Balsa Basket & Easter Eggs...

Hey!

Happy Monday. Things around here are getting a little more towards a normal schedule. My guy and I had a wonderful weekend at our friends' wedding. That just leaves us to tie the knot out of our friendship group, yet we've been together the longest - go figure LOL!

Anyways, enough of weddings, let's talk Easter. It's going to creep up before you know it. The daffodils are starting to bloom and I'm thinking about chocolate eggs already...

Today's Easter eggs are pastel polka dot ones complete with a wooden basket. I used the newly released Top Dog Dies Basket and Egg Die Set and it cut through my balsa wood like a hot knife through butter! :)

• I believe that a card doesn't always have to have a sentiment related to the occasion on it. The simple sentiment, 'enjoy' says it all I think. :) 
• Have fun experimenting with different materials with your dies. If however you find it a struggle to crank through your die cutting machine then stop immediately. You don't want a broken machine! 
• Easter for me is the season of pretty pastels. If you need to make this design work for a guy, simply substitute the pink egg for a light green or grey one. 

Well that's all from me today. As always, thank you so much for popping by. Your visits are always appreciated! :)

Products Used

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A card disguised as a gift...

Hey!

Happy Monday! You may be sick of me by the end of today as I have not one, but two post scheduled to go live today (That is, if Blogger is behaving!)

First today is a little heads up about the new Clearly Besotted Stamps Challenge. For this challenge, we have a little picture/colour inspiration:

Image courtesy of design seeds.

I took those colours and even the tablecloth pattern to create a birthday card. I simply substituted a shiny cherry for a glossy heart in my design (thanks to Glossy Accents!)

 *Mmmmmm Glossy* (said in Homer Simpson-esque style LOL!)

I covered a tag front in the chequered design from Building Blocks. The tags are from the Tag Along Die Collection and the sentiment is from the coordinating set, Tag Along.  The die cut heart is from the newly released, Little Onesie Die Collection.

• In order to cross over my twine centrally, I lightly marked the midpoint of each side of the square piece of card with a pencil. Then I simply lined up the twine with my pencil marks.
• The peg and big, loopy twine treatment help to balance the tag sitting at an angle.
• Whilst you're making a project like this, why not make a duplicate tag and attach it to a gift that coordinates with the card?

I really hope you can play along with us. One randomly selected peep will win some CBS pennies (aka store credit) to spend on some new CBS goodies!

Right, I'll be back in a few hours with a card that will be heading to my guy on Friday. I hope you can stick around for it! *wink*

Products Used

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Another ho,ho,ho-liday card...

Hey!

Hooray for Friday! Today marks a training day for me at work and nearly the start of the half term holidays - woo hoo! Another reason to celebrate today is that it's the final day of the Uniko Studio sneak peeks and all the products will be available to purchase from tomorrow! :)

If you've missed the fun of the peeks this week you can check them out here, here, here and here. (Once again, said in my best air stewardess voice with accompanying actions *wink*).

I think Bev of Uniko Studio has saved the sweetest and cutest set for last. She says that she doesn't do 'cute' but this set begs to differ. Jolly Christmas is such a sweet set that features Saint Nic himself, a sweet tree and great sentiments. I mean c'mon, how could I not resist inking up Santa? He's adorable!

• To help 'ground' Santa and not have him appear to be floating, I stamped a subtle line of trees from Background Builders: Christmas.
• I added a lot of dimension to santa by giving his fur trim some sparkles (Glitter), his beard some texture (Fluff), and his boots and belt some polish (Glossy Accents).

Here's a close up of Santa. I wish you could feel just how fuzzy his beard is! :)

 

Check out the Uniko Studio blog for more deets on this super-sweet set. And of course, be sure to check out the Uniko Studio blog for the full release reveal tomorrow - it's a great one!

Thank you so much for checkin' in today; whether you've just tuned in today or have been here all week, every visit is very much appreciated.

Sequins: The new buttons?

Hey!

Happy Monday! It's not your typical Monday today, well not over at Clearly Besotted Stamps as today sees the launch of a new, fun monthly challenge! :D

The Clearly Besotted Challenge will run on every 10th of the month and will mean you get a chance to join in some fun, and maybe win yourself some CBS goodies too!

This month's challenge is an easy one. Anything goes! Yup, really, anything goes. Just use those CBS stamps and create something! And you're really not gonna want to miss out on this first challenge as one randomly selected peep will win five CBS stamp sets of their choice! You heard me right - F.I.V.E! :D

I've been itching to ink up Cute & Cuddly since it landed on my desk. Initially, I wanted to colour those cute animals, but I also wanted to show how you don't need to be a colouring expert to get the most from these stamps. And pairing this set up with Baby Love just seemed so right. I love the soft grey and pastel blue to celebrate a baby boy.

• I used a simple masking technique for this card. Whenever I get a set with images that I know I'll be using a masking technique with, the first thing I do is stamp them all on sticky-notes, trim them out, and keep them with the set. Then I can mask whenever I please with ease! :) 
• This design could so easily be changed to suit a girl - just change the blue to pink. Or if you want to keep it gender neutral - I'm a real fan of crisp white or the traditional yellow.
• I used a cool border punch at the top of my ledger panel to create a note-book style focal point. If you punch before you stamp, you'll find it easy to keep the design evenly spaced across the top.

Oh, and did you spot them? The sequins? Yup, I'm on that bandwagon now as well. Ha! I'd normally use buttons on a baby card, but I like the sparkle of the sequins way more :)

So, wanna win FIVE CBS stamp sets of your choice? To participate, your project must feature some CBS goodness on it somewhere - that's the only requirement. You've got until Sunday June 23rd to enter and if you'd like to be a guest designer then there's a chance for that too! So get those CBS stamps out, ink 'em up, and join us!

Products Used

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Faking it: enamel dot styleee...

Hey!

Ready for Day 2 of the release sneaky peeks from Uniko Studio? I hope so!

Today we're giving you a sneaky peek of a new stamp set AND a fab new digital paper collection. My card today features both. Remember: all new products featured are available for purchase on April 11th!

The new set, All Occasion Sentiments features mega-sized sentiments that are perfect for providing the focal point for your projects. I love the variety of fonts in the set, and opted to play with this 'Hello' stamp for my sneaky peek project. I know, I know, gold again! I will get bored of it one day....maybe *wink*

The digital paper I've used is from the new, On the Grid digital paper collection. I love it! I'm a sucker for grids and I love the variety available in the collection. Y'know when you used to be picky about what graph paper to use at school? Should you opt for the 1cm squared type or the super duper 1mm squared type? Just me on this one? Well this collection is the same for me! Decisions, decisions....! :)

I'm also going to enter this card into the Simon Says Stamp and Show: Anything Goes Challenge. Hurry if you want to enter, the challenge closes later today! 

• When working with digital papers - try not to resize them as the design will shrink. Use a crop option instead.
• See those fancy enamel dots that are popping up on projects everywhere? Yeah, I'd love to get me some of them too! But for now, my old collection of brads are working as my faux enamel dots.  Want then to shine? Then simply add a coast of Glossy Accents to them. A great way to use up the old supplies!

Now some of the Uniko Studio DT are giving more sneaky peeks of this stamp set and collection of papers so be sure to check them out:

Bev @ Uniko Studio   
Aimes - That's me! :)
Amber
Erika 
Nicki 
Ren-Yi 
Stacey
Taheerah (Guest DT)

And I hope you can stop by tomorrow for more Uniko Studio sneaky peeks! :D







Products Used
(Not all featured here. I will add new products I've used as they become available to purchase!)

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