Create a card die and quilling flowers from Crafter's Companion.

Hello,

I love this card, I have made a few of these now and they are suitable for so many occasions and people love them.  They look so expensive and elegant.

I started with a 16 x 16 piece of centura pearl card and cut in half and created an 8 x 8 card blank.  I PP3 and CT2, I did all the centres in GB3.  Once quilled, I sprayed with stick and spray and dipped in glitter.

I punches and die cut various leaves and a swirl and added to the centre of the card.

A simple but elegant card which looks expensive.

Happy Crafting.

TTFN

Debs x

A bit of colouring in..... with Crafter's Companion.

Hello all,

Following a hard day at work I love nothing better than coming home and going to my craft room to stamp a beautiful image and spent time colouring it in.... it is so relaxing.

Well, I decided to stamp and colour a Crafter's Companion Scruffy Little Cat stamp.

I started with a piece of 16 x 16 Centura Pearl card and trimmed in half to make an 8 x 8 card base.  I matted with gold matt card and layered with a background paper from the Scruffy Little Cat CD (from Crafter's Companion) on to the  gold card,  Before sticking down the background paper I added a cream ribbon and bow at the bottom of the card and added a butterfly gem to the centre of the bow.

I added 3 heart gems on top right and bottom left to bling it up a little and a sentiment and gem on the right top corner and finished with another single gem on the left bottom corner.

I die cut a topper from a piece of Neenah stamping card (from Crafter's Companion), using black momento ink I stamped the character on to the topper card I had just die cut.

I decided to colour in using my Spectrum Noir pens and I went red for the dress and used DR2, 5, 6, 7 and added EB3 for the eye colour.  For the skin I used FS1, 2, 3, 4 and PP1 and added DR2 for the lips

For the hair I used, TN2, 3, GB3, 4, 7 and finished the perfume bottle off with TN1, 2 and CR2.

I gently dusted round the edge of the stamped die cut topper with scattered straw distress ink to give the edges a hint of colour and finished with a matching insert.

I love this card.  Plus it is my hair colour ;-)

Happy Crafting.

TTFN

Debs x

Next Crafting Workshop - Sunday 22nd February 2015 at 10am.

Hello,

I hope you can join me for our next workshop at Lench's Trust, Ridgeacre Rd, Quinton. B32 on Sunday 22nd February 2015 at 10am for a fun filled workshop.

We will be focusing on men's cards for this workshop and will be making a wallet card and also a toolbox card......

Who said men are hard to make cards for...... have they met my husband - he always has to have a different card (after 23 years together, I am having to come up with quite a few new ideas)!

Hope to see you Sunday 22nd February and I will show you how to make these cards.

Happy Crafting,

TTFN

Debs

Four Corner Card.......

Hello again,

Well, I met some lovely ladies today at the Motorcycle Museum Paper Crafting Fair who were interested in making a version of the four corner card - the version they saw was using circles and with the edges die cut with a lovely border die.

I am showing in the pictures below a square version of the card, but the instructions are the same you just start with squares instead of circles.

1. cut four squares/circles exactly the same size.
2. fold each piece in half then in quarters - if you want to die cut the edges do that now.
3. on the bottom right quarter of each piece of card score from the centre point to the outside point (creating a mountain fold)
4. On the bottom left quarter of each piece of card, you need to trim this corner out as it is not needed - IMPORTANT - ensure you leave a little bit cut in extra as a tab to stick to the next piece of card.
5. using the tab, stick this to the top left corner of the card, making a triangle corner, the bottom of the triangle should be your mountain fold you created in step 3.
6. do this for all 4 pieces of card.
7. take one piece of card and stick the back of one side to another piece of card ensuring the mountain folds are at the bottom, and it should look like the first picture below.
8. repeat this with all four pieces of card.
9. do not stick the first and last piece together this way you can open and close the card.

Finished decorated pictures below.

Hope you enjoy making this card.

TTFN

Happy Crafting

Love Debs x

wedding invites ......

Hello all,

Well, what a busy week, my friend Ann and I are doing wedding invites for a wedding in June and I thought I would show you what we have designed and made so far.

There are 50 day time invites and 50 evening invites plus 25 favour boxes plus menu's and posters, plus hand made jewellery for the 4 bridesmaids (which I will make - 4 pandora style watches with their names on - see jewellery section of blog for these)..... so not much to do then !

The theme for the wedding is lilac and purple.  

The invites were make using purple centura pearl card base and folded into a gate fold card, each end was die cut using a beautiful die, the invite was printed on to centura pearl paper which I printed a very soft background of lilac flowers and then text printed on top of this.

The invite was finished with die cut rings with a gem stones on the ladies ring.

The favour boxes the bride chose were large wedge boxes with a viewing window and tied with a beautiful satin lilac ribbon.  They were accessorised with 2 die cut rings with gem stones in the centre of the ladies ring.

Happy Crafting, TTFN.

Debs xx

Chalk board desk organiser easel card

Hello,

At todays workshop we created a chalk board desk organiser easel card.

I have attached instructions on what you need to make this and instructions on how to make this project.

This is a picture of a few of the finished projects at today's workshop.

You will need:

1 X A4 WHITE CARD 

1 X A4 PATTERNED CARD 

1 X A4 PEARL CARD GOLD 

1 X LARGE BROWN DIE CUT

1 X SMALL BROWN DIE CUT

1 X DIE CUT CHALK BOARD

1 X 2015 CALENDAR

1 X STRIP WHITE GEMS

1 X STRIP BLACK GEMS

Ideally try to use heavy weight card stock as you will be using this item for the year so it does need to be sturdy.

INSTRUCTIONS

Score and fold your white card in half, and fold the front half in half again to make an easel card.

Matt and layer the base of the easel card with pearl gold card and patterned card.  Matt and layer the front of the easel card with pearl gold card and patterned card. 

Save the off cuts of card to make the paper box and pen holder.

The chalk board has a sticky back, remove this and stick to the large brown die cut, remove double sided tape of back of calendar and stick to the small brown die cut.  Stick the chalk board to the left side of your easel card on the front and stick the calendar on the bottom right of the base of the easel card.

If you do not have a chalk board, you can laminate a piece of card and make it into a white board and used this instead.

To make the paper holder, cut your spare patterned paper into 10cm x 11cm piece and score at 1 ½ cm on all four sides and make into a box, ensure corners are stuck firm.  Trim a piece of remaining gold pearl to fit inside the box to line it.   8 ¼ x 9 ¼ cm will fit.  Stick this to the base of your easel card in front of your chalk board, this will act as a stopper also.

For the pen holder, using the remaining patterned paper, trim to 7cm x 9cm and score at 1cm on 2 long sides and across the bottom, and again at 2cm on same three sides (ensuring you leave the top unscored).  Cut into the corners and this will create a dimensional box you need the extra score so you can stick the flaps to the back of the easel.  This is where you put your pens, pencils, chalk in to – so it does need the 1cm dimension to fit these in.  Add gems to decorate. 

You do need to use heavy weight card for this project so it stays sturdy – wet glue is advisable for this project as it gives a much greater sticking power.    

Using plain copier paper you can trim this to 8 x 9 cm and put inside paper box for note paper.   

Hope you have enjoyed this project.

For more project idea, please sign up on my blog to receive updates and there is a list of workshop dates and venue's so you can come along and join in the fun.

Happy Crafting,  TTFN,

Debs xx

What can you do with toilet roll tubes and kitchen roll tubes.....

Hello,

Well, at our last craft workshop, one of the members had such a simple but wonderful idea of using a toilet roll tube (empty of course) and using it as a stand to put her glue in (upside down) so it is always ready to use and the glue is at the tip.

So, I asked her if I could borrow the idea, she said yes, so I started to have a play this morning - couldn't sleep as usual so thought I would raid the cupboards to find empty tubes, couldn't find any so I emptied some tubes.... as you do!  My hubby will be finding loads of kitchen foil loose in a draw now ;-) lol.

I decided to use earthy tones, browns and greens, I started by measuring how far down the glue bottle will go inside the toilet roll tube and where I wanted it to sit.  The tube was slightly too wide so I created a step in the inside of the tube by adding foam pads to create a "lip" inside the tube where the neck of the glue sits nicely.

I then added patterned papers, ribbon, butterflies, bow's, flowers, gems, glitter, etc to the tube.  I decided I could do this with the inside of kitchen roll and kitchen foil tubes and could use them for my glue syringes, glue pens, and small glue pots, so I again cut to size and decorated in the same theme.

I then added 3 of the small ones together to form a "glue pot holder" like the pen pots you can buy with different size tubes for different things.

This is what I have made so far..... the potential for decorating is enormous and the limit is only your imagination.  I did get a bit enthusiastic with it ;-)

It might turn in to a future workshop project - what do you think?

TTFN,  Happy Crafting.

Debs x

Tiddly Inks Stamps - Fairy Fae Catches A Star.

Hello,

Well, I have been a bit mad in my craft room today, I know it is the start of a new year and I wanted to start the year how I intended to carry on - by crafting loads..... but I have been in here for about 10 hours throughout the day today...... I am becoming addicted..... I am sure there is a support group I should join for this addiction.....  Forget "becoming addicted", I am a full blown addict - who am I trying to kid ;-) I absolutely love it.

Well, to carry on today's theme - I have created a card using Tiddly Inks Fairy Fae Catches a Star digi stamp, which you can get from the Tiddly Inks website - and loads more stamps as well.  The link to there website is here - www.tiddlyinks.com - you can see for yourself the beautiful images they have there, be warned, you will be spoilt for choice and want them all.

I coloured her in using Spectrum Noir pens, hair, GB3, CT4,3,2, LY3,1, TN1, skin, FS4,3,1,PP1, wings IB1, dress, HB3,2,1, TB3.  I added glitter to the stars and wings and also the bottom of her dress.  I then cut the image out as a rectangle, but found an old frame in my craft stash that was part of another topper I used ages ago, and it fit perfectly so I decided to use this as the frame for Fairy Fae.

I got an 8x8 card blank, and matt with silver miri card, I found some lovely almost transparent background paper with shadow swirls on it and used this to layer onto the silver miri card.

I used a die cut doily in the top right of the card and put the frame on the right side of the card but centred between the top and bottom of the card covering most of the doily.

I punched out various leaves and flowers and cut into them and coloured them a mixture, of lilac, blue, lemon and left some white and layered them up, then added gems to the centres.  I put the flowers in a random pattern on the bottom left of the card and added different leaves/branches in greens and browns.

I took two different thicknesses of different shades of purple/lilac ribbon and tied them together into a bow and trimmed the ends and put on the top left of the card.  I added a jewelled butterfly decal to the centre of the bow, and stamped butterflies onto velum and embossed with silver embossing powder and cut out and added to the card around the frame and flowers.  Finally, I added three holographic gems to the bottom right of the card - just because I could and I do like a bit of bling and glitter.

This card took a white to make due to all the various elements, die cutting, punching flowers, stamping and embossing butterflies etc. but I love this card - I love how you start with an idea in your head and finish sometimes with a different card to what you imagined but are happy with the results.

This is my card ;-)))

Until next time.....

Happy Crafting.  TTFN.

Debs xx

Tiddly Inks Digi Stamps - HALLOWEEN.....

Hello,

I though I would share with you a halloween card I made for halloween 2014 using the Tiddly Inks Digi Stamp - Happy Mummy Day - it is perfect for the cards I wanted to make.

I started with an A4 sheet of card and scored and folded into an A5 portrait card, I matt with silver miri card.  I downloaded an "eerie scene" from Make It Crafty, and coloured using Spectrum Noir pens, fence EB8,6,5,3, pumpkins OR3,2,1,TN4, for the mummy, I shaded the bandages with IG1 and IB1 and the face FS3,2,1.  I cut out the mummy.  On the background I used pan pastels to give an eerie night scene, I did some in reds/purples shades and some in greys/blues shades, the good thing with pan pastels you can blend in the colours really well together and get some lovely effects.  I layered this on to the silver miri card.

To go to the Tiddly Inks website to see what images they have please follow the link below:

www.tiddlyinks.com

The Tiddly Inks facebook fan page address is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tiddlyinksstamps/

This is an entry for the DT call.

Happy Crafting, TTFN.

Debs x

Tiddly Inks Stamps...

Hello all,

Happy New Year to everyone, it is 1st January 2015 and time for crafting (you know me, it is always crafting time - no excuses needed to craft) :-)

For my Christmas cards this year (last year now!!!) I used some of the Tiddly Inks Digi Stamp Images - they are so cute and versatile to use.

There web address is: www.tiddlyinks.com

If you have not seen any of there images before, you will be amazed, they are so cute and versatile.

Using the digistamp Skater Wryn, I printed out the digi stamped image (3 times - I got a bit enthusiastic) and coloured all three images in using Spectrum Noir pens.

I used traditional Christmas colours and used DR7,6,5,2 spectrum noir pens for the dress, gloves and hat, and used FS4,3,2,1 and PP1 for the skin,  For the boots, for two of the images I used the same reds as above, but one I shaded in greys, BGR4,2,1, finally the hair - I do tend to colour the hair for the person I am sending the card to - which is one of the best things about digi stamps, you are in control, it is your vision, you can make larger, smaller, duplicate and flip the images so you can have two facing each other, you can colour how you want to, and match the hair, skin, clothes to your friends - the only limit is your imagination.....

For the first card (first picture below), I did the hair my colour, sort of a dark blonde/brown with a slight hint of red, (TN7,5,3,2, EB4, GB3,LY3).  I then cut out the image, I do tend to leave a small white border around my cut images, but it is your choice how you cut them out.

I took an 8x8 base card and matt with silver miri card, then used some pearlescent white card and embossed this card with snowflakes, you can shade this with distress inks, but I chose to leave pure white for this card.  I die cut two poinsettias and 4 holly leaves and added distress inks through the dies (fired brick for the poinsettias - and forrest green for the holly), I added liquid pearls (white) in the centre of the poinsettias and red on the holly for the berries.  I then added a poinsettia to opposite corners of the card and added the holly to each side of the poinsettias creating a frame (of sorts) to place my coloured Tiddly Ink's Skater Wryn image in the centre of the card.  I finished the card with a stamped die cut sentiment, and added glitter to Skater Wryn's hat.  I wanted a clean finish to the card so kept it quite simple with the beautiful digi stamp as the main focus of my card.

For the next two cards, I used my friend and myself as the character images - and again used Tiddly Inks' digi stamp Skater Wryn.  I used traditional Christmas colours and used DR7,6,5,2 spectrum noir pens for the dress, gloves, boots and hat, and used FS4,3,2,1 and PP1 for the skin,  For the first card below the hair colours used were TN7,5,3,2, EB4, GB3,LY3, for the second card below the hair colours used were LT1,2,3,GB1.

For the cards - I took A4 card and folded to create A5 landscape cards, I matt with silver miri card.
To create the backgrounds, I started with A5 white card and using tumbled glass distress inks I lightly inked the top half of the card creating a sky scene, leaving the bottom half white (for snow), I added white dots using a white gel pen and added glittered dots to create some layers.  I took some tree images and printed out and enlarged some and shrunk some to create a dimensional background again I added glitter to these.  I die cut sentiments from silver miri card and added below the largest tree on the bottom right of the cards.  Finally I cut out the coloured digi stamps and added to the cards.

You then have images of me and my best friend on matching Christmas cards - they went down really well ;-)

To see more images, please visit the tiddlyinks facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/tiddlyinksstamps/

This is my entry for the DT call - good luck everyone.

Happy Crafting, TTFN

Debs x

Happy New Year 2015 - crafting workshops

Hello everyone,

I thought I would end this year by wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous 2015 - happy new year everyone.

The craft workshops start again on Sunday 4th January 2015 with some lovely projects for the ladies, closely followed by some mens, babies and romantic projects......

Please check out the pictures below for upcoming projects......

Want to join in?

Please do, the workshops are twice a month at The Venue, Lench's Trust, Ridgeacre Road, Quinton, Birmingham. B32.  They start at 10am - 12pm on the first and third Sundays of each month - please check my blog for dates as if there is a bank holiday in the month, it may change for that month.

Everyone is welcome from beginner to advanced crafters, it is a fun and friendly group of friends you haven't met yet.

Hope to see you all soo.

Happy Crafting.  TTFN

Debs x