Wednesday 29 October 2014

Customer Showcase ...

designed by Dorothy

You may recall that last week that we showed a project which Joan had made using one of our  Nativity Ornament dies from Cottage Cutz .   

Today it is Dorothy's turn to showcase her creation. Dorothy is Joan's sister and she has made this beautiful Christmas card using the same die set.  Obviously a very talented family!

designed by Dorothy

 The way that the die has been layered with the background is beautiful.  Using only three colours creates such an elegant card which looks very special indeed. 

designed by Dorothy

 Thank you for sharing Dorothy, your thank you gift has been sent in the post for you.

I hope that you have enjoyed taking a peek at what our customers are creating.  If you would like to join in and have your project shown here then e-mail us a photo (ideally 1000 pixels in at least one direction, 72dpi). It would also be helpful if you could tell us what the main product/s is/are that you have used so that other readers can see what products are needed.

 If we use the project we will send you a little gift in the post to say thank you.

Happy Crafting

Friday 17 October 2014

Where has the time gone?

I cannot believe that my last post was August!

Has it really taken all this time to get settled after the move from Bedfordshire to Devon?  It would appear so and if I'm honest we are still not quite there yet. The girls break up from school today for the half term and are spending the first week of the holiday with grandparents in the Midlands as Mr P and I still have more 'stuff' to move.  We have a long hard week ahead going backwards and forwards up and down the motorway.  But hey after next week it will all be official, we will have done it!

You might not think it but I have been creating projects for the Blog recently, I just have not managed to get round to photographing them yet.  I will be back to normal again very soon with the regular mini tutorials!

In the meantime one of our lovely customers, Dorothy has sent us a picture of a project that her sister created using one of the new Nativity Ornament dies from Cottage Cutz


I absolutely love it!  The ornament makes the perfect focal point and goes really well with the glittered star paper.  Please do let Dorothy and me know what you think by leaving her a comment under this post.  I am sure that she would love to know!

Thank you Dorothy for sending this to us.  We have sent you a little gift to say thank you in the post and it should be with you very soon!

If anyone else would like to share projects with us and our readers please feel free to e-mail them to teresa@philpotts.com.  I would love to see them and those that we share here on the Blog with our readers will also receive a little thank you gift in the post.

Don't forget about the Free Goody Bag that is coming out with your orders over the Autumn.  This week we have a Christmas theme in the bags and each bag has an rrp of at least £10.  There is no minimum spend but you can only get one goody bag a week so if you get one this weekend you will be able to have another one as of Monday which is start of next week!

Enjoy the weekend!




Monday 18 August 2014

We will be a little quiet over the next week ...


Over the rest of this week and next we are sailing off to our new location.  

We are moving all the way from Bedfordshire to Sunny Devon.  We have planned the move over the bank holiday so that the business will suffer as little disruption as possible.  

You will still be able to place orders on line and your orders will still be dispatched as usual throughout this period.  

From Thursday 21st August - Tuesday 26th August we will have a limited telephone service and will not be able to take any telephone orders or payments during this time (you will be able to call us on 01462 810004 and leave a message and we will come back to you as soon as we can).  

From Wednesday 27th August we will be back to normal and our new telephone number will be 01409 261573.  

We will have all of this information on the website as well so you do not need to remember anything.

I will be a little quiet on the Blog front this week and probably next but I do have scheduled newsletters coming out so you won't miss out on this weeks prize draw and other special offers.

I hope that you have a lovely Bank Holiday and we will be back next Wednesday ready with lots of Autumn offers and Christmas goodies!

Happy Crafting
Teresa






Thursday 14 August 2014

Customer showcase ..

I love it when you send us images of the projects that you have created with your purchases from us.  

Today I wanted to share this lovely card created by the very talented Merethe in Norway using the Christmas Decorative Holly Rings set from Tonic Studios.

 Created by Merethe Arstein  - majaapia.blogspot.no

The card and colours are absolutely beautiful.  If you have not come across Merethe's Blog before do pop over and take a look.  She has some wonderful creations to inspire us all - the link is on the picture!

Happy crafting!

Greenhouse card ...




With Summer in full swing now I thought that it would be nice to create a card for any gardeners who have Birthdays coming up soon and when I saw the 'I Love My Garden' stamp set from Woodware I knew that I wanted to create a garden scene around a greenhouse.


The card begins with a 5x7" brown card base.  With the spine on the left hand side find the center point of the short side (at the top) and make a mark.  Measure 6cm down from the top on either side and make another two marks.  Using a pencil join the outer marks to the mark in the center at the top as shown.  This will create the roof of the greenhouse. 


Using the picture as a guide draw in the rest of the greenhouse with a pencil and ruler.  The frame could be as thick or thin as you would like but my frame was 1/4" thick because I used the measuring lines on my cutting mat which happen to be in inches rather than centimeters.  {Don't worry about the pencil marks as these will rub off later}.  This frame is only a guide and you could create yours in any way that you want.  The exact placement of the windows or door etc do not really matter but as a guide I started my door 3cm in from each edge of the card.


Once you have drawn in the Greenhouse.  Use a knife and ruler to trim the top of the roof (cutting through both the front and back of the card).  

Once you have done this, open your card out and continue to cut out the panels of the Greenhouse. REMEMBER TO OPEN YOUR CARD AT THIS POINT OR LIKE ME YOU WILL HAVE TO START ALL OVER AGAIN!


Once all cut out I used a white pencil to add a little depth around the frame.


Take a piece of acetate, trim to size and adhere to the back of the frame. 

I used a glue pen to stick the acetate to the frame.  You could see the glue behind so I would suggest that if you were going to stick the acetate this way use the frame to trace out a second frame.  Cut this out and then back your acetate with the second frame.  This way your acetate will be sandwiched between the two frames.  Alternatively use Invisi Dots for Vellum to stick the acetate as the adhesive will not be so obvious.


Take the I Love My Garden stamp set and stamp the images that you want with a black Staz On ink pad (so that you can watercolour the designs).

I painted the images with my Distress Markers by scribbling the thick end onto my acrylic stamping block  and then picking up the ink with a waterbrush to apply to the images.  Once this has dried I added a little extra detail with the same pack of pencils that I took the white pencil from earlier.


Begin to stick the images around the frame with the glue pen or invisi dots (if you don't want the adhesive to show through the acetate).


The sentiment stamp is from another Woodware stamp set - Relatives which was stamped onto white cardstock with the Staz On.  This was trimmed and mounted onto more brown card.  Mini brads were added in the top corners of the sign to look like nails and this was then stuck to the card.


The flowers were created by using a Multi Flower punch from Woodware and some sheets of paper from the Moments and Memories 6x6 Pad from Carta Bella.


I punched lots of flowers (probably used the punch about 8-9 times to get a pile of flowers). If you wonder where the green flowers come from in the picture below - the sheets of paper are double sided!


The smaller flowers were kept to stick on the front of the card (see the first picture).  The larger flowers were used to stick around a punched out circle inside the card.  This white circle could be used to write on when you send the card.


A little white gel pen inside the card and some gems on the flowers on the front of the card and the card is complete.




Hope you like it!  














Sunday 3 August 2014

A Midsummer's day themed card.

For those of you who follow this blog regularly you will know that I quite often use Woodware stamps in my projects. There is a wonderful selection of designs to choose from.  They always give a super impression when stamped and they are always such good value.  

Having said all of that you can imagine how delighted I was when the lovely Dorothy from Woodware approached me and asked if I would choose the topic for their regular 'weekly project theme' over on their Blog as well as design a themed card for them to share with their readers.

I chose is 'A Midsummer's day' for my theme and here is my card design...





The card gives a lovely 3D effect but will lie flat to go in an envelope.

materials used:



Begin the card by cutting 2 blue squares and 2 beige squares of card from the Textura cardstock paper pads. Each square will need to be 4.5cm x 4.5cm



Use a corner rounder to round the two opposite corners on each piece of cardstock.



You will see that when positioned they will look a little like petals on a flower (note there are only three here and you will need four).  


Once you have all four pieces take the Going to Seed stamp and stamp part of the design onto each petal.  {Note: When I stamped I used the tip of the stamp so that the stamped area was not too crowded}.

Once you have stamped all four pieces with a black Brilliance ink pad edge with a little peanut brittle ink and a blending sponge and stick all four pieces in a square towards the top of the base card with double sided tape.

{see first picture for guidance on how to position the petals}



For the moment you can set the base card aside so that you can move onto the butterfly.

This is created by stamping the butterfly from the Butterfly collage art stamp set onto white cardstock with the Peanut brittle memento and then again onto acetate with a Black Stazon ink pad.  

{Note: Stamping onto acetate will take a little practice as it is quite easy for the stamp to slip as you apply the image.  It may help to lightly sand the acetate first with a sanding block to create a little more texture before stamping.  Alternatively it may help to ink up the stamp and then lay it upside down on the table(with the stamped image upper most) place the acetate over the top of the stamp pressing down lightly with another acrylic block or something else that is hard and flat.}

Once you have stamped both images trim them out leaving a small edge all around. You will see that I left the antennae on the acetate butterfly but cut them off on the brown butterfly.


There are several ways to attach the acetate butterfly to the one below.  You could use a brad, glue or tape although the later methods might not be particularly neat with the adhesive or tape showing through etc.

Using a stapler to hold the acetate butterfly in place is a secure method and your butterfly is unlikely to come off when the card goes through the post.

 To apply, take the acetate butterfly and fold it in the middle (give it a good crease at this stage).  

Open the butterfly out and hold it in place over the cardstock butterfly (don't worry if you have not cut the two pieces exactly the same and they do not match up exactly). Push the stapler over the butterfly (from the side so that the staple is vertical) and staple both butterflies together over the body area.  Once stuck refold the butterfly to add lift.

This can then be stuck to the card as shown in the first picture with double sided tape.  I don't mind the look of the staple but you can easily cover this if you are not so keen with a few self adhesive pearls (if the pearls do not stick to your staple very well then a touch of liquid glue underneath them will do the trick).


The Going to Seed Stamp set does contain a choice of sentiments that you could use but I love my Special Wishes stamp set and so used the 'Best Wishes' sentiment from there.  This was stamped with a black Brilliance ink pad.

Finally I used a white gel pen to add a stitched effect along the spine of the card and around the petals.

*****

I hope that you enjoy having a go at the card.  If anyone has any specific problems or queries then feel free to drop me an e-mail and I will try to help.

Happy crafting!

Tuesday 29 July 2014

Confetti Shaker Card ...

What a busy week we have had already and it is only Tuesday!  Whilst you are all enjoying this lovely sunshine we are thinking ahead to Christmas and have had lots of new Christmas stock arriving this month and next which we are trying to load up onto the website as fast as we can.  

We have also been busy chasing suppliers for Christmas stock deliveries which were supposed to be here last week and have still not arrived yet.  Those of you who have ordered any of the new Christmas Trimcraft ranges will know what we mean.  This stock was supposed to be here at the beginning of last week.  The latest update is that it will be here next Monday as Trimcraft have not received it yet.  I am sorry for the delay, I know that quite a few of you have ordered something from at least one of the ranges.  We will continue to chase the manufacturer and will dispatch your orders as soon as we can.  We have part dispatched orders where possible and will complete your orders for you very soon.  Thank you for your patience!

Anyway as I needed a little break from Christmas I thought that I would share a little shaker/confetti card using one of the new Cottage Cutz dies ...



The base card is from a pack of Kaisercraft C6 cards (black).  This can be set aside for the moment as the rest of the design is created on a second piece of black cardstock which measures approximately 95mm x 135mm.


On the second piece of black cardstock I created an aperture by using one of the Spellbinders scalloped circle Nestabilities (S4125).  Before running it through the Grand Callibur I held it in place with a small piece of Stencil Tape {note: the stencil tape is low tack but for extra security I still press it onto the back of my hand a couple of times before using to remove a little more of the adhesive and I tend to stick the tape to the card in the area of waste (i.e. here on the part of the card to be thrown away) just in case!}


Once the aperture is cut using a circle punch and some sheets from the Tropical Textura Cardstock pack I punched circles and positioned them around the card to create polka dots {I took this photograph and then actually moved the colours around before sticking them into place for the final card - which is why you can see different colours on the final design}.  When you are happy stick them into place with a tape runner and trim.




The confetti in the card is created using the Textura cardstock again and a tiny heart punch from Woodware.



Instead of using acetate for the shaker part of the card I used a cello bag so that the card would lie flatter and there would not be any need to use foam tape. 

Take all of your punched hearts and drop them into a cello bag. Roll the edges of the bag and hold down with a tape runner.  Make sure that the cello bag is large enough so that you cannot see the edges through the aperture of your card but not too large that it overlaps the edge of the black card.


Set the confetti bag aside.  

For the next stage I used the Birthday Candles die from Cottage Cutz and cut it from white cardstock.  I used small pieces of the Tropical cardstock  and with a glue pen stuck these to the back of the candles to add colour.

{I completely forgot to take a picture of this stage but you can see the coloured candles on one of the photographs below to get an idea as to what they will look like once coloured - this stage is a little fiddly but worth it!}

  

Take the confetti bag and stick is to the back of the black card as shown.  You can also see in the picture above that I then went ahead and stuck the candles onto the cello bag through the aperture at the front. Once the confetti bag is stuck into place you can add a piece of yellow cardstock from the pad to neaten everything up and to help the confetti show up on the final card!


Finally I used the IN012 In'Spire celebration die to cut out 'happy birthday' from some of the tropical card in the Textura pack.  This was stuck to white card, trimmed and stuck into place.

I always like to think of other ways to use products to get maximum use and I realised that from the other words in the die set 'thank you' and 'you & me' you can make the words 'to you'.  I cut these from a coordinating colour , trimmed the letters and stuck into place.  

This black and yellow piece of cardstock is then stuck to the base card with tape and a white gel pen finishes the design.



Hope you like it, I'm back off for some more Christmas now.

Don't forget about our competition to win the Public Library paper pad on the newsletter - the competition closes soon.

Happy Crafting!


Thursday 17 July 2014

Vintage Bird Thank you card ...





Today we have a card to share using the new Bird with Flowers die from Cottage Cutz, the new Public Library papers from October Afternoon as well as a few other goodies.

There are quite a few piccies to this post as I have a technique to show you which will explain how to get a hand drawn effect from your stamps!


To begin you will need to create the bunting effect which sits behind all of the other pieces on the design:

Take a brown card like one of the new Natural or Kraft packs of square cards from Kaisercraft and using a Distress ink pad (we used straw)ink up the bunting from the Pennants stamp set from Kaisercraft.

** BEFORE you stamp the bunting onto the card stamp the image onto a piece of scrap paper to remove some of the ink.  Then stamp onto the card as shown in the picture above **.


Repeat the process again (inking then stamping onto scrap paper before stamping on to the card).  Line the Bunting stamp up to complete the curved line of flags.


Don't worry at this stage if your bunting is not lined up perfectly ... you can see from the picture above that mine is not a perfect curve, just work with the curve of the stamp as best you can!


Take a good quality gel pen (one with a good flow of ink - we used a Sakura white gel pen).

Trace around each flag with the white pen.  I also traced some of the pattern on those flags which had detail (you do not have to worry about every little line - just a suggestion of the pattern will do).  You now have a row of bunting that looks as if you have drawn it!

**Of course if this technique is not for you stamp and emboss it with your heat gun!**


Take the Bird with Flowers die and cut it three times using coordinating papers from the Public Library paper pad.

I used the dark turquoise image as the base. Using a pair of sharp scissors or a knife cut the bird from the polka dot image and the flowers from the remaining image and stick them onto the base (turquoise) bird using a glue pen. N.B. I edged the bottom of the bird before sticking it to the rest of the cut out pieces with a little peanut ink


Once the bird is complete stick it to a piece of white trimmed cardstock with the glue pen and again edge this with a little ink.  Mount onto a piece of patterned paper from the pad and edge with pinking scissors.

This is then stuck to the card with foam pads.


The border at the bottom of the card was created using an old Martha Stewart border punch from my craft box (We do not stock Martha Stewart and more but we can still get them - if anyone wants one give us a call or send me an e-mail and we will order one especially for you!)

Punch out the border from cream paper in the paper pad and stick this to a coordinating piece of darker paper.  Trim and stick to the bottom of the card.


To create the flower, punch three flowers using the Buttercup punch from McGill (N.B. After I took the picture I changed my mind and swapped the pink flowers for a yellow! - I have also photographed a brad here as I was originally going to use this but at the last minute decided to use a button to keep in with the 'vintage' theme!)

Edge each flower with the peanut ink, pinch each petal to give a little more dimension and stick together using double sided tape or glue.  Remember to rotate each flower when sticking to the one below so that all of the petals from the three flowers can be seen!


Add a button to the center of the flower and using a black gel pen add some dots to the petals to create detail as shown in the picture.

The flower is then stuck to the card so that it overlaps the bottom border and the raised bird image.  Remember to use part foam and part double sided tape so that the flower sits balanced on the card!

Leaves were punched from coordinating paper using a leaf punch from McGill and stuck into place.


Finally I inked up part of a 'Thank you' stamp from the Special Wishes set from Woodware (To stamp up the part that you need - stamp the whole stamp and wipe off the areas that you don't need with a damp and then dry piece of kitchen roll).

Stamp onto white cardstock, trim and add to the bottom of the card (with another strip of coordinating paper just below it).


And there you have it ... a Vintage bird card with a hand drawn effect.

Enjoy!