Shabby chic? Well distressed anyway :)

As promised earlier, I am back with a card that I made a few days ago for some challenges (although some of them are now finshed because I have taken so long to post it!), but as my title suggests, I'm not sure if it is shabby chic. That's the look I was going for, but I don't  make these kind of cards very often and I am never sure what to call the style it turns out to look like lol.
Anyway, here it is.

I used another of the images from LOTV, these are so handy when you don't want to spend ages colouring an image. I added some stickles on some bits of the image just to add some extra detail.

The papers are all ones I got from my dt girls and I have no idea who makes any of them, but I love the muted tones on  them and two of them are glittery :)

I distressed the edges of them all with a pair of scissors (I really need to get one of those distressing tools!) and inked them with distress ink.

The dies came out again for this card, MFT was used for the bottom flourish and the other one was with a Marianne Designs die.

The pretty pearl swirl and the butterly in the corner are both by Prima.





The pretty crotchet flowers are of course from Little Snippets, as is the pearl trimming, I added some flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts on top of the crotchet flowers for a change, and I used the crotchet flowers upside down, just because the cherry blossoms seemed to sit better on them that way.

The embroidered lace butterfly is of course from Little Snippets. I always seem to use a colour that Ger doesn't have in the shop!, but she does have white ones and spring shades listed just now and she can do any other colour you want if you just ask.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly- Die Cute

Stampin' for the Weekend- Out with the old (I have had the prima bits for ages)

Anything Goes Challenge- Anything Goes

My Mums Craft Shop- Here come the girls

The Crazy Challenge- Lace and Pearls

Thanks for stopping by and thank you for your lovely comments. I do read them all and I will try to get around all your blogs to leave you a comment :)



A winter wedding??

I can't believe we are half way through January already! Where did the month go??!!
We have started doing a mid month post over at By The Cute and Girly since we have a bigger design team now, which means a lot of projects to show in one post! So we are now posting half of our projects on the 1st of the month and  the rest on the 15th, so now there will be two eye candy posts each month from the DT :) and of course all the same fab prizes from our sponsors.

So here's what I made for our mid month post.

 The theme at BTC&G for January is New Beginnings, so I made a wedding card.......ok that is a total lie! I made a baby card, but when I went to take a pic of it yesterday, I noticed that part of the image has vanished!! I had stamped an image a few times and decoupaged it and a branch had somehow managed to fall off and I can't find  it anywhere, so will have to fix that first! lol, so I already had this card made for another dt challenge that is not due for a few weeks yet, so I decided to use this one and make something else for the other challenge.

This is not the usual kind of colours I would use for a wedding card, but I thought I would use this cute LOTV square as my image and couldn't really find any papers to go with  it, until I found these papers that I got from my lovely teamie and dt boss Ger (she is my boss at Little Snippets and I am her "boss" at by the cute and girly lol).
They are from a Me to You pad by Docrafts, Winter Wonderland, but they are not really Christmassy (is that even a word? lol), so I think they can be used for any time of the year.

 The flowers were made using a Marianne Designs die. I just cut out a few and then made a kind of rose with them. It doesn't really work the same as the roses that you make using 6 petal flowers as these only have 5 petals but they come out ok....until I squish the petals on one while taking a photo!!

I added some flourishes made using Marianne Designs and My Favorite Things dies, then some pearl trimming from Little Snippets and I also cut off 2 pearls to put in the centre of each flower.

Well that's the card done, and I will be back later with a card I made for a few challenges.

Thanks for stopping by

Wags n Whiskers- White on White

The challenge this fortnight over at Wags n Whiskers challenge is white on white with a splash of one colour.
I have never made a white on white card and I was a bit nervous about making this card, especially since I wasn't using any designer papers!!, but I really enjoyed making it and I quite like the way it turned out, so I think I will have to make some more :)

 I only own a few embossing folders and never really use them, but I got two news ones for Christmas so this card was the perfect excuse to use one of them :)
I used the Cuttlebug swirl folder (not sure what it's proper name is) and the other one that my image is on is the one I got for Christmas. I had never seen this make before but Barry got it for me in a little craft shop in Stonehaven (after asking what I would like and me saying to get me a new die! lol. He didn't know the difference and bought me 2 embossing folders instead! typical man!!! lol), but they are really pretty. The one I have used is the swirl frame by Bringing Crafts-Too you, and then I stamped, coloured (with Promarkers of course) and cut out my WnW's image to stick in the frame.
I was going to stamp her in the frame straight onto the card, but she was a little too big so I had to cut her out and stick her on instead.

This little cutie is Wee Ones- Happy Day which is available to buy at Bunny Zoe's or if you are in the US or Canada, you can get her at Stamp and Create. I used the rubber stamp, but you can also get her and all of the other Wags N Whiskers stamps in digi form.
Oh and I just noticed that this little cutie is on sale at Bunny Zoe's right now with a huge 25% off!!! :)

I used some paper flowers from my stash, a pearl brad and some flourish die cuts made with a Marianne Designs die.

The gorgeous butterflies are all from Little Snippets. Aren't they gorgeous?!!
The beaded crotchet butterflies can be found here. The ones in the listing are cream, but Ger can do them in any colour for you, just ask :)
The lace applique butterfly I cannot find in the store just now, but there is all sorts of other butterflies and Ger has sooo many different patterns that it would be impossible to list them all, so if you really want ones the same as these (because let's face it they are gorgeous!! :)) you can covo Geraldine and tell her that you would like some of the ones you saw on my card. Edited to add: The white lace applique butterflies are not back in stock and you can find them here
The beautiful white double faced satin ribbon is also from Little Snippets and you can find that here.
I added a little ready made bow with pearls on top of my big bow.

If you haven't been to check out the Little Snippets store lately, you must go have a look! Ger had listed some lush ribbons, pretty rose buds, pearl trim, hat pins (which you could embellish with any of the snippets or beads etc), raffia and of course lots of lovely embroidered and crotchet "snippets".

That's it from me today, if you got to the bottom of this post, you really deserve a medal!! lol
Thanks for stopping by :)

New Beginnings at By The Cute and Girly

Happy New Year!! The first challenge of the year is up at By The Cute and Girly and this month we have the theme "New Beginnings"- new year, new baby, new house etc.

Although this challenge theme was picked by our dt Kate a while back, it couldn't of been better timed. Apart from it being New Year, we have new beginnings over at By The Cute and Girly, with 6 new dt members joining us for their first challenge today :) If you haven't already checked out the girls blogs, you really should. They all have different styles and are all very talented :)

For the challenge this month, I decided to make a baby pram/carriage. I had a look online for some tutorials/templates, but in the end I decided to just go for it and try make it myself.
I don't have any circle dies except for scalloped circles which I used for the wheels, so I just used a jar and a cup to draw round for the circles.

 I used some Papermania paper and some plain yellow card for the whole thing. As I said I drew around a jar and a smaller plastic cup for the main part, then cut out a section, cut out a strip of card to join the two sides together, added some scalloped circle wheels cut with the smallest scalloped circle nestie, some punched out flowers for the middle and card candy. Then I added some pretty lace and cut out some flourishes with a Marianne Designs die for the handles. I had to cut out 3 layers for each handle to make it strong enough to stay up because with just the one layer they were flopping over, but it was really easy since they were cut with a die so they were all exactly the same size.
I did cut a few swirls off the die cuts as they didn't look right with the full die cut, but I think they look ok now??
My youngest Daughter loved it and claimed it 5 minutes after I made it! I had to ask for it back just so I could get a pic lol.

As usual we have some prizes from our regular sponsors Simon Says Stamp with a $20 gift voucher and Joanna Sheen with a £10 voucher, so why not pop over and enter the challenge? If you win, you could buy yourself a belated Christmas pressie:)

Thanks for stopping by

An angelic Wags n Whiskers and Little Snippets

I haven't made no cards for weeks, but I came across a DT card that I made for Little Snippets and a  Wags n Whiskers challenge that was a few weeks back but I didn't get it posted on my blog for some reason.
The challenge was  to use an angel or fairy image, and here's what I did.

 I used the sweet Bear Hug stamp which you can buy at Stamp and Create if you are in the USA or Canada, and at  Bunny Zoe's if like me you are in the UK. Bunny Zoe's also sells to Europe and the rest of the world, so you can buy Wags n Whiskers stamps wherever you live :)
Oh and you can also buy all the stamps in digital form if you prefer digis.

I coloured the image with Promarkers and used lots of stickles on her wings.
I'm not sure where the yellow paper is from, but the others are by Papermania, some ribbon from my stash, a Wild Orchid Crafts cherry blossom (with some added stickles of course :)) and everything else is from Little Snippets.
The Little Snippets store is now closed for the holidays, so I can't link up the products I have used on this card,  but it will be open again after the holidays and I will add links to this post then.
I took a lot of pics to show off these beautiful embellishments from Little Snippets, but you can't really appreciate how special they look until you see them in real life. They are just perfect for making a plain card special :)

I covered the beautiful embroidered butterfly with stickles to make it sparkle.

and also added stickles to the pretty angel. This one is perfect with Christmas cards but you can use it for all sorts of occasions.

The string of pearls are also from Little Snippets. Ger has also started stocking ribbons, hat pins and some other lovely bits and bobs as well as all her beautiful embroidered embellishments and crotchet flowers and butterflies etc. They are all very reasonably priced and are excellent quality, so remember to stop by Little Snippets in the new year and have a look at the lovely goodies Ger has listed. I promise you won't be disappointed with the quality and great customer service! :)

I should be back tomorrow with a card. That's if I ever get one made today!! I just haven't felt like crafting these last few weeks, but I really want to get back into it and I just received a fab dt package from Little Snippets the other day with some extras too (thank you Ger!) and a lovely lovely lady also sent me a gift of some papers, so I am determined to go use some of them and get at least one card made today!! :)

Thanks for stopping by

A christmas bauble

I hope you are all staying warm this weekend! It is freezing here!! On Thursday we had 80mph winds and rain, then on Friday we had a little bit of snow, yesterday was just freezing and today...well today I don't know because I haven't even went out the door today! I hate the cold!!

Anyway, I thought I would post a Christmas bauble decoration that I made a while ago, which I was going to blog ages ago but I forgot about it.
Unfortunately the pics are not very good (that's nothing new for me!, but here it is anyway.

 I took a few different pics, and I know I took one where you can see the ribbon it hangs with, but I can't find it on my computer anywhere and it's too dark to take another pic tonight so you will just have to imagine it hanging from a blue satin ribbon that is tied in a bow lol.


I found this "bauble" which was actually supposed to be an Easter egg in a small craft shop in Stonehaven and thought it would be perfect for a Christmas bauble. The pretty trim was from the same shop and I have to admit that it was expensive but I couldn't help myself, it was so pretty that I had to buy some for this project, but I did just buy a meter lol.
The "egg" comes in two halves, so it was easy to add the image and bits inside, but it was a bit tricky to get them to stay where I wanted them too!

 First I stuck on two gold bead sprays which I just twisted together and arranged them how I wanted them, then stuck them on at the bottom with my hot glue gun, then I stamped 2 Inky Impressions images the same, one on my normal stamping paper and one on thick card, coloured the one on the paper in, cut them both out, then I sandwiched them together with some thread in the middle so that she can dangle :) You can't see the image on the back because I had to stick the stamped side facing in the way, otherwise the shape wouldn't of lined up with the other cut out image, so the back is just plain white (might have to think of something to do there). The stamp I used is called Lili's Present and you can find it here in the Inky Impressions store.

This pic you can see the image a bit better in.
I wanted to hide the blob of glue at the bottom where I stuck the wire spray on with. Since you can see right through the bauble, it's difficult to be able to stick things on without seeing the messy glue, so I added some Twinklets (glass glitter) in before I closed it up, which hides the glue perfectly and looks like snow, and you can give it a shake like a snow globe too :)
The image kept twirling round which I didn't want to happen since the back is just plain white, but after jiggling it around for a while to get it back to facing the front, her leg got caught in the wire and it just happens to keep her facing the right way lol.
Then finally once it was closed up, I stuck on the trim (again with the hot glue).

The back is not very pretty just now, but I wanted to take a pic so you can see the gold wire stuff with the pretty beads.
My daughter  had just gave it back to me after shaking it, so you can still see the little bits of glitter stuck to the sides.






I bought two of these (just incase I messed one up lol), so I think I will make another one this week. Not sure what I will put inside it this time though.....any suggestions??

Before I go, I just wanted to remind you that the DT call over at By The Cute and Girly is still running until the 14th, so if you would like to apply, you only have a few more days.
The challenge at By The Cute and Girly this month is "Let It Snow", which my bauble would be perfect for....just a pity I am on the design team and can't enter because there is some fab prizes up for grans again this month!

I am going to enter it into the following challenges though.

Stampin' For The Weekend- Christmas
Cute Card Thursday- Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly- Anything Goes with the option of adding something dangly (my image is dangling)
Allsorts- It takes 2 (use 2 colours)
Pile It On- Bling it up
Raise The Bar- It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Bling It On- Christmas
Creatalicious- Christmas with sparkle
Fussy and Fancy- Photo Inspiration (the photo is of a christmas tree with lots of decorations, so I thought my bauble fit the challenge since it's for hanging on a tree)

Thanks so much for stopping by

By The Cute and Girly- Let It Snow

It's been ages since I last posted!! Things are hectic here and I just haven't had the time to blog.
The challenge this month at By The Cute and Girly is "Let It Snow". Another easy challenge this month that I'm sure you could all join in with :)
As well as our two regular sponsors- Simon Says Stamp and Joanna Sheen, we have a new sponsor this month- The Paper Shelter, who gave the design team some images to work with for this months challenge. If you haven't checked out The Paper Shelter, where have you been?? Their images are sooo sweet and they also do coloured versions for those times when you need to make a quick card.
For both of my cards this month, I used images from The Paper Shelter. I really wanted to use the other images that the design team got as well, but as usual I ran out of time, but I think I might just have to use them before the challenge ends because they are really cute.

My first card uses Warm In The Winter- this one is so cute :)

The papers I used on this one were just scraps, so I have no idea who makes them.
The snowflakes are cut with a Sizzix die from mountboard and then covered with Fuchsia German chunky glass glitter from Meyer Imports. This glitter is so sparkly! Before I used German glass glitter, I had never seen glitter as sparkly as this, it's really pretty and just perfect for Christmas projects.
Meyer Imports sell loads of different colours of this glass glitter and in 4 grit sizes, ranging from super fine to super chunky.
I used two different ribbons from my stash and just tied them together- just noticed that it looks a bit loose in this pic, I have now fixed that and it no longer droops! lol

 I coloured the image as usual with Promarkers and added some flower soft to the snow and some of the glass glitter on her hat.

My next card uses the Snowman from The Paper Shelter

I think I kinda went a bit overboard with the glitter on this one! lol

The snowman is coloured with Promarkers and covered in stickles. I also used a Sakura gelly roll pen for the band on his hat, it's really sparkly in real life.

The papers are by My Minds Eye, flower from Crafty Emma's Store, which I covered in stickles, the big snowflake which is also covered in stickles was cut with a Marianne designs die, and the smaller one which you can hardly see but it is on top of the big one, is a Woodware punch, and finally I used some white satin ribbon and a little star from my stash.

 

I hope you will join in with this months challenge, it's lovely to see my followers playing along :)
Also we are having a dt call over at By The Cute and Girly which runs till the 14th of December.
My design team girls are all really friendly and we love  having a chat on the dt blog, so it's a nice team to be a part of. I am not just looking for people with experience of being on design team, anyone is welcome to apply and will have the same chance as people with experience. What I am looking for is people who are enthusiastic, friendly and love to craft :)
the challenge is monthly, so you have the whole month to make 2 projects, and you can do any craft you like, from card making to baking, as long as it's something you made yourself and it follows the challenge theme.
We sometimes get images/products from sponsors which you can use if you like too :)
So if you are interested in joining a friendly fun design team, hop over to the challenge blog and check out the details.

Thanks for stopping by