It's suddenly become much colder here. September and October were really mild, but all of a sudden I'm starting to feel as if winter is coming! I've put the flannel sheets on the bed and most nights I put a hot-water-bottle in to warm the bed up before getting in. Time to start thinking about Christmas deccies!
Stampin' Up! has lots of lovely Christmassy things in the Autumn/Winter catalogue, and I've used some of them in my bauble - the mica flakes, the ribbon, and the Pretty Pines dies-cuts - but the cheeky little cat tampering through the snow is from the Annual catalogue. The Pretty Kitty stamps were among the first things I got from the 2016-17 catalogue; that cat is just SO like my Mysti. Here's a picture of her so you can see for yourself...
She loves helping me craft and has been known to put in a "puss"onal appearance when I'm filming. Here's the video showing you how I made the bauble.
Thank you for visiting. Please do call again, I'd love it if you did! See you soon, Crafty Hugs, Keren
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
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,
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.
Hello bloggists and welcome! Have you seen the new catalogue yet? (If not - there's a link to a pdf version at the bottom of the page). Today's card uses some supplies from the new catalogue and some from the Annual catalogue. I'm particularly pleased at the way the braid came out - it's made using Bakers' twine. And I love, love, LOVE the Pretty Pines dies. Here's how the card went together-
Hope you liked it! Before I go, I promised to hold a workshop on making rose embellishments this month and I will, I will! I'd planned to hold it on the 14th - I have some time off work scheduled that week - but we've booked to visit the Harry Potter studios that day, so it'll probably be on Thursday 15th. Check my Facebook page for updates. Anyway, that's me for today. Thank you for visiting! Crafty Hugs, Keren
