About Me

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I'm a retired primary school teacher, who started paper crafting in 2008, when I had a fancy to make my own Christmas cards. Since then, I have tried all sorts of techniques and styles - and I kind of like them all. I have been lucky enough to be on blog teams and large design teams and to do a bit of freelance demonstrating - and I love the challenge of working with different products. My crafting style is very varied - from junk journaling and art journaling, bookbinding and journal making, to quilting and patchwork - and of course I still make cards. This variety keeps me interested - and my crafty stash growing!! I'm always seeking inspiration for new projects.

Monday 26 October 2020

Vintage Verity Rose

It's the second week of our U and V challenge at Use Your Craft Stash. Here's my V card. I have used two old Crafter's Companion CDs - Verity Rose, from which I took the topper and coloured papers, and Vintage Floral from which I took the darker paper and postcards.


The paper from the Vintage Floral CD was printed onto Kraft card, to give it a more vintage look.

We look forward to seeing your creations with your old stash.
Happy crafting,
Cxxx

Friday 23 October 2020

Pretty Peacocks

I made this card for a family birthday, using Hunkydory In Full Plume - Pretty Peacocks.


I used Teal card from Papermill, and cut the letters with Crafter's Companion Only Words Alphabet dies. The decorative corners were cut with corner dies from CC Beautiful Bouquet Everyday Edge'ables.

Happy crafting,

Cxxxx

Tuesday 20 October 2020

Pretty Hats

I have another hat easel card to share today. Instructions on construction can all be found here, so I will just share the pics. The flowers were handmade way back in April - details here. The papers are from an old Brenda Pinnick paper pad.




I also had a go at making a semi-naked cake to go with it. To me, it was a only a partial success as I felt the top was too flat and had too much on it. That said, my friend absolutely loved it.


That's it for today. Happy crafting!
Cxxxx

Monday 19 October 2020

Umbrellas ready!

We are starting a new fortnightly challenge at Use Your Craft Stash, and we are onto U and V. These letters at the end of the alphabet are getting a bit tricky. The only thing I could think of was Umbrella - and it reminded me of a card I made in June 2015 for the Scruffy Little Kitten launch. There was a image of a little girl with an umbrella, and a great sentiment from one of the stamp sets - called Rosie. I tried to follow my own instructions from that blog post but I seem to have omitted a few things. I am pretty sure that I didn't make it at A4 size - and when scoring the top of the card for sticking I must have done the back piece - and not the front. I realised both mistakes when I made them with this card!! Am still pretty happy with it - although it is rather large!


I used the same sentiment as before, from the Scruffy Little Kitten stamp set called Rosie, but this time used a Hobby House Topper from a Daisy Mae Draws Ready to Colour Art Book called Days of Summer. I coloured it with Spectrum Noir markers - BT4, 5, 9 for the umbrella, CT1, 2, 3, 4 for the wellies, OR1, 2, 3, for the flowers and LG1, 2, 3 for the leaves and grass. The base card is from Papermill, and the spotty card I bought from my local market.

Hopefully brollies won't be needed this week - although that might be optimistic!
Happy crafting,

Cxxxx

Friday 16 October 2020

Double Swing Card

Morning. I made this double diamond swing card for my husband for our wedding anniversary. 



I used Crafter's Companion Diamond Swing die.

 

I cut the die twice on dark blue card - once on each side - to create the double. I also wanted the card larger, so extended the score lines.

 
To decorate, I used papers from a very old Brenda Pinnick 12x12 paper pad - from the days of QVC craft. As the card was larger, the die was too small to cut the mats, so I used it as a guide for cutting the diagonal pieces.


I did, however, use the decorative layer die - which gives you an idea of how much I extended the card. The original die set came with a Happy Birthday sentiment, but at the time there were other sentiment dies available. This is the Just For You die. I also used my Crafter's Companion Stitched Edge Square dies. I also decorated the back of the swing sections.

 

  

The little sprigs and hearts to decorate are cut with dies from an old CC Advent calendar. The colours do look different in my final photos - but it's just the light - and they are truer than the step by steps. 

    




Happy crafting.
Cxxx



Monday 12 October 2020

Times Gone By Tag

It's the second week of our S & T challenge over at Use Your Craft Stash. My "T" project is a Triple Tag with a "To You" sentiment, using Crafter's Companion Times Gone By CD for the papers, with a bit of Teabag folding and some Twine. There are trains, timepieces and top hats on the papers but you can't really see them - so I won't count those ones.


There's a real vintage theme to the CD, so I printed the papers onto Kraft card, and cut the tags using Sheena's Contemporary Tag dies (the 3 largest).  The sentiment was cut using Diamond Press Block Alpha, and the Twine is from Sara Signature Rustic Wedding collection. The wooden corners have been in my stash for so long I have no recollection of where I got them, and the embellishments are beads from broken bracelet.

Remember to share your makes with us!!
Happy crafting,
Cxxxx

Monday 5 October 2020

Sugar and Spice

Another fortnight's challenge is under way at Use Your Craft Stash. We are now on S and T! My "S" card is a Stepper card, using Crafter's Companion Sugar and Spice CD, a Scent bottle topper, and Sent with love sentiment.

I used the template for a centre stepper card from a previous blog post of mine (click here to see it). The only difference is that I reduced the measurement from the sides (show on the previous post as 4cm) to 3cm, in order to accommodate the card companion from the CD.

The base is made using an A4 sheet of Centura Pearl, and I printed two papers from the CD to match those on the topper. I also used a sheet of matt mirror card - I think this was from the Sara Signature Flutterby collection.

I used a Spellbinder die to cut the circular topper, and a scalloped circle die to create a mat. 


We look forward to seeing your creations!

Happy crafting.

Cxxx

Saturday 3 October 2020

A Tasty Bake

My niece turned 20 recently - that makes me feel old!! She is very much into her baking and we exchanged lots of ideas, pictures of our makes and recipes through lockdown.  So, this Hunkydory deco large set seemed absolutely perfect for her.


It really didn't need much to add to it - just a bit of gold mirror card and pink core'dinations for matting and layering, CC's Diamond Press Block Alpha to cut the name, a little bit of ribbon and some flat backed pearls.

Happy crafting,
Cxxxx


Friday 2 October 2020

Another football card!

A quick share today - a birthday card for my brother-in-law. I am using up old stash - so I'm thinking this is Kanban - but am not totally sure.

Happy crafting.

Cxxx