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Friday 30 September 2016

Photo inspiration

Hi all,

So I saw the stunning photo inspiration over at the Live & Love Crafts blog soon after they posted it at the beginning of the month... And here's me flying in just under the wire with my entry.
In my defence, it's been one of those months! lol.

Anyways, I was immediately drawn to the stockings, and the blue and red colours, so I made this:


I just adore these Maja design papers! (I blame Kat for these. I saw her use them last year, and simply had to go shopping immediately. I'll be sending you my credit card bill Kat, lol)

And this is the inspiration picture:


And now I'm off to join in at Live & Love Crafts before the challenge closes!

Have a most excellent evening!

Sammy-x


Thursday 29 September 2016

Playtime...

Hi all,

Thank you all for the well-wishes. I am feeling a lot better, and have just about caught up with everything now. Luckily, I will have the day off tomorrow, as I have decided to cut my hours slightly while I recover, so I'll have a little extra time to come a-visiting. I've missed seeing your gorgeous makes these past few weeks, so that will be a lovely treat :-)

I finally finished all of my crafty "must-do's", so decided to reward myself with a little play-time after work today, and figured I'd make something for the current Ribbon Girl challenge.

I chose a still un-inked LOTV stamp, and made a card


I used some LOTV papers too, and kept it sentiment-free, as this way it can sit in my stash, and a sentiment can be added to suit the occasion when it arises. I actually do this quite often, and it has saved me from those awkward "eek, I need a card today" moments more than once!

So, off to go play at The Ribbon Girl, and I'll be stalking Blogland tomorrow!

Goodnight, sweet dreams.

Sammy-x

Sunday 25 September 2016

Candy winner!

Hi all,

Well, I'm getting back on my feet, and starting to get caught up with the backlog of stuff I needed to get done but got behind on.
One of those things is the announcement of my candy winner!

I asked Mr. Random for help, and he chose...


Number 20. which is Samantha wade!

Drop me an Email, and I'll get it sent off to you this week.

Next candy is already being put together, so not long before you'll all get another chance at some goodies!

Have a fantabulous day!

Sammy-x

Saturday 17 September 2016

Anything but a card - Sweet Stampin'

Hi all,

Sorry I've not been around this week. I started with internet troubles, then ended up in hospital for a couple of days (the two are not related, honest! lol).

I'm back on my feet, but still adjusting to a new situation, and excessively tired all the time, so haven't gotten 'round to going online much... I'm really hoping to be back to normal very soon, and then I'll post my candy winner!

In the meantime, it's anything but a card time at Sweet Stampin' this week, and you all know how much I love that one.

I grabbed some coasters and my favourite Inkylicious stamp - and a couple of her sisters I acquired recently - and made this:


I think the papers I used as a background are Melissa Frances. I also used a Kaisercraft texture stamp and some dutch Doobadoo butterflies. Cork, Hessian, corrugated cardboard, buttons and twine and some of Tim's chit chat stickers finish it off.





That's it from me today, but make sure you go see the awesome projects my fellow Sweeties have prepared for your inspiration!

Have a fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

Tuesday 6 September 2016

More shabby

Ohhh, look at me... Two posts in one day! And neither of them DT-related... Obviously, I'm procrastinating on something I should be doing... hehe.

So I was browsing Blogland and noticed that The Ribbon Girl's challenge was back up and running, so I decided to play along. As it was an anything goes, I decided to go shabby again.
Now, every single shabby chic card I'd made until now has always been square, but I happened to have a rectangular blank sitting on my desk I'd cut earlier, so decided to use that.

There is a lady in blogland whose work I really admire (ok, there are many, but I'm just going to mention one of them today, lol), and she most definitely inspired this card.
I'm talking of course about the fantabulous Pamellia!

I'm sure you'll know her, or have seen her around Blogland. She is brilliant at many styles, but she most often makes stunning shabby chic creations. She's one of the people I'd like to be when I grow up, and if you haven't yet, I strongly urge you go take a peek at her blog.

Anyways, here's my Pamellia-inspired card for the evening. It doesn't do her justice, but I enjoyed making it nonetheless.


I'm off to go play at The Ribbon Girl now.
And as per instruction I shall also take this to play over at In the Pink! ;-)


Have a great evening!

Sammy-x

Summer Candy

Hi all,

No tags from me today, as today is focusing entirely on using Yupo paper, and I don't have any! Luckily Mr. Amazon is coming to the rescue and will deliver tomorrow, so expect to see today's tags on Sunday!

In the meantime, I thought I'd finally put up the candy that I'd been meaning to for a while now. In said candy, you will find:


  • One £10 voucher to Crafters' Palette  
  • One set of Tim Holtz mini blueprint Christmas stamps (I have a set of these too, and they're brilliant for quick and easy Christmas cards!)
  • One Custom blend distress ink pad
  • One bottle of Starry Night Stickles
  • One Unity stamp (unused, but not in its packaging. I recently won a bag full from Unity, and this was a duplicate)
  • And whatever bits and bobs I find between now and when the linky runs out! lol.



Entering is simple, and open to all followers, old and new, anywhere in the world. But no candy only blogs please!
Just drop your name in the linky. I'd love it if you could share the picture in your sidebar, but no worries if you can't.
And finally, if you feel like sharing, leave a comment below telling me what your latest crafty obsession is. As you've probably been able to tell recently, I'm a little Tag-happy myself... What can't you get enough of right now?

Candy will run for a month, and I'll draw the winner asap after.

Good luck!

Sammy-x


Men wear hats too!

Hi all,

Almost forgot to blog the second "hat" tag I'd made for the Go Tag Thursday hat challenge!

I went with a similar idea (hats, naturally, and the TH motif paper), but went a little more masculine this time, with a fab Artistic Outpost stamp, and the word "fly" from the same set.



Really loving this motif paper. Have had it in my stash for ages, but only just got around to trying it out!

That's all from me for now. I have bedding that apparently won't change itself. *sigh*

Have an awesomesauce day!

Sammy-x

Saturday 3 September 2016

Wedding/Anniversary/Love- Sweet Stampin'

Morning all!

And here we are, rolling around to Saturday once again. This of course means a new challenge over at Sweet Stampin', and the theme this week is wedding/anniversary/love.

Now, this would have been the perfect excuse to make hubby an anniversary card for later this month, but I am organised for once and made it ages ago already, lol.

So I took the opportunity instead to have a play with a new paper pad I picked up recently, and also an as yet un-inked LOTV stamp to make this shabby chic wedding card:


The sentiment is also LOTV, and the flowers are of course from WoC. The rose ribbon is from the Ribbon Girl, and I think it may need to be a compulsory addition to all wedding cards from now on, lol.

I really enjoyed letting my girly side out to play for this...

And now it's your turn. come play with us!

Have a fantabulous day! And if you happen to find yourself in the Holt Park area of Leeds this morning, I'm having a massive book sale at the shop this morning... Had so many donations in recently, I need to shift some because we're out of room! lol.

Sammy-x

Friday 2 September 2016

and another...

Evening all,

Ok, I couldn't resist... I had to play along with Darnell's NBUS challenge for the third and final time.
But I thought I should challenge myself a little more, and decided I needed to use at least three different NBUS. NBUSES? NBUSS?

And while I was at it, I wanted to also incorporate the new challenge over at Go Tag Thursday, which has a hat theme this week. at first I thought I would struggle, but it turn out I have a HUGE amount of "hat" stamps in my stash!

This one uses my NBUS Unity stamp, NBUS Tim Holtz motif paper and my brand spanking new NBUS Inktense pencils.


You know, I think there's another thing us crafters suffer from, besides hoarding NBUS. And that is hoarding the last of something! So for this tag I decided to take that plunge too, and add the very last of a sheet of self-adhesive star gems, which I bought a week or so after I started crafting.
I'm feeling really virtuous now! lol.

This was my first time using Inktense pencils, and though I'm not hugely unhappy, I do feel more practice is required. I will get the hang of this whole watercolour thing one of these decades!


Right, that's me for now. Have a lovely evening all!

Sammy-x

Thursday 1 September 2016

September challenge - Rhedd's Creative Spirit

And hello again ladies and gents,

The first of the month means two new altered art challenges, and I'm back again to show you my DT project for Rhedd's Creative Spirit.

I recently got my hands on a pack of Sharpies, and naturally needed something to store them in when I got them home. A quick bit of research told me that they're best stored with the tip facing downwards, so I needed a pen-pot type container, rather than a box or bag.

As it turned out, a beer bottle container was the exact perfect diameter to store all of my pens comfortably, while still leaving space to actually get the pens out!

So I went from this:


To this:



I couldn't resist using some crazing Distress Collage medium on my butterfly. It adds a lovely bit of detail, without being overpowering.


I found some gold beading wire (again a left-over from an old hobby!), which I thought added  nice accent that complements the greens, blues and hints of gold used to colour the tub.



And that's my Sharpie tub! Useful, and looks so pretty sitting on my desk.

I hope you'll come and play along with us at Rhedd's Creative Spirit this month.

Have a fantabulous day,

Sammy-x

September challenge - Altered eclectics

Morning all,

I can't believe it's September already!

But here it is, and I have my design team project for Altered Eclectics to show you.

I went with something completely different... a fairy door!


And I love it when hobbies collide! Before I started cardmaking, and from there doing other projects, I used to paint miniatures (Games Workshop mostly). As part of making the miniatures look nice, I used to use green flock on the bases to simulate grass. As you can see, I have used some of that flock (which is over 15 years old!!) here to ground my fairy door on a patch of grass.

This was rather fun to do. must keep my eyes open for a fairy to put inside now.

I hope you'll come and play along with us at Altered Eclectics!

Back in two with another post!

Sammy-x