Merry Christmas

If my plans have worked then this post should be up on Christmas day (and not before).

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my readers a wonderful, happy and healthy Christmas, and I hope you are fortunate enough to have friends and family around you to celebrate with. If however you do not celebrate Christmas then I hope you still have the chance to be surrounded by people you care about and I wish you happy holidays.
Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog, please call back again soon, maybe next time you will leave me a comment so I know you have been. Take care Dawn x

3D Christmas

We made one of these stylish crackers at our 3D Christmas workshop along with a gift bag.

Firstly we wiped our cracker shape with an anti-static bag and inked up serene snowflakes with versamark ink, randomly stamping over the whole design, we then embossed this with white embossing powder.
Using black ink we stamped a snowflake onto whisper white card and punched with a circle punch. We punched a black scallop circle and covered this with versamark ink and added heat and stick powder, we sprinkled dazzling diamond glitter over the top and briefly heated again, making a very bling scallop circle to layer our snowflake on to. We stamped, also with black ink, two tiny tags with a choice of words, mine say "merry" and "handcrafted" and punched these using the tiny tag punch.
We assembled our cracker tying the ends with ribbon and bakers twine for texture. We added the scallop circle with foam pads and the tiny tags with more bakers twine to bring the whole design together.

What do you think...? I think they are very stylish and with the black and white theme they go with everyone's colour scheme.
Thank you for visiting, until next time, Happy crafting Dawn x

Welcome Christmas

Here are three cards I made using the Welcome Christmas stamp set available from Stampin' Up!

The snowflake stamp is from my favourite set Serene Snowflakes.

The last card was one we made during our Christmas workshop. Please email me if you would like details of my planned workshops for 2012.
Thank you for visiting, until next time Happy crafting Dawn x

Christmas or not?

As you may of guessed I do love my house mouse designs and well this stamp is actually more birthday, as originally the mouse had a birthday candle balancing on his nose and naturally in my head he had a snowflake, I think it works....?

Thank you for visiting, Merry Christmas and Happy crafting Dawn x

Christmas Tags

Here are some of the tags I have made for Christmas this year.

I used a Tim Holtz die to cut the snowman shape and then cut the word wish, using another die. I inked around the snowman shape with a light blue ink, you can't really see that in the photo. I coloured the nose carrot orange and the hat black, I then glittered the hat with black glitter. I stamped the merry and punched out with a tiny tag punch, both from Stampin' Up! I added a small bell around its neck for the final touch.

                     I made a simple gift box with a window to keep them safe until I need them...

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog, until next time, Happy crafting Dawn x

Thank you gift bags

Here is what my regular ladies had as their Christmas present from me...

...obviously I can't tell you what was inside yet as they should be under their Christmas trees!
The gift box was cut from cherry cobbler card and stamped with matching ink using my favourite stamp set serene snowflakes. I cut the snowflake border from whisper white card and stuck around the bottom edge and the tag was cut also from whisper white, using a cuttlebug die, saying simply "thanks"
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for supporting me during the year as without you I simply couldn't do it! I have made some wonderful new friends while sharing my passion for all things crafty, Thank you and Merry Christmas.
Happy crafting Dawn x

Chocolate decorations...

Here is my daughter's first attempt at hand made Christmas chocolate decorations, all on her own.

She decided to mix white and milk chocolate. She loves baking and now she's getting older I let her go for it!

The idea was these were going to be a present but, yes you guessed it they were eaten before I could even think about the packaging, in fact I only just got this photograph, the next batch didn't get that far!!!

Dawn x

Happy Birthday Danielle

Well today is my daughter's 16th birthday, and where has the time gone? 

Like myself she adores gorjuss girls, so a card for her had to have one, and here it is...

The card base is elegant eggplant, layered with perfect plum, then perfect plum designer paper and pieces of perfect plum embossed for texture. The numbers were blank stamps and I stamped the design over the top. The main image was stamped with momento and coloured with promarkers, I am really happy with how this turned out, I have been practising colouring with promarkers to get this kind of blended effect.
Danielle loved it, she knew I would of made it but thought the image was printed so that is a real compliment for me.
Anyway, happy birthday my special young lady, Mum x

For everyone else, thank you for visiting, feel free to leave a comment, until next time, Happy crafting Dawn x

Christmas cards...

Got to play with house mouse stamps over Christmas too...?

I really like this image as it doesn't have to be Christmas. A simple card but cute?
Happy crafting Dawn x

Advent calendar

  

Last week was half term in our area so I had some crafting time, yeah!!!

I had seen these gorgeous advent calendars in magazines and on various websites and loved the idea but not decorated to my style, when I see things I often know what I want it to look like at the end, so I bought a kit and spent many lovely hours playing with inks, papers and stamps and enjoyed every minute.

This is what my hard work looks like, although I think it looks better in the flesh as it were...

       I went for a chocolate and cream theme, adding a cool blue and cheerful red for good measure...
                                                 Here is a close up of the snowman, cute huh?

                                                         ...and the lovely playful reindeer

                                               ...it had to have a gorgeous girl on it, didn't it?

                             and lastly a close up of the die cut numbers, with glossy accents.

As you can see I used a mix of products, Stampin' Up! papers, inks and dies, gorgeous girl and hero art stamps. I am really pleased with the over all effect and when each drawer contains a treasure I'm sure my children will appreciate it even more! Please leave a comment to let me know what you think.
Until next time, Happy Crafting Dawn x

Catty launch

Well, last Saturday saw my launch party for Stampin' Up! showing some of the brand new products available, hot chocolate, cupcakes and lots of fun!

Thank you to everyone who came and made the launch so very special, I couldn't do it without you!!!

Here is a look at my display table...

             ...and here is the fab prize I had up for grabs, yes it's an exclusive Stampin' Up! big shot...

                    ...here is the wreath that I had made and had lots of compliments about, thank you

                                                           ...another look at the table...

                        ...a close up of some of the gorgeous papers and yes these are my favourite...
                                                          ...they are called paisley petals...

                                      ...wouldn't these make fab male cards/scrapbook pages?
                slightly out of my comfort zone with these colours but I love the combination, I'm looking forward to playing with them...
                                                 ...these papers are called Frightful Sight....

         ...another pretty set of papers, these are called Beyond the Garden, I love how bold they are...

I ran the raffle throughout the morning and just before everyone left one of my ladies drew the winning ticket, and the winner was......

                                 ...Lesley

Well done to you, I hope you enjoy playing with your new toy.
Once again, thank you to everyone who came, I really mean it when I say I couldn't do it without your support, both on a personal level and as your craft demo. Thank you! Until next time Happy Crafting Dawn x

New Catalogue!

The wait for the new Stampin' Up! catalogue is over. Click on the picture at the top right and it will take you to an on-line version of the fantastic new catalogue!

I am having a launch party on Saturday 15th October, if you would like to come along and see lots of the new products, have your own copy of the catalogue, enjoy home-made cupcakes and hot chocolate and generally have fun with like minded people either call, text (07779071588) or email me for further details and be in with a chance to win a fantastic prize on the day (dawnstrickland20@sky.com) I am in the Taunton area, I look forward to seeing you.


Until next time, Happy crafting Dawn x

Christmas workshop 2

I have been a busy person this week, as well as working, Wednesday was my second Christmas workshop, we made the same cards as last Saturday so I didn't take photo's of them, thank you ladies, it was an enjoyable evening.

Thursday evening was my craft sale, where I had sooo many things to say goodbye to there wasn't enough room on the table, everything was stacked up, sorry ladies, I will have to re-think how I do that in the future, but, the good news is that you had some great bargains. I still have lots more to sell to make space for my ever growing wish list from the new Stampin' Up! catalogue which launches on 1st October.

If you would like to join me for my Stampin' Up! launch party on Saturday 15th October 10am, please contact me for more details, I have an amazing prize lined up for the raffle! Tickets are only £3 this includes your raffle ticket, hot drinks and homemade cupcakes, mmm yum! This will be held in Taunton, Somerset, the good news if you're not available on the day, is that you can still have a raffle ticket and get in with a chance of winning the prize. New catalogues available on the day, special offers from me and a chance to see some of the new products, I can't wait.

Anyway that's all for now, until next time Happy Crafting Dawn x

Christmas workshop 1

Good morning, well today is my 100th post for this year and firstly I want to say I'm thinking of all the families affected by the 9/11 disaster 10 years ago, watching all the footage on the television brings it all back, no doubt its always on their minds.

  

I'm going to show you photo's of one of my Christmas workshops. This took place yesterday,

here we are crafting away...

                                         

This is one of the cards we made, I'm sorry I can't remember who's card I photographed, we made two of this design.

These photo's show the second card we made but I didn't take a photo of the finished card, oops!

I would like to say a big Thank you to all my ladies who joined me on Saturday for my first Christmas workshop this year, I had a great time.
I have my second Christmas workshop on Wednesday 14th September in the evening, I'm looking forward to this one too.
If anyone is in the Taunton area and interested I am having a craft sale on Thursday 15th September from 7pm, where I will be parting with lots of my loved crafting stash in order to make room for all the wonderful new items that are coming in the new Stampin' Up! catalogue that will be released to the public on 1st October, ring or text me on 07779071588 after 4pm for more details.

Finally I would like to say Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband who 18 years ago today made me the happiest woman alive and whom I love more now than ever!!! (I know sounds mushy, doesn't it)

Anyway that's all for now until next time Happy crafting Dawn x

Sshh! Christmas is coming!

I said that I was working on something for Christmas and well, here it is...

my Christmas wreath, made with cherry cobbler poinsettia, die cut leaves in various colours and stamped leaves using a stamp from my autumn splendor stamp set (and yes I hand cut every single leaf myself).

Here is a closer look....

and a really close look at the poinsettia...

I started with a 12 x 12 piece of thick card, I used the packaging from my dsp stack and cut a large circle, I then cut a smaller circle from the centre to leave me with a ring doughnut effect, I coloured this with black ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder and added glitter to show little peeps of sparkle!

Using my little leaves die from Stampin' Up! I cut out several leaves in different colours, chocolate chip, crumb cake, soft suede, always artichoke and certainly celery.

I stamped my leaf from the autumn splendor stamp set on to daffodil delight, old olive and tempting turquoise designer series paper and hand cut them out, approx. 60 in total.

I cut my poinsettia using the build a blossom punch, from cherry cobbler card, each flower had 10 medium size petals and 10 small petals. I cut a small circle and stuck on five medium petals, then stuck the other five in between the first layer, I then added five of the smaller petals spaced evenly and added the final five petals to the top again spaced between the layer below. I added chunky glass glitter to the centres.

I then assembled my die cuts, hand cut leaves and finally my poinsettia's on the top in an evenly spaced way. I'm really pleased with the final project and think it will look lovely fixed to my door at Christmas!

Please leave me a comment if you like it too.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow as its my Christmas crafting event, I hope to take some photo's and post them soon. Thank you for visiting me, until next time, Happy crafting Dawn x

Lots of Thank you's

I have been busy making "things" for Christmas, I'm not going to post them yet so here is a set of quick cards I made recently instead.

I had rather a lot of Thank you cards to make and here they are.

I used the very versatile owl punch from Stampin' Up! and had owls in "every" colour.

A very simple card and yet effective!

                                   Thank you for visiting, until next time Happy Crafting Dawn x

Happy birthday...

Today is Lauren's 12th birthday and this is the card I made for her.

I used a new gorjuss girl stamp called "Ruby" and coloured in with promarkers, I love the effect.

I cut the image by hand and layered onto basic grey card, also cutting around by hand and mounting with foam onto a basic black card blank. Button brads and ribbon were added for interest and glaze on her shoes to finish the look.

Happy birthday Lauren, I hope you have a special day!

A simple and cute card I think.
Thank you for visiting, until next time, Happy Crafting Dawn x

"Gorjuss" little girl

Here is the card I made for a lovely little girl, for her 7th birthday. 

I used a gorjuss girl stamp and coloured with promarkers, some simple matting and layering, a ribbon tie (which opens a small card on the front) and a few gems, simple but cute.

                                                            Here is a close up of the girl

That's all for now, until next time Happy Crafting, Dawn x

Daisy workshop

Wow, we had a great afternoon and I remembered the camera so that's a bonus.

We made a gift bag, daisy on a stem and matching card.

Here is everyone holding their daisy on a stem...

Chris...

                                                                ...Coll...

                                                                ...Ali...

                                                            ...Sandra...

     
                                                      ...camera shy Marg...

                                                          ...and Lesley

Thank you ladies, I had a wonderful time and we all loved the daisies.
Thank you for visiting, if you like what you see and would like to craft along with us and live in the Taunton area either email me dawnstrickland20@sky.com or phone/text me on 07779071588 for more details.
Until next time Happy crafting, Dawn x

Daisy instructions

Here are my instructions to make a daisy using the sizzix flower, daisies #2 die available from Stampin' Up!

Firstly cut two white large, two medium daisy shapes and two small daisies in the colour of your choice, I have used rose red.

Next join the two large white daisies together, off setting the petals, do the same with the white medium daisy shapes and the small daisy shapes, like this.

                       Next stick your medium white daisies on to your large white daisies, like this.

 Cut two 1/2 inch circles using the same colour as the small daisies, and stick one under your small daisies. (This gives you somewhere to attach your foam pads to later)                                                                               Using an embossing tool, shape the second circle, as shown here.

Next layer two foam pads on top of each other and use them to stick the domed circle on to your coloured daisy centre. I have used a bone folder to shape the daisy petals, the white petals backwards and the small coloured petals forward.

                                           Glue your daisy centre on to the medium white daisy.
                                         (If you want, you can add glitter to the centre or a glaze)
                                                       And there your daisy is complete!

You can make daisies in any colour you like, here I have, top left melon mambo, top right rose red and bottom row pink pirouette.

I hope you like these daisies, I think they are gorgeous and easy to make. Thank you for visiting Dawn x