Visible Image - Finally got to play!

A big hello and welcome to anyone that is out there and reading my ramble for today. :D

I know have been absent from the blogging world again and somewhat detached from the real world a bit too. Luckily I have some fabulous crafting friends who are there for me, a few days away to visit my wonderful friend Diana (who also stepped in as nurse to help me look after my severely badly burnt and very painful hand) and a small spend up at the nec and a smaller craft show are all helping me try to get back on the path to my 'normal' (as if lol!) self. :)

As I've been feeling a bit down my mojo seems to have wandered off too so what better way to search for it again now that my hand is healing nicely, than playing with some new stash; and the challenge over at the visible image blog this month is to "Get Stamping!", so I have!
My card today therefore uses some fabulous, wonderful, gorgeous (yep ok, I know, you get it already, enough with the adjectives lol, but I love them!) stamps from Visible Image.

For my focal point I have used the gorgeous small butterfly which is so lifelike, detailed and delicate, oh and it looks fab using gilding flakes but I haven't made that piece into a card, yet...

Ok, so, first I stamped the butterfly onto the back of some chocolate brown card and cut around the image to give me a solid base layer, then on top of these I added a version stamped in aged mahogany distress ink (thanks Diana! x) and blended all over with tea dye.
I don't know if you can see it from the picture but I added some tiny beads from a nail art set (found in Pounland!) to their bodies for a bit of texture.

I made a horizontal a6 Kraft card base and stamped over it with the amazing Grunge Flourish in tea dye ink for a kind of watermark effect but with a bit more depth. This flourish stamp is so clever, you can just use the grungy edge, or the flourish bit or both, a great touch.

The sentiment is a new die I picked up at the nec for a bargain price, so good it would have been rude to say no. ;) I just cut it from the same chocolate brown card and added it to a Kraft strip that I snipped at the ends to make into a banner. Easy.
Now I look at it I'm thinking I might add some ribbon tied around the spine, any thoughts welcome. I'll have a play with it again tomorrow and see.

I have really enjoyed playing again thanks to having some super stamps to kick start my creativtiy and I've already ordered another one so look out for a card featuring that very soon!
Also starting from this weekend I'm going to be back with a 5 day Funky Hand feature here, sharing some projects made using their fabby new downloads.
Thanks for stopping by, Ni. x

Build a Scene Dies - no.2 Hot Air Balloon

Wow what a week! It started ok but just got worse lol!
It went from one then to three members of staff off (in a shop with a total of only 6!), an unexpected visit from some Head Office managers and me managing to strain my back and ending up hobbling around the shop like I was 90 instead of 30! Luckily its easing off a little now but I may have to go and see someone next week to get back to 100%.
The highlight of the week was a superb Friday evening spent with my friend Lisa at one of her Stampin' Up classes. We made 2 gorgeous cards with new products, saw some of the sale-a-bration items in the flesh and I came away with a huge bag of goodies I'd already put in my order for, can't wait to play!
Saying that..... I really need to stop buying for a while and start playing, my 'inbox' tray is overflowing with things waiting to be created with for the first time, oops! :)


Right, on to my shares of the day and as the title says I'm carrying on with the new Xcut Build a Scene die sets. I know some people seem to have had some trouble with these dies but me and my Bigshot have had no issues at all, just be careful with the string section for the balloon, maybe add some wax paper, use a tumble dryer sheet on the die or Jo Austin's new tip shown on Create and Craft recently, a dry baby wipe between the card and your die!

Ok so obviously this first card is a stepper card, I created the base from scratch and got a bit over excited with the clouds which meant they ended up being a bit high, but you get the idea, I just loved the 3D feel of it.

The cloud dies have no bottom to them, as in they do not cut a complete shape, just the top of a cloud outline so that you can cut the dies next to each other to get long cloud strips (great for a scrapbook layouts) and so that you can make them any depth you choose. The set also comes with some little whispy sort of shapes you cut into the clouds to look like the wind blowing, love those sort of details!

Now this one uses the die a little differently and shows the versatility of it. I have just cut the solid base section of the large balloon in some of the gorgeous Spots and Strips capsule collection papers and overlaid them onto a DL card, anchored them with twine tied round a button and cut myself another little cloud strip. This would be a lovely card personalised for a child. :)

I've also done another card using the small balloon shape turned upside down, cut from gold card and mounted into red/green to give a gorgeous (yep you guessed it, sorry!) Christmas bauble! Check out my super talented crafty friend DianaC's Docrafts gallery for her 2 bauble cards as I just copied her idea.

Right, time to hobble off for breakfast and then see if I can manage to sit in my craft chair for an hour or so and play with some of that lovely new stash that's calling out to me! I'll be back Tuesday for one of my last Creativity Club DT posts. X

Creativity Club DT Tuesday - A sketch and a 3D flower.

Morning bloggers! Well I am now up and about to set off to work ready for my 6am start but before I go I wanted to post my Creativity Club DT share for today and again I am sharing 2 cards.
Sorry about the poor light this early in the day lol! I'll redo them later.

Both of my cards today use the Country Companions, Sunshine Meadows collection.
This first card uses one of the exclusive daily sketches available to download within the creativity club and I have so far kept the card very simple and true to the design. However when it is ready to be sent to one of my young cousins I will add personalisation with the recipients name and age in the blank areas. I love Sketches as they are a great way to help you in those moments when your crafting mojo has deserted you!

This next card uses one of my favourite techniques from the Creativity Club the 3D flower embellishment made using the Xcut abloom nesting die. I have used two coordinating papers from the Sunshine Meadows collection, a pale blue/white spot and one with floral pattern.
The watering can Embossabilities sticker has been added to a tag cut from the Happy Days die and I have threaded it onto a strip of the striped paper, layered with a blue ribbon from the same pack.

I hope you like my cards today and don't forget to stop by the Creativity Club downloads section for a new sketch every day and a new download collection every Monday, this week it is the gorgeous Paisley in Cream set with a Mothers Day theme. If you are not a member of the Creativity Club yet then head over to the Docrafts website, here, for more information.

Docrafts meets Tim Holtz, Cogs everywhere!

Well, hello to you bloggers!
I had another fantastic demo yesterday at Capture the Magic, showcasing the most recent Docrafts releases and whilst having a quick broswe around the store myself I noticed the Steampunk, On The Edge die on sale at half price! Needless to say with my current fixation on the Chronology products I HAD to buy it!
So today's first card is one I made earlier today whilst having a quick play with that new die. :)

I've also been watching Ali Reeve on C&C and wanted to try embossing on a drinks can so first used the Cogs Tri-Boss folder and then inked it with a promarker before cutting the metal with the on the edge die. It gives a really fab effect, I need to stock up on fizzy drinks cans I think!

Originally the cog strip was going to be on the left side of the card, on the edge! ;) Ok fine, but then I realised that with the metal being light in colour and quite textured it would not show up against the orange clock paper so it had to be moved to the other side and make it into a split card. Not bad for a first attempt, want to play with it a bit more though so watch this space.....

The Pocket Watch die is fabulous, so many combinations of faces and using card in different colours means that no two watches need be the same!

Next onto a couple of quick mini projects from my demos,

The card is one of my favourite 4" notelets and the other project is actually a coaster to match my altered clock I posted here recently.

All the products are from the Chronology range except I additionally used the 'wave' border from the Nautical, Build a Scene die again to make a scalloped strip. The cog embossing folder was used on orange card and inked with black dye ink.

Right that's it for my shares today, I'm off to do some blog hopping this evening, love seeing what everyone has been creating over the week! Back Tuesday for another CC DT post. :)

Creativtiy Club DT Tuesday - Love but not love!

Well the original post I had planned for today has completely gone out of the window as I HAD to make a new card to share the fabulous new weekly downloads from the Creativtiy Club with you!

There are 2 collections this week, Love in Pink and Love in Red, featuring heart images and lovely text backing papers as well as more generic patterns and those patterns are what I have used to make this bright funky card today.

I have printed the stripe and zig zag papers from the Love in Pink download and then cut them down into strips and mounted them onto a card blank covered with a burgundy textured card.
The swirls are cut from one of the xcut border die sets, the happy birthday sentiment is from the Bookprint travel stamp set mounted on to one of the dies from the Speech Bubble set and the 40 was a blue cardstock sticker but is now red after being coloured with a zig alcohol marker!

I hope you like this bright card, its is perfect for the bubbly lively recipient and although it is a love download, not a heart in sight!

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I can not believe that it has been 6 months already since the first Creativity Club design team was announced for their 6 month term and now it is time for a new team! I have offered to give up my space on the team in order for a new crafter to join and showcase their talents with you; but you are not rid of me yet, as a demonstrator I may be popping up on the Docrafts blog in the near future!
I want to say a big congratulations to all the new recruits who will be sharing their work with you from March. The announcement was made today over on the Docrafts blog so why not pop over and meet them! :D

Build A Scene dies - no.1 Garden Party

Oops! With a busy weekend and the same sort of start to last week I just could not get time to blog in between work and demo prep and then by the time I did I was falling asleep! I'll be sure to share 2 projects this week to make up for it! :)

Anyway I am here today sharing projects using the new Xcut Build A Scene dies, Garden Party. I have been using these die sets a lot at my demos after many enquiries from customers about how best to use them. Now, remember, although they are called Build A Scene and are obviously designed to build an overall full picture, don't feel restricted by that concept, you can just use selected elements as I have done here.

I have cut the single elements from Kraft card (still addicted to it!) and then on the 'orange' card (inspired from a project by Docrafts very own Jo Austin!) I also used the Artiste orange ink to edge the pieces. I didn't think of this on the 'party' card (I blame being super tired at the time!) which is a shame as that tiny bit of ink really does add dimension.

The party card also uses an element from the Nautical set, no boats there I hear you say?! Although if you look at the edge of the shelf/table the crockery is sitting on, yes that's it, a scalloped edge border. Its the 'wave' strip but instead of keeping the wave edge I kept the 'waste' cut and got a cute scalloped border, this die is now saying permanently in my kit, love it!

The bunting on both cards is from the Garden Party set but again instead of using the full shape I have cut it into smaller pieces. Instead of using solid coloured card why not try a patterned paper or paper piece them by snipping the individual flags from multiple solid and patterned papers, the combinations are endless, its another permanent addition to my die folder!

The paper, buttons and twine are from another new range, Spots And Stripes Capsule collection, a gorgeous range that is perfect as an every occasion stand by. Great pastel tones and generic spot or stripe patterns means this can team up with any stamped images, toppers or decoupage coloured in similar tones, and would work for birthday, thank you, get well, even love themed cards.

Here is another project using individual elements of the the dies along with the 12" double sided Designstax card from the Capsule Collection: 

How cute it that! It is called a Tea Bag & Cookie Holder, there is a pocket on each side of the holder and in the middle you suspend a cellophane bag containing a gift. I have made a mini note card for this example but on another version I have used a decorated tag to add my message. Instead of a tea bag why not add a store gift card to the reverse pocket, or a Lemsip if someone is ill. You can use the central bag for small edible items, jewellery or what about a crafty gift of die cuts, bows, small lengths of ribbon, buttons and brads? That would be sure to put a smile on anyones face!

Now I take no credit whatsoever for the creation of this project, I found the instructions whilst looking for projects to utilise double sided papers. The original idea was created by Debi Pippin and here is her blog post containing lots of samples and a video. Also Chiaki Haverstick has made a PDF tutorial using Debi's measurements which makes it really easy to understand, a huge thanks to both of these ladies for their work and for sharing it. :D

Well versatility definitely seems to be the theme of today's post! Keep looking at your crafty stash in many different ways to get as much use from it as you can! I'll be back on Tuesday (promise!) with more Creativtiy Club DT creations and again at the weekend to share projects using another Build A Scene set.

Creativity Club DT Tuesday - Happy Days

Morning bloggers!
Today I am starting a feature which will last for a few weeks, a regular Tuesday post showcasing the Docrafts Creativity Club exclusive downloads and/or sketches.

A new 24hr sketch is released daily and there are lots of saved sketches to go back and browse through. Also dont forget the digi stamp and project instruction downloads, exclusively designed projects in the gallery and the excellent creativity tv too!
There are over 200 exclusive downloads available, and some of them are VERY special papers which are selected especially for club members; these work independently or as complimentary additions to select Docrafts product ranges available in the shops like Forever Friends, Tatty Ted and the new Vintage Notes collection.

My project today uses one of these special paper downloads, the Happy Days set. It has 4 pages of designs featuring cars, cans and more all in the colours and style of the fabulous Happy Days range.

I used the red zigzag paper from the Happy Days designstax layered on to black card for the background of my card. I thought the zigzag looked a bit like tyre tracks to match the card theme.
The car paper from the exclusive club download was first trimmed down into a small panel and then split into three equal sections and mounted onto a single piece of black card to create the triptych effect.
The sentiment is from the Bookprint, Around the World, urban stamps and is my go to for masculine cards because of its block type font and label look, no fancy swirls or italics here lol!
I mounted the car panel onto foam pads for a bit of dimension and cut some cogs into halves and stuck them under the edges, they were cut using the xcut Cogs die set from the Chronology range. The two screw brads are also from the Chronology range.

So there we have it, a fairly simple card but great for a car fan. Right I'm off to do some more work on my Build a Scene die samples and I haven't forgotten that I said I would share them here too! ;)

Blog Candy Winner! & Chronology Clock

Morning all! I said I would reveal the winner of the Docrafts Creativity Club membership today and so here I am!
I assigned each commenter a number so that even if you had posted multiple times everyone got an equal chance. Then I used an online random number generator to select the winning number for me so without further ado the winner is, 
no 6..... Jewelsmae with her comment "Congratulations on the new position. What a lovely professional looking card, not colours I would have thought of putting together but it really works"
Congratulations! Please get in touch with me at hyperni7(at)gmail(dot)com and I will pass your details on to Emma to arrange your membership. :)

I haven't forgotten my promise to share some projects using the new dies too but currently there are a few in varying stages of progress so you will have to bare with me for a little bit longer, back soon! X

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Aaargghh! A big thanks to Claire at my demo who told me the above scheduled post had not posted!
Sorry to keep you all waiting even longer for the reveal, so I have now edited my message for today into the above post to add my apology and as a little bonus am adding in a photo of my new project from this week...

It's another one of my upcycling projects!

This was an old silver clock that was being thrown away *horror!* by my mum so I saved it and took it to my craft room. I have been looking into making a crafty clock for ages but never found the time to shop around for the mechanism and with the release of the new Docrafts Chronology collection now was the perfect time to use it!

I covered the clock in the gorgeous orange clock paper using red DST and inked all the edges with orange dye based ink.

For the face I roughly cut the front paper piece to size, laid it over the clock face up and then using a fine metal embossing tool I made dents along the lines of the edge of the clear panel. Then I turned the paper over and cut along these lines using my craft knife and a metal ruler.

The decorative clock hands, clock face and brads are all metal embellishments also from the new range and the black cogs were cut from textured card using the new 9pc chronology cogs die.

The clock will now live on my windowsill and brighten up my craftroom with its funky orange colour. Right as it is still snowy outside I am not venturing anywhere today and am off to the craft room to make some DT cards using my new Xmas present printer (finally!) and the Creativity Club exclusive  downloads. :)

Happy New Year & Blog Candy Draw Deadline.

HAPPY NEW YEAR crafters!!!

I know I am super late in posting that but I have been poorly for a few days with one of these cold bug things that are flying around. Luckily not the winter flu so no aches but just a really bad head cold.

Also I am still working extra hours within the new store which is keeping me very busy BUT mostly I had a very happy parcel arrive on Xmas eve eve, my new Docrafts kit, yay!!!

I spent 30 minutes pouring over it all and oohing and ahhing before I had to box it all back up and carry on wrapping the Xmas presents. :(

However I have now managed to spend around 30 hours on my first big prep of samples for my demonstrations which started today and I am loving absolutely everything in this new release. Look at this.....

Isn't it sooooo cute! I love it!

That's just a basic plastic memo cube covered inside and outside with the new Vintage Notes products.

Adhesive fabric in the green Garden Rose pattern, 2 styles of the lace borders from the same collection and coordinating crochet flowers complete with a green decorative pin. This is going to have pride of place on my craft desk ready for all my little notes as I do love lists/notes. :D

Wait until next time when I share some of the GORGEOUS new dies from the ranges too! So exciting!

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Also now that it is the new year I want to draw the winner of my blog candy, a 6 month membership to the Docrafts Creativity Club where you will be overwhelmed with the amount of benefits like super downloads, daily sketches, Creativity TV, our exclusive Design Team projects in the gallery as well as those from Docrafts Designers Jo Austin, Becky James and more all available to you.

I am going to let this run until midnight on Sunday and will do the random draw first thing on Monday morning.

Good luck to all that have already become followers and posted on the blog candy post and to anyone else who manages to slide in at the last moment!

Ni. X

Exciting 'news' and Blog Candy!

Blog Candy Post - Please scroll down for newer posts. Thanks.

Evening everyone, I'm back today to finally, officially, share some news. You may have noticed a new blinkie here on my sidebar, a picture on the Docrafts blog or even the announcement of the new Docrafts Creativity Club Design Team and I am thrilled to say I am a DT member!!!

The Creativity Club is a members only club with a huge list of benefits including the exclusive DT projects me and my fellow team mates have been busy creating already!

We will also all be sharing projects on our blogs using the download collections and daily sketches to give non club members a taste of what's available if you sign up as a member and so here is my first DT share, a Thank You card.

This card uses papers from the Retro Prints and You & Me downloads. 

Also from Docrafts are the typography thank you stamp, xcut scalloped rectangle nesting dies and dotted gold ribbon.

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Now, to the second part of my post. Emma Collins, Creativity Club manager has kindly offered prizes of a 6 month Creativity Club membership for all of us DT members to share as blog candy giveaways! :)

To be in with a chance of winning this fabulous membership candy all you have to do is become a follower of my blog and leave a comment on this post.

Right a big Good Luck to everyone and I hope to 'see' a few new faces around here very soon. :) Ni. x