Playing with paper pieces ...

Over at The Ribbon Girl blog we have a fabulous joint giveaway from the Ribbon Girl shop and my lovely friend Jacque Larsen. Jacque creates fabulous paper pieces for digital scrapbooking, cardmaking and crafting.  I spent a very happy couple of years on Jacque's Creative Team and I had fun this last few weeks playing with some of her newer stuff. Jacque is looking for new cardmakers and crafters to join her Creative Team so check out the Ribbon Girl blog to find out more and enter the giveaway to win $20 giftcard to spend in Jacque's online store and a huge pile of ribbons, trims and embellishments from the Ribbon Girl online shop simply by leaving a comment

I had fun playing with paper:

10 Things number doodles by Jacque

Sunday Morning paper pack by Jacque

Copics, sentiment stamp and kraft cardstock

Sunday Morning element pack by Jacque

Sunday Morning paper pack by Jacque

Saddlestitch ribbon, charms and pins from Ribbon Girl

My Stick Family doodle pack by Jacque

Sunday Morning paper pack by Jacque

Ribbon, twine and star charm from Ribbon Girl

My Stick Family doodle pack by Jacque

Sunday Morning paper pack by Jacque

Ribbon and charm from Ribbon Girl

Buttons, Bows, Bling and Blooms ...

The new challenge over at Papertake Weekly is:  Buttons, Bows, Bling and Blooms and it's sponsored by The Ribbon Girl. The design team have created some wonderful projects so pop over to the Papertake Weekly blog to check them all out.

I used one of my favourite Magnolia stamps for my card

Ribbon, button, twine and pins from Ribbon Girl

I created another of my little packets to house the card and finished that with a tiny tag cut with a Papertrey Ink die, grosgrain ribbon and a pretty blossom flower from the Ribbon Girl

Ribbon Girl Pink and Blue Colour Challenge ...

Over at the Ribbon Girl blog there is a new colour challenge of Pink and Blue

We are sponsored as usual by the lovely girls at Lili Of The Valley

... and with a gorgeous prize from the Ribbon Girl

This is the card I created for the challenge, it's another of my mini cards and will be 'winging' its way (ha ha!) to a special friend for their birthday this week

Wool felt, pins, cluny lace, twine and Zva crystal swirl all from Ribbon Girl

Paper - Cosmo Cricket

Dies - Sizzix and Papertrey

Sentiment stamp - Papertrey

Embossing folder - Cuttlebug

Kraft cardstock, sewing machine and ink

I'm Lovin' It ...

I have been so excited today because I am one of the Guest Designers at Lili's Little Fairies challenge blog today and my Mam is the other Guest Designer! The Ribbon Girl is sponsoring the challenge as we do every month and the lovely girls at LLF asked us both to create a card for their challenge.  The new challenge that went live this morning is nice and easy - use your favourite Lili Of The Valley stamp.

I knew straight away which stamp I would use for my card, I love to use it as it always makes my cards look happy and cheerful, her hair reminds me of mine and that cutie patootie doggie looks just like my Haggis!

Those gorgeous papers are October Afternoon Sidewalk (a birthday present from my lovely friend) and I used ribbon, button and pins from the Ribbon Girl, tag and sentiment stamp from Papertrey Ink and dies from Spellbinders and MFT

How cute is this little bear? He is a digital stamp from The Stamp Fairy and I just adore him! He is my design team entry for Papertake Weekly this week which is sponsored by The Stamp Fairy, a new stamp store for me but I'll definitley be shopping more as there are tons of stamps that I fell in love with :)

The challenge at Papertake Weekly is Die Cute and I used my new spellbinders frame die as well as October Afternoon papers and a ribbon, pins and bee charm from Ribbon Girl

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone, I hope you all had a marvellous Christmas and New Year. I had a great time but can't believe I had to go back to work already! The first day back after Christmas is always difficult but actually I was so busy that it was hometime before I knew it and now I'm back home snuggling with my little doggie on the sofa and listening to the horrible wind outside that is blowing a gale.

A new year means a new challenge at Papertake Weekly and also a whole new site design at Sweet Shoppe Designs with lots of lovely new kits to choose from :)

This is my card for the anything goes with the option of a new theme (new baby, new house, new stash etc.) challenge and I used a fabulous new kit from Zoe Pearn for my New Baby card

I used:

Papers - One For The Boys digital kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs

Cardstock - Papermania

Glass glitter - 3D Jean

Lace, ricrac and pins - Ribbon Girl

Sentiment - Pink Petticoat

 This card is a didi 4 inches square and instead of making it a box I used one of these fab glassine bags to create a little packet for it to go into. I used another sentiment from Pink Pettocoat (printed onto Safmat) as well as trimming the top with pinking shears and adding a few lengths of lace a ricrac and tying up with a ribbon bow (all from Ribbon Girl). The tiny tag and sentiment stamp is from Papertrey Ink and the safety pin is an ancient Making Memories pin that I've had for years and years

All in all I was really happy with how this turned out, shame the lighting here has been so poor even through the day - very grey and gloomy

I am entering this card into:

Paper Sundaes Challenge - Out with the old, in with the new (I used old sentiment stamp and new papers)

Allsorts Challenge - New Beginnings

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes

Sweet Baby ...

The challenge for Just Magnolia and Hanglar challenge is to create a card using white plus one colour and I chose Lilac for my accent colour.

Papers are Melissa Francis, seam binding, lace and crystal swirl are from Ribbon Girl, tag die and sentiment stamp is from Papertrey and I attached the tag with a tiny safety pin that I've had in my supplies for years and years. Little Hanglar is coloured with Copics and extra sparkle on her wings is stickles.

Hopefully my post published when it was meant to as I am out celebrating my birthday with my crafty friends :)

A Birthday Card ...

The final challenge of the year for Papertake Weekly is a sketch and this is my interpretation

I used my newest paper flower die from MFT to make the roses and the leaves are punched from my Mam's MS punch.  Lace, button twine and pompom trim are all from the Ribbon Girl and the sentiment and number stamps are Papertrey. I added a few Kaiser pearls to the centres of the roses and that sparkly/fibery paper stuff was something I picked up from the florists wholesalers last week (not sure what a florist would do with it but I liked it behind the paper roses)

Ribbon Girl Colour Challenge ...

The new colour challenge at the Ribbon Girl blog is red, black and cream as chosen by Vicky.

This is the card and box that I made, it's another tiny 4 inch card

I used:

Digital Papers - Joy To The World by Kristin Cronin Barrow at Sweet Shoppe Designs

German Glass Glitter - 3DJean

Laces, ribbons, pins, Zva crystal swirl and button twine - Ribbon Girl

Sentiment, kraft cardstock and tag die - Papertrey Ink

Distress Ink - Ranger

The challenge is sponsored by Lili Of The Valley and Ribbon Girl so well worth entering

Little Angels ...

A few weeks ago a lovely friend gave me the link to this blog post and I was smitten :)  So last week me, my Mum and my Auntie spent a happy evening cutting, knotting, gluing and drawing faces onto wooden beads and hey presto! this is what we made ~

16 smiling, happy Angels with super sparkly wings (gold lame ribbon from the Ribbon Girl) which I took to work yesterday to sell as part of my fundraising to buy a bubble tube for my classroom at the special school where I teach (the one we want costs £900 so we need to do a lot of fundraising!!). 

All the Angels sold within 15 minutes so last night Mum and I made another 20 which I took to school today, they've been really popular and so quick and easy to make - always a bonus :)

Sparkle, bling and even more sparkle ...

I am entering this super sparkly card into the Cupcake Craft Challenge which is to creat e asparkly card - I think I got that one spot on :)

Papers - Glorious digital kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs

German glass glitter (oh my goodness this stuff is divine!) 3D Jean

Pins, lace, seam binding, twine, sparkly button and a Zva crystal swirl all from Ribbon Girl

Sentiment and tag die from Papertrey Ink

Star die by Sizzix

Another little card ...

Following on from the pink baby card that I made the other day I've got another little 4 inch card to share today. I'm really loving using the smaller size and using softer colours - and sparkle and bling of course :o)

All the papers are from my newest Nitwit Collections digital kit , Holiday Charm and the ribbons, lace, felt, Zva crystal swirls, buttons, twine and pins are from Ribbon Girl

Today I spent a happy afternoon listening to Christmas songs, crafting with my Mum under the lights of our lovely Christmas tree and making more cards!

Baby ...

This week our lovely friend had a sweet baby girl and this is the card that I made for her to celebrate the new arrival.  Those gorgeous papers are from a Krystal Hartley digital kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs that I totally love (I've already made another two cards using the same papers!)

All of the ribbon, buttons, pompom, pins, lace and the crystal swirl are from Ribbon Girl

The dinky little tag dies are from Papertrey

A lot to catch up on ...

Goodness, it is almost a month since I last blogged! Life has been pretty busy here, lots of decisions to be made about my new house but in the 4 weeks since we got the key we've had a new heating system installed throughout, the windows have all been replaced, a few walls have been knocked down, moved and rebuilt to make the kitchen a little larger, the kitchen has been ordered and 3 rooms have been plastered and painted throughout. This weekend my brother put down the flooring in one of the bedrooms and he's there at the moment laying the floor in the other bedroom. Phew, lots of hard work :)

I've had a little time to spend making cards but I gave up on the idea of making all my Christmas cards and have bought some for the regular people and I'm keeping my hand crafted cards for the extra special people.

Amongst all the busy-ness of making the house look fabulous I squeezed in a weekend away with 7 other crafty friends. We completed several projects and this is the card that I taught to the group on the Friday night, it had a coordinating box to go with it but I forgot to take a photograph of that

Paper, sentiment and reindeer image - Pink Petticoat

Twine, ribbon and jinglebell - Ribbon Girl

Star die - Spellbinders

Whilst at the cottage we had a bit of a Molly Bloom fest - I love Molly Bloom stamps which is handy because so does Jane, Gail and Jean so we played swaps with our stamps for a little while and I cane home with several stamped images all ready to colour in

Stamp - Molly Blooms

Papers - Sweet Shoppe Designs

Ribbons and twine - Ribbon Girl

I've made a few of these little giftbags too, the die is a Papertrey Ink die and they are perfect for adding a giftcard or small items such as earrings and jewellery

Papers and font - Sweet Shoppe Designs

Die - Papertrey Ink

Papers, snowman element and wordart - Sweet Shoppe Designs

Ribbon, twine and charm - Ribbon Girl

The kit I used for the gift bag and this card is Fa-La-La by Dani Mogstad at Sweet Shoppe Designs and whilst I was creating these projects I thought I would use it to make a festive header for my blog, I'm hoping we get some snow this holiday time!

Not Exactly Playing With Paper ...

It seems like a long time since I updated my blog but I have been very busy - buying a house! My first house :) There is a lot of work to do - new kitchen, new bathroom, new doors and windows, knock walls down, build walls up, move walls, new fire and fireplace, plaster all the walls and ceilings, paint everything, new flooring. That's where I've been then - not exactly playing with paper but playing at being a builder :)  I have made a few cards though:

This was the card that I made for last weeks Papertake Weekly challenge which was to add a touch of bling.

I added stacks of bling to this card! The mermaid stamp is a Hanglar Stanglar stamp, coloured with Copics and her tail is covered with Stardust Stickles - my absolute favourite type of glittery sparklyness! The papers are all Cosmo Cricket and I've embossed the pieces with a couple of different Cuttlebug embossing folders, distressed and stiched the edges and then applied more generous amounts of Stickles. The pearl swirl has been coloured with a Copic marker to change it's colour - I love to do this with pearls and crystals - before I stuck it to the card. Even my ribbons are sparkly. I've used wide silver lame that I coloured with the same Copic marker as the pearls and over the top of this I've used gold glitter mesh which also got the Copic treatment. To finish I added a couple of metal embellishments from Stampin Up and a starfish charm and knot of button twine