Yet Another Card Blog

WOYWW

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:54:00 +0000

Oh my goodness me – I haven’t blogged for ages, but I wont go into paroxysms of shame and agony cos I know that I will do it again!! ha ha! Anyway, this week’s WOYWW reveals that I have made some monogram paperclip – I love these because they are simple and easy and look great!

The only thing was….I bought the alphabet stamps a while ago and had just never got round to using them…so…I was a bit surprised to see that they were outlines of letters rather than blocked in letters – oh well, that will teach me to read what it actually says on the label rather than chucking things in the basket because they’re on sale!!! (at least I can colour them in if I want to!)

Don’t forget – more desks over at the Stamping Ground.

Inspiration

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 22:13:00 +0000

I was well overdue for a rummage around blogland, in fact my blog reader was screaming at me to go through the thousands of posts that were patiently waiting to be read!
Of course…I found inspiration…firstly on My Stamping Addiction which gave me the idea for my nephew Tom’s birthday card….

And then on Clean and Simple for a birthday card for my future sister-in-law….

What surprised me most was that I whipped these two up in less than an hour – I was obviously in need of some creative time, even if I used someone else’s card to start me off!

Another WOYWW

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:28:00 +0000

…and this time I am actually making something – much to my surprise! I am very very overdue with regards a couple of pay-it-forwards due to my agonising over what to make and so I thought that I had better get on with it…..Hayley is sure to recognise this particular project!

I am making a notecard set complete with matching folder and I hope that my recipients will enjoy it!

The soap in the middle of the desk is not in case of ink spillage emergencies, but it is left over from the girls weekend just gone as I gave each of my visitors a bar of this soap, but made it special by using crafty bits to cover it up (again – a la Hayley!! Thanks Hayley – your craft sessions are really paying off!!) This is what the soap bars looked like….

Anyhoo, don’t forget to go and visit the other desks – you know the ones – the ones that are rather more productive than mine!!

A tidy WOYWW!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:55:00 +0000

Yes, it’s Wednesday again so it must be time to show you all my desk!! Well, after last week’s horror I was determined to show you a rather more tidy desk this time around, in addition to which I have lots of incentive cos I have to clear the room sufficiently so that the fold up bed can actually be unfolded as the girls from the family are gathering for a spa weekend!!

As you can see – a relatively tidy desk that shows you that I was inspired by one of the other WOYWWers last week and remembered that I had some freestanding box shelves up in the attic so I fetched that down as soon as possible and filled ‘em up! I also (FINALLY) got my hands on of those massive tape dispenser thingies (thanks to Kaz I got this cheaper than usual as she alerted me to the fact the website was having a sale!

Anyway…..if I swing the camera around behind me you can see the rather humungous shelving system that my Dad built for me (thanks Dad!) While it was originally intended for books (my first love I have to admit) as you can see from the original photo over here on my other blog – it is gradually being taken over by my craft stuff. (ha ha – I have just reread that original post and I am quite shocked at how bare and empty my desk is – what did I do before I began crafting!!!!)

It is a bit annoying to have to keep getting up from my desk if I need a stamp, but then I do the same when I go over to the filing cabinet for paper, or the paper cutter on top of said filing cabinet, or perhaps I have to stand to use my BigShot, so I am not actually sitting down ALL the time. Are you guys the same – do you find that you keep popping up and down to cut, emboss, etc etc?

Ooh by the way, don’t forget that you can see all shapes and sizes of desks over at the Stamping Ground – do join us – there are more and more desks to peer at every week!

Happy!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:32:00 +0000

This sweet blog award was given to me by Hayley of All Things Pink and Fluffy – thank you! Now…what I have to do is list ten things that make me happy and then find five bloggers to pass this award on to!

So, in no particular order what makes me happy is….

**My family
**Chocolate
**A gorgeous sunset
**Reading
**Snuggling with my Phoebe cat
**Christmas
**Fireworks
**My Nana’s ring sparkling on my finger
**A clear blue sky on a summer’s day
**Catching up with everybody on Facebook, twitter, google feedreader – everything!

Of course, I could keep going, but I only need list ten!!

And now I need to find five lovely bloggers to pass this on to and so I elect to pass it on to some of my fabulous followers who have managed to put up with me not blogging a great deal lately!! (sorry – who knew that having followers would add to the pressure to blog! ;-) ) And they are…

Wipso at A Stitch in Time
KylieK at Kylie’s Kraft Room
Debbie at Little Dot of Creativity
Heike at My Creative Place
Michelle at Crafting and Living in Japan

WOYWW

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:29:00 +0000

It's no wonder I haven't made anything lately!! Look at the state of my desk!!! What you can see is that I've partially emptied my ribbon drawers in order to put some ribbon into a repurposed sweetie jar - perhaps I will use more ribbon because I can actually see what I've got!!

You can also see three tins of stickers and rubber stamps that I bought last week from this rather fabulous stationery shop in Oxford.

Don't forget to visit other WOYWW desks over at the stamping ground!!!

- Posted from my iPhone - please 'scuse mistakes!!

Winnah!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:31:00 +0000

Well, thank you to all you fabulous people that entered my blog candy. Unfortunately there can only be one winner, and I am just about to email the winning person to let them know that they have won!!

And so.....drum-roll please, the winnah of this mah-vellous blog candy iiiiissssss.....

Go Canucks Go!!

What a fabulous bloggy name!! Go Canucks Go has a little blog called Crafty Creations - do go and visit!

Get in touch with me so that I can send you your candy!!

My very own Candy!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:35:00 +0000

*****Sticky post*****

Do scroll down for more!

I have been a bad blogger lately – I get these spells of not blogging at all and then I feel all guilty!! But never mind because I intend to get back to blogging and I am getting back in the best possible way, yes, that’s right, with my very own Candy!!

I have seen so much Candy out there offered by so many beautiful bloggers and I have been fortunate enough to win some of it and so it is now my turn to spread the cheer! I was going to wait until I had hit a particular milestone before offering my Candy, but then I thought “no, I can’t wait, cos otherwise I will be waiting forever”.

Anyway, if you would like to receive these lovely goodies all packaged up for you, just leave me a comment (ensuring I can contact you later if you win) and please spread the word!

Incidentally those Label Two Nesties were actually sent to me as part of a recent Spellbinders giveaway, but I’ve already got them so I am passing on the prize!!

The deadline is the 31st January (to be drawn 1st February) and if I find anything else I fancy, I might just chuck it in the box!! ;-) By the way - I am happy to post this parcel anywhere - so whereever you are, you might get a parcel!

Fun evening!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:15:00 +0000

Hayley (local Stampin’ Up gal!) put on a free card making evening to try and encourage people to find out a bit more about SU. It was a packed hall with twenty people all wanting to make a few cards and meet like minded people.

I brought along a friend of mine and we had a good laugh making the cards in the photograph. I think that my favourite is the pink cups card, but I also like the easel card with the house set, and then the blue birthday card would be great for a birthday boy and of course, the green and brown circles card is just funky!! heck – I like ‘em all!! ;-)

We were also given two lovely little freebies – a covered notebook and a wrapped bar of chocolate – now, of course the chocolate is a yummy treat (thanks Hayley!!) but I am more curious as to how it works!! But do I dare take it apart to see how it works!!? Particularly as when you push the chocolate back down, the ribbon goes back down as well!! There are some very clever people out there indeed!

In any case, I met up with some newly made craft friends, and made a few more tonight. Don’t believe anyone that says that crafting is a lonely hobby – it really isn’t!!

P.S. Don’t forget to enter my blog candy – you have until the 31st January!! And if you are really interested – have a look at my personal blog where you can find out about One World One Heart – a massive get-together of blogs all over the world – each us giving away a little something or two!!

My first WOYWW of the year!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:20:00 +0000

At least I think that it is my first WOYWW of the year!! I would have to check my archives to see if I did any after Christmas, but I get the strong feeling that I didn’t! (go see more desks over at the Stamping Ground!)

Anyway, the above picture shows the glory of my desk in it’s present state and it is, unfortunately, quite uninspirational! In fact, aside from Craft Club on Monday I have not, repeat not, made any cards since before Christmas!!

Whoops – I really must clear that desk and get going. I did spend some money in the sales after all, so I do have goodies to play with. I just don’t to be able to find the time!!! I mean, if you take this week along, I have been at university these last three days which is intense enough, but then Monday evening I was at Craft Club, Tuesday evening I was at a Pampered Chef party (spent more money there too!) and tonight I was watching the ballet (Sleeping Beauty) with some friends. So I think that I might just be excused for not having made anything lately – this weekend is quite free, as is Friday evening, so I think that I am just going to have to sit down at this desk and get the mojo going!!

P.S. I have some Bloggy Candy to give away to one lucky person, so do have a look at this post!!

One World One Heart

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 19:51:00 +0000

This is just a quick little post to say that I have posted about OWOH (aka One World One Heart) over at my other blog and as you are all crafty people I thought that you might just be interested!

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:35:00 +0000

Now that the majority of the Christmas festivities are over, perhaps I will get back to something approaching bloggy normality!!

I am not often commissioned (in fact never I think!) to make cards for people so it wasn’t a good idea to forget that Dad had asked me to make some cards for his “hire a chauffeur” business!! What he wanted was some cards (about 18 of them) that said Happy New Year so that he could send them to his main clients offering a 20% discount if they referred people to him.

Anyway, what with one thing and another I did indeed completely forget that Dad had asked me to do this – fortunately it was Dad and not a serious potential client!! Dad was quite understanding and said that I didn’t have to do it, but of course, I HAD to!!

A quick rummage around the SCS website and I found this fabulous card that I just knew I could make my own. Although there are only three cards in the photo below (with apologies for the quality of the iphone photo!) I did make five each of the designs seen below and five more of one similar to the middle card but with a plain gold background.

I thought that I had taken another photo showing all twenty cards, but I can’t seem to find that one now! In any case, I was very pleased with the way that these cards had turned out – just how Dad wanted – elegant and classy with no frills and furbelows!! ;-) For your information, I used the largest of the Labels One in the Nestabilities set and either left the light brown sections unembossed or used the swiss dots or the d’vine swirls embossing folders from Cuttlebug to make pretty patterns! A fine black pen was used to make sewing “marks” around the edges of the die cuts and then black ribbon that’s almost see through (I KNOW there’s a name for it but I cannot remember it right now – do enlighten me!!) was pinned to the card using black eyelets before the whole thing was finished of using peel-off Happy New Year stickers.

While I am very happy with the whole thing I think that I will never again attempt to mass produce (ok even if it is in small numbers!) cards in one day again!!! But then again that’s all my own fault for forgetting that Dad had asked me!!)

It’s that time again…

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:00:00 +0000

…no not Christmas, but WOYWW!! Head over to the Stamping Ground to see more creative desks this Wednesday! My desk looks like this today…

Quite unusually there is chocolate on my desk, okay, okay, so it is not so unusual for me to have chocolate in the house, but I rarely have it on my desk cos I just KNOW that I will get some chocolate on a card that is just about finished!!

Anyway – there is chocolate on my desk because I am making little gifts for people! If you look to the right of the big yellow punch you can see a bag that I received on Monday (you may need to click to embiggen!) from the lovely Hayley at Craft Club – which is another post in itself – will get round to that eventually I hope!!

I thought that this was a lovely idea, so I am now in the process (factory style!) of making my own little bags of peppermint tree decorations for people to enjoy (you can see them just above the scissors next to the stack of ribbons)! They look like this….

And I am so pleased with how they’ve turned out!!

Wine Bottle Tag

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 22:16:00 +0000

I came across this rather lovely little tag for a wine bottle on Rose’s blog - “Rose’s World” and I just knew that I would need to make my own bottle tag sooner or later!

Mine is not as fancy as Rose’s, but then I made in about ten minutes flat!! (if that – I was running late for the party on Friday!!)

It just goes to show that even I can whip up something when time is short!! If you go and look at the tag Rose made, you will see that she gave the punched hole a bit of a collar – that looks lovely and I must try that next time!

Whoops….it’s Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:41:00 +0000

And that means it’s WOYWW!! I am rather late to this today but that cos I have a perfectly valid excuse (of course!) as I have been creating cards for tomorrows craft fair at work!!

This evening I have been making cards other than Christmas ones as I got asked last year whether I had non-Christmas cards, so I thought that it would be good to have a small stash of cards completely unrelated to Christmas. (unless you count the thank you cards I suppose….for after Christmas – ha ha!)

Anyway…..I think that I have said before that my desk was rather untidy (when it probably wasn’t all that bad), well I think that today takes the cake! I have a little green mat where I am doing all the work and the mess just piles up at the side…well…see for yourself!

And the floor is slightly better – I want to show you – if only to show you where the cat is sleeping! (keeping me company – at least she’s not trying to jump on the desk like she was the other day.)

I have been slow in blogging this week, so I am hoping that once the craft fair is over and the pressure is off a bit I will blog rather more! Don’t forget that you can see more creative desks over at the Stamping Ground!

WOYWW

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:48:00 +0000

Today’s WOYWW is a special one for me cos I have cleared my desk specifically to show you what I did on Sunday. You see, I went all the way to a little place called Tidworth in order to take part in a Christmas Card Marathon as hosted by the Two Scrap Ladies (and two nicer ladies you couldn’t wish to meet!)

These photographs manage to show all the cards that I made. Unfortunately I did not get round to making all 24 as I just ran out of time!

But I did learn a few new things, met some great people, got stuffed with good food – including some utterly delicious bite-sized brownies with buttercream icing and pieces of chocolate on top – utterly yummy!

I don’t think that I could pick out a favourite amongst these great cards, but I do like the wooden reindeer one, the two-candles one, the tree one in the bottom right hand corner and the very simple mistletoe on vellum. (Heck I might as well name them all as favourites!!)

In any case, I want to say a huge thank you to Julia and Ally for organising such a great day! (by the way there is a picture of the event on the Two Scrap Ladies blog – you can just about make me out in the purple rollneck at the top of the table on the other side of the table just by the window – did that make any sense – ha ha!!)

SantaThing!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:58:00 +0000

I have been a LibraryThing member for ages. If you don't know what LibraryThing is, it's a place where you can catalogue your personal book collection and see what other people have (appeals to the nosy in me as well as the librarian!)

Two years ago the fabulous LibraryThing people started SantaThing and I joined in the first time around and got an intriguing book. The second time around I was a bit nervous of what I might get that time because I wasn't all that keen on the book that I had (which was The Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin - a distinctly acquired taste I think!) even though it was quite interesting and I did enjoy it, but I would not choose to read it again if that makes any sense at all. This year, I thought that I would get stuck in even though I am bit late to the party!!

So late in fact that the deadline for SantaThing is today at 4pm EST which actually means 9pm my time, so if you are British you have plenty of time to go and put your name down for SantaThing!! Simply put, you need to be a member of LibraryThing which is free up to a certain point and then you need to plunk down $25 (£15) to put your name in the hat and then once the names have been distributed (no addresses given out) you can have fun choosing the right book for this other person that you are likely to never ever meet!! And of course you get to have fun opening a suprise parcel - only a surprise in that you won't know what the book is!!

You know you want to do it!! ;-)

oooh the excitment!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:37:00 +0000

It is not everyday that a crafting girl gets this message in her email box....

"Congratulations Samantha! You have been randomly selected as a winner in the Spellbinders® Black Friday Giveaway!"

You really could have knocked me over with a feather! I am sure that many of you already know that Spellbinders are having a giveaway on their blog today. They are offering one of three sets of four Nesties to several lucky people. You need to go and see their blog and put your name down for your chance and believe it or not you still have two more chances as they are doing timed giveaways - go and see for yourself.

I do wonder which set of Nesties will turn up on my doorstep! It could be any one of the following: the four octagons, the four flowers, or four labels - I will be sure to let you know which set arrives!

Penny Black Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:26:00 +0000

As usual with all the challenges I go for I am a bit late for this one!! Nevertheless I love the PB stuff and this week there is a rather yummy blog hop going on that everybody should get involved with!
This is my card – the image is (of course) a Penny Black hedgehog! As you can see I have been having fun with a new snowflake punch that I bought the other day as well as adding white brads that I bought although I think that they may be a little bit too big for this particular card.

Mind you, before I put the brads on, I had taken the photograph below because I thought that I was finished.

I thought that it was finished, but as soon as I saw the photograph I knew that it was missing something – so I added the six white brads – but like I said, they could be a bit smaller. It’s funny though – for someone who hardly used embellishments at first, I really am using them all the time now – ribbons, brads, punched images, flowers, and that thing that I can NEVER remember the name of……eyelets!!

You have one more day to get involved with this particular Penny Black Challenge – so pull out those stamps and get going!!

It’s another WOYWW

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:55:00 +0000

Wednesdays seem to come around pretty fast at the moment!! (only four more Wednesdays until Christmas - oh my!)

So, if you have a workdesk and want to show it off in all it’s glory then just pop over to the Stamping Ground and add your desk to the rest of them!

I would say that this desk is fairly ordinary – full of ribbons, punches and stamps! You can see that I have been working on three cards – these are fairly special cards because I have sent someone three card kits that make those three cards (as part of a bloggy exchange where we fill a box with five things that relax us!). I am assuming that this other blogger has not made cards before, so I am making these cards for when she emails me to say “what do I do!?” (Now I just have to remember not to add these cards to the craft fair that I am attending in a few weeks!)

You see those two edge punches in the photo? One from SU and one from Martha Stewart – I have been having fun with those because before they arrived I’d never used edge punches – they are fun!! If I am not careful I may end up with a bigger collection of edge punches than I can actually afford!

Copying!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:11:00 +0000

I seem to be copying a few cards lately! I do hope that people don’t mind – or perhaps that is why they post their cards online – so that uninspired people like me can share in some of that inspiration!!

Anyway, this card I found on Just4Fun2 and I really liked the simplicity of it and so I shamelessly stole it!! Of course, it goes without saying that if anyone copies any card found online they should not submit the card for competitions or challenges – this is the standard text found on many card blogs and I wholeheartedly agree.

My card….

And one done with purple ribbon, although I think that it doesn’t have quite the same zing as the one above!

Many thanks to Pat who had the idea in the first place! ;-)

Christmas is getting closer

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:34:00 +0000

Christmas is most definitely on it’s way!! I have had one friend ask how many work days it is until Christmas, and another friend threaten to put her Tree up already!!

Of course, there are never quite enough days left for those that like to make handmade gifts or cards! I made this card today….

You can’t quite see the snowflake embossing on the white base card – how on earth do I take a photo of that – at an angle perhaps? I quite like this card and it is relatively easy to make so I could easily whip up a batch in an evening.

Clean and Simple

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:52:00 +0000

I love the clean and simple cards – they always look good and if you’re clever there is minimal work involved!! ha ha.

I spotted a lovely card over at My Stamping Addiction and so I asked if I could copy it. This is my attempt – for some reason it doesn’t have quite the same elegance as the lovely card that I saw, but I could improve on it!

For instance, I could probably use something other than sequins for the centre of the flowers, but it was all I could find that was remotely suitable in my craft box. I also think that my sentiment is both too long and too far down – but hey, this kind of craft means that you can always try, try and try again!

WOYWW

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:40:00 +0000

It’s another Wednesday and unfortunately not a good Wednesday for me as I have been to the dentist today – got a filling done and now the tooth is very painful. But less about me and more about my workdesk!! (for more messy desks go and visit Stamping Ground!)

This is a very honest picture of my desk – no pre-tidying or anything – I simply finished three cards (green stamped holly leaves with red buttons for berries!) and then grabbed my camera! It certainly makes me realise what a clutter I usually end up working in and my actual work space gets smaller and smaller the longer I go before tidying up!!

Anyway, last week a couple of people asked what was in that red basket in the top right hand corner of my desk….this red basket…

Well, it contains various bit and pieces to do with Christmas – you know what I mean – the freebies that we get from magazines…

Or just the off cuts that I think that I might use later (not that I usually do!! ;-) )

By the way – please could you help someone win £10 to spend? It might be me, but I am not going to tell you which picture is mine, as I don’t want to prejudice the vote, so you will make someone’s day if not necessarily mine! Go and visit Something Sweet and vote for your favourite card!

Card Poll

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:30:00 +0000

A few weeks ago my first Stampin' Up order arrived from Emma and inside this order there was a challenge to create a card using a very specific set of items that she had sent along with the order! This was both easier and more difficult to do than expected - easier because I didn't have to choose the right colours, shapes, etc, but more difficult because if I went wrong then I was stuck!!

In any case, the point of this challenge was so that the Stampers Six group could all enter their card using the identical set in order to try and win a free £10 for our next order. So...my card is now on Emma's blog - Something Sweet - please could you go and have a look at the four cards that were submitted and vote on your favourite!!

I will not tell you which one is mine as I don't think that that is very fair as each card should be judged on merit rather that who made it!!! ;-) Please go and vote though cos you'll help make someone's day, if not necessarily mine!!