Less is More....

I can't believe that Saturday has come around so quickly. I don't seem to have got any of my list of jobs done this week. Oh well first on the list every Saturday for me now is the Less is More challenge.  After making my cup of tea I go straight to the laptop to see what's install for us each week.

This week Chrissie and Mandi have chosen  Seeing Double as the theme and it's the dreaded one layer week!!  Eeekk!!  I got a bit frazzled as I didn't think I had any suitable stamps for this one then eventually after inking up half a dozen stamps (which I have to clean up in a minute!!!)  I decided that I would use  this Hero Arts stamp 'Wild Flowers' and team it with a little butterfly stamped twice from Hero Arts 'Antique Engravings' set. I watercoloured the butterflies in a turquoise colour very gently and added some irridescent stickles to the wings to add a bit of interest.  Finished off with a little scrap of sheer polka dot ribbon from the Pretty Little Ribbon Shop.

    

 

Thanks for visiting

Sarah x

Trick or Treat.......

My favourite time of the year has to be Halloween, I know it's not a big thing in this country but I still love to carve the pumpkins and decorate the door ready for all the trick or treaters. We try to do different pumpkins designs each year, I haven't decided on this years yet but here's a photo of last years for you. My daughter did the haunted house - pretty good eh?

I also try to make little treat packs up for the kiddies every year, I've already started on these little bags but need to make a lot more!  Aren't they cute?  We have just got some new stamps in the shop and this one  is perfect for them, and of course I couldn't resist tying some little bows on too!  I will only put bows on the girls ones though. I've just bought the die to make this little bag up, I think it would be good for wedding favours too if made with lovely pearlescent card and organza ribbon.

I'm entering these into Craft us Crazy as the challenge this week is to use Autumn Colours and Squiggle Stamps - Spooky Fun.

favour bag die - Papertrey Ink
Halloween stamp, bakers twine, buttons and ribbon - Pretty Little Ribbon Shop

Thanks for Looking
Sarah x

Noel.....

We tend to receive a lot of Christmas cards with the word 'Noel' on every year, due to the fact that is it also my husband's name, so generally I tend to avoid making similar cards. I do have this one stamp which I rarely use so thought I would ink it up for a change. 

I used a lot of card scraps as I decorated the inside of the card as well, I cannot remember who makes the paper but I did manage to use up every last snippet of it. I tied a charm on using some bakers twine (I like using this on Christmas cards).

Inside I continued  and used one of my new stamps from here I enjoyed decorating the inside of the card but have to say the finished card does feel quite heavy!  And why stop at inside? I even added a bit of decoration to the back using another new stamp.

Challenges I am entering this card into are;

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Truly Scrumptious - Decorate Inside of your Card
Stamptacular Sunday - The Sky's the Limit.

Circle stamps and bakers twine - the Pretty Little Ribbon Shop
paper and charm from stash

thanks for looking
Sarah x

Never let your Husband take charge of a map!

Yesterday I had a hospital appointment in London, so off we went bright and early very organised with a google map printed off and our Underground route sorted out. We arrived in London in plenty of time for my appointment and got the tube to Regents Park. I then gave the google map to my husband ready for the '10 minute' walk to the hospital.  BIG MISTAKE !!!!!  We started off ok but seemed to be walking for quite a while and no sign of the hospital. I started to worry when we arrived at the next tube station which was way past where we were going. When I asked to look at the map I could see we had walked past the turning for the hospital a while ago so we had to rush back to try and get to the hospital on time. By the time we got there I was drenched, and my hair was wild from the wind and rain!  Not a good look I can assure you. 


Anyway back to today's card. Roses seem to be my favourite crafting item at the moment. I bought the Marianne D roses dies recently, it took me a while to get the hang of making them and I still need to practice more.  The great thing about these dies is that you can use up so many scraps with them.  Whenever I run some dies through my Grand Calibur I  try to put a couple of roses through at the same time so I have always got a good stock of them.

This little card has a few roses on it but is pretty simple in design.  I decided to use the sentiment as the main focus and decorate around it with the flowers, leaves and a few pearls. 

I am entering this card in the following challenges;

Craft Your Days Away  - Make your own Flowers
Moving Along with the Times - Handmade Flowers
Jules Crafty Snippets challenge - Use up your snippets

Thanks for visiting,
Sarah x

Monochrome Challenge....

Good Morning everyone!

Today we launch our second challenge over on the Pretty Little Ribbon Shop blog. It's my lovely team mate Mina's turn to choose this month and she came up with one of my favourites  - MONOCHROME.

I decided on White for my colour and made a little gift set trio.

I really enjoyed making these, I bought this embossing folder recently and I just love it especailly teamed with the little pearls ( I get through packets and packets of them!!). I actually had this pattern on my wedding dress bodice with little individual pearls sewn on over 22 years ago, maybe that's why I like the folder so much.

I altered the gift bag first, I made the roses using my Rose Creations Spellbinders dies (another favourite) and then added the little butterfly for interest and finished off with a hat pin and lots of white seam binding and a little organza bow tied onto the handle.

Next I made a matching tag with a few offcuts, a small butterfly and more white seam binding. 

Lastly the card,  I cut out the circle with a nestie die and then mounted the card on foam pads to give a bit of dimension and added a couple of butterflies and another rose but no ribbon or seam binding as I though it would have been a bit too much.

I hope you will come and join us for the challenge there is a lovely prize of pretty ribbons and other goodies on offer. 

You can find the challenge and the other design team members creations HERE

Sarah x

Jingle Bells......

I am still making Christmas cards with my favourite colours, today's card is made with green and kraft. I bought these new papers  'Lost & Found Christmas' by MME and they are just gorgeous! 

Todays card  is for Winter Wonderland challenge - Special Friends and Charisma Cardz - Anything goes. I used my favourite Seasons of Love stamp set from Waltzingmouse and a new coloured embossing powder from WOW which I really love it's Olive coloured and I think it is perfect for Christmas. I tied on a little recycled bell (from a Lindt chocolate reindeer - YUM!) using moss green seam binding and finished off with some little alphabet stickers.


Seam binding - Pretty Little Ribbon Shop
Stamps - Waltzingmouse
Stickers -   Making Memories

Thanks for visiting
Sarah x

Metallic....

A quick card from me as I am feeling a bit under the weather this morning. Less is More's challenge this week is Metallic, I rarely use anything metallic on my cards apart from the odd charm or bell.

I kept this card simple and used a flourish, some bling and a sentiment  from Waltzingmouse. I suppose silver embossing is a bit predictable so if I have time in the week I may try and make a second card stretching my imagination a bit more!  Ribbon didn't work anywhere on this card - sob, sob!
Photos are completely pants I 'm afraid, I really must invest in one of those photo booth thingies!

Right sorry this post is so short,
Thanks for visiting
Sarah x