Just listed 2 necklaces in my Folksy shop

I've just listed a couple of necklaces in my Folksy shop

The first one I've called caramel crunch as the yummy colours remind me of caramel and toffe and icecream and the handmade wire beads I've made and added to it add a crunchy texture.

Please CLICK HERE if you'd like to buy it and you can also see more pictures of it

Caramel crunch beaded necklace £9.00

This one has been mentioned here on my blog - I made it for myself but as I've never worn it I decided to offer it for sale, its really ruch and exotic and I've called it Kasbah necklace!

If you're interested in seeing more pics and maybe buying it, do call by my Folksy shop - please CLICK HERE

Kasbah Fringed Beaded Necklace £12.00

Look what I WON !

Look what I won in the Trimcraft prize draw! I'm sure you can imagine how thrilled I was to receive this scrummy selection from their latest collection - Funky Vintage.
Thats just so much right up my street I couldn't have won a better prize if I'd hand picked it.

The envelope contained a full pack of 48, 8x8 papers in 12 different designs a full pack of 72, 6x6 papers in slightly different coo-ordinating designs, 2 pack sof glittery adhesive ribbon, one pack of cards and envelopes and a pack of the most gorgeous big brads - now isn't that a fab thing to plop through your letterbox!

It really kick started my creative juices (which have been needing a nudge lately) and I set to making my first tri-shutter card which I made from a great tutorial which you can find at The Craftiblog. I'm pretty pleased with the results - I used a funky fashionable shoe image which I decouapged and added glitter to the buckle. Everything else on the card is from my funky vintage prize.

I then made another with one of my little altered vintage slidemounts, the paper on the slise was a left over scrap I already had (K & Co if I'm not mistaken) but the rest was from the Trimcraft set. Aren't they just gorgeous papers and embellishments and wasn't I lucky to win.

Spring blog candy giveaway for crafty bloggers

I've been blogging about and thinking about Spring coming recently (I can't wait its been such a long winter) and when I was spring cleaning my craft room I came across a whole bunch of craft materials that shout SPRING.

So as I've been entering a few crafty Blog Candy giveaways lately and have been lucky enough to win one WOOHOO, I've decided to offer my own Spring blog candy to cheer someone up in the last dull days of winter.

As its to celebrate Spring it will run until the traditional first day of Spring Saturday March 20th and I will draw a winner at random on Monday 22nd March.

The winner will receive all the items shown above so please have a look at the photo to see what you can win:

They are all from my personal craft stash and include

* 1 pack of Mamelock vintage relief scraps

* 1 pack of Habico flower baskets toppers

* 2 sheets of Mandala peel offs

* Lots of die cut frames and tags

* ribbons and lace

* a tub of large brads

* some fabric motifs

* a few beads and embellishments

* Assorted flowers and leaves

* 1 handmade by Beadyjan altered cd friendship plaque/ wall hanging

* 1 Pair of handmade by Beadyjan earrings for pierced ears

All are in pretty fresh Spring shades of yellow, orange and Spring green.

I'm hoping to gain some new followers so there are a few simple rules.

* Become a follower of my blog

* Add a link to this post from your blog with a picture of the blog candy

* Post a comment once you've done the 2 easy steps above and tell me why you'd like to win.

* I must be able to contact you via your blog or email.

I'd also be delighted if you tell people about it via Twitter, your favourite craft forum or Facebook but that's not obligatory.

Good luck everyone.

EDITED ... to everyone entering for my blog candy PLEASE NOTE the 4 simple rules above as only entries which comply with all of these will be included in the draw.

Vintage slide mounts.

When I was tidying my craft room I came across these little vintage themed altered slide mounts I made a while ago - I had a real fad for making these and have a big pile of them which I must use up - I think I'll make a pile of decorated notebooks, journals with them on the front.

I want to use the ones I've made to justify making some more as they are such fun to make and are the perfect way to use up all those pretty but tiny scraps of pretty paper and oddments of ribbon that seem too small to keep.

Each one is only about 2" square and turns out looking like a little minature artwork.

If you fancy making some yourself all you need is a few old glassless slidemounts, (you might have some lying around or you can pick up a box from any photographic shop) a few small scraps of dainty printed paper, oddments of narrow ribbon and lace plus a vintage button or charm or a small flower etc. and some narrow double sided tape.

Finally you'll need a few vintage images and print them out really small - my printer does a contact sheet of 35 images and they are the right size or you can buy sheets of collage images that are meant for domino art and they are also about the right size.

Just put double sided tape on the blank mount then place it face down on the back of your paper, then put dst on the back edges of the mount and add your image then fold the trimmed edges of the paper over to the back and stick them down too.

Then decorate the front with a tiny piece of ribbon, a few beads and a button with the shank removed or a flat button or charm and that it! I finish mine by sticking a square of card over the back to conceal the raw edges of paper and neaten it up.

If you make any do send me a link so I can see what you made.

C.C Designs Sugarplum Spring *CANDY* Kit….

Kellie Winnell » Blog Archive » C.C Designs Sugarplum Spring *CANDY* Kit….

Look at these gorgeous products - well you can win them on Kellies craft a holic blog, just click on the link to be taken there and find out how you can win this amazing blog candy - good luck.

Bring me sunshine

Just a few thoughts today - I'm off to art class this afternoon which I'm looking forward to, its great to get together with a group of like minded people and the tutors really great I always come away feeling I've really learnt something.

I've been busy Spring cleaning my craft room - not a small task but it had become so cluttered it was sapping my creative juices!

So its out with the old and in with the new and in with the new - heard I've won some blog candy so hope that will inspire me to get more creative when it arrives.

Please see my sidebar for links to some of the loveliest blog candy around in blogland right now, and watch this space as I'm going to offer some blog candy myself soon.



We went to our caravan to check it over at the weekend we haven't been able to get there due to the heavy snow up in the Pennines (see the picture above) but its almost gone now and there were hints of spring being on the horizon soon, I can't wait I'm SO not a winter person even though it looks amazing give me sunshine anytime.

Collage Obsessions Friday challenge

This year I promised myself a couple of things - to get back into creative mode and to blog more regularly. So I found a collage challenge on collage obsessions blog to take an image they provide and make some collage art with it.

Well, heres my fairly pathetic attempt. It's so long since I did any digital collage that when I opened my paint software I found I'd forgotten how to use it!! and spent a frustrated few hours cussing at the programme. I ended up using my fairly basic scrapbooking programme.

Apologies if its not very original or creative I will practise more and hope to get better as I enjoy playing iwth digital images/collage/scrapbooking etc.

Red necklace

I've been a lazy blogger and I really don't know why, the bad weather recently has had me stuck indoors a lot of the time and I could/should have been updating my blog but I've just been reading other peoples blogs, catching up on reading lots of books. I have been doing a bit of crafting and heres a necklace I made for Christmas.

I'm also trying to get myself motivated to get back into papercrafting as its a while since I've done any.

I've been entering a whole load of competitions trying to win myself a nice prize but so far nothings turned up - still you have to be in it to win it don't you? Fingers crossed!

How did Christmas come around so fast?

This year I had great intentions of making my own Christmas cards and somehow it still hasn't happened yet and Christmas is galloping closer every day.

However Ten Two Studios has come to the rescue with a great selection of free Christmas themed collage sheets so if you fancy having a go at making some vintage or collage themed Christmas cards pop by and download as many of these gorgeous free sheets as you like.

Art classes

Because I've been wittering and Twittering on about how much I'm enjoying my beginners art classes I thought I'd share a couple of the pictures I've created since I started classes about 2 months ago.

Please bear in mind that I'm in my 50's never really done much sketching or painting since I was at school and these are the very first things I've completed, however I'm enjoying it so much and thats the main thing isn't it? I only went along to keep a friend company and I'm so glad she persuaded me to go with her.

I thought I was going to like paiting with watercolours best but when I tried them I found it rather difficult to control the colour and when we tried acrylics I hated it as I hate getting my hands sticky or messy and they are very messy.

What I am loving is working with coloured pencils, and pastels.

The picture of the tiger is done in Cretacolour pastel pencils which I treated myself to on Sunday when I went to the arts and crafts show at the NEC Birmingham.

The landscape with boats I did in WHSmiths artist quality watercolour pencils and the fruit was the very first picture I did at my first lesson and its done in soft pastels.

The pictures have come up in reverse order to how I wanted them as the most recent picture is at the top and the oldest at the bottom but I can't work out how to change the order - maybe my next class should be a basics of computing?

I'm not completely happy with my work yet but its a fair start, and I can see TONS of room for improvement but I'm fairly happy that I've managed to produce something that actually looks something like what I intended it to, thanks for looking.