Bedroom

Well I've been cracking on with a load of stuff that needed doing this week, plus I've had a few fire fighter call-outs, so today I rewarded myself with a morning of card making! I recently came across a couple of 'Shutter Cards' on the internet which have the effect of a camera lens opening when you open the card, and I really liked them! I found a good  tutorial by Sandi MacIver , which I mainly followed, to make the mechanisms for the following cards. I used the Martha Stewart Scoring board. For my first card, I kept the card base and mechanism pieces all in pink, but put a square of metallic silver card behind the opening. I used my ATG tape runner for most of the sticking. The patterned papers I used for layering are all from Crate Paper's Notes & Things 6x6 pad. For the sentiment which is revealed as the card opens,  I used the Happy die from the Echo Park 'Happy Easter' word dies, and a word stamp from Reverse Confetti's Whole Lotta Happy stam

It's Mothering Sunday today in the UK, and I made this card a couple of days ago for my Mother-in-law, using Karen Burniston's Accordion Oval die set from Elizabeth Craft Designs. All the papers are from Basic Grey's Lucille 6x6 pad. On the first panel, I used the word Happy from Echo Park's Happy Easter Words die set, a Reverse Confetti stamp from their Whole Lotta Happy set, and a heart that comes in the Accordion Oval die set. The second panel has die cuts from the Sizzix You and Me die set, which I Distress Inked the edges of. On the third panel I used a Sizzix Craft Asylum house, with the heart from the Accordion Oval die set, and on the last panel I used layers from the Accordion Oval set, and the female figure from the Sizzix You and Me die set. Products used:    

I just thought I'd show you the Easter cards I made this year. I used a Stampin' Up embossing folder for the background, and the Sizzix Lovable Bunny Bigz die. I added bows made with a Stampin' Up punch, and used Beacon's 3-in-1 glue to attach some paper flowers.  For the sentiment I used Echo Park's Happy Easter word dies and glued them on with a Zig Chisel Tip Glue Pen. Product Links:    

This was a quick card I wanted to try out, using the Sizzix Triplits Flip-its die set, and car dies from Tim Holtz's new Commute set. The cars fit the circles really nicely! I used the Happy die from the Echo Park Happy Easter word dies, a word stamp from Reverse Confetti's Whole Lotta Happy stamp set, and a star from the  Sizzix Framelits Card Front Horizontal Drop-Ins die set . Products used:    

 I missed my friend's birthday this weekend, so made this card for her, using some old Sizzix dies - the Pop 'n Cuts Square Card with Ornate Edges, with the Label insert. (A similar pop-up mechanism die which could be used is the Lucy Label Pop Up .) I used papers from Tim Holtz's new Memoranda 12x12 pad, along with embellishments from the Tim Holtz Botanical Layers pack - both of which are just gorgeous!! I didn't have a suitable belated birthday stamp, so wrote the sentiment myself with a dip ink pen. I added some minimal decoration on the outside of the card. Some of my new products! Products used:    

Hello! Ever since January when Tim Holtz's new products were unveiled, I've had the Sizzix Cityscape Skyline and Commute die sets on my wishlist - I've been wanting some cute transport dies to be invented for ages!! They arrived this week, and I had a vague card idea in my head, but wasn't sure how it would turn out. This card is the result and I'm reasonably pleased with how it ended up. I'll be using these gorgeous little cars on plenty more cards, I imagine! I took a few pictures along the way: I used October Afternoon's 9 to 5 Steno Pad 12x12 paper for the background, and cut it as wide as the Skyline dies. I knew this would make for quite a 'busy' looking card, but felt that the vintagey work-related feel of the paper matched the style of the cars quite nicely. I added one Skyline die cut, with a matching cardstock strip below it, up to the card fold. I then die cut the card with Karen Burniston's Lucy Label Pop It Ups die, to create the

Here is the fifth card I made this week using some of the dies I was sent by Stephanie Barnard of The Stamps of Life and Sizzix. I used a Stamps of Life chevron die for the background, and then the Sizzix Framelits Card Front Horizontal Drop-Ins die set  for the border, 'congratulations' and stars. I absolutely love the 'congratulations' font, and its shadow! The set also comes with dies for the words 'Thank You' and an accompanying shadow die which also fits into the frame. I finished off the card with a present made using the Sizzix Triplits Gifts die set  - another of my favourite sets from Stephanie! All the cards I made this week with new die sets from Stephanie. Product Links:    

Here are two more of the cards I made yesterday using two of Stephanie Barnard's great new die sets for Sizzix - the Sizzix Framelits Thank You Drop-Ins Card , and the Sizzix Framelits It's a Party Drop-Ins Card . I used the shadow layer card front die on a pre-folded blank card, then had fun adding the heart layer and the wording.  I cut out the wording twice (once in pink card stock and once in glitter card stock), stuck one layer on, then hand cut alternate letters from the glitter card, and stuck them over the top. I just added some patterned paper inside the card. The second die set I used is such a fun one - I love the mini balloons! The die set comes with three balloon dies, so you don't have to cut them all out one at a time. I made the card in a similar way to the card above, adding some wire for one of the balloon strings, with Beacon's 3-in-1 glue. I added some more detail inside the card, using pen for the strings. All the cards I made yesterday with some of

 A couple of days ago I received a rather lovely package in the mail from Stephanie Barnard, full of dies she's designed for Sizzix and The Stamps of Life ! I'd recently spotted the Sizzix Framelits Happy Birthday Drop-Ins die set , and thought it looked great, so I was delighted to see Stephanie had included it. As with lots of Stephanie's other die sets, they enable you to make a card pretty quickly - and this set is no exception - I love it! You can use the die set with a standard size Bigshot and cutting pads, but it would probably be easier using an extended cutting platform and cutting pads. I found it easiest to just use the shadow Happy Birthday die on a pre-folded blank card. Then it's just a case of adding the lovely large Happy Birthday words. (I die cut this twice from different patterned papers, stuck one down, then cut some of the letters from the other pattern and glued them on top.) I added a party hat using dies from the Sizzix Triplits Party Hats die s