Christmas in July!!

Yes it's true, whilst the sun may be shining and the summer is upon us, it is actually a really good time to stock up on your Christmas crafty stash.  I often start off with good intentions to build up a stock of my personal use xmas cards and gifts, but come beginning of December I start panicking that there is still so much to get done.  Papermill Direct are running a promotion on very christmassy shades of card in 'Post Box Red' and 'Forest Green'  with a fab 15% off!!  

So today I am going to share this Accordion Fold card that features lots of Red and green and a sprinking of white.

 

 I Created my Accordion pages by diecutting 2 pages from 'Forest Green and 1 page from 'Post Box Red' card. scoring, folding and taping them together.  I always leave the inner section unattached until they have been decorated.  

 

 I die cut shaped panels from rich cream hammered card as i thought that would be a nice contrast and the hammered effect would add some interest.  The tree, stocking and Dec 25 motifs were cut using my Cricut Mini, assembled and decorated with glitter glues and faux gems.  I then attached the inner panels of the accordion fold pages taking care to assemble in the correct 'in and out' order.

To add to the christmassy feel I die cut some snowflakes and stars in different sizes and scattered them about the panels, letting some overlap into the cut out spaces to help frame the designs,  Each snowflake has a centre of stickles glitter glue in 'frosted lace' to create a bit of extra sparkle.  A snowflake charm and a bright red ribbon bow add the finishing touches.

I like making Accordion Fold cards, you can create a great display piece and yet it folds down to fit into an envelope, perfect for posting out.

Now I'm feeling festive, so i think I will carry on making a few xmas cards in between other themes, see if I can build up my stock for personal use.

Materials Used:
Forest Green, Post Box Red, Rich Cream Hammered, White Card - Papermill Direct
Cricut Mini to cut motifs, snowflake and album are dies, 
stickles glitter glue in 'Frosted Lace', 
snowflake charm, bakers twine, ribbon and faux gems from my own craft stash.

Why not pop over and see what my fabulous papermill teamies have got up to this week too?:
 
Barbara

http://glitterarti1.blogspot.co.uk/

Lisa

http://papercraftbliss.com/

Ruth

http://apassionforcards.blogspot.co.uk/   
Sylvia

http://designsforoccasions.blogspot.co.uk/

Sandie

http://sandieshores.blogspot.co.uk/

Sharon  

http://theothersideofmerevitalised.blogspot.co.uk/

Thank You Teacher!! (and save 10%!!)

So it's that time of year again, for some of you your children may have already finished school for the summer, but for others, like me, we still have a couple of weeks to go yet.  I usually make little apple themed Thank You Teacher cards, sometimes I make them apple shaped too and they are fun to make.  (You may have already seen my little tutorial over on the papermill blog for a simple design you can make with your children)

 

Anyway this time I thought I would try something different.  Again this is a simple design and you can make it as simple or elaborate as you wish.  So I made some little Thank You Teacher Post-It Note Holders.  These will make inexpensive and useful gifts for teachers and can of course be adapted for other uses.

For these designs I chose great quality card from papermill direct in traditional school theme colours of 'Post Box Red', 'Lime Green' and 'Forest Green',  (materials list and links at end of post).

Papermill card is perfect for this project as it is a good gsm and scores and creases easily with no 'cracking' you get a good clean durable fold which is important for a gift that will be opened and closed a lot.

You can buy post it notes in different sizes, I already had these to hand and they measure approx 3" x 3".  so I cut my card to give a little clearance all round, allowing approx 1/2" for the spine (this will of course depend on the height of your post it notes stack). I used a corner rounder on the front 2 corners to give a neater finish.

 Decorating these is the fun part and something your children may like to do. I stamped 'Thank You' and 'Teacher' using black ink and a stamp set from Clearly Besotted.  I also stamped the pencil design using a versamark inkpad to give a light watermark effect. I stamped a little apple design using black, red and green inks, then I diecut a circle around each stamped image before matting them onto a die cut scalloped circle in a contrasting colour card.  A length of black ribbon was attached around the front flap of the card holder, the joins at the front right so they can be hidden by the little diecut apple motif.  To finish off, just add a little adhesive to the bottom of your post it notes stack, I used a square of double sided sheet but you can use double-sided tape if you prefer.  Carefully position inside your holder and all done.  

And it's perfect timing for those makes, as Papermill Direct have a special discount, starting NOW, you can save 10% on a small box of card (approx 80 sheets) until Monday 14th July at 9am!   

The papermill Design Team have all been busy making thank you Teacher gifts and cards, why not pop over and check out their Blogs.  (links below).

Materials List:

Lime Green, Forest Green & Post Box Red card from Papermill Direct
Post it notes,
Black, Red, Green and Versamark inkpads, 

'Teachers Pet' Stamp Set from Clearly Besotted
Circle & scallop circle dies,
Black Ribbon, adhesive, corner rounder.

Challenges Entered:

July 'Anything Goes' Challenge - Sisters of Craft
 http://thesistersofcraft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/sisters-of-craft-july-anything-goes.html

Why not pop over and see what my fabulous papermill teamies have got up to this week too?:
 
Barbara

http://glitterarti1.blogspot.co.uk/

Lisa

http://papercraftbliss.com/

 
Ruth

http://apassionforcards.blogspot.co.uk/
 

Sylvia
http://designsforoccasions.blogspot.co.uk/

Sandie

http://sandieshores.blogspot.co.uk/

Sharon  

http://theothersideofmerevitalised.blogspot.co.uk/

Thinking of You...

Thinking of You... a sentiment that can be used for many different occasions both joyful and sad and is useful when we may not be sure of what to say but want the recipient to know we are thinking of them.

 This weeks special offer card from papermill direct a 230gsm 'Ivory Lightly Embossed' card (a small box is just £5 Link Here)  has a delicate embossing on it which I thought would be perfect to print onto with this fabulous downloaded paper which has a water-colour effect.  Now I have one of those printers that can be a bit temperamental with printing onto card as it has the front tray loader, But it seems happy to take all the papermill cards I have tried so far through it and this weeks special offer is no exception, it whizzed through perfectly first time.  I really like the the colours of this patterned paper and how it blended with the texture of the cardstock to make a lovely water-coloury (I know that's not a real word :D) and tactile mat for my card.

 If you've been following my blog so far, you will know that I do like to test out the cardstocks in different ways, it is important to not only have good quality materials but also ones that are versatile, that can 'multi-task'.  So here I not only tested it out with direct printing but i also stamped the sentiment with a dew drop ink pad, it stamped lovely on the textured surface first time and no loss of image.  I also tested the card with a Martha Stewart punch. It punched through crisply as you can see.  (I have also tested this particular cardstock by electronic cutting with my Cricut Mini - please see other blog post for that one :))

 The colours of the pattern paper were easy to match within the Papermill Direct range of card colours.  Raspberry Pink and Lime Green being the obvious partners.  I added a couple of Card Candis and a bow of lime green ribbon and my design was finished.



Materials Used:
230gsm Light Ivory Embossed 'offer' Card - Papermill Direct
Lime Green card, Raspberry Pink card  - Papermill Direct
Martha Stewart Doily Punch. 
'Sweet Little Sentiments' Stamp Set from Clearly Besotted. 
Dew Drop Ink Pad in 'Pearlescent orchid'. 
Card Candi & Ribbon from my craft stash. 
Papers are downloads from Pink Petticoat's new range 'Strawberry Blooms' the design used is called 'Fresh Blooms' which I chose for it's watercolour effect that worked well with the embossed texture of the offer card.

Challenges Entered:

Why not pop over and see what my fabulous papermill teamies have got up to this week too?:
 
Barbara

http://glitterarti1.blogspot.co.uk/

Lisa

http://papercraftbliss.com/

 
Ruth

http://apassionforcards.blogspot.co.uk/
 

Sylvia http://designsforoccasions.blogspot.co.uk/

Sandie

http://sandieshores.blogspot.co.uk/

Sharon  

http://theothersideofmerevitalised.blogspot.co.uk/

The Little Things In Life...

So it's Thursday again and the launch of another fabulous offer card from Papermill Direct.  My brain is still in telling me to 'relax' mode.  I'm starting to feel a lot better but I try to do too much and then suddenly feel exhausted. At these times my comfy chair seems so appealing.  Now my comfy chair has seen better days and is nowhere near as stylish as the one I created for this little card.

 I used my little Cricut Mini to cut out the chair layers and the sentiment that reads "The Little Things In Life...".  It may not be immediately apparent but all the chair layers and the sentiment layers were all cut in one colour, and that is this weeks special offer card from papermill direct a 230gsm 'Ivory Lightly Embossed' card (a small box is just £5 Link Here)  which has a delicate embossing on it which is similar to the popular leather effect, the Ivory Lightly embossed has a more smaller more delicate grain and I thought it perfect for my comfy chair project.  I coloured layers in 'grey squirrel' and 'pastel blue' pro markers.  You can see the embossed card coloured perfectly evenly and really looks like I used card in those colours.  How versatile is that card then, it means I can cut all sorts of small shapes with layers all in one go and not have to worry about colouring til I'm ready to assemble the finished project. The lightly embossed detail adds depth to the surface and I think it makes the colouring neater and look more finished then it would on a flat card.

 I did however use one other card to create my contrast, I chose the fab 240gsm 'maroon' papermill card, it has a lovely dark rich tone that co-ordinates with the white and the 'grey squirrel' pro-marker and I think works well with the pale blue colours too. Again I didn't want to over-embellish this one, so kept the highlights simple and subtle by adding some self adhesive pale blue gemstones to the back of the chair and to the 'i's in the sentiment.  I thought 3 larger stones would finish off the sentiment well, giving a feeling that you could finish off the sentence in your head ...

 

Materials Used:
230gsm Light Ivory Embossed 'offer' Card - Papermill Direct
240gsm Maroon Card - Papermill Direct
Promarkers in 'Grey Squirrel' and 'Pastel Blue'
Pale Blue adhesive faux gems in 2 sizes
Cricut Mini


Challenges Entered:


Why not pop over and see what my fabulous papermill teamies have got up to this week too?:   

Barbara  glitterarti1.blogspot.co.uk

Lisa  papercraftbliss.com

Ruth  apassionforcards.blogspot.co.uk

Sylvia designsforoccasions.blogspot.co.uk

Sandie sandieshores.blogspot.co.uk

Sharon  theothersideofmerevitalised.blogspot.co.uk

Relax

No it's not a a FGTH song for those of us that remember the 80's, but I must admit that song did jump into my head whilst making this card.

So on to today's creation, well it started out with no real plan as is often the case, but i quite like where it ended up.  I was drawn to the Shell icon motif which was actually part of a 'cut it free for a week' set on the Cricut website recently and I wanted to make it into a card.  Shells made me think of soft sand, cool breezes and just whiling away the day relaxing.  So I decided to use one of the special offer cards at Papermill -  'Light Ivory Smooth' which is 270gsm in a lovely pale colour and perfect for cutting with my little Cricut Mini.  (as always materials list and challenges entered are at the bottom of the post)

I cut the shell shape and the scalloped 'sand' base from this card and used it to come up with an Easel Card style. The great thing about Papermill is that there is a lovely range of colours to choose from and they always work so well together.  I chose 'Daffodil Yellow' card and added clear micro glass beads to it and this helped created a sand-like feel and texture to the card.  'Buff' card was also used to contrast the 'light ivory' for the shell shape.  I added some 'frosted lace' stickles to highlight the shell.  The blue sky was provided by it's namesake papermill card in 'Sky Blue' it would have been so impolite of me not to use it :D
 I die cut letters to spell out 'R E L A X' from 'teal' card using the 'Summer Block' alphabet, i really like the style of that font and accented each letter with 3 dots of liquid pearls in 'white opal'.   I felt something was lacking a little from the overall look and realised it needed something in the distance to add some perspective, So I die cut a little palm tree added it to the card and scattered a few faux half pearls on the 'sand' around the shell, and it looked finished.

I think perhaps my brain is subconsciously advising me to relax.  I have a few appointments and health stuff to deal with and so my urge to relax is coming out into my crafting I think. About the only way I'm liable to take any notice :D


Materials Used:
Light Ivory Smooth 'Offer' Card, 
Daffodil Yellow, Sky Blue, Buff, Teal, Mocha Brown and Forest Green papermill card.
Clear Micro Glass Beads for the sand, 
Stickles in 'frosted lace', 
Liquid Pearls in 'White Opal', 
Faux half pearls,
Cricut Mini, Big Shot, Summer Block alphabet dies, palm tree die from  

Challenges Entered: 
Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog - #217 'Anything Goes'
http://fantabulouscricut.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/fccb-challenge-217-anything-goes.html

 Laineys Crafty Space - Just For Fun Blogspot - Anything Goes Challenge #1
 http://laineyscraftyspace-justforfun.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/anything-goes-challenge-1.html