Think Pink...

After the sunshine comes the rainbow!But this is red OR yellow OR pink OR green...This week you can do ANYTHING you like on a card BUT you can only use one colour.

This was a tricky dare, but I managed it in the end!
Had to settle on pink after looking through my papers as they all seem to be multi coloured. Eventually found some Blond moments paper that I could use along with prima flowers, buttons brads and ribbon from stash. Rub ons are doodlebug.

Not too happy with this card, I think it may be because of the pink card blank, not something I would usually choose. I will add it to my card box, I'm sure it will come in handy sometime.

My craft desk is a complete mess at the moment, really must have a tidy up later! :os

Seem to have had quite a few orders again this week, and not enough time to tidy up in between!

I have started something new this morning - I think I am gonna enjoy this one! I bought a little 4x4 mini album from Carolyn's, and I am going to decorate it for my daughter with some photos of her and her friends. Never done anything like this before so wish me luck! OK so it's not a 12 x 12 album, but my motto is start small and work your way up!! It should use up loads of scraps too! :O) Dont think I will be able to post it on here though as would have to get permission from all her friend's parents.

Back to the tidying up I suppose!

Have a good weekend!

Sarah x

Sunshine....

Quite a bit to share today. Firstly I have played a bit safe with the little extra due to lack of time this week.

This time we'd like to give you just one single word as your inspiration, and that word is:
SUNSHINE..

So I have based my card on the colour of sunshine 'YELLOW'!!
I've made this card for my friend as she is treating me to a special lunch today as it's my birthday.

Papers,rub ons and ribbon from mm, large flower from Tesco and Sarah's Bloomer.

This next card was made by my daughter Leah for my Birthday. I think it is fantabulous!! But I guess I may be a little bit biased!!!! She has used my favourite colour combination as well!! Also raided my stash, but I don't mind as she has bought me some really great crafting presents!



Lastly, this is a commissioned card for a friend. I love these papers, I bought them at my local scrapbooking shop but don't know who makes them. I added their married titles with mm rub ons and a Heidi Swapp floral to finish. (Sorry not a great photo for this one!)

Must go now and get ready for my birthday treat!!

Blog Candy Winner!!!

Oh my God!!!! Cannot believe this - just got home from work to find that I have been picked to receive a lovely 'preggo stamp' from Allison's blog candy. What a great little stamp this is!

You can see it here;...
Just for grins...

I'm so pleased.
Thank you Allison.
Sarah x

Multiples...

Friday is dare day!

Your dare for this week is to create a card using any technique, any style, to welcome the birth of multiples.

OK as soon as I saw this I automatically went to get out any baby related dies that I have, but then I thought I would try something different. The ultra talented Bety (see link for her fabby blog) has made a few cards and tags recently using scraps so I took inspiration from her wonderful creations. I have tons of scraps to use up so I rummaged through and found all these little bits of MM papers. I always have loads of pink scraps probably because I have 2 daughters, so many of the cards I make are for their friends. So now I am hoping that somebody I know will have twin girls so that this card will not go to waste!!!

Anyway this is the finished result;


It's not really a typical new arrival card but I think it's really pretty. It's made me more determined to use up my scraps.


Items used are white cardstock, mm papers, flowers from stash, mm flower ribbony stuff, buttons from local craft shop, mm metal clip, mm rub ons, ink and ribbon scraps from stash.

The stitching is pants as I do not have a machine so I had a go at hand stitching with pretty poor results!! It's my birthday next week so maybe if I am really lucky I might get a sewing machine.

Also finished off a card for an order I had, I love using these colours for boys, and I seem to be using loads of stars at the moment.

This card is made using up card scraps and a scrap of ribbon I found.

Other items used; doodlebug rub ons,sizzix die, mm brads,

Letters from basic grey dasher pack.

Enjoy the weekend.

Sarah x

Ribbon Addicts Beware.....

Just thought I would share this link with you all. Jody does fabulous shares at really reasonable prices. I have already had loads of prima flowers from her and at the moment I have 3 lots of fabby ribbon on order. The ribbon works out really cheap I think the stitched one worked out at about 16p per yard. Her postal rates are really good as well.

She also happens to be a seriously talented stamper and crafter. Check out some of her older posts to see examples of her work.

Her latest ribbon shares are really worth a look. you can find her blog here;


Confessions of a Ribbon Addict

CPS 6 Sketch...

This little card was made for my neighbours little boys to go with their easter eggs. It's a very simple, easy card really made just for fun! I used the CPS sketch (if you havent tried these yet- have a go they really are great fun!). The theme this week was Spring so I used these lovely fresh colours.


This card was made entirely with scraps from my scrap box and a sticker and ribbon that came free with a magazine! The rub on is Making Memories, brads and eyelets from stash.

Since starting to join in on the daring cardmakers dares and these sketches cardmaking has become much more fun!

Extra Dare..

The little extra on Daring Cardmakers was to make a 'get well soon 'type card. I don't make these that often.
I decided to use some of the current SA kit for this card.

I used one of the circles included in the kit and decorated it with paper(also in the kit), prima flowers, mm rub ons and ribbon from a previous kit.
I never really know what to do with these circles so if anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them.
Added the greeting 'thinking of you' rather than 'get well soon' as the colour was a good match.

Will add this to my box of cards that I keep for various occasions.

Ooooops.....................

OK.. so stash diet is now officially over through no fault of my own. A very nice lady has opened up a lovely little scrapbooking/crafty shop in my area(we only have one little shop that sells basics) and it was obviously my duty to go and support her so that her business is a success and then she can buy even more craft loveliness to put in her shop.(oh not sure if that sentence made sense) !!:OS



So you can see that I had no choice, just had to buy a few bits and did stick to essentials(so they dont really count anyway).

60 envelopes, all white but really good quality and very cheap, 2 rolls of ds tape,7 gypsies rub ons(maybe not that essential but couldnt resist), Acrylic block - really needed this as have been using the back of my credit card!!! gorgeous bags of assorted buttons - 50p each (absolute bargain) and chalk inks- couldnt decide which colour to have so just bought 6!!!!!!!!!!

Actually feel so much better for buy something, dont think stash diets are really very good for your health anyway, so I have also placed an order with crafts u love which I hope will be here in a couple of days.

Now must go and checkout Daring Cardmakers Blog for the little extra challenge.

Sarah x

Random Cardmaking!...

This weeks dare was more difficult than I imagined it would be.

Firstly make a list of 10-20 crafty items you have in your stash, whether it be brads, ribbons, peel-off's, craft robo, dies, stamps, glittter, buttons, flowers, patterned papers, paint... You get the idea! Give them all a number or print them out a sheet and pop them in a hat all folded up.
Next, ask someone non-crafty to either pick 3-5 of your numbers or pieces of paper from your from your hat.
Finally, make a card using ONLY the items chosen.

Hmm... sounds easy enough. Well I put15 items in my pot - brads, eyelets, flowers, patterned paper, die cuts, ribbon, metal bits, stamps, ink, gel pen, rub ons, chipboard, snaps , punches and beads.

My daughter picked out the following; - brads, ink, ribbon, metal bits and flowers.

I came out in a cold sweat at the thought of no patterned paper!!!! This is how the card worked out;

I wanted to used pink card for the card blank, but it is a bit flimsy so I had to mount it onto a white one. Couldn't use my corner rounder (no punches) so had to cut the corners by hand, luckily I could ink the edges to disguise them!!!! Used some paper flowers in my favourite colour combination pink and black, attached with the brads added metal letters and clip with ribbon attached.

Various flowers from stash(prima and Sarah's bloomers), brads and ribbon from stash,clip from Carolyns and mm letters.

Not entirely happy with this one, but I kept moving my items around the card and with the selection I had this is the best I could come up with!!! Great dare though, really makes you apppreciate all the bits of loveliness in your stash that we all take for granted when creating.

Nearly 3 weeks without buying stash now!! Still don't seem to have made a dent in my collection! It's amazing how far a piece of paper goes when you are cardmaking.The only thing I seem to be running short of is DS tape, not much of a buzz buying more of this!! Not sure how much longer I can keep this stash diet up for, getting serious withdrawal symptoms now!!!

Enjoy the weekend! :O)

Thanks...

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who left me a sympathetic comment for my sore tooth !!! Hubs doesn't do sympathy so they were much appreciated!! Glad to say I am feeling much better now although still struggling to eat. Getting a wee bit fed up of soup and yoghurt!!!

My day off yesterday, so I did manage to craft a little, made a couple of identical 'New Home' cards for orders that I have.



The scalloped circle is a punch that I have had for ages and to be honest I dont use it enough, the house is a cuttlebug die(love all cuttlebug dies), making memories ribbon and key and doodlebug rub ons. I am quite pleased with this card.

Today I must try and complete some orders as I am a little behind. Two more orders yesterday plus a couple that I had already. Still it's nice when people ask you to make them a card :O)

Sarah x

Little Extra Sketch..

Still on stash diet... Booo!!!! No scrummy stash parcels for over 2 weeks, and to make matters worse had to go to the dentist for treatment yesterday which seems to have left me in agony!!
My first filling for 25 years and it hurts like hell!

Haven't really felt like cardmaking due to the tooth hurting, but did manage one card for the daring cardmakers little extra as it was a sketch and I love sketches!!:O)

This is my take on it;


Papers from old SA kit(love the colours in this kit),paper raffia from local pound shop,chipboard flower Heidi Swapp, quickutz rub ons.

Have about 5 commissioned cards to do but cannot concentrate enough so will hopefully be in less pain tommorrow.

Now where's that paracetamol? :O(

CPS 5 Sketch...

I am really enjoying these sketch cards! Yesterday I had a go at the latest sketch on CPS.
This week they want you to include some stamping on the card. Oooh Scary! Don't use stamps very often, but I do have a few and included in my small collection are the lovely Rhonna Farrer swirls.

Here is the card I made;


Cardstock from stash, Paper from current SA kit, swirl stamp, primas and mm brads.
Ok so I havent gone overboard on the stamping I'm just not very brave when it comes to using them!

Sarah x

Stash Diet!!!!.........

Love my Postie.... Yesterday he delivered my SAkit for this month, which included a couple of previous kits that were going cheap(At no extra postage!). This is the first parcel I have had for a couple of weeks as I am trying not to buy any stash at the moment. SA kits dont count though as they are pre ordered HOORAH!!!

Didn't realise quite how difficult this was going to be, but I do have an enormous amount of stash that needs using up. I have sorted out lots of old stuff that I would not use anymore and I have been selling these bits off on Ebay.
Really, really want Crate paper Avenue collection, but it seems to be sold out everywhere at the moment. Hopefully my diet will be finished by the time I find it in stock.

Have been busy making some cards for my Mum's tin(see previous post) which has used up a bit more stash. I used a couple of blog sketches for these, a great way to make a card quickly as you do not need too much inspiration. Here are a two of them, I will put in about 15 but wont bore you with piccies of them all.

Thank you card made using the sketch here;

Card Sketch March #1

Paper from old SA kit, mm rub ons, raffia from local florist, and prima flowers (dont you just love the huge prima flower?) for some reason this piccie didn't come out too clearly, must be the camera, couldn't have been my photography skills :S

And the Birthday card was made using the sketch here;

sketch this cards: week 3

more papers from old SA kit, primas and mm rub ons.

The sketches are great fun to do, think I will be doing more of these!!:)
Happy Crafting! :)

Super Hero...

Hi all, Jo here to dare you this week :) and I would like to challenge you to make a hero themed card. It could be a card for the Hero in your life or a Superhero themed card....



Hmm... Actually thought I would have to abandon this one!! As Mum to 2 girls Superheros are not part of my everyday life! LOL! This was a really tricky dare. So while searching through my stash I found this little Hero thingy (it was in with my buttons but actually not sure what to call it!) and thought I could use this for a card.

This is what I came up with;


A card for my Dad, and of course he is my Hero (aren't all Dads?). His health has been deteriating since he suffered a stroke last year, but he battles on even though he often is frustrated by the effects of the stroke.

Items used are cardstock from stash, Hero Arts birthday definition stamp, cuttlebug concentric stars die, metal letters and star brads from Making Memories, Hero thingy from stash.
Love this die as it's great for male cards, also this is the first time I have used the stamp(bargain on ebay).

I have one more thing to share today. I have been working on this all week as a pressie for my Mum on Mother's day. I found this Basic Grey lunch pail on ebay for £8.50 so I bought two.
(you have probably realized by now that I an an Ebay addict!)

This is my first ever altered project! It has turned out ok, although when I do the second tin I will do a few things differently. I really wish I had inked the letters on the tin before I stuck them down. I decorated the inserts inside as well and plan to put in a selection of about 15 handmade cards for various different occasions.































Lovely Gypsy BG papers, ribbon and buttons from stash, Heidi Swapp florals and additional papers from stash. I got the inspiration for this project from a recent issue of Papercraft Inspirations magazine.
I think my Mum will like it.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend. :)

Recipe Card

This time the ingredients are:3 buttons, 3 different papers, and 3 different ribbons.

Loving this little extra on the Daring Cardmakers Blog. So many ideas for this one I didn't know where to start. A card for mother's day seemed appropriate. So this is what I came up with, it's very simple and although green's not really my thing I am pleased with it. Ended up with just 'mum' for the wording, any more and I think it would have been too fussy. I'll have to put Happy Mother's Day inside.

Quick and easy card- used a cuttlebug die for the flowers and cut the stems out with wavy edge scissors.

Cardstock from The Paper Mill Shop(just how long does one box of card last from here!!!!!!) papers and ribbon Making Memories,buttons papermania, rub ons doodlebug.

It seems that this Daring Cardmakers stuff is infectious, my daughter Leah decided she would have a go and make a card for her Nan. A lovely thought but letting her loose on my stash is somewhat stressful!!LOL!! This is what she made;

She also made a enormous mess in my craft room!!! LOL!!:)

You cannot see the 3 papers very clearly in this picture but I promise they are there, underneath the prima flowers. Cuttlebug die used for the round tags, DCWV papers, prima flowers, ribbon from stash, mm brads and black papermania buttons.

I think I have serious competition here!!!! She is actually very artistic and has made some really fab cards for me and the family.

That's about all I have to share today, I am working on a little project for Mother's Day if it turns out OK i will post it.

Happy Cardmaking!! :)

Cuttlebug

Thank you to everone who kindly left a coment about my card, I didn't expect anyone to even see my first post!
The very talented Lynne asked about the cuttlebug embossing folder I used so here is a photo of mine. You can use them in the big shot as well as a cuttlebug, not sure about the sizzix machine as I dont have one (has anyone tried them in their sizzix??)
They are really easy yo use, just sandwich your card into the folder and feed through the big shot the same way as you would a sizzlit die. the embossing is really clear and there are lots of different designs. I also have loads of the cuttlebug dies which I really love , they can be used in the big shot in exactly the same way.

I have bought all of my cuttlebug dies and folders from the United States (ebay) even with shipping they are so much cheaper, and you can usually buy several together in one listing.
I think the embossing folders were about £3-4 each and the dies work out as cheaply as £4 for a set of 4. (sorry rambling on a bit now!!!!, could talk about my stash all day!!!!!!!!)

This last piccie is of a few cards i made at the weekend for some of my daughters friends, i seem to have to make at least two a week! Just simple cards with their names on made using Queen & co letters and flowers.

Think I am starting to get the hang of this blogging thing, only had to ask my daughter for help about 20 times for this post!! That's less than half the amount for the first post!!

My Own Blog!!!

At last I have been brave enough to start my own blog!! After months of following other crafty blogs I thought I would share some of my crafty creations. I love the Daring cardmaker blog but this is my first attempt at a dare..



'This week its my turn (Bondgirl aka Tracie) to dare you all. I looked at my cards last week and thought hmm they are ok but they are all very similar - white square card, double matted embellishment, printed greeting. Dont get me wrong there is nothing wrong with doing what you are good at, I bet we all have our "signature" ranges but I realised what a wealth of techniques and styles I wasnt trying. So this week I dare you to step outside your comfort zone and have a go at something new - be it something you have never tried, or something you havent done for ages.'



This was quite scary, I didnt realise how set in my ways I had become. Anyway, this is what I came up with..





This card is out of my comfort zone for several reasons. Firstly, it is not white, i always tend to use white or cream cards, secondly i have used embossing (i bought the embossing folder a while ago but have never used it!), third it is a male card which i always struggle with and lastly it uses a peel off.
I actually really enjoyed making this card. It is for my teenage Nephew and i think he will like it.

Items used are cardstock from The Paper Mill shop, cuttlebug embossing folder sizzix dies and dawn Bibby peel off. i also used white ink pad to lightly highlight the embossing, i applied it with a cotton bud.

Hope you like it.