Project 42: New tools and the start of Christmas

I’m going to give you two post in one as I haven’t had a chance to blog in 8 days! Work is insane and is really getting in the way of my crafting. Which is sad.

Firstly, last weekend I went to a craft fair with Claire. It was epic, largely because there are just so many crafters out there. We saw some cool new tools being used, got some sweet kit and talked each other out of some truly unnecessary purchases (while encouraging just a few unnecessary purchases because after all, we like a bit of fun). I'll have to tell you my opinions of some of the other things we saw privately as I don't want to publish anything unkind.

This is the haul I came home with:

 

We learned two really good techniques, one using inks/embossing and another using a punch/press combination. The punch we (yes we – too expensive for one of us to have so we have joint custody) bought is a flower punch that can be used on its own. But if you put it into the press you create a 3D flower that rivals most of the paper ones you can buy in shops. Pretty cool. 

It's hard to capture the texture but the flowers have little lines on them that are make them more realistic. I'll save the embossing technique for another post when I have a chance to practice it a bit more.

The second post shows a usage of it – I’ve started making Christmas cards already! I thought the green flowers would lend themselves well to a wreath: 

I’m not sure about the bow or bling, I need to play with that a bit more. 

I have a few new Christmas papers I’m trying out and I wanted to make some designs that were paper-led rather than stamps or stickers. Here are a few of the designs I put together, including a joy fold card that we tried a few weeks ago: 

What do you think- any of these take your fancy? They need a bit more work but I think they’d be pretty easy to reproduce. The squares are my favorite, you could put bling or any embellishments in there depending on the papers. The buttons, bow, snowflake and glitter (on the presents, hard to make out) go with these but I think anything could work. Will let you know how we get on and when the cards will go on sale!