Creative Card Making with Jennie

Hello everyone! Jennie here sharing the creative card making tutorial with you this month.

As our theme this month is Rustic Charm I decided to collect some "rustic" elements for my card. I didn't set out to make this particular design but used my "finds" to detail and design my card.

I found some great hessian pieces - paper and real! and little bits of lace and cork .....

... which all got stuck down in layers.

So here is how it all came together.

It was finding this hessian piece of paper in my stash which got me started on the Rustic Charm theme. I had no idea it was there and the edges were a bit tatty so it has been "around" for a while. I managed to cut it into a 5.5" x 5.5" piece which I thought would look good layered onto a piece of ivory card measuring 5.75" x 5.75" and then onto a kraft 6" x 6" base.

I decided to add a little more hessian. This was very difficult to cut straight !!! and I realised too that it would be difficult to glue. So I decided to stitch the edges of the card and catch it along the straight edges. Just enough to hold it in place.

I felt it all needed brightening a little so added the little ivory doily to match the layered card.

I find it is always best to get the base card stuck together at this stage - once the card starts to get decorated it is then very difficult to get it on to the base card.

Next up came a piece of cork which I also found in my bits box. There was enough (just!) to cut it using the Tim Holtz Trellis Die. 

This is one of my favourite dies for cards - it is so lovely and airy and just adds a wonderful vertical element to a card without being overbearing.

Next came a tiny little bit of lace. You can see the glue still wet here and I don't normally wait for anything to dry as it means I can lift things to snuggle other embellishments underneath. Once dry it is not possible to do that.

Muslin and some tea dyed ribbon came next. Sometimes a bow is too much, so by tyeing a knot in the middle of the ribbon this allows it to lie in a "bow" shape without all the bulk.

Finally I added a sentiment under the handmade rose .......

..... and tucked a stamped butterfly in behind the flower and muslin.

Finished! Relatively quickly and easy to put together with stash I already had.

I normally keep a bunch of handmade flowers and stamped butterflies ready for cards which saves a lot of time.

Thank you for joining me today and don't forget that there is still time to join us in our challenge RUSTIC CHARM. You can get all the details here.

Jennie x

May Tag Friday

Hello and welcome to one of our favourite posts of the month. We all love a Tag Friday - a chance to create with no boundaries and the perfect opportunity to have fun experimenting and playing with new ideas or techniques.

I am sure you will love the line up today and find something that inspires you.

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Alison

I love Tag Friday.  No rules other than to use a tag and follow your heart.  In this case, my heart was ahead of the game.  I created this background a whole week before the new Distress colour was revealed - I guess I was tuning in to something in the air!  Do come and visit Words and Pictures to see more.

Jennie

I have been experimenting with fabric and tissue paper and love the final result. If you would like to find out more about this technique and how the tag came together, then do please join me over on my blog.

Deb

For May's Tag Friday I started with a gel plate printed tag that took me on somewhat of an unexpected journey!  Pop on over to my blog for a quick tutorial, hope to see you there!

Nikki

I am going through a bright phase! My tag was inspired by a recent online workshop I did with Dina Wakley and uses PaperArtsy stamps. Do pop over to Addicted to Art for more details.

Ann

For May's Tag Friday I decided to make a tag with the Infusion Color Stains from PaperArtsy and new and old stuff by Tim Holtz! You'll find all the details on my blog post here.

Astrid

My tag for this month is a quick and simple one that will be part of a larger project in the future. As usual, there are a few more photos on my blog.

Barbara

This month I'm really obsessed with Speckled Egg, the new Distress Color!! I love it so much so I used it for my tag! I created a super classic tag mixing old e new supplies! Check out my Blog, Yayascrap & more for the whole tutorial!

Annie

I decided to revisit some of the techniques within Tim Holtz Compendium of Curiosities

Volume 11. Please pop over to my blog HERE for more details xx
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We love it when you join in! So please do link up with us and share any tags you have made this month, or will make before the linky closes next Thursday evening. You might be chosen as a Pinworthy to be pinned to our special Pinterest Board.

 We also look forward to catching up with you all next Friday for a new challenge.

Have fun and a great "crafting" weekend!

Jennie and the Creative Guides x

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Beautiful Blooms Tutorial

Hello and thank you for joining me today for the Beautiful Blooms Tutorial. For our current challenge I used Eileen Hull's Stand Up Easel for the base of my project and embellished it with layered stitched papers and handmade blooms.

I shall start the tutorial with sharing how I made the blooms:

I cut three flower petals and added Distress Inks (Seedless Preserves and Victorian Velvet) lightly around the edges and using a cotton bud a circle of colour in the middle of the bloom. I have used Shabby Posies floral Spellbinders die designed by Tammy Tutterow (one of my favourites!).

Each bloom was spritzed with water and then scrunched up and left to dry. I find it easier to spritz on a muslin nappy as then the cardstock is not sitting in a puddle of water.

When the flowers are fully dried (best left to dry themselves overnight), gently ease out the petals (top), then using a bone folder smooth out each petal of the bloom keeping in some of the creases (middle) and finally using a pokey tool (or thin knitting needle) curl the edges lightly.

For the inner bud I die cut four multi leaved petals from Tim Holtz Sissix Thinlits Small Tattered Florals. Using a ball tool I have broken down the fibres of each leaf and then gradually glued each alternate leaf. It is a bit messy but if you use clear dries PVA it won't show!

This is the second layer, the first layer is the most difficult but to make it easier you could add a small bead in the first bud to give you something to layer around.

These buds can then be glued into the middle of the crimped flower. I have also added a cream cardstock stamen die cut from a Heartfelt Creations Stamp/Die Set. Once you start making flowers you collect favourite pieces from different sets!

Once you get in the way of curling the flowers you can create a nice depth which allows the flowers to be layered over each other.

To create the backing for the flowers I decorated the two parts of the Easel Stand separately.

My base card was cut to 5" x 4" for the back and 5" x 1 3/8" for the stand. I then layered complimentary papers and some scrim stitching the pieces together.

I created a bit of texture by using Tim Holtz Texture Paste through a stencil. It didn't take too well, but is enough to give a suggestion!

I then adhered the panels to the Stand before adding final layers of embellishments and muslin.

Then ribbon and leaves.

I could then play around with the placement of the flowers and final embellishments.

I hope this tutorial has inspired you to showcase your own blooms whether they be handmade, die cut, stamped, painted or pressed. You can link up your project here and the challenge will be open until the 28th May.

I hope you have a blooming lovely weekend!

Jennie x

A Cup of Tea for Your Art Pinworthies

Hello everyone, it's Jennie back here again to share the Creative Guide's Pinworthy choices for last month's challenge A Cup of Tea for Your Art. As is always the case there were so many wonderful entries and we had a very difficult job to choose just three! Thank you all so much for taking the time to create and enter the challenge - it is very much appreciated by us all.

So ...... drum roll please .... here we go with our three Pinworthy Mentions.

#10 Lynn (Experiments in Paper)

Lynn created an exquisite thoughtful book from tea stained papers full of little quotes to meditate on whilst drinking a cup of tea. Wonderfully creative!

#1 Esther (Shoregirl's Creations)

Esther created a stunningly colourful and textured card stamping postmarks onto tea dyed watercolour paper. We loved how you combined the tea dyed paper with those gorgeous bright colours and textures.

#15 Elle (Empire of the Cat)

Elle created a beautiful tea dyed mixed media background which she made into three cards. We loved your use of Twinings packaging to complete the card.

I will be sending you your Pinworthy badge to display on your blogs shortly and we will be pinning your fabulous entries to the A Vintage Journey Pinworthies board on Pinterest.

There is still plenty of time to enter our current challenge which is BOX IT UP and you can find all the details HERE along with some fabulous inspiration from the Creative Guides.

As always thank you for joining us in our challenge and we look forward to seeing what you create this month!

Jennie x

A Cup of Tea for Your Art : Tutorial

Hello to you all and welcome to our monthly tutorial post. Jennie (Live the Dream) with you this month as the host for the challenge "A Cup of Tea" sharing with you some of the ways I used tea dyed elements in my journal. I used Eileen Hull's wrap around journal die to create the cover and her Passport die to create the inside booklets.

This is quite a long post so you might need to pour yourself a cuppa !!!

It is quite a daunting task to fill even the smallest of journals but I like to make a pile of embellishments which I can then use quite quickly to decorate my pages. For this journal I put aside a couple of days and cleared my desk both to tea dye elements and also to make lots of envelopes and ephemera ........

I quite literally poured myself a mug of tea from the left overs in the pot after tea one evening. Even in a small mug it is possible to dye quite a bit of lace, ribbon, pieces of wood, little flowers ......

You can get different levels of colour by using different types of textile. For example cotton lace takes the tea far more than an acylic based one. The lace and ribbon on the right hand side of the photograph was removed after one hour, while those on the left were left in the cup overnight.

Dyeing paper requires a bit more organisation and access to the kitchen. I make up a watery solution in a large washing up bowl and immerse ordinary copy paper into the water, shake it a little and hang it on the clothes airer. Do put an old shower curtain or something similar on the floor or the drips will stain the floor! Once they have hung for about 20 minutes I collect 4/5 pieces together and lay them on top of each other and put them in the oven (140 degrees) for about 10 minutes which really "crisps" them up!

By this time I had a lovely pile of dyed papers and textiles to work with.

I folded an A4 page of dyed paper into four and used a few of my favourite tag dies to cut as many shapes as possible.

I then stamped these with some favourite stamps. The child in me loves little piles of labels to work with!

I also used some of my ticket and label stamps to create some mats. I have added a little Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edges to make them look more complete.

Next I made some small packets from the tea dyed paper using the Tim Holtz mini packet die and then stamped and decorated them with various tags, stamps and ribbons. Creating in this way - focusing on a single element - means I can have a lot of creative fun and even if they are not going to all be used for this project they will be used for another.

I had some vellum lying on the desk so  added some elements on top and behind to create a little collage which then got stiched on the machine rather than glued.

This is a good opportunity to go through the bits box to find elements stamped for other projects and not used. Add in a couple of favourite dolls ........

Finally I cut my pages for the journal using Eileen's Passport die (they fit perfectly into the Wrap Around Journal).

For the front of each individual booklet I created a large vintage layered pocket for some journalling.

I started with a glassine pocket (stamp collectors use these and are easy to purchase on Ebay) and added a piece of card for journalling. I started decorating the front by adding some old text paper ......

..... next I added a  tea dyed doily and some white muslin ......

..... followed by a vintage photograph and then ribbon was tied around the whole envelope

..... finally I used one of my stamped labels and pearl button.

As I created I placed the finished items in a little box all ready for me to use. As a child I loved collecting things and having them in boxes ..... nothing changes!

I was then able to sit down and decide what I wanted to stick into each of the individual booklets and to set aside elements for the front cover.

I made a little pocket for the cover which I then stitched onto some vellum which was then stitched on to another label, a doily and some lace. It is a little fragile for a cover but the stitching will help to hold it all together over time. I used lashings of lace and ribbon to hide the elastic holding in the booklets, however I had dyed that in tea as well to tone it down a bit.

Hopefully you are still with me ! I will finish up with a few photographs of the inside pages so you can see how I used all those wonderful tickets, labels and pockets.

I hope this tutorial and a peek into the way I make up a journal will inspire you to give it a go. There is still plenty of time to join in our Cup of Tea challenge and you can get all the details HERE along with some fabulous inspiration from my fellow Creative Guides.

As always thank you for joining me and have a wonderful crafty weekend.

Jennie x