This Little Piggy dressed up as Santa!!

Week 18 of the 52 card challenge was a picture prompt

I took my inspiration from the wallpaper and the little pig and made a couple of Christmas cards.

I don't know what the paper is as it came from my class leftovers bag, the Santa pig stamp is Penny Black and the sentiment stamps are by Stamps Away and HOTP.  I coloured the image with Promarkers.

Beat the Christmas Rush - June

It is time to join in with Sue's monthly Christmas card challenge, I like to combine challenges so this month my Christmas cards are also suitable for the card challenge on Scrapology - the theme this month is Card in a Box.

I hadn't made these before so watched a few videos and realised that I could save myself a lot of time with scoring and folding if I used my Stampin' Up milk carton die and cut off the top/spout part.  It worked really well and very quickly had assembled 6 cards which just needed decorating.

I used SU Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler cardstock and ink and some scraps of SU Christmas paper - they are quite old and the leftovers from some classes that I had done on a retreat.  I embellished the boxes with a mixture of SU and Fiskars stamps punched out with SU, Woodware and Creative Memories punches.

Some of the individual boxes -

I stamped and punched so many embellishments that I have all this lot leftover - expect to see them appear on some other cards very soon!!

There is still time to take part as the challenge doesn't close until 15th July

Month in Numbers - May 2014

As always I am pretty late to the Month in Numbers party , every month I mean to start the post early in drafts and it just never seems to happen.  Anyway no excuses, here is a snapshot of May reflected in numbers -

430 mile round trip on a bank holiday weekend to spend 1 evening in the company of loads of our Marillion friends and see the fabulous Stillmarillion.

(Photos taken by the lovely Phil Slessor xx)

It has only taken us 11 years to get round to hanging these curtains up in our kitchen - not sure now if I even want them up as they do seem to hide a lot of the light.

Another 3 days of decorating in the hall/downstairs cloakroom (sorry no photos yet as I am still waiting for the floors to be done)

Fairly busy with crafting - 2 memory albums, 4 layouts, 5 cards, 6 Christmas cards

And my countdowns -

64 days to the big birthday!!

267 days to the Marillion European convention

and

288 days to the Marillion UK convention

If you want to take part in Julie Kirk's Month in numbers you can find out how right here

Lunchtime

Sue has a lovely sketch challenge on her blog

I used some photos from our Netherlands trip in 2012 (we are seeing these friends next month and I am hoping to have several layouts from that holiday completed) and the papers are Lily Bee 'Buttercup'

Other supplies -

• AC Amy Tangerine Thickers coloured with amber Promarker
• Cheery Lynn butterfly die
• adhesive gemstones from Sarah's cards
• star gems - Poundland
• stamping using mist stamp from Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge and SU Pumpkin Pie ink

Thank you Sue for a lovely sketch to use x

52 cards challenge - week 14

There was a picture prompt for this week's challenge

 I used the chevron as the background for inspiration for the background of my cards and then the boldness of the red against it for my images.

I have no idea what brand the chevron paper is as it was a class leftover, the butterfly was downloaded from Swirlydoos and the snowmen are digital stamps from Dilly Beans

Round the UK Cruise

I am catching up with posting the layouts I have made for our monthly Sketchy Scrappers group.

This is the sketch from April

And this is my layout using an old Sarah's Cards kit - Jillibean Soup 'Old World Cabbage'

The windmills were made using a Stampin Up die

Expanding Blog Hop

Last week my lovely Meadow Barn friend Jessie invited me to take part in a blog hop tour. As part of this blog hop I need to answer four questions so that you can to get to know me better and then nominate three fellow bloggers to take part. Apologies that I am late, this post should have gone up on Monday

1. What am I working on?

 

I am currently taking part in the 52 cards challenge and also trying to make a Christmas card for each prompt.  I am seriously behind at the moment, but hoping to get caught up soon!!  I am about to start making a mini book for the next nephew to have an 18th birthday next month - this is something I have done for all my nieces and nephews as it makes a very personal gift to give to them.  I am also turning my mind to September when I have my first fundraiser of the year, the date is now confirmed and several people have already asked my Mum if I will be making Christmas cards so I need to have a healthy stash of those to sell.

 

 

2. How does my work differ from others of the genre?

 

Personally I don't think that it does, I am certainly not one for thinking up new ideas, but I am very good at following instructions and adapting others ideas to fit my own style.  I do prefer very clean crafting, so rarely do messy crafts and I don't like making what I call lumpy pages so I prefer to keep my embellishing quite flat.

 

 

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

 

I just enjoy being crafty, I grew up around a Mum who did loads of sewing & knitting and a Gran who made soft toys, did knitting and crochet.  Even my Dad use to dabble in crafts and having learnt to sew in the army once did beautiful embroidery.  I use to love as a child getting craft sets for Christmas and couldn't wait till Boxing Day to be able to open the set and get crafting.  Once I started my nurse training I had very little time to craft but did the odd bit of knitting (especially when on night duty) and some embroidery.  I started seriously crafting in 1994 when I could barely walk after my back injury.  A friend loaned me some cross stitch patterns and Mr P was dispatched to the nearest craft shop to get me Aida and threads.  Very soon I was making lots of cross stitched cards (I didn't like working on big projects) and then I branched out into rubber stamping as handstitching cards is very time consuming.  In 2004 we did our first cruise and I remember about half way through the trip feeling a bit sad as I realised that all the wonderful photos we had would probably end up in a drawer along with all the thousands of other photos I had taken over the years.  Mr P then said 'why don't you make some albums like your friend Sy does'.  At the time Sy was a Creative Memories rep so she was invited over to do a scrapbooking party and before I knew it I had another crafty hobby.  Most of my time now is taken up with scrapbooking and cardmaking, following an RSI in both wrists I struggle with knitting now and I just don't seem to get the time to sit down with my cross stitch anymore.  I have recently joined a Facebook group to hopefully help me get some of my Works in Progress (WIPs) finished.  So basically I craft because a) I love it and b) I think I am genetically wired to make things.

 

 

4. How does your writing/creating process work?

 

It is mainly challenges that I use as a springboard for my crafting.  I take part in several sketch challenges including Scrapology's monthly sketch challenge, Sue's monthly sketch challenge and My Creative Sketches.  I also love card challenges and regularly take part in those including Beat the Christmas Rush, Penny Black Saturday Challenge and the previously mentioned 52 cards challenge.  I use sketches all the time for inspiration and have several folders of printed sketches especially from Pagemaps.  If working for a challenge I find photos that will work best with the sketch/theme and then choose papers, cardstock and embellishments.  Otherwise I tend to pick the papers first that I want to use and then pick the photos and sketch that will work best with them.  

 

Now I'm supposed to tag three other bloggers to take part, but sadly I have only managed to find one that would like to take part (as this blog hop expands further it is getting hard to find people who haven't already taken part).  So my tagee is the lovely Syreeta from KarmaCraftBlog and owner of Happy Accident Studios.  If you are reading this post and haven't been invited yet to take part and would like to, then please leave me a message and I will then tag you into the end of this post and you can do your blog post next Monday (23rd June). 

Happy Fathers Day

As always I have made a card for my Dad to celebrate his special day and it is perfect for this month's challenge at Penny Black Saturday Challenge which is Boys, boys, boys.  This is also my card for week 15 of the 52 cards challenge, the theme was All Creatures Great and Small.

This is the first time I have used this Penny Black stamp despite it being in my collection for over a year - yeah I know bad me!!!!!!!

The papers are from Wild Rose Studio and the scalloped edge is a Sizzlet border die.  The sentiments are by Personal Impressions and Stamps Away.

I coloured the image with Promarkers and highlighted the headlamps with glossy accents.

I will be going to visit him later clutching a bottle of his favourite sherry!!  Quite a few people have recently asked me for an update on the cochlear implant - things are going really well, he has already been discharged by the speech therapist as he has reached the 9 month level in 3 months.  He is still attending the clinic at St Thomas' Hospital monthly for adjustments, but already he is hearing so much more and the other day he recognised me on the phone - our first phone conversation in about 20 years!!!  I also got given a very special look the other day - I was packing up my sewing after spending an evening at his flat - he could hear my bag rustling over the top of the tv - LOL if looks could have killed I would be flat on my back now!!!!

Happy Birthday Mr P!!

Mr P would be most offended if I gave him a shop bought card, so here is this year's offering - I hope he likes it.

 The stamp is Penny Black 'Birthday Balloons' and was coloured with Promarkers, I stamped the image twice and fussy cut the bear and balloons (which were made lovely and shiny with glossy accents), then added them over the base image with pinflair gel.

I am entering this card into this month's Penny Black Saturday Challenge which is Boys, Boys, Boys

Other supplies used

• Papers ??? Creative Memories
• SU cardstock
• EK Success corner punch
• EK Success star border punch
• Crafty impressions sentiment stamp
• SU shaped punch

A Great Day Out

We will soon be off to The Netherlands to visit our family friends and this has prompted me to make some more layouts using photos from our last visit there.

I used a sketch from My Creative Sketches

I used paper from Fancy Pants 'Park Bench' range

It doesn't show very well in the photograph but the middle photograph is raised up on foam pads.  The alphabet stickers are also Fancy Pants and the die cut butterflies are from Cheery Lynn.

Happiness is a Butterfly

The week 13 challenge for 52 cards was to use this sketch.

As I did for the Christmas cards, I cut my own Polaroid frame using a square die inside a rectangle one.  This time I stamped a sentiment with a Penny Black stamp and die cut butterflies (Cheery Lynn) from glitter and gold cardstock.

All the patterned papers are scraps of Basic Grey leftover from class pages.

Time to Say Goodbye

This is the sketch that Sandra set us for our March Sketchy Scrappers challenge.

As the sketch was fairly simple, she also set us a colour challenge.

I adapted the sketch to use two photographs from the last day of our lovely holiday last year to Guernsey.  We had a wonderful time and one of our favourite places was Vazon Bay so we popped in the beach cafe there to have a lunch before getting our catamaran home.  There was just time to have a last wander on the beach.

I used an old Sarah's Cards kit which contained October Afternoon papers 'Modern Homemaker'.  The title was cut using a Sizzlet alpha' die 'Naturally Serif'.

Thanks for a great challenge Sandra!!

Fang-tastic birthday

The May challenge at Penny Black Saturday Challenge and the June challenge at Penny Black and More is to use your favourite stamp.  I had a couple of contenders for this challenge but in the end good old Feline Count won - he most certainly is one of my most used stamps.

The papers are from my scrap bag and mainly Brenda Pinnick, Craft Creations and Creative Memories.  The stars are punched with a Woodware mini punch and an EK Success border punch, the sentiment is computer generated.

C is for corrugated cardboard - Joe

I've managed to sneak in at the last minute and get a layout made for May's Scrapology challenge

There was a lovely sketch to follow and if possible you had to use corrugated cardboard on your layout.  I do tend to use all acid free papers and cardstock on my layouts, so I made my own corrugated card by running some kraft cardstock through a Ribbler.

I used a Christening photograph of one of my nephews and some very ancient papers - they are K&Co Citrus Neapolitan (Scrap-pad to go), I think I got them as a subscriber gift when I first started getting Scrapbook Inspirations. 

The swirls are chipboard cut with a Sizzix Bigz die and the flowers are from my stash.  I coloured the chipboard with SU marker 'Wild Wasabi' and then coated with Pinflair Craft Glaze to give it a sheen.  The title was cut using a MFT alphabet die.

A close up of the embellishing -

If you hurry there is still time to join in as the challenge closes on 5th June.

Snow sentiment cards

Week 13 of the 52 cards challenge was to use this sketch.

I don't have a Polaroid frame die so I used my magnetic platform with a square die inside a rectangle die to get a similar effect. 

I used sentiments from Pink Petticoat that I already had printed out and then embellished them with snowflakes cut from glitter cardstock with Penny Black snowflake dies.  The patterned paper is Basic Grey and scraps that I had left over from a class.