Happy Mother's Day - Silhouette Cameo

Good afternoon blog friends!

My it's cold and windy out there today - brrr! Poor chickens are getting blown around the garden.

This post I would like to show you the card I made for my mum for Mother's Day. Sadly I couldn't visit her as she lives in a care home in the North Yorkshire Dales and with the restrictions in place it meant it was a no go. I did send her a little goodie box to enjoy as well.

I am having a run with the Silhouette at the moment, there are just too many cute designs!

It seems that Zuzu the cat keeps getting in on the picture at the moment. She does like to be in all and everything.

What you need...

Silhouette image file: Heart with Flowers #314131 - Little Luxuries Loft

Silhouette font: PN Popsicle Day Bold #305510 - ScrapNfonts

Self adhesive vinyl: black - Cricut

Card stock: pink, pale pink, red, dark green, red, white

Transfer tape: Cricut

Adhesives

What you do...

1 Purchase and download the image. Open the design page and add the image.

2 Re-size the heart image to suit. I sized it to fit a 6" square blank.

3 Send to cut in your chosen colours.

4 Use the text function to create the sentiment in the Popsicle Bold Font and cut in black vinyl.

5 Assemble the heart and flowers and fix to the top of the blank.

6 Apply the vinyl wording with the help of transfer tape.

I chose to keep the colours in the sample by Silhouette as I thought they were adorable, but of course you can use any colours you want.

At the moment the font is reduced to £1.13 instead of the usual £2.25 and the Heart with Flowers is £0.37 instead of £0.75. The sale ends on 31st March, so get in quick! There are hundreds of images with 50% off in their Thank You Event. Even without an event on, I think the prices of images are very reasonable. There are just so many!

Even if you don't have a Silhouette, I think you could easily replicate this make using simple heart and flowers dies in your stash.

My mum loved the card and the goodies even more! Hope you like the card too, I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.

I'm going to go now, but I have some more cards coming up also using the Silhouette Cameo. Thank you for popping by! 

St. Patrick's Day - Lucky Friend - Silhouette Cameo

Hello blog friends!

I hope that you are all keeping well and safe in these difficult times.

I have two dear friends June & Stephen that I truly love and adore. Stephen is Irish (June is Irish by proxy!) and it's tradition that I send a St. Patrick's Day card every year. 

This year I wanted to do something a little different just to let them know how much they mean to me. I had to wait a couple of days to post this up until I knew they received the card as I know they read my blog.

Great fun was had going through the Silhouette Design Store looking for images, there are literally 100's of St. Patrick's Day images and wording. Most of the images are £0.75 but leading up to St. Patrick's Day they had an offer on and images were reduced by 50%. So £0.37 - bargain! 

Then I came across the design which I thought was perfect.

When I photographed the card, Zuzu was in the background and I had to have her in the photo - supervising!

What you need...

Silhouette image file: Good Friend - Four Leaf Clover #315626 - Jamie Lane Designs 

Self adhesive vinyl: black, green - Cricut

Transfer tape: Cricut

Cardstock: white

What you do...

1 Purchase and download the image. Open the design page and add the image.

2 Re-size to suit.

3 Cut the wording in black vinyl and the clover leaves in the green vinyl. Weed away the excess.

4 Use transfer tape to pick up the image from the backing paper.

5 Create a 15cm square blank and carefully line up the image and rub across the transfer tape to distribute the image. Make sure the image is flat with no air bubbles.

I found it easier to do the lettering first and then add the clover leaves after. Transfer is a God send if you are doing lettering on a project.

I love to use vinyl when doing a card with a lot of wording, it cuts very cleanly and you don't have any fiddly gluing to contend with.

Needless to say June & Stephen loved the card :)

Thank you for popping by, please take care, keep safe and look out for those that need a bit of extra help at the moment.

Feel Better Soon

Hello blog friends!

I'm back with another cute little make. A friend of mine isn't too good at the moment and is feeling pretty lousy, so I thought I would make him a little card.

I am a big, big fan of Paper Smooches and have quite a collection of their stamps, so I delved through them all to find the wonderful Healthy Vibes set.

What you need...

Stamps: Healthy Vibes - Paper Smooches

Embossing ink: Clear Ultra Slow Drying Embossing Pad - WOW!

Embossing powder: Detail Clear - Stampendous

Copic markers: E50 Egg Shell, E51 Milky White, RV00 Water Lily, RV02 Sugared Almond Pink

Card stock: aqua

Ink pad: Extreme Black - My Favorite Things

Masking paper: Stamping Mask Paper - Inkadinkado

Adhesives

What you do...

1 Cut a 9.5cm square of aqua card. Mask off an area near the bottom of the card where you want the sentiment to be.

2 Stamp the plaster randomly over the card with the clear embossing ink. Cover with the embossing powder and heat set.

3 Remove the mask and stamp the sentiment with black ink.

4 Stamp the plaster and colour in. Cut out and attach above the sentiment with foam pads.

5 Mat the panel onto a white 10cm square blank.

I find that when heating the embossing powder, it is best to do it from the back of the card. This gives you a bit more control and stops the powder over heating. 

I did use this stamp set years ago for some fun makes in Crafts Beautiful. I managed to find a photo showing one of the cards I made.

Image Copyright Crafts Beautiful

I have just finished making a couple of cards using the Silhouette, so I will be back soon with those. One is a St Patrick's Day card (June if you are reading this you know that is for you and Stephen and will be winging it's way to you soon). The other is a Mother's Day card as here in the UK Mother's Day falls on the 22nd March.

Well, I'm going to sign off for now. Thank you for stopping by. TTFN!

Rainbow Thanks - Silhouette Cameo

Hello blog friends!

I'm back with the rainbow card I promised. I made this for a friend who had bought me cute little Jack Sparrow key ring (she knows I love Pirates of the Caribbean and Johnny Depp). 

It is a simple, yet cute card using Doodlebug Designs available on the Silhouette Cameo.

What you need...

Silhouette image file: Rainbow with Clouds #185512 (Fairy Tales Collection) - Doodlebug Designs

Card stock: pink, dark pink, orange, yellow, lime, blue, white

Stamps: Many Thanks - Paper Smooches

Ink pad: Onyx Black - Versafine

Gems: clear

Adhesives

What you do...

1 Purchase and download the image design. Place on the design screen and re-size to suit.

2 Send the design to cut in the relevant shades of card stock.

3 Assemble the rainbow and clouds and stamp a sentiment on the right hand cloud.

4 Position the design onto an A6 top fold white landscape blank and secure in place. Finish with some gems on the clouds.

This was quite and easy one to assemble, so it didn't take too long to make. After all the lousy weather we've had lately, I thought this was a perfect cheery card.

If you love cute Kawaii designs, then Doodlebug Design is perfect. What is so good about their designs and papercraft items is that they stick to the same colour palette throughout, so it easy to mix and match their products.

I hope you like this cute little make and I'll be back with another cute card, this one being a feel better soon card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Simple Flower - Rare Earth Stamps - Crafts Beautiful March 2020

Hi blog friends!

If you hurry, you can pick up the latest copy of Crafts Beautiful which includes a free bunny/Spring themed stamp set by Rare Earth.

I did a few makes for the issue, including this simple floral card. I kept it in my usual style of clean and simple with a limited colour palette of white and blue.

Image copyright Crafts Beautiful

If you are looking for Easter or Spring inspiration, then look no further than this issue. It is jam packed. I particularly love the crocheted bunny ear egg cosies - so cute. There are lots of interesting features and some fab giveaways plus free backing papers of which you can download and print too.

To download the free papers, templates and see more projects, click here to take you to the Crafts Beautiful website. You will need to register, but it is free and simple to do.

Hope you like my little card and I'll be back soon with a cute rainbow make. Thanks for stopping by!

Elegant Floral

Hello blog friends!

I have decided to use more of my old stash rather than keep buying new stuff (how long that will last I don't know).

Even though I've had the items used for this card for some time, I still have listed what they are and the brand, as some of you may have them or you might be able to track them down through the power of the internet.

I usually do fun and quirky, but this time I felt like doing something more feminine and elegant.

What you need...

Patterned paper: Expressions 12" x 12" Paper Pad - Kaisercraft

Dies: Tim Holtz Plaque & Postage On The Edge Die (656628) - Sizzix; Craft Asylum Thinlits Layering Daisy (660485) - Sizzix

Stamps: Life Sentiments (CS763) - Kaisercraft

Ink pad: Extreme Black - My Favorite Things

Punch: corner rounder

Twine: white

Button: aqua

Adhesives

What you do...

1 Die cut the plaque from bold floral paper and adhere to the top of a 10.5cm x 14.5cm top fold white blank.

2 Cut a rectangle of coordinating paper 5cm x 8cm and fix to the top of the blank on the right hand side.

3 Die cut the layering daisy in another coordinating paper and fix to the bottom of the rectangular panel.

4 Stamp the sentiment under the rectangular panel.

5 Wrap and tie three lengths of twine around the top of the blank.

6 Thread and tie twine through the button and stick to the centre of the flower. Round the corners of the bottom of the blank.

I got the inspiration for the layout of this blank from Retrosketches. Sadly this blog hasn't updated since 2016, but there are over two hundred sketches/layouts for you cards to choose from with some inspirational makes.

I hope you like this little make. Don't forget you can use any stamps, papers and dies from your stash.

Thank you for popping by - TTFN!

Free Animal Pun Digi Stamps

Hello blog friends!

In a recent issue of PaperCrafter I designed some adorable digi stamps themed around cute animals. There is a cat, llama, sheep, toad and a cow. Along with the images there are also some pun sentiments included such as 'You're the cat's pyjamas!', 'No prob-llama!' and 'Love ewe!'.

I also created five cards to highlight the images and some of the puns. 

Image copyright PaperCrafter

You can download the digi stamps for free by clicking here. This will take you to the free animal pun digi stamp page on the PaperCrafter website. You will need to sign up, but it is free, quick and easy.

The website is jam packed with projects and ideas plus there are lots of other free downloads such as templates and patterned papers.

Why not pop on over to PaperCrafter for a look? There are lots more digi stamps available including some more that I have previously designed for past issues such as birdies and houses.

Thank you for popping by and I hope to be back soon!

Deck the Halls

Hello blog friends!

I want to share with you a card that I made way back in 2018 for the Crafts Beautiful Christmas Special. I still have it and thought it would be nice to show it.

It uses an ingenious stencil by Clarity Stamp. The circular stencil is made up of two layers, the lower one has the images cut out and the top one has an aperture. You place the aperture over the image you wish to stencil and the rest of the disc masks any ink or medium from marking your work.

The stencil I used is the 7" Wheelie Bauble Stencil and I teamed it up with bright, zingy colours to create a fun background.

What you need...

Stencil: Wheelie Bauble Stencil 7" - ClarityStamp

Card stock: Teal; Stencil Card 7" x 7" (50 Sheets) - ClarityStamp; 

Paint: Fresh Lime, Bubblegum Pink, Post Box Red, Calypso Teal - Dylusions

Stencil brush

Christmas phrase stamp

Ink pad: Extreme Black - My Favorite Things

Ribbon; lime green

Adhesives

What you do...

1 Cut a piece of the stencil card to 11cm x 15cm and stencil baubles randomly over the surface using different colours and bauble shapes. Leave the centre of the bauble paler to give the illusion of light reflecting off the bauble.

2 Cover a 10.5cm x 14.5cm blank with teal card.

3 Trim the bauble card to 10cm x 14cm and mat centrally onto the blank.

4 Stamp the sentiment onto white card, trim and mat onto a slightly larger piece of teal card. Attach to the blank and finish with a lime green bow.

The sentiment I used is from the Festive Greetings stamp set by WPlus9, but any large font word(s) will work.

This card uses bright, modern colours, but you could use more traditional colours if you wish.

At the time of writing this blog the stencil is £5.99 and the stencil card is £7.98. Click here to take you to the ClarityStamp website.

I know most of you will now have finished your Christmas makes, but it never too early to start for next year.

I hope to be back soon with another couple of Christmas makes so watch this space.

Thank you for stopping by! x

Christmas Snow Globe - Crafts Beautiful

Hello Blog friends!

I'd like to show you another card I did for my Masterclass tutorial in the Christmas Special of Crafts Beautiful.

I did a lovely snow globe shaker card featuring the iconic truck and tree, this was created with the Silhouette using a gorgeous image file by Lori Whitlock.

What you need...

Die cutting machine: Silhouette Cameo

Design Store image: A2 Snow Globe Shaker Card Christmas Pick-Up (#154936) - Lori Whitlock

Card stock: white, lime, aqua, red, grey, black, brown, glitter

Chipboard

Acetate

Adhesives

What you do...

1 Purchase the image and add to the Design Page. Ungroup the images, separate and cut out in the relevant colours.

2 Crease and fold the blank. Attach the back panel, globe panel, dotty circle and the hill.

3 Assemble the truck and attach to the blank.

4 Stick the globe apertures together and attach the sentiment.

5 Glue the acetate to the red circle and stick to the front of the globe aperture.

6 Place the snowflakes around the truck. Glue the globe aperture in place making sure there are no snowflakes trapped. Add a large snowflake to decorate.

I used a thin chipboard so had to cut several of the apertures. Depending on the thickness of the chipboard you will need to experiment on how many to cut. Just make sure the snowflakes can move around easy.

This complete file cost £1.31 which is great value. You could also cut the basic snow globe aperture and add your own image and shaker parts.

I hope you like this fun little card. The file also includes the envelope. I cut another little truck and stuck it to the front of the envelope.

Just before I go, I would like to mention a fantastic online card company called Paperless Post. I did do a post previously on this fab company (click here to read the post). 

I recently sent six thank you cards, I chose a gorgeous little card featuring Paddington Bear. As the thank you message was the same to all six recipients all I had to do was add their email addresses and they all were sent at the same time. 

There are hundreds of cards to choose from and all occasions, you can customise your greeting if you choose and most cards cost around six coins. You can purchase coins which are held in your account and these will not expire. Some features are free, others may cost one or two coins. Recipient response cards are also included so the recipient can acknowledge receipt of the card.

If you would like to have a look at Paperless Post then feel free to click here to take you to their website. Paperless Post is great if you need to send that last minute greeting.

Thank you so much for popping by. TTFN!

Christmas Pud Wobble Card

Hello blog friends!

As you may know I have a monthly masterclass in Crafts Beautiful where I show a card using a particular technique or product. I came across some Wobble Springs by Hampton Art and thought they would be fun to use on a Christmas card.

The Wobble Spring is basically a plastic spring element where you attach one side to you card and the other side to the back of the motif you want to wobble around.

I decided a Christmas pud would be really effective, so I searched through the Silhouette Design Store and came across the perfect pud.

What you need...

Mini Wobble Springs: Hampton Art
Digital image: Christmas Pudding (35849) Sarah Hurley - Silhouette
Digital font: Christmas Carol (237838) Carina Gardner - Silhouette
Card stock: browns, cream, green, red
Patterned paper: green dotty
Adhesives

What you do...

1 Cut the out the pudding and the lettering using your Silhouette. Assemble the pudding using red gems for the berries.

2 Cover the top 9.5cm of a 10.5cm x 14.5cm white blank with green dotty paper and add a 0.5cm strip of red card underneath.

3 Stick the lettering at the bottom of the blank, use a red gem above the 'i'.

4 Attach the Wobble Spring to the back of the pudding and then to the top of the blank. 

Ta da! A fun card made in minutes. These Wobble Springs would work really well with cute characters such as a Santa, Rudolph or an angel. A bauble would look good too.

I have another couple of makes from my masterclasses to show you, so I'll post them soon. Thank you for popping by. TTFN!