For my Mum's Sister

When my Mother remembers that I make cards, I usually offer to make a birthday card for her sister.  As she knew roughly what I was going to make, it did mean that I had to make her a different one.

I had used this pattern before to make an easel card but this time I made the parchment pattern a little smaller and mounted it with small brads on to  a black pearlescent oval card that I cut out with Spellbinders.

I then mounted this onto some snow white Centura card and cut out the sentiment from Britannia dies.

The bow was cut out from the Die'sire Christmas Bow Die onto a Double Sided Self Adhesive Sheet and then put Golden Sand Silk Glitter onto one side and attached it to the card.

When my Mother saw the card she was really pleased so hopefully her sister will be too.

Workshop with Sheena Douglass

As I had not been on a workshop with Sheena for some time, I decided that it was about time that I went on one and so booked myself on her workshop in Milton Keynes.    I was not sure what projects we would be doing but knew that it was not paint fusion and was keen to see what techniques she would teach.

 

We ended up making two projects and a great time was had by all - especially with the appearance of Father Christmas - in a kilt!!  Not sure where Sheena's husband Russ disappeared to when Santa appeared!!

 

The first of the projects was a wall hanging.  We started out by covering a mdf plaque with Pebeo Studio Acrylics gesso in white so that it would take the stamping and then stamped with Sheena's A Little Bit Scenic Sea Scape stamps.  We then coloured the sea, sand and images with Distress inks mixed with Pebeo Matt Gel to ensure that the colours stayed on the plaque. 

We then coloured some Centura Pearl with Luminate silk paint - which is absolutely beautiful - and then stamped and embossed images from Sheena's A Little Bit Scenic Sea Shells.  These were then cut out and attached to the plaque which was then finished off with some ribbon.

The second project was a card and this took more time to do as we had to let the modeling paste dry before we could carry on.  We first covered most of the card with   Pebeo Studio Acrylic paint mixed with   Pebeo Gloss gel in three different colours to create the sky.  We then dabbed on Pebeo Studio white paint to create the clouds. 

Pebeo modelling paste was used to create the mountains and this was left to dry for a few hours before continuing with the rest of the card. 

The lake was created using distress ink mixed with the gloss gel.  The pink blossom was created by dabbing pink and white Pebeo studio paint onto the sky.  This was then stamped over with the Sakura stamp from A Little Bit Oriental with Black Stazon.

A lantern was stamped onto black card and embossed in gold, cut out and with 3D glue stuck on.

The card was then layered onto a few other layers.  The metal looking card was created with embossing black card and then adding Pebeo gilding wax which was absolutely lovely to work with and the effect was beautiful.

This was a great workshop and it was good to learn some techniques that I did not think of using but are very effective.

Card for my Husband

I was not going to make a card for my husband this year as although I normally do not buy card, I could not resist one in the Spurs shop that was a pop up of the ground.  By the time I had seen it, I knew that I was not going to be able to make one as good in the time so thought that he would have to have the shop bought one.

The night before, I decided that he would be disappointed without having his own hand made card so relented and decided to make a quick one for him.  I used Marianne Collectables die to cut out the shirt, shorts and ball in the correct colours and then stuck on the logos that I had printed out and cut to make it look more like the actual kit.  

I used a dark blue stardream card for the card base and mounted a white pearl card ont this and also used Spellbinders Lace Doily motifs - which for some reason does not look too girly.  I then added the Happy Birthday cut using Britannia dies to finish.

He was pleased and although loved his card from the shop - loved this one just as much and admitted he would have been disappointed without a card made by myself.

Mothers Birthday

I had seen this Peel Off transfer in Hobby Lobby whilst on holiday and just had to get it to make my Mother's birthday card.  It is by My Mind's Own and is part of the bohemian range which is now discontinued.  Usually I do not like these but these one really caught my eye. 

I attached tape around the edge of the base card and put gilding flakes on.  I stamped the side borders using Just Rite Classic Lace Edges 1 and instead of ink I used Cosmic Shimer Flake and Glitter glue and the put gilding flakes on this also.

Using Spellbinders Enchanted Labels 28 cut out the background in patterned tan card and then attached the transfer to some plain card and cut out using the second largest Spellbinders 5x7 Detailed Scallops.

I then pushed some netting through a ribbon slider to finish to card.

Jayne's Weekend Workshop - Part 2

I started the second day of Jayne's weekend workshop with a swim first thing in the morning which was a nice way to start the day. 

Day Two was going to see us make two of the remaining projects. Each group had voted on the previous evening to see which two of the remaining three projects that we were going to complete as we would not be able to complete all three.  Our group had decided to make the gift box and the Calendar. 

As both groups had chosen to make the gift box, this was done together with both groups and the tea lights were supplied to us by Jayne to complete the box.  The gift box holds 6 tea lights and it could be used to put chocolates in instead of tea lights.  

It was made with Kraft card and the use of the Hougie Board and Spellbinders 2010 Heirloom Ornaments.  Acetate was used to make the window and also a compartment on the left side to hold a tag, which was a nice idea.  It also had a tab on the side of the box which was pulled to undo the box and put it what you wanted.  As it was in red and white, this was not my favourite project of the weekend though.

The next project was the calendar and this was one project that I really liked. It was mounted onto Kraft card that had been distressed to look like wood.  The focal point was made using Jayne's Winter Foliage stamps and distress inks.  The only extra stamp that was used was Inkylicious Worn paint stamp which was used to create the wooden effect in the background.  I just loved the look of this project and although I am not really into the folk art look – this did it for me.

It was a great weekend and the company was really great.  The hotel and staff were great which just added to the weekend.  Hopefully this is the first of many more crafty weekends with Jayne and Helene.

Jayne's Workshop Weekend - Part One

I spent a lovely weekend last week in Crick at Jayne Nestorenko's workshop.  It was certainly a weekend of fun, crafting and food.  It was good catching up with everyone and a couple that I had not seen this year.

We managed to complete 5 projects of the proposed 6 projects and in my group we made a gift bag instead of a lantern.  Our first two projects were made with Jayne.

The first card was made using gilding flakes which we then embossed and one of Jayne's new stamps especially designed for this workshop which I coloured using Copic pens.  We also added a ribbon border using stamps and embossing powder. 

The next project was a gift bag and again the image used was another of Jayne's stamps which she had designed for this workshop. 

We thought that it was going to be easy and that we were just going to colour our image (which again was coloured using copic pens) and then matt and layer this onto a bought bag but we should have known better and that Jayne had different ideas - we were going to make the bag up from scratch.

This was easier said than done but in the end we all got there and succeeded in getting our bags made . 

The final project of the day was made with Helene - and again we  had the honour of working with some more of Jayne's stamps.  Jayne had ended up making 4 stamps for use with her workshop and on this card we used 2 of them as well as some stamps from Jayne's Winter Foliage set.

As this was a workshop with Helene, the were obviously going to be use of distressing inks and Helen really excels with this.  The card from was from a bought card blank which we coloured with distress ink around the borders and on the ivy.  We then cut into the ivy so that we could place our embossed white background. 

We then embossed the pattern using That Special Touch Mask Snowflake Frame and lightly distressed the raised pattern.  This had to be done very lightly and in the words of Helene "as light as a fairy's fart".  I guess this summed it up great!

Using distress inks we then created the scene inside of the frame and once this was done, glittered the frame.  This was then attached to the background and we then added the snowtree which had been painted with distress ink and lightly glittered.

Anne's Card

This card was made for a friend and I was hoping that I would get it made in time for her birthday.  As usual, time just seemed to run out but I managed to get it made and posted in time.

The background was embossed onto tan card using Spellbinders M-Bossabilities Garden Lattice. I attached some ribbon that I had in my stash and some flowers that I had from www.wildorchidcrafts.com.  The "happy birthday" words were cut out using Britannia Dies.

The image was from Crafters Companion Frou Frou and was coloured using Spectrum Noir Pens and then cut out using Britannia Lattice Edge die. 

To finish, I stuck letters on the side to create my friends name.