Pop up Box instructions...

* This is a sticky post until the end of September*

If you're looking for my instructions on how I create pop up box cards, then click HERE!  There's also info on my box frame template and instructions too.  Happy crafting!  Lisa x

Passion for Promarkers - Make it Feminine...

Good morning, lovely peeps and a Happy Tuesday to you all!  It's time for a new challenge over at Passion for Promarkers and this week it's the lovely Nic (aka Coops) in the hostess chair and she's chosen a nice easy theme of Make it Feminine, so let's see all those cards for the babies to ladies!...

This time, we are sponsored by Bugaboo who are offering one lucky winner 7, yes that's right...7...digital images of their choice from the Bugaboo store!...

Feminine doesn't have to mean froo froo and I went with quite a clean style for my card.  I turned to my favourite sketch site for inspiration and found Jen's Deconstructed sketch #134...

...So here's my interpretation...

...I used Alyssa relaxing from DigiStamp Boutique, colouring her up with my Pro/Flexmarkers and paper piecing the bath with the Rose paper from the Lamp set in A Play on Words CD.  I cut the tag from white card and embossed with Cuttlebug Swiss Dots for a bit of texture and added some white/silver organza and a twine bow...

...I cut the arrow shape from some green pearl card and stamped the word relax using my individual letter stamps, then added some glitter to the bubbles on the image and a few diamante and pearl accents.  The stripe paper is from the May design set of A Year in Cards...

 ...I finished the inside with the C5 insert from the Lamp design set of A Play on Words with the sentiment ' Have a wonderful Birthday!'
Well, there you have it, my somewhat CAS feminine make for this week's challenge!  I hope you can find the time to join in with our challenge this week, just remember that to be eligible to win the prize, you must use your Letraset pens and follow the theme.  I look forward to visiting you all and seeing what wonderful creations you make and for more inspiration, hop on over to the Passion for Promarkers blog and see what my wonderful teamies have made to share with you! See you soon,

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges :

The Squirrel and the Fox

Happy Birthday until tomorrow

Simon Says Stamp

Anything Goes until tomorrow

Crafty Catz

Birthday Celebration until 2nd Oct
Sentimental Sundays
Use Kraft Card closes 4th October
Southern Girls
Girly/Shabby Chic until 16th October

Back in Wales...

Good afternoon, dear Blogger friends!  Firstly I must say a massive HELLO and THANK YOU to everyone who came along to Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh on Saturday and for all the lovely comments that I received for my samples!  It was so nice to meet you all and I hope you are all having fun with your new crafty stash!  There were quite a few stalls for people to browse with products including dies, stamps, card and paper, fabric kits, wooden decorations, glitter, powders and pastes and much more, so I hope that everyone went away with some new ideas and inspiration!

Talking of inspiration, I thought I would share with you a card that I made in the final hours before travelling up to Scotland.  It was 10 o'clock at night when I decided to make this after getting inspiration from a number of criss cross cards that I have seen recently, despite telling myself that I had enough samples already!...

...I began with two pink 6x6 card blanks and cut the fronts diagonally to create triangular fronts on each one.  Print off the stripe and flower paper from the May Wedding bells design set of A Year in Cards CD.  Cut the stripe to 14cm square, ink the edges (I used Victorian Velvet) and attach to the square panel of the card base. From the flower paper, cut 2 pieces 13.5cm square then cut them diagonally to create triangles (you should have 4 triangles).  Choose the two triangular pieces that correspond to the front flaps with the pattern the right way up, ink the edges (I used Weathered Wood) and attach them to the triangular card fronts.  I then adhered the fronts to create the pocket by placing a line of DST along the bottom of each of the trangular flaps and adhered to the card base...

I attached some organza and grey satin ribbon around the centre of the card, adhering to the reverse with DST and used the silver wedding bells topper, cut with SB Labels Eleven and matted onto silver mirror card.  I embellished with handmade flowers made from an XCut daisy and flower punch and Cheery Lynn Leaf Strip border leaves...

For the sentiment panel, I printed the Two Hearts sentiment by using the Snapshot Tool to select it, then printed onto A5 paper, cut to 13.5cm wide x 13cm high and inked the edges with Victorian Velvet.  I matted this onto a blue panel 14 x 13.5cm and cut 2 tags from the excess stripe paper using an XCut tag die.  I drew around the die to create mats from antique silver paper, adhered the stripe tag on top and folded in half over the top of the panel.  I then attached the main card onto a square base which had been cut with Martha Stewart Eyelet Lace punch around the page punches.  I finished with some pearls, glitter and pink heart beads to decorate.
Hope you like my criss cross card and take inspiration in some way!  I'll be back in the morning with a new DT card for this week's challenge at Passion for Promarkers, so until then, have a great day!
Hugs,

I'd like to enter my card into the folllowing challenges :

Moving Along with the Times 

Recipe - 1 image, 2 papers, 3 colours (pink, blue, grey)

closes 1st October

Cute Card Thursday

Dies and punches closes 1st October

Divas by Design

Pretty in Glitter closes tomorrow

I'm not the best at getting bling to show on photos, but I have glitter on the bells, glitter organza and pink sparkly heart beads - hope this is glittery enough!

Creative Moments

Anything Goes/Use 3 Layers closes 5th October

Almost here...

Good morning, my lovelies!  I know, I know...where have I been?  Well, not to London to visit the Queen, but I am on my way up to Edinburgh this weekend for the Ross Papercraft Show at the Meadowbanks Sports Centre!  There's a great exhibitor list :

Crafty Corner,
Krack on Krafts
Honey Doo, (Indigo Blu)
Stampers Grove,
Jelly Bean Crafts,
C.B.L. Crafts,
Fibees Crafts,
Home Farm Crafts,
Little Treasures,
Debonaire Designs,
Once upon a Stamp,
B.J. Crafts,
Keepsake Card Crafts,
Pink Frog Cards & Crafts,
Ruby Red Crafts,
Krafty Hands, (Norman and 'The Lads')
Mc Oyster Crafts,
Crafting Buddies, (A Crafty Touch, & Dawn till Dusk)
Stamps by Me,
Glitter Perfect,
Ali Crafts,
Brambles,
Suzicrafts,
Ellas Designs, (that's me!)
Little Claire,
Sparkles,
Mad Hatter Crafts,
Beth's Bits.
Ross Paper & Card, (most kinds of paper & card at very low prices)

Plus, Toni Darrock's 2 x workshops

All this, plus FREE parking, Hot and Cold food at very good prices, and 4 x FREE prize draws. Lots of friendly demonstrators on the stands.
Open 10.00am. until 3.00pm.
Entry price, only £2.00, accompanied children under 16 FREE. To pre-book tickets and miss the queues, you can purchase them from various retailers as shown on the Ross Papercraft website HERE

I'm hoping it'll be a fun day and am looking forward to meeting some new crafty friends in a whole new area for me!

I have been a busy bee making up the samples for all of my discs and trying to organise a new way of displaying them, so have also been handy with the wood, saw and power tools!  I'm hoping to have my stall looking a bit more professional and streamlined with lovely Slate grey satin twill covers and handmade Country Oak stained shelves! (I'll try to remember and take some photos for when I get back - unless it looks like a dog's dinner in which case you'll have to imagine it!)  Right....off to cut some more DVD covers and make myself a name header, so people know who I am, then construct a few more peg card holders, make my last couple of samples and then check that I've got everything together for the day!  Hopefully normal service will resume in the near future! Mind you, that can be anything from posting everyday to not seeing me for a fortnight...but that's as normal as it gets for me!
Big crafty hugs,

Altered chopping board...

Good afternoon, lovely peeps!  The sun is shining again here in Wales and I'm having a busy time of it, sample making and prepping my stall for the Ross Papercraft Show in Edinburgh, on 27th!  I only have just over a week to get everything organised ready to go and have been having some fun creating some textile and home decor items.  I found an old chopping board from a picnic hamper whilst sorting out my MIL shed (which we demolished and rebuilt a new one on Sunday - that'll keep me fit!) and decided to alter it...

 ...I found this fun saying and used Photoshop to create the word art...now, this could be true of my own cooking at times - more because I try to do ten other things at the same time and often we end up have chargrilled something for tea!  I used the polka dot paper and barbecue and hot dog images from the BBQ jpeg and png folder in A Play on Words and added some charring to the food with a black Promarker!  I cut the flames from yellow card and inked with Mustard Seed and Rusty Hinge Distress Inks to get a gradient of colour.  The sentiment panel was inked with Vintage Photo and I added some yellow buttons, ribbon tags and a red string ribbon hanging loop...

...Here's the word art that I created for you to use and I hope my project inspires you to have a go at altering an everday object!
Have a fantastic Wednesday afternoon and I'll be back again soon with some more crafty creations to share...
Hugs,

I'd like to enter my project into the following challenges :

Crafty Boots Challenge

Anything Goes (until 27th)

That Craft Place Challenge

Sentimental (until 27th)

A Creative Romance

Anything Goes (until 25th)

Passion for Promarkers - Make it Digital...

Good morning, lovely Bloggers!  Tuesday has rolled around again and it's time for a new challenge over at Passion for Promarkers.  This week it's the lovely Marie playing hostess and she has chosen a nice easy theme of 'Make it Digital' ...so as long as you use something digital on your creation, be it a digital image, papers, etc, and use your Letraset pens, then you will be in with the chance of winning a £10 voucher from the wonderful Digistamp Boutique, who are sponsoring us this week!..

The lovely Sally-Ann gave us the opportunity to choose an image to work with and I picked the ever so cute Christmas Tweet Family...

...I went with quite a simple design, utilising the sketch that I had used for my Boys/Men DT card here...

 ...I coloured the sweet robin family with Pro/Flexmarkers and decoupaged the little robin chicks for a bit of dimension.  Here's the colour list I used :

Birds : Sandstone, Caramel, Cocoa, Walnut, Umber

Red breasts : Red, Crimson, Burgundy

Santa hats : Amaranth Red, Crimson, Burgundy

Scarves and chick hats : Pastel, Arctic & Sky Blue, Leaf Bright & Forest Green, Buttercup, Mustard, Sunflower Yellow, Wild Orchid, Purple, Slate

Branch : Umber, Shale

Sky : Midnight Blue, Blender

...I used Cuttlebug Snowflakes folder for the background and the green polka dot paper from the Telephone design set of A Play on Words.  The blue plaid was a scrap from my stash and I added a Memory Box Corner Bow die cut from box cardboard, with white plastic snowflake embellishment...

...I finished the inside with a printed insert with the second image from the set in black and white and a simple sentiment.

Well that's another Christmas card to add to my stash, I think I'm up to 4 now!  Have a wonderful week, whatever you're doing and I hope you can find the time to join in with this week's easy peasy challenge!  Don't forget to hop on over to the Passion for Promarkers blog to see what my lovely teamies have been making for your inspiration!

Crafty hugs,

Plush Pals with a difference...

Good morning, everyone!  I better not speak to soon, but I'm doing rather well with this posting lark at the minute!?!  It's because I'm still busy making samples (and probably will be up until the day) for the Ross Papercraft Show in Edinburgh on Saturday 27th September at Meadowbank Sports Centre, London Road, Edinburgh!  My old samples have been in and out of the box and handled that much that some of them are looking rather worse for wear now, plus it's nice to look at things with fresh eyes!

So for today, I have another card inspired by one of Jen's Deconstructed Sketches (told you I love this blog and you want to see the cutest Halloween treats she's just posted, oh my word!)  Anyway, this time it's number 159...

...and this is what I did with it...

I used Cuttlebug Distressed Stripes for the embossed background, the lemon polka dot paper from the Lamb design set and the Blue dotty paper from the Bear set which I then overprinted with the Green version to get the pretty aqua colour.  I inked the edges with Mustard Seed and Weathered Wood Distress Inks to define the edges and save having to mat and layer..

The flowers are from the multicolour flower embellishment sheet and I've inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, cut into the petals and scored and pinched them for more dimension.  I added some Marianne Design Button Flower leaves, buttons to the centre of the flowers and small twine bow.  The craft card die cut (SB Labels Eleven) was left over from making my recent Bear Aperture card and was just sat on my desk waiting to be used!  I printed the sentiment onto Safmat and adhered on top.  Here it is to share - click on the image then right click and Save Image As...to download it to your hard drive...

..I really like the modern feel to this card - so pretty and fresh...hope you like it too and once again, thanks to Jen for sharing her wonderful inspiration!
See you soon,

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges :

Fan-tastic Tuesday

Anything Goes Twist Add a Button (until 15th)

Fab n Funky Challenge

Cute as a Button (until 16th)

Try it on Tuesday

How does your Garden Grow? (until 15th)

Another Christmas creation...

Good morning, lovely peeps!  Half way through the week already!  Hope that you're all well and that the sun is shining wherever you are!
I'm back again today (boy am I on a roll!) to share a Christmas card that was inspired by Jen's brilliant Deconstructed Sketch #167.  I love a good sketch and often turn to Jen's blog to find inspiration for a layout and to see her amazing inspiration too!...

...For the papers I have used the Postbox plaid and flower paper, Lantern dots and Church snowflake, stripe and sentiment from my disc 12 Cards of Christmas.  I have inked all the edges and matted using various colour cardstocks.  The sentiment was cut using Spellbinders Labels Eleven (they're Mum's, but ssssh, don't say anything!) and I decorated with Spellbinders Pointsettia dies (they're Mum's too!), Cheery Lyn leaf border and All Occasions Dies Holly...

...I finished the inside with a printed insert from the Pointsettia design set and added my signature pearls to the front!  I really like the way this one turned out and I think this is another sketch that will be used regularly...thanks Jen!
I'll be back again with another creation tomorrow and have you noticed, even my photos are looking better thanks to the September sunshine!
Happy crafting! Hugs,

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges :

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge Extra

Anything Goes until the end of the month

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned paper Challenge

Anything Goes until the end of the month

Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge

R,E or D (until 14th)

I have used R- Red and D- diecuts

ABC Christmas Challenge

Red for Pointsettias (until 16th)

Sentimental Sundays

A Touch of Vintage (until 13th)

On to Christmas!...

Hello, my lovelies!  Hope you're all having a fabulous start to the week and enjoying this spell of fair weather that we're having here in the UK - there's definitely an Autumnal feel in the air, especially in a morning but it's nice to see the sun still shining!  I have now switched over to my Christmas CD, 12 Cards of Christmas and begun to create some new samples for the Edinburgh show on 27th September (it'll be here before I know it!)...So today's project is created from a piece of heavy board (slightly smaller than A4) that came as packaging in a delivery of something or another - I am terrible for stashing bits of packaging, tins and boxes in the thought of altering them at some time!...

...I decided to make a sign to hang in my kitchen at Christmas - I used the Pudding plaid paper to cover the board, gluing it in place then trimming the excess with a craft knife before sanding the edges and inking with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I printed the Pudding dots paper and mounted a panel onto hot pink cardstock.  I then printed the Christmas Cheer Recipe .png file using Windows Photo Viewer and printed it to 13 x 18cm, cut out and mounted onto a dark brown cardstock.  I also printed the pudding, gingerbread man and holly leaf .png files, sized to Wallet (9 to an A4 page)...

...I printed one of the gingerbread man, glittered the icing and added Glossy Accents to his buttons...

...I printed 2 of the pudding images so that I could decoupage the icing layer and heat embossed the base layer with Clear embossing powder to give it shine and printed 2 of the holy leaf sprigs.  I also embossed the holly leaves in the same way, inking with Versamark ink, then sprinkling over Clear embossing powder and heating.
I added some rich satin ribbon over gold cardstock, a few pearls and finished with a pretty lime green hanging loop and bow. 
Well, that's it again from me, I'm off to cut the grass and tidy the garden a bit more before the cold weather appears!  Hope you like my little Christmassy creation and I'll be back soon with some more new samples to share.
Crafty hugs,

I'd like to enter my project into the following challenges :

Creative Fingers Challenge

Anything Goes

Fan-tatic Tuesday

Anything Goes optional Add a Button

613 Avenue Create

Anything Goes optional Colour Challenge

A Flying Rabbit!...

Good morning, dear Blogging buddies!  How about this?  Three posts in 3 days, anyone would think I was organised?!  I must admit that I had written and scheduled these posts on Saturday whilst I had some free time as hubby was off picking the big man up from Aberystwyth and my little man was busy with his friends, but still, quite an achievement for me these days!

Anywho, I am back to share another fab (in my opinion) new sample using the Plush Pals disc, this time using the sweet Rabbit with Balloons decoupage...

...I love these scene cards and this little bunny was crying out to be floating along in the clouds!  I inked the background with Stormy Sky Distress Ink and I've made a quick cloud stencil (sized for A5 paper landscape) for those of you who aren't brave enough to cut your own!...

...Just print and cut the stencil along one of the cloud lines, place on your paper and lightly ink along the edge of the stencil onto your paper, to create fluffy clouds!

...My Marianne Creatable Circles die came out again for my sun, inked in the die with Mustard Seed DI and again I hand cut some clouds from white cardstock, inked the edges with Stormy Sky and added a touch of crystal glitter for sparkle...

..I printed the decoupage as is and layered using foam pads, embossing the edge of each layer with a large embosing tool to give it more dimension and adding Glossy Accents to the lilac balloon for a bit of shine.  I created the sentiment with my individual letter stamps stamped onto 1cm squares and inked with Stormy Sky and decorated the inside to match by inking the clouds on the top half of the panel and adding a banner with the second half of the sentiment on, which reads '...it's your birthday!'.
I really liked the way this cute little card turned out and it could easily be adapted for any of the characters, maybe with a bit of grass drawn at the bottom.  There's full instructions on how I made it over on my Samples blog.

DON'T FORGET TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO GET YOUR ENTRIES IN FOR OUR 'BACK TO SCHOOL' CHALLENGE OVER AT PASSION FOR PROMARKERS!

I'd like to enter my card into the followign challenges :

Penny's Papercraft Challenge

Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly

Anything Goes

Crafting from the Heart

Anything Goes

A Lion in a Box!...

Good morning, my lovelies and a Happy Sunday to you all!  Some of you may have notcied this post pop up in your reading list yesterday as Blogger decided that it wasn't going to schedule my post as asked but publish it anyway! I quickly removed the post but it seemed to still  stay in the reading list as a preview!  So here it is in it's entirety...
I'm back again to share another new Plush Pals sample - I'm having so much fun revisiting this disc!  Today, it's the Lion's turn in the spotlight and I made one of my favourite card shapes of the moment, a pop up box card...

...If you would like instructions on how I make my pop up box cards, you can find them HERE., though I used 3 cross bar strips for inside the box.
I used the Lion decoupage, green Elephant Star paper and natural Cat Plaid paper overprinted with the Lion text also in natural...

...I inked a cloudy background for the back panel and a sun cut using the central die from Marianne Design Creatable Circles LR0180, inked whilst still in the die with Mustard Seed DI.  I added some hand cut clouds on acetate strips and glittered the edges with crystal glitter...

I cut some grass by hand and attached to the first crossbar and added some Marianne Design Flower Button leaves cut from Kiwi coloured cardstock.  I attached one of the Lion sentiments that are on the decoupage sheet to the front flap of the box and highlighted the Lion's mane with glitter and his eyes with Glossy Accents.  You can find full written instructions on how I made this card on my Samples Blog HERE.
Hope you like my little Lion in a box and that I've given you inspiration to have a go at one of these fun shaped cards!  I'll be back soon with some more new samples to share and don't forget that there's still time to enter into the 'Back to School' challenge over at Passion for Promarkers this week!
Hugs,

Back to the beginning...

Good afternoon, lovely Bloggers!  After meeting all the lovely crafters at Leigh last weekend, I thought it was about time that I went back to where it all started and make some new samples with my first ever CD-Rom, Plush Pals!  It was almost 5 years ago now that I designed my first disc and my crafting and crafty stash has changed so much since then that it's almost unrecognisable!  I didn't have any Promarkers, very little in the way of dies, a few embossing folders and I bought my first Distress Ink at my first ever demonstration day!  But I dusted down my CD and printed off some files, only to find that I still really love the designs and that they are still so craftable today, but in my new style!

It was so nice to hear the lovely feedback from people about my samples at the show, but the overwhelming comment was that they couldn't remember what they'd seen or how to go about replicating it when they got home!  Therefore, over the coming weeks, I will be posting various new samples and have started a sister blog where you can hop over and view all my samples in categories for each disc, to give you inspiration and with full written instructions on how I've made them!  I've even given the Print settings and instructions for when printing!

I love to share my passion for papercraft and hope that I can help to inspire others to create pieces that they'll be proud of!

So enough of my waffle and onto my first NEW Plush Pals sample using the ever so sweet Bear image...

...I used the Bear Text paper in pink for the background and Dotty Circle paper in Natural for the bunting.  I rescaled the Bear decoupage to fit the aperture using the Printer Properties and the aperture and sentiment were cut using Spellbinders Labels Eleven...

...I used individual letter stamps to stamp the 'it's a...' and 'girl' and also to add 'congratulations' on the inside.  I added some pretty glitter ribbon to the base and tiny satin ribbon bow to the bear and highlighted the bear's nappy with crystal glitter...

...You can find written instructions on how I made this card on my Samples Blog HERE.

I hope you like my first new sample and that you look forward to seeing more in the future...and don't forget, I'd LOVE to see what you make, so you can always email me a picture or give me a link to your blog post, if you have one!  Well, that's it from me today, I'm off to photograph some more samples ready for posting!
Big crafty hugs,

Passion for Promarkers - Back to School...

...Thank goodness!  Why is it that the Summer holidays seems to turn all routine on it's head and suddenly you can't get done in a week what you normally do in a day?!  It'll be back to normality again from tomorrow, although I find it takes a few days to adjust and before that, it is a very special day today...it's my little man's 11th Birthday!  A HUGE Happy Birthday Joshua, have a wonderful day and we love you loads! xxx

So, anyway, it's Tuesday (again!) and time for a new challenge over at Passion for Promarkers.  This week, it's the talented Lou Mac in the chair and she has aptly chosen the theme 'Back to School'.  We are being sponsored by the wonderful Whiff of Joy who are offering one lucky winner the chance to choose 1 stamp from their store (as long as it's in stock)...

Don't forget to be eligible to win the prize, you MUST use your Letraset products (i.e. promarkers, flex markers, aqua markers, tria markers, metallic markers or neon markers) and of course follow the theme.

...I decided to use my Prima School Memories paper pad as I though it would be just perfect for the theme and teamed them up with Digistamp Boutiques Off to School Rosie...

...Rosie was coloured with my Pro/Flexmarkers and here's the colour list for all you Letrasetters!
Skin : Blush, Dusky Pink, Soft Peach
Hair : Nutmeg, Saddle Brown, Auburn
Ribbons and tie : Amaranth Red, Crimson, Burgundy
Apple : Red, Crimson, Leaf Green, Bright Green
Skirt : Cool Grey 1, 3, 4 & 5 (still can't find my Cool Grey 2!)
Bag : Cerise, Shocking Pink, Vermillion
Shoes : Sandstone, Caramel, Umber, Black
Dove Grey for the shadows on her blouse and socks

...I cut a ruler from one of the papers and attached using foam tape with a paper clip and hand stamped sentiment...

...I decorated the inside to match with the second half of the sentiment which reads 'in your new school' - I thought this would make an excellent card for someone going up to high school.  I felt that there was something missing ( you know, as you do!?!) and decided to take inspiration from our lovely hostess Lou Mac and add some bling in the form of star buttons, diamantes and liquid pearls.
I hope you like my little creation and can find the time to join in with our fun challenge this week!  Don't forget to hop on over to the Passion for Promarkers blog to see what fabulous inspiration my wonderful teamies have to share with you and I look forward to seeing what you make!
Big crafty hugs,

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges :

The Paper Shelter

Back to School

Creative Moments

Anything Goes/ Back to School (until 8th)

MilkCoffee Challenge

Back to School (until 10th)

Sentimental Sundays

Back to School (until 6th)

Craft your Passion

Back to School (until 7th)

Simon Says Stamp Wenesday Challenge

Anything Goes