Hugs & Kisses

When sorting out my stamps, I found this little one I bought months ago and never used :o  After rooting through a lot of my stuff, I think that instead of buying any more, I better start using what I have already......

Can you believe I've managed to post 4 days in a row!

Have a lovely day and come back soon :)

Sarah xx

Supplies

White card (12x12cms)

DP: Bo Bunny double sided

Stamps: Image- Alota rubber stamps, Girl colouring

            Sentiment- Heidi Grace

Flowers: Green Tara

Pearls: coloured with Copics

Ribbon: Green grosgrain

Punch: Woodware grass punch

Colouring: Copic markers

Using Marianne Creatables dies

I'd said in an earlier post that my friend Meryl had sent me some Marianne Creatables dies from Australia and I've been playing with them a LOT!  I love them :) 

The green flourishes were cut from DCWV card and the flowers were cut from various scraps of card.  The yellow one is mulberry paper. The thank you stamp is by Technique Tuesday (clear stamps).

Quick post today - I've loads of housework to do :(  and then albums and cards to finish :)

Thanks for visiting!

Sarah xx

FTL100 using a Sugar Nellie stamp

It's been ages since I followed a sketch from the Clean & Simple Stamping blog, so here is this week's lovely sketch FTL100

I can't remember the name of this little stamp but she reminds me so much of Phoebe.  She's always dressing up (when she's not messing in the craft room!) sometimes doing both at the same time :p

This card was very quick to make because I had the image coloured and cut out earlier in the week.  My lovely husband bought me Copic Markers for our 15th Wedding Anniversary a couple of weeks ago and I've just got around to playing with them now.  I really love them though, they are so easy to use :) Don't look too closely at the coloured image.....it's hard to keep inside the lines!  The sentiment is Doodlebug clear stamps.

Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by :)

Sarah xx

Photo album covered in My Mind's Eye papers

This is another of the covered photo albums for a baby girl.  I absolutely love the My Mind's Eye Quite Contrary collection of papers.  They are excellent quality for covering these albums.  At the end of the post I have a picture of the album before it was covered.  The name 'Hannah' was cut from chipboard using the Cuttlebug and the 'Olivia' dies and inked with rose red versacolor ink.  The butterfly, hearts and swirl are all chipboard, cut with Sizzix dies.

The flower is cut using a Cuttlebug die (I can't remember which one) and I cut it out with patterned paper, again with pink shimmer card and lastly with green card. I replaced the inner petals with the pink shimmer card and the centre with green.  The hearts were inked with versacolor rose red ink and covered with glossy accents.  While that was wet I spinkled them lightly with DecoArt glamour dust.

For the butterfly I covered chipboard with the stripe paper and cut it out with a Sizzix die.  Then cut it again with pink shimmer card.  I cut out just the body of the pink shimmer butterfly and glued it on top of the stripe butterfly.  I doodled some hearts and dots on it with permanent black pen. 

This is the album I started with.  I just took it all apart, covered it inside and out and then glued it back together again.  Hope you enjoy and thanks for stopping by today :)

Sarah xx

Gift Bag ~ Thanks

This little gift bag is a smaller version of the one I posted yesterday.  The finished size is 18cms wide, 11cms tall and 8cms deep.  The stamps ~ flower, bird and word are all Unity and the inks are Versacolor pigment ~ fresh green and amethyst.  I cut the tag using the Quickcutz tag die.  The purple gems are Papermania and the handles of the bag are white raffia.

The Inside of the bag

When I make these bags, depending on the weight of the gift to go inside, I put a matching piece of card or paper along the bottom for added strength and to cover the joins. The bottom of this bag was covered with amethyst paper as the gifts to go inside are very light.

Take care :)
Sarah xx

Baby Girl Gift Set

There seems to be a baby boom all of a sudden!  I have 4 baby gifts to make, 2 for girls and 2 for boys.  I like to give personalised altered photo albums so I'll be posting a few over the next couple of days! 

Baby Girl Card

The little giraffe is made by Woodware and is stamped using pink paint, then cut out and raised on foam pads.  The glitter detail around the edge of the circle and on the giraffe is stardust Stickles glitter glue. The dots are White Opal liquid pearls. 

Altered Photo Album 

The chipboard letters are cut with Sizzix alphabet dies ~ Slim, and painted with Anita's baby pink paint.  I cut a piece of vellum with a Labels 4 Nestablilities die and painted the edges with pink.  I then glued the letters to the vellum and attached it all to the album by putting tiny dots of glue behind the letters so when it is stuck on, you can't see the glue through the vellum.

The swirls are cut with a Marianne Creatables die (which my lovely friend Meryl sent home with Mum & Dad from Australia) I love these little dies ~ you can cut and emboss with them at the same time. The flowers are Green Tara and I edged them with stardust stickles.

 Gift Bag

The bag is made from 2 sheets of A4 cardstock. After scoring the card, I stamped (Unity) flowers all along the bottom edge using grass green & opera pink versacolor inks.  The giraffe is stamped with the pink ink on spare card and cut out before gluing to the front of the bag.  The butterfly (Unity again!) is stamped twice on spare card in the two inks and cut out.  The green butterfly is glued flat on the bag and the pink one is glued along the centre only and the wings lifted up.  Detail is added with white opal liquid pearls.  The tag is made by cutting a circle in spare card edging it with pink ink and stamping using Studio G baby stamps.

Centre of the Flowers ~ Liquid Pearls

TIP:  If you don't like the little peaks left when using liquid pearls, if you gently flick the underside of the card with your finger the peaks should disappear!!

Milk Carton Box

I used an empty carton to make a template for this box.  The carton I had was too short so I adjusted the measurements to fit a 12"x12" page.  After scoring it, I used a nestabilities labels 8 die to draw around and cut it out with a craft knife (the page was too big to fit in the cuttlebug). I cut the frame using 2 dies and glued it to the front.  I cut a piece of acetate with a larger die in the set and taped it behind the frame. Then I stamped the flowers around the bottom the same as the bag and also the butterfly and giraffe.

With this giraffe I cut off the stamped mane and added some fibres to add texture :)  I also added glossy accents to all his spots but it doesn't show in the photo.

The Complete Set

Thank you for taking the time to stop by today. I didn't intend for it to be such a long post!!

If you'd like the dimensons of the bag or box, just email me and I'll be happy to send them to you :)

Sarah xx

Messy Rabbit Wedding Card

Insert

Layered Flowers

Box for the card

Hello again!
I have been so bad at updating this blog :(  Mum and Dad came home from Australia last week, their cases bulging with craft goodies for me. So I haven't been crafting much.....just drooling over it all before tidying it away ~ lol.

What I have made though is this wedding card.  I love Messy Rabbit stamps and coloured this pair in with Distress Inks.  I did all the stitching by hand using the Tim Holtz clear ruler to pierce the holes first.  The line along the bottom is a bit wonky where the ruler slipped and I didn't notice until it was too late....oops!  The doily lace edge around the circle was made using the Martha Stewart doily lace edger punch (I saw a tutorial on how to do it ages ago but can't remember whose it was - sorry!) The flowers were embellished with liquid pearls and the leaves with stickles glitter glue.

Enjoy the rest of your day and thanks for visiting :)
Sarah x

Edited to add
The card was too raised to fit in a regular envelope so I made a little box to put it in.  I usually just print an insert for inside my cards but this time as it was going in a box I decorated the inside too.  The heart at the top is stitched (using a papermania template) and the flowers & leaves on the bottom corner are all punched.

Supplies
Paper - Basic Grey Perhaps
Stamp - Messy Rabbit
Colouring - Distress Inks~frayed burlap, tattered rose, victorian velvet, peeled paint, shabby shutter
Punches - Martha Stewart Doily Lace, Woodware Grass ~yellow & green sizes
Flowers - Kaisercraft & Green Tara
Sentiment - computer generated
Cream organza ribbon
White Opal liquid pearls & Stardust stickles

Teacher Gift and handmade bag

There's a lot of photos....

Covered chocolate bar

Covered Notebook

Close up of raised leaves on the card

Altered Bag

Scrunched Flower

Caleb's teacher has been off school for a couple of months and we didn't think she would be back before the end of term but he came home from school on Friday and said she would be there on Monday!

I didn't have a gift for her (and because Caleb likes her so much) I had to rustle this up very quickly at the weekend. I didn't have time to make a bag but I had some plain brown paper bags and altered one with matching papers. The back of the bag is the same as the front without the flower.

I used the same paper and die cuts that are listed in yesterday's post :)

Take care and thanks for stopping by today!

Sarah x

End of Term ~ Teacher Gifts

It's hard to believe it's the end of June and that also means end of term here in Northern Ireland :) Yippee!

These are the cards and gift bags I made for Phoebe's teacher and Nursery assistant. 

bag cut from template

bag cut with the Craft Robo

 
The paper is K&Co Carolyn Gavin Greenhouse collection (I love all the little pink apples!)  The sentiments were all computer generated.  The die cuts are made with Sizzix and Cuttlebug dies cut with the Cuttlebug and the little bag above is cut out with the Craft Robo. The card to match was cut out using the Sizzix bigz clear scallop die. The scrunched flowers were made using the nestabilities blossom dies. - I don't know what I'd do without my Cuttlebug!!

Stamps used ~
Penny Black - little girl
Wendy Vecchi - alphabet
Inkadinkado - ticket

Thanks for stopping by today ~ Check back tomorrow for Caleb's teacher's gift.
Sarah x

It's Father's Day

This is the card Lydia gave to her Dad.  Caleb and Phoebe decided to make their own card without interference from me!! 

The base card is Bazzill kraft cardstock,  the designer paper is Dovecraft and some plain brown card from the Paper Mill.  The sentiment is cut out of kraft card with the Craft Robo and sponged with Frayed Burlap distress ink.  The edges of the matted pieces of card are all distressed with the Xcut distressing tool and turned up slightly at the edges.  The chipboard star is cut with a Sizzix die using the Cuttlebug, then covered with a scrap of the Dovecraft paper and fine string tied around it. I then added some buttons and inked the edges of the base card with distress ink.  Very quick to put together! 

This is the card the two wee ones made.  The only thing I was allowed to do was tie the bow in the centre.  It now has pride of place on the mantelpiece Daddy is so pleased with it!

Thanks for visiting again :)

Sarah x