Sugar Buttons - Updated Photos!

Thanks for your feedback on yesterday's piccies, here are some new photos taken today under better lighting. I hope you all like them! :-)

Toni-Marie xxx

Cute as a SUGAR BUTTON!!!!!!!

Whatcha folks, how's ya diddlin? I'm getting very excited about Christmas now, the trees up and the chocolates are open! Easily the BEST time of year :-)

This week, I decided to make something a little different to the usual cards, I hope you like. This week's make was made using the gorgeous Sugar Buttons kit from Kanban. The kit itself had the influence of the very talented Kathryn Sturrock who is usually known for her polymer clay work. I think you'll agree the artwork is stunning and I found it a real joy to work with.

900934 - Sugar Buttons glittered BG card; 900939 - Fairy Wands (foiled and glittered BG card); 900936 - Bubblegum Candy Stripe (BG card); 900918 - Prince and Princess (sparkly decoupage); 900917 - Pretty Ballerinas (sparkly decoupage). Also from Kanban, I used three sheets of white card stock, two sheets of silver mirri, three sheets of silver gliter card and paper from the Sugar Buttons paper pad

Panel One

Panel Two



Panel Three

 This week, I've been really enjoying seeing all the wonderful makes by other very talented Kanban crafters over on Facebook in the group "We Love Kanban", especially some stunning makes using Kanban's new Birds kit, aptly named "In the Garden." If you haven't seen this kit yet, you must check it out soon as it's ideal for all occasions, ages and male or female.

See you soon!
Lots of love, Toni-Marie xxx

Lavender Rose meets Bella Italiano!!!!

Hello all, hope you are all well and keeping nice and warm. i have my christmas decorations up and im feeling very christmassy indeed!! so im thinking my next post will be a little more festive looking! But until then, i hope you enjoy these makes which i have submitted to kanban as my design team cards for this week........

Lots of Love, Toni-Marie xxxxx



This distressed cards was made using the Bella Italiano Kit frim kanban and was great to make as i got rather inky!!
Its been made using...  900967 - venetian carnival (topper) 900978 - special sentiments (with love) plus various papers from the bella paper pad and kanban quilling roses!!



This little number was made using my favourite, Lavender rose but with the addition of the very glamourous lady from the bella italiano kit. I think the two kits work amazingly well together and after using my pro markers to give the lady a light tan, she was ready to become the beautiful Parisian lady you see before you.
Lavender rose items used were 900754 - floral postcards and 900764 - from paris with love (background card). whilst that gorgeous lady from Bella Italiano was from 900970 - Ragazza Bella. Plus i used Kanbans silver glitter for the BG card.

This gift bag was created using the fantastic kanban christmas compendium kit from 2010. As you've probabley guessed, the kit was huge and therefore has lasted me two christmas's and shows no signs of running out anytime soon! Now thats what i call value for money! God bless Kanban I say!  :p
Unfortunately i do not have the codes for this item as i removed them to fit the kit into my storage boxes!! my apologies for that! It wont happen again! hehe!!  :-)

BELLA ITALIANO!!!

Hi all,
As promised, here is my very first card made with the fantastic Bella Italiano, followed by yet another make from my favourite Lavender Rose.

901226 - White wood card BG, 901248 - Cathedral windows (toppers), 900971 - Holiday Time Toppers x2, 900978 Special sentiments plus silver acetate windows and navy blue paper from pad

Additional photo of previous card

Spotty jump up. 900748 - Paris in Bloom topper, 900755 - Lavender Rose elements (Roses), 900780 - Parisian tags (heart topper and small tag), 900753 - Lavender postcards (Greeting). Also using Kanban Spots for BG from metallic and glitter cardstock pack, and using Marabou feathers.

 Apologies for the late blogging this week, I shal be back later with this week's Kanban Design Team cards.

Lots of love Toni-Marie xxx

Lavender Rose Revisited :-)

Hi everybody!

With Christmas coming, I should really be making some more Christmas cards but as always the Lavender Rose pulled me back in. So here is a couple of this week's makes which are also my Design Team cards for this week. Hope you've all been watching Create and Craft and ordering Kanban's beautiful "Bella Italiano" kit. Hopefully mine should be with me in the next few days. I can't wait! It's such a beautiful kit and the artwork and designs are so different to anything else that's around at the moment.

Anyway, on to this week's cards...

This card was made using the following; Background - Damask, Cashmere (CRD9714), Lavender Postcards Topper (900753), Lavender Accents embelishment (900781), Lavender Rose sentiment (900750). Plus pink and purple cardstock (LR extra cardstock)

Belle Epoque - Violet (Background card, YJCRD002), Butterflies on Lavender topper (900749), LR Sentiments (900750), LR Small Toppers (900755) and Parisian tags - small hearts and butterflies (900780) Plus, Kanban's extra glitter metallic cardstock (stripes, small gingham and matt silver)

Slightly different view of the above card

Hope you like :-)
Hopefully, my next post will be of cards made using the brand new Bella Italiano kit :-)

Happy crafting all,
Lots of love and hugs, Toni-Marie xxx

This Week's DT Work... Pt. II

Hello again,

Thought I would save this little number til last as it's my ultimate favourite! Those of you that know me will be aware that it is extremely unlike me to actually be happy with my work, but this one really was a labour of love. I hope you like it as much as I do. Any comments gratefully received :-)

Closed view, I adore this piece of acetate

Oooo, the ribbon's untied...

Ta-daaaah!

A closer look at the inside of the card itself

...and finally, an extreme close up in order to show you the dimension, detail and verse

As with the previous post, this card was made with the beautiful Bloomingdale kit from the ever amazing Kanban! Below you will find the product codes and descriptions for the elements used from the Bloomingdale kit and other Kanban goodies.

Carte Postale - Birds (PCT1951)

Vintage Butterflies - Aqua (CRD1516)

Beautiful Accents Toppers (PCT1957)

Chelsea Elements (PCT1950)

The Textile Collection - Victoriana - Acetate

Also using,

Kanban Metallic pink cardstock

Kanban assorted toppers

Kanban's white Maribou feathers

Kanban's "Chinese Proverb" stamp

As always, I really hope you like my new card. Until next time, take care and happy crafting!

Lots of love

Toni-Marie xxx

New Week, New DT Work for Kanban!

Hi all,

This week saw the arrival of my exciting new kit from Kanban, called Bloomingdale, which is now, alongside Lavender Rose, one of my new favourites! :-)

To any of you that were lucky enough to make it to the NEC Birmingham last week, I hope you had a wonderful time and got plenty of goodies from Kanban's new retail division, Crafted by You (Stand C16!). I'm sure anything you got will provide hours of fun :-)

These are my very first makes using the Bloomingdale kit, and this card has turned out to be my Dad's favourite!

Made using, Scrolls and Calligraphy (CRD1514), Bird (PCT1950), Metallic blue cardstock, Kanban quilling flowers plus dies and Distress Inks

Kanban micro gingham cardstock, plus Centura Pearl cardstock and an assortment of embellishments and lace

Cardstock pack MIR 1274 - guilded silhouette - green, Carte Postale - birds (PCT1951), Chelsea elements (PCT1950), Beautiful Accents (PCT1957)



Hope you enjoy my new additions to the collection as much as I enjoyed working with it!

Love Toni-Marie xxx

NEC Birmingham!!!!

Hello all, hope you are all well and keeping warm today!! plenty of cups of tea needed me thinks!! :-)
 Just to let you all know, should any of you be lucky enough to make it to the NEC Birmingham this week, the new and exciting retail division named "crafted by you" of the amazing kanban WILL be there!! You will find them at stand c16, where you are sure to recieve a warm welcome from all the lovely, talented people there!! There will be cards on display from the design time (including myself) and plenty of goodies to get your crafty juices flowing!! so make sure to take plenty of pennies with you because trust me, you are going to want it all!!!!!!
 Most of all, have fun and take full advantage of this fantastic event!!

Lots of love
Toni-Marie xxxxxx

My First Post as a Kanban DT :-)

Hi all,

Today's post is my first four designs for Kanban as part of their Design Team. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them. Hope you're all well and keeping warm in this frosty weather!

Vintage Tapestry, made using Kanban Gold Flourish and Flowers background, toppers (901007) and Kanban Best Wishes greeting.

Kanban's Christmas Cutie collection. Double twist easel using 900726, 900729 and 900730

Kanban's Christmas Cuties. Using glitter card from Kanban selection card box, 900371, 900727 and 900724

Kanban's Christmas Cuties. This one using 900734, 900728, 900724 and 900735

As you can see, finally I've gotten into the festive spirit and started my Christmas cards! :-) I really enjoyed working with the Kanban Christmas Cuties collection as it has something for everyone. It's bright, cheery and fun! In my opinion, it would be an absolute delight for any crafter to work with as the possibilities are endless and lends itself to all abilities.

See you soon!

Toni-Marie xxx

Kanban Delight!!!!

As it has now been made official, it is my complete honour to announce that i have been selected to be a design team member for (in my opinion) the very best of craft companies... KANBAN!!! As you can imagine, i am over the moon!! Especially as the standard of competition was exceptionally high!! You only have to visit the "we love kanban" facebook page to see the level of talent thats out there!!!
I would just like to say a huge thank you for this wonderful opportunity and i only hope i can live up to the amazing quality, with my designs, which kanban always brings us with its kits!!

lots of crafty loving hugz,

Toni-Marie!!!   xxxxxxxxxx

Kanban Krazy!

Hello again everybody,
Thank you for the comments and for those of you who are following my blog, it means the world to me. Also, a big thank you to Doreen O'Brien for pointing out to me that I needed to change my settings to allow followers!

Now, on to my latest makes!


This is my favourite of my latest makes, as it's working with acetate which I've only recently started using. This photo allows you to see whats on the card behind the acetate...

  

...and the angle of this photo shows the acetate in front of the card itself!



The central topper of this card was originally a white piece of card which I used distress inks on to create my own backing paper, then using Kanban stamps and Pro/Flexi Markers I created the design on top.

 

Distressed Vintage Tapestry with jointy angles which I just love.

Again using the Vintage Tapestry kit, but this time I wanted to put a brighter, more modern spin on it. Also, you'll see the topper is overlayed with acetate of the same design, which gives a subtle, but pleasing 3D effect.

Vintage Tapestry acetate aperture

A more chaotic feel to the Vintage Tapestry

A big thank you again to all who take the time to look at my blog, and also to those who have now become followers! As a reletively new crafter, this is a huge compliment.
I've recently uncovered a box of Kanban Shanghai Nights and another of Tokyo Garden, which has had little use... so far!  Expect to see some oriental inspired designs soon!!

Toni-Marie x x

Today's Vintage Tapestry!

Here's three cards that I made today using, yet again, my favourite kit producer, Kanban!

This distressed vintage card was so much fun to make. I still have the inky fingers to prove it!

 

Another distressed vintage card, this time a gatefold with acetate overlays, which unfortunately are tricky to capture on camera



Inside view of the card above



Simple yet effective make, vintage/distressed is definitely my favourite look



That's all for now folks, more technique learning to do! :-)

Toni-Marie xxx



NEW Kanban Vintage Tapestry!!

After my Kanban Vintage Tapestry Kit arrived, I couldn't wait to get started so here's a selection of cards I've made using it :-)

This card's my favourite, I loved both sides of his paper so much I had to fold one corner down and secure using a brad so that I could get the best of both worlds

The papers of this kit work so well together that I went to town and used several different ones on this card alone.

I rarely work with greens and browns, yet this card is one of my favorites. The detail of the ladybird on the peg really gives it that special touch

This was a really quick, quirky make which just shows you don't have to do much with this kit to make something special.

Browns and pinks work excellent together which I discovered whilst making this card

This card is only a 6x6, and yet I think it offers many different elements of interest

Another easel card, which is my favourite style. Using the sentiment in the border shows a different way of using the kit

This is my favourite card of the moment, it has so many different elements and has real dimension which always makes a card more intriguing

That's all for now folks! I shall be back soon with more designs and maybe even a few different techniques!

Toni-Marie xxx

The Next Episode!

A brand new selection of my recently made cards, hope you enjoy!

New Spellbinder dies create this sewing room card

A purple delight!

A classy garden card, ideal for men

Alternative Christmas

Classy Christmas

Time for Tea

This romantic easel would make an ideal Wedding, Engagement or Anniversary card

I loved using orange and white webbing to create the flames coming from this funky rocket

That's all for this section, I'm now going to take some pictures of the cards I've been working on this week which are made from my highly anticipated Kanban Vintage Tapestry Collection.

Toni-Marie xxx