Easter Egg

Easter Egg

Hi There!

The daffodils are out, 

the crocus and hyacinth

bulbs bursting forth, birds

singing their little heads

off  Spring must be on the

way.  Wonderful. 

Here is an Easter Card for you

today from Angela Radford

 "Hi all I'm here to show you how 

I've made this Easter card using one 

of the Jofy stamps Jofy53 by Paper Artsy. 

As you can see I have only stamped

 the flower section of this stamp and 

not the stem. 

I used Versafine Black Archival and

 then embossed with clear powder.

 I know they are not meant to be eggs 

but I'm sure you'll agree they do look 

like them. 

I coloured these with brush tip

 ink pens and added highlights

 with a white pen

 Before completing this card I splattered 

Distress ink onto the card blank. 

Just smooth some ink onto a craft mat 

and add a little water then use a brush

 to flick it onto the card. 

I played around with the eggs and 

decided to use just three and

 also added the little birds from 

Kim Dellow stamp EKD02 stamping a

 little towards the back of the card.

 I coloured these yellow so they looked

 like little chicks.

The background was made by applying 

Distress Oxides straight to the card ,

 one colour at a time, spritz, drip and dry.

 The large sentiment stamp is by 

Woodware and the Easter text is one

 from my stash. 

I stamped around the edge with a 

stamp from a Lin Brown set ELB33 and

 completed the card with a few coloured sequins. 

The lines around the edge were drawn 

free hand with a black felt tip pen and

 that's it, all done. 

Have a lovely Easter, Angela xXx"

And you have a lovely Easter too

Angela.  Thank you for the

beautiful card too.  

So bright a colourful - really brings a

smile don't you think? 

Of course, if you don't celebrate

Easter then this card could be used

for any other celebration - just use

the "eggs" the other way up and

they become Balloons!  

Finally add a greeting appropriate

to the occasion.  

I'll leave you with that 

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Christmas Flora

Christmas Flora

Hi There!

It's nearly here..... that most

wonderful time of the year, as

the song goes.

Thought we'd take a look at

some Christmas images from

the natural world.........

So to start off on our quest

for Christmas Flora, here is

Jane Castle:

"For my project this week I've chosen 'Holly & Ivy' 

as I love cutting these from the garden and 

decorating the house over the Christmas holidays. 

This time I've decided to move away from 

the traditional greens and use various blue hues 

with some added sparkle.

To begin with I coloured some white card 

with Distress inks, stains and PA Infusions.

This was then stamped and heat embossed

 for my ivy leaves and also die cut for my 

holly borders.

Next I stencilled the top left-hand corner 

and the bottom right-hand corner of my card blank 

using Iced Spruce and an Imagination Crafts stencil.

Grunge paste was then applied through my

 Tim Holtz stencil.

 I masked off areas around the word Christmas

 so as not to end up with any unwanted splodges! 

( so easily done)

The stencil was removed, cleaned and replaced 

to add Merry above as I found it easier 

to centralise the longer word first.

The Grunge paste was then covered in 

glitter whilst still wet.

The holly border was trimmed to size,

 dots of Liquid Pearls in Pewter were added

 for the holly berries and finally the ivy leaves 

were shaped and stuck in place.

Then looking at the stencils I'd used I thought

 of other ways of using everything previously 

prepared for the card. 

I cut some large white card tags and 

came up with the following:

This had the addition of a couple of 

self adhesive gems.

This one had Ranger Perfect Pearls brushed

 onto the stars and I used another die from

 the same set.

The holly border was trimmed using the 

corners rather than the long sides.

And finally on this one I applied the 

grunge paste through the other stencil

 creating a completely different effect.

I could have done many more variations 

and all of these could easily be adapted 

for cards.

So for just under £25 for the 2 stencils, 

the die set and the mini stamp I could

 make all of this years christmas cards and 

tags without getting much more out on 

my bench ---- that's got to be good value!

I have now decided to make several 

batches of the large tags in different 

colours, place 4 different ones in a cellophane 

bag and give them to my Mum's care home 

to sell at their Christmas Fete."

Items Used 

Imagination Crafts Stencil

Tim Holtz stencil collection

Find-It Media Dies

PA Grunge Paste

Jofy Mini stamps

Ranger Liquid Pearls

Ranger Perfect Pearls

Distress Inks

Distress Stains

PA Infusions

Self Adhesive Gems

Glitter

You have certainly started

us off on the right track

Jane.  Thank you for a

lovely idea too - those sets

should sell very well at

the Christmas Fete

'Till Tomorrow

Mickie xx

Mechanical Greetings

Mechanical Greetings

Hallo There!

Lovely day again here

but I suppose it will

get chilly when the sun

goes down.........

We shall just have to

keep ourselves warm

crafting!

Here is Louise Thomson:

"Hi there,

As Christmas approaches I'm sure many

 of us will be preparing gifts to give,

 and when we're not sure what our friends

 and family want, a gift card is a great idea.

Today I'm showing you how to make 

a pop up gift card holder to make 

your gift that little bit more 

personalised.

I started by slicing a strip about 5cm wide

 from a piece of a4 white card.

Setting aside the strip for later,

 I folded the larger piece in half. 

I then measured 4.5cm from the fold,

 scored lightly and folded along the score line. 

 Turning the card over, I repeated on

 the other side. 

this left me with this set up:

Using a gift card as a size guide,

I cut a slit in the centre fold to slot it in.

I painted the outside of the card in

 jade fresco paint and the inside with

 Antarctic paint. 

I used JOFY stamps to decorate 

and painted with white fire paint.

Next I taped the folds to create the 

pop up middle section

I used the JOFY mini snowflakes stamp

 to decorate the inside of the card and

 painted a panel that could be written on.

On a separate piece of card I stamped

 the pile of presents from JOFY set 02

 in charcoal versa ink and embossed

 with clear powder. 

I then painted it using fresco paints.

Having cut this out I added wire to the top

 and stuck in the centre of the pop up.

With the gift card in;

With the strip I cut away at the beginning 

I made a band to hold the card closed;

So that's one Christmas present

 I've got sorted at least! "

Materials;

White card

Jofy Christmas stamp set 02

Jofy mini snowflakes stamp

Fresco paints

Wire

Versa colour charcoal ink

Versa brilliance orchid ink

The shops may do some lovely

Gift card folders but there's

nothing like having one that

has been specially made for

you to make you feel so

good inside.....

Thank you Louise

'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