Flying tonight

Hi Crafty Friends

Just thought I'd show you this. My friend Wendy wanted a Christmas card for her friend who has 5 dachshunds and a Jack Russell. She specified a long card, and this is what we came up with. It's the full length of an A4 sheet, so we had to make the envelope as well.

We had a great time making it, just hope she likes it
Happy crafting
j xx

November makes

Hi Crafty Friends

Here's a round up of what we've been up to recently.

First of all a bit of a change - we did men's cards' two in one week. I cheated a bit and did cards I've done before. I'm hoping that has sorted everyone's requirements for men's cards for some time.

And then it was back to Christmas, and I got to play with my new Spellbinders frame die. It's gorgeous and comes with lovely poinsettia dies we'll have to use on another occasion - since there's still no sign of Christmas card fatigue setting in yet!
I (in my role of Early Christian Martyr!) lugged a massive box of gold and red card back from the NEC show recently, so we used that too. We stamped the background paper. The bauble is Spellbinders Heirloom Reflections

then I thought it was time to make a gift box. With thanks to Crafty Caroline on You Tube who gave me the basic idea. I adapted it a fair bit to make it close more, and decorated it with papers etc rather than stamping.

And here are some of the others I made, as I got rather carried away with them. I think I've done 8 now.

Happy crafting everyone
J x

Still making Christmas cards

Hi Crafty Friends
I keep asking Card Clubbers if they're fed up of doing Christmas yet, but seemingly not! So here's what we've been doing recently
I was aiming for a touch of shabby chic here, and used some of my precious supplies of gold printed vellum and some rather lush ribbon.

I was pleased with the effect of the gold shadow behind the candles & foliage, but it turned out be a bit tricky to do, what with so many small bits to fit in. We used DS tape and glitter for the window, and it's much more twinkly in real life.

Several people had asked for a cascade card, so this is what we did

And here are 2 more cards I made to the same design as before, but in more Christmassy colours

This was mainly for Margaret, who wanted a card using tissue paper, and whose favourite colours seem to be cream and gold. The edge is gold mirri card, but it's reflecting all sorts. I also used a Marianne snowflake die, very kindly lent to me by Trish. She says she won't lend me any more on account of my name for this one! (Well, what does it remind you of?)

These were just a little bonus make at the end of the Shabby chic week. We put little pockets in them to make gift card holders.

And finally a birthday card, for a friend - not a club make

Happy crafting
Jx

Bendi-Fold with a difference

Hi Crafty Friends

I've been wanting to do a bendi-fold card since I saw one on Pinterest months ago, and this week I finally did one. I tweaked it a bit as all the examples I've seen have two bends; this one has three. We made it in craft club although I was worried with all the die cutting it would take too long. But in the event, we managed fine and everybody went home with a completed card.
These are the dies we used:
Marianne, Tiny Pines, Holly, Spellbinders houses, Spellbinders circle and ovals, X Cut trees, Britannia (I think) Santa.

Sorry the picture doesn't really do it justice, I don't seem to be able to get the colour right, and the card is more glittery than it looks here. So here is my Triple Bendi-fold.

happy crafting
Jx

Christmas in August

Hi Crafty Friends

Well, as usual, I am behind with my blogging. But it has been a lot of fun making the things for the card club. Here are some of them - first up a Christmas gift box. As you know, I love making boxes. The construction for this was quite simple, but the gorgeous Spellbinders Victorian Medallion 3 die really made it special. The poinsettias are Tim Holtz Tattered Poinsettias

And here is a better picture of the top

I thought this was quite feminine, so we should make a gent's gift box as well. My brother always asks for ties for Christmas (goodness knows what I'll do when he packs in work!), so I went and found a tie and designed a box round that. It would also be great for gloves, silk scarf, home made sweets ....

Then it was back to cards - and a break fromChristmas. The scalloped borders are Spellbinders and the doily is quite an old Marianne one, but it's one of my favourites, though it's not so fancy as some of the new dies

But we were soon back to Christmas, and after all that die-cutting, we did some stamping. Mind you there was a lot of die-cutting of ovals first. The card as you can see was just a simple Spellbinders heirloom ornament matted onto Christmas paper and topped with a Sue Wilson bow. So we spent the morning/ afternoon making lots of different images. They all started with hills and a sunset (inspired by Card-i-o) and then everyone chose different stamps to make scenes - the ones that weren't used on the cards can be made into Christmas tags or toppers for other cards. It was great to see such a fantastic variety.

Then back to industrial strength Cuttlebugging. I love this border die (Lyra, by Sue Wilson) but it was quite complicated to cut the layers - still, being on red alert by the Cuttlebugs, did get me out of making the coffees! We stamped snowflakes on the background paper and embossed the bauble (another Spellbinder). In case you're wondering, the leaves are not a strange red colour - that would be my jumper, reflected in the silver leaves.

I was really pleased with how this next one turned out. Trish very kindly lent me her fabulous Frostyville border die (Memory Box). We made hills from torn card and added Marianne Tiny Pines and a stamped Santa (Dimension Fourth - now sadly I believe no longer in business).

This didn't take very long so we had time to make a small origami gift box, which I'll put on my next blog, when I've photographed it.

Hope you like what we've been doing
Happy crafting
J xx

Card Club Makes

Hi Crafty Friends

I don't know how that happened ! We have got to the end of August an I still haven't caught up with July's cards.

Here is some of what we've been up to

This one obviously inspired by the lovely Wendy at Card-i-o -and this one

This one was inspired by my good friend's husband whose birthday it was the week we made it.

It was nice to use my old Dimension Fourth music stamps which haven't had much of an airing.

And this is a very quick card using the fabulous Stampin Up 'Ornamental Pine' stamps - as requested by June.

It was quick to do, so we made tags from the off cuts - waste not,want not,

All for now

happy crafting

xx

July Catch-up

Hi Craft Friends

I've been AWOL for ages, as I've been working!! But it's finally done and I'm free, so it's a pity that just as I can contemplate loafing with a glass of wine on my new(ish) patio, it pours down. Still, it's given me time to catch up here.
The Card Club is going well, 2 groups a week, and they're a lot of fun.

I went to the Doncaster Summer Crafting show with two of my lovely friends from the Tuesday club, and met most of the rest  when we got there. We had a great time and spotted a few bargains!
Still no Christmas papers, and everyone wants to get on with Christmas cards.

So here is some of what we've been making

This used a free embossing folder (from Simply Cards and Papercraft, I think) and it set off a hunt for back copies of the mag. I should be on commission!

Next up was this

A lot of die cutting, but I got to use my new Sue Wilson corner die

Then by way of a change we did stamping and colouring. We heat embossed the flowers with white as a resist

Then it was time to tackle Christmas with no Christmas papers

OK, so orange may not be everybody's first thought when it comes to Christmas (you know who you are!), but hey ho.
A similar concept to the lovely Clarity stamp, but here the letters are die cuts and the O is an aperture. It features my favourite Christmas stamp of all time (probably my favourite stamp ever). We covered Santa with glitter using DS tape, which triggered a run on Ticker T Boo (bargain basement shop to non-locals) for the wide tape.

I'll be back soon with more of what we've been doing, but in the mean time

happy crafting

Jx