Surfing & sunshine

How I wish for some lovely sunshine! We had a brief respite on Sunday here in the south, with a lovely clear sunny day, but then straight back to rain & gloom :-(

Anyhoo - this card was made for a friend who likes nothing better than taking her camper van out so her sons can surf & kayak - and she has a doggy too - perfect!

This was a very simple card made using snippets leftover from LOTV Country Gent & First Edition New Leaf pads, plus a decoupaged topper from the lovely Hot Diggity Dog Papermania collection. It was a big hit!

Linking this to Pixies Snippet Playground as I used.....snippets :-)

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Karaoke card

Couldn't sleep so was in the craft room at 7 this morning making this card for a male friend who loves karaoke. Bit hard to photograph under my table lamp!

Men's cards can be a real challenge, but this one came together really quickly :-)

At a craft fair ages ago I bought some die cut toppers which were seconds, because the silver foiling had been cut off one edge of the sheet. The headphones Image in the centre was one of these, think I managed to disguise it quite well!

Background is stamped, 3 black panels embossed, dusted with mica & mounted on mirri - all from my snippets box - was finally able to use the sheet of mirri with a big crack in it. Then the die cuts & a few card candi to finish. 

Linking this to Pixies Snippets Playground & will hopefully manage to visit more playground pals than last week!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Grandpa card

I was asked recently to make something for a Grandpa, not too fussy, and when I asked about what he likes to do the answer was 'not a lot!' Lol :-). So I decided this cute little guy would fit the bill!

The striped background is an offcuts of a 12x12 sheet, and the border at the bottom was rescued from another project that was destined for the bin! He is stamped on a snippet of watercolour card and painted with distress Inks.

It's been a bit gloomy here lately, but today I see (drum roll please) SUNSHINE!! Ta da! May have to leave the craft projects & get out there. Maybe not quite dancing around the garden cos its still pretty soggy, but a lovely walk would be nice :-)

As I used lots of snippets for this one I'm linking to Pixies Snippets Playground - haven't visited for a while cos crafting has not been happening at the Willis house. Must try harder!

Have a lovely weekend everyone, & thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Craftwork Cards Vogue collection

I just fell in love with this collection when I saw it, couldn't wait for it to arrive so that I could play! Then, when it finally arrived I sat & stared at it & couldn't decide what to do with it!

Several cups of tea later........

Couldn't resist using the mannequins, and that gorgeous peacock was just crying out for gilding flakes!

Then the second card just fell into place

More mannequins, more gilding flakes,aren't those flowers lovely! These are my project in Feb issue of Making Cards. 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Quick makes

These were made using a lovely kit called Tilly Daydreams Ultimate Papercrafting - includes fancy card blanks & envelopes, decoupage, ribbons & pearls. All the images are adorable & I had a lot of fun working with them. 

They are featured in January issue of Making Cards Magazine, as a 'Make in Minutes' feature, and they literally take 10 mins or less each - great for super quick cards! And this one is my favourite!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Air dry clay

Hi everyone, No posts from me since before Christmas, so Happy New Year to you! Life's been very hectic, starting back at work in Dec, lots of Christmas activities but not much crafting got done. 

These are pics of projects featured in the January issue of Making Cards magazine. They were submitted last summer, so I'd almost forgotten about them!

They are both made using Martha Stewart air dry clay - lovely to work with. The first sample has hand rolled roses, with the leaves & butterflies made using moulds. The second sample all the embellishments were made using moulds. Everything was painted with Cosmic Shimmer watercolours, also used for stamping the background and central panels. 

The curls are tiny strips of vellum curled over the scissors & fixed in place with Pinflair. 

I really enjoyed working with the clay, it's easy to mould & add colour, either during the creation process or after it dries. And unlike other clays, it is feather light when it dries, a great plus for postage!! 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

White layered Christmas card

Life's been very hectic the last few weeks, so no blog posts from me. I wanted to share the Christmas card we made at the last class of the year. This was really popular, and was made from lots of leftover bits of white card for the poinsettia & flourishes

The card was inspired by this photo from the lovely Bonnie. Do go and check out her blog as she makes gorgeous cards ....... and takes much better photos than I do lol!

And because I used lots of snippets - tons in fact, cos I cut all the class die cuts from my snippets box, I'm linking this to Pixies Snippets playground. 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Yet more snippets!!

If you are a regular reader if my blog you'll know that I often join in with fun at Pixies Snippets Playground & that I'm on a mission to help Di reach 100 posts for her 100th blogaversary!

This is my 3rd entry for this week - I spent a happy few hours yesterday making my Christmas puds & turning a pile of snippets into Christmas cards :-)

Just need to add some glitter (Christmas card rules dontcha know!!) & I'm done. 

Happy blogaversary Di!

Debs xx

More snippets!

Over at Pixies Snippets Playground Di is celebrating 100 posts since she took over the  keys to the Playground. I'm on a mission to help her reach 100 snippet posts for her 100th birthday (she doesn't look a day over 90!)

So these are 2 diddy 4" cards made from snippets of Neenah card (always cut my waste into small die cuts for later stamping & colouring cos it's just so good for pro markers!) and leftovers from a pack of Papermania Christmas paper used in my last class.  

Aren't they cute? If you have a few minutes, do pop over to the Snippets Playground and check out all the other entries, there are some lovely crafty pieces on display. 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Winter birthdays

I have a friend who has a birthday very close to Christmas and each year we try to make it completely separate from our Christmas get-together.

A few years ago she told me she didn't like 'winter' birthday cards that look like Christmas cards, so I made this for her birthday this year...

It's an easel card matchbox, so I can put a gift in the drawer. Perfect for posh choccies or a piece of jewellery :-). All the decoration is heat embossed using the WOW! Powders earth tones and metallics - lovely colours!

I uses tons of white card snippets for the panels & the die cuts, so I'm linking this to Pixies Snippets Playground, where Di is celebrating 100 Snippets posts!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Saturday workshop pics

The 1-day workshop on Saturday was such a hoot! Everyone had fun, relaxed & worked on their Perpetual Calendar projects. Here's everyone working hard in the morning

We had different generations working alongside each other which was lovely - you can see the open biscuit tin with not many biscuits left lol!! 

In the afternoon we tucked into home made mince pies - yum! As we headed towards the end of the day the pace picked up as people were keen to finish their projects - here's a pic of a couple near to completion....

I had a great time teaching the class, and was totally shattered at the end of it, with a sore throat from all the talking & giggles :-)

Thanks to all the lovely ladies who attended the workshop and made the day such fun

Debs xx

Birthday card & Friday funnies!

Made this card for a friend who's had a rough week & couldn't really celebrate her birthday.

The design is one i saw a long time ago when I attended a class. The flowers are paper pieced using snippets of pretty papers, so I am linking this to Pixies Snippets Playground. And next week will be the 100th Snippets Playground post, so do pop over and take a look here and maybe join in!

And for my Friday Funny - my moggy is a bit of a sun worshipper, like all felines. As the sun is pretty much non existent at the moment, he's found a new heat source to worship!

Who said cats were intelligent!!?! Linking this to Annie's Friday smiles cos it made me giggle :-) A few people post funnies ion a Friday that have made them smile - always up for a giggle me! And take a loo at Annie's amazing quilt that she made for Children in Need, with the help of a few bloggers!

Looking forward to seeing my lovely ladies tomorrow at our class, and I'll share pics of our jolly soon

Have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Woyww 232

Today's desk is pretty messy! On the left you have leftovers from sorting kits for this weeks classes. Just in front of my trusty cuttlebug is the beautiful Craftwork cards Vogue kit, which I've just used for a magazine project (not yet published so can't share yet)

On the right my brilliant snowflake punch, and a box of sequins, also leftover from sorting kits for this week (I'm rubbish at putting things away!)

And front and centre a pile of templates I'm working on ready for my Saturday 23rd workshop to make this little beauty!  (details here)

So, pop over to Julia's to see lots of other messy piles work desks around the world. 

Happy blog hopping!

Debs x

Purple reindeer!

After last weeks reindeer massacre (see here for details!) I decided I should try to restore the balance by making a quick reminder card. I searched hi & low for reindeer pics in my stash - think they've all run away in fear having seen what I did to their friends last week [sigh]

So the only reindeer I could find were purple & green (naturally!!) from an old mag cover kit (can't remember which one). Backing paper is a leftover piece printed from a Funky Hand cd, not really Christmas but if you squint they could be snowflakes :-). And the colours match perfectly, despite what the camera shows!

All white card from snippets, run thru a cuttlebug snowflakes embossing folder, and die cut into snowflakes. Purple card for matting leftover from die cutting something else ages ago. All finished off with liberal splodges of Stickles Crystal 

Off to checkout Pixies playground & see what others have done this week with their snippets!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Christmas Iris Folding - correction

So guess who forgot to photograph her projects before sending them for publication?? Honestly, if I had half a brain I'd be lethal!

These are my Iris folding Christmas cards, featured in Novembers issue of Making cards - pics of magazine pages rather than the actual cards!

I did notice a couple of typos in the magazine instructions, so if you are planning to make these:

BAUBLE - the gold top piece for the bauble is a 3cm square of card, lower edge trimmed to fit flush with the top of the aperture. Top edge mark in 0.5cm from either side, draw a diagonal line from each of these marks to lower trimmed edge & cut off the outer diagonals then fix to the card above the aperture.  

Also, VERY important! for both cards, the strips of paper need to be 2cm wide x 12 inch width. If using anything other than 12x12 paper, cut strips 2cm x 10cm for the bauble, and 2cm x 14cm for the tree. 

Do NOT cut the 4cm length given in the magazine!! These would be way too short!

Hope you enjoy making these, and would love to see any examples you make

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Reindeer massacre!

I bought these reindeer cookie cutters on holiday in Norway & I've been itching to use them! My logic was that the Daddy & Mummy reindeer would make mahoosive Xmas cookies, & the baby would be reserved for using with air dry clay on my Xmas cards - a twofer!!

But......the poor reindeer didn't survive the migration from the hot climate (aka the oven!) to the cool expanse (work top!)  The legs & antlers fell off :-(. Looks like a reindeer massacre!!!

The only recognisable little guy is this one & even he's got non-survivable injuries with that broken back [sigh]. 

Note to self - remember to trim extra dough away from between reindeer legs - this one definitely looks like a boy! Oooh-er!

I'm afraid they're all destined for reindeer heaven (yum yum!!) Linking this to Annie's Friday Smiles, cos it made me laugh!

I put my lunacy down to all the painkillers I'm taking for my ribs, and lack of sleep - sorry peeps!!

Debs xx

Perpetual calendar

This is the project for my all-day workshop on Saturday Nov 23rd in Chandlers Ford, Southampton (near Winchester, just off the M3)

It's a perpetual calendar, which means it can be used year after year - great idea! It's made up of small cubes and tubes that have dates and months on them, and it can be decorated in your choice of colours. 

All materials will be supplied, the workshop runs from 10am - 4pm and costs £30 - bring a packed lunch, or there's a shop nearby to buy something. 

It should be lots of fun, so if you live within driving distance of Southampton, why don't you come along? 

Please get in touch if you have any questions, or to book your place, my e-mail is in the sidebar. 

Hope to see you there!

Debs x

  

Woyww Halloween

This is my messy desk today - front & centre the offcuts of some bright colours from my snippets box - colours I rarely use, like purple, bright orange & lime green, but they are absolutely perfect for Halloween!!

And these are the Halloween cards I'm making with them!

I've used Spellbinders Ovals and Floral Ovals for the centre piece, and loads of offcuts of white card - I have an entire box of these, and it's used regularly! The stamps used are a Hero Arts Halloween set, and a Pumpkin and Aubergine Halloween set - lots of useful little images in there! 

This is a Wiper card, when you pull the sides, a little flag pops up with a hidden message - love it! We'll be making this at my classes next week - just need to add a few bats!

So I'm going to link this to Pixies Snippets Playground, then go off & see what's on other people's desks via Julia's blog hop. 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Venice scrapbook layout

I'm slowly scrapbooking our lovely Med cruise from last October (was there this time last year - sigh)

This layout came about because I have several pads of gorgeous K & Co papers that mix & match, and have been used on other scrapbook pages. I keep all my offcuts tucked inside the original pad in an A4 cello bag, so I can always find then

The scalloped borders were punched from leftover strips using a Martha Stewart deep punch (Daisy I think). The photo mats, letters and one flourish came from offcuts of toning Bazzill card. The final flourish from a snippet of gold mirri 

So this one has to be linked to Pixies Snippets Playground, cos the embellishments were a veritable raid in the snippet box!

Happy crafting peeps :-)

Swing card

Sorry to anyone who checked my blog for class details - blogger is playing silly wotsits and won't let me update my class dates - grrrrrr!!!

This is the project for next weeks classes in Chandlers Ford, Southampton on Tues/Weds 

A great little Swing card - perfect for men! 

In the meantime, if you're interested in joining us, please get in touch - email & phone in the side bar. We have a happy group of ladies who meet once a fortnight to learn a new technique or project. 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x