Doily die and Rudbeckia

Hi again. I know these Doily Dies are hard to get your hands on at the moment due to their popularity but I thought I'd show you another card using one of them anyhow....

This is the Simplicity Doily Circle die just peeping over the top of the image panel  - a bit like an arched frame - and its coordinating border punch (Doily Border) along the bottom of the panel. I love the way these  dies and punches match for a fully coordinated look.

I've gone bright again to cheer myself up in this terrible weather we are having. There was thunder and torrential rain here yesterday again...

The stamp is Rudbeckia from the Pick of the Bunch collection by Tonic Studios and its natural colour scheme is orange/yellow but I just decided to use artistic license and colour the flowers in Carmine and lilac instead to match the paper. The little butterfly from the same set got the same colour treatment plus a little glitter.

Fuchsias and doily aperture

Good morning. After all the heavy rain which kept me awake overnight I'm glad to see a little bit of sunshine this morning. Anyhow, I got a photo of this card a couple of days ago while it was dry.
 It's a fairly CAS card but quite effective

I've coloured and cut out the stamped Fuchsia and "hung" it in the aperture. (Check out the stamps HERE)
I've used my new Doily Circle Die from Tonic Studios and cut an aperture in the centre of the doily with the smallest Circle Shape Mate and right through the card. I cut a second doily from white card and added a quarter of it in each corner of the card. The little butterflies have been punched out with the Simplicity Classic Butterfly punch.

....and another little book mark today. I usually punch the bottom of the bookmarks with a border punch but wanted to use my Daisy Strip punch (by Tonic Studios!) across the bottom this time instead. I then stamped, coloured and cut out the Roses image (Pick of the Bunch) and added to the bookmark on Thin 3d foam squares from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L. I chose the thin ones as they are great for using on projects like bookmarks where you don't want too much depth. It left just enough room behind the roses to add the ivy leaves and ladybirds from the same stamp pack. I masked the ladybirds and then stamped the leaves before adding Glossy Accents ..

Daisy Square Die and Chrysanthemum stamp

I've got another little pop up box card to share today.This is one of the cards you'll see if you are watching Create and Craft tomorrow (see schedule below).

The card showcases another one of Tonic Studios gorgeous new Doily Dies...this one is Simplicity Daisy Square Die and I've also used the coordinating Daisy Border punch. I've used this border punch many times before and sometimes I've used embroidery thread along the edge (as seen HERE) - might have to do this with the die as well some time! The stamp in the centre of the die is one out of the Chrysanthemum pack from the Pick of the Bunch collection which, as you can see, I've coloured in my favourite colour of Promarkers (Aqua and Duck Egg).

Black Roses

Would you believe it - this is the first time I've done heat embossing! I've never tried it before but decided to get a heat gun last week and give it a go. I really loved the effect of the powder melting before my eyes and, of course couldn't stop. You'll see some of the others soon.

I've coloured so many floral stamps over the past few weeks that I wanted to try a different effect. This is another of the cards which I made for the Norwegian trade fair so I used the beautiful Scalloped Arc border punch layered up twice on the side of the card and the Oval Shape Mate for the aperture and frame.

I normally prefer natural colours for the flowers on my cards and that's certainly what I had in mind when I drew the Pick of the Bunch collection but I've been experimenting with "outside the box" colours and love this too.

The stamps used on this card are from the Roses pack

Time for a Tune! Keyboard using Border System

This is the kind of thing I love creating - give me a punch (not literally lol!) and let me look at it from different angles to see what I can do with it and I'm happy :)

The Border System is where I started out on my journey with Tonic Studios and I always have it to hand. The first card I made with it was a Cardigan card (see it HERE) and it's been in constant use ever since.

Last night I had some scraps of white card and black card sitting beside my punches and I was having another look through the array of punches for the system when I had a "light bulb" moment.

I grabbed my Double Scallop punch and made a little keyboard..

The rosebud to the left of the keyboard is one of the Rose stamps from the Pick of the Bunch collection,also by Tonic Studios

I have used 3D foam squares from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L to mount the black keys on top of the white ones to give dimension and I've also used the 3D thin white foam squares from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L to mount the white keys onto the black rectangle.

                    It's so easy you probably don't need instructions, but here they are just in case - 

                 1. Using the Tonic Studios Border System and Medium Double Scallop punch, punch 4 times on    white card and 3 times on black card.

2. Using the Tonic Studios Super Trimmer score between each "key"

3. Cut off one "key" to leave 7 and then draw a line with a fine liner pen between each key.

4. Cut off 5 of the black keys carefully making sure they are perfectly rounded with no "bits" at the sides.

Now you've got the keys...add the black ones on top of the white ones as shown in the photo - mounting on 3D foam squares.

The New Doily Dies!

I'm so glad the wait is over for the new Doily Dies from Tonic Studios! I've been making lots and lots of cards using them over the past few weeks and now I can share them..

If the reaction on Facebook is anything to go by - you all love them! Check out Facebook now as there is a quick competition to win all 8 dies!!
This one is the Simplicity Butterfly Square Die and I've kept the card quite simple to show the die off in its full glory. There are 2 punches which match this die - the Butterfly Border punch and the Butterfly strip punch. The one I've used on this card is the delicate Butterfly strip.
The image on the doily is one of the Rose stamps from the Tonic Studios Pick of the Bunch range.
To carry on the butterfly theme I've used the Butterflies Accent punch with the Accent Corner Wings.

Chrysanthemum and Doily Die

I'm still having a little bit of trouble with the lack of light so I know this is a little blurred - but I'm sure you'll get the idea!

Tonic Studios have just released a new set of doily dies! You might remember way back in November when I got my new set of border punches to play with that I used them to make circles (you can see the original post HERE) ...well , the border punches were never really designed to do that but I really enjoyed the challenge of  finding a new way to use them. Lots of you tried and succeeded but several just couldn't get the hang of it. I suggested to Tonic that it would be a great idea if they could produce a set of dies to make it achievable in an instant......and here they are!!

UPDATE; for all who've been asking, these new stamp sets (and the new doily dies )are all now available from Cutting Edge Crafts - great news as I know how quick their delivery service is and they also do free p&p!! 

The main image is another Chrysanthemum stamp from the Pick of the Bunch collection and I've coloured it with Promarkers.

The doily on this card is the Simplicity Daisy Circle die and I've used its matching border punch on the card too. I've taken the little punched out flowers from the yellow card and attached them to the cut outs on the border.

This is one of a set of cards which I made for Create and Craft.The Chrysanthemum and Rudbeckia stamps and the new doily dies will be featured next week - I'll let you know later in the week when the shows will be.

Here's how to make the rosette..

1. Die cut 2 Daisy Circles and score right across the die cut between the flowers

2.It should then look like this..

3. Cut along one of the score lines right into the centre (Do this on both Doily die cuts)

4. Fold the creases in concertina style.

5. Add a little Crafty Tacky Glue to the last 2 pieces and stick both die cuts together.

6. Cut out the stamped and coloured image and attach to the rosette.

Lilies

Good morning! After a couple of beautiful sunny days here, it is miserable again. It's so dark and damp this morning I had awful trouble getting photos of the batch of cards I made over the weekend. Anyhow, here's the first one. It's a little pop up box card with one of the lilies from the Lily stamps (Pick of the Bunch by Tonic Studios) and I've just coloured it with Promarkers and added some glitter. The lovely delicate punches border was made with the Tonic Studios Victorian border punch - my favourite!

This card, along with several others will be winging its way to Norway this morning!

UPDATE; for all who've been asking, these new stamp sets (and the new doily dies )are all now available from Cutting Edge Crafts - great news as I know how quick their delivery service is and they also do free p&p!!

To finish the post I thought I'd share a photo of some lilies in our garden at the moment. I took the photos last week on ther day the sun was shining!

Round in circles

You can tell I just love fuchsias! I have made loads of cards with them on already and couldn't resist colouring the main stamp from my new Fuchsia pack from the Pick of the Bunch collection by Tonic Studios again. These are super quality clear stamps which I drew for Tonic Studios and are the first part of the Pick of the Bunch collection which will soon include dies, embossing folders etc.

I'm sponsoring the Allsorts challenge blog this week with a prize of 4 of my digi images from A Passion for Stamps  (NB. the prize is 4 DIGI images)and several of the DT have made gorgeous cards using some of my digi images too so please feel free to pop over and have a look (and join in too!)

This is actually quite a small card and I've just added a hint of lilac behind the beautiful doily shape which is one of a gorgeous set of doily dies which has just been released by Tonic Studios. I've added one of the little butterflies from the same Fuchsia stamp pack at the top of the card.

The cut out fuchsia has been attached to the card with 3D foam squares from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L  - great quality little squares which are so easy to remove for use as they are separate on the sheet .



Enjoy your weekend - I'm busy making card samples with the Pick of the Bunch stamps for a trade fair in  Norway and more samples for another flurry of shows on Create and Craft starting on 20th August

Before I go I thought you might like to see part of my little "fuchsia production line".

1.Cuttings taking root in water

2. Rooted cuttings planted up

3. Growing well in their new "homes"

4. Blooming lovely!

I never seem to have enough of these beautiful flowers and always have lots of little cuttings at each stage above (all at the same time!) in my summer house and garden.

Peony

Two posts in one day? That doesn't happen often! What does happen, though, is that when I have my Shape Mates on my workspace I seem to want to use them on every card I'm making and I decided I'd make another aperture card too.

You've seen this Peony on my blog before - coloured Rose pink but I have used Carmine and Ruby Promarkers this time. The Peony itself (as you probably know by now ..) is from the Peony set of stamps from my new Pick of the Bunch collection by Tonic Studios and because it's so bright I thought I would keep most of the rest of the card white. I made a frame with the Oval shape mate and put a little trellis behind it (the trellis die should be available soon with some of my other dies in the collection) then matted another piece of white cardstock on 3d foam squares from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L  with a border down each side made with the Tonic Studios Victorian border punch

Purple Rudbeckia

Good morning. This is another one of my cards which was on Create and Craft at the weekend. I was glad to hear from some of you that you'd taken advantage of the £2.99 postage offer and bought the whole set of stamps...now I'm waiting to see what lovely cards you make with them! Don't forget to share your photos and ideas!

This time I've masked and stamped one of the Rudbeckia stamps in a row and coloured them with Promarkers. I just wanted to show you that they can still look great when they are coloured in different colours!This is from the Pick of the Bunch Collection which Tonic Studios have just released featuring some of my floral drawings.I made the card itself from Papermill linen cardstock and cut it out with my Tonic Studios Circle Shape Mates, cutting an aperture with the smaller circle from the set. Then I attached the line of flowers across the aperture to leave an open area behind them.

I've added a Multi Detail butterfly and gems to finish it off.

Sir Stampalot August Challenge...and CREATE AND CRAFT NEWS

Sunglasses may be needed!! This is my DT for the Sir Stampalot August challenge where the theme is "Take Flight" (something with wings to be predominant on your creation) and I've gone bright!

The rest of the DT  have some gorgeous "winged" projects so do buzz over and check them out.

 I was originally going to make a tag but then decided to add the tag to a card as the topper. Gingham again..but I love it! I always think black and white gingham goes so well with yellow anyhow.

The main focus of the card is the Bee stamp which you'll find in the Lily pack from the Pick of the Bunch stamps by Tonic Studios.There is lots of glitter on the wings and I've used 3d foam squares from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L to pop it up. The beautiful deep border punch along the bottom of the tag is the Daisy Border 2 punch.The fantastic yellow die in the centre is another "coming soon" Tonic product!

THE CHRYSANTHEMUM AND RUDBECKIA PACKS OF STAMPS FROM THE PICK OF THE BUNCH SET WILL BE FEATURED ON CREATE AND CRAFT TODAY AT 5.00PM ALONG WITH LOTS OF OTHER TONIC GOODIES.

Here's the prize from Sir Stampalot for this month!

Turquoise Rudbeckias

 Well, you won't need your sunglasses for this card (unlike yesterday's cards!) but I just had to use one of my favourite stamps from the Rudbeckia  pack from the Pick of the Bunch collection by Tonic Studios in my favourite colour - turquoise!

Just in case you hadn't noticed, when I was drawing these stamp sets I included some little garden creatures such as butterflies, ladybirds, caterpillers, snails, dragonflies, moths and bees but also some foliage. Sometimes the leaves are from the flowers in the pack and others have leaves such as ivy which go really well with the flowers.

So...the little stamp which I've used in turquoise on the background of this card is one of the tiny foliage stamps also in the Rudbeckia pack. The moth with al the glitter at the top of the oval is another one from the same pack.

I've mounted the main image on an oval of white card made with the Tonic Studios Oval Shape Mate  and the decorative edge to the card was made using the Tonic Studios Border System and Edger punch 5.

This is one of the cards which I've sent over to Create and Craft for the show on Sunday at 5.00pm

Rudbeckia and CREATE AND CRAFT and more..

Hi again, is it raining where you are too? It feels like winter here today and we had to have the heating on last night :(
I want to share a couple of cards and a tag with you today which will hopefully brighten things up!

The stamps used in these cards are from the Rudbeckia pack from my new Pick of the Bunch collection by Tonic Studios. 

The first 4 packs of stamps were showcased 2 weeks ago on Create and Craft and now it's time to show you the Chrysanthemum and Rudbeckia packs which will be featured on Create and Craft on Sunday at 5.00pm along with lots of other Tonic goodies.

You may have noticed my fondness for gingham (black in particular!) and I've used it again! This time I've coloured the stamps in their natural gold/orange colour and thought the gingham was a lovely background.

However, if you watch the show, you'll see how lovely the flowers can look when they're coloured in "abstract" colours too - I've used turquoise and brown on one of the cards.

The punch used on the first card is the beautiful Tonic Studios Butterfly Border punch, the second card uses the Daisy Border 2 punch and the tag uses the Floral Border 2 punch.

I have some cards in Cardmaking and Papercraft mag issue 108 September (0n pages 78 and 79) and also some in Crafts Beautiful mag issue 244 September (on pages 38 and 39) which are both now available from stationery shops now, if you fancy a peek.

You can see the cards I made with the Chrysanthemum stamps HERE.

NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...
Most of you will know my good friend, Brenda (Floral Fantasies). Well, she makes the most amazing cards  - mostly using floral stamps. She has a very unique style involving lots of ink and brayering which I really love but have never mastered. Knowing how eager she was to make cards with my new stamp collection, I couldn't wait to see the results. Here they are! The four gorgeous cards below are all made by Brenda. There will be more but I'm saving those for later. These ones show the two new releases...Rudbeckia and Chrysanthemums in Brenda's own style.

I love the way Brenda has used one of the Rudbeckia stamps as a background (along with the Rose leaf on the left side) and has decoupaged the Rudbeckia stamp in the foreground.