Craft Life

By The Cute And Girly - February

2012-02-01T07:00:00.052Z

It looks like it's going to be a cold start to February here after we escaped with a very mild winter, but what ever the weather February is always the month for love! Over at By The Cute And Girly our new theme for the month has been set by Uta and is 'Love is in the air!' Our digi sponsor this month is Bugaboo Stamps and I've used the Deacon Swing image.

I've used Copics for colouring and gone for a pink and cool grey theme.

All of the papers and tabs are a combination of various MME paper sets. The flowers have been made by fringing and quilling off-cuts from the papers I used. Made very quickly with the help of this marvellous instrument of torture.

I found it in my mum's kitchen drawer, she'd bought them to cut up herbs with, but she won't being seeing them again, mwahaha!

I've just treated myself to this lovely Doodlebug Valentine twine so I couldn't resist using it and just beneath there is a glimpse of some Smirk ribbon too.

As usual, we have lovely sponsors offering prizes for 3 lucky winners chosen at random from this month's 'Love is in the air!' entries.

Simon Says Stamp

Joanna Sheen

Bugaboo Stamps

Full prize details are on the challenge blog where you can also find all of the other design team projects for inspiration and share your entries with us.

** Kate **

Wishi Washi

2012-01-31T13:50:00.001Z

The Daring Cardmakers are having a washi tape theme this week and, as I have more washi tape than one person can use in a lifetime, I thought I would play along.

I've been jump starting my creativity again, sadly the January Jump Start is at an end, but there have been some marvellous ideas and some introductions to new creative souls to stalk. So my tag started out as playing with acrylic paint and then seeing where it would take me. I've added to Claudine Hellmuth gesso to soften the colours and then blown Lettuce Adirondack Color Wash over the top. The little lace doily is a Pink Paislee stamp, I think these are my most used stamp set from 2011, looking forward to what Pink Paislee will be launching for 2012, like these:

Of course there has to be some washi tape on there too. I've used some greens from PaperMash, there's lots of new colours in stock now if your collection doesn't have enough!

The little word 'home' is from a MLS letter set and I've covered it with spotty tape from Cath Kidston that I got for Christmas, I think it came from here. The little key and heart stickers are Amy Tangerine, I'm almost through my first set of those. I finished the whole thing off with a dodgy bit of sewing with a battery operated machine that I am trying out. It works well on fabric, not so well on card, haven't tried thinner layers of paper yet.

** Kate **

More Bubbles

2012-01-30T11:27:00.000Z

Yesterday I blogged my bubbly creations for Sunday Stamper #190 and I said I would be back today with a very simple step-by-step guide for making these type of bubbles...........

..........and here I am!

It's quite simple and made even easier by the use of one of these little tools.

You could draw around coins, punched shapes or die-cuts, but using a circles ruler is the quickest. With a pencil draw circles all over the area you want to decorate using different sized circles with some overlapping.

Select a pen and on scrap paper check that it doesn't smudge or fade when rubbed with an eraser. I've used a Whisper pen for this example. Then on your project start adding dots all around the pencil outlines. You don't need to be accurate or follow the lines exactly. Make the dots more frequent and closer together when near the lines and less as you move further away.

Make sure the ink is dry and then rub out the pencil lines and you're done.

I made my card with a combination of Prima and Stampendous stamps coloured with Distress Inks. It makes a great background for Tilda or Simply Sassy using Copics/Promarkers too.

** Kate **

Sunday Stamper #190

2012-01-29T06:00:00.001Z

In a rash moment of celebration over at Hels blog, she asked for suggested themes for the Sunday Stamper challenge. In an even rasher moment, I suggested bubbles and Hels said something along the lines of "Great let me have your entry by Saturday night then", eh, what? I jest, really I was thrilled that she asked me to put forward a sample project, so thrilled in fact, I made 2, a Holtzy one and a Cutesy one.

This is the Holtzy one. It started life as a manila tag and was then inked to within an inch of its life with Wild Honey and Ripe Persimmon Distress Inks, some of which was inked on through sequin waste. I was quite pleased to find some tiny sequin waste recently, so I was able to vary the size of my bubbles. In homage to Hels, I got out the Claudine Hellmuth Trad Tan paint and slapped it on some bubble wrap which I used to print some more bubbles. As if that wasn't enough, I felt some genuinely BIG bubbles were needed, so I printed some with an old cookie cutter dipped in Claudine Hellmuth's Modern Red paint.

The stamping was all done using PaperArtsy stamps from the Bricks & Mortar sets 1 and 3.

For the Melody Ross butterfly I started with Classic Teal paint, then more of the tan printed bubble wrap and then some dark blue cookie cutter bubbles. To finish off I coated the whole butterfly with Rock Candy Distress Stickles and whilst it was still wet sprinkled on the tiniest amount of DoodleBug Sugar Coating for extra shimmer.

The bottom of the tag was inspired by a Fat Face clothes label, I was going to machine stitch it but I had my sewing basket out to sew some Cub Scout badges on Small-N-Grubby's uniform and thought it would be good to give it a ~~messy~~ rustic hand sewn look.

Almost forgot to mention the cute little charm attached at the top of the tag. It's a mini Christmas decoration from Paperchase, couldn't resist them.

Here's a look at my Cutesy project.

I'll post the details tomorrow, as this post's getting long enough, along with a mini tutorial on the bubbly effect. Also I'll be checking in over at the Sunday Stamper challenge to go and visit all the bubbly makes.

** Kate **

A Twilight Card

2012-01-27T11:15:00.000Z

I saw this cute Tilda in the sales and straight away thought of the baseball game in the first Twilight film and before I knew it she was in my basket at the checkout.

Tilda has been coloured with Copics, I hope she looks OK, I don't know much about baseball.

Of course I had to team her up with DCWV Immortal Love paper and the book paper is torn from Breaking Dawn.

To decorate the Melody Ross chipboard heart I first sponged Barn Door Distress Ink all over it and stamped it with a PaperArtsy text stamp. Then coated the whole thing with Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint. Finally, once everything was dry, I rubbed a little Gathered Twigs Distress Ink over the top.

The little charm is from a 'Team Edward' bracelet I bought in a £1 shop. The photo also shows really well the beautiful embossing and glittering that comes on the Immortal Love papers.

I thought I would pull together the baseball and 'Team Edward' themes with the little question spelt out in BoBunny Et Cetera Combo stickers (these have gone such a long way, I think I've used on them on at least 4 projects now and there's still plenty left.)

Challenges:
Magnolia Stamp Lovers - Sport
Magnolia-licious Highlites - Valentines
Craft Us Crazy - Valentines/Love
Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

** Kate **

And Now For Something Completely Different

2012-01-26T12:57:00.000Z

This is a year long project Shimelle is leading for UKScrappers involving a monthly step by step scrapbook page which involves new design ideas to try.

Here is my version of the January project.

I was ordering from Sarah's Cards and saw that the actual paper Shimelle had used was in stock, so I ordered it and that was the start of my page. I chose some photos of Small-N-Grubby playing catch and they helped form the basis for my colour scheme.

I've followed the instructions pretty much as they came with a little bit of product substitution here and there.

Supply list:
Letters - Sassafras Red Script, BoBunny Et Cetera Combo stickers and Girls Paperie Tinsel and Twig.
Papers - October Afternoon Rocket Age - Return Voyage, American Crafts Peachy Keen - Neato and You're A Peach
Embellishments - American Crafts Mementos - Just Dandy, Papermash Bakers Twine, AquaMarker - Twilight Blue, Stickles - Candy Cane, Acrylic Dabber - Peach Bellini.

** Kate **

A challenge just for fun

2012-01-25T10:52:00.000Z

Scrapbook Magazine has a regular budget feature where the challenge is to make 3 pages with £10 of supplies with only the addition of scissors, cutter and adhesive. I thought I would challenge myself and here are the results, one page for each of the children.

To be extra thrifty with my supplies I bought them all in the Craft Obsessions sale.

They are:
Bo Bunny Welcome Home double sided papers in Dot, Stripe and Porch Swing.
Bazzill Basics in Kraft, Sea Salt and Fawn.
Bo Bunny Et Cetera combo stickers
3" Bazzill Gerberas in Creamsicle.
Distress Stain in Stormy Sky.
Fibres free with purchase.

It was fun and 3 pages with limited supplies are quick, no hesitating over whether your should use this cardstock or that as you just have no choice.

The stain was really good for splatting and, once scribbled on a craft mat, can be picked up with a paint brush for painting or splattering.

I had hoped to paint the flowers with it or use them as a mask, but it soaked into them far too much and just didn't work for me. I didn't try splattering it over them though, I will have to try that another time.

I completed the tab layout last and had enough paper left to make extra tabs with more photos on to slip behind the main photo.

I cheated a little and used a black pen for a bit of journalling (is that cheating? Everyone has a black pen in their standard kit, don't they?) It was only after I finished that I realised I don't have a title on there and then I couldn't figure out what to have or where to put it. I have some of the bigger letters left, but no 'E's', any suggestions?

I think I might challenge myself to do this again sometime soon and see if I can manage to get a bit of sparkle into the supplies somewhere.

** Kate **

OMG!!!!!!

2012-01-24T14:46:00.001Z

I am still here, honest. 3 scrapbook pages nearing completion, hopefully to share tomorrow and then a couple more projects by the end of the week.

In the meantime, you must have seen this already........................OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apparently available individually or as a set of 37 including Picket Fence! "Oh my woolly word", to quote Poi from Cbeebies! All the details are here on Sir Tim's blog. Roll on February I am having a full set of these!!!!!

** Kate **

Organise This!

2012-01-19T12:09:00.000Z

The Counterfeit Kit Challenge are getting organised and thinking about their ideal work space. Here is a summary of my recent work space photos that I haven't made a scrapbook page about yet.

Now for the day dreaming:
I'd like to see the floor. To move about the room and not trip over or worse trip over and have a pile of stuff land on me!

You can rely on Martha to have a work space to die for. I first saw this picture on the Counterfeit Kit site. I like the green. I like the units all matching. I think that, despite being one of the messiest crafters on the planet, I am drawn to an uncluttered, Scandinavian kind of style. Ok, I will say it and I don't care who knows it, I love Ikea!!

Martha's space isn't perfect for me, as I think having things quite so shut away means I forget what's there and don't use all my stash and as a consequence it can stifle creativity. So I am turning to Melissa Stinson.

Melissa, otherwise known as The Scrappy Jedi, recently revealed her revamped work space and I liked it. you can see the floor, but you can also see the supplies. I like the white units too, I have started buying new storage in white and, eventually, I think that's what I'll have.

It's predictable, it's been done to death before, but I feel an Expedit unit calling!

I nearly forgot, Santa, please can I have a really nice view too.

** Kate **

New Year - New You Choices

2012-01-19T11:20:00.000Z

Well, I confess, I didn't lose any weight last week, although I didn't put any on either so it's not all bad news. I have decided that my lack of success is down to poor choices. I often read in magazines handy hints about selecting the right nibbles and drinks at parties or substitute a glass of wine a day for a lime soda and lose 1lb in a month (data courtesy of the Healthy Food Guide February 2012 issue). So here are my thoughts about choices.

Pick Your Treats - the picture above is of a slice of Morrisons Gluten Free Fruit Cake. It is 2.5 inches long, an inch wide and half an inch deep. In other words, it is small, gone in 2 bites! It contains the same amount of calories as a pack of crisps from a Walkers multibag, Cadbury's Flake from a multibar pack or a cup of instant coffee with a Freddo bar.
Treat Your Tastebuds - The same fruit cake slice above has the texture of rubber and lots of the dried fruit in it still has a stalk in. It is not a pleasurable taste experience. So why eat it? After one bite I should put it down and say "Yuck! I'm not eating that." but I don't. And what's more I go on to eat the other 4 slices in the box over the course of the week. It's not a one-off occurrence either, it happens all the time. Biscuits with the texture of sawdust, cereal that's gone soggy because someone didn't roll the bag back up and so on. I don't like to waste food, but at the same time I should be allowed to treat myself with a bit of respect. From now on if it tastes vile I will stop eating it, throw the rest of the packet away and make a note of the product details so that I don't buy it again.

I will treat myself to something that tastes nice, that is lower in calories, but also in a quantity that doesn't make you forget that you have eaten it 2 minutes later.

** Kate **

Craziness

2012-01-18T09:45:00.000Z

It's desk sharing day at the home of WOYWW over at Julia's Stamping Ground and I have something shocking to share!!!

This is my stamping and kids craft area and it is the ultimate example of what can happen if you employ the 'push back' method of desk maintenance. What's happened is that over Christmas and new year the supplies have been pushed back to make room for Christmas food and drink, some of which is still in evidence, and now I am left with an almighty mess to clear up. I really don't have the energy, but looking at it, I think it could be the cause of my energy drain. It's sapping away the goodness and replacing it with slumped shoulders and temper flares as little sub-piles dislodge and slither to the floor.

Just don't ask me next week if it's still there!

** Kate **

Penny Black Saturday Challenge

2012-01-17T17:02:00.000Z

It's been a while since I featured a Penny Black stamp on my work and that just can't be allowed to happen!

This little guy is from the 'Purrfect Day' set, and has been coloured with pencils on kraft card. The sentiment is from the same set too. I've cut the mats with Nellie Snellen dies and some old sheet music from a charity shop.

The patterned papers are all Echo Park Victoria Gardens.

Challenges:
Penny Black Saturday #184 - Anything goes
One Stitch At A Time #96 Anything goes
Ladybug Crafts Ink #52 - Bows
Winter Wonderland - Birthday wishes
The Stampman - Use red
Let's Ink It Up #19 - Anything Goes

** Kate **

Saturated Canary - Winnie

2012-01-16T11:42:00.000Z

Here's the 2nd of the lovely new digi stamps I bought from Saturated Canary.

Krista is having a design team call right now and I just couldn't resist putting my name forward!

I've coloured the beautiful road tripping Winnie with Copics.
Hair: E25, E27
Skin: E00 R20
Lips: R85
Clothes: BV000, BV02, BV04, B60
Caravan: B00, B02, B60, BV00, C1, C3, C5, C7

The background wash was made using Distress Inks. Then I've enjoyed myself setting the scene with little punched butterflies and vines along with a die-cut fence (a Go Kreate die, I think) and paper flowers.

I bought the frame at M&S, it's not a true box frame, but it does have a bit of depth to allow the little scene to be built up.

Whilst I was looking for a 'Home Sweet Home' stamp or sticker, I found the perfect little quote amongst some old Brenda Pinnick supplies 'The road to the house of a friend is never long.'

Here is the whole picture complete with the frame.

Thanks for stopping by and please leave me a comment, it's great to just say hi!

** Kate **

By The Cute And Girly - Half Way!

2012-01-16T10:42:00.000Z

We are just about half-way through January and I know, how on earth did that happen! Here's my second By The Cute And Girly make for the New Beginnings theme.

Another calendar, this time for a friend who is mad about Union Jacks and has them on everything. When she asked me just before Christmas I knew the new Portobello Road range from Papermania was due out this month and I snapped up a 12x12 paper pack as soon as I could.

The shape is a die-cut piece from the pack which I glued onto card and then cut out to make it firmer. I added eyelets and ribbon for the hanger and then Papermania gems, Wild Orchid Crafts flowers and a bit of Stickles to sparkle them up. Not forgetting the Anita's calendar, job done!

I'm entering my calendar at the Wild Orchid Challenge #40 - Anything Goes and Allsorts challenge #137 - Celebration Of Nations.

** Kate **

Saturated Canary Kate

2012-01-12T16:50:00.000Z

I couldn't resist Kate from the Saturated Canary digi shop, she has an excellent name don't you think?

The theme for Saturated Canary challenge #8 is 'Clean and Simple', so I have kept this little notebook very plain and concentrated on the fabulous digi image. I've coloured her with Copics, details are at my CopicColor profile, and taken challenge #20 at Bunny Zoe's for my colour inspiration.

Well that was a shorter post than I'd planned, I guess it's clean and simple too!

** Kate **

WOYWW #136 and the wonder of nature

2012-01-11T09:59:00.000Z

It's Wednesday everybody, just in case you weren't sure. That means it's share you workdesk time over at Julia's Stamping Ground. Here is my desk piled high!!

I could claim it was a before photo, but I've tried that one too many times already. It is now in a sort of L shape with the cabinet on the left planned to be my die-cutting station. I find I don't die-cut as much as I would like because the machine and dies aren't accessible (don't even talk to me about the electronic cutter stuck in the bottom of the wardrobe). The dies and embossing folders are in a pile at the back on the right (in the little bag with the choco cow in a cowboy hat), they kind of need to come together with the machine for the process to work! So I keep on plugging at it, but the only way forward I can see is to be ruthless with it all. The little bits of paper and magazine freebies that I just don't use have got to go.

On the subject of magazines I am being ruthless with them too, apart from Craft Stamper, I'm not buying any monthly, just when I feel like one and the look of it really appeals to me.

Now for the garden, where there's not much doing apart from my patio rose.

It's flowered all through Christmas and the new year, which it doesn't usually. I have heard that hard frosts and proper winter weather are on their way for the end of the week, so I felt the need to capture on camera this little bit of beauty that has brighten up my view as I look out of the kitchen each day.

There's even a little bud still nestled in there, hope it survives.

** Kate **

Got Curves

2012-01-10T14:28:00.000Z

It's Branston Pickle's first day back at pre-school after the Christmas holidays and I decided to use my 'free' time to finally get a bit of crafting done, but what to make? Of all the things that were jumping up and down shouting "Pick me, pick me!", some new supplies and some new inspiration were jumping the highest.

This scrapbook page was inspired by Anna Byorklund's curves for the Creative Jump Start Summit 2012. I have lifted a sketch from one of her layouts and used this month's challenge at Kraft It Up to dictate the colour scheme.

Nearly all of the supplies are from My Little Shoebox, they aren't the latest designs, but they are new to me from a recent shopping spree. I've used Farmers Market - Cherries Jubilee patterned paper (flags one side, ledger print on the other, I need more of that one already!), City By The Bay clear stamps and Mini Alphas in Linen. To the MLS supplies I've added an Amy Tangerine embellishment, Sassafras Khaki Type letters and there are some splatters of Claudine Hellmuth Traditional Tan paint - yes Hels I have succumbed to the lure of Trad Tan!!

As I've been cutting into my new stash, I'm entering this project for the challenge at Ladybug Crafts Ink.

I've been shopping for digi images and they've just arrived, so that's next on my hit list!!

** Kate **

New Year - New You update #1

2012-01-09T13:26:00.000Z

A good steady start to my 1st week of NY-NY with a 2lb weight loss.

Today, I've got some calories counting cheats and tips to share that work for me.

Regular averages: Otherwise know as 'Life's too short to weigh every banana!' The internet has some great calorie information like the average amount for a regular sized piece of fruit or veg, so that's what I record. Some days it might mean I steal an extra few calories because my apple is a little large, other days I might give some away because it was small. In the end it all averages out and I still lose weight.
Personal averages: There are some things I know I have again and again, made exactly the same way. Like a cup of coffee for example. So I took the trouble one day to pour some milk into a mug to the amount I usually have, then poured it back into a measuring jug and worked out it's calorie content. Adding that to the amount of coffee I usually use and that gave me a personal average for my regular cuppa. If I make it myself, that's the amount I record. (Obviously, this is not the count for a visit to Starbucks!)
Snacks under 100: I know, for me, that I eat chocolate nearly every day. It is a necessity for my sanity, and my family's, I am an addict and I don't care. I also know that anyone who can eat 2 squares of chocolate from a bar and then put the rest back in the fridge is of unsound mind! The remedy then is to buy packs of chocolate with individual bars, preferable under 100 calories each. That way I eat a whole bar as one of my daily snack allowance and then there are some waiting for me the next day (or as a 2nd part of my snack allowance if it's been a bad day!)

May I particularly recommend:

Cadbury's Freddo - even better you can buy these singly, no dipping in for a 2nd one!

Marks and Spencer Swiss Mountain Bar mini pack or they have packs of mini chocolate bars too.

And of course there's Green and Blacks too. A little expensive, but what price sanity?

Kinder mini treats.

Mmm, how long til tea time??

** Kate **

WOYWW #135

2012-01-04T10:31:00.000Z

I've not played along at WOYWW for a while, so I thought today I would share some crafty treats that Santa left for me.

Some Gorjuss stationery.

Kraft card, alphabets, a little journal and you can never have too many inking tools!

Last and definitely not least, I had May Flaum's new book.

Lots of inspiration and ideas in there for me to get stuck into.
Share your craft spaces and nosey at lots more over at Julia's today, happy Wednesday.

** Kate **

New Year - New You Initial Steps

2012-01-03T11:42:00.000Z

I know it's the new year and everyone has all these plans, but you've gotta try, right?

Here are the initial 3 steps I'm taking to kick start a healthier me in 2012.

Clear the table - Over the holidays I have had a table in the living room with cakes, biscuits, sweets and drinks on it. It made things easier as I didn't have to constantly be running around serving family and guests, something was always there if visitors called by. The downside, of course, was the temptation to graze, particularly in front of the TV in the evenings. The holidays are over and now it's time to put any food that's left way in the cupboards out of sight and out of easy reach.
Count the calories - I know this works for me. If I eat less calories, cut down a bit, I lose weight. It doesn't work if you guess how much you've had. It needs to written down and, until you have educated your eye on portion sizes, that means weighing food too. This particularly applies to sneaky food like pasta and cheese where it is easy to eat far too much.
Control the snacks - I know I am going to snack, that's not going to change, at least not over night. But I can control what I snack on, put healthy options in my path Chop up some carrot sticks or a fruit salad so that it's ready and waiting for me when my hand automatically reaches for the fridge.

That's it my initial plan and here is the quick record sheet I've made to keep me on track.

6x4 so it will fit in a pocket or bag and isn't left behind and forgotten. I've personalised it for me with some extra sections:

Fruit and Veg - I know that when I count calories I will happily substitute a meal for crisps and chocolate. This isn't good enough, so by noting my fruit and veg portions each day I can keep an eye on my bad habits.
Water - I don't drink enough and often get headaches from being dehydrated. This is particularly important later in my plan as I look to up my exercise, so a daily count will keep me on track.
Activity 10's - Little boxes to tick off with smug satisfaction for each 10 minutes of activity taken each day. Right now these will just be walking to school and back, but that's just the start off point.

There, I've started, let's see where those initial 3 steps will take me.

** Kate **

By The Cute And Girly - January

2012-01-01T18:48:00.000Z

Happy New Year Everybody!!!

Sorry that's a bit late, we've been over to visit my sister in the lovely flat she is renting on a country estate about 45 minutes away and I am only just back and getting myself organised.
It's my turn to host over at By The Cute And Girly where we are celebrating with a theme of 'New Beginnings'. We've got new beginnings at By The Cute And Girly too as we welcome our 5 new team members with their first months projects.

I really wanted to make a 12x12 calendar page and that was my inspiration for the theme.

I've kept the background quite plain and used a sheet of Lily Bee Harvest Market in Harvest Blue with coloured rectangles cut from Core-dinations and Papermania card. The numbers for the year are Thickers.

There's probably no need to say that all the images are from Magnolia! I've mixed stamps old and new using Copics to colour them and added them to the page using different depths of 3d foam.

There are prizes to be won from our regular sponsors if you share your project over at the challenge blog.

Simon Says Stamp

Joanna Sheen

I've found some other challenges to enter too:
Allsorts #135 - New beginnings
Bling It On - New beginnings
Magnolia-licious Highlites - Anything Goes

Don't forget to hop over the the challenge blog and check out all the inspiration for January from the design team.

** Kate **

Craft Life Review Of 2011

2011-12-30T11:36:00.000Z

I've been looking at lots of top 5 and top 10 projects on other blogs and was looking through my own photo archives for something similar. It was far too hard to choose, so instead I have gone for a review of my crafting year with a few predictions for 2012.

January 2011 - I think you only have to look at my blog to see I love Simply Sassy designs. I'm not sure what 2012 will bring from them, but they feature heavily in my review of the year (in fact I could have chosen one for each month!). This card remains one of my favourites.

February 2011 - What do you know? It's Simply Sassy again! This one was my blog header for most of the year.

March 2011 - I caught the zipper bug! I have a whole bag of odd zips waiting to be made into brooches and incorporated into projects.

April 2011 - Grungy Monday began in 2011and I was thrilled to be a guest designer for #3 and discovered some new inks along the way.

May 2011 - Back to a Sassy girl, this time with a bit of steampunk thrown in.

June 2011 - My one and only scrapbook page to have been in print was this scraplift of a Jill Cornell page.

July 2011 - I tend to make a real mix of projects, not just cute stamping (although that is obviously a prominent feature!) Here's I wallet of ATC's I made. I can definitely look into my crystal ball and see more projects like this in 2012.

August 2011 - A combination of Sir Tim and some new techniques saw me trying out a letter press effect. Did I really start making Christmas cards in August? How come I was still finishing them on 23 December then?

September 2011 - Whiff Of Joy, another of my favourite cute stamp manufacturers.

October 2011 - Time for things to get spooky with another Simply Sassy creation. I like this style of taking cute images and making them a bit more edgy. I'm following a couple of challenge blogs that favour this style, so there could be more projects in 2012.

November 2011 - I've only just discovered that I won a prize over at Two Peas In A Bucket for this 4x6 Photo Love entry. There's more scrapbooking to come in 2012, including more hybrid work as I just spent my $10 prize money on 4 digi kits.

December 2011 - As I reach the end of my review there has been an important part of my Craft Life missing. A little lady who has become a firm favourite of mine and a favourite of 1000's of others worldwide - Tilda.
I know I have already blogged about having a card chosen in the top 3 at iCopic, but it really has given my crafting spirits a boost and I'm looking forward to where my Copic's may take me in 2012. This card will be one of my all time favourites and you can bet there will be more Magnolia projects from me in 2012.

That's it 2011 done. I hope to see lots of old friends and new in 2012 for much more crafting.

Wishing everyone a very Happy and Peaceful New Year

** Kate **

Sunday Stamper Tea Box

2011-12-28T13:27:00.000Z

I have a little tea box to share today that I finally finished decorating for a December birthday.

The undecorated box came from Cuddly Buddly and I decorated it loosely following the instructions for one of Hels projects in the October 2011 issue of Craft Stamper magazine.

The box was painted with Claudine Helmuth Gesso before colouring with various Distress Inks and Stains.

All of the stamps are from Pink Paislee. They have been one of my most used stamp purchases this year so I can't wait to see what they come up with for 2012.

The plate was glued on top of a scrap of paper and then onto the box using Glossy Accents. After adding the Sassafras letters I filled in the whole thing with more gloss.

Here it is once it has dried. I think the book plate came from an old HOTP kit, but I have had it quite a while and don't remember.

Challenges:
Sunday Stamper #186 - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

You might have spotted on my sidebar that I've had my Jingle Tilda card chosen in the top 3 for challenge #61 over at the iCopic blog, as you can imagine I'm thrilled, so I just had to mention it again here!!!

** Kate **

Happy Christmas!!!!

2011-12-25T06:00:00.001Z

Happy Christmas

** Kate **

Walking In A Winter Wonderland

2011-12-24T10:07:00.001Z

We went for a Christmas walk to look at the BIG trees and all the lights in town.

Not exactly a Winter Wonderland, we are expecting the weather to continue to be mild and wet here, but it still felt like Christmas was near. A bag of chips on the way home went down well too.

Enjoy your Christmas Eve and "hang your stockings and say your prayers, 'Cause Santa Claus comes tonight."

Only One More Sleep!!!

** Kate **

Gift Bags

2011-12-23T10:35:00.000Z

The cards may be finally finished, but I have still been making gift bags.

This one uses one of Chris's fabulous Sketching Stamper designs coloured with pencils. The foiled, patterned paper is by Making Memories and I've combined it with a sheet of torn music and a strip of Daisy D Christmas paper.

There's also a matching tag. The kraft gift bags and tags are by DoCrafts and I bought them all at Cutting Edge Crafts.

Challenges:
DigiStamps 4 Joy - Merry Christmas, no animals
I Brake for Challenges - Vintage
Digital Tuesday - Winter Wonderland
Deep Ocean Challenges - Winter wishes

** Kate **

Jingle Tilda

2011-12-22T11:05:00.000Z

Absolutely positively the last Christmas card of the year!!!

The children ALL play the hand bells at church, yes ALL, Branston Pickle at the grand old age of 3 and a half will give his 1st performance at the children's service on Christmas Eve, if he can be persuaded to perform on the night! We pay nothing to be part of this group, the leader of the bell ringers at church gives her time freely and, as the adults ring from notes not coloured dots, this has included teaching the older 2 children to read music. When I saw Jungle Tilda I just had to buy her and make this year's Christmas/thank you card with her on.

I haven't gone over the top with the decorations, as I didn't think that would suit the recipient, but I have spent a lot of time putting details into the image. Tilda is coloured with Copics and has a Distress Inked background as well as snowy highlights in Stardust Stickles.

The patterned paper was free with Cardmaking and Papercraft and the stamp on a piece of torn music was free with Creativity magazine.

Challenges:
Magnolia Stamp Lovers - Winter Wonderland
ICopic #61 - Last minute holidays
Scrapbook Sisters cards #66 - Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations #143 - Anything Goes
Crafts And Me #66 - Anything Goes

** Kate **

Snowman Soup

2011-12-21T09:09:00.000Z

Yes, I'm still here and still making cards! I always feel sad about the snowman in a snowman soup, but this chap from High Hopes looks happy enough.

He's coloured with Promarkers and I have used some old Brenda Pinnick paper for the background. Everything else is kept simples for speed and to make it nice and flat for the post.

Challenges:
Passion for Promarkers #129 - Celebration
I Love Promarkers #97 - Anything goes
My Time To Craft #169 - Winter pals
Try It On Tuesday - Anything goes
Deep Ocean Challenge - Warm Wishes

** Kate **

Have a Tilda Christmas!

2011-12-16T13:11:00.000Z

Another card completed, this time featuring Sweet Christmas Ribbon Tilda, coloured with Copics.

The Christmas paper is from MME Lost & Found Christmas and the pink is the reverse side of a bit of Cosmo Cricket.

Challenges:
Crafts And Me - Christmas
Craft Us Crazy - Christmas or humorous

** Kate **

Lili Of The Valley Challenge

2011-12-16T08:03:00.000Z

Just a quick note to say that the Lili of the Valley challenge blog is now Lili's Little Fairies.

Same weekly challenge for Lili of the Valey images, but a new look. There's a sponsors giveaway at the moment, ending on 4th January, so pop over and join in (you don't even have to make anything to enter for this treat!)

** Kate **

Just Magnolia

2011-12-15T14:03:00.001Z

Just Magnolia, just in time! There is a new challenge tomorrow at Just Magnolia but until then I just have time to sneak in this snowman card for the 'White Christmas' theme, which ends today.

I've used Copics to colour this cute fellow and combined him with some BoBunny papers in co-ordinating shades.

Small-N-Grubby gave me the idea for the paper chain of snowmen. I cut them from the tissue packaging I had stamped for the flower on yesterday's tag. They are decorated with Black Diamond Stickles and Smooch pen.

The card has been sprayed and splattered with Perfect Pearl Mist and Liquid Pearls to give it some shimmer and all of the snowmen are sat on Crystal Stickles snow.

Challenges:
Just Magnolia - White Christmas
Scrapbook Sisters card #64 - 2 colours
Deep Ocean #14 - Let it snow
Crafty Calender - Cold and frosty
The Craft Garden - Choose 4 (Turquoise, snowflakes, office supplies, purple)

Don't forget, if you have any snowy makes, to link them up over at this month's 'Let it snow' challenge on the By The Cute And Girly blog.

** Kate **

12 Tags Of Christmas #12

2011-12-14T10:43:00.000Z

Yes I have swept straight from #1 to #12, stopping only to make notes of a few techniques along the way. I guess 2 tags completed are better than none, right?

I have added my own slant, of course, to Tim's 12th tag. I didn't have the lovely tissue wrap for a start, although it is now firmly on my wish list, so I made my own by stamping Donna Salazar music text onto some paper that came wrapped around a scrapbook order.

The background is inked, water splattered, stamped in silver with another of Donna's fab stamps and then coated in Rock Candy Distress Stickles.

My chipboard shape is a little Maya Road house, inked in VersaMagic Oasis Green and edged in Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. The windows have been filled with Sepia Accents and then some Picket Fence Distress Stickles have been added for snow.

Finally a couple of sticky words from The Girls Paperie.

Distress Stickles - Picket Fence	Rock Candy Distress Stickles	Distress Ink - Broken China	Sepia Accents
VersaMagic - Oasis Green	VersaColor - Silver	Maya Road - Chipboard Houses	Girls Paperie - Tinsel & Twig
Donna Salazar - Snow Branches	Donna Salazar -Holly Harmony

InLinkz.com

It's tag week at Try It On Tuesday with an open theme so, if you are making and sharing tags, don't forget to link up over at their challenge blog too.
I made a few more Christmas cards last night but someone has stolen the sun this morning so no photos available yet. If the skies lighten up a bit I will try and take some pictures later.

** Kate **

Joanna Sheen Challenge #1

2011-12-13T13:46:00.000Z

I know, like number 7 buses, you don't see one for ages and then 2 come along at once. That's right 2 posts in one day.

Did you know Joanna Sheen now has a challenge blog? Challenge #1 is 'Christmas Wishes' and as part of last night's 'flat' card making (see the post below) I printed off an image from the Giordano Puppies and Kittens Cd Rom and made this.

The Cd has instructions on for highlighting and printing part of an image, so I highlighted a cute puppy and kitten from a non-Christmas image to be the focal point of my card. I made them more Christmassy by colouring the edges with blue Distress Ink and then stamping over with a holly sprig from the Papermania Henbury Lane stamp set.

To complete the image I coloured the stamped berries with Stickles and added extra Stickles dots to look like more berries. The 'Christmas Wishes' stickers are from The Girls Paperie.

Challenges:
Joanna Sheen - Christmas Wishes
Bling it On - Christmas
Digital Tuesday #141 - Winter Wonderland
Moving Along with The Times #127 - Last minute Christmas

** Kate **

Less Is More

2011-12-13T13:16:00.000Z

I found I was in need of a few more Christmas cards, particularly the 'flat' variety that can go in the post at the standard rate. It's one layer week at Less Is More and you can't get much flatter than that! The theme is 'Let it snow.'

I've used one of my favourite Penny Black stamps and coloured it with Copics. Allsorts challenge #133 is to just use 2 colours and as challenge #21 at Lothian Crafts Online is 'Pink and Brown', those are the colours I chose.

A couple more challenges to take me to my limit:
Oldie But A Goodie - Christmas animals
Let's Ink It Up #18 - Christmas

** Kate **

By The Cute And Girly - December #2

2011-12-09T12:36:00.000Z

Almost forgot to blog about the 2nd project I made for this month's challenge over at By The Cute And Girly - Let It Snow.

I've used another of the fab images from The Paper Shelter, this time it's Winter Owl. The image has been coloured with Promarkers and I've added some layers.

The background was really fun to make. Spritzing with different glimmers, then inking with Distress Ink. The snowflakes on top are made by thickly stippling acrylic paint through a Papermania Henbury Lane steel stencil. It's dried with a nice bit of texture.

There's a matching gift tag too.

I used the same circle greeting from QVC for both cards, just cut in half.

Make and share a project with us over at the challenge blog and if you make it this week the theme over at Winter Wonderland is also 'Let it snow', so you can enter your project there too.

Lastly, a quick reminder that there's still time to enter our design team call, full details on the By The Cute And Girly challenge blog.

** Kate **

Sugar Bowl Challenge #73

2011-12-07T12:11:00.000Z

The latest sketch at the Sugar Bowl Challenge has the added extra request to try something unusual. The Branston pickle is on the mend (you can tell because he is being a pickle!), so I took the opportunity whilst he was playing to make a relatively quick card that I needed for the weekend.

2 'unusual' things, although not terribly unusual. One it's a long time since I've needed to make an engagement card, but nice to have a lovely occasion to celebrate. The other is I have attempted the technique where you leave part of the image outside the die-cut. It worked, sort of.

All the papers are from Echo Park Victoria Gardens, there is a little 'cheers!' stamp from Dovecrafts (I discovered I didn't have an engagement one), and the other embellishments are minimal - due to lack of time, but also cos I thought it was sweet as it is.

** Kate **

JYC day #1

2011-12-06T11:07:00.000Z

I'm not sure what will happen to my Journal Your Christmas efforts this year. At the moment I have a diary note of each day's content and if need be several days may just be a bullet point list on one page. For now I have a picture on my camera of Day #1 (pre-chickenpox) so I thought I would quickly share.

I had not given any thought to a Christmas manifesto but there was one phrase on Shimelle's that caught my attention about 'Letting go of worry and embracing joy.', so I went with it. However, I didn't want the white background, so I re-typed it in Word and used a background page from Unconditional by Jen Wilson and a frame from Authentic Me by Lauren Reid (all included with May Flaum and Audrey Neal's fab book 'Paper & Pixels', which I can highly recommend if you are thinking of starting to try some hybrid work and only have Word to play with).

Once printed, I added it to my pre-decorated page and added some embellishment with more Daisy D paper, Papermash tape, torn music sheet and my page number from The Girl's Paperie.

Finished off with my punched 'continuity' stars and a bit of Stickles.

** Kate **

Time Out

2011-12-05T13:29:00.000Z

I'm calling "Time out!" for a few days as the Branston Pickle has got chickenpox. How many more will have it by the end of the week? Place your bets please!

Just had a text from the mum of his close friend at pre-school, he has it too!

** Kate **

12 Tags Of Christmas

2011-12-03T10:50:00.000Z

In these busy days on the run up to Christmas, deprived of time, I have often looked at the work of Tim Holtz on his beautiful 12 Tags Of Christmas project, but never felt I could spare the time to join in. This year, despite a to do list that is absolutely groaning with projects and jobs that I really MUST complete, I decided to give myself the gift of a little time out, a little Timmy Time! I may not make them all (let's face it, there's no way I can make them all), but I will make a few and here is #1.

I've adapted and replaced to cover products I don't own and to make it my own. The lettering is Grungeboard covered with Barn Door Distress Ink and Glitz Stickles.

The background tag is made using a random flourish embossing folder on Core-dinations Whitewash cardstock, which I forget that I have and definitely don't use enough of.

I've hand cut the banner and aged it with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. The glittered ivy leaves are from Hobbycraft I think, years ago. The hat pin is from Wild Orchid Crafts.

Here are the products I could find still for sale with links to shops that I use in the UK.

Distress Ink - Barn Door	Core-dinations Whitewash Collection	Alterations Die - Tattered Pinecone	Distress Stickles - Picket Fence
Texture Fades - Damask	Grungeboard Letters	Hat Pins - White	Glitz Stickles - Ruby Slippers

InLinkz.com

I'm entering my tag over at Grungy Monday for challenge #29, to share your favourite Tim Holtz inspired holiday project.

** Kate **

By The Cute And Girly - December

2011-12-01T10:56:00.000Z

It's the 1st of December and for the new challenge at By The Cute And Girly, Tammy wants to 'Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.' Our digi sponsor this month is The Paper Shelter who have some beautiful Christmas images to get everyone in the holiday spirit.

For my 1st project this month I've done battle with an old nut tin and created this snowy money box.

The background is made from printed papers accompany the digi image of the little girl and her kitten, called Warm In The Winter. I printed 2 to size using Word and then wrapped them around the tin, and there was the battle, printing them the right size. It really shouldn't have been a problem and when I discovered where I was going wrong with the aspect ratio it took seconds to sort out, I was determined not to be beaten!

For the opposite side of the tin I printed off the Snowman digi and coloured all of the images with Copics.

To decorate the tin I used a new great value Sizzix snowflake die from the BasicGrey range, I got mine at Cutting Edge Crafts.

Added to that I used a few punched white pine branches and then went to town with the white snow applique and liquid pearls. Here's how the top of the lid looks.

Here's the full list of sponsors for this month's By The Cute And Girly challenge:

Simon Says Stamp

Joanna Sheen

The Paper Shelter

Oh, and here's my tin as it started out, forgot I took a picture of that.

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
BasicGrey #58 - Lost and found (altered tin with BG snowflake die)
Try It On Tuesday - Transform a can

There's lots of ideas and inspiration for your snowy creations over at the By the Cute And Girly challenge blog and word has it that we are on the lookout for some new design team members too!

** Kate **

Lili of the valley #122

2011-11-27T13:40:00.000Z

Lili of the Valley challenge #122 has an 'Anything Goes' theme, so I thought I would enter this Chrismas card I made.

It's made from MME papers that came free with a magazine and all the other bits are from my Christmas stash, so it was a very thrifty make.

The stepper card shape was copied from one I had seen Bev Rochester make for a magazine.

I would also like to enter this for the Sir Stampalot November challenge, where the theme is 'Blue and Green'.

** Kate **

JYC - starter pages

2011-11-24T12:52:00.000Z

A few more starter pages for my Journal Your Christmas album are now ready. They will get more embellishments and maybe a splatter or two of paint as they are completed. I've used sketches and ideas from Shimelle to inspire me, mostly from the Pretty Paper Party, but also from Scrapbook Sketch of the Week posts.

My paper supplies are from Daisy D's, Making Memories, Authentique and My Minds Eye.

I've also started on some journalling pages to go in with my 6x4 photos that I'm filing in pockets in between the daily JYC pages.

I've decided that my little feature that will help to tie the pages together will be stars. Mainly in yellow and punched using an excellent long reach punch I bought years ago from Baker Ross when I first started crafting. Small, easy to fit into the pages and I can have as many as I want.

The front cover of the file and manifesto page still remain blank as I am waiting for the new printables to be released for JYC 2011.

** Kate **

Grungy Monday #28

2011-11-23T11:04:00.000Z

Take a look at Sir Tim's magnificent pumpkin!! Created for Ranger Ink's great pumpkin challenge. Lynda at Studio L3 has challenged us to take inspiration from this creation for this week's Grungy Monday challenge. Now Lynda did say use the technique not make a pumpkin, but I was never one to do as I am told, so guess what?

I made a pumpkin! I don't have most of the materials Tim used, so I improvised. First off using one of his Alterations embossing folders to emboss 4x8 inch panels of brown DCWV card. (You have to turn it around and put the unembossed end back through to cover the whole 8 inch length.) Then I inked the panels with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink (my favourite brown of the moment) and a little gold Versa Color.

Next I cut the panels into 8x1 inch strips, so that I had 12 in all. I put them in a big stack and joined them at the end with a brad. After fanning the strips out evenly into a circle, I then joined up the other ends also with a brad. Once I was happy with the shape I added a bit of glue under the strips to hold everything in place.

Then for the decoration.

Finding I didn't have a leaf punch or die the right size, I punched out some circles and trimmed them for leaves. Lots of strips of paper twirled around a cocktail stick and then I raided the beading supplies for the rest. As it's a very hollow pumpkin I decided to add a little dormouse to live inside, punched using the same circle.

Challenges:
Grungy Monday #28 - Great pumpkin inspiration
Cooking It Up With Katie #85 - PIE (punch, ink, emboss) pumpkin pie in this case!!
Crafts And Me #62 - Shabby chic/vintage
The Altered Alice chapter #9 - Falling leaves, true colours.

** Kate **

Less Is More #42

2011-11-22T13:32:00.000Z

I've had a great weekend and both of the sales I did went really well, so I am chuffed. Shifted plenty of covered post-it notes and notebooks in various sizes, as well as lots of jewellery. But, would you believe it, not a single calendar!!!

I've been back to making today and have finished a card for Less Is More challenge #42, silhouettes.

I've inked an oval in Ripe Persimmon, Wild Honey and Pumice Stone Distress Inks, directly onto a card through a paper mask. Then stamped the Penny Black stamp 'to follow the star' in black before removing the mask. The stamp doesn't actually have a star on it, so I added one from a set that came free with a magazine. The greeting is from a different free set.

I'd also like to enter this card for the following challenges:
Allsorts #130 - One layer card
The Craft Garden - Christmas, no red or green
Lothian Crafts #20 - Christmas

** Kate **

Crafts and Me challenge #61 and Calendar Tutorial

2011-11-17T13:50:00.000Z

"Simples!" That's the current challenge at Crafts And Me. I had some nice comments yesterday with just a glimpse of Tatty Teddy on my workdesk, so I thought I would put him fully in the spotlight today.

I've created a desk calendar using DCWV card and kept my decorations 'simples', as requested, with just a punched heart and a few gems.

I've coloured TT's nose with a Copic marker before glittering it with Stardust Stickles and then just given a little shading on his patches and nose.

The calendar base is simples too in just 4 steps!

1. Cut a piece of card 6 by 10 inches (so you can get 2 from a 12x12 sheet, if you want).

2. Score across the longer length at 4, 5 and 6 inches (see picture #1).

3. Fold the two outer edges in towards each other along the score lines (valley folds) and then fold the centre score line in the opposite direction (mountain fold) (see picture #2).

4. Use double sided tape to stick the top edges together, I waited until after I had finished the decorations to do this (see picture #3).

I've made this one into a display stand for some of the earrings I'm taking to the Christmas Fair tonight.

** Kate **

Penny Black and more

2011-11-17T12:45:00.000Z

The November challenge at the new look Penny Black and more blog is 'All Creatures Great And Small'. The challenge rules have been updated to allow any stamped (non-digi) image to be used, although there is an additional prize each month for a Penny Black entry. I'm sticking with Penny Black and have made this desk calendar with a cute cat from the Purrfect Day set.

The image is stamped onto Papermania kraft card and coloured in a combination of Whisper pens and Polychromos pencils.

I've added some scraps of gems and ribbon and a daisy from an old QVC kit to finish it off. The calendar is from the Anita's brand and I picked mine up at Cutting Edge Crafts.

If you're not already a follower of the challenges at Penny Black and more there's a prize draw for new followers between now and 4th December with a really cute stamp to be won!

** Kate **

WOYWW #128

2011-11-16T09:40:00.000Z

Taken some time out from my busy Christmas and Winter Fair preparations to share the box of wonder that I am currently working with.

It hold lots of paper pads that I hardly use and old sheets of sticky ribbon to transform notepads and calendars in to what it , hopefully, saleable goodies like these.

I suppose I had better get back to it, last full day of creating today and still a whole pack of calendar blanks to use up. What's on your workdesk today? Share it with us all over at Julia's place and happy Windsday Pooh!

** Kate **

A covered writing pad

2011-11-15T13:49:00.000Z

I've just finished revamping this over sized notepad. It's quite nice paper really and could be used for writing letters in an elegant hand with a beautiful fountain pen, but I don't have a fountain pen or elegant hand-writing so that rules me out!

I kind of imagined Simply Sassy 'Love a Latte' was sat outside a Paris cafe sipping her drink on a bright Autumn day, with leaves blowing around her feet whilst she watches the world go by. I've coloured her with Copics. The background is made with a Tim Holtz stamp using one of my favourite techniques, inking over with Distress Ink and then splattering with water. I've used Antique Linen for the base colour and then gone over the top in Pumice Stone with a template made using a cloud punch.

The pad has been covered with DCWV cardstock. The rest of the embellishments are:
Papermania sticky ribbon.
An off-cut from a Cosmo Cricket sheet.
Accessorise sticker.

Challenges:
Saturated Canary #4 - Autumn colours
Let's Ink It Up - Favourite technique
Try It On Tuesday - Wish you were here

** Kate **

Journal Your Christmas

2011-11-13T18:51:00.000Z

Sadly the Pretty Paper Party is drawing to a close, but there is the opportunity to Party On with Journal Your Christmas starting on 1st December and pre-party prep going on over at Shimelle's blog. I've made the final decision about my album for JYC. I've gone for a Paperchase file that has 6x8.5 inch pages and combines plain kraft paper with slip in pages for 6x4 photos. Here's the title page.

I've used papers from making Memories and Daisy d's, Girls Paperie letter stickers, an Authentique die-cut, and the tape and bakers twine are from Papermash. The little chipboard house is from Maya Road, I've covered it in red chalk ink and added Picket Fence Distress Stickles for snow.

I've started on a few pages to have ready and waiting and I plan to have a page a day which might be just a side of the kraft paper with one photo (or none), or it could be the photo pages if I have several pictures to include. For the numbers I have a set of 25 from Girls Paperie and then a set of 12 from Authentique to number the 12 days of Christmas which just about works, sort of!

** Kate **

4x6 Photo Love - October

2011-11-13T17:19:00.000Z

It's been a funny old week. The computer and I have had a trial separation brought on by SMO losing some mammoth spread sheet he had been working on an demanding every bit of spare computer time to re-do it.

Needless to say I have kept myself busy. I took the photos of the double scrapbook page for October's 4x6 photo love mentioned in the previous post, we had a little sunshine, Thursday I think it was.

The brief was to use 10 photos for the 10th month and arrange them either back to back in a page protector or as a double page layout. I've used plain DCWV red and black card with some Papermania patterned kraft. The letters are from Sassafras, the journalling block cut in half and the acetate frame are from MME. The little inked butterflies are Jenni Bowlin. Here are the individual pages.

I loved these gardens. The photos are BDC (before digital camera) and these are just a selection of the many I shot on the day, I will have to do some research to find the date.

** Kate **

I think.........

2011-11-08T12:54:00.000Z

..............I'm still here. Had a late night yesterday for the jewellery workshop and ate far too much. I really enjoyed it though and we have provisionally said we will meet again in January for a new year get together, chat and create. I just have to source some nice beads in the right budget before then.

Sitting completed on my work pile is a double scrapbook page for the latest 4x6 photo love, but I just can't get a decent photo of it because the sky is so dull and the weather so dreary. I managed a couple of close-up shots, just couldn't get enough light for more.

I will keep an eye on the sky and be back with the project in full as soon as I can.

** Kate **

Scrapping with smaller photos and Papermash

2011-11-04T13:49:00.002Z

Scrapping with smaller photos (less than 6x4) can be a challenge and Shimelle came up with some great sketches for us at the Pretty Paper Party. However, I have filed them away for future reference as my eye has really been caught by the work of another scrapper.

I have used this layout here at An Uninterrupted View for my inspiration for the page above, I just love all that white space, although I have filled mine up a little more. I rarely scrap pictures of SMO as he has a strange shocked face he pulls when he knows his picture is being taken, but I couldn't have him totally absent from the family album, so I scraped about 'the face'. And yes I did ask him if it was OK to use these shocking photo booth prints.

Here are the supplies I've used:

Tumbled Glass Distress Re-inker	Inkssentials Mini Misters	My Minds Eye - Ooh La La for Him	Amy Tangerine Stamps - Love Struck
Perfect Pearls powder - gold	DCWV Christmas Card Stack	Striped paper tape

InLinkz.com

The fab paper tape on my page was very kindly sent to me by Papermash via a prize draw at Crafts Beautiful.

If the sight of the tape alone is not enough to send you over to their site for a nose around then have a look at this amazing stop frame video.

I looked in at a workshop about making these as part of an arts festival this summer and I'm going to have to find time to have a play on a very basic level!

** Kate **

Jewellery workshop update and a winner!

2011-11-03T10:37:00.001Z

1st off all the winners of the By The Cute And Girly October blog hop have been announced. The full list is available on the challenge blog, but I can confirm that the winner of my draw for a £10 gift certificate for Joanna Sheen's store is ORIT! Joanna offers free worldwide shipping on the majority of the items she sells, so happy spending! Orit please contact Lora by email to claim your prize (if you haven't already), full details of how and where to claim prizes are on the challenge blog.

Now onto the jewellery. I was asked to run a jewellery class at a local church earlier in the year as part of a programme of social events for the parents at their very busy toddler group. It must have gone well as I have been asked back! This time around I have managed to acquire a few extra tools and I'm adding some more samples to the jewellery packs available on the night as I will have some participants from the previous class as well as, hopefully, some new faces.

Here's a sample that I made up for a bracelet that can have additional charms added to the links.

I love these acrylic beads that have a fabulous iridescent sheen, they are called Elements and are from The Beadery range. I'd like to enter this one for challenge #82 at Cooking It Up With Katie as she is having an 'anything but a card' week.

This is my box of packs made up and ready to go, I just need to add a few more.

On the bottom right is a necklace/bracelet that I've designed. It can be worn as a charm necklace or wrapped several times around the wrist to give a multiple friendship bracelet look. I have tried to take a picture of it in action and totally failed, I will have another try later!

** Kate **

WOYWW #126

2011-11-02T09:09:00.000Z

It's Wednesday, the day for sharing workspaces and general ramblings on life as we know it. Link up over at Julia's blog if you want to join in or just nosey around everyone else.

Burning a hole in my worktop today is the remains of a cake from Halloween tea.

It's gluten free Victoria sponge with a coffee and almond topping (should have been walnut, but I didn't have any). I could just eat the entire cake right now!

What I want to know is why can't you make a mini cake. Someone needs to finds a way to get around the need to add a whole egg. Then you could bake a little ramekin sized cake, stuff the lot and not have the rest sitting there calling to you for as many days as it manages to survive.

A local cafe has started baking gluten free on a Saturday which means I can go in and buy just one cup cake and think myself virtuous. Of course they sell them at 4 for £5 too and that means you can try all the different flavours and we are back to square one again.

I've got Small 'N' Grubby home sick at the moment which limits my crafting in some ways (no late night crafting sessions as I attend the invalid's bedside), but also liberates it in others (when he is feeling well he plays with his little brother and I grab some time - like right now).

My craft emphasis is shifting now as I need to concentrate on jewellery, teaching a beginners workshop Monday night, and then I have booked in 2 stalls at craft fairs later in the month. I need to make Christmas papercraft gifts to sell too, and of course there are Christmas presents to be made as well.

Happy crafting and have a lovely Wednesday.

** Kate **

By The Cute And Girly - part #2

2011-11-02T09:00:00.001Z

My second project for this month's theme 'Christmas Girls' over at By The Cute And Girly.

This card started out due to the beautiful big sleigh stamp from Papermania and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to have it for Tilda! I've paper pieced it using Milton & Co and kraft paper, then coloured the remaining images with Distress Ink and a silver gel pen. I have one of the new sitting Tildas on order to sit in the sleigh, but as she wouldn't arrive in time I used one of my older ones and coloured her with Copics.

The image is stamped several times and layered up. Once it was all assembled the white background looked too stark, so to bring it into the picture I splodged some diluted blue Distress Ink around to colour it.

Once Tilda was done I was thinking about some ideas for how to make her up into a card. In the chocolate issue of Magnolia Ink there was an easel card with cup cakes at the front and when I saw that I decided to go for the pile of parcels idea. They're made from mini raisin boxes covered with the Milton & Co paper and some thin ribbon.

A bit of embellishing with punched shapes and a greeting was all that was needed to finish off except the parcels did look a bit bare. I decided to copy the parcel Tilda was holding and took ages to find the right size hearts that had a bit of dimension. In the end I found an old sheet of Paperchase stickers with a few hearts left on it in just the right colour.

I'm definitely entering this one at some challenges:
Just Magnolia #130 - Christmas is coming
Magnolia-licious Highlites - Santa's sleigh photo inspiration
Allsorts #127 - Christmas easel card
Try It On Tuesday - Unusual shaped card

Don't forget to check out the By The Cute And Girly challenge blog and share your 'Christmas Girls' with us.

** Kate **

A scrapbook page

2011-11-01T15:23:00.000Z

I've been working on this page for so long now I hardly remember where I started from. Not because it's such a complicated page, but because I have had other demands on my time. I've worked on it for 10 minutes a day, grabbing supplies one day, choosing the lettering the next and so on.

It started out for Shimelle's Scrapbook Starting Points, but as usual I've thought about various days at the Pretty Paper Party whilst I've been making it.

There's a new page of Studio Calico paper as the base and I have paired it with some Creative Imaginations paper that I have been hoarding for simply ages. I really wanted the reverse of the Studio Calico sheet for the journalling, but didn't have another copy, so I cut away the piece from behind the photo so that I could flip it over and use it.

There are a few scrap of other patterned papers on there, but other that that I just used the 2 sheets. The other supplies are:
Suitcase sticker from Amy Tangerine
Date Stickers from My Little Shoebox
Red heart, arrow and label stickers from Echo Park
Title stickers from Sassafras

For the final bit of embellishment I wanted to add some painted dots and circles to echo the ones printed on the brown paper. I used a pen lid and the end of a paint brush dipped into white and red acrylic paint. I had to stop myself from getting carried away and dotting them everywhere and looking at it now I keep thinking there might be too many!

** Kate **

By The Cute And Girly - November

2011-11-01T14:00:00.001Z

What a ball we had at By The Cute And Girly last month on our 1st ever blog hop. All of the winners from the hop will be announced soon, so keep an eye on the challenge blog.

For this month the theme is set by Carol and she's chosen 'Christmas Girls'.

My 1st make this month is using the Pajama Visit digi stamp from this month's digi sponsor, Di's Digi Downloads. It's printed onto Papermania kraft cardstock and coloured with pencils.

I've used it to decorate a Papermania kraft bag along with with papers from Milton & Co and some jewels.

Our full list of sponsors this month are:

Simon Says Stamp

Joanna Sheen

Di's Digi Downloads

Make sure you pop over to the challenge blog to take a look at all the other design teams wonderful Christmas creations and link up your 'Christmas girls' projects too. Fancy being a guest designer in January? Just put 'GDT' after your name when you enter the challenge and we'll be picking a couple of guests to join us kicking off the new year.

** Kate **

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T07:50:00.001Z

Clean And Simple Christmas

2011-10-28T14:01:00.000+01:00

Gosh, that title seems to be a contradiction for me. My Christmas is usually as messy and complicated as you can get it!

I've used the sketch from The Sugar Bowl #70 which has a clean and simple theme and kept it Christmas for Winter Wonderland's CAS challenge. The stamp is Tammy from the Simply Sassy range and I have experimented with Polychromos to colour her, although I realised I don't have a good flesh colour so I will have to sort that out when I find some for sale next.

The paper is American Crafts Daydreams - Blissful Day, left over from the 'Melon Pops' layout I made here. The background is stamped using Martha Stewart's stamp around the page, which I really must get back out of the box and play with some more.

The embellishments are punched pine branches and snowflakes along with an odd flower I had left from a QVC kit and a dusting of Stickles. I have just realised that I left the greeting off, how daft is that, I've used stickers from The Girls Paperie, here's the completed card.

Just a couple of other 'Anything Goes' challenges to add for Simon Says Stamp and Scrapbook Sisters card challenge #58.

** Kate **

Thoughts On Scrapbook Albums

2011-10-26T13:23:00.000+01:00

I hadn't really thought much about my personal scrapbook album until Shimelle's post about them. The majority of my scrapbook pages have been made as a vehicle to make a gift to someone of photos I took at an event. Until recently I had about a dozen pages of my own in a postbound album arranged in the order in which they were made. This made them easy to file and allowed me to see how my scrapbook 'style' had progressed. I seem to have made a lot of pages in 2007, perhaps influenced by the Fiskateers, and the odd page since then.

Recently my scrapbooking has picked up considerably. I've got photos and memories I want to record and sorting through my craft supplies has reminded me that I bought quite a few patterned papers with specific photos in mind. I don't scrap my photos in order, I just do what I fancy. As a result of this, I now have a very disjointed album that skips around through the years showing the children at all different ages.

A sort out was called for and I was quite looking forward to it. Thumbing through the pages, re-organising and reminiscing.

Until I remembered that post bound albums are a pain! If you take the pages out to re-arrange them and then they are slippery little devils when you try to get them back in again. Alternatively, you have to take all the pages out of their sleeves, re-order them and then put them back in.

My plan is to start with 2 albums. One in chronological order all about my family, our lives and things we do. I've bought an American Crafts d-ring album for this so I can insert and move pages around as much as I like. The other is for the odd pages I make about my thoughts and opinions, or random items. These are going to be kept in the order that I make them, which means the postbound album still gets some use and I can still see how my pages have developed/changed. It might turn out to ne a sort of 'book of me' eventually, who knows.

One discovery I did make during the sort out was that there are no pages about my 2 older children when they were babies, a gap I will definitely look to sort out soon.

** Kate **

WOYWW #125

2011-10-26T09:27:00.000+01:00

Here's what's on my desk (bed) today.

Lots of album pages to be sorted and re-filed. I've been typing up a post about my efforts, might get it finished later today. The to-do list is huge at the moment, so I think I had better crack on.

Pop on over to Julia's to have a look at lots of other desks and avoid that to-do list for a bit longer.

** Kate **

October Blog Hop

2011-10-25T16:13:00.000+01:00

Already we are in to the last full week in October, incredible! There's still time to join in with the By The Cute And Girly 2nd anniversary blog hop. It's a short hop with prize draws to enter at every stop along the way. The main challenge this month is 'Anything Goes!', so just link up your next project, no matter what it is, at the challenge blog and join in (only one entry per person please). To be eligible for the main challenge prize draw you need to collect letters from the blog hop posts, rearrange them and then e-mail Lora with the word you make. Lora is also the 1st stop in the blog hop.

My blog was sponsored by Joanna Sheen this month and I made some cute puppy dog projects for my blog hop post here. I did neglect the kittens a bit and, although I am not a cat fan, I have to admit that the kittens on the Giordano Puppies And Kittens cd-rom that Joanna sent me are very cute. So to make up for my neglect I have made a little kitten notebook.

I had a bit of a play with the cd-rom and, following the instructions it provided, highlighted one image to print. I also decided to have a go at printing in black ink only and as you can see the picture quality was still great.
Keeping the colours fairly neutral, I used some Pink Paislee Nantucket papers and Sassafras letters along with some oyster grey Divine Twine and Liquid Pearls.

Here are some handy links if you want to play along with us and join in with the blog hop fun.
The start of the blog hop - Lora's post.
My original blog hop post.
By The Cute And Girly October challenge post.
Joanna Sheen's online store.

Thank you to everyone who has entered so far, it's great to see you are as excited about our 1st ever blog hop as we have been!! Also, thanks to everyone for all the lovely comments on my blog hop post. If you haven't entered yet, please leave a comment on the original post here before 8pm UK time on 31st October 2011 when the challenge finishes.

** Kate **

Melon Pops and a card

2011-10-25T12:34:00.000+01:00

Here's the completed scrapbook page I was waiting to photograph.

I've used Kathy's Waffle Sketch for October as the starting point (which is also the Daring Cardmakers challenge this week) and kept my shapes as four sided with rounded corners for the Scrapbook Sisters challenge #6 - Shapes. (Is there a name for a four sided shape with all the corners rounded?)

I can't say that I haven't been influenced by my joining the Pretty Paper Party (it's not a political movement, although wouldn't that be good?), but I can't imagine myself ever looking at scrapbooking in the same way.

Here are the supplies I've used.

Strawberry Shortcake Chalkboard Mist	Amy Tangerine Goodness Thickers	Studio Calico Classic - Dot One	American Crafts Daydreams - Blissful Day
Fiskars Funky Heart Squeeze Punch	EK Success Photo Labels Punch	Distress Ink - Pumice Stone

InLinkz.com

There were some left over punched shapes and borders, so I combined these with some kraft card and Bell Blvd stickers to make a mini card for the Less Is More polka dots challenge #38.

** Kate **

Still Here

2011-10-24T20:01:00.000+01:00

Feeling much better, but now deep into catch-up on crafts, housework and all manor of other commitments combined with the children being at home for half-term.

Just a quick card to share today to celebrate a special event that I forgot to check if I was allowed to blog about, I'll find out and get back to you on that one.

It uses a combination of prompts from Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party. Dots and stripes, along with a card sketch from #4 and distressed edges from #5. I've used the Pink Paislee Nantucket 6x6 paper pad throughout. I couldn't decide if I really liked this paper (and I suppose that should have meant that I didn't order it!) Even when it arrived I wasn't convinced, but since playing around with it, it's started to grow on me.

Just finishing off a scrapbook page tonight and I have another project waiting to be photographed, so hopefully back tomorrow.

** Kate **

Patterned Papers

2011-10-20T15:00:00.000+01:00

Was literally taken off the radar yesterday when a cold I had been trying to ignore went to my head and left me so dizzy I was unable to stand up. Feeling a little better today, but I think I have spent too long on the computer catching up and will have to have a lie down again soon. Apologies, I owe a lot of people visits and comments particularly those on the blog hop, I will get round to visiting before the end of the month.

Tuesday night, whilst I was still able to remain upright, I finished a patterned paper challenge for the current class over at Shimelle's. Maybe it was all those patterns that did my head in!!

The idea is to really tackle the unused stash, so I grabbed a Nonsense pad from WRMK and just used the patterns from there to make my page.

I can't say I am a total convert to the highly patterned background, but it will remain a possible tool for my future scrapbooking.

** Kate **

Pretty Paper Party!!

2011-10-18T13:15:00.000+01:00

Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party has begun and, despite saying I was only going to dip in and work on a couple of ideas each week, I am already hooked! The ideas are really interesting and the example layouts and cards make me want to have a try.

The party kicked off with ways to use off-cut strips and scraps. Here's my scrapbook page to kick off a gift album I am making (way over-due as you can see from the date).

I'm using Teressa Collins supplies for the album but found some scraps of Anna Griffin paper from an older project that I'm going to incorporate in with it.

Then there are the cards, I'm thrilled that there are card examples in the daily prompts.

From Hot Off The Press scraps:

From My Minds Eye scraps:

And from the scraps of a very old mini album kit:

Now today's challenge is about patterned paper (not my elaborately designed problem stuff - hopefully we will be tackling that later). Just every day patterns that you shy away from in case they overwhelm the whole page. Now how can I resist having a try at that?

** Kate **

10 Minute Tim

2011-10-18T11:03:00.000+01:00

Grungy Monday challenge #23 over at Studio L3 is titled 'Tim in 10'. The idea is to select some Tim Holtz supplies and then give yourself 10 minutes to make a card.

I splattered water over this and then realised I was going to have to stamp on it still wet if I was going to get it done in the time allowed, luckily it worked out fine.

I've used Ripe Persimmon and Wild Honey Distress Inks and stamped over them with vaious Sir Tim stamps. To finish off I added a little key from the local bead shop attached with one of Tim's mini brads.

Challenges:
Grungy Monday #23 - Tim in 10
Oldie But A Goodie - Forever Autumn (my Tim stamps, old but definitely still good!)

** Kate **

Pretty Paper

2011-10-17T10:22:00.000+01:00

Shimelle's new Pretty Paper class starts today. I love patterned papers and, as Shimelle suggests in her opening PDF, I often think that a project isn't going to be good enough to use my best paper. Here's a selection that I have pulled to share.

At the bottom are my newest additions from American Crafts, Lily Bee and Studio Calico. I'll use all of these but probably in little pieces to spread them over as many projects as possible. Then at the top are really old sheets that I haven't used. Like the pale blue Iron Orchid Designs sheet on the top left. It's my last page of that design and I loved it so much I can't bear to use it even though I have a project on the go right now that it would be perfect for. Then there are pages like this from Fancy Pants............

My supplies are full of them. I can't resist them, they look so nice just as they are, and that's the problem. What exactly do you do with it? The pattern takes up a lot of the page, doesn't look easy to cut and doesn't break down into smaller pieces. Fingers crossed for some inspiration from Shimelle over the next four weeks.

** Kate **

Grungy Monday

2011-10-15T14:02:00.000+01:00

Yes, I know it's not Monday, but the Grungy Monday challenges are back from their break with challenge #22 A Holtz-ian Halloween. Well I couldn't resist that one!

I've used paler Distress Ink colours to roughly ink over a piece of card. Then I've added Tim Holtz Halloween masks and inked over the top again in the 3 new seasonal colours and inked the edges in black.

All of the stamps are from the fabulous Pink Paislee Phantom set, as are the other little embellishments I added.

Challenges:
Grungy Monday #22 - Holtz-ian Halloween
Fussy And Fancy - Fall/Halloween
Daring Cardmakers sponsored by The Ribbon Reel - Bird

** Kate **

Falling Leaves

2011-10-13T12:51:00.000+01:00

It's a love sunny Autumn day today and on the whole I am busy with family matters and a few larger projects that I really want to get off the ground. In the meantime, I thought I would dip into a few mini projects and challenges to share here.

Today I have made an Autumn tag.

Lots of Distress Ink in Ripe Persimmon and Gathered Twigs. The leaf stamp was free with Craft Stamper Magazine, but I couldn't say off hand which month it was!

I've inked the tag lightly and splashed it with a little water. Then, once it was thoroughly dry, I put it through the printer for the wording. After that I distressed the edges and inked them some more before adding the embellishments.

Challenges:
Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT #41 - Tag it!
Try It Tuesday - Tag with peace and tranquility theme
Artistic Stamper - Autumn colours

** Kate **

By The Cute And Girly - October Blog Hop!

2011-10-08T09:00:00.002+01:00

Welcome to our first every By The Cute and Girly blog hop!
It's our 2nd birthday and we are celebrating in style with a special challenge and blog hop. As well as loads of prizes on the challenge blog, each design team member also has a prize to give away on their blog from their featured sponsor, so lots of chances to win some great prizes.
If you have come from Lora's blog then you are on the right track, if not, you need to hop over to her for the start of the hop.

This is what you need to do for a chance to win one of this month's prizes:

1. Enter the challenge at By The Cute and Girly as you normally would. The theme this month is "Anything Goes" and remember our challenge is for any type of crafts from papercrafts to baking, so you really can enter with anything you like. This month we are limiting the entries to 1 per person since it's anything goes.

2. Do the hop and leave a comment on each of the design team's blogs for a chance to win the prize on their blog.

3. Each design team member has a letter of the alphabet on their blog that you need to collect. When you are finished the hop and have collected all the letters, rearrange them to make a word and email it to Lora (you will find her email address and instructions on the challenge blog). Please DO NOT leave a comment with the word you have made, you must email Lora with it.

4. HAVE FUN!

I'm thrilled to be sponsored for our first ever blog hop by Joanna Sheen and I have a £10 gift certificate for her shop to give away to one lucky winner who leaves a comment on this post.

Here are the links for the products from Joanna Sheen that I've used in my projects today.

Giordano Puppies and Kittens CD-Rom

Giordano Rubber Stamps - Just A Note

Gleanies Rubber Stamps - Cuddle Up

InLinkz.com

I've got 3 projects to share with you. 1st a scrapbook page using the cute Giordano stamp detailed above. (All of the colouring for this month's projects has been done with ProMarkers.)

Then an altered notebook made with one of the decoupage sheets printed from the CD.

I've seen the Giordano family images before and they are so lovely it was hard to choose which design to use off the CD, so I will be sharing some more projects before the end of the month!

My last project is a Christmas card to introduce you to the cute and quirky Gleanies!

I hope you've enjoyed looking at my projects, but now on with the hop. To enter the Blog Hop and be in with a chance of winning one of the fantastic prizes detailed on the challenge blog you will need to make a note of the letter from me which is T and then carry on to the next stop on the hop which is Geraldine.

Here's a list of the hop order in case you get lost along the way:
Lora
Kate - that's me, you're here now!
Geraldine
Ayelet
Lisa Jane
Hanna
Tammy
Carol
By The Cute And Girly Challenge Blog - This is where you will find the email address to send your blog hop word to once you have linked up your challenge entry. If you have any questions about the hop please leave a comment on the challenge blog and one of the team will be sure to get back to you.

Still here? Leave me a comment and hop along to Geraldine's!!

** Kate **

Frankenstein's Bride Gets A Makeover

2011-10-07T09:47:00.002+01:00

When I was a teenager I had a little black and white portable TV in my room and I used to stay up late on weekends to lie in bed and watch midnight horror films. I kept a little book of reviews so that I didn't stay up late only to discover the film was a really bad one I had already seen and also because I wanted to see how many films in total I could get to.

I stopped watching new horror films when they became about how much gore you could show rather than the suspense and the incredible power of the viewers imagination. I'm sad that I don't still have my little book of reviews, but one film I definitely know I watched was The Bride Of Frankenstein. Those old films made you feel sorry for the poor Frankenstein's monster in pain and misunderstood. The bride was unforgettable with her white and black hair swept up into a big cone.

My bride has had a bit of a makeover in celebration of 2 new challenges. The Saturated Canary Challenge for themed projects featuring the stamps and digi artwork of the wonderful Krista, where the 1st challenge has a sketch and lots of photos for inspiration. And Beyond The Burtonesque Dolls, a challenge blog dedicated not just to the work of Tim Burton but other Burtonesque films, books and directors; kicking off with a favourite Halloween film, book or memory theme.

I've made over Simply Sassy girl Windswept (designed by Krista) and I think Frankenstein or his monster would be more than happy with her as she is quite a looker! She is coloured with Copics and the extra details on her body art have been added using a Pilot DR Drawing Pen in 0.1 size. It has such a fine tip it makes it easy to add in extra lines details.

All of the other stamps and papers are from the Pink Paislee Phantom line that I just can't get enough of working with at the moment. I've added some Distress Ink in Wild Honey and Ripe Persimmon and some Black Diamond Stickles.

Challenges:
Saturated Canary #1 - Sketch and photo inspiration
Beyond The Burtonesque Dolls #1 - Halloween film, book or memory
Tuesday Throwdown #69 - Halloween
Crafty Calendar - Spooky

Pens:

** Kate **

Helloooooo!

2011-10-06T21:03:00.000+01:00

Hellooooo to my followers is nice to have you back! "Hang on a minute," I hear you say " We never went away!" It's true you were always there, but for several months I have lost you and missed you and not even known who you were. Problems using new gadgets on my out of date Internet Explorer prompted me to install Google Chrome and as an added bonus I can now see the followers here and on other blogs too.

It's lovely to see old friends and new. I will have to dig out that followers candy I've been saving, but it will have to wait for November, there's something else happening before that. Stop by on Saturday to find out what By The Cute And Girly are up to for October, grab a cuppa and let's have a chat.

** Kate **

WOYWW #122

2011-10-05T09:38:00.000+01:00

It's Wednesday and as usual, over at Julia's place we are sharing workdesks. Here's mine.

Not exactly going to set the world alight! Had to use the flash as it's so dull and overcast here, which is really annoying as I have projects waiting to photograph and I don't think it's going to improve today. It's all reasonably tidy (well it is for me!) There's a bracelet in a bag waiting to be re-strung and a pile of project left overs waiting to go away. that's got to be on the list of top 5 worst craft jobs, putting back all the papers and scraps at the end of a project. Have a good Wednesday.

** Kate **

Scrap Tag

2011-10-04T13:37:00.000+01:00

Just a little tag I made from scraps of leftovers from some other projects I have just completed. All will be revealed in the grand 2nd birthday blog hop over at By The Cute And Girly on Saturday!

In the meantime, here's my tag.

I've inked over a Tim Holtz mask to make the background of the tag and then coloured in some of the details with Whisper pens. My snowman is looking a little camp with a boa rather than a scarf!!!

I've used some Perfect Pearls mist in Perfect Pearl over the top of the Distress Inks.

As challenge #19 at Lothian Crafts is 'Anything goes' I'm going to enter my campy snowman.

** Kate **

4x6 Photo Love

2011-10-03T14:16:00.000+01:00

Over at Shimelle's blog the latest in the 4x6 Photo Love series is to scrap 9 photos onto one page using a pocket. I fancied scrapping in the sun yesterday and so I had a go. Shimelle's version accompanied a page she had made recently and I was going to do the same with my camping pictures from last year, but I had quite a problem finding 9 photos I wanted to scrap together. In the end I went for a completely different event.

I've used an old piece of Pink Paislee Office Lingo paper for the background and carried through the circles and graph theme from that. The acetate is an old piece from Papermania. The other papers are American Crafts Peachy Keen and Amy Tangerine. I've used Pink Paislee die-cuts all over the pages.

The text is a mixture of Amy Tangerine again and Bella Blvd. Here are the inside pages.

** Kate **

Learn Something New Every Day

2011-10-02T14:27:00.000+01:00

The final round-up for Shimelle's LSNED class and I am very pleased to say that my album is complete.

Here are a some of the pages I haven't blogged before.

I've really enjoyed being part of this class/event and I'm already thinking about how I might approach next year's differently, so it looks like I'm hooked.

** Kate **

By The Cute And Girly - October

2011-10-01T08:06:00.008+01:00

A little build up to this month's challenge at By The Cute And Girly!!!!

** Kate **

Keep It Simple

2011-09-27T14:03:00.000+01:00

A couple of simple style challenge cards today. The first is for Less Is More sketch challenge #34.

I've used a Papermania stamp set from last year's Christmas range (or was it the year before), this year's haven't even seen any ink yet!

The second card is for Allsorts challenge #122 - Keep It Simple combined with the Daring Cardmakers Dr Seuss challenge.

The stamps are from a little foam back set the children have. Nice to be able to borrow their supplies for once. Should Ta-da! be Ta-dah! Saw it spelt differently after I'd stamped it directly onto the card, grrr.

** Kate **

Distressed!

2011-09-26T11:45:00.000+01:00

I've been having a play with these......................

You can expect to see them liberally spread on my projects, I just love all 3 colours. I made this little calendar page just because I wanted to use the inks.

I've stamped with Pink Paislee Phantom stamps. Love the little cameos in this set for use all year round.

There are some prima crystals, American Crafts ribbon and a 7 gypsies sticker on there too.

Just might have added a bit of Picket Fence Distress Stickles on there too. I like Distresss Stickles for this type of project, they add some texture without the girly sparkle.

Talking of girly, there's only 5 sleeps left until the mega surprises are unveiled for the By The Cute And Girly October challenge. Make sure you stop by you won't want to miss out!

** Kate **

Scrapbook Sketch Of The Week

2011-09-24T14:16:00.000+01:00

Here's my second summery project, which now looks like it's in celebration of some fantastic Autumn weather that's being forecast for next week.

Shimelle has been inspiring me to scrapbook a little more often. I think it might be because I've noticed she's been making some groovy videos of her work as it's created and I'm getting inspired by them. Added to that I have holiday and special occasion photos printed out and ready to go. Even if I just make a page a week this time next year my album will be better off by 52 pages - I think I will have to use that as today's LSNED entry! So here's my take on Shimelle's Scrapbook Sketch Of The Week.

I've pretty much followed the sketch exactly using papers, borders, letters and journalling block all from BoBunny supplies. I actually managed to get using my Roughin' It collection which I bought specifically to use with the photos from July 2010 family camp. There are a few little scraps from other papers used on the target and an Amy Tangerine sticker (I wish I'd had a proper arrow stamp but this one worked OK).

For the dots on the sketch I managed to pick out the little centres left behind by the sticky border using a pokey tool, absolutely nothings gone to waste!

** Kate **

A Hard Theme

2011-09-23T10:09:00.000+01:00

Away with Autumn, I headed back to Summer last night for a couple of projects.

The 1st was a card for the Fab & Funky challenge #91 to try out a technique or theme you find hard. I've gone for 'no lines' stamping which I first saw pioneered over at Make It Crafty, but you know how these things travel around blogland, so apologies if I've got that wrong.

I've used a strawberry picking Tilda with an Angel Pink Memento ink pad. The colouring was tricky/different and I was particularly pleased with how her hair turned out. What I hadn't expected to be difficult was making up the card, but actually it was awkward trying to find papers and embellishments that didn't swamp the stamped image. I think I might try again with a shabby chic kind of look in Sepia colours.

I was trying to make my own punched, layered flowers for another challenge when I noticed that some of the cut away petals looked like little strawberries, so I went for a punched out collection of strawberries, flowers and leaves. See below for details of the papers used.

Challenges:

Fab & Funky #91 - A hard theme

Moving Along With The Times #117 - 3 patterned papers (MME, Echo Park and BoBunny)

2 types of embellishment (punch shapes and ribbon)

1 image (Tilda)

Try it On Tuesday - Wonderful world (where would we be without strawberries!!)

Fussy & Fancy - Try a new technique

I'll post the 2nd project I made a bit later otherwise my morning will be gone sat at the pooter.

** Kate **

Autumn's here

2011-09-22T13:22:00.000+01:00

Yes, Autumn is definitely here. We've had a couple of miserable, dull days and it hasn't been possible to go out without a coat. It's much brighter today and I'm sat with sun shining in on me through the kitchen windows.

I've made a card for a chap with an Autumn birthday using an Edwin stamp from one of the older collections.

The design was inspired by the sketch at The Official Magnolia Inspiration Challenge #16. All of the patterned papers are from the new Amy Tangerine range at American Crafts and the ribbon is from American Crafts too.

Edwin is coloured with Copics. his hat and jacket are in a combination of BV00, BV02, BV04, which I have just treated myself to. I've masked him to stamp the leaves behind with an Imaginisce Snag'em. After the leaves had been stamped I realised I used a VersaFine ink pad, so I have coloured them with Whisper pens.

The little message is from a Dovecrafts mini stamp pack. The inside has been finished off simply with a panel of patterned paper and the leaf stamp.

Challenges:

The Official Magnolia Inspirations Challenge #16 - Fall sketch
My Time to Craft #158 - 'L' is for (in the case leaves!)
Scrapbook Sisters Card Challenge #53 - Autumn

** Kate **

WOYWW #120

2011-09-21T09:55:00.000+01:00

It's Wednesday again and so it's time to share desks and works in progress with like minded peeps over at Julia's place.

I've been buying more Copics to play with and seem to be doing a lot of colouring but not actually making up any finished craft projects.

Here's the actual workspace.

Not a lot of progress there then. Oh well, maybe next week.

** Kate **

LSNED - round-up

2011-09-20T11:11:00.000+01:00

Ok, so I admit defeat, here is my some what late Sunday round-up post for Learn Something New Every Day. Days 10, 12, 15 and 17 are to have photos added once I have enough to print an A4 sheet of mini pics.

** Kate **

Ketch-up

2011-09-20T10:46:00.000+01:00

Where have the days gone - here's a picture summary of where I'm at.

The Dinky Diva's been crafting with some of my spare supplies.

I thought it would be nice to enter her card in a few challenges/blog links:

Make It Monday - Anything goes
Critter Sketch - I image, 2 PP, 3 embellishments, 1 sentiment
Stamp With Fun - Anything goes

Stumped for the 50th birthday present, I decided a piece of jewellery was my best bet. I made a necklace and popped it in a decorated box made from K&Co Amy Butler supplies.

The birthday lunch was lovely and made such a change to be out for lunch, it felt like we were all bunking off school! Here's a slice of the cake for you.

We've had some stormy weather with several thunder storms but also one of these.

I'm totally up to date with my Learn Something New Every Day pages, just didn't get them photographed in time for a Sunday round-up, so I will pop them on another post in a minute.

Now to see where this week will take me. On the to do list are:

DT projects for a very special event at By The Cute And Girly coming 1 October 2011 - don't miss it
A wedding album for a gift (1st need to get the photos sorted and sent to the printers)
Some challenges that I just have to play along with
And trying to have a tidy up!!!

** Kate **

Happy 50th

2011-09-15T13:16:00.000+01:00

We are off out to a 50th birthday lunch on Monday. I haven't a clue what to do about a present but I have got the card sorted.

I've stamped with some Penny Black numbers and then masked them off before decorating the card with Distress Inks.

The numbers have then been coloured with Copics and had some Stardust Stickles added to lift them a bit.

Challenges:
Penny Black Blog - Purple, green and cream
The Artistic Stamper - Numbers

My cold doesn't seem to be improving, or at least it does and then I probably rush to do too much and then I feel all achy again. Going to slink back to bed, if little people let me!!

** Kate **

Batty About You

2011-09-14T12:32:00.000+01:00

The Kathy's Waffle Sketch for September has been simplified right down so it can be used for clean and simple projects or dressed up. I've gone for something in between the two.

Weirdly, I chose the same BasicGrey papers that I used on my last play at Kathy's sketch, only realised after it was all done. My witchy Tilda has been coloured with some of my new Promarker colours which I trudged over to the sorting office to pick up yesterday. The little bat is an Imaginisce Snag'em.

Challenges:

Magnolia-licious - Orange, teal and brown
Magnolia Stamp Lovers - Fall colours
Digi Designs #1 - Anything goes
Stamp Something - Anything goes
Creative Inspirations - Anything goes

** Kate **

3 in 1

2011-09-13T12:43:00.000+01:00

3 great challenges combined in one card for my blog post today.

I've taken the lovely sketch for the Wild Orchid Challenge #32 and flipped it around. The challenge also had a Christmas theme and meant I had a good excuse to get out my new MME Lost & Found papers ( a little bit disappointed that there is no glittering on the 6x6 pad though).

My Whiff Of Joy stamp and a colour scheme of 'Pink and Pearls' is for challenge #112, I just about finished making my card in time, challenge #113 is due tomorrow.

Willow is coloured with Promarkers. I frequently fall in and out of love with my Promarkers, but I think I've finally cracked it with the simple realisation that they are not Copics! I've stopped trying to use them the same way and instead I'm colouring and blending slightly differently. Some more pens are on their way from Cutting Edge Crafts so that I can check that I really do like them, hee, hee.

The card is finished off with flowers and swirls a plenty for Allsorts challenge #120. All the flowers are, of course, from Wild Orchid Crafts.

There a Christmas card made, only another 99 to go!

** Kate **