Happy Crafting New Year

I'd like to wish you all a Happy Crafting New Year.
I hope Father Christmas brought you something nice to play with.  I got an IndigoBlu FlitterGlu Pack so I'm a happy bunny.
I've listed all the dates for the Diss Craft Club and half the years dates for workshops at Sew Simple in Taverham and I'll be listing the Snetterton Park dates once they've been finalised. So do check back and see what we're all up to. It looks like it could be a busy year.

December Distress at Taverham

     

 I would like to showcase some of the work done during the workshop we had at Taverham on Wednesday. These little tag books are samples of the ladies work done in the class. I have to say for some first time Distressers the work was amazing, keep it up ladies you're better than you think you are!
The workshops are usually based on learning techniques rather than a single finished item, we feel this offers best value as it gives you lots of ideas to try at home. There will be some workshops next year that may concentrate on a particular project simply due to their complexity, but we'll try to make that clear in the workshop title.
I would like to say Thank You to the Taverham Pupils and Staff for being so accommodating during my recent dash to Wales, I'm happy to report Dad's on the mend.
I hope that you will all find a little crafting peace over the holiday and that Father Christmas brings you something nice.

Elegant Antlers

I'd like to introduce Timothy, one of the less well known reindeer.  Tim has been made using a Sizzix Bigz die called Elegant Flourishes.  I cut two of the small flourishes from pearl chocolate card and turned one of them over to mirror the other, then pushed them together to make Tim's head. He has two small wobbly eyes, a little red gem glued on for his nose and a small piece of brown card cut to fit behind his face.
Tim is mounted on foam pads and stuck on to a background stamped with a very useful stamp from Penny Black called Christmas Story - available as a Slapstick cling stamp. The stamp was inked up with Distress Inks in Fired Brick and Forest Moss on to cream card.
The green holly leaf border is punched using a Martha Stewart punch around the page set. You start off with a piece of card measuring 5 x 6.75 inches and end up with a centre just under 6 x 4.
Then the last layer is a cherry red card blank. I have used a small piece of the same card to cut out a bauble with a Spellbinder die - 2011 Heirloom Ornaments which is then hung from Tim's antler with thin gold thread. The greeting is from a set of Penny Black stamps called Christmas Critters and embossed in gold. I have added tiny gold corners to the background just to give a little shine. 

Whenever you buy a new die have a play with the pieces, it's amazing what else you can make with them. 

J&C Creations November Challenge

 Today sees the beginning of Novembers Challenge over at J and C Creations Challenge Blog, pop over and see all the lovely Floral cards the DT have come up with.
This beautiful Hydrangea head is from Heartfelt Creations. It's a rubber stamp that comes already cut and mounted on foam so all you have to do is open the packet and start stamping.
I chose to stamp with Perfect Medium and emboss in white on black card. I stamped a small area on white card and cut out the flower I thought I would like to highlight, this is coloured pink using a Sakura Stardust pen. All the flowers have a tiny white gem in the middle but due to my amateur photo skills they don't really show too well. The greeting comes with the flower head and there is also a lovely floral branch in the set which I shall use another day.
The butterfly is a Joycraft die, I left the die in place and used Perfect Medium to dab through the decorative holes which I then dusted with Cosmic Shimmer Mica powder. The edge of the butterfly has been coloured with a Distress Marker - Picket Fence, so that it shows up a little better.
The main picture is mounted on a small layer of pale pink and then onto black again. It's an easy and relatively quick card to make, perfect for a last minute make.

Snowflake and Star tutorial

Good evening all. As promised here is the tutorial for making the star and the snowflake shown in the previous post.
You will need to follow this link over to J&C Creations blog for full details as this project was made as part of my DT work.
It's not often I make something that I really love, I think we are all critical of our own work, but this star is definitely my favourite thing this Christmas.
If you have any queries about the instructions then please contact me, I'd be happy to help.
Happy Crafting!

Damask Snowflakes and Stars

This creation was inspired by a clever lady named Becca Feeken at Amazing Paper Grace and my son.
Becca made a fan shape with one of the Spellbinder Damask Motif set which made me think of snowflakes. When putting it together my son suggested that I should off set the points for a snowflake but not for the star and I think you'll agree he was right.
Both decorations are made fully dimensional so they can hang anywhere giving you something pretty and delicate to look at and as they are paper they're safe for little hands or paws too!

I would like to enter this in Winter Wonderland - Anything Goes  challenge this week.
If you would like to know how I made these then please leave me a comment and I will get around to typing up a tutorial in the next few days.

In The Pink

This cheeky little elf sees the beginning of the Contemporary Christmas challenge over at J and C Creations tomorrow. It is also an entry in a challenge over at Jingle Belles, who are asking for pink Christmas cards to be entered to help raise money for Breast Cancer Research. Each pink Christmas card entered in the challenge will result in a donation of $4.00 by the lovely ladies that run the site, so PLEASE make a pink Christmas card and join them to help beat this rotten disease.
The stamp used is called Little Elf Mim from Penny Black, stamped in archival black and clear embossed. Mim is coloured with watercolour pencils. The holly berries are glittered and the fur trim is covered with Flowersoft Polar White. The tree branches are a die from Marianne Creatables coloured with Distress Inks Mowed Lawn and Forest Moss. The stamped card has been edged with Distress Ink Picked Raspberry and then mounted on a cerise pink mirri card. The greeting is a bauble stamped with a JustRite stamp which is a perfect fit for the Spellbinder Heirloom Ornament die set.
Pink is not usually my first choice when colouring but I have enjoyed making this card and to know that it's creation is doing more than just keeping me occupied makes it all the more worth while.

J&C Creations Friendship challenge

" Today is World Card Making Day,  to celebrate J & C Creations are running an extra challenge on the J & C Creations Designs to Inspire Blog, they are offering one lucky winner this  fantastic prize

To be in with a chance of winning this great prize they would like to see your cards Celebrating Friendship to find out more about the challenge pop over to the J & C Creations Designs to Inspire Blog by Clicking HERE, where you will also find some cards to inspire you by the Design Team"

Table top Turkeys

This weeks challenge over on 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is 'Anything BUT a Card' so I would like to introduce Bernard (well I do live in Norfolk!!) This cute little fellow has been made using the three different sizes of rosette die from Sizzix Tim Holtz range.
I wish I could lay claim to his invention but this is an idea by Tim Holtz from last autumn, click on the link and you can see step-by-step instructions. I have made peacocks which you can see on a previous blog entry and I'm sure that a grouse would look pretty good too.
The rosettes have been cut from an old buff file divider I had in my cupboard, it looks a little like Kraft card. Each rosette has been stamped with Archival Ink Coffee using a swirl stamp before construction. The two smaller rosettes have been edged with a gold acrylic dauber and the large one with a white dauber. The eyes are a small drop of Cosmic Shimmer pearl glue in black.
The name tag is the smallest die from Spellbinders set Heirloom Ornaments 2011. Once decorated this is then stuck onto a cocktail stick which fits into the fan tail perfectly, it is easily removed so small children can then play with the turkey safely. I think he would look great on the table this Christmas along with a few other hand crafted crackers and decorations.

Steampunk Christmas

Here is my contribution to this weeks challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, the theme is eyelets.
Having invested in a Crop-A-Dile a few months ago I thought it was time to put it to good use. I have a set of stamps from Chocolate Baroque called Steampunk Christmas of which this tree is one.
The tree is stamped with Perfect Medium and Embossed with a Verdigris powder on to white pearl card, not such a good choice once all matted up so I have toned it down by using Distress Ink Old Paper to get more of a grungy look.
I have used two different sizes of eyelet, both came with the tool and a few tiny brads. The gems are also in two sizes just to add a little sparkle. The lovely gold star on the top of the tree is a brad sent to me by Ruth in a wonderful act of pure kindness, thank you Ruth.
The backing card is a lovely olive green run through an embossing folder called Victorian Fleur.
The green layer is matted on a small piece of chocolate pearl card and then an embossed gold card I picked up at a show before going on a chocolate pearl card blank. I have added some more gems to lift the colour a little. It is rather a masculine card because of my colour choice but I can think of two friends who would be happy to receive it so all is not lost. I think I'll try another one in silver and purple now.

Floral Tribute

 I found this photograph of my Granny and her big sister last week and thought I would like to make something special for them, sadly they are both gone now but I would like to put this photo up anyway.
Sizzix die - Tattered Flower Garland,  Spellbinder die - Foliage,  Distress Inks - Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge, Aged Mahogany, Brushed Corduroy, Old Paper and Forest Moss,  Archival Ink - Coffee,Cosmic Shimmer Glue - dries clear,  Foundations Card - coconut white.  Floral stamp - from Chocolate Baroque.

 The frame began life as a plain brown papier mache item crying out to be decorated. I began this process by stamping with Archival Coffee and a floral stamp from my stash. The beauty of this stamp is it's a random pattern making it easy to match up over a large area and it's not mounted onto anything, not even U-Mount, so it flexes to the shape of the item you are stamping, you can quite literally stamp round corners!
I covered the whole frame with this image because I liked it so much.

 Then I die cut four of every flower shape I wanted to use so that I could build my roses, Granny loved roses. The flower tutorial can be found on this link. All four sizes are on the Tattered Flower Garland die from Sizzix, they are smaller versions of the flowers found on the Bigz die Tattered Florals and the leaves on Tattered Leaves. Now you can make lots of different sized flowers that all look like they are from the same plant, it's great.

Colour your flowers before assembly, you could use coloured card to begin with but I chose to play with Distress Inks because I love them so much. Starting on the left hand side the colours are as follows.... Rusty Hinge edged with Aged Mahogany,  Wild Honey edged with Rusty Hinge,  Wild Honey no edging, Old Paper edged with Brushed Corduroy and Scattered Straw no edging.

 Here they are all made up and ready to glue on the frame. I also cut out some leaves from green card with a Spellbinder die - Foliage. While the shape was still in the die I inked the exposed areas with Forest Moss to darken them.

I put the flowers on the frame in several different positions before gluing to see where they looked best. Once happy with the layout I stuck them all on with Cosmic Shimmer dries clear glue, it's a very strong PVA glue that I have found very useful and it dries quite quickly too.
I made the frame with the flower cluster at the top left so that if I decide to change the picture it will also stand portrait without looking odd as the flowers will then be at the bottom.
I hope you will try using your paper craft skills for projects other than cards, there's so much possibility, start now for Christmas presents!

Sparkling antlers

This sparkling deer is my challenge entry over at 52CCT. It's a colour challenge this week, brown, cream and red. I'm also hoping he will qualify over on Sparkles Christmas Challenge where sparkle and bling are required.
The deer is a Sizzix die cut out of brown glitter paper that I stuck on to card. I didn't do so well as I stuck him on to white card then I had to colour the edges with a Promarker to get rid of the white, better planning next time!
The deer is stuck on to red card using foam pads. The red gem was stuck on his nose with Cosmic PVA. I used a Fiskars corner punch that has tiny snowflakes on it with cream card to get three different shapes of snowflake, then I stuck a tiny gem in the middle of each one. The snowflake on the rosette was coloured with a Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate teardrop inkpad, the ink wipes off the gem easily.
The rosette in made using the smallest size of Tim Holtz Sizzix Rosette Die. The cream layer is the actual size of the die strip but the red layer has been cut down by a few millimetres before assembly to show a cream border when completed. The Happy Christmas is a tiny peel off coloured with a brown permanent marker.
The whole picture was then layered onto cream card and then back onto red.
52 Christmas Card Challenge - colour challenge, brown, red and cream
Sparkles Christmas Challenge - Sparkle and bling , glitter and gems

The Old Boot gets Flower Power

Here as promised is The Boot.  It began life a long time ago as a lovely new work boot but when it's work was done I thought it should have a new life.
J&C Creations challenge this month is Try Something Different, so I did. I decided that as distress and grunge are so in vogue at the moment I would go the other way.
With the exception of one sequin covered flower they are all die cut from metal, card and fabric using a range of Sizzix and Spellbinder dies.

 I wanted to put my flowers on a green base so I had to paint my boot. I masked off the top brown cuff so it stayed brown and then painted with a cream emulsion I have in a tester pot.

 The green layer is a mix of various shades of acrylic paint and some Cosmic Shimmer misters.
The large purple and blue flower in the bottom left corner is the only metal one I made, it's coloured with alcohol inks.

The large pink flower with the button in the middle is fabric stuck on double sided sticky sheet then on to card and cut out. The netting is also die cut with a card flower in the middle and a gingham brad.

  The foliage is cut from a mixture of pearl card, plain card and some coloured with Distress inks or sprayed with mica misters.
The butterfly is the only stamped item on the boot. Stamped and embossed then coloured with Cosmic Shimmer Watercolours.I used a flower stamen folded in half and stuck behind his head to give him antenna.
Everything is stuck on with Cosmic Shimmer PVA dries clear glue, it's amazing stuff, much stronger than it looks!
 The whole project has taken a few weeks to complete but it has been fun. Oh and it has a jam jar inside so you can use it to store your brushes or put flowers in it!
I would like to enter my boot in the challenge over on Fashionable Stamping Challenges - Handmade Flowers.  When you see the creations people have come up with you'll be amazed. I don't enter to win, I just want to share because it was so much fun making something different.
So go on and Try Something Different!

Creative Expressions DT call

 This card is my DT call entry with Creative Expressions, the requirement is to show Texture in any form.
The stamps used are from CE called Art Nouveau Peacock. I began by using Perfect Medium to stamp the beautiful peacock feathers in a random pattern on black card. Then I used Cosmic Shimmer mica powders to dust over the stamping and because the Perfect Medium is so sticky it clings very well. Once I dusted off the excess powder with a big fluffy make-up brush I gave it a light spray with hair lacquer to fix it.
The wording is from the same stamp plate, again I used Perfect Medium but this time I sprinkled Cosmic Shimmer Bright Gold embossing powder on it and heated from behind.
The heart is cut from greyboard using a Sizzix die, I have punched a small hole in one side before beginning to decorate. The board was coloured with acrylic paint that I happened to have near by. When that was dry I used my faithful Perfect Medium again to ink all over the heart before adding a layer of Ultra Thick clear embossing crystals which were then melted with the heat tool.

This process was repeated twice more but on the last layer I also added some of the mica powders so that I would get a faux enamelled effect. While the last layer was still very warm I embossed the smaller feather into the soft enamel. To get this to work well you need to have your stamp inked (in this case with black) and ready to use before you heat the last layer so that you can stamp it as soon as you've put the heat tool down.
I found some teal coloured ribbon to thread through the hole before mounting it on foam pads on the background. I was lucky enough to find a teal mirri card to use as my matting layer before mounting onto a black card.
I am fast becoming a fan of triple embossing, I have found a lot depends on the ferocity of your heat gun. I'm looking forward to making some Christmas decorations using this technique.

Triple Embossed Tree

 This weeks Christmas card is made with traditional colours and basic theme.
The red and green theme is for Winter Wonderland's challenge so I began with a red card, when I matted the green onto it it looked like something was missing so a small layer of textured gold card has been added.
Then it was time to follow Christmas Card Challenges sketch and cut three red patterned papers and lay them on the green. At this point I chose to add a red ribbon with trees in it to tie in with Jingle Belles holiday bingo challenge.
The tree is for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown's challenge this week, use a chipboard embellishment. The tree has been stained green with Distress stain and then triple embossed with clear embossing powder. On the last layer of clear I added some green mica powder which shows a little better in the small photo. Before the last layer could dry I embossed it with a rubber stamp inked up in Archival green.

I recently invested in a different heatgun, it's a Sheena Douglass heat tool, which has made triple embossing So much easier, it doesn't blow the powder away like my other gun.
The tree is mounted on another piece of gold card and stuck on with foam pads.
I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:
52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Embellishment, chipboard.
Jingle Belles - Holiday bingo, emboss, tree, ribbon
Winter Wonderland - Red and Green
Christmas Card Challenges - Sketch

Quick note

Warning : this post contains the H word.     Just a quick note to say I'm feeling much better after spending yesterday morning doing some housework, now I know I shouldn't use certain words on a craft blog but I did warn you, that's it for this month!!!!
There are a few things in the pipeline so please bear with me and all will be revealed, including what happened to this tatty old boot.
Happy Crafting, afterall it's too hot to be outside so stay indoors and craft!

Poinsettia sparkle

 This amazing stamp is from Stampendous, I fell in love with it the moment I saw it on a day out at Stamperama in Stevenage last sunday.
The image has been stamped on white card and embossed in black. The flowers are coloured with a red watercolour marker and a little sparkle has been added to the centres with some Cosmic Twinkle silver glitter glue. The largest flower has been stamped again on a small piece of card and coloured the same red before cutting out all the petals. I used a black Promarker to touch around the edges so there were no white bits showing.
The centre of the large flower is covered with white gems to give extra sparkle. I used some Glossy Accents on the petals but when it dried it left wrinkles, didn't put enough on maybe, but I rather like them as they look like veins so that was a happy accident.
The whole image is cut into three strips and mounted on black card, which is then mounted on red followed by silver mirri card and finally black again.

 In this picture I hope you will see the veins on the flower and the shine of the black embossing.
I think there will be much more done with this stamp,  it lends itself to many more ideas including the ones shown in the last picture. These are pictures made by my son and his friend who were watching me while I made the challenge card. They used a stamped image which they coloured in and mounted on some fabric bits I had hanging around, then they mounted that on cardboard and made a stand on the back so it would stand up by itself. I was so impressed by them that I promised to blog their efforts for them, well done boys!

 I would like to enter my card for the following challenges:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown  -  Black ,White, Red and Silver

Jingle Belles  -  Sketch

Christmas Card Challenges  -  Texture

Snowman shaker card

 This weeks challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is a sketch. I then decided to see how many other challenges I could enter using the one card. It was a 'challenge' but that's what it's all about isn't it and it has been fun.
I made three little shaker boxes with three stages of snowman construction stamped in them. The images are from The Snowman stamp set and Archival Cobalt ink was used. The snow in the shaker is a mixture of white glitter flakes, Polar White Flowersoft and my new purchase - Clear Micro Beads, the beads help the flakes to keep moving around.

The backing paper is a scrapbook page from stash. The lace is paper lace and there is a little ribbon bow on top of the bakers twine. I have chosen to use punched snowflakes instead of stars and put small blue gems in the middle of each one, they are mounted on small foam pads to give a little height. The card has come out almost 8 inches square so I think this will be a hand delivered one.
I would like to enter it in the following challenges:
52 Christmas Card Challenge  -  Sketch
Winter Wonderland  -  Lace & Ribbon
Christmas Cards All Year Round  -  Children's
Christmas Card Challenges  -  Use something new
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge  -  Favourite Colour
                                          Sparkles Christmas Challenge  -  Punch It
Does anyone know where I can get star shaped brads? I've been looking for a couple of weeks but found nothing yet, your help would be appreciated.

Christmas greens

 This weeks Christmas card was inspired by an inspirational photo shown on Christmas Stampin'  All Year Round, all that was needed then was to join it to the other challenges I wish to enter.
I began with a white background, masked off a small circle and then used Distress Ink Iced Spruce to create the sky and snow drifts. I left the moon mask in place while I spritzed the card with water to create snowflakes, I have also spritzed with a pearl mica spray to get a subtle shimmer.
The tree was die cut using a Memory Box die and then placed on sticky film before sprinkling with green glitter.

Ultra mini brads in pale green have been added to the tree before it was stuck in place on the background. The reindeer was die cut with a Sizzix die from the Merry Christmas Set in textured gold card and then mounted on foam pads onto the background. The card was matted onto dark green card before a ribbon greeting was added to the top corner. The next mat layer is the same gold textured card as the deer and finally matted onto a card of the same green as the tree.
It may be August 1st but there are only 145 days to Christmas!!!
I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:
52 Christmas Card Throwdown  
Christmas Stampin' All Year Long
Jingle Belles 
Christmas Card Challenges
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge

Holly Wreath

 This weeks challenge over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is to use a wreath on your card. Also over on J and C Creations challenge blog the theme is anything goes using Sizzix dies so this card joins them together nicely.
The holly leaves have been cut from cream card stamped with a music score. There were four different colours used, Archival Coffee, Distress Brushed Corduroy, Distress Forest Moss and Distress Iced Spruce. I cut 30 leaves from the Sizzix Festive Greenery die as it has four different holly leaves on it. All the leaves were then edged with Distress Forest Moss.
The wreath was built by gluing each leaf to another, I used a round shape as a template to help me keep a decent shape, it's not as easy as you think to make a good circle!
Having glued the wreath together I then stuck red gems on as berries and put a red bow at the top.

The numbers are cut from sticky sided card using Sizzix alphabet Round Table. Peel off the top layer and sprinkle with gold glitter, I found that the glitter was shedding a little so I sprayed it with hair lacquer to fix it.
The numbers are mounted on foam pads and fixed in the middle of the wreath.
The backing paper is from Chocolate Baroque CD Rom Seasons Greetings printed in draft so that it's paler and doesn't overpower the wreath. The holly paper is matted on to red mirri card and mounted on to what used to be a white card blank, the edges have been coloured with Distress Forest Moss to get a nice dark green as the white didn't look good. In the corners of the holly paper are small gold peel off corners, I've used peel offs because I can usually get two or three corners to emboss well but the fourth never seems to work.
It was fun making a Christmas card in such hot weather, after all it was too hot to be outside wasn't it?!

Hint of blue

 This weeks offering for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is following a colour theme of Black ,White and a hint of Blue.
The image is a stamp from Chocolate Baroque found in the same set as last weeks tree, Madonna and Trees. The image is stamped and embossed with Cosmic Shimmer Black Sparkle onto a piece of  Centura Pearl card, this card has a golden pearl shine to it. I have painted the swaddling clothes with a pale blue Cosmic Shimmer watercolour which matches the Brilliance Pearl Inkpad Sky Blue that was used to colour the edge of the matting layer. I often use the Brilliance pearl inks to colour mat layers because you can use ordinary card and only colour the edge that will show rather than using a large piece of more expensive pearl card only to cover most of it up.
The swirls down the side are die cut with Sizzix die Festive Greenery from a white glitter card and then studded with pale blue gems. It does have a rather nice twinkle to it but unfortunately my camera work leaves much to be desired...sorry.

I would like to claim a little artistic license on this card as I have painted the halo's a very pale gold, I felt they needed to be highlighted a little. Having played with this stamp for the first time I really like it, there will be more cards made with this one. The Madonna is quite tall but fits nicely onto a large DL size card.
Christmas crafting goodies are arriving in the shops now so Happy Hunting.

True Friend Tag

 This months challenge over at J and C Creations is Anything Goes with the emphasis on Sizzix dies. Now how could I let an opportunity go by without making my favourite flower. I'm not normally a very 'cute and girlie' crafter but I do love flowers and although this tag looks purple it is actually more of a gorgeous plum colour.
Here is a list of all the Sizzix dies used : Tag & Bookplates / Tattered Florals / Tattered Flower Garland / Festive Greenery.
To begin with I cut a tag using Foundations Coconut White card, this card works very well with Distress Inks. I inked the tag with Seedless Preserves Distress Ink from the Autumn collection, it's a lovely deep plum colour which my camera doesn't seem to pick out very well....sorry. Then I used Tim Holtz stamp Fabulous Flourishes spritzed with water, this will lift the ink back out of the card and leave a gentle image. The edges have been coloured with Black Soot Distress Ink and then the whole tag has been sprayed with Cosmic Shimmer Enchanted Gold Mica Mist.

The flower has been coloured in the same way but not sprayed with mica. For the tutorial on how to make this flower here is a link to a previous post. The leaves are from the garland die and have been coloured with Crushed Olive Distress Ink then veins added with a gold gel pen. The swirls were cut from green card and sprayed with mica as well. The sentiment is a stamp from stash embossed in Gold and cut out with Spellbinder die Mega Deckle Rectangles and mounted on foam pads. The ribbons are a green organza from stash and some American Seam Binding coloured with Seedless Preserves. I really like this ribbon as you can colour it to match your project so easily, after all how often do we spend ages hunting for just the right colour.
I hope you find this useful, there will be lots more flowers to come with a little finale at the end of the challenge so please pop in when you can. All items used here can be found at JandC Creations. Happy Crafting.

Silver tree

Seasons Greetings!  Making Christmas cards when it's cool and raining just seems comfortable, you've just got to love the great British summer.
My contribution to this weeks sketch challenge on 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is quite basic, I didn't want to distract from the silver tree. The stamp is from a set called Madonna and Trees by Chocolate Baroque, the backing paper is also from them on a CD Rom called Seasons Greetings. I printed the backing paper from the disc on the usual settings but then printed another piece on the 'draft' setting to stamp the tree onto, draft gave me a matching background that didn't over shadow my stamp as it comes out much paler.
The tree is embossed with Cosmic Shimmer Silver Shine and I'm pleased to say that it actually shows in the photo, I must have got the angle right this time.
I was told today that August is going to be hot, let's just wait and see shall we, wouldn't it be nice to have dry school holidays! Oh well, there's always plenty of crafting to be done whatever the weather!!!!

Penny Black Party Gang

Here's the Party Gang from Penny Black. The full run through on how it was put together is over on the J and C Creations blog if you would like to see it.
This months promotion has been on Penny Black animals, which for me has been a real challenge as I don't make many cute cards. I must say it has been fun stretching myself.
Wait until you see next months challenge which starts on the 13th of July, you'll love it I'm sure, there is a small clue on this card.

Just a small note to let you know that Snetterton Park will begin running 'Midweek Motivation' starting on Wednesday the 18th July. This means every week there will be a workshop or demonstration on a Wednesday, something to break up the week and spur you on to more creations.   Happy Crafting.

Lace Glitter Bauble

 Here is this weeks offering for the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown challenge. With such a broad subject like glitter I was spoilt for choice, so many great techniques, which one should I try. I opted for the lace glitter technique I'd seen mentioned recently, I wish I could remember the authors name so I could give them credit because it's so easy and so effective, whoever you are Thank You.
I started by using double sided sticky film on a piece of grey board, then I cut out a bauble shape using a Spellbinder die. It was a little tricky as the die didn't cut right through so I had to use a pair of scissors just to finish off but all the hard work was already done.
If you peel off the top covering on the sticky sheet you can then lay your chosen piece of lace over the shape and gently tap it down so there are no wrinkles. Scatter the glitter over the shape and spread to cover all exposed areas, tap down gently to make sure all is firmly stuck. Return excess glitter to its pot.

 Next carefully remove the lace and you will see areas that are glitter free. Sprinkle your second colour over the shape, it will only stick where the lace was giving you a lacy glitter finish. Again tap down gently to get a firm hold and then remove any excess.
The wording was cut from a satin gold cardstock with a Sizzix long plate alphabet die Santas Workshop. The background is stamped with Penny Black Pine Silhouettes and mounted on gold, green and white card stock.
I find it very difficult to photograph anything glittery, it never seems to sparkle as much in the photo as it really does in the 'card'. If anyone has any tips I would be very grateful.