Tuesday 28 February 2017

Tiny box

Hello Bloggists and welcome. 

Tomorrow is Saint David's day, a very important day in this country. Saint David is our patron Saint, and his feast day is a great occasion for Welsh people. We'll be celebrating in all sorts of ways.


 So today's project has a patriotic theme. I made this little box to hold a fridge magnet but it would also fit a lipstick.  I made it with a double wall.  I like the professional finish of this type of box.

Here's how I made it.


Hope you have a good day, and if you have any Welsh cakes, enjoy!

Crafty hugs,


Keren.

Saturday 25 February 2017

Tasty Treat Truck

Hello bloggists,  and welcome.

It's Saturday, so today I've been playing with some of the goodies in the Sale-a-Bration  catalogue. 

Isn't this little truck cute?

This was inspired by the picture in the Sale-a-Bration catalogue.



As you can see, the truck is going in the opposite direction from the one in the catalogue - so I had to do some reverse stamping.I made a mistake when I photographed it and took a picture of the wrong side - D'Oh!
via GIPHY

Here’s the tutorial-



I used a stamp press, which really helps to get a good impression when you’re reverse-stamping.   

SU don't stock them but if you are looking for one,  Amazon have the WMRK press that works in pretty much the same way as the one I use - here's a link -  


Thank you for visiting.

Crafty hugs 
Keren.

Thursday 23 February 2017

Make a Wish card- quick and easy!


Hello bloggists, welcome!
Sometimes you just need a quick and easy card.

That's what today's project is. One piece of card,some watercolour pencils, and a simple die cut

I'm really impressed with the quality of the watercolour pencils. They are so soft and easy to blend. 

The candles are sized to fit the sides of the window box , but it makes a great little panel to sit on the front of this simple card. Here's a tutorial- it's a nice short one today-



I do hope that you enjoyed it !

I used a stamp press when I made this card because the watercolour paper is quite textured and I wanted to be able to re-stamp in exactly the same place if it didn't stamp clearly. As it happened, it worked fine the first time. SU don't make a stamp press (yet!) but meanwhile, if you're looking for one, Amazon has the WMRK version -

We R Memory Keepers Precision Press Tool For precise Stamping, White


That's it for now but I hope to see you again soon.

Crafty hugs, 
Keren.

Tuesday 21 February 2017

Copper Embossed Box

Hello Bloggists and welcome.


Today's project was inspired by something that I saw while I was watching a history programme. The presenter was talking to another historian in a beautiful room in a palace and on a desk in the background was a lovely item that I think might be an inkstand. 

Whatever it was, I thought it was a beautiful shape and it reminded me of the Window Box. I am also a bit obsessed with the copper foil and the hexagons embossing folder so I couldn't wait to play. This is what I made.  

And here is how I made it.


What do you think?
I really hope that you like it.
See you again soon.
Crafty hugs
Keren.

Saturday 18 February 2017

Simply Sketched 17


Thank you for joining us for another Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge! 

We’re so excited to be sharing this hop with you.  The products used are all available in the current Annual, or seasonal, Stampin’ Up!® Catalogues*. 

Simply use the buttons at the bottom of the post to keep hopping.

Today's sketch was set by Sam Charlton - 
Of course I had to use the Stitched Shapes framelits to make this card.  And because Simply Sketched has coincided with Sale-a-Bration Saturday this week, I used Carried Away DSP.  This is turning into one of my very favourite freebies from this year's Sale-a-Bration!  

If you want to see how I put it together, there will be a tutorial on my YouTube channel  when you come back (the link is over there on the right) but right now, please proceed in an orderly fashion to see what Anna has to share with you by clicking on the 
Or, if you're a  rebellious sort of person, you might want to go to Keila's project by clicking on the 

Either way, I just know there'll be some real inspiration waiting for you!
Normal Service resumes next week.

Crafty Hugs,

Keren


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Thursday 16 February 2017

Pocket Pull-up card

Hello bloggists, and welcome.

I love the fairground.  When I was a child, a family day out at the seaside always ended with a visit to the funfair, and one of the annual excitements of Easter was the travelling fair that visited my home town.   Health and Safety hadn’t really caught on back then and I’m sure that some of those rides wouldn’t pass muster these days but nobody seemed to worry.  I have so many happy memories of those times and of taking my own boys to the fairground as a treat. 

Is it surprising, then, that these stamps and coordinating DSP stack went straight to the top of my wish list?  I wanted to make something special with them and I’ve used them to make this pocket pull-up card. 

It's called a Pocket Pull-up because there's a pocket at the front that holds the pull-tab in place.   You really need to see it in action for the full effect.


via GIPHY

Want to see how I made it?  Here it is!


I just want to say that the adhesive you use needs to be strong and you need to give it time to set properly before you start to play with this.  There's a strut at the back that makes the action happen (if you watched the video, you'll know what I'm talking about) and that does need to be quite rigid, so don't be afraid to reinforce it if it gets too flexible.

I hope you like it enough to give it a try!  Let me know how you get on, won't you?

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Tuesday 14 February 2017

Custom sized envelope

Hello bloggists, and welcome.
Remember the popping box that I posted a couple of weeks ago?  I said then that I would make an envelope for it, and so I have.


The project wasn't without incident, though.  You know how, sometimes, when you're crafting, everything is in exactly the right place and it all just works together beautifully?  This wasn't one of those times.

I don't know what I was thinking when I planned this (and I did plan it, honestly!) but it wasn't about how envelopes are made.

Here's the video - 

Yes, I made it back to front.

I'm going to quit before I hurt myself and have a nice rest!

See you again soon,

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Saturday 11 February 2017

Sale-a-Bration - Any Occasion

Hello bloggists, and welcome!

It's Saturday, and that means it's Sale-a- Bration Saturday, when we play with something lovely from the Sale-a-Bration catalogue.
Today I've been playing with the Any Occasion stamps, as well as the You Lift Me Up DSP. A nice and simple card today, using a notecard as a base.

Here's the tutorial - 

Just the job when you need a quick greeting card, don't you think?

Have a great weekend all,

See you again soon,

Crafty Hugs,

Keren
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Thursday 9 February 2017

Love Hearts Tealights box

Hello bloggists, and welcome!
I've been dying to play with the dies that cut the card for this box since I saw it in the catalogue.  I'm a sucker for boxes, and I do like the hexagonal shape.

The colours I've used here are a bit different to my usual choices.  They're inspired by the Love Hearts tea lights I found in the supermarket.

Here they are (along with my cuppa!) while I was planning the project.  Very Love-hearty.   Disappointingly, they aren't scented - but perhaps Love Hearts scented candles would be too much of a good thing.


Here's the tutorial -
What do you think of it?  Despite my reservations about the colour combinations, I think it came out OK!

See you again soon?

Crafty hugs,


Keren

Tuesday 7 February 2017

Pop Up Cube Revisited!

Hello bloggists and welcome!  
   
One of my earliest YouTube projects was a pop-up cube card.  I'm fascinated by kinetic and pop-up cards and paper engineering in general, and I was dead pleased to find instructions for this sort of project.
 


That was almost two years ago.  My channel has grown since then and I hope that I've learned something as well.  At the time I was only posting once a week and the camera I was using wasn't the best.  I wanted to revisit the project to try and make it a bit easier.  

The tricky part is getting the elastic that makes it pop into position.  The original instructions said to sew it into place but that was fiddly - and also created a weak spot right where you needed strength.

When I made the Baby Shower card, I wondered if the method used to hold the elastic in place would work on the popup cube - and it does!

Here it is in action!

(I've also learned how to make a GIF animation - cool, eh?  I will have to stop myself from putting them into every post though!)
Here's the tutorial - 

(If you want the cutting diagram, click here.)

That's it for now, but I'll be back again soon - please do join me!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren
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Saturday 4 February 2017

Clean and simple card - Designer Tee

Hello bloggists, and welcome.

It's been a very busy week work-wise, and while I got through everything I needed to and it all went well, I'm very glad that it's behind me!  

Crafting has helped me relax this week.

As it's Saturday, and it's Sale-a-Bration time, today I've used one of the items you can earn for FREE when you make a purchase worth £45 or more.  Can't say fairer than that, can we?  (BTW, it's also a very good time to join SU as a demonstrator - as well as the usual starter kit  - £135-worth of items for £99- you can also choose 2 free stamp sets...)

Here's what I've been up to -
That's it for now, see you soon!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Thursday 2 February 2017

Baby Shower card

Hello bloggists, and welcome.

I can’t resist a play on words(although I do turn the death stare on my husband when he comes up with a pun– he doesn’t need any encouragement from me!) and when I saw the baby with the umbrella stamp in the Moon Baby set, I immediately thought “baby shower”.

The picture distorts the colour a bit.  It’s made in Peekaboo Peach and Smokey Slate.  For some reason, the peach (which is very pretty in real like) looks yellow.  If you know the gender of the baby, you could, of course, change the colour accordingly – the Smokey slate would look very good with Soft Sky or Pink Pirouette, for example.

If you’ve followed my ramblings for any length of time, you might also have noticed that I enjoy making action cards and pop-ups.  This one is a “popping box” card.  It folds flat, but has an elastic band running inside, so when you let go of it – it pops up, with quite a bit of energy. 

Here’s how I made it.

Attaching the elastic is a little bit fiddly, and you want to be sure to use a strong adhesive for the attachment points.  If you use tape, I’d add wet glue as well, and make sure it has a good long time to dry properly.
Now all I need to do is to make an envelope to fit it – so watch this space!

That’s it for today,

See you soon,

Crafty Hugs,

Keren