New challenge - Christmas - Anything Goes

 I used the following products to make this card



Tim Holtz stamps, Santa's Wish

Starburst Stains Holiday Wreath set

Distress Inks On the main image

Moonglow Embossing Powder Holly Berry Red Gold  to make the 2-tone red/gold heart embellishment, which was then stamped with Aspect of Design 62 Artistic Elements  with heart wings stamp

Nestie: Classic Scalloped Heart I cut the heart embellishment with thick card, the thickest I could cut with my nestie

Nailheads



White Webbing Spray over the Starburst Stain background, (this is only available at the shop as we cannot post the aerosol spray).



The picture below shows the embellishment that I've built up with about 2-3 layers of of the embossing powder.  When using more than one layer of Moonglow EP you really get to see the 2-tone effects.

 Finally a picture of the white webbing spray, it really stands out from darker backgrounds

If you wish to join our challenge, please click here, don't be shy, we'd love you to share your work with us:)

Jill

Been AWOL, so a quick catch up!!!! Plus, distressed card for Crafty Cardmakers

I cannot believe it's been over a week since I last blogged, very very naughty!!

There have been a number of reasons, one being that Ian and I caught an awful bug a couple of weeks ago, which we didn't manage to shake off before the Port Sunlight show as we'd hoped.  So ended up getting a lot worse.  I've can't remember ever having a bug like it and really couldn't summon any energy for anything.

I should have posted the card above last week, it was for the Crafty Cardmakers current blog challenge, the theme being distressed, for which I was the guest designer.  It seems to have been a popular challenge.  If you wish to join in you still have a little time.

I used the nesties label 8, some of the background paper is from one of the new Tim Holtz paper stacks that I distressed with Pumice Stone and Stormy Sky distress inks.  I used Tracey's keys design from the Artistic Elements sheet.  I had a plan to use this along with a brass key which typically I couldn't find by the deadline.  I have now added it so may change the photo.  I did find the mini keys by 7 gypsies that I attached with a curly clip, aren't they cute!

The Port Sunlight show was yet again another brilliant show, very busy, too busy to take photos I'm afraid, I totally forgot after intending to take some.  Vix did a brilliant job with her demos, we're hoping she'll do the same at the October show.

Will catch up with more tomorrow.

Jill

Christmas cards DONE!

Cards finished and posted on Thursday..... yeah!!!!!

I cut it fine again this year by only posting them on Thursday.  I did make more, I ended up making more poinsettia cards than I intended but I really enjoyed making them and using the Starburst Stain papers I had to hand.  As you can see there is quite a difference in the shades and styles.

We've received lovely cards so far this year, so thank you for all of those!

We received something new yesterday that we've been waiting for, magnetic sheets, I'll get them on the website asap!  There are two A4 sheets in a pack for £1.90!  I've a few projects on the go that I need to get on with over the Christmas holidays for telly shows in the new year but I hope to have a little play with these too, as I can see other things to use them for other than just Nestie storage! 

But, the first job will certainly be to store away my Nestabilities on them, I think my poinsettias will be glad to be stored away for a rest, but only for a little while!  I think they will be back out pretty soon though for more flowers, sunflowers are a definite flower I'll be making with them in the new year!  I'll have to search through all the Starburst Stain papers I have made with yellows and rich golds, yum!  Bet I'll go back to using the French Country set (again) for them!!

In the next few days I will be announcing something that is happening around here very soon.  I know everyone is busy at the moment, but do call back for news about it!

Well, we've the Strictly final tonight and a 2 part Cranford starting tomorrow, nice to have some good telly programmes to look forward to over the weekend.

We had about 4" to 5" of snow here on Thursday night and it looks like we've more to come today and tomorrow to add to it, so it's going to be quite a pile! I just hope we don't get the amount of snow they have forecast for the US.  That's serious snowfall!!

I hope you are all getting into Christmas zone, keeping warm and stress free with the prep! 

Jill

Traditional red and green easel cards with small square panels

Yes, more poinsettia cards, this time with more traditional Christmas colours.  Instead of making the extra front panel the same size as the card I have made the square smaller, both feature plenty of scrunch paper backgrounds.  If you have missed me mentioning them before, they are made from Starburst Stains and copier paper.  You will be able to see me doing this (again) on the telly (Create and Craft) on 16th January, Sky 671 or Freeview 36 if you have them. 

They have asked me to go back for a technique show and I'll also have the DVD I made with Moonglow products on the show, so I hope you can watch that especially if you haven't seen me doing all this stuff before. 

I used the Starburst Stains Holiday Wreath set for both of these cards, although I think a piece of scrunch from a different set with a paler green slipped in on the top card.

I am posting late tonight or is it early for today?  I am up late as I have been watching the snow falling again, it fell heavily earlier this evening and settled, even on the road.  Hamish loved playing in the garden earlier and came in with snow stuck to him, he had a cute white lump of snow on his nose where he'd been sniffing about and had scouped it up!  I guess we're going to be snowball throwing again tomorrow!

I do love watching it fall and the great scenery and peacefulness it seems to bring but don't like the fact that we are probably not likely to get out of the village until later tomorrow!

As you know we are based in Yorkshire and we do get our fair share of snow, we also live in a little village very high up so when we get it, it stays.  We left the car at the bottom of the drive this evening, at least we won't have to slide down that tomorrow!  It looks like the salt Ian put down on the drive this evening isn't going to help much, so I'm glad the car is on the road!

I'm just hoping it clears before Saturday as we have a workshop and I'm looking forward to playing with the Starburst Stains and Moonshadow inks with the ladies that are booked to attend!

This first falling of snow has been nice to get us in the mood for Christmas, we only want a little taster for now though!  It would be better if it just cleared up for the next week so we can all get our Christmas shopping done and then it would be lovely if it could snow from next Thursday night for a couple of days, so we can all have a wonderful white Christmas to enjoy!  I think we all deserve that this year:)

Jill

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.

New blog look and more Nestie Shrink Plastic

Another card with a shrink plastic button along with a large piece that I used as a platform/mount for paper flowers.

I decided to have a play yesterday evening and decorate my blog page.  I may have another play and change it.  What do you think so far?  or, do you like it as it is? 

When I started my blog I didn't really know what to do for decoration so just left it. 

Tracey having started her new blog has spured me on to have a play with it.  I did try to help Tracey with her new blog and managed to loose her lovely background so I thought I needed to learn a little more about it myself!!

Talking of Tracey, she is working on new stamp designs to add to the ones we already have in hand but she has asked if there are any stamp designs you would like to her to draw.  Do pop over to her new blog with any suggestions you have.

Jill

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