Wednesday 12 November 2014

Morning morning morning.....

How are we all?

Today, I am having Pyjama Day number 2.... well, I say day.. it usually means morning.. lazy mornings are the best. Coffee, craft and Pj's... what else could a girl want eh?

As you probably guessed, my little bloglet has become the victim of work again.. lol. I have been down at the NEC and upto Glasgow over the past few weeks, and I have another trip to Scotland planned for this weekend to demo for a lovely gent called Adrian, who owns McOyster Papercrafts in Fife. It is a Tonic demo, so I'm hoping to see some familiar faces from the Glasgow show, and have a jolly good day.

I have been asked about colouring over the past few weeks, as I have been taking a little Polkadoodles image card that I made with the Tonic bow die, and everyone tries to run off with it. So, I thought I would share a little video with you HERE that I created for my Youtube channel a while ago.. must be a few years ago as I was still wearing my old wedding ring, which no longer fits me.. lol. However, I hope you get the drift of it and can follow it well.

The other thing I want to share with you all is this little card I made for the Pick of the Week for Tonic.


The die I have used to create the felt flower is the Happy Birthday Pansy outer edge which I have also used to cut the layer it is fastened to.

I cut out a few layers, snipped into the flower and heated it up with a heat gun. It's not one of my new techniques, as I have done it previously when I worked for Docrafts, but to use the Tonic dies makes it alot easier and as you can see, adds another dimension to your cards.


The outer for the flower is the pansy frame which is one of the new dies that are on a 60 day exclusivity to Create and Craft. They have sold out though, so watch the site to make sure you grab them when they come back in. They are VERY popular and look beautiful.

I've teamed it up with a little butterfly border from the dies I have in my box, this one is Mazarine Blu and is one of my favourite dies... so pretty.

I hope you managed to get your dies before they sold out... and I hope you enjoy the little tutorial..

Have fun.... xxxx


Tuesday 28 October 2014

Lattice and a frame....

Evening folks.... 

As I promised earlier, I thought I would fire up the old laptop and upload the project I shared with you all earlier on Facebook. 

What have you all been upto this past week or so?  Yesterday was a bit of special time spent with the hubby for breakfast, and today has been a bit hectic with an emergency run to the vets with my son's cat... Ava... she was not very well at all, but with a little bit of TLC and a couple of injections, I think she will be back to her usual mischievous self again very soon!!

I've been off up to Glasgow this past week too,  helping to promote the Tonic brand and to show how easy it is to use the dies. I was working for the lovely Mel and Mark from Crafty Devils, and had a little visit from Jodie too, which was lovely. 

The weather wasn't too bad, and the SECC was only a very short walk from where we were staying, so all was good and I didn't get rained on until the day we came home. Bonus. 

I did make quite a few samples whilst we were up there, and I will try to share as many as I can over the next few days or so... but this is the card I wanted to share with you firstly. 


The base die was the lattice circle, the largest one, and it fits perfect into a 5.75cm square card. Great for those times when you want something simple.

The insert section was one of the keepsake frames and inserts. I just simply wanted to show how well they went together. I chose burgundy and white to add a touch of elegance, and plopped a bit of black card behind the lattice to make it pop.

There were quite alot of layers on the top of the card, but with the dies, you can opt to cut the design into the base, or layer as I have done.

I hope you like the card.... it was a very quick sample, so not really much to do on this... just cut, cut and cut a little more!

Monday 13 October 2014

Lettice have a lattice....

Funny name... couldn't resist that. Sorry... lol. 

Yes. I'm back. After having a bit of a mini confidence crisis issue this past week, I thought I would get on my old bloglet and have a looksie to see what I can do to freshen it up. First things first though, I've decided to upload a few cards. 

You know what it's like, something throws a curveball and one minor thing (like no mirror in the bathroom!) turns everything into a major disaster, and suddenly life is in crisis, confidence is at an all time low and you consider throwing in the towel and getting a job at the local shop! Yes. That was me. It happens. 

Anxiety and panic attacks really aren't the best things to deal with from day to day, although the Citalopram tends to help quite a bit to keep things on track, although things get to me sometimes. I hate not being in control. I hate not having a mirror in my bathroom! My bathroom is having a MAJOR overhaul and is going to look stunning... and I can't wait.... !

Anway, those who suffer with anxiety and panic attacks on a day to day basis, know how this feels... something that happened in the past few years with work issues (which the least said about the better, although life is happier without that side of my day to day!) but still, onto my projects for today..... 


The card above is one of my all time favourites. I love the image, which is from the Hobby House, and I love the layout. Simple, stylish and clean. The dies I've used on here are the new Square trellis dies by Tonic and also the Verso dies, To my Little Star which as you can see work wonderfully together.

The card below features another of the Trellis dies....


This time, I have used another beautiful Hobby House topper and layered it up onto the top of the Circle Trellis dies... aren't they stunning? Instead of using white as the back or foreground, I chose to use colour on colour which I think sets out the colours in the image.


Now.... this card here features a few different dies.... again, I have chosen to use the beautiful Trellis square and I've used the fantastic Idyllics creations too.

The Idyllics are a new concept to Tonic, and consist of an embossing folder with coordinating dies. The one I've used on this card here is the Jasmine Dream. The elements of the Idyllics are the the background embossing on the white card, and also the band that goes across the centre of the card.

The squares were placed at the back and on top of the central band and on the top is the large lacy bow that I cut from the die. You get different inserts for the bow sections, so if you don't want it split as I have done, you can cut a whole lacy section.

Well... that feels better to have a little moan on my ol' bloglet.... even if it isn't easy typing with a plaster covering the big hole on my pointy finger... yes. I cut a chunk out of that too. And burnt my arm. And scratched my glasses. Aren't I doing well!!!!!

I will be sure to see you again soon to share more samples - providing nothing goes disastrously wrong!!! lol.

Monday 29 September 2014

A little rose for you....

Evening all... 

You know, I have no idea where time goes just lately... one minute I have a few hours to spare, then the next I am running around like a loon doing one thing or another wishing I had a little bit more time.. I'm sure you know the feeling?!

I've been out and about this past few weeks doing some shows representing Tonic on the Crafty Devils stands. I've been to Sandown, Manchester, Ally Pally... a few miles on the little brum brum, but a great time and some lovely friends and faces seen at all shows. 

I've also just done a demo day over at Domino Crafts in Wolverhampton, which was a fantastic day enjoyed by all. I mean - Banana cake, tea, fantastic staff and customers... what else could a girl want?! Steve and Leslie are a treasure to behold and I will definately be calling in again sometime soon if I get the chance!

Apart from running Little Brum ragged, I've been playing with some fantastic Tonic products making samples for our Jodie. Now, the dies I want to feature the next few days are from the new and exclusive range that was on Create and Craft. 


These ones are the silhouette dies, and as you can see, are not all silhouette. So tonights little make is made from one of the doors (yes! It can be a door!) that come in with the set of three. These come in sets of three - a figurine silhouette, be it a gent, a lady or a couple and you also get the panels to create a dimensional card. They are awesome!

As you can see, you can just use a topper in the card, this one is a Lili of the Valley, and maybe a Rococo die to embellish and you have a simple, yet stylish card. Very easy to cut, no embossing needed, and a perfect result everytime.

I hope you got yours.

Now... I do want to get back to my blogging.... so I promise I will try to conquer my new phone and get sorted..... please someone come kick my backside if I don't!!!!

See you all again soon folks. xx

Wednesday 27 August 2014

The Christmas release....

Morning all..... 

Sometimes, it's just nice to get a bit of time to sort things.. you know what I mean? I have blitzed the downstairs to a degree, got rid of lots of stuff, and also done my craft room. I am still in the 'sorting' bit and trying to get things where I want it so it is more organised, but it's getting there. I've lots of room on my desk and more storage to go.... so it's coming together slowly. Anyway.....

Just as promised, here are a few of the samples from the last couple of weeks shows for Tonic. I was covering shows for Jodie as she was away, and we had some new headers, baubles and other bits and bobs that were just lovely! 

This one is featuring one of the new headers - we had two sets - Christmas and Celebration - but most of them will work for occasions of any sort. 


I matched the header up with a lovely Hunkydory (I think!) decoupage and an outer frame from the relatively new Christmas verso dies. 

This little tree below, was one of the fab new Christmas range of Rococo dies.. we had quite a few of these on the show, and they make a fantastic statement piece on your card. You actually don't need to add too much, just a piece of christmas paper, shadowed in green was added to the side. I punched the border with my Tonic punch. The tree itself was shadowed too, and a little bit of glitter added to the stars. 


Now... these little presents are not christmassy at all... and can be used for any occasion. But I chose to emboss the bottom corner of the card layer and add the presents simply across the card. So pretty eh?!



Now, this one is using new headers and also the Rococo Angel... she was VERY popular out of all the christmas rococo's.... and I can see why. She's beautiful and great to use different colour layers to add dimension. 

So.. there you go... just a small selection of cards that were on the show... I don't want to bore you all with all the samples, but there are more going to be uploaded to my Facebook albums... so please take a look at some point. Don't forget to check out the Tonic Gold website, facebook page and also Alison's page, Jodie's FB and others from the DT too... there are some fantastic samples floating around the ether... 

Sorry it took me a couple of days to get back on and share some samples... I will try to post more often... ! 

Tuesday 19 August 2014

Catching up.....

Just a little Good Morning from me today...

I have had a busy couple of weeks, helping our Jodie out with Tonic on TV whilst she was away on holiday. I'm hoping she's fully recovered from what looks like a very busy few weeks, and is all fit and ready to go again.

The last couple of weeks has seen me floating between Doncaster and Peterborough quite alot, bringing you lots of wonderful dies and inspiration from the Team. And how lovely they were too.

The first set were for the Tonic Special, and the second were for the Pick of the Day and Craftinator.

By all accounts, you are loving your Tonic dies and it's not suprising. I still need to get my samples uploaded for you, but rest assured, I will get onto it as soon as I can... promise!

This week, I have quite a bit of family stuff to do, including moving daughter back from Lincoln Uni. It's been a very busy year for her with her nursing course, but she's doing a fantastic job and I have every confidence she is going to make a brilliant nurse. So proud of all my children - they've achieved loads in their short life. Much more than I did, that's for sure.. lol.

I am also going to make a point of doing some stamping - I haven't had my colouring stuff out for a while and I'm getting itchy fingers. So watch this space.....!

I will get back on later this evening to upload some samples from recent shows... I hope you check back soon.

Talk later. xx

Tuesday 29 July 2014

It's Hunkydory......

Morning all.... 

Where does the time go?? It seems to be whizzing so quickly through this year, it will soon be time to put my Santa Countdown on my ol' blog.... 

This week saw me make a big change to my crafty life. I have given up Docrafts, and my last demonstration for them will be at Doncaster this Sunday. It was a decision I came to after alot of thinking and wondering (as you do!) and everything considered, decided it was for the best. 

It has given me lots more free time to play work with my Tonic dies too... so much fun ahead and more cuddles with my Jodie... what more could I ask for?! Tonic as a whole are a fantastic set of folks to work with and I couldn't have been made to feel more welcome and part of the team by Jodie. Love that girl!

This week saw me up at Hunkydory in Preston demonstrating for Tonic, and featured mainly the Beautiful Bramble, Vine and Twine dies... aren't they beautiful?! So this morning I thought I would share a little bit of inspiration from the demo and put a few cards up. These were quick demo's but I hope you like them. 



This card above features embossing folders, dies and the lovely sentiment dies that came out a while ago. Quite a simple card, but I used a pink and grey colour combination which I love. 


This is the Beautiful Bramble... love it! So fine and elegant. I have drop shadowed the die cut and added some mirror card behind it. I used a little decoupage for the centre, but this can be anything you wish. 


The vine oval is just great to give your cards a different look. You can see how the Twine corners work perfectly at the sides of the shape. The little flowers were punched, shaped and inked from the Tonic punches. 

And finally, a little Twisted Twine card. Simply cut and mounted onto a layer of snowy blue background paper and a little topper that I found in my stash last week. Love the Great Tit... one of my favourite birds. So pretty. 

I hope you like my little selection of projects for today... Onto today's To Do list now, and samples need making, things need doing and cleaning .... well, I think that can wait for a few hours. 

Happy Crafting all!

Friday 4 July 2014

Cricut meets Tonic!

Isn't it funny... when you start playing with things in the craft room, how one thing tend to lead to another!

I absolutely love the new sentiment panels from Tonic, and the matching dies, so this was my starting point. I was playing around with the new Christmas ones and layering them up. I did a shadowing with a piece of pink cardstock and then decided to keep the background quite simple. 


Looking through my cartridges for the Cricut the other day, I saw this shape on my Christmas one. I also had some cricut markers that I've had for a while, so thought I would give them a go. 

The marker I chose was a brown colour, and I scaled up the image to draw around 5 inches. I love the fact you can watercolour over the drawn image too... so I used a distress marker to add a pink shade to the image. 

I added some liquid pearls to the design too, and edged it with a little bit of glitter to add some bling. 

And look at the sentiment... isn't the font just awesome! I love these panels. 


The panel itself is white based, which means that you can colour it, ink it, spritz it - generally, do what you want to it colourwise. I chose to edge it with a little bit of gold ink to shade it to the cream of the Centura pearl that I'd used to draw the image onto. 


And that is my post for today. I loved making this card. I loved getting creative with the cricut even more.... technology isn't really my strong point (unless it comes to photoshop and photo editing! lol) so I really feel like I've achieved a little bit of success with this card. 

I hope you like it too... how do you mix your crafting stash? Let me know... I'd love to hear about your 'cross-purposing'!

Until next time... happy Crafting xxxxx

Wednesday 25 June 2014

Elongated box from Tonic

Helloooooo eveyone... how are you all???

Today, I'm back with a little photo tutorial for you, as I have been asked quite a few times how to do this since Jodie showed my box on Create and Craft. It was this one here... 


It's quite difficult to try to explain how to cut the die on a message, so thought I would get out the camera on my phone and take a few snaps for you. Sorry about the quality of the pics, but I hope you find them useful. 

Firstly, lay your die onto your A4 cardstock, towards the bottom. Now, you can use it as it is obviously, and you will get two boxes from one A4 piece of card... but we are cutting just the one. 


Put your cutting plate over the die, but leave the top edge out of the layer. You do not want to cut this area just yet, you are just aiming to cut the main part of the box and the sides. 


Put the die through your machine, pushing the top plate through first to make it easier... It will only apply pressure to the area where the top plate is. 


You can see on this photograph below what parts are cut. 



Move the die up a little on the cardstock so that the sides line up perfectly with the precut sections. You need to remember to leave a little overlap on the base so you don't recut this section. 



Line up your top plate again, leaving out the bottom edge.


Run this through the machine again in the same way as before to finish the cut of the box. 


Fold up your box, stick together and you can see you have a lovely 6 inch box.. (use cardstock rather than paper as I have done!)


I hope that helps you all a little to get a bit more from your box die. It's a beautiful design as you can see in the top photograph, and decorated with the panels makes a perfect little gift to give someone. 

Back soon... happy Crafting.. until next time!!!

Sunday 22 June 2014

A little bit of Heaven...

Evening all... 

So sorry that I haven't been about alot over the last month (really.... that long???) but things took over and time was a little limited to sit and play at blogging... 

but I'm here. And I've lots of lush things to show you, but for tonight, for my quick blog post, I thought I would share with you, my little piece of heaven where we spent five days for my birthday. 

My wonderful daughter decided to book us a few days away at a wonderful place called Longlands in Devon. Honestly, I didn't want to come home... I could have quite happily have squatted in me ol' tent forever. Yes.. you heard me right... tent... and this is it... 


I mean, it's not camping per-se but never the less, it was a fantastic week spent under canvas. To be truthful, it was glamping. The safari tent had running water, albeit not hot unless you lit the water heater, a loo, and beds... but no electricity, no tv, and no cooking facilities unless you lit the wood burner. And it was idyllic. We spent most of our evenings sat out on the veranda looking out at wonderful sunsets and scenic views. After dark, there was absolutely NO light whatsoever, so you could see every single star in the sky. It was totally amazing. 


We did get out an about, and spent our days doing different things together and alone. Carley and Martina decided they wanted to do surfing, so one day they went to do that whilst me and their dad nipped off to Clovelly and surrounding areas. It was perfectly sunny and warm most of the time, a little rain mid week, but nothing that stopped us doing anything... and how perfect is this view?!


We also went on an Exmoor Safari with the excellent host, Neil. A very knowledgable and lovely guy who gave us a great tour around places everyone can go, and people can't go... so it was very special. 

The views were amazing from Exmoor, and the tales told, views seen, information absorbed and places visited were all absolutely fantastic. 


And look at this little beauty... Exmoor ponies at their best. We saw lots of wild ponies close to the landrover, and were pleased that the babies were not too shy to say hello. We also saw lots of wild deer, buzzards and more.


All in all, we had a fantastic week, and it seems so distant now.. but we are planning a return visit next year... for a little longer next time. Same place - Longlands - as it would be lovely to see Bella and the team again. And of course her three little puddytats who came to say hello quite often. This was especially nice as our three furbabies were having a little holiday of their very own in the care of Andrea and James at Holmewood kennels. Very spoilt, chicken and tuna handfed babies they were too! No wonder they didn't want to come home!

Anyway... it was only a quick post... I promise I will be back quicker next time... please keep checking by and say hello. It would be lovely to see you back. xxxx

Thursday 22 May 2014

Just a note...

Oh what a morning it is.... after nearly a week of lovely, sunny and hot weather, it has decided to rain... and rain is a slight understatement!! It chucked it down!

So today, I have decided to dig into the past and find something really colourful and springlike. 

These two cards were projects I made for previous issues of Cardmaking and Papercraft magasine. And I admit, this top one is my favourite... totally different to something I would normally make, but I enjoyed using toppers and card candi, keeping the card quite simple but pretty. 


I added a little bit of glitter and sparkle to the outside edges of the layers to decorate it up a little more.


This was a simple little stamped image, made for a Thank you card. I opted for a lovely stamp of a cute little girl (Woodware, I think!) and did a bit of paper piecing for her dress and bow.


Paper piecing is a great way of adding colour to your projects if you are not brilliant at colouring. It can be a bit tricky, but is worthwhile persevering with as it can give you a great look on your project.

I added glitter around this one too, then finished it off with a few little gems here and there.

Onto today's schedule, I am back to making samples and hoping to fit in a little colouring and stamping later again. Yesterday, I did a bit of a one-to-one teaching with my sister in law, showing her the glories of colouring with pencils (bulk standard, cheap colouring pencils, or watercolour) and blending with a little bit of essential oils. I will try to do a video at some point for this this week, as I have been asked quite often.

It is a bit of a misconception that you need special pencils to do a blended technique, you absolutely don't. I do have prismacolour and polychromos pencils and the like, but generally just use my £12 box of steadtler pencils and they do exactly the same... !

Well... onto work ... and I will get back to chat a little more tomorrow...

Happy crafting everyone!!!!

Wednesday 21 May 2014

Coffee anyone?

Gooooood Morning campers.... Hi de Hi.. 

Well, I told you that I would be back with a post with more inspiration, and here we are.. but firstly, would anyone like a coffee?

Not that I drink latte, or coffee, that often, but doesn't it look lovely? This was a break in shopping yesterday at Marks and Spencers, and the young lady who was in charge of the latte machine did this!! I mean, how lovely does that look? And she didn't use a template or anything! To say I was impressed is a very large understatement, so I had to take a photograph. 

And what's more..... when hubby drank the drink the pattern stayed at the bottom of the cup. Brilliant! I know.... little things.....

Today, I am going to show you a card I made using the new Header dies from Tonic. I love how this card came together. The header dies make the cards look exquisite and so pretty. And of course, you can use them as I've done here on all four sides of the card to give you a different shape.


The centre panel is raised on foam pads to give the card some height and a simple sentiment placed into the centre as a focal point.


Here's another angle for the picture for you. 


Now... the little picture below is one I found on Pinterest the other day when I was having a mooch, and thought I'd share.. I really need to remember this!!!

Tuesday 20 May 2014

Flowers and Butterflies...

What a wonderful combination to start a new lease of blogging with. 

Yes.. I'm back. I have had a break from blogging - unintentionally really - as I just haven't even given it a thought about blogging amongst doing other things. I've been out and around doing demo's here and there, and one of my demo's was out at Mountain Ash Crafts on behalf of Tonic. What a lovely place!

Here is one of the cards I made whilst I was there. I used the Tonic intrica punches, this one being the Regal Border, and I double backed it to create the strip along the edge. It makes your card look lovely and lacy. 


The stamp is one I used on the day from the shop, I think it's Woodware if I remember rightly. But what a lovely image. I think this needs to be on my hit list to purchase when I get around to it.

I finished the card off with a few pearls and a little bit of sparkle.

The card below is one I made for my Craft Clinic show on Create and Craft, again for Tonic, using their fantastic range of products... One this one I used the Butterfly border punch.

The border punches like a normal border, but gives you a lovely 4cm edge. So deeply detailed and full of gorgeousness! But as you know, you can also use it to go around a circle, so this circle was a 5.75 inch circle ( or the largest layering circle in your Tonic set) and you can see, it punches perfectly.


I finished it off with a greeting die, and a few Craftwork Cards Candi circles to match in with the lime green.

In addition to making projects for Jodie, shows, demo's and suchlike, I have also enjoyed being out in the garden taking photographs of my flowers. These tulips were put in last minute and I really didn't expect to have such a good show of colour, but as you can see, they look wonderful.



There are a variety of different ones that we picked up as a reduced lot inthe supermarket, and we just 'shoved' them in the garden hoping they would do something, with the intentions of moving them later on. They came out beautifully. Here are a couple of my favourites.


This one above is such a dark chocolate red colour. It's stunning. I only have around 4 or 5 of these ones but may look into getting a few more. They add a dramatic colour to the border and have kept their shape beautifully despite all the rain this week!


This one is another favourite. And it was from a pack called Sugar Candy (if I remember rightly). The colouring on the petals is lovely.. there were pink, yellow and lilac colours in the pack. Just lovely. 

Well... that's all for today. I will try to get back again at some point later to upload a few more projects for you from my demo's... *will try* being the words I need to remember. lol. 

Until later.. have fun. xxx

Tuesday 8 April 2014

A rose is a rose....

Morning all.... 

Sorry it's taken a few days to get a few samples on here for you, but I've been out working this weekend... I was out at Sophies in Oldham doing a demo for Docrafts on Saturday, and then at the Range in Bolton on Sunday. It's been quite a busy weekend, and thank you to all the lovely ladies and gents who popped by to keep me company and share ideas. It was lovely seeing some new faces. 

Here's one of the cards that I had with me in my samples boxes. And it is mainly to show the different ways you can use embossing folders. 


The embossing folder I used on here is the 6 inch square rose embossing folder, Rose Frame. And it is so pretty... But for this card, I embossed the corner of the folder onto the top of the oval die cut.

As the Artiste inks are on 3 for 2 at the moment in store, I have inked up with a few colours to make the rose stand out a little.

The papers are from the Gorjuss pack, and they are so beautiful and pretty. Love them lots!


The lettering on the card above, and the one below, are from the Xcut alphabet dies, two different sets.

This card below has the roses embossed onto a tan coloured card and also cream. I tried to keep the card quite simple, and I think it works well.



Again, the roses and embossing details were shaded over with a few colours of ink and the strips of paper on this card were crumpled before inking over with brown ink. This just added to the distressed look.

The hearts were pricked around with a pricking tool, and a few gems added for that bit of sparkle!


I hope you like today's card... I have got the next post sorted and I know what I'm posting... so check back in a couple of days and it'll be updated. Yes... I know... promises, promises, but I have a busy week and need to schedule! lol.

Until next time... happy crafting!

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