Monday 15 October 2012

Letters To Santa

Good morning everyone, have a look at something a little different for a Monday morning, Tracey Grundy one of our design team members created this Letters To Santa Box using our Simply the Season collection. What a great way to look after those precious letters from the young ones. A great example of how you can create different projects rather than just cards. Think outside the box and see what you can create!


Thursday 11 October 2012

Cut & Create

Just thought I would share with you one of our new ranges coming soon. Cut & Create is for crafters to yes, cut out and create great projects with. The first five sheets are based on jungle animals and there are also four coordinating background cards. Let us know what you think. This range would be great for any budding young crafters to start creating cards for their friends.


Friday 5 October 2012

Simply The Season

Well first of all apologies for been away for so long, the design and development has overtaken things but, were back! Christmas only seems a short distance away and after the poor summer we've had, you like me will probably be looking forward to Spring. But first I thought I would share these wonderful card samples made by Tracey Grundy and Heidi Payne two of our talented design team members using our Simply The Season designer collection let me know what you think!

Friday 20 July 2012

Spectrum Noir

For all of you that use Spectrum Noir markers, I have designed a new colour chart that you can print out and colour in so you can easily reference your ideal colour matches. Drop me an email and I can forward it to you. andrew@craftstyleproducts.co.uk


Creative Cardmaking

Have a look at Creative Card making issue 44 out in Craft shops next week. It's full of free papers and embellishments featuring our Garden Blossom range and lot's of inspirational card projects for you to get your crafting minds thinking, and I do beleive the sun might shine on some of us this weekend I hope you have a good one.

 

Wednesday 4 July 2012

Oso & Friends

Hot of the press is Oso & Friends, that oso cute little bear and his pals. This new range from Craftstyle Products has been designed under the brand Colour & Craft. The characters are printed onto high quality 300gsm super white and super smooth uncoated board so you can get the best results using your markers, inks, pencils or even paints to colour them up ready to use on your card and scrapbook projects. Each picture is die cut within a shape so it is ideal for matting and layering or you can cut the characters out like in the picture. I really enjoyed designing this little bear and his friends and there will be more of them to come. I hope you like them and if your local craft shop or favourite online retailer is not stocking Craftstyle Products ask them why not?

To go with Oso & Friends I have also designed some Back to Basics card stock. The duo cards feature dots and gingham in nine different colourways and are printed on a quality 250gsm uncoated board.

So all that's left now is to go and make some lovely samples to post, watch this space.


Friday 22 June 2012

Christmas Comes Early

Morning everybody I hope the awful weather is not dampening your crafting spirits, I've been busy this week designing yes, wait for it, Christmas. When the weather is supposed to be cracking the flags as they say I'm thinking about snowflakes and Christmas trees. It takes me back to one of my first jobs as a junior artist for Fine Art Graphics, yes in them days we could see the sun in the sky and the studio would be filled with the sound of people singing Christmas carols inspiring us to design lots of lovely Christmas cards in June and July. Anyway I'm working on the first of our Christmas ranges which has lots of lovely rich colours and a vintage distressed look to it. I will keep you updated as I work through it and if you have any great ideas that you would like to see this Christmas drop me an email. Happy crafting!

Tuesday 12 June 2012

Fathers Day

It's nearly here, yes Father's Day so I thought I would make a card for my dad and share with you how I created it. I used the papers and some embellishments from Craftstyles Celebrations range which is so suitable for male cards. I have created an 8" x 8" sliding window card.It lays flat and then by pulling the ribbon at the top it reveals the words Happy Father's Day , I created this on my Mac but you could create it in word or something like. I created the paper stars by printing a template onto the reverse of the patterned card stock, creasing the lines and then cutting them out.


The template is printed onto the reverse of the patterned card stock, score all the lines on the stars and then cut out using a scalpel or good pair of scissors.


The short lines will be valley folds (folding away from you) and the long lines will be mountain folds
(folding towards you) alternating valley then mountain folds. Once scored and folded the stars should look like the ones shown above.


One of the best buys for me so far is a glue gun, great for when you want things to stick in place, but be very careful the glue gets very hot. To keep the stars in shape I cut some small square blocks from 10mm foam board one of my favourites, ( you'll see me using lots more of this in future projects). Once the glue gun heats up fill the centre of the star with glue drop in you foam block, turn the star over and press lightly into shape. The glue will set very quickly. You could also use large foam pads if you don't have
a glue gun.


Use the stars to decorate the front panel of the card along with your other embellishments.Here you can see the card lying flat.


By pulling the ribbon the front panel lifts up and reveals the Father's Day message. I will put the template for this card on a post or if you want me to email it to you just drop me a message. All I ask is that you credit the template in any of your designs.


The colours really suit a male design. I hope you like the design and look forward to your comments.
HAPPY FATHER"S DAY

Saturday Challenge : Challenge #189
  



Monday 11 June 2012

Good morning, I must share with you this wonderful creation made by one of our design team, Heidi Payne of Heidi's Designs & Crafts. Using Craftstyle's Garden Blossom collection Heidi has created this stunning poly bag sliding card. I think we need to do a step by step tutorial on this one as it is a simply stunning work of art. Thank you Heidi for sharing this with us.



If you would like to join our design team  and help share your creations with the craft world then drop me an email: andrew@craftstyleproducts.co.uk

Wednesday 6 June 2012

WOW what a weekend, hope you all had a fantastic Diamond Jubilee weekend. Sorry the blogs been a bit quiet but I needed to catch up with a lot of stuff and enjoy some quality family time. Well apart from my brothers wedding on Friday which I am so looking forward too I will be back in the hot seat creating some new designs and projects and also sorting out the step by step tutorials I promised. I've bought myself some foam board which I used to use in my early days as a designer,it's really great for crafting with as you will see shortly in a project I am working on. You can get it from art shops or online, it certainly brings back some memories.
I was so pleased to get an email this morning telling me I had won the latest challenge on The Crafter's Cafe challenge blog. It's my first entry and first win so I was really chuffed, lets hope there is more to come. Enjoy your crafting and watch out for the latest designs on my blog.

Thursday 24 May 2012

These fantastic foiled butterflies and circle sentiments are from Craftstyles designer collection "Rustic Charm" I used a C5 Inner Dimension Card to create the card shown. With acetate stuck to the reverse of the card the butterflies actually look as though there floating in the air.


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Thursday 17 May 2012

After a few long days and late nights I finally worked out what is hopefully a new concept for a folding card blank for you to embellish as you desire. These pictures show you the end result, "Sliding Window Shutter Card" (8" x 8" version) it took some working out to get it right but I think it was worth the effort.  I will soon have a tutorial on this one. It's a great way to display a treasured photograph within the card.


Photograph one shows the card flat, by pulling on either ribbon the card opens up as in photograph two. The shutters when open allow the card to stand up on it's own as shown in photograph 3. I've done a 8" x 8" card, but it can be done on other sizes.
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Wednesday 16 May 2012

It was a late night last night, watched my daughter perform in the "King and I" at the Alhambra in Bradford her first time on the big stage, it was a very proud moment for me.

Got home and just had to finish my latest take on a "sliding window card" this is a project I really enjoyed creating and I will be doing a step by step tutorial to show you how you can make this card. Hope you like it!

8" x 8" Sliding Window Card closed
By pulling the ribbon the card slides open to
reveal a window where you can place a
photograph or a personal message.
By using different kinds of paper flowers the
card has lots of depth and movement.
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Monday 14 May 2012

Just thought I would share some more samples of cards I created using Craftstyles Designer collection's "Rustic Charm" and "Garden Blossom". I also used some of the Dimension cards they produce which give a great starting platform for any level of crafter. Let me know what you think of the samples.

Friday 4 May 2012

It's here, we've arrived in Blog Land at last. I hope you will find my Blog interesting and inspirational. I will keep it updated with what I think I do best, design and craft. I will also post content that inspires me that will hopefully also inspire you.
Enjoy and come back soon! 
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Hot off the press!

The ink has barely dried and I've grabbed some of the new designs I created for Craftstyles latest collection "Celebrate Good Times" here are a few sample cards I put together to inspire you.

You can find out where you can buy these great products, by visiting http://www.craftstyleproducts.co.uk/index.php?c=info_page&m=cms_page&page=3




These toppers and embellishments are great to coincide with the Queens Jubilee and The Olympics but have been designed so that they can be used at any time before, in between and after the celebrations. The colour palette and distressed look combine well giving the product a vintage feel currently on trend. Let me know what you think. Enjoy your crafting and don't get to wet in the rain, lets hope for sunny warm weather soon...
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