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Friday 30 December 2016

A few things to share...

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I am so sorry I've not added a blog post for over a month, I came back from the wedding terribly run down and ended up with a chest infection, then with Christmas looming, I just haven't had time to blog the few things I've made. To make matters worse I've come down with a really heavy cold over Christmas and I've lost my sense of smell and taste completely which has made me feel pretty miserable as you can imagine - all those lovely Christmas goodies and I can't taste (or smell!) a single one! My cold started on the 23rd and I'd lost my sense of smell and taste by the 24th and it's still not come back yet. For the first year ever, I made Christmas lunch for my mum and I (my husband chose to spend Christmas or at least the meal with his family at a pub!) and I couldn't even taste it - apparently it was very nice though. I'll have to try and re-create it when I'm better.

I thought I'd share a couple of Christmas cards I made earlier this month. For the second year running most of my friends and relatives haven't actually had a Christmas card off me but I'm planning on whipping up some simple Happy New Year cards to send out instead.

Penguin/Igloo card made for my Niece and Nephews

Close up of the Igloo

I call this penguin Charlie after my niece :) 

The boys :)

Jack the penguin

Liam the penguin

Ross the penguin with snowball

On thin ice...

I absolutely love the stamp set and embossing folder that came free with Papercraft Essentials magazine a couple of months ago, my subscription needs renewing so I ended up paying full price of £5.99 for the magazine but it is well worth it as it also included a little die set that cuts out three skates, the ear muffs (though these could be headphones as well) and the little bobble hat. You have to fussy cut the scarf and the actual characters but that's easy enough to do. As well as the penguin characters, there is a bear and a seal along with some accessories like a pile of snowballs and a sledge but I've only really used the penguins. Although this is a Christmas/winter set I can see it being used all the year through because it is very versatile. The little sprig of holly on Liam's head actually came from the embossed door/wreath cover gift that came out around September time - for the life of me though I can't remember which magazine it came free with . I kept the colouring fairly simple on this card and used a combination of ProMarkers and Kaiserfusion pens the latter only because I have a lot of icy colours in that brand whereas for some reason Promarkers don't seem to have many icy/frosty colours and it's boring always colouring ice the same tired blue or pale grey. I added Spectrum Noir Clear Shimmer Overlay to the igloo, ice pond and to other parts of the card. As always though it's rather hard to see the sparkle in a photo. I also added a bit of Woodware Fluffy Stuff to the bobble of a hat and the snowball in Ross the penguins hand for added texture. It's a thick liquid which fluffs up when you apply heat to it - a fantastic product that I'm always surprised isn't made more of in the crafting community (it's been out for years and I've had the same bottle for almost 8 years now because a little goes a long way.)

We Three Kings

Close up of card

I made this card using a die and embossing folder that came free with Die Cutting Essentials magazine. I'll admit that Die Cutting Essentials magazine is rather pricey at £9.99 but I found I was usually buying it online at more.mags.com at the full price plus postage so it made sense to start a subscription to the magazine. This die came with my first subbie copy and I really love it. I actually made around a dozen cards using the die but each one was slightly different as I used different ways to colour the background panel that goes behind the black die cut outline. My favourite ones were made using distress ink and blending three colours together in an ombre effect but I was very pleased with how this watercolour panel piece came out using Karetake Gansai Tambi Watercolours, I used a heat gun to speed the drying process up and it caused the watercolours to run which I rather like as it looks as though there are tongues of flame in the sky which is rather dramatic. Probably the hardest thing about making this card is sticking down the diecut to the back panel just because some of the design is rather delicate but a steady hand and a glue pen soon solved that.

It'll be rather a shame to put away the Three Kings die once the Christmas period is well and truly over as I had a lot of fun experimenting with different backgrounds. The penguin set will be staying out in my regular stash as I'm sure I'll be able to use it for other non Christmassy cards during the year - not least because I've recently found out that my sister's OH loves penguins! (That's the theme for his next card sorted!)

I really want to improve my blog during 2017 and grow my audience so one thing I do need to tackle is the frequency of blog posts. Until I can save for a decent digital camera, my photos are still going to remain a little on the poor side but I hope you my lovely reader (s) will look past that and continue to support my blog as it develops and grows. It would be fantastic if you could become a follower by clicking the follow button in the side bar or by subscribing via email. As always I would love to hear your questions and comments so feel free to leave them in the usual places.

I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas and I wish you all a healthy and prosperous New Year. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

2 comments:

  1. Lovely cards. Can't find your blog on Bloglovin to follow though.

    Michele

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    Replies
    1. Hi Michele, thank you for the sweet comment. I'm not on Bloglovin at the moment but I will look into adding it to my blog in the near future. If you are on Google+ then you can follow through them or through Blogger at the moment and you can subscribe via email too. I hope this helps and I hope you come back to visit soon. Crafty hugs Sarah xxx

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Sarah xxx