And now for something completely different

OMG! I am really excited by this, following on from the Kinetic Dies Crafters Companion released earlier this year (the circle and diamond swing card dies), they are now releasing a Shutter Card die and Stairway Die!!!  How awesome is that?  I know myself with the shutter card that they are a real pain to do, even with a scoring board (the number of times I've scored the wrong line), so to be able to produce stunning results every time with just a pass through my Gemini, is just mindblowing!

This first card was made using the shutter die and Decorative Edge Set 2 for the edges.  The papers and embellishments all came from Sara's Signature Shabby Chic range, love, love, love this card!

This next card was made using the Stairway die, which makes a fabulous card just using the die and cut in panels that come with it, the fun only stops when you run out of 5 letter words (though I have found a way to extend it, which I will show you soon......).  But even that doesn't have to stop you, the stairs could have a cascade of butterflies, or whatever your heart desires, this really is a showstopper card to make but the secret is in the fabulous dies - again, a quick pass through the machine and all the hard work is done for you.

I suppose you'd like to know when you can get your hands on these lovely designs - well you only have a day to wait, they launch on Hochanda at 6 p.m. tomorrow, 19th July.

Well, I must be off, see you again soon & I'll show you how you can extend out these lovely dies.

TTFN

Rach

x

Ssshhhh!!!! it's the C word!

Well, I know it's been a while again, but at least I'm back crafting - Yay!!!!

And as you know Christmas sneaks up quickly on the unsuspecting, so us crafters have to be ultra prepared!  Crafters Companion is going all out again this year to help with this and have some amazing launches in July on Hochanda - Have you seen Sara's latest signature range!!!! O M G! it's to die for (& already been added to my collection as they're being super quick with deliveries - just as well because I have absolutely no patience for these things!).

Anyhoo.... I was given the pleasure of working with some new Foil Transfers and Foils designed specifically for the festive season, and to whet your appetite for the launch tomorrow, I thought I'd show you a couple of my offerings.

This first make is a candle jar (I've used a battery operated candle so it's perfectly safe) and a washed out salsa jar - recycling too - go me!

The transfers don't go on very easily to the jar, but I think this adds to the rustic nature of the make, I've added some gems to the centre of the snowflakes for added sparkle and then some ribbon and tags - you could even colour the jars on the inside with some alcohol inks to give different coloured glows, or you could use a larger jar and a string of lights.

My second make goes back to a traditional card shape and would make a lovely quick (ish) card for Christmas - the sentiment is from the Foil Transfers, and I've used Matt Silver foil for both of my makes.  some of the snowflakes have been covered with Stick-it and then foiled over the top to continue the look.

Whether you go for something simple or a bit more complex, these foils and transfers really add another dimension - they are great fun to work with & not at all like the old transfers which were really annoying and didn't always stick down properly.

Well, I hope you can be there for the launch of these as the one day special on Thursday at 6 p.m. as you really don't want to miss out, what with these and the other launches, I think I'm on beans for the rest of the month, well year!

Take care & TTFN

Rach

x

Woo Hoo! I'm Back

Well, it has been a very long road to get to where I am now.  I had to stop crafting for several months while my kitchen was flung to the far corners of my house, and all across my craft room!  But, I now have a functioning kitchen, oh, who am I kidding, I have an amazing kitchen! and I also have the space to craft again

So here I am back playing with my favourite crafting products from my favourite crafting company, boy am I lucky!

These Create a Card edgeables have been seen before, but Crafters Companion have recently launched the Centura Metallics cardstock, and boy are they a match made in heaven.  Centura cardstock has always been perfect for die cutting, but these metallics are just divine for giving a beautiful crisp edge to the cut and adding complete luxury to  cards.  The link I've given above will take you to all things Centura, but the pack I was using for these cards was the Precious Metals pack (which is part of a multi-buy offer at the moment!).

My first card combines the gorgeous edgeable, 'Sophia' on both sides of a gatefold to create a lovely Congratulations card.  I've also used Sara's signature Glamour collection to decorate the inside of the card, her dress looks stunning in the metallic shimmer of Centura, and I used the Diesire Celebration words for the 'congratulations' (love, love, love the word dies, which are so useable).

My next card again uses the Centura Metallics Precious Metals, but I hope you will agree is completely different in style.  I created an easel card and cut the 'Victoria' edgeable across the front.  I then cut the same die back to back on the metallic card stock and used two strips of ribbon across the middle to hide the join (and create a focus).  I should mention at this point that the Centura Metallics emboss beautifully too, which is what I did on the base of the easel (6x6 splendour folder, not sure if this is still available, but I've no doubt others would be perfect too), I then created a stopper for the easel and decorated this using Sara's Signature Shabby Chic collection (aged rose and filigree flourish).

I hope you like these cards, it feels really good to be back making again.  I believe the dies will be on Hochanda this Saturday (3rd June) at 7 a.m., midday and 3 p.m. if you'd like to tune in (ha! who tunes their telly these days! showing my age!) for some more inspiration.

TTFN

Rach

x

Long time no see!

Oh my, it's been aaaagggeees since my last post - so much has been going on, both in my life and the crafty world.

I have been without a kitchen for 3 weeks now so I'm now sharing my rapidly dwindling craft space with a microwave and kettle, I've found out that the reverse function on the Gemini is worth it's weight in gold when you can't send your plates all the way through the machine because there's a kettle in the way!

The crafty world too has seen some amazing things since Jan 1st, and this week Crafters Companion are celebrating 1 year with Hochanda and so they have an incredible line up of shows and new products, including some new mixed media dies which launch on Friday (10am) as the Weekend Wow.

This make is a real departure for me, I'm a card maker really and so mixed media is stretching my comfort zone a bit, I returned to my Art Attack days (remember that programme?!) and used PVA glue mixed with water to glue kitchen roll to one of the mountboard sheets, then covered in white Gesso, followed by Aqua Tints, spray & sparkle and then used some of the incredible new ribbon buckle dies to create flowers - oh, nearly forgot, I used one of Sheena's Groovin 60's stencils to put some flowers and swirls in the background.  Some buttons, ribbon and dew drops finished it off & then I framed it!  

The mountboard embosses beautifully as well so this gave my picture more texture, and I used the new Pennant Banners mixed media dies for the words, anyway hope you like it & can get to watch some of the shows this week.

TTFN

Rach

x

Happy New Year!

Well, here we go again, January 1st, the brand new year is upon us - have you made any resolutions?  How long do you think you can stick to them?   Seriously, I really think we set ourselves up to fail when we talk about New Years resolutions, so this year, I'm not making any resolutions.

2016 was, like every other year, good in parts and bad in parts, but then that's why the song says 'life is like a rollercoaster', and they really weren't wrong!

I am so lucky being part of the Crafters Companion Design Team that I have had the opportunity to play with so many of their incredible new products during the year, and I hope they will let me carry on doing it for another year (pretty please!).  I did not get to work on the launches for Sara's signature ranges, however, I did spend some of my hard earned cash on them because they were soooo gorgeous!

So for the first card of the New Year - drum roll..... I thought I'd show you a really quick card, that you can make in batch to get ahead for next Christmas - if you have the Merry Christmas die, I would have put a link to it but it's not in stock at the moment.  

The background was created using watercolour card and some of the sparkle pens, I used a red, gold and green for this one, smooching the pens onto acetate, spraying with some water and then putting the card over the top to pick up the colour.  The wonderful thing about this is you can make it different every time, so even though the card is the same, it isn't, if you see what I mean.  

I cut the words out of some mirri card, mounted the background onto some red card and then onto a 6x6 card, stuck the wording to the background using tacky glue (had I really thought about it I would have used the stick it sheets to make life easier - hindsights a marvellous thing!).  Some dimensional dots finished it off, but you could use sequins or gems, whatever you have to hand.

Love this card & will definitely be making these for next Christmas - sorry, but us crafters have to get ahead!

Anyway, I hope you all have a peaceful day and the rest of the year brings you everything you hoped for.

TTFN

Rach

x

Having fun

Well, I hope you've been enjoying the Weekend WOW shows with Fiona, in fact, she's on now!  I had such fun making designs for this show, these dies make getting inspiration really easy, and you only need to add a few bits to make a really stunning stand out card.

This first card is a tent card (it has a W piece of card at the bottom so from the side it looks a bit like a tent) and I've used the die (Jardin) to cut into a window in the card.  The backing paper behind is from Sara's Signature Collection Floral Delight, and the dies are from this collection combined with the English Country Garden collection.

This next card was made using the Marseille die (I think this is my favourite as I love peacocks) and is so fabulously simple combined with the Kimono CD and embossing folder.  The sentiment is from the Die'sire Only Words - Classiques collection & cut out of mirri card looks stunning (and much better than the old peel offs).

This collection and the others in the shows are really versatile & I cannot recommend them highly enough, I'd love to hear from anyone making cards/projects with these dies, so please send me a link and I'll come and visit your blogs.

Hope you all have a lovely crafty Sunday.

TTFN

Rach
x

PS for those that asked for a tutorial for my hexagon box, its now live on youtube here

And the winner is....

Well, Birthday week is all over - boo!

But that does mean the winners of the birthday week blog hop have now been chosen, so without further ado, the winner of my gift box stack is...

Suecar53!  Please could you email socialmedia@crafterscompanion.co.uk with details of your address and name so that I can get your prize off to you - Congratulations!, I really hope it doesn't disappoint in the flesh, but I will miss seeing it on my work table.  There is a full list of winners from all of the blogs here.

Thank you to everyone who commented on my blog, I'm so glad you took the time to take part.  I will be sorting out a tutorial on how to make the hexagon boxes so you can all have a go too.

Birthday week really was a whirlwind of new products and I tried to be strict with myself and not spend too much - ha! that lasted all of 5 minutes.  I'm now the proud owner of a full set of Spectrum Illustrators stored beautifully in their sparkly trays, and I could not resist Sara's new Birthday Party Signature Range either, so that has been added to my collection.

I was lucky enough to get to play with some of the birthday week products ahead of launch, including the new 5" Create a Card dies and card blanks.  Those blanks are such a godsend when you're in a rush but don't want to skimp on design - as for the dies, well, what can I say, FABULOUS!!!! they cut a out a dream and produce such stunning results, my absolute favourite, and I know it was everyone elses too (as it sold out individually) was the owl, so here are a couple of cards I made using this and the card blanks.

Same owl, but very different effects - the luxury card stock with the glitter card in it is just to die for, really, you must try it, you won't regret it, you might look like a loon when your partner finds you just staring at it as you twist it in the light to catch every last piece of sparkle..... or is that just me?!

Well, hope you all have a fabulous crafty day playing with your new favourite purchases & I'll be back soon & congratulations again to Sue.

TTFN

Rach

x