House Mouse - ATC & Postcard

Good Morning Peeps

 

Can you actually believe that it is the last day of the month already?  I am still recovering from running about after Christmas and that was just yesterday.................wasn't it?  Its been a quick month, they say that's a sign of old age when time speeds up, I hope not!!

 

This is just a quick post to show a couple of things I popped together for the girls in the group who's birthdays I missed, yip, at one point in my life I would have been a month in advance, I am now very literally a month behind!! 

 

Both are designs I have used previously except scaled differently, which is a plus of CD crafting.  If you are still trying to resist the Cd's you really shouldn't, go on give them a go, you will LOVE it!!

House Mouse "Lets Celebrate" Postcard

House Mouse "Ice Cream Party" ATC

Would be lovely to see some comments on the blog this year...maybe.....if you have time......even just to say "hi".....or that you are sick of my rubbish lol, anything would be lovely.

 

Happy Crafting my friends,

 

Amanda xx

Postcards - Metallic New Year

Hello Friends

Its that time of the week again "hump day" all downhill till the weekend, yay!!! Hope you all have lovely plans, maybe some crafting on the go?

Well the groups Postcard theme this month is "Metallic New Year". I found this pretty easy, didn't take much thinking but in hindsight probably should have thought about it some more and been a tad more creative. I have since purchased some lovely new metallic pencils & chalks, should this "metallic" theme ever pop up again, and I am sure it will.

These are my two entries, again, both very similar, total cop out but that's OK, next months will be better.

"New Year, New You", sequins, stars & Mirri Card

"New Year, New You", sequins, stars & Mirri Card, a bit less shiny though and the top half is wrapped in metallic silver ribbon just to add another texture.

Another day another Dollar so they say :)

Happy Crafting my lovelies,

Amanda xx

ATC - Fairies

Morning All *yawn*

 

Hope you are all well & creating load of lovely crafty things.  I haven't had a chance to go around some of the crafty blogs but when I do I will be sure to post any that really catch my eye.  I have finally opened my Spectrum Noirs, as you know when I tidied the craft room, but I am still yet to use them.  Its funny as I use Promarkers all the time, not sure why I am so scared of using the Speccies, you would think it would be easier, being as they are all in lovely colour families etc.  I dunno, just gonna have to give it a go, really need to develop my skills as a colourist and that's the only way to do it.

 

Anyway this months ATC swap title was "Anything Goes"  now I probably really should have done something in relation to the film/play but I didn't, I tool it literally and decided on Fairies.  Not only that they are both almost identical, total cope out but hopefully next month its a topic which I can get out the paintbrush or pastels for.

This one I called "do you believe in fairies?"  I was really pleased how both of them turned out, really simple but I like that look.  The paper was from a free pad i had from last year sometime, but felt it really suited the nature feel.  The rub-ons are from the Crafter Companion Fairytopia Kit, the main butterfly is a peel off on Centrura pearl to which i have added some 3D glue gel to the body then covered in ultra fine pink glitter, I also did this for the flower centres.  The heart is wooden and coloured simply with a Rose Pink Promarker & covered with 3D glaze.  Gems added to finish.

 

This one is named "I believe in fairies"

So that's them done.  Next was the Tags with the theme "Wild Winter"  I opted out of this this month again just due to time.  My idea though was to do a lovely red sky in pastel with the silhouette of a tree and to have a lake in front.  The lake would be done using clear ultra think embossing powder, the tree just black Promarker and then the ground and the tree would be covered in a lovely shimmery snow like glitter with snow covering the sky also.  Sound good?  I might sill do a couple & send them to a couple of the girls just because.  Obviously when I have the time though!

 

Anyway peeps, long day at the day job ahead of me, have a good one,

 

Happy crafting,

 

Amanda xx

The Big Knit 2012 - Update

Good Morning Bloggers

 

Just a quick post -

 

You will remember that in September last year I knitted 100 wee hats for their mini smoothies.  These hats were then popped on the smoothies & sold in Boots and Sainsburys stores throughout the UK raising money for the charity Age UK. 

http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/bigknit

This was my little contribution, 100 hats in just 3 weeks.

In the post last week I received the loveliest personalised "thank you" card from the guys at Innocent towers, just showing again why their product & service remain loved so much.

 

Now the question is what to do for charity this year?  Do I just start making hats early and see how many I can get done? Do another 10K or the Shine walk for Cancer Research?

 

I guess whatever I decide to do, it will be rewarding and I would urge anyone to do at least just one thing in 2013 for the greater good.  What are you going to do?

 

Much love to all,

 

Amanda xx

Mum Birthday Card 3 - Hunkydory Flopsy Bunny Kit

Evening All

 

My blogs have been much neglected recently.  After next week I will be moving back to Part Time hours (really mean it this time lol) and so I will have loads of time to craft.  Hoping to do some soap over the next few months using the cold soap process.  Very excited about this as I have loads of lovely new moulds to make, one of which is a dragon!

 

In the meantime I will continue to spend time making cards, keep myself sane. or at least make myself think I am sane.

 

This is the card that I actually made for my mums birthday.  As soon as the Hunkydory Magazine dropped on the front door made it was decided Flopsy would be the star.  A very cute little critter who will also be the star of any Easter cards that I have to make.



This was a lovely design for the card & as it came as a kit there was really not much to do except choose the toppers & enjoy putting it together.  I added some extra glitter highlights and some additional adhesive faux pearls to the toppers, choosing one topper to represent being young, one to represent the present the future, hence "mummy, mum, mother".

 Well That's all for tonight, super early start tomorrow!!

Happy Crafting,

Amanda xx

Mum Birthday Card 2 - Flowers from Hunkydory

Evening All

I know, two blogs in one day, who knew I could be so organised :)

This is just the second card I made for my Mum but this time using a Hunkydory Kit.  It was brilliant to work with, fantastic quality.  This is a design from the actual magazine.

This is an 8x8 card just like the fairy one but has more layers and I also used 3D clear glaze to pop on some dew drops for the flowers.  Its the first time I have used it and now I want to put it on EVERYTHING!!!

This just shows the dimension on the card.  The backing card was cut into nine squares the outside five have been raised up using foam tape.  The butterfly was cut out of the actual packaging for the kit, I drew in the antenna using a fineliner Promarker and added to the card using 3D glue to allow the wings to be free.  Trails added just with adhesive faux pearls.

 

The inside of the card has to be just as pretty.  I used the cut off from the backing card as the base and attached using double-sided tape, then printed a personalised poem which was matted and layered on some contrasting card and added to the centre again using foam tape. 

The butterfly is a small mini topper just added again using foam tape.  Its worth noting that all the toppers that I used were pre-foiled in silver but as all the sentiments that I had were gold, so trimmed this off and re-matted, don't be scared to to that.  Faux adhesive pearls added to finish.

 

The finished card is an 8x8 Hunkydory white card blank.  I used Gold Mirri Card and blue Centura Pearl from the darks collection as matts.  The very lovely card stock was A4 size, which I cut to fit maybe 7 1/4 and this allowed the lovely cut off to be used in the inside. 

I split this into 9 equal squares and put back together the four under the main topper attached with double-sided tape.  the rose on the backing card has been accented using 3D glaze.  It added very lovely and life like dew drops. 

The heart is wood and coloured using a matching colour of Promarker "rose pink" then attached withe the 3D glue.  Topper attached using foam tape, little dew drops & faux pearls added.

 

Happy Crafting guys,

 

Amanda xxx



Mum Birthday Card 1 - Fairyopolis from Crafters Companion

Good Morning

Day 2 of being a very good blogger and sharing my daily dose of crafty inspiration. 

I have finally gotten around to looking at some of my kits that I have.  I have so so many Hunkydory, Dawn Bibby & Crafters Companion kits that I could sell them, honestly!!  I finally took the opportunity to tidy the craft room and sort everything out, I had just been piling it all up and hadn't realised what I actually had.  No more crafty purchases for Amanda at least until next Christmas!!

Anyway, what a good chance to start using them all up, start afresh in 2013 & learn to actually use the products I have at my fingertips.

First thing for this year was birthday cards for my Mum from all the family, so this is the first one -

This just shows the flowers & butterfly popping off the card rather than being stuck down flat.  It also shows the decoupage very clearly.  This is amazing quality and popped out brilliantly.  I used 3D glue gel to attach to the card.

 

This just shows the inside of the card.  This kit actually comes with 6x6 card blanks but as I wanted an 8x8 card, so I simply cut the 6x6 down the centre using half on the front & half here in the centre.  Matted on Gold Mirri Card and a personalised poem added.  The sentiment has been Matted on Gold Mirri also and attached using foam tape.

 

The finished card.  The card blank is Kraft card adding to the natural feel I think?  I used a piece of purple Centura Card matted on Gold Mirri as the background, then just added the card stickers, decoupage, rub-ons, flowers & gems all from the kit.  Having every single thing to hand all co-ordinating, makes it so easy to pop the cards together.

Also shows that you can make bigger cards aswell.

 

This is by far my most favourite card that I have made, I loved using this kit and will definitely be making more, smaller ones though.

 

Well get your kits out crafters and lest see if we can be thrifty and use the products that we already have before we start to buy more.  I know if you are like me and most crafters are, its gonna be tough!!

 

Happy Crafting

 

Amanda xx

The swaps received from my crafty friends.

Hello Blogging Friends

It has been a long time since I have had the time to actually sit down & craft let alone blog, but, I am back!! yip that's right, back to part time hours at my place of employment and so more time for crafting, meaning more time for blogging. 

I have missed it, people who do not craft do not realise the release that you get, the calming effect that it has and the health benefits that can be achieved.  I am always much happier and much more relaxed when I have the time to make things.

As you know i am part of a swap group, only a recent member but at the end of last month I received my second batch of swaps and they are just awesome.

The ATC theme was "Art Deco" -

Christine Stuart

 

Ina Wilkinson

 

The theme for this months postcards was "Christmas", perfect for this time of year as we all had our Christmas stash out anyway -

Abbie Kay

 

Ina Wilkinson

 And finally, the tags were fab, the theme was "the sky is the limit"

 



Pauline Jackson

 

Katrina Polson

 

I loved my swaps.  Its one very talented bunch of ladies at http://www.crazicards.co.uk/

 

Keep visiting the blog for regular crafty updates, I promise to be keeping it up to date and showing my most recent crafty projects.  Remember all comments are very much appreciated.

 

Happy Crafting

 

Amanda xxx