Recycle, Reuse .....

This card has been made with the card trick that was inside one of our Christmas crackers - I couldn't work out the trick, but least I can reuse the cards!

Christmas wasn't quite as organised as usual as I went down with the flu 2 days before and spent most of the time asleep on the sofa, but we did enjoy a family get together on the day and also round my sons on Boxing day. Rather than enjoying wine, Port or Gin, I spent the time sipping honey and barley water!

I did get some lovely crafting goodies, including these cute little kraft envelopes which I have teamed up with some inquisitive kitties.

Best wishes for 2018 to you all.

Last Reindeers of 2017 ..... Promise!

Reindeers and stags have featured rather heavily in my 2017 Christmas cards - so these will be the last posted this year, but I couldn't resist showing off the lovely bauble die that came from AliExpress.com- it only cost £2.55 and the fir tree die was £1.35 - real bargains and well worth the wait for delivery from China! 

I cut them out using black card and layered them against sparkly white glitter card - really pleased with the effect.

Let It Snow!

Like the rest of the country we have snow today! First of the year for us, as we live in Sunny Suffolk and have a milder climate than most areas.

No only is this a photo of my snowy back garden, but it is also my first picture of my lovely new wooden fence which was only finished on Friday! They also trimmed the beech tree at the end of the garden and took away the old shed that was on the left hand side of garden

I wish I had taken a 'before' photo to show how tumbled down and rotten the fence and shed were - at least I have a nice and secure garden now!

A Little bit of Sparkle

The background to this card is made from red sparkle texture paste by Cosmic Shimmer. I must confess that I made it last year and couldn't work out what to put with it!

Inspiration finally struck when I found the big red bauble topper and matched it with the JOY stamp from last months Craft Stamper magazine. A Hunkydory poinsettia just finished it off!

More Embossing with Gilding Wax

Now that I have made most of my Christmas cards, the pressure is off and I can play and experiment a bit more! So I dug out my gilding waxes and embossed some black card. This embossing folder was a freebie a couple of years ago and the stag stamp and die were from the majestic moments from Simply cards magazine.

You can't see the glitter in the photo, but this card really does sparkle!

The waxes are a mixture of alchemy waxes by Imagination crafts and and metallic wax from Creative Expressions

This card was going to be for Christmas, but I was a bit heavy handed with the gold gilding polish, so covered it up with a die cut spaceship!

Craft Room Tidy Up!

I picked up a bargain table and bookcase for the craft room (ie the small boxroom)- which has necessitate in a BIG TIDY UP!

I am a bit of a messy crafter and like to be surrounded by things to give me inspiration, but it was getting a bit out of hand. 

I had to take out most of the boxes and storage units to fit the new furniture and this forced me to clear up the piles of paper, stamps and embellishments that I have lying around

However I can't promise that it will stay this neat and tidy for long!

Making Cards Magazine

I wasn't going to buy any more Christmas Stash but spotted the Christmas Special edition of Making Cards Magazine - it has some cute animal stamps.

But before I break open the stamps, I've made some Christmas cards with the freebie papers!

Stags & Mermaids

I'm pleased to say the Christmas card making is going well, with over 100 given to charities to help with their fund raising and plenty made for family & friends. 

But you can get a bit sick of Santas, Snow and Reindeer, so I occasionally take a break and make other cards like this Mermaid one!

Sorry - more Christmas Reindeer cards!

Yes, I'm afraid here are more Christmas cards made with  the  X-Cut Winter Forest die. 

I love the black silhouette - it even works well as a border when you cut out the stag & deer!

More Recycled Reindeer

A couple more cards featuring Stags and Reindeer- this time using recycled Christmas cards from last year!

This Years Christmas Theme - Reindeers

Every other Christmas card I have made so far this year seems to have a reindeer or stag somewhere on it

I've used lots of different colours, layouts and styles, but those deers still seem to sneak in to most cards!

Silver Scene

And here's the die cut into silver mirri board and mounted against a sparkly lilac background!

More Stags at Christmas

I know I shouldn't have, but I have bought the Winter Forest die by XCut, because I love the stag and deer silhouette.I saw it at a demo at The Range and fell in love!

I cut them out in black card and have layered them against some snowy countryside scenes from last years Christmas cards. They don't look to bad, do they?

Twilight Home

Remember the little wooden houses I bought back in July? Well, I have teamed one up with the fab Hunkydory Twilight Kingdom papers that I bought in June to make this New Home Card. The paper backgrounds have proved to be very versatile, helping to make birthday, pagan, mermaid and even wedding cards!

Non Religious Christmas Cards

I like to make some Christmas cards that do not have Christian symbols on them for friends who are pagan or not Christians and the stags head stamp seems ideal for these!

This one also uses as recycled Christmas card from last year as the background!

Stags Head - Majestic Moments

Loving this Majestic Moments free gift from Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine. I just couldn't wait to stamp out the stags head and colour them using promarkers

I then cut out some different coloured oval backgrounds using one of those cheap Chinese dies and layered them up

and this is a birthday card using one of them - expect to see some more!

Cards for All Occasions

I've started using the car boot bargains I found last week

I've made Thank You, Birth Congratulations, Just for You and New Home cards as well as several birthday cards. Some of these will be going to my favourite charities.

Going to go back tomorrow for another look round to see if I can find some more crafty stash!

Car Boot Bargains

I don't often find craft stuff at car boot sales, but this week I found not one, but two stalls with loads of things! One was from a lady who was clearing out stuff, so she could go and buy some more, the other from a friend of a lady who was too ill to craft any more.

I picked up loads of patterned papers (including an unused 12 x 12 pad), die cuts, stamps, flowers, ribbons, kits and heaps of Buzzcraft and Hunkydory toppers!

From just that one Buzzcraft Garden Blossom Delux mat sheet on the right of the photo, I have made these 5 cards already!

Lucky win!

I've been away on a 2 week holiday to Greece and came back to discover I had won 2 sets of  Clearly Whimsy Stamps from Making Cards Magazine.

Once I have finished all the washing and stocked up the fridge, I will have a play with them!

Christmas with Gilding Wax

I've got the gilding waxes out again and made a start on Christmas 2017 - I think this snowy village scene was a freebie from a crafting magazine a while ago

I also made this general card using one of my favourite 'Script' embossing folder

A Few More Cards with Labels

Just a few more cards using those labels I cut earlier with the freebie from Simply Cards & Papercraft mag

Think I need to go and cut out some more!

Labels Galore

In this months issue of Simply Cards & Papercraft there is a very useful label die cut and stamp set

I went through my pile of odd pieces of card and cut these out. The lacy border looks very effective against a coloured background

And this is my first card made using them! The little wooden bird was coloured with my French Lavender gilding wax to match the flowers.

Gilding Waxes on White Card

After having fun using the gilding waxes on black  - I thought I try them out on white card. Obviously the effect is a lot more subtle, but still gives a lovely sheen!