Something Blue............

Lazy Sunday afternoons, don't you just love them? 

I decided to today to make a new necklace and after rustling through my stash of beads and putting my creative flare to the test, I came up with this lovely blue necklace :)

I have used 2 strands of tiger wire to wrap around the beads.

I have used a selection of blue glass beads which I purchased from Hobbycraft.  I have also used small silver seed beads at both ends of each bead and thread both strands through a 4mm silver foil round glass bead.

This is the items I used to make this necklace :-

A set each of crimp pliers, wire cutting pliers and bent nose pliers. I also used a jump ring open/close setter. A selection of glass beads and silver seed beads. 7 strand tiger wire, a lobster trigger clasp, 2 jump rings, 2 crimp beads and 2 clam shell end beads.

Please feel free to leave a comment and become a follower :)

A Little Bit Different

Since I have started this blog the only thing I have been putting on so far are the cards I have been making.  So I have decided to show off some of my other talents lol.  As I had said on my profile I have recently taken up jewellery making and was really busy making a few necklaces etc for Christmas presents.

This is the necklace I made for my sister Tina.

I used Beadalon 7 strand 0.62 wire to string the beads.  The main beads were some that I had in my craft stash.  I threaded some Pearl coloured 3mm beads next to the dark coloured beads and black seed beads next to the light coloured beads.  I also put on some silver 2mm seed beads to brake it up along with silver coloured crimp beads to make the beads float. 

I hope you like what I have made and please feel free to leave a comment :)

Sugar bowl Challenge 75

So much for my New Year Resolution 

I promised myself that I would do more crafting this year but so far I have done very little.  That's the one thing about being self employed, at this time of year unfortunately the tax man comes knocking and there's so much to do with paperwork etc (maybe I should make another resolution and try to keep my paperwork up to date what do you think)?

However, thanks to the lovely Erika she had arranged for our local ladies to have a Crop on Sunday 22nd January so this gave me the perfect opportunity to get out the Promarkers :) and colour this lovely Sugar Nellie stamp.  This is Pippi Longsocks which can be purchased here.

I think she is so adorable especially with her little froggy companion.  My friend is frog daft and I thought this would make the perfect card for her birthday in March and as this is the theme for this weeks Sugar Bowls challenge (also set by Erika) I thought this would be an ideal opportunity for me.

The backing papers I have used are My Mind's Eye Lush blue Diamond, My Mind's Eye Lime Twist and some plain card stock which I had in my scrap drawer.  I have finished it off with stamping out the tickets which are from Lily of the Valley which can be purchased from here and added a few of Craftworks Candi :)

I hope you like my card and please feel free to leave a comment :)

Simply Sassy Set 11

Today sees the release of the last and final set of Simply Sassy stamps from Sugar Nellie (boo hoo!!) which can be purchased from here.  As you will already be aware I am a huge fan of this collection of stamps and love to colour them with my promarkers.  However, all is not lost and other Digi images can be purchased direct from Krista Smith's Etsy store Saturated Canary.  

To celebrate the release of set 11 the girls over on the Simply Sassy blog are running a hop to show off these lovely stamps and Funky Kits have a fantastic offer for this weekend only where you can purchase this set of 7 stamps for the price of  5, YIPPEE.  We all love a bargain :)

I hope you enjoy the blog hope as much as I did :)

Love Christel xx

Sugar Bowl Challenge 71

I don't often get the chance to do much crafting with work and family life but I am trying to make more of an effort, so this week I attended my local crop which I love going to as sometimes it's the only day in the month I actually get to do something.  I decided to put my time to good use and I made a card (which I will give to my sister-in-law for her birthday) for this weeks Sugar Bowl Challenge 71 set by Erika.

I have used Sugar Nellie stamp Simply Sassy Butterfly Girl which can be purchased here.  Isn't she just gorgeous.  I love this range of stamps and have only got 9 to get for the full range :)  

I have used my promarkers to colour the image.  I am getting more into colouring blonde hair as it's taken me a while to find the right colour combination but I think I am getting there now, what do you think?

The butterflies have been punched out using a EK Success punch which I purchased at the Hobbycraft Exhibition at Glasgow SECC last month.  This punch is great as it has 3 different settings on it.

The papers I have used are New Edition Bird Song then just mounted onto some plain card stock which I have distressed with Tim Holts Scattered Straw on the green and Tattered Rose on the pink and centre circle.  I used Inkylicious Ink Dusters Blending Brushes which can be purchased here instead of Tim Holtz blending tool which I found so much easier to use (another purchase from Glasgow :) ).

I hope you have enjoyed looking at my creation and please feel free to leave a comment.

A Fond Farewell

Recently a very dear friend of mine has decided to leave this beautiful part of Scotland and return back to her home town of Pontefract.  Julie and I have been close friends for about 7 years now and have really been through the run of the mill together.  We have shared a lot of good times and a lot of bad times together but we have always been there for each other.  Both of our boys have grown up together and have been the best of friends and her son Nathan is like a part of our family as he has spent so much time at our house.  As I have only got the one child, Nathan has been great company for David and he has even come on holiday a few times with us.  We will all miss them terribly but hope to visit them regularly as they will not be too far away from my in-laws :)

I have used this weeks Sugar Bowl challenge using Maria Therese's sketch to make a leaving card for them.

As you are already aware I am a massive fan of Sugar Nellie's  Simply Sassy stamps (which can be purchased here) and thought this stamp, Travel Lite, was perfect for this card.  I have used Promarkers to colour in the image and tried Jenny Trumans little tip for shading using a grey colouring pencil.  I am quite pleased with the results :)  

What do you think?  Please feel free to leave a comment :)

What Happened To The Summer?

OMG!!!! Where has the time gone, I can't believe it's now September and it's been far too long since my last posting eek!!  I make a promise to myself that I will try and do more crafting and get it on here but before you know it that's another week gone.

Well Summer (if that's what it was) has definitely passed and Autumn has arrived along with the colder wet days and the darker evenings.  It's been raining for the past couple of days but compared to the rest of the country we have got off lucky and missed all the winds :)

This weekend just past I went down to Fort William again to visit my family and catch up again with Jane Kyle.  Unfortunately there was not enough space for both of us in her cupboard but we made most of our time together at the dining table with Jane's lovely daughters.  We were that busy stamping up each others rubber stamps the time just disappeared.  Jane had some fantastic news for me, she has been offered a position on Krista Smith's DT at Saturated Canary YIPPEE!!!  I am well delighted for her :-)

This is Sugar Nellie Simply Sassy stamp High School Student which can be purchased from here.  This is one of the stamps I inked up from Jane's collection which I did not have (at the time, but purchased today lol).  I just love these papers which I purchased  last week.

The coloured papers are New Edition Bird Song paper pack which I have just matted with some plain white card.  The spiral punch which I have used is from Stamping Up and the message is one of Craftwork Cards matted on plain pink card stock.

Thank you for looking and please leave a comment if you wish. xx

Home from Midgie Hell

Evening all, it's Sunday evening and I've had a great weekend.  I decided this weekend to visit my family in the beautiful town of Fort William on the west coast of Scotland.  Unfortunately the weather wasn't that great and I have returned home with 14 new Midgie bites (grrr).  Whilst I was there I was very fortunate to meet up with the very talented Jane Kyle and Andrea Reid, who I have met through the Sugar Nellie fan page on Facebook.  We had a lovely chat about stamping, colouring techniques and papers over coffee and cake (Yum).  

My sister was very interested in my colouring with Promarkers and I was inspired by both her and Jane to colour the hair of Carnival Balloon auburn which can be bought from here.  This is the 1st time I have chosen this hair colour and I am very pleased with the result.  What do you think?

I am going to use this card for my entry for Challenge 60 over at the Sugar Bowl

The backing papers I have used are Bazzill Basic Dots, Bo Bunny (which are one of my favourites) and layered with Papermania Capsule Collection.  The ribbon is Anita's Everyday Ribbon and the brads and beads are just from my stash at home.  I used Holly, Marine and Turquoise to colour the teal colour on the socks, dress, balloon and ribbons.  I also used Cinnamon, Tan and Putty for the beige colour.  For her hair I used Burnt Orange, Spice, Honeycomb and Oatmeal.

Simply Sassy Set 7 is here

It's great that I live so near to the House of Sugar :)  Set number 7 of the Simply Sassy range was realised on Saturday and I was there at opening hours banging down the door to get my hand on the new range.  Mark from Funky Kits was running a promotion price for the launch weekend to purchase these lovely stamps at £29.75 for the full set.  This range of stamps has to be my favourite and I'm starting to get a bit of a collection lol.

Yesterday was my local crop day for May (I wish we had these days more often as I don't often get a chance to make anything), so I tried to put my colouring skills to good use and made a few cards with the new stamps.

This is Boho Chic

I think she is just gorgeous and used my old favourite Promarkers to colour her in.  I used Bright Green, Lime Green and Lime Zest for her top.  China Blue, Cobalt Blue and Blue Pearl for her trousers.  Her gloves and scarves are coloured with Grass, Apple and Meadow Green and I used Raw Sienna, Mustard, Tulip Yellow and Ivory for her hair.  The skin tones I use are Coral, Sunkissed Pink, Blush and Ivory.

The papers that I have used are First Edition Papers Up, Up & Away. The ribbon is Papermania Spring Collection PMA 7509 and the pearls are Mark Richards Crystal Stickers.

Thanks for looking at my page and please feel free to leave a comment.

Hopeman Crop - Spring

Once a month I attend the Hopeman Crop which is organised by Erika Gunter, who is a member of the Sugar Nellie design team.  Each month Erika sets a little challenge for us to do. March's challenge was spring and this time I thought I would try and make something a little different, so I decided to make a banner.

I decided to use Nitwits Spring collection as my theme.  I covered the larger squares of the banner with Bazzill Basics Dots paper, then Nitwits on the smaller square. I used foam squares to mount the squares together. The letters were cut out with the Cricut Don Juan cartridge and I finished the banner off with some large polka dot buttons.

Each month we all vote for our favourite project and in March I am happy to say I won. The prize for this is a voucher to spend at our local craft store which is also happens to be the House of Sugar, which is great for me as I just adore their stamps encase you hadn't guessed already lol.