Finally Sunday ...

What a week! It could not have been much worse even if it had tried. Hopefully yesterday's mail with the 'surprise' of HMRC having lost most of my tax return put an end to the chaos. So instead of following the plans I had for Saturday I ended up re-doing my tax return and preparing an official complaint. They said that I did not send it the missing documentation, but bad luck for them that I sent the initial tax return by special delivery and that the post office receipt also shows the weight. And one piece of paper in an envelope just does not weigh 90 grams ...

All that also threw out most of the crafting planned for yesterday, but I had to make a 60th birthday card for somebody close to us. So what can you do when time is running away, your brain has been virtually fried by tax matters and you still want to make a larger card? An 8" x 8" kraft card blank, kraft card and some textured cardstock, a 12" x 12" Garden Party designer paper pack, Garden Party buttons, a Garden Party decoupage pad, some adhesive gems, QuicKutz alphabet dies and a good portion of Pinflair glue gel solved the problem

And today I will hopefully get a chance to have a more relaxing day and to work on some more Christmas cards. Fingers crossed!

Make a Wish

On this overcast and windy, but at least dry day with a few rays of sunshine peeking through the clouds every now and again I felt like making a card with a summery feel. My products of choice came once again from the Garden Party collection by Dovecraft. I just love the colours and patterns.

Full instructions including a product list for this card are in my Trimcraft gallery. And here are a few additional details around the non-Trimcraft products, which I used for this project:

• The embossing folder with dots is by Darice.
• The floral embossing folder is by Sheena Douglass.
• For the sentiment I used a Tim Holtz idea-ology adage ticket.

I hope you are enjoying a lovely and relaxing Sunday.

Butterfly World

Today I wanted to see how the Dovecraft Garden Party products work when they are getting combined with kraft cardstock. And you have so far not seen many butterflies on my cards. But one of the nice things about crafting is that we can play, experiment and discover new things.

And yes, I could not wait to try out my new Cheery Lynn French Lattice Small Frame die (the code is FRM132 in case anybody wonders) and to use the cherry blossom flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts on a card for the first time.

The rosebuds are also from Wild Orchid Crafts while I found the ribbon roses at Hobbycraft. The fabric leaves were still in my stash.The kraft cardstock is from a pack of square kraft card blanks with envelopes by Craft UK Limited. For ensembling the butterflies I used again my trusted Pinflair glue gel.

Those of you, who would like to re-create this project, can find a product list and step-by-step instructions in my Trimcraft gallery.

I hope you like the result and this different look created with products from the Garden Party collection by Trimcraft.

And the Garden Party continues ...

... but only indoors and solely on the crafting front. The month of June was so cold and wet that it ended up being a complete write-off. And July does not seem to be much better - another severe weather warning for rain is already in place. It does not feel like summer at all.

On a more positive note, the bad weather means that I spend more time indoors and crafting. So it is not all bad. And the new Garden Party products by Dovecraft are so nice to work with that they really cheer me up despite the weather being so awful.

And here is an A5 card that I finished last night:

A product list and step-by-step instructions are in my Trimcraft gallery, but here is a bit more information for those who would like to know a bit more about the products I used.

• I found the lace on Joanna Sheen's website.
• The leaves are coloured in using a Tim Holtz distress ink pad in 'frayed burlap'. I applied the ink with Cut-n-Dry foam.
• The swirl die is by Marianne Designs.
• I had the sentiment tag in my stash.
• My chosen adhesive was again Pinflair glue gel.

Garden Party

I promised you some more projects with new Trimcraft products - and here are already the first two.

  Garden Party - Window Card

Garden Party - Floral Rocker

For these two cards I used the brand-new Dovecraft Garden Party collection. Available in this collection are paper pads, a decoupage pad, ribbons, adhesive gems, 3D stickers, paper blossoms, fabric brads and buttons in beautiful pinks, yellows, creams and greens.

Product lists as well as step-by-step instructions are - as usual - in my Trimcraft gallery, but here is a bit more information for those of you who are interested in more details:

• For the window card I used the frame die FRM 142 by Cheery Lynn Designs.
• I created the circles for the floral rocker card using grand nestabilities.
• As glitter glue I used Stickles in 'Crystal'.
• I ensembled all flowers with Pinflair glue gel.

I hope these projects are providing you with abit of inspiration. More will follow soon.