A simple Butterfly card

Sometimes a simple card with a simple but meaningful message is all you need!

Butterfly: Sizzix® Thinlits™ Die Set 8PK - Butterflies, Intricate by Paula Pascual 659971
Message: Small Everyday Messages CICSA6145

Another 2nd birthday card

This one for my nephew Laith. Yes, he is too just days a part from my niece/goddaughter!

Basic Grey papers (Bow ties), the sentiment is part of my Punchable Labels clear stamp set and the number is die cut using Sassy Serifs Bigz dies from Sizzix.

Otra postal de segundo cumpleaños, esta para mi sobrino Laith. Se llevan tan solo unos días con my ahijada. Los papeles son de Basic Grey papers (Bow ties), el mensaje es parte de Punchable Labels y el 2 lo he cortado usando los troqueles Sassy Serifs Bigz dies de Sizzix.

A birthday card for a little girl

My goddaughter turned two last week. So I made her this quick and easy card using Basic Grey's Knee Highs collection of papers and stickers. The number I die cut using Sizzix Sassy Serif Numbers. It is a rather large number which is perfect for a little girl.
The flower is die cut as well with one of the dies I designed for Sizzix, Intricate Flowers.

I hope she liked it!


Mi ahijada cumplió 2 años la semana pasada. Asi que le hice una postal sencilla usando papeles y pegatinas de Basic Grey's Knee Highs. El numero lo he troquelado usando Sizzix Sassy Serif Numbers. Son basntante grandes así que son perfectos para postales para pequeños. La flor esta troquelada usando los troqueles que diseñé para Sizzix, Intricate Flowers.

Espero que le gustara!

A Banner with intricate Flowers

Last year I was invited to participate in the Scrapmaniatics exhibition of scrap banners that took place during their event last summer.

Of course I had to use some of my dies for Sizzix, and the chosen ones were from the Fresh Moments collection that was released Spring last year.

Although my die collections for Sizzix have been Limited Editions, the good news is that the Intricate Flowers are now part of the core range from Sizzix, which means that this set is going to be available all year long!

I also used the Sizzix Framelits Circle Wrapper and the Instant Frames (using the negative left by die cutting two dies one inside the other).

As the base of the banner I used thick chipboard with layers of PaperArtsy's Grunge Paste through stencils or masks. Then layers of Fresco Paint and a little Treasure Gold. Love that stuff!
I learnt from Leandra and Lin Brown how important is layering both the paints and the patterns. It actually found it easier than I thought, I just followed their suggestions.

Die cut letters and a wheelbarrow to carry them!

Very soon my goddaughter is getting baptised, as I am the godmother, I got her a little piece of silver, but I also wanted to make her something she can play with and be decorative as well.

I settled on creating her name with letters that would stand up and be rather solid and a little something to put the letters in. So here is how I did it.

I took my Sizzix Serif Essentials Alphabet set of Bigz dies and die cut with my Big Shot five times each letter out of mountboard. (You can also use chipboard, but as I wanted them white it made sense to use white board - the stuff to mount print and artwork.)

Then I glued all five letters together using a strong wet glue. I like many as long as they have a fine nozzle.

Once dry, I apply a modelling paste all over the edges to disguise the layers of mount board. I like to use Grunge Paste by Paperartsy. Once the paste is dry, I sand it a bit to make it as smooth as possible.

Then, a coat of white (or any colour) acrylic paint.

Finally, I die cut the letters once again using patterned papers, this time using Basic Grey KneeHigh collection. Once I was happy with the patterns I gave then a thin coat of Matte Medium just to seal all off and hopefully make the letters last longer.

And here you have the final letters. I added a little heart just to finished them off.

Now, to make the box holder, i decided against a standard box and i went for wheel barrow. I chose the Sizzix Wheelbarrow and flowers Bigz die. I die cut two pieces of mount board with the patterned paper already attached using strong spray adhesive, making sure the patterned paper was mirrored.

In order to create the box, I use another Sizzix die, this time Eileen Hull's Scroreboards Candy Jars. And I die cut only the base.

As you can see, it is slightly too long on the sides.

No problem. A small cut either side and sorted!

I attached it to the one of the wheelbarrow pieces with strong wet glue.

 And then I attached the other wheelbarrow.

Finally I used more patterned paper from Basic Grey KneeHigh collection to cut some flowers and then I die cut the wheel using mirri silver card.

And here it is, the wheelbarrow carrying all the letters!

Winter Moments Tree as a Summer Birthday Card

Today is my sister-in-law's birthday, So Happy Birthday Debra!

I send her this summery card that I made using the Christmas tree die - bellow - which is part of my new seasonal collection for Sizzix, called Winter Moments.

This set contains five rubber stamps and five dies - two dies, large and small, that die cut the leaves and then another three dies that just cut the triangular tree shape in the three sizes.  They can be layered up with or without the stamps.

I took the largest plain die (on the right) and die cut several patterned papers from the Basic Grey Knewhighs collection. 

So see, the winter collection can be used during the hot summer days. Versatility is very important to me and I try to make my designs, all of them as usable in as many occasions as possible.

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Hoy es el cumpleaños de mi cuñada, Debra: Feliz Cumpleaños!

Le he enviado esta tarjeta veraniega que hice usando el troquel del árbol de Navidad, parte de mi nueva colección de temporada de Sizzix, llamado Winter Moments.
Este set contiene cinco sellos de goma y cinco troqueles - con hojas en tamaño grande y pequeño y tres troqueles triangulares en los tres tamaños. Se pueden juntar en capas con o sin los sellos del set.

Tomé el mayor arbol sin las hojas (a la derecha) y morir cortar varios papeles con diseños de la colección Basic Knewhighs Grey.

Así que como veis la colección de invierno se puede utilizar durante los días calurosos de verano. La versatilidad es muy importante para mí y trato de hacer que mis diseños, todos ellos, se puedan utilizar en tantas ocasiones como sea posible.

Basic Grey and Sizzix - LOVE!

A little card I made for my husband using my Sizzix Framelits - Intricate flowers and Tags - Basic Grey's Lucille papers, stickers and Serenade Mini envelopes. 

(No affiliate links, I just like the fast and great service from Charmed Cards & Crafts)

I do really love Basic Grey. And today I got this lovely parcel full of goodies ready to be used and drooled over. Sorry for the visual, but I am a paper crafter first and fore most and paper is what makes my creative juices flow like nothing else. Well, maybe die cutting.

Now that it's so hot in England, I'm preparing some projects for Christmas using my winter collecion of dies for Sizzix, the collection is called Winter Moments and soon will be in the shops!

Español:

Esta es una pequeña tarjeta que hice para mi marido con mis Framelits para Sizzix - Intricate flowers y Tags - con los papeles y pegatina de Lucilley el Mini sobre de Serenade, ambas colecciones de Basic Grey.

Me encanta Basic Grey.  Y hoy me ha llegado un paquete lleno de golosinas! Listos para ser utilizados. La verdad es que me considero una artesana del papel y por lo tanto es el papel lo que hace que mi jugos creativos fluyan como ninguna otra cosa. Bueno, tal vez los troqueles.

Ahora que hace tanto calor en Inglaterra, estoy preparando unos proyectos para navidades usando mi collecion de troqueles de invierno para Sizzix, la coleccion se llama Winter Moments y empezara a verse por las tiendas muy pronto!

Basic Grey's new Gallery

I just need to share the new Basic Grey Gallery on their website. What is clever about it is not that you can see amazing work by super talented designers, is not that you can search inspiration by Collection, colours or type of project, but the fact that you can upload your very own projects for everyone to see. Isn't that great? 
See you in a bit, I am off to upload some of my favorite projects to their Gallery.

Vintage, clean and simple

Simple but using the new Jovial papers from Basic Grey, which gave me the colour scheme for the card. I used Filled with Flowers stamps for the flowers and then the Christmas essentials for the message that sits on top of a Circle Tag.


I need to get ready to pack up for The Craft Barn, so I am off.

More quick and easy

Meanwhile I am clearing and making minor alterations to my craft studio, I will share with you this card. I used Kioshi papers and embellishments which are from Basic Grey, you know I love Basic Grey. The message is from the Wording Stamps and the border is from Dotty Borders set.

Craft Shopping

Green at Heart (Basic Grey) papers and Write a note embellishment. 

I always find that after I have been away or I have had visitors staying in the house it takes me about four days to go back to little work routines and be productive again. So by those calculations today should be productive, although I don't think I am.

Since I came back from Up North -that is what I call Lancashire as it is the only place up North that I go often-, I have been like a butterfly inside my house, doing a bit of this and a bit of that. I have accomplished minor things, paperwork mostly, but nothing grand. 

Recently, I have made some craft purchases. At Dawn Bibby Design Studio -also known as Topaz Crafts- I bought:

Yes, a pokey tool, I love the wooden handle on this one. I had a couple of them, but  at £1.50, it's always handy to have some extras.

A couple of Distress Ink pads to complete my stash and replace a very used one, actually I already had this colour, but I love it so much I could not resist putting the photo.

And the Tiny Attacher by Tim Holtz. I didn't think I wanted it until I used it for the first time, then I needed it. If you use staples to attach things onto projects, then you are going to love it, specially if you want to disguise the staples.

Then, yesterday doing my chart of nesting punches -circle and square, straight and scalloped- I realized I had some gaps, that is to say I didn't have all of them in all of the sizes available. And, that is not cool with my OCD. 

So I put an order through to SirStampalot at 16:30 hrs yesterday and I got the delivery today at 11:00! Brilliant service, great range of nesting punches and general stamps. And they do my stamps as well, so they get two thumbs up from me!

This are some of the punches I got from them:

Yes, the scalloped 1 1/4". As far as i know no one else makes it but EkSuccess, and Sir Stampalot seems to be the only shop in the UK to sell it online. It coordinates brilliantly with the Mixed Sentiments and Essential Circles.

The 3/4 x 1 1/4" (PSPNPOV004) oval works brilliantly with the oval on the Square Tags. It is not the same size of any of the Stampin Up ones, but will work on top of their scallop Oval. I also got the 1 1/4 x 2"(PSPNPOV003) oval.

I could not resist it. A rather large 2 3/3" punch that will really works well with the 3" circle scallop circle punch.

As you can see a lot of tools. But I always have found that money invested in tools -inks, stamps and punches ARE tools to me- is money well invested!

Pause. Breathe.

I am not the busiest freelance paper crafter in the world, not by a long shot. but somehow, it always seems to happen all at once. Multiple deadlines to meet, loads of ideas to dot down...
So meanwhile I attend to them i leave you with another Basic Grey card.

from the Capella collection.

Getting distracted by details

I don't know about you, but I do get distracted by the little details all the time. 
Say I am making a card. While going to fetch the 1 1/2 " circle punch I realized that the Versafine ink directly above it is missing so I go looking for it on my working table. And I find it a few minutes away by that time I have put the circle punch somewhere else so I need to spend sometime to find it. Once I do, what did I wanted for in the first place?
The little detail being organized. But it can be anything. All distracts me. I need to refocus.
Maybe simple cards like this one will help.


Paper: Basic Grey, Capella.
Canvas tag: Basic Grey, Capella.
Sentiment: My very own Square Essentials.

Computer stuff

Lately I have been doing a bit of clearing out in my computer. You know, being an amateur photographer eats a lot of hard drive space. I mean you end up saving several copies of photos which are quite large, so my computer started to not much space left. Because it is such a draining job, I haven't been very creative for the last ten days.

However, things changed a bit last Thursday when I had to do some prep work for last Saturday's demo at The Craft Barn. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of the finished cards I did - silly me! But I found some cards on my hard drive that I don't think I have shared.

This one was part of an article for Cardmaking and Papercraft. I used Origins Basic Grey Collection.

By the way, some of you may have noticed some ads in this page. Well, finally I have listened to my voice of reason -ie my husband- and realized that I spend many hours making and updating this blog and I need to start getting some sort of income back from it. At the beginning I was against the idea until I realized that all my favorite blogs had ads and as a reader that didn't bother me at all. I really hope it doesn't bother you all, and remember with google ads means that if you just click on them I get paid, no need to buy anything, so if you can click here and there it will make a difference to me.

(Oh, how I hate to write this!)

It seems that I have lost the original files of many photos I had taken of my cards, either lost or misplaced, which sounds better. That is why the watermark looks so huge, because the photo size is rather small, one of the small disadvantages of Aperture.

In the last few days I have had three very exciting deliveries, all for different projects including an article, some samples cards and a teaching project that I am really excited about, nothing extraordinary at all, but a bit different for me.

Feeling a bit better, but still need to sleep a lot, early evening I need a nap, as if I didn't sleep enough night time!!! And, no, it can not be called a Siesta as a siesta is pretty much immediately after lunch, around 3pm or so.

Graphic and Distressed Look

I think I haven't shared this card yet, Really, I am trying to be more organized, but I seemed to fail with older cards.

A quick one

Using Origins Cardmaking kit from Basic Grey.

In this Months Cardmaking & Papercraft

This is one of the 12 cards I made for an article using the latest Basic Grey collections, Capella, Green at Heart and Kioshi. I must say that I really enjoy making articles for Cardmaking, they are a fab magazine to work with.

And thanks for the lovely comments yesterday. I had a lovely day, not doing anything remarkable but doing something useful. By the way, I was delighted with Nadal's victory. I did not expected it, but reminded me how great Rafa is even after a troubled year. Very inspiring!

A layout, for a change

I dont think I posted this layout before, but if I have, then forgive me. I am still exhausted after teaching at Dawn Bibby's Residential. It was a lot of fun, but little sleep involved and I need my mornings to sleep!

The layout features Kioshi papers, which are a lovely double sided collection by Basic Grey.

Words

Sometimes words in stickers are cheesy, sometimes they truly are what I just need to hear.