Papertrey Ink 7th Anniversary Celebration - Part 1

Papertrey Ink are currently celebrating their 7th anniversary with a number of contests where you can win gift cards to spend in store or even a year of free stamps! Today I am entering in the recipe card challenge and here is the first combination.

Card - Bazzill. Stamps, Dies and Ink - Papertrey Ink. Twine and Glitter

Paper- American Crafts.

*sigh* in my head it seemed like a good idea, on reflection it is poorly balanced with too much white space, I decided to try again with a different combination.

Card - Recollections, Papertrey Ink. Stamps, Die and Ink - Papertrey Ink.

And again, this is too flat and frankly blah. What can I say? I think my mojo has deserted me! Oh well, here's hoping the card I am working on now turns out better!

Ang.

52 Cards Challenge 2014 - Week 6

This week for 52 Cards, the challenge is to create a card where the vast majority of items on it are from the same collection, as Nat said, "it shouldn't be too hard, right?" At first i thought this would be a walk in the park, i have a number of collections where i have the coordinating embellishments and thought i would be able to put a card together in 10 minutes flat. Wrong, so very wrong.

Card - Bazzill. Paper and die cuts - The Girls Paperie (discontinued). Twine- 
American Crafts. "on this day, all about you" My Minds Eye. Die - PTI.

I have been hoarding this Girl's Paperie collection for a couple of years or more, I love the whole shabby chicness of it, however this was my second choice of paper. I had originally pulled out the Farmhouse collection by October Afternoon, but try as I might, I was not inspired and after a long evening I ended up shoving all of it in a box and throwing it in a drawer, as much as I love it, I think the 'farm/child' theme was a misguided buy by me :(

Once I moved on to the loveliness that is Paper Girl, this card was a breeze, I do like collage style cards but need to learn when to say enough is enough when it comes to adding embellishments.

It is a friend's birthday this week and I needed to whip up a card and gift wrap idea, fast! I can confidently say that this took less then 10 minutes but looks fab when all put together, bright and cheery.

The paper is from a huge stack of Making Memories paper that I bought on sale, and have barely even touched. I have decided to try and use the paper when making coordinating card/gift tags/gift wrap to use up as much of it as I can. The card was accented with some punched stars, glitter sentiment and glitter dots, I also wrapped the gift in the paper and used a Martha Stewart label for the tag and covered the envelope. Done!

I don't tend to get too personal on my blog, but I have been going through a tough time at the moment and am rarely able to venture outside so this has been a bit of a life line for me to 'talk' to other crafters. I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you for reading and for all the kind comments, they are very much appreciated.

Ang x

PS - After 45 minutes i gave up trying to get the text to display correctly, sorry!

CASE Study Challenge #176

I was inspired by both cards created by muse Donna Mikasa for this week's challenge over at CASE Study and followed the colour and design quite closely, hey, if it works, use it!

Card - Bazzill. Doily - Wilton. Wood banner - Studio Calico. Die - PTI.

Stamp - PTI. Washi Tape - Hema. Spray Ink - Dylusions.

I keep looking at it as it sits on my desk, it really conveys a party feeling, it just makes me smile!

Thanks for looking,

Ang

CASology Cue Card Week 80 - Purple

2 posts in one day? I'm on fire ;)

Today I am following along with the cue card over at CASology which is purple. Here is my interpretation.

Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps. Embossing Powder - WOW!

Perfect Pearls - Ranger. Gems - Doodlebug. Cardstock - Bazzill.

I love the Waltzingmouse Funky Feathers stamp set, so many different combinations and possibilities. I decided to use the peacock feather today as my main image. I stamped and embossed them in gold, stamped the hearts and dusted with perfect pearls then added the gems and just to break it up a little I raised the panel on foam pads.

Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps. Embossing Powder - WOW!

Perfect Pearls - Ranger. Cardstock - Bazzill.

I also went on to make this 'cleaner' version. Simple stamping with memento ink, I coloured the centres with turquoise promarker and embossed the hearts in gold. I think I can see me replicating this card in lots of different colours.

Thanks for looking,

Ang.

WPlus9 Monday Mood Board #26

I managed to rustle up a card for WPlus9's Monday Mood board,, isn't the inspiration picture so pretty?

Paper-MME. Stamps-WPlus9. Doily dies - MFT and Cheery 

Lynn. Ink - Memento. Lace - Dainty Paperie.

I liked the wooden boards so used some wood print paper and a little white pigment ink to recreate the look from the picture. I finished it off with Fresh Cut Florals and the sentiment on a small MFT doily.

I haven't done much crafty shopping for a while but was happy to find Studio Calico wood veneers at my local Homesense and TKMaxx for £1.99 a pack and cute little American Crafts glitter pegs for the same price.

I have been wanting to experiment with watercolours for a while but haven't found a set at a reasonable price so it wouldn't be too bad if I don't get on with them, however, I did pick up this set today for £4.99. I can't wait to start playing!

Happy Sunday :)
Ang

Keeping it simple

Today I have a couple of cards to share, the first one was created for both the CAS-ual Fridays CFC126: Colour Blocks and 52 Cards Challenge - Pale, Glitter, Love and the second was a way to use up the scraps from the first card. I love it when that happens!

This cluster of hearts caught my eye in the Silhouette store, I was originally going to go with reds and pinks in the aperture but the 52 cards challenge helped to change my mind. I do enjoy more clean and simple designs at the moment and this is one of my favourites.

I could not throw away the die cut hearts from the middle so went with a simple cluster and embossed sentiment. Valentines Day will soon be upon us, I really need to make some more cards!

Thanks for reading,
Ang.

Edited 11th September - The design is circle hearts by Kristen Magee, Design ID #25156 available from the Silhouette store.

Bits and Pieces 5 - The Sweet Life

I am back with a quick couple of cards, remember the scraps from the other week? This time I have concentrated on using up the stamped images from The Sweet Life by PTI.

 Card stock-Ripe Avocado. Patterned paper - Marrakech, Basic Grey. 

Ribbon - Anna Griffin. Rose and sentiment stamp - PTI. Pin - Etsy.

Card stock - Bazzill. Roses, sentiment, ink and embossing plate- PTI. Vellum - 

Making Memories. Glitter paper - American Crafts.

I can't seem to get enough of that perforated paper, glad I still have a couple of sheets left, although I still don't know who the manufacturer is.

Happy Friday!
Ang.

PS - You can see my attempts at 3 step colour combinations here using this set.

Washi tape from Amsterdam!

According to the song, it is more routine to bring tulips from Amsterdam, however on a recent trip there I brought back washi tape, lots and lots of washi tape.

I was late to catch on to washi tape craze and have a reasonable sized 'collection' already, however, I am always on the look out for more. My friend Nat over at Kool Kitty Musings told me about a retail homestore chain in the Netherlands called Hema. I began by stalking their website before I left for my trip and was quite excited with some of the selection shown;

So, when I eventually went to Amsterdam I found the nearest Hema store I could and went shopping! This is what I came back with :)

I couldn't help picking up some of the cute printed bags, great quality and patterns and so cheap!

I don't like to be a tease, so I have had a search on the Hema website and they deliver!

EU countries where you can also have your order

Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom Want it delivered in Belgium or France , rather you order viawww.hema.be or www.hema.fr .

Here are a couple of cards that I have made that either feature washi as a design element or a colourful embellishment.

 It's great for creating backgrounds.

 To complement colourful sentiments.

I used a diagonal stripe and arrow head pattern washi on this one.

I know I won't stop buying this stuff, it's so versatile!

Thanks for reading,

Ang.

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