Christmas Flora

Christmas Flora

Hi There!

It's nearly here..... that most

wonderful time of the year, as

the song goes.

Thought we'd take a look at

some Christmas images from

the natural world.........

So to start off on our quest

for Christmas Flora, here is

Jane Castle:

"For my project this week I've chosen 'Holly & Ivy' 

as I love cutting these from the garden and 

decorating the house over the Christmas holidays. 

This time I've decided to move away from 

the traditional greens and use various blue hues 

with some added sparkle.

To begin with I coloured some white card 

with Distress inks, stains and PA Infusions.

This was then stamped and heat embossed

 for my ivy leaves and also die cut for my 

holly borders.

Next I stencilled the top left-hand corner 

and the bottom right-hand corner of my card blank 

using Iced Spruce and an Imagination Crafts stencil.

Grunge paste was then applied through my

 Tim Holtz stencil.

 I masked off areas around the word Christmas

 so as not to end up with any unwanted splodges! 

( so easily done)

The stencil was removed, cleaned and replaced 

to add Merry above as I found it easier 

to centralise the longer word first.

The Grunge paste was then covered in 

glitter whilst still wet.

The holly border was trimmed to size,

 dots of Liquid Pearls in Pewter were added

 for the holly berries and finally the ivy leaves 

were shaped and stuck in place.

Then looking at the stencils I'd used I thought

 of other ways of using everything previously 

prepared for the card. 

I cut some large white card tags and 

came up with the following:

This had the addition of a couple of 

self adhesive gems.

This one had Ranger Perfect Pearls brushed

 onto the stars and I used another die from

 the same set.

The holly border was trimmed using the 

corners rather than the long sides.

And finally on this one I applied the 

grunge paste through the other stencil

 creating a completely different effect.

I could have done many more variations 

and all of these could easily be adapted 

for cards.

So for just under £25 for the 2 stencils, 

the die set and the mini stamp I could

 make all of this years christmas cards and 

tags without getting much more out on 

my bench ---- that's got to be good value!

I have now decided to make several 

batches of the large tags in different 

colours, place 4 different ones in a cellophane 

bag and give them to my Mum's care home 

to sell at their Christmas Fete."

Items Used 

Imagination Crafts Stencil

Tim Holtz stencil collection

Find-It Media Dies

PA Grunge Paste

Jofy Mini stamps

Ranger Liquid Pearls

Ranger Perfect Pearls

Distress Inks

Distress Stains

PA Infusions

Self Adhesive Gems

Glitter

You have certainly started

us off on the right track

Jane.  Thank you for a

lovely idea too - those sets

should sell very well at

the Christmas Fete

'Till Tomorrow

Mickie xx

Find It

Find It

Hi There!

You may wonder what you

are being asked to find.......

Worry not Find It is the name

of a die cut company, new to

us but some of you may be

familiar with them.

We thought we'd give them a

whirl this week and here is

Jane Castle to start us off:

"Well time is marching on at a pace

 and if you have not made all of your 

Christmas cards yet here's a 

fairly quick idea that can be 

changed with a different centre piece

 so as to not get boring in the making.

To begin with I did all of the die cutting

 using a fab set from Find-It Media 

called 'Christmas Card Set'.

This set is great value for money,

cuts and embosses beautifully and

 some elements can be used all year round. 

Below I've added a photo of a piece

 I cut, embossed and then stamped whilst

 the card was still in the die. 

This leaves a very fine clean edge all the way 

round rather than cutting after stamping.

Whoops, back to the job in hand!

Next I stamped the crate image from a 

Craft Emotions stamp set onto white card

 and kraft card. The kraft card was then

 cut so as to form the outside of the crate.

Both images were heat embossed with clear 

embossing powder. Colour was added using 

Distress Markers and Jelly Roll pens.

The card blank had DI in old paper added 

to the edges and then using the same ink 

stamped the zig-zag lines from Jofy 07. 

These were then brushed with Perfect Pearls.

A tag was stamped using Jofy 47 stamp set

 and this was attached to the crate with some

 ribbon before fixing to the card.

A little Treasure Gold was rubbed onto the 

die cut mounts after lightly sanding. 

The gorgeous holly die-cuts were then

 slightly shaped and curled as I prefer things 

not completely flat.

Stickles were added to the berries and 

Pewter Liquid Pearls added to the crate

 to enhance the nails.

It's a long while since I made any traditional 

red/green Christmas cards and they do have 

that magical feel to them, I wonder if it will catch on!!

Enjoy your Christmas card making X"

Items Used:

Find-it Media Dies

Craft Emotions Stamps

Jofy Christmas Stamps

Distress Markers

Distress Inks

Ranger Perfect Pearls

Ranger Liquid Pearls

Jelly-Roll Pens

Core-Color Card

Kraft Card

Treasure Gold

Stickles

Many thanks Jane, a super

project to start us off

At the rate I'm going it doesn't

look like I shall be sending any

cards this year! Better get 

my skates on......

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Archiving

Archiving

Hallo Everyone!

Hope you've all recovered

from your Bank Holiday

excesses!  

Here we have had the annual

Jack in the Green Festival

(Some of you may know him

as The Green Man) but in 

these here parts...............

Street entertainers galore,

a bit of a fun fair and parades.

Definitely one of those Oh to

be in England moments......

Sorry to drivel on if you are

elsewhere in the world......

You could get your own back

and tell us what is happening

where you are................!

In the meantime, we have

Jane Castle to share her new

Scrapbook with us.....:

"I made myself 2 promises this year, 

the first was to start an art journal 

( which I've done) the second was 

to make a start on sorting out my 

Mum's old photos and to make a 

scrap book for my daughter's family.

As Mum is heading for her 98th birthday

I felt I'd better get a move on while she 

can still identify some of the Great Aunts

 and Uncles etc.

The page I'm sharing with you today 

has a photo of my Mum, Nan and Aunt. 

For this I've used some of Kaisercraft's

beautiful 12 x 12 papers.

To begin with I trimmed my base paper 

to 27cm x 27cm----- I decided that I might

 need to move some pages as 

more photos are found so thought

 that if they all measured the same and 

were placed in the scrap book with photo 

corners moving them wouldn't be a problem.

The 2 pieces that were trimmed off 

would be used on the page but turned over. 

Next I cut the frame for the photo using 

another piece from the same collection and 

a Spellbinders Die.

Measuring on the back of the frame I marked 

where the slits were needed  for slotting in 

the corners of the photo. 

I then stamped in Archival Ink some random 

bits of text using a PaperArtsy Mini stamp, and 

some flowers using a Lavinia stamp. 

For both sets of stamping I used 

second generation ink.

The flowers were then brushed 

with Ranger's Perfect Pearls.

I then cut various flowers and leaves ready 

to decorate the page.

For this I used some Core-dinations sanded it, 

tore it and the trimmings from the 2 sheets of 

Kaisercraft Mademoiselle Collection

Then it was down to attaching everything 

to the page. 

The 2 strips that had been reversed after

 trimming were stuck with double sided tape, 

the 2 hollyhock flowers were tied with 

some string and stuck with Cosmic Shimmers glue.

The centre piece of pink Core-dinations was 

lightly sanded before attaching. 

For the journaling I used a 

Tim Holtz Idea-ology journaling ticket 

and wrote on it with  a matching brown ink. 

(I had a blue ink in my fountain pen 

and it looked so out of place!!)

A few pearl embellishments for the flower centres

 and the page is complete. 

I really enjoyed putting this page together 

but when you've got beautiful paper/card

and some wonderful photos 

how could you not have fun?!"

Items Used

Kaisercraft Madewmoiselle Collection - Timepiece and Posy

Core-dinations sand it, tear it emboss it - 

Thinlits Tim Holtz mini Tattered Florals 

Memory Box dies - Hollyhock Stem and Ivy tendrils

Archival Ink - Sepia and Watering Can

Ranger Perfect Pearls

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Journaling Tickets

Lavinia - Wild Flower stamp

PaperArtsy Mini Ink and the Dog stamp

Spellbinders Nestabilities die

Thank you for sharing Jane.  

So good to still have your mum

with you to explain who's who

in the old photos. 

I wonder how scrapbooking will

evolve now that we seem to

have lots of photos.............

.........stored in our digital devices

but nothing printed

Leave you with that

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Snowflakes

Snowflakes

Hi There!

The theme this week is Snowflakes

shades of things to come

Clear deep blue skies contrasting the white snow

covered landscape........

On that note I shall hand you over to 

Jane:

For my project for Snowflake week I decided to have another play

 with Yupo and Alcohol inks and was pleased 

with the light effect it gives.

I started by colouring my translucent Yupo

 with various layers of Ranger Alcohol inks, 

the very last layer was the pearl mixative.

I die cut 2 different sizes of snowflake,

this one was with Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers die 

and I also punched out some small stars for the centres

The larger snowflake was cut using a Memory box die.

I also cut a couple of snowflakes out of kraft card 

and embossed the centre star shaped cut out 

of these with white embossing powder

 with some fine silver glitter added.

My card blank was then stamped with snowflakes 

using VersaMark and clear embossing powder 

on the edges and then Tumbled Glass DI 

was added with a large brush.

I had a trial lay-out of the positioning of the snowflakes

 before stamping “Let it Snow” 3 times 

in Versa-Magic Ocean Depth ink and 

then brushed with Perfect Pearls mica powder.

After the trial positioning of the snowflakes 

I decided to layer the smaller ones with 

white glitter card underneath. 

These were stuck together using 

foam pads adding extra depth.

The kraft card snowflake was given a 

little Treasure Pewter to the edges 

for an extra sparkle. 

I hope you can see the light, sparkly effect of this 

card as it was difficult to photograph.

Products Used

Yupo

Alcohol Inks and Pearl Mixative

Memory Box Die

Tim Holtz Alterations Movers and Shapers

Distress Inks

Detail Embossing Powders

White Glitter Card

Perfect Pearls Mica Powder

Versa-Magic Ink Pads

Treasure Gold 

I don’t know about you but I get so excited when it snows

 —— I do hope we get some this winter!

Thank you Jane for a lovely project.

It would be lovely to have a White Christmas

See you all tomorrow

Mickie xx