Squeeze card

Hi everyone, it's been a long time since my last post, lots of family stuff going on & busy! My craft room is a neglected, dusty space full of dumped stuff - must remedy that!

Anyhow, I have a class next week, so thought I'd share what we're going to make.....

This squeeze card is easy to make & squashes flat for posting. Even fits in a standard C5 envelope ;-)

Used lots of snippets for the flowers & flourishes, so I'll be popping over to Pixies Snippets Playground to check out who else has been busy - see the side bar for the link. 

Hope you've had a lovely Easter and you're enjoying the Sunshine. 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Rudolph Day

Made these 2 ready for the last Rudolph Day of the year! Not traditional colours but I had a piece of green Christmas paper I wanted to use up. 

 Used snippets of white card & pearlescent paper too so off to play in the Snippets Playground too - click in the link in the sidebar to check it out. 

Happy Rudolph Day peeps - hop over to Sarn's to see more Christmas cards 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Woyww

My desk is quite empty right now, I've just finished a project and I'm in tidying mode - doesn't happen often lol!!

Warning - photo heavy post!!

This photo folio is what I've been working on 

It's A4 size, and has tons of room for photos - at least 70 but can hold more - lots of pockets 

And lots of flip out pages 

There are some big side pockets for memorabilia

And the centre pages can hold 24 photos on double sided photo mats

I had a ball making it! See my previous post for the basic construction pics, the whole thing was inspired by Hetties travel journal, but it took on a life of its own!

And I used tons of snippets, but created tons more. Doh!! 

So I'm off to check out other desks, I didn't make it round many last week sorry peeps. I'm also going to see who's playing in the Snippets Playground. If you want to join in, click on the links in the side bar. 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Coffee needed!

I made this for a friend who's having a rough time at the moment, and who happens to be a big coffee lover! We both have a Costa habit :-)

The stamp is an ancient Artstamps wooden one I've had for ages. I totally love it, but it only gets to come out now and again for people with a sense of humour!! Love those bunny slippers with that expression :-)

The coffee cups are from a house mouse 'Gruffies' set. I stamped coloured and cut out the diddy cups and used Pinflair gel to give them dimension. 

The sentiment was hand written and both die cut images were mounted on spellbinders die cuts. 

The twisted easel is an A5 card base landscape position, top flap cut vertically up centre. Left flap scored horizontal across centre, right flap trimmed to a square 10.5cm then scored diagonally from centre cut to outside corner. These look great and are so easy to make. 

Papers are snippets from a first Edition pad, so I'm hopping over to Pixies Snippets Playground to see what everyone's been up to. If you want to join in click the link in the sidebar. 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

New Dies

I made these with a new Tattered Lace die bought recently when C&C had them at half price. I bought this, some musical notes & some leaves. These are my first Tattered Lace dies & I've been impressed with them!

Anyhoo, I bought this one cos I thought it had multiple uses, being able to cut apart the hearts & flourishes. Then when it arrived I thought it looked like Christmas baubles! So I raided my mirri snippits & made these 2. 

The cream background is embossed with a Crafters Companion frame embossing folder, then mounted on more mirri & the Merry Christmas is a Cheery Lynn die. 

So cos I used snippets I get to visit the Snippets Playground, and as I made 2 of them I can visit Sarn's Rudolph Day Challenge!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

A smile!

This little one is made entirely of snippets, even the big black die cut was languishing in my snippets box - I have a separate one for leftover die cuts! The flower is 2 leftover layers of decoupage used elsewhere, and the backing paper was left from a magazine project. 

The lovely Smile die cut was given to me by my friend Sarn , and it really does make me smile :-)

Taking this over to the snippets playground. If you want to take a look click on the link in the side bar

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Men's cards!

This is another of the 'Acid drops & Whatnots' stamp set I bought at Newbury. They do make me chuckle!

This one was made on a 5" square card blank, using a leftover bit of stripey paper & some blue snippets. When I mounted the stamped panel & sentiment on the blue card I was left with 2 straight cutoff pieces, so I had to use them too!! I think they work quite well with the card candi :-)

Off to link this to Pixies Snippets Playground, where I heard a whisper that it might be Miss's birthday, so I'll have to pick her a bunch of dandelions on my way thru the gate! If you're wondering what I'm blathering about, click on the link in my sidebar & see what's going on in the playground this week

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Butterfly Challenge

This card was made to fit Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge. But I also challenged myself to make it entirely from snippets!

So I decided to keep it really simple, not something I do usually! The square die cut was an extra that was in my die cut snippets box, where I keep all unused, extras or bits of die cuts (thrifty or plain mean???) the butterfly was there too, but had a mark in it, so I pulled out the die and inked the ought it to cover that up. The diddly piece of coloured vellum was another leftover from a mag ages ago. Am finally, I stamped one of my fave LOTV wordy stamps on the bottom

Considering this is a simple card, I found it quite stressful to make, cos I was trying to make inns wotk, rather than pulling together things that matched - whew! Challenge complete! Now to link to MrsA and Pixies Snippets Playground. 

Don't forget to visit. Janet, Shaz and Vickie who will be posting their Creative. Blog Hop posts today

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Bon voyage!

Made this for a crafty buddy who's just sailed away on a Mediterranean cruise - jealous, me??!! Of course not :-) hope she's having the most fabulous time and brings back lots of lovely pics. 

Lots of diddy black snippets used for lettering and layers behind stamped ovals. The main image is from a hunky dory kit I bought years ago. The stamped ovals are from a set bought from a bargain bin at a craft show and I love them! From a company called Whimsy Stamps, stamped on snippets of Neenah card and die cut. 

Just realised I took this photo before I finished the card - it's missing the exclamation mark. That's cos I die cut it, then when I come to fix all the letters in place the Borrowers had taken my exclamation mark and I had to cut another one!! No idea where that went, but if you could see my desk you'd know its not a big surprise when I can't find things lol :-)

Linking this to the snippets playground and off to see what other playmates have made.

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Leftovers!

When I use decoupage (not often nowadays) I always keep back either the base layer, or a couple of the top layers to make a second card.

Some of these 'leftovers' have been languishing in a folder for years! So last weekend I was rummaging for something and came across the folder and decided to make a few quick cards 

All were made using snippets of papers or vellum from my snippets box, so I get to go an play in the Snippets playground having been a good little playmate and used lots of snippets, plus my fave new LOTV sentiment stamps and a bit of bling!

so here they are....

The plan was to pop them in the box for when needed, but 2 are already winging their way to poorly friends!

Hope you have a good weekend, thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Should have planned this better!!

Haven't done any crafting for a bit cos I've been poorly. Felt a bit more with it today, so decided to make a card for Mrs A's Butterfly challenge. 

Before I could start, had to clear the crap crafty leftovers from my last project...or 3! (Di and Sarn, I know you're cringeing!!) started putting bits away but the bending to reach boxes caused pain, so I resorted to the tried & true method of piling it all up by the printer to create a crapalanche in waiting!!

I knew exactly which stamps I wanted to use, NBUS that I bought ages ago at a craft show, one of the Oliver's Orchard range from Buzzcraft. Stamped all the images on leftover bits of Neenah card & die cut with Spellbinders ovals, fussy cut the rest 

I had a piece of very loud plum coloured paper from my snippets box that I used as matting layers cut with SB Lacey ovals. Then the trouble started.....I merrily die cut the Lacey ovals without thinking through the rest of the card, and when I put the border on the card it looked lost against the background. So I decided to add a matching border, but the remains of the die cut snippet just weren't big enough. This is what I had left....

So, not long enough or deep enough for a layer behind my 8" border. Aargh!! So, I cut the 2 long straight edges as wide as I could & fixed them behind my border, then cut what was left of the 2 shorter straight edges & butted that up behind the border. Can you see the join???? :-)

So I'm linking this post to Mrs A's butterfly challenge, where the theme us summer butterflies, and to Pixies Snippets Playground, cos there's some creative snippety work gone into this one!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Kraft Christmas cards?

I was inspired to get my Stamps Away patchwork tremplates out, having seen Di make a card with then a week or so ago. I used these a lot when I first got them, then put them away and you know what it's like 'out of sight....'

So I made this one..

It's 15cm square card blank covered with a leftover piece of 12x12. I used snippets from papermanias First Noel pack. And this creates more snippets! Aaaargh!  So I had to use them straight away ...

This time I mixed in snippets from Papermanias  Traditional Christmas pack. Ten it needed a bit of bling so I added a die cut greeting and some snowflakes. This one is on a Kraft card blank and I don't think I like this as a base for a Christmas Card. So I doodled faux stitching around the outside edge, and dots of Stickles glitter glue round the paper sections. Still not thrilled. 

Anyone else used Kraft card for Chriymas cards and liked the end result???

Anyway, off to visit the Snippets playground to see what the playmates are up to. Thanks for reminding me about the templates Di!!

Thanks for stopping by 

Debs x

Men's cards

I found this great stamp set at Newbury, from a company new to me 'Acid Drops & Whatnots'

They specialise in stamps & decoupage with a witty, humorous twist - great for those tricky men's cards! 

This one is made with snippets from LOTV 'Country Gentleman' pad & HOTP 'Red Velvet', plus a bunch of black snippets for the die cut back layers ( I have a HUGE folder each of black & white snippets!)

My checks & stripes didn't quite meet in the middle on my A5 card blank, so I had to get creative with a long skinny snippet to join them up!

Shamelessly copied from the stamp co's samples on display at Newbury! Added red card candi to finish it off

Linking this one to Pixies Snippets Playground - off to climb the treehouse! 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Chocoholic birthday card

This one was made last weekend for Anna, my sisters partner. She's studying hard for her accountancy exams, and there seems to be a lot of coffee & chocolate involved!

The stamp is one of the Gruffies range from House Mouse, stamped & coloured with Pro Markers. The sentiment was hand written with a Sakura Gelly Roll glitter pen

The die cut layers, flowers & flourishes are all from snippets of the Hot Diggity Dog range (think its Papermania) that came out last year. 

Hope she likes it :-)

Going to link this to Pixies Snippets Playground, hop on over and see what the other playmates have created. 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Stencilling

These 3 were made from panels created in a stencilling class I ran a few months ago. They've been sat in a drawer waiting for me to decide what to do with them!

And then at Newbury Art Stamps I bought this perfect set of Lili of The ValleyEveryday  Sentiments. I've been looking for a set of handwritten script type sentiments for ages & these were ideal - lots if ideas bumping around in my head for using these!!

So these 3 came together very quickly. They were originally stencilled using a mix of Glitzcraft & That Special Touch masks by Stamps Away. 

Top one,( bluebells I think, but could be snowdrops too!) is straight inked, mounted on a piece of toning card, then on a lilac card blank. 

The fuschias & dandelion clocks were inked, then Stickles added thru the mask.   For both I stencilled the card blank in a continuation of the main panel. Quite like the effect of stencilling on hammered card blank for the fuschias!

 The dandelions were mounted on a leftover piece of multicoloured glitter card that's been getting dog eared in my snippets box since the year dot. It was so dog eared I had to trim it severely, then found the stencilled panel was a bit big so had to trim that back too!! 

My snippets box is a big Really Useful storage box with hanging A4 files, snippets divided into colour sections, some sub divided with both plain & pattern sections!! And any leftovers go in there, so some quote small, ranging up to big chunks left from A4 or 12x12 being cut up. 

The only snippets that don't go in here are those taken from a paper pad - these go into an acetate bag and are stored inside front cover of the paper pad so they are always with the matching set. 

So am I completely OCD about my snippets?? How do you store yours? 

Off to the snippets playground to ask the playmates!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Makeover!

Do you ever put cards together, then look at them and think 'that's not quite right?'

That's what happened with this one ....

I made it from leftover bits from a project last month. When you print the House Mouse design sheet you get a lot of extras, too many for one card, so I used a leftover small image & greeting to make this dinky A6 card, with a snippet of lilac card from the earlier project. 

But I didn't like the finished effect, so put it aside. When I woke up this morning at the crack of you must be joking, I was wide awake with nowt to do but stare at the ceiling. So......

I changed the colour of the card candi, added a few paper flowers from my oldest stash (got the most ginormous bag of these die cut flowers when I started crafting and still have hundreds left!). Then I added an ickle bit of Stickles glitter glue to the ends of the knitting needles & the small flowers (probably doesn't show up in pic)

Et voila!! A card I'm happy with, to pop in my basket for whenever I need it. 

Off to link this to Pixies Snippets Playground, think I might have to climb over the gate (watch out for the stinging nettles!) if Miss has locked up!! (If you have no idea what I'm blathering on about click here!)

Whilst I was in my craft room I also stamped off some cute images to colour, so off to catch up on this week's Create & Craft that I've recorded, with my stamped images & my Pro Markers!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Variation on a theme!

Not much crafting done here this week. Very busy with work, 2 craft classes, housework (yes, really!!) and Osteo visit. So this weeks makes were quickies while watching last weeks British GP...,

If they look familiar that's cos I took last weeks Christmas snippets idea, changed the embossing folder to a 'Happy Birthday' one & off I went! Finished off nicely with some Craftwork Cards sentiments bought 4 sheets at Newbury for £1!!

Off to visit the snippets playground to see what everyone's been up to

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

BBQ and Christmas!

Today was our company BBQ and we were so lucky with the weather! Yesterday it hammered down with rain but today was lovely, warm & sunny.

Lots of yummy food and good company, and a rounders match that I cheered on mightily from the comfort of my garden chair lol!! 

So yesterday was yukky weather, it meant guilt free time in the craft room! I wanted to challenge myself to use up some of my oldest, gaudy sparkly snippets to make some Christmas cards. 

So I stamped lots of pressies, cut them out and mounted them on the snowy embossed card that the lovely Bonnie sent me. But I was mean and cut each embossed piece in half so I had more left! Then I mounted on offcuts of mirri card, some gold & some silver. 

I don't normally batch-make cards, but I ended up with 8, each a little different...

So this means that I can link to both pixies snippets playground, and Sarn's Rudolph challenge!

Then it occurred to me that the same design (minus snowy background) would work quite well for birthdays, so I see more stamping & snipping in the near future!! This colour way would work for birthdays, don't you think??

Anyway, off to soak up more sun! Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Simple stories scrapbook

Warning - photo heavy post!!

I recently saw the Simple Stories 8x8 scrapbooks on special offer on C&C. I've seen the Project Life version, which was MUCH more expensive. I've never been quite sure about the 'slot it in' scrapbook style - my scrapbook pages tend to have quite a few embellishments!

Anyhoo, the deciding factor for me was that they had a version for a cat album, so I bought it. I have been having a blast completing my album, so I though I'd show it off!

You buy the basic album with page protectors, you get a mix of different styles, plus some co-ordinating patterned pages. 

The great thing is that you can still play and add your own touches! The page above I took a leftover piece of orange spotty 12x12 and made a flip page. I've also used lots of snippets for embellishments & small pocket inserts. 

You get a lot of fun inserts and embellishments with the kit, and I haven't used them all as there were tons! They are great fun and really add to the finished effect. 

Also a great opportunity to use up lots of snippets as some of the pockets are so diddy! So I'm linking to Pixies playground and I'll try to get round to see more of the playmates later :-)

So, has anyone else ventured into the Simple Stories kits? I would love to see what others have done. 

Thank for stopping by

Debs x

Another baby card!

So excited! Am off to the O2 arena to see  The Eagles! One of my fave bands - think I'm a rock- chick at heart lol! Have seen them play live lots of times and they're always great - cant wait :-)

Another baby card from me. Must have been something in the water 9 months ago cos there are SO many people having babies right now!

I just love these stamps from Crafters Companion, they are so cute, and lovely to colour 

I was really pleased with the colour scheme, as I wanted less traditional colours and this one worked out really well. Papers are all LOTV Nitwit Collection 'Promises'. I used a whole sheet to cover the card and then loads of snippets for die cuts and flourishes etc. 

The die cuts are Spellbinders, Labels 4 & Elegant Labels4, with the backing layer being Curved Rectangles - I use this one a lot as its a really good size!!

A Martha Stewart punch for the border, and a LOTV sentiment & some flourishes flowers & card candi to finish. 

Hopping over to Pixies Snippets Playground to check out what other crafty playmates have been up to. 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x