Countdown to Christmas: Day 4

When I'm making cards I find that one card design can lead to another, and another and then another always accompanied by 'ooh what happens if I add/do this or that'.... and an hour later I've made a batch of cards!

These cards are all quite simple and I started by using a 3x4in pocket scrapbooking panel on each one... I limited the colours used to a kraft, red, green, black and white...

Here are the (all measuring 10x15cms) cards in order of creation (in the photo above reading clockwise starting top left):

Card 1:  This card started with the black music script panel face down which meant that the small circle pattern on card 4 was face up (lots of these pocket scrapbooking cards come with detail on both sides) but I turned it music side up to see how it looked and preferred it so kept it... The snowflakes were all on my desk, left over from recent projects - the top one is wax paper excess from die cutting for classes, the spot in the centre of the bottom snow flake is a mini puddle of Metallic Glaze which had dried over night on my desk craft sheet - lovely accidental cabuchon.

Card 2 is similar - made up from left over snowflakes apart from the middle one which is punched out of the kraft panel... I like to add sewing to cards so on this card I added a simple line across the top in red, toning it in with buttons and gems.. the greeting is from JOFY20

Card 3: The snowflake punched out of card 2 wasn't going to waste!  I painted it with Fresco Finish Metallic Glaze, layered it with a punched out circle (cut a tag that was on the desk) onto a patterned panel and strip of red card.  Greeting as before.

Card 4:  When I punched the snowflake out of the kraft panel I wondered how it would look if it was mounted back in its space but on 3d foam to give depth and so thats what I did on card 4.  The snowflakes along the bottom of the card are JM07..

Card 5:.. uses the tag that I cut the circle from to use on card 3.  I used the circle aperture to mount another wax paper snowflake (really glad I didn't throw those away after die cutting) covered by a button and sewn down both sides.

I enjoyed making these cards - relatively quick and simple to make and are a good way to use up scraps, bits and pieces, and create batches of cards.

xx

Catch up post 2

I spent a lovely weekend at The Stamp Attic in late November running a card workshop on the first day and on the second day we made this box frame...

it was a lovely weekend of christmas crafting, cracker pulling & general 'ho ho ho'ness.

Here´s the group embracing the festive theme of the class:

(& the lovely Wendy was fully embracing Christmas by wearing the stickers that came inside the crackers lol)(the crackers that had surprisingly funny jokes - ´how do monkeys make toast?... they put it under the gorilla´!... lol -  aaw come on - its a cracker joke - its supposed to make you groan! lol)

If you´d like to see another version on the box frame there is a photo in this blog post.

xx

cards, cards & more cards....

... not long to go now - I hope you're all on schedule with your christmas cards - just in case you're not here's a little bit of inspiration for you...

Cards created with stamps from JOFY 20, 8, 17, & 18.. Mini 7& 26 on white & Kraft card blanks.

The snowflakes were die cut using Spellbinder Snowflake Pendant 2013, and the paper is Blissful Blizzard from Fancy Pants.

Could it be any more shabby chic...

.... possibly not...  I'm talking about this tag that I made to get an idea out of my head before I started something with a deadline..don't get me wrong - I don't mind a bit shabby chic, not at all

Love this birdcage stencil and have wanted to use it with my stamps for ages - I wasn't going to use it like this but I was also impatient to use the new (rather fab) PaperArtsy Grunge paste:... oh and some treasure gold.....

... and look - I stamped in a colour other than black!  drum roll please!  I like the 'no black stamping' - its definitely softened the look of the piece...

OK, back to creating 'stuff'....

Oh, and by the way Mad Men is back on our screens (here in the UK) tomorrow!! Soooooo looking forward to it - can.not.wait!!

Trip the Light Fantastic...

... by definition  'is to dance nimbly or lightly, or to move in a pattern to musical accompaniment'.. which is exactly what Ginger Rogers would do (as she always did) in these dancing shoes

The writing around the sole is one of my favourite quotes: 'Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except she did it backwards and in high heels'... seemed appropriate.
The shoe is going to the Craft Barn to be used in their new location, shoes have been handed out to be decorated - can't wait to see what everyone else has done.

The shoe is painted with Fresco Finish paints - sole is Elephant - one of the new colours - a lovely grey, flower is made with a leaf stamp from the JOFY range, buttons from my never-decreasing stash (there had to be a button or two didn't there!), and the flourishes are a Spellbinder die (floral flourishes - one of my favourites)

Craft Stamper - web extra..

.. in the March issue of Craft Stamper I had some dimensional cards featured:

.... and if you'd like to see another project - a little mini canvas - created on the same theme its available to view as a web extra on the Craft Stamper site - click the photo to see more.  The projects feature PaperArtsy stamps & Sizzix dies... I think these are among my all time favourite cards and projects.

another 'not so minimal mini'....

.... and more bunting (because you can never have too much can you!? lol)

Pennants use minis 01,02,03 and the very useful grid sketch from JOFY02... pennants are Sizzix dies, and one of my all-time-favourites dies Spellbinder 'floral flourishes'....
(and look - no sign of Iced Spruce or Evergreen Bough distress inks.. I'm moving forward! lol)

Have a good day

Tree full of Tweets

Quick catch up:
On Saturday I had a really fun day at the Craft Barn's christmas inspiration demo day... lovely customers came and sat, chatted, and watched all the demos - a really nice day... I was creating tree decorations using Sizzix & Spellbinder dies - so.much.fun.  I displayed all my birds on a black tree so that they popped - a black tree is a bit unusual but its great for this sort of thing... and lets face it - its not the most unusual tree I have! (I think the upside down tree wins prize for most 'unusual' lol)

aaaaanyhoo... to the tune of '12 days of christmas':
Four floral birds:

Three fancy hens:

 Two steam punk doves (slightly sooty doves!  lol)

 And a county hen in a christmas treeeeeeeeeee

OK, that's quite enough singing.... on the tree there's also a robin:

Most of the birds I made with the dies were flat but a couple are lovely and dimensional:

I love these little guys! I enjoyed making the flat die cut shapes into something more dimensional. (to the shock horror of the people watching the demo I had die cut an Enid Blyton book to create them! how could I - not only had I cut up a book but it was an Enid Blyton book!?! But I'd like to think that Ms Blyton would be pleased that her book had been given a new lease of life and not ended up on a bonfire or in landfill.)

The paper I used to decorate them (apart from the steampunk & textbirds) is Festive Collection by Authentique. Die is Birds 3 from Sizzix, and Floral Flourishes from Spellbinder.

They are now going to fly away and live on the Craft Barn's christmas tree...  Fly my pretties.. Fly!  :o)

'mini' doesn't have to mean 'minimal'

I am loving the lead up to christmas - the shopping centres are starting to be prettied up. The decorations around are a little more restrained than previously (a nod to the current financial climate?) - but having said that it was good to see the shops were busy even on the Thursday evening I visited our local shopping centre (01 November - early in the christmas lead up!) - there were lots of sales that people were taking advantage of.
It was also the opening of Santa's grotto - complete with a mini parade of majorettes (little young ones - very cute!), a brass band, and a big snowman, elf and penguin - very festive! :o)

Today's project is a small card (10x10cm) but it has lots of elements (but not too many! lol)...

The main background is created with a wash of distress inks that has been splashed (I still love that effect - so simple!) and then stamped (tone-on-tone) with Mini2.  The same images was then stamped on white and the coloured with Distress Markers.  The star has been 3mounted so that the die cut flourish could be mounted underneath.  It was coloured with markers and accents of sparkly gel pen... 

The 'noel' is from plate3 stamped onto a ticket...

so there you go - mini's don't have to be minimal!

Have a good day!

Santa's Elves would be proud of me....

... I'm working my festive little socks off making samples for the classes and shows that are coming up...

Its not just cards that I've been making with the stamps:

This dinky little wooden plaque (available from PaperArtsy) has a really nice surface for stamping & stenciling onto:  (i think the handle needs a bit of pazzazing up - I'll give that some thought and get back to you....)(its not as festive as the rest of the plaque! lol)

I have added shimmer to the baubles with a touch of Metallic Glaze Fresco Finish - its great because it doesn't change the base colour when added, just makes is shimmery - love it!

The edges have been dragged with Patina Treasure Gold, a new product from PaperArtsy that is a lovely shimmery wax - I can see that being use on .... well... everything possible really! lol

This plain white wreath has been in the 'to be altered' box for a while and was perfect for the idea I had for the stars that are on JOFY08 and other plates...

 

The wreath's stars were stamped onto card painted with Fresco Finish, and embellished with gems, gel pens and, of course, buttons! and incorporating Spellbinders dies (these are some of my favourite dies!)(they get used quite a lot!)
Leandra has shown these wreath cards over on the PaperArtsy blog but I love them (a lot) and so I'm blogging them here too:

 

I love how Christmas allows (no, expects..) liberal use of glitter, sparkly bits and gems - I love a bit of sparkle and am definitely not adverse to a touch or two of Stickles!

Yours festively!

Jo

Deck the halls...

... with lots of samples.. tra la la la laaaaaaa la la la laaaa

Had a great time at The Craft Barn on saturday demo'ing my stamps (big thanks to Sandy and her team) - lots of lovely peeps came by and watched, chatted and bought the stamps which was great - hopefully they all went home inspired to get crafting for Christmas...

Here are some of the samples- I'll post some more tomorrow-  using distress inks, distress markers, bit of book text, fresco finish paints, kraft card... slightly self indulgent: all products I love to use...

The headless snowman gets quite a lot of 'sympathy' - "aw poor snowman" (followed by chuckles, so not that much sympathy! lol) - I'd just like to let you all know that no snowmen were hurt in the making of these stamps.. :o)

More samples to follow tomorrow....

xx

7 hearts for 7 years..

... back in 2005 I married Matt.
Here's the card I made for him this year - I always try to include the same number of heart motifs on the card as the number of years we've been married - this may get trickier the longer we've been married - I imagine the card for our 25th Anniversary will either be reeeally big or the hearts will be reeeeeally small! lol

The pattern on the hearts is quite significant - my lovely husband has over 20 work shirts in his wardrobe and they are nearly all white shirts with variations of blue check/stripes.... that man loves blue!
& I love him.

Class at The Craft Barn

O.M.Goodness! its stopped raining!! (for a while at least... lol) (& by the time you read this it'll probably be raining again! lol )  Our wonderfully unpredictable weather really has surpassed itself this year..

aaaanyhoo enough about the weather- on to more creative things like the class I'm teaching at The Craft Barn on Sunday - fabric, dies, stamping, oh-so-pretty papers, a simple mini-book and cards.. still a few places left - call the shop (01342 836398) if you like to come along...

Have a good day - brollies at the ready peeps - & pack a bottle of suntan lotion too ... just in case.. :o)

Its not that I've been overly busy... just a bit here and a bit there and lots of things going on in all areas... that why I've not been here so please excuse the absence..

So what has the 'here and there' been all about?

Well we've moved into our new house and we're still unpacking boxes - well, to be honest with you I'm not unpacking them as much as moving them about from one room to another! lol (they're currently in the 3rd bedroom where I can close the door and ignore them for a bit longer :o)  )
The house keeps throwing up interesting findings - under most of the floor coverings is a layer of newspaper (insulation 1960s stylee?) which is normal but in the bedroom was so exciting as the newspaper print had transferred onto the wood!!!! (insert excited squeal here)  I wanted to varnish over it and keep it, but sadly I was out-voted... its a snapshot of August 1960! lol  very cool!

A lovely weeked was had by all that went to the Craft Barn's extravaganza a couple of weekends ago - I really enjoy being part of these weekends.. this time I was flexing my die-cutting, bunting making, fabric cutting craftiness.. thanks to everyone who stopped by and said hello- it was nice to put faces to some of the twitter peeps I've met :o)

 I combined Sizzix dies with Spellbinder dies to create this line of bunting - these are great dies (and I can't wait to combine them with the latest PaperArtsy dies - more about those later).

The card above uses Sizzix Mover & Shapers dies - love!!

This simple calico bunny makes me smile - The Craft Barn sells plain Calico animals and shapes (by Rico Designs) and so I made a 'critter' version with it. cute.

OK, onto the newPaperArtsy stamps I mentioned - 5 fabulous haberdashery sets, here's just one of them:

I love all of them - but this one especially as that's my sewing machine! :o)  Mr PA took photos of it and turned it in to a stamp - how cool is that!  Go over to the PaperArtsy site to see the others - they are really lovely....

The Olympic Torch came through our town because Hadleigh is the venue for the Mountain Bike events(and it came through Southend because of the dive centre etc).

It was really quite exciting - the whole Torch Relay has been so well planned and organised.. great to see it (briefly! lol definitely worth standing in the drizzle.)

I think that's enough for now - I'll leave you with some more fabulous flowers - not mine - these were planted (by the council) in beds on the local cliffs - so beautiful and they were so fragrant, and the orange/pink ones were stunning...

Take care.