back to the oldies

Whilst having a friend round on monday to do a little crafting i got a few of my older stamps out and came up with the above creations, (except for the Forever friends) Whilst buying new stash my older stuff always gets neglected so it was good to have a rummage through everything and use some of the oldies for a change.

There has also been a drama in the family, my sister (who is 6 1/2 months pregnant) has a partner who is diabetic and he felt unwell yeaterday and went to the doctors had blood tests and was told to return on wednesday, only he didnt make it till wednesday as this morning he was rushed to hospital and is now in intensive care in an induced coma as he has had a very severe case of keto acidosis and was lucky to of got him in hospital when we did other wise this post might of been a different story all together, so lots of prayers and get well wishes goes out to craig, and i know my sister needs extra care from us all as this stress is taking its toll on her.

Wedding vows

I was aked to make a card for a couple renewing their wedding vows and the customer loved it, but of course all of us in the crafting world knows what a simple card this is, its only the cloud 9 paper thats makes it look so lovely.

And of course more christmas cards.

Productive weekend

Ive had a great crafting weekend, I've managed to get no fewer than 21 cards completed although i wont share them all here all at once, ill save some for those days when i manage to create nothing. LOL.

A few of them are very simple quick but elegant looking, slight variations on each one as i hate making 2 cards the same.

Ive also been using my versamark with mica powders a lot, Ive had these powders for around 4 years but have hardly used them so i decided to experiment again and i love the dazzling, shimmering effect you get when it hits the lights, i know it doesn't show up very well for the camera but you know what i mean.

The 3 cards below i have used mica on the snowflake back ground and the black one has the tree stamped in silver mica.

Tomorrow I'm having another crafting day as i don't look after Dylan on a Monday I'm also having a friend round (Hi Susan if you re reading this) to share some stamping and card making tips and techniques, I'm really looking forward to crafting with another like minded friend.

Must go martin is calling me for a game of tennis on the Wii

magnolia cards

ive a couple of cards to share with you tonight, these wre made using the new magnolia christmas stamps and coloured with promarkers, the black background card was stamped with gold snowflakes and covered in lots of stickles, the circle one was cut using nestabilities in the cuttlebug, again coloured with pro markers and lots of bling added with stickles.

Christmas Shopping

Time is ticking by and the way the months are flying past i thought i'd better get started on my christmas shopping, so ive had a successful couple of days, a few bargains and not much more to buy now. So as i was in a festive mood i made a few more christmas cards up, i am slowly working my way through my order list, i want everything completed by the end of november so i can then concentrate on my own cards and craft items.

this card is a hanglar & Stanglar image coloured in promarkers the swirl was a gift from a friend Tracy (link in my side bar) flowers are prima, and the cards stock and circle snow village are embossed with the cuttlebug.

snowman stamp by Judi kins, paper was last years so cant remember (sorry), cuttle bug embossing and lots of stickles.

Stamp same as above this time it has been covered in dazzling diamonds by stamping up. snowflakes are prima, paper id DCWV since taking this picture ive also added a heart button in the bottom left corner and added bling around the sentiment.

Ive Cheated a little on this card, the santa is a 3D gift tag from the pound shop, ive covered the To and From with liquid pearls. you get around 7 or 8 images on one sheet so for only a pound they are a bargain and make very quick cards.

Ugly Sisters!

Ive got no news to share, just lots of creations. I had a very odd request this week somebody asked for a picture of the ugly sisters with the greeting saying "Merry christmas Sis' from the better looking one" i searched the internet and couldnt find anything suitable so i drew my own ugly sisters, i hope she likes it.

Christmas part 2

more christmas cards to show you today, and another christening card. (sorry for the blurry pics)

The lilac button tree card looks very flat and boring on the pic but IRL its very 3D and blinging.

Ive just had an order for 22 christmas cards, thats on top of what i already had to do so will be burried in cardstock and glitter for the next couple of weeks its a good job im able to stay at home during the day and get some crafting done else i would be up until 2am each evening.

I forgot to mention My days at home are not boring i am kept very busy with my Cousins 5 month old Baby, Dylan. His Mum has returned to work so i have become a childminder but its not like a job because i love him to pieces and dont mind looking after him one bit, in fact when im not looking after him i usually call her to ask if she wants me to mind him while she goes out shopping or spends a little time on her own.

karen x

Christmas cards

Just a short post to show some christmas cards

Karen x

Where has the time gone?

First i must appologise for being a very bad blogger, my life has been so busy, i havnt had a moment to spare, well i have but a girl has to sleep too you know.

Ive had a lot of invites to make, over a hundred wedding invites and 70 Christening invites

The wedding invites were for 2 different weddings but both on the black and white theme, and the christening ones i havnt got a pic of, sorry, just to busy to get the camera out.

On top of all the invites ive had my normal stock of cards to make as well as a couple of gift basket parties ive done, and requests for commisioned cards, now i can breath a sigh of relief as everything is completed and caught up.

I went to Durham a few weeks back and went to the Scrapbook Shop and bought lots of new stash and i havnt even had a chance to use any of it yet, so over the next few weeks i will be able to complete my christmas cards and make a few projects at a more leisurely pace.

The christening card was a commision i was asked to do,so thought i would share it with you.

I promise i wont leave it so long to blog next time.

karen x

Its Been a While

i hadn't realised how long its been since i updated my blog, I've been unbelievably busy and i haven't made any cards for about 2 weeks well i have made a couple of commissions but forgot to take pics. The reason I've been so busy is because i have been making a lot of gift baskets and makeup baskets ready for a party i am hostessing, so all my spare time has been spent sourcing, wholesale accounts and merchandise, and if all goes well this will be my new source of income, as i have resigned from my job, you can only work with a bunch of *ankers for so long (but that's another story, too long winded for on here)

Today i managed to get a few cards made ready for Christmas. Just a quick peak here i will go into more detail later. The other pick is a couple of goodies I've made for the gift party, all together I've made over 60 baskets ranging from luxury down to little sweetie gifts (as shown in the pic)

I hope it wont be too long until my next post.

Something different

Lately ive been making a lot of cutie cards with cute images, so for the last 2 cards i had to make something different, no characters and no cutie elements.

My mind when blank for a moment, then i just started adding bits to the card and came up with the above card, its for a 60th birthday and i was told she likes traditional, so it had to be flowers.

the stamp is magenta, coloured in h2o's.

the circles were cut with a cuttlebug and nestabilities, I embossed one of them with swiss dots folder. The swirl was cut on the cricut by a dear friend Tracey, the flowers are primas and zooms were added along with lots of stickles.

I will share the other cards later, im a bit tired at the moment as im feeling sorry for myself and am full of cold.

Bright & Breezy start to the morning

I was up real early this morning as it is Ashleighs first morning at secondary school, we have been having a sleep in all of the holidays so this morning made a change, before waking her i started housework so after she left for school all that remained to do was wash her breakfast plates.

Her brothers are still in bed and as its their last days off they can sleep in. Its so nice having the house all peace full but i know i will miss them like crazy when they are all at school i will be wishing for the next holidays. so as the house is so quiet i decided to make a quick card and the above card is what I've came up with.

Its a Sarah Kay coloured with pro markers lots of inking around the edges using hero arts inks.

The papers are a download from Summer Driggs, zooms and ribbon as embellishments.

I wonder if i can get another couple of cards done before the boys wake up!

My worst colour ever, but i like it!

I looked on the Sarah Kay challenge blog and to my horror you had to use purple & Green, I normally don't do Purple as I hate it, definitely don't normally use it in crafting unless requested, I wasn't going to take part but I thought why not give it a go so here we are here is a Sarah Kay using Purple & Green. I think it turned out better than i expected and i may give purple a try again.

for this card i have used:

Sarah kay stamp coloured with promarkers

papers downloaded from summer driggs

MM metal words

prima flowers

hat pin Heidi Grace

stickles, liquid pearls, ribbons and gems

Penny Black/ Papertake weekly

The card I've made today completes 2 challenges at once the first is obvious as I've used a penny black stamp, the criteria for the penny black challenge is a simple one just use stars and stripes somewhere on your card, my stripes are the different papers and the stars are stamped.

The other challenge this completes is Papertake Weekly I've rotated this sketch as you can see below (i hope this is allowed!)

I'm getting to like these challenge/sketch blogs

for this card I've used

Penny black stamp coloured with pro markers and distress inks

scenic route paper

ribbon from stash

stars stamps are autumn leaves

sentiment is My Sentiments Exactly

cute card Thursday - In the water

well im on a roll this is my 2nd challenge in as many day its like a bus none for ages and then 2 together, LOL.

This time the challenge was on Cute Card Thursday you can find all the details on there to join in.

Your card has to have water on it somewhere, so I've used this cute Elizabeth Bell image and although the water isn't actually in the image i have used diamond glaze to make little droplets of water coming out of the watering can and on the sunflower,i hope you can see in the close up pic below.

Image is coloured with promarkers available from silly monkey crafts, papers are cosmo cricket and the green is a download from summer driggs, I've used 3 different ribbons so i suppose it could also fit the challenge that i completed yesterday as well, I've added 3 Bella's baubles to the corner to bring out the blue colour.

Feeling more like Autumn

Yesterday i participated in a challenge blog so today i gave a sketch a try, this is something ive never done either but thought i would give it a go.

The sketch is from Sketch Saturday i decided to check it out after viewing bevs blog and saw the gorgeous card she had made.

Because of the silly weather we are having it feels more like autumn today so i decided to make this card in autumn colours

So here is my take on the sketch, I've use a Hanglar & Stanglar image coloured with promarkers, (he was originally coloured in a gold and peach but i didnt have papers that matched and to be honest when i first coloured him i didn't realise it was a him and i coloured him in girly colours, so today i have coloured over the peach with a green, you'd never tell, that's why i love these pens)

The papers are a mix the background is a download from shabby princess and the other is dovecraft, the flowers are prima with a zoom in the centre, the ribbons were from a kit i think it may of been Sarah's cards, the sentiment is from papertrey ink, cut with a cuttle bug and coloured to match the card. the small flourish in the corner is a stamp by autumn leaves, stickles added to his wings for a little sparkle.