Ribbon Techniques

I've been promising for a while to show you the techniques used on these cards that I made for Crafty Ribbons

 So here we go!

Firstly, Ribbon Pleating, as shown on this card

You can view the video here or via my Facebook Page

And then the Ribbon Flower Technique as shown on this card

Again, you can view the video here or via my Facebook page

All ribbons (twill ribbon and seam binding) from Crafty Ribbons - big thanks to them!

These are the first videos I've made by myself, quite the Steven Spielberg aren't I... LOL ;o) 

Sarah x

Getting Organised

Yesterday and Today I spent trying to get myself organised, I'm working on so many projects for so many different areas that I was surrounded by different piles of paper - letters, sketches, emails, proposals, drafts, colour swatches, ideas scribbled on scraps of paper, product specs, lists, reference pictures, you name it, I've got it!!! So I spent a few hours with this book:

 

The Creative Entrepreneur: A DIY Visual Guidebook for Making Business Ideas Real

Working through step by step, getting all my ideas on paper, deciding what is important, what isn't as important, what I can cut out of my overloaded schedule and what I need to pay more attention to! The armed with multi-coloured files and folders, labels, notebooks and pens (I do love stationery! LOL), I got myself completely organised. I run all the updates on my pooter, backed everything up, sorted all the scraps of paper, filed all of my sketches and ideas then I sat down with a big pad and a sharpie and started mind maps for all the different things I wanted to do and how to start etc... I must say after I finished I felt a huge weight had been lifted!! It's like suddenly being given a map after walking round in circles for ages. All I have left to do is gluing all of my magazine cuttings into a journal which I might do tonight.

A few things that came out of it all surprised me, I was surprised by what actually wasn't as important as I thought and what I really really wanted wasn't what I necessarily thought it would be!

I also started organising my inspiration file on my pooter, my blogs in google reader and have unfollowed some people on twitter who were no longer totally relevant to me (I always feel horrible unfollowing incase someone thinks they done something wrong, but half of my feed was things not relevant to me anymore)

I think I gave OH the spring cleaning bug because he started tidying and organising the house as I was working, now it feels like the cobwebs have been blown off and I can move forward *sigh*

Now I'm back to the drawing board (literally) working on some new product designs :o)

Sarah x

Free Digi Stamp!

I've had so many lovely comments about my Royal Wedding Digi Stamp Kit and Illustrations that as a 'Thank You' today I'm giving away a free Corgi Digi Stamp.

Just click here or on the image to download the little Corgi in Colour and Black & White (colour with your Promarkers or Pencils)

Also, there is still time to enter the Blog candy competition - great prizes from Letraset, Derwent, Kuretake, Crafty Ribbons and me! click here for all the details.

Sarah x

Blog Candy Reminder

I hope everyone enjoyed the Royal Wedding earlier today, I missed most of it but did see the most important bit of all - the balcony smooch(es!) sweet, didn't they look happy :o) And I saw some of the edited highlights on the news after - I'm sure we'll be seeing those for days and weeks on the news and in magazines! I have my 'Congratulations' card to do this weekend with my own Digi Downloads of course...

I just wanted to remind you all that the Blog Candy is still up for grabs, see here.

Have a lovely weekend!

Sarah x

Hybrid Crafting

One of my favourite things about CD crafting and Digi Stamp Kits is that there is always something to hand, you never run out! But of course, nothing compares ot the feel and smell of paper so I like to print out all my Digi bits, cut them out and keep them in a box for quick cards and projects - you can't fail to be inspired when you open a box full of hundreds of embellishments!!

Thats why working with GallimaufryUK's Digi Kits has been such a dream for me - not only has it given me the chance to experiment with and improve my digi scrapping but I love the elements that she designs, especially for my Hybrid projects. A lot of people are scared of Craft CD's and Digi Scrapbook kits but there is no need to be, you don't need to be digital-savvy to use them (if I can do it nayone can, LOL) and I print them all out and use on my cards and Layouts. Here are a couple of projects I've done recently, a Layout of Fuzzybutt, I love this pic of her, cute!

and even some cards!

You wouldn't think that corrugated card was printed would you?! A definite space saver for me as I used to have a giant box of corrugated card bits, now it takes up hardly any space.

Now I'm off to get ready, it's the day before the royal wedding so I'm off out on Kate's Hen Night (not officially of course, I don't think she frequents the bars of Essex...) but I will be enjoying a vodka or two nonetheless :o)

Sarah x

p.s. if you are looking for your free download click here and for the Blog Candy click here

Crime Scene Mini Book

So, I mentioned that I was working on a really fun mini book, now it's all done and ready to be filled with pictures and journaling so I thought I'd share! I recently got these fabby Crime Scene stamps from a Facebook friend:

and I've been DYING to use them! I had a tag / envelope book which I thought would be really fun to turn into a crime scene style 'Case Folder' like you see in those old detective films and programmes



So here is my step by step walkthrough...

The front  cover - I painted the chipboard with acrylic paints and embossed the stamping on the front

As you open it a mini Bulldog clip holds a chipboard file folder, inside is a mini manila card for observations held together with a Tim Holtz mini paperclip

 

The come the Mini Envelopes, each has been inked with Distress Inks using a blending tool...

 

 

 

The little card on the front of this one is an October Afternoon 'Wild Card' which I distressed

This one has a mini 'polaroid' attached to the front...

 This one ties with string at the back...

and contains a tag which has a mini bottle attached to it - I coloured this green with my Promarkers to make it look like it contains something icky!

This one also opens....

 

 

To reveal a tag with a 'blood stained' piece of evidence!

All of the envelopes have their own little tags which I will add my photo's and journaling to - now I just need to decide who my subject will be and their 'crime' I'm guessing Fuzzybutt will be the obvious choice - there is certainly enough photo's of her mischief to choose from!!

Thanks for looking!

Sarah x

p.s. if you are looking for your freebie download it's in the post below, and the Blog Candy is still open here!

Excited about the Royal Wedding??

Then I think you'll love the new release for today - Princess Wedding Digi Stamp Kit

The kit contains 6 digi stamps in colour and black and white (use your Promarkers or Pencils!) including the Prince & Princess, the Church and some Bunting (well, it wouldn't be a royal wedding without it!!) You can get your kit for the bargainous price of just £3.50 here!!
I also have a free download for you today, some printable Union Jack Bunting, in two colourways, print off nice and early to get ready for your Tea Party :o) Click here or on the picture to download!

Hope you like!

Sarah x


p.s. Also, don't forget my Craft Candy is still open (see the post below) and I'm still looking for some European crafters and illustrators (non-UK) so please leave or send me your links!!

Bank Holiday Blog Candy!

Right, I promised you a lovely giveaway today so here we go....

First up, for the followers of my Blog....


The prize is my ever popular CD's Woodland Whimsies 1&2, a set of Woodland Whimsies clear stamps and a set of Aquamarkers kindly donated by the lovely peeps at Letraset.

To win this prize you just need to be a follower of my blog! How easy is that? no comments, no challenge, just click follow :o)

Secondly, a prize for my Facebook peeps....

The prize is my ever popular CD's Woodland Whimsies 1&2, a Derwent Card making Kit (Butterflies) which includes cards, a design and some gorgeous metallic pencils, a selection of pens and some gorgeous pink brads from Kuretake and a selection of ribbons from Crafty Ribbons Thank you to Derwent, Kuretake and Crafty Ribbons for donating these prizes!

To win this prize you just need to be a follower of my Facebook Page! :o)

Of course if you follow both my blog and my Facebook page you have the chance to win both prizes!

This is open to UK and international entries. The winners will be drawn at random after the next Bank Holiday on 5th May.

Have a wonderful Bank Holiday!
Sarah x

Holidays!

It's nearly time.... 4 days off... I know you're probably counting down like I am, my xbox keeps winking at me, my pile of library books are calling me, my PJ's are ready and waiting - I won't be leaving the hosue the whole time I can tell you!! I did plan to have the whole time off but got a job in this morning that of course just can't wait so I will be working a bit (not complaining because it's a fabbo job!) and probably crafting too as I just can't stop (I have a ton of digi bits from GallimaufryUK printed out to finish off some hybrid LO's) but this is the most time off for ageeeees so I'm looking forward to it :o) I hope the sun is shining where you are (if you like that kind of thing, I'm not a fan myself being as I can sunburn through a brick wall!) and you have lots of fab things planned.

If you're short of a project then Crafty Ribbons have a children's apron project made from a teatowel up on their blog here, just try not to get distracted by all the fabby goodies, LOL

Also, I'm looking for some European crafters for a little something, if you are in Europe (not UK, sorry!) please leave me your blog link so I can have a nosy - thank you / merci / danke schon / gracias etc... :o)

If you pop back tomorrow I have a little Blog candy going up - don't miss it!

Sarah x

Illustration with Derwent

Another illustration today! This one you may recognise as I showed you a teeny tiny preview of it a few weeks ago and some of you made some brilliant guesses as to what it could be :o)

This was done using Inktense and coloursoft Pencils from Derwent. I loved using the Inktense pencils to create the water and the jellyfish, it's such a rich colour and it's permanent once dry so I could use the coloursofts over the top to shade and blend. I can't wait for my next project using these two sets together again!

Also, you have to pop over the the Derwent Facebook page today, you can see their fantastic Magestic Box set being packed - I do love a sneaky peek!

Sarah x

Inky Fun

So today I promised you some crafty stuff and I have kept my promise! I spent the night (and early hours of the morning!) in my studio yesterday playing with some new stamps I got from one of my Facebook friends. This little set is so versatile, I love it! I love to see how many different uses you can get from one set of things or how you can do basically the same thing but make it look completely different by giving it a little twist, so here goes!

Firstly, in colour, using my Promarkers to colour in the elements....

Then in Monotone, again using Promarkers, I used the Warm Grey set for this one...


For this one I over stamped using the fading ink colour to create the impression of shadowy trees, you need a really juicy ink pad for this effect as some will go patchy or run out completely and ruin your card (I managed 3 impressions here!) For this kind of stamp where you have a very solid area I prefer that too, I find my own brand of ink pads work the best for this, I used the chocolate brown for the colour card and the black in the monotone card, here you can see I've stamped the same stamp with some of my favourite ink pads for comparison:

I've even left my messy smudges in so you can see I haven't messed with it! The Memento is what I used to use for everything, but you can see my ones are even darker than that! they make such a lovely clear impression - love!

I also done some fun experiments with my Kuretake alcohol inks which I will blog in the next day or two, once again my manicure is ruined but it was SO worth it, they really are fun!

Thank you to everyone for your lovely messages yesterday, I'm feeling much brighter :o)

Sarah x

Illustrating with Promarkers

This weekend I locked myself away and spoke to noone, a big bout of the Blues had hit and I'm best on my own when that happens! So apologies for my lack of tweets, emails etc... thank you to those that sent messages, normal service is now resumed :o)

Another illustration from me today, this time with Promarkers! This is an Alice in Wonderland picture that I done for the Book Fairs.

You can see the rest of the illustrations shown at the Book Fairs on my Facebook Page.

I'll endeavour to post something crafty tomorrow as I've mostly been posting illustrations the last few days!

Sarah x