JESS'S WORKSHOP

Went to Jess's workshop on Saturday and had a great time.  It was lovely to meet Jess and put a face to a name, plus it was great to hear a familiar accent!!!  I also met Karina off the Cardz n Scrapz  forum and had a great day crafting and chatting and playing with Stickles!!!!

We made 7 cards in total (busy little crafting bees we were), 2 Hallowean cards and 5 Christmas cards. 

The 2 Hallowean ones were gorgeous, one was very Harry Potter, with a wizard, a cave, a cauldron, a fantastic spider web and some cute bats!!!  The second was using a Tilda stamp......how cute is she!!!  Love the embossed spider web and the spider web edging

3 of the christmas cards were embossed, haven't played with my heat gun in ages.....had great craic making these.  My favourite of the 3 is the Celtic Xmas tree.....sooo gorgeous, and I LOVE the other two images, the stamps were fab and I sooo have to get my little paws on em!!!  Jess had some absolutely gorgeous gold embossing powder and I must find out what it is.

The last 2 were stamped images which we coloured and then assembled.  I Loved the Sarah Kay Santa stamp and I adore snowmen so loved the second one as well.  I opted for the pink kit as I love to make non-traditional coloured Xmas cards!!!

Laura was also there with the Crafty Angels Shop, so I got em some retail therapy and added MORE stamps to my collection as well as a host of other bits and bobs!!!

thanks for looking!!!

MY FIRST SALE!!!

I had been telling friends in work that I had started making cards and they ask me to bring some in so that they could have a look.  I was a bit shy but thought 'sure why not'!!  So I brought in a selection and was pleasantly surprised when one of the girls ordered 5 cards!!!! 5, I couldn't believe it.....I was sooooooo chuffed, especially as 2 of the 5 she wanted were my more unusual cards, that I thought no one but me would like.

One of the cards she asked for was a baby congradulations card for a friend that was due to give birth.  As she didn't know what her friend was having she asked for neutral but cute!!!  I had just got another Penny Black hedgehog stamp (how cute is this little guy) from Crafty Angels so I decided to make a card using him and went for a colour theme of Lemon and Green.

I decided to use the card as my entry to this weeks challenge over at The Crafty Angels Blog.  The challenge this week is 'Buttons and Bling', two things I LOVE LOVE using on any project!!!  So I added some glitter card stock which I matted hedgie on and some gems as my bling, as well as some little yellow buttons.

My friend Ann was delighted with the card and I was thrilled to make my first sale!!!!

thanks for looking

ENVELOPE CHRISTMAS CARD

At the GBCE in Athlone I did Laura's Sarah K stamp class and in that we made an envelope style card, which I just LOVED!!!  Must actually take a picture of that one and post it up.  Anyway, last night I was playing with one of my new Sugar Nellie stamps (as you do) and decided to make another envelope card.

I used blue and green card stock which I covered with some lovely DCWV paper from their Christmas stack.  I stamped and coloured my wee angel with promarkers and added a bit of glitter glue (love glitter!!!) and cut her out.  I made a band to go around the card and tied some blue ribbon around it and added some gems (can never have enough bling).  I mounted my image on some foam dots.

The card insert is some white card stock mounted on green card stock.  I used my snowflake punch and punched out one snowflake in the corner and added a gem.  In the other corner I added a Merry Christmas sentiment.

Thanks for looking!!!

MY FIRST CALENDAR

Got my first Tilda stamp the other day......and believe me she wont be my last, she is sooo cute.  I decided to try and make a calendar using some 2010 calendar books I got in the Do Crafts goodie bag and some coasters I got from Crafty Angels. I covered the coasters using some gorgeous Doodlebug paper and added some gems and thick thread.  I coloured in my Tilda in Marine and Emerald promarkers then cut her out and sat her between the two coasters.

am quite pleased with the results though I need a bit more practice covering the coasters!!!!

HANDMADE CHRISTMAS??

So as thoughts turn to Christmas and the old pressie budget has to tighten its belt, I have been thinking of ways to make handmade goodies to add to the small token gifts I will be buying for close friends and family.  I know I will be making all my cards this year but am also going to make my own gift bags, tags and boxes!!  Sure why not, its an excuse to craft.....like I need one.....and a way to learn knew things!!!

My new Miss Santa stamp from Sugar Nellie arrived in the post yesterday.....and I just HAD to use her, she is soooooo cute!!!  I coloured her in Red promarker and then used Woodware Fluffy Stuff (how COOL is this stuff) to give her outfit a fur look!!  I double mounted her on Gold and Red card and added some gems and ribbon.

I had some holly paper left so I made this hanging gift box which you can put round a wine bottle (one of the token gifts I give) and add some handmade chocolates in the box (which is my plan) or you can slot in a small gift voucher.  So I have one gift idea down and about 10 to go!!!

thanks for looking!!!

HAPPY SCRAPPY SUNDAY

Got a couple of hours to myself last night so got a couple of pages done using my September Kit from The Scrap Room.  The first layout I did is one of my son who adores Fireman Sam......I used the fab Cosmo Cricket papers (Boyfriend line).  I love to tear papers (probably cause I never seem to cut straight) so I tore and inked one sheet, added some stitching detail at the bottom and scattered some buttons on the page.  I cut a journal sheet out which pretty much said what I wanted to say about Michael and finished the title off with some American crafts thickers!!!

The second layout is for my wedding album and was also made using papers from my September kit.  This time it was the stunning Saffrass Lass (Vintage yummy line).  Picked these papers cause the colours suited the neutral colours in my wedding plus the daisies in my bouquet!!!  This time I cut out circles and then a plain strip, I added some ribbon (hi my name is charmaine and I am addicted to ribbon), I made some handmade flowers and added a few buttons and gems.....and finished off with more American Crafts Thickers (LOVE their Thickers!!!!!!!!!!!)

thanks for looking

SCRAPBOOK LAYOUTS (GBCE)

Had a brilliant weekend at the GBCE in Athlone last weekend. 2 days of crafting, shops and chatting, what more could I ask for.  While I was there I did 2 scrapbook classes with Judy Addison.  They were both BRILLIANT!!!  The first one is where the layout above came from.  She was teaching us how to make different types of frames.  The papers were so soft and pretty and I had the perfect pictures of Rebecca to go with them!!!  I really love how the pages turned out.....expect to see LOTS of frames on my layouts in the near future

The second class was her Christmas class on the Sunday morning.  Again the papers were just STUNNING!!!  She was showing us how to use those pages where the page is divivded into four 6x6 squares.  I usually end up cutting these up but she showed us how to do a 4 in 1 layout which was just fantastic.  These pages cover off our first christmas as a family of 4.