Top Tip Tuesday #15 - Embellish It!

Good Top Tip Tuesday Morning to you all :)

Well I'm a couple of hours late with my post this week, what with trying to get my daughter into work and the continuous 'panic buying', I'm sure I've got enough food now to last until March ...................... snow!

Firstly I'd like to let you all know that we are having a Design Team Call over at Top Tip Tuesday - running until January 1st - just follow the link in the top right hand corner of the TTT Blog.

Onto this week's Top Tip Tuesday.......

Our lovely Maggie has done a fantastic Tutorial on making Aperture Cards with punches - great ideas and Maggie makes it all look so easy :)

As the Merry Season is all but upon us this weeks challenge is actually going to last 2 weeks. All we want you to do for a chance to win of one of our 5 (yes, I said 5!) prizes is to use embellishments on your card - it could be a flower, button, brad, ribbon - anything really.......how simple is that!

Back to those 5 prizes!

This 2 week challenge is being sponsored by...

Whimsy Stamps

Squiggle Fly

The Crafty Pad

Joanna Sheen

Digital Stamp Oasis

Pop over to Top Tip Tuesday to see what the prizes are.......................and get embellishing!

Top Tip Tuesday #14

Good Top Tip Tuesday morning to you all :)

This week our wonderful Vee is sharing a tutorial on Coaster Gift Boxes - It is amazing....

What do you think - Fab or what!

If you want to have a go at making one, or anything else Christmasy actually, just add a link to your post to our Mr Linky and you could be in with a chance of winning one of our amazing prizes this week from 3 of our amazing sponsors....

and

Creative Treasures

and

Don't forget you can enter as many times as you like and you could increase your chances of winning by leaving us a Top Tip in the comments section too!!!

Top Tip Tuesday #13

Good Top Tip Tuesday Morning To You All :)

It's here again - another fantastic tip!

This week Leanne is showing us how to creat a Ribbon Wreath - pop over and you could find another use for all of those 100's of yards of ribbon we all own!


Our challenge this week is to use ribbon on your creation, here's mine....

...and please trust me when I tell you I HAVE used ribbon! ...the band down the left hand side!



So pop on over to Top Tip Tuesday and catch up on the great tutorial and also find out what our fab sponsors are giving this week

(pop over to see FANTASTIC money off savings!)

Look forward to seeing your Ribbon makes :)

Top Tip Tuesday .... #12

Good Top Tip Tuesday morning to you all!

What fantastic 'Layer on Layer' creations we had last week - and wasn't Anne's Paper Piecing tutorial fab!

This week we are sponsored by the fab Crafty Pad Stamp Designs .....

Today to close the 4 week run of Team 1 tutorials we are holding an 'Open Challenge'

Please create something either using one of the previous 4 week's tutorials - My Candle Design, Dawn's Image Colouring, Leigh's Buttons or Anne's Paper Piecing (those 4 cover about any design of card you fancy doing ;) OR you could leave us a tip in the comments section on the TTT blog OR you could do both!

Each one you do will give you 1 entry into the prize draw.

Thanks to each Team 1 member for their wonderful tutorials :)

PLEASE, PLEASE remember to leave a link back to the TTT blog in your post.

I'd planned on using an image from our fab sponsors this week - but left it a bit late to buy it, so I'll have to try and find some time in the week to colour up my gorgeous little mouse and christmas ball ;)

Here's a card I made with an image I'd coloured previously!

A gorgeous Penny Black image - watercoloured, Cuttlebug embossed Black Magic card - sanded.

Can't wait to see your gorgeous creations this week



Top Tip Tuesday - Paper Piecing

Good Top Tip Tuesday Morning to you all!

Huge thanks again this week to all who participated in Leigh's fantastic 'Button Bonanza' - there really were some stunning creations linked this week and some fab tips too!

Pop over to TTT to see if you are one of the lucky winners :)

This week it's the turn of Anne.

Paper Piecing is the skill she's sharing with us today so if you've never tried pop over to see what stunning results you can achieve and the Top Tip Tuesday Team 1 girlies have done some awesome examples too.

Here is the design Anne is sharing with us....

 

Even if you have tried Paper Piecing before or you're already a master of the skill you could still be in the running for a prize by either sharing a 'Paper Piecing' creation with us or by leaving a tip in the comments section.

This week we have 3 fab prizes again from some of our wonderful sponsors....

Soft Pencil

 

Daisy Digi Doodles

Sunshine and Giggles

This is the card I made as my Paper Piecing example - now I must admit this is a technique I have only ever done once before - but Anne has reminded me how effective it is - so I think I'll be doing it a little more often than once every other year now!

 

I used one of my favorite stamps which is by Elusive Images and stamped it onto the backing paper, the green (cut out the leaves) and the grain yellow (cut out the flower)

A couple of challenges I'd like to enter this card for...

Back with these very soon!

Top Tip Tuesday - Buttons!

Good Top Tip Tuesday to you all :)

Thanks to everyone who joined in with last week's 'Use an Image' Challenge - we had some gorgeous entries and that fab tutorial from Dawn to get us started on our Colouring techniques - thanks Dawn :)
Pop over to TTT now to see if you are one of the lucky winners!

This week over at TTT the lovely Leigh is telling us to look at things differently - namely BUTTONS!

Hands up who loves buttons?.....

....ok you can ALL put your hands down now!

Leigh has shown us some of the gorgeous creations she has made using buttons.

Here are a couple I made to go along with this weeks 'Button Marathon'

A very obvious button here - used with some ribbon threaded through the holes. A gorgeous Penny Black image (can't think of the name!!!) coloured with Watercolour Pencils.

This one is a little less obvious but I promise the heart is a button - I did have to cut off the back loop and embed the remainder of it into the front piece as it stood too proud of the card.

But that's the beauty of buttons - you can make then work for you!

So guess what the challenge is this week???

Again we have some fab prizes on offer.....

Digital Delights By Louby Loo

&

Joanna Sheen

So off and find those buttons, get creating, leave a link to your button creation on Top Tip Tuesday and you could win a prize!

Don't forget you can also leave a Top Tip to be in the running for a second prize!!!

Some challenges I'd like to enter my cards into...


(Mum Card)

Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes

Colour Create - Black, Mint, Green, Gold & Cream

Ellephantastic - Butterfly

Penny Black Saturday - Favorite Things.... Buttons, ribbon, recycling (Green backing = chocolate box!), Watercolour pencils, gems...............but that's only a few!!!!!!





(Wedding Card)

Dutch Dare Card Challenges - Clean & Simple

Top Tip Tuesday - Copic Tutorial

Good Top Tip Tuesday Morning to you all!

Thanks to everyone who joined in last week with our Christmas inspired challenge - I hope you all enjoyed my Candle tutorial - I'm sorry I couldn't get round to leaving a comment on everyone's makes this week - I've been away for a 'chill-out' break and only got back yesterday morning.

Make sure you pop over to see if you are one of the lucky winners this week.

On to this weeks challenge - Our very talented Dawn has done an amazing tutorial on colouring. She shows up step-by-step how she's got these fantastic results using her Copics.

***Make sure you pop over to Dawn's blog - she has some amazing giveaways going on!***

Isn't it gorgeous - she's used an image from one of our fab sponsors this week - pop over to Whimsy Stamps to browse through 100's of amazing images, sentiments and personalised signatures.

As this weeks Top Tip Tuesday's Tip is a colouring tutorial I have done a card using Promarkers - I don't own Copics but the colouring techniques are the same!

I've used another image from Whimsy Stamps - this one is called 'Little Pocket Mice' and is one of the amazing digi images by MelJens Designs. I have used a piece of vellum over card for the backing, cut out the image after colouring it and then 3d it to a Nestie circle and scallop circle. 2 ribbons at the side, some Dew Drops and Rub On letters to finish off.

So pop over to Top Tip Tuesday and leave us a link to your tip or a link to your project using an image - or how about both!

Some challenges I'd like to enter my 'Little Pocket Mice' card...

 

Cute Card Thursday - 'Gently does it' (sponsored by MelJen's Designs)

Raise The Bar - Let's see those Curves!

Stamptacular Sunday - DT Inspiration...my inspiration came from Betty who used a MelJen Digi Stamp

The Crafty Pad - At least 1 circle and 2 ribbons

2 Sister's - Birthday

Crazy 4 Challenges - Square card

Happy Halloween!

Thought I'd share with you the pumpkins that the kids carved today!

They were done by my 19 year old twins Ben & Ceri and their girlfriend and boyfriend (Ben decided to do 2!)




...we were helped with downloaded patterns ;)

Eeeeekkk..........Spiders!

I don't do many Halloween cards but a friend asked me to do one for her hubby - they are both huge animal lovers so this gorgeous little Digi Image from Soft Pencil was ideal - how sweet are the little kitty and mouse in their mummy costumes!

Guess what cardstock the gold is................Yep - Gemstones! The glitter spiders are plastic 'toys' bought from a supermarket (last year!), there's only 2 stuck on the card (top left corner of image and orange one next to sentiment - the 'loose' spiders are just for photographic ambience!). The sentiment is done on the computer.

The image is coloured with a mix of Promarkers and chalks, I've cut out the 'door' and backed onto a piece of starry packaging card. I've used some foam squares around the cut area to give a bit of depth then DST along the image outer edge. I lightly distressed the image piece with my MM distressing tool.

Some challenges I'd like to enter this card for.......

ABC Challenge - Glitter (my spiders!)

Dutch Dare - Halloween

Cupcake Inspirations - Spooky House & Ghost Cupcakes, photo inspiration

 PaperPlay Challenges - A Haunting We Will Go! (closes Thurs)

Karber Monthly Challenge - Fantasy (closes Nov 1st)

Sentimental Sunday - Distressing (+ sentiment)

Tilda in Pink!

Evening All!

Hope you've had a good weekend and at least managed a few moments to play! I did and made my first Tilda card in absolutely ages!!!

I used some Gemstones card and DCWV Glitter Stack. Tilda is coloured with Promarkers (in 'real-life' her pink does match the paper - 'onest, even tho she looks lilac in the pic!), sentiment done on the computer....

.....and a few WOC roses to finish - you can't NOT finish with a few of those gorgeous blooms!

I even did a little bit of decoration inside too!

Thanks so much for popping over, enjoy your week and make sure you wrap up if the weather's turning wintery in your part of the world - it is in mine!

A couple of challenges I'd like to enter this for....

ABC - F is for Flowers

Charisma Cards - Vintage

Just Magnolia - Think Pink!

Friday Sketchers - Sketch

Allsorts - Spots & Stripes

Wedding Memories....

Hi All :)

Last week I finished a project that was a bit of a 'What shall we do???' dilemma!

A friend I work with was going to a 'Secret Wedding', not that secret that the Bride & Groom didn't know - just secret enough that they wanted to do it quietly without a fuss and with only a handful of family in attendance.
My friend orders loads of cards and Nappy Cakes off me.....and anything else I fancy playing with actually - so we had to come up with a special gift.


The card was easy enough - she'd sent me a stunning photo she wanted using and as there was no 'colour-scheme' I felt a black & white theme would be best, all trimmed with silver.

Then for that special gift we decided on a 'Wedding Memories Book'! As they weren't having a formal photographer I thought this type of scrap book gift would work well. I cut lots of cards with Nesties for the guests to write on (I couldn't stand the thought of them writing on the actual pages....they might use different coloured pens!) I also included some 'bits & pieces' for her to decorate the pages with.

 It was  wrapped in a piece of gem encrusted Organza material and placed in a matching box....

Here's a couple of close ups of some of the details....

She e-mailed me yesterday and said it was a HUGE hit! They loved it :)




Challenges I'd like to enter this set into.....


ABC Challenge - F is for Flowers (I know I've only used 3, but I hope it's enough!)

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - Black, White & 1 other colour (mine is silver)