Painted Scribble Flowers Birthday Card

All the way back in those heady days of July (like all of last month) I fell in LOVE!

I remember it well, it was a gloriously sunny day (it might not have been, I mean it was July in the United Kingdom after all). I was wearing a blue skirt, sea-green shirt and red shoes (I was probably in dark trousers and my altered Hong Kong Phooey t-shirt), my hair was rich, flowing and radiant (yeah, most likely grey, piled on my head waiting for a dye). I was working hard, rushing towards my project deadline for Blitsy when IT happened.

It hit me hard and fast! BAM! I'm in love!

I made some Mixed Media Keepsake envelopes (with a tutorial and a free template hint hint!) and fell in love with painted Scribble Flowers!

[Just so that you know I've used some affiliate links in this blog post.]

It is funny how these things happen isn't it? But what can you do when love hits you? I just had to make some more painted scribble flowers, so I kept on going and made a birthday card with them.

My painted scribble flowers use the My Favorite Things Lisa Johnson Designs Circle Scribble Flowers as a base. I stamped out the block images and used them as a size guide rather then getting all carried away if I did them freestyle, 'coz I would you know and before you knew it there would be one giant flower and no room for anything else! Not a bad thing, but not the look I was going for!

Aww love, how it doeth affect you (and seemingly change your memory of actual events and usage of the English language, apparently) *Swoon*.

What (or who!) have you fallen in love with recently? Do share!

Kim (imagine lots of emoticon hearts)

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City Life With Seven Paper Amelia From Studio Calico

I'm a City Girl at heart, I was born in London and I've now lived here, as an adult, for a while, yikes, I've just totted it up and it's 20 years! When David and I moved last year, we did consider moving out to the country and at one point I thought we would have to because the house prices in London are just ridiculously mad.

But I still *LOVE* my city for all its good points and all its bad points. The idea of moving to the country still floats in my head from time to time, but when it comes down to it I'm not sure I'm ready to leave London yet. You can take the girl out of the city but you can't take the city out of the girl, as someone, somewhere says.

I'm not sure which city it is that is depicted in these gorgeous Seven Paper Amelia papers from Studio Calico but they caught my eye and rang all of my City-Girl bells. I'm using the My Favorite Things (MFT) Stitched Rounded Rectangle STAX dies for this make, I'm just loving these dies at the moment and the sentiment is handwritten by me with a brush pen.

So what about you? Are you a City Girl / Guy or a Country Girl / Guy? What was the last paper pack your saw that rang your City / Country bells?

Do tell!

Catch you later Cardmake-inators!

Kim

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When Is An Off-Trend Card On-Trend?

When is an off-trend card on-trend? No, it isn't the start of a joke, it is a dilemma! As a professional crafter I try hard to keep my stash up-to-date but it can be super hard challenging on a budget and with the really short life-cycles that a lot of craft products have.

So what do you do? Well today it's a blog post, so you will cut me a bit of slack I hope? You will let me use one of my older but totally favourite dies from MFT Die-namics - the Boy Meets Girl die set -won't you? I love this dies set! You might be able to still get this die set but the trend for the paper dolls has gone cold I'm afraid. *Sigh*

But I've cheated a little and matched the off-trend with the on-trend. I've used a small pocket shaker with closely cut, brush written sentiment and a stitched border die to keep this card at least vaguely up-to-date!

Now all I have to do is hold on to this die set until the paper dolls trend warms up again...perhaps if I keep using it I can keep the trend going?

Oh and if you are wondering how I did the lines of paper dolls, I used a handmade roller stamp with my favourite paint colours from PaperArtsy, they are on-trend too! Phew!

If you are a regular subscriber to Craft Stamper you might recognise this brayer stamp, I used it in an article for the September 2014 issue of Craft Stamper.

What off-trend items are you still in love with? I know I'm not the only one out there so spill!

Catch you later Trend-inators!

Kim

Mixed Media Greeting Card - Something Old Turned New

I think I might have a problem! I can not throw anything away.

Ok so we haven't quite made any of the Hoarders Are Us programs on the telly yet but sometimes I think it might be close. I reckon you can empathise with me can't you? I mean it is a bit of a crafters' disease isn't it?

Since the move last year I've been trying to streamline my studio space a bit and recycle what I can and get rid of unusable items. I was going through a box of bits of paper and experiments when I found these two items:

I think I was experimenting with texture pastes and masks when I made these.

The heart was a crackle paste experiment on fabric. I've tried lots of different crackle pastes and mediums in my time, I think it might be the Golden crackle paste but I know how picky Golden crackle paste is about its substrate so it might be an embossing paste, not sure. Of course any sign of a label has gone - I so should have stuck it in an art journal.

But I do know, by the pen work, that it was done when I was DTing for Kuretake so maybe from 2012 or 2013 - I told you I hold on to things!

I don't think I ever meant to make anything from them but for some reason when I found them they just spoke to me.

And so from something old...

...a new card is born. Now if it only had something digital as well I could have linked it up to the new Old, New and Digital Too blog. Mmm... work in progress! Go check the new challenge out btw.

But I digress!

The new elements added were a little bit of stitch.

Some colour using items from the DecoArt Media range. For the drips I used the sprays which I'm loving by the way, they are quite different from other sprays I have used, I might have to do a blog post about them if I get the time!

Finished with a bit of stamping with Ranger Archival ink and one of my favourite Kaisercraft texture stamps.

So that is me, starting the week with this mixed media card.

Thanks for popping by and I hope you have a lovely arty, crafty Monday.

Kim

PaperArtsy Flower Greeting Card

If you are lucky enough to have a Bank Holiday today where you are then YAY! Bank holiday! Hope you have a lovely day off.

Wahoo! Bank Holiday dance!

Sorry to the rest of you! Ok don't be too sad because I'm here to cheer you up with a pretty JOFY flower from her Collection 32 and some lovely Lin Brown Limited Edition paints from PaperArtsy.

I went for a semi-clean and simple style with a mixed media spin. It is full of Spring prettiness thanks to JOFY's lovely designs and Lin Brown's yum colours, isn't it?

What are you up to today? Whatever it is I hope you enjoy your Monday, even if it isn't a Bank Holiday for you.

Kim

Card It Monday - Fiskars 3 in 1 Tag Maker

Recently I got my hands on one of the new tools from Fiskars, have you seen it yet? It is a tag punch that also punches the holes and sets the eyelets - the Fiskars 3 in 1 Tag maker. Of course I have been having a fun crafty time giving it a work out.

Ok so here is how it works:

You punch the tag shape, I have the one called Label and the size of the punch out is approx 7.5 cm by 5 cm at the widest points for this tag.

Then you place the punch-out tag into the hole punching slot, and this is my favourite thing about this tool, it seems to perfectly centre the hole. Super quick and super easy and if you have ever had one of those moments when you are doing it by eye and the hole is slightly off, then you will know how cool it is that it centres the hole with minimal fuss!

Finally you can use the eyelet setting bit to...yep you guessed it...set the eyelet!

So after punching lots of different tags I made this card using papers from the Heidi Swapp September Skies paper pad

and with a handwritten sentiment using watercolour and a brush.

Pretty cool huh? I don't think it is quite in the UK or EU shops yet as I could not find it so keep your eyes out as I'm sure it will be there soon, but my US readers might be able to find it in some of their stores. You can find out more about them and decide which is your favourite shape on the Fiskars website.

Have a fun Card It Monday.

Catch you later Card-inators!

Kim

Something Sweet For Monday

Welcome Monday and time to start this week with something crafty, something papercrafty in fact. I've been meaning to post this card on my blog for a couple of weeks now but time has always got away from me. It has been sitting on my desk in pieces waiting to be assembled.

Well finally I got a chance to stick it all together, photograph it and process the photos for my Monday show and tell.

The stamps were actually from the gorgeous free set of Clearly Besotted stamps that came with Issue 133 of Simply Cards and Papercraft. You need to check that issue out if you didn't get those stamps, they are YUM!

I've used some masking and stamping to fill the jar with the yummy sweets and the background was hand printed with MementoLUXE inks, a stencil and the old bubble wrap stamping trick.

Hope you like it and thanks for visiting and seriously, you NEED those stamps! *EnablingAgain*

Catch you later Craftinators!

Kim

Craft Stamper Magazine And Free Stamp

It is Friday...I've got two articles made and ready to post off to my editors...the weekend is stretched out in front of us...I've got a day of fun arting planned with my cousin this weekend...lots of reasons to be cheerful.

But wait a minute, it is FRIDAY, that means Craft Stamper is out in the newsagents with my free retro camera stamp on the front cover...Yay!

I made some samples for the magazine showcasing different ways to use the stamp, using it on scrapbook pages, cards and album covers. But here is a bonus make for my blog readers and you know I've been a bit watercolour obsessed, well here is how the stamp looks on a watercolour background.

I've added some texture with salt to the watercolour washes and the sentiment is brush written. If you are connected to my Instagram account you will have seen me practising.

I wrote 'Smile' so many times that I started to think I was spelling it wrong.

If you get the magazine I hope you enjoy your new stamp and do come back with links to anything you make using it, I would love to see.

Right, got to go parcel up some article makes.

See you later Stampinators.

Kim

Time For A Cuppa

Happy New Year! I hope that 2015 is a fabulous year for you and your family and full of creativity and wonder!

For my first make of 2015 I have a cuppa-themed make to keep you warm on this cold January day, well cold if you are reading this in the Northern Hemisphere!

I don't know why but I fancy a cup of coffee...hold on a mo...

Ok, I'm back, with a hot cuppa to hand. (I'm so suggestible).

So what projects have you in plan for 2015? I'm working on this at the moment, been planning out what I want to achieve this year both personally and professionally, so lots to work on! What about you, any major plans for 2015?

Well perhaps you need to get yourself a cuppa and join me in the target planning!

See you later.

Kim

Tag Or Tree Decorations, That Is The Question

A Christmas make? Do I have any more Christmas makes? Oddly enough I do! How about some elf tags? Or they could double as Christmas tree decorations too. What do you think? Tags or tree decorations?

These two little elves are digital stamps from Alberto LoShakerato and his Etsy Shop ShakyAPlanet*.

You have Sitting Margot with skirt* and Sitting Margot with pants*.

How cute are they? I've coloured them with Prismacolor pencils in case you wanted to know.

So if you are at a loose end, not sure what to do next (as if! Like you have any spare time right?) then you might want to checkout my other seasonal makes for some inspiration?



Click on the pictures to go to the original blog post.

Have a super fun Friday.

Kim

[*The Esty links are all affiliated links, which means I get a small commission for referring you to Etsy, but it does not cost you or Alberto anything extra but it does help me to run my blog.]