Birthday card for my Beautiful 'Belle

Hi folks!

My twins are 4 today..., where do the years go? I can't believe that they start 'big school' in September. Here is the card I made for Isabelle. Will share Ben's tomorrow. Another late night crafting for these babies.

I followed some challenges which really helped me to focus on what I needed to do. The sketch is from Just Magnolia. It's their launch week and I just had to join in (looks like everyone else in blogland is having fun with this sketch too :o) Cute Card Thursday is asking to see flowers. Over on the Saturday Challenge they want us to create a scene. Lastly my dear and uber talented friend Chris Dark has set the challenge over on Colour Create which is to use Pink, Black and white with the option of polka dots. A delish colour combo I 'm sure you will agree.

So 4 challenges for a four card for a little girl who is turning 4.... (fork handles anyone?...tee hee)

Back tomorrow with bonny Ben's card.

Ciao for now!

Sandra xx

...grab your tea and biscuits for this post!

Hi folks!

As the title suggests, this is gonna be a long post. I have so much to share with you, I hope you don't mind. Firstly my card. I followed 3 challenges when creating this one. The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge is asking for stripes, one of my favorite types of paper (along with floral and gingham) The Colour Create Challenge this week is Duck Egg Blue and Rose and the optional extra is stitching. I stitched the little 'New Home' sentiment. Stamptacular would like to see cards made on a theme of 'New Beginnings'.

I have used one of my lastest designs 'Home Sweet Home' which is exclusively available as a rubber stamp at The Craft Barn. If you like the stamp then hop on over to the Kadoodle blog where it is up for candy this week. I coloured this image with my koi watercolours and a little glitter for Loupy's wings. The gorgeous paper is by The Paper Company and the sheet I used is has flocked flowers across the bottom. The swirls I die cut from an adhesive sheet and glittered. The fabric flower is from a 'Mother's Day' craft kit from Sainsbury's. I layered this with a flock flower cut from the paper and a floral gem. I hand stitched the sentiment on Martha Stewart punched scalloped hearts and finished off the card by adding flower gems to the middle of each flocked flower.

6th & 7th June

Extravaganza Weekend

at

The Craft Barn

I am pleased to announce that for the second year running I have been invited to demonstrate at the June Extravaganza Weekend at The Craft Barn in Lingfield. I am so excited!! There will be 17 demonstrators there for the whole weekend, tonnes of inspiration and something for everyone. It's being held at different premises this year, I'm looking forward to that :o) Please hop over to The Craft Barn website for more details and to be able to book onto workshops.

I am currently working on some exciting new designs that I'm hoping we'll be able to launch at the Extravaganza weekend.

Here is a list of the ladies you won't want to miss!

Carol Cann

Kay Carley

Carol Cockbain

Jane Colleman

Christine Dark

Sandra Dry

Leandra Francik (PaperArtsy)

Jayne Harvey (Stamposaurus)

Lindsay Mason

Jenny Mayes (Hobby Art)

Beatrice Neumeister (KatzelKraft)

Paula Pascual

Christine 'Kiki' Quincy

Francoise Read

Sue Roddis

Carol Staples

Lexie Wilson

I do hope you will be able to come and share in the weekend. If you do please introduce yourself, I would love to meet some of my blogging friends.

Top 5 for CupCake Craft Challenge

I am also excited to anounce that my Hanglar card was chosen as one of the Top 5 cards of the week over on the CupCake Craft Challenge....Thank you!!

Have you finished your cuppa yet? I'm off to make myself one now..

Ciao for now!

Sandra xx

from the Hanglar Spring Kit (..and a.w.o.l. mojo)

Hi folks!
Anyone seen my mojo moping around anywhere? Have had to knuckle down and catch up on some housework and I'm afraid I must have offended my mojo who had abandoned me!! This card has taken the best part of two days to make. It covers a few of this weeks challenges. the sketch is from Cupcake Craft Challenges. Paper Take weekly is asking us to use 1 circle, 2 ribbons (I have layered 2 on my card) and 3 stamps (the butterflies are two different stamps from the Magnolia Spring kit) The Secret Crafter asked for stitching so I got my sewing kit out and did a bit of stitching on my card, something I haven't done for a long time and will definitely use again. Lastly the colour combo on Colour Create is Lilac and Blue. I really struggled with these colours...am just not a 'lilac' person.

The papers and card are K&Co and DCWV. This is my favourite stamp from the Hanglar Spring kit and I have coloured it with Prisma colour pencils, sansador, paper stumps and glitter. The Magnolia butterflies have been coloured with glitter and I added some wire antennae. The corner punch is from the Anna Griffin collection. I finished the card off with some self adhesive pearls.

Please, if you find my mojo send it straight home....I think we're gonna have to have words!

Ciao for now!

Sandra xx

Hanglar Cutie Challenge Card

Hi folks!!

Hope all you Mum's out there enjoyed your day yesterday :o) I managed to squeeze in some crafting time towards the end of the day and this is what I came up with. I followed the sketch over on Friday Sketchers. Colour Create have another great combo to use. I tried ever so hard not to use designer papers but I just had to give in to this piece of K&Co, it was too perfect for the Navy, Lime and Turquoise combo. It did make me get my embossing powders out, which is great for me as I haven't used them in ages (lost my heat tool in the craft room 'move' back in November... have just replaced it). Don't know about you but the card I'm working on is always my favourite, so I'm hoping it's ok to enter this one to The Saturday Challenge who are asking for card made with your favourite colour.

I stamped and embossed the first layer with a swirl stamp (those foam ones from QVC) the embossing powder is by Debbie Moore. There is a strip of vellum over the K&Co patterned paper which I punched using the Martha Stewart Doily punch. I embossed the blue panel with my Cuttlebug. I used Co-ordinations and so was able to sand it to reveal the core colour. I coloured theHanglar image (hope you like it Heike ;o) using distress inks (for the first time), my koi watercolours and glitter. Was a I had to cut his antennae off, so I made him, some new ones with wire and a couple of blobs of liquid pearls. I layered a button on more card. The leaves were also in my button box. Lastly the sentiment is K&Co.

Have just noticed I forgot to give this poor chappy his rosey cheeks... Doh!

Hope you like the card,

Ciao for now!
Sandra xx

Loupy Lou and Bobo are finally here!!

Well.... they are finally here!! Introducing Loupy Lou and Bobo you can find my little fairy and elf collection here at The Craft Barn. Hop on over and you can see the rest of my designs. While you are there check out the designs by the newest Kadoodle designer Carol Staples. Many of you will know Carol as she has been a tutor at The Craft Barn for many years. Carol had drawn 'Ma & Pa Iggly'. They are such great characters for humorous cards. I laughed until my sides hurt when she was telling me about the Iggly's so go and check them out!

For this card I followed last weeks sketch over on The Saturday Challenge. The designer papers are 'My Mind's Eye'. I cut the square and the scalloped square using my Nestabilities and the photo corners are Quicktuz. The stamp is 'Home Sweet Home' from my new collection at The Craft Barn. Here I have stamped and coloured (with my Koi watercolours) the image a few times and decoupaged some of the elements. I finished it off with a self adhesive pearl for the door knob. It's a simple card but I quite like it.
I do hope you like Loupy Lou and Bobo.
Hugs
Sandra xx

A Multi Challenge Card

Hi folks!
For this card I have followed the sketch over on Friday Sketchers and incorporated the theme of 'Spring has Sprung' which can be found on The Saturday Challenge blog. I thought this little Hanglar girl would be perfect for the theme, and so the card evolved. It Also had a lot of Glitter and is quite 'blingy' so I thought it would be perfect for this weeks 'All that Glitters' challenge over on The Pink Elephant.

The papers are DCWV, from Nana's kids stack. The design had some really cute little pink ladybirds on it. The papers are glittered and quite sparkly but I couldn't catch that on the photo. I used my Nestabilities to cut the oval and scallop. I then embossed the oval with my Cuttlebug.
The flowers are Prima with some added punched flowers in the middle and finished off with a brad. The flourishes off the flowers are a Quickutz revolution die.

I coloured the little Hanglar with mixed media. For the flesh and green tones I used Promarkers, her cheeks are chalked, the pink tones are koi watercolours but I felt they looked a bit flat so I covered with translucent glitter. All except for the pink heart and the black dots to which I added glossy accents. The Key is coloured with a silver galaxy marker and I made the highlights with a white uni-ball signo pen.

I finished the card off with a Papermania butterfly (freebie from magazine) and some pink gems.

You should have seen the state of my craft table when I had all that lot out!! :oO

Have fun crafting!

Hugs

Sandra xx

The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge.

Hi folks!
This week over on The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge the theme is recycling. For this card I recycled some ribbon that came from a gift box that was given to my daugther. I was saving it to use in her hair, luckily she likes mummy's card. Looking at it now, I should have ironed it first! I have used my Rosabella & Drake image again. They have been coloured with Prismacolour pencils, Sansodor and paper stumps. I have used some Cosmic Shimmer watercolours for their wings and finished off with some glitter. I used my deckle edge scissors to cut the layered heart from mirri board. Would you believe that the papers are a freebie download from the Papercraft Inspirations magazine. I don't usually use the freebie papers as I find they are quite thin and shiny. However I noticed that you can download as many free sheets as you like from their website. Which means you can choose what to print them on. I've printed mine on the same Linen card that I use to stamp on and they have come out beautifully.

Hope you are having a great day.

Hugs

Sandra xx