New with old..

..so all of our boxes finally arrived from the UK on Friday - YAY!!

I have been most overjoyed by their arrival, as it means I now have my entire craft kit at my disposal. It's not quite organised yet, as I don't have all the storage/shelving required, but rooting through the boxes to find certain things is fun.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon making cards (Father's Day card will be showon Sunday) and as I was working I realised that there had been certain things I really really missed and hadn't actually realised! What are these key things I hear you ask? Well, I missed my promarkers, punches - esp the circular ones and the corner rounder, Candi's, washi tape, various size card blanks, glitter glue, peel-offs, inks and different size acrylic blocks. Two things made me squeal with delight (yep I am that childish) - my beloved ATG and my large paper trimmer. Such joy to have my old friends back again.

The title of my post relates to all the cards I made yesterday, which inadvertently mixed my new NYC purchases with my existing kit.

The main photo is one of my favourite makes of the day and it uses a new stamp from Michaels (bought with my free gift card, that I got for signing up to the NY Times delivery scheme), new backing papers also from Michaels, new chevron ribbon from Marshalls by American Crafts. The ink was an old Martha Stewart one, I punched the stamp out with my scalloped circle punch, the greeting is a peel-off and I glittered it up a bit using a stickles glitter glue. I have a thing for chevrons, so was very happy to acquire all of these new chevon stuff. I have also had Eiffel Tower stamp envy for a while, as JT has a cool one (it was a gift so I can't steal it). Below is a photo of the stamp in a different blue ink, I had to try several before I found a perfect match and I thought it would be worth showing you the lighter version, so you can see why I am so happy with the final card.

Blue ink too pale for the backing paper

The next card uses a new stamp, also from Michaels, everything else came out of my existing kit - papers, promarkers, glitter glue and the greeting stamp. The white paper that the boat is stamped on, was an offcut I found in my white paper box and it already had the star punched in the corner and I thought it was a good fit for the stamp. See I do use offcuts :)

Happy Birthday Boat

The next card was a bit of an experiment, as I bought a very long stamp from my new fave shop in NYC - The Ink Pad. I haven't been able to use it since I bought it, as I didn't have any tall card blanks with me. I also haven't used all of the stamp as it is very long! I used a pink ink and a brown ink to create the vignette effect, which I am pleased with. It's something JT does well and it scares me a bit..The flower is new and does clash a bit, but I think that it's a nice touch. The washi tapes are all from my existing kit. I can't decide if I need to add a greeting or not...

Long dress stamp

I made a few more things, but this is turning into one of those epic posts, so I'll post them later in the week - it's nice to be able to say that :)

Cx

p.s please note the improvement in my photo taking, I've figured out the light in the apartment and I bought the cool NYC paper as a bit of fun.