Shutter Card Fairy

     This was made using the new Shutter Card die set from John Next Door, it's not as complicated as it looks....honest. John has made a video on how to put this card together, which you can find here.

     The background was something I already had sitting in my 'to finish' pile, it's a stack of part made experiments. The coloured area was made using Distress Oxides and a 'Splatter' stamp from Inkylicious, the stamped seed heads and fairy are all Lavinia Stamps.

     To add extra effect I used the new Poppy Heads die set, adding DS adhesive sheet to black card then cutting two seed heads and adding them to the stamped ones.

     The image panel was mounted on black and then on to white card, this was trimmed to fit once the front panel was cut so that they would be equal once assembled.

     Using a sheet of patterned card and two square dies I cut the front aperture. To make anything other than the rectangle that comes in the set the only thing to remember is the height of the shutters, as long as they are able to open through the aperture it can be any width you choose. The shutters are added individually so you can put in as many as you like, I chose two for this card.

     The shutters have a stencilled pattern in pink on the back to look pretty when open. I've also cut a couple more seed heads to go on the outside and a tiny butterfly. The banners are in the main die set, as are the words, these are cut in silver mirri and then a black top one with the words cut in. To finish I added a couple of die cut corner decorations, also a JND die.

Materials List   (available from your local craft shop)
JND198 - Shutter Card die set

JND177 - Poppy Heads die set

S57262 - 3D PVA Glue from Stix2

Lavinia Stamps - various seed heads & tiny fairy

Inkylicious - Splatter Circle XL  

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

Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes

Inkspirational - Frame It

Creative Fingers - Anything Goes

A Bit More Time To Craft - Anything Goes

Lolly Stick Sledge

      With just a few weeks to Christmas my thought are moving from cards to decorations and with limited access to new stash I have been taking a much closer look at what I already have. This is my project for Not Just Cards, a challenge where cards are welcome along with any other hand crafted project.

     I have some wooden lolly sticks in a pot on my desk and after a quick look at Pinterest this is what I decided to do with some of them. I didn't think to colour the sticks before I stuck them together, so had to do it carefully after the glue had set, this left me with a rustic look. With the addition of a short length of string my sledge was complete. I set this aside while I started on my MDF tag.

     The tag was painted with white acrylic, then dry brushed with some blue paint, making sure to work in one direction only.

     Once the paint was dry I added some True Snow paste with a palette knife to add a little texture, while still wet I sprinkled some white bio-degradable glitter on it for a dash of sparkle.

     The sledge was stuck on with 3D PVA, it's a great strong glue that dries clear and seems to stick almost everything porous. I found some very small polystyrene balls in my stash so I stuck some next to the sledge.

     The words were die cut using some Tim Holt dies and stuck on with the 3D PVA. To finish off the rather messy back of the tag I stuck on a piece of patterned paper, then sanded the edges off once dry. With the addition of some ribbon and a twine loop to hang by the MDF tag was complete.

Materials List   (available from your local craft shop)
S57447 - MDF Tag set of 3

S57433 - Bio-degradable Glitter - White

S57262 - 3D PVA Glue from Stix2

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

Fezziwigs Festive Frolics - Anything BUT A Card

The Holly & Ivy - Anything Christmas Goes

Crimbo Crackers - Anything Christmas Goes

Dragonfly Dreams - Christmas/Winter

Craft Rocket - Christmas/Winter

Gingerbread Village Light Box

     The theme this month at Christmas Craft Creations is Anything BUT A Card. I love making decorations and with the arrival of the new Paper Village die set by Tim Holtz and an idea I saw on FB, this is what I've come up with.

     

     Believe it or not this whole box and the church was cut from one A4 sheet of brown card, it took a little bit of planning but it means everything matches.

     I used one of the skinny houses to make the tower on the church, if you lay the house die on top of the tiny house cut out you can work out the pitch of the roof so it will fit.

     To make it look like a gingerbread village I used a white gel pen to add decoration all over, though the doors were coloured with a white Sharpie to get better coverage.

    

     A church should have stained glass windows so I used some patterned vellum stuck on the inside of each opening, it was stuck on the wrong way around so the strong colour is on the inside. I cut a hole in the roof so the light could shine through into the tower.

     To get the roof tiles even I used the deckle edge of a piece of card like a ruler. It was all stuck together with a good strong PVA glue which gave me a little wiggle room to get my edges right.

     

     The base of the box was die cut with all the variations available in the die set for windows and doors, I tried to make every house different.

     I used some plain vellum for the windows in the village and decorated it all with the gel pen.

     At first the houses weren't going to have a porch roof but it didn't look quite right so they were all added later.

     The lid of the box had a white cover added to the brown so I only had to colour the edges with the gel pen. There was a hole cut in the lid so the light from the box would shine into the church.

     The church was glued onto the lid but it lacked something......snow!  Using some True Snow paste I added this and it looked so much better, it also hid any gaps around the base of the church that the light might shine through.

     I added a small tree to the scene and buried it in the snow because it had a tiny wooden base that needed to be hidden.

     I wanted a small car to add to the scene, where on earth was I going to find one small enough?...cake topper?...toy car?....Monopoly piece!  Not wanting to use the only Monopoly car I have I decided to make my own silicone mould so I could have a whole fleet of cars.

     Making a mould is quite easy, silicone glue, cornflour, a few drops of baby oil and a spritz of paint for colour. Push the car into the 'dough' and leave overnight to set. Remove the car and then use hot glue in the mould to make many more. The advantage of this is the glue card had a flat bottom, making it easy to stick in the snow. The car was coloured with a mix of Sharpie pens and acrylic paint.    

     

     It was important that the back look just as good as the front so the whole thing has been decorated all the way round to look the same. Even the rear windows of the church are stained glass.

     The light source is a colour changing LED tea light placed in the bottom of the box. I did try a string of tiny LED lights but all together they were too bright, I rather like the changing colours too.

     This Paper Village is so cute, it's going to be used over and over for years, you have been warned!

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

Fezziwigs Festive Frolics - Anything BUT A Card    Top pick

Creative Craft Cottage - Christmas/Winter

Country View Crafts - Anything BUT A Card

Dragonfly Dreams - Christmas/Winter

Jingle Belles - Include A see Through Element - windows

ABC Christmas - W - Winter Wonderland/ X - eXtra Special   Top 5

Gnomemade Christmas Tree

     This card was inspired by two friends, it was Jenny's idea to make a tree with these stamps and Val's amazing hand sewn gnome that really set the colour scheme, thank you ladies.

     I started by stamping each of the six gnomes on to Stix2 masking sheet and cutting them out. Then I stamped the centre gnome, masked him and stamped his two friends beside him.

     The piece of card I stamped on was quite large so I had plenty of room to play around with the images. I continued to stamp and mask until all six gnomes had been used and my tree shape was formed.

     I left the card for a while to make sure that all the ink was completely dry before I removed the masks, I knew it was likely that anything was still wet I would smudge it and have to start all over again.

     There were a few tiny gaps in the stamping where I hadn't got the mask exactly right, this was put right with a black micron pen.     

     To colour the image I used alcohol markers, with having spare card around the image I was able to try out the pens to make sure I was happy with the shade I'd chosen.

     I added a tiny bell to the top of each hat by sewing through the card. This did make matting and layering a little tricky because of the lumps, but it all worked out and meant my thread was all hidden.

     To add the greeting I die cut various phrases and chopped them about until I got 'gnomemas', I wanted something a bit different for this card.

     I shall have a play and make some variations using these cute little gnomes, as they can be any colour a gnome is not just for Christmas.

Materials List   (available from your local craft shop)
CTJJ143 - Gnomes by Two Jays

S57268 - Masking sheet

S57262 - 3D PVA Glue from Stix2

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

CraftyHazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas

Send a Smile For Kids - Happy Holidays/Anything Goes

Colour Crazy Craft - Anything Coloured

Craft Rocket - Christmas/Winter

Christmas Crafts All Year Round - Family and Friends

The 12 Months of Christmas - #71 For The Boys

Merry Little Christmas - Anything Christmas 

Oundle In Bloom

     Believe it or not this was the first idea I had when I saw the Oundle die set, a nice big, bright tissue flower and it had to be yellow. I think it was the honeycomb style centre that did it.

     I spent a little while rummaging through my stash but eventually found a small stack of coloured tissue, luckily there was some yellow left. I used one sheet folded into twelve layers, which I die cut all at the same time.

     Using PVA I put a small drop of glue in the centre of each petal and rotated them as I stacked them. Once dry I gently pulled up each layer until they were all fluffed up, then I opened the out again until they looked like a multi layered flower.

     For the centre I cut the honeycomb type piece in black and cut it out with the small octagon shape. Using gold mirri I cut another small octagon and embossed it with the same honeycomb type die.

     The raised areas of the mirri sat happily in the holes of the black card making it easy to slot together and glue.

     I smothered the back of the octagon with PVA and nestled it in the centre of the flower, fluffing up the petals afterwards to make the flower tidy.

     For the background I used two shades of green, one die cut with the main body of the die set, the other as a flat backing.

     I wanted a tiny gold mat layer to offset the gold centre, not wanting to use a huge piece of gold that would be hidden I cut out the centre for use on another project.

     With the mats and layers done I added them to a Kraft card to keep it all looking natural. I put a mid size dollop of PVA on the back of the flower and popped it in the middle of the card, I had to hold it down for a short while as the tissue wanted to lift it back up.

     I needed a little something to add to the card but didn't want to use a greeting, I chose a gold butterfly in one corner to break the symmetry.

Materials List   (available from your local craft shop)
JND171 - Oundle die set
JNDAD008 - Small Butterflies

S57262 - 3D PVA Glue from Stix2

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

All Fun - #18 Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Crafty Sentiments Designs - Anything Goes

Happy Psychedelic......

     Another new die from John Next Door, this one is called Haddon. There are two panels in the set so you can build your own repeating pattern, a good unisex die, just change your colour scheme to suit.

    

     For this one I chose to use black as my main cover colour, with a psychedelic background underneath.

     I cut the panel twice to make a black square, well almost square, I made it square by allowing a little more black each side of the pattern.

     The background is something I found in my stash, I have no idea where I got it. I'm sure there must be something out there similar, you could make one with alcohol inks.

     The centre panel was cut using one of the shapes from the Woodford set, then cut with one of John's word dies and a decorative die from stash.

     All die cuts were then backed with the same backing card, I chose the best bits for each cut to get maximum effect.

     The centre panel was then mounted on a gold mirri layer cut with another die from Woodford before going on foam in the centre of the card.

     The black panel is matted on gold mirri and then on to a white card blank, the rest of the greeting will go inside the card, it may be birthday, it may end up being something else, whatever suits the occasion.

Materials List   (available from your local craft shop)
JND173 - Haddon Panel die set
JND172 - Woodford die set die set

JND182 - Stencil Sentiments die set

S57262 - 3D PVA Glue from Stix2

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

Krafty Chicks - All Occasions 

Seize The Birthday - Birthday/ optional texture

Watercooler Wednesdays - Masculine

Stencilled Oundle

     This is another of the new die sets from John Next Door, he named it Oundle, the home of the Hochanda studio. I love this set, it has so many different possibilities with a beautiful shape at the heart of it all.

     I decided to use the background die and the frame die as stencils, I used Lucy's trick and put a magnetic sheet under my card so the dies wouldn't move when I was colouring. I also masked off the outside edge to keep it clean, Stix2 stencil tape is perfect for this.

     Once the card was all masked up I put the dies on and began to colour with Distress Ink using one of the amazing blending brushes from CraftsToo. I am so impressed with these brushes, they don't lift even the most delicate mylar stencil when colouring.

     To get the chequered look I cleaned off the die and turned it over, turning it round didn't change the direction of the stripes, and inked again.

     After removing all the tape I trimmed the card and die cut the centre shape, I also die cut the centre decorative die from a piece of teal card to go under the centre hole and embossed a piece of silver mirri to go behind that.

     You can use these dies to emboss as well as cut, it's just a case of changing the 'sandwich' in your machine and using an embossing mat, a soft rubber like mat that will absorb the pressure from the dies edges stopping it from cutting through the card.

     All the pieces were stuck together which looked OK, but not quite nice enough. The answer was to die cut a frame in white card and mount this with foam over the stencilled frame.

     Luckily I had in my stash some teal card that matched the ink colour perfectly, sadly I have no idea where it came from so I'm using it sparingly. A mat layer of this teal card, with the centre cut out for another project, was added before going on a white card blank.

     Using the Chrysanthemum die I cut from silver paper and made two flowers, one large and one small. Lesley's twigs are cut from silver mirri and the Aster Leaves were cut from the piece that came out of the mat layer.

     I have started to use square cards with the fold at the top, like John does, as they stand well and look better on the mantle with full focus on the front rather than at an angle. I thought it would slide down and collapse but if you use a good card weight it doesn't budge. 

Materials List   (available from your local craft shop)
JND171 - Oundle die set
JND187 - Twigs die set

JND117 - Chrysanthemum die

JND175 - Aster Leaves die set

CAT013 - Blending Brush set of 3

S56994 - Low Tack Stencil Tape

S57262 - 3D PVA Glue from Stix2

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

Crafty Catz - #523 Anything Goes

Creative Fingers - #195 Anything Goes 

Love To Craft - #51 Anything Goes

The Sisterhood Of Crafters - Lots Of Layers     Top 3