Christmas Animals

Christmas Animals

Hallo There!

.......and we've reached the

end of another busy week!

Time for you to put your 

feet up and relax with a cup

of something warm and

cheery before you have to

hit the treadmill once more

...................!

Here's Jane Castle with the

final Christmas Animal for

this week...:

"Hi Everyone, for my Christmas Animal 

I chose the Stag, such an elegant creature 

and one that has become more readily

 visible in our neck of the woods during 

the past 10 years.

To begin with I coloured some of the

 Creative Expressions Pop-ems deer using

 ink straight from the coffee bean ink pad.

These were then put to one side while I

 created a scene on my card blank.

The sentiment was stamped at the bottom

 righthand corner and the sky was coloured

 with DI and a blending tool.

Next I placed 2 blobs of paint on my craft mat

 and gradually blended graduating colours to 

be sponged through my 

Tim Holtz Woodland Layering Stencil.

Adding slightly different shades as I went.

I love how the Zinc paint gives that

 subtle shimmer. 

Gradually the scene starts to build.

With christmas cards I like to make 

several in one sitting.

Then using the same sponge and paints 

I added some snowey hills to ground my trees

Using a Quickie Glue pen I added some 

glitter to the trees and the ground. 

Stickles could also be used for this.

All thats left is to add my Stag.

Although the coffee bean ink pad isn't a 

pearlescent one it still has a slight sparkle

 and texture.

Really liked using the Pop-ems,

 good selection of sizes and different poses. 

Plus once the deers have been used

 you are left with a pretty comprehensive 

stencil ------ bonus!!!"

Materials Used

Woodware Christmas stamp

Distress Inks

Tim Holtz Layering Stencil

Brilliance Ink Pads

Creative Expressions Pop-ems

DecoArt Metallic Paint

Fresco Finish Chalk Paint

Quickie Glue pen

Glitter

Super cards Jane

Thank you very much

You look to have had a

lot of fun making these

So, that was the week of

Christmas Animals.

Such fun showcasing another

side of Christmas icons

'Till tomorrow 

Mickie xx

Crafty Emotions

Crafty Emotions

Hallo Everyone!

Good to see you!  Do you

know anyone with a pre-

Christmas birthday?....

You do?....

Well here's a gorgeous

card from Craftyfield

 "Succulent, or cactus (Cactii) as I know them,
 are in trend in the crafting world and as soon 
as I saw the Craft Emotion set I knew I wouldn't
 be able to resist!

 It has several elements, enough to build up
 a complete rockery...

I first stamped all the images on the sheet
 and fussy cut them to help me decide on
 a composition.

 I settled on using only 3 elements to keep
 things relatively CAS. I used my fussy cut
 images as masks to stamp on watercolour
 paper with Brilliance ink in black.

 I coloured the image with Inktense pencils.
 Keep it light, you can always add colour later...

I then used a wet brush to "melt" the colour
 on the paper. After this first wash was dry,
 I re-applied pencils where I needed more
 contrast or more intense colour.

For the background, I wanted lots of shine,
 so I used Starlight paints, applied with
 a brayer all over a piece of cardstock. 

You can see the shine, in fact that
 is pretty much all you can see, 
despite the weather being decidely cloudy
. 
I put together my card by matting the
 focal image onto Art-C glitter card in
 black, adding a sentiment stamped in 
black ink on a piece of white glitter card.
 
I really like that card it's non shedding glitter,
 sturdy but still die-cuts easily, and it shines...

So nice I added another piece of white 
glitter and used Enamel Accents to create
 faux brads.

Without proper sunlight it is difficult to show how nice
 the glitter looks, but I thought you might want 
to see how well it stamped, as I was concerned
 this would be a problem, especially as the
 script on this stamp is quite small. 

I should say that I did enlist my trusty stamping 
platform to stamp the sentiment and I did 3 inkings
 to get the intensity of black I wanted.

You may wonder why cactus for a birthday card
 and I'm mulling over several funny sentiments
 I can add to the inside. 
"No need to be prickly, you're not that old" 
or similar. 

I would be grateful for your suggestions
 so don't hold back and add your
 comments below...please... pretty please?

Supplies: 

Craft Emotions stamps:
Starlight paints:
Brilliance inks:
Glitter card: 
Water soluble pencils: 
Enamel accents:

Thank you for a great card

Craftyfield and also for making

us all smile.....

Well, I laughed out loud

I know a few people who 

are feeling a little prickly

over their birthdays right now...

'Till tomorrow 

Mickie xx

For the Girls

For the Girls

Hi There!

So here we are with the 

final project in this strand

and what a project it is....

Here's Jane Castle to

show you what she made:

 

The project I have made does take a little time

 to make but then if you are going to give 

someone a handmade present your 

time is the main part of the gift. 

So grab a cuppa and we will make a start.

One of my main hobbies is gardening 

and I like to save seeds for the next 

growing year. 

A very close friend and neighbour is 

a keen gardener also and we

 always give each other birthday and 

christmas presents, nothing expensive but 

always something with a special thought. 

So I decided to turn this wonderful 

mini house into a seed shed for her.

Using Art-C mini house box kit I gave

 the outsides of each part a coat of white gesso.

The inside of the base, back and 2 sides 

were then covered with some of 

Imagination Crafts Rice paper.

 This was attached using 

Ranger Distress Collage Medium.

The distress medium does make the background

 quite a bit darker as you can see 

in the photo above.

Next I made a start on the seed envalopes. 

For these I used some ordinary brown

 wrapping paper as this helps to keep the 

seeds dry. 

Cutting pieces 10cm x 10.5cm, I then made 

folds so that the finished size would be 6cm x 4cm. 

the corners were cut away so as to 

remove some of the bulk.

In the picture above you can see the various stages, 

the last one has the bottom sealed and 

the top open ready to be filled.

I stamped the labels onto white card using 

black ink and a stamp from JM15. These were then 

lightly coloured using Chalk Cloud blending 

ink before hand writting. 

The envelopes were stamped and heat embossed 

with white powder using various PaperArtsy stamps.

The tag was made from kraft card and also 

heat embossed.

The seed packets were then filled --

and immediately sealed. 

Poppy seeds can go a very long way !!!

At this point I decided to make a sign for 

my shed, so masking off a stencil I 

inked onto a strip of shrink plastic.

This took about an hour to dry and then

 I cut it to shape and punched the holes

 in the top before heating

Now onto decorating the outside,

 the roof had a coat of Granny Smith paint 

before adding Grunge Paste through a Tando mask.

 I added a little Slate paint to the paste 

before applying it to the roof. 

Once dry I lightly sanded and 

added some Treasure Pewter.

The sides and the back were painted in 

Blush paint and then sponged with the 

Chalk Cloud blending ink in Toasted Rose. 

Stamped flowers were added using

 Carabelle Studio 'Zinouk du Jardin'.

Using the same stamp set I made a 

little figure, she was stamped onto

 300gsm card and then cut out. 

Her dress was stamped onto an off cut 

of painted card and stuck on top. 

Colour was added to the figure with 

Distress Markers.

Self adhesive gems for the ear-rings and

 Liquid Pearls for her buttons. 

The spade was stamped from JM 43.

There are holes in the 2 roof pieces so I 

added a ribbon bow and attached the 

'Don't eat the Daisies' tag.

The 'Seed' sign was threaded with some 

silk thread and tied to the decorative edging 

which was painted in China paint.

Zinouk and her spade were stuck on 

with some glue and the seed packets

 popped inside.

As this is a fairly small house/shed

 it's hard to catch the detail of the 

inside on camera.

I have been very impressed with this kit, 

it all went together very nicely.

I might include a battery nightlight to go 

inside for when the seeds have 

been planted.

The bow could be untided and then

 it could hang from a branch on a

 summers evening.

Thinking about it several would look

 very cute!!"

Items Used

Art-C Mini House Box Kit

Brown Parcel Wrapping Paper

Imagination Crafts Rice Paper

Ranger Distress Collage Medium

Shrink Plastic

Brilliance Ink Pads

Tando Creative Mask

PaperArtsy Stencil

PaperArtsy Grunge Paste

PaperArtsy Rubber Stamps

Carabelle Studio Rubber Stamps

Ranger Liquid Pearls

PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylic Paints

Cosmic Shimmers Chalk Cloud Blending Ink

Treasure Pewter

Stampendous Embossing Powder

and some seeds!

Thank you Jane - I can

just see these little houses

dotted about the garden

holding those little battery 

operated night lights!

Another delightful present

don't you think?......

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Silhouettes

Silhouettes 

Hallo there!

Hope you have a happy day

Jane Castle has dropped by today

with a beautiful cheery project

that's sure to bring a smile or two

"I am a big fan of Lavinia Stamps so was very delighted 

when this topic came up. 

The card I'm sharing with you today 

is fairly simple to produce but has 

a girlie magic about it.

To begin with I stamped Believe onto a piece of shrink Plastic 

in Brilliance Pearlescent Olive and Starlite Black. 

This was then cut to size and 2 holes punched 

at the top before heating to shrink.

This was then threaded with some bakers twine 

and set aside whilst I continued with the card. 

For this I started with a blank DL sized card 

and coloured the background with Distress Inks

 and a blending tool.

Then using a small sponge and a torn piece of paper 

added cloud/mist hi-lights before stamping the bottom 

and sides with the flower border stamp and Starlite Black ink. 

Whilst the ink was still wet I brushed on some 

mica powder to give the fairy dust feel.

The fairies were then stamped in black and as there are 

just 3 dancing fairies on this stamp I positioned the second set 

of 3 so the ribbon at the top entwined to give the appearance 

of it just being one continous stamped image.

I then added detail to the ribbon with a fine black pen and tiny dots. 

Lastly I stamped 2 clusters of stars each side of the Believe banner 

and brushed them with perfect pearls.

The nice thing about cards like this is they are suitable 

or any age group young or more mature!"

Items Used

Lavinia Stamps

Shrink Plastic

Distress Inks in Faded Jeans, Wild Honey, Victorian Velvet, Twisted Citron and Pumice Stone

Brilliance ink in Pearlescent Olive and Starlite Black

Cosmic Shimmers Mica Powder in Black Pearl

Ranger Perfect Pearls

Ranger Blending Tool

Archival ink

Bakers Twine

A delightful card Jane, very many thanks.

This would be a good one to

have as a standby I feel so guess

what I'm going to do this afternoon?!

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx