Live Life

What you need

Stacy Stamps – Baby Bear 2106JJ

Stacy Stamps – Moon/Sun 1073CC

Kaisercraft – Live life CS930 sentiment Stamp

Die'sire Embossalicious A4 Embossing Folder - Tumbling Leaves : EF4-TMBL

Martha Stewart deep edge border punch (Floral Vine Eyelet)

OR Spellbinders  Scalloped Borders two –S5-202

1 x A5 sheet white Vellum

1 xA5 sheet bright green card

2 x A4 sheets white card

Black die based ink pad (Memento or Versafine recommended)

White Distress marker OR White Sakura Souffle Pen

Stencil brush

Twine

Post-it-notes

 

Distress Inks used                              Promarkers               

Squeezed lemon                                  Warm Grey 2       Pastel Pink                                                   

Peeled Paint                                        Umber                  Sandstone

Tumbled Glass                                    Pine                      Caramel

Adirondak – Bottle                             Carmine                Cocoa              Walnut

                                                            

HOW TO:

1. Take the A5 sheet of green card and cut down slightly to approx. 14cm x 20cm.

2. Emboss using Die'sire Tumbling leaves embossing folder then distress the edges using the   Adirondack Bottle ink.

3. Take the sheet of A5 vellum and cut down to approx. 12.5cm x 18.5cm.

4. In portrait aspect punch or die cut the left hand edge.

5. Stamp the bear using a black dye based ink in one bottom corner of an A4 sheet white card. Trim the sides to match the edges of the stamp.

6. Stamp onto a post-it-note with the bear, stones and the butterfly and cut out to create a mask and place it over the main images.

7. Using a piece of copy paper randomly tear in a wave across the paper. Place horizontally across the image you are working on around the bears neck area. This is where your first hill is going to be.

8. Using the peeled Paint distress ink and the stencil brush, stipple to create the grass. If you want to add some definition to the hill at this stage use a very light stippling of Adirondack Bottle across the edge of the paper mask line.

9. Move your hill mask up to just above the bears ears and repeat the last step. do not add as much ink, you want to create the idea of distance.

10. Move the mask up slightly again and repeat this last time.

11. Trim the image to about 15cm in height and then stamp the sun in the top right hand corner.

12. Using the tumbled glass and the squeezed lemon distress the sky and the sun.

13. Colour the bears snout in Sandstone and around the eyes in Caramel Promarkers. The main body of the bear is coloured using Cocoa and lowlighted (shadowed areas) with the Walnut.

14. The stones are coloured with Warm grey 2 and Umber. The grass fronds with Pine.

15. The butterfly uses Pastel pink and Carmine.

16. Finish the image by using the white distress marker on the cotton tips of the grass which may have been stained green by the stippling.

17. cut two matts one 2mm bigger all round than the coloured bear image and one 4mm bigger.

18. With the chisel end of the cocoa Promarker edge around the smaller matt.

19. Stick the bear image centrally to the brown edged card and then stick that centrally to the remaining white matt.

20. Stick the bear matts to the upper right hand side of the vellum leaving a border.

21. turn to the reverse of the vellum and where the bear matts have been glued, apply another layer of glue and stick to the embossed green card. Be careful not to extend the glue beyond the edge of the main image otherwise it will show through the vellum and give an untidy appearance.

22. Tie the twine around the green embossed card and main image before securing to the white base card. 

                                                           

                                        

 

This card is a little simpler. The colouring is mainly done using blending chalks however if you don't have these use Pan Pastels. Only the grass and stones have been coloured using Promarkers. I have embossed a piece of white vellum for the background and used floral Spellbinders D-lites dies to embellish.

 

Sorry ladies I forgot to photograph the 'Duck Dreams' samples before leaving the shop yesterday so please bear (excuse the pun) with me for those and I will try to get round to putting them on in the future.

 

Once again I would appreciate your support by purchasing your supplies from Samuel Taylor Crafts, Brighouse. If you mention that you are purchasing as a result of my online tutorial or the in store class/demonstration I can't promise discounts but it may ensure the continuance of these projects/classes.

 

Happy crafting.

 

Yve

Extra samples from class 26/10/13

 

 

This card uses the same technique that was used in the main resist class only using the trees instead of the leaves. Start with the bigger trees to the front and smaller trees towards the top to create the impression of distance. The distress ink layers are, antique linen, mustard seed, peeled paint and Adirondak bottle to finish but try your own colours. Again this is using the Southfield glossy card, so if you are using clarity card you can skip the antique linen. I don't know why there is a difference, but there is. The first layer of resist on Clarity card will be white however this doesn't happen on the Southfield card and the nearest result I could get was using the antique linen for the first application of ink.

 

 



 



 

 

This is the same card as the post in 'Resist Stamping' earlier in the blog except using the Creative Expression Stamps (instead of the Justrite stamps. 

 

 

 

If you are a Barbara Gray fan (Clarity Stamps) these cards won't need any explanation, however for others who don't follow her here is a simple guide.

 

1. Create a border around an A6 piece of glossy card using low tack masking tape and secure to a piece ordinary copy paper.

 

2. Using another sheet of copy paper carefully tear across the middle to create a hills and valleys effect.

 

3. Approximately one eighth up place the copy paper over the top part of the gloss paper. (where the sky will eventually be).

 

4. Ink up your brayer with any green distress ink (I used peeled paint). Now.....if you have a splodge mat or the cheaper version blending mat (recommended) roll the ink onto that in a long streak. If not roll your brayer onto some spare copy to take away some of the ink (the Barbara mantra "you can always add it, but you can't take it away!").

 

5, In long sweeps roll the brayer over the area left exposed until it's nearly as dark as you require. Optional step : - Before moving to step 6 using a finger dabber and a darker toning green just highlight the very edge of the hill.

 

6. Reposition the copy paper higher up moving to one side or another to give a different aspect. Then repeat step 5. Do this once more for the horizon. Each layer should be lighter to give the impression of distance.

 

7. Punch a circle for the sun from a post-it note (making sure you have some sticky edge to it) and place it where you want the sun to appear.

 

8. Ink the brayer as above and from the corner roll the brayer gradually down towards the hills going over your sun mask. You don't need to go all the way down.

 

9. Remove the sun mask then using the negative part of the punch cover the sky. Using a piece of cut and dry blend yellow ink into the sun till your happy with the colour.

 

10. Ink up the large silver birch stamp (or other) and stamp in the foreground.

 

11. Ink up the smaller bare tree in brown and masking off the second hill stamp where you want it to appear.

 

12. Using the side of the tree ink in green and use it for long grass/bushes masking where necessary. Optional.

 

13. Stamp a sentiment and using a fine liner add birds (optional) and after removing the low tack tape make a wiggly border around the edge.

 

In the green card I ended up with a white blob for some reason, so putting on my thinking hat I came up with the idea of disguising it as a bunny tail. This was freehand drawn so sadly I can't recommend a stamp.

 

Then all you have to do is mat it up, distress the edge of the base card and "jobs a good 'un" unless....as in the autumn coloured card you want to add corner detail. All you do here is stamp the central leaf, mask it off, stamp 2 more to either side and colour using promarkers or as I did with distress inks. "Simples!"

 

 

With the exception of the Clarity card all items used can be obtained from Samuel Taylors(http://www.samueltaylors.co.uk/) subject to them being in stock. If you would like to join any of my future classes please enquire for dates, cost and availability at the Brighouse branch. Tel : (01484) 401419.



Happy crafting. My next class is the end of November ish and I will give details about the project when I have them.



Autumn Leaves class 26/10/13

 

 



To make these cards you need

Creative Expressions -Fancy foliage Leaves, trees and flowers

                            Or Justrite CR-03870 shabby chic autumn leaves.

1 x A5 Southfield glossy white card /Clarity double sided gloss card (BEWARE not all gloss card is suitable especially photo card)

Versamark watermark stamp pad

Heat Gun

Brayer

 

Distress Inks used                             

Antique Linen (not if using Clarity card)

Mustard Seed/ Squeezed lemon

Spiced Marmalade

Fired Brick

Walnut or Adirondack Espresso 

 

NOTE When we did this in class I tried (as an experiment ) to do this whole section with Adirondack inks. The result wasn't very good so I recommend sticking to the Distress inks and they work better if they are juicy (new) or spritzed with water to revive them.. In a later experiment I used squeezed lemon and dried Marigold (Orange).  But then made it too bright by using barn door (red). So play around. If you are not happy with the results use them as the backing for the embossed leaves in card 2.

1. Using the A5 Southfield card, randomly stamp one of the leaves over the card with Versamark and heat set it with the heat gun.
2. If you are using Clarity card go straight to number 3.  Coat the brayer in Antique Linen distress ink and roll the ink all over the card. Clean your brayer using water and kitchen towel. DON’T PANIC AT THIS STAGE IF YOU DON’T SEE THE PATTERN EMERGE. IT DOESN’T REALLY SHOW TILL THE SPICED MARMALADE HAS BEEN APPLIED.
3. Repeat step 1 with a different leaf. Repeat step 2 using the mustard seed distress ink. Take a clean piece of kitchen towel, place over inking and roll off any excess.
4. Repeat step 1 with a different leaf. Repeat step 2 using the Spiced marmalade distress ink. Take a clean piece of kitchen towel, place over inking and roll off any excess.
5. Repeat step 1 with a different leaf. Repeat step 2 using the Fired Brick distress ink. Take a clean piece of kitchen towel, place over inking and roll off any excess.
6. At this stage it really depends on how dark, light or warm you want the final piece to look. If you want a dark brown use a dark blue ink. If you want it lighter use green or for a warmer tone go for a dark brown.  This technique depends on colour blending so you need to know which colours blend to make a different colour i.e. Red and green make brown or blue and red make purple. Half the fun in this technique is experimenting and even though you may do exactly the same as last time the results may vary considerably. It works well with snowflakes and butterflies in pastels.

Now you’ve done the background we need to make the cards.

CARD 1
What you need

Justrite CL 03810 Thank You labels twenty 

1 x A5 Gold mirri

2 x A4 sheets black card

Versamark watermark stamp pad

Gold embossing powder

1. First fold an A4 sheet of black card in half so that you have an A5 sized card. Then crop it to 14.5cm to make a square card.
2. Cut a gold mirri mat 14 x 14cm an affix centrally to the black base card.
3. Next cut a black mat 13.5 x 13.5cm and glue centrally to the gold mirri above.
4. Now cut a 12 x 12cm piece from your inked glossy card and then cut into halves so that you have 4 x 6cm squares and arrange them on the card as shown.
5. With Versamark, stamp three times with the large frame onto the remaining black card and emboss using gold detail embossing powder. It is advisable to use an antistatic bag to prevent speckling of the embossing powder.
6. Hand cut or use the spellbinders dies/machine to cut the bottom layer of decoupage. Use the outer edge of the inner parallel lines for the middle layer of decoupage and the inner label for the top layer.
7. Layer up using foam pads and glue to middle of card.

 

CARD 2 

What you need
 
Creative Expressions -Fancy foliage Leaves, trees and flowers
                                                Or Justrite CR-03870 shabby chic autumn leaves.
Justrite CL 03810 Thank You labels twenty 
1 xA5 Cream card
Versamark watermark stamp pad
Gold embossing powder
Copper embossing powder
 

CARD 2
1. Cut the A4 brown card in half lengthwise and fold one of the piece in half to make a landscape A6 card.
2. With the left over inked glossy card stamp 5 of the veined leaves with versamark and emboss with copper kettle embossing powder.
3. Cut them out but be careful not to cut too close to the copper embossing (sometimes it chips off). Optional – finish the cut edges using a toning promarker or similar pen.
4. Stamp the smaller frame onto cream card twice using Versamark and emboss with gold embossing powder. It is advisable to use an antistatic bag to prevent speckling of the embossing powder.
5. Hand cut or use the spellbinders dies/machine to cut the bottom layer of decoupage. Use the inner line of the circle for the decoupage.
6. Fix the leaves as shown first and then overlap the frame. Finish with some ribbon/twine bows and three blobs of glossy accents or pearl beads coloured with brown promarker.

 

OK ladies. I'm going to have a break now but I'll post the other card samples as soon as I get chance.

 

TTFN as my Grandma would have said.

 

Yve

 

 

Fancy Cupcakes

 

 

After being inspired by a very talented lady called Sarah that I work with (see Crave for Cakes on Facebook) I ventured into making some of the fancy cupcakes that are now in fashion. The pink ones are vanilla and the others are chocolate orange. When I was growing up I was fortunate enough to have Grandmas who were very skilled in Dressmaking, knitting, tatting, lace making, crocheting, and baking, so although the baking was not a particular challenge, the icing was a little daunting. However, Sarah lent me the large icing nozzle that I needed and it wasn't as difficult as I had imagined. I am quite pleased with the results and they taste as good as they look. OK....I'm biased but my children, best friend, her husband, daughter and grandson are not. I am now going to look at different recipes and try some more. Who knows one day I might even be selling them.

 

Yve

Resist stamping

These 3 cards were supposed to be samples for my upcoming craft class towards the end of October however I am told that these stamps won't arrive in time. Sooo....the class (if enough people book) will be the same technique (resist stamping) but with a different selection of stamps. If you have a brayer please bring this with you although I think some are being ordered in, so don't worry if you haven't got one.
I did want to do masking as well but I think that would probably be too much of a challenge for one morning combined with resist stamping so I'm going to leave that for another time.

Now it's time to go back to my craft desk and design a birthday cards for my beautiful daughter although as a parting shot.........SOOOO disappointed that Anna Griffin did not bring to QVC the holly die cutters I've seen going for an extortionate bid on a well known auction site and since she won't be back till after Christmas it's not looking likely that we will get them here in the UK.  :(  :(  :(

Happy crafting
Yve

Class of 14th September PART 2

Remember ladies - a die is not just for Christmas, it's for life  - oh....sorry that's dogs He He !!!!

 

What I meant to say was..... don't just think of your die as a cutter ! you can use it to make stunning backgrounds. This one was done on white card. I have just embossed the dies through my spellbinder machine (NOT cutting just embossing) moving the dies round in a random pattern. I put it through one final time without dies just to make sure it was all the same depth.

 

This picture is the underneath or the raised side, distressed with Adirondack (cranberry).

 

This is the top side or the debossed side, which has been stamped with the corresponding 'Justrite' stamps and again embossed with the cranberry Adirondack.

 

 

This one is the same principle using the Marianne snowflake stamps we used in class. This is the top side (debossed) using Chipped Sapphire, Tumbled glass and shaded lilac distress inks.......

 

 

and this is the reverse just distressed with the chipped sapphire. (oh ! and my handwritten notes but you get the idea...............don't you?????)

 

 

SO.... next time you get those dies out remember to think outside the box. Use them for creating fancy corners or edges. You don't have to use the whole die.

 

 

:)

 

Yve

Class of 14th September 2013

Sorry to those who are just browsing for inspiration. This post is quite long and is one specially for my Saturday morning ladies. So feel free to scroll down if you want to miss the how to and shopping list. All products are available from Samuel Taylor shops or to order from the online shop.

 

 As promised ladies, here are the cards we did in class and the other ideas that we just don't have time for in a single morning. For anyone who can't make it to class I have added a shopping list and a simple 'how to' so that you can join in via my blog.

 

REJOICE

 

What you need

Dreamweaver – Rejoice stencil

Marianne snowflakes die  LR0123

Marianne – Christmas tree die cutter –LR0176

Echo park paper co, winter wishes, Dazzling dots WW39005  (12 x 12” scrapbook card)

 1 x A6 white vellum,

1 x A6 white glitter card

1 x A4 smooth white card

White & blue 3D liquid Pearls

Chipped Sapphire distress ink

How to :- 

1)  Take the A4 white card and fold in half to make your base card.

2) Cut an A5 (210mm x 148mm) piece of the Echo Park paper, distress the edge using chipped sapphire distress ink and attach to the front of your base card using your preferred adhesive.

3) Take the dreamweaver stencil and stencil the word rejoice 7 times vertically down the page using the chipped sapphire distress ink. Remember each time you do this, you must align the stencil vertically with the lines on the paper and also with the base line of the 'R' or 'E'. I found it easier to work right to left because I am left handed but you might want to practice on a scrap piece of paper first.

4) Rip and tear the vellum lengthwise corner to corner and rip a strip of one of the pieces so it is smaller than the other. Then apply glue to the straight edges only and fix as shown on the above card.

5) Cut and emboss one Christmas tree and colour the embossed baubles in toning colours and stick over the vellum.

6) Using the white Liquid pearls squeeze a vertical and horizontal line of pearls/beads onto the corners/edges of the card and allow to dry.

7) Cut 3 silver mirri snowflakes and 3 white glitter card snowflakes. Glue the white glitter snowflake on top of the silver mirri snowflake. Glue them to the front of the card in a cluster and finally add a large blob of blue liquid pearls in the centre of the snowflakes for the finishing touch.

 

 

 



 

Simple snowflake

 

What you need

Dreamweaver – Rejoice stencil

Marianne snowflakes die  LR0123
Craft creations CP1645 (silver bordered blue texture with stars)  12 x 12” scrapbook paper
Heat gun.
1 x 6” x 6” white card (base)
1 x A6 white vellum  (matt)
1 x A6 smooth white card  (sentiment)
1 x A6 white glitter paper (snowflakes)
1 x A5 silver mirri  (snowflakes)
Distress ink – weathered wood
Versamark ink pad
Silver embossing powder

How to :-
1) Using the Marianne snowflake dies cut 3 each. Larger ones in silver the small one in white glitter card. Shape, layer and glue them together using 2 different silver ones and one small white snowflake. You should end up with three 3D snowflakes. (I hope that's clear. I've rewritten that sentence 3 times now)
 2) Cut the Craft creations scrapbook paper in half and then one piece in half again. Using the left over negative from either of the silver snowflakes, stencil through it with versamark onto any edges of the 6 x 6" scrapbook paper that doesn't have a silver edge. Apply the silver embossing powder and heat using a heat gun. Affix it to the front of a 6" x 6" base card.
3) Add the three  3D snowflakes to  one corner of the card.
4) Onto white card, stencil though the 'rejoice' stencil using versamark, apply silver embossing powder and heat using the heat gun. Cut to size, matt and layer onto Silver miri card and vellum before fixing to the card.



Snow Scene

 



 

What you need

Dreamweaver – Rejoice stencil

Marianne –      Christmas tree die cutter –LR0176

                        Christmas tree with village church – LR0172

1 x 6”x 6” white card

A4 sheet white card for die cutting

A4 sheet white paper

A6 cream card

Chipped Sapphire distress ink

Ultra fine white glitter

Quickie glue pen

Moon mask made from post-it-note or similar

 Promarkers                                       

Pastel yellow                                      

Holly                                                  

Bright green                                          

Cocoa

Ice grey

Caramel

 

How to :

1) cur and emboss two Christmas trees  and one Village church  from plain white card. Remember to keep the small cut outs from the trees.

Colour the small cut outs from the tree in the Holly promarker. OK....this could be hard to describe but here goes. Snow usually accumulates on the ends of branches SOOO.......starting from the bottom leave a line of white then colour a line of bright green. don't go above the line of the cut out. This is where you need to start white again. You don't need to be too precise just zig zag your way along.

2) Colour the church and houses using the embossing lines as a guide. I've used different shades of brown to define each house. Remember to leave the roofs white. Trace round the edge of the village church onto cream card, cut out and glue it behind to create the glow in the windows.

3) Take a piece of white copier paper and make a mask by ripping it across into a landscape style edge. Out of a post-it note make a moon mask.

4) Take the moon mask and position it on your base card. Place your landscape mask about half way up the card but covering the lower section. Distress the upper portion of the base card. Move the landscape mask down, shifting it's position so it's not a mirror image of the one above and continue to distress. Repeat this once more.

5) Remove all masks and stencil Rejoice down the side using chipped sapphire distress ink.

6) Stick your church/houses and Christmas trees to the card and for the finishing touches add shadows and a glittered road/path with the quickie glue pen and white glitter.

 

 



 

Snowflake Flower

This is one where you have to be creative and be able to freehand draw holly leaves.

 

What you need

Dreamweaver – Rejoice stencil

Woodware vase punch

Marianne snowflakes die  LR0123

1 x A6 white glitter paper

Echo park paper co, winter wishes, Dazzling dots WW39005  (12 x 12” double sided scrapbook card)

1 x A4 smooth white card

Mid blue blending chalk or pan pastel

3D glue

3D foam pads

Blue Glitter

Fineliner black/red

Adirondak  ink pad – bottle

Strong glue

 Promarkers

Holly

Pine

Pastel blue

Ice grey 1

Ice grey 5

Cool grey 3

 

How to:

1) Out of white card punch a vase and add shadow using the ice grey 1 promarker.

2) decide where you want to site the vase and make small pencil marks where the top of the vase will sit. Through the negative of one of the snowflake die chalk half a snowflake onto the side of the vase.

3) Draw 3 sprigs of holly/berries coming from where the pencil marks are using the fineliners.

4) Punch and layer the snowflakes (as above) this time using white glitter card for the larger snowflakes and the echo park paper for the small one. Add a blob of clear 3D glue and sprinkle the blue glitter on top.

5) Using the grey promarkers draw a table top for the vase to sit on. The top line should be Ice grey 5 blended down to Ice grey 1.

6) Stencil the rejoice stamp using the bottle Adirondack ink. Cut out and attach to the card using 3D foam pads.



Village scene

 

What you need

Marianne –      Christmas tree die cutter –LR0176

                         Christmas tree with village church – LR0172

Craft creations CP1645 (silver bordered blue texture with stars)  12 x 12” scrapbook paper

1 x 6”x 6” white card

6” x 6” sheet white glitter card  

Ultra fine white glitter

Quickie glue pen

 Promarkers                                     

Pastel yellow                                      

Holly                                                  

Bright green                                                   

Cocoa

Caramel

Sandstone

 

How to:

1) Cut one large tree and 3 village/church from white card. From 2 of the village/churches cut off the church steeple and the Christmas tree. Cut one small tree from the waste and throw the rest away. Colour and create the window glow as above (Snow scene).

2) Stick the other  6 x 6" piece of Craft creations paper to your base card.

3) Rip and tear the 6 x 6" glitter card three times, so that you have a matt white edge on the upper edge. Glue down the two side edges and along the bottom only and attach to card.

4) Place the church die cut with one of the houses on the top of the middle layer and tuck the remaining houses behind the middle layer. Remember to make sure any cut edges are hidden behind the landscape or other houses.

5) Glue your two other trees to the card.

 

 

WOW!!!!!! Marathon or what???!!!!!  So much for trying to keep it brief !!!!!

 

Hope this is helpful ladies. Hopefully see you back again on the 24th October when we will be doing stamping. Specifically - masking and resist techniques. Thinking of an autumnal theme using trees and leaves, with yellows, oranges, reds and browns. Ideal for difficult men. LOL



Inspired by Anna Griffin

I have long been a fan of Anna Griffin however like most paper crafters I tend to hoard the papers because they are just too gorgeous to use.  With the advent of her new range of embossing folders and die cutters it is possible to make an impact on cards using similar paper products, thereby leaving my stash of A.G. papers untouched.
The first card is a Birthday card for my boss at Samuel Taylor (Click on Crafts), Brighouse. I have used the signature embossing folder, distressed with antique linen distress ink and new flower die cutter, with images from Crafters Companion flower fairies CD rom (candy tuft fairy) and Joanna Sheen's Victorian Flowers CD rom. Both have been decoupaged.
 The sentiments for the first two cards are frames and fonts from the Anna Griffin Creative Journaling CD rom which I imported into Craft Artist 2 and used from there.
The angel is an Anna Griffin polymer stamp from 2012 (I think), coloured with promarkers, the holly and poinsettia from My Craft Studio and the little postcard images are from Joanna Sheen's Victorian Christmas CD.
Oh! nearly forgot, the letters for 'Vesna' were cut using an X cut die cutting plate.

Hope you like my new selection.

Prom Dress

Well the big event has finally been and gone and by all accounts a good time was had by all. The dress which was handmade by myself, stood out amongst the most elegant ones there and doesn't she look stunning?! The dress (at around £60 including all the lining, cotton, zips, pattern, etc) cost a fraction of the cost it would have to buy it AND  it was tailored to fit in all the right places. ;)  When taking into account sandals, hair, make-up, the total amount spent was in the region of £130. Some of her friends spent up to £1000 on a dress alone which in my book is silly money and just goes to prove that some people have more money than sense.

Titanic 2

Found it at last :)  the scrapbook page showing the full length version. Don't you just hate it when you know you've got a picture of something but can't find which file you put it in? (Actually that goes for half my crafting stash! LOL ) I'm not overly happy with this page and may consider re-doing it at some stage, but I thought you might like to see the full length version.

Mum's Birthday cake

This is a cake I made a couple of years ago for my Mum's 70th Birthday. Although I've made cakes before, this was (I think) the first I did which was not Royal Icing. The roses were all hand made by myself (they took ages!) and the '70' was printed from the computer and laid under baking parchment before being piped and filled in. The cake is a rich fruit cake made from a recipe which was handed down to me from my late Grandma and not forgetting the marzipan. I did cheat at that. Although I have made marzipan before I decided to go for the quick option and buy it in this once.
Unfortunately, making cakes is quite an expensive job, especially rich fruit cakes, so again I don't make these commercially and only do them for family gifts on special birthdays (better than spending a fortune on a present they either don't want or need).
Mmmn, just looking at this makes my mouth water but "I must RESIST" (with French accent). Weight and me are mortal enemies and we've been battling each other far too long!

Whimsy Boy

Whilst at 'The Great Northern Papercrafts Extravaganza' last year I saw some die cut sheets with Whimsy characters on them. I didn't want sheets, I wanted stamps so I made a note of the manufacturer and looked them up on line. Imagine my joy when I discovered they came in stamp form. Since I couldn't find a UK based stockist (at the time) with the ones I wanted and I ended up ordering from America. There aren't many boys stamps I actually like but I fell for these instantly because they have attitude. This is done with the Whimsy Teen Idol stamp. It is coloured with pro markers, the background distressed with Tea Dye and the edges ripped and torn to give a white frame effect. The far backing paper was created using the resist technique with Anna Griffin polymer (banner) stamps as are the "Bash" and "Let's Party" greetings.  A bit of sacking material has been added and the corners distressed a bit more with some acrylic paint.

Baby Card

Well here I am again, having just finished cutting out the lining for my daughter's prom dress. (post coming shortly since prom is on 28th June)

The vast majority of the cards I make are for my own use or made as Christmas presents, however, every once in a blue moon I get special orders (and two in one month is a cause for celebration). When I got one for a baby card I struggled because I didn't have any baby stamps and had to go buy this one from ' Lili of the Valley' (too close and tempting to where I live) and don't you think it's just SOOO cute? I've wanted to do something in browns and blue/pink for a while, so when I coloured the teddy brown I just couldn't resist. As with most of my cards these days, I've distressed the edges to give it a shabby chic look. I ummed and ahhhed about adding the lace effect and a flower because they are not generally boyish, but in the end I decided to go for it and am really pleased with the result. As usual it's coloured with promarkers, the backing papers are from the Polka Doodles, Fredrika CD-rom and the ribbon is threaded through a Martha Stewart punch which has been punched on both edges.

Titanic outfit

OK!
I told a friend that I would post a picture of an Edwardian dress and hat I made last year for an anniversary production of 'Titanic the musical'. This is the scrapbook page of the newspaper cuttings and show flyers. I am the one in black with the wide brimmed ostrich feather hat. The dress is in dark green velvet with a black lace overlay. The neckline, cuffs and lace hems were all in scalloped lace. It was supposed to have a high neckline but I thought it would be too warm for the stage so I did away with it, opting instead for a choker style necklace to replicate the high collar.
The hat was a pain to make! When I tried to fuse the taffeta and the buckram the taffeta buckled, so I ended up recovering it in crushed black velvet. Because of the thickness of the fabric I ended up with very sore finger tips. It was every inch worth it though. I think I can honestly say it was the most authentic outfit of the production and I felt every inch the elegance of the era.
Making the dress all came about because there was a recreation of the last meal on the Titanic pre-production party. I could have hired a dress for a fraction of what it cost me to make, but this was a once in a lifetime event for me and the dress is now my monument to my stage debut. Once I lacked courage to sing out loud. Now I embarass my daughter (and Mum) in supermarkets singing. I'm no longer afraid of making a complete idiot of myself and I have CONFIDENCE to do what I should have done years ago!!!

 Moral - It is never too late! Go for it!!

Yve

Special order Swan

 

This is my newest creation. From time to time I get  orders for special occasions. This one is for a 70th Wedding Anniversary. Most of the orders I get have no specifications and I am given a free reign in what I create. YEAH !!!!!  I haven't had one back yet, so I take it as a good sign. 

It is made by making an easel card from the scalloped oval Spellbinders Grand nestabilities. The base/support is cut from a piece of folded A4 cream card and is cut over the folded edge. What will become the base of the card is distressed around the edge with Tea dye distressing ink. The topper part as I call it is cut using the same die as the base and again distressed around the edge. Next I have cut another oval 2 sizes down and embossed it with the Die'sire A4 leaves embossing folder and distressed the edges (I sense a pattern here ..!). The next layer up is a PSX stamp (swan) which has been stamped using a Sepia Versafine ink pad, cut with the small scallop  nestability and the Cheery lynn lace oval die (with the circle lace in the centre) used as a frame over the swan. Along the inside of the lace die there is a lip which I have just run a Caramel promarker around to highlight the edge. I didn't do any distressing on either of these layers. I have added as embellishments 3 homemade rose flowers (my own design and aren't as pinky in real life), edged with Gold versamark, leaves cut from beige lightweight card with a woodware punch, a hat pin and some gold ribbon.

The text was typed into Corel draw,printed and cut, but this could easily be done in a Word document. Just remember to change the colour of the text to suit the colour of the card (something I generally forget to do the first time I print! - DUH!!!!) For cream cards I prefer to use a brown/sepia colour and a light gray for cards on a white background/white insert.

I put 2, Crafts too you, Flora, die cuts emerging from the 'stopper' which was created from the left over lace circle and a quickutz scalloped circle die cut. To finish I added a Spellbinders banner die.

Hope you like it??? !!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Vintage look

This is a Vintage look using the same stamp sets. I have listed the list of items used so that you can re-create this look. The background is made by ruling vertical lines 3cm apart and then stamping in alternating columns with the small stamps from the frame set. The frame has been decoupaged by stamping twice and then cutting out the centre of the frame and layering on 3d foam.

Vintage Card

1 x A4 base card Folded to A5

1 x A4 card for main image and frame
1 x A5 card for background
1 x A5 sheet gold mirri
1 x A5 black card
Adirondack Espresso ink pad

 Promarkers

Roses                          Daisies                        Frame                                     Leaves/stem

Sandstone                   Tan                              Tea dye distress ink                Khaki

Caramel                       walnut                                                                       soft green


Yve