New Christmas challenge at CCW

Good morning!

 

I hope by now those of you dealing with the terrible snow storms are over the worst of it.

We've been very fortunate here with just a little sprinkling of snow.

 

I'm back today to tell you about a new monthly challenge over at Creative Craft World.

For those of you who want to get a head start on your Christmas cards this will be perfect for you.

The challenge is called BtCR (Beat the Christmas Rush) and the idea is to create some Christmas cards each month and add them to the linky HERE.

By the time 25th November comes round you could have all your cards ready in time for posting in December!

 

This is a card I made as a Christmas thank you.

The image is a digi stamp from Tiddly Inks.

 

I coloured it with Copics and tied some twine around the centre to look like a present.

I stamped the sentiment (Stampin' Up) and punched it out with the Tiny Tags punch.

To add a little sparkle I outlined parts of the image with Stickles glitter glue.

 

Thank you so much for visiting today.

And to all my followers thank you for sticking with me.

I haven't been able to blog lately with my health playing up and other things having to take priority

but I hope to be back soon when everything settles down.

 

Hope you have a lovely day,

Take care.

Sarah xx

A New Year and a new scrap map at Creative Craft World

Good Morning!

 

Happy New Year to you all...a bit late I know...

I have quite a lot of catching up to do with everyone!

 

Today we have a new scrap map at Creative Craft World

and this is the page I've made.

It's been 3 weeks since I put paper and glue together so my mojo is a bit rusty.

 

The Christmas words are on a vellum sheet which I layered over white dotted Bazzill card.

The baubles are cut with the Silhouette and the top of the large bauble comes out to reveal a journaling spot (no photo of it yet)

The photo was taken 9 days before Christmas Eve when the children went to see

 Santa at a National Trust event.

I took a lot of photos of their adventure so I made a little book (adhered to the large bauble)

to put all the photos in to complete the story.

The night started with a story from Ma Christmas in the tea rooms (while having juice & a treat).

Then they walked to the elves' house and made magic reindeer food.

When they finished that, they were picked up by horse and carriage and taken to the 'big' house to meet Santa.

His sleigh was parked outside and you can just imagine the excitement as the children saw it!

Inside the large hall they could just see Santa in the distance sleeping in his chair so they were allowed to creep up and wake him.

He had a list with all their names and had a chat with them before giving them their presents.

It was a truly magical night (for us 'big' ones as well!)

I do apologise for neglecting my blog for so long

but with the children back to school next week I should be back here again too :)

Thank you for stopping by today and do take a minute to visit

CCW and see all the gorgeous pages the rest of the DT have made.

Here is the sketch for this month and you can enter the challenge by using the sketch as your starting point for a page and then link it up to the blog here.

If you win you'll get a fabulous scrapbook kit, a generous discount instore and a Guest Design spot.

 

and that's it!

See you soon,

Sarah xx

 



Sparkle with LIM

Hello everyone,

I've been trying to get time since Saturday to play in the Less Is More

challenge this week and I finally managed it this morning :)

Chrissie & Jen are looking to see Glamour & Glitz!

 

I love glitter and all sorts of sparkly things so I couldn't miss this one :)

I have made a quick little Christmas card.

I love using kraft card for Christmas cards and this one is 12x12cms.

I stamped a little Elzybells robin, coloured him with copics and added Glamour dust underneath him

and a few dots of it around him. I also added white dots (inkessentials pen) around the frame.

The stamp is from a little clear set by Hampton Art.

-------------

 

Keeping with the Christmas theme, we are down to our last few projects over at

Creative Craft World....November has flown by!

Today Lou has a bottle tag and gift carton to share.

Here's a little peek and you can find out how to make them here.

 

Thanks for popping in today

and I'll be back tomorrow with a link to Sue's project.

I have a couple of birthday cards to share soon but I have to wait in case they see them on my blog!

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 

Jingle Bells, clean & simple Christmas card

Good morning everyone!

That's another weekend over...I hope you had a good one :)

 

We are continuing with the Christmas Countdown at Creative Craft World

(the DT have made festive projects for every day of November)

and it's my turn today.

 

I have made a clean & simple Christmas card which is based on the theme at Less is More this week.

It's to use 'hardware' on your card.

 

 

 

I bought the little bells from Meiflower at the craft show on Thursday and couldn't resist using them on my card today.

I cut and scored a white card blank and then cut another piece of white card and embossed it with snow dots embossing folder (not sure of the proper name but it's by Cuttlebug!)

Then I pierced holes on each side of this card for the brads.

 

 

I made jump rings from silver wire, put them on the bells and threaded them on the beaded string.

I tied the 'string' around the brads and then inserted them in the holes securing at the back.

The sentiment is computer generated using MTF Sweet Cheeks font, which I cut into a tag and tied a bow at the top.

I then layered it all on the base card with foam pads.

 

I hope you're enjoying our festive projects and I hope you'll come back tomorrow

when I'll have the link to Lou's blog for her project.

 

Thanks so much for popping in!

I hope you have a lovely Monday :)

Take care,

Sarah xx

Edited to add: I'm over the moon that the super talented Lisa M has chosen this project as her pick of the week at MIM!! I love my cabinet and it's nice that someone else does too :)

Edited to add again: I've just discovered that Lalkygirl has chosen this project as her pick of the week!! Do check out her beautiful cards and projects here :)

I am so happy today :)

 

I'd like to enter this card in MIM ~ linky party

 

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 

 

'cool company' Christmas card

With Christmas fast approaching I have another card to share today.

It's only the 3rd Christmas card I've made so far, so I'd need to get my skates on!

 

I've been trying to use up some of my forgotten/older stash for my cards this year.

I have no room to store anything new!

 

Supplies used

White card ~cut and scored to A6 size

Patterned Paper ~ DCWV Christmas multi stack (6x6")

Red card ~ cut with Nestabilites labels 8 die

Green card ~ embossed with Cuttlebug snowflake folder

Stamp ~ Penny Black 3743K 'cool company'

Ink ~ Memento black

Coloured with Copics

Red/White ribbon, Christmas twine & Green star button

Stickles 'star dust'

Ice white pearl pen ~

for the dots of snow in the background, but they haven't shown up too well in the photo.

 

 

....continuing on the Christmas Countdown....

I hope you've been enjoying the lovely festive projects shared by the DT

at Creative Craft World.

We're now on day 10 and Morag has a winter scrapbook page here

 

 

and that's it from me today!

I hope you're all enjoying your weekend :)

I have an appointment at the hospital this morning for a nerve conduction study

for Carpal Tunnel syndrome.

I'm dreading it a bit because I don't know what to expect and it sounds possibly painful??

Maybe it won't be as bad as I think :)

I'll let you know how it goes....

 

All the best

Sarah xx

 

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

Penny Black Saturday ~ cute Christmas

One Stop Craft ~ anything goes

Krafty hands ~ Christmas

2 Sisters ~ favourite Christmas stamp

CSAYL ~ anything goes

Fun with shapes & more ~ the 1st snow (Christmas/winter, white base colour)

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

Christmas decorations

Hello everyone!

 

I hope you had a good weekend :)

As we continue with the Christmas countdown at Creative Craft World

it's my turn to share a project and I have chosen to make some decorations for Christmas.

 

I used my Silhouette for these to show that the machine is not just for papercrafting.

You can cut fabric with it and although I didn't cut the felt for my decorations (I think it would be too dusty)

I made templates with the Silhouette designs.

 

Here's a photo tutorial so hopefully you will want to make your own!

 

To start with I cut out the designs from a sheet of 12x12" card

 

Then I kept the sheet of negative shapes to trace around.

 

To make this little lady...scroll on down.

 

 Lay the shape over black felt and trace around using a light coloured pencil.

 

 Lay the traced piece of felt on top of a 2nd piece of black felt (for the back and front)

and cut them out together.

 

Trace and cut out the other pieces of felt the same way.

I used black brads for eyes and stitched a nose with orange embroidery thread and added a red heart before sewing the white tummy to the black front piece with running stitches.

Sew the feet on the front piece as well.

Next lay the back and front pieces together, putting a length of doubled ribbon or twine for the hanging loop in between the pieces at the top.

Sew all around the shape leaving a small gap for stuffing.

Lightly stuff with toy stuffing and sew the gap closed.

And that's it finished!

 

 

The basic instructions are the same for all the felt decorations and you can embellish as you like.

 

 For the fabric hearts, I used a cream linen type material and used my heart nestabilites die to trace around the shape.  I then laid two pieces of fabric, right sides together and stitched following the traced line ~ make sure you leave a gap for turning right side out.  Then stuff firmly, sew up the gap and decorate with buttons and twine.

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it made sense!

If there's anything that's not clear, just email me and I'll try to help.

 

If you don't have a Silhouette you can always use a roller die cutting machine (Cuttlebug or Sizzix)

or even draw your own templates.

 

Thank you for visiting today

and if you come back tomorrow, I'll have the link to Lou's blog where she is sharing a gorgeous Christmas layout.

 

Take care

Sarah xx

Cards using CCW's July mini kit

Good morning everyone!

I've been missing for a while haven't I?

It's been very busy at home with the children and poor wee Mac (our puppy) has been very unwell

after a visit to the vet but I'll tell you more about it in another post.

I'm still very cross with the vet and don't want to say something I'll regret!

As it's the 20th of the month it's time for the new mini challenge at Creative Craft World.

This time instead of a mini book, I've made some cards.

You can get the mini kit here on CCW's website - it's a bargain at £7.99!

We'd love it if you made a card or project this month and entered it in our challenge here.

For this first card I decided to make it easel style.

There are lots of gorgeous flowers in the kit but I forgot to use them and made my own punched ones.

I found the pack of flowers under my scoring board when I was tidying up afterwards......

I found these Lili of the Valley images in one of my storage baskets and I think they were a free gift from a magazine (must have been ages ago!) and I can't remember which one.

I'm not usually a fan of fairies or angels on cards but I do think she's very pretty and I enjoyed adding glamour dust to her wings ;)

The brown ribbon and white card are from my stash and everything else is found in the kit.

Edited to add: I think I better clarify :)....angel & fairy images are not my favourites on cards...
but.... the tooth fairy is VERY popular and welcome in our house at the minute! 

This next card is made using the card and papers in the kit.

I cut the butterfly with the Cameo and added seed beads to the body with glossy accents.

 I hand cut the banner and stamped the sentiment - I think it was a woodware clear stamp.

...and now for my first Christmas card this year!

It wasn't intentional though....the little image is another freebie and when I had her coloured I thought it looked quite Christmassy so I printed the sentiment on the computer and popped it on foam pads.

To give a little sparkle I added 3 red gems under the sentiment.

The ribbon, card and paper are from the kit.

The little image and sentiments on this next card are from DigiStamp Boutique.

The flowers and leaves are handcut and I rolled the flowers and twisted and tweaked them into shape.

I doodled lines on the leaves with a fineliner pen.

 The image is coloured with Copics.

The cardstock, papers and twine are from the kit.
I'd like to enter it in the Digistamp Boutique monthly challenge.

I really enjoyed making these cards and I'm pleased at how they turned out.

I hope you like them too :)

Please take a minute and pop over to the Creative Craft World blog

 we'd love to see what you make!

I hope to be back blogging properly very soon.

I have lots of projects to share but it's hard getting the time to upload them to the computer!

Thank you so much for your comments even though I haven't had time to reply back

I really do appreciate them :)

Have a lovely day

Hugs, Sarah