Vintage Treasures

Hi everyone.

Hope you are all well and enjoying your week, so far. First of all, I have an apology for being such a bad blogger this week, it's been "one of those weeks" and to be honest, if I told you everything that has been happening here at Chez Williams', I think you might fall asleep through boredom. :) But bear with me and I promise that I will be visiting all your blogs and catching up with all your gorgeous creations, throughout today!!

In the meantime, I wanted to share a few cards with you that I recently made for US Craft Day over on QVC. If you watched, you will know that they had some amazing products and I was so lucky that I got to work with a few of them, including these gorgeous papers from Melissa Frances. I believe that these papers did sell out on the day but they are on waitlist and it's definitely worth popping your name onto if you like what you see because they are stunning.

Those are Amy's hands showing my card on TV...I still get so excited to see them on air!!

...and here are the set of four cards, I hope you like them!!

Okey dokey, time for me to fly and slowly make my way around all the blogs and catch up with everything!!

Hope you all have a lovely day.

See you soon and bye for now.

Love Emma xxx

To celebrate the fact that we have an extra day in February, this year...The Artistic Stamper has a special on their website for one day only. If you head on over to their facebook page, you will be able to read all about it.

Food For Thought...

Hi everyone!!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and ready for a new week!! I've been busy, busy, busy...crafting my little socks off...all my Clarity samples for the August shows are done. Kuretake show samples are done and now, I'm starting work on something exciting and new...hopefully, I can reveal a little more in the coming weeks but for now, I have boxes of goodies, all ready and waiting for me to play with.

But back to the here and now and, another day brings yet more goodies from my Craftwork Cards shares and thank you, for all your lovely comments about my work. My friends and followers are simply THE BEST! xx

And here it is...something a little different and another project that was hard to part with...my recipe book!

The inspiration behind this, came from a book that my Mum had when I was little. She used to write all her recipes in this book she bought from WHSmith and I can remember all the times I would pull up a chair, stand on it to reach the kitchen worktops and help Mum cook. And of course, the best bit was licking the bowl, from the chocolate cake mix! Mmm Hmm!

The inside of the book, stamped with an Anna Griffin stamp from her Kitchen set of stamps.

Paper, Candi, cardstock, chipboard book, chipboard letters are available from Craftwork Cards

Right, I'm off to watch the rest of Eastenders and then I think I have a date with George Clooney and the Blu-Ray player!

See you tomorrow with yet more projects from Craftwork Cards.

Enjoy your evenings, everyone!

Love Emma

xxx

All That Jazz

It's a new week and the start of another one that I'm hoping will be full of creation...believe me, with all my pending projects that I'm working on ~ it has to be!!! lol

So, I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and the sun shone on you, wherever you are! My weekend was taken up with a little bit of work on the new Clarity samples for next month's shows and of course, my Dad's birthday.

Which leads me to my card share for today...and here it is, I hope you like it!

When it comes to crafting...my one true love is beautiful papers. I can get lost in some of the designs that are around and I have so many favourite companies to choose from, including My Mind's Eye, Craftwork Cards, Kaisercraft, Anna Griffin and of course, Tim Holtz. But there was one collection that really did blow me away when I saw it and that is the stunning, Curtain Call from my no.1 company at the moment....the wonderful, Graphic 45. They were just the epitome of all that I adore and yes, it was love at first sight!!

But saying that, when a collection is this good, how do you bring yourself to use them? Hmm, it was hard but this was for a special birthday and therefore, I did the dreaded deed and I took a pair of scissors to them. I just hope I did them justice???

The huge hibiscus flower was made using Tim's Tattered Florals die and really it was just me playing and experimenting with my love of making paper flowers. It's is quite a labour intensive process, as I sprayed each layer with Cosmic Shimmer Mists and then built them up to create the bloom but to be honest, there are days when I don't feel like stamping or making a complete card but find making the flowers very cathartic.

So, I really hope that this card was worthy of the build up that I created on Friday, in my last blog post and I hope you will come back to take a look at the second card I made, using more of the papers from Curtain Call.

Hope you all have a fabulous Monday!!

See you soon.

Emma

xxx

Come Dine With Me

Happy Friday everyone!

It's the end of another week and very nearly the end of November...which means one thing and one thing only, Christmas is coming and fast. So, from next week, it will be full on thinking about Christmas...making lists, shopping, cooking, wrapping presents and trying to make some Christmas cards for family and friends. I really want to make my own but as time flies, a trip to John Lewis is looking an easier option!!

In the meantime, my neighbour is more than ready for Christmas and she asked me to make her some menus for her annual New Year's Eve dinner party. And here they are, I finished them earlier today and I think they will be ideal for an elegant, sophisticated evening!

I die cut my shapes using Spellbinders die and then stamped and embossed all the images, using a set of Kanban stamps that were in a recent TSV on QVC. I'd also bought a set of Anna Griffin stamps, a while back and remembered that those would be perfect, as they had this wonderful 'Menu' stamp included and it worked perfectly with the style that I wanted to achieve.

So, now all that's left is to deliver them next door and hope that they like them...

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend and if it's snowing near where you are, stay warm and cosy!

See you soon and thanks for dropping by...

Love Emma

xxx

Thank You!

It's the start of a new week and here's to one, full of good times and great memories...because on Thursday...it's my birthday and I can't wait!!!

The last few weeks have been really exciting and as the "icing on the cake" ~ I was also very privileged to become the latest addition to a wonderful design team at Craftwork Cards and because of that...

I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has recently come and visited my little blog, to all my new followers and also to my fellow design team members and last but not least...to Julie at Craftwork Cards! You've all been fantastic and your support and comments, are very much appreciated and I hope that you keep finding time to come back and visit as much as possible, as I take you with me, on my crafting journey!!

So, how did I make my gift to you all?

Box Template: Anna Griffin

Papers & Card: Anna Griffin

Dies: Spellbinders Shapeabilities Flower Creation Dies/Assorted Leaves/Scalloped Oval Nestabilities

Satin Ribbon: QVC

Adhesive Pearls: QVC

And, thanks again ... come and visit again soon!

xx

Elegance...

Well, I'm still buzzing with excitement about all the fantastic things that have been happening since Crafts Beautiful, featuring my projects using the fabulous new Gorjuss papercraft range from The Crafthouse Press, came out. I'd like to thank everyone who has commented on the spread or been kind enough to comment, here on my blog. You've all been amazing and every single word has been greatly appreciated.

It's been a wonderful, sunny spring day here in London and together with some new and exciting products that I've received in the post over the last few days, I think it gave me plenty of inspiration to work on some new cards.

Today's card is probably a familiar image to some of my friends and they know how much I enjoy working with this image and how much I love the art deco period.

To make this card, I used a variety of techniques. First of all, I stamped the beautiful image of the Deco lady by Hero Arts onto cream card. If I'm working with Promarker pens as I used here, I prefer to use a Memento ink pad as it doesn't bleed the lines of the image, when combined with the alcohol in the pens. Once the image is coloured in, I matted and layered it, together with, some plain background papers, the beautiful gold mirror card and a layer of card, that I handstamped, using Anna Griffin's background stamps and aged with distress inks.

I covered a cream card blank with this stunning aqua coloured paper, that I thought co-ordinated so well with the red and then using Martha Stewart's Deep Edge Border Punch, I punched some of that red paper on both sides and was left with this wonderful filigree style, flower border which I adhered down the side of the card. I punched out some fronds from the same background paper, using another Martha Stewart punch and then glittered the edges and then built up a flower corsage at the bottom of the card, using a Petaloo silk flower, popped a gorgeous gem in the centre and entwined some wire and adhered this to the card, to look like a stem. Finally, as a finishing touch, I used a Spellbinders label die and die cut the greetings plaque and stamped a message.

So, now it's time for me to get back to making some more cards ~ I hope you're all having a wonderful week, enjoying some sunshine and I'd like to say a big "hello" to all my new followers and I hope that you keep coming back and enjoying what you see.

Love Stamp

So, it's been a week now and there's no sign of this flu going away! *sigh* But *smiles* that doesn't stop me from getting messy and having my mind whirl with new designs that I want to make and want to create!

This particular card was another that I made for Valentine's Day. The little "love stamp" topper was die cut using a Cuttlebug die and embossing folder onto red card. I used Co-Ordinations range of card because I wanted to sandpaper it and reveal a white core to give it an aged, distressed look. Once that was done, I handstamped a piece of white card using a Memento Dew Drop ink pad in Rhubarb and Anna Griffin's rose background stamp, which I then distressed the edges of with distress inks. I die cut a piece of black card and then matted and layered all my elements onto these lovely scratched effect backing papers from Trimcraft and finished off with black adhesive gem stones.

A Perfect 10!

Another card made from The Crafthouse Press' - "Jolly Nation ~ Couples" decoupage series and this time, it's Salsa Time. 

This was such a fun image to work with and seeing as this couple are having the time of their lives and enjoying themselves dancing a red hot salsa, there was only one colourway that I was choosing as backing papers...and that was, RED and BLACK! 

Once I'd decoupaged the image of the dancing couple, using foam pads for height and definition ... I used this vibrant red backing paper on an A5 card which, as in a previous post, I'd folded back the front section, to give me a tri-fold card. I placed the decoupaged couple, the greeting plaque and the perfect 10 score, on the front folded section of the card and then on the back section of the card, I stamped a swirl image using Anna Griffin's acrylic stamp to give that Latin feel to the overall appearance of the card. After adding a few crystal gems and a touch of Stickles Glitter Glue, the card is complete.

May all your wishes come true...

Fairies and Art Deco ~ two things that I absolutely love. And this card, combines both those, with a dark black, magical silhouette of a stunning fairy image and the muted, elegant colours. It just feels very reminiscent of that magnificent and glorious period in time.

Once again, I used a "fancy fold" to make a normal A5 card into an easel card. I'm loving the look of easel cards and they really do make a card look just that little bit different.

The main image of the card was first handstamped using a Versamark Dew Drop Ink pad in Pearlescent Olive and Anna Griffin's rose background stamp. Then using Stamptivity's beautiful, Silhouette Fairy Stamps, I stamped with an Archival Ink in black and overlaid that image, onto the background. This was  then matted and layered onto a piece of black card, which I cut using fancy edged scissors to give a decorative edge and then matted onto a layer of gold mirri card.

On the background of the card, I used the wonderful backing papers from Dovecraft's Fantasy collection, which I made sure matched up on the top and bottom of the card to give a continued, flowing look to the design. As a final touch, I added a greeting plaque and some adhesive gems for that bit of sparkle that we all love.