Crafter's Companion Challenge 5

I just managed to get this finished in time for the fifth Challenge of Crafter's Companion, despite having it planned for a few weeks. I liked using the stamp and decoupage image on the workshop with Jayne so thought that I would use it again for the challenge.

The staircase image was from the Adorables range rubber stamps and the plaid background paper and decoupage was from the Adorables CD. I used roses from my stash but coloured some ivory roses with Antique Linen Distress Ink. I used Walnut Stain to add to the background of the plate and also to colour the darkest piece of brown background paper. For the lighter piece of brown background paper I used a mixture of Walnut Stain and Antique linen. I was very pleased with the effect that the ink gave, especially with the two colours together and will now experiment with using different colours to get a nice choice of background paers to use. Both were then mounted onto gold card.

Workshop with Jayne

I had a lovely day last Sunday with a workshop with Jayne Nestorenko. Jayne's workshops are always good and the three course meal that we had at lunch time was the usual great quality as well. I like the way Jayne brings different ideas and of course it is always good to be able to see all her samples which she put around the room and is quite happy for you to take photos of as well. This time, we made 3 items - 1 card and a bird house from the Unmounted Stamp Set Bird House range and a plate card from the Adorables range.

We started off making the card with a bird house on the front and I thought that this was a nice card for Christmas. We used the Pointsettia Birdhouse stamp plate. While most chose to use red and green, I thought I would just liked the fact that it was not the usual view that you get for Christmas and was something different.

The second item was the bird house - using the Holly Birdhouse Stamp plate. These were lovely to make and instead of sealing the roof, we left one side open and used a velcro spot to keep it closed so that you can put a gift or sweets into it. This way, you could either put a new item in each day leading up to Christmas or even make one for each day of Advent. It was painted using the Cosmic Shimmer watercolours. Although it can't really be seen in the photo, it was cream and orange. Jayne had quite a few samples and one done in gold on cream was stunning. There was also a sample made with acetate, which would make a great treat box.

The last item we made was a plate from the Adorables range. The decoupage was from the the CD but we stamped the bannister from the rubber stamps in distress ink to put the girls against. The template for this comes from the Adorables CD and it even includes the template for the stand, which can also be used for other cards - not just this plate card. The photo does not do the plate justice but the hollies on the outer plate are glittered, as it the outer edge. The inner part is separate and attached with foam pads to give it some depth.

All in all, a great day with great crafting, great food and great people. I will certainly be attending some more of Jayne's workshops next year.

It's a Man's World

I can finally put this card up without the worry that my husband might see it before he should. This was made for his birthday and wanted to do something with F1 as previously I have done football and computers and wanted something different - and he does like F1.

The card is a silver pearlescent matt and I used Spellbinders Curved Rectangles in black and grey and I also went around the outside of the shapes with a silver pen.

The image was from a page of 3 car images - all in monotone and then just used silver sentiments to finish the card. I thought it looked great for a man's card and my husband thought so as well.