Create & Take: Easter Gift Box

Hi bloggers, welcome to a new week! We have a lovely project for you today from last week's Create & Take using the dies that come with the New Big Shot Plus Starter Kit. After using this machine for a day to prep the kits for the Create & Take I can tell you that it is definitely a dream machine and worth upgrading your standard Big Shot machine, especially if you want to cut A4 dies. It makes cutting multiple dies a breeze as you can lay them all out with different cardstock and cut all those different elements with one pass - time saver!

The Big Shot Plus Starter Kit is definitely worth the extra money as the kit comes with a range of Bigz and Thinlit dies plus some great papers as well, take a little look below.....

Big Shot Plus Starter Kit - £159.99

Big Shot Plus Machine - £119.99

Get your Big Shot Plus here

Now on with today's project, the Easter Gift Box - using the dies that come with the starter kit.

Products Used:

A4 Kraft Card

Bazzill Basics White Textured Cardstock

Echo Park Orange Spring Dots & Stripes Cardstock

Echo Park Happy Easter Cardstock - Carrots

Sizzix Big Shot Plus Starter Kit

Taylored Expressions Many Mini's Holidays Stamp Set

3D Foam Tape

Twine

Papermania Gold Shimmer Dome Stickers

Instructions:

1. Using the Big Shot Plus machine, kraft card and box die, cut out the box shape and then use scissors to cut away the lid.

2. Fold along the crease lines and then assemble using double sided tape.

3. Cut out the lid section again using white card and then cut away all but 2cm of the box, fold along the crease lines and assemble the lid using double sided tape. Adhere the back flap to the top of the back of the box base.

3. Using the Scallop Trim Thinlits die, cut out a white border and attach to the lid using double sided tape.

4. Cut out a strip of Carrots patterned paper measuring 2cm x 13cm and trim end into a 'V' shape. Use double sided tape to stick this into position on the lid of the box.

5. Using the Tag Framelits die cut out a tag shape from white card, stamp 'Easter Blessings' and attach to the box using some twine.

6. Die cut a flower using the Bigz die from Orange Dots cardstock and layer this with an intricate white die cut flower and two die cut flower centers.

7. Finish by adhering a gold shimmer dome sticker to the center of the flower and place the flower on the top of the box with double sided tape.

And whoalah, a beautiful Easter Gift Box, now just pop some eggs inside and your ready to give it to that special someone.

For more inspiring ideas for Easter, don't forget to check out our Easter Pinterest board here.

Easter Egg-exploding Box

Good morning bloggers! Today we want to share with you Jo's fabulous egg-exploding box from Saturday's class. Jo has used some beautiful Graphic 45 papers from the Botanical collection plus some of the new We R Memory Keepers acetate to create windows in the box. Check out some more pictures below....

We love this egg basket in the center of the box filled with some chocolate goodies!

If you want to see more of Jo's creations then why not come along to our Spring Demo Day on Saturday 11th April, Jo will also be hosting a short workshop where you will be making a small notebook decorated with some beautiful flowers. Workshop spaces are still available and only cost £5. Call us on 01293 863576 to book a space.

For more information about our Spring Demo Day, please click here.

Create & Take: Easter Egg Hunt

Happy Monday bloggers! We hope you have all had a creative weekend and getting into the Spring flow of things with the weather looking more cheerful! We have a lovely Easter card to share with you this week from Friday's Create & Take using the new Impression Obsession dies.

So let's get started....

Products:

A6 White Card Blank

Echo Park Happy Easter Cardstock - Easter Floral

Bazzill Basics Cardstock - White Smoothie

Bazzill Basics Cardstock - Lemonade

Bazzill Basics Cardstock - Parakeet

Impression Obsession Girl with Easter Basket Die Set

Poppystamps Woodland Border Die

Kirstie Allsopp Ditsy Dots Embossing Folder

Tonic Studios Oval Layering Die Set

Spellbinders Oval Nestabilities Die Set

Taylored Expressions Many Mini's Holidays Stamp Set

Pink Satin Ribbon 6mm

3D Foam Tape

Glossy Accents

Instructions:

1. Cut the Easter Floral cardstock 10cm x 14.5cm.

2. Die cut an oval from the Easter  Floral cardstock.

3. Cut the Lemonade cardstock 8cm x 12cm and emboss with the Ditsy Dots embossing folder.

4. Die cut the Woodland Border from Parakeet cardstock and the Girl with the Easter Basket from White cardstock. Start assembling all the elements in the middle of the card, using the oval die cut cardstock as a guide so everything fits within that oval frame. Start to adhere using glossy accents.

5. Die cut some Easter eggs from a variety of pastel coloured cardstock and adhere onto the basket and also on the woodland border.

6. Die cut two ovals from white and yellow cardstock . Stamp 'Happy Easter' on one and layer on top of each other.

7. Cut a piece of satin ribbon 14cm in length and wrap around the bottom of the Easter Floral cardstock and adhere the Easter sentiment in place.

8. Finally use 3D foam tape to adhere the Easter Floral cardstock to the card.

Make sure you pop back to the blog tomorrow to see Jo's Egg-exploding box, a wonderful creation, perfect for Easter!

Tim Holtz Vintage Folio

Good morning bloggers! Today we wanted to share with you Sue M's project from her class last week. Sue's latest creation is a Vintage Folio uisng one of Tim Holtz's Mini Folios. Sue also used the new range of Kaisercraft papers from 'Betsy's Couture' collection which have some fabulous vintage imagery in wonderful blue and brown tones, perfect for this project. Sue's class is a two part workshop where she will finish off the inside of the folio with pockets, tags, photos and more. We wanted to share some pictures of the folio so far.....

The second part of Sue's class will be in April so make sure you keep an eye out for our blog post in April to review the rest of Sue's folio.

Red Nose Day Fun

Hi bloggers, we hope you have all had a lovely weekend, fitting in plenty of crafting and we also hope you managed to catch a few of the Comic Relief sketches on Friday evening. We had our own little Comic Relief party on Friday, raising money through our weekly Create & Take and also a Red Nose Day themed bake sale. We also took the opportunity to make ourselves 'funny for money'. Take a look at some of the photos below....

Our Create & Take also had a Red Nose Day theme too, check out our Red Nose Day Dog card below with full instructions too.....

Products Used:

A6 White Card Blank

Carta Bella Rough & Tumble Cardstock - Daring Dots

Carta Bella Rough & Tumble Cardstock - Wild Words

Bazzill Basics Cardstock - White Smoothie

Bazzill Basics Cardstock - Sea Salt

Bazzill Basics Cardstock - Raven

Bazzill Basics Cardstock - Hershey Chocolate

Lawn Fawn Into the Woods Cardstock - Willow

Kraft Cardstock

Tim Holtz Kraft Core Cardstock - Light Blue

Elizabeth Craft Design Props 1 Die Set

Elizabeth Craft Design Props 2 Die Set

Karen Burniston Buster the Dog Die Set

Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo

Sponge Dauber

Papermania Red Shimmer Dome Stickers

3D Foam Pads

Instructions:

1. Cut the Wild Words cardstock 10cm x 14.5cm and adhere to the card blank.

2. Cut the Sea Salt cardstock 8cm x 11cm and adhere to the middle of the card.

3. Cut the Daring Dots cardstock 7cm x 10cm and adhere to the middle of the card using 3D foam pads.

4. Die cut all the pieces of the dog set using the relevant coloured cardstock. Add a little Vintage Photo round the edges of the dog and adhere all the pieces together.

5. Die cut the party hat, glasses and bow tie from the Props die sets using the relevant coloured cardstock and adhere in place.

6. Adhere the dog to the middle of the card.

7. Finish by adding a red shimmer dome sticker to the dog's nose in support of Red Nose Day!

The Red Nose Day Create & Take kits are still available to buy in-store at £3 each and all the proceeds will go to Comic Relief.

We are pleased to announce that so far we have raised £129.02 for Comic Relief so thank you everyone that donated and came to the shop on Friday!

Create & Take: Mother's Day Bouquet

Hi bloggers, we hope you have had a good weekend and it was finally nice to see some Spring sunshine! Last Friday's Create & Take was a card in preparation for Mother's Day this coming Sunday using the Memory Box watering can and the new Lily flowers from Marianne. So let's get started with everything you will need....

Products Needed:

Square White Card Blank

Studio Light Paper (SCRAPJBS04)

Bazzill Basics White Smoothie Cardstock 

Bazzill Basics Stonehenge Cardstock

Marianne Tiny's Lily Craftables die (CR1306)

Memory Box Garden Watering Can die

Tonic Studios Oval Layering Die Set

Taylored Expressions Many Mini's Holidays Stamp Set

Distress Ink Pad - Spun Sugar

Distress Ink Pad - Peeled Paint

Distress Ink Pad - Pumice Stone

White Hemp Cord

Sponge Daubers

Versafine Ink Pad - Onyx Black

Instructions:

1. Cut the Studio Light paper 13cm x 13cm, distress with a little Pumice Stone ink around the edges and then adhere to the card blank.

2. Die cut Tiny's Lily three times from White Smoothie cardstock.

3. Use the Spun Sugar and Peeled Paint distress inks with a sponge dauber to add some colour to the lilies.

4. Die cut the watering can from Stonehenge cardstock and distress with a little Pumice Stone ink.

5. Die cut a scalloped oval from the Tonic Studios die set, ink the edges with some Spun Sugar ink and stamp 'Happy Mother's Day' in the center.

6. Adhere all the elements onto the card and finish by tying a piece of white hemp cord and adhering onto the watering can.

The Taylored Expressions stamp set is perfect to use with this card as you can easily change the sentiment depending on the occasion you are making this card for.

Spring Demo Day

Hi bloggers, today we want to share with you all the details for our upcoming demo day on Saturday 11th April. There will be a mixture of demo's and workshops on the day so you will have the chance to get stuck in yourself and have a go! Demo's will be up at the Crafts U Love Shop and the workshops will be at Charlwood Parish Hall, 5 minutes down the road from the shop.

Shop Demo's

Sue Millard - Join Sue as she demo's the new Bloom Impression tool by Marion Smith to create the perfect petals for making your own flowers.

Suzie Candlin (as seen on Create & Craft) - Come along and see the Cricut Explore machine in action as Suzie shows you how to go from inspiration to creation in just a few clicks.

Charlwood Hall Demo's & Workshops

The times listed below are just for the workshops, the designers will also be there all day to demo their products to you as well so if you can't make the workshops please still pop along to see the designers in action.

Workshops are £5 each - to book your space please call the shop on 01293 863576.

10.30am - 11.15am - Stamping Caz

Glitterrific Fun! Come and make a lovely little card with Caz and the beautiful glitters from Elizabeth Craft Design. With a little bit of masking and some die cuts you'll bring your cards to life with this technique.

12pm - 12.45pm - Karen Maccoy

Join Karen to make a gorgeous 3D Spring tag in soft muted colours using some of the newest dies from Memory Box.

1.15pm - 2pm - Jo Wojcik

Come and decorate a mini notebook with Sospeso flowers that you will learn to cut and shape to end up with a pretty notebook that you won't want to give away.

2.15pm - 3pm - Alex Kamann

Making cards for men can make you feel distressed! But fear not, Alex has one for the men! Stamping and colouring with distress inks for a fabulous project.

Spaces are starting to fill up so don't delay and book today!

There will also be a Vintage Cafe at Charlwood Hall for refreshment and plenty of cake! We will also have a raffle on the day so make sure you don't leave without taking part for your chance to win some crafting goodies.

All in all it is set to be a great day and we can't wait to see you all there!

Orchid Cards and a Notebook Organiser

Hi bloggers, today we wanted to review some of the amazing creations from last week's classes with Charry and Jo. Charry made a beautiful collection of cards using some of the new Marianne dies, including the Orchid die and stamp set, whilst Jo designed a fantastic little notebook organiser using some of the new Maja Design papers from the NYHAVN collection.

Let's start with Charry's beautiful cards...

Charry's cards have a lovely oriental theme to them and they show you how well the Marianne dies work together to create a beautiful card scene. Some of the dies Charry used includes:

COL1379 Marianne Orchid Die & Stamp Set

CR1301 Marianne Garden Statue Die

CR1263 Marianne Trellis Panel

Charry also used the Joy! Crafts Cherry Blossom Tree stamp set (6410-0311) to create some beautiful backgrounds that worked perfectly with the Marianne dies.

Jo made use of the new Maja Design NYHAVN papers to create this adorable little notebook organiser...

The organiser included a small notepad and pen holder on one side with a file organiser on the other to keep all your documents and ideas organised. These organisers would make excellent gifts, especially with Mother's Day approaching and nothing beats a handmade gift! 

To buy from the NYHAVN collection, click here

If you fancy coming along to a Crafts U Love class then check out our current class list. Alongside our classes we also have a weekly Create & Take every Friday, a perfect way to see some of the new products in action. No need to book just show up on Friday between 10.30am and 1pm.

Finally, our demo day class list has been put together. We are offering four different classes on the day, for more details call us on 01293 863576.

Create & Take: Boxed Daisy Trio

Good morning bloggers, we hope you have had a lovely weekend, fitting in a bit of crafting when you can. It's the start of a new month and with the sun shining, Spring is on its way and what better way to start off the month then with a beautiful floral card design made by Caz for last week's Create & Take.

Products Used:

White A5 Card Blank

Woodware Boxed Daisies Trio Clear Stamp (JGS377)

Taylored Expressions Burlap Embossing Folder

Papermania Shimmer Dome Stickers - Gold 

Tim Holtz Light Blue Kraft Core

White, Blue, Green Coloured Pencils

Black Versafine Ink Pad

Sanding Block

Instructions:

1. Cut a piece of kraft card 3-6/8" x 5-3/8" and stamp the image onto the cardstock using black ink.

2. Cut a piece of Light Blue Kraft Core 4-1/2" x 6-1/2".

3. Emboss the lower half of the blue cardstock with the burlap embossing folder and then use the sanding block to reveal some of the kraft core. Adhere to the card blank.

4. Colour the stamped image using white, blue and green pencils.

5. Take one dome sticker of each size and adhere to the centre of the flowers - use the largest on the top flower, smallest on the left flower and the middle size on the right flower.

6. Adhere the stamped image onto the middle of the card.

This card design is great for when you need to make that last minute birthday card as it is very quick and easy to make.

Make sure you pop back to the blog tomorrow to see the latest creations from Charry and Jo.