Twisted easel

Hi, another card with the gorgeous new Tonic Studios Verso die and matching border punch. It's the  Diamond Swing set again but used in a different way. I've cut out the shapes and mounted them on a twisted easel card. The beautiful Birds on a Branch paper had a big floral corner so I decoupaged the corner of a 2nd sheet over the top and added glitter round the edges for definition. The little bird is from the bird embellishment set and is a lovely finishing touch.

Quick and Easy..

 I know these beautiful Verso dies and punches sold out yesterday but I couldn't resist showing you this card  - just to whet your appetite while you wait for their next airing!

This was unbelievably quick and easy to make - with the addition of a little Tonic bird embellishment in the centre..

Thanks to Bernie and staff at Donegal Stationery

A big Thanks to Bernie and staff who made it such a lovely day at Donegal Stationery on Saturday....I really enjoyed a warm welcome (in every sense!). I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did. As usual I got very engrossed and excited and completely forgot to take photos until it was almost too late and folk had left. Anyhow, thanks to all who came and made it a great day!

Marlene and Kevin

Me(!) on a very steep street.. :)

David came with me and had a lovely time in Letterkenny while I was busy then we drove to Dunfanaghy for a meal before heading slooowly and very reluctantly home. Such a beautiful part of the country.

Tonic Studios New Verso dies and matching border punches!

Have you heard about the gorgeous new Verso dies and matching border punches from Tonic Studios?

They are on Create and Craft today...

This card is showing the Delicate Lattice border punch - stunning!!

Charcoal grey card on offer at the Papermill!

Another great offer to share with you...

Charcoal grey card from  Papermill Direct 

You can see the offer page HERE
300gsm Charcoal Grey Card Card - from £4.00 -

We are delighted to bring you this distinctive Charcoal Grey Card 300gsm 

This card is available in both A4 boxes and A3 boxes (approximately 76 sheets in each sized box)

Don't forget that you will get notified of any future offers straight to your inbox if you sign up for the newsletter here..http://papermilldirect.co.uk/acatalog/newsletter.html

The Porsche is a digi image from A Passion for Stamps and the border punch is Tonic Studios Scalloped Arc and I 've used a hole punch to make the holes along the black edges.

Demo at Donegal Stationery on Saturday

Hi.....hope it's sunny where you are - it's a real scorcher here today :)

I'm really looking forward to my demo at Donegal Stationery in Letterkenny on Saturday and would love to see some of you there.

I'll be demoing lots of Tonic punches, dies and stamps as well as the new Butterfly papers.

This is a few of the things I've made to share with you there :)

Ruth x

Stamping Sensations DT card

 

It's that time again - time for another challenge at Stamping Sensations and this time the theme is Summer Flowers. That's just the type of challenge I like!

The other ladies on the DT have made gorgeous floral creations so do nip over and check them out. There is  a great prize as always..

from Heartfelt Creations

For this card I have used Tonic Studios Butterflies Beautiful 8x8 paper pad with white and purple grape cardstock from Papermill Direct.

I used the Trellis Wall die from Tonic Studios to create the aperture in the white cardstock - I just elongated it and used the "waste". Then I added a Maria die cut with a flower and a bud made from the leaf punch from the Tonic Studios Punch and Stamp set (Carnation, Sweet William and Peony) . The double strips at the bottom are from the Butterfly strip punch and I used three of the tiny "waste" butterflies to add to the top of the card.

Birdie bookmark

Using Tonic Studios dies with Papermill Teal card.

When I got hold of these gorgeous tag dies and bird stamps I thought I'd like to make a little bookmark.

I cut out the larger one and embossed it and then placed the smaller die at the top and cut it out  - but

not the whole way. I left the top part attached so that it could be slipped over the page to keep the place.

I then stamped, coloured (with Promarkers, of course!) and glittered 3 of the birds before cutting them out and gluing to the bookmark. - Don't forget to only stick the bottom half of the middle bird :)

Another great offer at Papermill

Hello from sunny Northern Ireland :)

Today's card showcases beautiful A4  270gsm cream card from Papermill Direct. It's a lovely weight to make the card base from as well as embossing etc.
Approximately 80 A4 sheets for £5.00

I've used it here in 3 different ways on one card - the card base, embossed and punched (with Tonic Studios Multi Detail Butterfly and mini Flower head punches)

You will find the "offers page" here..http://papermilldirect.co.uk/acatalog/special-offers.html
Don't forget that you will get notified of any future offers straight to your inbox if you sign up for the newsletter here..http://papermilldirect.co.uk/acatalog/newsletter.html

The patterned paper I've used is Tonic Studios 665e Butterflies Beautiful 8x8 pad. The 2 sizes of dies used for the greeting and the aperture are from the Bumper Topper and Die set and the white die across the bottom is 571e Bird on  a Branch die 1.

Demo at Donegal Stationery, Letterkenny....and some photos of the beaufitul Co. Antrim coast

I'll be going to Donegal Stationery, Letterkenny on June 8th to demonstrate some gorgeous Tonic Studios dies, punches and stamps ...

I was so disappointed to have to cancel my last planned trip but, as most of you know, my mother was very ill. She has improved a bit and, with a lot of help from other family members, I'll be free to go to Donegal this time. I know many of you there enjoyed a super demo with Marlene. Don't worry, I'll be checking to make sure I don't cover the same ground 
I'm really looking forward to the visit.See you there!!

I just thought I'd share some photos which I took yesterday when we had a short, impromptu but lovely trip to the coast. It was great to see the outside world again and get the cobwebs blown away for a couple of hours.

These were taken in Glenarm and Carnlough.

Cards in July issue of Crafts Beautiful

These are some cards I made for the July issue of Crafts Beautiful magazine. I think when I made them a couple of months ago I imagined it would be bright and sunny weather by now...

I've supplied a little beach hut template to download from the CB website if you want to have a look.

The white, orange, teal and kraft cardstock are from Papermill Direct and the Scalloped Diamond Punch which I used to make the banner on the main card is from Tonic Studios. I've also used a Tonic Studios mini star punch to punch out little "starfish" from kraft card which I have then inked around the edges.

With love

Good morning. Today's card is one I made for Donegal Stationery, Letterkenny, to show some of the new stock they have and how it can be used together to make a pretty card. 

The products are all Tonic Studios. I've used the Dotty Border punch down the sides, the Peony Window die in the centre with the Carnation, Sweet William, Peony Punch and Stamp set to make the 3D flowers.

The paper is First Edition Floral Pavillion.

Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend :)

Special Offer from Papermill - Peppermint Green card

This is a card I made to show the beautiful Peppermint card which is on offer from Papermill Direct.
You will find the "offers page" here..http://papermilldirect.co.uk/acatalog/special-offers.html

This card is 240gsm
Approx 80 sheets of A3 for £10.00
Approx 80 sheets of A4 for £5.00

The other members of the design team have come up with some beautiful ideas with this card so do have a look...
Don't forget that you will get notified of any future offers straight to your inbox if you sign up for the newsletter here..http://papermilldirect.co.uk/acatalog/newsletter.html

I have combined a few Tonic products again in this one...the beautiful background paper is from the Butterflies Beautiful paper pad and is complemented by the Butterfly Border punch.

I've used the petals from the Peruvian Lily, Evening Primrose, Corncockle Punch and Stamp set to make one full flower and two little buds. The embossing folder is Leafy Branch by Cuttlebug 

Wedding ideas

Just sharing a few more of the cards I made for the Create and Craft release of the new Tonic Studios Bird dies a couple of weeks ago. Maybe you saw them on the shows - now you can have a closer look at a few of them..

I love these dies - so many possibilities!

A choccie treat

Good morning...another little card combining some lovely Tonic products. I loved the new Butterflies Beautiful paper and thought it would be lovely as a wrapper for a chocolate bar.

The "chocolate" is actually the waste from the Domed Window die...I always like to find a use for the left overs!

The little flowers are from the Punch and Stamp sets and the greeting is die cut from part of one of the new Birdie dies.
I have attached the chocolate squares to the bar with 3D foam squares from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L

I have almost finished another card using another "waste" product so I'll share it soon :)

New papers and new Promarkers :) One I forgot to post

This post was written a couple of weeks ago, before my mother took ill.
Surprisingly and thankfully she has improved very slightly but is unfortunately still very ill and weak.
Thanks to all who have sent their best wishes and prayed for her. Please continue to do so because she really needs that and I appreciate it very much indeed.

One I forgot to post.. I made this a while ago for a friend's birthday. It was one of those big birthdays with a "0" at the end and I didn't want to have it on the outside so I printed the special age on the inside.

Nothing brings a smile to my face on a cold wet morning like a little delivery from the postman - especially when it's crafting goodies. I've just received the new Limited Edition Spring/Summer Promarkers from Letraset:))

Even the names of the new colours were enough to make me want to rip the pack open and get started..

I picked one of my Fuchsia stamps (Pick of the Bunch by Tonic Studios) and used Fresh Bloom, Peony and Spring Lilac for the flowers with Green Shoot for the leaves and stems.

The beautiful new Tonic Studios paper matched perfectly so I matted and layered it onto New Lilac cardstock from Papermill and added some more of the beautiful ribbon which I treated myself to from Ribbonbox and added  a lovely die cut - Trailing Leaves by Crafts Too from Craftbag .

The butterfly at the side is the Tonic Studios Multi Detail butterfly.

There will be more....because when I get the Promarkers going I don't like to stop :)

Stamping Sensations DT card and an update

A word of explanation and apology before I post this....

Many of you already know that my mother has been ill for quite some time but things changed for the worse rather suddenly last Sunday. She is now very ill indeed and I am spending as much time as I can with her. I obviously had the post below prepared a couple of weeks ago and am adding this to explain why I cannot be in touch. 

My sincere apologies to Bernie at Donegal Stationery for not being able to come and demo on Saturday. I was looking forward so much to the day there and really  appreciate how understanding Bernie has been. I'd love to fulfill that arrangement at a later date.

I will be back when I can.

Time for another Stamping Sensations blog challenge - the theme this month is Embossing and Texture. I'm also very happy to tell you that the prize this month consists of two of my own designs by Tonic Studios - the Trellis Wall Die and a boxed set of Peruvian Lily, Evening Primrose and Corncockle Punch and Stamps.

The rest of the team have made gorgeous cards so make sure you check them out and, if you join in, you might win this prize!

I really think I need to get out more - you've no idea how happy I was about the cork I used for the Domed Window die!! I asked Mark from Crafty Devils if he could find me some to use with my dies and punches for demos in Belfast last week and when I met up before the show I couldn't wait to get home to try it out.

It's fantastic - comes in 1m rolls and is self adhesive. I used my dies and Big Shot and it worked a treat but even better - I was able to use my Punch and Stamps with it! There are plenty more cards to follow with cork bits and bobs :). You can see it HERE...

The flowers on this card are made from the Carnation, Sweet William, Peony Punch and Stamp set and I've incorporated the striped background paper to coordinate.

The white, black and kraft card used are all from Papermill Direct - as always.

The ribbon is again from Ribbonbox - I didn't spend much but I got some gorgeous ribbon.

See you soon with more :)

Tonic Studios Bird release!

Pick of the Day on Create and Craft and Ideal World today is the gorgeous new Bird and Branches dies, stamps, papers and embellishments - these are some of the samples which I made for the shows - hopefully you'll spot them if you are watching :)..Jodie has made some more great cards and will be showing how to use all the items on the shows today.

Just in case you wondered....I've used top quality card from Papermill Direct for all my samples.