Happy Valentine's Day!

Afternoon all!
well it's Monday again and the weekend flashed by as usual. Saturday was busy as I delivered a class to a lovely group of ladies at my local WI - thank you all for making me feel very welcome, and I hope you enjoyed making your projects! Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the event to share, as I forgot to get my camera from the car. Then on Saturday afternoon the lovely Nic came over and we did a little bit of crafting together (once I'd managed to clear Darren's side of the desk, which he wasn't too impressed about!) We had a go at making a masculine twisted easel card for our repsective partners for Valentines Day, and here it is

We've used the I {heart} hearts stamp set and a colour combination of cherry cobbler, early espresso and crumb cake. The woodgrain paper is from Woodland Walk and we punched the hearts out from scraps of Cherry Cobbler using the 'heart to heart' punch and mounted them on dimensionals to create the latch for the easel. We finished it with a length of ruffled early espresso satin ribbon and a few rhinestones.

Yesterday unfortunately was somewhat of a washout, I'd intended to get a head start on my swaps for the SU regional training event at the beginning of March, but once I'd done the usual household chores a migraine set in, so I ended up curled up in bed for the entire evening - not good. Still it's disappeared today, so I'll hopefully get a sneaky couple of hours in my craft room before his nibs appears home from work!

I {heart} hearts class

Happy Saturday morning everyone!
and thank heavens it's the weekend, which means a little lie in for yours truly, followed by frantic preparations for this afternoon's class. Speaking of which, here's what the lovely ladies will be making this afternoon

The set features the I {heart} hearts stamp set, which is perfect for so many occasions - including of course Valentines day. I know we're a few weeks early, but it already seems a distant memory given that I'm currently designing Easter projects as crafty people have to constantly be an occasion ahead to give time to send things by snail mail! So here are the projects in a bit closer detail, first we have the easel fold with hearts stamped in riding hood red ink and the easel prop is made from lots of hearts punched out of riding hood red cardstock using the heart to heart punch. The 'amour' greeting is from the artistic etchings stamp set.

Secondly we'll be making a card featuring the heart treat cups filled with red Jelly Belly beans (assuming there are any left by the time we get to class, as I keep munching them!!). The crumb cake background is inked with the en francais background stamp and the rounded tab uses the 'love' sentiment from tiny tags. the 'be mine' border around the heart is from the sweetheart stamp set.

The third card is a simple C6 fold, using the broadsheet alphabet used to spell 'Love'. Then lots of punched hearts, from love letter DSP and a mini envelope made from the petal card punch. I've gone a bit mad with the ribbon ruffling this month - but I love the effect that the satin ribbon gives!

And finally a little origami treat box with a belly band, made from crumb cake cardstock with a little liner box in basic black. the belly band is decorated with punched hearts and tags, and the sides of the box use the scalloped heart from the sweetheart stamp set along with the 'amour' greeting from artistic etchings.

The instructions and a class kit are now available to purchase here if you'd like to have a go at making this set. The next class is on Saturday 19th February if you fancy joining us - details are here.

that'll teach me for playing with settings!!

Morning all!
Well, I had a bit of a whoopsy yesterday, when I decided that my blog needed a 'new look' for the new year. so in I launched, downloading kits, customising images, changing bits of code - and then nothing worked!!! I'm slowly restoring settings (the wonderful backup I did prior to embarking on the 'quick overhaul' didn't restore everything - aagghh!!) and hopefully things will be tickety-boo by the weekend.

In the meantime, I've just about finished faffing with the finishing touches on this month's class, so here's a sneek peak.

For those of you unable to join us this weekend, instructions and class kits/bundles will be available to buy here on Sunday.

The 12th Day of Christmas.....

Well, that's it folks, Christmas is well and truly over. My tree and decorations are down and packed away until December, and I'm gradually finding homes for things in my craft room for all my lovely new stash that I received for Christmas and my birthday. At this rate I'm going to have to have a major sale to get rid of some stash that I no longer use!!

Being as it's the last day of Christmas, I thought I'd share some of the cards, bags and boxes that I didn't get time to post in the run-up, and I've resolved this year to make some throughout the year so that I don't end up with everything being so last minute this year (we'll see how long that resolution lasts!!).

Here are some of the gift packages that I made this year, the first is for my Secret Santa over on ILWS, a tote in Soft Suede with matching card, and the lovely goodies that it contained

And then some gift boxes containing yummy belgian truffles from Truffles of Stamford,  made using the 'back to basics' template from Papertrey Ink.

And finally the gift packaging for my downline's gifts, the larger tote contains some chocolates and the smaller one a colour coach.

I'm currently putting together some samples for my January Valentine class on the 22nd, some sneak peeks will be coming in the next few days. There are still a few places left, so if you'd like to join us, drop me an email to confirm your place.

See you soon!

Linz

x

Slow day at the office....

Why is it that when you really want to be at home crafting, work just seems to drag?!  I've wanted to get home all day so that I could finish off this little card and get on with some 'new baby' designs.  This is my entry for this fortnight's Elzybells' challenge, which is to create a card using their stamps which features more than one fold. It's my friend's daughter's birthday coming up soon, so I chose the spring fold again and used the girl on a swing stamp paired with daisy bucket paper. I'm really pleased with the effect - it's girly without being babyish (something that every 6 year old who's going on 60 wants to avoid!!).

Then I needed to make some new baby designs as various friends are expecting, these two were based on designs I'd seen in blogland.  The first is inspired by Heather Nichols' papertrey birthday bash entry, I've changed the colour scheme to pinks and lemons and replaced the cake image with a pram.  I've added faux stitching with my paper piercing template and a white gel pen. 

The second is based on a card designed by Sara Rayner, but uses a scalloped circle cut from cardstock instead of a stamped image.

And finally, I realised that I haven't shared the valentines card I made for Darren last week. I used a combination of kraft, chocolate chip and bravo burgundy with linen thread and antique brass heart brads for a masculine look.  The stamps are all from Elzybells' Valentine Tags 2 clear stamp set. I created the border on the base card using the 'from the heart' sentiment, with one heart from the strip stamped in between the sentiments.

Recipes
Spring Swing - Girl on a Swing Stamp (Elzybells) Sincere Salutations (Stampin Up!), Black Stazon Ink, scalloped border, oval and scalloped oval punches (SU!) Katy paper (Daisy Bucket Designs), flowers and brads from stash

Patchwork Baby - stamps: pram (A muse artstamps) It's a Girl! (Hero Arts) polka dots basics II (PTI)
Regal rose, pretty in pink, so saffron, kraft and whisper white cardstock (SU!)
Circle and Scalloped circle nestabilities, hand brads (woodware), so saffron ribbon (SU!)
Black and white ink, clear embossing power, white gel pen, paper piercing template from mat pack (SU!)

It's a Girl! - stamps: pram wheels (A muse artstamps) Congratulations (from stash) Polka Dot Basics II (Papertrey Ink)
pink striped paper (Doodlebug Design Inc) regal rose, pretty in pink cardstock and whisper white cardstock (SU!) Heart Buttons (Hero Arts) scalloped circle nestabilities, ticket corner punch (SU!)

Darren's Valentine - stamps: Valentines Tags 2 (Elzybells), kraft, chocolate chip and whisper white cardstock (SU!), bravo burgundy and chocolate chip ink (SU!) linen thread (SU!) antique copper heart brads (making memories)

Well, that's all for today - i need to get back in my room and create some mothers day cards now :)
Have fun folks!
Linz