Create & Take: Meadow Flower Circle

Hi bloggers, it's a lovely start to the week here in Charlwood with clear blue skies and what better way to start the week than by summing up last week's Create & Take which the design is perfect for such a sunny day.

So let's get started....

Products Used:

Woodware Meadow Flower Stamp Set

Tonic Studios Layering Circles Die Set

Black Versafine Ink Pad

Watercolour Pencils

Marianne Tiny's Butterflies 1 Die Set

Blue Iridescent Bubble

Authentique Cuddle Girl Petite Flower Cardstock

Authentique Cuddle Girl Pink Flourish Cardstock

Tim Holtz Abandoned Coral Ink Pad

Tim Holtz Tumbled Glass Ink Pad

Sponge Dauber

Silver Glitter Glue

Instructions:

1. Using a square folded card, die cut a large scalloped circle to make a folded card.

2. Die cut various sizes of circles from the different patterned papers.

3. Stamp the Meadow flower image onto a white die cut circle and colour with watercolour pencils. Add some Tumbled Glass distress ink around the edge using a sponge dauber.

4. Die cut a butterfly from white cardstock and colour with Abandoned Coral distress ink. Die cut the butterfly from silver cardstock and cut around the body to stick on top of the inked butterfly.

5. Stamp the Happy Birthday sentiment onto a small circle die cut.

6. Assemble the card as shown, finishing the card by adding some silver stickles and a iridescent bubble to the centre of a flower.

To see more stamps from the Woodware collection, click here.

Scrapbook Club Sneak Peek

Hi bloggers, today we have a sneak peek of Saturday's Scrapbook Club to share with you today, so for those of you coming along, have a good look at the photos to give you an idea of what you might want to bring with you.

Since the theme of this month's Scrapbook Club is family tree, the two pages have a vintage feel about them with some brown tones. Therefore when printing your photos you might want to change them to a sepia tone or black and white.

For the family tree page the size of the photo space is 3.5cm height by 3cm width so bare this in mind when choosing what photos to bring with you. There will be a template to draw round to cut the photo to the right size and shape.

The opposite page will feature a wedding layout which you can use for one of the couples featured in the family tree. The size of the photo space is approx. 11cm x 8.5cm and once again we will have a template you can draw around to get the photo to fit perfectly.

We always recommend photocopying old photos or scanning them into your computer and printing copies just so that you still have the photo on hand in case you want to use it for another project.

There are still 2 places left on this class on Saturday so if you fancy dabbling in a bit of scrapbooking, call us on 01293 863576 to book your space.

Pop It Up with Karen Burniston

Hi bloggers, Saturday was an amzing day at the Crafts U Love shop as we had a visit from the one and only Karen Burniston who designs the Pop It Ups collection from Elizabeth Craft Design. It was lovely meeting Karen and to see her products in action through her wonderful demonstrations.

We had a great response from everyone that came and Karen was delighted with the welcome she received from you all and enjoyed her visit very much. 

Karen next to her Pop It Ups banner that Caz made for her.

Karen with Elaine. 

Karen brought some wonderful sample cards with her that were pegged up on our Inspiration wall for the day.

Karen with Paula & Geoff

To celebrate this special occasion we also held a raffle with 3 great prizes for the lucky winners:-

1st: £25 Voucher for Crafts U Love

2nd: Two signed cards from Karen Burniston

3rd: Elizabeth Craft Design Apron and Mug

We would all like to say a HUGE thank you to Karen Burniston for stopping by Crafts U Love whilst on her visit to the UK. As some of you may know our own Caz Counsell is on the Design Team for Karen Burniston and they finally got to meet each other at the CHSI Stitches show in Birmingham at the weekend.

Watch this space for a Pop It Ups class with Caz Counsell coming soon to Crafts U Love!

Create & Take: Wool Be Friends

Hi bloggers, it's the start of a new week and we want to get it going with some card inspiration from last week's Create & Take using some new Poppystamps stamps and dies.

So let's get started....

Products Used:

Poppystamps Wool Be Friends Stamp Set

Poppystamps Wool Be Friends Die Set

Marianne Grass Die Set

Karen Burniston Cloud Embossing Folder

Oval Die

Poppystamps Petal Ribbon Die

Black Ink Pad

Watercolour Pencils

Stickles Crystal Glitter Glue

Fossilised Amber Distress Ink Pad

Tumbled Glass Distress Ink Pad

Sponge Dauber

White Cardstock

Green Cardstock

Teal Cardstock

Polka Dot Cardstock

Gingham Cardstock

Instructions:

1. Cut the oval die from white cardstock and emboss using the Clouds embossing folder.

2. Gently swipe Tumbled Glass ink onto clouds using a sponge dauber.

3. Stamp the sheep onto white card and colour using watercolour pencils. Die cut the sheep using the matching dies.

4. Die cut the Petal Ribbon twice from white cardstock and once from teal cardstock. Cut the flowers out from both the white cardstock, shape and colour with Fossilised Amber ink.

5. Die cut the grass from green cardstock and position the first bit of the grass low on the oval shape and then add the second bit behind it.

6. Cut a piece of polka dot cardstock to fit the base of the card. Cut a strip of Gingham cardstock approx. 1" width x width of the card base and stick in place.

7. Assemble all the pieces as shown on the card and add some Stickles glitter glue to the centre of the flowers.

To view more dies and stamps from the new Poppystamps collection, click here.

Create & Take: Out on the Open Sea

Last week's Create & Take was a nautical themed card using the new Shipmates die set from Emily Atherton's collection for Sizzix.  A great card for the men in our lives and worked brilliantly with the Swirling Stitches die from memory Box, showing how you could use this die to illustrate waves in the sea.

Let's get started:-

Products Used:

Sizzix Emily Atherton Shipmates Die Set

Poppystamps Scribble Clouds Die Set

Memory Box Swirling Stitches Die

Bazzill Basics White Smoothie, Ocean, Nautical Blue, Kraft

Bazzill Basics Mylar Holographic Cardstock

Carta Bella Circus Icon Cardstock

Crystal Stickles Glitter Glue

White String

Red Ink Pad

Sponge Dauber

Instructions:

1. Cut Circus paper to fit the square card base and stick in place.

2. Cut a piece of Ocean blue cardstock and die cut the Swirling Stitches onto it.

3. Die cut the boat from Kraft, White and Nautical Blue cardstock and then cut and assemble as shown.

4. Die cut the anchor from a piece of Mylar cardstock and thread onto the string. Wrap the string around the Ocean blue cardstock and stick to the back with a piece of tape.

5. Die cut clouds from white cardstock.

6. Assemble the card as shown above.

Join us this Friday for Create & Take between 10am - 12pm. This week's card will be a Spring theme.

Ink It Up Sneak Peeks

Today on the blog we want to share with you a few sneak peeks of Charry's upcoming Ink It Up class on Wednesday 24th February. Charry has been having a play with Tim Holtz Yupo paper and some alcohol inks to give you an idea of the type of fun you will be having next week if you come along on the class.

Charry will be sharing some great tips and techniques for making these fantastic backgrounds which you can use on cards or even incorporate into mixed media journals and more.

There are still spaces available on Charry's class, details are below:-

Wednesday 24th February

10am - 12pm

£10 per person

To book your space call us on 01293 863576.

Create & Take: Rose Bouquet

Carrying on with our Valentine's theme this week, this Create & Take from last week would make a lovely a Valentine's, anniversary or even wedding card.

So let's get started.....

Products Used:-

LR0398 Marianne Build A Rose Die Set

DF3423 Marianne Roses embossing folder

Woodware Make A Wish stamp set

Gold Mirri Card

Bazzill Basics 12x12 White Smoothie Cardstock

Bazzill Basics 12x12 Pale Rose Cardstock

Tim Holtz Abandoned Coral Distress Ink Pad

Sponge dauber

Scor-Bug

Instructions:-

1. Cut a piece of white cardstock to measure 4.5" x 4.5" and emboss using the Roses embossing folder.

2. Cut a piece of Pale Rose card to measure 1" x 4.5" and stamp the Make a Wish sentiment. Use the Scor-Buddy to create dotted lines along each edge.

3. Die cut and emboss rose pieces from Pale Rose cardstock. Use a sponge dauber to apply some distress ink.

4. Die cut and emboss rose leaves from gold mirri card.

5. Assemble the card as shown.

Love, Love, Love

Hi bloggers, it's the start of a new week and with Valentine's Day not far away we have decided to give you a bit of Love inspiration this week, starting with Jo's fantastic card from her Love, Love, Love class at the weekend.

The card folds flat to fit in a beautifully decorated box that you can give to a loved one.

To create all the different sized hearts, Jo used the Crafts Too Smaller Scalloped Hearts nesting die set and also the Crafts Too Smaller Hearts nesting die set.

Jo used a range of beautiful flower and heart dies including Joy! Crafts Corner Roses die, Joy! Crafts Heart filled with Hearts die, Joy! Crafts Hearts 3x die set and La La Land Hanging Hearts and Love word die set.

This was the first class of 2016 and our full class list for Feb. - May is now available to view here.

Create & Take: Birthday Bunny

Happy Monday bloggers! Today we have an excellent Create & Take card using a new Karen Burniston die and Memory Box stamp set.

So let's get started.....

Products Used:-

Elizabeth Craft Karen Burniston Air Balloon Pop It Up

Memory Box Bunny Tea Time Stamp Set

Woodware Numbers Stamp Set

Bazzill Basics Blue Ombre 12x12 Cardstock

Carta Bella Travel Destination 12x12 Cardstock

Carta Bella Travel Voyage12x12 Cardstock

Authentique Durable Collective Herringbone 12x12 Cardstock

Black Inkpad

Watercolour Pencils

White Ink Pad

Sponge Dauber

Instructions:-

1. Cut a piece of Blue Ombre cardstock to measure 4.75 x 10 inches and fold in half to create a 4.75 x 5 inch card.

2. Align the centre of the Pop It Up die to the centre fold line of the card and cut through. At the same time you could also die cut two clouds from the top part of the blue cardstock.

3. Cut a piece of the Collective Herringbone cardstock to 5 x 2 inches.

4. Stick the blue cardstock inside a card blank making sure the pop up part is forward. For this card, we used the wider part of the pop up to lean out from the card. Stick the Collective Herringbone cardstock inside the card.

5. Die cut all pieces for the balloon, double up the layers to strengthen the balloon. 

6. Stamp the bunny, colour with watercolour pencils cut around and then stick in place to look like the bunny is is the balloon basket.

7. Stick the balloon in place on the pop up part inside the card.

8. Decorate the front of the card with some patterned paper, another stamped bunny and a sentiment using the Woodware stamp set.

Pop up cards are so much fun and the Elizabeth Craft collection from Karen Burniston makes creating these cards so simple and effective. View the complete collection here.