More distress cards

This one card I made last year for an article on Cardmaking and Papercraft. I love the look of this clean distress strongly influenced by Jennifer McGuire.  Love her!


Anyway, there is a good reason why I haven't posted often and it is not so simple. I have decided not to be so involved in the craft the industry meaning that I wont be anymore a full time freelance crafter. For those who like my stamps, do not worry. I will keep those coming. For those who enjoy my articles, do not worry either, I will still do them.


However, I am going to reduce drastically the demos that I will do this year. I will only do couple that were booked last year and I plan to do those. But I wont do any workshops for the foreseeable future. Both this decisions were not that easy to make but I feel I have the need to explore other professional possibilities outside the craft industry and workshops specially require too much of my energy and creativity.


I honestly don't know how often I am going to post cards in this blog as I have no fix plans about it. I may post cards daily for a week and then nothing for the following, something that suits me at the moment. I do plan, however, to keep the Crafty Storage posting regular.


My professional future? Well, I just have an enormous desire to have a go at portrait photography, even though I have strong suspicions on how hard and overcrowded the market is, I just have the need to give it a go. I may fail, but I wont know if I don't try, and right know, I don't feel like I have another option but to try it.

A bit late...

Today is the birthday of one of my dearest crafting friends. Her name is Julie and her surname Hickey. If you are a UK based crafter you must know her or at least of her!

And this is the card I sent her. Probably will get to her tomorrow, sorry!

For the message, I stamped first the Happy Circle from All Year Round, then I stamped using the same ink -Memento Desert Sand- the initial of Julie's name using a stamp from the Shadow Monograms set in the centre. On top I used a message from the Double Sayings set as it coordinates well with both the All Year Round and the Shadow Monograms.

I used a 1 3/8" punch first and then I layered it up on to a 1 1/2" punch out.

The blank card was made using of of my all time favorite card dies from Sizzix, the ornate card 2 die. The flowers and leaves are also from Sizzix, all available from The Glitter Pot.

And this is the inside.

By the way, have you been to The Glitter Pot's new shop? it is brilliant! I am specially impressed with the studio, so big, so much light!

I have put up the link to the website on the right hand side.

Anniversary Card

So, to celebrate the eight years of being married I made Omar a simple card. Since we both love Japan with passion, I decided to look through my collection of Chiyogami papers. I call it a collection because I very rarely use any of it, as far as I am concerned, it is the most gorgeous type of paper on Earth. But, of course, making a card for Omar is special, so I don't mind going into the collection and use a bit of the beautiful papers.

The number in the middle is from the Shadow Monograms set, all numbers fit inside the centre. The sentiments are from All Year Round, I stamped the circle and the number using Memento Pear Tart ink and then on top the Anniversary using Black Versafine ink.

And since you all posted lovely comments for our photos, I thought I would share this one that we took yesterday just before going for dinner. We made a bit of an effort and we went to The Dinning Room in Reigate. The food was good, except for my starter which made wish I had asked for the scallops. Serious menu envy! Main course was delicious, and desert was even better. And, by the way, Omar got me some flowers, my favorite velvety red roses.

Coloring and cute?

When I was ask to use some cute images for a Cardmaking and Papercraft article, I jumped at the opportunity. Yes, you may not associate me or my style to either cute nor coloring, but that is not because I do not enjoy it. I do, I really do, but honestly I think there are other cardmakers -Caz, thinking of you here- that do a much better job at it, that I stick to what i know I do better, quick and easy paper engineering and off the edge cards.

Back to the card in question, the image is a rubber stamp from Lily of the Valley. I colored it using Copics, then I die cut it using nestabilities and to finish it off I just use one of the sentiments from my Essential Circles -stamped on white and then punch it out.

By the way, Crafts U Love, one of my favorite craft shops, now stocks the 1 3/8" circle punch, you know that one that fits the Circle Tags and the All Year Round. Click here to see that one and many more punches, the EkSuccess punches are near to the bottom of the page.

Punches, punches, punches...

While I was in Harrogate loads of people came to me regarding the punches that work with my latest sets of stamps. I have been told that the punches are being very hard to get hold of.

Well, here there is an update:

1 3/8" Circle Punch EkSuccess - works great with All Year Round and Circle Tags. At the minute the best way to get it is through Stampin Up demonstrators. If you don't know anyone let me know as I have a couple of friends who are demonstrators and I believe they can put an order no matter where you live in the UK.

1 1/2" Scalloped Woodware Punch - works great with All Year Round and Circle Tags stamps as well as with the InCircles foiled die cut messages from Craftwork Cards. Because it is a rather new product, only a few weeks in this country, many shops haven't got it yet. But it is coming. As soon as a friendly shop stocks it I will let you all know.

All Year Round Punch Tutorial

Just a quick one today showing how the images fit in the circle punches.

1 3/8" circle punch by EkSuccess.

1 1/2" circle punch by EkSuccess. Woodware does make the same sized punch which looks like the one below but obviously straight edge.

1 1/2" scalloped circle punch by Woodware. Although Marvy has manufactured the scallop 1 1/2" one in America, in the UK was almost impossible to get it until now. (Note to retailers: do stock it, is a brilliant size, perfect for the InCircles as well as for so many different stamps.)

All Year Round Tutorial

The reason I went into designing clear stamps was because I was tired of never finding wording stamps that featured a whole set of messages that were all small and without any restrictions of style.

All Year Round features the following images:

As any clear stamps are to be used with an acrylic block - simply peel the stamp away from the plastic backing sheet and mount onto an acrylic block. After use, replace the stamps on to the plastic sheet for storage purposes and clean with soap and water. When they come to you the clear stamps come between two clear sheets of acetate plus an extra one that has the printed images of the stamps, so the first thing I did is to transfer all the stamps into the printed acetate, it is easier to find the right message and also check if one is missing.

So now that tutorial:

First, stamp the circle message onto the white card. I used Spanish Moss Versafine ink.

Select the event and ink it up.

Stamp it inside the previous stamped image using a darker ink or just the same. This is the beauty of the clear stamps and of this set. You can customize your sentiment with different messages and different colours.

If you are using pigment inks which work better with clear stamps, let them dry for a few seconds before punching out.

Punch out using a 1 3/8" punch. Highly recomend EKSuccess punches.

The finished stamped image.

And finally incorporated into a card.

At the minute there is a wait list only option at QVC, and these sets wont arrive to the shops till the end of March. So, if you got it now, you are lucky!