Charisma cards challenge

Happy Monday everyone! Or not... it looks very grey and dreary over here. But nevermind, I finished clearing my craft corner last night so I could get to work this morning. It is 5 days and counting until my next craft fair so I'm trying to get organised.

Today I used the Docrafts pink Capsule Collection papers for the first time and I absolutely love them! They were just perfect for this card.

Don't know if you can see it but underneath the teddy it says "Its a girl". I would like to enter this card for the Charisma cards challenge which is, pretty in pink!

Thanks for dropping by!

Hayley x

Crafty cardmakers challenge #59

I absolutely love the new Portobello Road range from Docrafts, it's perfect for cards for men and I especially love the stamp set which features the London bus below and a super cute VW Camper. The challenge at Crafty Cardmakers is- No floral embellishments, so I decided to try out my new stamp set and make a manly card.

The London bus stamp was coloured with Promarkers, paper is from the Portobello Road paper pack and sentiment is from my stash.

Thanks for dropping by!

Hayley x

Time for a challenge

Hi everyone! Well its that time of year again, Christmas is nearly here and shortly after it will be time for the dreaded New Years Resolutions... Eek! In the next couple of days I plan to write a post summing up how this years resolution of turning crafty as gone. The fact that I'm still blogging is a clue that it's gone well lol! I will definately be continuing with cardmaking, decoupage and basically anything else I want to try but I'm setting myself a new challenge for next year...

Over the last 8/9 months that I have been cardmaking I have collected a large stash of crafty bits. Although my stash is nowhere near as big as some peoples, my problem is that I don't have a craft room, just the corner of my bedroom (and to be honest, at the moment, half of my floor too!). As well as this, I've also decided that I must make my money go further next year, so here is my next challenge. I've decided to go all posh and declare it properly haha.

I, Hayley Usher declare that for the next year, commencing today 19.12.2011 I will limit myself to one craft shop visit per month, to one shop of my choice. After each visit I will blog what I have purchased and give my reason for buying it/them. I will make do with what is already in my stash and recycled materials (foil sweet wrappers, cardboard boxes, drinks cans etc) or things that I am given by others. I am doing this to make a dent in my crafty stash and to (hopefully) spend less of crafting materials/equipment.

So theres my declaration, now I just have to stick to it for a whole year! (What have I done...) Feel free to joing me if you are up for a challenge!

Hope everyone has a fabulous Christmas!
Hayley x

Crafts and me challenge

So I'm finally getting into the swing of making Christmas cards and decided to enter this one into the Crafts and Me challenge, which this week is- Blue, green and pink!

I'm still in love with easel cards and this adorable Me to you topper was just the right size!

I'm not sure if you can tell on the pic but the bear is decoupaged to look 3D. For this card I used:
Tatty Teddy Christmas topper (layered using hot glue gun)
Papers from stash
Anitas peel off sentiment

Well thats it! Now this card can go in the ever increasing "Christmas craft fair" pile =)

Thanks for dropping by!
Hayley x

Papertake challenge entry

Hi everyone, hope you are all well. It's just a quick post tonight to show the card I made for my friends Birthday on Saturday. I used a Kanban card kit and I think it worked well. My friend loved it anyway =)

I would like to enter this card in the Papertake Weekly challenge with this week is Creature Comforts.
Bye for now,
Hayley x

Wizard Easel card- Cute card Thursday challenge

Hi everyone, hope you are all well! Its been manic the last few days and I have a bit of breathing space this morning before a particularly busy afternoon so I decided to upload this easel card I made a few days ago.

I used my star embossing folder to create the background for the wizard and the sentiment is from a large pack I bought from a craft show. I decided to keep it simple so that the easel card didn't look crowded and I think it paid off.

I would like to enter this card in the Cute card Thursday challenge which this week is- anything goes!

Thanks for dropping by!
Hayley x

Pirate Birthday card

Now that I've finished my bedroom I have finally been able to have a proper play with my Bigshot! I used both a diecutter and an embossing folder for this project and I think it worked really well.

I used my new pirate stamp, which I picked up at the Ross Paper Show when it came to Sunderland a few weeks ago. He is so much fun to colour in, I used my promarkers. I used a nesting die with the gold card to create a background and a Cuttlebug embossing folder to create the star border along the bottom of the card. Then I just added the sentiment and age to finish. I'm really happy with how this turned out.

I would like to enter this card for the Creative Inspirations challenge which this week is, anything goes!

Thanks for looking!
Hayley x

Here comes the sun!

Or not... The weather here is awful at the moment, sunny for a little bit, then pouring rain and black cloud for the rest of the day! I've made a summery card anyway seeing as its June, hopefully the weather will brighten up sometime soon! So yesterday I was raving on about my Molly Bloom stamp and how much I love it, so I've made another card, this time with a bit more detail:

I remembered to take note of which promarkers I used this time, so here we go:

Face- Soft peach, blush, sunkissed pink
Arms, legs- Soft peach, bluss
Hair- Lemon
Top- Antigue pink, rose pink, blossom
Shorts and hat- Saffron
Wellies and bandana- Antigue pink, blossom
Sunflower- Lemon, cocoa, leaf green

The papers and ribbon are from my stash and the sentiment is an Anita stamp. The flower is a metal shape onto which I glued a punched out flower and a stick on pearl. I would like to enter this card in the Papertake Weekly challenge which this week is summer themed.

Bye for now =)
Hayley

Polka Doodles challenge- Things with wings

Hi hope everyone is having a good weekend! I'm having a very lazy one up to now, I've got tonsilitus so I have to stay at home and take lots of tablets *sigh*. I'm feeling much more cheerful now though because staying at home has given me loads of spare time to be crafty and I found out this morning that I am one of the lucky blog candy winners from the Polka Doodles blog hop. Yay!

So while I'm still on the subject of Polka Doodles, here is my entry for this weeks challenge- Things with wings

The stamp is a freebie off this months issue of Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine, which I coloured with my promarkers, I found the papers at my local market, flowers, ribbon and sentiment are all from my stash. I added waterfall stickles to the fur trim on the fairy's dress and hat to make it sparkle, don't know if you can it on the photo (I can but I know its there =D)

Enjoy whats left of your weekend!
Hugs,
Hayley

Something a little different...

I tried something different today and had a go at papering a plain wooden jewerly/trinket box. It took me just over an hour and it was a lot of fun, even though I nearly choked on the spray glue, I'll remember to open a window next time!

I used papers from Craftwork Cards, made the flowers using my flower punch and coloured the stamp with Promarkers. I'm going to try putting the box on Ebay later but for now I'm entering it in this weeks Polkadoodles challenge which is: anything but a card!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!
Hayley x

Red and yellow

Morning, hope everyone is having a good day! I made this a couple of days ago and have been meaning to upload it.

I made border across the bottom using my flower punch, red card and stick on pearls.  I coloured the stamp with Promarkers and crimped the card with a pair of zig zag scissors. The sentiment is from a pack from The Works.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
Crafty Catz- Anything goes
Divas by design- One for the girls
My time to craft- Toybox treasures

18th Birthday cake card

It's my cousins 18th Birthday next month and when I saw this card in Quick Cards magazine I knew it was perfect! So you send the card like this:

Then you pull the stars on the top and it pops out like this:

I still need to find some big numbers so I can put 18 on the bottom panel. I made this card using papers, ribbon and glitter from my stash and I made the bunting from scrap paper, ribbon and stick on letters. The topper is made from strips of acetate and stick on stars.

I'm entering this card for the following challenges:

Crafts and me- Anything goes
Simon says stamp- Sparkle and shine
A spoonful of sugar- Anything goes
Lexis Creations- Spots and stripes

Thanks for dropping by =]
Hayley x

Inchies

Hi everyone, hope you are all having a good day! This post is maybe a little late as I made this card two days ago and hadn't had a chance to blog until today. This is the first time I've used inchies on a card but I'm really pleased with the outcome so I will be using them again!

I made the flowers using my flower punch and stuck a gem in the middle of each one. I think everything I used on the card was from my stash... The pearls and checky paper are from The Works but I can't remember where the other stuff came from, sorry.

I'm entering this card for the following challenges:
LOTV- Ribbons and bows
Papertake Weekly- Fancy a punch
The Spotlight Challenge- Inchies

Tatty Teddy =D

I got this gorgeous Tatty Teddy stamp free from this months issue to Docrafts magazine and couldn't wait to ink it up!

The spotty paper is from Craftworkcards, dark blue paper and ribbon from The Works, the flowers are from Simply Yours and the sentiment is from my stash. It's a friend's birthday in a few weeks so she will be getting this card... Hope she likes it!

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:
The Crafty Pad- Spots and dots
Sunday sketch and stamp- Sketch

Hope everyone has had a great weekend! Bye for now =)
Hayley x

Practising with promarkers and a card for charity

I finally got my first Promarkers yesterday and I think I'm in love! It's so much easier than using colouring pencils. When I bought the Promarkers I also bought a copy of Docrafts Creativity magazine which features the Craft for Life appeal in aid of Cancer Research UK. The idea is you make an A6 card of any design, donate it to a Cancer Research UK shop and they sell it on. I think it's a great idea, so heres my contribution:

A peek at the inside

The stamp and sentiment are Fizzy Moon, flowers from Simply Crafts and the leaf on the inside is paper from my stash. I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Divas by design- Anything goes
My time to craft- Red and white
Paper take weekly- Anything goes

Bye for now!
Hayley x

If you can't beat them...

Royal wedding fever has gripped the UK and it is now getting ridiculous. There is nothing that the shops won't try to sell connected to the wedding from knockoffs of Kate's wedding ring, momento mugs and plates and even patio doors and the "official wedding phone" decorated with the british flag (I kid you not). I give up, as the saying goes if you can't beat them, join them. So I've decided to join in with A spoonful of sugar's challenge: A right royal knees up! I'm afraid it's not a great picture, I haven't got the hang of taking photos of my creations yet.

I enjoyed making this card and everything I used in from either Wilkinsons, The Works or my local market, I'm cardmaking on a budget unfortunately. I'm entering the card for the following challenges:

• As mentioned, A spoonful of sugar- Royal theme
• Cute card Thursday- No text
• Polka Doodles- Three patterned papers

I hope everyone has a great 4 day weekend! Party on =)

Flutterby Wednesday entry

So I've decided to just go for it and enter a challenge. I made two fairy cards but the second one was much better so I won't upload the first one.

I got the fairy stamp from Ebay and coloured it in with colouring pencils, I know most people use promarkers or copics but I havent got any yet, I think it turned out ok anyway. The poppy paper and ribbon was from my stash. So I'm entering this card for the Flutterby Wednesday challenge, looking at some of the other entries mine suddenly looks very plain but never mind, I had a lot of fun making it!