Honey, I Shrunk the Kit - November 2017

Good morning

It's time for another get together with the Honeys, and we've all been creating with another great kit of crafty bits and bobs.  Grab a coffee if you like, there's lots of pics below!

For those of you that don't know what this is all about, one of the gang put together a surprise kit which then gets posted to the rest of us.  We then get creative with the same goodies and share our makes here on our blogs.

The latest fab kit was compiled by the lovely Sarah P of Sazzle Dazzle Crafts and mailed out to the rest of the Honeys...

Hazel Hodgkins - Hazel's Paper Designs

Sarah Gray - Funky Fossil Designs

Shona Chambers - Twine Around

Anita Bowden - Neet & Crafty (that's me!)

Here's what was included in Sarah's 'Sugar Fix' kit...

Stamps:
Reverse Confetti: Donut You Know (plus donut die)
Neat & Tangled: Say Yes to Donuts

Avery Elle: Pick N Mix (plus dies)

Mama Elephant: Carnival Cupcakes (plus dies)

Other Dies:

L’il Inker: Smile

Mama Elephant: Columbus Circle

Neat & Tangled: Hooray word dies

Other Items:

Hobbycraft Basics: patterned paper

Action Wobbler

Doodlebug: bakers twine

Anita’s: half cut pearls

So, here goes with my makes this time..


Card 1:

I used the Mama Elephant Columbus Circle panel backed with some of the polka dot paper and adhered these flat to my card base.  I then used the Mama Elephant die cut cupcake and teddy bear, coloured with ProMarkers and some clear Wink of Stella and popped the teddy bear up on the action wobbler.  I then die cut the Reverse Confetti sentiment using an MFT stitched rectangle and coloured with the same pink ProMarkers and adhered to the base on 3D foam.

Challenge entries:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #269 - Clean and Simple
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Food and/or Drink (Mama Elephant)
Happy Little Stampers - November Anything Goes with Dies





Card 2:

I used the Reverse Confetti die cuts and sentiment for this one.  I coloured the doughnut and icing with ProMarkers and adhered these together.  Then, using Glossy Accents I adhered lots of the half cut pearls to the icing die cut and then smothered over the top with more Glossy Accents and left overnight to dry.  On a panel of white cardstock I stamped the sprinkles from my own Clearly Besotted 'With Sprinkles' stamp set in grey ink.  The sentiment was die cut with an MFT pierced square die, adhered to the stamped panel and I then suspended the doughnut from the top of the panel using some twine from the kit.  Here's a close up of the gloss and 'sprinkles' on the doughnut.

Card 3:

This was the simplest of all to make.  I adhered some of chevron patterned paper to the card base, leaving a slim border.  I then used a pink ProMarker, close to the colour of the paper, and coloured over the Neat & Tangled Hooray die cut, which was then adhered over the co-ordinating shadow die cut.  I then used a sentiment from my own Altenew 'Celebrate' stamp set which I heat embossed in white on a strip of black cardstock.  The hooray and sentiment were both popped up on 3D foam.

Challenge entry:

Seize the Birthday - Monochromatic




Card 4:

Using an MFT pierced square die I cut the boy image and some of the polka dot paper and layered these up on a card base.  The image was once again coloured with ProMarkers and topped with some clear Wink of Stella.  I then took my Clearly Besotted 'With Sprinkles' set and stamped the sentiment at the base and within the speech bubble, using a die from Clearly Besotted 'You Said It' die set.


Card 5:

On a panel of white cardstock I used some Nuvo Glimmer Paste in Moonstone and spread this through a Hero Arts 'Sprinkles' stencil.  I then coloured the Avery Elle sweet images from the kit and fussy cut these out before adhering around a sentiment from the kit which I die cut with a die from MFT Stitched Sentiment Strips.  The panel was adhered to the base on fun foam and the sweets and sentiment with glue dots.

Challenge entry:

Creative Inspirations - Challenge #283 - Sparkle



I hope you like what I did with the kit, and I'm now ready to go and visit my fellow Honeys to see what they created with the same goodies.

Thanks so much for visiting today, I'll be back shortly with details of the new challenge at Less is More :)

Honey, I Shrunk the Kit - September 2017

Good morning

My fellow honeys and I have got together again recently and been creating cards from an identical kit of crafty goodies.

One of the gang puts together an envelope of the same secret crafty bits and sends the happy mail to each of us, and we then get creative with it.  It was my turn to supply the kit this time so I'm excited to see what my talented teamies have done with it.  The fabulous honeys are:

Hazel Hodgkins - Hazel's Paper Designs

Sarah Platt - Sazzle Dazzle Crafts

Sarah Gray - Funky Fossil Designs

Shona Chambers - Twine Around

I named my kit 'Symbols of Summer'. 

Here is a pic of the kit and details of what I included

(I went a bit bonkers and included rather a lot, and from many brands too!)

Stamps:
Your Next Stamp - Flippin' Fabulous (crab/sentiments)
Clearly Besotted - Life's a Beach (flip flops/sentiments), So Sweet II (ice cream), Hung Up on You (mini cocktail/sentiments), Good Times II (sentiments), Petite Plushies (lolly/pinwheel)
Hero Arts - Let's Chill (palm/hibiscus/cocktail/beachball/sentiment)
Avery Elle - Sip Sip Hooray (sentiments)
The Greeting Farm - Rain Snow Shine (girl)
Little Claire (beach huts
Clear Impressions - Sea Breeze (deck chair)

Dies:
Paper Smooches - Warm Wishes, Birthday Words (cheers)
Echo Park - Flamingo Palm die set
Newton's Nook - Hibiscus
Clearly Besotted - Scalloped Edges die collection

Patterned Paper:
First Edition - Paradise Crush (floral)
Decotime - no name (ice creams)

Ribbon - Dovecraft
Gems - Papermania Glazed Gems Iridescent
Reversible coloured card from stash

Here are my makes (and still plenty left to make more!)

Card 1

I used the coloured cardstock, image and sentiment from the kit for this one.  I die cut a white piece of card using an MFT Die-namics double stitched circle die and stencilled some clouds using MFT mini cloud edges stencil with Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass (apologies, it's very pale in the pic).  I then layered up the sand and sea and die cut these with the same circle die to create the scene.  I added a mix of embossing powder by Wow! by dotting with an embossing pen, to create the break of the waves on the sand. The crab was coloured with ProMarkers and fussy cut, and the sentiment was cut out and mounted on some leftover blue cardstock. I finished by adding the sun which is in fact part of a chrysanthemum layering die set by Creative Expressions, cut from yellow card, and blended this with Distress Ink in Spiced Marmalade.  Oh, and of course some googly eyes!

Challenge entries:

AAA Cards - CAS Game #98 - Creatures Great or Small (a few layers but hopefully still CAS enough!)

Alphabet Challenge - M for Make Your Mark
Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes with Dies September Challenge

Card 2

This one uses three of the die cuts from the kit.  I used Distress Inks to colour the flamingo (Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Hickory Smoke, Pumice Stone) and the palm tree (Ground Espresso, Forest Moss, Pine Needles).  The 'warm wishes' I coloured with a black ProMarker.  I used the brush stroke image from Stampin' Up's Work of Art set to create the sand, sea and sky using Versa Color ink in Bisque, Lagoon Blue and Sky Blue.  I used a black fineliner pen for the flamingo's eye and finished by adding my coconuts, Doodlebug Sprinkles in Bon Bon.

Challenge entry:

Just Add Ink - Challenge #376 - Just Add 'D' (Die cuts / Distress Ink)

Card 3

Everything here was from the kit, other than ProMarkers and Wink of Stella to colour and a couple of stitched dies.  I adhered the lolly/ice cream paper to the entire card base, then split a piece of white cardstock on the diagonal and adhered this over the top. The beach huts were coloured with ProMarkers and die cut with an MFT Die-namics stitched rectangle die, and the sentiment was cut from a smaller one in the same set.  I coloured the three elements of the ice cream, fussy cut them out, cut a slit in the ice cream to tuck in the flake, covered with clear Wink of Stella then adhered to the card with adhesive and glue dots.

Challenge entry:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Stamp It

Card 4

This one was predominantly all bits from the kit too.  The image I coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos before mounting onto some of the floral patterned paper.  I wrapped the ribbon around a piece of white cardstock and adhered the image panels on top.  I die cut the sentiment and a piece of the orange cardstock using the Tiny Tags Die by Clearly Besotted and offset these before adhering.  I finished by adding some of the gems to the ribbon and tag, and finally added some Glossy Accents to her sunglasses.

Challenge entry:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Stamp It

Card 5

I wasn't really sure where I was going with this one and it's my least favourite but thought I would share it anyway.  I die cut the pink cardstock and the cocktail image using rectangle dies.  The cocktail was coloured with ProMarkers and some Wink of Stella.  The hibiscus die cuts were colour blended with Distress Inks in Worn Lipstick, Festive Berries, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn and Forest Moss.  I layered up all the elements, added the 'cheers' sentiment which I kept white and finished with some of the smooth gems.

If you've made it to the end of this post, thank you so much for sticking with it.  I'm now off to see what my honey buddies have made with the kit!

I'll be back very soon with the details of the upcoming challenge at Less is More.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kit - July 2017

Good morning!

My fellow honeys and I have got together again and have been creating with another crafty bundle.  So, once again we bring you...

One of the gang puts together an envelope of the same secret crafty bits and sends it to each of us, and we then get creative with it. This time it was Hazel's turn to supply the kit.  The other fabulous honeys who take part are:

Sarah Platt - Sazzle Dazzle Crafts

Sarah Gray - Funky Fossil Designs

Shona Chambers - Twine Around

Anita Bowden - Neet & Crafty (That's me!)

Hazel named her kit 'Going Up' and this is the happy mail we received...

Kit contents:

Stamped images: Gerda Steiner Designs, STAMPlorations, Bella Stamps

Dies: MFT, Clearly Besotted, Spellbinders

Patterned paper: Stampin' Up!

Yellow twine and gems

I have five cards to share with you, and still have tonnes of bits and bobs left over to make more.  My cards this time are all very different, and I can't wait to see what the other honeys have created with the kit too :)


Card One

I coloured the koala images from the kit with ProMarkers and fussy cut them out.  I used a piece of cardstock die cut using Fluffy Cloud Borders by Lawn Fawn as a template to create a cloudy background on my card base blended with Distress Ink in Peacock Feathers.  I die cut a circle aperture from some green cardstock and stamped Clearly Besotted's Mini Leafy Accents in VersaMark around the aperture.  The koalas and green panel were adhered in place, and I then die cut two of the sentiments from the kit and adhered these on 3D foam.


Card Two

I covered my card base with a piece of blue patterned paper which has a mottled effect (it's been in my stash forever!), so I thought this would give a good impression of sky.  Along the base I added a piece of cardstock die cut using Fluffy Cloud Borders by Lawn Fawn, which I also stamped with a sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Shine Bright set.  The sun die from the kit I coloured by blending Distress Ink in Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade, and I adhered this to create a scene, along with the two die cut clouds, also from the kit.


Card Three

On a panel of white linen cardstock I lightly blended a background with Distress Inks in Wilted Violet and Mermaid Lagoon.  I then splattered with water to add some detail.  I took a butterfly and the 'make a wish' die cuts from the kit, sprinkled these with Brushos in Purple and Turquoise before spritzing with water and leaving to dry.  I adhered the die cuts to the linen panel and popped it up on fun foam, then finished by adding the gems from the kit to create the butterfly trail.


Card Four

I've not coloured with my ProMarkers for ages and certainly need more colours, as well as more practice!  I wanted to pair the girl image with the patterned paper in the kit so coloured her in some co-ordinating colours.  I adhered a strip of the balloon paper to the card base and overlaid two white panels popped up on foam, one stamped with a sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Sentimental Type set.  I fussy cut out the girl and adhered her across the panels.  I then finished off with one of the die cut balloons from the kit, blended with Peach Perfect ink by Altenew


Card Five

For my final card I wanted to use more of the die cut balloons from the kit.  I watercoloured these with Zig markers and I'm really pleased with the shading.  I gently blended some Milled Lavender Distress Ink through a Diagonal Stripes stencil by MFT to add some interest to the background.  I die cut the sentiment from the kit using a stitched oval die by Lil' Inkers.  All the elements were popped up on 3D foam but I felt it needed something more so I stamped the little star clusters from Uniko's Balloon Bash set in silver pigment ink.

Challenge entries:

CASology - Week 255 - Fly
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Stencil It




So there you have it, five very diverse cards using different techniques too...go me! :D

I'm now off to have a mooch around my fellow honeys' blogs to see where this kit took them.  Follow the links above if you want to do the same.

I'll be back in a short while with the details of this coming week's challenge at Less is More.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kit - May 2017

Good morning!

It's time for another get together with my Honey Babes.  I'm so happy to be part of this fun team and thoroughly enjoyed creating with the crafty bundle we received last time.

Every couple of months one of our team put together a bundle of crafty loveliness and send it to the other team members.  It's so great to receive the secret happy mail and to see how each of us use the same products in different ways.

This time it was the lovely Shona's turn to host the challenge and what a cute set we received, full of cute critters and hugs!  Thanks, Shona.

Here is the Honey line up...

Hazel Hodgkins - Hazel's Paper Designs

Sarah Platt - Sazzle Dazzle Crafts

Sarah Gray - Funky Fossil Designs

Anita Bowden - Neet & Crafty (That's me!)

Sadly, we've lost the lovely Sandie who has decided to step down from the team.  So sad not to have you with us this time, Sandie xx

This is the fab package we received from Shona...

The kit included:

Neat and Tangled

 Sequins

Big Hugs die-cut

Awesome die-cuts

Awesome Stamp set (sentiments)

Winnie and Walter

Friend die-cut

My Favourite Things

Hugs die-cut

Cool Cat stamp set

Beast Friends stamp set

Otterly Love You stamp set

Studio Katia

 Stitched Creative Nested Squares die-cut (on watercolour cardstock)

Pretty Pink Posh

 Stitched Rectangle die-cut (on watercolour cardstock)

Stitched 3-window die-cut

You might want to grab a cuppa as I've made six cards using items from the kit, and still have lots left over.  My fussy cutting skills were put to the test with this kit!  So here goes.

As a cat lover I couldn't resist the little furbabies and I made three cards using the cute kitties in the pack so I'll start with those.


Card 1:

I just had to colour this little kitty to look like my beloved Elmo who sadly passed away last year.  He was always standing up like this on his back legs (usually up to no good!).  I created a little scene through a window die by Clearly Besotted, blended some clouds using a die cut by Lawn Fawn with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink (apologies, the photo doesn't show the clouds very well) and then I used the trees that were part of the Beastie images from the kit.  I thought a Missing You sentiment was perfect for this little scene, this one is Clearly Besotted.  My images were coloured with ProMarkers and FlexMarkers.





Card 2:

I started by stamping some paw prints by Dovecraft in VersaMark and heat embossed these in white before emboss resist blending with Distress Ink in Victorian Velvet.  I then die cut with a stitched heart by MFT.  I cut down the sentiment from the kit, mounted it onto some grey cardstock and then popped the little kitty up on 3D foam.  He was coloured with FlexMarkers.

Challenge entry:

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Cats and/or Dogs



Card 3:

For this card I started by masking off the edges of the card base and then blended some Milled Lavender Distress Ink through a Tim Holtz mini stencil to create a backdrop for my images.  I then coloured the cat, cushion and food bowl with ProMarkers and FlexMarkers and fussy cut the images before adhering to the card base.  Another sentiment from the kit was cut down and mounted onto some green cardstock.


Card 4:

I used the die cut stitched rectangle from Shona's kit to create a scene.  The top part was blended with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink using a die cut piece using a Lawn Fawn cloud die.  The water was blended first with Stormy Sky Distress Ink and the ripples were created by using a scalloped edge die cut by Clearly Besotted and Faded Jeans Distress Ink.  The otter and rocks were coloured with ProMarkers and FlexMarkers before being fussy cut out, and I finished the scene with some grass using a die by Clearly Besotted.  I die cut the sentiment from the kit using a stitched rectangle to match the larger die cut behind.  The panels were then popped up on 3D foam.


Card 5:

Included in the kit were the Awesome die cut and the co-ordinating shadow.  I coloured the shadow part with a black ProMarker to make the word pop out.  I blended through a stencil by The Crafters Workshop to create the burst and cut down the You Are So sentiment and coloured with with a blue marker.  The whole panel was then popped up on 3D foam.


Card 6:

I had to use one of these cute little beasties from the kit.  I decided to go with the one wearing the scarf and went with the Christmas theme.  I coloured the beastie once again with markers, and the Santa hat, then created an ombre blend with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink on the Friend die cut included in the kit.  I found some patterned paper from a pad by Doodlebug, cut down the beastie sentiment, adhered all the elements and stamped the Merry Christmas by Clearly Besotted at the base.



Are you still with me?  Thanks so much if you are, that was a lot to get through.  I had great fun creating these makes.  If you have time, please do pop over to visit my fellow Honeys following the links above.  I will be off there myself in a short while to see how they've worked their magic with the kit.  Right now I'm no doubt still in bed as it's my birthday today and I'm determined to have a lazy lie-in!

I'm Officially a Honey!

Good morning!

I've got some super exciting news today!

A while ago the lovely Hazel of Hazel's Paper Designs officially invited me to join her and her super talented team of designers/cardmakers/bloggers, aka the Honeys.  Yippee...so I am now delighted to be a member of...

As well as Hazel, the other wonderful ladies that make up this fabulous line up are the four S's:

Sandie Munro - London Days

Sarah Platt - Sazzle Dazzle Crafts

Sarah Gray - Funky Fossil Designs

Shona Chambers - Twine Around

The idea behind this challenge is that every couple of months we take turns to send an envelope of themed crafty goodies to the rest of the team consisting of die cuts, stamped images, papers, embellishments, etc. and we all then make cards from the same kit. After following the previous posts it's great fun to see how each designer uses the elements of each kit.

So, enough of my waffling!  This time it was Sarah Gray's turn to post out the 'kits/goody bags/little packages of happy mail' and this is the gorgeous kit we all received...

HEARTFELT

The kit included:

Stamped images from:

Mama Elephant, Winnie & Walter, Paper Smooches and Neat & Tangled

Die cuts from:

Simon Says Stamp, Avery Elle and Tonic

Various embellies:

Doilies, patterned paper, chipboard hearts

Right, here goes...

Card 1:

For this card I used the pink cardstock, the 'Sending' die cut and a little red heart from the kit.  I added a layer of red cardstock, both panels were die cut with an MFT Die-namics Inside and Out Diagonal stitched rectangle die.  I also added the embossed 'love' sentiment from Clearly Besotted's 'Sketched Blooms' set and the swoosh from 'Super Star Additions' set, also CBS.

Card 2:

I just had to use these cute little bunnies from the kit (I do have this stamp set but yet to ink it up!).  I had a card base sat on my table which I had embossed with a stitched heart a while ago and then didn't use it so that was my starting point.  I then used the heart die cut from the kit (with the aperture in the centre) as a mask and blended the ombre heart using Distress Ink in Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry and Dusty Concord.  Sarah had provided the sentiment so I cut it down and blended with the same ink colours.  The bunnies were shaded just slightly using a grey Derwent Coloursoft pencil, fussy cut out and popped up on 3D foam.  The two little hearts were also from the kit.


Challenge entry:

House of Cards - February Challenge - Love theme/colours
Just Add Ink - Challenge #348 - Just Add Ombre

Card 3:

With the help of some stitched dies by MFT and a little metallic thread, everything else here was from the kit.  I adhered the text paper to the card base.  The wooden hearts were tied with metallic thread and I've left these hanging loose within the apertures, just adhered on the reverse of the top panel.  The sentiment was simply die cut and popped up on a foam square.

Card 4:

I must admit, the doilies were scaring me a little...I never know what to do with them! lol  Then I spotted the flowery edging so I cut out three of these.  My base was lightly blended with Distress Ink in Spun Sugar and gently splattered with water.  The red heart and the 'You' were from the kit.  I stamped the additional sentiment from Wplus9 'That is All' set, die cut some leaves (from Woodland Stag Wreath set by Xcut) to add to my doily flowers, and finished off with some Papermania glazed gems.

Challenge entry:

Happy Little Stampers - February Challenge - Anything Goes with Dies

Card 5:

I used the white die cut heart from the kit and stamped over it in black with a stamp called 'Lace' by Wow, and heat embossed it in clear.  I then used a fishtail flag die by MFT to cut out another of the kit sentiments, as well as a strip from the pink cardstock that was left from Card 1.  I layered these up behind the heart which was popped up, adhered the red heart, then added a teeny white peg from my stash with another of the red hearts adhered to it.

Phew, well done for sticking with me if you reached the end of this post.  And I still have lots of bits left to make more!  Thanks so much to Sarah G for this fabulous selection of goodies.  And I hope I've done enough so my fellow Honeys will let me stay in their gang...I've had such fun!  Right, I'm now off to see what fabulous cards they have created from the kit!

I'll be back very soon to announce this week's new challenge at Less is More so please do pop back if you can.