A very belated blog challenge post...

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all well and have had a good Easter etc. Sorry it's been so long since I last posted, hopefully I'll be adding posts a bit more frequently once I've got a few things sorted out in my home life. Apart from the odd day it's still a pretty miserable start to spring but at least it's getting lighter (sort of!) so we can enjoy the natural light for longer. It doesn't really make much difference to my crafting because my crudy is north-facing and I can't actually reach the windows with any ease so I tend to keep the curtains closed most of the time, once the weather has warmed up (we still have the odd frosty/foggy start) I'll be opening my window to get some air in which will be very welcome.

 Michele and I finished our cards for last month's challenge within a week of the last post being added but I've not had the time to add them here before now - a huge apology to Michele and my lovely readers for the delay.

For some reason the Christmas photos and the top photo have saved the right way on my PC but have come out the way shown when I add them to the blog - I'm really sorry about this but I can't alter the orientation. For her three Easter egg cards, Michele has used the blossom basket dies that came free with Die Cutting Essentials magazine a couple of months ago. I'm very impressed with Michele's cards because in all honesty I really disliked the basket die that came as part of the set though I like most of the other dies but Michele has to managed to make it look really good and I'm now quite looking forward to using it myself at some point. I love the embossing folders she's used on her cards too especially the script one and the green glitter card on her second card adds that lovely shimmery accent.I love the images and colour palette of the Christmas cards, they have a really contemporary feel to them. A fantastic set of cards as always Michele.

Woodland themed circle swing card

Die cut topper made using circle sentiments from Crafter's Companion

Close up of woodland scene

My first card was made using a freebie called Butterfly Dreams from issue 173 of Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine. The leaves were made using a generic die from my stash and the tree branch was actually a tree stamp on it's side. The sky was coloured using Broken China distress oxide ink (I now own two oxide inks and I love them!!!) and a couple of cloud masks. The ladybird and sentiment were from another magazine freebie and I added some glossy accents to the ladybird to make it stand out more.  My Christmas card was made using a snowflake die that came free with Crafts Beautiful magazine, I've had it for months but this was my first time using it, I also used one of the snowflake dies that came with my CC Advent calendar last year to make the smaller snowflakes. I managed to get some glue on the background that looked awful once it had dried and rather than starting over again I added dabs of Dovecraft glitter glue all over the background to disguise it. My final card is a circle swing card decorated by a die set that came free with Diecutting Essentials magazine issue 32 called Woodland Friends and has a distress inked background. I used the circle swing die set that my lovely husband bought me for Valentine's Day to cut the card blank out and the circle sentiment. I added panels of wood grain paper from my stash.

I hope you like our blog challenge cards. This month's challenge is another magazine freebie but this time using the Tonic Studio Flip Flop card dies that came free with last month's issue of Diecutting Essentials Magazine, we'd like you to make a minimum of two cards using this die set with one of them being a Christmas card, you can use any items from your stash but don't go out and buy anything extra - apart from the magazine of course!- if you join in because our challenge is about encouraging you to make use of what you've got not an excuse to buy more stash (and who needs an excuse to buy more lol). If you don't want to spend a tenner on the magazine (and I wouldn't blame you to be perfectly honest) then it is possible to make a flip/flop card using any layered die in your stash. Google flip flop cards and see where it takes you or check out a video or two on YouTube - this style of card was very popular about four years ago and there are loads of videos to choose from. If you ask nicely I might even do a step by step photo tutorial for you using a basic shape die *winks* it will have to wait until I've sorted a few things though. If you'd like one then please leave a comment in the usual places.  The current flip/flop card challenge will close in two weeks time and we would love for you to join in, just email me photos and details of the finished cards or leave a link to your blog in the comments section. There isn't any prizes just the satisfaction on delving into your stash and using items you might normally not use in a new and exciting way.

Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Double Z-Fold Mother's Day Cards

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all well and enjoying the first week of spring (at least here in the UK). The weather's been very mixed with bright sunny days and very rainy days too - typical British weather, no doubt it will be snowing by Easter lol. It's Mothering Sunday this weekend and I've invited my mum over for Sunday lunch - if all goes to plan I shall be making roast pork with stuffing, apple sauce (might even make it fresh *shock face*), mash potato, roast potatoes, carrots and cauliflower cheese. It's taken me a long time to realise that even though I don't particularly enjoy it, I'm actually a good cook and one of my latest dishes is cauliflower cheese - I've decided I'm going to try my hand at macaroni cheese next because strange as it might sound I've never had homemade before and if it's as tasty as cauliflower cheese then it's going to be pretty good (I think the secret is to add freshly ground nutmeg to the cheese sauce). Anyway enough of cooking, let's get on to something I do enjoy - crafting! In my last post, I shared the invite I made for my mum and this time I'd like to share the cards I've made for my mum and mum-in-law.

The cards are made from 300gsm smooth card stock, I buy it from Every Craft's A Pound when it's available and it's usually about £7.50 for 200 sheets which is really good value. They have 250gsm and 200gsm in for the same price but you get an additional 50 sheets per pack if my memory serves me correctly. I haven't bought any for a while because I've still got a pack of each  in my stash and I've also started to use Sheena's stamping card which is a lot more expensive but is thicker even though it's supposed to also be 300gsm which is the same as the super smooth. Plus you can't always get the particular card from ECAP unfortunately so I forget to look when I'm on the site. The card blanks are 5.5" square when folded and I decorated them with papers from the Kimono paper pack from Crafter's Companion. I love the gorgeous colours in this collection and the glitter highlights that are on many of the designs. I die cut a loopy circle using the free die set that came with last month's Diecutting Essentials magazine out of Centura pearl pale blue card from the pastels A4 card stack, it doesn't quite match but I didn't have any coloured card that did so thought this would do. I die cut the lacy circle using the second die in the set which also diecuts a small circle from the centre. I stamped the Happy Mother's Day greeting onto these circles and die cut a 'with love' sentiment which came free with a rose die set a few months ago - I'm afraid I can't remember which magazine it came free with. The butterfly was die cut using a nesting butterfly from a Sara Signature set that I got a few months ago, it's the smallest die in a set of three. I added black gems from my stash to form the body. I made the envelope using my WRMK envelope punch and stamped the large butterfly that came free with a magazine in the last couple of months, again I'm afraid I can't remember which magazine it was from - I do get rather a lot of magazines. I coloured them in using Flexmarkers and coated them with some clear Shimmer Marker before assembling the envelope.

I hope you like my latest makes and that you have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. As always if you have any questions then please leave them in the usual places. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx