Let it Snow..(day 4)

... no, really don't, at least not until Christmas Eve. Don't you think it just set's a great mood for Christmas when it snows at Christmas time, any other time I feel it's a blummin' nuisance( Yep, I am truly a grumpy old woman!)
Now, let's move on, again another card using the Christmas at Home bacground paper, the Let it Snow and snowflake have been cut using Sizzix dies. x

Beautiful baubles..

..these are very beautiful and these are the Christmas at Home stamps, the background paper is also from the range.  I have used Stampin Up Cherry cobbler ink in all of the range along with cardstock from Payperbox.
How are your Christmas preparations going? x

Let's get seasonal...

..apologies I have been a naughty blogger!  But it's that time of year when we need to get seasonal. Last year, you may remember that I took part in the December daily where I blogged every day something seasonal.  This year my intentions are the same, as you can see I am a little behind but I will "catch up" by blogging a couple of times a day until I do. I'm hoping to bring you some blogs of things that I have made or are inspirational.  The first up is a card that I have made using the beautitful Christmas at Home collection from Papermania/Docrafts,  I have used the papers, all of the stamps and embellished with whatever I have in my stash of goodies.  You will see the entire range over the next few blogs, just loving their products x

Mike's mini..

..It's my youngest nephews Birthday, seriously what card do you make for a teenager?  Nothing to saucy or alcohol inspired, or too young or too old, the list is endless.  So I have gone bit retro and strong and masculine!  I have taken a leaf out of Nic Howards book(Big Picture Scrapbooking) and have tried to add lots of layers, textures and a cluster of interest.  There is a mix of punches, dies, stamps, embossing folders, inks, paint, brads, twine and herringbone seam binding.  Just love this look.  I don't think that my nephew Mike knows but his Dad(who I grew up with) used to have a Mini Cooper which he tinkered with, as I recall it was quite a babe magnet back in the day.  Maybe I should just keep that to myself?!   Happy Birthday Mike.xx

Dad's hatchery..

 I know that it's not common knowledge but I grew up on a farm and while I haven't initially gone down the farming route, farming is in my blood and it might well rear it's head in the not to distant future with me, but enough of all that let me tempt you with this photo and a little background info! This is part of the main entrance to the farm and was originally my Dad's hatchery room.  I had many happy hours here helping Dad candle the eggs for Pheasants, Partridge, Chicken, Turkeys, Quails to see if they were fertile.  Washing and sterilising the equipment and placing them in the huge incubator.  I mean this was an industrial unit that had humidity control along with an automatted egg turner and thermostatically controlled.  Once the given numbers of days were up for the type of egg, we would see if the chicks had started to "chip" their way out.  If so we removed them from the incubator into the hatching unit until they were fully out and fluffy.  Once they were we would then put them under a lamp in a pen and start to feed and water them until they were on their way either to freedom or the table.  The choice was theirs.  Now, the building has been empty for many years as my Dad passed away 8 years ago and the equipment is no longer here. Walking in this building fills me with many happy memories, I want to make Dad proud and want to repair the roof, doors and windows and inside kit it out with some worktops.  I will let you decide what I'm going to use this for! x

Choo Shoe..

..isn't it every girls dream to own a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes?  This card is designed with Choo's stilleto's in mind, the higher the heel, the sexier they are? I wanted it to be sophisticated, sexy and fun while still being glamourous.  To create this card I sketched out a stilleto and cut it out, using the excess as a template, mask the paper down onto your cardstock and with SU basic gray ink I stamped on the lace from Tanda backgound set 1 lightly, then over the top of that in archival ink in black I stamped from SU simply said the flowery heart all over and finally using the Tanda background stamp, butterfly.  I only stamped 3 of these but I removed the mask so the wings came off of the shoe.  For the next part you will need an SU stampamajig(no that's what it is really called), this is an ingenious little piece of kit, a handle part and a thick acetate square that slots into the handle at right angles.  The idea is that you ink up your chosen stamp( in my case it was from the SU simply said dotted mini floral one), stamp this onto the acetate, the handle part does have to be at right angles with the acetate or it will not work properly, stamp image.  Now you can move the acetate around over your image and see where you want your chosen parts of the stamp to be, place handle in position , re ink your stamp, remove acetate while keeping the handle still, then stamp.  I masked alot of my stamp off by using scrap paper over the image, this left the delicate dotted swirls and flowers.  To make the stilleto and sole of the shoe I placed the shoe mask back over and using a lolly stick, inked this up in black and stamped several times to get dark lines in the heel, then with a brush, load with ink and gently make sweeping movements into the shoe to your desired intensity.  Remove mask.  Finally I punched some purple and black paper using the Martha Stewart butterfly punch, glued the black butterflies flat for shadow and the using cosmic glue just glue the spine of each purple butterfly to create the 3D look.  For extra dimension I used Gunmetal stickles over the dotted swirls and crystal gems in the centre of each flower. Just need a sentiment, I used SU teeny tiny wishes in black and die cut Klaudia using small stuff alphabet die.  You have to admit, it is one sexy stilleto? Happy Birthday Klaudia.xx

A friend like this..

...we all have at least one friend that is always there, through good and bad times.  One that gives you sound and honest advice, supportive, even though it might be a crazy idea or just to share and bounce ideas off of.  Out of all my friends, Sarah, is the one that I have known the least amount of time and met through our passion of crafting, so you could say we are on the same wave length in this.  That is probably where the similarity ends.  Sarah is much more fun loving, have a go at anything, and a collector of fine handbags and shoes.  I am more reserved and cautious, and yes, boring! This is probably why we get on so well, we compliment each other, we work well together, and we will one day set up a business together. As it is Sarah's birthday today, I wanted to create a card that suited one aspect of her personality, her love of tattoos. I also wanted in incorporate her favourite colour, purple. So, with embossing folders, spellbinders dies, distress ink(dusty concord) and pens and embellishments at the ready I created the above card. Originally I was going to make the focal point a skull with the metal embellishment but it just looked wrong so I changed this for a tattoo inspired flower.  This gives the appearance of the card a more cleaner, girlie feel but if you change the colourways, lost the ribbon and replaced with leather thong and used a skull as the focal point  you would have a great man's card. So, Sarah, Happy Birthday, go celebrate with a Banks Beer or maybe some Rum Punch? x