Marathon-on Sea

Hi Crafty Friends
Here's the latest make from Serendipity Towers. It turned out to be a bit of a marathon, but I'm blaming Jackie 😀. She asked if we could do a shadow box with a seaside theme (to go in her caravan). I said I'd have a go when my frame die arrived, not imagining it would arrive the very next day!
The die makes a frame up to 20 x 20cm, but this one is only 15x15. I had a paper stack from The Works, all different wood effects, which we used to make the frame. We made our own backgrounds with the stamp/emboss/swipe method we've done before, and then it was on to the decorating. There was a lot of die cutting, stamping and colouring (and the ever unpopular hot glue gunning).
This size can easily be turned into a card, either by mounting on a tent fold 7" x7" card, or by making a book type cover for it. That was up to folks to do at home, as the box took all the time we had.

And now a little catch up. Here's the little shutter card which went awol a couple of weeks ago. Many thanks to Jackie who supplied these pretty papers.

Happy crafting
Jan

A card marathon

Hi Crafty Friends
It's a lovely sunny day and I thought I'd take advantage of it to photograph a few cards the club has been making.
This was the last one we did before Christmas. Some of us were disappointed not to be able to make a Z fold card at a class we go to, so I had a go at making one for us to do. It's 8"x8", which is a super large card for me, but I had fun doing it. Some of the poinsettia layers and the band are a gorgeous gold printed vellum which doesn't show up too well here (I'm such a rubbish photographer). And we used some fabulous chunky glitter (nail art stuff), which we are still finding here and there.

I'm a big fan of pyramid cards so every now and then the club has to indulge me. As we didn't get the chance to do a Christmas one, I thought I'd do one now. I really like the pale green, so refreshing after Christmas. I was so chuffed this filigree corner die fit so well; I think I'll be doing this again.

I absolutely loved making this next one. I was aiming for a man's card, and I think it came out suitable for the chaps. It did involve a bit of colouring in (on the small balloon), but paper piecing would also be an option.

Margaret asked if we could do another 3 page card, so this is what we did. 

We had a lot of fun experimenting with turnabout stamps. I really like them, and I think they'll be very versatile. As this was our first club session with them, we just did a few basic embellishments to finish the cards, so everyone managed to make 3 cards - it must be a club record! I think my favourite is the semi-circle one, but I'm also very taken with my new square 'happy birthday' die.

I had a lot of fun making this, but it proved a bit time consuming for the club. I should have known, what with the letter-pressing, die cutting and all the colouring and rolling up roses. Sorry to say most folks had to go home with homework!

I had a yen to make a shutter card (having only ever made one before - at Tracey's years ago). I found a template on Pinterest and just made it smaller (as I said, I'm not a massive fan of big cards). This one starts out as a piece of A5 card, so when it's folded, it's really dinky, but it opens up to a normal sized card. Luckily I had some suitably small envelopes. There were two versions, because I didn't have enough paper for us all to do the same. Unfortunately my second card has gone awol, so I'll have to add the pic when I get it back.

Phew! I think that's got us up to date.

Happy crafting

Jx

New Year

Hi Crafty Friends
Happy New Year to you all

Where did the last half of 2018 go? I can't believe I haven't blogged since July!
Well, finally in November, I moved back into my own house - even though it wan't finished (it still isn't!) It's good be back, but the packing, unpacking and sorting took their toll on crafting. An electrical problem meant the club couldn't meet for 4 weeks, and I spent most of the time heaving heavy boxes of stuff about - great for the weight loss!
But enough of this - we are now back and crafting.
Here are some of the cards we've made since my last blog

This is a lovely Inkylicious background stamp and Stampendous's Snow Bird (here disguised as a robin!)

Another outing for my large letter dies and a super stag stamp which was free with a magazine

I had fun with this shaker card. The tag die was from The Range, but I can't remember the make.

I really wanted to use this foiled background paper, which doesn't show up too well here, but is pretty in real life. The image is a combination of a Cardio stamp (the people) and, I think, a Hobby Arts stamp (the house etc), and a quick bit of shading with DIs.

Now for a dramatically different Christmas card. I Love this stained glass window die which I bought at a show (I think it's Britannia). So pleased it fits in my circular sentiment. And the sun ray embossing  folder (from Craftstash) carries on the theme nicely.

This is based on an idea of Debbie's. I love the 3D effect, and so easy to do.

This is inspired by Sue Wilson, but using different dies. (Tim Holtz, I think)

And here's one I totally invented myself! I love stepper cards, and Art deco and bling. This is a lot more sparkly IRL.

Have a very happy and crafty 2019
Jx

It's a Square World

Hello Crafty Friends
Hands up who remembers 'It's a Square World' then!
It was squares a-go-go here at Serendipity Towers (temporary outpost), as I was quite taken with this new die.  It's a dead easy design and uses almost no materials, just one square of card inked and diecut and some contrasting matting layers. It's easy to do too, though in-laying all the coloured pieces is time-consuming. My first effort turned out almost radio-actively bright.

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Here's the version I did for the club - prettied up with some of my favourite flower dies. Pastel shades on white totally transform the effect.

And here's another more eye-boggling colour scheme. I'm not sure yet whether it needs anything adding.

We had time to do two cards this week - so more squares, this time with adorable cats. More ombre blending and inlay. The hardest part of both of these cards was not losing the bits 😀.

happy crafting
Jx

Summer crafting

Hi Crafty Friends

What a summer we've been having! One good thing about not crafting in the conservatory is we have been able to escape the broiling heat as my rented house is relatively cool. And I get to feed the swans and ducks form my window. I'll miss them when I go home.
Look how much they've grown

Sadly, since I took this picture, 3 of the cygnets have died. I just hope the rest make it.

Here are some of the cards we've been making.
This was a simple card, everyone finished early so we could enjoy a natter. (Memo to self, must try to do this more often). I wanted to use my new lacy panel die as the star of the show. I added ribbon - a bargain roll from China, which we coloured with Colour Cloud. I real life it matches better than it looks on this pic.

Next up, a pair of tunnel cards. It was a marathon of die cutting, but everyone was pleased with the finished cards, even if some of us had to reconvene to complete the final assembly. However as that entailed wine and chocolates, it was no bad thing 😀

Not exactly a batch make for Christmas, but nice for special cards and I think these card bases will be very good for wedding cards/ anniversary cards.

After all the hard work making the tunnel cards we had an easier week, making this Christmas card, although there was a birthday version for those for whom it's too early for Christmas!!!
We letterpressed the embossing folder, and did a bit of tricky hand cutting to get the very narrow silver matting layers, but it was pretty straightforward. Loving my new poinsettia dies.

Happy crafting
Jan x

Eclipse Cards

Hi Crafty Friends
Eclipse cards, especially ones using big letter dies, are all over Pinterest, You Tube, and probably all other platforms (but I don't know how to use them!), so I thought it was time the club joined in the fun.
I got rather carried away and made loads of samples: some people picked a sample to copy, others made up their own designs.

Here are some of my samples
For this one, I just added some shading to the stamp with Colorsoft pencils

This is a lovely Stampendous stamp which I painted with Distress Inks. My generally rubbish colouring, while not great was much improved with a decent water brush.

This was inspired by Jan B, independent SU demonstrator, only not having her SU stamps (which suited being inked by dragging colour from the original stamping), I just did 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation stamping with the stamps I had.

I went a bit mad with my star stamps and all my brightest inks on this one

I wish I'd made the snowflakes a bit darker on this one, and spent ages finding a Christmas stamp, not attached to a happy, merry etc. I don't know about you, but I am reluctant to cut stamps up and masking makes it tricky.

And here are three cards made by club members. First up, Glyn with a beautiful starry card (a significant number yet to be attached)

This is Sue's take on the snowflake card, in a very classy navy

And Wendy's card for her son who had just done a bit of tree surgery for me. How good is that! She provides the workman and the thank you card. I love the colour combo.

I think I've been thoroughly eclipsed!

happy crafting

jan x

Sunny Crafting

Hi Crafty Friends

Well, here we still are, at Serendipity Towers mark 2, with no date yet for our return. Still, as this glorious summer continues it's good we're not baking in the conservatory.

Here's what we made last week.

Just a lot of die cutting and colouring with Colour Clouds. For this one I used Frosted Blossom. I inked through the  flower die like a stencil so the petals got a pretty white edge.
As it was fairly easy, I got to make one too, though I did have to spread it over both days.

 This time I chose Baked Peach, a gorgeous sunny colour ... peach not ORANGE! (for any orange-aphobes out there!!)
Sunny crafting
jxx