Looking back on 2012

My favourite creations from 2012........

Christmas card number one using one of my favourite brand of stamps LOTV

Christmas card using another favourite stamps brand Penny Black

These were the yummiest cakes I made in 2012 - Peaches and Cream

I love brooches and starting to make my own incorporating another loved craft of cross stitch

A huge achievement in making my second Wedding Cake for my cousin and his wife

The first time I made a large cupcake with delicious Chocolate Ganache

A birthday card using LOTV stamp

Card using LOTV stamp

One last creation from 2012 that I adore but more of my Hubby's creation than mine.

My new Craft space

Which doesn't quite look like this photo now (needs a little tidy up).

Thank you all for your continued support during 2012 and coming along to my blog.  A lot of very exciting things to come in 2013.  Hope you all have a fantastic evening.

Love Em x

Have yourself a merry little Christmas.

Today's card is for the following challenges:

 

Cupcake Craft ~Pieced Off.

Forever Friends Monthly Challenge ~ Bingo  Ribbon, Glitter and Tag

Allsorts ~ Autumn Colours

 

Materials Used:

 

Cardstock ~ Papermania

Image ~ Forever Friends.

Pattern Paper used for gift ~ Dovecraft back to basic Christmas

Sentiment ~ Lili of the Valley

Ribbon ~ Sew Sweet

Holly ~ Wild Orchid Crafts

Brads ~ from crafty stash

 

 

 

Just a flying visit today, very busy with the day job at the moment getting ready for Christmas!

Hope you all have a fantastic week.

Thank you for popping along to my blog.

 

Love Em x

Christmas Hanging.

I am entering today's creation in the following challenges:

 

Cupcake Craft Challenges ~ Twos company

Winter Wonderland ~ Anything but a card

ABC Christmas ~ U for Up to you

Anything Goes Challenge ~ Make your own embellishments

 

 

Materials used.

Sizzix framelits circles, scallop

Pepper's Christmas Party paper pack.

Ribbon and pearls from crafty stash.

 

 

Thank you for popping along to my blog.

Hope you all have a relaxing Sunday.

I'm looking forward to settling down to Downton Abbey later tonight.

 

Love Em x

Happy Christmas

I am entering today's card into the following challenges:

 

Lili's Little Fairies ~ Anything goes

Daring Cardmakers ~ Don't Worry Be Happy (Happy Christmas)

Sir Stampalot ~ Punch Away

Totally Papercrafts ~ Christmas 9 weeks and counting

 

Materials Used:

Stamp - Lili of the Valley

Backing papers ~ Lili of the Valley

Card stock ~ Papermania

Sentiment ~ Lili of the Valley

Snowflake ~ Wild Orchid Crafts
Snowflake punch (for around the sentiment) Ek Success

 

We're off out now to search for wallpaper for the little ones bedroom.  Laura Ashley have a sale on the papers =)

 

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend.

 

Love Em x

Christmas Cheer

Today's card is for the following challenges

 

Christmas Crafting ~ Buttons and Twine

Papertake Weekly ~ All Creatures Great and Small

Penny Black Saturday ~ Sketch

Penny Black @ Allsorts ~ Animal Magic

 

 

Materials Used:

 

Stamped image : Penny Black T for Transparent Christmas Friends.

Holly paper : Lili of the Valley Classic Christmas

Green cardstock : Papermania Capsule.

Other papers/embellishments from crafty stash.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for popping along to my blog.  Please feel free to leave a comment I would love to hear from you.

 

Going off now to nurse a cold and get settled ready for a perfect night of Downton Abbey.

 

Love Em x

My New Craft Space

 

The day has finally come to show off my new craft studio.  I absolutely LOVE this room.  It has taken forever from planning to finished I'm sure it's been a couple of years.  But here I am now this beautiful Saturday afternoon typing away my blog to you.

 

This is a dream come true for me.

 

 

Sorry the photographs aren't the best, it's actually a really hard space to photograph but I'm sure you can get the idea.

 

 

I feel so motivated and the ideas are flowing I can't wait to get creating in this room.

 

Thank you so much for popping along to my blog.  A huge welcome to some new followers.

 

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend.

 

Love Em x

I'm in baking heaven!

I have been on a diet for what feels like forever!

 

I have lost 3 stone altogether but I'm getting fed up with it now.  I feel as though I am missing out on everything and more importantly I'm not baking for myself, hubby or our little one.  I so miss baking I enjoy it so much but I can't bear the temptation.  So I have decided if I am to continue losing weight I have to give myself a treat at least once a week.  After all this is about changing my eating habits for life not just until I have lost all the weight.  I am going to bake once a week whatever takes my fancy and I don't care how many calories are involved (within reason haha!)

 

 

This weekend's bakes, I have cheated and baked twice =)

Peaches 'n' Cream Cupcakes, these have pieces of peaches in the cupcake they tasted amazing!

and ....

 

 

Lemon Drizzle Squares.  We need smell-o-vision for this cake ~ Yummy!

 

I enjoyed every mouthful ~ I did share honest.

 

The extension is coming along lovely now hubby is finishing off the roof now and he said that fingers crossed if all goes to plan it will be ready to move stuff into this time next week ~ Yippee!!!!

 

Thank you for popping along to read my blog today.

 

Love Em x

 

 

Wedding Cake, Etsy and so much more....

Well I have been busy.... I had the pleasure of being asked to make my Cousins wedding cake for last Saturday.  100 cupcakes and a large Cupcake as a top cake.  I was so happy with how it turned out and the Bride and Groom loved it.

I have finally got around to opening my Etsy shop.

ElfCraftsUK

I have so many ideas flowing for Christmas so please watch this space.  The button is on my side bar for easy use.

I have just finished some new Christmas brooches.

These will be listed later in Etsy. Along with some of these.......

Christmas hair clips.

Oh! and an update on the studio, the roof is finally here so fingers crossed is going up today - Yippee!!!!

Thank you for taking the time to pop over to my blog.  Please feel free to leave a comment I would love to hear from you.

Love Em x

Anyone for cake?

Yesterday was a day of 2 firsts. It was the first time that I made a large cupcake cake using the other first which was a silicone mould.

I am very pleased with the outcome.

Chocolate sponge with dark chocolate and coffee ganache.  Decorated with chocolate fingers and iced roses. Gold ribbon to finish it off.

I just love that rose nozzle from Purple cupcakes

Iced roses (pink and white) from Asda.

Oh and the Birthday Girl loved it too =)

Thank you for popping along to my blog.  Also a huge welcome to some new followers.

Love Em x

Bear Trio

This card is for the following challenges:

Allsorts challenge ~ Recipe.  3 Flowers, 2 Stamps and 1 Paper

Forever Friends ~ Something New (Stamps)

Crafty Catz ~ Pink

Materials used:

Patterned paper ~ Spring Drop, First Edition Paper.

Stamps ~ LOTV Present Trio and Vintage label sentiment.

Sizzix Scallop circle Framelits.

Ribbon, ribbon roses from crafty stash.

Images stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with Pro Markers.

I have also made another card today, but as it is a commission it's only a sneaky peek I'm afraid.

Thank you for popping along my blog.

Love Em x

Something missing.....

Well I feel as though something is missing because I just haven't had the time to craft lately.  The day job has gone mad and we are in the throws of renovating the house.  So everything is on top of everything else!  I thought I would just pop by to give you an update on what I'm up to. 

We have completed the bathroom, porch, living room, landing and stairs.  This is what is holding up the rest:

The foundations for the new office/studio have been laid for around 3-4 weeks but the lovely rain is holding us up now (as you can see it is still raining this morning). Once the extension is complete things can start to shift around and get finished.

It's the little ones last day of school today, can't wait to have her all to myself for 6 weeks.  I have loads of things planned including our annual holiday to the Lakes. 

To make matters worse I have this gorgeous bundle of goodness sat waiting to be played with.  The new range of Teddy bear stamps from LOTV.

Fingers crossed we (including the little one) will have a lovely space to play with them soon.

Hope you all have a lovely holiday and I will pop back again with another update - hopefully of it finished. Then I can get back to crafting - Yippee!!!

Hugs Em xxx

Easel card challenge

Today's card is for the following challenges:

Penny Black Saturday ~ Case-It challenge.

Crafty Catz ~ April showers bring forth May flowers (image must contain flowers).

Materials Used:

Penny Black image ~  T for Transparent 'In the garden'.

Background pink cardstock ~ Bazzill.

Patterned paper ~ First Edition ~ Spring Drop.

Border punch ~ X cut

Buttefly punch ~ Martha Stewart.

Scallop Circles ~ Sizzix framelits 657552.

Pearls ~ Wild Orchid Crafts.

Ribbon ~ Sew Sweet.

Happy Birthday sentiment ~ local craft store.

Image stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with Pro Markers.

Thank you for popping by my blog.

Hope you all have a lovely day.

Love Em x

10 years longing to paint again

 I have had a huge longing to get back into painting, I has been probably 10 years since I have picked up an artist brush to just paint. 

 I have always loved flowers and when I was very tiny I had the dream to be a botanical illustrator, but nothing really goes to plan and I never followed it through.  But the longing has stayed and I felt enough was enough and it was time to start again. 

Today has been a bit of a chill out day and the little one wanted to do something together so I thought right what better time than now. 

So, I am being very brave and posting this, as like everyone thinks about their own work it could be better but it has been 10 years!

I'm hoping that with a lot of practise I will learn how to handle the brush and paints again and get better. 

I would love to have your feedback but please remember be gentle.

Hope you have a lovely evening.

Love Em x

Wonderful online shopping

I just wanted to write a little post to give a huge shout out to a wonderful online shop.

Sir Stampalot

If you have not already popped along to take a look I highly recommend it.  We are planning loads of work on the house over the next year and one huge part is to create a new craft studio/office. There have been some craft storage that I been eyeing up for a while, and I finally got around to ordering it.  The parcel arrived within 24 hours of ordering by tracked delivery.  How fab is that!

These are my little spends.

Ribbon Carousel

Storage carousel and it actually comes with those extras!!

Not only is the delivery service fantastic but I am over the moon with the products.

So check it out for yourself.

I am going to do some adjustments to my blog over the next couple of weeks and I will have a section on the side bar of my favourite places to shop and Sir Stampalot will definitely be there.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post today.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Love Em x

Spring has sprung..

Today's card is for the following blog challenges

Lili's Little Fairies ~ Diamond and Pearls.

Totally Papercrafts ~ All Buttoned Up.

Crafty Catz ~ Stripes or Checks.

Allsorts ~ Buttons and Thread.

Sir Stampalot ~ Happy Birthday.

Materials Used:

Background card ~ Bazzill

Patterned papers ~ First Edition Spring Drop

Doilies ~ Dovecraft Tea Party

Image ~ Lili Of The Valley

Buttons ~ Sew Sweet

Pearls ~ Wild Orchid Crafts

Thread and sentiment from crafty stash.

Image stamped using memento tuxedo ink and coloured with Pro markers.

Thank you for popping by my blog today.

Hope you all have a lovely day.

Love Em x

Happy Easter

Hi everyone and Happy Easter Holidays. 

I hope you are all enjoying the extra long weekend.  The weather's not at it's best here kind of hit and miss between the showers. 

I had a bit of a baking experiment yesterday, which was half disaster and half not (because they look ok decorated lol!).

I saw a recipe on the internet for Easter cupcakes with a hidden surprise, I was intrigued to know how this worked.  I followed the recipe to the letter and they were a disaster, the sponge was terrible and they hardly rose to hide the 'hidden' surprise.  So I thought I would use my usual cake mix and hide the treat and see how they turned out, well they rose lovely and looked good.  I waited for them to cool and then decorated but when I cut them in half the hidden treat ~ a mini creme egg was well hidden! It had melted and was squished in the bottom.  Pretty hard to find and recognise what it was.

Not good ~ but they looked pretty decorated and tasted lovely.

That's the fun of baking.

Things are heading back to normal here now.  My dark blonde roots are now back to red, the house is clean and tidy, the HUGE pile of ironing is done and packed away and work is up to date ~ phew!!! It's hard enough conquering flu but clearing up the aftermath that's something else. 

Hopefully next week I will have time to get back into crafting.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend.

Thank you for popping by my blog.

Love Em x

Back and ready for action!!!

Hi everyone!

Sorry I have been so quiet on here lately.  I have been totally wiped out by the flu for the last 2 weeks.  Today is the first day that I have felt back in the land of the living ~ and I have a lot to catch up on.

Just before I became unwell the lovely Sandra sent me this award.

 Thank you so much Sandra it really has made my day.

 Now onto the terms & conditions.....

· 1, This award is for any blogging friend who has helped you develop your blog in many ways

· 2, This award is for any co-blogging friend who has cheered you along in your blog building craft advancing career

· 3, This award is for co-blogging friend who always stops and is kind to you can count on them to always be one of the great comments at the end of your post

· 4, This award is to be given to 3-5 blends whom you feel meet the listed requirements

· 5, Create a post with the terms of use and publish your blends of choice

· 6, Blend of choice may copy the award from your blog and proudly post it on theirs

· 7, Blend of choice may continue the kindness by issuing this award to keep the circle forever growing

So now here are my choices

1/  http://peppermintpattys-papercraft.blogspot.co.uk/ ~ Karin.
2/ http://clairescreativecards.blogspot.co.uk/ ~ Claire.
3/ http://debby4000.blogspot.co.uk/ ~ Debby.
4/ http://buttonsforbrains.blogspot.co.uk/ ~ Liz.
5/ http://chrisscardcraft.blogspot.co.uk/ ~ Chris.

Thank you to all these lovely ladies for your daily inspiration, and beautiful creations.

Now I am off to have a cup of tea in the sunshine while it lasts.

Love Em x

I have some gorgeous ribbon for that........

Today's card is for the following challenges:

Passion for promarkers ~ Colour theme pastel

Less is more ~ Don't scrap it

Allsorts Challenge ~ It's your choice

The Secret Crafter ~ White on white

Materials used:

White card stock inc. scraps

Sizzix Dots embossing folder

Stamped images from Penny Black ~ Critter party & Bubbly

Images stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with Promarkers.

I do have the perfect cloud ribbon for this card, but it was so hard to not add it.  Trying to keep it white (excluding the image) and simple is harder than it looks.  This has to be the smallest card I have made in a long time, an A6 card.  I just wanted to keep going with this card by adding more and more detail to the colouring, but I thought 'no' it has to be clean and simple.  I may have to remake this card with all the extras I want lol! 

The scrap paper was used to make the clouds.  I always keep all my scrap strips, rectangles, anything they are great for the little one to sort through for her little crafty moments.

 Thank you to the lovely Franz over at The Secret Crafter for her beautiful DT card that gave me the inspiration for this project.

Hope you have a lovely day, thank you for popping by my blog.

Love Em x

Time for tea

Today's card is for the following challenges:

Lili's Little Fairies ~ Afternoon tea

The Ribbon Girl ~ Pink, Brown & Cream colour challenge

Papertake Weekly ~ Get Krafty

Crafty Catz ~ Something beginning with B (Buttons & Brown)

Sweet Sketch Wednesday ~ Sketch 142

(lol! Knew I should have waited for that glue to dry =D)

Materials Used:

Background papers free from Simply Cards & Papercraft.

Lighter pink polka dot background paper ~ Paper Cellar Wedding

Stamp ~ Lili of the Valley

Stamped with Memento ink Tuxedo Black and coloured with Pro Markers

Kraft Card ~ Docrafts Papermania

Ribbon & Buttons ~ Sew Sweet

Flowers & Lace from crafty stash

Thank you for taking the time to pop by my blog.  Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Love Em x

My First Easel Card.......

This is my very first easel card... and I am totally addicted.

This card is for the following challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge ~ Pearls & Lace

The Secret Crafter ~ Bingo (Pearls, Swirls & Flowers)

Allsorts Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Crafty Catz ~ Favourite Things

Totally Papercraft ~ Ribbons and/or Bows

Materials Used:

Stamped image ~ Penny Black ~ in the garden (T for Transparent)

Image stamped with Memento ink Tuxedo Black and coloured with Pro Markers.

Die Cuts ~ Flourish #10, Flowers layers #9 and Framelits circles, scallop.

Purple backing paper ~ Bazzill

Floral background paper ~ Forever Friends Spring Time 6" x 6".

Ribbon buckle and self adhesive pearls ~ Wild Orchid Crafts.

Sentiment ~ Lili of the Valley.

Ribbon, felt and lace from crafty stash.

Thank you for taking the time to pop by my blog, your feedback/comments are much appreciated.

Love Em x