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!