Spellbinders Nestabilities - Basics & Beyond.

YAY! It's finally here! Now for a quick flick through and, as promised, my mini 'book review'.  :)

The Basics & Beyond book lists 45+ projects using the Spellbinders Nestabilites dies which are broken down into four sections that I'll give you a brief overview of shortly...

...BUT the book begins with a Special Techniques section covering the basics of die cutting and embossing, shaped cards, frames and apertures.

There are mini tutorials for using the dies as stencils and for a reverse stenciling technique (Hoping to try this soon and will blog the results!), as well as a pyramage technique, flower making and other mini embellishments.

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The four main sections are as follows:

Baby projects include;

Cards, Bibs, Invitations, Favours, Mini Album, Keepsake Box.

Birthday projects include;

Cards, Cupcake Pinwheel (trying this out soon too!), Treat Bag, Tag, Candy Wrapper (that's a chocolate bar wrapper if you're in England like me lol!), Gift Box/Bag.

Christmas projects include;

Cards, Gift Box, Decorations, Tag, Decorated Notebook.

Life's Moments projects include;

Cards, Invitation, Place Card, Memory Book, Frame, Decorations, Box, Candle.

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Each project comes with a materials list if you wanted to copy the projects exactly or just wanted to know details of the products used.

There are handy 'Did You know?' boxes on some of the pages throughout the book which contain extra little hints of how best to utilize your dies.

On the back page is a list of the featured designers with their blogs addresses and a product stockists list.

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Overall I am thrilled with the book and personally I think it is well worth the money; there are some gorgeous projects in it to recreate or just to use for inspiration.

I honestly think that if you love your spellbinders dies you wouldn't be disappointed with this book, I'm certainly not!

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As I dont have permission to post any pics etc and dont want to infringe any copyright I have added the links below to the publishers website and some of the DT and/or offical reviewers blog posts which have some pics included. HTH! :)

Publishers website, there are a few pics on here http://www.anniesattic.com/paper_crafts/detail.html?prod_id=83189

There was also a blog tour which can be viewed:
Here - http://thewillowgarden.blogspot.com/2011/02/spellbinders-nestabilities-basics.html
here - http://stopandstamptheroses.blogspot.com/2011/02/spellbinders-nestabilities-basics-and.html
here - http://tamimayberry.blogspot.com/2011/02/spellbinders-nestabilities-basics.html
here - http://valeriestangle.blogspot.com/2011/02/spellbinders-nestabilities-basics.html
here - http://creativepad.typepad.com/creative_pad/2011/02/spellbinders-nestabilities-basics-beyond-blog-tour-.html
and here! http://hopartstudios.typepad.com/hop_art_studios/2011/02/spellbinders-nestabilities-basic-beyond-blog-tour.html

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Thanks for reading if you've made it this far! Hope this has been of some help to anyone wondering whether to buy the book or not, I'd definitely say, you need to get it lol! Ni. :) x

Fabulous news - I'm now a Docrafts demonstrator! :)

...well its fabulous news for me anyway lol!



I can finally reveal what has been taking up all my time recently, yes that's right the post title says it all.

I have been asked to become a docrafts demonstrator! YAY!

I carried out a trial demo with the new July/Aug products a few weeks ago and the prep was definitely a lot of 'work' (although I can't say it was unpleasant!) ;)
It took longer than I realised to work out how to use all the goodies I'd been asked to demo and in the end I made 20 or so projects just for my 3 hour demo!

* All the cards are being added to my DC gallery over the next few days, although I've uploaded a pic here of the full demo table on the day! * I'll also be sure to add a button here in my sidebar to link directly to my demonstrator gallery.*

I will definitely be posting on here a lot more here now as I will be trying to upload all my demo cards along with the products used and the details of how I made them.

Lastly I would like to say a huge Thank You to those few people that knew I'd applied and wished me good luck and also for their congratulations.
Also, to the people that have been over and commented on the new cards already, I'm glad they seem to be ok!
Am now looking forward to my first 'real' demo in September!

Thanks for reading, from a very happy, Ni. :)

Get Funky! Challenge - Anice's Sketch Challenge

Here is my slightly last minute entry for the latest challenge over at the Get Funky! blog.
Another hectic few weeks here, [hopefully with some news to follow very soon ;) ] so having a sketch challenge was perfect. I find my cards come together so much quicker with sketches to follow.

I'll say this quietly but I've actually made an Xmas card this month *shields herself from the evil looks*.
I know, I know xmas in July is mad but I had some yummy new papers and stamps to play with! :)

The stamps were the new freebie from Papercraft Essentials Magazine which was a fab set of Our Betty images! Yay, more for my collection, thanks lots for the exclusive design!

As soon as I saw it I thought Betty's dress would work fab in 2 tone and decided on traditional xmas red and green to match with.....
My new papers from the Forever Friends Retro collection by DoCrafts. Also by DC are the card blank and new 'Noel' range ribbon and bow. The mini present die is by Quickutz.
Instead of adding another layer of backing paper I used a black fineliner pen to do some faux stitching, which considering I dont use it much has turned out quite well IMHO!

Thanks for stopping by, hope this card is ok for the challenge. Ni  :) x

'Ultimate' Happy Birthday Cards.

Been busily playing with the new Happy Birthday Ultimate Pack and few other bits from the new DoCrafts releases and have made the following:


Firstly using the new typography happy birthday stamp which I coloured, and some of the cardstock stickers also in the collection. I wanted to personalise it and so this will be perfect for my cousins little boy later this month!

This is an easel card that I've kept monochromatic using the capsule collection sizzling red hot smooth card with the 5 and 0 stamps, another cardstock present sticker and some gems.

Lastly using an idea in the new creativity magazine I made a basic pop up card. Decorated the front using die cut shapes, greeting and paper from the ultimate pack. Also covered the pop up with tag and present die cuts and added a blank shape for writing a message on.  

 

Just a few simple cards but I really like the colours and paper patterns in this new collection and am pleased with these cards. TFL, Ni :) x

Tatty Ted Challenge Card

Well I am truly a terrible blogger! Over a month since my last post, shows I have sadly not been crafting as much recently, think it's partly the lovely weather to be honest and I have been playing with my cricut and SCAL rather a lot!!

Today I'm sharing my card for the Tatty Ted Challenge I've been hosting over on DC, the sketch is:

The only criteria was that I wanted to use the black frame in the sketch as an actual frame rather than just normal matting/layering. So here is my own card:

The background flowers are using a Tapestry Peg stamp inked in black.

The paper is a 12x12 gorgeous Doodlebug one that I got in a sale for 20p!


The TT image has been recycled from the packaging of my TT peel-off's. :)


The frame is the new xcut NESTNG DIES!!!! Woo! Been waiting ages for these and have to say I'm really impressed with them, lovely designs and a fab price too! This is the parenthesis design.


The little sentiment was a freebie from a DC creativity magazine, I just cut off the borders!


Embellishments from DC, butterfly was a DC punch.

Thanks for stopping by. Ni :) x