Paper Paper everywhere!!

I am up to my eyes, well knees really, in Dovecraft designer papers!

My best friend Helen is an avid paper crafter. She makes cards, scrapbooks, notes and just about anything she can with paper. She loves it....but she doesnt like to have loads of the same paper design. Helen is a mix and match girl.

I like Helen. Apart from being my best friend she is also my best customer...and I always listen to my customers. So when she asked "why dont you split your packs down into value packs with one of each design?" I asked myself why don't I sell papers like that at Kay Dees Crafts!?

I started selling these value packs before Christmas and they are a huge hit with my buyers. Thank you Helen!





Rather than buy 72 sheet packs, 6 of each design, I sell them as 12 sheets with just 1 of each design. At 65p for 12 sheets of 6" x 6" premium papers, its a bargain.

There are papers for every occasion, mood or theme and the results really do speak for themselves!

Happy Crafting!

We are moving

The time has come to say goodbye to our first website.

Kaydees was great for a first webstore but was unfortunately hosted by a somewhat unreliable server. As business started picking up server errors became more and more regular and my limited scripting knowledge was holding us back.

So this weekend I took the plunge and have created a new store with a new fresh look. I had forgotten how time consuming listing everything was but I am getting there slowly but surely.

The change has come at a peak time for Kay Dees too. We have expanded our product range even further and now have over 300 lines.

New this month was the Smirk range from Dovecraft.

The Smirk Love and Friendship collection - for the one your love or a favourite friend. Cute characters say ‘I love you’ or simply ‘thanks for being a friend’ in an adorable way. Soft colours and meaningful words mix delightfully in this range of paper craft products.

The Smirk Naughty but Nice collection is full of mischievous characters and innocent angels which are perfect for a party princess or a little devil. Colourful characters and funny, good humoured, sentiments make up this cheeky range.

With brads, papers, decoupage, stamps and ribbon stickers there is no end to how and where to use them.

So I should be busy adding products to our new site http://www.kaydeescrafts.co.uk/. Do pop over and see us in our new home.

Using Chalks

How To Use Chalks
Using chalks is a fantastic and fun way of adding extra colour, shades, depth and shadow to your cards and scrapbook pages.

Applying chalks to your projects can be done many ways. Got any old eye make up applicators? Use them with your chalks! A great way to do the fiddly bits and detailed areas. Fingertips, cotton buds and cotton wool do the job too. Using chalks the results are always unique, I have never achieved the same look twice no matter how hard I tried!

Before you begin to add chalk to any card making idea you have always have a scrap piece of paper too so that you can experiment, work out which colours go well together and see how you want to blend or ‘smooth‘ them. Depending on how dramatic you want the effect to be will be determined by how vigorously you apply the chalk.

If you have begun to add the chalks to one of your card making ideas and have made a mistake, all is not lost! Use an artists white eraser to safely and effectively remove the chalk errors from your paper. (This type of eraser is also handy for removing any stray chalk dust.)

Once you have finished applying the chalk and are happy with the overall design you will need to use a fixative to stop the chalk from smearing. As tempting as it may be never use hairspray to set the chalk. It is particularly important if you are using the chalks for scrap booking because hairspray is not photo friendly and can react badly causing your photos to deteriorate and yellow.

Storing your chalks is important. It is recommended that you store chalks as flat as possible as banging and/or knocking the box will cause the chalks to break up…. but worse of all it will mix the colours together rendering them virtually useless. The Dovecraft Blending chalks at Kay Dees Crafts come in their own metal case which is perfect to avoid this happening.

Here are a few ideas to trigger your own creative imagination:
* Fill in - or simply outline - a stencilling template with chalk.
* Chalk will even tint ribbons and fibres for a perfect colour match.
* Create a rubbing of an embossed diecut by applying the chalk directly to paper that is placed over the diecut.
* Apply chalk to the torn edge of cardstock paper, vellum, or diecuts for a shabby chic look.
* Apply chalk to crumpled paper. The chalk will be most prominent along the ridges.

BACKGROUND TECHNIQUES - from the scrapbook specialists at Hot off the Press


Chalks make a wonderful background for stamped projects too.

For a streaked background, such as a sunset or sunrise, start near the centre of the card and streak the colours outward. Combine several colours. Pull your finger or a sponge from the centre out to the edge. Apply one colour at a time, spacing the streaks as desired and then blend colours. Stamp the scenery elements on afterwards. (You may find matte finish paper to be the best choice for blending chalk colours.) An alternative for this technique is to cut a mask, covering the centre area of the card. The streaks will appear to radiate from a centre white area.

Chalk and water can be combined for a pastel background effect. Apply chalk in one or more colours randomly to the paper. Using a wet rag or sponge, pull and blend the chalked areas as desired. This technique is an excellent way to add colour to freezer paper that will be used for gift wrap or gift bags. Once the background is dry, it can be stamped over, and it does not require spray fixative to remain in place.

Marbled background: Put about an inch of water into a pan slightly bigger than your card, With a knife, scrape chalk dust of several colours onto the surface of the water. Lower the paper flat onto the surface of the water to pick up the colour, immediately lifting the card back out of the water. Allow to dry flat. If your paper develops puckers, it can be ironed to flatten it back out.

CHALK ON DARK PAPER:
Create stunning cards using dark paper. Stamp and emboss a stamp using white or metallic embossing powder onto dark coloured cardstock. colour the inside areas with a heavy application of chalk, achieving a suede-like texture.



Happy Crafting!

Summer is almost over

Summer is almost over! Where has this year gone?


With all the changes coming about on Ebay I have been spending way too much time trying to refine our products for the new listing criteria. The fact that I will not be able to list items with immediate purchase that cost less than 99p was a cruel blow. I like being able to offer a choice of 1 metre of this and 1 metre of that. I will of course still be offering this choice on www.kaydees.co.uk but a huge proportion of craft buyers like to mix and match smaller quantities together for certain projects.

Anyway, enough of my moaning!

Our Destination buttons are a fantastic way of preserving memories. Did you have a holiday in New York or the Far East?

Using these themed craft buttons to highlight a page within your holiday scrapbook or memory box is a great start.

Some come with shanks, some don’t. Simply snip the shank off with wire cutters, nail clippers or sharp craft scissors for an instant flatback.

We currently have 10 different destinations to choose from as well as dragons, mermaids, fairies and pirates!

Of course our range of Creative Charms can be used to compliment your memories too as described in our earlier blog.

What a way to preserve your seaside holiday!

Karen x

Using Craftime Creative Charms

When you think of charms you think of jewellery. You may imagine Charm bracelets with multiple charms, each having its own special story or, you may think of a single charm hanging from a necklace.

While these two are probably the more popular uses of charms, they are not the only ones by far.

Creative Charms have gained in popularity for their wide range of uses. Creative Charms are very high quality, three dimensional metal charms with intricate detailing. All Creative Charms come with a metal fixing ring and many pieces come with beautifully coloured enamel and inlaid crystals as shown below.


Many people passionate about crafts have found various ways of using charms besides the typical ones. Charms can be used for adding a special touch when card making , on bookmarks, in scrapbook pages, as mobile phone embellishments, adding to home soft furnishings (they can even be put onto curtain tie backs),as wine glass charms …..the list could go on and on!


Scrapbooking is a very popular past time. Hours are spent making the family pictures reflect the emotions felt the day they were taken. By placing a charm of a swimsuit next to the page with your child's first visit to the beach, or a love heart next to the picture of you and your partner you will add that little bit of sparkle needed to complete the page.


If you are looking for a unique fund raiser, think about using Creative Charms. You will find that the added touch of Creative Charms will increase the appeal of your product and will, in turn, increase the amount of money you earn for your cause.


I have one customer that adds Creative Charms to handmade mobile phone ‘socks’, another that uses Creative Charms in tiny bracelets for Reborn babies and yet another who used Creative Charms on literally everything for her Wedding Day, from the invitations to the beautiful handcrafted vellum wine glass tealight shades.

Charms can be used in or on anything that your creative imagination can come up with.

It is important to keep in mind, no matter what the craft is or what charm is used, that the charm is lead free. Lead has been found in imported charms. Please make sure that you know where your charms came from and that they are free of lead.

Creative Charms are all lead free.