Another Star Rises

     This weeks project for Creative Expressions is another star made with John Lockwood's paper collection.

     This is made using two sheets of paper. Each pad has 48 double sided sheets, 12 designs in two colour ways with two sheets of each.
     I chose to use one of the lined patterns which made it very easy to cut out ready for glueing. In my haste to make my star I forgot to take lots of pictures so you can find out how to make this Finnish star here.
     It uses six strips per side and you make two sides which weave together for glueing. This is something that would be good to make with children as it's very easy to cut out, easy to assemble and looks amazing.
     I have used two panels from another page in the paper collection mounted on gold mirri card and stuck on to the middle of the star. There is a thin gold thread at the top of one point so it can be hung up.

Materials used
CE John Lockwood Paper Collection - 12 Days Of Christmas
CE Cosmic Shimmer Dries clear PVA Glue

Stars and Flakes

     My project for Creative Expressions this week is a simple star card, it's made using papers from the John Lockwood 12 Days Of Christmas paper collection.

      These papers are 8x8, 170gsm and double sided, it's great to get a double sided paper that's not too thick to fold neatly.
     I have cut an equilateral triangle from one sheet of paper, each side is 8 inches long.
     The triangle is marked on each side at 2 5/8, 4 and 5 3/8 inches, then scored between these marks to form the fold lines. The fold nearest the point will need to be a 'mountain' fold and the fold nearer the centre will need to be a 'valley' fold.
 

      I have added a hanging thread to the top of the inner triangle before beginning to decorate the star, it can now be fixed and hidden by the inner panel.
     I have used a small snowflake stamp and Cosmic Shimmer Bright Gold embossing powder to add a little sparkle to my star.
     There is an inner white card panel that has been stamped and embossed with a greeting, this is stuck over the thread and gives somewhere to write a message.

      The star folds up to hide your message and will hang quite happily on the tree. To secure the folds you need to overlap the corners tucking one end in and one end out.
     These would be great hung all over your tree with little messages inside, they can be made smaller, just make sure you keep the sides an equal length. Using the basic shape your decoration could be simple, like this one, or much more elaborate covering each section with coloured layers and images.
     There are so many things you can make with this paper stack and with 48 sheets in the collection you can co-ordinate your decorations, cards and gifts.

Materials used
CE John Lockwood Paper Collection - 12 Days Of Christmas
CE Cosmic Shimmer Embossing Powder - Bright Gold

CASE-ing Christmas Goes Monthly

     CASE-ing Christmas has gone monthly, we will still showcase inspiration throughout the month but now you have all month to join in the fun.

      I chose to change my colours when CASEing Steph's card. I love snowflakes so I had lots to choose from in my stash.
     The snowflake die is one of Sue Wilson's new releases, I chopped it about a bit to get just one side of my card covered, but that's the beauty of die's, you can cut out the bits you want or use the whole thing.
     The backing paper is from Chocolate Baroque back in the day when they were known as Elusive Images, it's from a CD Rom called Season's Greetings. I love this disk, it has so many gorgeous patterned papers on it and it still works in my computer!
     The greeting is a friends die so I'm not sure where it comes from but it's a very useful one. All I have done to decorate the card after sticking on the paper and die cuts is add some tiny clear gems to add a little sparkle, along with a blue mat layer. The card is quite thin so standard postage will apply to this 7x5 creation.
     Come and join us at CASE-ing Christmas, we'll help inspire you to create all the cards you need for Christmas.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Christmas Cards All Year Round - Snowflakes

12 Months Of Christmas - Anything / optional Snowpeople

     

Beach Treasures

     There is a new challenge at The Male Room beginning today, we would like to see any masculine project that features holiday's or the on the beach.

     I decided to make a card and matching gift bag with some fabulous new digi stamps that launch today by MHK Designs.
     Using the shells I made a background paper in my word processor program by importing the images and re-sizing them. When I printed the thick paper I turned off the red and yellow inks so it came out blue with a bit of black. You can get a very good backing paper if you print on draft, it comes out pale.
     With this paper I made the gift bag, using some aqua ribbon for the handles. The poem is printed on card and die cut with a Spellbinder die, Labels Seventeen, then before removing the die I used Distress Ink Broken China to colour the shape. It's mounted on foam pads on to the bag.
     The card is made using the anchor printed on to card and again cut and inked, the backing card is made in the same way as the bag paper, then die cut and inked. Both layers have an aqua mirri card mat behind them, the anchor layer is on pads but the backing layer is flush to the card, after it was coloured through a Memory Box stencil with the same ink.  Inside the card is another of the sayings from the set die cut and coloured.
   

     This set is called Serene Seaside, it is available from MHK Designs Etsy shop.
     There will be new releases of digi stamps and papers every month so please take a look when you get time, this is only one example of the gorgeous digi sets available.




Please come and join us at The Male Room with your masculine seaside or holiday creations, we would love to see what you make.

I would like to enter this set in the following challenges:

Crafty Boots - Life's A Beach
Ooh-La-La Creations - Nautical
Crafting From The Heart - Anything Goes

     

Dec The Hedge With MDF

     Christmas has arrived at Creative Expressions this month and I got a Christmas Mega Grab Bag of MDF shapes to play with.

     I drilled a small hole in the top of each shape before beginning decoration, I use a small hand drill for this type of job.
     I started with the angel, her wings are covered with CS flake and glitter glue then with CS gold flakes from the Inca Gold pack. Her body was painted white and then rubbed over with Pearl Moon gilding wax.
     While I still had the glue out I covered the dove and used silver gilding flakes .

     The flower is also made with the flake glue and green glitter on the large one, with red glitter on the small one, then stuck together.
     The snowman was glued and covered with white flock, with the exception of his hat, that has been coloured with an alcohol marker, as are his eyes, nose and mouth.
     The tree has been coloured with CS gilding wax in Decadent Bamboo, it is green but the shine has a gold luster to it. The little decorations are CS Glitter glue Red Apple Twinkles.
     The ginger bread man only has his features coloured using a white gel pen.    
There is a small length of gold or silver thread on each shape so they can be hung on a tree. My Christmas Tree is in the loft so I used my hedge to take these photos, it looked rather nice so I may just have to decorate it again in December!
      There are approximately three of each shape in the bag so you could decorate a reasonable sized tree with these, I haven't used the holly, sleigh and candy cane either. If you drill the holes for them the children would love using these little shapes, it would keep them busy for hours!

Materials used 
CE Christmas Mega Grab Bag MDF Shapes
CE Cosmic Shimmer Flake and Glitter Glue
CE CS Gilding Flakes - Inca Gold
CE CS Gilding Wax - Decadent Bamboo / Pearl Moon
CE CS Cosmic Twinkles - Red Apple

I would like to enter these decorations in the following challenges:

Sparkles Christmas - NO Designer Papers

Anything But A Card - Celebration (Christmas)

HOC Goes Metallic

   
     This month at House Of Cards we would like to see you use something that looks metallic. This gives you a whole host of mediums to play with, from embossing powder to waxes or paints, the choice is yours. we have lots of inspiration for you too, just pop over to the DT blogs to help you get started.

     This card began life as a piece of chocolate coloured pearl card, I have used a Spellbinder embossing folder called Creative Cogs to begin with.
     I have coloured the card with a collection of gilding waxes in different colours dabbed at random all over the card, after about ten minutes I buffed the card with a tissue to get a great shine to the wax.
     At this point I decided that at 7x5 it was a little larger that I wanted it too be, rather that cutting it in half I decided to fold it in half and have the back patterned too.
     After adding the rusty cog and screw top brad the inside front needed to be covered so I have added a thin cream card insert, which also makes it possible to write in easily. With the addition of a 'Just for you' ticket the card was complete. The finished card measures 5 x 3.5, which is a nice size for a notelet.
     Each week through the month we will have some more inspiration for you, along with some great tutorials, so please pop back to House Of Cards and have a look when you can.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Creative Knockouts - Dry Embossing 

4 Crafty Chicks - Anything Goes

There Be Dragons!

    Over at Altered Eclectics we welcome anything mixed media or altered art, so when I saw how to make a dragon egg I just had to have a go.

     Like most crafters I had a polystyrene egg in my stash already, so all I had to find were the drawing pins and as luck would have it my local supermarket was selling them off at half price.
     My egg is about 3 inches long and took two packs of pins to cover. I began at the top with one pin in the centre and then worked my way down in bands around the egg, making sure that the pins overlapped as I went. It is best to place the pin right the first time as the polystyrene doesn't take kindly to having too many holes, when I reached the bottom of the egg I had to use silicone glue on the last row as they were a bit loose.

     The goblet began life as a rather nice wooden egg cup. This was covered with a coat of black gesso and left to dry. I added a mix of acrylic paints in dark brown and pale green, making sure the green got into the creases.
     The little metal decorations are jewellery findings kindly supplied by Aldridge Crafts, as were the gems. These were bent slightly to follow the curve of the cup and then stuck on with Glossy Accents.
     Once the glue was set I used Cosmic Shimmer gilding waxes in Autumn Bronze, Teal and Golden Light and dabbed them all over the cup. After about ten minutes I buffed the wax with a cloth, taking extra care around the findings. The final addition was to glue some gems around the cup in between the metal decorations and that was my goblet finished.
     If you don't want to make a dragon egg it looks just as good as a fir cone, it's not suitable for small children so make sure it's out of reach when you display it. If you are going to hang it up I suggest wrapping a strong thread all the way around the egg to make your hanging loop as it gets rather heavy with all that metal on it, add the thread before the pins and they will hide it.
     Please come over to Altered Eclectics and take a look at the DT creations, they are all very different, we would love you to join us with your work and tell how you did it, you have a month to make anything you like as long as it's not a card, layout or an ATC.

I would like to enter my Dragon egg in the following challenges:

Inky Chicks - Use A Metal Embellishment

Try It On Tuesday - Hot and Wild (Dragons breathe fire and are definitely wild!)
Crafty Cardmakers and More - Anything But A Card

Polar Paws

     Welcome to my August project for CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra, we are sponsored by Bugaboo Digi Stamps so I have used this cute Polar Bear image from their great Christmas range.
     The image is printed on white card and coloured with Graph It markers. I also printed another image on copy paper and cut it out to use as a mask. I put the mask over the bear and used Distress Ink Faded Jeans with a torn piece of copy paper to create snow drifts behind the bear.
     The image is die cut with a Spellbinder die Labels Seventeen and mounted on to a blue pearl card blank. It looked a little empty so I added some tiny peel off snowflakes around the image panel and then a die cut greeting across the top corner, this is mounted on foam pads. The card is A6 with only one layer padded so it will go as standard rate postage.
     With only five months until Christmas if you haven't joined us yet at CrafthHazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra you might like to now, we'll help you get those cards made before the winter.