Birds of a Feather

Hi Crafty Friends

This week we did a multi-purpose card. I put 'happy birthday' on mine, but others chose 'new home', 'thinking of you', 'get well soon', 'have a great day'. I just had to find small stamps to fit the tag.
I like these pretty papers with a touch of Spring about them (I have a few daffodils out, so we can but hope!)

It was a really quick and easy card. The birds were cut from the patterned paper in the pad, so inking the flowers and the butterfly was the only colouring.
Happy crafting
jx

All that jazz

Hi Crafty Friends

This week we had two cards to make. I bought this piano die a while ago, but it wasn't until I thought of combining it with the sax player we had out last week that I felt inspired to use it. This was really easy, really flat for posting and quick to make. Result!
The ribbon is really sparkly metallic thread, but it defied my best efforts to photograph it. I chose a birthday sentiment, but I think it would make a good 'get well', 'thinking of you' card as well.

I provided two versions of the next card.

I thought it could be used for anniversaries, engagements or even a valentine, but we also had other options for those who didn't want to put a couple on it. This was a bit more involved than the first card, because the arched layer is letterpressed and we used partial die cutting to extend the height of the aperture.

Happy Crafting

jx

Grungy Stamping

Hi Crafty Friends

I based this week's projects on what I remember of a card I made with my good pal, Debbie. I used two slightly different techniques. In the first I stamped splurgy coloured backgrounds, then stamped over them with grungy background stamps before finishing them with die cut embellishments.

In the second set I stamped a focal image, masked over it and stamped a background, either with one big stamp or with lots of little one to make my own pattern. I painted the first two with Distress Oxides and used a layering stamp set for the last one.

happy crafting
Jx

Happy New Year

Hi Crafty Friends

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and that 2020 brings you all sorts of crafty fun.
We started back this week, and as usual after Christmas, I started with a fresh Spring like feel. We had another go at stamping wreaths.
This is the main card I made for people to copy if they wanted. I trawled though all my stamps to find diddy bits of foliage.

I had accidentally bought the same set of stamps twice, but it turned out one of them had been made back to front, so I got a left and a right facing set. Result!! I found some dies that made loads of tiny flowers, one set free with a mag and one Britannia, I think, so this came together quite quickly.

Then I made some more for myself which I showed just for a few ideas.

And then I experimented and made a HUGE template for this 8x8" card

I was happy with how it came out, though I'm not generally a fan of massive cards. This gave me loads more scope for stamping. I stamped the teal coloured flowers on coloured paper and inked them to get shading, and then had to cut them all out by hand!! Aaargh!

This is the template, loads bigger than my stamp platform, but it doesn't seem to matter.

happy stamping

Jan x

Christmas Makes

Hi Crafty Friends

Here are two weeks' makes in one blog.

This one can be a card as it folds up flat but I'm keeping mine as a Christmas decoration. It took me ages (and about half a ream of copy paper) to work out the shape for the base. It would have been so much easier with a protractor or even a compass, but hey ho, it's done for ever now. I photocopied the template for everyone so it just needed cutting out and a bit of embossed and die cut adornment. It uses the same closure as the pyramid card we did a few weeks ago.

By our last week before Christmas I thought everyone would have finished their cards so we did a cracker shaped gift box. Having made my sample I thought it was a marathon of die cutting for one gift box, but then it suddenly struck me that with very little extra effort (ie. die cutting some hexagons) it could be cut up and made into 2 boxes. So these were the options.

I did consider making decorations for the top, but then I thought we needed time for the all important Christmas party. 

Thanks to everyone for bringing all the scrumptious food.

And thanks for another fun year of crafting

Have a cracking Christmas!

jan xx

Stamped Duo

Hi Crafty Friends

Last week's stamping was a lot of fun, so we carried on with more stamping this week. At this time, flat post-able cards are what we need!

We did two cards. The first was really quick, just two stamps, and a sentiment - no masking, no nothing really. The image and the background are both by Inkylicious. We stamped the scene first and then stamped the background several times in various colours, trying to keep the ink out of the centre. Some people have added glitter to theirs which makes it pop more.

I got the idea for this one off a blog, which sadly I have been unable to find since. A great pity as I would like to have checked back for more ideas. I know the original used some lovely patterned paper, but I thought we could do our own background. We used a template to line up the 2 papers so the images aligned. I love this majestic stag (I think he was free with a magazine). We coloured over the stamping with pencils. Another pretty quick card.

I also took along the kit from last week and some people caught up with the bits they had missed out on, so everyone was very busy - the Christmas card pile mounts!

happy crafting
jx

Stamping triathlon

Hi Crafty Friends
This week we experimented with different stamping techniques.
This was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest and involved masking.

This one used a turnabout stamp

I loved all the different colour combinations people used.

This one required a wreath builder template, which was quite straightforward to construct, and a lot of fun to use. It was great to see all the variations people came up with.