October Afternoon & Personal Impressions Christmas Cards

Today I'm sharing two cards you may have seen recently in Making Cards magazine. For these I used one of my favourite ever Christmas lines by October Afternoon (Holiday Style) with my Christmas stamps for Personal Impressions...

This first card uses the Christmas Tags stamp set, stamped in Staz On ink and distressed with Distress Ink in tea dye to make them more vintage looking to match the papers...

This second one uses the Christmas Postcards stamps, again stamped and distressed...

I kept these ones very quick and simple but they are still some of my favourite makes of the year!

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Paint Resist Christmas Cards

Today I'm sharing two Christmas cards I made using Tim Holtz Christmas Blueprint stamps and Tim Holtz / Ranger Distress Paint dabbers. Both cards I've kept very simple but I love the alternative colour scheme!

For this first card I uses the Snowflake stamp from the set, I stamped it onto a luggage tag using Perfect Medium and embossed it in clear embossing powder. While that cooled I cut a kraft card mat for my card blank, covered it in frosted film and rounded the corners.

Once my embossing was cool, I misted the tag lightly with water and took Paint Dabbers in Broken China, Picked Raspberry and Mustard Seed (I know it looks like more than 3 colours, I overlapped and mixed them onto the tag!) I Started with the Picked Raspberry down the edge and then blended the blue and yellow in from the other side.

I allowed the colours to overlap as I went before taking some kitchen towel and wiping the excess off in a circular motion to blend the colours even more. once it was completely dry I added some vintage style glass glitter from Stampin Up on part of the edge (Glossy Accents works perfectly for adhering this!) and some dots of Liquid Pearl to embellish

This card uses the Christmas Tree from the same set but using the exact same technique, here is a little close up...

I love working with these paints and the colours are gorgeous!!

I hope you like my alternative Christmas cards and I hope your preparations are nearly done, as I'm at Create & Craft for the next two days I finished mine today (eek!) I'm so relieved we have everything and I even got to stroke a pony on the way out of the supermarket (the local riding school was raising funds outside) I'm starting to feel very Christmassy :o)

Than you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Colourful Christmas Embossing

My last post before the big day! I hope you're more prepared than me, I still have a few pressies to wrap, eek!

Today I'm sharing some cards with a technique that proved very popular when I demoed for Sizzix at Donington and on my Create & Craft shows - Coloured Embossing. This first card is using a mixture of metallic and regular Promarkers...

I ran the card through my Big Shot to emboss the baubles, coloured over the raised areas then highlighted with Stickles for a festive feel...

This second card uses one of my favourite Basic Grey / Sizzix embossing folder which I coloured with seasonal Promarkers (I've done this one lots for shows and never get bored of it!) and again highlighted with stickles...

Here is a little close up...

Thanks so much for dropping by today, I best get back to wrapping *sigh* or maybe I can delegate... ;o)

Sarah x

Christmas with LOTV - One Stamp, Two Ways!

Today, I have two cards to share using one stamp, from LOTV. Again, you may have spotted these in my recent Create & Craft shows...

This card uses some gorgeous MME papers and pompom ribbon, the image is coloured using some of the limited edition seasonal Promarkers and is highlighted with stickles.

Here is a little close up...

The second card uses the same image, also coloured with Promarkers. This time I've made my own paper and sentiment using the Letraset hot foil machine that I showed recently...

And a little close up....

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

A Christmas Easel Card

Well, just as yesterday I was lamenting the fact that I am nowhere near being in the Christmas spirit (despite their being only a few weeks to go) today I woke up to a real life winter wonderland! There is nothing like snow to get you in the festive spirit fast! So now I have Christmas songs on, tucked up drawing (ironically, I'm drawing lovely springy things!)

Today I'm sharing a Christmassy easel card, I originally made this as part of a set of 2 for Making Cards magazine, but at the last minute they didn't have room to fit them in the December issue so I can share them here instead!

 

The Circles are cut using my Martha Stewart circle cutter (don't know what I'd do without it!) the blue one is from Bazzill cardstock and embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder.

The smaller white circle is cut from bleedproof card and stamped with  a Hero Arts stamp which I coloured with Promarkers and then added stickles to.

The snowflakes, dove and swirls are all Sizzix die cuts from 3 shades of bazzill cardstock, once they were all positioned and layered with 3D foam I added stickles to some of them for a frosty finish!

I'll post the second card in this set tomorrow for you to have a look at.

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

A Derwent Christmas

This week my November blog post went up on the Derwent blog, this month, I made a Christmas card using some fabric, Inktense blocks and Coloursoft Pencils, this is how it turned out...

You can see full details and a step-by-step over on the Derwent blog here.

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Peek-A-Boo Christmas Cards & Create & Craft update!

Today I'm sharing a set of Peek-a-Boo Christmas Cards, these were originally made for a magazine, but ended up not being used so now I can share them here!

The fancy card blanks are from Craftwork Cards, I used my Circle Cutter to cut a circle in the middle of the front of each one to peek through to a Christmas scene...

 

 and the inside...

This one has a fun springy sticker on the front for a touch of playfulness...

 and the inside...

All of the images are stamped and coloured with Promarkers before being layered up with 3D foam and sticky dots to create my Christmas scene!

Also, I wanted to thank everyone who tuned in, emailed and left messages etc... during my marathon stint at Create & Craft / Ideal World this week, I was originally booked for 4 hours that day, 2 for Promarker / Flexmarker and Aqua Marker sets and 2 hours to launch the new Letraset Foiling machine, the foiling machine was so popular that Create & Craft added two extra hours in to showcase it properly and added more stock and I didn't leave until almost 10pm (I got there at 7am that day!) as you can imagine, I was exhausted when I finally got in at around 1am, after being up for 21 hours but I'm so pleased that you all loved the machine as much as I did and that it ended up selling out. I had lots of messages asking when it will be back, I've spoken to Letraset and they are doing their very best to get stock in as quickly as possible, but it will be a few weeks, but I promise to keep you posted on developments!

I have another show this Tuesday afternoon at 3pm to show off those Promarker, Flexmarker and Aquamarker sets some more, so I hope you can tune in and watch and maybe email in if you get a chance.

Now, I must get back to work, I have lots of kits, products and designs to finish off this weekend before starting on issue 3 of the Lookbook magazine and starting my show prep for Tuesday.

Thank you for dropping by today!

Sarah x

The Great British Craft Festival for Sizzix

This weekend I spent demoing at the Great British Craft Festival - I was on the Aceville / Crafts Beautiful stand demoing for Sizzix with the fab Bigshot machine and some new dies and embossing folders. It was fabulous to meet some lovely crafters, thank you to everyone who came to meet me and said hello - I loved meeting all of you, sharing some tips and some of my cards and tags that I was making! I did manage to hold on to some though as I promised I would photograph them and put them on my blog this week for inspiration and to remind you all of the techniques I was showing.

Here are the first two, these are made with the new Embosslits combined dies and embossing folders - you die cut the design, line it up in the matching embossing folder and then run it back through your machine to emboss, they give a great effect and I especially liked them on metallic and pearlised card. I gave away quite a few of these but managed to hang on to my favourite two to show you! :o)

Here is the Snowflake (my number one favourite!)...

The pink paper behind is from my Santa's Workshop CD - the snowflake and greeting are embossing folders - I embossed them and cut them out. The fancy cut shape behind is one of the very thin stacking shape Sizzix dies - they fit really well with these Craftwork Cards fancy card blanks! Here is a little close up...

and here is the Christmas Bauble, I used more traditional colours for this one...

 the greeting is also from my Santa's Workshop CD. Here is a little close up...

I'll be showing some more of my show projects later in the week!

The show was very very busy and very hot but I was very lucky to have air conditioning in my hotel room when I'd finished for the day - I wished I could have brought it home with me - it was absolutely marvellous! I turned it right down to eskimo temparatures and shivered away drinking hot tea under the smooshy duvet like it was winter - blissful!

Now I'm off to my studio as I have three client projects to finish, all with a Thursday deadline - eeeeeeek!

Thanks so much for dropping by today
Sarah x

Flying Robin Christmas Card

In case you missed it, yesterday was my turn over on the Basically Bare blog and we featured my Flying Robin Christmas card...

The little chipboard robin bobs around in the apeture when the card is standing up so he looks like he's flying around - cute!

To see the full step by step on how to make this please pop over to their blog and take a look!

Sarah x

Christmas Cards

Just a quick reminder that today is the last chance to get hold of Christmas Cards featuring my illustrations! I will be taking them out of  my Etsy shop at midnight tonight, as Tuesday is the last posting day! I also have free postage (use code XMAS11 at the checkout) My Etsy shop can be found here or click the link above (there are only single cards left, no multipacks as some designs have sold out)

Please also pop over to the Basically Bare blog today where you can see my Steampunk Bird tag :o)

Sarah x

A Felt Character Tinseltown Card

Firstly, a big thank you for all the lovely comments on the Felt Owl templates - I'm so glad you liked them and I can't wait to see your creations!

After I had finished making them (and another project I will be sharing soon!) I had a ton of felt scraps left over, not big enough for another stitching project but still too big to just throw away so I started thinking of how I could use them... I was making some projects from my Tinseltown CD and had lots of digis printed off, some I had enlarged and I thought maybe I could use them as a template to make a soft touch felt card, and here it is!...

Supply List - Tinseltown CD, Felt Scraps, Glitter Markers, Black Fineliner Pen, Repositionable Adhesive, Fabric Glue, Extra Strong Red Tape, Felt Snowflakes, Stickles

Firstly I took the enlarged digi stamps (they have to be quite big or the parts are too tricky to cut out) using some repositionable adhesive I attached the whole image to a piece of felt in the main colour i.e. for the boy I used dark green. The I cut the main features out of the digi and used them as a template in the same way on my scraps of felt.

Using repositionable adhesive really is a must as the felt moves and stretches around if you try to just hold it together while you cut. You could also draw round if you want to and make sure any pen marks are hidden underneath.Don't try to cut out the really small parts, i.e. the eyes etc... the mittens are the smallest piece I could easily cut!

I then layered the pieces together with fabric glue adding details with a black fineliner pen and glitter markers. The backing paper and greeting are also from the CD - I matted these onto a card blank and then positioned the pieces where I wanted them. Once I decided on my layout I stuck them in place using the really strong red tape - worked a treat! I then added some felt snowflakes and stickles to highlight the snow, trees and snowflakes and make the whole thing sparkle! (I only really glitter at Christmas! lol)

Here are a couple of close-ups so you can see what a fab dimensional card it gives you (yet I was still able to get the card into its envelope quite easily!) perfect for someone special :o)

If you'd like to see more Tinseltown peeks and projects you can see them in this post here or on my Facebook page. We also have some more DT inspiration for you today with fab projects from Clare, Melly, Elaine and Claire.

Today I have been hard at work on more product designs and some sketches for an upcoming illustration project, somewhere in the middle I also managed to finish all of my Christmas shopping (all done online this year, much easier!) so proud of myself, this is the earliest I've ever started let alone finished! but I know with all my deadlines in the run up to the festive season that I wouldn't have got it done otherwise, now I just need to get started on making my cards, hmmm.... lol

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

Step into Christmas...

Today I'm sharing a Christmas card, it really is The Most Wonderful Time of the Year and I just love to make tons of projects, cards, anything I can really!

I used my Cuttlebug to make the embossed panel which I matted onto some gold card. The die cuts again are all done on white paper in my Cricut (Winter Woodland cartridge) and then coloured with my promarkers before layering onto the card with silicone glue.

It's a very simple make but I love the colours, I think I'll make a few of these as part of my big lot of Christmas cards this year.

Now for me it's a very Silent Night as I get on with proofing my Christmas CD before sending it off for production and to the Design Team tomorrow. Sneak Peeks and ordering info coming soon!!!

{ And I managed to fit 3 Christmas song titles into my post ;o) }

Sarah x

Christmas Cards

On Sunday I finally got a whole day in my studio to make Christmas Cards, after spending about 3 hours making 10 (all from my Christmas Cheer! CD of course!) I realised I'd have to be quicker though! So I decided to do a little illustration that I could use with my scallop punch and then use on my cards - this should cut back on some of the embellishing / stickle drying time.....

So here is our finished family and friends Christmas card - the one for my clients etc... is slightly different as they obviously won't know who B or Fuzzybutt are! (sorry mum for spoiling the surprise, this is what your Christmas card looks like!)

So tonight I will be finishing off the last of these ready to mail out over the next day or two - must do international first!! Can't believe how quickly this has come around, This is the last work week for me before Christmas!

Today was an up and down kind of a day seemed to go from fantastic news one minute to people being difficult the next minute. I also had to let someone down today as I had been let down by someone else, I really hate to do that and had a little cry after my profuse apologies. Although they were very understanding, it's horrible after someone has been supportive and nice to you to then not be able to do the same back. Makes me so angry that I was taken advantage of and that it has left me in this position. Please think of others when you do things, something that may seem minor to you could ruin someones whole day / week and have a knock on effect on others. *steps off soap box*

I'm currently reading 'The Power' by Rhonda Byrne, its a kind of follow-up to 'The Secret' and encourages you to be positive and give out love and light no matter what, so...... On the plus side I started looking at all the things have lined up and there are some super duper things!! I was actually supposed to be putting them in my 2011 diary before realising I havent got one yet!!!! Emergency diary hunting has started, I'm quite fussy as i have to look at it for a whole year, so if you know of any nice ones or have one in your etsy shop etc...then leave me a linkeroo so I can have a look - ta muchly!

One week exactly now to get free shipping in my shop with the code 'FREESHIP' pop over and grab yourself something bargainous, you deserve it!

Sarah x

p.s. I am currently looking for some mixed media artists / art journalers to work on a project with a brand new product. If you are interested please pop over to the Ink-A-Ball page on Facebook and leave your blog link!