Project Life DIY!!!

Hi there :0) I have something a bit different today!!

I've been pondering around the idea of starting a project life album, those fabulous core card kits look just so scrummy and the thought of speedy scrapbooking is attractive too :0)
When you actually look at the designs in some of those kits though I couldn't help thinking I could use the stamps I already have to make my own.....

I'm a bit of a procrastinator so knowing which photos to start with was hopeless so I thought I'd just get some ideas for core and journal cards out of my head and into real life and hopefully the photos and album will come later :0)

These two are cut with the Lawn Fawn 3x4 journal card die and I've used the tandem from Roll With It the solid speech bubble negative stamp from Oh Yeah and the wording is from Paper Smooches set called Captured Moments which is an ideal set for scrapbooking :0)

This one is cut using the larger Lawn Fawn Journal card die and stamped with the typewriter from Just A Note and the scroll of paper is stamped on white card, cut out and inserted through a slit in the top of the typewriter. The wording is again from Paper Smooches Captured Moments stamp set .... I was leaving the left handside for a photo or journaling :0)

These last two are cut using dies from My Favourite Things but to be honest you don't really need fancy dies as long as you have a ruler and a craft knife... a corner rounder is an optional extra!! I've used the long and short brushstrokes from Avery Elle's Brushed on both of these cards... the long one makes a great striped background for that sketchy camera in #Smile and I used a versamark pen to colour the heart with sticky ink before adding gold embossing for a touch of glamour :0) The torn edge notecard has been stamped with Lawn fawns SchoolHouse Backdrops for the lined paper look and the Hello is from the same Avery Elle set mentioned above :0)

If Project Life or pocket scrapbooking is somethng you've thought about trying I encourage you to take a look at your stamps and see what designs you could turn them into, you'll have a great time being creative and making your pages even more personal :0)

Oh and before I go just a quick reminder it's an Anything Goes challenge over at Paper Smooches Sparks this week, here's my DT card for this week featuring the mad scientist from Great Chemistry. Please pop over and see the DT inspiration and play along too, it would be great to see you in the gallery :0)

Jenny x

Tie a Yellow Ribbon....

I'm back on inspiration ideas this morning - yesterday I had no idea what to make for today's blog post but then a very old song came on the radio and inspiration struck!   The song was "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" by Tony Orlando and the lyrics go thus:

Tie a yellow ribbon `round the ole oak tree,
It's been three long years, do ya still want me?
If I don't see a ribbon, round the ole oak tree,
I'll stay on the bus, forget about us, put the blame on me
If I don't see a ribbon `round the ole oak tree.

and inspired me to make this using Paper Smooches Summer Groves:

I love the big fat tree in this set and it could so be a 'big ole oak' so I knew I could add my yellow ribbon around it if I simply coloured it in and fussy cut it out so I could mount it on my card with foam tape.   I decided to use pointillism to colour the tree for a change so just set about adding lots of coloured dots with my copics - if you've never tried this technique it's fun but at first it looks awful and you think it will never come together - here's how mine looked to begin with - start with your palest shade all over to get rid of the white and the just randomly add dots and then keep going until you like it!

 

To finish the card I wanted a sentiment that went with the theme of the song, so used "Miss You" from the ever so useful Sentiment Sampler, again from Paper Smooches and stood the little bird on the O to be looking out for the bus ;-)

News from the store this week:

We had a mini delivery from Neat and Tangled yesterday so if you've been waiting for the "Hope Anchors" set - it's here!

Mama Elephant restocks (including Up and Away, Pandemonium and Landscape Trio Dies) and the whole of their latest release are currently in customs clearance and should be in store in a few days.

Lawn Fawn restocks have just shipped so will be here mid-July.

Paper Smooches latest release (which hasn't been shown yet) is en-route already and there are some amazing dies you are all going to LOVE!

Also, next weekend is my wedding anniversary so we are going away for a long weekend.  As such, any orders received after 8pm on Thursday 3rd July won't ship until Tuesday 8th July.  The store will remain open but orders won't ship as quickly as normal. 

Enjoy your weekend

Tara

So happy for you!

Hi! Happy Saturday! The school holidays have started here and the weather's a wee bit dull so I thought what better than to make some bright and cheery bunting!  So today is a Winnie & Walter meets Avery Elle kind of day!  I took my colour inspiration from the Winnie & Walter logo!

Here are the stamp sets used. Winnie & Walter Rectangled and Triangled (amazingly versatile set!), and Avery Elle So Happy (love the font!! and its a great range of sentiments!)

Hope you have a lovely weekend! 

Tracyx

So Very Blessed

Helloo!! It's me again with you today ... hope you're not sick of me yet ;)

Today I have a card to share using a fab stamp from one of the newer companies that have been added to the Make The Day Special Store- Neat And Tangled....

*On to watercolour paper I added some stripes of watercolour going through lime green, pink, purple to blue. I then added a splatter of gold while the paint was still wet so the splatters would run a little.
*I used embossing paste through a stencil to add texture when the watercolour was dry.
*Add a gold metal strip along the right hand side of the card and then add your trimmed to size watercoloured piece.
*Onto a piece of vellum stamp the large Neat And Tangled 'So Very Blessed' stamp in versamark ink and heat emboss in gold. When cool turn over and colour the roses and leaves with copics on the 'wrong' side.
*Attach vellum to the card. Then add a couple of gems.

I so love the soft vibrantacy of this card. Although the vellum and embossing give the card a soft look the vibrant colours of the watercolour still shine through. And that large stamp is just amazing... don'y you think?!?!?

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Hugs Lydia xxx

Get Well Soon

Hi there and happy Thursday! Hope you are having a great week :) It's Lydia with you today....and again tomorrow ;).

Today I'm sharing with you a super cute and easy card using some of the new release from Lawn Fawn.

* I stamped the cute little plaster and sentiment from 'Get Well Soon' on to the stitched circle from 'Stitched Party Banners' and coloured using Copics.
* I then cut the smaller of the banners from 'Stitched Party Banners' out of 'Let's Polka Papers' .
* To create the card I cut two pieces of card using the same small banner, I stuck the piece of polka dot paper on the one that would be the front of my card. On the one for the back of my card, I scored a line across the card about an inch from the top then glued this flap and stuck to behind the front of my card. 
* Add string to the pre-cut holes and tie in a bow.

I really love how cute this is! I really think it would make someone smile to receive this :)

Thanks for popping by!

Hugs Lydia xxx

  

Challenge 3 Winners

You certainly didn't make it easy for us to pick a winner for our sketch challenge - there were some truly spectacular cards this month, but the DT votes are in and our winner is......

Nikki

We loved the great background stamping and cute little car scene - it seemed to fit the quirky angles of our sketch so well.  Congratulations Nikki - please contact me via the form on the store so I can send you your £15 store voucher.

Our runners up this month were:

Maria - we loved the inking and the great embossing of all the sentiments - what a fun and unique party invitation :-)

and Lai-Yoke - another super cute card and the use of real birch bark for the tree is an inspired touch!

Don't forget to take your winners badge for your blogs.  We'll be back with a new challenge on 1st July - hope you'll all play again :-)

Musing on Origami

It's an unusual midweek visit from me today as Kate is feeling a little under the weather but will be back soon.

Do you sometimes struggle for inspiration when you need to make something?  I do, and I often check out some of my favourite challenges when I need a little creative steer.  This week's MUSE card challenge really struck a cord with me so I've based my card on their MUSE http://musecardclub.blogspot.ca/2014/06/muse-challenge-73.html

The original MUSE (see below) was a butterfly but the way Beverley coloured it really made me think of the Mama Elephant Origami set I had yet to ink up, so I used her colours as inspiration and coloured in the cat and the heart speech bubble with pencils and added one of the sketchy sentiments from the set which I just love.   I like the flat blocks of colour you can play with on this set, like the cubist art movement.  As you've probably all realised by now, my style tends to the CAS and love all the white space on this one.

I hope this gives you some ideas as to where to look when inspiration fails - there are so many challenges out there - we'll be back with our new one on 1st July too ;-)

See you Sunday - enjoy the rest of the week.

Tara

Hello Rainy Day

Hello!
How are you?
I'm just popping this fun card using this Hello Baby set

and the Float My Boat set for the waves

The Float my Boat set is in stock & the Hello Baby set is coming soon- it's been reordered.

While I'm talking Lawn Fawn- the new dies are in & are much larger than the others- here's the Cole's & Louie's sets side by side.

They're lovely and big 

and well worth the extra few pounds. I'll be posting with a project using them soon.

Better dash- hope your day isn't wet and soggy- although travelling by a cute upturned umbrella would be quite a fun way of getting to work

xx

Presents and Balloons Just for you

Hello, Jenny here :0)

Deciding which new stamp set to play with for today was the hardest decision, making these two cards was great fun though.
 I love the 'hand-drawn' images and sentiments in the Neat &Tangled line of stamps... they remind me of illustrations in paperback books and that gave me the inspiration for this first card using 'Just for Fun'.....

I'm not sure if the two 'present' images are supposed to go together but they work well to acheive the 'off set' look and I did the same for the small piece of confetti, deliberately stamping the outline out of line!!!
I pinched a blank page from an old paper back book for this card and I wasnt sure how the ink would absorb into the surface.... I was happy to see that it worked well apart from the happy banner so I stamped that again separately and layered the piece on top :0)

My second card uses the solid balloons from the same set and a bit of masking masking.....

Rather than stamping the sentiment over the balloons I wanted a masked area so I first stamped the 'Celebrate' on masking paper and trimmed it out before applying it to the panel then stamping the balloons. The strings are hand drawn for these balloons.....you can always lightly draw them in pencil first if you suffer from a shaky hand in these instances.... advice I should take as some of mine look a bit dubious!!

                                                             

Just thought I'd mention the new Paper Smooches Sparks challenge that started yesterday, it's a sketch this week and here's a peak at my card...

Check out all the details here and come play along too :0)

Jenny x

Freaking Fantastic!

A couple of brands had tiny new releases this week - and we have them in store at the same time as in the USA (this is something I'm working to try to do - its not always possible as some of the brands won't release to me early enough but I am trying to get as close to release dates as I can so you can join in on all the excitement as it happens on their blogs).   For these releases we have - 2 stamps from Newton's Nook and dies to match the On the Corner stamp sets from Neat and Tangled and I decided to play with the latter for my sample today.

I stamped the background with delicate blue stars using the just back in stock confetti set from Winnie and Walter and then layered up 3 die cuts using the cityscape creative cut from Mama Elephant.  I used the die and stamp from Neat and Tangled to make the sign post and added my sentiment to it - I'm dedicating to our DT member Keren who, although she didn't get all the way, did freaking fantastic to make it to the Top 10 of this year's Gallery Idol.  I wanted to thank all our customers who voted for her cards - we really appreciated your support.  I love the new dies as you can add some dimension to your cards - I can also see myself using these signposts for parties when I want to identify food for people - you could write on the signposts!

I also had a play with Fresh Cut Florals this weekend which are back in stock along with the dies and all the floral sets from Wplus9.

I used the watercolour technique that Dawn demonstrated a few weeks ago on the Wplus9 blog of 2nd generation stamping with distress inks on watercolour paper and then using plain water to move the ink around to get a watercolour look.  I arranged my flowers in trug (Joanna Sheen die) which I embossed into the card before I started stamping and then I just used distress inks and water to "paint" it - the embossed lines "hold" the ink so it's easy to do ;-)

Hope you enjoy the sunshine today.
Happy Crafting
Tara

For you.. friend

Hi!

It's my day today and I just couldn't resist Paper Smooches!  The weather has been lovely here all week so I was in the mood for something bright!  All the lovely flowers in the garden inspired me to use the lovely Pocket set of dies (so much more than just a pocket!).  Sticking with Paper Smooches I used the Friend word die and the "for you" stamp from Denim and Daisies.

Here it is, I hope you like it!

Have a lovely weekend! 

Tracyx