Baking with Bears

(Catchupmageddon Post) A couple of cards I made using sets from Lawn Fawn and My Favourite Things. The blue card I made as a commission for someone who loves to bake.

In this card I used two Lawn Fawn sets, Bannerfic and Baked with love. I used a stencil from the stash for the back ground and used blue distress oxides. I then assembled the blue table cloth and the elements on top.

All the stamped elements were coloured with copics and some stickles. Spotted paper & sequins were from the stash. 

I also made another card in pinks! This time I included some little bears from the My Favourite Things Bitty Bears set. Also a stencil for the background, elements coloured with copics (and stickles) and paper and sequins from the stash.

I can't resist adding tiny bears to things, what is wrong with me? lol.

Thanks for joining me on yet another catch up post. Back to card making now, I need to make some fresh new cards!

Best Fishes!

(Catchupmageddon Post). Wanted to make a swimming themed card for my Nephew and ended up with fishes! I've had this Lawn Fawn Fintastic Friends stamp set for a while but this is the first time I have had the chance to play with it.

The card above is my intended layout and the card below is what I made with all the left over bits! I used distress oxides for the water backgrounds and coloured the fish with copics.

I added some dots of glossy accents around the fish to represent some bubbles and add a new texture to the card. 

Greeting was included with the stamp set.

Owls - freebie download from Making Cards Mag.

I really like the challenge of using a limited group of items to make a card and the freebie download packs from Making Cards Magazine are a fab way to do this! Sometimes I just feel overwhelmed by choice and ideas and it results in a lack of productivity and creativity! I always feel like reducting the stash I use makes for much more interesting cards.

I love the January download pack featuring soft watercolour owls! I paired them up with some 6x6 papers from my stash, kraft card, and two different types of bling. The one embellishment set is Shimelle Glitter Girl Collection by American Crafts and the others are adhesive wood-effects gems I think from docrafts, will check!

I decided to make a set of 4 cards using 6x6 white card blanks as the bases. This was just for convenience, I have lots of them ready to use!

Because the set doesnt come with any greetings/sentiments I printed out some round ones and banner ones on the computer using two fonts, Caneletter Script and Bernadette Rough.

Several of the 6x6 papers came from a Chalk Studio Set from My Minds Eye. I can spot at least one section from a Lawn Fawn Plaid Set and a few pieces my friend Amy sent me when I worked on her Design Team, thanks Amy!

On all of the cards I added glossy accents to the Owl's eyes (Customers always comment and like it) and I added some stickles to the centres of the flowers. The bunting I used I think is a docrafts product I got from the Range.

Thanks for joining me today, I hope you like this set of Birthday cards, they were quick to make and fun to do! If you want to check out if they are still available to download you can use the link below. Making Card Magazine has a great facebook page that alerts you to offers and freebies too.

https://www.hobbies-and-crafts.co.uk/Blog-Card-Making/

Quick forest Card.

Wanted to play with my new Sue Wilson - Woodland Collection - Forest Animals dies. And have a go at forest bokeh!

I made the green bokeh background using distress oxides, a circle stencil from Witt & Sass and Hero Arts Unicorn White pigment ink.

Then I die cut birch trees using IO DIE079-u, Stag, deers and bird from the Sue Wilson Set and then grass using Lawn Fawn Grass border. I printed off a sentiment on the computer and added it to the bottom.

Added some stickles dots to lively it up at the end.

I confess I made another card before this using the same elements and it was a disaster. I was pleased I had another go tho, this one looks ok, but perhaps a bit too christmassy? 

Deep Sea Doug

Hi all! It's Dr.Digi time again and I have Deep Sea Doug to share with you! :D Also, I always seem to need more Minecraft cards, does anyone else have that problem? :)

Doug is a very flexible digi, he comes in a few different versions and even in a fabulous set, complete with matching papers and even a pre-coloured mine, so you could skip colouring that bit if you wanted, a bit of a time saver?

I coloured him in polychromo pencils and added a few highlights using a white Posca Pen. The background paper is from Lawn Fawn (Perfectly Plaid 6x6) and the font is Courier New.

Here he is in close up and this is what the digi looks like. It's unlike me, but I have stuck very close to the original, he is packed with detail so you can really enjoy just following the guidelines in the stamp.

Hope this has inspired you to have ago, or even just to have a go at colouring copper! I want to do a verdigris copper something next time I get some metal to colour, tho I think I might need to find a tutorial to help me out :D

If you would like to see more awesome projects, why not pop by the Dr.Digi facebook group and join usssssssssss??

Dr. Digi's Pet Selfie Competion - Win 2 digis!

Just sneaking in an extra Dr.Digi DT post today, Grendel was ready for her debut and there is exciting news on the Dr.Digi facebook front that I wanted to share with you!

Excitement first! Go now to the Dr.Digi facebook page and enter to win 2 free digis. All you need to do is take a quick selfie with a pet of your choosing (could be any, there are no standards) and post it. DONE. Easy huh? Click this picture to go straight there.

So for a bit of inspiration and confirming that any old pet will do, here is Grendel. She is obvs a pure bred.....erm..... erm... Pugbullcorgi! :)

Went a bit retro in the styling of this card, been along time since I have gone with flowers and bows, but Grendel deserved special treatment!  The papers are from Dr.Digi too, so match perfectly! And I upscaled one a bit and cut out some of the bones to make some cute embellis!

I used Bernadette Rough for the font, printed it out and then stamped over/around it one of the banners from the Lawn Fawn (LF339) Bannerific set. Then cut it out. Flowery things are all from the stash. As are the ribbony things.

Kind of arched the banner over the ribbons, to make a more 3D effect. The bones are also raised with 3D foam at one end, to make them a bit "poke outy"(the scientific term).

Finally a close up of Grendel! Really like how her fur came out. I added a spot of glossy accents to her nose, so she looked healthy and some stickles to her bow, to add some glamour.

Just want to add that if you like Grendel (as you clearly would) but kinda fancy some human in the digi too, she is also part of a fab digi with her owner Graham. See below!

Suggest you head to facebook now and sort out your selfie for the competition! But maybe you want to peruse the shop a while and decide which digis you are going to pick if you win? Click below to go straight there.

Happy Good Friday!

Hi everyone, just sharing a couple of snaps of some Easter cards I made for a customer! Used three sets of Bunny stamps (kindly on loan from Helen).

• Craftin Desert Divas - Somebunny
• Gerda Steiner - Hoppiness GSD570
• Mama Elephant - Pix Favourites

The paper is from two Perfectly Plaid Lawn Fawn 6x6 paper pads. I used a stamp by Neat and Tangled called Sunburst with Distress Oxides and Inks for the background.The grass is made using Grassy Border Die also from Lawn Fawn. Bunnies are coloured with Copics and stickles.
The greetings are from a Docrafts set called Some Bunny Loves You. (That I have had quite a long time!)

Strange Commission

New commissioned card with a "Stranger Things" theme :) Niamh was 13! Incase you are trying to read the upside down bit :)

The top portion is a Distress Ink/Oxide background, am IO die DIE079-u (Birch trees), a magazine freebie bike die and Lawn Fawn Grassy Border. 
The font is KG Life is Messy, which was recommended online for a dupe to the real text in the tv programme. The lights were free clipart with added copic "glow".
I also added some baker's twine and tiny fairy light embellis from the stash.

 

The bottom section is an old "acrylic paint through stencil onto black card", background I made on a messing day using a borrowed stencil (No details sorry). I used an online programme that converts your text into the Stranger Things font and then I printed that out, cut it and added a border of paprika stickles. Also the lawn fawn grassy border die but in black.

As promised...

Just to let you know that it's day five of the Kitmas in July giveaway and the last day in the facebook group for the flamingo freebies! Click the banner to claim yours now!

Yesterday I said I would post the second card I made my partner today, and this time I used the fabulous Loads of Fun stamp set from Lawn Fawn and the 6x6 Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid paper stack! I love both!

I don't think he was impressed but I did enjoy making it, lol!
Colouring with copics. Washing machine has an acetate door with the smaller stamps glued behind. The missing orange sock is on the back of the card. He won't notice it, because he doesn't notice the odd stray socks ever at home either! :)

Happy Birthday Roger

Just a reminder, if you haven't already, pop by the Knitty Kitty Facebook or Instagram Group to take part in the current Kitmas Giveaway!

It's my partner's birthday today, not that he will read this, but just so you know why the following card is a little bit odd, it's for him! :)

So because I was pretty desperate to use my new Lawn Fawn Stamp Set - You're Claw-some, I adapted it and filled it with chess pieces! My partner loves chess. I couldn't resist using some chessboard style floor and funked it up a bit with some spotty background (wall) paper! (From Tonic Mid-Summer Mornings 8x8)

I spotted the matching spotty washi the day after I made the card, so I bought it to decorate the envelope too!

The claw machine and pawns are all coloured with copics and highlighted with posca pen and white gel pen.  The two fonts are CAC Pinafore and Candy Round BTN. I added some acetate to the machine, so you could see through it. Mounted on 7 x 5 card blank.

I kinda wanted to change the greeting to "Hope your birthday is Pawn-some" but then realised that has a VERY different meaning! Oops :)

This card was actually for his Mum to give him. I'll post mine tomorrow. :)

*sigh*

It’s actually with a heavy heart that I feel the need to make this post. It’s not often customer service is so bad I want to warn people away from a company, but this time I think I should.

I am talking about a company called Sprinkle Twinkle Ltd sometimes known as Sprinkle Twinkle 24 (online).

*****11/05/2019 UPDATE. The links for Sprinkle Twinkle no longer work because the company went bust in 2017/2018. Apparently they are now running a care business. A lot of people were left with orders and refunds owing, apparently they stopped responding to people entirely shortly before going bust. Their facebook page is covered in bad reviews and irate customers, they didn't even delete it when it went out of business, not a surprise.*****

I can’t say they were ever anything other than polite with me, they were always quite quick to reply but if I tell you that I placed an order on the 24^th March, and after a long chain of emails they still couldn’t provide me with a eta on my order by the 1^st June. 68 days later!

I believe they have changed some of the policies since I ordered, but even though items appear to be in stock they actually are not, they wait for a group of orders to come in and then they place their order with the supplier in America. I only know they do this because of an order I placed with them at the end of last year that took 3 months to arrive because of “customs issues” and the delay in placing the original order. Basically they had waited a long time to place the order due to the Christmas rush and them relocating their company and then it was further delayed by customs, so a 3 month wait. I didn’t think this was the normal amount of time it took to get things from them; I thought it was a one off!

I place my order two months in advance of when I needed it. As I shared with them via email, this was because I was working out it would take 4 weeks for them to place order, 5 days for the American Supplier to post, 3 weeks for customs to hold things up, 2 days for the item to be posted to me. Two months seemed like plenty of time to get things done. It takes less than that amount of time to order from Supermart USA and Chinese suppliers via ebay.

In their initial update to the order they themselves state:

Due to the volume that we order we would expect a worse case scenario to be around 3 weeks from your order date. We do now order on a weekly basis from the larger suppliers and this should cut down waiting times on delivery to our customers however there can be cases where our suppliers cannot complete every order due to them not having stock in to supply us, in this situation we will make you aware as soon as we know.

So they were actually predicting a date far sooner than I had imagined when I placed the order.

On the 2^nd of June after emails saying there was still no eta I cancelled the order, and on the 6^th of June they eventually refunded me. They didn’t bother to follow that up with another email, or reply to the email I had made asking them to cancel, or the one chasing the cancellation when they still hadn’t refunded me a few days later.

So yes, I got refunded in the end, but I think the reason I still couldn’t get an eta was because the items had still not been ordered. They discouraged me from contacting Lawn Fawn (who I assumed were the supplier for the goods) because they said goods were not coming from them, but actually I think it was because I would have discovered the order hadn’t been placed, or hadn’t been placed 2 months ago, but recently.

The co-owner of the company did ring me personally and left a short sharp message on my answer phone, at the time I was hoping it was going to be an apology and an eta for my order, but after an email later I actually think he was ringing because he was cross that I had offered to ring Lawn Fawn and chase them about the delay.

I am not ordering from them again, and I am actively going to discourage people from using them and to try somewhere else instead. There is no other time when I have to wait longer than 2 months for something I order online, even a sofa would arrive sooner than that. It’s not on, it’s not reasonable to offer no eta when it’s requested and I hope Lawn Fawn realise, the company in the UK representing them and their products is performing so awfully.

Family Tree :)

Made this for a bestie who is researching her family tree :) The professions/descriptions relate to various discoveries she has made along the way (Not always as they seemed at first or in this order lol).

I sprayed Cosmic Shimmer sprays over a wooden laser cut tree to make the background. Then I stamped Lawn Fawn Bannerific banners is Memento Ink and coloured them with copics. I added pseudo italic style text by hand. Embellished with a few punched oak leaves to finish.

Baked with Love.

Been dying to use this stamp set by Lawn Fawn called "Baked With Love" (Helen got it for me for Christmas! Crafting friends are the best!). It's ridiculously cute! I saw this gorgeous card by Chari Moss and decided to use the basic layout to make a card using the same set. Being very careful to credit her on this, her work is amazeballs.

Stamps - Lawn Fawn Baked with Love
Coloured with Copics.
Papers: Lawn Fawn 6x6 Perfectly Plaid Fall.

Added: Stickles and Glossy Accents.
( A good match to this Lawn Fawn font, that I used inside the card, is CAC Pinafore.)

Mini Review!

This card also gave me the chance to use my new "Press to Impress" stamping platform from crafts-too.com. It's basically a much cheaper version of a Misti, but seems just as awesome.
Here are a couple of photos of how I used it for this card.

Placed all the elements on the section of the card that I wanted to stamp, including the clear cling stamp greeting, straight and central, where I wanted it to go.

Then I closed the lid to pick up the stamps. Inked them up in black ink and then closed the lid again to stamp the greeting! This is brilliant for so many reasons, and reduces the "is it straight" angst and the "omg a bit didnt stamp well, can stamping it perfectly over the top to fill in the gap?". I am sure other crafters must have faced that a few times! It's not just me is it?

And the result! And as you can expect, it stamped perfectly first time, and I didn't need to redo it, but if I had, it would have been easy peasy! :) I am sold on this gadget. Worth every penny. (I am not handy enough to make one from dollar/pound store products but there are plenty of people that do if you want to track down how to make one yourself!).

Challenge 37 at the Crafty Addicts.

A new challenge has started on The Crafty Addicts Challenge Blog and the theme is ATG or Use diecuts.

Two smashing sponsors, Polkadoodles (Prize of Prize £6.75 approx 3 images) and Conie Fong Art (Prize of $10 gift card)!

I have made two cards, one from each sponsor. First -  have used Sally and Little Squirrel by Conie Fong.

Conie's stamps are a delight to colour and I am probably going to use this stamp a lot while I explore using different colour ways and styles etc. Love it! It's possibly meant to be a christmas image, but I am going to use it for a wintery birthday card instead.

The diecut I have used it called Leafy Tree Backdrop Portrait from Lawn Fawn. The leaves also come with the die and I used them with blue vellum.
Coloured with Polychromos Pencils on Kendal Buff Cardstock.
Tiny spot of stickles on the flower.
Posca pen to make the spots.
Blue baker's twine from the stash.

My second card is using Polkadoodles - Meribelle Rock It!  I've printed it onto kraft card and then coloured it with polychromo pencils. I also added in some white highlights using a posca paint pen.

The dies I have used as part of the frame are from a set by Sue Wilson called Fillables Fish Bowl. I added a touch of Nuvo Jewel drops to the sea horses to make a different texture.

Finished card -

Polkadoodles gave the Design Team a choice of three super digistamps for this challenge:

Meribelle Rock It

Female Painter Decorator

Foxy Friend

Sponsor Badges

A bit of GerdaSteinerDesigns.com

Helen was kind enough to stamp me some of her new Gerda Steiner Stamp Set - Hoppiness! I decided to use the fence and birds to make a Wedding Congrats Card (Or Anniversary etc). The bird is super cute and really easy to have ideas for. I am doing the bunnies from the set on another card :)

 Copics used:

 Birds - C1, Y08, Y17, B93, B95

Fence - W3, E31, E35

This is a distress ink background with water flicked on top. The fence and birds are coloured with copics. Sequins and banner added too. I also use part of the Lawn Fawn Grassy Border diecut on the fence. Banner is in Lobster Two Font.