Tuesday Back(ish)...

 Happy Tuesday,

We should be flying back today and hopefully will arrive mid afternoon so hopefully a longer post tomorrow!

Enjoy...

Monady Away...

 Happy Monday,

Still Away visiting relatives so another quick post I'm afraid!

Enjoy...

Away Again...

Happy Sunday,

AS you read this we will be visiting my Dad in Spain, he lives about an hour form where I lived until July this year.  Therefore there are a couple of scheduled posts for the next few days,  This means just a pic of the card and an ingredient list I'm afraid!

Ingredients:
Creative Expressions Craft Dies by Sue Wilson
Daisies Open & Closed petals
Austrian Collection
Heart Lattice embossing folder
Cosmic Shimmer Pearl Moon gilding wax
Grosgrain Stripe ribbon

Enjoy...

Too Good to Waste...

Happy Saturday,


As it nears the end of the year then I am slightly changing my days and something Different saturday is being retired until next year.  I have loads of new features planned for January 2015 onwards and so will be moving days round and adding new features.



That said today, and every saturday for the next couple of weeks, will feature a card or project until next years changes.  I know for the last couple of years I have heavily featured Christmas Projects In december but  a great number of them were too late for people to try and with all the dramatic changes in my life over the last six months time just simply has not been my friend!

Bak to toady and a simple card that, again, uses scrap pieces form another project this time the workshop project for january.  The whole card is based on the waste piece that I had left over from cutting the leaves for the front.  When I am cutting a specific die, especially when it is form an expensive piece of paper or one I have spent time prepping beforehand, I always look at the pice I am cutting bit from to see if I can either cut lots form the piece thus saving card, or whether it is worth centralising the die to make the most of the scrap piece.

For my workshop pice I wanted the foliage in silver gilding to match the gilded panel at the back and a few weeks ago Sue mentioned that she had received a tip that it was better to gild a piece of card then cut the die as it makes it easier to handle.  I therefore gilded a small(ish) piece and cut the leaves form the centre.  This acme the basis of today's card when I mounted this over a piece of Navy card form my stash I got a lovely shaded branch in relief.

I grabbed a double bow that was sitting on my desk, made during November workshop to try out this stunning stain centered ribbon from Creative Expressions in platinum and added it to the front.

The reminder of the card is pretty simple to put together I embossed a further piece of the navy card using the Creative Expressions A4 pinpoint embossing folder rows of bows and rubbed platinum gilding wax over the raised surface.  A strip of the ribbon and a few layers of silver and blue, with foam tape added for dimension of course, and finished.

A quick polish of the gilding wax and the gilded piece was required to bring out the shine (hopefully visible on the photo here) and the card really shone!

Enjoy...

Am away visiting my Father in Spain so shorter post for the next few days! x

Lots of blue...

Happy Thursday,

I thought I would show a blue card today as it seems an age since I shared one of my creations in one of my favourite colours!  Today's card is from my Show on Create and Craft In November which is over a month ago and yet feels like yesterday!  I will be back on Create and Craft on January the 6th with a selection of new Dies form Couture creations so I am manically making samples at the moment (thankfully we did most of our Christmas Shopping on Holiday in November)

Today's card uses a selection of Techniques and Dies that I love, form the Craft Die range by Creative Expressions, designed by Sue Wilson. For the show I got to choose my selection of favourites form the whole range and as a lover of Ovals and Filigree I selected my first set form the Austrian Collection of course.

I started by inking through a that special touch mask using perfect medium onto pale blue card then embossed the perfect medium'd section with Cosmic Shimmer detail silver embossing powder.  Next I die cut an oval form the centre of this panel and foam mounted a silver frame cut from the Salzburg set on top, studded with Cosmic Shimmer ivory PVA.

This piece was mounted onto a square of pale blue onto which I had stamped the sentiment and dragged with broken china and chipped sapphire distress ink to give a faded look.


The background is made from cutting the Austrian collection border 4 times from vintage silver foundation card and overlapping them around a square to make a frame.  Again I added dots of the PVA to highlight the piece.

Finally I made the flowers using the Creative Expressions Sue Wilson Classic die with the filigree section in.  I die cut each of the two larger sizes from a sheet of the blue card onto which I had added different colours of distress ink using Chipped sapphire, broken china and Milled lavender.  The piece of card looks so messy before you die cut the flowers however once cut it gives beautiful shaded flowers and foliage (I used the same technique for the new Ivy Die a couple of weeks ago as suggested to me by Sue)  A very messy bow in white and blue seam binding and finished.

Ingredients:
Creative Expressions Sue Wilson design Dies
Classic Rose
Austrian Collection Corners, Borders and Tags
Austrian Salzburg Die set
That Special Touch Mask, Counterpane
Cosmic Shimmer - Ivory PVA, Detail silver embossing powder
Distress Inks - as listed above
Blue & Vintage Silver foundation card


Enjoy...

Workshop Mark 2...

Happy Thursday,

I thought today, although it seems a little early, I would share details of the projects for my January Workshop at Creative Expressions Head Office at Kettering.  I have received a lot of emails asking about workshops so I thought I would give as much notice as possible to those interested.  These are all based on the Latest Craft die release from Creative Expressions designed by Sue Wilson.  I have designed these projects to show a range of techniques split between 2 workshops (morning and afternoon) and there is even a bonus project for those who attend all day!

The blue card opposite is the afternoon workshop and uses the Striplet, Foliage and Camilla dies along with Gilding, embossing and other die cutting techniques.

The pictures do not do this project justice as the embossed backing piece is made with Silver Gilding Flakes and positively shines!


The Morning project is the card below using the New York collection of dies and several different techniques.

Each workshop is designed to show how to look at your dies differently by extending or cutting and stacking your dies.


For more details on the workshops or to book a place please contact Tracey at Creative expressions Tracey@creative-expressions.uk.com or email me for further details.


Enjoy...

Postscript I am also talking to Mrs B about doing these workshops in the Swindon / Oxford area in the new year so keep an eye out if that is a better location

Eat Dessert First...

Happy Wednesday,

Another card made with the chalk board range of stamps however this time I wanted to show the different look you get by embossing the image in white embossing powder rather than with a chalk based ink pad as I did last week.

Todays stamp is the Life is short eat dessert first a sentiment we can all agree with, well I do anyway especially of dessert is a cheese plate!


I made the base card using the External Rings striplet die by Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions without the border piece.  I cut the die into the centre of two side panels measured at 10cm each (making a 20cm square card when put together)

Next I made these two pieces of card into opposing folded edges of a square card and added a white panel behind each aperture.  I then added 5mm pearls on each junction to really define the die cut and give the card some pop.

Next I stamped the inamge / sentiment onto black card using perfect medium and embossed it with Cosmic Shimmer detail white embossing powder, and eat set it.  I cut the image out using Sue's Salzburg die.  I then cut a white oval using the largest edge die from the set from a piece of coconut white card to which I had added a piece of double sided adhesive sheet.  Stickimg this piece to the reverse of the stamped image it left the sections in the die with sticky which allowed me to add iced snow to give a further level of bling (unfortunately this doesn't show well o the pictures)


I simply foam mounted the finished topper to the left hand panel and added a messy bow with ice white seam binding.

Ingredients:
Sue Wilson's Dies
Eternal Rings Striplet
Austrian Collection Salzburg
Creative Expressions Life is short Pre cut Singles stamp
Black & coconut White foundation card
Cosmic Shimmer Detail White embossing powder

It would be great if you could click over to the Creative Expressions blog, take a mooch about and see what the other team members ahem come up with, and of course leave a comment on my project! lol  I believe the timings have changed now so the post should be live whenever you read this!

Enjoy...