Crafty Templates Circus

Roll up, roll up, the circus is in town! I have had lots of fun working with the September Crafty Templates Card Making Kit and Templates called Circus. As I have said previously Leo has such a great eye when it comes to putting kits together and this month's certainly did not disappoint. Filled with lots of My Minds Eye yumminess with some Cosmo Cricket thrown in for good measure.

The templates are fab for children's birthday cards or for making your own miniature toppers to have handy for decorating cards or embellishing your scrapbook page. If you haven't tried one of Leo's kits, I urge you to do so, they are such great value and filled with quality supplies and ideas!

Here is my personal favourite, the sea lion!

I used the sealion coupled with the big top template, it was so much fun to put together. I added some American Crafts stamped clouds and an acrylic sentiment tile.

Here he is juggling some brad 'balls'. I love, love, love the Cosmo Cricket tiny type alphas!

Mrs Nellie Phant is just adorable in her little felt hat set at a jaunty angle! Finally there is Mr Robot

I added the tag, Cosmo Cricket cogs rub ons and some Heidi Swapp chipboard lettering, perfect for that special little boy's birthday.

I don't know where the time keeps going, yet another busy couple of weeks where I have done much less crafting than I would like. I am going off to the land of the mouse this week and hope to pick up lots of crafty goodies and come back feeling all inspired.

Have a great couple of weeks and see you when I get back!

Two cards for two Mama's

I have so many birthdays in September, 6 at the last count! My beautiful mama's is on the 6th and Mr Paper's Mama is on the 18th so I was tasked with making two very special cards.

I tend to keep lapsing back into the same style, shabby chic but with a cleaner edge, I love it so much and I think they look so pretty that I can't help myself, it's like falling into a comfortable armchair. I need to start making things outside my comfort zone otherwise I will get stuck in a rut and that's not good!

Here is the card I made for my mum

I had to walk away from it because I just kept adding more embellishments and I think I nearly 'over egged the pudding' Supplies used: Paper; Making Memories, Flowers; Making Memories, Prima, Imaginisce, Lace; Crafty Templates, Frame; Melissa Frances, Letters; American Crafts.

This is card number two

Supplies used: Paper; MME, Sticker; Stampendous, Flowers; Prima, Lace; Crafty Templates, Badge and Letters; American Crafts.

I love them both although the blue one just edges it for me, I love flocked paper, especially when it is damask!

Happy days :)

Better late than never!

Ever feel like there are not enough hours in the day? Yup, same here, I've got quite a few cards that I have made that I haven't got around to sharing so I'll be posting a few over the next couple of weeks :)

Here are last month's Crafty Templates using the 'Chilled Out' card kit which includes a summery mix of yummy Sassafrass Lass papers. Go here to get yours before they sell out!

This is my favourite, I adore Mary Janes and it makes it even cuter that my husband thought of the sentiment!

I like the simplicity of this one, sit back, relax and enjoy your retirement. Oh how I'd love to be retired, sitting crafting all day, bliss!

Well, that's it for now, be back later with some more x

WOYWW - 28/07/2010

Hello WOYWW-ers, hope you are all doing ok, I've missed the past couple of weeks as things have been a bit hectic! No workdesk today as I forgot to take a picture (what a doofus!) instead I have a picture of my home made clip it up.

I had been bugging Mr Paper for a couple of years about buying me a clip it up and the silly, silly man, instead of parting with the cash said "why buy when I can make you one", of course I bugged him for weeks and weeks to make it and it never materialised, eventually I was resigned to the fact that I would never get one and would have to continue raking through a large cardboard box to find my supplies.

One day, many months later, he came home from work and placed a large object wrapped in a bin bag on the table with a heavy 'thunk', imagine my delight when I saw what he had made! I am lucky that he works in a manufacturing plant where he has access to lots of tools, metal, paint and such like. The only change I made was to spray it white. I bought lots of clips and hooks from Ikea and now have my very own rotating, albeit and bit heavy, clip it up!

So, here is the card I made today on the workdesk I forgot to photograph!

If you haven't seen it yet, have a little look at the post below which has a tutorial on how to make a rolled spiral flower wreath.

Have a great week!

Use Those Scraps! Blossoms and Butterflies

I have entered the weekly challenge on the Fiskarettes blog entitled 'Blossoms and Butterflies', as soon as I heard the theme I knew what I wanted to make and this is a great way to use up those scraps.

I am terrible, I keep the tiniest scrap of paper and in all honesty I don't know how I would use it but I just can't bear to throw things away, it's the pack rat in me!

For this project you need:
Thick chipboard, twine, paper scraps of all sizes, hot glue gun, butterflies. I also used a quilling tool which is optional as you can just use your fingers but I find it makes the task a little easier and helps make tighter flowers.

Cut a ring out of thick chipboard, you can use a plate as a template if you wish, I used a compass.

Tie the twine in a knot to secure then glue a portion of the ring and start wrapping twine around to cover the ring, this is a nice job to do whilst sitting in the car or watching TV. I used a glue tape runner to secure my twine. When you get to the back tuck the twine underneath the last loop and tie in a knot.

Using a fiskars shape cutter, fingertip knife or scissors cut circles out of paper in varying sizes, I did not have a set size of circle, I just cut them as big as the scrap I was using would allow.

Take your circle and cut into a spiral. You can also use paper edger scissors to get a pretty fluted or raggy effect.

You can use your fingers to curl the paper into a spiral, I like to use a quilling tool as it allows me to get a tighter coil in the centre. Once coiled you can then loosen the flower to get the look you want to achieve. I then add a dab of glue to secure it in place.

Make as many as you think you need, be sure to make some smaller ones to fit into the little gaps. You can use any colour theme you like, as I was aiming to use up some scraps I went for a rainbow affair!

Using a hot glue gun, glue the flowers to the ring, the twine allows better adhesion. I started by gluing the larger flowers down then filled in the gaps using the smaller flowers. I did need to make an additional 10-15 flowers from what I had originally made to fill the gaps.

Using a hot glue gun, glue a length of ribbon on the back to allow you to hang the wreath up. I then coloured in some digital Hero Arts butterflies from the Winged Friends digi kit with promarkers, added stickles and  covered with glossy accents. When dry I cut them out and mounted them on a thin strip of acetate which I had creased into a Z shape and glued to the wreath, it allows a little bit of movement so the butterflies look like they are hovering over the flowers.

I had so much fun making this and it only took a few hours to do and you end up with a pretty piece of home decor! I hope you like and are having a wonderful week!

Island Bliss - July Crafty Templates

Well, it's been a while :) I have been so busy just lately and I hate the fact that I have neglected my blog a little, I hope to make up for it in the next few days!

Here are some cards made with the Crafty Templates July card making kit Island Bliss along with this months templates. Leo really knows how to put together a fabulous kit, gorgeous papers and lovely embellishments. She also makes Crafty Bales mini kits which sell out quickly, I encourage you to visit her shop and have a browse!

My favourite this month is the guitar, perfect for a music loving teenager or for a more hippy chick vibe

I added some music paper, polka dot paper from last month's kit and thread to make the guitar strings.

This fun cocktail glass coloured with promarkers and glossy accents. The umbrella is made by folding paper accordian style, glue a strip around the top then fluff out and add a cocktail stick.

This one is using the versatile tropical flowers template

and finally using the hot air balloon template, I had fun adding on faux stitching to create a patchwork effect.

That's all from me for now, be back soon with more creations to share!

Fiskarettes Card W/C 21/06/10

Just a quick one! I thought I would share my latest card for the Fiskarettes blog :) Full instructions are here.

If you haven't visited before why don't you pop over for some ideas, inspiration and to join in with the Monday challenge!

WOYWW - 23/06/10

As it does for everyone it started with an idea. I had recently downloaded some digital stamps from Hero Arts, I have never thought of using digi stamps before but they were a bargain compared to their woodgrain cousins and I thought what the heck. I have also recently started acquiring a number of promarkers and as stamps such as Magnolias aren't quite my cup of tea I have been looking for images more suited to me to color, hence the digi download. It started off well, they printed perfectly and I had no trouble colouring in the images.

I then had the braniac idea to make double images and layer them to add a bit of dimension, cutting out 4 sets of gerberas were a little taxing, the rounder flowers slightly easier, but I also decided to use glossy accents on them. A job I anticipated would take about a day (I can be a very slow cardmaker) took about 3 days stretched out between running errands and going to work and setting up a summer tea party seen two blog posts down.

I am pleased with the final result, I promise they look better in person, I had to take them in the evening and I still haven't learnt how to correct the colours in my photo program so they look a bit better! I hope you like them!

If you are new and wondering what WOYWW is all about, hop over to the lovely Julia Dunnit's Blog Stamping Ground to join in the fun!

Have a wonderful week and thank you so much for the kind comments you leave :)

Summer Fete June Card Kit - DT Crafty Templates

So many gorgeous templates this month and the cardmaking kit Summer Fete can only be described as yummy! Go to Crafty Templates to get yours!

First up is my favourite - A British Tea Party using the union jack bunting and teapot templates. I added in the cake stand, cake slice and crockery. The pretty polka dot paper and twine were from the kit.

Next is Today's Your Day using the second bunting template with twine and sentiment label from the kit. I used extra bunting to decorate the envelope.

This one is also a favourite of mine. I used the bunting template, AC papers, little ladybug pegs from John Lewis and more of the lovely polka dot, twine and flowers from the kit.

This one Mr Paper declared was his favourite, Ice Cream Wishes. All papers and sentiment were from the kit, I used a sheet of the paper to weave the cone and also added a touch of glitter :)

and lastly there is Tea for Two, using the prettiest paper I have seen in a while, doily and teapot template from the kit. I used promarkers to colour in the teapot and added a punched accent and pearls.

Leo really does put together some amazing kits. If you prefer Scrapbooking have you seen her Quirky Kits? Gorgeous papers and carefully considered accents, you'll have to act fast though as these sell out quickly!

Be back later this week, hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Tea for Two

It's all about the bunting baby!

A few weeks ago I was thrilled to be included on dotcomgiftshop's list of 50 more superb craft blogs and this week I was even more thrilled to receive a package from them containing the pretty Vintage Paisley and stunning Paper Lace bunting. Gorgeous, sturdy and a whopping 8 metres long!

Their store is filled with the most beautiful things for home and garden and I have already dropped heavy hints to my husband for our upcoming anniversary for the vintage wall mounted organiser or to search for anything green :)

Bunting is very popular at the moment and can be seen on everything from cards to cushions and it also holds a soft spot in my heart. Reminiscent of school fetes with thick, jammy slices of victoria sponge, pretty fairy cakes, airy butterfly buns, crowded bouncy castles, throwing bean bags at coconuts, balloons slightly wilted in the midday sun, lips stained from drinking panda pop cherryade and sticky hands clutching pocket money wondering what to spend it on first.

Today, whilst the men spent Father's Day relaxing down by the river fishing with a picnic of doorstep ploughman's sandwiches and cold cider the ladies left behind decided to have a tea party in the garden.

It was just gorgeous, cucumber sandwiches, big, juicy fat strawberries with strawberry meringue drops and fresh cream, mini cream cakes, tea and lashings of bucks fizz! The sun was shining and the music accompaniment came in the form of the birds singing and the soft flapping of the bunting in the breeze. Definitely a lovely way to spend a summery afternoon.

Be back soon to share some creations from Crafty Templates, some of which have a bunting theme too!

Fiskarettes DT Card June

Here's my first card as a Fiskarette, I thought it turned out really cute, apart from the slightly wonky pricked holes! Why don't you come over and join in the fun!

WOYWW 16/06/10 - Buttons!

Good morning WOYWW-ers. Most people can attest that I am very anal retentive when it comes to tidiness, hence why my workdesk always looks like organised mess, which in a way it is. I admire people that can work in, how do i put it delicately, creative chaos! I look at lots of WOYWW bloggers and see their desks and I am envious, I wish I could craft that way, it seems so much more freeing and, well creative than mine and I wonder if my neatness hampers my creativity.

What seems to be a clever idea at the time, in hindsight can prove to be an unwise decision. I had lots of little jars with all my buttons separated by colour, except it was such a pain dragging them out of my storage unit I didn't use them very much so I decided on a whim to empty them all into a kilner jar. I could not believe how many buttons I had, although I have now discovered I am woefully short on purple buttons which I guess gives me a good reason to go stash shopping!

It did cross my mind briefly that when I next wanted to make a project that required a specifc colour it would be a pain in the posterior to find the right one, this was also backed up by Mr Paper, who, when I proudly showed him my new jar, said 'good luck with that, I know you and you'll wish you hadn't done that'. Meh, was my response to this and I sat there all superior thinking it would inspire me to use them more and it was so pretty to look at and didn't think it would be that much of a problem, until today.

I am joining in with the Monday challenge on the Fiskarettes blog and I decided I needed buttons for the centre of some stars I was decorating, I sifted through the jar and each time came up with a button either too big or not the right shade. 'Damn, it would be so much easier if these were separated by colour' but alas, I had already had that bright idea and thought I knew better! I promptly dumped 2/3 of the jar on the table and sat for a good 15 minutes picking through them to find the right ones. Next time I have a clever idea like that somebody stop me!

Here's the card

If you have stuck with me till the end, thank you, I didn't know I had so much to write about buttons! Have a great week :)

WOYWW - 09/06/2010

Hello! If you visited last week you will know that Mr Paper took a bit of time out to create a scrapbook page for our album as there were no pages just about me, I was so proud of of him, snapped a pic of him and the page and duly posted it for WOYWW. In the words of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman...

"Big Mistake, Huge"

When he came home from work I got him to read the post and he was quite touched about what I wrote, but then, then he started to read the comments. Ladies, I appreciate every last comment left on this here blog but oh my goodness what did I unleash? He sat and read every last one and lapped it up, he sat at the computer with a smile like the proverbial cheshire cat, every few moments asking me 'have you read this, have you?' he loved it, a bit too much methinks, loudly proclaiming that he had won himself 'husband points' for being so romantic as he isn't one for romance usually (I did tell him that it wasn't something to be too proud of!) however, he did say that it wasn't something he was planning on doing often, but with so many kind, sweet comments he may be inclined to do it again in a few months, although I suspect that has more to do with you ladies than me, so, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, as does Mr Paper.

So, on to this week, here's what's on my desk as of midnight last night:

A little sneak peek at a Cratfy Templates DT project i'm working on involving promarkers and shrink plastic, however I am not holding my breath with this one, it may be destined for the bin as shrink plastic and a drill bit do not seem to be friends which really ruins the whole thing!

Here's a card I made this week, trying to go victorian vintage, it feels like something is missing though, my head seems to be all in a muddle this week, I am on call for 1 week out of 5 and this is my week, 7.00am-11.00pm and it really deprives me of my much needed creativity sleep!

I was so pleased to visit 95% of WOYWW posted on the Stamping Ground last week and hope to manage every last one of you this week! It is just so much fun :) Have a great week and I 'll hopefully see you here next week :)

Exciting news!!

Just a quick post, I am so excited to share that I have been chosen to join the Fiskarettes Design Team for the next 3 months! Looking forward to sharing my creations on the Fiskarettes Blog and on here.

Click here to visit the Fiskarettes Blog to see lots of stunning creations!

WOYWW - 02/06/10

I was so excited to have so many visitors last week, it's so much fun receiving comments and visiting everyone elses blog to see what's going on in your space. I didn't managed to get to everyone but I did visit a fair portion and saw some beautiful spaces and some lovely work on desks.

A strange occurence happened in my room this week, as I walked down the stairs I could hear rustling, banging and an anguished cry, almost animal like, my heart raced and my pace quickened, wondering what on earth could be in my room. Did I shut in a cat and it was tearing my precious paper to shreds? Had a rogue tortoise snuck in in the night and was rooting through my ribbon drawer? or was it a hired ferret assassin that was making light work of my acrylic stamps?

As I flung open the door I was faced with this incomprehensible sight.........

It was the lesser spotted Mr Paper! 'What on earth are you doing?' I asked and was met with the rather forlorn, yet lengthy reply 'You've been asking me for a long time to scrapbook with you, and as I was looking at our album I noticed there were no pages about you, so I thought I would surprise you and make you a page'. I was overcome with emotion (ok, that's a bit dramatic) but thought it was such a sweet idea, followed by the following thoughts, what paper did he cut into? I hope he didn't use that embellishment that I have been saving for yonks.

I had to stop myself and appreciate the moment, Mr Paper likes to comment on what I am making and I will often ask him, what do you think is missing? have I over-egged it a bit? and he will usually give me a thoughtful and constructive reply, but papercrafting is definitely not his cup of tea, far preferring xbox games to anything remotely crafty

I promptly sat on the floor next to him and created a page about him and how wonderful he is to me, it was a really nice way to spend a couple of hours and by the time he was finished I was very impressed, and maybe a tad jealous, how did he get to make such a nice page on his first attempt? So here is the page, the reason it is so momentous is I detest having my picture taken and this is the first picture of me that he has taken in a number of years which I think prompted his decision to make a page.

Et Voila!

The title actually swings out to reveal hidden journalling. Hidden journalling I tells ya, I guess my constant chatter about crafting really paid off! Here is the page I created about him, god bless him!

I'm a lucky gal, and appreciate that he is mine every single day. I hope you have all had a good week :)

I promise, these are the last for a while!

Ok, so I had a real thing for the CC DeLovely line last week, so here are the last 2 cards I made and I promise these will be the last for a little while :)

Pears are my favourite fruit (well, along with cherries and strawberries) I love anything pear flavoured, scented or in paper form and as soon as I saw the 'pair' strip I knew just what I was going to do. This card is for my best friend for when she returns from overseas, I have missed our gossip and shopping sessions and we both think that we make a great pair! I also used a small square of hambly overlay, I love this stuff and hate cutting into it, but I keep telling myself that it is there to be used!

This card was quite simple, based around the bloom circular sticker, I just added the paper that complements it along with the border strip.

I have had to complete my WOYWW today as I won't be able to post what's on my desk on wednesday, I definitely had fun with it this week and for a change it will feature a scrapbook page! I'll be back later this week to share some exciting news :)

Have a great week everyone!

Just a quickie

Just dropping in to share some notecards I made recently using more CC DeLovely!

DeLovely Oh My!

Just a quick one! I submitted my photo frame and 2 cards I made using CC DeLovely to the Cosmo Cricket Blog and to my delight it is featured today! If you hop over and leave a comment you could win some DeLovely goodies! I'm so happy today, the laborious task of 15 coats of paint on the frame seem worth it now!

Hope you are all having a fabby day! :)

WOYWW - 26/05/10

Howdy! I hope you have all had a good week and are looking forward to a lovely bank holiday weekend? I'm really getting into the spirit of WOYWW and find it gives me something crafty to look forward to in the middle of, what can sometimes be, a pretty mediocre week! Onwards to the desk..

So what can we see today? Lots of Cosmo Cricket Delovely, I fell in love with the bright cheery colours and had to get stuck right in. On the left you can see my pink ribbon and lace jars, a Disneyland bag that is almost 20 years old that contains lace from when I used to make crafty things as a teenager, I think that counts as being vintage doesn't it?

Last week a lovely commenter asked to see a close up picture of my storage drawers:

The unit is a Quickutz Magpie unit, I purchased mine from Home Sense for the bargain price of £9.99, so good in fact that I went back and picked up a second. One set has six of the magpie nesting tins (it's been a pain to try and find another set of 3 to complete the unit) and the other is perfect for storing my promarkers. I have been told that they can be stored upright but I prefer to store mine horizontally, I simply added some white dot stickers coloured with the pen to make it a bit easier when choosing my colours. At some point I would like to paint the units white, they look a bit hefty in black!

I picked this photo frame up from a charity shop this week, it was a murky dark red and black colour when I bought it, I primed the frame, painted a few layers of fuschia pink paint then overlaid this with white acrylic paint. When it was dry I sanded it in some areas and bashed it a little to distress then painted on more of the pink paint and wiped the excess off with a baby wipe. I was so pleased that it came out how I intended. I then added some Cosmo Cricket paper, lace and ribbon, the perfect accompanying gift to the card..

I think that this will be a gift for my niece when she and her family return from living in Canada. I just can't wait for them to arrive, they have been gone for 3 years and I have missed them all so much, hopefully not too long to go now!

Have a great week and a lovely bank holiday weekend!