morning crafters ...

I am up working on my blog earlier than normal today, as I am venturing into Canterbury this afternoon to meet a very special friend.  Sally is one of Evelyn Mae's biggest supporters, and with her interesting orders, she keeps me on my creative toes!  She, like me, has a love of tea and cheesecake, and whenever we can, we catch up, with said items making an appearance!

Last year she and I spent a happy day walking through Greenwich and Covent Garden, mulling over ideas on how to take card designing forward, this was before the company name was decided and before I had married, moved house and found room for a crafting studio! 

Needless to say, Sally is definitely one of my favourites!!

So, that brings me to work earlier than normal today, to share with you a project that I have been working on.  The project is for my brother Chris, and his wife Emma.  It was my 30th birthday this week, and my husband was 33 the week before that, and the next time we go to visit my brother, he is hosting a party for us.  It gives us a chance to see all the family together, and also to catch up with some friends who we don't get to see nearly enough.  So as a thank you, I made some Raseberry vodka, and packaged it in a tiny bottle, and matched the bottle wrapping with a little note let and a gift bag.

 I love the purple and the green mixture in this gift set - green and purple have been a theme for January for me.  The purple paper is 'forget me not' from Core Colour Collections and the green is 'Pear' Bazzill card stock.  The scallops are created from a 1.5 inch scalloped punch from The woodware craft collection. The stamps I used are from Fiskars 'Wishes all round' and a lovely flower stamp by Rhonna Farrer.

The ribbon is a bright apple green, and the mini card is embellished with a flower brad, and the bag uses mini diamantes.  To create the bag I used a flat glassine bag that I had sent over from the States, and stuck two rectangle pieces of card stock on either side to create the bag shape.  When put all together, I think it creates a really sweet package, and one that has a lot of care and attention put into it.

I would love to see what you have been creating this week- why not comment and leave a link to your website or blog, so we can all see.

Well, time to get ready for Canterbury and a lot of catching up, so I will say goodbye for this monday, and see you in a weeks time.

All the best X

 

A good morning ....

Good morning to you all, and welcome to a wet and rainy day in Margate.  With the blind pulled right down and the lamp on, it could be 2.38am, not 2.38pm, but there you have it, the normally sunny Thanet coast is taking a battering from the rain.

On the upside, it has left lots of time indoors to make mint hot chocolate and craft away.  This week I have mostly been working towards starting the 2011 Birthday card collections, and I am pleased with the results Both col.  The cupcake cards are simple and cute, with the colour coming from the ribbon, and the key lime pie collection gets lots of bright colours to bring us a step closer to spring.  Both collections have been designed with affordability in mind, and have a totally different feel to each set.  You can find the collections ready to order on the website here.  

The 'Simply cupcakes' collection was made using white card stock with matching envelopes, white textured card, black line pen to draw faux stitching, cupcake stamps and sentiments from Inkadinkado 'birthday cupcake' stamp set, Versa Magic chalk ink in midnight black, and jumbo java, and polka dot grosgrain ribbons.

The 'Key lime pie' collection uses papers from the Dovecraft designer paper pack- Wild Blossom, and uses satin ribbon, diamante embellishments and birthday wishes printed on white card stock.

If you would like to place an order, you can do so here

Have a good week everyone, and I will see you again on Monday,

Love Shelly X

Happy new year!

Happy new year!

2011 has arrived, and already the year has begun at one hundred miles an hour.  Christmas saw me enjoying time with family, and tucked up with the flu in equal measure!  January has brought with it a new attitude to diet and exercise (I am adamant that this will continue .... but it is only January the 10th, so i will reserve a formal statement on that!), rain and a bitter cold wind, and a more structured attitude to work.  

Long may it continue!!

This week I have been working on a custom wedding card for a customer who has a passion for nature, she loves natural fibres, buttons and brown paper, and I wanted to reflect this in the card I made for her .....

 

The card uses a card blank of white card stock measuring 5x5 inches, East of India ribbon, Sizzix ornate label #3 die and quickutz love bird die.   I finished it off with blue wording- 'With Love on your wedding day' and faux stitching.  Its a bit of a theme with my latest work!

Also this week I have begun work on the cupcake heaven range, which will be available to order from my website in the near future.  

 

 

 

The sweet birthday wishes card uses October Afternoon's egg basket paper, and stamps that have been embellished with half ivory beads, glitter and green pen, and inch thick white organza ribbon.  I LOVE this card!  

 

Another possible card for the line is this cute and simple trio of stamped cupcakes, with red gingham ribbon and again, faux stitching, with the wording 'Have a break, have a cupcake'.

Cupcakes are some of my favourite things!  And I'm enjoying working with the designs, and finding a style for the range.  I'd be interested to hear your feedback on the designs you like best!

Thanks for stopping by, have a lovely week. 

Until next time

Bye X

Merry Christmas one and all ....

With New Years Eve fast approaching, I thought I would take a moment to wish you all a happy new year and best wishes for 2011.  The week leading up to Christmas saw all Evelyn Mae's custom orders finished, and gave me a week to make all my family Christmas gifts.  It was a lovely week, really feeling festive, and spending my time on creating presents for those I love.

The week before Christmas also gave me time to make a Christmas card for my husband, for our first Christmas together.  I used classic green and red in Victorian hues, and embellished with recycled buttons,  with ribbons and gemstones.  Inside was made with pockets so that I could put tags in, and a recipe card for a first Christmas.

All the elements were distressed with Tim Holtz and ink it up inks in greens and browns, and assembled using double sided tape, and pva glue.

I hope that you all have a wonderful rest of Christmas, and  a merry new year, and I'll catch up with you again in 2011.

Love Shelly X

Christmas cheer

Christmas is arriving at last, and all around us is snow!  On a journey from Bristol to Margate this week, not a field nor a road had been left untouched by the fluffy white stuff.  It made for a nightmare journey, but it was a truly beautiful sight.  

I am sat wrapped in a fleecy blanket in my living room, with my Victorian tree adorned with miniature knitted stockings, and delicate fairy lights are all around the house, snow floating down outside, and so, all cosy and tucked up, I thought that I would share with you my makings for last week.

It was one of my favourite friends birthday, and being so close to Christmas I wanted to make a gift that was fitting for a winter birthday, but that was bright and cheerful, and void of any red and gold!!

I chose to make sweet apple vodka, and sweet apple vodka biscuits, and make matching tags from October Afternoon's papers. I love how the aqua marine and apple green colours compliment each other, and even with aqua ribbon, the gift was still manly enough to give to my friend!!

I hope you like them ....

I hope that you all have a great time in the rest of advent, and i look forward to sharing with you some more creations soon

Shelly X

workshops and thank yous

After what seems like moving in to the house for a second time over, the workshop is now complete.  Yes, the furniture doesn’t all match, and yes, I still have boxes overflowing with crafty stash, but it is functional, holds all my tools and embellishments, papers and glitter, and keeps the mess contained in one room in the house.... except of course when I leave a trail of foam pad paper leading form the workshop to the kitchen (and mostly to the fridge!)  … It is not my fault they stick to my slippers!

This week has also seen me take a trip to see Oliver in the west end, and to say thank you I wanted to send my friend a card. I used Imaginisce paper, and because it was double sided paper it was easy to create the shape with patterns either side.  The embellishments we buttons and ribbon, and a little box to package it in.  It was brilliant to be creative, and to work in the new workshop, and not get in a pickle!! 

I’ll leave you with the pictures …. Enjoy!

All go in the workshop this week ...

It is all go in the workshop this week.  I am halfway through moving the old single guest bed out, and a delivery from the lovely people at Ikea arriving tomorrow, with a lot of drawers ready for my craft stash to live!!  I am in desperate need of worktop space as well, so a redesign of the workshop was necessary .....

I thought for this Monday's blog I would share with you how the workshop looks thus far ...

Quite a big job!!!  Either out of kindness, or fear that I might destroy the house whilst making the units, Marc my lovely husband has offered to help assemble the furniture tomorrow, and so begins the transformation!!!

I'll leave you with some images of some really cute cards that I have been designing for the Christmas 2011 collection, they are inspired by traditional colours from a Victorian Christmas, used in a more contemporary fashion.  I hope you like them!

Have  a really nice day, and I will catch up with you in a few days with an update on the craft workshop!!

Shelly  X