Be loved, part 4!

So, this is the front of the card.

The inside of the card is what is really elaborate.

The last page.

A close up of the inside detail.

Something different

Sometimes, I really like to push my own cardmaking boundaries. Sometimes, I go maybe too far. Here the opening of the card is not on the right as it is with 99.99% of cards.

I used an old Hero Arts stamp and the message is one of my Circle Essentials stamps.

This month in Cardmaking and Papercraft

I have a Designers Challenge article, featuring six cards for the month of February. For this romantic one, I used one of my favorite paper collections from My Minds Eye.

For once, I took ok photos of my own cards.

When it is cold and snowy outsite

It's the best time to stay in and color in! Using Copics I colored in this Chipboard circle and scalloped framed. The stamp is from Penny Black and the message is one of my Essentials Circles. The main card was a 12 x 12 die cut paper from Yellow Bicycle that is really thick so can be made as the blank card.

By the way, the Fiskars trimmer I reviewed the other week is available online now.

Using leftovers

Because of my work, I often finish off with a lot of leftovers which are small pieces of very pretty paper. Because I am a true craft hoarder I find hard to get rid of them, so I keep them for a while until I have a clear out urge. Then I go through bits and pieces that I have and I give away any that could be used. This time, though, when I found three little pieces of Wisteria papers -from Basic Grey, the top one of them I had already been embossed and scuffed with the Cuttlebug-, I fancied making a card with them so I did this one above. To add the message, I just stamped the Miss you -from the Circle Essentials set-. To find a matching ink was a bit of a challenge, I think it was what it took me the longest time. The one I ended up with is not perfect by any means, but close enough for me.

Circle Essentials and the punch sizes

Last week I got the parcel containing my latest stamp sets. One of them being the Circle Essentials.You can find them in shops all around the country including The Glitter Pot and Artbase. They look like this on the web:

Unfortunately, I have been extremely busy with deadlines and family so I haven't had the rpoper time to actually play with them -ie make a card-. But I could not resist stamping all of them to check they all work! So, I decided to show how the circles fit into the different punches and nesties. I know there are more combinations but this is using the punches or dies that I had at home.


They all can be punches with 1" but they wont have a white edge around them. If you would like that effect the best sized punch is 1 1/8", which are manufactured by Eksuccess. the bottom examples are used in combination with different shaped punches: star (Stampin Up, large) Square 1 1/8" (EKsuccess) and Scallop Square (StampinUp).

They are all in this set the same size which is slightly larger than the ones in the Mixed Sentiments and also larger than the two that appear on the Wording set - the birthday set.

If you have make any cards using any of the products I have designed whether it is Craftwork Card stuff -Messages In Circles or Buttons, Floral Damask or Floral Christmas- or the stamps -Mixed Sentiments, Circle Essentials...- please leave a comment with the link. I would love to see what people are creating with them.

By they way, I used Versafine Ink Satin Red (there is a reason, as I used Spanish Moss for the Wording Stamp and Blue Lagoon for the Square Essentials). And

New Stamps: Circle Essentials

This is the third set from the new stamps. As always it is a clear unmounted set that contains 12 circles with the essential messages. The only images that are both on the Mixed Sayings and in this one is Thinking of You and Best Wishes due to the mishap explained on the previous post. The Happy Birthday and Birthday wishes are very similar to the ones that come in the Mixed Sayings, but in those ones have a dotted ring around them.
As you will imagine, they are manufactured and distributed by Personal Impressions which means that you should be able to find them in a craft shop near you at the end of October.