My favourite 5 of 2014

I hope you all enjoyed a lovely relaxing and peaceful Christmas. I can't believe we are nearly into a New Year. With that thought in mind I decided to join Debby at A Scrapjourney and share my favourite makes of 2015.

So in no particular order

Merry Christ - Mouse

A popular little card in my shop and craft fairs this year. I was lucky enough to purchase a Cricut Explore this year which revolutionised my crafting.

 Happy Halloween

One of my favourite times of the year and a return to traditional creative stamping. I intend to do more in 2015!

DreamCatchers

I was lucky enough to join the Serif CraftArtist Design Team this year and this card made it on to Create and Craft television.

Autumn

I love Autumn and the colours it brings. This was a winner of a blog challenge too!

And finally.....

Owls

Another return to creative techniques using gilding flakes.

I hope you like my choices and maybe you will join in with the posting too!

Wishing you a Happy 2015!

Merry ChristMouse!

I can't believe its such a long time since I blogged - things are really busy with the run up to Christmas. Now all the craft fayres are done I have had time to start decking the halls.

The card I am sharing with you today is one I made using my Cricut Explore. It has been a best seller at Craft Fayres. I cut the mouse and before adding it to the card blank covered a torn piece of paper, sprayed with Silver Sparkle, to the bottom to look like snow.  I then die cut the snowflakes and added the fun sentiment.

I hope this makes you smile!

Challenges I am entering :

Brown Sugar Challenge - Red, White and Green

Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - Christmas

That's Crafty - Anything Goes

Crafters Cafe - Christmas

Crafty Creations - Die Cuts

Cardz 4 Guys - Winter Critters

Preparing for Christmas Fayres

Things at Sparkly Fairy towers at the moment are extremely busy. I am getting lots of cards ready to sell during the run up to Christmas. It is always amazing too what you can find in your stash! Here is the use of a die I bought last year in a sale and haven't used until now.

I love the simplicity of this die, yet it makes such a beautiful card.  I'm hoping it might be a best seller!

I am entering the following challenges with this card

As You Like It Challenge - Your favourite Christmas style  - this is my favourite kind of style for Christmas Cards - crisp, clean and simple.

Christmas cards all year round - No patterned paper

Dies R Us Challenge - Christmas

The Red Red Robin

The weeks are hurtling now towards December so I am snowed under with Christmas makes. I also seem to be a bit pre-occupied with robins!! This is one of my latest cards

To make the card I used a Woodware stamp and stamped it three times on to different colour paper. Then I paper pieced the image to give a patchwork effect. I have to say I think they look rather sweet! 

And do you know why we see the robin on so many cards? In the 1800s, British postmen wore red uniforms in honour of the crown. Near to Christmas people would eagerly await the "robins" delivery of messages from loved ones. Artists became inspired to replace the postman with a red robin instead, delivering letters in its beak - and so the legend lives on.

I am sure I will have more robins to share with you soon!

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Crafty Sentiments Designs - Anything Goes
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge - Colour Challenge - Red/White/Green
Dream Valley Challenges - Christmas
Stamping Sensations  - Christmas
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge - Make it flat

Were you scared?

Hopefully Sparkly Fairy followers you weren't too spooked this Halloween?  This is the last of my Halloween cards for this year as I need to concentrate on Christmas - and that is very frightening!

To make the card I created a background using Distress Inks applied with Cut N Dry foam and then water dropped onto it and mopped dry to give the mottled effect. The tree and wording was cut from A Cricut file and I simply added a circle of orange card for the moon.

Hope you like it!

I am entering the following challenges:

Deliciously Dark Challenges - Halloween

Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - Halloween

Crafting By Design - Halloween

Die Cutting Divas - Halloween

Simply Autumn

This week we have carved the first of our pumpkins at home - this was my son's creation for his school competition.

As the title of the post suggests this card is clean and simple on an Autumn theme.

I used the InkyDoodles stamp set Autumn Garden. Which has some fabulous Autumn images and this lovely poem.  I coloured in the images with Promarkers and Spectrum Noir Colour Pencils.

I hope you have your pumkins ready too! 

Crafting With the Dragon - Anything Goes

Love To Create - Anything Goes/Fall Colours

A Scary Night

As Halloween fast approaches I have relished in creating some spooky artwork.

First I created the background on watercolour card using ink misters and Distress Ink.  I used a Clarity Stencil to create the tree branches and then stamped the witch, toadstools and vine (Lavinia Stamps). The moon was done by applying distress ink through a punched circle.

Happy Haunting!

The Challenges I am entering are:

That's Crafty - Spooky

Sarah Hurley - Halloween

Order of the Opus Gluei - Spooky Goings On

Craft Scapes from Craft Artist

Yesterday on Create and Craft saw the launch of the fabulous CraftScapes digikits from Serif -  Country Garden,Autumn Country, English Town,  Twilight Forest, Summer Seaside,and Winter Village.  A new addition is the tunnel cards kits too which are fantastic and fun to make.

Each kit has the most amazing array of elements which you can use to build up scenes. 

Here is a selection of the samples that I made as part of the Design Team.

Product information can be found here on the Create and Craft Website

Autumn

Its very unseasonal weather here in the South of England. yesterday we reached 25c! Although Autumn mist was definetly evident this morning on the Downs as well as lots of pheasants!

I love this season and used the InkyDoodles Stamp set Woodland Walk to create this card.

I used Promarkers to colour them in and my new Spectrum Noir pencils I treated myself to! They really give great definition to a alcohol marker coloured image. The sky was created using chalk and torn paper to make the clouds.

I hope to be back later in the week with more Autumn makes.

Challenges I am entering with this card:

Penny Black and More - Autumn

Daring Cardmakers - Autumnal Forest

The Artistic Stamper - Autumn Colours

Crafting For All Seasons  - Autumn Colours

Little Red Wagon - Fall

Pretty Posies

As part of the Serif CraftArtist Design Team I have the privilege of working with some of the beautiful kits. This collection from Victoria nelson is no exception and appeared on Create and Craft TV yesterday morning.

They are Bird Garden, Butterfly meadow and Pretty Posies. 

The CD Collection can be purchased at Create and Craft or the individual collections at Daisytrail

Making Christmas Cards

It's been an emotional week with my little one starting a new school and a tiring one being woken up by the alarm for the school run!

So what better way to cheer myself up then to get down to making some Christmas cards.

One of my most favourite tools is my Cricut Explore which I used to cut the shapes for this card. The text was created using the Lyrical Letters Font and then I added the ribbon as a final touch. I'm hoping these will go down well at the Christmas Craft Fairs!

Challenges I am entering :
Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Crafty Bloggers Network - Anything Goes
Creative Cutting Challenge - Anything Goes
Cards Galore Encore - Make A Card
Crafty Hazlenuts Christmas Extra - Anything Christmas

ATC - Tim Holtz Style

A bit of a blast from the past as I haven't made an ATC for ages. That's what really started me off crafting seriously some years ago.

Over at A Vintage Journey Challenge the theme is to make an ATC with "a little touch of Tim" (Holtz)

I created the background by embossing the background with a Tim Holtz embossing folder and then embossing with gold powder. The washi tape, images and tickets are all from my "Tim Holtz stash"

Enjoy Your Crafting!

Fun at the Fair

I hope you are enjoying the bank holiday, although here in the South it has been a very wet one. The weather has been a great excuse to stay in and catch the Serif CraftArtist shows on Create and Craft. Today Michelle has been showcasing the Sahlin Studio Kits which have a distinctively vintage feel.

Vintage Carnival Kit

As a member of the Design Team I had great fun using these kits to create cards and scrapbook pages.

Grandma's Dresser Kit

Retro Mod Kit

The Retro Mod kit has the most amazing embroidered flowers, but if you look closely at my card, can you spot the real embroidery?!

Keep Crafting!!

Autumn Foliage

One of my favourite seasons is Autumn and its certainly in the air in the early morning. I was inspired to make this card for the Less Is More Challenge.

I used a fabulous set of stamps  - Woodland Walk from InkyDoodles and Promarkers to make the card.

I love to hear your comments on my work so don't be shy!

Other Challenges I am entering:

I Love Promarkers - Anything Goes

Ladybug crafts Ink - CAS

Incy Wincy Designs - Colour Inspired

Penny Black and More -Anything Goes

That Craft Place - Autumn

Wondercrump!

Hello Sparkly Followers! I am just back from a little break in the Isle of Wight and enjoying crafting again. This week Create and Craft have had the new Roald Dahl Digikits from Serif as their Pick of the Week. As part of the CraftArtist design team I can now share my samples with you.

They were such fun to make and brought back many childhood memories!

To see more of the fabulous Design Team's work pop over to the Daisytrail Gallery.

Playing with the camera

With the summer holidays in full swing its been difficult to fit in any crafting - plus it has been so hot here in the South of England all we've done is sat in the garden!

A little different posting today to share with you. On my to do list is to take a camera course, so I have been in the garden playing with my camera and different settings. They are by no means professional, but I am quite pleased with the results.

Christmas Crafting

It is so hot here in the South of England I have been trying to keep cool with some Christmas crafting. The thought of snow and ice is appealing right now!

For this card I made a tag and embossed it with snowflakes using White WOW! Embossing powder. This created a resist effect once I had gone over the top with Distress Ink. I stamped the deer image and again embossed with white powder before mounting it onto blue card. This gave a nice border to the deer. I then stamped the greeting and added the embellishments. For the background card I stamped a snowflake stamp with Broken China and Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink using first and second generation stamping.

At least that is one card off the list for Christmas!!

I am entering the following challenges:

Crafty Boots - Christmas in July
The Glory of Christmas Challenge - Christmas
Christmas Cards All Year Round - Non traditional colours
Addicted to Stamps - Holiday
Artistic Inspiration Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

As seen on Create and Craft!

Happy Friday all and I can't believe its also nearly the school holidays! I am getting in as much crafting while I can.

I was so excited today to see my card on Create and Craft TV being show and discussed with a name check!! As a member of the Design Team I made this card using the Daisytrail 2014 Ultimate Digikit Collection as seen on Create & Craft TV on Friday 11th July.  In my stash I had some silver printable film which made a perfect surface to print the images on.

I will be back to show you more of the samples over the weekend.

Thank You

After Christmas making last week, normal(ish) service has resumed! I have been so busy making Teacher thank you cards that the theme at Handmade Harbour this week is very apt! So why not make a card to say thank you to a special person and or Teacher and join in with the challenge.  I think this one will be winging its way to one of my son's teachers very soon!

I chose Wendy's Thank You In Pots Digi stamp to make this card.I used watercolour paints and pencils to add the colour. I think the bunting gives it a country fete type of feel!

Christmas in July

I hope you are all enjoying the sunny weather we are experiencing in the south. I have been so busy with craft projects I haven't had much time to sit out in it! As the title of this post suggests I have been working on Christmas Projects for Serif Craft Artist. These were showcased last week on Create and Craft TV. The kits we had to work with were gorgeous. Victoria Nelson's artwork is stunning!

You can see more samples from myself and other members of the Daisytrail Team here. 

Challenges I am entering:
Crazy Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes
Christmas Card Challenge - Anything Goes
My Time To Craft - Christmas in June
The Squirrel and The Fox - Christmas in July

Parties, Picnics and Cake!

No that's not what I have been enjoying, but the theme at Handmade Harbour Challenge this week.

I chose to use the Cupcake and Bunting stamp to create my card.And this is what I came up with

I printed out the image twice so I could decoupage the cakes. I then diecut one of the images with a Spellbinders Scallop Circle die. Then with pens, glitter and glue I went to town on the decoration! The sentiment is made using Thickers which I coloured in with Promarkers.

Do come and join us at Handmade Harbour!

Love and Marriage

So its my turn to share my DT card for The Crafting Cafe - this month the theme is Love and Marriage and we are sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps. The lucky winner of this month's challenge will receive 7 digital stamps!

For my card I chose to use the Love Owls digital stamp. As it has such strong outlines I decided to do something a bit different and use gilding flakes.

I printed the image onto acetate and then backed it with double sided adhesive sheet before adding the gilding flakes. I think I might be trying this again with some of my other digital images!

Please do come and join us at The Crafting Cafe

Challenges I am entering with this card:

Cards Galore Encore - Anything Goes

Fussy and Fancy - Things With Wings

That's Crafty - Birds

Belated Father's Day

I hope you all had a good weekend. Unfortunately my Father's Day post is a day late as I spent most of the weekend in bed with a migraine. I hope all Dads, StepDads, had a great day and also those Dads that are no longer here were in our thoughts.

This is the card I made for my Dad.

I used a stamp set from the magazine Creative Stamping. First I created the background using torn paper and Distress Inks. I am quite pleased with how the clouds turned out! The balloons I stamped with Distress Ink again and drew out the colour with the wet brush. I think my Dad was really pleased!

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Glitter n Sparkle - Father's Day

That Craft Place - Men

Country View Challenges - Only Men Allowed

Sewing Theme at Handmade Harbour

Welcome again to all - this week at The Handmade Harbour Challenge Wendy has asked us to use the theme of Sewing.

I chose to use the Birthday quilt stamp for my DT card.

I wanted it to have the look of redwork so used Promarkers to colour the quilt and layered the quilt to give some dimension. I edged the layers with pinking shears and stamped a faux stitch around the edge. For decoration I used ribbon, buttons and pins.

I do hope you will join us  - the prize is a choice of three digital stamps from the Handmade Harbour Shop! 

Other challenges I am entering:

Fan-tastic Tuesday - Anything but has to be square

Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Beside the Seaside

I hope you all managed to enjoy the sunshine we had here in the South of England. Yesterday it was scorching but we are now getting ready for a storm I think.

In keeping with the summer theme I thought I would share this card I made using the new Halycon Days CD from Crafters Companion. The original artwork is by Abigail Mill - her work is beautiful.

I simply printed off the papers, toppers and bunting to make the card and sprayed the main image with a light coat of Spray and Sparkle.  I love the ice cream colours!

Challenges I am entering:

CD Sunday - At the Seaside

Snow in June

Happy Sunday all! And apologies for showing a Christmas card in June! I wanted to join in with the Winter Wonderland challenge this week which is to make a Christmas Card without using red or green.

I created the background for this card on Neenah card which the Distress Inks blended well on. The stamps were from a free set from Creative Stamping Magazine back in December last year. I added Perfect Pearls on the tree and sprayed the whole piece with Spray and Sparkle. 

I hope you like this card and I think it's never too early for Christmas!

Other challenges I am entering:

Completely Christmas - Anything Goes

Christmas Stampin All Year Long - Anything Goes

A Sweet Tweet

At last this afternoon here in the South the sun has appeared! It has been a pretty dismal half term to date.

Over at The Handmade Harbour Challenge we have been asked this week to use the theme Sweet or Sparkly. I chose to use this sweet digi stamp for my DT piece.

I coloured the image using Promarkers and then decoupaged the bird, sentiment and heart and added a button to finish. At least it makes you think of spring if the weather outside doesn't!

Craft room Challenge - Things with Wings

Fan-Tastic Tuesday - Anything Goes (square)

Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

All At Sea

This week I have felt as though I have been all at sea - what with my puppy having his op. It was like having a baby in the house again! I've also been busy making new samples for Serif Craft Artist and trying out my new Cricut Explore machine - which I have to say is pretty impressive!

With all this excitement I decided to make a simple card for the Keep It Simple challenge which this week is Maritime.

I stamped the images using Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink and had a go at masking some of the images to create a collage. I then used a waterbrush to pull out the colour, before cutting out and edging with the same ink. I quite like the simplicity of this.

I am entering this into the following challenges:

KraftyHands Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

Jo's Scrap Shack - Life's A Beach

Simply Create Too - Fathers Day / For A Male

Having fun at The Handmade Harbour

Its Wednesday  - so that means we are starting a new challenge at the Handmade Harbour. This week the theme is Having Fun - interpret as you wish!!

I used the digital stamp girls celebrating. I thought I would use some girly colours for a change too!

Come and have some fun and join us! 

Digital Grunge

As a member of the Serif Craft Artist team I was lucky enough to be asked to make some samples using the new Graphic Authority Digi Kits. This week these are the 4 Day Deal on Create and Craft, so its been super exciting to see mine and the other team members work on screen.

The kits give you hundreds of frames, distressed backgrounds and digi brushes to work with. So I thought I would share some of my samples with you.....

Its amazing the effects you can get!