Happy Birthday Corinne & Irene

It's Party Time! Two of the most incredible colourers in the world (yes I know that's not actually a word. but I said it is now :P ) Celebrate their birthday today. Well today and tomorrow actually as although they're twins they were born either side of midnight so actually have different birthdays!

Both Corinne & Irene do a lot for Simply Betty Stamps so Betty (aided and abetted by Tanya) decided to set up this surprise hop to celebrate their birthdays. 

Happy Birthdays Corinne & Irene!

I hope you like what I've made for you with your own personalised digi's from SBS.

For Corinne I couldn't resist playing on your love/hate relationship with leaves! It was too tempting to miss!

I cut the leave overlay from plastic and coloured it with alcohol inks, including some metallics to give it a nice autumnal shimmer. 

I added the word 'Leaves' to the sentiment in Craft Artist 2 and coloured Corinne with my Promarkers.

Happy Birthday Corinne - I hope you like it.

Irene my computer has decided to hide the pictures I took of your card! It must have decided it's not your birthday until tomorrow so hidden them out of my sight so your pictures will be added ASAP as soon as I can track them down. Hope you're enjoying the hop x

Have a wonderful Hop. You should have started at the SBS blog and arrived with me from the lovely Sian

and you're hopping on to the wonderful Karen

Here Comes Christmas! Penny Black Wreath

It's the final challenge of the year over at Through the Purple Haze Challenges. I can't believe it's the end of the year already! I've had a great time with Through the Purple Haze Challenges since it started - first as a challenge participant & now as part of the DT. It's a great bunch of people to work with and the entries each week are amazing!

This week we are sponsored by the amazing Penny Black Stamps . They currently have a prize draw going on on their Facebook page so it's worth popping over and joining in.

I saw this idea of a paper wreath on Pinterest and decided it was perfect to pair with the 12 Days of Christmas clear stamp set I have. This is the result:

The papers are printed from the Very Merry Christmas Paper Pack 1 from Echo Park onto A4 card and cut into strips. They're then fixed onto foam wreath bases. 

Even the back looks pretty!

Here are close up of the 12 days of Christmas. I love the characters!

I stamped the images with Memento Black Tuxedo and coloured them with a range of Promarkers. I'm not going to list them here as there are far too many to list.

The rosettes are made using the technique shown in Everyone Needs a Hougie and are made on my Hougie Board. I glued everything with hot glue to make sure it was securely stuck.

Here they are hanging on my wall :D

I really hope you like them.

Have a wonderful Christmas however you are celebrating and see you in the New Year for more fun challenges xxx

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion - Christmas ABC - Anything but a Card 

Love to Create Challenge - Anything Goes

Parade your Crafts - Christmas Projects

Penny Black - Traditional Christmas Colours

Crafty Hands - Seasons Greetings

Anything Goes at Digi Galore :D

It's the last challenge before Christmas at Digi Galore and the theme is Anything Goes. 

I decided to do something different with Digi's this time and used the Baby Prints Digi Stamp kit from Stampin' Up in conjunction with my Foil Master from Thyme Graphics to make a simple but effective personalised Birth Congratulations card. 

I love the effect of the Foil Master as it makes something printed with a black laser printer so so special. It's all foiled a beautiful rich royal blue, but it's difficult to catch on camera. I was lucky enough to have cuddles with the lovely Myles yesterday when he was only 9 days old. He was so adorable!

As I said something rather different with a digi this time as not a Promarker in sight, but that's what I love about Digi's - their flexibility!

Thanks so much to everyone who's joined in at Digi Galore  this year. We've had a blast and love seeing your creations. Next year is going to be even bigger and better with more amazing sponsors lined up so make sure you pop over and join in x

Homemade Advent Calendar

Advent is a big thing in our house. For the last few years I've treated myself to one of the Playmobil Advent Calendars (when I can get them on special offer) and I've built up quite a following with my friends on Facebook all asking what I've got behind each day's door.

I decided to make myself an extra advent calendar this year using digi stamps and my Cougar cutting machine from Thyme Graphics . The digi stamp sets are 25 & Counting  and Jolly Bingo Bits from Stampin Up - yep - did you know they now do digi versions of some of their stamps? I'm soooooo pleased!

I designed a grid in Inkscape with doors that were attached on the left hand side and in a tiny section on the right (to keep them closed until the day). I then lined the digis up to the doors before printing them on my laser printer. I did this in 3 sections for the front and each time passed it through my Foil Master so the coloured foil attached to the laser toner. It's really difficult to capture on camera just how luxurious and shiny the foil is, but it looks really festive.

I lined the printed and foiled card up on my Cougar and cut the doors.

I arranged the Jolly Bingo Bits and printed and foiled them to make the base layer, then fixed it to the back of the front section.

Here are the first two doors open.

Happy Advent everyone x

I'd like to enter this to the following challenges:

My Mum's Craft Shop - Winter/ Christmas

Paula Holifield Challenges - Christmas Cheer

Love to Create - Holiday Gift/ 3D Project

Craft Creations - Anything Goes

Craft Spot by Kimberley - Sparkle and Shine

ABC Challenges - Almost Christmas

Sketchy Colours - Red & Green

Crafty Hands - Sparkle and Bling

Jellypark - Christmas

Kenny K Christmas at Through the Purple Haze Challenges

I had a treat this week - the chance to play with the foxy Mrs Claus from Kenny K for the new challenge at Through the Purple Haze Challenges . The challenge is to use a recipe - 1 digi, 2 papers and 3 embellishments.

I used 2 papers from the Dear Santa Digikit from DaisyTrail and mounted them on gold and red metallic card. 

The three embellishments I added were the bell, the ribbon and the bow with a good girl accent in the middle which I made using part of an embellishment from the Dear Santa kit cut into a circle and mounted to the back of an epoxy dome sticker.

I sneakly added a full version of the 'Good Girl Santa's List Approved' embellishment on the inside of the card, again mounted behind an epoxy dome sticker.

Mrs Claus was a joy to colour

Promarkers used:

Skin - Coral, Sunkissed Pink, Blush with Pastel Pink Cheeks

Hair - Cocoa, Henna, Chestnut, Walnut

Dress and Hat - Red, Berry Red, Cardinal Red, Burgundy

Holly - Holly

Belt - Ice Grey 4 & 5

Santa Sack - Tan, Caramel

Eyeshadow, Bells, Belt Buckle - Gold Pilot Gel Pen 

I really hope you like my creation & look forward to seeing your entries at Through the Purple Haze Challenges

I'd like to enter this to the following challenges:

My Mum's Craft Shop - Winter/ Christmas

Craft Creations - Anything Goes

Sketchy Colours - Red & Green

Jellypark - Christmas

Real or Faux Stitching - explorations of my new sewing machine

The challenge at Digi Galore this fortnight is to use Real or Faux Stitching. It came at the right time for me as I've been saving like mad and have ordered a new sewing machine. I'm loving the quilting course that I'm doing so decided to pool all my birthday and Christmas money and buy a nice machine. It arrived yesterday so I had a chance to play for this project.

Our wonderful sponsor is Delicious Doodles  and I contacted Teri to check my idea fell within her terms of use as I wanted to make something in fabric rather than card. She said it was fine so off I went. I coloured Angelique with Snowflake with my promarkers, then scanned it in and printed it on T-Shirt Transfer paper for Dark Fabrics. I left plenty of space around the sides and cut the edges using the Memory Box Frosty Snowflake die to add to the snowflake theme. I then applied the transfer paper to navy fabric following the instructions.

I embellished the design using lines of fancy stitches. As you can see I need a bit more practice staying straight, but for the first time of using the machine I think I did ok. It's an amazing machine & I'm really looking forward to getting to grips with it.

Looking forward to seeing your real or faux stitching projects at Digi Galore