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

Recycled Christmas wreath and decorations

Hello! Hope everyone is having a great week! I'm back from the spa break I received for my birthday, so I'm all refreshed and yesterday I did some serious Christmas crafting! The team over at the Crafty Cardmakers blog are having another DT call based on their current challenge; recycling. I really enjoyed this challenge and although technically this is two seperate projects, they were made using the same medium, at the same time, as a set. You will see what I mean shortly. So for my entry, I have made a Christmas wreath and matching tree decorations out of recycled cardboard. See if you can tell exactly what kind of cardboard I used... Heres the pics!

A close up of the bow, complete with Christmas teddies!

Can you tell what they are yet? Well they are kitchen roll/toilet roll tubes that have been flattened, painted and glued together. The wreath was inspired by this great tutorial and I used the same technique to make the tree decorations. The middle of the tree decoartions are pages from an unwanted copy of "Oliver!" (after all, whats more Christmassy than watching Oliver on Christmas day?) cut with my bigshot, with a sweet jingle bell in the center.

I am entering this project in the Crafty Cardmakers challenge and DT call.
Wish me luck!

Hayley x

Tatty Teddy Christmas cards

The Christmas craft fair that I signed up for is fast approaching and I wanted to share a few of the cards that I've made so far. These are the cards that I have made using Docrafts fab Tatty Teddy range. This is my first craft fair so I'm hoping they will be popular!

Hope you like them! Well I'd better get back to work =)
Thanks for dropping by!
Hayley x

Charisma Cards challenge entry

Well I'm still knuckling down making Christmas cards and I've decided to enter this one in the Charisma cards challenge which this week is Anything Goes!

I love decoupage at the moment and when I saw this cute Forever Friends topper in my local craft shop, I knew I had to get it. The bears are so cute, I had a forever friends bedroom when I was a kid. The topper and sentiment are both Docraft's Forever Friends range, paper is from my stash and the stick on ribbon is Fizzy Moon. I love the 3D effect! I haven't decided which pile to put this card in, theres the "christmas craft fair" pile or the "friends and family cards" pile. Guess it's just going on my desk for now!

Thanks for dropping by!
Hayley x

Fizzy Moon Christmas cards

Hi everyone! Well I've started to really focus on Christmas cards now and I bought a pack of Fizzy Moon chipboard characters last week, so I started experimenting. I love the cute characters, they work well with loads of colour combinations. Heres what I came up with:

Sweet with traditional colours and festive ribbon

Bright and sparkly

Sorry I can't get this pic to go the right way up!

 Thats three more cards for the Christmas pile but a lot more to go! I'd better get on with it lol

Bye for now!
Hayley x

Lazy day

I've had a lazy day today, assembling toppers for Christmas cards. Well I'm feeling a bit under the weather again so this was just what I needed! It felt quite relaxing and theraputic.

 Can't wait to make Christmas cards out of these for the "Christmas craft fair" box. They are just too sweet!

Thanks for dropping by!
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