My Card WON!

 I would love to thank everyone over at Crafting When We Can Challenges for giving me this Winner's award on my anniversary Bookatrix card I entered in their challenge last week. I was really surprised and very honoured!

I won some very cool digital stamps from Sassy Studio Designs...check out their blog shop! I cannot wait to get them and use them.

It was such a gorgeous day here in Essex that the hubby and I went to the seafront for the day then came home to watch The Arsenal barely beat Spurs so a good day all round...Thanks be to God!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend as well. Those of us in the UK have had such rotten winter weather that now it's warm and the sun is out, we all were at the seaside today. It was crowded at Southend-on-Sea but it was worth fighting the crowds. 

Last Minute Card

Wow...two posts in one day! YIKES Scoob! I was wandering around the challege blogs and saw this one about to end and thought I would whip something up. The first card I made was a huge fail but this little CAS card turned out cute. Thought I'd enter it.

 

When I saw the theme of Spring Flowers I immediately thought of this new stamp set I bought on ebay. I bought it used and it came with no packaging. It looks like and Inkadinkadoo stamp set. If anyone knows, please leave me a comment so I can give credit.

I stitched around the stamped floral block with my Copic 02 liner pen and I used Papermania pigment inks.

Entering in the following challenge:

Simply Less in More - One Layer CAS Spring Flowers

Hugs, Dorothy

 

My First Bookatrix

A friend of mine asked me to make her a card for her parents Golden 50th Anniversary and I agreed. I thought of a few designs and settled on an easel card...then I had an even better idea. I remembered that a long time ago someone gave me a bookatrix board. Funny thing that I foundit quite quickly in my mess of a craft room...lol. So I grabbed an old folder of peel offs and lots of white cardstock and away I went to making my very first ever bookatrix card.

I even created it's own stand and presentation box:

My friend just loved it as she had never seen anything like this before. I sure hope her parents like it as well. Thanks for having a look at my creation!

Here's my supply list:

White 300 gsm card (A3 sized) - Papermill Direct (I LOVE their card)
Gold peel offs in butterflies gold links, lines and fancy corners. Can't remember where these are from.
All white flowers  - Wild Orchid Crafts
Largest gold paper rose  - Hobbycraft  (white rose misted with homemade gold glimmer mist)
Folk Art Antique Gold paint (I painted the green leaves under the flowers in gold)

I would like to enter my bookatrix in the following challenges:

Crafting When We Can - Anniversary

Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything Goes

Glitter n Sparkle Challenge - Anything Goes

Scribble and Scrap - Anything Goes

That Craft Place Challenge - Anything Goes

UK Crafty Blog Directory

It's shameless plug time...lol. About a year ago I started a blog to keep track of craft challenge blogs here in the UK. It's now growing as I am adding UK crafter's blogs to the list. It's a great way to find new challenges all in one spot plus you can add your own blog as well to gain some more traffic. Why not stop on over and have a peek?

Just fill out the form on the front page to add your crafting, scrapping or challenge blog to the list! At the moment this list is for UK blogs only BUT I will add blogs froom other countriess as well. Just tell me what country you're in and I will add another category.

Thanks a bunch and hope you will have a peek: UK Crafty Blog Directory

Purple Heart

I was going through my paper stash and I found this old paper stack that I bought at a craft show over 4 years ago. It was a generic stack with no cover or company name on it so I don't know who to credit but it had all sorts inside: vellum, embossed card, pealised paper; all in 2 colours, pink, purple and blue.

So I came up with this clean and simple card. I used the printed vellum as a type of banner across the bottom by folding it slightly so it pops up in the middle. The heart stamp is old too. I used it 10 years ago to make my wedding invitations...lol. It's a wood mounted stamp and we all know those last forevvvver.

Here's my suppliess list: Card stock base is white 300 gsm from Paper Mill Direct; lavender embossed paper and vellum from that old paper stack; heart stamp I have no idea; word stamp from a Studio g mini set; purple Color Box chalk ink.

Entering in the following Challenges:

CASology - purple

Paper Creator's Crafts - Anything Goes

Mason Jar Tag Card

Happy Friday all! Hope you all have a lovely weekend ahead. It  looks like our horrible rainy weather is going to calm into a sort of bright weekend here in Essex. Hope my family back in the States (New Jersey) are dug out of the snow they've been getting. Now onto my new card:

 

The card was based on a sketch for a challenge over as The Paper Players and I'm just making it in under the wire...lol. Here is a photo of the tag tucked inside the pocket:

Here is a list of my supplies:  The papers, mason jar tag, and jar topper were from one of my new 12" x 12" paper stacks called Dear Lizzy Neopolitan by American Crafts; Personal Impressions Everyday Words stamps, Distress Ink in Tattered Rose, Ribbon from Ribbon Oasis; Black Papermania ink; Heart buttons from my stash.

I love love love the papers in this stack. The mason jars are so cute. I fussy cut out the mason jar tag from a whole sheet of them then mounted it on the tan dotted paper from the set and fussy cut around that as well.

Entered in the following challenges:

The Paper Players - based on sketch

Crafty Girls Challenges - Anything Goes

Creative Creations Challenges - Less is More

My Craft Creations - Anything Goes

I'm Alive & A Box Card

Yep I'm still around. I took a long break from blogging. I didn't intend to be away so long but life has a habit of getting in the way but it's a new year and I'm back to crafting. I hope start entering challenges again and hope today's is just the start.

Today I made a box card. Here it is:

I just LOVE the dimensional effect of this card. It folds flat too! I followed a YouTube tutorial for this box card: Box Card to Fit in a C6 Envelope. I received my new copy of Simply Cards and Papercrafts magazine yesterday and as a free gift inside was a 6" x 6" paper pad and set of clear stamps in the new Prima Fairy Belle range. Goodness it was so gorgeous I went on a seach for something to make with it.

I encourage you to try out the box card tutorial and I'd love to see your results so leave me a comment and show me your stuff.

I entered this card in the following challenges:

Digitally Sweet Challenge - Anything Goes

Debbi Moore Designs Challenge - Love


Cards Galore Encore Challenge - Anything Goes


Natalie and Amy's Challenge - One for the Girlies


Sparkles Monthly Challenge - Show Off Your New Stash


The Crafting Cafe - Anything Goes

Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything Goes

Scribble and Scrap Blog & Challenge - Anything Goes

Have a Craftastic Day!!

WOYWW # 214

The beautiful UK weather has had me out and about a little or the heat had me in bed trying to keep cool. Since being paralysed, my body doesn't like the weathers changes very much and it takes awhile to get acclimated. So when it got so warm, my body, being the rebel that it is, swelled up to twice it's size and then terrible leg pain from the swelling. (Yes even paralysed I can feel pain. It's actually a blessing.) But I have been in my craft room the last few days making (or sttempting to make) some craft goodies. Thought I would share this over at WOYWW.  Here's what I got on my desk today:

I've been thinking about doing a couple of Christmas Craft Fairs so I thought I could whip up some cheap and cheerful goodness for Christmas. So last night and this affy, I'm making some altered clothes peg sets. Here are the pegs painted. Don't mind the whitish ones. They are a major crackled effect FAIL. The crackle I used stinks!!! It's the Plaid FolkArt one, this is the second time I've used it and the second time it failed to crackle. Maybe I have a bad or old batch? Gosh I hope so because I'm going to have to throw this junk away and get a new crackle glaze...ugh!

Above I'm using my old craft sheet under neath but...on the other side of my desk is my brand new craft sheet (which I haven't used yet because I want to protect it...weird I know.) Since my desk is so big and WHITE, I wanted to cover as much of it as possible when inking and painting so I bought me a huge one! It's 50 x 100 cm and it takes up over half my desktop...woo hoo! You'll see it once I get my video camera set up and running. You want a big giant craft sheet to protect a big area and are in the UK?  I got it here: Craft Obsessions. They have 50 x 50 cm, 50 x 100 cm and 80 x 100 cm. You can also request bespoke sizes as well so you can have basically any size you need. The 50 x 100 does me fine though I wish I had bought the 80 x 100 one. Great price on them too!

That's all from me today. Hope you all have a wonderful day and those in the UK I hope you get outside and enjoy the weather while you can!

Hugs, Dorothy

WOYWW #211

I haven't posted to WOYWW in the last few weeks because showing a messy  DIY zone was getting a bit boring...lol. I'm posting today so guess what that means? It's about DONE! Here is what it looks like today:

Here is a small glance at my little craft room corner and what's on my new desk. I'm painting shelves for a little vestibule on the wall behind me (a pic is further down post.) I bought my hubby a new power saw for his birthday just so he could cut me some shelves...lol. They are cut from a piece of MDF which are being painted white. I still have another coat of white to do plus varnish.

Want to see the rest of my almost complete room? Here it is!

Here are some more photos of my new craft room. Notice on the pegboard the frame isn't finished being put up. It's done now though. At the end I'm going to list the supplies and stuff I used to put my little room together. All that's left is to fill it with all my crafting goodness and go pick up my short drawer set that matches the colourful tall one...lol.

I created my own stencil for this word across my wall. I used 300 gsm cardstock and cut with craft knife since my Silouette was packed away.

PEGBOARD...yeah! It was hard to find here in the UK as slatboard is what is used most in Europe YUK! This was so cheap and cheerful to put together, even the hooks were cheap. I bought white pegboard and stenciled the pattern in the blue paint. I used matt spray varnish to coat the whole pegboard so the paint wouldn't wear off so easily.

Here is the other end of my desk. I already had this set of plastic drawers. I wans't going to use them but they really did go well witht he rest of the room so now I'll get the shorter set to match for the other side. I might even get 2! Notice my hutch is back. It's not that old, about 8 months so kept that too.

This is the other wall. There is this recess in it that had these horrible homemade shelved nailed up in it. They were crooked and too thick for the small space and took them down years ago. My hubby had this good idea while waling around B&Q. Less that £25 for the metal back rails, shelf holders and the MDF we cut the shelves from. Not bad huh?

So that's my craft space. It's not that big and storage is going to be interesting but I'm a relatively new crafter so don't have a ginormous amout of stuff yet but getting there (to my hubby's chagrin.) Here is a list of the supplies I used to decorate my room and where I got them. Some items will have the prices as well since I did my best to do this on a budget. Hope you like it...I sure do. It will inspire me for a good while...lol.

Furniture:
Desk - Ikea, Galant Corner Desk w/1 side extension in white
Hutch - Ikea, Hemnes Add on unit in white stain
Drawer Set - Hobbycraft, Really Useful Drawer Unit tall
Recess Shelving - Wickes, Single Slot Metal Upright x 2, Single Slot Brackets 150mm x10,
                              B&Q, MDF for shelves (we got it for under £10 in store, not as priced on website)

Paint:
White Matt Emulsion - Homebase
Colour Paint - Wilkinson's Neptune Matt (This paint was not very nice to work with. It was too thick and had too much vinyl in to so it peels off when dry. Next time I'll get a better quality. Paint is brighter than seen on web.)

Stencils:
Create Word - 300 gsm cardstock printed with 1 letter per A4 sheet. Font used: Cafe Rojo
Round stencil on Pegboard - Pronty Mask Stencil 12" x 12" (I'm having my daughter add the stencil on the wall in a few more places too.)

Pegboard:
Pegboard - White faced Perforated Hardboard (pegboard) 2440 x 1220 x 3.2mm (You can only find this stuff at timber/lumber suppliers here in the UK. Not everywhere has it in white either. The place above was only place I found that did. Ordered it online to have it picked up. Had it cut to measure.)
Hooks for Pegboard - 4" Euro Hooks
Wood for base - 1" x 2" approx. wood bars
Frame -  Wood Architraving (OK tried to get framing wood but here in the UK it's so darn expensive that it wasn't affordable to frame the 1550 x 735 mm piece of pegboard so used basic architraving instead...cheap cheap!)

What's Your Colour Score?

Since I'm still waiting for my craft room to get finished (hubby has been working a lot hence the delay,) I've been surfing craft blogs and watching YouTube crafting videos. I came across this colour test. I thought it looked quite challenging...give it a go yourself!

What's your score?  Take the Test HERE

I'm 48 and I scored an 8. Guess many years creating graphics helped me out! LOL