A Simple Thank You Card

Hello lovelies!

Well firstly let me wish you all a

Happy New Year.

I hope you enjoyed all the festivities!

I love Christmas and New Year, but the run up to it is extremely busy for me at work. It only leaves me a very small amount of time to craft during that time.

Anyhoo, a new year, means new projects created by me.

So to start off with the 2018 creations I have made a very simple thank you card.

It is actually one I have made for my wonderful hubby just to say thanks for a lovely Christmas!

I love scrabble tiles so I've used the Scrabble Tiles clear stamp set from Creative Expressions.

I stamped out the letters for the words I wanted to create. I used foampads to attach to a white card blank. 

I used a black sketch pen to draw a couple of lines around the edges. To finish I added black and white twine and a fancy paperclip...(quite appropriate as my husband sells stationery).

A very quick card.

Hope you like it.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by.

Happy crafting,

Nicola 

XXX

Using Up Crafty Stash

Hello everyone.

Well this year I am determined to make some of my crafty creation's 'using up crafty stash'. 

I'm sure we all do it, buy lot's of crafty goodies and think I'll use them later!

So, here are a few cards I made last week using a scrapbooking kit that I bought quite a few years ago.

It is quite a nice feeling knowing that I'm going to TRY and use up lot's of my crafty stash....there is that much though it will take a life time lol.

Now, time to go browsing for more crafty goodies haha.

Happy crafting.

Lot's of love

Nicola 

XXX

Crafting Musketeers Midway Reminder...

Hello lovelies!

Well this month is certainly flying by. We are now half way through the month, which means it's the midway reminder over at the 

Crafting Musketeers 

The theme this month is

'It's A Man's World'

Challenge 24 is sponsored by

JGD Crafts 

The prize will be something of the sponsors choice.

It was my lovely husband's birthday not long ago, so I also used his cards for this challenge.

I actually made him two, one from me, and one from our lovely labrador Peggy!

I used the Every day in Mulberry Wood cd by Crafters Companion.

I love this cd, lots of cute images.

We hope to see your lovely creations for this challenge.

Have fun!

Thanks for stopping by, I always appreciate your visits.

Lots of love

Nicola 

XXX

A little bit of Bebunni Love.....

Hello lovelies...here I am again...wow catching up good time!

I wanted to share with you the valentine card I made for my lovely husband.

I used the Bebunni Love collection from Crafter's Companion.

As soon as I saw this collection I knew it would be perfect for my Valentine!

Even though its a pretty card, I think the touch of red and blue ribbon and hearts add that masculine feel to it. The die is a die-namites die Heart Swirls.

My husband is the love of my life, my best friend and soul mate. I'm very blessed!

Thank you for taking the time to visit.

Happy Crafting,

lots of love

Nicola 

XXX

Wellington Bear...A Collection.....

Hello lovelies,

 

I hope you are all keeping well and if you have snow keep safe and warm!

 

I just thought I would share with you a collection of cards I have made this week just for the men...using Wellington Bear from Docrafts.

 

I wanted to make some really quick cards, so I thought my Wellington papers and embossed cardstock stickers were just perfect for this. I have used some small square Kraft card blanks and embellished with card candi.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think these cards are great for men and very quick and easy to make too. You could make a whole batch of them in one sitting.

 

Thanks for stopping by I hope you enjoyed your visit.

 

Have fun and happy crafting,

Lots of love

Nicola XXX

My Dreamees DT Card .....

Hello lovelies,

I want to share with you a card I have made as one of my DREAMEES design team projects. I decided to make a 'Thank You' card, which I am going to give to my hubby. I wanted to thank him for such a lovely Christmas. I have used the A Boys Life CD which has lots of fantastic elements to use. I chose the fishing topper as my hubby loves fishing!

The backing papers are from the cd too and the letters. I love these, they are like scrabble tiles. The ribbon and buttons are also available from Dreamees and you can find the set HERE

 



 

I hope you like the card I have made today!

Don't forget that Dreamees has launched a new collection of stamps which are absolutely gorgeous...hop to the DREAMEES ONLINE SHOP to buy yours now, I just know your going to love them. Also while you are there, why not pop a yearly membership in your basket. It is only £5.00 for the year and you get 10% of your orders online and at shows and monthly freebies too.

Thank you for stopping by,

have fun and happy crafting,

lots of love

Nicola XXX

Magnolia Cards Coloured Five Ways...

Hello my lovelies,

I have been a busy little bee over the last week with my crafting. Some of it has been design team work and then the rest of my craftiness has been playing with my Magnolia stamps and pens and pencils!LOL

I coloured the images last week and I have finally managed to finish making the cards today. I decided I wanted to have a play around with all my pens and pencils, so I decided to use different makes for each image. After doing this I have finally decided which my definite favourite colouring mediums are...there are two! That's my indecisive streak hahaha!

Anyway, let's make a start of showing you my colouring experiment's....go make yourself a coffee, grab a bar of choccie and sit back and relax...here goes.............

CARD 1...

Colouring medium used...Faber Castell Polychromo Pencils and Daler Rowney Low Odour Thinners ...

Shades used: Raw Umber ~ Dark Naples Ochre ~ Dark Chrome Yellow ~ Cadmium Orange ~ Dark Cadmium Orange ~ Cadmium Yellow ~ Light Yellow Green ~ Cream ~ Light Green ~ Leaf Green ~ Earth Green Yellowish ~ Light Ultramarine ~ Warm Grey 2 ~ Dark Red ~ Rose Carmine ~ Burnt Ochre.

I stamped the images using the masking technique to make it look like she is sat on the flower. I absolutely love colouring with my polychromo pencils. It does seem to take a bit longer than normal, as I like to blend the pencils with paper stumps and the Low Odour Thinners. I think though that the results are defintely worth the time it takes. It is like therapy too...very relaxing!LOL

Here's a close up of the colouring...

Here is the finished card...

CARD 2

Colouring medium used...Letraset Flexmarker's

Shades used: Blush ~ Rose Peach ~ Tea Rose ~ Light Fawn ~ Nutmeg ~ Sandstone ~ Cappuccinno ~ Buttercup ~ Blue Grey 1 ~Glacier Blue ~ Dove Grey ~ Sea Mist ~ Honeydew ~ Duck Egg ~ Firebrick

I have been using Flexmarker's since I got bought them from my husband as a Christmas Present. I was a lucky girl...he bought me every colour that was out at the time! Bless him! These are lovely to work with, the colour just flows so smoothly and they are very easy to blend with. A pleasure to use, with I think great results. You can also use them with your Promarker's too.

Here is the close up...

Here is the finished card...

CARD 3

Colouring medium used...Kuretake Zig Brushables

Shades used: Cool Cucumber ~ Platinum ~ Apricot ~ Pure Red ~ Pure Yellow ~ Powder Blue ~ Pure Orange ~ Baby Pink ~ Fawn

I have had these for a while and swap between using these and the flexmarker's. I like using these two and again they flow nicely and blend very well.

Here's a close up...

Here is the finished card...

CARD 4

Colouring medium used...Letraset Promarker's

Shades used: Cyan ~ Indigo Blue ~ Pastel Blue ~ Pastel Green ~ Henna ~ Pastel Pink ~  Tan ~ Honeycomb ~ Pastel Beige ~ Denim Blue ~ Cool Grey 4 ~ Cocktail Pink ~ Rose Pink ~ Cardinal Red

I don't have all of the colour's in the Promarker's. So I had to work with the small amount that I have. Again these are good to work with and you can use them also with the Flexmarker's. I still think I could have blended better, but as they say...practice makes perfect!

Here's a close up...

Here is the finished card...

and finally...

CARD 5

Colouring medium used...Whispers Strokes Pens

I am not able to tell you the names of the colours used as they are not listed on the pens for some reason.

I found that I did'nt blend my colours as well with these as the others, but then I just think that is down to my colouring!LOL

Here's a close up...

Here is the finished card...

I by no means claim to be an expert on colouring at all, I just absolutely love doing it! I wanted to experiment and see which I liked doing the most...so I have to say that my favourite's are the Polychromo Pencil's and the Flexmarker's...but the Zig Brushables come very close to them too!

I think it is important to remember that colouring should be fun and enjoyable, and to use the different mediums that are right for you. I have also coloured with distress inks before now using fine paint brushes. It's a case of what you fancy using at the time!LOL

I hope you have enjoyed my little experiment, I certainly enjoyed colouring and making the cards!

Thank you for taking the time to read and I do really appreciate all your comments...

have fun and happy colouring,

lots of love

NJ XXX



Just a couple of Boofle cards I've made....

Hello lovelies,

Hope you are all keeping well and have enjoyed the week-end! I just thought I would share with you a couple of Boofle cards I've made. I love Boofle, the co-ordinating range is gorgeous. Boofle is one of my favourite characters, so watch this space for more crafty makes with our woollen friend!

Hope you like these cards and thanks for looking.

Have a great week everyone!

have fun and happy crafting,

lots of love

NJ XXX



Boofle Birthday Card

Hello lovelies,

hope you are having a lovely Sunday. Have you remembered to move your clocks forward? LOL

I just wanted to show you all this Boofle Birthday Card I made for my lovely hubby. It was his birthday on Thursday.

I love easel cards. I had some vintage buttons too that I think go perfectly with Boofle!

Thanks for looking,

enjoy the rest of Sunday,

happy crafting!

Lots of love

NJ XXX



Polkadoodles DT Card for this weeks challenge.....

Hello lovelies,

well it's got to Friday again so that means another challenge over at the

Polkadoodles Challenge Blog

which is sponsored this week by

Marianne Design

The theme this week is

Male Birthday - Create a card or a gift

I wanted to show a fun factor with my card. I wanted to make it look like the boys and the dog were going on a 'Road Trip' in the countryside to go fishing!

To achieve this I have used Polkadoodles Paper Boutique Volume 1 CD for the car and greeting. The tree backing paper, trees and leaves are all from the Polkadoodles Candy Doodles Collectors Edition CD

The boys, dog and other embellishments are from the Polkadoodles Pretty Tuff CD

The 'Gone Fishin' button on the car front is a button from my own craft stash!

I hope you like this easel card, I think it looks like the boys are going to have a fun filled day!

We would love to see your creations over at the

Polkadoodles Challenge Blog

Have fun and happy crafting,

lots of love

NJ XXX

Polkadoodles Show on Create and Craft - My Samples...

Happy Sunday my lovelies,

well I hope that you managed to tune into

Create and Craft TV

to watch the fabulous Nikky from

Polkadoodles

showing you all the gorgeous

Candy Doodles Collectors Edition CD

As I'm on the Polkadoodles Design Team I was lucky enough to get to play with this gorgeous cd and the new added elements to make my samples for the shows!

I am really, really excited to be able to show you my first TV Samples for Polkadoodles.....I hope you like them as much as I loved making them!

Enjoy browsing...........

I have used Letraset Flexmarkers to colour in the images, I think they are all so cute!

Candy Doodles Collectors Edition

is a must have for your CD crafting collections, there are so many elements to this cd, not only all the lovely new images but loads of backing papers, sentiments, buttons, ribbon sliders...so many things to choose from that you can use over and over again!

Don't forget Nikky is back on our screens on Create and Craft at 5pm for the

Kuretake Zig show!

Thanks for peeking,

have fun and a very excited happy crafting from me lol,

lots of love

NJ XXX



A really quick Tatty Ted Card....

Happy Saturday my lovelies,

I hope you have a lovely day whatever you may be doing.

I just thought I would show you this quick to make Tatty Ted Get Well card that I made for a friend yesterday.

My friend is a chef so I thought he would like this as Tatty has his chefs hat on! LOL

I used a blue square card blank and matted Me To You papers on it, then decoupaged Tatty Ted as shown. I added ribbon and Card Candi. I have added a small Get Well Greeting to the bottom left corner.

If you are short on time and need a quick card for any occasion something like this is ideal.

Thanks for looking,

happy crafting,

love NJ XXX



I made two cards using Polkadoodles Pretty Tuff CD......

A very happy Sunday evening from me. I hope that you've all had a lovely week-end.

Well this morning I made two cards using the

Polkadoodles Pretty Tuff CD

The first card I have made is actually a birthday card for my teenage nephew.

I have used Flynn as he's listening to his i-pod which I think most teenagers seem to do!

I matted co-ordinating backing paper. Cut out the fence and added Flynn to make it look like he is sitting on it. I have inked around the greetings using

Letraset Promarker Henna

on the green greeting and used

Letraset Promarker Forest Green

on the brown greeting.

I cut two short strips of the spotted paper to make loops for the greetings and attached with foam pads.

To finish I have used Card Candi I love using these.

The second card I have made I used Cory. When I saw him I knew exactly what I wanted to make, he is so adorable.

As soon as I saw the door too it made me think about being little and visiting grandparents. So this is what I would like to call this card

'Visiting Grandad'.

I love the fact that Cory is stood waiting for his Grandad to answer the door with his teddy and his backpack.

I covered the A5 cardblank with spotted paper and inked the edges of this and the greetings with Letraset Promarker Burnt Orange

I have used Tim Holtz Distress Ink brushed corduroy to ink round the edges of the cut out door, the back pack and Cory. I have also inked slightly over Cory's jeans and his backpack as I wanted it to resemble mud to make it look like he had been playing in mud on his way to visit Grandad lol.

Finally I have finished the card with Card Candi .

I love the Polkadoodles Pretty Tuff CD there are so many elements on this to use for any occasion and for any male of any age. You could even change this card to make it for Grandma, just change the greeting!

I hope you have enjoyed reading how I made these cards, thanks for looking.

Have fun and happy crafting,

Lots of love

NJ XXX



Good evening and happy Monday to you all.....

Well this afternoon I have been making my Design Team card for a future challenge. I will show you that one when said challenge goes live!LOL
Anyhoo, I have also made two quick cards for men. I have used backing papers that I have printed off from my Serif Craft Artist discs. If you havent got this, wow, take a look its fab!

One of the cards is for a 30th and the other card is actually for my Dad-in-law's birthday!

Thanks for looking and I hope you like them........

Hope you all have a great week,

have fun and happy crafting,

lots of love

NJ XXX