We're turning 2!!

Today in the colouring workshop, I'll be counting the votes and dishing out the presents for the winners of this years pink pig birthday challenge.

If you'd be privy to some of the conversations around the entries, you'd have know that competition has been fierce! I love everybody's passion for their creations :-)

The shop closes at 3pm, so the winners will be announced just before I leave.

Good Luck everyone.

X 

It's been a while....

I seriously don't know where the time is going! We're coming up on Pink Pigs 2nd Birthday already and it doesn't seem like 2 minutes since I was preparing for the 1st!!!

This month, the competition will revolve around our birthday. You have until 1st December to create a birthday card. You can choose everything except the colour. You've guessed it....it has to be Pink ( not my favourite colour, but in keeping with the name!)

I have a number of prizes (presents) as it's a birthday competition. There will be a 1st, 2nd & 3rd prize this time, so get your creative heads on.

I look forward to your offerings :-)

Email pinkpigcrafts@aol.com or post your entry on facebook or here.

Happy Crafting!

Competition Winner

Congratulations to Connie Evans for her winning entry into the Birthday Bear competition. 

It's been a hectic month and I do apologise for not getting on here as often as I would like to.

I go on holiday on Saturday and I have to say, it is very much needed. After a year filled with pain, both physically and mentally and now losing my Gran, a break is definitely going to be the best medicine.

I won't be setting a challenge for October, but they will be back for November. I am busy planning some Christmas Workshops, so watch this space for details.

See you on the 16th October!!

September Challenge

Hi Everyone, 

Yet again time has escaped me and I'm late posting this month's challenge....Sorry 

Karena won August's challenge with her 'Simple' pressed flower entry. Simple yet stylish. Karena wins one of the Molly Bloom Birthday Parade Magazines.

This month we are having a birthday bear theme. So to enter, all you need to do is create a birthday card/paper based project using bears. It can be any type of bear and you can use any colours you so desire. Here are a few to get you started:

The prize this month are 2 Personal Impressions Stamp Sets (with a bear theme!):

You can send your completed projects to pinkpigcrafts@aol.com, add them to facebook or the blog, whichever you find easiest.

Happy Crafting

Some Simple Entries....

With it being the school holidays, it's busy busy busy. I find myself working until 11pm trying to keep up with all the business side of things, so I haven't had too much time to play.

To compensate for not having much crafty time, I have received 3 entries into the Simple challenge. It's so nice to see other people's creations and use them for my own inspiration....Thanks everyone!!

So here we have the first 3 entries:

 

Alison's

Jeanette's 

Faye's

3 stunning designs! Can't wait to see what else comes through!!

A Simple Card....

I thought I'd join in this month's challenge by making (to me) a Simple card.

I find that the more 'stuff' I accumulate, the more 'faff' goes into my card making. This time, I only used, white card, blue card, blue ribbon (not the biscuit), a stamp, black ink, promarkers and distress ink and a couple of brads.

OK, so that sounds a lot, but the end result looks simple yet elegant:

Not my usual style, but I like it.

Happy Crafting

August's Challenge

After much deliberation and over complicating matters, we've decided that August's Challenge will be 'Simple'

It's not as 'Simple' as it sounds is it?!?

The idea here is that less is more, so show us what you can create using very little. 

As with any of the challenges, this is your interpretation of Simple, so I expect we will see a lot of differing ideas.

Here's a couple of my 'Simple' creations using one of the new stamp sets from Stampin Up!

and if you're feeling festive, you could do a Christmas Card

The prize this month is a copy of the fantastic Molly Bloom Birthday Parade Magazine. It comes with Stamps, Ribbons, Buttons, Papers and lots of inspiration.

As always, you can post your pictures on here, facebook or email them to pinkpigcrafts@aol.com

Happy Crafting

I need more hours in a day....

It seems that lately I don't have enough hours to do everything I want and need to do. The card making requests are mounting up, but the business stuff is taking priority (along with Niamh and her need to be entertained every minute of everyday)

So, we're now into August, which means July's Challenge has closed. The winner is:

Alison 'Crafty Turtle' Turton

Alison received a fantastic 45 votes for this gorgeous creation.

I'm currently working on August's Challenge, but hope to post it tomorrow, so watch this space....

In the meantime

Happy Crafting

It's getting hot in here....

I am sat in the office at the minute feeling like I'm going to melt... I'm sure it's about 40 degrees in here and the desk fan is in the other room cooling the shop down!

So we're finally getting a beautifully hot Summer (perfectly timed for my birthday tomorrow!!) and I'm here making a start on my Christmas Cards. When there's about 200 to make, you've gotta start early:

I've been asked to make some small 'cheapies' to sell in batches, so these are working out perfect. Simple yet elegant...not cheap looking at all!

I decided on this design after playing with some of the new Stampin Up! stamps...

What do you think of these?:-

 

There is a fourth stamp in the collection, but I haven't had time to finish that one yet...watch this space....

Happy Crafting

Happy Friday!!

The sun is out and there is definitely a happy positive energy around me today!

I've been so busy over the last few weeks preparing for the wedding invite party, that I just don't know where the time has gone!

I've had loads of entries into this month's sketch challenge, so I've obviously picked a theme that's got everybody inspired! (or the change in weather has made everyone craft happy)

The Vintage theme drifted into this weeks Coffee Morning too. I made a start on a mini memory book keepsake. I used my daughter and her love for piano to create this:

The papers were from a Craftwork cards collection and were perfect for my background. I used Antique Linen Distress inks round the edge to soften and age the paper further. The image is a Fizzy Moon mini stamp and the ribbon is from Stampin Up!

Niamh hasn't seen it yet, but I'm hoping it's a winner!

I'm off to play with my new Stampin Up! goodies now, so the next post will probably be one of today's creations!!

Happy Crafting

July Challenge

It's that time again when I set a new challenge. This month I am only giving you a theme to use rather than a sketch.

July's theme is......Vintage

All you need to do is create a card using a vintage theme. Below are a few of my creations to give you inspiration!

Once you have completed your masterpiece, either post it on the blog or facebook, or email it to pinkpigcrafts@aol.com and I will post it for you.

The closing date is 31st July and the prize this month is....

A fantastic Crafter's Companion Inspiration Craft Pack worth £35, containing 65 inspiring projects using the free kit included and a Papermania Celebration stamp set containing 38 individual clear stamps!!!!!

Happy Crafting!

Non-Cutesy Wedding Card

A lot of my card designs tend to be a bit 'cutesy', so I always struggle when it comes to simple elegant non stamped images to colour in type cards.

I have been asked for a wedding card that is champagne & mint green with 'On Your Wedding Day', champagne flutes and the couples name and date somewhere on the card.

It was a challenge and took me 3 days to achieve. I can't tell you how many times the layout and card blank type changed! 

So here it is...

I will be definitely storing this one in my photo archives for future reference! Maybe the next time I get this kind of request, it will only take an hour to make!!!!

Stacey

x

Birthday Bamboo

I've been having a play with one of the Kanban sets today and decided I would use Birthday Bamboo to make a lovely little easel card for tomorrows coffee morning

So very sweet

I've been so so busy....

Hi All,

I hope everyone is well. I haven't had much of a chance to blog lately as there seem to have been 101 other jobs that needed to be done!

So what's been happening......

Well, June's sketch challenge has launched and I have 5 entries already! Here is the sketch and the designs so far:

Helen

 Diane

 Jennifer

 Susan

 Jeanette

I've been really naughty and have been buying loads of new goodies for the shop (some of which may accidentally 'fall' into my own craft stash!!)

My latest purchases have been from the Hobby House. They have some fantastic toppers, gems and charms, so now I'm on with the task of uploading everything to the website.....(the not so exciting part of having a craft shop!)

But I'm still finding the time to create cards for friends and family. The most recents are:

A cheeky Charlie

 and Superhero Harvey

Back to the website I go.

Happy Crafting

x

Trying something new....

I'm wanting to be a bit more adventurous with my stamping and card making, so I have been pondering over what to do.

Having scrolled through the few hundred photos I have kept of past creations, I stumbled across this lovely little gift box card. I seem to remember seeing Sara Davies from Crafter's Companion making something similar on the telly and thought...I could do that!

So here it is...

  

I'm thinking of resurrecting this for a Pink Pig Workshop, as it is a little different and not that hard to make.

My other little challenge is going to be candle stamping. I've seen a few You Tube videos on how other people have achieved it, but haven't dared try it. The wax paper has been ordered, so hopefully in the next week or two I will give it a go.....watch this space for my results (if it turns out OK that is!)

Happy Crafting

x

A few more entries have come my way....

I am loving May's challenge as everyone who comes into the shop seems to be up for entering! The designs are all so beautiful and different, that I'm glad I don't have to decide on a winner....you do!!

Here are the next entries...

Alison

Jeanette

Connie

Lisa

To Vote for your favourite, either pop over to facebook and click 'like' against the one you want to win, or leave a comment with the person's name.

Happy Crafting!

So the challenge is on.....

On Thursday I challenged my Thursday Morning regulars to create a card for May's sketch challenge. I left them to play with my dies, stamps and other goodies and here's what they came up with....

Gill

Susan

Diane

Jennifer

Ruth

Alison

Some beautiful entries, I hope you agree. If you want to vote on the blog, just leave a comment with the person's name. Otherwise, they will all make an appearance on facebook in the order shown above for you to like and share.

If you have a creation to submit, just let me know.

Happy Crafting

x

It's Challenge Time!!!

As promised, it's the 1st May and time for a crafty challenge. This month, it's a sketch challenge and here is your layout:

I had to have a little play with the new Molly Blooms stamps, so I used it as an excuse to create something for inspiration purposes!!

I look forward to seeing your wonderful creations. To enter, just post a pic on facebook and a link to your blog here or email a photo and I'll do the work for you.

Up for grabs this month is a beautiful Marianne Designs Butterfly Die. So what have you got to lose!!

happy Crafting.

x

It's nearly the weekend....yay!

Another week has flown by and I managed to make it into the workshop today for a little card making sesh!

As my skills have progressed over the years, I find myself adding more and more and more embellishment/colour to every card. So today, I restricted myself......and it was hard, very very hard.

I stamped and coloured one of my favourite LOTV stamps and restricted myself to using the following promarkers:

Tan, Putty, Almond, Chestnut, Cocoa and Blender

So that the image's white card didn't look too stark, I used antique linen distress ink and played with my papers from My Minds Eye.

OK, so I've been a little bit slack and realised I haven't posted April's challenge. I've decided to wait until May now, so that everyone has a chance to make something. I can't believe how quickly the days are passing at the minute, but between Dr/Hospital/Work I don't seem to get a minute for myself any more. I am currently on with the very boring task of tax year end calculation for the business. How I wish it would just magically calculate itself!!

In between the boring stuff, Niamh decided we were to enter a Cake Decorating competition (gulp!) I don't think she realises that there are some very talented bakers out there and after a few weeks of making cakes, we probably don't stand a chance. But......here's how we got on:

First, we made a victoria sponge......

 Next we covered it with Pink Icing..

       Then we added white choc chip 

cupcakes with pink icing and a buttercream topping and a bunch of sugarpaste stars...

   and some more buttercream & stars

  and this is the finished product!

I have never spent so long on baking/creating a cake, but I am looking forward to demolishing it!!! (I did squash the top when I tried to cover it, but nobody gets to see that but!)

If you would like to support me (but mainly Niamh) in winning this competition, please follow this link and vote for the Star Cake Cupcake Crazy entry! https://www.facebook.com/MyCakeDecorating/app_115978431901938

Back on the Papercrafting front, I have had a go at scrapbooking this week. I don't think it will take over from my card making, but it was nice to do something a little different

My happy smiley family