. This is when I started to get it everywhere as the static build up was worse than I had expected. I used a muslin clothe to rub off the excess and buff it but it just kept sticking to me. It was so funny at the time as these little precious flakes were all over my desk. Eventually I managed to control the bits and get them back into the pot. Having watched a YouTube video I now know I should have used a stiff brush to get the excess off before rubbing it with the cloth. The demonstrator got into a mess too though so I don't think I did too bad for my first attempt. I enjoyed doing it though and it didn't put me off having another go ☺

Apologies for the weird angle on the photo as it was the only way I could get the foiling to show up properly. 

Card Details -


Size - A5

Die - Elegant Deer (Sizzix Thinlits)

Digital Papers - Purple Plaid, Crumpled Chrome (Decosse’s Dynamite Doodles)

Embellishments - Morris Dance Megaflake (Indigo Blu) Peel off Sticker sentiment, Peel off line sticker



I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)







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