Hey all,

I will no longer be posting on this blog, I have moved to

http://handmadeonlylondon.blogspot.co.uk/

Kay

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Catch up...

Well this week I did all my paperwork while the kids are on half term driving me barmy!  There was no point trying to make with anything with those lively twosome about!  Yesterday morning was spent trying to recall how to use excel after not using it for over a year!  It was all done in a few hours so a previous office job was good for future challenges!

My last fair I finally had a great looking stand, not just cards in big plastic really useful boxes and it made a huge difference.  People were more into looking through the cards so the stand was a wise investment.

I had a basket of valentines cards, the card stand and some framed pictures I decided to make a few days before the sale! They are going to try an evening fair as well and see how trade is for that before they decide if it will be a regular one.  I'm also waiting to hear back on a sale held in a village hall every month and waiting to confirm dates on a couple more fairs so it's all looking good!

I have started to apply for design team calls for all the companies I love so will let you all know on that one!

And finally the magazine I sent a card into, I made it in print! It meant so much they liked my work, it means I made the right decision to go it alone and make by hobby into my career. Lucky me!  It was Quickcards Made Easy Issue 149.

The original card looked like this, so although I posted in a pizza style box it did get a little squashed in the post!

Now working on Mother's Day and Easter cards so will pop those up next!

Happy Crafting!

Kay

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Valentine's...

Well this week I will become a sole trader and I am making a start on my website! I love being around for my kids as have not been working for the past year but I need something for me but didn't want to be an employee again! I have a shop local to me who are going to stock my valentines cards and I will be making more canvas' and pictures as well as one off cards for sale once the website is up and running which is exciting. 

I have made these with the Craftwork Cards "just a cuppa" range. 

Then I went on to use a Dreamees Paris stamp, a a few sheets of Craftwork Cards Paris paper and a Tim Holtz Paris embossing folder together to create these. The gold is the Pebeo guilding wax which I love!

Then I went to Hobbycraft to look for a happy Valentine's Day stamp but they had nothing! Well I did find some of the new Crafters Companion Valentine range so I got an embossing folder and a 6x6 paper pad and today I made these. I've also used some red, white, pink and black card stock from my stash and some wooden hearts that I normally use on wedding cards. The hearts are cut using spellbinders dies and ribbon is from The Works or Hobbycraft. 

Will post more valentines cards once I've made them!

Happy crafting!

Kay 

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Christmas break...

I actually took a few weeks off! Today I was asked to design a card so thought I had better start sorting out my desk!  It's piled high with really useful boxes on one side and everything else the other side lol. The other side pile is a work in progress! Thought I would share a few of my Christmas card makes that I sent to my friends and family. I chose something completely different to all the cards I had been batch making using a bright bo bunny pad purchased from crafts u love and a paper mania bright card pack from hobbycraft. The reindeer and sleigh dies are spellbinders dies.

I roughed all the edges with a WRMK heart sander with a blade and edged with matching ink pads. My new picked raspberry arrived from the states finally today, only fellow crafters will understand the happiness when it finally turned up after ordering from the states on Christmas Eve!

This is the 1st time I have produced my blog from my mobile so now I can blog on the go I may just be able to keep up with my makes!

Next time a very special birthday card.

Happy crafting!

Kay 

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Man Made...

Finally after being out for delivery since Monday my new kit arrived.  While my son is ill I am quietly making up some cards for a school fair tomorrow!

Craftwork Cards make some great kits and I currently have 2 boxes full of them as I seem to purchase them faster than I can make them! 

I cut down the brick paper to cover half the card, and tore down one edge of the newspaper paper.  I then edged all the papers and card with Tim Holtz distress ink Vintage Photo. I used one of the brick cards that came with the kit and used some basic shape dies to cut some rectangles from the scraps of paper left and mounted the topper that also comes in the kit. I edged the newspaper card candi with the same ink pad and the ribbon and buttons were from Hobbycraft.

I have a project to do for a magazine which is exciting, but it is not out till Feb 16 so will not be able to show it then!

Happy Friday

Kay

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Cupcake's..

I have used this digi stamp called 'Emily Party' before on cards but I just love it!  It's a Polkadoodles image by Nikky Hall and can be obtained here...

http://www.polkadoodles.co.uk/emily-party-digital-stamp-download/

Again I just take the images on the school run and colour while I wait to keep away the boredom! All coloured with Spectrum Noir colour pencils.

The flowers are all by Craftwork Cards, the stamens by Anna Marie Designs and the backing paper I purchased years ago from QVC.  The ribbon and gems are from Hobbycraft and the plain papers are the topsy turvy pack from Create and Craft.

All the flower's on this card are Tattered Flower's big die, the swirl die was free with a magazine years ago and the oval dies are Spellbinders Opulent Oval's.  The happy birthday die is by Crafters Companion and the leaves die used was Spring greenery.  Again I used the topsy turvy papers. I had just received my Spectrum Noir sparkle pens when I had blended this one so I added some glitter!

I'm up to 137 cards for my card fairs and in the middle of making christmas trees which I will post up next!

Kay

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Christmas...

So it's getting near to christmas and thankfully I started making cards a while ago for my stall.  I have 110 cards to take so far but only about 30 are Christmas so later today I will be making more to add to the pile!

Here are the one's I have made so far with the new Crafters Companion range... 

This is the Poinsettia die which after I had completed realised the larger petals were done the wrong way, I had stuck the points in the middle!  I think it still looks great though so left it as it was. The leaves are all part of the same die set.  The Merry Christmas is also from Crafters Companion as it the backing paper. All edged with a Pine Needles Distress ink.

Christmas die with different papers with some silver ribbon from my stash and topped with the Crafters Companion Snowflake dies. 

I do not usually do brown as it was my old school uniform colour but it went so well with the gold!  Loved the gold and brown together and the border snowflake die is lovely.  

For this one I used Joy christmas paper with trees with a tree die from marie anne I think (I have borrowed it from my mum!) and used the Crafters Companion snowflakes and stamp.  The ribbon is also from my stash from a little habidashary in Epsom.

Tomorrow I will share more of the Crafters Companion cards I have made so far!

Kay

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