Happy Christmas

Hi Crafty Friends

Here at Serendipity Towers, we've been in party mode!
We did a speedy bit of crafting, making a small gift box with one of my cha cha cha dies (i.e. cheap as chips from China). I chose not to go with Christmas colours for mine, and there was a choice of papers and sentiments so people could choose to do Christmas or not.

Then we were on to the partying. Lovely food and lovely company. Thanks to everyone for all the delicious contributions and a MERRY CHRISTMAS to all

And a crafty new year
jx

CAS cards!! (don't faint)

Hi My Crafty Friends

I made these a few weeks ago but have been waiting for the recipients to get them before I blogged them. I guess they should have arrived by now.

As you know, I rarely attempt CAS(clean and simple) cards - I always think there's safety in numbers (of layers, die cuts etc) but I did have to make SOME cards that would hopefully survive the post.

I had fun experimenting with my MFT Scribble dies and this is what I came up with. I die cut the scribbles out of white and coloured card, matted it onto coloured card bases and replaced the scribbles in the holes. Then just a few simple embellishments et voila!

happy Christmas crafting
Jx

Guests, gossip, cake (and some crafting)

Hi Crafty Friends
What a lovely week we've had! On Tuesday, June brought her friend Anne along, and she fitted right in; Ann and Julie were both back after MIA, so loads of gossip and J & J brought yummy treats too. Thanks my lovely friends.
On Wednesday, Tracey paid us a visit. It was lovely - almost like old times, except weirdly it was me not Tracey sharing the card. Alan popped along too, but at the sight of the kettle he blanched and ran for the hills!! I guess I'll never get him to volunteer for coffee duty :(

Here's the Wednesday gang + visitor

We did actually manage to complete a card, a dinky little pyramid card. I hadn't made one for ages and had to rack my poor brain cell to remember how to do it. The MISTI made lining up the stamp on the bauble die cut an absolute doddle. And it was another outing for my T Holtz winter foliage dies (love 'em)

happy crafting
Jx

Pringle tube gift box

Hi Crafty Friends

Back by popular request - the Pringle tube gift box.
It's the same construction as we've done before, but making our own textured mirri card for the lid and the organza 'bow' are different elements. The stars came from a Christmas dec I bought in last January's sale. The gorgeous glittery paper is posh wrapping paper.

Here's a close up of the mirri card. I used the lightest option to texturise mine, but there were 2 other choices with more distinct patterns

The poinsettia is by Marianne, and the delicate open holly leaves are part of my cheap as chips haul from China. I just don't seem to be able to stop myself from buying these.
happy crafting folks
Jxx

Two fer

Hi Crafty Friends

Last  week we had a two for the price of one week, i.e. we made a card and a box for the Christmas rose card we made the week before.
The card was quite straightforward - here it is

Having the MISTI made it easy to line up the sentiment with the aperture.

I first made a deep envelope for the Christmas Rose card, then it occurred to me it would make a gift box, so we made it in bright Christmassy cardstock which didn't go with the card at all, but hey ho, folks can always make a plain envelope version at home.

Margaret very kindly donated the bright red 'card' - which I was astonished to discover as I started working with it, was actually sticky backed vinyl, like Fablon, only much better behaved. It's absolutely great for the strap as it doesn't crease at all, but I did have to cover umpteen sheets of card with vinyl to make it useable.

Now, what to do the the remaining mile or so of sticky backed plastic? Blue Peter, where are you???

happy crafting

jan xx

DL Christmas cards

Hi Crafty Friends

I'm getting behind again - these are the cards we did when my computer was poorly.
No computer = no way of writing/printing instructions, so I picked a very simple layout I've been doing for years. Oldies, they may be, but they were v well received and I believe quite a few of our crafty gang are making variations in batches. I've already made a few more myself.

This stamp (embossed in white) was free with a mag. I die cut it with a Spellbinders nestie which fit perfectlyin my Stitched circle die (Nellie's Choice, I think). The bow is Sue Wilson

I'm afraid I can't remember the make of this stamp (an Ebay bargain), and the ribbon is Christmas gift ribbon)

Hope your Christmas crafting is going well
jan x

Christmas Roses

Hi Crafty Friends
Another blog in quick succession - hope I can manage to keep this up 😀

Here's the card we made last week - bearing a striking similarity to the get well card in the previous post. Club members liked the GW card when I took it in for them to sign, so I thought I'd do a Christmas version.
I fancied doing Christmas roses as a change from Poinsettias,  but with limited horticultural knowledge I realised I didn't actually have a clear idea of what a Christmas rose looked like. Some google-time later, armed to the teeth with gardening info I set about it. It turned out my JS signature dies were the closest match (but don't count the number of petals!). Those dies have been so versatile: so far they've been lilies, fantasy flowers, random buds, poinsettias, and now roses (or hellebores as us garden experts say 😉)

The frames and lattice are Sue Wilson
The leaves and berries are from a Tim Holtz set Holiday Greens - my new favourites. We coloured the berry branches and added liquid pearls.
The brown branch is Heartfelt creations
The stamens are Cheery Lyn cut to make them more feathery.
The bow is Memory Box
The bauble is Spellbinders, and the matching stamp was free with a mag. I've no idea where the sentiment stamp came from.

Happy crafting
Jx

A Get Well Card

Hi Crafty Friends

Two posts from me, in one week - don't faint!!
I just thought I'd pop by with a card I made last week. Sadly one of our craft club members is in hospital and this is the card I made for her.
Wishing you all the best, Pat, and hoping it won't be too long before you can rejoin us.

Here's what I used
Sue Wilson shadow box (frame and lattice)
Memory Box (leaves)
Joanna Sheen Signature dies  Build a Flower (flowers)
Cheery Lynn (stamens)
Intricutz (fancy oval)
Nellie's Choice (plain oval)
Hero Arts (sentiment)
Distress Inks Scattered Straw & Chipped Sapphire
An unnamed Papermania ink for the sentiment

Happy Crafting
jx

Inkylicious -sort of

Hi Crafty Friends

This is a bit later than I planned - my computer caught a virus and was quite poorly and had to spend some time in intensive care, but now we're back and all up-dated and raring to go!

I watched the very talented demonstrator on the Inkylicious stand at the Doncaster show recently. She was stamping snowy scenes in a bauble, and I decided we'd try the same technique, but without the Inkylicious products unfortunately.
I made a stencil for the bauble and we used a Hobby Art stamp and added a Stampin Up Ornamental Pine stamp and a bow. I added Spectrum Noir glitter pen to the pine which gives it a lovely sparkle in real life. It's a quick and easy card, and pretty flat for posting.

Happy Crafting
Jx

Shabby Chic Christmas

Hi Crafty Friends

We had fun last week, there were fabulous home made chocolate brownies by Margaret and some excellent profiteroles brought in by Julie, and we even managed to make a card!

Here it is:

I was going for shabby chic, but I think it ended up with too much gold for true shabby chic, but who cares? It's a Christmas card!

I printed off free printable music which turned out to be green so that decided the colour scheme. I embossed white card with an embossing folder free with a mag, and inked it with DI Iced Spruce. The Noel is an old Tim Holtz die (Vintage Noel)which I cut once in white and once in gold. I inked the white one with Iced Spruce and Pine Needles to get a textured effect. The gold leaves are sueWilson, Olive Branch. The Poinsettia is TH again (Tattered Poinsettias). The small flowers are All Occasion (I think) and I made the silk flowers from a spray of flowers in my stash.

happy crafting

Jx

Traditional Christmas Card

Hi Crafty Friends

Here is last week's card I have to share with you. And it's another outing for my favourite Holly Frame die by Spellbinders, this time cut down to make a square. We've used the image before too, it's by Art Kure. We used the central section of a larger stamp, so the MISTI was in demand again as it was difficult to get a brilliant impression first time.
We lightly coloured parts of the image with Coloursoft pencils, and a white gel pen for the snow.
One new bit of stash in evidence is the red matting layer round the image. I had just decided that I needed a mat, but a plain circle die was too heavy, when lo! the postie arrived with some tattered lace dies I'd ordered, including this filigree circle one. I knew it was an essential purchase!!

A big thank you to Inga who brought some lovely Swedish home made pastries on Wednesday, but sorry I didn't manage to get a pic before we scoffed them.

Happy crafting
jx

Shadow Box Cards

Hi Crafty Friends

A few weeks ago, I got to play with Sue Wilson's shadow box dies - courtesy of my good pal, Debbie.  I really enjoyed using them, so I decided to have a go at DIY shadow boxes. Once I'd discovered my super strength extra wide masking tape (rubbish for masking) was excellent for holding dies in place, I was off ...
I raided my stash for rectangular dies, held them in place with the ferocious tape, and then had fun filling the boxes with images. it's a good way to use your small stamps, and it's also good for people like me who aren't terrific at colouring.

I made 2 examples for the club and put loads more stamps on the table so everyone could pick and mix to individualise their cards.

Here's what I made. The MISTI was great for stamping the silhouettes several times.

I've been to two craft shows recently and apart from stocking up on basics like cream card, envelopes etc, a few treats did fall into my bag! I loved watching the demos - especially at Doncaster where there were more of them, and had 2 great days out with crafty pals. So look out for new stash appearing in cards on here soon.
happy crafting
Jx

Die Cut Christmas Card

Hi Crafty Friends

Hope you're all having fun with Christmas crafting, now we're definitely in to Autumn. The days of being boiled alive in the conservatory are long gone, now we're into jumpers and heating. The last of the apples are falling off the tree, but everyone has been so laden up with them, they're refusing to take any more, even if I threaten to keep everyone in detention until they do!!

Our Christmassy feel got a massive boost when the lovely Julie (ace baker!) brought in home made mince pies and sausage rolls. Absolutely delicious. You can see by the gaps that we were making short work of them. Thanks Julie.

And here is another of our Christmas cards.

It'a another outing for the Holly frame die from Spellbinders. I love it, and as quite a few people bought it, after we'd used it last year, I thought we'd better do something else with it. The image (a die cut with added moon) is recessed into a series of frames, which are a lot easier to do now we have the matting basics rectangle dies. The deer is over a piece of silver metallic crepe, which has a fabulous texture I haven't been able to do justice to in the picture.

happy crafting
Jx

Christmas cards

Hi Crafty Friends

As ever, I'm behind with my blogging. I've had a great time away on my hols but now I'm back and trying to catch up. here are two cards we've made in class recently.

This one is a small stepper. It's a fancy fold I really like, and it's quite quick to do. The snowflake is, I think, Apple Blossom and the poinsettia is my favourite, Tim Holtz, Tattered Poinsettia

This was also pretty quick, just a bit of die cutting. The larger bauble is on acetate so it could be raised on foam tape, which I think gives it a lighter delicate feel. The border is memory Box, Frostyville border, and the baubles are Spellbinders. The sentiment tag is Sue Wilson plus another pierced oval that came free with a mag. So nice to discover they nest beautifully.

Hope your Christmas crafting is going well
jx

catch up part 2

Hi Crafty Friends

I had a lovely break on my friends' narrow boat on the Staffordshire and Worcester canal. Lovely scenery and a good time with my pals. Good weather too.
But it was soon back to crafting. This week we made this card

I've been keen to try out my new Die'sire card maker die. It took a bit of trial and error to turn it into an easel card without the fold showing when it's shut, but I'm quite pleased with how it came out. The flowers are an old Woodware punch with a snowflake for stamens.

Now for some more catch-ups. This one uses the same damask paper as the one above, but teamed with black, it's a different look. The filigree panel die is a Tonic drawer front die, from a set I picked up at a show for £1! bargain or what?? The butterflies are heat embossed on acetate.

Now this is a bit different for me. I used a layout from a magazine, sorry I can't remember which. I like the spotlight technique.

And here's another departure from my usual style, I've been thinking I need to ring the changes for the classes. I loved this stamp when we used it at Susan's class, so I had to think of something different to do with it. It's a very easy stepper. We embraced our inner 5 year olds to make the mottled paper used for the leaves and matting layer - blowing bubbles in Brushos and squishing them on the paper. Please don't tell me Mateus Rose comes in green bottles! We coloured the image with my new Inktense pencils and added extra glitter with Spectrum Noir glitter pens

Nearly there! What could this be? Is it perchance a lilac coloured flower?? See I can't keep away from  it for long. This is one based on one I worked out with my pals Debbie and Janet, adapted because I don't have the same stamps, embossing folder etc. I love the idea of colouring the background flowers /leaves then embossing over them.

Right I think that's it.
I'm off to Copenhagen soon - see you when I get back
Happy crafting
Jx

Class Catch Up

Hi Crafty Friends
Sorry, it's been so long since I posted. As you probably know, I have actual real work in the summer, but now that's over, I've got loads of projects to share with you.
It's August, right? so it must be Christmas in craft-land. I'd been asked to do a reprise of the Pringle tube gift box, gussied up for Christmas, so here it is.

And here's a close up of the top

I found the poppy heads on an unpleasant foray into my loft. I'd sprayed them gold ages ago, so it just goes to show craft hoarding syndrome may actually be a good thing!

And here's the card we made this week. We embossed vellum with Swiss dots, running it through the bug twice to expand the pattern, and then layered it over blue paper. We used Spellbinders matting basics for the frame, a Sue Wilson filigree background die, Nellie's Choice ovals. I think the Santa is Britannia and the trees, Memory Box. Very quick and easy, after the rigours of box making the week before.

Here's another, even quicker, version I made with an embossing folder that came with Quick Cards mag which arrived yesterday. IRL the background is the same colour as the other one. Who says the camera never lies.

I'm off on a couple of jollies over the next 10 days, so it may be a while before I'm back with part 2 of this catch up, but in the mean time
happy Chrissy crafting
jan x

Lily Card

Hi Crafty Friends

First of all, huge congratulations to all my lovely friends who just carried on crafting despite the spifflicating heat. What dedication!
On Tuesday as the conservatory edged up to 40 degrees, we decamped to the micro dot of shade in the garden. Luckily as there were only 5 of us, we could squash round one table and crafted al fresco.

June spoiled us with gorgeous cakes, lemon, and a fruitcake - delicious. Thanks June.

On Wednesday there were too many of us to fit in the "shade" so we just boiled!

And after all that, what have we been making?

First up is this card

As you can see, it's very dimensional. I was watching a vid of someone making pretty flowers with a die I DIDN'T HAVE!! (how did that happen???) So I had to leap (or stagger in my case) out of bed and make flowers using dies I had to hand. And these were the result.

  Then of course we had to make a box for it. I've left the tag blank, until I have an occasion for it.

Here's what we used:

Cream card, Papermill

Gold Pearlescent card, Ross paper

Patterned cardstock, from my stash (now defunct Crafty Bits, I think)

Green Card, Shades

Dies: Britannia flowers and ivy, Lea abilities, pine, Heartfelt creations stamens, Marianne corner die, Spellbinders Borderabilities, Go Kreate tag

Border punch Martha Stewart.

Happy (cool) crafting

Jan xx

Triple bendi-fold card

Hi Crafty Friends

This week I kept everyone busy with a tri-bendi card. I love the harlequin paper and as it's plain ivory pearlescent on the back we were able to use it to make lots of flowers which we inked with archival inks; they still look really shimmery in real life.

It was great to see all the different looks people achieved with the flowers.

I used Spellbinders Borderabilities for the flaps (this S shaped one is my favourite set). I can't remember whose is the trellis die (Britannia?? All Occasion???) We did simple punched flowers as the die cutters were in demand for the rest of the card.

Happy crafting everyone
Jx

ATCs

Hi Crafty Friends

This week's post is a real blast from the past. I have quite a lot of pics I never blogged which were trapped in my old computer, which won't talk to my new computer (as you may know, I'm not the most computer savvy person in the world). Anyhoo, I have managed to liberate some of them, so I thought I'd post a few every now and then, starting with some ATC's I made when I was in an ATC swap.

This set was made for International Women's Day. The first pic is of the slip cases, the cards are below.

I chose to highlight a different quality on each card:nurturing, strong, stylish, unique, serene and mysterious

For this one, the theme was TRAVEL. I had fun with this. I drew a rocket, cut it out and covered it in sticky backed foil. then drew in the markings. The stars at the top are punched out and backed with silver. The others are table confetti. I embossed the flourish in silver and wrote the text on a die cut acetate tag.

The theme for this next one was LOVE, so I wanted to suggest a pile of old love letters.  I stamped over two aqua patterned papers, and embossed the kiss stamp. I drew the hearts, cut them out, coloured & stamped them, then covered them with several layers of clear embossing powder, till they looked enamelled, and then threaded them on embroidery floss.

This one was for a sea themed swap, so I went with a rock pool. I went a bit mad with the rocks, fashioning them out of scrunched up tissue and painting them. It's VERY dimensional, to say the least. I embossed the water a lot to make it ripple-y, but I don't think it's come out v well in the pic. The crab was a right pain! I had to cut him out twice, to decoupage the body (and I had to make 6 of them!)

I hope you like them, let me know if you'd like to see any more, and I'll see if I can prise them out of the old lappy.

Happy crafting

Jan x

Ahoy there

Hi Crafty Shipmates

The lovely sunshine was very short-lived, but crafting continues at craft central whatever the weather, and this week we had a nautical theme.

My lovely friend, Wendy wanted a beach/nautical card for her SIL and I really wanted to use my new Marianne Punch Dies - so it just had to be.

Jackie ( from the Thursday class I go to) showed us some card she had inked to look like wood, so I thought I'd try that technique too. I used white card instead of craft, and used different colours because I wanted a more sun-bleached look.

I'm delighted to say that the waves in the porthole were stamped with a stamp I made myself, over a year ago - I'm so pleased to have found a use for it (and thanks Clare for the tutorial)

Stuff used:
Super Smooth white card (Papermill Direct)
Sand coloured paper from my stash. scrap of blue paper
Acetate, string, netting
Marianne Punch dies- Fish, Shells
Spellbinders nesting circle dies
Docrafts stamp
Home made stamp

Happy Crafting
Jx