A new hobby

A new hobby

I've always had a desire to learn to sew and I recently found a lovely class where, after making a basic bag in the first class, we could make whatever we liked for the remaining three weeks with our teachers assistance. I choose to make a tea dress from the Great British Sewing Bee book (season one), it was a little too big for me but I learnt so many techniques.I was going to alter it but I was just so proud of my first project I decided to make it again (and I had bought far to much fabric).  The second dress is nearly finished and I'm just waiting for my new sewing machine to arrive so I can insert the zip, I'm currently using a john lewis mini pink machine which is great but now I think I'm ready for a grown up machine.

I wasn't brave enough to use Cath Kidson fabric but I did buy some buttons

I made this little brooch with some left over fabric and a vintage button and a little help from pinterest, and my cuttlebug was so quick cutting out the circles.

Here is a dress I made for one of my best friends little girls 1st birthday, the gorgeous pattern is the good deeds dress and was ideal for a learner like me.

 and a quick birthday card (well not so quick) made using my silhouette

Finally a belated 2nd birthday for Miss Maggie, she was poorly on her birthday and had to stay in the vets but we made up for a week later (she didn't seem to impressed).

Thanks for popping by

Kathy x

Deer oh Deer

Deer oh Deer

I couldn't resist this 3D stags head when I saw it in the Silhouette store, simply because my boyfriend LOVES them, and they're very en vogue at the moment. It was tricky enough to assemble even with instructions but I think that may be because I reduced the size. I put it on the bedroom door as a surprise, and I think he must have liked it as its still there 2 weeks later :-)

I also made this baby card for my friend by personalising a card I bought in the sil store, it took me half the night to join the lettering but with a little help (ok a lot) from my FB friends i'm really happy with how it turned out. I think I may have a glitter addiction when it comes to making cards.

I had a little timeout from facebook for a few months but I missed my crafting chums, and my blog was oh so quiet, so its nice to catch up on everyones chat again. I also had a break from my craft room for a bit there, apart from being lazy with my cameo but its just so easy and cool. Now Im ready to get colouring and entering some challenges again.

My Girl Maggie

Maggie won a bronze award at doggy day care for being good (we were amazed too)

Murdering my halloween pumpkin

The 'toughest soft dog toy' squeaky lasted approx 15 mins!!! 

Thanks for popping by

love Kathy and Maggie xox

A play with vinyl

A play with vinyl

My friend Chara and I had an amazing holiday to Vancouver in April. To remember our trip Chara printed all of the photos and put them into a plain black album decorated with stickers from our trip, now obviously being crafty I had to add a personal touch so I decided to have a play with my new vinyl and this is what I came up with. 

Front cover

The spine

Inside I listed our itinerary using elements from the Docrafts All Aboard range for the back page of the album.

Inside the back cover

For my photos I made a photo album online (I know I should make scrapbooks but I just love photo books), Its amazing how different photos caught my attention between Chara's photo album and my photo book.

Here are a few of the photos we took in Canada, it was just so beautiful x

I'm having a break from facebook and missing my crafty chums (but the break is good) so please if you have time I'd love some comments 

Thanks for popping by

Kathy and Maggie x

Roller Derby

Roller Derby  

I couldn't believe it when my two favourite digi stamp designers teamed up to have a competition together. The competition consisted of TSC and Simply Betty providing a Roller Derby image, unfortunately as it is only a week long comp I decided realistically I'd only have time for one image. I choose Bettys image because, well she was my fav :-) The condition was just to use black, hot pink and lime green in the card.

I knew in my head what I wanted to do and I think I got there eventually, although in hindsight which is a great thing I would have used black card for the base. I used my cameo quite a lot for this card including the stepper card as I wanted to add my vinyl text to some acetate.

 I used patterned paper from my scrap pile which is huge,and coloured the image with promarkers. The skull and ribbon also came from old stash and I added some black gems for continuity. 

I really hope you like it.

Its difficult to see but I deconstructed Bettys image slightly in the software to cut the helmet, knee/elbow pads and skates from the same vinyl. It took a bit of work and was very fiddly but I think it looks well. 

Miss Maggie

Shes not sure what to make of her award, she came 9th out of 22 dogs which wasn't bad for a dog who did no training. The dog that won is off to a Crufts qualifier!!

I'd like to enter the following challenges please:

http://thestampingchef.oo.gd/Gallery/index.php?/categories/flat
http://sisteractcardchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/challenge-21.html
http://cutiepiechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/challenge-51-anything-goes.html

Spika the bad mermaid

Spika the bad mermaid

Hi,

This month Simply Betty gave us the option of a good or a bad mermaid as our generous freebie, and as my last few cards have been sunny and colourful I thought something on the dark side would be fun, so I choose Spika the bad mermaid (I didn't use the sentiment that read 'bad to the gills' just because I couldn't squeeze it in). Here she is making sure no-one gets their hands on the sunken treasure.

I really wanted to challenge myself to colour hair a bit more realistically with pro-markers, so I followed an excellent tutorial by Donna Marie in her facebook group and although I've a very long way to go I think I'm definitely heading in the right direction. I added some green stickles to the scales on her skin (because a card isn't a card without sparkle)

I really wanted to add a treasure chest but after searching my stash (I'm still sure i have one somewhere) I headed to the sil store and bought this lovely template. I cut the wood out of 2 different shades of brown and the treasure from some left over glitter card. The tiny lock I coloured with metallic pro-markers. The treasure I made up of gold glitter card, sticky pearls, coloured gems, plastic coins and the fish came from a packet of jolee stickers. 

I returned to my trusty cuttlebug for the photo corner which I cut out of brown card and coloured with metallic pro-markers. The patterned paper I used has been in my stash forever and day so it was nice that it matched perfectly. 

I just hope Betty likes what I've done with Spika, theres some seriously amazing enteries for this challenge and if you get a change to look at blog http://simplybettystamps.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/good-vs-bad-facebook-challenge.html

Miss Maggie

Not so impressed with using it as a board of shame

"Thats better now FEED ME" (puppy dog eyes)

I found this chalk board today in Dunelm mill for £2.99 and thought it would be perfect for a notice board for Maggie (no more post it notes). This is the first thing I've made with vinyl so I'm really happy with how it turned out. 

Maybe Maggie shouldn't have gone to spec savers

I'd like to enter the following challenges please

http://simplybettystamps.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/good-vs-bad-facebook-challenge.html

http://craftyourpassionchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/challenge-174-all-at-sea.html

http://milkcoffeechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/show-us-those-coloring-skills.html

http://simplychallengedchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/july-30th-challenge.html

http://sisteractcardchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/challenge-18.html

Thank you so much for having a look, and I love reading comments if you have time to leave one xox

Simply Betty Summer Fairy take 2

Simply Betty Summer Fairy take 2 

I love how non-card makers think that it only takes a matter of minutes to create a card, my lovely boyfriend asked me to make a 40th birthday for his friends wife, for that night (and bearing in mind I received the request when I was still in work).I do love when he asks though as it isnt very often.

My original plan was to use my lovely cameo to cut out a simple 40 (I just learned how to do this recently) and put some nice background paper behind it, then I remembered the second Summer Fairy I had coloured for her last challenge. I'm so happy with how it turned out, especially as I'm not one to create under pressure. It might even be my favourite so far.

I coloured Summer with pro-markers and added some stickles to her wings, I added a little blue to her wings and love the effect it made, especially with the stickles. To give her a more 3D effect i gently rolled out her wings, only sticking down her body so it looked like she was flying. 

Miss Maggie

Miss Maggie has been zonked out in the hot weather so there hasn't been to much craic from her, HOWEVER we did take her for a walk in the forest were she managed to get her paws covered in mud, then she got kicked out of the pub (that was my fault I didn't see the sign that said no dogs in the beer garden!!). I still cant believe shes been in our lives an entire year (on the 11th July).

So proud of her muddy paws

My beautiful girl

First and last orders for us

'don't you think its time you get me a new bed?....in pink this time please'

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

http://simplychallengedchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/july-30th-challenge.html (I hope my cut out, fairy and gems count as lots of embellishments :-))

http://craftyourpassionchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/challenge-173-3d-it.html

http://craftycreationschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/challenge-232-summer.html x

http://sentimentalsundays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/challenge-165-anything-with-wings.html

http://thatcraftplaceblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/new-challenge-its-girl-thing.html

Thanks very much for popping by and if you have an extra minute I love reading your comments 

Kathy x