Candy and Hops

There is a lovely quilling hop starting - some great pieces if you are interested - and I've found some great blogs to follow.  It starts here.

Letraset have started a new blog and are giving away 50 promarkers! It's open until the 6th January.

Christmas crafting

I've made a few more Christmas cards but posted them before taking photos. I've just about finished Christmas present making/wrapping/buying. There are just a couple more I'd like to do. I had hoped to make CD case calendars but time has run out. That's a next year project.

Here are the gift I've made for my mum.






A framed set of quilled daffodils, and a crocheted brooch.

I've done this wreath



It's decorated with the die cuts from the blog candy I won.

Finally here is our tree


Looks a bit like we just threw a bunch of beads at it, but my little girl likes it :)

Invites

It's my daughter's birthday in a few weeks so I'm making a few things and getting ready for her birthday party. The one she went to last weekend wad huge - all of her class. We are just going small - she's inviting 5 of her friends round. These are the invites.



It's made with freebie papers, stamps and ribbon flowers. I used the new Neenah card from crafters companion that I bought on there birthday weekend and coloured with promarkers. The card is lovely and smooth, but I think I like watercolouring better than promarkers.

Craft club week 3

We had a play with alcohol inks this time. Really good fun - so another thing to add to my wish list.

We embossed some flourishes with clear powder and ink on gold mirror card. Then used 3 colours and blending solution to colour the card. Then with a piece of copy paper we ironed on top to melt off some of the embossing and ink leaving the mirror card showing. Then used archival black to create a shadow. It's a really nice effect.







We also made a quick decoration for the Christmas tree.



I shall be making a few of those with my daughter.

Make and take 3

Another fun one trying new techniques. On this one we used silver leaf on the back of a butterfly on acetate sanded it and used alcohol inks to let other colours show through.

The background was black card covered with distress inks and then with mica powders all over.
Stamp inked up with perfect medium used and then embossed. While still warm a contrasting colour mica was brushed over.




It was a really good day - I love trying out new techniques. Would recommend it to anyone.

Make and Take 2

This one was a quick one. A blended and stamped background covered with double sided sticky stuff and glittered. We made a huge mess with the glitter - it got everywhere. The glitter hides quite a few sins with the stamping!

Make and Take 1

To launch all their Christmas stock my local garden centre had a fun day and they had John Glossop from Creative Expressions doing four make and take sessions. I had to miss one to take my little girl to a classmates birthday party for a couple of hours. This was the first session.

We did some embossing on acetate to make the butterfly and some triple embossing on the chipboard flower. I had to leave this one early so I finished the background papers last night at home - used slightly different colours as I only own 2 distress inks. I scrunched the paper wiped the ink, sprayed with water and ironed. Repeated until covered. The other paper was just coloured with foam and stamped. Again I used slightly different stamps to finish it off. I'm really pleased with the effect.






I'm entering this into:

A spoonful of sugar distressing

Quilled Christmas card

Another Christmas card. This one is a fairly simple quilled snowflake with some free NitWit papers and a foil snowflake.











I'm entering this into:

- Take a quill pill challenge 3

- MSE winter wonderland

- Totally Papercrafts Snow and snowflakes

- Delicious Doodles challenge 1 

60th Anniversary commission

My Mum's friend had a 60th Wedding Anniversary this week so Mum asked me to do a big card. I made this star card using the crafters companion ultimate pro. It's decorated with Papermania Henbury Lane papers and quilling.












































I'm entering this into:

- Digidoodles anything goes 
- HodgePodge anything goes
- Craftycreations beautiful insides

Candy Roundup

There are lots of generous people out there - heres a roundup of the candy on offer at the moment

Crafty granny has a lovely selection to help raise awareness of the ear trust. It expires on the 17th November.

Barbara's World of Whimcees has a giveaway to celebrate her birthday. 

 Simply Create, Alford have some prismacolor markers which look fun to play with.

Catch up after half term

Last week was half term, my daughter just started back today. We did a fair few craft projects getting ready for Christmas.



We made soap and bath bombs in mini cupcake moulds - chocolate scented to match the lipbalms. I'll make some boxes to put them in and DD can decorate and give to our family.

DD has been invited to a few birthday parties. For the one little girl we made a memory wire bracelet - I'm a convert after the one I made for my Mum and invested in a few supplies from Sanctuary Beads on eBay. She made the pinky one and I made the other two for family.




She also made all the Christmas cards for her classmates.

I've had a good craft week too. I won my first candy :D




A beautiful selection fromSamuel Taylors. It had some lovely things that I haven't played with before. Haven't had the time to play with it - just looking and stroking :) I'm hoping to have a day to play next week.

Today was my craft club we played with resist techniques and distress inks.



I'd like to enter this one in the latest MSE challenge.





I bought Do Crafts Creativity magazine and I am on page 78 with a card I made for the competition





Lastly added to my stash with these quilling dies - great fun.




Phew - long post! Should have restored order and be back to normal by next week.

Letterpress

DoCrafts have been selling their letterpress for half price, and I spent my eBay earnings on it. I love the effect it gives. It needs a bit of practice - my first attempts were dreadful. These are the cards I've made with it.

Blog Award

I've been given a blog award by the crafty oap and bumble bees craft den.  Many thanks to both of you.

The Ear Trust

Please go have a look at craftygranny's corner and read about the ear trust and consider buying the digital stamp for a worthy cause.

Candy Roundup

There are quite a few candy contests going at the moment:

Samuel Taylors

Tiddly Inks

What Shall I make today  has a voucher to give away.

Feline Playful - 500 follower

Christmas gift

Just finished this lovely bracelet for my Mum. It's a memory wire bracelet so should stretch to fit. I made it from a kit bought on eBay. It was fairly easy to do.

MSE birthday cards

I received two beautiful cards for my birthday from the MSE forum.




Thanks Padster!




Thanks Jowri!

Craft Club Week 2

Just had my second week at the craft club this morning. Was good fun. We made two cards with a lovely autumnal feel.




This one was made from a selection of x-cut botanical punches, with inked edges, stuck onto a die cut hoop. A few wire spirals made from garden wire are stuck in there too.




This one was a distress ink background (my second attempt - made a complete botch first time). We stamped with water and blotted to create a white shadow and then stamped with ink on top. You can't really see the effect in this photo though.

Craft club week 1

We made 2 cards this week. First one is a really simple and elegant Christmas card.




There's a snowflake embossed pattern. There was a sentiment that I didn't have time to stick on but I lost it on the way home. I like it as is though.

This one was using distressing inks.




I found the proper ink applicator made it much easier to get a smooth effect. We squirted water and blotted to make the snow effect. Didn't have time to colour it in during the class, so I painted with cosmic shimmer watercolours when I got home.

Pink Gem Halloween Candy

There is some lovely candy over at pink gem.  The airbrush for the pro marker looks fun!

Quilling inspiration

I found this post via flickr. Wow those are some stunning examples. Would love to be this good!

I think a lot of them are by Yulia Brodskaya who is supremely talented.

Christmas wrapping

I've spent the morning making boxes and tying ribbons for the Christmas presents I've done so far. Love the Crafters Companion Ultimate Pro for making boxes - it's very quick.



I've got quite a big family but I'm nearly done. Just a few of the more awkward people to buy for - thought I had them sorted but the gadget shop cancelled the order as they are moving warehouse. I'm waiting for the shop to reopen. I've also got to make some soap and bathbombs with my daughter for her to give.

More candy

There is even more candy available over at Clare Curds blog.

Card candy from Rainmac

There is a beautiful selection of candy over at Rainmacs blog.  It's a good one to follow for inspiration.

Wedding Invites

These are the wedding invites I'm doing for my little sister.




She bought the basic cards with the love heart sweet on. I'm making shaker frames with a quilled mouse and an embossed mouse on the back. All fit with her themes.

More Christmas cards

I made a big batch of cards last week with the Smirk Christmas kit.


The kit was only £10 and I've not used much at all.






They are all very simple as the backing papers are very decorative.












The remaining papers are simple so I can do some stamping and more elaborate cards.