The Crafting Cafe has moved!

Hi all,

You may or may not have noticed that The Crafting Cafe has closed its doors here in Blogland... But if you enjoyed joining in with our monthly challenges, there is good news, as the challenge is continuing on our Facebook page instead!

And this month the theme is Pearls and Lace. I jumped at the opportunity to go all girly for this one!

So if you fancy playing along, come and find us on Facebook. And you will be so welcome to show off any other makes you want. We're a very friendly, sharing kind of place :-)

Have a most wonderful weekend!

Sammy-x

Black and white - The Crafting Cafe DT

Good morning ladies and gentlepeoples!

The challenge over at The Crafting Cafe this month is Black and white and we're being sponsored by Inky Impressions.

I decided to use the fab sentiment they supplied us with, and made this card:

Considering how difficult I find black and white, I'm actually rather pleased with this one!

There's still a week to come and play along, so I hope we'll see your entries over on the challenge blog!

Have a fantabulous day!

Sammy-x

Around the world - The Crafting Cafe DT

Morning bloggers!

If all goes according to plan, I shall be soaking up the sun rain as you're reading this, as we'll be away on our hols. Weather forecast is miserable, so this could be fun, lol.

What is much more fun, is the current challenge at The Crafting Cafe, which this month has the theme of Around the World. As our holiday didn't involve leaving the country, I figured I'd use this fab image from our sponsor Bugaboo, and make a card for my brother.

The sentiment is in Doric, a dialect spoken in North-East Scotland, and means "How are you?" (which I added to the bottom of the card, as you can see.) It's a bit of an in-joke, as my brother is becoming more and more intelligible every time we see him. I'm sure he's making half of it up! ;-)

There's still a week to enter this month, so I hope you'll come and play along!

Have a great week!

Sammy-x

Flights of Fancy - The Crafting Cafe DT

Morning all!

I have a somewhat cheeky card for you this morning for this month's challenge over at The Crafting Cafe. The theme is Flights of Fancy, which I think could have many interpretations.

My husband, who is approaching the ripe old age *cough* of 42, is often teased by our youngsters about how terribly old he is. It is a running joke in our household that dad is in fact 65 million years old (he used to have a pet dinosaur, you know...) and hubby plays along with good cheer, regaling them with stories from over the millennia. If he is to be believed he is responsible for many things, both good (he invented the first language, because the grunts of the Neanderthals were getting too confusing) and bad (he's lost count of the amount of earthquakes he's caused after eating sprouts and beans!).

So when I saw the images provided for us by our fab sponsor Doctor Digi's House of stamps, there was one in particular that stood out, because it fit so perfectly with out little running family joke.

This was the result:

So yes, a little cheeky really, but I know hubby will appreciate the joke, and the kids think it's hilarious! It's not his birthday for another 2 months, but I really like being ahead, lol.

Hope you'll find the time to play along with us this month. There's still a week left!

Hope to do some further catching up with you all tomorrow, until then, have a fantabulous time.

Sammy-x

Welcome little one - The Crafting Cafe DT

Goooood morning ladies and gentle peoples!

Just stopping by quickly to share my DT card for The Crafting Cafe with you all. The theme this month is Welcome Little One, and we're being sponsored by The Crafting Boutique.

I used a sweet image by our sponsor, and teamed it up with some paper from an old scrapbooking kit I picked up when I first started cardmaking. I really liked the pink and yellow combination, so coloured the image to match. I decided to keep the card relatively CAS, as there's so much going on in the image, with all the added "background" and whathaveyou.

I just added a sentiment from LOTV, some sweet ribbon I'd been hoarding for ages and a handful of gems, et voila!

Hope you'll find the time to play along. There's still a little over a week left!

Have a fantabulous Monday!

Sammy-x

Your favourite technique - The Crafting Cafe DT

Good morning folks!

The challenge at The Crafting Cafe this month is your favourite technique. Brilliant, no? I certainly thought so.

Now one of my current favourites (you all know me, I like variety, so change my mind on this often!) is making backgrounds with Distress Inks. On my DT card I inked up a tag, using mostly yellows and oranges, and a little hint of green. I then heat embossed a text background with copper embossing powder, and then embossed my image in black.
I attached the tag to a card covered with contrasting paper and added a "sew sweet" sentiment a ribbon, pearls and die-cut arrow to finish the tag off. I added some more die-cuts and pearls to the card, as well as some Washi tape, and there it is!

So, what's your favourite technique? You still have a few days (not a week this time, as we run out of month sooner!) to enter, so why not come and play along?
Our sponsor this month suddenly closed down, so I have put some goodies aside for the lucky winner.

Have a fantabulous day folks.

Sammy-x

Lots of Layers - The Crafting Cafe DT

Good morning everyone!

I don't know if you're aware, but the January challenge over at The Crafting Cafe is Lots of Layers. I don't know about you, but I love that theme, probably because it goes well with my paper obsession! lol.

Now, we got a selection of lovely images from our sponsor Bugaboo, and I couldn't choose which to use... So I made two!

First of all, I made a card for a young girl, complete with Glossy Accents balloon and LOTS of liquid pearls!

And then I did one for a grown-up girl. I'm not sure why, but I seem to really like shopping images at the moment, even though I detest shopping myself (except for crafty goodies, naturally).

I love these papers (from the Basic Grey "Hipster" pad), but don't often make a card with an image that suits them. I think this one does :-) I also kept the embellishments to a minimum, just a few pearls. And the sentiment was something I cobbled together in word!

Now then, your turn. There's still a week to enter, so get layering and join us!

Have a fabulous day!

Sammy-x

Not a Card - Crafting Cafe DT

Good morning all,

Me again, this time stopping by to share my project for this month's challenge inspiration at The Crafting Cafe. The theme is Not a Card, which I'm sure you'll all know by now is one that I love!

As St Andrew's day is just around the corner, that gave me an idea of what theme I wanted to play with, and I chose a lovely Celtic frame design from our sponsor Delicious Doodles to work with.

I started off with a set of 4 mini canvases (7cm each), painted two and papered the other two with tartan paper.
I printed off the frames and stamped a thistle into one of them (a gorgeous wooden stamp from Hobbycraft that my mum got me last year) and the sentiment "Alba an Aigh" into the other, which is Gaelic for "Scotland the Brave".

Some flowers and satin ribbon make lovely decorations, and of course plenty of pearls, all in shades of green and purple. Finally I mounted them all onto a plank of wood I'd also painted purple and added some natural twine as final accents and also secured to the back so it will hang.

And there it is, very purple (my favourite colour) and ready to be sent to my mum :-)

I hope you'll all come and play along... There's still a week to go.

Have a fab day!

Sammy-x

Think Pink - The Crafting Cafe DT

Good morning all!

This is my second post today. If you're looking for my MilkCoffee post, please scroll down.

I'm back because it also happens to be the 23rd, which means it's my turn to post over at The Crafting Cafe! Our theme this month is the other biggie this month, Think Pink.

I got this utterly stunning image from our sponsor Aurora Wings to play with, and made this card:

She was soooo lovely to colour!
I teamed her up with the same pink Docraft papers I've used many times recently (yes, I am starting to run low!) and embellished with some shabby pink Frantage, pink pearls and some gorgeous baby pink ribbon secured with a pink brad. I didn't want to go overboard with the embellishments, as the image is so beautifully detailed, I didn't want to draw focus away from it.

Now, I'm hoping you'll all come play with us this month... There's still a week to enter, and let's face it we all (ok, almost all...) love to play with pink, no?

Have a fabby day everyone, and wish me luck, as it will be my first day volunteering at a local charity shop. I've been thinking about getting back into the world of work for a while, as I feel I'm doing so much better and feel up to it, and this seemed like a great way to ease myself back into it!
Also, getting an actual job in Leeds seems to be impossible if you don't want to spend your days cold calling people!

Have a great one!

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

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

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

Love and Marriage - The Crafting Cafe DT

Update:

My appointment finally came through! I'll be getting assessed on the first of September, and I have everything crossed that it won't take long to get fixed after that. I'm so, so tired of being in pain, and it's only getting worse the more time passes...
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel! :-D

And now on to more fun things. Like this month's challenge over at the Crafting Cafe, where the theme is Love and Marriage. (Cue me doing a little song and dance, Sinatra style, before collapsing in front of the TV a la Al Bundy, lol.

The sponsor this month is Bugaboo, and I got a fabulous Gus and Stella image to play with... The sentiment I thought was especially amusing (and true! lol).

And the rest of the sentiment is on the inside:

The papers were magazine freebies, and of course I coloured the image with my Promarkers. I used some purple washi tape I found in The Works, and the buttons came from a £1 sewing kit I picked up some time a year or so ago.
Naturally there are glossy accents on the glasses, though it doesn't really show in the picture.

So there we go, love and marriage. And a rather amusing sentiment. And let's face it, it wouldn't be funny if it wasn't true... ;-)
Now, you still have a week to come and play this challenge, so hopefully we'll see you there!

Have a fantabulous 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

One for the boys - The Crafting Cafe DT

And hello again my dears!

As it's the 24th of the month, I have a second DT card to share with you, as it's my turn to post over at The Crafting Cafe. Our theme this month is One for the Boys, a personal favourite, and I got this brilliant Kenny K image to play with!

The papers are from two separate Paper cellar pads, and I figured the green one was pretty much perfect, as it has tools all over it!
I decided to make a thank you card, as I thought the image was ideal for thanking a guys who has helped someone around the house.
I did originally intend to have a little more green, rather than blue in the image, but I went with jeans in the end. Hard not to, lol.

So, any of you lovely peoples have any card ideas for the gentlemen or young lads? We'd love to see them!

Wishing you the best of days,

Sammy-x

CAS - The Crafting Cafe DT

Good morning all!

Apologies for being MIA yet again... Blogger was behaving for a bit, but is now acting up worse than ever.

Yes, I use Chrome, and I've tried logging on on several different machines, with the same issues. It's a problem with the account (or more accurately, the server my blog is hosted on), and all I'm getting from Blogger is "We're aware some people are experiencing problems. Please sod off and stop pestering us!"
Ok, maybe not in those exact words, but close enough, lol.

Anyways, at least it's still letting me post to my blog, which means I can share my The Crafting Cafe DT card with you today. The theme this month is CAS, and we're being sponsored by LEJ Designs!

I was given a lovely spring image to play with, and I came up with this:

I'm still trying to get over my fear of white space, but I think this helped. I fussy-cut the image after colouring it with my Promarkers, then stuck it on a piece of white card matted with some paper from Webster's Pages. I used some snippets from the same paper pad to make some fishtail accents and stamped a sentiment onto one of them.

Now I hope those of you that aren't scared of CAS will come and play this month!

See you all as soon as Blogger plays nice again!
Have a fab day,

Sammy-x

Embossing - The Crafting Cafe DT

Gooood morning everyone!

Today, I am sharing my The Crafting Cafe DT card with you all, and this month we've been embossing. Now, those of you that have been paying attention know that I'm new to the whole embossing thing, and only actually own two embossing folders. (Ok, that's not entirely true any more... I received some border embossing folders as a magazine freebie a couple of days ago!)

For this card I used the same embossing folder I did before, only in a completely different way (keep your eyes peeled to see the other embossing folder at work in a few days' time...).

Instead of using the folder to emboss the background of my card like I did before, I instead chose to emboss some other elements on the card.

Like so:

The image I used is of course another Stamping Bella, and I decided to use core'dinations cardstock, so I could sand the hearts down after embossing them!
Here's a close-up of one of the hearts:

The "love" sentiments were cute with a set of Cheery Lynn Designs dies, and I shadow layered the purple on white to make it stand out more. Naturally, this seemed like a good time to break out the Stickles too! Hey, it's a wedding card. wedding cards need sparkle. And pearls. In this case of the liquid variety.

And a close-up of the image...

She has Stickles on the flower in her hair, and the ones in the bouquet too. Didn't I say a wedding card needs sparkle? ;-)
And the wedding colour is of course purple. All the best weddings feature purple. Can I offer a virtual cookie to anyone who can guess what colour featured at my wedding? ;-)

I wish I could tell you where the paper is from, but I got it in a pack of random papers, so could be anything. It is glitter embossed though, which makes it especially perfect for the challenge!

So... If you were thinking about having a go at embossing, now would be a good time! We'd love to see you over at The Crafting Cafe!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Lothian Crafts - Love using your dies
Sparkles Monthly -Ribbon/Lace, hearts & pearls


Have a most fantabulous day!

Sammy-x

The Crafting Cafe DT - Anything goes

Hi all,

First of all, you all still need to go and enter my candy! And/or join in the challenge! All the details are here.

This morning I'd like to share my DT project for this month's The Crafting Cafe challenge.
The theme is Anything Goes, so once again you've NO excuse to not join in the fun!

For my card, I used the digi "Umbrella Whimsy 2" from The Stamping Boutique.

The paper is from the Prima "En Francais" pad, as are the large ticket I mounted the image on, and the two little tags. I also used dark brown card, lace and pearls from my stash.

Now I'd love to see what pretties you will create and link up!

Have a fabulous day!

Sammy-x

Crafting Cafe DT - Merry and bright

Hello all,

When this post reaches you, I should be in Scotland and we'll all be waiting for the jolly chubby one to make his appearance! With luck the kids will be happy with their loot tomorrow!

I'd like to share with you now my first DT card for The Crafting Cafe. I've technically been on the design team for quite a while, but as I'm posting late in the month, it's just taken a while for my first post!
Anyways, the theme is Merry and Bright and we are working with sketches this month. I chose sketch number one, and made this card

Yes, it's James again, with his stack of Promarker-coloured pressies. As you can see, I've gone back to the darker fur here (the base colour is cinnamon), which is my favourite on him. There's a plenitude of Stardust Stickles on his hat, and Gold Stickles on the ribbons of his presents.
The card base and the mat are both foil embossed card (sorry, can't remember exactly where from, but I'm almost positive they were a magazine freebie last year.)
A little bit of gold ribbon (scrounged from last year's Christmas crackers!) just finishes it off.

The whole card is super shiny and sparkly in person, which definitely takes care of the "bright" part of the theme. ( and I will most likely be working on the "merry" part some time this evening! ;-)  )

I hope you all have a most wonderful few days, and if you happen to have a little time to play, why not come and play with us at The Crafting Cafe?

See you when I return!

Sammy-x