Facebook Goodies and a few haul items

Hello crafty peeps - welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you've all had a wonderful week. I've not been feeling very well which is why this is the first time I've blogged in a week, I hope you haven't missed me too much! I've decided not to bother entering the Passion for ProMarkers challenge this week, the theme was For A Special Lady and I made both my Mother's Day cards and the birthday card for my Mum-in-law during the last few weeks and didn't fancy making yet another card that'll just languish in a box and the rules do state that you're not allowed to back link cards so I can't even enter the Mother's Day cards that I've already made. I'm not sure if I'll bother entering next week's challenge either though I may follow the theme. It seems a bit pointless entering a challenge if half the people who enter don't bother to abide by the rules but I do enjoy most of the challenges and it usually motivates me to make a card so I'll probably just blog it instead of linking my posts to the PFP blog. I hope that makes sense.

Bookazines element of the QCME Friday Giveaway

Sweet Paris Collection

Lush papers. So lush....

That they came already opened and used lol including a third of a sheet

Rosette Flowers - my favourite is the small red polka dot

Sequins, buttons and bows 

Foam pads and Stampin' Up! Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon - lush!

I was really pleased to get my Facebook prize from Quick Cards Made Easy last Wednesday, love everything! I had to giggle when I discovered that the 72 pages of 6" x 6" papers only contained 53 and 1/3! Someone else obviously liked them too, just wish they'd left me more than two of the red polka dotted paper as that's my favourite. I shall be returning to QCME mag via a thank you card (photos to follow another time, my camera needs charging) the third of a sheet of the pink and cream paper. The card is already made but I can't blog it yet as my camera needs a few hours to charge. The bookazines were great to get because they aren't something I'd usually buy, priced at £7.99 each I'd want a substantial cardmaking kit to go with each one if I were to buy them myself so it was good to be able to see what they contain before purchasing (tbh I still wouldn't buy them - too expensive for what you get.) I'm hoping that in a few months ECAP will have the Sweet Paris Collection to buy at a reduced price as I'd certainly like to get more of the papers - a full set next time lol. I have a couple of French style stamps so it's nice to have a themed collection to go with them.

Prima Dolls - Taylor stamp

C.C. Designs Rain stamp (Tiny!)

I'd also like to share a small haul I got from My Mum's Craft Shop and this may very well be my last haul from this online shop (unless I change my mind lol). This is the 4th time I've made a purchase from MMCS and it's the third time I've had to change my order after placing it because the stock isn't up to date. I need an online craft shop to be reliable and I think that you'd agree that 3 out of 4 orders having to be altered proves it isn't. Admittedly I've always been happy with my replacement stamps but they weren't my first choices and it's rather vexing having to chop and change my orders plus they take longer to arrive! The first stamp shown is the replacement stamp as I'd originally ordered the innocence "Gone Fishin'" stamp, this Taylor stamp is the fourth Prima Dolls stamp in my collection and it's huge! I think the blurb online said it was 7 inches long. To begin with the Dolls lack of facial details freaked me out a bit but it makes them great for paper piecing esp with newspaper print either coloured with distress inks or with flesh coloured ProMarkers. I haven't tried it yet myself but I've seen some fantastic examples online.  The second stamp - Rain - is a lot smaller than I was expecting. considering so many crafters like making 8" x 8" cards you'd think they'd be a lot more larger sized stamps out there but small stamps seem to be easier to find. Perhaps it's just me looking in the wrong places, because I have relatively less money to spend on craft stuff, I tend to go for clearance or sales items and perhaps the big stamps haven't been reduced yet. Also I know most crafters like to embellish more than I do, if I've spent an hour colouring in an image I want it to be the focus of the card not have it hiding amidst layers of patterned paper and embellishments, this probably why I tend to make smaller cards.

I'm hoping to share the french themed thank you card I've made for Quick Cards Made Easy Magazine once my camera's charged so look for a new post tomorrow. As always if you have any questions please leave them in the usually places and I'll get back to you, until then - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Card Share - Then I really "mustache" lol

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend as much as I did. I think having the girls to stay has worn Chris out, that and staying up until 4.30 am listening to the cricket because he's gone back to bed, bless him. Gives me a chance to add a post about the card I made for my sister's partner Simon though so I'm not going to complain.

I always find men's cards challenging, even more now since my beloved told me "Men don't like cards featuring rabbits going fishing!" - cheers for that little nugget dear husband, now what I'm I supposed to put on male relatives cards??? After seeing this card Chris wants a mustache card too and he'll be getting a rabbit fishing card WEARING A FALSE MUSTACHE card and like it lol.

For screen villains everywhere....

I made this card using a Darice Mustache embossing folder which I covered with white pigment ink on the negative side so the kraft card that I put inside got swiped with colour on the background but the embossed mustaches remained mostly kraft colour, I rather like the chalky effect you get using this method. I diecut the mustaches out of plain white card using a Cat's Pajamas die set and I coloured in the diecuts using ProMarkers. The sentiment came from the coordinating stamp set and both are available from My Mum's Craft Shop for £10 for both in the sale clearance section. Just a little word of warning though, I've ordered twice from this site and both times I've been contacted by the owner to say that one of  stamps I've ordered was no longer available and as they were from the clearance they wouldn't be getting any more in. As much as I appreciate getting the option to have a refund or a replacement item (one site I went to just refunded me when an item was out of stock!) it's a bit disappointing to have to change my order twice in a row, so although I'd recommend this site don't have your heart set on the clearance items as you may be disappointed. Of course they may have sorted out their computer glitches by now. Anyway back to the card - I stamped a speech bubble around the Curses! Foiled again sentiment using a stamp taken from Clearly Besotted Stamps set called "You Said It!" which I fussy cut round as I don't have the coordinating dies. The largest mustache and the speech bubble were both stuck to the embossed panel using double sided adhesive foam tape. The three smaller mustaches were glued down using Dovecraft's clear 3D Pearl Effects as I wanted to use a quick drying strong adhesive on the uneven surface. I rounded the bottom two corners using scissors then layered it onto black card and finally onto a pre-scored card blank.

Inside of the card

I used a sentiment taken from another Mustache themed stamp set but this one is by Hunkydory, the mustaches above and below are from the Cat's Pajamas stamp set and I left them uncoloured.

I stamped this fun sentiment onto the flap of the envelope as a bit of a teaser to the contents.

Tomorrow is Tuesday which means another challenge over at the Passion For ProMarkers blog so hopefully I'll have a new card to share with you all in the next few days. I find some challenges easier than others which is why I sometimes post the day after but if I find the challenge difficult it takes longer for it to be posted as I need more thinking time - sometimes of course I'm overwhelmed by choice which takes me even longer still! I'm not sure how the other bloggers do it but I make a new card for each new challenge, I don't just adapt what I've already got made. My reason for taking part in the challenges is to stretch myself creatively and practice my ProMarker colouring techniques so if I just added a few pearls to a previously made card so it fulfils the challenge criteria, I wouldn't be staying true to my own objectives. This is in no way a criticism of anyone who does do that by the way. Crafters tend to be busy people and might not have the time to make a new card for every blog challenge. *steps down from soapbox and stashes it away in a corner of the crafty nook* As always if you have any questions or comments then please leave them below or use the comments form in the sidebar. I hope to have a card or two to share with you in the next few days but until then - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx