Clearly Besotted April Teasers Day 4

Well Hi! How’s your day going? Today is all about love; sending love and being loved! We’re revisiting the set ‘Paper Play’ with the cutest little raccoon. I wanted to try and do another origami shape.

It’s not easy folding the paper and this shape ended up looking like something that had eaten too much! So I recreated the same shape but just used pieces that I folded in the same way so it ended up thinner.

I stamped the heart from patterned paper and trimmed out and I love how it changes the look of the image. The sentiment was stamped onto a strip of patterned paper too. The whole card came together really quickly.

Unless you looked really closely you’d never know- and who doesn’t love a good shortcut. I did want to recreate one of the characters with a boat shaped card blank- maybe I’ll try that next week!

I added them onto a piece of patterned paper and then another piece onto the base. It provides impact without having to do any colouring; result!!

Please pop over to the Clearly Besotted blog and Instagram too. Plus also my superb team mate Michelle Short.

Please also go and visit Francine Vuilleme, Adele Emery, Mona Toth and Alberto Gava to view their wonderful creations.

See you tomorrow as it’s release day!

Stampin’Up! Letters For You!

Hello! How are you all? Welcome to some new followers; it’s lovely having you here! 

Today I just wanted to pop on quickly and show you a card I created using 3 new Stampin’Up! sets;

‘Letters For You’; 

 which are the lovely distressed looking letters, ‘Falling Flowers’ 
which is the foliage on the cards and ‘Number of Years‘ which is some of the little flowers and a superbly useful number set

The letters and numbers are quite sizeable and great for scrapbooking too. Each letters/number height is 5cm. You can get matching dies for the numbers and letters if you can’t be fussed cutting them out! 

I’m placing an order shortly and hosting a party on hopefully Friday March 24th so do drop me a line if you fancy coming or just want to get any of these sets and I’ll sort you out! 

I love the way that because of the size of the letters, I could add the sentiment placement around the letter and give it a really different look! Oh, and my stamping isn’t dodgy- they’re supposed to look that way! No; really!!

Better go; I have multiplying mountains of washing that are looking at me menacingly! 

See you soon

Keren xx

Stampin’Up! Winter Catalogue Haul

Having been a demo a little while back, I keep track of what’s happening from my lovely friend Zoe Tant.

I popped in an order for some items ready to do Christmas gifting and when they arrived I had a quick play

This first card is wonderfully simple. That’s one large stamp embossed with some blue glitter embossing powder from Wow!

It’s embossed onto some matt Dura-lar but vellum would have a similar effect. I’ve attached it by an adhesive sticky dot underneath where I was sticking the bow and bells.

It’s called Merry Medley ( 142152) and the great thing about it is that you can cut individual parts out to create smaller sentiments.

This next one shows you the tag I’ve made and it’s relative size to the stamp.

I fell in love with the following die and stamp set. It was the tag that sold it- although the Framelits set comes with way more than just one tag 

I’ve created a little shaker tag and coloured the individual elements with Zig clean color markers. Unfortunately I left the tag in the sun and it’s bleached a little so I’m going to have to do it again. I’m going to make simpler ones for my Christmas parcels, they’re just a clever set!

If you fancy having a nose at the new Winter catalogue- check it out here.

If you fancy ordering anything- just pop over to Zoe Tant’s online shop and you can get it delivered to your door!  I’ve also got some lovely stencils ( super cheap too!) but that’s for another post!

Hope you’ve enjoyed something a little different. Have you organised yourself for Christmas gift giving or are you happily ignoring it until December?! 

xx

This’n’That Review

Afternoon!
Hope you’re all ok? This Journal is one of the latest ideas along the whole Journal, Project Life, Smash Book theme.
This is a kit in of itself. The inside has both pockets and all patterned paper. I was lucky enough to have been given one & all the individual elements by the lovely Zoe Tant to have a look at and review. I was happy to oblige; as she is one of my favourite people!
There have been rumblings that in fact this is quite pricey kit-except when you break all the individual elements down it works out to be pretty good value (& I won’t just say that unless I happen to think it).
Today is an intro- I’ll show you what I’ve done with the rest of the book another post & photograph the individual elements but suffice to say that it comes with a 12×12 kit of 12 double sided papers, a lovely twist date (and sentiment stamp ( think of a library date stamp but taken to the next level ), a set of 3 washi tapes plus 4 sheets of coordinating stickers.
Stampin’Up’s individual prices are as follows:

Epic Day This and That Journal £9.95
Epic Day This and That Designer Series Paper £9.95
Remember this and that Rotary stamp £5.50
Epic Day This and That Designer Stickers £4.50
Epic Day This and That washi tape £4.50

When you bear in mind that Smashbooks are £14.99-£18 depending on the folio then this price of
Is pretty good.

I’ve designed the kit using solely what’s in the range plus I allowed myself 1 punch ( the owl punch which has the tiny heart in). I wanted to show you that even if you’ve not much stash- the kit will stand alone so it’s ideal for beginners. ( ok-you’ll need an ink pad and adhesive extra).
I decided to smear some white Tsukineko shimmer paint over the front cover as I wanted to keep to colour and texture but just highlight it.
xx

If you want a set or individual elements- let me know & I’ll place an order via Zoe.( or go straight to her here) She’s offering free postage if you buy the complete bundle. I’ve really enjoyed playing with this and I’ll show you what I’m going to do with mine next post!

I’ve another post today coming up!!

Baby Card & Busy Days!

It’s a day off! So glad for no morning rush. The kids have a inset day ahead of their half term.
Here’s a baby card I made a while back and despite looking ridiculously simple- it took a long time to make. I had to use a stamping aid to line up every single duck.
Lining your ducks up in a row is one of those funny phrases although is really indicative of the process. Not sure if anyone has ever tried to physically line little ducks up- but I reckon I go with the theory about the mummy duck who often does get her babies in a line before travelling over water or ground. I’ve been doing a lot of that this week. So much prep to deliver what seems quick or simple.
This week I’ve been doing mag work and video prep for the Paper Crafters Library. Doing videoing with really harsh sunlight has been so challenging- can’t change the weather huh?!

Haven’t any time for a funny story-
Too busy scraping cornflour off the floor after a ‘science experiment’ , negotiating between who was stealing money from the bank during kid monopoly, managing to retrieve my phone from a ‘Moshi monster’ video creation, sorting a territory dispute in a landowners game ( ‘get off my land’ being shouted ad nauseum’) and wrestling with over done hot cross buns that are determined to stay in the toaster. Add into this a slow computer and you have the recipe for a stress free day (!). Not.

See you when I’ve come out of hiding!! xx

Christmas Crafting Day 1!

Good morning- Happy Day 1! So glad you’ve turned up- was kinda worried in case nobody did!

I guess you’re wondering what it is? Maybe this picture of what it was might help….

 You’re none the wiser? Think little magnets on a sheet of brushed metal. I just took one magnet- which happened to be exactly the same size as my 1 3/8 circle punch (love it when that happens!) and punched out a circle of  blue cardstock. I’ve used an alphabet set (all supplies at bottom) to diecut the joy in two colours and with a bit of fiddling found that if you chop off a portion of the ‘c’ with a cedilla attached, it makes a really lovely little bauble hanger! The magnets were about 50p in the closing down Habitat sale.  Sad its gone- gorgeous stuff just way too pricey! 

The strips of paper on it are intentionally at an angle and I’ve used some of my alltimefavouritebutnowfairlyold paper by SEI. Just couldn’t bring myself to use it, but ‘cos I love y’all, thought you deserved it. It is a rather minute piece of green embossed spotty paper, but baby steps..I’ll slowly get into creating with it!

I could have just made magnets, put them into a nice box and passed them on as an early present- but liked the idea of having a mini ‘to-do’ list on my table. This is how it stands up – I just cut a long strip of cardstock, divided it into thirds, bent it, and then the last third into 2 with a little lip for attaching to the first third. Just get a piece of cardstock and have a play- its easier to do than it is to explain. These would make great gifts if they weren’t Christmas related but then it is supposed to be Christmas themed today. I added a little sticker for the dot over the j and covered it liberally in glitter glue. You can’t have a project without some sparkle! Despite the fact that you’ll never ever and not in a million trillion years find me wearing anything remotely sparkly, glitter has its place, and definitely here!

Crazily simple, dead quick, but really cute. Would like to imagine that was also a description of me- but alas, not likely!!

I have to draw your attention to two things;

1.Sign up for email updates-click on the ‘subscription button’ on the right and anyone signing during this event will go into a draw for a magical mystery prize (umm- maybe not magical but definitely mysterious!!).

2.Check out all the photos in detail. You should find something/s hidden on one or maybe more. Count however many you find and at the end of the 12 days mail your totals for each day for me. There’ll be a crafty prize for this one too.

Hope you enjoyed the first day. Looking forward to seeing you same time-ish same place tomorrow. Hope it inspires you to get creating early and spares you some of the lastminutehassle !xx

 

Supplies: Cardstock; Stampin’Up!

Papers; Bridgeport- SEI, Holly Berry SU!,

Ranger Stickles, K & Co stickers, Alphabet by Sizzix for SU!

Paper Rose Card & Pottery painting

 Sometimes I try and incorporate something I can’t do into my given way of doing things and sometimes its not entirely successful. This rose is a case in point. Having never made one and feeling a little like my life was not quite complete without the knowledge (only joking!)- I had a go and came up with a cute rose. However- trying to make a card that was ‘me’ using the oversized green flower was more of a challenge. I’m glad it was green because its not quite so girly but even so- I can just about recognise its my card under the weight of all that floralness! They are pretty easy,(Google Paper roses) albeit time consuming and with a bit of sponging and a few drops of crystal effects to create ‘dew drops’, it does look fairly rose-like. The paper was great being double-sided and the only difficulty was because the quality is so good- trying to cut through several layers at once was tough going. I have scissor shaped dents in my thumb to prove it!

This paper is around for less than a week now- to be fair it has seen some crafty action and now needs to make way for the new kids on the block. I am not one for favouring the young and shiny over the old, but in this instance I’ll let it pass! If you look at the background there is one of the said new (and veeerrryy beautiful)  sheets of designer paper already trying to muscle in before the old papers have even gone; ….typical !

I’m very glad its Friday. Well ready for a few days at a slower pace. I should be used the slower pace after stiffly hobbling around but I’m delighted to say after some stirling advice from my Dad and a friend and a night sleeping on the floor– my back is pretty much completely better! Yay!

I’ve just returned from a bit of a treat. Steve was off today and took us to a place in Stockton Heath called Coffee au Clay near Warrington. Its a paint your own pottery thing and Steve helped Will whilst I seriously enjoyed myself! I had to stop myself once I’d painted the inside of the bowl or Will and Steve’s patience would have run out. It’s an image that was taken from one of the papers and stamp sets I’ve been using a lot and I can’t wait to show you them. I’m looking forward to picking up my cereal bowl next week, although with the amount of crockery that ‘falls’ on our tiled kitchen floor, the chances of it surviving more than a couple of weeks are looking doubtful! All I can say is its a good job they don’t have a painting pot place in Liverpool- I’d never be out of it! !

Need to go and reduce the school uniform mountain which is presently so large that it would make a great slide!

xx

Button Cards & Closing Down

This fun rainbow card was just using up some of the lovely oversized buttons we’ve got. Just like there is some paper I struggle to cut into because it’s so beautiful (oh dear, I just admitted to being a paper-stroker), I have some supplies that just sit and look at me, daring me to use them and I can’t quite bring myself to put glue on them. Well, I took myself in hand and went a little over the top- I’ve practically used them all! (still a couple of colours left yet). Nothing complicated- would take you all of 10 minutes and my eldest asked if she could have it for a friends Birthday card, which has to mean its vaguely cool!

I have cut out the letters individually- partly because I didn’t want to stamp them and have to measure spaces, but I think t adds a little more texture. It somehow reminds me of icecream (the colours that is!).

I’ve stuck them down using Tombow. Although it was probably not my normal go-to adhesive for large embellishments, it is pretty strong and didn’t show the glue-dot through the large button holes which is what happened on my first attempt.

This week I popped into town and went past Habitat which has now closed (albeit for a few flagship London stores I think). I love their clean and funky designs. I had gone in during the last few days and picked up a small jigsaw- acrylic and tactile and the sort that I wanted to play with too. I guess good design appeals to a broad spectrum of ages (or maybe I’ve still not grown up properly). Shame that another big brand struggles in these uncertain times. Makes me glad that I’m not depending on the economy to be my mainstay. My heart goes out to all those who are really struggling to make ends meet at the moment. Life is tough for a good many people at present. Another reminder to me to be content with what I have and be thankful. 

See you soon! x 

 

Mini Accordion Box & Time-less

Have you guessed what it is? probably..if you’ve read the title of the post! It was such a pig to photograph-It actually looked like a card, front on, bizarrely so thought I’d put a photo of the details as the main pic- those butterflies are so pretty!

This is a mini box– great for storing all the pearls and rhinestone packets you have, and also showing off both the lovely embosslits butterflies (£10.50)- and you can make zillions of them out of teeny scraps, and also our lovely in-colours which come October are going to be joined by 5 new stars; the next in-colours. The 5 on my box will only be around for another year and then they’ll be retired, so I’m using them while I can!

Here’s what the side of the box looks like- lovely accordion folds… and..

 

 

 

 

here is the inside. Don’t inspect it too finer detail or you’ll see slight variations in height, and folds not quite perfectly in alignment. Well, I wouldn’t want you thinking it was shop bought, would I!!

 

 

 

 

See what I mean about it looking a little like a card?! and the bow had a mind of its own and point blank refused to help and look symmetrical or pretty for the camera. More ‘dogs dinnerish’ but hey ho!

 

 

 

 

That’s the details slightly obscured by the tie. See the ‘notch’? That’s to help the ribbon stay in place and was created using the very top of our tiny tag punch (or jewellery tag to give it its proper name!). Our punches are so versatile- never just do one thing with them; or they feel undervalued!

Lastly- a little one adorning the back of the box- you can see some of embossed detail. They are lovely. Yes- it did take an age glueing them on, but it was so worth it!- I love the end result- as if the box is about to take off to the skies because of the kaleidoscope of lepidopteras fluttering off! (you can tell I’ve been Googling again!).

 

It’s been pretty good being mostly time–less the past week. Other than a few places I had to be at, the week has wound itself along gradually. The kids have relished playing for long periods out doors in parks and museums and grounds. I’ve never seen them so dirty– nearly 2 baths a day at some points! Climbing trees, including me having stern words with some infiltrators from a less friendly tribe, climbing monuments (allowably- it was ok- a step like structure), trundling for miles and a few drinks and icecreams along the way- it has felt like summer should. Letting the kids run up and down myriads of stairs at the museum,  and not saying ‘shush’ was lots of fun. The best days have been free days..sand dunes, adventure playgrounds and no more than £10 spent on most of them. Hoping the weather holds and the biglies are as happy to meander once they return. As my world is so crazily ordered by a very tight schedule usually, this week has been good medicine. Hoping to try and incorporate some of the time-less-ness into my existence come September!

Hope you get the chance to go–slow this weekend…

xx

Box recipe; Confetti white card (the flecks are supposed to be there!). In-colour designer paper pack. Rhinestones. Pumpkin pie taffeta ribbon.

 

Circle Card & Family Dynamics

Fancy a change? Me too! A circle card that was such fun to make- not for a commission or workshop or class, just to relax. There are lots of elements to it but as I’ve done so much unseasonal stuff recently, the red and green glittery colour scheme was still wafting round my brain. So here’s a clean and fairly simple take. All the lovely flowery foliage is from a mahoosive stonker of a stamp that I’ve rarely used (hangs her head in shame!). It’s called Bella Toile and is a background stamp really and a little ‘full-on’ if not used with discretion. Background stamps shouldn’t always be left languishing in the background, so with a bit of fussy-cutting and moving around, you can get a whole different look! I used my circle scallop die as the basis for the shape and just used a compass and pencil (so stone-age!!) to create the outer and inner circle. The slightly faded lines are using the dotted wheel and then the glittered tag is ‘Lots of Tags’ set of 4 Sizzlits. Add the Just Perfect Alpha stamps (the name, not my stamping!), a couple of matching brads and pearls and a bit of paper-pricking and you’re nearly done. Thinking about hope, I used the breast cancer folded over ribbon emblem but done using twill tape which gives a different take on it- a bow seemed one step too far! I gave it further dimension using my trusty blender pens to give the stamping a water-coloured look and then some Dimensionals to add different heights!

There- you can tell I enjoyed messing with that!

Today I’m feeling quite energised in comparison to the last few days where I’ve been quite pathetic really. A bit of R&R has done me the world of good- now I guess the trick is not to go beserk now I’ve got some energy again! At home, dynamics have been changing dramatically and it’s quite amusing to watch. As my eldest two are at camp, suddenly my middle child has become ‘top dog’. To say she has filled the role is an understatement, she’s spilling right out of it! Not only do we have a mild case of ‘Attila The Hun’ syndrome, she appears to have taken over with the ‘moodiness’ right where the other two have left off. I wonder whether my walls exude a certain type of hormone which renders the recipient powerless to be themselves?! Several stand-offs later we are all much happier and I think she has got the message that just being herself is perfectly fine thankyouverymuch!   The boys are now sharing a room with their older sister and its like one permanenent sleepover! It’s been sweet though, to have several bouts of tears over missing their big sisters. Let’s hope the feelings are a wee bit reciprocated come Saturday when they return exhausted with suitcases full of smelly, dirty clothes!!

Have to go-I fancy designing a Rhinestones and Pearls organiser!

Ta taa! 

 

PS -have entered in the following challenges;  TotallyPapercrafts, Moxie- Fab World Botanical Challenge