Father's Day/Special Man - Sweet Stampin' DT

Good morning boys and girls!

Another Saturday, another challenge over at Sweet Stampin'! And this week we're looking for father's day/special man creations.

I took the opportunity to ink up a stamp I'd been looking forward to using for a long time. I've not had it all that long, but I'd been after it for a long time, and am so pleased to be able to use it now!
It is of course a fabulous Edwin stamp from Magnolia. And I thought it just perfect for a father's day card, because naturally, my daddy is my hero...

I decided on the colour scheme when I settled on the gorgeous LOTV papers. I just love this new "Father Knows Best" pad (though maybe it should be "Father thinks he knows best", lol), and I thought the blue one had a mediaeval/royal kind of feel to it, so I decided to go with blue and yellow.
I was stumped for ages on how to tackle the sentiment, as I had no stamps with the sentiment I wanted, and I couldn't get a printed one to do what I wanted. Then I remembered that I had a few metal father-related ones tucked away which I bought not long after I first started... And Lo! There was the perfect sentiment to use.

So there we have it. One father's day card. Of course we'd love it if you came and played along after you've checked out all the gorgeous work my fellow Sweeties have put into this challenge for you!

Have a great weekend!

Sammy-x

Pegs! - Crafting with Dragonflies DT

Hello all,

And here we are again on a Wednesday looking at a new challenge at Crafting with Dragonflies! The challenge this fortnight is to use wooden pegs on or as your project.

I decided to make a notice board. I took an old placemat, and covered it in Docrafts "Happy Days" paper. I then did the same with a few pegs and die-cut some shapes to use as labels.
A little more paper on the background and a hint of washi tape finished it off, and made it look like this:

I kinda love that chevron paper, even though it makes my eyes go funny, lol.

I liked the idea of having one central place to corral all those scrap bits of paper that need attention at some point or another. Normally they end up on a surface in either the living room or kitchen and from there vanish never to be seen again (or at least, they take some finding!). This should hopefully help, and it's cheery and colourful to boot!

Now then, my fellow Dragonflies also have some great ideas for using them, so I hope you'll go take a peek, and maybe you'll be inspired to play along?

Have a super duper day!

Sammy-x

Creatures - The Crafting Cafe DT

Good morning all!

It's the 24th, which means it's my turn to provide some inspiration for this months theme at The Crafting Cafe. And the theme is: Creatures

We're sponsored by Oak Pond Creations this challenge, and they provided me with this adorable image to work with:

I paired him up with some Basic Grey papers, and stamped a Dovecraft "London Line" sentiment to go with it.

It's fairly simple, but I wanted to show off the yummy papers, and the cute image too of course!

Now, there's still a week left for you to join us, so why not link up your creature creations over at The Crafting Cafe? You know you want to! ;-)

Have a super weekend!

Sammy-x

Anything but a card - Milk Coffee DT

Good morning my dears,

Oh, will you look at that! another Thursday! It isn't just me, is it? Someone has hit the fast forward button, as this year is flying along at an alarming rate!
Either way, this particular Thursday sees the start of a new challenge over at MilkCoffee! And it's a super fun one this fortnight (well, I think so, anyway!), anything but a card!

IO decided to make life difficult for myself, and set to making a mini album showcasing my favourite MC character, Tiffany. I used seven, yes seven different images, and gave them a page each. I tried not to go overboard with embellishments (with varying degrees of success, lol) in order to let Tiffany take centre stage.

Lots of pictures coming up!

And there she is. Isn't she lovely? It was a lot of fun to make, and I immensely enjoyed colouring all the images. Also, it's impossible to tell from the pictures, but I got to break in my new Sakura Gelly roll pen, and I am so in love with it! it gives such a gorgeous shimmer to certain things (like jewellery or some of her dresses), without being overpowering or compromising the colour!

Well, I hope you'll all go see what my fellow teamies have made, and then come join in the fun. You know you want to!

Have a great day all!

Sammy-x

Nothing floral/no flowers - Rhedd and Rosie's DT

Good morning my dears!

And we've rolled back around to another challenge at Rhedd & Rosie's! This fortnight, we're challenging you to use nothing floral and to have no flowers on your project!

At first I figured I'd take the easy way out and do a male card, but I decided I wanted to further challenge myself and do something girlie, with still no flowers in sight!

Obviously, the recent "Annabel" release from LOTV was going to be perfect for this! I used Annabel - Music to my ears, and used some Basic grey papers for the background, and a strip of music score paper from the LOTV "Heartfelt" pad too.

I embellished with some butterflies cut with a Joy Crafts die, a musical note from Fernli Designs, ric rac, pearls and liquid pearls.

I'd say the result is definitely girlie, but not a flower in sight! No leaves, branches or any kind of vegetation in fact! :-D

And now I shall pass on the challenge to the rest of you. Can you make a card with no flowers of any kind present? Of course you can! But if you get stuck, my fellow teamies have some more gorgeous examples if you care to go take a peek...

And as always there's a prize to be won:

Hope to see you there and have an awesome day!

Sammy-x

Milestone birthday - Sweet Stampin' DT and DT call!

Good morning everyone!

It's time for another challenge over at Sweet Stampin', and this week the theme is Milestone Birthdays.

But before I share my card with you, I thought I'd give you a heads-up that Sweet Stampin' are looking for new Sweeties to come join us. It's a really fun team and there's a lot of artistic freedom (as long as you use rubber or digi stamps!), so why not apply? We'd love to see you there! Full details are in this post.

Anyways, on to my card. I decided to break in one of my brand new Woodware stamps, and paper pieced the numbers, then used the same papers for the background.

I wanted to make something relatively masculine, but not blue, so I went with greens instead, using Basic Grey papers. The mat is very dark green card, and I added some green starry washi tape and dark green buttons. The "birthday wishes" came with the "18" stamp, and finally I did some faux stitching to finish it off.

And there we have it. Simple, yet fun, and I think it would work for a young man...

Your turn! Take a peek at my fellow Sweeties' work and leave then some love, and then we would love for you to come play!

In the meantime, have a fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

Congratulations! - Crafting with Dragonflies is 1 year old! + DT call!

Hello everyone!

Us dragonflies have our party hats on today, because Crafting with Dragonflies is one year old! Which of course means a matching challenge! The theme is Celebration, which can be any type of celebration you like, and I myself decided to go with Anniversary, using an image from one of our sponsors, Make it Crafty.

I fancied using a muted colour scheme, so went with mostly neutrals, with a hint of pink.

The papers are from the First Edition Love Letters pad, and I used one of my favourite Memory Box dies for the heart embellishments. I also used some Tattered Rose Distress ink to lightly colour the die-cut background around the image, as I felt the white was a little too white...

Now, we'd love it if you go see what my fellow Dragonflies have made, and join in with the fun, but there's an exciting opportunity for you all too... We're looking for a couple of new Dragonflies to join the team!
The full details are found here, but in a nutshell, if you fancy joining a fun group of crafty gals (for now, we welcome guys too!), to make not only cards, but all sorts of other items too (which was what drew me to the team in the first place), this is your chance!

In the meantime, have a fabulous day!

Sammy-x

Great crafty day out!

Hi all,

I'm not here with a DT project for a change, and this post isn't even scheduled! *shock*
I figured I'd do a quick update while I'm actually feeling ok, starting with yesterday's trip to LOTV for the 10th birthday celebrations.

It was a brilliant day out! So lovely to see so many familiar DT faces there, and  to finally meet the super lovely Mary J! Each of the lovely ladies was demo-ing all day long (when not busy chatting instead... some seem to have the ability to multi-task and do both at once. Most impressive! lol), and I picked up yet more things I now want to try. Like playing with shrink plastic... Why is it that every time I see Lou at work, my shopping list grows another foot or two? lol.

Of course, I also got some lovely crafty bargains while I was there too, including 2 dozen Promarkers at half price, and a heap of stamps (naturally) and other goodies. Admittedly, half of said purchases were impulse buys, but I don't regret a single one of them. Never do, lol.

I also met some lovely people while queueing (the queues were somewhat on the long side, so plenty of time to chat!) including someone whose blog I've been following for ages, but didn't realise who it was until I got home! lol.
All in all a really brilliant crafty day out, and the LOTV team did a stellar job! They were rushed off their feet all day long, but kept things running smoothly nonetheless.

In other news, I thought I'd give an update on the pain situation (it being while I'm not around much at the moment). Yes, the pain is still from my wisdom teeth. Apparently, my mouth is really small (how often does one get told that, lol), and there's no room for them. Though they broke through partially about 20 years ago, they've started making a proper break for it these past couple of years, and now things are coming to a head, as they are crushing my other teeth together and they're starting to crack under the strain. (which in turn exposes nerves and provides us with the most excruciating agony imaginable! Honestly, I prefer childbirth!)
Anyways, several trips to the dentist later, and the conclusion is they need to come out. Unfortunately though, I seem to have a resistance to the local anaesthetic they use, and I can still feel the pain very acutely after they have dosed me up, so this is not working. So, I have to see a specialist at the hospital, and will likely have to be put under for multiple extractions (as they're all coming out. "May as well" was what the dentist said, lol). So, now I am waiting for the appointment to come through, which they said could take up to two months. That time is up at the end of next week, so I'm getting rather antsy, as I'll have no idea how long I then have to wait for the actual appointment (this wait is for the letter advising me what the appointment is!) or how long after the letter i'll have to wait for the procedure.
I have been in almost constant pain now for about three months, and there are honestly times where I am losing my mind completely.
Luckily, the pain has only been a mild throb the past couple of days, which is such an incredible relief after some of the agony of the past few months! My crafting is basically done as and when the pain allows me, and I schedule posts similarly. I feel horrible not being able to visit and comment as much as I'd like, but for the time being I'm having to put DT commitments first when I do feel up to it.

Phew! Sorry about the essay! Well done if you managed to stick it out through all that! lol.

I'll throw in some tags I made a while back while I'm here:

 I've tried triple embossing on these next two. That was my first time trying that technique, and I LOVE it!

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend! Speak soon!

Sammy-x

For mother/special lady - MilkCoffee DT

Good morning everyone! (or at least, it will be soon for some of us, lol)

Another new challenge starts today at MilkCoffee, and we're asking you to make something for a mother or special lady.

For my card, I used one of the new images, called "Tiffany and Birthday cake". Birthday cake or not, as there's no candles on it, I figured it would work beautifully for many occasions besides birthdays!

I love Tiffany! she is my favourite MilkCoffee character, and this image is just sooooo lovely! I used some Prima papers, and spent some time playing about with different die-cuts and embellishments, and went for something a little different with the flowers from my usual.
Speaking of die-cuts... I've noticed that for some reason Spellbinders dies don't seem to cut well in my GC. Other brands work fine, but the SB dies rarely cut properly, no matter how often I put them through, where I position them or how many shims I use. It's driving me batty, as I have several lovely SB dies that just aren't getting used :-(
Anyone have any other tips?

Anyways, I strongly suggest you go take a peek at the gorgeous treats my fellow DT have prepared for you, and I'll catch up with you all soon!

Have a great day!

Sammy-x

It's all about texture - Rhedd & Rosie's DT

Good morning everyone!

Guess what? Another new challenge is starting at Rhedd & Rosie's this morning! It's a good one too, because this fortnight It's all about texture!

Now, I almost fell straight back into my favourite way of adding texture, Hessian or lace! However, I decided to take the challenge and try to work out of my comfort zone a little, so figured I wanted to try something with texture paste.
Could I find any anywhere? Could I heck! I didn't want to be dependent on online ordering and bank holiday delivery problems, but none of the nearby craft shops seem to sell the stuff, or were out of stock.

So guess what I did instead? I looked it up online and made some myself! Easy peasy, lol.

I had some stencils that came with a mag a year or so ago, chose a pretty flower and away I went...

I used paper from the Dovecraft Curiosity Corner pack (which my darling daughter got me for my birthday a little while ago) for the background and the other elements, including the frame I added around the flower.

Now, I decided the flower was too white, especially compared to the colours present in the paper, so I dabbed it with some mowed lawn and tattered rose distress ink, which also brought out some of the texture of the rose itself. I did initially consider making the rose completely smooth, but I figured as the challenge was about texture, it made sense to let it have a little more roughness in its finish.

So there you go. My take on texture. The rest of the gals all have some great takes on the theme too, so be sure to go check them out! And we'd love it if you'd come join us this challenge! Maybe you have a favourite texture, or maybe you'll follow my example and try something outside your comfort zone!
Either way, we look forward to seeing your project, and just look at the fantastic prize on offer:

Have a fantabulous day!

Sammy-x

Fairies and Fantasy - Sweet Stampin' DT

Gooooood morning my dears!

Thank you all for your well-wishes. I should hopefully know when the end of the pain is in sight soon, when I get my appointment for the specialist through. Fingers crossed it'll be soon!

Now, another Saturday means another challenge over at Sweet Stampin', and this week the theme is Fairies and Fantasy.
As always, I had one thing in my mind when I started (a scene featuring a castle, to be precise), and ended up with something completely different...

Namely, this:

The stamp was a magazine freebie I simply had to have and unfortunately I cannot remember for the life of me where the papers are from! I do remember that this wasn't even close to the colour scheme I first had in mind, but it grew on me, and now I rather like her earthy outfit!
Naturally the wings have been given the Stardust stickles treatment (There's a law that states fairy wings need Stardust Stickles, don't you know!) and I kept the embellishments very minimal. Just a flower in the same colour as her wings, and a button of the same colour threaded with twine to continue the earthy theme.

And yes... I had the line "Brown paper packages tied up with string" from My Favourite Things running through my mind over and over and over again, lol. (And here I go again... as no doubt are you reading this, lol)

Right then, off you go to visit my fellow Sweeties, who have some gorgeous creations lined up for you, and then you'll join in the fun, no? You know you want to! ;-)

Have a fabby weekend!

Sammy-x

May Challenge - Rhedd's Creative Spirit

And a very good morning once again to all.

It's the first of the month, which means a new challenge starts at Rhedd's Creative Spirit. I do so love being on this team, as I get to play about with all sorts of awesome stuff, not just cards! In fact, I don't get to play about with cards at all on this team, as we're of course a Altered Art Only challenge!

There were some amazing entries again in April, and I do urge you to go take a peek at who was chosen as the winner... just gorgeous!

Anyways, my project for this month is a shadow box type thingie... I found the frame in The Works a few weeks ago, and decided it was perfect for turning into something pretty, so that's what I did!

I used chalk paint for my frame, and decorated it in a shabby chic baby theme. I dug around my stash for suitable baby-type embellishments, and added flowers and butterflies too. Some lace and cheesecloth "carpets" add a bit of texture, and I liked the look of the string of pearls cascading down the side, so went with that.

The letters are simple chipboard letters, which I inked and triple embossed (a new technique for me, and I love it!) with a little glitter thrown in.

The rocking horse actually had a red base and saddle, which I decided looked out of place, so out it came and out came the pink acrylic paint to make it fit in with the colour scheme a little better. I also sprinkled a little glitter on while it was still wet, to tie it in with the letters.

So there you go. Now all you need to do before joining in with the fun, is go see what my fellow teamies have created for you. it'll be worth your while!

And look at the incredible prize from sponsor Fernli Designs that you could win:

I think I may need to dig out a disguise and try to enter myself! lol.

Have a fantastic day peoples. I promise I will be back properly just as soon as this pain goes away, but in the meantime, thank you all for being patient with me!

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

Altered Eclectics - May challenge

Hugs

Sammy-x