Documented December!

It's that time of year again and Team Hurley are kicking off Documented December over on the Sarah Hurley365 blog! 

I used my Documented December kit with the Gold album (that was a tricky decision and it came right down to the last minute before I decided to go for gold!) Here is a little look at my intro page...

I've kept it very simple, spray painting the wooden number in the kit gold (what on earth did I do before I discovered gold spray paint???) and using it on my favourite paper in the kit with a little embellishment - I loved using the stamp and stitch stamps to add the stars!
I'll be showing you more of my album in a few days...

We'd love you to follow along with us and I look forward to seeing your projects - don't forget to hashtag us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with #documenteddecember and / or #sarahhurley so we can have a look and like and comment on your projects!

Thank you for dropping by today
Sarah x

Freebie Friday! Tinseltown Christmas Journal

This week's Freebie Friday is a Tinseltown Journal Kit - perfect for making your own little 6 x " Christmas album!

You can download this weeks freebie over on my website right here

If I can be a little bit cheeky this week too please - the votes close soon for the business awards I've been shortlisted for - your vote could make all the difference! There are no forms to fill out or anything (unless you don't have Facebook) just one click - please! Just click here to vote for me - thank you!!

I'd love to see what you do with yours - leave me your blog links in the comments if you'd like to share :o)

Thank you for dropping by today!

Sarah x

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

The Lookbook Magazine Christmas Special!

My lovely Design Team have been very hard at work making lovely Christmas projects for a Special Edition of the Lookbook magazine, I'm so pleased to share with you today, our Christmas Special!

I hope you love this issue as much as I do, as well as projects there is a little word from each of my Design Team to give you a little behind the scenes insight.

We would love to hear what you think of the issue. All of the products used in the projects shown are available here in my shop.

As ever, a massive thank you to my lovely design team who made such fabulous projects for this issue, without them, none of this would be possible! We look forward to your comments and feedback.

Submissions for volume 5 are now open! To have your Sarah Hurley project considered for inclusion, please send us a photo of your project here.

Thank you for dropping by today
Sarah x 

Christmas at Home Card

Today I'm sharing a Christmas card you may have spotted on some of my recent Create & Craft shows, it's one of my favourites as It reminds me of Christmas at home...

The fancy shaped card blank is from Craftwork cards, the pearlised card has been cut using a Sizzix Framelits die and embossed in a snowflake embossing folder. The village parts were stamped onto bleed proof card and coloured with Promarkers before being layered onto the card.

I finished it with a Tim Holtz Sizzix Snowflake Rosette, one of my favourite Sizzix dies of this year!

I hope you are more prepared for Christmas than I am, I still need to finish writing a few cards and wrapping all of my presents (though I usually rope in some help! ;o) )

Thanks 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

Christmas Bells - Free SVG Cutting File!

A very quick post from me today as I'm snowed under both with designing  (lots of new things coming over the next few weeks!!) and with prepping for my Create & Craft / Ideal World Shows this week (scroll down for dates and times) but I do have a free die cutting file for you today...

Download yours here!

This would be perfect for your Christmas Cards. You can see more of my die cutting designs (and my other craft products) here in my shop or here in the Silhouette online store.

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Sarah Hurley Greeting Cards at NotOnTheHighStreet.com

I've been mentioning how the new products I'm working on so I thought today I would share with you a small selection from the new range of greeting cards, available from my notonthehighstreet.com shop.

These are the Storybook cards...

You may recognise some elements from my Storybook scrapbooking kit! There are three in this set featuring my Storybook illustrations - Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Secondly, the Woodland set and my personal favourite!

These have a cute deer, some loved up foxes and a family of little fuzzy owls!

and last but not least... one of the many Christmas cards! This one is called Eskimo Love...

You can see the full range of currently available products in my NOTHS shop, and there are more on their way! I'm currently working on my first brochure to go out to card and gift retailers - eeeek! how exciting is that?? (If you are a card shop or retailer anywhere in the world and would like a copy when its ready later this week, please click here and send me your details to be added to my mailing list)

I have some other fun products coming soon too, both craft and card / gift - I can't wait to share!

Today has been super stressful for me as I have deadlines up to my eyeballs and I had my house rewired so no power, 3 strange men in my house, Fuzzybutt having a full on anxiety nightmare because of the strange people - she literally squeaked and whined from 8am until they left at 6, between the squeaking, drilling, banging, radios, stress and anxiety, never has my head pounded so much. I'm so pleased to have my peaceful little sanctuary back so I can get back to work this evening!

Now I must get myself another cup of Earl Grey and get back to my Wacom!

Thank you so much for dropping by today
Sarah x

Star Lanterns - Free SVG Cutting File!

Today I have a free SVG Silhouette cutting file for you all! This time a Star Lantern... I made this as a prop for some photography I'm doing, and loved them so much I thought I'd share!

You can download your kit here

I made two, one actual size and then I reduced it to around 75% to make a second, I cut them from premium copy paper - around 90gsm - you don't want anything too thick or the light won't shine through, but not too thin or it won't be sturdy enough to stand up! I then popped a battery operated tealight in each to give them a lovely glow, they would make gorgeous Christmas decorations or table centrepieces. I also used the cut out stars as confetti - I love stars and couldnt just throw them away!

You can see more of my Silhouette designs here in the Silhouette online store or here in my own store (where you can also see my other designs and craft products)

Thanks so much for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Be one of the first to see new projects, news, special offers and freebies by following my blog (on the right), Facebook Page or Twitter!

Welcome to Santa's Workshop!

This seems a bizarre thing to be posting about given that the sun is shining through my window and it is SO hot here! but I know we all like to get a jump start on our Christmas crafting and it's not *that* far off - really! So today is the release of my new Christmas Craft CD and Digi Kit!

I'll start with the Santa's Workshop Craft CD...

The CD contains over 500 elements including lots of papers, digi stamps, colour images, embellishments and sentiments (you can get your copy here) I wanted to share some of my favourite parts with you...

First up, the Santa Polaroid pics - these are so fun, great as toppers or embellishments - I can't wait to make some goodies with these!

Also on this CD I wanted to include some ephemera, I love little fun bits and pieces you can add to your craft projects and these little tickets, cards and receipts are perfect - I have a fun project planned with these too!

I've also made two sticker sheets - you can print these directly onto adhesive paper and cut out your own coordinating stickers - or why not try them onto vellum, acetate or kraft paper - lots of possibilities!

I also made some layered embellishments - these give a real touch of luxury to your cards - you can even emboss the edges or use a gold or silver pen to give them a really great finish - just cut and layer with 3D foam - there are 3 in total but all the pieces mix and match so there are lots of different possibilities and ways to put them together!

and finally, in case you missed it, I'm including my first sneak peek again to give you an idea of the papers and digi stamps on the CD - all the digi stamps are in both colour and black and white so you can make quick and easy cards or crack open your Promarkers and have a good colouring in sesh! :o)

We will be bringing you lots of inspirational projects over the next few weeks and Nicole and Sharon were kind enough to share with me two projects to get you started - from Sharon a gorgeous tag, and from Nicole an advent poster put together digitally to help you countdown to Christmas!

 Also available from today is the Santa's Workshop Digi Kit with 12x12" papers, embellishments and... two transparent overlays! I love to use acetate on my projects so I wanted to create the effect digitally! You can see all the details and get your kit here.

Now I'm off to get on with some more designs, a few craft projects to finish up and packing up some new products to go in the shop tomorrow - don't miss them! ;o)

Thanks so much for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

It's finally here :o) Have a fantastic day

Sarah x

My Christmas Playlist

It's nearly here! I'm such a child at Christmas, I'm still the first one up waking everyone up to see if Santa has been - I've been a good girl this year so I'm fairly confident ;o)

To get in the Christmas Spirit I am sharing my Christmas playlist - these have been on my iPod every day!

 

I hope you enjoy my Christmas playlist and have a fantastic day getting all the final bits and pieces ready for tomorrow - don't forget to leave something out for Rudolph as well as Santa!

Sarah x

A Cricut Nativity!

One of my favourite projects this Christmas season has been my Nativity scene frame that now sits in pride of place on my mantlepiece - I know this will be a feature of my Christmas decorations for years to come!

Supply List - Cricut Expression 'Winter Frolic' Cartridge - Provocraft, Tinseltown CD - Sarah Hurley, Frame (from any homeware store), White Acrylic Paint, Promarkers - Letraset, Precision Pen - American Crafts, Distress Stickles (Broken China), Stickles - Stardust - Ranger, Coated Card - Rymans, Sticky Dots

This was really simple to make, all the pieces you can die cut from your Cricut Expression (on to white and colour in like I did or using up your scraps!)

Firstly I sanded the frame and painted with two coats of acrylic paint - I made the paint quite watery as I didn't want a completely even finish, I like the Shabby Chic look!

I then set that aside to dry and covered the back part of the frame in snowfall paper from the Tinseltown CD, I cut the hills from a scrap of brown card and added those in front. I then die cut all the pieces from the cartridge (I cut most of these around 2.8 but depending on the size of your frame you may want to change this - the squares on the mat will help you see what size you should be cutting, it makes it so simple!) I cut everything from white card then coloured with my Promarkers.

Once the shapes were all dry I layered them together using Sticky Dots (they are great for sticking down the fiddly little parts of die cuts!) and added features using an American Crafts precision pen in brown.

I then arranged them onto the backing to get the look I wanted. Once I was happy I glued them all into place and tucked the back back inside the frame. I then added the Christmas Trees and the Angel to the frame. I used Stickles to make the Angels cloud and wings sparkly and to add baubles to the Christmas Tree. I then printed the banner and added to the top - done! Such a fun project :o)

I hope your Christmas preparations are coming along nicely, not long to go - eeeeeeek!

Sarah x

Kuretake Tree Angel Decoration & Planning Ahead!

If you pop over to the Kuretake blog today you can open door number 19 on their Advent Calendar which is a  step by step tutorial by me on how to make this Angel tree decoration, including a download of the face I designed so that you can make your own! :o)

Today I have been working on a super exciting project due to launch in the first week of January - my Design Team are involved on this one too and they all loved it so I'm sure you will too!

I've also been making lots of plans, I love to plan and set goals it makes me happy and excited for the year ahead! so I've spent the day surrounded by journals, diaries, planners, file cards and folders of things making sure I'm all set. Another great reason I love to make plans is, sometimes it can be a bit of a downer once Christmas is over, but if you've planned a year of exciting things to look forward to, plans to set in motion and goals you can't wait to achieve then you don't feel that way.

B is home for Christmas now too so he has been working with me and helping as well as catching up on lots of little DIY bits and pieces around the house, it feels good to get everything ready for a fresh start in the New Year - exciting times ahead! Of course Fuzzybutt is super excited to have her daddy home, her tail hasn't stopped wagging all day :o)

I'll be sharing another project tomorrow so I hope you will pop back!

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 Tinseltown Christmas Birdhouse

I had one tiny birdhouse left and I've been waiting for ages for a suitable project for it. With all my little leftover pieces from recent Tinseltown projects, a little idea came to me and I jumped out of bed at 1am the other night to get it done before I forgot!

Supply List - Tinseltown CD, MDF Mini Birdhouse, Range Paintdabber - Snow Cap, Stickles - Icicle, Glossy Accents, Promarkers, Prima Brick Stamp, Adirondack Inkpad - Raisin, Cocktail Stick, Strong Double Sided Tape

I first coloured the house using Promarkers (I didn't want to wait for paints to dry!) I then cut a scrap of the green scalloped paper ribbon from the CD and glued it around the bottom using glossy accents. I then cut out a tiny reindeer and tree and found one of the flag greetings I hadn't used.

I stamped both sides of the roof using a Prima brick stamp and an adirondack inkpad in raisin (it bleeds slightly but I loved the effect!

 

I then used the snowcap paint dabber and squeezed it quite firmly onto my craft sheet to get lots of paint coming out and dabbed it on the top and edges of the roof for snow. I the scraped it around the edge of the base to get a big build up of paint to look like piles of fallen snow - I set this aside to dry overnight.

In the morning when this was dry I added the tree and reindeer using glossy accents. I then used some strong double sided tape (the red one) to attach the flag to the cocktail stick. Then to attach the flag to the house (you can't do this with the house standing up I found out!) I marked on the cocktail stick where I wanted the roof to go then laid the cocktail stick on some scrap paper, adding a dot of glossy accents where the mark is, I then laid the house on top and stood the glossy accents bottle on top to hold it down while it dried.

Once everything was dry I added some stickles to the snow to make it sparkle!

I'm going to use it as a tree decoration (when B finally digs the Christmas Tree out of the loft!) Now I'm thinking of other things I can make for my tree :o)

Sarah x

p.s. Thank you for all the great feedback on the Inspiration Gallery - I'm so glad you're all loving it!!

Tinseltown Calendar & Free 2012 Calendar Download!

I'm now on the last few days of my deadline and I'm at the 'hair tearing out' stage, it's all coming together nicely though and I'm so excited to share these with you all. It's a scary leap from craft CD's and stamps into paper and all the bits that go with it but I'm really pleased with how it's looking and I hope you will all love it too. I will be starting sneak peeks just as soon as I'm allowed! :o)

Today I'm sharing a calendar I made with my Tinseltown CD...

 Supply List - Tinseltown CD, Twine - The Twinery, Gems, Double Sided Tape

Everything used is on the CD, I just added some gems and twine. If you have other papers you'd like to use to make one you can download a free black and white calendar sheet here or get  a digi kit of them in all their pretty colours here.

I printed everything onto Rymans coated cardstock (its the same one I use for promarker colouring and is like a thin cardstock so perfect weight for this kind of project - too thick and you will get horrible creases, too thin and it won't hold the weight of the calendar pad and buckle in) I folded the A4 sheet into 3 with a little lip at the bottom (this will be very easy of you have a scoring board or if like me you don't, then measure 3 equal pieces with an extra 1 - 1.5cms at the bottom and trim to size scoring with an embossing tool or bone folder) and folded into a triangle shape - you can see from this side view how its fixed together with double sided tape.

I coloured the digi stamp with Promarkers and added some stickles in icicle to the furry parts of his outfit. I used the pre-coloured version of the sleigh digi stamp, but the black and white one is on the CD also. I then cut out the scalloped ribbon and added to the top fold with double sided tape. The bow is from the cd, I used a glue dot to attach it by the centre rather than stick the whole thing flat. I then attached the digis using 2 thicknesses of 3D foam so the little boy is slightly in front of the sleigh.

I cut out the calendar cards and punched holes in the top corners - I then punched two holes in the calendar and threaded twine through and tied in a bow to hold them securely (the pages can be easily torn off at the end of each month as there is no glue holding them down) as a finishing touch I added some gems to the top corner.

This is such a quick project but makes a great gift or project for your desk or craft table (which is where mine will be going for the new year!)

If you would like to make this you can download a free Black and White Calendar by clicking here or on the picture below (and right click to save) or you can buy a digi kit of calendars in all their pretty colours here (of course if you have the Tinseltown CD already you already have everything you need to make this!)

Thank you for dropping by, I'll be back in a day or so when my deadline has passed and I'm less crazed (I'm only panicking slightly! lol)

Sarah x

A Basically Bare Christmas LO

Today I'm sharing a recent Scrapbook Layout I made for Basically Bare using fun Doodlebug Christmas Papers...

 Supply List – Chipboad Frame, Chipboard Pennant & Felt Banner – Basically Bare, Papers, Red & White Alphabet Stickers, Rudolph & Star Stickers – Doodlebug, Teal Alphabet Stickers – Cosmo Cricket, Holly Leaves – Paper Cellar, Gems, Red Acrylic Paint

I'm wondering if my sister will kill me when she sees this... LOL. You can see all of the details and some close ups over on the Basically Bare blog.

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