Project 280: Fruity day thanks

I had a mini playdate with Claire this week which was brilliant. We exchanged our $20 challenge gifts and revealed we had bought each other the exact same quantity of things, with 3 of the items almost exactly the same. How funny is that?

She also brought a gift that she was sharing as a craft friend of hers had given her a set of Spectrum Noir pencils and she generously shared these with me. As a thank you to her friend I wanted to make something using my new stash.

I loved the fruit stamp and die set and thought it would be a great feature. I blended the background using Peacock Feathers distress ink and then stamped the fruit slices and die cut them out.

I added the greeting from my new Sizzix stamp and die set and heat embossed it in black to make it stand out. The little candy matches the darkest tones of the distress ink. Super happy with it and I think it was worth all the little steps to make something a bit cheerful for Claire's friend.

Project 279: The craft room gets a makeover

One of the joys in my life is having a dedicated craft space in my tiny southwest London apartment. For years, I just kept my craft stuff in a closet and when it was time to craft, I would spend about 10-15 minutes getting everything out and then working from my kitchen table, repacking things up at the end. When we moved 2 years ago one of my mandates was a place for my stuff to live permanently so I could come and craft as I pleased. 

My space is, unfortunately, shared as the guest room in the smallest room of the house. So small that  we have to rearrange all of the furniture to get the pull out bed to fit in the room with my craft space. Which means if someone is only coming for a night or two we don't put them in here, we put them in the lounge with the pull-out couch! 

We have a friend visiting over the new year break for a few days with her husband and I decided it was time to make the situation inhabitable for them. Therefore, today's headline shot is of my desk a bit unusable as I move everything around! 

I've also discovered that a few of my storage solutions aren't really that great or fit for purpose as my kit has grown (the crafter's dilemma: how to keep storage scaling with your stash) so I want to investigate some new solutions. 

I'll still be crafting over the next few weeks but wanted to let you know that it may be a bit patchy. 

Also - I want to celebrate with everyone as I've posted over 100 times this year! My new year's resolution for 2015 was to hit 100 and I'm delighted to have made it. Thanks for sharing the journey with me. x

Project: Give thanks with MAWTT

Claire is sponsoring us over at Moving Along with the Times and I was thrilled to see her Give Thanks challenge this forgnigh.

I really couldn't decide what to make for the challenge as I love making thank yous and wanted this one to be extra special. I bought this stamp set with Claire in NYC when I was visiting in Sept and they still crack me up - there are dozesns of greetings as you can make so many puns with Donut as the punchline!

I started with a strip of white card and blended from yellow to turquoise using Distress Inks in Squeezed Lemonade and Peacock Feather. The donuts are stamped using a dye ink and then the toppings (sprinkles, icing, combination) are done using pigment inks so they stand out. The white-iced, sprinkled donuts also feature glitter lue for extra fun.

I love this set and was so glad to play with it as part of this challenge, I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with!

Project 278: A double set using Stampin' Up sets

A few weeks ago Claire came to visit and brought with her a big order I'd placed with her as my Stampin' Up rep. There happened to be a sale on at the time so I took advantage...to say the least!

As Christmas approaches, I'm always looking for ways I can personalise presents and give people something specifically made for them. Card sets are a great way to do that and I put my new kit to the test making a few sets.

The headline card uses the 'Tap tap tap' set and I kept these pretty simple. I stamped the typewriters on a cream grid printed card from My Minds Eye and used an accent red or black print paper for the border from the same set. I used 3 different sentiments and kept one blank to give them a variety. I added a silver candy for a bit of hardware. I have the recipient in mind and she'll like them, I'm fairly confident!

The second set features 'You're sublime' a set full of funny puns and I just thought these would be perfect for another friend. I stamped them all out and colored them in using ProMarkers. Then I die cut them using a stitched circle die and layered them over a textured vellum paper I cut using a scallop circle die. I rarely use vellum and here I'm just using it as a normal backing paper...it went well with all my colors and thought it would let the stamp stand out but not look too plain.

Neither took too long but they're really well suited to the recipients. That is what it's all about!

Project 277: A runway inspired challenge and playdate

Claire has been a long-follower of Runway Inspired Challenge and I think I've only been brave enough to enter once. I love the DT inspiration and thought I'd have a go when Claire sent me the inspiration photo from Banana Republic:

I used a Stampin' Up set called Flower Patch to get the flower dies and stamps all layered up. I used a cream printed pattern from My Mind's Eye as I wanted the cream color to shine out against the blue-grey paper. I loved the tiny turquoise accents on the dress so I punched a flower border using a EK Success punch that my mom or Claire got me a few years ago. I used another blue strip behind the greeting as I didn't want the cream to be more than an accent. I rarely use peel offs but I thought it really worked for this layout.

I'm pleased with the layout though think I could have been a bit braver with my interpretation...maybe I'll work my way up to that.

Project 276: A metallic CAS Christmas card

I love dropping by CAS-ual Fridays and this month they have a metallic theme to play along with.

I got this great stamp set for free with a card magazine and haven't tried embossing it before today. It's a dream! I thought it would look starkest using silver glitter embossing powder against a black background. I added touches of red glitter to the baubles and dotted some around the tree with some red sequins. I left it sentiment free - kind of obvious what it's for I thought!

I'm still pretty new to heat-embossing so I was delighted with this result and will definitely make a few more to feature this gorgeous stamp.

Project 275: A western layout double challenge

This week Claire showed me 'Shopping Our Stash' blog and I was inspired by this week's Western Theme challenge. Just this week Claire gave me a bumper haul of Unity stamps and it included a gorgeous cowgirl stamp.

I was desperate to use her for something special and I thought I'd get ahead (ok - really ahead) and make a birthday card for my husband as he often calls me Jessie the Cowgirl after the Toy Story 2 (and 3) character. 

I also liked the layout at Sketch Saturday and knew that she was a good shape to feature in that central panel. 

I made it a portrait orientation instead of landscape to better use the image. I colored her with ProMarkers and added the sentiment from Stampin' Up Endless Birthday Wishes. The papers are both scraps that I had kicking around my stash, I thought the orange and red felt Western, particularly the plaid. The sparkly stars complete the sketch and these are from a 4th July care package a girlfriend sent me years ago - I love them and they just work so perfectly for the theme.

I loved using this stamp and am so glad I found a new challenge to play along with this week.