Foil Play Birthday celebrations - 20% discount offer!

Well, doesn't time fly - Foil Play will be six years old in May! I started the business on eBay, part time at first, before taking the plunge and giving up the 'day job' in 2005. Six years on, the website is now firmly established and I have waved goodbye to eBay, although I do still have a shop on Amazon too.

To celebrate the birthday, and as a big thank you to all my lovely customers, I'm offering a huge 20% discount off everything in store, if you spend over £20 (after applying the discount, so over £25 before applying it) over the bank holiday weekend.

To receive the discount, just enter and apply the code BirthdayB when checking out. The offer ends at midnight on Monday 3 May 2010.

Thank you again to all my customers for your support over the past six years!

Animal Party with Kanban mini Wobblers

More brilliant creative ideas from Angie: gorgeous animal themed party invitations, favours, place cards and decorations, using Kanban mini wobblers die cut toppers.
The Kanban Farmyard Friends die cut topper sheet that Angie used is pictured above. It is great value, as there are 12 die cut toppers per sheet. Other animal mini wobbler sheets are available, you could also use the Matroyoshka Dolls topper sheets.
First of all, check out these ultra cute party invites!
Use badge backs to make the toppers into badges then attach to the various items, or just use as toppers.
If you don't have the custom badge backs, you could use safety pins, attached securely with ultra sticky tape.
Being a thrifty crafter, Angie used the left over background from the topper sheets to make co-ordinating flower motifs with a punch.You can use glitter, wobbly eyes and gems to bling up the toppers.
Dress up plain favour boxes with some ribbon and your animal topper badges for your guests.
Toppers can be used to make place cards matching the invites and other table decorations.
With cocktail sticks, the toppers make gorgeous cupcake toppers.
We recommend though that you don't bling up the cupcake toppers, just in case it fell off into the cakes.
A balloon pot table decoration co-ordinates with the other table decorations.
Filled with sweeties, this would be a very popular focal point for the party table!
Last but definitely not least, beautifully co-ordinating party favour bags.
Make or buy a plain paper bag then dress it up with your toppers. Punch holes in the top and thread ribbon through to finish.

Have fun, and enjoy the party!

What's on your workdesk Wednesday

So here we are at Wednesday again! I thought I'd start off this week with a picture of my nesties storage. I have each set on a strip of magnetic sheet, all of which fit into a plastic peel off storage box. Not very elegant, but very functional - the box doesn't take up much space so can be kept close at hand and it's quick and easy to flip through to find the dies I need.

My desk is a work desk as well as a craft desk - this week there is work going on as I'm putting together some rub on foil kits - cutting strips of foil to size, then assembling them into selection packs.
Thank you for all the kind comments last week! I do indeed have a wheeled chair - partly because I broke one of the dining room chairs by standing on it and haven't got round to fixing it yet - ahem! Oh and I've never been to Ikea either... I cottoned on to the Expedit after seeing other crafters talk about theirs and ordered it online. Delivery was quite dear (around £30), but overall cost was still reasonable, I thought it was a small price to pay to avoid driving to my nearest Ikea and faffing about with huge boxes. Putting it together was very straightforward too, you just need enough floor space to take the unit lying down. I did most of it on my own - just needed help with the final corner and lifting it upright.

If you're curious about WOYWW, more details of what it is about and how to join in are on Julia's Stamping Ground blog.

Racing Green cards with Dufex toppers

These gorgeous Racing Green cards from Angie continue the British Invasion theme, this time two of the Union Jack backgrounds have been turned green, using the Paint programme.
The card above is very simple, but effective - three Dufex toppers on a tall slim card, finished off with organza ribbon.
Three more toppers on the card above - note how the strip of organza ribbon continues behind all three.
The toppers on the cards above and below have been mounted onto mats cut using Nesties dies, and finished with toppers from Hunkydory die cut topper sheets.
The Dufex Waterfall Topper sheet that Angie used to create these cards is pictured below.
Each sheet contains a selection of die cut toppers, which can either be used individually or for Waterfall cards - a waterfall template is included in each pack.
To finish, here's a group shot of all the British Invasion and Racing Green cards together.

British Invasion cards - Craft UK, Kanban and DuoTwists

A stunning selection of British Invasion themed cards here from Angie!
For the background to many of these cards, Angie used a Union Jack clip art picture from MS Word, printed onto card. To do this, select the insert tab, then select clip art and search for Union Jack on the search menu that comes up. When you've inserted the picture into your word document, you can alter the size by dragging the corners either in or out. A great idea for very effective background card or papers.
The British Bulldog is from a Craft UK pets die cut decoupage sheet. Another card made from the same sheet is here.
The topper on the second card is made from the leftover topper pieces from one of the Kanban Kinky Boots toppers sheets, the other cards made from the same sheet are here. Check out the gorgeous Union Jack flower on the card above, with glass nugget centre.
The remaining cards are all made from a DuoTwists 60s cars die cut decoupage sheet.
Angie has got the most out of the sheet by using many of the decoupage layers as individual toppers.
On the cards above and below, Angie has used just a section of Union Jack to accent the cards, edged with straight border peel offs.
Other ingredients used in the cards include embossed mats made with cuttlebug folders; mats cut with nesties; a selection of greetings toppers from Hunkydory topper sheets; Card Art greetings banners; peel off stickers, die cut flowers and a bit of Bling.
The 60s cars DuoTwists sheet that Angie used to make many of the cards is pictured below.
I love Angie's design ideas - I hope they will bring you some inspiration too!

Kanban Retro Vespa cards

These two simple, but effective cards were made using a Kanban Retro transport kit. Each pack in the range contains a die cut sheet, with two die cut decoupage projects and design elements, and a perfectly co-ordinated backing sheet. Designs include Camper Vans, Classic Cars and Minis as well as the Vespa and each design is available in two colour options.
The first card is approximately 6 inches square. I've used a purple base card and matted a square of the patterned background card onto it. The second card is A5 (A4 folded in half) with the background card completely covering the front of the card. In addition to the decoupaged topper, I've used the other design elements from the die cut sheet.
The Kanban Cashmere Vespa pack that I used to make the above cards is pictured above.

Kanban Colour and Classic Textile collections - QVC TSV

If you loved the luxurious look of last week's QVC craft TSV from Kanban, but didn't want to invest in the whole kit, you can now treat yourself to the sheets of your choice from Foil Play. I have limited quantities of both pastel and regal colour options in stock at present. These designs aren't generally available yet, it will be at least a month before they are released to retail.
The Kanban Textile collection is a sumptuous selection of foiled and embossed reflective card, die cut toppers and papers, all beautifully co-ordinated. Go on - why not treat yourself to a few sheets for stroking purposes, or even to actually craft with!

What's on your workdesk Wednesday

Well here I am for my second WOYWW! Work desk is a little tidier this week. I've included in the picture the chair at the side which holds lots of essentials, many of them stored in a very Really Useful Box plastic holder, intended as an insert for a 9L box. It may not be pretty, but it was very reasonable and holds a lot of stuff. At the back of the table is a test template for a stepper card that I made last week. The brown parcel tape is there for clearing up paper dust from the cutting mat and from my Bigshot cutting plates.

When having a sort out at the weekend, I found some card page sketches that I'd printed out last year, I'm hoping to find time to have a browse through those for inspiration in the next few days.
Here's a picture of my main craft storage - I got the Ikea Expedit last year and it really did help to tidy up my stash! It is behind where I sit, so really easy to access what I need. The scrappy shelves at the left are normally hidden by the door. They hold work in progress and tools when the table is cleared, as well as foils for kits.

Kanban tunnel cards

Looking to add some dimension to your cards? How about these tunnel cards - a great idea for a really different card, which folds flat for posting. If you tuck the scallops on each side in towards the centre when folding flat, the card will fit into an A6 envelope.
I decorated the inside of each card before assembling. For the first card, I used a Kanban die cut Raspberry Icing Cupcake topper, a Mitford collection die cut greeting and added Bling self adhesive gems to the scallops. The backing on each cards is from the Raspberry Icing Cupcakes co-ordinating card sheet, and I used mini Wobblers toppers on the second card from the Farmyard Friends sheet and a die cut Sweethearts border. I also embellished both cards with a chipboard flower.
The pack of pink tunnel cards that I used is pictured above. Each pack contains two die cut card blanks and illustrated instructions.

Cards made with Dufex Waterfall toppers

No prizes for guessing who recently bought some Martha Stewart punch around the page punches! I used them to make these two cards, each of which features a Dufex topper as the focal point of the card.
I used fan punches on the first card, and double loop punches on the second. I matted and layered the punched papers with co-ordinating card, using 5 inch square cream pearlescent cards for the base cards.
The Dufex sheet used to make the first card is pictured above. Each of the die cut waterfall toppers sheets contains a selection of toppers in different shapes and sizes, which can be used either for waterfall cards (a template is included in each pack) or individually.

Teen cards made with Kanban Kinky Boots

The Kanban Kinky Boots toppers range would be ideal for cards for teenagers - it features a selection of contemporary girls in various outfits. Each topper has matching decoupage elements to layer onto the topper for a 3D effect, each sheet also includes matching greetings toppers. I made these three cards from the Sammy sheet.
The first two cards are A5, made from folding a sheet of A4 card in two. The top card is cream textured linen effect, the second is pink moondust card. The mats on the second card are from the same cream card. I've rounded the edges of each card and all of the mats with my corner chomper and the toppers have all been mounted with self adhesive foam to add dimension.

I've added a couple of die cut swirls to the top card, finished with Kanban Bling gems, and embellished the second card with rub on corners and bird in co-ordinating colours.
The last card is extremely simple - I've mounted the decoupaged and greetings toppers onto a slim green pearlescent card.
The Kinky Boots toppers sheet that I used to make the cards is pictured above.