A quick trip to my local craft store turned into two visits!

I went to visit my local craft store yesterday, In2Crafting in Wickford, Essex, for a few bits for my Christmas cards. I'm not making my Christmas cards just yet but wanted to get the design finalised so I know what I'm doing (and don't end up buying more and more Christmas dies when I won't be using them). 

I went with my sister and brought some textured brown card for my reindeer's body (the rough design was just white card coloured with promarkers), sequin dots for his nose, card blanks, Marianne Designs dies (Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings), and some other little bits. We came back home then remembered we wanted some card toppers and also remembered seeing some Christmas toppers which I was wishing I'd brought.....so we went back!

I love In2Crafting as their items are really well priced, it's not too big there and the staff are always on hand to help if you need assistance. I'd had my eye on the Marianne Designs Merry Christmas set but was looking at paying nearly £8 for them, but in the store they were just under £7!

Must now use what I've brought and not go on a spending spree again! (even though my second visit cost me only £4). 

I do still need some other Christmas dies for my parents Christmas cards and for my sisters cards but I'm waiting until we find something we really like rather than just buy things for the sake of it.

Having just searched for In2Crafting online, I've just found they have a blog! Why not head over and pay them a visit http://in2crafting.blogspot.co.uk/

Freebies from Papercraft Inspirations

I brought my first copy of Papercraft Inspirations 2 issues ago, mainly due to the price and the extra freebies being given away via Asda (Forever Friends papers). I found it modern and had lots of unisex ideas as well as the printables available online.

Due to the birthday offer on subscriptions, I snapped up a 50% off deal and am now subscribing to my first craft magazine!

The new magazine arrived two weeks ago now I think.... and came with some see through cut outs of flowers, butterfly's and frames. A few of these were split but not noticeable (one was tapped :os which was a bit strange).

It also came with some papers which were really nice and girly with pokadots, butterflys, swirls etc.

I used some of the free die cuts in the card attached, then added my Marianne Designs cupcake dies and a crafts-too embossed 'Happy Birthday'.

I'm still getting the hang of embossing the Marianne Design dies as they keep moving with the embossing mat as it stretches when it squishes through the Big Shot.

My First Makes on my Sizzix Big Shot

I received my Sizzix Big Shot on Wednesday morning, but unfortunately had lots to do so didn't get to play with it until later in the day for a short while, but had a proper play with it yesterday morning.

I brought a second hand Big Shot on eBay with some die cutters included. The one thing I would say is to be careful when buying Sizzlets second hand, or as part of a bundle as the ones I got were not smooth on the spongey background so left a pattern on the pieces I cut so they weren't smooth. This isn't a biggy though as the Sizzlets were a nappy pin and a bouquet of flowers (which are a bit abstract....you can't really tell what they are).

At the same time as buying the Big Shot I brought 2 Marianne Designs die cutter sets, a cupcake and a flower (shown above). With these I made the below cutouts.

It was only while showing my husband these that he said he thought that the cupcake would have the patterns on as shown on the dies. I was a bit confused to but after looking online found that I needed an embossing mat for these type of dies and purchased one from ebay. It came yesterday and I'm getting much better results now! Just have to remember to cut first and THEN emboss as I did it the other way, forgetting it wouldn't cut it out and had to then fiddle getting the paper and die to line up. The embossing mat I purchased was £8 and does not need extra card to thicken the 'sandwich' up so it's much easier to use.

You may notice in the background of the photo a very heavily used cutting mat. The Big Shot I purchased came with 3 cutting mats, 2 heavily used and 1 new mat. This was due to one of the ladies original mats shattering so she brought a new set and just used one new one and an old one. I have purchased another set of mats as the old ones look like they're going to break at any moment, but I did pick up a great tip online. I found that it was hard to lay the dies and card easily on the mats before cutting as both plates were warped, but a video online said to use a new mat on the bottom and never to use it on the top as the bottom plate will then not warp and also not get scratched! This means the mats/plates will last much longer.

I also received my GlossyBox yesterday and after packing away my items, I used the packaging to make the below flower!

The pale pink back petals are from the information card, the smaller petals are from the tissue paper the items are wrapped in, and the GlossyBox logo button was from the information card. (I was still using two warped plates/cutting mats, so the card slipped while going through the Big Shot so it wasn't perfectly in line).

I am going to have a massive Big Shot day over the Jubilee Bank Holiday I think! I purchased another die yesterday of a hedgehog, and holographic and glitter card from Home Bargains (79p for 16 holographic sheets and 79p for 6 glitter sheets!).

Now off to make Sunday dinner! Not sure I really want to in this heat but it'll be nice once cooked.