Good Luck card made with odds and ends...

Hello! It's been a while since my last post, as we've been busy moving house...exhausting and time consuming, even though it was only 2 miles up the road!

A friend of mine is moving back to her home country (Indonesia) soon, so I made a "Good Luck" card that I hope she'll like:

 

Ta daa! For the card I used a wide selection of bits and bobs, including some buttons from my vast vintage button collection, and this gorgeous stamp from the American Crafts Dear Lizzy collection:

 

Anyway, these are the materials I started with at the beginning of my crafty day:

 

I started by stamping "good luck", and using clear embossing powder to give it a little something extra:

I did the same thing with the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan collection jar stamp:

Onto the blank card, I arranged some old wrapping paper that I found in my stash - it was too lovely to throw away! I also mounted the stamped words and jar from earlier onto pink pearlescent card, and added a think mink-coloured ribbon to the edge:

Finally, I "filled" the jar with buttons from my collection, as well as little self-adhesive crystals:

And voila! A good luck card for my friend to see her off.

Thanks for checking out my blog, please feel free to have a browse over at www.artsanddesigns.com!

Julie x

DIY glittery Christmas things

Good morning! I've been busy packing up and cleaning our whole flat in time for our move on Staurday, so I'm starting to get a wee bit nervous about my lack of Christmas preparation...So, to make myself feel better I've been doing a spot of "research" on DIY Christmassy things involving my favourite crafty thing: Glitter!

Check out these beauties:

With a few old glass jars, some glitter, and some Mod Podge, you could make a few gorgeous centre-pieces. The examples here don't look particularly Christmassy, but that would be easily remedies with a bit of traditional red or green, or even gold glitter! Find the instructions for this project over on www.thesweetestoccasion.com by following this link.

Another gorgeous creation here:

Glittery Christmas ornaments - they look really professional don't you think? Find the DIY tutorial over on The Ornament Girl's Blog by following this link.

Finally, another great idea from The Ornament Girl's Blog:

The idea behind this ornament is to recycle your favourite old Christmas cards, a great solution for those that receive oodles of lovely cards from their crafty friends, then have to part with them in January...Not particularly glittery, as the post title suggests, but still gorgeous and a such a fantastic idea! Find the DIY tutorial here.

Have fun with your Christmas crafts!

Julie x
www.artsanddesigns.com

Rangerink.com DIY projects

Hello,

The weather here in Cowes is not so great, so I've been doing some browsing for inspirational project ideas. On www.rangerink.com I found these beauties:

Made using Distress Ink among other things, you can find the instructions for this gorgeous vintage style card here!

Another fabulous Tim Holtz card made using Distress Ink, you can find the instructions for the "Bank of True Love" card here.

I absolutely love this card! So colourful and exciting to look at! Find the instructions on how to make here.

Finally, a bit of a wacky one:

Spooky! But with halloween coming up, it is best to be prepared...Find the making instructions here!

Thanks for checking out our blog, enjoy your day!

Julie x
www.artsanddesigns.com

Stamped butterflies never go out of fashion

Good morning! We're moving house next week so I'm thinking about "we've moved" cards. I'm not sure why, but my mind always immediately turns to the trusty old butterfly as a theme for almost any card! Maybe it's just because they are so pretty :)

Here's some inspiration I came across browsing the Hero Arts website. This first card is simple and lovely:

The butterflies really "pop" against the pale background. This next card idea has a similar simple gorgeousness:

And finally, my favourite card of the three (by Lucy Abrams for Hero Arts):

Such a gorgeous riot of colour, and quite easy (if time-consuming) to produce!

To stamp your own butterfly themes, check out the Antique Engravings stamp from Hero Arts:

And to add colour, these marker pens from Marvy Uchida are gorgeous (and have a fine tip as well as brush marker for ease of use:

Thanks for checking out our blog, have a great day!

Julie x

Bunting Ideas (in papercraft and beyond!)

Good morning! I know the idea of using bunting in craft projects has been popular for ages, but I never fail to be impressed by the creative ways it can be used. Here is a selection of bunting craft ideas:

The first image is a scrapbook layout idea from American Crafts. I love the way it uses "Flutterbys" paper bunting from the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan collection. So subtle and sweet!

The second image is a greeting card idea from Hero Arts, showing that stamped bunting looks great too!

The third image is an invitation idea from Hero Arts, this time using more obvious paper bunting. Gorgeous! I love the summer feel.

The fourth and final image is a bit of a departure from papercraft, but I absolutely love the idea. Magnetic bunting for your fridge! The tutorial on how to make your very own fridge magnet bunting can be found here at www.inthetreehouse.co.uk.

If you love the way bunting looks on cards and layouts, but can't face the prospect of all that DIYing, why not try the "Flutterbys" ready-made paper garland from the Dear Lizzy range?

It's 60" of ready-sewn mini paper bunting - all you have to do is peel off and stick!

Thanks for stopping by, have a fantastic day!

Julie x

Halloween is coming up fast...

Hello there! This morning I've started thinking about Halloween, which seems to sneak up every year while we're all distracted thinking about Christmas!

I love this 12x12 page kit from Doodlebug Design Inc:

So much easier to have everything to hand in page kit form! This is the kit put to great use (from the Doodlebug Design Inc ideas gallery):

If you like to get full mileage out of your papercraft goodies, another great idea is to use up every last scrap on Halloween party invitations or decorations. If you really want to go to town, this glow in the dark embossing powder will really make an impression:

Thanks for stopping by, have a fabulous day!

Julie x

I love a well organised craft room

Good morning! The weather here in Cowes (Isle of Wight) has sadly gone from sunny and warm, back to the long term summer trend of rainy and dull! Nevermind though, we can still entertain ourselves with a bit of crafty internet browsing.

I just happened to come across a great website earlier: www.craftracks.co.uk

They sell a great range of solid wood storage units, specifically for craft and hobby type stuff. Such a great idea, and apparently the storage units come ready-assembled, so no faffing around trying to find screwdrivers and tiny little screws etc! I love a well organised craft room...*sigh*.

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your day!

Julie x

artsanddesigns.com has a new section: Papercraft!

Welcome to the www.artsanddesigns.com blog! We began our family-run business in 2005, when we started retailing cross stitch kits and patterns. We now stock hundreds of different products, from cross stitch and tapestry kits, to craft lamps and magnifiers.

Recently, we've branched out even further, into the exciting world of papercrafts! This blog has been started mainly to share ideas for papercraft projects, but also for fun! There may even be the odd giveaway or two...

Since our papercraft section came into existence, we've been collecting hordes of exciting products for scrapbooking, card making and more. Here is a small selection of our favourite items:

This Fun Flock from Funstamps was something we just had to get our hands on. We'd love to use this stuff for a really special Christmas card, or even Valentines card...using this, craft glue, and card/paper, you can create a gorgeous fuzzy texture, as demontrated in this video from Stampendous:

Another of our favourites is this Feathers Polyclear stamp set by Hero Arts:

The feather stamps are quite large, so could really make an impact. We love what blogger Maile Belles has done with her feathers stamps:

We also think that this stamp set would look fabulous stamped with Marvy Uchida Blending Blox ink, for a graduated colour effect:

Thanks for checking out our new blog, please feel free to pop over to www.artsanddesigns.com for a browse!