News and a couple of cards.

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you've all had a brilliant weekend - it was International Card Making Day on Saturday - did you make any cards? I didn't actually make any on the day but I did have an overnight crafting session last night.

First a couple of bits of good news, to start with my card featured in the last post was shortlisted for the competition I made it for. I didn't win but I'm absolutely thrilled to bits that it was shortlisted as there were some really good entries. My second piece of good news is that my lovely wonderful husband has treated me to a brand new Sizzix Big Shot machine (£55 from Amazon) and it arrived today!! I am very excited and looking forward to finally being able to use my intricate dies without having to shim it to death! It's a different colour to my original machine and has a tabbed extended platform rather than the solid platform with a removable plastic shim which might take some getting used to, I'm going to try and mend my old machine and see if my mum in law would like it, she's not a papercrafter as such but likes to sew and make things for a doll's house that my dad in law has made for her. I know you can get dies to make quilting shapes and other stuff which might make her life easier otherwise I might get some replacement cutting plates and offer it to a craft group/charity in the area who may be able to use it. I am really grateful to my husband for getting it for me, it was £55 which doesn't sound like a lot but is probably more than we spend on electricity in a month and we don't have a lot of spare money especially at this time of year. #feelingblessed

Apologies for the long delay in adding the last blog challenge cards - Michele sent me photos of hers weeks ago but I've had real trouble making the cards this time round, part of it was my usual procrastination but part of it was down to things going wrong with my projects. I decided to colour the Gnomes in with a combination of alcohol markers and Spectrum Noir Shimmer pens and I had a lot of bleeding outside the stamped outlines even though I was extra careful and used a card suitable for both mediums then I'd make a card and absolutely loathe it so had to start again about a dozen times.

Here are Michele's gorgeous creations.

Aren't they fantastic? I love the way Michele spelt out XMAS by nestling the letters in the Gnomes' beards and the Anniversary card is so sweet! I really like the heart shaped tree slice in the background.

Here are my cards.

I hope you like my cards, again apologies for the delay in getting them made and up. If you want to know how my card was made please leave a comment below. This month's blog challenge is to use the card kit that came free with issue 175 Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine to make as many items from it as possible. You can use additional card stock from your stash and any dies, embossing boards, embossing folders as you want to make tags, ATCs, boxes, bags and of course cards! You can also use other embellishments like ribbon and twine etc to give the items a finished look but the challenge is to be left with only tiny scraps by the end. Because this is a big challenge it's running until the 31st October and as always please feel free to join in - there's no prize apart from the satisfaction of having done a job well done and freeing up a tiny bit of space in your crafty nook! I'm really looking forward to seeing what Michele comes up with this time and I'd love to see your creations too. As always if you have any questions or comments then please leave them in the usual places and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx