A few things to share...

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I am so sorry I've not added a blog post for over a month, I came back from the wedding terribly run down and ended up with a chest infection, then with Christmas looming, I just haven't had time to blog the few things I've made. To make matters worse I've come down with a really heavy cold over Christmas and I've lost my sense of smell and taste completely which has made me feel pretty miserable as you can imagine - all those lovely Christmas goodies and I can't taste (or smell!) a single one! My cold started on the 23rd and I'd lost my sense of smell and taste by the 24th and it's still not come back yet. For the first year ever, I made Christmas lunch for my mum and I (my husband chose to spend Christmas or at least the meal with his family at a pub!) and I couldn't even taste it - apparently it was very nice though. I'll have to try and re-create it when I'm better.

I thought I'd share a couple of Christmas cards I made earlier this month. For the second year running most of my friends and relatives haven't actually had a Christmas card off me but I'm planning on whipping up some simple Happy New Year cards to send out instead.

Penguin/Igloo card made for my Niece and Nephews

Close up of the Igloo

I call this penguin Charlie after my niece :) 

The boys :)

Jack the penguin

Liam the penguin

Ross the penguin with snowball

On thin ice...

I absolutely love the stamp set and embossing folder that came free with Papercraft Essentials magazine a couple of months ago, my subscription needs renewing so I ended up paying full price of £5.99 for the magazine but it is well worth it as it also included a little die set that cuts out three skates, the ear muffs (though these could be headphones as well) and the little bobble hat. You have to fussy cut the scarf and the actual characters but that's easy enough to do. As well as the penguin characters, there is a bear and a seal along with some accessories like a pile of snowballs and a sledge but I've only really used the penguins. Although this is a Christmas/winter set I can see it being used all the year through because it is very versatile. The little sprig of holly on Liam's head actually came from the embossed door/wreath cover gift that came out around September time - for the life of me though I can't remember which magazine it came free with . I kept the colouring fairly simple on this card and used a combination of ProMarkers and Kaiserfusion pens the latter only because I have a lot of icy colours in that brand whereas for some reason Promarkers don't seem to have many icy/frosty colours and it's boring always colouring ice the same tired blue or pale grey. I added Spectrum Noir Clear Shimmer Overlay to the igloo, ice pond and to other parts of the card. As always though it's rather hard to see the sparkle in a photo. I also added a bit of Woodware Fluffy Stuff to the bobble of a hat and the snowball in Ross the penguins hand for added texture. It's a thick liquid which fluffs up when you apply heat to it - a fantastic product that I'm always surprised isn't made more of in the crafting community (it's been out for years and I've had the same bottle for almost 8 years now because a little goes a long way.)

We Three Kings

Close up of card

I made this card using a die and embossing folder that came free with Die Cutting Essentials magazine. I'll admit that Die Cutting Essentials magazine is rather pricey at £9.99 but I found I was usually buying it online at more.mags.com at the full price plus postage so it made sense to start a subscription to the magazine. This die came with my first subbie copy and I really love it. I actually made around a dozen cards using the die but each one was slightly different as I used different ways to colour the background panel that goes behind the black die cut outline. My favourite ones were made using distress ink and blending three colours together in an ombre effect but I was very pleased with how this watercolour panel piece came out using Karetake Gansai Tambi Watercolours, I used a heat gun to speed the drying process up and it caused the watercolours to run which I rather like as it looks as though there are tongues of flame in the sky which is rather dramatic. Probably the hardest thing about making this card is sticking down the diecut to the back panel just because some of the design is rather delicate but a steady hand and a glue pen soon solved that.

It'll be rather a shame to put away the Three Kings die once the Christmas period is well and truly over as I had a lot of fun experimenting with different backgrounds. The penguin set will be staying out in my regular stash as I'm sure I'll be able to use it for other non Christmassy cards during the year - not least because I've recently found out that my sister's OH loves penguins! (That's the theme for his next card sorted!)

I really want to improve my blog during 2017 and grow my audience so one thing I do need to tackle is the frequency of blog posts. Until I can save for a decent digital camera, my photos are still going to remain a little on the poor side but I hope you my lovely reader (s) will look past that and continue to support my blog as it develops and grows. It would be fantastic if you could become a follower by clicking the follow button in the side bar or by subscribing via email. As always I would love to hear your questions and comments so feel free to leave them in the usual places.

I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas and I wish you all a healthy and prosperous New Year. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Cards for Sad Occasions

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! It's nearly the weekend again, do you have anything exciting planned? I wasn't going to share these cards but I was really pleased with how the Sympathy Card came out and I did my first (I think!) watercolour image for the get well card. I looked on YouTube for some inspiration and to be totally honest I found most of the sympathy cards to be unsuitable - not helped by one person who kept saying "this is a fun card/technique" which seemed a tad inappropriate for sympathy cards, after all it's not like most people would be looking out of boredom or anything I imagine most viewers would be in the same shoes that I was in - looking for some inspiration to make their own sympathy card because someone close had suffered a loss (not exactly a 'fun' occasion!). Others were too fancy or floral for a man so I decided to just work with what I had. I looked through my stash and found some Art Nouveau stamps that came free with Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine in the last couple of months (not sure when exactly as I don't label which issue they come free with - something I'll try and do in future). Even though I was put off by all the floral sympathy cards I saw on YouTube, I was drawn to these stamps especially the one I ended up using.

Thinking of you Sympathy Card (for a man)

Art Nouveau themed card

As strange as it may seem, I think this design would make a great wedding invitation if you added a touch of silver and changed the sentiment. I personally think white, black and silver wedding invites to be very stylish (kind of wish I'd gone for this colour scheme for my own wedding instead of white, silver and summer sky blue) and the Art Nouveau stamped images are very elegant. I think sympathy cards, especially those for men should be quietly understated and I'm sure you'd agree that this certainly is that.

My second card features a Fizzy Moon stamp which I like but I wasn't too thrilled to discover that half the image shown on the front of the stamp set is actually absent from the stamp! It gives the stamped image a real 'sketchy' feel which I personally dislike and I ended up drawing the missing lines in using a black pen (luckily the one I used was waterproof!). I stamped the image onto watercolour paper and filled in the image before colouring it in using Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese Watercolour Paints which I am fortunate enough to own. I got mine from Amazon ages ago and this is the first time I've really used them as I'm more likely to use watercolour pencils. I was a bit disappointed that the seller removed the protective plastic cover from the paints prior to posting it as it makes a brilliant palette (I used an acrylic block to mix my colours). I've discovered why my water coloured images don't usually look exactly watercoloured - I don't use enough water! It's amazing what a difference adding plenty of water to your colours makes. 

Watercolour Get Well Card featuring Fizzy Moon

Very pleased with how this came out apart from that pink for the plasters!

 By using more water I was able to layer my colours to add shading and texture, it isn't perfect but I don't think it's bad for my first attempt, I just wish I'd been able to mix a less vile shade of pink for the plasters lol. The background colour was actually done by a wash of plain water then adding Persian Blue Zig Real Color Marker using the wet on wet technique (first time doing that too!). I die cut the shape and layered it onto a black square of card before adding it to the card blank. Again this is another simple card even if it did take a while to make. I really enjoyed experimenting with my Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese Watercolour Paints, the pigment in them is really good so you can add lots of water to them (I did that on an acrylic block rather than in the pans so they don't get waterlogged.)  Although there are lots of variations to the colours on this picture I only used a red, black, white and caramel but got different shades by adding more or less of the white and water to each mix. I hardly used any water on the black noses which is why they are so black and shiny (hard to see in the photo but very apparent in real life).

I've been fortunate enough to have got some new goodies online including some Letraset Aqua Markers from Cowling and Wilcox www.cowlingandwilcox.com  who have got a fantastic sale on at the moment! The Aqua Markers are only 50p each!!! And Tria Markers are only 95p each (RRP is £4.75 each!!!!). I got 9 colours and a blender which was also 50p, I'm really looking forward to trying them out. I hope you'll excuse the overuse of exclamation marks but at these prices who can blame me for being astounded - I saved £2.00 per pen on the RRP which is amazing value. 

As always if you have any questions or comments then please leave them in the usual places. I have a couple of cards to make this weekend so hopefully I'll have something new to share on Monday, if not sooner. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx