Seeing Double!

This weeks Crafty Creations Challenge is 'Seeing Double'... can you believe this is challenge #128! Can't believe it's been so long since I left the design team there!

So my card this week is actually an order (for mum again) for some friend's that are celebrating their golden wedding anniversary at the end of the month... all I had as a specific detail to include was their wedding photo.. which I received as a scanned copy of a scanned copy so not great quality by time I tried to print it out. In the end i managed to Photoshop it to good enough quality to get decent printouts where I could use each of their heads on the card.

My doubles for this challenge are: 2 gold bows, 2 die cut scalloped heart frames and 2 die cut swirl corner pieces.
The corners, frames and background were made using my BigShot (yes it's still my obsession after my sewing machine lol), for the background I rubbed a gold inkpad over it to catch the embossed sections. I love the gold hearts ribbon, nice little extra that I found whilst rummaging the local fabric shop again the other week.

Crafty Creations Challenge - Boyz To Men

This weeks challenge over at Crafty Creations is 'Boyz To Men', this is my chance to share my Fathers Day cards I made... ok so I don't have 3 dad's just to clear that one up... the blue and gold plane card is for my dad, the cyan plane for my boyfriend's dad and the Edwin magnolia stamp image was for his stepdad. Cards for blokes= nightmare.... making 3 blokes cards= my worst nightmare! So awkward to make something for guys, everything comes with flowers and girly colours... there's a real shortage of crafting things for guys who aren't into golf, fishing or football!

For my dad (thank god he's into planes and flying or I'd have zero ideas!)...

For his dad....

For his stepdad...

Crafty Creations Challenge - Thank You!

Wow it's been a while since I've had a card to join in the Crafty Creations Challenge! This weeks theme is Thank You and I have a crad that fits the bill, this is actually for my Handmade Gift Exchange partner LeeAnn she won't have seen it yet so I hope it doesn't spoil the surprise too much!

For this card I've whipped out my favourite Forever Friends bear stamp and dug out the marvy le plume pens to colour him in. The papers are leftovers from the days that I was on the Kaboodle Doodle DT, shame I've lost all the digital copies of the papers but I had this little piece floating in my scraps box and had to use it!

I just love the bright colours on the card and the ribbon coz it's that funny crepe paper like material and is so easy to work with!

1st 'proper' scrapbook page

This weeks challenge over at Crafty Creations is to make something with a flower on it, a bit of ribbon and some patterned paper.. so I think this scrapbook page fits in perfectly with this :)
My patterned paper is the page, there's plenty of flowers on it and 2 different types of ribbon too!
It's the first ever non-digi scrapbook page I've made and although it was fun to do I prefer my digi, it's quicker, easier and doesn't take as long to find all the right elements to make the page work.. plus digi doesn't need a careful home to keep it safe lol!

Mothers Day

Mothers day in this house doesn't mean making one card, I make my mum one, one for his mum and one for his stepmum.. I normally run out of ideas on the first one but thankfully a stack of bright papers and my bigshot inspired me this year :)

He just needs to pick who gets which card now lol!

I love the delicate corner pieces that my bigshot cuts, perhaps the cheapest but best die I've bought! The Pennyblack elephant stamp is still one of my long term favourites, gets used so often as it's so versatile and fun to use.

I've used blooms on both images as just colouring them in left the card looking a bit flat and dull so hopefully these just lift it that little bit.

A card for my mum, totally in love with the brightly coloured paper so had to make the whole card blend with it. Ran the letters through my bigshot (of course) just to give the card a little depth and detail.

As always mum found a pair of earrings somewhere, took a photo and sent it to me saying 'I'd love these in purple' so here we go, mums purple mothers day present earrings that I made for her.
I'm entering these as my entry for the Crafty Creations Challenge 'Mothers Day'.

Valentines Card

I think it's pretty safe to be blogging this before Monday as im 99.9% sure that he won't read my blog or even notice the post scroll down his facebook updates lol. So anyway here's the card I've made for my OH...

I've used:

• Sizzix texturz kit #3 (heart background)
• Cute little bear stamp from a local craft shop
• Beige lace ribbon
• Chipboard hearts
• Sandpaper (to rub over the embossing)
• Pearlescent white card
• Red card
• Marvy le plume markers

And I'm entering this to this weeks Crafty Creations Challenge 'Three Little Words'

Vinyl Clock

I love this clock, think I'll be making more in the future if I can find homes for them that is lol. This was a birthday present for a friend and I thought her place needed something new and a little quirky just like her so I made her a vinyl record clock to sit/hang from the mantlepiece.

Bonus points to anyone who can guess the band and the single that this record is for!

Gotta love what a couple of minutes in an oven does to a vinyl, maybe a bowl will be my next vinyl experiment or perhaps a bag...

I'm linking this up to the lovely parties listed on the right hand column.

This is also my entry for this weeks Crafty Creations challenge 'Let's Heat It Up!', I did have to heat the vinyl record to make it maelable enought to shape so I think that covers heat it up lol!

It's A Bird Thing

Here's my entry to this week's Crafty Creations challenge, it's a cushion that I decided was a little dull and needed something to brighten it up a bit. The theme this week is 'It's a bird thing', so I chose a cute bird design to have as an applique on the cushion.

I hand draw the bird and heart shapes, cut them out and handstitched them all on as sadly I still don't have my sewing machine :(

The fabric is from the bundle of scraps mum got me in her lcoal fabric shop, I love it just wish there was a bigger piece as I've used it all on this project, but it was worth it. What I really love is that the fabric is dotty, as it has little gold sequins on it that you can't see from a distance so here's a close up on a bird.

Looks great sitting pretty on our bed :)

welcome sign tutorial

So we've been in our new place for a month now, the xmas decorations are down and I think it's looking a little empty without them so I'm off on another making tangent to fill the voids the decorations left... So for our inner front door I'm making a Welcome sign.

If you want to make on you'll need:

• Scrapbook paper
• Wooden/ papier mache word sign
• Craft wire
• Mod podge
• White paint
• Pliers
• Craft knife
• Sponge/ brush
• Embellishments (not pictured)
• Sandpaper (not pictured)

1. Cover the forward facing side of your word in mod podge and stick it to the back of your scrapbook paper.

2. Leave to dry and then trim the excess paper down.

3. Using the craft knife very carefully cut round the letters to remove the excess paper so you can see the word fully.

4. Paint the edges of the word with the white paint. Don't worry if it drips over the paper a little bit (I found it gave it character and looked good when I sanded it later). Leave to dry.

5.Once the paint has dried cover the whole thing with a good layer of mod podge and leave to dry.

6. Take a piece of sandpaper and rough the egdes around the word to give it a worn look.

7. Take the wire and the pliers, leave 3 inches at each end of the wire straight, wrap the wire round the nose of the pliers to form the desired number of loops. (I did 6 either side). Repeat for the other end of the wire.

8. Loop one end of the wire through the loop of the 'e' and twist to finish it. Repeat this with the other end using the arm of the 'w'.

9. Your word should now hang beautifully from a hook but if like me you think it looks a little naked then embellish it with ribbons, buttons or whatever takes your fancy!

I'm linking this to the lovely parties listed on the right hand side and also to this weeks Crafty Creations Challenge

Crafty Creations Challenge #11

Ok so it's taken me forever to get last weeks Crafty Creations DT piece up.. in fact the new challenge comes out 2mo oops! I've had a pretty hectic time recently so I had to sacrifice some things and sadly crafting seems to be one of them... The theme was 'Sparkle' so I made a digi page of my best mate and I from new years eve.

I've used:

• Personal photo
• Enchanted digi kit
• Hearts & Flowers digi kit
• Love Me Forever digi kit

Crafty Creations Challenge #10

Well here we are challentge 10 and this week I'm being a little easier on you all with the theme... I guess fabric was a bit tricky so to get evryone back into the swing of things (including myself) I picked a simple one....
Recycling
So you can make anything you like as long as at least one part of the piece has been recycled from something old or previously used.
This weeks prize is... my DT piece.. so the winner will be sent my tape measure brooch, to jazz up their coat or handbag!

Crafty Creations Challenge #8

Here's this weeks DT piece for the Crafty Creations challenge where the theme is 'Bunnies' to fit in with the run up to easter... so make something with a bunny on it, be it sweet, chocolaty, fluffy or stamped....
I've used:

• Beige felt
• Dark blue mebroidery thread
• Dark blue silk ribbon
• Stuffing
• Blue paper flower
• Blue small button
• Badge pin
  

Crafty Creations Challenge #7

Here's my DT piece for this weeks Crafty Creations challenge which is 'Spring', my piece is my mum's mothers day present. Spring here in the UK means Mothers Day so I thought I'd try and get my mothers day bits done so I could show everyone them before she even gets to see them at the weekend.

I've used:

• 7 purple pearly buttons
• 6 x 8mm pearls
• Heart clasp
• 20 jumprings
• 4 eyepins
• 2 headpins
• 10 silver spacer balls
• 2 silver earring wires

Crafty Creations Challenge #6

This weeks Crafty Creations challenge is 'Flowers' and being typically me I had to go off and make my DT piece something as different as I could possibly think of so I didn't have to make a card lol... and here we have my piece... a ribbon flower brooch inspired by a decoration from a handbag that I saw in my favourite alternative clothes shop in the city centre..
I've used:

• 2" red sheer ribbon
• 1" pearl sheer border ribbon
• Dotty ribbon scraps
• Large white button
• Pink vintage rim button
• Felt
• Brooch pin

Crafty Creations Challenge #5

This weeks Crafty Creations challenge is another of Jaime's sketches and Deena is offering a cute prize so come play along....
I used the sketch to make a digi page of my Westie Dylan enjoying his first ever day of snow.
I've used:

• Personal photos
• Raining Cats & Dogs digi kit
• Raining Cats & Dogs alpha kit

Crafty Creations Challenge #4

Wow so here we are week 4 of the Crafty Creations Challenge and it's another fab sketch challenge by Jaime... and she's including another yummy prize!

I made a moving house card for my mum's friend, my mum is the pickiest person to make cards for as she knows what she wants but can't quite explain it to you when she wants she to make it lol....

I've used:

• Mottled white card
• Lilac dotty ribbon
• Pale blue dotty ribbon
• Cottage google image
• Gold peel offs
• 2 tortoiseshell buttons
• Yellow paper
• 2 lilac fabric flowers
• Mulbery paper flowers
• Foam pads

Crafty Creations Challenge #3

So here's my DT piece for this weeks Crafty Creations challenge. It's a birthday card that I made for my mum's hubby for his birthday on monday.
I've used:

• Yellow mottled card
• Jungle leaf print card
• Chocolate brown paper
• 3 chunky green buttons
• Large yellow fabric flower
• Small brown mulberry paper flower
• Pale yellow brad
• Watercolour pencils
  

Crafty Creations Challenge #2

So here's my DT piece for this weeks Crafty Creations challenge which is a sketch... It's also my entry for some of this weeks challenges... Arty Girlz 'Flowers'... Penny Black challenge 'Romance'... Scrummy Stash Cafe 'Love, love, love'.... and Stamp Something 'Something for your valentine'... ok so it's not a card I'm sending to anyone but its' gone to a good home, my friend said he'd make his gf a card but he's not at all creative or that way inclined to do something so girly so I was brought in to help lol....
I've used:

• White ribbed card
• Kaboodle Doodle scribble kit paper
• Deep pink paper
• Black felt
• PB 'Just next to you' image
• 3 green dot flowers
• 3 red brads
• whispers words stamp
• Red glitter stickles
• Marvy pens

Crafty Creations Challenge #1

Wooo the Crafty Creations challenge blog is back up and running... so here's challenge #1 and the theme is 'Hearts Galore'... there's a fab candy as the prize so come along, join in the challenge and become a follower for extra chances to win the candy... For my DT piece I made a set of earrings just to be different again...
I've used:

• 2 silver earring wires
• 2 silver eyepins
• 6 silver headpins
• 12 silver spacer balls
• 8 pearl beads
• 2 amber glass hearts