Elzybells Blog

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please read: If you have a reward card which was issued before we moved premises, please make sure you send it to our current address, not the address on the back of the card, or we won't receive it.  Thanks!

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I'm a little late announcing last week's challenge winner (I'm sorry!) however, I think it was worth the wait...

 

The challenge was to create a card using your own country's colours. So how about this wonderful creation by Sunghee - it's amazing!! I love all the little details especially the towel rail and how the towel has also been stamped with the word relax :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can find out more on Sunghee's blog:

http://www.creativityinprogress.com/blog/mommy-needs-to-relax

 

Sunghee, please email me and I'll give you your coupon code :)

 

Guest designer tutorial

 

It's Sue's final day as July's guest designer and she has a great tutorial to share!!

 

 

Note card and envelope wallet tutorial

 

 

Supplies needed for wallet

03-025 Wavy little note

20-009 Keep in Touch clear set

8½ x 11" blue bazzill cardstock

2 pieces 5½ x 4¾" lemon bazzill carsdstock for back & front covers

1 piece 5 3/8 x 4 5/8" designer paper for front cover

2 lemon eyelets

1 piece smooth white scrap card for stamping

Silent setter or crop a dile

Polka dot ribbon

2½" circle punch

3" scallop circle punch

Colouring medium

Bone folder

Memento ink pad

Small scrap of blue bazzill cardstock

 

 

Supplies needed for notecards

4 pieces 5½ x 4¼" lemon bazzill cardstock

4 pieces 5¼ x 4" smooth white card

 

 

Firstly take your 8½ x 11" blue bazzill card and across the top of the 8½ side score it at 6" and 6¼".

Then turn your card and across the top of the 11" side, score it at 5¼" and 5¾".

 

 

Then, with your scissors you need to cut out the small middle section at the bottom. Cut up to the top score line.

 

 

Now fold and crease all your score lines with your bone folder

 

You now need to add your 2 eyelets that are going to hold down your pockets. You only need 1 eyelet for each pocket. Take your setter and punch about ½ an inch in from the side. Repeat this on the other pocket

 

Now set your eyelets and remember the flattened back of your eyelets will be showing on the front and back of your wallet... but don’t worry as these will be covered in the next step.

 

Take your 2 pieces of 5½ x 4¾" lemon bazzill card and on one of them adhere the designer paper onto  it. Adhere this entire piece to the front of your wallet & adhere the remaining blank lemon piece to the back of your wallet. You will now notice that these cover up the back of your flattened eyelets.

 

Now, on the back of your wallet stick a small piece of double sided tape in the middle of your lemon cover. Attach your ribbon around the wallet so that the ribbon sticks down at the back and then you can tie it up at the front of your wallet.

 

Take your elzybells clear stamps and stamp your image onto the small piece of smooth white card. Colour and then punch out with your 2½" circle punch. Then, take your small scrap of blue bazzill card and punch out a 3" scallop circle and mount the image onto the blue scallop. Attach to the front cover of your wallet. Then stamp the elzybells sentiment ‘just a little note’ on a piece of smooth white card and mount onto a piece of blue bazzill card. Adhere this sentiment to the bottom right corner on your designer paper.

 

 

Finally, we need to make the notelets.

Take a piece of the smooth white card 5¼ x 4" and stamp your sentiment across the 4" top. Then stamp your image in the bottom right hand corner. Repeat this with the 3 remaining pieces of smooth white card. Then adhere the white card  to the 5 ½ x 4 ¼" lemon card and repeat this  with the remaining 3 pieces. Stamp your image onto the envelope and colour, repeat this with the 3 remaining envelopes.

 

 

 

Now add your notelets and envelopes inside your wallet pockets and tie up.

 

 

 

 

Many, many thanks to Sue for sharing her wonderful, inspiring creations throughout the week!! Have you enjoyed them??

 

Elizabeth x

Guest designer day 4

 

Sue: "This is my Christmas shadow box. I love the colours and the adorable stamps. The images are coloured with copics and glitter added for the sparkle."

 

 

Sue: "I like the simplicity of this card, I kept it simple with just 2 colours... very striking I think!"

 

 

Boy the week has flown by. There's just one more day of Sue's guest designer spot to go - tomorrow Sue will share how to make a note card and envelope wallet!

 

See you then!

Elizabeth x

Copic colour challenge...

If you fancy a challenge and a chance to win some Elzybells stamps, hop on over to the Copic Colour Challenge blog for this week's colour challenge!!

Here's the LINK!

 

Have fun!!

Day 3 guest designer!

 

What's your all time favourite product? 

I will have to say my copic ciaos, it’s like using a brush and painting and such a beautiful finish with them.

 

What do you like to see on a card? 

I  think less is more on a card, to me the main focal point of a card is the image so I like to keep my cards simple so the eye can focus on the image.

 

What item would you not be without? 

I could not be without my beloved copic ciaos.

 

Do you have a specific process when making a card... Do you plan your card before starting or does it take shape as you create? 

I tend to start my card by selecting my image, then I choose the paper and try and match the colour from the papers to the image and then lastly end up colouring blooms with copic ciaos because I never seem to have the colour I want.

 

 

 

Sue: "I love this card, it is a sweet straight forward card, nothing fussy as your stamps don't need loads of flowers and embellishments.I used scallop card and liquid pearls. The bear was coloured with prismas and blended with sansodor and the parachute was paper pieced cut out and decoupaged.The sentiment was created on the PC."

 

 

Sue: "This is a little post it note holder I made. I love this sweet little pad and it's so very simple to make.... again your stamps are perfect for this project"

(visit Sue's blog for a link to a tutorial)

 

 

 

See you tomorrow for more of Sue's creations!

Elizabeth x

Guest designer day 2

 

Where do you get your inspiration? 

I get lots of wonderful inspiration from the many fantastic blogs I visit. It’s great to see so many different techniques and the generosity of these people is amazing. They are all so willing to share their talent. My biggest inspiration though is from my friend Kim Fee, she never fails to inspire me and has kept me card making for the last 3 years. So.. if I ever wanted to stop creating…Kim wouldn’t let me!

Do you have a favourite colour scheme?

Now if you asked my husband that question about me he would say PINK… and yes I do like pink but my favourite combination is blue and yellow together…. such fresh spring like colours.

 

What's your favourite Elzybells stamp? 

Hmmm, now that’s a difficult one, but I am going to say I adore the ‘Hey cupcake’ clear set… and the ‘Sweet like chocolate’ clear set and….. the ‘Keep in touch’ clear set... oh dear that was 3... lol

 

What's your favourite technique? 

My favourite  technique is stamping and I enjoy colouring my stamped images and seeing them come to life in front of my eyes. I now enjoy masking, especially with the Elzybells cupcake stamps.

 

 

Sue: "Here is something a little different and I love this card and was delighted with how it turned out. This card will go to my sister as she loves cake and she loves to read. I used the cupcake stamps and I must say these are a delight and fun way to stamp, there are so many variations with them. I love 'em! These have been colored with copics and the bookmark is removable. You can find a tutorial for the corner bookmark here"

 

 I love that Sue has made a bookmark which isn't the usual long rectangle shape - a fantastic idea!!

 

 

Sue: "Here are a selection of sweet bags I made.I really enjoyed making these and found it very difficult to keep the children away.my favorites are the cookie bag and the rolo bag...Mmmmmmm"

 

 

 

 

 

Mmmm these do look yummy! I love the rolos - who gets your last one..??

 

Elizabeth x

It's guest designer week!

I am very pleased to introduce this month's guest designer, Sue Baxter! I was first impressed with Sue's work when she submitted a card to our Christmas competition last year, I'm so please Sue agreed to be a guest designer, she has some wonderful creations to share this week.

If you'd like to see more of Sue's work, here is her blog!

 

 

How long have you been stamping / how did you get into stamping?  

I have been card making for about 4 years. A friend of mine introduced me to card making and I admired her cards so… I thought I would give it a try. Then my friend introduced me to stamping… well from then on I was hooked!

 

Do you enjoy any other crafting hobbies? 

I am mainly a card maker, although I have made one scrapbook which I really enjoyed putting together and I have also made a few small mini books with pictures but I do find these projects quite time consuming.

 

Would you say you have a particular stamping style?  

I like to keep my stamping fairly simple and I also like cute images.

 

 

Sue: "I adore this card, the colours are beautiful and I enjoyed colouring these cute bears with my prismas and blending with sansodor."

Sue: "Here I have made a kick stand card, again very easy to make and suits the length of this cute stamp. These bears have been coloured with copics and the balloon paper pieced."

 

Be sure to pop back tomorrow for the next installment of Sue's guest designer spot!

 

Elizabeth x

 

Stamps used:

07-014 Ladybug fun

07-017 Teddy antics

 

Showcase Sunday

Showcase Sunday is back and I've had lots of emails. So many of you are kind enough to share your elzybells creations! :)

So here goes in no particular order....

 

Vicki Cowley has been getting the hang of her koh-i-noors with these cards for father's day!

 

 

 

and here are some more great cards with a Father's day theme.

More gorgeous colouring by Donna Ferguson

 

 

and Jane Milllard

 

 

 

Now, I love this Father's day card by Kathy McAllister as it makes a sentiment the focal point rather than an image. I think this is great if your dad doesn't have the usual hobbies associated with father's day.

 

 

This very sweet card is by Amanda, for her niece who is turning 4. The teddy is the Teddy heart wreath (07-002) - a fantastic idea and so imaginative!

  

 

This beautiful baby card is by Leonie Wittendorp. I love the paper piecing :)

 

 

This *stunning* card is by Anne Ray. I love the various layers and 3d elements!

 

 

These two beautiful cards are by Jocelyn Knight (aka JoBear2 on her SCS gallery) 

 

 

 

This lovely card is by Doreen Robertson

 

 

and last but by no means least, here's an amazing baby box by Inge Groot!

 

What a full showcase and all such beautiful creations! Thanks you so much to everyone for sharing them, they are a wonderful inspiration!

 

Happy Sunday! 

 

Following last month's birthday celebrations, the blog is now getting back to normal and it's Thursday which means it's challenge day!!

Given that it's the 4th of July on Saturday, I thought it'd be great for today's challenge to be an idea from 'retired' dt member Paula - to create a card that includes the colours of your country's flag!

 

Now I didn't realise how much I would struggle with these colours, they're definitely not what I would usually go for (I think it's because it reminds me of my old school uniform!). So as I wasn't getting much inspiration, I thought I'd just have a play with some blue, red and white fimo and I made some odd shaped beads.

Here's my simple card:

 

 

You can't see it in the photo, but the fimo has some lovely sparkly glitter in it! :)

 

Visit the following DT's blogs to see what they came up with!

 

Angel (USA)

Charlene (Canada)

Deborah (USA)

Frances (Australia)

Jeanne (USA)

Kim (UK)

Michelle (UK)

Steph (UK)

 

If you'd like to have a go at this challenge and be in with a chance to win £5 to spend in the online shop, you have one week to link your creation to the comments of this post. I will pick my favourite and announce the winner on Thursday!

 

Just a reminder - tomorrow is the last day of our 10% discount. Also, I'm extending last week's stamp bundle until tomorrow too!!

 

Happy Monday!!