Be Merry!

Hello lovely people,

I really really did intend to post earlier this week but gosh, the time has flown by and clearly I didn't get around to it.

Given my ongoing cries of 'there's not enough time in the day', especially now I am back at work, I have decided to step down from the AYLI team so this will be my last challenge with them.  I'm so sad to leave and huge thanks to each and every DT member for being wonderful teamies :-)

So, for my very last challenge (sob sob) at As You Like It we have the theme of...

YOUR FAVOURITE...CHRISTMAS COLOURS
...and don't forget to tell us why it's your favourite!

Our sponsor this time is Digi Stamp Boutique with a £10 voucher

I have several favourite colour combos for Christmas and tend to choose based on the style of project I am making and any image I am using.
But, I think my favourite is blue and brown as it is simultaneously elegant yet cosy, and it suits lots of styles...today it's CAS style!

I tried out triple embossing for the sentiment and holly leaves and was delighted with how they turned out; the photos definitely don't do them justice!

The papers are totally scrummy too and, since I try to go for slightly quicker designs for my Christmas cards, there's no stitching but I did add a pierced border on one layer.

I hope you will pop over to As You Like It and check out the fabulously creative projects from the rest of the team :-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Card recipe;

DP: Snow Queen - Galleria Paperieu

Dies: Scripty merry - Lawn Fawn, Filigree holly - Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions

Silver embossing powder

A gorgeous teddy

Hello lovely people,

I have been making the most of a couple of days off work to get ahead with all my crafty projects, although I have had to do a little housework too!  I also had a lovely coffee date with Dr. Hubby this morning and we shared a piece of amazing chocolate fudge cake - yum :-)

While I am back to work, it's time for a new challenge at As You Like It and our theme is...

YOUR FAVOURITE...TEDDIES OR FAIRIES
...and don't forget to tell us why it's your favourite!

Our sponsor this time is Dies to Die For with a £15 voucher

This is a tough choice as I love teddies and fairies and use both a lot on my cards, but the cute and cuddly factor of teddies makes them the winner for me.
I may also be heavily influenced by a certain little bear who has a special place in my heart, and always features on my Christmas cards... it's James bear!

I've gone for the easy option of a pre-coloured art pad image (not available any more) and a simple layout.  I distressed all the edges and added lots of Frantage and sparkle...which you can't see, but it's there on some areas of the image - lol!

I also added a couple of chipboard snowflakes which I have sponged with white acrylic paint, and a sentiment strip cut from the DP.

I hope you will pop over to As You Like It and check out the fabulously creative projects from the rest of the team :-)

I keep telling myself that it's only 2 days until the weekend - hurrah!

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Card recipe;

Image: Furry Christmas art pad (DISCONTINUED) - LOTV 

DP: A Gift for you - Maja Design
Stampendous Shabby White Frantage

Chipboard snowflakes (DISCONTINUED) - The Ribbon Girl 

I love new stash!

Hello lovely people,

It's full on crafting craziness in my world right now...ok, I know a lot of you will ask when it isn't?!

While I attempt to knock up around 70 wedding thank you cards by the weekend, we have a new challenge at As You Like It and our theme this time is...

YOUR FAVOURITE...NEW or OLD STASH
...and don't forget to tell us why it's your favourite!

Our sponsor this time is Digi Stamp Boutique with a £10 voucher

I absolutely adore having new stash to play with as I find it always inspires me, and in this case it inspired me to try a new fancy fold; this is a double z-fold card.

There's a lot of new stash on this card too as the stamps, papers and gear dies are all new!
You will be seeing more of these fab papers as they are actually Christmas papers but some of the patterns work for any occasion.  There are some snowflake ones too which are lush :-)

I pushed the boat out and got the matching dies for these little bots, which made quick work of cutting them out so I could pop them on foam pads for extra dimension.

I couldn't choose my favourite from this adorable pair so I designed the card so that I could use both of them!

I hope you will pop over to As You Like It and check out the fabulously creative projects from the rest of the team :-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Card recipe;

Images: Boom Bots - Paper Smooches (and matching die set)

DP: Christmas 12x12 paper stack by Galleria Papieru - The Ribbon Girl

Dies: Gears - Craft Emotions, Advent drawer deco set - Tonic Studios

Sentiment: Block sentiments - LOTV

Copic colours;
Robot bodies: T4/5/7
Robot hands: T2/3/4
Red bits: R27/46/59
Blue bits: B45/37/39

My favourite flowers

Hello lovely people,

I'm still chasing my tail but did take some time out to go to the Great British Craft Festival with Debs and Sue on Sunday and oh boy, did we have a fantastic time!
Many pennies were spent and we all have lots of lovely new stash to play with :-)

Now it's time for a new challenge at As You Like It and we have the theme of...

YOUR FAVOURITE...DIE CUT OR BOUGHT FLOWERS
...and don't forget to tell us why it's your favourite!

Our sponsor this time is All Dressed Up with a prize of 2 digis of the winner's choice

I am a huge fan of any kind of flowers on my projects and although die cut flowers have lots of advantages, especially in the posting department, I think my 3D paper flowers will always be my favourites.
They are so pretty and I love to make little arrangements of them around my image to add dimension to my designs.

I used a new shaped base for this card, which was one of my brilliant bargains from the GBCF and it's perfectly shaped for a circular image...with flowers around it of course!

I coloured the uber cute Penelope with my Inktense pencils in slightly brighter shades than I have used before.

I hope you will pop over to As You Like It and check out the fabulously creative projects from the rest of the team :-)

I will be back tomorrow to show you something VERY exciting...some of you may already know what it is if you subscribe to a certain magazine ;-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Card recipe;

Image: Tiny Townie Penelope has a pencil - Stamping Bella

DP: (available from Live and Love Crafts)

Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts
Ribbon: 15mm Sky blue No.3 Berisford satin - The Ribbon Girl

Tags: Sentiment tags - LOTV

Dies: Deco trellis base die set - Tonic Studios, Circle STAX - MFT Die-namics, Fancy flourish - MFT Die-namics

Inktense colours;
Skin: Baked Earth, Madder Brown, Saddle Brown
Hair: Tan, Willow, Oak
Dress / ribbon: Carmine Pink
Pencil body: Deep blue, Navy blue
Pencil tip: Tan, Willow
Pencil rubber: Baked Earth, Willow
Pencil metal band / desk: Charcoal Grey

An unusual cuppa!

Hello lovely people,

I seem to be in one of those phases where I am making quite a few cards but my blog is being sorely neglected; must try harder!

Today I have a card to share with you for our new challenge at As You Like It and our theme this time is...

YOUR FAVOURITE...COLOUR COMBO
...and don't forget to tell us why it's your favourite!

Our sponsor this time is Wild Orchid Crafts with a £12 voucher

My fave colour combo is pink (of course!) and anything along the green/turquoise/aqua spectrum because they really make each other pop and can look great in vintage or modern style.

I have gone for a more modern style with nice bright colours on this card and used some die cut flowers for a change to my usual paper ones.

This card was for my Mum's birthday and she does love her tea so this image seemed perfect.

Now, I am not a tea drinker, but I'm pretty sure this is not the correct way to make tea...but it might just be the cutest teacup ever!

I hope you will pop over to As You Like It and check out the wonderfully creative projects from the rest of the team :-)

I will do my best to share a few more cards with you over the next week!

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Card recipe;

Image: Maisy and Madeline have some tea - Stamping Bella

DP: Pastel Dreams - LOTV (paper pad now retired)

Dies: Flower die sets - Joy! Crafts

Sentiment: A Little Sentimental - Clearly Besotted
Nuvo crystal drops (gloss white) - Tonic Studios

Copic colours;
Mice fur: T0/1/2/3/4
Mice ears: R0000/000/00/01
Teacup / saucer: B000/00/BGF53/45/57
Flowers: R81/83/85 & YR30/31/Y35
Leaves: YG03/17

Beautiful day

Hello lovely people,

Can you believe that in just 4 days I will be back in work after my year-long career break?!  I know I can't and although I am actually looking forward to getting back into it, I will miss having so much time to craft.

I can't feel sad though because it was a fantastic opportunity and I have had an amazing year off :-)

But now it's time for a new challenge at As You Like It and our theme is...

YOUR FAVOURITE...FILM or SONG
...and don't forget to tell us why it's your favourite!

Our sponsor this time is Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps with a $10 gift certificate

Dr. Hubby and I are not the biggest romantics, but when we got together in 1997 there was a song that we both really loved and that we listened to loads, so I think I would have to say that it's 'our song' and is therefore, my favourite song :-)
It's called Flower by Eels, so lucky me that making a card to fit with this is not really hard - lol!

I took the opportunity to have a little play with a new stamp set...and not a lot else...it's pretty CAS!

The stamped wreath and sentiment are from the set but I used die cut flowers on top rather than stamping ones from the set.

I was so pleased with how cute this turned out and am really hoping I have time to play some more with this set soon!

I hope you will pop over to As You Like It and check out the fabulously creative projects from the rest of the team :-)

I hope you all have a beautiful day!

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Card recipe;

Spring wreath stamp set - MFT

DP for flowers: Summer Crush - Maja Design

Memory Box perfect petioles die set

Tonic Studios Nuvo crystal drops in Gloss white

Snug Christmas bunnies

Hello lovely people,

I post nothing for nearly a week and now it's 2 posts in 2 days...and yes, I may well be posting again tomorrow!

Today's post is my DT card for the new challenge at As You Like It and our theme this time is...

YOUR FAVOURITE...Shaped or standard card base
...and don't forget to tell us why it's your favourite!

Our sponsor this time is Sweet Stamp Store with a $10 voucher

I probably make more large square cards because I find it so easy to reach for a pre-made square base, but I always find that my favourite designs are the ones where I have used a shaped base, and it does add interest.

Regular visitors to my blog will know that this lovely shape is a favourite of mine, and the only reason I don't use it more is that it's just a bit small for a lot of images.

I thought it was about time I added to my very tiny stash of Christmas cards so I reached for my fave Christmas stamp, which I'm delighted to say is available again at LOTV and of course, you can now get it in rubber or digi format :-)

I tried a few sentiments but none of them looked quite right, maybe because of the DP with text on it, so I just left it without.

I also played with some flowers on this design and decided I liked it better without so hunted through my dies instead and chose this bow swirl; another die that I love but don't often use!

As you can see, I had another play with the cheesecloth too!

I hope you will pop over to As You Like It and check out the fabulously creative projects from the rest of the team :-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Card recipe;

Image: Christmas bunnies - stocking - LOTV

DP: Glad tidings - Dovecraft

Dies: Large frilly frames #10 - Go Kreate, Twisted swirl - Magnolia Doohickeys
Natural button twine - The Ribbon Girl
Cheesecloth fabric - The Ribbon Girl
Snowflake 1 - The Hobby House

Copic colours;
Rabbits: E40/41/42/43 & R000/00/01
Red: R27/46/89
Green: YG95/97/99
Branch: E37/39/29
Fur: W00/T0/2

Little Sweetie

Hello lovely people,

I very much enjoyed a day of crafting yesterday, especially as Dr. Hubby was nowhere to be seen for most of the day since he was happily playing a newly released, and much anticipated, game for the Playstation 4!

I had a lovely time experimenting with some more of my new stamps :-)

Now, it's time for a new challenge at As You Like It and we have a lovely theme for you...

YOUR FAVOURITE...FLOWER
...and don't forget to tell us why it's your favourite!

Very appropriately given our theme, our sponsor this time is Wild Orchid Crafts with a £12 voucher

My favourite flower might be a little predictable but it's roses, even more from a card-making sense than IRL!
I love the way roses can be used on both modern and vintage style designs and of course, I love to use 3D roses on my creations, but I have them on the image and papers here too!

It's quite a 'classic Kat' kind of card but I did do a couple of tiny things differently to usual.

The biggest difference is the use of Inktense pencils to colour the image rather than my Copics, and I have to say I am loving these more and more.

I feel happy that I have now figured out how to get a nice flicking effect on the hair which I think adds a lot of texture.

I used a darker Distress Ink to edge my papers and image to give more of an 'antique' feel, so this is Gathered Twigs instead of my favourite Frayed Burlap.

I also didn't take the twine across the entire card...ok, that's a VERY tiny difference - lol!

It's funny isn't it how we all have our favourite die cuts that get used a lot and some that don't...but just sometimes are perfect for a project.  That was the case with this corner die cut that I really like but don't use a lot as it often doesn't seem to suit the card...I hope you agree it found it's niche here!

I have still used my beloved Maja DP but this is some that I haven't used before even though it's from quite an old collection and I am loving the deep blue.

I hope you will pop over to As You Like It and check out the fabulously creative projects from the rest of the team :-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Card recipe;

Image: Sweetie - Wee Stamps for Whimsy Stamps

DP: Vintage Autumn - Maja Design (available from Live and Love Crafts)

Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts
Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Tag: Sentiment tags - LOTV

Dies: Filigree corner - La La Land

Inktense colours;
Skin: 1800 Baked Earth, 1520 Carmine Pink, 1740 Saddle Brown
Hair: 1740 Saddle Brown, 1730 Oak, 2010 Sepia Ink
Dress / flowers: 0830 Navy Blue, 0840 Iron Blue
Leaves: 1540 Light Olive

Favourite papers

Hello lovely people,

Gosh, it's been a few days since I last posted, but I got rather caught up in other things, namely a HUGE crafting project, that very annoyingly I can't tell you about!

It's safe to say that it was a labour of love and I am now mentally exhausted but very happy :-)

So, while I have a little lie down to recover, it's time for a new challenge at As You Like It and our theme is...

YOUR FAVOURITE...PAPERS
...and don't forget to tell us why they are your favourite!

Our sponsor this time is Crafts U Love with a £10 voucher

I don't think any of you will be surprised when I tell you that my favourite papers are Maja Design; I find it impossible to resist owning every single collection they produce!

The patterns are beautiful, they have a gorgeous vintage style and all the collections co-ordinate so I can mix and match them and know they will work perfectly together.

They are also very versatile...these Christmas papers also happen to be brilliant for masculine cards!

I can't believe it took me this long to play with my new adorable elephant stamps!

I've given this one a cute paper pieced balloon :-)

I cut several circular frames and layered them up, then wrapped the twine around a few times before adding the tag.

I also layered up the sentiment banner, but only with 2 layers, just to make it a little sturdier.

I hope you will pop over to As You Like It and check out the fabulously creative projects from the rest of the team :-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Card recipe;

Image: Adorable elephants - My Favourite Things (available from Dies to Die For)

DP: A gift for you - Maja Design (available from Live and Love Crafts)
Dies: Happy Birthday banner - Taylored Expressions, Stitched scallop edges - MFT Die-namics, Circle stax - MFT Die-namics, Nesting circles - Tonic studios (all available from Dies to Die For)

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Tag: Family sentiment tags - LOTV

Copic colours;
Elephant: W1/2/3/4 & R0000/00/01
Ground: E41/42/43

My 'trademark' - can you guess?!

Hello lovely people,

It's half way through the week and so far I have completed a few tasks;
- I decluttered our en-suite cupboard and organised the remaining items into some new plastic bins; I LOVE to have new storage for things!
- I ordered a new side table for the lounge
- I updated my Folksy shop with some new cards

Other than that I may have got a little sidetracked by crafting - lol!

While I try to get a few more jobs done today, it's time for a new challenge for you at As You Like It and our theme is...

YOUR 'TRADEMARK' STYLE...
...i.e. what defines your style 
...and don't forget to tell us why!

Our sponsor this time is Digi Stamp Boutique with a £10 voucher

My trademark has to be stitching since it is on almost all of my cards, no matter what style.  I love the subtle detail it adds and the way it 'finishes' the edges.
I also find it very therapeutic as I do all of it by hand!

The card is for someone leaving to have a baby and since they don't know if it's a boy or girl I went for neutral colours.

I was excited to play with my new co-ordinating stamps and dies for this card and I wasn't sure if paying extra for the dies would be worth it but it totally is!

I wouldn't usually go to the bother of fussy cutting the elements, but the dies make it so easy, which means I can create a design like this one where I have raised up the babygros slightly on foam pads.

I am continuing my current love affair with Frantage, but I do like to be quite sparing with it to add just a hint of detail.

I hope you will pop over to As You Like It and check out the fabulously creative projects from the rest of the team :-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Card recipe;

Image & sentiment: Little bundle stamps and co-ordinating dies - Lawn Fawn (from Dies to Die For)

DP: Vintage baby - Maja Design (available from Live and Love Crafts)

Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts
Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Dies: Scallop circles - Tonic Studios, Circle stax - MFT Die-namics

Charm - Baby time charms and spacers - The Hobby House
Frantage shabby white embossing enamel