Keeping Memories and Back To School

Good afternoon friends and followers old and new.  Last week I made a Smash Book using  Papermilldirect's extra thick black 550gsm card for the book covers and lots of different coloured card for my inserts. You can find my tutorial for making this simple ring bound smash book on the Papermilldirect blog HERE.   

As a child (many years ago!) I remember receiving a Victorian type scrapbook with stickers and other items to add to it.  It was fun sticking things into the scrapbook and adding some details about them throughout the year. A smash book reminds me of this old fashioned type of scrapbooking, it is something you can fill with interesting things you pick up, ideas you have, write about interesting places you have been and things you have seen, or a place to try out crafty techniques, stamps, doodling and colouring.

The header picture shows  my simple version of a smash book which I fastened with a card button and some elastic, a note book to carry with me and a bound smash book.  I used the 500gsm card for making the bound smash book too it is an ideal weight for making a firm cover and strong spine, the hinge to hold the wire binding was made from 300gsm smooth white card.  There are many tutorials for the bound smash book on the internet if you want see how they are made.

This week we have a Back To School theme over on the Papermilldirect blog.  Here is my Design Team make, a timetable clipboard and tag made with the white 550gsm thick card and black, red, blue and white card for the layering and tag.  

I used three sheets of 550gsm white card glued together to make the clipboard and layered Post Box Red and special offer Azure Blue card on top.  250gsm Smooth White, Black, Post Box Red and special offer Azure Blue card were used for the gift tag.  The gift tag was cut on the Silhouette using a Lori whitlock cutting file "Back To School Phrase".

The timetable was created in Page Plus, a desk top publishing programme, but you could use any word processing programme.  I clipped the timetable to the board with a large bulldog clip ready for filling in and attached a ruled pad to the back of the board for making notes.  The 580gsm card made a strong base for the clip board and the smooth white card printed beautifully on my new ink jet printer.

Pop over to the Papermilldirect shop to see the new range of coloured cards added recently, there are some fabulous new colours.  Don't forget to check out Mypaperwarehouse Papermill's sister company too for back to school supplies as well as craft supplies and stamp.

Have a lovely Bank Holiday Weekend - see you next week xx

Take 5 - Playing With Words And Inky Flowers

Hi everyone, another month and another Take 5 Challenge, this month's theme is WORDS.  I have an inky card for you today using some bright colours and my favourite daisy stamp from the double daisy stamp set.  I used stamping card for the coloured and stamped panel which was matted onto papermilldirect black and post box red card before attaching to a white linen card blank.  

The stamping card was cut in a square 14cm x 14cm and coloured with drops of pure colour chemistry ink which were left a while them rolled over with a kitchem roll to spread out the ink and remove any excess.  I overstamped the English garden words in grey pigment ink and stamped the daisy in black over the colour splodges touching up the petals that did not have any colour.  The sentiment was stamped in black over the garden words but the impression was poor so I stamped it on a piece of card, making sure I stamped the garden word in the right place to match the original and placed it over my mistake.   I used black Archival ink for the flower and sentiment as this is waterprooof when dry allowing me to colour the petals without smudging.  

I always add an insert to my cards and this was stamped and coloured the same as the front with the daisy.

Are you joining us for this month's challenge? there are plenty of sentiment stamps available in the Oak House Shop pop over and take a look, I'm sure we will see quite a few of them over the month in the Take 5 Challenge blog posts.

Take 5 - A Million Thank You's

Good afternoon everyone, hope the sun is shining where you are and you missed the rain showers this morning.  Here is a card and tag I made for the Take 5 Challenge "Words" over on the Oak House Studio blog.  The background was made using the shaving foam technique, I just love the way this one turned out.  Oak House Studio pure colour chemistry inks were used on the shaving foam to create the background

I cut my A4 coloured sheet up to make a tag and a 15cm x 15cm card.  White gesso was stencilled onto the background and when dry I stencilled areas with sea blue and  spring green pigment inks and stamped the rose element from the texture elements stamp set using pigment ink and stamped the sentiment stamps in black Archival ink to give a crisp stamp over the gesso, the stamps used were  men's words and women's words.

 

The tag was matted onto a piece of black card, and the card panel was matted onto black and layered onto white card then onto a white card blank.  All card used is from Papermilldirect.

Why not join in the challenge with your own project using Oak House Studio products, pop over and join the Facebook Group to find out how, and for details of the fabulous prize up for grabs.

Autumn Colours and Christmas Cheer

  

Morning everyone, today I have an Autumn inspired card and a few Christmas cards.  The Autumn leaves card and the two Christmas cards were made with Papermilldirect special offer card, white linen, mocha brown and ocean blue, pop over to their special offer section where you will find an array of beautiful card.

This week's theme is Autumn colours, I love Autumn and my background is full of oranges, reds, yellows and a little brown.  I dabbed distress inks onto an acrylic block, spritz with a little water and stamped it onto white linen card, stamped the sentiment from Inkylicious and decorated with Gold Sandgrain die cut leaves.  The panel was mounted onto a mocha brown card blank.

These two Christmas cards were made for Karin's Only Christmas Cards Facebook Page, it's been fun making a card each week and I will have at least 50 cards at the end of the year.  Again I have used Papermilldirect special offer card, the colorflute in the Tabriz Blue (not much of this left!) and Gold but there are some other colours available too. The  acrylic block technique was used on one and just matting and layering on the other.

That's all for now, thank you for taking a look and for any comments left, they are really appreciated.  I will be back again soon with some more Oak House Studio makes for the Take 5 Challenge.

Take 5 - Flowers And Friends

Hello friends, followers and family, today I have an Oak House Studio Take 5 blog post for you, the theme this month is "WORDS".   Why not join in the challenge with your own project using Oak House Studio products, pop over and join the Facebook Group to find out how, and for details of the fabulous prize up for grabs.   

My card is a quick and easy one using totally turquoise and Peter's pear pure colour chemistry inks and grey pigment ink.  I used a die cut swirl for the flower heads but thought afterwards that I could have stamped and white heat embossed using the rose from the texture elements stamp set.  The flower stems were hand drawn using a pencil so they blended in with the grey colouring of the garden words stamping and friends sentiment. 

The front panel of the card was made using a lightly sprayed piece of card, using totally turquoise ink.  This was overstamped with a few patches of the English garden words stamp in slate grey pigment ink.  two die cut swirls were placed over the words and the flower stems drawn in and coloured with Peter's pear ink.  the sentiment was stamped on white card and cut out using a die.  A few sequins were scattered around the card to finish.

All card used from Papermilldirect.