LE Designs Blog Monthly Events

LE Designs Blog Monthly Events
1st Thursday of the month - A review of a craft product
2nd Thursday of the month - Craft room inspiration
3rd Thursday of the month - Stamp set/die cutter review
4th Thursday of the month - A craft room storage idea
Any 5th Thursday in a month - *GIVEAWAY*

Thursday 30 October 2014

5th Thursday of the Month *Giveaway*

Good Morning everyone,

As you will know, today is the 5th Thursday of the Month and on this blog, that means giveaway time!! Since it is the first month of these exciting new posts each Thursday, it seems only fair that the giveaway comes directly from LE Designs. So, to get you all in the festive mood, we are giving away, to one lucky winner, one of our Rudolph Silhouette cards.




This stunning silhouette Rudolph card features the infamous red nosed reindeer in jumping pose. The white pearlised card is off-set beautifully with the dark navy silhouette reindeer complete with a red crystal nose. The sentiment, also in navy reads 'Wishing you Christmas Joy.' The card is A6 in size and comes complete with a blank paper insert.

This card will be sent to the winner, complete with a ribbon tied box, to make it even more special for their chosen recipient.



In order to win, all you have to do is:

1. Make sure you are following our Blog, Facebook or Twitter page (All 3 would be even better!!)
2. Leave a comment on this blog post telling us how you follow us (Blog, Facebook or Twitter).

One winner will be chosen at random at 8pm on Wednesday 5th November. 

Good luck everyone!

Laura xx

To see more of our exciting 2014 collection of Christmas cards, visit
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ledesignsboutique?section_id=16002240&ref=shopsection_leftnav_5




Tuesday 28 October 2014

Mini Thank you card- Runway Inspired Challenge 70

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Good afternoon all,

Today I'm here with a mini thank you card for the Runway Inspired Challenge. This week we have been given THE most fabulous inspiration photo with striking white, black and red. The dress comes from Albert Martincich and is really creativity provoking.


The dress is still very clean and simple. yet really packs a punch and so I felt my card had to do this same.

I decided to make my background black and white and have the focus in red. I cut three varying strips of black card and layered them on top of the white base card. I then die cut and stamped in black ink, a wonderful flower from Clearly Besotted. I wanted this to be hanging slightly over the edges of the base card and hence why I made the base card a mini one!

I propped the flower up on some foam pads, added a few red crystals to centre of the flowers and off to the side. 

I am happy that I have achieved what I set out to - a CAS card, that packs a punch!!



Mnay thanks for looking. Any comments are always so much appreciated.

Laura xx

Resources:
Cardstock - black and white card by Papermill Direct. Red card from stash
Stamps - Clearly Besotted Fresh Flowers
Embellishments - Crystals by Anitas



40th Birthday Masculine card

Good afternoon all,

I hope you are well. I have been busy busy at LE Designs HQ doing a few card commissions. The first was one I had been putting off doing, not because I didn't want to do it, but because it was a masculine card and I REALLY struggle to come up with ideas for such cards. I had a look on pinterest for inspiration, but that still didn't help!

I decided that since it was a 40th Birthday card, I would use the same layout as I did for the other 40th Birthday card I did earlier in the week. I was to use a white, maroon and gold colour scheme to fit in with the favourite football team of the recipient. I started therefore with some white and maroon card stock and paint splattered both with perfect pearls in Gold. I then die cut the maroon card using my MFT number dies - swapping them around a bit in order that the 4 and 0 would be next to each other.

I Layered the top die cut card over the white card then added a Happy Birthday banner sentiment and Husband, heat embossed in gold. A few gold sequins were added to finish off the card.


Once I showed this card to the buyer, she was over the moon with it and so too were her 3 children - so much so that they asked if I would create a card for their dad from them. This was such a huge compliment - but it did then mean thinking of a second masculine card!!

I kept with the same colour scheme but this time with the white on top. I added some paint splatters in a maroon shade I had mixed using watercolour paints and also added some liquid pearls in gold. The children had wanted the card to feature a black labrador puppy as this is to be their Dad's birthday present. I didn't have a suitable stamp and so I just had to print one from the computer and fussy cut it out. I added some gold gems to the puppy as a collar. I used a 'happy' and 'birthday' die to cut these sentiments in gold glitter card and a 'dad' die cut out in maroon. The 4 and 0 from the above card were then used on the new card. The card was assembled but needed something else….I added a strip of gold glitter card along the base to tie it all together.


I am super pleased with the end result and am delighted to now have two 'masculine' layouts for future cards!


Many thanks for looking and as always, any comments are very much appreciated.

Laura xx



Sunday 26 October 2014

Casology 118 - Home

Popping in really quickly to share a card for the latest Casology challenge which is 'home.' I was commissioned  this week to create Change of Address cards for a couple and this was the design I came up with….really very simple - layered black and white card stock and a carefully origami folded 'house.' The sentiment is made using my fabulous Motex Label maker (my new go to when I don't have the sentiment needed!!!)

Not much else to say really  - here it is….








Any comments as always so very much appreciated. Lots more to share on the blog in the coming days….

Laura xxx

Resources
Cardstock - Black & White from Papermill Direct. Black & White Paper (for the house) from Hobbycraft.
Tools - Motex Label Maker

Ha ha, I think this has been my smallest resources list EVER!! xx

Thursday 23 October 2014

A custom 40th Birthday card and MFT sketchy challenge 199

Evening all,

This morning I received a text from a good friend asking if I would create a 40th Birthday card for his friend. (panic - I LOVE being asked to do a custom card, but I always panic too!) The design brief I was given was 'Pink & Sparkly. She is loves animal print and is a tap dancer'…..Even I know, there is only so much you can include in one card so I discounted the tap dancer part straight away - mainly because I have no stamps relating in any way to tap dancing!

I decided I wanted to use my brand new 'My Favourite Things - By the numbers die.' I had previously seen a fabulous card created by Catherine Pooler where she kept all the numbers joined together and cut the numbers all out together. I decided I wanted to do something similar but I needed to have the 4 and 0 in a certain position on the card and then my OCD couldn't cope with the fact that the 1 was upside down! In the end, I actually separated all the numbers and arranged them the way I wanted for die cutting them.

For the front panel of my card, I decided to have this pink. I didn't want it to be flat pink though so I took a piece of watercolour card and painted it using a combination of Worn Lipstick and Pickled Raspberry and also some Rose Madder watercolour paints to add a darken tone. I tried to go for an ombre effect across the card to give a bit of depth. Once the card was dry (speeded up with my heat tool), I created some paint splatters with gold perfect pearls mixed with water. This began the 'sparkly' stage!

Once it was completely dry, I then arranged my numbers on the card in the order I wanted and ran it through my big shot.

It was time to bring in the 'animal print' element. I didn't have a stamp for this, but I was able to find animal backgrounds that were printable. I opted for a zebra print. (I felt the black and white would be striking against the pink). I printed and trimmed to size the animal print and placed this behind the die cut watercolour card.

I wanted the 4 and 0 to be the main focus, so I die cut those numbers again in gold glitter card. These were set into the 4 and 0 spaces.

I wanted the sentiment of the card to read '40 and Fabulous' - to achieve this, I stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black an & sign from the Uniko Studio All Occasion Sentiments 5 set. I then used my Motex Label maker to make a retro label saying 'fabulous' This was propped up on some foam pads.

The card was finished off with some added sparkle by way of two shades of pink crystals and then some pink and gold sequins. The card was placed on a black base card.

Here is the finished product -

I was just about to do a general post about this card, but decided to see if there was a suitable challenge on the MFT blog. I couldn't believe my eyes when I say the sketch - SO perfect for this card layout!

Don't you just love it when that happens?! 

Thank you for popping over and I hope you will have a look around the rest of my blog - exciting things happening here just now!!

Laura xx

Resources
Cardstock - Black card stock from Papermill Direct, Watercolour card - Daler Rowney, Gold Glitter card - Hobbycraft
Dies - MFT By the Numbers
Ink - Pickled Raspberry & Worn Lipstick Distress inks, Memento Tuxedo Black, Rose Madder Watercolour Paint, Gold Perfect Pearls
Embellishments - crystals from Anita's, Sequins from Hobbycraft.


Custom Baby Shower card & Less is More Challenge 194

It has been a busy time at LE Designs HQ with a few custom orders being requested and with lots of new work happening on the blog. All exciting stuff.

The card I am here to share was a request from a customer looking for a Baby Shower card that was black and white with a splash of colour. Any time I am asked for a custom order, panic sets in - there is always that fear that you create something and the person hates it!! I have to always put those fears to the back of my mind and just get on with having fun creating.

I had previously done a baby card featuring a washing line which I just loved. Here it is:


I decided to go with this same layout, but instead of having two baby grows (this was for twins), I chose a single baby grow, a duck and the teddy (my two creatures for the Less is More Challenge). 

I used my stamp pad to change the pegs to black too. The items on the peg line were coloured in using spectrum noir markers.




I didn't have a stamp with 'Baby Shower' sentiments and that is where my label maker really comes in to it's own - it allows you to so easily create a custom sentiment. As you can see, the items on the clothes peg were finished off with a couple of added sparkles - I think this just rounds the card off nicely.

The items on the washing line all come from Uniko Studio's Sweet Baby stamp set - aren't they just so cute?!

The customer was really pleased with the card in general, but then had suddenly remembered that the baby nursery was to be black and white with a splash of colour but also zoo animals! A Teddy and a Duck aren't exactly zoo animals are they?? It was a quick swap around, two new 'creatures' stamped and coloured and then voila, card completed….


This time the animal stamps are from Hobbycraft. Im not sure which of the two I prefer? I think therefore I will enter both in to the Less is More challenge - I hope that is allowed!!

This week at Less is more, the challenge as I've been alluding to, is to create a card with 'little creatures on it'…..Well creatures of the animal variety are my features.

Many thanks for stopping by, please so take a look around the blog - we've some really exciting features happening each Thursday.

Any comments as always so very much appreciated.

Laura xx

Resources
Cardstock - White and Black from Papermill Direct
Inks - Memento Tuxedo Black, Spectrum Noir Pens
Stamps - Uniko Studio Sweet Baby, Hobbycraft Lion& Monkey
Tools - Motex Label Maker
Embellishments - Black twine from Ikea, Clothes pegs- Hobbycraft, Crystals by Anita's




Craft Room Idea - Clear Stamp Storage

Good morning all,

Thank you for joining me for our first week of 'Craft Room Ideas.' The aim of these posts is to offer suggestions as to how best to store your resources in your craft room. If you are like me, storage solutions are paramount but I would much rather spend money on more craft resources as apposed to spending it on storage!! Therefore, the ideas offered here will be a cheap alternatives to the more expensive options that may be found elsewhere.

Today, we are going to be looking at storage solutions for clear stamps. My collection of stamps is bursting at the seams and I desperately needed to come up with a much better way to store them. Currently, they are in clear plastic folders in a  lever arch file, but this just doesn't work.

If you purchase stamps from one of my most favourite stamp companies, Uniko Studio, your storage solution is already sorted - they come beautifully presented in a DVD style case as shown


These cases are empty on the inside, allowing you plenty of space for the stamps. (P.S the above stamp set is a really fabulous one from Uniko Studio called Sweet Baby - which is actually on offer at just £8.96 just now)



The cases stand beautifully on a shelf as can be seen in my craft cupboard  (next to my lever arch for the rest!)- 


So, what I wanted for the rest of my stamps was a similar solution….

I did quite a bit of research on the internet and found that Stampin' up provide a solution by way of clear DVD style cases.

These retail on their website for £5.50 for 4 cases -this works out at £1.38 per case. I haven't actually counted them, but I would suspect I am nearing the 50 figure with regards to how many stamp sets I own and this is only going to increase over time! To spend £71.50 on storage for my stamps really gives me the shakes….just think how many stamps, inks, dies etc you could have for that!!!!! This therefore, for me, was not an option.

My lovely husband who sometimes sees things so much more clearly, turned around and said to me - 'Why don't you just ask Uniko Studio where they get their boxes from??' He was SO right. Why try to re-invent the wheel, right? I got in touch with the lovely Beverely from Uniko Studio and she told me about the online retailer where she buys her DVD cases in bulk. These retail for a much more reasonable £21.00 for 50 boxes!!! That works out at 42p per case!

I was actually about to place an order for these and then a thought crossed my mind….this thought turned to an experiment and an experiment to…well, this blog post!!! What if I told you, you could (likely) get an infinite number of storage cases for……£0!! Yes, free! The only thing you might need to do is buy a set of small items which would only cost £3 or so. Want to know more - read on!

So, if you are like my family, the vast majority of our music nowadays is played on iPhones, iPods or directly on a computer etc. I struggle to remember the last time I went looking for a CD to put on - instead, I just put my phone on the dock and there is my music at my fingertips. I do still have a bookcase shelf bursting at the seems with CD's. I do not want to throw them out, but I would be happy for them to be taking up less room! (Can you see where I am going with this!!!!) So here is the 'small purchase' ……very cheaply from the likes of Ebay, you can buy CD sleeves made of clear plastic. These will hold your CD's and their covers from inside the case. The CD's are protected, they take up much less room now AND best of all, you are left will lots of empty CD cases…..and here is what to do with them……

I am going to be using two smaller in size stamps sets from one of my other favourite companies, Clearly Besotted, to show you what I did with one of the CD cases.

I removed the inner part of the CD case (they bit that would hold the CD). These just clip in at the top and bottom of the case and so it is simple to ease them out. I took a couple of cut pieces of card - 12cm x 12cm roughly (the size of the inside of the CD case), and got out the stamp sets I was going to use - in this case Bridal Bouquet and Good Times.



Within packaging stamps usually come in, you have a clear piece of cellophane, the stamps, and then another piece of cellophane with pictures of the stamps on. I removed the pictured cellophane and set this aside *DO NOT THROW THESE BITS OUT - KEEP THEM SAFE* I have an idea for you for these coming up next month.


I removed the stamps from the packaging and placed them on my acrylic block. I was able to get them all on at once - and I kept them in the same order as their picture (I'm a bit OCD that way!)


Next, I inked them up with black ink - I actually just used a small Hobbycraft own brand ink for this as I wasn't too bothered by the quality for this project. (As it turns out, this ink worked really well!!). I stamped the images on to the piece of card stock, over to one side.



I then turned the card over and removed the blank piece of cellophane from the stamp packaging. This already had sticky dots on it, so it easily stuck to the reverse of my stamped card.



Turning my card back over again, I wanted to add details of what this stamp set actually is. I went back to the original packaging and cut the top brand section.


This was then attached to the piece of card, and the name of the set written at the side of it.



The wonderfully packaged Uniko Studio stamps have details of the set on the spine of the case, making it really easy to see which one you are looking for.


And so, back to the original packaging again - I cut along the very bottom where it has the Clearly Besotted Web address.



I wrote the stamp sets to be contained in the box, on either side of the webs address and added this to the spine of the CD case (or Stamp case as it now is!!)


I'm going to be honest and say, I'm not sure about this part - I think I might be tempted to print something that is clearer to read. I don;t want to have to spend ages looking for the relevant stamp set.

I closed the Stamp case to make sure it shut properly which it did, but when I reopened it, disaster struck!…...


Yes, the two stamp sets got stuck together!! So, the solution? Add an extra piece of cellophane on top of each stamp set. Now you could use the piece that ca,e with the stamp set, with the stamped image on, but I have something MUCH more exciting and useful planned for these. Instead I cut a piece of OHP sheet that I already had and added this. Now the stamp box opens and closes with ease without any stamps sticking to one another.


And so there you have it. A potentially free way to create really fantastic storage for your stamps.



Obviously, I have used a couple of sets of Clearly Besotted stamps in the above example, but the same type of packaging is true for most of the stamps I have bought. Here are a few examples - 


Waltzing Mouse, Hobbycraft and Papermania stamps all come in the same kind of packaging, that you can transfer across to your CD cases.

I even just remembered that stamps by Visible Image come presented in the kind of CD sleeves that I was saying you could transfer your CD's to - so just by stamps instead and get the cases free!!


I really hope this has been helpful. Any comments as always are so very much appreciated and remember to join me next Thursday which is a '5th Thursday of the month' which means a giveaway!!

Laura xx













Tuesday 21 October 2014

Inkspirational Challenge Win and new Challenge entry - 67

Hello all,

Zooming in really quickly with first of all, a huge thank you to all at Inkspirational for selecting my card as one of the winners for the challenge with the theme of 'flight.' I was so excited by this card (it was bit 'out the box') and so to get credit for it means so much! Here is the card here -


and here is my winner's badge!


Now on to the challenge for this month which is purple and silver. This challenge was perfect timing because my friend had asked my to create a 40th Birthday card for her best friend and what colours did she want - you guessed it, purples and silvers. 

This card was very straight forward to do. I used a pearlised white base card and top card, with a purple layer in between. The sentiment 40 & Fabulous friend was created using my new 'My Favourite Things - By the Numbers dies' and Uniko Studio - All Occasion Sentiments stamps number 3 and 5. The 40 was die cut using silver glitter card and the sentiments were stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black and London Fog inks. I usually use Versafine Onyx Black as my 'main black ink' but I find it takes far too long to dry on pearlised card!!

The sentiments were given a layer of vellum over the top to give them a softer feel and the vellum was given a bit of sparkle by way of strip of white glitter at the top and bottom. The tips of the curly bit on 'Fabulous' were jazzed up with an added couple of purple crystals. The sentiment was complimented with a silver embossed, purple/lilac Spectrum Noir coloured and fussy cut out butterfly by Visible Image.

The whole card was finished off with a few matching coloured sequins. 



            


This card is a bit more 'crowded' than I usually make may cards -I'm much more of a CAS girl!! However, I think it is right for a 40th and my friend loves it - so that's all that matters!! 

Any comments as always so very much appreciated. Please do check out the rest of my blog - lots of exciting things coming up soon. We already have a review on the Set the Scene stamp set by Clearly Besotted, and coming up on Thursday, some Craft room storage ideas. There will also be giveaways and craft product reviews coming soon too. 

Laura xx





Friday 17 October 2014

Clearly Besotted Set the Scene Card 4 and Clearly Besotted Challenge 14 (2nd Entry)

Afternoon all,

I hadn't planned to add this card to the Clearly Besotted Challenge, but I have decided that since it fits the challenge theme of Christmas, I might as well.

This card was a bit of a fiddly one to do, but great fun too. This is the 4th card in the series of my review of the Set the Scene stamp set. The globe with matching die was screaming out to be used as a shaker card and so that's what I did! Unfortunately I don't have a step by step tutorial this time, but I will describe it to you.

First I created an A6 base card in white and cut a top card trimmed to fit on top of the base card with a 5mm border all round. I die cut the globe from the top card. I then repositioned the top card on to the base card and drew lightly in pencil around the die cut space on to the base card. The bottom of my shaker card was going to be on the base card so I needed to know exactly where i was to be working.

I stamped the snowman image inside the globe on the base card and heat embossed it in silver. This would create a slight barrier for when I coloured the background around him.

I coloured in the snowman's hat and scarf using spectrum noir markers. Next, I coloured the background around the snowman using two shades of blue Spectrum Noir markers.

To finish off the snowman, I added black pearl eyes and buttons and an orange crystal nose.

Around the snowman, I added some heat embossed silver snowflakes again from the Set the Scene set.

Because this was to be a shaker card, I felt the 'shaker' parts would get caught on the pearls, so I added a second layer of card, die cut with the globe, propped up with foam pads and with a section of cellephene sheet to cover the globe. I then placed my 'shaker' elements on top of this, before adding the final top card, again propped up on foam pads. The shaker elements were made using a snowflake punch and blue glitter card.

I had almost finished the card then realised that some stray ink had gotten on the front of the card!!! I managed to hide this with an extra snowflake and a couple of strategically placed clear crystals! The card had something missing - I added a ribbon and a tag which just finished it off nicely. I am thinking that this might be a perfect Christmas card for one of my boys.







Thank you for looking. Any comments as always so very much appreciated. Laura xx

Supplies used:
Card/Paper: White card from Papermill Direct
Stamps: Clearly Besotted Set the Scene & Tag Along
Dies: Clearly Besotted Set the Scene & Tag Along
Ink: Emboss Embossing ink, Memento Paris Dusk
EP: Papermania Tinsel Silver & Clear EP
Pens: Spectrum Noir blues - TB5&TB9, Reds - CR11, DR5&DR7
Tools: Inkadinkado Stamp-a-ma-jig, snowflake punch from stash, stick-it foam pads.
Embellishments: Pearls & Crystals from Anita's, Ribbon from stash.