About Me

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I'm a retired primary school teacher, who started paper crafting in 2008, when I had a fancy to make my own Christmas cards. Since then, I have tried all sorts of techniques and styles - and I kind of like them all. I have been lucky enough to be on blog teams and large design teams and to do a bit of freelance demonstrating - and I love the challenge of working with different products. My crafting style is very varied - from junk journaling and art journaling, bookbinding and journal making, to quilting and patchwork - and of course I still make cards. This variety keeps me interested - and my crafty stash growing!! I'm always seeking inspiration for new projects.

Monday 26 November 2012

Challenge #80 - Christmas Photo Inspiration


Our Challenge this fortnight, hosted by Fiona, is a photo inspiration challenge. Make a card or project inspired by the following photo. You can take inspiration from any part of it really, from the actual image or from the colours.

We are sponsored again by

$10 GIFT VOUCHER

and also by




$15 Gift Certificate to the Crop Stop Store 

I chose to take the colours of the photo for my inspiration. I love the turquoise - but what caught my eye was the gold on the chairs. So I used those two as my main colours whilst bringing in a little white too.


Whilst looking for new ornaments for my tree, I came upon this turquoise sparkly snowflake ornament - and I knew that I wanted it for this project. It is rather large so I used an 8" square card - but it is rather light and doesn't make the card 'front-heavy'



I kept the glittery feel with white glitter card. I have a tonne of glitter card - I used to love using it all the time - but haven't done so recently - so there was plenty there for me to get stuck into. I used it to cut two Spellbinders Lace Doily motifs. These were laid on top of each other - one as a square and the other as a diamond. This provided the background for the snowflake. I also used the white for the scalloped square.

The gold card is from my local market - it's fairly lightweight card, but I love the fact that it is matt instead of shiny. I cut the small square for the snowflake using a nestie, and the large square was edged with the Classic Scallop Edgeability, and an insert from Decorative Inserts 6. 

The turquoise card is from the Create & Craft Pastel Textured Cardstock pad - I have both the brights and pastel and love them both!!  It was edged with an insert from the Classic Ric Rac set.

The wide ribbon and matching bow are from my stash - bought in Lidl several years ago. And the pearls are from Diamond Occasion - I have all sorts of colours of pearls from them!!

Take a look over on the Crafty Cardmakers website as there is loads more inspiration there from the rest of the fabulous Design Team.

Take care

Cxxxx 


Monday 12 November 2012

Challenge #79 - More Than One Punch or Die Cut

Our challenge this time is hosted by BettyC and she would like you to use more than 1 punch or die cut. You can have a combination such as 1 punch and 1 diecut as that equals two, or two punches, two diecuts. You can use more if you wish as long as there is at least two in combination or two of either on your creation.



We are sponsored by Hobby Art with this fabulous prize of two stamp sheets. And by Milk Coffee Digital Stamps who are offering 5 digital stamps.
                                                  


This week's challenge was right up my street as I love die cutting with my Spellbinders. I had thought my creation would be an elaborate affair. But when it came to it, I actually went for something much more simple and restrained.


The base card just under 6" square and is from Craftwork Cards. The two mats are My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Papers - the largest cut with a simple square die - and the smaller with a scalloped square die. The pattern in the scalloped square was cut using one of the inserts from the Classic Triple Scallop Edgeabilties set. 

The flowers are cut from red card using the two largest dies from the Bitty Blossom set, and the letters with the X Cut DieLicious Rome Alphabet die. 

The finishing touch was a little bit of sparkle in the border with Cosmic Shimmer Aqua Twinkles. Overall, a really rather restrained card for me!! 

Pop over to the Crafty Cardmakers blog for more inspiration!!

Take Care,


Cxxx