The Holly and the Ivy....

...  ready for christmas crafting... & on JM28 they're much less prickly than the real thing!

Its a useful stamp, great for backgrounds or for motifs on cards and projects:

(fyi: 'joy' is by Dovecraft, snowflakes are Tando)

ACP Week 6, part 2: Ssshhh, don't show my Valentine...

This post was supposed to load up yesterday - last day of red & cream.. but hey ho - it didn't, so today's the day:

A card for my beloved (my 'good catch' - his words not mine, tho I obviously agree  lol) for Valentines day - but ssshhh lets keep it just between you and me that I've put a picture of his card on here before I give it to him (lol) but I think I'm safe to do so as he's really busy at work at the moment (too busy to be on the www looking at stuff...)(hopefully! lol)

I created a heart stencil using a nestabilities die and layered it up with some tiny sequin waste - or maybe its punchinella - not sure as it was given to me - I like it a lot though. 

I like creating my own stencils - cutting them from a drawing or using dies.

I hope you're all getting along ok in the snow - its certainly hanging around isn't it!

Take care

ACP Week 3, part 2: Crowned!

I'd been looking for a skull stamp for a while and when I saw this skull image on a set of PaperArtsy stamps it was love at first sight - I love it - its a great skull.

I knew straight away I would be putting all kind of hats & headwear on that shiny smooth head!

When I was looking for something the otherday I found a box full of chipboard crowns! *happyclapping*
I knew of a lovely skull that would very splendid in one of those!!  So I put the skull and a crown together (well it is crown week!) and I created this:

That lovely mottled silver is created with the Stampendous 'Frantage' aged silver embossing powder.  Several layers of that with a stamp (PaperArtsy) pressed in for texture.

The tag is a bit of a PaperArts fest - Tag, Fresco Finish Paints, HotPick stamp (Halloween 01), Crafters Workshop stencils (brocade, harlequin), & the small image on crown is from Crowns & Castles 7.  All available from PaperArtsy who are having a sale at the moment - pop over and grab some lovely goodies.

Thanks for popping by!

Looking like Christmas, Part 2

Better pic's of the Craft Barn samples.. This is quite an unusual colour scheme for christmas cards but people liked the colours so here they are, but unfortunately the camera isn't picking up the shimmer on the backgrounds or the shine on the embossing.. :

Tag with embossed snowflakes/stars/fireworks (quite a versatile background I think...), and paper die cuts inked up and embossed with the Stampedous 'aged silver' embossing enamel.

EDIT:  The embossing folder is by Sizzix and is called 'Starry Night', its a set with 1 12x15 folder (the stars), a sentiment folder - used on the flourish card, and 2 small motif folders - its a favourite of mine!

 I think this might be my favourite card - but its a close call between this and the one below...

The inside background is the debossed side of a white piece of card coloured up with distress inks, while the front of the card blank has the embossed version (I simply turn the embossed piece of card over & use which one suits) - love the background:

I like how the card has a short front so the inside and front panels can be seen together, several layers - and I'm loving those flourishes - expect to see those in a lot more projects.. lol

(the sentiment on the card makes me want to sing the song its taken from - but I'll try not to do that too often or in public....)

Its beginning to look a bit like Christmas!!

On the first Saturday of each month The Craft Barn has in-shop demonstrations and this month I was providing one of them... I had a lovely day, lots of lovely peeps came and watched the demos - bought the products I was demo'ing which was great - but in the afternoon it meant that it was as much an improvisation as a demonstration! lol
Here are some sneak peeks of my samples - a few of the originals will go to the shop...

Lots of techniques & products on these - Rosettes - created with Tim Holtz die (I think I've mentioned before how much I like these! lol); Distress Inks (antique linen, frayed burlap, weathered wood, black soot); dry embossing - with Sizzix folders - these give a really good deep impression; die cutting - Spellbinders - great flourishes (love); and wet embossing - covering the die cuts making them look like metal - this effect was achieved using Stampedous 'Fran-tage' embossing enamels in 'aged silver' and aged black (which is a really lovely colour.. we're talking reeeeeeally nice! (& so is the 'aged silver' judging by how fast it sold out!)

Thanks to everyone who watched the demos, I hope you were inspired.  Demo's wouldn't be the same without you!

xx

Christmas cards...

I need to pace myself! lol No posts for 2 weeks and now 2 in a day! Phew!

Here are some of christmas cards I made (though I will confess that due to teaching, commissions and a sick cat I didn't have time to make all our christmas cards and so we did send a few bought cards (shock, horror and the shame of it!! and me a card making tutor! rofl) Normally I make all my christmas cards from scratch but this year due to the reasons stated I bought some embellishments to work with... which was good because it was a learning process - adapting things to your own style etc etc etc....

Using Stampendous sticker sheets...

Using Basic Grey card making pack - It's useful to buy if you're in a hurry but I'm not sure I would buy one again - it takes away a lot of the creativity - I bought it as a base start from and I added peel-offs and gems to the paper supplied and I still have lots left over (this isn't all the cards by the way) - even though I did customise nearly all the cards and only followed the directions for one in particular as it was such a definite design with provided embellishments.... (still gotta love Basic Grey though!)......

K&Co papers - lovely vintage feel to their range...

Deco Round Robin done & dusted

These are the final pages of my deco book... I finished mine to get me in the mind set of working on someone elses - getting back in the mood...
really pleased with how this came out - using lots of my favourite things - bit of PaperArtsy, bit of Tim Holtz - mask, inks), glimmer mists, a butterfly, lovely agapanthus stamp.