Tweet holiday greetings

Hello lovely people,

Ahem, it's been a while hasn't it?!

Nothing terrible to report...other than my utter pants-ness at getting any blog posts done recently.

But I am back now with a Dies to Die For DT card :-)

I'll admit that I was quite restrained with the latest MFT release but there was no way I could resist the sweet robin stamps, especially this pair all snuggled up sharing a scarf...just tooooooo cute!

I also used the new holiday sentiment background and stamped it with Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide.

If I've tempted you with any of the lovely supplies I've used then you can go straight to the individual products via the links below or just pop over to Dies to Die For and have a little browse around!

Thanks for popping in and I hope you have a lovely cosy day!

Lovely things I've used from Dies to Die For;
Tweet holidays - My Favorite Things
Tweet holidays die-namics - My Favorite Things
Stitched arch STAX - My Favorite Things
Christmas background - My Favorite Things
Stylish snowflakes - My Favorite Things (for the tiny snowflakes)

Other ingredients;
Crystal Glamour Dust
Distress Oxide in Tumbled Glass

Copic colours;
Robin bodies: E23, E25, E27
Robin tummies: R24, R27, R46, R59
Robin beaks: YR14, YR16
Scarves / hats: BG01, BG02, BG07

LOTV: Christmas woodland scenes

Hello lovely people,

It's release day at LOTV so from midday you can get your hands on a huge range of stunning new Christmas images, available as rubber or digi stamps, or simply print sheets.

So I have my final Design Team creation for you, or should I say creations because I got carried away and ended up making a trio of cards!

I have used the Woodland Scenes collection and I've teamed them up with some of the newly released digi papers.

I think a lot of people are delighted to see the beautiful LOTV papers back in digi format, and the Kraft ones were always popular...well, they are so stylish!

This first card is 12.5cm square and uses one of the robins from the collection...

I've used my stitched dies together to create the circular aperture within the square.  I just lay the square and circle dies down, measure to make sure the gap around the circle is even on all sides and tape them together so I can run them through my die cutting machine as one piece.

This is the other robin in the collection...

I have used the digi stamps for my cards, but have printed them at the rubber stamp size so you can see what size they are.

For my last card, the image is a little bigger so I adapted the design slightly to make a 11.5 x 15cm card and added a sentiment on this one.

The new sentiment stamps are fabulous but I have to say that the sentiment tags are ones I go back to time and again, so if you don't have these I highly recommend them....sorry, I know I'm enabling again - lol!

I haven't even shown you the gorgeous little fox and squirrel also included in this set!

I have now got the rubber versions of these so am looking forward to using some of them together to create a scene...how cute will that be?!

I know I could create a scene by merging the digi images too, but it takes me a while and I just prefer to do it with the rubber stamps!

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

Lovely things I've used;

Woodland Scene digi stamp collection by LOTV
Krafty Christmas digi papers by LOTV
Christmas sentiment tags by LOTV
Circle STAX 1 - My Favorite Things
Inside and out stitched circle STAX - My Favorite Things
Inside and out stitched square STAX - My Favorite Things
Blueprints 13 by My Favorite Things (for the large rectangle panel on the owl card)
Twine, Crystal Glamour Dust from stash

Copic colours;
Robins / outer edge of owl: E23, E25, E47
Face & tummy of owl: E30, E31, E33
Wood: E30, E35, E55
Leaves: YG61, YG63
Snow: B0000, B000
Red details: R24, R27, R39
Green details: YG61, YG63, YG67

New home

Hello lovely people,

I'm off to Ikea this morning to buy new furniture for my craft room!  I'm so excited...even though it will have to be a very organised and quick trip round with no deviation from the shopping list to avoid any tantrums from Dr. Hubby!

While I'm probably trying to work out how to fit all my lovely new stuff into the car, here's the new Creative Inspirations challenge and this week we have a little photo inspiration for you...

Our prize this week is a £20 gift certificate from Craftie Charlie

The photo inspired me to use both the gorgeous brown and teal colour scheme and to choose an image with birds on.
I pretty much never make new home cards so this was fun!

I bought this stamp ages ago at a Hobbycrafts show and yep, you guessed it...first outing today!
How often do I find myself saying that?!

I tried for a woodgrain effect on the birdhouse and I've seen better but I'm fairly happy with this as a first attempt.
I'm less happy with my slightly dodgy photo since I had to take it in artificial light :-(

Card recipe;

Image: Bird House - Hobby Art

DP: Welcome Home - Bo Bunny (a very old collection!)

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

Dies: Tea label tags and Heart swirl - Magnolia Doohickeys

Sentiment: A little sentimental - Clearly Besotted

Copic colours;
Bird house: E31/34/44/47
Birds: E50/51/53/55
Hearts: BG57/07/09
Flowers: YR31/Y23/YR23
Leaves: YG17/G07/G28

The DT have made some wonderful samples to inspire you so pop over to Creative Inspirations to take a look :-)

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

Challenges I am entering;
to follow

Beer!

Hello lovely people,

I am now back in the UK after my fantastic skiing trip; we were really lucky to have good snow, mostly good weather and no major injuries!

I took a break from all my pretty embellies to create this CAS card for my sister-in-law's husband; I'm pretty sure this is more up his street than flowers and lace!

There's no escaping the stitching though!

I spent a while looking at images of bottles and working out how to colour it to look realistic and shiny and am really quite pleased with how it came out.

And yes, the recipient is a fan of real ale!

Card recipe;

Image: Birdbrain brew - From the heart digital stamps
Er, yup, that's it!

Copic colours;
Bottle: YR27/E17/19/39/29
Foam: YR30/31
Label (green bits): G24/28/29
Label (red bits): R27/46/39
Label (cream bit): YR30/31
Birds: YR30/31/23/24/E35
Bird tummies: YR30/31 & YR24/27 for spots
Bird eyelids: YR24/27
Bird eyes: B0000/000/blender

Pretzel: YR27/E17/19
Ground: W00/0/1/2/3/4/5

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend; I am so not ready to go back to work tomorrow!

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

Challenges I am entering;

1.  A Gem of a Challenge (CAS)
2.  Simon Says Stamp (anything goes)
3.  Papertake Weekly (Take your pick - I used Kraft)

Happy bird-day!

Hello lovely people,

It's a flying post from me this morning as I very nearly forgot to write it - oops!  I am continuing my guest DT spot at A Little Bit Crafty and have a mid-way reminder of our current challenge which has the theme...

THE BIRDS AND THE BEES

Since I did bees last time I have gone for birds on this card and brace yourselves, it's a bright one!

The image is part of a set from Digi Stamp Boutique so I have some other cute images to use another time.  I added some Stardust Stickles to the hats and the fun sentiment comes with the images :-)

Card recipe;

Image: Sweet birdie set - Digi Stamp Boutique

DP: XOXO - American Crafts

Loopy edge: Martha Stewart border punch

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Buttons: from stash

Copic colours;

Pinks: R81/83/85

Greens: G000/00/BG34

Yellows: Y15/17/38

Beaks: YR14

Ground T0/1/2/3/4

If you pop over to A Little Bit Crafty you can check out the fabulous creations from the DT.

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

Hugs,

Kat xx

Challenges I am entering;
1.  ABC (J is for just as you like)
2.  That Craft Place (anything goes/Easter)

For Dad

Hello lovely people,

As this (hopefully) posts I will be just coming back from my holiday, probably a little bit heavier than when I went!  It depends if I managed to do enough walking to cancel out the cream teas and puddings!

Since it is Saturday that means time for a new challenge at Totally Gorjuss and this week our theme is 'For Dad' which is, of course, timed perfectly to coincide with Fathers' Day on Sunday.

I came over all CAS this week and made this super quick design to send to both my Dad and my Father-in-law.

I fell in love with this Tiddly Inks image as soon as I saw it and knew straight away that I wanted to print it onto Kraft card - the letters were added in Paint Shop Pro before printing.  A little doodling round the edges, a dash of twine and it was all done in record time - woohoo!

Card recipe;

Image:  For The Birds from Tiddly Inks

Copic colours;

Birds: B01/02 & B05/06

Paper: E40/41

This week we are sponsored by Heather's Hobbie Haven so I do hope you can join in our challenge for a chance to win.  If you need some more inspiration pop over to Totally Gorjuss to see what my teamies have created.

Thanks for visiting,

Hugs,
Kat xx