Christmas is coming!

Well, I finally finished making all my Christmas cards and got them in the post! What a marathon that was but I did enjoy it all the same. Lets just hope that the recipients like their cards.

If you've never checked out the Time for Crafting website (http://www.timeforcrafting.co.uk/) then I suggest you give it a look. Sara has created a fantastic website for crafty people and we also have an online magazine which you have to subscribe to but it is very reasonable and you get some great templates and inspiration.

This is a card I made for my recently married cousin and her husband for their first christmas together. I used the template from TFC and cut it on my Craftrobo (Sara provides both craft robo and ordinary pdf templates). It is a beautiful concertina card and in real life is very sparkly but it is difficult to see on the photo. I put it through my cuttlebug to get the snowflake embossing and then swiped it all over with versamark and then sprinkled holographic embossing powder over it and heated to get the twinkly, snowy effect which came out quite well, you may be able to see it a bit better on the second photo. I added a bit of interest using my gorgeous Lumiere paints and then some blue glitter glue on the top edges of the letters.




I have no idea when I shall get to post again but I am aiming to start putting something on here at least once a week when we get into 2009 - time permitting, lol :) In the meantime, I wish you and yours

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

What we've been doing in the garden this weekend

This weekend we have been hard at work in the garden re-vamping the pond area which had got very overgrown and untidy. I have posted several pics of the work as it progressed and it's amazing to think we did all of this in one day - I would add that besides me and hubby, we had help from my parents and a man with a digger! When it's completely finished there will be a lovely herbacious border, a gravel garden and two new seating areas. Big thanks to my mum who designed the plans for the work and bought me some lovely plants to start off with :)

There are of course loads more pics but I didn't was to bore you with them all, lol.

I've been busy again!

First here are a couple of cards I made recently, the first was for my Uncle's birthday and is on cream card and DL sized. I used a lovely Judikins four-sided stamp called Kew Gardens which came from a friend on the Time for Crafting Forum. I stamped the images with Timber Brown Staz-on and then watercoloured the images. I used brown ribbon behind them and a small green ribbon bow in the corner. The sentiment is a rub-on.


This card wasn't made for anyone in particular, I was just experimenting with colour tinting textured card and layering rubber stamp images. I quite like the effect and it could be used for any number of occasions so this is one for my card storage box!

Because I now have so many ATC's I decided to make a storage box for them from an old cereal packet cut down and covered with pretty papers. All I had to do was make a lid for it!

Finally I just couldn't resist having another play with the stampbord and lumiere paints, this is a tiny piece just 1" square but I thought it would make a lovely hanging charm on a card or ATC.

More Stampbord

I have done another couple of pieces of stampbord. For the orangy coloured one I used shades of yellow and orange inkpads, stamped a flower design on it with black versafine ink and then heat embossed the top with clear embossing powder. On the blue one I used a combination of blue inks and blue lumiere paint which I stamped with a thistle design in black versafine again but this time I glazed it with crystal lacquer. I think I will probably either use these as toppers on cards or for atc's.

Stampbord

Woohooooooooooooooooo!

I love stampbord, it's so great! Just got a pack of assorted shapes and had my first play and its great - I stamped a butterfly image onto 4 small 1" square pieces and then clear embossed them, now i have 4 pieces each with a piece of the butterfly on, a bit like a very simple puzzle really. I plan to use them on an atc (or maybe another altered puzzle piece) and will post it up on here when I have finished it.

Even more stuff

Well, I have been busy crafting again and made even more stuff :) I did another altered puzzle piece in red, black and gold which I really like, you can see the sparkly effect better in real life!


I've also make a couple of cards using some lovely new rubber stamps I bought recently. The first one is a Serendipity stamp from Joanna Sheens website and the second card uses a Stampin Up one from the Summer by the Sea collection which came from the Time for Crafting website. I coloured them both in with watercolour pencils and a waterbrush.

Some more stuff at last !

Well, I'm sure you will be pleased to know that I have not dropped off the face of the earth, just had so many things to fit in recently (including a bad back) that I have got behind with my crafting. Here are a few things I have made recently. I really love doing the puzzle pieces, they are such fun and I have really enjoyed experimenting with different techniques too. These pieces are quite large, about 4" x 4" so plenty of room, I have got some much smaller ones to do which will be a lot more challenging I think. I've got an altered book in the pipeline too but that is a long term project which I have only just begun!

The Cute Cat atc was made for the swap on the Time for Crafting forum which I host but was discarded because I made some other ones which I liked better. I still like this one though, it's such a cute kitten image.

These are the three atc's I used for the swap. I was really pleased with them and particularly like the vellum pockets. The vellum I used is covered in loads of sparkly dots but unfortunatly they dont show up in the photo. The stamp used is one from Paper Artsy which I think goes really well on atc's as it is just the right size.

Something at last !!!

At last I have felt like crafting again :)

Inspiration came to me when I found this old jigsaw of my son's, that and seeing other peoples clever ideas with jigsaw pieces too. As I needed to do an oriental piece for a challenge on the TFC forum I decided to have a go. Quite pleased with the results too :) I have made it so it will hang on a wall as I thought it would look good hanging up in my craftroom :)

Still not made anthing!!!

Well, still not made anything but thats because I seem to have lost my inspiration and everything I have tried has ended up in the bin LOL. Crafters block I suppose you could call it! On a positive note I have now started my OU course which I am loving :) it's really interesting and I got such a sense of achievement when I made my first webpage! Nine more weeks of it to go so who knows what I shall be able to produce by the end of it!

I did some some lovely pictures of the blossom in the garden as it looked so pretty in the morning sunshine the other day.

What .... no crafting!!!

I haven't made anything crafty for ages, mainly for two reasons, I've been doing my DH's paperwok and end of year books which is soooooo boring and I have also been playing this game which will remain nameless but at least one person knows what it is (don't you Celine?) LOL. This weekend I'm hoping to make a whole load of stuff and catch up with atc's and gothic arches which I haven't done for at least a week. I've also got this idea for something which I want to try but I'm not saying anything in case it goes completely wrong!!!

Linda (a lovely lady in New Zealand) posted me some "inchies" so I am going to have a play with them too so hopefully on Monday morning I will have something to show for my weekends work :)

Anyway, first things first! Tidy the craftroom so I can actually start making something LOL