Exciting news!

Hi all, just interrupting your regularly scheduled Sunday scrolling to let you know about some exciting news I have!
Some of you may know the very talented Lozzy, and possibly also know she has recently opened up an online craft shop, Buckwell Craft Supplies.

Now from the 1st of October, Lozzy will be launching a brand new challenge blog to go with said shop launch, and she asked me to be part of the DT.
Naturally, I couldn't say no!

So I hope you'll join us on the 1st of October for the new challenge.

In the meantime, enjoy what's left of your weekend!

Sammy-x

Shades of One - The Crafting Cafe DT

Morning crafters!

You may or may not have seen that this month's challenge at The Crafting Cafe is Shades of One, and today is my turn to post some inspiration.

I used a lovely image from our sponsor Scribble and Scrap, and made this:

For some reason I always seem to end up doing browns for this theme (though in this case the browns do tend towards the pink end of the spectrum for a change...)
The papers are LOTV, and the flowers are WOC, except for the large one in the middle, which came in a clear baggie from a craft fair with no name on, so no idea, lol. The large pearls I got recently from The Works (a jar full of them, just because I loved said jar...)

Also, I must apologise for the photo being slightly wonky and tilted. At least it goes with the rest of me!!

There's still a week to come and play, so hope to see you there!

I thought I would maybe play along with the Scribble & scrap challenge too this time.

Have a fab day,

Sammy-x

Ribbons and bows - Sweet Stampin' DT

Good morning everyone!

It's Saturday once again, and that of course means a new challenge at Sweet Stampin'! This week, the theme is ribbons and bows!
So of course my thoughts went to girlie cards, and from there on to LOTV and pink, and this is what I eventually came up with:

The flowery ribbon was one I chanced upon at a car boot sale, and the bow is seam binding from the Ribbon Girl. Some WOC flowers and Fernli designs wooden corner and some pearls to enbellish, and finally a metal bow charm, which you can just see a teeny bit of under the large flower in the bottom left, lol.
There was alltogether a little too much pink for my liking, so I used a little cream paint to add some interest here and there, and break up the unending pinkness!

Now it's your turn to join in... We're being sponsored by The Ribbon Girl, so you'll not want to miss out!

And I'd like to add this card into the Ribbon Girl Lovely Lili challenge!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Sammy-x

MilkCoffee Blog Hop - MC is 3 years old!

Hey everyone.

It's a really speacial month over at MilkCoffee, because we're having a blog hop to celebrate MilkCoffee's 3rd birthday!

So our bloghop theme is THREE. There are so many ways to interpret this theme, as you will see if you come join in with the hop! I used this lovely new image and three different designer papers.

As you can see, I also added a "3" embellishment (which I triple embossed) and some lovely lace, as well as one of the gorgeous lace butterflies from The Ribbon Girl.

Now then, a little blog hop info:

The order of the hop is as follows:

Shirl

Sammy (you be here)

Rita

Corrine

Valou
Andreja

The rules of the hop are as follows :

1. Visit each of our DT members blogs in turn and leave a comment on their Birthday Blog Hop post.

2. Return  to the main blog & add your name into the linky.

Simples!!!

The winner of the blog hop will receive 5 DIGI IMAGES and  request ONE CUSTOM IMAGE from us :) and will be drawn at random on 2nd of October

* please note - we will be checking that the randomly drawn winner has left a comment on each of our DT's post 

And that is not all!!! Each of the DT have a freebie image available on their blogs, so all you have to do to get them is hop along.

Here's mine:

So what are you all waiting for?

Have a fabulous day!

Sammy-x

Gift card holder - Crafting with Dragonflies DT

Hey there all,

It's that time again... A new challenge over at Crafting with Dragonflies, and this fortnight we're looking for gift card holders.

For mine I decided to use one of the kits from LOTV, to which I added a tag image from our sponsor Bugaboo.

These are so very easy to put together, and take no time at all, but they look ever so pretty.
I also added a velcro dot to keep it closed.

So now it's your turn. Make us something pretty for holding a gift card and come and link up. After you've been to check out what my fellow Dragonflies have created, of course.

Have a great day!

Sammy-x

Autumn colours - MilkCoffee DT

Good morning everyone!

There's a new challenge happening at MilkCoffee, and this fortnight we're looking for creations in autumn Colours.

For my card I choose the lovely "Lisbeth at the tree", and I coloured the tree to make it look like it was autumn.

The paper is Docrafts and I kept the embellishments to a simple gingham ribbon and bow.

Now it's your turn! We'd love to see your creations using autumn colours!

I'd like to enter this into the Ribbon Girl "add ribbon" challenge and I would really like to play along in Darnell's NBUS challenge too! In fact, everything except the three colours of cardstock is NBUS on this card.

Have a great day!

Sammy-x

Beach Bliss mini album

Hi all,

When I saw that this month's challenge at LOTV was "pretty papers", I knew immediately what I wanted to do. After all, there are few things that show off papers as well as a mini album, no?

Deciding on which papers to use was pretty easy too. While the Bear necessities pad is my favourite, it has been discontinued, so I'm hoarding what I have left for all I'm worth, lol.
Thus, my next favourite right now (it does change with my mood, the seasons and the direction of the wind, etc.), which so happens to be the Beach Bliss pad. I just adore the blue and kraft colour combo!

So I grabbed me a chipboard album and started by inking the edges with Brushed Corduroy Distress ink, before cutting papers from the pad and inking them too and sticking them to the chipboard pages.
Out came kraft card, a whole lot of flowers, punches, alphabet dies (I finally have me one!) lace, gems and a charm to produce this:

Page one and two

Page one has a set of cascading photo mats and a little journalling card (also from LOTV).

As you can see, the photo mats on the left fold down to show the ones behind (excuse the chipped nail varnish!)

On page two I added a belly band with two photo mats tucked behind it and the word "Smile" die-cut from the same papers.

Page 3 and 4

On page three I added a simple photo corner and tucked a large tag/photo mat into it. I embellished with some scrunched up seam binding (from The Ribbon Girl) to add a little extra interest.

Page 4 also has a large tag/photo mat, complete with seam binding, but this time I made a more fancy pocket for it. I also added another journalling tag and some gems.

Page 5 and 6

Page 5 and 6 are different, in that they each open up to another page - i.e room for some lovely full-size pictures. Like this:

Page 5 has a simple belly band with photo mat on top of the flap, embellished with some more flowers.

And page 6 was given the same treatment.

And finally, I left the back blank, except for the same punched borders as the front for continuity.

And there it is!

As you can see, using papers from the same pad really does help give it a uniform look, and I helped that along even further by inking everything I could with the Brushed Corduroy ink before sticking it in. I think it really does help pull the whole look together.

This was soooooo much fun to do. to be honest, I was a little sad when it was done, so I may have to do another very soon!

Naturally I'm entering this into the LOTV challenge.

And while I'm on the subject of LOTV... I was in the shop on Saturday, and it totally made my year  to see that the card I made for their 10th birthday was on display on one of the shelves!! I'm talking serious happy dance moment here, lol.

Well, that's it from me for today, hope you're all getting through your Mondays ok!

Sammy-x

The Great Outdoors - Sweet Stampin' DT

Good morning everyone!

Another Saturday, another challenge at Sweet Stampin'! This week's theme is The Great Outdoors. Such a fab theme that can be interpreted in so many ways, no?

Now, my card was a direct result of a trip to Hobbycraft earlier in the day. I'd been browsing the shelves in the market for something new to try, and came home with some Perfect Pearls.

Combine them with some gorgeous Indigo Blu stamps that came free with a magazine recently, et voilà!

Unfortunately it turns out these things are nigh impossible to photograph, and I am not at all happy with how the pictures came out. This was the best of them all, but there's no shimmer, which is what actually makes the card!
Oh well,  I guess I'll have to keep practising!

And now it's your turn. Go check out what my fellow Sweeties have made for you, then come and play along! There's a voucher from Stamp & Create up for grabs, so don't forget!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

Girly and Lacy - Crafting with Dragonflies DT

Good morning all!

It's a new challenge at Crafting with Dragonflies today, and the theme is Girly and Lacy.

We are sponsored by All Dressed Up, who gave us this gorgeous image to play with.

I decided to go with the obvious... Pink! And chose some pretty paper from Maja Design to pair up the gorgeous image with.

I also made a matching tag.

And both of them together...

Your turn. I'm sure you can make us something pretty and girly (don't forget the lace!). Looking forward to seeing the entries!

I'd also like to enter the following challenges:

Papertake weekly - Anything goes
Craft Hoarders Anonymous - All the pretty flowers
Paper Sweeties - Photo inspiration

Have an excellent day!

Sammy-x

September challenge - Rhedds's Creative Spirit DT

Goooood morning all!

It's the 1st of September! Wow! I swear it was Christmas only a few weeks ago, and we're already in September! And my youngest starts high school tomorrow. Do I feel old? Why yes. Yes I do.

On a less depressing note, there's a new month starting at Rhedd's Creative Spirit, where Anything Altered Art Goes, and I decided to play with an MDF box for my DT piece.

I stared with the MDF box (from the MDF man), and painted it black.
I then covered the lid (and the inside, which I forgot to photograph...) with paper from a DCWV stack. I then embellished with lots of shapes from Fernli Designs, which were also painted black, and then dry-brushed with bronze paint to make them look like "grubby" metal.

The cluster on the left is placed on top of a piece of Hessian that I also roughly blackened, and I added a few bits of brass chain to finish off the lid.

I wrapped a length of chain around the base, and added some gorgeous Steampunk goggles with wings to the sides, and a keyhole to the front, also both dry-brushed bronze. While I was at it, I added a light dry-brush to the edges of the lid and base too.

Ta-daaaa. A steampunk keepsake box!

Now, I suggest you all do yourselves a favour, and go see what the rest of the team have created, as their makes are simply stunning! After that, I hope you'll be inspired enough to join in. There's this gorgeous MDF letter rack up for grabs:

Have a fantabulous day!

Sammy-x