More Curiosity Corner

 Curiosity Corner - A little love

This is not fair. Last Saturday I was at the SECC and left there keen to play with the new toys. As it is also the busiest time of the year at work with long hours and a lot of stress, a small daily dose of crafting would help to relax and to remain sane. But on Sunday I ended up flat on my nose with a whole range of cold and flu symptoms ...

I had to soldier on and was at work every day, but when I was eventually home my temperature was on the up and I ended up snuggled up on the sofa or in my bed. And how can you craft when you are coughing, sneezing and splattering? Going to work every day and getting wet and blown through at bus stops obviously does not help when it comes to shifting a nasty bug, but I hope that a quiet weekend will make a difference.

Curiosity Corner - Time for tea

At least I managed to finish off a card today and to write the instructions for this project and a further card. They are featuring again the beautiful Curiosity Corner collection by Trimcraft. And you can find product lists and step-by-step instructions in my Trimcraft gallery. Just click onto the links below the images.

Curiosity Corner Impressions

Curiosity Corner - Say it with flowers

The long and extremely busy hours at work are really starting to take its toll. At the moment I need to be careful not to start a card and to fall asleep right over it. But my brain never seems to stop working, so I do not even get the relaxing kind of sleep that helps to recharge the batteries.

At least I have managed to write the instructions for two more cards created with the new Dovecraft Curiosity Corner collection - although I must admit that this has taken me three nights instead of just a couple of minutes ... Just good that I can enjoy a four-day week in the office.

Curiosity Corner - Garden Girl

You can view the product lists and step-by-step instructions in my Trimcraft gallery by clicking onto the links below the images.

Curiosity Corner - It's Your Day

Today I would like to introduce the new Dovecraft Curiosity Corner collection to you. The colours are lovely and more muted, so they are great for vintage styles and elegant cards. And some of the papers, for example, also work nicely on male cards.

The initial idea behind the card above was to look for something that could accommodate just sections of doilies and not the whole doilies, so I started to trim off sections and came up with the design you can see here. A product list and step-by-step instructions can be found in my Trimcraft gallery.

I hope that you all had a lovely weekend and will have a good start into the new week.

A whole bunch of dinos ...

The previous sneak peeks on the new dinosaur stamp collection by Crafty Stamps focussed on the individual dinosaur images in the range. But Crafty Stamps are also bringing out a set of ten dinosaurs (DN1A5). These images are smaller than the individual ones and are therefore great for smaller projects or for creating scenes with two or more dinosaurs.

The project above is a simple desktop calendar created from a piece of A4 kraft cardstock cut in half vertically, chocolate pearlescent cardstock and piece of patterned paper from the First Edition Isabelle paper pad. I stamped the dinosaur to the right onto smooth white cardstock and also onto a Post-it note. The image on the Post-it note needs to be cut out and is then used as mask to cover the already stamped dino. After that the second dino can be stamped. For the colouring I used Spectrum Noir pens and ProMarkers.

For the calendar section I cut a piece of chocolate pearlescent cardstock that is slightly larger than the calendar tab and attached it with large 3D foam squares by Dovecraft (but there is no foam pad in the top middle section). The calendar tab is held in place with a Tim Holtz bulldog clip. This way it is easy to remove pages from the tab and even to replace it at the end of the year. A bit of silicone glue and an adhesive pearl give the bulldog clip a decorative touch.

Dinosaur images are not only great for birthday cards for kids, but also for humorous cards for adults. For this card I worked out a sentiment, keyed it into Word and printed it out. The products used for this card (in addition to toolbox basics) are as follows:

* Crafty Stamps dinosaur stamp set
* 15cm white linen textured card blank by Southfield
* Chocolate pearlescent cardstock
* First Edition J'adore paper pad by Trimcraft
* Smooth white cardstock
* Die'sire die by Crafter's Companion
* Spectrum Noir pens and ProMarkers
* Paper roses and rosebuds
* Decorative pins

The dinosaur stamps will be available on the Crafty Stamps website www.craftystamps.com or in their Edinburgh shop 'Stampers Grove' from Tuesday on.

Dino Birthday Card

I hope you are all safe and dry. Here the wind is howling around the house and battering the trees with rain hammering against the windows every so often, but that is nothing compared to the awful situation in the south of the country.

Today's dinosaur sneak peek comes in a completely different style - with a more colourful creature on a birthday card for young kids. I deliberately wanted to create a dinosaur image that comes over as more cute than scary.

I used the new Crafty Stamps image DN104M (the stamp will be launched on 18 February 2014) and coloured in the dinosaur using ProMarkers in Soft Green, Amethyst and Aubergine.

In addition to the dinosaur stamp I used:

* 15cm x 15cm white linen textured card blank by Southfield
* Smooth white cardstock
* Textured cardstock in soft green and in two shades of purple
* CoreCouture cardstock by Core'dinations
* Embossalicious Lattice embossing folder
* Leave embossing folder by Crafts-Too
* Number and letter die-cuts (peel-offs would work just as well)
* Cutting dies: circle and scalloped circle
* Candi

Land and Sea

It is time for another sneak peek on the new dinosaur stamps by Crafty Stamps, which will be released later this month. Inspiration for the two cards I would like to share with you today was provided by the habitat the dinosaurs lived in.

For the card above I used brown-grey tones of Spectrum Noir pens for the dinosaur and opted for a forest-like feel with brown and kraft cardstock, raffia and string as well as leaves. A torn strip of kraft cardstock and the distressed embossed detail add a rustic touch.

Some products used for this card in more detail:

* Crafty Stamps dinosaur stamp DN107Q
* Embossalicious A4 embossing folder 'Tumbling Leaves'
* Leaf die set by Cheery Lynn
* Santoro Mirabelle jute and raffia string set by Trimcraft
* White linen textured 15cm square card blank by Southfield
* Glass-smooth white cardstock by Southfield
* Kraft cardstock
* Tim Holtz Kraft-Core cardstock by Core'dinations

The second card is styled around a marine dinosaur (DN108K). I chose blue greys for the dinosaur and light blues for the surrounding water. This time I used a mix of ProMarkers and Spectrum Noir pens. The bubbles - and incidentally also plant sections within the background - are highlighted with Sakura Gelly Roll pen in 'Clear Star'.

The backgound is mainly doodled. I used a calligraphy pen to get thinner and wider sections for these fantasy plants and added then some circles with a fine liner by Letraset. After that I embossed the background using a 6" x 6" Embossalicious embossing folder and added adhesive pearls in various sizes and shades of brown for the bottom of the sea. Embellishments are starfish and shell die-cuts. I used my good old QuicKutz dies, but other manufacturers (e.g. Marianne Design) have brought out similar dies in the meantime.

I hope you like these two new projects.

Here come the dinos ...

Crafty Stamp DN102N

Towards the end of this month Crafty Stamps, the Edinburgh based family business, are launching a brand-new collection of stamps. The images should be popular with many recipients of all ages and are currently really trendy when it comes to kids: dinosaurs.

All stamps are made from high quality grey rubber and come cut and foam-backed. And this is just perfect for us impatient crafters, as they can go straight out of the packaging onto an acrylic block and are ready for a crafting session within seconds.

Here is a first sneak peek for two of the new images. More samples will follow over the next days.

For the card above I used:

* Textured cardstock
* Smooth white cardstock
* Embossalicious embossing folder by Crafters Companion
* Tonic Studios tag die (the die-cut is cut in half)
* Corner rounder
* Black Memento ink pad
* Spectrum Noir pens (green greys plus IG1) as well as a Letraset FlexMarker in 'Glacier Blue'
* Adhesive pearls

Crafty Stamps DN110Q

The products for the second card are:

* Black textured cardstock
* White smooth cardstock
* Patterned paper from the Trimcraft Back to Basics Monochrome collection
* Cheery Lynn corner die
* Britannia sentiment die set (peel-offs would work just as well)
* Octagon Nestabilities
* Black Memento ink pad
* Spectrum Noir pens (ice greys)
* Adhesive pearls

I hope you like these new stamps and are looking forward to more previews.