A few questions-part 1

Hey everyone! 

Today I decided to do something a little different and answer a few questions about myself so you can all find out about the designer of CraftinEm. Unfortunately I'm a little poorly at the moment so I'll do my best to answer them. Seen as I've had no questions through yet (but still want to give you some idea of who I am), I'm going to answer the interview questions given to designers in a favourite magazine of mine. 

I do hope you enjoy! If you do have a question you want me to answer please pop it along onto my Facebook page (http://Facebook.com/BeautifulBeadsNow) or email me at (Beautifulbeadsnow@gmail.com). I'm hoping to soon change these http addresses to CraftinEm too so it doesn't confuse anyone! So onto the questions. 

Q: How long have you been a crafter for?

A: I've been crafting on and off for about 4 years. I started out in jewellery design and craft, then made my way slowly onto Papercraft after buying a magazine one day. 

Q: Tell us a bit about your design background? 

A: I took a college diploma in Art & Design as a student as I knew I wanted to be in that area but hadn't decided which design path to take. During that time I found I liked Jewellery, hence resulting in opening Beautiful Beads (which has now closed making way for CraftinEm) and taking a diploma in Creative Jewellery Design. I took the course for a year in London travelling down every Tuesday for a day lesson. The course had shown me it was harder to make it in jewellery than people imagined! The rest was history! 

Q: What's your favourite type of project to work on and why?

A: At the moment I like themed work. All my work has a girlie vintage theme to it, however when someone asks for a male fishing card (past commission), I took the challenge and ran with it! This is the finished card..

Q: What sort of materials do you like to work with? 

A: My favourite part of a card/paper item is patterned papers! There are so many different types, colours and patterns! Then my favourite embellishment has got to be flowers. I get through so many on my vintage designs. 

Q: Your top tips for someone starting out with card making? 

A: Always look in the magazines first for ideas! Let alone the ideas are amazing but the free gifts are what can build your stash to the ultimate best! Also if you haven't got a layout idea, search Pinterest (mine is CraftinEm) for sketches. The layouts are perfect, just follow the design and add your own papers and embellishments.

Q: Where do you get your inspiration from?

A: Mostly at the moment it seems to be from the papers themselves, seen as I tend to only buy vintage themed papers anyways. However I also do follow lots of card boards, cottage chic boards and vintage boards on Pinterest and follow vintage groups on Facebook (http://Facebook.com/BeautifulBeadsNow).

Q: What is your favourite card making technique?

A: For my cards themselves it has to be Decopatch! They make such a glamourous layered look in seconds! However I do also like stamping, inking and colouring, but I need to improve on these before I add them to my cards.

That concludes part one everyone! Sorry it was quite long with little pictures! I hope to add more into the next one! 

See you all soon!

Emma P 

The Shabby Tea Room Entry #201

Hey everyone! 

It's that time again, I love doing these Shabby Tea Room entries! This weeks competition was a little different for me, we had a sketch to use and not a picture! But me being me, I had to turn my card pretty pink! 

Here's the sketch we were given:

(http://theshabbytearoom.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/week-201-fun-with-sketches.html?m=1)

And here is my card:

Thanks everyone for viewing today!

Emma P

Project notebook: 3D work

Hey all! 

Gosh it's been a busy couple of days for me! I've had days doing nothing and days doing everything under the sun! However today I'm here to tell you about a little 3D project I started! I've never done 3D work before so at the moment I'm rather proud! 

In the latest Docrafts Creativity magazine there is a project featuring the new Madame Payraud collection. Now I loved this collection and got a few pieces in my latest Docrafts goody bag. So I took to my stash and created the book. So far I have the cover and spine. 

I hope you enjoyed my first 3D project post. More will follow with pictures of the inside.

Emma P

Good 2013

THey all! 

I hope you've all had an awesome 2013. Mine was pretty ace completing a diploma in jewellery, learning new skills and enjoying myself in general.

I've only managed to make 2 items in the recent week as I've been with my boyfriend before he goes back to Bournemouth.

This is going be my fathers birthday card. I love the retro sentiment, seems so my father! Men's cards are always a challenge...

This is my vintage inspired birthday card. I loved the colours and the tag, they work together so well.

I've already decided what my resolution will be for next year... To make all the items from my magazines. What's yours?

See you in 2014.

Emma P

What a tweet

Hey all,

I can't believe it's already Friday! I've done nothing but work and only just managed to create a few items. Also starting to clear the chest out of my room and finding so much old stuff that I really don't need anymore! Throw out session! 

Here are my items for this week.

My second handmade baulbal, this one was for my grandparents. The snowflake charms were also from crafty creatives.

These little beauties were made from goodie bag pieces! I loved the bird die cut and knew it had to take centre stage. I've inked it up and placed it on a water coloured handmade paper. This is the finished card.

Thanks for reading today! 

Emma P

The Shabby Tea Room Week #197

Hey all! 

It's that time of the week again! It's shabby tea room time. I look forward to this time every week, let's see what I had to play with this week.

The Shabby Tea Room:

(http://theshabbytearoom.blogspot.co.uk)

This weeks photo was beautiful. Here it is:

We had to make a card or papercraft item using red, white, gingham and/or gingerbread. Well you know how much I like my gingerbread theme this year so this was a diddle for me! 

I came up with this design:

I liked this design so much I've already used the card for my work friends! Fingers crossed for me everyone.

Thanks for reading today.

Emma P

Just a quick one!

Hey all! 

I've actually given myself a weekend off from making and blogging so this post will be my last until Monday! But here's a little update on the cards I made from the Papercraft Inspirations free gift. 

The lovely gift this time consisted of cake stamps and beautiful papers. The free gifts from the magazine are always great quality however this time I wasn't too keen. This was until I used them! Here are my cards.

This was the first one. I really just followed the photo of inspiration in the magazine but I felt that this wasn't my style. So I carried on to make these...

Thank you for reading everyone! See you on Monday.

Emma P

Just a quick one!

Hey everyone,

It's me again! It's come round to my favourite time of the month, when Papercraft Inspirations (http://www.papercraftinspirationsmagazine.co.uk) is out! I love reading this magazine and I've learned so much from it. The front card is beautiful this time! Let alone the gift! Beautiful papers and stamps. If you don't already, buy it. You'll be hooked! 

Unfortuantly I'm not feeling myself today so no card posts or making for me. Just time to relax with my feet up reading.

Hope you all have a good night! 

Emma P

1920's cards!

Hey all! 

I made quite a few cards last night so here is a short post with the others that I made.

This card is made with the docrafts 1920's themed range and I must admit it makes very grown up cards. I love how you can make very flamboyant but cute cards quickly with this range. Of course I would give this to a female, however you could make one for a male too.

This is the third valentines card I have made and am getting a few comments on them now. I love how the green flower pops out from the background in this design.

Coming up tomorrow is The Shabby Tea Room competition! Can't believe it's been a week already.

Thanks for reading.

Emma P

All loved up

Good morning all.

Now that the Christmas card making period is over (well for me anyways!), I've decided to turn to the next season, Valentines! 

This morning (around 8am, I'm always up early) I decided to start with two simple forever friends cards. I love docrafts forever friends valentines collection. It's so easy to make simple but striking valentines cards from. 

This simple yet amazing layout was featured in Docrafts Creativity magazine (amazing magazine if you love docrafts products). I had to give it a go with my own twist. Seen as I still haven't got my bigshot die cutting machine yet, the scalloped edges became circles. I also added roses as a loved up touch.

After a little break I also used another pattern to make this design. I'm not too sure on the look of this card, too many sentiments if you ask me. But it was well worth the try.

Have you started your valentines cards yet? Even thought about it yet? I have no idea what to get for my boyfriend, but I do have 2 months to go! 

Thank you for reading! 

Emma P