Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you. Some of my friends were a little downhearted when they didn't receive the usual crafted Christmas card this year, so to make amends I've made them a little easel style calendar.

I used an A6 card to make the easel and then had fun making the 'artwork' to stand up and celebrate a new year. This one was for someone who loves steampunk...who am I to disappoint!

The little calendars are available from most stationers at only a few pence each. If you wanted to make a mini monthly page calendar you could take each sheet off and mount it in amongst your artwork to make something truly original.

I hope you got some crafting goodies for Christmas, so have fun creating and see you next year.

Seasons Greetings

This little fellow is from the 'Christmas Post' stamp set by Creative Expressions. Basic stamping with distress inks but what makes it a little better is using the pearl PVA glues for the berries and the robins eye.

I hope you have a happy christmas and craft filled new year.

Marbling with shaving foam

This tag was made using the 'Butterfly Kiss' stamp plate from Creative Expressions. The main image was stamped in Archival Coffee, clear embossed and then painted with Cosmic Shimmer Drawing Inks. The verse was also stamped in Archival Coffee. The little butterfly at the top was stamped on a scrap piece of card in Coffee and clear embossed, he was then coloured with drawing inks and cut out. For the butterfly body I used a stick on embellishment from the same pack as used in the previous post, they are just the right size for this stamp.
The background for the tag was made using the following technique, shaving foam marbling with Cosmic Shimmer misters. A little messy but great fun!

Fill a plastic container with about an inch of shaving foam. I used the lid from an A5 storage box and the cheapest shaving foam I could find. Don't worry about the fragrance as it doesn't last very long but it is nice to work with something that smells good!
Smooth the foam out a little with the end of a ruler or something similar to give you a flatish work surface.




Agitate your misters to get them ready, then spray at random on to the foam. This on it's own will produce a nice effect but I have always loved the swirly patterns you get inside old books so I mix mine up a little.






Make your swirls with the end of a paintbrush, a skewer or anything else that can be wiped clean easily. Fingers tend to be a little too big for this, though that has never stopped my son from trying it!
The beauty of using shaving foam is that unlike water (used with oil based paints) your swirls will not continue to move while you turn around to reach for your cardstock.


Place your cardstock on top of the foam, press down gently to make sure you have contact with all the paint. Cardstock is best for this technique as paper tends to be a little too weak.
Lift your cardstock out of the foam.

The excess foam can be removed by running your ruler gently along the card. Return the excess foam to the container. You can get several images from the foam, each one will be a little paler than the last. The mica will show clearly on the first copy but may not be apparent after that. This can always be rectified afterwards by spritzing a little clear 'Pearl Mist' over the card.

This colour choice was quite light but produced a spring like colouring which was ideal for my tag.

Experiment with different colours and see the wonderful patterns you can get.
I often do this at home with my seven year old son, he's very creative of his own free will, which means we get to craft together quite a lot. He often has some very good suggestions, I guess it's because he still sees everything as possible.

Bold colours are great. This tag was made with Purple Haze and Aqua Lagoon. I try to keep a little tag book (made using scraps of card) to remind me of favourite colour combinations, write the colours used on the back, punch a hole in the corner and hang them on a big clip ring. I always think I will remember....but I don't!

I hope this has explained it well enough, if not then please drop me a comment and tell me. This is for Pat, Wendy, Mona, Angie and Linda who I met at Capture The Magic...have fun girls!!

Craftmania's little gems.

This little fellow was stamped in Archival Black and clear embossed. Then he was painted with Cosmic Shimmer Drawing Inks, which are little bottles of gorgeous shimmering paint with a very fine brush, perfect for dainty butterflies.
The head and body of the butterfly is a beautiful stick on embellishment that Craftmania have in stock at the moment. We'll definitely be using these for the demonstration next saturday.
The other stamp plate I'll be working with has a Steampunk theme, just right for men's cards.
If you are in the area please come in and say hello.

More Baubles

Here are a few more baubles, as you can probably tell I really do love these Spellbinder dies and with the Just Rite stamps there are so many things you can do with them. The blue bauble is made with just the dies.

Card or paper decorations are great if you have small children crawling around, they can't hurt themselves much with these decorations and you can change them every year without huge expense.
The Suffolk Papercraft Show was eventful and reasonably busy despite the economic climate. I hope everyone managed to find a few bargains.

Just Rite at Jarrolds

This card is also made with Just Rite stamps and Spellbinder dies. Whilst the baubles really have caught my imagination this set will continue to be useful all year round.

Vintage Oval Labels stamp set matches Spellbinders Labels 6 & 13. Each set of Just Rite stamps gives you a list of the dies that it will match. There is quite a selection of stamp sets to choose from covering all occasions.

The main image was stamped in Archival Ink Coffee on a pearl cream card and embossed in Cosmic Shimmer clear. As this stamp needs the largest die to cut it out I used Sue Wilson's trick of drawing round the outside edge of the die on chocolate brown card and cutting it out by hand to get the mat. The corner stamp has also been stamped in Coffee and clear embossed on patterned scrapbook papers with a length of chocolate brown ribbon over the join. The rose is cut from the same cream card as the main image, then the edges are coloured with Distress Ink Brushed Corduroy. I have added a little bow under the rose and a couple of chocolate brown die cut twigs to finish off.

I'm not a bows and frills person but this card really looks better for it, I'm enjoying working outside my usual comfort zone. Let me know if you've tried these gorgeous stamps. I'll be demonstrating the baubles at The Suffolk Papercraft Show on sunday in Bury St.Edmunds so come and see them in action.

Jarrold's preview

This card was made with Just Rite Cling stamps and Spellbinder dies. The dies are great but when used with the gorgeous Just Rite co-ordinating stamps they are amazing.
I would have to say that this combination is my 'Christmas must have' for this year.
I stamped the baubles from the Just Rite 'Merry and Bright' set and embossed them with silver, then I coloured them in with watercolour pencils before cutting out with the Spellbinder Heirloom Ornament 2010. The images do line up perfectly with the dies and as you can see through the die it is quite easy to get it spot on. The larger bauble has a blank centre where you can stamp any one of the greetings from the set, but I chose to cut this out using a Spellbinder circle die and insert a photo of Maple. This is a great way of personalising a card to a friend or family member.
The background has been embossed using a 'That Special Touch Of'' mask - Polka dots. A little ribbon, a small bow on top of the bauble and another backed with Bakers Twine in pastel blue with bells on, mounted on pale blue mirri card and then onto white card finishes it off.
Please come along to Jarrold's on saturday if you are in Norwich and see the other creations made with these amazing stamps and dies. For those of you that can't I'll post some more samples next week. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of them.