I love cupcake stamps – they are just so useful – girls, boys, any age – they do it all.  So as soon as I saw this jumbo one from Hero Arts,  I knew that I had to have one    It’s a big stamp (the card is 5″ square!) so is a real focal point. Just some decoration (try not to notice the smudge on my stickles – where did that appear from?!) and voila!

Supplies used:  Hero Arts Cupcake stamp, Timber Brown Stazon, Dovecraft Sentiments stamp, SU! Scallop Edger, MME Penny Lane cardstock, SU! Regal Rose and Chocolate Chip cardstock, Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Stickles Worn Lipstick, Dovecraft Adhesive Gems

Happy crafting

Jane

PS If you’re looking at this thinking – that’s all very nice but it’s a bit BIG – take a look at this cupcake set which arrived today

Hope you’ve all had a great week – it’s been crazy here but I thought I’d grab 5 mins to tell you about all the fab things that we saw at last weeks Trade Show in Birmingham.  We had a fab time looking at all the gorgeous new products – we’ve bought loads and it should all be arriving in the next month or so – keep your eyes peeled! Here are just some of the great things on their way:

The fantastic new Tim Holtz Alterations Sizzix line – words can not describe how excited I am about this one! the Sizzix stand was our first stop at the show so we could get this ordered! You can see the whole range here – I’m having a butterfly and a bricked/woodgrain embossing folder set 

Loads of new stacks and embellishments from DCWV including the beautiful Mariposa (which a lot of you have been asking about) , the cool and classy Linen Closet and vibrant Mango Frost.

We spent loads of time watching the beautiful and v talented Claudine Hellmuth at work – we have her new line for Ranger Claudine Hellmuth Studio coming soon. If  you’ve not seen Claudine’s work before there’s loads of information and ideas here

Lot of new stamps from Australian company Darkroom Door – these are really unusual and absolutely stunning.  I particularly loved these photo stamps.

Even more Basic Grey – the new lines just keep coming! Green at Heart – cute creatures and brights, Kioshi – sophisticated relaxed colours and geometric designs, old world elegance with Cappella and pets and patterns with Max & Whiskers!

In a little departure for Craftie-Charlie we are also going to start stocking magazines – starting with the brilliant Craft Stamper.  Stock of the April issue is due any day now

Phew! I feel tired out all over again

Happy crafting

Jane

We thought it was time for a special offer here at Craftie-Charlie so for this week only* we have 15% off all inkpads on the web site (you’ll see the special prices shown in red)

* from now until Sunday 28th 23:59:59 or until we’ve run out!

I’m soooo excited – just wanted to let everyone know that the new Cosmo Cricket lines have arrived today! I’ve added them to the website, snaffled some for myself and I’m off to get creating!

Garden Variety, Material Girl, Joy Ride

Enjoy!

Jane

Imagine at any other time of year, having a male card to make and thinking – “you know what we need here: some hearts and possibly some pink and glitter” it just doesn’t happen   Because of this I normally find Valentine’s cards REALLY difficult and spend HOURS staring at various supplies but not this year

This is my very CAS Valentine for this year – just some Basic Grey letters, and a punched out chipboard heart with distress stickles

I was so happy with it, I just kept going…

and going…

I’m going to make it into a whole notecard set

Supplies used:

White cardstock from PaperMill Shop, EK Success Corner Rounder, Basic Grey Mini Chipboard Letters in Chocolate (I just coloured over them with black pen!), basic chipboard, Dovecraft Regular Heart Punch, Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Stickles Fired Brick

Happy crafting

Jane

Somethings are just meant too be…. These Treat Bag Kits arrived in a delivery on Thursday. We had a birthday party at home for dd this morning and I knew as soon as I saw these that they had come just for me!!!! (Well, we have some for you too!) Aren’t they just the cutest?! They are a great size for a party bag (about 4″x 2.5″x 7″ folded over) and the kids loved them.

Apologies for the picture quality – I only had 5 mins between assembly and guests arrival for photo taking!

I added a little tag on the back (the diecut hearts come in the kit too – I have loads left so I’ll make some cards with the rest)

Supplies used : K&CO Ka-Zoo Valentine Treat Bag Kit, Bazzill Avalanche Cardstock

Happy crafting

Jane

I love glitter   And more particularly, I love these Thickers – they are just soooooo glittery – they are begging to be the star of any card or layout. This is a card I made for my dd whose birthday it was last week – it’s looking a little dunkled round the edges as I didn’t get to take a photo before giving it to her! I love putting kid’s names on their cards – it always makes them happy (especially those with unusual names!)

I don’t normally use stickers much but these new Pepper & Friends ones are so lovely and very easy to work with (they are on cardstock so don’t bend around all over the place – can you can move them (carefully!) if it doesn’t quite go right the first time)

Supplies used:  Pepper & Friends 8×8 Designer Paper, Coredinations Gemstones 12×12 cardstock, plain white card, Trimcraft ivory satin ribbon, American Crafts Thickers – Sprinkles Lavender, Dovecraft Sentiments Clear Stamps, SU! Nearly Navy Ink, Pepper & Friends Buds and Butterflies stickers.

Talking of things that make me smile, call me a geek but this card had me rolling on the floor laughing – genius!

Happy crafting

Jane

I have to confess that I did ‘fall off’ the resolution wagon this week and made a couple of cards for my son’s friends with my trusty Archaic collection pack.  So it was time to make amends with some serious colour

Arielle’s ColourQ challenge blog is just gorgeous – the colour selections are always amazing but I’ve not had chance to play along before. Arielle had a baby this week and still managed to make a card and upload it (!), as I didn’t have an excuse nearly as good I thought I’d better get on with it!

Here are the colours for this week:

This was a big challenge for me but I fell in love with this beautiful K&Co brad and it fell into place from there.  I think I’m developing a big brad fixation! I had to take this in artificial light as it’s been so dull here lately – it seems to have lightened my dark colours a bit (roll on summer!)

Supplies used: K&Co Sweet Talk Fabric Brads, K&Co Sweet Talk Die-Cut Mat Pad, SU! Bravo Burgundy and Pumpkin Pie cardstock (I had to improvise as I don’t have the other colours!), Personal Impressions Wording stamp set, SU! Pumpkin Pie Ink, SU! Regal Rose Grosgrain, Making Memories Paper Piercer, EK Success 2″ Scallop Circle Punch, EK Success 1 1/4″ circle punch, Kars 1″ Circle Punch

Happy crafting

The CHA trade show in Anaheim, CA and the Stitches trade show in Birmingham, UK are not far away now – which means neither are all the scrummy 2010 new releases.  I’m soooo excited!

Retailers got a sneak peak of the three new collections from Cosmo Cricket yesterday – TOTALLY gorgeous and loads of new additions to the ranges too.  The collections will be unveiled on the Cosmo Cricket blog tomorrow so be sure to pop along and take a look. They are also running a prize draw for your favourite retailer to win the whole of one of the fab new collections – if we are the lucky winners, we’ll be giving the prize away to our lovely customers so why not mention us

We’ve also been invited to a free half-day workshop with Tim Holtz and Suze Weinburg the day before the Birmingham show by one of our suppliers – and we can’t make it, how upsetting is that?  BOO HOO

Happy Crafting

Jane

Do you have any crafting resolutions for 2010?  I have two (related) crafting resolutions: to be more adventurous with colour and to do more challenges (to stretch those creative muscles!).

Starting as I mean to go on, when I sat down to make a Thank You this week, I decided to have a go at this challenge on Lucy’s fabulous blog – create a card using only ONE colour, along with black and/or white. I think this was a good place for me to start colourwise – I love these Japanese stamps from Hero Arts and they worked perfectly with the scheme!

Looking in close up at this photo I did also think I should work on my colouring – it looks nice and even in real life honestly!

Supplies used: Hero Arts 4 Dolls, Hero Arts Arigato, SU! Real Red cardstock, coated white card from the Paper Mill store, Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, Colorbox Warm Red Chalk Ink for background, Red R27 Copics Marker & Blender pen, Dovecraft Christmas Gems

Happy crafting!

Jane