Rectangular Pop Up Box Card

Hi Crafters

Found this rectangular pop up card when looking through you tube and thought I would give it a go as I love the square version. If anything I like the rectangular pop up even more and find it easier to decorate as the greeting can be part of the decoration leaving the front flap with enough space to add your personalised message.

I will definitely be making more of these,
They are aslso good for the masculine cards I am trying to collect although the first attempt is not quite right I am going to try a music theme and a sea-scape theme.

Cards for Men

Hi Crafters

Moving on from the last workshop to prepare for the March craft day I have been collecting ideas for men's cards. I find Pinterest very good for this and I opened a board just for masculine cards.

The problem with a new interest even within the craft hobby there are always new stamps dies etc to excite and add to shopping list. At lot of the cards I was attracted too used a grunge stamp for the background so I have sent for some. In the meantime I used a technique seen on tv and sprinkled some embossing powder across the card and heated it to get a sprinkled effect.
I then cut out some sprogs and cogs from my dies and added them with split pins to give a little shine This has been made using an A4 cream card, and I have made it for my brother.

As you can see I have added a Happy Birthday and a MOP button with brown ribbon tied through and mounted on gold card and then black.
Let me know what you think!

Shadow or Tunnel card

Hi Crafters

I have recently had one of the many nasty colds going around and it completely floored me. So when I had two days annual leave thought I would take it easy and craft quietly.
Watching tonic die channel I saw a lovely shadow box card so had to have a go.
I am pleased with the results, although a little bulky the cards will flatten for posting, and I will make some smaller ones in future .

An update on new tools

Hi Crafters

In January I treated myself to a new cutter. It was the self sharpening Cutterpillar Pro.
At £99 on discount (normally £129) I thought it would be all singing all dancing and worked out that if it meant never buying a new blade for 10 years it would just about pay for itself.
The beauty of buying from Create and Craft is the ability to try and send back if not up to expectations.
Quite excited when it arrived and unpacked it the same evening to try. It cuts like a dream, and once I was use to the cutter it would cut very straight, but by the end of the trial evening I had decided to return it. Hubby had offered to help buy it, but for once it was not about the money. It took up a lot of space  and whilst the top of the cutter had score marks all over it they were not for scoring just for decoration. This meant all my card making would require this cutter plus a scorer. Too much space on the desk and twice as long to  make a card. I currently use a Fiskar cutter and whilst the new ones have a wire down the cutting groove my older version does not
. This means I can put a card in the cutter and cut the size I want, then just line it up at the top of the cutter to score all the lines I need to  make my chosen style. If yo make straight folding cards and mat and layer a lot, the cutterpillar pro would be great but if you make styled cards such as pop up box cards shutter cards etc it really is a lot of hassle to change tools.

However all is not lost. The item was returned easily through Asda, at no cost and last week I saw a template and dies I had to have from Tattered Lace. I do not have a lot of tattered lace dies and at first I made the mistake of thinking the envelope shapes were dies as the kit was £24.99 plus p&p . But the DL envelope shapes are actually templates. The bit I really really wanted though were the dies that came with it (you cannot buy them seperately) and they cut a tidy slit in the envelope flap and then either a heart, butterfly and one other the other side of the flap leaving the centre in. This enables you to fold the heart in half and put it through the envelope slit to close the envelope.

I will review the kit once it comes, can't wait to play with it.

Back to Stamping

Hi Crafters

Sorry it's been a long time again, but had a lovely craft day at the end of January where we made some lovely flowers using the heartfelt stamps and dies.
I think we all left with a few new ideas for cards and Spring wreaths plus a date in March for another craft day when we will be looking at cards for men.

I am enjoying a renaissance with stamping and spent an enjoyable day making some simple but effective cards.

Here I have used pan pastels and watercolours to make the background and then stamped over finishing with matting and layering

What is New this New Year

Hi Crafters

What is new this year???
Each major holiday I have a tidy up of the craft rom and this Christmas was no exception
But added to that I have had to tidy up my craft box at work.
I am due to retire in March and Husband No 1 says nothing can come home from the office when I finish. So there are 4 lots on Ebay, One sold already, and plans for 2 more workshops on this site before March hopefully the remainder can be secreted back into the craft room unnotoiced.

On another note I have found a great folio/album/journal on You Tube and am busy making some.
One is for sale on Ebay and another will go on Etsy to see if there is any interest.

 

 

Christmas Craft Fayre

Hi fellow Crafters

Like all crafters there is the matter of what to do with all your makes and I have been doing the odd craft fayre (once or twice a year) to sell some items as well as selling on ebay and etsy.

Last weekend I did a Christmas Fayre at Burnham. It was lovely to see other crafters, hear what is going on and see what is selling.

On the whole the cards I sell all go to the WI trading stall and this works well. For Christmas I made some lovely big cards 8" square with :
"To My Wonderful Wife"
"To my Perfect Husband"
and "To The One I Love"
Also Anna Griffin Pop Out Cards were a good seller

So here are some pictures of the stall set up before the event opened

Scrapbooks

Mini Handbags and decorated paperclips

 

 

Decorated Gift boxes

Mini Brag books/scrapbooks gift cards

 

 

Hand crafted leather brooches

 

If you have any questions or would like to ask me about any of the items on the stall please email me or leave a comment

Dee