Makes 5, 6 and 7...358 to go

I spotted a free digi stamp online so decided to print out a few and make some cards. I have packaged them all up ready to sell at my next craft stall :) 

Time for something a bit different

Its my grans birthday next week and this week I spent a couple of evenings planning and making her Birthday card.

I decided I wanted to try something a bit different and rather then using stamps with animals or people in them I would use a floral stamp. I ended up getting a digi stamp from Tiffany Doodles which is a website I have never used before but will definitely be using again.

I found a stamp with a pansy in a pot which I thought my nan would really like, it took a bit of experimenting to work out the shading with my pro markers but after a few attempts I managed to get it right. I decided to keep the card quite simple and used a recycled card blank teamed with some floral patterned paper and a piece of colored pattered paper at either corner. I then cut out the stamped image and mounted it on the card using silicone glue to give it some dimension. I printed my own greeting and distressed it using the Tim Holtz distress ink pad.

Overall I really like this card it's very different from the other cards I have made but I certainly will be using this style again.

Quick Card

Here's another card I made using a digi stamp from Whimsie Doodles.

Crafty Essentials

I know on quite a lot of the blogs I follow people have done posts on their top crafting products.I thought I would do a number of posts on my favorite products. One of the best things I have purchased is the ATG tape gun I have two of them actually. A pink one which dispenses a  narrower tape and yellow one which has a thicker tape.

The guns make applying double sided tape so easy and the adhesive ATG use is so strong. Its brill for all types of projects. Its one of those products I now couldn't live without I would advise people to purchase it :) quite often. I got mine here http://www.3mselect.co.uk/p-2422-scotch-advanced-tape-glider-kit.aspx and its on sale at the moment for 11.99.

I will be doing some more posts in the next few weeks on some of my other top products so keep an eye out for them.

Another Quick Card

Just another quick post this evening, here is another card I made using a whimsie doodle digital stamp. I loved this stamp when I saw it, a nice cute image and a great sentiment. 

I made a simple card by mounting the stamp on some blue card stock and then covering a 6x6 card blank in some blue paper from the potobello road collection. 

Boofle

I love boofle I think he is such a cute character so I was really excited when boofle crafting supplies were released earlier this year.

I have some of the boofle embossing folders but so far only one stamp that came free in the last issue of Do Crafts magazine. I did a quick card with this free stamp as an experiment and I am fairly happy with the result as it was something I throw together in half an hour.

The card was done on some of the square papermania recycled card blanks. The paper used to back the image was from some freebie paper I had in a magazine ages and and the image was coloured with promarkers. I added some ribbon along the fold to give the card some extra interest. 

Easter Cards

I had a few last minute easter cards to get finished before the bank holiday weekend and a lot of my crafty pals have told me how good craftsuprint.com is so I decided to give it a go.

There are a huge range of printable cardmaking products and kits on there and I found a huge selection of easter related bits so it was hard to make a choice. In the end I found these super cute pig decoupage and pyramid card sheets.

All you have to do is cut out the bits once you have printed them onto a good quality cardstock and then piece them together.

The website provides a huge range of different kits from simple ones like the two above to more complicated moving cards. I also made one of these and was super happy with it but I will be posting about that later in a separate post.

But yes if you are looking for a quick make card if you have left it a little too late or if your just looking for a fun and simple project I would advise checking out the craftsuprint website.

WOYWW 4th April

I have missed WOYWW for a couple of weeks, glad to be back this week though to have a snoop round other peoples craft spaces. If you would like to join in then head over to Julia's wonderful blog.

This week I have been finishing of my easter cards, it took me a while to get my card making mojo back as have been spending the last month or so experimenting with other crafts. I am quite happy with the card I made though as it only took a couple of hours to complete. The stamp is one I got in hobby craft a few weeks ago it's so cute!

 As you can see my desk this week is again the floor, my actual desk is in my spare room and I like to watch the TV whilst I craft so I never seem to use my actual desk, maybe I should move the desk into the living room...hmmm.

Easter Cards

I have been meaning to start making my easter cards all this week but I just haven't really had any idea what I wanted to do for them.

I started colouring in an easter themed digi stamp this evening and got it all coloured and cut out but then I just couldn't decide what type of card to make with it. I seem to have lost my creative mojo :(

Im not massively happy with my shading on this image either, don't know whether to scrap it and start again? What are other peoples ideas for easter cards I need some creative suggestions.

WOYWW

So it's been a while since I last joined Julia's fab blog hop. If you haven't seen it its a great place to check out what other crafters have on their desks and what projects they are working on.

I have been away from WOYWW and craft for the last month or so as life has been pretty stressful but I am hoping that things are on the up now :)

Anyway here is a sneeky peek of what's on my desk. As you can see I have been multi tasking working on both Mothers Day cards and Easter Cards. I have been working on the floor again and as you can see I managed to spread mess everywhere. In the top picture you can see my alphabet stamps which I love to use to make my own handmade sentiments. In the second photo is a tin which I have full of die cut shapes and pre stamped images which I like to have out when making cards as I can then pick whichever shapes and stamps best fit the card I am making. In the third picture there is my tray filed with inks acrylic blocks and some clear stamps.

I have decided to have a massive sort out and organize of all my craft stuff this weekend so hopefully next weeks WOYWW will be a much tidier affair.

(check out the posts below for better pics of the cards I have been making)

Mothers Day Card Pt 2

Just a quick post to show you the Mothers day card I have made for my mum this evening.

I am really happy with the way the stamped image turned out but not at all happy with the rest of the card I don't think the front flap really matches the design at all. I guess craft is a learning curve and not every project can be perfect.

I am still going to enter my card for the latest challenge over at passion for promarkers. Nothing ventured nothing gained I suppose.

Apologies for the photo still no camera and I cant get blogger to rotate the photo either gaaaah I despair with technology this evening.

Mothers Day Card

Just a quick post to show you all the mothers day card I have been working on for my gran. It's a pro marker coloured image of some teddy bears.

I mounted the image on some embossed dark card stock and put it on to a maroon coloured card. I added a stamped sentiment which I also mounted on some pink card stock. I decided the card looked a bit plain so added some glitter glue round the sentiment and some heart buttons to try and jazz it up a bit.

I'm still not sure its completely finished any suggestions to extra bits I could add.

WOYWW 1st February

Sorry for the delay with posting my desk this week, haven't had a chance to look at Julias Blog yet but can't wait to look at what everyone has been working on later today.

This week on my desk I have some crafty goodies which Lou from http://handmadebylou-lou.blogspot.com/ sent me in the post. Crafters are such a nice bunch of people and I really was over the moon to receive such a great variety of stuff from Lou as a beginner I haven't worked with many embellishments or die cuts yet so am very excited to see what I can get making with all this wonderful stuff.

Hopefully will be making some cards this evening so should be posting a few in the next few days, keep your eyes peeled :)

Teddy Bear Card

Today I spent my day reorganizing and tidying most of my flat, yes it is as boring as it sounds. The flat is super tidy and organized now though so I rewarded myself with some chill out craft time this evening.

I have been colouring in a few of my digi stamps so I have a supply of ready coloured images to use when wanting to make a card quickly. I made one card tonight using a cute teddy bear stamp.

I coloured and shaded the bear using my pro markers and then cut him out using my scissors and craft knife, Im thinking of investing in some of those special decoupage scissors as it so fiddly doing it with the big scissors and knife. I also cut out the heart shaped balloons separately. I used some of the airmail style paper from the Portobello Road collection and cut this to form a large strip down the centre of my cardstock.  I stuck the bear on and then used 3D foam pads to attach the balloons so they had a sort of floating effect. I then found some old elastic that I had laying around in my sewing box and stuck this on with pva glue to make the balloon strings. Overall I am happy with this card I really feel like I am getting better at this whole crafting thing :) Not sure if this card needs something else though, it just feels like something is missing from it not sure what though, any suggestions?

I am going to be entering this card into the I love Promarkers challenge which this week is an anything goes theme.

Scarf update

So this was meant to be a quick post to update you on the progress of my scarf. Unfortunately progress has almost ground to a halt as the stitches have got so tight that it is impossible to knit the next row. I think I'm going to do a bit more reading on knitting and then start again on a whole new scarf.

Tonight I have been having a bit of a spring clean of my flat and tidied the living room, kitchen and bathroom I have been epically busy since November last year that a good sort out was long overdue. This didn't leave me much time for crafting but I managed to cram in half an hour or so of creative time before bed.

As the scarf was a complete no go I got out my promarkers. I had printed out some more digi stamps earlier in the evening which I am planning to use to make some cards, some for particular occasions but some for challenges which I am becoming addicted to. I just love making cards for the challenges but also love seeing how other people have interpreted the theme.

I love using my pro markers I find it really relaxing to just sit and colour in the different images. I mainly do animals but am trying to learn how to get skin tones correct so tonight have been working on this cute stamp of a girl with a cupcake. It's still not finished got a bit too tired to concentrate on it, am going to finish that off tomorrow.

WOYWW 18th Jan

Last week I managed to visit pretty much all the WOYWW links over at Julia's brilliant blog I really enjoyed looking at the work everyone was getting started with in 2012.

I still have no proper crafting desk and this week for some reason I have been working on the floor its actually really comfortable and gives me plenty of space to make a mess in! So here's a look at what's going on on my desk/floor this week.

As you can see the floor has sort of been taken over with crafting. In the top left I have one of my storage boxes which I use to keep all my various adhesives and scissors and craft knives in. In the middle is one of my smaller storage boxes which contains my alphabet stamps and quilling papers.  I also have two excellent craft books out one is Martha Stewart's craft encyclopedia and the other is Craft Wisdom and Know How. Both these books are perfect for newbie crafters lots of hints, tips, tutorials and fun projects to get started with. I also have my dinner in the top right I love to craft whilst chilling out over dinner hence the pizza in this photo.

As you can see I had been reading about the art of quilling. It was a technique I had never tried before so decided that I would practice a few of the shapes that were shown in various books to see if I could get the hang of it before using it on a card, this way if I wasn't any good at it I wouldn't mess up a card. Both books offer step by step instructions for various shapes so I got my quilling papers out along with the quilling tool and started practicing.

The technique is a little fiddely but very fun to see how easy it is to make a whole range of shapes some more complicated than others. The 3D effect looks great too and I have tons of ideas of how I can use quilling on cards and other crafty makes now I have got the hang of it.

I made a wide range of different shapes including a flower, teardrop, scroll, heart and various circles. I think the effect is ace and cant wait to try different shapes and papers. So yes this week my desk is filled with quilling and for anyone that hasn't tried this technique yet give it a go it really is great fun. This is what I love so much about crafting such a huge array of new skills to learn and master, I look forward to getting round all your desks this week and finding new techniques, crafts and projects that your all doing and giving them a go myself.

Quick Card

Tonight I made a quick card to enter in to the latest challenge on the I love Promarkers blog. I had to get  the train to work at 7am this morning so by the time I got round to crafting time I was pretty tired so decided to work on a quick and simple design.

I used Promarkers to colour in a cute image of a hamster eating a cupcake and then added a little bit of shading to the image. I then cut this image out and decided it would look best on a slightly unusual size card. I cut my cardstock down to make a 15cm by 15cm square and then folded this in half. I then covered one side of the card with some super cute cloud paper. I positioned the hamster in one corner of the card attached a chip board sentiment and some heart shaped buttons in various colours.

Overall considering this is only about the fifth card I have made I'm really happy with the way this card has turned out. It only took me about an hour to make and was a nice chill out activity after a long day in the office.

WOYWW

So last week whilst blog hopping I stumbled across this fantastic post where each Wednesday crafters from all over the world congregate on Julia's blog to share pictures of their work desks and the a particular projects they have on them on that Wednesday.

I only discovered the blog a few days ago and have to admit that I have been hooked ever since. It is so interesting to see how other people organise their work spaces, its also great to see that the people that post vary from novice crafters like me to some real craft artists whose work just amazes me.     

So far I don't actually have a desk solely for craft so kind of just spread out in the kitchen or lounge. This week I have been working on Thank You cards and decided to do something a bit unconventional so have done a thank you card with a panda on. As you can see from the first picture I used my large collection of pro markers to colour in the digi stamp.

I store my promarkers in a old sweet tin and to be honest its not great it is hard to find which colour I am looking for and its impossible to keep the pens in colour groups which makes it quicker to get the colours needed for blending. Some sort of storage solution needs to be purchased asap. 

As you can see from the above picture my desk gets a bit messy when I am fully immersed in a project. In the background you can see a pad of multi coloured card stock which I purchased in Lidl at the weekend it was a bargain at 1.99 for a pack of 25 sheets. You can also see my self healing cutting mat which I love I use it for everything not just cutting, it makes it much easier to tidy up when I am done if all the bits and bobs are on the mat. You can also see double sided sticky tape which I think every crafter is a little bit in love with, and my craft knife and scissors which I used to cut out all the elements of my digi stamp.

This is the final card not 100% happy with it but pleased as its the first card of this type that I have made. I used a digi stamp which I cut into individual elements and mounted them on different levels of my folded piece of card. The bamboo canes were fiddely to cut out so I don't think they look as neat as I would like. The sentiment circle I did in green and then added stamps I think it would look more effective in a purple colour rather then blending in with the foliage in the rest of the image. I added some glitter glue to the card to make it a bit more interesting. Overall I like the image but think the way I have set up the card could be better I think I would give it 6/10.

I look forward to looking at what everyone else has on there desk this Wednesday.