Friday 29 May 2015

Senna

......My sleepy boy......
Senna
 age 18

Framed flowers

Hello all.... How are you?

Today's been a little busy sorting through everything to take to Create and Craft with me tomorrow, but I thought I would just share this little make with you all before I go.

It must have been a fairly tiring day all round, because as I am typing this post, the fluffer-woofers are all in a pile, fast asleep at my feet.... Truly doing her usual 'snoring like a pig' impression... Princess Holly keeps having a peep every so often wondering what on earth is happening! And Scoobs... well, if it doesn't involve food, then things aren't really worth worrying over (so you may as well sleep!) 

It's all quite funny really, as people think that having three spaniels must keep us on our toes... well, they do, but they aren't mad as hatters when they're home with us, they are quite lazy actually!

Anyways... onto todays card... 


As you may already have guessed, we have a Pick of the Week going on from tomorrow, and the range is this beautiful set of frames. There are four in the collection and the frames and stamps all interchange. I've just opted to keep this one quite simple as I wanted to use a basic colour combination with the card, and to just have simple matting and layering. I also chose not to put a colour behind the base layer of the card so the eye would be immediately drawn into the centre of the card. 


The beautiful daisies came with the entwining trellis dies... they made the perfect addition to my little frame, with the delicateness of those compared with the fineness of the frame cut, I thought it would work perfectly. The flourish is one of Tonic's older dies... 



These two little close ups show you a little more detail of the cuts and layers. As you see, it's quite a simple card to achieve and I hope that you will be able to join in sometime over the next few days to see these fantastic dies in action... 

See you soon. 
Jo xx

Wednesday 27 May 2015

If I could....

Now... there's a question... if you could, what would you do? 

When I was making this card, I came up with the idea that I wanted to use this base square as I love it, and I wanted a verse in the centre. I couldn't find anything suitable, so looked through some verses and quotes that were on Pinterest, and this one came up... I thought it matched the idea for the card perfectly. 


I used Fairy Lily at the side of the aperture and cut her from two shades of yellow... one slightly darker one that has gone behind the main part of the fairy to add some shading. I also cut the star trail from the same colour card, and popped this up at the other side of the card to balance the yellow a little bit. 

Now... there's a new release from Tonic this week on Create and Craft, and I will be with you on Friday through til Sunday whilst Jodie enjoys the last few days away, then she will be back to take over the reins on the Monday... I hope you can join us this week sometime for some crafting fun. 

I know you are absolutely going to love the new dies and stamps that are coming out... I must admit, I haven't managed to stop playing with them all week... they are just fab!!!! 

Another thing to mention too..... my little Tonic Fairies, Sharon and Cheremane, will be up at the Hunkydory show over in Bolton this weekend running the workshops for me on behalf of Tonic Studios... I've created a lovely card for you all to have a go at making if you are passing.... please go along and cheer on the girls. They do a fantastic job for me, and I know if you are unsure of what to do with your dies, or how to get the best out of them, they will be on hand to give you a few ideas too. 

I will be back soon with a couple of other fairy cards for you over the next few days..... until then, Happy crafting all... xxxx

Tuesday 19 May 2015

Love you to the Moon and Back.....

Evening all.... 

Just catching up on a little blog post for tonight, and this is one that I wanted to post and tell you all that I appreciate you all popping by and visiting my blog. I've had a few quiet days at home this week, which has been really nice - catching up on the DIY jobs that need doing, as well as a little cooking and baking and creating along the way. 

As you may know, this week has seen the release of our fantastic new Tonic Rococo dies, both the larger and mini versions, Fairy Collection. What a lovely set it is too... although I am a little partial to the Moon - Luna - if I am being honest.... !

It is a lovely size to make that feature on your cards, as you can see with the cards below. But there are so many possibilities with it. 

This first card was a smaller size card, which is perfect for those of you who are just starting out with your crafting, and may not feel comfortable using lots of dies, or lots of empty blank areas. I cut a couple of strips of card and paper to fit onto the front of the white panel then cut out the moon in a few different colours. 

The first cut was with the gold, then stuck onto the darker green cut. I attached both of these layers onto the yellow cardstock, then cut around the outside edge of the moon to give it some background colour. 


The little stars were waste from the collection of other cards that I had made, and also a couple of larger ones from the star layering dies. A little button was attached onto a few of them, and also dotted around the card too.. just for a little bit of a difference! The sentiment was one from East of India, which I picked up at a Garden Centre whilst out with our Jodie... I'm sure you will be able to find something similar.

Now, the card below was another quick card using Luna, and also the fairy wand. I found the sentiment on the internet, and thought it was lovely... so printed it out using the computer, and layered it up onto my cardstock. The moon was attached with hot glue into the corner of the card, and the wand was layered up and glittered. Quite simple card really but I think a little effective.


The little strapping around the bottom was made by measuring very roughly on the guillotine to create the angles, then an eyelet was added to hold it together. The string was tied loosely and the wand attached behind it. 

Well.... I hope you like the couple of cards for today... I will be back with a few more samples for you over the next day or so..... so I hope you can pop by then. 

Happy Crafting until then. xxxxx

Thursday 14 May 2015

Cute colouring....

Morning all..... 

Today, I've gone back to my passion for colouring and decided to share these two recent makes with you. 

I have had a lovely week this past week, I did a demo day at Mountain Ash Crafts on Bank Holiday Monday, followed by a couple of days down at Create and Craft.... ending with a lovely weekend away with the husband in Somerset. A very well needed break away from everything - no connection on my phone (does anyone else find o2 signal going downhill?!) and no TV for a few days. Just perfect. 

Mountain Ash craft shop is a lovely little shop on a vineyard, in a lovely setting and is a gem of a shop. I was using a selection of older dies combining them with newer ones, and also adding a few colouring panels in there. 


The panels I had coloured in a week or so previous. I had had a few hours spare one evening and decided to get out my pens and get creative ready for the demo. I had an idea of what I wanted to do with the christmas frames die set above, but wanted to make it un-christmassy. This is what I came up with and I think it works really well. 


Here you can see the colours in better detail.  The image is from Lili of the Valley and I think it's sooooo cute! I added the Mystic Vine corner to add extra dimension to the top layer and it combined well with the little stars on the stamped panel. 

Here's my second card ....


I used the Just a Note set for the base of this card. The card itself is A5 in size, and the base layer sits perfectly on the top of the card, allowing room for the sentiment at the bottom. 

The little bunny is a stamp from Lili of the Valley and another one I thought was just perfect for a new baby card. 


And here's your little angled view.... just so you can see the depth of the card. Of course, you don't have to add depth if you don't want to, you can cut all the layers into the base and just mount your image onto the top.

So... that's it for today.... don't forget there's a new Pick of the Week going on tomorrow with our lovely Jodie.... and it's one you won't want to miss... !! It launches at 12pm, so I hope you can catch the first show.

Until next time... happy Crafting all... xxx

Shopping List

Tuesday 5 May 2015

Pink heart

Evening all..... 

I hope you've all managed to stay wrapped up snug and warm today...what a bit of a surprise it was to wake upto rain, wind and the like..... after these last few days of sunshine, I was getting quite used to not having to wear a cardi or a jumper! 

It's also been nice to spend the day doing silly little things, like shopping, and spending time at home with the Mr. Although, installing - or rather - reinstalling the fitted wardrobe left alot to be desired!!

Anyway, onto better and more creative things... and last week saw the launch of a new product range from Tonic. We bought you the Heart and Butterfly die and stamp sets. These were really pretty and I know that lots of folks loved them... so here's one of my little makes for the show. 

I have tried to keep the card quite simple, as I know sometimes that things can get a little over decorated and can distract from the main image. So here you are.... a heart!!

I chose to stamp the Rococo Paisley Heart onto the card base using a versamark pad to add a watermark effect to the background. I didn't emboss it as I wanted to keep it really simple. 


The  next step was to make the heart for the sentiment to go under, and to do this, I stamped the same heart as the background, but embossed it with white powder. I cut it out with the coordinating die and then popped it onto white cardstock and cut around the outside edge.


The card colours I chose were mainly to keep the colours fresh and zingy, and I quite liked the idea of using a little bit of twine in a button to finish it off... so I added that!



I hope you like the card as much as I enjoyed creating it.... it's been a lovely set to work with!
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