Bits and Pieces 4 - Unisex Birthday Cards

Every now and again I feel that I need to address the huge pile of scraps that I have in my drawer and last weekend I had that urge again.

This is the packet that I dug out of my drawer, along with some bright plain card stock scraps and a couple of small pieces of patterned paper.

I swear that octopus has been taunting me for months, now I have a new printer I can print out a punny sentiment and finally say goodbye to it. Unfortunately it didn't make the cut in this round, maybe next time, although I need to learn when to put something in the bin and move on.

I managed to make quite a few cards, although for this post I will focus on some birthday cards, that on reflection would be suitable for both a boy or a girl, finally, I need to build up my stock pile. All

I used the letters from another scraps project and popped up the stars on foam tape, I love the star washi tape, more on that in another post.

 Again, my favourite foam tape, the small striped embellishment was a happy accident when I trimmed the paper.

I cut the frame with my silhouette using the rectangle tool and welded the word happy to the bottom of the frame, not an original idea I grant you, but I was pleased I managed to make it on my own ;)

I was left with these pieces and knew I could make just one more card.

I added a small glassine bag and used decorative scissors on the edge, filled it with some confetti and taped it to the card with some washi tape, a couple of stars, a ticket and a bit of stitching and it was done!

It feels so good to create more than one card at a time, I have another 4 cards to share from the same scraps bag, I'll be back with that on Thursday.

Thanks for reading,

Ang.

52 Cards challenge 2014 - Week 2

I'm following along with the 52 Cards Challenge hosted over on Nat's blog Kool Kitty Musings.

Here is the colour palette for this week

and this is what I came up with.

 Card stock - Bazzill, patterned paper and die cut - My Minds Eye, 

twine - American Crafts, washi tape - Hema.

Card stock - Bazzill. Patterned paper - Close Knit, Crate Paper, button

card - October Afternoon. Stamps and Dies - PTI. Twine - American

Crafts. Button - Jenni Bowlin. Flowers - Dainty Paperie.

I then promptly forgot i made the first one and made this. I chose the paper first and tried to work from there, for some reason it doesn't work for me, it just feels like it's missing something. Well, whatever it is, at least I have 2 cards finished!

Have a great weekend.
Ang

52 Christmas Crackers 2014 - Week 1

I managed to send a grand total of 5 Christmas cards in 2013, a shameful turnout for a card maker! This year I have decided to join in with 52 Christmas Crackers hosted by Nat over at her blog Kool Kitty Musings, it's a challenge to make a Christmas card a week following the prompts and by the time December comes around you will have a fantastic array to choose from.

This week's prompt is to use something new and it was the perfect excuse to break out my new Wplus9 Merry and Bright stamps and dies.

Card stock-Bazzill, Merry and Bright stamps and dies-Wplus9, ink-Memento,

vellum-Making Memories, herringbone embossing folder-Provocraft, glitter 

card-Home Bargains, embossing powder-Stewart Superior.

I'm in love with purple at the moment, especially rich dark purples like the Bazzill cardshoppe card stock I used on this card. I had fun die cutting 2 pieces of acetate and sandwiching them together to make the hurricane lantern, originally I had sprinkled a ton of stickles and glitter at the bottom of the jar to look like snow but it looked like a lump of frog spawn, ick! I cleaned them off and cut a snow drift from white glitter card and it looks much nicer.

                                     Card stock-Bazzill, Merry and Bright stamps and dies-Wplus9, ink-Memento, 

                             vellum-Making Memories, glitter card- DCWV, embossing powder-Stewart Superior.

I went with a more traditional colour scheme on this one, i really felt like it was lacking something so i added some washi tape to help balance it out, looking at it now i think i will also a couple of wraps of bakers twine at the bottom of the washi too.

It feels good to have 2 Christmas cards made already! Fortuitously, they both fit in with the current challenge over at Daring Cardmakers - This Little Light of Mine, double bonus!

Hope you have had a wonderful start to 2014.

Ang

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge CFC124: Happy New Year!

Here are the details for the last CAS-ual Fridays challenge for 2013! 

CFC124: Let's see your Clean And Simple New Years projects!

Since the New Year starts with a countdown, lets count the minutes it takes to complete your project.

OPTIONAL: If you can do it in 10 minutes or less, you can play at 10 Minute Craft Dash too!

This is the card that I had in mind when I originally read the challenge, especially the ten minute part. I am a notoriously slow crafter sometimes, so the challenge of making a card in 10 minutes can seem daunting, but this came together so quickly. I die cut my cardstock using my silhouette as I knew I wanted the gold glitter to show through, but I also wanted to keep in clean and simple. I mounted the die cut panel with foam tape, along with the small middles to the letters and it was done. My time came out at 8.49!

I was then left with all the die cut letters and another piece of gold glitter card, so this is what I did and it took a lot more than 10 minutes!

 I individually pierced the tops of most of the letters, stuck on small foam pads and strung them with gold thread, finishing it off with a sequin at each end. I then took the pad off each letter and individually placed them one by one to get the right banner shape. I glued the threads to the inside of the card and it was finished!

Edited 01/01/14 - At the suggestion of Kimberly Wiener I am going to be bold and also enter these 2 cards into the CASology Cue Card - Party challenge, get me, 2 challenges at once ;)

Happy New Year and thanks for stopping by :)
Ang

Papertrey Ink Make It Monday #145: 2013 A la Carte

I enjoy learning new techniques and there has been some fabulous ones featured during Make It Monday's on Papertrey Ink. At the end of the year they compile all of the posts in one and you can pick your favorite technique, this year I combined two, Make It Monday #113: Perfect Pearls and Make It Monday #144: Heat Embossing on Vellum.

Cardstock-Bazzill Cardshoppe. Vellum-Making Memories, Stamp Set-Papertrey Ink, 

Medium-Perfect Pearls, Ranger. Adhesive-Invisi-Dots for Vellum, Glue Dots International.

I stamped the medallions using watermark ink onto turquoise vellum and liberally added perfect pearls in turquoise, berry twist and forever purple then embossed the sentiment with gold embossing powder. Unfortunately when I stitched it to the base if rubbed some of the pearls off the edges but it's not too noticeable.

What about the picture quality, huh? it's a big improvement on my usual offering. I was a lucky girl and Santa bought me some lights to go along with the little light cube I got a couple of years ago, I know I have quite a way to go but I was relieved that I am able to show almost true to life colours in my pictures at last :)

Thanks for stopping by, 

Ang :)

Papertrey Ink December 2013 Blog Hop

For the final blog hop of the year, this month's theme at Papertrey Ink is Tied Up With String. I thought I would share this card that I have kinda fallen in love with, once all the pieces are die cut it's relatively quick to pull together.

Cardstock - Dots and Spots, Echo Park. Stamps and dies - Papertrey Ink. Twine - Jillybean Soup.

This has to be my favourite alphabet set, although I love my silhouette and the freedom it gives i'm still a die hard die girl. The cloud die is new to me and I have such a soft spot for the little baby clothes, look at those adorable socks!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and are enjoying a relaxing Boxing Day :)

Ang x

Christmas Wrapping

I will confess that I made these last minute last Christmas and they helped get me out of a pickle! I had been asked to make some small boxes for some ornaments and these came together so quickly using my silhouette, this cut file and Waltzingmouse Stamps Nordic Winter.

I also had a gift card that I wanted to dress up. I used this cut file for the envelope.

 and this cut file for the cute snowman.

I used my promarkers to add some detail to make the snowman pop a little more, a doily, some Doodlebug alphabet stickers and some bits and pieces left over from making holiday notebooks.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2014!

Ang x

Bits and Pieces 3

I have a goal to use up all of the scraps that I have, but I just seem to make more! With that in mind I have set myself a 'Bits and Pieces' challenge to try to use up all the scraps created when making a project. You can see my first 2 posts here and here.

I recently made some love cupcakes to take to work for my fellow co-workers and used my Silhouette to cut out all of the hearts for the toppers that I needed.

I was left with two 8 x 11.5 sheets of heart negatives, I paired this with a sheet of my favourite Crate Paper floral - Emma's Shop, Fabrics and managed to come up with 6 cards that came together really easily.

This is the card I made that created the 'scraps'

It came together whilst playing around with some embellishments on my desk, I really like it, I should have photographed it against a darker background so you could see the edge scallops better. The die cut sentiment is by My Minds Eye.

The following cards were all made using the heart die cut and floral paper scraps. I also used my new Wplus9 basic banners stamp set and die for the sentiment

Shhh, you didn't see the wonky stamping, Ok?

I added some touches of glitter paper, washi tape and some simple embellishments and had fun with it, I am also pleased that I have filled up my stash of birthday cards!

Now, if only I could bring myself to throw away the pieces smaller that 4x4 inches I would really make a dent in the pile!

Have a great weekend.
Ang.

PS - You can also see how I created this wreath using scraps no larger than 3x3.

Moxie Fab Thank You Blog Hop

If you are a papercrafter, there is no doubt that you will have heard of the wonderful Cath Edvalson, Trends Editor at Paper Crafts Magazine. Sadly, Cath has announced that she will be leaving Paper Crafts for pastures new. To thank Cath for all her hard work and inspiration, some lovely ladies have put together a *ginormous* blog hop as a way for paper crafters around the world to share their thanks and love for Cath by producing a card, either to send to Cath or to celebrate all things Moxie Fab, you can see the blog hop post here.

I have been an avid reader of the Moxie Fab World blog for a long time and will be sad to not share the wonderful prompts and inspiration each week. Here is my card

I decided to work with my current favourite stamping set (Fresh Cut Florals, Wplus9) and I love how it turned out, I based it on my love of blue delft porcelain. I don't have too many good luck sentiments but I love the 'have a lovely day' sentiment which can be used for so many different occasions and I thought it was just perfect for this card.

I have had the perforated paper for a few years, and I like how it added texture to the background, whilst still being flat and easy for posting. I raised some of the flowers on foam pads for interest and kept the rest of the card very clean and simple. Now to pop it in the post so it can wing it's way to Cath via the lovely Teri Anderson.

If you have just stopped by on your way around the hop, you may have come from the lovely;

Latisha Yoast

up next on your whistle stop tour is the ever so talented;

Danielle Flanders

you can use the inlinkz list below to see all of the (nearly 300!) blog hop participants. Thank you so much for stopping by and if you would like to make a card to share with Cath, why not add one to this post.

Thank you Cath for 8 1/2 years of inspiration and encouragement for crafters eveywhere! Wishing you lots of luck, sunshine and rainbows!
Ang x

Halloween Treat Bags

Since I have started working in an office there are lots of opportunities to make sweet treats for my colleagues. I started with these bags this Valentines Day and had a last minute idea to make Halloween treat bags, it started out as fun, but by 2.30am I was definitely flagging!

 I die cut the pumpkins and the gravestones using my silhouette (I started out writing RIP on the stones but chose to go with a more cheerier 'Boo!') but together it just wasn't enough and I was running out of time. I had to pop to the local supermarket and lo and behold I found a set of 50 witches for 99p, originally they make up a game much like an Easter egg hunt, but you have to find the witch with orange stars on her dress, when dressed up together with the other two die cuts they made a 'bewitching' *groan* label.

I used Wilton clear party bags, filled them with various sweeties and tied them with some tinsel or curling ribbon. The wraps around the centre were from the same supermarket as the witches and were meant to make paper chains. I wish I had picked up more because I made a lot more bags than originally planned!

Here they are ready to go in my basket. I wish I had used a more halloweeny fabric though.

 I needed a quick way to adhere so many labels together and it had to be quick drying glue, my hot glue gun wasn't the greatest idea so I went with my Tiny Attacher, it didn't detract from the total look, besides, I don't think the recipients were looking that closely ;)

I overfilled one bag for my friend's little boy and took a bit more time with his tag, I backed the pumpkin with black card stock, die cut and glittered his name, used the 'fancy' witch from the pack of witches and finished her off with some oogly googly eyes.

I was so pleased to hear that it brightened so many people's day, however I think I may have to put a bit more planning into it if I am going to make some for Christmas!

Hope you had a fun, safe Halloween,
Ang

The clocks have gone back...

and that spells disaster when photographing my cards. It's dark when I leave for work in the morning and it's dark when I get home so I am reduced to taking pictures with a daylight lamp, angle poise lamp and overhead light. Now, most people can make that combination work, me? I am so technically challenged that I just can't get it right. I have updated my blog hop post here with *marginally* better photos than before, however I need to figure out how to improve the quality of my photographs in winter!

Here are a couple of cards that I made recently for a submission call that didn't make the grade!

Lots of gold glitter (which got everywhere!) and my newest favourite sentiment set, Scrolling Script along with the Mat Stack 7 die. I had some left over pleated crepe ribbon from another project which I added for a bit of dimension, I like to think that this might be suitable for an older person's birthday.

I went simple with this card, adding texture with the polka dot embossing folder. I die cut an aperture in the card with Mat Stack 7 dies and mounted the sentiment on acetate to give it a floating look. I like how it looks like a silver ring with a big diamond, if I swap out the sentiment it might be nice for an engagement card.

On a later shift all this week which wreaks havoc with my crafting time, I hope to get started on some more Christmas projects this week.

Ang.

October 2013 Papertrey Blog Hop - Tag It Challenge

Edited 28th October.
I have replaced the old photos with marginally better quality ones, winter time light is my kryptonite!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I apologise for the truly horrendous quality photo's, it's 1am and I have only just finished my tags for the Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop. I will take better quality pictures in the morning. In the meantime, here is what I came up with.

This one is my favourite, I just love candy canes, I would love to buy more stamps sets of that theme as I really don't own that many Christmas stamp sets.

I liked how the holiday words look when stamped in this way, I am going to try this in a traditional colour scheme and then make another in pink, aqua and purple. Who doesn't love jingle bells?

I punched these leaves with my Martha Stewart punch ages ago from all my scraps and have been waiting for just the right project. I need to use seed beads on projects more often as I have thousands of them.

I really like the Snowflake Flurries stamp set and dies, they aren't too 'christmassy' and can even be used on birthday cards.

Mr Snowman didn't quite come out how I wanted, there is too much white space for my liking.

At least it means I have 5 pretty tags to use when wrapping gifts and they will add that extra special touch.

Thanks for looking,
Ang.

The First of the Year

I have been putting off the dreaded 'c' word for some time, but I have finally decided to take the plunge and make my first Christmas card of 2013. I have been admiring the new Wplus9 Merry and Bright stamp set, a Christmas companion to Fresh Cut Florals, and decided that I would try and recreate my own festive card using Fresh Cut Florals and here is the result.

The card base is Papertrey Ink ripe avocado, I die cut and embossed a panel of white card and sewed it to the base, stamped some die cut berries and leaves using pure poppy, ripe avocado and simply chartreuse and adhered them in a circle using foam pads. The small doily is by My Favourite Things and the sentiment is from PTI Tag It's #8. I had fun making the wreath hanger and bow from washi tape. I was slow to pick up on the washi tape craze but find myself using it more and more, I'm worried that I will amass a large collection as I have almost 20 rolls already (That's nothing, have you seen this?)

Well, I'm going back to making some holiday tags for the PTI blog hop :)
Ang x

A Note of Thanks

I really do love Fresh Cut Florals stamps and dies from Wplus9, I think it may even be in my top 3 of all time. Unfortunately for you, it means you'll be seeing it more than a few times here over the next few months and for that I am sorry*

I love the starkness of black and grey paired with bright florals, and I already had the background strips cut so it was pretty easy to pull together.

I had enough stamped flowers and strips left over to make a coordinating tag too. I am currently trying to make a dent in my pile of 'scraps' so every time I make a card I have to use up all the remaining leftovers on another card or tag before I allow myself to move on. I think I made 6 in this manner over the weekend but I'll share them in another post.

Anywho, Toodle-oo
Ang x

*I'm sorry i'm not sorry.

A Tale Of Two Mum's

I know, silly title, but it's the best I can come up with this Sunday afternoon! September was a busy month for birthdays, my sweet nephew, my mother-in-law and my lovely, wonderful Mum.

This was a card that I just kept adding to, sometimes I need to learn when to say stop! I had a play with my new fresh cut florals stamp set and dies from Wplus9, they are so beautiful and so much fun to play with.

This is the card that I made for my mother-in-law

Florals again, quite predictable from me, this time I used Cutting Garden stamps and lots of patience cutting them all out :)

Thanks for looking,
Ang x

Oh bother!

Where does the time go? Just popping in with a quick card.....ha! this card was anything but quick!

I found that I had a number of iridescent products twinkling at me in my craft room so I had to put them all together on this card for my niece's 12th birthday. I started with a rectangle of iridescent card which I then (carefully mind!) covered with sequins, I then wrapped around some ribbon and iridescent film and topped it with a die cut circle and glittery American Crafts thickers. I hope she likes it :)

One more day until the weekend!
Ang