Happy Birthday Charlie!

It is my good friend's son's birthday next week, I cannot believe how much he has grown from the cute 3 year old to the sassy 10 year old he will be on the 28th of April.

I think I have said before that I am not good when it comes to boy cards so here is my attempt :) I used my new promarkers to colour in the robot and stars. I love using promarkers, streak free finish and so many options. I am finding it hard to find images I like to colour, I am not into magnolia stamps or the cuter images so I think I need to try and draw my own *gulp* the only drawback is I'm not that good an artist!

For some reason the bling cardstock I used for the title looks like it doesn't tie in when photographed but looks much nicer in person.

I didn't manage to create anything card related today but I did embroider a t-shirt for my friend's daughter and made some matching hair clips so I have a small sense of accomplishment!

Have a good week!

Love you more than rainbows-Crafty Templates April

It's that time again :) Had lots of fun with the new Crafty Templates 'Love you more than rainbows' April card kit. Such bright and cheerful colours and lovely embellishments, Leo really knows how to put a kit together.

Here is my first one, and I just love it! I uses squares of paper from the kit and sewed them on in a patchwork style. The bird was from the template and coloured with my new promarkers (love them so much!) Everthing is from the kit except the jewels.

This one uses the apron template and all materials from the kit except the sentiment and jewels. So sweet as an embellishment on a cookbook mini book, or as card for someone who likes to cook!

I love the happy colours in the one. I chose to use the rainbow and card shape template but added paper for the rainbow from a previous kit and AC paper for the background, glitter and stamped sentiment are from my own stash.

Hope you like them! Are you a Crafty Templates subscriber? I would love to see what you create with your kit, please add a link in the comments and I would like to come visit :)

Sweet Talia - Altered Photo Frame

I recently reconnected with a dear friend who lives in the US who I had lost touch with and was delighted to find she had a beautiful 3 year old little girl. As part of a parcel of goodies I am sending to her I altered this photo frame for her daughter's bedroom.

This is the second frame I altered. The first one was a very pretty frame and I had distressed it just how I wanted with pink paint showing under the white and I decided to use crackle glaze, so far so good, I then thought I would rub some pale pink paint over the top and wipe the excess off. BIG mistake, it looked like the frame had a bad case of eczema so I started over again!

I use Crate Paper for the background and letters, lots of lace, velvet ribbon, sizzix die cut swirls on bo bunny paper distressed with distress inks, imaginisce & prima blooms and some vintage millinery flowers all topped off with glitter, gems and pearls.

I love it so much, I just wish I knew some more little girls so I could make more :)

American Crafts and Quickutz Bargains!

I don't usually make stash posts but I had to share some bargains I picked up yesterday and hopefully it helps someone else nab a bargain or two!

I was in my local Home Sense store and found that they had a lot more craft related items. A few months ago I was able to pick up a Doodlebug 12x12 scrapbook for £16.00 complete with paper pack and stickers, this time I found lots of things from pebbles, making memories, doodlebug and american crafts.

I picked up this:

A lovely album with 20 papers, thickers, remarks stickers, flair and chipboard shapes for £14.99 and remarks sticker and flair packs for £2.99 each and each packet had 4 sheets to it.

And this:

Quickutz magpie unit for £9.99 and the magpie nesting boxes for £3.99 a pack, unfortunately they only had 2 packs so I need to look for a third! I only own 1 quickutz die and don't plan on branching out into buying lots more but I though it would be great for storing little embellishments in on my desk. I debated hard in the queue whether I really wanted it but I think I would have kicked myself if I hadn't!

I hope it helps someone pick up a bargain. Hopefully I will be back this week with a home decor project and some cards to share!