Love is in the air <3

With Valentine's Day on the horizon, I thought I'd share a few sweet treats with you! I created three little projects for Creative Stamping issue 39, using the FREE Truly Scrumptious stamp set. This fabulous issue went on sale 26th January and is jam-packed with cool ideas from a talented design team.

For these projects I used basic paper-piecing techniques using the Pebbles My Funny Valentine paper pad and masked the sentiments to create custom greetings.

This cute sweetie gift box started its life as a paper cup, which is a quick and easy solution - I just cheated because I'm not one for templates! hehe 

I made the cute pompom from baker's twine and added a simple die-cut tag :)

If you want to get your hands on this issue of Creative Stamping click here! There are so many cool ideas in this magazine, and at £7.99 it's amazing value for money.

Happy Valentine's Day to you all! <3

N x

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Well hello there,

It's about time I started racking up some 2017 blog posts, I can't believe how the year is already running away from me!

Late last year I went on a little adventure to London with my colleague and friend Amy Thomas [Editor of Love Sewing magazine] to visit  DSI London - which is a place of dreams! I dabble in sewing, studied Photography at Uni and am obsessed with Strictly Come Dancing, so it was a dream come true when Amy invited me along to be a part of the day.

DSI London have the mammoth task of creating the costumes week after week for Strictly, as well as providing outfits for the dance world internationally! The amazing team create ensembles from scratch in a matter of days, they share a wealth of knowledge and work like clockwork to deliver.

I had the best day, it's nice to get out of the office once in a while! My photography skills could do with a bit of polish, but it did the job!

The best bit about the entire experience is that I send my Grandma a copy and she called to tell me how proud she is. Coming from the woman who taught me how to sew and helped my creativity blossom, that meant a lot. <3

If you want to read the full article, issue 34 of Love Sewing is available here and comes with a beautiful FREE Annabelle dress pattern.

Once I have my craft room up and running I plan to make myself some new outfits / start with alterations and see how I go! 

N x

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Hello, hello, hello!

It's another week, and it's certainly turning chilly! I don't mind a brisk morning as it means I can start to break out my snazzy jumper collection, woollen tights and boots!

I'm excited to share a sneak peek of the cards that I made for Die-cutting Essentials issue 13 using the Marquee Collection from Creative Dies. Designed by my dear talented friend Vicky Welsby, I love the versatility of these dies - within the feature I used gems, buttons, bells and even fairy lights which can be seen below [not as effortless as it looks!] I think this collection combines the vintage feel of old school marquee lights and a contemporary clean twist. I chose to use the dies with a glamorous 'all that glitters' colour scheme - black & white and a pop of gold!

For this card I coloured in clear gems with a gold marker pen to create custom embellishments for my marquee die-cut! I don't think you can ever go wrong with black & white - you could easily swap the gold for another bold colour to mix things up.

The Teresa Collins Wanderlust paper pad was a lucky find, and it has come in for many other projects - perfect for cards for men!

Here's a cheeky little card using the peace sign which I love! Make cards not war! I offset a black die-cut behind the white to create a hint of shadow without making the card look too dark. The acetate sentiment is from the docrafts Forever Friends Opulence collection - I love the dimension it creates.

If you want to grab any of the dies in the collection and the co-ordinating stamps, they are all available from CraftStash here.

Last but not least, here's the frame that I made for the feature, which involved twisting very tiny fairy lights around the back of a chipboard die-cut - tricky but worth it! I think this idea is great for weddings and can be customised with a name or date with ease.

Until next time... keep crafting! *sways*

N x

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 Hello craft world!

I'm delighted to say i have a feature in the current issue of Creative Stamping!
I was completely in my element for this one, using a mix of stamping techniques and watercolour markers!
I will admit that I don't usually do masculine makes [the men in my life don't appreciate the effort as much!] and that blue isn't a colour i use frequently, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself with this one - AND I got to keep the fantastic Feathered Friends stamp set!

Both of these cards feature watercolour backgrounds, with a mix of heat embossing, watercolouring vellum and fussy cutting - [a labour of love]

I embellished the cards in this feature with Washi tape and with a line of stitching using my sewing machine out for a bit of extra detail...

I hope you like! And don't forget this issue is on sale NOW!
N x

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Hello!

I'm excited to share my latest appearance in Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine! Issue 136, which went on sale today features a free scoreboard! I can't wait to get my hands on a copy and have a go - I'm ashamed to say that i've never used a scoreboard! *SHOCK HORROR*

This lovely spread features four free digi stamps drawn by yours truly. I really relished creating the designs, and trying to think of workable imagery that the readers and I would like to work with when papercrafting. I went with a floral, bohemian theme for those spring/summer creations for loved ones - i hope you like!

You can download the free digi's from the papercraft magazines website, where you can also find templates to use with the fab scoreboard too! [Plus links to the other magazines]

http://www.papercraftmagazines.com/downloads/item/523-simply-cards-papercraft-136-bonus-downloads

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