A Non-traditional Wreath and other things

First off is the first ever gingerbread cookies I've ever bake, wasn't too shabby even if I say so myself lol! Also a batch of sugar cookies, these were for work colleagues, tomorrow I am baking more for family gifts, I have a very busy few days ahead of me lol!




This is the first snow we've had this year and it disappeared the same day, hurray! And this is the cheeky little robin who keeps spying on me when I'm pottering in the kitchen :)


Lastly this is my wreath, I made it using a twiggy heart from Wilkinsons, ribbon and twine from the £1 shop and the Flower Shoppe and Rock Princess cricut cartridge. I'm quire happy with how it turned out, I decided to change to colours for my decorations this year, I've had black and gold for the last 3 years and wanted something more wintry so I've gone with teals, peacock blues, silver and white and my tree looks so pretty, I'll post a piccy when I get round to it lol!



That's all for today, been making chocolates all day so need to get my gift boxes made and then an early night for me I think lol!

Happy crafting
Anna x

A quicky update as I'm supposed to be getting ready for work :)

Here are my snowman soup packages, a card for family in Canada and my Advent calendar.

I will post materials, links and credits later, when I have more time.

Happy crafting
Anna x

Yay! Christmas craftiness :)

Hiya, well today I finally manage to take some photos of my first lot of Christmas crafting :)

I've been busy making wall decorations, an Advent calendar, cards and gift boxes here are a few pics of my efforts so far :)

My gingerbread garland for my kitchen, lots of glitter and glossy accents lol!

Shopping List

Cricut carts: Winter Woodland and Gingerbread

Cardstock: Cor'dinations and Rymans white 200gsm bright white coated card

Glitter: from Glitter Magic, Rainbow Red, Rainbow Orange, Lemon, Iridescent White/Green, Stampendous pastel pink.

Bakers Twine: Orchid Crafts, Brown

Buttons from stash


Santa and sleigh wall deco

Shopping List
Cricut Carts: Winter Woodland, Sweet Treats, Doodlecharms

Card Stock: Cor'dinations, Kars, scraps from stash

Gitter: Glitter Magic, Brown, copper penny, Santa red, Diamond Stickles

Polar White Flowersoft

Bakers Twine: Cherry red from Wild Orchid Crafts

Gift card holder

Shopping List

Cricut Cart Accent Essentials (shapes welded on Gypsy) and Gingerbread

White card blank from stash

Card Stock: Stampin Up in Chocolate Chip and riding Hood Red

DSP: My Minds Eye, I believe 12 x 12 Stack

Bakers Twine: Cherry red from Wild Orchid Crafts

Stamps: My pink Stamper Winter Treats and Sayings

Inkpad: SU Whisper White Craft ink

First batch of Xmas cards lol!

Shopping List

Card blanks from stash

Cricut Cart Accent Essentials

Card Stock: Stampin Up in riding Hood Red

Glossy card from stash

Swiss Dots Embossing folder

Stamps: Kars Scandinavian Reindeer, Inkadinkadoo Snowflakes

Spellbinders Scallop square

More Xmas cards and a cute gift box

Shopping List

Cricut Cart Accent Essentials, Winter Woodland

Card Stock: Stampin Up in riding Hood Red, Rymans white 200gsm bright white coated card

Swiss Dots Embossing folder

Stamps: Kars Scandinavian Reindeer, Inkadinkadoo Snowflakes, SU Tags til Christmas

Stickles Star dust

Hope you like my first offerings and you find some inspiration in them, hopefully I get more uploaded soon :)

Happy crafting

Anna x

Halloween stuff

Ok, so Halloween has been and gone but I haven't updated in a while so this is my last post with my Halloween makes.

Sorry for the lack of pictures and updates but my computer went down with a nasty virus that affected all my removable storage devices including my sd card for my camera.

The card is history so at the moment I'm having to rely on my phone to take pictures. I am so not happy with that!

Anyhoo, on to this weeks offerings.

Haunted house from the Happy Hauntings cricut cart.

A spooky banner cut on the cricut using Stampin Up card stock and DSP.

And finally a goodie bag for my niece for Halloween :)

I did make some more cards and a Halloween mini album but lost the photos so I will have to take those again at some point.

Odds and ends :)

Well so much for updating more often lol! Just a quick post with a few odds and ends, a birthday card, engagement card and a pretty tag. Hoping to get the rest of my Halloween stuff finished today and my pumpkin carved :)

Well what have I been upto while I've been AWOL lol! Well I have had to format my computer, something I hate doing as it takes ages to back up all my graphics folder lol! I am now using Windows 7, not sure what i think of it yet but I like that it boots up quickly :)

I have also been learning Photoshop, I almost completed Photoshop CS5 book classroom in a book, that's been fun and I've learnt some new tricks. Unfortunately my trusty old Paintshop Pro had stopped working properly when I installed it on Vista, I had to run it in compatibility mode so I thought it was time to upgrade to something new. I'm very impressed so far :)

I also treated myself to a Cricut Expression, which is fab although with work I haven't had much time to play.

Hopefully I'll get my halloween projects posted next week. So much to do, so little time lol!

My pumpkins, I grew these for the first time this year, the little things at the front are my butternut squash, unfortunately they didn't do so well this year but it's been a funny year altogether weather wise :0

Birthday card for a friend
Flowers are cut from Flower Shoppe cartridge, heart tag from Fabulous Finds cart, papers and cardstock is mainly Stampin Up with a bit of K & Co. Stamps and inks are Stampin Up too.


Our Katy and Jono's engagement card, the rose wreath is actually heart shaped and it took ages to wire it all together, it's not very clear in the photo and I had to turn the topper diagonal as I'd made it too large lol!

A pretty tag using Tim Holtz and See D's stamps TH distress inks and ribbons, buttons from stash. Some of the flowers are made by me and some were bought, I dyed some of the ribbon with distress inks to make it match, I quite like how it came out and I'm planning to send it to a lovely lady who I met through FB, can't say who it is yet as she might see lol!
Well that's it for today,

Happy crafting

Anna x

Sick of being poked & prodded...

by doctors recently. After suffering with joint pain especially in my knees since childhood I finally caved and went to the doctors last month. My parents took me numerous times as a child and teen because of pain in my knees and all they ever said was it was growing pains. Well after being prodded and poked by the doc he refered me to a consultant and they have finally diagnosed me as having fibromyalga.

I'm kind of glad I can put a name to it now but not so happy that my treatment consists of anti-depressants, although having said that I must admit the pain has been much better the last week or so since starting them.

This plus the fact I am type 2 diabetic, I have hypertension, under active thyroid and PCOS makes me feel like I'm falling to pieces just lately.

I'm hoping I'll get some energy back soon and feel more like getting involved in more challenges and maybe do more with this blog, just sick of feeling ill all the time.

Anyhoo, sorry for the whiney post, I don't like moaning about my illnesses as there are lots of people who are worse off than me, so to cheer things up a bit I'll let you in to a bit of good news too :)

My baby sister Katy is getting arried next year, now Katy is 21 years younger than me and is more like a daughter to me than a sister. Her fiance is a wonderful guy and I'm so thrilled for them. She asked me to be matron of honour and also to make her wedding stationery, of course I couldn't refuse lol! I don't know who is more excited, Katy or me lol! She is having a gothic themed wedding and the colours are black and red, how fab is that.

Anyway, that's about it for today, I'll have a few odds and ends to post in the next couple of days when I finally get my camera set up lol!

Until next time,
Happy Crafting
Anna x

And the Halloween festivities start

I love Halloween, can't wait for it to arrive and I'm so excited as I have a load of new crafty goodies dedicated to celebrating this spooky holiday :) Halloween isn't celebrated in the UK, although it is becoming more popular, I have no idea why as it used to be, just one more tradition brushed under the carpet. Anyhoo, started getting a bit serious there, here are my first two cards for Halloween, I will put up a list of supplies in another post as this is just a quick update :) My nephew has been here all day as he goes back to uni tomorrow so I haven't got anything done lol!

Happy crafting Anna x

Mum's The Word

Just the one card today, I was watching Barbara Gray on C&C yesterday and decided to have another attempt at brayering, I still can't seem to get the hang of it but this is the best I've done so far. I wanted a warm, autumnal card for my Mum's birthday and this is what I came up with.



Shopping List:-
Stampin Up Cardstock in Early Espresso and Daffodil Delight
Stampin Up DS Paper Botanical Gazette
Lavinia Stamps Satin Coated Cardstock
Stampin Up Inkpads in Early Espresso and Pumpkin Pie
Tim Holtz Distress Inkpads in Wild Honey and Brushed Corduroy
Tim Holtz Distress stain in Wild Honey
Faber Castell Drafting pen 0.1 Black
Tim Holtz Trimmings Lavish Ribbons
Mulberry St Sm Daisies Mocha Tyedye
ZvaCreative Fabric Covered Brads
Stampin Up Nature Walk & Just Believe Stamp Sets
Clarity Stamps Cottage
Lavina Stamps Teeny Bench
Stampin Up Word Window Lge Punch
Sizzix Sizzlet Mother Phrase
The tree Stamp is one I made using Imac Pac and a free font, the stamp I used for the leaves is a Lavinia stamp which I think was a freebie when I bought some goodies from her stand a few years ago at a craft fair, I'm also thinking that that is where I got the teeny bench stamp too.

Phew! I think that's the majority of the stuff I used lol!

I'm not going to go into the whole making of this as it took me ages lol! I did use the inks to give more colour to the DS papers and also used the distress stain to colour the seam binding from the lavish ribbon pack, and crumpled it while I dried it with the heat gun, I also coloured the fabric covered brad with the stain too and the mulberry flowers as they were not quite the right colour.

Still not sure I'm happy with the overall look of this but my hubby likes it so it's a pass lol!

Can't Believe It's ...

... September already!
Well here we are again, my sister Heather's birthday has come around once again. It doesn't seem two minutes since I posted her 40th birthday card last year.

This year I wanted to give her a card that reminded her of our past, our friendship and our plans for the future.

When we where still living at home together in our teens she bought me a little ornament. It was a little girl sitting next to a plaque which read, 'Friends Together, Sisters Forever'. I still have it packed away in one of the many boxes of things I refuse to throw away :)

I wanted to use this sentiment as Heather and I have a very close friendship and sometimes I forget to tell her, that she is still my BBF.

Many years ago when my nephew, her first child, was born we made a promise to each other that when all the children were grown we would have a trip to Paris together, I'm still holding her to that and as her son turned 20 this year I thought I might just give her memory a poke lol!

I bought the Tim Holtz French Connection stamp set recently and thought the little Paris postmark was a perfect and subtle way to prod her memory lol!

Here is her card



Shopping List:-
Tim Holtz French Connection Stamp Set
Stampin Up Vintage Vogue Stamp Set
See D's Texture Background Stamps (not sure of the correct name for the set but it is one of their old purple sets)
Stampin Up Cardstock in Rose Red, Basic Black, whisper White and Basic Grey
Anita's Black Satin Ribbon
Perfect Pearls in Perfect Pearl
Stampin Up Rose Red Inkpad
Memento Tuxedo Black Inkpad
Versamark Inkpad

The basic grey cardstock was stamped with one of the stamps from the TH collection in versamark and then brushed over with perfect pearls. I then stamped the rose red background using the rose red ink pad using the script and bird designs from TH and the speckled texture from see d's. The friend sentiment was stamped onto whisper white and then cut out using the scalloped square from spellbinders. The rest of the text was printed onto whisper white and edged with the rose red and distressed with the TH distressing tool. I stamped the floral plaque from TH above the printed text and popped up the friends stamped image. I finally stamped the Paris postmark in tuxedo black.

Finally a few little thank you cards which took minutes to make and are really sweet.



Shopping List:-
Ryman's smooth white cardstock
Stampin Up Certainly Celery & Marina Mist Inkpads
Memento Tuxedo Black Inkpad
See D's Leaves Set
Stampin Up So Happy For You Stamp Set
glimmer mist such as tattered Angels Iridescent gold or you could make your own, I used some blue and green made from Image pac mica powders.

I used a clear mount block and covered it with ink, spritzed with a couple of sprays of homemade glimmer mist and then stamped on to the cardstock. Dried it off with my heat gun and then stamped the leaves and the thanks in tuxedo black, very quick and simple :)

Anyhoo I think I've waffled enough for one day lol! so I'll bid you adieu.

Happy crafting
Anna x

Well I finally got to put some pics up, here is the keepsake I made for my sister who had her house warming party yesterday, although I actually forgot to take her cards so will have to nip in sometime in the next couple of days lol! Good excuse for a cuppa and a natter :D

Used:-
Core'dinations, Create & Craft Pearl and Bazzil cardstock
Don Juan, Winter Woodland & Doodle Charms Cricut Carts
Hunkydory kitty embelishments
Flowers from Hobby Craft
















This is the new baby card I made for a colleague for all the staff to sign.

Used:-
Stampin Up card stock
Stampin Up ink pad
Cricut Sampler & Nursery Rhymes carts
Cuttlebug Swiss Dots & Craft Concepts In Stitches embossing folders
Anita's Ribbon



Happy Crafting
Anna x

One thing I forgot....

To mention, I won some blog candy quite a while ago from Sam at Ladybug crafts and I forgot to mention it on here, although I did thank her in private I t was rude of me not to say something earlier. Sorry Sam, I was thrilled with the goodies, even though I haven't had time to play :)

This is the lovely parcel I received :)



Thanks again Sam :)

Long time no crafting!

Hi, well it's been a while since I posted anything on my blog, I've been far too busy with work and trying to keep the garden and house reasonably straight to do any crafting :(

My husband and I have started walking again this summer, something we used to do quite often in our early twenties when we were skint and bored lol! We have already had some awesome walks up in the Peak District around Hathersage and Edale. We even managed a night camping and then took the hard route up Kinder Scout. Boy, did I know I'd done that walk :D I have a couple of albums on my FB account, it's so gorgeous up there at the moment as all the heather is in bloom :) Kinder Scout and Hathersage, Higger Tor and Padley Gorge

I did manage to knock a couple of cards together for friends who had asked if I could make them cards for special occasions, I made a Diamond wedding card but forgot to take a picture! Oh hum! lol! I also made a new baby card for everyone at the co-op I work at to sign for one of our staff members, his wife has just had a gorgeous baby girl :) And I did remember to take a picture... I just haven't put it on my computer yet lol!

I dread this time of year now as I am 'expected' to make cards for all and sundry for Xmas, it's become more of a chore, rather than being something I enjoy but I know that my cards are appreciated so I shouldn't complain lol!

I'll pop that photo on some time in the next couple of days and I may even get around to making my sister a house warming card too lol!

Speak to you all soon
Anna x

A flower template for Erin

A flower template I made for Erin so she can make flowers with her class :) Hope it helps. I couldn't share the one I used in my flower tutorial so I made a quick flower in Inkscape for her and anyone else who needs one ;)
This will print on to an A4 page, with enough petals to make one flower.

Altered ATG Gun

Hi all, well I did it, I altered my new ATG gun, it was a nerve racking experience I can tell you lol! I'm pleased with how it came out though.

I sprayed it with Tranquil Blue enamel paint, it did say it could be used for plastic but I'm a bit worried it might chip. Added my bling and then gave it a few coats of clear varnish, only time will tell if it chips or not. I think if I do it again I would get a paint specifically for plastics. I used my cricut to cut the glitter vinyl for the A, stars, hearts and the drama queen decals.

Here's a couple of piccies showing off my handy work :)





And just a little something I tried last night while I was waiting for paint to dry lol!



I haven't attempted crochet in about 20 years and never managed to get beyond squares, my Mum will be so proud lol! I was inspired to have a go by Jannaviles Youtube video, she had made some cute flowers and butterflies, so I thought I'd give it a go. I knew that crochet hook would come in handy some day lol!

Bee Happy

A lovely sunny card today, bit like the weather here in the UK. We are having an unseasonable hot spell, it hasn't rained in weeks and I think most Britons are in shock lol! Usually it's tipping it down and we're all walking around in woolie jumpers and boots, freezing our behinds off.

Anyhoo, I just love this designer series paper from Stampin Up and the stamp set that accompanies it, I can't seem to put it down. The little bee from the stamp set is just adorable, I don't know why it appeals so much but I just love it to bits. The papers are gorgeous and I'm just loving the honeycomb pattern.

Here's the card, I followed the instructions for making this card base from a Split Coast Stampers tutorial on You Tube. You can find the tutorial for the flower by clicking on the tutorial link in my labels list at the side of the page.
The oval mats were cut from the Gypsy Wanderings cart and the sentiment was printed on the computer.

I used an exert from the William Blake poem, The Auguries Of Innocence. I just thought it fitted the bee theme perfectly, what bee wouldn't find heaven in a flower.



Supplies:-
Stampin Up card stock in River Rock, Very Vanilla and Soft Suede
Stampin Up DPS in Botanical Gazette
Stampin Up stamp set Nature Walk
Color Box chalk inks in Cadmium Yellow & Amber Clay
9in Organza ribbon

Happy Crafting

Anna x

Thank You Berry Much card

Hi, just a quick post.



Off to Sheffield now for some retail therapy :)

Happy Crafting
Anna x

Nature calls...

This week I seem to have been thinking natural thoughts lol! I have three cards and a corner bookmark and a tiara (HUH!) Where does that figure in the wild lol! Well it doesn't unless you include a Princess themed Brownie party :D

Right on to the first card, this is for a lovely lady who is retiring this week where I work. I've known her most of my life and she is the sweetest person and will be very much missed. She is a nature lover and a keen animal lover so I wanted something that reflected her interests. I used the Cricut to cut the mat and my Bigshot to cut the felt flowers. Images were stamped using Crumb Cake and the twine was a bargain from the £1 shop lol! And it came in a cute tin which I will alter when the twine has all gone.




Supplies:-
Card stock Stampin Up Marina Mist, River Rock and Very Vanilla
Designer paper series Stampin Up Botanical Gazette
Stamp set Stampin Up Nature Walk
Sentiment See D's stamp
Natural Jute garden twine from £1 shop
Ink Pads Stampin Up Crumb Cake & Old Olive
Cricut Cart Tie The Knot
Sizzix Die Flower layers set
Felt sheets from Hobby Craft

This next card is for my Dad, I haven't decided if it will be for Father's day or his birthday yet. I stamped the image in Crumb Cake and also used it to ink the edges. The mats were cut from the Gypsy Wanderings cart (Yep I now am the proud owner of a Gypsy :D more about that in another post )

The card was two mats from the Don Juan cart welded together, I used the stitched one then used my pokey tool to pierce the top layer so I could stitch it easily. I used my new Tim Holtz wood grain embossing folder for the brown piece and Core'dinations Chocolate Box cardstock which I then sanded back and inked to give it a mossy look.




Supplies:-
Card stock Stampin Up Sahara & Core'dinations Chocolate Box
Ribbon Stampin Up
Cricut Carts Gypsy Wanderings, Gyspy Font & Don Juan
Ink Pads Stampin Up Crumb Cake & Old Olive
Tim Holtz wood grain embossing folder

The next card is just too cute, even if I say so myself lol! It's for my nephew who is a Sheffield Wednesday fan and for those of you who don't know, The SWFC symbol is an owl, hence their nickname, The Owls. Again I used the Tim Holtz wood grain folder, used my nestabilities to cut a hole and cut the sentiment from the Just Because Cards cart.


Suppiles:-
Card stock Stampin Up Choc Chip, Core'dinations Chocolate Box, Core'dinations green and lime scraps
Cricut Cart Just Because Cards
Ink Pad Color Box Creamy Brown
Tim Holtz wood grain embossing folder
Stampin Up 2 Step Owl punch
A few scraps of brown & cream card for the owl

This is a corner bookmark, I followed a tutorial on You Tube but don't have the link handy so will post it later.



Supplies:-
Card Stock Stampin Up Rose Red & Certainly celery
Designer paper series Stampin Up Botanical Gazette
Inkpad Stampin Up Old Olive
Stamp set Crafters Companion Mens Collection
Ribbon HunkyDory


Finally here is the tiara I made for my niece for her Brownies party.

My sister popped around for a visit on Wednesday and the first thing she said to me was, do you have a tiara, obviously I said, of course darling, I have several, just like the Queen Lol!!

Anyhoo I actually don't but I had an idea, I whipped out my Rock Princess cartridge and said take your pick.

This was so simple to make, I cut it at about 7 inches, cut 2 strips of glitter card stock which I glued either side to make a band, adding velcro so it could be adjusted and then just blinged it up. Simples :D

I do have a piccy of my sister modelling it but she won't let me post it lol!! Don't know why she's so worried, her street cred went down the pan years ago lol!


Supplies:-
C&C pink glitter & silver mirri card stock
Cricut Cart Rock princess
Hobby Craft large pearl hearts and clear gems
Self adhesive velcro strips

Any hoo that's all for now, off to get ready for work. I am hoping to post a vid tomorrow and maybe show off some of my birthday haul, which isn't until next week but seeing as I bought most of it myself I decided I could have it early lol!

Have a happy crafty day
Anna x

Monotone Butterflies

Just one card this morning :)

A simple black and white card, my hubby loved this lol! He always says he likes everything but he was really taken with this particular card. Butterflies and background stamped on to white vellum with white Stazon and embossed.





Supplies:-
White vellum
Stazon White ink pad
Meltdust Original embossing powder
Basic Black card stock Stampin Up
Siver Mirri board
Bliss Stamp set Stampin Up

Have a happy crafty day, I'm off to get a bit of gardening done :)

Anna x

Paper Flower Tutorial

Morning, I've just uploaded my Chrysanthemum tutorial to Youtube, hope you enjoy it.
Here's the link for SVGCuts.com for the flower files.
Other suggestions for the flower shapes
Cricut Cartridge Mother's Day Bouquet
Spellbinders Nestabilities Rose Creations
EKSuccess Retro flower punches which come in several sizes

Happy Crafting

Anna x

A mixed bag...

..this morning :)

Morning All, I've actually got a day off today, hooray lol! So thought I'd post a few bits I've been working on over the last few days.

My fist project is a mini photo organiser, I find of followed the tutorial here but added my own twist. I used c6 envelopes and made up some simple photo mounts to slot in to each of the pockets. I think it turned out really cute and you could do so many variations on this. I'm already thinking of gift ideas for Xmas lol!

The tabs and photo corners were cut using SVG files from Images By Heather M and SCAL2







Supplies:-
Stampin Up
Pretty in Pink, Crumb Cake and Soft Suede card stock
Early espresso Classic ink pad
Early espresso taffeta ribbon (I think, it was a gift so I only had a couple of metres)
4 c6 envelopes


I made some more flowers, I'm getting addicted lol! I used an the Impatien SVG file from SVGCuts 3D Flower Kit Pt2 and cut it in 3 sizes, I'll pop a quick tutorial up some time this week to show how I made them. The large purple flower was made using the wilted ribbon technique, there is a tutorial on Stamper Dogs Youtube channel here. It looks gorgeous in the 'flesh' but I couldn't get a nice piccy of it. I think I might make some faux enamelled flowers for the centre if I make more of these and turn them into brooches.






I just made up the next card to try out my new flowers lol!



Supplies:-
Stampin Up Love letter DSP
Stampin Up Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla & Basic Black card stock
Anita's Black satin ribbon
Colorbox Chalk ink pad Lipstick Red
Memento ink pad Black
Berry Red & Burgundy Promarkers
Create & Craft Super Smooth paper

The last card is for my Brother-in-laws birthday, he's an old school metal head lol!
I wanted a kind of faded/worn denim effect so sanded and distressed some Core'dinations card stock from the Earth Elements pack. I like the effect and think it worked how I wanted it to :) The guitar and large skull topper where cut from the Cricut cart Rock Princess.




Supplies:-
Stampin Up Sahara sand card stock
Core'dinations Earth elements card stock in co-coordinating blues & black
Papermania medium grey cardstock
pewter brads
silver gel pen
Colorbox chalk ink pad in Blue Iris


Anyhoo that's all from me today
Happy Crafting
Anna x