Celebrating 1 Year Blog Hop

Hello everyone & welcome to Swedish House Crafts 1st Year Anniversary & what better way to celebrate a whole year is with a blog hop.

We are doing a blog hop with a difference but we guarantee there will be lots of prizes to be won along the way.

So you should have arrived here from the lovely Laurigami's Blog, if not start at the beginning here.

Now Swedish House Crafts is a Different Crafting Table as Suha the lovely owner calls it, so all the DT girlies are showing you bits of their craft room.

Now as a lot of you know I used to have a big summer house at the bottom of the garden that was turned into a craft room when I began this hobby. I like being around my family but dont want the mess of craft things in the living room etc. However we had an extension built for Natalie for a large bathroom for her, this meant we had 3 bathrooms....we did not need this many. So 1 was turned into a craft room for me......I must warn you this has not been finished yet & still all my craft stuff is not in here. 

So this is my craft room & although its at least half the size I used to have I love being with the family & Natalie's bedroom is right next door to me.

Excuse my dog she lies in the craft room whenever I'm in there, usually in the doorway lol.

Its a HUGE downsize but I'm making it work.........I think lol.

This is my main work area, where I plan my cards, lay out papers, plan layout that sort of thing. I also have my Sewing machine right next to me as I love to sew all papers on my card.

In the corner there is my Cameo with the grey cover on. The white square tub is my water/brush pot for when I'm colouring with distress inks.......just behind my cup is a pot with my most used paint brushes in. I'm always changing which brush I use lol

Just to the right of me is my colouring drawer for distress ink colouring only....copic colouring is kept seperate. I have more spare brushes in there, mini pads, distress ink refill palette & plastic bags that my images go into when I have coloured them.

Underneath all that is lots of watercolour paper & pads, a few different brands.

On the right side is Spectrum Aqua pens which I've still not used lol, mini ink pads & other bits.

My watermarker pens are kept in another drawer under the bench next to my re-purposed wine rack lol. The wine rack I store all my jars of buttons & sequins etc.

A lot of my dies are kept on the inside of the doors, they are in sight so I dont neglect them too much lol but also hidden so they dont look a mess. This was the best option for storing my dies as they can take up a lot of room but if I have them in a box I know a lot wont get used. This way I can see them all at sight & it makes use of wasted door space that you cannot use for anything else.

Hubby make me an MDF A4 card holder to hold all my A4 cardstock, although I still dont have it all in there & in there you will also see I have packets of dies that are still yet to be opened........yeah I'm a bad woman :-/

Underneath are inks, glitter, small die-cutting area, score board (which has my latest order form Swedish House Crafts on) & my paper cutter.

I do have 2 cutting area's....1 for small dies for quickness & the other side is where my A4 die-cutter is.

This is my larger die-cutting area & where I keep my glue gun & heat gun. I do all my gluing on the glass work top.

Down this bottom corner I have a box where I keep all my Magnolia Doohickey collections, which I will show you properly another time once its all finished lol.

Down-sizing was really hard, still is to be honest but I know I am extremely lucky to have a craft room as I know a lot dont. I try to use every little bit of space, on top of units & so I can reach I keep a little folding step in here.....the red thing folded up under my sewing machine.

I have had to be ruthless sorting my craft room out & once I am finished I will sell lots that I no longer use or need. I had the luxury of hoarding before as my old craft room was huge.

To fit my craft room out we purchased a used kitchen that a lady was selling & this fitted it out nicely & gave me lots of storage to house all my stuff.

I also have a rack on the back of my door that I keep paints, embossing powders, sprays etc in 7 it makes use of a wasted space we have on our doors lol.

I have also made a card using products from Swedish House Crafts. I have used Maja Design 'I Wish' 6x6 pad which I love. Although I have just received the new Maja Design collection & its sooooo gorgeous, I ordered 2 sets of 12x12 & a 6x6 pad lol.....yeah I know I'm greedy lol.

I've also used Roxstamps Cross Stitched Nesting Dies......another huge love of mine & a Gummiapan Doodle Circle die.

Now by commenting on my blog you can win this fabulous prize, I have these & they are fabulous. I will show you a project using them in a day or 2 time ;-) Anyone can enter & items will be shipped worldwide. There are prizes all over & bigger ones on the SHC Blog.

Gummiapan Flower dies

Dont forget to hop around all the blogs collecting your letters along the way & return to follow the instructions on the SHC Blog here for a chance to win bigger prizes.

Your next stop along the way is the super talented Anna.

All winners will be announced on 12th November, good luck everyone. 

Thank you for hopping here & being a part of celebrating with us at Swedish House Crafts for our 1 year Anniversary.

Thanks for staying to the end. Dont forget to collect your letter & follow instructions on the SHC blog.........remember to leave a comment on this blog post for a chance to win the Flower dies.

Lots of luck & many hugs

Vicky xxx

Swedish House Crafts - Christmas Greetings

Hello everyone I'm here to show you a Christmas Card using yummy papers, stamps, dies & embellishments from Swedish House Crafts.

Now I'm losing track of days at the minute & totally forgot about my DT make......so this was a rush & altogether took me just under 2 hours to do, including colour the image.....now thats fast for me I can spend 4 hours just on a card & then at least an hour colouring the image lol.

So I made a Lollipop card, I love making these & have made quite a few, they are so easy & quick to make.

For my foacl point I could not decide between an image from a Maja Design Christmas Collection or a Magnolia stamp.......so I went with both lol.

I have used the super cute Christmas Caramel Tilda from A Lovely Christmas collection. I coloured her with distress ink refills & then cut her out using Magnolia 'Rounded Frames & Tags' die. These are on a fabulous offer right now so get them while you can. They cut brilliantly & I love how you get a little tag in them also.

For the leaves I have used my favourite leaf die Magnolia Sprawling Ferns die & cut the leaves from Maja Design 'Grandpa's Christmas Tree' paper. I also added Glistening Pomegranates & Berries from Swedish House Crafts, these are fabulous for adding that perfect Christmassy finishing touch......or foofines as I call it lol.

I cut tags from Maja Design paper & distressed them a little, added an eyelet, some string & a rusty bell & tucked them in at the top. They can be took out to write little personal messages or quotes on.

Now when I first followed the tutorial for the Lollipop card I didnt like how you wrote on the back, for me personally it felt like I would be squashing the flowers & all my other foofiness on the front.

So I came up with the idea of adding a pocket on the back to insert tags into, these you take out & write your messages on.

I've kept the back fairly simple as all the main attraction is at the front ;-)

The tags were made using Magnolia Business Card Letter Tags. 

I added more embellishments one the other side, using Sprawling Ferns die again, some Pomegranate Apples, Mixed Berries & a Wooden Pine Cone all from Swedish House Crafts.

I also added a miniature glass bottle & added some german glass glitter inside........its like a bottle of Christmas Magic Dust ;-)

For the circle in the centre I used Roxstamps Cross Stitched Nesting dies, I love these, the round ones & the squares ones & would use them all the time if I could lol. They cut fantastic & really are excellent value......these are my favourite nesting dies to use.

The tiny little postcard is also from the same sheet as the image which is Maja Design 'I Wish' Ephemera sheet. 

Hope you like my quick lollipop card, if you have not tried to make one of these yet, then why not try one they really are so easy & quick to make. You can even used the shape as a hanging instead of inserting a straw in it.

Thanks for stopping by, hugs Vicky xxx

Here is my blog.

Links To Products Used.....

Maja Design - Old Days Christmas, Decorated & Nice

Maja Design - I Wish, Ephemera 

Maja Design - Old Days Christmas, Grandpa's Christmas Tree

Magnolia Pink Edition Rounded Frames & Tag dies

Magnolia Christmas Caramel Tilda

Magnolia Sprawling Ferns Die

Magnolia Business Card Letter Tags die

Frozen Pomegranates - Glistening Red Wine

Frozen Pomegranates - Glistening White

Mixed Berries - Cranberry Red

Wooden Pine Cone

Swedish House Crafts - Friends

Hi everyone,

I'm here today with a very girly card that can be used for a friend, using lots of yummy products from Swedish House Crafts. I used some of my favourite papers from Maja Design, the Sofiero collection which is so unbelievably pretty. There is also something Christmassy on this card, can you see it?

Yes its the leaves. I have used Magnolia 'Sprawling Ferns' and I think these can be used all year round. They are my favourite leaf die. A couple of years ago I was going to give up crafting and sold ALL of my Magnolia dies and whilst my collection is now bigger than it was before, there are a few dies I still haven't been able buy yet :-( However imagine my excitement when I saw Suha had these in stock the other week......I may have done a little dance around lol.

The flowers are all handmade by me from white foamiran, the larger one I used a candle and foamiran and I tried something different.....I love how it turned out. I added beautiful Glistening White Pomegranates from Suha's store, love these!!!

Before I joined Swediish House Crafts DT I bought the Magnolia Doohickey Collection from Suha and if you order one from her within a certain time you get a free gift worth £20........now how fantastic is that....BARGAIN!!! Ker-Ching....

So I ordered Volume 16 and chose this Magnolia Dream Tag which again I used to have but had sold it. Thank goodness for Swedish House Crafts and all the gorgeous Swedish Products we can buy, insert BIG smiley face here lol. ;-)

I added a pre-printed image which I cut into portions to make this sweet little girl 3D. The base image I cut out using Gummiapan Stitched Rectangles.......I love Gummiapan stamps and dies, seriously I cannot recommend them enough. 

If you haven't tried them yet and its because you have been abducted by aliens and then hidden away on some space ship in a far far away Galaxy....... Well I completely understand, BUT......now you are back down on Earth safely.... well your first port of call should be Swedish House Crafts......make yourself a cuppa and browse and shop all the fabulous goodies. You MUST try Gummiapan though!!!

Another view of the 3D paper piecing I did using a LOTV Simply Print. I printed them out & then used 1 of the images as my base image & then cut pieces of the other images to make her 3D.

I think I used 3 images in total, I did this image a couple of months ago so I'm struggling remember lol.

The butterflies are from Stempelglede & I coloured them with distress inks & fussy cut them out.

As always I have decorated inside to match the front. The reason I do this is because I think it's a perfect added touch It shows extra love and you don't have the solid heavy front that feels solid and well crafted and then a flimsy back. It's worth going the extra mile even though we have to cut into more of our yummy paper ;-)

Thanks for stopping by

Lotsa hugs Vicky xxx

Challenges I'm Entering......

Ribbon Girl - October Any Image challenge

PRODUCTS USED.........

Maja Design 'Sofiero' - Enjoying The Fragrance

Maja Design 'Sofiero' - Exuberance Of Flowers In Bloom

Magnolia 'Dream Tag' Die

Magnolia 'Sprawling Ferns' Die

Gummiapan 'Stitched Rectangles' Die

Stamens White

Frozen Pomegranates - Glistening White

Lovely Hanglar & Sweet Magnolia DT Card

Hello everyone I'm running so late with this, I thought I had done &......well clearly I hadnt so I'm gonna crack on. I have a peek sneak of something sooooooo cute at the bottom of the post though, so why not hang around lol.

Ok so my lovelies we have a brand new challenge over on Lovely Hanglar & Sweet Magnolia & the challenge is.......drum roll please......

USE TRIM

......so it can be lace, ribbon, seam binding, pom pom trim, organza roses....you et the drift dont you ;-)

I had hoped I would have a different project ready but I didnt but thankfully had this one as back-up which I made a few weeks ago.

The image I masked & coloured a couple of months ago so it was nice to finally put it on a card.

The stamps I used are Magnolia 'Tilda With Flower In Her Pocket' from the Country Girl collection & I masked her with Magnolia 'Little Westie With Flower' I left the Westie off though & just used the flowers, again this stamp is from the Country Girl collection. I got these from Swedish House Crafts.

They were coloured with distress ink refills & then I cut the image out using Gummiapan Stitched Circle dies.

I made a tag using the Surfboard tag....I've had this for about a year & finally used it for the first time, shocking I know....I have quite  a few like this, some still in their packets...yes I'm bowing my head in shame right now :-(

The words are from a Tim Holtz pad. I made the tag so it can swivel out to write something on the plain one underneath.

I think the brad is My Minds Eye........maybe...

Of course as always I decorated the inside. The paper is Maja Design Summer Crush & I have machine stitched all layers, added gesso here & there & added Gummiapan Stitched Circle dies to the centre.

I added a paper straw saying Happy Birthday at the top using a Whimsy stamp & matching die.

I also added seam binding & I coloured it myself a long long time ago. Button, doilies & lace are form my stash.

I used Magnolia Doohickey Vintage Box Lacing Coffee at the side & the leaves are also Magnolia dies. Flowers are WOC.

Please pop on over to see my fabulous teamies creations & leave them all some love, seriously I work with such talented girlies & feel darn proud of them & lucky to work with them.

Ok do you want to see my sneak peak of something soooooo darn cute....of course you do, well feast your eyes on my new puppy. Only 2 weeks old at the minute, we met them for the first time on Monday 16th & they will be ready on 1st December.

This is Mummy with her 12 babies, yes 12........OMW how did she do that.....where the heck did she hide them all as she is not that big. There is not one runt & she is a fantastic mum & greeted us so so well. She came out to greet us & we stroked her, she really is beautiful.

Me holding my new baby, isn't he adorable....I cant wait til he comes home. I didnt want to put him down lol & when I got home Poppy sniffed where I had held him for ages.

I went to my best friends house after for a couple of hours & stroked her dogs but Poppy didnt even bother with their scent.....just the pups scent.

We got first pic out of all these babies & I picked this handsome fell, first one to have a collar as well. The lady who owns this gorgeous mum & litter sent me this photo to my phone yesterday, I love him already.

I picked him out just by a photo on Friday, I knew as soon as I saw him amongst all his brothers & sisters. Thankfully I did as the first lady to go on Saturday picked mine & desperately wanted him but the lovely lady said he was reserved & while she was disapointed she picked another gorgeous little  fella.

I do have a name ready for him but I will tell you that when he comes homes.........just incase I change my mind (doubt it though lol)

Ok well its actually 3.48 am & I've not been sleep yet as I have an upset daughter who has not been well for a few days & other reasons why I'm up which I will not bore you with as I think I have babbled waaaaayyyy to much as it is lol.

Thank you for stopping by & if you stayed to the end well done you lol.

Tatty bye lovelies, take care & enjoy your day what ever you are doing.

Lotsa hugs Vicky xxx

Mr & Mrs Together Forever

Hello everyone how are you all?

The plan today was get the front garden done, scarify the lawn, remove flowers & weed etc but its wet & very miserable :-( Perfect day to stay inside & get work done then ;-)

So I have a card today that I made quite a few weeks ago. When I showed my last LOTV card with a simply print I did say the next one would be a stamped image.......here it is, or one of them as I have a another done lol.

This time I thought I would make a Wedding card or it could even suit as an Anniversary card maybe.

Sorry for the pics again we've packed the big computer up to move to another room & the software to use with the camera is on there & not my lappy.........so I'm still using my phone :-(

I love these love birds, they are so darn cute.........shame it took me so long to use them lol. They are from Magnolia Doo-Hickey Volume 3.

The flowers are WOC & you can also see a doily peeking out too.

I added Mr & Mrs Scrapiniec to the corner & under the flowers I added the Eiffel Tower also from Volume 3. 

Flowers again are WOC & the leaves are Magnolia Parsley & Rocket Salad.

The fabulous cute image is a LOTV stamp called 'Wedding Couple' & I coloured it with distress ink refills.

I cut the image out using Gummiapan 'Nesting Stitched Circles' & matted it onto larger sizes underneath including a circle of Maja Design.

I also added a couple of pearl hearts as added love ;-)

I cut 2 hearts using a Magnolia die, I cut 1 in white cardstock & 1 in co-ordinating Maja Design paper, I added Tim Holtz words to the white cardstock & added a brad.

So when you swing the patterned heart out it reads 'Together Forever', kinda like a hidden message.

As always inside is decorated to match the front. Paper I've used is a Maja Design collection which is probably my favourite one, I won September Mood Board & I also won this set......so I have lots more now lol.

It is of course 'Summertime' 12x12 & I used a Go-Kreate die for the card. As always the papers have been machine stitched.

The lace is from my stash as are the doilies.

Thats it form me but thank you so much for stopping by, it really means a lot.

Lotsa hugs Vicky xxx

Challenges I'm Entering..........

Ribbon Girl - October Card Challenge

Addicted To Stamps - Lace and/or Ribbon

Swedish House Crafts DT Card

Hello everyone, today I'm sharing with you my latest creation using yummy products from Swedish House Crafts.

I've been thinking of all the Christmas creating I need to do lately and that brought me to the time after Christmas, New Year. So I thought I would make a table top calendar ready for the New Year.

(Links to items used will be at the bottom of the post.)

I have used the gorgeous Maja Design Denim & Friends Collection, I love this collection so much, it really can be used for almost any occasion. I have machine stitched both layers.

I added layers using Gummiapan Stitched Banners dies, this was just to add a bit of interest. The leaves were made using Magnolia Grandpa's Flower Leaf. The calendars I just got from Ebay.

I also decorated the back, some desks and tables can be seen from all angles so I didn't want the back to look boring. I am going to put a quote on it as well.....just depends where its going lol.

I added Gummiapan Doodle Circle dies as these are fab for adding more interest to any project, I love them. For the image I wasn't originally going to use this one, I had coloured up another Tilda, however she was Christmassy and Christmassy is not an all year thing. So I went with this gorgeous Tilda With Umbrella Daisy, I coloured her dress with Weathered Wood to make it look kinda denim to go with the papers. I coloured her with distress ink refills and added Stardust Stickles to the centre of the daisy and her hair bow. Then I cut her out using Gummiapan Stitched Rectangle dies.

I have made the calendar folding so it folds flat for posting. All lace and flowers are from my stash. I used the co-ordinating Maja Design card stock for layers behind the image and the calendar, also for the doodle circles and leaves.

Thank you for stopping by
Lotsa hugs Vicky xxx

Magnolia Grandpa's Flower Leaf Die

Magnolia Yay It's Your Birthday 'Tilda With Umbrella Daisy'

Gummiapan Dies - Doodle Circle

Gummiapan Dies - Stitched Rectangles

Gummiapan Dies - Stitched Banners Thinner

Maja Design Monochromes Shades Of Denim - Light Blue

Maja Design Monochromes Shades Of Denim - Pale Orange

Maja Design Denim & Friends - Floral  (both sides)

Maja Design Denim & Friends - Summer Shirt  (both sides)

Challenges I'm Entering..........

Marvelous Magnolia - Anything Goes
Midweek Magnolia's - Special Occasion (New Year but if it not delete it girls)

You Are Special To Me

Hello everyone how are you all?

To day I have a card I made a while ago, I'm thinking maybe a month ago or just over.

I've used a Sylvia Zet image from Hobby House (I think) which I've had for ages.

I will give a links to items used at the bottom of the post.

Papers are the super gorgeous Pion Design Easter Collection from Swedish House Crafts.

I have machine stitched all around the edges as always.

Doily & lace are from my stash, also the bulldog clip is.

The small bit of paper is a scrap that I stamped a sentiment onto & then layered it up with foam pads.

The die cut going along the middle is a Magnolia Doohickey.

The gorgeous butterfly is a rubber stamp from Swedish House Crafts which I stamped with Versa & then heat embossed with white embossing powder, I then fussy cut it out & added fine purple pearl string to the centre.

The circle die is a die by Gummiapan from SHC, link will be at the bottom. These are fabulous for adding a bit of interest to your projects, I have the square one too & love them both.

The flowers I made myself using foamiran & Whimsy Peony dies. I used white foamiran & used oil pastels to colour them. The leaves I used olive green foamiran & added colour to give them a realistic look......its rare leaves are one solid colour.

I heat shrunk some organza ribbon & added some string in amongst the flowers.

As always I have decorated inside to co-ordinate with the front.

I used a Roxstamps die to cut out the image & then used a smaller one to make a frame.

Items used from Swedish House Crafts......

Roxstamps Cross Stitched Nesting Square dies

Gummiapan Doodle Circle die

Pion Design Easter Greetings Complete Collection

Gummiapan Stamp Butterfly Morpho Large

Versamark Watermark Ink Pad

Thats it from me, thank you so much for stopping by.

Hope you have a super weekend.

Lotsa hugs Vicky xxx