quick crafty tip 1 of 2

Hello and thank you for dropping by.

Today my copy of "Papercraft Essentials" arrived together with this free gift.

When I decided to use it this afternoon I had a problem, which I often find with dies that are rather intricate,  and  in particular sentiments.

On the first cut it took a long time to release the cut card from the die and when I finally got it out everything looked very untidy and bent.

I used a trick I discovered, some time ago when I was first having this problem.

Many of you may have already discovered the magic of talcum powder .... anyway please do scroll down to see what I did.

quick crafty tip 2 of 2

 Although I managed to get the sentiment and butterfly out of the die it wasn't an easy job.  As you can see from this photo they looked very untidy  and there is even a hole in the butterfly's body where I had to poke so hard from the back to release it.

I find by putting quite a lot of talcum powder on the cutting side of the die before putting it through my Cuttlebug everything comes  out much more easily and the diecuts are much neater than those shown in this photo.  If you enlarge this photo you will see how much powder I use.  When I used the powder the die cuts looked nice and clean and tidy as shown in the picture on the previous page.

I hope some of you will find this tip helpful.


Happy Crafting!

A Perfect Day!

Yesterday my husband went to an Adobe lecture so I had the day by myself.

I had a lie in, a couple of hours crafting then pizza and a big glass of red wine watching the last Sunday football match of the season.

I've been trying to use up old stuff since the beginning of the year so I made up six cards from old decoupage.  I'd previously cut out and assembled the decoupage over several weeks at our craft club which is held every Monday morning in the village hall.

This is one of the cards I made using some Lucy Attwell decoupage that I bought from Create & Craft many years ago.  The "Hello" is a die bought recently from Greatly Besotted and  the hearts are punched out with Glossy Accents added.  The paper is from my stash.

I've submitted this card to The Cutie Pie Challenge Blog.

Contemporary Parchment Card

I came across this card this morning checking through a box of completed cards.  It was made several years ago and I had completely forgotten about it.

It's not my usual style of parchment card but I do remember making it.  There was a lot of work involved, as with all parchment work, but I really like how it turned out and it was a lot of fun to do.

I coloured in the fans.  The leaves were cut out and that was the most time consuming part of the card.

The card insert is a piece of  brightly coloured rainbow parchment,

Useful die sets

Just thought you may be interested to see these two very useful little die sets.

I used them on the following cards as they work well together for matting and layering.

They are a great size for using on ATCs

Now I'm really not mean - but I punched out 20 of the small gold hearts from these scraps that were left after making my cards.

Butterflies and Dragonflies

Happy Saturday Everyone.

Today I've been out crafting with a friend and had a great time.

I made eight cards like this a couple of days ago using up scraps of coloured, black, silver and gold card plus odd bits of parchment paper.

They are A6 size cards folded lengthways.  I think they are rather an elegant type of card and also don't require a great deal of decoration if you are needing some quick cards.  Unfortunately I don't have envelopes this size so have to make my own.

I wanted fantasy type images so used Dawn Bibby's "Woodland Butterfly" clear set which I stamped onto the parchment with a versamark ink pad and heat embossed with silver  embossing powder.  I  coloured in the bodies with a gold gel pen and did just a little embossing on the back of the parchment.

Fussy cutting probably took more time than anything else and a few dragonflies lost their antennae!  So I made them some more with craft wire.  Just a little spirelli with some Twinney thread  and they were almost done.

More Brusho

Here's the second of my Brusho practise pieces that I decided to use on a card.

This is on watercolour paper using three colours of Brusho, turquoise, scarlet and yellow paint in separate areas.  The paper was well spritzed with water before I tapped on the paints and then spritzed again.  This time I dried with my heat tool before stamping the leaf and then the flower head using a black dye ink pad.

As there was not a lot of  definition between the two stamps I outlined the petals of the flower with a fine black liner pen and drew lines on the leaves with a white gel pen.

I added a green button to pick out the green colour where paints had merged and a scrap of embroidery yarn tied into a bow for added decoration.

After matting onto a piece of black card which I tore at the bottom I stuck on a couple of self adhesive pearls from my craft stash. The sentiment is a well loved Judikins  stamp, bought a long time ago from Stamp Addicts.  The flower and leaves stamps are by Paper Artsy.

Karma

I hope you all enjoyed the Bank Holiday weekend.  I certainly did.

We  visited Aunty Stella in Cambridge, I watched lots of football and we had a takeaway Chinese meal.

Well, this is one of my Brusho samples which I decided to use to make a card.  I'm pleased with how that little scrap, in the picture below, turned out when it became a card.

I used Turquoise coloured Brusho crystals onto glossy white card.

The stamp on the left is one of a set of  Woodware stamps called Plant & Meadow JGS402.   I stamped twice and then once again without re-inking.

The sentiment, which was heat embossed is a Visible images stamp. This set is called "be happy" and comes with three other sentiments.

I added three self adhesive dew drops for added interest.

This Brusho colour is probably my favourite at the moment from the starter set that I bought.

Busho Workshop

Last week I went to a Brusho Workshop at Coleman's Warehouse in Rushden.  It was really an introduction to using Brusho paint.  These are just 3 of my sample pieces.

We used different types of card, plain white, glossy white card and watercolour paper to find out how the paint reacted on different surfaces.  Sometimes we spritzed the paper with water before tapping on the paint and sometimes sprinkled the paint on then spritzed with water.  We used either one colour, two  or three colours of paint on the different samples to see the effects we got.  There were about a dozen of us in the class and it was very interesting to see how differently our samples turned out depending on the colours we chose to use and how heavy handed we were with the spritzing.

The following day I decided to make cards from some of my samples and I'll post them over the next few days.

Now I'm afraid I have to get the ironing board out as DH is running short of shirts but after that it's up the garden to my craft cabin for a bit of playing!

Three Quick Cards

Good Morning and Welcome.

Well it's almost the end of the month again and I needed some quick cards to fill up my charity box.

I've used an embossing folder which came free with a magazine a couple of months ago.

I used my chalks, which I've only got out again recently, to colour the embossing then attached the panels to white A6 cards.

Finally I added clear self adhesive  gems in three different sizes to the centres of some flowers and stamped the sentiment which also came free with the folders.  I made two in each colour and I'm pleased with how they turned out. My box is almost full now and will be ready to send off in a few days time.

Thank you for popping in!

Retail Therapy

Good Evening!  Thanks for stopping by.

I cut the scalloped card out with a Grand Spellbinders die.  I really like this stamp which I borrowed from a friend for a few days.  I'm afraid I don't know who it's made by.

I coloured the image with Pro markers and added touches with a white gel pen.  The Sentiment is one from Stamp Addicts and the ribbon is from my stash.

I've made several different cards using this lovely stamp and used up scraps of pretty papers for the parcels on some of them.

Enjoy your weekend.

New Baby Girl

A sunny Good Morning!

The weather is beautiful and I'm going out for the day with friends.  We're doing a Brusho workshop this afternoon  at Colemans after having lunch at the nearby pub.  So just a quick post today.

A few weeks ago I went to a Saturday workshop where we made ten cards in the one day.  They were mainly quite quick simple cards -they needed to be with the time available, but they were all fresh and pretty cards that I was very pleased with.

I shall be doing more like this and adapting to make baby boy cards too.

I have lots of these little pegs hidden away in my stash that haven't seen the light of day for years so have nothing that I'll need to buy to make them.  No doubt there will be something I need to buy from Colemans today though.

I hope you enjoy your day - I think I will!

Ally Pally (7) Daisy Panel

This is the last of a week of cards using new craft stuff I bought at Ally Pally when I went with friends last weekend.  I've still got lots of new stuff as yet unused so still lots to play with.

The stamp is by Woodware and named "Daisy Panel".  It comes with the sentiment which I have heat embossed in silver and one other which says "FOR YOU" all in upper case letters.

I've used papers which came free with a magazine some time ago and silver-grey purls and ribbon also from my stash.

I stamped the image onto white card then onto the papers which I cut out and stuck to the image.  I highlighted areas of the leaves with a white gel pen and used a dark grey Promarker to fill in the border of the image.

I made a DL card and rounded the top corner, added a panel of the pink paper which the image was stuck onto and another strip where I wanted to put the sentiment.  I do seem to use a lot of pink although my favourite colour is green.....

Thank you for stopping by.

Ally Pally (6) Inca Gold

Good Evening!

This is the 6th of my seven cards made with the craft stash I bought on my day out at Ally Pally last Saturday.  It's hard to believe a week has already passed.

Anyway, This card came about more by chance than anything else.  I got out my new Inca Gold (I have never used this product before).  I decided to see how well it covered  so I took a scrap of black card and rubbed the Inca Gold on randomly with a piece of Cut and Dry. The fairy stamp was lying on my worktop - I don't know why as I haven't used it for a long time.  It's a wood mounted stamp that I bought with one other from QVC when they used to do regular craft programmes.  I really don't know what it is.

I stamped in black Archival ink  then poured over  detail clear embossing powder and heat embossed.  I decided to use it on a card so I tore the card and made a tag to mount it onto.  I attached in with red double sided tape in the centre only, so that there was a bit of dimension, added a black eyelet, snippet of ribbon and inked round the edge with Black Soot Distress ink.

The background paper is some that was given to me by my friend Jacky a couple of weeks ago and I embossed it with a folder that I've never used before.  I finished by putting stickles onto some of the dandelion heads, a gem in the fairy's hand and finally added it all onto an A6 card.

I'll be back tomorrow with the last of my seven Ally Pally cards.  Thank you for visiting.

Ally Pally (5) Bubble Bloom Julie

I'm so glad you decided to visit my blog.

It's a quick post this evening as I'm running late - only just cleared away after dinner.

This card is made with a  Woodware stamp,  Bubble Bloom Julie.  I really like the sentiment which comes with it.

I used a promarker for the leaves and for the flowes card candi, which was stuck on with Pinflair Glue Gel.  I rounded the corners and used a silver Krylon pen on the edge of the topper.

Next I put the pink bow and little heart on the card but it still looked unfinished so I added the tiny green dots with the pro marker I'd used for the leaves.  That is a tip I heard on Create and Craft some time ago - from Sarah Busby of Inky Doodles, I think.

I'll be back tomorrow with card No. 6 of 7 from items I bought at Alexandra Palace last Saturday.   I can't believe almost a week has passed since then.

Ally Pally (4) Playing with chalks

Hello Again!  This is my fourth card using something bought from Ally Pally last Saturday.

Yesterday I had a friend round to do some crafting.  One of the things we decided to do was using large stamps to make backgrounds using chalks.  It's a technique neither of us has done for a long time now.

We used our Versamark ink pads, which leaves a watermark on the card then coloured with chalks, using cotton wool pads.

Today I made a few cards using some of the  backgrounds.  The ribbon was from my stash and yeah! I've used up a few more of those old peel offs.

 I used my new Memory Box  (No.98838) "Happy Birthday" die.  I think it's going to be one that I use quite often as it makes a quick card which will help to fill up my charity box each month.  The possibilities for using different backgrounds and embellishments, with this die, is almost endless.

Ally Pally (3) Special Bird

Welcome!  Here I am back with the 3rd of the cards made with my new stash from Ally Pally last Saturday.

The stamp is called "Special Bird" and is a Woodware clear stamp which comes with two sentiments.

This card was a new venture  for me as it's the first time I have used my Chameleon pens to colour a complete stamped image.  I've only had them for a few days and have to say that I've found them much harder to use than they seem to be when demonstrated on the television.

  I had a play with them for over two hours and came to the conclusion that I'll find them much easier to use on small rather than larger areas.  The flowers were not too much trouble but the body of the bird took quite a bit of time to do compared to my Pro Markers. It's said that practise makes perfect so I'll have to do a lot more practising I think.  The background (sky) was coloured by rubbing chalks on at the end and finally I put glossy accents on the bird's eye.

I cut out the complete image and mounted onto some blue card, put a strip of white card near the bottom and with foam pads attached the sentiment, which came in a big pack of mixed sentiments  that I bought from The Works for £1.  I finished off with blue Dewdrops by Papermania. They were left overs from a couple of years ago.  I'd bought them to use on the Woodware Bubble wreath and baubles stamps.  The card is a DL size.

I'd like to enter this card into  "The Crafty Cardmakers and More"  blog With Wings Challenge.

Ally Pally (2) Luscious Lips

Again  I've used the same stamp as yesterday but I think this card looks very different.

I stamped the lips (Visible Images) onto a piece of white card with  a black Archival inkpad.  I stamped the lips again onto a scrap of paper, cut it out to make a mask then sprayed with re-positionable glue.   When the glue had dried I placed the mask onto the card to hide the lips then blended 3 colours of Distress inks, including my new Barn Door all over the piece of white card.  I spritzed the card with water, dried with a heat tool then rubbed round the outside with black soot and with the same colour rubbed through some sequin waste.  To finish I stamped the sentiment, which comes with the lips stamp, added a little glitter glue and the three glitter gems.

This is a 5" square card and looking at the photo I think perhaps I should have mounted the topper onto white card, as it is now, then put it all onto a 6" black card.  Next time then ...

Thank you for dropping by.  I'll be back tomorrow with another card using my new stash from Ally Pally.

Ally Pally (1) "Kisses"

Good Evening.  What a lovely day it's been here.

Well as promised here is the first of my 7 cards made with my new stash from my day out at Ally Pally on Saturday.  It's a quick and easy card.

The background is made with an Inkables Mask which I sprayed through then dried with a heat tool.  I rubbed round the edge with my new Barn Door Distress ink then mounted onto black card and stuck onto a 6" square card.

The lips are a Visible Images stamp which was just stamped in black and mounted onto a scrap of red card.

The heart is punched from the red card and covered with  Glossy Accents.  The sentiment looks handwritten but is a wood mounted stamp that I've had for a long time and finally the kisses are from me.

So - here's my first of seven cards. I'll be back tomorrow!

A Day at Ally Pally

I had a great day yesterday at Ally Pally with four of my crafting buddies.  We were all very tired when we got off the train at Milton Keynes  and my DH surprised me by taking me out for dinner.  It was the perfect end to a wonderful day.

This is what I bought along with some basic materials.  I've already made three cards using my new stash but they've not been downloaded yet.  I'll endeavour to post at least one card each day during the next week made using my newly purchased craft goodies.  I'm off to watch my second football match now.

Back again tomorrow.  Thank you for visiting!