Winter is on the way

Yes, believe it or not, even I am now on the Christmas card bandwagon. There are already so many gorgeous new products around that I could not resist any longer. And over the next weeks I will share many projects with new goodies with you.

Today I am starting with a lovely new snowman stamp by Crafty Stamps. Inspiration for this project was the nice clean and cold air on a winter's morning. To give it this more 'frosty' feel I opted for white, light blue and silver as the main colours with a lot of mirri card and a bit of glitter.

Here are the 'ingredients' for my 15cm x 15cm square card:

• Large snowman stamp XM129Q by Crafty Stamps
• Spectrum Noir pens
• Black Memento ink pad
• White linen cardstock by Southfield
• White glass-smooth cardstock (200gsm) by Southfield
• Textured light blue cardstock
• Silver mirri card
• Adhesive pearls
• Stickles glitter glue
• Circle and scalloped circle cutting dies
• Cheery Lynn holly corner die
• Snowflake embossing folder
• Die-cutting-machine
• Adhesive
• Toolbox essentials

Smashing Edinburgh International Book Festival

Today I am happy and can look back on round about two fantastic weeks, but also have a tear in my eye. The Edinburgh International Book Festival has yet again been fantastic with such a calm and very enjoyable atmosphere during this busy festival time, but it is coming to an end tomorrow.

After all events there are book signings with the authors. But this year I was also faced with a challenge: How do you get eBooks signed? While I still love the actual books I have the work of some authors solely as eBooks due to running out of storage space.

The solution for me is a smash book. I have been thinking about starting one for all those tickets from sport events, concert, etc. that you want to keep but can then only find by accident for a while. And it also seemed ideal for collating book festival tickets alongside signatures of authors.

I prepared the pages before the event, asked then the authors to sign in the smash book and finish the pages off after the individual events. The pages shown here are just a taster. And my smash book is already turning into a very treasured item.

Wedding Acceptance

Today I undertook my first attempts with gilding flakes and Indigo Blu Flitter Glu - and had a fight at my hands. I applied the Flitter Glu to a stamp, but sometimes the cardstock was tearing when I lifted up the stamp. When I used the stamp in such a way that it hardly touch the cardstock I could lift it up, but the image was not complete. A touch up with a cheap paintbrush worked well.

But removing the stickiness on the rubber of the stamp was a nightmare. I washed it in water right after use, but I also had to use the specific stamp cleaner twice to get the stamp halfway back into working order. I doubt that I will do that again to any of my stamps any time soon. I will rather stick to highlighting areas by applying Flitter Glu with a paintbrush and then using gilding flakes.

I am actually quite pleased with the result - just the cleaning up process was too lengthy. And as I got a bit of glue along the edge of a fingernail, I am sporting a bit of red and gold myself ...

And here is what I used to create the acceptance card:

• Big heart stamp by Crafty Stamps (RM105F)
• Heart cutting die by Joy! Crafts
• Wedding ring die by Marianne Designs
• QuicKutz alphabet dies
• White textured and white smooth cardstock
• Gold metallic cardstock
• Red mirri card
• Adhesive gems
• Indigo Blu Flitter Glu and Lancashire Rose gilding flakes

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.

The Scottish Outdoors

You have not seen Scottish themed cards from me for a few weeks, so I thought that I would rectify this immediately.

Deer are so typical for our outdoors. And I just love the beautiful stag rubber stamp by Crafty Stamps. I opted for a combination of kraft cardstock, green Kraft-Core cardstock by Tim Holtz and embellishments in cream and brown tones. Here is what I used:

• Crafty Stamps image SC146HF
• Kraft cardstock
• Tim Holtz Kraft-Core cardstock by Core-dinations
• Ivory glass-smooth cardstock by Southfield
• Black Memento ink pad
• ProMarkers in Warm Grey 3, Warm Grey 4 and Warm Grey 5 for the antlers
• Spectrum Noir pens in BG4, BG5, BG8 as well as a ProMarker in Pastel Beige for head and body
• Spectrum Noir pen in IG1 for the shadow
• Round Spellbinders dies
• Tonic geared border punch
• Cheery Lynn die for the leaves
• Sheena Douglass embossing folder
• Sanding tool
• Brown paper blooms
• Cream ribbon roses
• Rosebuds in 'coffee'

For the second card I used again Crafty Stamps images, but this time heat embossed them in silver. This time I used:

• Crafty Stamps image SC150F
• Crafty Stamps set SC1M
• White DL card blank
• Textured cardstock in two shades of purple
• A small piece of green cardstock
• Versamark ink pad
• Silver detail embossing powder
• Lilac ribbon
• The London Line premium gemstones by Trimcraft
• Thistles
• Cheery Lynn die for the leaves
• Woodware stamp positioner for aligning the images of the border strip

I hope you like these cards.

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.