Stanley starts nursery

Wow - it's been a busy few weeks, lots going on! Not least because Stanley has stared nursery. He's only going in twice a week, but to get him settled and happy in his class for the first week we visited every day for ever-increasing amounts of time, and I hesitantly scurried off, waiting for the phone call telling me to come and pick him up because he's upset. That phone call never came and my little pud has been loving nursery.

On his second week the tears started - leaving a clinging, sobbing child at the door was so traumatic, but the nursery let me stay out of sight until he'd calmed down so that I'd know he was calm and happy when I left.

It's such a difficult decision but I must be happy in the knowledge that my little person is in an engaging, stimulating environment that will help him to develop and progress. I love the nursery we've chosen - it's bright, airy and welcoming and there's lots of outside space in which to play and explore. Judging by his artwork, he's already been getting lots of chances to be creative! I've got lots more to share so I'll be back soon :)

All things kraft

It's time for another Polka Doodles challenge and this time it's all about kraft! I use a LOT of kraft cardstock in my designs so thought I would challenge myself to do something a little different from my usual style. This is about as fussy as I get!

I love the colours - pink and kraft go so well together. Of course I just had to use the Winston Deluxe papercrafting CD, as it contains so many truly gorgeous kraft papers.

I distressed some polka dot kraft paper then layered a girly pink floral paper over the top to off-set the sepia-toned Etty image - this one was taken from a design sheet on the CD, but it's also available as a digistamp! I added some extra kraft goodness with a tag edged in white pen, then layered some ephemera from the CD on top.

I had been given some gorgeous organza swatches in various tones of purple and thought it would be great to continue with the sewing theme, so I chose a lilac colour, gathered the swatch in the centre and arranged it to show behind the Etty image. The overall effect has more oomph in real life, but I think it adds a lovely subtle touch to the card in the photos!

Being such a girly design, I just had to finish it with my favourite lace ribbon, which was then tied through my sentiment tag. I also pastel flowers and some pearl stick pins for an added flourish.

Products I have used:

DOWNLOAD Winston Deluxe FULL Collection

Winston Bear - Etty Sewing Machine

Hobbycraft assorted paper flowers - pastel

I do hope you like it! I would like to enter my card in the following challenges:
Come and Get it Challenge - Birthdays
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
Scribble and Scrap - Anything Goes

Have a great weekend :)

For the one I love

I'm going to be brave and post this before Valentine's Day as I'm about 95% sure my husband won't see it - he doesn't do social media - at all. Crazy huh? Well this is the card I'll be giving him on Saturday. Yes it has pink, and even a flower! But I'm a true believer that romantic cards should be pretty ;)

Following on from last week's New Baby vintage frame, I got the idea for this card and made it with some leftover supplies from the Docrafts Bellissima range. I really am loving this collection - yes, and that Authentique Renew patterned paper that keeps popping up on my projects. Can you believe I only have one sheet of the stuff?!

I'm also particularly loving these pearl buttons, bought in the sewing section at Hobbycrafts. Teamed with lace gives it a slightly vintage look, similar to the one I created for the New Baby frame.

The Vintage Hot Air Balloon Build A Scene dies were an impulse purchase but the addition of the cloud dies in this set made them a must have for me!

That's it for now, have a great week :)

Flower Power

Just a quick one today, as it's time for another Polka Doodles challenge and this fortnight the focus is on Flower Power... a theme that's quite easy for me! I've used the Picknix collection once again for this, specifically the In The Garden bundle, which is full of gorgeous images, sentiments and papers.

I layered the digital sentiment over a journaling card in a Word program before printing out, then coloured the flowers around the image with a red Spectrum Noir pen.

I layered the journaling card with a lovely green polka dot paper from the CD and some scrap dictionary paper from my stash, then embellished with paper flowers, die-cut leaves, gems and lace ribbon. Hope you like it! I'll be entering this card into the following challenges:
Card and Scrap challenge - Use flowers
Card Mania Challenge - Add some red 
Die-cut Divas - Words, quotes and sentiments
Noor! Design UK - Spring

Have a great weekend :)

Simply Cards & Papercraft 132

Well, I'm still in the process of catching up on sharing my published work with you - issue 33 has hit the shelves (and I have some cards featured inside! More on that at a later date), so I'm now only an issue behind.

I made these projects way back last year and was asked to create masculine birthday cards using a colourful corrugated mat stack by DCWV. This mat stack has seen a lot of use since, especially the natural brown colour, it's amazing how much use I get from it! The recycled/kraft look fits my style pretty well, and I love the texture it gives to a project.

I added a distressed effect to the mat in the card above by tearing around the top-left and bottom-right edges, then used white acrylic paint and a mask to dry-brush the polka dot pattern across the card front (yes, back in my dry-brushing days!).

For this card, I also used the dry-brushing technique to highlight the star hand-cut from red corrugated card. I kept the design fairly simple as masculine cards tend not to be too fussy, but a die-cut border and some extra cream polka dots finished it off.

Stars are always great for masculine cards, but you also can't go wrong with circles! I decided to use the mat stack to create some textured circles, which I layered up along with stickers, enamel dots and paper circles. This type of material isn't something you can die-cut particularly well, but I managed to use my scalloped circle punch for the blue circle, and of course using templates to hand-cut your own shapes from this thick material is always a must.

As always, I haven't shown all the cards featured in the magazine, so make sure you grab a copy to see the rest of my designs! That's it for now, back soon :)