I love making quick cards – they are fun, versatile and have a really purpose. Giving someone a beautiful and thoughtfully made greeting card is priceless and shows effort! So for this card i grabbed some beautiful and versatile stickers from the Chiswick range to add colour and patterns to the front of my card. Stickers are effective when grouped together closely to form a visual point – from there you can add other elements that will guide the eye to different positions. To create further interest to my card i used the zig zag blade for the easy cut trimmer to cut a strip of patterned paper with a beautiful edge – this will change an ordinary border into something special in one easy cut! That simple!

 I added loads of colour using my stickers and chipboard elements from the Chiswick range – these are perfect for modern and funky birthday and greeting cards.

To add a bit of sparkle and extra funky appeal to my card I added pink flowers and added glitter brads to the center of each flower to finish them off nicely. I love how the pink glitter just adds that element of surprise.

And a card will be quite boring without some wording – for this card i added a phrase from the die-cut sticker sheet “Familiar phrases” and then cut the ‘so’ off so that i only had ‘brilliant’ left – by altering ready made elements you can make them style specific and customize it to suit your needs.

The decorative edge makes for a nice statement just above the bold black sticker border. The zig zag shape is a nice repetition of the larger scallop edge on the sticker, adding lots of interest and contrast while softening an otherwise hard straight edge.

To cut my zig zag edge was so easy – all i had to do was replace my regular stright blade in my trimmer with the zig zag blade and make the cut.

The blade snaps easily into the guide track – did you know that you can also replace your straight cut blade with perforated, fold scoring or wave cut – which means your trimmer become multifunctional in a few easy steps

Here you can see the zig zag cut made on the patterned paper – different papers will show the edge more clearly as you can see here. The lighter your paper or cardstock, the more evident the cut will be.

And that is how easy it is to use the easy cut trimmer from Chiswick to add loads of interest to your next craft project.

Easy-Cut Trimmer sb4400

Paper Petals – Baby Pink 30 pieces pf1002
Chipboard Adhesives – Ephemera st1007
Embossed Stickers – Floral Summer st1001
Die-Cut Stickers – Familiar Phrases st1000

I hope you feel inspired to pull out those extra blades for your easy cut trimmer and add a little pizazz to those otherwise straight edges. Happy card making!

Hello again - hope you are having a creative week. this week i got to play with a firm 'old-school' favourite. it's one of those tools that you can't live without even if you are a seasoned crafter! The 9pc Eyelet tool kit is functional in so many ways, but this week we are using it to create custom backgrounds - you can repeat this same technique on your cards, layouts, tags and other crafty projects. and as always you can pop along to the website here to see all their crating goodness.

I created this tag using an inky background, and then used my eyelet tool to make different sized holes into the tag itself, before backing it with a bright and cheerful pink cardstock for a 'pop' of colour. i used pink as an accent colour here to compliment my greens and blues.

To start off gather your toolkit and the working pad - this is so that even when you make holes, you don't ruin your pink Chiswick cutting mat with loads of different marks on it. Insert the hole size you are going to use first by screwing it into the handle tip.

Place the handle with the nice soft grip on your tag in the position you want the hole. Use the craft hammer and pound onto the back of the handle. Once should be enough but may require more blows depending on the surface or pressure.

TIP: i recommend you do this step on a nice firm surface or even on the floor to avoid making too big a noise when you are doing this late at night!

Once you are done and happy with the placement of all the holes, add adhesive to the back of your tag and adhere it to a sheet of pink cardstock. The cardstock fills in the holes and adds a nice colourful pattern to the background.

you can create fun elements using this method i.e Print a swirl on paper and then use it as a guide to create a pattern using your eyelet tool to make holes in the swirl. the printed swirl will act as a template only. remove the printed swirl to reveal your swirl consisting of holes. then back it with patterned paper and you have a custom element for your cards or layouts

combine your holes with buttons, diamante and pearls for a gorgeous effect.

to add some detail to your cardstock use a white ink and add white splats of ink to it before using it behind your holes. this will make for a fun effect peeking through

a fun way to use those favourite tools! oh and you could of course add an eyelet or two to the holes to make them even prettier adding texture and colour at the same time!

Chiswick Products used
9Pc eyelet tool set cr1100
Burnishing paste 25ml Verdigris pa2240
Dye ink pad - brown rs3299

So after 2 weeks of rain (bliss) and some awful flooding in areas so close to us we finally seem to be back on line with constant internet access. Creating quick gifts using scrapbooking supplies is one of my favourite things to do - not only can you personalize something that comes from the heart it can be fun trying something a little different. I had some empty glass jars from Mr Price and i filled this one with some honey. I used some of the new Prima die-cut flowers to add to the lid, but before i added them i wanted to give them some dimension. What better way to add dimension then using the Chiswick Embossing tool with a large 12 and 14mm ball at two opposing ends.

Normally embossing tools have small ends and it takes a lot more work to create the type of dimension i wanted to achieve, so this tool was really amazing for what i wanted to achieve.

I placed the die-cuts onto a piece of foam and gently rolled the embossing tool in the center of the flowers. As you roll in the center the ends curl up creating dimension. it really is that easy and simple!
The secret is rolling onto the foam - a hard firm surface will not work for this.

Notice how the tips of the white largest flower curls the opposite way again? Well here's how i did....

I curled the edges of the flowers outwards using my Chiswick Bone folder. Place the bone folder under the petals and hold the petal lightly with your thumb and then pull the bone folder outwards curling the petal downwards. I then used the embossing tool by rolling it in the center and made the petals pop up towards the middle. Then layer the flowers on top of each other for a gorgeous dimensional look. This will work great on gift boxes, a bunch of flowers or a card.

As a craftsman (well women) I love a good tool. And if you give it to me in kit form even better! But the real bonus is when it comes beautifully packaged in a handy and sturdy tin. Oh and a little bit of pink helps too. This is what the new AC i-Tool kit offers you along with its super functional tools inside. This all in one kit is all I need when I need to create on the go. It has everything I need all in a very cute tin that is compact and travel friendly. I used this kit along with a single adhesive to complete my Project Life Cover page for 2014. I really needed nothing else apart from a few embellishments to dress up my page. I liked that I didn’t need a stack of things to be creative and didn’t even have to be at my usual work space to complete the page.

Eyelet setter

This makes for a really handy gift for anyone starting up a creative hobby like card-making, scrapbooking or even for back to school teenagers. I know my niece would love a kit like this. this is a fabulous gift and a must have for every crafter.