Happy Christmas

What a great new launch from Bev at Bee Crafty on Hochanda last Monday. I hope you got to see her shows, however if you missed them they are still available on the Hochanda website via Catch Up. The snowflakes are really stunning, with such amazing detail and lets face it, you can never have too many snowflakes. They are wonderful for any winter cards whatever the occasion and make amazing backgrounds too.

For today's card I wanted to make a clean crisp card to show off the snowflakes and make them the focal point along with the sentiment. I started with the back, for this I used an embossing folder, I've used 'Snowflake Lattice' by Sue Wilson on crisp white card.

For the front I took the same cardstock and stamped the lovely 'Happy Christmas' sentiment using Cobalt Blue Archival. I wanted to use the small individual parts of the border from the set, so masked off with washi tape the unwanted parts before inking up with Blueprint Sketch to stamp them.

I backed the embossed card with Blue Centura Pearl card from Crafters Companion which I had gutted to use later.

I then used a die from 'Sue Wilson' to give a lovely background, this one is the Australian Background die. I used the blue card that I had gutted to go behind this and secured with Cosmic Shimmer Glue.

I used foam tape to secure the front to the embossed background. I then added a Navy satin bow to the corner before securing the whole piece to a white pearl base card.

Lastly just a little btit of exciting news, Leonie has a new One Day Special launch on Hochanda this Wednesday on Hochanda at 8pm. Thank you for joining me today, Hopefully you have enjoyed looking at the step by step I have shared and the finished card. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Take care and Happy Crafting.xx

Snow

Morning, While I had the opportunity, I just had to make a card using the lovely paper pads that Justin & Gordon from Be Creative brought to Hochanda. They are excellent quality with some beautiful designs.

For this I chose the beautiful Snowflake sheet along with the deer striped sheet.

I didn't want a full 8x8' sheet but I also didn't want to lose the beautiful edge design, so I cut a couple of inches from the centre from side to side and joined back together with tape on the reverse. I then took a sheet of Hint of Silver Centura Pearl and embossed it with the 'Entwined Snowflakes' by Sue Wilson.

Using a 2 part bauble die and the Snow die from Leonie's Entwined collection, I cut them out using the paper pad, I also cut some that I had covered with the Wonder Tape.

I then layered these u to use on my card later.

I had also cut the overlays of the baubles in card covered with Wonder Tape. I peeled the backing off and covered with Crystalina Glitter. At the same time I highlighted areas of the paper using the glue wand the same glitter.

I backed the embossed card onto some matching pearl card using Cosmic Shimmer glue.

Where I had joined the paper, I took some coordinating Seam Binding wrapped it around the card and secured on the reverse with Wonder Tape.

I then backed it onto the same matching card as I had used for the embossed card.

To finish the card I added the 'Snow', Baubles and a matching messy bow made from the seam binding. I used the 3D Glue Gel to raise the elements from the base card.

Thank you so much for visiting today, I hope that you have enjoyed my Step by Step and the finished card. I have to recommend these paper pads, I cant explain to you how fantastic the quality is, they also take inks really well to match any project you are doing. Hope to see you soon. Take care and Happy Crafting.xx

Parchment Mistletoe

Morning, I have really enjoyed crafting with the New Collection from Leonie. I love parchment craft and I just had to use these lovely stamps to make a parchment design, so here it is. If you did miss any of the shows or just want some more inspiration, the shows are still available on Catch Up via Hochanda's website.

The stamps I wanted to use to frame the design, dictated the size of my finished design, I needed a 7 1/2'' square. I cut my parchment to 8'' square , this gave me 1/4 on ll sides to fold around and secure behind my card. I lightly scored the parchment to act as a guide. I used one of the long Holly leaves and one of the short. I stamped them around the edge with Stazon white ink on the back.

Next, I took the mistletoe stamp and using only the leaf part, stamped my pattern within the frame I had created. I used the same white ink and stamped on the reverse of the piece. Then I added some of the berries that are also in the collection.

I embossed my whole design on the reverse using a small ball tool. I then added whitework, taking care not to alter the original stamps. Then I coloured behind with a selection of green and red. The mistletoe berries were left with just white embossing.

I chose my backing card to accentuate the colour and design. For this I used Teal Centura Pearl from the brights selection. It was cut to 7 1/2'' square. 

Then I scored my parchment all around the edges folded over and secured to my backing card using red liner tape. I then layered this onto another piece of teal Centura Pearl.

Using the same teal card, I cut out a pierced frame using one of Sue Wilson's dies and also a small oval. I cut out the same oval without an inner die and the 'Peace' from the Entwined Christmas Tree 'Frost', both of these were coated with a double sided sticky sheet.

I took the large oval die cut, peeled off the backing and coated it with clear Micro Beads from Creative Expressions.

I coated the 'Peace' with extra fine Crystalina  glitter to allow the colour to show through while still adding sparkle. I left the centre oval plain to highlight the 'Peace' I secured the frame using 3D glue gel but kept it flat. The centre oval was raised using 3D glue gel and 'Peace' was secured with Cosmic Shimmer.

I placed this onto my parchment design. I decorated with mistletoe, which I had stamped out and coloured with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink on both sides. After shaping them with a ball tool I stuck these in place using 3D glue gel, added the white berries and coated with Glossy Accents for the shine.

I have now got a copy of the real Facebook live video, that I did before my first Hochanda show on the 1st November 2018. Just a little preview of a small selection of the samples I made for the launch of very my first collection. I wanted to make it easier for people to make mens cards as it is one of the most asked questions for me. Take a look and enjoy.

Hochanda still have some stock of my collection available, and have been good enough to keep their, introductory price with an additional discount for Freedom Members and the Flexi option, so you can get the full collection for just over 20 pounds.There is very low stock of some of the individual items as well, so if you are thinking about it please dont leave it too long. Due to minimum orders, I doubt I will be able to restock these. I do also have a small selection of my collection available on my 'Craftascope' ETSY Store with free postage and Packing to much of the world, the link is at the top of the main blog page.

Just a little extra here: If you have not shopped with Hochanda before, here is a voucher code giving you 30% off your first purchase (FEY5JBP7) it can be used for any purchase, feel free to share it.

Here is another one of my Video tutorials, showing how to easily use one of the stencils in the collection to make a realistic portrait in under 20 minutes.

I hope you have enjoyed the step by step I have shared with you today and the finished piece. I have more to share with you tomorrow and I hope you will join in. Take care and Happy Crafting.

Wedding Joy Mount Board Hanging

This wedding joy hanging is made with a photo from My Nan's wedding. I copied it as I didn't want to spoil the original. The best way for me to explain this project is to break it down into individual elements.

From Leonies' collection I used stamps from the Doodle Drop set, the Joy stencil and the Love stencil. The distress inks I have used for this: Antique Linen, Old Paper, Pumice Stone,Vintage Photo,Victorian Velvet,Tattered Rose & Worn Lipstick. For this project I also needed a piece of mount board,regular tissue paper,Gilding Mega Flake,Fleather,Seam Binding and some Garden String.

Firstly I embossed the Joy stencil 4 times onto scrap card-stock, cut each one out and stuck them together using Stick and Stay and then glued to the mount-board. I then painted the entire surface of the mount-board and joy with lightly watered down gesso. While this was still wet I covered the whole piece with tissue paper and manipulated it to create creases all over.

Using some Faux leather made with kraft card, I cut out the tag along with some various shaped flowers, I used the complete Orange Blossoms from Sue Wilson. The remainder of the faux leather was used for a matt for the photograph. I used the love stencil (second size up) as a mask on the tag, stamped the solid hearts all over the tag in black and then used walnut stain distress ink and threaded with garden string. I stamped the flower die cuts with the flower stamp and stuck together using Cosmic Shimmer Glue.

I tore around the photo, then aged it using a selection of the distress inks & blending tools. Covered in Versamark and Ultra Thick Embossing Powder and heated with a heat tool. I repeated this twice more to give a really think covering before putting it into the freezer for 10 minutes. When it came out I created the crack and rubbed in Walnut stain to enhance the cracks.

On my craft mat, I tapped the distress inks: Antique Linen,Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet and a very small amount of Worn Lipstick. Spritzed with water and rubbed my seam binding into it. Then dried with my heat gun, whiles crunching it to make it look really aged.

On the background board, I stamped the hanging heart with flitterglu and covered with Mega Flake from Indigo Blu. Then I took a damp sea sponge and added flitterglu here and there, around the edges as well as over the 'Joy' and covered with the same Mega Flake, then rubbed of the excess with a scootchy.

The final stage was to colour up the white background with a selection of Distress inks. I also highlighted the creases with darker inks and all around the project. Then assembled as shown in the finished photo.

Hopefully, you have enjoyed this post. I really enjoyed making it and sharing it with you. Take care and Bye for now and see you soon. xxx

A Wedding Card Using Sheena Douglas Stamps

Day Six and another update.

Not bad I hear you say. Today, I thought I would share a wedding card I made using stamps from Sheen Douglas and a Die from Sue Wilson. For the outside of the card I used the outside die from Sue Wilson's Australian Collection, the background set. I cut that out to create a frame for the stamped image behind.

I stamped the frame with a selection of swirl stamps and words, also by Sheen Douglas. I used distress ink to stamp the swirls and the colour was Tattered Rose. Then I used the a few distress inks around the frame to blend into the background, The inks were, Tattered Rose, Antique Linen and Victorian Velvet.

I stamped the main image twice onto Crafters Companion watercolour card using Black archival ink as I wanted to use watercolour, also I wanted to decoupage the car. The blossoms were also stamped in black archival ink and painted using the same distress inks used for the frame. Finally the image was painted using a selection of Tim Holtz Distress inks, used with water from the craft mat. To finish the card, I used foam on a roll to add dimension to the frame and 3d glue gel to decoupage the car. The I tied a bow using double sided satin bow for the top left hand corner and a wrap of the same colour ribbon on the bottom right hand corner. I was going to glaze the car but decided against it on this card.