Little Lovin's

My next blog candy for next month will be up soon and I just thought I would give you a peak at these little lovlies that are going to be up for grabs with a card that I made today using the stamp (don't worry the stamp that the winner will receive will be a brand new unused one and already mounted on ez-mount). So, if you fancy winning yourself this 'little lovin's' stamp then check back here Saturday when I will be posting the blog candy.

As well as the 'little lovin's' stamp I have also used a border stamp from the Fancy Pants 'Bella Brush' collection and the papers are Papermania.

Say hello to Joel

I had a little pink parcel arrive this morning - and that only means one thing.....Toodles & Binks! and not wanting to dissapoint, and because today I was stuck at home waiting for the plumber to come and fix our shower, I had some time to start playing and here is my first card

with 'Joel!' He is such a cutie, and those eyes.........

My card for today uses one of the new stamps "Joel" which you can view at Stamp Galaxy the background stamp is from Stampscapes and the moon fairy is from Lavinia Stamps. The background paper I picked up at my local craft shop and is by Craft Creations Ltd. I've used my Prismacolours to colour and added some snow to trees and landscape with 'Snow Writer' by DecoArt.

Relax!

It started off a really nice day today with the sun shining bright, but by 3pm the clouds were out and it was raining buckets and has been since - I've kids on half term break (3 of them!) hubby at home too - so this afternoon the kids and Dad sat down to watch 'Iron Man' and I quickly sneaked away to make this little box for the WOJ challenge.

I've used 'Willow w/hot chocolate' stamp, background papers are again free downlod from 'Shabby Princess designs' and instructions for the box are from Splitcoasters.

So now I'm off to have a relaxing cup of tea and watch a film with the kids snuggled up in front of the fire!

Gatefold Mini Album Tutorial

This is the measurements and instructions on putting together a gatefold mini album which I made over the weekend and that you can see completed here. This is my first tutorial on here, so bare with me and I hope that you find it easy to follow - just email me if you have any probs.

What you'll need:
Patterned paper
chipboard/heavyweight card
cardstock
glue or double sided tape
Basic crafting tools

Instructions:
1. For the back cover cut one 6" x 5 1/4" piece of chipboard or heavyweight card and one 8" x 7 1/4" piece of patterned paper of your choice. Cover the chipboard with the paper, mitering the corners.

2. For the front cover cut two 3" x 5 1/4" pieces of chipboard or heavyweight card and two 5" x 7 1/4" piece of patterned paper and cover chipboard pieces as above, again mitering the corners.

3. For the accordion binding cut two 4" x 5 1/4" pieces of cardstock, scoring and folding at 1/2" increments across 4" width starting and ending with valley folds. Glue one accordion fold onto each side of the back cover (see pictures) and making sure to line up first fold of the accordion spine with the edge of the back cover.


Glue each remaining end of the accordion onto the front edges of the cover, also glue the outside accordion folds together - by doing this it creates a sturdy bookbinding that will hold the pages neatly in place.

If you want to increase the number of pages in the gatefold mini album you just extend the length of the cardstock binding and folding extra pleats according to the extra pages being added.

5. Cut two 2 3/4" x 5" pieces of patterned paper and glue to the inside front cover over the accordion edge. Cut one 5" x 5 3/4" piece of patterned paper and glue to the inside back cover.

6. For the flaps cut six 4 1/2" x 2 1/2" pieces of cardstock, round two of the corners only at one end and then glue the square end onto the accordion edge spacing them out equally.

You now have the basis of your gatefold mini album which you can embellish, layer and decorate to your choice for example in my completed album which I posted yesterday I have made a pocket to the inside back cover which will hold a CD and using a template made some mini envelopes and glued them to the inside front covers on each side (see here).

Some News!

I have some fab news to share with you all, as you will have noticed from my past blog posts I have on occassion entered in for DT and Guest DT calls, but alas with no joy - but then when you see the amount of talented crafters out there - its no wonder! Still, a few weeks ago I stumbled onto Toodle & Binks blog where they were announcing the launch of their up and coming stamps and it was by entering their guess the fairy's name post that I won and shortly after received 'Celeste'.

Toodles & Binks is a new UK based stamp line from Stamp Galaxy. The stamps are sweet, cute, whimsical characters, they are unmounted red rubber and available to order! at Stamp Galaxy and they will ship worldwide.

Anyway, last week I received an email from Toodles & Binks asking ME to be their Guest DT for October/November!! WOW!! and how spooky was it that on the same day I reecived the email I had just posted on my blog a card which I had made with my new Celeste stamp that I had received the very same day (this was before I had received the email). So hopefully very shortly I shall be posting some creations with these lovlies! - Watch this space.....

PS There is a moral here - never give up!

Mini Album!

I made this little mini album over the weekend, in between dreaded housework, LOTS of ironing, kids sleep-over and a visit from some friends - needless to say I started it on Friday and didn't finish 'till this morning!

I am currently preparing the tutorial for the mini album so that I can post it later today or tomorrow, so if you like it dont forget to check back!

For the image I've used a Sarah Kay image from the Christmas collection (which I borrowed as mine is still making its way to me in the post!) and the monograms are new stamps designed by Traci at Particraft - these are the lower case alphas, and there is also an upper case, I do love these as they are big and so versatile. The background papers were a free download from Shabby Princess Designs. I have been experimenting a little lately with download papers and have found them to be very useful especially when I'm doing a specific theme and I don't necessarily have the appropriate papers in my stock. The Sarah Kay image I have stamped with "Black Soot" distress ink, blended around the edges and just added a hint of colour to the tree and their cheeks again with distress inks (worn lipstick, peeled paint) and I have added some stickles for sparkle. Inside their are two small envolopes on the inside of each front, at the back there is a pocket to take a cd and the flaps are ready to have photos and journaling added.

I've been Tagged!

I've been tagged by Teresa
Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Answer the five sets of five.
3. Tag 5 people in the last section by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here are the 5 sets of five...

Things you love...
1)My Family
2)Long walks in the woods w/dogs
3)Lazy days on the beach
4)Halloween & Christmas
5) Crafting - of course!

Things you don't love...
1)Housework
2)Lies
3)Rude/moody people
4)Having my picture taken
5) When I've not had time to craft!

Songs on your iPod/Playlist...
1)Meatloaf
2)Bryan Adams
3)Bon Jovi
4)Celine Dione
5)Jules Holland

Favorite Foods/Drinks...
1) All seafood
2) Summer salads
3) Italian (all)
4) Cilli con carne
5) Cheesecake & Profiteroles

5 people I'm tagging:
1)Lynne
2)Becki & Alan
3)Suzanne
4)Brandi
5)Sharon

Blog Candy Winner!

Sorry for the late post, but we had a bit of an emergency today, but all is well now and I have done my usual cut, wrap and drawn a winner - and the winner is...
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Kathy H

THANK YOU so much to everyone who took part, as always its great to read your kind comments and also to take a look at your blogs! CONGRATS! to Kathy (email me your address and I will post this out to you asap).

DONT FORGET to check back next week for November's Blog Candy and I have a sneak peak of it for you here............you never know - it could be you!

'Celeste'

Last week I visited a blog Toodles & Binks where they were showing a sneak peak of some new stamps about to be launched and if you wanted to win one of these stamps you had to take a guess at the name of the stamp image - it was a long shot but I had a go - didn't get it right, but was randomly picked to win/receive the stamp. I was gobsmacked, as I never win anything!!!!! Anyway, the stamp image was a gorgeous fairy who's name is 'Celeste' and she arrived on my dormat today! Yehhh....and this is what I have created with her.

You can find celeste along with Joel and some other new up and coming stamps at Stamp Galaxy where I also bought myself some "zoomz".

Ragdoll in a Barbie World!

I did it!!....I got to finish my project. I received this stamp on Friday, Emma and her Nan used her on Saturday to make cards (yes, I let them use the stamp before I'd even so much as had a go!!- I must get Emma to post their creations on her blog?!) and on Sunday, just after lunch I started to play (on and off - with various interruptions!) and finally today I finished.

The stamp is 'Charlotte' the ragdoll from Dew Drop Craftz and the papers are a free download from Shabby Princess Designs .

One for the Boys!

Well, I didn't manage to get my projects finished in time to post yesterday, I guess it was wishful thinking, what with fanily staying and a footy match to attend! nonetheless a day late, but here is one of my finished projects which I shall be entering for ABC's challenge which this week's theme is M for Male.

I've made a double pocket card to hold a bookmark and a book gift voucher, I've used these before for giving voucher as I think its a nice way of presenting it and combines card and pressy in one!

I've used Sugar Nellie 'Knight' image,wizard nestabilities, and papers are left-overs from my stash box.

I will be back later with my other project which I still haven't finished, so inbetween school run, after school activities and diner I will somehow post again later.

Autumn Theme!

I really love this image from WoJ, and she seemed the perfect choice for this card for WoJ's challenge this week , which is 'Autumn'. I love autumn the colours browns, yellow, orange, falling leafs, pumpkins and Halloween - great!

I still have two projects in the making which I hope to finish this weekend, but we have the in-laws staying and Michael has a big footy match tomorrow away and apparentely its about an hour or so's drive away! - so fingers crossed I might just have them ready to post tomorrow.

My other news - I received my new stamps from Alota rubber stamps and also another lovely stamp from Dew Drop Craftz - ('Charlotte' - the rag doll) so lots of projects to start churning out......lol

Storage!

No piccies today of any projects as such, but they are in the making!!!! But, primarily I have been sorting out my unmounted/clear stamps - I have vowed not to buy anymore wood mounted stamps (but don't hold me to that, 'cause if I see a 'unique' image, I probably wont resist!) Storage is "always" an issue, but for now, for my unmounted/clear stamps I do believe I have sorted myself out a solution, simply with a clear clip file (for the ez-mount'd stamps), presentation folder (for the clear stamps), some acetate and a file box!

To add to my collection today, I received my Spiral Whisper stamps, they are really lovely and I'm in the process of using them in a project which I will post as soon as its complete. I'm still waiting for some other stamps which are coming from the US but they're still making their way across the ocean!

Cobwebs + Skeletons = Halloween!

There were 3 things that inspired this project for me, one of them is the simple fact that Halloween is one of my favourite times of the year, the dressing up the trick or treating, decorating pumpkins etc. to me is all great fun! - The second thing, was the cobwebs on Michael's goal yesterday in the garden, they were just magnificent! and last but not least was Tim Holtz October technique challenge - (I already had the stamps, I just hadn't used them) but when I saw this, I just loved it and had to have a go with some slight alterations i.e it's not a tag and I've added the coffin background feature with the creepy had! It was good fun!

The ingredients for this project were Tim Holtz 'Trick or Treat' stamp set, MR chipboard letters distress inks 'spiced marmalade, vintage photo, cracle paint 'frayed burlap' Jo sonya cracle medium.

Getting into the Christmas spirit!

Things have started to calm down again in our household (TG) - have actually managed to get a few projects done, the first one is my WOJ challenge blog entry for this week, and this weeks challenge is a sketch which had been set by Heather.

Everywhere I go now, I'm starting to see Christmassy "things" in one form or another and along with Halloween it is one of my favourite times of year so, staying with that theme thats what I've based my card on 'Christmas'.

For my image I've used WoJ 'Charlotte in sledge', the houses below are a Magnolia stamp, background paper is from Dovercraft Christmas collection and the 3 panels behind the image have been embossed with cuttlebug's 'Lace tree@, 'Xmas ornaments' and 'Snowflakes'.

I've also done another project which I hope to be able to post later today, but it is still in the process of drying, but in the meantime here's a little clue!!!.....

These pictures were taken yesterday morning in our garden.

Be back later with the finished project.