Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #65 A SKETCH

Hello there everyone!  Hands up all those getting fed up with all this snow now!  The children are still loving it though disappointed their school has stayed open - so far!!  It's quite nice when walking the dogs, but REALLY not looking forward to travelling in it if the doc lets me go back to work on Tuesday!  I have been a bit naughty whilst off work - done a bit of on-line crafty shopping, medicine for the soul  (LOL!)  - can't wait to see my new goodies!

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I'm really excited today, and just a tad nervous too LOL!   I'm here for my first EVER, DT project - WOW!  I've only been blogging since October and I'm soo chuffed to be joining the highly talented ladies over at the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge!   This weeks challenge has been set by Jane and she's come up with a rather fabby sketch!

I decided to use one of my favourite pixie chicks charmed downloads as I thought she'd be perfect for this.  I decided to use an 8x8 card for this but then had a bit of trouble with the oval due to the larger size!  I ended up drawing around the base of my egg basket, cutting it out and layering onto white cardstock which was then hand cut to size.

Isn't she lovely!  I decoupaged her wings and the flowers in her hair.  Glitter was applied to her hairband, wings and some of the flowers.

RECIPE

Pixie Chicks - Charmed Download

Cardstock - stash

Papers - HOTP Sarabooks (Garnet)

Colouring mediums - copics and watercolour pencils

Glitter - Art Institute and Glamour Dust

Flower Punch - woodware

Leaves - Leone Em Floral Punch

White feather - stash

Card Candy

   

I hope  you have time to check out the rest of the design team, they've created some gorgeous cards for this theme.   Even better if  you could join in too, the more the merrier and don't forget that your entry will be entered into the draw at the end of the month for a prize which will be either something from The Secret Crafter shop or a £20.00 gift voucher! 

Thankyou for stopping by.  Please take extra care if venturing out in this unrelenting 'big freeze', there's even more of the white stuff  forecast for throughout the weekend!

Hugs

Mel X

Something Special - A Retirement Card

Evening everybody, are you all ready for Christmas?  I've still got a bit of shopping to do, trying to crack on with the wrapping for now!!  I've a few more cards I want to make before Christmas.  Once they're done I intend to pack away most of my craft stuff to the loft outta the way til after all the festivities.  I don't have my own craft room so this plan should hopefully ensure the dining room remains tidy!

This card I have done for my mum's best friend who turns 60 at the end of December and retires on the 4th January.   I am entering it into the following challenges;

Magical Crafts Fortnightly Challenge - Special

Allsorts Challenge - Pearls and Swirls

Stampin' for the Weekend - Blue and Brown

Daring Cardmakers - Going Dotty

Totally Gorjuss - Free and Easy

Quixotic Challenge - Lace

The layout design is my own.  I decided against any sentiment on the front as I think that may detract from all the elements - I think my craft stuff  kinda exploded on it a bit LOL!  The insert inside reads

"Congratulations on your Retirement,

time now to spread your wings and let the fairy

within you fly"

The flourish is gorgeous but quite big and I cut it to use in the two area here.  The flourish was also quite expensive but I LOVE the effect so think am gonna get creative with a pencil and create my own in the New Year.

I have also gone round the edges of the cardstock and papers with my uni silver paint pen to give a slightly gilted look to the edges.

RECIPE

Image - Mo's Digital Pencil

Colouring Medium - copics, water colour pencils

Blue Cardstock - Stash

Papers - My Minds Eye and HOTP

Border Punch - Martha Stewart

Leaf Punch - Leone Em

Flowers - Prima

Pearly Flourish - Prima

Lace - local haberdashery

Card Candy

Glamour Dust

My mum's friend has been ill lately so I hope this cheers her up and that she can soon wave goodbye to the pressures of work, really enjoy her retirement and let her hair down.

Thankyou for stopping by my little haven in cyber space.  I hope you like what you see!  Take care and happy crafting. 

Mel X

A Christmas Card for Mum

Hello again!  I'm back with second card today - must be on a roll!!  This card is for my mum and stepdad and is my first 8x8 card!  I love the size of it but think I'll still save them for special occassions.  I've used one of the wonderful images from Mo's Digital Pencil!   I'm sure mum'll love it as she prefers all the cute images - just need to finish it off with a decent insert and verse.  This will be entered into the following challenges:

Friday Sketchers - Sketch

One Stop Craft Challenge - Christmas Love

Saturday Spotlight with Hidden Potential - The Music Within Your Soul

I have flipped the sketch onto its side and added an additional flower.  I love this image myself as they appear to be carol singing.  I LOVE listening to decent carol singers at this time of year and all the old Christmas favourites sung by Nat King Cole and Dean Martin!  

The red papers are from K&Co and I think the green ones HOTP.  I've gone round all papers and card with my gold Uni paint pen to give a slightly gilted look.   The ribbon is from my stash.  Flowers are from prima and the leaf punch is by  Leone Em.  The flower punch is by woodware.

Thanks for stopping by, take care and happy crafting!

Mel X

Christmas Scrapbook 2009

Morning everybody. It's well nippy here, there's even a ground frost. Have whacked the fire and the heating on this morning! Hope your all well and looking forward to the weekend. I'm collecting the motor from the garage today with Mr Blogger who's home for just one day!! The heaters all fixed so the car should get lovely and toasty on my early morning starts!!

My early New Year Resolution as you may know is to crack on and catch up with scrapping my photos. I just don't seem to have the time most of the time!! Well, this year I have a cunning plan. I bought an 8x8 chipboard album by Papermania and plan to scrap as Christmas rolls along this year!! I've already covered both the front and back covers. Here's the end result for the cover...

I've had a book of papers for at least two years and didn't want to cut them up cos I liked the too much (sad I know) . But I've set to and used it for the album. Each page inside has been covered with initial background paper from Hot of the Press Christmas Pack and the scraps I've stashed safely for later. All they need are photos and embellies! So within hours of the tree going up - I can have it scrapped. I plan to continue like this and cover all our Christmas activities and get togethers this year. Gosh I've never been so organised!

My two have already started their Christmas lists and they revisit them every other day just about, LOL!!! I have scrapped this as a double page LO using the inside cover and first page. I have a little container full of Xmas stickers, scraps of paper and things I've collected over the last few years and have now begun to put them to good use! I also enjoy using stamps on my LOs.


I love the 2nd part of the layout. At this point I was entertained by their conversation. They were oblivious to my presence and their discussion revolved around whether or not Ethan has been good enough NOT to be placed on the naughty list this year!!! He rounded it off by saying he would tell Santa that he had never been naughty on purpose or without good reason!! The letter and angels are stamps. The halo has slipped on the angel alongside the letter, appropriate I thought!! The angel in the bottom corner is placed on an envelope. When their final draft is complete, I plan to place inside a Wishlist Top Ten for each of them to look back on in years to come!

I hope you like it so far. Sorry for the picture quality, I couldn't get the exposure right!.

Please feel free to leave a post! Happy crafting and enjoy your day!

Mel X