Easter Time

I hope you are all looking forward to the Easter break. We are expecting some warm temperatures in the UK, hotter than the Costas!

I decided to create this Easter card today before the holiday formally begins tomorrow.

The rabbit was cut on my Cricut machine and then edged with Distress Ink. The other elements were diecut from various foliage dies, some from coloured paper, others from white paper and watercoloured.

I embossed the background before bringing out the detail with distress ink. Finally I layered the finished work and mounted onto a white card. 

I am looking forward to seeing all your Easter creations too!

Challenges I am entering:

Crafty Gals Corner Challenges - Easter

Country View Craft Challenges - Easter

Always Fun - Easter

Penguins In Love

At last my cardmaking orders have slowed down and I can concentrate on my own Christmas makings! My son finished school yesterday and the festive spirit is in full supply!

I wanted to share a card I made for me parents using a free die from Papercraft Essentials Magazine.

I die cut the penguins, heart and foliage using the free dies and the words I made using my Cricut Machine. My parents loved it!

Cardmaking Challenges I am entering:

Crafty Calendar - Its Christmas

Crafty Hazlenuts Christmas - Anything Goes

Crafty HazleNuts Extra - Christmas

Winter Wonderland - Anything Christmas

Sisterhood of Crafters - Christmas

The Merry Christmas Challenge - Christmas

Magical Unicorn

Unicorn's are a big trend at the moment. I have been working on this card for some time and I think I'm happy with it now.

The clouds and rainbow are cut using my Cricut machine whilst the unicorn and sentiment is from an Avery Elle set of stamps. I used watercolour pens for the unicorn with the added sparkle of Spectrum Noir glitter pens.

I am also really grateful to the team at Seize The Birthday who chose my animal card (see previous post) for birthday honours!!

I am entering my unicorn card into the following challenges:

HLS Anything Goes With Dies 

Love to Craft - Anything Goes

So many Birthdays!

January is always an expensive timewith lots of birthdays just after Christmas. This week was my Dad's and my baby brother's 40th!! And as we crafters know its always tricky to be inspired when it comes to cards for the men!

I thought I would share the card that I made for my Dad.

I used my Cricut machine to create the banners from patterned paper although you can add patterns to shapes in the Print and Cut facility. I cut the DAD from a recent freebie set of dies from Papercrafter magazine. The sentiments were stamped and I added some twine to finish.

I'm glad to say my Dad loved it!!

I am entering the following challenges:

IncyWincy Designs - For the men in your life

Ooh La La Creations - For man or boy

To Die For!

I have said it lots of times but I LOVE Halloween! I love the season with its colours, warming food and ghost stories too.

So for October's Anything Goes With A Die Challenge it had to be a Halloween card.

I used my Cricut Explore to cut the images and Black Distress Ink and a branch stencil to add detail.

I'm looking forward to seeing your creations!

I am entering my card into the following challenges:

A Gem of A challenge - Halloween

Crafty Calendar Challenge - Halloween

Country View Challenges - Spooky

Crafty Creations - Halloween

Anything Goes with a Die

As its supposed to be summer here in the UK I decided to make a tropical themed card for this month's Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes With A Die.  Unfortunately the weather is anything but tropical with rain and wind!

For my card I used a flamingo die that came with one of my craft magazines. I die cut them from card and coloured them with Promarkers. I diecut a circle in the centre of the card and backed it with acetate, before using a background paper inside too.

The flowers are from a set by Creative Stamping magazine. I stamped and coloured them with Promarkers and a gold pen. The leaves were diecut with my Cricut machine.

Unfortunately the picture shows a mark on the acetate which was a bit disappointing, but otherwise I love this card!

Don't forget to join us at the challenge!

Challenges I am entering :

Crafty Sentiment Designs - Use Dies

Passion For Promarkers - Square Card

Country View Crafts - Hot Summer Days

Which Witch?

Halloween is nearly here, so I just had to make another creepy card!

I made this in a similar way to my last Halloween Card (see previous post) using a Cricut cut image. The background was created using Distress Inks and ink sprays.

I'm hoping to share some photos of our Halloween decorations soon - so watch this space!

Here is a photo of our first pumpkin we carved this week.

Spooky!

I am entering my card into the following challenges:

Craft Rocket - Spooky

Moving Along With the Times - Halloween

Fan-Tastic Tuesday - Orange and Black

Die Cuttin Divas - Picture Inspired

Artistic Inspirations  - Halloween

My Poor Blog!

My poor little blog has been a bit neglected of late. I am working on lots of new ideas and samples so please bear with me!

One of things I posted on Facebook today was a papercut - designed by me!

I am offering the file for sale AND you can use it COMMERCIALLY yourself!. Pop over to my Facebook page to contact me regarding this.

I hope to be back later on this week with some new projects to share with you. 

Watch this space!!

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

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

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

A Busy Monday!

Last week was a bit of a washout craft wise with my son being at home sick, so I didn't get much time to craft. But I made up for it this morning!

My first post is for Linda's Funkie Junkie's Tag Challenge - week 6 (yes still catching up!!).

I made a jumbo tag and covered it with two styles of Kaisercraft paper. I distressed the papers with Frayed Burlap ink. The trees, numbers and birds were made using my Cricut machine. I stamped christmas words onto the tree and then covered it with Rock Candy stickles. I used a vintage postcard I had in my stash on the top and distressed all the other diecuts with Distress Ink. Finally I made the bows and added a snowflake brad. 

Don't forget the prize is a voucher from The Funkie Junkie's store!

I will be back again tomorrow with more makes!!

Boo!

Did I scare you?! With Halloween only a couple of weeks away, I thought I would get into the SPIRIT (LOL) with a spooky tag.

I made this tag initially with the challenge at Our Creative Corner in mind which is to create a Halloween tag with texture. I covered the tag in black tissue paper and then dry brushed it with silver acrylic paint. The Spiders web and spider was diecut with my Cricut machine. I then stamped and cut out the bat. The vial is filled with silver glitter and I added a vintage label. Lastly to hang the tag I created a chain from jump rings.

Look out for more spooky projects coming soon!

Challenges I am entering:

Country View Challenges - Something Spooky

Unruly Paper Arts - Going Batty

The Holiday Season

It's the holiday season and whilst I will soon be enjoying a little break in the Devon countryside, I am also thinking of the Christmas holidays too!

Here is a card I made using stamps by Molly Bloom, Distress Inks, the Cricut mini and some embellishments.

I hope you are all enjoying the summer and I hope to be bringing you more crafty goodness very soon!

I am entering this into the following challenges :
Hobby House Creations - Christmas
Christmas Stampin All Year Long - Red, Green, White

Black and White

I hope you are all enjoying some sunshine. Here on the South Coast it is quite warm today. I have been enjoying sitting in the garden, sipping chamomile tea and reading the life story of Natalie Wood.

I have found time for some crafting too. I wanted to join in with the Docrafts challenge, which this week is "Black and White"

I embossed the bottom of the card with a dotty embossing folder. Then I cut a frame using my Cricut machine. The ornamental metalwork is amazing! The stamp is one of Michael Powell's stamps which I enhanced with a black artists pen. I made the flowers using a Marianne Die and the swirl was an offcut from a Cricut cut. Finally I added pearls to the flowers and a sentiment.

Other Challenges I am entering:

Craft Bloggers Network - Anything Goes

For Mum!

Firstly apologies for neglecting my blog what with half term being in the middle of February the time flew by!

A few months ago I bought a mini Cricut machine which I am slowly getting to grips with. I thought I would share one of the cards I made using the machine.I used a printed card blank as the base and added paper flowers to decorate. 

I have some other Mother's Day cards to share with you later in the week!

I am entering this card into the following challenges :

Allsorts - For a Lady

One Stop Craft Challenge - Mothers Day