Friday Die Day

Hello friends


Welcome to Friday Die Day and this week it is majestic...Majestic Oval.
This die set comprises of three dies and the approximate measurements are:

1: 2⅜ x 1⅜”
2: 3⅜ x 2⅜”
3: 4⅛ x 5⅜”

This is how it looks cut/embossed.

I chose to use die templates 2 and 3, stamped 'Thinking of You' on the smaller one.

My card base is white card, patterned paper (scrap box) and rounded the corners.

Flowers are...yes Marisa's Bouquet (now back in stock).

Assembled my flowers and mounted the oval with 3D Foam Squares.

The finished card - I kept it fairly neutral.

I like to do this with more intricate dies so it doesn't detract from their beauty.

Pearls to the flower centres, always makes them pop.

Close up pics.

Today thanking Elliott for all his watermarking skills.



He deals with all of those things, I email them all off to him (he's in the next room!)

and they come back organised and watermarked - a pretty good service.

I just need him to start typing blog posts...

I could lay on the sofa and dictate...Barbara Cartland style! only kidding!

 

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

Take care friends.

 

Busy busy!

Hello friends

Just stopping by to say a quick hello, blog posts have been a little 

erratic this week as I've been a busy bee.  In fact I can't believe it's Wednesday already -
I mean Thursday!! Goodness it's even worse...

In between here is my co-worker, actually not doing a great deal of work!

She is checking out some of the new Christmas dies,

they are trickling into stock now on the website.

Also please continue to check the pre-loved dies on the website,

some more going on later today.

I'm about to head out the door to my City job for two days but please stop by

tomorrow for Friday Die Day.

Hope your week is going well, take care friends.

Acanthus Chandelier

Hello friends

Today a contrast from colour I'm going monotone!
Well sort of...ivory and black.
I thought I would try out the Acanthus Chandelier die.
This is a sort of mini Friday Die Day on a Tuesday...hope that doesn't confuse
anyone - it's bound to confuse me! :)

This is how it looks cut/embossed.

I've used 6 x 6 Matting Basics to create my base card, 

cream matting and attached some embroidered fancy black ribbon

and stamped Congratulations in bottom right hand corner.

More 6 x 6 Matting Basics used for black card with Anna Griffin - Lovely Layers paper

and black card with ivory linen card for my die cut.

It was then just a case of layering all the layers!

I applied a few sparkly gemstones to the die cut too.

Not my usual style of card but I enjoyed making it.

Have a lovely day - take care friends.

Simple, fresh, white, pink and green!

Hello friends

Hope you all had a good weekend and escaped the rain,
Saturday was ok but Sunday was not a day for getting the washing dry.

A simple fresh crisp white, pink and green card today using
Victorian Bow.
There's two dies to the set, I've used the larger one for my card.

The flower is Flower Play and stamped with the coordinating Flower Play stamps,

nice that you get the leaves with this set too.

And...both the Flower Play dies and stamps are now in the Summer Sale on the website!

'With Love' is Sentiments 3.

Had a lovely time demoing at Crafts U Love in Surrey,
first time I have visited this shop and it's located in beautiful countryside.

As it was the shop's 9th birthday a marquee had been erected,
there were lots of demos, raffle, auction and cake!

 And this was my demoing spot ...

Next demos are taking place the weekend 8th and 9th August.
I'm going to be at Sir Stampalot in Peterborough on the Saturday and
you can find me at the Great British Craft Festival in Warwickshire on the Sunday...
hope to see you there.

Take care friends.

Just before I go...

Hello friends

Just before I head off to Surrey to demo today I am sharing a card with you
using Gothic Strip.
I have to admit this die didn't jump out at me at first but once I started
playing with it I thought...oh yes I like it!
I've also used...yes you've guessed it - Marisa's Bouquet (adore the butterflies)
and the label shape is  Labels Thirty Eight.

A leaf from Romantic Blooms One crept in...found it on my craft desk!

Gothic Strip also fits perfectly on a chocolate wrapper :)

Feel free to take a look at the dies in more detail on the website and
you may want to glanced at the pre-loved section, a few more added.

Take care friends, hoping you have a dry weekend -
the rain has stopped here after it bucketed it down yesterday all day!
Bella not impressed!

Friday Die Day

Hello friends

Friday? Already??
I think it must be so here's this week's Friday Die Day.
I'm featuring Victorian Arch, this die is a clear example of you really need to
see the die cut to get an idea of how lovely it is.

There are two dies in the set and the approximate measurements are:

Inset: 5⅜ x 2⅝”
Border: 5½ x 3⅜”
 

This is how it looks cut/embossed.

I'm having a little bit of an obsession with using white card all the time!

Other die cuts - Sprigs, Sentiments 3 and Marisa's Bouquet.

 My card base is white card with Arcadia papers,

using 6 x 6 Matting Basics B.

Lightly inked my flowers and foliage.

Positioned Victorian Arch die cut and affixed with 3D Foam Squares.

I then added the inked bits and bobs, a few pearls and finished.

A close up pic.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend,
I'm off to Crafts U Love in Charlwood, Surrey tomorrow,
it's the store's 9th birthday, there's going to be an auction, raffle and lots of demos so
please pop along if you can.

Take care friends.
 

Today's Crafty Offering...

Hello friends

Today's crafty offering is Reverent Square,

this is a large, ornate gorgeous die set with lots of versatility.

I seem to be fond of making predominantly white cards at the moment... 

There is a shadow on the card because of the sunshine but 

I'm not complaining...I love waking up to the blue skies.

 I've kept the card simple to highlight the detail of the die, 

adding just a couple of Marisa's Bouquet flowers.

Today I'm back in City job - comes around far too quickly,

in fact I'm staggered at how fast this year is flying by,

is it just me or do you feel like time is on fast forward?

Please stop by tomorrow for Friday Die Day.

Take care friends.

Did you win a Spellbinders die??

Hello friends

Time to announce the TWO winners of the celebratory

100th Friday Die Day!

The die is Floral Heart Accent and the winners are...

scroll down... 

Carolyn Bell 

and

Chris Harrison

Please drop me an email with your address and the die will be on it's way to you.

hope-chances@live.co.uk

Yesterday we celebrated my niece's 21st.
One of the gifts I bought for her was this handmade bag...
a lovely lady called Hayley makes these from photographs and she had really captured
Rachel well and including their dog Harry.
Inside the bag...lots of chocolate!

The sun was shining beautifully, perfect for a pub lunch.

Here's the special guest...! ;)

Not a lot of crafting got done yesterday (just celebrating) but getting back on track today.
Take care friends, hope it is sunny where you are.

Tuesday Tip/Technique...oven on!

Hello friends

Since I featured this project...

(Pretty Petals A)

 and this one...

(Decorative Curved Square and Flower Play)

I received lots of requests for enamel dots.

They are actually quite hard to get hold of so I was delighted to read in this month's 

edition of Simply Cards and Papercraft that you can make your own.

So here is Lisa Hausmann's technique tried at home in my kitchen late last night!

You need a baking tray, a non-stick liner and Hama beads (or some similar beads). 

 Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Evenly spread your beads.

 Pop them in the oven and this how they looked after about 10 minutes.

It is recommended that you 'cook' them for about 30 minutes, a little more if the 

holes have not filled in.

Here are mine after 45 minutes, I've got a pretty hot fan oven which I think 

explains why some of the circles are a little distorted as the liner moved a little. 

I'm really happy with the yellow ones, super handy for flower middles.

All in all well worth doing and a fraction of the price.

I shall definitely be using up my bag of beads, look out for them on future projects.

Today celebrating my niece's 21st Birthday, pub lunch. Bella is invited...

zero calories if you eat outside - honest! 

Take care friends.

My Go To Favourites!

Hello friends

Sharing today a card that has just appeared on the Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L blog.

It's a fairly simple card and it features all my 'go to' adhesives.

As mentioned, there are not many UK stockists of Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L, 

I'm fortunate to be one of them and I think you will find that once you try 

them you will really see a difference.

Feel free to take a look at the range on the website here.

Also the dies featured on my card are Pierced Rectangles,

Ivy and Fancy Diamond.

It's not too late to enter into the giveaway for Friday Die Day 100!

Just leave a comment on that post and two winners will be picked out later this week.

Wishing you all a great start to the week,

sunshine always helps a Monday!

Take care friends.

Photos!

Hello friends

A photo heavy blog post today.

First off, I had a lovely time yesterday at Keep on Crafting in Bury St Edmunds.

Thank you to Mandy who owns the shop, always lovely to catch up.

And many thanks to everyone who came along.

Here I am...doing 'my thing'!!

Please take a good look at the photo....look right, just above the sample books...

a bowl of strawberries!!  Not cake or biscuits!

It was a healthy demo.

 I'm out and about again next weekend - Crafts U Love, Charlwood, Surrey

so please come along if you can. It's the shop's 9th Birthday so lots going on...

Don't forget you can keep track of where I am on my tour on the website here.

My SatNav has never been used so much!

Other news...

if you didn't catch Bella on Facebook, here she is groomed!

What a difference, she went from Chewbacca to a meerkat.

We very nearly convinced Mitchell's girlfriend that we had collected a different dog, 

a boy dog called Sebastian!

She did see through out silly humour...eventually!

And lastly, my woodland cabin at dusk, I love this place - I'm considering putting a

camp bed in there so I don't ever have to leave! 24/7 crafting. 

So that's my newsy, photo post today - proper craft tomorrow.

Take care friends.

Friday Die Day 100!!!

Hello friends

Today marks 100 Friday Die Days!
I've occasionally been keeping count and then suddenly it was 100.

If you've been here from the first Friday Die Day huge thanks for always stopping by.

This week I am featuring Floral Heart Accent.
The approximate die measurements are:

 1: ⅝ x ⅝”
2: 1⅝ x ½”
3: 4 x 2¼”

This is how it looks cut/embossed.

How about some reverse stencilling?

Place your die on a scrap piece of paper and pat liberally with an ink pad.

You can see it clings to all the raised areas.

Transfer it, ink side up, onto your base plate.

Cover with a piece of card, cut/emboss.

This is the result, really effective, the ink remains in the debossed areas.

 Using my ink embossed Floral Heart Accent, I've created a card base from

My Mind's Eye - Miss Caroline Howdy Doody paper.

Stamped a sentiment (Lawn Fawn) and cut/embossed with Pierced Rectangles.

Mounted onto cream cardstock and Floral Heart Accent positioned with

3D Foam Squares.

Finishing touch - flowers from Marisa's Bouquet and foliage from

Romantic Blooms One.

 

A close up pic.

To mark the 100 and to make it a little bit special
I'm giving away the featured die - two in fact so please leave a comment and
two winners will be picked out next week.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend, I'm in Bury St Edmunds,
Keep on Crafting if any of you live that way, be great to meet you.

Take care friends.