Saturday 29 October 2016

Hidden Message Card

Hello bloggists, and welcome to my blog.

It’s Halloween on Monday and this is my last spooky project of the season.  If you’re wondering what I’ve done with the things I’ve made up until now, they are all decorating my desk at work (the day job).  On Monday I will be adding some further decorations of s suitably spooky nature...it’s going to be fun!

Today I'm sharing this Hidden Message Card.
Pull on the ribbon to reveal the message...
I do so enjoy making an action card!  I’m particularly happy because this card was mostly made from bits of other projects.  I often try out different colour combinations or stamps or patterned paper to decide which I like best for a particular card.   I don’t throw away the ones I don’t use, though – I save them in a folder.  This time I had enough offcuts and oddments left over to make most of this card.  This makes me happy.

Here’s the tutorial –

Hope you enjoyed it – and I hope that you have a spook-tacular Halloween!
Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Thursday 27 October 2016

Deep gift box


Hello bloggists, and welcome.

Today’s project is this little box, which is a bit deeper than normal.  I sized it to hold two small metal puzzles, but of course, it would hold whatever you wanted (you’d probably gets quite a few sweet treats in there).


I made it with our office Secret Santa draw in mind.  The way we organise it, we count up how many males and how many females are taking part and then those of us taking part pull out a slip of paper that reads “male” or “female, and that’s who you buy a gift for – but you mustn’t spend more than £1.  It’s very challenging trying to find something within that budget.

I got a set of 6 metal puzzles for £3 and thought that a couple of them would make a good present for one of my male colleagues – and OF COURSE I had to make a box to fit them. (Don’t worry – I shall be making something for a lady very soon!)

Here’s how I made it –

Here are the measurements -


-and the cutting diagram -


Hope you enjoyed this project.
Thanks for visiting,
See you soon,

Crafty Hugs,


Keren

Tuesday 25 October 2016

Skellie wheel

Hello bloggists and welcome.
Can you believe that October’s nearly over?  The year is just flying by.  Halloween is getting very close now.  The Mr Funny Bones set has given me the perfect excuse to indulge my love for action cards with a “rotating wheel” card.


This card has a bit of a clever twist, however – something I wish I’d thought of myself, but in fact it was something I saw in my Facebook news feed and adapted.  I’d normally use a  brad (paper fastener) to make the image wheel rotate, but this time I used something else – can you guess what?
Check the video to find out!

If you're wondering how I made the background, I posted the tutorial here - 

Before I go, though – if you’ve been missing the live stream this month, the reason why there hasn’t been one is because my Mum-in-Law is still in hospital.  She went in with one problem (severe chest infection) then developed another (gastric ulcers) and another (ulcers on her leg) and finally, on the point of being discharged, the vascular surgeon said that he wouldn’t discharge her until she’d had an angioplasty.  As I write this, she’s due to have the procedure today and if all goes well, we hope she’ll be discharged soon.  FIL is deaf-blind so it’s been a pretty hectic time all round, making sure that everyone is fed/visited and so on but there is an end in sight!
See you soon,

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Saturday 22 October 2016

Simply Sketched 14



Thank you for joining us for another Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge! 

We’re so excited to be sharing this hop with you.  The products used are all available in the current Annual, or seasonal, Stampin’ Up!® Catalogues*. 

Simply use the buttons at the bottom of the post to keep hopping.

Today's sketch was set by Sally Shaw.


I am a massive fan of Star Trek.  I met my husband at a Star Trek convention, as a matter of fact.  And when I looked at the sketch, what immediately came to mind was the USS Enterprise viewed from above.

So that's what I did. 




It's mostly a door by paper piecing with a bit of stamping with the Labeller alphabet.  (The inside reads ...and have a great day)

Thank you for visiting, and now if you'd just care to step this way to the
 
Or, if you're the rebellious type and are going backwards through the hop, might I direct you to the

Hope to see you again soon!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Wednesday 19 October 2016

Locking gift bag

Hello bloggists, and welcome.

If you've been trying to find this blog post via my YouTube channel and, up until now, have been experiencing some frustration, I apologise.  I normally schedule my posts for Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.  And this post was all set to go live on Thursday.  However, for some reason, I got totally confused and set the YouTube to go live on Wednesday.  It's probably something to do with my age and being a bit of a dingbat, really!    Anyway, here's the vid -
And here are the measurements - 

So having covered myself in confusion, I'm going to quit while I'm ahead - or at least, no further behind than usual.

Crafty Hugs,

Keren


Tuesday 18 October 2016

Owl balloons

Hello bloggists,  and welcome to my blog.  

Believe it or not, I began to work on today's project in July. Yes that's right, July! Why did it take me so long to finish it,  I hear you ask? The answer is - I'm not really sure. 
I knew that I wanted to make a card with the owl, and I knew I wanted it to be a slider card. But somehow, I just took a really long time putting it altogether!I did finish it eventually, as you can see. (And believe that or not, I have another project that I started about the same time which I still haven't finished...ssh!)


Anyway, here's the video tutorial–


I hope it was worth waiting for!

Thank you for joining me and I hope that you will come back and see me again soon.

Crafty hugs,
Karen

Saturday 15 October 2016

Skellie Spinner

Hello bloggists, thank you for visiting!

I may have mentioned that I really enjoy Halloween.  It's not everyone's cup of tea, I know - but I just LOVE it.  And when I saw the Mr Funny Bones stamps in the seasonal catalogue I had to get it!


I wanted to have some fun with these stamps and you know how I love kinetic cards.  Here's the tutorial - 



Thank you for visiting and I hope you enjoyed this post.  Please do come back again soon!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren



Thursday 13 October 2016

O Christmas Tree

Hello bloggists, thank you so much for stopping by today.  I just want to take a minute to say thank you for your patience and supportive comments after Tuesday’s blog.  I really appreciate it.  For those who asked, the MIL is on the road to recovery and we are expecting her to be discharged to a rehab unit any time now.

It’s more of a normal post today.  I had lots of fun with this card.  

I enjoy starting with a plain piece of paper or card and turning it into something, and this project is mostly card, ink and stamping.  I wonder if you can guess how I made the teeny-tiny fir cones?  They were a little bit fiddly but they are so sweet! Here’s the tutorial -




Thanks for visiting - hope you'll come again soon.

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Tuesday 11 October 2016

Not a normal Blog post!

Hello bloggists and thank you for stopping by.
It’s not my usual tutorial today, and I hope you’ll bear with me just for today while I do my best to explain.

For the past few weeks, we (that’s my husband and I) have had a bit of a tricky time of it.  His parents are not as young as they were and his dad, in particular, needs looking after as he is registered blind and very hard of hearing as well.  My MIL is his primary carer and she’s been in hospital recovering from a severe chest infection. (She’s going to be OK, but it was a very nasty infection and she’s going to need some time to recover).

As you can probably imagine, this means a lot of running around making sure that they are both looked after, on top of the full-time jobs we both have.  Crafting is keeping me sane but I have less time to spend on it at the moment.  

So, today, instead of a project, I thought I’d talk about some of the less-sexy supplies and a bit about stamping basics.  I hope you find it useful.

Normal service will be resumed on Thursday!

Crafty hugs,


Keren

Saturday 8 October 2016

Pretty Pines wreath

Hello bloggists, and welcome. 
I’ve got a bit of a thing about foliage.  There are lots of pretty flower stamps and punches and dies out there, but to look their best they need a background, and what looks better than a bunch of greenery?  So you can imagine how excited I was when I saw the Pretty Pines dies in the Autumn/Winter catalogue – the set went straight to the top of my wishlist! 

The dies are perfect for Christmas cards, of course.  Today I’ve cut a pile of pine boughs and used them to make a wreath –
This is how I made the card –



I’ve also used one of my very favourite stamp sets in this card, the Wondrous Wreath set.  These stamps were one of the very first things I bought from Stampin’ Up!, about two years ago.  I’d been looking for the (now retired) Word Window slot punch and found that it was (at last!) possible to buy online.  When I got my order, the Demonstrator I’d chosen sent me a catalogue – and the Wondrous Wreath stamps and matching dies were available as a bundle – so I ordered them.  That started something...

That Christmas I asked my husband if I could have the Demonstrator Starter Kit as my present because there was so much stuff I wanted and if I became a demo I could get it at a discount.  I’d found out that I wasn’t obliged to sell to anybody or do workshops or parties unless I wanted to;  I just had to buy enough to meet the minimum target, which was about what I was spending on crafting anyway. I took the plunge and pushed that “Join Now!” button. 
I thought I’d stay in until I’d got everything I wanted  and then I’d resign...

After a while I wanted to share what I was making and thought I’d try making video tutorials.  I reckoned I could do one a week and the early ones were a struggle!  I’m up to three a week now and I’ve yet to make one where I just go right through from beginning to end (in fact, all of the projects I’ve shared this week are “version 2” because “version 1” went in the bin!).   My latest venture is live streaming, which frankly terrifies me when I think about it but really enjoy when I’m doing it (and I really must schedule another one soon!)

I’m coming up to my second anniversary with SU and in that time I’ve become part of a great team, met so many wonderful people.  I’ve attended SU training events and conferences (I wasn’t going to do that!) met some incentive targets (I didn’t bother reading about them because I wasn’t going to meet them either).  I’m loving every minute of it.  Oh, and I haven’t got everything I need from the catalogue yet so I suppose I won’t be resigning for a while...

Thank you for staying with me to the end of this.  If you love SU products and  think being a demo might be for you, please do contact me, I’d be happy to share my experiences with you.  Very long post so , for now I’ll just say,

Crafty Hugs,


Keren

Thursday 6 October 2016

Copper top box

Hello bloggists, and welcome to my blog. 

Believe it or not, it wasn't until after I'd made this little explosion box that I realised now much it looked like a well-known brand of battery...I just wanted to play with the absolutely LUSH copper foil card.  I've always loved copper, even when I had the job of polishing my mother's ornaments as a child.



It's a teeny-tiny box, this one. It holds a bottle of nail varnish very snugly. It won't be long before Secret Santa time comes around again and we have a very challenging price limit in our office - the gift mustn't cost more than £1.  This nail varnish would qualify (even though it's a named brand) because I got it as an incentive gift with another purchase.

I had to think a bit about how to make a rectangular explosion box.  Here's how I did it-



Here's the link to the Connie Stewart video about the box shim that I talked about in the video - 
Simply Simple BOX MAKING SHIM by Connie Stewart

Thanks for visiting - see you again soon!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren


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Tuesday 4 October 2016

Spooky Fun flip card

Halloween is coming...Halloween is coming...

Did I mention that it's my FAVOURITE celebration?

I've been playing with the Spooky Fun stamps and the Halloween Scenes Edgelits to make this window Flip card.


I'm slightly ashamed of my lack of restraint on this one, I was just enjoying myself way too much!  I did rather throw everything onto it...

He's the tutorial-



Measurements for the card (makes a 5 1/2 inch square card - measurements are in inches) - 9 1/2 by 5 1/2 - score at 4 3/4  and mark at 2 2/4.  

For the sponged/stamped layer, 5 1/4 by 7 inches, cut at 2 1/2.

Thanks for visiting!

See you soon,

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Saturday 1 October 2016

White on White Christmas Card

Hello bloggists, and welcome.
Today’s card is something of a step outside my comfort zone.  I’m usually happiest when I’m getting inky – my crafty roots are in vintage/distress/grunge/altered art and I love spooky & creepy stuff (which is why I have such a fun time every Halloween).  So white-on-white is a real departure for me.
 

Why?  I wanted to do something a bit different to my usual projects.  White on white with a touch of silver looks so elegant to me.  I love the Pretty Pines dies (I love foliage dies full stop – they are so useful for filling in spaces!)  and although it doesn’t show very well in the photo, the touch of Wink of Stella adds some subtle glitter. 
Here’s how I put the card together.
Thank you for visiting me and I hope I’ll see you again soon.
Bye for now,

Crafty Hugs,
 Keren