My Final Chrismas Card of the year!

Saturday 29 December 2012

Morning all!

Sketch Saturday had a week off last week and I don't know about you but I really missed it! So I'm pleased it's back this week with another fantastic sketch:




and this is my DT entry. It's the last Christmas card I made in 2012 and I don't know about you but I'm quite pleased next Christmas is a whole year away and that I don't have to think about it for at least 6 months!
I used white kraft ink to stamp the snowflakes over the background and used one of my favourite Christmas stamps as the main image which I blinged up a bit with a generous amount of glitter - yum!

I attached a bell charm dangling from the bow and added a couple of pins to finish off.

So Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year for a few days time and happy crafting everyone!

December 4 Kit Release: 'Reindeer Run'

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas yesterday!

We have a nice festive kit for you this week so you can scrap your Christmas photos:
The Kit Contains:
2.5 x Best Creations patterned paper
2 x coordinating cardstock
Red buttons
Maya Road fibres
Petaloo Jewelled Flowers

I only managed one layout this week but I think it's a good one! I LOVED the bauble paper so made the most of those by cutting around them and tucking my photos underneath. I also made the most of the buttons in the kit by making a border under my photos with them. I used alphabet stickers from my stash for the title.



And here is Kirei's layout - check out her blog for more details on how she made it.

This week's kit is a bargain at just £5.40 and can be purchased here or you can also subscribe on a monthly basis for a better deal!

Happy scrapping and Merry Christmas - may the festivities continue!

Fantastic Ribbons: Wrapping

Monday 24 December 2012

We were given a task of 'Wrapping' for Fantastic Ribbons. I was going to jazz up some presents but thought I'd think outside the box a bit. My lounge centre-piece looked a bit bare and not very Christmassy at all and I've always hated those candlesticks that my mother-in-law bought us for our wedding so figured I could made them a bit prettier with some gorgeous Fantastic Ribbons ribbon:


Much better!

They turned out really well - I started by wrapping the stems with the blue ribbon and tied the ends in place, then added the large silver and gold bow at the top. Because the ribbon is wired it could be teased into any position, hence the perfect bows!



So instead of wrapped presents, I have wrapped candlesticks that I will be proud of every Christmas for may years to come!

Merry Christmas Everyone xxx

Sketch Saturday - Merry Christmas!

Saturday 22 December 2012

There is no sketch this week, us Saturday's have the week off but don't forget that you can still play along with last week's sketch this week too as the challenge runs until Friday 28th December. It is certainly worth playing along as the Stamp Fairy are the sponsors and are offering a prize as well as having a sale on - awesome!

December 3 Kit Release 'Gaby's Gallery'

Wednesday 19 December 2012

This week's kit release is really cool - it features the very popular Amy Tangerine 'Sketchbook' collection by American Crafts which is fun and quirky with some great bright colours, I love it!
The Kit Contains:
3 and a half x 'Sketchook' patterned papers
2 x coordinating cardstock
'Sketchbook' sticker sheets

I used quite a lot of the papers in my first layout - I loved the bright yellow BUT it was a little too bright to use for the whole background so I cut it down to the frame and stuck it on the green dots which really worked well. I also got a bit happy with all the stickers - great fun and so easy!


My second layout is a little less busy but the pattern on the background paper still makes it interesting and I had more fun with my remaining stickers:

This one is Kirei's layout - she's gone for the same background paper as I used in my second layout and has come up with a bright and fun page. Check out her blog for more details on how she made it.

This week's kit costs just £6.85 and can be purchased HERE or you can subscribe in the same place!

Happy scrapping! xxx 

Merry Christmas to my Nana & Grandpa

Saturday 15 December 2012

Somehow I have been sucked into the vicious circle of having to make Christmas cards/Birthday cards for certain people, not only from me but from my little girl Sophie as well. How did this happen? My mother.  'oh haven't you made Dad a birthday card from Sophie? What about Grandad?' And so it begun. Apparently signing a card 'with love from Niki, Ben and Sophie' isn't enough. Sophie has to send a separate card. That would be all well and good if she were capable of making one but given that she is only 19 months old, we are a little way off that. So until the day she comes home from nursery with handmade things, it falls to mummy to make cards for her to give.

So I thought I would put this week's Sketch Saturday sketch to good use and make Sophie's Christmas card to my mum & dad. Here is the, as always, brilliant sketch:

And here is Sophie's card. She didn't have any say in what it was going to look like but she seems to approve of it.  She is less angelic than the angel in the middle though! This image from Stamp Fairy was perfect for this card. Even better was that she is a free image and she can be downloaded HERE! I couldn't believe my luck when I found her!

I had a little trouble with the toner on my printer and whenever I touched the black lines some of the ink came away so it is a little patchy in places unfortunately - the problem got worse when I tried to fussy cut her out (I shouldn't have included a close up really, you probably wouldn't have noticed!) I glittered up her wings as much as possible - am now thinking that I should have glammed up her halo and that little star too, oh well.

and as usual when I don't have the exact right sentiment in my sentiment drawer (yes I have an entire drawer full of sentiment stamps!) I printed one off my PC and voila, I was finished!

This week's Sketch Saturday challenge is sponsored by the fabulous Stamp Fairy and they are offering a yummy prize so pop on over to play along and be in with a chance of winning! If you don't win though, they are having a 50% off sale on all digi stamps from 1st-31st December - great time to grab yourself a Christmas bargain!!

I'm going to enter this one into a few challenges this week:

Charisma Cardz - Christmas Makes
Copic Marker Europe - Christmas Card
Craft Us Crazy - Christmas
Christmas at Sweet Stampin - Anything Goes Christmas
Crafting for all Seasons - Green, Red and sparkle

Thanks for all the fab challenges ladies xxx

May your weekends be full of creativity and crafting xxxx

52 Layouts #28 Daddy Daughter Moments

Friday 14 December 2012

I'm up to the 28th installment of 52 Layouts Step-by-Step now, I hope you are enjoying them!

This week you will need:
2 sheets of patterned paper
1 sheet of cardstock
A couple of journaling cards
Some trims and a border sticker
Some flower or other embellishments
two alphas, one large, one small
a 6x4 landscape photo.

Step 1
Choose a background and ink the edges.

Step 2
Cut a strip of patterned paper to 3.5"x12". Ink the edges then adhere to the right side of the layout.

Step 3
Cut another piece of patterned paper to 8.5x4.5", ink the edges and stick it in the centre but anchored towards the bottom of the layout.

Step 4
Ink the edges of a couple of journaling cards (both 3x4") and stick these to the right side of the layout.

Step 5
Cut another strip of patterned paper to 8.5x1.5 and stick across the bottom of the layout.

Step 6
Wonky mount your 6x4 landscape photo onto cardstock 6.5x4.5" and stick to the layout.

Step 7
Cut a couple of flags for the top right corner, ink the edges and stick them down.

Step 8
Add wide ricrac (or trim of your choice) underneath the photo plus a border sticker but save a little bit of both for the top right corner:

Step 9
Add some flowers to the bottom right corner of the photo

Step 10
Add a title using both large and small alphabet stickers.

and then you are done: finished layout!

I hope you've enjoyed this one and will play along!

Happy scrapping xx

Kit Release

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Morning Scrappers!

This week's kit release features the 'This & That Charming' range by Echo Park - it's a great masculine range but in quite neutral colours so they don't have to be used for male layouts, they could easily do for family and outdoors photos too.

I used the reverse of one of the patterned papers for my background - I have a love for woodgrain! I also made use of several of the journaling cards from one of the other patterned papers too.


I used the bingo numbers as my background for my second layout - I love the way having patterned paper for a background makes the background so much more interesting and you can get away with leaving more negative space whereas if it were just card it would look quite plain and boring!  I wanted to put an emphasis on the word 'hand' in my title so needed a bigger alphabet font and therefore raided my stash for those letters. 


And here is Kirei's layout - have a look at her blog for more info on how she made it.

This kit can be purchased here for £7.35 or you can subscribe to save £££s!

Happy scrapping xx