Brand New House Pivot Card die set card!!

 Want to know something exciting?! Karen Burniston has just released a brand new Pivot Card die set for Elizabeth Craft Designs!!

Say hello to the 'House Pivot Card' die set!

I was lucky enough to be sent a set this past week, and oh, it's fun!

As with the other Pivot Card dies, you can use pretty much any card base size and shape you like, and you just line up the little markers on the die with the card's centre fold.

 Here is the die, along with lots of decorator dies which it comes with... a house shape which embosses a brick design, chimney, door and door frame, windows, window frames with flower boxes, roof piece and fence piece...

You can see in this picture below some of the different house elements in better detail.

I also added the tree and clouds (I used one cloud on clear acetate sheeting, for some chimney smoke), from the All Season Tree die set.

And here's the card front, with a Purple Onion stamp for the Sentiment. The papers are from MME's Bramble Rose 12x12 pad.

Some of products used:

   

Crazy 4 Challenges Purple Onion Design 'Surprise Pop Up ' card

The challenge this weekend on the Crazy 4 Challenges blog, is to create a card or project with a trick in it somehow... very in keeping with April Fool's Day coming up!

A while ago I had seen a tutorial by Beate, for a Surprise Pop Up Card and thought it would be fun to give it a go. There is a tag part just peeping out at the top of the card, which when you pull it, makes a fold appear and stand up, revealing space for messages both on the tag, and underneath where the folded part was.

(I didn't follow all of Beate's measurements and directions, just got the rough idea of what you were supposed to do from her useful pictures.)

The 'card' arrives looking like this - completely flat. I used papers from Pebbles' 'From Me to You' 5.5 x 8.5 pad for the outer papers. 

The pink ruffled ribbon and inner turquoise paper was from Stampin' Up.

For the standing up part, I used a Purple Onion Design Stamp, on some Simple Stories Color Vibe paper, cut out and stuck on with foam pads, with a little Copic shadow.

I then just added some cut out words from one of Stampin' Ups wheel stamps, for the sentiment.

Finally, I used a dip pen and ink to write a message.

Some of the products used:


   

Elizabeth Craft Design Team Flower Challenge card

The Elizabeth Craft Design Team Challenge this month is to use flowers, so I'd like to share this Mother's Day card with you. (British Mother's Day is this Sunday 30th March.)

For my card base I decided to use the Lucy Label Pop Up die, teamed with some paper from MME's Bramble Rose 12x12 pad, backed with turquoise card stock.

I cut flowers using the Bunch of Flowers 1 die set, and layered them up, with adhesive pearl centres.

I also used leaves from both the Triple Leaf and Rose die sets.

I added the Small Butterfly to the little pop-out part, and a couple of mirror butterfly embellishments.

For the sentiment, I ran some off-white card stock through with the Lucy Label Pop Up die, and just snipped out the part I needed to cover the label. I then wrote the sentiment with a dip pen and Ecoline Watercolour ink.

For the outside of the card, I covered the gap made by the pop-up part, with some yellow card stock which I embossed with the Flower Mosaic Embossing Folder from Elizabeth Craft Design, added a strip of floral paper, and another label cut with the Lucy Label die, plus another layered flower.

And finally, the finished card again.

Some of the products used:


   

Elizabeth Craft Design Fancy Label Accordion Cupcakes Card

Hello! This is my blog post which is on the Elizabeth Craft Design Blog today.

I'd like to share a card with you which features the delightful Cup Cake Peel-Off Stickers, on the Accordion Fancy Label Card.

I started by sticking some Transparent Double Sided Adhesive onto white card stock, and adding the peel-off stickers, then some Cool Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter.  I then coloured in the stickers with the Copic markers pictured. Els has a great tutorial on the best way to do all of this, here.

I also wanted a glittered 'Happy Birthday', and achieved this by adding a strip cut from Double Sided Adhesive to some pink card stock. I added some Cool Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter, rubbed it in with my finger, then die-cut the 'Happy Birthday'.

Here are the die-cut elements I used for my card:

You can see that I cut four panels with the Fancy Label Accordion die, four borders for each panel with a Fancy Frame Edges die, and a middle layer for each panel (with one of the other dies in the Fancy Label Accordion set).

I lightly embossed each of these smaller layers with a different Elizabeth Craft Design Embossing Folder (which are listed at the bottom.) I also cut out the cupcakes, plus three extra little peel-off sticker candles, an extra 'Happy Birthday' from black card stock, and three little diamonds to go in the corner of each panel. (The diamond die also comes in the Fancy Label Accordion set.) Click on the photo if you want to see it in more detail.

To give a little extra definition to each of my die-cut pieces, I inked the edges of them, with black ink on a sponge dabber.

I then adhered all the elements of my card, working on a panel at a time, and sticking the four panels together last. You can see below that I layered the pink glittered 'Happy Birthday' over the black one, to give a little shadow, and I also added a peel-off bow to the first panel.

I stuck the candles and cupcakes on with foam pads for extra dimension.

I thought my card would be finished then, but it looked a little plain, so I die cut some card stock flowers with the 'Bunches of Flowers 1' die set, and glued them over the little diamonds in each corner, along with a candy dot centre in each. I like how the little diamonds now look like leaves.

I hope you like my finished card! I think it will be  for my little niece's birthday.

Some of the products used:

   

Crazy 4 Challenges 'Shake your thing' week! Eileen Hull Canning Jar birthday card

At the Crazy 4 Challenges blog this week, we can just 'Shake our thing' and make any card we feel like!

I wanted to make a card for my friend's birthday (we studied Speech Therapy together at uni many years ago!) and I had a think first of all what 'my thing' is. I was a bit stumped, and decided I just like loads of things, including stamping, die cutting, embossing, and lately calligraphy. My card then, has all of these!

 I used various floral stamps (they are ancient ones with the packaging long gone, I'm afraid), and then die cut some acetate sheeting with Eileen Hull's Canning Jars die - using the smaller jar. I cut a bit more off the bottom of the jar to get it just the right size, then embossed it. (You can see the jar better in the second photo.)

I used tape runner to stick down the bottom of the jar, and foam pads for the top (which are hidden underneath the paper band which I made to go round the jar.)

I recently got Tim Holtz's new Bow-Tied die, which is fabulous!! It makes bows in three sizes, and they are so simple and cute! I used the smallest here, with some Graphic 45 Botanical Tea paper.

Finally, I added a Melissa Frances resin butterfly, and hand cut a tag, and wrote the sentiment with a dip pen and ink.

Some of the products used:


   

New Die Release at The Stamps of Life

 A couple of new die sets are being released at The Stamps of Life today, and I worked with one of them... the lovely Buttons Dies!

For my first card, I used my homemade embossing paste for the spotty background, then layered up some flowers from the Mini Flowers Dies, along with some buttons from the new set.

I also added a sentiment from the pinwheels2stamp set.

The buttons come in three sizes, and there are multiple dies which is great, as it means I didn't have to cut each button one at a time!

Here, I strung some together with twine, and added a stamp from the brackets2cut stamp set.

For my last card I used the Framelits Fancy Frame Flip-its #2 for the card base and side layers, and Framelits Labels Fancy #4, for the white centre layers.

The Thanks die is also by Stephanie Barnard, for Sizzix. (It's from the Elegant Stand-ups Framelits Card die set which was released at CHA.)

Some of the products used:


   

Elizabeth Craft Designs Ladybug Accordion Circle Card

 Here's a card which I made for my first post on the Elizabeth Craft Designs Blog.

I won't go into detail here about how I made it, as I've included some instructions in the ECD post. The products I used can be found at the bottom though.

Products used:


   

VCB's ('Various Crafty Bits!') ...Ecoline Inks, Copics, Hama Bead Minions etc!

It's been a bit of an odd few days, with all sorts going on, and I thought I'd share a couple of pictures...

I've been holding a card making class at my house each month, for some of the women from school and church. I'd been asked if I could introduce them to Copics, so I gave them a choice of a few simple stamps which just needed a limited number of colours, to practice with. I kept the card design simple, so they could concentrate on the colouring. 

Here were my sample cards. I think some of the women were crestfallen because they enjoyed it so much that they are now tempted to buy some Copics!!

(The stamps are from The Stamps of Life, and Papertrey Ink.)

I've been enjoying my experimentation with calligraphy, and it's led me to buy some Ecoline Watercolour Inks, which some calligraphers use. 

First off I just wanted to mess around with the inks, and see how they acted... here is my first 'play' page - the inks are wonderfully vivid and fabulous to use.

I will do a post later, summarising what I've learnt so far about calligraphy, and what products I recommend etc.

I had three kids off school on Thursday and Friday with headaches and sick bugs, but when they weren't feeling too rough, they played with clear wax candles, using them as a resist for the Ecoline inks. 

And this must be the simplest card I've ever made, but I love it!

I did a wash with Ecoline ink on beautiful thick cardstock, then when it was completely dry used a dip pen and white ink for the sentiment.

And lastly, we had a family get-together yesterday, for my nephew's baptism. It's also about half the family's birthdays around now, so we exchanged lots of presents, including this Hama Bead Minion keyring which the kids and I made for one of my sister's birthday presents! (My 'Kids' board on Pinterest coming in handy again!)

Just as we were all about to head back to our various homes last night, we thought to take a quick snap of us all  - Mum, Dad, four siblings and spouses, and a tonne of kids (though we realised afterwards that my eldest son was missing - he was being sick but we didn't know - poor thing!) Oh, and I'm not exceptionally short - I'd just set the self-timer on my camera and rushed down to the front!

Crazy 4 Challenges Sketch - Purple Onion Design Pop It Ups birthday card

 I wanted to make one of my best friends Alison a spring-feel birthday card, and I used the sketch challenge over at the Crazy 4 Challenges blog this week, for the inspiration. The challenge has the additional element of using some green too.

For the card base I used the Pop It Ups Katie Label Pivot card die.

The stamps are all from Purple Onion Designs: the owl 'Shadow', the leafy Perch, the Stacked Gifts and the 'birthday wishes'. I used Copics to colour them, and cut a little patterned paper tummy for Shadow. I also added some sparkle to the presents with Elizabeth Craft Design's Microfine Glitter.

The bow die is also from Elizabeth Craft Designs, and the pink border and bow is cut from ECD's Pink Velvet Adhesive Sheeting.

I used a Stampin' Up border punch to add some scalloped edges, and the Pop It Ups All Seasons Tree set for the clouds.

The papers are from the lovely new Graphic 45 Botanical Tea 8x8 pad.

The papers are double sided, and I folded a strip of some over, and adhered it to the back, to fill in the gaps left by the pivoting Katie Labels.

Some of the products used:


   

Pop It Ups All Seasons Tree & Purple Onion Design Spring Card

I was thinking about Karen Burniston's Spring themed Designer Challenge, and decided I wanted to make another card, which included a pink blossom tree... my parents have the most wonderful big flowering cherry tree in their front garden - the house I grew up in, and I wanted to capture some of that wonderful colour which I so much associate with spring!

I used the Pop It Ups All Seasons Tree die set for the tree, foliage (or clouds!) and little blossoms. I cut the floilage and blossoms from Elizabeth Craft Design's beautiful pink Velvet Adhesive Sheeting - it is gorgeous stuff to use! (The link below, and the shop colour doesn't do justice the lovely soft shade of pink that the sheeting actually is.)

I then added some flower buttons and sequins for more texture.

 The stamps are from Purple Onion Designs - 'I Love______' and letters from the 'Skinny Dip' Alphabet, which I coloured with Copics, cut out and glued down.

And lastly, just a couple of bunting flags were added.

Some of the products used:

   

Karen Burniston's Pop It Ups Designer Challenge Easter Card

 Yay! It's Karen Burniston's Designer Challenge time of the month again, with the theme of Spring and/or Easter!

 I chose to use the Katie Label Pivot Card die, and stuck some floral paper from American Craft's Dear Lizzie Polka Dot Party 12x12 pad onto white card stock. I made sure not to use any tape runner on the area of the pivoting parts, so that I could remove the patterned paper and leave the label parts white.

For the labels, I added more layers from the Katie Label set, with foam pads. 

For the sentiment, I had a brilliant time last night doing some calligraphy, and experimenting with Elizabeth Craft Design's fabulous Microfine Glitter... I used Teal Indian Ink with a Brause EF66 pen nib, and while the ink was still wet I sprinkled it with Sky Microfine Glitter. This morning I was really excited to find that the glitter had stuck really firmly onto the dried ink, and even rubbing it quite hard wouldn't remove it!

I also added the Small Butterfly die layers to the first label.

 I added a larger butterfly to the second label, using the Pop It Ups Butterfly Accessory dies.

I wanted an all-white kind of floral corner, and used loads of different flowers and leaves (from the sets listed at the bottom) plus ECD's Flourish With Flowers die. I used an assortment of plain white card stock, white vellum and white glitter card. 

I used ECD Peel-off Glitter Dots for the flower centres.

I added a different floral paper to the card front and back, and just a few more layered flowers.

Products used:


   

Crazy 4 Challenges 'Be Sentimental' Oval Accordion card

 The challenge on the Crazy 4 Challenges Blog today, is to 'Be Sentimental', where the sentiment is the focus.
I used a Tim Holtz sentiment stamp, which I cut around by hand, and the Pop It Ups Oval Accordion card die for the card base.
The papers are from American Crafts' Dear Lizzie Lucky Charm 12x12 pad.

I used the Elizabeth Craft Designs 'Rose' for the delicate rose die cuts, and used the technique shown here by Els of Elizabeth Craft Design, to create the Copic coloured glitter insets. My yellow rose is supposed to represent the 'being yourself' in the sentiment.

Finally I added some sequins.

Products used: