Fun Fold Friday - alternative For The Guys Bridge Fold Card

Quick share of an alternative make using the For The Guys kit... 

But before I start today... if you have not already done so... please click and accept the follow.it service if you still wish to be automatically notified when I post on this blog... as I will be turning the "old" Google Email notification of a blog post off very shortly... 

A(nother) bridge fold card.... For The Guys card kit used along with my old faithful stamp set, Sailing Home... but back another day with more details... as I am afraid I really must dash!

Monday Makeover

 

Upgrading the Parisian Flourish embossed card classic shared last week...

Butterfly Wish flowers in Pretty Peacock, Balmy Blue and Gray Granite

Finished off with Rhinestone Basics Jewels

Simples!

And can't wait to share my Graces Garden makes... series starting soon!

Parisian Flourish Embossed Card

Another short and sweet post for today...

An incredibly simple embossed card using the wonderful new Parisian Flourish embossing folder... definitely one of my all time favourite embossing folders...

Hopefully the card just says it all... care of the Beautiful Bouquet greeting...

Sunday Suite - From My Heart

Starting off with a Love theme from the new Mini Catalogue... introducing the From My Heart suite...

Lots of hearts for Valentines Day, Anniversaries... and good all year round just 'cos use... simply gorgeous!

Here is a shot of the whole suite... and click here for the suite video showcasing the suite...

And here is the link for the whole Suite package... for those of you that just want it all... 

But just click here to see all...and then in turn... each... of the separate products... and then do the pick n mix!!

And whilst I am here I will show you more of the From My Heart Speciality Papers...

Click here for a video of the papers... and click here for a full sheet image... for every sheet...

And here is my favourite product in the Suite!!! Heart Foil Tins... 

Now... any of my friends fancy making heart shaped cupcakes!!?? As I would love to do that for my Valentines Day treat...

Meant To Be Mine Simplest Card... and Latest News...

So today we have some very #simplestamping (plus a die cut!) cards... suitable for Valentine, Wedding Anniversary... or even Weddings...

But before I start... Quick news flash...  Sales for the following items have exceeded forecast. 

Butterfly Duet Punch (item 148523)
Cake Builder Punch (item 148525)

Although not currently on backorder, the stock is expected to be gone soon and then they will no longer be orderable until new stock is received (towards the end of March).  Also known as... if you want the Cake or the Butterfly bundles...please order now and so avoid disappointment... 

In the meantime...when these are unorderable... if you enter item numbers for either of these products (or the relevant bundle) on an order, you will receive a pop-up notification asking if you would like to be notified via e-mail when they are back in stock. This will allow you to be notified immediately when the status changes for these items and they are again available for purchase.

Also...due to unprecedented demand... the Organdy Ribbon Combo Pack is no longer available for Sale-A-Bration. 

And the beautiful Sale A Bration Botanical Butterfly paper  is currently on back order... but you can order now and it will follow at the beginning of February...

So back to the cards...

White embossed and die cut Crumb Cake heart... with Lovely Lipstick greeting... on a 14cm Square ( 5 1/2") Thick Whisper White card blank...

And Lovely Lipstick stamped & die cut Crumb Cake heart with White embossed greeting... and a Whisper White die cut heart "border" to finish... set on a 10.5cm Square (US 4 1/4") Crumb Cake card blank

And I have to laugh at the angle of this photo...anyone would think the cards are the same size... 

Amanda's Quick Links

Just click on the relevant pictures below for catalogues and/or more information... 

If you are ordering today... do remember to add the Host Code shown below to earn yourself a gift and help support The Craft Spa at the same time... 

Please note that this host code does expire and change over time... but the current code is always shown at the top right hand side of my blog...

Just click on the relevant pictures below for catalogues and/or more information...

Introducing... All My Love Suite

This All My Love suite is a beauty... designed not only for Valentines... but for weddings and anniversaries too... and can be used for many other occasions too...

Lots to see... 2 stamps & die sets ( Forever Lovely and Meant to Be), All My Love papers, All My Love Ribbon combo pack, A4 multi colour cardstock pack and Heart Epoxy Droplets embellishments....

So here is a video of all the suite elements for you...

And here is another video featuring more of the Meant to Be stamp and die set... for which you can see project samples too in the last 2 photos...

Suite available to order from 3rd January 2019...

I think you may see quite bit of this suite as the weeks unfold! Even though I don't tend to do a lot of Valentines samples...

Party Panda Celebration...

Quick... but cute...  little card to share with you today... to celebrate a one year milestone...

Note that the hat has been "pinched" off a different image on the Party Panda set!

And an ink tip for you.... I first stamped the Pandas for this card in Memento Black so that I could use my Stampin Blends marker pens  for colouring...  but they were too grey/not black enough for my taste... nor did they stamp very well (so I went over them with black/blender pen!) ...

But out came the Archival Black ink pad and suddenly all was right with my Pandas! However note that I then couldn't use my Stampin Blends... so had to resort to my Many Marvellous Markers (hat/heart) and Watercolor Pencils (balloon) for colouring this instead...

Pandas and Hi from Sale A Bration Party Pandas (yours for free with a £45 order)

Celebrate etc from Labels to Love... great little greeting find! Still available as a carryover item from the Autumn Winter catalogue along with its co-ordinating Everyday Label punch

And number 1 from Labeler Alphabet...

On a Small Square card i.e 10.5cm (4 1/8") square with Basic Black 9.5cm and Whisper White 9cm mats (though with US Letter sized card I would do 4 1/4" Square card with Black 3 1/2"/ White 3 1/4" instead)

And I can't wait to share with you how the Pandas went next....!

Jems Monthly Blog Hop - Trick or Treat (but not for necessarily for Halloween!)

Welcome to our Monthly Team Blog Hop featuring a lovely play on the words "Trick or Treat"... as suggested by the very clever Uma....

Could be something for Halloween.. but could otherwise be a ...
* Trick - an illusion, a fun fold, a surprise or something unexpected in the project...
* Treat - so Treat Packaging or indeed a cake, chocolate, sweets...

So I didn't intend to do a Halloween project at all... but here you have one!

I absolutely LOVE the Detailed Gate die cut and so the Graveyard Gate bundle was beckoning me to play with it... and thus I made my (probably) first Halloween card ever! Keep watching this space for a few other non Halloween options as the weeks pass by!

I will go back to calling this a U Fold Card (as it is a Bridge Fold card without the bridge across the front! The Gate does the job instead...)... and spookily the dimensions for my latest Bridge U Fold Card were perfect... click here for that Tutorial... I just cut the Smoky Slate card to 8.6cm (3/3/8" for my US readers) high instead of 10.5cm(4 1/8")

As always the card does lay flat to go in an envelope... though I think I will have to write Scaredy Cat on the back ( or something) ... as this gate doesn't actually open!

I plan to be back with an updated Tutorial for the card and all the decorative details for this one shortly... but in the meantime here is a shot of the simple little scene behind the gate! Though I would colour in the church windows if I did a re-make!

Click here to go to my earlier post for more details on the Detailed Gate & Graveyard Gate products... 

And so it is now time to pass you onto the lovely Tracy... till next time!

Year of Cheer Anniversary Cards

Remember this card... well here are a couple of alternatives made by friends...

They were so happy to get some anniversary cards made when they were expecting all Christmas makes!  Especially Heidi whose 26th Anniversary was that day!! Phew...

Click here for more details on the card including the links to the Tutorials for the Card Fold... 

WOW! 8 year Blog-A-Versary of The Craft Spa...

Another Anniversary! Must be a week for them....

I really can't believe that I have been scrawling away and sharing my creative soul on this blog for 8 years now... though the first 4 years or so were a bit more ad-hoc!

Hopefully I have brought you all some inspiration, some new ideas, a few tutorials you have used... and a laugh or two... usually at my expense!

And I just want to say a big thank you for your support and encouragement of my crafty endeavours - without you none of this would get written and shared!

Though I will admit to life being very busy at present as the household prepares for my son's cruciate ligament knee operation this week , 7-14 days of crutch mobility... and then university in 4 weeks time... so I will apologise in advance should my daily scheduling not happen quite as you are used to!!

But do bear with me... as once he is gone... I will have more time to spend on creating and sharing! I might even start to do some extra things you wouldn't expect!! Could be a new chapter if all goes to plan...

Special Anniversary Blog Hop - Global Stamping Friends

Hello and welcome to the Global Stamping Friends Special Anniversary Blog Hop...

Well it all started 12 months ago! Though I was later to the party... I couldn't resist joining in the fun and Blog Hop to celebrate the first year of the Global Stamping Friends group.

So the theme is Anniversary... so I made a special anniversary card for everyone in the Global Stamping Friends group... and one that will be re-purposed in due course for our 20th Wedding Anniversary later this year!

So as I was thinking of my husband's 20th anniversary card ... the papers had to be special... the card had to be a Fancy Fold... the style had to be fairly clean and simple... and the colours fairly monochrome....

So a sneak peek for you ... of the beautiful Year of Cheer speciality papers...white plus silver, gold copper and champagne foiling... suitable for Christmas and most all year round... truly stunning... and some new Champagne Foil sheets to match! Which I have used for my mat on the front... beautiful very subtle colour....

The card is one of my Large Square Double Display cards.... which I haven't made for ages... Various tutorials linked for you here as this card has proven so popular over the past years... Just click on the word "here"... 12x12 inches here...12x12 centimetres here, A4 centimetres here and I must do a US Letter inches version now I realise I haven't!

I have also used another new product coming soon... Foil Snowflakes (in silver and also gold - and cream on the back too) so this card was super simple to decorate... and proves that snowflakes are not just for Christmas!

So a quick couple of tips with Snowflakes...  One cut in half and used on the side panels... and the other had a quick snip all the way round to produce a smaller version when required... or just to be frugal...

Check out my flower on the front and the frame around my anniversary wishes... And check out that foil shine of these papers too whilst you are there... and the champagne foil mat and champagne buds with the copper leaves...

And here are a couple of pre-release video links so you can check out these stunning papers for yourselves... available from 1st September... click on "here" or the little visual underneath...

(1) Year of Cheer suite here. This should show the Foil Snowflakes too...

(2) All the papers in the Autumn Winter Catalogue here

And now it is time to pass you onto the wonderful Donna Gray in NSW Australia... just click on the big arrow... and till next time!

Roll Call - Special Anniversary Bloghop

1. Sharleen Luciano

2. Mary Ann Kay Rossiter

3. Amanda Bates  (YOU ARE HERE)

4. Donna Gray

5. Anastasia Radloff

6. Georgia Missy Gaydos

7. Jan Musselman

8. Marieke Bart

9. Angelique Stempelkeuken

10. Stephanie Nash

11. Ellen Woodbridge

12. Lisa Ann Bernard

13. Karie Beglau

14. Vicky Wright

15. Tricia Butts

16. Anita Wifladt

17. Jenn Curtis Charles

18. Rachel MacLeod

19. Christina Walker

20. Kimberley Anne Morris

21. Sarah McDermott