Friday, 31 December 2010

My Favourite Makes 2010

Hi Guys, we are at the eve of a New Year and it is only natural that we want to look back over the passing Year. I love hopping around people's blogs at this time of year to see all their favourite makes and I've picked some of my favourites for 2010 to have them in one place. 

I was happy to find that I had a few favourites from 2010, you know how it is, sometimes you love what you do and sometimes you hate it (and sometimes both - do you get that?)!

 This year I found it quite hard to pick just 10 to show but I had to have a cut off point somewhere!


Enchanted Seamstress Picture from October


Mixed Media Gift Box from August


Life Tree Card from August


Live It Journal Page from September


Timely Rose Card from October


Walk In The Park Notebook from October


Had A Bad Day? Card from May


Mini-Us Anniversary Card from October 


Curiouser And Curiouser! Altered Book Page from April


Simply Handmade Card from June

It is fun to see how the work develops and the direction it goes through the year. A lot of my favourite makes seem to fall within the second half of this year. 

All years have their creative ups and downs, as I am finding out, and I definitely feel that I had a positive creative jolt in the second half of this year. I put a large portion of this change in my work down to starting to explore art journalling and a change in my own creative mindset. 

So it has definitely been a challengeing and interesting year for me. I look forward to seeing where it goes next year not just for me but for all of my crafty/arty bloggy friends, just the best creative community and I'm so happy to be a part of it!

Thank you for popping by and do leave me links to your 2010 catch-up posts so I can have a good nose :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR


Thursday, 30 December 2010

Cute Card Thursday Thank You!

Cute Card Thursday is helping us all out this week with the fabulous challenge of

Thank You!

How are your Thank You cards going? I have one here, a really simple one!


She is the super, super cute The Greeting Farm Cheeky Cherry Cherry Pie available over at Quioxtic Paperie. Oh so pretty, isn't she lovely? Yep, another one of my favourites!


Thank you for popping by.

Have a fun and relaxing week.

Kim


Wednesday, 29 December 2010

Last Minute Bargains

Only a few days left to grab a bargain before The Altered Element closes it doors for the last time!




Tuesday, 28 December 2010

Recycled Painty Heart

Oh I do like a bit of messy paint, as you know! So I've got a bit painty mad using the Unity Kisses and Wishes stamp set.




Lots of fabulous recycling for this one, some packing and old sewing patterns all recycled!

So what you all up to during the Christmas week?

Have a great Painty Heart day.

Kim

Monday, 27 December 2010

New Presents For Luka

Hope you and your family enjoyed your Christmas weekend. Now it is back to crafting! Tee Hee!

I have my Cute Card Thursday make to show you today. We have a fabulous sketch challenge on the go this week and I've used Luka with his new toy truck which you can get from La-La Land Crafts as rubber stamps or digi-stamps.


I've matched Luka with Pink Paislee Paper from Quixotic Paperie and the stitching was my first play with the Sew Easy Tool with the Cross Head.


Enjoy your Christmas week and crafting :)

Kim

Saturday, 25 December 2010

Scribble Technique

Want to know how I got the colouring on this Christmas Tag using ZIG pens from Kuretake?


It is a fabulous colouring technique which I'm calling the Scribble technique.

You will need:
A craft mat or non-stick surface
ZIG Pens in this case I've used the ZIG Calligraphy pens
A spray bottle with water
Heat tool
Card


Scribble the pen onto the craft mat or non-stick surface and spritz with water.



Layer the card on top of the coloured droplets and lift off then dry with the heat tool. Repeat until you have the look you want.

Try getting different patterns, if you swirl the card in the droplets, or the droplets are big you will get a more even coverage of the colour. If the droplets are small and you touch down and lift off without swirling then you will get a more patterned look. 

Have fun with this one!

Kim


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With Love At Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Wishing you all a completely wonderful day.


ps. if you wanted to see how to make this little tag it is up on the Kuretuke website!

Edit: This tutorial is now on my blog.

Friday, 24 December 2010

Waiting By The Christmas Tree

Santa is putting on his suit, the elves are packing up the sledge, the reindeer are warming up  - it's Christmas Eve! 

I hope you have got all your presents including the ones for the pets? My pet cat - Squeaky would hunt under the tree 'til she found her present then she would sit with it waiting patiently until Christmas morning. Bless her, how she knew that gift was for her I will never know. It wasn't always a smelly pressy - I could understand her finding that! I think she read all the gift tags :)

So here is a Christmas make for the pets! The tree and pet stamp and the sentiment are both from Scrolls Work and I've used a touch of watercolouring with distress inks to give the subtle colours.


When is Santa coming? 
So what time can I go to bed? 
Can I go to bed now? 
Please? 
Tee Hee!

Have a wonderful Christmas Eve.

Wednesday, 22 December 2010

More Snowflakes Falling?

So we are almost there! Not long to go now! Are we taking bets for a White Christmas? What do you reckon? Will you have snow on Christmas Day where you are?

I've been all snowy with my snowflake makes recently, this one uses the CC Designs Snowflake Stamp kit available over at Quixotic Paperie with the sentiment from the Unity Itty Bitty Merry and Bright stamp available at Make The Day Special.


Hope all is Merry and Bright with you.

Kim

Tuesday, 21 December 2010

Summer Turned To Winter

Yep, more Christmas cards and this one today is from {Ippity}.

You might recognise the image from the Ippity Summer 2010 release? A Summer stamp on a Christmas card?  Yep, add a bit of snow and there you have it a Summer image turned to Winter.


I do love this stamp - so versatile :)

Have a lovely snowy day!
Kim

Monday, 20 December 2010

Just For You On La-La Land Crafts Monday

A bright card for Winter using the super cute Winter Marci from La-La Land Crafts that you can get as a rubber stamp or as a digi-stamp.




Doesn't she look nice and warm? 
Hope you are staying warm where you are.

Kim

Sunday, 19 December 2010

Is It Snowing?

Has anyone got any snow? How snowy is it where you are? We are have lots of snow, watched it go from snow-free to a blanket of thick snow in two hours yesterday. I've captured a snowflake here to go with all the snow outside! A large decorated Tando Creative Snowflake available over at Quixotic Paperie.


I've decorated it using some Christmas paper and inks and added one of the sentiments from the CC Designs Snowflake Stamp kit then finished it with some Viva Decor Glitter Liner to add that touch of icy sparkle.

Elaine has lots of fab new products in Quixotic Paperie including some new very cute SCACD stamps. Also you might like to know that you can get

FREE P&P ON UK ORDERS OVER £30

16TH DECEMBER - 20TH DECEMBER


Last posting before Christmas will be 4pm on Monday 20th December, so get those last minute orders in now! 


Enjoy your snowy day!

Kim

Saturday, 18 December 2010

Scroll Works Gift Boxes

A quick and easy gift box today! Decorated with the lovely Joy Holly stamp from the Scrolls Work Merry Christmas Range. 



All you need is a some patterned paper, your stamps and inks and any extras you want to add extra touches to the box.

The stamp measures just under 2.5 by 4 inches so the box measurements are designed to match the stamp size.

I've cut out two rectangles from the patterned paper, one for the lid (6 1/8 by 4 5/8 inches) and one for the box itself (8 by 6 7/16). 

Score a one inch border on each side of the lid paper and a two inch border on each side of the box paper. Score a diagonal line in each corner of the border on both pieces of papers.


Fold each score line and smooth out with a bone folder, or ruler, so that the pattern is on the outside. The corners should fold inwards and can be stuck to the walls with double-sided tape.


I used distress inks to decorate and add a vintage feel to my box.


For the stamp I stamped it with sepia Archival ink, cut it out and then added colour to the Holly and berries with the distress inks. 


I stamped the image again in red and cut out the diamond-shaped sentiment then stuck it to the image.


I added glitter highlights to the image.


Then covered the diamond sentiment with Glossy Accents.


There you have it a super quick gift box for that last minute wrapping!

Hope you get all your wrapping done.
Kimx

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Favourite Reads For Blog-A-Holics

I have a confession, I'll whisper this to you but please don't tell anyone...I'm a blog-a-holic!

What? You are one too? 
Oh I am so relieved! 
I thought it was just me. 

With 1255 blogs in my Google Reader, 'Following' or RSS-ing, and blogs followed via Network Blogs in Facebook. Well you can guess that I have a problem! 

But a problem shared is a problem halved! 

So I thought I would share my problem with you by sharing some of my favourite blog reads from time to time for you to add to your ever growing reading list if you haven't got them already!


The first in my series of Blog-A-Holic Reads is the gorgeous blog from Sue at Hello Gorgeous


You might remember that I mentioned Hello Gorgeous a little while back when Sue did a fun little interview with me for her blog.

Sue is a jewellery designer and she posts on her blog a 'Thanks Folksy It's Friday' series with Folksy makes that inspire her and links to the Folksy shops and on Tuesday she has a series called 'Twenty Question Tuesday' where she interviews artists, bloggers, crafters etc. Both are fun features and well worth watching out for.

Enjoy!


Friday, 17 December 2010

Christmas Wishes To You All

Some of you might have noticed a couple of mentions on my blog over the last couple of weeks for the ZIG pens from Kuretake? Just the odd hint here and there? I've been really lucky to have been able to give these pens a really good crafty workout and I'm hoping to share my thoughts and more projects with you in the very near future...

In the meantime here is a quick peak at my Christmas make for the Kuretake Countdown To Christmas, there is a new project everyday with lots of fun ideas like fabulous Christmas decorations and I love the decorated bag on 13 Days To Go! 

You will find little old me on the 12 Days To Go page and if you go take a look you can see a quick step by step for this project. 


I've used the ZIG Calligraphy pens to colour the holly, ZIG Calligraphy Metallic pen for the sentiment; ZIG Millennium Pen for doodling the holly and berries, ZIG Writer pens to colour the berries and the ZIG embossing pens to add the snow effect. 

So you can see how versatile these pens are but more on this later, right now I thought I would just tease you with a look-see!

Christmas Wishes to you all!
Kimx