XOXO

Happy Saturday!

Its Ria here today.

I love clean and simple cards. What makes me more happy is that even with minimal supplies, you can create simple yet will hopefully makes someone happy too to receive.

And here's my basic supply.. not in photo are random patterned papers from Sarah's kits.
Note that you can use whatever you have on hand.

I stamped the heart in two colors, alternatively stamping the two colors on white cardstock.
I want the stamped heart as my focal point so I chose brighter colors of ink than my paper colors.

For my background, I embossed them using my embossing folder while my patterned papers were die cut with square and rectangle shapes.

A closer look at my card today..

You can make use those small stamp shapes in your stamp sets to decorate a simple cut shape. It would also be great  to create your own background.

For now, I used stamping to highlight the heart stamp as my main card design.

And this is the full card

Until then!

Supplies used:

Sentiments stamp set
Ink pads
Embossing folder
Sarah Hurley patterned papers

Masculine Cards

Hi everyone,

It is Nicole here today with a project to share that was made for Fathers Day. It could however be easily adapted for any man in your life, for a birthday, anniversary, or just to say hi! I know a lot of people find cards for men tricky, but I have to say I rather enjoy making them. I enjoy the break from all the girly stuff!

For this project I started with the Instant Photo Frames by Sarah that you can find in the Silhouette store. I cut them from white card on my Silhouette cutting machine.

 I took out the inserts and covered them in the Rose Gold washi tape from the Sarah Hurley store.

 I then placed these inserts back into the frames and kept them in place with tape on the back. To decorate them I cut shapes on the Silhouette from a yellow gold card. On these I stamped words from the Sarah Hurley Curio stamp set. This stamp set is fantastic for these types of inspiring words and it was just perfect for on my little embellishments to really finish them off.

 I cut a mat of brown card stock for my card and edged it with the Woodgrain washi tape again from the Sarah Hurley store. This gave nice detail to the card, rather than plain brown.

 I matted some Sarah Hurley paper over this brown card. This paper has a really fun horse shoe pattern on it.

I adhered this to a card base. I then started to lay out my photo frames on this. I used the washi tape to mark out where I wanted the words for on my card too.

 You can see here why I did this. I cut the words from white card, and when placed directly on the patterned paper, they did not stand out very well.

 However when the word is placed over the washi tape it stands out nicely from the patterned paper.

 You can see the completed card here. The sentiment was cut on the Silhouette. I love how the card is actually quite simple but looks quite involved.

I hope you enjoyed this little process of how I created this card. You could use dies, or just a craft knife to recreate this quite easily also. 

A Bookmark for (Gran)Dad

Good morning, it’s Susie here and I’ve been having a bit of fun with my children creating a bookmark to give to my dad for Father’s Day.  

We decided that we liked Sid the Robot best for our bookmark and started by stamping him at the bottom of a piece of white card 6cm wide by 23.5cm long.

Another robot was stamped at the the other end of the strip so that they were facing different directions.  This means that they will both be upright when the bookmark is complete.

Euan and Louise love colouring and generally make a really good job, so I left them to it and got on with the rest of it.

We chose some double sided  patterned card from one of the A Few of My Favourite Things packs and cut it into a strip 7.5cm wide by 25cm long and rounded each corner. 

The centre was scored to make folding easier and I attached the magnets with double sided tape at each end of the patterned side.   The magnets are optional, but I like the idea of a bookmark that cannot fall out of the book! My magnets were recycled from extremely cheap and horrible bookmarks I bought ages ago, but you can buy magnetic strips or dots from craft stores.

When Euan and Louise had completed their colouring, Euan round the corners of the strip of robots. 

We also scored the centre to make folding easier (or thinner card can just be folded in half) and punched a small hole at 3cm on the score line.  If you would rather not have a ribbon tassle, you do not need to punch the hole.

I like a ribbon, or tassle to make my bookmark obvious when it's in my book, so we selected some co-ordinating 5mm ribbon and put it through the hole, securing it with tape on the wrong side of our robot strip.

We added glue to one half of our robot strip and stuck it to our coloured strip by lining up the folds of each strip and pressing the surfaces firmly together.  We then added glue to the other half and stuck securely.

As a finishing touch, we added some Silver and Stardust Stickles to our robots.

 My dad will love his magnetic bookmark, which has been created by both grandchildren and daughter with a lot of love and fun!

Additional Ideas:

You could add a polyshrink Sid the Robot charm to your ribbon like the charms I made for my Doodle Home Keyring.

A co-ordinating card, like Clare's would look great with it.

And I LOVE the idea of Jaine's Promise Cards!

Items Used:

Sid the Robot stamp set

Card from A Few of My Favourite Things

White card

Colouring pens / pencils

Glue

Stickles

Ribbon

Magnets

Be Amazing card

Hello everyone!

Its Ria here today.

There are new inks out in the market recently and what a better way than to try them out using one of my favorite stamp set from Sarah.

I used the different butterflies from Zen Doodle Nature stamp set to create a full background design. I randomly stamped the three butterfly designs using two types of ombre inks.

In the small spaces I added small bubble stamp to fill in the gaps.

For my sentiment, I gold embossed the Be Amazing stamp in vellum which you can see here

And this is the full card

This is it for today and I hope you have an amazing weekend! :)


Supplies used:
Zen Doodle Nature Stamp set
Be Amazing Girl Stamp set
Gold Stripe Washi tape
Ombre ink stamp pads 

Happy Fathers Day with Sid The Robot

Hello how are you?

I'm (Clare) back today with a card for Fathers Day.....yes I'm that organised lol My last post was about creating your own calendar, have you made yours? Design team members Jaine and Claire are joining in the fun too so please look out for their projects here too!

So back to todays Fathers Day project where I'm using my Sid The Robot  stamp set from The Special Editions Range. I love all my stamps but I will confess I do have a rather large soft spot for my robot stamps as they were my first ever stamps to be released in 2013. 

It was my two boys that inspired me to design these robots. Lewis my youngest who is 6 is often seen with my robot stamps whether it be making handmade birthday cards for his friends birthdays or sometimes he just wants to stamp and colour which is ok too!

Sid The Robot

*****

Fathers Day Card

Time now for some step by step instructions.......

1 - Take a 6 x 6 inch square card blank and lightly cover the front using a distress ink pad (spiced marmalade) and a blending tool.

2 - Add some patterns with some stencils, marmalade distress ink and tuxedo black dew drop Memento ink pad. 

3 - Using a fine liner outline some of the stencils. 

4 - Next stamp some screw head images from the Sid The Robot stamp set and some arrows from Sarah's Today   Again using spiced marmalade distress ink. 

Top Tip!! - To create the subtle look stamp first onto a scrap piece of card then your card front.

5 - Stamp Sid the Robot onto smooth white card and colour him in. I used several of the cool grey alcohol markers from ShinHan.

Top Tip - Should you have any imperfections when stamping you can tough up using a tuxedo black Memento pen

6 - Cut out the stamped image, add foam pads to the back to create depth then add to the card.

7 - The ring stain mark from the mini texures background stamp set was added at the top using tuxedo Dew Drop Ink pad.

8 - Next take a strip of silver washi tape, cut it in half horizontally before placing on the card.

9 - Finally add some 'family'

 and 'father' stickers.

*****

Once again the finished card.....

and a close up......

*****

Here's a list of products you can find in Sarah's shop

Sid the Robot stamp set - Clare Brown Special Edition Range

Mini Background Texture stamp - Sarah Hurley

Today stamp set - Sarah Hurley

Black Dew Drop Memento Ink - Tuxedo Black

Silver washi tape

you will also need the following

Distress ink, stencils, square card blanks, stickers

That's all from me today hope you stop by again soon!

Clare

P.s Still plenty of time to enter my giveaway!

Geat ahead for Fathers Day

Fathers Day is not far away and it pays to get ahead of yourself and start making beautiful and meaningful things so you're not caught out.

I've made a couple of little presents and a matching card all from the same preprepared background sheet and they're very easy to do too.

All you need is a sheet of watercolour paper, (I use 300gsm all the time). Spray it with two or three similar colours first then let it dry and spray a contrasting colour through a stencil.  To add a bit more to the background I stamped randomly with my Pebbles background stamp and you'll see I'm not using a block either. This adds to the randomness of the stamping.

 I was able to cut up enough to make these three projects with a bit left over for another day.

To finish the card I've stamped the seat from my In the Garden stamp set 
onto a piece of Kraft card, punched a hole and added a grommet. A bit of twine wrapped around the card was enough to make it look finished off but not too femine I thought.

For my second project, I turned a strip of background paper into a little notebook. The inside sheets are just cut from plain copy paper and held in place with the brad so they can be pulled out easily.

Again, I've used stamps from In The Garden  to decorate it as it could be used for Dad's garden notes.

My third project is another simple matchbook design but inside I've added a few glassine bags with a staple to add tags with little promises typed on them.

In the past my children have been very proud of the little promise tickets they've given as gifts. It means so much more than a shop bought present. Get them to write their own promises on the tags they'll be so happy to think up little things.

Have fun creating background sheets and see how many projects you can get out of it.

Jaine x

June Calendar page

We are racing through the months which is a little bit daunting but never the less I have to remind myself I am a month ahead with my calendar page.

Here we are at June already and June is my wedding anniversary month. As usual I've gone for the scrapbook layout style of documenting.

To create my page I've used some of my monthly kit club journaling cards which I'm so happy to say are coming back so check out the details of how to subscribe.

I hope you liked my calendar page.

Jaine x

Create a Calendar - June (Claire)

Hi!
I'm back with you today (Claire N) to share the next page of my calendar with you. I am onto June, and I have included a reminder for Father's Day in my design.

I havn't included step by step instructions, because today my thought process in this design sort of developed as I worked. I'm sure that many of you also have sat down at your desks without a clear idea of what to make. The best thing to do in these times is to reach for your favourite coloured papers, perhaps favourite stamp sets, and from there it will flow organically.

I have photographed how I started out, so I can talk you through a little of my thought process.

•  I knew I wanted to included the three smaller pieces of white card (to match previous months designs see LO's for february & march). 
• I knew I wanted to include elements from Sarah's Curio Stamp set, so I stamped them with Memento ink onto white card so that I could colour them with alcohol markers to match when I needed them.
• I had to incorporate the wording, so I stamped them using Sarah's Block Alpha stamps, again ready to cut out as required (You will notice there are two 'y' at the end of day. I restamped as the first wasn't a perfect image)

With the elements of my design listed, planned and laid out, I hope that can now see how my design came together. 

It is perfectly fine not know how your design will turn out when you initially sit down to create. There are days when you need to re arrange elements, move them about, and even discard and replace with new ones if necessary. These are the days that you can just sit, have fun and indulge yourself in all the time it takes for a creation to happen.

Enjoy, thanks for popping by today. 

Supplies used
Curio Stamp set
Block Alpha stamp set
Memento Black Ink
Sarah's Kit Club Papers

Stencils and Doodle Doll colouring fun!

Hi how are you today?

It's that time again when I get to share my calendar project, today I'm sharing my May layout. The calendar serves two purposes, the first is the storing of information such as deadlines, appointments and training etc as you would expect. The second purpose is that the design contains a gentle reminder which is relevant to me for that particular month. It can be a word, a quote or a picture, this month it's all about focus. You can read more about that and a blog hop I'm taking part in over on my blog.

If you would like to find out how I created this page or you want to have a go too, here are some step by step instructions with picture aids.

1 - Cut a piece of smooth white card stock 14cm (w) x 18cm (h) and using  tumbled glass distress inks and a blending tool gently cover the entire card creating a background.

2 - Using the same distress ink and some stencils add images and patterns.

3 - Next add some stamped images, here I used the crackle mini texture background stamp and a stamp from Sarah's A Few Of My Favourite Things kit. You'll be pleased to know more kits are coming soon, eeeeeep!!

To add some contrast gently rub some mowed lawn distress directly onto the page , this time  using a felt pad without the blending tool.

4 -  Next stamp the girl from the Dream A little Dream Doodle Doll stamp set using Tuxedo Black Memento ink and a medium acrylic clear block, onto smooth white cardstock. Colour in the image, here I used ShinHan alcohol colouring pens, they are amazing!!!

Then cut out remembering to leave a small border around the image. 

 5 - To add some dimension add some foam pads to the back of your cut out. In this instance I used some from Stix2.

6 - Using Tim Holtz label letters add the words focus and May.

7 - Next print off Sarah's free calendar template and using the calendar stamp set fill in the grids at the bottom of the page.

8 - Finally add the layout using double sided tape or glue of your choice.

Voila!!!

Pop by soon to see more inspiring projects from me and the design team.

Clare x

ps. I have a little give away if you would like to join in!

Thank You!

Hi All,

It is Nicole here today, with a fun shaker card made using a really fabulous cut file from Sarah Hurley in the Silhouette store.

I started by cutting this gorgeous Woodgrain Fancy Frame panel.

I sized it to be nearly the full size of my card which was 10.4cm by 14.4cm in this case. This is a very delicate cut file so you have to be slow and careful when removing it from the mat, the scraper tool definitely helps!

 Tip: When you remove the cut design from the sticky mat it can be quite tacky on the back still, which can be a nuisance at times as it sticks to everything and picks up every bit of fluff going. So I like to rub my anti static powder embossing buddy over the back of the file. This takes the stick off and means all the fluff and stray bits of paper etc don't stick to the back of it!

 I wanted to make this a shaker card so I made a pocket from some acetate, which you can just about see in the image below. I simply cut it to the width of my cut file and twice the length. I then scored and folded it in half and used adhesive on both sides to seal the sides, leaving the top open for the moment.

 I glued the woodgrain design on before adding the sequins in so that I could have a flat surface to work on. I simply added tiny dots of glossy accents on the back of the woodgrain and placed it carefully on the front of my acetate pocket.

I then added a thank you into the centre of the opening, also cut on the silhouette, in the same fashion. Then I filled it with lots of sequins and sealed the top.

I adhered some pink patterned Sarah Hurley paper to a card base to have a real pop in behind the woodgrain. I then glued my acetate pocket onto this.

 I left the card at this as I felt the cut file was dramatic enough, especially when backed with that fabulous paper, and all those sequins! It is a fun way of saying thank you to someone!