Wednesday 28 September 2011

My time to Craft Challenge

It's Challenge time again over at the My Time to Craft Challenge, and this weeks theme is Musical Medley.

I chose to use a Christmas theme on my card, so I went with Silent Night. Here's my card.

I used the village scene from the new range of Christmas Time stamps from Docrafts. I watercoloured it, and added some glitter around to give it a sparkle. The flower was stamped and layered up and I finished it off with some raffia.

I hope you can play along with us this week. It would be great to see your entries!

Sparkly baubles

This past month I've been out doing my demonstrations for Docrafts, and have had the pleasure of working with some fantastic stamps.. this bauble stamp is no exception. So when I was asked if I could do a Project of the Week for Docrafts, I happily obliged!

This is what I came up with.


You can find the link to a better picture and instructions on how to make it HERE on the Docrafts site. 

Sunday 25 September 2011

Devoted to Kiarra.

This post is especially devoted to our little cat, Kiarra. Here she is.

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It's not very often that you can get a good picture of her as she isn't the most sociable of cat sometimes ( !! ) and tends to turn away. But I couldn't resist taking a few photos of her yesterday as she was sat on the shoe box of all places!

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She's such a sweetie now. When we first got her, my husband and son bought her and her siblings home from where they were living in a carrier bag in the hedge! They were all quite small and were aged from 2 weeks (which Kiarra was approximately) to 6 weeks. We kept Kiarra and reared her ourselves.

The others were taken by the RSPCA as we couldn't possibly manage all of them!

She grew up to be a bit of a tyrant.. quite nasty, and to be honest, you wouldn't have wanted to look at her at one time.. but now, around 13 years later, she's the most loving of cats you would ever want..... at times!

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She's showing her age now, still quite fiesty and energetic at times, but quite lethargic and arthritic at others.

Bless her.

Saturday 24 September 2011

Nativity..

Today, I'm off demonstrating up at the Range in Doncaster, and here's one of the cards that will be with me if you pop along.

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I absolutely love these new 5 x 7 inch stamps from Docrafts. They make your cardmaking so easy! They are a doddle to stamp, and a breeze to colour in too. I've done my card slightly differently and done a bit of decoupaging with it. 

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You can also see the fold of the card here - this is one that was on Joanna Sheen's website and I came across it through Cliona's blog. It's a great fold, but I altered the measurements to make them easier to do.
I can't personally be faffing with a point of a centimetre.. !

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Here you can see the depth of the decoupage. I have only done a maximum of three layers so that it would still fit into a standard envelope.

I hope you like it!

Friday 23 September 2011

Especially for Vala...

I promised a long time ago that I would do a little tutorial for a mini album that was at my demonstrations with me a few months ago. So, as promised to Vala, here you go!


The first thing you need to do is to cut your mountboard for the covers. These measure 4 inches x 4 inches. You will also need your three pages, measuring 8 inches x 4 inches.


Score your pages at 2 inches and 6 inches from the short edge. Fold these edges in to create pages measuring 4 inches x 4 inches.


The first two pages go together by sticking the squares together. Stick them back to back as shown.


The third page sticks together on the 2 inch section at the right. Apply your adhesive and stick together as shown below.


This is the book pages and how they stick together.


Holding the book pages at the end, you can see how they are joined.


Cover the book covers. I cover them the same inside and out.


Use whatever you choose for your binding. I have punched holes in this one for the easiest, but usually I would use my Bind it All to put it all together.


This is how the pages go into the book.. the top is the first page. 


Decorate your book pages. I cut my squares for the main panel to 3 3/4 inches square and the side panels are cut to 1 3/4 inches x 3 3/4 inches.

A very quick decoration of the front of the book.. I used Tatty Teddy decoupage and here you can see the tied ribbons holding it all together.

I hope that all makes sense.. I didn't have time to do a video tutorial for it. Any questions, just ask!

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Are you getting the most from your embossing folders?

I'd like to share this little tutorial with you today.. as I often find at my demonstrations that people get a bit dispondent with their embossing folders, and think that all you can do with them is to emboss. I always show another way, and now, I'd like to share it on my blog.

This is the card that I made -


And the embossing folder that I used was the new large Papermania Christmas tree. Isn't it lovely? It works so well as a stamp too! And here's how to do it. 
 First, you will need an embossing folder that you want to use as a stamped image, some ink and some cardstock.
 Open up the embossing folder and you will see that you have a plain plastic side and a side with a black outline on. You need to rub the ink over (very carefully) onto the plain side of the plastic. This is the raised side and will give you a nice clear 'stamped' image.


Rub it over very lightly, and if you have any excess ink on the plastic, wipe it off with a cloth.


Take your cardstock and hold it next to the side of the folder with the black outline on. This is the front. Lower it very carefully into position on the top of the inked side. 


Rub over the top of the folder with whatever you have to hand. I used an acrylic block. You just need to apply a little bit of pressure onto the top of the folder.


When you have gone over all the image, then lift the top of the folder very carefully, making sure that the cardstock stays in place.


This is the inked design transferred onto your cardstock.


The only thing to remember with this technique is that it will reverse the image. Here you can see the embossed design and also the 'stamped' image.


The next step is to colour your image. I used Papermania pens and a watercolour image as I wanted a very light colour shade. I used the Vintage set of pens.

 Rub over some of the colours onto your glass mat (or acrylic block, or plastic wrapping). This will be your colour palette.
 Pick up the colours with your water brush, and colour in your design with your chosen colours.

 You can see that my watercolouring is quite shaded. This is created by adding a second layer of colour to one side of the baubles.

 Take a pen and use it directly to colour in the garlands on the design.

 Trim the image to size ready for matting and layering.

 Choose a ribbon that will coordinate with your design and tie a bow. Attach this to the bottom of the design.

 Finish the card off with a few adhesive gems.
And here are the finished pair of cards.

Two completely different looking cards from the one embossing folder. Double the value!

The one on the left is the 'stamped' technique and I've layered it onto the lovely Christmas Time vellum from Docrafts. (Love this stuff, and it smells really nice too! Bonus!!). 

The one on the right is embossed as it should be, but I've rubbed some brown ink over the design to accent it, then layered up onto brown cardstock and again, some of the lovely vellum. I finished it with a brown ribbon and a greeting from the Christmas Time papers. 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.. and if you try it, I'd love to pop by and take a peep! 

Happy Crafting!!

Tuesday 20 September 2011

L is for...

It's Challenge time over at the My Time to Craft challenge.. but I haven't got too much time this morning to upload as we're back down to the Hallamshire this morning.. so very quickly, here is my entry ..


So... maybe you can guess... but my L is for Lines and Layering..


I started off my card by embossing the circle die onto the cardstock, then using my XCut score board to create the sunburst lines.


I decorated up the layer of blue cardstock with the Glitterations snowflakes. (I love these!!)


The cute little teddies are of course, the Me to You bears .. these stickers are available from Docrafts stockists.. and they help to make your quick cardmaking a lot easier!

So.. that's it for today... Sorry about the shortness.. I'll be back soon with a tutorial for those who asked this last weekend!

Monday 19 September 2011

A little thank you..

Obviously, the word Little is a bit of an understatement here..

After an horrendous week travelling to a range of different hospitals with Carley, and being there with her while she has all her tests to find out what's wrong, I was absolutely gobsmacked to receive these flowers from her.

(The ones with the bow are what I recieved from her, the others are remains of a bouquet from my husband)
 
They smell absolutely lovely and the colours of the flowers are wonderful - such a lovely arrangement. The card had a very simple message saying 'Thank You'.. but my darling, Carley, I would have been there with you all the way, flowers or not.. But I do appreciate them, they're lovely, and I hope you get better soon.. or at least we find out what's causing the problems. I love you!

Sunday 18 September 2011

Oh what a journey!

Well, after quite an horrendous week with one thing or another, I can honestly say, I have never been so pleased to see home as I was yesterday... even if it took a while to get there!

I took my usual bi-monthly trip up to Southport to do my Docrafts demo, and the day went brilliantly. Everyone was so lovely and my usual ladies and gents were all eager to learn some different techniques, and also to talk about their current makes which is always nice.

I set off home a little later than 4pm, and on the way back, it said that there were problems on the M62 between junctions 21 and 24.. exactly where I needed to be! So I came off at junction 20 and took a diversion - courtesy of Mrs Satnav! Well... did she throw a wobbly!!! The sat nav basically didn't have a clue where I was going and ended up somewhere up above Rochdale, up hill and down dale, (and believe me if I tell you the hills were really high!). I went onto an 'A' road (or so satnav said!) although, I am totally unsure that this... see below... is an A road!



It  looks more like a muck track to me! However, the drive around the hills ( !! ) was quite nice and scenic, and I stopped to call home, but alas no signal.. so I took a few photos instead. Well... it's better than nothing eh?!

I had to drive over the bridge on this photo above... how brave am I?!





So... as you can see... lovely scenery! I am honestly not sure of where I ended up.. but I arrived home near enough three hours later than I should've been! Home sweet home... so pleased to have got there finally, I can tell you!

Back to crafting tomorrow.. then hospital appointments again from Tuesday.. let's see how this week pans out - surely it's got to be better than the last!

Tuesday 13 September 2011

A tutorial and a challenge..

Well... it's Tuesday today, so that must mean it's time for the My Time to Craft Challenge again.. and the theme for this weeks challenge is a Kaleidoscope of Colour. Here's the card that I've made for this week.


I've used the -now infamous! - technique that people who come to my demo's, call the 'Splodging Technique'.


Here's a little detail from the card. My Kaleidoscope of colour was made using chalks and an embossing folder.
Here's how I did it...

You will need - 

  • Embossing folder of your choice (I used the Me to You new Christmas embossing folder)
  • Decorative chalks (I used the pastel Papermania chalk set)
  • Some cotton wool
  • Clear pigment ink
  • Embossing machine (ie. Sizzix Boutique or Big Shot both work well.... as does a rolling pin or shaving brush!)

Ink up the plain side of the embossing folder with the pigment ink. Give it a heavyish coating of ink.


When you have inked up your folder, place your piece of card inside and close the folder over the top. Run this through your chosen embossing machine, or go over with a rolling pin to create an embossed effect.


The ink is now transferred onto the card, along with the embossing.. so take your scrunched up cotton wool and rub it into the chalks. I work from light to dark, but just start with your chosen colour.


Then just bounce your cotton wool and chalk onto the cardstock. Mix the colours up across the card. When you have a thin layer of colour around the card, you can then rub over very lightly to finish.


Layer up the cardstock onto a piece of coordinating cardstock, and attach a piece of ribbon around the base of the card.


Choose the topper that you want to use on your card. I chose to use this lovely Tatty Ted from the Winter Wonderland Ultimate kit.



When I started to decoupage my Tatty, I started off with layer two, and I can then use layer one to create a topper on another card. You can see this below.


When I layer up my Tatty, or any other decoupage, I like to curl the papers between my fingers so that they lay better together.

This is how the layers look when they're all together.

And here he is in place on my card. The colours of chalks matched in with the image.


Add a few gems along the ribbon to add  a little shine and bling.



Now, apply some glitter glue around the hood.. I like to apply a great big blob...
...... then I spread it out with my fingers to give a nice even coverage. Yep.. just call me scruffy!


And that's how I created my card at the top of the page.. I hope you found the tutorial easy to follow.. it should have been a video, but the camera was out of poof! Never mind.. one of those coming soon!

I hope you give the tutorial a try. I'd love to nip over and see what you've created, so leave me a comment and I'll nip over and visit.. Happy Crafting everyone!!
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