pink baby hAnglar & stAnglar

Just love the fact that I can now buy some hAnglar stamps, I've been wanting some of these for a very long time!

This week's recipe at Crafts 4 Eternity is:

The sketch

Nursery theme or image

Add a charm

I'm also entering this into the following challenges:

'X is for Xtra Dimension': ABC Challenge.

'Circles, Paint & Gems: If The Shoe Fits.

'Nice & Girly': Bunny Zoe Crafts.

Papers: Basic Grey ~ Green At Heart Just love the gorgeous colours in this set of BG papers.

Image and baby sentiment: hAnglar stAnglar ~ baby set. I coloured the image with copics and added some stickles to the white bits.

I stamped the sentiment onto the pink paper before embossing with UTEE and then placed a Tim Holtz ~ Ornate Plate over the top. The aperture was just the right size for the baby stamp. I dabbed some white paint randomly on the plate and it now looks like the raised parts are shiny. Pure fluke on my part!!

I've added a bit of lace on the right hand side and hand sewed on the buttons. (How comes I can happily do this on cards but don't want to resew buttons onto shirts??)

On the left I've used a Martha Stewart punch.

I created the hinge from my Sizzix Tim Holtz Hardware Findings die which I ran through my Big Shot Pro. Just LOVE my new machine! Added some crackle paints and gem brads.

Thank you for your visit.

Keeley

PS Looking forward to the 30 degree weekend!! Wooohooo!!!

happy father's day

It's time for another challenge over at Crafts 4 Eternity, where we have:

The Sketch

Plus: use a sport image/theme and add an arrow.

I am also entering this into the following challenges:

• 'dad's treat': Double Dutch.
• 'one for the boys': Cupcake Craft Challenge and Creative Inspirations.

Whenever I make a man's card I always want to distress it, but none of the men I make cards for like distressing!! They like nice smooth lines. I can never quite get me head round this! So that fact, together with the fact that it was a sport theme and I was under a bit of pressure last night to make a father's day card to send off today, managed to kill my mojo stone dead. So what follows is a very rushed card which to me I don't like for three reasons.

The three things I don't like are the UK flag paper, the white border strip and the fact that my little sticker letters didn't have a single apostrophe in the set and I am finding that the most hardest to live with! LOL!

The Lili of the Valley image is cute though.

And it was quick to make.

And I used up some of my scraps.

Thank you for looking.

keeley

precious memories

I was delighted to be asked by Robin to be guest designer this week at the Creative Belli Challenge Blog.

The Belli challenge encourages us to use our OLD and FORGOTTEN embellishments, of which I have one or two!

The theme this week is rub-ons so I had a rummage through my rub-on box and came up with some very old Fancy Pants rub-ons. I then went searching for the paper I had that matched, of which I found two sheets, but I guess that is all that is needed.

There are five rub-ons on my card. Can you spot where?

I used the sketch over at Lili of the Valley this week.

Papers: Fancy Pants ~ Aged Florals. I just love the gorgeous colours of these.

My first rub-on is the big orange one in the centre behind the image.

I rubbed it onto a piece of plain white card, then distressed and inked the edges. The rub-on is from the Fancy Pants ~ Chalked collection and just the perfect colour for this.

Image: Lili of the Valley ~ Little Girl's Swing Time, coloured with copics. I swapped some string for the ropes in the stamp.

The remaining four run-ons are from the Fancy Pants ~ Aged Florals collection. I rubbed two distressed looking flower rub-ons onto the two buttons holding up the swing.

The pink roses in the top left panel which you can just see in the photo above (top left) is another rub-on.

Finally, the fifth rub-on is the sentiment.

I used a Tim Holtz metal corner, rubbing in some red paint and wiping off the excess.

Thank you for looking.

Keeley

pretty in pink

Today I am entering into the following challenges:

• 'floral delights': A Spoon Full of Sugar;
• 'all that blooms': Tuesday Taggers;
• 'lace &/or buttons': Allsorts Challenge;
• 'birds/wings': Lots To Do;
• 'paint, chipboard & lace': Let's Get Shabby;
• 'wings': Gingersnap Creations;
• 'something old, something new': By the Cute & Girly (I've used my old papers and new dies.)

This is the first time that I'm using my new Sizzix Tim Holtz dies and I chose my two most favourite ones to make this little book. If you click the photos you might be able to see a bit better.

Papers: Doodlebug. I've had these papers forever but I haven't used paper for ages as I tend to use cardstock most of the time, but these papers are just perfect for these little books.

I used the Sizzix Tim Holtz: On the Edge ~ Scallop die for the right hand edges. The dies are only 5.5 inches long and my book is 6.5 inches, but it was easy enough to extend the punched edges.

For the birdcage I used the Sizzix Tim Holtz: Bigz Die ~ Birdcage and cut it out of grungepaper. I then painted it with acrylic paint, let it dry, spritzed it with glimmer mist, let it dry and then added crackle accents.

I cut the bird out of chipboard and painted the main body with crackle paint. For the wing, I used acrylic paint which I then covered with crackle accents.

I attached a lock to a piece of lace at the bottom of the bird cage and you'll find the key nestling in the lace attached to the O-wire.

Well I made this yesterday and today so far have achieved absolutely nothing crafty except to shuffle bits of paper about.

Thank you for looking.

Keeley 

sizzix and tim holtz naughtiness!

It's confession time ... I've been very naughty ....

Let me set the scene.

A few months back when all the new Tim Holtz dies started to come out, I thought, oooh I need some of those! However, I didn't have a machine to use them on :-(

So then I went off and did some research as to which one I should buy. That is when I discovered that there was a new machine coming out called the Big Shot Pro. So I decided to wait very patiently until that one came out. Yes, I was very patient. I did buy one TH die to stroke whilst I was waiting though!

Finally, my machine arrived this week, but I only got the chance to play with it properly last night.

I was quite staggered by the size of it. It is HUGE! 16 x 24 inches (without the handle) and it weighs a TON. But I LOVE it!! When I had opened the box I just stood there looking at it as I couldn't believe how big it was. My other half took one look at it and said, "that's staying in your craft room, I don't want to see it anywhere else". Honestly! How could he read my mind, as I was thinking if I shoved the sewing machine over I could fit this onto the kitchen table too!! LOL!

The reason why I chose this particular machine is because you can use almost any die from any other machine that's ever been made. That would be great if I had any other dies, but I don't, but that's only because I never had a machine that I could use them in before. Now I do! So, now I can go and buy them! I hope you are understanding my logic here.

I've now had a chance to play and it is so easy to use. It comes with the following bits:

• A metal sliding tray (very heavy)
• An adapter pad (which has diagrams on it so you can see how to make up the different layers for the different dies you are using)
• A cutting mat
• A premium crease pad (it will not only cut out your box shape, it will put the creases in too, in the places when you need to bend the shape to make the box ... wicked!)
• Two mylar shims
• A pick for digging the debris out of the dies

The handle (which you have to attach yourself) is sooo easy to turn, it's just fab!

The cutting mat is 12.25 x 14.25 inches, so you can easily fit your 12" x 12" paper in there, just what it was designed for.

Some extra large dies have also been created for it which won't fit into any other machines. I have my eye on a few!

Oh, and my Tim Holtz naughtiness?

These ...

and these ...

and these ...

All of the dies that I bought fit very nicely into the storage compartment in the base of the Big Shot Pro. You can stack them two high and the slidey tray still moves across nicely so you can still use the machine without any interference from the bits you've stored underneath.

In my next post, I'll show you what I've been making with my two most favourite dies. Can you guess which ones they are?

Thank you for looking.

keeley

tea party

Hi All, I am here again today with this week's card for Crafts 4 Eternity.

The recipe is:

The sketch.

Include some strawberries.

Add lace.

I am also entering this into the following challenges:

• 'dots': Stampavie & More. I have dots on the background paper and on the dinner service in the image.
• 'child's play': Crafty Creations.

As always, click the pics, to see them better.

Papers: Magnolia ~ Lazy Summer Days.

Image: Lili of the Valley ~ Tea Party coloured with copics. Just love this new set of LOTV stamps.

Once again, sorry that I haven't been around to visit you all lately. I've been working flat out these last few months, but the last few weeks have been particularly stressful, surviving on five hours sleep a night and more or less working from the minute I wake up, until the minute my head hits the pillow. I now have three whole days off and am very much looking forward to it. Hoping to get a bit of crafting in, in between sorting out the house which is a tip (actually don't hold me to that one!), catching up with some of my lovely blog friends again and looking at all your wonderful creations and BIG hopefully fitting in a few BBQ's if the sun decides to come to stay and also even if it doesn't! In the meantime thank you for all the lovely comments you have left for me, I do appreciate and read each and every one of them. Oh and a few people have asked me about my ipad, which I'm loving, but haven't had huge amounts of time to play with it since I got it, I've used it for work more than play, but it is already a permanent feature of my life. I will write more about it when I find a few crafty applications for it. Now I just need 8 hours solid sleep and I might start to feel (and look) human again.

Thanks for looking.

Keeley

the best is yet to come

This is my entry for this week's challenge at Crafts 4 Eternity. Here is the recipe:

The sketch.

Include some flowers.

Add a flourish.

I am also entering this into:

Paper Play Challenges where the theme is flowers and sparkle.

Papers: Webster's Pages ~ Magical Wishes mixed with a doily.

Image: Mo Manning ~ Mummu, coloured with copics and I added some sparkle.

The flourish was a piece of Tim Holtz pre-cut grungeboard which I painted and then added some stickles to it.

Thank you for looking!

keeley