A Bit of DIY

Do you fancy doing a bit of DIY? Well not real DIY silly, crafty DIY of course. Our challenge at Cupcake Craft Challenges this week is Make Your Own Backing Paper... now isn't that better than fighting with the O/H and getting stuck from head to toe in wall paper!?

My card is very girly this week, I have to admit it's not my usual style but I really love the colours! The little kitty image is a Papermania one I got a while back and didn't use until now. My DIY backing paper and border in the middle of the card are done using an Anna Griffin clear stamp from A Scrap Affair, I used Colorbox Pigment Ink (the colour is Mint I think). I finished off with a cute charm, some pearls and Craftwork Cards card candy.

I'm entering the challenge at:
Penny Black & More @ Allsorts - Happy Birthday
Do You Stack Up - Ribbon
Craft Your Days Away - Buttons or Bows
Stamps & Fun = Creativity - Pearls

This week our sponsor at Cupcake is Simon Says Stamp, who are giving away a $15 gift voucher to spend in the online store! Our monthly sponsor is Polka Doodles who are offering not one but two Simply Sweet CD's for two lucky winners! For all the details, and a chance to see all the wonderful DIY the other DT girls have been getting up to, pop over to the Cupcake Craft Challenge blog!

Shelly x

Colouring On Kraft

Good morning! Before anything I just want to say I was shocked and saddened by the news of Gary Speed's death yesterday, at the age of only 42! For those who don't know, Gary Speed was a footballer, who until yesterday coached the Welsh national team. I'm a Newcastle United fan, and saw Gary play for Newcastle during the 6 years he was at the club, a great player and professional. Very sad indeed.

At Cupcake Craft Challenge today, we have a new challenge chosen by Donna, and a fab one it is too! Colouring On Kraft is the task for this week, something I have NEVER done before, so this was definately a challenge for me! 

For my card I used a cute Lili of the Valley stamp, stamped onto Kraft card from A Scrap Affair. 

There's a 20-40% SALE at A Scrap Affair but be quick it ends today! 

I dug out my old coloured pencils, which haven't seen the light of day for AGES! They're Faber Castell Aquarelle pencils, but I just used then as normal colouring pencils (no water).  I have to say I really enjoyed colouring this, very therapeutic in front of the TV. The sentiment is also Lili of the Valley, the paper is K & Co and the ribbon is from Joanna Sheen. I finished by glittering a Cuttlebug Snowflake (thanks Fluff) and adding a button & twine. I'm entering my card for the challenge at:

Aud Sentiments Challenge Blog - Wintery Holiday Sentiment

Card Makin Mamas - Sentiments

Lili Of The Valley - Anything Goes

This week our sponsor at Cupcake is Craft Emma's Store, who are giving away a £10 gift voucher to spend in the online store! Our monthly sponsor is Crafts U Love who are offering up a super £15 Gift Voucher for November's random winner. For all the details, and a chance to see all the kraft creations the other DT girls have made, pop over to the Cupcake Craft Challenge blog!

Shelly x

Sweet Strawberries

Hi peeps! Just a quick post today... I just thought I'd show off some of my new goodies! I ordered a few things from Joanna Sheen recently, and my little parcel arrived with this gorgeous gingham ribbon! I'm thrilled with it... the colour is so lovely! I think I shall have to order more, in other colours! 

I've gone for a red theme to my card today (it's Remembrance Sunday in the UK) using this gorgeous strawberry image from Crafty Secrets. I got out the old heat gun and put a coat of clear embossing all over the image, I think it helps make it stand out. The lovely green background paper is from A Scrap Affair. Don't forget we have a super challenge on over at A Scrap Affair blog, where we'd like to see your 'recipe' cards... there's some Ranger Perfect Pearls mists up for grabs!

I'm entering my card into the challenge at:
Cute Card Thursday - Reds For Remembrance
Simon Says Stamp - Photo Inspiration (Poppy Field)

Totally Papercrafts - Victorian

Special thoughts for Remembrance Sunday...

Shelly x

A Scrap Affair Recipe Challenge

Good morning! Ah finally my internet connection is back... but STILL NO TELEPHONE!!! It's got me round the bend, and I'm paying for the priviledge of having a service that I DON'T HAVE!!! I've just had the technical guy on, who says the problem is TOO TECHNICAL... how can it be, it's his job!!! Anyway, I now have to wait until Saturday for the even more technical guy to TRY to sort out the problem! Grrrrrrrr!!!

On a happy note (cos I'm still not a happy bunny)... we have a new challenge over at A Scrap Affair Blog! This month we'd like you to create a card/creation with a RECIPE on it, or make a recipe card. Yummy or what! You have one month to take part in this challenge, pop by the Scrap Affair Blog to see all the other DT creations! Just so you know, you MUST use an image that you've coloured yourself, not a ready coloured one, and your creation must be a new one. That's it! The yummy prize is TWO bottle of Ranger Perfect Pearls Mists (these are lovely, I used them on my recent Halloween cards HERE).

My card is an Anniversary card, I've used a gorgeous digi stamp from DigiStamp Boutique called Cute Love Birds, coloured with Promarkers/Flexmarkers. The pretty paper is from my friend Dianascarlett, it's available in her online shop A Scrap Affair, along with lots of other yummy goodies!!! I made up the little 'recipe' and typed it on the PC. I've added flowers, sparkles and pearls for a romantic look! Et voila! I'm entering my card into the monthly challenge at DigiStamp Boutique Blog and also at Creative Card Crew - Fallin For You.

More Halloween but with a bit of a difference...

Ok to be honest I haven't done much crafting at all lately, I've been feeling a bit down lately and out of sorts and just haven't felt creative! However, my lovely friend Dianascarlett sent me some goodies that she sells in her online craft store, A Scrap Affair, and I just had to have a little play! The products are all from the Ranger/Tim Holtz range... so to say I had inky fingers is an understatement lol ;)

Anyway, to get my colourful halloween backgrounds I used Distress Inks (Spiced Marmalade, Dusty Concorde and Black Soot). I applied the ink from the pad directly to my non-stick craft sheet then spritzed the ink with water using a mini mister. I then dipped the card into the ink to get the colourful, patterned background and dried it with my heat gun. On two of the cards I then sprayed Perfect Pearls Mists (Mandarin) to get a lovely sheen (you can best see this on the first photo above).

On the above card I stamped some script (using a Prima clear stamp) on the background and then stamped the Halloween Silhouettes on acetate using Staz On ink. I then outlined the bats & cat using a gold Promarker.

On this card I simply stamped onto the background of Distress Ink & Perfect Pearls Mist with the script and floral flourish stamps and then with the Halloween Silhouette Stamps using Distress Ink (Black Soot).

And my last card was a bit of an experiment... the moon was heat embossed using Distress Powders (Old Paper), the cat is from the stamp set, but the rest of the images were hand drawn using a black permanent pen... not too bad I think?

I'm entering my cards into the following challenges...

I love Promarkers - Autumnal Colours - Golds, Oranges, Greys (that's the weather)

Simon Says Stamp - Halloween/Goth

Well, if you fancy treating yourself to some of these goodies, don't forget to pop by A Scrap Affair Store... it's packed full of lovely crafty treasures!

Thanks for visiting me today!!!

Do You Want to be in a Fab Design Team?

Hi! I just wanted to let you know about a Design Team Call that Nadia from A Scrap Affair Blog is running at the moment, here's what she has to say:

We want YOU!

If you speak english, and would like to join my DT, It would be a dream for me to have you.

You'll have to do 1 card a month + 1 or 2 tutorials of your choice in 6 months.I will send you whatever I can, from my little start up store. 10% if you purchase scrap items from my store, and an honor to be a designer.

To qualify, please post 2 links to 2 cards, one could be an old one (maybe your favorite!) And one made specially for this post.

I will accept cards of any kind, BUT! It would have to be colored images. ( Penny Black, House Mouse, Whiff of Joy, Magnolia, Kraftin Kimmie, etc....)

You will have until November 16 to post your work, then I will choose 3 persons, which coloring job will impress me, and I will announce winners for our new Design Team members on November the 20th.

Good luck to everyone!

Your entries need to be posted on a Scrap Affair Blog - Click on the WE WANT YOU link... Good Luck!

Mid Summer Sale at A Scrap Affair

Hi there, just wanted to let you know about this...

Save 10 % on any orders

through July 24th.

All brands and products!

Enter coupon code "NAXIH1311803"

while ordering at http://www.scrapaffair.com/

Nappies and Four Legged & Furry

Funny thing happened yesterday, we (my dear o/h and me) were babysitting for our friends little baby girl, who I have to say is a real little treasure and as good as gold. Anyway, cut a long story short my o/h put the nappy on and said "there's no things at the side to attach it" so I told him maybe he'd put it on the wrong way... "no no" he replied... "the teddy is at the front"... so I looked at the nappy, yeah the teddy was at the front, but it was the back of his head... the front of his head was under the baby's bottom, at the back... so I was right, he had the nappy the wrong way around! Duh! Maybe I should buy a doll for him to practise on lol?!

Well, today at Cupcake Craft Challenges we're celebrating our 150th challenge so we've decided to let you Choose your Favourite Challenge from the last 150! The challenges have all been compiled on the Cupcake blog, so you have a look HERE! I've chosen Challenge #64 Four Legged & Furry for my card... I do love me little animals! There's a fab prize of a £10 Gift Voucher from Lili of the Valley up for grabs, and the monthly Icing on the Cupcake sponsor is Polka Doodles, who are also offering a fab prize of some stamps! Pop over to the Cupcake blog to check out the challenges and all the other fabby DT creations!

My card details:

Horse Image - L'Escargot Friends Stamp, A Scrap Affair

Colouring - Promarkers

Papers - Basic Grey

Sentiment - Stampin Up

Flowers - Nellie Snellen Punches, Craftwork Cards Card Candy

Ribbon, Charm from stash

Well that's it for today! Have a fab week!

Puppy Dog Best Friend

Another card... the third in a week! I'm on a roll, although I don't expect the mojo to last, we'll see.

I was given some paper and stamps a while back from the lovely Nadia from A Scrap Affair Online Store, and I finally got around to using them! The stamps (boy & puppy dog) are from Prima, available from A Scrap Affair, also the yellow & kraft paper are also available from the store. A Scrap Affair is based in the United States, but they ship worldwide and have so many lovely products to choose from, including some really gorgeous papers! There's also a monthly challenge at A Scrap Affair Blog, which not a lot of people know about (so more chance to win the fabby prize)... the current challenge is Apertures (see my previous post)! We'll be starting another new challenge the last week in July! The blog also has some tutorials on it, so maybe they could help to inspire you?

Ok, here's a little close up of the image, I'm more of a cat person but this little puppy is just too cute!

I'm going to enter my card into the challenge at Passion For Promarkers - Tie a Yellow Ribbon.

Well, I hope you all have a fab weekend... the weather here doesn't look promising :(

Aperture Challenge at A Scrap Affair

Hi! Just to say that there's a new challenge over at A Scrap Affair Blog! This time we'd like to see APERTURES on your cards! I have to admit it's not a technique I use often, but I enjoyed making this card all the same. The image is a new L'escargot stamp soon to be available from the online shop A Scrap Affair, which I coloured with Promarkers. The little shells at the bottom were hand drawn, and the border was done using my Martha Stewart Punch Around The Page punches. There's a super prize up for grabs so why not have a go at making your own aperture card!?

Well, that's all for tonight, I'll be back tomorrow with my Cupcake DT creation! Have a lovely evening!

A Scrap Affair Challenge - Pink & Brown

A quick post to let you know about a new challenge at A Scrap Affair... we'd like to see your Pink & Brown creations! There's a yummy prize up for grabs for one lucky random winner; you have until April11th to join in!

For my card I've used one of Rita's Chuck the Rat images from A Scrap Affair (kindly sent to me by Nadia - thank you), coloured with Promarkers. The yummy gingham papers are from The Creative Cottage, you can get them FREE (but be very quick) from The Creative Cottage Blog! The little sentiment is from Cuddly Buddly! I'm entering my card into the following challenges:

Crafts & Me - Anything Goes

The Paper Variety - Tic Tac Toe (stamped image/sentiment, make a card, use scallops)

Please pop over to the Scrap Affair Blog to see all the lovely DT creations and get more information. There's also a picture of the yummy prize up for grabs!

Calming Green & Blue

Hello peeps! Well, it's cold here... perfect for crafting & blogging! I will definately be getting cosy in my craft room later! It's too cold for anything else!

I just wanted to share this little card which I made... I've used my fave colours, so calming... that's maybe why my last three cards are green!? The little fisherman is a clear stamp from Prima... I was kindly sent it by my friend Dianascarlett... thank you so much! I've coloured him with Distress Inks... it's been ages since I used these! I love the wash effect we can achieve with these! The papers are old ones from Papermania. You can buy the stamp and Distress Inks in 'A Scrap Affair' Online Store as well as lots of other lovely crafty goodies!

I'm entering this card for the challenge at:

Simon Says Stamp - Happy Birthday

Colour Create - Greens/Olive Green, Brown, Cream, Black

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Slugs, Snails & Puppy Dogs Tails

Well, hope you have a lovely weekend... especially those visiting the craft event in Harrogate this weekend (I am so jealous)!

A Scrap Affair Now Open & Candy!

Hi peeps! Just a quick post to let you all know that the store is open at 'A Scrap Affair' and there's some yummy candy up for grabs! It's based in the US but they ship to anywhere in the world so why not take a peek?! Click on the link HERE to take you to the store's blog and the chance to win some scrummy candy (including some Copics, Martha Stewart punch...)!

I've made my card using a 'Chuck the Rat' stamp from the store (mine's a digi but they'll be available in rubber from the store). The flowers are done using my Nellie Snellen punches and the centres are Card Candy from Craftwork Cards. The little sentiment is a Lili of the Valley one! I've added a few gems and some fibres to finish!

I'm entering the challenge at:

Stamp Something - March digi day

Simon Says Stamp - Recipe... 1 image, 2 papers & 3 embellishments (flowers, fibres, gems)

OK that's it for tonight, I'm gonna make a card now as I've neglected my new LOTV stamps for too long now! So it's takeaway pizza me thinks tonight! Have a lovely evening ;)

A Scrap Affair

Hi all! Well, I have to say I have been MIA a little lately, I went away for a long weekend break (retail therapy in the UK) with hubby but ended up being really sick, I'm not sure if it was food poisoning or a nasty bug but it had to be something bad to stop me shopping!!! I think hubby was secretly pleased I had no interest in going out and spending money! I actually passed out on the ferry coming back to France, and all those lovely perfumes were waiting for me to go and visit them :( Oh well, I'll have to organise another trip to make up for that one!

I just thought I'd tell you about a new online craft store that's due to open very soon... it's called A Scrap Affair! Nadia, who is setting up the store, asked me if I'd be on her Design Team and I was happy to agree so here's one of my first cards done with one of the images that will be available at The Scrap Affair Store. This little fella is from the 'Friends & Chuck the Rat' series! He's coloured with Promarkers... just one point... I'm using genuine Epson ink in my printer as this is a digi image, and I've found that the Epson ink bleeds when using Promarkers no matter how long I leave it to dry... anyone got any ideas how to fix this, apart from changing ink? The papers are from Stampin' Up.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges...

Aud Sentiments... Trendy Sayings

Colour Create... Fruits (orange, passion fruit, water melon)

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge... SOS (Someone Special... For my friend who sent me a lovely surprise this week)

Well, hubby is watching the rugby, England vs France... so World War 3 might break out soon if we win (come on England)!