A goodbye

Hello everyone :-)

Its Lou here just letting those of you that don't know that our lovely Ruby Tuesday has stepped down. She has been with MTDS nearly since it started and has taken on an exciting new venture recently which is requiring all of her time,so we are bidding her a sad farewell. She has been an amazing member of the DT family and will be hugely missed for her talent, warmth and humor. 

You can keep in touch with her via her usual blog Ruby 2 Shoes.

We wish you all the luck in the world Ruby,and will miss you lots and lots!

Mwah! xxx

A new team member is being chosen and will start very shortly-so watch this space!

Lou x 

Sending Prayers

Hello :-)

Today's card is a difficult one to get right. It is a sympathy card,for a dear friend.

I wanted to use Paper Smooches,as this is not often thought of for the bumps and rocks life throws at you-it is such a happy bubbly range of stamps,but it can be turned to for the other types of cards you sadly sometimes need to make.

I originally wanted to make it monotone white,but it didn't quite look right,so I used the stamps and the corresponding dies of Flap Happy (Ironic,I know). I die cut the butterflies in music sheet paper,then again in thick white card,using Jenny's technique from a few blogs back,to stamp and cut perfectly. The solid colour butterflies are embossed in white.They are all mounted onto the music sheet die cuts and focusing around a Prima bulb. 

The aim of the card is to symbolize that in times of crisis,family and friends come from all over to be together,to support and love each other,and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. 

Lou x

A royal Unity tag

Today I have a tag to show you on which I have used Unity stamps.

I cut the tag from scrap cardstock and then sprayed it with Dylusions ink sprays before stamping the "She is the Queen" stamp from Just Be You on to it using Memento ink.

I then sprayed some different Dylusions sprays on to another piece of card and then stamped the winged crown stamp, from the same stamp set, on to this and then cut it out.

I used the border from the "I make stuff" stamp from Better Somewhere Today to randomly stamp around the edges of the tag and used a fine paintbrush and the Dylusions to paint the leaves.

I then assembled the tag and added a few beads to the bottom:

Thanks for visiting!

Jo xx

On the Angle!!

Good Morning Crafters :0)

Jenny here and I'm popping by with a card I've made using Paper Smooches stamps.

I've noticed that having elements across your card on the diagonal seems to be popular in 

crafting at the moment so being one to usually trail behind the 

bandwagon, I thought I'd jump on it instead!!

My inspiration for this card is the photo at the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge blog
...  the colours and patterns just called to me :0)

Have you played along in their weekly challenges??

I decided on a sewing and fabric theme... the dotty strip is a border from 'Geo-graphic' embossed

 on blue card to look like ribbon across the corner of the card. The flowers and leaves are 

from 'Needle Little Love' embossed in white with a stitch made across the centre of each and 

the panel was de-bossed using a piece of hessian by running them through my Bigshot together... 

I think it looks similar to Aida fabric :0)

As always I don't have gems to match the deep turquoise colour but I do have a

bottle of Adirondack Pearlised Acrylic paint that does so after some practice runs on 

scrap paper I carefully made my own faux gems :0)

I really love the colours together and who knew that cream and white 

sit happily side by side too!!!

Just before I go...

.... did you see that we are having a design team call at Make the Day Special???

If you would like to join a bunch of friendly, crafty ladies (I'm bias of course)

 pop over to the Facebook page to find out more details here :0)

Thanks for stopping by

Jenny x

Paper Smooches stamps used : Needle Little love, Geo-Graphic and Simply Said (currently out of stock)

Floral Tag.........

Hi there.....

She here with a Tag to share..........

I am really sorry the set I have used 'Insightful Meadows' is out of stock......but any of the gorgeous floral stamps and a quote would work.....

I started with a cream Tag and used my Twinkling H2Os to create the background. I then used a couple of the colours on the flower stamp and stamped it randomly on the background...

The Quote matt was painted with a really pale colour and then I have just 'splashed' one of the darker colours over it....

I coloured some more card and did some stamping and then punched my flowers out...

A bit of ribbon at the bottom and twine through the top and I was done.....




Thanks for looking, I will try harder next time and use something in stock!!!!



She xxx

I'm here for you

Hello.

My card for today uses wplus9  stamps and dies.

To start i stamped images from Folk art florals onto white card.

I then used the  Quilt cuts die1 to make the flower shapes.

The sentiment is from heartfelt mix  which is out of stock.

I finished the card by adding some buttons and twine.

Thanks for looking.

Clean and simple

Happy Tuesday! It's Ruby here.  I think you might want throw tomatoes at me this week.  I haven't had time to make a card so am posting one I made a couple of weeks ago with my new fave set, Lawn Fawn Flutter By.  I know, I said I'd do something different but this set is soooo adorable.  Hope you forgive me!

The sentiment is from Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler.  I think both sets are out of stock right now, maybe I've started a trend!

Have a fabulous week!

 

A very vintage cupcake

Hello!

The card I made this week was for my gorgeous cousin,who turned 16 on Wednesday. She is a skilled baker for her age,and loves cupcakes and Cath Kidston,so I had a think,and used the gorgeously versatile new Paper Smooches Cupcake die and a few pages from the new Lawn Fawn petite pad,Daphne's Closet(which,by the way,makes awesome cupcake pieces!) I set the whole cake on a little doily,inked the edges black to make the cakes separate bits stand out,added a bit of ribbon and tule and voila! Really really simple to make,and loads of room left on the paper for many other things-what a great die!

Bon appétit!
Lou x

A Unity picnic layout

Hi from Jo!

I have a layout to show you today which uses various Unity stamps:

I used some leaves and foliage stamps on the journalling block and at the bottom of the layout from the Unity  kits Moments in Bloom and Naturally You and stamped these using Versamagic chalk ink.

I also used a couple of sentiment stamps from Life Becoming which I stamped straight on to the photos using Stazon ink.

Thanks for visiting!!

Jo xx

A Hipster-Keyring!!

Hello there.... Jenny checking in with you again :0)

I have something a little different to share with you today!!

..... the Hipster-potamus keyring!!

I stumbled upon these painted wooden tags in my stash a few weeks ago and this Avery Elle 

stamp set was on my desk so I decided to have a play :0)

He is stamped with Black Stazon and coloured with Prisma Pencils... I love how the 

colouring has covered the outlines giving him a realistic look.

His glasses are, again, stamped with black stazon and a few highlights added with white and grey.

I wasn't really sure what to do with him, a keyring seemed an obvious answer but the back

was unpainted so I used patterned paper and a speech bubble from

'Picture It' to neaten it up :0)

He's been coated in a layer of clear matt varnish to protect him from knocks and scratches 

but it's fair to say he's just an ornament at the moment until he finds a bunch of keys to call home :0)

I have a few more tags left of different shapes and sizes and he was fun to make so he 

may not be on his own for long!!!

Unfortunately the Hipster-Potamus stamp set is out of stock at the moment 

but you can find his pal Hipster-Giraffe here as a trendy alternative

Thanks for stopping by :0)

Jenny x

Truth is...

Morning Blogland

It's Emily here today and I am sharing my new mini art journal with you.

I have been playing with a homemade 'gelli' plate, check out Kim's tutorial if you fancy making one.  It is a great way to create backgrounds.

Once I had made all my backgrounds I cut 5" squares out, and made this little book of them using my BIA.

The cover is decorated using the fabulous flower and sentiments from CAS-ual Fridays 'Truth is' set (out of stock but more on the way!).  I coloured the flower with distress markers and used some very lush SU ribbon on the wires.

 Just a couple of the inside pages, the page on the right is printed and the one on the left was sponged.

Thank you for visiting today

Emily

Happiness Is.........

New Rubber!!!

For me anyway!!

Hi there She here......I love the stamps that Phyliss Harris designs for Unity, so I thought I would use my latest one to create this weeks card.........She is 'Happiness Is'

These stamps are so wonderful that you really don't need an awful lot more on the card.....so I have deliberately left it quite clean (for me!!) and simple...

She's coloured with Copics and I've coloured the background with the palest colours of Pan Pastels.

For the background I have just embossed a piece of plain card and then just rubbed an ink pad over the top and clear embossed. All I needed was one of the little sentiments and my ribbon!





Thanks for looking and I'll see you soon..........

She xx

Amazeballs

Hello.

Have you seen that Cas-ual Fridays stamps are now in stock. 

Ive been playing with this fun set called Amazeballs , lots of lucky people have snapped this set up but more will be on the way soon :)

I stamped the fabulous sentiment in black ink directly onto my card blank.

The circles were stamped  in silver ink.

I then added some stickles and some bling.

Thanks for looking.

I'm doing pink!

Hi there, Ruby here.

Hope you're having a good week so far. 

As you have probably noticed pink is not my go to colour! I don't mind darker pinks or corals, but this kind of pink isn't my fave. I do however love using this copic trio, R85, R83 and R81 because it's really nice to work with and I wanted to make a card for my friend who loves pinks.

 

I wanted to create a flatter card for posting so thought I'd layer up with papers, something I haven't done for a while.

I used Lawn Fawn's Flutter By (Sorry, I promise to use something else next week!), Lawn Fawn's Check This Out (I cut the stamp so that I could just use the happy birthday words) and the leaves are from Paper Smooches Friendly Flowers.

Copics used ..

R81, R83, R85

W7, W5, W3

YR23, YR24, YR27, Y28

What colours do you rarely use?

 

CAS-ual Fridays stamps have arrived!

Hello everyone!

Just a quick post to let you all know that we have had an exciting arrival-the gorgeous CAS-ual Fridays stamps are here in very limited amounts. If you are unfamiliar with this brand,a quick Google images search with fill you with inspiration. They are beautiful stamps,and full of lovely sentiments so you can make that card just right. They are selling quickly,so go check them out while you can!

They can be found here,at the shop. Happy browsing!

Woo Hoo!

Hello... Jenny here :0)

One of the latest Lawn Fawn stamp sets to arrive in store is an oldie but new to me 

and that's Critters in the Forest and now it has dies to match as well!!

I love the cute animals but also the pine tree which can be used for building scenes 

for your critters cards and it would look equally good decorated up for Christmas cards too :0)

I've made a treetop woodland scene....

I thought this could be a congratulations/well done card because the birdie is 

singing from the highest treetop!! I love the unusual angle of the scene... why it 

could be a mountainside in Scotland :0)

Thanks for looking and hope you have some crafting time

this weekend :0)

Jenny x

Stamp sets used : Critters in the Forest, A Birdie Told Me

Relish Reading.........

Hi there...........

She here...........

This week I have been playing with my FAB Rogue Redhead stamps...........Namely 'Relish reading'

I decided to make one of my very favourite things..........A Tag!!

Here it is.......

For my background I used the large background stamp in the set........Stamped with Black VersaFine and clear embossed. I then used another favourite stamp by Donna Downey...the Swirl off 'Imagine It' stamped with VersaMak again, but I used White embossing powder.

I then used Distress Inks to colour the tag.............The Girlie is stamped onto spare card and coloured with Copics and sat on some old book text......The sentiment was stamped and embossed and mounted onto Black card....

Thanks for looking and I'll catch up with you soon........










She xx

With sympathy

Hello.

My card for today uses one of the new Paper smooches dies, 

I used the Hickory leaf die which coordinates with the Leafy greens stamp set.

I kept it very cas and just used the negative of the die.

I coloured the background..under the die cut space a light green.

I used light green bakers twine too.

The sentiment is also from paper smooches and its from the sentiment sampler set.

Thanks for looking.

Going Floral

Hi there, it’s Ruby here.  I’m running a bit behind today because I had it in my head that it was Monday, not Tuesday!  Half term always messes up my routine!

Here is a card that I created using the lovely Lawn Fawn Flutter By, I told you that you would probably see it again soon!  I LOVE it!


The sentiment is from the Paper Smooches Word Salad and the butterfly is from Paper Smooches Spring Fling.  I love this little set.  At first I thought I’d only use it for Easter but actually there are so many lovely little stamps in it I’ve used it loads.  I LOVE the little bird, he’s adorable!

Copics used…

YG05, YG03, YG01, R24, R22, R20

Have a great week!

Unity tags

Hello, it's Jo here for my first post for a very long time having had a long break due to loss of mojo!!

I've been playing with distress inks today to make a couple of tags to share with you. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out and they may spur me on to make more!!

I used Unity stamps from Key to Joy and The Right Words.

Both tags were cut from scrap cardstock. I have a box full of tags ready cut in many different colours so I can just dip in when I need them but these were both originally cream.

I used various distress inks to colour the tags and then stamped the key background using distress ink.

The butterfly was stamped on to white cardstock and then coloured using Faber Castell Big Brush pens before being cut out.

The sentiment was also stamped on to white cardstock and then lightly tinted with distress inks. I needed to do a bit of masking with this one as some of the words are very close together and wouldn't cut out square.

For this one I used an old metal key that I painted with Vintaj paint and then used twine to hold it on the tag.

Thanks for visiting and I hope it's not too long until I'm back with more to share with you!!

Jo xx

A Masculine Border??

Hellooo... Jenny here again :0)

With the big kids at home this week for the Easter break I haven't had loads of time

for crafting but I did need a card for my Nephews birthday so I thought I would 

reach for my Lawn Fawn Interlocking Backdrops and make a clean and simple masculine card....

After stamping and embossing the border on brown card-stock in Vanilla White EP I used a craft 

knife to cut out some of the rectangles. I also stamped and embossed the same border on grey patterned paper and cut a few of the rectangles out so I could adhere them 

over the pattern with foam pads. The sentiment is from Grand Greetings, I had to cut the 

stamp in two so I could fit it to my card design.... 

(be careful if you try this, it's quite a tight gap between the words!!)

I followed the shape of the border with my craft knife and then adhered it to the cream card base.

I love the mosaic effect of the three colours.... this pattern reminds me of parquet flooring 

and fond memories of the dining hall floor at my first school!!

Just a reminder that the long awaited Lawn Fawn release has arrived and is 

on the store website here... it's going fast though but more stock is following soon :0)

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you get some crafty time this weekend :0)

Jenny x 

Flora and Fauna

Hi everyone

I am sharing today a page in a circle journal I did using W Plus 9's Flora and Fauna stamp set.

The circle journal's theme is 'Things with wings' so i chose to use these stunning butterflies.

The paper used is by prima and the sentiments are actually from a clear washi tape also by prima.  I used distress ink and distress markers to colour.

Thanks for visiting

Emily

For My Friend.......

Hi there

She here....I have a Tag to share with you this week.......

My Tag background is excess blue and green paint that was on my craft sheet after I'd created a background in one of my Journals....couldn't bear to waste it!!!
I have used my lovely 'Blossom Stackers' again this week.I took one of the smallest flowers in the set and stamped using VersaMark and clear embossing powder...

The gorgeous Scroll is from 'Imagine It' I have stamped it with Verasmark and then used White embossing powder over the top. With it being over the top of clear embossing it gives a blurry effect. The Quotes are from...'Create Today'  Both of these are by Donna Downey...Love her stamps!

I stamped one of the small frames from the Blossom set and one of the phrases, coloured a separate piece of card and cut it out.

The little flowers are made from another piece of card coloured and embossed in the same way....



Thanks for looking and I'll see you soon.......

She xx

4 cards 1 way

Hello.

I have four cards to share today all using the same design.

I am a big fan of Paper smooches but sometimes shy away from using some of the smaller stamps in each set.

Not because i don't like them I'm just not sure how to use them to fill a card.

This got me thinking of ways to use them.

I made my cards 4x4  and used my small acrylic block to to make the backgrounds. 

I did this by applying the block straight to the ink pad.

 I think its a great way to start creating a little scene or pattern or a quick an easy way to make any kind of card or invitation.

Stamp set used are ...

Metropolis

Little lady

My guy

Chit chat

Thanks for looking.

Perky Plants

Hi there, it’s Ruby.  I hope you had a lovely Easter break and ate lots of delicious chocolate!  Today I have a little thank you card to share with you.  I thought the colour in the papers would add a bit of colour as we are entering Spring.

That little flower has always been one of my favourites, it’s from the Paper Smooches Perky Plants. I think they might be out of stock at the moment, but check back soon.   It’s a fun one to colour too. 
I hope you made the most of the long weekend.  Everyone seems so much happier with that extra couple of days, don’t you think.  Shame all weekends aren’t all that long!

Copics used…
R20, R21, R22, V09, V06, V04, YG05, YG03

Have a great week!