Hey,

Happy Monday.

I had a fun Sunday with the Craftgang, always good when we can all make a playdate.

As usual we brought enough food to feed an army, but that's ok, as leftovers make me very happy.

I made a few things yesterday, I love playing with other people's stash!

Cheiron had nearly all of the new Tim Holtz / Stampers Anonymous sets..so I decided to play with the Blueprints Cocktails set..which is not even out yet!!!

I made a super simple set of cards, that I actually think will make great cards for Men!

I now think I need to own this set..

Cx

Hey,

When a friend 'enables' you to buy Christmas stamps that you really don't need what do you do?

Make her a card using said stamps..obvs!!

The set in question is 'Naughty' by Kat Scrappiness.

I am feeling pretty smug about this card, it came out even better than the vision in my head.

Look at how the die-cut holes and glitter paper look like lights.. swoon..

Sorry, let me slow down and start at the beginning!

I coloured and fussy cut the awesome Reindeer lady by Art Impressions, I have had this stamp a few years and it gets dragged out every Christmas. I thought it would work perfectly with all the sentiments in the set my friend encouraged me to buy and I actually made 5 other cards using this combo. However they were not as detailed as this one.

I die-cut the white paper using the awesome snowfall die by GinaMarie Designs and added some glitter paper behind to get the twinkly look.

The fact that my die-cuts looks like lights shining through the sentiment is an accident..I forgot to stamp the 'naughty' first.

I love it and I believe it arrived and my friend loves it too!!

Cx

Hey,

So I had a super fun weekend, as JT was here for the weekend and we went to Providence to Jenn's last loft art retreat - she is moving, so I believe there will be Art Retreats, but no more Loft.

We had so much fun and it was great to spend QT together that is not work related :) We managed to lose JT's phone on the way to Providence, but all credit to JT, she just waved it off and got on with the weekend. Bill the super helpful Amtrak guy helped to make it all feel a bit better too, so a big shout out to Bill where ever you are, you are the hero of the weekend.

The collage, shows us getting inky, Mister Harley, our tags mid way through and some of the food that we ate - we ate and drank a lot, none of it was good for us and I am having to eat a LOT of vegetables to balance out the badness of the 3 days.

It was great to do the mixed media loft art retreat together because we were both a teeny bit out of our comfort zone and it was good to have my all time fave craft person with me, JT knows me so well, she just laughs when I get all weird...

JT used stencils for the first time ever and I managed not to freak out too much about my fingers being so dirty / inky..it was hard, but my new Ranger craft scrubby is going to help me deal with this moving forward.

It was a lot of fun, our table was a hoot. We learnt so many new techniques, which I'll be showing over the next couple of weeks, as I had a post class play at my desk on Monday - seeing if I had retained all that we learnt.

My fave new technique is the one where you create a blended distress ink panel, spritz a stamp with water and lay the tag onto it. It reacts and kind of bleaches it, like this -


I put my canvas together on Monday, because I didn't want it to get damaged on the train and I love how it looks -




I can't wait to hang it and visit JT and see her's hanging up too.

JT and I were lucky enough to win prizes in the raffle - I am very pleased with mine -


Fun times.

I just want to say to JT - thank you for coming all that way, you made me so very happy, hanging with you is always awesome and playdates are the most fun, especially when they involve Fried Pickles and Flower Monkey Sliders...

Love you man.

Cx

Hey,

So this is a scheduled post as I am now in London.

Yes, sometimes I do forget I'm a crafter, especially when I see shiny, pretty paper goods and stationery on display in shops..

I like to have a calendar hanging on my pinboard above my craft / work desk and last year I had a cute one from Michaels that was a dollar.

It came with the handy clipboard that you can see in my main photo.

I've seen lots of really lovely small hanging calendars and have been tempted to buy one..then when I was taking down my 2015 one, I thought - hold on, why don't I make one for myself..idiot!

So I trawled around for a calendar style I liked (very fussy about this) and came across a fellow WOYWWer Scrappy Sticky Inky Mess - she has a whole host of fabulous free printables on her blog and I found one that had a blank space for you to decorate.

I printed it out and cut it down to fit the clipboard (recycling points) and then I added a swipe of distress stain to the top of each month, found appropriate stamps and voila 15 mins later I had a calendar...

Nice to be reminded of the fact that I have an entire craft room at my disposal..

Here are photos of all of the months..


I used all different stamps for my interpretation of the months..Sept is cake because it's my birth month :) I did notice that I need one more distress stain colour :) because I had to reuse a colour...excuses for spendy spendy...

Cx


Stamps are by - Lawn Fawn, Simon Says Stamp, Quick Cards, Paper Mania, Avery Elle, Avocado Arts.

Hey,

So this will be my last post until the 28th of December, as Hubby and I left for Vegas this morning..and I suspect that there will be a large amount of cray cray going on there and not much time for blogging.

It has been such a fun year for me - craft wise. I have learnt SO much, made a whole bunch of new friends and done classes and retreats that I never thought I would be brave enough to do.

At this point I have managed 286 posts..which is no mean feat..I really wanted to beat my 251 posts of 2014 and I've done that - so I am super dooper pleased and the year is not over yet..

I also got lucky with my new job - which I love - it also gives me the opportunity to work with JT again, which is always good.

Wishing all of you and yours a very Merry Christmas and thank you to all of you that have supported, guided, befriended and generally taken care of me this year.

Cx

It was technique crazy and really stretched us all. We had to fussy cut the Deer, so you can imagine how long that took. The trees are this awesome technique of stamping in white first, then in green, but dropping the stamp down slightly.
We were supposed to tear the white snow, but I wasn't feeling that..not precise enough :) Yes I got teased for that..so I cut mini snow hills instead!


Cx

Hey,

Late post from me, but I wanted to share what Ma and I got up to today :)

Yesterday when we were out, we bought a 10 pack of Lip Balm's as I wanted to try this excellent Pinterest idea..

Ma hijacked me and decided that they should be gifts for her work colleagues..who I am to argue!

As they were going to be gifts from Ma from New York, I dug out a great Deep Red Brooklyn Bridge stamp for us to use on the cover.

After a few tutorials from me, Ma did all the stamping, the scoring, the corner rounding and the ribbon threading.

I did all the 'stage managing', trimming, measuring, affixing of the lip balms (using glue dots) and the bagging up.

Fun times crafting with my novice Ma, but she got it and she later went on to make a bday card, that we did not take a photo of!

Cx

Hi,

Hope you are all having a nice long weekend (in the US)

I got invited by Kim Young to join in The Creative Blog Hop. I was really touched that Kim asked me, as we are newish blogland friends - we met via Stamping Ground, during the WOYWW 5th Anniversary ATC swap.

We discovered that we have a fair amount in common and live not too far from each other in New York state.

So what is “The Creative Blog Hop”?  It is a brainchild of a blogger some time ago.  A blogger is tagged along with two others who then answers some questions and introduces three other bloggers the following week and so on and so on. There are no rules as to who you can invite or what art the blogger you choose undertakes - doesn't have to be card making.

I am only introducing one other blogger today - I'm not sure if that breaks the rules or not..I'm bending them anyway :)

I have to tell you a little bit about me, so here it goes..I wouldn't have really considered myself that crafty really, but since I first started 8 years ago..it would seem a beast has been awakened! I've always been able to sew, but papercrafting just seemed a bit odd to be honest! How that thought has changed...

I absolutely love making cards and I especially love sending them to my loved ones. Recently at a wedding a friend told me that she looks forward to special occassions, as she knows she will receive something beautiful from me - how lovely is that! Proving that snail mail is not a dead art and that people really do appreciate a pretty card.

So I went from a basic kit to a craft room that is an uncontrollable monster (one that I love and I am always itching to spend time in), I love new tools, seriously..it's a borderline addiction (I can count x5 new tool additions this year alone...).

I also love learning new techniques, but I was bit scared at first - 2014 has been my year to try, fail, try again, succeed!

I live in NYC with my Hubby and our 2 Furchildren, we relocated from NYC nearly 18mths ago and it's a lot of fun living here, but also a challenge being away from family and friends.

I used to have a website selling my makes back in the UK, but life in NYC is a bit too hectic to do my day job and sell in that volume. Now I stick to selling via word of mouth and a few local stores. As I am not selling so much, blogging has become very important. I set myself goaals and I try to post 5 times a week..meaning I have to make stuff, which is good for me, as making stuff keeps me sane :)

Here are the questions:

What am I working on now?

Stencilled background

Watercoloured stripes

Honestly?! I think the only difference between myself and other cardmakers is that I don't have a specialist area. I am not all about stamping or watercolours or stencils or mists or dies. I love it all! I am a big fan of the CAS approach, which I am attempting to adopt more and more.

Why do I create what I do?
Why not?! I do it all for fun. It's so much fun to sit at my desk and lose a few hours just playing with my stash, doing a class, CASEing an idea, learning a new technique. It's just fun and I believe everyone should have a hobby (although mine does seem to have consumed me!)

How does my creative process work?
This is simple..I make lists..I am a Project Manager by day, so lists are KING. I like to carry a notebook everywhere and jot down ideas. Then when I am at my desk, out comes the notebook and the fun begins!

Your next TCBH hostess will be Carole. I met Carole via WOYWW and we have become firm friends - exchanging stamps etc via snail mail. Carole made me the most gorgeous notebook - even before she knew I was a notebook addict! We have so much in common and being friends with Carole makes me happy, not only because she is so lovely, but because her work is gorgeous and she pushes me to try new things and to step out of my comfort zone.

Carole and her work can be found over at - 8thWonderArt - here is a bio about Carole.

I live in Yate, a small town close to both Bristol and Bath, in England. I was born in Bristol, but have a lot of American family in California and I’m married to Tom, who is half Italian, with most of his family living in and around Venice! Aren’t I lucky!
I’ve been crafting one way or another since I can remember: my Dad (who was a Canadian national), was a sign writer and artist, so I get my love of everything arty from him… my parents were so encouraging, I inherited Mum’s love of literature and everything else from Dad - he taught me to ice skate, play ice hockey, encouraged my love of riding, which meant lots of mucking out stables in exchange for lessons, cinema and art…. though I studied Film at university and that was as a mature student, fairly recently and used to write articles for a film magazine..but that was a long time ago. I love making cards : rubber stamping techniques most of all, but I also love altered and mixed media art and craft sewing. I’ve been blogging for three years and running card making  workshops with my friend Amy for two years, something which I really love to do.

Outside of craft my big love is animals: as a child and teen I was forever riding horses and we always had cats and a dog, but now our pets are our  adorable backyard hens which often feature on my blog. If I hadn’t been such a totally ‘arty’ person at school and so very bad at math and science, I would probably have become a vet. I’m afraid I’m not much into sport, except  equestrian and ice hockey and my team is the Anaheim Ducks, which I’ve been lucky to see play on quite a few occasions, including here in London.

I work for a local charity, a Volunteer Centre, which helps people find volunteer work , as well as helping other groups and charities  to find volunteers, we also provide training and advice. It’s an interesting and fulfilling job and I’m always surrounded by my lovely office volunteers.

This has been a lot of fun - thanks Kim for inviting me and thanks Carole for taking part.

Cx

So yesterday was a snow filled day, it snowed over night and didn't stop all day. Which to me meant that I had the perfect excuse to stay home, bake and craft!

The main photo today is the view of my street from the craft room - brrr.

Following Mexican night on Friday (see Facebook for the embarrassing photos) we had quite a lot of defrosted raspberries left over. So I went in search of a recipe to use them and came up with this Raspberry Bakewell cake - yum!

It's really easy to make and here is a photo of my finished cake..


It tastes as good as it looks :) and I will be making it again.

I also started a new project today, I've been nosying around blogs this week and discovered there are a lot of people creating mini journals based on an idea called Project Life. I don't really get scrapbooking, but thought that making a mini journal for 2013 might be fun and as I am about to be a 'lady of leisure' it should keep me out of mischief..

I'll show you how I've been putting the journal together later in the week, but for now here is a photo of the back garden on snowy Sunday.


Cx

Since the flat got a makeover, I have been looking for the perfect lampshades for the bedroom and the hallway.

Birdie Lampshade for the Hallway

My 2 mistakes were actually really dumb ones to make, but you live and learn right? Mistake number one - I didn't check how the lampshades would hang from the light fitting I just assumed, so the birdie lampshade for the hallway has the pattern upside down! Hubby assures me that only I will notice this. Not convinced, but it's a sweet thing to say. Mistake number two - I didn't place my pattern to the edge of the fabric when I was cutting the grey flowered one (today's main photo) for the bedroom, so had to use ribbon to hide the joins. I actually think that this mistake has enhanced the lampshade.

I decided not to put a trim round the edges of the lampshades and if you decide to do it this way, you have to trim the edges really neatly, fortunately I have the most lethal dressmaking scissors, which help keep things neat.

This is a common dilemma with me. HamnMule is a teeny tiny little business now, but it started as my hobby and still remains a hobby. I have to remind myself that sometimes..

I have been making some random things recently and I think the move to NYC and the possibility that thrifty, crafty me might have to flex some muscle (as we won't have much money) is pushing me to try new things.

Today's main photo is one of the calendar cards I made. Last year I made all different versions of these as my Christmas'Thank You' cards and as small gifts. This year I wanted to make them a bit more uniform, but struggled with a good idea of how to do it it well.

There were lots of offcuts from my new clear stamp filing system (which I should blog about) and so I had a play and the result is this lovely blue flowered calendar card. The blue backing paper is one of the offcuts, the flowery paper was free and I've always been a bit worried about how best to use it. You can buy the calendar tabs anywhere. Dead easy to make and they look lovely on desks. I think they are much better than last years versions, so I now want to give some as gifts...

To distract myself from my 'gift or sell dilemma', I decided to have a little play with my new bunting die's by Xcut - they are amazing and really easy to use in the Epic Six.

Here is a photo of the bunting I made, using the dies and the Stampin' Up Pennant punch -


I also made 'Birthday' in matching colours. I've packaged them for sale with green outdoor twine in a cellophane bag with instructions. Sounds like a great idea right? Well, the trouble is they are so pretty, I want to give them to friends with kids and then go to parties and see the bunting up!

Basically I know I am going to end up selling half of the calendar cards and paper bunting and giving half as gifts.

I guess that is the point of having a 'crafty' style hobby :)

Only 2 days until the final Craft Fair of the year for JT and I - we are off to Berkhamsted Town Hall on Sat 1st December, if you want to come and visit us!

Cx

p.s apologies for my photo quality, I've had to take my photos at night recently!

Well not quite, but you can see what I mean if you study the main photo today.

This card was made a few weeks ago during my inspiration session, when I popped over to Pinterest and hunted around for some ideas.

Here is the card I used for inspiration -

I liked this, as it was really simple to do - the petals / leaves are made using a 1inch square punch and rounding opposite corners - very clever.

I am happy with my card and it went to a friend for his birthday. I do feel that I might need to plan how to use the petals / leaves better, as it does look a bit random and I think I should have made it on a white background and then mounted it onto a coloured card, like the example.

I'll try a few more and see how they work out.

There are a few more new techniques and ideas to share over the next week or so, as I have been being most productive!

Cx

p.s I miss craft buddy...she's in New Orleans!

I now have 2 heart punches, a heart embossing folder and a box full of foam and felt hearts...

I am starting to think I might have a bit of a thing for hearts!

This comes as a surprise to me, as I have always found hearts a bit twee, but I am starting to find more and more non-love ways to use them.

Today's main photo is of an anniversary card that I made (well I made 5). I have been dying to use the heart paper for ages, but it wasn't cheap and so I wanted to maximise it as it only came in 4 x 6 sheets, it's'All About Girls' by DCWV. I like the contrast of the green scalloped heart (Woodware Punch).

However I think it's only fair that I point out that the idea stemmed from the card set I made for the next craft fair - photos below are of the original idea -




I finally bought 'Happy Anniversary' peel-offs and it came to me that they would work really well with this card - so out came the green permanent marker and voila! an Anniversary card (or 2..)

Cx

Hello!

Yes I have totally missed July in terms of blogging!

This is due to several things - 1) being made redundant - sad, but these things happen, 2) post-redundancy holibobs with my friend Emma and her Mum, 3) being silly busy with house and work related things!

I have been crafting and when I find 5 spare minutes, I will upload a million photos at some point in the not so distant future. Not least of the amazing cards JT and I made at our last playdate.

I have been loving the Olympics, which might explain the random main picture!! Hubby and I are big Basketball fans and have been super excited about our only Olympics tickets. Which just happened to be for the Men's bball final!! We had a great day out at the 02 - and the picture is of me in my James Harden beard!!

In craft related news, JT and I are off to the British Craft Festival this weekend, it is our first 'Craft Awayday' we have been stockpiling our pennies and will probably enhance our stashes quite a lot!

I've also been making cards for National Cardmaker of the Year 2012 - most excited by this, as I have wanted to enter for a while, but not been confident enough! I will do a big post showing all of the wonderful cards I have made for the categories.

Bye bye for now - hopefully not for so long this time.

Cx

It's been a busy week so far, working, packing, last minute crafting (scarves, etc), catching up with friends and tonight I am off to a very large leaving do. Something tells me I might not be feeling too prety tomorrow....which is unfortunate as Hubby and I are flying to NYC tomorrow lunchtime!

Today's main picture is a cute dinosaur card I made as part of an order, using some new embellishment and papers. The dino is so cheery he makes me smile.

The card below is really simple and I can see myself making lots of these. I embossed photo paper, I like to use white paper, but it can look a bit bland so the gloss makes the dots pop (I buy it cheaply from pound shops) and isn't at all bland. I used my Crop-a-dile to add eyelets to the sentiment tag, I don't normally like the white eyelets, but I think they work here. The large paper flower is by Papermania and I got a whole stack of them in different colours for 99p a pot (approx 20 flowers) from WHSmith's.The green twine is from my local poundshop and I got 20 metres of it - score!

Happy Birthday using photo paper

This card is a fun one for kids. Ages ago, I bought a big pack of glittery Christmas gift tags in the sale, I have used them in all different ways, but had forgotten about them until recently. I think the eyelets make the card fun and it was really easy to make. Once again I used photo paper and the sentiment stamp is my new fave and I got it free with a magazine.

Happy Birthday Glitter Star

Anyway the wine is calling me! I hope to blog whilst in NYC, but maybe I'll be too busying shopping, drinking beer, eating and watching bball.....

Cx

It's been a pretty good weekend, despite the chaos in the flat due to the new windows (which are beautiful) finally being installed. The craft room doesn't exist at the moment and everything is everywhere and the cats are freaked out. So are the adults to be fair!

On Friday night, Hubby and I went to visit Lemon to start her birthday celebrations (Saturday was her birthday) she cooked. Score. It was fun and relaxed, I couldn't handle much more than that after the wretched cold.
Saturday was originally going to be a day of chilling, but Lemon and I both fancied hanging out some more so we into town to shop and eat din dins. We had such a laugh and I started to feel better. Today's main pic is of Lemon and I eating doughnuts in Selfridges! Unfortunately Hubby couldn't join us as he had to work. Boo!
Yesterday was the chore day, we hired a van, sorted the cr*p in the flat, went to the dump, made a list, went to IKEA (yes on a bank holiday Sunday, we are insane enough), came home, tided a bit and then slumped around.
I managed to create a craft space in amongst the window related chaos in the flat. Here's a pic of the craft space - its cracking me up. I am perched on the edge of our bed and have managed to track down the essential tools and stash that I need to work with - in the background behind the desk is our chest of drawers that is covered in stuff from the craft room.


I made some lovely owl cards and some bunting ones for the charity sale. I also had an idea and started to make a complicated bunting variation (let's see how this pans out later in the week...)

Today I have been sewing tank top tote bags - photos are below. So easy to make and fun too. I took several different pics,to create a mini tutorial (the finished pic isn't great sorry).

Step 1 - Fold tank top inside out and match the straps up

Step 2 - Sew both sides together

Step 3 - Mitre the corners to add strength

Step 4 - Fold right side out - voila! Finished tote

I managed to make 4 of these in 25 minutes - here's a pic of them all piled up ready to be gifted to friends and charity.

I am thinking about making little drawstring pouches to store them in, but I can't decide...

I also made these -

based on an example I found on Pinterest. I used a mixture of embellishments I bought when I went to Berkhamsted a few weeks ago, flowers JT gave me, flowers, papers and bling from my stash. I like them, think these will be going in the charity pile.

I have to go into hospital tomorrow, but I'm not going to dwell on that. It's more exciting to point out that all the pictures on the blog today were taken on my new (= previously belonged to Hubby) HTC using the Instagram app - awesome!

Cx

We made so many things on our playdate that I have at least 2 more posts of fun stuff to show you.

I am also working on some cards for the charity event that JT's Mother-in-Law is hosting. I have delivered a small batch, but I making many more - I'm working with 3 designs I think - 2 old favourites and a new one. I'll show you some pictures soon of those.

Today's main picture was an experiment, I've never embossed a patterned paper, I like the way it has come out. The colourful floral paper is from JT's Martha Stewart punch pad (DO WANT) and the chipboard butterfly is from a sheet with chipboard buttons on, that I dug out so JT and I could play with them. Below is a close-up shot - I like the texture the embossing added to the subtle pattern in the paper.


The pink card below isn't a firm favourite, it was based on a sketch and I like the idea, but now I am not convinced by the green strip! No matter, I am sure I'll find a use for it :)

The card below I love, really simple and very masculine I think. I used a really nice recollections card from Michaels' I bought these in Vegas in the sale bin - $1 for 10 cards! Bargain, you can't see but it has a slight shimmer. And no I didn't buy another scalloped punch, the small green punch was made using JT's punch (DO WANT). I can see myself making lots of these, might add these to the charity batch.


Last but not least by any means is this cheerful blue star embossed card. The corner star punch is JT's and the green felt star came from my stash. Love it, it's so fun.

So that's all for today. I am going to relax over the Bank Holiday, no partying for me, as I try and shift this cold. I'll be trying to blog too - got to get my posts back on track, following the April internet related hiatus!
Cx