We've moved !

First things first...the first card I have made in my new craft room. It features some of Tonic Studios new dies just launched on Create and Craft TV. For more details on that, pop on over to Blog Tonic.

So, it's all done and dusted...we are now settling in to our rental property and we are loving it. It is so very different to be in a little village where we can pop out for a pint of milk, than where we were before which was quite rural. My little girl has just started at her new school and so far it is going well.

I have a whole lot of craft projects to get on with...my craft room is still a bit of a mess, but once I get some projects done, then I hope to organise it a bit better. At least I can see the floor now ;-)

It's so good to finally have done away with the house selling stress !
Phew!

Have a lovely day, wherever you are.

Doda
x

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi, hope you are having a lovely day today.
I'm just dropping by to show you some of the cards I have made recently with Tonic Studios latest dies. These dies are gorgeous! So intricate.

I had a lot of fun making these cards with them.

I'm loving the whole papercut vibe. A little bit Rob Ryan - whose stuff I LOVE!

And now I am trying out some more new dies and creating some new projects with them. But I can't show you just yet...Top Secret!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends.

xxx

Autumn Light

I love the morning light this time of year. The sky is ominous and purple grey and the sun kisses the tops of the golden and copper trees. This morning there was also a rainbow. Beautiful!  I snapped this shot with my mobile phone through my little girl's bedroom window while I was helping her get ready for school this morning.

Not had too much time for crafting this week, but a few cards have been made...

As always...made with the aid of Tonic Studios gorgeous craft tools. For more details on cards and for more papercrafting inspiration do check out Blog Tonic

Hope you are staying warm wherever you are.
XX

Cake O'Clock

We went for a lovely walk by the seashore on Saturday. The weather was unbelievably mild for October - it's back to it's usual cold and wet now though. The sea is so therapeutic! I always wish I could stay there all day.

I can show you this card now that my lovely niece has received it. If you would like the details on what products I used, please pop over to my post on Blog Tonic.

Hope you are keeping warm and well, and having a fabulous day !
Bye for now !

Butterflies and Blooms

 Life has been fairly hectic this week, but I have managed to squeeze in a little time to play with Tonic Studios latest release. The gorgeous Butterflies and blooms dies.

 I love the way you can layer these dies for a 3d effect.

My little daughter is home sick from school today, so I have just stuck a movie on the tv and now I am off to make something else. I have until the movie finishes. I better get busy !

Birds and spices

These lovely new Bird products from Tonic Studios mean that it is so quick and easy to rustle up a card to be proud of. In fact, the whole Tonic range coordinates so perfectly together. For more details on this card and more crafting inspiration check out Blog Tonic.

I found another use for the lovely dies that come with the Butterfly tags set...labelling my spice jars.

I cut the labels from some matt black vinyl and wrote the spice names with a white pencil, that way I can wipe it off and rewrite them if I change up what spices I use. I love the shape of this label! I also love the chalkboard look it gives....I might just have to label EVERYTHING now! ;-)

Finished my latest order...

Score,   fold,   print,  punch,  stick,  punch,  stick,  punch,stick...

  print insert,  fold,  measure,   punch,   punch,   punch,   punch...

measure ribbon,   thread through, tie - do the whole thing again 80 times.

All ready to post off to the Bride now.

Phew!

A quick card

I just rustled up a quick card for a friend who is in hospital right now.

I am really enjoying using these recycled kraft card blanks, but this is my second card now with this colour palette. I think I'm ready for a change now!

I do love these new Tonic Studios border punches, they are so easy-peasy to use.

My next job is a stack of 70 Order of Services, so I better get to work!

[entering the May challenge over at Going Buggy ]

The garden calls...

The sunny days have been a bit sparse, and there are so many things to get on with in the garden right now it has been a bit frustrating.  I have some lovely Aquilegia William Guinness Double

and some Clary Sage seeds to plant so I really must get out in the fresh air and take advantage of the sunshine which has just appeared. 

I'm hoping mine will end up looking like those pictures! 

There's nothing quite like a spot of gardening. But before I head off to the garden, I have just made a quick card to send to a garden loving friend. 

The lovely carrots image is from the Graphics Fairy, and I have coloured it in with my favourite Karisma pencils which are pretty much the same as Prismacolors. 

I have used a couple of the new Tonic Studios border punches which will be in your stores before too long.  I also used my Shape Mate for the circle, and my Multi Detail flower punch.  A bit of raffia gives it that nice natural look.

OK, I'm out of here :-)

A Quick Card Post

Here's a little card I made the other day. I've been experimenting with different card shapes. I can't for the life of me remember what you call this shape.
The punches are of course by Tonic Studios.

I think you could say I got a little "punch drunk" with this one!

Making foiled flower decorations

Do you like the effect of these foil decorations on my greetings card? When you see them in person, they look like they have been foil printed onto the card because they are very smooth. Or perhaps they could even be peel offs. But no, they were much cheaper to make than that.

They started life as a roll of 3m Aluminium tape. The kind you use for DIY. All you need then are some flower punches. I've used my Tonic Studios flower punches here. 

All you need to do is punch out a few flowers and carefully peel off the backing paper- this is a bit fiddly- but worth it. Then apply to your card or scrapbook page smoothing it out carefully. Then use the bottom of a glass and rub in circular motion over the flower to burnish it to your page- this removes any catchy bits. For the finishing touch use a sharpish pencil and draw in lines and designs however you want the flower to look. I think the finished result is very satisfying.

For this one I used one of my Petal Pairs punches and a heart punch to make a leaf shape.

Believe me, you can get a whole lot of flowers out of one roll of tape. And you can use so many different punch shapes with this technique. Just try to keep to ones that are not too fiddly. 
Have fun, and let me know if you try this. 

Wedding Stationery Sample

I have been doing some sample wedding invitations for a friend who gets married next June. Here is the design I like the best so far. (Of course the choice won't actually be mine.)

I seem to always lean towards clean designs when it comes to Wedding Invitations. 


Anyhoo, The front design is very simple. I printed the text with a font from here. For the little motif,  I used the crossing hearts paper punch from Tonic Studios.


For the inside I wanted to make slits to slide in the silver insert rather than just sticking it down, so I rummaged through my punches to see what I could think of and came up with this idea. I used this two in one paper punch

I removed the corner punching guides and simply lined up the punch with the edges of the card. To get the right size for the insert, I measured between the top and bottom points, and the outermost points and made the card just a fraction smaller. 

Because I used a contrasting colour insert I think it looks pretty from the back too. 
(I imagine it might be possible to do this with other corner punches that have a removable guide.)

I am thinking I could also use this idea for making small cards for inserting store gift tokens.