More easy Pixies...

Happy Friday,

Finishing the run of simple cards I thought id share another easy pixie powder card today.  I love making the elegant and intricate cards that I do so often but sometimes its nice to make an easy card now and then!

As with Wednesdays card I stared with a piece of watercolour card which I added a mix of pixie powders to and spritzed with water to make them burst.

Next I dried the piece and embossed it with the eternal ivy embossing folder.  I then added pearl lustre gilding polish over and buffed off the piece to make it shine.  Buffing the golding polish makes the mica lay flat and removes any excess pigment allowing the colours underneath to shine.  This picture shows perfectly what I mean as the pearl makes the embossing show above the powders but doesn't cover the colours underneath.

I stamped the Happy Anniversary stamp from my Nasturtium everyday sentiments clear stamp set onto coconut white card.  I coloured the flowers using my Alcohol pens and cut out the image with the Antwerp die.  I used the larger dies in the antwerp die set form white card and backed this with Primrose cut with just the outline die from the set.

A simple frame from primrose and bright white card made with the sue Wilson double pierced rectangles set A and B added.  I finished with a messy bow and strip of ribbon made with seam binding coloured with more of the pixie powders.

Hopefully you've enjoyed this weeks trips into colour and simplicity

Enjoy...

Something Different Saturday...

Happy Saturday,

Today finds me with the lovely people of Keep on Crafting in Bury St Edmonds leading a workshop! I have been so busy preparing for the launch of my new Spring Collection including a new paperback that all my spare time seems to have been taken up with making samples of them! I thought, therefore, that I would show another card I made with the new Perspective dies designed by Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions.  Again I hope you agree that this is a different card type and style for me!

I cut the new Zig Zag bar into a strip of coconut white card, I then removed the die cut shape and placed a piece of double sided adhesive sheet behind the aperture however I left the protective sheet in place.  With my craft knife i carefully cut into the protective sheet in lines across the piece removing each section at a time too expose the adhesive.  I used various shades of polished silk glitter in each section in turn to create an ombre effect down the piece.

Next I placed the die cut zig zag back into the waste space using spray adhesive keeping back the individual pieces for another project ( more of that on Monday)

Next I cut the thank you perspective die form coconut white card with the outside circle that comes as part of the set.  I then cut, form coconut white card covered in double sided adhesive sheet, the smallest and the outside dies form the set.  I removed the protective sheet and added the dark blue polished silk glitter on the exposed adhesive.  For the centre ring I cut the larger circle and the inner leaf motif again form the white and added a circle of adhesive covered card behind this.  I then added silver polished silk glitter in the adhesive with a small clear dazzler in the centre.

To finish I mounted this with from tape to the left of the striped section and mounted the whole thing onto cobalt and white layered card.

Something that I hope you will agree is very different for me, clean and simple without any flowers, foliage or a bow!

Enjoy...

On another note It has been asked if I could do a revisit day on my blog for some of the older dies in my collection.  It would be great to know what you think and any ideas where I should start!

Keeping it simple...

Happy Wednesday,

I promised that this card, from my stamp release in December, Would have it's day on the blog and I thought today would be perfect. The reason is that I am busy preparing for the launch of the stamps to die for one day special on Hochanda which starts tomorrow night at 8 PM.


 I will be sharing samples, demos and techniques using some of my favourite Sue Wilson dies and stamps to die for. The launch is at 8 PM tomorrow night (Thursday) and continues throughout Friday.

Back to today and although this is a simple card I do feel that the rainbow of colours is really effective. I started by stamping the happy birthday tag from my pierced tag sentiments clear stamp set in black archival ink onto Coconut White foundation card. I then cut these out by hand around the stamped image, as you can see from the picture the stamp has shading dots all-around which add interest to the tag as well as giving them an antique look.  With the right shade of colour cloud these could be made to look old and distressed!

I then selected a rainbow of six colours of colour cloud blending Ink and gently shaded each of the tags, concentrating on getting a darker shade around each edge, fading to pale in the middle around the happy birthday. I punched a hole in each tag and arranged them in the following order along a piece of thing double sided satin ribbon in black, lilac whisper, clear the fresh grass, Lemon Moran, Baked Peach, and crimson kiss. I added to these to a piece of white card edged in black and taped the ends of the ribbon to each side.

 I then arranged each of the tax overlapping each other so that the colours went through all the colours of the rainbow. I finished with a hands tied bow on each end and added a further mat of white and black. I feel the card works best portrait style however it can be used landscape.

Back tomorrow with a sneak peak of the shows.

Ingredients:
Card Size: A5 (UK Size 14.5 x 21cm)
Colours: Coconut White, Black Foundation card
Dies:None!
Stamps: JL Pierced tags
Embossing: None
Cosmic Shimmer: Colour Cloud Blending ink- Crimson Kiss, Baked Peach, Lemon meringue, fresh grass, clear day, lilac whisper.

Enjoy...

Clean and simple...

Happy Tuesday,

Tuesdays Child is full of grace, so says the poem ion today's card.  This i another of the samples i made for my stamp launch using the Mondays child stamp set I designed.

I love the simplicity of this poem and as I may of said before so far this seems to fit all the people I have survey so far!

There is  no fancy embossing or stamping with glitter its simply stamped with black archival ink onto primrose foundation card.  I made an aperture in watercolour card using the outline die form the Oslo set and foam mounted this above.

I added a swag of camellias made in the primrose and white PVA pearl dots for embellishments.

Again a simple card but maybe a little antidote to all the Christmas bling at the moment lol!

Enjoy...

A simple thank you...

Happy Thursday,

I was hoping to start revealing my New Stamp designs today however that will have to wait for tomorrow Im afraid as I have had some technical problems! so its a quick simple card that is a little CAS I think.

I don't usually go in for leaving large areas of blank card but after playing with this design I felt ( along with some help form Creative Tracey) that the impact was in the simplicity.

I started by cutting four pieces of foundation card to the same size, 2 in coconut white and 2 in baby pink ( I do seem to have suddenly got a taste for this could don't i lol)  I stared by cutting the new Indus gemini die with one of the side cutting dies attached form the bottom of one of the coconut white pieces. I then cut the the Thank You expression die into this piece.



Next I cut the same indus die in the bottom of one of the pink pieces moving it up so that it layers over the previous piece.  I then cut the smaller oblong in this piece.  I then cut another indus from the bottom of the top piece of coconut white, again moving it up, and cut the largest oblong form this.   All the way along I used the previous piece to guide m,e as to where to cut the next piece so that it creates a lace affect and a border for the expression.

A simple and quick card however not easy to explain sorry!

Tune in tomorrow for the start of my Stamp Launch!

Ingredients:
Creative Expressions Craft dies by Sue Wilson
Thank You expression
Indus Gemini

Enjoy...

Simple Sunday...

Happy Sunday,

A simple card that, again I'm afraid, I demoed on Wednesday.  This one is easy to replicate in any colour combination and you don't have to use gilding flakes any glitter, glitter jewels or iced snow would work just as well!

After our4 days n NY today should find us joining a ship in New York harbour for a cruise.  We have had this planned since January it's the holiday we have been planning to take for a few years! It's really hard whilst away to add pictures of the trip to my blog however I have managed to add a few to Facebook so if you want to look on there just friend request me johnathan Lockwood is the Facebook name.




Ingredients:
Sue Wilson's Italian collection Decorative Frames die
Card stock
Double sided adhesive sheet
Autumn Leaves gliding flakes
Creative Expressions Friends Sentiments stamp set
London Tan Seam Binding

Enjoy...

Keeping it Simple...

Happy Wednesday,

I thought I would carry on from where I started  on Sunday by showing a range of simpler cards that don't take much time or work.  I like to use, as you may have noticed older dies and as much as possible one die per card.

This card is made surely from Grate Works die from Spellbinders.  All i did was cut the die twice out of the base white hammered card making sure there was room for another die cut in the centre.

I added one of the cut shapes, with small foam pads, in the middle before mounting the whole piece over a sheet of brown card.  I then folded a wide brown satin ribbon (Chino shop bargain) into pleats and stuck this down the side.

Finally I added a few matching gems and foam mounted the front piece onto a hand cut brown card blank with a matching white mat.

This is a simple card and would, hopefully, be suitable for a mans card which is something I know lots of people, myself included, have difficulties with.

Enjoy...

Clean and Simple...

Happy Sunday,


 After the complex die cutting of the last couple of weeks (Who am I kidding last couple of months) I thought I should ease things off some more today and show that I can do simple, honest!  Today's card is just one random hexagon die and an old DoCrafts paper pack in shades of pink.

All I did to make this was cut out the hexagon in four places however I made sure that these lined up to create the patchwork pattern.

Next I cut some more panels in a stripe paper and mounted, with foam of course lol, over a floral piece.  The striped pieces were added on top and underneath to create some additional depth.  The final picture should show what I mean by this.



I stamped a simple sentiment, perfect for many occasions as we all need an emergency card for any occasion in our stash.

Simple, clean and, relatively, speedy.

Hopefully an antidote to next weeks projects  which may feature a few die cuts on a large(ish) scale!

Enjoy...