Another Christmas card.

Hi all,

I know it seems too early to be saying this, but I'm woefully behind on my Christmas cards! Last year I had them all done by the end of September, but I've barely started!
Those of you that are/have been on DTs with me probably know that I hate being late with a passion, and normally try to work ahead whenever possible (hence finishing nice and early last year, lol).

So, last week, before I injured my wrist, I took advantage of being well ahead with DT work to have a play with an as yet un-inked LOTV stamp.
I'd also just grabbed a couple of Dovecraft 8x8 paper pads from The Works, which allowed me to play with a lovely traditional colour scheme. I really need to get to the LOTV shop to stock up on Christmas paper pads soon!

Anyways, I used the "Bringing Gifts" stamp, and had sooooo much fun colouring it!

I've always been a bit nervous about colouring with reds for some reason, but I'm really pleased with how this has come out!
A closer look:

You can't really tell, but the snow is glittered (thanks to my Sakura pen).
The sentiment is also LOTV, and oh look... Fishtails! lol. Told you they'd make numerous appearances...

So there it is. And I'm  just in time to enter it into the LOTV Christmas in August challenge too.

Hope you're all having a fabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

Back to school - MilkCoffee DT

Good morning bloggers!

I did a rather silly thing over the weekend... I went and sprained my wrist! It appears to be a grade 2 sprain, and should hopefully clear up on it's own some time in the near future, but in the meantime, I'm somewhat helpless, as I can't use the hand at all, and it's my right hand... The one I use.

What terribly dangerous activity was I performing when I injured myself in this way? Well, I was stamping! Such a vicious and dangerous hobby we all have!

Anyways, enough of that, it's time for a new challenge at MilkCoffee, and the theme is Back to School.
Rather apt, as my kids go back next week. In fact, my baby will be starting high school! Oh boy do I feel old!

Instead of a card, I opted to decorate a notebook. I took a lot of inspiration from the fabulous Lou, who recently posted up a rather stunning notebook of her own. I strongly suggest you go take a peek!

I decided to use the lovely "Alicia goes to School" for mine.

I started off with some lined paper that was already old and yellowing so perfect to use. I added some faux stitching, and then layered a large piece of Hessian on top, followed by some Prima papers and TH ticket.  I finished off with some tape measure ribbon from Hobbycraft, and a vintage button-type embellishment I found in The Works.
Some inking here and there with Scattered Straw distress ink, and some more faux stitching, and finally the MilkCoffee image, coloured with Promarkers.

I'm really enjoying the new way of colouring I've been playing with recently, as I think the effects are subtler than before.

And there she is! And now it's your turn. I know you want to come play! ;-)

Have a great day everyone, and if you're planning on doing any stamping, be careful! lol.

I'd also like to enter the following challenges:

Sparkles Monthly - Back to School
Oldie but a goodie: Anything but a card (the lined paper is probably about a decade old, most of the other stuff around a year!)

Sammy-x

Cowboys and cowgirls - Sweet Stampin' DT

Hello there boys and girls,

Here I am again. Only 8 am, and already my second post for the day!

Now, when I joined the Sweet Stampin' DT last year, it just so happened the timing was perfect, as they were looking for suggestions for themes for this year.
Well, everyone chimed in with their favourites, and of course this means certain people are assigned some blame responsibility for their chosen themes. I know poor Fi was in some hot water recently when the team was very firmly divided on the "doodle" challenge...
But for this week's challenge, I am more than happy to take full responsibility. I know it's considered a little unusual on this side of the pond, but I just so happen to have a thing for cowboys. Hence this weeks theme: Cowboys/girls.

Now, I'm very much spoiled for choice where this topic is concerned, as I have a history of "oops, it fell into my basket" where cowboy themed stuff is concerned, but I decided to use this adorable MilkCoffee image I'd been waiting for an excuse to use for some time now...

Isn't he adorable? The papers are from the Carta Bella "Giddy Up" pad (which I ordered especially all the way from the States last year!), and I printed the sentiment off after making it in word, because my collection of cowboy goodies unfortunately doesn't include sentiment stamps yet...
I added a boot charm and a button as simple embellies, and presto! One cowboy card!

Not, my fellow Sweeties did a fabulous job making some fantastic cowboy and girl projects, so go leave them a little love so they don't hate me for picking this theme! lol.

Naturally, I'm very much looking forward to seeing you all enter some awesome cowboy projects this week, so get creating! ;-)

Yeeehaaaawww!

Sammy-x

Photo Inspiration - The Crafting Cafe DT

Morning all,

It's my turn to inspire you all for this month's challenge at The Crafting Cafe, which is a photo inspiration challenge. And this is the beauty we have to play with:

I chose a gorgeous image from our sponsor Ooh-la-la Creations. and set to work:

Wanting to keep the front relatively CAS so as not to draw attention from the image, I stamped the sentiment on the inside:

So, if the gorgeous photo above manages to inspire you at all, there's still a week to enter the challenge... We'd love to see you there!

Have a fab weekend everyone!

Sammy-x

Tissue box - Crafting with Dragonflies DT

Good morning everyone!

The new challenge at Crafting with Dragonflies starts today, and we're looking for you to create a tissue box!
Well, this was a first for me, and you know me, love to do something different... Now I have to admit that I struggled a little with the maths side of it, working out measurements and whathaveyou (Maths has never been my strong suit, and these days my brain just refuses to even try! lol), but I think I got there in the end.

I received a lovely sunflower digi from our sponsor Bugaboo, and let the design happen from there...

First there was G45 paper, which was perfect because of the sunflowers... I made a "sleeve" for a square box out of them (you can just see a pink spot at the bottom where the inside box is peeping out, lol).

And I added the sunflower digi to the top of the box, after colouring and fussy-cutting.

So there you go, one tissue box! And my fellow Dragonflies have been hard at work too, so I suggest you so check out their work too.

Have a fab day my dears!

Sammy-x

Bits and bobs

Hey there everyone,

I thought I'd share a few bits and pieces with you all that I've made recently, but not blogged.

First of all, I altered a ATC tin that was sent to me by the fabulous Sandie. The tin was plain silver-coloured metal, and I decided to play about with it and turn it into something that would look nice permanently installed on my desk, lol.

And this is what I came up with

Next, I played with the ATC blanks that were inside the tin

I also swapped a few ATCs recently. This is what I made:

Oh, and I made some row houses for a swap too!

It's been a lot of fun trying out new things (I am completely addicted to making ATCs now...).
I did have some other stuff to show too, but I can't for the life of me figure out what I've done with the photos! lol.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Sammy-x

Add Stripes - MilkCoffee DT

Hello all!

It's once again time for a new challenge at MilkCoffee, and this coming fortnight we'd like to see projects featuring Stripes. Easy peasy!

For my projects I decided to decorate a chipboard photo frame (from Every Craft's a Pound. It cost - oddly enough - a pound, lol).
Because the frame is slightly smaller than A4, an A4 piece of backing paper seemed ideal, so I browsed through my stack of magazine freebies (which often come in A4 size), looking for a stripy design to inspire me. I soon found it in the form of this brightly coloured beauty, which made me think of sweets (or candy, for those of you across the pond).
And because it was sweet, a sweet MilkCoffee character was required also. so this time I went with the adorable Soya, and I used 3 out of the 4 digis available featuring this cutie.

(I must apologise for the rather bleak photo... We've been having the most dreary weather recently, and try as I might, all the pictures seem to come out grey :-(  )

I didn't want to over-embellish the frame, so I dug around in my stash for sweet buttons in matching colours, and dotted them around the frame in three groupings, to mirror the three digis.

Finally, I added the "Soya" inside the frame, in lieu of a photo, but it's easily removable and replaced with a proper photo.

And that's my stripy creation. I'm sure you can all find some stripes somewhere in your stash, so when you do, don't forget to enter your makes over at MilkCoffee! And if you need some more inspiration, my fellow DT have some gorgeous creations ready for your perusal.

Have a fabby day everyone! (I certainly intend to... I have a trip to Hobbycraft planned! lol)

Sammy-x

Photo Inspiration - Sweet Stampin' DT

Gooood morning Bloggers!

'Tis Saturday, and Saturday is new challenge day at Sweet Stampin'. And this week team Fi has an inspiration photo to play with. And it's a beauty, look:

Isn't it lovely?

Well, I almost didn't use the stamp I ended up using, as it seemed too obvious and almost felt like cheating! lol. But I couldn't resist, because it's gorgeous and just perfect!

The stamp in question is of course the gorgeous "Annabel Pedal Power" from LOTV, and I teamed her with some equally lovely papers from their "Timeless Victorian" pad. The sentiment is also LOTV, from the "Mixed Circular Sentiments" set.

Oh look, fishtails! :-)

For some reason I couldn't get the photo to look as purple as it is in real life this time... Probably something to do with the yucky overcast weather we've been having! (My excuse, and I'm sticking to it! lol)

Anyways, I'm certain you can all find some inspiration from this gorgeous photo, and join in with the challenge.

Looking forward to seeing your entries.

Have an awesome weekend!

Sammy-x

Candy Winner!

Hey everyone, Mr. Random and I are here with our blogoversary candy winner, and he chose...

DAWN!  Congrats!

Email me with your snail mail addy, and your parcel will be headed out to you asap.

Thank you all for entering, and for being such brilliant bloggy friends even when I can't spend as much time here as I like! I have the sneaky suspicion there will be more candy up for grabs here in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled.

In the meantime, have a brilliant day, and I'll be back in the morning with my Sweet Stampin' DT card :-)

Hugs,

Sammy-x

1 year Blogoversary candy!

Hello there folks, hope you're all enjoying your weekend!

On the 10th of July, my blog was officially one year old, so in order to celebrate, I have decided to offer you all a chance at some candy.

Said candy consists of some yummy bits and pieces, including a selection of 12 x 12 papers, stamps and a LOTV gift voucher! Also, (not included in the picture) I will add a packet of embellishments such as ribbons and buttons and flowers (oh my!).

And all you need to do to be in with a chance of winning, is be a follower and pop your name in the link-up below. (No candy only blogs please) If you want to add the picture to your sidebar it would be hugely appreciated, but I won't send the blog police after you if you don't, lol.

I will happily post world-wide.


This candy will run for a couple of weeks until after I get back from Scotland, and then Mr. Random.org will help me pick one of you as winner.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Sammy-x

I'm dreaming of a purple Christmas...

Hi all!

There's still one day left to enter my blogoversary candy here. So if you haven't put your name down yet, go do it now!

I'm here just for fun today. No DT work at all, just a Christmas card I'd like to share. A purple Christmas card even! Purple is my favourite colour, but I often find it very hard to work with. I've made a few cards with lots of purple recently, and I think I'm possibly getting the hang of it!

Anyways, this card was made using the adorable "Christmas Dance" stamp from LOTV, and I teamed her up with some gorgeous Magnolia Christmas papers. (Because I don't have the new purple LOTV X-mas papers yet... Don't worry, this will be rectified soon! lol.)

I added some die-cut poinsettias and holly, and finished off with gems, snow tex and some letter beads to spell out a sentiment.
It's hard to tell from the photo, but the stars in the image are all metallic silver, so they shimmer nicely.
I've also started playing with some new ways of colouring things, and so far I'm liking the results...

Now, while I'm here, I figure I'll enter this into this month's LOTV challenge, as the theme is Christmas.

Have a fantastic day everyone!

Sammy-x

Centre or Side Step card - Crafting with Dragonflies DT

Hello there ladies and gents.

Please don't forget to enter my blogoversary candy here.

It appears that we've whirled around again to a new challenge at Crafting With Dragonflies, and this fortnight the challenge is to create a centre or side-step card.

We have two sponsors this challenge, and I opted to use this fabulous image from Make it Crafty.

I teamed her with papers from the Dovecraft back to Basics range (another "really old" bit of stash), and added a LOTV sentiment.
To finish it off, I added some buttons and pearls.

This is incidentally the first time I've played about with "unnatural" hair colour... It just seemed to me that the image needed it!

So, after you've been to see the lovelies created by my fellow Dragonflies, you'll come and play along too, yes?

Have a fantabulous day!

Sammy-x

August Challenge - Rhedd's Creative Spirit DT

Hello everyone!


Please don't forget to enter my blogoversary candy here.


It's the first of August (really?? Already!), and therefore time for a brand new challenge at Rhedd's Creative Spirit. As always it's Anything altered art goes.

I got my reward voucher for The Works through a few weeks ago, and found a set of lovely circular papiermache boxes. They were only 8cm in diameter, and came in a pack of two for 99p. Well, it would have been rude not to!

So I painted them black, and then set to decorating them. For the first, I opted for a purple and green colour scheme.
I used some paper from Craftwork Cards, flowers from WoC and finished off with glass beads, coloured green with my Promarkers and washi tape.

I wanted a different colour for the second box, so went with a pink and cream shabby feel...
After I chose some pink dotty paper, I found an old magazine freebie doily that was a perfect fit, added more flowers and glass beads, and finished the lid with a foam heart and a heart charm from the Hobby House.
The bottom I covered in a Parisian themed washi tape, and some of my favourite lace.

I only have a tiny bit of this lace left! Must remember to check Hobbycraft to see if they still have it in stock!

And there they are. My cute little boxes that cost almost nothing to make. And the foam heart is from a pack I bought when I first started crafting about 2 years ago! They are probably close to my oldest  crafting supplies.

Now, do yourselves a favour, and go take a peek at the stunning creations my fellow teamies have concocted for you, and then why not come and play? As always, we have a gorgeous prize. This month we're being sponsored by Fernli Designs again, and their stuff is just too gorgeous!

See what I mean?

Have a great day, and an ever greater weekend!

Sammy-x