Designer paper

I know, I keep saying how much I love it. I think all of the papers in this years annual catalogue are beautiful.
Today I have a card which makes a good way of showing off most of a paper pack.
A friend who is running the card and a cuppa class I started up in Halifax was telling me about a diamond fold card she was doing. It was a fold I didn't think I knew so she popped all the bits in an envelope for me to make my own. From that I created my own template and found I could use 10 out of 12 pieces of designer paper on one card.
The paper I have used here is Garden Lane designer paper Its the pack I made 2 cards with that I was going to show you a few weeks ago, I still haven't found them!

The diamond fold...... side 1 using 5 paper designs.

Side 2 using 4 paper designs...

So just 3 designs missing from this lovely pack. I struggled to choose which side to add the sentiment, and then what to add. I remembered I had some of the leaf ribbon, a real I hadn't started, exciting another new to me product. Then I punched leaves with 2 different punches.

I have to say I love this pack of 'green' papers, its pretty, delicate, spring like, just beautiful.

 The closed card.

More of the Fanciful Fragrance

Having used the stamp set in a simple way with one colour, today I moved onto casing the catalogue.
The only problem is my pictures aren't as good!
Although I have cased the catalogue I have changed the card a little with some water colouring and the addition of some ribbon.
Check out page 112 in the catalogue. I have embossed the scent bottles with copper embossing powder but I couldn't get it to show up on the photos.

Once I had completed the embossing I water coloured each bottle. Then using the stamped off method added the script. That lovely long decorative border is one of the stamps, I think this will get a lot of use. I then added the tufted ribbon which is already a favourite.

 A little three D make next time....... watch this space.

Organisation

Todays blog isn't about something I have created but about having a new craft space. Its 3 years since I crafted at home. It's going to take a while to get used to it. The room is small and I have a lot of stuff! I am trying to be really organised so that everything I use is put away when I have finished. In this way I aim to keep my desk clear. I do have some way to go.
At the moment I do not have any shelves so there are a lot of bits and pieces on my desk top, including my inks, blends, marker pens, tombo glue etc etc.

Stampin'Up have a new range of storage. It comes in lots of parts that fit together in as many combinations as you can think off. I have only bought for one colour family of inks and my blends, I shall be buying a bit more each month until Christmas.

It was only whist I was filling this I rrealised I either haven't got and 'Brights' re inkers or they are still in a box so the Tombo has home for now.  In the picture I have 2 ink pad storage units, I blends stack, 1 open storage and 2 top trays. 

Eventually all my ink pads, re inkers, marker pens, ink spots and other bits will be stored in these and the whole lot will be on a shelf just above the desk top.

The Stampin'Up image storage

Shopping

Storage all parts

A day of crafting with Fanciful Fragrance

Home again after a week away being 'Nana'. It was wonderful but exhausting. I had three under 5 so why have I found looking after one wonderful little poppet such hard work. Time to hit the exercise and diet blogs.

Today I have spent most of my time in my craft room. I am beginning to get it organised and find things. There are still 4 large boxes to open but they will have to wait until I need something I can't find! I just don't have space for anything else.
Todays card is very simple, one colour, one stamp set and a little ribbon.

This stamp set Fanciful Fragrance was top of my wish list when I first saw the catalogue. This is my first make, with crumb cake and the lovely Very vanilla, scalloped lace trim

The images on the base card, the script and fleur de lys are stamped using the s'tamped off' method in crumb cake.

The ribbon I have tied in small bows and attached with a glue dot. The main image is stamped onto very vanilla then I have cut the shape by hand.

 The stamp set,  Fanciful Fragrance:- 9 rubber stamps. 4 sentiments and 5 images.

And to finish a picture from last week of Jasper.......

Shopping

Stamps: Fanciful Fragrance                          149281
Ribbon: Very Vanilla Scalloped Lace Trim 149593
Other:    Glue dots                                         103683

If you shop online this month please use the hostess code Y6KM2BDP. If your order is over £30 I will send you a crafty gift in September.
       

A rather different kind of creation

Today I promised myself I would show you the butterfly cards I have made but last Monday all our boxes arrived from storage, within 2 hours I couldn't move in my craft room, there was no floor area showing just stacks of boxes four high! Thats what happens when you try and put 10 gallons in a pint pot!!!
Before they arrived I cleared my desk and now I can't find the butterfly cards I had put away so carefully. So I have something a bit different to show you.
My youngest son Bob is very involved in the design and build of sets for the Wilderness festival which is held near Oxford on the first weekend in August. His wife Rhi this year has created the decoration for the banqueting hall. Today I have helped her put those decorations together whilst my OH has been doing his Grandpa roll with young Jasper. (6 months).
It's the first time I have worked in a high vis jacket.......

We created four of these, at some point tomorrow they will be hoisted to the roof of the marque.

This is us yesterday. David taking a selfie of Jasper who wasn't that amused at the time! He is a little darling. I will post a picture at the weekend of the banquet marque when it is full of punters eating.

Daisy Lane goes distressed!

Two cards today, each what I would class as a little distressed. Yes there is lots of daubing mainly in crumb cake and that lovely scraping of the edges with the scissor blade! Gosh it is messy!!!

The first card uses the same colours and similar style to the box of flowers I posted a couple of days ago. Rich Razzleberry and Blushing Bride. I love this colour combo.

The flowers are stamped in the rich razzleberry then punched out. I have stamped and punched three flowers. I have then cut each flower in half around the central part, putting them together to give twice as many petals...... no wastage. The centres have a been painted with wink of stella. I just love that pen!

 I have stamped the stems and leaves in Pear Pizzaz and stamped off plus a few in stamped off crumb cake.
The layer of white hexagons is a discontinued product, I have added just a little scalloped lace, 2 scraps from my box of bits. I never throw anything away.

The second card uses the same stamp set but with watercolour pencils. The only flowers in the garden of the new house have been a patch of daisies. I even made my OH half mow around them when he cut the grass. They have sadly all finished their flowering now but this is how they looked on my grass.

The stems and flower heads were stamped in versamark and left to dry. I then coloured with the watercolour pencils, even a very light scribble for the background then washed with water. I have highlighted each flower petal, parts of the stems and leaves with my chalk marker pen. I have to admit this is the first time I have been really impressed with the chalk marker. I would have used the whiteThat is also how I added the dots of white. The other 'dots' / spatter are made with a marker pen. This is also a first. I have read about this technique in a number of other blogs but this is the first time I have used it. I think its effective. What do you think?

 I think I have now shown you how versatile this set is. When I have unpacked all my boxes (which arrived from storage last Monday) I hope do be creative with the two daisy sets together.

Shopping
Daisy Lane Bundle (stamp set and punch)  151118

Watercolour pencils 141709

Wink of stella     141897

For all orders between £30 and £149 please use the hostess code Y6KM2BDP when you place your order online. In August I will send you half a pack of gold faceted gems. They make great flower centres.

Fancy Fold Daisy Lane card

This is one of my favourite folds and generally gets an 'oooh'. The new smaller daisy punch makes this card much easier and I have used the stamps too!

The Blushing Bride pink and Rich Razzleberry were on my desk from tidying up so I used these as they came to hand first! So my little box of half daisies, they do look like another flower I have forgotten the name of but I just think of them as pretty.

A few punched out leaves and some of that lovely Garden Lane Designer paper. This is probably my least favourite sheet in the pack so that shows how delicious it all is. More on that and some butterflies on Tuesday.

The centre of the flower with the sentiment is a clear faceted gem coloured with the rich razzleberry 

Blends Pen, what a difference that makes. The centres of the other flowers I have painted with the Wink of Stella.

How thrilled would you be to receive that on your birthday?

Shopping

Daisy Lane bundle (stamps and punch)    151118

Garden lane Designer Paper.                      149488

Faceted Gems                                             144142

Rich Razzleberry Blends pen                    144602

Contact me to order or you can order from my online shop so the parcel comes direct to your door. If you do order please use the hostess code 976TGFF6 until 31st July.

Then in August I will send you a dozen frosted flower embellishments.

Happy shopping

Daisy Lane

I'm back!
 Its been a very busy few weeks, decorating and having visitors to our new house. The furniture for my very small craft room arrived yesterday and I have most of my things away so that I can find everything. On Monday the boxes from storage arrive, no idea where I am going to put that lot!!!

So today I have been having a play with the Daisy Lane bundle. This is a stamp set with 9 rubber stamps and a matching punch. This bundle compliments the Daisy Delight set that is still in the catalogue and many of my customers bought a while ago. I like this one, the punched daisy is smaller and I think more in proportion to a card base. I do love the big punch for the 3d items that are easily made. This daisy fits into the large one to give a brilliant double flower.

This image shows the different sizes of the daisy punch. The top one being the newer smaller flower. There are two punched out daisies to each flower, the one below is the older larger punched flower, this has been removed from my fairy light display!

This picture shows the two daisies sat together, don't they look great. I am sure there will be many of you thinking about the 3D items you can make.

The stamp set and punch, this is a great bundle £32.25. It's on page 23 of the catalogue. I haven't used the stamp set on either of these daisies, I have more makes showing the stamped image over this coming week.

This is the Daisy delight stamp set ,  on page 96.

Such a versatile suite of stamps and punches.

I have an order going in this weekend, or you can order from my online shop so the parcel comes direct to your door. If you do order please use the hostess code 976TGFF6 and in August I will send you a dozen frosted flower embellishments.

Shopping

Daisy Lane bundle (stamps and punch)    151118

Daisy Delight stamp set                              143669

Large daisy punch                                        143713

If you would like a catalogue sending out please contact me at karen@krafting.co.uk

Cards for sad times....

We all have these cards to send from time to time. 

This one is for a friend who's Step Father passed away last weekend. He would have loved this as he was a great card maker himself. Making Christmas cards to raise funds for a charity close to his heart after his wife died. Frank was in his 90's, he had a heart of gold, an infectious chuckle and was up for most things any day of the week. He will be much missed by his friends and family. R.I.P.

Daisy Lane without the daisy!

I have a lot of floral stamps as have many of my customers but often these sets have a leaf or squiggle that is suitable to make a man's card with no floral images. This one is all about the ink.

How many shades of green do we have in the Stampin'Up colour family without the 'In colours". 

They are all here with the lovely fern leaf stamp. The fussy cut leaf is in the very beautiful 'Soft Sea Spray colour. You will be seeing a lot more of this.

A little twist of braided twine around the centre with a sentiment to finish.The card base and matt layer are Mossy meadow and Granny Apple Green.

A Soft Sea Foam stamp on the inside to finish it off

A little salute to beautiful Designer Paper

Do you have those days when you are desperate to get into your craft room/space then when it happens all those ideas you had run away? Thats where I am at the moment. When I am putting satinwood on the skirting board or cleaning windows the ideas seem to come thick and fast but once I make time to sit in the space I have created to craft my head is empty.
Today I put a pack of designer paper on my desk - Perennial Essence.

I thought I would make 2 cards, using one sheet as both sides are so pretty. I also got out a pack of Stampin'Up note cards and envelopes as they are that bit smaller so simpler cards are better.

My creations.....

I started with the purpleish designer paper first, love this one, I should have used Blackberry Bliss and Petal Pink card but I don't have any left of either of these colours so I have used Rich Razzleberry and the new Incolour 'Purple Posy'.
My base cards are very vanilla so I picker ribbon to match. That is edged in gold which linked in the yellow centres of the flowers and then added a gold faceted gem to the centre of my daisy which has been fussy cut from the stamped Daisy Lane set. I have also daubed the end of the petals. The sentiment is from the  Itty Bitty Birthdays set. To finish the card off I covered the envelope flap with matching designer paper.

The second card uses the same paper but the other side. So two great designs on one sheet.

Again I have matched the card colours, Flirty Flamingo and crushed curry. I wasn't so keen on the as matt layers so I used the lovely pink and my matt layer on its own then a thin strip of the crushed curry to mount the sentiment on. This sentiment is from the Frosted Blooms set which is another of my favourites. Another fussy cut daisy from Daisy Lane this time I have daubed the centre of the flower and just the tips of the petals. I have used the Wink of Stella pen on the centre of the flower. Once more I have added the designer paper to the envelope flap.

There are five other sheets to check out in the pack. I think these would make a lovely little set of cards that fit in one of my tins. So maybe there is more to come on this story.

Shopping

Perennial Essence designer paper  149100
Gold faceted gems                           144141
Daisy lane stamp set                       149325
Wink of Stella                                 141897
Gold edged vanilla ribbon.             144146

If you do shop online please use the hostess code 4K2RVXMV if your order is over £25 I will send you a gift at the end of the month. If you would like a new Stampin'Up catalogue get in touch.

Colour challenge Tuesday

Sometimes a colour challenge can get you going when the mojo just isn't there. Even when you haven't got those colours of ink!
The challenge is to  use these three colours:- Early Expresso, Gray Granite and new in-colour Seaside Spray,  with any neutrals added.....

Yes a challenge. Particularly as I didn't have any of the Seaside Spray ink ink. The middle colour is  Gray Granite which I have not used before. The third colour is Early Expresso which I love. 

What to do, I looked through my stamp sets and found a new set that I got at On Stage and hadn't opened. Its called 'Daisy Lane'. It works with the Daisy Delight which has carried over into this catalogue and there is a new smaller punch for the small daisy in this new set so I highly recommend it.

And my card

and the envelope

and the inside

I have added a little Wink of Stella to the centre of the daisies. The base card, the fern and the stems for the daisies are Gray Granite, the flowers and sentiment in the Early Expresso.

Shopping

Daisy Lane stamp set and punch bundle.       151118

Seaside Spray ink                                           150085

Seaside Spray card                                         150889

Early expresso ink                                          147114

Early expresso card                                         121686

Gray granite ink                                             147118

Gray granite card                                           147008

Very vanilla card                                            106550

Wink of stella                                                 141897

If you do shop online please use the hostess code 4K2RVXMV if your order is over £25 I will send you a gift at the end of the month. If you would like a new Stampin'Up catalogue get in touch.