Inspiration Challenge and Happy Thanksgiving

Today is Inspiration and Themes Challenge day on ILWS. For this week's challenge I've chosen a seasonal and topical for some of us in the UK - Snow!

For this card I wanted to create the homespun look that I love so much - red, white, kraft, gingham and stitching definitely achieves this rustic, homely style I think.




I embossed the snowflakes from SU's Best Wishes and More set onto kraft paper and sponged the edges with white pigment ink, then sewed it onto the real red card base. ( I have finally got my grandmother's sewing machine working again - yay! I love it, it's a pale blue 1960s Singer, not the most advanced machine ever but does the basics. My grandmother was the most amazing seamstress and I love that I'm now using her machine for my own craft work, she's not with us any more but I know she would have loved that. I also love it because it is truly vintage and y'know I adore anything vintage, especially when it's the real mackoy! It fits in perfectly with the vintage style of my craft room - thanks Nana!)

Back to the card :) The tag stamp is from SU's Perfect Presents set and punched out with the tag punch. The tags are 'hung' on gingham ribbon to look like a banner. I tied more gingham bows inbetween the tags, added those uber-cute red heart buttons that were tied with linen thread.

Thought I'd post these wooden heart decorations too - these are for a craft fair I'm doing next weekend. Again I wanted to make something in a folk art/homespun style, so again I went for red and white (yes it is one of my all time favourite colour combos!)


I painted some plain wooden hearts with red acrylic paint, stamped a polka dot backgrounder with white acrylic paint, sanded the edges and added a tin folk heart and bead onto the linen thread. I really like these and might keep a couple for my tree!

And finally! I want to wish a VERY happy Thanksgiving to all my Americal blogging friends and also to all those living in America. I hope you have a wonderful time with your family and friends.

Thanks for stopping by!

Recipe:

Card-
Stamps - Perfect Presents/Best Wishes and More (both SU)
Ink - White pigment(Adirondack)/Real Red (SU)
Card - Kraft/Real Red/Whisper White
Other - clear e.p/gingham ribbon/red heart buttons, linen thread(SU)/tag punch(SU)/sewing machine

Ornaments-
Wooden Hearts (Panduro Hobby)/red and white acrylic paints/polka dot backgrounder/tin folk hearts/red beads/linen thread/sand paper

Artygirlz challenge

The Artygirlz challenge this week is to use a quote or verse . I used the motivational centers from Cornish Heritage Farms - I love this quote.
Aqua Mist (Papertrey) is one of my favourite colours. I ADORE anything turquoise or aqua - especially clothes ;) !
I used my new curved dies from Spellbinders (which I love!) and paper pierced around the card. The swirl is grungeboard that I coloured with Copics, added a flower, a button and pearls.

Have a great week everyone!

Recipe
Stamps - Motivational Centerts (Cornish Heritage Farms)
Ink - Versafine
Paper/Card - Very Vanilla (SU)/Aqua Mist(Papertrey)/DP (Rusty Pickle)
Other - curved rectangle dies, cuttlebug, grungeboard, Copic, Aqua Mist ribbon (Papertrey)/flower/adhesive pearls, crafters tool kit/button/embroidery floss/border punch

Garden birthday

This is a card I made for a friend to give to her mum - she's a passionate gardener so I thought this Whipper Snapper stamp would suit. She wanted the colour scheme to be blue, green and gold. I'm glad to say she liked it :)

The image was coloured with Copics and cut out using nestabilites. The sentiment is from SU's Circle of Friendship set. I used my Making Memories slot punch tool for the slot to thread the ribbon through.

Thanks for stopping by, hope everyone has a great weekend!

Recipe
Stamps - Garden pots (Whipper Snapper)/Circle of friendship (SU)
Ink - Memento
Paper/Card - Bazzill/Tea and crumpets DSP (SU)
Other - Copics/nestabilities/cuttlebug/ticket corner punch/photo corner punch,slot punch tool, gold gel pen, gold brads, gold organza ribbon

An award

The very talented Carole has given me this award! Thanks so much Carole!!

Rules of this award are:-

• The winner can put the logo on their blog.
• Link it to the person who gave it to them.
• Nominate at least 7 more blogs
• Put the links of the blogs on your blog
• Leave a message on the blogs you have nominated

The blogs I would like to pass this award onto are

-Bekka

-Joanne

-Jenny

-Dawn

-Becky

-Cathy

-Julie

I hope you get to check out their blogs - all very talented and inspirational!

Only punches

Just a quick post from me this morning... this is for the current Ink and Rubber challenge which is to use SU punches. I went seriously punchy with this card! I used every size of SU circle punch!

Decreasing the circles as I built up the tree, the 'star' on top is from the Boho Blossoms punch. Also used the scallop edged punch for the strip below the Certainly Celery ribbon and the corner rounder punch to round (duh!) the top corners of the card.

Colours are Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Certainly Celery and Real Red.

Have a great day!

Pocket Silhouette colour challenge

This was made a few week's ago for the Splitcoast colour challenge , just never got around to posting it! The colours were ruby red, old olive and pretty and pink - I love them together!

Straight-forward really - I used the Pocket Silhouettes set from Stampin Up in the challenge colours, cut the image with circle nesties and mounted with dimensionals. The squares were also cut using nesties (what would we do without them?!) - the pink paper is from the Tea and Crumpets paper collection from SU. Those cute felt flowers are also from the current SU catalogue; I added silver brad to the centre of each.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope everyone has a great week!

Recipe:
Stamps - Pocket Silhouettes (SU)
Ink - Ruby Red/Old Olive/Pretty in Pink (All SU)
Paper/Card - Ruby Red/Old Olive/Whisper White/Tea and Crumpets DSP (All SU)
Other - Circle and square nestabilities/cuttlebug/Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon (SU)/Felt flowers (SU)/silver brads/dimensionals

An award!

Wow, Alexandria has just given me this award - thank you so much! Alexandria is one of my fellow sisters of the Blogging Sisterhood, it's fun to meet new bloggers from around the world! She has a great blog, be sure to check it out!


The rules for the Kreativ Blogger Award are:
1. The winner may put the logo on their blog.
2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to their blogs.
5. Leave a message for your nominees.

So I'm going to pass this onto 5 lovely ladies who's work always inspire me:

Sue - http://ozzigirl.blogspot.com/
Jo - http://stampin-n-stuff.blogspot.com/
Linda - http://purelystamping.blogspot.com/
Michelle - http://wifeyscraftingcreations.blogspot.com/
Ikki - http://ikkiscorner.blogspot.com/

I hope to be back tomorrow with something to show!

Armistice Day Tag

Every year I try to get to a Rememberance Sunday service - this year I went to the one in our village where the names of the local men who died fighting in both World Wards are read out and small crosses are laid in memory of each one. Then yesterday I made time to watch the Armistice service from Whitehall in London as I knew it was going to be a special event.

Overseas visitors may not know that there are only 3 surviving men (aged 112, 110 and 108) from the First World War in Europe, they all happen to be British and also happen to represent each of the three forces. These incredible men were the focal part of the ceremony - at 11am, just before the observed silence, they were pushed in their wheelchairs to the War Memorial in Whitehall, each carrying a wreath to be laid. Harry Allingham at an incredible 112 years old is the only surviving soldier who fought in the trenches. Incredibly frail, he still insisited in laying his wreath. It was incredibly moving.

The ArtyGilrz challenge this week is to take inspiration from another blog for your project. I recently read my dear friend Susie's post using the bandana technique and wanted to try it. The service then inspired me to create a Rememberance Day themed project, I think it is so important to remember all those who have given their lives in conflict and also all those who serve for their country.

The bandana technique is simple and fun, the key ingredient being a white gel pen. I used Papertrey Ink's Remember set for the images and sentiment. The poppy head is cut out and mounted with dimensionals then dotted with black diamond stickles in the centre.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are inspired to create something today.

Recipe
Stamps - Remember (Papertrey Ink)
Ink - Pretty in Pink/Real Red/Bravo Burgundy/Basic Black (All SU)
Other - tag/ white gel pen/fibres (Basic Grey)/blending tool (ranger)

Punched medallion

I always seem to post my challenge cards a week late... oh well! This was for last Monday's Try a New Technique challenge over on Splitcoast - I fell in love with these medallions and had to play!

I actually made a boo-boo on mine - can you spot it? Yep, it's meant to have 8 sections to the medallion, not 7. I wanted to use the second largest nestability instead of the large one that Bekka used in her tutorial but of course since it's smaller you can't get 8 'pieces of pie' from it - duh, yes maths was my worst subject in school!!

Anyway, I didn't want to start again so I just used the wide part as the bottom of the medallion and placed the ribbon down the centre which kinda looks like it was always meant to be that way! Next time though I'll follow instructions!




It's fun to make and I think makes for a very striking centrepiece for a card. The pattern is made by punching with a corner punch - I used the heart one as in the tutorial but different punches make for completely different looking medallions.

Thanks for stopping by!

Recipe
Stamps - Best wishes and more (SU)
Card/Paper - Figgy Pudding (Basic Grey)/Chocolate Chip (SU)/Very Vanilla (SU)
Ink - Cranberry (Adirondack)
Other - adhesive pearls/photo corner punch/EK Sucess corner punch/Brad (Making Memories)/embroidery floss (Bazill)/ circle nestabilities/ cuttlebug

Holiday Treasures Tree

Morning everyone and happy Saturday! I'm looking forward to relaxing weekend (I hope!), aiming to get some crafting in today before I sit down to my Saturday evening treat of a huge bowl of ice-cream and Strictly Come Dancing hee hee! I'll admit it I'm addicted! I wonder if John will stay another week?!

Today's post uses the yummy Holiday Treasures DP from Stampin Up. I've been wanting to make one of these trees for ages - instructions here. I love how it turned out - really simple to make. It's just lots of strips of paper folded over and pinned into a polysterene cone. If you can't find one in your local craft store Panduro Hobby sell them. The trunk is just a wooden stick pushed into a polysterene ball which sits snugly in the terracotta pot.

I used normal headed pins for most of the tree because they can't be seen under the layers, but for the top layer I uses pearl headed pins and adhered 3 red bows for a finishing touch.



This would make a lovely gift this Christmas - if I have time I'm going to make a few to decorate the house, think about all the different colour trees you could make!

The card is simple simple and would be great for mass producing -tree stamped from the Perfect Presents set stamped in ruby red, same Holiday Treasures dp and a bit of bling to finish it off.



I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Recipe
Tree:
Holiday Treasures designer paper (SU)/pins and pearl headed pins/red bows/real red ribbon (SU), polysterene ball and cone, terracotta pot.

Card:
Stamps - Perfect Presents (SU) Ink - Ruby Red (SU)
Card/paper - Very Vanilla/Chocolate Chip/Holiday Treasures DP (all SU)
Other - Chocolate Chip ribbon (SU), rhinestone brad (Making Memories) corner rounder punch (SU)

Thankyou birdie

Morning! Well I'm already feeling a bit tired! I got up at 4.30am to watch the American election, a crafting blog isn't the place to get political tho I guess... Still, no matter which party got their backing it was so wonderful to hear how many people in the US turned out to vote.

Who's got plans for bonfire night?! I love getting wrapped up and going to ooh and aaah at the firework displays!

OK, onto the card - this is for last week's SCS colour challenge (CC190). Old Olive, Pixie Pink and Pumpkin Pie! Have to admit I wasn't sure about it when I first saw it but now I just love it - so zingy!

The stamp set is Best Wishes and More from Stampin Up. The flowers, leaves and bird were stamped, cut out and mounted with dimensionals. The middle of the flowers and the birdie's wing were also stamped in a different colour, cut out and mounted.

The background is embossed with my favourite Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder - the strip of ribbon covers the join.

Thanks for stopping by, have a fun and safe bonfire night!

Kate

Recipe
Stamps - Best Wishes and More/Wonderful Words (both Stampin Up)
Ink - Pumpkin Pie/Old Olive/Pixie Pink/Whisper White (all SU)
Paper/Card - Pumpkin Pie/Old Olive/Pixie Pink/Whisper White (all SU)
Other - Pumpkin Pie ribbon (SU)/cuttlebug/swiss dots embossing folder/dimensionals

Dahlia fold

I tried my hand at some Dahlia flowers this weekend, ending up with this card and gift box!! Fun! Click here for a good tutorial. The double sided designer papers from Stampin Up are perfect for this as both side of your paper will show when making the petals.



Thanks for stopping by! Kate x

Recipe:
Stamps - sentiment from One of a Kind (Stampin Up)
Paper/Card - Chocolate Chip/Regal Rose/Whisper White/Sweet Always DSP (All Stampin Up!)
Other - Hodgepodge Hardward (SU)/adhesive pearls/scallop border punch (SU)/chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon (SU)/cuttlebug/cuttlebug embossing folder

Children in Need appeal

Morning everyone! Thanks for the support for the GOSH appeal - keep it coming!! One of my online friends, Bekka, also has a wonderful appeal going on at the moment. Please head on over to her blog and support her in her fundraising efforts for Children in Need - lots of fun things to join in with!

Kate x

Great Ormond Street Hospital card appeal

One of the reasons why I think we love to craft is, not just for the pleasure we get from doing it, but also from the pleasure of giving something handmade to someone.

As we come up to Christmas it's nice to think not only about our nearest and dearest that we are going to create for but also about those who may not be able to give a card to someone because they are in hospital, are sick, in the forces abroad or do not have the means.

I'm setting up a scheme that I hope might grow and I'd love it if you could join me!

This Christmas I'm arranging to have cards made to send to the children at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. Many of you will be very familiar with the amazing work the hospital does. Many of the children are in hospital around the festive season but the staff try to make it as special time as possible.

Wouldn't it be lovely for the children to have a special card that they can give to the nurses who help them so much, or to a family member or friend who visits them!

The staff at the hospital would love for us crafters to donate a box of cards (blank on the inside so the children can write it themselves) in the run up to Christmas. The cards will be distributed by the play workers on the relevant wards.

I really hope you can join in - could you find 10 minutes to make a card? It can be really really simple - just something cheerful! Or do you have a spare Christmas card in your stash?

All you have to do is put the card and an envelope in a cello bag if you have one (don't worry if you don't, just pop it in the envelope). Also it would be great if you could write a very brief note wishing the recipient well, hoping they enjoy using the card you've made for them etc. If you don't want to do this/don't have time not to worry. Put the note inside the card and send to me by Dec 5th - plenty of time!

Please ensure the inside of the card has a pale background to be easy to write on.

If you want to help please email me at kate_lewis23@yahoo.co.uk or leave a comment below so I can email you - either way I will send you my postal address.

Thanks so much in advance!

Kate xx