Heartfelt Creations

I just love Heartfelt Creations for their stamp and matching dies. Only have 3 sets, but they are well used.

Tickled Pink

A friend gave me a piece of pink card with a background cut from Sue Wilsons Scandinavian Die. I cant think of Sue Wilson without thinking of flowers, bows and sparkle. I sprinkled fine glitter onto sticky paper to make the mat to lay behind the background. For the embellishments, I used stamps and dies from Heartfelt Creations Arianna Blooms collection which I absolutely love. The bow was from a Sue Wilsons die. My latest thing is adding small beads to the centre of flowers. I use budget range beads from Hobbycraft – you get hundreds for just 99p. Overall, I'm happy with the outcome.

A touch of blue…

I picked up a bargain of two small poppy stamps which I absolutely love the design of. I decided to experiment a little with colour as I don’t always want to have to go with red. As I said, a bit of experiment and although I'm fairly happy with the ends result, I think the black is a little too overpowering for the light blue, but that's something I will think about for next time.

Deco Boutique

A friend bought the Create and Craft Couture Deco Boutique collection a while back and not being quite sure what to do with them, sent them my way to ‘have a play with’. I have to be honest and say at first, I wasnt impressed (not considering how much they cost!). I tried to Google other peoples makes but there was very little out there which I found astonishing, normally you type in a die and a make and hundreds upon hundred images appear.

I cut out all the individual dies on pieces of scrap paper so I could see what they looked liked. After what seemed like an age, I decided to just dive in and have a go – here are the results.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Typical Sunday afternoon, off work and little to do. Decided to browse the internet for inspiration and came across tissue box covers. Well, never had made one before I just had to have a go. Of course, me being me, it had to have flowers…

   Didnt need many materials, paper, stamp, die. ball tool and embossing mat….oh and not forgetting a box of tissues.

 
Having selected some grey and cream papers, I chose to work with Heartfelt Creations Arianna Blooms. I love this stamp and die set, unlike other sets I own, this die is open and makes cutting out flowers so much easier. I stamped the flowers using a silver ink and cut out. Flowers were shaped using an embossing mat and ball tool to add dimension. Pretty pleased with the result.

Christmas is Coming

Okay, so I haven't crafted in months. You know how it goes, you get into a craft, you buy all the gear (or so you think) realise you will never have enough and always need more and although it's enjoyable, it does become expensive. I used to enjoy my trips out to the craft shop, looking at all the latest 'must have' and seeing new things to try, the joy of filling my basket and then spending weeks trying out new ideas or techniques. But... things change, job roles change, pay changes and so ultimately lifestyles must change and for me that means no more trips to the craft shop, no more latest 'must have' and no new things full stop. Does it sound as if I am feeling a little sorry for myself? I was, but I'm over it now. I’ve got a job, a roof over my head, good health (mostly), food on the table, a good family... So here I am now, picking myself back up and starting again with what I have. Christmas is not too far away, which was a good enough reason as any to dust off the Grand Calibur. Looking through my 'stuff' I quickly realised I only had two Christmassy dies (which I bought last year) and one stamp (free with a magazine) one large embossing folder (which got damaged when mangled in my machine last year and very limited amounts of Christmas coloured paper and card (reds and greens). Fighting the temptation to just put it all away, I set out my workstation and began. It wasn’t long before all the enjoyment I used to get from crafting resurfaced and I was happily crafting away. Anyhow, here are the results of my crafting weekend.

Busy Bees

I’m sure I’m not alone in coming up with card ideas for men. I wanted to do something a little different, that wasn't really gender specific and it all started with a bee…

I have a lovely bee that I got with a Tonic Pick of the Bunch stamp set and decided that I would do a honey comb and bee card.

I used a small honeycomb embossing strip folder and hexagonal dies which I bought for patchwork, Distress Ink in Wild Honey and a Gold ProMarker.

I started by embossing the background using the honey embossing strip.

Next, I stamped a number of bees onto white card and coloured these using the Gold ProMarker.

I cut out a number of hexagonal shapes and used a “Bee Happy” embossing strip folder.

I added colour to all the white pieces by distressing the edges with Wild Honey and then it was a just a matter of putting it all together.

Mother’s Day

With Mothers day fast approaching, I decided to make my cards rather than leave it until last minute. Making a conscious effort to try and diversify a little with card making, I decided on a twisted easel card.

This is an easy card to make and uses just white card, patterned paper, dies and distress inks.