Exploding Box for Baby's 1st Birthday.

Last weekend saw the celebration of my Great Nephew's First Birthday and whilst on holiday, we picked up a tiny little handmade figure that I thought would just sit perfectly into one of my exploding boxes. Unfortunately I didn't get it finished in time so it was a bit late, but I really didn't want to rush making it.

I kept the colour neutral as my attempt at colour matching proved harder that expected.

This little box meets the criteria over at;

Crafts by Carolyn TTC- September
Totally Gorjuss- 199 Texture
A Card a Day
Oldie but a Goodie - Embossing. ( Loads of older stock, ribbon, embossing folder, heart stamp)

That's all for now. 

Adele

xXx

My mish mash card!

I cannot believe I am saying this, but my "Baby Boy" was 14 yesterday! As usual, I logged in to lastminute.com and made his card the day before. I had no idea what to make him, my latest Stampin' Up craft stuff is spread over the dining room table, more on a small desk in the front room, and my craft room so full of clutter, I am hardly able to get in there, let alone actually sit and craft. The situation has been worsened because I have supposedly tried to craft downstairs during the school holidays....but failed miserably.

Considering I had bit and bobs scattered all over the house, and that I was running short of time, I had this mad idea of making a sort of pin board card using some of the things I had in front of me! It didn't turn out too bad and although it is a bit out of my comfort zone, I thought it was quite apt for a 14 year old boy.

This card meets the criteria over at;

Crafts by Carolyn- TTC Make your own embellishment.
ABC - No flowers
Oldie but a goodie - Embossing
Card a Day Challenge.

I will be back again soon with another exploding box, best get on as it's party time today!

Adele

xXx

Our adventures in Devon!

We are already half way through our holiday, the weather has been hit and miss. One minute we have
 had our feet up, drinking cider and sunbathing...the next curled up on the sofa under a throw and watching the flames on the log burner. Whatever it throws at us we are trying to just make the most of it and relax.

The cottage is lovely, the garden gate opens onto a little wooden area, over a little bridge and out onto the farm land where Chris and Jack have been playing Chess while Amelia and me have been saying hello to the chickens. Once passed the Chess and chickens it open out onto a field where we play cricket or take a leisurely walk alongside the stream or around the lake.

We are eating and drinking far too much, but hey ho, what are holidays all about?

Reality will hit us far too quickly.

Adele 

xXx

Stampin' Up Blog Hop!!! Hoppin' Along!

Well hello!!!

I hope you are enjoying the "HOPPIN. " You should have come along to my blog from SARAH.

Now please be gentle with me, this is my first ever blog hop.

Now anyone who "knows" me will know I often have to put my crafting to one side, while my hectic life takes over. Well I have been panicking over this card for a few days. My crafty mojo is obviously on it's Summer Holidays and that is never a good time to try something a little different from my usual style! 

(If I actually have one that is!) Eventually I took inspiration from an example shown on page 119 on the New Annual Catalogue.

I am trying to keep things simple!!! First I made up my card by embossing a layer of white card stock using the gorgeous Beautiful Baroque Embossing Folder. Then is stamped  a band to go across the card; I used colours from the New IN Color Collection 2013-2015.

I used;

 Coastal Cabana - lattice design from Summer Silhouettes, Butterfly, Pappillon Potpourri

Crisp Cantaloupe -Travel Journal, script

Pistachio Pudding - Viola's Lace.

I added depth and detail by distressing the edges with Baked Brown Sugar.

Other products used;

Linen Thread

Simply Pressed Clay & Blossoms Mold.

Right, enough of my waffle, ready to hop on for some more ideas and inspiration.......hop over to 

VERONICA!

Thank you for hoppin' by.

Adele

xXx

Playing catch up crafting!

I cannot believe that we are already two weeks into the Summer Holidays and I am still hardly getting a moment to myself. I have tried to catch up with a few of those little jobs that keep getting pushed to one side in the manic day to day routine of term time. 

I thought I'd finally take time to share one of the cards I made last month for one of the teachers. I was pushed for time (as usual) so I kept it really simple and very similar in design to the little canvases I made up.

I used SU cardstock from the new In Color Collection, Coastal Cobana. Love this colour, I can see me using it so much. I then simply stamped images randomly using Summer Silhouettes. I took a very deep breathe and cut a length of the scrummy Ruffle Stretch Trim and added a few small brads for a bit of detail.

Today I have been making little flower embellishments using the Simply Pressed clay and molds...please come back and visit tomorrow when I can show you my first card using these dinky little lovelies. I am also taking part in my first ever 

STAMPIN' UP BLOG HOP!!!!!!

Adele

xXx

Stampin Up - A canvas for teacher!

Well, that's it! Another school year over. 

Today saw the end of Term for me at work, the end of Year 9 for Jack and the end of Junior School for Amelia. A very moving and emotional afternoon has been spent at Amelia's school, watching the children perform and being awarded for their achievements. 

Oh my!!!! What a draining day. 

Me, supplying teacher's cards and presents via last.minute.com as usual, was sat up until gone midnight last night making little canvases! They were rushed I am afraid to say, and I am not 100% happy with the results but taking the circumstances and time issues into consideration I enjoyed making them and am looking forward to trying more!

I used SU Summer Silhouettes and Rose Red paper.

This meets criteria over at;

ABC Chalenge R- Roses are red

Oops! Stampin Up I cannot resist you.

Ooops, look what just arrived! 

After a LOT of dilly dallying I eventually decided what to order first out of the new Stampin Up Catty. I tried to get a bit of a mixture; equipment, sundries, stamps, inks......but there is still so much on my wishlist.

Cannot wait to play with the new Simply Pressed Clay and Molds and also try out the New Magnetic Plate for the Sizzix Big Shot. (Only £35.95!!!) I have heard everyone rave about it...will give it a go with my new Chalk Talk Framelits later.

I was a "good girl" and only ordered 3 stamps sets..........

...but I could not resist the new In Colours....

....and whilst waiting for Amelia to come home...I made these very quickly...

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE being a Stampin UP Demo. 

Be back soon hopefully with some more creativity

Adele

xXx

Canvas for teacher #1.

And not at all like I had in mind. Still, one Teacher's Gift down.

I used the flourish from SU- Everything Eleanor but struggled stamping onto the canvas, got a really uneven finish despite trying to pad out the back of the canvas...hmm, I wonder how to overcome that.

Hey ho, not 100% happy with it, but it's a start. I loved making up the background, just need to be a bit more adventurous and confident with decorating.

Hopefully,I will be back soon with Canvas #2.

Love Adele.

xXx

Attempting me first canvases!! EEK

I cannot believe it has been so long since blogging, it's been rather hectic and I still have two more reports to write this weekend before I am done this term.

Yesterday I went to visit Amelia's new school, how scary is it that she will start secondary school in September. I will be sad to see her leaving her current school, they have worked so hard with her and it was such a fight with the Educational system to get her any support at all for so many years. Hey ho, onwards and upwards.

Anyway, I am attempting to make a few little altered canvases. Only small ones, approx 12x17cms, so hopefully not too daunting for me. I keep telling myself it will be just like making a card but I am nervously excited about working on them.

So far I attacked them with a few various shades of acrylic paints, in a very mish mash random fashion, then made a half hearted attempt at using a bit of bubble wrap to splodge on a toning colour! (please don't expect any technical language here, splodge is very accurate to my stylee here!)

Then I stamped, very randomly, using Stampin Up; Travel journal, Viola's Lace and measuring stick. All of which can be found on  page 103 of the new catalogue - link at the top of my blog.

 Next, I did some more splodging with bubble wrap, using a silver acrylic paint. Once dry I attacked the edges with SU Soft Suede (page 145) and a sponge finger dauber (page 164)

Now all dry any ready for the next step this afternoon......which is.......

....LOL...I am not actually sure yet.......I haven't planned that far ahead!

Stampin' Up for Father's Day

Last minute.com strikes again! 

It's been a bit of a hectic end to the week. Worked all day Thursday, Staff Training all day Friday, Amelia's School Fair Saturday followed by a mad dash around in an attempt at some housework. After that I settle down to report writing! What a way to spend my Saturday night.

So after giving Chris his card and pressies this morning and then having a rather scrummy cooked breakfast, on the top of my to do list was to make my dad his card for Father's Day.

My card meets the criteria over at;

A Card a Day- 10th June
Here come the boys - Let's Go Dotty

See you soon.

Adele

xXx

Men's Stampin'Up Tri Shutter Card

I am loving my new toys and stamps, it's really helping me to attempt a few new things. With my new 

Simply Scored board, I thought I'd try a tri-shutter card. How easy was it to make the base- 

I was a bit daunted at first but it was really simple.

I followed the instructions HERE

It;s still a bit bare, I need to personalise it with a name and age.

I used my "old faithful" SU Clockworks with a combination of blue and green Stampin' Write Markers to build up a background, then overstamped the gorgeous SU Postage Due image over the top. I also used SU Meauring Stick and Travel Journal stamps.

Same background technique, and a few little ticket embellies from SU That's the Ticket set.

Now I decided to add the flourish from SU Everything Eleanor after I had already stuck on the tickets so at first I was a bit unsure about lining it up...then I thought I'd use my Stamp-a-ma-jig....super cool. It made it so easy to position the flourish exactly where I wanted it!

I am no stamper, even the most basic of techniques put me out of my comfort zone but here I also had a little go at masking, to create a gap around the phone box image. Oh, such fun. 

This took me most of the afternoon, but I had fun playing.

This card meets the criteria over at;

A Card a Day - 10th June

Crafts by Carolyn - TTC Tutorials

Craft Mojo - Anything Goes

Crafting Musketeers - Use a stamped image

Here Come the Boys - Use Ribbon

Ok, what shall I try next?

Adele.

xXx

Another fab crafty tip......

...over on A Bit of Crafty Genius!

How to repair those "well used" dies!

Pop over and see what else is going on.

See you soon.

Adele

xXX

Another attempt at the Faux Embossing technique

I thought I'd have another quick go at the Faux Embossing Technique that never really worked on the previous card. This was a really quick card for me, I am trying a few different sized cards as I now have more options using my scoreboard! 

Flowers were just die cuts from scraps of old patterned papers, backed with a few rough cut "circles" of tulle.

The gorgeous flourish from Everything Eleanor has been stamped twice and "lined-up" using my
Stamp-a-ma-jig. I chose more contrasting colours this time to hopefully give it a more raised effect. I still don't think that it really worked but I quite like the shadowy look I did achieve.

Loving my new stash, here are both cards I made today together. I think I like the second one more. Perhaps it's the contrast of the black rather than the "subtle-ness" of the brown...hmmm, not sure.

 I have already started another card using a different tutorial, but only the basics so far. I am really enjoying trying out a few new things- thank you for all the inspiration out there.

Don't forget to pop over and visit some of the fabulous inspiration over on

A BIT OF CRAFTY GENIUS.

Adele

xXx

My first attempt at a rosette card

I have told myself that I am going to start trying out a few new techniques, nothing special, just things I have never got around to trying out. Now, considering a Stamp-a-ma-jig and a Simply Scored Scoring Tool jumped into my latest Stampin'Up basket I have no excuses not to try them out.

I followed THIS TUTORIAL to make up the rosette and I tried out THIS ONE using my Stamp-a-ma-jig.
The faux embossing technique didn't really work, I used a pale green (retiring Certainly Celery) first with a brown over the top but either I lined it up to closely or the green wasn't bold enough to show. Still, more than happy with technique and my new toy, just need to try out a few different colour options.

The lovely swirl stamp is from SU-Everything Eleanor and the tickets are from SU- That's the ticket.

My next challenge was going to be to try out my Simply Scored Diagonal Plate to make an envelope but I fear I will need something deeper to accommodate the rosette!! EEK

This card meets criteria for challenges over at;
A card a day - 10th June
Crafts by Carolyn - TTC13- Use a tutorial
Craft Mojo - Anything Goes

Bye for now

Adele

xXx

Last one for a while - Exploding Box no.9

Well, the other boxes have been posted, I did nearly all my work records yesterday, my intention was to try something new today BUT I had box number 9 still sitting on my desk partly done. It was madness not getting it out of the way so I held fire on some new things I want to try and finished it off.

Same papers but look closely and you will spot that I have got use out of some of my new 

Stampin' Up  stamps too!

Ferris wheel and penny farthing are from - Feeling Sentimental

Tape measure stamps - Measuring Stick Wheel

The Postage Stamps from - Postage Due

The script - Travel Journal Wheel

I also used SU Clockworks for some background here.

This box meets criteria over at;

A Card a day - 3rd June

Simon Says Stamp - Masculine

Right, feel quite pleased with myself that I never pushed it to one side.

 Now I can play with a clear conscience....hmmm....what to do next?

Hopefully I'll "see you soon!"

Adele

xXx