English Paper Company

I've made these 4 cards from just 2 sheets of English Paper Company 12 x 12 paper (along with a few other bits) and as they're just 13p a sheet - that's a real bargain!

I used the Blue Cornflowers paper and the blue dots (now sold out). I also used the white reverse of the paper for matting.

The sincere thanks and congratulations stamps I used are both by A Muse and are just £1.50 each in the sale. The scalloped shapes were cut using Marvy punches, and I added some ribbon from the Lucky Dip satin selection.
The white flowers are these DCWV cardstock ones and are great as they can be used plain or chalked, inked, painted etc. They look great with button centres too! The chipboard butterfly in the first picture is from this Creative Imaginations pack, and you get loads for your money!

Check out the new products as Beverley has added some more fab bargains!

Last Minute cards

If you haven't yet finished all those Christmas cards, and are getting stressed, here's some really quick and easy cards for you to try.

All of these cards have been made using the HOTP Personal Shopper kit, November 2007 and some A Muse sentiment stamps. The kit contains a full Finished in a flash Christmas kit, a set of Christmas brad buddies and silk poinsettias and loads of yummy patterned paper. I used nothing but the kit, and having made these 6 cards I still have LOADS left for all those Christmas pics we're bound to take!

Well, that's it from me for this year, so I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and I'll see you in the new year!

More Chrimbo cards!

Yep -surprise, surprise - more Christmas cards!

The first card was made with the GORGEOUS new Bo Bunny Jack Frost papers (they have a lovely shimmer that doesn't show up the in the photo). The cardstock sticker is also from the Bo Bunny range and the chipboard heart is out of the Cosmo Cricket buck naked buttons pack. I painted it with red acrylic paint, then tied on some Bo Bunny and American Crafts ribbons.

The second card uses the same papers, cardstock stickers and ribbons from Bo Bunny and my favourite stamp from A Muse - the baby penguin! The scalloped squares were punched out using the mega and giga Marvy Punches.

The third card was made entirely from the HOTP Personal Shopper kit Dec 06 (which are on offer at the moment at an unbelievable half price!!)

That's all for now folks - check out this week's challenge for your chance to win a yummy prize!!

An alternative Christmas

This year I'm moving away from the more traditional Christmas colours for my cards, and here's a few "alternative" Christmas cards.

For the first card I used American Crafts paper in Thoreau and then matted a HOTP Word Fragment onto the reverse of the same paper. I added some star brads and some gorgeous American Crafts ribbon.

For this second card I used American Crafts paper in Homer to cover the card blank, and then on the reverse drew and cut out a Christmas tree shape. I then added a star brad to the top and some other brads for baubles.

For the third card I used HOTP Vintage Sarapapers and ribbon from the HOTP Icy Rainbow pack. The Merry Christmas and Snowman stamps are by A Muse and the scalloped squares were cut using this marvy punch.

And some more from me!

Well, I've been playing with my gorgeous DT kit again - and here's what I've made.

First up, for the LO, I used American Crafts Shakespear for the base cardstock, and the green stripes and spots papers are from the HOTP Vintage Sarapapers. The "Father" Overlay is also by HOTP and I attached this with plum coloured eyelets. I then threaded some American Crafts ribbon through the bottom eyelets.

I added the "My Dad" on top of the overlay using a permanent marker and Helix stencils. I then added a length of HOTP printed twill .

The card was made with my left over HOTP Vintage sarapapers and the A Muse flower drinks stamp. The scalloped squares were cut with Mega and Giga Marvy scalloped square punches and the flower and brad is from the HOTP Pretty Creative kit.

Don't forget to check out this week's challenge - a chance to use up those scraps we all have!

Blame the post office!

With the postal strikes I thougth I'd better made a final layout with the October 2006 Personal Shopper Kit, just in case my new kit didn't arrive! The photo is my mother in laws 90th birthday party. On the right hand side of the layout I cut a strip of the green12 x 12 paper that I used across the bottom of the page but turned it so the stripe was vertical instead of horizontal and put a piece of vellum over the top to tone down the pattern a bit. I was surprised at how much difference it made to the look of the paper. I made a flower with a button for the centre. I cut two pieces from the last of the cardmaking paper, added some rubs ons and stapled ribbons to the side edges. I die cut some letters and numbers from the brown 12 x12 paper, added some brads and ribbons. all in all I'm very pleased with this page.

My new kit did arrive but I didn't get to play until very late last night so I've only made a card and a ATC. The American Crafts 12 x 12 papers are double sided and great quality. The colours and patterns are a bit of a challenge for me though as they are not what I would automatically choose but I'm up for a bit of a challenge!! As the cardstock is double sided I though I would make a concertina card. This card is Orwell I had to use a couple of Amuse rubberstamps that I have because I love them and I thought they would go with the funky paper. I matted the stamped images with the cardstock that I'd cut from the main card using the front and back. I used a tiny scrap of pink card that I had lying aroung to match with the pink in the American Crafts ribbon that I tied down the side. Finally I inked the edges and put 3 cute little flower brads at the top. I'm not sure about the card? What do you think?

The ATC is made from another piece of the Orwell card but I only used the plain side. I used a HOTP circle slide mount and covered it with some Vintage Sarapaper. I cut a strip of the same paper and put it along the botom of the ATC and added some American Crafts ribbon down the side. In the middle of the slide mount I put a HOTP Big Brad to which I added a Big Brad rub on, with the word 'love' on it. I stamped the word love onto the paper at the bottom and added a HOTP silk flower attatched with a brad. You may have noticed there is no photo of the ATC, well spotted. There is a problem downloading images at the moment but I'll keep trying and add it sometime this evening.

(Finally uploaded ATC tonight 18th October)

Every One's A Winner

An exciting time today as we announce the very first Monthly Challenge winner and all the winners from our Ally Pally (29-30 September 07) free Prize Draws.

First, I'd like to thank everybody who has taken part in one of our weekly challenges. I hope that more people will play along each week & have a go at picking up the monthly prize. For details on how to enter go here (scroll to the bottom of the post), or to see this week's challenge, look here.
Without further delay - September's Design Challenge winner is ... Rebecca Nash!
The design team were equally torn between Rebecca's altered cigar box (challenge #7) and her altered tins (Challenge #10) - both of which you will find in our challenge gallery. Rebecca wins a HOTP Personal Shopper Kit - 'Brad Buddies & More' with a retail value of around £30. Rebecca was previously one of the 'honourable mentions' in our last DT call, so I hope she will be ready to take a guest DT place this month too! Well done & we will all look forward to seeing more of your creations soon!

Now on to our prize draw winners. We had two free draws on both the Saturday & Sunday at the Big Stamp & Scrapbooking Show, Alexandra Palace, with an additional draw for everybody who filled in an entry form over the weekend. All our draw prizes were generously donated by A Muse Artstamps and Hot Off The Press.

Our winners are:

Juliet King from Welwyn Garden City, who wins an A Muse prize package valued at over £18.00 (pictured top right)

Becky Napthine from Hockley, Essex, who wins a HOTP Cardmakers Kit valued at £20.00 (pictured second from top)
Sophia O'Reilly from Guildford, who wins an A Muse prize package valued at over £20.00 (pictured third from top)
Melissa Winter from Bexleyheath, Kent, who wins a HOTP scrapbooking kit valued at over £30.00 (pictured bottom far right)
Sharon Collins from Southampton, who wins a current HOTP Personal Shopper Scrapbooking kit valued at over £35.00 (pictured bottom right)

Congratulations to you all. Your prizes are on their way (subject to delay by Royal Mail strikes, of course).

Halloween Happens!

I had a fun day down at the store today, organising our Halloween window
display. So OK, we don't sell a lot of Halloween goodies but that was soooo not the point. In fact this display, which took me several hours to put together (it's arranging the cobwebs that takes the time! LOL) showcases just fourteen stamps from the latest A Muse Halloween & Fall collections. Obviously we do stock the pre-requisite orange, black & purple cardstocks, ink pads, glitters, card blanks etc - but right or wrong, I just wanted a window that would look cool! LOL. See that spider climbing down the wall? He's HUGE! And hairy!

Death is very cool too! He's about 4' tall and his eyes change colour. How funky is that? Hope you like the display - if you are in the area, why not pop

in and see it for real! You can get some extra inspiration from all the card de

signs we have from the A Muse Crew - A Muse Artstamps' very own fabby design team.

Make sure you check back tomorrow - I'll be announcing ALL the winners from our prize draws at Ally Pally & September's Design

Challenge winner - as voted for by the magnificent seven, our fabby Design Team. And there will be piccies of the prizes too!
If that's not enough, details of our Outrageous Octoberfest event will be announced - there's gonna be never-to-be-offered-again special deals plus lots of free gifts and activities. So watch this space!