Skylark's Snippets

Rediscovering my blog!

2012-02-05T20:58:00.001Z

I can't believe that I haven't blogged at all in the last two years - I don't know where the time goes!! Anyway I decided that I needed to start again as I accidentally lost all my pictures, patterns, photos etc, last summer when my computer was upgraded - I know I should have backed it all up and really thought I had but obviously not and it can't be undone unfortunately!

Papers: Kate Knight paper stack
Stamp: PMA Retail Therapy

Today is as good a time as any as one of my cards has been published in Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine, issue 94 - it's so exciting to see your cards in print! I also won a small prize so that was great too! It was one of three cards entered for their Card Designer of the Year competition. I didn't expect to win such a huge competition but it's nice to see they liked one of my cards enough to print it in a future issue of the magazine. These are the other cards I entered:

Card blank: Little Claire tag card
Stamp: Little Claire Flowerhead

This is one of Little Claire's tag cards and one of my favourite of their stamps Flowerhead, cut into four jigsaw pieces. I also won a small prize for this when Little Claire featured it on their blog in the countdown to Christmas. So now I have a nice new stamp to play with too! The second photo is the back of the card which has a ribbon bow on it. The purple colours of the ribbon matched each other much more closely in real life, but the camera has made one of them look rather blue.

The last card was made using a recently discovered technique of cutting metal flowers from a recycled pop/beer can using a Sizzix Bigz die. I first saw a video on youtube and couldn't wait to get a suitable die to have a go (with grateful thanks to my friend Rozzy for ordering it for me)! I think they will feature a lot on my cards this year and I have saved loads of different cans to experiment with!

Die: Sizzix Bigz Flower Daisies #2
Papers: Dovecraft Winter Wonderland

Happy New Year

2010-01-09T20:27:00.008Z

Happy New Year everyone! I fancied making something different to a card today and when looking for inspiration, I came across Clare Curd's Weekly Craft Challenge for this week. I`ve been wanting to make one of Clare`s post-it note holders since I first saw them on her blog. Looking at the challenge inspiration photo I thought about tying something back and bingo! this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I also took inspiration from the spotty curtain material and have used similar spotty papers and ribbon in my design. Hope you like it Clare! I think I'll give it to a friend whose birthday is soon. She loves pretty stationery!

Supplies:

Papers: Just Great Papers!

Flowers: Papermania

Winter Birthday Card

2009-12-07T18:48:00.006Z

Supplies:
Papers: Dovecraft ‘Winter Wonderland’
Snowflake Stamp: Free with Papercraft Inspirations 67 Dec 09
Inks: Ink it Up ‘Clear’ & Whispers ‘Azure Seas’ & ‘Whisper Blue’
Embossing Powders: Funstamps ‘Stardust’
Craft Box B&Bs

It is my Mum`s birthday next week and for this card I have taken inspiration from Episode 3 of the new DoCrafts Creativity TV Club. This is the first time I have tried resist stamping and am quite pleased with the outcome except that I wished the image had been a little sharper. I also used the sketch from Clare Curd’s demo card but have altered it to fit a 13.5cm square card blank. As the inspiration came from Clare I thought I would also enter it into her weekly craft challenge - I hope you approve of my efforts Clare and thank you so much for all your wonderful inspiration!

Allsorts Challenge 15 & BasicGrey Week 2 - A Colour Combo

2009-08-26T15:07:00.010+01:00

Supplies:
Papers: BasicGrey Sultry & Papermania Simply Elegant
Stamps: Magnolia Tilda with Cowberry Muffin & Papermania 'Just for You'
Watercolour paints & Papermania adhesive gems

It's been a really busy summer and it's ages since I've blogged but I'm back home now and it's raining so time to catch up with my crafting! I've made this card for my friend Katie's birthday in early September but when looking for inspiration I have made it fit into both the Allsorts Challenge 15 and BasicGrey's Week 2 Colour Combo Challenge. BasicGrey's challenge was to use only 3 colours - brown, yellow and pink & at least 1 item from BasicGrey and Allsorts designer Jules provided a great sketch to follow with the added extra of including some torn edges. So I hope I've done both challenges justice and that Katie enjoys her card!

Friday Sketchers 56

2009-06-18T21:03:00.005+01:00

I have made this card for my friend Ros's birthday this week. I noticed that all the DT cards used stamped images and I have replaced this with a layered folded flower so I hope it's still acceptable to enter it for the Friday Sketcher challenge.

Supplies:
Flower template: Craftwork Cards
Papers: BasicGrey Sultry
Gems and Flowers: Papermania

Thanks for visiting!

No time for crafting!

2009-06-08T21:02:00.008+01:00

Haven't had much crafting time lately. I've been busy organising camp for my Guides at half term and then sorting out and clearing up afterwards; still the next few weeks should be a little easier! Here are a couple of things I made inbetween everything else last month. I made these ATCs for the May swap on the CB forum where the theme was teddy bears. The gift has been decoupaged and raised on foam pads.

Supplies:
Stamp: Forever Friends gift
Pens: Whispers Strokes dual-tip brush markers
Papers: Forever Friends 'Hugs and Cuddles'

This fat page was also made for the May swap on the CB forum. This month the theme was Love/Romance. The papers have been printed from my computer but I cannot remember where I got them from originally.

Supplies:
Holding Hands Image: Internet
Flowers and Brads: Papermania

I'm looking forward to seeing whose I get in return and next month it's my turn to host the swap - another first and am looking forward to it!

CB forum April fat page swap

2009-04-27T22:12:00.007+01:00

I had never been to a big craft show before ... until Saturday when I went with my Guiding friend Joan to the Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts show at Aintree Racecourse. Although I know it isn't one of the biggest we had a great day and it was especially nice to see so many products being demonstrated. My favourite find of the day was some 'magic' foil card from the Craftology stand. I can't wait to have a go with some of my stamps and show you the magic too!

Below is my take on the costume/dressmaking theme for this month's fat page swap on the CB forum. I have made these little dresses many times before and each time the result has been very different. It's very interesting to see how everyone interprets swap themes in so many different ways.

Supplies:
Papers: Papermania Creative Tones 'Venetian Skies'
Buttons: Craftime
Ruler Image: Internet
Assorted fabric, ribbons and fibres

I also used my other two painted Tildas from a few weeks back to make two ATC RAKS for CB forum friends Bigbunniesuk and HellyBelly to say thank you for hosting swaps especially to HellyBelly as I forgot to put an SAE in with my swap and she was kind enough to post it anyway!

Supplies:
Stamp: Magnolia 'Tilda with ruffled skirt'
Pens: Whispers Strokes
Papers: K&Co. 'Berry Sweet'
Flower punch: XCut
Ribbon: Anita's
Gems: Papermania

Thanks for visiting!

Stamps and Smiles Sketch Challenge 10

2009-04-11T20:52:00.007+01:00

Yesterday I painted three Tildas and used the first one to make the card below for this week’s Stamps and Smiles Sketch Challenge at The Fresh Batch. I made the extra embellishments by cutting around some of the paisley designs on one of the sheets in the pad, raising them with foam pads and adding some sparkle with glitter glue and gems.

Supplies:
Papers: K & Co. Sparkly Sweet
Stamp: Tilda with ruffled skirt (Magnolia)
Colours: Whispers Strokes
Gems: Papermania
Glitter Glue: Craft Planet

Mum's Visit

2009-04-11T20:47:00.003+01:00

My Mum is staying with us for Easter and she has joined me in my den and has been crafting away too. This iris folded pear card is one that she made yesterday.

Happy Easter everyone!

Katie's Birthday

2009-04-11T18:38:00.006+01:00

This is the diamond folded card I made for my daughter Katie’s 17th birthday last week. It matches the colours of her newly painted bedroom. I had to wait until after the event to show it on my blog in case she peeked!

And another view without the ribbon.

Supplies:
Papers: BasicGrey Euphoria & Papermania
Alphabet Stickers: BasicGrey Euphoria
Flowers, Brads & Gems: Papermania
Ribbon: Anita’s

More makes using felt flowers

2009-04-04T23:22:00.008+01:00

I don’t get as much time as I would like to craft so I often make things in series as it saves me time. Following on from last week’s BasicGrey challenge I stitched two more felt flowers and made another similar card for my friend Lorraine’s birthday which I also entered into Clare Curd’s weekly craft challenge on DoCrafts where the theme was ‘All Stitched Up’.

I also made a 4” x 4” fat page with a flower theme for a Crafts Beautiful forum swap. This was the first one of these I have made and I really enjoyed doing it. The swap will be ongoing so after a few months everyone that has signed up will each end up with a fat page book.

Supplies:
Papers: BasicGrey Two Scoops
Flower punch: XCut
Felt ribbon, Button & Gems: Papermania

BasicGrey Challenge

2009-03-22T17:45:00.004Z

This is a week of firsts for me. First my blog and now my first blog challenge. This week’s BasicGrey challenge is ‘Textured Creations’. I must admit to being inspired by one of the DT’s projects and using Anthea’s project as a starting point I have created my own textured card. The patterned square has been stitched, the dotted layer has been ribbled, the vertical strip has been embossed (though it doesn’t really show in the photo) and matted and the greetings strip has been printed using my computer and stapled. I traced the flower from the patterned paper and made a template for the felt flowers which have been layered, stitched and finished with a button. I love the way the colours and textures have worked together, but then you can’t go wrong using my fave BasicGrey papers can you? I’m going to send it to my friend Alison whose birthday is next week.

Supplies:
Papers: BasicGrey Two Scoops
Button and Gems: Papermania

Blog Candy

2009-03-20T18:29:00.004Z

Susie has a great big stash of candy to give away on her blog but hurry because the draw closes at midnight on Saturday 21st March!

My first post

2009-03-19T21:38:00.006Z

Well, I made it to the land of blogging eventually. I hope to be able to show some of my craft creations on here and join in some of the challenges on other crafty blogs. I'm not an expert and I don't design for anyone but I do enjoy what I do and constantly wish I had the time to do more. If you like my creations please comment and I will try and visit your blog in return. Thanks to Louise (Crafts Beautiful forum) for helping me to find a nice background for my blog.

Supplies:
Cardstock & Lettering: Basic Grey Euphoria
Teabag tiles: Tiny v.d. Plas
Silk flowers & Buttons: Papermania

I have made these first two cards for our respective mums for Mothering Sunday. I owe a huge thank you to Enjay (Charmed Cards and Crafts) for her teabag folded wreath tutorial back in November which I have wanted to try out ever since and this seemed like a good opportunity.