Sarah Hurley Jewellery Designs...

Just a quick post for me today, as I realised I didn't mention here something that I thought I had - the launch of my jewellery range!

The first three pieces, all necklaces, launched last year in my NOTHS shop and on my website, they  proved to be very popular over Christmas, selling out twice in the space of just a few weeks, I couldn't have asked for more from my first (small) collection! Here is a pic of all three...

These were adapted from some of my favourite designs which you may have seen in my kits - Glasses, Moustache and Camera. All are made from acrylic and come on silver chains.

I'm finalising my next collection now so look out for more news in the next few weeks! Now I must get back to work, I'm working on my new website at the moment, and it's a much bigger task that I anticipated! You can see the new improved version in the next couple of days. At least I can do it tucked up warm and snuggly inside - we have so much snow now - it's almost to the tops of my wellies! and still falling...

Thank you for dropping by today!

Sarah x

Fussy Cutting & Colouring In!

Today, I'm sharing another card you may have spotted on my Create & Craft shows for Letraset. This one combines a stamped, coloured image with some fussy cut papers...

The image is a stamp from Stampavie (available from Bramwells) coloured with a combination of Promarkers & Flexmarkers. The papers are from a pack of Websters Pages 8" x 8" papers that I've had for a while, they feature lovely botanical scenes but they weren't really my style and I wasn't quite sure what to do with them, but I thought they fitted this card perfectly! so I dug them out and began fussy cutting and building up the elements around the image creating a little rolled back frame and lots of 3D elements. Here is a little close up so you can get a good look at the colouring...

I should also let you know that Letraset are having a competition on their Facebook page this week and you can win some Flexmarkers every day - you don't want to miss this one! You can find their Facebook page here to join in!

Now I must finish off a few things before I attempt a few hours sleep, I'm currently working on some new projects that I'm very excited about, it makes switching my brain off at night a bit difficult! I'll have some more exciting news about Letraset to share with you in a couple of days as well as an update on the 'A Few of My Favourite Things...' kit club (please see previous post, and wow! what an amazing response so far!!!!) so look out for that :o)

Thanks so much for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Sneak Peek! A Few of my Favourite Things...

Today is a VERY exciting day, this is a sneak peek of something thats been in the works for a very long time, I wasn't sure whether to go ahead with it and really only decided for definite last week! I also wasn't sure whether to reveal it yet but with the encouragment of my lovely DT, I've decided to go for it and reveal all!

A Few of my Favourite Things... is a new monthly kit club, containing lots of unique and unusual embellishments designed and sourced by me, all of which will be perfect for scrapbooking, card making, smashbooking and all kinds of papercrafting! The kits will also contain the first ever previews of my forthcoming paper collections (eeeeek!!!!) and some other surprises I have lined up too...

The first kits will be going out in February and subscriptions will be available in a limited number from the end of next week. I will be increasing the amount available each month and some one off kits will be available too but again, in a limited number. If you would be interested in receiving subscription info first, please email me here with the subject 'My Favourite things' and I will make sure you get the info first along with my newsletter subscribers - then info will go onto my blog, facebook and twitter. (sending that email doesn't obligate you to sign up / subscribe in any way - it's just an info request)

I'm looking forward to hearing what you think!

Sarah x

January Craft Magazines

This month I've popped up in two craft magazines, I hope you can get hold of copies! First up, a little peek at some cards for the January issue of Making Cards magazine, I made three cards for this set but they only had room for two of them, so here is the third!...

This set of cards uses masking and Promarkers along with some gorgeous Paper Smooches stamps from Make the Day Special - love them!

I'm also the guest expert for Papercraft Inspirations magazine this month with some tips and tricks for selling your hand made cards.

Now I must be off, busy day today and I'm now prepping some stuff for something brand new I'm bringing you in a few weeks, I'm SO excited I can't tell you! I'm revealing all to my Design Team tomorrow and my tummy is all in knots, lol.

Thank you for your well wishes by the way, I'm most definitely on the mend now and although I'm sad I won't be going to CHA after all (a combination of illness and deadlines made it just impossible in the end, boo!) I am looking forward to getting a new pooter instead - a little treat to cheer me up while I look forward to the next one!

Thanks for dropping by today!
Sarah x 

Welcome 2013!

Although I wasn't quite as keen to get rid of 2012 as I was say 2010 or 2011, I am still so happy to welcome in a new year and one that I'm sure will be even better than last year! There is some VERY exciting some stuff lined up which I will be telling you about just as soon as I can, including something publishing related and some travel... (must remember to renew my passport, eeek!) I do love a new beginning, some time to reflect (I've had even more than I expected due to being laid up with a horrible bug the last few days too, ick!) and make plans.

2012 was a rollercoaster year for me, it started with a bit of a low for me for a few reasons, which I won't harp on about, needless to say though I was left with a difficult decision to make, a bit of a mess to sort out and some dusting down and getting on with things to do! The course of how I thought things would go changed, but what seemed like a negative at the time, turned out to be the biggest blessing of all, I retained control of my brand, my work and the direction I was going in and that freedom turned out to be a huge blessing as I found out just weeks later - without that I wouldn't be in the position I'm in now or able to take up some of the fab offers that have come my way (some of which are still to be revealed - eeek!)

I managed to keep all of my resolutions, except one, my quilt never did get started, I was just too busy!

And so 2012 I will remember as the year I...

* changed direction and realised I COULD do it all by myself if I just had a little more faith in myself
* launched a ton of new products
* diversified into retail with the addition of my NOTHS shop
* partnered with some fab companies including Serif and Silhouette (with a few more yet to be revealed...)
* returned to Create & Craft
* launched Craft Academy and the Sarah Hurley Lookbook magazine
* learned to cook
* got excited about a Jubilee and Olympics I thought I didn't care about (ha! how wrong was I!)
* met lots of you at Donington
* laughed more and cried less than I can ever remember - got to be a good thing, right?

My one little word for 2012 was 'Believe' to believe in myself and my decisions, my gut instinct - I certainly did that and I'm VERY happy with the way that turned out! :o)

My one little word for 2013 is...

It may seem like a frivolous one this year but it's a reminder to myself, never let ANYONE dull my sparkle, there will always be people who try to drag you down, make you feel bad about yourself or insecure in what you can do (usually because they themselves feel insecure) people that bully (you'd think it stops in the playground, but sadly, no!) backstab and think they will appear better than you if they put you down or shout louder than you - but when you have sparkle, it shines brighter than any of that and noone can dull your sparkle unless you let them - so rise above it all and sparkle on! :o)

Here is my first sparkle of the year...

Don't mind me, I'm off to sparkle some more.... ;o)

Thank you for dropping by today!

Sarah x

The Sarah Hurley Designs 50% Sale Starts Today!

My 50% off end of year sale has started today, with over 50 products with 50% off including Craft CD's, Digi Kits, Cutting files and embellishments. This will be the last chance you will have to get hold of some of them too as they are being discontinued when the sale ends - don't miss out on your favourites! You can see everything here in my shop

Thanks 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

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

Christmas Words - Free SVG File!

Today I'm sharing my last free SVG file of the year! This time some Disco style Christmas words...

Download your file here

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

The Lookbook Magazine - Volume 2!

After much hard work behind the scenes, I'm pleased to say that Volume 2 of the Sarah Hurley Lookbook is now available online for you, over 90 pages of crafty inspiration from myself and my lovely design team! You can view it here....

The magazine also includes some sneaky peeks of things coming in the new year - not to be missed!

I hope you love it as much as the first issue! As ever, my thanks to my lovely design team who made such fabulous projects for this issue! We look forward to your comments and feedback. We will be opening submissions for volume 3 shortly, so keep an eye out for more guidelines.

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Sharing my Secrets! A 'typical' day at Hurley HQ...

I haven't done one of these Sharing my Secrets posts for a while, but a lot of people ask me how I fit everything in and how I juggle things so I thought I would give you a behind the scenes peek at a 'typical' day for me.

First off, there is really no 'typical' day here at Hurley HQ - at any minute I can get an an email for an urgent deadline, a magazine write up, a commission, a piece of artwork or a last minute show and I will have to drop everything and focus on that - it's all about prioritising!

On a day when there is no crisis, I would usually get up around 7.30am. I start every day with a hot bubble bath (I know thats indulgent, but I like to start the day right!) I spend about 20 minutes in there while I check my emails and orders on my blackberry. I then grab a coffee on the way to my desk and fire up my pooter. While thats coming to life, I'll catch up on my tweets and facebook page on my iPad and scan over my diary for the day.

Once I've answered all my emails from overnight (usually takes around an hour) I'll print off and gather together any orders and send them via email (for digital products) or pack them and bag them ready for B to take to the post office when he gets home. While I'm gathering together the products for orders I take a quick look over the stock and make a note of anything thats running low to reorder later in the day. (Fuzzybutt usually crawls out of bed at this point and trots downstairs to lay next to me sleeping some more until B gets home!) Once this is done I start on my first job of the day, this is usually illustration or design of some kind, whether it's for a client, a craft product or just ideas I had kicking about in my head. Sometimes I have kits or new products to photograph for my shop or my NOTHS shop.

Around lunch time, B gets in from work, he'll grab the bags of post and head straight back out to the post office while I put on the coffee machine and find something for lunch. We take a quick half an hour to eat lunch and have a coffee together and then I get back to my desk. Sometimes B will help me with organising stock or chasing up payments or orders, otherwise he does things around the house and takes Fuzzybutt for a walk. We also spend time taking in deliveries of stock or new products from clients and the normal post etc... most of which B deals with! I get back to my illustration until around 5. B then cooks dinner while I reply to emails that have come in throughout the day. After a quick dinner togther I have my second bubble bath of the day and unwind, sometimes I have a half hour power nap on the sofa while B watches TV. B goes off to bed around 10pm and I'll then head to my studio to create things for magazines, shows, clients or my blog or I'm back at my desk to work on illustrations and other projects until around 2am I then try and spend around an hour doing some writing for my book before I go to bed around 3am. I'm usually just dropping off to sleep as I hear B's alarm going off at 4am for him to head to work.


It's a hectic schedule and it keeps me very busy but I love every second of it! :o)

Now I must be off for that dinner and bubble bath before I head back to my desk for the night - I'm finishing off volume 2 of the Sarah Hurley Lookbook, and it's coming together a treat - I can't wait to share it with you all later this week!

Thank you for dropping by today.
Sarah x