Birthday Card made with Digital Stamp

Hello, I know it's been a while since my last post, but I've been all over the place (well, all over the UK anyway). I've been up to Scotland to visit my family, and also to Somerset to visit my sister and brother-in-law, who have just welcomed their twins (one boy and one girl) to the family - very unexpectedly, as they were two months early! Both babies are doing well, but will not be out of hospital for a while yet because they hardly weigh a thing, just 4lbs and 3lbs 12oz.

A little while ago I made a fairly simple birthday card for my mother-in-law, using one of the new Digital Stamps that you can download from www.artsanddesigns.com here.

I started by gathering my materials together, and printing out a few copies of the Birthday Bouquet digital stamp:

As you can see, I used a variety of materials for this card, including ribbon, vintage buttons, various adhesives, Gold Glamour Dust, Marvy Le Plume II marker pens, and cardstock.

I started by colouring the Birthday Bouquet stamp, which was actually quite relaxing - the design is very detailed but clear, so overall a nice colouring and shading experience! Here is the almost finished product:

I thought the stamp needed a little something extra, so I used the extremely useful Craftime Craft Glue Pen to adhere the gold Glamour Dust in a few places:

I can't resist a bit of sparkle! Finally, I used my Craftime Glue Dots to adhere the image onto a blank card, along with some ribbons and vintage buttons:

And there you have it, the finished article! Mrs L senior was very pleased :)

You can download your own digital stamps here for only 99p! Absolute bargain - you can then print them as many times as you like on your home printer. There are even some Christmas themed digital stamps, so have a little browse and see what you think :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Julie x

Helz Cuppleditch Special Delivery!

Hello!

I'm back from my little holiday to France (La Rochelle) now, and am excited to announce that the full "Special Delivery" Christmas 2012 range from Helz Cuppleditch is now available to buy over at www.artsanddesigns.com !

Here are a few of my favourites from the range:

Above is the gorgeous "Presents" glitter sticker set, featuring my favourite cute little penguin there.

These lovely wooden ornaments have been left bare for you to embellish however you like! I've got plans to smother one or two of those snowflakes in glitter!

...my favourite penguin again, this time in clear stamp form. He really is a cutie - can't wait to use him on my Christmas cards this year!

This Washi Tape is such a great idea - so easy to use on your Christmas cards or scrapbook pages, with no mess.

Finally, I love this:

Gorgeous mini pegs! I'm picturing a winter washing line here, maybe with Santa's red suit pinned up...quite an ambitious project maybe!

Thanks for stopping by at this busy time of year!

Julie x

www.artsanddesigns.com

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