Charity Cards

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog.

Here are a few cards I have ready for my local charity shop

Marie Currie

I don't know whether its my area but I find handmade cards so hard to sell here, so I decided to donate them to charity.

My mother had bowel cancer about 14 years ago and thankfully it was caught in time and she didn't need any treatment.  We didn't need these lovely nurses, but you never know, and as they are not government funded they need all the donations they can get.  Also my aunt but she wasn't so lucky and palliative care was needed.

These will be dropped into my local shop and hopefully when they put them out they have a higher success rate than myself.

Thank you for dropping by, please leave a comment and if you like what I do

please press the join/follow button at the top.

Karen Xxx

Gone But Never Forgotton

Hi everyone thanks for stopping by.

I must admit this layout was very difficult to do and believe it or not took me well over 3 weeks, lifting it to do it and then just looking at the photo and putting it aside again.

This is a layout of A Special Lady my Aunt Minnie.  She passed away about 5 weeks ago and it broke my heart. She was a right old age of 92 and if she had've lived till the end of next month she would have seen her 93rd birthday,

 This woman has touched so many families hearts.  She lost her husband over 18 years ago and they were self sufficient couple they grew there own vegetable and fruits and anyone one who knew her, knew her for her knitting, crocheting, jam making, her love for flowers and gardening, sewing and baking.  This lady was so good to me as a child and an adult and I always said she was my second mum,  She didn't have any girls just a son but she had a great granddaugther, So this layout is going into a box frame so I can put it up on my wall.

Under the main photo I have put a journalling spot trimmed with paper lace trim using a spellbinder die. 

The bling is a champagne colour swirl gems from Zva, the pattern paper was from a Recollections paper pad.

The flowers and leaves are from Wild Orchard Crafts.  The dates were created using my little Sizzix side kick using the plates from the Sapphire.  The dies were again from Quickutz alphabet and

I used Sizzix alphabet to do her name. I went round the age of the cream card with Vintage Photo Distress Ink to tone down the colour of the cream card.

 I am hoping to do a 8 x 8 version of this only using a photo of my mum and Minnie together and put it into a box frame for my mum.  My mum was devastated when she passed away and my way of thinking is that she can look and treasure this till the day she will meet her again.  Right sorry folks this post has got a little bit morbid, 

List of items used -

Wild Orchard Crafts - Opens Roses 25/15mm, Rose leaves, Cherry Blossoms and Sweetheart Blossoms

Bead Spray

Recollections Paper Pad - Graceful

Spellbinders Dies -  Labels One and Vintage Lace Border

Distress Inks - Vintage Photo

Sizzix Cute Girlie Alphabets

Quickutz Script Alphabet

Lace from my stash

Green and Cream cardstock

Self adhesive crystals from Zvacreative.com

Cosmic Shimmer pva glue

Double sided tape

Collall 3D glue

 Thank you for dropping by, please leave a comment and if you like what I do
please press the join/follow button at the top.


Karen Xxx

Spooky Flowers

Hi everyone thanks for stopping by.

Over at Brown Sugar we have a new challenge starting today.

Theme: Flowers

Here is my card for this weeks challenge.  

The spiders web was cut by hand and coloured over with black pen, the little spider was cut from a cricut cartridge.

The flowers were all made out of card except a couple of the orange ones on either side of the large center flower.  The smaller ones have a small faux pearl in the centre.

The digi image is from our sponsors this week and coloured in with Promarkers.

Sami Stamps

http://samistamp.blogspot.co.uk/

http://samistampsshop.blogspot.co.uk/

List of items used - 

Desert Blooms from Trimcraft

Sp0oky Flowers 2 from our Sponsors

Promarkers - Amber, Pumpkin, Olive Green and Mandarin

Doodle charms cricut cartridge

Dies - Tattered Lace Beautiful Blooms and Fern Dire out of the Foliage set

Spellbinders Blooms 3 and Jewel flowers & Flourishes

Frees rose die

Distress Inks - Rusty Hinge and Bundled Sage

Cosmic shimmer pva glue

Dovecraft Glitter Glue - Crystal

4mm Faux Pearls

Wild Orchard Crafts Orange cherry blossoms

Card stock - Black, white, orange and green

Thank you for dropping by and for all your lovely comments,

 be sure to stop and check out the

Brown Sugar Challenge Blog

and see the cards from the rest of the design team.

If you like what you see please press the join/follow button on the side above.

Karen Xxx

Take Flight

Brown Sugar Challenge #168

Hi everyone thanks for stopping by.

Over at Brown Sugar we have a new challenge starting today.

Theme: Purple and Green

I used a die to cut this design out of green card stock from my stash and then I backed it with purple card behind.  I also did a second cut of this die out in the same purple card and just used the pop out of it for the centre.  I also embossed the dies to bring out the little flowers and swirls that are on the die.

I stamped the feathers using distress ink on the same purple and green card stock and attached them with Cosmic shimmer pva glue.  I curled the tops of the feathers to give them a 3D affect and the same with the butterfly, using the glue on the body leaving the wings to 3D.

I used dies to cut my butterflies out and the large die was cut from again the same purple and green card stock.  I took the green butterfly and cut it down and attached it to the purple one applying the glue down the body of the butterfly.  The same idea was done with the smaller one and I cut the body of the small green butterfly and attached it to the purple one flat with pva.  I also placed little lilac gems around the card on the centers of the embossed flowers.

I stamped with a distressed ink and then using a spellbinders die cut out the same, before taking it out of the die I went around the edge of it with the same ink, this enhanced the border of the die.  I used the next sized die up and cut it out in the purple card stock and used my pva glue to attached the two layers together and to my card.

List of my items used:-

Spellbinders Labels 4 (large and small)

Crafters Companion Die'Sire Floral Melody die

Ranger Distress Ink Pad - Dusty Concord

Creative Expression Cosmic Shimmer pva Glue

Emerald Dies from Hochanda - Butterfly Dance EDIC-BDAN - using both dies

Hot off the Press - Feathers stamp set and die

White Card Stock for base

Purple and Green Card Stock

Lilac gems from stash

Thank you for dropping by and for all your lovely comments,
 be sure to stop and check out the


Brown Sugar Challenge Blog


and see the cards from the rest of the design team.


If you like what you see please press the join/follow button on the side above.


Karen Xxx

Fur Babies

Hi everyone thanks for stopping by.

Here is a couple of photos of my fur babies.  Let me introduce you to them.

This is Bonnie she is a little West Highland Terrier and is about 9 years old.  She is a lovable wee thing, loves her toys and still acts like a young pup even at her age.  She loves being outside when it is windy, she would stand facing the wind so it blows in her face and likes to sniff around all the corners of the yard.  She loves to chase the birds but thankfully they are too fast for her to catch, but this doesn't stop her trying.  When I go out to work in the morning she sits on the arm of the chair and looks out the window waiting for me to come back, giving a odd bark at something, just to hear herself, but I must admit she doesn't bark very often.

This is meg, she is a Border Collie and she is a year younger than Bonnie, she is 8 years old. She started her life off as a farm dog, bringing in the cows from the fields and rounding up the sheep.  When my hubby decided to sell up the farm she has become a lovable house dog, a very clean and biddable dog.  She does not like cats at all, when she was a pup she thought she would play with our black cat we had at the time but he didn't like it and scraped her nose.  Needless to say she didn't like it and from that cats are a no no.  She was great at ratting, she would have caught a rat or mouse and play with it just like a cat would do.  Teasing it for a while throwing it up in the air and catching it, letting it run away, then she would pounch on it again, till she decided it was time for the rat to go.  She then would have left it for my hubby to see, and dispose of.  

Okay didn't expect this post to be quite as long so I will cut off here and once again

Thank you for dropping by, please leave a comment and if you like what I do

please press the join/follow button at the top.


Karen Xxx

The Golden Year

 Hi everyone thanks for stopping by.

My apologies I had this layout completed well over a week and a half ago but due to a family bereavement I didn't get it posted on my blog.

This scrapbook layout of a couple that is very dear to me.  Can I introduce to you my lovely parents. They are always there for me no matter when I ring them for help they drop everything and come over.   These two people were and still are my role models in my life growing up and still to this day, they had a hard working life, so myself, my brothers and sister so that we could have what we needed, which we all appreciated very much and still do.

This started off at as a plain white 12 x 12 card stock and I painted it with gold Tonic Nuvo paint with a kitchen scourer to give it a little texture.

I'm not sure if you can see, but in the background I have used a corner stamp with the same paint and I also stamped the opposite corner.  I also stamped Happy 50th Anniversary with versamark ink pad and used gold embossing powder over the top.  Before I stamp it I rubbed the card with an anti static card so that the powder only adhered to the ink and not my mucky painty paw prints, lol.  I also done mum and dad this way.  The little birds are cut from the die which you will see in the last photo.

In behind the photo I have made a journal card and used a Spellbinder border on the edge, trimmed with a very fine strip of gold card. Inked with Vintage Photo along the edge.

Its have to believe that my dad is 76 years young in this photo and my mum is 71 years young.

I have took a piece of  white lace and again used the paint on it to change the colour and placed this right across the page and attached the number of 50 cut out of gold card.  This photo of my parents was took on there wedding day, as you can see they have changed much over the years.

I cut these balloons out of chipboard using a sizzix die putting it through my big shot.  I covered it in glue and put some gilding flakes over the top.  Again putting another number 50 on the top and a little gold heart below.  Using some bakers twine from creative expressions from the vintage selection, as I thought it looked a little golden for the strings.  I was trying to make the balloons look as if they were floating.

Now in this last photo it shows you the year, I had a little problem when it came to this part of my layout as I didn't have number stamps let alone stamps of this size.  I cut these numbers out of funky foam to create my stamps, they are about an inch high.  I adhered them with some stick and spray a repositional glue onto a acrylic block and place the numbers onto it.  It took a few tries on scrap paper to get it right on the block, but I must admit it came together rather well.  I stamp the images with the versamark ink pad and used again gold embossing powder over the top and used my heat gun to seal the powder.  The little heart die was a freebie from a craft magazine I bought at my local supermarket and cut it out of gold mirri card stock.

I would like to enter this into 

Use a number - http://brownsugarchallenge.blogspot.co.uk

Thank you for dropping by, please leave a comment and if you like what I do

please press the join/follow button at the top.

Karen Xxx

Christmas Project

 Hi everyone thanks for stopping by.

This project has been on the go for a long time, its a Tonic Studios Advent Calender/Storage.

I ordered this last year to make for my kids, (oh my they wouldn't be happy if they read this they are 19/16 years) so I could put a little something in it for them as they kept telling me they were to old for the chocolates ones out of the supermarket.  I did built it, paint it and put gold numbers on the front, then I wrapped a £1 coin one in pink and one in blue (as I have a boy and a girl) so they could open it last Christmas 2014.  It cost me a fortune but it was worth it to see their faces when they open the first.

So I decided I was going to finish it for this year

I used the Tonic Studios Nuvo Acrylic paint in the Olive Green and painted it all over.

Using again Tonic Studios Christmas paper I mounted it on the card that came with the kit.  I used Mod Podge to stick the both together and when it was dry I ink round the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Inks by Tim Holtz.  I did this will the side as well.  I used gold acrylic paint out of my stash and using a Ali Reeves technique,  I took a sponge from under the kitchen sink (a new one of course) and cut it up and used the scourer side, dipped it into the paint and rubbed it along the edges of the unit.  You can see the gold paint effect on the photo below.

The wee drawers are made up of chipboard and glue together using the tonic glue provided in the kit.  There was also small pieces of card for the front of the drawers to stick the paper onto but I didn't use them.  I turn the drawers around and used the back of the drawer.  I cut a piece of gold mirri card and then cut the paper to size and stuck them on.  

The little handle are Tonic Mini Ring Handles, to attached these I made a template on a separate piece of card and punched them with a single hole punch.  The numbers are cut with the Tonic dies that were in the bundle in gold satin card.  The other numbers were made up by painting a piece of white card wit the tonic green paint and cut using the number dies.

I was in out local Garden Center, and I saw these, it was a bought £3.50 for the display.  I added the spikey thingys that are at the back and front of the robin and the two bits of greenery at the back.  I attached it with a little hot glue.

This is a little battery operated light which I covered in. a strip of red paper.  I then took a green strip of paper and used a Martha Stewart punch along the edge to give a little decoration.  It is just sitting on the top as its on/off switch is on the bottom

I would like to enter this into the Brown Sugar Challenge and
their theme is Anything but a Card.

Thank you for dropping by, please leave a comment and if you like what I do

please press the join/follow button at the top.

Karen Xxx

My small haul video

Hi everyone thanks for stopping by.

I have ventured out and made a video on a small haul I received from

CraftStash.co.uk

Please if you have a spare moment go have a wee look and tell me what you think.  The camera that I used is an inexpensive webcam and the quality might not be up to scratch, but I think it will do at the moment just to see how things go.

I am trying to get used to the sound of my own voice and thinking to myself do I really speak like that, lol, as they say the camera never lies.

Once again thank you for dropping by and please feel free to follow my blog and tell your friends to call by and say hello.

Thank you for dropping by, please leave a comment and if you like what I do

please press the join/follow button at the top.

Karen Xxx

Smile and be happy

Hi everyone thanks for stopping by.

Oh its been a while since I have put a post up here but I'm back.  My aim now Im back is to get caught up on my scrapbooking, so you may see a few pages appear as well as cards.  I love watching videos on You tube and I have a few of my own up from a while back but I never had the courage to do actual projects from scratch.  One because I not sure how to edit and two coming to terms with the sound of my own voice, lol.  I would also like to add another page on my blog to be able to sell my handmade items and some craft items as well, to hopefully reimburse my crafty spending and to give a few pounds to a couple of charities that are close to my heart.  

A list of items I have used

Card stock from my stash

Blossom dies from Tattered Lace

Card Candy from Craftwork cards

Dovecraft Glitter glue

Stamp set I got free pack from a magazine - from the heart sentiment stamps

flat backed pearls from my stash.

Cosmic Shimmer PVA Glue

the image I have used is from Lace Sunshine Stamps

I apologise for not giving exact details on what I have used but I have promised my hubby that I would use some of my stash up before buying any more.  Some of the items I have had for a few years, never used and with my head being the way it is (i.e. like a sieve, lol) I don't remember who, what or where I have purchased them from.  If you look at older post you will see I used this image before but its one of my favourites.

I also have jumped on the band wagon and I am entering this into the Cutie Pie Challenge Blog with the theme of Cute and Girly and also entered it into their DT call.

Once again thank you for dropping by and please feel free to follow my blog and tell your friends to call by and say hello.

Thank you for dropping by, please leave a comment and if you like what I do

please press the join/follow button at the top.

Karen Xxx

Winter wishes

Hi everyone welcome to my blog

Here is my project for the 

Brown Sugar Challenge

over on there blog.

Our theme this week is WINTER

Green and white cardstock

Die cut was cut from a free die I received from a magazine I bought.  Coloured in with Spectrum Noir blending pencils.

The poinsettia has been made out of scrap felt with a yellow button in the centre.

Christmas pattern paper out of my stash

Glitter glue.

Our sponsors this week is

Robyn's Fetish

  Store - http://robynsfetish.com/

Blog - http://www.robynsfetishchallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/

 Prize - 3 digi images of winners choice 

Thank you for dropping by and for all your lovely comments,

 be sure to stop and check out the

Brown Sugar Challenge Blog

and see the cards from the rest of the design team.

If you like what you see please press the join/follow button on the side above.

Karen Xxx