January cards

Hi Crafty Friends

Well here we are in the depths of winter, and the hardy folk of the craft club are soldiering on. Now we have a calor gas heater to supplement the rather feeble electric heaters, and last week it even got WARM!
So this is what we have been making since our Christmas break.

First week back, I really felt like doing something bright and spring-like, (possibly to off set the frostbite!) And I wanted to try out my new frame die from The Range.

We inked the backing behind the frame to get some texture. The filigree around the sentiment is an old Cheery Lyn  tag, cut twice, and the daisies are another new die acquired on the same outing to The Range (oops!)

The next week, I fulfilled a long held promise to do a Pringles tube gift box.

I got a bit carried away and did several more, not all Pringle tubes, but the same idea.

It was great fun, and lovely to see all the variations on a theme everyone came up with. I've just done the same class again for the class I go to on Thursdays (I was promoted to 'Miss' for the day!). It was an absolute hoot, and again, so many different but equally lovely results.

Then I thought it was time we did some stamping, which as you may know, is NOT my forte. However, I had not been able to resist the Stampin Up 'Wetlands' stamp set. We made one card and stamped four different scenes using different techniques. Then everyone could put their best/favourite image on the card and save the rest for other occasions. Or if they preferred, they could die cut the images to make tags. As I have an unseemly number of tag dies, there was bound to be one that fit the bit of the picture to be saved.

Anyhoo, enough blithering, here's the card

Then I was asked if we could do a gatefold card, and as I'd been doing gatefolds only the day before with my good pals, I thought this was a fine idea.

This is what I came up with. The roses are my favourite flower die, Tattered Florals and the butterflies are Memory Box. The sentiment is my fave Happy Birthday (from an old Hot off the Press set), and now I've discovered it just fits in this oval die (a magazine freebie)!! Don't you just love it when that happens!

Happy crafting

Jx

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