Finally shaking the sequins...

Hey!

Happy Monday! It was a little shock to the system to hear my alarm go off so early after having a lovely two weeks off, but it only took a matter of minutes to get back into school-mode.

So if you popped by this blogeroo on Friday, you'll see that I unintentionally rebelled from the fabulous theme of Pretty Pink Posh's Sequin Shaker Blog Hop that was run in collaboration with Top Dog Dies plus many other great companies.

Oh I know the clue was in the title, but those sequins are so distracting with their pretty little ways *wink*. Anyways, I'm hoping to make up for my crafting faux pas today with today's card. Yes, an actual sequin shaker card has now been created. 

The frame for the shaking business was created by die cutting the lens from the Top Dog Dies Camera Die and snipping off the flash section. It created a great circular frame and left me with solid circles to play with at a later date, on a future project. :)
 

• To give a good depth to get those sequins shaking, I die cut the frame from some ancient funky foam I had in my stash. It beats having to layer up lots of cardstock frames. 
• I purposely picked pink foam to go under the dark green frame to give it a fun contrast and to tie in with the colours of the fuchsias in the frame. 
• I got busy with some embossing paste and a Tim Holtz stencil for the card base. The stencil wasn't wide enough to cover the card base, so I simply applied the paste through the stencil on one half of the card and then once that had dried I did the same to the other side. I also missed a section (trying to avoid the shaker section) but the stencil was easy to place to perfection once the original paste had dried and allowed me to touch up missed sections. 

These shaker cards are so fun, and so easy to create. The hardest part is always deciding what to put inside the shaker compartment. For this card, is was a mix of Pretty Pink Posh amethyst and pansy purple sequins.

Well that's all from me today. I hope you've had a great start to the week and thanks for finding the time to visit today.





Products Used

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Pretty Pink Posh & Top Dog Dies Hop!

Hey!

Hoooooooray for Friday! Well, kinda hooray seeing as it's my last day of freedom for the Easter holidays. It's back to work on Monday...Holidays zoom by so fast!

So today I'm sharing a little party card that got a little sequin crazy. It's all part of the fun of a blog hop where Top Dog Dies, along with many other wonderful companies, joins forces with Pretty Pink Posh!

Pretty Pink Posh is getting busy with the hop tomorrow and also has a sweet offer:

Pretty Pink Posh specialises in the most adorable embellishments for your crafting projects. As part of the Top Dog Dies DT we were sent little packages of sweetness to play with and I received some yummy amethyst and pansy purple sequins.

Now before I go on, you may notice that my card is anything but a shaker card. My bad. I just got distracted and busy with the sequins before reading the small print. Ooops! Sorry! I aim to make up for it by making a shaker card as soon as I can. Sorry again!

So I rebelled from the blog hop theme unintentionally and paired these sequins with the Top Dog Dies Vintage Alphabet Die and made my own kinda ticker tape using the butterfly flourish from the Butterfly Finishers Die Set.

Oh, and I added a touch of sparkle to my die cut letters using my faithful clear Wink of Stella pen. That pen is like a magic wand to me! 

OK so I went a little sequin crazy on my card, but I couldn't resist! I also started with the lighter shade of sequins at the top and the darker ones at the bottom for a very slight ombre effect.

Be sure to hop along and see what amazing projects the rest of the Top Dogs Dies DT whipped up. I bet the rest of the DT used their brains and created wonderful sequin shaker cards for your viewing pleasure!

Top Dog Dies
Amy Tsuruta
Giovana Smith
Karen Letchworth
Katie Brooks
Renee Robbins

Thank you so much for stopping/hopping on by here today. Have a wonderful weekend!

Die -> Stencil -> Lettering -> Video Tutorial...

 

Hey!

I'm over on the Top Dog Dies blog today with this card. It features a mish-mash of products and techniques. It's kinda similar to yesterday's card but I like to think that this one is a little more grungy. :)

I've been playing with stencils on this card (as well as stamping of course!) I used a swoon-worthy Memory Box stencil to select random stars to draw around my sentiment and I created a stencil of my own using a Top Dog Dies die.

I used the Top Dog Dies Vintage Alphabet Die to create my lettering by simple creating a stencil from it. I did the same for yesterday's card too. I've braved the camera and created a little mini-video-tutorial to show you exactly how I do this. I do babble a lot but I hope it gives you a better idea of how easy this is to do:

 

If you can't view the video for any reason, check it out here. :)

Easy, right?! To grunge up my card a little more I added some stamped flourishes and ink splatters - it makes such a difference to the design which looked a little bare before. However, I then realised the flourishes stamped over my lettering so I shaded the lettering using a pale blue marker.

Well that's all from me today! As always, thank you so much for stopping by today! 

Products Used

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Top Dog Dies & Scrapbook Circle Unite!

Hey!

Happy Easter-Bank-Holiday-Monday! :D

I'm hopping in today as part of a fantastic hop as Top Dog Dies and Scrapbook Circle unite!  You should have hippety hopped over here from Scrapbook Circle, but if you haven't then be sure to start out at the Top Dog Dies blog.

Top Dog Dies are giving away one Scrapbook Circle List Kit and Scrapbook Circle are giving away 2 prizes of $50 in Top Dog Dies wafef-thin dies! Be sure to pop over and register over on the Top Dog Dies blog to be in with your chance to win! Check out this Top Dog Dies offer too:

Oooh and there's a special discount code for Scrapbook Circle too: Use the code 'scrapbook20' to receive 20% off your order today through to May 31st 2014.

Scrapbook Circle create monthly scrapbook kits that include custom printable and coordinating digital files. Exclusive items are included in each kit and is chock-full of current, trendy products. As a card-maker myself, I had no problemo getting busy with the kit! :D

Lucky for us Top Dog Dies DT, we got a stash of goodies to work with and I couldn't wait to get busy with some gorgeous Studio Calico paper and these cool, kraft speech bubble stickers. Love them!

I added a touch of Top Dog Dies goodness in the form of the photo corners from the Camera Finishers Die Set. I just rotated them 90 degrees to act as arrows instead to direct your eye to the sentiment and also to coordinate with the patterned paper.

I also used the Top Dog Dies Vintage Alphabet Die as a stencil with my white gel pen to create the sentiment. Easy peasy!

For a touch of extra detail I got busy with a Memory Box Stars stencil and some translucent embossing paste. Oh, and a scrap of gold Cricut iron-on material finishes the card off. :)

Well I hope you get lots of inspiration on the hop today! Next on your hop is the fabulous and fellow Amy, Amy T! :D

Thank you so much for hopping by today - happy hopping!

Milk & Eggs...

Hey!

Happy Good Friday!  Today I'm travelling across to see my side of the family to deliver these Easter treats to my nieces and nephews. I like to create something every year for them and although I'm sure that they're waaaaaay more interested in the contents of the items I whip up for them (mini chocolate eggs this year), I still like to create them. :)

So what is it this year for my lovely nieces and nephews? Milk cartons! Nope, there's no real link to Easter with milk cartons but I love the shape of them so that's what we're going with:

Apologies about the total over expsoure in these two pictures - it's that darn sunshine. Small price to pay for happy sunny days though, right? ;)

This year's containers were so easy to create thanks to using my Cricut Mini. I simply cut the the milk carton from various sheets of this lovely paper collection, Splendid Sunshine, from Echo Park Paper Co using the Tags, Bags, Boxes & More 2 digital cartridge. I think this patterned paper is pretty fitting for Easter with it's springtime vibe. :)

You may notice that the photo props (Cadbury's Mini Eggs) deplete as the pictures continue. What can I say? They just disappeared somehow! ;P

To secure these sweet cartons, I added some tape inside the top flaps. Twine didn't hold it secure enough to prevent me or my guy from breaking into them for my liking.

After safely securing the tops with tape, each carton was decorated with Doodlebug twine, and a die-cut tag and stamped sentiment from Clearly Besotted Stamps' Tag Along stamp set and die collection. Oh, and a mini peg too - I just couldn't resist! ;)

Here's hoping that these cartons surviving their transit today! Have a fabulous Friday, whether you celebrate Good Friday or not, and a wonderful weekend (bank holiday here we come! - woop woop!)

Thank you so much for visiting today!

Products Used

FYI: There are two links to all Clearly Besotted Stamps goodies. One links direct to the UK store and one links to a USA supplier, Simon Says Stamps.

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