2 Or more die-cuts - MilkCoffee DT

Good morning everyone!

Don't forget to enter my Blogoversary candy here!


The next few posts should be coming to you on auto pilot, as I shall be in Aberdeenshire visiting family... Fingers crossed all goes according to plan, lol.

And to kick it all off, I'm going to tell you about the new challenge at MilkCoffee, for which the theme is 2 or more die-cuts.
Now, I know there's a few of you die-cutters out there, so why not join in the fun?

I thought I'd take the opportunity to have a play with the utterly gorgeous "Fairy Princess" image. I teamed her up with some First Edition papers (which were a birthday pressie from my son back in Feb! Can't believe it took me this long to get round to them!) and then went to town with my dies!

As you can see, I used a few more than 2!! I also decided to round the corners on the image panel, as I thought that the rounded corners worked far better with the scalloped circles underneath.

So, your turn, grab your dies and have fun! And don't forget to see what my fellow DT have been up to.

Have a great day!

Sammy-x

Take flight - Sweet Stampin' DT

Good morning peoples!

Another Saturday, which of course means a new challenge at Sweet Stampin'. This week it's once again team Fi's turn, and the theme is Take Flight.

Ohhh, the possibilities! Birds, planes, balloons, butterflies... There's a lot of things that fly, no?


For my card this week, I chose a LOTV stamp that has two different flying things on it... A fairy and butterflies!
I also used a LOTV sentiment and some of their Shabby Shack papers.

And I have to give you all fair warning... I'm having a bit of a "thing" for fishtails at the moment, so don't be surprised if they start showing up everywhere for a while!

Now then, your turn to make something that'll fly - after you've been to check out what my fellow Sweeties have done, naturally - just remember you need to stamp to be able to play along and be eligible for this week's excellent Crafty Ribbons prize!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Sammy-x

Feeling Fruity - The Crafting Cafe DT

Evening all,

Apologies... This should have gone live this morning, and I thought I'd written and scheduled the posts, but my short-term memory sucks and misled me on this one!
So it's a little late, but it's here nonetheless!

And the July theme at The Crafting Cafe is Feeling Fruity. This means we'd like you to include fruit or fruit colours on your project.

I chose this lovely image by our sponsor Lacy Sunshine, and managed to find the perfect backing paper and mat after rummaging through some loose 12x12s I've had kicking around for a year or so! I coloured her to suit, and mounted it all on an A5 card - somewhat bigger than I'm used to, but I wanted to show off more of the paper!

I added a sentiment from LOTV, and a couple of fruit charms which were in fact attached to my daughter's tattoo pens!
I also experimented with colouring the apple a little, as real apples (or at least Granny Smiths, which I was trying to use as a guide, have a "spotty" kind of texture if you look closely. So I tried to replicate that (from memory, as I didn't have any handy... My daughter had eaten them all!). I'm not a 100% sure whether I like the result, or hate it, lol.

Anyways, you still have a week to come and join in, so please do if you haven't already!

Have a great remainder of the day.

Sammy-x

Bag and Tag - Crafting with Dragonflies DT

Morning/night folks!

Don't forget to enter my candy here!

So, another new challenge at Crafting with Dragonflies, and it's something a little different. This fortnight, we'd like you to make a bag and tag!

I had put this challenge to the back of my mind when I first found out we'd be doing it, and let it sit and stew there for a while. Then, when I picked up the June copy of the Docrafts magazine, there it was! A gorgeous envelope bag. Perfect! Now, I did alter the design a little, and obviously went for a different look (though that one was a Gorjuss bag, which I love, I had other plans for this!). And I ended up with the following:

I used LOTV Country Lady papers to decorate, and also included a metal frame from Docrafts.
My plan was to create a bag with separate pockets for specific occasions, and fill each one with small tags to suit, then present it to my mum when we go up at the end of this month. That way she'll have some pretty tags to add to pressies, and somewhere to keep them in too.

Some of the individual envelopes:

The little journalling tags are also from LOTV. such a cute set, and so useful!

And of course, I had to make lots of tags too! Here's one I made using a stamp from our sponsor Sami Stamps:

Now I know this is a little more work than our last challenge (which was CAS), but it was oh so much fun to do, and it was great doing something different! So go on, have a go! ;-)

And go check out the lovely work my fellow Dragonflies have produced!

Have a supercalifragalistic day!

Sammy-x

Birthdays - MilkCoffee DT

Howdo folks?

I've been collecting some goodies for a candy, so keep an eye out for that some time over the weekend!

Until then, I have for you some inspiration for the new challenge over at MilkCoffee, where the theme is Birthdays. Easy peasy, no? :-)

I chose a brand new digi, featuring the adorable Charlotte as a ballerina and teamed her up with papers from the equally new LOTV paper pad "On a High Note". I am so very, very in love with this pad!

Other than some lace, gems and shabby pink Frantage, I kept the embellishments to a minimum, as I wanted as much of the gorgeous paper to show as possible, and Charlotte is pretty enough to not need loads of bling to shine!

I did end up having a slight problem with my Magenta Promarker, which for some reason seem excessively wet and leaky. Oddly, it isn't really noticeable in real life, but the photo seems to have picked up on the bleeding :-(

Now then, I'm sure you'll all be wanting to make a birthday card to join in with, right? And don't forget to take a peek at what my fellow DT have been up to, as they have some gorgeous creations waiting for you.

Have a fantastic couple of days, and I'll be back with my candy post soon.

Sammy-x

Something very, very special...

Hello everyone,

I hope you're all well. Some of you may have noticed me popping by once or twice recently. I was feeling a little better there for a little while, and the pain had abated, so took advantage of that to visit a couple of your blogs. If I didn't get round to you, I do apologise, and I'll try to do so soon!

First of all, my blog is officially 1 year (and 4 days!) old! I will be putting up a candy to celebrate some time very soon, so watch this space...

Now then, on to my very special project.

As some of you may know, my son is about to finish primary school. Now of course that in itself could be cause for a few special cards for teachers, but as my little man has Aspergers, school has been - to say the least - a roller-coaster ride so far. The first few years were a nightmare, and he was bounced around from school to school, and no-one seemed to want to even try to work with him. But all that changed a few years ago when he arrived at his current school (for the second time, under a new head!) and was paired up with his current 1 to 1 teacher. Suddenly things went well. He stopped being sent home every other day, and was improving both in behaviour and social situations. Now, he has a class full of friends, has missed exactly one afternoon of school all year (because of illness) and has excelled academically. And we owe so very much of it to his 1 to 1 teacher.
So naturally I wanted to do something special for her, and after a little thought, I decided on a mini album. She has always seemed to be fond of girlie things, so I thought the papers in the LOTV "heartfelt" pad would be perfect, and of course I had to use a couple of stamps too. namely James bear (as my son is known as "baby bear"), and "Never too old for a hug", as he is extremely affectionate and loves to hug people he is fond of.

I had picked up a MDF book from the MDF man at the Harrogate fair, and decided to use that.

Here's the front cover, complete with James!

 The wooden shapes are from Hobbycutz

A close-up of the charm chain:

Inside

There are lots of tags and flaps, etc. throughout the book, which have either photos or messages written by my son on the reverse.

I also added my all-time favourite picture of him, which just so happens to be a school photo, along with a list of facts about him.
"Smile" is from Fernli designs.

I personally LOVE how this page came out:

Such an adorable stamp! The butterflies on this and the previous page are from Fernli designs

Some flaps with messages written on the inside

Another of my favourites. I especially love the frame by Fernli designs. Couldn't resist adding it with a small picture inside.

So there it is.  A very special project for a very special person. I am personally extremely pleased with it, and hope she will appreciate it when we hand it to her on Friday.
I suspect there will be tears all round that day. But I for one am so very grateful that they will be a happy kind of tears as opposed to the tears of frustration we had before!

Hope you all didn't mind the extremely lengthy post, and thank you for sticking with me if you made it this far!

Naturally, I would like to enter this into the LOTV "take two" challenge. Though I think it's more of a "take five" in this case, lol.
And as it is, after all, a way to say thank you to someone very special to us, I would also like to enter it into this week's Lovely Lili challenge at The Ribbon Girl.

Wishing you all the very, very best.

Sammy-x

Christmas in July - Sweet Stampin' DT

Good morning ladies and gentle peoples!

It's Saturday, which means a new challenge at Sweet Stampin', and this week team Fi got to play with the theme Christmas in July. Now I know that a lot of you might not want to think about the "C" word yet, but it's a good excuse to get started and help cut down on the last-minute rush later in the year :-)

I decided to use a new LOTV stamp I grabbed the other day when I found out it was being discontinued. I'm actually rather gutted, as they're discontinuing so many stamps at once (and my favourite paper pad!) and I can't afford to get them all before they go! *sob*
But at least I got this one, and a couple of others...

I teamed the stamp with some LOTV paper, and used white glitter card as a mat. There's Stickles on the wings, a hint of glitter on the clouds and the stars in their hair were coloured with a metallic silver pen, so all in all it's a very sparkly affair!
The sentiment is also LOTV, from the Simply Sophisticated set.

Now then, here's your chance to get a head start on those "C" cards, and come and join in with the fun while you're at it!

Either way, I hope you all have a fantabulous weekend.

I'd like to enter this card into the current challenge at LOTV - Take Two

Sammy-x

CAS -Crafting with Dragonflies DT

Hello there peoples!

Yup, another new challenge at Crafting with Dragonflies, and this fortnight it's a challenge indeed... Or at least, for some of us it is, as the theme is CAS. I know some of you are seasoned experts however, so I do hope we'll see some of your entries this challenge!

I used a lovely image from our sponsor Pickled Potpourri and layered it several times with pearlised gold and black card, and then doing the same with the sentiment, which was a magazine freebie.

I decided to leave the image itself uncoloured, and instead went over it with my Sakura gelly roll pen. It adds a gorgeous shimmer!

I was quite pleased with the outcome, even if I did have to put it away immediately to stop me from adding embellishments! lol.

Your turn! Go take a peek at the fabulous creations prepared by my fellow Dragonflies and then why not come and play along?

Have a super day!

Sammy-x

White on White - MilkCoffee DT

Hello there peoples!

Another first for me today, namely, my first attempt at a White on White card for my DT piece at MilkCoffee. Coloured images are allowed, but I decided to try and keep colour to a minimum, so opted to use the gorgeous "Tiffany in Wedding Gown", as the predominant colour in that image would be white!

So I started with a piece of white cardstock, which I ran through a spotty embossing folder, and then I embossed another strip with a rose border...

I fussy-cut Tiffany, after having coloured her with Promarkers and embellished her with white liquid pearls, Stardust Stickles and my Sakura "clear star" gelly roll pen. She is super sparkly, with a shimmering veil and glittering jewellery, but taking pictures of WoW seems to be tricky enough without trying to factor in sparkle, so unfortunately it doesn't show,,,

I finally die-cut a corner, punched some flowers and stamped a LOTV sentiment to add the finishing touches. And there she is. My first try at White on White. I may play with that again some time in the future, as I certainly found it a challenge!

And now it's your turn to have a go!

Be fabulous!

Sammy-x

July challenge - Rhedd's Creative Spirit

Good morning folks!

Would you believe it's the first of July already!? I have to admit that realisation of this fact has thrown me into a teensy bit of a panic, as I have a gazillion things to get done this month somehow, and I'm jumping from pillar to post trying to decide where to start!

I guess the July challenge at Rhedd's Creative Spirit is a good start, no?

As you'll all know by now, it's an "anything altered art goes" challenge, and this month I altered a wooden bottle carrier I chanced upon in a local charity shop recently. It was rather plain and boring looking... Like this:

But it had potential! So naturally, it needed to be played with. It wasn't quite tall enough for wine bottles, but then I figured it would be great for 35cl bottles of Whiskey. Which basically gave me the direction to go in, as my dad is somewhat of a whiskey lover, and it gave me a nice little project to work on for him.

So I started off with some map paper from DCWV and covered the front, back and sides, and then wrapped an awesome vintage bicycle ribbon I won at Crafty Ribbons around the handle. My dad used to race, so it seemed the perfect ribbon to use!

I used some complementary washi tape to cover up the joins in the paper and add a little interest, and paper-pieced a Papermania "dad" stamp, which I fussy-cut and attached to the front of the carrier with red mini pegs.

Naturally, it needed the whiskey too, to finish it all off! lol.

And there we have it. A fathers' day/birthday/whatever pressie for my dad. (We only see each other once or twice a year normally, so we just hand over pressies as and when, rather than on specific occasions. Saves a fortune on postage!). We should hopefully be going up to see my parents end July/beginning of Aug. so I'll be able to present him with it then :-)

Now then, my fellow teamies have created some utterly gorgeous items for you once again, and there is another fab prize up for grabs!

So what are you waiting for!?

Have a fantastic day everyone!

Sammy-x