Christmas With Hobbycraft

Monday morning and we are creeping ever so closer to the end of August and the long bank holiday weekend, although I never know if its a bank holiday weekend here in Scotland or not. Not that they mean anything to me, just a normal weekend. I only know its a bank holiday cause the tv schedule is different haha.

A few weeks ago during one of my many trips to my local Hobbycraft in Dundee I bought one of their 6x6" paper pads of their new Christmas collection title "Christmas Whispers" oh boy, iv had so must fun with this one small paper pad. It really is one of my favourite collections iv seen come from Hobbycraft. I loved it so much that on Friday I went back up and bought another plus the 12x12" paper pad and some embellishments that coordinate. While there I seen another of their Christmas collections titled "Heritage Christmas" this is a more traditional colour scheme with browns, creams and touches of Reds, where the "Christmas Whispers" were very on trend, modern and has an ice cold feel to it with all the shades of Blues. Again I bought the 6x6" paper pad of the "Heritage Christmas" and have had so much fun with it. So much so I wish I had bought more. Its 2 cards using the "Heritage Christmas" that I am blogging about.

The first photo below is what the finished card looks like. Below that are additional photos and comment about what iv used. The cutting products iv used to create are;

Cutterpillar crop - Create and Craft 

Gemini die cutting machine - Crafters Companion 

Paper trimmer for gutting - Fiskars

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Hobbycraft; 

6x6 "Heritage Christmas" paper pad

A4 "Red Shades" 180gsm coloured paper pad (50 sheets)

A4 "Seaside" 180gsm coloured paper pad (50 sheets)

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Stix2; www.stix2.co.uk

Red tape runner - S57269

A4 3D foam sheets - S57182

Silicone glue - S57100

Ivory 8x8 card blank & envelope - S57346 (6 pack)

8x8 cello bag - K624

Piercing/pokey tool - S57373

9mm double faced Wine satin ribbon - S57206

3mm double faced Ivory satin ribbon -S57193

Low rack stencil tape - S56994

A4 cream card - sentiment 

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Additional Items;

Gold Mirri card - Mirri Board brand

4mm gold pearls - Hunkydory Craft

8x8 "Christmas Time" Nordic embossing folder - Crafters Companion 

Pva glue with fine tip - Dawn Bibby/ Craft Buddy

Holly flourish die - Cheery Lynn

Christmas insert

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Where possible I always gut my card stock, it reduces the weight which helps the cost if your posting but it also makes your stock go a lot further and better value for money. You can use dies to cut the centres out your card but I always use my Fiskars paper trimmer for this. 

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I have embossed the main layer using a Crafters Companion 8x8 embossing folder from their Nordic range. Hobbycrafts own range of card stock embosses really well. As you can see when it come to gutting, when you place your main matt on the top, you cant see the centre missing from your card stock.

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Make sure when adding 3D foam pads to the back of your layers you give a good coverage. You don't want the centre to buckle inwards. Stix2 do so many sizes of foam pads, this is where the A4 foam sheets come in so well as you can cut them to size. Not to mention they also die cut really well when using basic shapes. 

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Again here is the finished card. 

When it comes to Holly flourish, I have die cut in both colours and layered the cream layer slightly off side to the Red shade given it a slight shadow effect. The flourish really helps just to make stand out a bit more and to give it more of a dimension feel. The only additional adhesive iv used that isn't Stix2 is Dawn Bibby's own wet glue. Dawns really does give you an instant stick it has a slightly more thicker consistency with less water inside so really you do only need a tiny amount and once its down for as little as 3 seconds, its stuck. 

I really hope you really like what I have created using these products. Make sure you keep an eye out on here for more in the future but to keep right up to date with what i'm creating, follow my facebook page;

www.facebook.com/craigscardcreations

Craig x

Thank You with some sprayed sunshine

There seems to be this strange thing in the sky, it big, round and orange. It seems to be given off some heat too. I do believe it the sun. Even stranger, we have the sun here up in Scotland and the weather seems to be bad down south. I don't feel bad, as you all get the better weather than we do haha. 

With the sun in the sky I thought id make a bright sunny Thank You card using all Stix2 Anything products. The only exception was the black pearls. 

The products iv used to create the above card are;

Stix2;

7x7 card blank (cut down from 8x8)

A4 White card stock

A4 Black card stock

A4 Bright Orange

A4 Kraft card.

Orange Fabric spray

Non stick craft mat

Double sided tape

3D foam pads

5mm Black pearsl (own stash)

"Thank You" Sentiment printed from computer

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Iv taken a piece of White card stock and cut down to 5x5", and also a piece of Kraft card and cut down to 6.5 x 6.5". Iv placed them both onto a craft mat and prayed the Orange fabric spray over the card.

Once dry I have matted and layered each of the prayed layers onto Bright orange card stock and Black card stock.

Iv attached the sprayed kraft card layers onto a card blank. Then attached the White sprayed layers on top of the kraft card using double sided tape.

I then printed out a large "Thank You" sentiment on to Stix2 Kraft card and matted and layered onto Orange and Black card stock. I then attached to base using 3D foam pads.

To finish off i added some Black pearls.

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Thank you for popping over and having a read.

Craig x