**Echo Park Design Team News**

Hi Everyone - I have some very exciting news to share today -  I am joining the Echo Park Design Team!! This is a fabulous opportunity for me and I am really excited to be working alongside some really talented people.

Here are some of my favorite Echo Park projects from the last year and you can see them all here.

Valentine's Projects with Yours Truly

Christmas Projects with Holly Jolly Christmas

Christmas Projects with Season's Greetings
 

Halloween Projects with Apothecary Emporium

Mini Albums with Happy Days

Fun Projects with For the Record

I am looking forward to working with Echo Park and their inspiring team - and I look forward to sharing my creations using their products with you. 

Lowri :-)

Mini Album in a Tin - Cosmo Cricket Style!

Hi Everyone - another Cosmo Cricket Challenge this week and a chance to use the fabulous new 2WENTY-THR3E Collection showcased at CHA 2012. 

I was lucky enough to have been given a set of papers from this Collection and the Challenge was to alter a tin - but I have chosen to use a re-use a tin in a slightly different way. I LOVE to make these little albums and give them in vintage tins.

I used the Postcards paper for the body of the book and then used some of the new Hello Washi Tape as a book binding. The “Smile” sentiment was cut from the Photo Booth paper and mounted with a small amount of dimensional tape.

I created some tiny tabs and added the initials of my children with some Tiny Type stickers.

A plain wooden button with a dab of brown ink, a couple more tiny type stickers and some ever popular twine for decoration and the book is complete ready to be put into the tin! I am going to fill the book with my favorite mini pics of the kids and some of the fabulous embellishments from the collection when they become available!

It will be a great little album for me to keep in my bag – and the tin will keep it well protected from all the other junk that occupies the average mum’s bag (sticky stuff, pens with no lids, chocolate wrappers, half eaten apples etc!)

You can see a detailed tutorial showing
how to create the album here.

I have used these vintage tins a few times before as packaging - check out these posts here :-)

Deployment / Patriotic Album

Fathers Day Mini-Album in a Tin!

Please leave a comment with any questions and don;t forget to check back for the tutorial!
Lowri :-)

I am linking up this post to these websites here.

Plane Crazy Birthday Card with Kaisercraft!

Hi Everyone

A few weeks ago my kids were invited to a fun birthday party at the local Aero Club.

This Kaisercraft "On the Move" range was perfect for creating a card for a plane-mad 5 year old!

I have used a combination of the "Take-Off" paper and "Descent" acetate sheet to create the base of the card - which measures 5 inches square.

I then used a combination of the Collectables, Stickers and Rubons to decorate the front of the card.

The stickers are ideal to both add a little decoration and hide the join between the paper and the acetate

I am not usually a big fan of small alphas as they don't usually line up - but for a small name-tag like this - it doesn't matter!

Please leave a comment with any questions. 

Lowri :-)

I am linking up this post to these websites here.

Operation Write Home w/ Cosmo Cricket!

Hi Everyone - today I am sharing some cards and they are going to some very special people.. read on for more information!

Cosmo Cricket is one of my absolute favorite manufactures, and when they posted a Challenge this week to create a project that "Makes a Difference" it seemed like the perfect time to do something I had wanted to do in a while!

I decided to make some cards for Operation Write Home (more about them later) and I have used the Togetherness Collection from Cosmo Cricket. 

These cards are so simple, but they are bright and cheery which was important. I love this one above which I thought would be great for a Dad away to send to his daughter

I made a total of 15 from this collection and another 9 using Circa 1934 (see below) in about 2 hours - and I am not much of a cardmaker!

I hope that the servicemen and women who get to send these to their loved ones smile when they see these!

Operation Write Home

Simply put - Operation Write Home sends blank, homemade cards to servicemen overseas so they may send them home to their families. They have sent over 1 million cards since 2007 - HOW COOL IS THAT!

All the information you need to know about them is on their Facebook page and Website - I urge you to check it out as there are a few rules you need to follow. They prefer standard size cards (oops!) definitely no glitter and ideally they should be labelled and tucked into envelopes correctly

1. I created some labels for the backs with the OWH logo and my blog address 
2. Stuck them to all the cards
3. Tucked and folded them all into envelopes correctly :-)

I also made some cards using the Circa 1934 Collection (also from Cosmo Cricket) These are a little more sophisticated and I made a couple with ages on them for specific birthdays.

I am sending off my cards tomorrow with about another 100 assorted cards, bookmarks and mini decorated notebooks that I seem to have accumulated over the last couple of years!

Please post a comment with any questions.

Lowri
I am linking up this post to these websites here.

Happy Valentine's Day & Cards!

Hi Everyone - Happy Valentine's Day (it's almost Feb 14th here in NZ so I think I can get away with that...)

Here is the last card I have to share - one I made for my husband. If you are a papercrafter you HAVE to scroll to the end of the post to see the card he gave me!!

I made this card using bits and pieces I had leftover from the Yours Truly Collection from Echo Park. I cut the cards out with my Spellbinders Postage Stamp Dies(LOVE THESE!) and used a couple of little Kaisercraft Keys Flourishes to decorate. I don't think are actually available yet so please treat them as a Sneak Peak!

I hope you have enjoyed all my Valentine's Projects. In case you missed any of the earlier ones - I have put together a little summary below. 

1. 52 Reasons I Love You Cards Tutorial
2. Valentine's Bookmark / Mini Album
3. 12 Valentine's Dates for the Year
4. Christmas Leftovers into Valentine's Treats
5. Valentine's Sweet Treats
6. Woven Ribbon Heart Card

Finally, I thought you ladies might like this card from my husband. Funny thing is - it would have been perfect for me to give him (without the alteration obviously LOL) as he works way more obsessively than I do!

Please post a comment with any questions.

Lowri
I am linking up this post to these websites here.

Woven Ribbon Valentine's Card

Hi Everyone

I have the first of my Valentine's Cards ideas to share today. I have used the older Dear Lizzy Collection from American Crafts as it's bright and fresh and has some pink in it too. I don't generally use a lot of pink in my projects, so Valentine's colors are hard to come by!

I took some of the ribbonsand wove them into a piece about 4 inches square, used fabric mod podgeon the back to glue it all together and then when it was dry I cut out the heart shape.

These chipboard pieces are not actually letters but I was able to spell out the word "LOVE" with a bit of imagination and creative cutting!

To decorate I used some ribbonfrom the Dear Lizzy collection, a couple of striped and plainbuttons and a sparkletand pearlsfrom Kaisercraft.

I realize I have not given any directions as to how I did the weaving, but it was quite complicated and I would like to try it another couple of times before I explain how to do it! I am sure there are easier ways that the ones I tried - so hopefully I will come up with a tutorial in the future..

Please post a comment with any questions.

Lowri
I am linking up this post to these websites here.

Valentine's Sweet Treats!

Hi Everyone

Super quick Valentine's idea today! I had seen these candy-cane white chocolate filled lollipops all over the Internet - but wondered how easy they would really be to make - so I gave it a go!

So - you take your leftover candy-canes from Christmas, lay two side by side in a heart shape, soften them in a 160 degree oven for a few minutes, press a stick into the center, leave them to cool, fill with white chocolate and then add some sprinkles.

That's pretty much what I did but I did encounter the following minor difficulties!!

The hardest and by far the most irritating part of this project was unwrapping 3 month old candy canes without breaking them - I was going to make 10 of these but gave up at 4! When you squeeze them too hard onto the stick they kind of crack and when you pour the chocolate in it seeps under the bottom and you have to scrape it off to make it look perfect for the photos!!

However - all of the above matters not one bit to the kids of course - who loved them!

I also wanted to share this post from last year. You can see how to create "custom whiteware" using left-over rubons and dollar shop China as well as seeing how I made these coloured Chocolates!

 

 

Please post a comment with any questions.

Lowri
I am linking up this post to these websites here.

Valentine's Bookmark Album with Echo Park

Note - please follow on Facebook as in January 2013 there will be a free pdf and cutting file download with full instructions on how to create this project!

Hi Everyone

Today was an exciting blog day for me today as I reached the 1 million page-views AND 1500 followers mark. A HUGE thank-you to everyone who reads along and comments on my projects! 

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and I have a few more ideas to share this week. I saw this idea at the weekend and I just had to try it!

It's a 3-D, open-up card, love message bookmark kind of thing - and it's a really fun idea!

I based it on the great tutorial shown here on the Word Up, Nerd Up blog.

I used 3 sheets from the Echo Park Yours Truly 6 x 6 Paper pad (trimmed to exactly 6 x 6 inches) to create the pages, Elements Stickersfrom the Echo Park "Yours Truly" Collectionalong with a few Rhinestonesto decorate

The bookmark is based along the same lines of a "squash" album and instead of hand cutting the hearts as shown in the tutorial, I used my Cuttlebug and 3" heart die to cut the pages. I marked the die to show where I needed to place the paper each time so all the pages would line up (see below)

I then cut 2 complete hearts from a fourth sheet of paper to create the two covers, and then attached them to double sided adhesive chipboard for extra weight.

Each page completely opens up (even after it is glued together for you to write your messages of love :-)

This would make such a great bookmark, or even just a little mini-album. This old book is one of my favorite things. It was printed in 1716 and I picked it up for about $10 in an amazing old second hand bookshop when I was back in the UK!

I have some Valentine's cards (yep - cards!)ideas coming later in the week - and please post a comment with any questions.

Lowri

I am linking up this post to these websites here.