Collage, my way!

The theme at Theme Thursday is collage. If you have visited my blog before you may have noticed that I have a bit of a thing for white space. So when I collage, I don't feel the need to cover every space of my card.
The quote stamp is from Scrolls Work Stamps and the collage image is one of Inka's old collage images. Inka is now selling some of her images to download at her etsy shop.
This style of small collage allows you to use up some of those smaller images that just wouldn't work on a larger collage

GC20 shades of blue

The theme at Gingersnap this week is shades of blue.
I made this birthday card for a 12 year old boy, who'd have thought you could get away with using balloons on a 12 year old boy's card? but I think it works with this little fella.
The boy is from stampotique (available from Happy Daze in the uk) and the balloon is actually taken from a forever friends stamp. I have coloured with whispers markers and hand drew the string and bow.

sympathy card

We never want to make them, but know that they are appreciated. This is a card I made for a friend who has lost a relative. The card uses stamps from PaperArtsy.

Coincidentally the theme are Crazy Amigos is black, white and green, so I am adding this to that challenge

t-shirt cushion tutorial

I got a lovely response to the last t-shirt cushion that I made I decided that while I was making another one today I would put together a tutorial.

Start with a favourite t-shirt that your child has grown out of and make sure it's ironed.
you will also need: a cushion pad (I got mine from poundland!); needle and thread; pins; a ruler

turn inside out and mark the largest square you can between the arm seams and neck. Pin the two sides together, leaving most of the bottom edge unpinned.
sew, either by machine or hand, the two sides together, leaving a large opening, but going past the corners on the opening edge.
I like to hand sew, as I find it relaxing and can do it anywhere.
turn inside out, leaving the rest of the t-shirt intact, use your hands to flatten down the sleeves and neck edge inside.
fold the bottom edges inside
insert the cushion pad, ensuring the sleeves etc still lie flat
neatly close the edge with pins
sew together, trying to keep the stitches hidden
you could of course add a zip, but I love the simplicity of doing it this way, and my son loves his cushions, and wants to grow out of more of his t-shirts so that he can have a huge stack of them on his bed.

thank you cards

The theme at Created by hand is "gratitude". I made these thank you cards a little while ago but never blogged them. They were for my 12 year old son's birthday presents. I love this stamp from stampotique as it works for that difficult 11-16 age for boys.

The sentiment was printed of from the computer.

Stampotique stamps are available from Happy Daze in the UK.

super simple belated card

oh don't you just hate that feeling when you realise you've forgotten a birthday, however I do it so often I have a stamp for just such an occasion, it's from a SeeDs set and I've used it inside this card.

The front of the card, however, gave me a chance to play with all new stuff, the stamps are from the new paperartsy Hotpick 6. I have also use a die cutting die from Paperartsy for the moth. I am not a big diecutter. I love the effects but I'm just too tight to buy a decent diecutter. All I have is the x-cut impress and I wasn't sure it would work with these dies, without faffing about with shimming etc, but to my great delight they work beautifully, in fact even better than the x-cut dies!!!
This card couldn't be any easier to make but. I do love simple!

I am entering this for lots to do's wings challenge

tiny fairy door

The theme this week at Gingersnap Creations is Fairies, for my DT piece, I decided to make a tiny fairy door.
The door and surrounding brickwork are one stamp from scrolls work stamps and the wish word is also from Scrolls work. I coloured it with various media until I got the effect I wanted, and then I finished it with some flower soft.
You can see it in position on my skirting board.

c'mon England!

I actually have very little interest in football, but I get that the world cup is important, so this is my one and only piece of world cup themed crafting.

The stamps are from Lofty's world tour from Joanna Sheen,

who are sponsoring this week's forever friends challenge where we want you to show us your favourite cute stamps that are not forever friends, so this is a rare opportunity for everyone to take part in our challenge, and there is a £10 voucher for Joanna Sheen up for grabs for one lucky random winner, and considering Joanna sheen have free p&p on everything to anywhere in the world, that will go a long way...

so what are you waiting for?

I am also entering thid for Crazy Amigos' world cup soccer theme

Happy Daze Design Team announcement + tag

I am really pleased to announce that I have been invited to join the Happy Daze Design team. Happy Daze are a fantastic UK shop, selling loads of gorgeous stamps, tools and accesories.

One of the fabulous ranges they sell is Stampotique originals, I have used two of their stamps to make this really quick and simple tag. The glitter has been done with a glitter spray, masking off the unstamped areas of the tag, and the body of the fairy. I think it makes the text look almost like an glittery acetate layer

Mad Hatter blog hop stop .. gingersnap creations

Welcome to the Gingersnap Creations’ Mad Hatter’s Day Hop and Hop Stop #5

The Gingers are celebrating Mad Hatter Day and hope that you will hop along with us!

If you’ve already been hopping then hopefully you have just come from Jean at 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 the goodies in the Mad Hatter Giveaway.

When you get all your words, 8 in all, unscramble them to form a quotation from the beloved classic, Alice in Wonderland. Once you have your guess at the quote, email it and your name to gingersnapstamp@gmail.com by June 25, 2010. We will be picking one lucky winner at random from the correct entries to win the Mad Hatter package! We’ll let you know who won on June 29, 2010.

If you visit all the stops, you should end up right back at Gingersnap Creations with 8 words! Unscramble the words to come up with the correct quote and email it on to gingersnapstamp@gmail.com. That's all there is to it!

If you get lost along the way, you can see the entire route at Gingersnap Creations.

My word is "writing".

Your next stop on the hop is Linda at Studio L3. Have fun and good luck!


I decided to decorate a notebook for my stop. All the stamps are by Scrolls Work.
I love this scene of Alice escaping as it 's right at the end of the story just before she wakes up and has the feel of utter chaos as things return to reality.

I am also entering this for Crazy Amigos' Alice theme

summer, summer, summer time...

The theme at the stampotique challenge is what summer means to you. for this particular challenge you don't have to use stampotique stamps, but for me Jasmin sums up what summer's all about, laying on the grass daydreaming amongst the flowers.

I am also entering this for a few other challenges:
Tag tuesday- a few of my favourite things, as there are quite a few of my favourite things on this tag: acetate, torn paper, ribbon, Jo's Jasmin stamp and her fabulously quirky daisies. Also I have used my current favourite method of colouring, simple pencils, as well as a simple clean style.

Gingersnap: transparencies

Mixed media monday: floral tributes

The stamps I used are Jo's stamps from Stampotique, available in the UK from Happy Daze.

TMTA and a new craft

This week's theme at TMTA is weeds and herbs so I used these wonderful hotpicks stamps from PaperArtsy again, The quote "May all your weeds be wildflowers" was done on the computer.

I have also been having a play with Lucetting, I didn't use a real lucet, so I used this pom pom maker I have had for ages, it's basically the same thing.

(I do have a little lucet somewhere that was a gift, but I can't remember where I put it.)
I used the instructions from this youtube video
I started with simple cord,

then I tried it triple thickness


then I tried two different textures

and two different colours

and gold thread

and finally ribbon yarn.

it's a really addictive craft and the cords are so quick to make, however other than friendship bracelets I don't really have any ideas what to do with them. I need to try incorporating beads next.

Out of this world!!!

Today I have this card featured on the frantic stamper blog. Please visit there for the details and stamp credits. There's lots more to see on the blog which is constantly being updated with new tutorials for a wide range of stamping projects, using stamps from loads of different manufacturers. It really is worth a visit

As I have used bright colours I am entering this for Theme Thursday

a couple of scrolls work cards

I received a fantastic package of stamps from Scrolls Works Stamps yesterday and couldn't wait to play
The first card uses Sky, Grass and Special day. (and a little bit of flower soft)

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The second card uses the travels of tim and tom, I create, altered numbers and Ticket.

"fairy cake"

You see, up until recently in the UK you never heard the term "cupcake", to us they are "fairy cakes", so I decided to revive the "fairy cake" by making my cake with an actual fairy on it.
This was Jo's birthday card and also my piece for the gingersnap DT this week, where the theme is wings. I have stamped moon girl (from stampotique) three times: once onto vellum, twice onto card, then layered her up so the vellum wings are sandwiched between the body and the card wings. The fairy cake base is stamped onto patterned paper and I have coloured the top with markers.

As Sunday stamper's theme is also wings I am entering this card for that challenge as well