Honourable Mention

Just dropping by to share my excitement at being awarded an Honourable Mention from Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge. It was my first time entering and so I am so honoured!

There is my badge above, and here is a reminder of the card I entered….

A new challenge has been posted and so I am super excited to get going on designing something for that! 

Back soon with more details of an exciting event I have been organising…..

Merry Monday Christmas Challenge

I am getting way too excited about Christmas cards just now and so I have come across another challenge that I am excited to be entering for the first time - Merry Monday Christmas Challenge.

The theme is 'The words have it' and we are are to make the words on the card the centre of attention.

I recently bought a gorgeous wee die cutter from Clearly Besotted that reads 'baby'…..most would think of using this for a new baby card, but no, not me! Out the box thinking me, decided that this, in glittery red card would be perfect under the word 'Santa' to create 'Santa Baby'….. I didn't have a suitable Santa word stamp and so this had to be done on my laptop, as did the added Santa hat! I did decorate the santa hat fur with a little glue and white glitter post printing. The 'baby' was die cut for red card three times and layered together, with a final fourth layer added in glitter card. As seems to be my way right now, a very CAS card but one I think it quite fun!

Here it is…..

Many thanks for having me at Merry Monday! Any comments always so very much appreciated xxx

Independence and Inkspirational Challenge

Good evening all,

Well it is a very tense evening here in Scotland…..The day before polling day. Tomorrow, we are all to decide whether we wish to remain part on United Kingdom, or if we want to go it alone and become and independent country!! There have been constant debates, news coverage, Facebook posts, 'latest poll' information, discussions and deliberations. Unfortunately, there has also been cases of intimidation and fighting which is so disappointing. We are so lucky to live in a civilised country where we can actually have the chance to vote. However, we should also have freedom of speech which some people in society are feeling is not acceptable unless your views are shared with them.

The reason's given for independence is so that Scotland can take responsibility for their own destiny, funding, etc etc. It is very rare that the people in Scotland have the government they vote for, actually elected in Westminster (London) and so it would be a chance to actually get who we want in power.

The concerns are that we may no longer be allowed to use the pound, we will have to reapply to join the EU and when we do, then new rules state that we will have to take on the Euro as our currency.

Both political stances have made it very hard to place trust in them. The politicians involved rarely answer the questions being asked of them and they are more interested in throwing insults at each other than actually having a sensible discussion.

It has been such a difficult decision to make - and one that has caused debate between family and friends…..but the time has come. My husband and I have already sent away our postal votes and so our part is done….All we can do is sit and wait on the results now. This is such a huge thing for us all - it is not like the election of a government - we can't change our mind in 5 years time. It is a lifetime commitment….Regardless of my vote, or anybody else's for that matter, what is at the heart of it all, is Scotland, my country and I wanted my card to be for her. I want to wish her good luck and I hope that whatever is best for the country will prevail at the polling stations.

I wanted to steer away from anything 'Scottish' on my card (which can be a bit tacky!!) so I decided to turn to some Japanese Origami for inspiration…..The good luck symbol there, being the Crane.
So, following the detailed instructions I found online, I carefully folded the the square of black paper I had cut, and formed the crane. I added a small crystal eye for some added interest and then propped up the front wing with a foam pad. For the sentiment I have a brand new resource that I LOVE LOVE LOVE. I bought a rather retro label maker that I once had as a child but sadly got rid off. The machine has a wheel that you turn to select your letter, you press the level and the letter is embossed on tape that has been fed through….I am in love with this fabulous little machine and so you will see it appearing quite a lot in my cards I think!!!! The theme at Inkspirational challenges is….

and so my Crane is perfect for this!

So here is it, my Good Luck card for Scotland - may the best destiny for our country prevail….

Thank you for reading and any comments are always to much appreciated. xxx

Festive Friday Challenge 40

Good afternoon all,

I am so excited to be taking part in the Festive Friday challenge - my very first time at doing so. I was so inspired by the challenge photo that I just HAD to take part.

The colours in this really appealed to me, the sparkle, the pearls and those cone/tree decorations just jumped right out at me and had to take a real focal point in my card. I wanted to create a tag style card with a background of three cone trees. Ideally I wanted the one to be pink pearlised card (which I didn't have any of) and another I wanted to cover completely in pearls - this would have taken hundreds of them which would have been too much for one card!! Instead, I created a a white glitter tree with some pearl baubles (a compromise) and to get the pink pearlised card I wanted, I did a colour wash on cream pearlised card using watercolour pencils - this did the trick!! My third tree was the plain cream pearlised card with snowflakes stamped on it using desert sand memento ink.

I layered my trees as a background and then added a jumping reindeer in white pearlised card over the top. A sentiment was added at the top and bottom, heat embossed in gold and voila….

Thank you for having me to play along this week and I look forward to seeing all the other entries for this challenge. 

Any comments are always so very much appreciated Laura xxx

New resources, Clearly Besotted Challenge & Freshly Made Sketches 153

Good afternoon all,

Its a horrible rainy, foggy day here in Edinburgh and the kids are on holiday….again! My husband has been working night shifts this weekend which has meant I have been busy on my own with the kids during the day, I've had some time to myself at night (crafting time!!) and today, he is off and has taken the boys away out to give me some time to myself - and I have been told not to clean as he is also off tomorrow and has said he will do it!!! Brilliant :-).

I have LOTS to share with you…..I ordered a huge bunch of new resources from one of my favourite stamp companies - Clearly Bessotted

and so I have been diving straight in and been playing with these.The first two cards to share with you are made using my new resources….

I knew I wanted to use a black backing card to make the poppies really pop!! I black embossed the stem, stamped and then colour with my spectrum noir pens, the poppies before fussy cutting them out. The sentiment which is oh so appropriate for the card, was then heat embossed with gold. A CAS card (which really seems to be my way of it right now) with lots of white space (albeit in this example, black space!!) The current challenge theme is Autumn at Clearly Besotted, and although this does not follow the usual 'autumn' style/colour schemes etc, Remembrance Sunday is in November which still counts as Autumn??

The second card which again was creating just by playing around with new Clearly Besotted resources,  made use of a new ink I recently bought and LOVE - it is called London Fog by Memento. I finally bought a tag die (hurray!!!) and so I made full use of this….This is going to be an Anniversary card for my Mum and Dad who celebrate this next month.

Finally, I have a card that was really inspired by the amazing Debby Hughes…..I absolute adore Debby's work and would go so far as to say that she is the card designer that I really aspire too, and I think this is starting to come through in some of my designs. I saw this amazing card by Debby of Pinterest and I was desperate to try something similar (determined not to copy though!!)

Isn't this just absolutely stunning?? Well I decided to do something along these lines, using vellum and colouring on the reverse…..Here is my take on it-

I do feel there is something missing with my card - something down the left side…I tried ribbon, thread and twine but none looked right….I will need to ponder this for longer. For now however, it fits in nicely with the challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches…. and so I will be entering it in there.

Finally, I have a set of three cards to share with you - told you I had been busy!!! I made a card for my friend who was having a dreadful time at work and took the brave decision to hand in her notice. She was feeling quite emotional about it and so I decided to cheer her up with a wee card. She loved it so much, that she asked if I would make another 3 exactly the same for her friends. I suggested that she might like the same card done in different colours…..and here they are - 

I had made it in the pink shades for my friend but as soon as I completed the lilac/purple ones, I decided I like that more…then I made the turquoise/teal ones…..now think that one is my favourite!!

I have one more card to share, but I will save this for another post.

Many thanks for reading and any comments as always are so very much appreciated! Laura xxx

Harry Potter Craft room

Good evening all,

As some of you may know from my previous posts, I am soon to be embarking on a conversion project whereby one of our garages is going to be turned in to a studio for my crafting (and a wee corner also is to be for my Husband and his computer!). I thought you may be interested to see the cramped conditions I am working with just now! I literally am the Harry Potter of the crafting world and operate from a cupboard under the stairs!!

Yip - see that tiny cupboard with the lock…..that's my little cupboard….

And the inside ….(this was it majorly tidied)….

Oooh, I can't wait to have a proper room!!!!

I promise to keep you up to date with the conversion…..first photo to come next - the garage as it is just now….eek!! 

Laura xx

Catherine Pooler House Warming Party & Time out challenge 14

Hello all,

Yes, it's me again - Now that I have some dedicated craft time in the week, you will be hearing from me much more!! Today while looking at my Facebook feed, I found an
exciting competition with lots of prizes up for grabs to celebrate the newly redesigned Catherine Pooler website. If you have never come across Catherine Pooler, you really must!!! She is one of those I attribute my inspiration to really take card making seriously. She has loads of videos on you tube showing you how to make the most gorgeous cards and her newsletters are always full of great ideas. The competition (found here) is a 'housewarming party' and the theme of the challenge is 'home.' Straight away, a saying popped into my head…..'Home is where the heart is.' I am going very clean and simple lately with my cards and so I wanted this to be no exception. I decided on a white, black and a hint of gold colour scheme (one of my favourites) and I wanted the 'o' in 'home' to be a heart. I have heart dies cutters so this was straight forward to do. I unfortunately don't have a 'home' stamp (one to add to the wish list), so I used a mix of stamps to create the word.

I had planned to use alphabet stamps to write 'is where the heart is' but this was going to take too long and would look rubbish! I decided instead, for the very first time, to hand write on my card….sounds a bit crazy, but I think it works!!

So here is my clean and simple 'Home' card. Congratulations Catherine on your fabulous new website!!

The theme at Time out challenges is also - home sweet home with a very cool inspiration photo full of 'home sayings'….so my card fits in perfectly for that too!! Love it when that happens!!!

Thanks for taking a look, and any comments always very much appreciated xxx

Bev's Bouncing Boys

As many of you will know, the lovely Beverley from Uniko Studio gave birth to two gorgeous baby boys last week. I have been lucky enough to see lots of photos on Facebook and they are so cute :-)
The girls at Uniko Studio created a lovely blog hop for Bev and customers are invited to link up cards to. I had just purchased a new release from Uniko Studio called 'Sweet Baby' and I just couldn't resist. Also, Bev has been so helpful and inspirational to me where card making is concerned and I wanted a way to say thank you.

So HUGE congratulations Bev. Enjoy being a Mummy and just make sure you get some 'me' time too….you are going to need it!!!!

For this card, I managed to finally use a resource I have had in my stash for ages and have been desperate to find a time to use them…..oh, I think I am liking clothes pegs!!!!

Many thanks for looking, and any comments as always are so very much appreciated!!

Laura xx

Casology 112 and Uniko Studio Challenge

Good evening all and thank you for joining me. I am so excited with the card I have for sharing with you. I think it is one of the most imaginative cards I have created. Simple, but just so ever out the box!
I am involved in a very exciting online Christmas event which involves 16 fabulous companies showcasing their handmade products for sale. I am delighted to be the 'Christmas Card' company for the event. This has required making a collection of Christmas Cards (seems too early for that) which has been great fun. I have however, started feeling all Christmassy, which is just so wrong - especially when I find myself humming 'Let it snow!!'

Anyway, the card - The whole inspiration for this card comes directly from the sentiment used, which is by the wonderful Uniko Studio. It reads 'Snowflakes are winter's Butterflies.' I think this is just beautiful. I began really thinking about the sentiment and an idea was sparked….what if somehow snowflakes could become butterflies! I thought about how best to achieve this and the answer was simple - to layer sparkly die cut snowflakes over the top of white butterflies - simples!

I have to say, I love the result and I have given these beautiful creatures a new name - snowflies :-)

I have decided to enter this card into the Uniko Studio 'Special Occasion' challenge - Christmas is a very special occasion and since this has been created for my collection for the Handmade Fair, it is extra special! This card also fits in perfectly with Casology's challenge which is….

My card features 3 'Snowflies' and also three colours :-)

I hope you like this slightly unusual Christmas card…..

For more details of the event I am participating in (there will be gifts a plenty for adults, kids, home, foodies etc) visit our twitter @fairhandmade, our Facebook page or our website for the event with is www.handmadefair.webs.com

Many thanks for reading, and any comments are always so very much appreciated.

MIA….again!!!!

Well hello all and it is SO lovely to be sitting down actually getting to put a post on my blog which I just haven't had a chance to do in so long!! I am not quite sure why, to be honest….things have just been really busy with the Summer holidays and then the return to school! My biggest boy is now in Primary 3 and my little one has now started in nursery!! This means I now have some very precious 'me time'….yipeeee!!! I have decided to be quite strict with my time though, to make the maximum use of it and it will be as follows:

Monday - Cleaning (sigh!)
Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday - LE Designs crafting time!!!!!
Friday - Coffee with friends time and also the ironing (sigh!)

I have got so many exciting things to tell you, and more importantly, not one, but 3 cards to share with you!!!

The first exciting news is that the studio/office we planned to create in one of our garages that was going to take 2 years to pay for, is now being brought forward to now!! As many of you know, my Nan passed away earlier in the year which was a massive shock to us all. She was such an inspiration to us all, and particularly to me in the field of crafting. I still vividly remember the day she taught me how to cross stitch, and it was from then on, that my crafting really began. I was really taken aback to find out she had left each of the family members, some money in her will and my share is the money we were going to need to be able to create the studio/office. She was so big on 'family' and so half the money I am going to put in trust for my two boys, for their future (something she would very much approve of) and the rest will then be used for the conversion (again, the fact that this will be used as a full time crafting space, will be majorly approved of!!)

So, project LE Designs studio can begin. We are firstly waiting on a meeting with an architect in order to get a set of drawings to submit to the council (we will need a building warrant) and then we can start pricing everything….of course, me being me - I am way ahead of this 'work' stage!! I was at Ikea last weekend and have selected some furniture that I would like…..


Desk -2 metres long and so plenty of space for creating!

Thought this would be great for card storage-

But as I say - that's me totally skipping ahead and so I need to rein myself in just now!!

So in other exciting news…..I am part of (and organiser of) an online Christmas shopping experience!! There are going to be 17 companies involved who all make handmade items (they are all GORGEOUS) and we are going to have a website where you can browse items and then go to the company websites to make purchases. This has of course taken a huge amount of co-ordination and so I have been super busy each night working on it all. I have also had to create a collection for this event which is now complete and I am super happy with it all. You are actually going to get to see one of them tonight as I am going to enter it in to the Casology & Uniko Studio challenges!! If you want to find out more about the above event, please do follow @fairhandmade on twitter, visit our Facebook page or visit our website - www.handmadefair.webs.com.

Anyway, enough chatting - you want to see cards I hear you say. Well I am going to put these on a separate post….stay tuned :-) xx