Material Challenge - Passion for Paptertrey

I had a lovely surprise yesterday morning - my Papertrey package arrived from my good friend Sunny in the US! She had ordered two small stamp sets with the matching dies for me and I got down to experimenting with them last night. Here's my card using the Fillable Frames #2 set - I really like this shape and can see it will be very useful. I wish I'd also ordered the #1 frame set now - maybe next time.

A Passion for Papertrey's current challenge is to use fabric on a project - I die cut the fabric (which had iron-on interfacing on the back to stiffen it up) and the felt using Cuttlebug flower dies - the two smallest sizes. Not very original, and not a lot of fabric used I know, so hope it counts!

Stamp with Us First Challenge

I've never been able (or had the time) to keep up with all the challenge blogs, although I do follow some of them, especially the Cuttlebug Challenge. But I really want to do this one and will try hard to keep up.

Here's my first sketch challenge card. The stamp is from Stampin Up's "A Little Bit of Happiness" and the patterned paper is also Stampin Up. I used a Cuttlebug die for the scalloped square and cut an egg shape from a piece of acetate packaging, embossed it with Swiss Dots and coloured the dots with a gold gel pen. I'm going to give it to my Mum.

Home again and some French stamps

We had some shopping time in France and I found this foam stamp set (really a kit for children), but really liked the images. I don't usually like fairies and cute-type images but these seemed quite quirky to me. I've made this thank-you card for my sister as she says she never gets any nice post - only bills in her postbox! Not my usual style but of course I wanted to use the stamps. I've also used some acetate flower shapes I cut and embossed in my Cuttlebug after seeing the idea on the Cuttlebug Challenge blogspot here.

I've looked for the other stamping kits in the UK and there are a few places that sell them but not the sets I was interested in - I'll have to wait until my next visit to add to my French collection!

Cuttlebug'ed

I've taken the plunge and bought my first die cutting /embossing machine! After much deliberation went for the Cuttlebug - (1) because I found a good deal on the internet, and (2) it folds up and so takes up less of my tiny workspace. I am really pleased with it so far and have been busy making some use of it over the last 24 hours. I made these post-it note holders for my nieces and the little 'matchbook' notepads for my ex-colleagues, all of whom I will be seeing this week. Needless to say both ideas are copied from creative crafters I've found on the internet. I've adapted them a little - I used the chipboard that comes as a stiffener on lots of items instead of coasters for the post-its and just covered it with papers that came free with a craft magazine. I embossed the paint sample cards and of course used my beloved scallop circle punch copiously on both projects. I may have to take another trip to B&Q to collect some more colour samples soon!


NOW - I'm must thank Jeanette "here" (thank you very much for your kind help Jeanette) for giving me instructions on how to insert a link into my blog..... so I'm trying it out here and here to show where instructions for both projects can be found. Fingers crossed I've done it correctly!

Hooray, hooray - it works!!!!