Hello Sailor! Im on a new Design team!!

Some good news on my part.... I was asked to join JB Crafting supplies as a new Design team member! Im very excited to be a part of another great group and I hope you as a follower will get some benefit from hearing me babble on about all the crafty goodness that is to come! I hope those of you who follow me will head on over to check out both the BLOG and SHOP and have a little looksy below of my very first project with them! I hope you like it! Feedback is always appreciated remember ;).

**Since a lot of you don't know me yet I will let you in on a secret...... I am a complete newbie when it comes to digis. Its not my favourite because I like the feel of an actual stamp. However, as a digital designer myself, I regret not being into it more because every once in a while you come across a really amazing little character like this beauty from Adele Bradwell. I am a fan of pin up art and the sailor theme was just too perfect. Of course you cant stray much from the red white and blue of a typical sailors outfit so I stuck with that. It helped that the paper matched ;).

So I printed out my background onto some white cardstock and overlaid the sentiment on top of the sailor girl with my photo editing software before printing 2 of her as well. Always print more than one, just in case! For me its a good thing I did as I prefer to work with watercolours and it takes some skill to use watercolour on non-watercolour paper without it warping too much. So obviously I practiced on one and in the end used a mixture of water painting and straight colouring with my distress markers.

I wanted to give the anchor a little more than just colour. I really wanted it to pop out and give it some texture. So after I had finished all of my colouring I used an embossing pen in sections and embossed my anchor with Stampendous fran-tage AGED SILVER embossing enamel. Unfortunately at this point my heat tool overheated on my and with my impatience I filled in the unembossed sections with brushed pewter distress stain. This worked out fairly well because it allowed the lines of the anchor to show through even after painted.

For the background of the card I distressed the edges with chipped sapphire distress ink and stamped a large medallion stamp and embossed with white to simulate a doily. We all love a little bit of frills don't we? This is where I adhered my pin up girl. I felt it needed just a little bit more so I stapled on a white satin ribbon and added a few little hearts that I handcut and glittered with xmas red stickles. Honestly I thought the hearts would make it feel very valentinesy... not really a word but work with me here!





So there you have it. My first DT project with JB Crafting Supplies and one of the few I have done with digital images! I do hope you like it.

Looking back (pizza bites!)

There are all forms of being crafty. Of course, my blog is mostly about being inky and gluey and papery, but every once in a while I get the chance to try a recipe which I think you can call crafty as well! So while the post below is an old one and from my other blog (yes I have another, no I don't really use it anymore), I really enjoyed these little pizza bites and they were so easy to make, I thought I would share with you fellow crafty people.

As an added note before you start reading, this was good for me because 2 of 3 of my kids are allergic or intolerant to dairy. So making these ourselves is a good way to be sure that you can use dairy substitutes and they can still have their pizza fix. We use lacto free cheese grated up and even my eldest who has no problem likes it.



**My son is squeeling away at 'Jake and the Neverland Pirates' at the moment and I just love hearing it. He has discovered that those things called 'hands' have the ability to grab everything within reach and stick it in his mouth. My eldest daughter is watching the same show and eating a lunch that she and I prepared together. A very poor version of pizza (in my mind) but she created it and therefore its delicious. Basically, toast topped with pizza sauce, pepperoni and orange cheese squares. Dont rush to write down the recipe. Speaking of recipes, however, I recently found this recipe on pinterest:

 

And I decided to give it a go. Let me tell you, its one of the good ones! I made it for my brother in law who loved them and requested them any chance he got. These are mine:



 

 

If you decide to give this a try, I would definitely leave out the salt. It says optional on the recipe but I put some in the first batch and it definitely doesnt need it. The pepperoni and cheese give it enough. You could probably try different flavours in it too though I havent tried that yet.***

 

I do hope you give this a try, especially if you have little ones. I haven't actually made it for quite a while and I think I might just make a few soon! They may be a good little snack to bring on the plane for our upcoming trip!

 

Leave me a comment if you have tried these or are planning to, and you are also welcome to ask any questions! If you want to follow my foody board on PINTEREST to see what other things catch my eye the click the link!

 

  

Sam.



Man Up! Challenge and some gloating!

Hello All!

We are just entering February and I have only had a very small amount of crafting time this year so far. My family and I are heading on a 3 week holiday in a few weeks to visit my family in the wonderful Cancun, Mexico where my dad is manager at a lovely 'get away from it all' type of resort. Unfortunately this also means that you wont be hearing from me until I get back but FORTUNATELY, it also means you wont be hearing from me until I get back!! Ha ha. It means a lot of family time for me. Basically we are going to visit a lot of family and friends so that my kids and husband can meet them all for the first time. We are all very excited about it. Check it if you want to have a look!

Mahekal Beach Resort

Right, back to the crafty goodness. If you are a serious crafter/buyer/hoarder then you probably know that there are some major awesome sales at the beginning of the year. I did not plan very well for this but believe me, I will be much more prepared next year! Sizzix had their mega sale going on and wowwie!! The savings were spectacular! It did take a while to receive my items but its expected when you have such good deals. I received a big box of goodies (not all mine) but I couldn't wait to get started.

I had 2 birthdays to celebrate last month which both happened to be for men in my family. I am only showing this card because I love it, but I basically copied a gorgeous card from Pinterest as I was in a rush. You can check out that card here. The colours were perfect and caught my eye instantly. While I didn't have a clock quite like the one in the picture, I did have this wooden clock piece which I coated with metallic distress stains and stampendous frantage embossing powder. I also covered the back with vellum just so it wouldn't get lost with all the texture in the background. I would probably have done a lot more if I had had the time but I was up quite late trying to finish it in time.



 

 



On to the main event.... The love of my life (and I say that without a hint of sarcasm ;) ) has a birthday coming up. Unfortunately for him its right before everyone gets paid on one of the longest, moneyless months ever. We are rarely able to do anything and this year he had a need for his birthday gift several weeks before so now he has nothing to open. I attempted to get a sitter for our three kids but unfortunately I was only able to get someone for one, so the kid free plan was out. So even though we had agreed to celebrate our birthdays when we were in Mexico, I still wanted to make him a card. With the Man Up! Challenge over at A little Bit Crafty, it was perfect timing!

Men's cards are hard. You know why? Its not because its easier to create girly things. No. Its because men are difficult. My husband in particular doesn't actually appreciate receiving a card on his birthday so its mostly an excuse for me to craft. Taking advantage of my Sizzix goodies I created this card:

The sentiment fits him perfectly, as he can be.... well, lets just say he fits in well with the kids! Not that I'm complaining. I love him this way!

 

Supplies used:

Tim Holtz Distress inks in Antique Linen and Vintage Photo

Tim Holtz Vintage Camera Die

Tim Holtz  Styled Labels Die

Tim Holtz Alterations Stripes embossing folder

Tim Holtz Film strip ribbon

Tim Holtz Kraft-Core Card stock

Fiskars Quotes Clear stamp set - Make a Wish

Various Brads

Silver wire tape

We R Memory Keepers crop-o-dile

Big Shot

Tim Holtz sanding block

 

 

First, I used antique linen distress ink on white card stock. I ran it through my Big shot machine with the stripes embossing folder and then distressed again with Vintage Photo. Cut down to size and mounted on a 5x7 inch card base.

 

 I then used my crop-o-dile hole punch to punch holes and attach some gold brads to the corners.

 

I cut out my label, and 2 cameras out of white card stock, black Kraft-core card and black card covered with metallic tape. I cut a rectangle of plain computer paper and covered it generously with adhesive which I then used to attach all the pieces to the camera.

 

I distressed my label with Vintage photo distress ink, stamped my Fiskars sentiment and drew an outline in black pen to tie it all together. I attached 2 bronze brads to the label and adhered it to the card with foam adhesive.

 

I then stapled my film strip to the card and attached the camera with foam adhesive.

 

*Not in the picture* - I stamped 'Happy Birthday' from the same fiskars set in the bottom right hand corner of the inside of the card and wrote a little note from me and the kids.

 

 

I do hope you like it, and be sure to check out the challenge over at 'A Little Bit Crafty'. There are some amazing prizes up for grabs that I wouldn't mind getting my hands on myself! Also don't forget to check out the sponsors!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fruit Pixie