Twofer...

Morning all,

What? A post from me that's not DT related? Yes, you're not seeing things. Or, I should say, maybe you're seeing double.
You see, I discovered that the fabulous Darnell has started a challenge blog, called Twofer Card Challenge, and I just had to play along!

The idea is that you make two cards, using the same stamp or die, with different designs and for different occasions. There's a new theme every month, and this month it's Beverage.

This theme was most serendipitous, as I'd just picked up a couple of craft magazines that came with a variety of alcohol-related stamps, dies and embossing folders, so I figured I'd have a play!

This is what I came up with:

I settled on one celebration card, made using distress inks and four of the stamps I just acquired.
The second card is a friendship card, which features the same champagne bottle (as well as a few others) and the wine glass stamp, but has a more clean design.

I think Darnell would be proud, because apart from the Distress Inks and white base card, everything I used was NBUS! Even the green card I used to mat, which had been languishing in a box since I bought it last December...


I'm really excited to be playing along at the Twofer Card Challenge this month!

That's it from me for now. Hope you all have a fantabulous day!

Sammy-x

sneaking in another NBUS

Hi all,

So instead of doing what I was actually supposed to be doing, I was inspired by Darnell's NBUS challenge to have a little play.

As an optional challenge, she mentioned looking to see what national day it was, and using it as inspiration. Oh happy days! It turned out to be national Libraries day here in the UK, and also the final day of National storytelling week.
The idea of storytelling of course made me think of fairy tales, which had me rushing to dig out an awesome Sweet Dixie fairy tale castle die that I bought last year but hadn't gotten around to using yet.

It so happens that my twin nieces have a birthday coming up in a little while, and I figured this was a perfect opportunity to get ahead and make their birthday cards.

So I cut the castles in their respective favourite colours, and teamed them with some Dovecraft Princess Fairytale papers (one of my first ever paper packs!)

I added a few Stickles and changed the colour of the door and flags to add a little interest.

Now I don't know about you, but sometimes when someone sees one of my cards, they'll pipe up "Oh, I used to make cards! I'll bring some bits in for you". Very sweet of them, of course. But invariably, they end up handing me a stack of peel-offs, and try as I might, I've never been able to get on with them. But just this once, I thought I'd make an exception, as I wanted silver and gold sentiments to match the Stickles, and my embossing powders were at the bottom of a stack of boxes and I couldn't be bothered digging for them, lol.

The remainder of the peel-offs I currently have (and I've gotten rid of hundreds already in the past) are going into a craft hamper I'm putting together  to sell at work. It's crammed with these kind of bits and pieces that may be useful for a beginner crafter. Fingers crossed I hope to get £10 to £15 for it, which will equate to 100-150 hungry tummies filled. wish me luck!



Have a most excellent day!

Sammy-x

and another...

Evening all,

Ok, I couldn't resist... I had to play along with Darnell's NBUS challenge for the third and final time.
But I thought I should challenge myself a little more, and decided I needed to use at least three different NBUS. NBUSES? NBUSS?

And while I was at it, I wanted to also incorporate the new challenge over at Go Tag Thursday, which has a hat theme this week. at first I thought I would struggle, but it turn out I have a HUGE amount of "hat" stamps in my stash!

This one uses my NBUS Unity stamp, NBUS Tim Holtz motif paper and my brand spanking new NBUS Inktense pencils.

You know, I think there's another thing us crafters suffer from, besides hoarding NBUS. And that is hoarding the last of something! So for this tag I decided to take that plunge too, and add the very last of a sheet of self-adhesive star gems, which I bought a week or so after I started crafting.

I'm feeling really virtuous now! lol.

This was my first time using Inktense pencils, and though I'm not hugely unhappy, I do feel more practice is required. I will get the hang of this whole watercolour thing one of these decades!

Right, that's me for now. Have a lovely evening all!

Sammy-x

Another late one...

Hi all,

Yep, another late - after my bedtime - post from me.

I decided that I'd like to play along with Darnell's NBUS challenge again, so grabbed a couple of unused Inkylicious stamps to play with. One of them I picked up at a craft fair a couple of weeks ago, but the tiny fairy stamp I've had for about 2 years, and it had been completely un-inked until now!

If the design looks familiar, that's because I based this one off the August Tim tag again. I really, really love the hexagon design, so fancied another go with it. The colours are a bit funkier than my last, more vintage grungy one. I went with vibrant greens and purples to match the thistle silhouette stamp, which is of course the national flower of Scotland. I thought the stamp would be a good purchase for making things for my mum to sell in her B&B with!

Anyways, that's my tag, off to go enter!

Have a great night,

Sammy-x

NBUS #7!

Hi all,

I was so happy to see that the fabulous Darnell is hosting her 7th NBUS challenge!
For the un-initiated, NBUS stands for never-before-used-schuff. The reason I love this challenge so much, is that it makes me look at my stash, and all those items I simply had to have, then put away in my cupboard to be completely forgotten about.
Admit it, you have plenty of those too! ;-)

So, I decided to play along using a gorgeous Craftwork cards paper pad with beautiful nautical papers, which have been languishing at the back of y 8x8 box, unused, for more than a year! I teamed it with an Inkylicious twinchie stamp I've used once before (OBUS?) to make a useful card to replenish my dwindling "for the gents" stock!

Factoid for the day for the nautically challenged: The reason a ship's speed is measured in "knots", is because back in the 15th century they measured the speed using a knotted rope tied to a piece of wood, which would be thrown in the water. They would count the amount of knots that passed through their hands as the rope played out during a set amount of time, and that's how they figured out how fast they were going.
Thus the addition of my knotted piece of rope, even if my knots aren't quite the required 14.4 meters apart!

Anyways, enough waffle. I'm off to play over at Darnell's Playhouse I know she'd love to have you come play too!

Have a fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

NBUS no more!

Hi all,

I'm sure you are all familiar with Darnell, over at djkardkreations? Well, for those of you who aren't, she is one of my favourite bloggers, who makes such beautiful cards and has a wonderful way with words. And acronyms too. Which brings me to NBUS. NBUS stands for "never-before-used-schtuff", something I'm sure we all have an abundance of. In an effort to help us reduce the amount os NBUS we all have in our collections, Darnell is currently hosting her 3rd NBUS challenge.
The idea is to make a card using NBUS of some description, and then linking it to the challenge.

Naturally, I had to play along, especially as I had a whole bag full of new Sir Tim goodies to play with!

I really enjoyed the blackboard technique I tried out recently, so I decided to do another, and this was the result:

The stamp, brad, tissue tape and "play" ticket, are all NBUS. Sorry, were, as I obviously used them here! ;-)

In other news, don't forget about the DT call over at Buckwells Crafty Challenge. We're looking for a few extra teamies, so if you fancy playing along, please do apply!

Have an awesomesauce day!

Sammy-x