Branching Out

Hello all, well I haven't blogged for a little while as I have been busy crafting away and buying new stock with my partner in crime hehe, So I thought I would do a post, Well today I was going to organise all of my stock take pictures of some new designs watermark them and clean my work area up but, the plan didnt happen due to being in immense pain with my Fibromyalgia.

So today I have been busy adding more to my website which I can say is coming along brilliant and looking lovely, I have also published it now as there isn't much else to add to it and it shows my full range of what I offer so here is the website 

Kelly's Enchanted Castle

Please feel free to take a nosey at it, I would really appreciate it.

I have also been busy uploading to my Pinterest account for my business also so if you use Pinterest please follow me 

Kelly's Enchanted Castle

And last but not least I am also on Twitter so if you use Twitter then come and follow me over there too :)

@KellysLeese

Tomorrow im hoping to do my original plan if not I will be busy finishing off the website if I don't finish it this evening and I will also be sharing with you some new creations

Kelly 

xx

Crafty Goings On

Hello all, well yesterday I spent the afternoon at a close friends, who is also a card maker, we have a crafty afternoon together once or twice a week and yesterday we got more done than we have last few crafty session lol.

The first piece I made was a Birthday Card, and the image I used on it was one I was given when I first ever started card making, so it was all ready coloured in and here it is 

I then went onto trying out my new product idea, My partner bought me some chipboard album covers, as I did say to him I had an idea for a new product soooooo, I got around to making it and I must say I am quite proud with the outcome.

The first one I did, is a take on the white on white so I did this one for a wedding and I have left a space for it to be personalised.

I started off by drawing around the chipboard cover, onto my chosen card, and then cut it out, I then got all my white die cuts and took out what I wanted to use, I then played around with the design and layout until I was happy, once I was happy with it I then glued it all into position and finished it off by adding some diamante's and some glitter glue to the dove's tails and wings also a little on the rose petals.

Now the wedding one was complete the one I really wanted to get on with was a zodiac wall plaque, so for this one I have used one of Delicious Doodles Horror-scope Digi's I have used 

Horror-scope Virgo 

I have made this is the same way as above, but this time I have added a Digi, so once I had chosen my digi I then printed it out and coloured it in with promarkers, the colours I have used are:

Warm Grey 1, Warm Grey 3, Pastel Beige, Berry Red, Orchid, Meadow Green, Satin, Buttercup and Khaki.

I have also added a castle die cut behind the virgo, the other die cuts on the plaque were originally white so I just coloured these in using a Purple promarker.

I can honestly say I can not wait to get started with doing more of these, as I will be doing them for all occasions and yes I will be doing more of the zodiac one's so keep your eyes open for more of those.

Lastly A few days ago I did a new wedding invitation design and have called it the Elegant Range and here it is 

I can do this one in all colours to suit the colour scheme of the wedding, and the inside can be decorated if customers request this :)

So as you can see I have been a busy bee, I hope you like what I have done all my products are for sale and can be found on my Facebook Page

Kelly's Enchanted Castle

Kelly

xx

Delicious Doodles Challenge #40 All Creatures Great and Small

Hello all well, I hope you have all had lovely weather over the past week it’s been lovely here, to the point where I even got to do some crafting outside in my dad’s back garden which I really enjoyed.

Well as you can see it’s that time of the week for another great challenge over at DeliciousDoodles

 This weeks theme is All Creatures Great and Small, so for this challenge I have decided to use the lovely image

Woodland Friends

So why not give it a go and be in the chance of winning five of the delicious doodles images of your choice, you can enter twice if you use one of the delicious doodles digi’s and once if you do not. Also don’t forget if you do use one of the Delicious Doodles digi’s you will be spotlighted.

So here is my inspiration piece for you all to get some lovely ideas from

I started off by choosing my image and printing it out I then coloured it in using my promarkers the colours I have used for this image are:

Pastel Blue, Orchid, Pumpkin, Tulip Yellow, Warm Grey 1, Baby Pink, Caramel, Tan, Burnt Umber, Soft Green, Oatmeal and Blush

Once my image was all coloured in I then cut it out, Now onto the backing papers, I cut all these down to the size I required, and then used a corner punch to round off all the corners on all 3 of the backing papers, I then used some border peel off stickers to decorate all around the edge on each piece of backing papers. Now that this was all done I then used my corner punch again to round off the corners on my blank square card, I then glued all my backing papers into position and then the image in the centre.

I finished the card off by adding some Martha Stewart Butterflies and some candi’s in the corners.

I hope you like my DT piece and it gives you all alot of inspiration

Kelly

Xx

I would also like to enter this piece into the following challenges
ABC Challenges - I (Heart) Animals
The Corrosive Challenge - Animal Antics
Eclectic Ellapu - B is for

Father's Day

Hey all, well the weather has been lovely here I even got to craft outside in my dad's backgarden YAY, which is the first time I have been able to do that and I loved every minute.

Now I thought I would blog about a card I have made for my dad, for Father's Day so here it is and a little about the card itself and my wonderful dad. 

Now my Dad is not just my Dad he is my best friend, and the most wonderful person I know, without him I don't know what i would do. Yes I have my own health problems and think of giving up at times with being in so much pain but then I look at my dad and think firstly no way is he 62 this year and secondly if he can with all his health problems I can. Some years ago my dad was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer and had 2 major operations to remove his Thyroid, he is now clear of the cancer but still has regular check ups, so on top of that he has Sleep Apnea, a metal plate in his arm, Asthma, Weight Issues, Type 2 Diabetes and so so much more and is classed as disabled but yet he still gets up every morning and does his normal daily duties of seeing to my gran who is very ill with Dementia and even finds the time to go fishing, which i sometimes go with him. So I wanted to show my dad how much I do appreciate him and everything he does.

This year is the first time I have handmade my dad a Father's Day card, now he see's all my creations and is always so proud of me of what i have achieved, so this year I wanted to make him something special and what better way to do it than making him this Bookatrix Keepsake Card.

Now I started to struggle on an image for the card as I just couldn't find the right one for what i wanted with my dad being a big fishing freak so it had to be fishing and it had to be cute, So during my search I thought about recycling some old cards from over the years which I seem to keep from all occasions yes even father's day. So during my search I found an old card I had sent to my Dad which had the above image and sentiment's on so it was perfect, what better way to recycle old cards than to re-use them in my own way.

I first started out by choosing my 3 pieces of card 2 blue and one gold piece, I then got my Glitter Girls Bookatrix Embossing board and placed a sheet at a time onto the board and scored around the board, once this was done on all 3 sheets of card I then cut them all out.

Next I then decorated the border edges of each piece of card with some peel off border stickers, once that was done I then folded each piece back on it self to give it a curved look, now it was time to glue all the pieces together but being careful so they all lined up correctly, Now they were all lined up and glued. I then took my recycled card pieces and played around with them a little until I was happy with where i wanted them once I was I then used some 3d foam stickers and stuck them into place.

Lastly I added a lovely blue bow and ribbon down the centre, to give it a finishing touch, once this was all done I then made a stand and gift box for it to go in ready to give to my wonderful fishing mad Dad.

Kelly 

xx

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges

Anything Goes Challenge - Father's Day

City Crafter Challenge - All About Him

Crafty Sentiments - Card/Project for a male

Creative Craft Challenges - We Love You Dad

Cuttin and Stampin - Father's Day

Challenge #38 Delicious Doodles

Hello all, well its challenge time over at 

Delicious Doodles YAY!!, This weeks challenge is 

White on White

So get your thinking caps on, and show us all what you can do, just by doing a white on white creation, I have really gone out of my comfort zone with doing my DT make for this challenge first time I have done a white on white make and must say I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

When you enter a Delicious Doodles challenge, you can win Five Digi images use two of the delicious doodles images and enter twice, you will also be spot lighted for using one of the digi's by Teri :), so what are you waiting for.

Well I think its time I show you my DT card for this weeks challenge and here it is 

The image I have used for my card is Lovey-Dovey Silhouette 

Now for how I did my creation, This has all been done on a blank A5 size card. Firstly I chose my Digi image, and printed it out I then used one of my Die Cuts called Nesting Dies with my Big Shot, to cut the image out, Once the image was cut out I then added some diamantés around the edge.

The next thing I did was to cut out some more of my die cuts using my Big Shot, The first lot I cut out was the butterflies which is a Vintage Flourishes die, I then used my Memory Box Cherry Blossom die, and lastly my Marianne Design Creatable die, Now all my die cuts were all done I then started to make my roses I also added some glitter glue to the edges of the roses, and to one of the butterfly die's, While these were drying I added my Sentiment using some lovely silver peel off stickers to my Marianne Design Creatable Die, then added some more diamantés.

Now I started to make up my flowers with some leaves and a diamanté in the centre , Now it was time to do the layout, so I put my blank card flat and tried different layouts till I was happy once I was happy I then began to stick everything in place, I also used one of my heart doilies and an embossed heart background, once everything was stuck in place and dried I then decided to give it one last finishing touch with some more bling so I gave the butterflies a little diamanté trail.

I hope you like what you see and get lots of inspiration from it for your own challenge entry, good luck with your entries I can't wait too see what you all come up with.

Kelly

(Delicious Doodles Design Team)

xxxx

I would also like to enter the above card into the following challenges

Celebrate The Occassion - Fluttering by!!  (must use butterfly)
Whoopsi Daisy Challenge - White on White 
Digi Haven - Butterflies
  Polkadoodles and Studio 12 - To Die For

New Products

Hello all, well I have been recovering from the charity fun day I attended last weekend in aid of North Staffordshire Special Care Baby Unit, It was a fantastic day and we raised more than we expected, My hair accessories went down a storm. I also got to meet some great people, The total we are looking at that we raised is over £1,000 which is fandabbydoody.

Here is my stall at the event

While at the event I also showed my Support for Hugs For Noah, A wonderful little boy who was born with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, doctors said he would be paralyzed from waist down, that if he didnt breath on his own when born they wouldn't resusitate and to top it off could not close the Spina Bifida up. Well let me tell you little Noah did breath on his own his Spina Bifida was closed up and more importantly he can move his legs YAY!!. He celebrated his first birthday in March and is coming on leaps and bounds and proving doctors etc wrong.

 The other two charities I also support are, Gemma's Ray Of Hope to help raise awareness of SUDEP, and Staffordshire Sands who give support to parents who have been through the devastation of loosing a baby.

This now takes me onto my newest products, because I wanted to help out Staffordshire Sands in some way I have designed some Baby Loss poems, and from every sale of these I am donating £1 to Staffordshire Sands.

Here are the poems

Not only that but I have been working alongside Laura from Cards and Candles For All Occasions, on organising a Big charity event in aid of Sands, we are also doing a Face Your Fears challenge for Hugs For Noah, so yes I am going to face my fear of heights which means a Bungee Jump, which I hope to get lots of sponsors for, and hope a few more people with fears of creepy crawlies aswell as heights will join in on this to help raise even more, each participant will be sponsored for doing it. We are also going to be working together on a range of products for Sands. 

This is what it's all about 2 local business' working together, but it is even better because my self and Laura are close friends who work brill together and we also have the same passion and beliefs even though we have our own health problems we will do all we can for Noah and Sands

So as you can see it's very busy here at Castle HQ but I would not change any of it for the world.

You can find out more about Hugs For Noah by visiting the website 

www.HugsForNoah.co.uk 

Or you can use the hashtag #HugsForNoah on twitter.

To know more about Sands you can visit there website 

http://www.uk-sands.org/home.html

Or the facebook page for Staffordshire Sands

http://www.facebook.com/staffordshiresands?fref=ts

Also to know more about Gemma's Ray Of Hope check out the Facebook page 

http://www.facebook.com/gemmasrayofhope?fref=ts

Or the website

www.gemmasrayofhope.org.uk

Busy Busy Busy

Hello all :), Well its a bit of a miserable day today here in Stoke-On-Trent, nothing new there really it's one of those places where you can get sunburn one day and frost bite the next hehe. 

Anyways I hope your all doing good and the weather isn't too miserable where you are, tomorrow is a big day for me and my business reason being is since October last year myself and the other events organiser for Ikon Bodyz Modified Car Club have been busy organising a big charity event for North Staffs Special Care Baby Unit, and tomorrow is the big day where all the hard work will pay off as im sure we will raise lots of money for this brilliant cause.

Now I bet your thinking hang on a car club doing charity events, well YES you did read right, we are not your average car club of boy racers who go speeding up and down and the usual, we meet twice a week for a bit of a chat and giggle, were not just a car club were a family, we all believe in helping different charities so we do 1 or 2 big events a year for different charities who really need the help, along side car shows we attend and anything else we can think of.

Soooo, again today I have been rather busy sorting my stock out ready for tomorrow, the cards are all packed and ready just want to make a few more, all my hair accessories are all done and some new ones also and here they are 

I will also be blogging about tomorrow events on Monday or Tuesday so I do hope you come over to take a look at what went on, or if your local come along there is something for the whole family :).

Kelly

xx