The Christmas Table

The Christmas Table

Hi there!

Expect you've been too busy

to notice that the final item in

The Christmas Table wasn't

there on Saturday.......mea culpa

so, here it is today and well

worth waiting for I can assure

you!

So over to Louise Thomson to

show us how to finish our table:

"It's nearly Christmas!!! 

My favourite time of crafting :)

Today I'm sharing a technique that 

you can use for a Christmas table

 centrepiece, or to make lovely gifts.

I started by cutting lots of shapes from

Bazill card using Sizzix tiny tattered 

florals and winter greens dies.

On the flowers I tapped my clear

 embossing ink pad, then

 sprinkled with gold embossing 

powder and heated to give them

 a varied texture and colour.

I fixed the flowers together in groups

 of two or three using gold brads.

Next I spritzed some of the greenery 

with colour bloom shimmer spray.

To the holly I added a good coating of

 glossy accents and left them to dry 

draped over various things on my desk

 so they would have a bit of shape.

Finally I added dots of liquid pearl

 to the branches with berries.

With all the greenery prepared and set aside,

 I cut further die cuts from a gorgeous

 Impression Obsession die. 

I laid  the die cut over a large church candle 

and wrapped this in a piece of 

greaseproof paper.

I needed three hands to photograph the

 next bit, so you'll have to take my word for it! 

I used my heart gun to gently heat the surface

 of the candle (through the greaseproof) until 

I started to see the colour on the die cut 

change. It does a similar thing to embossing

 powder, you'll see a corner start to change

 and darken then it sort of spreads across

 the whole image.

 Once the whole image was a solid colour 

again it was done. 

I learnt the hard way... 

DON'T TAKE THE GREASEPROOF 

PAPER OFF YET! 

count to ten slowly giving the wax

 time to set a little, then remove it.

 You should find the die cut has

 embedded itself beautifully on to

 the candle.

I repeated this in the other side

 of the candle too.

I ran a couple of strips of double sided 

tape along the bottom of the candle 

and started to adhere the greenery.

With all the greens stuck down, 

I added the flowers back in.

Here's a close up of the

base of the candle:"

Materials:

Sizzix winter greens die set

Sizzix tiny tattered florals die set

Brads

Clear embossing ink

Gold embossing powder

Liquid pearls

Glossy accents

Colour bloom spray

Impression obsession reindeer die

Heat gun

Sizzix big shot

Thank you Louise, this would

look lovely on anyone's table

Our Christmas Table is now

complete - leave you to cook

the turkey/goose/nut roast

or whatever else is the tradition

in your house - but don't

forget the sprouts!  

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Red & Gold

Red & Gold

Hi there!

It's the last day of November

Such a quick month 

Our theme this week is Red and Gold

and Jane Castle is here today 

with a beautiful card:

I started this card with a piece of 300gsm white card which was coloured with Fresco Chalk paints in Plum, Very Berry and Claret. Once these were completely dry I added some Distress Inks in Aged Mahogany and Fired Brick with a blending tool.

Next I stamped the leaves from PaperArtsy EDY12 

and the trellis from Jofy 12 in Fired Brick and whilst wet 

lightly brushed over some Cosmic Shimmer Mica Powder in Antique Red.

Once trimmed to size the centre was then die cut 

with a Spellbinders die and embossed.

The top was stamped with ‘How Does Your Garden Grow’ 

from ELB03 and heat embossed using gold embossing powder.

The bottom section was then stamped with the flowers from Jofy 12

 in versaMark ink and heat embossed using clear embossing powder.

Next I made the centre piece for the aperture, 

for this I used some Core’dinations sand it, tear it in dark burgundy

 and lightly sanded before stamping with a text stamp 

in Brilliance Crimson Copper ink and also 

brushing with the mica powder.

The honeycomb was cut from gold card 

using a Tim Holtz Thinlits die.

The lace was coloured with Distress Stain in Antique Bronze 

and attached to the back of the aperture with double sided tape, 

adding the pleats in as it was secured.

The flower came from a Tando Grab Bag

This was coloured with the Antique Bronze Distress Stain 

and the texture on the petals came from liberally applying

 Distress Stain through the sponge top.

The centre was decorated by applying Grunge Paste 

through the stencil, then when dry 

adding some Treasure Gold in Ruby.

The edges of the petals were hi-lighted with Aged Mahogany ink

The swirl was cut from some darker gold card 

using a Crafty Individuals die.

This was then cut into 2 and stuck behind

 the aperture to secure

The dragonfly brad was coloured with Renaissance Treasure Gold.

Materials Used

PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylic Paints

Distress Inks

Distress Stains

PaperArtsy Rubber Stamps

Cosmic Shimmers Mica Powder

Treasure Gold

VersaMark Ink

Tando Creative Grab Bag

Tim Holtz Thinlits Die

Grunge Paste

PaperArtsy Stencil

Decorative Brad

A lovely card with lots of texture

and techniques

Thank you Jane

Well I'm off to make some cards

see you all again tomorrow

Mickie xx

Advent Calendar

Advent Calendar

Hallo everyone!

Hope you are all well, warm and the

Festive makes are going to plan!

Today we have Angela: who is 

going to show us how she made her

Advent Calendar 

I decided to make some matchbooks for this project 

and display them in a box. 

So I started by stamping on three A3 sheets 

of Kraft style card using Woodware Christmas stamps. 

I used clear embossing ink and then 

heat embossed with white powder. 

Next I sprayed these with Dylusions White Linen ink

to give the effect of snow

I used a Tim Holtz die to cut the matchbooks

but they could easily be drawn with a ruler and pencil, 

then cut using a paper trimmer

just measure them to fit the card as shown here

 Once all the books are ready they need to be folded

 and the top flaps stapled in place. 

You will probably need a score board at this stage

Next the box. 

I made it so that the matchbooks would fit snugly inside. 

You could make this by any method you prefer. 

I used a score board to make mine

Initially I had not sprayed this with the white ink 

but did that stage when the box was constructed

I decorated the box with ribbon and a Noel text

 which I sprayed with some glitter varnish.    

The numbers where die cut,

 again both dies were from the Tim Holtz range.

Finally I added small pegs to the top of the Matchbooks

 as they seemed to sit better in the boxwith those on. 

I plan to put some Christmas jokes in the books 

but you could put other things in too.

Although you can’t see it very well I have also added 

some red stickles glitter glue to the robins. 

If you don’t like the idea of having them in a box 

they could also be attached to ribbon or string and hung up

Materials used:

Woodware Stamps.

Dylusions White Linen Spray.

White embossing powder.

Clear embossing ink.

Red Stickles Glue.

Red Ribbon.

Red Card. 

Thank you Angela.

I rather like the idea of a merry quip 

within each one to start the day

with a grin - those jokes out

of last year's Christmas Crackers would

be ideal.  You don't save those?

Just me then! 


Mickie xx