Sunday Stampers Week 309 - Something changed - Friday 30th May 2014

Hello Friends,

Hope you have all had a good week...I just wish this weather would improve! I've had a busy week..it's Volunteers Week next week so I've been trying to prepared for an 'Open Office' event we are having on Monday to try and recruit volunteers.

Today is my Sunday Stampers project for this week...I made this today, finally able to relax in my craft room this week! I've made it as a little present for a friend, so hope she likes it!

Sunday Stampers is the weekly challenge set by the hugely inspirational Hels Sheridan, for full details hop over to Hels' blog:http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk

This week Hels set the theme of changing something...so I started out with this...a plain little notebook....

And this is the altered version...front and back...

I started off with some card from my stash..it was left over from a Tilda pad. All the stamps I've used are from Paper Artsy: the butterfly is  an Eclectica stamp and all the other stamps are Jofy designs. I folded the card to fit the notebook, but made it as a cover that the book just slots into. Once I had sized it properly I got out my sewing machine and sewed all around the edges.

 I stamped all the images using Versafine ink and then quickly heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I stamped the butterfly on the cover and then a second time on card; this butterfly I heat embossed using Black Sparkle embossing powder. I then coloured the images using my drawing inks. 

The second butterfly was adhered to the front and to finish I inked the edges with Picked Raspberry distress in, added a little stickles glitter, some bakers twine and a little wooden heart.

inside of sewn cover

This is all set to be my creation for Emergency Crafters for June, hoping that we go ahead this month, but I'll keep you posted!

Thank you so much for stopping by, I really do appreciate your comments and love to read them,

Love and Hugs,
Carole X

WOYWW 260 - Wednesday 28th May 2014

Hello Friends!

...and this is what happens when a Holiday weekend starts off very wet....

I must 'crack on' today, lots of photos to share and crafting to be done on my day off..I have a lot of crafty catching up to do!

However, before I go on with my WOYWW post, once again thank you for your comments yesterday and for popping over to Sam's blog and leaving a comment there too...all so much appreciated I assure you. I love reading them all.

WOYWW 260 - Happy 5th Birthday WOYWW!

I haven't shared my desk for a few weeks, but am pleased to be back today and looking forward to  sneaking a peek at some of your desks later! If you don't know what WOYWW is all about - it's a chance to share what's going on in our crafty space courtesy of the lovely Julia...click here to find out all the deets. Thank you Julia for this wonderful idea and long may it continue..I value so much the lovely friends I have made through craft and blogging.

So - as far as crafting was concerned this past long weekend was a bit of a wash out, BUT I did (with Tom's help) get a lot achieved in rearranging the craft room, which I have promised him is for the last time :).

Everything, I mean everything, was removed: some of it is still holidaying in the spare room. It was cleaned, dusted and aired and then we changed the furniture around and brought in one or two bits from the summerhouse. It is quite a small room, but now I have a work/computer desk, a sewing desk, ahem...a die cutting station and a desk that at the moment is still full of clutter. There is still a long way to go..once my stamps are sorted properly there will (I hope) be more room on the shelves; my card stock needs a good tidy and so do the cupboards, but it's a start and I already feel more 'comfortable' working in here.

Here are some photos...sorry about the quality, the light was so poor today :( and in case you notice the time on the clock, it stopped when we moved it so I need to investigate... I took these photos at 8am this morning!

work desk, sewing desk and still cluttered desk!

sewing stuff!

card and stamps still to be sorted, these shelves WILL be  tidy  and my die cutting area :)

a glimpse into my still to be tidied cupboard of glitters and gilding flakes

on my desk, some cards I made last week, waiting to be photographed and blogged,
plus my stamps to use today 

 Those of you who follow me regularly will know I am also lucky enough to have use of our little Summer House for all my altered art stuff and that I have been on the look out for some old office furniture to 'shabby chic' and use it there....you will also know that I found this old desk going for a song..well it was delivered on Saturday and is now in our lounge waiting for some fine weather so I can work on it outside...it looks pretty sad now, but I have plans...

Finally, on Julia's blog yesterday she talked of customised phone covers...so I thought I would share the one that has been keeping my phone safe for the past year..yes of course, our hens take centre stage! Sadly we have lost our sweetheart, Penny in the last few months but it's a lovely reminder of her!

That's all for today, have to get some crafting achieved today...Happy WOYWW everyone!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

You Light Up My Life - Tuesday 27th May 2014

Good Morning Friends,

Did you all have a lovely Bank Holiday and did the sunshine where you are!? I think Sunday was the best day here; so much rain on Saturday! 

A rainy day should have meant I got in some lovely crafting time, but no, I decided that I could no longer work in my craft room the way it was...not just a tidy up this time, but a major overhaul was needed...I'm only half finished, but I like it and please stop by tomorrow where there will be photos for my WOYWW contribution this week.

There will also be a photo of the 'new-old' desk which arrived on Saturday, ready for me to shabby chic. I know exactly what I am going to do, but have never taken on anything this big, so it's a bit scary!

Sam Poole Design Team card...

Yes it's Tuesday again so my turn for the design team blog over at Creative Studios...I know I keep asking, but if you could pop over and leave a little comment, I'd be so grateful..just click here....http://www.creative-studios.co.uk/you-light-up-my-life-2

For this week's project I again used the Lantern stamp from Sam's new nautical stamps..I keep wanting to use this stamp in an interactive way (remember last time I made the box with the light?).

This time I made an aperture card, leaving the lamp to swing freely.

Full details and more photos can be found over at Creative Studios.

Before I go I'd like to share a few photos I took in the garden at the weekend...

We've had a family of Tits in our old nest box...we had intended to replace it this year. I painted it, complete with little birds on the sides about 10 years ago and we have had a fair bit of success with Blue Tits choosing to nest there. Despite it not looking so much like a des-res at the moment, once again they came this year. I took these photos of one of the parents emerging with fecal sacs and then about to go in with some food. The box is on the side of the craft barn (summer house) next to the Coop, so I was behind the Coop on tiptoes, holding my camera high (the coop is taller than me!) trying to stretch to get the photo.

As always, we've really enjoyed having our visiting family and on Saturday morning we were fortunate enough to see the last three fledge. Beautiful. 

That's all for today, have a good one!

Love and Hugs,
Carole X

Sunflower wrap - Saturday 24th May 2014

Hello Friends,

Well as it looks like most of us won't be sunbathing this bank holiday, I thought I would share another of my chocolate bar wrappers - this time with a definite sunshine feel to it!

For this one I used yellow check paper from my stash and the polka dot paper is a download from Pink Petticoat.

I cut both to size and inked the edges with mustard seed. I didn't want the wrapper to be overdone with inking. The sunflower is one of the new Spellbinders floral stamps. It's a beautiful stamp, but so much cutting and piecing together..worth it though I think. I used yellow card, which I inked with mustard seed and wild honey distress inks to soften the colour tones.

To finish, I added  a stamped greeting from a set by Creative Expressions and cut the paper into a banner shape, which was then matted and layered on to the plain yellow card and again cut to size. I tied some ribbon and that's it, ready to give as a little gift.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are all having  a great Saturday!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

PS! What a great surprise I had this morning when one of my teamies from Creative Studios, Jackie, posted me a Facebook message that I am this week's card winner on Sue Wilson's blog! Yay a Sue Wilson original ! I hadn't had a chance to look at the time, so it was great to see Jackie's message! X

Fairy Wishes - Friday 23rd May 2014

Hello Friends,

It's ok, I'm not going to bombard you with fairies every day from  now on, but I made this card in my same crafting 'session' as the tag from yesterday, so I thought I would post it today.

This card is 7x7 and was made using one of the 'scene creator' backgrounds from Lavinia Stamps. These are really useful for making a quick card, when you just don't have the time to create your own background using stamps or paints. Yesterday's tag took a whole morning and today's card about 30 minutes!

The background, including the leaves are all on the printed sheet. I stamped the fairy using a free stamp from this months Papercraft Essentials magazine. If anyone has these stamps and finds they aren't stamping well, they can be sent back to the magazine for replacement. Apparently they weren't produced by Lavinia themselves so they weren't aware that this had happened. It's only affected some runs.

I wouldn't say these stamps were entirely up to Lavinia's standard, but I'm not going to worry about sending them back. 

Because I really did want a quick card, I took inspiration from one of the examples in the magazine. The original design was by Tracey Dutton from Lavinia. I stamped the fairy once directly on to the card and then a second time on to white card. I used Versafine Onyx Black and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. This wouldn't normally be my ink of choice for heat embossing, but the ink is good to use with the stamps, especially the smaller detail stamps and the sentiments.

I then cut out the fairy and adhered her to the top of the original image, leaving the wings free to 'move'.

I stamped the toadstools directly on to the card and heat embossed. There are toadstools with the free stamps, but I wanted to use smaller ones, so I used a stamp I already had, Next I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment. This was one of the free stamps and the one that was poorest quality, even using versafine, but having said that it stamped cleanly and is entirely legible, so I'm just being 'picky'. The font just a little bit too small.

To finish I stamped some little 'bubble' fairy dust stamps (also in free set) between the fairy's fingers and the toadstools using Versamark clear embossing ink and heat embossed with holographic powder. I then added a little stickles glitter in top of that.

I stamped the stars (I already had these) in versa fine sepia using the method of inking up the pad, stamping on copy paper and then the card to give less of an impression. I also used stickles to highlight the stars, wings  and around the leaves at the side.

The card was matted and layered on gold and black card.

That's all for today, have a great Friday, even if it's pouring with rain where you are, as it is here!

Many thanks for stopping by, you are very much appreciated!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Fairy Dust -Sunday Stampers week 308 - Thursday 22nd May 2014

Hello Friends!

Sunday Stampers week 308 - "Don't it make my brown eyes blue"

Today's card is my Sunday Stampers offering for this week..for those of you who don't know, this is a weekly challenge 'just for fun' set by Hels Sheridan and for full deets click here and hop on over to her blog...you will love what you see!

The theme is week is to include brown and blue and I've made this very large 'fairy' themed tag..be prepared for quite a few fairies over the summer, as I prepare examples for one of our future workshops!

This is a large tag that I bought in a pack at Ally Pally last year, from Stamps Away.

First of all I gave it a base coat of Cosmic Shimmer Paint (from Creative Expressions, Ally Pally this year!). The colour I used was Pearl. This gave the tag a shimmer all over. Once it was dry, I inked the  bottom edges and half-way up the sides with  Chipped Sapphire distress ink and Adirondack ink in denim. I then inked  the top with both Vintage Photo and Wild Honey distress inks, also adding a thin layer to the sides and bottom 'above' the blue.

I gave the tag a zap with the heat tool to dry off the inks and then stamped across the edges of the bottom and sides with Denim Adirondack using a vine stamp by Lavinia Stamps. I wanted to give the vines some shine and texture so I dusted with Holographic embossing powder. I then wanted to add a brown layer and after trying various inks, the colour I decided on was a Cocoa in Memento ink. I quickly stamped the vines all over again and added the embossing powder and dried with my heat tool.

Next I added some hills in the background using torn paper and Chipped Sapphire distress ink. It worked really well but us hard to see in the photo.

I then used this little fairy dust/tiny bubbles stamp from Lavinia to ink all across the top edge using Vintage Photo distress ink.

The fairy, starburst fairy dust and sentiment are also all from Lavinia Stamps. I stamped the fairy in black and then added more holographic embossing powder and heat embossed. I stamped the wings a second time, added a layer of glue and then sprinkled with Butterfly Trails Diamond Sparkles. I then stamped the greeting in black, again finishing with the same embossing powder.

All around the fairy I stamped the fairy dust, using Versafine Sepia ink. I had the tiny wooden butterflies in my stash box, so I coated then with Diamond Sparkles and adhered them to the tag.

As I was adding some cosmic shimmer glue to one of the butterflies, I did have a little 'accident' - the glue decided to shoot out more than I had anticipated and rather stupidly I hadn't moved the card, so it spilt just under the fairy's arm. I wiped it off immediately, but it took some paint and ink with it,so i covered it as best I could with more ink and a butterfly! I guess I might have been able to smooth it and let it dry clear, but panic takes hold ! Ooops!

To finish I also added some crystal stickles and a few gems, then finally some mixed threads I had in my ribbon box.

That's all for today,

Thank you for stopping by,

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Wedding card - Wednesday 21st May 2014

Good morning Friends, 

I hope you are all having a great week and this morning the sun is shining again! Before I start, I want to say a big thank you for your comments yesterday and especially to those of you who took the time to hop over to Sam's blog and leave a message too..I know going through blogs and looking at all our creations and posting comments takes quite a bit of  time, but it really meant a great deal...thank you!

  Today's card is a wedding card I was asked to make recently...

Although the colour looks 'lilac' in the photo, it is in fact soft pink! I got my Pan Pastels down from the shelf and dusted the box as I hadn't used them in a long time. I only have one set of colours (pinks!) and maybe that's why, because they really are lovely to use for colouring and creating backgrounds.

This is an 8x8 card and for my base layer I embossed white card using the Sue Wilson Heart Lattice folder. I then cut the card at the bottom and  used an edger die to create the layers, colouring the bottom layer.

The dies used are from Sue Wilson's Californian Collection: Background die, and San Francisco; the sentiment is computer generated. I used Spellbinders  Blooms 4 for the flower and the leaf die is from Sue Wilson's Faux Quilled Leaves set.

To finish off I added and organza bow, doubled with a white twine bow and gem. I also decorated the inside and guess what? Forgot to photograph it!


Thank you so much for stopping by today,

Love and Hugs,
Carole X

All at Sea - Tuesday 20th May 2014

Hello Friends!

Well I guess the sun had to take another break and let the rain come down last night..but he'll be back soon I'm sure! Tom had yesterday off (I don't usually work Mondays now) and we both had dental check up appointments first thing,  that was fine and afterwards we decided to head to Bath for lunch. We decided on the fish restaurant Loch Fyne and ate a lovely meal out on the terrace...Heaven!!!

It's Tuesday again and time for my latest DT  post for Sam Poole's Creative Studios. This week I used the Ship in a Bottle stamp from the new nautical singles sets, as well as a fabulous sentiment stamp and 'Happy Father's Day' - all from the sets.

Full details are over on the Design Team page at Sam's site: http://www.creative-studios.co.uk/design-team   and as usual I would be so grateful if you can spare a moment to click the link and leave a short comment. I have been so thrilled that you have been doing so, you know I really mean it.

Whilst you are there, if you are interested and have time, take a look at Sam's  post from yesterday  on her home page - she has shared photos of her new attic craft studio and I have to tell you, this is the craft room I can only dream about!

That's all for today, I'll be back soon,

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Painted Chair - Monday 19th May 2014

Hello Friends!

Did you all have good weekend with lots of sunshine? I hope so! I got a little crafting time, a little time for trying to re-organise my craft room (again - and still not much achieved!) and some sun... the truth is that it was actually too darn hot to stay outside for long during the day...not that I'm complaining - at all!

I apologise...this is going to be a bit of a wordy post today...

We made a most exciting purchase on Saturday (well exciting for me)...we went to Tetbury to do our food shop  and as usual had a wander around and a coffee (outside the cafe, yay!!). I'm aware that most of you won't know Tetbury, but it is a lovely little Cotswold town, very popular with tourists from all over the world, for it's antiques and it's association with royalty: Prince Charles' home, Highgrove, is close by.

Now, I'm not into collecting antiques, though I do enjoy the Antiques Road show and a little bit of 'Flog it' now and then, but I do love looking in the antique shops. I have been on the look out recently for one or two bits of old but functional furniture that I can 'shabby chic' for the craft barn and when we were there a few weeks ago, we saw and old oak desk. It was £90, which was more than I wanted to pay, but it was lovely and just ripe for adding a personal touch to. However I said that it was too much and I would keep looking and walked away. Tom however was even more keen than I was (I think he quite liked it himself - either that or the though of me dragging him to reclamation yards and antique shops filled him with horror!!)  so he suggested we go and look again and guess what? It was now half the price!!! Phew, glad I didn't let my heart rule my head last time :)

It's a really lovely old desk that was from a local jewellers that closed down last year...the man in the shop said that he had really wanted to shabby chic it himself but had other projects on the go and no time. It was too big for the car, but he is passing our way next Saturday so is going to drop it off...and this time I will remember to photograph it before I start work (I should have snapped it at the shop!), which I didn't for the chair....

Yes the chair, you will have to picture it looking very dark brown and shabby I'm afraid. I can always remember it in my parent's house, which was inherited from my Grandmother, who passed away when I was three. I think it may have come with the house and they just decided to keep it. It stood in the corner of my bedroom for years, first with some stuffed animals perched on it and then books I think...when Mum moved to be nearer us, she had to downsize and just three pieces of furniture from the old house, went to the new...a  walnut cabinet that had been one of the first pieces of furniture they bought, a small but high table (one of those people used to put wash basins on in bedrooms a life-time ago, probably Gran's as well) and this chair...and guess what? They are all now in our house! They don't fit as the house is modern, but they have found homes upstairs where they don't look too out of place and the chair has always been in the craft barn..in fact Mum insisted I had it for the barn as soon as we built it and I don't like to say no!

But time has come for a change...Tom questioned me,"Did I really want to paint it?" My mind was made up, it had to be a practice piece. 

I painted it with the same chalk paint as the shelves I posted here a few weeks ago, William Morris Blue. Once I had painted it, I waxed it using my new love Annie Sloan wax (honestly her paints and waxes are gorgeous!). I applied the wax with a brush and it went on so easily, yet the very nature of the task is such hard work. Once I had waxed it, I sanded some of the areas to reveal the brown wood beneath and then on some parts I added a little gold gilding wax just to experiment. I would have painted the chair white first, but I wanted to retain a hint of its 'history' by leaving the brown of the wood to show through.

The hens were painted freehand - they are supposed to be 'Primitive' but they turned out the wrong kind of primitive, lol! I had no idea how hard it would be to draw and paint freehand on the back of a chair, but I will improve as time passes! (I hope). It started out as a memory of Penny and I decided to include Lacey as they arrived together! In fact Lacey was very interested when I was painting, she kept trying to peck my fingers, perhaps she recognised herself! Here she is below...

Sorry this has been so wordy, but thanks for sticking with me today!

Love and Hugs,
Carole X

Workshop Photos - Saturday 17th May 2014

Good morning Friends,

I hope you are all looking forward to a lovely sunny weekend...are any of you up to anything nice? I'm not sure what we are doing just yet.

Today I am sharing photos from the second of our '2nd Birthday' workshops at Out of the Blue craft group. Everyone seemed to enjoy making the wrappers for their chocolate bars again and certainly made some lovely creations.

I think this was a fun class to do - many of the groups hadn't thought of doing this before (it's really thanks to Christine Emberson a few years ago that I started to make them!) and I think the wrapping style can be easily adapted to other gifts such as books, DVDS etc.

Thanks so much for stopping by, I really appreciate it!

Love and Hugs,

Carole Z X

Pretty in Pink, Sunday Stampers week 307 - Friday 16th May

Hello Friends,

I had one of those infuriating craft days today, when everything I attempted ended in disaster! Mr Mojo had decided to take a day off just when I had the chance to craft all day and really needed him here!

It was a lovely day though wasn't it? I did go outside this afternoon and do a bit of work on the old chair that I've been working on out in the craft summerhouse. Actually I finished it, there isn't much to show for all my painting and waxing, but I will post it one day soon!

Today it's time for  Sunday Stampers, for fill deets head over to Hels Sheridan's blog..this week Hels set the theme to include pink in our projects and after several dire attempts with various stamps, this is the tag I made...

I inked the tag all around the edges using Picked Raspberry and Tea Dye distress inks and then I stamped  tiny flowers (Majestix stamps) all around, again using Picked Raspberry.

The butterfly stamp is by Lavinia- I stamped  it directly on to the tag (more Picked Raspberry) and heat embossed clear. Then I stamped it again on to white card,heat embossed and added glitter. Finally I stamped it twice on to acetate. I heat embossed using WOW! Embossing powder for lots of sparkle and cut the butterfly out and glued to the tag.

To finish off, I glittered the edges using stickler and tied a bow at the top, also added some wired pearls.

Last night's Out of the Blue craft group was another big success, with lots more lovely chocolate bar wrappers made by the ladies...I will be sharing the photos tomorrow,

Bye for now,

Love and Hugs,

Carole XX

Bear Hug Candy Box! - Thursday 15th May 2014

Hello Friends!

Thank you so much for stopping by my little piece of blogland, I really appreciate it! This evening is the second of our 'Out of the Blue' Craft Group's 2nd Anniversary/Birthday workshops, so it's more choccie bars tonight...our ladies have to work for their chocolate though...by making their own wraps.

They have the choice of making a  wrap or a box...last week was about half and half; the wraps are quicker and some made two. I made quite a lot for demo wraps/boxes and I will be sharing them on here over the next week or so, but I think of them all this is my favourite.

For a start I love this stamp...the bear has such a cute, 'vacant' expression (just like my own childhood bear that yes, I still cherish!)..the stamp is by Sam Poole and the whole set of woodland creatures is gorgeous !

I made the box without measurements or a template..believe me, if I don't absolutely need to measure I won't. I wrapped my kraft card around the chocolate bar and scored at the sides and top to create a box shape. It really is easy.

I found the brown textured paper in my stash; it was just what I needed for the bottom half of the box front. I also found a piece of brown coredinations  card, which I embossed using a leaf folder and then sanded back to reveal the core. 

The bear was also stamped on kraft card using black archival ink and then heat embossed with clear powder, finally I inked it through with Vintage Photo. The 'Mmmm' stamp is from Sue Wilson's Home Baking set - stamped and heat embossed on to kraft card and inked as for the bear.

I decided to make the front a pocket, so I only glued the bottom and sides of the textured paper, leaving the top open. I them covered the top with hessian and ribbon.

I decorated the bottom with string and twine and added a seal/button from Sam Poole's Woodland Seals stamp set - I stamped it on kraft card and then dipped it in UTEE in my melt pot.

Finally I made a tag for the pocket:

I cut a tag shape from kraft card and embossed with the leaf stamp, then inked through with Vintage Photo. I stamped and inked the bear exactly the same as before and then added the "Bear Hugs' greeting that comes with the stamp set.

That's it for today, if I haven't caught up with your posts already today ( I tend to blog hop before work), I will do first thing tomorrow!

Thank you for visiting!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Baby Girl - Wednesday 14th May 2014

Good Morning Friends!

It's a beautiful morning here  and I hope it is where you are too! First of all, can I say another massive thank you for your comments yesterday on my Creative-Studios post and to those of you who hopped over to Sam's blog and left a comment  -  thank you so much, it really really meant a lot to me!

I have a busy craft day ahead, but before that can really begin I have to pop down to the local Council  offices for one of those meetings. You know, the ones I really don't want to go to! I have told them that it is my day off and I'm very busy, so I am literally going to just 'show my face' and rush back to get on with my work here!

Today's card is a baby girl card I made earlier this year and never posted before...I've posted so many guy cards lately that I thought I would go a bit 'girly' today!

This is a small card, about 5x5 and pre-shaped. I used some papers from a little pad that had come free with a magazine: the banners were also cut from a paper sheet. The stamp is by LOTV, coloured with promarkers and the greeting is computer generated.

A simple little card for today! Thanks for stopping by!

Love and Hugs,

Carole Z X

Lantern Light - Tuesday 13th May 2014

Good Morning Friends,

I'm back on Sam Poole's blog today with my second post for the DT! Today's project is a  box card I made using the Lantern stamp that is part of Sam's new nautical singles stamp sets. I had lots of ideas for what to do with this stamp, but my first thought was with something that I could actually illuminate and I came up with this...I just used a little battery operated tea light inside.

The full details of how I made the card are can be found on the DT page , just click this link - http://www.creative-studios.co.uk/lamp-light. If you have a few minutes to pop over and leave a comment, I would once again be so grateful.The link should take you straight to the  DT page.

That's all from me today, I'll be back in the morning...thank you so much for stopping by!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Candy bar wrapper - Monday 12th May 2014

Hello all,

Hope you all had a lovely weekend? Our visitors, my cousin and her husband have just left for home (Swansea) so I thought I would write a quick post!

Tom had to go to work this morning, Bern, my cousin's husband is a golf fanatic, so he played a round of golf with another  cousin this morning and Corinne and I went shopping! Corinne loves shopping and I don't have any friends that live locally who like shopping, so it was such a treat to have someone to share a proper 'girlie' shopping trip with today! It has been such a lovely weekend, having them stay.

Now back to craft...

It was really exciting to see my cards amongst the DT cards for Sam Poole on Create and Craft TV on Saturday! Nigel wanted the lamp I'd made lit up, which was quite funny. I really enjoyed the shows, especially the Nigel one and Sam did some fab demos with the stamps. One of my fellow newbie Teamies, Jackie made a fabulous scrapbook page in salute to her Grandfather..loved it! The lamp that I have just mentioned will be my post over on Sam's blog tomorrow.

Today, I am sharing one of the chocolate bar wraps that I made as demos for our workshops..it's the only one I've managed to photograph properly so far.

 To make this wrap, I used paper from LOTV's 'Baskets and Bunnies' paper pad and script paper from stash. I die cut a flower using Spellbinders 'Flower Creations' and used a stamp from Sue Wilson's 'Home Bakery Labels' stamp set, which I bought at Ally Pally.

Thank you so much for stopping by, your visit is very much appreciated: I have also noticed that I have a few more followers via bloglovin' - I am so sorry for not acknowledging this before, it's not as plainly  visible to me as the usual blog following list. But = thank you so  much for following me and do let me know if you too have blogs!

Love and Hugs,

Carole Z X

Classic Car - Saturday 10th May 2014

Good Morning Friends!

Another guy card, what's got in to me???

This is a scheduled post because we have visitors arriving tomorrow morning, until Monday evening - so  no crafting at all this weekend and even if I had the chance, I couldn't because I can barely move in the craft room!

As some of you will know, I am moving my art stuff outside to the 'craft barn' and am trying to once and for all clear up my craft room. It really hit home to me Thursday when I was packing up my stuff for the craft group and couldn't find my cuttlebug - yes you read it right - cuttlebug! I did actually start to panic because taking the GC is out of the question, it's old and creaky and works for me but wouldn't withstand a lot of use over one evening. Anyway, to cut a long story short, a couple of large envelopes had fallen on top of it and I did find it in the end!

I digress :)  Because of the big clear out and not thinking that we were going to have visitors, I have been moving craft stuff into the guest room to sort through; so now it's all  temporarily back in here and I can't move! It was such a busy day yesterday and on top of everything I went to the doctor on Tuesday about my cough; he was sure it's a spring allergy and gave me some antihistamines and spray, which he said  shouldn't cause drowsiness...well they do! Anyway they seem to be helping so that's the main thing. I will try and stay awake!

The upside of the weekend is is that my cousin from Wales and her husband  are coming to stay, which will be lovely as we haven't seen each other in ages.

Today's card is another car stamp by Stamps Away/Clevercut..

This is another CAS card ...I stamped the car on to Foundations Card and heat embossed with clear embossing ink. I then used Spellbinders Classic Rectangles Small and die cut using the 'out of the box' technique, so that part of the car is out of the die cut. I then inked the edges using Aged Mahogany ink.

I also cut a faux rectangle layer by drawing around  the die. The Sentiment is computer generated and the banner attached with a brad.

I matted and layered using paper from stash and kraft card and added a little bow that I'd made from the same paper. To finish I added three clear pearl gems, which I coloured with Promarkers.

That's it for today, Sam Poole is on Create and Craft today and I will be excited to see if I can see any of the cards I made..but sadly it's 11am and we will be out by then, so will have to record.

Have a great Saturday all,

Love and Hugs,

Carole X