Busy, Busy

Hi all, slacking again with the blogging but real life keeps getting in the way unfortunately.  Quite a few things to share, I'm having a stall at a local Christmas fair this year so getting some cards together to sell.  This will be the first time I've done anything like this so I'm a bit nervous.

I'm also toying with the idea of becoming a Stampin Up demonstrator, I've been mulling it over for a while and I'm not getting anywhere at work so need to focus my attentions elsewhere because I feel like I'm not achieving anything at the moment.

PS. I Love You
So onto the crafty stuff, first up is a scrapbook layout, I can't take full credit for the layout as I loosely followed a layout I'd seen on Cricut.com The papers are Stampin Up from the holiday catalogue winter frost collection, a very versatile collection as it isn't all Christmasy so can be used on other projects and I just loved the colours. The cardstock is all American crafts in lagoon, stone, robin egg and black. I just loved this photo of my hubby and really wanted to do something with it and love how the page looks :) The arrows are cut from the Cricut Southwest cart in AC slate and the words from Wall decor and more in black and white. I just added a bit of faux stitching in black copic fine liner and uniball broad gel pen and added a few accents to the arrows and flags.

Hey Cupcake
This card was a quicky card to send off to my niece in Canada.  The cupcake was cut from the Sweet Treats cart, paper is from DCWV Sweet stack which is totally adorable.   Plus I got it for a fraction of what it should have cost from The Range, along with a few other sale goodies :)  Lots of stickles in baby blue and glam pink, I used seed beads for the sprinkles and the sentiment is from a Fiskars stamp set called The Sweet Life and is stamped in SU early espresso, card stock is also SU early espresso and American Crafts lagoon I think.

Outer Space
These next two I had so much fun with, inspired by Mary from cardcrazy09 on YT.  She makes the most adorable cards.  Both of these monster were cut from the mini monsters cart, I used scraps for the majority.  The rockets are cut from the just because card cart and the stars were punched out from various punches.  The faces were stamped using the adorable Peachy Keen monster mash face stamps and I did a little extra doodling lol!  Sentiments were from SU birthday sentiments.  the black sky was embossed using the cuttlebug devine swirls folder and the orange planet was embossed with a Tim Holtz texture fade on DCWV glitter card and then I coloured over the top with an orange promarker.  To finish them off I just added a some stickles and googley eyes :)

Adorable Ducks
I have had these stamps since June I think and this is the first time I have got around to using them.  I just think they are adorable, they are from Crafty Individuals and come with a lovely sentiment too.  I stamped the background on SU crumb cake cardstock with crumb cake ink, using the Creative Expressions chicken wire background stamp, the matts were cut from SU early espresso and SU DSP Beau Chateau.  I added some SU linen thread, buttons and a tiny tag I cut on the cricut and stamp a sentiment in early espresso.  I stamped the ducks in Ranger archival on water colour paper and coloured them with distress markers.

Colours of Autumn
This card really started off with me experimenting with some Mr Huey sprays I had bought from Create and Craft when they were selling them off.  I was just messing about getting inky and sprayed some colour, then though I'd stamp some leaves and add some perfect pearls, it turned out very pretty and autumnal and so that set the theme for the next lot of cards I made.  Using the background I had made I just added a simple sentiment as a topper and stamped a leaf, added more perfect pearls and cut it out, added a few buttons and some linen thread and called it a card.  The sentiment is from SU. Cardstock is SU crumb cake and early espresso.  As this ended up being and odd size I made and envelope to match. 

Shimmering Dragonfly
Really the same as the other card except I stamped the dragonfly from Papermania dragonflies urban stamp set, once on the background and once on a piece of cream paper, I embossed the dragonfly with Stampendous fine detail black embossing powder and then painted it with perfect pearls mixed with a little water.  I used a Tim Holtz texture fade embossing folder to emboss the early espresso strip and the cuttlebug mesh folder to emboss the card blank.  The sentiment is from Papermania Vintage notes urban stamps set.

Autumn Thanks
This little set of thank you cards was made using the scraps on my desk, I challenged myself to not use anything that wasn't already out as I keep ending up with a mountain of stuff which all ends up in the scrap pile and never used lol!  All made from SU crumb cake cardstock, SU early espresso ink, SU french foliage and SeeD's leaves stamps set and the squares where stamped by inking an acrylic block with distress ink in vintage photo, spritzing with water and the stamping onto the card stock.  The sentiment is also SU.

Winter Frost
This set of cards were all made using the SU winter frost collection, the sentiment is SU from the holiday catalogue, stamped in SU smoky slate and island indigo.  The shapes were cut on the cricut, as were the snowflakes and the ribbon is from Papermania.  After I had stamped the sentiments I gently sponged some SU illuminate ink all over to give it a subtle shimmer, they came out very pretty and I made half a dozen of these to sell ;)

Gift Card Holders
All these gift card holders were made following Dawn5377's directions on YT.  These were so easy and simple to make and I can see me making plenty more as the possibilities are endless really.

This last item was inspired by Joy of Obsessed with scrapbooking on YT , I don't have the Close To My Heart cricut carts as they are ridiculously expensive to by from the States, with shipping and customs it works out around £100, money I'm not willing to pay, especially as half of that is actually for shipping and customs!!  So I decided I would give it a go using one of my other cricut cuts.  I purchased the Cricut craftroom Exclusive quilted ornaments last year and never used them so thought it was high time I did lol!  I basically followed Joy's instructions but as I didn't have any tulle, I added some roses from Wild Orchid crafts instead and think it came out very pretty.  It's cut from American Crafts, crimson, vanilla, and pomegranate cardstock, ribbon is from Papermania.  It looks really beautiful on the living room door and I think I may make a couple more for my other doors.  Very happy with this :)

That's all for now folks, I do have more to post but need to get the camera out first lol.

Happy crafting

Anna xx

Hiya, quicky update today.  Well I started Weight Watchers again lol!  So far I've lost 6.5 lbs, so pleased about that.  Had a bit of a shock when I last went to get my bloods done, I seriously need to get my sugar levels down and get some weight off!  So it has stengthen my resolve to be healthier. 

On a happier note, we are off to the Lake District again soon, so I am looking forward to getting up into the hills.  It just makes your heart sing :)

Anyhoo, enough of my waffling today's post is really about a couple of cards with totally different themes, the first is a bright and colourful under the sea theme and the other an outdoors theme with earthy tones.

This card started with me messing about with my distress inks, stamps and my gelli plate.  The background peice was made by swiping sapphire blue, salty ocean and peacock feathers distress inks onto my gelli plate and then spritzing with some shimmer spray.  I know that some people say not to use your inks on the gelli plate because it stains, but to be honest that doesn't really bother me as it's just stuck in it's packaging and I haven't used it really.  I may as well use it for something!  The colours seemed much brighter using this method.  I then flicked water and picket fence distress stain on to the inked card stock.  I recently bought Creative Stamping issue 10 and it had loads of lovely seaside themed stamps with it, I stamped the starfish and scallop shells in a random pattern onto the card and then embossed with stampendous white embossing powder.  I wanted the stamped images to pop so  I outlined them with a inktense pencil and just blended it out with a water brush. The white splatters weren't bright enough so I did some more with picket fence distress paint.  

The lovely mermaid image is by Wee Stamps and I coloured her with promarkers and then glittered her with a stardust pen and waterfall and eucalytus stickles. I mounted her onto American crafts cardstock and added some liquid pearls.

The scallop and starfish were cut from the mermaids and pirates cricut card and as luck happened this cart was the free cut for this week on the cricut website :) I then gave them a bit of a sand, added some shimmer spray and then covered them with rock candy crackle paint.  I like how vibrant this is.  It really made a change from the usual pinks and lilacs I usually use for girly cards :)

This second card I made in Mat for my OH's birthday, I've only just got around to photographing it lol!

All the peices were cut from the outdoor man cart, I combined 2 of the scenes on the cart to give me a forest scene with a mountain in the background, we are walking fans and love to get out into the Peak District and the Lake District and as we'd just got back from a fabulous week in the Lake District, this was perfect, he loved it!  All card stock is American crafts and cor'dinations, sanded and inked.  I used some See'Ds texture stamps to add some texture to the path and the area under the trees.

Well that's all for today, I'm off to drink my tea and make some cute gift card holders Tami White just posted on her YouTube. 

Happy crafting
Anna x

A Few More Odds & Ends I Forgot To Post

Ok, so I said I hadn't done much crafting lol!  When I've gone through my photographs I realised I had more than I thought!

My first attempt at an art journal page, this was so much fun!  Lots of stamping, sketching, and colouring with my promarkers.  I drew the poppies on marker paper and then coloured with promarker and cut them out.  Really would like to do more of this!

A cute card for one of my lovely colleagues at work, image from  All That Scraps
coloured with promarkers

 

Red Nose Day charity bake sale poster, I had so much fun making these silly red noses!

OK! My Bad - Not Posted In 2 Months!

Well here we are in August and I just haven't got around to posting for 2 months!  Haven't done an awful lot of crafting as I've been so busy.  A week in the Lake District in May, plus a week at home with Mark.  Lots of charity events at work including a 10 mile walk last month right in the middle of the heatwave we've been having.  I have another week in the Lake District coming up in September and it's not coming fast enough!

Ok! So here are a few odds and ends I've worked on over the last few months.

Just something silly while trying out my new flex markers :)

A sympathy card, not something I enjoy doing, stamped and coloured with distress markers

This was a bit of a challenge lol!  I had a request for an 50th birthday Elvis themed card, as the lady in question was having an Elvis themed birthday bash.  The actual card shape was made by welding several shapes together in the cricut craft room, the gorgeous photo I found on line and the roses are from I am roses I think.  Overall I think the black and white worked really well :) 

I am the designated charity champion in our store, along with another colleague,  so each month we have to come up with a different charity event.  Aprils was a breakfast hamper raffle, I make posters for all our events this is Aprils. It's always fun to try and come up with a different theme each month :)

These three are all coloured with promarkers, first and last images are from Wee Stamps and the center one is from  All that Scraps

This next card was for my Dads birthday, the ships wheel, sentiment and ship stamps are from Crafters Companion, the stamp used for the wooden panel background is by Bo Bunny I think, the texture for the wood was created by dragging ink pads over the cardstock and the I stamped the boards over the top.  The scene was created using Tim Holtz distress markers on watercolour paper.  The brass plate is from Docrafts.

 This card was for father's day for my Dad, I used the south western cart on my cricut and used a cut downloaded from the cricut project site, I love how vibrant this is :)

Card for my brother-in-law, he is a keen photographer and when out and about taking photos he has what we call a NO! Dad hat lol!  As his kids always shout NO! DAD!  when he puts it on, so here's a cute bear wearing a No! Dad! hat lol!

A quick scrapbook page of our night out bowling and then a meal at an all you an eat Chinese buffet YUM!  Shame I've just started Weight Watchers again lol!  Pics of my hubby, Sister, her hubby and kids :) 

A quick scrapbook page of the Easter goodies I made, the cookies were so good!!

Card for my nephew, used the robots cart and played around with embossing boards and folders to get some additional texture.

 There is more to come, I just have to fiddle around with the photos so they don't take forever to load!

CCR & Gypsy Updated

Just a quick post, Provocraft have just updated their Cricut Craftroom software so that it now links to your Gypsy, making all your linked carts on your Gypsy available in the CCR software WOOOOHOOOO!!!  I've been waiting so long for this.

Here's a link to the GYPSY LINKING

Here's a link to a video showing how the update works


Got to dash, off to work, just wanted to share :)

Happy crafting
Anna x

Smashed!!

Well I finally jumped on the Smash book band wagon.  I've been watching YT vids on smash books for a while now and like the idea of a 'junk' journal as I'm always saving bits and bobs for mood boards, which invariably never get made lol!

I popped into Hobbycraft at the weekend and they had some K & Co. Smash books in, as well as a bunch of coordinating stuff.  I picked up the pretty one (the one with the pink spine and vintage style pages) and a pack of pockets and the special occasions list pad. 

When I got home I decided to have a rummage through a load of old stash and was surprised by how much stuff I could use!  Old Letraset rub ons which are probably getting on for 30 yrs old lol!!  They were my hubby's from when he did art and design at college and we've hung on to them 'just in case' lol!  I had a bunch of word stickers, chipboard tags and rub ons from a K & Co mega deal I bought on QVC a few years ago, freebie papers that go perfectly with the pages in the book, paper clips, gel pens, washi tape, brads and scraps of ribbon and a mini stapler I bought from the pound shop the other day :)  As well as a load of alpha stickers I've never used, plus some extra large lined post it notes I bought from Works.

I've chucked everything into a box folder so I can just grab it when the mood takes me, I've added some double sided tape, and extra glue stick and a pair of scissors.

I spent yesterday afternoon decorating the cover, I stamped and cut the butterflies with the Sizzix butterflies #4 framelits and stamp set, added some scraps of ribbon.  I traced all the embossing on the cover with a Sakura gelly roll shimmer pen and stamped 2013 from a set of See'Ds stamps.  I used a cupcake wrapper and buttons from the free gifts off this months Docrafts Creativity mag.

I'm quite happy with it and looking forward to filling it with my 'junk' lol!! 

Have a smashing crafty day
Anna x

Adorable Bunny Bears!!

Spring is in the air, at least in my imagination, it's freezing here and snowy.  Although the sun was out for a few minutes earlier, which I enjoyed while making a cup of tea :) 

How adorable are these, I've gone bear crazy the last few days and cut a ton of teddies from the Teddy Bear Parade cartridge.  I couldn't help making a series of cards with these bunny bears :) The other carts used were mother's day bouquet for the flowers and just because cards for the flower stem. The little butterfly, ladybird (stamped inside, which I forgot to photograph lol!) and sentiment are from Studio G designer clear stamps by Alison Wong and coloured with promarkers.  Card stock is American crafts from the spring and pastels collections.

Happy Crafting and I hope it's warmer and sunnier where you are!

BTW!  The dynamic blog was driving me crazy, it was too slow and clunky on my puter so I changed it again lol!

Anna xx

Cuteness Overload :)

 Three cards, two birthday cards and my first Christmas card of the year :)

This is a tiny 3 x 3 card, the tiny kitty is a Stampendous stamp and is totally adorable.  Stamped with Memento black ink and coloured with promarkers, the flower was made using some freebies won in some blog candy from Ladybug Crafts, coloured with distress stains.
Cardstock is SU crumb cake and AC caramel.

A cute cow cut from Create a critter, the fencing cut from wall deco and more and the tree was stamped from some Nitwit stamps freebies off a magazine and paper pieced.

My first Christmas card of the year, not only did I make a resolution to do more scrapbooking, I also made a resolution to make at least one Christams card a month.  :)

The stamp is a Penny Black stamp, coloured with promarkers, mats cut from Elegant Edges cart and the Tree and bauble cut from Joys of the Season.

Hope you've enjoyed this update.

Happy crafting
Anna x

Scrapbook Pages and Valentines

Forgot to post these last month.

Firstly a double scrap book page, I kind of made a resolution this year to do at least one scrapbook page a month, so this was last months.  We went for a walk in the Peak District, it was freezing cold and the ground was frozen solid, the wind was blowing the rain horizontal and we were walking in the clouds!  But!  We had a fantastic time, the Peak National Park is one of my favourite places.  I used the Cricut cart Camp Out, SU and AC cardstock and SU skeleton Leaf stamps.  I used distress inks to add texture and some See D's texture stamps.  I did a little journalling on the computer and printed it out.

Here's the gift and card I made for my OH for valentines.  The mug was made using Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2.  The cute little monkey was cut from Create a Critter.  The Card was made in Cricut Craft Room from the Love You A Latte  cart, I weld 2 shapes together to make the card, added the sentiment and stamped with coffee beans from a Fiskars stamp set.

Happy Crafting
Anna x

Mothers Day Cards and Clearly for Art Modelling Film

Quick post today, three cards made for Mother's day.  

All three were made using background papers printed on my new Gelli plate.  Stampin Up Tea Shoppe stamps, See D's Alpha stamps, Kaiser Crafts Sentiment stamps and American Crafts cardstock. 

This is my finished brooch made using Clearly for Art modelling film, coloured with alcohol inks and finished with a layer of Distress Rock Candy crackle.  The seam binding and lace were coloured with promarker and the button and metal piece from my stash.

Happy crafting
Anna x

Parisian Boudoir & Sunny Days

Parisian Boudoir

Well I was supposed to be updating yesterday but had a migraine and couldn't  bare to stare at the monitor, so here goes :)

This is card was cut on the cricut, the actual card is made of two mats, the back one scored about 3/4 of an inch down to create a fold and then glued to the front.  Then I cut a pink mat, black mat and then a lighter pink.  Both pink mats were stamped with TM distress ink in picked raspberry with a stamp from the SU Sale-a-bration Bliss stamp set and the edges inked with the same ink.  The smaller black mat was embossed using the Cuttlebug swiss dots folder.

The frame and dress form were cut from the Sophisticated cartridge using the Font 1 function this gives you a framed monogram.  The Back was cut in the dark pink and I also cut a frame in a piece of pink foiled card stock from the DCWV Blackcurrant stack.  The R and parts of the dress form had black diamond stickles added to them and then I applied 2 layers of glossy accents to the R.

 

Supplies

American Crafts card stock in cotton candy and taffy

Black cardstock 

TH Distress ink pad picked raspberry

scrap of DCWV blackcurrant stack foiled dots

Hobbycraft black glitter ribbon

Pink organza ribbon

rhinestones

Stickles black diamond

Glossy accents

Cuttlebug swiss dots folder

Sunny Days

This card was stamped using the simply soft and happiest birthday wishes SU hostess stamp sets.  the background paper is from First Edition Paper J'Adore stack and the spotty paper is from First Edition Paper Boho Chic.  I did a bit of rocking and rolling when I stamped the sentiment lol!  To get this two toned effect ink up your stamp with your lightest colour then take a darker ink pad and roll the edges of the stamp so it just inks the out side edges.  To finish off the card I just added some paper twine and a button, a sunny warm card, just the thing to cheer you up on a cold snowy day :)

 Supplies

Card blank

SU simply soft and happiest birthday wishes hostess sets

SU so saffron and pumpkin pie inkpads

First Edition Paper Boho Chic and J'Adore

American Crafts Cranberry cardstock

Cuttlebug swiss dots folder

Button

The Works paper twine