My last card of 2012...

Wow.... what a year - thank you all so much for joining me on my crafting journey over the past 12 months...
So many fab products to work with, I would struggle to pick my favourite ones......

I made a thank you card to share with you all - thank you for coming by, thank you for leaving so many wonderful comments, thank you for coming to my demos, thank you for inspiring me with your designs and talent but most of all, thank you for you friendship xxx I hope that 2013 really does bring you everything that your heart desires.

Here is the card I made,

 A little close up for you,

 A matching set.... I made the tag with the off cuts....

 The tag,

 From a different angle to show you some of the resist detail.....

You can find the links to the fabby resist paper by hopping over to the WOW! blog (see my sidebar for the link)..... this shows you the project and then has the links to the WOW! shop - be warned.... they have amazing stamps, resist paper and embossing powders over there!!!! STUNNING!!!!!

So, that's it from me this year.... I hope you all have an amazing Hogmany (stay safe people!) and a fantastic 2013.
Happy crafting
Nikki x

Time to recycle...

Well if your house is anything like my house there will be loads of boxes (now emptied) all over the place.
Sooo, time to get creative and crafty!
I wanted somewhere to put my cards at work, a little stand.... just so the cards looked nicer and so they didn't get damaged.
This is what I came up with.............

I took a box and sealed the opening, cut it at an angle just past the half way line - then stuck it together.
This gave me the base for my holder.
I gave all the sides (inside and out) a good coat of Do Crafts acrylic paint - had to be purple for me! lol
When that was dry I covered the whole box in a generous layer of crackle glaze and left it overnight.
In the morning I painted every surface with white acrylic, as it dried the crackle magic happened.

I tied the bow around it all and then sprayed it all with glitter spray (this should have been done outside but I thought - mwah... what's the worst that can happen...... well - my desk is now glittery, my floor now sparkles and I not have a lot of glitter paper - even the BT bill sparkles!)...
But I do love how sparkly the box is now!!!!

I thought I would share a wee card with you too -

 I created this card for a special lady who has decided to stay at home with her twins instead of returning to paid work....... who can blame her - as her twins are adorable!

Well, back to work for me..... I am starting to create with the new goodies from Do Crafts for the next loop of demos.... watch this space to see them as I get creating....
Happy crafting
Nikki x

Creating with Kanban

I made these three cards using some beautiful Kanban die cuts and backing card.
I adore the Kanban products - you always know you are going to get fantastic quality and their range gets bigger and bigger by the day!

Every time I am in a craft shop that sells Kanban, I find myself buying some more - well you can never really have too much..................... can you? lol

Watch this space for some more projects using their fabby stash very soon!

Nikki x

Dreamees

As you will have seen from a couple of my posts this week I got one of the runner up prizes for papercrafter of the year.... well some of my prize was 2 cds from Dreamees....

I got...

tags & more

and....

in a row

I am very excited to be working with the Dreamees stuff - it's fab!!!! AND...... I've just found their shop...... they have stamps and all kind of yummy things..... they also have a very cool blog....

I can see this 'win' costing me a lot of pennies!!! lol
Watch this space to see what I create with their cds......

I'm off for another look around their shop...... feel free to join me!

Happy crafting
Nikki x

Clean and simple

Working with the Boofle Christmas range is just perfect for the clean and simple effect on cards.
It helps to keep the cost of postage down too as there is only one layer on the card.
I have to admit, no matter what, I always love to come back to stamping or digis..... I love colouring in!

Here are a couple of the cards I made using this technique...

I coloured these in using watercolour pencils, but you could use any medium that you like. And if you're not very confident with colouring in, then please don't let that put you off - what about a bit of paper pieced work instead?
(stamp on lots of different papers and then cut them out and glue them down instead of colouring).....

I'll be doing some video tutorials next year - so please keep an eye out for them.
Is there anything in particular that you would like me to show you? Just shout x
My blog make over is coming on nicely....... I've so far changed the layout, played around with the font and colours, created tabs along the top......... now I just need to re-do my header..... what do you think so far?

I'll be back tomorrow with some more cards to show you.
Happy crafting
Nikki x

The news I wanted to share......

A few months ago I was poorly and totally fed up..... I was looking through some magazines and happened to read about the papercrafter of the year in papercraft essentials.
I thought - why not.... just for fun.
I really enjoyed getting creative, this is what I created...... (sorry there are quite a lot of photos.....)

This is the mag and the bit in the mag.....

I got a massive pile of crafty stuff as my prize..... £180 worth of all kinds of stuff.
Here's a photo of the prize...

It's great being able to share this with you all now....
It's been killing me not being able to share!!!!

Hope you like the projects I created xxx
Nikki x

Sneaky peek alert.....

WOW - if you, like me, like buttons then you might want to look away now!!!!!
Do Crafts have some more buttons heading your way!

These ones (that I managed to help escape into my bag! lol) are from the new Papermania capsule collection - spots and strips, pastels...... wait til you see the papers etc too!!!

You get 250g in the bag.... that's a massive amount!!!!!! Check out some of the patterns.....
LOVIN them!!!!

I'll be making up some demo samples with them, so watch this space to see what I get up to.
Nikki x

Another snow day

I woke up this morning to another dusting of snow. It's so pretty to look at - I wonder if we will get a white Christmas this year..... that would be nice...
Are you all ready for the big day then?........... Me - not so much! lol...... Some cards have been made, some prezzies are wrapped.... but hey..... it will get done, or it won't! lol

Here are a few commission cards that I have made over the past couple of weeks (had to wait for a while until I could show them to you....)

The girls in the office do like to challenge me!
I like a crafty challenge..... and I plan to enter a lot more challenges next year - or maybe even do some more DT work....... we'll just need to see what comes my way! lol

Right off to get ready for work.
Have a craft filled day!
Nikki x

Just a liitle card or two....

This have just been manic here - as I can imagine they are around the world at this time of year....
I just wanted to stop by quickly to let you know that I've not forgotten you all.....
Here are a few of the cards I have been making recently,

 

 

Creating to order at the moment, and getting ever closer to being able to share the email that I received last month........
Lots more to do..... and running out of time....
How are you getting on with your cards - next year I WILL be more organised..... but I do seem to remember saying that next year!!!!!
Happy crafting
Nikki x

Christmas Robins

Well the snow has hit here then!
It didn't stay too long but it was beautiful to watch.
The sad thing is that it's now been replaced by ice....... not so beautiful! lol It makes you very timid when you are out and about (especially if you have fallen before).....
I notice more and more houses with Christmas lights up though..... they do look very pretty.

Here are the cards I wanted to share with you today,

I adore Robins. They are soooo sweet.
They always remind me of my Grandad and David. They both loved Robins too....
We have a very cheeky little Robin in the garden at the moment. He's very sweet and likes to have his breakfast put out for him every morning.

He just never sits still long enough to have his photo taken. Bless him.

Right back to the card making for me (got an order that needs finished this week).
Happy crafting whatever you are doing xxx
Nikki x

The countdown begins

So, wow the year has gone by fast..... and now we find ourselves on the 1st December!
Up here in bonnie Scotland we have already had snow, a lot more on the way we have been told....
I don't mind the snow, it's the horrid ice that we have at the moment that I am terrified of.... funny, because I had a fall a few years ago in the ice - the second the ice comes I just want to hibernate and not come out again until the spring..... I wonder if work would let me work from home for 4 months of the year.......
possibly not! lol

Here is a card I made to get into the festive spirit.... I think he's cute and he's very tactile....
It's a great way to use up any scraps of felt or material that you have lying around....

I hope you all have a great weekend, whatever you get up to.

Nikki x

Take one large foam ball...

add one mad spring dog..... and what do you get....

this......................

"we didn't do it mummy! It was Kris"

Oh how I love my little springy pupsters.....
Bless them...

Don't even get me started on the balls from the beanbag that are hidden everywhere..... oh wait a minute.... that was Kris and I...
It's a very happy mad house that we live in..

Nikki x