Christmas in July

My first Christmas card of the year made using a bauble die by Xcut. The Xcut dies are made by Docrafts and as well as on line are sold in a number of places including Hobbycraft and the Range .

This particular die is an old one however and I've not been successful in finding where it can be purchased today. I actually bought mine from Every Crafts and Pound last year. But you can do this with any bauble and any shape.
I used some gold patterned acetate to back the bauble and used up some tiny beads I was given by a colleague to put in the shaker. Many places do foiled acetate include Hunkydory and Crafter's Companion.
For backing paper I had some lovely gold and silver snowflakes paper from last year's Stampin' Up! designer paper or DSP for short.
I also used this for the inside of the card to finish it off.

It's not my favourite Christmas card ever but it's my first of the year and got me started.

Hope you like it and if you make your own I'd love to see it in the comments below.

Thanks for stopping by and please come again.

Karen xx

Cascading alphabet

These new dies from Crafters Companion are such a pleasure to use and really create the card design on their own.

These cards I made recently, one for a friend's birthday in August. Can share here as she won't see this but not on my Facebook page just yet. The second because I simply liked it.

On my friend's card (guess her name lol) I went for the rainbow effect. Before I give it her I'll stick butterflies everywhere because she loves them, and owls but I'm saving the owl till Christmas for an idea I have.

The second I chose mint green and brown. I love this colour combo and the card from Papermill direct is so lovely to work with.

You'll notice they each have a different edge and this is a choice you can make from the die set. They are so lovely.

The cascade alphabet dies come in two different sets that either cascade across or cascade down and are very reasonably priced.

I do hope you like them. Thanks for stopping by and please come again.
If you do choose to buy them I'd love to see what you make of them.

Bye
Karen xx

Big Girl Pants

I love this Big Girl Pants stamp from Crafter's Companion. Use it as a topper to your card or as an insert.
I used this as a topper to my card and decided to colour it green with some white dots and a touch of Wink of Stella clear. Sadly the glitter isn't very clear in this photograph. I wish there was a stamp to go with it that says "and PARTY". I shall have to hone some calligraphy skills I think and write my own. It seems to be the next 'in' thing to do.

Another of the stamps in this collection is "A good friend". I went for red and white dots with this one and again a touch of Wink of Stella

Crafter's Companion have quite a collection of these stamps and I'll be showing some more in a later post based around their Gin and Prosecco stamps.
You'll have noticed I've started watermarking my pictures. For no other reason than I've learned how, using an App called iWatermark. There are some brilliant YouTube tutorials if you want to find out how for yourself. The one I watched is by Scrimping Mummy.  Not sure if it's something I'll continue to do but for now I'm enjoying playing and learning.

Do hope you like these and thanks for stopping by.
Do come again.
Karen.

New Home Window Box

A lovely work colleague and friend is moving into a new home any day now and I wanted to make her something to say 'good luck in your new home'.
My initial thought was a pop up box as they are so pretty and I wanted something similar but a bit different.
I came up with a window box.

No flaps like an open box but still requiring acetate pop-ups.
It's much longer than your normal pop-up box and I had some DL cards which I used. I cut the length of one side down and adjoined it to another DL card also with one side cut down and formed my box shape. I covered this with some wood patterned papers from my stash.
Slats across formed the base to add my acetate sticks of flowers, which I slit into to twist so they faced forward.
The daisies I cut from some magazine papers along with the house shaped tag saying New Home.
Whilst it folds flattish enough for an envelobox (an envelope with depth) it is quite a length at about 10"so I decided to make a little bag to put it in upright.

I used two 12 x 12 papers scored at 3" on one side and at 1" on the two adjacent sides.
I joined the 3" bases together but the sides required a 2" insert. I decided to use a different pattern for this although this isn't very clear in the picture.

I topped it off with a couple of gold clips and a trio of tags and voila.


I'm really pleased with it.
Hope you like it too

Thanks for stopping by and please come again.
Karen

Large letter stamps

I picked up a few of the Crafter's Companion letter stamps a while ago and you may remember this one I made using some papers from May' Making Cards magazine. I said I'd be using these again and this time I went for black card.

I decided to heat emboss with silver embossing powder. I loved this look enormously but I can't show you because I immediately began colouring them in. Duh.


Strange but I've never tried colouring on black card before and it is not easy.
In the end I found water based pencils worked best although the colour is more muted.
Two of the images I cut out and matted onto a white card with either a side bar of silver mirror card or a centre horizontal bar of silver glitter can and pink ribbon. I actually like this one very much.

The third one I left uncut and matted onto a white card with silver mirror card.
I'm not sure if I prefer the images cut or left uncut as I like all three but E is my favourite I think. Probably because of the pop of colour from the pink ribbon.
These cards are small at 4 inch square but a perfect fit.
The stamps themselves I recommend as they stamp perfectly first time and are excellent value.
Plus when you're stumped for what to make for someone then a card with their initial on definitely hits the spot.


I hope you like these and thanks for stopping by.
Karen xx

Teenager

My youngest grandson was 13 recently. Oh where have all the years gone?
He is so grown up and handsome.
Anyway, he's also a teenager and that means hugely messy bedrooms, clothes thrown all over the place, cups under the bed. You've been there right, I know!!
As well as being teenage and a typical one to boot, he's also pretty good on the guitar.
Needless to say I needed a card that said music and mess and I found just the thing.
Courtesy of Splashcrafts I found a brilliant decoupage sheet in their kids and teens range and just had to have it.

To back it I chose a sheet of guitars from the Grand Plans paper pad by Trimcraft. If you've not used Trimcraft paper pads before do give them a whirl. Not only are they excellent quality but also approved by the FSA which means they are not harming the planet. And for we crafters that has to be good. Look out for the FSA logo on the front of their pads. I bought mine from Amazon
My grandson was thrilled with his card which pleased me no end. What he really said was "Actually, that's not bad grandma" haha. We grans take our compliments when and where we can get them!
I'm glad he liked it anyway and all before he even made any attempt to shake the £££s out haha.
I was pleased with it and hope you like it too.
Thanks for stopping by and do call again
Karen

Making Cards and papercraft June 2019

This months Making Cards magazine has some stunning papers and toppers.

I decided to fussy cut some of the toppers out whilst watching tv one evening.

The following day I decided to put some of the cut outs together with the papers.

Love these toucans and the tropical leaves paper were perfect for this card. Not got a sentiment yet but thought perhaps an anniversary card and something involving Two Can but not firmed that up yet. Someone suggested something like "I've got your back" which I quite like so may use that instead.

Now this paper is so opulent. I decided to layer up the black and gold paper with a gold 50 in the centre. This will either become a 50th anniversary card or a 50th birthday, whichever event comes round first.

This last one used some more tropical papers but this time I teamed it up with one of my Crafter's Companion letter stamps with the tropical foliage around it. I love these new stamps and I'll be doing more with these so watch this space.

I do hope you like these and thanks for stopping by.

Do come again

Karen