Craftroom Update - the big move + A viking invasion with Avery Elle

Well, here we are again! After my last post I found myself some extra energy and so after the kiddies were in bed, I went a bit crazy in the spare room and started taking things off shelves in order to move some very heavy furniture to finish my set up. I forgot how heavy the sofa bed was and I got my husband to help in the end, as last time I moved it I pulled several muscles in my back and it was decidedly painful for quite a while.

So, now the big bookcase with a lot of storage boxes of various shapes and sizes is next to the desk. I've been reorganising what's on it, putting things on my Trofast unit and also into my little Moppe cabinets. I'm still working a lot of it out, but I like where the furniture is now and will continue to reorganise and get storage I'm happy with. There is certainly a lot more room now in here, and all my craft stuff is in one coherent space. Oh and you can see I removed all the lovely cards I got last year (they are safe!!!!) and left space for hopefully more. As you can tell, I'm doing OK so far and it's only January :)

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my craft room. I am considering braving a video and doing a little tour at some point in the next couple of months. I hope you might join me. 

So, in terms of card making, I made a little purchase of some things that were on my wish list. I did it through Seven Hills Crafts. It's the new branding for Make The Day Special that I used to order from a lot. I love the new name - makes more sense to me - the website is so much better and the customer service is just as excellent. If you're in the UK and have never ordered from them before, I can highly recommend.

Anyway, one of my new purchases was this cute stamp from Avery Elle. I saw it on IG when it was released and it just called to me, so I decided to crack it out as soon as I could and get some colouring on. Let's just forget they pillaged much of the UK .... they did settle down in the end ;)

I stamped the Viking in Memento Tuxedo Black and then put three of the little hearts on a small acrylic block and stamped them around him. There is a small boo boo which if you're eagle eyed you will notice, but I couldn't be bothered stamping again!! 

I then coloured the Viking and some of the hearts in with Copics. I added some sparkle and shine with Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents to the coloured hearts. 

I then trimmed the panel and attached it to a blue card base.

[Supplies: Avery Elle Viking Stamp; Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb card stock; Memento Tuxedo Black; Copic Markers; Wink of Stella; Glossy Accents; Blue card stock; Double Sided Tape]

I hope you like him as much as I do. I'm definitely going to colour him again!

If you love colouring as much as I do, you'll be excited to know that the 30 Day Colouring Challenge, hosted by the supremely talented and lovely Kathy Racoosin, is back. Set your calendars for 1st February and get colouring. 5 minutes every day is all that is needed! I'd love to see your creations and the best place to do that is via Instagram, so come on over :)

Thank you for your continued support, and for all your lovely comments. I hope you have a fabulous week!

Craft Room Update - More storage and another card

Hello! Welcome back :) Glorious sunshine outside and beautifully crisp and frosty. But you didn't come here to discuss the weather, you wanted to know (I hope!) what I've been up to crafty wise. 

Well, deep down I knew that when I moved the craft desk into it's new space, the reorganisation and sorting out would tail off a little. I was right. Having things closer to hand meant I could get crafty easier. But, it's not all forgotten, and I have added in a little IKEA Trofast Unit to my craft space. It's designed as children's storage but it is flexible enough to be used with plastic tubs and also shelves. I've decided to go with it rather than the Alex drawers, because if I find I have to move to another space in the house sooner than expected, I can move this to the children's room without any trouble and it will have another use. We have to be quite flexible with space around here, as there isn't a lot of it!

  
I've not quite decided what will go into it yet as I've another large bookcase full of stamps and other crafty things that I need to go through and move, but the space is coming along nicely. More sorting next week I hope!

I have another card to share using those highly versatile Sugar Pea Designs I got before Christmas. I managed to use quite a few new things on this card!

I stamped the little bird (it's a calling bird, you get it??) onto some Neenah Solar White 110lb and coloured it in with some Copics. I then cut it out using one of my SSS stitched circle dies. I then stamped the CB Hello in Altenew Ocean Waves and die cut it out using the matching die - sensibly I bought this one!. 

I then took a grey card base and rounded the corners with my WRMK Corner Chomper 1/2" and adhered the bird, then the Hello on top and stamped the sentiment in VersaFine Smokey Grey. I added a few enamel dots for effect.

[Supplies: Sugar Pea Designs Every Day is Christmas; Clearly Besotted Congrats to You stamp and die; Copic Markers; Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb; Simon Says Stamp Shapes with Stitches; Altenew Cool Summer Nights; VersaFine Smokey Grey; WRMK Corner Chomper; Echo Park Enamel Dots Hello Winter; Double Sided Tape; Ranger Multi Medium Matte]

Simple yet effective, don't you think?

Thank you so much for your lovely comments as always. I hope to be back soon with more cards and more craft room updates.

Enjoy the rest of the week :)

Craft Room Update - The Return of the Desk... and a card too

Well, my crafty friends, here we are three weeks into 2016 and it's stopped raining and is back to blue skies and sunshine - let's not worry about the freezing wind, ice and snow that some parts of the UK have, it's just nice to not have cloud all the time. Really lifts my mood.

OK, so this amazing thing happened. I made some cards. Yep, really, I did! I cleared the kitchen table and got all my stuff out and played while baby slept and had a lovely long nap - she needed the sleep, I needed the crafting.

Here's one of them:

But before I go into details on this, another amazing thing happened. I got a craft desk into my craft space! Yay! I had a look at it last night to see if we could bring it downstairs as one, but in the end had to dismantle it and rebuild. It didn't take long. Looks good, eh? I still have lots to do in my craft space, but I shall keep you posted and when it's finally finished, give you a tour. I love seeing other people's craft spaces, so I hope you won't object.

Anyway, back to the card. So on Sunday I had a bit of free time after church and before my concert rehearsal started (just a little bit of Joseph and His Technicolour Dreamcoat as a charity fundraiser). The kiddies went back home for lunch with their Dad, I ate a sandwich and got out all my Copics and some images I'd stamped before. There was quite a bit of interest generated and I coloured in a few images whilst waiting. One of them was this little frog from my Sugar Pea Designs Christmas stamps. They are so versatile and have non-Christmassy sentiments to go with them if you want.

I cut him out from some Neenah 110lb card stock with my SSS stitched circles leaving a straight edge on one side. I then cut out an equivalent circle from a panel of green card stock, removed the green circle, popped in the frog and cut them out with the largest SSS stitched rectangle die. 

I stamped the Birthday from my CB Happy Birthday set in Ranger Cheese Puff (more colours are coming out in these finally - they look yummy!) and happy in VersaFine Onyx Black. Foolishly I didn't buy the equivalent die and had to fussy cut it out - I'm going to buy the die!. It was simple to put together on a white card base, lining up the circles and adhering the frog with some foam pads for some height. I added the Birthday with foam pads as well. I thought a few enamel dots were a nice touch, as well as some white dots on his waistcoat.

[Supplies: Sugar Pea Designs Every Day is Christmas; Clearly Besotted Happy Birthday; Simon Says Stamp Shapes with Stitches; Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb; White Card Stock 250gsm; Copic Markers; Ranger Dye Ink Cheese Puff; VersaFine Onyx Black; Double Sided Tape; Foam Pads; Echo Park Enamel Dots - The Story of Our Family; Sakura Gelly Roll Pen - White]

It's got an Irish feel, don't you think?? Be a good design for St Patrick's Day!

Thank you so much for reading, and for all your supportive comments on my cards and my ongoing craft space reorganisation. It's getting there, even if it's a bit frustrating at times not getting any crafting done.

Have a lovely weekend, wherever you are.

Craft room Update + and important news for Blogger Friend Connect followers

Hello! I hope everyone is enjoying the New Year? I am absolutely loving all the up dates from the Craft and Hobby Association Mega show in Anaheim, via Instagram and Blogs from those lucky enough to go. I've been loving all the sneak peeks and have some things on my wish list.

First, a bit of information I've discovered through other bloggers, about some changes to Blogger and signing up to follow me via Google Friend Connect. I have a few of you who have signed up since I put it on my blog, which is so nice to see, however, I have read that if you follow me this way but don't have a Google email account, as of 11th January, you won't be able to sign in or get updates about my blog. Have a look at Darnell's and Hazel's post for more information.

This makes me very sad and I don't want to lose any of you, so if you want to be able to keep up to date with my crafting and my rambling, but you don't want to sign up to a Google account, you might want to  subscribe to my blog via email. I love having you with me on this journey, so I do hope this isn't goodbye.

In other news I have been working a lot on my craft space, in between helping my sister get her house cleaned (some tenants leave a place really grotty!) and her furniture sorted. I have made a fair bit of progress in tidying out a whole pile of stuff in my soon to be new craft desk drawers. It has been sitting around for far too long, and I can put the space to better use. Within my actual craft space, I have tidied up my Raskog cart:

I've moved my Copics into the top of the cart, for easier access, and tidied up a lot of the junk that was stuffed in it. I'm hoping I can get the rest of the room sorted within the next couple of weeks - I am missing making cards, but I am also enjoying having a good clear out and tidy :)

I did do something sort of crafty today. I made some little cakes for the children's party at our church, so here is a tasty picture for you. They call them buns in Yorkshire, whereas I would call them fairy cakes. What would you call them, other than yummy?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and thank you for your continued support, even when I've not been making cards!