Strictly Party

This is hopefully the start of my "at least one blog a week" challenge- I wonder how many I'll actually manage???

I recently bought the 'Ultimate die-cut pack' from the Papermania 'Strictly Party' range, and I have to say that I love it! RRP is £11.95 but with the voucher in the docrafts magazine, you get it for £10 and it's well worth double that. The pack contains backing papers, decoupage, flat toppers, ribbon borders, alphabets & sentiments in blues, greens, pinks & purples. There is a strong floral theme and the images are very girly but what I like best is that they have a younger feel than most floral themed images. I have so far used just 2 of the die-cut decoupage images with some of the backing papers to make 2 cards that I think are rather beautiful!

Here's the first of them in detail:-

This card is in my prefered style of keeping it really simple and elegant and was therefore a quick card to produce (once I had made up the decoupage topper). I started with an A5 front scallop edge card that I inked with my lovely new 'Picked Raspberry' distress ink (why has it taken them so long to do a bright pink one?!?). The decoupage topper is from the 'Strictly Party' pack and I layered it onto some turquoise matt foil paper that I've had kicking around for years. I chose the flowers (prima) to compliment those on the dress (near the girls hand) and attached them with a deep turquoise brad. The card was finished with a couple of turquoise gems in opposite corners.

CardCraft-UK

Exciting news!!!

Just ordered a new cricut cartridge from the CardCraft-UK website http://www.cardcraft-uk.co.uk/ which has recently become my home for cricut cartridges! Their prices are good and their service great. One of my favourite aspects is that if the product you want is out of stock, just give them your email address and they'll let you know as soon as it's back in stock. I know that lots of sites offer this service but I've never found them to be quite as quick in that promise as this website is.

Can't wait for it to arrive and to start crafting with it. Blog posts to follow I'm sure!

The London Line- Trimcraft

Recently bought some decoupage, pyramage, backing papers & ribbon from the new 'The London Line' range by trimcraft. The decoupage, pyramage & ribbon came from my local Range store but the backing paper I had already picked up from Wilko's (they have just started a new craft range replacing some create & craft products that they previously stocked). Most of the stuff they are selling is not that new or exciting but these papers are lovely.

All of the products fit with the 2012 British Jubilee/Olympics theme but in a cute way. The 6x6 backing papers have lots of bunting, Union Jacks & tea but also cute animal characters in both Jubilee & Olympic poses. Some of the papers are glittered too and you get 3 of each so it's easy to make some of your own small decoupage images if you want. The decoupage/pyramage co-ordinates perfectly with one of my favourites being a pheasant who is shooting. I've only made one card with it so far but I've got all the decoupage ready so they won't take long to put together.

I started with a 6x6 scalloped edge card and then used my 'A Touch of Craft' Union Flag mask by Creative Expressions to create the background. I used my Worn Lipstick & Tumble Glass distress inks and then edged the design with a gold metallic promarker. The topper was from the die-cut decoupage pack. No scalloped card is complete without Card Candi so I added some gold foil ones to each corner and then used a very small piece of ribbon from the same collection to highlight one corner.

A lovely set of products and well worth a buy!!!



We R Memory Keepers 12x12 ringbound album & McFly signed album

 

These are the lovely WRMK 12x12 ringbound albums that I have recently bought from the Craft Superstore website. They are leather covered (not real I don't think) with metal corners for extra protection. They are currently at the reduced price of £24.99 and in my opinion they are worth every penny. The actual front is larger than 12x12 because the inside rings are large meaning that lots of pockets can be added. Each one comes with 10 page protectors and they are very thick and great quality.

The colours I have shown here are offically named as 'grape soda' (purple), 'kiwi' (green), 'aqua' (blue) & 'orange soda' (orange). Your orange soda one will not arrive with McFly signatures on the front of it!!!

The best thing about these albums is that as well as the normal 12x12 pockets, you can get a whole range of different pockets for different photo layouts. I've got some that hold 6 6x4 photos in either portrait or landscape orientation. There are lots of other options available for larger format photos too.

 

I go to lots of concerts/gigs particularly Take That, McFly & Westlife [ :-( ] and I take lots of photos so the orange, blue & green albums are being dedicated to those pictures. I've only got the orange McFly one done so far as I was lucky enough to go and meet them just over a month ago and that's how I got it signed! I won't post all the pictures (there's too many) but here's a few examples of what I've done.

This was the first ever McFly gig I went to and the album it was for had a beachy theme so I used some DCWV sand 12x12 paper and plain blue textured cardstock that I distressed slightly. The surfboards were cut from another DCWV 12x12 sheet. The page header is a replica of the McFly logo (of the time) again using the same sand & blue papers. The tickets are made on the same blue cardstock, stamped with some lovely Kanban stamps in a distress ink (stormy sky I think).

  

These pages are again based on a DCWV 12x12 page that has the turquoise bricks and graffiti at the bottom. It came from the Teenage Dream stack. I continued the graffiti style by simply using a black biro to recreate the McFly logo & microphone image (after tracing it first!). The photos were simply mounted into a deep turquoise card that I had distressed with Black Soot distress ink. I again used my Kanban ticket stamp as a place to put the date, location etc.

Another simple layout here again based on a 12x12 DCWV paper. This gig was in Sherwood Forest so I wanted to show that in the page. I used a pine tree Kanban stamp and some brown distress ink to create the layered look in the corner and then used some very small SeeD's stamps to create the McFly logo. I made myself a stencil of the shape I wanted and then used 2 small pine needle stamps with both brown & green distress inks to go through the space- it worked really well.

This is my favourite of all my McFly pages, as it is one where I've been a bit more creative rather than just using a paper that already suited what I needed. This tour was called 'Keep Calm and Play Louder' so I wanted to reflect that vintage British theme. I started with a cream/brown mottled cardstock which I added some extra distress ink to the edges of. I then used one of my bottles of Adirondack Alcohol Inks and literally flicked the ink onto my cardstock to create a stained look. The small crown stamp is from a beautiful Kanban stamp sheet of the most fabulous steam punk style outfits (cards to follow soon I hope) and the star is from a clear stamp set by Inkadinkado called 'Rock Star'. The red logos are again traced and then enhanced with a dark red promarker. The picture below shows the 6x4 photo pockets and how I have used them for both photos and journalling.

The purple album will be used for the pictures from my visit to The Making of Harry Potter attraction at Leavesden Studios. I have a ridiculous number of pictures so I'll probably be ready to post some pictures around 2017!

Craft Superstore

Very quick post about Craft Supestore which is a great crafting website that I have ordered from a few times over the last few months. Everything I have ordered has arrived quickly and they always send an e-mail to let you know when the parcel will be delivered and give you the chance to change the day if you will not be at home- great for those of us that aren't at home every day. They have a great range of products, regular offers and good prices. There is also a loyalty points scheme that gives you points for every item you purchase and you can use those points whenever you like.

I have just received the new summer 2012 distress inks (because I clearly need more) and another brilliant We R Memory Keepers 12x12 ring bound leather album. It's the 4th one I've bought recently and they are all lovely- I'll blog some pics in a few days. They are just perfect for my style of scapbooking/photo taking!!!

Sincerely Yours, Lincoln- May 2012

Visited the Lincolnshire Showground today for the Lincolnshire, Sincerely Yours, show. Was pretty impressed on entry as there were lots more stands than at the last one in October and lots of big companies/shops too. Managed to pick up a few new goodies, and with a holiday coming up soon, I'll hopefully get a chance to use them! Need to get some cards sold too ready for a possible trip to Kanban in a couple of weeks! Anyway, todays purchases...

Started off with a good bargain, picking up a 'skater boy' stamp at the reduced price of £3.50. It's about 3 inch sqaure and will be perfect as a topper for some slightly different cards (I think it came from the 'Honey Doo's Crafts' stand but can't be sure!)

I did invest in a set of 'rock a blocks' but not the Crafters Companion version but some by Imagination Crafts (the stencil people) instead- basically they were cheaper at £10.99 per set for a very similar product. When I've had a chance to try them out, I will report back just how much difference they have made to my stamping. Got those from the 'Little Claire' stand who also had some lovely stamps.

The next purchase was a really beautiful metal embossing stencil from the 'The Craft Station' stand. It is of a 3 tiered cake with flowers flowing down one side. There is also a small shower of hearts from the top of it. Definitely worth £7.99 and will make some lovely wedding cards.

I've been looking for a new craft mat for a while, mine is black & that really doesn't help to keep my cards clean when I can't see the inks that are all over it! Most of them were retailing at about £5 but I got mine from 'Designs by TabbyKat' as theirs was only £4.25 for exactly the same product!

Also got 2 other items from the 'Designs by TabbyKat' stand- a new set of 6 Summer 2012 promarkers in some fabulously bright colours (£9.75) & The Card Hut 'Garden Sheds' cd-rom (from the makers of the mimic creations cd I loved so much) for only £15- particularly like it as it has lots of black & white images so I can try out my new spectrum noir colouring skills!

Every time i've been to the NEC for the last couple of years, I have tried to get a cog mask/stencil that I want to use for my (still to be completed) Take That 2011 scrapbook. When I saw one on the 'Ali-Craft' stand today, the usual rules of price comparison went right out the window and it was bought there and then! They were on offer at 3 for £9 or £3.40 each so I got the cog one I've needed(!) for so long but also a rather fabulous crown & a Union Jack design too.

Final purchases came from the 'Meiflower' stand which was anotated on my map simply as RIBBON!!! They always have a brilliant selection of silk, organza & grosgrain ribbon in various widths and pretty much every colour you could ever want- and all at really good prices. The silk ribbon I got, has 23m on a roll and was £1.50! Ended up with 24 different colours (from a choice of about 40) and the man running the stall was nice enough to give us a bit of a discount as we had bought so many! Also got 2 small plastic dummies for my 2011 Take That scrapbook!!! (that will only make any sense to a true 1990's take that fan!)

All in all, a good day with some great new stash to play with as soon as I get chance- half term soon but I really need to get some scrapbooking done as there's a visit to the Making of Harry Potter very soon and that is most definitely going to need to be scrapbooked and I have just ordered 3 lovely new scrapbooks/photo albums from Craft Superstore- I'll blog about those in more detail when they arrive (hopefully next week!)

The next Sincerely Yours show in Lincoln is in October but they have others around the country too. Definitely worth a visit to your local one as entry is only £3 if you pre-book and that includes free tea & coffee all day- bargain!

more 'Mimic' cards

I have been really busy at work and preparing for a big craft fair this weekend but have finally found the time to post some more pics of my 'Mimic' cards from the recent c&c pick of the week. This is a cd that I am really loving to use & even though it has a relatively short shelf life for some characters (Little Mix???) I've already got my moneys worth out of it!

Marilyn Monroe decoupage topper from the 'Mimic' cd with a Kanban 'music & dance' background card.

'Mimic' cd background topped with 'Weenicons' England footballers decoupage.

Doctor Who T.A.R.D.I.S. shaped card with 'Mimic' Matt Smith & Karen Gillan.

Michael Jackson 'Thriller' decoupage with a 'Rusty Pickle' backing paper.