World of Imagination Launch Blog Hop!

Today I'm super excited to be leading my team on a fun blog hop to celebrate the launch of my brand new World of Imagination range tomorrow (eeek!) This is a range of products I've been working on for over a year and I'm finally ready to start sharing by launching the first ones tomorrow - there are SO many more to come and I can't wait to show you everything we have in store!

Today each of us is going to show you one of the products from tomorrows reveal in greater detail and at the end there is a chance for you to be entered into a draw to win your favourite out of all of them!

So starting with me, a few days ago I showed you the first in the 'Make Believe' kit series - the shop, and today I'm showing you another in the 'Make Believe' series - the Post Office!

This kit was actually the first thing I thought of when developing this range. When I was little I had a toy post office in a case (this one here - thank you Pinterest! lol) and I LOVED it! Actually, Loved is probably a bit of an understatement, it was one of my favourite ever things. Shortly after I saved up to buy a set of toy food and expanded my Post Office into a corner shop (seriously, I caught the business bug early! lol) so my idea for the Post Office and Shop were born! I'm so excited to be sharing them with you and I hope you and your littles love these as much I loved mine :o)

These kits are great because they have a craft element to them as there are pieces to construct yourself, an imaginative game (I think Imagination is so important and should be encouraged as much as possible!) and an educational element with little fun facts and games throughout the kits. They are also super fun for adults (Lisa and I had a great time putting together all of the samples here in the office!) Each kit also comes with a letter from the Mayor of Make Believe welcoming you to your new business (these can even be personalised and have a badge included!!) I must stop wibbling now, I'm just too excited! lol

From my blog you can hop over to Clare who will have another reveal for you. At the end of this hop, you should be at the SarahHurley365 blog where the Mayor of Make Believe will be waiting for you to hear what you think of the range! Don't forget to also pop over and like us on Facebook for more fun and behind the scenes peeks!

Thank you so much for dropping by today and I can't wait to hear what you think of everything!

Sarah x

UK Scrappers Sponsor Blog Hop - Starting to Document December...

Today I'm taking part in the UK Scrappers sponsor blog hop! All month long, some of the fab UKS sponsors will be sharing their projects with you, all you need to do is comment on each one and then pop back to the UK Scrappers site at the end, find the blog hop post and leave a comment and one lucky winner will be picked to win a gift certificate for some new crafty goodies - won't that be a fab start to the new year?!

To start things off, I'm sharing the first look at my December Documented album. This will be my first December album as usually I go to my parents for Christmas so there is nothing to to journal about! but this year we are staying home for our first ever Christmas, I'm super excited and I'll be recording everything as I go!

I'm using the Documented365 December Documented kit for my album, this comes with lots of papers, journaling cards, stamps and embellishments and even a prompt and inspiration book download for if you get stuck! You can find the kit here. I've used a Basic Grey 'Capture' album with my kit as I wanted something smaller than 12x12 and the kraft goes perfectly with the kit colours...

I started by decorating the cover, I thought about painting the cover mint green (it's an obsession, I know!) but decided against it, I thought I'd end up feeling like it was messy and not want to carry on, so instead, I kept it simple, making a panel for the front and using some thick washi tape and gold glitter tape along the side...

I used the woodgrain and teal snowflake papers from the kit to cut the pieces for panel, the teal paper I punched with a Fiskars notebook punch along the top and I layered some matching washi tape in the middle of the two layers (this was from a Freckled Fawn 'Oh Deer Me' kit) Here are a couple of close ups...

The little tab is from the 'Snip 'n' Stick' embellishment sheet in the kit and I used it with a Dear Lizzy date stamp

The resin frame was from a previous 'A Few of My Favourite Things...' kit, I'd been saving it for something special! I stamped the '25' stamp in the middle in gold and added the frame and acrylic star with pinflair glue, I also used a word strip, a little more glitter tape and some enamel dots to finish it. 

This album comes with lots of shaped pages which I loved! so I used one of them to make my first page, I wanted to be able to see a peek of my first page behind it...

I used the doily and a journaling card from the kit along with one of the stamps to make the '24' on the card read the number of days until Christmas and added some journaling at the bottom about why I decided to do the album this year.

This was embellished with some more glitter tape, enamel dots and a gold sequin - I think there will be lots of gold in this album!

 

The first prompt in the book starts on the 1st and I already have a plan of what my page will look like. I will be sharing my first few pages in a couple of days time, I hope you'll pop back to take a look :o)

If you do decide to pick up the kit and follow the same prompts in the book, don't forget to share your links with me here or on Facebook or Twitter, I'd love to see your progress!

Thank you so much for dropping by today and taking part in the UK Scrappers blog hop!

Sarah x

UK Scrappers End of Summer Blog Hop!

Welcome to the UK Scrappers end of Summer Blog Hop, you should have arrived here from Poohbear's blog (if you've stumbled across this by accident, you can start from the beginning here on the UK Scrappers forum)

Today I'm sharing a page made with the last 'A Few of My Favourite Things...' monthly kit (more about that later, I have a fab special offer for you!!) I've been doing mostly Project Life / Documented365 recently so I made a real effort to do some layouts this weekend and catch up and it was great to dig into my latest kit, here is my page...

I used the 8x8 papers layered together on a sheet of dark brown Bazzill, using these rich colours really pulls me out of my bright summer mindset, I'm ready for Autumn! I wasn't sure how I was going to incorporate the wooden journaling card but I used it as my title with some additional mini market letter stickers and I love the resin frame! Here are some close ups...

 

So now, I have two special things for you before sending you off to the next stage of the blog hop, firstly, every new kit subscriber during the blog hop (6am GMT on 9th September to 6am on 10th September) will receive a free add on kit for their first month (yay!) you can sign up here in time for the October kit.

Secondly, I have a free download for you, a printable version of that 'Hello' journaling card I've used on my page...

Download yours here!

Now, I'll send you off to the next stop on the hop, Scrapdolly's blog! before you head back to UK Scrappers (don't forget to finish there to be in with a chance of winning some fab prizes!)

Thank you for dropping by today
Sarah x

Birthday Balloon SVG Freebie

If you have been following my blog for a while, you'll know that I always try to do a little giveaway on my Birthday, that day has rolled around once again and today I'm sharing a free Birthday Balloon SVG die cutting file with you all!

Click here to download yours now!

This is compatible with the Silhouette and other cutting machines. You can see more of my designs here in the Silhouette store or here on my website.

Today I was also treated to a fab surprise from my Design Team who set up a surprise Birthday Blog Hop for me, how fab are they??! I hope you'll hop along and show them some love, you can start here at Claire's blog!

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Blog Hop Winners & Exciting News!

First up, a big apology from me for not getting the blog hop winners up sooner, I did hope to do it a few days ago but this week has been so crazy busy that my feet have barely touched the ground!

So without further nattering, here are the blog hop winners!

Maureen - who liked the look of my Roses Digi Stamps

Mars - Who chose the Poms and Badges 

Linda - Who liked the look of the new kit club 'A Few of My Favourite Things...'

Congrats to you all! please email me here so I can sort out your prize with you! 

Also, I promised a little prize to the person who shared the most on Facebook, that person was the lovely Karen Hayselden - congrats Karen, you've won a little prize from one of the fab companies I work with, please email me and we'll get it sorted for you!

and now, I have a couple of bits of exciting news!!!!

Firstly, I can reveal that myself and my lovely friend, Phill Martin, who you may know from Honeypot Crafts or Create & Craft, have been scheming for quite some time now and we are finally ready to reveal to you the fruits of our labour - I can't give away much more right now but it is coming VERY soon! We will also be starting to share some sneak peeks with you next week, so keep an eye our here and over on my Facebook page for more news (squeeeeeeee!)

Secondly, I was overwhelmed to log on to notonthehighstreet.com yesterday and spot one of my products on the home page as one of their top picks!!!!

I've only been a partner for a few months and I'm delighted to have had such an honour so early on - wow! :o)

This has been quite a week and I can't wait to share more news with you soon - exciting times!

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Welcome to the Sarah Hurley Design Team Blog Hop!

This weekend we are having a special blog hop to celebrate the launch of my brand new website! If you haven't popped over to check it out, I hope you will, you can find it here.

My Design Team will be sharing with you their favourite of my designs and the projects that they have made from them to give you lots of inspiration and I will be giving away 3 prizes - the best part is, the prize gets to be whatever you choose from my shop, you will also get a £10 voucher to treat yourself to some extra bits and pieces!

All we need you to do is drop by each of the blogs and my Facebook page and leave a comment telling us your favourite thing from my shop, next week I will draw the three winners from all of the comments left on our blog posts and my facebook page - so the more comments you leave, the more chances of winning!

I'll be starting you off with a sneak peek of a new line coming soon...

I'd love to hear what you think :o) From here you can start at Claireliz's blog to check out her lovely project, she'll tell you where to go from there! :o)

Thanks so much for playing along!

Sarah x

Punky Scraps Blog Hop

Today I'm taking part in the Punky Scraps Blog Hop. This fab inky painty challenge blog is run by Nat from my DT and she very kindly asked me if I would be a guest for her today (how could I refuse!)You should have reached my blog from Celina's blog (or you can start at the beginning here) and at the end Nat has a sketch challenge for a spot on the Punky Scraps Design Team and some fab prizes up for grabs - not to be missed!

For the hop we were asked to share our favourite inky painty project which for me is this Art Journal page I made a few months ago (I don't share many pages from my art journal and this is a rare example!)

This is done in my little Derwent journal, I used lots of different colour Ink Sprays on the background along with lots of doodling, a print of one of my favourite quotes and some magazine scraps) 

Here are a couple of close ups...

 

From here, you can hop over to Amy to see her favourite project! and then on to try out for the coveted DT place and prizes at the end!

Thanks for taking part today!
Sarah x

Britannia Release & Blog Hop Winners!

So today is the day, Britannia is officially released and available to buy here - yay!

Here are some sneaky peeks of the 5 collections on the CD...

             English Country Garden                     Heritage

                    I Love London                            Jubilee

                                            Sporting Pride

The CD is available as an actual CD and an instant download (cheaper and no waiting! lol) and contains over 1500 elements - tons of papers, embellishments, all perfectly co-ordinated and digi stamps in both colour and black and white, get yours here!

This weekend myself and my lovely DT had a blog hop to celebrate the launch - so a big thank you to everyone that played along, my lovely DT for all their hard work and fantastic inspiring projects and to our sponsors Derwent and Letraset for donating prizes. The winners are... *drumroll*

1. Deborah B

2. CraftyCaron

3. daisylou

Please contact me here with your details and I will get your prizes out to you.

Thanks for popping by!

Sarah x

Welcome to the Sarah Hurley DT Blog Hop!

This weekend (Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th April) we are holding a Design Team Blog Hop to celebrate the release of my newest CD!

Each of the DT members has projects and sneak peeks on their blogs along with a letter of the alphabet, if you hop through the blogs in order (we'd love you to follow us all and leave us a comment on our projects and peeks!) and collect the letters they spell out the name of the new CD (the CD is available to buy now here!) - then all you need to do is pop back here and leave a comment on this post with the name.

You will need to start with Jaine's blog and hop through from there.

Along the way you’ll be able to capture a sneak peek at the new CD as well as gather some fabulous inspiration from the team.  There will be new posts on each day so pop back both days to make sure you don't miss anything!

Next week I will be picking three winners from the correct answers at random to win some fabulous prizes from our sponsors...

 

The Prizes are as follows:

1st Place - a download of the new CD, and your choice of either a set of 24 Derwent Watercolour pencils or a set of 12 Pastel Promarkers and a 15% discount voucher for my shop (www.sarahhurley.com) 

2nd Place - a download of the new CD, a set of 5 'Summer' Promarkers and a 10% discount voucher from my shop

3rd Place - a download of the new CD and a 10% discount voucher from my shop

(There is also a little competition among all of the DT so they would appreciate your comments to help them win a prize ;o) )

The competition will close at midnight GMT on Sunday 15th April and any entries after that will be discounted. Winners will be picked at random.

Here is what I made with the new CD, using my favourite Digi stamp (he's just so cute!) and papers from the 'I Love London' collection (the 'Hello Handsome' stamp is from Hero Arts)

I look forward to seeing all your comments and I wish you all the best of luck!

Sarah x

A Date for your Diary - Blog Hop!

We hope you will join us this weekend for our Design Team Blog Hop to celebrate the release of my new CD!

We are going to have lots of fun projects for you, sneaky peeks and some fab prizes from me and some lovely sponsors - don't miss it!!

I hope you all had lovely Easter breaks, I sadly didn't get my day off that I'd hoped for, the deadlines were just stacked up and I had to keep going, - roll on the next Bank Holiday, I definitely need a day off! I'm not complaining though, its an exciting time and I'm really really grateful for the fab opportunities coming my way, I'd just like some sleep to come my way too, lol.

Now I really must dash, time for a quick dinner with B (I'm starting to forget what he looks like!) and then on with some more illustration work.

Bye for now...

Sarah x

Punky Scraps Blog Hop

Today I'm taking part in the Punky Scraps Blog Hop to celebrate their new Design Team! Punky Scraps is a super fun Challenge Blog that encourages you to think outside the box and get messy with inks and paints (how can you resist!). I was asked to join in their Blog hop after sponsoring their challenge last month.

We were all asked to make a layout using this sketch from Camilla...

And this is my interpretation...

I used my own brand of sprays on the Kraft Cardstock in Sepia and Chocolate Brown (available in my shop). The lined cardstock is from my favourite Basic Grey Basics (I need to bulk buy this soon, I'm nearly out!) which I edged with Claudine Hellmuth Paint in Sable Brown. The dotty paper is from October Afternoon and the Stamp is from Scraprat. 

I love this picture of Fuzzybutt in my studio - she just loves to be in there with me when I craft (mostly in case I drop some ribbon she can steal!)

You should have reached me from Camilla's blog (if not you can start at the beginning on the Punky Scraps blog) and from here you can hop over to Cheryl's blog to check out her layout. The blog lasts for a week and gives you a great opportunity to get to know the whole Punky Scraps team! So please hop around and follow everyone's blogs and leave a comment :o)

Sarah x

Blog Hop Winners!

My blog hop winners from the weekend are......

Saturday - Patsi - you win a copy of Woodland Whimsies
Sunday - Catnap - you win a copy of Woodland Whimsies 2

If you could both e-mail me your name and address I'll get your prizes out to you!

Congrats and I hope you enjoy them!!

I will be announcing the Challenge Blog winners shortly and posting a list of all the winners so pop over there and take a look, you may not have been lucky here but won somewhere else! If you weren't lucky this time there are still (literally) a few copies to buy here.

Also check out the challenge and play along - you have until Sunday to enter. Tomorrow there will be a new challenge up posted by Debs, I done my card today and loved her challenge so don't forget to pop back tomorrow and take a look!

Sarah x

Crazy Weekend!

What a CRAZY weekend! The Blog Hop on the Challenge Blog went really well so thank you to everyone who took part, we really appreciate it and it made all the effort worthwhile, I was literally at the pooter all weekend finalising designs for new products and answering peoples e-mails and orders! Challenge One is now up so pop over and take a look, we'd love you to join us!

The winners from the weekend will be announced Wednesday on the Blog so look out for your names! We only have a few copies of each CD left after the massive giveaway and the weekend orders - we will have new stock for the 8th August show but if you want to buy before then grab it now!

Two new shows have been confirmed and more are coming soon, I have so many new things to share which I'm really excited about!

I'm preparing a Sneak Peek tomorrow so keep a look out!

Sarah x

Blog Hop - Day 2!

Welcome to Day 2 of the Blog Hop!

By commenting on this post you can win a copy of Woodland Whimsies CD 2

Yesterday I made a card with some of my favourite elements of this CD:

The owls are cut from an 'Owl Collection' backing paper with a 1.5" circle punch a matted onto a piece of my cream honeycomb backing paper which has the corners rounded. This was sooooo simple to do but I just LOVE it! The owl collection from this CD was definitely my favourite and one I still use lots. It uses a lovely retro colour palette of orange and brown.

Please pop over to the Challenge Blog where you can win more prizes and click through to all the other girls - remember the more blogs you comment on, the more chances to win!

Thanks for playing along, we have all really enjoyed the Blog Hop and appreciate all your lovely comments - the winners will be announced on the Challenge Blog on Wednesday!

Both CD's are available from my website - click here! I have a few copies left after the giveaway (so hurry if you want one! LOL) but I will be back on Create & Craft on the 8th August with a new stock of these plus LOTS of new products - I hope you'll be watching!

Sarah x

Blog Hop - Day 1!

Welcome to Day 1 of the Blog Hop!

By commenting on this post you can win a copy of Woodland Whimsies CD 1

Yesterday I made a card with some of my favourite elements of this CD:

I have inked the Deer paper for a distressed look, the ribbon is one of my paper ribbons and the greeting punches out with a 1.5" circle punch.

I have also been asked a LOT about the layered flowers since I demo'ed them on Create & Craft so I've done a quick tutorial.

The layered flowers print on one sheet and there are lots of plain and dotty colours to choose from!
Firstly, cut out all the pieces, you can use as many or as few as you want, I like to use 6 and alternate the plain and the dotty:

You can of course leave them like this but I like to grunge them up and distress them a bit! So if you want to do this, scrunch them up (you can wet them slightly first with a fine mist of water or shimmer spray if you want them to look even older and more tatty thna grungy)

The using 2 shades of ink pad - I've used 2 browns, ink them up, when you do this start the inking tool on your craft sheet so you dont get any hard edges:

Then layer all the pieces together and secure with a brad, I like to add a couple of little drops of glossy accents as 'dew drops' here are some I've used in projects:

Thats all from me today! Now pop over to the Challenge Blog where you can win more prizes and click through to all the other girls - remember the more blogs you comment on, the more chances to win!

Thanks for playing, see you back here tomorrow for your chance to win Woodland Whimsies 2!

Sarah x