Thursday, 1 May 2014

More Fun at the Fair


Today's card is again featuring the gorgeous Fun Fair collection by Helz Cuppleditch and Trimcraft, but this time I have teamed up the products with kraft cardstock for a slightly different look.

And the long awaited gorgeous ticket die has also arrived in the meantime. But the dies must have been flying out at the Glitter Pot. Although I jumped into action as soon as I spotted the dies, I missed out on the initial delivery of the carousel dies. So the carousel die will have to wait a bit longer, but at least the ticket die has already become part of my collection. And I am thoroughly impressed. I worked with 280gsm kraft cardstock, which can be tricky with some dies, but this one cut perfectly and embossed the cardstock beautifully. Releasing the cardstock was also easy.

The sections between the three tickets are so well designed that it is also easy to tear the tickets apart, which looks a lot more natural than cutting them. And this also makes the die more versatile, as the entire strip or just individual tickets can be used on projects.

Fingers crossed that Trimcraft will release many more dies from now on.

I have again prepared a product list and step-by-step instructions for this card. You can find these in my Trimcraft gallery.

Sunday, 27 April 2014

Fun Fair Collection - Ferris Wheel


What happened to this day? The hours have just flown by. Okay, when I started working on some cards I got distracted by my 'feline stalker'. I was sitting on the living room floor, watching TV and arranging some products for the cards at the same time. And all the time our neighbours' cat was sitting at the patio door and watching me closely. And yes, I ended up going outside a few times and playing with my furry friend. But how can you resist such a beautiful and friendly furball???

But the instructions for the first card (the one shown above) created with the new Fun Fair collection by Trimcraft are now written and together with a product list available in my Trimcraft gallery.

And I will now go back to the remaining cards, file around on the designs and start preparing the instructions so that I can share the next projects with you soon.

Monday, 21 April 2014

Things with Wings


Today I would like to intriduce two more images from the animal collection by Crafty Stamps. They are both part of the 2014 launches.

The card above features the emu (AN149F). I coloured in the image using ProMarkers in mainly warm grey tones and deliberately limited the colours used for the background in order to have the emu as focal point.

In addition to the Crafty Stamps image I used:

* White 15cm square card blank with linen texture by Southfield
* Textured cardstock
* Neenah card for the stamped image
* Sue Wilson die set 'Umbria' from the Italian collection
* Sue Wilson die set 'Faux Quilled Blooms' from the Finishing Touches collection for the leaves
* Round cutting dies
* Forever in Time burlap daisies (distributed by Woodware)
* Adhesive pearls
* Tim Holtz design ruler for the pierced section


The second card features the new butterfly set 2 (AN145K). For the colouring I used again ProMarkers, but I also highlighted selected areas using a Sakura gelly roll pen in 'Clear Star'. The background is created with the help of an A4 Spellbinders M-Bossabilities folder to which I added small pearls of Cosmic Shimmer Pearl PVA.

Further 'ingredients' for this card:

* White 15cm square card blank with linen texture by Southfield
* Coloured textured cardstock 
* Neenah card
* Oval cutting dies
* Sue Wilson die set 'Filigree 3D Bow' from the Finishing Touches collection
* Paper roses and rosebuds

Saturday, 12 April 2014

Big and Beautiful

 

No, not me and not the size of the cards ... Big and beautiful describes the amazing animals, which are depicted in these great images from the new animal rubber stamp collection by Crafty Stamps.

The elephant (AN148Q) is stamped in black Memento ink and coloured in using the ProMarkers Warm Grey 1, Warm Grey 2 and Warm Grey 3. For the card itself I opted for a colour scheme of kraft card and dark brown with a bit of dark green and a more rustic look.

Further ingredients for this card:
* Sue Wilson Spanish Collection - corner, border and tag die set
* Sue Wilson Finishing Touches Collection - faux quilled leaves dies
* Sue Wilson A4 embossing folder 'Illusion'
* Circle dies
* Burlap daisies, which are distributed by Woodware


The Highland coo (or Highland cow to stick with the official name/AN150Q) comes with a posher surrounding in white, red and black on a 15cm square white linen textured card blank by Southfield. The coo (or cow) is coloured in using the ProMarkers, Sandstone, Caramel, Warm Grey 1 and Pale Pink.

I also used:
* Sue Wilson Californian Collection - corner, border and tag die set
* Sue Wilson Finishing Touches Collection - faux quilled leaves dies
* Sue Wilson A4 embossing folder 'Celtic Flower'
* Tartan ribbon by Woodware
* Paper roses
* Black adhesive pearls

Crafty Stamps products are available from Crafty Stamps, their shop Stampers Grove in Edinburgh (in store and online) and today also at the Ross Papercraft Show at the Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh. Stampers Grove are also stockists of Sue Wilson dies.

Monday, 7 April 2014

Fun Fair by Helz Cuppleditch


The original plan was to show you these cards on Sunday. But although I took photos for the main images I had to realise that I completely forgot about the second images, which show a bit of the insight of the cards. And by the time I did it was already dark outside and the light for photos was not very good at all ...


We had some awful weather here and I was really craving to work on some more colourful and cheery cards. The new Fun Fair products by Trimcraft with Helz Cuppleditch artwork is just perfect for that. Cute characters and plenty of colour!


Product lists and step-by-step instructions for both cards are in my Trimcraft gallery. If you click onto the project titles, the links will take you straight to the entries in the gallery.

 

And for those, who are interested in the makes of dies and embossing folders: For 'Hooked On You' I used leaf dies from a Sue Wilson die set and a Cheery Lynn corner die. For 'You're So Sweet' I banked on the help of a Darice embossing folder and a leaf strip by Britannia Dies.

Sunday, 30 March 2014

Meerkat


Crafty Stamps, the Edinburgh-based family business, have brought out some more great animal stamps. This cute meerkat is just one of many.

I was also quite keen to try out some more Sue Wilson dies and to see what the Foundations cardstock, which she is using frequently, is like. The result is this 5" x 7" card where even the card base is created from Foundations card.

In more detail, I have used:

* Crafty Stamps Meerkat (AN152B)
* Ginger Foundations A4 card
* Black textured cardstock
* Kraft cardstock
* Neenah Desert Storm card
* Sue Wilson background die from the Spanish collection
* Sue Wilson faux quilled leave dies
* Sue Wilson faux quilled blooms dies
* Tag die by Marianne Design
* Black Memento ink pad
* ProMarkers in Warm Grey 1, Sandstone, Caramel and Burnt Sienna
* Black self-adhesive pearls
* String
* Piercing ruler and tool

I hope you like the result.

Craft Stamps rubber stamps are available from Crafty Stamps, their shop 'Stampers Grove' and on 12 April 2014 at the Ross Papercraft Show at the Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh. Stampers Grove are also stockists of Sue Wilson dies.

Sunday, 23 March 2014

Doilies - just that wee bit different

 

Thank you for all your good wishes last weekend. The cold is definitely better now, but I am still fighting it. Being at work every single day and getting soaked due to gales and torrential downpours last Thursday obviously has not helped ...

Chopping up doilies might be good against the frustration caused by a nasty cold. But to be honest, it was actually a much more deliberate action. Doily dies are not cheap, and intricate dies can bring their own challenges with them. Dovecraft have now got a good selection of doilies - white as well as lovely colours - within their collections. And they can be a quick and inexpensive alternative.


These two cards, which are created using the Dovecraft Curiosity Corner collection by Trimcraft, show cut up doilies used as decorative corners and decorative panels. Product lists and full step-by-step instructions are in my Trimcraft gallery and can be accessed via the links underneath the images.

By the way, Trimcraft also have a great forum and at the moment even a design team call. Many of you are so very talented. Could this perhaps be something for you?