New Year - New Website - New Blog!

We launched a brand new website in January 2020 and that has an "in-house" blog facility so we have moved the Seven Hills Crafts Blog to the website.   Click the link below to find it and do remember to update your newsfeed apps with the new address!

Seven Hills Crafts Blog can now be found at

www.sevenhillscrafts.co.uk

Happy New Year!

Yeah I know I'm a bit early, but I already missed the Christmas posting date for Australia, so I'm sending a new year card instead in the hopes that it will arrive in time for that!

I used the new Lunar Sayings from Mama Elephant for the main sentiment - I really love the chubby balloon letters they used.  I stamped it all over my square base card in grey, twisting it to be more of a general patterned background.


I stamped it again and coloured with altenew markers and then cut it out with scissors and my finger knife so I could pop it up using pinflair gel onto the party background circle.

To create the background I embossed the MFT Fireworks set (sorry that's currently sold out but there is a mini firework from Altenew you could use instead) and then ink blended some dark blue, black and purple inks over top, buffing the ink off the fireworks.   I added some splatters of extra sparkle using the Altenew Metallic Watercolor Paints.

NEWS FROM THE STORE

We have received all but one of the final deliveries we expect before we close on Friday for Christmas and the store update.

• Colorado Craft Company - restocks are on - I will be adding the new release this morning.
• Waffle Flower Crafts - both the binder release, restocks and the latest release will be added today too.
• Sugar Pea Design - the latest release and a few restocks will be in store tomorrow.
• Altenew - the ink release and lots of restocks were finally shipped on Friday - they arrived at East Midlands today so fingers crossed they will arrive tomorrow and I will get them added as quickly as my fingers can type!

The store will then close on Friday and there will be no more daily posts on this blog after Friday either - I may do a couple of update posts over Christmas whist we're working on the new website, but when we reopen in early January, the blog will be getting a makeover too and will be "in" the store and should hopefully be easier for you to comment on without the dreaded blogger issues!

Right - I'd best get to work as we still have to decorate the house for Christmas today too!

Tara

Tag Team Die Cutting

We've got a different sort of post today - Bev and I are sharing it - we both bought the Mod Link Dies from a recent MFT release so we thought we'd do a shared post showing how we used them differently!  For a pair of tiny dies they pack a big punch - have a look at what we made with them.....

Bev:

For my first card I have used the Mod Link 2 Die combined with the MFT Impact Alphabet Dies. The Mod Link dies are both 15cm in length, which is longer than my standard size card. So for this first card I have made a DL size card 10.5 x 21 cm, with a panel of white card 9.5 x 20 cm. 

The Mod Link is inlaid into the top white panel and I filled in some of the loops with coloured die cuts. This then inspired my next card...

Having die cut the Mod Link 2 Die from various off cuts of coloured card, I had lots of spare coloured petal shapes. These were perfect to create rainbow flowers around a black dimensional  adhesive circle.

I started by stamping the sentiment from Concord & 9th Everyday Greetings clear stamp set. I love the boldness and impact of these sentiments. I then used liquid adhesive to adhere the petals and add the small dimensional  adhesive circles to create the flower centres. 

Lastly, I used the Mod Link 1 Die to create this fun focal pattern accented with a sentiment from Concord & 9th Mistletoe Messages clear stamp set.

The Mod Link 1 Die was cut from black card, and against the white background creates a really striking pattern. I just love the 'with love' sentiment from Mistletoe Messages and it goes to show that this sentiment set isn't just for Christmas ;)

Tara

I really liked the chain and thought they would be brilliant for a paper chain decoration!

Now you're first thought might be that that's an awful lot of die cutting!   Well, I did it from 80gsm paper not card so I cut through 4 sheets at a time and had the red and gold on the machine at the same time side-by-side so it was only a few passes, cutting gold with The Mod Link 1 Die and the red with Mod Link 2 Die

One little dab of glue on the ends and a happy half hour in front of the telly and you've got yourself a chain to decorate your tree, wall or the traditional "over the mirror on the fireplace"!   We haven't had time to get our tree out yet, so for now I trimmed up my big plant in the hall!

When I had the bits die cut, I thought they would also make a pretty snowflake-like/star-like decoration.

I cut another 4 of each die just from the gold paper this time (you'll find the paper in the 50% off  DIY ornament kit from Hero Arts) and crossed them to make two 8 pointed star shapes (one from each die cut shape) and then I layered the two crossed over each other so they filled the gaps and make a full star shape.   I used a small die cut circle front and back to hold them together securely and finished with a large gem in the centre and some tiny ones on some points for added bling!

Again for now it's hung on my plant - but I'm going to make a few more to adorn my tree once we get it put up this weekend.

I had all the "eyelet" shapes that popped out of the middle left over and the gold paper is so pretty I didn't want to chuck it, so I made a card too.

I die cut another couple of the dies from teal card and then just pieced the pieces from each colour into the other and made a top and bottom border from them across a card deliberately hanging them off the edge so they paired with the "endless" birthday sentiment which comes from MFT's Birth-yay stamp set.

Hope you've enjoyed this double-take on these dies - its interesting to see how we both took them in completely different directions I think - maybe we'll do more of those posts next year!

Tara & Bev

Die cut Christmas Backgrounds

I'm still frantically making Christmas cards (why do I never start earlier!) so today I have 5 to share using die cut backgrounds to add impact to smaller images or just to let the backgrounds sing with a sentiment - quick (ish) and easy but really eye catching!  So grab a cuppa and get ready for some last minute Christmas inspiration!

I started with the fabulous Mistletoe Cover Die from MFT - simply cut from green card, a few drops of stickles for berries (top tip - i started with icicle for sparkle but for added realism, whilst that was still wet added the tiniest dot of patina to get the green dot that mistletoe berries have on the end) and then finished with a a circle for my sentiment which comes from the MFT Sending Smooches set.

Next I went for another card where the background is the star of the show - this time using the Hero Arts Decorated Winter Branches die.  I love this die - a quick snip to remove the decorations and you can easily use it for winter themed non-Christmas cards too and stamp and image in the centre!  I die cut it from white but then die cut just the decorations from a scrap of pixie-dust card so I could add some simple sparkle to the decorations (I just added colour with markers to the decs).   The sentiment comes from WPlus9's Most Wonderful stamp.

Whilst I had the Most Wonderful stamp out, I thought I'd create another card with one of the fabulous snowmen it contains.   I wanted an all white card other than him, so I used their pine frame die to frame him whilst adding some white-on-white interest and texture.   The layers to the snowman make him so easy to stamp and he's super-cute!   I used Altenew inks to stamp him (arctic and limestone for the snowman and pompom; teal cave and galactic stream for this clothes; and orange cream and firebrick for his nose)  The sentiment from the same set was stamped with teal cave.

Finally I reached from the Altenew candy cane background die - and the great thing about this die is it's a twofor!  One die cut, 2 cards!

This first card uses the "bits" that fall out of the die cut background.  I made this one first by paper clipping the die cut to the front of my card and gluing all the stripes in place through the holes so they all aligned perfectly.   I wanted to keep the theme "sweet" so created a fun little gingerbread house for my focal image using the gingerbread house die from Waffle Flower Crafts (which is on sale at a third off!)   This is a super fun die to play with - a few simple layers and some enamel dots to look like candy stuck to the side and hey presto - a fab centrepiece.  The sentiment is again from Most Wonderful by Wplus9  I really love the two different fonts in these sentiments.

For my final card for today I used the main background element from the Altenew die and then made a simple little circular scene using the recently back-in-stock after initial sell-out within hours of release of the Gnome for Christmas set by Sugar Pea Designs.  I do love to do detailed colour, but often find at Christmas I just don't have the time - so doing a tiny coloured element on a fun background is a great way to get the colouring in quicker!  I just die cut a circle of white card, masked a tiny scene using just stamps from the set (it's got so many fun elements to go with the 3 gnomes!) and coloured it with Altenew markers.


NEWS FROM THE STORE

As you may already know, we are currently in the process of developing a new online store - updating to the latest technology and affording the opportunity to add more functionality a lot of our regular customers have been asking for.  This is a HUGE undertaking as once the new site is set up, we have to transfer all the data from the old store (over 17,000 product records and all the associated images, plus all the customer data so your wish lists etc transfer too)   We want to do this in a way that causes as little disruption as possible, but we cannot do it without completely closing the current store as we have to have a "stop" point at which to transfer the data so it is accurate on the new site.   Therefore this year when we close for our Christmas break, the store will close completely and you won't be able to purchase or add to wish lists as in previous years.  This will happen on the 20th December which is the final shipping date before Christmas for the UK.   The development team we are working with are working in between Christmas and New Year so we hope that we will be ready to reopen the first Monday in the New Year (6th January) but we will need a few days of testing and training to ensure we can run the new store effectively, so this date may slide if it's not perfect by the 6th!   Watch this space and Facebook for updates.

Before we close, we will have a few new releases coming to store:

• MFT stamps - we will have their brand new release and the latest vault items on Tuesday
• Waffle Flower Crafts - we are waiting for a couple of items to arrive before they ship our order, we hope that will happen tomorrow so we will have it before the end of the week. 
• Altenew are not having a stamp and die release this month, but have released 3 new ink collections.  Our order for those is in with around 3 boxes of restocks too - we are just waiting for them to ship it and hope that will be this week.
• Concord and 9th have a new release tomorrow -  as always they only shop to retailers after they release in the USA - hopefully our order will ship tomorrow or Tuesday and will again be here by the end of the week.
• Lawn Fawn have their Valentines release on the 12th - it's in transit already so we'll have it ready to go for release day.
• Sugar Pea Designs - have a new release on the 13th December - we hope it will ship on Monday/Tuesday so we should have it by release day.
• Colorado Craft Company have a new release this month but although normally they release on the 3rd due to some issues they've moved it back this month to the 13th.   Again we hope it will ship this week and we'll get it in store as soon as we can.

If you want to ensure your items arrive before Christmas in the UK (it is impossible to guarantee delivery to Europe before Christmas now, as the system is really slow and deadlines are already passing for some countries) then orders need to be in by 11am on the 20th to ensure they posted that day.   We will do one final postal drop on the 21st for any orders that come in after 11am but they may NOT arrive before Christmas.   The store will close at 10 pm on the 20th December

That's all for this super long blog post - time to get some more things ticked off my Christmas to-do list!

Tara
 

 

Winter Getaway

It's my brother-in-law's birthday this week, and he loves his caravan, even in winter, so I thought it would be fun to create a winter getaway birthday card for him using the Hero Arts Camper Die as a focal point.

I started with a background blended with blue oxide inks directly on my base card and added some drops of water for a snowy feeling in the sky.  I layered over the Winter Forest die from Mama Elephant in white and added some textured white embossing powder to give a snowy foreground.

I die cut the camper but as it has openings for the windows I drew around the die to create a solid piece to go behind it.  I coloured with areas that would show behind the door and window with dark grey.  I painted the main die cut with the new metallic paints from Altenew in colours to match his caravan and stacked it over the solid piece once dry.

To give it a celebratory feel I strung a string of lights between the trees using the Build-A-House Christmas Add-on from Lawn Fawn.  The sentiment comes from Concord and 9th's Confetti Turnabout stamp.

Fun and easy make and a great way to use Christmas stash for non-holiday cards too!

Liz will be back next week and I'll be back on Sunday.

Tara

Paper Wreaths

As it's the 1st December today, I thought it was time to think about getting the house bedecked for Christmas and in my house we have a couple of themes as I cannot walk past a cute wreath not a reindeer if I'm allowed in the decorations department of the local garden centre!

I like a wreath on every door - not just the external one and that means I can make one out of paper which wouldn't do well in the snow but is fine on an internal door (mine is going on the door to the downstairs loo to welcome guests on route to a pee!)

I started with one of the lovely jute wreath bases we have in store as I wanted to leave areas exposed and I love the rustic look these wreaths give you.

I used a bit of florists wire to make a hunging loop, but if you didn't have that then some twine would do just as well.  I also used the wire to make it easier to fasten the bow in place at the end - I simply threaded a strand of wire through the knot in a my ribbon and then cut the ends to make a faux bow.

I wrapped more of the same ribbon (recycled from a gift last year but any ribbon you fancy would work) around the middle and secured it with hot glue.   I topped that with a die cut sentiment using woodgrain cardstock in dark brown and the Lil' Inker Season's Greetings die, but you can add any sentiment you like - you'll find a selection of seasonal sentiment dies here.

Then came time to add my seasonal foliage - I did that mostly with a couple of dies - the Winter Foliage die from Sizzix and the Woodland Basics die from Wplus9 which is in our clearance section if you're looking for a bargain!   I dug out a variety of green scraps from my "it's too big to chuck it away scraps box" and cut out a load of leaves and just placed them on the wreath until I was happy with the shape and then took a quick snap on my phone so I could pop them all back in place with some hot glue.

To add some extra sparkle, I added a dot of icicle stickles to each of the berries on the berry sprig die and used it to make my mistletoe berries too by popping a large blob carefully touching the edges of each leaf and turning it upside down til they dried in a nice round shape.  For texture for my holly berries I added some red felt balls.

For the other side I added a gorgeous poinsettia (at least I can't kill a paper version!) using the Hero Arts Paper Layering Poinsettia die - I love the cut detail which matches perfectly with the holly leaves so adds some balance to an otherwise asymmetric piece.

Once the mistletoe berries were dry, I popped that in place and then added the ribbon bow to cover the hanging loop.

I'd cut so many pieces I actually made 2, and I'm going to make a few more as they make really lovely and inexpensive gifts.

 NEWS FROM THE STORE

This week we'll have restocks from Wplus9 in store as well as the latest release from Waffle Flower crafts and over the next few weeks we'll be adding more to our clearance section so keep an eye out for a bargain.


Tara

Found on Friday November

It's time for our November edition of Found on Friday where I feature the projects that caught my eye over in our VIP's group on Facebook where our customers share their makes and chat crafty stuff.

First up, Vanessa used one of my favourite Christmas sets from this year - the fabulous Polar Playtime set from Avery Elle and in this gorgeous creation Vanessa has really shown how much fun they're having!

Lorraine also looks like she's been having lots of fun making this adorable kitty treat boxes using Lawn Fawn's Tiny Gift Box dies and the Cat Add On Dies.   I really like the festive addition of the tiny hat too!

This adorable CAS card from Sophie Marsden really spoke to me  - the cool colours match the cool sentiment and the yeti delivering presents by snowboard is super fun!   She used Yeti or Not by Lawn Fawn.

Christiane Wo also shared a fabulous yeti - this time using Stamping Bella's Yeti and Santa set - I really loved the fur she coloured on her Yeti it made me want to cuddle him!

Sticking with the chilly winter theme, I wanted to share this adorable card by Linda - I really liked the birds perched on the sentiment as it adds great balance to the design and the bold sky really makes the penguins pop!   She used Mama Elephant's Fuzzy Hugs.

Sue's card also gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling - the hugging foxes from Lawn Fawn's Winter Skies and I just love how she popped them with their tails hanging down from her circular sky background.  Adorable!

And talking of warm winter feelings - what could be better on a snowy day than a steaming mug of marshmallow topped hot chocolate and a pile of Christmas cookies?   Well Kimberley's version is calorie free but no less delicious!   She used Wplus9's Cookies and Cocoa set.

Felix had a great idea for batch producing her Christmas cards - a textured white background decorated with fabulous sparkly baubles using the fabulous layering set from Altenew - Brilliant Baubles.  Adding gold embossed details on the final layer is a fabulous way to make them pop.

Anne Marie Wilson also had a really great way to make interesting baubles - she's cut baubles from card she's stamped with festive florals using the Mama Elephant's Pine and Posy set.  Really elegant and beautiful!

It's not entirely been Christmas projects that were shared this month though - Katya shared this adorable gate fold card using Wplus9's Modern Peonies for the focal image as well as MFT's Snowfall Background stamp on the front and Hero Arts Infinity Heart dies.  Love the belly-band sentiment to keep it closed too!

Kate Orme is new to cardmaking and this is one of her first cards - we think you've found your perfect hobby Kate!   Picking the colours for her images from the rainbow backing papers shows she has a great eye for colour and the different shaped elements are a great design!  She used the Sweet Birthday Wishes set from MFT stamps.

Finally in this issue we'll finish with this fabulous floral design from Helen Bates.  Helen used the Build-a-Flower Fuchsia set from Altenew and framed it to perfection using their Frilly Frame die in her tone-on-tone background.

Hope you've been inspired by our customers fabulous makes - and if you want to be featured in December then pop on over to the group and share your makes - please leave a note of what sets you used in the comments on your photo to make it easier for me to share your makes and link to the products in store.   https://www.facebook.com/groups/shcvips/

I'll be back on Sunday with my make.

Tara

The first ice of the season

Sorry the blog is late today - I started my card before breakfast and then came back an ruined it so had to start again.   Today was one of those days where what was in my head did not want to appear on the paper!

So here is version 2.0 of my card featuring penguins playing on the first frozen lake of the season up in the mountains.

I started with a piece of 300gsm white card stock and the new mountain stencil from Newton's Nook - this is mighty little stencil that performs beyond it's 3inches!   I just started at the top with my oxide ink pads and used both edges of the stencil to layer in the mountains and hills.   When I got to the bottom I just blended blue into the green to create my lake area just using vertical strokes with my blending tool to keep the ice looking frosty.

Next I added my pine trees using the smaller tree in the new Plentiful Pine stamp from Altenew which features 2 sizes of trees with 4 layers to build up easy and realistic looking trees with simple to line up stamping.   I used the second generation image from each layer to add a reflection into the water too.

 I added some swipes of versamark and some sparkling embossing powder to the lake to make it look solid enough to pop my pile of penguins onto.   The penguins are also by Newton's Nook - Penguin Pile - and the sentiment comes from that set too.   I coloured them with Altenew markers and then cut them out by hand as I wanted them to sit in the scene and the white edge from the die would distract from the realism here.

I added some grassy details with a few flicks from some pencils and finished by adding the snowy caps to the mountains simply by spreading embossing paste through the middle of the stencil.

It would have been quite a quick make if I hadn't had to do it twice!

NEWS FROM THE STORE

We have a shipment coming from Neat & Tangled which has their last couple of releases - as they now only have about 3 items a release we will order them every other month and get both at that time to make it cost effective for importing as we don't always have enough with restocks and just 3 new items to meet minimum requirements.

We have some new items from Echo Park/Carta Bella which will be in store this week too.

Otherwise it will be a quieter week but there will be new releases to order for December.  This is generally a quieter month but there are a couple of major releases including the new Lawn Fawn release on the 12th December.

Laters

Tara

Seven Ways With Foiling Dies

If like me you've been resisting buying another machine for your craft room, then you may think the current trend for hot foiling dies is not for you.   Well, I caved and bought a machine last week, and although I did love the result, I wanted to challenge myself to see if the new foiling dies we have can be used WITHOUT a foiling machine - and I have 7 cards below all done without the machine as well as 1 with it, so you can see the original look too.   All the cards were made with one die - the Impressive Snowflake Die from MFT and one stamp set - Mistletoe Messages from Concord and 9th.


1)  Hot Foiled
So for those of you like me with no will power who bought a foiling machine (I have the spellbinders glimmer which fits in my existing die cutting machine and I found super easy to use - this card was actually my first ever try with it) then this is how the foiled impression looks. 

 
For those of you don't know about hot foil dies (and until last week I didn't!) basically you get a hot plate that replaces the bottom platform of your die cutting machine.  You plug it in, once its hot you put the die on, place your foil (coloured surface down) on top of the die and press the timer button.   Once the time is up, pop your cardstock on top, place the relevant plate that comes with your foiling machine on top of that and run the whole sandwich through your die cutting machine and it foils and debosses at the same time so you get a foiled letter-press look to your finished image.   All the foils we stock are heat activated so will work with your hot foil machines.   Here I used copper on some teal card and the sentiment I stamped and embossed with copper embossing powder.


2)  Glue Pen Foiling
For those of you who would love to get the foiled look, but don't have or don't want a foiling machine, then I've had a play and there are ways you can do it.

For this look I just ran the impressive die (in this case impressive means to leave and impression rather than being brilliant but it is that too!) through my die cutting machine with my embossing mat in the sandwich and then turned it over to work on the embossed side.   I used a fine glue pen and traced over the embossed lines and once the glue was tacky, I placed a sheet of teal foil over top and set it aside for 10 minutes so it could fully dry, a gentle rub and then peel back and hey presto - foiled look with no expensive machine required.

2½)  Glue Pad Foiling
I also think you can do it on the debossed side using a glue pad to ink up the die with glue before running it through the machine, then clean up the die place foil over the glue and run it back through to get the foil look more like the hot foil, but when I tried it this morning my flitter glue was dried up so I'll have to get more and give it a go later for you.

3)  Embossing/Debossing
The dies work brilliantly for just leaving an embossed/debossed design in your card stock.  For this one I just went for the straight forward embossed on white using my embossing mat in the sandwich - its a really crisp embossed texture.

4) Shallow Embossing
This one came out by accident - I got the sandwich wrong and the mat was behind the die (doh!) so the die only debossed the card very slightly as it had nothing soft to press into but it did leave a subtle pattern and I kinda liked it - so I just traced over it with a coloured pencil so it showed up better on photos (irl I would probably have left it as was as I liked the subtlety)  I added some gems for sparkle too.

5) Letterpress
By inking up the die (using really light dabs to ensure it only sits on the top) then you can get a letterpress loo to add more drama to the embossed impression.  Here I used navy cardstock and inked up the die with Unicorn White ink.

If you swap it round on white cardstock with a darker in you get a really dramatic look!

6)  Embossed Letterpress
By taking it a step further - you can ink up your die with versamark and then sprinkle on embossing powder - that's how I got a whiter look to the snowflake here.

7) Glitter Fill
For this last one, I debossed the die as before with my embossed mat in the die cutter and then used sea spray stickles to fill in the debossed lines with lots of festive glitter!

Hopefully that's given you lots of ideas for how to get the most of impression dies - with or without a hot foil machine!

NEWS FROM THE STORE

We are expecting deliveries from the following brands this week:

• Newton's Nook
• Altenew
• Avery Elle

Catch you later

Tara