Casually Crafting Design Team Hop – New Year, New Technique

The Casually Crafting Design Team are a group of Independent Stampin’ Up! demonstrators that want to share our love of crafting with you all.  We will be sharing what we love every 3rd Friday of each month.  Make sure you check out the rest of the Design Team’s creative projects using the photo links at the end of this post.

New Year, New Technique

I trust that you all have a very peaceful and relaxing Christmas and New Year.  So far 2021 seems to be following in the footsteps of it’s predecessor with most of the UK back in strict lockdown.  I’m looking on the positive side of this as I’m getting to spend so much time in my craft room!  Albeit I miss seeing my class ladies on a regular basis but oh the party we will throw when things return to ‘normal’!

This months theme is ‘New Year, New Technique’, I’m taking a spin on this in that I’m showcasing a new product with a technique to using it and an old technique but with a NEW stamp set!

If you’ve looked through the new catalogue you may have spotted some gold leaf – this product is amazing – just make sure to hold your breath when using it as it is nearly lighter than air!  Coupled with the return of heat and stick powder (a powder similar to embossing that turns to glue when heated) this is an amazingly simple product to get a real wow effect.

TOP TIP – take a small amount of these flakes out of the tub and transfer them to another container because you will never get them all back in the tub if you tip them out.  PLUS they are less likely to escape and stick to every surface within your work area!

ART GALLERY

I didn’t go specifically with a CASUAL card this month, and in fact I used three different sets of dies, the rectangle is from nature’s thoughts although you could just use your trimmer to cut a rectangle.  The stunningly gorgeous floral heart comes from ‘floral heart’ dies.  Whilst these dies co ordinate with Always in my heart stamp set they are great as stand alone dies to add to your collection.  I also used the dies in the Art Gallery bundle to cut the stamped floral image, although you could fussy cut the flowers if you are on a budget.

 

The Art gallery stamps themselves are two step however to achieve the look I wanted I added an extra step.  First off all I inked the main floral image of the stamp with the colour of my choice.  The first sample uses misty moonlight, then using the edge of my shammy I carefully remove any excess ink that was on the stem or leaves of the image.  I then coloured these areas of the stamp using my old olive marker (this is in the regals marker pack).  A quick ‘huff’ on the stamp and I got a perfect image every time.

TOP TIP – when using markers to add colour to polymer stamps in particular, ink them first in versa mark ink.  This helps the colour ‘stick’.

The next step used the smaller stamp to accent the flowers, I stamped it in versa mark ink and then sprinkled on my heat and stick powder, much like you would do with embossing powder.  After heating it with my heat tool the powder turns sticky.  I carefully laid gilding leaf to cover the sticky area.  I tried two different methods to remove the excess leaf and buff – firstly I tried a stiff bristled paint brush and secondly I used one of the stampin sponges.  Both worked well – although if you go for the sponge option I would recommend keeping one specifically for us with the gilding leaf.

 

As as you can see from my pictures I went a little mad and I couldn’t stop playing with this combo so I made five cards, all in different colour combos.  Seaside spray paired with misty moonlight, blushing bride paired with rococo rose, so saffron paired with calypso coral, purple posy paired with highland heather and soft sea foam paired with so saffron.

Pick your favourite?

So which one do you prefer?  I really couldn’t make up my mind!

Initially I left them without a sentiment but having received an order for five thank you cards I printed a quick sentiment and attached it.  When they were delivered yesterday  the lady was overjoyed…. but she couldn’t pick a favourite either!

I’ve listed the products I used below and don’t forget with Sale-a-Bration now live for every £45 spend you get to select one FREE exclusive item!  But if you’re like me and want it all you should consider joining my team.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today, I hope you are inspired by my cards!  Don’t forget to continue with the hop and see what the rest of this amazing team have made, you won’t be disappointed!  Until next time happy crafting!!

  Love Me x x x

Casually Crafting Design Team Photo Links

Click on the photos below to continue along this month’s hop from the rest of the Casually Crafting Design Team and don’t be shy about leaving comments we would love to hear from you!

Product List

SAB BROCHURE CATALOG

Casually Crafting Design Team Hop – Winter is coming

Hello again and welcome back to the Casually Crafting blog hop! This month our theme is ‘Winter is coming’!

The Casually Crafting Design Team are a group of Independent Stampin’ Up! demonstrators that want to share our love of crafting with you all.  We will be sharing what we love every 3rd Friday of each month.  Make sure you check out the rest of the Design Team’s creative projects using the photo links at the end of this post.

Winter is coming

Oh my goodness… I’m not so sure it’s winter is coming as opposed to winter is well and truly here!  My craft room has been chilly today and there is definitely a nip (a BIG one) in the air here in Northern Ireland.  It’s been a strange old year and I’m not quite sure were it gone – it has certainly flown in.  I really do love this time of year; even with the chills.  Wrapping up snug with a rug in front of an open fire watching a  Christmas movie, cheesy but what’s not to love.

In recent days and weeks I’ve had Christmas movies playing in the background as I craft and I must say I do tend to get distracted on occasion! Sometimes I love to craft in silence but with the house being noisy with on child working from home and the other having college classes at home there isn’t much silence to be found and a good old Christmas movie hides the noise they make!

With Christmas well and truly on the way I’m trying to juggle work with making projects for my own family too, so with that in mind I set to crafting this months projects.

Trimming the Town Suite

So first off I made one of my favourite style of cards, the one I’m best known for – a pop up box card.  I used the trimming the town suite for this one to create a card that you’ll be able to display for years to come by incorporating it into your Christmas Decor!

The base is a sheet of thick whisper white and I decorated the panels with Trimming the Town designer series paper.  The tree patterned one was perfect for the bottom panels and I opted for the snowflakes for the upper panels.  Next I cut three snow banks, one with the trees and two without.  I have to say I love a bit a of glitter at the best of time but it is a MUST for Christmas so I added some (retired) dazzling diamonds along the edges.

Using basic grey ink I then stamped two houses, a wreath and a car, I used old olive to stamp two large, and two small trees.  These elements were all coloured using the Stampin’ Blends in pool party, old olive, poppy parade and smoky slate.  For the sentiment I used the ‘Merry Christmas’ from the Perfectly Plaid stamp set and stamped it in misty moonlight before die cutting it using the stitched shapes (oval) dies.

After adding the elements to the card I finished by adding an extra panel of whisper white to the rear to give it extra strength and just to finish it off. What I like so much about this style of card is that it folds flat into a 6″x6″ envelope and when the recipient opens it that’s when the magic happens!

 


And just in case you’re still not convinced that winter is on the way… well I had to use a snowman didn’t I?

SNOWMAN SEASON

For this card I used thick whisper white to create the card base and then layered a piece of whisper white that I had embossed using the winter snow embossing folder.

For the stamped layer I again used whisper white and stamped the snowman in memento ink.  I then inked the edges with coastal cabana.  My tool of choice for inking is a good brush – and I’m delighted to say we are getting some in the new catalogue – but more on that another day!  Brushes give a beautiful even soft layer which can be built up easily.  The snowflakes were stamped in second generation coastal cabana.  For the colour I used my Stampin’ write markers but you could use blends or ayour favourite colouring medium.  I finished by added the sentiment and some self adhesive snowflakes.


Tropical Christmas

Some people get to spend Christmas in sunnier climes… and this next card is a recent commission that I received via my Etsy store.  It used the coming home stamp set also.  For the panels of this card I used the direct to card technique by swiping my ink pads across the cardstock before embossing it…  The palm tree I did using punches and snips and the kitty cat is from Grace’s garden.  I’m not listing all the products used in this one just thought I’d share it for fun and to remind myself that winter isn’t chilly everywhere!

  

 

I really hope that you liked my projects for this month and they inspire you to get making, I’ve listed all the products (including links) below.

Don’t forget to click on the photographs below to continue hopping and see what the rest of the Casually Crafting Design Team have come up with!

Thanks again for hopping by!  See you soon!

Love Me x

Casually Crafting Design Team Photo Links

Click on the photos below to continue along this month’s hop from the rest of the Casually Crafting Design Team and don’t be shy about leaving comments we would love to hear from you!

Product List

Paper Snips

£9.25

Paper Trimmer

£23.00

Simply Scored

£28.00

Clear Block E

£11.25

Casually Crafting Design – Designer Series Paper Showcase

Hello again and welcome back to the Casually Crafting blog hop! This months we are showcasing Designer Series paper from Stampin’ Up!

The Casually Crafting Design Team are a group of Independent Stampin’ Up! demonstrators that want to share our love of crafting with you all.  We will be sharing what we love every 3rd Friday of each month.  Make sure you check out the rest of the Design Team’s creative projects using the photo links at the end of this post.

Designer Series Paper Showcase

What better month to showcase the amazing Designer Series Paper that Stampin’ Up has to offer , than when they have a 15% off (selected designs).  If you are anything like me you buy a pack or ten of designer series paper and open it, stroke it, show it love and then put it safely away because someone at sometime told you it was sin to cut it.  Not today! It’s actually a sin not to chop it up and use it – or use a full sheet as is!  There are so many uses for our gorgeous papers and for this months challenge I decided to create a couple of Christmas themed projects.  With such a lot of papers it was a hard choice but I decided I’d go Christmas!

Don’t worry though these designs can be made with any papers and for any occasion or even just to display in your craft room because they are pretty!

Snowflake Splendour

So first off we have a gorgeous gift bag with an open top and ribbon handles.  This bag is so simple to make and uses two full sheets of 12×12 paper, and the cut off pieces make two tags!  I opted for the beautiful papers in the Snowflake Splendour Suite, this bad showcases both sides of the paper which you need to bear in mind before you do any scoring!  I make these bags every year – it saves wrapping; just put your presents inside and stuff with some co ordinating tissue paper.  Or if you want to get really crafty you can make your own shredded paper in co ordinating stampin up cardstock!  I reinforced this wee bag with the card used to pack the designer series paper so it’s really strong!

I also made a job lot of cards using this gorgeous pack of paper.  This is a bit of a ‘cheat’ card.  I stamped the snowflakes onto the watercolour effect paper making it look like I’d spent a lot of time on the background.  I finished this card with a simple stamped sentiment and some balmy blue glitter card snowflakes with blue embellishments in the centre.  You will get six of these cards from one sheet of the paper.

Trimming the Town

I love this entire suite and I am delighted that this paper made it onto the sale list.  I’ve ordered a couple of extra packs! The first two slimline cards are made with card and paper, there is no stamping or die cutting, the only thing I added to the card bases other than the designer series paper was some glitter to give a little Christmas Sparkle.  I then made some tags using some scraps of paper that I had and again added a little glitter and some ribbon.

  

  

Poinsettia Place

The second gift bag I did using poinsettia place designer series paper, for the bag itself there is NO cutting and it also folds flat for storage.  Once you’ve made one they are reasonably quick and easy to make.   I wanted this one to have a more masculine feel so used one of the papers that didn’t have huge floral images.  For this one I made a tag using the beautiful boughs dies in early espresso, soft suede, garden green and old olive.  I added a little of the retired gold wink of stella to the pine cones to give a subtle sparkle. This bag was finished with  sheer ribbon in real red.

 I trimmed the top of the bag with some garden green card which also acted as a reinforcer for the punched holes.  Again I used some card from the DSP packaging to strengthen the bottom of the bag.

I really hope that you liked my projects for this month and they inspire you to get making, I’ve listed all the products (including links) below – at the very bottom you’ll find the link to the Paper sale 😉

Don’t forget to click on the photographs below to continue hopping and see what the rest of the Casually Crafting Design Team have come up with!

Thanks again for hopping by!  See you soon!

Love Me x

Casually Crafting Design Team Photo Links

Click on the photos below to continue along this month’s hop from the rest of the Casually Crafting Design Team and don’t be shy about leaving comments we would love to hear from you!

Product List

Paper Trimmer

£23.00

Simply Scored

£28.00

Paper Snips

£9.25

Linen Thread

£4.75

Go straight to the designer series paper sale by clicking the link below!

https://www.stampinup.uk/categories/sales-specials/designer-series-paper-sale?dbwsdemoid=5010299

Casually Crafting Design Team Hop – Black & white with a POP of colour

Hello again and welcome back to the Casually Crafting blog hop! This month our theme is ‘Black and white with a pop of colour’ (that’s a mouthful)

The Casually Crafting Design Team are a group of Independent Stampin’ Up! demonstrators that want to share our love of crafting with you all.  We will be sharing what we love every 3rd Friday of each month.  Make sure you check out the rest of the Design Team’s creative projects using the photo links at the end of this post.

Black & White with a pop of colour

It’s not often I get a theme and know immediately what I’m going to do, but that’s how I felt about this months theme.  I had it all planned out in my head and it was fabulous… then I decided I’d change it up a little… I made the sample and it was ‘meh’.  Of course the panic then set in because in my mind it was perfect and it just didn’t translate as well as I’d hoped.  So it was back to the drawing board, or the craft mat.

Idea #2 I thought I’d go simple, my pop of colour would come from Magenta madness and i’d bring in the zany zebras, because they are black and white.  I wanted to go for a #simplystamping card this month and take it as far back to basics as I could.  So I made the card and it turned out ‘meh’ again!!

I’m still going to share the zebra one – I tried to keep the ‘stripes’ random but I think it ended up looking like I tried (and failed) to space the evenly.  I stamped the zebra on a scrap of magenta madness card stock and filled in with white gel pen.  I felt the black wasn’t black enough so I used the stamp and write marker to add more definition.

Zany Zebras

It certainly is a very simple card but it’s just not one of favourites… cards that is I LOVE the stamp set!

And so comes third time lucky!

Now this card I loved, it didn’t so much stay as simple stamping mind you as I did use dies, but you could fussy cut.  In the end I decided to go for a long narrow card as I love the elegant look these have.  Starting with a black card base 8″ x 7.5″ scored at 3.75″ I then added a second black layer as my mat and then a strip of whisper white.  Next I stamped the whisper white in tuxedo black ink using a stamp from the comfort and hope stamp set, I eyeballed it to make a continuous pattern so don’t look too closely!  I also stamped the sentiment onto a scrap of whisper white and fussy cut it out.

Next using melon mambo I stamped three flowers and two leaves (stamped off) using images from positive thought stamp set.

Two of the flowers I put on dimensionals with the leaves and the third glued directly onto the card front.  I finished with a scattering of rhinestones and the sentiment.  For the inside I inked the leaf image in melon mambo and stamped it three times without reinking to give that variegated look.  I’m really pleased with how this one turned out – it exceeded my imagination!

 

I really hope that you liked my projects for this month and they inspire you to get making, I’ve listed all the products (including links) below.

Don’t forget to click on the photographs below to continue hopping and see what the rest of the Casually Crafting Design Team have come up with!

Thanks again for hopping by!  See you soon!

Love Me x

Casually Crafting Design Team Photo Links

Click on the photos below to continue along this month’s hop from the rest of the Casually Crafting Design Team and don’t be shy about leaving comments we would love to hear from you!

Product List

Paper Trimmer

£23.00

Paper Snips

£9.25

Clear Block I

£11.25

Casually Crafting Design Team Hop – Holiday Dreams

Hello and a huge welcome to the July Casually Crafting Celebration blog hop! This month our theme is Holiday Dreams.

The Casually Crafting Design Team are a group of Independent Stampin’ Up! demonstrators that want to share our love of crafting with you all.  We will be sharing what we love every 3rd Friday of each month.  Make sure you check out the rest of the Design Team’s creative projects using the photo links at the end of this post.

Holiday Dreams

For the holiday dreams theme I went a little outside the box so to speak.  I didn’t go for a typical scenic or beach scene.  For my Dad’s 70th birthday he took us all to a beautiful farmhouse in rural France.  There were fields upon fields of beautiful sunflowers – one of my favourites.  So I decided to use Celebrate Sunflowers bundle.  The card I decided to make looks a lot more difficult than it is, it’s a pop up box card – which is the style of card I specialise in in my Etsy shop.  I used the dies to cut the individual sunflowers but you could fussy cut them if you don’t have the dies to work with.

 

  For my base and decorative panels I used Crumb Cake cardstock.  I embossed the side panels using one of the greenery embossing folders.  If you haven’t got these yet they are a must!  They are so pretty and the give a beautifully depth of embossing.  I stamped the sunflowers in soft suede and then coloured them using my Stampin’ Blends.  The card was finished with a length of old olive ribbon and a white embossed tag.

I hope you like my card and my interpretation of our theme this month.  Don’t forget to click on the photographs below to continue hopping and see what the rest of the Casually Crafting Design Team have come up with!

Thanks again for hopping by!  See you soon!

Love Me x

Casually Crafting Design Team Photo Links

Click on the photos below to continue along this month’s hop from the rest of the Casually Crafting Design Team and don’t be shy about leaving comments we would love to hear from you!

Product List

Paper Trimmer

£23.00

Simply Scored

£28.00

If you would like to know more about my project please just leave me a comment.  Alternatively if you would like a catalogue and don’t currently have a demo please click on the request a catalogue button.  For more information or to join my team click the here

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Casually Crafting Design Team – Masculine Makes

Hello again and welcome back to the Casually Crafting blog hop! This month our theme is ‘Masculine Makes’.  With Father’s Day rapidly approaching it’s a great choice for this month!

Who are we?

The Casually Crafting Design Team are a group of Independent Stampin’ Up! demonstrators that want to share our love of crafting with you all.  We will be sharing what we love every 3rd Friday of each month.  Make sure you check out the rest of the Design Team’s creative projects using the photo links at the end of this post.

I hope that this post finds you all fit and healthy!  We are still in a state of lockdown as Corona Virus continues to plague the world!  I hope you are all coping OK with whatever limitation there are in your part of the world.  For me not much changes; I generally spend a lot of time in my craft room and continue to do so!  I’m making more cards than ever as my Etsy store seems to quite popular at the minute.

My husband continues to work in healthcare and both my children are still working as well – one in a call centre and the other in a grocery shop!  And as long as my fur baby has company he doesn’t mind if it’s in my craftroom or the kitchen!

THE GREAT OUTDOORS

Since my last blog post there has actually been little to no rain and the summer seems to be well and truly on the way, I live in a small coastal town and the views are simply astounding with that in mind I wanted to do something nautical but I’ve been so busy that I quite simply ran out of time!  This post goes lives tomorrow morning and I found myself sitting staring at my stamp sets in a state of panicked crafting block.  So I cheated. Yep… I actually said I cheated, but at least I’m honest!  I went back to an old project that I did last year using the Come Sail away suite.

This remains one of my favourites from last years annual catalogue and I’m delighted that the stamp set and dies are hanging around for a while.  My project isn’t a quick one, it’s not particularly difficult but it does take some time.  I like to create items other than cards so this month I’m going to share a 12″ x 12″ sampler that I made.  Full disclosure  – there a couple of retired items but I always like to make sure my customers know that just because something disappears from the catalogue doesn’t mean they can never use it again!

A CALM SEA NEVER MADE A SKILLED SAILOR

My samplers generally have nine elements or panels as it works well for layout and interest in my opinion.  I used the Come sail away with me  designer series paper – I’m so sad it’s retiring! Whilst this project does use dies it honestly is not difficult, it’s not necessarily casual crafting maybe more like casually avid!

Probably the hardest part of a sampler is getting the layout evenly spaced before you stick all the panels down.  I generally start with the four corners and mark the centre and then fill in around them!  If you don’t fancy making a piece of home decor each of these little panels would make a great 3″ x 3″ card, all you need are bases and envelopes!

   

                                 

 

 

For my next card I used the stunning A Good Man stamp set, again I used the Come Sail away designer series paper, paired with night of navy card stock.  Whilst this sample does use the stitched shapes and layering cirlces dies you could easily replace them with a punched circle.  The images themselves are coloured using the Stampin’ Blends.  A relatively quick and easy card – and how fabulous is that sentiment!  It’s so true!

 

   

 

And finally another quick card using the same stamp set( and a little bit of retired designer series paper and washi tape – I make no apologies for using my retired stash because after all a stamp set and any crafting items are for life not just a season lol.

I again coloured using the Stampin’ Blends and finished off with some twine… if you look closely you will see I also used my sewing machine on this one… this is as about as good as my sewing skills get!  This card was cased from the 2019/2020 catalogue!

 

I hope you like the projects I’ve shared with you this month and I do apologise for cheating, I hope you will forgive me.  If you would like any more information on how to recreate these projects yourself leave me a note below or email me at littlethingsbyg@gmail.com.  Don’t forget to click through to the rest of team’s blogs to see what they have come up with for Masculine Makes! Until next time keep crafting!

 

Love and hugs Gillian xxx

CASUALLY CRAFTING DESIGN TEAM PHOTO LINKS

Click on the photos below to continue along this month’s hop from the rest of the Casually Crafting Design Team and don’t be shy about leaving comments we would love to hear from you!

Product List

Paper Trimmer

£23.00

Paper Snips

£9.25

Linen Thread

£4.75

Casually Crafting Design Team Blog Hop – Nature

Hello again and welcome back to the Casually Crafting blog hop! This month our theme is ‘Nature’.  With Spring in the air and so much happening in the gardens it’s a great choice for this month!

Who are we?

The Casually Crafting Design Team are a group of Independent Stampin’ Up! demonstrators that want to share our love of crafting with you all.  We will be sharing what we love every 3rd Friday of each month.  Make sure you check out the rest of the Design Team’s creative projects using the photo links at the end of this post.

The world continues in a state of lockdown and everything seems so surreal still… the one constant is my craft room! Actually I’ve been busier that ever – lots of people seem to be sending cards and I’m blessed to be kept busy!

WELCOME SPRING

Everywhere you look outside evidence of spring having sprung is all around!  With movement being so restricted I’ve been enjoying the nature in my own wee corner of the world.  I’m so lucky to live right in the middle of a wood a little haven of tranquillity most of the time… except for the rabbits!  My garden is just starting to bloom and I so love this time of year! Every day I take a walk around the garden and see the difference in the budding plants and how much they have changed in 24 hours!  Nature is an amazingly awesome miracle of life and rebirth!

POSITIVE THOUGHTS!

So with everything going on in the world at the minute I thought what better stamp set to use for this months nature theme than Positive Thoughts.  It has some beautiful sentiments, a butterfly, feather and floral images.  The perfect set for making a quick card to send a friend!

I love teaming this set with the notecards and envelopes, perfect size for a ‘just because’ card and this set makes creating a pile of cards to send so easy, plus they can be posted as a standard letter if you don’t add too much dimension.  I made three cards this month, each one fairly simple.

JUST ADD INK

For this card I used basic grey, tuxedo black memento and crushed curry inks.  The fern image I inked once and stamped three times to get the varying shades.  This literally is a two minute make!  I decorated the envelope flap using the fern image as well.

For the next card I used the co-ordinating dies that were available during SAB – although you could just as easily fussy cut!  My colour palette this time was pear pizzazz, real red and tuxedo black memento ink.  The layers are all glued down but I ‘fooffed’ (technical term for curling edges) the edges to give it a little more texture.  I specifically didn’t use dimensionals so it will be able to be posted in UK as a small letter.

I hope you are all keeping well and keeping safe indoors!  If you need more craft supplies I’d be happy to become your enabler!  There’s no time like the present to buy craft supplies!  In fact there is no time that is not the time to buy craft supplies!  As with last month I’d like to spread the cheer so if you know of someone who could do with some happy mail drop me a comment below or email me at littlethingsbyg@gmail.com.

 

CASUALLY CRAFTING DESIGN TEAM PHOTO LINKS

Click on the photos below to continue along this month’s hop from the rest of the Casually Crafting Design Team and don’t be shy about leaving comments we would love to hear from you!

Finally before you go, if you’re looking something fun to do with the kids during lockdown why not purchase a rainbow kit!  This is based on an idea by a fellow UK demo.  I’m selling kits for £25, each kit includes 14 pages of high quality card stock, a packet of glue dots and a heart punch (one of two designs – straigh edge or scallop, chosen at random).  What a fun project to do and you get to keep the punch for future crafting fun! Postage is free to UK addresses!  To order one simply paypal me £25 to paypal.me/littlethingsbyg with note rainbow kit.  If you want to have both punches send £41 instead!  Simple!

(PLEASE NOTE THIS KIT IS PUT TOGETHER BY MYSELF AND NOT ON SALE DIRECTLY FROM STAMPIN’ UP!)

Until next time, stay safe and healthy and carry on crafting!

Lots of Love Gillian xxx

Product Supply list

 

 

Casually Crafting Design Team Blog Hop – Easter

Hello again and welcome back to the Casually Crafting blog hop! This month our theme is ‘Easter’.  As crafters we love any excuse to make cards , so whether you celebrate Easter for religious reasons or just for the chocolate we have stamps for everyone!

The Casually Crafting Design Team are a group of Independent Stampin’ Up! demonstrators that want to share our love of crafting with you all.  We will be sharing what we love every 3rd Friday of each month.  Make sure you check out the rest of the Design Team’s creative projects using the photo links at the end of this post.

So it’s been a really surreal few weeks worldwide with the COVID-19 Virus – I feel at times I’m in the cast of the newest apocalypse movie!  People are acting out of character, greed and selfishness are taking over and in that world I want to spread a little joy!  Self isolating wouldn’t be a biggie for me as I spend most of my time in my craft room creating and playing with ink and paper.  I’d love to send some happy mail out to brighten the day of some people that maybe finds self isolation less fun!  So leave me a comment or send me an email with the details of who you think would appreciate a card! Anyway lets get on with the hop!

WELCOME EASTER

So this months theme is Easter and whilst I am a Christian I don’t send that many cards for this occasion – I know shame on me! I really wasn’t sure where to start for this theme so I went to the catalogue and tried to decide which stamp would suit my needs best.  I opted for the Welcome Easter with those cute little critters!  They will be perfect for little cards for my niece and nephews to go with their chocolate egg!

CUTE LITTLE CRITTERS!

This month I designed one card but interchanged the stamp set and coloured mat layer to create three simple cards!  For each card all you need is some blends (or your colouring medium of choice), memento ink, a couple of blocks and of course some card stock!

For each card I stamped the image on the whisper white mat and again twice on some scrap.  I coloured one of the images on the scrap body only and the second head only.  The one with the body coloured I fussy cut the entire image and adhered it to the card with dimensionals.  Then I fussy cut the head and added it to the body with more dimensionals.  This gives the card a little more of a WOW whilst at the same time being a simple card.

Who is your favourite Easter character?  I ‘m very torn – I love them all!  Here’s a look at them close up…

Apologies that this is a shorter post than normal, I’ve been having problems with my broadband provider and between that and technical difficulties with the site it really is a love you and leave you this month!  I have shared all the products I used below and feel free to ask me any questions!

Oh and here’s one final picture just for laughs… my husband brought me my very own designer mask home today!  Now I think I’ll need to pretty it up, what do you think?

 

CASUALLY CRAFTING DESIGN TEAM PHOTO LINKS

Click on the photos below to continue along this month’s hop from the rest of the Casually Crafting Design Team and don’t be shy about leaving comments we would love to hear from you!

 

Until next time, stay safe and healthy and carry on crafting!

Lots of Love Gillian xxx

Product Supply list

Paper Trimmer

£23.00

Bone Folder

£6.50

Casually Crafting Appreciation Blog Hop

Hello again and welcome back to the Casually Crafting blog hop! This month our theme is ‘Appreciation’ whether that be a thank-you, just because, or thinking ahead to Mother’s Day!  If you are in the UK we celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday 22nd March this year!

The Casually Crafting Design Team are a group of Independent Stampin’ Up! demonstrators that want to share our love of crafting with you all.  We will be sharing what we love every 3rd Friday of each month.  Make sure you check out the rest of the Design Team’s creative projects using the photo links at the end of this post.

Appreciation

How often, other than a cursory thank-you do we actually show someone that they are appreciated?  Whether it be the receptionist in your Doctor’s surgery, your postman or a friend just for being there?  It’s something I think we do but maybe don’t do really, really well!  Bearing in mind I make cards (Surprise!) I really don’t give enough of them.  Yes, OK, for birthdays, Christmas, if you’re lucky maybe an anniversary card, and lets face it there is nothing quite as special as getting a beautiful handmade card for no reason at all!

I can’t say that one particular stamp set jumped out at me for this theme, we have such a fabulous selection!  In the end I went back to the Annual Catalogue, which we tend to forget about once we have a nice shiny new Spring Summer Mini…. BUT there are so many fabulous sets in the main catalogue and purchases from ANY of our publications during Sale-a-Bration earns you freebies!  The set I decided on was Butterfly wishes on page 18.  This is one of DistINKtive stamp sets and the detail is amazing!  You can quite literally make a beautiful card with one piece of card, one stamp set and one ink colour and it will still look fabulous!  While you might want it all you really don’t need to have it all to make beautiful cards. 

 

My Projects

This month I made three cards using this set.  Each one is rather simple, and uses only the basic tools of paper, stamp and ink!  Hard as it was I even stepped away from my punches!

Butterfly Wishes

For this first card I literally took it back to basics.  I used our super cute whisper white notecards, pretty peacock ink and the stamps of course – and just like that you have a quick and easy thank you card!

That said I do like a little more with my cards, but again the second sample is still a really simple card.  I’ve matted the whisper white with pretty peacock to co-ordinate with the ink and popped the sentiment up on dimensionals, adding a little twine for interest.  I then fussy cut two of the flowers and overlaid them.  I finished this second card with some rhinestones and a little wash of wink of stella to the butterfly wings.

For my third and final card I created a mask using a scrap of copy paper and the 2¼” circle punch.  Next using a sponge dauber I applied ink directly to my card base, which in this case is one of our cute little notecards.  Daffodil delight is the perfect choice to create a beautiful sun.  Once I had that done I stamped the image of the branch with flowers in smoky slate so it stretched from the edge of the card towards the opposite side.  Using my stampin’  write markers I coloured the different elements.  I chose soft suede for the branches, old olive for the foliage and pumpkin pie for the flowers.  This takes a little time, I’m not going to lie but the end product is so worth it.

To finish stamped the butterfly in memento tuxedo black and coloured it with poppy parade, using soft suede for the central body, I also stamped the sentiment in Memento.

I really hope that you liked my projects for this month and they inspire you to get making, I’ve listed all the products (including links) below.  I’d love to see what you make with this amazing set!

Don’t forget to click on the photographs below to continue hopping and see what the rest of the Casually Crafting Design Team have come up with!

Thanks again for hopping by!  See you soon!

Love Me x

Casually Crafting Design Team Photo Links

Click on the photos below to continue along this month’s hop from the rest of the Casually Crafting Design Team and don’t be shy about leaving comments we would love to hear from you!

 

  Product List

Clear Block I

£11.25

Linen Thread

£4.75

Paper Snips

£9.25

Paper Trimmer

£23.00

Little Ladybug!

Well hello again!

Today I’m going to share with you a lovely little card I made last week using the super cute Little Ladybug stamp set.  This stamp set is totally FREE for hostesses who have a party and reach £275 in sales.  This is in addition to your other Sale-a-Bration freebies.  If you don’t want a party you can collect orders from friends or place a massive on yourself to get this cute set.  That said if you are going to spend that amount you might want to click the join now button and join my team!

PEEK-A-BOO

This stamp set is so cute it just calls for a cute card so I went for a beautiful peek-a-boo card.  This might look difficult but it really isn’t too hard.  You get one lovely image on the front of the card and then when you open it a hidden panel slides across and you get a second image.

This stamp set was the perfect one for this style of card, certainly with the images and sentiments I chose it works well!

I paired this stamp set with the designer series paper from the Heartfelt suite because it had the perfect little polka dots to match the ladybirds spots!

 

Hey Lady….. Spread your wings and fly!

 

I used the Stampin’ Blends to colour the images, using the colour lifter to blend out pool party for the sky. Here’s a quick video I posted to my facebook page last week that shows the card in motion!

Little Ladybug from Stampin’ Up! Peek-a-boo card

As requested…. my latest make with the little ladybug stamp set! Love this set!

Posted by Gillian Whitcombe – Independant Stampin'up Demonstrator on Tuesday, 11 February 2020

I hope you like this card, I’d love to hear your thoughts so please drop me a comment below.  If there is stamp set you would particularly like to see me use tell me in the comments and keep an eye out for some more crafty little creations!

That’s all for today, come back soon!

 

Love Me x

Product List

Clear Block E

£11.25