Passion for ProMarkers Blog Challenge week 281 - Garden Life #2

Hello crafty peeps, welcome to my crafty nook! On this cold snowy day I thought a lovely summery card would be just the thing to cheer us up. I used a Wild Rose Studios stamp called 'Summer Meadow' that came free a few years ago with Quick Cards Made Easy magazine and teamed it up with some floral and polka dot pink papers that I've had free with various magazines to make a 12cm by 12cm easel card. I added a sentiment and a couple of fun foam roses which I coloured with a Rose Pink ProMarker to match the roses in the picture. Here are some close ups of the card - the photo quality is a little better in these.

The link for this week's blog challenge is on the post below this one if you'd like to join in. I'm in the process of making a birthday card for my niece Millie who will be turning nine next week. Once I've made the card I shall add a post to this blog, in the meantime - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Passion for ProMarkers Blog Challenge week 281 - Garden Life

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all well and enjoyed the weekend. I've very nearly organised my crudy! There are just a few hot spots that need tidying up and the floor to vacuum but I'm very pleased with how it's turned out, most things now have a designated home which makes tidying up after a crafting session a lot easier and I even have a few box files, boxes and baskets empty ready for new purchases. It isn't perfect but as near to a workable system that I can get in the space available, ideally I should have a stash purge and get rid of things I haven't used for a while but I gave quite a bit of stuff away just before Christmas and I'm reluctant to do so again just a month later. Like most things in life it's a 'work in progress' and I'm sure it won't stay this way for long.

As you probably know Tuesdays are when the new challenge is announced on Passion for ProMarkers and this week's theme is "Garden Life", I may enter this challenge a few times as I have quite a few floral and gardening themed stamps. My first offering is an old stamp set (004) from Kanban and features a rose bush. This stamp set was a real favourite of mine a few years ago but as I've got more stamp sets it's fallen out of favour. I thought this week's challenge was an excellent reason to start using it again. I stamped the image out three times and coloured it in using ProMarkers (Poppy and Crimson for the roses, Holly and Pine for the leaves with a smidgen of Sandstone for the stems). Once coloured I fussy cut out some leaves, the large bloom rose, the inner part of the largest rose and a fully opened smaller rose and went round the cut areas with the crimson or Pine  ProMarker depending on which component it was, to stop them looking so raw. I shaped them slightly with a bone folder. I decoupaged the largest rose using different thicknesses of sticky foam pads and added sticky pads to the single layer rose and the leaves and layered these over the matching flat images on the main panel. I added the large rose last as I wanted it to be above the leaves.

I layered the card panel to black card stock then matted that onto black holographic card stock using tape runner. I cut an A4 sheet of Acetate to slightly wider than my layered panel and scored both sides so that the central part of the acetate was a few millimetres larger than the card panel. I added red liner tape to both flaps and stuck them to the back of the card which causes the acetate to bow outwards. I added a 3D butterfly to the upper right hand side of the acetate dome.

I haven't mounted this onto a card blank yet as I'm not sure how I want to present it, I might just add a panel of white card to the back to write on as the bow of the dome means it already stands up to be put on display without a card blank.

Click here for this week's challenge: promarkerchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/week-281garden-life.html
I hope you like my latest creation, I will add another post if I make any more Garden Life inspired cards. As always if you have any comments or questions please use the box below or the comments form on the side bar, until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Birthday Star Card

Hello crafty peeps, welcome to my crafty nook. I mentioned in my last blog that I needed to make a card for Steve, Isobel's daddy and I'd like to share the card I've come up with. Originally I wanted to make an iPhone shaker card using a stamp set from Clearly Besotted called "Text Me" and I got as far as making the shaker element. Unfortunately after I'd made the shaker iPhone I had a craft block and couldn't think of what to put on the rest of the card! I've decided to shelve the shaker card for now and instead I made a star card using a star stencil that came free with issue 130 Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine (talking of which check out this month's issue which has a huge stamp set from Clearly Besotted stamps with It!!!) and the nesting stars dies that came free with Simply Homemade magazine a couple of issues ago.

Star card using magazine freebies

I used the stencil straight onto a 5" square card blank and added different coloured chalk inks using a sponge dauber. While the inks dried I die cut the stars out using holographic card in gold and silver. I layered them together to make the first star shape then just die cut the second using the smallest star die. This die also embosses a small flower in the centre which I thought was too girly so I punched out a small star out of black holographic card. As I had the punch to hand I punched as many stars as I could using the leftover card pieces from the die cutting. I nestled the smaller die cut star inside the larger and secured them together using some clear tape on the back, I added the black star to cover the embossed flower using a small foam pad, then added the star embellishment to the centre of the stamped card blank. I accidentally got a mark near the top of the card so wrapped bakers twine to cover over it and finished with a bow.

Close up of star embellishment

The free stencil also came with some stamps and I used the Happy Birthday! greeting from it to stamp inside the card. The stamps had to be primed with sandpaper a lot to get a decent image and even after sanding it 4 times I still didn't get a good impression so I went over it with a ProMarker multi liner pen. I added 7 of the punched stars to the left hand side and stuck them down inside the card.

I hope you like my latest card, I've three more cards to make in the next week or two which I hope to be able to share with you too. I'll probably be taking part in the Passion for ProMarkers blog challenge on Tuesday and I'll share my card/project once it's made but until then enjoy the rest of your weekend and keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

New Driver Card and haul from Every Craft's A Pound

Hello crafty peeps, welcome to my crafty nook! I can't believe it's already a week since my last post - I don't know where the time's gone. I hope you are all well and have something fun planned for the weekend -my plan is to hibernate or just hide in my crudy lol. I'm still (yes STILL!) sorting my crudy out and I've finally put away some Christmas stuff that got left on my desk after making Christmas cards last year, I thought I'd put it all away put I think it hides when I'm not looking. Because my crudy is very small I tend to have boxes stacked on top of each other and I don't have any work surfaces clear (when I'm crafting my free space is about the size of an A4 sheet of paper and when I use my trimmer it hangs off the edge of the desk) so I have to balance everything on my hip or on the floor when I'm tidying my stash (not much clear space there either) which makes putting things away turn into quite a production. Plus I'm a bit idle.

I literally have an A4 sheet of paper worth of space!

Just like last week I have my little crafty helper keeping an eye on things as I blog but instead of sitting on my head he's curled up on the pull out shelf of the computer desk - it's really sweet and he's keeping my wrists warm as they are resting on him! Only problem is I keep having to stop typing every couple of lines or so as Jinx gets fidgety if I don't stroke him regularly. Small price to pay to have a contented cat.

Passion for ProMarkers Blog Challenge week 280 - New Beginnings

New Driver card entry 

Click here to join in: promarkerchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/week-280-new-beginnings.html

As always I'm doing the Passion for ProMarkers Blog Challenge which is called "New Beginnings", I've started this project three times so far, the first two attempts were for Shhh Baby Asleep Door signs as I wanted to do something a bit different than a baby card but I ended up scrapping them as I couldn't get them to look the way I had them in my head. Then I decided to do a car themed card as my nephew is taking his driving test soon and it would be good to have a card with a purpose this week. I've had two orders from "Every Craft's A Pound" this year and ECAP has started giving away a free gift with every order - stamps this time round. The first free stamp set I got was called Vroom Vroom and has a sleek sports car as it's main image and the second stamp set I got free was called Beep Beep and has the front grill of a car with number plate style greetings to stamp in the empty registration plate. I stamped the sports car out and coloured it with red poppy and red ProMarker but couldn't get it to look shiny so I decided to cheat and coated it with some Dovecraft clear 3D pearl effects (it's a bit like a clear raised glue or Glossy Accents and is AMAZING for sticking sequins to projects - once it dries those suckers won't shift!) unfortunately it dried streaky as I didn't put an even amount on the car. Stupidly I was being a bit stingy with it as I only have one bottle (did the same with Glossy Accents, never used it as it was nearly a fiver for a bottle and now it's gone yellow!) which is really daft as it only cost £1 in the first place (will definitely be buying more bottles assuming ECAP still sell it when I place my next order). So I scrapped that idea and instead settled on a cute Mini car image from a stamp set called "New Beginnings". I stamped the image onto a panel of white card stock towards the left hand side of the card using Memento Tuxedo Black ink then masked off the area above the bonnet using a heart shaped post it note (bonnet and post it note both curve slightly) and stamped a flower half on the bonnet in the same ink, then I stamped a different flower on the door of the Mini. Both stamps came from a set I got free from Crafts Beautiful magazine in 2011 which featured cupcakes and flowers. The wheels of the car were a little patchy so I stamped them again on a spare piece of card and fussy cut round them. I coloured all images using ProMarkers then stamped some hearts (stamp used from "Scientifically Speaking - Clearly Besotted) in red ink behind the back of the car so it looks like they are coming out of the exhaust and stamped more flowers using black ink which I then coloured in. I added a black road using Black Wink of Stella which I also added to the re-stamped wheels. The door handle, bumpers, wing mirror base and trim around the headlight were coloured in using ProMarkers Metallic silver marker. I added clear Wink of Stella to the windows, flowers and lights of the image. I added the new wheels using sticky foam tape so they are slightly raised on the car. I coloured the sky using Dovecraft Brights chalks then stamped W3LL DON3 from the Beep Beep stamp set and punched out a star from glitter card which I added to just under the sentiment. I glued some sequins onto the hearts and flower exhaust plume using the Dovecraft clear Pearl Effects. Once the sequins where dry I mounted the panel onto corrugated silver card and then matted it onto black card.  I made a card blank using tie dyed card from DCWV which I think ties in nicely to the hippy style of the mini.

Close up of topper

This car is probably a bit girly for my nephew but I couldn't resist making it pink and flowery. It's taken me a lot longer than usual to make a card for this challenge after all my false starts but I'm rather pleased with how it's turned out.

Haul from Every Craft's A Pound

I couldn't resist putting in an order to ECAP after I saw all the lovely Steampunk themed metal embellishments. I've just taken a photo of the complete box of goodies as many of them are multiples of the same thing - the quality is poorer than usual and I can't take another as I've put everything away so please bare with me. My order included Papermania Chronology Clock Faces, Cogs, Keys, book plates and clock hands though they are more like game spinners than hands. Four Urban background stamps (Chronology again) three bottles of Dovecraft 3D pearl effect in black, silver and cream and an embossing folder called Diamond Frame which matches the Docraft Art Deco release from last year. My final item was the free stamp set mentioned above. Check out the latest deals at ECAP here: www.everycraftsapound.co.uk - there are loads of Crafters' Companion goodies just in.

I hope you've enjoyed sharing my card and haul from ECAP. As always if you have any questions or comments please leave them below or in the comments form in the sidebar. I have a birthday card to make this weekend for Isobel's daddy which I'll post once I've made it (unless it's too hideous to share!) so until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Passion for ProMarkers Blog Challenge week 279 - Teddy Bears

Hello crafty peeps - welcome to my crafty nook! I can't believe it's nearly the weekend again - where has this week gone? I hope you've all had a good week and have lots of crafty plans for the weekend. My "crudy" still leaves a lot to be desired but one good thing has come from all this chaos - I've finally found the star dies that the craft gremlins had stolen inside a Amazon cardboard wrapper of all places (I save them in case I can think of a way to re-use them!), fingers crossed they'll put the water colour pencils in a place I'm going to look very soon too lol. Please excuse any typos that I may miss, my fur baby Jinx is being 'challenging' and keeps standing on the keyboard, in front of the screen or on my head! Not sure how he quite manages the last one as he is quite a big cat - I can only conclude that I have a giant head!!!

Anyway back to the main reason for this blog post - this week's challenge is Teddy Bears and one that I again found challenging (but not as challenging as Jinx!) not because I don't have the right supplies but because I have too many (what a lovely complaint to have, right?) and it was extremely difficult to chose which bear stamp to use. In the end I chose a Fizzy Moon stamp called Wedding Bells which I bought at the beginning of last year from my local craft shop. TBH I usually rigorously follow the coloured image on the packaging which is fine when it's something like "Tatty Teddy" or the "Forever Friends" bear where the images are well known but I think a little experimentation is good for images that don't have that brand recognition (saying that I haven't been in a card shop for about 10 years so I've no idea if Fizzy Moon is as popular as the two brands already mentioned - people may be horrified with the way I've coloured the two bears!) One of the reasons I've started to take part in the challenges on Passion for ProMarkers is to push myself out of my crafting comfort zone and not following the packaging of this stamp really did do that (babysteps still) saying that though the colouring isn't that different to the original. I've also tried a new way of colouring fur (new to me anyway) and instead of using pens in the same colour wave (yellows with yellows etc) I've actually blended mustard yellow with either caramel (Bride) or cinnamon (Groom) AND if that wasn't Avant Garde enough I scribbled the brown colours all over the images (obviously keeping inside the lines - I'm not that much of a rebel!) before going over it with the mustard! - Yes you did read that right, I SCRIBBLED!!! lol As usual my camera lets me down so you can't see how much texture this method gives the bears, they look all nubbly and worn in real life, just like the ted does that I've had since I was born. My husband and I married relatively late in life (we'll probably be pensioners when we celebrate our silver wedding anniversary) so I find the thought of middle aged bears getting married oddly comforting and I think other late bloomers would like it on their wedding card too.

Fizzy Moon Wedding Bells 8" x 8" card

I stamped the card blank all over using a heart stamp from the Clearly Besotted range called "Love Chemistry" (I think) * I've checked and the Clearly Besotted Stamp set used is actually called "Scientifically Speaking", sorry about any confusion caused, the hearts are meant to bubble out of a test tube or beaker but I thought they'd be perfect to reduce the starkness of the white card blank. I layered the main image on red card, black card and then holographic paper from Paper Cellar. I originally made red paper roses to stick on the top right and bottom left corners of the card but couldn't bring myself to clutter the card up (now that would truly be a hard challenge for me - use lots of embellishments!) so I made a couple of red felt coiled roses which I still couldn't face using lol. Instead I off centred the stamped image and added two lengths of suede cord tied in a knot in the centre which I added to the left hand side of the card. I've just realised I've forgotten to add a sentiment - please pretend it's there.

Here are some close ups.

I couldn't resist adding some clear Wink of Stella to the roses, hearts and belly buttons on the bears.

I hope you like my new card, as always if you have any questions or comments please leave them below or in the comments form in the side bar if you want to say something not for public viewing.

A Few Sites You Might Like To Visit

promarkerchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/week-279teddy-bears.html

click to enter teddy bear challenge

everycraftsapound.co.uk

Every Crafts A Pound has got some FABULOUS new stock in including Papermania's Chronology metal embellishments and stamps - very steampunk and similar to Tim Holtz clock faces, cogs and spinners but only £1!!!!

Please let me know if you like having sites to visit on my blog and if you do I'll continue to link sites as appropriate on my posts. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Happy News and a small haul

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! As you've probably noticed I've been redecorating here in my crafty nook and have a new water themed wallpaper to brighten the place up in 2015. Even better I have a sparkly blinkie from Passion for ProMarkers at the top of the sidebar, after the lovely Loopy Lou chose my card as one of the top 5 Passionista for the sketch challenge week 278 (see post below for the chosen card). I am really chuffed to be awarded this blinkie and I've been insanely happy since I found out yesterday. I had a little trouble adding it to my sidebar, as regular readers of this blog know I'm not exactly computer literate, but Denise from Passion for Promarkers kindly guided me through the process and I managed to add it without the rest of the blog self-destructing lol.

I also have a very small haul to share with you that came on Tuesday. The last two cards on this blog have featured stamps from the Crafter's Companion range "Scruffy Little Cats" and I've wanted some more images while the post Christmas sale was still on. Not only were the stamps reduced to £1.00 each (when I bought them last I think they were £2.50 or similar) but they were included in the 6 for £5.00 deal. I originally only put 4 in my basket as I had the other stamps but when I went to the checkout it kept coming up with the 6 for £5 offer so I decided to add two stamps I already owned in as well to give to my niece Charlie. My new stamps are called "Chelsea, Pixie, Perry, Ashleigh, Francesca and Lola" the last two stamps are the ones for Charlie.

Francesca and Lola stamps for Charlie

Chelsea and Pixie Stamps

Ashleigh and Perry Stamps

Eventually I'd like to get the full sized stamp sets in the range as they have different characters featured and sentiments included but they are currently £4.99 each or 3 for £12.00 and unmounted rubber which I really dislike - I much prefer the acrylic versions. If you want to get your mitts on these rather lush stamps they are still only £1.00 each or 6 for £5.00 which means you could get all 8 for only £7 (plus £1 p&p) plus if you are a Bronze member of the Club Inspire (free to join after first purchase) you get 5% off every order (think its 5% could be 10%) not including p&p. www.crafterscompanion.co.uk is the link if you want to check it out.

This week's challenge on Passion for ProMarkers is Teddy Bears  http://promarkerchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/week-279teddy-bears.html so please join in and see if you can win a blinkie too or a digi stamp from polka doodles. I'm in the middle of my card entry so I hope to share it with you soon. I haven't managed to finish my "crudy" re-organisation - it came out of the room so it must go back in somehow!!! I'm not sure it's ever going to be at the stage where I share it online mainly because there's a heck of a lot of stuff in a very small space and things are stacked high so even though it's actually quite organised it looks like complete chaos lol. I have managed to find things I hadn't realised I'd lost (a copy of John Wyndham's "Midwich Cuckoos" for example) but not the things I know should be in there like my lovely water colour pencils and a couple of star dies that came free with "Simply Homemade" magazine last month that I hadn't had a chance to use before the craft gremlins stole them! Damn those pesky craft gremlins! lol

I hope you've enjoyed my little bit of good news, if you have any comments or questions then please use either the box below or the contact form in the sidebar and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Card Entry for Passion for ProMarkers Sketch Challenge week No:278

Hello crafty peeps - welcome to my crafty nook! Today I'd like to share my entry to the Passion for ProMarkers Sketch Challenge which is currently running on the Passion for ProMarkers Blog www.promarkerchallenge.blogspot.com (scroll down for sketch post). I've never followed a sketch before and found this one quite daunting because it features a circular card with multiple layers and I don't actually own any circle dies. I have a Fiskars shape cutter and circle templates but in all honesty I find it very difficult to use as the blade tends to skip away from the side of the circles and ruins the card stock and when I first used it I must have been holding it wrong because the blade would fall out as it cut! In the end after ruining 3 sheets of black card I decided to just use the shapes as templates and drew around them using a pencil then I cut them out. The result isn't as perfect as I would like but I've now run out of black card so it'll have to suffice.

Card using challenge sketch

Sorry the quality isn't very good, if you scroll down this post I've added some close ups of the main topper that are clearer. I used another Crafter's Companion Little Scruffy Cats stamp as my main image and coloured it with ProMarkers and highlighted the hearts, shoes and hair with clear Wink of Stella brush marker. The heart paper comes from an A4 paper stack from Do Crafts Papermania called Tilly Daydream - I love the cross stitch hearts on this sheet. The large flower was made using a stitch flower die and has a pearl centre. The smaller flowers came from the Works and I shaped them using an embossing ball tool and layered them together to make a more 3D flower, again I added a flat backed large pearl to each centre. I mounted my circular panel onto a scalloped 8 " by 8 " card blank because I don't have any circular cards in my stash. I've probably stuck a little too close to the sketch but as its my first one I wanted to follow it as near as possible (babysteps!) Below is a slightly better quality photo that I've just taken with my phone.

Slightly better photo quality! 

Here are some close ups...

I'm not happy with how the hair has turned out but the challenges on the Passion for ProMarkers blog are an excellent way for me to practice my colouring technique and they are allowing me to try new things and think outside the box craft wise.

I hope you like my latest card and as always if you have any questions or comments please leave them in the section below or if you look in the side bar I now have a "contact me" form. I'm still in the middle of re-arranging my "Crudy" (craft/study - crudy! lol) but the new oak sideboard is in place and looks FABULOUS!!!! lol nearly put my back out lifting the glass fronted cupboards onto the base though. I shall be working on the crudy reshuffle over the weekend and hopefully I'll have a new card share for you on Monday. Until then - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

p.s. I've just realised I forgot to mention the lace strip across the card front - I made this using the lace daisy punch by Martha Stewart. x Sarah x

Entry#1 for Passion for ProMarkers week 277 Mega Christmas Challenge

DIE CUT, FREE, GLITTER

Entry#1 for Passion for ProMarkers Mega Christmas Challenge

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all enjoying the first weekend of 2015, I'm in the middle of a huge re-organisation of my living  room and my "Crudy" after purchasing a much bigger than I thought sideboard/dresser from one of the local second hand shops using some of the Christmas money I was given by very generous relatives! The unit is 5 ft 4 " long and almost 6 ft high, my husband would love for me to get rid of some rather outdated 70's units but I rather like them so they're staying lol. Instead I'm hoping to replace a desk I've had since I was about 12 (plus a cupboard) with a rather battered but still functional black sideboard in my crudy and put the "new" oak sideboard in it's place in the living room. It means I'm going to be rather busy for quite a while emptying the black sideboard of around 800 books and various other stuff (can't really remember what's in the cupboards apart from a rather pretty coffee service), moving the sideboard out of the way and replacing it with the two halves of the new sideboard then putting everything away so Chris doesn't trip over the boxes and bags. Then I'll have to repeat the whole process in the crudy (probably even more stuff in there than the living room - I'm a craft hoarder!) To make things even more 'interesting' I'd really like to have everything sorted by Wednesday 7th Jan '15 as it's my mum's birthday and I've invited her over for a meal.

 Unfortunately I'm rather a Procrastinating Princess and I've already got distracted today making the above card for the Passion for ProMarkers blog challenge. I wasn't actually planning on entering but I've still got loads of diamond fold accordion blanks just crying out to be decorated and I treated myself to some Crafter's Companion "Scruffy Little Cat" stamps when they were in the sales (they still may be on sale so check out the Crafter's Companion Website). I've coveted these stamps for months now ever since they appeared on "Create and Craft" tv channel. I couldn't afford them at the time but I'm really glad I waited as they were only a couple of pounds each and stamp beautifully. I decided to use the Die Cuts, FREE, Glitter, choice of the craft bingo card (pearls were my FREE item). I hope the judges are ok with my interpretation of Glitter as I haven't actually used loose glitter just glitter card and glitter glue. For some extra sparkle I added black wink of stella to the main image's eyelashes, silver WOS to the bath fittings and clear WOS to the powder puff and over the eye shadow. The main image was stamped using Black Tuxedo ink and coloured in using ProMarkers. As always I apologise for the photo's quality, it doesn't do justice to the glitter card in the slightest. Below are some more photos including close ups of the ProMarker colouring.

Closed card ready for DL sized envelope

Close up of Image coloured with ProMarkers

With Added Red Glitter Hearts

I hope you've enjoyed this card share, as always if you have any comments or questions I'd love to hear from you so please leave them in the space below. I'm off to do a bit of packing and I think I hear the siren call of the crudy so I may have to do a bit of crafting too (I have to make a card for my mum!) so until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxxx

P.S. I've just had to delete then re-submit my link on Passion for ProMarkers Mega Christmas Challenge because I'd somehow managed to link my draft version of this post instead of my actual blog post - D'oh! Sorry for any confusion caused. Sarah xxx

2015 - my best year yet??

Happy New Year crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook!

I hope you have had a fantastic New Year, I'm full of cold but also full of excitement for the year ahead. I just know this year is going to be one full of promise and lots of crafting. Have you made any New Year's Resolutions? I have and one of them is to do some sort of craft work everyday. I would really like to finally learn how to knit properly, I can do the middle parts of scarves but can't seem to get my head round casting on and casting off and in the past I've had to get my mum to do it for me. I'd also love to learn how to crochet and luckily for me my mum-in-law knows how to do it so hopefully she'll teach me in the months to come (I also have an un-watched DVD called "How to crochet" kicking around the flat if I need extra help.)

I've made a Happy New Year card for a friend who's Christmas card got misplaced in my handbag which I'd like to share with you all.

Happy New Year Card

I've used A4 Kraft card for the base and the sentiment mat and Papermania Modern Christmas Chevron paper for the background. I used a length of Dovecraft Baker's Twine  wrapped around the front of the card and tied into a bow. The sentiment came from Debbie Moore's Art Deco Christmas pack from 2013 and the main topper was from a foiled set that came free with a magazine (sorry not sure which one, I'll amend this posting when I know). I went around the outer edge of the stamped sentiment with a silver Wink of Stella brush marker.

This is a very simple card to make and a good way to use up toppers and papers hanging around from Christmas.

I'm planning on writing shorter blogs this year but more frequently. Please let me know which blogs you prefer - short and often or longer more detailed blogs but only once a week or so.

As always please leave any questions or comment below, I'd love you to share your Crafty New Year's Resolutions here on this blog. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx