Happy New Year!

So I guess that's Christmas done for another year! Sorry we have been a bit MIA over the festive period apparently it is frowned upon to be writing blog posts when you should be entertaining the Grandparents...oops! Never mind I am firmly back in front of the laptop now and have lots of exciting things to share with you! 

I am now the proud owner of one Sizzix Big Shot die cutting machine...How did Santa know!? I have so many ideas that I have wanted to try for ages but haven't been able to so watch this space! 

Here is a sneak peak of a new design that I have been working on today, what'd you think?

We are working on a whole range centring around this design and will be doing a blog post to go with that soon so keep a look out!

We are hoping to be a lot more active in the new year and are looking for local craft fairs and businesses to help get our products out their, any help or suggestions would be much appreciated!

In the mean time Happy New Year and bring on 2017!!

Love

Hev

xxx

Branches and Baubles

Hi Everyone,

To day I would like to share with you the results of my new purchases, which coincidentally also happens to link perfectly to this fortnight's AAA Cards Challenge; #78 is all about circles.

Last Saturday we had a fantastic time at the Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycrafts show at London's ExCel centre, spending lots of money all in the name of research! Well that's was our excuse anyway...

There were some amazing products and demonstrations taking place, but we absolutely fell in love with Card-io and their beautiful designs and stamps. This week I have been trying out my new purchases:

After much deliberation I settled for the Branching Out Clear Stamp Set and the Zendangles Majestix Stamp Set. I could and probably would have been there for hours if Mum hadn't dragged me away.

The stamps are beautiful and stamp co clearly! I especially love the way you can layer the branch stamps to create so many different designs.

After a couple of practise runs I settled on the design below, I love the simplicity of it!

I can't wait to use these stamps more, they're brilliant!!

Materials:

• 13.5 X 13.5 white card blank
• White card stock
• Branching Out Clear Stamp Set 
• Zendangles Majestix Stamp Set
• Black ink pad
• VersaColor small ink pad in polar grey
• White opal liquid pearl
• Hobbycraft clear Christmas sentiment stamp

Love
H
xx

Who Can RESIST This?

Hi Everyone,

Can you believe it's only 5 weeks until Christmas?! No me neither!!

I should really crack on with my Christmas shopping, but lets take one step at a time right...so first it's cards!

I had a very productive weekend last weekend at Mum's trying out my absolute favourite technique...

RESIST

It is so simple to do, but looks so Christmasy I love it!

The basic idea is to stamp the design (I chose snowflakes as it's Christmas and all) in clear ink, emboss that in clear embossing powder and then ink over the top.

Materials used:

• White Card Blank
• Rectangle of white card
• Clear ink pad
• Papermania Clear embossing powder
• Hobbycraft pigment ink stamp in metallic green
• Hobbycraft pigment ink stamp in black
• Simply cards and papercraft Let It Snow stamp

Handy tips:

I found using a cotton bud to be the best thing for removing excess ink.

We've been to a craft show at the ExCel today so watch out for new posts next week!

H
xx

All things Christmas!

Hello!

The clocks have changed and the nights are drawing in. Halloween and Bonfire Night are done and dusted so it's time to get down to some serious Christmas craft production!

I have subscribed to several different papercraft magazines over the last few years but my current favourite is Simply Cards and Papercraft. They have some great ideas and inspiration, not just for cards but scrapbook pages and other papercrafts too. They also have some fabulous free gifts! The latest one comprised a gorgeous snowflake die, a beautiful snowflake embossing folder and some fab snowflake and Christmas sentiment stamps and I have been using them to make a few of my Christmas cards. Below is an example showing the snowflake die cut, embossing folder and the Joy sentiment, all from the set. I matted the embossed panel onto silver mirri card, added a piece of ribbon and a crystal and ...voila! Simple but so Christmasy! 

On a recent trip to our local garden centre I couldn't resist a quick look around the branch of The Works which is also on site. This particular branch stocks quite a good selection of crafty items at bargain prices and whilst I was there I picked up a pack of four craft gift bags for £1 - definitely a bargain! I've given them a Christmas make-over using up a few odds and ends of Christmas papers left over from previous years and I'm really pleased with them. They just need a matching gift tag and they'll look lovely under someone's tree!

Well be back soon with some more Christmas designs.

L xx

Captain America and Card Making Creations

Hello everyone,

Hope you're all enjoying your week so far.

Today marks the start of my week off...Woo freedom!!!

My other half has still got to work, so that means I can occupy the entire living room with my craft stuff and attempt to watch as many Marvel films as possible (yes, I may be the ultimate nerd).

This is day 1's progress;

My Grandma asked me to put her together a variety pack of cards for her as well as a special 30th anniversary card for a friend, which gave me the perfect chance to try out a new design.

I'm so happy with how it looks, especially the heart embellishments. They were inspired by a design I saw on Pinterest and I will defo be making more of these to use in the future.

Next it was time to raid my stash for The variety pack. It includes 4 Christmas cards, 3 Birthday cards and a pack of Christmas gift tags. It retails at around £20. Below is a selection of the designs I included.

We will hopefully be offering something similar on our Etsy page; Taylor Made Card Co in the near future, but in the mean time if you do like what you see, please contact us for more details.


H
x

Vine Design, Coffee and Cake!

I've been using a lot of die cuts and embossing folders when making my cards lately so I decided to change things up and create a few stamped designs. I have some fabulous Inkylicious polymer stamps and the one I used in the card below is Flourishing Vine. I think  it looks beautiful stamped and embossed in silver with a touch of Liquid Pearls here and there for accent. 

Tomorrow is officially 'Cake Day' at work as we are holding a coffee morning in aid of Macmillan. We have some great bakers amongst the staff and they always produce some beautiful cakes. I'm taking in some choc chip muffins and also taking some of my cards to sell - hope the girls like them! Roll on Friday!

Go to www.inkylicious.co.uk to see their amazing range of beautiful stamps.

L x

Tricks To Adding a Vintage Feel To Any Design.

Hello again,

The weekend means I have finally had time to try out my new purchases from Craftstash...They had an offer on and I just can't say no to a free gift!

I ordered a Tim Holtz distress ink as I had heard many good things about them and I have to say It's been a revelation! They are so easy to use and are really effective for adding an old world feel to any design.

This design is very different to my normal style and I can't wait to try out more designs using this technique!

I'm so happy with the way it has turned out, I love the vintage feel that the distress ink gives to the design and can't wait to incorporate it into more designs.

If you're felling creative and want to try this design yourself this is what you'll need;

• 1x White card blank
• 1x Sheet light brown/cream paper cut to fit the card
• Tim Holtz tea dye Distress Ink
• Black, Silver and Blue ink pads
• 2x snowflake stamps (different sizes)
• 1x Seasons's Greetings stamp
• Silver Liquid Pearl

Alternatively, if you'd rather we do the hard work for you then check out our Etsy page to get your hands on a pack of these!

WHAT?!...There's Only 13 Weeks Till Christmas?!

Happy Friday Everyone!

Summer appears to be over once again and with that brings my work colleagues' weekly countdown to Christmas. Every year I make a promise to myself that I will not leave everything until the last minute, and without out fail I let myself down...But not this year, this year I will succeed! The first step to my No Stress Christmas is cards... 

Having bought some really cute sparkly foam Santa hat embellishments from Hobbycraft that I had been dying to try I finally settled on a design, with a little inspiration from Pinterest, that I loved. Et Voila! 

A simple but effective design, easy to make in a hurry and perfect for friends and work colleagues.

I started off with a Kraft card, I prefer these cards to white ones at the moment, I think they work particularly well with glitter papers.

Next I punched a circle of red glitter paper to use as the Santa, embellishing this with the belt. This is made from a piece of black card and ring pull off of a fizzy drink can (this is my take on recycling).

Thread the black card through the ring pull, being careful to ensure it is central.

The card is then simply embellished with the foam Santa hat and a Happy Christmas sentiment, which is stuck down on 3D foam pads...It really is that simple!

If you want to get your hands on one of these cards for yourself then please take a look at our Etsy shop for this and many other designs.

If you like what you've just read the please subscribe to our blog to keep up to date with more posts!

H
x

Etsy shop launch!

Exciting news!! We launched our Etsy shop yesterday!!

We have ten card designs including birthday, celebration (suitable for wedding or engagement) and Christmas cards and two sets of Christmas gift tags available.
We will be adding more designs soon so take a look at the shop and keep coming back to see what we've added.

www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TaylorMadeCardCo


L and H x

First blog post!

Hi!
So this is our first post on our brand new blog!
We've both been really busy looking for inspiration and trying out new designs and techniques to use in our card range to go on our brand new Etsy site.
It's been such a lovely summer that it's been hard to be inside crafting but now that Autumn is around the corner and the evenings are drawing in, it's definitely time to get back to my craft room!
Our thoughts are turning to Christmas ideas, so there is a lot of glitter around! Even the dog is looking a bit sparkly! I love glitter paper and it does tend to feature in quite a lot of my cards all year round to be honest, so it definitely plays a big part in my Christmas cards.
Watch out for further posts on our progress!

L and H