Dinning Room

We got back last week from our family holiday - I just thought I'd share a few pictures, before I show you my latest card. We visited Dubai, then Hong Kong (here's the family overlooking Hong Kong from Victoria Peak)  We spent a few days in Bangkok, (big lizards in the park!) then Cambodia, then Vietnam for a few days. The main mode of transport! I've been pretty ill since getting back - picked up some kind of flu on holiday, but today I felt alright and ready for some crafting again! I decided to use one of Karen Burniston's recent die sets, the Hanging Charm Pull Tab set. The set cuts out the pieces for a pull mechanism that makes a frame stand up, from which you can hang charms. You can put the mechanism just on a plain card stock base, but I decided to stick the mechanism to the front of an opening card so that there'd be room for me to write a message inside the card. Here's the card with the mechanism still folded down flat.  When you pull the tab, the fra...

Well, I had immense fun with this little project! I recently bought some of Tim Holtz's Sizzix Village dies, and got to have a play with them. Here's what I've made so far. I bought these five dies in a bundle from Cutting Edge Crafts (UK), and they are available here in the US, among other places.  I used all patterned papers from Craft Consortium's Tanya Whelan 'Wild Rose' 12x12 pad. I love how they co-ordinate! My first house was made using the Village Dwelling die, decorated with the Village Cottage die (which creates the shuttered windows, dormer windows and fence), and the Village Rooftops die for the roof shingles. I've seen the Village Cottage die called the Village Bungalow die in some places in the UK. I decorated the house with moss and paper flowers, and made the little wreath above the door with wire stems from the paper flowers, and a bit of moss. Just a note on adhesive.  I used an ATG gun on the large house flaps and strips of roof shingles....

Here's a card I made a couple of days ago for a friend who had recently moved house and had a birthday.  I used the Happy Pretty Panel Confetti Cuts from Reverse Confetti, and the Swirlies Confetti Cuts. The background patterned paper is from Stampin' Up, and I made the flower from a new Sizzix die set - the Mix and Match Flowers Thinlits, with a gingham brad in the centre (an old one from Making Memories). The 'everything' is a Papertrey Ink stamp from their Wet Paint set, which I stamped in VersaMark ink and used white embossing powder with. Some of products used:    

I love  this card by My Favorite Things DT member Yoonsun Hur, and seeing as I had the same stamp & die sets (the Birthday Wishes and Balloons sets) made my own version of it.  For the background I used Elizabeth Craft Designs' Soft Finish Cardstock, which is wonderful for blending Distress Ink onto. I added some white spots with Ranger Enamel Accents, and used more Distress Ink to colour the balloon die cuts. I put white shine on the balloons with Signo Uni-ball pen. I glued on some clear sequin stars, and layered the panel onto black cardstock, which I put on foam pads onto the turquoise card blank. Product Links:    

I bought myself some Reverse Confetti products last week, and made this card using the Whole Lotta Happy stamp set, the Happy Pretty Panels Confetti Cuts, and the Big Stripes Cover Panel Confetti Cuts. For the flower bouquet, I used Stampin' Up punches, Tim Holtz Tattered Flower Garland Decorative Strip, Martha Stewart Frond Punch and an old unbranded stamen punch. Some of product links:    

Some friends and I drove to the beautiful city of Ely today to meet up with another friend, to celebrate our May birthdays. I made this card for her. From Elizabeth Craft Design's lovely Soft Finish Cardstock, I cut the card base, using the Sizzix Circle Flip-its Card #4 die set. I cut the patterned card layers with the same die set from a Prima 6x6 pad. I added a Memory Box Darla Butterfly, cut from a mottled pink vellum, and just stuck down in the centre, so the wings lift up. For the centre of the card, I made a hydrangea, using Susan's Garden Hydrangea die set, from Elizabeth Craft Designs. I used their wonderful quality metal tool kit and molding pad to shape the flowers and put veins on the leaves. I added some colour to the petals and leaves with Susan's Garden PanPastels from Elizabeth Craft Designs too. (The PanPastels are SO nice to use! Really soft and blendable, but not as dusty as normal pastels.) I used the same equipment along with Elizabeth Craft Design'...

I spent a bit of time stamping and die cutting these flowers and leaves from Stampin' Up's Flower Patch set the other night, then assembled them onto Sizzix's Card in a Box yesterday, for a friend's birthday. You can make a bit more sense of the card from this angle - I die cut three partitions for inside the 'box', and stuck various flowers on all the surfaces. For a couple of the flowers, I added clear acetate strips to the front partition, and stuck the flowers to the acetate, so the flowers 'float'. I used another Stampin' Up set for the sentiment and hand cut a tag, using a Crop-o-dile to make a hole and adding a brad. Another angle to show the layers. And finally, just to prove that the card can actually fold down flat, ready to fit in an envelope! (You can see the acetate strip which the smaller coral and pink flowers on the left-hand side are stuck to, in this picture. I also stuck the sentiment label to the same acetate strip.) I used adhesi...