Happy Halloween!

So today is the scariest day of the year and I must confess that tonight we will be sitting in the dark hiding from the Trick or Treaters as me and B ate all the candy already - oooops! LOL

Today I'm sharing a card I made for Basically Bare, I'm so happy that their products will now be distributed in the UK by Kuretake who I also design for, it means the products will be more easily available here in the UK for those that have asked me about stockists - yay!

Supply List - Felt & Chipboard Frames - Basically Bare, Backing Paper & Digi Stamp from my Halloween Digi Kits, Black Sparkle Embossing Powder - Kuretake

I embossed the chipboard frame with black sparkle embossing powder and matted onto a felt frame piece before adding the digi stamp using 3D foam (I used the pre-coloured version for quickness!)

If you are looking for the previews of my new Tinseltown CD please see the post below, a big 'Thank You' for all of the fantastic feedback - so happy you're all loving it and I can't wait to see your creations when you get your copies! This week my lovely Design Team will be sharing inspiration on their blogs every day, there are some great projects lined up! Today there are projects from Claire and Jess on their blogs, if you would like to pop over for some inspiration!

Finally, I just have to share this picture. My MIL gave me a vintage craft book she had in the loft and I cannot stop laughing at this guy! (apologies if it's someone you know, LOL) I'm sure in the 60's / 70's when this book was made he was probably quite a catch ;o)

Thanks for dropping by
Sarah x

Tinseltown Sneak Peeks!

As promised, here are the peeks from my brand new Craft CD, released today, Tinseltown! I know I say it every time but this is definitely my favourite, I just love everything on it and a lot of the papers and elements are so versatile that they aren't just for Christmas!

 

You can click on all the images to see them bigger. Here are some projects made from the CD by me and my Design Team....

 Claireliz

 

 Jess

 

 Melly

 

There are lots of papers and digi stamps and embellishments as well as lots of projects so you can make your own Christmas Village, a Christmas Wreath and Snowglobe Cards! You can see more paper previews and DT projects over on my Facebook page and we have a ton of stuff to show you over the next week or so as well as a little surprise!

You can get hold of a copy of Tinseltown here in my shop!

Thank you for dropping by to take a look, I'm so looking forward to hearing your feedback and of course for those of you who make things from the CD I'd love you to share your blog links with me and see your projects!

Have a lovely weekend!

Sarah x

Halloween Cards

You may notice that my blog has had a little facelift in the last 24 hours! I literally stayed up all night (insomnia, again, sigh...) and got this done, once I started I couldn't stop, love working when I'm so inspired like that! I also managed to get my website done - you can take a look here, I'd love to hear what you think of the new look!

I promised you some Halloween projects today, and here they are!

Firstly, a recipe for Witches Brew! I used a journaling card to write this onto, a potions emporium ticket (I love these little tickets!) I filled the Jar with googly eyes (dug out from a box of very old craft supplies I thought I'd never use - just goes to show, never throw anything away! LOL) and added the Eye of Newt label, some tinsel ribbon, spider and spider web stickers to finish.

 Supply List - Papers, journaling card, ticket & digi stamp from my Vintage Halloween Kit, Tinsel Ribbon - MME, Stickers - Jolee's

Secondly, the Spooky Skull card! The border at the top is cut from one of the journaling cards and suck to black cardstock, I used the pre-coloured version of the skull digi samp and cut some purple stars from scrap bazzill cardstock, finishing it off with a Chamber of Horrors ticket.

Supply List - Paper, Journaling Card, Ticket & Digi Stamp from my Vintage Halloween Kit, Star Punch - Fiskars

Finally, the Spooky Bingo card! I used the skull and crossbones paper and matted the bingo card on top using foam pads, I used the precoloured version of the tombstone digi stamp and added a frame topper to the center - a very quick and easy card!

Supply List - Paper from my Whimsy Halloween Kit, Bingo Card, Topper & Digi Stamp from my Vintage Halloween Kit

And finally, I must mention, 3 of my lovely Design Team girls are featured in this months Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine predicting next years hottest trends - don't miss it! (I think they have it spot on as it happens ;o) )

Thank you for dropping by, I'll be back tomorrow with the first of my Christmas sneak peeks - don't miss it!!!!

Sarah x

p.s. thank you for all your well wishes yesterday, it really lifted my spirits and I'm feeling better already! :o)

Paper Piecing

This week I've been sicky again, bleurgh! I've managed to infect B too (not a happy bunny, oooops!) yesterday we spent the evening curled up on the sofa eating soup (we never eat soup so I have no idea how we even had a tin in the cupboard! I imagine his mum popped it in there so we had some 'proper' food in the house, like mums do! LOL) and watching funny stuff to lift our spirits (I did sneak my sketch pad over despite my orders to rest though!)

Today I had to get back to my desk (albeit under a duvet and wrapped in lots of warm PJ's)  Craftime have got me hard at work on the new collections, and I only have a few weeks now to get them finished - there is SO much to do still, eeeeeek!

Today I'm sharing a paper piecing card with October Afternoon's 'Rocket Age' line...

I stamped the different parts of the image onto scraps of cardstock and then cut them out and layered them - I love paper piecing whether its to make up an image or a scene, I think its so effective and a great way to use your stamps if you're not keen on colouring in!

Supplies - October Afternoon Rocket Age Papers & Stamps from Sarah's Cards, Seam Binding from Crafty Ribbons

Thanks for taking a look, I'll be back tomorrow with lots of Halloween projects to share!!

Sarah x

Cricut Expression 2 - UK Launch!

The lovely peeps at Provocraft have asked me to share with you the info for the UK launch of the Cricut Expression 2 - so exciting! Jinger Adams is back in the UK to present this and you won't want to miss the shows!

The dates and times are as follows:

Tuesday 25th October 

9pm & 11pm on Ideal World

Wednesday 26th October

8am & 10am on Ideal World

12 noon on Create & Craft

1pm on Ideal World

3pm on Create & Craft

4pm on Ideal World

5pm on Create & Craft

7pm on Ideal World

(Ideal World is Sky 644 | Freeview 22 | Virgin 747 | Freesat 812 and Create & Craft is Sky 671 | Freeview 36 | Freesat 813)

Sarah x

A 'Smashing' Alternative!

When I first saw the Smash Book video a few months back I was super excited, but here in the UK we've had a distinct shortage of 'Smash' supplies, a few shops had a few bits, they quickly sold out and to get everything I wanted I would have had to order from about 4 different shops (not good for postage costs!) I was disappointed and put it out of my mind and to be honest completely forgot about them, I keep a journal and millions of notebooks full of sketches, notes and random cuttings, then about 2 weeks ago Melly sent me a link to the video with a 'saw this and thought of you' type message - of course once I watched it again I was hooked all over again! But unfortunately still had trouble finding the bits and pieces I wanted so I decided to create my own alternative 'Smash' kit, here it is....

  

 The journal itself is from Paperchase and has all these lovely printed colour pages, lines and grid and honeycombs (love this!)

 I also have a Kuretake Zig Glue Pen, a Zig Writer Pen (my favourite, use these for everything!) 2 pens, also from Paperchase in my favourite colours, Teal & Purple. I picked up some cute dotty washi tape and some journaling type stickers from a cute Ebay shop. I'm going to use this to catalogue all the inspiring things I tear from magazines etc... kind of like a 'pinterest' book and a way to journal my inspiration for when I'm designing. I'll be sharing some pages as I go :o)

Also, for all you fellow stationery fans, I have to show you this cute book and stickers I found in Selfridges, love them!

I'm such a stationery addict, I have so many books and journals and pens and keep different ones for different projects - my mum is exactly the same so I know where I get it from! LOL

Have a great weekend, I'll be putting the finishing touches to my new packaging and working on some more designs this weekend as well as some crafting - I'm making sneak peeks for the new 'Tinseltown' Christmas CD which is coming very soon! (if you can't wait some of my naughty DT have already posted a few sneaks over on the Challenge Blog!)

Sarah x

Gorjuss Girls & Promarkers

Today I'm sharing a card I actually made a few months ago for a TV show (it's been shown a few times, maybe you've spotted it? ;o) ) using the Gorjuss girl stamps (I love this set!) this was the first time I had used them and I loved them!

I coloured her in with my Promarkers (you might have to click on the pic to see the details) The paper is from My Minds Eye (I just bought some more of this, its gorgeous!) and I just added a greeting and some punched metallic card along with a greeting.

I'm so hoping to get some Promarker time this weekend, I haven't crafted since Sunday night, I've spent all week on designs for the new product ranges, revisions to my packaging designs and a fab secret project which I'll be launching soon with the help of my lovely Design Team - I actually can't believe it's Thursday today, the time has flown! But then it always does when you're having fun :o)

I'm now working on some projects for the launch of the Provocraft Cricut Expression 2 in the UK next week - exciting!

Sarah x

Autumnal Scrapbooking

With the change in seasons all the colours of the world around us seem to change, the blue of the sky gets a bit hazier and the leaves turn into yellows, oranges and reds, I literally see this change in front of my eyes as my desk looks out over the forest so every day it looks a little bit different, I love the changes through Autumn and Winter - they're my favourite seasons!

The Autumn colours are some of my most favourite colours and inspired this layout that I finished last night of my little sister Xena...

 The leaves were die-cut from my Cricut Expression (using the 'Preserves' Cartridge) on white paper and then coloured using Promarkers. I then embossed some of them in my Cricut to give them some texture.

 The little envelope contains a hidden journaling card made from a scrap of October Afternoon cardstock...

  

The papers are Cosmo Cricket from quite a while ago, I've been saving them! I've also used a scrap of the Cosmo Cricket Coredinations which I LOVE - some of my favourite cardstock ever! and the embellishments are Cosmo Cricket and October Afternoon.

Thank you for all the lovely feedback on my Christmas Cards yesterday, for those of you who emailed me about buying different sized packs, I will be getting back to all of you later tonight! I've been spending today revising the packaging designs for my the big launch of my new craft ranges, as well as actually working on the designs for them (I can't wait to share everything thats coming!!) and getting things ready for my little blog and website makeover - such exciting but very busy times! :o)


Sarah x

Christmas Cards!

Today I'm sharing the Christmas Cards I have designed this year!

There are 10 cards available, all of which are available singularly or in packs of 10 or 20 in my Etsy shop here! If you would like a different quantity or selection please email me here and I will set up a personalised listing for you :o)

Also, yesterday was my turn over on the Basically Bare blog, and I shared a vintage sewing card, you can pop over and take a look here.

Thanks for dropping by!
Sarah x

Catching Up!

Wow, what a crazy week and Friday already! I've barely had time to breathe, let alone blog so here I am catching you all up on my crazy goings-on!

Wednesday I met Emma at Selfridges in London for coffee and catching up (and maybe a teensy bit of shopping!) before coming home to about 3 million emails (as I was also out Tuesday afternoon) I'd had no Blackberry for 2 days (not only was the service down but my actual phone broke as well - not a good week for technology in the Hurley household, let me tell you!) but luckily Wednesday I came home to my replacement, bless Vodafone and their 24 hour replacement! So now I have a new and functioning Blackberry I feel like a normal person again (and I can tweet all my random stuff from wherever I am, yay!)

Thursday I had to tidy and organise my studio which look like a tornado at the very least had been through it, I also found a bunch of samples I hadn't yet photographed (more of that further down!) as well as sorting through the last few days deliveries of things to test / review / use / that I had bought on a whim at 3am while sleep deprived *sigh* then I got my schedule and emails up to date and organised.

Today I photographed the samples I found, here is one quick and simple card to share, using my cloud stamp (available from my website) then embossed with my Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder...

I love clouds (as you may have noticed) I always remember someone telling me that if you feel a bit blue just to step outside and look up at the sky, the clouds, the rooftops, it literally lifts your mood! (seriously, try it!)

After taking all the pics (not great unfortunately as the light is completely blocked out by the scaffolding all round my house!) I then made myself a giant mug of coffee and sat down with my sketchbook for a day of product planning, design and development, I also made lots of plans for upcoming projects and today has actually turned out to be a super productive day and I've got tons done - love it when that happens! and I've done all this through constant hammering and banging from 7.30 am right through to 4.30 pm every day (mostly on just 3 hours sleep) as I've had my roof redone (hence the scaffolding) my head is banging, I have the biggest set of eye luggage know to humankind BUT I'm pleased with my progress - yay!

Over the next few weeks you may notice a few little changes here on my blog as I introduce some features that I get asked for time and time again (I try to bring you what you ask for!) so I hope you will like the new and improved blog and I look forward to your feedback as ever :o) Next week I have some great features lined up including some Halloween projects with my Cricut Expression, some Christmassy things and my own solution to the almost impossible to find in the UK, Smash Book.

Have a fabulous weekend, and if you haven't already then pop over to the Challenge Blog where you may be able to win yourself some Derwent Coloursoft Pencils in a fabbo wooden box!

Sarah x

Frankfurt Book Fair

This week is the Frankfurt Book Fair and I'm so excited that once again my work is there being shown to potential clients by my illustration agent!! I'm super excited to get an update when they get back. a few new pieces have gone over, some of which I can't share as they are potentially to be published (fingers crossed everybody please!!!) but here is one piece I can share with you as it's for a different project and only used to show what I can do. In fact if you are one of my crafty followers this may be a little preview of something coming very soon (watch this space!!).... ;o)

Today B took me to Westfield as he got in from work early, its crazy big! although funnily enough, not as big as I thought it would be, its apparently the largest shopping centre in Europe currently but the Metrocentre in Newcastle still seems much bigger to me! I wasn't really in a shopping mood so just a few treats from Lush and a gorgeous journal from Paperchase. There is a Mr Pretzel there though which I couldn't resist, I haven't had a fresh pretzel for SO long, they don't seem to be very popular in the UK, though I don't understand why, they're so good! I've still got half to munch on later while I burn the midnight oil with my craft designs I'm working on, YUM!

Sarah x

Basically Bare Halloween

Today it's my turn over on the Basically Bare blog and I'm sharing a Halloween card...

 

For all the details, pop over and take a look! :o)

This weekend I'm hoping to fit in some crafting around my working (yes, I'm working again, LOL, still have a ton more stuff to design for the big launch!) I'm looking forward to making things though - I have to test what I design, right? ;o)

Have good weekends!

Sarah x

Halloween Horrors

Today over on the Challenge Blog is the start of a fab new challenge, Halloween Horrors, I made my card using elements and papers from my Halloween Kits along with my Vampire Digi Stamp, all available from my shop.

 

We are lucky enough to be sponsored by one of my favourite ever companies, Derwent!! Pop over and take a look, you could win a wooden box of Derwent Coloursoft colouring pencils - my favourite colouring pencils! and there is a ton of inspiration from my lovely Design Team. Also, if you scroll back a few posts here on my blog you will even find one of my free digi stamps that you could use :o)

Sarah x

Time for Tea...

Today I am sharing a card I made some time ago for Kuretake, I haven't shared it as I hadn't yet seen it on any of their TV shows but I'm sure by now it must have been shown and I've just missed it!

I made this with the watercolour art and graphic pens and the wink of stella pens to give it some shimmer

I'm loving the Wink of Stella pens soooo much, I'm really not a glittery girl, it's too messy and too shiny, but these pens give a subtle shimmer which just looks gorgeous, perfect for things like butterflies and fairies (as you may have seen on my Lavinia Stamps fairy treehouse card last week). The stamps used on this card were a freebie from a magazine and the dotty card I embossed with my cuttlebug using the swiss dot embossing folder.

Thanks for looking!

Sarah x

Halloween Cuties

This weekend I made this Halloween Easel Card (in the blistering heat I might add, so wrong! where has winter gone??? I'm feeling a bit shortchanged - it's October, I want to wear my coat and ugg boots!) anyway, moving on... ;o)

All the stamps are Penny Black Stamps from The Glitter Pot, the witch, cat and bat are coloured with Promarkers. The house is a silouhette stamp, I stamped it with a black inkpad onto purple bazzill card and then used my Derwent Coloursoft pencils to add the glow of the moon and some highlights to the fence and trees. I love that stamp, it's so versatile and will be a great background for lots of projects!

I have entered this into Fab's Halloween challenge - you can find the challenge here, come and join in! 

Today started with some exciting phone calls and a little chat about my product releases, schedules etc... and I have spent the rest of the day mapping out a plan for the big release at the trade show in Jan / Feb, I have soooo much to do in the next 6 weeks its frightening! Although while I was on one of my many long phone calls today I did take the opportunity to give myself a fun manicure with my two current fave colours of polish...

Now I have about 50 billion emails to reply to and I have a headache (boo to the sun! lol) I just can't operate in hot weather, I need to go and find myself a nice secluded igloo somewhere to live / work in :o) and I'm cooking dinner again, aren't I brave? I think I'm getting pretty good at this cooking malarkey, tonight I'm doing a 'Fake-away' lemon chicken and noodles - wish me luck! (and B of course, he has to eat it, lol)

Sarah x