Sorry for the lack of posts, again!!

The days seem to be flying by, I can't believe it's Christmas a week on Saturday!  Although I've been busy making cards, I have, uselessly, managed to photograph none of them!!  I must have made well over 50 cards in the last month between orders for local people, to fill my 'box' in a nearby restaurant and to give to the local Xmas fair for selling, and I am pretty much carded out!  I can't wait for all the orders to be completed and Christmas holidays to be here, so that I can just play when I want to...not to mention getting my craft room back to some sort of order...again!!  We put the tree up on the weekend and there are now empty boxes that the decorations came out of, strewn around the house - I don't know where to put them all because it won't be long and I'll need them to put the decorations away again!  It seems a lot of hassle for a day, but it's worth it when you see the excited faces on Christmas morning!

Hope everyone is recovering from the snow, mind you, they're threating us with it again by the end of the week - it was beautifully pretty, but a total inconvenience.... we didn't have the snow too deep, just minus 13 degree temperatures!!  I went through a month's coal in a fortnight trying to keep the house warm!  I'm trying to fit in making by brother and sister-in-law's Christmas presents, I have warned them that it is what they asked for and not to expect too much, but it's much more personal...I promise to take a photograph and post it after Christmas Day (in case they happened to hop by!)  Last year, I made them a patchwork owl doorstop...

... he was rather lovely and I would've been quite happy to keep it myself if they hadn't like it!  Plus I did a pair of encaustic art landscapes, something else I would like to have a play with over the holidays.

I hope to post something for you all soon, once I have my Mojo back and can face what, at the moment is, the dreaded cardboard!  Until then, happy crafting!

Get crafty for Christmas!

Hi there everyone!  Another week has passed by and it gets closer to Christmas by the day!  With that in mind, I decided to make something that could be given as a gift and created this gift set...

 

The contents are a bottle of Shower Gel and face cloth, which I bought for a total of 35p!!  I created the desk caddy using this template, which is available to download here...I then decorated with brown card panels on the front and back, and embossed 2 strips of card using the woodgrain folder from Craft Concepts, inked with Rusty Hinge and Walnut Distress Inks and wrapped around the box and face cloth.  I cut a piece of light card to cover the label of the shower gel, embossed and inked, then attached using glue - I decorated with the anchor and skull medallion, from the pirate range on the Boys2Men disc.  After wrapping the whole thing with cellophane, it looked more than 35p worth of product - what do you think?

It would be ideal if you know someone who likes different brands of products, so you could coordinate them into a gift set.

 I've made 2 templates, one for this smaller desk caddy/gift box and one for a larger version...you could always add dividers and use them as desk caddies, or whatever you like, I just thought it was a good way to make your money go further, by making it look like a gift set rather than separate products.

(NOTE: set the page scaling to 'None' in Adobe Reader before sending to print)

Next, I saw a fantastic halloween door hanger over at Lily's Art Creations and was inspired, but wanted to incorporate one of the Boys2Men images and came up with this...

To get the robot so big, I opened the robot topper sheet, then using my snapshot tool, highlighted all the pieces labelled 'A' then clciked print - I made sure my paper size was set to A4, that the Auto rotate and centre box was checked and that the page scaling was set to 'Fit to Printable area', this gives you the robot and all the decoupage layers scaled to fit the page.  I made the sign using a piece of card embossed with woodgrain and inked with Walnut, then cut out the name using a Sissix alphabet die set and the word room was silver peel off letters.  I attached to the robot by puching holes in the last decoupage layer of the robot's feet and along the top of the sign, then connected using jump rings.

I think it would make a nice personalised gift if put in a box and decorated with the robot image - might do that later!

With Christmas getting ever more expensive and purse strings getting tighter, I think we should be making more gifts for people, to try and make it more personal - my brother and sister-in-law made our presents last year, and they were fantastic, they made homemade jam, sloe gin and cookies and I got a handmade apron, which was made from bright orange flame material and orange netting trim, it was amazing!

A love affair with Distress Inks!

It's official, I'm hooked!!  I can't even look at a piece of card at the moment, without getting my Distress Inks out and having a play!  I bought a couple of embossing folders up at Crafts4U and they were just crying out to be inked and used in conjunction with some of the Boys2Men images...

The first I made using a Cuttlebug folder called Distress Stripes and the pirate treasure map decoupage - I inked the background with Rusty Hinge and Walnut...

Next, I made a golf card using the golf decoupage and the Cuttlebug Argyle folder inked with Peeled Paint and Weathered Wood...

 The third card was using one of the robot toppers and the large Cuttlebug folder Clockworks, which I inked using Weathered Wood and Walnut, I cut the aperture in the panel before embossing and used the oval that was left to emboss the clock and cut around it...

 Then to finish off, this holly folder has been in my embossing folders box for years (literally) and I've just never known what to do with it, as it seemed a bit boring just in white...so out came the Distress Inks again, and just look at the result...

I used Peeled Paint over the embossed panel first, then went around the edges with Rusty Hinge, the lace I coloured with Rusty Hinge and all edges were distressed with either Peeled Paint or Rusty Hinge...I'm at the stage where, if it stays still, it's likely to get inked!!  Wonder what my next obsession will be?!  I thought that the finished result was more subtle than your traditional red and green and as always, the picture does not do it justice...maybe one day I'll get to be a half decent photgrapher (though I doubt it!?!)

Toolbox card

 Hi everyone!  This week has been spent trying to catch up with everything that had been put off before last Saturday's launch at Crafts4U2Do (my house had never seen so much neglect, well since the launch of Plush Pals anyway, and the children were complaining about drawers being empty!) - a big hello to everyone who came along and thank you all for your support!  Di was taking photos during the day, so I thought I'd post them for you all to see (even though I hate having my picture taken!)

One of the samples that went down a storm was a pop out toolbox card that I made using elements from the disc...

 

As promised, here is the toolbox template and  toolbox instructions available to download from 4shared.com

It's always difficult to create written instructions on how to make a card, so I hope that it is easy enough to comprehend - I've added photos to try and make it easier to figure out my instructions and if you could give feedback, I can alter it accordingly!

Cards, cards, cards!

Hi everyone!  I've been such a busy bee!  I've had a lot of card orders to do recently, so thought I would post you all a pic, to see what I've been up to.  These are just a few of the ones that I've made this last week (I never remember to take photos of them all!)

There's an 18th and 21st birthday, a 16th birthday and a Welsh wedding card.  I've also made a card for someone who's been accepted into Police training and one for a new job in a haulage company...

I've been having a play with my Boys2Men images and making some 'different' samples for Saturday (can't believe the launch is this weekend!)  My Distress Inks have been used at every opportunity and as you can see from the card above, I'm getting braver!  I've even made a pop up card, which took me hours to design, but is really effective!  I know I'm a tease, but I'll be posting lots of pics after Saturday, for you all to see and take inspiration!  Hope to see some of you for the launch on Saturday, at Crafts4u2Do, St Helens (the post code's WA10 6SH, if you need to put it in your Sat Nav!)  should be a fantastic day, with lots of ideas and inspiration, so come along if you can!

Ella card

Hi guys!  I'm back in sample making mode, getting ready for the launch of Boys2Men on Saturday 23rd October, not to mention the orders I've had to complete this week, so unfortunately, cards for posting are thin on the ground!  I have managed to create a card using the Ella freebie...

It turned out very girly and pink, but I couldn't help it!  I used the pink spotty backing paper from the Plush Pals disc, my new oval nesties (that I got at Leigh show -think I need to extend my collection a bit more yet!), some dusky pink ribbon and cream lace.  I inked around the edge of the backing paper and ovals using Old Paper distress inks, which are my new favourite product...I'm sure I'm not using them to their full potential yet, but you have to start somewhere!  I decoupaged the top of Ella, to give a bit of dimension (I chopped her legs off, basically!) then added a touch of Glamourdust.  I have to say, the picture doesn't show the colours to their best, but that's because of the gloriously blinding sunshine and clear blue sky outside, so I'm not complaining!  I may try making this again and use my walnut ink to give it more of an antique look, I haven't got the jist of dirtying things up yet, I keep chickening out and opting for the lighter inks!

Hope to be back soon with some more creations, until then, enjoy the late sunshine, if you've got it!

Everyone loves a freebie!

Now I've learnt how to add links to downloads, I thought I'd post a freebie...because we all love a freebie!

I've changed over to 4shared for my download links, as I'd been told that Docstoc was a bit of a nightmare, so if you tried to download the tree ornament templates and found it a hassle, they're now available through 4shared which you should find easier - just click the original link in Monday 4th October post to download.

So, here's my first freebie - this is Ella and you can download her as a coloured image or digital stamp, to colour using your pens, etc.  She's rather sweet and looks lovely sat on a length of ribbon or nestie shape, with her legs dangling over...I'll post a card idea when I've made one!

Enjoy!

Templates

A big HI! to everyone who came to the Papercraft @Leigh show yesterday!!  It was a great day, even though the weather outisde was atrocious!  It was lovely to meet everyone who either already had, or bought the Plush Pals disc and the feedback for all my samples was magnificent - I hope I gave you all inspiration to have a go and make your own!

To help you along with that, as promised, here are the templates for the diamond tree ornament and elongated pyramid ornmanent that I had samples of at the show...(click on the text link..I hope they work!)

Print the template onto the back of the cardstock of your choice, score the dashed lines using a small embossing tool and ruler, then cut around the solid, outside lines.  Assemble, then use the matt templates to draw around on the reverse of the card or paper of your choice and decorate your ornament...et voila!  (Make sure you thread your hanging loop before fully assembling your ornament, it's a nightmare to try and stick one in afterwards - heed the voice of experience!!)

I hope to be posting more templates and tutorials in the future, so keep looking...until then, Happy Crafting!

Samples, samples, samples!

Well, it's almost a week since my last post and I have been a busy little bee making samples for the Papercraft @ Leigh Show this Sunday, 3rd October.  I'll be there with Crafts4U2Do, so come along and say hello and see some of the wonderful creations I've been making using the Plush Pals Disc, if you can.  There'll be lots of crafty products to buy to use in conjunction with your disc and if you haven't got one yet (why not?!), you'll be able to buy on the day!  For those of you that can't make it, here's an easel card using the bear character....

Born again papercrafter!

What a joy this week has been! With design work for the second disc completed, I have at last been able to have a few days of creating...as you can tell by the posts! Plush Pals was launched months ago and yet it's only now that I have been able to have a play, and I'm lovin' it! I don't normally 'do' Halloween, although I appreciate that it's a big holiday over in the US and it's starting to gain momentum over here, but when I found my halloween dies that I bought in the Sizzix sale a couple of years ago, I had to have a go! My lion made an appearance again - I'm starting to show favouritism (bad mother!) but I thought that he would wear the witches hat with style! The pumpkins and bats were both Sizzix dies and I'd borrowed Mam's oval nesties (I'm going to have to invest in some more, I just don't know which ones to choose!). I love the colours of Autumn and Halloween, so my orange glitter card saw the light of day for the first time and the background was the falling leaves paper from the Plush Pals disc. Some fantastic orange spotty ribbon finished it off and a card wouldn't be complete without a bit of Glamourdust! Maybe Halloween will have to feature in my card making every year, if only for the pleasure!

Boys2Men

At last, it's all completed and I can finally announce the launch of my second disc, Boys2Men! My sister, Sarah, will have a limited number of discs and will be taking pre-orders at the Athlone show over in Ireland this weekend and the UK launch will be at Crafts4U2Do, St Helens, on Saturday 23rd October.

The disc has been designed for the boys and men in our lives with a range of images to suit. There are predesigned cards, for when you need a card in a hurry, decoupage, toppers, sentiments, backing papers, inserts and digistamps for you to colour and give your own take on things. Jpeg and png files allow you to import into your graphics program and be creative, plus sample photos for a touch of inspiration.

Here's just a taster of the disc...

More Plush Pals for Christmas...

As promised, here's some more ideas for using the Plush Pals discs for Christmas. The first two are just a couple of the predesigned cards that I tweaked a little - the elephant one I copied over into Publisher and added the words 'at Christmas', then attached some snowflakes, holly, pearls and glitter. The lamb one I cut the front of the card from the predesigned sheet, cut a slit along the bottom edge and inserted a piece of card to add the Merry Christmas peel off to, then mounted onto a DL tent fold card. Snowflakes, holly and glitter were added and printed inserts put in both.


The next card I made was using the cat predesigned card -


I cut the front from the predesigned sheet, attached the purple spotted ribbon over the digital ribbon strip, mounted it onto a piece of white paper which I had punched around the page, using my Martha Stewart punches, then attached to an 8" square card, using foam tape.

I cut out the decoupage and removed the ribbon ends from the tag layer, punched a hole in the tag and added some more spotted ribbon. I printed a lilac rectangle with the wording 'Have a purr-fect Christmas' and added it over the original tag words, then finished with spotty buttons, glitter and some of the border waste (if you can call it that?!) punched snowflakes.

Next, (I know, I was on a roll!) I decided to make a card using the lion image. I printed off the lion topper sheet and made one of the lion's up, glittering his mane with Gold Glamourdust, then created a template of a Santa hat using a scrap of card. I cut the hat from red and white card and attached to the lion's head, then used Polar White flowersoft for the trim. I used my nesties to make the matts and created an easel card with the natural plaid backing paper and red spotted ribbon. Some punched holly and coloured pearls finished it off...


And yes, there's more! I then finished off with a lion door hanger, made up in Publisher. I inserted the blank green door hanger from the jpeg and png folder, then the brown cheri alphabet letters to spell the word 'Santa'. I added a text box with the words 'Please stop here' and then inserted the lion png (again from the jpeg and png folder). I found a Santa hat in Publisher's clipart and put it on the lion's head, then copied and pasted 2 copies for my decoupage layers and 2 extra 'a's. A bit of glitter, some Polar White flowersoft, a spotted bow and some punched holly and I was done! And here's the finished product....

Hope this gives you some inspiration to have a go! Happy crafting!

Plush Pals for Christmas...

Well, this week I've been busy putting the final touches to the new disc, Boys2Men and have somehow found the time between cardmaking for our workshop and making cards for orders, to have a play with the Plush Pals disc. Dianne gave me the challenge to make some Christmas cards using the disc and this is the first one. The card shape I saw whilst watching C&C (I can't take credit for it!). I used the random dots Cuttlebug folder on the background and a snowflake border embossing folder to make the strips at either side. I gave the elephant a scarf using some scraps of white card, then cut some thin strips of acetate (I used printable acetate as it's not as thick as project acetate) and attached them behind his trunk. I punched some snowflakes using my Martha Stewart punches and glued them along the strips, then added a sentiment, pearls and some Glamour dust (of course!).

I'll post some more ideas, when I come up with them!

My life has been taken over by design work!

Well, hello there!! I'm back! After 2 blissful weeks in one of the most fantastic countries in the world (Canada), it's back to earth with a crashing great 'bump'! Or should I say back to my computer chair! If things carry on the way they are going, I'm going to need to get it surgically removed!!

Being fed up of tied to my computer, I decided to get out the paper and make a mess! (You should see my craft table now!?! Or maybe not!) My ever so crafty sister, over at boxercreations has been making some wonderfully different creations using the Plush Pals disc - her July 30 post was using the flower embellishment sheet and I was inspired! A bit of printing, cutting, inking and a lot of shuffling later, and this is what I came up with...



I love the way that pinching the petals changes the shape completely and a quick tip about the backing paper:

I started by printing the brown plaid paper, then turned my paper 180 degrees (not flipping it over, but rotating it) then over printed the blue plaid - because most printers have a slightly smaller top printer margin to the bottom one, the patterns are offset and you end up with a double coloured plaid, neat! The text I used is Windsong, which I have recently discovered - it doesn't look anything in thw windows sample text box, but if you use a large font size, it's rather nice.

I hope to be making and posting a bit more from now on, as the design work for the next disc is almost completed (I'll post a sneak peek soon) until then, happy crafting!

Hi there!

Well, July has passed with a blur!! As you can see from the pics, I have been busy with other things for the last month! My friend Becky got married on Saturday, and I have been busy doing the flowers for her wedding day. Not only did I have the church flowers, but I made the bride's bouquet and six bridesmaid's too!
I am trying my best to get the design work done for the second disc, as we're off to Canada for our first family holiday abroad! I'm hoping to have the next one done for the Autumn, it's full of designs for the boys and men in our lives - something everyone seems to be wanting! I'm really pleased with the images so far and hope that it's as much of a success as the Plush Pals disc!

I have had chance to do a bit of papercrafting, though mainly card orders for people (not to mention the three I had to make for Becky's big day) I got some fantastic inspiration over at Yvonne's blogspot, she uses her nesties amazingly and I love her white on white combinations, I made this card on the same lines, though don't quite know what to put in the centre yet?!

Sorry for the lack of posts!

Hi guys! Just thought I'd better post and let you all know that I haven't left the country! Unfortunately, I have been tied to my computer chair designing for the next disc and so haven't had much chance to play around with paper...boo hoo! I'll do my best to post something in the next couple of days, until then...Happy crafting!

Birthday Boy times two!

What a week! Sorry I've not posted for a while, this week has been hectic! Sunday saw DH manage to slice his finger with an angle grinder, fitted with a sanding disc, whilst grinding the rust from the wheel arches of my Renault! A trip to A&E followed, though they only patched him up with steri-strips in the end. Monday was then spent learning how to do car bodywork! It's amazing what you can turn your hand to when needed, and I have to admit, I was quite surprised with the result!!

I've also been arranging flowers for a friend's wedding in August, another of my many hobbies! On Friday I had a lovely day out in Llandudno with Mum, we had a browse round the shops and spent a bit of cash in the craft shop (of course!). One of my purchases was a Dovecraft 6x6 Paper Pack, called Masculine, so I decided to make a couple of creations using them and one of the images I found at Arthur's Clipart which I coloured using old faithful - Photoshop! I love the way they've turned out, though once again, you'll probably have to excuse the quality of the photos, as I was taking them at 9pm when the light was starting to go...

Raise the Bar Challenge

I seem to be on a roll! I found these stunning images at Arthur's Free Clipart and have been tied to my craft table ever since!! I'd seen the Raise the Bar Challenge this week, which is asking for a specific colour theme of yellow, grey and white - not really colours i would normlly use, but when I found this image, I thought it would be just perfect, so decided to enter!

The only downfall to spending a Sunday crafting is that none of my housework got done, and I am now playing catch up with the washing, have a huge basket of ironing and need to clean the bathroom, kitchen and living room before I even look at a piece of card! So my speed of production will probably have to slow! Happy crafting!

Patterned papers

Hi, back again! I have been a busy bee! As promised, I thought I'd post what I've been up to with my patterned papers...

The vintage car is coloured using my chalks and once again, my adhesive pearls have made an appearance, although this time I coloured them with my acetate markers to match. I'm entering it into the ABC Challenge, which is up to U for Unused Stash, which is my patterned papers, that I've been trying to use since I bought them in Canada on my honeymoon 4 years ago!! Practical Scrappers want patterned papers, so it fits the bill there too!

The next card I made is a complete contrast - I absolutely adore this image and wanted the card to be fun and summery, but thought that the look on her face expressed the message to a tee!

Monochromatic

Just a quick Hi to all the girls who went along to Dianne's Plush Pals Workshop on Saturday, at Crafts4U2Do - hope you had a wonderful day and liked the cards you went away with (though I'm sure you did!) I just wish I lived a bit nearer and I could have come along too!!

So, what's new today? I've been quite productive in my craft room this weekend, and decided to make a card for the Mami Doodles Challenge this week, which is a monochromatic card. I'm really quite pleased with the way this one has turned out, it's a real 'me' card - pink and girly! I love the colour pink, although don't have any pink rooms in my house, no pink car, and not very many pink clothes, but if you asked what my favourite colour was, I think it would have to be pink?!!


The wedding cake is yet another way to use up all those strips of white card left over from cutting A4 sheets, to make square cards, and the strings of pearls between each layer have been hanging around my ribbon bits tin for possibly years! It's amazing what you find when you're just 'playing'. I seem to be going through a phase of using up all the bits and bobs that have been forgotten about and gathering dust on the numerous shelves of stuff, that I'm sure we all hoard! My next venture is to find some co-ordinating papers in my patterned paper drawer and use them, though I have to admit that it's something I'm still learning at yet - I can spend hours shuffling bits of patterned paper around a card blank and still end up with a blank card staring back at me at the end of it!! I'll post back and let you know how I get on!?!

Wall hanger

I have to confess that I pinched this idea after being on my sister's blog, boxercreations. She'd made a wall hanger for the Mami Doodles DT Challenge and so I decided to create my own, using the Plush Pals DVD and a picture of my youngest son - OMG was he cute!! (Not that I'm biased, of course!)

After making it, I discovered that the Paperplay Challenge this week wants "something brown and..." , so it was rather apt. And the challenge over at My Time to Craft is "Tooo cute", which I think it is...

As usual, I had to use polka dot ribbon and my favourite embellishment at the moment is the adhesive pearls, which you will probably be seeing a lot more of! I glittered around the letters on the word 'Joshua' and the stripes on the cat, not to mention my face, table and carpet! Nobody can go near my craft room without coming out sparkling!!

I keep trying to get time to play a bit more, but am spending most of my time designing - it's nice to get out the paper and card and make a mess sometimes..I'm good at that!!

TTFN and happy crafting!

Easel card

I've got the challenge bug!! Whilst browsing this morning, I noticed that Daring Cardmakers and Stamp, Scrap & Doodle both want easel cards for their challenges, so set to work! I came across this lovely cat picture which is a freebie over on Mo Mannings site and decided to use my nesties (and Mum's!) to make a shaped easel card. Green and orange doesn't seem like an obvious colour combination, but it just seemed right once I coloured the cat picture - which is coloured using my chalks! The leaves are from the Sissix flowers, branches & leaves dies and the flowers are an Xcut flower punch. Of course, I had to add a touch of polka dot ribbon in orange. (If you're one of our girls, don't look too closely as we may be making it!)

Challenges I'm entering -
Daring Cardmakers - Easel Does It!
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle challenges - Easel

Nursery set

Hi there folks, no I haven't dropped off the face of the earth!!
Somebody stole this last week from me!

I've been busy with card orders and doing design work for the next disc, so I haven't been able to post anything, as it's all top secret!

After tidying my craft area (though you'd never think it now!!) I came across a pack of t-shirt transfer paper and just had to have a play! I'd been wanting to make a textile element using the Plush Pals DVD and so dusted off the sewing machine (sewing is not my forte, but I like to have a go) and came up with this lamb cushion, see below...

I had also made a mobile at the end of last week, and so completed the set by making up the lilac, elephant door hanger.
I'm hoping to enter them into a couple of challenge blogs - if I can figure out how to do it, as I am a challenge blog virgin!

I'm entering the nursery set in the Allsorts Challenge which wants 'animals', so I have a lamb, elephant, lion and bear, just to be greedy! And digidoodles say that anything goes over at their challenge - hope the picture does it justice! That's something I need to learn how to do next - set my picture up so that they look a bit more professional...I keep trying , but as you can see, it's not really working yet!?! Also entered it into the PaperPlay Challenge which is looking for pretty pastels.

I was also asked to do a 100th birthday card - you don't get asked for many of them! It's for a gentleman who likes fly fishing and walking, so I made a square concertina card and cut a circle aperture in the front, using my nesties. I really like the fish picture which I came across somewhere on my travels and it looks even better with the Glossy Accents on it, I then tied my own fly and attached the line to a fishing rod on the inside panel. I'm really pleased with it and I'm sure the recipient will be too! Take a look and see what you think...

Spring is here!

To celebrate the fantastic weather we are having, I decided to have a play with some fresh colours - I don't normally do yellow, but gave myself a challenge. The tulips nestie has been sat in my box now for a couple of months (scandalous, I know!) though I never knew what to do with it and ended up with a drawer full of them , so it was time to persevere, and this was the result.

I'm quite pleased with it, though I did sit for almost an hour trying different things on the topper...who says card making is easy?! In the end, I chose another product which has been sat on a shelf since my big sister bought them for me - the Wild Asparagus stamp set from My Mind's Eye. I'm not really a stamper, though I would like to use them more, I just seem to forget about them lurking underneath everything else, not to mention the fact that you need a little bit more than a 2 inch square to work on! (yes, the space on my table is shrinking!) I'm going to have to sacrifice a couple of hours of crafting, to get this room to some sort of order - things are now 5 deep and starting to slide off the back of my craft table at an alarming rate!

My favourite product at the moment is cut and dry foam, to use for inking the edges of your card and embossing , and anywhere else I can think of...which tends to include myself! Plus with the state of my table, I think everything will have a yellow glow when I come to tidy up! Oh well, you know what they say - housework never killed anyone, but why take the risk?! On that note, I'd better go and put my washing out and make the most of this fabulous weather. Happy crafting!