White Wedding - Thursday 2nd May

Hello Friends,

Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving your comments...I was relieved that I wasn't the only one who came into blogging not know what I was doing...it's been  a very steep learning curve over the last few years and I as I mentioned to someone at our social media surgery on Tuesday, it does get quite 'addictive' and you have to be careful it doesn't get in the way of the reason we're here..because we love to craft! However, where else could you really make so many lovely like-minded friends and share ideas and creations!

Talking of social media, Tuesday was a really good day at work, our expert Paul spent the day giving one to one advice about all types of social networking to local groups and I was doing a lot of tweeting from my desk to provide examples. It was a long and tiring day, but at the end of it, we felt as if we had accomplished a lot.

Today's card is my Design Team  card for this month's new Emergency Crafters Challenge, the theme for which is WEDDINGS, so if you would like to take part, just  hop over for the deets!

This is an 8x8 card, which I started by creating a background using one of Sue Wilson's new embossing folders from Creative Expressions. This is the heart lattice and was one of my purchases at Ally Pally. It really does give a defined, crisp impression and I've used it quite a bit over the past few weeks. 

The circle is from the Spellbinders Grand Stately Circles set and in the centre I stamped this pretty wreath from Stamps by Chloe. It's really hard to see in the photo, but I added little cosmic shimmer pearl drops to finish off. The greeting is also a stamp by Chloe, die cut on Spellbinders Standard Circles Large. Around the edges of the card I added snippets from a die in the Spellbinders Venetian Motifs set and again added pearl drops.

Aside from a DT card, this was also made as a commission, the only alteration being that I typed the names of the couple and die cut on the small circle on the front.

Thanks for stopping by,

Love, Carole X

Emergency Crafters DT card -

Good Morning my crafty blog friends,

How are you all? I've missed you these last few days...I've been very busy papercrafting almost every waking hour that I haven't been in work, but all my projects have been for commissions and design teams! The commissions I only put on here after the recipient would have had the card, so I can't show any of them yet.

I can however now share my design team card for the new Emergency Crafters challenge, which is a card recipe using one element from each of these categories: glitter or gems,ribbon or flowers, die-cut or sentiment and this is my card...

This is the first time in ages I have used an A5 card blank, I much prefer to work with square cards, but somehow this size fitted the design. I covered the card front with 'midnight' blue card. Then I embossed some of the lovely coconut white card using a polka dot 'That Special Touch of...' mask. This card was trimmed to create a layer and the rest was die cut using two sizes of Spellbinders Labels Four Small. For the bottom edge of the first layer I used a Martha Stewart punch. Then using the same card (al this was from one sheet of A4) I die cut one of the butterflies from the Spellbinders 'Papillons' set. I cut the card and a piece of wax paper at the same time and used this as the bottom layer.

If you live near a 'Kitchens' store, do try a roll of their wax wrap for your more intricate dies, not only does it make them easier to pop, but the wrap itself has a lovely texture and  can easily be used instead of vellum.

To finish off I inked the edges of all the white layers with broken china distress ink and added ribbon and gems.

So the elements I used from the recipe are: gems, ribbon and die-cuts. This is a really fun challenge, we do actually look at all the entries and choose a winner (though thankfully I'm not involved in that part!) and there is  a prize to be had, so why not hop over to Emergency Crafters and  have a go? 

Before I go, Amy and I delivered another workshop on Thursday evening..as usual I have a few photos but haven't had a chance to upload them yet...will do so tomorrow!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Carole X

Emergency Crafters DT Card - Tuesday 21st August

Hello Blog friends,

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments yesterday, I really appreciate them all.

The new Emergency Crafters challenge is now live and the theme is Tea and Cake, so why not join in? 

For my DT card, I've used an LOTV stamp which I coloured with Flexmarkers for a change.  I didn't want it to be too bright and my Flexmarkers give quite a muted tone. I covered a 6x6 card blank with some floral paper from stash and inked around the edges with Spun Sugar distress ink, then I added some lace across the centre. To keep a 'vintage' style, I die cut the image using Spellbinders Grand Scalloped Ovals, again shaded at the edges with Spun Sugar (well seems rather apt with cupcakes!).

Next I took a length of lace and stuck it to the back of the die. This lace was such a find; I paid £5 at a vintage fair for a really massive reel and it is really good quality lace.

 It struck me the other day that I never mention what adhesives I use...well for most things there is nothing that comes close to Cosmic Shimmer 'dries clear', I don't know how they do it, but the grab is so quick and the longevity - well nothing I've made with it has fallen apart so far! If I want my card or image to be raised and give it some depth, then I will use Pinflair, another fantastic glue.

Back to the card: I ruched the lace a little and also made a twisted bow from a little off cut, then I added some paper flowers and a button tied with bakers twine.

Why  not have a go at this challenge, this time it's sponsored by Joanna Sheen and there are prizes!

Follow this link to Emergency Crafters

Thanks for stopping by!

Carole X

Emergency Crafters DT - Monday 6th August

Hello Blog Friends!

The new challenge over at Emergency Crafters is based on inspiration taken from a photo....hop over to take a look,it is a  beautiful photo of the most colourful flowers and mountains. I decided on a scrapbook page layout this time and stayed with the bright colours of the flowers. First of all I stamped around the edge of an 8x8 page using the Dandelion Wishes stamp from Creative Expressions. I used Milled Lavender distress ink to give a very faded effect and then shaded the edges with Antique Linen.Using the Antique Linen again, I stamped a script in the centre of the page and tore some cream coredinations paper and added a doily heart, all of these are backdrops for the photos.

 I then  took some photos of flowers in our garden and built a floral colour montage around them using flowers from different media - paper, felt (flower made from Spellbinders Spiral Blossom One), ribbon and silk. Then I stamped a sentiment and a butterfly and finally added a Tim Holz memo pin to hold one of the photos.

Thanks for stopping by, to see what the other DT members have been doing and to enter the challenge where the prize this time is a lovely set of Promarkers...

visit    http://emergencycrafterschallenge.blogspot.co.uk


Carole X


PS Photo a Day today's topic is writing...I still haven't found the draft novel I teased you with a few weeks back, so chose a the first page of a feature I wrote when I was writing for film mags back in the 90's!