Happy Anniversary Card (for my hubby)

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you've all had a brilliant weekend. My husband and I celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary on Sunday and we had a lovely day together. As regular readers of this blog will know, Chris is registered blind with no sight in his left eye (from birth) and little sight in his right, it's hard for me to be able to judge what he can or can't see which means making a card for him is a bit of a challenge. For example he can see some colours but others (like green) appear grey and he has a large blank area in the middle of his vision so he has to sort of peer around it. One way that I get around these restrictions is to use texture on his card so he can feel the cards and to use larger than normal elements. I was really pleased to see that this month's issue of Simply Cards & Papercrafts magazine free gift is an embossing folder, die and stamp set called 'Home For Christmas'. The embossing folder is a door in between two columns which I knew would come in very handy so I was really looking forward to my subbie copy arriving last week. Unfortunately it didn't arrive on Monday even though I knew the subscription issues must have been posted as people were sharing pics on Facebook, to cut a long story short my magazine hadn't arrived by Thursday and I was panicking a bit because I wasn't sure what card to make for Chris instead. Customer services at Practical Publishing were brilliant and have done all they could to try and get a replacement copy to me and I mentioned on the SC&P Facebook page how helpful they'd been but I was a bit disappointed not to have it yet as I wanted to make the card. Amy Gray the editor of the magazine sent me a private message asking for my address so she could send the folder herself (how nice is that!), she actually sent the entire magazine which arrived on Saturday.

Here is the card I made using the door embossing folder, a brick embossing folder from my stash, a 5 die and a couple of other items from my craft stash.

I embossed the door onto some Sheena Douglass stamping card as it's a good thickness for embossing then fussy cut around it. I cut three side of the door using a craft knife and a metal ruler then used an embossing tool and the ruler to score down the uncut side. I cut a piece of green Centura Pearl cardstock slightly bigger than the door and embossed it in the folder. I trimmed it so that it was the door size and used a small hole punch to make a hole where I wanted the door knob to be. The door knob is a Tim Holtz Hitch Fastener that comes in two parts. The first is a small flat bolt that I threaded through the punched out hole then I screwed the knob piece onto it. I covered the back of the green door with red liner tape and lined it up with the white door before sticking it firmly down. I added a die cut 5 to the front of the door to represent the number of years we've been married. I ran another piece of white stamping card through the Big Shot using a brick patterned embossing folder then blended Fired Brick Distress ink over the embossed card. I needed a sentiment to go on the front of the card and I wasn't sure which stamp set to use as most of my anniversary sentiments are quite small, I found a set of scrolls and matching sentiments in with my stamps from Papermania which I haven't used in years and the Happy Anniversary stamp was the perfect size for this card. I stamped the scroll first then added the words inside - it isn't perfect but it's handcrafted so perfection isn't expected. I fussy cut the scroll out using sharp scissors. I then spend about an hour going through all our wedding photos trying to find one that would fit inside the door way. I cut the photo I chose to use slightly bigger than the door frame and taped it inside the door way as shown. I adhered the door to the embossed brick panel then added it to a white card blank.

I really like how the card turned out and I love the door embossing folder and stamp set - it's really nice to get a Christmas themed free gift that can actually be used all year round. I've been crafting a long time and subscribing or buying relevant magazines for almost as long so as you can imagine I have a huge collection of  Christmas stash - I kind of dread August onwards as I know that I'll have at least 3 if not 4 months of Christmas stuff coming free with my magazines and they soon add up! Most of the freebies are non consumables like stamps or embossing folders so my Christmas stash never gets any smaller and that doesn't even take into account the goodies I end up caving in and buying myself, so having something that I can use all year round is perfect as it means I don't have to buy even more storage boxes for something I only access about a quarter of the year.

By the way another copy of Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine turned up today and I can't tell if it's my original subscription copy or the replacement ordered on Friday so I could potentially end up with THREE 'Home For Christmas' sets. I smell a future giveaway! :)

I hope you like my latest card, this month's free gift with Simply Cards & Papercraft has a lot of potential and would make a fantastic new home card or 18th/21st birthday card - it's quite easy to get hold of small key charms so you could hang one off the door knob if you wanted to and have the door number be the relevant birthday. The stamp set even includes a set of numbers and various door adornments like a knocker, letter box and a carriage lamp.The die that comes with it has separate holly leaves and berries so you could swap them for hearts for Valentines or small flowers for spring and summer cards - the possibilities are endless!

I've made a couple of other cards which I will share with you in my next post, so until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

A card for Adam

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook. I hope you've all had a brilliant weekend. I'd like to share a card that I made for my lovely friend Adam. It was his birthday last week and I think he must have got it by now.

I Like Big Books,,,

Adam likes reading almost as much as I do so I thought he'd like this CAS card featuring this cute bookworm stamp from Clearly Besotted Stamps (Bookworm Additions) it has a matching die but I decided to fussy cut it out. The balloon diecut was made using a die that came free with Simply Cards & Papercraft Magazine. The books that "Bookie" is standing on were from the Simply Gorguss stamp "New Heights" and I inked the books and wiped off any ink that got on the girl part of the stamp. All the elements of the image were coloured in using Flexmarkers. I wrapped some baker's twine around the knot of the balloon and tied it to Bookie's tail.

I really like this card, it was quite fiddly doing the books but well worth the effort (I stamped it a couple of times because although the stamp looked clean it left traces on the first attempt). The Bookworm Additions have some long flags included with funny book related sentiments (Get lost! In a good book... for example) but I couldn't work out where to place one on this card so I left the outside sentiment free.

Close up of "Bookie"

Card for Adam

Just a short post this time, I'm working on a few things but some are for a competition so I won't be posting them on here until they are finished and sent off. I've removed the anyone can comment feature of this blog after getting even more spam than usual, I'm sorry if this puts you off commenting on the blog, if it hasn't I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments on this card and any other featured on my blog, so please leave them in the usual places. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

A card for Alex

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. It's that time of year again that I both love and fear - no not the school holidays but the Cardmaker of the Year 2015 competition! Closing date isn't until mid September but  I'm determined to get my entry in early this year not that I'm expecting to win of course as there are hundreds of more talented and/or better equipped crafters out there than me but I do like to enter the comps anyway and I've had quite a few cards featured in Readers' Galleries. I love that double take I do when I realise the card I'm admiring is actually my own lol. Has that ever happened to you?

The card I'd like to share today is another pop up box card but this one is a flowery get well card for a man in the USA called Alex. He's about to have a second knee replacement op and fellow blogger Lydia http://understandblue.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/fresco-crack-corn-rock-star-and-derwent.html asked people to send him a card in return for being entered into a blog candy giveaway for some Derwent Inktense pencils which I'd really love to win. I don't have a stock of ready made get well cards as I like to make them to suit the recipient but I was fortunate enough to get "Simply Cards & Papercraft" magazine yesterday and it has a stitched balloon and flower die as it's free cover gift. I thought the flower would be perfect combined with my current favourite type of card blank.

Pop up Box card for Alex

I wanted to keep the box design fairly simple so I chose a pretty grey card stock to make the box with. I also rounded the corners of the flaps which I rather like. I die cut 12 flowers using 250gsm white card and coloured them using Flexmarkers and ProMakers. The centres of the flowers are die cut too and fell out when I removed them from the die so I added "Newsprint" Card Candi to replace them and used the leftover circles to cover the foam squares I used to stick the candi down. I staggered the heights of the flowers by adding the heads to different lengths of acetate, then added a silver get well soon peel off and roses as shown. The middle flower at the back had a tendency to flop about so I added a panel of white card to the back box flap and stamped a verse onto it. This has added much needed support to the back flowers.

Card with supported back panel

Close up of stitched flowers

I hope you like my latest card, I really love the stitched flower and balloon die that I got free and I know I'm going to get a lot of use out of it. I've made a card using the balloon element but don't want to share it just yet as it's for a friend's birthday and I don't want to spoil the surprise. I will be adding it to my blog on or after the 15th.

As always if you have any questions or comments relevant to this post or to craft in general, then please leave them in the usual places. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Cool Cats like Milk (Cartons)

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all well and have been up to lots of exciting stuff. It's all quiet here in my crafty nook, I'm slowly getting my craftroom back to normal after Charlie's visit - I keep finding things out of their packaging and stamps back in their packaging but not cleaned of ink *shudders* - this is really challenging my craft OCD! My latest crafting obsession is mini milk cartons. I've only made three so far but I'm loving making them and I expect I'll be making some to fill with sweets nearer to Christmas. I used an embossing/scoring board that came free with issue 136 of Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine that was on sale last month. The instructions in the magazine state cut your paper to 12x16cm but I discovered you could make a taller version using an 8" square sheet of scrapbook paper though the lip to stick the carton together on the longest side is very narrow (it can be done though) and you need to flip the card 90 degrees to carry on the score lines and ignore the final horizontal scoreline and add another one at the (new) top once you've flipped it, if these instructions are unclear please leave a comment below and I'll add a photo tutorial.

Mini Milk Cartons using embossing/scoring board

Cool Cats Milk Carton

Close up of Hobbycrafts Cat stamp coloured with Ice grey ProMarkers

"Stars" milk carton

Extra Tall Milk carton made using Trimcraft Fun Fair paper

Milk Cartons

I shall be experimenting using different sizes of paper/card to see what else can be made using this embossing board. I'm planning on filling these handy containers with bags of sweets and adding red liner tape to the top flap but leaving it unsealed so the recipient can take the sweets out of the bag and pour into the milk carton, seal it using the tape and pour out the sweets using the carton spout like you would milk. Home made bath salts would be good to give in one of these too but you'd need to use plastic coated card so it doesn't warp in the bathroom.

I hope you've enjoyed this project share as much as I did making them, if you'd like to make some yourself then please go to www.moremags.com where you should be able to order issue 136 of Simply Cards & Papercraft Magazine, some issues may still be floating about in newsagents etc because issue 137 has only just come out. I'd love to learn how to make the American style Chinese Takeaway boxes next, I know you can get a die to make one but I'd love to be able to make one using a scoreboard, I'll have to Google it at some point. If you have any questions, comments etc please leave them in the usual places and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs

Sarah xxx

Birthday Star Card

Hello crafty peeps, welcome to my crafty nook. I mentioned in my last blog that I needed to make a card for Steve, Isobel's daddy and I'd like to share the card I've come up with. Originally I wanted to make an iPhone shaker card using a stamp set from Clearly Besotted called "Text Me" and I got as far as making the shaker element. Unfortunately after I'd made the shaker iPhone I had a craft block and couldn't think of what to put on the rest of the card! I've decided to shelve the shaker card for now and instead I made a star card using a star stencil that came free with issue 130 Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine (talking of which check out this month's issue which has a huge stamp set from Clearly Besotted stamps with It!!!) and the nesting stars dies that came free with Simply Homemade magazine a couple of issues ago.

Star card using magazine freebies

I used the stencil straight onto a 5" square card blank and added different coloured chalk inks using a sponge dauber. While the inks dried I die cut the stars out using holographic card in gold and silver. I layered them together to make the first star shape then just die cut the second using the smallest star die. This die also embosses a small flower in the centre which I thought was too girly so I punched out a small star out of black holographic card. As I had the punch to hand I punched as many stars as I could using the leftover card pieces from the die cutting. I nestled the smaller die cut star inside the larger and secured them together using some clear tape on the back, I added the black star to cover the embossed flower using a small foam pad, then added the star embellishment to the centre of the stamped card blank. I accidentally got a mark near the top of the card so wrapped bakers twine to cover over it and finished with a bow.

Close up of star embellishment

The free stencil also came with some stamps and I used the Happy Birthday! greeting from it to stamp inside the card. The stamps had to be primed with sandpaper a lot to get a decent image and even after sanding it 4 times I still didn't get a good impression so I went over it with a ProMarker multi liner pen. I added 7 of the punched stars to the left hand side and stuck them down inside the card.

I hope you like my latest card, I've three more cards to make in the next week or two which I hope to be able to share with you too. I'll probably be taking part in the Passion for ProMarkers blog challenge on Tuesday and I'll share my card/project once it's made but until then enjoy the rest of your weekend and keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx