Christmas Sleigh

Morning Friends and Crafters, today I am sharing with you, a card I made with the Christmas Dimensionals. Again this is a two project tutorial as you really do need to decorate the outside, especially when you have put so much work into the inside. I am sure you all know how much I love these Dimensional ranges, they are so inspiring and make very special cards to give.

You will need:

Sleigh Concept Die

Sleigh Accessorie Die

Festive Words 1

Sparkling Snowflakes 1

Festive Foliage 1

Sleigh Accessories Acrylic Stamps

Tissue Paper

Infusions 'Royal Blood'

Sheena Stamping Card

Red and Gold Mirror Card

12 x 12 Plain Paper Pad

12 x 12 Decorative Paper Pad

Green, White and Blue Foamiran

Centura Pearl White/Silver Card

Step 1: Put a piece of tissue paper on a glass mat, spritz and sprinkle with royal blood, spritz again and leave to dry. Once dry add this to the top of your base card to form the sky.

Step 2: Cut a selection of presents and ribbons, layer these up with Tacky glue. Next cut the moon, stars, trees and houses for decoration.

Step 3: Add Mountains and hills to your scene, secure yellow card behind the windows of the houses to look like lights, add these to your scene. Cut in your concept dies, cover the sleigh with the mirror card, for the reindeer, stamp and die cut from the light brown in the paper pad.

Step 4: Cut the poinsettias and leaves from the foamiran.

Step 5: Cut your mats and layers from the paper pad and Centura pearl. Cut the sentiment in blue, Dies cut the edger die either side of your topper.

Step 6: Arrange and secure your layers as shown in the photo.

Step 7: Add your trees, snowflakes, presents and all of the little extras to finish the inside.

Thank you for taking the time to visit today. I do hope you have enjoyed your visit. Please come back again soon to see what else I have to share with you. For now take care and Happy Crafting.xxx

Crystal Timepiece

Morning, Today I am sharing a card I made for the lunch of the Brand New Easel card die's. These are smashing dies, to enable you to create those perfect base, either plain or elaborate. Leaving you to add your own mark with decoration, let your creativity flow.

For this card you will need:

Timepiece Easel Die

Acetate

Tissue Paper

Alcohol Inks

3D Lacquer

Gloss Black card

Silver Mirri card

Step 1: Create you acetate background. Add the alcohol inks of your choice randomly over the back of your acetate, upto 4 colours give a good result. Then add 3D Lacquer all over the back of your piece, finally cover this with crinkled tissue paper. Make sure this is thoroughly stuck down to your work and leave to dry.

Step 2: Create you easel base using black gloss card. Cut a smaller shield from silver mirri and secure it to your base with all purpose glue.

Step 3: Again using your smallest shield along with the smaller of the two inserts, cut into your black card. Secure this over the mirri on your base.

Step 4: Use the large shield to cut the top part from Silver Mirri and the acetate. From a piece of the black, cut the large shield, including the two inserts.

Step 5: Cut additional cogs from the black, mirri and acetate you have left over. Also cut an additional pocket watch from black.

Step 6: Assemble all the parts you have cut using Collall all purpose glue

Step 7: Finally arrange your cogs which will form the stopper for your card.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by and see what I am sharing today. I hope you enjoyed the tutorial. I hope you will take the time to add your comments or feedback. I do like to read them. I do have a question, Would you prefer just to have a photo of the finished card on facebook rather than a tutorial. Many thanks. For now Take care and Happy Crafting.xx

Dandelion Clock

This is a project I was really excited about so I am really pleased to be sharing it with you today. The base is made from the large 8' circle MDF that Bev from Bee Crafty launched at Alexandra Palace live on Hochanda. I used the dandelion set of stamps, it's a really wonderful set and I am sure I will be using them in a lot of different project, I am sure you will too.

To start with I took a sheet of tissue paper, slightly bigger than the MDF and stamped the dandelion seeds with Versamark to act as a resist. I wanted to get as many layers as possible to add interest to the finished piece.

Having spritzed the tissue thoroughly I sprinkled Brusho's over the surface, I used Emerald Green and Cobalt Blue.

I then saturated the tissue with water to blend and make pools of colour, then put it outside in the sun to dry.

I took my clock stencil and drew around it onto copier paper, cut out and set aside. I would use this later to protect the work, it makes it a lot easier.

Next I mixed some white Gesso with a coupe of teaspoons of plaster, I find this gives a much nicer surface for stamping onto than Gesso on it's own and the results are much nicer. I painted this onto the base and left to dry.

Using Black Versamark, I stamped some of the dandelions and seed heads from the collection onto the MDF base. 

I left this to dry before applying the tissue to the base using Cosmic Shimmer Matt Glue, Seal & Glaze from Creative Expressions. When this had dried overnight, I stamped more dandelions on top using Versamark and embossed with white fine detail powder to add another layer. Next I took some Decoart sand Texture Paste and coloured it using some black Brusho's

I placed my clock stencil in place and then added my copier paper to protect the other areas. Using a painting knife I spread the  Sand Texture Paste onto my project and removed the stencil and paper.

I added my sentiment using Black Versafine and added some Pebeo Gilding wax to the clock and edges.

To finish I added the clock hands and my project was finished.

Thank you for visiting today, I hope you have enjoyed this step by step and like the finished article. Hope to see you again soon. Take care and Happy Crafting.xx

Sending Love at Christmas

Morning, Today I want to share a Christmas Card with a twist. I have made this using the stamps and dies that Leonie launched on Hochanda. Please try and watch the shows, if you missed them or just want some more inspiration. They will be available on the Hochanda website via the catch up facility.

I took the wordy background stamp, using Black Archival, I stamped all over a piece of tissue paper.

Next I took a selection of Pixie powders and Brusho to create the background. I used Cobalt Blue Brusho with Silver Dream, White Pearl and Purple Violet Pixie Powders from Creative Expressions. I sprinkled more of the Cobalt Blue Brusho and Purple Violet first and then added smaller bursts of the Silver Dream and White Pearl. I then saturated the tissue paper and left to dry. Where the pools had settle it gives a lovely texture while still allowing the stamped images to show through. I actually used this technique last year to decorate my hallway and it's easily transferable to card making.

Next, using white Centura Pearl card I cut a frame, approximately 6 1/2 x 5'' I was using the  plain side but I know that this card embosses exceptionally well and take the ink nicely too.

I cut a rectangle for the cartouche and sentiment and rubbed an anti static pad over this and the frame. I stamped both using Versamark with Ultra fine silver detail powder. For the frame I used one of the swirly stamps from Leonie's collection.

I took my card and covered it with my backing paper, it is best to overlap this to the back rather than trim as you will get a much neater edge. I wrapped a burgundy satin ribbon around this and secured at the back with red liner tape. I then mounted this onto Silver Mirri Card giving a 1/4'' boarder.

I used one of the strip stamps to create my corner sentiment on each corner of the base card. For this I again used Versamark and the silver embossing powder. I prefer making my own corner sentiments as you dont get any upside down elements.

I blended around the edges of my backing card with Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink to coordinate with the main card.

I then cut out the Entwined Snowflake Base twice using Centura Pearl 'Hint of Silver' and attached to the back of my frame. I secured this to the card using foam tape to lift it from the base.

Finally I added the sentiment, which I had also blended with Blueprint Sketch and backed with Silver Mirri Card. To finish the card I added a matching burgundy satin bow.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit today. I hope you have enjoyed the step by step I have shared with you and the finished project. Take care and hope to see you tomorrow. Happy Crafting xx

Ghetto Rat Wall Hanging

Morning Today I would like to share a wall hanging project that I made using the New Banksy XL stamps that Bev launched on Hochanda recently. They really are excellent stamps and the detail is superb. 

I stamped Ghetto Rat onto tissue paper to start with, using a 'Blue Lagoon' Versafine ink pad.

The substrate I used was a watercolour board, measuring approximately 5 x 7''.

To add texture and interest I added some white gesso to my canvas using a palette knife.

Whilst this was still wet I placed the stamped tissue paper into place on my board. I then sprinkled on some Prussian Blue Brusho in different areas and spritzed with water to achieve the look I wanted.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit today. I really hope you have enjoyed this step by step and the wall hanging I have created. I hope you will visit again very soon, more from Leonie's new Launch tomorrow. Take care and Happy Crafting.xx

Abstract Wooden Wall Hanging

Morning, Today's project is using the New Stamp Collection from Leonie, That was launched on Hochanda on June 8th. They are wonderful stamps and suit so many styles. They also mix really well with all of the other goodies from Leonie's range as well as others. 

I created this with a piece of reclaimed timber, It had some lovely markings on it, as well as some really wonderful blue tones which was just what I wanted. It had to be sanded quite a lot to smooth all the edges and enhance the shape. It still retained some of the blue which would look rather like sky. I added some white gesso to the areas where the flower and stem would be to help the stamp show through.

I stamped the large flower onto tissue paper and then manipulated one of the word strips to form the stem and stamped onto the paper. Then stuck this to the wood using Matt Gel Medium.

Whilst this was drying, I tore some paper and a page from an old dictionary and stamped these using some other border stamps from the collection and the distressed sentiment circle stamp. I then adhered these to my project using the Matt Gel Medium.

On a small square of glass, I scribbled where I wanted the colour to be with a Pebeo Paint pen and glued into position over the flower.

This is a very different project and I hope you have enjoyed seeing it. It's such a shame that the picture doesn't do it justice. It would look lovely on a chain hung in a hallway. Thank you so much for taking the time to visit today, I hope you will pop by again very soon. Take care xxx

Life's Work

Morning, Well I have recovered from filming yesterday. If you have seen the demonstration for the silk ribbon roses, then I hope you enjoyed it. If you didn't please take a look they are a really handy thing to have up your sleeve for embellishing cards or crafty project.

Today's card is made from the beautiful feather collection of stamps from Bee Crafty, drawn by Sam. A fantastic job, I am sure you will all agree. I started of by dying/ageing some papers using cold strong tea. Hung to dry overnight.

Next I stamped the old invoice stamp onto the paper. I did the original stamp in brown ink, but felt that the Black Archival would suit this project better.

Next I masked off the end of the large straight feather as I wanted the nib to be at the end to make the pen. I stamped this with Versamark and embossed using black fine detail powder and heated using a heat gun. I had previously done the same with the nib only with gold fine detail powder. I cut this out and set aside.

Separately I stamped the ink bottle with black Archival and now had all the elements I wanted for the card, including 3 old invoices in black.

For the background, I took a sheet of tissue paper and built up a pattern using a mixture of stamps across the collection, along with the words Life & Memory, both from sentiments found in the Wordage section of Bee Crafty. Obviously you can change the words depending on the theme of your project. There are some really amazing sentiments on the website.I used a selection of inks to stamp the tissue: Black Archival,Walnut Stain, Brushed Corduroy and Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink. I wanted the colours to come from the background and therefore these colours are fairly muted.

To provide the background colour, I took a sheet of A4 watercolour card and saturated it under the tap. The took Violet, Emerald Green and Cobalt Blue Brushos and added them here and there with the end of a mini screwdriver. I let the colours spread naturally before taking a straw and blowing to get some trails.

I wanted an 8'' square for my finished project, which gave me ample left over to stamp my sentiment.

I cut the sentiment to size, cut a mat for it approximately 5 mm larger and blended Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink around the edges.

I covered the watercolour card with PVA let down 50/50 with water. Scrunched my tissue paper, unravelled it and stuck it down, keeping creases and folds to add texture to the card. Leave this aside until completely dry before trimming the excess or you wont get a nice sharp edge.

Having played around with the composition, I decided something else was needed so I stamped the same straight feather onto shrink plastic, coloured with a red pencil and heated until completely shrunk. I also coloured my Quill pen with a selection of alcohol markers.

I layered my sentiment with cosmic shimmer, I arranged the old invoices and also secured them with cosmic shimmer glue. I shaped the ink bottle and used 3D glue get to secure, I then stuck the shrunk feather so it was sitting in the ink bottle.Finally I added the sentiment and large quill feather pen with 3D glue gel.

I really hope you have enjoyed my post today and hope that you will stop by again. Don't forget tomorrow night is the Launch of Leonie's new One Day Special on Hochanda at 8pm.I will be sharing some of my samples at the same time, but watch the show first, you dont want to miss out. Take care xx