Wall Hanging

Here is the wall hanging that I made at my last class with Kate. It would make a lovely present, but I haven't decided whether I like it too much to give away yet....good job Christmas is still a couple of months away. 

My favourite bits are the spiral roses and snowflakes in the background, which are made using the middle of a flower stamp.

Flower card

Here is a card that for once I made at home! It is based on a card on a lady called Sally Jo's blog. I think it must have been a bigger card and square but I adapted it to fit a 5x7 card. It is not 100% finished as I forgot to add a leaf and some bling in the middle of the flowers but I think it is looking good so far :)

Flower card

Here is a car I made a few weeks ago at Kate's card class, I decided to use the sentiment 'thinking of you' as it is a nice general card that could be used as a sympathy, someone going in hospital or anything similar. I love the little double bow too, even if it was a nightmare to tie!

Yet another Christmas card!

I love this card that I made a couple of weeks ago at Kate's card class, it just looks so elegant. The baubles were punched out of Christmasy paper and glued in place and the greeting stamped before being embossed all over to give the finished texture. We then added a bow and two little gems to finish it off. 

Pretty Christmas tree and Penguin card

Last night I went to Kate's Wednesday night card class as usual and we made a card that has been sat on the shelf tempting us (especially me!) for a while now. Here it is flat....

and stood up......

It took a while so I didn't have time to start a new card, but then I remembered the Christmas card I started a couple of weeks ago and never finished! All the bits were still in my box so I managed to assemble it in the 20 minutes we had left.
I ended up editing a card Kate had made, replacing a Santa Claus Owl with a Penguin as I think they are so cute I am tempted to buy the owl builder punch just to make penguins!!

                                 

Another Christmas card...

Here is a very cool Christmas card (made at Kate's class) that I am sure my friend will love (if I can bear to part with it....). It is a flip card which twists when opened. Here is a photo of the front when the card is closed

and here is a photo of the inside once it is opened.

I love the little penguins, you may have noticed I have used them quite a bit on cards we have made at Kate's card class. 

Card class

Earlier this year I started going to a card making class held by Kate Martin (see Kate's Krafts for her blog). I thought I would put pictures of a couple of the Christmas cards we have made in class so far.

This card looks a little like a cracker to me, I still need to add a greeting of some kind to it. 

This card is a diarama card where the trees are set behind the front as though you are looking through a window. I really enjoyed colouring in the little penguins with the Promarkers that one of my fellow classmates  taught me how to use (Thanks Lyn!).

Pretty easel card

This week at Kate's card class (see Kate's Krafts) I made the following easel card, it took me quite a while so I only got as far as gathering the parts for my second card (another Christmas penguin card) which I hope to assemble this weekend.

I think I will probably use this for my Gran's birthday in November!

Gift box

Last week at Kate's card class I made a box to put Faye's first birthday card in that I posted on here the other week. I used the Stampin' up score board which made making the box really easy then I covered the top with some Stampin' up paper and added a two-layer embossed butterfly, ribbon and some basic pearls to finish it off. I really hope Faye and her parents like both the card and box, the box finishes it off making it such a lovely keepsake.

Christmas Cards

Last week at Kate Martin's card class (see Kate's Krafts for her blog) we made some christmas cards using the Stampin' up Owl builder punch. I am going to try and make some more tonight, I love the penguin, he is just so cute!

Hopefully I will be able to put pictures up of the ones I make tonight later in the week. 

Knitting

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days I have been trying to sort things for my new business selling chocolates for a company called Chocolates for Chocoholics. I have set myself up a facebook page for everyone to see updates and information about our products.

https://www.facebook.com/lauranicholeschocolatesforchocoholics


So back to crafty things I thought I would post a picture of the first knitting project that I finished when I learnt to knit. My Gran taught me to knit last year and after knitting a square and a griffindor scarf for my build a bear I knitted Little Bo Peep. It is one of Alan Dart's designs which was in an issue of Simply Knitting magazine.

Some old cards

For some reason I never used to take photo's of my cards that I made. Here are a couple of pictures I found the other day of some I made quite a long time ago now. I still like using spirelli but have had a break from it recently as I probably used it on most peoples cards for a few years!

A few more cupcakes...

Here are some more of the cupcakes I made for my Mum's birthday.

Chocolate Curls - Vanilla sponge and butter cream with drizzled chocolate sauce 

and lots of milk and white chocolate curls. 

Pearls - Vanilla sponge and butter cream with pink and white sugar pearls

White Roses - Vanilla sponge with pink vanilla butter cream, 

pink edible glitter and white sugarpaste roses. 

From above

Daisy swirl - Vanilla sponge with pink vanilla buttercream and an edible paper 

flower (Dr Oetker) with a little edible glitter. 

Cupcakes

Yesterday I made a selection of cupcakes for my Mum's birthday which is on Saturday. Some are chocolate sponge others are vanilla. Here are some photos of my favourite chocolaty ones.

Bit o' Chocolate - Vanilla sponge and buttercream with chocolate sauce drizzle, 

white and milk chocolate curls and a chocolate heart.

Triple Chocolate - Chocolate sponge, chocolate buttercream, milk and white 

chocolate curls and drizzled chocolate sauce.

Rocky Road - Chocolate sponge, chocolate buttercream, drizzled chocolate sauce,

 mini marshmallows, chocolate covered biscuit balls and chocolate sprinkles. 

Smores cupcake - Vanilla sponge, chocolate cake covering (silverspoon), 

marshmallow fluff and a chocolate heart (made of the cake covering). 

Something different

Recently I have been reorganising my room to create myself an office for my chocolates and cards. I had bought some cardboard boxes from ALDI a while ago now and decided to cover them in pictures taken from a big pile of travel agent brochures that I seem to have acquired over the last couple of years. I used a mixture of PVA glue and water to apply them to the boxes in a layered/decoupage manner.

Faye's First Birthday Card

As promised here is the first birthday card I started at card class last week, I finally finished it just now. I really hope Faye and her parents like it :)

Here is the outside of the card....

And here is the inside!

Hobbies cards

I went to Alton Towers yesterday with my Dad, Brother and Cousin. We had a great time but I was too tired to post last night when I got home.
Here are some hobbies themed cards I have made for men. The first card is a Martial Arts themed card using some embellishments I have had in my men's box for a long time now. I found some card stock which resembled wooden flooring and used that as a background then finished off with a peel off happy birthday.

The second card is a saxophone card with sheet music backing paper topped with a die cut saxophone and I love music peel-off I mounted on silver card before cutting out and raising up with foam pads. 

Finally I made an electric guitar themed card. I decided to use a backing card stock that looks a little like an equaliser or a city skyline at night (depending on your opinion!) to make the pale guitar stand out. I then did a similar thing to the last card with a black peel off this time saying Rock & Roll. To finish off the card I added a peel off which I double mounted.

Happy Yorkshire Day!

I have been at my card making class tonight, but haven't yet finished the card I was working on so will post pictures of that once finished, hopefully at the weekend. Instead here are a couple of girly cards I have made.

Birthday cake

Here is a picture of the birthday cake I baked for my aunties birthday last week. I baked a vanilla sponge filled it with jam and buttercream, frosted and covered it with sugarpaste on the Wednesday, then on the Thursday my 11 year old cousin came to help me decorate it. In reality I gave him some coloured icing, a pile of cutters, showed him what to do and he did the rest! Even the piping was entirely him, I didn't even help him space the letters out. He probably did a better job than I would have. He really enjoyed doing it and his mum loved the cake.
We used little pink and white edible pearls from Asda and pink and white edible glitter to decorate some of the flowers to make them really pretty.

Some more cards

Here are some more cards which I made at the weekend. The first card uses a little wooden embellishment from Michael's in America along with some sheet music backing paper, other coloured papers/cards and a simple peel off.

The second uses casino themed card stock from an american set, a die embellishment, papers and a peel off.

This card uses birthday and guitar peel offs, silver and black card and a background paper I have had for many years. 

Finally I have cannibalised an old birthday card my Dad received and used it to create a new card (for either my Mum, Dad or Brother...).

Some Men's Cards

Here are some of the men's cards that I made on Saturday, I managed to make 14 cards by the end of the afternoon (and my Mum made another 12 ladies and general cards). I wont post them all in one go so will add some more later :).

This card uses an old fashioned car peel off which I stuck onto cream card and cut around, it was then layered on dark red and gold papers. 

This card uses part of a birthday card I have recycled as well as two car embellishments. 

This is a decoupage layered formula 1 car which I mounted on white followed by a pearlescent green which matches the green of the car. 

Finally here is another decoupage card this time of a classic car, it is mounted on gold pearlescent paper which doesn't show up well on the photo.