Perfect Ten

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you've all had a crafty weekend and are raring to go for the week ahead. It's been rather quiet here in my crafty nook but I have made a few cards and unpacked a few goodies from a couple of internet orders so it's all good.

The first couple of cards I'd like to share with you are two 10th Birthday cards for my niece who celebrated her birthday on Saturday. My mum isn't very well at the moment so asked me to make a card on her behalf which is why I made two.

10 today card featuring S.W.A.L.K belle of the ball stamp

Close up of the die-cut 10 today

Inside card featuring die-cut sentiment and stamped verse

The Happy Birthday die came free with a magazine ages ago and the numbers and today die-cuts were made using a Sizzix die that I recently purchased from Hochanda. The stamp set is one that was licenced to Crafter's Companion but I don't think they hold it anymore as the stamps aren't available on the website, I seem to recall that I purchased them (I have loads of different ones) from Every Craft's A Pound either last year or the one before but you may be able to pick up the stamp on Ebay (in fact I've just checked and it is available in a set of 4 stamps for £4.99) or similar.

Clearly Besotted Best Birthday balloons with balloon 10 added

Crafter's Companion verse inside card

I combined two stamp sets to make this second card, the first set was the fabulous 'Best Birthday' from one of my favourite stamp companies Clearly Besotted Stamps with a Katy Sue Designs 'Shaggy Dog Tails' stamp set called balloons which is currently out of stock on the Katy Sue Designs website. I coloured both stamps using a combination of Promarkers and Flexmarkers. I really like the squirrel balloon on the second card.

I've also been lucky enough to have a couple of orders arrive this week which I'd like to share with you.

These dies were purchased from Icon UK a fantastic low priced crafting website which has really fast service and free delivery on most orders (I've not had to pay any p&p for any of my Icon UK orders).

I purchased this Sizzix die from the shopping channel Hochanda, it's my first purchase from them and the delivery time is good though at £3.95 for purchases under £20 it's rather pricey and postage goes up the greater the value of your purchase. The die cuts beautifully as you can see from the 10 today card above.

I couldn't resist these Echo Park 'Pirate's Life' papers from Craft Stash, they had nesting dies for only £5 so I also picked up this set of nesting stars to bulk up my die collection (not that it needs bulking up after my Icon UK splurge!) and finally bought this lush Tim Holtz Retro Carnival stamp which is the perfect size for ATC's.

Lastly I took advantage of the final few days of the Crafter's Companion sale to buy some new stamp sets. The Scruffy Little Cats were a huge bargain as they were heavily discounted and I paid £2.55 for all four of the stamps which is less than the current price of a single set on the website. In fact because I'm a Gold Member of Club Inspire my order only came to £5.10 with free priority posting.

It may seem like I've bought lots this week and indeed I have lol but all the items were either low priced to begin with or in the sales so although I got lots of new stuff I've paid a fraction of what it would normally cost.  I hope you've enjoyed looking at my latest cards and value buys - thanks for reading down to the bottom of a huge post! As always if you have any questions or comments then please leave them in the usual places. I've got a couple of men birthday cards to make (eek!) in the next few days so hopefully I'll have some more cards to share with you soon. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs

Sarah xxx

Update and a few corrections on the Card for Victoria

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! If you visit me on Facebook you'll probably already know about the disaster of a day I had yesterday and the fact I had to remake the card for Victoria. As a result of remaking the card (as best as I could some of the card stock was in short supply!) I realised that some of the details I gave were inaccurate - I'm really sorry for any confusion this may have caused. The correct details are the backing papers were taken from Dovecraft "Sweet Paris" 6"x 6" paper collection and the diamond embossing folder used to emboss the pink card was actually a Crafter's Companion Scruffy Little Cats folder called "Chic". I think that's covered everything, I only discovered the truth when I went to remake the card and couldn't find the right supplies!  Here is the new card for Victoria, the way it was made remains the same so I won't rehash them now, however I did add panels of card to the inside after smudging the sentiment I had stamped - it really wasn't my day yesterday.

Version number 2 of Victoria's Card 

Inside panel, I went with peel offs after mucking up the stamping!

Close up of  stamped image - slightly bigger than original image

Close up of the flower topper

I almost wish I'd used these cards in a spot the difference competition lol. There are at least 5 differences if you'd like to play along for fun - if anyone leaves a comment listing them, then I will give the answers at a later date, no prizes this time but if I ever have to remake a card again I'll have a little giveaway.

I hope you've enjoyed this post and it hasn't given you a sense of deja vu. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

A Card For Victoria

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all well and have something crafty planned for this Bank Holiday Monday. I'm going to have a good clear out of my crudy as it's become rather untidy these past few months. I might do some crafting too, I've made some more mini milk cartons and I'm planning on decorating them with gems, pearls and die cut flowers.

I asked my friend Adam to let me know what sort of things his wife Victoria likes a few months ago as I don't know her as well as I'd like to and she's celebrating a significant birthday this week, after quite a few email reminders Adam finally got back to me with his answer - she likes pink! With not a lot to go on I've made the card below for Victoria.

Think Pink card for Victoria

I hope Victoria likes this card, I've used a Crafter's Companion Scruffy Little Cats stamp called "Perry" and I've coloured it using my brand new FlexiMarkers by Letraset. I got them last week from Cowling and Wilcox Ltd priced £1.50 per pen and I got all 5 Blue Greys, a pink called Tea Rose (all pink items on above stamped image coloured using this), a skin tone called Antique White (I used this to colour Perry's skin), 3 browns - Auburn (hair), Cappuccino and Caramel, a purple called Purple Velvet bought purely because I liked the name, 4 blues (used to colour all blue items) in Storm Blue, Verdigris, Blue Lake and Sea Mist. Cowling and Wilcox don't show the colours of the pens so my choices were made based on the names but luckily I love all the ones I chose although had I realised the exact colours of the Cappuccino and Caramel I may have chosen two different ones as I was planning on using them together to colour hair and they seem better suited to be used for blonde hair rather than the brown I was hoping for (and mousy blonde at that!) Since ordering them I've discovered that Letraset have a colour chart on their website and I'll consult that before ordering any more. It's hard to see on photos but the brush end of the pen allows you to get a more realistic shading on clothes but obviously I need a load more practice before I'm any good at it. The pink card was taken from my stash and I embossed a panel of it using a Darice embossing folder that I purchased from Crafter's Companion. I added liquid pearls to the meeting points of the embossed diamonds and allowed them to dry before adding them to a panel of distressed Melissa Frances patterned paper that came free with a magazine. This was mounted on some textured grey card and some polka dotted adhesive ribbon was added as shown (The Works 99p). I made the flower using a die that came free with the Crafter's Companion Inspiration magazine out of scraps of the pink and grey card and I embossed them with a burlap embossing folder that came free with the same magazine. I added a white pearl from an embellishment pack that's free with this month's Papercraft Inspiration magazine. The card blank is 7" square made with hinged pink panel and a 7" square of white card stuck together with red liner tape. The card isn't overwhelmingly pink but has a pleasant pinkness about it without being a Barbie world reject lol or at least I hope that's how it comes across.

I may enter this week's Passion for ProMarkers Blog Challenge and as it's theme is no sentiments I've kept them inside (plus I wanted a flower where the sentiment may have gone). As I mentioned on the card for Winnie post, making cards for people with very little detail of their likes and dislikes is rather difficult so I've got my fingers crossed that Victoria will like this card. I'm rather pleased with how it's turned out, classy and girly without being too pink.

A Close up of Perry

Pearls are a girl's best friend?

As always if you have any questions or comments then please leave them in the usual places. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,


Sarah xxx

Happy News and a small haul

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! As you've probably noticed I've been redecorating here in my crafty nook and have a new water themed wallpaper to brighten the place up in 2015. Even better I have a sparkly blinkie from Passion for ProMarkers at the top of the sidebar, after the lovely Loopy Lou chose my card as one of the top 5 Passionista for the sketch challenge week 278 (see post below for the chosen card). I am really chuffed to be awarded this blinkie and I've been insanely happy since I found out yesterday. I had a little trouble adding it to my sidebar, as regular readers of this blog know I'm not exactly computer literate, but Denise from Passion for Promarkers kindly guided me through the process and I managed to add it without the rest of the blog self-destructing lol.

I also have a very small haul to share with you that came on Tuesday. The last two cards on this blog have featured stamps from the Crafter's Companion range "Scruffy Little Cats" and I've wanted some more images while the post Christmas sale was still on. Not only were the stamps reduced to £1.00 each (when I bought them last I think they were £2.50 or similar) but they were included in the 6 for £5.00 deal. I originally only put 4 in my basket as I had the other stamps but when I went to the checkout it kept coming up with the 6 for £5 offer so I decided to add two stamps I already owned in as well to give to my niece Charlie. My new stamps are called "Chelsea, Pixie, Perry, Ashleigh, Francesca and Lola" the last two stamps are the ones for Charlie.

Francesca and Lola stamps for Charlie

Chelsea and Pixie Stamps

Ashleigh and Perry Stamps

Eventually I'd like to get the full sized stamp sets in the range as they have different characters featured and sentiments included but they are currently £4.99 each or 3 for £12.00 and unmounted rubber which I really dislike - I much prefer the acrylic versions. If you want to get your mitts on these rather lush stamps they are still only £1.00 each or 6 for £5.00 which means you could get all 8 for only £7 (plus £1 p&p) plus if you are a Bronze member of the Club Inspire (free to join after first purchase) you get 5% off every order (think its 5% could be 10%) not including p&p. www.crafterscompanion.co.uk is the link if you want to check it out.

This week's challenge on Passion for ProMarkers is Teddy Bears  http://promarkerchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/week-279teddy-bears.html so please join in and see if you can win a blinkie too or a digi stamp from polka doodles. I'm in the middle of my card entry so I hope to share it with you soon. I haven't managed to finish my "crudy" re-organisation - it came out of the room so it must go back in somehow!!! I'm not sure it's ever going to be at the stage where I share it online mainly because there's a heck of a lot of stuff in a very small space and things are stacked high so even though it's actually quite organised it looks like complete chaos lol. I have managed to find things I hadn't realised I'd lost (a copy of John Wyndham's "Midwich Cuckoos" for example) but not the things I know should be in there like my lovely water colour pencils and a couple of star dies that came free with "Simply Homemade" magazine last month that I hadn't had a chance to use before the craft gremlins stole them! Damn those pesky craft gremlins! lol

I hope you've enjoyed my little bit of good news, if you have any comments or questions then please use either the box below or the contact form in the sidebar and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Card Entry for Passion for ProMarkers Sketch Challenge week No:278

Hello crafty peeps - welcome to my crafty nook! Today I'd like to share my entry to the Passion for ProMarkers Sketch Challenge which is currently running on the Passion for ProMarkers Blog www.promarkerchallenge.blogspot.com (scroll down for sketch post). I've never followed a sketch before and found this one quite daunting because it features a circular card with multiple layers and I don't actually own any circle dies. I have a Fiskars shape cutter and circle templates but in all honesty I find it very difficult to use as the blade tends to skip away from the side of the circles and ruins the card stock and when I first used it I must have been holding it wrong because the blade would fall out as it cut! In the end after ruining 3 sheets of black card I decided to just use the shapes as templates and drew around them using a pencil then I cut them out. The result isn't as perfect as I would like but I've now run out of black card so it'll have to suffice.

Card using challenge sketch

Sorry the quality isn't very good, if you scroll down this post I've added some close ups of the main topper that are clearer. I used another Crafter's Companion Little Scruffy Cats stamp as my main image and coloured it with ProMarkers and highlighted the hearts, shoes and hair with clear Wink of Stella brush marker. The heart paper comes from an A4 paper stack from Do Crafts Papermania called Tilly Daydream - I love the cross stitch hearts on this sheet. The large flower was made using a stitch flower die and has a pearl centre. The smaller flowers came from the Works and I shaped them using an embossing ball tool and layered them together to make a more 3D flower, again I added a flat backed large pearl to each centre. I mounted my circular panel onto a scalloped 8 " by 8 " card blank because I don't have any circular cards in my stash. I've probably stuck a little too close to the sketch but as its my first one I wanted to follow it as near as possible (babysteps!) Below is a slightly better quality photo that I've just taken with my phone.

Slightly better photo quality! 

Here are some close ups...

I'm not happy with how the hair has turned out but the challenges on the Passion for ProMarkers blog are an excellent way for me to practice my colouring technique and they are allowing me to try new things and think outside the box craft wise.

I hope you like my latest card and as always if you have any questions or comments please leave them in the section below or if you look in the side bar I now have a "contact me" form. I'm still in the middle of re-arranging my "Crudy" (craft/study - crudy! lol) but the new oak sideboard is in place and looks FABULOUS!!!! lol nearly put my back out lifting the glass fronted cupboards onto the base though. I shall be working on the crudy reshuffle over the weekend and hopefully I'll have a new card share for you on Monday. Until then - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

p.s. I've just realised I forgot to mention the lace strip across the card front - I made this using the lace daisy punch by Martha Stewart. x Sarah x

Entry#1 for Passion for ProMarkers week 277 Mega Christmas Challenge

DIE CUT, FREE, GLITTER

Entry#1 for Passion for ProMarkers Mega Christmas Challenge

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all enjoying the first weekend of 2015, I'm in the middle of a huge re-organisation of my living  room and my "Crudy" after purchasing a much bigger than I thought sideboard/dresser from one of the local second hand shops using some of the Christmas money I was given by very generous relatives! The unit is 5 ft 4 " long and almost 6 ft high, my husband would love for me to get rid of some rather outdated 70's units but I rather like them so they're staying lol. Instead I'm hoping to replace a desk I've had since I was about 12 (plus a cupboard) with a rather battered but still functional black sideboard in my crudy and put the "new" oak sideboard in it's place in the living room. It means I'm going to be rather busy for quite a while emptying the black sideboard of around 800 books and various other stuff (can't really remember what's in the cupboards apart from a rather pretty coffee service), moving the sideboard out of the way and replacing it with the two halves of the new sideboard then putting everything away so Chris doesn't trip over the boxes and bags. Then I'll have to repeat the whole process in the crudy (probably even more stuff in there than the living room - I'm a craft hoarder!) To make things even more 'interesting' I'd really like to have everything sorted by Wednesday 7th Jan '15 as it's my mum's birthday and I've invited her over for a meal.

 Unfortunately I'm rather a Procrastinating Princess and I've already got distracted today making the above card for the Passion for ProMarkers blog challenge. I wasn't actually planning on entering but I've still got loads of diamond fold accordion blanks just crying out to be decorated and I treated myself to some Crafter's Companion "Scruffy Little Cat" stamps when they were in the sales (they still may be on sale so check out the Crafter's Companion Website). I've coveted these stamps for months now ever since they appeared on "Create and Craft" tv channel. I couldn't afford them at the time but I'm really glad I waited as they were only a couple of pounds each and stamp beautifully. I decided to use the Die Cuts, FREE, Glitter, choice of the craft bingo card (pearls were my FREE item). I hope the judges are ok with my interpretation of Glitter as I haven't actually used loose glitter just glitter card and glitter glue. For some extra sparkle I added black wink of stella to the main image's eyelashes, silver WOS to the bath fittings and clear WOS to the powder puff and over the eye shadow. The main image was stamped using Black Tuxedo ink and coloured in using ProMarkers. As always I apologise for the photo's quality, it doesn't do justice to the glitter card in the slightest. Below are some more photos including close ups of the ProMarker colouring.

Closed card ready for DL sized envelope

Close up of Image coloured with ProMarkers

With Added Red Glitter Hearts

I hope you've enjoyed this card share, as always if you have any comments or questions I'd love to hear from you so please leave them in the space below. I'm off to do a bit of packing and I think I hear the siren call of the crudy so I may have to do a bit of crafting too (I have to make a card for my mum!) so until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxxx

P.S. I've just had to delete then re-submit my link on Passion for ProMarkers Mega Christmas Challenge because I'd somehow managed to link my draft version of this post instead of my actual blog post - D'oh! Sorry for any confusion caused. Sarah xxx