Crafting with Jayne

I attended Jayne Nestorenko's last workshop of the year in mid October and yet once again, Jayne gave us some lovely project to complete.  As it was the last workshop of the year, it obviously had Christmas as its theme.  It was a great day as usual and had a really relaxed pace about it. The first project we made was this Christmas card.  The letter 'O' could either  used as a bauble or as a globe.  I decided to go for the bauble.  Gold leaf was used for the bow and the top of the bauble and the bauble was glittered on the reverse.  The tops of the letters were scattered with  Polar White Flowersoft and also underneath the letters.  This is quite a large card as it is an A4 card folded lengthways.  The letters and background papers were from Cute Companions Winter Tales CD and the stamp was from Cute Companions Christmas Magic stamp plate.

The next project was an exploding box with a Christmas Bauble inside.  This was a lovely box and I liked the fact that it can with a bauble.  The Bethlehem design that was on the box was also put onto the bauble.  Although I used silver on silver, it was still good but some put silver on black or white on black but any colour could be used.  The box was already cut out as we would not have time to do it all and Jayne had decided that there was no measuring going to be done on this day.  The Bethlehem stamp that was used was from the U Mount Stamp Sheet Xmas Medallion Set 2 as was the image on top of the box.  The images on the box sides were stamped with Versamark and then Black Sparkle Embossing powder was used.  The top of the box was sgtamped with Versamark and then embossed with True White Embossing Powder and then red glitter was added to the middle. 

The last project was a lovely gift envelope.  We first made a template of the gift envelope and once we were comfortable with that, we then folded a piece of blue card to make our gift envelope.  The image on the front is from a wooden stamp that I am not sure that you can buy anymore.  It was coloured in with cosmic shimmer/H20 watercolour paints although we only had a limited colour choice for once as it was at the end of the afternoon.  The snow effect at each end of the choir was achieved by cutting out the choir to a certain point and then tearing the paper to achieve that look.  The gift tags inside the envelope were cut with Spellbinders Holiday Tags dies.  The snow was added to envelope by using an Inkessentials white pen and just doting randomly over the dark blue card.  If you are giving someone money  or gift vouchers then this is an ideal wallet to put give them in.

VIP Workshop with Jayne

I spent a nice Sunday with Jayne Nestorenko back in September on her VIP workshop.  This workshop was for crafters who have previously attended one of her workshops and as usual  are always a little special.  This time we had three projects to make - albeit one was very quick at the end.  Another good thing about Jayne's workshop are the quality of the 3 course meals that we have there that are included in the workshops.

The first project was the most difficult - lots of measuring which was mainly done on the Hougie Board - but we all got there in the end.  It was a gatefold card with the scenes from the Adorables Summer Collection CD and stamps.  The gatefold card had the added advantage of also having pockets on the front for gift tags. 

The idea of the card was to build up a scene using different stamps and backgrounds.  The striped backing paper was also from the CD. 

I was pleased that a beach scene was chosen as I would be able to add some of the shells that I picked up of the beach in Jersey.

I also liked the idea of being able to get the girl on the front of the card actually look like she was picking up a starfish from a rock pool.

Inside I added a couple of crabs and shells, life buoy and the little boy holding as spade and a bucket at his feet. 

The stamped images were coloured with a mixture of Twinkling H20s and Cosmic Shimmer watercolour paints. 

Again, as is the norm with Jayne's workshops, all of the cards were different.  She also ensures that there are a couple of different colour schemes each time to ensure that no two are the same.  There are also a large variety of stamps to ensure that everyone can choose something different and different colouring mediums are used to ensure all are different.

The next card we made was also a gatefold card, but this time there was not nearly as much measuring as before.  We would be building up a scene from the Adorables Summer Collection CD as before but this time we would not be stamping and cutting out to decoupage but instead we would be using the printed elements from the CD.  These elements were printed out on sheets for us and most were very similiar this time.

The scene that was chosen was a back yard on washing day.  You could choose what you wanted to go on the outside of the card and also what you would be hanging on your washing line and it was to represent the back yard of an.  I particularly liked that fact that the scene was layered up on the front of the card with a door that opened to reveal an outside toilet, if you really didn't like the door opening and showing the toilet you could have just left it uncut so that the door did not open but I felt that it showed a back yard as it really was.

A down pipe and a post was cut out and then some metallic thread was attached to them stretching from one side of the card to the other.  Washing was then hung on the line,  ensuring that when the card was folded in, the washing folded in flat.  There was then a few items that could be cut out and attached to the front or inside the card.  I just left it with a pram outside.

The last items we made were a couple of boxes using the new Spellbinders Grand Shapeabilities Square Petal Top Box and the Spellbinders Grand Square Bracket Edge box, just to show how quick and useful they could be.

Back Blogging

I have been bad at blogging just recently.  I was starting to get on top of it and then spend a weeks holiday in Jersey and all went downhill from there.  At least I managed to get some lovely ribbon in a small shop in St Helier.  I just seemed to have so much to do since I came back but am determined to get back on top and will be posting what I have done since my last blog over the next few weeks.

I will start of with the workshop that I did with Jayne Nestorenko at the end of July.  This was a box with an easel card on the top and was really a lovely item to make.  The background image on the easel card was taken from the Adordables Summer Collection CD and the decoupage was part of the Adorables Summer Collection stamp sets. 

The box was made in two parts and a Martha Stewart Punch was used to decorate around the box lid.  The stopper on the easel card was using Marianne D Creatables Frames/Swirls (LR0116).  I used the Spectrum Noir pend to colour in  the young boy hiker.  Spellbinders were used to form the base, lid and card.

We also made four gift tags to go with the box.  I have found this box really usefull for storing small items as it is really strong.  It was really pleasing that Jayne has put a picture of this on her website.  It is always nice at a workshop with jayne that although everyone is making the same items, there are never two that look that same - individuality is certainly the name of the game with her.