Hello to you all ! I am over on the PaperArtsy blog tonight showcasing these CAS Christmas Cards I have made for the current challenge. The simple bit was not so bad but ooooooh the clean was oh so difficult!
Every month one of the team at Mini Album Makers Challenge showcases a mini album and tutorial. Well this month it has fallen to me and if you would like to hop on over to Mini Album Makers you can get all the details for making this cute little cascading pocket book!
Well here we are in the run up to Christmas and what better project to share with you today than a Christmas Angel.
I have used one of the small Art Dolls from Calico Craft Parts and I am sharing the details over on their blog today. So do hop on over if you would like to see more.
We have a lovely new challenge over at A Vintage Journey for this Christmas season. The lovely Julia is our host this month and she is asking us to create with stars!
STAR LIGHT STAR BRIGHT
Fill up the dark winter sky with them or use a really big one as your central focus. Stencil them, stamp them, emboss them or die cut them. Make a card, make a star box, make a canvas, create a journal page - just remember to create in one of our vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journalling, industrial or steampunk/timeworn styles.
I decided to take a Calico Craft Parts wooden star and made it glisten as if on a frosty night. We are very lucky to have such clear skies here in Shetland and on a clear night the stars (including the milky way) are so wonderfully clear and sparkle away! You can almost hear them. We are very lucky.
After a couple of coats of white Gesso I gave the star a good reasonably thick coat of DecoArt Crackle Paste. Once this had dried I smoothed over Rock Candy Distress Crackle.
This really has given a lovely frosty finish.
Another Tattered Poinsettia ! just made from crisp white paperstock. I just love the depth that can be created by using this technique. If you have missed them before HERE is a link to one of my tutorials.
We normally have a few white tree branches in the window of the study here at Tingwall House over the Christmas period and I think this will be lovely nestled amongst the branches. I do hope you will find some time to join us in our challenge. Do hop on over to A Vintage Journey where you can see some wonderful creations from my fellow Creative Guides and all the details of how to join in. For me tonight is our penultimate panto performance - the 11th of a twelve night run. So still a busy weekend with the last night, last night party (!!!) and then clearing the Theatre on Sunday - always a very sad moment. Next week shall seem very strange!
As always, thank you for joining me and I hope you have a lovely weekend and hopefully a little more restful than mine!
We have a wonderful new challenge theme over at PaperArtsy - Matchbox Art. I have had a fun time creating a matchbox project using some absolutely gorgeous tea themed stamps by Scrapcosy.
Please do join me over on the PaperArtsy blog if you would like to see more.
It is the fifth Friday of the month and yay! we have a Tag Friday over at A Vintage Journey! We all absolutely love these extra Friday's in our calendar and generally create with what is on our desk or experiment.
Do hop on over to the blog to see what my fabulous teamies have created from their bits and pieces!!
And all these "bits and pieces" were laying around on my desk ...... I am terrible for clearing up ! I recently bought a lovely flower arranging magazine and it had some wonderful inspiration for combining colours at Christmas. I would never have thought of mixing the lime green with the red and white, but what a lovely combination.
I had also been experimenting with Tim Holtz's 3D Embossing Die - I wanted a really white effect for Christmas and it works a treat, although difficult to photograph!
I am always making these white poinsettia's at this time of the year using the Tattered Poinsettia die.
If you are a subscriber to Mixed Up Creative then you can access my tutorial in last week's magazine or alternatively you can click the link HERE for a similar tutorial on my blog.
And this is how it all came together. A lovely bright tag to cheer us up during the days leading up to Christmas.
Tonight on the PaperArtsy blog I am sharing a project made using old dressmaking patterns! Do join me over there if you would like to see more. Jennie x
Sandy is our host and she is challenging us to use our beautiful scrapbook papers we have hoarded over the years. You can find all the details of the challenge HERE at A Vintage Journey as well as some fabulous inspiration from my Creative Guide team mates.
I have had fun using some of my favourite Stamperia papers and combining them with Eileen Hull's Dies.
I can't tell you how difficult I found it to use these papers! I thought I was going to need counselling after I cut the first piece! The problem is they are double sided and are absolutely fabulous on both sides. In fact it took me ages to even decide which piece of paper to use!
I have used Eileen's Trinket Die to make the outside box. I really love this die and you can cut the paper quite economically. I have left the aperture open and and filled it with one of the most gorgeous tags in the whole set.
Inside the box is a small notebook and I have used another of Eileen's dies, the Needle Book, to make this. Again I have cut a large tag from the papers and placed it directly over the die to get the most from the paper.
I have used the title plate from Eileen's Box Storage Die as well for the cover.
A little bit of paper decoration inside using another tag ..... along with tea stained papers.
I am hoping that my gorgeous grandaughter will love this box and book in a couple of years time as I certainly had her in mind whilst making it. But in the meantime I will just keep on drinking in these lovely papers! As always thank you so much for joining me for this new challenge and I hope we can encourage you to join in and use some of your lovely paper stash!
Yet again my lovely team mates at Mini Album Maker's have a wonderful array of mini albums for your inspiration and I hope you pop over to see them all by clicking the link HERE.
Last weekend Shetland Scrapbookers had their yearly weekend get-together and I was asked to put together a mini album for the Saturday session. They were particularly keen to have a Book in A Pocket, however, this turned out to be a Book in a Wallet! I don't think anyone was disappointed though!
I also decided to use some papers which I bought many years ago and which at the time were such huge favourites that I couldn't bear to use them. But my taste has changed and I thought it was about time they got used!
The wallet opens to reveal an inside pocket for tags ........
....... and a flip page journal inside.
The inside journal wallet is not unlike my "book, within a box, within a journal" I shared with you in September which you can see if you click the link HERE. However this is slightly smaller in both measurement and pages and is housed within its own wallet, which is a handy size to take away on holiday.
So here are the details of how I made it:
For the outer wallet cover:
cut a piece of cardstock 6" x 11" then score at 4", 4 1/2", 8 1/2" and 9".
Inside pocket: cut a piece 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" and score the side edge at 3/4".
Mark 1/2" at the top and 2" from the bottom right and cut away this piece.
Using tape attach this to the outer wallet on the left hand and bottom edges.
For the inside wallet cover:
cut a piece 9" x 5 1/2" and score at 1 1/2", 1 3/4" 5 1/4" and 5 1/2"
Inside Pocket: cut a piece of cardstock 5 1/2" x 2" ......
...... and attach to the larger side of the inside wallet.
For the inner book: cut a piece of cardstock 6 1/2" x 5 1/2" and score at 3 1/4".
For the flop out pages:
cut one piece of cardstock 6" x 3" and score at 1/2"
cut a second piece 3 1/2" x 3" and score at 1/2"
Adhere the 1/2" flaps to the book page to provide to flaps.
Close the book and add this to the inside wallet cover.
Finally close the inside wallet and attach this to the outside wallet cover
(in the middle rather than where I have "posed" it for the photograph!!)
Now you have your base book to decorate as you wish.
I found it easier to decorate the inner wallet and book before adding it to the outside wallet and tucking some ribbon underneath as a closure before sticking it down onto the outside wallet.
I chose to close the outer wallet with magnets for a clean look.
And here are some of the lovely books made by the members of Shetland Scrapbookers.
Each one so very different!
As always thank you for joining me today and I hope you find some time to join us
Hello! its the first of the month and my turn to share the first of the November projects at Calico Craft Parts. I have used the ATC/Tag Storage Box Kit to make a Recipe Note Storage Box for myself but which would also make a nice present.
Hello Everyone! and welcome to a long overdue flower tutorial!
I have been wanting to play with Eileen Hull's flower dies for some time now
and had a chance this week to sit and play.
I love a good blousy flower !
It makes such a wonderful centrepiece on a small hanging, book cover or card.
I have used three of Eileen's die sets to make this project:
Here are a few more close ups before sharing how I made the flower:
So .... for the blousy flower:
You need four of the largest flowers from Flowers, Heart and Soul and four of the blunt spiked centres from the Thinlets set. I used a good quality cream cardstock.
I used Rusty Hinge and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks (on both sides) as I wanted the colours to bleed together during the next stages.
Gather all the pieces together with a brad.
Make sure you have plenty of water in your spritzer bottle and give everything a good spray. I like to use a muslin nappy for this so the flower is not sitting in a puddle of water on the craft sheet. With a pokey tool very carefully lift the first layer up into the centre around the brad and give the leaves a bit of a "squish".
Continue to spray and lift each of the layers separately until they are all standing up around the brad. You can see how the colours are already blending and look quite different to the originals.
Then start doing the same for the outer layers (spritzing and lifting) however, be gentle as by this time the paper is quite sodden and you don't want to break the thinner part of the leaves.
Finally it should look like this!
The next stage is to open everything up again - one petal at a time - curling the petal around the pokey tool.
Make sure you don't lose any of the wonderful folds and creases. Just curl them as they are!
Do this until you complete the outer layers.
Fabulous depth from four layers!
Finally use the pokey tool to rearrange the smaller leaves in the centre. You can expose the brad if you like and glue in a pearl or make the brad a feature.
Leave the flower overnight if possible to dry naturally - it becomes quite crisp and hard and capable then of even being on a book cover.
To make these smaller flowers I have just used the four inner set of petals and sprtized and layered them around the brad and then left them to dry.
For the leaves I have again used the Flowers, Heart and Soul die and cut the small three leaf petal.
I have used the same cream cardstock and Distress Inks.
Spritz liberally with water and use the end of an old paint brush to start the folding.
The paintbrush makes it alot easier to handle and get some good creases and folds.
Again leave to dry naturally, before unfolding carefully.
Before adding everything to the background I cut a sentiment and leaves from the Thinlets set. These were also inked with the same Distress Inks. Once dry I heat embossed with clear powder.
I really do hope you have a go at making these blooms. Hopefully the photo step by step is clear but I also have a video on my Youtube channel for the technique but using slightly different dies. However, I really like the size of Eileen's dies as they make a good size flower without being too large and are not too small and fiddly to work with.
You might also like this post where I made similar flowers for a vase:
