Time to Reveal the Revamp!

Whoa! Are you ready for this??! I'm so excited and even though it's not completely finished {when can we EVER say a room is completely finished?} I can wait no longer! I probably the only one excited about this, but I can tell you it's definitely given me a new lease of life.

The only before pictures I have posted on my blog are these just showing part of my room and also the colour of the walls as was. There are more on my old laptop but for some reason I can't seen to turn it on at the moment! When I can I'll edit this post.

Well, it's taken a good few weeks to get from that to this, and there's still more to do, but I'm getting there. I've had a masshouive clear out, and now most of the children and adults in the local area are beneficiaries of my clear out - and I wouldn't have it any other way. If I can spread my love of craft to others, then I've done my job.

SO where so I start? At the beginning would be a good place!

 I've painted the walls with Cape May by the New England Paint company, it's probably just white to the untrained eye, but you and I can tell the difference, right? ;) I kept the colour above the picture rail just to add a soupcon of colour, but mainly because I couldn't be bothered to paint all the mountainous artexing peaks! I treated myself to a new clock {IKEA} to nicely contrast with the walls and a new 'sideboard, cupboardy thing', which now looks better than 4 of those mismatched plastic drawer things that were all different heights. I've also got a new gorgeously pink scalloped edged WRM magnetic craft mat, which is gorg! Also, I've added some poles, and magnetic strip a la IKEA, great for punches and scissors and the like. I also have the gorgeous white carousel from Create and Craft {on the sideboard} which is such good quality, and my be-utiful giraffe print tote bag from Craft Superstore.

 This is now looking to the direction the previous photo was taken. I've made the wall decal myself, and it was soooo easy to do, with help from my Silhouette{close ups to follow}. I LOVE that machine! I invested in some new boxes for my expedit shelves, and these are made from frosted perspex. As I could see through them, I thought this looked too untidy, so I bought 14 sheets of 12 x 12 patterned paper and had them laminated. These fit nicely into the front of the boxes and make everything look uniform, and no longer untidy. The room will make the room look untidy, soon enough! ha ha.

Here's the wall decal in more detail. The 'dream' and 'inspire' words are made from Silhouette Pink Vinyl. It's so easy to do! I'll do a tutorial on how to make your own later in the week. The 'Create' word is made from letters bought from decopatch. They are like a papier mache, and they come white. Tutorial to follow about this!

 Mmmm, droool...buttons, brads and flowers! I just LOVE my buttons, brads and flowers and must have spent two full evenings sorting these beauties into colour schemes. I have displayed them in colour schemes too. At the back there is a large jar with flowers, to the middle a medium jar with buttons, and to the front a small IKEA jar with brads. Like a rainbow of fruit flavours!

 I also found these handy little plastic baskets on a trip to IKEA too. They are great for storing 6 x 6 paper pads {you can get two next to each other with the spines showing - I'll take a piccy}, but here I've used them for my scrap paper and cardstock. I've already started putting vinyl signs on them to denote the colour, but I'm waiting for more colours of vinyl to be delivered so I can finish this! Can you see, I have no purple scraps! I also have a large one for patterned paper.

 I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this! The frame is from IKEA, and I printed off the 'Get Excited and Make Things' onto glossy photographic paper. It was sooo easy and fun to do and now adorns my wall behind my desk. It makes me smile every time I see it.  You are allowed to print this out for your own use, as long as you are not selling and making profit from it. See here for details!

 This started life as a black drawered unit {I think I have a picture on my old computer somewhere}. I took out the drawers and painted the unit with duck egg satin paint. Once it had had about three coats {and that took ages!} I stuck the drawers back into the unit using 'No Nails' - wow that stuff is so quick to dry, and strong. I also used this to stick the Create letters to the wall. I also want to introduce you to my full set of Promarkers. I coloured a circle sticker and wrote the name, before sticking to the end of the pen for easy selection. The pen layers are separated by coasters which fit the compartments perfectly.YUM!

Finally {for now!} This is my collection of clear stamps - my love, my joy. I still have LOADS of sets of stamps to sort out, but here on the shelves I have 293 - count 'em. CD's full of clear stamps. I know obscene, but they are my Achilles heel!

Well, I hope you've enjoyed a look around my room. Any questions, I'd love to hear them!

Quickutz Silhouette SD on QVC

I'm so looking forward to Tuesday. Why? Because I'm getting to show off the wonderful Quickutz Silhouette die cutting machine on QVC! I absolutely LOVE this little gem, it sits on my desk, takes up hardly any room and it's always on call to be used at a moments notice. I also found that if you can use the very basics on a computer then you will find using the Silhouette a doddle!

I'll be on with Leonie on QVC during the 'Papercrafting with Quickutz' hour on Craft Day, Tuesday 20th October between 6 and 7pm. So, if you are thinking of getting this , tune in and learn more about what can be achieved with this amazing machine, and the fabulous offer too! You can watch live by clicking here.

Love, Clare x

Happy Birthday From All of Us!

Well, haven't I been a naughty blogger? What with one thing and another I've not been posting as often as I should. As usual, life has just got in the way! I'm going to make a concerted effort to be a good blogger from now on, so please forgive me.

I thought I would start my return to blogging with a little explanation of how I made this card which features in Clare's Corner of the September issue of Docrafts Creativity! Magazine. As you can see I took pictures at the time of making this to show you how I created it, so I suppose the thought was there!

First of all, I created the main centre panel of the card using my fantastic Quickutz (TM) Silhouette SD Machine. I used a number of images, available through the Quickutz Silhouette Website. I just LOVE my Silhouette machine, there are loads of new die cut images available every week on every conceivable subject, and I just love looking through them all as they are so inspiring!

Now for the purple panel on the left hand side of the card. As you can see it's a negative of the pink patterned part of the card. Firstly, I created an extra row of the pattern on the silhouette SD and placed it onto a panel of purple core'dinations (TM) cardstock that I previously distressed using a sanding block. Then I used the waste portions from the pattern and stuck them down using repositional adhesive and moved the row of pattern down until the whole panel was filled with the waste 'diamonds'

I then applied clear pigment ink using a Clearsnap (TM) Watermark ink pad, and then clear embossing powder.

It was then time to remove the waste 'diamonds'. You can remove the diamonds before you apply the powder, but sometimes there is a little residue adhesive left, and the powder can easily stick to it. I find that once the powder is heat set, the adhesive is easily removed. Whatever works for you! (the brown sheet is just a Teflon baking sheet which I use to protect my cutting mat from the heat from my Heat Tool.)



The powder was then heated until the powder melted. I make sure that as soon as the powder starts to melt, I move to the next area to avoid burning the powder.

This final picture is just to show you the finished look that is achieved. I love the way that even though the card has been sanded, a glossy, and almost darker look is achieved where the embossing powder is applied.

And there you have it....that wasn't as painful as I thought - my return to blogging that is. I hope you found that helpful and check in again soon to see what I've been up to. I'm going to try for at least every day from now on!

Thanks for coming by!

Love, Clare x

Just One More Sleep....

...'till the mammoth journey to Australia begins! I'm rather excited, but whenever I'm going any place further than my back door I tend to worry that I've forgotten anything, until the age old phrase that my mum says jumps into my mind..." As long as you've got your passport, tickets and bank card - you can buy everything else"...and that settles me for a while, well at least until I take another breath.

Just before I turn off my laptop for the next two weeks, I wanted to share a few cards with you that I have been prepping for the show in Brisbane. I don't know whether I'll be bringing them back with me, so I have taken pictures of them now.

For the cards and scrapbook pages - I know, me - a scrapbook page!) I have used the Papermania Touch of Teal and Touch of Pink kits. Can you guess which one is which?

On this card I have used the Touch of Teal kit, and added soome black organza ribbon and brads.

I've kept this card very simple and only added brads to the kit.

I really enjoyed creating this scrapbook page. The Statue of liberty is one of my most favourite monuments, and I thought these black and white photographs worked well on the teal colour scheme. the skyline was vut from my quickutz Silhouette SD. LOVIN' that machine!

This one is from the Touch of Pink Kit (you don't say!) I added some Anita's black grossgrain ribbon, and the greeting is from the Clare Curd Ssignature Range Sentiments Stamp Set. I created the black scalloped edge by using small punched circles.

I think this card shows the beautiful papers included within the pack, which also includes double sided cardstock. Also there are beautiful stickers and other embellishments. I've added a greeting from the CCSR sentiments stamp set, which finishes the card off nicely.

The main rose embellishment on this card was cut from a gorgeous sheet of patterned cardstock, and I decoupaged using silicone glue. The greeting is from the Daisy and Dandelion Message Set.

My final offering to you tonight is this scrapbook page, which again I had so much fun putting together. Who would have thought it eh? The gorgeous frame around the photograph was cut from...yes, you guessed it - the Silhouette SD! The cute lettering is all included within the lit, and I tarted up the lettering with Anit's 3D clear gloss. I love that stuff! it really brings out the glitter already present on the letters.

Anyhoo, I'd better spend some time with my much neglected but cherished Husband. Have a wonderful couple of weeks, and hopefully I will get to blog over in Oz!

Stay safe and keep well!

Love, Clare x

stampin' Chic Colour Challenge #3 Turquoise and Yellow

Well, here is my offering for the Colour Challenge over on the Stampin' Chic Blog! it was Sheila and Kath's turn to set the challenge this week, and again as lots of the other DT members have said, yellow is not a colour I would normally reach for, but knowing Sheila very well, she LOVES yellow. She even has a yellow car (which is super easy to spot in a car park, making it a doddle to locate your car!) I created the main image using my new crafting bestest friend - The Quickutz Silhouette SD. I cut out the branch from one of the files, and added the stamped flowers which are from the flower border stamp from the Doodles Stamp Set. I also cut the tab with the Silhouette, it's so great how you can resize things to get them just the right size for a greeting or anything! The greeting of course is from the Sentiments Set. I finished the flowers off with some Anita's 3d Clear Gloss, my other crafting best friend.

Well, I hope you like it, I really enjoyed making this one too! Thanks for a great challenge also Sheila and Kath, I shall certainly be using this combination again!

Supplies: Papers: Papermania Clare Curd Signature Range 'the Big One'. Doodlebug Bumblebee la fleur, Core'dinations Cardstock in white and aqua; Stamps and Ink: Papermania Clare Curd Signature Range Doodles and Sentiments, Colorbox Amber clay chalk ink; Embellishments: branch and tab from Quickutz Silhouette SD electronic Die Cutter, Doodlebug Swimming Pool Boutique Trims.

Love, Clare x

I Did It...I Actually Worked it Out!

It's taken me about 6 hours, with a lot of head scratching and brow furrowing, but I've actually done it!

I wasn't going to mention anything for a while, but then went to see whether Becks Fagg had updated her blog (which she has) and found that she'd spilled the beans! When I was down in Dorset, I was given a brand spanking new Quickutz Silhouette SD which had literally just arrived in the warehouse and was still surrering from Travel sickness - the poor thing. Do Crafts are now the proud exclusive distributors of Quickutz products on the UK (how exciting!!!). I'm hopfully going to be doing a piece for the July issue of the Do Crafts Creativity! Magazine, and to be honest with you I think this baby could do with a magazine all to itself looking at the amount that can be done with it!

Anyhoo, what I hear you think did I manage to do? The Silhouette works in conjunction with a computer ( but is also portable too, so you can use it without it being connected all the time, that's what the SD bit is all about), so I had to download the driver software for it. Here lay the problem, my CD/DVD drive on my laptop isn't working at the moment. So I went to the Quickutz website to see whether I could download the software there, which I could. However, due to me being a dunce when it comes to computers I saved instead of ran the program and so my problems began. Eventually I worked out the problem and uninstalled that version, downloading the right one. Then, again I failed to read the on-screen instructions properly, and so again I was stumped. Eventually I worked it out and voila! I now have the gorgeous Silhouette SD loaded onto my computer. Of course, none of these problems would have happened if my CD drive had been working, I simply would have inserted the CD and I'd have been well away!

I've had a quick look at the 50 shapes that come with the Silhouette and they look fantastic! The shapes can be resized from 1/4" to 8", you can also make a shadow with the machine for shapes, and the most exciting thing about the machine is that you can cut out any font on your computer, and even weld the letters together to make words!! Also, you can import black and white images into the program and cut them out too! The possibilities are endless! In addition to cutting out paper and card stock, you can also cut vellum, transfer paper (for making transfers for t-shirts) magnetic paper, adhesive vinyl and adhesive papers!!! you can even create a stencil and with the machine you get a bottle of glass etching liquid to make glass etchings! WoW.

As you can tell, I'm a little excited about this momma!!!

I really have to finalise everything for QVC on Friday, so I'm going to have to resist the tempation to play until then. Boo Hoo! Better go and cook dinner now. Hope you're all having a relaxing and lovely Easter Sunday.

Love, Clare x