February 29th, 2012
Everyone loves the shape range of Framelits brought out by Sizzix for card making last year. Now Sizzix have added to the Framelits range an more ornate Framelits set of dies.
The new sets all contain 1 ornate frame die and at least 2 straight edge dies (depending on style) giving 4 straight edge die cuts and 1 ornate frame die cut. As with the original Framelits dies, you can use 2 of the dies together to make further frames making them excellent value.
Framelits can be used in the Cuttlebug, Big Shot, Grand Calibur and Vagabond die cutting machines.
Here are just 2 of the ornate frame dies.
The ornate edge of each die is cushioned in fine foam to produce a delicately intricate pattern when cut.
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February 27th, 2012
We’ve added 2 new card making projects to the Gallery.
The first card uses the Kaisercraft Pink Gelato paper pad and Kaisercraft flowers with lace and ribbon trims.
You need very little in the way of tools to make this card – just a ruler, pencil and scissors or a rotary trimmer for measuring and cutting the card. The shaped piece comes from the die cut sheets at the back of the paper pad so you don’t even need a corner rounder.
The second card requires a die cutting machine such as the Big Shot, Cuttlebug or Grand Calibur.
This card uses Spellbinders Shapeabilities and Marianne Craftables dies to create the ornate tag and lacy topper and flowers. A coordinating sentiments card topper is placed inside the card.
Full step by step printable instructions for both cards can be found in the Gallery.
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February 25th, 2012
These card making kits really sparkle. The foil is applied in such a way that it resembles jewels and these cards will really stand out from the crowd.
Each kit contains all the materials you need to make 8 cards and includes shaped foiled card blanks, foiled card toppers, sentiments and envelopes.
Topaz jewelled Elegance Collection features browns and blues with foil in turquiose and textured silver.
Diamond Jewelled Elegance features pinks and burgundy with foil in holographic silver and textured gold.
Any left over card making toppers can be teamed with the Jewelled Elegance Accent Foiled Card pack to make more cards.
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February 24th, 2012
Lace is the trend of the moment in card making with lace die cuts made from paper on your Cuttlebug or Big Shot, lace effect borders created with the Crafty Edger, and real lace used to decorate your cards.
There is also 2 new card making toppers from Hunkydory that follow the lace trend: Lace Bouquet Die Cut Card Toppers – The Perfect Gift and Lace Bouquet Die Cut Card Toppers – Fancy Frame Florals. With their delicate pastel shades these toppers work well with any lace effect background, border or embellishment. Each card making topper has either a silver foil border or silver foil corners.
Here is Lace Bouquet Die Cut Card Toppers – Fancy Frame Florals
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February 23rd, 2012
It’s less than 2 months into 2012 and already the wedding season is in full swing with loads of brides, help by mum or their friends, are beavering away making their own wedding stationery.
So what are this season’s colours? According to one bridal magazine it’s neutrals. Well, maybe the Craftsite brides didn’t read that magazine because the big colour is purple, followed by turquoise, followed by baby blue. Ribbons, bows, and cards to use as accent card have all been in those colours. Although both Stardream Crystal and Stardream Opal are still very popular the biggest seller for making wedding invitations is Stardream Quartz. We have actually sold out of Stardream Quartz envelopes in both the DL and 155 x 155mm square sizes and are having to have some more made.
We have also sold out of, and had to restock, on purple satin ribbon and satin edged lilac organdie ribbon.
Needless to say Royal Purple card and paper is extremely popular both for making cards and for using as an accent colour on wedding stationery. Guess everyone must be teaming their purple or blues with silver because there has also been a big rise in the sale of Silver Mist card.
Simplicity is the key with wedding stationery and the die cut wedding words are very much is demand with perhaps just one or two embellishments. As well as ribbon and bows punched or die cut shapes are being added to wedding invitations and the 3mm pearls are flying out the door.
It always intrigues us when we see an order for what is obviously wedding stationery and we try and imagine how the bride is putting the card making components together so when you’ve finished your invitations why not send us a photo. We’d love to see them.
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February 22nd, 2012
Hunkydory have just brought out 2 new card making kits with a lovely springtime theme. Each kits makes lovely shaped cards that are sure to delight the recipient.
There is everything you need to make 4 cards in each of these kits plus the envelopes to send your finished card. The cards and toppers are luxuriously foiled with silver foil and look so professional when made.
The Butterfly Ballet Diarama card making kit features butterflies and flowers and the Blossoming Bouquet Diarama card making kit has flowers and leaves.
Here’s the Blossoming Bouquet card making kit.
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February 21st, 2012
I’ve just come back from the Trade Show held at the NEC in Birmingham and it has been very exciting. This is the time of year when manufacturer’s bring out their card making goodies for the coming year. The hard part is waiting for the new stock coming in because although orders are now placed for some card making items there can be a wait of several weeks before supplies actually come through the door. Be assured that as soon as we have them we will be letting you know.
So what can you expect over the next few weeks. Firstly Marianne Designs have come up with some gorgeous creatables and craftables- so much so that you’ll be spoilt for choice. Nellie Snellen also has some new Nellie’s dies and of course Spellbinders have both new Nestabilities and Shapeabilities added to their ranges. There has never been a better time to have a Cuttlebug, Big Shot, or Grand Calibur.
Both Hunkydory and Kanban have brought out fantastic new card toppers plus acetate wraps, and pretty backing card as well.
If you’re into rubber stamping Kanban have also brought out a range of super clear stamp sets at an economical price – just great if you have to make lots of cards and are on a tight budget.
There will be a return of the shimmer mists plus some lovely new luxury card layers.
We have already received the first of our new products – the new Framelits from Sizzix and they should be available by the end of the week.
I’ll keep you up to date.
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February 18th, 2012
We have to new paper packs for card making and with 72 sheets to each pack you will get loads of cards from them.
The first pack is the Back to Basics III 6 x 6 paper pack.
There are 6 sheets of 12 different designs per pack giving a total of 72 sheets of papers in blues, lilac, green and yellow printed onto 150gsm cardstock.
The second pack is the Princess Fairytale 6 x 6 Paper Pack.
This 72 sheet pack also has 6 sheets of 12 different designs per pack printed onto 150gsm cardstock but these are all pretty pastel colours.
Each pack is only £3.99 making them excellent value for money.
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February 17th, 2012
The Texture Boutique is a nifty little machine from Sizzix that embosses but doesn’t die cut. It takes all the A6 embossing folders that we stock and is a great machine for those who want to create embossed backgrounds for card making but wouldn’t use an expensive die cutting machine.
Sizzix have brought out a Texture Boutique Beginner’s Kit that has everything you need to start embossing straight away and the kit even includes 2 packs of cards and envelopes for you to mount your embossed backgrounds.
You get a lot in this little bundle.
Texture Boutique Embossing Machine
Textured Impressions Embossing Folder – Flowers, Daisies (Small)
Textured Impressions Embossing Folder – Flower & Dots Border (US A2 Medium)
Textured Impressions Embossing Folder – Swirls & Dots (US A2 Large*)
1 Pair of Standard Embossing Pads
1 Mylar Shim
10 White Cards and Envelopes
10 Ivory Cards and Envelopes
40 Assorted Samples of Core’dinations ColorCore Cardstock
1 Sheet of Black Rub Ons
1 Sheet of White Rub Ons
1 Rub Ons Applicator
1 Sandpaper Sample
1 Idea Booklet
1 Instruction Booklet
* The US A2 size is just a tad shorter than the UK A6 size.
Machine embossing using the embossing folders is so popular and of the 70 embossing folders that we stock 65 of them are suitable for use with the Texture Boutique. That’s a lot of choice and you are almost sure to find embossing folders that you will use over and over again for many of your card making projects.
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February 16th, 2012
Irene has made this lovely card just using some card, paper and a die cut topper. It’s a simple card that even a beginner at card making could make. The secret of the card lies in picking out colours from the topper, in this case the gold and the burgundy, to bring the card together with very little effort.
Irene took a 198mm x 198mm white card from the 198 x198mm cards and envelopes pack as the base card. An A4 sheet of matt gold card was cut to 198mm x 198mm and glued to the front of the card using photo glue.
Using Stardream Mars paper, Irene punched a border strip using the Crafty Edger and the Japanese Fan cassette. The border was glued to the card using a Quickie Glue Pen and the excess paper trimmed off.
The die cut card topper was pushed out and built up, using photo glue to line up and stick the pieces in place, with the die cut greeting in the centre.
Photo glue is ideal for a project like this as it is repositionable for several seconds to allow realignment before the glue sticks fast.
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