Christmas over!

Well that's another one over - where does the time go?! I realise that I haven't blogged any Xmas cards but that will have to wait until next year now!

My new years resolution (well one of them!) is to post more pics of cards, not just ATC's. This is mainly because on the back of the cards I sell I put a sticker with my email and blog address on. So people who buy my cards may have a look at my blog to see what else I've been up to.

Another resolution is to attend more craft fairs this year. I have bought so much craft stuff recently (I blame Leonie and the C&C sale!) that I just need to use up what I have before I buy anything else and sell some of the mountain of cards I've made. Yes I know this probably won't last as I NEED all the new products!

Here are 2 quick cards I made using some black glitter cards I bought in the sale. When Nigel showed them on air he said you either love them or hate them. I love them and teamed them with some oriental toppers from the other channel (controversial!). I thought they might be a bit gauddy but I think they have worked. I do like my bright colours!

Happy New Year everyone!

A day off today due to the snow! I've stayed in the warm and caught up on some odd jobs! Here is a quick card using a Kanban kit. It was inspired by my trip to the beauty salon last weekend. I had an hour and a half of chocolate treatments including a cocoa body wrap and chocolate facial! Yum!

freebies!

Through my letter box today popped my new copy of Papercraft Inspirations along with 3 sets of the free gift! If you don't subscribe to this mag or would like another set drop me a line and I'll send you a pack. I've got 2 sets spare. I am wondering how I managed without my new printer scanner. I love it, it's so quick to scan cards in. Must go to bed now and stop playing!

Something different!

Here is a technique I learnt on C&C. You stamp onto tissue paper, cut roughly around the image and use a small piece of glue to attach to a candle. Wrap the candle in greaseproof paper and gently heat with your heat gun until the tissue paper stamped image is adhered to the candle. Take care not to heat too much as the candle will melt too much and you'll end up with un uneven candle surface! A very effective technique I thought!

Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Birthday to me! I wonder what surprises I have in store for today....?

I'm feeling clever!

I have just installed my new printer/scanner and it all works so I am feeling very pleased with myself! I've managed to scan 2 ATC's I've made this week. It's funny how sometimes us crafters can stick with what we are currently interested in and forget earlier techniques. I had forgotten about using pens diresctly on stamps so to create these I used my Whispers pens directly on a stamp on the left hand card. On the other card I made a background wash using Whispers pens onto a wet paintbrush and then stamped over the top. Each ATC is finished with a acetate ATC cover. Hope you like them!

Particraft!

I went to my second Particraft party last night hosted by the lovely Sara. I treated myself (well you've got to haven't you!?) to these stamp sets plus some more Tim Holtz distress ink pads and I'm going to dabblle in alcohol inks for the first time. I was inspired by Sara's demos! I can't wait for my toys to arrive! On C&C this morning Leonie was hosting a show which had the Particraft products on with Sheena demonstrating so I got even more inspiration! http://www.particraft.co.uk/

Birds!

I've gone a bit earthy with this one! The bird is chipboard and was 75p for 2 in my local craft shop so I had to have them. I tinted the chipboard with a brown ink pad and then stamped swirls on using black ink. A bit of matting and layering and a play with my new X cut pink corner punch (had to be pink!), finished it off. I really like how this one turned out! This morning I am sure I saw a heron hovering around the back garden. He'd have no luck with the pond as we lost all our fish in the summer but the chickens stopped digging for worms and looked up!

I can't work out how to flip the piccie now it's in and it won't let me delete it - sorry!

Perfect weather for crafting!

How cold is it?! I am not leaving the house all day today! I'm fighting a cold so will order a chinese tonight before X Factor. Here's hoping the twins get their final weekend!

Me and Marco have been busy in the craft room this morning. He is using double sided tape to make a glitter picture! Thank goodeness the spare room has a laminate floor!

I'm back!

After a bit of a break with interviews etc I am now back into craft mode! Here is a quick post of a new technique I had a play with last week. I tried sticking peel offs onto acetate and colouring on the back with permanent pens. It creates a stain glass window effect and I found the colouring in quite theraputic! I cut around the peel offs and attached them to a strip of patterned paper with brads and matted this onto my base card with matching paper. I enjoyed this and will definatly try more of this technique!

camera's!

Had really good intentions to blog tonight - for the first time in a long time! However my camera had other ideas and won't charge up for some reason. Never mind, I'll have a nosey at what other people have been up to! x

buying!

Time has again passed by so quickly! I have been busy spending - here is a (very) small selection of what I have bought. I love the glitter leopard card! I also went to a Particraft demo last week so have more goodies on the way! I need a lot more practise with The Big Bite and other half has thrown the box away so I can't send it back now! Gromlets are particularly tricky. Any tips greatfully recieved!

Inspiration in nature

We went to a garden centre last weekend and I was struck by the patterns on these tree stumps. There is so much colour around at the moment - I LOVE bright colours! My next door neighbour has a beautiful purple bush in her front garden (I don't know what it is called!) and it is attracting loads of different butterflies. The green colour on these plants is so fresh and vibrant.

I'm still here!

Hello!

Where does time go?

Now that it is the summer holidays and I have 7 weeks off, hopefully I will have some time to craft! I have been eagerly tidying my craft room in anticipation of these precious weeks! Now that I'm organised I can actually find things and have found things I had forgotten about. Here's a piccie of my new organisation. Hoping to catch up on everyone's blogs this week. xx

More dolls - sorry!

Came upstairs to do some crafting tonight but got side tracked by Facebook!

Here are two ATC's I made last week using my new Russian Doll stamps from Hero Arts. The background card is the recycled packaging the stamps came in.

I have so many ideas I want to get going on but need a 3 day weekend!

New ATC's

Here's three ATC's I have made over the weekend. The backgrounds were made out of a piece of card I had been cleaning my stamps on. I cut out some ATC shapes, added glitter glue and inked around the edges. Then I added some basic grey rub ons and some letters. Thought I'd keep them quite flat for a change.

My first Crop!

Very exciting day today - I went to my first scrapbooking 'crop'! My best friend Sharon (yes there are two of us!) came and I think she has now caught the scrapbooking bug! I was so excited that I treated myself to a new craft bag to take all my bits and bobs there! Here are two pages I created for two memorable moments - Marco's first haircut and the night he first slept in his cot after he'd outgrown the moses basket! We've booked in for next months crop!

Awfully Big Art Adventure - catch ups!

Yeah! It's half term so I've had more time (and energy!) for crafting. I've been busy catching up on the challenges that Linda and Rosie have set on ABAA that I wanted to join in with but didn't make it in time. So here are my attempts at, crows, altering a canvas (the first time I have done this and I'm really pleased with how it turned out!), Bottletops and doors. The three ATC's are available to trade - the canvas with the 3 Russian Dolls on is hanging in my hall!

Lost camera!

Thought I'd just give a little update on my new years thoughts!
I was getting back into blog land but seem to have misplaced the camera so will do a proper post when it returns!

• I have lost 3 and a half pounds on weight watchers in the last 2 weeks.
• Excercise bike is still resting in the conservatory though!
• I have been giving myself some pamper time in the bath.
• I have been doing some crafting in my tidy spare room!
• I have another thought for the new year - find a new job (for lot's of reasons that I better not publically list!)

Now where is that camera.......?..........

Give me a sign!

Linda and Rosie set the challenge this week over on http://bigartadventure.blogspot.com of making a sign. This is the first time I've joined in with this challenge. I've used a question from a fridge magnet someone gave me recently. The question is 'Have I nurtured myself today?' We all need to take time out in our busy lives for some 'me time' so this is my prompt to remind me to do so. I've also done a bit of recycling as the base was a magnetic shopping pad which was a Christmas present I recieved last year. The pages have all been used up so I challenged myself to 'recycle' it. I used freebie papers from a magazine and my new Russian Doll templates from Wendy Rhodes. (If you have visited before you will know I am mad about Russian dolls!)

I'm glad I found time to join in this week and have surprised myself with what I've made!

New ATC's

Not very good piccies because I used acetate which the flash keeps bouncing off! And I can't get them to flip around! Aaaah!

I recycled some acetate from Sky TV junk mail for these two and stamped the backgrounds on the base card. I dread to think how much this company spent on this advertising - and where does it all end?!

I found the lead....!

Hurrah! I found the lead to the camera. Here is a piccie of the gingerbread house I made for Christmas. I have to admit it was a kit - I didn't actually roll and cut out the shapes, but the icing and decorations are all my creation! I love Gingerbread men and houses and have some gingerbread decorations up in my kitchen all year. (Cupcakes is the other theme currently taking over the kitchen!)

A couple of years ago I bought a book on gingerbread houses from a charity shop for £1. There are some very detailed desgins in there and even a gingerbread village which was made as part of a competition in America. Next year....! I'm quite proud of my first attempt and Marco liked eating it! In the background of the photo of him you can see the tree I have in the kitchen - yes you've guessed it - with gingerbread decorations!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all. I was hoping to post some piccies but I can't find the lead that joins the camera up to the computer! Probably somewhere really safe!

I thought I'd share some of my thoughts for the New Year (less pressure than calling them resolutions!)

• To get back into Blog land and keep up to date with my blogging friends.
• Have at least one night a week dedicated to crafting rather than falling asleep on the sofa and then not being able to sleep in bed!
• Use up the crafting kits and papers I have before buying any new ones!
• Use the exercise bike which is sitting in my conservatory at least twice a week.
• Have a pamper night with my lotions and potions at least once a week.
• Adopt the mantra that my body is a temple and watch the amount of rubbish I eat!

Let's see how I get on!.............