Christmas Friday...

Happy Friday,

Tomorrow I will be doing a workshop on Christmas cards at That's Really Crafty in loughborough, there are a couple of places left if anyone want to join in!  On Sunday I will be demoing at Crafty Company at Fleetwood so pop along if you are in the area!

Back to today and it's Friday so time for another Christmas card I guess, don't worry Ive been making so many I'm unlikely to run out before December!

I thought I would show a card made with one of the new Mini Striplets, as you know I love the original starlet these new mini ones are fast becoming a new favourite.  I stated by cutting the poinsettia mini triplet, using the inner and outline die, in vintage gold foundation card.  I embossed it as well as there is a lovely set of detail that is only visible when you emboss it.  Next I hand cut a rich red mat for the die cut and mounted it behind.  Next I added some of Phill's vintage berry twinkles in the centre of the poinsettias.  I embossed apiece of vintage golf card using the holly swirl A4 embossing folder and cut ti to a 14 x 14cm square mounted on a thin mat of the red.  I added a few layers of the red and gold to make a 19x19cm square card and from mounted the Striplet down the left hand side.

Next I cut one of each of the three largest dies in the classic poinsettia set in red and the matching three dies form the new open petal poinsettia in gold and mounted them above.

I made up the flower and added a few of the separate foliage leaves (cut in the same way with both dies) that come as separate dies in each set.  I added a centre of the twinkles and the medium pierced flag die stamped with the sentiment.  I ran a thin layer of the twinkles around the flag and mounted it, with a flourish, behind the poinsettia.

This is a card that you could easily simplify and make quickly for your batch Christmas cards, honest!

Ingredients:
Creative Expressions Craft Dies by Sue Wilson
Poinsettia mini Striplet
Pierced flags
Classic poinsettia
open petal poinsettia
CE A4 embossing folder holly swirls
Rich red and vintage gold foundation card

Enjoy...

Something Purple?!?...

Happy Thursday,

Firstly I have to mention that the snow fibre paper I used yesterday is a new product as Ive had loads of people asking about it on here and Facebook.  It will be available early next week and I will mention as soon as it comes out!

back to today and I thought you might like to see another different colour for me with some stamping and some colouring.  I made this card again on a demo day as a lady asked what to do with the cherry blossom stamps and she wanted an interesting yet simple card.  This is what I came up with.

I stared by making card blank using the largest die in the Ornate pierced noble design set.  I then made an aperture in the front only using die 3 from the set.  Next I stamped, using jet black archival ink, a spare of the sherry blossom around the edge of the plaque cut to make the aperture.  I used the branch with flowers form the set and added a few single flowers around the bottom left of the piece.  I coloured the flowers using the greens and peoples set of cosmic shimmer mica watercolour palettes.  I then shaded around the design using dusty Concord distress ink and a smoothie.

To balance the card I shaded around the aperture on the front of the card using the dusty concord,  To make the bow I took a length of white seam binding and ran the dusty concord ink, again using a smoothie as this makes it so easy, along the ribbon so that it was the exact same shade as the rest of the card.

For the flower I cut 2 of the perfect peony open petal dies and again shaded them with the distress ink before shaping them and adding a white 5mm pearl in the centre.  I placed the flower in the middle of the bow, to hide the knot, and added the whole piece to the bottom left of the aperture on the front.

Its a little purple which I admit is an unusual colour for cherry blossom however I feel it works and they could be a scary of any flowers!

Ingredients:
Creative Expressions craft dies by Sue Wilson
Ornate Pierced design noble die
perfect peony open petals
Creative Expressions clear stamps Cherry Blossom elements by me!
Cosmic Shimmer watercolour mica palette greens and purples
white seem binding

Enjoy...

Creative Christmas Wednesday...

Happy Wednesday,

This months brief for the design team for Creative Expressions is Christmas using some of the most popular festive dies from last years Sue Wilson festive dies.  Today I have chosen the perennial Poinsettia for my card, a die I use again and again.  I have given it a new treatment as I have used inkspray misters and the new snow fibre paper, from CE, to make these faded poinsettias.

I started by spaying the snow fibre paper (the paper has a almost translucent look to it where you can see the swirling fibres that make it ) with Phill M Martin's Vintage Berry ink spray mister randomly all over.  The ink, rather than sitting on the surface, bleeds into the paper staining it giving a different look that just spraying standard card stock.  Next I die cut the poinsettia die a few times from the sheet and built up the flowers.  To give depth I 'pinched' each petal along the centre (hopefully this comes off in the picture)

Next I added a small gold dazzler in the centre of each flower each bloom then has a natural shading, albeit in red, that makes the flowers pop.  I then coloured some more of the snow paper using the vintage holly ink spray and die cur the finishing touches trailing ivy die.

I cut and oval in a piece of coconut white card, using the outline die form the new let it snow die, and embossed the piece with the CE A4 snowflake lattice embossing folder.  I then added a cosmic pearl PVA glue dot on each snowflake and arranged my ivy and poinsettias to the bottom left of the aperture.  For added interest I added a messy bow made with a dark green bakers twine from the brights set.

For the recessed panel I stamped the sentiment, form the Peace, Love, Joy clear set by Creative Expressions, in the centre of the oval I cut and, leaving the cut in the die, shaded around the edge using festive berries distress ink and a smoothie.  To add a bit of soft bling I covered the piece in double sided adhesive sheet and rubbed on some diamond snow, this juts softens the inking to match the poinsettias.

To finish I stuck the oval to a blank piece of card and foam mounted the aperture with the poinsettias above.  I simply added a couple of layers of the coconut white to the back to make a frame for the piece and finished.

Although it looks more complex this could easily be adapted into batch cards as the paper and the dies do all the work for you!

Ingredients:
Creative Expressions Craft dies by Sue Wilson
Classic Poinsettia
Trailing Ivy
Snow Fibre paper
Phill Martin Ink Spray Misters in vintage berry & Holly
Peace, Joy, Love clear stamp set
festive Berries distress ink
Diamond snow.

As usual for a Wednesday it would be fab if you clicked over to the CE design team blog and had a look at what the rest of the team have come up with!

Enjoy...

Paper Grout and Paint...

Happy Tuesday,

I had to feature another card made with the lovely Passiflora stamp to die for because Sue Wilson featured one she had beautifully col,toured on her blog last week.  She mentioned that this is a stamp that I drew and I have to say that although it is my own work, of which I am highly critical, I do love using and colouring this image.

I stated by stamping the image, using perfect medium, onto teal foundation card which I the embossed with cosmic shimmer true white detail embossing powder.  Next I coloured it in using the cosmic shimmer watercolour Mica palettes.  The great thing about the these watercolours is that they have a large mica content which means that you can paint onto dark colours and still get the true colour.  To colour this one I chose a soft pink, from the greens and purples range, and a couple of shades of green for the foliage.




To make up the card I die cut the largest die (no1) from the Lisbon die set form a sheet of milk foundation card that I had embossed with the bed of roses A4 embossing folder.  To get the stunning sparkle I used teal sparkle texture paste and sues fabulous paper grouting technique. I have added sues video for this below (as it saves me explaining it!) if the video doesn't play click HERE to be transferred to You Tube.

Once dry I cut the aperture and foam mounted it above the stamped image .  I cut a thin border using the teal piece underneath and mounted the whole piece, with 3D foam pads of course, onto the card blank made from layers of milk and teal

Ingredients:
Creative Expressions craft dies by Sue Wilson
Lisbon die set
CE Bed of Roses Embossing folder
Teal sparkle texture paste
Stamps to die for Passiflora
Milk & teal foundation card

Enjoy...

Gilded Summer...

Happy Monday,

How about something not christmassy? nice after a weekend of bling I reckon!  however i did stick with the gilding flakes theme with this card  and perhaps a little bling from some gilding wax?  why ever not.

I stated this card as a demo piece at Dale side Garden centre a couple of weeks ago and thought I should really finish it off.  I stated by die cutting the inner die form the Stacked Diamonds triplet for Sues latest (non festive) collection as a diagonal down a square of sky blue card.  Next I rated the die 45 degrees and cut it again across the piece.  If you are careful lining this up then the pattern that cuts in the centre square reveals a new pattern.  If you do miss, as I did on a few attempts at home, I simply add a separate cut square over this piece which means you still get the lovely diagonal design.

To decorate it I added a square of silver foundation card onto which I had stuck a smaller square of double sided adhesive sheet (this was cut smaller so that there was no adhesive around the border so I could get the nice silver layer)  Next I rubbed silver dream gilding flakes over the die cut piece so that they stuck to the adhesive.  I rubbed away the excess with a piece of Rubit Scrubit pad which revealed the gilding but kept the intricate die cut area.

To make up the card I cut and embossed an 18x18cm square of sky blue suing the bed of roses embossing folder.  I rubbed this all over with pewter gilding wax and polished it off using a dry wet wipe.

I then added a few layers of blue and silver to make a 20 x 20cm card blank.  I added a strip of ribbon down the left hand side of the embossing and added a matching strip down the right hand side of the die cut front.  I finished with a knot and a velum peony made with the perfect peony die and matching stamp.

Ingredients:
Creative Expression Craft die by Sue Wilson
Stacked Diamond Striplet
Perfect Peony Complete petals
Sky blue & Vintage Silver foundation card 
Cosmic Shimmer Silver Dream gilding flakes
Pewter gilding wax
CE A4 bed of roses embossing folder
blue white seam binding

Enjoy...

Sunday Gold...

Happy Sunday,

Firstly I must apologise for the late post today quite honestly after the 3 hour drive home from Norwich yesterday (where I had a fabulous day with all the lovely ladies and the talented and organised Emma) I feel asleep!  Thank you Carol for the reminder if you hadn't emailed Id probably still be asleep and forget to post! lol

I thought you might like to see the Gold version of the background I used on yesterdays card as the picture truly did not do it justice!  I had intended to post the progress of this card on Face book yesterday however the signal was just not strong enough!

This version is made with the snowflake background which I cut in vintage gold foundation card.  I added a piece of double sided adhesive to the front and rubbed silver dream gilding flakes over the back.  I then added iced snow over the front and trimmed down the piece.


I added a die cut from the largest oval in the snowflake background set, cut in vintage silver, across the front and a bow tied with the May Arts silver and gold double sided ribbon.  The ribbon is silver on one side and gold on the other some of the audience yesterday thought I had used 2 different ribbons!

For the sentiment I gilded a piece of coconut white card and cut the Let It Snow die form this (this is far easier than cutting the piece and then gilding it however you can use the piece it cuts form as well so there is no waste.

I hope this gold version shows this technique better than yesterday and that you understand the quick post!

Ingredients:
Creative Expressions Craft Dies by Sue Wilson
Snowflake Background
Let It snow expressions die
Silver dream gilding flakes
May Arts ribbon
Silver & Gold foundation Card

Enjoy...

Classic Christmas Demo...

Happy Saturday,

Im demoing at Sew Simple in Norwich today between 10am and 4pm if you are in the area pop in and I will show you round the rest of my Christmas samples (told you I love making christmas things!) as well as some stamping and die cutting demo's and tutorials!

Todays card is one of the ones I will be demoing although think I will be doing it in gold!  This is made simply using Sue's fire and ice techniques tied with the snowflake background die.  I also die cut some of the lovely winter tress from card that I gilded.  I know this looks complex but the dies and technique do all the work for you!

I added the video on this technique, made by Sue Wilson on this technique to a blog post last week, click HERE to see the original post.

Once I've demoed this in the gold I will post the pictures on Facebook so hopefully some posts to come later today!

Enjoy...