New Instagram Account

Hi friends

Since mid November I've been having problems with my Instagram account being compromised.  I've changed my password countless times but somehow my account is still being hacked, my account profile changed (sometimes offensive!) and hundreds of people added that I'm apparently following!

So, if you currently follow my @neetandcrafty account please can you unfollow this one and follow my new account, username @craftyneet, which you can find here.

I'm trying to keep my original account going in an attempt to notify my lovely followers that I'm changing accounts but my patience is now wearing thin.  Again, this morning I woke up to an amended account in a foreign language and an email notification saying my password had been changed.  After starting to delete information that wasn't mine I've now been locked out AGAIN for violating their terms!

Rant over! lol

And, of course, any followers of my blog who aren't currently following me on Instagram, I would love to see you there - thanks so much for listening to me waffle on! :)

Less is More Week #309

Hi there

Today marks the last Less is More challenge of 2016 and we're here with a Recipe challenge.  Today we would like to see you...

Use Dimension

Today, we also have a Guest Designer joining us, our November winner, Sandie of London Days.  If you have time please pop by Sandie's blog, I'm sure she would really appreciate a visit from you.


So, on to my card, and I've saved my final Christmas card of 2016 for today as I thought it fitted this challenge really well.  This is the card I made for my bestie this year...

I started with a panel of white cardstock slightly smaller than the card base and stencilled the first parts of the two-step tree stencils in various green Distress Inks.  I then used the second part of the tree stencils to spread over some embossing paste to create the snowy layers.  While still wet I sprinkled over some fine glitter.  The photo below shows the glitter much better although in real life this is more silvery in colour, for some reason it looks a little more gold in these pics.

From a panel the same width I die cut a curve to create the snow bank for the trees to sit behind and stamped the Merry Christmas sentiment.  I then stamped the rest of the sentiment on the main panel and finished off with a glossy pink star.

Both panels were popped up on 3D foam to add dimension, and I think the embossing paste as well as one tree appearing to be behind the other also gives a dimensional effect.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Tim Holtz - Mini Stencils Set 21
• Ink: Distress Ink - Pine Needles, Forest Moss; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Embossing Paste: Ranger Texture Paste - Opaque Matte
• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Christmas Sparkle, The Best
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Snow Drifts
• Accents: Cosmic Shimmer Diamond Frost - Frosty Dawn; Papermania - Sparkly Stars Assorted Brights

Challenge entries:

STAMPlorations - December Challenge - Theme and Sketch

A Gem of a Challenge - Challenge #184 - Anything Christmas Goes

Thanks so much for popping by today and now that the festivities are over I hope you may find some crafty time to play along this week.

And, however you are celebrating tonight to bring in 2017, I wish you a fantastic night.  So all that's left to say is...

Simple One Layer Christmas Card

Hi there

I have another of my Christmas makes to share with you today.  I needed another handful of cards so wanted something quick and easy and also a design which would be easy to mail.

I can't take credit for this one as I've taken this design idea directly from Therese Calvird at Lost in Paper where she recently shared a blog post and video of how she made six fabulous one layer cards, here.  I loved the triangular tree design so changed it up using what I had in my stash.  Thanks for the inspiration, Therese.

I placed a post-it note across my card and then stamped the three trees in pastel colours.  The sentiment was then stamped underneath and a small glossy star was added to the central tree.  That was it, super simple!

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Modern Christmas, Brushed Greetings
• Ink: Altenew - Mountain Mist, Rose Quartz, Soft Lilac; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Accents: Papermania Sparkling Stars - Pastel Assortment

Challenge entry:

My Time to Craft - Challenge #336 - Christmas but Non-Traditional Colours

Thanks, as always, for popping by.  I'm back to work tomorrow but will be back on Saturday to announce the next challenge at Less is More.  I hope you'll join me then.

Jolly Robins

Hi there

I'm back again today to share another of my Christmas makes, this being the card I made for my Brother and Sister-in-Law.  They love birds and have a robin that regularly visits their garden so this had to be the one for them.

The robins were stamped and die cut with their co-ordinating dies, as were the hat and holly.  The branch and sentiment were stamped onto a panel which was then popped up on the card base using fun foam.  I adhered the robins and then added some clear Wink of Stella to their red tummies and the holly berries for a bit of Christmas sparkle.  Super easy as this all came from one stamp set.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Rockin' Robin (and co-ordinating dies)
• Ink: Altenew - Rocky Shore, Espresso, Crimson, Ruby Red and Evergreen; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Accents: Wink of Stella - Clear

Thanks for popping by.  I hope you are all having a lovely break after Christmas.  I'm enjoying a few days off before my return to work on Friday.  I think I may have a little stash tidy later, my last few Christmas cards were made very last minute so I need to clear up the carnage that still remains! 

I will be back on Saturday with the next Less is More challenge details so, if I don't see you before then, have a lovely rest of the week.

Winter Reflection

Good morning

I hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday and that your heads aren't too sore today!  I spent Christmas Day with my boyfriend's family and this morning I will be off to see my brother and sister-in-law for a few hours before they go away for a few days.

I thought I would pop by today to share another of my Christmas makes.

I love the scenes that can be created using Card-io stamps and I picked up a couple of new sets when I visited the Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycraft show back in September.  I watched some of the demonstrations again and, although nowhere near as fabulous as those on show, I gave it a good go!

I used a Post-It note cut with a curve to create the top snowbank and gently blended some ink to create the sky and the sunrise, before stamping the trees in first, second and even third generation stamping to create some distance.  I then used the straight edge of a Post-It and gently blended to create the waterline of the lake before stamping the deer.  To create the reflection of the deer I stamped it onto acetate before transferring the mirror image below.  Take care when doing this as your stamp will slide around on the acetate.  I then finished with some glitter adhered with a Quickie Glue pen and the sentiment stamped at the top.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Card-io - Mini Tall Trees, Festive Scene
• Ink: Versa Color - Neptune, Orange, Marigold; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Accents: Cosmic Shimmer Diamond Frost - Frosty Dawn

Challenge entries:

Crafty Creations - Challenge #331 - Any Holiday

CAS-ual Fridays - Challenge #163 - Christmas and Hanukkah

Creative Inspirations - Challenge #264 - White Christmas
A Gem of a Challenge - Challenge #184 - Anything Christmas Goes
The Male Room - Challenge #50 - Christmas/Winter Wishes/December Celebrations
Time Out - Challenge #73 - Inspired by Words "With each sunrise we are given a chance for a new beginning"

Thanks, as always, for visiting and I hope you all have a great time continuing with your festivities, whatever you're up to.

I hope to see you again soon.

Sending Lots of Love at Christmas

Good morning and Merry Christmas, everyone!

Well, yesterday turned out to be busier than I first envisaged and passed by a lot quicker so I didn't find the time to share more projects as promised.

But as it's now Christmas Day I just wanted to share another festive make and send you all very best wishes for a fabulous day with your nearest and dearest and hope that you all have a wonderful time (or perhaps already have, depending on where you are in the world!)

I also want to send you a massive THANK YOU for your visits and such uplifting comments.  Crafty blogland is a wonderful community to be part of and I appreciate each and every one of you so much.

So, on to my card for today.  I love seeing winter scenes with deer so here's one of my last Christmas makes for this year...

I stamped the birch trees in VersaMark and heat embossed in clear.  I then placed a post-it note, handcut with a slight curve, across the bottom to create a mask before using the emboss resist technique to blend the sky with Distress Ink.  I then stamped the deer in black.  I use a stitched rectangle die to create the panel and then used a Quickie Glue pen to add a little sparkly glitter to the snow at the base.

I then used a white pigment pen to add the falling snow, mounted the panel on 3D foam and stamped the sentiment below on the card base.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Birch Trees and Eat, Drink, Be Merry; Card-io - Festive Scene
• Ink: VersaMark; Memento - Tuxedo Black; Distress Ink - Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Clear Gloss
• Accents: Cosmic Shimmer Diamond Frost - Frosty Dawn; Signo Uniball pen

Challenge entries:

Crafty Creations - Challenge #331 - Any Holiday
CAS-ual Fridays - Challenge #163 - Christmas and Hanukkah
Creative Inspirations - Challenge #264 - White Christmas
A Gem of a Challenge - Challenge #184 - Anything Christmas Goes
The Male Room - Challenge #50 - Christmas/Winter Wishes/December Celebrations

Sending lots of love and I will be back over the Christmas break to share a few more projects but all that's left to say for now is.....

Shimmery Winter Trees

Hi there

As there is no Less is More post from me today as we have a two-weeker, I thought I'd pop back to share another batch of Christmas cards I made earlier this month.

Some of these were sent overseas so I've held back on sharing these until most had been received.  I made a selection of these, 28 in total, using 4 different colours of Distress Inks...

Blueprint Sketch...

Spun Sugar...

Shaded Lilac...

Broken China,..

I die cut a circle from some scraps of thick cardstock and used these as masks to blend my backgrounds.  I then flicked water droplets onto the blending and blotted away to create the snow.  Then came the time consuming part...die cutting all the trees, 84 in total! Once cut I placed batches of them into a box (eventually found one as I didn't want mess all over my lounge!) and spritzed them with some Cosmic Shimmer mist.  Once dry these were adhered to the card bases and I then simply stamped the sentiment below in black...super easy and quick thanks to the MISTI!

Materials used:

• Ink: Distress Ink - Spun Sugar, Shaded Lilac, Broken China, Blueprint Sketch; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Dies: Craft Emotions - Pine Trees
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - In-Stitches Christmas
• Accents: Cosmic Shimmer Mist - Pearl Mist

Challenge entries:

Crafty Creations - Challenge #331 - Any Holiday

My Time to Craft - Challenge #336 - Christmas but Non-Traditional Colours

CAS-ual Fridays - Challenge #163 - Christmas and Hanukkah

Creative Inspirations - Challenge #264 - White Christmas

Crafty Cardmakers - Challenge #179 - Christmas with a Twist (non-traditional colours)

A Gem of a Challenge - Challenge #184 - Anything Christmas Goes

The Male Room - Challenge #50 - Christmas/Winter Wishes/December Celebrations (linking up the blue versions)

Dream Valley - Challenge #146 - Christmas

Penny Black and More - December Challenge - Black and White plus one (all are B+W+1)

Thanks for popping by, I hope to be back with more posts today to share more Christmas creations.

I hope you have a lovely Christmas Eve and get all your final preparations completed ahead of the big day tomorrow!

50th Theatrical Balloons

Hi there

Earlier today I shared a shaker card I made for my friend's 40th using stencilled balloons, here.  Here's another version, this time a masculine card I made for a 50th birthday order, for a guy who loves his amateur dramatics.  This was made for my neighbour to give to her son.

As before, I stencilled the overlapping balloons with Distress Inks onto a white cardstock panel which I'd already printed with a theatre masks image.  I then die cut the sentiment and backed it with black cardstock before adhering the little bits from inside the letters back into position.  I die cut the numbers from a scrap of silver cardstock and heat embossed the 'son' sentiment in silver.  The panel was then adhered to the card base on 3D foam.  This was also a large card, made A5 size.

Materials used:

• Stencil: MFT - Big Balloons
• Ink: Distress Ink - Broken China, Crushed Olive, Blueprint Sketch, Spiced Marmalade; VersaMark
• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Happy Birthday to You; Papertrey Ink - Modern Numbers
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - My Hero
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Silver

Challenge entries:

CAS(E) this Sketch - Challenge #202

Crafty Creations - Challenge #330 - Masculine

Thanks for popping by.  I hope to share more Christmas card makes shortly.

40th Balloon Shaker

Hi guys

I made this card for my friend's 40th birthday last month so I thought I would share it today as a break from all the Christmas cards!

I absolutely love the MFT Big Balloons stencil I bought earlier this year, it's so versatile, and I decided to pair it with another MFT product, my recently purchased Happy Birthday to You die.

I cut a panel of white cardstock slightly smaller than my card base and blended ink through the balloon stencil, overlapping each one. I then die cut the Happy Birthday to You, making sure to keep all the little bits which create the inside of some of the letters.  I then adhered acetate to the reverse and created the shaker with some teeny silver/holographic flowers.  I adhered the panel onto the base using 3D foam and die cut the '40' from a scrap of silver cardstock.  All that was left to do then was adhere the fiddly bits to complete the letters, very carefully as I was adhering to acetate so they did want to slide around a bit.

Materials used:

• Stencil: MFT - Big Balloons
• Ink: Distress Ink - Picked Raspberry, Dusty Concord, Peacock Feathers
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Happy Birthday To You; Papertrey Ink - Modern Numbers
• Shaker flowers from stash

Challenge entry:

Happy Little Stampers - December Challenge - Anything Goes with Dies

I recently used this same design for another card which I will share in the next post.  This time for a male and a bespoke request.

Back soon.

Christmas Card Multiples - Pastel Snowflakes

Hi there

Last weekend I counted up how many Christmas cards I had ready to go, and how many I still needed to send.  Whoops....I appeared to be around 40 short!  So I played around and created a card that I was happy with, then I recreated it and made 40 in 3 hours!

The MISTI was an absolute godsend for the multiple stamping but I didn't make things easy for myself, I included masking, ink blending and heat embossing too!  And as all of these were being sent in the mail I made these one layer too!

I'm really pleased with how these turned out so this post is a bit photo-heavy!  I took a few lol

Ok, so here's what I did...

I started by cutting and scoring all my cardstock then laid a piece of masking tape across each card in the same position.  Next I ink blended it the pale green, blending up and down from the masking tape and fading it out.  I then used the MISTI to position the first three snowflakes which were stamped in pink and stamped these on each card.  I then positioned the next three snowflakes and repeated the process with the green ink.  The masking tape was then removed and I used the MISTI once again to stamp the sentiment across the previously masked strip.  The final two snowflakes were then stamped in VersaMark and heat embossed using some clear sparkly embossing powder.  The cards did warp a little but after a little time under a heavy box they were good to go :)

Materials used:

• Ink: Distress Ink - Cracked Pistachio; Altenew - Rose Quartz and Mountain Mist; VersaMark; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamps: Uniko - Stunning Snowflakes; Clearly Besotted - Most Wonderful
• Embossing Powder: All Night Media - Crystal Sparkle

I'd like to enter this design at the following challenges:

My Time to Craft - Challenge #336 - Christmas Non-Traditional Colours
Cute Card Thursday - Challenge #456 - Snowflakes
CAS-ual Fridays - Challenge #163 - Christmas & Hanukkah
Addicted to Stamps and More - Challene #224 - CAS
Crafty Cardmakers - Challenge #179 - Christmas with a Twist ( I used non-traditional colours)
A Gem of a Challenge - Challenge #184 - Anything Christmas Goes
Dream Valley - Challenge #146 - Christmas
AAA Cards - CAS Game #79 - Christmas



And another challenge has now appeared at Merry Monday #228 were we can submit our favourite Christmas card of 2016 so I'm popping this one in over there too :)




Thanks so much for visiting today and I'd love to hear what you think of these.  I have a few more cards to share here on my blog, including another set of multiples.  I just wanted to give these a little more time to arrive overseas before sharing with you.

I hope to see you again very soon :)

Less is More Week #307 and #308

Hi there

A new challenge is starting at Less is More today and it will run for two weeks to cover the Christmas holidays.  And we have a Theme challenge for you which is...

Children

Due to the pre-Christmas craziness I've only had time to make one card for you for this challenge.  And while trawling through my stash I realised I have very little to fit this challenge.  But I did find this cute ballerina image from one of the very first Clearly Besotted stamp sets, Twinkle Toes.

I started by stamping the ballerina image using my MISTI by repeatedly stamping with pink and lilac ink, overlapping in the centre until I had an even ombre blend.  The image was then die cut with the stitched rectangle.  I stamped the sentiment onto the card base in VersaMark and heat embossed in silver.  The die cut panel was adhered using fun foam and the gems and stars were adhered to add a finishing touch of sparkle.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Twinkle Toes
• Ink: Altenew - Rose Quartz, Soft Lilac; VersaMark
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Inside and Out Diagonal Stitched Rectangles
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Silver
• Accents: Smooth silver gems and stars from shaker selection - From stash

Challenge entry:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #224 - CAS

Thanks so much for your visit today, and to all of you that have participated at Less is More throughout the year.  My teamies and I love seeing how you interpret our challenges each week.  As this is a two week challenge hopefully you will be able to find some crafty time over the Christmas break.  The next challenge at Less is More will be on New Years Eve.