It's time for a giveaway!

Welcome to the sparkly new Blog Tonic. We've moved  all our old posts over to blogger  and we are looking forward to sharing more of our creative ideas with you. To celebrate, we have some great news for you... 


We are giving you the opportunity to win one of Tonic Studio's fabulous Simplicity Geared Punches.  What is more, it will be the punch of your choice!

Their ingenious (and patented) gearing mechanism takes all the effort out of punching from the user meaning even the most ornate shape can be punched effortlessly!

Their beautiful New Simplicity Geared Pattern Punches are a breeze to use and with the wide selection of patterns on offer you are sure to be spoilt for choice.

If you'd like to get your hands on one of these little beauties this is what you need to do...

1. First become a follower of Blog Tonic and then visit our website Tonic Studios Ltd and have a look at the Simplicity Geared Punches. Choose which one is your favourite and then come back here and let us know by leaving a comment below.
2. If you would like a second entry into our drawing, then post about our giveaway on your blog, either in a post or in your sidebar and then drop us a comment telling us where to find the link. If you like, you can use the following image for your sidebar.

Grab the code here...

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.blogtonic.co.uk" title="Simplicity Geared Punch Giveaway from Tonic Studios Ltd"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UXaQRDvyIQw/Tw8LIKuckeI/AAAAAAAAALg/shQMxUtyhds/s1600/Win-a-Simplicity-Punch.jpg" alt="Simplicity Geared Punch Giveaway from Tonic Studios Ltd" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Don't forget to make sure we have some way of contacting you, either through your own blog or by email. There is no point winning a prize if we can't let you know about it, is there? ;-)


[The prize draw will close on the 14th of February at noon. Prize will be selected by random number generator.] 


PLEASE NOTE THIS GIVEAWAY IS OPEN FOR THOSE LIVING IN THE UK AND EUROPEAN UNION ONLY - SORRY 

Some More Lovebirds

I was playing around with my Birdy Paper punch and used it to make this card for my parents. I'm ahead of schedule for once! I've been rather behind with everything lately!

I'm really loving the pink and grey scheme at the moment. I bought a small reel of lovely cotton dusky pink ribbon. It wasn't wide enough to back the Birdies though. But never fear, I raided my stash of old roller blind samples from way back when my Dad used to sell them as a part-time extra job and I found a sample which was the perfect colour. Just goes to show you should hang onto your craft stash 'cos you never know when it might come in useful.

I'm loving all the texture too. Little details like this can make all the difference.

I stuck the insert to the inside front to keep it all looking neat.

Tonic Studios Punches used...

Simplicity geared punch - Birdy
Simplicity geared classics - Flower Head
Mini Punch - Traditional heart
Ribbon Punch - 1cm

Dacshund

I've had a chance to finish one or two of the things I started at the weekend so the first one I'm sharing today is "Dacshund". You'll find the digi HERE and it's another card which is suitable for sending to a man so I've resisted the temptation to add bows, flowers etc. I did have several different layouts in mind and had all the "stuff" left out (ie ribbons etc)but then decided to keep it plainer.

The paper is DCWV Retro pack which I've had for a while. I love it but don't like to use it up! The beautiful borders at the top and botton were created using Tonic Studios Royal Fleur 2 in 1 punch. One shape is the "positive" while the other is the "negative".

 

1. I used the Royal Fleur punch with the Border System

2. The cut border

3. Simply snip the two shapes apart and use separately.

I've added a tiny drop of Glossy Accents to the eyes to make it more realistic (but not scary!)
 

Embellishing Gift boxes

If you've followed my blog for a while, you may know that I absolutely love making boxes. 

When I go to the trouble of making  handmade gift, I like to go the extra mile and make a handmade box to present it in. I had great fun decorating these boxes with a simple ribbon and flower embellishment. 

To stick on the ribbon , I used some double sided sticky tape.  I stick this to the box once I have cut and scored the template, but before sticking the box together. 


If you would like to make a similar sized box you could use myPlaying Card Box template. I love to use Tonic Studios Super Trimmer to cut and score my box templates. It makes the job so quick and easy. 


I cut out all the outer edges with the trimmer and then cut the fiddly bits with my favourite scissors. The scoring is so easy to do with the Super trimmer, and it makes such a neat job. I used to do it with a ruler and a scoring tool, (and if that's all you have it will still work fine), but I would recommend the Super Trimmer to you. It goes so much quicker. I use it so much I'll be needing replacement blades very soon!

For the flower I punched out 5  flower shapes out of thin card, and then curled the edges of the petals inwards.  I then layered the flowers with a small dot of glue in the centre of each one. I pressed each flower in place until the glue dried using the eraser end of a pencil. 


I then finished off the flower with a jewel in the centre and glued it in place on the box. The finished flower is pretty sturdy. Because it is made of card and the layers are offset, it holds up well and can't be squashed easily. And doesn't it look pretty !


Doda x

Love Birds!

Good morning! I've been catching up on a lot of card making over the weekend but did it in a strange kind of way - started several very diferent cards at the one time and befuddled myself by doing a bit here and a bit there.

Result...a pile of unfinished projects and only one complete card to show for it!

Well, this is it!!

The cute little Love Bird image was one which I drew at the weekend too and you can buy it HERE at A Passion for Stamps if you like. It's coloured with Promarkers and I added Stickles to the "heart" on their chests to highlight it. I've also used Glossy Accents on the beaks.

The hearts are from a Nellie Snellen die cut set and all the punches are by Tonic Studios.

I used the Border System , Edger 3 and Hearts Accent Punch for the bottom part and the Flower head plus the small flower from the Floral Border punch for the flowers at the top.

 The giveaway of 5 Promarkers and 5 digi images is still running on A Passion for Stamps until Jan 31

The "Baker's Twine" was a little experiment. I have oodles and oodles of gorgeous coloured embroidery thread so, on a flying visit to Craftworld in Belfast on Saturday, I bought some white. I twirled the two colours together and added a little glue from a glue stick. It worked better then I expected so I'll definitely be making more colours.

Facebook now linked!

Blog Tonic now posts on the Tonic Facebook page as well as on Blogger so you can get all your Tonic news wherever you go!  Dont forget to become a fan on http://www.facebook.com/tonicstudios

Keep tuned in to Create and Craft this weekend for some Tonic Demos.  Geared Punches on sale Sunday, watch live on the web at http://www.createandcraft.tv/

Some exciting news to reveal in the next week or so....stay tuned.

Have a great Weekend!

Tonic Studios New Blog and Snowdrop card

Good morning!

Tonic Studios have just launched their NEW BLOG and we'd love you to add yourself as a follower. The blog already showcases some of the projects made by the Design Team using their fantastic products over the past year or so but there will be lots more ideas and news which you should keep an eye on!
Don't forget to leave us some comments to let us know what you think and also what you'd like to see!

Don't forget,too, that I have a giveaway of 5 Bright Promarkers and 5 of my digi images running until Jan 31st. You can enter HERE

My card today has been made using the Tonic Studios Daisy Border punch to create the doily. You will find a really simple tutorial HERE showing how I made this for an earlier card (below)

The image is Snowdrops - one of my own digis which you can see with  all the others on  A Passion for Stamps

The scalloped edge of the striped paper was created using the Tonic Studios border system and 

Edger punch 3

 

 

To give the card more dimension I used the Tonic Studios Mini Trimmer to create a little box which I added underneath.The "box" folds flat for postage.

I used the tiny cut out flowers from the Floral border punch to add to the centres of the scallops.