Big Thanks Becky Blog Hop!

Hi! Sorry to interrupt your Saturday 😉
Today a few of the girls are getting together to say a ‘Big Thanks’ to Becky for her time spent working as Creative Designer at docrafts. She’s still working.. doing magazine work and other commissions and you can still catch her work in Creativity mag, but in a freelance capacity.
She’s spent tons of time helping inspire people to use their crafty supplies (and buy new ones :-P)- so we thought ‘thanks’ was in order- and a simple hop around some of the girls connected with docrafts seemed like a good idea.
I’ve done a really super-simple card. I bought some metal adhesive tape the other day and thought I’d put it through its paces. It’s not a patch on my usual Add A Little Dazzle sheets, but wanted to give it a go anyway.
I started by embossing the tape, then removing the backing sheet (big mistake- once embossed just stick the backing down with the metal attached). Then although the texture was lovely- it looked, shall we say…a tad gaudy. So I reckoned that toning it down with some blue vellum could work. I didn’t want to lose the texture completely so cut out an aperture and then used the new Wooden Alphabet (in the cutest little wooden box) from Papermania to make the sentiment. To get it precisely lined up is time consuming, so simply cut out the individual letters instead. I added the tiniest extras and ta-daa..done.
Simple card in quick time too!

I hope that you’re encouraged Becky. Lots of people have really enjoyed your work. I was going to do more of a ‘becky-style’ card and decided that that was a bad idea as I simply can’t emulate her multi-layered-ever-so-slightly-vintage-style, so just went with CAS instead.
I’m the next to last blog in this fab list- and last (but by certainly no means least) up is my lovely friend Denise– who constantly stretches herself to try new things and is a wonder with creating all things 3D. Here’s the complete list in case you miss a link
Jill http://deliciousdesignsbyjillpryor.blogspot.co.uk
Louise http://loucollinsdesigns.blogspot.com
Sarah http://stickerkitten.co.uk/
Paula www.justforoneday11.blogspot.co.uk
Katie www.whatkatiedid2.blogspot.co.uk
Michelle www.scrapthology.blogspot.co.uk
Nikki www.what-nikki-did-next.blogspot.com
Heather http://heathermitchelldesign.wordpress.com
Keren ..you’re right here!
Denise. http://denisefletcher60.wordpress.com

Here’s to you Becky; may your new way of working suit you to a tee and it will fun watching where your creative journey takes you!

See you soon,

Keren x

Tim Holtz 12 Tags 2014 & Non-grunginess!

Yup. Look twice.
I have a confession.
I can’t do grungy.
I will keep trying. I’m trying to add distressed edges and inside I want them to look neat! Ha ha.
There’s really no hope for me.
Here’s the full thing

It might look simple- but it took me forevvaah!
I used a ton of Paper Artsy paints. I cracked open their Crackle paint and I’m sold.
I used some chalkboard paint (B&Q- hehe!) as the base, added the crackle and then London Bus ( red) over the top. The shape with the stamping on is a one grungeboard I die cut and added one of the new Lynne Perella stamps- partially stamped.
The playing card is lightly painted in snowflake to subtle-ize it ( like my new word?!) and I’ve painted the grunge paper hearts and added tiny buckles and ribbon.
I haven’t had this much fun learning in ages.
Someday I’ll let my inner messy out. My ‘outer’ messy is regularly out but the inner? Not so much.
Maybe someone could help me to release it. It’s definitely stuck!

I’m also entering this into the Sei challenge here it’s a rustic Valentine challenge and I thought this would perfect too! There’s another 5 days to enter- have a go!

Will tell you about our fun day out next post. It included selfies, rope swings, getting turned away at a pub and general otherness.

Until then! See you when I’ve cleared up my now unbelievably messy craft room. This arty-ness comes with tons of product 😉!!
xx

Madame Peyroud & Stepping Up!

Hi! Wow what a week.
It ended yesterday with a change in style and a day long demo at Hawarden ( Wales for the non Uk’ers amongst us!).
Docrafts have brought out a collection called Madame Peyroud & I’d done a few CAS cards with it until now.
I decided I needed to demo differently with it, channeled my inner Tim Holtz ( ha ha, as if!!) and set to.
There’s only the barest smidgeon of white, and, much as it pained me, I even showed them how to distress edges and add colour to pieces to ‘age’ them.
The result. I enjoyed my bare bones visit to ‘distressed-land’. Whilst I didn’t really go all out, it’s baby steps. Right?!
The collection is beautiful, you just needed to give it a little respect. The butterflies ( part of the paper design) are so real looking and I’ll show you another version soon.

Ever want to wish a week away?
Well last week consisted of the following (& trust me, this is by no means exhaustive!!)

Play dates ( sadly, not for me)
3 smashed bowls (in one go- and not intentional, and not by me)
One child stepping ‘muck’ the whole way through the house.
The next morning taking 15 minutes to clean the shoe with a toothbrush & boiling water.
As an aside- why DO they make shoes with such deep ridges? Us Mommas do NOT enjoy trying to clean them out.
Yeuch.
Groans, moans, tears & tantrums
( quite possibly from all of us)
Broken Freezer.

BUT…
On the plus side.
Some kids stepped up. Big time.
Some of them wouldn’t want me to tell you. ( they’re publicity adverse! Ha ha).
My littlies discovered their softer side.
I was feeling rough and littler walked in.
“Mum, you know how Dad is away, and you’re not well. Well, if you’re not feeling well in the night, I’ll come and sleep next to you and look after you.
Because Dad isn’t here.”
Umm.
Melt!
Not wanting to be left out (& to be fair, the littler had just whispered it and I’m not sure how much littliest had heard)
He wandered over and hugged me.
“Mum, I’ll look after you, you’re not well. I’ll cuddle you in the night”
That was too much.
I sat and looked at these two little man-boys and thanked God for them.
He was good as his word.
Littler woke himself up ( or possibly through my coughing!!), climbed in next to me and told me I’d be ok.

I slept really well that night!
One of those lovely lovely moments that made the long week seem suddenly more worthwhile!

Righto, have things to get on with.
(Including eating a large amount of icecream that was melted as a result of the freezer failure. Actually I’ll leave the melted icecream. Even I’m not that desperate!)
Xx

Card on the Hop & Staying on The Chair!

Hola! I’m back from a day demoing at Lady Green and it was great fun. There were a bunch of ladies who saw me last week & it was great to see them but I can’t just do the same projects as I’d prepared the previous week-so I had created a couple extra but in the afternoon I decided to make the typewriter alphabet set onto a contemporary card & thought I’d create something on the hop. This doesn’t always succeed- just like demoing itself.
I’d just finished a disastrous demo with some embossing powder and could I get the ink to stick to the stamp enough to allow embossing powder to adhere to the stamped image. After 3 attempts, including a change of ink and embossing powder- one lady asked if it was a new stamp. Normally I don’t ‘season’ the stamps- but I simply rubbed an eraser over the red rubber and voila- it worked. I’d have used Sellotape but didn’t have any.
At times like that, you have to laugh, keep persevering and admit you don’t get it right all the time either.
Then I made this card up on the go. I did have help from one of the ladies who kept me on track with which typewriter key went next!! There was lots of shuffling of elements around until I was happy with the design.
Nothing like pressure when you’ve lots of people sitting there watching!

These are two alpha sets from Docrafts and they work perfectly with the punches. The die set is ‘Slimline’ from X-Cut and is just a great contemporary font.

I’m having a rest tonight- sitting in one chair and not falling off it like I did twice last week at the previous demo!!! I do plenty of up and downing- as most of the products are positioned strategically around the floor of the table, I have to duck down a lot. Sometimes you have to reach as there may not be room to get up and shift about. So as you reached, I overreached. The chair toppled and so did I.
I fell in such a cool way, no one noticed.
Not.
How do you fall gracefully?
I didn’t the first time and not did I the second.
Thankfully I learned not to overreach before I repeated it a third time.
I wobbled but remained upright. That’s why I’m sitting very still tonight!

Wish me luck as I’m redoing some scrap pages this weekend that are just bleurggh. Ever tried to redo bleurggh stuff?
See you when hopefully I’ve had more inspiration x

12 Days of Unmentionable & Silence!

Hello! I had to leave the word out. Some people get twittery at me if I talk my favourite time of year early. For some of us, we’ve been crafting it for a whole while!
This showcases Docrafts latest contemporary Christmas range ( oops, I’ve said it now!). Really unusual colours- beautiful paper cutting style which is so current now and best of all- you can have a go- whether you’re comfy with a blade or just like the look of it. I had great fun slicing away with this card. It’s on acetate which is a pig to photograph and thus explains the strange hue.
This one is part of a 12×12 pack. Just gorgeous!

And the silence… well that comes in several guises. Firstly everyone’s back at school. The house is quiet. Secondly it’s quiet on this bloggy front as I’ve demo prep and other crafty stuff to do and thirdly- you actually want silence from me occasionally don’t you.. So here it is

………..

See you when I’ve learned to keep quiet ( like that’s ever going to happen!!!) X

Chocolate Packaging & Be back shortly!

Hey! A super quick post today. Thought I’d show you a little packaged up duo of chocolate bars- perfect for little fingers and little mouths!
It’s using a Papermania stamp set and some cute ribbon & buttons from Abakhans.
I won’t say anything else today- only checking in. Will be back shortly with some news and plenty more projects!

Until then …

Christmas mini card & Parcels

Hi!
Hope you’re all ok. I’m sitting snuggled in a chair having a sit down. Had a busy but lovely weekend catching up with old friends and family. Had some amazing desserts and one of our friends did some action with a blow torch onto a creme brûlée. All my kids then wanted to play with it!

Today’s card is so simple- I used the tiniest of stamps that I’d probably have overlooked normally. Just shows that you can do so little with tiny elements and still make it special.
I’ve just received several parcels. Soo exciting. First was a humongous one from DoCrafts with all the supplies needed for the 24th Nov when I’m doing a 6hr demo at Abakhan in Liverpool. I’m there from 10-4; come and say Hi!
The second parcel was full of bargain stamps I need for some Christmas projects. The third was full of this;

A wonderful prize from Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine for a challenge I won. Pretty good huh- and the rolls are some American Craft sparkle tape; I’d never heard of it before-its glitter on a sticky tape but without the ‘shedding’-but will be perfect for all the Christmas makes I’m planning. Thanks C & P!

On a personal side- me and my craft table are going to spend a lot of time together. Last week I was so busy prepping for a conference I had no time to do anything else. This week I have several mag commissions to get finished.
I have had a few exciting weeks. The past 3 submission calls from Paper Crafts mag have accepted projects from me. Couldn’t quite believe it- and last call they wanted 4!!! I’ve been busy sending off little packages to the US. I love being part of this craft world- I’m ‘meeting’ some truly amazing people.
Another bit of fun is the Hero Arts publication incentive- if you use their stamps and get published- they’ll give you free stuff for the first 4 publications and then pay you beyond that. Such a fab idea. I’m waiting for my first parcel full of inspiration to arrive!

Need to go and ‘create’ some tea. Shame you can’t eat sparkle tape!!
See you when I’ve wrapped my first Christmas present ( yes, I’m determined to wrap at least one this week! ) Xx

Christmas Demonstration & the wrong Body Parts

Thought I’d post one of my demonstration projects for tomorrow at Abakhan, Liverpool. I’m there from 12-3 and am going to be using stamps from the last Creativity magazine. They come free with the mag and this is the simplest project.
I’m going to show one card three ways- going from simple to more advanced. Lots to see- come and say hello! If you like cute – you’ll love these stamps.

I have been to the woods this morning with 60 4-5 year olds. Thankfully I wasn’t alone- there was an army of mums,teachers and helpers. The kids spent an hour searching for interesting things in the forest. We didn’t find too much other than loads of leaves. The kids were busy being silly and funny and I came home for a rest!!
When I picked Will up from school after my little dental escapade, he greeted me shouting
‘Mum did they take your guts out?’!!the other mums laughed. I told them that my guts still remained and Will looked very confused.
Steve, in an effort to explain what I was having done had said something like
” she’s having her gum cut open’.
Yep. You can understand the confusion!
The little kids didn’t really understand. Jamie was worried about me but really wanted to see the damage and Harriet just wanted to make me a cup of tea.
Love their differences.
Fortunately I’m able to talk and laugh now ( just). Good job. A silent craft demo could be a little disappointing.

See you when I’ve come out of my sleeping bag (it’s freezing – and no, I’m not asleep, just getting warm!!) xx

Mini Album part 2 & Lemming Behaviour!

Here’s the part two I said that I’d show you. This is what you can see once the band is removed. Had to decorate it slightly or it would be really disappointing once removed. I designed it so it acted as a second layer below the band to add ‘oomph‘ to the front!

Here’s the inside. It is a little stark due to a lack of journalling. I didn’t want to put lots of personal stuff as it was being sent away for viewing so left it like that! I’d also have added buttons and twine and stuff but I was using only a paper pack and Kraft card. Shows how creative you can get with limited supplies!

You can see on the left how I’ve disguised the joins. The paper from the Happy Days paper is really lovely and has a slight fabric-y quality to it. It bends beautifully without getting those annoying wrinkly creases and has a slight ‘give’ to it. It was hiding where I’d stuck one piece of folded card onto the next!

That’s the back pages-nearly done now!! Having some photos straight and others at angles helps. Because Ive kept the colour scheme tight, I could be a little less picky about the pictures. There were enough spaces for each kid. Perfect! You’d think I’d designed it that way ( ooops – no- fluke!!).

That’s the back. Had to decorate that too! I have reused most of the little tiny bits and pieces I cut whilst preparing the matts for the photos. Just in case you thought I’d planned it that way!! Arranging smaller pieces with the larger photos and pieces of patterned paper helps balance the whole project out.
Hope you’ve enjoyed it! If I get it back, I just might complete it!

Today we’re going for a cliff walk. Really hoping nobody does a ‘lemming‘ and throws themselves off- we had enough problems yesterday keeping the kids safe from toppling over the edge of the harbour whilst crabbing and away from 199 steps with a sudden sheer drop near an Abbey. Why do kids want to get so close to the edges all the time? Is it just to scare us- and do they really have internal ‘stop now it’s too close to the edge’ systems in place?!!

Will go now. Back soon with hopefully all my sanity ( what’s left of it) intact!! xx

Mini Album & Reconnecting!

Good morning! It’s sunny and beautiful and a little bit noisy (!) but still a lovely day. This project looks like a card but is in fact the front of a mini photo album – I’ll show the rest next post. It’s got a removable band which holds the album together and is made from small cards that are glued together to form a concertina style album.
I had to restrict myself to using just a couple of supplies- these are the stamps and papers from Papermania’s new fab range called ‘Happy Days’ which just feels right today! The stamps are from a big collage 6’x6′ sheet which I promptly cut up as its much more useful to me in individual stamps. Love the sentiment!! I do love taking patterned papers and cutting into them to create accents and borders. These papers made it really easy and the 6×6 papers are the perfect size for cards and small albums like this.

We’re enjoying some family time with Steve around. It’s really great actually being fully present with the kids and having no distractions. No to-do lists, no washing- having a few days off!! The kids are enjoying unhurried days. I’m enjoying seeing them reconnect with each other and actually enjoying each others company for a change.I’m overcoming my phobia of window shopping with kids although I’d like a pound for every time I say ‘please don’t touch’ before we go into a shop. Makes me sad though how delighted some of the shop assistants were when my kids (sometimes prompted) said please and thankyou. Makes you wonder whether it really is basic manners or a scarcity. Been seeing some really beautiful home decor projects too and I’m itching to make something!
Anyhow- better go- have to do some shoe shopping this morning. Eldest needs shoes and due to her splint, purchasing anything vaguely fashionable that will fit her is a gargantuan task. See you soon with a few less hairs!! x