A little Kitty in a basket

Hello crafting friends!

I am such a proud crafting lady today as I'm guesting at Addicted to CAS, shoulder to shoulder with the talented design team there :) Come and see what I've made:

Yep! It's a kitty. In a basket. (And I think we know a song about that don't we?!) But that's beside the point!

The code word for this clean and simple challenge is 'Creature' - SO much scope there! I bet your brain is already running through your stamps and coming up with all sorts of ideas!

My card started off with a wash of diluted So Saffron ink over a damp watercolour panel. When it was dry, I added a touch of crumb cake ink along a straight line mask to create a surface to stand my basket on.

The basket was inked up with a marker so I could leave out the eggs it normally contains, but I stuck to a pale neutral so it would be easy to colour over with Spectrum Noir markers. It was stamped twice: first on the watercoloured panel, where I coloured in just the handle; and then again on scrap card stock where I coloured the body of the basket and cut it out.

The little cat is from Clearly Besotted's Fluffy Furball and he's probably the cutest little puss I've ever seen! He's coloured with Spectrum Noirs too and cut out. I tucked him tenderly into the basket so that he was able to peek out, and I added a blue twine bow to the handle to match those baby blues!

The sentiment was put together from two retired sets. I love doing this and you do get a unique result!

It's been brilliant to be a guest at the wonderful Addicted to CAS which has provided me with so much inspiration in the past. Thanks for having me!

I can't wait to see what you're going to make of this code word! My personal hope is that someone will replicate The Creature From The Black Lagoon...!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Here's a picture of our very own local Creature From The Black Lagoon:

Of course not! It's just my little Eva, admittedly as a young girl, showing off to her rather intrigued friend! She is a proper water baby, and if it's muddy water, so much the better! If it's inky black, stinky mud, then that's better still!

Thanks for visiting me here today. I'm really looking forward to seeing your Creatures and if you have a mucky pup story, do let me know in the comments below!

Hugs,

Moving house with lots and lots of love

Hello crafting pals!

My lovely daughter and her partner have been staying with us for a few weeks but now they've found a flat. They moved in yesterday, so of course I must get busy with a new home card!

I looked at this week's Less Is More for inspiration, but the challenge is stencils on a one layer card and I don't have any stencils...

... but then, in an astonishing coincidence, while looking for something completely unrelated, I found a little pile of stash I thought had gone, and amongst it was a set of two stencils! So I made this card:

This card required all sorts of masks! I had to mask off part of the house before inking it up so the side of the house didn't interfere with the sentiment. I also made a stencil for the bushes, using circle punches and post it pads, then had to mask off the house and road while inking the bushes with a sponge dauber. Everything had to be masked so that I could use the heart stencil!

Most of this (apart from the bushes) was coloured with my ancient Blendabilities, many of which have dried up now. I want to replace them with something refillable (I don't like the thought of all those plastic pens in landfill) and with more colour options to improve blendability. Other than Copics (which I can't afford) does anyone have any suggestions? I've been looking at Spectrum Noir - does anyone have any thoughts on those? Are they good?

Everything I used today was Stampin' Up: The house and the 'new home' part of the sentiment is from Holiday Home (retired); the 'Happy' part of the sentiment from Painted Glass; Hearts and Stars decorative masks (retired); Blendabilities (the old 3 pen set markers).

Would anyone like to see the stash I found in the back of a cupboard?

My scoreboard, with diagonal, metric and decorative plates, Stars and Hearts masks, Crystal Effects (I was wishing I had some of that just the other day!), some pretty, glittery bakers twine, and some gorgeous, faceted silver sequins (LOVE them!) This adds a whole new dimension to the phrase 'shop your stash' doesn't it? I feel as if I've won the lottery! But, *cue Twilight Zone music* WHAT were they doing there...?!

Thanks for coming to visit me today. I can't wait to see what you've all been up to!

Hugs,

Moving (to a cooler house I hope!)

Hello crafting pals!

Since it was way too hot to be outside today, I had a little crafty moment :)

Another CAS card making challenge has caught my eye! CAS Colours and Sketches run alternate sketch and colour challenges every Tuesday and looks FUN! Here's this week's sketch:

And here is my take on it:

This card was made using the retired Stampin' Up set Holiday Home. It's a Christmas/Halloween/House move set which I'm pleased got left behind in The Great Craft Stash Robbery! I stamped two of the tall house image, water coloured them, snipped them out and positioned them on the card base.

The 'happy new home' sentiment was far too tiny to work with this layout so I cunningly stamped it three times in a row, added lines either side with a fineliner and cut the strip out. Hey presto! A longer, more prominent sentiment! To finish, I added a punched heart decorated with twine and some punched little door knobs.

If anyone is interested, the stash rebuild has begun! There's been a little bit of ebay bargain hunting, a little bit of Stampin' Up replacement, and some shopping at a fabulous online shop (more on that soon.) I can't wait to show you! *does excited jigging*

See you soon for more crafting fun!

Is Santa on his way to your Holiday Home?

As I was sitting at my desk yesterday, surrounded by my Stampin' Up Christmas stash, I suddenly realised something was missing... my Stampin' Glitter! Yay - let's get the glitter out!  I've gone all arty with it today - come and see:

I think the flying Santa's sleigh image from Holiday Home is just magical and reminds me of all the wonderful Christmas story books I used to read to the children when they were little ones.

To create this wintery scene, I masked off the moon with a punched circle and dragged ink pads over it in various blues.

I used Memento black ink to add Santa and also the tree which I repeatedly stamped to give the impression of a wooded landscape. The trees were dotted with my two way glue pen and sprinkled with glitter.

A nice bright greeting finishes the card - this one is from Making Spirits Bright.

This is the second card I'll be linking up with Less is More this week - they have a gorgeous, icy colour palette to inspire us! I'm also entering 52CCT's Pick a Previous Challenge and have chosen the March 2014 colour combination.

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE THIS CARD NOW!
(Click on any item to be transported to my online shop!) 

Holiday Home Photopolymer Stamp Set £13.95	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad £5.50	Lost Lagoon Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95
Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95	Silver Stampin' Glitter £3.75	2-Way Glue Pen £3.95

My shop is open 24/7 so you can buy Stampin' Up products from me any time, day or night.

If you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

It's Friday *jumps up and down like a loon* and it's time to pick my daughter up from the station! We are going to do baking, decking the halls, crafting (naturally!), shopping, playing with puppies, rustling wrapping paper and keeping secrets... But not necessarily in that order!

See you on Monday

Tea light gifts using Holiday Home from Stampin' Up

One of the pleasures of the chillier, darker days is to toast your toes by a real fire, with a book on your knee (the Stampin' Up catalogue perhaps!) and a steaming cup of hot chocolate at your elbow. I've tried to capture that comforting firelight in the little gift I'm going to show you today. Come and see:

This little decoration holds an electric tea light which flickers just like firelight. It's made of vellum and stamped with one of the beautiful little houses from the Holiday Home stamp set.

This is what it looks like in the daylight when the tea light is turned off. It's very easy to make! I cut a strip of vellum 17cm (6 5/8") x 7 cm (3") and scored at 4 cm (1 5/8"), 8 cm (31/8"), 12 cm (4 6/8") and 16cm (6 2/8") The house was stamped in each scored 'frame' using Stazon ink.

Once the vellum was scored and stamped, I coloured the reverse side with Blendabilities markers, trimmed the top, and assembled it into a square shape. TIP: Stazon ink is perfect for stamping onto shiny surfaces like vellum but because it's an alcohol-based ink, like the Blendabilities, it would result in 'dirty' colouring if you tried to colour on the same side.

These pretty decorations would make great presents but are you wondering how you'd gift wrap them? Well that's easy! The Stampin' Up Gift Box Punch Board makes a box the perfect size - 4.9 x 4.9 x 8.3 cm (1.75 x 1.75 x 3.25")

I used rich Cherry Cobbler card stock for mine and I think they look gorgeous tied up with lush Real Red satin woven ribbon with some pretty tags. How would you decorate yours?

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE THIS PROJECT NOW!
(Click on any item to be transported to my online shop!) 

White Vellum A4 Card Stock £5.95	Jet Black StazOn Pad £5.95	Holiday Home Photopolymer Stamp Set £13.95	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Daffodil Delight Assortment £10.95
Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment £10.95	Gift Box Punch Board £17.95	Real Red 3/8" Satin Woven Ribbon £6.25	Fuse Fast Adhesive £8.95

My shop is open 24/7 so you can buy Stampin' Up products from me any time, day or night.

If you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

Back in the 70s Donny Osmond sang about Puppy Love and now I understand exactly what he meant! We have all fallen in love with our new bundle of golden fluffiness and she seems to be settling in pretty well.

Here she is enjoying a romp in the garden!

Don't think in all the excitement that I've forgotten about my Artisan Design Team duties! I'll be back tomorrow with my team pals when we bring you another fabulous blog hop. See you then!

One layer Christmas rooftops card using Holiday Home from Stampin' Up

Which is your favourite Stampin' Up Christmas stamp set this year? For me, it's a toss up between Holiday Home, Endless Wishes and White Christmas - they're all SO much fun! Here's my latest creation using Holiday Home:

The idea of Santa and his gift-laden sleigh flying through the skies, drawn by a string of magical reindeer captures the imagination of most children (and many adults too!) I masked off the edges of the card base and a moon with a punched 1" circle before sponging in a sky. The houses were stamped in the same colour - Lost Lagoon ink is perfect for this. I dotted in silver stars with my Stampin' Dazzle marker (SO hard to get a photo to show this properly!)

You can sort of see how the stars shimmer in this photo - they really do look pretty in real life. I've chopped my Happy Halloween and Merry Christmas sentiments in half so that I can say Happy Christmas with ease! I know some people prefer not to use the adjective 'merry'.

I'll be linking this card up with Less is More's One Layer Starry Night challenge.

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE THIS CARD NOW!
(Click on any item to be transported to my online shop!) 

Holiday Home Photopolymer Stamp Set £13.95	1 Inch Circle Punch £11.50	Lost Lagoon Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad £5.50	Silver Stampin' Dazzle Marker £3.25	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95

My shop is open 24/7 so you can buy Stampin' Up products from me any time, day or night.

If you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

When I was making this card I started wondering why Santa is supposed to deliver presents in a magical, flying, reindeer-drawn sleigh. I was astonished to read that this idea has only been around since 1823 when the poem 'T'was the Night Before Christmas' was published! Not only that but there's no mention of Rudolph in that poem and he didn't appear on the radar until 1939 when someone made up a story about him! I am disgruntled. That's not even 200 years ago and I like my legends to be a lot older than that!

I'll be back tomorrow with a project for the Stampin' Up Artisan Design Team blog hop - do come and join me for that!