Happy New Year

Hi All

I have been a very bad blogger and not posted anything for ages so thought I would take this chance to wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2012.

I don't really make resolutions but I have been thinking over the Christmas holidays of crafty things I would like to achieve in 2012 so here goes:

I would like to learn how to brayer properly
I also want to improve my colouring techniques
I'm going to use up some of my stash and scraps instead of buying lots of new things
I'm going to use my alcohol inks
I'm going to try and blog more
And finally I'm going to try and keep my craft room more tidy (not sure this will happen though lol)

I would love to know what your crafty resolutions are for 2012.

And on a none crafty note I'm hoping my OH finally gives in and lets us have another dog to keep Annabelle company but won't hold my breath :)

Happy crafting for 2012

Love
Faye

xx

Crafty Boots Blog Hop

Hi All

I would like to thank everyone who joined in on our blog hop over at Crafty Boots and to say a big thank you for all the lovely comments on my blog.   I also am delighted to be able to announce that the lucky crafter who has been randomly selected to win some crafty goodies is ....

dj1952

Please email Stephanie - Emma at stephanie-emma@craftyboots.co.uk to claim your crafty goodies

  

Congratulations :) I hope you enjoy your prize.

I will be back later with my card for the next challenge so please pop back.

Faye

xx

Crafty Boots blog hop challenge

HI all and welcome to my blog.

The theme at Crafty Boots Challenges this fortnight is ‘Anything Goes’.  You can join in the challenge as normal but there are 12 extra chances for you to win a prize by joining the first ever Crafty Boots blog hop!

If you are joining in the hop you should have got here from Emma T’s blog.  If you haven’t blog hopped before it is really simple, just start at the Crafty Boots Challenge blog and hop through the design team blogs in the order set out on that page.  Each of the design team members has a word or two for you to collect which will reveal a message at the end.  Once you have collected that message email it to bloghop@craftyboots.co.uk to be entered into the draw to win the prize of three digis of your choice from Hope Jacare Doodles.  You must also become a follower of all the design team’s blogs (and Claire’s) to be eligible to win the prizes.

I used the lovely snowman wreath digi stamp from our sponsors, I had problems choosing what to use as there were so many fab ones.  I coloured it in using promarkers.

I used a 12cm x 12cm card blank and matted and layered green co-ordinations card and Forever Friends papers which I think were from 2 Christmas's ago which I had forgotten I had. The ribbon and gems are from my stash.

Don’t forget that myself and each of the design team members has a prize of candy up for grabs, this will include a sample pack of the fantastic new Crafty Boots Deluxe card along with a few other goodies.  Be sure to leave a comment on each of our blogs and follow us to be in with a chance of winning our candy!

My word for the secret message is:

BOOTS

Your next stop is Gabrielle’s blog.

The deadline for both the Anything Goes challenge, and the blog hop (and candy) is Sunday 11^th December at 12 Noon (UK time).

4th Design Team Card

Hi All

Here is my 4th design team card for Crafty Boots

 I decided to go with a Halloween theme it's not something I normally make cards for but really enjoyed doing this one.  It's my friends Birthday on Halloween so I will be sending this card to her.

All the papers and image are from Nitwit, I love all their stuff!

I added ribbon from my stash and my favorite cosmic pearl pva.

Please pop over to Crafty Boots Challenge blog to join us and check out all the fab work from the design team.

Thanks for looking

Faye x

Black 'n' Cream

I really like all the black and cream cards that are around at the minute and thought I would try one myself.

I cut and folded a 6 inch cream card base then cut a black piece of card slightly smaller and matted some cream card onto it which I had embossed with the Delicate That Special Touch Mica Mask, I then wrapped ribbon around it a added a bow and hat pins.

I then cut my image using a Marianne creatable die in black card. I used lots of Spellbinder dies to make all the matts and layers to add dimension to my card and used a peel off greeting out of my stash.

I added flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and Cosmic Shimmer black pearl pva to the corners.

I would like to enter this card into The ABC Anything Goes Challenge.

3rd Crafty Boots Challenge

For the 3rd challenge over at Crafty Boots it is a Zoo or Animal theme so I had an idea to make a door hanger.

I used a template that I found in my stash (I had forgotten that I had it!) drew round it on white card and cut it out I also cut out 4 strips of the same card and coloured them in using spiced marmalade distress ink.

I used a Kanban Woolly Bear topper and matted it on to white card cut out using a scalloped oval spellbinder die and went around the edge with the same distress ink.

Thanks for looking

Faye x

Quick Card

I got some new stamps last week but haven't had much time to play with them so decided to make a very quick card with them tonight.

I cut a folded an 11.5 cm card blank out of white pearlised card.

I then cut a matt slightly smaller than the card blank and coloured using Stormy Sky Distress ink and stamped over it using Kaisercraft Magic Happens Clear stamps available from Crafty Boots in the same colour.

I used the sentiment from the stamp set to make my topper stamped again in the same colour Distress ink and cut it out using Spellbinder dies the scalloped matt is also cut using Spellbinder dies.

I then added Cosmic Shimmer Pearl PVA in the corners (just for a change lol).

Faye

x

2nd Crafty Boots Challenge Card

This is the card I made for the 2nd Crafty Boots Challenge.

I cut and folded a 6 inch card blank and cut another piece of card slightly smaller and used the That Special Touch Mica Masks Delicate and Black soot Distress ink to make my back ground.

I then cut 3 strips of card and used the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder, Black Soot Distress ink and matted on to white card to make the panels.

I used Creative Expressions Fanciful Phrases stamps for my sentiment stamped again in Black Soot Distress ink and then embossed it with clear embossing powder and cut out using Spellbinders dies, the scalloped edged matt was also cut using Spellbinder dies and coloured in with the same Distress ink.

I used the Spellbinders dies to cut the butterflies out of pink card from my stash.

To finish of my card I used my favorite Cosmic Shimmer Pearl PVA around the corners and added white organza ribbon and hat pins from my stash.

Thanks for looking

Faye x

1st Crafty Boots Challenge card

Today was the launch of our first challenge over at Crafty Boots and here is the card I made for it.

I used Joanna Sheen's flower bouquet - in a jug stamp and coloured it in with promarkers (sorry I forgot to make a note of what colours I used again will try harder to remember for next time)

The sentiment is from Creative Expressions fanciful phrases stamp set.

All the papers are from the fairy tale collection from Nitwits.

The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

The ribbon is from my stash and I used my favorite Cosmic Shimmer Specialist Pearl PVA to add the pearls on the edge.

I also used a Martha Stewart punch to get the scalloped edged on my paper.

Really hope you can join us for our first challenge over at Crafty Boots

Faye x

Good News

Just a quick post from me today with some good news.

I  have been invited to be part of the new Crafty Boots Design team.  This is really exciting for me as I have never done anything like this before, but I am really looking forward to it even if I am a little nervous.

Stephanie-Emma has chosen a fab team who are all really talented and I feel honored to be apart of it.

Our first challenges launches on the 5th of September so hope you can all join in.

Faye x

Hubby's Birthday Card

It was my Hubby's birthday yesterday so I made this card for him.

I used an 8 x 8 inch white card blank.  Took a smaller peice of card and cut into 4 squares and coloured with Faded Jeans Distress Ink and used a small parcel stamp to create the background.  I stamped the little boy image from Lili of the Valley in stone gray StazOn ink and coloured him in with water colour pencils and cut out using Grand Nesties circle dies and distressed around the edge with the same ink used on the background.  I then cut a white scalloped matt out to put the picture onto.  I cut out some small oval Nesties to added my peel off greetings onto.

More Tent Cards

Really enjoying making this style of card.

These cards were both made from Grand Labels One Nesties die for the cad base.

The Snowman card was made using white card coloured all over with Frayed Burlap Distress ink.  I used some white card and stamped all over it using a snowflake stamp using the same ink and cut out to use as backing paper and cut a frame and inked with the same ink and used gold glitter glue which you can't really see on the picture.  The white ribbon is from my stash.  The Snowman was stamped in Frayed Burlap cut out with oval Nesties and matted on to a scalloped oval die coloured with the same ink.  I cut smaller oval dies to stick my peel off greeting on to.

The red card is made using red textured card from my stash and a red and white paper from Polka Doddles Jingle Jangle CD, the frame was cut using the same textured red card and Cosmic Shimmer pearl PVA used around the edge.  The image is another die cut from Lili of the Valley using square Nesties and matted on to scalloped square Nesties. I used the smaller ovals again for my peel off greeting.  The white ribbon is from my stash

Tent Card

When looking through some blogs I came across a tent style card and thought I would try making one.  This was my first attempt, it took me quite a while to make but I'm glad I preserved as I was quite please with the outcome.

I used white pearlescent card and cut 2 scalloped circles using Grand Nesties and folded a piece of card to use as the tent bottom which is attached to inside of the card.

I cut two circles (again using Grand Nesties) of blue spotted paper from Polka Doodles Jingle Jangles Christmas CD and a piece of blue card from my stash to make the centre frame and added Cosmic Shimmer specialist pearl PVA around the edge.

For the picture I used a Reindeer image from the same CD and matted onto white pearl card cut with a smaller scalloped die. I used white organza ribbon to hang the image in the middle.

Cute Tilda Card

I think this Tilda stamp has to be one of my favorites I use her all the time.

After watching Nikky Hall from Polka Doodles demo a sepia tone picture using ProMarkers it gave me the inspiration to try it myself.

I cut and folded a 6 inch white card blank.  Took a smaller piece of white card and used the Polka Dots That Special Touch mask to make the back ground using Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I then cut and measured three panels, used Craft Concepts Cottage Floral embossing folder and again coloured with Walnut Stain Distress Ink going over it a couple of times to make it slightly darker and matted onto white card.

I stamped and coloured the Tilda stamp (sorry I can't remember what colours I used, will try and remember to make a note for the future) and cut her out using oval Nesties and distressed around the edges using the same ink as before and matted it on to a white scalloped oval again cut from Nesties.

The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the White Pearls around the edge and corners were created from the Creative Expressions Cosmic Shimmer specialist pearl PVA.

The white organza ribbon is out of my stash.

Boxes

After making the cards using the Lili of the Valley images, I realised that they wouldn't fit in to envelopes without damaging the flowers so I decided to make boxes for them.

I used white card, the same papers to match from the Cuddly Buddly website, and ribbon from my stash again coloured to match with ProMarkers.

Lili of the Valley cards

 I love the stamps from Lili of the Valley but couldn't decide which ones to buy when I came across the pre coloured die cut images, which gave me the opportunity to have lots of the images.

To make these cards I used white card blanks, downloaded papers from the Cuddly Buddly website and die cut images from Lili of the Valley.  The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, the ribbon is from my stash which I coloured with ProMakers to get the shades I wanted to match the cards.

Birthday card for my Neice

For my Nieces 16th birthday I decided to make an easel card.

I used a piece of turquoise pearlesecnt card that I got in a pack from QVC and folded it to make my easel card blank.  I then cut another piece of turquoise card to matt on to the bottom of my card blank.  I cut two strips of silver mirror card, two strips of white pearlescent card and two strips of the turquoise card, matted and layered them and added one to the top half of my card to stick the dress embellishments on to (I can't remember where I got the dresses from as I had, had them for ages before I used them) and the second on to the bottom of my card blank to use as my stopper for the easel card and also to add my peel off greeting on to.   I finished the card off with paper flowers and some gems from my stash.

Baby Card

I had great fun making this baby card for a friend last year.

I took an A5 card blank and folded half of one side to make the stand for my easel card.  I then took a piece of silver mirror card and cut it to the same size as the A5 card blank and covered with textured white card leaving a small border and covered that with blue patterned paper again leaving a small border. I added some beading wire to make a washing line and embellished with stars, a bow and some cute little baby socks. I then cut the baby out and stuck on to a piece of textured white card and chalked around the edge with light blue chalk, punched a whole in the top and hung it from the washing line.  I covered the base of the card blank with the same blue patterned paper and cut the sentiment out and matted on to blue and white card and finished off with some more stars.

The silver mirror card, white textured card and card blank came from my stash, all of the other elements came form the Sundae of Seasons CD by Polka Doddles

Winning Card

I entered this card into May's Craft Creations card challenge (it is the first challenge that I have ever entered) and came 1st I was so pleased.

To make the card I used a cream 8x8 card blank, then used another piece of cream card and distressed it with brushed corduroy distress ink and stamped all over it with Sheena Douglass daisy head stamp.  I then stamped the bigger daisy stamp onto a piece of cream card and distressed around the edge and matted it on to cream card and wrapped ribbon over the corners.  To finish my card off I added some flowers and a peel off greeting.