Crop-A-Dile

Okay, okay, I admit it! I am in love with the Crop-A-Dile! It's not my fault though, I swear! It's not my fault that it's so easy to use, or that it's so lovely and quiet, or that it will punch two different sized holes, and set eyelets (all without hammering, banging and waking my husband up when I'm up crafting late at night)! It can punch through a huge range of materials including paper, chipboard, cardboard and heaps of other stuff that I haven't even tried yet! Yes, the Crop-A-Dile is a must-have!

Have you noticed a little trend this week? Yes, the Brown Sugar A5 card! And of course, it makes another appearance in today's project - a Thinking of You card. Again, I've used the Jumbo and Small Flower Punches, and some Lily May (1694) paper. The stems of the flowers are stamped in ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink in Chestnut Roan (71003) using one of the stamps from the Stitched Borders Uncut Set (4117KM). For the centre of the flowers, I've used some White Enamel Accents (GAC27355). Another product I just can't seem to get enough of at the moment!

But now onto the Crop-A-Dile! Down both sides of the Lily May piece of paper, I punched holes spaced evenly apart. Well, as evenly as I could! I set the Crop-A-Dile so it punched a certain way in on every punch, and did this on both sides, making sure that the holes went in a zig zag pattern. Then, I threaded some ribbon through going first down one way, then back up the other to create the pattern you see here. A little bow up the top finishes the card off, and gives it a feminine touch. For added interest, I could've attached eyelets to the holes after I'd punched them, but liked the rougher look of just the holes!

Journal Pockets

Can I admit that when I first laid eyes on the Journal Pockets (5223), I was hooked? They are designed to fit in the 120x170mm Journal (5222), but the cardmaker in me could see the possibilities as envelopes, and I loved the idea! They have a cute little closure on the back which make them just adorable!

For today's project, I created a 'Thinking of You' card for one of my customers. I used the Journal Pocket as the envelope. The card base is made from an A5 piece of Brown Sugar (which I had to cut down to fit in the envelope). I used Jordan Belle (1695) paper for the front, and a piece of Vanilla (1060) cardstock for the stamped sentiment. The flowers were punched (using the Jumbo [4847] and Small 4841] flower punches) from scrap bits of paper I had in my stash.

The edges of the card base, layers, and the Journal Pocket envelope were brushed on using the Adirondack Paint Dabber in Mushroom (AED22602).

The Journal Pockets make great little envelopes when you want to give your card that little something extra. Stamp on the front, or attached a punched image as I've done here. The customer who received this card in the mail was delighted! Her family thought it must've been a wedding invitation because the envelope was so fancy!

LOVEly...

A happy Valentine's Day to you! To celebrate the day, I thought a love themed card was in order! This simple card isn't specific to Valentine's Day however. With only LOVE as the sentiment, it could easily be used as a wedding card, an anniversary card, or for anything else you can think of.

Following on from yesterday's post showcasing the new January release, today's card uses Distress Stain and some of the new papers, specifically Bygone Era (5224), which has to be one of my favourites! Here, I've used both sides of the paper. The middle scalloped strip, and the sentiment piece were punched using Vanilla cardstock, then tinted using Old Paper Distress Stain (TDW31093). The Distress Stain makes the Vanilla cardstock look a little more antique than it actually is, without changing the colour too much.

I hope you like today's card, and enjoy your day, whatever you may be doing!

Jungle Jewels Card

It's been a month since my last post here! A lot has happened in a month! Undoubtedly the most exciting was the release of our new January products! I love it when Kaszazz release their new products! It's like Christmas three times a year (well, four if you actually include Christmas)! Each time new products are released, my wishlist doubles in size! Despite the blog being so quite over the last month, I've been busy playing with some of the amazing new products, so this week, I want to share my little projects with you! Each day, I'll post a project that has used one of the newly released products. I hope you enjoy looking over what I've created as much as I've enjoyed creating them!

The first project I want to share with you, is this masculine birthday card. 

 

On this card, I've used the new paper, Jungle Jewels (5230). The card base is Brown Sugar (1098), which is now available in packs of A5. From the moment I first got my hands on Brown Sugar, I loved it. The A5 pack has taken my love affair to a new level! Along with White, Black and Vanilla (which has also been released in A5 - yay!), I would consider Brown Sugar to be a staple for all cardmakers! It seems to go with just about everything, and is perfect for masculine cards like this one!

The A5 Brown Sugar was folded in half, with the two longer edges touching. Jungle Jewels was cut to fit the front of the card, with a small border showing, and the edges were Distressed using Forest Moss Distress Ink (TIM2133) and an Ink Blending Tool (IBT23616). Chocolate (1058) cardstock was then Punched using the Border Scallop (1357), and attached to the card. The sentiment is stamped on a scrap piece of Bazzill I had in my stash, and then I added a brad to the side. This piece was also Distressed with Forest Moss.

Shiny Chipboard

Following on from yesterday's post, I wanted to show you my altered chipboard word.



















I chose 'adore' because to me, it fit with the Romance theme, and it fit the photo for my layout.


I coloured my chipboard word with Smooch (in Carrot). Wait for it to dry, then applied Glossy Accents over the top in a thick layer. The Smooch adds a little shimmer, and the Glossy Accounts finishes the chipboard so it's shiny and looks like it was store bought.

To keep the chipboard still while I Smooched and Glossed, I adhered it to my work mat. I only removed it after it was completely dry. Adhering it to my work mat also meant I could move the whole mat out of my way so I could keep working without worrying about smudging my drying artwork!

How do you alter chipboard?

Romance Challenge

I love this time of year. Everything seems fresh and new. People plan for the year ahead and are excited about what the new year holds for them.



I'm excited about the Team Training Days (TTD's) being held this weekend. Kaszazz release new products three times a year - January, May and September. The new products released in January just add to the beginning of the year excitement for me. The TTD's are where consultants get to view and play with the new products before they're released on Monday - it's so much fun!


Before each TTD, Kaszazz put out a bit of a challenge. This time round, the challenge was to create something with a Romance theme that features at least one photo that is not standard size (6x4). Of course, we are only allowed to use current Kaszazz products.



Usually I get an idea for the challenge, but am still working on it the day before TTD. This time has only one exception - I didn't get an idea straight away! If the challenge didn't include a photo, I might have done a little better with my idea. I'm a better cardmaker than I am a scrapbooker (or at least in my own mind).

Yesterday I was reminded of the challenge, and with only two days before TTD, I knew I had only two choices: 1. Not enter the challenge, and miss out on the fun of creating something from scratch, with guidelines; 2. Get an idea, and get working on it! I decided to go for option 2! Having a challenge is great as it allows (or maybe forces) you to think differently. I love this process! It's like exercising your creativity!

Unlike so many scrapbookers, I don't take a lot of photos. This is where I usually run into problems when creating layouts. As it turned out, I happened to have some photos of my nieces on my desk that they'd sent us for Christmas. Double bonus! The photos are great, and I've been after them for a while, so this solved my first issue of a photo. Second issue - which photo do I use and can I use it for a Romance theme? I got out my cardstock and paper, and tried each photo on paper and cardstock I thought would work, before narrowing it down to one photo and a few colours.




My next obstacle was how to make the layout fit into the Romance theme. I decided that Romance can mean many things. It's not just limited to candle-lit dinners and twilight strolls in the park. Something (or in this case, someone) beautiful can also be romantic. Isn't that where we get our ideas of romance from in the first place? When we see something beautiful? In a person, in nature, in something someone said?

My layout is almost done now.  As I look at it, I'm happy with what I've done, but I know it needs something extra. That's just my creative process - sometimes I need to let my projects sit on my desk before I get an idea (the inspiration) that will finish it off (hopefully I get the idea before tomorrow)!

Tomorrow I want to share with you how I altered a chipboard word to match my project. In the meantime, I thought it'd be fun to extend this challenge to you! If you had the opportunity to participate in this challenge, what would you create? Leave me a comment below, or add a link to your own 'entry' for this challenge! What's your idea of Romance?

Happy New Year!!

Wow! I can hardly believe we're already in 2012! The past few days I've been planning out the year as best I can and it's already looking like a busy year!

Thank you for following my posts in 2011 - it's been exciting starting a blog and I'm hoping to keep it going strong through 2012!

Here's wishing you a very crafty year!

Happy New Year!