Sunday 27 July 2014

Sweetie Shaker - Crafts Beautiful March 2014

Aft'noon chums!

I'm sat here typing this with the sun beaming down - lovely :oD

My mum, sister and niece Emily are here. My niece Emily is going to be staying with us for a fortnight, so my mum and sister have brought her down from Yorkshire and they are staying the weekend. 

No doubt in two weeks time I'll have a few more grey hairs and wrinkles. Emily is 11 and has so much energy it's obscene.

Any hoo, I thought I'd share a cute little shaker card I did as part of a set for the March 2014 issue of Crafts Beautiful. I found a gorgeous die and stamp set from Sizzix containing a sweetie jar and sweets. 




What you need...

Card stock: white, turquoise, red, yellow, green, pink, brown
Dies: Framelits Die & Stamp Set - Jar (658699) - Sizzix
Patterned papers: American Crafts
Ink pad: Onyx Black - Versafine
Baker's twine: red
Gems: white
Gel pen: white
Acetate: clear
Adhesives

What you do...

Stamp the jar onto white card and cut out with the jar die along with one in acetate. Cut out the inside of the stamped jar, leaving a 5mm border from the stamped line. Attach the acetate to the reverse and line the edges with foam pads.

Die cut jelly beans in different coloured card and highlight with the white gel pen. Place inside the shaker card, cut another jar from white card and stick to the back of the shaker.

Cut the aperture label in turquoise, stamp the 'For You' onto white card, trim into a rectangle and stick behind the aperture. Mat onto a larger label die cut in green card.

Stamp a lid onto patterned paper, use the die to cut it out and stick to the top of the jar. Embellish the jar with gems and twine.

Cover the right side of a 13.5cm square blank with a 4cm wide strip of red card. Fix a 4cm deep strip of turquoise card to the bottom and fill in the rest of the blank with patterned paper. Attach the shaker jar to the right of the blank and position jelly beans around the base. Create a sentiment and mat onto red card and adhere to the top left corner.

I had great fun coming up with this card. The thing is, it's perfect to send to anyone; young, old, male or female.

The current issue of Crafts Beautiful (September 2014) is out now. It's jam packed with great projects, hints and tips, ideas and features. There are some great giveaways and a beautiful gift when you subscribe. 

Log on to the Crafts Beautiful website for more brilliant stuff including templates and free papers to download.

Before I sign off, there are are about four days left for you to get your entries in for the Cosmic Colours Challenge #3. Thank you to all who have entered so far, it's going to be so so difficult to choose :o|

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll be back soon. Thanks for popping by....xx

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Friday 18 July 2014

Just Passing By...Crafts Beautiful Feb 2014

Well hello!

Here I am again :o) I've been busy with commissions, so I thought I would take a few minutes to show you a project I did for the Feb 2014 issue (#263) of Crafts Beautiful.

The theme was adult pop-up cards, but theses are perfectly suitable for children. At the time I wanted to do a hot air balloon, rainbow and clouds theme. Could I find any balloon or rainbow dies/stamps out there? No. When I did come across any they were out of stock or discontinued. 

What to do? I illustrated my own. The thing is, since the mag was published there are balloon and rainbow dies/stamps aplenty. They seem to have become very popular. Typical! I decided to give the illustrations a double-lined, wonky, quirky feel.

Maybe it was me who started the trend.....I wish!

Anyway, here are a few shots of the card...

Outside


Inside



What you need...

My illustrations downloaded from Crafts Beautiful
Card stock: white, pale blue
Dies: Framelits Circles - Sizzix
Promarkers: rainbow colours, pale grey
Gems: clear
Adhesives


What you do...

Cut an A4 (21cm x 29.7cm) of pale blue card lengthways, score and fold in half to give you two top fold 10.5cm wide blanks. Put one aside and open the other, mark a halfway point along the score line. 

Draw two 8cm lines, 4cm apart, down the middle of the card. Line a ruler at the end of the lines and score across. Then carefully cut along the drawn lines to the score lines. Close the blank pushing the cut section so that is comes towards you (like a step).

Die-cut a 9.5cm circle in pale blue, trim a small section from the bottom and attach to the front of the pop-up. Turn over and stick double-sided tape around the edges of the pop-up hole and the blank. Line up and adhere to the other blank.

Download the illustrations onto white card, colour in and cut out. Decorate the inside of the blank with the 'to say hi!' sentiment, sun clouds and half a rainbow. Attach the balloon and clouds to the pop-up circle.

Decorate the front with the 'Just passing by' sentiment, the other half of the rainbow and clouds. Finish with a few gems.

I know it sounds complicated, but it isn't really. If you have one of those pop-up card dies, then you could cheat and use that instead. Just remember, before you stick the images down, make sure that they aren't overlapping the edge of the blank.

You can download all my illustrations from the Crafts Beautiful website or click here to take you to the template download page. You can re-size the templates to suit the size of pop-up blank you are creating.

Of course, you will need to register and sign in to download any templates, illustrations or patterned papers, but it's free and simple to sign up. There are lots of other great projects and down loadable goodies too!

I do hope you like this project I did for Crafts Beautiful, it's so bright and cheery. There is another card in the set that has a dangly, bouncy rainbow. I'll post that one at a later date.

Have a great day all! thanks for 'Just passing by'. xx

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Tuesday 15 July 2014

Hello Stars

How do you do my lovelies?

A while ago I purchased some gorgeous Avery Elle stamps and haven't had chance to have a play with them. So on Sunday, I did just that...had a play. I also used the sumptuous pigment ink pads from Avery Elle for all the stamping.



What you need...

Stamps: Oh Yeah - Avery Elle
Ink pads: Aquamarine, Cherry, Fizz, Lemon Grass, Mimosa, Sapphire, Sugar Plum - Avery Elle
Card stock: white, black
Ribbon: black
Self-adhesive pearls: rainbow colours
Post-it® notes
Adhesives

What you do...

Stamp the speech bubble section in Lemon Grass and the 'hello' centrally above it in Aquamarine. Following the edge of the speech bubble, mask off around the card with Post-it® notes. 

Start with Cherry ink and stamp randomly placed stars up the card in the order of the rainbow; finishing at the top with Sugar Plum.

Trim the stamped card to the desired size. Create a top fold blank in black card (I did 10.5cm x 15cm) and adhere the stamped panel centrally.

Wrap and tie black ribbon around the top and finish with a coloured gem on one each of the coloured stars.

Here is that gorgeous set of stamps...

Oh Yeah - Avery Elle

There are so many possibilities with this set, I love the little arrow ends so that you can make any of the words into arrows - so cute!

Right! That's me for now. Back to commissions now :o) Thanks for calling by and see you soon. xx

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P.S. Don't forget to enter your lovely makes in the Cosmic Colours Challenge #3. Click on the colour swatch in the side bar to take you to the challenge rules and linky.

Friday 11 July 2014

Mollie's Flowers

Good heevnin peeps!

Well it's been a few days since I posted, Simon is on holiday this week so we have been decorating, gardening, going for bike rides, visiting tea rooms for a cuppa and yummy cake....

My fingers have been itching and I've been chomping at the bit to have a play with my Cricut® Explore.

There is a wonderful lady called Mollie that lives over the road from my mum; I call her 'Grandma Mollie'. She is such good fun and a brilliant laugh. Well it's her birthday on the 26th July so I thought I would make her a card using the Explore.




I used flowers and leaves from the Cricut® Flower Shoppe cartridge.

Cricut® Flower Shoppe
What you need...

Electronic die-cutting machine:  Explore - Cricut®
Image cartridge: Flower Shoppe (S120) - Cricut®
Card stock: shades of aqua, turquoise, brown, green
Stamps: Sentiment Sampler - Paper Smooches
Ink pad: Jumbo Java - VersaMagic
Pearls: white (assorted sizes)
Ball tool: 3mm/8mm - McGill
Foam mat
Adhesives

What you do...

On the design canvas insert the flower and leaf images and re-size as desired. Set the Explore to cut out the flowers in shades of aqua, turquoise and brown. Cut out the leaves in shades of green.

Scrunch up the flowers and leaves, then using the large 8mm end of the ball tool, rub the petals/leaves on the foam mat to make them curl up. 

Some flowers have tabs, add a spot of glue to the tab, close up the flower and hold in place for a few seconds for the glue to bond. Assemble the flowers and add a pearl onto the centre of each.

Create a 12cm x 15cm top fold blank and stamp the sentiment in the lower right corner. Arrange the flowers and leaves across the top. When happy with the position, glue each in place.

Ta da!

As you can buy individual images with the Explore, here are the image codes for the flowers/leaves I have used...

Leaf: #M3E197
Flowers: #M4709B; #M441C7; #M472BF; #M3D715; #M4709A; #M46100

I chose the cool hues of aqua and turquoise for something that little bit different and added chocolate browns to add a touch of warmth. I think aqua and turquoise always make a good combination with chocolate brown. Don't ever be afraid to experiment with colour. 

Some crafters are a bit nervous of choosing colours or they are not sure what combinations work. This is one of the reasons I decided to do the Cosmic Colour Challenge. 

There are lots of sketch challenges (which I love) but I wanted to make it a bit easier for crafters to use colour in their projects by having the colours together on one swatch. As the colours are already picked for you, all you have to do is use them to create your beautiful designs.

Talking of challenges, why not give the current challenge a go? Click here to take you to the colour swatch, rules and linky.

A big thanks to all of you have played along so far, I'm really impressed with your projects :o)

So that's me for now. Thank you for popping by. xxx

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Tuesday 1 July 2014

Cosmic Colours Challenge #2 Winner & Top 3!

Good afternoon peepsicles!

The time has come for me to announce the Challenge Winner and Top 3 of the Cosmic Colours Challenge #2.

Thank you all who entered, your entries were just stunning. It's so difficult to choose!! But, I have to be fair and pick the winning card that shows the best use of colour from the swatch. 

Design Seeds®
So without further ado do here is the winner...

Jennie!

Jennie
I love the green card blank and the stamped labels with the remaining colours from the swatch. The simplicity of the card is great and the little heart pin finishes it off beautifully. 

Congratulations Jennie! If you email me your postal address I will get some craft goodies sent to you; I will also email the 'Challenge Winner' badge image for you to post on your Pinterest page.

Now for the Top 3...

Somdeepa
Beth
Elly

Here are their lovely makes...

Somdeepa
Beth
Elly
Well done Somdeepa, Beth and Elly. If you email me I will send you the code for the 'Top 3' badge to display on your blog :o)

A big round of applause please for our Challenge Winner and Top 3!

As you may have noticed, I've already posted the Cosmic Colours Challenge #3. This one is packed with bright, bold colours. I do hope you will join in with me this month.

Thank you all again for entering and supporting my challenge :o) 

Ta ta for now xxx
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