A Closer Look At... Julie Loves Paisley and Petals

Hi Everyone! I hope you've all had a fantastic bank holiday weekend! Did anyone catch Julie Hickey's shows on Create and Craft yesterday? She did such a good job even though she was poorly!

This new collection was right up my street and I always feel so grateful to be on the design team and get to make samples with new collections before they go to sale. This kit reminded me of the retro daisy Craftwork Cards used to feature in a lot of their products many moons ago but revamped and in a truly Julie style. 

The stamps in this collection were out of this world, I even emailed Steph (Senior Designer at CWC) to tell her how much I loved them! They all work so well together, you can create so many different stamping combinations, using the colour combination from the Paisley and Petals collection or using different colour combinations, you can achieve so many different looks. This is what the stamps look like:

So I thought I'd show you a few of my finished sample cards and give you a few ideas on how I created them!

Starting with a nice easy card, I've made this card by cutting out the individual petals from the patterned paper and sticking then to the back of the sentiment, turning the sentiment into a main focal point on my card. I've used one of the tiny prints for the background and a strip of ribbon across the front the attached the sunflower I've made to the bottom right. This allows enough space to see the tiny print on the patterned paper.

Here, I stamped out the large and small flowers several times in colours of ink pad matching the collection and cut them out. 

I've also used a large circle die to cut a large central aperture in the front of my card and then laid the flowers over the aperture so all the flowers overlap slightly but leave gaps. I've stamped a few paisley images around the edge of the aperture then adhered the flowers to the front of the card.

Stamp a sentiment on white card and mount onto a piece of the blue floral patterned paper for the front of the card. I've used a large piece of the same blue floral patterned paper on the inside of the card and tied ribbon down the spine of the card. 

As a finishing touch I've used some liquid pearls to accent the flowers.

For this card I've used one of the sentiment postcards and layered it onto the deep blue paisley paper.

I've the cut out some of the beautiful hand illustrated blooms from the mustard colour paper and added these to the front of the card as if they're coming in from the edge of the card.

A few dots of gold liquid pearls around the blooms ties it all together nicely!

I've used a large circle die to cut an aperture in the front of my card, slightly larger than the embossed daisy tag. I've covered the front in the lovely daisy paper and cut out the aperture. 

I've then taken a length of white thread and secured it between a sandwich of two of the embossed daisy tags. Secure each end of thread to the inside of your card. Then cut a square of white card slightly smaller than your card and cut the same size aperture from it. This will go on the inside of your card and hide the tails of the thread!

I've added some soft pink ink, sentiments and bows the spinning element of the card and then a square of contrasting patterned paper on the inside of the card.

Here's some more of my finished sample cards with this collection, if you'd like to know how any of them were made please ask, I'd be only too happy to explain :-)

Happy crafting! I hope you enjoy this kit as much as I did - I'd love to see your makes!

A Closer Look at... Stamp It 3!

Hello everyone! I hope you're all well and your crafty mojo is flowing nicely!

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be asked to make some samples with the wonderful Stamp It 3 stamps and papers. Let me tell you, it didn't take much persuading! I've also contributed to the Stamp It 3 Magazine and have several card tutorials in there! Not only does the magazine have lots of projects and step by step instructions there are top quality free background papers in there that work perfectly with the stamp sets. 

I love stamping and my stamping mojo has come racing back since Craftwork Cards have started regularly releasing new stamp sets. I love the quality of their stamps, the impressions are so clean and crisp and their stamping card is second to none. (Just for info in case anyone is wondering - I don't get paid to sell their products on my blog at all, I just love the products dearly and enjoy using them!)

These stamps are so different to their usual stamps. They're kind of grungy and have a distressed look to them. They're awesome with mixed media and work well with clean and simple cards too - which is so clever! My lovely friend Sue designed these stamps too - which makes me love them even more!

This is what they look like:

As you can see they're so detailed, they have beautiful imagery and usable on a wide range of projects. The paper compliment these stamps perfectly and the imagery is carried on through the papers and stamps.

The wonderful Julie Hickey took these products to air this time and did a fantastic job! Love to watch her demonstrations and sit there saying to myself - darn, why didn't I think of doing that?!

Here's a selection of cards I made for the show:

I stamped onto watercolour card and then using Kuretake Clean Color Real Brush pens and a waterbrush, watercoloured the butterflies. Adding some drops of coloured water randomly to the card. 

See the signature 2 lines around the edge to frame the focal point!

On this card, I die cut a piece of the super smooth card and stamped on that. I've doodle line along the edge of the paper matt and then inked the sentiment paper to make the sentiments match my design. Finished off with 3 dots of liquid pearls in gold. 

I've created a distress background for the card front using Kuretake Clean Color pens and water then stamped over it using memento ink. I've taken 3 or 4 colours in different tones of the same colour and used them to highlight different elements of the stamped images and used one of the pens top colour over the sentiment paper to make them match the coloured images on my card. Perfect card for a gent!

Just to prove you really don't need a lot of crafting equipment to make these cards, I'll share with you that I actually made these cards whilst on holiday with my family in a caravan! You can achieve these looks at home too. If you have any questions about the cards I've made feel free to ask, I'd be happy to answer any queries, just leave a comment or message me on facebook.

Here's the other cards I made for the show:

Thanks for stopping by! Take care :-)

5 ways to add doodling to your cards and projects

I love adding doodles and simple pen lines to cards and projects. They really help finish off a card, make the card pop, add another dimension - and doodles are a super cheap extra embellishment, right?! Doodles are also so individual, no one else will be able to replicate the exact same doodles as yours; this makes your cards and projects even more unique!

1. Here I used simple doodled flowers on the spots of the paper to add some depth and definition to the card. This enabled me to show the papers in a different light but also show how you can stretch the use of your papers further. This example is doodled flowers but there would be nothing to stop you adding other types of doodles – maybe turn some spots into footballs or baseballs, turns spots to buttons by drawing holes and stitching on them, draw smiley faces - give it a go on a piece of scrap first if you’re unsure! Use the patterns on the paper as guides for your doodles. You can see here the same paper is used for the background and the focal point, with doodling added to the focal piece - it gives it a totally different look! You can get this paper here.

2. This time I made a really quick clean and simple card adding simple pen lines to frame the layers and elements on the card. Often framing elements on your card whether that be with stamped images or doodles can work really well. I find framing the layers can really complete a card and draw the eye to a focal point. Generally, I do two lines on each side- the main reason being that one line by itself if wobbly can look – well, wobbly. If you do two lines that cross in places they look like you intended them to look wobbly and don’t look out of place. See below. Here’s an example without pen lines, with one pen line and then with two pen lines, my signature element on a card! You can get these papers and stamps here

3. Stitching can look amazing on cards. As much as I’d love to get out my sewing machine and add stitching to some of my cards there’s two main reasons that I don’t do this – the first one being that it really blunts your best sewing needles, the second reason that I’m impatient, I like immediate results and this takes too much time for me. Here comes my saviour, faux stitching! This takes no time at all in comparison and is a really easy look to achieve. Here I’ve shown the same stamped image with different types of stitching. If you need ideas, you can always look at sewing machines online and see the types of stitches you can do with the machines and replicate this with you pen! These stamps can be bought here

4. Sometimes I’ll stamp a main focal point and don’t want to add too much to the card other than that. That’s where the ‘magic 3 dots’ comes in to save the day! This technique came from my wonderfully talented and very lovely friend, Julie Hickey. On a clean and simple card that you don’t want to add much to, the magic 3 dots can really fill a space without filling it at all! Here’s a before and after shot showing how this can work on your card. If you didn’t want to add 3 dots, you could also do tiny doodle flowers, larger spots or stars, whatever goes best with the theme of your card. You can find these papers here

5. If you’re feeling brave – go freestyle! Make your doodling the focal point on your card, whether that’s your own handwritten sentiment on the front of your card or try drawing simple flower shapes on patterned paper and cut then out for your card front. If you didn't feel you could draw something, you could doodle on die cut shapes or punched shapes. You could draw anything on patterned paper and cut it out, or even draw straight onto your card and use watercolours or markers to colour in! This way there’s always just the right image you need for a particular card! The internet is full of drawing ideas and helpful step by steps if you’re after something more complex – give it a go! These papers were from a subscription club

Well there it is, 5 ways to add doodling to your cards and projects. I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post as must as I enjoyed writing it for you and I hope it’s inspired you to given you ideas on how and I hope it’s inspired you or give you ideas on how you can add doodles. I’d love to see any of your doodled projects or cards!

Thanks for popping by – happy crafting!!

A Closer Look at......Carnival!

Wow! What a busy time it’s been!

So I was on TV again on 4^th May with a collection that is super special to me. I’ve been lucky enough to have had some of my designs printed and brought to air! I was very excited to say the least! So here it is!!

CARNIVAL -it’s a fun, colourful, cheery paper collection comprising 6 designs. There’s a candy stripe, a turquoise sunburst, confetti, rows of bumper cars, tickets and alphabet bunting! There really is so much in this kit. Being designed by a crafter, for crafters, every element has a purpose.

Here’s what the collection looks like:

And here’s the stamps:

All the imagery has been hand drawn by myself and Craftwork Cards have turned them into beautiful stamps for us crafters! There’s a carousel horse, bumper car, fairground wording, flourishes, stars, fairground lights and so much more!

The TV show was so jam-packed that there wasn’t enough time to do all my demos so I thought I’d share them on here with you. So you’re not missing out!

This card was made using both the paper pad and candi and also the Carnival stamps. 

1. Cover the front of the card with the candy stripe paper and cut a circle out of the front. You can either draw around a household object and cut it out with a knife or you can run it through a die cutting machine.
2. Stick a square of the confetti paper on the inside of the card.
3. Taken the flourish stamp and stamping in red, stamp across the top of the card, about ¾” from the top and repeated this across the bottom of the card. 
4. Cut out a strip of 3 tickets from the ticket paper and shape it by curling it around a pen or round tool. Stick to the front.
5. Stick candi around the edge of the aperture. 
6. Stamp the big top in the same red ink onto some smoothing stamping card and carefully cut around it with a knife; then layer it on 3D foam in the centre.

What I really like about this card, is that it would suit a male or female recipient and also you could change it round by using the different stamps, for example, using the carousel horse in the aperture.

A really simple card made just with the paper pad, yet still highly effective:

1. Stick the confetti paper as a background on the front of your card blank.
2. Cut 2 strips of tickets. It just so happens that 4 tickets fit perfectly along the top and bottom of the card as border strips! How cool is that?! 
3. Cut out the bunting to write your message on the front. I went for ‘Lets Go Party’ but you can choose whatever message you fancy – the only restriction is the size of your card! 

The best bit about this paper is it’s versatility. You can use it to put names of people on the front, relatives, bespoke messages, anything! It’s so nice when a kit allows you to do that!

This card was made using just the stamps!!

1. Stamp the ticket all over the card front, then using just 4 colours, coloured them in and cut some of them out to reveal ticket shaped apertures.
2. Stamp the 'Celebrate' word onto a small rectangle with the flourish above and below, to add to the fairground look of it and stuck it to the front with 3D foam to add a bit of depth to the card.

A really simple, colourful, fun card but just with the stamps.

You could use this effect if you'd bought someone tickets for a present and change the colour scheme to whatever suits you - a little like a bespoke gift card for tickets!

Another super fun card! 

So I had time to demonstrate how to make a banner flag card from a card blank - did everyone catch it?

1. Mark the centre point, connect the centre point with one of the bottom corners with a ruler and cut. Do the same again from the centre point to the other bottom corner to cut out the triangle.
2. Cover the card with the amazing starburst paper, this really draws the eye into the card!
3. Make a pinwheel from the candy stripe paper.
4. Stamp some extra stars on the background and add candi in the corners.
5. Stamp the 'PARTY' word onto a small rectangle and layered this on the front.

Perfect for any fun occasion, whether it's a party invitation or a birthday card!

Here’s some more carnival cards that I did for the show – I’d love to know what you think- either about my designs for the papers and stamps or the sample cards. Or even comment to share what your favourite fairground ride is!!

   
 

I hope you enjoy the collection!

Take care and happy crafting!