Top Tip Tuesday #16

How to sharpen your paper punches

If you have punches that no longer cut through paper or they leave jagged edges on your punched shapes then try punching through some tin foil several times to sharpen your punch. Simple as that!

Craftwork Cards | Beau Papier Kit Unboxing

Hello there! I've been wanting to do something a little different on my blog and I had an idea to do a Card Kill-a-Kit. I watch a lot of Scrapbook Kill-a-kits and layout shares on Youtube and thought, why cant I do that with a card kit!

I've recently bought a couple of the Craftwork Cards kits from Create and Craft and thought I'd challenge myself to see how many cards I can make out of one kit. 

This kit is called Beau Papier and I just love the colours! The pictures don't really do it justice but the pinks and purples are really vibrant and strong colours.

The kit comes with 2 of each of the die cut sheets pictured above (bottom 2 rows), an 8x8 paper pad, 12 card blanks in kraft and cream (6 of each), 12 inserts and 12 envelopes. 

I've already made a few cards with this kit and I am loving so far, lets see how many I can make! 

The only things you need to add to a kit like this is your choice of adhesives and card blanks. I've also added some adhesive gems and pearls just to add a bit of sparkle to some of the cards.

I can't wait to use the rest of this kit and see what I can create with it.

Thanks for stopping by and check back soon to see if I managed to kill this kit!

Hayley :) x

Top Tip Tuesday #15

How to get the perfect stamped image every time

When stamping with clear or rubber stamps it is well known that you need a solid, level surface in order to get a good impression. There are products out there called Stamp Pads that you can by that are supposed to help with stamping, but these can be quite expensive. These are basically a firm foam pad.

What I like to use instead is simply a sheet of craft foam. I place it between my surface and my cardstock, just to give that little bit of bounce underneath the stamp. The trick with this is applying the right amount of pressure. It took me a couple of attempts to get it right, but if you struggle with stamping anyway it's definitely worth a try!

Paperchase A5 Planner

Hello there! Today I want to share one of my planners with you. I picked this gorgeous planner up in the Paperchase Christmas sale for only £7.50. I was looking for an A5 2016 planner, saw this one at a bargain price and knew I had to have it. I love the colour, I love the design and I love the size. I also, strangely, find really strong magnets an attractive feature and the closure on this is just that. Perfect!

The reason this was in the sale is because it came with an 18 month diary and calendar that started in June 2015 but that didn't bother me, if anything it was actually quite useful. I bought this planner to help me keep track of my Project Life. I decided that in 2016 I wanted to try weekly Project Life but I didn't want the hassle of ordering photos every week so I wanted a planner to make notes about what photos I had for each week and a bit of a description of what happened each day so that when it came to journalling I didn't forget what had happened or fun details that I wanted to document.

Its working out well so far, I've done up to the end of week 10 and have just ordered my first set of 200 prints.

This is the interior of the planner. I keep a few stickers in there and some journalling cards incase I need them then I have them to hand. 

The planner comes with a dashboard (which I can use as a template when I get chance to make my own) and a full set of dividers (pictured below). There's also a large notepad at the back which I'm finding really useful to use as a to do list. 

Hope you enjoyed taking a look inside one of my planners, hoping to share my Crafty Plans planner with you soon too!

Thanks for reading, 

Hayley :) x

Clearly Besotted | Owl Be There For You

Hello there! Today I wanted to share a couple of cards I made with the Still a Hoot stamp set by Clearly Besotted. 

I simply stamped out a few of the different owls in memento tuxedo black ink, coloured them in using Spectrum Noir pens and cut them out using the coordinating die. 

I used my Stitched Circles Dies by Lawn Fawn and cut out two white circles and stamped the sentiments onto them with the same black ink. "Owl be there for you" comes from the Still a Hoot set and "Happy Birthday" comes from the Many Mini Messages stamp set also by Clearly Besotted. 

I then adhered the owls onto the circles using my glue glue to give them a bit of dimension whilst still having a bit of wiggle room to shape them, and adhered the circles to a sheet of patterned paper slightly smaller than the card base. 

Finally I attached the whole panel to the card base using double sided tape, being careful to leave that thin white border around the edge of the card. I tried to make the birthday one in masculine colours as I was in need of a birthday card for a friend and I think it turned out really well. That paper matches wonderfully with the pens I used for the owls scarf. 

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you like these cards!

Hayley :) x

Docrafts | Roald Dahl Collection Cards

Hello there! Today I want to share with you a collection of cards that I made using the Docrafts Roald Dahl Whoppsy Whiffling Stationary Pack that I got in a mystery box from Craft Superstore. When this collection came out I loved it but never bought myself any of it. I was a massive Roald Dahl fan when I was younger and crafting with this collection felt really lovely and nostalgic. 

The collection is designed to make 24 cards (2 x 12 decoupage designs, 4 x 6 designs of A5 paper) but it also comes with some sheets of tags, toppers and alphabet stickers so you could easily make more than 24 cards. 

Also in the collection you get 24 card blanks and envelopes, adhesive gems and ribbon. Pictured here are the 12 designs of decoupage that come in the collection all made up into cards.

I found this to be a lovely set that I could sit on the sofa (with my new lap tray!) in front of the TV and craft away without any real bother. The only extras you should need with you are adhesives and a pair of scissors (I didn't even get out my paper trimmer). With all the extra paper, tags and toppers that I have left I could easily make another 15-20 cards on top of the 24 that I've already made.

This kit also comes in a lovely sturdy box with a magnetic closure. When I've used up all the bits and bobs I'll definitely be keeping it as a storage box. The white wrap around label slides off and there's a beautiful design underneath. 

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope to see you soon!

Hayley :)

Top Tip Tuesday #14

Partial Die Cutting

Have you ever wanted to only cut part of your die and not all of it? Well you can using this technique on a regular die cutting machine without buying anything extra!

All you need to do is only put the part if the die that you want to cut between the plates of the die cutting machine and have the rest hanging off the edge of the plates. Run through your die cutting machine as normal an voila, you have a partially cut die!

This works because the die cutting machine only puts pressure on what is between the plates, anything outside of that will not have any pressure applied and so will not cut.

Hope you found this useful!

Avery Elle | Party Animal

Hello there! Thought I'd pop in this evening with a new card. This is a bit of a different style for me with all the bright colours but I think it worked out quite well. 

I started by stamping out the balloon dog and bunny lots of times from the stamp sets Party Animal & Party Bunny by Avery Elle using the Avery Elle Pigment Inks in colours Lemon Grass, Raspberry, Fizz & Aquamarine.

I fussy cut out all of the balloon animals and then adhered them to my card base with my rediscovered hot glue gun. I rearranged the animals on my card base first before gluing them down to make sure I had an even spread of the colours and that as much white space was covered as possible. 

Because the background was so colourful, I wanted the sentiment piece to be quite plain. To create my sentiment I used the Simon Says Stamp Happy Bubble Stamps and Dies. I cut the bubble out of some white card and stamped the sentiment in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink. I adhered this to the card using 3D foam pads to raise it from the background. 

Products I used:

• Avery Elle Party Animal Stamp Set
• Avery Elle Party Bunny Stamp Set
• Avery Elle Pigment Inks - Lemon Grass, Raspberry, Fizz, Aquamarine
• Simon Says Stamp - Happy Bubble Stamps and Dies
• White Card
• Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
• 3d Foam Pads
• Hot Glue Gun
• Scissors

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you enjoyed this card!

Hayley :)

Top Tip Tuesday #13

Cut out shop bought cards and reuse elements on your homemade cards


I like to keep any cards that I get given and the ones that don't make it into my scrapbook, I try to reuse! If there are any nice elements I like the look of whether that be images or sentiments, I simply cut them out and pop them in a little pouch! That way, if I ever need something quite quick I can grab something from the pouch and I'm good to go!

Docrafts | Folk Floral Mother's Day Cards

Good morning! I'd like to wish all the mums out there a very Happy Mother's Day!

Today I'm sharing a collection of Mother's Day cards that I made using the Docrafts Folk Floral Ultimate Die-Cut and Paper Pack. I also used some printed 6"x6" Card Blanks from the same collection.

This collection isn't specifically aimed at mothers day so I dug into my stash of dies and used a Clearly Besotted word die and a My Favorite Things Alphabet set to add the word mum to some of the cards. 

I've mentioned these Docrafts sets on my blog before but they really are brilliant. The decoupage on these cards was so simple to put together and as all the pieces are die cut, all you need is some foam tape!

Lastly I wanted to show you the envelopes that came with the card blanks, aren't they beautiful! They add that little something extra that makes a handmade card feel so special!

Thanks for stopping by today,

Hayley :)

Top Tip Tuesday #12

Make your own card blanks and envelopes

Don't get me wrong, I do love my shop bought card blanks as they are so quick and easy. I tend to buy a the 5"x7" size and sometimes if that size wont work for me I just chop it down to fit what I need. But sometimes you just want a one off coloured card or something a bit different, so I take a piece of card and make my own.  I simply use my Fiskars paper trimmer to cut down a piece of card stock as required and then score a fold line down the middle, and there you have it, a perfectly sized card blank.

 

I now hear you cry, but how do I get an envelope to fit!? ell, the Envelope punch board by We R Memory Keepers is an excellent tool for creating envelopes of any size which is my tool of choice. I find it so easy to use and it even has a size chart on it so that you can make various sizes of envelope. Also, if you have a little nosy around the internet, you’ll find there’s many more things you can make with it too like boxes, bows and much more!

[Products Mentioned: Fiskars SureCut Personal 12" Paper Trimmer, 5"x7" Card Blanks, WRMK Envelope Punch Board]