We have 2 new sets of clear stamps from Hunkydory with which to make lovely cards. Many more card makers who haven’t used rubber stamps in their card making so far are realising that stamping is quite an economical way of making cards as the stamps can be used over and over again. If you are new to stamping take a look at the tips in our Q and A section on stamping in the blog.

What we like about these stamps from Hunkydory is that each stamp has 2 large images, plus lots of small ones and sentiments as well, that could be used for  a variety of occasions.

The first one is Birdie Blossoms.

And the second one is Kitty in the Flowers.

Floral designs are always so versatile and the stamped images can be coloured in with ProMarkers or shimmer paint depending on your preference. If you are nervous about your colouring skills then the images can simply be embossed using embossing powder. Silver, gold or white embossed images on a dark card always give great effect.

From Hunkydory comes 3 different card making kits from the Vintage Pearl Chocolate Truffle Collection.

All the card making kits are in colours of chocolate or truffle – a kind of sepia colour – and have that vintage look that is so popular at the moment.

The first card making kits is the  Triple Circle Easel Card Making Kit. This card kit makes 4 cards and comes with 4 pre-scored triple easel shaped cards, 12 die cut frames to hold the toppers, 12 die cut toppers, and die cut embellishments and sentiments to decorate the bottom of the easel cards. Each easel card tapes 3 of the die cut frames and toppers.

The second card kit is the Vintage Pearl Chocolate Truffle Decoupage Card Making Kit.  This beautiful, vintage style card kit has florals in soft colours enhanced with gold foil and contains enough to make at least 8 cards. 8 free card blanks are included in the kit – 4 A5 printed aperture cards and 4 decorative edge square cards together with envelopes to fit.  There are 4 sheets of die cut decoupage and 2 die cut elements and sentiments sheets.

The third card making kit is the Vintage Pearl Chocolate Truffle Topper Collection Card Making Kit.  There is a lot in this kit which will make at least 8 cards. The card blanks are lovely printed cards. There are 4 A5 cards and 4 square cards with scalloped edges with envelopes to fit. Not only are there 6 A4 sheets of die cut and foiled toppers with additional sentiments and borders, but there is also an A4 sheet with 5 wide and 2 narrow borders and an A4 sheet of die cut sentiments toppers.

We have added some new card making toppers to the Autumn Dreams range.

The Vintage Style card making toppers are perfect for Mother’s Day and the Gone Fishing ones will go down a treat with all fishing enthusiasts on Father’s day – as well as birthdays.

Each of the card making toppers in the Autumn Dreams range is die cut, enhanced with foil, and comes with 2 free backing cards of the same design.

The first of the Penny Black stamps have arrived and these are all new 2012 stamps. There are 2 cling stamps and 4 clear stamp sets. All the stamps need an acrylic block for mounting.

Of course Penny Black is famous for their lovely and cute designs and this year’s stamps are no exception. The cling stamps are quite large and will make a lovely centrepiece for an A5 or 144 x 144mm card blank.

The sets of clear stamps cover most card making occasions from birthdays to Mother’s Day to Valentine’s day and are so of the moment. They are also excellent value for money as each set has pictorial of stamps in different sizes plus sentiments stamps as well.

Our self adhesive pearls are very popular for card making so when we discovered that this year Woodware had brought out little round self adhesive silver and gold coloured metal gems we were delighted.

There are 125 to a pack – if Madeleine has counted them correctly – and you can use them singly or in a row as the peel off and you just break off what you need and save the rest for future projects.

Here they are.

If you are making your own wedding stationery and are using the silver or gold self adhesive metal hearts as an embellishment why not add a few round metallic gems? These could be used as a little trail from the bottom of the heart embellishment or a few in 2 opposite corners and will add a nice finishing touch to your invitations.

Before Christmas, when we added the beautiful Kaisercraft flowers to our website we said that the Kaisercraft paper pads were coming soon. The good news is they have arrived and they are absolutely fantastic.

Many paper packs are much of a muchness with similar papers appearing in different pack but the Kaisercraft paper packs are all different so there’s bound to be one to suit your taste or the card making projects that you are working on.

Just take a look at the four Kaisercraft paper  packs we have for you.

Each pack of papers is 6.5 x 6.5 inches (approx. 165mm x 165mm) so they can be used on larger cards or die cut to create pretty backgrounds for your embellishments.

Each pack contains a massive 40 sheets of 160 gsm paper making them excellent value for money.  In addition to the printed papers each pack contains foiled, flocked, spot varnished, or glitter papers and 4 pages of die cut borders, banners and tags to co-ordinate.

Our card designer, Mary, has made a gorgeous card using the Pink Gelato paper pack and the Kaisercraft flowers.

There will be more details on how Mary made this card in a later blog post.

It may still be the depths of winter and bitterly cold but our card making thoughts are turning to Spring and all the pretty flowers that are associated with that time of the year.

So it’s no surprise that when we saw some gorgeous paper flowers we just had to have them and we have now added four new flower packs: Pinks, Pastels, Spring Blossom, and Bridal. Here is the Spring Blossom pack.

What we particular like about these flower packs is that there is a good range of sizes - large, medium, and small in each pack which means not only that you can use the flowers individually but also create your own blooms by layering them using Didi Glue Dots or a small pretty brad.

Buttons make great embellishments for card making and we have 8 different packs for you to choose from – pink, blue, deep red, pastels, coffee and cream, primary colours, earth colours, and lavender.

Great value at just £1.99 a pack and there are 60gms in each pack – that’s loads of buttons in different shapes and sizes. Here are the pastel ones.

We’ve almost sold out of our first delivery of these buttons but I’m pleased to say that more are on their way to us.

We love ribbons and just can’t resist it if we come across a new range of pretty ones. A length of ribbon wrapped around a card or tied into a bow makes a great finishing touch when card making.

Our latest ribbon is organdie with a satin edge and comes in 4 glorious colours – white, blue, lilac, and gold. The ribbon is 10mm wide so is perfect for card making and the satin edge gives a opulent look to this organdie ribbon. Here is the gold.

We find the best way to attach this ribbon is to use 6mm double sided tape. Always take the ribbon right around your card rather than just placing it on the front of your card and cutting it at the top and bottom which runs the risk of fraying. The join in the ribbon on the inside of the card will be hidden by the insert.

Our card and envelope packs are excellent value for money and one of our best selling items to card makers so we have added 2 new card and envelope packs to our range.

The first is a pack of 30 A6 Kraft cards and matching envelopes.

Kraft card, with its reminiscence of brown wrapping paper is extremely popular at the moment and these cards are A6 – 148mm x 105mm when folded.

The second of our new card and envelope packs are these lovely scalloped edge cards in white.

There are 50 cards and envelopes in a pack for just £6.99. The cards are square and measure 148mm x 148mm – just a tad less than 6 inches x 6 inches.

Either pack would make a great addition to your card making stash.