A frame card made using my Brother Scan N Cut

This is a frame card I made using my brother Scan n Cut. It is my own design and all done by hand, then coloured using copic markers. Firstly, I started by drawing the design I wanted onto vellum so I could see the photo through it,  slightly larger than I wanted the finished design to be so I could get more detail. It also had to be a negative of what I wanted to keep, so after a few mistakes I finally got the design I wanted. 

I then scanned it into my Brother, reduced it to the size I wanted and cut out the base design onto 300GSM Super Smooth Card. Then I drew the first layer of flowers, again on copier paper, scanned these and had the machine cut them out on the same card. Then this was repeated for the third layer, this time slightly smaller then the first layer, cut out on the same card and then I drew in the fine detail with a copic fine liner.

Finally I coloured all of the layers with copic markers so once the card was finished no white card was showing. It wouldn't have been possible with scissors as some of the branches within the frame are less than 3mm think so it's very delicate. At the back of the base card I have attached a layer of mauve card covered in acetate and the design is placed over the top, this added some protection without loosing the delicate effect.

A Doctor Who Easel Card For A Friend

Day Four, I have done really well keeping my Blog up to date. Hopefully people are liking what I am sharing.

I wanted to share this one today as I am fairly proud of it. I have a friend who is a great fan of Dr Who. So for his birthday I decided to make a Dr Who easel card to include all of the Doctors. Its quite a large card made with A3 Centura Pearl for the base card.

I imported the doctors into Serif Craft Artist and used a variety of frames around them. Then after cutting them out, I suspended across the back of the card using a construction weight acetate cut into an arc shape joining on the right hand side to the flat Tardis picture.

I then made a three dimensional Tardis which acted as a stopper along with a group picture of the Doctors. I printed a background paper which looked like the start of the universe for the background and made mats and layers from Black Pearlesant card. I hope you like the end result, I think it was well worth taking the time over this and he was very pleased.

I am entering this card into the challenge at Suzy Bee's.

House Mouse Project Book Designs.

Morning.Well I am not doing bad. I have updated my blog for the third day in a row. I have plenty to share with you and I hope you will enjoy it. Today I thought I would share some of my House Mouse cards. When I was in Joanna Sheen's design team I was fortunate enough to be given the chance to have some designs published in one of her wonderful Project Books.

Some of my designs were also used in the beautiful Thomas Kinkade Christmas Project book and I will share those in a later post. The project books really are brilliant and comes along with a CD Rom that contains everything you need to put the cards together and then use to design your own cards too. 

The House Mouse Project Book Volume One has been beautifully illustrated in photographs taken by Debbie Patterson. The 48 page book contains full instructions to make all of the 23 House Mouse designs. I thoroughly enjoyed making the cards that are in the book, there is something for everyone, easier designs for new crafters and some more elaborate ones too. The CD Rom has some beautiful backing papers, toppers and decoupage to use again and again so it's a great resource to have in your stash.

I have checked and the House Mouse project book is still available at the Joanna Sheen online shop. Here are a few more of the cards I made for the book. I really hope you like them.

My First Ever Embroidery

I Just had to share this project next, I was totally blown away by the results I got. I started Crosstitching years ago, I have always loved it along with the projects that I have completed. I had always admired embroidery but always thought it would be very difficult and take a lot of concentration in order to get a good result. On Hochanda (My Favourite Craft Channel) I saw Katrina from Rowandean demonstrating some of her amazing embroidery. I have to say she made it look incredibly easy, so I watched all of the shows before making the decision to try one of the kits.

Oh my goodness, I am so glad I decided to go for it. It is one of the most relaxing and therapeutic of needlecraft's, that I have tried. The instructions are so easy to follow, a simplified design is also printed on the fabric making it so easy to stitch. Obviously you do have artistic licence and can change or add just what you like to make it your own. I got a little carried away with the French knots so one of the bushes ended up being totally knots rather than straight stitch.

I thoroughly enjoyed stitching the design, the only down side to the kit was coming to the end, although now I can enjoy the framed piece on my wall. I am now keen on trying a larger piece, three I have my eye on are: Bluebell Wood, Seagulls and Blackberries. Watch this space.

A Catch Up With Knitting

Hello again people.

Well at last I have collected enough of my crafty makes all in one place. So I will be aiming to post every day or at least every other day. In this post I wanted to share my first knitted project as I promised years ago I would. My Nan tried for years to teach me to knit, but I am afraid it was in vain, I just couldn't grasp it at all. It was only years later after watching Hayley West and buying her fabulous DVD's, that it eventually learnt to cast on and knit.I thought I would start with this project after watching Jody Long Knitting on Hochanda at the weekend.

My first project was from the Rowan Colourscape book. The patterns in the book are written very well and are easy to follow. They are fairly basic knit and purl, which is just what I needed so even I could complete the finished article. I was over the moon with the results I got and love the bright colours of the Rowan wool. I have to admit, that normally I would never wear anything that wasn't either black, grey, or blue as I normally have very plain taste, but I thought it was time for a change. 

I would never have managed or learnt to knit without the help of Hayley west or here DVD Collection so I will always be grateful to her. Thank you Hayley for the gift of Knitting.

My Art Journal Project

It's been a long time since I last updated my blog. I have to apologise but so much has been going on. There has been a lot of building going on here, so the builders have been here for nearly a year. Also I now have a suitable internet connection, so I can access the internet regularly. I am determined now to blog all of my makes so I hope you will join in and enjoy.

For a long time I have wanted to make an art journal. I found a fabulous video tutorial on youtube: (How to make a Sketchbook: Coptic Stitch) It's very detailed, clear and easy to follow. I would highly recommend watching it if you want to make your very own. 

I have added a cloth inside cover and Faux leather outside cover both front and back, also added a black cotton binding. Here is the finished Journal. I am very pleased with it. I wanted to use as many recycled materials as possible. For the covers I have used old envelope board. The signatures inside are made from various types of damaged card and paper, which determined the finished size of my journal as the sheets needed to be cut down to remove the damage. When I made up the signatures I found that the finish is much better if you keep the paper types together. You can combine as many different types as you wish as long as each individual signature is made up of the same paper or card. 

Before I made any holes or followed the stitching method on the video, I covered the inside cover with cotton fabric. This was cut about 12 Inch larger on all sides of the cover to allow an overlap and glue to the opposite side. It will be covered at the end by the Faux Leather cover. 

T

he paper for the signatures should be about 1/8 Inch smaller than the cover on 3 sides, The Top, bottom and opening edge. This will ensure that the papers fit nicely inside the cover once the book is bound and finished. Once you get to this stage I would follow the video on YouTube for the stitching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2FRKbQI2kY Make sure when stitching that the fabric faces inwards. I know this sounds simple, But I made the mistake and only realised when I got to the last signature.

Now you are ready to add the Faux Leather cover or cover of your choice. I have not included this technique as there are many excellent tutorials on youtube. Before adding the cover decide whether you want the binding to go under or over the cover. I decided to put it over the top for the end result I wanted.

To work out the binding, I measured the spine and added a line at 1.5cm and 3cm either side and obout the same either end of the book. On the outer edge of the 1.5cm segment I added a 1cm strip of heat n bond (you can use glue) and folded the edge. This gives a nice finish to the binding, I also did this for either end of the spine. Make sure to measure against your book to get the perfect fit. Hope you have fun and enjoy your journal, Now you can just have fun filling the pages.

A Little Bit Sketchy Greeting Card.

I love Sheena's Stamps and for this card I chose from the 'Little Bit Sketchy' Range from Sheena Douglas, the name of the stamp set is 'Believe'

I chose some leaf stamps from Justrite, It's the Shabby Chic Range 'Autumn Leaves'

I create the background using a background stamp, also from Justrite, called Autumn Swirls.

The dies I used for this particular card were from Tonic, The Oval Layering Dies straight and scalloped set.

To start with the background, I took a piece of white card and using a versamark inkpad stamped the Autumn Swirls background, used detail fine white embossing powder and heated. Then distress the edges with Antique Linen, building up the colour.

I chose a selection of leaves from the set and stamped them using black momento ink and coloured using a selection of copic markers. These were then cut out, shaped and put aside.

I used a selection of copics to colour the image of the church from Sheena Douglas, the lovely thing about this stamp is you can easily change the season depending on the colours you use. The atmosphere of the finished piece can also be changed dramatically by using different colouring mediums.

The coloured image was then cut using the oval die and layered onto a slightly larger mat, cut from black pearlesant cardstock from(www.annamariedesigns.co.uk/)

I layered the background on the same black cardstock, glued the topper onto the card and then arranged the leaves around part of the image to look a little like they had fallen from a tree.

I hope you like the finished result.