Saucy "Christmas Stockings" Card

I wanted to make my husband a cheeky christmas card, so I used this nude wearing stockings from the artistic stamper. The background and gem are also from The Artistic Stamper.

I finished the image off with some white flower soft around her feet and the top of her stockings.
I also used a strip of velvet ribbon, for a lovely tactile element.

last minute knitting

The 24 hour scarf!
I bought this yarn quite a while a go for 99pence a ball from Poundstretcher. I should have known better. It really is the most revolting yarn to knit with. However, I don't like waste, and I know the colours will suit my friend, so I decided to persevere. I used massive 10mm needles so it would knit up quick, and 24 hours later a reasonable scarf appeared.

But look how much of the yarn is left!! and I have a whole other ball. it will stay around to haunt me for ages will this yarn!!

special present wrapping : on the cheap!

It's so easy to make presents look special without costing the earth. I found these lovely velvet poinsettias in a cheap shop, about 5 to a stem, plus two sets of berries, that look equally good, for £1. I then just used coordinating cheap wrapping paper, and gold raffia (which I also found in a cheap shop 49p for 25 metres)
I'm thrilled with how they look under my tree, just a shame I have to give them out to other people!!

GC35 colour challenge: purple gold and green

This week the challenge at gingersnap is Purple, gold abd green. As this month is being sponsored by Hearts in Touch I decided to use one of their stamps for my DT piece.

I felt that this tree image worked well with the colour scheme, and to achieve the colour effect I inked the stamp with whispers brush markers, using to shades of purple for the background, to try and achieve a wintery sky colour. The baubles are done with gold liquid pearls. I love this olour scheme and glad I tried it out for a christmas card.

Quick PaperArtsy christmas card

I made eight of these for my book group, note that the fairy's dress is made from book pages.
All of the stamps are by PaperArtsy

Bunny Nuggets!!

How much does my youngest son love these?
(it's a rhetorical question really, but the answer is "a lot")
I got the pattern from here from a link given to me by her.
The only change I made to the pattern was instead of making pom-poms for the tails (I don't like pom-poms) I made knitted balls (I'll add a picture of the tails later)
to make knitted balls,

cast on 10 stitches (or whatever size you want), knit until square, cast off.

sew a circle of running stitch around the square, gather, stuffing the corners inside, and sew the hole closed (there is no need to add further stuffing unless you want to.)

Wednesday stamper : santa claus

I can't believe it's taken me so long to get round to making a wednesday stamper this week, after all it's the easiest theme!
I have made this to go on my secret santa gift at work. I'm pretty sure I'm safe, I don't think anyone at work reads my blog.
The stamp is by Hearts in Touch, who are also sponsoring this month's challenges at Gingersnap Creations this month.

in fact to be in with a chance of winning not just this stamp, but the whole plate you can take part in the gingersnap blog hop

Tim's Tags day 6: the cute version!

I really like the techniques tim used on his tag today, so I decided to do my own version, as you can see, it's nothing like Tim's really, but the inspiration is there!

Tim's Tag (day 6)

I don't have any of the sparkly fluff, that Tim used, but you know what works just as well?
why, polar white flower soft of course.

The stamps I used are mostly from The Artistic Stamper, except the tree (and I'm not sure where that's from)

gingersnap creations blog hop

Welcome to the first-ever Gingersnap Creations Blog Hop and Hop Stop #7!

If you’ve already been hopping then hopefully you have just come from Jean a Bluebird Paperie. If you are starting here, welcome! It's a loop so you can start anywhere along the way!

At each stop, you need to collect a word! There are 10 stops in all starting and ending with the Gingersnap Creations blog where you can get all the specific information and get a peak at the Christmas 2009 plate from Hearts in Touch.
I have used this plate for the image and word on this mini canvas.



When you get all your words, 9 in all, unscramble them to form an art quote. Once you have your guess at the quote, email it and your name to gingersnapstamp@gmail.com by December 13, 2009. We will be picking one lucky winner at random from the correct entries to win the Hearts in Touch Christmas 2009 plate!


My word is "canvas".

Your next stop on the hop is Laura at As Happy As..
Good luck!

easel card for 40th birthday

I made this as a commission for a fortieth birthday. I used an image from The Stampsmith and made yet another easel card. This time I added a tab, which tucks behing the words, this holds it really well.

The papers are yet more from the huge K&co pad I got from QVC (I've hardly made a dent in it yet)

The quote says "Don't see yourself as 40, but 18 with 22 years experience"

As the crazy amigos challenge is happy birthday, I will enter this card.

Emergency Christmas card kit!!

It just shows you, it doesn't matter how early you start your christmas cards, you always end up with a last minute rush. I suddenly realised that today is the first of december and I have nowhere near done enough christmas cards..... Time to start the batchmaking!!!

so here is all the stuff I need to make 20 superquick christmas cards



like this one




all stamps and papers are by PaperArtsy

Ultimate cheapskate gift...

..a box of nothing!

I have made this for this week's forever friends challenge (starting tomorrow) where we have a guest host, Jackie, who has set the theme "anything but a card" a great theme as these bears are useful for so much more than just cards!

The paper is from a mega K&Co pad I purchased from QVC. great papers, but much flimsier than normal k&co papers, but at least that means I will actually use them rather than save them for "best".

I am also entering this for this week's sunday stamper challenge "livin in a box"

(please click on the picture to enlarge the image, so you can read the verse)

just a couple of things

Just a couple of things that I made this week that I didn't get round to blog.
Another easel card made using more of the Mabel Lucie Atwell stamps and K&co papers


and a hat I knitted with random stripes and a detachable flower.

"funny" christmas card

I came across this image today and it made me smile, so I knew I had to use it. I have made this for a knitting mad friend, I'm sure she'll appreciate it.

bad hair day!!

This was my birthday card for Karin. I apologise that this is not a great picture, but I didn't have much light, with these horrible short days and I was in a rush to get it posted.

I love making these tag cards at the moment, they just seem to come so easily. I picked this image (from Inka) mostly because it was the right size for the tag, and the right colours for the backing papers I wanted to use, but then her hair made me smile and I thought the words would be funny.

there is actually no stamping at all on this card, which is a bit unusual for me!!

And the winner is....

The winner of my blog candy is no 16

midnight stamper said...

love the variation on the easel card theme. the stamps are lovely too !

November 8, 2009 11:52 PM

Congratulations, please contact me with your address and I will send your prize to you

BLog Candy : Last Chance

This the last call for my blog candy
All you have to do to enter is post a comment on the blog candy post which you can find

HERE

The candy is open until I announce the winner.

I will announce the winner some time tomorrow.

New Mabel Lucie attwell stamps

If you visit the Artistic Stamper blog you will see the new Mabel Lucie Atwell stamps. I was lucky enough to receive these pre-release, and have had a quick play with them.

I used "care to dance" to make this tag card

"nature's little helper" to make this acetate card


and "Holly" to make this canvas back decoration, from a tiny canvas. (The mounted holly is from the same stamp.)

All other stamps used are also by the Artistic Stamper

Gingersnap Monochrome : blue moon card

The theme this week at Gingersnap Creations is Monochrome
I went for shades of blue throughout the front of my card, with a little surprise, as I have used double sided card, the inside of the card is brown.
All the paper and card is from the Paper Temptress (this month's sponsor at Gingersnap)
I used
double sided card
Blue sparkle card
heavyweight Vellum
White glossy card

The image is from the Stampsmith.

Quick Christmas card

I made this quick chrsitmas card using a santa stamp from the artistic stamper

forever friends: Glitter

This week at the forever friends challenge We challenge you to use Glitter on your forever friends creation.

I have used the stamp that came free on the current issue of Docrafts Creativity magazine. I have used glitteron the crown(applied over Quickie glue pen), a strip of glitter (applied over double sided tape)and red glitter card!

very glittery!!

Paracord bracelet

Post four of today, and probably the last one!! (but no promises)

Have you ever been in a tricky situation, where you think, "hmmm what I need to get me out of this is about 3 metres of strong cord"?

no?

oh well you are obviously not a 10 year old boy then!!

As soon as I saw these bracelets on Calvin's blog I immediatly knew I would have to make one for my eldest son. The idea is that in an emergency situation (such as the finding the perfect tree from which to hang a rope swing) you can unravel the bracelet and use the parachute cord.

I immediatly got onto ebay and ordered 100ft of desert camo parachute cord, and 10 10mm curved buckles.

I got the instructions from here
I ordered my cord from here
and my buckles from here

I thoroughly recommend these sellers. They both provided excellent service.

I liked these bracelets so much that the one shown is actually one I made for myself. so next time I am in that survival situation, I'll be just fine!!

Crochet Sheep and other woolly business!

This is post three of today, and it just gets weirder!!
maybe if I explain, it will help.

My favourite yarn shop, Baa Ram Ewe, have decided to have a knitted nativity (a Knitivity, perhaps?) and I have offered to make a sheep. Of course to be different, mine is crocheted!!

I just hope it's the right size, I have photographed it on my hand to give some idea of size. I did not use a pattern to make this, but made it up as I went along, using the principles of amigurumi.

In other Baa Ram Ewe news, Verity has started selling kits to make my mug cosies, which apparently attract a lot of interest. How cool is that?
Verity sent me one of the kits. I love this wool!


And finally in knitting news. I have finally finished this waistcoat for MEEEEEEEE! I hardly ever make anything for myself so this was a real treat and I love it. knitted in Rowan Pure wool Aran, it's so snuggly to wear. (excuse the rubbish picture)

Carol's tiles

And about time too!!!
This is post two today.

Carol stumped me with this round of the collaborative challenge.

No colour theme at all.......

so where to start?
I let these brand new "clock" stamp plates from PaperArtsy inspire me and went a bit wild with the colour!
I hope she likes them.

wedding card

Prepare for a busy blogging day , this is post one of four. I was going to do one long post, but decided to split them as I know some people are more interested in knitting some in cardmaking, etc.
So post one is cardmaking.
The Paper Temptress is kindly sponsoring the gingersnap challenges this month, and as part of the the design team wer given the opportunity to try out some of the delisious papers and card.

On this card I have stamped the stampsmith image onto Ultra high glossy card, which has been mounted onto laser silver lustre (silver), mounted onto a card made from Sparkle Noir ( a lovely black card with a subtle shimmer), and wrapped with heavy weight clear vellum. (gorgeous quality vellum)

I have attached the vellum with white ribbon, added touches of white flower soft to the image, and stamped the wording on the front with white ink

created by hand : remembrance

for the Created by Hand Challenge

tag easel card and blog candy

As a celebration of joining the Artistic Stamper Design team, I have a little giveaway of the 3 stamp sets pictured below. I have used stamps from all of these plates to make this easel style tag cag.

I am including the card in with the prize.

All you have to do to take part is leave a comment on this post, and I will use a random number generator to pick one winner on 23rd november. The giveaway is open to anybody.

Good Luck!

World radiography day

Just a shout out to all the radiographers out there, on World Radiography Day.
I am very proud to be a radiographer, I honestly think it is one of the most interesting careers there is. I have been in radiography for almost 20 years and still love my job.

brum brum

Yesterday I received my first creative team package from The Artistc Stamper, and I couldn't wait to play.
I've used 4 stamps to make this little brum brum card:
Jolly Day out by Mabel Lucie Atwell
flower from flower power sheet, and gingham background
lines from simple swirls sheet