All things Christmassy!

Are you ready for Christmas?

Everyone is so busy in our household, Steve put up most of the decorations in the shop a while ago and Amanda decorated the tree at home last night so its all beginning to look very festive :)

Most of the presents are wrapped but if anyone has tried looking to see what is theirs, then they will be disappointed because none of them are labelled yet. I just hope I remember which is which when I attach all the labels otherwise it will be like a lucky dip!

I've finally made the labels and here they are just in case you still need a little inspiration ..... you could use any stamp that you have in your stash.

Make a background of your choice, I love using distress inks for backgrounds and using the little ink blending tool makes it so easy

Then flick a few water drops over the ink, you can just about see the water on the next picture, I used my fingers to flick the water, but you could use a spritzer bottle or old toothbrush

Place a paper tissue over the whole piece and dab the excess water off and wait for it to dry or use a heat gun to help it dry if you are in a hurry. I love this effect!

Next, take any Christmassy stamp, I used a lovely Christmas Tree by IndigoBlu. Stamp the image with Versamark and using Wow! Embossing powder, Opaque Bright White and a heat gun, emboss the image.

Then I ran lines of glitter around the image with Stickles, I used Diamond but Fruit Punch looks nice on the red too. I hope you can see the glitter on the picture it looks so effective.

Finally, punch a hole if you haven't already and thread some ribbon........Ta Dah! .....all done! 

Have a lovely Christmas

Pinterest inspiration to life

Phew! I can't believe Christmas is over. I feel slightly bloated from eating far too much chocolate, and totally ready for a new year of creativity.

Have you heard of Pinterest?

In case you haven't, it's a website for collecting links to all sorts of inspiration. A bit like the corkboard I used to have pinned up by my desk...except this is all online and so each image links back to the original source.

Pinterest is a great place to spend hours collecting inspiration...but I wanted to make sure that I did something with all of this eye candy. So, I present: Pinterest to life. I'll show you how I've used an image from Pinterest to create something myself.

Check out this image on my Pinterest board. These lovely cards are by Danielle Flanders. Simple, colourful...you can practically hear my brain whirring with ideas.

And here's my version. I used a coloured card blank, and rounded the corners of the white card front. Then I used a collection of flower stamps across the card, stamping right over the edges. I only have small sentiment stamps, so instead of putting the greeting over the flowers I used the white space at the top. I left off the machine stitching, and replaced the string with ribbon, because that made the card more 'postable'. The colours I've used are much softer and more autumnal, as those are the inks I had to hand.

I love Pinterest for ideas, but I love it even more when I can use those ideas to make something of my own. I want to spend less time reading website and more time making things. This is just the start!

Kate x

If you'd like to 'follow' me on Pinterest, you can find me here.

Scrapbook Friday: Back on black

I don't know why it never occurred to me to mount my photos on black card before? Five years of scrapbooking and I manage to miss something obvious like that.

I think I've had this background paper almost all of that five years...I know it's been in my stash a long time. I still think it's gorgeous, but no-one is ever going to see it stuck in my folder, are they?

Possibly the longest page title ever...but it is indeed, very important to take regular breaks for tea (and cake)!

Scrapbook Friday: Late night scrapbook love

You'll have to excuse the late night photos as I prepare this Friday page for you.

It's a formula.
2 photos + whole sheet of patterned paper background + something at an angle or offset to make it interesting = a page that could be really similar to last week's but is somehow quite different.

My favourite thing about this layout (apart from Mindy, of course) is the luggage tag.
Just an ordinary tag (you could even cut one from plain card) and these journalling block stamps.

Stamp twice across the tag to make it look like horizontal ledger paper. I'll be honest here, I tried masking off the edges so I didn't get the double line in the middle...and it didn't work. I couldn't line them up straight. So I decided to embrace it instead, and actually I think it looks fine.

Then I used a brush and some acrylic paint to edge it, and tie in with the paint block behind my title. A few extra embellishments from my collection, and it's done.

Summer scrapbooking

I think we can all agree that we had better weather in April/May than we have done in our actual summer months. So this page of our first ice-creams of the year is kind of appropriate.

This layout uses these stamps to create the bunting, and I hand-stitched across the top using embroidery thread. In a moment of madness, I decided to create a matching swirl across the bottom of the page as well. My hand-stitching projects always seem like a good idea at the time, but at times I was stitching through three layers of cardstock, so it was quite labour-intensive.

My top tip: draw the shape you want and poke holes for your stitches before you start sewing. And make sure you make the holes big enough for your needle to go through :)

Inspiration:: Amy Powers

If you want to get in the mood for Christmas, may I suggest:



I can't believe I have only just found this blog. The Christmas ideas e-zine is a work of art in its own right, but is also a fabulous source of inspiration for all things Christmassy. 170+ pages of beautiful projects with photographs, instructions and patterns. I love it!

Inspiration :: No. 3

We were out and about enjoying the sunshine at Ventnor Botanic Gardens, when we discovered an exhibion by the Vectis Quilters. Even if you don't quilt, you can't help but be impressed by the bright designs and colourful patterns.


Some of them were amazing geometric designs, while others were full of quirky details:

This one had the most amazing hand-stitching....someone obviously has a lot of patience! I love the effect of the variegated thread. (This is also the quilt used as the background on their homepage).

I have enough hobbies already, I don't need to start quilting. But there are definitely some ideas here for other projects with paper...

~ k ~

Colour me happy

Pastels just don't cut it when it's hot. And lately temperatures have been hitting some unusual highs. Hot pink and green? Will always mean summer to me.

1. Lime green, hot pink and chocolate wedding cupcakes, 2. Hot Pink Green cotton Crochet stars!, 3. Latest & Greatest, 4. crafting 111/365, 5. Big Neon Sprinkles ring, 6. I somehow made this look cool., 7. 14 June 09 130ed, 8. Rainbow hair in bad lighting, 9. altered tin for my scraproom, 10. Elegant Pillow with Pink Flower Applique, 11. happy pink stack, 12. Pink and Green., 13. Thank You, 14. Embroidered button/brooch, 15. antidote to sadness, 16. Turkish Knot 83/365

Inspiration:: No.2

Owls are everywhere, aren't they?

K x

Inspiration:: No. 1

What inspires you?

I spent the last weekend in May discovering that Mindy and I are both museum junkies....we spent many happy hours exploring the delights of Oxford, and the Ashmolean was a big highlight for me. Everything was beautifully displayed (and well lit - take note, Pitt Rivers museum) and I was allowed to take photos to my heart's content. I will definitely be taking inspiration from these in the weeks to come.

K x