Polka Doodles - Birthdays

It's time for another Polka Doodles challenge and this fortnight it's all about birthdays. I missed the last challenge as I was a poorly so I was really up for creating something different and fun for this one.

The card is actually a little longer than a standard DL size, so if you were going to make this you'd need to create your own envelope - not a problem if you've got an Ultimate Pro or similar to hand.

To create the supersized 'Birthday' sentiment I printed off some lovely floral letters from the Picknix CD. I printed them out twice - once onto plain paper and again a thicker cardstock - then carefully hand-cut each letter. I arranged the paper letters overlapping onto the card blank, then added my thicker cardstock letters on top using 3D foam pads for dimension.

There were so many colours and patterns going on in these letters (and FYI I love the combination of the flowers, burlap texture and polka dots), that a patterned paper background would have been too much. It was the perfect excuse to try out my new Spectrum Noir Aqua Markers, so I used a thick paintbrush and lots of water to create a wash using pale blue and green tones.

A stamped 'happy', faux stitching, some thin satin ribbon and pretty pastel flowers finished my design. I hope you like it!

 Have a great weekend :)

Craft room complete!

My dad and step-mother came to visit last month - they live over 200 miles away from us and so we don't get to see them very often. As usual, it lead to a mad dash to tidy before they arrived. You see, we started to turn the guest bedroom into my craft room a few weeks ago and, predictably for us, left it unfinished.

So, on the Friday night before they arrived it was a messy craft bomb of scraps, dies, stamps and cuttings all over the desk, floor and bed. I spent two hours tidying up and on Saturday morning my lovely husband put up shelves and hung artwork to finally make it into a welcoming space. With that final push of a family visit, my craft room was complete! Of course, what must a crafter and blogger do but photograph it? Naturally ;)

There's an alcove in one corner of the guest bedroom, which was the perfect place to install a desktop large enough for my crafting. I often find myself spreading out onto the floor, though. Crafting is inherently messy and I certainly can't tidy up after myself while I work... it all has to be done after the event. Not my favourite part of the creative process, that's for sure! Ignore the random guitar... it would have been resigned to the loft months ago, except that Stanley likes to sing and strum along on the 'la la', as he calls it.

I'm not, and never will be the most tidy of people. My craft stash is a kind of organised chaos - my drawers are separated into papers, embellishments, card blanks and cardstock, stamps and inkpads, chipboard and stickers and tools and that's pretty much it. I also have a separate set of drawers under my desk so that I can keep demo materials separate from my everyday craft stash.

Similarly, I have magazines, files, empty shadow boxes and button storage in my shelving unit. It's all a little haphazard but spending hours painstakingly arranging everything isn't my style, and somehow I always manage to find what I'm looking for.

Just a side note about these beauties. Those who follow me on Instagram might have seen a post a few weeks ago where I gushed about my light box and how I'm not restricted by light when shooting my projects any more. My husband bought me the light box for Christmas - and I'm in love! The light is often pretty bad in this corner of the world, even at the brightest period of the day, so I admit I have struggled with my photographs at times. As well as a brand-new camera, which also makes a HUGE difference to my shots, the light box and these fab lamps mean I can always have crisp, bright images - or at least begin to, anyway!

Of course, no spare room would be complete without a spare bed. We are very blessed to have lovely large bedrooms in this house, so as well as a massive desk and storage room, we managed to retain the double bed and move it into the corner of he room. A functioning study at last! Lets see how long I can keep it tidy for ;)

Simply Cards & Papercraft 133

It's been a bit quiet around here lately, I know! I've been a bit poorly recently and needed to take it easy - I'm still not 100% but I'm hoping to be back to full speed soon. Be assured though, I haven't forgotten about you guys! So I thought I would drop in quickly to show you some more published work, this time for Simply Cards & Papercraft issue 133.

I so love these cards, mainly because I use mini pegs all the time, so when I was asked to create some cards for a mini peg 'stretch your stash'-type feature, I was in my element! I had great fun experimenting with ways of using mini pegs - from creating butterflies to using them as sunrays, they're such versatile little embellishments.

The cards came together really quickly, and were made all the easier with some gorgeous MME Cut & Paste paper pads that I picked up for a song at TK Maxx. I actually used two different collections, Charm and Presh, and I love how they're interchangable while also being gorgeous standalone collections in their own right. Much love for this range!

This washing line effect was obviously inspired by the Project Life card I used and was something a little bit different. A horizontal washing line pegged across the centre of a landscape card would look great, but the I really wanted to use the Project Life card in my design and thought this semicircle card front and vertical washing line gave an unusual twist to this idea. I hope you like my cards! Have a great week :)