Friday Freebie - Warm & Cosy

Hi Everybody,

Todays package is from Die Cutting Essentials and it features a fun die and stamp set from Simply Made Crafts

You will find lots of ideas on the back of the package as well as inside the magazine, which makes a really good read for using this set and other projects that you may like to try.

If this is something that you would like to have then all you need  to do is leave me a comment with your FULL NAME

Be sure to come back over the weekend and check if it is your name that is shown as the winner, and then you will have 72 hours in which to claim the prize.

Having said that if you have not entered your full name then you will not be added to the draw, so be sure to leave it and then you might have a new die set to play with.

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

 

Blue Roses

 Hi Everybody,

This is another card that was made a while ago and using Altnew Roses for the design. 

I have water coloured them and used the Simply Dots background embossing folder from Card Making Magic

I very lightly dusted over the embossed panel with grey ink to make the dots stand out a little more, and then roughly torn it along the edges for a shabby chic look.

I have added this panel with foam to the white base card and that adds more interest to the overall design as it creates shadows on the card front.

The flowers have been raised on foam pads for dimension and the black pearls compliment the sentiment which is also from Altenew.

The completed card is 5x7 which is by far my favourite size to make, and the fold is at the top.

On these flowers I added a little bit of liquid glue and allowed it to go tacky. Then I pressed some gold foil into the glue and lifted it carefully.

This left just a light layer of gold leaf on some of the petals and made the flowers look really pretty. And I think it can just be made out if you look hard enough

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

New Home Card

Hi Everybody,

Here is a little card that I made some time ago but has now just been put to good use as I have a friend that has just moved house.

I have stencilled the flowers onto the heart shape with blending brushes and cut it out with the heart shaped die set

This particular card uses the house die set that came free with a magazine and I have added it to an embossed background panel created with the Rose folder from Card Making Magic

Making extra cards and keeping them to one side always pays off in the end,  for those unexpected occasions, or requests for a card that you may get from time to time

I keep mine safe complete with envelopes and then they are ready to send.

They don't always need to have s sentiment on them as you can always add one when the request is made.

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx   

Winner

 Hi Everybody,

I hope you are all well and enjoying the weekend. Can you believe we are at the end of January already and it only seems like a week ago since Christmas. But time waits for no one.

Ruby and I went walking this morning but it started to get very blustery towards the end of it and so it was nice to get back home again to our warm and cozy house. We are all settled  down for the rest of the day now.

I have just been reading my recipe book from Lily.s Kitchen and it is full of ideas for creating tasty nutritious meals for your dog.. And so I have just put together a fish dinner for Ruby and once it is cool and she has tried it I will let you know how it went down. There is nothing in it that I wouldn’t eat and so I have just tried it myself and I have to say it was delicious

The draw for yesterdays offering has also been done and the name today is

Sue Cockerham

Would you email me please with your postal address to

 christina@card-making-magic.com

and I will get it in the post to you straight away. Please let me know that you have it safely and I hope you enjoy playing with your gift.

More tomorrow …

Hugs xx

Friday Freebie - Build A Flower

Hi Everybody,

In todays offering you will get some foam sheets, dies and white stamens to help you build beautiful foam flowers for your projects.

There is also the Die Cutting Essentials magazine to go with it and that is full of ideas and inspirations for you to try, as well as being just a good read.

So if you think you would like to have a go at making some of these flowers then why not enter your comment to be in with the chance.

As long s your comment is accompanied by your FULL NAME then it will be entered into the draw and one name will be chosen at random as the winner.

You will need to come back over the weekend to see if it is your name that is shown as the winner and then you will have 72 hours in which to claim your gift.

I am happy to send this to you wherever you live and I hope you will enjoy it once you get it.
Just add your comment and see if you are the lucky one

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

 

Feathered Lilies

 Hi Everybody,

For todays card I have used the Feathered Lilies and created an inked background for something different.

The card size is the Slimline and the front panel I have coloured with Distress Inks.

I added my two colours, Speckled Egg and Antique Linen,  to a glass mat and spritzed them with water, then added the water coloured card to the puddle.

I repeated this process but dried the card between each layer until I got the look I wanted.

I added splatters to the panel using the same colours as the flowers and background inks, with a little black and white thrown in for good measure

Then I embossed in the Perfect Swirls folder from Card Making Magic

The flowers have ben stamped from the kit and coloured on water colour paper.

Before die cutting them out I have added them to the embossing folder and the extra definition in the card makes such a difference and is well worth doing.

Foam pads have been added to the back for the flowers and black sequins have been dotted around the card front. I used a white gel pen to add spots to the Lilies.

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Altenew Craft Your Life Kit

Hi Everybody,

I had a day off yesterday and did absolutely nothing except walk Ruby on the beach.  She loves going down there and can have a really good run around, but the tide was too far out for us get near the sea, which is no bad thing or she would be in it even if it is so cold.

But I have got some new cards to show you and these are made with the new January Altenew Kit called Feathered Lilies.

I have used the stencil in the kit to colour these  flowers with Altenew Inks.

They have been embossed in the folder, and then die cut and added with foam tape to the card front.

The background has been embossed with the Simply Dots folder from Card Making Magic

It is a very delicate card and could be for any occasion you liked, and the finished result is a 51/2" square 

The sentiments are stamped from Label Love also by Altenew and many of these products I have had in my stash for a very long time.

This card uses the Pallet background stamp from Altenew coupled with the Painted Inspirations stamp 

This time I have stamped the image and then coloured it with the stencil and although it is the same set it looks different with the stamped outline.

Adding the die cut in a different orientation also makes it look different.

These kits are so good and in each one there is a die set, stamps, embossing folder and often multiple stencils for you to colour and layer the images.

Really useful if colouring is not your thing

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

New Craft Room Floor

 Hi Evrybody,

I have done a little video to show you what my craft room looks like now with the changes I have made and I am really pleased with the end results.

Having things like stamps and embossing folders more accessible means they will get used a whole lot more.

Plus I have put items that are the same in one container and labelled it so that I know exactly what is where when I want to use it. 

I have done a lot of clearing out as well and now I have lots of stuff to donate or sell when I get some time to sort it all out.

The video is not long and so I hope you enjoy seeing what I have done and Ruby makes a guest appearance as well just to say Hello

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Winner

 Hi Everybody,

Another winner is here today and that is me .... my craft room is finished and later today I will take a video of it, and add it to a blog post next week, to show you the finished result.
 I am really pleased with it.

But for now the winner of yesterdays magazine and Bauble die set has been chosen at random and the name this week is 

Jenny Hurley

would you email me with your postal address to
christina@card-making-magic.com
and I will get it in the post to your straight away.

Please let me know that you et it safely and I hope you enjoy playing with it.

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Friday Freebie - Nativity Bauble

Hi Everybody,

Another Christmas themed card for todays "Give Away" and this one will create beautiful Baubles for your cards or your tree 

It is a lovely large Bauble and it comes with

 Die Cutting Essentials magazine.

Time to put your feet up if you win this and have a good browse of the pages as they are full of ideas that you may like to try for yourself.

Now if this is one that you would like to win then all you need to do is leave me a comment at the end of this post with your FULL NAME 

Be sure to come  back over the weekend and see if your name is shown as the winner and then you will have 72 hours in which to claim the prize 

 

I add the same proviso every week and if you have never won then take a look at how you are signing your post. Does it have your full name ?? NO !! Then you won't be a winner.

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Craft room Update

Hi Everybody,

Slowly but surely I am getting there and this is what the room looks like at present. I don't know why it is but when one room is being done ... the whole house gets messy.

And poor Ruby didn't know what to do when she came home from doggy day care . 

I had to show her where her bed was in the messy room and then she was happy.

Everything is upside down at present but it should all be finished by tomorrow ... fingers crossed.

I can't wait to get straight again and put things back in their places, after it has all had a good dusting and clean, it's going to look so much different.

I will take more pictures once it is all done and I have moved some things around in here as well to make a better work space for me.

And with all the decluttering I have one I know have some empty storage bins, drawers and shelves so it looks neater too.

One side of the room is nearly finished now and the beading around the edges is going in tomorrow.

In this picture you can just see the floor and the beading and I am surprised at how much bigger the room looks without the carpet down.

Some of you have told me about your own decorating/renovating jobs that you are in the middle of so good luck to you all and I hope you all get straight again soon.

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

 

Altenew Craft Your Life Project

Hi Everybody,

I think I have told you a few months ago that I have subscribed to the monthly Altenew Craft Your Life Kits and this is the one that was received in November.

These kits are lovely and so full of items for you to use in many different ways.

There are dies, stencils, stamps and an embossing folder in each kit and the flower is a new one each month,

I have added an envelope to each of my cards and decorated them all with Washi Tape, and they are all in cellophane to keep them clean

This one has the addition of Diamante  to it and it is a slimline card.

These cards will be going in my charity shop box which I will take to the shop once it is full, and there are usually about 150 cards in each box that I take to them

I enjoy making these cards as there is no pressure for certain designs and no deadline to meet either.

I can just make them how I like and add them to my box and the charity shop seem to like getting them too.

And with having a new floor fitted in my craft room I have really gone to town and cleared out all of the items that have been made or bought over the years and never used.

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Decoupage Delight - Water Coloured Flowers

 Hi Everybody,

Today I am adding in the video of how I water coloured the flowers from the Decoupage Delight Hellebore 

I have used the Ironworks die set for the background and the flowers have been added in with foam pads underneath 

The finished card is a 5x7 and is really pretty in real life.

This is the one I created in the video and below you will see another one that I di in a slightly different colour combination

.You could use your favourite colours for another look

I have used leaves from the foliage background die set for the first card and leaves from several sets for this bottom card.

But  they will look just as good using leaves from any die set that you have in your collection.

I hope you enjoy the video 

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Messy Craft room ...

 Hi Everybody,

Tomorrow sees the workman making a start putting in a wooden floor in my craft room, and this is what it looks like at present. 

I have lifted everything off the floor so that Pete can have a good space to work on it and everywhere is a mess .... again !!

It will probably take him till mid week to finish it ... and then I will have to get straight again, but it will be worth it in the end as putting a carpet in a craft room was a big mistake. 

This is my messy carpet and you can see where Ruby chewed the bottle of masking fluid on it and at the back near the unit is the place where I dropped the hot glue gun on it. 

It was a lovely room when it was first done but over the years wear and tear has taken it's toll.

By the end of this week it will be beautiful again

More tomorrow ...

Hugs ss

Ruby will be at day care and so she will miss a lot of the disruption, and I can't wait until it is finished.

 I will show you more pictures once it is completed and Ruby will have some space for her bed so she can stay with me while I work.

My videos just wouldn't be the same without her snoring ... loudly ... in them !!

Winner

 Hi Everybody,

It has been quite a nice day here today and Ruby and I went for a lovely walk this morning along the beach at St Annes. Ruby loves running around on the sand and having a good sniff about. She is not a ball fetcher so I gave up taking one with me a long time ago.

So the draw has been done for the beautiful Snowflake die on offer. You will find a lot more ideas inside the magazine that are sure to inspire you. The name this week is

Kim Cranson

Would you email me your postal address please to

  christina@card-making-magic.com

and I will get it in the post to you straight away. I hope you enjoy playing with it and please let me know when you have it safely.

More tomorrow…

Hugs xx