Valentines Card Series 2015 No. 4

Hello Everyone, 

Welcome to my blog. Instead of doing a traditional valentines card today I thought I'd do something a little different.

I started off with pink card stock for my base which I scored with my Martha Stewart score board. I cut out a circle with my Martha Stewart circle cutter. I stamped my images from Lawn Fawn love and breakfast stamp set. I embossed some pink paper using a spellbinder embossing folder. They do have hearts on but I thought the card could do with a little texture.

For the sentiment I stamped a sentiment from the same stamp set as the images. I used memento tuxedo black ink pad and stuck the sentiment on the embossed card with some foam adhesive. I stuck my images to the circle with glossy accents then on to the embossed card with foam adhesive. The embossed card I stuck my to the base using my ATG.

I love how this card turned out. I think it looks really cute and suitable for all the people who don't really like celebrating Valentine's day or the recipient may not be and boyfriend, girlfriend, wife or husband but might be someone who you love like a friend or a family member you're close to.

Thank you so much for popping by today feel free to leave a comment below I would love to hear from you

Love

Fiann xxx

Supplies

• The Papermill Cardstock
• Hobbycraft Multicoloured Paper
• Brilliance Rocket Red Ink Pad
• Memento Tuxedo Black Ink Pad and Duo Pen
• Lawn Fawn Love and Breakfast Stamp Set
• Letreset Promarkers
• Sizzix Bigshot
• Spellbinders M-Bossibilites Hearts Embossing Folder

Valentine's Card Series 2015 No.3

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to my blog, today I'm sharing a love card today. The inspiration behind this was when people carved their initials into a tree so it'll be there forever.

I started off with some brown Crelando card stock which I got a few months ago from Lidl. It's surprising how much crafting stuff you can get there. They dont always do card stock so I pick it up whenever I can.

I used some espresso Adirondeck ink and my hero Arts wood Grain background stamp and left it to dry thoroughly. When it was dry I wrote my sentiment on it in pencil. I didnt really want the letters to be neat and tidy as in most trees peoples carvings are usually uneven. I wanted it to look a little like that. I cut out the letters with my small scissors and on the back I stuck some foam adhesive. 

I got my pink card stock from The Papermill and scored it with my Martha Stewart score board. I then adhered my piece down on the card. I found that some part of the letters were sinking to the card base. To try and even it out I got my little foam squares and stuck them to the sinking parts so they were high as the rest of the card. it was mostly by the edges of the letters.

This is a really cool card and I love how it turned out. This is the type of card that you would give to your loved one to declare your love for them. It's quite easy to make with few supplies needed. The only tricky bit is the cutting out the letters without bending the card stock.

Alphabet dies are on my wish list now. They would have been so handy for this card and wish I had them. 

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today and please leave a comment below i woyuld love to hear from you.

Love

Fiann xxx

Supplies

• Crelando Brown Card Stock
• The Papermill Card Stock
• Hero Arts Wood Grain Stamp
• Scissors
• Foam Adhesive Large and Small (Company Unknown)
• Martha Stewart 12" Score Board 

Valentine's Card Series 2015 No.2

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to my blog. Today I have another Valentine card to share with you. I absolutely love how this card turned out. I started off with some water colour card and my pink Distress inks. I used a ink blending tool to add the colours to the water colour card. then I sprayed some water all over the card. I love watching how distress inks react with water. It still amazes me.

I put the water colour card to the side to dry while I got on with the rest of the card. I got some red Crelando card stock and wrote in pencil the word VALENTINE and I cut them out with my small scissors.

When my water colour card was dry I stuck my letters on it with some glossy accents. I positioned the letters in 3 rows of 3. I cut out a heart and stuck that at the bottom as it was looking bare. I then added some glossy accents to the letters and the heart. I again put the card to the side to dry.

When everything was dry I stuck some foam adhesive to the back and stuck it to my card base. I just love how girly this card is. I would love to give this to my girlie girl niece. She'll just love it

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today and feel free to leave a comment.

Love 

Fiann xxx

Supplies

• Papermill Card Stock
• Windsor & Newton Artists' Water Colour Paper
• Martha Stewart Scoring Board and Tool
• Distress Ink Picked Raspberry, Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick
• Water Spray Bottle (Company Unknown)
• Inkssentials Ink Blending Tool
• Crelando Red and Brown Card stock
• Scissors
• Glossy Accents
• Foam Adhesive Squares

Valentine's Card Series 2015 No.1

Hello Everyone,

Today is the start of my Valentine's card series for this year. I shall be sharing Valentine's cards with you till Valentine's day. There will be two every week. 

The card for today is similar to a card I did for Halloween last year. It just goes to show that the same techniques can be used over and over again. You just need to changed the colour so it matches the theme of the card.

First I cut out some strips of backing paper then I got some copy paper and trimmed it to the right size for my card. I stuck the strips down with some glossy accents. I followed no pattern I just didn't want the same patterned paper to be side by side and tried to avoid putting the same colours together. I cut of the excess patterned paper with scissors. I put it to the side so the Glossy accents could dry properly.

I got some mirrored card and wrote my sentiment on it and cut it out with my scissors. I adhered them to the card with glossy accents. As the mirrored card was thicker than the paper I was sticking it to I added as much glossy accents to the pieces as I could so it would stick to the paper.

I stuck the paper down on to some card I scored with my scoreboard. I used purple instead of red or pink as the backing paper was full of these colours and I didn't want the card to be overwhelmed. 

Supplies

• Papermill Card Stock
• Martha Stewart Card Stock
• Copy Paper
• Me To You With Love Paper Pack
• Hobby Craft Multicraft Paper
• Mirror Card (company Unknown)
• Glossy Accents
• Scissors
• Pencil

Circle Card

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to my blog. Like I said in the last post I've made a circle card and thought I'd share it with you guys today. It had to be a masculine card as I'm thinking of giving it to my father for his birthday next month. I may make another before then but I do like to have a few to choose from.

I started off by scoring some green card and die cutting it to make a circle card. The way I make circle card with dies is to have the die a little off the card at the fold. I used my xcut circle nesting dies. I then cut a smaller circle out of some Dovecraft paper pack.

I stamped my images from Newton's Nook Newtons's Birthday Bash Stamp set in memento tuxedo black ink and coloured it in with my promarkers. I cut it out with my small scissors and went around the edges with my memento tuxedo black duo pen to give it a finished look. I stuck the images on the backing paper with glossy accents. It was the glue that was on the desk I had to hand. It was easier than trying to find my other glue.

I stamped my sentiment in brilliance platinum planet but it didn't come out right so I went over the sentiment over it with my silver glitter gel pen. Then I went around the edge of the backing paper with my spice promarker to give it a little border. I stamped some accents from the same stamp set in brilliance rocket red and Mediterranean Blue.

I stuck the backing paper down onto my card base with some glossy accents then added some dash lines with my silver glitter gel pen and added glossy accents to the party hat to make it shine. On the inside I stamped a happy birthday sentiment and that's it for this card.

I love how cute this card turned out. Thank you so much for visiting my blog today. Feel free to leave a comment I would love to hear from you. 

Love 

Fiann xxx

Supplies

• Newton's Nook Newton's Birthday Bash Stamp Set
• Papermania Acrylic Block
• Memento Tuxedo Black Ink Pad and Duo Pen
• Martha Stewart Scoring Board and Tool
• The Papermill Card Stock
• Promarkers (Various Colours)
• Brilliance Ink Pad Rocket Red, Mediterranean Blue and Platinum Planet
• Glossy Accents 
• Silver Glitter Gel Pen
• Scissors

Cutting circles

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to my blog today. I'm going to share the easiest ways to cut circles.

The first is by using a compass. Maybe you have one from your school days or have child with in school which has one in their pencil case. This tool was probably used in maths class and i bet you never thought you'd be using it again. You then use your scissors to cut out the circle and voilà your circle. I used this method when I first started making cards. It does get a bit time consuming and I usually end up making a square with my paper trimmer instead.

The second is with a fiskars circle cutter this is the first circle cutter I bought. I didn't really get the hang of this tool though. Sometimes it didn't go through my backing paper or the paper moved while cutting. I watched a couple of videos and took the tips on board but still weren't happy with the results I had. maybe you'll get better results. Measuring how big the circle wasn't good either and sometimes I made my circle the wrong size. Maybe I should have been more patient, but when I want a circle I don't want to have to fiddle around with my cutter for five minuets and make a few circles before hand only to find they're the wrong size.

The third way is to use a cutting machine and some nesting dies. Many companies make nesting dies but I use Xcut. They are brilliant in my opinion. Its easy to use and you know exactly the size you're getting. The only thing with this is that I have all my die cutting machine materials all on my big shot so I have to move all of them off before getting the circle then put everything back when I'm finished. I am really trying to find a good storage solution for all the Sizzix machine material.

The last method is using a Martha Stewart circle cutter. This is by far the best way to cut your circle. Its quick and easy to do. I'm also trying to find a good place to keep it. My crafting drawers are getting too full and its beginning to look like a game of Jenga on top as I'm balancing more than I should on there. The only thing I have trouble with this circle cutter is it's so easy to cut yourself as the blades are really sharp. Getting cuts is a normal occurrence if you're not careful. other than that this is by far the best way to cut circles. 

I hope this has been informative for you and its certainly inspired me to make a circle card. Do you have a different way of making circles? If you do please leave a comment below I'd love to hear from you.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today and please leave a comment below if you have other ways to cut circles.

Love

Fiann xxx

Materials used 

• Sizzix Big Shot
• Martha Stewart Circle Cutter
• Fiskars Circle Cutter
• Xcut Circle Nesting Dies
• Backing Paper Dovecraft Back to Basics IV and Me To You With Love
• Crelando Red Card Stock
• Copy Paper (company Unknown)

Colouring With Pencil Colours

Hello Everyone,

I had a 36 Derwent Colour pencils for Christmas and I just had my first go with them. I haven't coloured with pencils since I left primary school. I can't remember using them after leaving school.

  I am a beginner with colouring my card images with colour pencils. Comparing Derwent pencils and Promarker pens is not really ideal as they are so different and give different results. I have more experience with my promarker pens than the Derwent pencils. I Still prefer my Promarkers over the pencil but hopefully with more practise I will enjoy using them both, but for now Promarkers are my go to colouring choice.

Promarkers are fantastic but sometimes I just want to have a different result to the image. Using different things give different results and colour pencils seem like the alternative.

My first colouring practise went awful and I really had a hard time blending the colours. I don't think it's the pencils I think it's me. I used the wrong colours together which made it difficult to blend. I definitely need a lot of practise with these. I used some of my new stamps too. I will not be putting any of these on a card because like I said it was just practise. I do promise that I will be making a card soon.


Thank you for visiting my blog today and feel free to leave a comment. If you have any tips on colouring with pencils please leave a comment below I will be so grateful.

Love

Fiann xxx

Happy New Year

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas and got spoiled and you enjoyed seeing the new year in with loved ones.

I really enjoyed spending time with David. This is the first year I've actually been off over Christmas and it's so nice to relax with him and watch some Christmas films in the evening without having to go out to work. The new job I have now is much better for both of us.

I was really spoiled this Christmas. I got everything I asked for and more. David is terrific at giving presents I wish he was as easy to buy for.

• Martha Stewart circle cutter
• Xcut sticker maker
• Fiskars stamp press
• Inkadinkadu stampmajig
• ATG refill
• Derwent 36 colour pencils set
• Clear stamps
• PS4 controller
• PS4 game Lara Croft game (awesome game love it)

and other gifts, these are just the crafty ones I thought I'd mention. I mentioned the game because it's my favourite and was a total surprise.

I have to admit the game I got him wasn't as exciting and was meant as a little joke. I got him Monopoly and we actually played on Christmas day. I was never any good at Monopoly and tended to cheat my way through. I was only a child so please don't judge me lol. I was the youngest playing with all my brothers and sisters and when I had 'no money left' they used to let me off every time. It wasn't until right at the end I presented £500 note from under the board which 'accidentally' got pushed under there with out me knowing.
   I decided I was too grown up for stupid play moves and David wouldn't let me win any way. I had to win by myself. I never won monopoly before, I was never any good at it. I think that's why my brothers and sisters used to let me play because They could get all my properties in the end and  I don't blame them.

I played fairly and never cheated and won the game. Dave had really bad luck and went to jail every time and I came second in beauty contest lol. It just goes to show that even though we have all this technology around a good board game can still be fun and especially fun when you win.

The rest of my time off was spent doing the usual stuff. tidying up, throwing empty sweet wrappers out. Throwing a box of biscuits and felt guilty about eating.

I realise that a new year means a new start. Instead of new years resolutions that I'd probably break in two to three weeks (i have no will power and cave in) I decided to make a few changes. If I feel it's not working I wont feel bad if they fail or get broken. Here are my changes

1. To go out once a week just me and Dave. To do something together instead of being stuck in the house every night.
2. To be more motivated at work. It brings in the money and I want to keep it that way. 
3. Work on my blog more therefore more crafting.

It's not much but it's something that I think I could do. I realised years ago that new resolution only last for a few weeks then I just give up and go back to the usual way I was. At least these changes can be done, Rather than the more common loose weight, get healthy. Don't get me wrong if that is your new years resolution good on you and I wish you the best of luck sincerely. I really do hope you succeed  xxx It's just not me I would give up by march and the guilt of it would get me down. but hey I bet your new years wishes, changes, resolutions or whatever you like to call it will go really well and we'll all change for the whole year and still carry on with our new ways. Yay us xxx

So I'll close saying happy new you to you all and I promise a card will be coming soon.

Thank you so much for stopping by today and please leave a comment below. Tell me your  own new years resolution or change for this year. I would love to hear from you.

Love

Fiann xxx