Clearly Besotted October Teasers Day 1

Hello everyone!

Happy Friday and welcome to another set of Teasers. This is one humongous blockbuster of a release and you will be utterly spoiled for choice! As usual, I’ve got 4 days of Teasers, plus the release day and I’ve even got one extra beyond that! 😉

This is possibly my favourite set of the October release ‘One More Sleep‘. This set covers more than just Christmas and I love the idea of scene creation that this set makes so easy.

Isn’t the set utterly delightful! I can just imagine best friends Foxer and Rabbina bundled up in their hand knitted cosy scarves, watching silently as Santa and his reindeer floated effortlessly across the sky. They weren’t always friends. As children, Rabbina spent most of her life running away from Foxer. Rabbina’s mother spent many an evening writing passive aggressive notes to Mrs Fox. Mrs Rabbit received several responses about it ‘being natural’ and ‘she would always defend her son’s right to a mid morning snack’.

Mrs Rabbit really wanted to speak face to face to Mrs Fox, but knew it would end in a flurry of fur and a motherless brood of rabbits. Most of Rabbina’s school days were spent dodging Foxer but once she developed a friendship with Skunkette, Foxer backed off. As they got older, both animals viewed each other from a distance and learned to appreciate the differences between them. Rabbina had a wonderful sense of humour and Foxer was actually a loyal friend who was really good at maths ( which turned out really useful during GCSE mocks).

Anyway, their friendship blossomed and Foxer would no more want to eat Rabbina than his own mother, so one fine night, on Christmas Eve, they packed a picnic supper with flasks of hot chocolate and pickled mice. As they say gazing into the giant moon, they fell silent under the gentle glow of the moon and watched as Santa navigated his present sledge towards the millions of children eagerly awaiting. They reminisced about how their friendship was strained when they were young, but how much they appreciated each other. Foxer couldn’t wait for Rabbina to open his gift ( which was a hand carved tail comb). Rabbina wished she could be there tomorrow morning to see Foxer unwrapping the claw file she’d forged in DT. Best friends have a complicated history, but they couldn’t imagine spending time with anyone else. Even though they’d been told that Santa wasn’t real, the proof was there before their eyes and momentarily Foxer wondered whether reindeer was as tasty as his Dad made out!…

Creating the sky was easy, using Black Soot distress ink. I started out stamping the moon/house image and then stamping on a sticky note and trimming out. With the mask on, I added some Squeezed Lemonade ink first and then added the black ink around the edges, not getting too close to the yellow so leaving the ‘glow’. Then I just flicked water onto it and dabbing off, which gave a real snowy look!

You can see the moon here; I just added 2 grey alcohol markers onto the centre of the moon. Colouring in the animals was easy and they are quick to trim out. Add some white gel pen details to the sky for better dimension. You can see the glittered snow below which is fun! The whole card came together quicker than I thought, and I love the result!

As usual there is inspiration galore via the Clearly Besotted blog, then visit Michelle and Lisa then please pop over to our guest again this month Joy Taylor!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this first card; tomorrow’s project is an altogether more energetic one!

See you tomorrow!

Keren xx

Winnie and Walter Nov Premiere Day 3

Hello!

Happy Thursday! I’m here again with a few more sets from the new Winnie and Walter release. Here’s what I created!

I think the main star is the Cover Model: Do You See What I See? It’s one of the cleverest dies I know of as there are so many patterns- so the ‘do you see what I see’ is completely apt! Having spent a lot of time in the quilting and sewing world I love creating patterns and this 6 point star is typical of a quilt pattern.

The leaves and sentiment are from a new set ‘In Bloom: Victoria’s Very Merry Flowers with Lydia Evans’ (phew- that’s a mouthful!!). After stamping, I dotted some embossing ink on the leaves and then added some White embossing powder to look like a little snow. The gold ampersand is using a die from a previous set Typecast: Cary Number Cutaways

I’ve shown you a closeup for a caution! I used a transfer adhesive sheet- and never have any problems but really- always reduce the level of adhesive by sticking it to your jeans or something; just what I should have done- and because I didn’t, I lifted several of the shape’s top layers.

Do check out the Winnie and Walter blog to see what the rest of the team have created for today!

See you soon

xx

Winnie & Walter Tour of The Stars

Hello! Welcome to the culmination of a creative week showcasing the wonderful new Winnie & Walter release. It all starts over on the blog and hopefully if you’re hopping in order, you’ll have come from the supremely creative Kelly Griglione. 

I’ve used one of the sets shown yesterday- ‘Seasons Tweetings’

See the igloo? I thought if I stamped it twice onto some acetate and adhered it together, I could create a human hamster ball to put little Mr Snowman in. 

I’ve made the background using more Molotow masking pen dots onto a card base, adding distress inks over the top and then rubbing away the masking dots. 

The next lovely star on the hop is the lovely Lydia Evans and I can’t wait to have a look around at everything that the other girls have produced. 

Hope you have enjoyed seeing the new products that are all available from Winnie & Walter here now. 

Do leave comments on the Winnie & Walter blog entries from the last week for a chance to win each day’s release plus one lucky winner will win the entire release! 

For this blog hop, 5 randomly chosen commenters across all the blogs will win $30 each to spend in the W&W store. Comments must be left by Monday Nov 21st at noon CST! 

See you soon xx

PaperBabe Stamps December Release

Hi there!

Hope you’re all ok and not too snowed under (weather wise or activity wise!!). Today I’m fortunate to be joining the team at PaperBabe Stamps to show their December release. Kim and the team have already showed some smaller face stamps and templates & I’m showing the Tweed stamp set (so very cool) and the Stencil that matches.

Turns out, I got so carried away with the stencil, that I didn’t have as much time with the tweed creator!

The first card was using the dab on the ink, spritz water over and press onto a cardstock piece technique. You do need a stencil to dab the ink onto. I used ordinary card and then added the sentiment from the lovely Sparkle Bright set

The second card was done using the leftover spray from a dye ink spray that I’d already used for spraying through the stencil and the leftover ink. I sprayed with water using the first technique. This left a cool patchy look that I filled in with alcohol markers and embossed a sentiment.

The next card is more of a card for kids. By simple stencilling, I looked at the shapes and saw Christmas trees. I trimmed some out and made a little Christmas scene!

Now I finally get onto the tweed set. Kim has cleverly designed it so you have placement with different widths between the chevron type layers and also some houndstooth images. There is even a little abstract square designed to create the look of the fluffy texture you often get with tweed fabric.

When I’d stamped a few rows, it seemed to look 3D, even though it wasn’t. So, I went with 3D.

By concertina folding, you create some real dimension. This is a perfect set for textures, man cards or just even trendy chevron images. Isn’t it a cool set?!

All new sets (plus its worth checking out the current selection), are available in the PaperBabe shop.

Do visit the PaperBabe blog where you can see how the rest of her Design Team were inspired by the new stamps, templates and stencils.

Better go, its the end of term (hurrah!- I can begin to catch up on blog stuff and have a bit of a break from the school run!)

See you soon xx

Clearly Besotted October Release Day!

Hi! Welcome to Release Day for Clearly Besotted’s October Release. You’ve a few hours yet- they are available from 10pm.. but hopefully a few more projects to whet your appetite whilst you wile away the hours 😉

First up… the Giving Thanks set

I thought I’d go pink. Why have green wheelbarrows when you can go girly!

I’ve cut out the middle so it’s more interesting! I re-stamped the apples and added a thin black line around the apples so there was a complete one and added it to the floor to give the scene more dimension.

This next one is using just a die and a sentiment from the Warm Solutions II set. I love the idea that coffee gives colour to life so wanted to use watercolours to give a rainbow of splashes down the cups.

Last, and not least is a set called Home At Christmas.

It’s hard to see- but I’ve stamped the image onto acetate and have painted it from the reverse side.

It creates a lovely effect, just have to watch the lines carefully! I used a nail art brush which is superfine and managed within reason!

Hope you’ve enjoyed a little look at this lovely release. There are more sets than I’ve been able to create with, but there are sets for everybody!

Do go and see the full release on the blog and pop over to the store at 10pm and beyond to gets your inky mitts on your favourites!

It’s been so lovely guesting with Clearly Besotted.Thanks to Stephanie and the team  for having me!

See you all soon x

Dazzling Diva’s Challenge No. 54

Hi! I know, it’s me again 😉

It’s  a challenge all about snow or snowflakes. I went with snowflakes and added a pop of red.
Here’s how I created the dimension- firstly by making a file in Studio (Silhouette software) and cutting it out from cardstock. I turned it over, added the metal to the back and carefully burnished with one of the tools to push the metal all the way into the aperture
Next turn it over, and tadaaa.. gorgeous dimension (not to mention the shine!!)

Next- I added the cut out heart from the centre of the ‘o’ after adhering Scarlet Red metal to the back. By turning it over and repeating the burnishing process- you get this look with the heart slightly sunken in and the metal rising from the edges of the heart.

I’ve used these metal colours and you buy them from here
You can I’ve added glitter into the cut out word and also a vinyl cut out onto the snowflake.

It would be great if you joined in with the challenge this week
Click the challenge image and go and see what the other teamies have created. It’s worth joining as there’s always a store credit prize to win each week.. and then you can have a go at the tons of ways of incorporating metal into your crafting.

See you very very soon, with some family funnies & some offerings using some very gorgeous sprout tape I happened upon recently!!

xx

Pic’N’Mix Christmas & Bruises!

Hi! How are you all?

I’m over on Make The Day Special Stamp Store today- sharing this card- a Christmas card using mostly non-Christmas supplies.

The dies for ‘joy’ are Louie’s ABC’s which are perfect

and the paper is ‘Snow Days’ by Lawn Fawn

I have used a whole bunch of other supplies from Lawn Fawn- Forest Border die, Critters in the Snow (snowflakes), Year Four (the musical notes).

It’s a quickie post as I’m trying to finish some work. I’m also recovering from hurting myself twice in one day!

The first? Getting into the shower to try and fix a problem. The bottom of the bath was wet as someone had already been in there.

One foot in, one leg outside the bath. One foot went left, I banged myself against the bath and did a fairly inelegant split. I have a cracking bruise to show for it.

Fast forward to the evening. I was helping Will with some maths homework on the computer.

One of the chairs was slightly broken by the kids. I wasn’t looking when I chose a chair to sit on.

You can tell what’s about to come next can’t you…

Crack, split, and down I went.

I was shocked more than hurt.

Will was really upset- and worried.

So two bruises in one day.

Fabulous!

Well, see you tomorrow with a fun bit of stencilling,

xx

Hanging Star Concertina Card & Weird Lists!

Morning. How is Monday already?! Today I wanted to show you a project I was demoing at the weekend. I wanted to do something showcasing a punch and die set.
I simply used 3 card blanks, added extra folds to the folded side. Punch out about 12 stars and pair two up sandwiching thread between each pair.
Using the circle die set and a template I created, add circle apertures into each card blank on both sides.
Using craft patterned tape, suspend the stars at different heights and adhere one blank to another and so hide the thread ends.

Add some patterned paper, stamped images from the new 12 Days of Christmas range and cover the ends of each blank with a patterned strip of paper. It stands in a ‘v’ shape and folds completely flat too.

It’s a fun and different card- definitely one for the more favourite people in your life!!

We’ve been keeping busy- school is simply exhausting everyone. There are changes as some of them decide that new subjects aren’t quite what they imagined and for others it’s settling back into a year of not wanting to attend school at all!!
I get it – why would you want to go and work at school when you can stay and play at home?
Today’s schedule is an interesting one.
1. Crafty prep for next weeks demo and magazine work.
2. Buy Febreze for a school bag that now stinks after getting wet in the rain ( bizarre, I know!)
3. Collect a Wii remote and clothes for a play date for another.
4. Take rabbit into teens school at lunchtime as a visual aid for a debate on animal testing (!!)
5. Tea/ironing/yucky housework
6. Tonight out at NWHS ( stamp club).
Does anyone else have unusual lists like me?!!
7. Send artwork off to a manufacturer ( new project I’ll tell you about very soon!!)

See you when I’ve ticked them off ( well, maybe not all of them!!)
xx

Merry & Bright and Proof!

Iiiiiits Monday! Phew.
Felt like a long 48hours that did. Fun but extraordinarily hectic. This card was one I demoed on Saturday. I have to say it was a whole lot of fun. Granted, I was a little nervous because I didn’t know exactly how to pitch it- what kind of people I’d meet and whether it would work out. I need not have worried.
It was simply lovely meeting such a varied bunch of people. There were some newbie crafters, some who probably knew more than I did, one girl and her mum who took up stamping for the first time that day ( yay!), reluctant husbands following their wives around and some really lovely Abakhan staff. There was a real buzz about the store and I’m really looking forward to going back. It was great to see some of my friends pop down ( thankyoouu!) and my worries about sitting there alone for 3 hours were completely unfounded. Next month is more Christmas cards with different stamps, different samples and different colours too!

The card above is using a DoCrafts set of stamps that everyone fell in love with and the shop sold out of!
It’s fairly challenging creating cards with limited supplies- would love to do one of those challenges where someone gives you 5 things and you’ve to create a Layout with it!

With some large amounts of reservation – I post this-

I couldn’t take a pic of the back which is much shorter than the front ( but obviously perfectly graduated 😉 )
and glad that my exploits continue to amuse and defy belief in just how idiotic I can be! To quote my lovely friend Ros who I had the pleasure of visiting this morning – ‘you have to be brave, you have 5 kids’! Although secretly I’m sure she thinks ( like the rest of you lovely blog readers) that I’m a little unhinged! Seeing Ros ‘the queen of vintage-y’ was truly a tonic. I find it hard to concentrate in anything at her house because everywhere, and I mean everywhere are morsels of craftiness that she’s created. It’s so lovely. She also gave me a fab tutorial about the benefits and features of the silhouette cameo. It is so definitely on my wish list now.!

Better go- have got to get my brain in gear now. It doesn’t happen very often and I may take a whole while to recover.
See you when I’ve rested my brain cell! x

World Card Making Day & Free Haircut !

 Hey! Happy World Card Making Day! I realise that I’m a full 3 hours too early, but I’m going to be packing the day a little too much to fit in a post right on time.

Hope you’re doing something fun and creative- after all you have a fabulous excuse! This card is made from teeny parts of some supplies as to have used the whole shebang would have been OTT in a bad way. However, with a little restraint and a bit of mitred edges (don’t do the whole zooming in thing- trust me, the corners arent so pretty close up!), it has a pared back look that I like.

I wanted to post one of the cards I’m demoing tomorrow, but the light went before I had the chance!

Todays episode of ‘how I manage to bring ridiculousness to my existence’ centres around my hair. I’m totally useless at keeping regular visits to the hairdressers, in fact whereas some women keep on top of their locks, I see it as treat to be enjoyed occasionally. My wayward hair and increasing split ends however, were starting to get on my nerves. On one spare 10 minutes the other day, my fingers happened to type ‘how to cut a bob yourself’ and so the tale begins

YouTube is a wonderful thing. Used in moderation there is little that you cannot discover or learn. I too learned that cutting your hair solo was not just entirely possible but in fact down right easy. How, you ask, well with a little blue gadget that kinda clips onto your hair, with little plastic teeth to grip your hair-strands and even a spirit level for you to check you’d got things straight!In fact, the tutorial was just plain inspiring.

I clocked the camera angles- checking that there hadn’t been clever editing so that the camera trickery was indeed responsible for the apparent simplicity. All I needed was a hair trimmer, this ‘thingummyjig’ and a brush. I didn’t have the gadget, but quickly realised that it was a glorified plastic food clip. Ooh, I thought, I have  a large bag of those from Ikea.

I’d dug them out and left them in my room. I actually tried it in my hair to see if it fitted snugly enough and then chickened out. No way was I buying the tool, but something (which was probably the sane and rational part of my brain) was telling me it could go really and dramatically wrong.

This morning, I chose to be brave. It was 7am and I knew I had 10 minutes to attempt it….. Fool.

I dug out Steve’s hair clippers which have seen plenty of action. Not so much in recent times- due to being banned from using them; one child, sudden move of head, seriously wonky haircut. Another story!

I stood at the mirror. I positioned my hair just as I’d been directed. Something told me to stop. Right now. Have some sense girl.

I then had to take out the small mirror into the bathroom, use it to check the back of my head- that it was straight and the hair evenly disributed along the food bag clip. My eldest double checked for me, although as she’d not seen the instructional video, I wondered about her ability to discern. I rushed back to the bedroom and stood holding the razor. Let me explain, its actually not as easy as the video reckons. Firstly I dont have rubberised arms- they don’t move 360 degrees. Secondly, a little fear was starting to kick in. The idea was that you ‘simply’ shave the hair sticking out of the clip and voila. I was slightly peturbed with the niggly doubt that being unable to see properly, I may end up shaving the wrong side of my clip and having an Annie Lennox style ‘do’. I at this point had begun. I knew the hair had to remain absolutely in the same position or instead of an assymetrical bob, it would be an assymetrical abstract mess.

I got half way and got a little stuck. William at this point couldn’t understand why there was hair all over the floor and insisted that the hair was speaking to him. It was speaking to me also- it was saying ‘nutter, what did you do that for!’. With some difficulty, I got to the end. I had pulled it down a little further than the YouTube example with the logic that if it all went horribly wrong ,there’d be a little more length for someone to ‘right’. You can appreciate that I was a bit nervous and excited to open up the clip.

Boo-ya.

Oh yes, it had worked. Suzie did point out that there was one stray ‘higherthantherest’ layer evident. But there had to be some collateral damage.

Free haircut. In 10 minutes. Thankyou YouTube.

Ikea- your food clips rock!

So now, I’m off to gather all my demoing materials. Wish me luck. See you when I’ve made 100 Christmas cards (not!) xx