Heartfelt Thanks

Hello!

I wanted to create a card using the sentiments from Altenew's Many Thanks set but I liked the range of fonts so much that I decided to use them all at once!

I die cut a heart out of vellum and stamped the sentiments through it and added some ink around the edge to create definition to the shape.  I love the range of fonts this set contains and stamped in grey they give a cool graphical look to the simple design.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sarah x

Pretty panels.

hello.

Thanks to Tara for filling for me last week today i have two cards showing the confetti cuts dies from reverse confetti.

I have used the diagonal pretty panels on both cards.

My first card is clean and simple and i think by using the pretty panel in lilac and silver gives a really elegant look.

I simply die cut two panels and then inlaid the silver pieces into the lilac.

For the sentiment i stamped the thanks by masking the rest of the sentiment and then fussy cut out so it was separated from the rests of the words.

Once that was in place i inked up the rest of the sentiment , again masking the thanks and stamped onto the  card base. 

I finished the card with some sequins in colours to compliment the die cuts.

Next up i went with a different colour scheme and no stamping.

I used the silver pretty panel and inlaid it with some spares from others i had cut previously.

I placed this over a strip of silver washi tape and then used the die cut sentiment from the fun tag also from reverse confetti. 

The products used can be found by clicking the images below.

  

I will be back with some completely different ways to use these pretty panels next week :) 

Thanks for looking.

More Pass The Parcel!

Hi! However your Tuesday is panning out, I'm here with a cautionary tale (well, sort of!) and a fun card.

The card is part of our 'pass the parcel' feature, or, more precisely, send the same stamp and die set around the country and beyond for us all to get inspiration from. Here's the first caution-

Always have a peek before you design your team project for the week, that someone else hasn't posted the same thing the day before.

Yup, sorry.

Although, to be fair, Lou's treatment of this card is really different to mine- a monochromatic stunner, so I'm hoping you lovely people will tolerate mine!

So, onto the set. On the off chance you've missed seeing it, here's the set in question

Taking the smallest element (as I often like to do), I thought I'd create something just with that. 

                                     

I die cut one of the candles and arranged it around a small circle (to help get them spaced evenly). It took 2 attempts.

 Then I die cut them out... it took two more rather frustrating attempts ;-) - secret? just tape them down first before you die cut and they won't move then!

I'm fast forwarding to the finished article so my next few sentences will make sense. 

I had in mind one of the spirally twisty elements where the spiral appears to be getting bigger all the time when you move it? I die cut a large circle and created a spiral with alcohol markers.

Caution- if you're going to pencil lines out first, don't go over them with a light coloured alcohol marker as you can't get the pencil markings to rub out. It was very annoying and nearly rubbed out portions of the cardstock in my vain attempts

 Caution no.2 - think backwards. Because you have a front layer, the central layer and the back layer, getting the brad (which you can see just peeking above the 'celebrate' in the photo below), you need to make sure the top layer is firmly stuck to the brad and the bottom layer the same. Lets just say that the 'swirly motion' is more like 'stick your hand through the candle spaces and turn it yourself'! The wash tape on the photo above is a good idea, but you need decent sticking power on the top layer too! Duh.

 See this detail- the flowery decorative part? I've used the gift bows which I've trimmed down and added around a circle. The idea was to help you turn the circle, but then it's a little pointless for my card (ha ha!)

The other cautionary bits are as follows- check your whites are the same shade. My absolute favourite paper this year (which I'm about to use up!- I know, I never normally get through a whole pad) is the Everyday Collection papers from Avery Elle

The white on the heart papers is more creamy than my blue white so it shows up more. Don't look- it is a bit obvious. And whilst you're checking, don't look to closely at the masked off sentiment. I didn't want the 'let's' bit of the lets celebrate so I just stamped the latter half. Thing is- if you brush over ink that isn't completely dry with a wet glitter- guess what, the ink bleeds.

Humph.

Anyhow, despite my catalogue of basic errors, I hope you like my fun card. Don't worry-if you come back tomorrow, it won't be another 'Pass the Parcel' card as I've not sent it overseas yet!

Have a lovely Tuesday - and do tell me, what's your worst crafting disaster!

Keren xx

More Shared Stamping

Do you remember that challenge we set ourselves as a DT to create different cards using the same stamp set, well that stamp is still doing the rounds amongst the DT and today we have a guest blog from Louise who decided to join in with us too.

Louise went for a genius monochrome look which would be great for those tricky masculine cards.  Using a kraft base and stamping a great background using Neat and Tangled's Sunburst stamp which really highlights the cake.  The stamps are from the Birthday celebration stamp and die set from Echo Park.

If you're wondering where Jenny is - don't panic - she's just up to her eyes in laundry following her family holiday but she will be back next Monday as normal.

Jingle Stripes

Well it's August and as usual in the UK pretty miserable outside, so I thought I'd make a start on my Christmas cards - I was so far behind last year I almost had to send shop bought cards "shock horror" so I do need to get ahead this year for sure!

I started with the great Graduated Stripes Cover plate die from Neat and Tangled and die cut it just once from green card - the bonus on this die is that you can create two cards from the one die if you use the stripes that fall out as well as the plate die itself ;-)   This die is ONLY available here and at Neat and Tangled - it was exclusive to them but I persuaded them to let me have it for my UK and European customers.

I paired the die up with Jingle all the Way from My Favorite Things.  For the first card I used the dancing Santa and die cut a stitched circle from the cover plate die and embedded a white stitched mat into the space to mount the Santa onto.  I love the HO squared sentiment - makes for a fun and funky card!

For the second one I just layered the stripes that came out of the die closer together on the bottom of the card leaving room at the top for the trees and presents which I masked and then coloured with pencils so it wouldn't show on the inside of the card.  The Santa's are coloured with copics.

NEWS FROM THE STORE:

• August is going to be a HUGE month!   Lawn Fawn, Hero Arts, and Avery Elle all have their Autumn/Winter releases out this month.   We have our order into Lawn Fawn and Hero Arts, Avery Elle's will be the last release on the 27th so that won't be coming for a couple of weeks yet.
• My Favorite Things have releases every month on the 7th so that one is already en-route and will be available on release day.
• Mama Elephant also release every month on the 15th - our order for that one is in and hopefully we'll have it for release day also.
• Wplus9 is also having a release towards the end of the month and that will be available for me to order tomorrow.
• SugarPea Designs have a new release out but due to a mix-up it won't be available to us until later in the month but it will be coming along the with restocks on the home die that everyone is waiting for.
• We are getting restocks from Winnie and Walter as their next release is not until late September.
• We are waiting for our order from Altenew to ship and hope that will be at some point in August.

Told you it was going to be a BIG month!   If anyone has any spare elves knocking around - I could use some to help pack!!!!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.   Happy Crafting

Tara

August Challenge Week 1

We're back with a new challenge today and you have 3 whole weeks to play along.  This month we're playing with a nice simple sketch so nothing as taxing as last month's challenge so we're hoping for a record number of players!

You can flip the sketch and change the shapes a little to fit your design, as long as we can see our sketch was your jumping off point.  You must also use at least one product we sell in store to be eligible for the £15 prize voucher.

Need a little inspiration?   Well our fabulously talented design team will be here each week with our interpretations , here are the first 3 but make sure you come back in 7 days to see some more.

Jenny
Using Celebrate You by My Favourite things and Stitched Borders

Sarah
Using Paper Smooches Chubby Chums and Sentiment Sampler.

Tara

Using Waffle Flower Lotus and Leafy, So Happy plus Stitched Borders and Enamel Dots

You have until 10pm Sunday 23rd August to link up your entry here when you've made it.

Artsy Coloring with Wplus9 Doodle Buds

Rise and shine, crafters! No matter what's going on with your day, I'm determined to put a smile on your face today :-) For that reason, I decided to go with bright and cheerful colors for today's card.

I'm also using the wonderful stamp set by Wplus9 called “Doodle Buds”. It's a wonderfully whimsical and just perfect for coloring.

On the flowers and on the stems I used my trusty Stabilo markers. You can create great gradients with these pens without even having to use water by blending them into each other with small circular motions (I have videos for that on my blog - you can find me via the sidebar).

For the green bottom I put down some color first with the markers and then went in with a damp brush and smooshed that out towards the bottom.

I added some dots with my pens in the background to give this card a more artsy look. And of course I could not resist using a white gel pens to add additional accents onto the color.

For the bottom of the card, I used a strip of dark patterned paper and then another patterned paper as a background for my sentiment.

I hope you have enjoyed the card and I'll see you again soon!

Doodle Buds

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