Celebrate!

Hello everyone!

Its Ria here again for a birthday card tutorial.

I used mostly stamping, some coloring, a little bit of fussy cutting and just full fun playing with colors.

Here's a quick look of the items I used on this project

 I started off with stamping the cupcake in plain white cardstock, then another to two different patterned papers. The plain cardstock will be the base later for my cut patterned papers.

I then fussy cut the cupcake topping and paper that I will assembly later.

For my sentiment, I made a custom one using Sarah's Outline Alpha stamps. I stamped it in a watercolor paper using waterproof ink.

Here's the complete sentiment that I colored using watercolor. You can use other coloring medium that you may have. I just wanted to play with watercoloring today :) I put a based yellow color then later added light shade of green, then darker green.

For the green background paper, I stamped it with the texture background stamp and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. I used a die cut to cut this green paper with stitching detail on it.

I then moved to stamped my card base using the star in Jaine's Cupcake stamp set using the Pool and Lime ink pad colors.

As the stamped area being seen later will be the sides only and on the slant cut piece, I stamped only the areas being shown around the base.

So here are the pieces I have so far..

I assembled the card and added some clear sparkling sequins for some texture and bling :)

And here's the full card

So fun! That's it for now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Until then.


Supplies used:

• Outline Alpha stamps 
• Special Edition Stamps - Cupcake by Jaine Drake
• Bookprint Background - Texture stamps
• Sarah Hurley papers
• Watercolor set
• Ranger Black ink, Sequins
• Clear embossing powder

Canvas Tag

Hi everyone,

It is Nicole here again with a fun project using a scrap of canvas to make a fun tag using tone on tone stamping.

I started with some canvas that is actually designed to be printed on but you could use any type of canvas you have for this step. I die cut it into a tag shape but you coould hand cut it too if you don't have a die. I also cut a kraft tag as you will need something to reinforce the canvas tag.

I sprayed the canvas using turquoise mist and added in some white in places to tone it down and give a nice splotchy effect. Make sure to protect your work surface when doing this step!

 I then took the open hexagon from the Sarah Hurley Tickets and Labels stamp set and stamped in peacock feathers distress ink onto my canvas tag once it was dry. The peacock feathers gives a nice tone on tone effect. I repeat stamped to create a pattern.

 After a few rows I stamped the congratulations from the Sentiments Stamp set in vintage photo distress ink. I then kept on stamping the pattern.

 I took the solid hexagon and stamped in some of the solid hexes in a few random spots....

 I then distressed up the edges of the canvas tag.

I inked up the edges of the tag and then stapled it to the kraft tag for support.I added a kraft tag reinforcer too.

 I added a little bit extra to the sentiment using some of the little words from one of Sarah's kits (Curio)

 The turquoise colour of peacock feathers is hard to photo true to colour! But you can see the completed tag below, a bit off colour. I kept it really simple as I wanted the stamping to really be the focus!

I hope you enjoyed and thanks for stopping by today!

Bookmark - what's a bookmark?

It sounds rather dramatic but soon these little things will become totally redundant. Bookmarks, that's what I'm referring to. As more and more of us read everything from books to the newspaper on our e-readers and tablets, the humble bookmard will become a thing of the past. Just think a whole new generation of people growing up having never used one.

Well I want to put that right and as this new trend for filofaxes and agenda's is taking off, why not make book marks for them?

I stamped the girly from Charm Street Cuties Flower Girl stamp set onto watercolour card with a waterproof ink.

I stamped her a second time on a post-it note and just cut around the head so I could stamp the bunting behind her.

Not content to stop there, I stamped the bunting on a post-it and cut around the right hand end stamping the cloud.

Then guess what? Yes I stamped that too on a post-it and masked it off so I could stamp a second cloud.

With all the masks taken away this is what she looked like.

Now for the colour. I chose to add watercolour paints to her just because I love the look so much.

I trimmed it into a bookmark size and added the word Smile with alpha stickers.

To finish off, I backed it with a piece of card to neaten the back and add a border then ran it through a laminating machine. I rounded the corners to make them a bit more friendly and less sharp and added a grommet and ribbon at the top.

I love it in my agenda and it's guaranteed to make me smile each time I open my page.

Take care and keep the bookmark alive,

Jaine x

Crafting on a Budget - Sew, it's Mother's Day soon!

Hi there, thanks for joining me (Claire.N)

To continue my little series, Crafting on  Budget, I have created a little card perfect for Mothers Day, that is coming up for us very soon here in the UK.

As in previous posts (the links are here and here), I have used all  supplies i have recommended, and also as previously promised I have included a new set of stamps, Sarah's Zendoodle Fashion Stamps.

Here you can see the materials I have used, again it is a great way to use up the small scraps that may be left on your desk, along with any lengths of ribbon/lace/sequins etc., and its great to get so much dimension and texture on a card.

 Because this is a sewing themed card, it would also be great to use buttons to accent the card too.  The strip of tape measure I have used here is cut from some of Sarah Hurley's design papers, but how about this for an idea....how about using a real tape measure, the little mini ones you get from Christmas crackers (and hang about for ages...in our house anyway!) are absolutely ideal, and add to the authenticity of the theme.

We would love to hear if you are finding these themed posts useful....perhaps you have some papers or embellishments for an absolute age and you can't figure out how to use them? Drop us a note and we'll see if we can help you.

In the mean time, head on over to Nicole's post (link here) from the other day. Nicole is a whizz at coming up with fabulous and inventive ways to use up those odds and ends that are laying about.....I love reading about what she does.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, see you again soon x

Filofax Fun!

Hello and welcome to our blog,

 which is bursting with inspiration from myself and my very talented teamies. 

I'm sure you will finding something to suit your crafting style or perhaps 

you are on the look out for something new to try.

It's my (Clare) turn today to post and this week I decided to share my Filofax pages. As much as I love the bright pink patent cover it looks a bit blah inside or perhaps that the crafter in me...what do you think?

It's a really quick and fun project which I loved doing, so looking forward to filling the other pages.

This week I choose images from a range of Sarah's stamp sets, some bright pens for the writing and added some colouring with Promarkers. I should warn you, the colour does bleed through the back but nothing you can't hide with some stickers or journalling cards. Or perhaps you could use pencils instead.

I think it's show's how versatile Sarah's stamps can be and you don't have to be a crafter either, just a mad stationery girl or maybe that's just me lol

There's no step by step as it's pretty self explanatory, however if you have any questions or perhaps you'd like to leave some feedback, then please feel free to comment below.

 You can also share your filofax projects using Sarah's products with us,
again by posting in the comment below.

 here's a little close up

Here's a list of Sarah's products I used.

Think of you - Charm Street Cuties stamp set

Today stamp set

Calendar stamp set

A Few Of My Favourite Things - stamps from various kits

I hope you have been inspired to have a go altering your planner.

Thanks for stopping by

Clare x

Sausage Dog Keyring

Good morning, it's Susie here and I decided I needed some sewing time!

So, I looked out Sarah's Sausage Dog pattern and some scrap denim.  Sarah's kit comes with everything you need to make your little doggy, including felt, which is nice and easy to cut and sew........but I love denim and thought I'd give it a go with that.

I pinned and cut the pattern pieces as normal, although I cut extra ear pieces from some lovely fat quarters I'd bought a while ago to contrast with the denim.  Originally, I'd intended to make a very neatly finished doggy - like the ears - all sewn right sides together and turned out the right way.

BUT, denim really needs to be machine sewn, rather than handsewn (in my opinion) and this was proving a step too far for my skills!  So, I gave it a go sewing it right sides outward and tried to make my piece with a ruffer (get it?!!) finish........really quite a challenge for someone like me!

Having already sewn the ears neatly, when adding them to the denim dog body, they ended up shorter than the original pattern, so it resembles a rather different breed of dog, but hopefully Sarah won't mind that her lovely sausage dog has shorter ears!  Here's what he looks like in felt:

I also omitted the tummy part of the pattern so that my doggy would be slightly flatter, as I wanted to use it as a keyring.  I added 2 sequins and beads for eyes and gave my dog a collar and lead in order to attach my keyring.  This was made with a strip of my material, which was sewn, although ribbon would have been quicker.

My daughter, who also loves denim, would love one for herself, so I will try to remember to take photos of my process when I make hers, and post fuller instructions, or an edit to this post.  I'm also going to have a go at applique-ing the sausage dog to something.....a cushion, a bag, who knows?!

Have any of you come up with additional applications for your cute sausage dog pattern?

Neon Zendoodle Card.

Hello, and Happy St Davids Day! Who can believe it is the 1st of March already? It's Carol here today sharing a card that is a little bit different from my usual makes.

I love Sarah's Zendoodle range for the Silhouette and was delighted when the range of stamps was released, even more so with the set of Zendoodle Borders & Bits Stamps. They are great for making your own backgrounds as they have lots of different sized circles, hexagons and 2 borders.  I recently visited my local craft shop and totally fell in love with neon embossing powders...who wouldn't? and knew I had to use the two together!

I actually got so excited making it, I forgot to take my usual step by step pictures so will do a few wee bullet points.

1. Cut a piece of black card to fit onto a C6 card and wipe it with an anti-static bag.

2.  Ink up the Zendoodle Circles with Perfect Medium Ink then sprinkle over your embossing powder, I did each colour separately.

3.  On a separate piece of black card make some extra neon circles to cut out and pop onto 3d foam to give your card some dimension.

4. Use the "Woohoo" from the Everyday Saying Stamps and ink up with the Perfect Medium and sprinkle with embossing powder. I made a custom mix from all 4 colours.

5.  Stick your black layer onto your card, punch out your sentiments and there you have it! A neon zendoodle card!

Ingredients

Sarah Hurley Zendoodle Borders & Bits Stamp Set

Sarah Hurley Everyday Sayings Stamp Set

3 in 1 Advanced Craft Glue

Perfect Medium Ink Pad

Embossing powders

Stampin Up Punches

Stix2 3D Foam

Thanks for popping by today, I hope you like the card. Remember my lovely teamies will be posting new projects regularly using Sarah's gorgeous products.  See you all again soon, Carol xx