Memories...

Morning everyone!!

Today, I'm sharing something I'm really proud of and I hope you love it, just as much as I loved making it!! So, without further ado...ta~dah....here is my Memories Album!!! Sorry for the photo overload but there was a lot to show...so, sit down with a nice cuppa and enjoy....

Would you believe that this actually started life as two cardboard boxes??? But with a lick of paint from a couple of Adirondack Paint Dabbers, I transformed those boxes into these brushed metal look covers, which I then went about decorating, with lots of my favourite bits and pieces and using some of my favourite Sizzix/Tim Holtz dies!!

The flowers are all made using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die from Sizzix and I coloured the plain cream card using Dylusions Spray Inks and Perfect Pearls Mists from Ranger. I've added various bits of Tim's Idea-ology, including the fab Hitch Fasteners, which woohoo....are finally back!!!

For the inside of the book, I used paints, inks and some of my favourite stamps from Tim.

So, that's about it from me for today and I really hope I've inspired you to make a little memory book of your own!! They are such fun to make and I really enjoyed building up the pages....now, all I need to do is fill them with photos and voila!! I'm done!!

Thank you for stopping by to take a look at what I've created and I'm really looking forward to reading all your lovely comments!

See you all soon...bye for now!

Love Emma xxx

I Want To Fly Away...

Hi everyone!!

It's time for my share over at The Artistic Stamper Creative Team blog and here's just a little peek at what I've made!! If this has whetted your appetite and you'd like to see the complete piece, then just click HERE!!

Hope you have a wonderful week and I'll be visiting your blogs later today, to see what you've been creating!!

Bye for now and see you soon!

Love Emma xxx

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Good morning everyone!!

Just dropping by to let you all know that there is a new challenge starting over on Sarah Hurley's Challenge Blog.

The lovely Jaine has chosen ~ Take me HOME as the theme, and we would love to see what you can create. So, come and join us and if you should need any inspiration, then the DT have made some gorgeous samples and you can see them all HERE.

Here's my interpretation of the theme...

The papers and the blooms are all from Sarah's fabulous new Britannia CD which can be bought, here. I used the Caged Bird die and painted the cage with the Adirondack Gold paint dabber and used DI on the bird itself. I added the painted branch die cut, some hand dyed seam binding and finally, the text which I printed from the computer.

If you love Sarah's designs and would like to have an array of background papers to hand at all times, they can now be bought directly from here.

Right, lots to do and the whip is being cracked, so time for me to start making samples for Barbara's shows that are on next weekend!

See you soon and thanks for stopping by.

Love Emma xxx

Christmas Countdown ~ Day One

Morning everyone!!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!!

Well, here we are...the final countdown, only six days to go until Christmas Day!! My preparation is slowly coming together and after finishing a big magazine project at the weekend, I can now finally relax and think...IT"S CHRISTMAS!!

This week, my adventurous plan is to post every day and have a little Christmas countdown here on the blog!! Lol, hmm, I know...I really don't make life easy for myself and I know that this is a busy time for everyone but I hope you'll be able to pop along to see all my Christmas makes and samples that have been keeping me so busy over the last few months...

...and here's my first share and my favourite ~ I made this over the weekend and I really hope you like it!!

I'd just like to say a big thank you, to the lovely Paula at Which Craft? for these fabulous crackers...as soon as they landed on my doorstep, I was so excited by them because they were something really different to work with and it was so nice to be able to spend a couple of hours doing something for myself, something that was totally ~ me!!!

Once again, and as you can probably see ~ there's a lot of Tim Holtz products going on here, grungepaper, die cuts, tissue tape, etc....etc....etc!! I must admit to get that deer standing proud, all on his own free will, was a real patience tester but it was so worth it in the end!! The designer papers are from My Mind's Eye and the decorative pin, from The Ribbon Girl.

So, that's the first of my Christmas countdown posts...and if all goes to plan, I'll be back tomorrow with another one!

Hope you all have a lovely week.

Bye for now.

Love Emma xxx

Entered in the following challenges:

Charisma Cardz Challenges ~ Last Min Xmas Makes

Fairyland

Hi everyone!! ...And hello to all my new followers *waves*...looking forward to getting to know you and seeing all your lovely creations when I visit your blogs!

Hope you've all been enjoying the Clarity shows that have been on Create and Craft since Friday, it's definitely been an exciting weekend in the life of a Clarity Design Team member and after all the hard work over the last few months of getting all the samples ready for the Pick of the Week, I can now finally share them with you all....yay!! I've loved reading all your comments that you've been leaving me about my cards and you always make me smile with your lovely words ~ thank you everyone, for taking the time to leave them, it really does mean the world!!!

Over the next days, I'm going to slowly start working through all the samples and believe me, there's a lot so, tell me if you start to get bored but here we go....the first of those samples and features little Puck and the gorgeous toadstools...I hope you like them.

The first card is all about fantasy and shows how you can cut out elements from the design and decoupage them to give a different overall look to the card.

And the second card is all about being influenced by one of the greatest ceramic designers of the 1930's ~ Clarice Cliff. As soon as I opened the box and saw these stamps, I just knew that this one had to be done in her style and was crying out for that huge sunray to be sitting behind the main image.

Well, it's time for me to go as I can hear the oven telling me dinner is going to be served any time now! I've got it done early for once because I'm so excited at the return of Downton Abbey ~ *excited handclaps*. So, I guess you'll all know what I'm going to be doing at 9:00 tonight...putting the "Do Not Disturb" sign up on the door!! hehe...

I'll be around later to see all your creations!!

See you tomorrow with some more cards!

Love and hugs, Emma

xxx

Up, Up and Away

Happy Wednesday, lovely friends! How's everyone's week going, so far?

Yesterday, I spent the whole day making my set of samples, for Kuretake's show on Create & Craft on Friday. Hope you like what I've made...I've used some fabulous stamps from my crafty stash which show off the pens perfectly! If you've never used their pens...this will be your chance to buy some, as they are absolutely gorgeous! 

But back to today's share from the Clarity shows. Both of these cards are made using Adirondack inks to build up the backgrounds to create a scene. But the first one, is actually one of Barbara's clever corner set of stamps but I decided to do something slightly different with it and made the corners into a kite and used the "leafy flourish" as the tail.

And this is the second card, made up from the Oast House set of stamps. Once again the background of fields, was made up by blending Adirondack inks and I then, used the top of the tree stamps to create the little bushes that surround the fields.

Right, after my marathon craft session yesterday and after my visit to the Post Office to post the samples...I am going to have an easy day! Well, I say easy...that's after I write the editorial for the magazine set of cards and then think about my next project!! Oh the life of a crafter...I think my hobby's turning into a full time job!! hehe

Thank you for all your lovely comments on yesterday's post and sorry, I haven't managed to share on WOYWW today...I just didn't have time but I'll be back next week ~ promise!

See you tomorrow with the next set of cards...

Love Emma

xxx

Red Red Wine

Hi everyone!! Well, it's the start of a new week and this is the week when I finally get to show you all the samples that I was working on for Clarity. It actually seems ages ago that I worked on these and I was so pleased with this set of samples. Sometimes it can be so hard to let them go, knowing that you won't see them again but it's always lovely to be able to share what I made with all my lovely blogging buddies and hear what you think of them.

I know that some of you were watching the shows and as always, you're in the hands of the presenters showing them and the fact that Barbara's kits sell out so fast, so you don't always get to see all of the samples that the DT have made but here are the first of my samples, featuring the frame kit, below...and I really hope you like them! Can't wait to hear what you think.

For this first card, I chose to make the frame box card, that you might remember from some of my previous posts. To begin with, I stamped the grape vine, coloured it in with Promarkers, then using the masking/Post It Note technique I built up the background landscape using a selection of colours from Adirondack. Once I was satisfied with how it looked and remember, I'm a perfectionist and very hard on myself, lol...I finally stamped the trees, to give the perspective of the rolling vineyards of Italy or France!

As finishing touches, I added the front of the frame, some handmade scrunched flowers and flourishes.

For the second card, I used the frame stamps but wanted to keep it quite simple. So, I basically built up a frame, using gold embossing powder and then painted it with gold pearlescent paint. The main image was made using Distress Inks on the background and then stamping the Aliums in black Archival Ink. The Aliums are from another kit, which I'll show you in tomorrow's share. I matted the frame onto co-ordinating cardstock and added some punched butterflies.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and once again, thank you to everyone who left birthday messages for me...they all meant so much and I read each and every one!!

I wish you could've all come round for a piece of that delicious birthday cake! lol

See you tomorrow with the next share from the shows!

Love Emma

xxx