It’s finally arrived – it’s blog candy time!!  I had lots of fun rifling about in the stock room picking out some of my favourite things – I hope you like them as much as I do   These are definitely my picks, so maybe next time, I’ll get Charlotte to pick her favourites!

Anyway, here is today’s candy (RRP over £40!):

We have

DCWV Linen Closet Matstack

Craftie-Charlie ribbon selection in soft neutrals

Personal Impressions ‘Big Sentiments’ clear stamps by Paula Pascual

EK Success Double Embossed Dotted Lace edge punch

American Crafts Ultimate gel pens in white

5 sheets A4 Kraft cardstock

Ranger Stickles in Crystal

Memento Ink Pad in Rich Cocoa

phew!

All you need to do have a chance to win this fab selection is:

1.  Leave a comment under this post (you need to be logged in) and tell us what’s on your crafting wish list. We’re always on the look out for new things to stock so let us know what you love that we DON’T stock!!! Top of my list at the moment is anything by October Afternoon

2.  Post a link to this post on your own blog (if you have one – if not you can still enter of course!) and mention a bit about our candy

The draw to find the lucky winner will take place at 17:00 BST on the 30th June. We’ll announce the winner on the blog and they can then contact us with their mailing details for their prize! Easy peasy!

We’ll keep this post at the top until the draw takes place

Good Luck!

Charlotte & Jane

Blog posts are like buses at craftie-charlie today – you wait ages for one and then two come along at once!

I’ve been having a craft crisis the last couple of weeks – I’ve made loads of cards but nothing seems to look quite right to me at the moment, and I can’t seem to get a project finished to a point I am happy with    I did manage the card below yesterday… I like lots of the elements of this: I’m particularly pleased with the irregular panel – I’m a ‘right angles and straight edges’ kind of girl but thought this worked much better. BUT  I’m still not 100% behind it and I’m not quite sure why!!  I’m going to try a change from cards to see if that helps so something different next week

Supplies used: Making Memories Just Chillin Boy 6×6 Paper Pad, Hero Arts Monster Fun Clear Stamp Set, Memento Ink Pad Tuxedo Black, Copic Markers for colouring, Tim Holtz Paper Distresser, American Crafts Black Gel Pen, Googly Eye from the kid’s ‘make and do’ box!

Happy Crafting

Jane

I hope that you are enjoying the sunshine where you are?  It’s been absolutely glorious here over the last couple of days – which is nothing short of miraculous with it being the school holidays!!

Both of today’s cards use cute flower embellishments which I’ve made by cutting notches into punched out circles, and then doodling a line round the edge – super easy but super effective, LOVE them

Check out the sunshine in these photos!

Supplies used:

Kraft cardstock, Cosmo Cricket Lil Man paper crafting kit, 1 1/2″ and 1 1/4″ circle punches, black journalling pen, various Basic Grey buttons, Fiskars Apron Lace edge punch, American Crafts Thickers Regards Geyser, Personal Impressions Wording Stamp Set, Memento Rhubarb Stalk ink

Happy crafting

Jane

We’ve been waiting a long time but they have finally arrived – the Tim Holtz Alterations collection from Sizzix! We’ll be putting them on the website over the next couple of days but I couldn’t wait to show you this beautiful butterfly die – isn’t it gorgeous?

This is the card I made for my sister’s birthday this weekend – I’m not generally a grungey kind of girl but I did distress this one just a tiny bit

I don’t think that you can see on this photo but I applied a thin layer of distress stickles over the lace of the wings to give the whole thing a little lift:

Supplies used:

Sizzix Bigz Die Tim Holtz Alterations Fanciful Flight, Craft Paper Blue Hill Collection Pack, Tim Holtz Distresser, Colorbox Chalk Ink Creamy Brown, Ranger Distress Stickles Vintage Photo.

Happy crafting

Jane

First let me apologise for the lack of the promised blog candy   It’s all prepared but somehow we’ve managed to sell the paper pad we were giving away – doh!  More stock due shortly and I’ll post as soon as it arrives

This weeks inspiration came from an unusual source (for me anyway, I’m very literal!)  I was browsing through a clothing catalogue that I received in the mail when I saw this top (White Stuff if you fancy one!):

It’s such an unusual colour combo and I thought it would make  a great card.  I’ve also been storing up this ‘Embossed Layered Resist‘ technique from Jennifer McGuire for future use and with my trusty Silhouette Flower stamp (this is so useful – use it all the time!) off I went.  I’m not very arty so I kept it really simple and loose but for a first try I’m pretty happy with it (and I love the colours!)  You can’t see it very well in the photo for the dark grey background has a soft pearl sheen – gorgeous!

Supplies used:

Bazzill Cardstock ‘Mystique’ (base and main panel) , DCWV Hippie Chic Cardstock stack (dark grey and orange cardstock), Hero Arts Silhouette Flower, Ranger Clear Embossing Powder, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads – Faded Jeans, Tumbled Glass, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey, Ink Blending Tool, Personal Impressions Wording Stamps.

Happy crafting

Jane

I’ve just left a squealing message on Charlotte’s voicemail (“OH MY …! They’re here, they’re actually here and they are FAB!!”) and I wanted to share this with you too!  We have the Inkessentials Craft Spinner – hurrah!  We’ve been waiting on these for ages and they are finally here – just off to set one up in my craft space now

Just on case you have no idea what I’m talking about

You can even stack them up – take a look at this post of Jennifer McGuires blog !

Happy crafting

Jane

Just a quick one today as I’m just dashing off for a long weekend but just wanted to share this project from Sandrine. Isn’t it fabulous?  I am particularly impressed with Sandrine’s bargain hunting skills – what a fab find the unit is

Oh, and make sure you pop back next week for a chance to win in our fabulous blog candy giveaway!

Happy crafting

Jane

Hi folks – sorry for the delay in posting, it’s been a crazy week culminating in no internet access all day yesterday – arrggh!

I think if I had to pick a favourite of the beautiful projects Sandrine has made, it would be this one. It’s just so simple but so perfect – I just love the idea of sewing the pages into the card so your letter is part of it and the punched edge is bliss!

Supplies used: A4 Kraft Cardstock, Cosmo Cricket Material Girl Ready Set Chip, Cosmo Cricket Material Girl Collection Pack, EK Success Binding Edge Punch

Happy crafting

Jane

It’s a very special day here on the Craftie-Charlie blog as we welcome our very first Guest Designer – so a big HELLO to Sandrine!

I adore Sandrine’s beautiful work and was delighted when she agreed to come along and be our guest designer – she’s created a collection of fabulous projects using the Cosmo Cricket Material Girl range, which we’ll be sharing during this week – get ready to be inspired!

Here’s a little taster of the treats in store and some info about Sandrine

“My name is Sandrine, I’ll be 36 years old on the 29th of April! I’m married and mother of two amazing kids: Louis who’s five and half years old and Charlotte who’s two and half years old ! They are my everyday inspiration and I’m also a half part time worker in “Kids’s Paradise” in Ikea Belgium.

And the rest of time I’m a crazy crafter! I’m mad about papers, glue, inks, ribbons, stamps, fabrics, felts, embellishments,….. (I could write an encyclopaedia with all the things I LOVE!) I love to use products to create lovely and full of colors objects and love to play with textures and try new techniques! My favourite is to learn and try I also adore to use fabric inks and lovely scrapbooking stamps to create new patterns on fabrics or ribbons: it’s like giving a second life to scrapbooking stuff! Not only for making pretty albums or journals or layouts or cards, you can also use all of these scrapbooking items for another use, creating, decorating, altering objects. I’m not afraid to try new things, new styles and others unknown things because for me it’s always a pleasure and kind of challenge. I don’t “treat” myself as a scrapbooker (even if I do “scrapbooking”) maybe I could say I’m a mixed media girl or simply a crafter !

I’ve been published several times in Belgian magazines (craft magazines & womens magazines), have been guest designer member of some european & american companies, and also designer for a famous Belgian company (Artemio & their online shop Diane Hobby)”

And without further ado, here’s Sandrine’s first project – a totally adorable altered folder:

Some tips and directions!

Supplies used: Cosmo Cricket Material Girl Papercrafting Kit, Cosmo Cricket Material Girl Ready Set Chip, Cosmo Cricket Ready Set Chip Alphas – High Noon

Happy crafting

Jane

Sorry I’ve been ‘missing in action’ – it’s been a crazy two weeks of new stock mountains, and stock taking here are craftie-charlie HQ!

On Friday we had a party to go to of a family friends little boy – I had no cards made and zero time to make one in   But buying one is not an option with this job!!!

Short of time, I rifled through the Basic Grey card kits and pulled out the June Bug one – brilliant! All you need is some adhesive, and black & white pens – it includes full instructions and everything else you need. It’s definitely a great short cut (or a fab gift to get someone into cardmaking) but is probably classed as cheating if like me, when asked where you bought it from, you go “oh no, I didn’t buy it, I made it” and then enjoy all the praise

With the party over, I had a nice evening in front of the TV wiping up the rest for future use

Happy crafting

Jane