The Glens of Antrim

 Cushendun

 The Glens of Antrim

 Ballycastle harbour

 Ballycastle Harbour

Ooh, I must have needed that! We went out for the day through the Glens of Antrim to the beach at Whitepark Bay. You've probably seen photos of this area on my blog before - but I just love it and go there a lot :). While I was getting ready David made up a lovely picnic of salmon sandwiches etc ( isn't he a wee pet?) and off we went via the scenic route. As soon as we set out the rug on the beach I lay down and was asleep in less than 2 minutes - great company :(   The good weather is set to continue for a while longer so we'll be off again as soon as we can...

Lime,black and white

Good morning. It's holiday time over here at the moment and although we aren't going away anywhere at the moment because of family commitments we've taken a day off here and there to chill out. The weather is fantastic and Northern Ireland is so beautiful that we are really enjoying whatever days we can. It means there is not much crafting being done - so the cards I'm sharing at the moment are ones I had already made a couple of weeks ago.

This one is a little different from my preferred floral paper style but I like it for a change - I've mixed the petal shapes from two Punch and Stamp sets (Clematis, Lily and Poinsettia with Rose, Pansy, Camelia and Gardenia) and made a few buds by twisting the petal shapes with tweezers. The beautiful diecut at the top of the Trellis wall is from a Branches die and the border punch used is the Diamond Scallop.

I have used Papermill white linen cardstock for the card base, flowers and diecutting. The black and lime green card is also from Papermill.

Crackers :)

It's time for another great offer at Papermill Direct. This time it's beautiful cream leather embossed card.
You can see the offer HERE

I've used the gorgeous new Cracker die from Tonic Studios to make some party crackers (don't just save them for Christmas!) and tied them with raffia. I've used the Tonic Studios Peruvian Lily, Evening Primrose and Corncockle Punch and Stamp set to make the flowers and the Daisy Border 2 onto self adhesive cork  for the decorative edges.

Have a cracker summer! 

Verso dies

The new Tonic Studios Verso dies are just about to hit the shops on Monday so I thought I'd show you another card I made using the Delicate Lattice Ovals set along with lots of other beautiful Tonic Studios products. 

This card is a "complete Tonic" ie everything used is from Tonic Studios (except the white cardstock, which is Felt embossed from Papermill Direct).

The toppers are from the Butterfly Beautiful Bumper Topper and Die set and the paper is the 8x8 luxury card set.

I've used the "waste" from the Christmas cracker die raised on 3D foam pads to create a diamond pattern down the side.

The flowers are made with the Clematis, Lily, Poinsettia Punch and Stamp set...

....and the silver "ribbons" are from the tiny die tag die in the Butterfly Beautiful Bumper Topper and Die set.

Have a lovely weekend.

Ruth :)

New border punch - Celtic Knot

Oops........I was supposed to post this card here a few days ago when the new border punch was released. I even had the post in drafts but forgot to schedule it.

 We're having fantastic weather here at the moment. It was so hot and stuffy inside yesterday that I took my Big Shot etc out to the patio and made some stuff there for a while. I didn't realise until later that I had got my shoulders burnt - so I'll not be doing that today!

Anyhow, today's card is to showcase the beautiful new Celtic Knot border punch which was released by Tonic Studios at the weekend. It would be great on a wedding card but I liked the idea of creating border panels with flowers in the centre.

Both of the patterned papers used are from the Birds on a Branch 8 x8 paper pad and the plain blue, white and lime green are from Papermill.

The flowers were made with Tonic Studios Rose, Pansy, Camelia and Gardenia Punch and Stamp set

Here's a close up of the punched border showing how beautiful it looks with gems in the centre of the knots.

Felt embossed card offer

White felt embossed cardstock  - 290gsm - midi box for £16.00 from Papermill Direct.

I've used the white felt embosssed cardstock for the card base, the dotty embossed part, the birdcage, the 3 pansy petals (which I then stamped) and the butterflies.
The pansies were made with the Rose, Pansy, Camelia, Gardenia Punch and Stamp set and I added some little buds. The blue detailing on the pansies was done with a Promarker and I added a little gold glitter to the centres. The birdcage, branch and multi detail butterfly are all also Tonic Studios dies.The beautiful paper is from the Watch the Birdie 8x8 paper pad. 

Cardmaking and Papercraft issue 120

This month's commission in Cardmaking and Papercraft was to make 5 cards for under £5.00 - it really was a challenge but now I know it can be done!! You can see the cards in the August issue which is on sale now..

Let's hope there are plenty of flowers in bloom wherever you are just now :)

It was also lovely to see that this blog was chosen as "blog of the month!"

Blooming lights....... :)

Do you remember the last set of lights I made with the Rose, Pansy, Camelia, Gardenia Punch and Stamp set? 

Well,I thought I'd make another set of lights using a different set of Punch and Stamps - the top  flowers were made with the Carnation, Sweet William, Peony set.and are attached to twigs. They can stand on their own or you could put them in a vase...

I made up 2 layers of petals around the outside of the sepal as normal, then poked a hole in the middle, pushed the light through and added the rest of the petals using silicone glue to stick them to the sepal and light at the same time.
I used Perfect Petal card from Crafty Devils for these flowers :)

Wedding card

I've made a couple of wedding cards to share as a reminder that there will be lots of wedding inspiration by Tonic Studios on Create and Craft today.

This card is a lovely shade of peach and cream in real life but was really hard to photograph.

I've used the Rings punch in the centre mounted onto a Trellis Wall die cut with some Petal Pairs and mini daisy flowers around the outside. the border punch along the bottom of the card if the Delicate Lace border punch.

Pencil Bookmark

And now for something completely different - not a flower in sight!!

I've made a bookmark using the Tonic Studios Border System and Double Scallop punch on some card from Papermill Direct.

You'll need.......

Yellow card, kraft card, white card, silver card, grey marker, ribbon.

Border system, double scallop punch, scorer, corner rounder,double sided tape.

1.Using the scallop punch and border system punch twice to give 4 scallops.

2. Cut a 19cm x 4.5cm rectangle of kraft cardstock , mark onne end at 2.25cm in the centre and 3cm from the bottom on each side. Cut off from the centre point to the marks on the sides to create a point - then colour the point with a grey Promarker to resemble a pencil lead.

3. Trim the yellow cardstock to 12.5cm from the scallops and trim both sides. Scores from between the scallops to the top of the yellow card.

4. Cut a white rectangle measuring 4.5 cm x 3.5 cm and attach to the top of the pencil with DST. Cover the join with a 1.25 cm x 4 cm strip of silver card. Then round the corners of the "rubber" with a Duo Corner Rounder.

5. Punch  a hole at the side in the silver card and add some ribbon..:)

Cream card offer at Papermill

This beautiful cream card is on offer at Papermill at the moment. You can see the details here...a small box of A4 cream card 270gsm for £5.00

It's such a lovely rich colour that I didn't want to cover it up so I've used two beautiful embossing folders to show it off. The flower was made with the Tonic Studios Clematis, Lily, Poinsettia Punch and Stamp set and is attached to a Tonic Studios Delicate Lace Verso die cut.

Coming up roses....

Roses seem to be coming into bloom everywhere now - why not on my cards too?  Sometimes when I have some time to myself I just love to make more paper flowers and save them in boxes for my cards and other projects. I quite often just use up leftover pieces of card and paper ...how much paper does it really take to punch a few petals? Well, I had a look in my "Rose box" and these 3 caught my eye. The colours go so well together and match perfectly with the Tonic Studios Butterflies Beautiful paper pad.

I made the roses with the Rose, Pansy, Camelia and Gardenia Punch and Stamp set and added a couple of matching Multi Detail butterfliesand some smaller Classic Butterflies. The roses are placed on a Trellis Wall die cut with a Branch die cut at the bottom. The gorgeous border is punched with the Delicate lattice border punch and I've used the waste from this along the top and bottom of the card.

The card blank, all the die cuts and punched flowers are made with cardstock from Papermill Direct...
the colours of the card are white, purple grape and raspberry pink.

Butterfly twisted easel card

Good morning! I've had a lovely few days with family and friends and was at a wedding on Monday. I'll be sharing some wedding cards later in the week so I'll maybe show you a couple of photos of Monday's wedding too.

This card is one I made for a birthday last week  (I know Brenda has got it now so I can show it to you.!)  

I've made several twisted easel cards lately because I really like the shape and had forgotten about it. Also the gorgeous Butterflies Beautiful paper pad by Tonic Studios has some lovely sheets with corner designs which are great for layering over the corner of a card like I've done with this one.

I have added the Maria die in silver and the vine border punch along the side and bottom.
The white cardstock is from Papermill 

I have cut out some of the little butterflies from the sheet and added them to the card on top of the paper. This one is layered onto a Multi Detail Butterfly

A little bit of bling..offer at Papermill

Christmas again! This week's special offer at Papermill Direct is shiny red card so I made a Christmas sample card this time. The offer is 50 A4 sheets of shiny red card (300gsm) for £4.00 and you can see it HERE. At 300gsm this is really good quality card and holds it shape well even when moulded as you can see on the petals.

I have used the card behind the Tonic Studios Gothic Border Square die cut and let it shine through. I also used it to make Poinsettias with the Clematis, Lily and Poinsettia Punch and Stamp set.

Have a lovely weekend :)

Summer wreath

 Good morning...... I've been busy making all sorts of things as well as cards for the last couple of weeks and thought I'd share this wreath today. Turquoise is my favourite colour but I don't usually team it with yellow but keep seeing lots of buttercups around at the moment and they gave me this idea. All the flowers are made using Tonic Studios Punch and Stamp sets.

I've used the Peruvian Lily, Evening Primrose and Corncockle set for the turquoise flowers ( with the sepal shape from the same set for the tiny yellow flowers) and the Carnation, Sweet William and Peony set for the bigger yellow and white flowers.

Have a lovely day :)

Brothers

I thought I'd do another little bit of scrapbooking...I'm beginning to like this idea :)

First of all I hunted through my vast array of albums to find suitable photos and came up with these two. I love these photos of David and Andrew when they were little  - they are 21 and 19 now :(   . Like me, they love animals and were always found in our garden. Sally, the goat, belonged to a very dear friend but little Thumper in the 2nd photo was a very much loved family pet for almost 8 years. He had his own state of the art hutch which was inside our summer house and the door was open all day long so he could run around the garden and go inside if he liked.

  I'm really loving this self adhesive cork and I've punched it with the Tonic Studios Delicate Lattice border punch and also die cut the Trellis Wall die with it.

These flowers are made using the Tonic Studios Carnation, Sweet William and Peony Punch and Stamp set

and these flowers are made using the Tonic Studios Rose, Pansy, Camelia and Gardenia Punch and Stamp set.

Remember, you don't have to make the named flowers, just use your imagination with the punches and stamps in each set and see what you come up with..

The ivy at the top of the page is from the Window Basket die and the butterflies are the Multi Detail and Classic butterfly punches.

New Tonic Studios Christmas release

Christmas in June!!..well, it is on Create and Craft tomorrow!

I think you're going to love the gorgeous new dies and paper from Tonic Studios.

The top card shows the Poinsettia die and die pad along with one of the Christmas greeting dies from the Christmas cracker die. It makes it so easy to make a quick but striking Christmas card.

Below you can see a little cracker made with the cracker die - all the hard work done for you! I have used the die on the premarked paper and just added two little bows. The pretty little star is another of the new dies and can have a little opening to pop a little treat in....

Another great offer at Papermill

This week's special offer at Papermill is an A4 small box of Ivory Flax Embossed card (300gsm)  £5.00

Each box contains approximately 80 A4 sheets of premium quality card and for only £5.00

You can see the offers HERE...

The texture is too beautiful to cover up on this card so I have tried to show as much as possible on the actual card and the embossed part.

I've been getting a lot of enquiries about the embossing folder I've used (it's a favourite so you'll see s a lot of it!) ..It is Cabaret by Couture Creations.

The silver diecut is Branches from the Bird on a Branch  range and the flowers are made with the Clematis, Lily,Poinsettia Punch and Stamp set.

Birds and Verso

Now that I've started making cards with my Verso die and matching punch it's hard to stop, especially when I have the Tonic Studios Birds on a Branch paper and metal embellishments sitting on my worktop too. I love how these can make gorgeous cards in no time at all. I've added a fine line of glitter around the aperture and the outside of the diecut just to define the edges. A tidy little bow across the punched border - that's all there is to it...

Stamping Sensations Mid month post

Good morning. It's my turn to do the mid month card for the Stamping Sensations challenge blog..and as it's Summer Flowers, it's right up my street! I just love flowers (summer or otherwise) so I don't need any excuse to add then to my cards.

I've used the beautiful new Tonic Studios Verso die (Diamond lattice) and have used the matching border punch on the corners. Then I got doing what I love best,making paper flowers :)

These are made with the Tonic Studios punch and Stamp set (Peruvian Lily, Evening Primrose and Corncockle) with a few mini daisies and a Multi Detail Butterfly as well.