[Photo heavy] Crafty Diamond Shape Easel Card Tutorial

A few months ago one of my card was shown in Papercraft Inspirations Magazine letters section and I got a goody bag of craft items because of this so thought I would have a go at making some different shaped cards and made the below by mistake when another one went a bit wrong and transformed into a diamond shape easel card.

Topper from Polkadoodles Digistamp Heaven CD, coloured with Spectrum Noirs

Topper from Crafters Companion

To make this card you need:
Embellishments
A4 piece of card 
Paper trimmer
Tape
Glue/tape runner
Foam tape
Scoring tool and board/Ultimate Pro
Ruler
Pencil
Ruler
Toppers/embellishments

1. Start with your A4 piece of card and cut it in half so you have 2 pieces of card each 10.5cm by 25cm 

2. Take one of the pieces and cut it so you have two 10.5cm x 10cm. Put the the left over bit to one side for the moment.

3. Get the 10.5 x 29.5cm piece and score at 15cm and 26.5cm

4. Now mark in pencil at 7cm and 22cm 

5. Now mark half the width of the card (ie at 5.25cm)

6. Now join the points by scoring them so you end up with the below

7. Now chop off the bottom two triangles and trim off 1.5cm from the diamond.

8. Next fold all the lines, where all the points meet put a piece of normal sticky tape over it. This will help keep it strong and stop it breaking when folding.

9. Now cut the middle out of the side triangles leaving about a centimetre 

10. You should now have something which looks like the below

11. Now get those two identical squarish pieces we cut earlier and stick them to the bottom flap on each side (this will make the base bigger and make it look prettier)

12. Now cut out a rectangle for your stopper (decorate if you wish) and add two layers of foam tape to make it raise up higher and stick it on the bottom flap at the front.

13. Now decorate how you wish

72 Spectrum Noirs and Counting!

This time last year I won a competition on the Spectrum Noir twitter account and recieved my first pack of Spectrum Noir pens. Previously I'd used ProMarkers but after trying SN's I changed my Christmas list on Amazon very quickly! Nearly a year on and I have 72 SN's with another pack on the way (slight error on my part as I ordered pinks instead of reds so had to put in another order whoops!)

Before I use to store them in the box they came in (the big packs) and in pencil cases (for the ones from the smaller packs) but I saw Nikky Hall on Create & Craft and they had Stix2 pen rolls. I do want to get the Spectrum Noir clear storage at some point but haven't the room so brought 2 Stix2 rolls so I can put all the colours in order for ease when shading. These rolls are also great for can keep your pens horizontal as instructed. I can now take my pens wherever I want easily and colour in the living room without dropping my pens on the way or having to pick my favourites.

I didn't realise until I put my pens in order how many greys I have! I started with icy greys but every pack has seemed to have other greys in too but they are really handy for shadows, edging around coloured images and colouring things that at black (ie the tones). 

Whoops been a bit quiet

My blogs been a bit quiet mostly due to holidays, tidying and sorting my craft room out and preparing new dog bandanas ahead of the dog show in September. I've also not made many cards as I've been trying to make the most of the sunshine. I would craft outside but our patio/balcony area is below everyone else's balconies above us so if they decide to water their plants I'd get wet (and more annoyingly my crafting would get wet!) 

Before I went on holiday I recieved two craft 'prizes' (a matter of days before my holiday so they haven't been played with yet). These were a craft pack after being featured in Papercraft Inspirations magazine letters page with a tiered cake card (below)

The other prize was some really pretty fat quarters from Tula Pink from a Loce Quilting and Patchwork magazine competition. I'm thinking of making a cushion similar to the below (a screenshot from the competition itself)

I had a lovely holiday with my husband to Wells and visited Bath and Longleat Zoo while there. I surprised myself while at the zoo as I won't go into reptile houses but at Longleat they have a handling area and its really big and light so I headed in to have a look (it also said 'Exit' so kind of needed to go that way). While in there I decided I wanted to hold a snake....the girl would wont go and look at reptiles decided to hold one?!?! What came over me? I did ask the zoo keeper to hold its head as I was scared I'd wimp out but it was ok but felt really weird feeling its body moving 

I look a bit rubbish in the photo but very proud of my accomplishment!

I'm still a wimp though....look what my husband had to do to the Weetabix box due to my stupid irrational fear of sharks

Well I'm off to sit down with a coffee and mini Maryland cookies :) I promise ill show more crafting creations now I'm back and (kind of) organised