Happy New Year!

Happy New Year ladies! I'm back home after spending Christmas with my family in the UK and I couldn't wait to get crafting once again. I got loads of new craft stuff for christmas and I couldn't resist buying a few extra bits and bobs myself....I'm sure you all know how it is!!! I ended up with so much I couldn't bring everything back due to the pescy weight limits on our flight....but the rest of it will be arriving at the end of March with my parents!! Anyway onto the challenge....One of my failings at Christmas was that I didn't make enough tags.... I thought I didn't have enough, but seriously I should have made about five times as many!!! I have a few male birthdays coming up so I'll not be caught out again!! The challenge on Tag You're It Week 39 is to use new stash and I also followed the sketch from Secret Crafter Challenge 13. I used blue, navy and orange card, the penny black stamp is called contented and it is coloured with distress inks, the paper was received in some blog candy from Sally, I used the paisley embossing folder to emboss the navy card and I used a star shaped die to make the silver stars and finally the sentiment was done on my computer using the font segoe script. For the "new stash" element my cuttlebug was a much anticipated christmas prezzie (I love it), the stamp was one of many gorgeous ones I received and I treated myself to some distress inks and a water brush (I love them too).

CCT Challenge 41 & Best Wishes to All

Afternoon Ladies, this will be my last post of the year as we are heading back to England tomorrow for the Christmas holidays, so I hope everyone has a great christmas and new year. My final card is for a friend of mine that has just moved into a new house and Cute Card Thursday Challenge 41 is an open theme so that fits nicely! I have used yellow and pink card, the WOJ image is coloured with water colour pencils, the papers are from the K & Co sparkly sweet range and I finished off with two flowers and four small jewels.

Sketch Saturday Challenge 29

This is the final tag I have made for my sister. I have followed the sketch from Sketch Saturday Challenge 29 and I have used red and green card, the paper was a free download from printable heaven, the penny black image is water coloured with my whispers pens, the snowflake is punched from gold mirrored card, I made the calendar on excel and I finished off with three small jewels. I distressed the edges of each element with my scissors and inked them with gold. This is the first time I have tried this distressing technique and I somehow managed to take gouges out of the sponge on my ink pad when inking!!! Do you ink first then distress??? Any advice on this would be appreciated!

Secret Crafter Challenge 11

This is another tag for my sister, she saw the black and white one I did for the penny black challenge a few weeks ago and wanted a couple with the same colour scheme, so this is what I came up with! I followed the sketch from Secret Crafter Challenge 11 and I used pearly white, black and metallic silver card, black and white paper from my stash, the penny black image is water coloured using my whispers pens, the sentiment was done on my computer using the font tempus sans itc and I finished off with a punched snowflake and three small heart shaped jewels.

CCT Challenge 40 & Friday Sketchers Ch32

My sister asked me to make some tags for her and this is one of them that I came up with. I used the sketch from Friday Sketchers Challenge 32 and this is also for Cute Card Thursday Challenge 40 that has a theme this week of using punches. I used red and green card, the paper is a free download from do crafts, the penny black image is coloured with water colour pencils, the snowflake is punched from gold mirrored card and I did the sentiment on my computer using the font tempus sans itc. I also used my gold ink pad to ink the edges of all the elements, but it doesn't show up too well in the picture.

Whiff of Joy Challenge 12

The Whiff of Joy Challenge 12 is to make a contemporary christmas card. I have used pearly white, pearly blue and metallic silver card, papers from the dovecraft contemporary christmas range, the gorgeous WOJ image is Willow with Lantern and I coloured it using watercoloured pencils. I have added a small blue jewel to the centre of the snowflake and finished off with three small jewels down the side. Oh and I almost forgot.... the sentiment was done on my computer using the font tempus sans itc.

I also decorated the inside to add a nice final touch. This card is for a friend who asked me to make one for him to give to his wife, so I hope its ok! I always faff around loads when I'm asked to make a card for someone specific, but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I must say a big thank you to Natalie and Lynsey for their blog candy winnings, both of which I used for this card.

Cupcake Challenge 17

Cupcake Challenge 17 is a fabulous sketch by Lauren. I have used white, blue, metallic silver and metallic blue card, papers from the dovecraft winter wonderland range and I received the santa image in some candy from Natalie. I punched some snowflakes from the silver and blue metallic card and I finished off with three small jewels. I only have two more christmas cards to do thank God, but I need to make a few tags.... better get my skates on!

Birthday Card for Bex

Another break from christmas crafting today. It a friend's birthday in between christmas and new year so I've made this card in plenty of time. It is also for quite a few challenges as time is getting the better of me and we are off to England at the end of next week...Yippee! I have followed sketch 28 from Sketch Saturday and the theme for both Kaboodle Challenge 15 and Secret Crafter Challenge 10 is embossing so I have used a cuttlebug embossed strip for the border in the middle of the card. The heart on her bracelet and the one in the top left corner of the card fit the theme for Cute Card Thursday Challenge 39 and my scalloped edge on the middle border fits the theme of scallops for Dutch Dare Challenge 26....Pheww!

I have used white, blue and silver metallic card, the papers are from K & Co Sparkly Sweet, I coloured the Penny Black image with my whispers pens and I have finished off with two small flowers and two little jewels in the centre. I didn't add a sentiment as I thought it would crowd the card a little and the papers are just too pretty to cover up. The papers and the flowers are from a recent candy win that were sent to me by Lynsey, she has a fantastic blog so check it out if you have time.

SFOS Ch 28 & Sketch Saturday Ch 27

Afternoon ladies, challenge 28 on a Spoon Full of Sugar was to make a thank you card, which was perfect timing as I needed to make one! I also followed the fabulous sketch from this week's Sketch Saturday challenge. I used pink and cream card and the papers are from the Laura Ashley range that I received in some candy winnings a while ago from Sally. I coloured the Sarah Kay image with watercolour pencils and I did the sentiment on my computer using the font pristina (yes! I've tried a new one!!!). Finally I finished of with three flat back pearls. I decorated the inside with cream card and the papers I used for the front.

Tag You're It Week 35

The theme for Tag You're It Week 35 is snow. I am rapidly running out of stamped images that are small enough to fit on a tag, so I just went down the very simple designer paper route this week. I have used white and blue card, the paper is from the dovecraft contemporary christmas range, the punched snowflakes and the snow on the paper are decorated with icicle stickles, the sentiment was done on my computer using the font tempus sans itc and I have finished off with some pale blue ribbon.

Whiff of Joy Advent Calendar

The very generous Katharina is giving away a WOJ stamp each day on the run up to christmas. Each day a new window will open with a surprise gift for one lucky visitor, the new window will be posted at 00.01 GMT everyday and the winner of the previous days gift will be posted at the same time. Take a look at Katharina's blog to be in with a chance to win. x

December 2008 Planner/Calendar

As I work for myself, from home, some days there is more crafting going on that actual work!! so I have decided to start a little project where each month I will make a planner/calendar for the following month that I can write notes on and use as a little prompt!!! The WOJ Challenge 10 is to make anything but a card, Cute Card Thursday Challenge 38 is to use the colour lilac and finally I have based the planner on Dawny's Sketch 3 on Papertake Weekly Challenge. I have used purple and lilac card, silver mirrored card, the paper is from the dovecraft amethyst range, the WOJ image is coloured with water colour pencils, the two small purple squares and the lilac divider have been embossed using a cuttlebug (not sure which folders as they belong to my BFs Mum), the month label was done on my computer using the font tampus sans itc and I finished off with three jewel hearts and some die cut flowers. I did the planner section on excel - it has a bit of a strange layout, but it was the only way I could get it all to fit on an A4 sheet of card!!

Cupcake Challenge 15

Challenge 15 over on the Cupcake challenge blog was sweets and treats. All you had to do was incorporate sweets somewhere on your creation. We are going back to England this year for Christmas, but I want to put our tree up over here so its going up next week to make it worth while - a bit early for me, I usually don't get around to putting it up until the week before Christmas!! Anyway, what is a tree without some form of chocolate decorating it, so having found some chocolate euros (coins and notes!!!) in the supermarket, I decide to make a simple little bag to hang on the tree. I found a tutorial here for a double pocket bag that is really easy to make. I didn't use a 12 x 12 piece of paper as per the tutorial, I used an 8 x 8 piece and just adjusted the measurements accordingly. I used paper that was a free download from printable heaven, gold christmas ribbon, red and cream card and the sentiment was done on my computer using the font segoe script. I inked the sentiment with some gold ink to give it a more vintage feel and decorated the edge with some gold stickles.

Kaboodle Ch 13 & Sketch Saturday Ch 26

Nope not another tag!! The challenge this week on Kaboodle was not to use square or rectangular shaped cards so I've made a tri fold tag shaped one instead. I've been wanting to try one of these for a while and this was the perfect opportunity. I've also used the sketch from Sketch Saturday for the front section of the card.

I have used cream, red and green card, papers from the dovecraft contemporary christmas range, the snowflakes are punched from red, green and gold mirrored card and I used a small red jewel in the centre of the middle panel.

The penny black image is coloued with whispers, the sentiment on the front panel was done on my computer using the font segoe script, the tassels are held on by a black brad and I have put a gold one on either side to decorate. The centre panel has been edged and sponged with gold ink but it has been left black so i can write on it!

To finish the whole thing off I made a simple, matching envelope for it. x

Proximity Award

Evening ladies. I have received this award from the lovely Natalie, thanks chick...this is my very first one!

This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY- nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement . Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to 8 bloggers who may then pass it on. I'm going to pass it to the very talented:
Chris (Sketching Stamper)
Dawn (Crafty ramblings)
Sally (Crafty Sally)
Sue (Susie Sunshine)
Lauren (Lauren's Cards etc)
Becky (Becky's Happy Crafting Place)
Links to all their blogs are in the side bar on the right. x