Christmas card four

A centre step card  featuring the Pine tree from the "Lovely as a Tree"  stamp set and some retired DSP.  I was reminded of a technique the other day that I haven't used for years , so I decided to use it on this card. 

I cut the oval from cream card, but before removing the card from the die,  I sponged some green  ink over the die onto the card.  When I removed the die, the die cut edge was clean creating a frame for my little tree. I added a few glitter baubles to finish. 

A discovery too good not to share

I think the picture says it all really... But just in case you don't know what this gadget is I will tell you. Its called  a "Sticky Buddy" it is designed to be a clothes brush, it's great for getting dog hair off your clothes and off the furniture. You just run the roller over the area and it picks up hair crumbs and all sorts of bits. Once it's full and no longer sticky you run it under warm water  and gently wipe the debris off the roller, dry it and it's ready to go again.
We have had this one for a few years and one of the disc s at the end of the roller is broken so it's not so good on clothes these days.
I decided to put it in the craftroom to be fixed, but I haven't got round to it yet.
Last week,  I celebrated my birthday and one of my pressies were two intricate lace dies. Now we all know that some intricate dies can be a real pain to clean, even with those expensive rotating brushes designed for the purpose.
Seeing this broken sticky buddy  lying around in my craft room,  I decided to see if it would remove all those little pieces left in the die.......................IT DID  BRILLIANTLY!!!..... two rolls over the die and it was completely clean.

I then rolled it over the back of the die cuts and it collected all the little pieces left in the die cuts brilliantly.
Once the roller is full it will need rinsing to remove all the pieces of card and to restore the stickiness of the roller. I will say,  it may not be advisable  to do this in the sink as the small pieces of card will probably block your drains after a while.
 I think, I will be rinsing my sticky buddy off in a small bowl of water and then strain the water through a tea strainer to remove the pieces of card. This may seem like a bit of a faff, but I still think it will be quicker than poking through every single hole in the back of the dies,  then having to clean all those tiny pieces from the floor.

Christmas card three

Here is a very simple little card featuring a new stamp from Stampin' up.
 These cute mice are all on one stamp and  they are part of  a set called   "Merry Mice"   This set will be available in September. I really like the sentiment in this card..." Merry Christmouse,"

Christmas card two

An oldie, but a goody  today.
I was inspired to make this card yesterday after spending Friday  teaching lots of techniques to a new stamper.
Having refreshed my own memory on lots of different techniques I decided to try this technique again.....it's  basically sponging  through a mask, then over stamping.

I began by cutting out an oval from scrap paper, I discarded the oval centre  as it was the negative I wanted to work with.
 I applied some two way glue to the back of the aperture mask and allowed it to dry.

Once the glue was completely dry,  I placed it over  a piece of white card stock and pressed it down  gently to secure it to the card.
I tore a very narrow strip from the sticky edge of a post it note,  (just so that it no longer had a straight edge but still had lots of sticky left along the edge)   

 I stuck the post it note across the  middle of the aperture  and began to sponge  Barely Banana ink ( a warm yellow ink) from the centre of the post it note and worked upwards  in an arch shape.
  I applied Apricot Appeal ink from the sides and  worked around the yellow arch and blending the edges of the two colours.
 I added a touch of Pretty in Pink ink around the arch and blended it the Apricot .  t
That was followed by a few light strokes of Lavender Lace  ink around the arch, again blending the edges. The  final colour was Smokey Slate at the very top of the arch and a touch at the edges.

 I removed the post it note and then began to sponged small amounts of Smokey Slate ink over the edges of the bottom half of the oval and worked the ink in towards the middle.

When I was happy with the effect,  I inked up two thirds of the  row of trees  stamp from the "Lovely as a tree" stamp set in black ink  and stamped over the sponged area, positioning the stamp slightly over to the right side.


I inked up the pine tree stamp and stamped it on the left  side of the card, overlapping the sponged oval.


 I added some glitter glue to the branches of the trees on one of the cards. When the gltter glue was dry, I added a greeting.

Magic of Christmas

Here's a little card made using three stamps from a new stamp set from Stampin' up.The set is called "Christmas Magic " and it will be available on 2nd of September.
The holly branch is from  another new set coming out in September. I have to say,  I am very excited about this new Autumn- Winter catalogue.   I think  it's was because almost all the stamp sets I love come in the red rubber, wood mount rather than the photopolymer.

I coloured the images with Copic markers and used a black stamp and write marker to drawn in a few more snow mounds to match the mounds at the base of the snowman.
The background I created using the Serene Snowflakes stamp set, (now retired) and white craft ink.

Wedding Card

I have had this die set for a while now,  but I  haven't had the chance to do anything with until recently.
It's a floral heart die from Stampin up that also has two  single flower dies (in different sizes) that come with it.

I chose Peekaboo Peach and Flirty Flamingo to colour the flowers on this card to correspond with the colour of the Roses in the wedding bouquets. 

I cut a piece of ivory card 5 1/2  x 5 1/2 and cut out the floral heart, then  glued the  negative piece of card  ( not the heart )  onto the front of my base card. 



I cut the heart out again this time in silver card, added a little glue to the back of the silver heart and set it  into ivory cut out .

I cut the floral heart out again, this time in green and snipped of some of the leaves and adhered a little foliage to the underside of each orange flowers.

Baby Dungarees Card

I found the template for this card on the Trimcraft website. I printed off the template, but it was very small, to enlarge it to the size I wanted,  I had to cut the template sheet into pieces and enlarge all the pieces individually.  Not having access to an A3 printer, I had to print the back and front of this template  off on to two pieces of card.

Then  join the front and back pieces together at the shoulders to create this card.

 On the website it was made from papers with  cute baby designs printed on it. I didn't have any printed papers suitable for this card, so I used the Bundle of love stamp set from S.U to create my own baby paper for this card.

I used a textured card stock that resembled  a fine needle cord fabric. I have to say,  I was surprised at well the stamps printed on textured card stock.




Once I had covered the card stock with stamped images,  I  coloured each image
using Copic markers and  S.U
markers.

 Unfortunately some of the inks bled  a little, but I don't think the bleeding is bad enough to ruin the overall effect,  so I went a head and completed the card.

I lined the inside back of the cars with some pretty checked paper to correspond with the colours on the front.

Baby Congratulations Card

Regular readers of my blog will know this Two by Two stamp from S.U is one of my favourite stamps for baby cards.  Although I used the stamp quite a bit,  I  tend to change the die or the orientation of the die when cutting out the image, of course I  also change the background papers and colours for  a different look.

I coloured the image with Copic markers and  a few S.U  markers.

Grand daughters request for a Tudor dress.

Something a little different today, A post which is really intended for a friend, who wanted to see the dress  I created from a curtain.

My grand daughter's school were holding a Tudor day, She wanted a tudor style dress for the occasion. (Luckily I had a pattern  for one in her size).
I was given 48 hours notice to knock up something for the occasion. But in reality I had a lot less time to put something together for her. Having work  commitments and various appointments booked, severely cut down on the time I had to make the two dresses to create one tudor style dress.
Having no time to go shopping for materials,  I  decided to make this overdress from an old blue velvet curtain.  I wanted to add a broader gold trim as decoration, but I couldn't find anything suitable in my stash, so I added a narrow gold ribbon to trim the dress.
The under dress was made from an old T shirt and some rather lovely floral silk  I had stashed away. I stitched the silk skirt to the bottom of the  T shirt  and extended the sleeves of the  T shirt to give the impression of a full gathered sleeve.
Little Miss loved her  new dress and couldn't wait to wear it.

Chain Die card.

This one  is a little different from my usual style. There is not a lot  I can say about this card.

 The Spellbinder Chain die is larger than I expected it to be. To give you an idea  the overall measurements of this card  are  8 X 6 inches. 

I think you could make some very retro looking cards with this die and  the popular colour combos of the 70's.

By the Tide

This card  turned out a little darker than I wanted . I think I was expecting the inks to lighten up a little when it dried, but it didn't, So I am a little disappointed with the final result.

To create this card  I cut a 3 1/2 inch  square of whisper white car stock.
 I took two wide post it notes and stuck them  across the top and bottom of the card, leaving a gap of  about 2 inches between the post it notes.








I use the lines on my cutting mat when adhering the the post it notes to ensure they are straight, thus ensuring my art work will be straight.



See the photo below for the three colours I chose for this card.

 I started by applying Marina Mist ink with a sponge dauber.  I always start  sponging on the post it note to remove the excess ink before I start working on the card stock. It doesn't need to be even coverage, In fact patchy is better.           Repeat with the Coastal Cabana  leaving some patches of  the M.M showing through.




Finally I sponged some Night of Navy around the edges and overlapping the other colours slightly.

 I began stamping over the sponged background using Night of Navy ink.
The stamp set I used is called  "By the Tide," It's a retired set now.



Once I had filled the area with stamped images,  I removed  the Post it notes.

I stamped the sentiment and rounded off the corners with a corner punch. After adding some twine round the top layer, I mounted the piece on to  a piece of  Night of Navy card stock.










For the second layer I stamped around the edged of the card stock then sponged over the edges i the same colours.  Obviously  I didn't need to stamp and sponge the middle of the card stock  as it will be covered by the top layer.
Then mounted onto a white  5x5 base card.

I added a metal fish charm
before sticking all the layers together and mounting onto the base card.














To go with this card I made an envelope with the Envelope punch board. I  decorated the back flap of the envelope to co ordinate the two.

Another version of this card is the Father's day card below.  This time I have not used a second layer of background paper  and I only used Night of Navy ink.

Another Moonlit Scene

I gave  this  card to lady who wants to try a different style of card making. I  made this card as a sample to show her one of the inking and stamping  techniques she will be learning.  I am really looking forward to having a crafty day and sharing lots of techniques and tips with her.

 Unfortunately we can't have that crafty day for a few weeks yet, due  to work commitments. But that gives me lots of time to plan the day and select techniques that won't require huge amounts of equipment and materials, so she will be able to start her card making journey without having to spend a  huge fortune on materials before she can begin.

A Fur Baby Bereavement Card.

This card was a very quick card for a very lovely family that had to have their beloved dog put to sleep this week.
It is such a sad thing to have to say goodbye to a pet of any sort, but losing  a dog is especially upsetting. They become family members and you love them as you would a child,  and they love you back unreservedly and unconditionally They seem to know your every thought and understand your mood, if not your every word.  They are not just pets, they are our fur babies.

Sometimes I think it's harder to lose a  good dog than a friend or some relatives. That may sound a little harsh, but for me it's true. I still get very emotional over losing my King Charles Cavalier, who I lost 9 years ago. But I don't get as emotional over the  death of some of my relatives now.
Maybe because I  was closer to my dog than to the relatives that have passed away.

This card was created using a Lili of the valley stamp called  "Man's best friend". It's a gorgeous stamp and I love colouring this image with my copic markers,
The die cut frame is one section of the Madison Square die set by Sue Wilson. I bought the die purely for this section of it. I am not to keen on the other parts of this die set.
The sentiment is from  the "So Sorry" stamp set by Stampin' Up,,, (now retired). I used it with S.U 's whisper white craft ink.
I added an insert  with my condolences on the right of the insert and a very touching poem on the left which is sure to make any dog owner cry.

Die storage and colour coding system

I am going to be talking about die storage today and sharing my system.

I have seen that lots of crafters store there dies on magnetic sheets stuck to the inside of cupboard doors or on boards mounted on walls.

I don't have any wall space to  do that and I don't trust magnetic sheets enough to stick them on the inside of cupboard doors. I feel they would all drop off the moment a door was closed too hard.

I know some people store theirs on magnetic sheets placed in page protectors and stored in a file.

I think this is a neat idea and saves space, but it's not for me. I am so ditsy I'd probably lose the file along with all the dies. 

Also I don't like the idea of searching though loads of pages to find the die I want and worse still finding that same page when I need to put them away.

So I thought I'd share my system, it's worked for me for some years now and I haven't lost a die yet and I don't spend huge amounts of time looking for the die I want to use.

Some years ago I bought 50 boxes for crafting projects. it wasn't long before I realized these boxes would be great for storing all sorts of crafting items.

I have to say these boxes are exactly the same as the boxes Stampin' Up  sell their clear and polymer stamp set in.

I line them with magnetic sheets and place my dies in them. If the packaging has a picture of the die on, I will cut the packaging down to fit the inside front cover of the box.

If I am putting two sets in the box I will put a picture in the back cover too. (See picture at top of post)

Then I type a list for all the boxes,  naming  the brand, the name of the die or the type of die for each box.

To make it easier to find the sets I want,  I have colour coded the brands.
I can generally remember the brand of the die I want to use, even if I can't remember the name. So all my Spellbinder dies are labelled in white, X cut dies are pink and Go Create are blue and so on.
I use a different colour for each brand  which makes it so much quicker to find the set I need.

Sometimes I will put two of the same type of die in the same box, even if it's a different brand...ie  circles. 

Of course these boxes are the same size as DVD boxes so finding a storage shelving for them is easy, inexpensive and doesn't take up much space in your craft space. Some of mine are stored in a dvd shelf unit and others are stored in a drawer spine facing up of course.

Monthly Swap Card

 I sometimes participate in a monthly card swap. 
This is the card I have made for this months swap.

This had to be a quick card as I have a load of stuff to do and make over the next couple of months.

This is a design I would use in one of my hidden hinge scrap books. I like the design, so I thought I'd try and scale it down and try it as a card.
I started this card by stamping the background paper using Always Artichoke ink on a shimmery olive green paper. 

The pretty band across the centre was  created using  Spellbinders Curvy Borders 2  dies twice. Now this takes a little bit of practice to get the design  to match up on both sides .

After cutting the lacy edges I used one of the less fancy dies to cut the pretty paper panel that runs through the middle. Again this takes a little practice  to get this even and match up with the lacy layer.
Even with measuring and taping dies down before cutting I found it could still be slightly out. 
Hence the bling to hide or distract from  any
unevenness.
I bought some bling ribbon and cut it into strips. I then ran a flame very quickly along the edge of the strips to melt the threads back to make it look neater. 

This stuff looks like it's encrusted with diamante, but it's not.  It's just hundreds of tiny cups that have a faceted inside and a metallic coating, which makes them sparkle a lot and giving the impression of thousands of tiny diamonds. It is obviously much lighter in weight that the real diamante so you can use loads of it on a card without worrying about how much it will cost to post and of course it's a faction of the price of the real thing. 
I think,  I paid 59p  for two metres but if I cut it  into single strips i'll have 12 metres.



I had bit of  an issue with glue attaching the bling to the card but managed to rectify it by using
Art Glitter glue..I have to say this is pretty good stuff...grabs quickly so you don't have to sit  holding things together  for ages waiting for the glue dry.
The flower I made using Heartfelt creations Arianna blooms stamp and dies. 

The leaf die I used for these leaves is from the Heartfelt creations Delicate Asters die set. The last thing to add was the stamped  and die cut sentiment. 
Well,  this card is off to Suffolk in the morning I do hope the recipient likes it.

Hidden Hinge Memory Book Under Construction.

This project is still under construction. 

It's taken me the best part of two days to get it this far and there is still a lot of work to do on this project.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take photographs of the construction of the book cover and making the pages, so that should make this post a little shorter.

I started this memory book to teach a friend how to make them.
The idea was that she would follow me as we made them together.
We did the cover and the hinge on Monday, but Tuesday she was stricken with a bug, so she has not been able to complete her book.

Once I start a project, I like to keep going with it until  it's finished. So I have continued with this project without her.


I usually make these in black card,  but this time I decided to try cream card as I am contemplating making one as a wedding gift and I wanted to see how it turns out before I commit to doing the wedding album. 

So far the disadvantage of the cream card is that any smears of glue show up quite badly. I know Tom bow can be rubbed away,  but it does take quite a bit of effort to get every trace of it off.   If you don't get it all off it attracts dust, glitter and all sorts of small particles, making the card stock look grubby long before the project is finished.

So this the basic book. It has five pages, which may not seem a lot if you have never seen one of these books before you won't know just how much stuff they will hold.

Each of the five pages has at least one hidden pocket to conceal lots of photo boards 
or mini photo books.

The flip out pages also have places to add photo books tags, journalling, photo mats,  small keepsakes and embellishments. 
In fact these books hold so much it's sometimes difficult to find enough stuff to fill them.
This is the inside cover and first hidden pocket page.

The flap you see in the photo conceals the opening to the large pockets and will have magnetic tape or strong magnets attached to keep the flaps closed when turning the pages and to prevent items falling out of the pockets.

I have punched fancy edges into some of the flaps for extra interest.

In this photo  you can see I have used large strips of magnetic tape.  
This tape isn't very strong which is why I have used large pieces.
I will also use paper as opposed to card to cover the magnetic tape.
The thicker the paper or card covering the magnetic strips the less attraction they have meaning the flaps will flap.

In this photo I have added very thin strips of decorative paper to the outer edge of each page.
I am not sure I like this effect, but it's something I haven't tried before and  I love to try different techniques.
It also creates glue issues.

In the next photo you can see one of the flip out pages.

The shot below shows the same flip out page covered with decorative paper.

The papers I chose are, The William Morris collection , from Joanna Sheen. I have to confess I bought these papers at least ten years ago. I didn't like them when they arrived and threw them in a drawer. That's where they have lived ever since. Until yesterday that is.

I have totally changed my mind on these papers now. Well apart from three of the designs that is.
So I have mixed in some other papers to complete the book.
In this next shot you can see  the magnetic tape covered in paper. 


You can also see the notch I punched out to make accessing the photo board easier. This was created  by using a 1" circle punch to cut the semi circle out of the cream card.
I used a  1  3/4" punch to cut the larger semi circle from the polka dot paper.

The back inside cover of this book has a fancy packet which will hold either a booklet or some large tags.

I am  contemplating adding a waterfall mini album to the left hand page  on the shot below.

This little pocket has not been stuck down yet, I am undecided on this at the moment so, I'll hold off on this untilI have decided what I can put with it on the corresponding pages.

Well that's all for tonight I will post more pics  when the book is nearer completion.

Mini Embossed Faux Leather Booklets

Here is something a little different and would make a nice gift or would be perfect little booklet to put in a scrapbook.

I made these after watching a video on Youtube by Sheena Douglas.
Sheena used distress inks on craft paper, but I don't have either of them so I tried the technique with S U inks and card.  Sheena also uses Spray and Shine to finish off the leather look. I don't have that either so I used what I have.

I used S.U s crumb cake card stock. Half an  A4  sheet for a small booklet.
I mixed about one tablespoon of gylcerine with roughly 1/4 of a pint of water in a small spray bottle. 
I sprayed the card well on both sides and gently crumpled the card stock into a ball.
I repeated this several times until the card was very soft and pliable.  The softer the card gets the easier it tears, so you have to be really careful each time you open up the wet ball of card.
Once the card was creased all over I used an embossing folder to add the embossed pattern. 
The card is too big to emboss it all in one go ( unless you have A4 embossing folders) so you have to emboss one half then do the other half.
Now you need to let it dry.
I draped  my card over the radiator and cranked the heating up for ten minutes to speed up the drying time.

The next step is to apply two complimentary inks to the cards stock.  



 I used Soft Suede and  Lucky Limeade on the tree booklet.


Early Espresso, Baked Brown Sugar and Tangerine Tango on the other two booklets along with a touch of red on the Birds and Swirls booklet.

Now at this point I had to find an alternative for the spray and shine.
I used a matt finish acrylic varnish used for varnishing paintings. There is no shine on this booklet, but I really like the look and the feel of this one. I tried crystal effects,  but that required so much brushing to spread it out evenly,  it disturbed the ink so much it looked very muddy and the effect was lost.
I then tried Mod Podge, if you like very glossy leather then use Mod Podge. 
I applied a thick coat of  Mod Podge with very little brushing so not to disturb the inks too much. 
The finished result was a very glossy, almost plastic looking card stock that feels quite durable. But personally, I prefer the  Matt Acrylic varnish look. 
The beauty of the Spray and Shine is, it doesn't move the ink about as much as brushing on a wet varnish. once the varnish has dried glue a piece of cotton fabric to the reverse allow to dry completely, then trim back the fabric and card stock. Punch the corners to round them off.   Stitch the pages into the book through the cover.
Go to youtube to see Sheena's tutorials on faux  leather. 
Sheena also shows you how to stitch the pages into the book.
I think, this project could be taken a step further to make this even more professional looking by making a pocket using the same technique to protect the book while in your handbag.