Time to catch up

Yes I'm a very bad blogger. Life has just got in the way but in the lull between Christmas and New Year I've made a bit of time to share some of the class projects from the last few months.

Christmas cards were simple but effective this year with this one I made for my Great Niece from a poinsettia Die

and this one I made in both white and red

 A little bit of shaping, glitter around the petals and some pearl beads in the centre made them stand out on the card and were a favourite in class.

The Sizzix Poinsettias are beautiful and I will definitely use them again next year.

3D Embossing Folders

I am absolutely loving these 3D embossing folders. Put black card through the Sizzix machine, rub on a bit of Finns Wax 

and you have a very easy and pretty card made in minutes. Always good for that last minute card and the class loved playing with the waxes.

Christmas Wishes

Nice and simple and very sparkly, just the sort of card you can make loads of in time for Christmas.

The background is stamped with a distressed snowflake stamp using Distress Oxide, the same colour is used for the sky behind the stag. My favourite is the snowflake half circle die which I bought a few weeks ago. It makes any card say Christmas. x

Christmas is coming...

and by special request I repeated a card I first made many years ago. The camera doesn't pick it up very well but the stars at the top sparkle and there is also some glitter on the background paper.

Both dies, the skates and the star border are Tim Holtz Bigz dies. I'm pretty sure they are still available if you search. I like the way you can actually lace the boots. An easy card to duplicate for family and friends.

Live for the moments

I have been itching to use these Tim Holtz stamps and after a trip to Beamish I had the pictures I needed. 

I am really into cutting out photos at the minute mainly because it seems to highlight the focus of the page.

All of the saying are part of the stamp set. I am using them in my journal quite a lot as well.

This is my favourite of the set, a man on a tightrope.

Back to cards tomorrow. Have a great a great day xxx

Catching Up...

I have just come back from a lovely break in the sun so I thought I'd better get the blog up to date before classes start again.

This first layout is called 'Blossom like a butterfly'

The actual paper is so beautiful it really didn't need a lot of embellishment so I started the class off by adding the watercolour around the photo. It was interesting to see that everyone used different colour mixes but they all worked with the paper.

Some of the watercolour was held back, watered down and used to colour the white flowers to match the flowers on the paper.

The white bike was painted with acrylic paint and the date of the photo put on the chain cover. To finish we added little gemstones randomly about the page.

The leaves were also die cut in white and coloured using watercolour paints. Enjoyed doing this one. xx

Minibook for June 2018

When a new little one joins the family there are hundreds of photos taken by all of the family. I wanted to keep a book per year for not only my Great Niece but also for all of my grandchildren. The thought of making all those mini books filled me with dread until I saw and bought Eileen Hulls Wrap Around Journal Die. 

This is the Mini book I made in Class as part of the Scrapping Your Family Special Edition Class.

Instead of an elastic closing I used a belly band Decorated with washi tape, die cut flowers and a stamp with the month on.

The cover of the book was covered in blue cardstock and the edges reinforced with washi tape. This is the back of the book.

I kept the inside really simple. I used Eileen Hulls Passport Die and cut eight double pages which i made into 4 little books and added using the elastic spine.

Here are just a few samples of what is inside

I made full use of the 7 Dots wording strips which I had in my own stash

and here you can see the pages standing upright. Although I haven't shown it these pages are all added using the black elastic i added to the spine.

I have already made 6 more of these and there are definitely more needed lol. x

Halloween in July

Well why not lol. Makes a change from making Christmas projects and although not everyone gets in the spirit of Halloween I bet we all have at least one photo of the children doing Trick or Treat.

So easy to make and will look fantastic at Halloween. I am looking for a mini book that my sister and I made for Halloween. If I ever find it I will be sure to share. OK now back to Christmas sigh xx

Our Mermaid

The last of the class layouts today. Again the main focus was on the handmade embellishment, this time the beautiful mermaid.

The little sea horses were stamped onto the page  as were the bubbles which were then topped with stickles to make them sparkle.

The die cuts were all coloured using pro markers

and I also added some stickles onto the mermaids tail.

Still loving these papers x

Sun, Sea, Sand

This is the first from the July Scrapping Your Family class. 

The idea was to make embellishments from scratch on each of the two layouts made in class. In this one it was the under the sea creating a scene through a porthole

The flying fishes were stamped, cut out and then added using 3d foam pads.

The additional star fish were also stamped and cut out

and the wording was done in a silver glitter alphabet which was also part of the kit. x

Lots of surprises

Now this one took some doing. I loved the stamp and originally just added flowers onto the magnifying glass on the stamp. It was ok but I wanted to make it pop so i stamped and cut out the magnifying glass twice.

added acetate to the centre of the top piece raising it up on foam pads and putting 3d flowers underneath. It looks really cool.

I am going to try it again with butterflies I think. Great stamp this one and class loved it x

Oh I do Like to be beside the seaside

This months release of Creative Stamping magazine had an A4 sheet of fantastic holiday images. Everything you see is made from those stamps

I was really happy at the wording as well. These are great for card making but also for scrapbooking , mini books and mixed media.

I enjoyed using the bright colours with this set. I'm sure I will be using them again soon.xx

Thinking of you

I decided to used the raised foreground technique again after the success of the anniversary card last time. 

The background is pretty standard made using a shadow flower stamp and a green ink pad. The greetings banner is then added to the card using sticky foam pads and any main images are stuck to the banner making the card appear 3D. So simple yet so effective. The stamp is by PennyBlack and the shadow flower stamp is a free one from a magazine.x

Choices, choices

It is funny how panic sets into a room of scrapbookers when they are given a choice of papers lol. This is what happened in class but I had to do two layouts because I had promised a male and female layout.

Here is the female one

This picture is of a lovely lady who is on one of the design teams I'm on. We met in person for the very first time at a local craft show but it was like meeting an old friend. The layout is simple and easy to follow.

All of the hearts 

and lettering were hand cut (notice the tiny words printed on some of the letters)

and the tiny hearts were punched out.

Layout two was the men's one although it could equally be used as a travel layout

Luckily the wording for this one was on part of the paper and went really well.

The circles were again hand cut

as were the tiny little hot air balloons. Loved all of the papers this time. x

Laugh

Layout two was making a background from stamps.

We used the A4 background stamp from AALL & Create which is super amazing and you can find it HERE. If you look closely you will see I coloured in a small amount of detail with a wet glue and embossing powder.

Using glue means that the gold dried raised and made it look really cool.

Adding the coloured hexagons finished off the page. What would I do differently next time?  I think I would heat emboss all of the background and use watercolour paint to add a colour tint to the page.xx

Wanderlust Beach Layout

I just fell in love with this beautiful range from Graphic 45. Absolutely captured the feeling of sun, sea and sand and so easy to use. This was the main layout for Junes Scrapping Your Family Class. 

Loving those sea turtles fussy cut from one of the papers in the kit

and of course the amazing stamps of suitcases, Camera and leather bag, not from Graphic 45 but from Penelope Dee. The stamps are so detailed that even a beginner can colour them in. We used water colours in class.

The camera aperture was just right to add a photo. I will definitely be buying more of Penelope Dee's stamps in the future. I bought them from "Snazzy Stamping and Scrapbooking Ltd. There is no online shop yet but you can find them on facebook HERE and you can order via facebook site. x

Happy Anniversary

This is the second stamp of this couple I have bought and I think they are fantastic. Easy to colour in and very effective with just a minimal background.

I must admit that i did watch a couple of You tube videos to get this card looking like this but I did learn a lot and will definitely use this technique again.

Flowers are made using a punch and the stems are hand cut. Everyone in class liked this one.

And here are the three class samples together. x