Tuesday 29 April 2014

New Purple Onion Design Stamps & Pop It Ups House Pivot Card

I have another card today, using more of Stacey Yacula's wonderful new stamps form Purple Onion Designs... do head over there and take a look at them if you haven't already!
I used Karen Burniston's latest (and equally wonderful!) card die - the House Pivot. It's so much fun to work with, and comes with all the little decorator dies in the same set.

After adding all the decorator pieces to the house with foam pads, I stamped the balloons image onto the card, then stamped it again onto patterened papers, and cut out each balloon. I did similar for the bunny, only adding a little Copic colouring too.
I also added some Stickles glitter glue to some of the details.
I added a little hill in the corner, with some Copic shading on it.

The front has two more Purple Onion Design stamps too, along with a hand cut little poster.

Links to some of the products used:


   

Monday 28 April 2014

Elizabeth Craft Designs 'Elegant and White' Design Team April Challenge Card

 April's Elizabeth Craft Designs Design Team Challenge, is 'Elegant and White'.
I immediately thought of a winter scene (depsite it being gorgeous Spring weather at the moment - oh well!)
I used Karen Burniston's latest die for Elizabeth Craft Designs - the House Pivot die, and added edges embossed with the Lots of Dots embossing folder, and shaped with an Agatha Edges die.
For the snow drifts, I hand cut the larger ones, and used the snow die from the Garden Bench die set.

 I did the embossing of the bricks, and added all the house and fence details, using decorator dies which come in the House Pivot die set, then added snowflakes from the All-Season Tree die set, on foam pads which I cut down small.
 I then dabbed glue onto the edges of everything, and sprinkled Silk Microfine Glitter in Cool Diamond over it. You can't really see how glittery and sparkly the card really is, which is a shame! Bit tricky to photograph this one!

Inside, I glued on a bow, and hand cut a tag shape, which I wrote the 'Merry Christmas' on, with white ink and a dip pen.
Lastly I added adhesive pearls to all the snowflakes and door.

Links to some of the products used:


   

Sunday 27 April 2014

Elizabeth Craft Design Cherry Bowl Peel-Off Card

Hello all! I'm on the Elizabeth Craft Design Blog today, with an A2 card featuring their lovely Cherry Bowl Peel-Off stickers.
Helen - Cherries

Instructions:

1. Stick one of the cherry bowl peel-off stickers, an extra couple of cherries and a single leaf onto watercolor paper.
2. Colour the peel-offs in with Tombow pens, using a watercolour brush.
3. Allow colour to dry completely, before adding some 'shine' to the cherries and bowl with white Enamel Accents. When dry again, cut out peel-offs.
4. Use a trimmer to cut some Red Metallic Shimmer Sheetz to 5.5'' x 4 3/4'', and emboss with the Flower Mosaic Embossing Folder.
5. Cut some white card stock to 2 7/8'' x 4'', and emboss with the Lots of Dots Embossing Folder.
6. Cut a small white card stock tag out by hand, and use the Hello die to cut out some Green Velvet Sheet. Stick the 'Hello' onto the tag.

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7. Onto a white hammered A2 blank card, stick the red Shimmer Sheetz, then the white card on top. If your tape runner isn't strong enough for this (I used my ATG) you can use ECD's double sided adhesive.)
8. Add Black/Silver Glitter Borders peel-off stickers around the edges of the red Shimmer Sheetz, and white inner card stock piece.
9. Adhere the cherry peel-off pieces.
10. Stick the tag in place with foam pads, and cut a small circle from the peel-off border stickers, to add a 'hole' to the tag.

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I hope you like my card, and perhaps feel inspired to try some of the techniques and products I used!

Links to some of the products used:


   

Saturday 26 April 2014

Another card with Stacey Yacula's 'A Beautiful Day!' collection for Purple Onion Designs

I have another card today which uses more of the gorgeous stamps from Stacey Yacula's new collection 'A Beautiful Day!' from Purple Onion Designs.


 I used the following stamps: A Perfect Spot, Balloons, Hush, Chloe & Hopscotch Sentiments, plus papers from First Edition's Floral Pavilion.
The tree trunk paper is from Graphic 45's Botanical Tea.
I stamped all the separate pieces, and cut them out, adding Hush (the butterfly), Chloe, and the balloons on foam pads.
I also added some white detail to the balloons with Signo White Uni-Ball pen, and added some Copic pen to the background trees, Chloe (bunny) and flowers.


Links to some of the products used:


   

Crazy 4 Challenges Flowers & Rain Card

The challenge from the Crazy 4 Challenges blog for this coming week is to come up with a card or project which includes Rain and Flowers.

I immediately thought of the lovely 'boots4rain' stamp set from The Stamps of Life, and made the following card with it and its co-ordinating dies, with papers from American Crafts 'Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic' 6x6 pad.

I used foam pads to raise some of the die cut elements, and glued on some fabric and paper flowers that I've hoarded for donkey's years.

Links to some of the products used:


   

Friday 25 April 2014

Stacey Yacula's new 'A Beautiful Day!' stamp collection for Purple Onion Designs & a card

 Happy days!!! Today there is a wonderful release of 39 new Stacey Yacula stamps for sale at Purple Onion Designs! It's called 'A Beautiful Day!'.
I was lucky enough to be able to have a play with lots of them, and as ever, they are beautiful, ridiculously cute stamps...  Also, for a week only, there will be 30% off when you buy the complete set! I highly recommend going and having a look at them!

Here is one of the cards I came up with, using quite a few of the stamps...
I used the Lucy Label Pop Up die for the card base, which provided the large main pop out part, plus the little pop-up on top - perfect for animating the cut out stamped images. I used foam pads to make the characters stand out even more.

I stamped most the images with Memento Ink, which works great with Copics, and I used Staz-On ink to stamp the bubbles onto acetate sheet, which were then glued to the back of the bear. I also added some Stickles glitter glue to the bubbles, flask, bottles, cupcakes and flowers. (Aren't they all such CUTE stamps!!)
A few of the images I stamped onto patterned paper, and added some white details to (like the large spots on the red bunting flags) with Signo White Uni-ball pen.
The flask and tray were stuck on with folded over pieces of card stock, so they can fold down flat.

The clouds were cut with dies from Elizabeth Craft Design's All-Season Tree set.
You can see some of the layers better in this picture:
Stay tuned for more cards using the new Stacy Yacula Collection on my blog over the next few days, plus check out the Purple Onion Designs blog for some great inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.

Links to some of the other products used:


   

Wednesday 23 April 2014

A new Purple Onion Design stamp collection!

Wonderful news for all lovers of Stacey Yacula's gorgeous stamps for Purple Onion Designs... a new, BIG collection out soon! 
PLUS there is a super prize give away - all the details are here on the Purple Onion Design Blog.

(I've been busy working on projects using the new stamps... they are beautiful!! I'll share some as soon as I can!)

Sunday 20 April 2014

Ribbon Slider Cards - The Stamps of Life new die release

I just wanted to show you some cards using a new die set release from The Stamps of Life today.
It's a set of Ribbon Sliders dies, in three different sizes.

Firstly I made a Flip-its card, with the largest ribbon slider die used in the right-hand corner, which I used to thread some ribbon through for a bow. The sentiments is from the sign4words stamp set.

Here I used the medium sized ribbon slider die for the circles, and the Happy Birthday from the brackets2cut set.

Finally, I die cut some banners (using the Sampler Dies set), with the smallest ribbon slider die inside.
The 'hello' is also from The Stamps of Life.

Links to some more of products used:


   

Saturday 19 April 2014

Tombow and Elizabeth Craft Design Blog Hop

 Welcome to the Tombow and Elizabeth Craft Designs Blog Hop!!
If you have arrived here from Melissa Cash's blog, then you are spot on! If not, you might enjoy starting at the beginning of the blog hop, at the Tombow Blog.

Before I show you my card, I should mention that you have the chance to win a super prize! To be eligible to win, please leave a comment on each of the designers' projects (from yesterday, today and tomorrow) and don't forget to 'Like' the Tombow and 'Like' Elizabeth Craft Designs' Facebook pages!
Here is what you could win...

Elizabeth Craft Designs:

Tombow:
Dual Brush Pen Set, 10 Retro

Tombow will anounce a winner on Monday 21st April, at 3.30pm EST.

I'd like to show you a card I made using ECD's 'Bird and Branches' peel-off stickers, placed on watercolour paper, and coloured with Tombow Dual Brush Pens from the Primary set.
I scribbled with my markers onto the Tombow Blending Palette, then used a fine water brush to lift up the colour to paint with.
 Once dry, I cut out the peel-offs and adhered them with sticky foam pads.

Tombow kindly provided me with the following:

And here's the rest of the card. I created a background for the bird, and frame for the opposite page, by embossing Blue Iridescent Shimmer Sheetz with ECD's Feather embossing folder. I also cut out a couple of the embossed feathers for the bottom left-hand corner.

 I also used  ECD's Happy Birthday die, and a larger partial flower peel-off sticker from the 'Jackie's Dolls in Oval' set.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my card!
Next up in the blog hop is Jennie Garcia! Do pop along and see her creation!

Some of the products used:

   



Crazy 4 Challenges Sketch card, and some new Sizzix dies!

Here's my card based on the sketch challenge over on the Crazy 4 Challenges blog today.

I treated myself to some new dies this week, and used a few of them on this card - one of Tim Holtz's new Frameworks dies (love how you can mix and match the insert parts!), a beautiful new flower die from Brenda Walton, and the 'hello' die from Lawn Fawn.

Whilst I do love stamps and ink, I think my greatest crafting loves have got to be dies and patterned paper - and though I think the newer 'wafer-thin' metal dies are great, I still really do love good old fat Sizzix dies! My new little haul makes me smile!!

For the flower, I used an older Sizzix die for the outer flower, and the Brenda Walton one for the finer inner layers. The papers are an assortment from the three 6x6 pads shown at the bottom (and an old Sherlock Holmes book!)
Lastly, I added a heart made with a Stampin' Up punch, and embossed it.

Links to some of the products used/shown:


   

Wednesday 16 April 2014

Spring Hats Accordion Circle Album Birthday Card

Hello! This card of mine, using the Accordion Circle Album card dies, and featuring the Hat Peel-Off stickers, is on the Elizabeth Craft Designs Blog today.
I started off by sticking the Hat Peel-Offs onto Watercolour paper, and colouring them in using Tombow Dual Brush pens. I scribbled some of the ink onto a shiny surface, and used a watercolour brush to pick up the ink to paint with. Once dry I cut round the hats.
I then cut out a colour co-ordinating circle of Shimmer Sheetz for each of the hats, using the Circle Accordion die. I embossed each circle using the Lots of Dots embossing folder, then I used a file to sand the raised dots.
Next I cut out 4 white card stock Circle Accordion pages, and 4 patterned paper frames, all with the Circle Accordion die. I also cut out 4 white scalloped circles with another die from the Accordion Circle set.
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I adhered all the card elements together, fixing the separate pages together last. (The hats I stuck on with foam pads for extra dimension.)
I then cut out a bow using the Four Bows die, from Pink Velvet sheeting, after sticking the velvet onto white card stock. I stuck the bow elements together, and glued some velcro to the back of the bow. I added another little piece of velcro to the top of the centre fold of the album. This means that the bow can be removed in order to fold down the album.
Also, I punched four holes in corners of the pages, and strung twine through them, then covered the holes with gold brads. I hand cut some bunting flags, stamped 'happy birthday' onto them, and glued them to the twine.



There are so many fun techniques to be had with Elizabeth Craft Design's products! I hope you feel inspired to try some of them!

Some of the products used:


   

Tuesday 15 April 2014

Oval Accordion 'Mum' Card - Karen Burniston's Designer Challenge

Here's another card on Karen Burniston's monthly Designer Challenge theme of 'Mamas and Babies'. Our Mother's Day has passed, but I made this as a birthday card for my Mother-in-law.

I used the Oval Accordion card die set for the white card base, and cut two more panels in patterned paper, and trimmed down the edges, to decorate the white card stock panels.

 I used American Crafts 'Front Porch' Chipboard shapes, to which I glued some additional Elizabeth Craft Design flowers, with adhesive gem centres.
The glitter letters are some really old ones from my stash.

The patterned paper oval backgrounds are also cut with a die from the Oval Accordion Card die set.

And the card front...

Links to some of the products used:


   

Stamps of Life Exclusive Fancy Edge Flip-Its Card die!

There is a beautiful new die set being released at The Stamps of Life today - the Fancy Edge Flip-its die set. It's made by Sizzix, but is exclusive to The Stamps of Life.

I love the shape of this die, and the ease with which a card comes together - the set comes with dies for cutting perfectly matched layers for the card, plus some really versatile tag and flower dies. The layer dies in this set also co-ordinate perfectly with the Square A2 Flip-its die.

My first card uses the tv2stamp set, and Tim Holtz stars.

I embossed one of the layers on this card, and used The Stamps of Life 'hello' die, and phone4you stamps. The book plate die is included in the new set.

And lastly a card using the flower dies that come with the set, and a stamp from the wordsquares2stamp set.

Links to some more of the products used:


   

Monday 14 April 2014

Pop It Ups New Baby Boy Card

I made this New Baby Boy card, for Karen Burniston's monthly Designer Challenge of 'Mamas and Babies' on the Elizabeth Craft Design's Blog in a couple of days. I wanted to use less traditional baby colours, and here's what I came up with, using the Pop It Ups 'Lots of Pops' die.

It's a fairly simple card, with a brown textured card stock backing piece, some cloud patterned paper from Crate Paper's Maggie Holmes 12x12 pad with the Lots of Pops die cut in it, 2 lots of poles (also from the Lots of Pops set - I doubled them up for extra strength), and some little clouds, bunting flags, and glitter chipboard self-adhesive letters (these are ancient - I think from Doodlebug.)

I stuck everything together, then added some twine to the poles, and put the flags on. (The flag die also comes in the Lots of Pops die set.)

 The outside of the card is pretty simple too, with some patterned paper from Prima's All About Me 6x6 pad, another flag pole, and a hand-cut flag where I'll write a little message.


Links to some of the products used:


   



Saturday 12 April 2014

Crazy 4 Challenges Easter Eggs Card

The challenge over at the Crazy 4 Challenges blog today, is to use EGGS!

Here's a really simple card I made. It could be called a homage card to the old Sizzix originals dies... do any of you still have a stash of those dies?! I used the little green Eggs die, the red Colander die (I cut out two, and layered up the rims on foam pads), and the red Scalloped Tags Combo die. Good old favourites!!


I was feeling sentimental, and went on Google Images to look at 'Sizzix Originals' (here is the egg die!) and I was happy to see quite a few of my cards on the first page. Don't get me wrong - I love new products, but I also love some of my old ones too!