Rockhopper Penguin

The weather is absolutely crazy here. Yesterday we had more than enough torrential downpours, water standing in the streets and even an evacuation of Edinburgh Zoo. I had to revert to wellies for my trip to the Sincerely Yours show, which was very busy despite the awful weather. Crafters just are a tough bunch and always venture out when craty treats are calling :).

And it was not much better today. At some point the rhones just could not take the amount of water anymore (and they were only cleaned recently) and the water just shot over them like a waterfall.

The above card, which features a rockhopper penguin, had its 'premiere' as sample for Crafty Stamps and Stampers Grove at yesterday's Sincerely Yours show in Edinburgh. I was tempted to add a few more layers. But I am conscious that not everybody wants to create cards influenced by Sue Wilson's style, so I opted for a slightly simplified layout to show that this is also possible with her dies.

Product list:
* Crafty Stamps image 'Rockhopper' (AN143B)
* Sue Wilson decorative frames dies from the Italian collection
* Sue Wilson corner, border and tag die set from the Italian collection
* 15cm square white linen textured cardstock by Southfield
* Foundations card in 'Periwinkle'
* White linen textured cardstock by Southfield
* Neenah card
* Wooden shapes
* Household string
* Decorative pins
* Adhesive pearls
* Black Memento ink pad
* ProMarkers
* Adhesive
* Die-cutting machine
* Toolbox essentials

Creations in 'Kraft' with Fun Fair Dies

Fun Fair - Where's the Duck?

What happened to spring? Today was just another chilly, dull and wet day here. I even had to put the heating on for a while, as the house had cooled out so much.

Today I would like two cards with you for which I combined the new Fun Fair collection by Helz Cuppleditch and Trimcraft with kraft cardstock. I really like the combination of vibrant colours, which bring  bit of sunshine into a day with such dire weather, with material in a natural and more neutral tone.

Fun Fair - Fun of the Fair

I have again prepared product lists and step-by-step instructions for both projects.They are again in my Trimcraft gallery, and you can access them by clicking onto the links below the images.

And in case anybody is wondering, the square and rectangular dies that I used for the second card are from layering die-sets by Tonic Studios.

New First Edition Paper Pad

My second blog post this weekend is dedicated to the brand-new First Edition paper pad 'It's a Boy!'. The pad contains not only papers for male new arrivals, but also some that are suitable for a first birthday. The floral and bird papers could also be used for completely different occasions.

This new pad even contains a sheet of stickers. which is perfect for beginners, cards that have to mad in a hurry or for those days when the desired die or stamp just seems to hide in a secret corner. The pad also come swith some sheets full of tags, which can be cut out, and three sheets of a gorgeous patchwork-style paper. It can take quite a while to create the beautiful patchwork effects, so this is a welcome shortcut.

 You can find product lists and step-by-step instructions for all projects featured here in my Trimcraft gallery. But here are also a few more details relating to the dies for all those die addicts amongst you (and yes, I am definitely one of those as well ;) ...).

* Decorative dies by Sue Wilson
* Baby carriage die by Memory Box
* Sentiment die by Cheery Lynn
* Alphabet die set by Britannia Dies
* Baby rattle die by Marianne Design

Animal Kingdom

This is already the end of another busy week - and thankfully the weekend. A training course on Thursday was also a good reminder that I really need to share some projects from the last days with you ...

Let's start with a post dedicated to the new animal stamps by Crafty Stamps. For these two cards I opted deliberately for a more tone-in-tone plus black approach. The beautiful animal images deserve to be the stars of the cards.

The components for the puffin card are:

* Crafty Stamps puffin rubber stamp (AN141F)
* White 15cm square linen textured card blank by Southfield
* Black textured cardstock
* Foundations cardstock in peach
* Neenah card
* Circle dies
* Sue Wilson die sets Basic Frames Set A and Napa Valley from the Californian Collection (I prepared two of the shapes, cut them in half and aligned them with the edges of the card blank)
* Sue Wilson die sets Faux Quilled Blooms and Classic Rose from the Finishing Touches Collection
* Black adhesive pearls
* Black Memento ink pad
* ProMarkers
* Adhesive
* Die-cutting machine
* Toolbox basics

For the zebra card I used:

* Crafty Stamps zebra rubber stamp (AN157M)
* White 15cm square linen textured card blank by Southfield
* Black and grey textured cardstock
* Neenah card
* Sue Wilson corner, border and tag die set from the Spanish collection
* Leaf embossing folder by Crafts-Too
* Black Memento ink pad
* Letraset fineliner 0.1
* Alcohol markers
* Adhesive
* Die-cutting machine
* Toolbox basics

The Edinburgh craft shop 'Stampers Grove' is the home of Crafty Stamps. The stamps are availabe online, in the shop and also at the Sincerely Yours show at the Royal Highland Centre in Ingliston (Edinburgh) on 25 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.

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.

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