Less is More Weeks 99-100 - Recipe

Hello everyone - hope you all had an amazing Christmas and received lots of crafting goodies.  Sorry I've been missing for these last couple of weeks but still in the process of moving to my new craft room.  It's nearly finished but I've got stuff in both rooms now which makes life a bit difficult.  We also have half of Tony's garage (tools) as he was getting fed up going up and down the stairs all the time.  So, as soon as he's moved out, I can actually get organising - can't wait and will post some photos.

I'm so glad that the challenge over at Less is More lasts for two weeks otherwise I would have missed it again!  This challenge is:

This challenge will last for two weeks over the festivities and we have decided to start our Christmas celebrations with a whizz and have chosen

DRINKS 

as our recipe.

You can choose tea, coffee, water, sodas, alcohol of course if you wish, in fact any drink at all... but all of us...Chrissie, Mandi and Jen would like to wish all of you a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous and healthy New Year.

Cheers!

 

As soon as I saw it I remembered I had seen a stamp buried under other "stuff" recently and thought it would do.  It's called "Party Girl" by Strawberry Kisses.  I stamped the image twice with black Memento ink and coloured the first one with Flexmarkers.  I then cut out the umbrella and the two cherries and lemon slice.  These were also coloured with Flexmarkers.  I then used Diamond Glaze on the cherries and the bowl of the glass and popped the cherries and umbrella up on pop dots to give dimension.

I used nesties to cut the image and the mat and used a circle punch for each end of the sentiment.  I've added two pieces of lace joined in the middle as an embellishment.

I'd like to wish everyone a healthy and happy New Year - see you on the other side!

Happy Christmas everyone....

Hi everyone - yes, I know I know......sorry I haven't been around much for the last couple of weeks, but it's been pretty full on here.  Apart from getting my magazine article ready for publishing, we're still in the throws of moving my craft room.  It's very nearly ready with the last of the electrics going in as we speak.  So we are aiming to move the computer and all the peripherals sometime tomorrow......so I thought it an ideal time to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a peaceful New Year.  I promise to be back in the new year with photos of my new room.......hopefully!  Don't forget our new challenge over at Addicted to CAS which will be on 12th January and is going to be hosted by me.....so on your toes please;  I'm really looking forward to seeing all your entries.

Again, I hope you all have an amazing Christmas and that Santa fulfills all your wishes.

Karen xxx

Secret Project - REVEALED!!!!

Morning all - have you ever had a song that goes round and round in your head???  Well, that's happened to me this morning and it's..............

"I'm so excited and I just can't hide it
I'm about to lose control and I think I like it
I'm so excited and I just can't hide it
And I know I know I know I know I know I want you" ......... to know all about it!!!

The last words are mine and it's a good job you can't hear me singing it............!!!  lol

Well, my exciting news is that I was approached by Laura Boetto who is the Editor-in-Chief of the extremely popular online magazine Paper and Pixels and asked to do a biography and tutorial for their December issue.  ME!!!!  Are you sure??????  Well, for some reason the answer was an astounding YES PLEASE.  They also wanted to know about our new blog Addicted to CAS and so I asked if our esteemed leader, Kylie Purtell, could also join in the fun - and they were delighted with the idea. 

The December issue of Paper and Pixels came out today and it costs $1.50 which is an amazing price because you get a PDF file containing 103 pages full of crafting inspiration, freebies, discount coupons and much, much more.  I was lucky enough to get Serif to offer one lucky reader their amazing CraftArtist 2 Professional software.  All you need to do is to pop over to the Paper and Pixels blog and follow the instructions.  The lovely Netta at Creative Victorian Designs has also offered a 25% discount off any items ordered in her store. 

So, what are you waiting for????  Pop on over and grab yourself a copy - you wont regret it!  My feature is on Pages 26 to 32.

Thanks for dropping by and hope you have a wonderful weekend.

ADDICTED TO CAS - Challenge #3

Happy Saturday everyone - hope you are all keeping well.  It's that time of the week again and a brand new challenge over at Addicted to CAS.  The code word is:

This week our fantastic sponsor and Guest Designer is

JOANNA MUNSTER FROM INSPIRED BY STAMPING

Joanna is offering this prize to the winner of this challenge -

$20 GIFT VOUCHER

Now as some of you may know I'm in a right state trying to move my craftroom (lock, stock and barrel.....glitter, stamps, punches et al!!!) so mayhem abounds.  As I'm still trying to get the last few Christmas cards made, adding the fact that I still know where my computer and printer are, I decided to use a digi from the wonderfully creative Sue at grands9creations who has some lovely freebies on her blog.  Pop over to have a look.  Now this code word is sweet and I know some of the girls have gone, literally, for sweets; but I decided to go mushy and get the votes from the "ahhh, ain't it sweet" crowd!  I've done little apart from mat and layer and added frosting to the word cold and underneath the snow couple.  Made an easel card, added a few glitter snowflakes and a wooden snowman as the stopper.  On looking at it I realise it's not quite as CAS as I would like so hope you'll forgive me just this once..........


Please pop on over to the A2CAS blog to see what the girls in the DT have got for your inspiration.

Thanks so much for dropping by.  We're looking forward to seeing all your fabulous creations and visiting your blogs.

Christmas projects

Hi Everyone from a very wet and windy Somerset!  Can't win can we?  Never mind, it gives me a good excuse to stay in and carry on with my new workroom.

So a really quick post today to show you a couple of things I've been working on for the Christmas Grotto on Sunday.

The first one is a simple calendar easel card.  These are 4.25" square.  I've added some patterned paper to the front of the top fold card and then die cut a nestie oval on the front of the card.  I then cut a frame using the same oval nestie and the next size scalloped oval die.  This was placed around the aperture and the piece of card left over from the aperture has been glued onto the back panel and then I've stamped the year and punched it out with my SU scalloped oval.  I've then added the calendar and added the concertina piece so it stands up nicely.  I've made box envelopes to go with these.

The next project is a chocolate bar wallets totally inspired by the lovely Pam over at Pamscrafts.  Do pop over and have a look at the tutorial.  The rudolph on the front came from a garland of rudolphs, wire and beads which came from Lidl a couple of weeks ago - for the princely sum of 99p!!!  They are really cute painted wooden pieces and I also got Santas, Christmas trees and snowflakes.  I made a heap of these a couple of weeks ago for the craft fair I did and they flew out - so hopefully the same will happen on Sunday!




Right, that's me signing off for today.  I'll be back tomorrow with the latest challenge at Addicted to CAS.  See you then.


 

WOYWW - 184

Hi everyone - sorry that I've been missing in action and also missing from a few blog challenges but it's been mad hectic here and although I had spent time working on a secret project (to be announced next week) I am also in the throws of totally moving my craftroom!!!  So take time for a cuppa and sit down as this post is rather picture heavy and there is a finished project right at the bottom of the post.

You can imagine what it's like at the moment - can't find a thing (well, nothing strictly unusual in that......... lol).  It's been a bit of a long job as the room I'm taking over is a bedroom that had to be divested of all it's furniture, decorated and then a new wood floor laid.  At the moment half of my actual workroom has been demolished to utilise the worktop and cupboards - so half my stuff is on the floor in bags, boxes and any other handy recepticle!  I promised my very good blogging buddy Darnell that I'd post some photos today for What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday and although they are before and after we are further along in that most of the units and worktops are already fitted BUT most of hy DH's tools are scattered all over the floor and any space he can put them.  I will post photos of the finished room which, hopefully won't be very far away now.

 So firstly the terrible state of my room: 

 As you can see I've just about run out of available space!!  But I do actually know where everything is and things like my punches are all neat and tidy on their rails (see left), all my card/papers are in polyboxes on the shelves (right).

Another problem is that I am Parish Clerk for my village and a lot of files need to be stored which is most of the items in the picture on the left.

 And then the bliss of a totally empty room:

When I took these photos we were waiting for the skirting boards
to be delivered and also for the radiator to be put back.  This is a
much brighter room as it faces West and has a larger window.  The main reason for moving was that not only had I run out of space but because I had started off in a very small way, we just kept adding on and adding on as I got more and more stuff!  At least starting from scratch we can do it in a logical way (hopefully) and now I will have a separate space for my sewing machine, embellisher, fabrics etc with the rest given over to crafting, computer, printers etc.

Well, after that I think it's time for a cuppa but before I go I just wanted to share with you a project that I've just finished which I made on my embellishing machine.  It's been mounted onto a canvas and the centre of the flower (well that's what it looked like to me anyway) is a whole heap of tiny beads covered in Diamond Glaze.

 

Thanks for dropping by.  See you soon.

Less is More - Week 96 - Colour Challenge

Hello everyone - hope you're having a good weekend.  This week's challenge over at Less is More is a colour challenge and Chrissie & Jen have some gorgeous samples for everyone.

You knew it would be a colour challenge, we wonder if anyone guessed correctly!

We won't keep you in suspense any longer... it's

RED & GREEN

Very seasonal, very traditional...  what novel ideas will emerge this week?

My card is a fairly simple one starting with an 8"x8" scalloped card.  I wanted to use my new Stampin Up "Blissful Bird" stamp which matches their bird and branch punch.  I love the negative image with the wording.  I stamped and clear embossed the images twice using Always Artichoke ink and then punched them out.  I die cut a red and white bauble using my Spellbinders 2011 Heirloom Ornaments dies and added a gold and red top to the white diecut.  The bird has been popped up on some d/s foam to give dimension as has one of the branches. 

 

I then added some red Liquid Pearls for berries.  I'm not sure if you can see it but I've stamped SU Flowering Flourishes using VersaMark Dazzle "Champagne" on the left side of the white bauble.  I embossed a piece of white card using a 8" Embossalicious e/f.  The sentiment is Penny Black Christmas Flourish stamped in SU Cherry Cobbler.  The holly in the corner is from an All Night Media punch.

Thanks for dropping by.

Addicted to CAS - Challenge #2

Happy Saturday everyone.  Well, what a fantastic response we got to our first ever challenge at ATCAS - thank you all for joining us and posting your wonderful creations.  Now, are you all going to step up to the plate again this time?  Here is our challenge:

 

We are delighted that Joanna Munster from Inspired by Stamping is sponsoring this first challenge and has offered a $20 voucher to her store.  Please hop over to her blog at http://www.inspiredbystampin.com/inspired-by-stampin/ and start dreaming what goodies you can buy!!!  lol

For my card I have used my Heartfelt Creations HCPC 3417 - Poinsettia Ornament and the matching Spellbinder dies.  I stamped and heat embossed in silver e/p four of the largest baubles.  I then die cut them, scored each one in half and then glued them together.  I added a little bit of Stickles to the centres of the poinsettias and glued down onto an A5 card.  The sentiment, also heat embossed in silver, is Penny Black Christmas Flourish.  The addition of some silver ribbon finished the card.  I don't think you can see but I glittered each edge of the bauble but the camera didn't seem to pick it up.

Please pop on over to the Addicted to CAS blog and have a look at all the gorgeous creations the DT have come up with.

Thanks for popping by.  I'm looking forward to visiting your blogs to see your lovely cards.