Christmas Animals

Christmas Animals

Hi Everyone!

In the UK the Robin is a

much used Christmas icon

but if you're in the US you'll

probably substitute it with

a Cardinal Bird.................

or so I'm told

I wonder what birds are

Christmas icons in other

countries?...................

...............anyone?

Bit of a treat for you today - 

a small canvas by

Helen Chilton and it

features Robins............

Die cut the snowflakes out of card and arrange

 on a 6" x 6" canvas board.

Glue on with a wet glue and then seal. 

Trim off the edges.

When it's dry paint over with a good layer

of gesso

Let it dry again and then spritz with some 

Imagination Crafts Silver spray.

Blot back and then add some Starlights -

 I dabbed it on with my fingers.

Get out some Grunge Paste, add a blob of

 Toffee Fresco paint to colour it and

 mix together.

Scrape through the branch stencil directly 

onto your canvas.

 Don't worry if it looks a bit messy.

Use up the rest by scraping through the

 leaf stencils onto card. 

When dry, cut them out.

Using the same DecoArt stencil, 

trace some birds onto grey board.

Cut them out and gesso.

I've then added basic robin colours with 

Fresco paints.

To make them come to life, add details 

with coloured pencils.

 

Do the same to the leaves. 

Add a white dot to the eye.

Stick it all down onto the canvas.

 I then decided to add darker tones to 

the top right of the canvas.

Note the shading and highlighting on the 

branches and birds"

DecoArt Mixed Media Stencil:Canvas

Imagination Crafts Starlight paints:
Imagination Crafts Shake & Gilt: Silver
PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints:
Coloursoft Pencils:
Find It Trading Dies: Precious Marieke -
Grunge Paste:
Greyboard

This is fun Helen

thank you very much

I am going to have to find time to

make this canvas so I'm off to

see what I have to buy.........

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Find It

Find It

Hi There!

No that's not a command

for you to jump to - it is

an escapee from a previous

week! 

I knew you wouldn't want to

miss out!  Helen Chilton has

taken a small wee die to

show that it isn't always the

big guys who make the best

projects...............!

"A quick card using a Find it Trading die, 

Kay Carley stamps and Distress Oxides.

Cut out some scrapbook paper and

 layer onto a kraft card.

Stamp all round it with the smallest tree

 from PaperArtsy E3 Kay Carley 11.

Paint with Distress Oxide reinkers.

Die cut the baubles, emboss with 

Sticky Embossing Powder and foil.

Add embellishments to finish."

Materials:

Find it Trading Die: 
PaperArtsy 
Distress Oxide Reinkers:
Foil Sheets 
Card and Envelope Packs 
Ranger Sticky embossing powder

Thank you Helen - and apologies

for missing you off the list for

Find It Media Dies!!

'Till Tomorrow

Mickie xx

Find It

Find It

Hi There

Hope you are all wrapped up

warm - it is seasonally cold

out there!  Well, for us it is

but I expect those of you

south of the equator are enjoying

much warmer weather......

Celebrating the season here is

Claire Jackson and she's made 

all her Christmas cards too.....!

"If you’re like me with Christmas looming 

large you’ll be starting to panic that 

you haven’t made enough...or any...

Christmas cards.

The secret is to have a simple design

 that you can batch make.

Cut a square of card 10.5x10.5cm. 

Mask off some hills and colour the sky

 with weathered wood and salty ocean

 Distress Ink. 

Remove the mask for the background 

hill so that you can add a little shadow 

as if there is a bit of a valley.

Using a stencil (this one is from Kaisercraft)

and white acrylic paint add falling snow. 

If some of the circles are bolder than others

 it helps to give the feeling of depth.

Stamp a fence line and some grass in 

Archival ink. I used watering can as it is 

a little softer than black.

Following your die cutting machine’s instructions,

 die cut and emboss the snowman die.

 Colour him in with pencils or pens.

 Die cut the sentiment from white card.

Mat the background onto blue card and

 assemble all of the pieces.

I had my snowman before I bought the 

sentiment but here are the 20 cards I 

managed to make in an afternoon with 

a Distress Ink background and stamping.

 Instead of the acrylic paint I added 

white gel pen to the grass.

Products used:

Find It Media Dies
White card
Distress Ink
Archival Ink
PaperArtsy Fresco Finish chalk paint
Masks and Stencils
Build a scene stamps
Watercolour pencils

Wow Claire, that is being

organised!  Thank you for

the inspiration

Are you all up to date with

your Christmas preparations?

No need ask if I am........ but

I have got my cards done!

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Find It

Find It

Hi Everyone!

Happy Friday to you all

Hope you all had a really

good week and managed

all the goals you set 

yourself.  

Make yourself a cheery

cuppa, put your feet up

and join Craftyfield as

she tells us how she

found it!!

 "I like to make lots of different cards 

for Christmas but, over the years, 

I have found that keeping to one design 

is better so I remember what I have done 

before and don't send the same design twice! 

This year, for the adults, I'm keeping it simple 

and using a single die, a beautifully

 scripted sentiment by Find It Trading.

 I made a 4"x4" base card and 

cut a green mat to 3.5"x3.5".

The topper is 3"x3" and I

 die-cut the sentiment centrally.

To make the die-cut pop, I then die-cut

 2 additional sentiments from the green card. 

At this point, I was going to use foam pads

 to raise the motif up but as the die is so very 

detailed this wasn't possible. 

Easy peasy I used fun foam, 

which I die-cut instead.

 

I glued the layers together and used a

 green alcohol pen to get the fun foam 

(originally white) to blend in.

So there you have it, not complicated

 and suitable for mass making, 

although admittedly sticking the

 4 sentiments together does take

 a bit of time as it is fiddly work.

I will be making some red ones and

 some gold ones too, staying with

 the traditional Chritsmas colours but 

it would work beautifully with Mirri board

 or glitter cardstock too.

 In fact, I have my eye on the non 

shedding glitter card from Art-C now

 stocked at the Craft Barn. 

All the glitter none of the mess, bliss..."

Supplies:  

Find It Trading - Merry Christmas :
Cardstock:
All the Christmas papers and card:

Thank you Craftyfield, that is

such a simple design and so

effective too

When it comes to mass production

of greeting cards, it can be done

simply or highly complicated

You choose what works best for you

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Find It

Find It

Hi There!

You may wonder what you

are being asked to find.......

Worry not Find It is the name

of a die cut company, new to

us but some of you may be

familiar with them.

We thought we'd give them a

whirl this week and here is

Jane Castle to start us off:

"Well time is marching on at a pace

 and if you have not made all of your 

Christmas cards yet here's a 

fairly quick idea that can be 

changed with a different centre piece

 so as to not get boring in the making.

To begin with I did all of the die cutting

 using a fab set from Find-It Media 

called 'Christmas Card Set'.

This set is great value for money,

cuts and embosses beautifully and

 some elements can be used all year round. 

Below I've added a photo of a piece

 I cut, embossed and then stamped whilst

 the card was still in the die. 

This leaves a very fine clean edge all the way 

round rather than cutting after stamping.

Whoops, back to the job in hand!

Next I stamped the crate image from a 

Craft Emotions stamp set onto white card

 and kraft card. The kraft card was then

 cut so as to form the outside of the crate.

Both images were heat embossed with clear 

embossing powder. Colour was added using 

Distress Markers and Jelly Roll pens.

The card blank had DI in old paper added 

to the edges and then using the same ink 

stamped the zig-zag lines from Jofy 07. 

These were then brushed with Perfect Pearls.

A tag was stamped using Jofy 47 stamp set

 and this was attached to the crate with some

 ribbon before fixing to the card.

A little Treasure Gold was rubbed onto the 

die cut mounts after lightly sanding. 

The gorgeous holly die-cuts were then

 slightly shaped and curled as I prefer things 

not completely flat.

Stickles were added to the berries and 

Pewter Liquid Pearls added to the crate

 to enhance the nails.

It's a long while since I made any traditional 

red/green Christmas cards and they do have 

that magical feel to them, I wonder if it will catch on!!

Enjoy your Christmas card making X"

Items Used:

Find-it Media Dies

Craft Emotions Stamps

Jofy Christmas Stamps

Distress Markers

Distress Inks

Ranger Perfect Pearls

Ranger Liquid Pearls

Jelly-Roll Pens

Core-Color Card

Kraft Card

Treasure Gold

Stickles

Many thanks Jane, a super

project to start us off

At the rate I'm going it doesn't

look like I shall be sending any

cards this year! Better get 

my skates on......

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx