On a roll

I really seem to be on a roll with digi crafting at the moment. I recently made my first all digi greetings card - a new home card for a friend who just moved. My digi scapping is progressing in leaps and bounds right now, I even found myself hunting out a tutorial to teach me how to create a torn paper edge. If you too have the need to make your own digi torn paper the really helpful tutorial I used is here. The kit I used for my layout was from The Daily Digi, their monthy kits are huge and great value for money. I love the cartoony style of this particular section of the kit, especially those dotty clouds!

Christmas Crafting

I found this rather adorable reindeer pattern while blog hopping ages ago. It has been on my "things to do" pile for far too long so I finally made a start on a little christmas embroidery. So far so good, though I think I need a little more practice at embroidering in straight lines as he has rather wobbly legs!

Check out Andrea Zuill's blog for lots of fantastic free patterns and her Etsy for some of the most adorable prints. The goldfish print is definitely going on my christmas wish list, so sweet x

Off to look for some inspiration for handmade christmas gifts now, any ideas?

Digi scrapping

As a birthday present to me I treated myself to the Now We're Rockin' with Photoshop class over at Jessica Sprague. I actually managed to complete all the lessons during the 4 weeks which is a first for me, I rarely complete online classes and never within the class timeframe. I really enjoyed the lessons, was impressed with the new skills I was learning and pleased with the finished layouts, all of which helped motivate me to finish the class. I am tempted to join the next session of Digi in Deep to add to my new found Photoshop skills and am also keeping my eyes peeled for the next pen tablet class as I am still getting to grips with mine and really don't think I have found out its true potential yet. Anyway here are a couple of the layouts from the lessons...

Layouts challenge

Feeling rather guilty about the growing stack of untouched Scrapagogo kits building up under my desk I decided to set myself a challenge to make a layout from every one of them before my September kit arrived. That didn't sound too tough until I realised that I had 10 kits completely unused meaning I had 10 layouts to make in just under a month. Amazingly I did manage it and have finally got around to photographing and uploading the results. I have now discovered that having a deadline really helps to get me motivated to get things done.

Here are a few of the layouts that I created...

Sweet - using July's kit

Cute - using February's kit

Kiss - using March's kit

Beautiful Sunset - using August's kit

Folksy Finds

adorable knitted fox

amazing thaumatrope

cute driftwood boat

fun rainbow plushie

recycled tin can tealight holder

Cornwall holiday snaps

Oh to be back in warm, sunny Cornwall rather than here in damp, grey Manchester. It's feeling more like late autumn than midsummer to me right now. To bring a bit of sunshine to my little world I decided to make a start on editing my holiday photos today. These were all taken around Tintagel castle

I can't believe the photo of the kestrel, my guy took that with my little Fuji point and shoot!

Lovely Artwork at Feed Your Soul

I have mentioned this site before but I am always amazed by the talent of the artists and their generosity in offering away their prints for free download. There is so much beautiful variety and with me being someone who likes to change my wall art regularly this site is perfect but don't take my word for it, go check it out for yourself!

Animal House

In Haworth just before Christmas I spotted this little house shaped thimble rack in a second hand shop. I just knew it would be perfect for my collection of Lammermuir Designs animals, most of which had been put away in a box for ages. The wood of the house is quite dark so I lightened things up a bit by adding some Cosmo Cricket Earth Love papers to the back wall of each slot. I think these papers are gorgeous and they really compliment the soft colours used on the animals.

Think this guy might be my favourite!

Crochet inspiration

I have fallen in love with the Granny Stripe Blanket pattern over at Attic24. Although I am still working on my blanket sized granny square I am itching to spread my newbie crocheter wings and try something a little more challenging. Not too challenging though, so I have limited myself to a baby blanket for my first forray into the vast crochet world outside of my little land of granny squares. I have chosen to use the same yarn as Lucy (Stylecraft Special DK) for this HAL (thats a hook along apparently!) in Lemon, Spring Green, Sherbert and White. It really is lovely and soft (and so, so affordable) and the colours make my heart sing.

Lego Love

How sweet is this little Lego house? My guy found a cute little Lego set at the local supermarket. This is my dream home in Lego form! It sits on the shelf above my craft desk and is guaranteed to always make me smile.

Granny Square Progress

As promised here is a quick photo of my granny square so far. I am taking this work in progress down to Cornwall with me this week so hopefully I'll be able to fit in some happy hooking in the sunshine by the sea...

Granny Square Love

I am currently in the middle of two crochet projects and being a crochet newbie I am feeling rather proud. One is a giant granny square that will hopefully make it to blanket size eventually if I have enough matching wool. The other is a pile of basic granny squares that will hopefully also make it into a blanket. I love the fact that I can crochet on the move or while watching tv and that despite being a complete begginner I can create something that looks quite good (unlike when I knit and anything more complicated than a stocking stitch scarf looks like it has been attacked by a crazed kitty). I'll put some photos of my crochet projects on here as soon as I get around to taking any. In the mean time I have been dreaming about my next project, some of these may be a bit ambitious though...

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Basic Grey Challenges

Following the prompts on Shimelle's class I have finally realised just how much unused patterned paper I possess. A large proportion of this stash is Basic Grey and while blog hopping the other day I discovered the BasicGrey Challenges blog. The current challenge is to create something based on the theme of Tutti Fruitti so I decided to finally cut into my supplies of BG Obscure to make a card. I also used the BG hello stamp, a Prima bird stamp and my new Tim Holtz tattered florals die

Something from almost nothing

I have joined the class currently being run by Shimelle in an attempt to reduce the stash mountain that is rapidly building in my teeny tiny flat. Since class started I have been at my mum's or at work and without the time or the energy to get started. However the prompts so far have been great and I can't wait to get going while I am off this week. There have also been some challenges this weekend which inspired me so much I got creating as soon as I got home from work. The result is this cover for my class album and a very, very small dent in the mountain!

(Sorry about the poor photo, but it was taken at 1am)

Bad, bad blogger!

I have been so bad at keeping up with my blog recently. No internet for the last month or so really hasn't helped. Because of this I have decided to make a rather late new years resolution, perhaps a spring resolution instead - at least one post a week. This may not seem much to most of you but for me it is going to be quite a struggle! To assist me I am planning on joining in with lots of challenges. This week it is Gothic Arches and the theme for this week is 'Wild and Wacky'.

I knew exactly what I wanted to do but didn't have a suitable stamp, so instead I resorted to my favoured transfer technique with my very not printable vellum and a picture of a zebra. I also used a prima background stamp and a curly bracket stamp (basic grey I think) stamped and embossed as his false moustache!