How Did Life Get This Busy........

So Monday carried on in the manic way that the weekend passed, have so much to do and no time to do it. I have also lost another evening during the week as our church is running an Alpha Course and me and DH are running one of the small groups as we had training a few years ago..... I was hoping to make some thank you cards for some of the people at the wedding on Saturday, 6 cards for my DT on ILWS and another 12 for Church Order. Then I need to make 8 invitations to my grandsons birthday party next week and then birthday cards for all the birthdays this month. I really need to make myself a list I think and organise things slightly better. I have another order from Stampin Up arriving today, really excited about that, so hoping to use some of my new stash for some of the cards, and then hopefully in just over a weeks time my Papertrey Ink order will arrive and I will be able to put another order into Stampin Up from the new catalogue..... woohoo!!!!

So this card was made using colours that I would not normally use, it was really outside of the box for me, but I do really really like it..... Butterfly is Papertrey Ink, as are the buttons and cardstock. The Patterned Paper is Basic Grey.

The card above I made for my daughters 16th birthday from all her friends at church, it was also the card I made for our Papertrey Ink Day last month, where I got together with some really lovely ladies to make lots of Papertrey Ink stuff..... it was a brilliant day, hope we can do it again sometime.

For the card I used all Papertrey Ink Product, including dies, felt, cardstock and stamp sets.

This card I made from us, her family, for her birthday, she was very honoured as I used some of my favourite flowers on her card, the Patterned Paper was from a scrapbook kit and is such a gorgeous vibrant paper. The image I got from the Ally Pally in April as is by Mo, from Mo's Digital Pencil....

Must run, have a great day everyone xx

In Love With Stamping Design Team Challenges

I am lucky enough to be on the In Love With Stamping Forum Design Team for the next 6 months which means I will have to get my act into gear and make some cards each month. The following is from the August Challenge.

The first challenge was to use Basic Gray, So Saffron and Certainly Celery Cardstock as the colour scheme and the card below is what I came up with.

So Saffron and Nouveau Chic Patterned Paper, Whimsical Wings Level 2 Hostess Set and Oval All Stamp Sets. The rose I made myself using Basic Gray cardstock and some Dazzle Diamonds sprinkled on afterwards, the leaves are from the Bird Punch.

This card I also made for the same challenge, again using the Nouveau Chic Patterned Paper, Basic Grey Cardstock stamped with Papertrey Inks Tin Types Stamp set for a bit of pattern. The Praying for You sentiment is from Verve Stamps and the beautiful flower is from the In Bloom Stampin Up Stamp Set.

The next challenge was an inspiration piece, we were shown the picture below and had to make something using inspiration from this sketch.

I made a box using the Groom Speciality Patterned Paper and put little tags into each of the 4 sections using colours from the picture. I tied silver elastic thread so that they can be hung off of gifts. This would make a wonderful little gift for someone.


The next challenge was a sketch challenge using the sketch below.

I used the Sweet Pea Paper Stack to make the strips of paper, stuck them to a piece of Taken with Teal cardstock (that is retiring at the end of next month) and cut around leaving a small border.

I used Trendy Trees stamp set for the images, the scallop border punch for the edging along with a Martha Stewart punch and a Stampin Up button and ribbon to finish it off with.

The next challenge was to use Saran Wrap (or cling film), scrunch it up and dab ink or paint onto your project in some way.

I used the Stampin Up Silver Shimmer Paint and dabbed it onto Night of Navy Cardstock. I used the Season of Joy Stamp Set for the main image and cut out some snowflakes in silver cardstock to make a nice Christmassy card.

I also made a card for this challenge using ink. I dabbed the cling film onto an inkpad and decorated some pale plum card. I then stamped it with the En Francais background stamp. The image is from Vintage Vogue Stamp Set using the Oval All for the sentiment. This was finished off using Old Olive Satin Ribbon.

Have a great day everyone, hope you enjoyed what I have made, if you would like to join in with the challenges visit www.inlovewithstamping.com.

WooHoo, 2 days running.

Yesterday was my daughter's 17th birthday, I dont think she reads my blog but thought I had better wait until today to post a piccie of her card....

The Patterned Paper is Basic Grey, the image is from The Greetings Farm, the button and leaves are Papertrey Ink and the flower is from my stash, you would not believe the amount of flowers I have.... the swirl is a punch that I got at the Ally Pally....

And the inside is made to match, but this time the edging punch is a Fiskars Border punch.... I also stitched loads on this card.... thought I would give my sewing machine an airing... ha ha

Have a great evening all, I will be looking after my grandson for a few days from Sunday night so wont be making much, but I do still have some cards and will be able to get on my computer so the postings should continue.... xx

I have been AWOL.....

Not really sure why I have been AWOL, just seemed the longer I left it the harder it was to come back and post... strange eh!! But I have some very exciting news, well exciting for me, not really exciting for you out in cyber space. 2 Fridays ago DH was on Absolute Radio (formerly Virgin Radio) and won a competition for us both to go to South Africa and see a Quarter Final World Cup Football Match, well I for one do like football so this is a brilliant prize and we have 3 nights accommodation too, we fly in overnight and out overnight which means we near enough have 3 full days there too, so there is a theme park, a wildlife park, lots of restaurants and the football match one evening with hospitality included... woohoo... also flights and transfers are included to, so should be awesome. Am a bit worried as it is South Africa, and may yet stay locked in my hotel room but we shall see!!!! Not sure how I can not look like a tourist with an England Football Shirt on... so England Football Team, hear this, you will win all of your matches so that the one we are in South Africa for will be you playing some other team and you must win that one too... would hate to be on the side of losers.



Anyway, back to my post..... have had a few birthdays, giveaways, thank yous, Christenings, Good Lucks lately so will be posting some cards over the next week for all of these. Today's post is about my Daughter in Law's birthday last Thursday. I made a cute little bag to put her present in.


A Kraft Lunch Bag decorated with Real Red Cardstock and Snow White Ink from Papertrey Ink, the butterfly image and die is also from Papertrey Ink as is the Happy Birthday. The Flower is made with Hawaiian Shores Felt and Real Red and Whisper White Cardstock using a die from Papertrey Ink too.... bling from my stash.

I bought this stamp at the Ally Pally, not sure who made it but I coloured it in using Copics... Patterned Paper is Basic Grey, sentiment was from Papertrey Ink....

And I decorated the inside too, using some of my new Raspberry Fizz felt from Papertrey Ink and cutting a really cute flower from it using a die from Papertrey Ink... again paper is Basic Grey and the Punched Edge is an EK Success punch which I also got at Ally Pally.....

Thanks for looking, check back tomorrow for another card. xx

Worn out but I do have something to show you...

Well I did have fun yesterday, whilst Hubby and boys went off Geocaching I spent a leisurely few hours spending money at the Ally Pally.... I must admit I was on a strict budget but I did have a few "necessities" on my shopping list... bling for a start, how can you make cards without bling? And dont forget a girl definately needs some Basic Grey 6 x 6 Pads.... watch this space to see what I do with my new patterned paper.... But for today you have got another church order card to look at, I thought of posting piccies of my stash but I didn't want to make you all jealous so you will just have to wait to see what I make with it all.... lol

The sentiment is computer generated, the Patterned Paper is from the new Sweet Pea Stack from Stampin' Up!, you get 48 lush sheets of double sided heavy quality patterned paper for just £19.99 and believe me it goes a very very long way, I have hardly started on the stack and have already made 10s of cards with it.... definitely value for money. I used Old Olive and Barely Banana Cardstock and new Satin Ribbon in Chocolate Chip... all from Stampin' Up, the flowers are from my stash and the punches are Martha Stewart and Fiskars....

Was definitely a day for decorating the insides of cards, out of 12 cards I have made recently I have only not decorated the insides of 2 of them and that was incase the lady who they were for wanted to write a long message inside of them.... Again I used matching Patterned Paper and Cardstock...

Thanks for looking and I will let you know how I get on with my tidying up this week... you never know I may just give you a little peek at my Ally Pally Stash and also my Papertrey Ink Stash before I put it all away in its new home. Thanks for looking, have a great relaxing Sunday... take care all xx

Tutorial at Last.....

So finally I got my Why Not Make It Wednesday Tutorial edited and uploaded.... have had parents evenings, meetings etc this week and so have been really busy with family... hope you think the wait is worth it. I decided to show you how easy it is to make Embellishments out of Drink Cans, I did get DH to cut the top and bottom off for me as I am a liability when it comes to cans and sharp edges.... I also played around with the images on the video afterwards to get colours I liked more, but I was very conscious of how boring it would be watching me mess around on screen. I also think I got a better angle, although at one point you do see one of my cats walk along underneath my arms, luckily when it walked across my desk the camera did not pick it up.... ha ha...

And I have been dying to make a Tim Holtz type rose for ages and thought it would be ideal for using on the card I made using a tin embellishment... I did make a much grungier one using grungepaper, but it didn't really fit with the card, so it is sitting on my desk at the moment with all the children trying to nab it for various projects.... maybe I will need to show them how to make their own.

I did bling up the rose and the butterfly with Stickles Star Dust, you can just about see it on the rose but not on the butterfly, it really does sparkle in real life...

For the Card I used Basic Grey Wisteria papers and Elegant Eggplant, Sage Shadow, Almost Amethyst and Very Vanilla Stampin' Up! Cardstock, along with Very Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon, also from Stampin' Up!. I have all the Stampin' Up! colours of cardstock and find that normally they will match with all the papers I have whether they are Stampin' Up! or not, so really pleased about that as it is good quality cardstock. Anyway, guess you are here coz you want to see the video, so here it is...

Hope you enjoyed it.... have a great weekend... xx

My New Craft Area.....

I decided Friday morning that I really needed more proper storage boxes for my craft area, I cannot work in mess (ha ha) and everything out on shelves everywhere constituted mess, so decided to buy some new shelves and storage boxes to put on them, so hunted on the Ikea website and took my daughter to Ikea, she has never been before and was about as impressed as her step dad is, but we got what we wanted.... (or at least what I wanted and she even built the units for me.....)

So not too much has changed on my main desk except I got rid of the trofast storage I had a put a 9 drawer unit in the middle instead, this leaves me more room to work and my monitor then sits on top of it, the drawers under the desk have been shuffled around a bit and my Cricut Expression still sits on my desk, I am worried that if I put it away I would never use it.... lol

This part is where most of the new storage is.... the shelves are kitchen units and I bought glass shelves for them as I thought they looked less obtrusive than wood ones, I also bought all the storage boxes too and there are even some that are still empty, they are the ones without labels in, yes I have finally got around to labelling stuff too... my flowers are piled sky high in drawers (yes I know why does one person need so many flowers and yet can never find what they want) and I got my mini sewing machine out to sit on the desk too..... the small white shelves that I had on my desk before now sit on top of the new white units.

Now this is the storage inside my mirror Pax Wardrobes, the middle sliding drawer holds all my current SU Stamp Sets and believe me it holds a lot, I do have most of them.... the top drawer holds all the SU punches that we have plus other punches too including my Martha Stewart ones... (I also have 2 other drawers of punches under the desk), the bottom sliding drawer holds my 40+ Cricut Cartridges and the white boxes at the bottom hold old magazines, US and non Current SU stamp sets and odds and ends to alter.... the very top shelf holds my PaperTrey Ink Cardstock and the next shelf down has my PTI ribbon and buttons....

This single wardrobe holds a drawer unit which holds tons of 12 x 12 Patterned Paper by loads of different companies, one of the large blue containers holds all my 6 x 6 and 8 x 8 Paper Pads another holds all my SU wheels and handles, another holds chipboard books and boxes, the drawers hold odds and ends like staples and staplers, spare blades for my Fiskars Trimmer, glue refills, small pom poms, just tons of odds and ends....

This double wardrobe holds my Paperwork for SU, including all my Tax Returns, invoices, the SU magazines we get, all my Tim Holtz stuff including paint dabbers, distress inks, stamp sets, all the staples, embossing powders, crackle paint, twisters, masks and anything else Tim Holtz you can think off.... aahh yes if you look carefully you can also see my Watercolour Pencils and on the bottom shelf is my printer labels and photo paper.... My Bazzill Basic Cardstock is on one of the shelves, one of the brown boxes holds all the Scrapbook Kits I bought and haven't used, the other one holds my Bind It All and all the wires and covers etc.... and also on the top shelf are some Scrapbook Albums that I have completed for myself...

The above photo is of all the wardrobe doors shut, I chose mirror doors to make our bedroom look bigger when it is filled up with my Craft Stuff.... ha ha. Unfortunately children finger prints and dog noses have made them not so clean and shiny....

This is my SU Ribbon Storage, it is hung on the end of the Mirror Wardrobes, my other ribbon is in 9 jars which are in one of the blue boxes in the first wardrobe storage....

and this shelf sits beneath the ribbon with all my dies that I have left on it (I sold 100s last summer at a car boot sale)..... Aaah yes my Quickutz dies are in the Paper Storage drawer inside the mirror wardrobe, they sit nicely in 2 big books filled with special QK binder storage sheets....

This is my SU Patterned Paper Storage, my SU Textured Card, Scrappin Kits and Chipboard, plus I have snuck in some October Afternoon and Basic Grey, and my Scenic Route (RIP)... my SU stamp sets and refills sit on top of it....

I have loads of stamps that I need to sell as you can see I am running out of room, so will be adding them to my Copic Marker Stand Post over the next couple of days, there will be a mixture of Magnolia, Sugar Nellie, SU retired and US sets and various other companies that I cannot remember at the moment.... so keep checking back if you are interested....

Thanks for looking, take care xx

Tackle it Tuesday Colour Challenge....#1

I have decided to do a fortnightly Tackle It Tuesday Colour Challenge, I will post some Stampin' Up! colours that I have seen that have inspired me and you can make a card, 3d object, mini album, anything with these colours.... when the fortnight is up, I will pick my favourite card and send out a little prize.... nothing major but just a small thank you for entering my competition. It would be good if we could get a lot of entries, more inspiration for all of us, so if you enter please mention this Challenge on your blog please and possibly a link...

So without more ado here is this weeks colours.

I thought I would make it a bit easy to start with so only 3 colours to play with, my card is shown below.... I think the colours go lovely together..... please enter via Mr Linky at the end of this post.

The Patterned Paper used is Nouveau Chic by Stampin Up, and I used the 5 Petal Punch and the Boho Blossoms Punch for the flowers. The sentiment is computer generated.

I look forward to seeing all your entries.... and thanks for playing along.

Storage

I thought I would show you how I store some of my Stampin' Up! Stash just incase anyone is rearranging their Craft Room and needs a bit of inspiration.... my Stampin' Up! Ribbon fits nicely on this hanger, I just bent the hanger bit around so it sits on the edge of my wardrobe. The poles unhook at one end and you can just slide the ribbon on (unfortunately not every ribbon in the UK catalogue fits on, the new striped ribbons dont but the 3 colours from the mini do)....
I bought the hanger in Poundstretcher and it cost about £4.

Next is my A4 Cardstock Storage. I keep this in 2 RUB, each box fits in 2 colour families with room to spare (and I mean full packs of each cardstock too), plus one fits in the Very Vanilla and Whisper White and the other has the mixed packs of Sahara Sand, Basic Grey etc.... After use I put the lids back on and store one on top of the other.

And last but not least my 12 x 12 Cardstock and Patterned Paper. I bought this storage unit from ebay, it cost £30 (slightly more with next day delivery) and as the drawers are slightly bigger than 12 x 12 it all fits in rather nicely.... as you can see there are loads of drawers so you dont have to pack each one too tightly and my Stampin' Ink Caddy sits on top as though it were made for it.... Hope you found this useful.

Take care all xx

Terrific Tuesday....

Sorry I didn't get back over the weekend, I did some Christmas Shopping (online of course... lol), we have even booked a pantomime for Christmas Eve, so looking forward to it, we are seeing Beauty and The Beast, I haven't seen that one before, and not all the children have seen the Disney version, so I think I will be hunting down some books, I remember when I was young I had the Beauty and The Beast Ladybird book, it was one of my favourite stories... Terrific Tuesday? not really sure why, have just put out some more leaflets for my Card Classes, so looking forward to that next week, getting to meet new people who share in my love of card making... so more exciting things happening... also on Saturday I am off to a fellow crafter's Make And Take day and will meet loads of new people who I have seen online but never spoken to, so more exciting times..... so I am very excited today, so decided to name my post Terrific Tuesday.

So, here are a few cards I have made, I know the paper is Basic Grey, and so are the buttons, the sentiment is Stampin' Up! Sincere Salutations, and the thread wound around the panel is also from Stampin' Up!

More Basic Grey papers, Pumpkin Pie Cardstock from Stampin' Up!, the sentiment is from Verve Stamps.

Er.... ha ha, forgotten who made this paper, I think it is Scenic Route, the flowers are from my stash... the cardstock is Stampin' Up! Pink Passion, I always seem to use some Stampin' Up! on my cards somewhere, I guess its because with more than 48 colours of cardstock you are always likely to find something that matches your papers.

Have a great day all, hope to be back later with another card, a birth card as my sister gave birth to a little girl on Sunday, she already has 2 boys so a girl is a bit of a novelty... after a blood transfusion and a trip to theatre she is now fine and recovering at home..

Take care all xx