A quick break

The last couple of days have a quick blog break for me. I have had a lot do recently, and I just needed a break. There are still many things on my To Do list, but hopefully will find the time to blog!
This card combines two things I love Cuttlebug embossing folders and stamping. I used one of the larger 7 x 5" folders and then for the message the Large Christmas sentiment in a circle as well as the two step flower from Filled with Flowers.

Simple!

Words

Sometimes words in stickers are cheesy, sometimes they truly are what I just need to hear.

More Patchwork

I still have got plenty of Vintage My Minds Eye papers, and more recent as well. So I am working slowly through them. And by plenty of papers I mean little scraps, when I am working with papers that I really, really, really like I keep in a poly bag any decent leftovers, and that could be as small as a 1cm wide by 5cm. I will only keep those papers that really inspire me. In that poly bag will only be papers of one collection, that way I can mix and match any of them. Which is great when you are doing this technique as little pieces are required.

You can see in this close up, how the pattern of the embossing folder continues seamlessly. I love this technique, you will have a chance to have a go if you are coming to Dawn's Residential or coming to one of my forthcoming workshops, which reminds me I need to update.

Of mists

I know so many friends told me wonders about angel mists and glamour mists and whatever other name they may have. And yet, I only got my first Tattered Angel spray last March after seeing the beautiful work that my friend Julie had done using some striking mists. The lovely Glenda and Lynn from Elusive Images helped me to select a quartet and happily off I went.

And oh, boy, don't I just love them, I adore them. So I thought I better share this card I made the other day, just having a play. First I sprayed a A4 card with four colours -sorry but I forgot their proper names-, then I trim the sheet into smaller panels and then embossed one of them. Then I sanded the top off and voila. That beautiful background was created. In real life is even nicer as it has proper shimmer.

The rest I finished it off using leftovers from a previous work. And the message? One of my Big Sentiments.

Quilting

Finally I have kind of mastered the quiliting technique using embossing folders. So lately I have been using it a bit lately. For this card I chose some of the recent releases from Cuttlebug and Basic Grey's Green at Heart Collection.

Metal & Alcohol Inks

As I have said before, I do like my alcohol inks, but the truth is that I don't use them enough even though I don't really know why. But I used them for this metal card.

I started by embossing the metal sheet using a new Cuttlebug folder and then used several brown alcohol inks. I reworked the centers of the concentric circles with darker inks.

To finished the look for a man card I added the sentiment and embellishments over the edge, as I like to do.

All the stickers and extras are from Basic Grey Capella collection.

- Today I will be on air at QVC at 13:00, you can watch on the internet here.

I love this paper - and this die!

Probably the most used paper in the last month was this notebook doodles one from My Minds Eye. For this simple card I used yet again the ornate card die from Sizzix. It is one of their XL dies so the price tag is a bit higher that what I am use to pay, but the possibilities are endless which such a lovely shape which fist nicely into a C6 envelope.


For the butterflies I use Martha Stewart punches (the three in one and the single one) and for the message I used a sentiment from my Essentials Sentiments set, of course!

More Ornate Cards

I said I loved this die didn't I? To make the aperture I used one of the Standard Circle Nestabilities sets, but only once I had cut the ornate card. If you are a Nestie wizard, I woud suggest to cut at the same time the smaller circle -for the Christmas pudding inside of the card- and the larger one -the aperture on the front of the card-
Since it is quite thick patterned paper and the finished size of the card is not very large, I figured that I could make the main card using this lovely glittered Christmas paper from K &Company. The letters are cut using the Serif Essentials a fantastic Bigz die set, perfect to cut thicker, like really think materials such as book board or thick chipboard.

Gap Cards

As soon as I saw this die I knew I could do a gap card with the Noel. As it is an intricate die cut, I cut two, one of the patterned paper and another one out of the plain green card. Once the card was done, I glued the green card Noel in the inside to strengthen the gap. I just added the scroll from this decorative scroll.
However, I think I over did it a bit when I inked the card with distressing inks, it became a bit too dark for my liking.

Letterpress effect

I did have a system so I could know which cards I had posted photos of and which ones I had not. However, when I had some trouble with blogger last time I decided to use online albums, Picasa to be exact, which works great. But I did that hastily without thinking about my system.
The result is that now I have got loads of photos online and in my computer and I am not sure which ones I have shared. So, from now on you may see some repeat cards. It is not you it's me!
I wish I had more time and energy to actually explain how to make cards, but the truth is I hate writing instructions so I only do when I need to, ie for an article just because that is part of my job. But I can share that the background were don with the Snowflake Impresabilities.

Do you watch Stricly Come Dancing? It wasn't until last year when I started to watch it from my computer -we don't have a tv!-. It was my friend Julie -as in Julie Hickey- who actually talked me into by passing comments here and there about how much fun it was. Last year I was home for week one so I watched it online. I soon became addicted because I LOVE to dance, not ballroom as I don't know how, but pretty much everything else. I really enjoyed series Six and was quite happy with the outcome.
This year I am watching it again online either live or on the iPlayer on the Sunday and I am enjoying it as much or even a bit more than last year just because in each couple I like either the celebrity, the pro, or actually both. Yesterday there was a bit of an upset as one of the clearly better dancers was voted off. Personally I could not warm myself to the celebrity, but I like very much James Jordan the pro dancer not as best pro dancer but because he is one of the few -with Vincent and maybe Brian- who has some masculinity dancing. The other dancers are great, I consider some of them even better, but I don't see them as males dancing just as dancers, if it makes any sense.
The funny aspect about all this Stricly thing is that once I watched about ten minutes of the Spanish version, Mira quien Baila, and it confirmed what I already suspected: UK TV rules! Spanish, unfortunately, is a thousand miles behind.

More Die cutting

Another one of the cards I made for last week workshop, it is rare that I decorate the insides of the card, but with such a gorgeous pattern it was hard not to do so!


As the previous entries, the paper/card is from My Minds Eye and the dies are from Sizzix, Label from this one, square scallop from this one, and the scalloped borders from this one.
The front is done by layering the different strips -previously die cut- so it creates a subtle pattern.

My mum is here for a few days, and she is now making her own Christmas cards. I think she would love to come to my workshops, but she tries to come when I am not busy so she can actually see more of me, more relaxed me as well.

Birthday Die cutting Cards

For this die cutting card I used an ornate die to cut the blank card.


I used like for yesterdays card I used My Minds Eye patterned paper/card.
It's funny that when I started this blog I found much easier to write than to post photos. Nowadays is the opposite. Maybe is because I find my life a bit boring, nothing too exciting to share, but, what would you like? More words or just as it is?

Diorama Card

This is now my latest favorite card. I did it this week for my recent class at The Glitter Pot.
I can not take credit, obviously for inventing such a fun paper engineering structure. The best thing about it is that it folds completely flat, or as flat a any other card.


A view from above may help to see how it is all assembled. If you would like to learn how to make this type of card you can click here for a wonderful tutorial by Diana Gibbs. I have done a few things differently -size, apertures and center piece- but more importantly the way I assembled it, because I glued the left side first then the right one.



The apertures are cut with Nestabilities and the Snowflakes as well. The paper has become one of my most used ones, it is from My Minds Eye, click here to see it. It is more like card than regular patterned paper, has a lovely texture and is double sided. Pure lush.
The little holes on the paper are not part of it, I just made them using a Screw hole punch (Japanese style).
Also, in other news, my new sets of stamps are now available in craft shops around the country.

Inspiration

One of the reasons I love to demonstrate at big demo weekends is because like everyone else attending as a customer I get to see what other demonstrators do and learn and be inspired by them. Last weekend at The Glitter Pot was no exception. Stamping Caz taught me how to do a cool thing with the Cuttlebug folders that I had trying to learn but very lazy to actually research it. Francoise Read showed me her latest release of stamps and I could not resist one set, the one that contains the image above. Gaynor was doing lovely stamping and decoupage technique, she makes so beautiful. So I combined what I learnt from the three of them to create Omar's Birthday card (last Tuesday).
Yes, you may think it is a girly card, but he seem to be very pleased with it since I Wasabi seems to be in the card!

Cuttlebug

Often I make the cards for a class or a demo just the day before. You see, I started teaching cardmaking while I was working at the same shop. That meant that I could choose what to use the day before to make sure that we had enough stock for the attendees. Also, it doesn't help that I do have the tendency to leave everything for the last minute.
However, lately I have been quite good at planing my classes and demos and did this one about two weeks ago for the class last week at The Glitter Pot. I used Pebbles papers, Cuttlebug embossing folders and Nestabilities large rectangle scallop die -for the rosette-.
PS: Studio Calico has this lovely post on how to make the rossette. I did learn the how to somewhere else, Making Memories blog I think but not sure.

Some die cutting

One of my favourite classes to design and teach is Die cutting. Everytime I try to come out with some different. This one was the embossing + inkpads used in the green dots border and the butterflies. It is softer look, it feels like letterpress.
All materials are available from The Glitter Pot (Pebbles papers, Cuttlebug: Butterfly combo set, Just my Type embossing border, Messages in circles Birthday).

Just because...

Wisteria papers are so beautiful...

Happy Birthday Omar

... I know it's not a birthday card, but it has a flower and green. Life it is not perfect, as Omar well knows!

Actually, this card was the one I gave him on Saturday for our wedding anniversary, that I made using lovely vintage My Minds Eye papers, Bazzill flower and Cricut (Home decor cartridge).

Flower Patch

Flower patch is one of this collections of papers that on first look I didn't love, however they did grow on me big time. Now, I love the pastel colors, the patterns...
I did this card last week for the demo weekend as it uses Cuttlebug embossing folders and I used the 8 x 8 Flower Patch (which is made by Making Memories).

The Glitter Pot big demo day

This weekend I will be demonstrating at The Glitter Pot's Spring Spectacular. If you can make it, really you should come. Some of the best card designers in the country (maybe in the world!) like Jane Gill and Julie Hickey will be there.
This is one of the cards I have done for the demo, using the lovely Wisteria papers (Basic Grey) and Cuttlebug embossing folders and dies.
For more info, click here.