It's not green !! LOL

Here is a Christmas card I have made that is not green !

To make this card I used :

Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder and snowflake dies. The snowflakes I have covered with star dust Stickles.

The image is from a set of Woodware Clear Stamps called "Traditional Christmas" and I have painted the image with distress inks and Brilliance gold ink. The baubles have gold Stickles on them and I have covered the Christmas tree in glossy accents.

The pattered paper is K&Co holiday cardstock.

The ribbon is Anita's ribbon which is a bargain at only 49p a roll !

I made the sentiment myself on my PC.

I might be into red now because I've just caught sight of the card I made last night and I see that is red too ! Oh well, you can't really have Christmas cards without venturing into red or green somewhere along the line !!

Kaboodle Doodle Challenge # 8 - Get Spooky !

Well, it feels like Christmas morning in our house this morning but without the pile of presents :o( because our two girls have been up since 5am with the change of the clocks (yawn !). It's bad enough that they are both usually leaping around at 6am but 5am ?

Anyway, this week on the Kaboodle Doodle Challenge Blog we want to see you get spooky ! Andrea has very kindly given everyone a free sample of two patterened papers from the downloadable Halloween Kit which is available to buy from Kaboodle Doodles

This is the card that I made for the challenge this week



To make this card I used :

The orange and purple patterned papers are the free download this week. They already have the fabby distressed look but I made it even more distressed by adding the tears and inking them up with some black and silver ink.

The witch is a Penny Black stamp "Flight by Night" which I bought this week from Happystampers. They are selling their Penny Black halloween stamps for half price ! What a bargain. They also provide an excellent service with next day FREE delivery (as long as the Post Office behave themselves of course !!). The "Halloween" is also a Penny Black stamp "So Scary !" from Happystampers.

In the corners of the card I used the cobweb stamp which came in the Magnolia Fall Club stamps.

The fibres are Wendy Cosmic knitting fibres which I attached with star brads.

I am looking forward to seeing what you come up with !

BasicGrey Challenge Blog - Challenge # 8

I can't believe that we are on challenge number 8 already ! Where on earth has that time gone ? How time flies when you are having so much fun !

Anyway, enough of my waffling ! This week on the BasicGrey Challenge Blog the challenge is all about shapes.

"This week we would like you to get shapely by using squares, circles, rhomboids, triangles, etc on your creations :), and of course to use at least one item from BasicGrey somewhere on your creations. The prize for this weeks lucky winner is a Joanna Sheen Fashion Boutique 3 disk papercraft cd set worth a whopping £34.95"

This it the card that I made for the DT challenge this week and boy, I really enjoyed making this one. For some reason I am into green at the moment, probably because it looks so good with the gold card I have.



To make this card I used :

Bazzill card in "Ivy", gold satin finish card and BasicGrey Dasher "Eggnog" patterned paper.

The image is an image sent to me by Jen which I coloured using Derwent coloursoft pencils, Sansodor and tortillions (a new technique that I am trying that I read about somewhere). The holly and baubles have been highlighted with glamour dust and glossy accents although this doesn't show on the photo. The glossy accents also sent the purple colouring on the lower bauble flourescent pink, this wasn't intentional !!! I don't know why its done this, I've never had that problem before and all the other colours have remained "true" ! The Christmas tree has Star Dust Stickles on it and this doesn't show in the photo either.

The flower is a Prima flower to which I have added some Brilliance gold ink and I have done the same with the leaf. Martine very kindly sent me the leaf together with some other goodies in a beautiful RAK.

The brad is a Making Memories brad from CraftsULove.

The ribbons are from my stash.

I shall now raid my card stock for some different coloured card to make some more Christmas cards !

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend and happy crafting !

A Fine Pear !

I bought these stamps a little while ago while on my craft and coffee morning and I've been dying to use them. As I've never made Christmas cards before (well, only ever on the PC with clipart) I have had to build up my stash of Christmas items (what a terrible task ;o) ) and I'm nearly there (we hope says hubby !!) with everything I need ! It's so exciting to make a different sort of card and I'm really enjoying myself (especially when its yukky and cold outside and I've lit the woodburner to keep me warm while crafting !). It feels very christmassy in our house already !




To make my card I used :

Woodware Clear Stamps "Pear Tree" stamped in Brilliance "Coffee Bean" and then I painted the image with distress inks. I also dabbed some Brilliance "Gold" onto it too but this doesn't show up in the photo. It just adds that little sparkle.

The green card is Bazzill in Ivy. The patterned paper is from PaperArtsy with a Christmas stamps kits I bought a while ago. The gold card is from Potato Patch Crafts.

The flower is from Poppicrafts (which I actually turned over because its spotty on the otherside !) and I attached to it a BasicGrey button and some cord from my stash. The leaf is from Hobbycraft. I also dabbed Brilliance "Gold" on the flower and leaf.

The gold braid is Madeira which I think I also bought from Hobbycraft a long time ago.

Thank You !

I would like to say a big thank you to Steph for this award. You must check out Steph's blog. Not only does she have some wonderful cards on there but she is also fantastic at jewellry making, very beautiful items.

I would like to pass this award onto :

Tara - Thank's for your help and inspiration !

Kim - You have a fantastic blog and your work is stunning and inspirational.

Debbie - You also have a fantastic blog and your work is also stunning and inspirational.

Watercolouring - how I do it !

A few of you have asked me how I watercolour my pictures. Well, simply, trial and error ! I am by no means an artist and wouldn't know where to start drawing or painting a picture from scratch but I have practised using a variety of different methods from pens, pencils, paints and inks and they are all different and have a different look about them. These are the main ways I watercolour my pictures :

Firstly, I always use a Koi watercolouring brush (a brush filled with water), a little pot of water for when I need extra and kitchen roll for when I don't need too much. I also mainly use watercolour paper for my images as I find it so forgiving. If you make a mistake you can usually add a little more water and blot it with the kitchen roll and its gone as painting on watercolour paper takes longer to dry. Also, I find that because it doesn't dry as quickly, I can blend the colours better. With regard to what I use for painting, I use a variety of products :

My favourite - Tim Holtz Distress Inks

I love these distress inks as they are so versatile, the colours range from vibrant to subtle and I love them. Painting with them is very simple. Make sure your brush isn't too wet and take the colour from the pad, sort of roll the brush on the pad so you pick up the ink. Try not to pick up too much ink (you can test this by painting a patch away from your image so you know what the intensity of the colour is going to be first). Outline your image with the ink and then carefully "work it or drag the colour" towards the centre of the image. You can gradually build up the colour as you go.

Watercolour Pencils

I love these too and use them a lot but I find the colours are not as vibrant as the inks and do have a more "watercolour" look to them. I tend to use Derwent pencils although I think most of the watercolour pencils are the same. I also have a large tin of WHSmith's own brand pencils and although I have to apply more colour, they are perfect and I would definitely recommend them.

To watercolour with pencils I simply hold the pencil in one hand, my brush in the other and take the colour from the end of the pencil and put it on the paper ! For blending colours i.e. for grass, I hold about 4-5 green pencils in my hand all at once and I take a bit of colour from each pencil and blend the colours until it looks right for my eye. I have tried to outline my image first with the pencil and then lightly colour the middle and then try to blend the colour but I find my way the easiest as you don't get any pencil lines left on the paper. If you are too heavy handed with the outlining I found you still had a pencil line around your image which I didn't like the look of.

Whispers Pens

These are very similar to the distress inks but do have a more "felt pen" look about them (my own personal opinion !). To use the pens I use one of my stamping blocks and colour on it. I then take the colour from the stamping block onto my brush and paint that way. This is a very good way of colouring large areas like sky. You can also use this method with the distress inks too if you want to paint a large area one colour, just add more water on the stamping block.

I hope that this helps. Sorry there are no pictures, I'm not brave enough to do that yet ! I am self taught and have done a huge amount of blog hopping and looking at hundreds of different tutorials on Youtube and above all, I have practised and have found what suits me best.

There is a fantastic tutorial on Marlene's blog explaining how to watercolour with distress inks. I sat one evening in front of my PC painting Tilda following Marlene's tutorial. Why not have a go too !

If you decide the try any of these methods above, please let me know so I can come and visit your blog and have a look at your work. I would love to find out if I have managed to help someone out as so many have helped me this past year.

Thanking you all for your lovely, kind and encouraging comments - what a fantastic World the crafting World is - enjoy it !

House Mouse Christmas

I thought it was about time I got on with my Christmas cards ! Jen sent me some gorgeous House Mouse images and in with those were some Christmas ones which are soooo cute !

To make this card I used :

House Mouse image painted with distress inks.

The patterned paper is My Mind's Eye "Be Merry by Zoe Pearn" available from Craftsulove at the bargain price of £6.59. The pack contains 9 sheets of 12 x 12 cardstock paper and 1 coordinating accessory sheet. The papers are gorgeous and almost too strokable to use !!

Bazzill cardstock (I think the colour was ivy) and my trusty nesties.

The ribbon and button were from Potato Patch Crafts

The sentiment was made by me on my PC.

I also used my Fiskars water threading punch.

One down, umpteen others to make now !!

Wowzer ! Bring me back down to Earth !

After receiving some gorgeous House Mouse images from my good friend Jen, I fell head over heels in love again (sorry Hubby !!). Since then, I have been on the hunt for these stamps and found that they are American. I found a huge selection on e-bay being sold by simonsaysstamp and they have an online store too (at the moment they have 689 House Mouse products - oh, where to start !). I also found that they sold Prima Forever Flowers in Berry Blue which I have been searching for, for a long time as I understand they have now been discontinued. Of course, I put in my order for some stamps and some Prima flowers !

simonsaysstamp also has a blog which is well worth looking at and gives you loads of ideas and inspiration from the products they sell in their store. They had some Hero Arts stamps which I just had to comment on because I adore these stamps too (which ones don't I ?!!). I was then amazed to see that Heidi from simonsaysstamp had left a comment on my blog to say that they loved my work so much they wanted to feature me and some of my work on their blog ! Well, just how fantastic is that and such an honor too. Thank you so much Heidi, you have certainly made my day.

So, please go over to simonsaysstamp blog and see what Heidi has to say about me RIGHT HERE !!!!

I am still on cloud 9 and can't thank Heidi enough. It gives you such a warm fuzzy feeling when someone really likes what you do.

P.S. Did I say I was excited and jumping around ?!!

Kaboodle Doodle Challenge # 8 - Rock 'n' Roll/Song Title

"This week's challenge should certainly get you thinking ! We want you to think back to the good ole days (or even present ones !) and come up with a creation themed on rock 'n' roll or your favourite song title".

I decided to choose the song title "Somewhere over the rainbow" for my card.



To make my card I used :

Kaboodle Doodles green and blue kits for the sky and grass.

Tilda with flowers in her hair stamp paper pieced with BasicGrey papers. Magnolia Summer background stamp for the clouds and grass and the fence is a Magnolia stamp too. The snail is a Studio G stamp and the squirrel is a Hero Arts stamp.

The rainbow is from a download by Two Peas.

I made the sentiment on my PC and I matted it on some rainbow paper which I bought from The Papermillshop.

The rainbow ribbon is from my local market.

I am experimenting at the moment. I bought some Derwent Coloursoft pencils as I had read somewhere that they are very similar to the expensive Prismacolor pencils you can buy. I found some Sansodor and a tortillion in my local craft shop and have been playing around with them. Tilda's hair, flowers and shoes have been coloured using this method. I have never used Prismacolor pencils before so I have nothing to compare them to but I am pleased with the results. They work better on a more absorbant card rather than a shiny one I have found and so I am still having a play around to see which is best. To be honest, I still prefer the look and feel of painting with distress inks but I am not about to give up just yet !!

BasicGrey Challenge Blog - Challenge # 7

"This week we would like you to show some stitching in your creations, it can be faux or real, its up to you, and of course to use at least one item of BasicGrey on your creation.

We have another new design team member joining us, please could you welcome Debbie, Debbie will be our second scrapbooking design team member :)"

This is the card I made for the challenge :

I am sorry about the quality of the photo, I am having terrible trouble at the moment trying to get a decent picture even though I am taking my photos outside. Must be the position of the sun or something. Anyway, this is what I used to make my card :

The patterned papers are BasicGrey LilyKate (these are beautiful, very feminine papers). I used the Inca Stamp "Button Patch" and paper pieced it with the LilyKate papers and added a BasicGrey button and some ribbon from my stash.

The florishes are Studio G stamps and I have added some liquid pearls to them.

The flowers are Prima Forever Flowers in Glam Grape

The brads are from my stash and I added some liquid pearls to those too.

You must pop over to the blog and have a go at the challenge and see the fantastic creations by the other DT members especially now we have two scrapbookers too. A link to the blog can be found on my sidebar. Have fun !

Kaboodle Doodle Challenge # 7 - Tags

"This week we thought we would give you something a little different to make - a tag. This can be any sort of tag you like, large, small, round, rectangular, funny shape etc. Let your imaginations run wild !! As usual, you can use any papers, embellishments etc. you like, they do not have to be from Kaboodle Doodle but if you do, you will be entered into the draw TWICE !"

This is the tag that I have made :

I made this tag using the new Halloween kit which can be purchased through Kaboodle Doodles. This kit is great because not only do you have a choice of lots of different papers but also lots of ghouls and ghosts, pumpkins, sweets and tickets and sentiments to choose from.

The Penny Black image was given to me by my friend Jen and I coloured it using distress inks.

I cut the lettering on my Cricut.

The ribbon is from my stash.

I look forward to visiting your blogs and seeing what you come up with.

Have a spooky and bat-tacular time !!

BasicGrey Challenge Blog - Challenge # 6

"This weeks challenge is a colour combo challenge, we would like to see your creations using one of the following colour combos :)

Green & Red/Maroon
Brown & Cream
Blue & Gold/Yellow/Orange

This weeks challenge is sponsored by CraftyKrafts

We would like to welcome our new design team member Kristen, Kristen will be our first scrapbooking design team member, we look forward to seeing your takes on our challenges Kristen :)"

This is the card I made for the challenge :



I was very excited to see that brown and cream were in the colour combo as I love these colours together.

I used to make this card :

Cream pearlescent card and brown and cream Bazzill Bling.

The image is a House Mouse image which was very kindly sent to me by my friend Jen. I coloured the image with distress inks.

The buttons are BasicGrey.

The flowers are Hero Arts with BasicGrey buttons and leaves from Hobbycraft.

The ribbon is from my stash and I tried the technique of putting a hole in the card and threading the ribbon through it and making a knot/bow that way and it was a lot easier ! I shall be using this method in the future. It will save me trying to get my leg on the table !!!! LOL !

Hope you all have a great weekend and I look forward to visiting your blogs to see what you have come up with.

Take care !

Kaboodle Doodle Challenge # 6 - Sketch

This week the challenge on the Kaboodle Doodle Challenge Blog is to use a sketch designed by Andrea.

This is the card I made for the challenge this week :

The green pattered paper is from the Kaboodle Doodles shop

The stripey paper is BasicGrey Cupcake

Penny Black "Good News" image coloured with watercolour pencils

The ribbon is Maya Road

The flower is Prima with a Papermania pearl brad

The sentiment is K and Company Brenda Walton Chelsea Sentiments stamp set

I look forward to visiting all your blogs and seeing all your creations !

BasicGrey Challenge Blog - Challenge # 5

This week's challenge is scalloping !

"On to this weeks challenge, we would like to see some scalloping on your creations :), from scalloped borders to scalloped shapes the choice is up to you, and of course not forgetting to use at least one item from BasicGrey on your make.

This week we are joined by our new guest designer for this month Emma, why not pay a visit to Emmas blog and see her fantastic creations :)"

This is the card I made :

To make this card I used :

Bazill card for the base card

BasicGrey Fruitcake paper which I embossed with my Cuttlebug snowflakes folder

PaperArtsy Santa stamp (stamped in Versafine Olympia Green ink) on PaperArtsy paper. The worded paper is also PaperArtsy.

Gold snowflakes cut on my Cuttlebug.

The ribbon is from my local market and the buttons are from my stash.

For the scallops I used my "nesties" and also my Fiskers water threading punch (which I think I am getting better at using now !!).

I'm looking forward to travelling around your blogs seeing your creations !

Anniversary Wishes

This is a Wedding Anniversary card for some close friends of ours. I wanted to try out "elegant" after seeing so many beautiful cards on the Heartprints website. If you have a Cuttlebug but haven't come across this site yet, its a "must see" site. There are some beautiful examples of cards that have been made using the "Bug".

I am showing two pictures of my card because I had a go at heat embossing again. I have had my heat gun tucked away unused for a little while now and have been keen to get it out again and start using it.

To make this card :

I cut a square of card and ran it through my Bug with the hearts folder and then stamped over it with a Versafine watermark pad and then sprinkled the square with holographic embossing powder. After shaking off the excess I used a paintbrush to carefully brush away the powder that had stuck where I didn't want it (even though I had used an anti-static bag too !) and then I heated it with my heat gun. I was really pleased with the results and the second photo shows the shine of the holographic powder and also the beautiful vellum I used as a backing paper.

The white card I used is a "corrogated" style card which I bought from the Papermillshop. I only bought a couple of sheets because at the time I didn't think I would really like it and use it but now I have used it, I think it looks quite unusual and not "the norm". I wish I had bought more now !

I used the Papermania Exquisite Vellum Collection "Love" for the backing paper (which also shows in the second photo).

My Fiskers water threading punch to make the scalloped edge of the card after seeing a video tutorial on YouTube showing you how to do corners. I just had to try this out ! It's not perfect but practice does make perfect as they say !

The hearts Cuttlebug folder and holographic embossing powder.

The sentiment says "Love brought you together as Husband and Wife, And gave each of you a best friend for life". I found this on a quotes website and its perfect for our friends as they were childhood sweethearts ! I printed this on my PC.

The ribbon is from the lovely ribbon lady in my local market.

I hope I have managed to pull off "elegant" !

Special Friends

I made this card for my special friend, Jen. Jen has been so kind and helpful and has really cheered me up these last couple of weeks and I just wanted to show my appreciation. This is what friends are really for and I love all my friends.

I used the same pattered papers as on the little girl's card I made. These are "Tea Party" by Designs by Krista. I love them, they are so soft and pretty.

The image is a stamp by Sally-Ann at Love to Doodle I painted her using Whispers pens and Sakura pens and added some glossy accents to the butterfly and flowers.

The flowers are Amercian Crafts Greenhouse paper flowers

The button brads are from my stash.

The sentiment is a Studio G clear stamp.