Simply Royal Noel

Have you got that Friday feeling? I'm not quite there yet, running just a touch behind - Yikes! Hence the late post today - Eeek! 

You are safe today as this is only a short post unlike yesterday's tea and biscuit sized post!

It is a right royal Christmas Tag using Creative Expressions Stylish 1 Christmas.

The swirls are stamped on a layer of patterned vellum.

Hope you have managed to finish your to do list today and are now in Friday mode!

Kim

My Favourite Art And Craft Products: March

What are your favourite art and craft products at the moment? Spill the beans I would truly love to know as I am always on the look out for new things to try out and personal referrals are always the best!

And as personal referrals are the best I thought I would do a little share with you of some of my current favourite art and craft products. I last did a Favourite Products share back in January in time for all the trade shows and you can hop on over to that blog post, 'My Favorite Art And Craft Products Before Creativation, Creativeworld And Stitches Really Get Going' if you missed it.

So what have I been working with since my last fave products run down?

Shall we start with some colour?

[There are some affiliate links in this blog post, so if you buy through them I do get a small amount of money at no extra cost to yourself. Thanks for your support!]


1. PaperMate Flair Felt Tip Pens

I am pretty smitten with the PaperMate Flair pens at the moment, I can not stop using them. The colours are bright and yummy and they are a waterbased, acid-free ink that drys quickly.

The bumf says they are designed not to bleed through paper but really it depends what paper you are using and how often you go over the same spot but they are doing pretty well in the Seawhite sketchbooks I talked about in my last favourite product blog post.

I've linked to them on Amazon for if you are looking for an online supplier but do shop around as I have seen these pens on sale and actually got my set in a discount bin in a Staples store, so it is worth checking those bins!

Go checkout my Instagram feed if you want to see these pens in action!


2. Bristol Board

If we are going to talk pens then it seems only natural to talk paper next. Paper does feature heavily in my favourite products lists as I use and have tried an awful lot of it. Last time I shared some of my favourite sketchbooks and watercolour papers. This time I'm going more towards the illustrative and drawing end of the paper spectrum with Bristol Board..

Bristol Board tends to be a heavier weight, super-smooth, crisp white paper and is perfect for precise pen work as the surface is so smooth the pen glides over it and won't snag on the texture. Someone who knows more about these things than me can correct me if I am wrong but as far as I know you can find Bristol board in different paper weights, I have two such pictured above one at 190gsm and the other at 250gsm.

But if you are in the US then you can also find it with different surfaces - Smooth and Vellum, which has more texture. For the work I have been doing recently, that needs precise clean lines, the smooth version is the one I am recommending today.

Bristol board is also great for stamping and colouring on but as it is quite expensive I generally use cheaper smooth paper for stamping and colouring.


3. StencilGirl Stencils

The next group of products on my list are the StencilGirl Stencils. I've been having lots of fun with these as you might have seen in my Art Slice Video a couple of weeks back and in the project video I made for the PaperArtsy/ StencilGirl blog hop in December last year. They are back on my desk at the moment and I've been using them for a whole range of different projects, one you will see first on my YouTube channel at 1pm today, don't forget to subscribe, or later on my Instagram feed *wink!

What I particularly like about the StencilGirl stencils is the sizes. So you can get some gorgeous large and small stencils but you can get some pretty awesome very large stencils and I love the 9" x 12" sizes which is just a little bit bigger than A4 size.


4. Synthetic Gel Monoprinting Plates

As we are talking about stencils one fun thing to do with stencils is to use them with Gelli plates. Now I held out a long, long time before I bought one of the synthetic gel monoprinting plates that hit the market a few years back. I used my own homemade Gelatine plates, and I still do as there are techniques I can do with a gelatine plate that just work better than with the synthetic plates and vice versa actually. But boy are the Gelli plates super-convenient! They really are great for a quick, no fuss, print session.

There are a few different ones on the market now since Gelli Arts bought out the Gelli plate. There is the Gel Press, from Gel Press and SpeedBall also has a gel plate now too. I've only used the Gelli Arts Gelli plate so if you have used the others I would love to know how they compare so do tell!

If you are still not sure if you want to invest in them then do go check out my blog post 'Monoprinting - Old School Style' on the home made version, there is the recipe and instructions on how to make it there.


5. PaperArtsy Eclectica³ {Kim Dellow} Stamps And Stencils

And I can't really do a favourite product list without shamelessly plugging the new stamp and stencil release I designed for PaperArtsy now can I? I mean it is true I have been using these products a lot since I last listed favorite products, so I could not really leave them off the list!

If you missed the release then you can catch up with it, plus a list of where to get them from, over on my release blog post from February.


So your turn - what are your current favourite art and craft products? What is getting you all excited and creative at the moment?

Kim

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Paper Make-Up Stamps Blog Hop

Welcome to the Paper Make-Up Stamps Fan Blog Hop!

If you have come to my blog from Glitter Goddess Meli then you are on the right track! If not then you need to start your hopping at the Paper Make-Up Blog.

As I am knee deep in Christmas cards at the moment I thought I would turn the very lovely Charity Stamp The Heart Fairy from Paper Make-Up Stamps into a Christmas Heart Fairy :) She is so pretty.


She has been coloured with my PrismaColor pencils, Sansodor and I've used Stickles glitter to add some fairy shine to her. I've used Glossy accents to add dimension to her heart and wings.


A little bit of Cuttlebug snowflakes made from vellum, white card, Stickles glitter, some mini-buttons and threads. The paper is from the My Mind's Eye Colourful Christmas pack and I've used the Bow-Easy™ Template to tie the bow.

You can get this cute fairy from Paper Make-Up stamps in the US or if you are in Europe she is also available from Quixotic Paperie.


Right your next blog to hop is Shana's Two Cute little monsters.

Have a lovely Paper Make-Up Blog Hop!
Kim

Materials:
Stamp - Paper Make-Up The Heart Fairy (also available here)
Colouring - PrismaColor Pencils; Sansodor
Paper - My Mind's Eye Colourful Christmas pack
Usual Suspects - Paper trimmer; Silicone glue; Double-sided tape
Other - Mini-buttons; thread; stickles; glossy accent glue; Cuttlebug and die; ribbon; Bow-Easy™ Template; Fiskars Border punch

Inky Impressions Challenge 26

Hey Guys, Feeling Christmassy yet? I have my last Christmas make for you today and this is my DT make for the the Inky Impressions Challenge which is:

Add Embossing (Dry or Heat) and Glitter or Flocking

I've made a little Christmas hanger with Rachel's Gingerbread Christmas Digi-stamp.


Yep - coloured with Prismacolor pencils and Sansodor, with added glitter and glossy accents.


Then I've die cut the snowflakes from vellum and paper with the Spellbinders Create a Flake one, embossed and then covered with glitter.

Have a fabulous Christmas eve, Christmas eve :)
Kim

Materials:
Stamp - Inky Impressions Rachel's Gingerbread Christmas Digi-stamp
Colouring - PrismaColor Pencils; Sansodor
Usual Suspects - Scissors, silicone glue
Other - Ribbon; Seam ripper; Cuttlebug; Spellbinders Create a flake 1; Glitter glue; Computer; Printer

Sending A Smile

Hey All, How are you doing this Friday?

I have a smile for you today :) A good luck card for someone changing their life and starting in a new direction! So a bright, bold and cheery card to help them on their way I thought!




Right, I'm off to eat some pickles then make some cards :)

Have a Bright, Bold and Cheery Friday
Kim

Materials:
Papers -GCD Studios
Usual Suspects - Paper trimmer; Double sided tape; Silicone glue
Other - Martha Stewart punch; Cuttlebug; blossom die; Raffia; Vellum; Crop-a-dile; eyelet; Sewing machine; Fabric brad; Alpha; Shaped Scissors

Sunday Round-Up

Happy Sunday my bloggy friends and neighbours, it has been a fun and busy week here at Studio Crafty Makes and I have a bloggy wave and a magazine article update for you all today.

But before I tell you about them you might want to tune into some new 'Crafting With Kuretake' shows on Create and Craft tomorrow, 2pm, 4pm and 6pm, showcasing some yummy ZIG pens. I'll show you some of my recent samples I made for Kuretake in the week but thought you might just want a heads-up for the shows. In the last 'Crafting With Kuretake' shows Steph did some great demos with the pens, worth watching just for the demos.

You can watch the shows on Freeview 36; Freesat 813; Sky 671 or online at the Create and Craft website.

So the next bit of news and one to look out for is Simply Cards and Papercraft Magazine Issue 86

I've got a social network inspired article in this month to help you get down with the kids - said whilst throwing some gang signs of course. Luckily you can not see me doing that as it always causes much hilarity from boyfriend who despairs at my total lack of street cred!

Luckily I hangout on Facebook and Twitter enough to keep up to date with what is going on in the world LOL!

Hope you enjoy the article!

So it is Sunday, time for some hopping and I have another fabulous blog to share with you this week. Have you seen the lovely blog Bumblebees and Butterflies belonging to Brenda Brown? Brenda has a lovely mix of grunge, inky and mixed media papercraft projects on her blog. Check out her lovely ATC using the Collage Background technique, love the way all the layers come together and fabulous use of vellum!

Have a wonderful Sunday all you wonderful crafty fluff bundles!

Kimx

Circle The Tilda

So the weekend begins. Ahh lovely weekend. Tilda is here to celebrate the weekend with a Simon Says Paper piecing challenge. I've made a circle card for one main reason, I had run out of this lovely dark brown cardstock and the only piece I had left was this tiny bit! Bless! So with a little frugal jiggery pockery I managed to make it run to a couple of matts.

But why didn't I use another colour? Well I had already pieced the Tilda in these yummy Basic Grey papers before I realised I had no cardstock to match - D'oh!


Materials:
Stamp - Magnolia
Ink - VersaFine Onyx black
Colouring - PrismaColor Pencils; Sansodor
Papers - Basic Grey
Usual suspects - scissors, Double-sided tape; silicone glue
Other - Button; fluffy ribbon; Vellum; Nestibilities; Cuttlebug

Cards Cards Cards

So here are some more cards. Some mixed styles and uses. The first card I used for a friend's bithday and was one of those accidental things where I was just trying out inking a stamp with mutliple colours from distressed ink pads. The card also uses tearing and one of the layers has been bronze embossed using a glue stick to cover the card. The edges where further distressed with an ink pad.



The New home card was made using shapes cut from different patterned 12" by 12" papers and a some free lettering from a magazine. I used a brad for the door knob and faux stitching to highlight the windows and door.



So the final card for today uses patterned paper on a plan background and accented with ribbon, pre-printed chipboard sentiment and vellum flower cut by hand. Glitter glue and inking the edges gave the finishing touches.

As Featured On Blitsy - Mixed Media Butterflies And A Waffle Flower Diamond

I have a couple of mixed media tutorials up on the Blitsy blog at the moment that you might be interested in. They are both quite different from each other but they both do have one thing in common and that is they are three dimensional!

[I do use affiliate links and there are some in this blog post.]

So the first tutorial you might be interested in is a Butterfly make.

It is quite an ephemeral piece as I've incorporated vellum into the background and the butterflies are made from old book pages that makes them extra delicate I think, much like real butterflies. I think this would make a great journal page idea. But to keep the 3D effect of the butterflies what about hanging it as wall art? What do you think?

To see the full tutorial go checkout my How to Make Mixed Media Butterfly Wall Art post on the Blitsy blog.


The other tutorial I wanted to let you know about is a 3D tag.

For this tag I've used Waffle Flower dies and one of my favourite dies at the moment which is the Waffle Flower 3D Diamond Template die. I love this die and you are in luck as it has just gone into the daily sales on Blitsy so it is at a discount for the next couple of days, so don't miss out!

I've also gone very pastel shades for this make and used the yummy Faber-Castell Gelatos which I also love to play with.

If you pop along to my How to Make A 3D Mixed Media Tag blog post then you will get a full tutorial on how to put this together and a link to all the products I used too.

Hope I've given you some ideas for your next projects this weekend.

Kim

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Creative Expressions Masked Ball

I've always fancied going to a masked ball so when these mask stamps from Creative Expressions dropped into my post box I was intrigued! The stamp set is called Masquerade and has five different elegant mask stamps and some accessory stamps including this sentiment stamp.

I stamped my mask onto a Copper 4" x 4" Walnut Hollow Metal Square, cut it out and then shaped it with a large ball embossing tool. The peacock feather was stamped onto watercolour card and coloured.

The little bit of extra bling is an old broken earring that I've re-purposed for my mask. The background is made up of a book page collage with some elegant vellum over the top.

By the way there is a free Christmas card project from Sue Wilson on the Creative Expressions blog.

Ok, so I am ready for the ball - just need the invite now...!

Kim

Inchies, Two of Two

Second inchy of the day and there is an Autumn theme at Inch by Inch.



Materials:
Paper - basic grey; coloured vellum
Ink - versafine ink; distress ink walnut stain
Stamp - leaves Avec
Other - emboidery silk; cuttlebug mini tag die

Cricut Mini - Personal Electronic Cutter Review And Giveaway

[UPDATE: GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED]

Hey All, I have another in my series on electronic cutters for you. I've been recently introduced to the world of electronic cutters and I am having fun trying out and comparing different personal cutting machines; you can find my review and first tutorial on the Silhouette Cameo via this link.

Today my focus is on the Cricut Mini and have I got a treat for you!

Oo yes I'm very excited but read on and you will find out what the treat is (well if you haven't guessed from the blog post title already!).

[There are some affiliate links in this blog post, so if you buy through them I do get a small amount of money at no extra cost to yourself. Thanks for your support!]

So as the name suggests, this is one of the smallest personal cutting machines on the market and from the Provo Craft electronic cutting machine range. It is approx. 41cm long, 18.5cm wide and 9.4cm high (16.1" x 7.3" x 3.69") and weighs in at 2.38kg (5.25lbs).

According to the Cricut information, it can cut lots of different materials such as cardstock, vinyl, vellum, fabric, chipboard (probably thin chipboard, I would guess). So far I've only used it with cardstock and patterned paper but I will report in when I've cut a different material! The cutting range is 0.635cm to 29.21cm (¼" to 11 ½") and the cutting mat is 21.59cm x 30.48cm (8.5" x 12").

OK, so that is the technical specifications, what about getting it out of the box? Well, of the three electronic cutters I've had the pleasure of trying so far, this was the simplest to set up and the quickest from out of the box to first cut.

Like all Cricut machines it works from cartridges, but luckily for me, who doesn't have any cartridges, it also works with the Cricut Craft Room which is a free online software from Cricut.

You can access this software via the internet and you need to download the free application and install it on your computer. The software gives you access to some free images as well as the 'Cut It Free For A Week' images. But the rest of the images you will have to buy.

The thing to remember when using the software though is that you can see all these lovely images whilst you are designing but if you haven't bought them you won't be able to cut them! So go buy them or just remember to look through the 'My Cartridges' drop down menu when you are working on your projects!

If you do have cartridges you can still plug them into the Cricut Mini, but you can buy access to cartridges online as well rather than have the physical cartridge. The Cricut Image Library also has single images for sale so you don't have to buy full cartridges if there are only one or two images you need in that cartridge. 

The software is very simple, perhaps a little too simple for my liking. I did feel a bit restricted by what I couldn't do with it, for instance I don't think there is an align function. Well I searched for one and even looked online for help and couldn't find one (feel free to tell me if I'm being an idiot and just missed it somewhere!).

At the moment, you can't cut your own images or non-Cricut images, which is a shame, but if you are looking just to cut the images you have on Cricut cartridges or via the Cricut Craft Room, then the software works and you can do things like design on different layers then cut all the layers or just one of the layers. Which is great as you can have all the images ready to cut on different papers and just cut the one you want for the paper currently on your cutting mat.

When you log in to the software you are logging in online and any projects you save are saved into your account. I don't think you can use the software offline, so if your internet goes down in the middle of a project you may be a little put out!

I did have a little bit of problem with my cuts as the machine was putting little nicks where they shouldn't be, so I tried to slow the cutting speed, which helped. The customer service was very good and they kindly sent me a replacement blade and blade housing, which has improved the cuts, but I am still getting nicks where I don't want them.

But you can barely notice as you can see from this make using the Cricut Preserves images.

You can find the Cricut Mini retailing for upwards of £114.99 depending on where you buy and what comes with it.  Also keep your eyes on Creative Expressions as they are now one of the UK distributors of Provo Craft Cricut products.

My thoughts on the Cricut mini so far are that for quick and simple cutting, this machine works well. Its mini size and weight are great for the space conscious and its mini price makes for a fabulous starter cutter for the price conscious. I'm really enjoying playing with this machine and am looking forward to making more cuts. 

*****

Now for the treat! The lovely people over at CricutEU are offering one of my lucky readers their very own Cricut Mini to cut with to their heart's content!

Yep! A Cricut Mini is up for grabs: just put your name in the inlinkz gadget below. 

Don't forget to go link up with CricutEU on Facebook for all the latest news and information.

Follow if you like what you see here and spread the word about the giveaway!

The giveaway is open until 21st June 2013. The winner will be chosen by random and announced on 22nd June 2013.

Good Luck

[UPDATE: GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED]

[Disclaimer Time: I was not paid to write this review however I did get a machine to review and access to cartridges. But as with all my reviews I always try to give you my honest, unbiased opinion. (Prices correct for the date the blog post went live)]

Inchies, one of two

So some mini 'art' for you :) This one is for the Small World of Inchies blog which has a celestial theme.


Materials:
Paper - coloured vellum; handmade paper; origami paper

Dinosaurs On Me Blog Again!

Yep it's me with my dinosaurs again! Got a little commission birthday card using the super cute Oliver from the Oliver and Amelia Happy Days set from the Greeting Farm that Elaine has available at Quixotic Paperie.

It is a very minimalistic card using Kraft card from my stash, luckily Elaine also has some Bazzill Kraft card available at the shop.

I've also used some torn up glassine envelopes and doodled little Dino prints with a ZIG Vellum Writer. Oliver and his Dino friends are all coloured with ZIG Art and Graphic Twin pens.

Before I go you might like to know that Elaine has got some of the gorgeous Make It Crafty background stamps new in at Quixotic Paperie, I thought I would give you a small peek at them:

Have a great weekend.

Kim

Crafts U Love Demo - Getting The Most From Your Journaling Cards

At the weekend I got to spend a lovely day demoing at the treasure trove of papercrafts that is Crafts U Love. What a lovely shop hidden away in Surrey about 5 miles from Gatwick Airport.

It was the shop's 9th birthday event and it was full of demoers sharing lots of inspiration and tips throughout the day, as well as holding an auction and raffle to raise money for a local hospice. We got to meet lots of people, play with new products and, of course, eat cake!

This means that I have lots of sample cards from the demo to share here on my blog over the coming weeks. Just so that you know, some of the links in this post are affiliated links and you can find out all about how I use them on my disclaimers and disclosures page.


What was I demoing? 

Well one of my *THINGS* at the moment is using Project Life and journaling cards for more than memory keeping and pocket pages. You might have noticed that I *LOVE* journaling cards – they keep cropping up here on a regular basis; I've even made some of my own with the Cricut Explore and then there are the watercolour gem journaling cards that I shared how to make back in January.



If you are predominantly a cardmaker, you may be forgiven for walking past Project Life and journaling cards, thinking they are not for you. For starters, they aren't marketed at you and have been positioned for the memory keepers amongst us.

But we crafters are nothing if not a resourceful bunch and many of us do a multitude of different crafts – I do anything I can get my hands on as you might have guessed by now!

So why not use journaling cards for projects other than memory keeping and pocket page scrapbooking?


Here Are Some Projects To Try:

I've been using them for various different projects –

• If you get Simply Cards And Papercrafts you might have spotted journaling cards being used as backgrounds and embellishments in my article on cardmaking using printing on vellum for Issue 137. 
• Then there's the planner pocket page (yep, obsessed with planners too!) for a tutorial on Blitsy recently. 
• But also they are a fantastic way to mass-produce Christmas cards quickly like I did for the Blitsy Blog last year. 
• They are also great for adding a quick background for an interesting embellishment that you want to stand out like this jean upcycle card.

Or What About this Cute Card?

You can safely say I'm trying to get the most out of my journaling card kits and I was sharing some more ideas on how to do this on Saturday at Crafts U Love.

One of the great things about the packets of journaling cards is you pretty much have a whole kit ready for making into a lot of cards – add a couple of stamps and you are good to go.

Take the super-quick, super-easy and super-cute hot air balloon card pictured above. It is made using the Becky Higgins Project Life Peace, Love and Sunshine pack with a bit of stamping using the Penny Black Stamps Live It Up! Set.

I hope that has given you a fresh look at getting the most from your journaling cards!


More Demo Cards To Come!

Stay tuned for some more to come. I also demoed some inkiness at the weekend with some of the new Tim Holtz distress ink colours, so there will be some samples using these coming your way too.

In the meantime, what else have you been doing with your journaling cards? Let's see how far we can make them work for us, shall we? I bet they would make great party décor items and maybe even home décor items.

Time to get to work and re-think those journaling cards.

Thanks for popping by.
Kim

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