Thursday 28 September 2017

Pizza Boxes


Hello! Have you seen the pizza boxes in the Christmas catalogue? They are perfect for 3 x 3 cards or as small gift boxes. They have a shiny inside that is food safe so they are perfect for giving the gift of a cookie - perhaps even a cookie that looks like a pizza? They fold up so easily. I love them!!

I made this gift box and card for this week's CASEing the Catty challenge. As you can see from the photo I chose the cute cards at the bottom of page 28 as the inspiration for my festive makes. The Christmas Around the World Designer Series Paper is perfect for fussy cutters with a whole load of cute little things to cut out - baubles, stockings, red telephone boxes, koalas! There are also two sheets of international sentiments in English, French and German that you can cut out and add to cards, labels or gift boxes. I blinged up the DSP on the pizza box with some Year of Cheer washi tape and added some snowflakes cut with the Seasonal Layers Thinlits.

Product List

Saturday 23 September 2017

September Colour Challenge 2


Hello! There is still time to join our colour challenge over at Christmas Card Throwdown where the required combo is red, pink and green. I made this card using a retired SU stamp set called Bootiful Occasions that I borrowed from my friend Clare. It reminded me of being in New York in the summer and seeing 'Kinky Boots'. My daughter is a big Panic at the Disco fan and we were very lucky to see the fabulous Brendon Urie in the role of Charlie Price. My Christmas boot is a tribute to him!


I hope you will join us at CCT. We are looking forward to seeing your festive creations! April x

Thursday 21 September 2017

Year of Cheer


Hello! Although I make Christmas cards all year round for the Christmas Card Throwdown challenge blog, there comes a time when I start making my real Christmas cards if that makes sense. Generally it seems to happen when those big stripy spiders weave massive webs in the garden, just waiting for you to walk into them!

The leaves above are thankfully spider-free and a combo of copper and champagne foil with some Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper. The lovely Designer Series Paper is Year of Cheer and it combines no less than four metallic tones - copper, gold, silver and champagne. Although it appears in the Christmas catalogue it would be great for weddings too, I think. The sentiment from Merry Patterns has been embossed in copper and I have used the new Leaf Punch too. I hope you like it!

I would like to enter my Christmas card into the following challenges -

Christmas Cards All Year Round - September challenge is 'Use Leaves'.

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Challenge 351#

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - September

Happy crafting! April x

Monday 18 September 2017

More Coffee!


Hello! Plenty of anguished over-thinking goes into my cards sometimes, so I was particularly inspired by the challenge over at Cards in Envy where the DT are looking for cards that are as 'Easy as 1,2,3'. This got me thinking as I have a pad of dsp that I am trying to use up in a non-Valentiney way. It is SU's Stacked With Love and it does have some great patterns.

So here is my 1, 2, 3 card...

1. Stamp the sentiments from MFT's Perk Up in SU Basic Grey ink on a piece of Whisper White cardstock.
2. Die-cut a coffee cup from Stacked With Love dsp and a heart using a recycled sleeve from a real coffee cup (not mine because I don't drink coffee).

 
3. Assemble on a Sahara Sand card base with another piece of Stacked With Love dsp.
 
Optional 4th step: Get distracted and go and write an email. Have a snack. Come back and realise you left your inkpad wide open and hadn't bothered to clean your stamps...
 
Here's another coffee-themed. super simple card made today. For this one, I die-cut a banner, cut off its tails and flipped them over. More of that dsp pad bites the dust...
 
 
Finally, here they are together.
 

 
The snippetage of the dsp and the recycling of the snaffled coffee sleeve qualify the card for the checklist on Parsnip's clipboard over at Pixie's Snippets Playground He never leaves Miss Di's inkpads open while he eats a snack...no never!

I would also like to send my card along to Addicted to Stamps and More because their challenge is...

 
and for once, my card is actually CAS!
 
Happy crafting! April x

Saturday 16 September 2017

CCT September Colour Challenge



Hello! We have a colour challenge over at Christmas Card Throwdown for you.

 
A pretty cute colour combo I think! My mug of hot chocolate and marshmallows is from Avery Elle's Sweet Tidings. The sentiment is from the same stamp set and the sprinkle of stars stamp can be found in SU's Wood Words.
 
We hope that you will have fun with these colours and we can't wait to see your Christmas cards! Happy crafting, April x


Friday 8 September 2017

Coffee Cafe



I love coffee themed stamps and dies! I have a collection of them, which is bonkers because I don't actually like coffee. I sometimes have one cup of coffee on Christmas Day, but I haven't even bothered doing that for the last few years. I'm more than happy to stick to the stamped version and I was super inspired by the challenge over at The Male Room which is -


You can choose university colours too, which was great because my school colours were black and white. I decided to go with the colours of my first university, Manchester because I thought blue, purple and gold would be a great combo! The colours on my card are Pacific Point and Perfect Plum with a snippet of gold card. I would never have thought to put these colours together, so it's a particularly clever and inspirational challenge theme I reckon!

I'm also sending my cup of coffee and a hug to Di and Parsnip at Pixie's Snippets Playground. Don't spill it on your fur Parsnip!

Saturday 2 September 2017

CCT September Sketch Challenge


Hello! It's time for a sketch challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown!

 
 
The sketch screamed present at me, so I set about creating the card version of a Christmas gift. It looked at bit too minimalist so some sprigs from the Pretty Pines set of dies were added along with a couple of sequins. I wish my real wrapped presents looked as neat!
 
You are most welcome to flip the design and change the element. On my card it worked better to have my sentiment at the bottom. We should be able to recognise the original sketch in your finished design.
 
We are looking forward to seeing your festive interpretations of Andreja's lovely sketch! Happy crafting, April x