NEW THINGS IN THE SHOP

Some new things in the shop this week....

These two little owl cards I found in an old copy of the CARDS magazine and I thought it was cute so I did one each way...The patterned paper is a border cut using the Cricut and stretched...

Trying to use up older blanks I have in my storage boxes....these are so wee and dinky...

More using up stash....and some machine stitching...I am definitely getting better at that...

This came from an idea from RedLead(love their style)...I used the Cricut to cut the house shape from a piece of mountboard...not easy as it doesn't cut right through even with the deepcut blade(I think mine is broken tho as it kept going veering of so I changed back to the normal blade and just used a scalpel to cut through...) I had to cheat with the E as I didn't have any left so it's actually an F with the 'dot' (which is a square) from an exclamation mark and taped it on and then covered with patterned paper...There is also some more machine stitching on this one - zig-zag this time...getting braver...lol and the flower is a left over from another project...lots of upcycled pieces in here...

That's it today...Got some bunting that I need to string together and photograph but it's a little windy outside for pics so might not get that done today...I heard there is snow forecast for tomorrow so maybe not then either:0(

SIMPLY CREATE CHALLENGE...

If you hop on over to Simply Create you will notice that they have a fab challenge going on at the moment with 100 pounds of stash up for grabs...and if you hurry you still have time to enter...closing date is 14th February...

This is my entry...
I used an SVG template from Dan99 for the Cricut and cut out this gorgeous wee house...it is actually a Christmas house in his description but I have made it a lovely Spring house for my project....

I used some cardstock from a pad by We R Memory Keepers that I picked up in TK MAXX last weekend for about 7 pounds...there are some gorgeous colours in it and it has a white core so is ideal for distressing...

I overstamped the house shape with the Tim Holtz brick stamp and then punched out some mini flowers and drew on the stems...

The roof is actually a piece of the blue cardstock but I coloured it with brown ink and then ran through the Big Shot with the woodgrain texture plate(borrowed from Sonja) and the eaves are made using the Scallop punch from Stampin' Up...

The butterfly is one I had left over from a couple of cards I made last week...It is a digi one from Hero Arts that I have had my eye on in the 'real life' set but wasn't so keen on the rest of the pack so bought this one instead...

Thanks for looking....

Kirsti xx

SHOP STUFF...

Hello...today for want of anything else to show and since it seems to be all I am doing just now I thought I would show you some of the bits I have in my Etsy shop...and some of the custom cards I have made...I thought these were quite cute as they are so wee and dinky and I love that Unity sunflower...

And this one is part of my determination to use up the mountain of patterned papers I own so watch this space for more... Stampin' Up papers and bird stamp with a Unity sentiment...

This was one that was asked for by a friend...it's such a cute little stamp by Unity...I stamped directly onto the kraft card and then again onto patterned paper and cut out the house and trees and then added a beautiful button to the sun...

These ones I have on sale as singles and a pack of 3...I used more Unity for these...The tree is stamped with Stampin' Up's Old Olive and Close to Cocoa and then I stamped the tree part again and cut out the biggest butterfly which I then layer on top...

I think all the sentiments are Unity ones...

These cute little butterflies embellishments are made using the Cricut with an SVG from Dan99..I double layered cardstock and patterned papers and added some bling!!

As you can see I have had to take all my photos outside as the light has been so poor inside and that is a feat in itself what with the rain and the wind...

I have some birthday invitations that I have done for a friend but they will have to keep til they have been handed out...x

PS Forgot to say I have been appointed the Design Team Coordinator on the Simply Create blog...so get yourselves over there and see what we have been up to...hoping to have daily updates with little 'recipes' thrown in on how to make the gorgeous creations the team are coming up with and when the shop website is up and running(which hopefully won't be too long!) there will be links to all the products being used...exciting times ahead...Don't forget to scroll down the page for the latest post as the first one is a sticky...xxx

NOVEMBER 365 (and on time too!!)...

This must be some kind of record on my part...lol...finished this month on time... I think there is about 5 layers of paint on here in my quest for the perfect colour of icy blue...wasn't happy with it but in the end but after scraping on some white paint with an old credit card it looked better...I then had the idea that I wanted to do sequin waste squares for my days but after cutting out a stencil from the Cricut and overlapping it with the sequin waste and daubing all over with my splodging tool and some distress ink this didn't pan out the way I had hoped so instead I cut out squares from a huge sheet of white tissue using my paper cutter (very slow and tedious) and glued them on instead and then I 'stitched' round them with a black pen...you can just still see the inked dots thru the tissue paper...

I added lost of swirls round the edge with Versamark at the top of both pages and embossed them with Kaleidoscope embossing powder but this didn't show up too well with the Versamark..

I used a Tim Holtz stamp on the inside edges and embossed in white and I also stamped and embossed various snowflakes in the same way...

November is stamped using black Stazon and the same kaleidoscope embossing powder and this shows up much more sparkly than with the versamark...I think I may need to get a re-inker for my stazon tho as the powder didn't sick very well to some parts...I borrowed these stamps from Sonja who got them when she visited NYC recently (lucky moo!!!) and I just love them..have been on ebay hoping to get myself some but to no avail...will have to keep looking...

This is a better view of the versamark/kaleidoscope stamping and embossing....as you can see from my squares the children have been very busy this month and I have been very busy running them around...lol...that's November finished then..have started prepping December pages and the question is will I finish them in time for tomorrow...Can't believe there is only one month left of this wonderful year long challenge by Kate over at The Kathryn Wheel...wonder who will carry it on into next year???

WOYWW.....

What's this all about I hear you ask...pop over here to the Stamping Ground and find out....

I have been following other bloggers that I know doing this for a while now so thought I would join in this week....I have been working on this wreath since last night following a tutorial from The Little Blue House...I made it bigger than they suggested making each of my squares (cones) 10cm and I am not sure if you notice the compass on the bottom right...my Cricut is playing up and not cutting true shapes so went back to the old fashioned method for this...although the snowflake seemed to be okay shape wise so maybe it's sorted itself...

I also have a couple of pages laid aside for November's 365 Calendar Challenge which I hope to get started this week...and a music tuition form that I need to fill in for Libby now she has taken up the violin at school....

Swing round to my other desk and there is my Cricut, my box of glitters and some tags in the corner waiting to be buttoned and ribboned for my Etsy Shop...there is also a home magazine open at a page with some gorgeous wallpaper that I am coveting for the living room...that's me for today...thanks for looking....xx

DT PROJECTS AND CHICKEN PIE...

Bet you thought I had forgotten all about these?!?...well not exactly..don't know what the matter is with me just now - just not been in the mood for crafting at all the last couple of weeks (did get some more stuff done for the table on Saturday but that's been about it!)... These are the bits I have done so far and I am in the middle of another project and have something in mind for the left overs...I have to say I struggled with this snowman stamp as he is just too cute and I don't really do cute but he looks kinda nice all grunged up!!!

It is also so long since I have really done any cards that I just thought simple would be better...

I printed of a 5"x5"ish photo which I altered with the time machine feature in my photo editing, I then distressed it er....slightly, well I couldn't not...lol...wrapped some twin around it and added a button. I cut a piece of the Merry Christmas paper from Echo Park and then er.....distressed the edges with my wee sharp Timmie tool and a Stampin Up border punch...

I used a cranberry paint dabber to er...distress the edges of the kraft cardstock and added the patterned paper and photo....Cut out the @ using the Cricut and it's actually had about 5 different effects on it and guess what? I ended up back at the original...always the way isn't it... For the Christmas Time I cut this out using the Cricut but had a brainwave before using the cut out letters and decided to use it as a stencil instead with a lettuce paint dabber...I like this very much, finished of with some bobble ribbon and buttons with twine (Kath's influence at work there). Will try and get the rest finished by this weekend and will also try to keep up in future!!! But in the meantime why not pop over to Simply Create and see what the rest of my teamies have been up to (much more productive than me!!) or better still why not pop over to Alford and take a look IRL....

Mmmmh Jamie Oliver Chicken Pie was definitely much better tasting than his Wonky Summer Pasta which was a disaster but to be fair I was trying to sort something important out on the phone at the same time as cooking...not a good idea!!!

JUDY'S CLASS AND SONJA'S BIRTHDAY...

Yesterday afternoon was spent over at Simply Create doing a class with the very talented Judy...It was Sonja's birthday and the class was my treat to her...

These are the two cards that we made...not sure but I think I did better with the Scooter Boy...I think this is definitely something that with practice, practice, practice you could get much better at but the pencils are quite expensive and I am not sure I am willing to fork out for them for something that doesn't come easy to me....

This is the card I made for Sonja which was inspired by one of Elaine's samples that I seen at the SU party I was at the other week...The trees are from my Unity KOTM...I cut the hills from the Cricut and the lace is stripped from the matchbox I received in the swap a few months ago...it's so pretty, the buttons are from Jacqui's vintage stash and I printed out Happy Birthday using the Dymo label maker...x