Farnborough Make it & Stickles Storage

Had a lovely day out in Friday with a few ladies from my craft class. We went to the Make It craft show at Farnborough. I bought lots of lovely crafty stash, but I am now going on a self-imposed buying ban! This is what I bought.......

Some fab stamps, paper, scrapbooking goodies & my bargain of the day - huge 23metre reels of ribbon at £1.20 each!!

And here's a pic of some of us having lunch & showing off our purchases (sorry to the people who I managed to not get in the pic!!)


So today I've been working on DT projects that I can't show yet, being good & doing housework, and having a bit of a craft room sort out.

I'm always looking for new ideas to maximise space & re-purpose boxes etc for storage. This idea came about because my Stickles are thrown in a box & I have to rummage for the right colour, plus they're not quite ready to use as they're not stored nozzle down.

I couldn't face spending £18-20 on a purpose made carousel, and it's not really practical as I need to be able to transport then to classes - so I took one of my many saved boxes, and a length of foam insulation we had in the garage..

I cut the foam into 1.5" lengths and fixed to base of box. Hey presto! Nozzle down storage for 18 Stickles at a cost of £0 :-)

 

This has turned into a very long post - sorry peeps! Off to cook the dinner now.

Happy crafting!

Debs x

Scrapbook Craft Storage

I am always on the lookout for boxes that I can 're-purpose' in my craft room. Unfortunately very few are capable of holding 12x12 scrapbook papers, and my papers have all been stored away in a Really Useful hanging file box specifically sized for 12x12. The problem is they're out of sight so don't get used so much. And the box tends to get used as a spare table too!

So this week I bit the bullet cos I found a super deal where you get a K&Co scrapbook, plus 36 K&Co papers, plus grand adhesions & stickers, all in a sturdy 12x12 paper storage box complete with dividers - for £15! I bought two :-)

They were delivered in these really sturdy cardboard boxes into which they fitted perfectly - hmmmmmmm

So, I used one of the 'proper' storage files as a template, drew round it into the cardboard and started cutting.

 

Hey presto! 2 additional 12x12 storage boxes for nowt :-)

Then I had to make them look pretty, and here they are on the shelf above the 'proper' ones - double the storage, looks good, and super sturdy - and I can see all my lovely papers at a glance - one happy crafter :-)

 

Off to Farnborough tomorrow with a few ladies from my craft class - my poor credit card!

Happy crafting

Debs x

WOYWW

Happy WOYWW fellow snoopers :-). This is my desk today.  It's grey & cold here & I'm a bit lacking in enthusiasm today. Will visit some of your desks to gain some inspiration!

My desk looks fairly tidy (for me!!) On the left you can see an A4 box crammed with stuff in need of sorting - I made a new rule that if box was full I had to sort it - so instead I piled on top& stacked underneath - lol!!

On my cutting mat (if you look closely it's warped at front where I forgot to use heat resistant mat when embossing - doh!) is a paper pad & some orange flowers ready for my next magazine project.

Centre back is a part-finished butterfly project inspired by something I saw on C&C. Not happy with it so will take a diff approach. Then there's my trusty Cuttlebug & the spotty caddy stuffed with the essentials.

On the right is my big yellow box where I have all my unmounted stamps catalogued, with a couple if new sets at the front of the box waiting to be added. I have 10 (gulp!) foolscap ring binders full of stamps sorted into categories - 3 folders of florals!!! Next project is to unmount my boxes of wooden stamps & integrate with the rest - I find I don't use my wooden stamps that much as they are piled in boxes, but I have some lovely ones, so they need sorting!

Right, enough waffle (sorry Julia!) off to desk hop! If you want to join in pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground.

Stop press!! The universe must have heard I was lacking enthusiasm, cos postie just delivered this little lot :-))

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Cold enough for Christmas!

It's still freezing here, so making Christmas cards seems totally right! Just had time to play before I have to nip off to the  torture chamber hairdresser ! I hate going to the hairdresser, so I tend to wait until I look like the Dulux dog before I give in and submit, and it's that time of the year again [sigh]

This card was inspired by Crafty hazelnuts challenge where the theme is '1 word is sufficient'

The Stamp is an old but much loved Personal impressions wooden stamp - think its called 'Hilltop Village'. Stamped & heat embossed with WOW black sparkle, then coloured with pro markers. Double mounted on white & black card.
The main image is Mounted on silver mirror card embossed with Cuttlebug Snowflakes folder then mounted on plain white card. The Peace star is from an old kit, mounted on black card to match the rest of the card

Also entered in:
Rudolph Day Challenge
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Extra

Thanks for stopping by!

Debs x

Crafty weekend

I had a lovely crafty weekend, spent loads of time in the craft room! Some of it was spent sorting and organising - I am not a tidy crafter lol ! Some of it was spent playing and making :-) It was bitterly coldhere so didn't feel too guilty about staying in lol !

I also did a lot of blog-hopping and found several challenges that looked like fun. This card was made for the pro Marker challenge, which was in a theme of Princes or Princesses & had to feature a crown! So I dressed up my Little Prince with his own crown :-)



Entered in the following challenges:
Pro Marker Challenge
Pixies Crafty Workshop Snippets as I used paper snippets from my bit box, and more leftover flowers
Milk Coffee Challenge - Make it Cute, cos it is!


And I made progress on another scrapbook layout. I am new to scrapbooking, and I am loving it! I get to use all my card making stash, but I get to keep it when it's finished :-)


This was supposed to be a short post, as I need to do some housework (aaaargh!)

Happy crafting

Debs x

Love is in the air!

This is the cute card I made for Hubby for Valentines day.  I used a Penny black stamp from the Purrfect Day set, coloured with Pro Markers and die cut.

I used a die cut heart, cut around the paw and slid the heart under, so it looks as thought kitty is holding the heart :-)  the finished image was layered on die cuts of toning colours.  The 15cm square base card was stamped with hearts using Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass and peacock Feathers before fixing the die cut image in place and finishing with a few gems.

Entered in the Penny Black Saturday challenge.

Happy Crafting

Debs x

Snippets

I have been visiting Pixies Crafty Workshop for ages, but never joined in with the Snippets (been a 'lurker' in the playground lol) - so here goes!

This was made using papers from a Pink Paislee 6x6 pad 'Spring Jubilee' - 1 full sheet mounted on black card, then the snippet I had left over with the bird on the corner, artfully torn to fit :-)

The white base card is overstamped with a tiny rose and butterfly in distress inks - Victorian Velvet and Spun Sugar.  The main image of the cottage is a Stampendous stamp 'Cottage Path' -  retired but I love it so much!  This stamped and coloured image was a sample from a recent Pro markers workshop, so I die cut it into a tag shape and mounted it on a snippet of black card (I have a whole box of black & white card snippets!)

The 'Home Sweet Home' stamp was a freebie as part of a collection in a recent cardmaking & Papercraft mag and is really cute! coloured with Pro Markers to match the papers.  the paper flowers are from a big pack I bought years ago, and the colours are quite bold, so they tend to sit in the bottom of the embellies box - a great chance to use them up!

I added pink gems to the centre of all the flowers, and the final 'snippet' was the little shrink plastic butterfly which was mistakenly stamped in a dark grey and when shrunk looked almost black - could be a bat I suppose (!) but actually looks more silver grey on the card than in the pic - was found languishing with the paper flowers in the embellies soup at the bottom of the box lol!

so, as a newbie to the playground, will there be a swing free for me, or will I end up being the one pushing the roundabout [sigh]

Happy crafting

Debs x

Finished sign!

So the sign is finally finished - here's a close up. I painted this with Pebeo acrylic paint, then stamped with Versamark using an old Elusive Images set, and embossed with WOW Pearl gold sparkle and Metallic Copper Sparkle - these are the most beautiful glitter embossing powders! I then added a few Kanban die cut butterflies I've been saving, they inspired the colour scheme of blue & copper :-)

A few people have mentioned that they have MDF projects so here's my tips from getting it wrong and then learning to do it right lol ! -

• Sand the MDF before you start - pay particular attention to edges to get a smooth surface. Please make sure you sand in a well ventilated place, preferably outside, and wear a mask as MDF dust is toxic!
• Seal the sanded MDF by painting with a 50/50 mix of PVA Glue & water - leave to dry
• Paint with several thin coats of acrylic paint until you achieve the required depth of colour

And it's finally in pride of place on my door :-)

So I have a few chores to finish this morning, then I have the rest of the day to myself - crafty heaven :-)

Thanks for stopping by

Debs

Craft Room progressing!

So this was my desk yesterday You can see on my craft mat the MDF sign for my craft room, painted in blue acrylic.


I bought this at a show last year and, never having used MDF before, I  painted it without sealing it - big mistake! All the paint sank into the MDf and left me with a horrid mess, so I lost heart a bit and set it aside.

It's been sat on a shelf ever since just looking at me! I finally got around to researching how to paint MDF, sealed it with PVA and painted it again & voila!  I'll share the finished version in another post.

On the right is a scrapbook layout I've started, working on our hols from last year, and just above the layout some 12x12 I've set aside for future pages.

At the back is my trusty Cuttlebug and on the left my digital radio - I'm always singing along when crafting :-)

At the back on the right is a card I made with one of the lovely Tina Wenke stamps, of a hedgehog reading - I make tons of cards, and when they're finished they tend to get stored away in boxes, so I had the idea of displaying my favourite of the moment somewhere I could see it, so I get to enjoy them too!

If you're wondering why I'm telling you what's littering my desk, pop along to Julias blog, where she hosts a fab peek at desks around the world.

thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOYWW & can anything be a desk?

So this week it's been pretty cold in my craft room, and to be sociable (stay warm :-)) I've reverted to crafting on my lap in front of the telly!

Now this creates it's own problems, but has definite advantages.......
On the plus side, warm, cosy in front of tv, on the downside....
My craft room is upstairs, and I'm up & down like the proverbial yoyo cos I always need just one more thing from my stash. And working on 12x12 is a challenge on a tea tray lol :-) plus the ginger furball keeps trying to sit on my lap - any time I'm in the armchair I'm fair game!


So, this is my 'desk' and the floor area around the footstool, you can see a bit of xmas paper peeking out & snowflake peel off's - I was having fun making Christmas cards lol!!- time to check out other desks over at Julia's - why not join in the blog-hop?

Happy crafting!

Debs x

Creative mojo missing!

Had a bit of a loss of the creative juices recently, so decided to throw myself in the deep end and made my first ever scrapbook page!

Have to say I'm rather chuffed with the result :-). There's tons of stuff on line to help you with scrapbooking, and I have a friend in the States who can always point me in the right direction (thanks Donna!!)

Happy crafting!

Debs x

WOYWW and OMG what a mess!

OK, so I know the ethos of WOYWW is share the desk, but I am rather ashamed of mine at the moment! I've had a couple of projects which had tight deadlines, so I just pushed the leftovers aside and carried on. Then I started working in front if the tv cos it was Christmas & I wanted to be sociable

Next thing I know I've turned my lovely craft space into an inaccessible dump that I haven't had time to sort between projects - and I can't even sit on the chair cos I've used that to plonk down my store of card candi! Guess what tomorrow's task is????

So I'm off to take a look at other desks around the world. Hope you'll join me over at Julia's Stamping Ground

Happy Crafting

Debs x

Never ending card

Happy New Year everyone! The first class of Jan is next week and I've been playing with never ending cards!


I love figuring out the mechanics of a kinetic card design, and I'm looking forward to doing this in class next week. This is a fairly straightforward design, but the decoration can take as long as you have available :-)

Hope you like it!

Debs x

Xmas gift tag card/wallet

Hi everyone, and Merry Christmas! (well, nearly!)

So last week was our last craft class before Christmas [sigh] and we had a lot of giggles, as well as working on a lovely project for Christmas.

We made a card that can be a stand alone card on its own, with cute tags to decorate. Or, you can slip a gift card into one of the pockets, for a nice surprise!

This is a pic of one that we made, and it's really sweet, with the 3 tags poking out of the pockets :-)

Well, I'm off to make more mince pies. Made 3 doz last weekend and they're all gone lol! We eat a LOT of mince pies - I make my own mincemeat with no fat or sugar, so of course we can eat twice as many :-)

Happy crafting

Debs xx

Art deco cards

This is not normally my style, but I'm demo'ing the new DoCrafts Art Deco range tomorrow at Hobbycraft West End.

I sat for ages looking at the pictures before I came up with any ideas! What worked in the end was finding the embellishments that I could add to bling up the decoupage images! an unusual approach for me, as I normally start with the shape/fold of the card that works with the image. I realised that it was the size of these images that threw me, they're all pretty big!

Once I got started I found that the pictures were beautifully detailed and, even though they are already foiled, I couldn't resist adding extra bling like Stickles glitter glue & gems!!

Hope you like them, and maybe see you at hobbycraft tomorrow from 2pm!

Deb x

What stops you crafting????

This is one of my main reasons (excuses???) for not crafting :-)

Pro Marker Cottage

Had a lovely morning with the ladies at Bella Crafts in Fair Oak. I was teaching a pro Marker class and we focused on landscapes and cottages - great fun!

This is just one of the projects we worked on. We practised blending & shading, combining drastically different colours, using the blender pen to create glass & sky effects, brickwork & stippling (think I called it blobbing today :-) - and that was just the first project!

Will post other pics when I have time

Deb x

Christmas window card

Haven't blogged for ages - holiday disasters & family issues = no time for crafting!

But......classes have started again, and I wanted to share a pic of the lovely window card we made today.

I designed this for the Christmas special edition of Making Cards, and the ladies in today's class had a lot of fun making this one, and experimenting with the Cuttlebug!

Next class is Tues Dec 4th, and I'm running a Pro Markers class at Bella Crafts on Sat Nov 17th.

Now that I'm over the flu (hopefully that's it for this winter!!!) I'll try to post more often :-)

Happy crafting

Debs x

Go Team GB!!

I don't normally watch sport, but I have been glued to the Olympics! So I thought I would share my epitome of Britishness.....a cup of tea and Union Jack finger nails!

Go Team GB!!

WOYWW & Barbara Gray workshop projects

Happy WOYWW! No pic of workdesk today as I was off on a jolly yesterday! Had a lovely day on a Barbara Gray/Clarity stamps workshop. And here are my projects.......

Had a great day and improved my brayer technique, plus learned some new tips

Happy WOYWW, please visit Stamping Ground to see what other crafters are up to - will blog hop later!

Debs x

Barbara Gray class today

I'm so excited today, I'm going to an all day workshop with Barbara Gray of Clarity Stamps! Hoping to have lots of new ideas to share soon :-)

Made this tissue box cover recently for my desk at work - needed something crafty to cheer my desk up!

Will let you know how I get on

Debs x

WOYWW 160

So I had a fun weekend of making baby cards for a friend, couldn't decide which one I liked better, but now I'm leaning towards the 'BABY' one.

I also found time to try something I've been meaning to do for ages - I've seen all of these sets of mini stamps/tapestry stamps used at shows, and very nearly bought them as I loved the patterns they were able to build with a few small stamps. But I resisted buying them on the basis that I had so many stamps at home. So this weekend I went through all my stamps and pulled out any diddy ones that I thought might work, and had a play. The first couple of attempts weren't that great, think I put way too much on the page, didn't know when to stop! But they started to get better, and this is what i came up with..........

I'm thinking they would be a great subject for one of my classes, so will see what my ladies think!

OK, no pic of my desk today, only what I've made on it :-) I'm off now to link up with Julia here, and to join in her weekly trip around the world to see what other crafters have been up to!

Happy crafting

Debs xx

WOYWW and stress toys!

So this is my desk today (well last night, but not done anything since!) A mix of craft stuff and work stuff - didn't realise the calculator had taken centre stage til I uploaded photo!

On the right is a folder of Kanban kit leftovers, and I was doing my 'use it up' bit and trying to construct cards from the bits and bobs left. All sorts of offcuts and rubbish at top left, and bottom left is the folder from last year's birthday pressie, which I only recently got around to booking!  Hubby paid for me to have a day flying Birds of Prey at the Hawk conservancy near Andover. They get booked up months ahead, so we are going on Aug Bank Hol weekend, just in time for this year's birthday lol!!

And this is a pic of a cute little penny slider card I made for someone at work, whose Grandson is into tractors......

The tractor rolls across the card, and was almost tested to destruction when I took it into work, as it got passed around an everyone had a play!  It was suggested that they would make good stress toys for adults......hmmmmmmmm ;-)

OK, I'm off to check out a few blogs in the weekly snoopathon at Julia's - Happy crafting everyone

debs x

It's wedding season!

 Hi blog-hoppers! I've had a few commissions lately for cards on wedding themes, so thought I would share them with you.  The first one uses ready made tag toppers I've had in my stash for ages, and the colour theme was just right for this request. The die cuts are Spellbinders Grand Labels 4.  

The background layer is an old Hunky Dory Whispers pearl embossed card, and I ran the white top layer through an embossing folder - I love this particular one, which is swirling vines - think it's Crafts Too.  I added some punched swirls and a few gems to finish it off.

The second one uses a freebie download I've had since last year, from one of the crafting mags, think it was Papercraft Inspirations but not sure! Anyway, I've used it a lot!

This one was matted and layered on more Hunky Dory card, the darker layer is gold embossed, and the lighter layer is the whisper pearl again. Then I cut out a bunch of Kanban flowers I've had in my stash for years, curled and layerd them and added gems. The colour theme for this wedding was metallic turquoise, and I added Stickles glitter glue to the tiny flowers on the topper and all over the skirt of the dress - hard to see unless you look really close, but so pretty!

I have a class in Chandlers Ford this afternoon and another tomorrow night, and this is what we will be making - I got carried away with the flower theme after the wedding card!!

The Grand Labels 4 die came out again - Labels 4 has to be my most used die, it's brilliant! the larger flowers are made from cutting spiral circles, and I've added different sizes of spirals for interest, plus punched flowers, swirls and leaves.

OK, time to go pack the craft box! Thanks for stopping by, and happy crafting :-)

Debs x

Spotlighting rubber stamping

 Hi blog hoppers, this is the sample made for our last class in Chandlers Ford. We focused on the spotlighting technique,where you pick a part of your image and stamp it again, colour it so that it stands out. We also double embossed our spotlighted section so that it really jumped out at you, and used embossed Core-dinations card as a backing - the cards the ladies made in class were fab!  Lots of bright colours and great finished projects.

Next class is at Bella Crafts in Fair Oak this coming Saturday, this will be a Pro Markers class focused on florals and landscapes. It is a repeat of one we did earlier in the year, where we were over-subscribed, so we agreed to tun it again for those who were disappointed to not get in the first time.

Hope you all have a lovely Jubilee weekend, I'm off to do some more crafting ;-)

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOYWW 153 and a busy desk!

Hi everyone, I've been quiet for a few weeks, been a bit chaotic here, and not much crafting being done at all
 :-(.................But this Bank Holiday weekend I managed to spend some time in the craft room, and this is how I left it...........messy, huh?

I know those lovely crafters who manage to tidy away after themselves will be looking at that and thinking OMG! I am a messy crafter, and even though I now have a lovely craft room and big desk, still end up with piles that threaten to overwhelm the desk.

Quick tour round my desk, bottom left some papers for a DT project I was finishing off, with my ultra sticky tape, and just above that a couple of older projects that I love and am trying to decide how to display. Above that to the left you can see my trusty heat tool peeking into the pic, and my DAB radio, cos I have to have music while I craft! I am often heard singing along to the Bee Gees....ssssssshhhh, don't tell anyone!!

then you ahve my craft caddy stuffed with essentials, behind that various shades of pink tissue paper for making paper carnations, my memento black inkpad, which never leaves my desk, a pile of paper with sketches and notes for cards (think back of a fag packet style!), my steel edge ruler, craft knife, reels of tape, and 2 pairs of scissors, one detail scissors, and one pair I use just for 'sticky stuff'.

That's my desk, if you're wondering why i;m sharing hop on over to Julia's stamping ground where she hosts the fab Whats on Your Workdesk Weds blog hop through craft land

happy crafting!!

Debs xx

TP Mini albums - made from loo rolls!

Hi blog hoppers, it's been a while since my last post, and my only excuse is work - and not the crafty kind!

Several people have commented on how quiet I've been lately, so I resolve to try to post more often :-)

This is a pic of a recently completed mini album. We made loo roll mini albums in class a few weeks ago, and we had so much fun!  You make them by squashing the inner tubes from loo rolls ( or kitchen roll if you don't want to use loo rolls!) I ran mine through my cuttlebug to squash them as flat as possible.

I covered mine in a range of co-ordinating papers by covering the loo roll in PVA glue and wrapping paper around then trimming. If you want a pocket just fold one end up on the second side and glue only the left and right edges on that page

You can slip tags inside the ends of the loo rolls, add pockets, mini envelopes, photo corners and embellishments and tags of all kinds. I used a cropa dile to punch and set eyelets and book rings to bind the pages.  It takes a while to stamp all the tags and mount all the photos, but the end result is so cute - I have another 2 part finished :-)

Last week's class in Chandlers Ford covered mica powders and we had a lovely sparkly time dusting, painting, spritzing and spraying! I feel like I owe all my ladies' other halves an apology as they all went away with plans to stock up on mica powders and masks :-)

Off now for a cuppa and kitty cuddle - happy crafting

Debs xx

WOYWW 148 -Easter Bunnies

hi blogland! Just a quick post from me tonight as I'm shattered, and there's nothing much happening on my craft desk so thought I would share some Easter cards I made for a feature in Making Cards magazine.

The stamp is from the Helz Cuppleditch bloom & grow range, and is so cute I couldn't resist! The panels are cut with a range of different Nestabilities, stamped and coloured with Pro Markers. I've picked colours out of the main pic and used those to colour the edges of a larger nestability die cut to create a perfect colour matched background.  I stamped the images a few times, and cut out parts of the image to layer up and to use as mini images on some of the panels. I think they look really spring-like!

Anyway, enough for now. If you came to this through WOYWW enjoy your trip around the crafty world via Julia's stamping ground!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x