Floral Hearts from Simply Cards Mag

A couple of cards using the new Floral Hearts cut and embossing folder free from this months Simply Cards magazine. 

Love the embossing effect and the heart cuts out cleanly. Made in a pale green colour scheme as a change from Valentines Day red!

Woodland Friends

I've had these cute woodland animal foam stickers for absolutely ages, so it's time to use them up! I've teamed them up with some Craftwork Cards toppers and scraps of freebie papers from magazines

Ignoring Bargains

Still determined to use up my stash and not buy any craft stuff in January (except for double sided tape) So, these 6 cards were made using just 1 sheet of sentiment toppers that came in the Craftwork Cards bargain box that I bought nearly 4 years ago, back in April 2016. Have made loads of cards so far, but still got quite a lot of stuff  from that goodie box still in my stash!

The background papers were mainly freebies from magazines. I decided to cancel a couple of my magazine subscriptions as they seem to feature the same type of cards and I wasn't feeling inspired by their projects.

Cards Galore!

Getting into the swing of stash busting now and trying to be more inventive with different designs to use up old stuff

The charity card pile is now getting bigger and I have plenty in stock for my own use.

However, I have just bought a job lot of 500 5 x 7" white card blanks from eBay at a great price - they should keep me going for a while!

I've managed to resist the gazillions of emails I have received advertising various crafting companies amazing January sale bargains to concentrate on using up what I already have!

Recently I have tried to use some of both the background papers  I have stacked up, and also stamps that I rarely ( or have never) used.

I have also used some of my distress oxide inks that were covered in dust!

More Stash Busting

I've spent a bit of time between Christmas and New Year crafting in a vain attempt to reduce my stash

These first couple of cards come from a Dovecraft pad that I bought back in the sales 4 years age!

This card uses rose corners from a 2018 Tattered Lace magazine and stamps from Feb 2018 Creative Stamping Mag.

And these couple of cards are using papers that have been around for ages!

Creative Stamping Issue 80

The postie bought me an early Christmas present today  - the latest issue of Creative Stamping magazine.  After I had braved Tesco for some salad and rolls, I had the rest of Christmas Eve off to play with the lovely Art Nouveau stamp set.

I did a bit of heat embossing in both gold and silver

and was pleased how well the stamps came out - they look very elegant!

A good start to next years cards - I sell them on behalf of St Elizabeth Hospice in Suffolk and other local charities and normally raise at least £300 each year.

I sell a few on eBay, at work and at Coffee mornings etc, and it always nice to have a few different designs for people to choose from.

All is calm .....

and peaceful here at home, presents wrapped, cards given out and just some last minute fresh salad stuff to get tomorrow. Cats snoozing amongst the tinsel and a glass of Port & lemon by the keyboard.

Wishing everyone at happy, healthy and enjoyable Christmas - however you celebrate it!

Now officially fed up of making Christmas cards, so it was a bit of light relief to make these birthday cards from my very old stash ( see last post!)

They are a bit basic, as I seem to be lacking inspiration at the moment, perhaps I need to visit a few of  my crafty friends blogs for some ideas

Far Too Much Stuff

Way back in July 2015 I bought a huge amount of stash off a lady who had to give up crafting for health reasons. I blogged about it here and here

I was searching in my craft room for some gilding flakes when I realized that over 4 years later, I still had so much of that stash lying untouched in different boxes and drawers

I really should stop buying fancy new bits that catch my eye and start using more of what I already have - there are still loads of papers, card stock, ribbons, toppers and other embellishments that I haven't touched yet. Perhaps a new years resolution should be no new purchases until a dent is made in this stash!!

Easily Distracted!

I was searching for something else, when I came across these gold and silver pots of Starlight paints from Imagination Crafts which I bought back in Summer 2016! I was going to do some embossing but ended up painting instead.

They have only been used a couple of times, so it seemed a good idea to paint some wooden shapes. The heart and cats will end up on the Christmas tree, the sparkly reindeer in cards and I'm not sure what to do with the golden  sheep shape!

Great Value for Money

I picked up this book of Winter Feelings die cut elements from The Works - as you can see it only costs £3 for 12 A4 pages 

Packed full of different stars, trees, snowflakes, deer, foliage, garlands etc

They illustrate 12 different cards, but I have have mixed and matched with some other stamps and elements from my stash and made around 30 different Christmas cards with some bits left over!

Some Cute Christmas Cards

Whilst I prefer stags, reindeer and snowy scenes on my Christmas cards,  you have to make some in lots of different styles to suit different tastes

So here are some cute cards!

Silver Swirl

Used my lovely Honey Doo Bauble swirl stamp again, this time embossed in silver and layered with silver holographic card - looks quite striking and different from when I stamped it in gold last month

More Christmas cards .....

All made with bits from my marathon die cutting session at the weekend

And like so many of my cards they might feature reindeer!

Busy, Busy .....

I've been busy with my Big Shot cutting out loads of shapes for my Christmas cards - baubles, reindeer, tags and sentiments

I've tried to use up some of the small scraps of card that I've been hording for ages as well!

And here are a few of the end results!

Cats & Dogs wearing hats

These cute foam cats & dogs wearing Christmas hats were part of my haul when I went shopping in the USA last month. 

I also cut out lots of  black cats & pumpkins using the dies I bought there, to put in the Halloween sweetie bags that I handed out last night

Christmas card production in full swing!

I've been busy beavering away making Christmas cards for charity in my spare time.


These ones have been made using the Hunkydory  Christmas Reflections topper cards I bought back in September
 

Unfortunately I cannot photograph the lovely foiled effect !

I've Been Away!

I've been away on holiday with the family to Florida. Whilst I love Disney, the theme parks and and sunshine - I also love the chance to visit the large Michael's craft store in Orlando too!

So when the rest wanted to go to be scared at the Halloween Horror Nights they hold at Universal, I got myself an Uber ride to the store and spent a quite a while wandering around - they have some amazing Halloween goodies

This life sized scarecrow was reduced from $500!!!!

Prices are not cheap any more so I was a bit selective about what I bought, the best bargain was the We R Memory Keepers scrapbook reduced to $4. There are also stickers, wooden shapes, brads, dies and lots of felt shapes of rugby, tennis,basket & footballs for  future men's cards. 

I've now got to get some of the photos printed out, so I can start the holiday scrapbook!