Christmas Colours

That time again... therea a new challenge starting over at Where The HeART Is Challenge Blog.
Our sponsor for this challebge was That Craft Place and our theme Christmas Colours. An easy one for this time of year thankfully lol.
The image I chose was 'Big Present' which I coloured using my Spectrum Noirs and the papers are from a set I got free in a mag. For a quick make, I quite like how this ine turned out.
Why not take a pop over to our Challenge blog and join in. Where The HeART Is, is a blog for al types of craft, not just card making (I'm in the card team which is why my projects are all card related). We also have a mixed media team who I have to admit are a very talented bunch. This means thw challenge is open to everyone, so why not come over and join us or even pop by to say hello while having a look at our projects.
Hope to see you there :).

Christmas Card Season.

What a bust week or so I've had. I had actually been debating giving up my card making or at least downsizing my supplies a good bit and then I get LOADS of orders. Tis the season and all that I suppose :).
Hubby was down visiting his mum a day almost a fortnight ago and vame back with a little list of cards she was looking done. They needed done quickly as some were being posted to Australia and last posting date was the start of Dec sometime. For handiness sake, i decided to use my new Tattered Lace dies that I had bought not long before and hadnt used yet. Trying to do 6 cards that were all different proved more difficult than I thought and as these were all being posted, I was asked to make sure they werent bulky... another difficulty as I like my layers and dimension lol.
These were 5he cards I came up with... I actually really liked them (they look better on person) alrhough I think I slughtly misjudged my text size lol. Even so, I was relatively happy with them and my mum in law liked them too so better again lol.

New challenge... Crafting For All Seasons

Oh dear... i've been slacking again! For a very good reason tho, I promise lol... craft fair season is yet again upon us so I've been being a busy little bee getting stock made uo for those as well as expanding my wax melt and jar candle range. I've also been getting some pretty big orders with Christmas looming around the corner and have some swaps to make card for so it's all go, go, go here at Stacey's Crafty Sanctuary!

Anyways... on top of all that, I've also had some Design Teams cards to make.
Today marks the beginning of or next challenge over at Crafting For All Seasons.
Our Sponsor for this challenge was the brilliant 'That Craft Place' and our theme was 'brrr... It's Cold Outside'.

Theres some amazing makes from the Design Team for this challenge (not that that's a surprise... they're a talented bunch) so why not take a look and join in with our challenge.

Hope to see you there! :)

Stacey xx

Make A Wish!

Our new Challenge has started over at Crafting For All seasons.
Our theme for this challenge was 'embossing' and we were sponsored by the awesome sassy studios.
The umage I used for this card was Genie 1. I had the card planned out in my head before I sat down to make it but of course me being me, ended up changing it around slightly anyways lol. Quite happy with how it turned out. Hope you like too!
Feel free to pop over to our blog and see some of the gorgeous makes from the rest of the team and of course join in and share yours. Hope to see you there! :)

Tic Tac Toe

Another little Melanie Boo card. How cute are these images.
This time I've used the Melanie Boo and the Christmas Star to enter the newest Challenge on Lacy Sunshine's Tic Tac Toe challenge. 

The aim of these types of challenges is usually to make a cara using three in a row, be it horizontal, vertical or diagonal. This time however, I decided I'd do a full house and try to fulfil each element requirement. I had made the card I wanted and was only short two things to complete the board... the sentiment and sparkle so figured I'd add those to complete the card.
Hope you like :).

Challenge entered:

Tic Tac Toe - Lacy Sunshine

Cute Christmas!

Finally got a bit of time to myslef today so Christmas card making it was!
I really needed to buckle down and make a few cards for upcoming craft fairs and for a craft swap I have signed up to. I sent hubby to a football match as an early birthday present (his birthdays in a few days) so so what better time to get a good start on them. Hopefully it'll prove to be a productive weekend til he comes back on Sunday.
I got four cards made yesterday and another 5 today... i decided to use digistamps for most of todays rather than pre coloures art pads which probably held me back a bit.
My favourite make today has to be this little one using Lacy Sunshine's image Snowflake. I thought this image was so cute it'd make a gorgeous card for a little girl for Christmas so I decided against the 'traditional' Christmas colours and thought I'd go with pinks to make it more girly. Paired with cutesy digital papers I bought on etsy, I love how this card turned out.

Challenge entered :

V is for Very Cute - ABC Christmas Challenge

All Dressed Up!

My first Design Team piece for Crafting for All Seasons was due on 28th October. The sponsor for this challenge was the brilliant 'All Dressed Up' and our theme was All Dressed Up/Girly. Pretty handy huh? Lol.
The image I used was Party Frock. I love this image... its so elegant looking which makes it suitable for many occasions and ages. I can see this being a 'go to' dogi stamp for a few of my upcoming birthday makes this year.
The papers I used all came from Lili Of The Valleys Antebellum paper pad and were all matt and layered onto pale pink card from Papermill Direct. My image was coloured with Promarkers and the ribbons and flowers were ones I had in my stash.
Hope you like :).

Challenges entered

All Dressed Up - Anything Goes. 

My DT make for Where The Heart Is

Time for another Design Team make. This time for Where The HeART Is.
Our Theme for this challenge was Winter Blues and our sponsor was the wonderful Lacy Sunshine.

I have to admit, I had never heard of Lacy Sunshine before this challenge and I'm glad I got to hear about them now. They have some absolutely beautiful stamps. I've my next few buys from them lined up lol and they're sponsoring another blog challenge I have coming up shortly so you'll have to keep your eyes peeled for that one :).

Anyways... without further ado... this is the card I made using Lacy Sunshine's Melanie Boo and the Christmas Star digi stamp. I absolutely love the Melanie Boo range of stamps they have. Such cuteness! Why not follow the link I posted earlier and go for a wee nosey... I guarantee you won't be disappointed :).

New Design Teams

I recently applied to be on a couple of Design Teams and can now say I've been accepted to the both I applied for. So excited. I love having specific challenges to make and having to follow specific themes... a lot of the time the themes are things I wouldn't usually do myself so they make me step out of my comfort zone and challenge myself.
The blogs I'm now part of the Design Teams are Where The HeART Is, The Crafty Addicts and Crafting For All Seasons.
Would love it if you all popped by these blogs and participated in the challenges... there are aome awesome ones coming up woth pretty awesome prizes. Links for the blogs are above :).

Craft Fair bits and pieces :)

With my first craft fair being only a fortnight away, I figured it was time I sat my backside down and made some Christmas cards. I have been making cards this last while but theyve mainly been design team makes or customer orders so I havent really had a chance to sit down and make some Christmas cards, and seeing as the fairs I am attending are Christmas ones, I really need to make some.
I thought for speed purposes, I'd make the most of a couple of Lili of The Valley Christmassy Art Pads I have lying around. I bought these a couple of years ago but didnt use them as last year, I bought a hunkydory craftinator on Create and Craft that had 4 Christmas kits inside along with inserts so used them instead. I love the little images from LOTV tho and love the look they give to my projects. Hope you agree :)

A Little Catch Up!

Hey all!

I've been a little quiet on it lately but that's because I've been busying away on various orders and makes etc.
This post isn't going to be as detailed as my usual ones... I just thought that seeing as I haven't been on, I'd give you all a sneak peek of SOME of the projects I've been working on at home. Unlike previous posts, this one will just be pictures with no instructions as to how I've made them, however if there's a card you're interested in wanting to know how I ,ade it or any info about it, leave me a comment and I'll get back to you :).
So here we go lol.
A couple of button card makes :).

 A little distress ink card with stamped image and sentiment which has been heat embossed in black.

 A bookatrix style card with stand and matching handmade box.

 Customer order for an army themed card. Dog tag has glossy accents on it to make it stand out and shine :).

 Customer order for mum birthday card,

 Customer order for a wedding card... theme was purple.

 Some little personalised wooden coasters. I'll be keeping and using these ones as they are personalised for us and have the year of our marriage (which also happens to be the same year as this Christmas) lol.

Hope you like, and as I said, any questions, feel free to ask :).

Drinks Up!

I had a last minute card to make for my sister to give to her of her friends. (I was given a couple of days notice but left it last minute cos men are SOO hard to make for lol).
She had initially wanted a card with the local football team he plays for on it but as I wasnt sure what copyright etc would be, I decided to steer away from that. She was getting another of my sisters to make him a glitter guinness glass so I figured I'd make him a matching guiness style birthday card. After all... what 18 year old bloke isn't going to go out and have hus first legal pint as soon as he could lol.
I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do for the card... guiness glass with his name put on it using Craft Artist 2 software and colour scheme black, silver (possibly silver glitter card) and white and maybe a few stars threw in the mix :).
Knowing what I wanted to do made for a lot quicker work.
To make life handy for myself, I made a 6x6 card blank out of black card. I layered silver mirror card onto this and cut a piece of white supersmooth card a quarter of an inch smaller. I bought a digikit from daisytrail with a guiness style glass and used the 'add text' feature to put a message on the glass. I copy and pasted this with the plan to decoupage when printed.
Using a star die set I got free in a mag, I cut a star out on the top left of my white card layer (making sure there was room for my pint glass on the bottom right).
I layered my two pint glasses on top of each other with 3d foam tape and stuck where I wanted. I then cut various sized stars and stuck them in random paces over the card. Using my tattered lace numbers, i cut out a 1 and 8 and added faux stitching and then stuck this over the aperture I made earlier with the star. To finish the front off, I added 3 gems on the top right and put glossy accents ovee the glass. I really loved the effect the glossy accents gave as it looked like an actual glass. My glossy accents had went on slightly bubbled which I though would wreck the card but when it dried, it looked like the bubbles in the guinness going up the glass.
My sister was over the moon with the card and everyone was in awe of the glass and how I'd done it so needless to say I was happy lol.
Heres the final card (and matching insert). Hope you like :) x

Peace On Earth in Pastels

I've been lacking on my Christmas card makes recently so when I came across a sketch challenge on a Facebook Group I belong to, I figured what better excuse to make a Christmas card... the winners gift was pretty awesome and it means a card will be made.

I had the background for this little card stamped up for a while. I had planned on using it for a different project however when I laid my things out before sticking down, I no longer liked it and so this went spare, To create the layer, I stamped a few different sizes of snowflake stamps in my pearlescent memento dew drop ink pads... in the blue, the pink and the silver. I then layered this onto a pale pink cardstock from Papermill Direct. Using their pale blue, I cut quite a thick strip and cut a triangle out at the bottom to make it a banner style strip. I cut a thinner strip of pink polka dot paper from Lili of The Valley and did the same, I layered both layers onto the pink card and cut in the same way before sticking the smaller strip on top and off centre. I wrapped baby blue ribbon from my stash around these layers and stuck them to the left of my stamped card. Using my Spellbinder Scalloped Circles, I cut a circle out of the pale blue card I used earlier and placed my image (also from LOTV) on top. Using the smallest die in the set, I cut another blue circle and cut in half to place behind my stamped sentiment (also done in the blue pearlescent memento ink pad). using a blue promarker, I coloured three white pearls and attached them at the top right of my card and hey presto!

This was an easy card to make, and pretty quick (even though my description makes it seem otherwise :p). Hope you like my little pastel coloured Christmas card! :) x (the sketch I followed is below).

My newest makes!

In the run up to craft fair season, I've been experimenting with a few little ideas of things to make and hopefully sell as handmade cards aren't always that popular.
I have always wanted to try my hand at candle making or making handmade wax melts I should say. I ordered a few bits and pieces at the weekend for them and they came yesterday and this morning. Me having that patience, or lack thereof, that I have, i had to get making straight away. I made a few batches up yesterday amd can safely say I'm hooked lol.
As much as I love card making,and I always will, candle making is so much quicker and a lot tidier lol. Maybe just cos I'm an increadibly messy crafter tho :p.
After thinking on how to package the melts to make them more attractive, i thought I'd try out a card technique I'd been eyeing up for ages but never actually tried yet either... an easel card with a pull out drawer underneath. Using Papermill Direct teal card (I absolutely love this) and gold mirror card from my stash (courtesy of Home Bargains) I  made up the easel card and drawer and a little matching box to hold it. I stamped an image from a stamp set I got free in a magazine onto the teal card with versamark ink and heat embossed it with gold glitter embossing powder. This gave a real sparkle and looked amazing against the teal. Using a different stamp from the set, I made a stopper (which I stuck on strips of layered gold mirror card and teal card and hot glued a few buttons together for the drawer handle and topped with a gem.
I'm really in love with this little design and it has proved popular with others I have showed it too aswell.
Hope you like :).

New Blog Challenge

Today (5th October) marks the beginning of our second blog challenge over at Where The HeART Is challenge blog.
The theme for this challenge was 'use stencils' and we were given two sponsors to choose digis from. The digi I chose for this challenge was a Bugaboo one.
The layout I chose was a pretty basic one. I matt and layered some shabby looking fairy paper I had in my stash onto light green card from Papermill Direct. Using my harlequin stencil, I inked through some parts of it with my white pearlescent Memento Dewdrop Ink pad. This let me be quite acurate in my stenciling. I repeated this at a few random areas of my backing paper. I coloured my image using Spectrum Noir markers and again layered this on to the same green card. To add a bit of dimension to the card, I distressed the edges of both layers. I added pink satin ribbon along the base layer half way up the card and added a piece of pale coloured burlap to add an extra bit of texture. I then stuck my image on top of this and added a double bow on the top left corner using the same satin ribbon.
I inked an wooden fairy embellishment I had in my stash with the while memento ink pad and coloured her wings with a Spectrum Noir. I glossy accented bits off her wings to add yet another layer of dimension. I had no green ink pads to match my card so I coloured a stamp with one of my green Spectrum Noirs and stamped onto white card. I layered this onto the green card and again distressed this before adding it to the card too.
Hope you like my end product.
Theres some awesome projects over on the challenge blog... both cards and mixed media projects so feel free to pop over and take a look and of course join in the challenge aswell. I look forward to seeing you over at Where The HeART Is. :)

New Order Book!

Can you tell I'm in love with both mixed media and these little OddBall Art stamps? Lol.
I thought it about time I made myself a new order book. My old one was rather plain looking (just a plain shop bought one) and has gone walkies so I've been writing my orders on another notebook I've had lying around.
Using acrylic paints ( in cerulean, rose and lemon yellow) I created a background onto white hammered linen card. I placed the paints rather randomly but wasnt fussed in how it turned out... possibly cos I put the yellow on last n it didnt look right with the others underneath. To try n blend them together, I used a thin layer of white paint and although it did help mute and blend the colours, i still wasnt fussed on it. I've heard someone say before that mixed media projects tend to have an 'ugly stage'... this was definitely it lol.
I mixed some texture paste with light green acrylic paint and using my harlequin mask, dis a bit of stenciling. This helped a good bit I think but when it has dried, I went over my rose and cerulean painted areas again brightening them up.
I then sprayed all over my project with some ink sprays (cosmic shimmer chic grey blue and decadent grape and a bronze shimmer spray I made using a bronze shimmer acrylic paint and water). I then stuck an image I bought a few days ago from Oddball Art and coloured in with Promarkers on 3d foam pads and stuck it to the bottom right of my page. Using a tattered lace alphabet die set, I cut out individual letters and stuck them onto black cardstock. I distressed the edges of my page, layered onto teal carfstock and then adhered it to my notebook.
I had a spare image left so coloured it using my promarkers. I took another piece of hammered cardstock and using the same 3 colours of paints coloured the background in block colours. I sprayed over the papers with the same ink mista and again die cut letters in white supersmooth card and stuck onto black cardstock. I then adhered this to the back of my notebook so it would have a double function and all my projects would be kept together.
Hope you like my little notebook :).

Christmas clock.

After watching a craft programme on one of the craft channels where a clock face had been designed to look like scrapbook layout, i decided I really wanted to give this a go as not only qould it be something really different and unusual, but it woukd be something ypu could display in the house that would have a practical use as well as just looking pretty.
I ordered an mdf clock a day or two later and waited patiently for it to arrive. Iin the mean time, I looked online for pictures of other scrapbook style clocks (silly me forgot to record the programme I watched) and couldnt come across any which meant by the time my clock came, I hadnt a notion how to decorate it anymore. Typical me lol.
Instead, I figured I'd try a mixed media Christmas style clock that would look pretty at Christmas time.
First, I primed my clock with homemade Gesso as I planned on painting it. Once dry, I used acrylic paint to paint the base a bright blue. Using an old credit card, I scraped texture paste onto the bottom of the clock to look like snow. The card left a lovely tough texture when I patted all over the texture paste with it (it needed to be put on thick to get the effect). I tried stamping the images from a Stampin Up stamp set (possibly called Snow Much Fun?) onto newpaper to get anprinted effect but I didnt like how it looked so I stamped onto cream linen card instead and using ine of the sentiment stamps in the set, I did some second generation stamping all over the images. I then coloured them using my Spectrum Noir markers and glued them onto the clock base. I went over the texture paste again to thicken it and to 'ground' the images and using the sponge brush I used for that, I dabbed all over the blue sky with the texture paste to create a snow falling effect. Lastly, I die cut some numbers (12, 3, 6 and 9) from some holographic silver card and stuck those on too. 
The clock face did come with hands however I didnt really like them so I plan on using ink or heat embossing them to change colour so they match better or maybe just buy a new set. I also need to buy the mechanism for the clock and once assembled, the clock will be finished. I really like how the clock came out tho and plan on making a few more for upcoming craft fairs.
Pictures below!

My first mixed media piece :)

So I went shopping yesterday for things to make a mixed media piece. Of course I had NO idea what I needed or even what I wanted to make... I just knew I wanted to attempt a mixed media something or other. I ended up buying a couple of canvases, paint brushes and a few colours of acrylic paints (some of which were metallic and look pretty cool). My sister had some texture paste she wasnt using too so gave it to me. Sorted! Lol. 
To do the background of the canvas, I painted some pink acrylic on 2 corners taking it quite far intonthe middle if the cancas and put the metallic green on the rest that was still white. I got a small spray bottle and mixed some bronze metallic acrylic paint with water and sprayed all over the cancas with it. I has also bought aome cosmic shimmer ink mists in a blue and pink (will get actual colour names in morning) and sprayed thise on too. Using a circle stencil I had, I used texture paste to add some dimension and when dry put some more of the paint on it. 
Looking through a challenge blog, I came across Oddball stamps. I had never seen these digis before but loved how quirky they were and thought they'd look perfect in a mixed media piece. 
I had no idea where to find the digis so to google I went and found them. I'm going to be really nice to you all and link the digi I used :p. Its found here on Oddball Art Co etsy page. I used my Craft Artist 2 software to flip the image (forgetting that there was wording on the hoodie which also flipped... whoops lol but seeing as its for me it'll do fine lol) as I needed it to fit on the right hand side of my canvas and wouldnt have fitted if I kept it as it was. I coloured the image using my Spectrum Noirs and cut around it placing it where I wanted on the canvas. I had come across the saying 'Be yourself... an original is worth more than a copy' earlier so wanted to incorporate that in too. I wrote part in the thought bubble in the image and the rest I wrote in individual blocks to cut out and then distressed them with shaded lilac distress inks. To stick them to my canvas, I used glue which ended up taking some of the colour from my cosmic shimmee sprays and discoloured my wording. I initially thought I had destryoed my piece then but found the more I looked at it the more I started to like it lol.
To finish off, i drew some flowea, birds and faux stitching with a black permanent marker (my fine liner decoded to stop working :( ) and added liquid pearls to the middle of the flowers and glossy accents to the skull on the girls hoodie and the coloured parts of her eyes. I still found it plain or lacking somethin so when i came across a die cut with a bit of lattice I thought I would try using that as a mask and stamp through it with my pearlescent white memento ink pad. This definitely helped tie it together more and brighten the canvas as it was a tad dark looking.
Not sure if ive completely finished it but I definitely am done for the night lol. Ill look over it again tomorrow with fresh eyes and see what I think but for now here it is...
Hope you like :)

A little something different!

With Christmas Craft Fair season being upon us, I thought I would try my hand at something that will hopefully sell well at the few fairs I have signed up for... heat embossed slate coasters.
I came across these little beautes a few days ago when out shopping and you know how us crafters are... 'ooh, I could do something with those' lol.
I tried a few designs with just ink to see how they would hold up. I wasnt iverly fussed on 3 of the designs I tried out but quite liked the fourth snowflake one. I washed the other designs straight away and thankfully they washed fine leaving me a blank canvas again. The snowflake one I left a while to see how it would take. I left it about an hour then wiped off. This one took a little more scrubbing as it was leaving an almost watermarked look which, pretty as it was would be no food for the long term.
Second thought was to try hear embossing them so I stamped all 4 coasters with versamark ink and a snowflake stamp I had in my stash (I'm guessing it was part of a free magazine gift stamp set as thats where a lot of my stamps come from) and heat embossed it with a white embossing powder. This took really well (bar the few loose specs lol) and came out really clear on the slate.
Tried wiping (ok scrubbing hard) with a sponge (after burning my hand... the slate is REALLY warm for ages after embossing) and the images stayed in tact. I also put a really hot plate on it at dinner time to check the heat of the plate didnt affect the embossing or melt the powder more! All good there. Finally I brought them to mums for tea and we all used them, spilled our tea on them and then cleaned them after. All remained perfect so happy days.
Really like this idea so I'm thinking of making a fair few more in different designs and maybe colours depending on how they look against the slate but hoping I've a seller here. I havent seen thease being sold at any fairs I've been at so fingers crossed.
Anyways... here they are :).

Card and keepsake in one!!

Its my older sisters birthday in a few days and as she lives all the way in Canada while the rest of us are home in N.Ireland, and as it'll be her 30th, my mum asked me to make a few cards for her from both her and my youngest sister.
Mum never gives me any specifications when ordering so I pretty much get free reign.
With this being a milestone birthday, I wanted to do a little something special for her and thought of adding a few photographs of Shelley (my sister) throughout her life in the card somehow. Originally I had planned on doing a little fold out accordian style but in the front of the card but you know me and plans lol.
Instead I looked through my stash of dies etc and settled on an oval die cut topper with tattered lace wording and decided to try and add a pocket behing in which i could add the photos. I still intended on doing an oval accordian style fold but changed my mind last minute for something easier lol. For the insert I used a tonic pop up die. I've had this die for AGES but never actually used it inside a card for a pop up. I really like these dies tho so think I'm going to have to experiment a bit more in future. 
Anyways... this is the card I ended up doing. All using Papermill Direct card... as if you didnt already know :p.

To finish this card I added some satin ribbon and cosmic shimmer liquid pearl (will post pics of thw finished card tomorrow along with the wall hanging with photos... I'm sure Shelley won't mind me showing pics of a younger her lol). 

                

Mum also asked me if I could make a card from my youngest sister to send to Shelley. I really liked the Peek-A-Boo card concept I had seen on a technique challenge previously and thought something fun like an interactive card would be nice to make from Alannah (the youngest sister lol). 

Using a video turorial I found on YouTube and papers from Lili of the Valley combined with a Saturated Canary image... this is what I came up with! I really love this style and plan on making some Christmas cards with it as well as childrens cards. 

When the card is opened, this panel slides across to show the message.

 This is where Alannah will write her personal birthday message to Shelley. The back of the card is made in such a way that it opens for easier access for writing purposes.