A little update

Hi everyone

 

Just in case you've been wondering where I've disappeared to....

I'm still here but just haven't been able to blog.

 

I had carpal tunnel surgery late yesterday afternoon and although it's a 'bit' painful today, I hope in a few weeks I'll be fully recovered.
Then I just have to get the same done on my right hand and I'll be back creating properly again.

 

I can't wait!!

 

 

Here are some New Year cards I made using a free digi stamp downloaded from DigiStampBoutique.

The papers are from My Mind's Eye 'Miss Caroline Dilly Dally' collection

 

 

 

A belated Happy New Year

and thanks for visiting!

 

Take care,

Sarah xx

Well.........

after 4 months
I thought it was about time I updated my poor neglected blog!
*blush*

It's been a busy few months with GCSEs (my daughter - not me!)
and then the school holidays so crafting was put on hold AGAIN!

Now that they are all back to school, I'm itching to get crafting again :)

I have missed visiting you all so much and have a lot to catch up on.

I thought over the next few days I'd share some scrapbook pages
made in March for Creative Craft World.


This one is of Caleb when he was a few months old.


I found this vellum quote in a book by K & Co that I've had for ages and I love it!

The little banner came with the kit and I cut the paper hearts with my Silhouette.
The little wooden heart is by Studio Calico.

I cut the title with the Silhouette and layered the blue card over the kraft card on the word 'loved'

I love these MME buttons and I used a matching brad to hold back the folded corner of paper.

I'll be back soon with more projects.
and I'm looking forward to visiting your blogs too.

Thank you for stopping by!
Take care :)
Sarah xx 



'Blues and/or Browns' mini challenge!

Hello again!

 

I'm just popping in to let you know about the new theme for our mini challenge at Creative Craft World this month.

All you need to do is make a project using blue and/or brown and link it to the

Creative Craft World blog HERE.

 

Lou very kindly sent me April's mini kit to have a play with.

You can find it HERE but you don't have to use it to enter the challenge.

 

(although you can if you want!)

 

 

This is what I came up with...

 The flower stamp is by Unity and the 'hello' stamp is Stampin' Up.

The sentiment is a stamp by Hampton Art Clear Expressions

and it's stamped with Elzybell's white ink. 

 



I have been very quiet on the blogging front,

mainly because we have been getting work done to the house and I'm stressed out with it!

Roll on the next few weeks to get the house back in order again :)

 

Thanks for visting and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Sarah xx

March scrap map - tiger teeth!

Good morning!

 

Can you believe it's the beginning of March already?

That means a new monthly challenge at Creative Craft World and we have

a brand new sketch for you to have a go at making a scrap page or card.

 

We're also having another blog hop so if you'd like to join in, just visit each of the DT and leave a comment to say you've visited and you'll be entered into a draw for a prize.

 

You don't have to enter the challenge to be eligible but if you do link up your project to the challenge

you have the chance to win a fab scrap kit and a guest design spot.

All the details are HERE.

 

Here's my take on the sketch

 

I used MME 'Alphabet Soup Boy' papers and I was delighted that the colours of Phoebe's jumper matched them - stripes and all!

Phoebe was always asking to have her face painted and on this particular day Lydia took great delight in painting her as a tiger.  I think she did a great job!

 

 

The metal gromlet is from WRMK and the tiny buttons are Fancy Pants.

 

 

As I had my sewing machine out for another project (and any excuse to sew ;)) I stitched a short zig zag line on 2 sides of the frame.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with the sketch

and to continue on with the blog hop you'll find Sarah W's page HERE.

 

Thank you for visiting today

and I'll be round to visit you all later :)

The children are going swimming with their grandparents so I'll have a couple of hours peace :)

 

Have a lovely weekend.

Take care,

Sarah xx

Christmas Mini Envelope Book Tutorial

Hello everyone,

 

I hope your weekend went well, mine went far too quickly!

Well today is day 26 of the Christmas Countdown at Creative Craft World

and it's a special day for me as it's my birthday :)

 

I have a tutorial today for a little mini album made with envelopes.

I haven't it fully decorated inside but maybe it's just as well as this post

has a lot of photos already.

 

 

 

 I used 3 DL size envelopes and I like to use PaperMill Direct ones but any good quality ones will do.

To start you score each envelope down the middle.

 

Then fold in half (with the flap to the inside)with a bone folder to get a good crease line.

 

 Take a piece of scrap card and trace the outline of the flap.

This will make a template for cutting patterned paper for the flap as you decorate.

 

 Take one envelope for the front cover and lay it flap side down.

Add a strip of double sided tape from left to right approximately halfway down.

Take approx. 1m of ribbon, find the centre and adhere to the tape.

This is your ribbon closure.

 

Now you can decorate the back and front of the envelopes.

 

The paper I used for the front and back cover is Jillibean soup.

I inked all the edges of each envelope with 'Barn Door' distress ink.

 

Measure 1.5 cms in from the spine and 2.5cms from the top and bottom

and mark with a pencil.

Using the large hole in the cropadile punch through the folded envelope.

Using this envelope as a guide, mark the holes in the other 2 envelopes and punch. 

 

Layer the envelopes together and tie ribbon through the holes.

I left one end longer so I can loosen the ribbon if the book becomes a little bulky after decorating.

You can dab some wet glue on the ends to stop the ribbon from fraying. 

 

Before I decorate a book I always gather up as many matching embellishments as I can.

(A great chance to use up that hoarded stash...)

It really does make decorating a book a lot quicker if everything is at hand.

 

This is the first page of the book, I have tags to make for journaling on the left hand side

and I'll probably add more bits and pieces as I go along :) 

 

The second page is a pic of the family (except me...) enjoying the first snowfall one winter.

I still have to complete the journaling on the left hand side.

You can use the flap of the envelope for tucking in tags and little bits and pieces inside. 

 

When I get the book completely finished I'll post all the photos of the inside

so you will have a better idea of how it all comes together.

 

If you made it to the end of this very long post

THANK YOU!

I hope I have inspired you to have a go at your own little book

and if you do, please post a link in the comments section below - I'd love to see it :)

 

Don't forget to pop back tomorrow for a link to Susi's blog

where she has made some handwarmers.

These are great little things, I've made some for the craft fair coming up

and I've had to hide them because all the family want one :)

 

Take care,

Sarah xx

Edited to add: Rene from Simply Cute has used my tutorial to make a fabulous calendar.  You really must check it out!!!

Click HERE to see it. 

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges:

MIM ~ linky party

Challenges 4 Everybody #8 ~ anything goes

Corrosive Challenges ~ anything goes

CI Paints ~ anything goes

The Squirrel & The Fox ~ anything goes 

Pink Christmas Card

Back with my 2nd post today and I have a pink Christmas card.

A while ago I won a voucher to spend in The Paper Shelter and I've had great fun spending it.

There are so many digis to choose from, I hardly knew which ones to pick!

 

This is the one I've used for my card today.

 

It's a precoloured image but it also comes with just the outline for you to colour yourself.

My crafting time is limited at the minute so the precoloured image is very handy!

I inked around the edges of the image with Versamark and embossed with WOW embossing powder.

I also heat embossed a strip of pink card and then cut the snowflake with a Tim Holtz die.

It's really sparkly in real life!

I added Stickles to the snow on the log and around her feet.

Then I layered it on pink card, tied twine around and finished with a pink button.

Then layered it all on a pink card blank with foam pads.

 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today,

Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for Trish's Christmas planner!

Enjoy the rest of your day :)

 

Take care

Sarah xx

 

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

In The Pink ~ pink CAS (I hope it's CAS enough!)

Bearly Mine ~ pink Christmas

Crafty Sentiments ~ Christmas

Hooked on Craft ~ Christmas no red/green

Christmas treat bags

Good morning everyone,

 

I hope your weekend went well.

It's my turn again to create a project for Creative Craft World's

Christmas Countdown.

 

I like to make the children's teachers a little handmade gift at Christmas,

so this year I thought I would make some pretty packaging for some chocolates.

 

and here they are....

 

They are very easy to make!

 

You just take a cello bag (it's better if you can get one with a gusseted bottom or one with card in it like I have) and fill with chocolates.

It's very tempting having chocolates on my desk and I have to say they are YUMMY!!

 

For this bag, I just tied the top with ribbon and then made some toppers

with snowflakes cut out with my Silhouette Cameo.

Next, I cut two wooden skewers to size and coloured them with Copics.

Then layered the snowflakes with the stick in the middle and finished it with a button and some gems.

The banner with the sentiment was also cut out with the Silhouette,

wrapped around the stick and held in place with wet glue.

 

Regular readers of my blog may recognise this little gingerbread man from HERE.

 

I used the same cutting file and just reduced it in size before cutting him out of kraft card.

I layered two lenghs of Christmas paper together (one narrower than the other) and wrapped them around the bag, with the join at the front.

I covered the join with the gingerbread man, popping him up with foam pads.

The banner was made with matching paper with the sentiment on one side

and the to/from details on the other side along with a matching button.

 



 This 'Merry Christmas' ribbon is available to buy at Next!

 

 The back of the bags

 

The little banner - on one side 'Happy Christmas', on the other it's personalised with the teacher's name.

A wooden skewer, trimmed to size and coloured with a red Copic pen.

 

Supplies list

cellophane bags ~ with a gusset or a firm bottom (teehee...)

I got mine from a chocolate factory.

ribbon

chocolates ~ I used Thorntons Praline melts and Caramel melts

wooden skewers

various Christmas papers

buttons and gems

 

I hope you have enjoyed these little treat bags today,

and if you pop back tomorrow I'll have a link to Lou's blog where she will have a tutorial for a Christmas journal.

 

I'll also have a little project of my own that I made way back in the summer

but I'm only able to share it now, as it had to be kept secret!

 

Once again, thank you for stopping by today,

and I'll be catching up with you all later :)

Take care,

Sarah xx

 

I'd like to enter these in the following challenges:

MIM ~ always anything goes

Crafty Bloggers Network ~ Christmas anything goes

Forever Friends ~ ribbon and/or twine 

 

Christmas card with Barry Bear

Hello again!

This is my second post this morning and here's the Christmas card

I said I would share when I got a photo of it :)

 

 

 I love kraft and white together for Christmas along with traditional red and green.

So for this card I stamped white dots on the base card and added strips of patterned paper then tied satin ribbon around the top and finished with a snowflake button.

 

This little teddy is a digi from The Stamp Fairy and he is actually standing beside a birdhouse but for this card I cut it off.  I love this wee image so much you'll be seeing more cards with him soon!

He is coloured with Copics and raised with foam pads.

I added Stickles 'star dust' to his hat and bobble on the top.

 

 

It's a beautiful morning here today and my Mum

very kindly came over to help me with the housework

and then took away a big basket of ironing to do, just so I can get my DT projects finished.

Isn't she lovely!

 

That's it for me today, it's been lovely to have you vist :)

See you tomorrow

Take care,

Sarah xx

 

Supplies used

Bazzill kraft card
DP ~ Three Bugs in a Rug 'Let it Snow'

Digi image ~ The Stamp Fairy
Sentiment ~ Playtime font

Background stamp ~ Unity
White Ink ~ Elzybells pigment ink

Stickles 'Star Dust'

Snowflake button ~ Dress it up

Satin ribbon
Copics ~ C1,3,5...E53,31,33...R00,20,32,35,46,37

 

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Ready Teddy Go ~ don't be square

Whimsy Stamps ~ traditional Christmas colours

Bearly Mine ~ anything goes

Just keep on creating ~ anything goes Christmas
Oldie but a Goodie ~ spots & stripes (DP, ribbon & button all older than 6 months)
Sweet Stampin ~All that glitters

Scrapbook challenge at CCW

Hello again!

 

It's time for a new scrapbook challenge at Creative Craft World

and we have a lovely sketch from Sue.

 

This is my take on it using Cosmo Cricket 'Happy Trails' paper.

I layered it on brown Bazzill card and zig zag stitched around the edge of the green paper.

I also stitched the strips of paper at the top and bottom with messy straight stitched lines.

Regular readers of my blog will know that we got a new puppy in June just as the children were finishing school for the summer holidays.

So.... 6 months on, I thought it was about time I did a scrapbook page about him.

My friends were shocked that I agreed to the children having a dog

(I was definitely not a dog lover) but this wee rascal has stolen my heart :)

 

I must tell you the story about how he came to us.

I was looking on Gumtree for a small puppy and I came across an ad for a little Lhasa Apso/Yorkie pup who was ready to be homed.  I contacted the owner who had another buyer interested so we had to wait to see if he would be available to us or not.

After a couple of days we got a phone call to say the puppy was ours and she could bring him to us that evening.

  When she arrived, she brought in a little bundle of fur and we were smitten.

While we were talking I was convinced I had seen her somewhere before.

After going through different places we might have met, nothing rang a bell.

She showed us a picture of her wee son and I knew I had seen him somewhere before.

Somehow the conversation turned to crafting and she said, "my mum teaches craft classes"

She said her mum was Linda Walker, and then the penny dropped.

I am a follower of her mum's blog and her mum had posted wedding pictures and that's how I recognised her and her son!

It's a small world.....

 

 

To make the page I used the Silhouette Cameo

and here's a screen shot of how I did it. 

I like to crop my photos using the Studio software and arrange them on the page.

That way I know exactly what size they will be and then I can fiddle about with the arrangement.

Then I will just print them out and cut them with the guillotine if there are straight edges and other times I will cut them out with the Cameo.

 

 I used print and cut for the journaling printing it on matching patterned paper.

Then I inked the edges with 'Tea Dye' distress ink.

I love the little bone paper clip that I found in my stash - I knew I'd find a use for it one day!

 

 I cut the title from brown card and added a little paw print brad at the top of the photo.

 

Instead of tying thread through my buttons

I cut a sliver of paper, threaded it through and taped it at the back.

Quick and easy!!

 

We'd love to see what you do with the sketch so why not link up your scrapbook page HERE.

You'll find all the details of the challenge there too.

 

I'm afraid that was a long post today!

Thank you for visiting and if you come back tomorrow I will have the link

Sue's blog where she has made some reindeer noses for the Christmas countdown.

 

I'm off now to nurse my poor wee daughter Phoebe.

Yesterday morning she erupted in lots of spots - chickenpox!
Thanks goodness for Calamine cream Doublebase gel :)

 

Take care and have a lovely weekend.

Sarah xx

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges:

Make it Monday ~ anything goes

Anything goes ~ anything goes

Raise the Bar ~ anything goes

Die Cuttin Diva's ~ anything goes

MAWTT ~ stitching
The Happy Scrappers ~ autumn

Christmas Countdown and a card

Good morning everyone,

 

I have to apologise for being a bad blogger...life is just busy with the children at the moment.

 

But... I have some exciting news!

At Creative Craft World, it has become a yearly tradition to have a Christmas project every day for the month of November.

 

 

I will be posting a link every day to one of the DT blogs and I hope you will visit them

to see the exciting goodies they have made.

My own projects will be shared over the next 4 Mondays.

 

To start us off today,

Sue has made some fabulous Christmas tree decorations

and you can find the tutorial on how to make them HERE
and there's also a prize to be won.

 

 

 

I also have a card to share today!

Phoebe was invited to a 6th birthday party on Saturday and I left it to the last minute to make the card so I hastily threw this together on Saturday morning...not a good idea!

I was stressed and Phoebe was 15 minutes late.... not that she even noticed!

 I cut the shaped card, paper, sentiment and butterflies with the Cameo.

Then tied some pink gingham ribbon in a bow and topped with a pink button.

 

As part of the present I bought this pink fluffy pencil case and made a personalised zipper pull.

This was much to Phoebe's relief....Phoebe has an identical pencil case and Rachel loved it so much that she took it home from school and was reluctant to give it back.

In the end (after a week of pleading) Phoebe told her if it wasn't brought in the next day that I was going to have to tell her Mum and teacher what she'd done and she would be in a lot of trouble!

Thankfully the pencil case was returned the next morning :)

 

 

It's made from felt and is lightly padded. I cut the 'R' from white felt using a Sizzix alphabet die,

then ironed it on with bondaweb and added a couple of 'x' stitches.

 

 

Now I have to make Phoebe a zipper pull too!

 

Thank you for joining me today.

I'd love you to come back tomorrow for the link to Ali's Christmas project.

 I might even have another of my own projects too...

Take care

Sarah xx

 

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:

In the Pink ~ clean and simple pink (If mine is not CAS enough please delete it!)

Flutterby Wednesday ~ anything goes but must have butterfly or fairy on it

Nutcrafters ~ Ribbon or twine

Simon Says Stamp ~ shaped cards

Die Cuttin Diva's ~ anything goes (must use a die cut)

Make it Monday ~ anything goes (papercrafts)