Time Flies! The finished card

Here is the completed easel card for the workshop/tutorial that I have been waffling on about for the last few days.  I made this card for Ian, The Stamp Man, for his birthday.

I've used the new Distress Inks Stormy Sky and Pumice Stone

Hero Arts cling stamps Time to Stamp and Big Clock

Heart Wings Stamp from Tracey's AOD62 Artistic Elements stamp sheet

the rabbit image came from a collage sheet from Elizabeth Golden.

I've also used Tim's new Alteration Gadget Gears Sizzix die, the cogs/gears from Tim's Ideology, and my Cuttlebug amongst other things.

If you are interested in the workshop/tutorial you'll find it all listed in the labels section on my sidebar, it has lots of waffle and plenty of photos, so you can view all the flaws in close up, lol!!

I've decided to enter this into a couple of challenges, my first time of entering challenges.  They are the Allsorts Challenge Blog, the theme being no ready made design papers and also the Simon Says Challenge which is distressed.

Happy Easter!

Jill

Quick 'n Easy Retro Alluring lady!

Well, when Debbie told me on Monday that on Sunday she got lost in a world of her own in her craft room for 9 hours creating a single card, it made me feel a tad of a cheat spending just 15 minutes creating this simple little creation on Friday evening! 

Debbie did have a speedier input into this card though as on Friday morning when we were packing the Cuttlebug folders to take to the Harrogate show that afternoon, Debbie spotted that the Cuttlebug folder Dots and Spots would be great used with Tracey's new stamp sheet.  I grabbed one in the hope of having some time and energy later to make a card with it.

So, after successfully setting up our stand that afternoon, after much anxiety hoping that I'd make everything fit nicely into our allocated space, (honestly, it's like doing a giant jigsaw), and with what seemed like a long.... endless.... drive.... home..... with a shopping stop at the supermarket for something nice and easy for our dinner, I rushed up to my office/craft room to make this.  OK, I hauled my body up the wooden hill to do it if I'm honest! 

My little green buggy friend was there ready for action on my desk and the copper mirri card was fairly easily found.  A small hunt for copper embossing powder, along with the card and copper nailheads and hey presto, a simple, but effective little card was ready for the weekend.

I LOVE these new stamps Tracey...

Jill

PS:  Click HERE to see Debbie's amazing butterfly easel card, it's truly a masterpiece, time well spent Debbie!

New LARGE Cuttlebug Folders 5" x 7" now in stock!!!!

I need to tell you about these new large Cuttlebug embossing folders that arrived yesterday, yes, 5" wide and 7" in length.  We have 5 different patterns in stock which cost £6.75 each. 

Debbie, Helen and I had our names on some of these and today customers in the shop have had a rummage through them as well.

Click here to go straight to them in the shop.

We also have a lot of new standard size folders in stock but I didn't have photo's of these on the website yet and actually only have thumbnail pictures of the large folders on the website but I will add more pictures as soon as I can.  I just can't upload them at the moment.

Anyway, here are the other 4 large folders for now, click on the pictures for large images.  I'll show you the new standard folders over the next few days.

Christmas easel card, scrunchy leaves, dotty C'bugs, nesties and winners...

Sorry, back to poinsettia flowers again for today's card after yesterday's chocolate box:)

Edit:  Just realised I've already shown this card on a previous post, so here's another!

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Well, as you can imagine, there were 3 very excited ladies emailing yesterday to claim their prizes, I am really very happy for them all! 

Congratulations you 3!  Kym, Pauline and Ann.  I hope their luck continues into 2010 and that they will share some cards they make with the stamp sheets with us as it is always so nice to see what other crafters make with our range of Aspects of Design stamp sheets. 

Kym was the first to claim her prize and she was especially excited as she had already had a great day, her son had passed his driving test (first time).  I think she was a little shocked at having 2 good things happening in one day!  Kym said in her email that she makes cards for charity so your choice of the Funky Flourishes is going to prove so versatile for you Kym!

Pauline couldn't believe she was a winner and Ann, well, as you probably gathered from Ann's post yesterday, she got a shock this morning when she popped by our blog, she checked and doubled checked, YES Ann, it really was YOU!!! 

Three truly fab winners!! 

Don't forget to enter our Christmas Blog Candy No.3, 'What does Christmas mean to you?'

We'd love to hear your thoughts so do join in the next giveaway!

Wooden Poinsettia Chocolate Box and Blog Candy Winners

Congratulations to the lucky winners of the blog candy!  A nice extra Christmas pressie for you all is coming your way.  Ann, Kym and Pauline have all claimed their prizes now, they have each picked a different sheet, but I know they will be happy with them as they are all great stamp sheets!

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This is the finished box that I started painting on our last Create and Craft TV show.  I think I painted the lid on camera, then quickly painted the rest while Nigel nipped up the counter to Tracey.  It dried very quickly so I just left it perching on top of my bag when I left the studio.

I painted it with Moonshadow Ink Burnished Brass.  The ink seeps straight into the wood so it is easy peasy to paint wood with, no worrying about brush marks.  If you want it to be a darker shade you just give it another coat (a bit like staining the garden furniture).  You can see by the other box in the picture that it started as quite light coloured wood.  I only gave it the one coat.  I didn't varnish it but if you want to make it a bit more hard wearing then any waterbased varnish will do.

I used the Poinsettia and Labels 5 Nestabilites along with Cuttlebug folders to give patterns to the card pieces that were not made with the paper scrunch technique.  I used card with different techniques so they would have more texture when they were layered.   I shaped the leaves of the card poinsettias.  The 3 yellow brads keep them together.

The stamp is from Tracey's Butterfly Beauties stamp sheet, useful at Christmas too!

I'm going to get some nice chocolates and give the box to Ian for Christmas (shush).

If I have time I'd like to make some gift tags and gift embellishments with the poinsettias too.  In fact I can see me dotting them all over the place!  I can embellish some napkin rings with them, the fruit bowl, candles, table, tree....Oh dear, just thought of something else too, shame there are not many days left to do it all now!

I hope you are not getting too stressed with your preparations, I just ate those chocolates in the photo, and it really helped:)

Keep warm!

Jill

First Christmas Card... Done!!

Good evening!

Here's my first christmas card finished!  It's a variation on the easel card I showed on Sunday.

Rather than using a square that is the same size as the card as I did on Sunday's card, I have used the largest label 5 Nestability for the gold mirri card mount, and the next smaller size for the next mount which was some Starburst Stained card with the cling film technique that has also been Cuttlebugged with the Swiss dots folder and then sanded to show the original white card I used for the stain background.

People often ask what I do with all the background papers I make when I'm demonstrating at shows.  As you can imagine I get quite a pile together after a day at a show, so I've put alot to good use this Christmas.  I used the Poinsettia Nestability to cut from a variety of background papers including the Scrunch, which has a brilliant texture for poinsettia leaves/petals and I was happy to discover cuts really well with the nesties.

Now then what would you call them... poinsettia leaves, or petals?  Do you think it is leaves or petals that make them flowers, are they flowers?  I guess it is the green leaves that are leaves and when they become red they are petals?   Anyway, I'll move on from that thought, I'm getting myself confused...

I've tried to vary the layers with some other techniques.  I made lots of these flowers on Sunday, in fact Ian came to see what I had been doing for 5 hours and I confessed I hadn't finished a single card but I had made a nice pile of poinsettia flowers!!  After 20 years of doing this sort of thing I don't get the 'look' anymore, he just accepts that that is the way things are, he doesn't even shake his head anymore. 

These were made from the French Country starburst stain set (hence that gorgeous burgundy) but I think the green came from the Holiday Wreath set which I have also used to make the flowers in more traditional colours of red and green.

I shaped the card pieces and used 3 yellow brads to hold them all together.

The wording is raised on pads to hold the easel in place.

I have started more of these, I get bored doing the same design so I'll show the other layouts/colourways when they are finished.

I have taken some photo's today of the cards Jo made for the TV show, will show them tomorrow when I've transfered them... so do call back.

Thanks for visiting, and again for leaving all your comments.

Jill

More Nestie shrink plastic

Just a quick post today with more Nestie Shrink Plastic from last Monday's telly show used with a scalloped oval card mount.  This time I stamped the flower (from Kay's Funky Flowers stamp sheet) with black Archival ink over the white Brilliance flourish background on the shrink plastic.  I left it to dry before colouring with the Sakura stardust pens.

I ran the pink vellum through my Cuttlebug with the Swiss dots folder, which cracked the vellum to create white dots.  A few paper flowers and ribbon have been added as finishing touches.

Shrink plastic buttons from last Monday's show

Same basic idea and instructions as the previous 2 cards but on this one I made use of some of the Shrink Plastic scraps to make buttons, well you can't waste it can you? So use your punches or nesties to make them. If the buttons are for embellishments, so what if they are square, triangle, octagonal or oval!

I meant to mention this before, you may find that you get little shreads of plastic around the edges when you cut a shape with a punch or die cutting machine. That was what I was doing on the show when I stood there sanding the edges, but didn't explain. When I watched the show back I saw it was still a bit tatty, but Shrink Plastic is very forgiving though and it does hide a lot of imperfections when shrunk. If you do have a sanding block then it doesn't hurt to tidy it up a little.

Since the show I have been asked which colour Shrink Plastic I used, it was translucent.

Stamp the swirl stamps onto the Shrink Plastic with white Briliance ink for a nice elegant look then use an office hole punch size to make the holes (1/4"). Using anything smaller will make it difficult to thread ribbon, threads or cord through, and life's too short to spend 1/2 an hour threading ribbon!

Of course, you can stamp in any colour for the buttons that will match your project, just remember they will be darker once shrunk, so don't apply too much colour. If I want to make a coloured background to simply stamp over, I wipe the pad, direct-to-shrink style, then wipe a lot of the ink off with tissue before I stamp on it, it really needs to be very pale.  You may wish to try just sponging a little ink here and there on.

For this button I doubled up the ribbon, tied a knot at the fold, then threaded each end through the button holes to the back. I fixed the ends inside the card. It makes a nice knot with no loose ends.

Again I was Cuttlebug obsessed on the show, I just love the white embossed effect, has had me hooked for years, but it is SO much easier to do than dry embossing using a stencil and takes the blandness away from a plain piece of card.

This wasn't one of my favourite cards I made for the show, it was one of the last I got together and why I stuck that bow on I'll never know!

Anyhow, I can't hide it as it does show how you can use a Shrink Plastic button or in fact any button. Maybe if I make the picture of the button big, and the picture of the card small, you won't notice how bad it is.

I decided it is about time I decorated the blog, I hope you like the changes.

I think I've waffled on enough, thanks again for reading!

Jill

Shrink Plastic platform card with Nestabilities

Same idea as yesterday for this card. I stamped the flourish design onto pale blue vellum with white Brilliance ink and left it to dry.

I stamped the same flourish onto a large scalloped edge square of translucent shrink plastic that I cut with a Nestability and shrunk it straightaway, no need to wait for it to dry.

The largest dragonfly on Kay's Funky Frames stamp sheet was stamped with black archival ink onto another piece of shrink plastic that had been cut from a large label Nestability.

I edged the piece with the black ink so that there would be a contrast between the dragonfly piece and the scalloped platform.

I left it to dry for 30 minutes before colouring with Sakura stardust pens as I explained on yesterday's card.

I shrank it down and glued it onto the platform.

Remember not to panic when shrinking!!

Jill Boulton held a workshop with us here today, but I didn't get to play:(   In amongst serving customers, I must have made quite a lot of cups of tea and coffee, dozens I think, plus Ian and I made a start getting product samples decided and together for a new live show we are doing on Create and Craft TV on 28th November (12pm).

We have been asked to go back to film another show with Tracey's stamps that featured at the beginning of last month. We will have different accessories this time so I made up the envelopes today for the new design team members to have a play. Quite a challenge for them as there isn't much time and again, there are restrictions on what we can use.

So no chance to take a breather at the moment, it's straight onto the next show. Somewhere in between I really must start my Christmas cards!  I have ideas in my head that keep changing so by the time I get to actually make them I'm hoping I'll have decided what I'm finally doing!

The ladies at today's workshop used a variety of Ranger products, distress inks, cut 'n dry foam, grunge paper, alcohol inks, acrylic dabbers and this afternoon metal embossing with Walnut Hollow products.

The Cuttlebug came in handy on and off all day and last thing this afternoon I poked my nose in with something to try, embossing the Moonglow filigrees onto metal and then working on them with tools. I'd tried it in the week but hadn't made a note of the order for the sandwich, and it proved illogical to figure out again! But we got there in the end and they looked good. Another thing I will show you once I get a chance to make something with them!

Jill

New Design Team members and a card from Monday's show

Here's a very bright and cheery card from Monday's Create & Craft TV show. I know we should be thinking Christmas at the moment but people still have birthday's at this time of year and how nice would it be for them to receive a nice cheerful bright card! More about the card later but first some news...

I added 2 great new design team members to our blog on Wednesday evening, Vix, who is a true out and out Moonglow fan like me, I reckon she has it flowing through her veins like me:) I feel I've found a twin! Check out her blog... there's lots of Moonglow inspiration there, I'm really looking forward to our combined inspired play with Moonglow! So, watch this space:)

I am also very happy that Jo Austin, (my partner in the Springer Spaniel fan club), has joined us too. On the very rare occasions that I've been in the same place at the same time as Jo, she has accepted my Springer Spaniel type over excitement at seeing her, so the usual welcome with a big HUG goes to Jo, I am really looking forward to seeing what Jo does with our stuff!

Plus, tonight I am adding Tracey into the links too, as she has now got a blog! Do pop over and have a look, she has lovely cards on show there already. I did to Tracey what Debbie did to me, convinced her she needed to have one, Tracey is very new to blogging and we all know what that is like so I hope you will give her some support by joining and following her blog too.

So... more about the card.



A ran some of the vellum through the cuttlebug with the Swiss dots folder. Heavy pattern folders will crack the vellum and don't work so well, but the dots are great as the small white cracking effect looks good as a contrast against the colour of the vellum.

Use Nesties, punches or your trimmer to cut shapes out of shrink plastic, I used the largest square scalloped nestie for the platform and a slightly smaller circle to mount on top. I sanded the scalloped square piece and added colour from the Ocean Breeze Chalk ink pad before stamping with the black archival ink and the swirl stamp. Once you have done this you can shrink straight away, it is only when you want to colour in that you need to let the archival ink dry for half and hour.

I stamped onto the smaller circle with the Ranger black archival ink, without sanding, not necessary with the archival ink (also, it will bleed into the sanded lines, as will Stazon ink, so not good). Leave for half an hour and then you can colour in.

The Sakura Stardust pens are brilliant for colouring shrink plastic as they will give a great glittery effect when shrunk. I just traced around the stamp outlines and pulled the colour into the centres with an almost dry waterbrush. Don't apply too much colour, it needs to be very pale as the colour intensifies when shrunk. I went back over the lines before I shrank it, no need to wait for the ink to dry as they will heat set once shrunk.

If you haven't tried shrink plastic before, a very important tip here, and as I said on the show, don't panic! Easy said I know!!! If it looks like it is sticking to itself, just leave it and keep going, if you have a lolly stick to use then keep it where it is, don't start poking and prodding to try releasing it. Just keep heating and it will (normally) release itself.

Sometimes, especially with long thin pieces, it will stick and not release. With these pieces I rub my anti static bag over it lightly before shrinking, you can also use talcum powder for this if you don't have an anti static bag. You don't want to dust too much powder on it as it will spoil your colouring, so just use a small amount. It is less likely to stick to itself as the powder takes some of the sticky away.



What else to say on this... Use a good glue that dries clear to stick the pieces together, pva or silicone glue spread entirely over the back of a piece works well. I'll be showing more shrink plastic cards from the show and will give more tips as I go along.

I just need to add a greeting to this card before I send it!

Before I go, I must suggest that you pop over to Vix's blog, she has put up some Moonglow blog candy, totally thought up by her and from her own collection, how very kind of her, I will make sure she has something nice as a treat to thank her for doing that! You'll find her link on the right hand side with the other new DT members!

Thanks again for your comments and for reading all this, (if you've made it down this far)

Jill

A couple more cards from Wednesday's show

A quick post today with a couple more cards, as we'll be setting off for Doncaster soon.

I've used the yellow pastel vellum and Easy Sew Stitches on this card. The main image is from Kay's Funky Flowers sheets and the wording from the Fancy Flourishes sheet.



I used the Cuttlebug Swiss dot folder with some doubled-sided yellow/black black magic card that I sanded to match the flower heads.

Another sneak peek - this time the Classical Instruments

Here is the first card from the new Classical Instruments unmounted stamp sheet designed by Tracey Coates. I love this sheet too, I think it is really elegant and ideal for music lovers whether they play the instruments or not.

Before I explain the card I want to tell you that our new sheets are different from our usual in that they are now A5 size and will be £14.99. I will start loading up the actual sheet designs from tomorrow. We are hoping to have stock from Thursday so as soon as they are on the website you are welcome to start ordering them. We will of course be taking some with us to the Harrogate show next weekend.

For today's sneak peek I have used black, white and red card, with red organza ribbon running across the centre of the panel. I've used the swiss dots Cuttlebug folder for the top black panel and the swirl folder for the bottom half. The centre panel has red brads and is raised for dimension. The wording is also on the stamp sheet.

Another Starburst Fairy card

I was going to move straight onto a Classical Music card today but have decided to show this one too from Tracey's new Starburst Fairy unmounted stamp sheet.

While I had my Cuttlebug out I've used the swiss dot folder for the black mount which you probably cannot see in the photo. I've also raised the main panel for dimension. There's glitter glue on their wings as before.