Sarah Hurley Blog: March 2011

A Set of Cards...

Today I want to share with you a set of cards I made last week with My Little Shoebox papers, I love their fun and whimsical designs :o) (please excuse my messy studio in the background!)

The first one I have used my Martha Stewart circle cutter to cut an apeture in the centre to show the cloud paper inside

The second one is an Easel Card - I only started making these recently after my DT inspired me (I know, I'm so slow! LOL) which is probably my favourite - I think Easel Card generally are fast becoming my favourite!

And the last one is a triple fold card, cut and shaped like a hillside to make a 3D scene - I do love to create a scene! ;o)

I'll be back tomorrow with more fun stuff!

Sarah x

p.s. don't forget to pop over to the Challenge Blog today for the new Challenge!

Crazy Day!

Today was a funny day, I had some errands to run this morning and ended up having a panic attack in the middle of the High Road - no idea what brought it on! Anyhow, luckily enough I managed to get OH on the phone and he talked me down a bit until I was calm and then I got home to a steaming mug of Earl Grey and a Buttered Scone - yum! Enough to sort anyone out ;o)

I got a few hours of design work done but I think the days earlier events had somewhat taken their toll and I had to have a little disco nap this afternoon! Luckily that really helped so now I can work all night to catch up - yay! I also have to make a start on the DT badges for the new girls, with their personalised little characters, I have such fun doing those!

Sorry its such a quick post, I promise tomorrow's will be more exciting!

Sarah x

Derwent Blog Feature!

Just a quick post from me today, I've been designing all day pretty much for some exciting new releases happening in the next month or so and researching trends for a new range of products I've been asked to design which will be available later in the year - more about that soon!!!

Yesterday Derwent featured me on their blog (yay!) with a little article I wrote about using your colouring pencils for crafting. Colouring in is a HUGE trend in crafting at the moment and we are all loving our markers but don't forget about your trusty colouring pencils! I've demonstrated how to colour in a stamped image with a couple of examples - I hope you like it! You can read the whole post here on Derwent's Blog!

I also wanted to say a big 'Thank You' to those who have joined me on Facebook - there will be lots of things coming to my page soon, so if you haven't yet please click here to join!

Sarah x

A Whole New Look!

This weekend I completely re-designed my website, it has a completely new look and hopefully is a bit easier to find what you are looking for!! Please pop over and take a look and let me know what you think!

Unfortunately that means I didn't get much crafting time as I made the collage background for the site and was then drawing and putting together the whole site. I have also designed some new stamps this weekend - details coming soon!

Today is the first day of the Bologna Book Fair and I'm so excited to think of my work being there - arghhhhhh! Everytime it comes into my mind I do a little scream, you know the kind where your tummy flips? love it! Today has been a busy day of illustrating as well, its just flown past, although I think the clocks changing hasn't really helped either!

Also... Emma has taken up the Royal Wedding Box challenge today with the Kuretake templates I mentioned last week - she had some different shaped ones and they look fab! Pop over to her blog and have a look :o)

Sarah x

Coping with Rejection...

Sometimes you make a card for a commission / project etc... and you love it but it's rejected anway! Here is one such story...

Today is B's sons birthday (Happy Birthday Sam!) and he asked me to make a card for him, so I made this card from my new Pirate Digi's (apologies for rubbish pic, the sun is so bright at the moment!)

B said he liked the card very much but it wasn't 'age appropriate' hmmm..... To be fair, he has a point, as he said, it's a lovely card for a someone turning 12 but Sam is in his 30's.... Even so, I think it's nice, I'm 30 and I'd love a Pirate card! So, Sam, if you're reading, this would have been your awesome birthday card but your dad made me make you a boring grown up one instead!! LOL

Have lovely weekends people, lets hope the sunshine sticks around for a bit!

Sarah x

One Punch, 2 Cards...

More Kuretake projects for you today!

Another of the products I was given was this fabulous "Windmill" punch (obssessed with punches at the moment, need more more more!! LOL) I love this because it reminds me of the windmills you used to get on the beach as a child but this punch is really small and I was trying to figure out a way of using this and captuing the "beach windmill" thing.

So on this first card I kept it very simple just using the punch on some very bright coloured card, only adding a stamped sentiment and using my Kuretake writer pen to add in the lines...

While I was punching them out I thought they would also make pretty cute little flowers to make into a bouquet, I added a dragonfly (another Kuretake punch) and drew in the stems and Dragonfly whizzy line thingy (you know what I mean!) A touch of stickles to the flower centres and dragonfly wings and the same stamped sentiment.

Shows how you can get two completely different looks from the same basic materials!

Apologies for the shadowy pics - the sunlight was REALLY bright in my studio this morning and it made it almost impossible to get any pictures at all!

Another long night of work ahead of me as I'm working simultaneously on some craft and illustration projects and planning some more new product launches - details soon! It's a killer schedule but I have 2 days off at my parents house next week to look forward to - yay!

Sarah x

Favours fit for a Royal Wedding??

A few weeks ago you may remember me mentioning that I went for lunch with Kuretake and my fellow DT members Kim and Emma? That day we were given lots of products to design with including the wonderful templates. One of the templates was for gift boxes and we were coming up with various projects we could do with them, jokingly I said I would make some Union Jack favour boxes for the Royal Wedding - you know, just in case their no doubt super posh favours get stuck in limbo somewhere and they have to call on me... (it could happen, you never know!! LOL) since then whenever I speak to them they ask me where the boxes are :o) Never one to shy away from a challenge I have finally got round to making them.....

So there you go Kate my love, if you get stuck I can pop some jelly beans in them and have them with you in a few hours.... ;o)

This was obviously a bit of a laugh, but all joking aside these templates were super easy to use, these 6 took me about 20 minutes in total and most of that was making the union jacks! If you can imagine them in pearlised card, with pretty embellishments and made in to a tiered cake shape I think they would look pretty good! So if you are getting married and want to save a few pennies get your friends round and have them help you make them, I reckon you could get them done in a night with a few glasses of wine to keep you going!

Sarah x

Brain Fog and Happy Mail!

Today I've spent most of the day updating my client lists and information, its a very tedious task but has to be done, I do like things to be up to date! Usually when I speak to someone new or someone enquires about my work I just note down their details or keep their e-mails and forget to add them to my official database so I had a few weeks worth to add in today and lots of others to check and update, my eyes are now really fuzzy!

The GOOD thing about today though was my HAPPY MAIL! I wasn't expecting anything so was quite surprised when the postie knocked with a little parcel from the US for me.... it was from Siobhan from my Design Team who had sent me this beautiful Vermont Snowglobe - I don't know if she knew but I LOVE Snowglobes and have a little collection of them, she has also enclosed some delicious Maple Candy moose heads - I had never tried Maple Candy before and it is delicious!!

It was such a thoughtful and lovely gift and it really made my day, so thank you lovey! That maple candy really helped me through the day :o)

Finally I want to share some digi layouts that I actually done a while ago for GallimaufryUK, I'm really getting into these digi layouts! a few more and I can get them printed into a coffee table book - yay!

Off for a little break now and then I'm up in my studio working on some projects this evening!

Sarah x

More Crafty Ribbon Cards!

I mentioned last week that I had been to Olympia to drop off some samples for Crafty Ribbons, now I can show them to you!

The set of 5 were made from Basic Grey Basics papers (my favourite base to most of my projects!) with Websters Pages papers and a couple of Jenny Bowlin stickers, all of course with Crafty Ribbons Seam Binding! The colours of the Seam Binding matched the papers perfectly, they are fab for vintagey style projects!

Here are some close ups....

Thank you to those who have clicked 'Like' on my Facebook page, makes me happeeeee! I've now updated the pic on my personal facebook page to something with my actual face (sorry about that, LOL) although it still has my art on it :o)

My tweety buddy Lyn has started to post art tips on her blog from this week - I think it's a great idea, always nice to learn something new! I'm always fascinated to learn how others work as well, sometimes I think maybe I'm doing it 'wrong' and reading others processes makes me feel more confident as they all so different - after all, there is really no 'wrong' way at all! and I often pick up tips which is fab, if you have anything like that on your blog please leave me the link, I'd love to have a look :o)

Part two of 'Waking the Dead' tonight - scary stuff!! Last night I happened to choose a Creme Egg as my snack of choice throughout all the eye gouging - ick! I may never eat one again....

Sarah x

New Collection - Mermaids & Sea Creatures!

Another new collection launched today - Mermaids & Sea Creatures, a collection of Digi Stamps in both colour and Black & White to use with your Promarkers and Pencils, and all for the bargainous price of just £1 each!!! You can get your mitts on them all in my shop here.

And here is some Design Team inspiration for you AND the lovely Jaine has made a brilliant tutorial which you can download at the bottom - what more could you want? :o)

Camilla
Camilla created this gorgeous layout using the downloads as hybrid elements and ink sprays

Tammy

Tammy created this gorgeous card!

Claire S
Claire made this lovely wall hanging using ink sprays and stickles for the background and colouring the images with Promarkers

Christine
Christine made this fanatstic frame using one of the background papers from Woodland Whimsies and the Fish downloads

Taraleigh
Taraleigh made this wonderful fish card with fun googly eyes :o)

Jaine
And last but not least Jaine made this gorgeous Apron!

Jaine also put together a Tutorial for this project which you can download here!

Hope you love the new release! There is more coming very soon so watch this space....

Have fabulous weekends!

Sarah x

Stitch & Craft Show

Today I went to the Stitch and Craft show at London Olympia, I've never been to this show before so was quite curious to see what it was like. It was spread over 3 floors, the downstairs being mostly knitting (which I can't do!) but I did see the 'knit your own royal wedding' scene in real life which is amazing! if anyone cares to knit me a corgi I will be eternally grateful!!

The middle was mostly cross stitch, fabric, ribbons and stitchy bits. I stopped off here to gaze in wonderment at all the beautiful cross stitch kits I know I will never have time to do and of course to see Crafty Ribbons and drop off some samples to them (more about those another time!)

Here is the Crafty Ribbons stand - apologies the pics arent better but there were tons of people pushing and shoving to get to it! They were rushed off their feet :o) Lots of lovely buttons and bits as well as ribbons and check out that queue! (and that was only some of it!) a very busy show!

The top floor was all papercrafting (heaven!) spied lots of new Tim Holtz bits, some gorgeous rubber stamps and these amazing displays from Decopatch

I then caught the tail end of Dawn Bibby's demonstration and managed a quick hello to Clare and Phil from DoCrafts before they started theirs!

I also had coffee with the lovely Emma who is also on the Kuretake design team with me, I didn't get to meet some of the other people I had wanted to say hello to but its such a busy show that I think it is easy to miss people.

If I'm honest, it wasn't my favourite show I've ever been too as there wasn't quite enough pretty paper for my liking and hardly any scrapbooking stuff but there was a good buzz and mix of products and I would go again :o)

Please pop over to the Challenge Blog, we have a sponsored challenge this week with a prize from the lovely people at Handy Hippo!

Thats all for today, I'm exhausted! Back with more stuff and new release details tomorrow!

Sarah x

Lovely Ribbons!

Tomorrow I'm off to the Stitch and Craft Show at London Olympia (come and say hello if you see me!) to shop and to meet the lovely peeps at Crafty Ribbons who I've been doing some work for. I will be dropping off some sample cards for them showing a few ribbon techniques that I LOVE! If you go to the show please drop by and take a look, for those of you that aren't here are a few for you to see...

These are using the lovely twill and seam binding ribbons that I'm obssessed with at the moment!

This card uses the twill ribbon which I've pleated to make a little ruffle (love ruffles!)

This uses the seam binding simply tied around and into a bow with a button popped on to finish it off

And this one uses the seam binding again, I've folded it in on itself to create a flower and secured with a big Pink Paislee brad

All on kraft card of course - another obssession! I do have rather a lot of them don't I..... I may do some videos of these techniques if anyone would like to see?

If you do pop to the show tomorrow make sure to stop by and see Crafty Ribbons, they have sooo many goodies, I can't wait to raid in person :o)

Also, after quite a few people said to me I should have a Facebook page I have finally got round to setting one up, please come and 'like' me here if you are on Facebook (of course, only if you actually do 'like' me, if not feel free to ignore, LOL)

Hoping to get the new release up tomorrow but depends on what time I get home, you know what the Tube can be like!! If not definitely Friday so keep your eyes peeled!

Sarah x

Kuretake Goodies!

Last week I went to meet Kuretake and got my hands on some lovely goodies which I promised to share, so here are some pics..

Lots of different kinds of pens....

My favourite Brush Pen - this is GORGEOUS! I've only used it to write in my journal so far but I'm planning a project and will show when it's done!

Templates (how cute is that pink bunny!) papers, ribbon and punches....

Lots of lovely books! Most of these are in Japanese but the pictures are beautiful and easy to follow and I will definitely be learning some calligraphy and trying some of the projects. I've spent hours looking through these...

I made a quick card with the art and graphic pens, I only had two colours but I was dying to try them out. They have a flexible rubber type nib rather than the fibrous nib found on some pens, I've always found watercolour pens tricky for that reason as they seem to shed a lot leaving you with horrible marks but the nib on these means is perfect for drawing and colouring and you can use them straight onto rubber stamps and even blend the colours without contaminating the nibs with the darker colour, which is what I done here, it literally took less than 5 minutes!...

Stamps - Prima and Hero Arts. Pink and Purple Art and Graphic Pens and Ribbon - Kuretake

They were also nice enough to give me a couple of bits to add to the blog candy I will be giving away soon :o)

I hope you'll be looking for the new release later this week, I have a fab project tutorial from one of the new DT girls as well as lots of inspirational projects to show as well!

Now I'm off for some more sketching, lots of new designs! Luckily I'm doing this in front of the TV tonight, Come Dine with Me (I've become obssessed!) and the Marilyn Monroe programme I've been looking forward to all week, I'll watch anything about her!

More projects to share tomorrow....

Sarah x

A Crafty Weekend

I hope you all had lovely weekends! I managed to get lots of studio time in, despite barely being able to move Sunday (ick!) so I have lots of projects to show you this week - yay!

First up, a layout of B - I wanted to try making a 'manly' layout in girly colours, he was quite happy with it so I think I achieved it! For this I mainly used October Afternoon's 'Modern Homemaker' range (love!!)

Tomorrow I'll show some of the cards I made for Kuretake and Crafty Ribbons.

I'm also hard at work on lots of new designs, there will be another new release this week so I hope you love it as much as the Pirates!

Now for some dinner before Waking the Dead, did you see last nights? I was well scared!! Looking forward to part two tonight while I sketch out some more designs for digi stuff and my new CD and some other stuff coming soon :o)

Sarah x

Drawing with Scissors

Over the last few weeks I've been working on lots of illustrations for various things which i'm not allowed to show, some of my favourite ones have been collage illustrations or 'drawing with scissors' as I like to call it... I picture the scene in my head, settle myself down with all my scraps left over from crafting and start cutting. I never draw out the shapes first, I like to just let them appear - if I make a mistake I don't have to rub out or repaint I just get another paper scrap and start again and keep going until I'm happy. Sometimes I add crackle paint, texture medium, stickles or pen marks to make shade and texture and my Derwent Artists Tools to make textures.

As I can't show any of those I've done and I've been dying to share, I stayed up last night creating another quick one that I thought I could later frame and use in my hallway at home - I just love home and house scenes!