Halloween Bridge Card - Trimcraft DT

Hello, Today I have a simple Halloween themed bridge card to share with you.  The Free Halloween downloadable papers from Trimcraft are fun, cute and have funky colours perfect for making a simple ‘Bridge’ card design, especially as they have sentiments included too.

I decided to make a little spider and add a web along with a floating Ghost for a fun Halloween greeting.

Step By Step:

Cut Dovecraft black card approx. 11” x 6”

With long side across your scoring board, score from left at 1 ½”, 3”, 8”, and 9 ½”

Download and print off the free Halloween papers, link here: https://www.thecraftblog.com/freebies/downloads?page=2

Decorate card panels by matting pattern paper onto white card and then again onto panels using double sided tape.  I’ve used pink pattern paper for centre and inner panels and turquoise skull paper for the 2 out panels.

Cut a ‘bridge’ strip from white card approx. 8” x 2” and decorate with a strip of ghost pattern paper. 

Attach bridge strip by folding in left side of card and adhering the strip to the first panel, take it across the card and adhere where it meets the edge of the end panel, this will allow the card to fold down.  Use a clear drying glue to allow adjustment.

Cut out Halloween sentiment, bat, skulls and ghost. Adhere sentiment to centre panel at top and bat to overhang left panel. 

Adhere ghost to a strip of acetate and attach to centre panel using clear drying glue on the back, hold in place for s few seconds to prevent it slipping.  Adhere skill trio to acetate and attach under bridge section.

Adhere a piece of white spiders web trim to panel at right hand side, apply adhesive where it will be covered by spider and eyeball)

Make a spider by cutting a circle of Dovecraft black glitter card, adhere black cord ‘legs’ to the back and then cover with a circle of black card. Add 2 googly eyes to spider before adhering to spider’s web.

To finish, add a couple of eyeballs (these were from last year’s Trimcraft free Halloween download papers) add black adhesive gems to ghost’s eyes and centre of eyeballs.  Add a panel to the back of your card for the greeting.

Here’s a little video to show the card:

Trimcraft Products Used:

Trimcraft Free Download Papers - https://www.thecraftblog.com/freebies/downloads?page=2

Dovecraft White A4 Premium Card – DCBS137

Dovecraft Black A4 Premium Card – DCBS138

Dovecraft Black Glitter Card – DCGC01

Dovecraft A4 Acetate – DCBS106

Plus:

Black Adhesive Gems. Googly Eyes, Black Cord, Spiders Web

Adhesives: D/S Tape, Clear Drying Glue

A Papercut Style Heart Wedding Card - Papermilldirect DT

Hello, today I'm going to share a recent Wedding card design idea with you.  I love to use Papermilldirect White Linen card not only for it’s lovely texture and the luxury look it gives, but also because it cuts beautifully on my Cricut Explore.  I needed to make a Wedding card with a lemon and white combo so I choose the PMD Pastel Canary card to partner the linen card centrepiece.

Step By Step.  

The design of the card is based around a papercut style heart, I used a heart shape from Design Space and adapted it by welding in some shapes to close some of the open spaces and make it easier to mount onto it’s backing. (The Design Space images I've used are shown at the end of this post)

Mount the White Linen papercut heart onto it’s Pastel Canary backing shape using 3D foam pads and decorate with adhesive pearls and clear gems.  Prepare an 8x8 white card base by adding a mat and layer of embossed white card onto Pastel Canary using d/s tape.  Affix decorative heart to card front using d/s tape and clear drying glue.

Attach a panel of Pastel Canary card inside the card and add a panel for the greeting.  I have cut another heart from smooth white card and used my Cricut to write ‘On Your Wedding Day’ upon it.  I have also added a die cut Wedding Cake and 2 Champagne Flutes using die sets.

Cut the centrepiece heart panel from White Linen card and add to it’s Pastel Canary backing shape using 3D foam pads.  (I have personalised the centre heart by slicing the words into the shape using a Cricut Font, you could use the write function if you prefer?) Decorate heart with small adhesive gems and then add to card front.

Add other decoration to card front if desired, I have added a bride and groom die cut from White Linen card using a FE Wedding Die set and mounted using 3D foam pads.

Add personalised layered hearts to bottom left and bottom right. I have used my Cricut to write ‘Mr&Mrs’ on one and the Wedding date on the other. To finish, add a trio of paper flowers using sticky dots, twirl the wire stems if they have and arrange as desired.  I used a ready-made white box to hold the card and decorated it with a personalised layered heart and a paper flower to match,

Angela x

Products Used:
White Linen Card – Papermilldirect
Pastel Canary 160gsm – Papermilldirect
Smooth White Card – Papermilldirect
Wedding Die Set – FEDIE042 - First Edition
Congratulations Die Set – DCDIE038 – Dovecraft
6mm Adhesive Pearls – SCDOT045 – Simply Creative
3mm Adhesive Clear Gems – SCDOT017 – Simply Creative
Adhesives: D/S Tape, Clear Drying Glue, 3D Foam Pads
Design Space Images used:

 

I'm sharing some exciting news today!!

Hello, Today I can share some exciting news with you.  I was recently asked by Trimcraft if I would like to join their Design Team.  So did I say yes?  of course I said Yes!! I absolutely adore working with their papers and have a particular love affair with their First Edition paper collections, so you can imagine my delight to be able to work 'officially' with their brand new and upcoming collections.  Please excuse my Happy Dancing, I've had to do it in secret for a while and it's not been easy!!  :D

I'm really looking forward to starting work with their new collections very soon.  In the meantime, I will share a few of the designs that I have already made this year, The following were made recently with the Bella Rose collection, such beautiful patterns and not just florals.

If you would like to know more about these and perhaps a materials list, then just pop a comment below and I'll add it to the blog .I will also share some other designs next time, perhaps some Christmas designs and paper folding?

So It's been a bit of an odd couple of years for me, some lows and some highs, I won't bore you with the details but the lows involved redundancy and health issues. Anyway throughout all this, my love of paper crafting has grown even more, it has helped me through and whilst it may not cure all problems it is a jolly good distraction and perfect therapy.  My crafting highs really are dreams come true, I am so proud to be both a member of the Papermill DT and now also the Trimcraft DT.  Both having quality reliable products that I use every day and feel confident promoting and recommending.  So look out for lots more makes and projects from me.

Thank you to everyone that pops by to take a peek, or leave a comment, I am grateful for your support of my little blog. Going forward I am trying to organise my blog a little better and I will add an area for Tutorials (look I made a start with a Title :D). As always I am happy to answer your questions, I love reading your comments, and if you have any ideas for what you would like to see here, then please don't be shy :)

Happy Crafting!!

Almost Autumn!! (and time for another fabulous papermill offer!!)

Hello, today I have an Autumn themed project to share with you.  When thinking of Autumn, it's all about the colours and the sounds of leaves crunching underfoot.  I am lucky enough to live not only by the sea but also by a park which has some beautiful trees.  From my crafting space, I can look out over the park and watch as they change with the seasons, and whilst we are not quite at Autumn yet, it is just around the corner and is the inspiration for this weeks make.  
(as always materials list, links and any challenges entered are at the end of the post).

Papermill Direct have some fabulous autumnal shades in their colour collection.  rich and beautiful in their own right, I wanted to see what I could do to create some textured leaves for my very first attempt at an Autumn Wreath.  And right now is the perfect time to stock up as there is currently 15% off a mixed box of 5 different Autumn colours.  A small box is just £5-73 and the midi box just £17-00 (link here)

I started out by creating a base by drawing around a couple of plates and cutting out.  I covered the base with white card and inked it over with Distress Ink in 'Tea Dye' when this was dry I over stamped it randomly with a small acorn design stamp and some brown ink.

Next came the fun part!!  I cut leaves in various designs from papermill cardstock in Mocha Brown, Forest Green, Orange, Buff and Maroon papermill card.  Then I had a play with different embossing folders and inking. For my Mocha Brown leaves I embossed with a script folder, swiped versamark over the raised impression and brushed over with 'Orange' pan pastel.  The Maroon leaves were embossed with a dotty folder and had gold gilding wax rubbed over the raised dots, (I always find it easier to apply gilding wax with a babywipe rather than just my fingertips).  Orange leaves have been embossed with 2 different folders, one had swirls and the other a nice stylised pattern upon which I used distress ink. As for the Forest Green leaves I found an embossing folder with a snakeskin type effect and used it with the de-bossed side uppermost as I preferred that look and a plain versamark inkpad was used to bring out the design a little and also distress ink around the edges.

The wreath needed something else, but what?  I thought berries, hmm maybe?, then I thought Acorns!!  Yes I had used acorns on the base and I had a little image on a cricut cartridge of an Acorn,  so I cut it in 2 pieces from Buff card and then dabbed versamark ink through a stencil mask to add some pattern to the body of the acorn.  The top piece was coloured with distress ink in 'tea dye'.  

Assembling the wreath was fun,  I shaped the leaves first by gently bending them into shape, and used some paper twine and button twines amongst the leaves, most of it was glued with cosmic shimmer glue and I also used some 3D foam pads to add height to some of the pieces. Natural seam binding was dyed (along with my fingers) with 'spiced marmalade' and 'Tea Dye' distress inks, spritzing with water to blend the colours, letting it dry before adding more inks until I was happy it would co-ordinate with the rest of the design.

Hanging holes are in the top, used a 'pokey tool' to gently make those and a length of button twine provides the strings to hang it up.

Overall a very fun project, took more time than I thought it would at the outset, but then I did decide to use a few different embossing folders and ink techniques. This is one of those projects that just seemed to create itself as I went along.  My favourite way of making, and yes I managed to get the distress ink off my hands in time for the photos :D

Why not take advantage of the Autumn Colours offer at Papermill Direct, you'll find it in the Special Offers section 'here', and see what designs you are inspired to make?  As always I love to read your comments and answer any questions you may have.

Materials List: 
Mocha Brown, Forest Green, Orange and Buff card - Autumn colours sale box - papermill direct
Maroon card - colours range - papermill direct
Tea Dye and Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks
Rich Cocoa memento ink
Enchanted Gold Gilding wax, 
versamark, 
Orange pan pastels,
Natural Seam binding, button twine, paper twine, embossing folders, acorn stamp. cricut to cut leaves & acorns

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

Sharon

Challenge Updates

Yay for Challenges!! Do you enter Challenges??  Why not try a few, there are usually lots to choose from covering all sorts of materials, techniques, products,etc. Challenges are a brilliant way to focus your crafting, there are lots of Challenge Blogs out there and not all require you to have a Blog, some like Visible Image allow you to upload to their facebook group, which is a lovely way to include those stampers that don't blog.

I recently started to enter Challenges again and I was so thrilled to see that my card was picked as a Fav in the March Challenge over at Visible Image  http://visibleimage.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/march-challenge-winners-visible-image.html

You may remember this card started out as a bit of a crafty playtime experiment, with no particular method or idea of where I wanted to end up.  So it means a lot to me that it was picked as a top 3 by the fab DT at VI.

April's challenge is a 'Tag' theme, and I was hoping to create something for that, but I had a little Operation last Monday which meant I had to rest up for a few days.  But I'm back designing and making again and so i think I'll have to wait to see what next months theme is and give it a go.

Over on the Trimcraft website, they have a Forum where they run regular Challenges too, these are a great way for people of all abilities to take part and get some feedback on their designs.  I entered my very first one of the Forum Challenges that was a 'Water Theme' with this card, which was chosen as one of the winners. ( I received some lovely craft items as a prize) I love this card too because of all the die cutting I got to play with and also the stamping and colouring, so nice to be able to combine the two in a fun playful card.

Another Challenge for March, was over at the 'Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog' and was a Birdie theme with a cricut cut. http://fantabulouscricut.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/wednesday-winners-203-bye-bye-birdie.html

I entered my little Ducky get well soon card and managed a Top 5 with that one, so I gained a 'blinkie' for my Blog.   Sometimes there are prizes to win, and sometimes you are awarded little badges or blinkies to display on your blog or website, but i think most people (myself included) just enter for the fun and satisfaction of 'rising to the Challenge'. 

These challenges are fun and a good way to play to a theme and keep your Mojo mojo-ing or whatever a mojo does :D  So why not try a few Challenges yourself?