Dinning Room

Arghhh!! I nearly forgot how to craft it's been so long! I was chatting to a fire fighter on the way back from a job yesterday, and talking about what we do besides fire fighting, and I said I made cards. I then realised I've not made one in months, which spurred me on to invite my friend Donna over today and do some card making! I recently bought the Cupcake Pop Up die set from Karen Burniston's new company, so decided to make something with that. I used all papers from Crate Paper's 6x6 'Bloom' paper pad, decorated with ribbon from Stampin' Up, and cupcake accessory dies that come in the die set. The gloss on the cherry is Nuvo Crystal drops in Bubblegum Blush. The 'Happy' is from Echo Park's 'Happy Easter Word' die set, and the 'Birthday' is from Marianne Designs. It's always fun using Karen's well designed dies - I want to try out a similar card in different colours soon! Product Links:    

I wanted to use the new Best Wishes Die Set which Stephanie Barnard sent me recently, which fits perfectly with Sizzix Circle #4 Flip-its die.  Some of the lovely new products by Stephanie Barnard for Sizzix and The Stamps of Life. I used floral paper from We R Memory Keepers 'Chalkboard' 6x6 pad, flowers from Karen Burniston's Flower Pot Pop Stand die set, and leaves from My Favorite Things Wild Greenery die set. I used a punch for the flower stamens, and some Bubble Gum Nuvo Crystal Drops in the flowers centres. I used the Best Wishes die twice, snipped out the words from the glitter card die cut, and layered it on top. Some of products used:    

I got back yesterday from a last minute trip with my kids to the Norfolk coast. The weather was gorgeous and it felt summery for the first time this year!  I got back home to a couple of new craft products which I'd bought online - the Sizzix Scallop Oval Flip-its Card die set and First Edition's 'Paradise Crush' 12x12 pad. My summery mood continued with these cards!  Me enjoying the lovely beach at Wells-next-the-Sea, on Thursday. For all my cards, I used the layer dies and ovals which come with the Sizzix Scallop Oval Flip-its set. To my first card I added a butterfly from Sizzix by Craft Asylum, a stamp from Purple Onion Designs - Stephanie Ackerman's 'Homegrown Sentiments' set (stamped in black Staz-On ink, because the paper is pearlised), and Concord and 9th's 'Wonderful Words' Lovely die. Look at the cute glitter flamingo paper! I used an oval die from The Stamps of Life on the back of the central panel, with the scalloped oval die from th...

 You might have worked out by now that Sizzix Flip-its cards are a real favourite of mine! They are always so quick to make, and I love the dies which create the perfect layer shapes. My Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks arrived yesterday, and I wanted to make some splatter effect patterned paper, to decorate a couple of Flip-its cards. I used Worn Lipstick, Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brisk and Wilted Violet inks, which I dabbed onto a non-stick sheet, sprayed with water, then splattered onto card stock with a paintbrush. I made sure each colour dried before adding the next colour. For my first card, I used My Favorite Things 'Jungle Friends' die set for the elephants, and a heart from the Accordion Oval die set. Look at that cute tail shadow!! For my second card, I used my new Star Flip-its, which I love, along with Broken China, Cracked Pistachio, Faded Jeans and Peeled Paint inks. For both of my cards, I made the splatter panels as described above (ink dabbed on...

Yesterday my Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks  finally arrived! I had a quick play around with them - practiced smooshing and splatting, before getting on with this card idea I had in mind. I wanted to create all my own patterned card stock, for a card using Karen Burniston's Butterfly Pivot Card  die set.  I started by creating the patterned card stock in the colours I wanted to use - blues/turquoises for the base card, yellowy/oranges for the large butterflies, pinks/reds for the smaller butterfly layers, and a blacky colour for some butterfly bodies (which I didn't end up using). I got the effect I wanted by rubbing the ink pads onto non-stick sheeting, spraying the ink with water, then 'smooshing' my white card stock in it. I dried it with a heat tool, and sprayed a bit more water on, while it dried. I repeated this a couple of times, and dried the card stock again.  Then I put more ink on the non-stick sheet, sprayed it with water again, picked up some of the ink w...

Well I've been cracking on with a load of stuff that needed doing this week, plus I've had a few fire fighter call-outs, so today I rewarded myself with a morning of card making! I recently came across a couple of 'Shutter Cards' on the internet which have the effect of a camera lens opening when you open the card, and I really liked them! I found a good  tutorial by Sandi MacIver , which I mainly followed, to make the mechanisms for the following cards. I used the Martha Stewart Scoring board. For my first card, I kept the card base and mechanism pieces all in pink, but put a square of metallic silver card behind the opening. I used my ATG tape runner for most of the sticking. The patterned papers I used for layering are all from Crate Paper's Notes & Things 6x6 pad. For the sentiment which is revealed as the card opens,  I used the Happy die from the Echo Park 'Happy Easter' word dies, and a word stamp from Reverse Confetti's Whole Lotta Happy stam...

It's Mothering Sunday today in the UK, and I made this card a couple of days ago for my Mother-in-law, using Karen Burniston's Accordion Oval die set from Elizabeth Craft Designs. All the papers are from Basic Grey's Lucille 6x6 pad. On the first panel, I used the word Happy from Echo Park's Happy Easter Words die set, a Reverse Confetti stamp from their Whole Lotta Happy set, and a heart that comes in the Accordion Oval die set. The second panel has die cuts from the Sizzix You and Me die set, which I Distress Inked the edges of. On the third panel I used a Sizzix Craft Asylum house, with the heart from the Accordion Oval die set, and on the last panel I used layers from the Accordion Oval set, and the female figure from the Sizzix You and Me die set. Products used: