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Thursday 28 August 2014

Bargains Galore!

Hello crafty peeps, welcome to my crafty nook. Just a quick post to let you all know about a few crafty bargains I picked up from town today. I went to the south side of Brid, an area I tend to avoid because in the summer months it's heaving with tourists, not a bad thing in it's self just a bit of a pain if I've got my hubby with me. For those who don't know me (yet!) my husband is registered blind and uses a long balled cane (and me) to get around, unfortunately some of the streets going towards The Spa and south beach aren't very wide and with the increased foot traffic it's almost impossible to walk side by side and sometimes we even end up in the road. I don't mind it happening to me but it really annoys me when people tut or sigh because hubby has inadvertently got in their way and delayed them for 30 seconds or worse barge into him - it makes me have a "grr" face!

That aside I did manage to get a couple of bargains on our way back at a shop called Daisy Crafts. I have been to it once before but felt that it's name was very misleading as it mainly sells fabric, trims and cross stitch kits and as a result apart from my first visit when I bought a couple of metres of different coloured pom pom trim, I've not been back. However this time they had a table set up outside with wicker baskets full of crafty goodness! I didn't have a lot of money with me but managed to get some fantastic deals, the first thing was a pack of "Funstamps" black shrink plastic normally priced at £4.50 for 4 sheets but reduced to only £1. I've used the clear and white shrink plastic before so I'm looking forward to trying out this black SP. The second thing I got was an A4 size rubber stamp sheet with oriental images by "Elite", I've not heard of this brand and if I'm honest I'm not keen on unmounted stamps that I have to cut out myself but I like the images and I have a sneaky suspicion that Oriental will be big again next year. The original price was £16.50 but it was reduced to £3.00!!! My final purchase made my jaw drop - a Tim Holtz collection (through Stampers Anonymous) called Paisley Prints CMS 011. I've not seen it before and I'm sure its an old release but I was gobsmacked to see it in the basket under all the Christmas stamps, even more so when I discovered it's price - originally £19.99 it was reduced to only £3.00!!!! Total bargain and it means I've finally fulfilled one of my crafty ambitions which is to own a Tim Holtz stamp set. Admittedly I would have preferred one of the blueprints stamp sets but bargain hunters can't be choosers and I'm just happy to have one to play with. Tim Holtz is the God Daddy of craft after all. Plus if I really like how it stamps etc I may invest in the stamp sets I really like! With limited funds I prefer at the moment to buy 3 or 4 Kaisercraft stamp sets rather than a single TH set, which to be honest seem a little over priced. Perhaps using this stamp set will change my mind.

I'm planning on returning to Daisy Craft soon as they have some DC comics fabric that I'd like to buy. My sister-in-law loves Superman and one of the images was him so I thought I'd try out the sewing machine I bought last year and make her a bag or small purse for Christmas (assuming I can get my head round the machine - my Luddite tendencies means I'm a bit scared I'll end up sewing my hand to the fabric or something!)

Well that's all my crafty news, please feel free to comment or subscribe (try the email widget - it works!) Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs, Sarah x

Wednesday 27 August 2014

A Change is as good as a rest....

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my new look crafty nook! If you've been reading my blog you've probably guessed the reason behind the face lift - my copy of "Blogging for Dummies" by Susannah Gardner and Shane Birley arrived in today's post and I've read some of it. Not all just to page 97, but enough to make a few changes to put into practice some of the advice it gives. So you can expect a number of changes in the next few weeks and months as I become more confident and experiment with the look and function of my blog. Please feel free to comment on the new look - if you love it tell your friends but if you hate it please let me know so I can change it and if you look on the right hand sidebar, you'll notice a follow me by email link, please fill in your email (I'm assuming it works like other people's) and you will be automatically notified when I add a new blog post.

I shall be adding more posts and hopefully things of interest in the next week or so, so please keep on reading and leave me comments so I know if what I'm doing is right or wrong. I will try to respond to all comments left within 24 hours depending on how often I can get online (my hubby hogs the PC to play football manager games, though to be fair it is his computer!)  Until my next post, keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,
Sarah x

Wednesday 20 August 2014

Birthdays and Blogging for Dummies (that's me btw)

Hello crafty peeps, just a quick post to let you know what I've been up to in my crafty nook. It's my lovely hubby's birthday tomorrow (Thursday 21st) so I've been working on his birthday card. Actually I started it at the beginning of the month but only finished it last night, not because it's a huge project or anything just I've had a bit of a crafty block the last few weeks - men's cards are always a bit of a challenge for me if I'm honest.

The moment I saw the "Long Time Ago" stamp set by Neat & Tangled, I knew it was destined to be used on Chris's card so just after I bought it at the beginning of the month I started to mess around with black card and white watercolour paint until I had a starry spacey style background. If anyone is interested in making a similar background, try typing in starry backgrounds on YouTube, Kristina Werner and Jennifer MacGuire both have at least one background which are to be honest far superior to mine! Back to mine though, I wanted the stars on my background to have depth so I splattered thinned out white paint onto pure black cardstock, allowed it to dry then added some watered down Cosmic Shimmer Sparkle Paint in Angel Red - this paint is actually a very pale pink colour. I allowed that to dry and splattered on some LuminArte  Twinkling H20s Radiant Rain pure colour concentrate in Majestic Blue and Snap Dragon, these paints contain mica so have to be shaken well before use, I didn't add a whole lot of these daubers just enough to add a bit more colour and to add depth to the galaxy. Once these were dry I got my "precious" (otherwise known as a clear Wink of Stella pen, these pens are like gold dust and everywhere I normally order from either don't stock them or are permanently out of stock!) out and carefully stroked the brush nib so some of the clear glitter ink splattered onto the card. It's given the background a subtle shimmery sparkle which I love. Anyway let's fast forward to last night - I've been panicking slightly about how I was going to stamp the words onto the background because I wanted it to look as close as possible to the opening sequence on "Star Wars", the letters on the film are yellow and I don't have either a pale yellow ink or yellow embossing powder, the closest I could come to it was using a dark yellow ink and clear embossing powder. Only problem was that when I tried it, the letters barely showed up on the starry background. I tried white and it too vanished once it was heat set, it was only when I used a really juicy white ink pad and glow in the dark embossing powder that the "A LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR, AWAY.... YOU WERE BORN" stamped image appeared! The first part of the sentiment slants away into the distance and is smaller than the second part (which also slants btw) so it looks like it's disappearing into space. It's a really cool stamp and it means I was able to get away with just the sentiment and the starry background as the card's main feature. I stamped HAPPY BIRTHDAY underneath and heat embossed it in hot pink (not usually a men's card colour but somehow it works!)

I've matted the black card onto silver holographic card, then matted it on black card, then a different style holographic card before sticking the whole lot onto a black card base. I buy the card blanks from The Works because it's sturdy cardstock and is white inside so you can write a message without having to add an insert. I've added some strips of starry background card and holographic card to the inside of the card and added a 'Celebrate' sentiment from a Teresa Collins stamp set. I'm really pleased with how it's come out and if I ever work out how to upload the photos from my camera, I'll add a couple of it to this post.

And on that note a bit of news.... In a bid to make myself a better blogger I've just purchased a copy of Blogging for Dummies from Amazon and it should be here next week, so once it's arrived and I get round to reading it, you should see some subtle changes to my blog which will hopefully improve it so I finally get some followers - who knows I may learn how to add email notifications etc. Confusingly according to my stats I have ZERO followers and yet I know I have a follower on Google (waves to Teresa my sister!) because I received a Google notification telling me I had. I'm hoping the book explains what the difference is and how to attract followers without having to pay for ads etc - I'm not so much cheap as poor lol plus I'd much rather use any spare cash I have on buying craft goodies for a subbie related giveaway (watch this space), then pay for people to view my blog via a google ad.

Anyway that more than enough for now, I'll post another entry when I've done a bit more crafting, until then,
Love and crafty hugs,
Sarah x

Tuesday 19 August 2014

A sad note...

Hi crafty peeps. Just a quick posting to share some sad news, I mentioned a little girl called Katy in my last post and how pagemasterdesignsonline
.blogspot.co.uk (Michelle) had put out an appeal for handmade cards to try and cheer up this very poorly little girl. I'm afraid Katy passed away since my posting. I'm sure my readers out there will join me in sending our thoughts and prayers to Aimee and her family. For further details please check out Michelle's blog under cards for Katy.

I shall post again soon. Until then in much sadness I send out my love and crafty hugs.
Sarah x

Tuesday 12 August 2014

Missing Zombies, Free Stamp and Cards for Katy Appeal

Hello crafty peeps,

Hope you all had a good weekend. Millie and Bethany kept me busy, so much so that I needed yesterday to recover! I got it wrong about The Walking Dead starting on Sunday - it actually started on SATURDAY!!! Double episode too - you'd think that such a popular programme would be repeated on 5+24 but no such luck so I've not got a clue what's happening on it and are in two minds about whether to even bother watching it next Saturday. I hate not watching series from the first episode.

Anyway only a bit of crafty news, my missing stamp set arrived yesterday with a bonus Autumn Leaves "Star" stamp as a freebie - thank you Inspired Creationz if you're reading this :). I haven't had chance to use either the Dreamees patchwork stamp or the lovely freebie stamp because I've been working on a card for a little girl called Katy who is very poorly at the moment in the USA. The call out for handmade cards for Katy has been made by Michelle from Page Master Designs (pagemasterdesignsonline.blogspot.co.uk/p/cards-for-katy.html) cut and paste this info if you want to send a homemade card of your own, you'll need to email Michelle for her home address (details are on the blog post) I'm afraid I don't have the know how to add the link so you can just click onto it (I am a secret Luddite after all lol.) but I really hope any crafters who read this will join in. The card I made is a Tatty Twinkles Fairground stamp in the carousel design. I coloured the horse in pink and pale grey with metallic pink promarker to highlight the hooves and saddle. I used the same metallic marker to colour in the pole and added lots of stars onto the background. It's then matted onto silver holographic card to add a bit of sparkle but without competing with the main image and finally it's centred onto a white textured cardblank. I still can't upload any photos from my Kodak Mini camera but once I've worked out what I'm doing I'll add photos to the blogs missing them.

I've ordered a multibuy stamp set by Sheena Douglass from Create and Craft today so I'll probably blog next when it arrives, so until then keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,
Sarah x

Friday 8 August 2014

Kids, Zombies and Crafts

Hello crafty peeps,

Just a quick post to let all you in bloggerland know that I may be MIA for a few days as we've got our nieces coming to stay for a couple of days. The only place big enough to hold a travel cot and a put-u-up bed is the living room which is where the internet lives, so I wont be able to blog while they are here (I tend to blog late at night and the lil darlings will hopefully be sound asleep!) Luckily they will be back at home by Sunday so I'll probably come let you how things have gone once I've tidied up after them and watched the first episode (series 4?) of "The Walking Dead" which is starting again on 5*. I can't wait!!!! I wouldn't be able to watch it if the girls were still here as I have a tendency to make little squealing noises at the jumpy bits so I'm relieved it's only for two nights this time. Of course I adore having them here but still priorities sweetie - it is "The Walking Dead" we're talking about here *tongue firmly in cheek*.

The girls and I will probably do some crafting though Bea is at the scribbling all over the page (and the mattress of the traveling cot) stage, but Millie loves to make a card or two while she's here in between showing us her Majorette routines and being 'Teacher' - for some reason my husband Chris ends up playing a girl student lol. (Boys have boy germs - urgh!)

Hopefully we'll survive the weekend and I'll be back with you in a few days, until then keep crafting and feel free to comment and/or follow - I'm beginning to hear an echo in here lol.

Love and crafty hugs, Sarah.

Thursday 7 August 2014

Grr technical difficulties

Hello crafty peeps, I was planning on adding some photos to this blog post but unfortunately I can't get the PC I'm using to upload the photos from my Kodak Mini camera! I briefly got the PC to acknowledge the existence of the photos but failed to import them and now its claiming there isn't any or some such nonsense! I hate technology sometimes lol. Anyway enough of my Luddite tendencies, the reason for this blog entry is because my remaining orders arrived yesterday :). The first thing to share is Berol Water Soluble Pencils which I got from Amazon for about a fiver inc P+P. I bought these because the craft imps have stolen my best set though of course now I've got these I've discovered a tin of Tesco watercolour pencils (a bit rubbish to tell the truth but there is 24 colours including white!) in a drawer, the air was blue with my ensuing cursing when I found them. What made it even more vexing is I'd turned my crudy (my affectionate name for what the council claims is a second bedroom but which in reality is a generously sized cupboard) upside down and failed to find the Tesco pencils. Does anyone else out there have craft imps? Creatures that cruelly steal much beloved and needed craft stash only to replace them when you've gone out and bought new ones? No? Just me then!

Craft imps aside, my other order was from Inspire Creationz (www.inspirecreationz.com). This is probably my favourite site and it's one I stumbled onto when I was looking for the Santoro stamps., not the Gorguss Girls ones but the Mirabelle stamps. One of the many reasons I love Inspire Creationz is the fact I can buy up to date items at a reasonable price, plus if your order is over £25 the P+P is free! Claire and Sharon who own the online shop have recently started a loyalty scheme so for every £10 you spend you get a point and once you've got 10 points they send you a discount code for £10 off your next order (t&c apply), I've already had one discount code and I used it on this order, I found it easy enough to spend £30 instead of my usual £25 thus getting 3 points instead of 2 and it soon adds up. Claire and Sharon often slip an extra something into the package too which is a lovely surprise when I open it up. There's a sale on some of the 12"x12" papers at the moment so my order included 8 sheets from the Ruby Rock-It BELLA! AT LAST Collection at 60p each, I still haven't scrapbooked my wedding photos nearly 3 years on so these Wedding themed papers are perfect for when I get round to doing them. I also got a sheet of Kaisercraft Hidden Treasures Bazaar for 85p which is nice and grungy. I also treated myself to the Santoro Mirabelle A4 Premium Paper Pad - I hadn't realised that the papers are identical to the other front piece designs - not sure if that makes sense but there are 5 stamps I think in the collection and the A4 pad I got in my order had the Drift Away image on it, I have the 6"x6" paper pad which has the Pursuit of Happiness image on the front piece and the papers are identical to the ones in the A4 pad  - hope that is clear. There was a special offer on the Prima Marketing Cartographer Brads, Tags and Flowers so they only cost £9 - not sure what full price is but I felt like I got a good deal.

The remaining items in my order are stamps, I got 7 Gypsies Hampton Art Butterflies cling stamps for £5.99, Bo Bunny Wall To Wall Textures Acrylic Stamp set also £5.99 and Dreamees Hexagons Clear Background stamp set at £3.50. The last item wasn't in the package so I emailed them today and within 30 minutes I got a reply! Amazing customer service - other sites could learn a lot from Inspire Creationz. Hopefully my stamp set will be with me in the next couple of days but in the meantime I have a lot of goodies to play with.

With a bit of luck and probably some research on the Internet I should have some photos to share but in the meantime, keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs, Sarah xxx

Wednesday 6 August 2014

Crafty Mail

Hello Crafty peeps.

Just a quick post to let you know about a couple of Internet orders that arrived today. No pics as of yet I'm afraid as I forgot to charge my digi camera, usually I'd use my camera phone but after dropping it for the umpteenths time it's died on me *somber music should play in the background at this time* and I'm bereft! Why do we get so attached to our phones??

Anyhoo back to the lush goodies that arrived today, my first order was from the wonderfully and aptly names everycraftsapound.co.uk - how I love it's cheap goodies! My only grip with this company is the P+P is quite high at £4.95 but saying that it does come via FED-EX so the price is understandable and at least it's per order and not per item! A certain shopping channel may cap its P+P at £6.99 but if you buy two stamp sets for example that £2.99 per item stings a bit! Rant over - back to the goodies! Everycraftsapound has a minimum spend of £20 so I bought 20 items this time though if you're quick they have got a summer sale on at present so you could get 40 items for only £24.95!!! I bought mostly Dovecraft products and to be honest when I say I bought 20 items in truth I bought 12 different things as I ordered 2 of some of them. My first item is a Chipboard Christmas tree which I'm hoping to decorate once I've dug my Christmas stash out. Then I bought 2 lots of Dovecraft easy fix dots, big glue squares and regular glue squares. I've not used any of these adhesives before so it'll be interesting to see how they compare to my usual stuff. Next on the list is a Dovecraft Daisy corner punch which punches lovely through paper but I haven't tried it through card yet. I got two lots of 6x6 patterned paper in "Tea Party" and "Riverbank Revels" and I've got to say the RR papers are lush! You don't get as many as you do in the TP pack but 6 designs are linen effect - my personal favourite is the red and white check, it reminds me of a picnic cloth. The rest of my items are from the Dovecraft  "Cupcake Boutique" and include two packs of the 8x8 papers, 1 pack of paper blossoms, 2 packs of the gems and pearls, 2 packs of the baker's twine and two lots of blue washi tape in dots and stripes. If you've been paying attention (and I've not bored you into a coma with my list!) then you will notice that I actually have 21 items all together not 20, that's because they sent me 2 lots of washi tape instead of the 1 I ordered! I didn't notice the mistake until after I'd open both packs but I'll send them an email to let them know at some point.

My second order came from makethedayspecial.co.uk and is the rather lovely stamp set "Long Time Ago" by Neat & Tangled, it's all sentiments and in the style of the opening sequence of Star Wars, perfect for men's cards and anyone who doesn't take themselves too seriously, it's priced at £10.50 and is A6 size. My one regret is I didn't order the corresponding stamp called "Time Warp" which looks like elongating stars during hyperspace (I'm a secret sci-fi  fan!), it's costs £4.95 which is a great price but I wont be getting it just yet as I'd rather wait until I buy a few more sets from MTDS to save on postage, talking of which it's only £2.50 per order which is very reasonable - they got it out to me really quickly too, as I only ordered it on the 2nd. It's my hubby's birthday on the 21st so I'm going to use this stamp set to make his card - I'm experimenting with starry backgrounds at the moment so I'll let you know how I get and hopefully I'll have a photo or two.

I'm expecting TWO more orders in the next couple of days which I'll share with you when they arrive. Until then - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,
Sarah x

Monday 4 August 2014

WELCOME TO MY CRAFTY NOOK...

Hello crafty peeps. My name is Sarah and I've been crafting for about 10 years, this is the second blog I've started (I did my usual trick of not writing down my password to my last and got locked out!) and I'm hoping to share cards, layouts and projects with anyone interested in papercrafting out in bloggerland.  I'm not promising to blog daily or even weekly, just as and when I have a project that I think people would be interested in.

So pull up a chair and snuggle under a cosy blanket as you join me in my crafty nook.

Love and crafty hugs,
Sarah xxx