CSI Challenge 144

Hello there, how are you?

After the all the excitement over the last few weeks (launching new Christmas products and our very own website) I've decided to spend this weekend crafting instead. I was a bit stuck for inspiration though so I wandered over to CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration, I find their weekly challenges a great kickstarter when my mojo is lacking and it's a great way to use up your stash.

I was shocked when I realised I hadn't played along since challenge 97 - it's 144 now, that's nearly a year, it doesn't seem that long, it really doesn't.

So I had a go at challenge 144 last night, and here's what I came up with...

For the scene I used all 5 colours - Bright Yellow, Warm Grey, Black, White and Turquoise.

I used 5 things off the evidence list: Polka Dot, Stripes, Triangles, Tickets and a Ribbon.

My journaling is written in 2 journaling spots and is about Bailey's curiousity: "You are one nosey dog Bailey boy, the second anyone moves you want to be involved".

I added a rub-on to the Instagram Print and made a dog tag embellishment using a Tim Holtz Fragment, some Turquoise Paper, a Rub-on "B" and some ribbon.

I enjoyed myself so much I'm going to make time to play along every week. Challenge 145 is up over on CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration, I'll be attempting this one this afternoon.

Hope you have fun, whatever you may be doing today.

Claire xx

The BIG Announcement - Ta Dah!

Well hello there, how's it going?

It's been a busy few weeks here, I've been working on something that I've wanted to do for ages now. And I'm so pleased to be able to share it today.

After many late nights, taking lots and lots of photos and general fiddling about with this and that, I'm absolutely thrilled (and a little bit proud) to announce that....

Crafty Alchemy now has it's very own, brand new, shiny website...

www.craftyalchemy.com is now live - Whoop!! You can check it out here. (It may take a few days for it to show up in search engines, so please bear with me on that score, it's out of my control I'm afraid, you can still access it via the links whilst it's working it's way through the search engines)

I'm thrilled to bits with how it looks and still can't quite believe I've done it.

We've got lots of new products planned for over the next few months and lots of exciting things planned here on the blog too, I'm looking forward to sharing everything with you all.

I really hope you like our new website and I'd love to know what you think too.

Thanks for stopping by today, it's been lovely to see you.

Hope to see you soon.

Claire xx

You and Me (not looking at the camera)

Hello there! How are you? How quickly has the weather turned? Winter seems to be settling in. The gales in our little seaside town were shocking yesterday, there's nothing like the left over bits of a hurricane to blow away the cobwebs (and the fence panels). 

However, you know me well enough by now to know that I always find the silver lining, no mater how small, there has to be a silver lining, my "Winter's here" silver lining is... We can stay inside watching DVDs and crafting, it's like hibernation, but, it's in the craft room.

I've made a start on the photos from our little trip to St Albans and the Harry Potter Studios, this is one of my favourite photos of H and I in the grounds surrounding St Albans Cathedral (which is truly stunning and well worth visiting if you're in the area - fascinating history) I have however noticed a ... shall we say a "thing" in all the photos of H and I, not once, not in one single photo are we both looking at the camera, with our eyes open, smiling, one of us is always mid-blink or looking in another direction, oh well that's life I guess.

I used patterned papers and Heidi Swapp Colour Shine Spray ink (Peach) , stickers, rub-ons and little wooden hearts from my collection of Quirky Kits (I love mixing and matching). All of the papers have been inked around the edges with Pumice Stone Distress Ink.

I'm a big fan of embellishment clusters on layouts, especially chunky ones, so for this one I've used a sticker label, again from Quirky Kits and a few embellishments from my Crafty Alchemy Elements & Embellishments kits, I've used a resin frame and added the cardstock and rub-ons to the middle of the frame, a Smile badge from my range of button badges and a chunky little handmade felt flower for extra dimension. 

It's still a shame we haven't got a photo of all 3 of us, I think the only one we have was taken inside the Weasley's Flying Ford Anglia in the green screen area at the studios (you can have a mini movie made of you flying a broomstick). 

I hope you like today's scrapbook layout and I'd love to see how you extra texture and dimension to your scrapbook pages and projects, please feel free to leave a link to your project in the comments and I'll be sure to come and check it out.

I'm going to scoot off now and get the last few things done so that I can share my big news on Friday, I'm so excited and can't wait to show you. I hope you'll pop back to find out what I've been up to.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you soon.

Claire xx

Gingerbread, Reindeer and Hearts... Oh My

Hello there, Happy Sunday, come on in and have a cuppa.

The new Christmas products have launched in the Crafty Alchemy Etsy Shop, Yay! I'm actually all excited for Christmas already, I can't wait for December this year. In fact I don't think I've ever had so much good stuff planned in my calendar before now, I've got so much to look forward to and there's another big Crafty Alchemy announcement coming next week, I really can't wait to share that one with you all, so be sure to pop back in next week, you don't want to miss the news :)

As for the new Christmas products, we've got Sew Your Own Reindeer Decorations....

These adorable reindeer are available in a single pack or pack of 3.

We've also got "Sew your Own Gingerbread Men" Kits, again available in single packs or a pack of 3.

They look lovely hanging on the Christmas tree.

We've got Hanging Heart Decorations....

... in two colour schemes, traditional (red, white & biscuit) and Pastel...

Pastel Pink, Cream and Pastel Blue.

All of these kits are available for purchase in the Crafty Alchemy Etsy Shop, you may even find a gift or two for the crafty person in your life, or maybe a little treat for yourself, go on, you know you deserve it :) Click here to have a look around

Well that's all from me for today, I've got lots of things to finish off in preparation for next week.

Thanks for stopping by, it's been lovely to see you, hope to see you again soon.

Claire xx

Halloween Challenge - Bookmark

Hello there, oh dear, it's a bit cobwebby and dusty in here isn't it? ***wanders round with feather duster and hoover having a quick clean*** It really doesn't seem like a whole month since I posted last but apparently it is, I've been busy as usual which is always good and there's the odd major change too.

The first major change is Crafty Alchemy now has a brand new logo, one that's been properly designed by someone who knows what they're doing and I can look at it proudly instead of knowing it's not right. I have to say I love it lots.

The second huge change is that after 3 years and 8 months of great chat, fun and craftiness I have stepped down from Sarah Hurley's Design Team. The time had come where I really need to spend more time on Crafty Alchemy in order to keep moving forward, however it's not goodbye forever, I'm still going to be doing the occasional guest spot for Sarah and we're still in touch so all is good with the world there.

I do have quite a few projects left from my time on the team so I've still got some bits and bobs to share with you (along with a huge pile of my own crafty projects).

So I'll start with my last ever Sarah Hurley 365 Challenge piece....

The challenge is to create something on a Halloween theme so I knew it was going to involve my Zombie Girl Doodle Doll stamp, I was struggling what to do though until one night I went to bed at 2.30am (on a work night) as I was unable to put down the book I was reading, I find that if I don't read before bed, I can't sleep, so it helps me switch off, well that's the theory anyway, I randomly thought "I feel like a zombie" whilst yawning uncontrollably and the idea hit me, a bookmark. I used a strip of Grungeboard covered in Dusty Concorde Distress Ink then stamped a text background using one of Sarah's mini background stamps. The doodle doll Zombie Girl was coloured in with pale pink, lilac, grey & blush Promarkers, then I covered her dress in pale pink Stickles, even a Zombie needs some sparkle in her life. My bookmark was looking quite nice at this point, but Zombie's don't do nice and I wanted to scruff it up a bit so I decided to heat emboss the words Zombie Girl's Book, I chose to heat emboss it because it's something I never fail at doing messily, no matter how hard I try. I used Sarah's Block Alpha Stamps to create the wording.

And there you have it,one rather grungy Halloween bookmark. You can enter the challenge here on the Sarah Hurley 365 blog.

Well that's almost everything from me, can I ask a little favour please? Please can we all do an anti-rain dance on Friday morning, I desperately need to photograph my new Christmas sewing kits and so far rain and bad lighting is stopping play, so please pray for sun, do a little dance, whatever works for you and if all goes well I'll be back on Friday with some lovely new Christmassy goodies to share.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again soon.

Claire xx