Kids in costume!

Couldn't resist the posting, lol.

virtual cookie for anyone who can guess where the costumes are from! ;-)

Are you my mummy..?

So kids, what did you get for Halloween?

Kids:    ... Diabetes...

And we still have a ridiculous amount left ourselves. Likely we'll not get many anymore now, but hey, at least it means we'll have plenty of treats for my son to take to school for his birthday in a couple of weeks.

Have a fab one everyone!

Sammy-x

Happy Halloween!

Hi all, hope those of you celebrating will have a lovely Halloween. Kidlets are very excited about going trick-or-treating this evening. It's all I can do to stop them from putting their costumes on already, lol.

The card I have today may look like it's as far removed from being a Halloween card as can be, but what if I tell you she's actually baking a cake to distribute between the trick-or-treaters? lol.

Sorry about the odd shadows... It's becoming impossible to photograph things outside now, so will likely migrate inside soon...

Pretty simple really, but the paper and image are both so lovely, I didn't want to drown them out!

Recipe:

Image - "Busy Baking" - LOTV  (sorry, can't link to the actual image, as the link appears to be broken. It will still happily go into your basket theough! ;-)  )
Medium - Promarkers
Papers - Cupcake Boutique - Dovecraft
Sentiment - Cupcake Boutique - Dovecraft
White and blue card, twine and pearls from stash.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

I <3 Promarkers - Anything goes

Have a fab day/eve everyone. I'll post up some Halloween piccies tomorrow!

Sammy-x

Crafting with Dragonflies challenge #14

Hello all,

I'm scheduling this post and fingers crossed it will do as it's told...

It's time for the next challenge at Crafting with Dragonflies, and this fortnight we'd like you to make your own flower embellishments!

Our  sponsor is

And they will provide the winner with two digis of their choice.

I have to admit I found this one tricky... I ended up making three cards before I settled on this one. However, it's an incentive, as I am now determined to learn how to make lots of different flowers!

Anyway, here is my card

The petals were cut from pearlised card and arranged with the image on top to hide the joins. I fancied doing a black and white, but wanted a pop of colour too, so out came the turquoise Promarker. The ribbon and card candi were both coloured with the same pen.

Recipe:

Image - "Present Trio" - LOTV
Medium - Promarkers
Paper - Brocade paperstack - Make and Create
Card Candi
Black and white card, ribbon from stash
Sentiment - Jayne Nestorenko

Now it's your turn! Make us some flowers. They don't have to end up on a card (in fact, I just remembered seeing a pin with a tutorial for gorgeous huge tissue paper flowers... must go dig that out and give it a try!), unless you want them to. mostly, I just want to see what you all come up with so I can steal your ideas appreciate your creativeness!
Don't forget to check out the rest of the Dragonfly DT team's creations. Trust me, there's some beauties.

Much love,

Sammy-x
(who should, all things going according to plan, be fast asleep in bed as it's the wee hours of the morning!)

Question, card and more exciting news!

Another fine day to all you lovely peoples out in Blogland!

If you would all be so kind as to again direct your attention to my side bar, you will see another new shiny there, this time announcing my being a part of the CraftyHands design team.
The CraftyHands challenge blog  is a brand new challenge blog and the first challenge is a super easy one... "Anything Goes". So why not pop on over and join in the fun?

And now for the question. (yes, I am aware I just asked a question already, but just play along with me here, ok? lol)
For those who colour with Promarkers/Copics or similar, how many pens do you find you use for an image? I tend to use between 14-18, even on images that only appear to have about 4! lol. Hubby often rolls his eyes at the huge amount of pens I have out on my desk just for a single image.
Am I abnormal (ok, don't answer that!) or is this normal?


And now, finally, a card. I had a looksee through my stash of Christmas cards, and realised that most of them are extremely girlie. Now that's not really a huge problem, but I do know a lot of guys too, lol.
So I set to trying to come up with a card I'd sent to my best friend. Him being male, but living in a house full of females (wife and young daughters), girlie elements seemed ok, but not too much, and definitely not pink. Same goes for one of my brothers. These cards didn't want to be overly masculine, but also don't want to offend the gents' sensibilities by being too pink and frilly.
This is the result:

What do you think..? Ok for a guy surrounded by girlies? I was going for a vintage Christmas feel and tried to keep the colours and other elements as traditional as possible.

Recipe:

Image - "Trimming the Tree" - LOTV
Medium - Promarkers
Paper - "Krafty Christmas" - LOTV
Sentiment - "Christmas grungy messages" - LOTV
Dies - Small Poinsettia builder die - Dies by Chloe
White and red card, Tree, ribbon and pearls from stash.
Glossy accents (for the star)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Crafty Little fairies - Anything goes


Stay crafty!

Sammy-x

Lots going on over here!

Howdy my dears,

How are you all this fine day? I myself am doing fine and dandy, and I have lots of awesome stuff going on right now, some of which I can't tell you about yet, but if I can just direct your attention to my side bar... See the gorgeous new blinkie? The one that says I design for Milk Coffee? Isn't it purty?

And if you're not familiar with them, go see! Their digis are absolutely adorable! Watch this space, as they'll be making fortnightly appearances on my blog very soon! :-)


In other news, my daughter Kayleigh came to me on Thursday night and told me that one of her friends would be moving away during the half-term holidays, and please could I have a card ready for her before morning!
Thank you for the notice, child of mine! lol.
She was quite specific in her requirements. It had to have a purple unicorn (had no unicorns, but Bugaboo came to the rescue), a doily (her friend's nick-name apparently), some pink and lots of bling and sparkle.

So this is what I came up with:

I used pink paper with a gold shiny flower pattern instead of a cardstock mat, and the added purple glitter paper (from Fizzy Moon pack) and a ribbon coloured with Promarkers to match. I also threw a heap of purple gems and pearls at it and heat embossed the sentiment to that is shiny too! Oh, and there's Stickles on the horn, hooves and flowers, naturally. The dies I used were a corner die from Joanna Sheen and a vine one I can't remember the brand of at the moment, lol. The flowers are from WOC.
My daughter loved it, and apparently her friend said it was the best card she'd ever seen, so I think I can call it a success.

I'm entering this card into the Created with Love - Anything goes - challenge.

Hope you're all having a great day, and those in the south of England, hope you've been getting through the weather in one piece!
See you soon with more exciting news!

Sammy-x

My first mini album!

Hi all,

I am very excited about this project I'm about to share with you, as I've been wanting to do something like this ever since the G45 Steampunk Spells range was first released. But I needed to get my hands on it first! lol.
Anyway, I'll get right to it then... It's not finished, as such, but it's as finished as I can make it until after Halloween, when I will add photos and extra embellies (that would cover part of the photos and are therefore awkward to add now, lol).

First of all, the front cover. All the chipboard pages were painted black before starting, which seemed the thing to do with it being a Halloween themed book. I chose a pretty paper to work with as a base (how lush are the colours of this range... I mean, really!), and then fussy-cut and decoupaged elements from some of the other papers  to add some dimension. Add a border and a sentiment sticker, and some punched flowers with a metal steampunk charm and voilà! I'm actually very pleased with the cover. It's hard to tell, but the spellbook I mounted on thick card and then stuck on with foam tape, so that also pops off the page.

Next it's the first two pages, which turned out to be oranges. The black mats are where the photos will go once I've taken them! lol.

I love this little pocket and it was perfect for adding a tag (with a charm, of course! And a little room for writing on.). I also added the "double, double" image and painted it over with crackle paint.

I love this next page, even if it's fairly simple. This backing paper is one of my absolute favourites in the range. I threw in some punched flowers and some black pearls (ohhhh, managed to get a "Pirates..." reference in there. Go me!) and a Spellbinders corner flourish.

Now on to the blues...

I adore these postage stamps, which I fussy-cut from one of the papers and the raven "tag" is also so cute. And useful too, as I'll be able to add a word or two about the picture on it...

Lots more space for writing on this next one.

Next the "neutrals".

this is probably my least favourite page... But I was very pleased with the "lift the flap" idea for the photos...

And isn't this next paper just delicious? It's one of the ones that screams "Harry Potter" to me. The pocket can be written on, and a photo will be added on a tag to slide into the pocket.

And the back. I was going to just leave it as just the paper, but my daughter came down to see, and she insisted the sticker had to be added, so there it is.

And hey presto! One steampunk spells Halloween mini photo album ready for photos!
I plan to add a few other bits and bobs, such as a clasp of some description for holding the album shut and I intend to paint the rings black too, and hang a load of ribbon and charms off them. But all that will happen after Halloween.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, and ideas on how to improve on it for next time (because there will be a next time. Oh yes, I have the mini-album bug!).
And can I just state for the record that I am officially in love with G45? The papers and other items are of such high quality and, of course, gorgeous!


Recipe:

Everything used is from the Steampunk Spells range by Graphic 45, except for:
Chipboard album
Black paint - Citadel
Black ink - Versamark
Flower punches and unbranded circle dies
Charms - The ribbon girl
Crackle paint - Ranger
Black pearls and black card.

I'd like to enter this project into the following challenges:


Crafts 4 Eternity recipe challenge - R147 Halloween
Left of Center - Halloween or creepy
Punkyougirl - Halloween
Crafty Ribbons - anything but a card
Paper crafting journey - anything goes
The Crafter's cafe - Spookable
Scrapper's delight - Halloween
Die cuttin' divas - halloween (circle dies)
Eclectic Ellapu - Halloween


Have a most fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

Another Harrogate purchase put to paper...

Hi all, hope you're having a fab day. Mine's been soggy, but otherwise could be worse! Shall have to brave the weather again shortly to locate some food though!

You didn't think I was out of new LOTV stamps yet, did you? Hehe... I promise I *do* have other stamps, and I use them too, they just get a little lost in the middle of my little obsession, lol.

Now the main "extra" on this card is the gorgeous La La Land heart banner die I've seen used all around blogland and which I am utterly smitten with. So naturally, it fell into the basket too! But let's face it... It's too gorgeous not to!

And, waste not, want not... Those left-over hearts from the centre of the bunting make perfect co-coordinating embellies :-D
As you can see, continuing on with the yellow, only this time with mostly blue and only a teensy hint of pink (or, more accurately, coral, which is still my "go to" colour, it seems)!
There's a little more pink in the paper I used on the inside:

So while my girlie LOTV binder is still the thinnest of all (9 in total), It's no longer embarrassingly so, lol.

Recipe:

Image - "Flower fairy" - LOTV
Medium - Promarkers
Papers - Prima "Delight"
Sentiment - LOTV words on hand-drawn tags
Flowers - WOC (large blue flower, can't remember where the resin ones came from!)
Blooms - Papermania Capsule collection
Die - La La Land heart banner and Joanna Sheen Lace corners 1
Stickles
White and blue card, lace, cheesecloth, and gems from stash.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Creative moments - Anything goes/use some lace
Rhedd and Rosie - Anything goes
Creative craft challenges 2 - Anything goes
Ohh la la creations - Things with wings


Enjoy the rest of your day everyone, wherever you are.

Sammy-x

Final batch of LOTV for mum!

And here is an example of the last batch of LOTV Christmas cards I made for my mum. All I need to do now is make a box to put them all in (six each of three designs), and off they go to Scotland (and from there, probably all over the world! lol). I really hope she'll like them!

Again, I tried to keep it nice and flat for ease of posting. I have to admit I love this stamp, and I'm really pleased with how the pears came out. Although the partridge is a little hard to spot!
The sentiment was originally stamped in black, but I thought it was a little too harsh, so I re-stamped with weathered wood distress ink, as I'd used that to ink the image panel, and that seemed to work a lot better.

And now that I'm done making cards for mother, I can get cracking with my own again, as I'm already rather behind!

Recipe:

Image - "Partridge in a pear tree" - LOTV
Medium - Promarkers & distress ink
Paper - "Winter Wishes" - LOTV
Sentiment - "Christmas Grungy Messages" - LOTV
Dies - Sizzix "Snowflakes 2"
White and kraft card, ribbon and gems from stash.


I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:


Bunny Zoe Crafts - Ribbon
Crafting Musketeers - Christmas in October
Penny black and more - Anything goes
Polkadoodles - Christmas is coming
Crimbo crackers - Christmas birds
CHNC challenge Extra October


Hope you're all having a fabulous day,

Sammy-x

Floral...

Hi all, sorry if I've been a little quiet. I've been very busy crafting and hubby's been working from home since Thursday, so very little peace to get on with blogging! lol.

I was super lucky to win one of Marianne's birthday candies the other week, and she sent me a LOTV floral sketch pad. How perfect is that! Thank you again Marianne, I love it!

So without further ado, my first card made with said gorgeous pad.

I chose the purple/turquoise colour combination, as we'd been out shopping on Friday, and as we were walking through Wilkinsons, I saw a basket full of purple and turquoise pillows, and all I could think was "I love those two colours together!"
I added a bit of a rustic feel by giving the (milk?) container the flowers are in a brownish tint, and throwing in some gorgeous burlap ribbon I also found in Wilkinsons (in the Christmas wrapping isle...), as well as the obligatory distressing of course :-)
I had the perfect little satin bow to add, but of course I wanted to add some ribbon too and didn't have any in the right colour... Promarkers to the rescue! One strip of white satin ribbon + one turquoise Promarker (same colour that's used on the image) = turquoise ribbon! :-D

And a peek at the inside:

So there you have it, first card with the sketch pad. The card the images are printed on is insanely smooth! Just gorgeous!

Recipe:

Image - LOTV sketch pad 
Medium - Promarkers
Paper - Papermania "Enchanted" and Fizzy Moon
Sentiment - LOTV
Flowers are from The Works
White and Kraft card, ribbon and bow from stash.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Bearly Mine challenges - Anything goes
Crafty Ribbons - Anything goes with ribbon
The Crafting Cafe - anything goes 
Challenges 4 everybody - Anything goes
Allsorts Challenge - Ribbons and bows
Cards Galore - Flowers


Have an awesomesauce day everyone!

Sammy-x

Crafting with dragonflies DT post - Challenge # 13

Good morning all,

I have some exciting news! I can now announce that I am a new member of the DT team of Crafting with Dragonflies. In case you didn't already know, this is a fantastic challenge blog where the challenges alternate between cards and other papercraft items.

This week's challenge is to make a card along the theme of Nature, leaves and/or trees, and Hilde is generously supplying a prize for the winner.

This is what I created:

Hubby suggested the message on the inside of the card should read: "...To sweep up these blimmin' leaves", lol.

The recipe is as simple as can be... I drew a tree trunk and fussy-cut it before sticking it on the card to give it a little extra dimension. I then die-cut the leaves using the Spellbinders "foliage" die, using several different seasonal colours (a great way to use up some of those little pieces of leftover cardstock!). I drew on a couple of swirls to suggest movement, and finished off with the sentiment, which was a magazine freebie.

Why not hop on over to the Crafting with Dragonflies blog to see what the other DT have created?

Have a fantabulous day!

Sammy-x

We all like cake, no?

Hello ladies and gents. Hope you're all having a fantabulous day.

Back today with another LOTV card featuring a stamp and papers I picked up at the Harrogate fair. I coloured the image and chose the papers, then spent the better part of the day choosing and discarding embellishments... I also die-cut all 4 flourish-type dies I currently own, and settled on two to use on the card, and then used the other two on the inside! Originally I wasn't going to use the sentiment that came with the stamp, but then I decided I actually liked it right where it was, so left it there.

I'm, chuffed that I managed to use a lot of yellow for once without it looking terrible, lol. It's one of those colours I just can't get the hang of!
The edges of paper and card, as well as tag sentiment and main image panel had all been inked with Spun Sugar distress ink before I "attacked" them with my Tim Holtz distress tool...

And I just realised I'm almost entirely out of pink flowers! Used the last large one on here, and very low on smaller ones too. Must remember to order some more.

Recipe:

Image - "Cake glorious cake" - LOTV
Medium - Promarkers
Paper - "Bear necessities" - LOTV
Flowers and pearl ribbon slider - WOC and Hobby House
Dies - Spellbinders shapeabilities "fantastic flourish two", Whimsy Stamps "Elegant flourishes" and Poppystamps "Trailing vine"
Sentiment - Papermania urban stamps tag with crafts beautiful freebie "happy birthday"
White and creamy yellow card, cheesecloth, lace, ribbon, bows and flower charm from stash
Button - Papermania capsule collection
Stickles.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

In the pink - Luscious Lace
The sisterhood of crafters - Anything goes
Live and Love crafts - Use Pink
The Hobby House - Roses
LOTV's Ideas to Inspire - Anything goes (2nd entry)
The ribbon girl - Lovely Lili challenge


May your day be wondrous and full of crafty goodness,

Sammy-x

Guest design post!

Hi there folks, today I am excited to be able to tell you I am featured as a guest designer on the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge!

I was asked to make "One for the boys", and you know me, that suits me to a T! So after a day or two of deliberation, I decided on a side step card. Now, when I decided this I did not yet have a die cutting machine, yet I wanted stars. Having hand-cut stars before (badly!), I decided this would not do! Hence the finally successful hinting to hubby and a brand new GC and set of star dies (amongst others!) to be able to make this card:

Aside from the stars I decided I had to have hessian/burlap, and I found some papers with not only the colours I wanted to use, but stars too. It's little serendipitous things like that that make me happy :-)

Card recipe:

Image - "Milk and Biscuits" - LOTV
Medium - Promarkers, Vintage photo distress ink.
Papers - Basic Grey "Hang 10"
Sentiment - "Large words" - Little darlings
Dies - Sizzix Framelits "Stars" and "Tickets"
White card, buttons, twine and hessian/burlap from stash.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Cute card Thursday - Neutral zone
Addicted to stamps - Anything goes
Penny's paper-crafty challenge - Anything but square
Crafty sentiments - Anything goes
Die cuttin' divas - Use brown
Inky chicks - Use 2 different die cuts (stars and tickets)
Eureka stamps - Anything goes
C is for Challenge - Boys and men
LOTV Ideas to inspire - Anything goes


So, that's it for my first ever GDT post! (How exciting is that?) Hope you all have a fantabulous day,

Sammy-x

Been busy...

You may or may not have noticed that I was a little quiet last week. Mostly this was because I was busy with a projects that took up quite a bit of time...
I tend to make up my own treat bags for halloween, but normally they're just plain baggies with sweets in. Now, being an avid papercrafter, this will of course not do! So, I started making tags to go on top of the bags. They were done using some of the Framelits "tag" dies, which were then folded in half:

I then stamped a whooooole heap of Bobunny halloween stamps, coloured them and fussy cut them to add to the tags. I've made 52 so far! You'd have thought that would be enough, but I made up 50 bags last time, and we ran out!

The "angel" and "devil" ones were the most fun to colour, but I love all the stamps in this set. However, the next batch are likely to feature a Rick St Dennis digi that I acquired with a little vampire on them.

Hope you all have a fine evening/day depending on where you are.

Sammy-x

Second batch of LOTV Christmas cards

Hi all,

Well, I spent two days over them, but finally my second batch of LOTV Christmas cards for my mum ready.
I picked up 2 more "christmas tree" type stamps from the LOTV stand on Saturday, so it's going to work out at 18 cards total for her to send out. (She sends loads more, but I won't be able to make all of them! lol)

Anyways... Here's one of the latest:

Again, keeping it relatively simple, and quite flat, so it'll be easier for mum to post them out!

Also, as you may be able to tell, I have a brand new shiny watermark on my card! It was made by Claire Keay at Jellypark, and the proceeds go to charity, so if you don't have a watermark yet, this is where you want to go!

Card recipe:

Image - "Swirly Fir Tree" - LOTV
Medium - Promarkers
Papers - "Krafty Christmas" - LOTV and Docrafts Boofle
Dies  - "Small poinsettia builder" - Dies by Chloe and an unbranded nesting die.
Sentiment - Cardmaking & papercraft freebie
Red and white card, ribbon and gems from stash.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Created with love - Any holiday
Lawnscaping challenge - Use patterned paper

Hope you're all having a fabulous day, I'll be back later with more stuff I've been working on!

Sammy-x

Halloween?

Hi all, I have another card - not entirely sure what kind though, lol. It's sort of halloweeny, but also girlie. I started off with the image and decided she needed purple hair. As I'm still very low on purple pens, I was limited to this pale colour, which in turn influenced the rest of the card...

Purple, incidentally, is my favourite colour. Honestly, I have NO idea why I have so few purple supplies! lol.
And a glimpse of the inside:

I just adore these Cuddlebug Cuties digis. If you haven't yet, I strongly suggest you follow the link below to check them out!

Recipe:

Image - "Willow" - Cuddlebug Cuties
Medium - Promarkers
Papers - Dovecraft "Back to basics II"
Flowers - WOC
Sentiment - The Alley Way Stamps
Dies - Spellbinders Shapeabilities "Foliage"
White, purple and green card and gems from stash

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

One Stitch at a Time - Use a digi 
Hobbycutz - Halloween 
The Paper Players - Halloween


Hope you've all had a fabulous day!

Sammy-x

Ohhh lookee, a card!

It's been less overcast this afternoon, so time to whip out the camera, lol.

Now the autumn/fall colour palette isn't actually one I often play with, but I thought I'd give it a whirl, especially considering I had some brand new leaf dies to break in!

I rather like the end result, and wish I had more papers in these colours to play with! (No! Bad Sammy! No more paper for you! You have enough! For now... lol)

Recipe:

Image - "Simply Lovely" - Cuddlebug Cuties
Medium - Promarkers
Paper - Magazine freebie
Dies used - Sizzix Framelits - "Tickets"  and Spellbinders Shapeabilities "Foliage"
White and brown card, ric rac and flower gems from stash.


I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

2 sisters - Fall fun
Allsorts challenge blog - autumn colours
Sweet Stampin' - Autumn

Have a fabulous day my lovelies!

Sammy-x

Honey, I'm hoooome!

Erm... I may or may not have bought lots of crafty deliciousness at the Harrogate fair today!

And yes, even though I'd told myself I was NOT allowed any more paper pads, I somehow ended up with another 6... Oops! lol.
I got a nice selection of dies, a few stamps (including another set of LOTV), some embellishy kinda bits and a HEAP of stuff to alter!
Oh, and 4 packs of card. But that doesn't even count as that's an Essential Purchase. ;-)
And I just noticed I missed a couple of the stamps I got off this picture... They were still in my bag!
I also met several really lovely ladies while there and spent some time chatting about craftiness while queueing. How come everyone in the craft world is so very nice?

After I was done there, we nipped to a shop elsewhere in Harrogate that sells chalk paints, and I picked up a couple of tins of that too.

So, all in all a successful trip. Can't wait to get started (just trying to find a home for it all now, lol).

Hope you're all having a wonderful day!

Sammy-x

Harrogate tomorrow!

I for one am really looking forward to the Harrogate fair tomorrow. Anyone else going?

I've been saving up pennies to buy lots of crafty goodness, so watch this space for a loot picture. ;-)

I also have several cards ready for showing, but it's been utterly miserable here the past few days, which isn't helping the photography much. It is my mission in life to find brighter lightbulbs!

Have a good one!

Sammy-x

LOTV Christmas

First of all, again I would like to thank everyone, both for the lovely comments and also for the enquiries and concern about my health. As I said in my earlier post, I'm doing pretty well all things considered and I'm staying optimistic. Either way, thank you all, I really appreciate the support! x

Now on to the card du jour...

I mentioned a while ago I was making a set of cards for my mum to send out this year. I finally have the first batch ready :-)

I made half a dozen of these, and the plan is to pick up some more LOTV Christmas "foliage" stamps (possibly on Saturday at the Harrogate fair), and make another half dozen of each.

Obviously I'm keeping things fairly simple, as I am talking large quantities of cards overall and I'll otherwise not have enough time/stash to make my own! lol.

Recipe:

Image - "Holly Tree" - LOTV
Medium - Promarkers
Paper - Magazine freebie pack with no designer name on!
Sentiment - Another magazine freebie with no name
Red & white card and ribbon from stash

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenge:

Creative Inspirations - Your favourite stamp company (LOTV of course! No contest...)

Have a fabulous day one and all!

Sammy-x