Christmas Projects

Hi, well it's been a while, so much exciting stuff going on in my life that I haven't had much time for posting or creating stuff outside of work.

Firstly I want to say  

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

So what have I been up to, well I now work for and with the lovely and very talented Stephanie Weightman, I'm also lucky enough to get to work with the equally lovely and talented Nancy Watt and Diane Peternel.  I am now a creative sample designer for Craft Channel Productions and so far I'm loving it.  I don't get to post my samples and projects as they tend to be for the magazine so obviously that would defeat the object of the magazine if I posted them on here lol!  I have very little time that I can call my own at the minute but I am determined to be more organised this year so, new year, new resolutions lol!

So my plan is to do something for myself at least once a week, and as I tend to be making cards all the time for work, I thought it was about time I dusted off all the scrapbook supplies I've been hoarding for so log and actually get my thousands of photos scrapped!

Other goals I want to achieve this year

Lose weight

Get healthier

Get the house better organised

And the biggy!!!  Learn to DRIVE!!!

So onto the crafty stuff!

Here are just a few projects from Christmas, I didn't actually make many cards this year and had to buy some!  SHOCK! HORROR! LOL!  

My hubby's Christmas card

Digi stamp is by http://www.kennykdownloads.com/ Coloured with Promarkers. Glossy Accents on the gloves and boots. Shaker frame cut on the Silhouette. Stamped inside with a sentiment from Beecrafty.co.uk and it says "If you're not under my tree Christmas morning I'm going back to bed."

Christmas card for a relative. Vintage Santa stamp is by Beecrafty.co.uk Coloured with distress pens an white prisma pencil. Lots of distressing and inking. The edges where inked with Buff It mixed with water an dribbled around the edges.

Light box
The cut file was from the Silhouette store, cut from plain and glitter vinyl.  The inside of the glass was covered with some frosted vinyl but it didn't hide the lights enough so I added a layer of vellum too.  Lights were just some cheap LED battery operated ones from The Range and the frame was from the range too.

My first scrapbook page in a while, this is our Christmas picture this year, splashed with Dylusions inks in Grass, Cherry Pie and White plus some Distress Stain in Pewter. Papers are from an old stack.  I also used washi tape, felt alphas, wooden gingerbread man, a cute lollypop button, twine and a metal snowflake charm, most of which I bought at Hobbycraft.  Stamp sets are by Docrafts and Hero Arts.

My attempt at being organised and actually making a Christmas mini album.  It worked, my album is finished and all the photos are in :)  More on that later.

Ok, that's all for now
happy crafting
Anna x

Marker Storage tips!

Hi all, well a little something different today a storage solution for all those markers you're hoarding lol!   This is an old project, I think I made it last year as I needed a better storage solution for my Promarkers and couldn't afford to by fancy schmancy expensive ones lol!

I had intended to make a post showing how to do this and totally forgot about it, sorry for the blurry photos, I think I took these with my old camera.    I thought I'd post this as a kind of tutorial as it may be useful to someone.   Also, yes that is my crappy old desk, still waiting for Mark to build me a new one, the craft/computer room is a work in process lol!

I also have a ton more Promarkers now, some of the limited addition and a load of Flex Markers so I am now in need of even more storage, I 'did' have 2 of these old cd racks but I threw one away before I'd thought of a use for it *sigh*

So what you need to make this project

An old CD rack
Empty CD cases
Thick card stock
wet glue
Red line tape

So to start you will needs some strong card stock and it needs measure the length of a plastic cd case by about 14 1/4in, then measure out along the long edge 3/4in sections and score along these lines.  These measurements are just a guide as it depends which pens you are making this for.

 Then you need to fold the score lines in a mountain, valley, valley pattern as in the picture

 Turn the card over and add wet glue to the areas I have marked in the next image and press each section together, it might be easier to look at how I've done this in the image as it's difficult to explain.

 You should end up with this

 Turn over the piece you've just created and apply redline tape to the edges

 Adhere to the cd case

To make the label strips I typed up all the original colours for Promarkers in Open office in a table and then printed, cut them out to fit the ends of the cd cases and then coloured them with the appropriate marker.

Now just repeat for however many CD case you have :)

I am going to paint mine eventually lol! What can I say, I'm a procrastinator :D

I love mine and I was pleased with myself for recycling and old piece of rubbish that was going to the skip.  Still kicking myself for chucking the other one out though lol!

Happy Crafting
Anna x

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!

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

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

A New Look Blog Layout And Update

Hi crafty friends, long time no postie lol!

Firstly I have given the blog a new look, links to other blogs, fave site, challenge sites archived posts and labels etc. Are now in a pop out menu on the right side of the page, you can also change the look of the blog by clicking on the links above.  I'm loving this new dynamic layout.  Please feel free to tell me if you like it or if you prefer the old style layouts.

On to the fun stuff, yes I know I have been very lax again in posting updates, I'm a busy girl, what can I say lol!

Actually all work and no play can make for a very grumpy girl.  I've been busy with family and work stuff for the last few months and not had a lot of time to craft.  I do have some stuff but I'm only going to post the most recent for now :)

Ladybug Lolita

I spent the entire day colouring this yesterday, very please with the results, I'm loving the Promarker fine tip nibs, you can really add texture and detail.  The digi stamp is from All That Scraps and is printed on to Rymans card stock.  finished off the image by blending a little SU Pool Party ink around the edges, a little stickles on the wings and as my glossy accents nip is now a stump and no good for detail, I decided to use my nail art fine liner to colour the tiny ladybird lol!

 Supplies

White card blank and Rymans card stock
Promarkers
Outfit: Cardinal red, berry red, lipstick red, cool grey 4 & 5, black, blender
Flower: sunflower, honeycomb, burnt orange, gold, burnt sienna, pear green, forest green, khaki, frosted lea, cool grey 4
Hair:Burnt sienna, cinnamon, tan, vanilla, blender
Skin:Copics Skin Tones set, vanilla
Wings:Denim blue, polar blue, blender
Uniball Signo broad white gel pen
Stickles frosted lace
Ladybug Lolita From All That Scraps (this may be retired now)
Personal Impressions Kirsty Wiseman Tag Sentiments PICA6297
American Crafts Dandelion and Crimson card stock
SU Pool party ink pad
Versamark ink pad
Stampendeous fine detail embossing powder
Cuttle bug embossing folder swiss dots, Crafty Concepts embossing folder grunge dots
Matts cut from Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge
Wilkinson stitch red ribbon
buttons, gems and ribbon rose from stash
Glossy accents or red nail polish for the ladybird

Here are a few more items I've made, I will post more on these tomorrow as it's getting late :)

Happy crafting
Anna x

Parisian Boudoir

Dragon Wing Charm

Clearly for Art modelling Film

Sunny Days