Blue Bauble Cards

Hi again,

I'm back again with a few more Christmas Cards to show you. Usually I make all my cards individually and don't do two the same. This year, as I am a bit behind, once I have found a layout that works I have done a few more that are similar. When I counted up how many I had done, I found I wasn't as far behind as I thought. That was until someone at work asked if I could make him 10 or 12!

I then had to get my skates on! A lot of my cards have cute images etc, so I tried to do some that were a bit more manly for him. I also wanted to do some quick ones to get them done. Here are a few that I came up with...

I have had the blue bauble stickers for years and not known what to do with them so was pleased when I had an idea! The man at work seemed to like them, so they must be ok!

I would like to enter the second card into the following challenge:

• Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes (+ Clean and Simple) 
• Divas by Design - Feeling Festive

Thanks for looking. I'll be back with more soon!

Katie xx

12 Days of Christmas Cards

Hi Everyone,

Well I have been busy making Christmas Cards so thought it was time that I shared some with you. These cards I made using the 12 Days of Christmas papers that I received free with one of the DoCrafts Creativity Magazines. I really liked the papers when I received them, but when I sat down to use them, I really struggled with what to do with them! I didn't have anything else in the range and felt that nothing else I really had went with the papers.

Inspiration struck in the end and I cut out the baubles from one of the papers for the central image and used lots of silver to add some sparkle.

As I was pleased with how the card turned out, I did another one with gold accents instead. 

I have since used these papers for a few other cards and will share them at some point too. I hope you like these cards and if you have also used these papers for your cards I would love to see how you have used them. I will be adding more of my Christmas Cards so keep checking back!

Thanks for looking

Katie xx

Chocolate Birthday Card!

Hi everyone,

Just a quick post this evening to show you a card I made using the Hot Diggity Dog collection. I made this card for a friend who is a big fan of chocolate so thought this cute image would be perfect!

Today I have been making more Christmas cards so will share some of those with you next week.

Thanks for looking.

Katie xx

Gorjuss Birthday Card

Evening everyone,

Today I am going to share a card that I made for my sister-in-law using the Gorjuss range.

I used papers from one of the paper packs and one of the mini decoupage packs. Think these are really good value and can be used to make a quick card if needed. The little flowers and butterflies are actually from the paper pack packaging as the idea is that everything can be used which is great. 

I have a few friends' birthdays coming up and I think I'll dig these papers out again to use for those.

Thanks for looking

Katie xx

Dad's Birthday Card

Hi everyone,

After the horrid "morning" sickness, the first card that I made was for my Dad's birthday. I had completely gone off card making or any kind of crafting with the sickness, so wasn't sure how this card would turn out. Was really pleased that it turned out so well though.

I used the "Home to Nest" range from DoCrafts for this card including papers and the notelet. The leaf embellishment was from my stash and so were the letters. Since starting more mini scrapbooks and smashbooking, I have acquired quite a collection of different alphabet stickers and thought this would make a change from the usual "Happy Birthday". I also used kraft card to mat everything onto. I think it makes a nice contrast with the white card.

Well I hope you like this card, and I will be back soon with more cards I have been making.

Thanks for looking.

Katie xx

I'm back with a Baby Boy Card!

Well firstly I must apologise for not posting anything for such a hideously long time, but I do have a good reason! It is because I am pregnant! I had a really rough first 4 months with terrible nausea and sickness and didn't even go near my laptop for most of that time let alone do anything useful on it! I am now 5 months and feeling much better and have even started crafting again.

So appropriately I thought I would share a Baby Boy card I made for a friend. Lots of my friends seem to be having babies at the moment!

I used a mix of things from my stash for this card, firstly picking the forever friends bear image and bunting and then picking papers and other elements to go with it. I wanted to keep the colours fairly soft and was pleased with how it turned out!

I made my first two Christmas cards last night, so will share them with you shortly. I hope to be back to regular blogging now (although I can't guarantee that will continue after February as I may have my hands full!) I am hoping to make some things for the baby though so will share those with you too. Hopefully my lovely followers and some new people will still be around and haven't deserted me after my long absence!

Thanks for looking

Katie xx

Wellington Father's Day Card

Hi everyone,

Here is the Wellington Father's Day card that I made for my Dad. I used a mix of things from my stash for this card.

I used kraft card and various patterned papers. The stickers and the sentiment are from the Wellington range, which is perfect for male cards.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Dream Valley Challenges - Father's Day/Male Theme
Joanna Sheen Challenge - Father's Day/Male Card

Thanks for stopping by.

Katie xx

May your day run like clockwork...

Evening everyone,

Well it's been another hectic week which is why I haven't done any crafting or blogging.

Here is the Father's Day card that I have made for my Father-in-law. He likes clocks, so I thought the chronology range would be perfect for him.

The clock was from a die cut set, so I layered the pieces up using foam pads and distresed the top layers with faded jeans distress ink. 

I hope he likes it! I am going to enter this card into the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly - Hello Boys
Art Impression Stamps - Masculine Card
Milk Coffee Challenge - Father's Day

Thanks for looking and I'll be back with the card that I made for my Dad.

 Katie xx

Chronology 30th Birthday Card

Hi everyone,

Can't believe another week has gone by - been really busy this week so I'm glad it's the weekend! I'm now looking forward to enjoying the sun today.

Here is a card that I made for the 30th birthday of the guy who was best man at our wedding. Everything is from the DoCrafts Chronology range, which I love. The balloon and sentiment was from a decoupage pack, that I won in a competition in the Creativity Magazine.

I distressed the different layers of the balloon with dusty concord, faded jeans and walnut stain distress inks before layering them up using foam pads.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Simon says Stamp - Anything Goes
The Crafting Cafe - One for the Boys

Thanks for stopping by!

Katie xx

Another Wedding Card

Hi everyone,

Well it must be wedding season, as here is a late post from me this evening to show you a wedding card that I made for a friend who got married yesterday. We had a great day and it was lovely to see the sun shine!

Here's the card that I made...

I used papers and embellishments from the DoCrafts Vintage Notes range. The doily was actually from a pound shop and I used spun sugar distress ink to blend it in with the rest of the card. 

I then added some ribbon and roses to the bottom.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Emma's Crafty Challenge - Pink & Blue
The Crafty Bloggers Network - O's & X's Challenge (Die cut, doily & Gems/bling)

Divas by Design - Friendship

Thanks for looking

Katie xx

Wedding Cake Card

Evening all!

Hope you have all enjoyed the sunshine this weekend. It was nice to see it - we've just got back from a break in Barcelona and it poured with rain! I wasn't very impressed, especially as hadn't taken a coat or waterproof shoes! Had a great time sightseeing none the less.

Before I went to Barcelona I made a wedding card for some friends that got married yesterday. I used papers from the DoCrafts Vintage Notes range as well as the sentiment. The other bits and pieces are from my stash.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Crafty Blogger's Network - O's and X's challenge (Gems/bling, stamp, ribbon)
Simon Says Stamp - Flower Power
DoCrafts - Anything Goes
Crafty Catz - 3-2-1 (3 cake tiers/patterned papers, 2 flowers, 1 stamp)

Crafting Muskateers - Anything Goes 

Thanks for stopping by!

Katie x

Purple Fairy Card

Hi Everyone,

Here is a card that I made for my Gran. She hasn't been too well so I thought a card and a photo of a recent lunch out would cheer her up.

I love this stamp - it's by Lili of the Valley and it's great because you can use lots of different colours for her dress. This time I used purple promarkers - Amethyst, Orchid and Blossom.

For her hair I used copics - E35, E57 and E59. For the leaves and grass I used G21 and Forest Green.

I kept the card simple but I thought the image was enough with just a purple border and some green punched leaves.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Mad for Markers - Something created for a female
Whoopsi Daisy - For a Special Lady
Simon Says - Things with Wings
DoCrafts - Use a stamp
Crafty Catz - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking.

Katie x

Watercress Line & JK Smashbook pages

Hi everyone,

Last week was a busy week for me with one thing and another including a long day as polling clerk for the local elections which I really enjoyed depsite the very early morning! Unfortunately the busy week ended in me having a stinking cold for the lovely sunny bank holiday weekend so have spent all weekend inside feeling sorry for myself! I have managed to do a bit of crafting today though and take some pictures to share with you.

Here is one of my latest Smashbook pages. This was about a day out a few years ago now, which reminds me that I meant to look up the date and add on but have forgotten! I picked out the colours from the train - red and green and added embellishments in those colours.

I have also done a page on the car that we had to sell recently - was very sad to see it go as I loved that car but it was time to move on!!

I hope you like my pages. Thanks for looking and commenting.

Katie xx

Crafting Cafe Blog Hop

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the 2nd Crafting Cafe blog hop - the Crafting Cafe is a group of crafters on facebook who share all their their fab creations... why not come on over and join us?

If you have started from the beginning of the hop you will have got to me from Lindsay - http://craftymonster81.blogspot.co.uk/. If you found this hop by accident - welcome! To go to the beginning of the hop, pop on over to Nikki's blog - http://what-nikki-did-next.blogspot.co.uk/ and then you will get to see the beautiful creations from everyone!

The theme of this blog hop is Celebration, so here is my card...

This is a new baby card I made for some friends who had a baby boy. I picked the cute Forever Friends image and then decided to keep the colours to blue and brown to match. I used papers from the DoCrafts Boofle pack and embossed blue card with a buttons embossing folder in my cuttlebug.

Thank you for hopping over to see me, now it's time to hop on over to the next blog, next on the list is Dawn - http://dawn-dawnscrafting.blogspot.co.uk/

Happy hopping!

Katie xx

Flower Anniversary Card

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick post from me this evening to show you the card that I made for my Mum and Dad for their wedding anniversary.

As my Mum also does card making, I wanted to do something a bit different for her card. I embossed the card with my cuttlebug, but as the embossing folder wasn't big enough to cover the whole card I used ribbons on either side. I then stamped the script and Happy Anniversary onto kraft cardstock and drew freehand lines around the edges. 

I then stamped a flower onto red and green papers and cut out and added to the script background. I added some pearls and some stickles for a bit of sparkle!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Crafting Cafe - Let's Celebrate
Allsorts - A passion for flowers

Thanks for looking.

Katie xx

Tim Holtz - 12 tags of 2013 - April

Hi everyone,

Thought I'd do something a bit different at the weekend and do a tag for the Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2013 challenge. For those of you that haven't seen it, Tim Holtz does a tutorial each month and you can enter your version of the tag. Here is Tim's for April:

Here is my interpretation:

I used peeled paint, walnut stain and faded jeans distress inks for the background. I didn't have a dragonfly stamp so I went for a bird instead. I did try to stamp it onto acetate but the ink wasn't drying so I didn't think it was going to work. As it turned out it had dried by the next day but I was too impatient to wait! I will have to use that on something else instead. I therefore stamped it on some paper that I think came from a box of chocolates or something - I quite like the bit of sparkle in it. The other things were just from my stash.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out as it's very different to the things that I normally make.

Thanks for looking.

Katie xx

89th Birthday Card

Hi everyone,

Hope you're all well. This evening I am going to show you the card that I made for my Gran's 89th birthday.

I used papers from the Boofle range and from the Spots and Stripes range as I wanted it to be nice and bright.

The sentiment was part of some blog candy that I won and I thought this went perfectly.

My Gran enjoyed her day - the family all went out for a meal which was nice. She is now busy planning her 90th birthday party!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Crafty Bloggers Network - Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly - Bingo (Blooms, Ribbons, Gems)
Divas by Design - Flowers
Simon Says Stamp - Spring Flowers
Allsorts - Spring has Sprung

Thanks for looking

Katie xx

Bristol Smashbook pages

Hi everyone,

Happy Friday! I'm glad the weekend is finally here! Let's hope we see some more sun and no more snow!

I have some smashbook pages to share with you this evening. I have the red smashbook and have decided to use it as a random book. I've got loads of tickets and things that I have kept to scrapbook but never gotten around to using them so want to use them in this book. So here are my latest pages that I did about a weekend away to Bristol to see The Script in concert.

I've been keeping the tickets and things since 2008 so pleased to have finally used them! I thought this page was perfect with the "Seen" and "Heard". I therefore did the left hand page about all the things we saw and the right hand page about the concert.

I've been really lucky to have received some fab crafty things from people I have met online. I received the Weekend Away journalling card as a RAK and the blue tag, letter stickers and gorgeous flowery paper were just a small part of a fab big parcel I received after winning some blog candy on Scrappy Scrappy Blog. There are lots of gorgeous cards and tutorials to be found so head on over and have a look!

Thanks for looking and hope you all have a good weekend.

Katie xx

Hot Cross Buns!

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all had a nice Easter break. It was certainly nice to have 4 days off work - I could get used to that! As always it went by very quickly though! As I have now given the Easter card that I made to my mum and dad, I can now share it with you all.

As with most of my recent cards, I used Docrafts Spots and Stripes papers and a few others from my stash. I just loved this image of the Forever Friends bear with the hot cross buns so had to use it for the central image!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• My Mum's Craft Shop - Easter
• The Crafty Bloggers Network - Anything Goes
• Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
• Divas by Design - Spring Colours
• Docrafts Card Makers Challenge - Spring

Thank you all for looking and I'll be back soon with something other than a card!!

Katie xx

Forever Friends Easter Card

Hi everyone,

Another Easter card from me this evening, which I have sent to my Gran.

The Forever Friends image was part of some decoupage sheets that I got free with DoCrafts Creativity Magazine a year or two ago. I picked the image first and then picked the patterned paper and other elements to match. The paper is from the Boofle paper pack and the other things were from my stash.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenge:

J & C Creations - Easter

Katie xx

Spring Tags

Hey guys,

I took part in a tag swap in one of the facebook groups that I belong to and the theme was "Spring", so here are the tags that I made...

I love this little bird - it's so cute! It was from a decoupage sheet I had free with DoCrafts Creativity Magazine a year or two ago. The backing paper is from the DoCrafts Spots & Stripes pastel range and I love the blue striped washi tape that I found in a local card shop in Exeter. I had been drooling over the washi tape that people had been showing on facebook pages so was over the moon when I found these one day!

 

I kept to the pastel colours and found this dragon fly in my stash - no idea where it came from!

You may recognise this image from an Easter Card that I made recently. It's by Hobby Art and this time I coloured the birds in using Cobalt Blue Promarker, B32 copic pen and Lemon Promaker. I kept this tag simple with just a dark blue mat behind the image to make it stand out. 

I again used blue and yellow for this bird which is a stamp by Docrafts. I then used a corner of DoCrafts filigree paper that I had left over.

I had some gorgeous Spring Tags in return and am going to be Smash*booking them!

I would like to enter these tags into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp - Easter/Spring
Papertake Weekly - Easter Treats

Thanks for looking.

Katie xx

Easter birdies!

Good evening!

Well I did loads of crafting over the weekend and I really enjoyed it. I did a bit of Smash*ing, a bit of my 2012 daybook and some cards. All of which I will share with you at some point.

Here is one of the cards that I made - an Easter card for my in-laws.

The stamp is by Hobby Art and is another one that I borrowed from my Mum! I love birds so couldn't wait to colour in this fab image and use it on a card. I used promarkers and copics to colour it in the following colours:
Birds: Lemon and Primrose
Flowers: Fuchsia Pink
Leaves: Holly, Forest Green + G21
Nest + branches: E57, E59

I coloured in the image a week or so ago and was amazed when I found papers that went perfectly with it in my stash. The layout is quie simple but I wanted the image to be the main focus.

I hope you like it and thanks for looking.

Katie xx

Another Mother's Day Card

Evening everyone,

I hope you are all cosy and warm inside this evening - couldn't believe about some people being trapped in their cars for 12 hours - must have been awful.

This evening I am going to share the Mother's Day card that I made for my Mum.

For this card I again used the Spots and Stripes Pastel papers from DoCrafts and another one of the filigree papers from the Vintage Notes range from DoCrafts which I cut into a circle. The other bits and pieces are from my stash. 

The stamp is a lovely little Country Companions mouse from DoCrafts. As I had used pastel colours I thought it would be a girl mouse and that I would give her some nice clothes to wear! I stamped the image onto some white card, then I stamped the t-shirt part of the image onto the pink stripe card and the wellies onto spotty card. I then coloured in her head and belly using copics: E35, E57, E59 (browns) E51, E53 (creams) and R20 for her ear and nose. Finally I cut out all the individual parts and stuck them on another stamped image so that they all fit together.

I'm pleased with how it turned out and my mum liked it too. I even gave her a lesson on colouring the mouse during the afternoon on Sunday!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

My Mum's Craft Shop - Spring has Sprung
The Crafty Bloggers Network - Spring or Pastel
That Craft Place - Anything Goes
Whoopsi Daisy - Buttons or Bows
Papertake Weekly - 1,2,3 (1 bow, 2 flowers, 3 letters)
Allsorts - Spring Time

Thank you to my regular readers for all the lovely comments - I love to read them!

Katie x

Mother's Day Card

Evening folks,

This evening I am going to share the card I have made for my Mother-In-Law for Mother's Day. I have used the fab Spots and Stripes Pastel papers from DoCrafts. I have to say that these papers wouldn't have been my first choice but I had some vouchers to spend so I did buy them. I am now really glad I did as I have used them for quite a few cards. They are perfect for Easter and Mother's Day cards as they make me think of Spring!

I think the stamp is by Penny Black, but not I'm certain as it is one of my Mum's. We have a great arrangement whereby whenever one of us buys a stamp the other gets a load of the stamped image!! I then coloured it in using copics.

I also cut a circle from the filigree paper from the Vintage Notes range from Docrafts and added a flower and bow that I was lucky enough to win in a card challenge with Crafty Bloggers Network. I seem to have been lucky recently as I won a massive bag of flowers for that, then I won some blog candy and I also won a few bits from the Coffee Break Teaser in the DoCrafts Creativity Magazine. They say things happen in threes so I guess that's it now, or maybe I should buy a lottery ticket!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

My Mum's Craft Shop - Spring has Sprung
Crafty Bloggers Network - Spring or Pastel
Whoopsi Daisy - 2 patterned papers
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes (Mother's Day Card)

Thanks for looking and hope you are all having a crafty evening!

Katie x

Peach Card

Hi everyone,

Well I have been busy doing a lot of crafting over the last week so need to take photos of everything and blog them for you! Here is another Thank You card that I made. You might have seen me use the Penny Black Hedgehog image before. I love this image - it's so versatile as I colour the flowers to match whatever papers I am using. These papers come from the First Edition "New Leaf" paper pack and I used coral and honeycomb promarkers to colour the flowers on the image. These two colours together match perfectly with the peach coloured papers.

I hope you like this card. I would like to enter it into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
DoCrafts Card Makers Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by.

Katie x

Bird Thank You Card

Evening all,

Today I am going to share a Thank You Card that I made last year but never blogged.

The card was for a man so wanted to make it masculine. I used some script stamps for the background, and the bird and music stamps are from one of the Urban Stamp sets by DoCrafts. I twisted the ribbon randomly before adding it on. I haven't done this before or since but think it adds a different dimension. I then added some brown adhesive pearls and some buttons.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Papertake weekly - Buttons & Bling
DoCrafts Card Makers Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking and I'd love to know what you think...

Katie xx

First Smash Book Page

Hi everyone,

This evening I am going to share my first Smash*book page with you. I received the Red Smash*book for Christmas and have only just got round to doing my first page.

If you would like some inspiration you can join the lovely people in the facebook groups SMASH*aholics and SMASH*ing UK.

As always, thanks for looking!

Katie xx

Happy Valentine's Day

Evening everyone,

I hope you have all had a nice Valentine's Day. Well my hubby took me to the dentist... and they say romance is dead!! He did give me a nice card and some chocolates too though so they cheered me up!

Here is the card that I made for him. Just after Christmas I ordered some fab new craft stuff and it arrived whilst I was ill so was keen to use them when I felt better. It included the new Chronology papers by Docrafts which I love. I used walnut stain on everything apart from the white blank card as I wanted everything to have that distressed feel to it.

I was really pleased when I found the "LOVE" rub-on as it was just a random pack that I have had for years and I don't really have any sentiment stamps or anything for Valentine's Day so wasn't sure what I would use.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and hubby really liked it too!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

The Crafting Cafe - Anything Goes
My Mum's Crafty Shop - Valentines/Love
Cards Galore - One for the Men
The Crafty Bloggers Network - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking

Katie xx