Creative Wednesday, for Tracey...

Happy Wednesday,

Now today's card has two uses, firstly it is my Creative Expressions design team card for this week.  Secondly this is Tracey's (who many of you may have spoken to as she is the product assistant and In house crafter for Creative Expressions) birthday card.  Now this wasn't interned as a Birthday card for Tracey however a few weeks ago I helped her to rearrange the factory shop at CE tower (well worth a visit as It has all the new products and cosmic shimmer ranges in one place as well as a really good clearance section with 12 x 12 paper starting at just 1p)  We wanted some cards to display and show how the products can be used so I took some of my cards and Tracey declared that this one is too be her birthday card, even though she is more of a dog lover than a cat person.  I thought therefore I must have got something right on this one as Tracey is someone I learnt loads form and is a prodigious crafter herself!




I stamped the cat design form the Creative expressions stamp in archival black and coloured the edges using spiced marmalade distress marker.  I then pulled the colour into the image simply using a wet paintbrush.












The edge is distress inked in the same shade and mounted onto a die cut card using the new Scandinavian background die with the illusion A4 embossing folder.  I added pearl moon gilding wax to the embossed sections and made up a layered card with some London tan seem binding and a Creative Expressions fabric flower (or two)

All in all not my usual style but I was quite pleased with the finished result though not as pleased as Tracey obviously! lol

Ingredients:
Singles stamps Poppy
Creative Expressions Scandinavian die
Illusion Embossing Folder
Spiced marmalade Distress ink & Distress pen


The chosen winner of Mondays card (*as selected by Mr ND) is Foxyg Please email me on Lockers@live.co.uk with your address and Ill post tomorrow!
Enjoy...

Technique Tuesday...

Happy Tuesday,

Following on from the changes and giveaway yesterday I thought Tuesday could be a technique day, I used to do Technique Tuesday when I first started the blog so this is kind of a return to my roots lol.  Now it may not always be a new technique but Tuesdays card is hopefully going to be one where I have featured a technique.

I'm starting with this card that was featured as one of the samples for my shows on Sunday on C&C.  This is a technique heavy card as instead of using the die cut I have used the negative pieces that are left behind after the die cut is removed.

Firstly I cut the Couture Creations die in Silver shimmerlux canvas card form Creative Expressions however I was very careful cutting the die and I made sure that all pieces remained in place.  Next I attached a sheet of double sided adhesive sheet to a piece of blush foundation card, i removed the protective sheet and placed it carefully over the reverse of the die with the pieces in place.  I then pushed, from the reverse, the waste pieces to stick them to the sheet before pulling off the die leaving the die cut background in the die.  This can also be achieved by carefully removing the die cut piece before attaching the sheet however you must make sure all the waste pieces stay in place.

The piece of blush card should then have all the negative pieces stuck in place I rubbed over it to make sure they are well stuck down before I added diamond snow all over the remaining adhesive sections.  I simply added a frame made form the remains of the piece I cut the die form (this gives a perfect finishing shape to the piece.

Finally I added some foam tape and a few layers, a tied piece of satin edged ribbon and a pink dazzler to complete a simple yet effective card.

Ingredients
Couture Creations Art Deco Background die
Shillmerlfux Silver canvas Card
Blush Foundation card
Diamond Snow Glitter Jewels
Satin Edged organza Ribbon
Pink Dazzler
Double sided adhesive sheet
All Creative Expressions (the special finishes card pack is only available on the Create and Craft website)

Enjoy...

Monday Giveaway!

Happy Monday,

As its a new year I have made a few changes to the blog as well as the schedule of my posts.  I am a person who likes structure, which I am sure you can guess from looking at my cards, so I wanted a more set schedule for my posts.  Therefore due to the success of the giveaway last week Monday is now going to be giveaway day.  Therefore if you want to win today's card then simply leave a comment telling me of a change on my blog that you have noticed and Mr ND will randomly pick a winner!

Today's card is a real change form my usual style I feel being both in green and with a great deal more stamping and stencilling than I normally indulge in.  This was a demo piece from yesterdays shows on Create and Craft and was made to show the beautiful tree die form couture creations and how you can cut the die using funky foam and make a stamp.  I always look to get the maximum value from my dies and like to be able to do lots of different things with them, that way they earn a place in my collection.

hopefully lots of you saw me demo this card as it has lots of different techniques in it if not you may still be able to catch it on www.createandcraft.tv in the catch up section.

My favourite bit is the colouring of the card with distress inks and then die cutting the sheet.  for this tree I used a mix of three different colours to give a real variation and I coloured both sides of the milk card so that I could twist the foliage on the tress in any direction (the distress ink on the card makes it very flexible)

So for a chance to have this card for yourself simply comment and tell me what you notice has changed on this page!






Ingredients:
Couture creations Lucky Tree Die
Distress inks Mini's Tea Dye, Evergreen Bough & Shabby Shutters
Milk foundation card
Funky Foam (form your local pound shop)
Creative Expressions sentiment stamp

Enjoy...

Demo's Today...

Happy Sunday,

Another sneak peak of the new Couture Creations dies and embossing folders Ill be demoing on todays shows.  This time a beautiful swirl die as well as an intricate birdcage and bird die.  Ive teamed these up with Blush pink Foundation card and Spun Sugar distress ink as I felt we needed some lighter but bright colours as we slip slowly into January.

It's certainly a pink fest which I know is rare for me but somehow I thought it might be a fun colour and card to give someone after new year.




Hopefully some of you will be able to tune in at 12 or three to see me and more importantly the demo's and products!


Enjoy...

Sneak Peak...

Happy Saturday,

I thought you all might enjoy a sneak ask at one of my samples for tomorrows shows on Create and Craft.  This is made using all new products from Couture that I will be featuring on Tomorrows shows.  I especially love this rose die as it is so versatile, tune in at 12 and 3 to see the full range on Sky 674 or Freeview channel 36.

I thought I would also add simple card as a bonus as I haven't shown anything new for a while (if you discount yesterday) so here is a simple card made using some of the other dies on the shows as well as some techniques I am hoping to demo!


Enjoy...

Quick answer to yesterdays questions The die cut is stuck to the acetate and the sticky sheet to the reverse of this, the mica is added then to the reverse!  hope this helps...

Time to Cherish...

Happy Friday,

Todays card is another made at the same time as yesterdays new year card this time I have gone for a cooler blue palette again using coconut white as the compilmentary colour.  This card is made with an unusual background technique however it doesn't come through in the pictures very well.  What I have done is to add Tropical blue and Golden light mica powders (from the garden set by Creative Expressions) to the rear of a piece of acetate using a double sided adhesive sheet.




Here is a shot of the background I hope you can catch the shine and colour in this one a little bit!

The reminder is the scandinavian background die, cut in coconut white.

The background is a piece of card run through the art deco A4 embossing folder with perfect medium and the blue mica rubbed over the design.  This gives a subtle shading and shine to the piece.  The remainder is just layers and hand cut frames for the same pale blue and coconut white card.

Finally I added a bow from pale blue silky crush ribbon and a centre gem, all form Creative expressions sue wilson range.


The winner of yesterdays card was Sam Smithard so if you email me with your address to lockers@live.co.uk I will post it out in the next few days!  However if you didn't win don't worry I am intending to give a card away every week hopefully on a Monday so there should be plenty more chances!


Enjoy...

Happy New Year Giveaway...

Happy 2015!

I thought the first card of the year should be a new creation also using some old favourites and the new Creative Expressions Craft dies designed by Sue Wilson.  I have used one of my favourite colour combinations of Navy and Coconut white.

I started by cutting the Scandinavian background in Navy card however I cut the die cut out of the die (what I mean by this is that as with all the backgrounds from CE they do not cut to the shape allowing you to enlarge the piece) with a wide border.  Next I cut a further background form a piece of coconut white and cut the die out, using my scalpel, around the deg of the die. I then turned this piece into the white frame by cutting a large border I then paced this onto another piece of the navy card and made a larger border which was then foam mounted above the background (i hope you can keep up! lol)

 The main panel is cut in Navy, with a coconut white mate from the new Copenhagen die with the smaller sentiment panel cut in the white using the centre die form the set.  I stamped the sentiment, from a CE christmas sentiment set, in Navy ink in the centre and cut it out before foam mounting all pieces together.









I ran a piece of CE satin edge ribbon in white down the side as I like to anchor my bows with a strip of ribbon for balance before adding the centre panel and a simple bow and homemade hatpins (a Christmas gift from my wonderful friend Wendy in Spain)


The main body of the card is made using the Couture Creations tied together A4 embossing folder (last years must have folder) and rubbed pearl moon cosmic shimmer gilding wax all over it before shining with a dry wet wipe and adding some stick on pearls.


A little (for that read a lot) of foam tape and layers of card and finished!

Now there is a (un)deliberate mistake on this card that I only noticed when I put the photos on the blog.  If you can spot the errant pearl on this card then you can win it!  simply leave a comment saying where the pedal is and I will ask Mr Next Door to randomly pick a name form the comments.  The winner will receive this card and a box I will make to house it in!


Heres hoping you all have a wonderful New Years Day and that 2015 will bring everyone loads of Crafty Joy!!!


John xxx