Do the Robot

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all enjoying the weekend, it is glorious here in Bridlington though a little chilly out of the sun. It's my great-nephew's birthday later on this month so I've made him a card - aren't I organised (lol, not really). I got some Dovecraft small stamp sets from Craft Stash recently and one of them was a robot. which reminded me of another robot stamp I own and haven't used called "Roger Robot" by Woodware. The robot stamp is in parts which makes it perfect for making a movable robot card and that's what I've made.

Roger doing the Robot

I stamped the robot parts onto super smooth card and coloured it the images in with Flex Markers then fussy cut them all out. I used a pokey tool to put holes through the parts and added the head and limbs to the body using grey brads. I added Glossy Accents to the eyes and red elements on the robot and left it to dry. I embossed a piece of purple pearlised metallic card using the CC Just For Men Signature Collection by Sara Davies Pop Dotty embossing folder and went over the embossing with a silver gilding wax. I adhered this to a panel of black card and made a card blank out of more super smooth white card. I added the panel and decorated the inside of the card with a Dovecraft sentiment and Robot stamp. I coloured them both in with Flex Markers. Once the Glossy Accents were dry, I added the Robot to the front using foam tape on the torso only so that the arms, legs and head can be moved. Here are some more photos including the decorated handmade envelope.

The star and the "sending smiles across the miles" stamped images were made using Jillibean Soup stamp set "Flying High" which I also got in my Craft Stash order.

I hope you like my latest card, I really like Roger's movable parts and I hope my Great-Nephew likes it too. Hopefully I'll have some time later to make a few more cards. As always if you have any questions or comments then please leave them below and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxxx

Fifteen Shades of Grey

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all well and looking forward to the weekend. It's hard to believe it's June already, it doesn't seem like five minutes ago we were celebrating the start of 2016 and now we're nearly halfway through. Talking about 'June' I lost the month of June stamp from one of my Kaisercraft stamp sets (which as it was a calendar stamp set made it a bit useless) last year and I finally found it yesterday! I only have to find my Cat's Pyjamas Villain-esque moustache die and I'll been as happy as a cat in PJ's (which probably isn't that happy really when you think about it lol). It's even smaller than the June stamp so I'm not going to hold my breath.

Sorry the image isn't very clear - I think the camera is sulking.

Today's card features my beloved 'Starlet' from the Crafter's Companion Verity Rose range. I'm not sure what it is about Starlet that's captured my imagination but I'm really loving colouring her in different ways at the moment. Today I've coloured in Greyscale and as the title suggests I've used 15 shades of grey to colour her in! I used Promarkers Warm Greys 1 - 5, Cool Greys 1 - 5 and Ice Greys 1- 5. I stamped the image using Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto Sheena's stamp card and there was a little bleeding outside the outside edge of the image when I coloured her in but not too much. Once I'd coloured the image I added white highlights to her eyes and pearl necklace using a while gel pen and added some Spectrum Noir clear Sparkle brush marker to her hair gem then covered it with a thin layer of Glossy Accents. I used a ticket corner punch to remove the corners and mounted the topper onto a piece of black card stock. I layered this onto a piece of silver glitter card. I cut a sheet of A4 black card down to 28cm and scored it in half at 14cm. Using a score board I dry embossed two lines down each side of the card front and three top and bottom of the card for added interest and then added some thin strips of glitter card between the embossed borders. I added the topper panel to the card leaving a larger space below so I can add a sentiment at a later date. I decided the silver glitter strips were a bit 'in your face' so went over them with a black marker so that the card appears a slate grey. Unfortunately as I was colouring the strips in I managed to smear black marker ink all on the topper - I nearly cried! Luckily I remembered it was alcohol based so used my Promarker blender pen all over the outside lines of the stamped image paying special attention to the smudge marks. I'll be honest with you, to begin with the blender pen made the marks look worse but I decided to let the piece dry and see what happened before panicking. I watched a couple of programmes on TV then when I went back in to my crudy I found that the marks had practically vanished.

Here are a couple more photos.

A close up of the Starlet 15 shades of grey card

Can you spot where the smear marks were??

I really enjoyed making this card today even if I did nearly ruin it with smudge marks *note to self - remember to wipe your hands in future*. I got a couple of small orders in the post today (both from Craft Stash - a Let's Celebrate stamp and an emoji die by Spellbinders) so I'm hoping to have a play with them over the weekend. I'd also like to colour one of the Verity Rose images in browns so it looks sepia. I've never tried that before but I think the images would suit that style. As always if you have any questions or comments then please leave them in the comment section below. I hope you all have a brilliant weekend, hopefully the weather will improve and it won't be quite so cold! Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Ever Decreasing Circles

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you all had a brilliant Bank Holiday weekend. It's a wet and windy Tuesday here on the East coast - definitely staying inside and crafting weather. I was up most of the night unable to sleep due to the wind (and Jinx was hogging the bed!) so I've made a couple of cards to share with you today. I actually started quite a few more but they weren't going the way I'd hoped for so I'll put them away until another day and I'll try to salvage them then.

If you are a regular reader of this blog then you've probably noticed that I usually have a hand coloured image so I thought I'd challenge myself to make a couple of cards which have little or even no stamping on at all, instead I've used dies and embossing folders to embellish my cards. I wanted to make two cards using circle dies as I really like circles and I have a set of Spellbinders large nesting dies and a 4" Sizzix Bigz die. I have used both for these cards.

Flamingo Circles Gatefold Card

Close up of card front with hot pink vellum flamingo

Circles gatefold card - open

Sentiment from Verity Rose 'Cupcake' stamp set

Inside of card with embossed side panels

Close up of Vellum flamingo inside open card

Clock Circle Easel Card

Close up of Easel topper

Easel card shut for posting

Decorated base with raised gear stopper

I love the way you can take the same items and yet make two very different cards with them. The flamingos were die cut out of neon hot pink vellum using a die from the Crafter's Companion Verity Rose 'Sunbeam' collection. While the vellum was still in the die, I placed it on a piece of funky foam with the die face down and embossed all the open areas with an embossing tool, I flipped the die over and added some detail to the eye and the beak using an alcohol marker. I die cut a simple heart shape out of the pink vellum scraps. For the instructions on how to make a circle gatefold card, please click on this link http://smwcraftynook.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/circle-gatefold-card.html - I used a super smooth 300gsm cardstock for the base and embossed the front panels and the two side panels using Crafter's Companion Just For Men Signature Collection by Sara Davies 'Pop Dotty' embossing folder. I die cut a number of circles using the Spellbinders Nestabilities dies out of black and white card and embossed them as shown. I love the quirky sentiment from the CC Verity Rose 'Cupcake' stamp set and thought it was perfect for the flamingos as I personally think they are both "graceful and silly".

I used similar supplies to make this circle easel card but I used Sheena's Stamping card for the base as it's more sturdy than the super smooth card that I used for the flamingo card. I cut my card to 8.5" x 4.25" and scored it 4.25" using a scoreboard. I carefully lined the the square card blank so most of the circle of the Bigz die was covered but a little of the circle die was visible above the folded edge of the card - this is so the card appears to be a circle but remains joined together at the top to form a circle card blank. Using the scoreboard I scored the top part of the card in half (at 2" as my die is 4"), this becomes the mechanism for the easel. I die cut another circle of card using the same die out of white card then black. I die cut another circle out of the black piece so it formed a frame shape as shown using one of the Spellbinders Nestabilities circle dies. I put the spare black circle to one side for later use. I put a small piece of white card into a CC Just For Men Signature Collection by Sara Davies 'Time Piece' embossing folder and ran it through my Big Shot, once embossed I lined up a circle die around the embossed clock face and die cut it out. I then very carefully went over the hands etc of the embossed clock with a black gel pen. I die cut a gold circle out using a die and matted the clock face onto it as shown. I added foam squares to the back of the black frame and thicker foam tape to the layered clock face then die cut a lot of gears using CC Just For Men Signature Collection by Sara Davies 'Cogs and Gears' Dies out of gold mirror card. Once these were cut I added the clock face to the centre of the large white die cut circle and stuck the gears and cogs down as shown with wet glue. I added one of the circle centres from a gear onto the middle of the clock face as shown and once the gears were well stuck down I added the black frame over the edges of the cogs lining it up with the edge of the white circle. I added wet glue to the lower half of the finished panel and stuck it firmly to the easel mechanism of the card. I then die cut even more cogs and gears for the base. I cut the large gears in half both under the clock face and on the card base as the whole gear wouldn't show. I sketched around the black card circle that I'd put aside previously with a pencil and filled in the outer part of the card base with gears and cogs being careful that the edges of the halved ones were well inside the pencil circle. Once the edge was filled with gears and cogs, I added the black circle over them so that the cut edges were covered but there was still plenty of the gears etc showing. I made a stopper for the easel out of spare gears as shown.

Sorry this has been such a long blog post but I wanted to have both cards on the same post to demonstrate how you can get two very different cards using similar supplies. I really enjoy working with the Signature Collections especially the Just For Men collection. I've only got a couple of dies and the embossing folders so far but I've found them to be very versatile and not just for men as the flamingo card demonstrates! I look forward to adding to my collection soon. I hope you've enjoyed this blog post, as always if you have any questions or comments then please leave them in the comment section below. If this weather persists then I'll have some more cards to share with you soon, until then - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Tool Time Tool Box card

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all enjoying the bank holiday weekend (if you are having one where you are of course). I've not really noticed the weather as I've been holed up in my crudy sorting things out and trying to make some cards. I have plenty of ideas but getting them to turn out right in the real world is being rather challenging at the moment. *big sigh*

Tool Time Pop Up Tool Box

I'd like to share a masculine card with you today, it's based on one of my favourite cards - the pop up box card. I've been making these sort of cards for about a year and love them. I got an embossing folder from Crafters' Companion that's part of the Just for Men Signature Collection by Sara Davies (I got all of the embossing folders and although I have some similar, these folders are a different size to the ones in my collection). The one called 'Checkerplate' really caught my eye as it remind me of embossed steel. My father-in-law is the person I turn to when we need any handyman stuff doing so I thought a tool box card would be perfect for him either for Father's Day or when we want to say thanks. I didn't want to make the box the same dimensions as my usual pop up box cards as a tool box tends to be shallower and narrower than a cardboard box so I started off by making a paper template before I started to cut into my card. If you ever want to alter dimensions of cards then I'd suggest trying it out with copier paper first as it's a lot cheaper than card stock - your card won't stand up obviously but you can see if your measurements actually work.

Once I'd made a paper model of the tool box I cut a sheet of A4 card down to 14 cm but left it full length. I scored the card at 4cm, 14cm, 18cm and 28cm, then rotated the card so the short side was at the top of the scoring board and scored it at 6 cm. I then burnished the score lines well. I cut down the 28cm scoreline to the 6cm scoreline then tapered the cut on an angle to the edge of the card so that I could stick this card flap to the inside of the left hand side of the card once I'd decorated the box panels. I cut all the remaining score lines down to 6cm to make box flaps but removed the shortest flaps completely leaving just the flaps on the longest sides. I cut two pieces of pale blue pearlised metallic card to 3.5cm by 7.5cm, two pieces of the same card cut to 7.5cm x 9.5cm and finally two pieces of the card cut to 5.5cm by 9.5cm. I embossed these pieces of card with the 'Checkerplate' embossing folder. I went over the embossing with some silver gilding wax then buffed it up. I added these embossed panels to the relevant parts of the card. Once the card was decorated I stuck the flap to the inside of the left hand side of the card using double sided tape. Usually a pop up box card has two strips of card inside the box to float the elements from using acetate but because this tool box is narrower than a normal box card I only added a single strip of card that was cut to 14cm x 6cm (this is deeper than a normal strip to support the weight of the die cut tools.) I scored both ends 2cm in and added wet glue to the flaps and slid it into place inside the card - the bottom of the card strip is level with the box card bottom edges. I then die cut a load of tools using My Favorite Things Die'namics "Tool Time" dies. There are a similar set of tool dies in the CC Just for Men Signature Collection by Sara Davies but I haven't bought them yet as I already had the Tool Time. As much as I love the Signature Collection (and I really want it all) I have limited funds for crafting so can't justify paying full price for an item that's really similar to the one I've already got, saying that if it's ever on sale it's be straight in my basket assuming I have some money in my account lol. Most of the MFT tools come in at least two parts (some are three) so I die cut the whole tool in either Kraft card stock or silver mirror card then die cut the matching pieces in either a coloured card or more of the mirror card depending on what piece it was, I then stuck all the tool pieces together. It was at this point that I realised I would need a second tool for each one cut for the backs of the tools as they can be seen due to the way the tool box is fully opened. The hammer and saws had to be die cut on the reverse of the card so that the outlines matched. The screwdrivers and wrenches are symmetrical  so line up regardless of how they are die cut. Once the tools had backs I stuck them to the inside of the card as shown, I tried to angle the tools and placed them in different heights to make the layout look more appealing. I had a hammer left over so attached it to the outside of the tool box with it's head glued to the inside so it looks like someone's balanced it there until they need it. I haven't added a sentiment to this card yet as I'm not sure what occasion I'll use it for but I have added white card panels to the underside of the flaps. Here are some more photos of the finished card.

I really enjoyed making this card, it was quite time consuming die cutting all the parts to the tools but I'm very pleased with how they've turned out and they are certainly substantial! I really like the embossed metal effect I got using the Checkerplate embossing folder and I can see myself using it a lot for other masculine cards. I've got a few more cards to share with you but this has turned out to be a rather long blog post so I'll write about them another day. I hope you all enjoy your Bank Holiday Monday and I hope you have lots of crafty fun. As always if you have any comments or questions then please leave them in the comments section below and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Starlet Double Wiper Card

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! It's the start of another bank holiday weekend here in the UK which means extra craft time - woo hoo! I've been working on a couple of projects recently and I'd like to share the first with you now. One of the designer team's cards on Passion for Promakers intrigued me last week as it was a card shape I'd not come across before so I clicked on the link and discovered it was something called a wiper card. I looked on Youtube and found a tutorial by Splitcoaststampers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDrn0UG2Bto (please click the link for instructions on how to make a single wiper card). There was also a tutorial for a window wiper card (a double wiper) by Tinkerella on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z0NqSscvhQ. This second tutorial makes a card slightly smaller than the first tutorial so I decided to combine the two ideas and make a double wiper card in the larger size.

Starlet card front

Close up of "Startlet" ~Verity Rose from Crafter's Companion

Open double wiper card (front)

Double star on the right front wiper

Die cut clapper board left wiper

Back view of open double wiper card

double star back wiper

Side panels with die cut stars on rear of card

Side panels with die cut stars on front of card

Starlet is ready for her close up *winks*

Sorry there are so many photos but there are a lot of elements to this card and I wanted you to be able to see the full effect (without seeing it in person) as best as I could. If I had a proper camera I would have videoed a tutorial and added it to this blog but unfortunately my camera finds it difficult to take unblurry photos most of the time lol (it must be in a good mood at the moment because these are really clear for a change!)

In addition to the Crafter's Companion Verity Rose "Starlet" stamp, I used the matching accessories stamps and dies (camera), a Kanban Tickets stamp set (the stars on the ticket), a nesting Creative Dies set "stars", a Tim Holtz Ticket strip die, a labels die set (back panel die cut) and a movie themed set of dies from First Editions (small stars, clapper board and film strip.) The papers were from a 6" x 6" paper stack by Dovecraft Basic Blacks and the silver, holographic black and glitter card were scraps left from other projects. Starlet's skin and eyes were coloured in using Promarkers (three shades of green on her eyes!) and her clothes and hair etc were coloured in using Crafter's Companion Sparkle brush markers in black and grey. I added a Craftworks Card Candi in silver foil on her head piece.

I really love this card and I'll admit that it isn't the easiest card to make in fact my first attempt at making a double wiper card went drastically wrong and my wipers were visible when the card was 'shut' and vanished when it was opened lol - I'm still not sure what went wrong. This card is a little on the thick side so you'll probably end up paying extra postage on it so I recommend hand delivering it - for the look on the recipient's face as much as saving postage. I can see a lot of potential cards - Hallow'een would be great for this sort of card as you could have pop-up ghosts or vampire bats and you can always have sentiment panels on the wipers too so you can personalise the card for any occasion. I hope I've inspired you to make your own wiper card, I haven't written the instructions because the Splitcoaststampers tutorial is brilliant and I know I find it easier to watch a video rather than follow written instructions (I write all the new to me card styles down in a book for future reference) but if you'd like a written tutorial on how to make this card then please leave a message in the comments section and I'll try to do a detailed written tutorial with photos of each step in the near future.

I hope you've liked this card as much as I have (I want to keep it!!) and if it inspires you to make your own version then please let me know and share a link to your blog in the comments section as I'd love to see what everyone comes up with. I'm hoping to add a new blog post in the next day or two as I've made a fantastic card for Father's Day that I'd like to share. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Spellbound Card

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you've had a brilliant weekend and are raring to go for the week ahead. My mum asked me to make a card for a friend's birthday who likes pastels and butterflies. I didn't want to make a card solely featuring butterflies so decided to use a new stamp set I purchased during the Crafter's Companion sale a few weeks ago.

Spellbound Birthday Card

Close up of stamped image

Lindsay Mason Designs Verse

I really love the Flights of Fantasy by Morgan Fitzsimons stamps and "Aoife" (I hope I never have to pronounce that!) is such a beautiful image. I coloured the image in with Promarkers (vanilla,blush, Sandstone, cinnamon, lilac, lavender, amethyst, blossom, pale pink, powder blue, leaf green) and went over the wings of Aoife with CC Clear Sparkle pen and then coated them with Glossy Accents. I embossed a panel of silver mirror card using a Darice wood grain embossing folder and added it behind the main topper. I cut a sheet of A4 purple card to 29cm and scored it in half at 14.5cm to make a card blank then added a panel of Sarabooks purple paper on top before adding the matted and layered topper. I added three purple gems to the bottom right hand corner as shown and stamped a sentiment inside. I die cut two small butterflies using CC Sara Signature dies and added them to the inside with dots of Glossy Accents.

I haven't added a birthday sentiment to this card in case my mum doesn't like it so I'll be able to use it for someone else if I need to plus this is such a beautiful image I thought the recipient might like to frame it afterwards (I'm thinking about doing a number of these fairies and framing them for Christmas presents).

I hope you like my latest card, I really love the images and look forward to making more cards, I'd like to experiment with different colouring mediums instead of my usual Promarkers. As always if you have any questions or comments then please leave them in the usual places. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Happy 7th Anniversary Passion for Promarkers Blog!

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you've had a brilliant week, I can't believe it's almost the weekend again. Have you got anything special planned? As you might have realised from this post title, it's a very special week for the wonderful Passion for Promarkers Blog as they are celebrating their 7th anniversary. Wow, I wonder if I'll be celebrating seven years of blogging myself? If you are a regular reader of my blog then you'll know about the fantastic blog challenge PFP has on a weekly basis. I don't enter every week but I do make a point of checking out the themes they have every week and enter when I'm making a card that fits in with the challenge. I don't tend to enter the challenges that don't fit in with my own needs purely for the reason that if I don't have a card to make for my own use then the card I do make ends up cluttering my crudy and that's a room bursting at the seams as it is lol. I've made an exception this week though as I thought the theme of spots and/or stripes sounded like a lot of fun plus I want to start revisiting some of my older stamp sets and this was a perfect opportunity to do so.

Passion for Promarkers have got some fantastic prizes (as always) to give away for this week's challenge so if you'd like to join in then please click on the link http://promarkerchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/week-346special-anniversary-challenge.html . You can enter up to three times but they won't be giving out top five badges like most weeks (I'm still very proud of my own in the sidebar) as they will have lots of entries to check out.

Acid Drops & Whatnots "Birthday Splash" card

Close up of image coloured with Promarkers

Spots and stripes themed card

To make this card I used the following products: Acid Drops & Whatnots "Birthday Splash" stamp set free with Papercraft Essentials Issue 95. Papermania Capsule Collection "Spots & Stripes>Brights" 6" x 6". Blue linen card Crafter's Companion Clear Sparkle pen. Glossy Accents (for the water - it's hard to see in photos). Starfish charm, red glitter enamel dots and Bakers Twine. Foam pads and DS tape. Memento Tuxedo Black ink. 5" x 5" white card blank and envelope. Promarkers in Cool Grey 1, Almond, Cool Aqua, Tea Green, Indigo Blue and Midnight Blue.

I didn't have an exact match for the dark blue stripes in the paper so I combined my two darkest blues to colour in the bathing suit of this quirky character.It's hard to tell in the photos but the card is very sparkly in real life and I even added touches of it to the Bakers Twine.

I hope you like my latest card, it's very simple but a lot of fun to make and it was good to challenge myself to use a stamp set that's been languishing in my stash for a couple of years. I do hope you click on the link and check out the Passion for Promarkers blog, even if you don't join in with the challenge it's a great place for inspiration and to check out what other crafters are making.

I hope you all have a brilliant weekend and as always if you have any questions or comments then please leave them in the usual places. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx