Sunday 30 April 2017

Pixie Powders

Hi, hope you are all having a lovely bank holiday weekend. I have been playing with Creative Expressions Pixie Powders recently and today I am showing the first of three cards I made.


 I used the Sun Yellow, Mango Blaze, Aqua Lagoon, Golden Mint and Purple Violet. I created the background first by tapping a small amount of the powders onto some white cardstock and then spraying with a fine mister spray. I dried it off with a heat gun and cut it to fit the frame I had made using my Presscut Stitched Rectangles dies.




The flowers are from Elizabeth Designs and are called Dandelion Fluff. The sentiment circle is from Craftwork Cards.

Back tomorrow with another one

Wednesday 26 April 2017

Aprils 2nd Christmas card




Back as promised with another quick tutorial for using the left over foam from yesterday snowflake card. After you have die cut the snowflake you are left with the waste part, I die cut that again using a plain circle die. In the Sweet Dixie set there is a smaller snowflake, I die cut that from more of the foam and then covered both that and the circle with more of the Wow Fab Foil in teal.






 
 I had this idea of filling in the gap between the two with glitter, so I die cut a circle from some double sided adhesive and attached that to my piece of white card that I had already cut with the Presscut stitched rectangle die. I made sure I put it further down the card so I could draw a line with a fine liner pen to make it look suspended.


I then peeled the sticky off the circle and then placed my circle of foam on top so it sticks to card. My next step was supposed to be to add the small snowflake in the middle before throwing glitter over it....but in my excitement I did glitter first then had to add some pva glue behind the smaller snowflake to stick it to the glittered area. So its a case do as I say not as I do...it would have been easier to stick the snowflake to the sticky double-sided. So pretending that I did it in right order it looks like this

 
Next I repeated the same process of die cutting some Holly leaves from a Sue Wilson die set from last year and then covering them with silver foil.
 
 
These were attached to the top and three more of the pearls I made for yesterday card were added in a cluster and one more in the centre of the snowflake. The sentiment is from Crafters Companion. In theory you could make three of these cards from the waste from yesterday card, that's three off your list.
 

 
 
 
 
Hope you enjoyed this idea, back again tomorrow with non Christmas cards I promise. 

Tuesday 25 April 2017

April Christmas Card


 
Good morning, its the 25th so time for my monthly Christmas card. Its a bit of a twofer this month, I made two cards using the Craft Plus Uk product of the month Wow Fab Foils. I am posting one today and one tomorrow as they are quite photo heavy. The card uses Sweet Dixie Snowflakes die, but you can do this technique with any die as long as its not too detailed. I found some Xcut ejection foam in the shop. This is supposed to be used inside dies to help the cardstock fall out after its been cut. If you had the original Quickutz machine and dies, the same system was used for those as well. Its a thin self adhesive foam and can be cut with thin metal dies. So once you have cut it out one side has a removable sticky side. Lay your foil colour side up on top of the sticky die cut and rub all over and gently pull off.

 
 
I used the teal foil, keep the waste foam I have used it for my other card I am posting tomorrow. The sentiment was typed on a computer and then printed off using a LASER printer....not an inkjet. If you don't have one of those just type out a whole A4 sheet of lots of sentiments on your computer, print off on your inkjet and take along with some cardstock to your local printer and they can do it for you. It doesn't cost much, just make sure you leave some spaces in-between so you can trim or die cut out.
 

 
I used the silver foil, again just lay a piece over the sentiment and run it through a foiling machine if you have one or a laminator. I find it helps putting it through with a carrier sheet , if you don't have one copy paper will do. Put it through folded side first so I doesn't get caught inside machine.
 
 
 I used my Presscut stitched rectangles die on white cardstock and matted onto some black card. Arrange three of the snowflakes across the card, I used a fine tip glue applicator to get a little PVA on back of snowflakes. I wanted to add something in the middle of the snowflakes so I made some white pearls using Creative Expressions White PVA glue. Put some drops onto a non stick mat and leave to dry, I usually do it night before and come back to it in morning. Using a pokey tool lift them off and apply to card with a little drop of glue.
 

 
 
 

 
 
Hope you like these techniques, back tomorrow with my second Christmas card.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Monday 17 April 2017

Happy Easter part 2

Good morning, here are my other two Easter cards . The first one is for my mum an dad and the other one I made three of for each of my children and their other halves. A friend lent me some of the dies and stamps, so thanks Gill.

First up the tulip card uses a die from Crafters Companion.  I hadn't seen this die before, but it's prefect for any Easter or Spring birthday card. I die cut it in white card and then used distress ink and a blending tool to add colour. The background is a frame from Sue Wilson Adorned Rectangles from the Noble collection die set. I run it through my machine and then stuck it to a piece of double sided adhesive and then threw glitter all over it. I raised it up on some foam pads so it created an aperture for the tulips. The sentiment is from Clearly Bessotted and I just matted that and the card base with some card from my stash.

 
The second card uses a wreath die from Memory Box, this card is my version of  a lovely card Gill had made. I used an old little flower punch to embellish it and I added a little distress ink to the leaves on the wreath. The background was made using a Joy cloud die that I cut out of some card and then used the waste part as a stencil to blend some distress ink through to create the sky. The bunny stamp, die and sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I die cut the tail in felt as my little pom poms are in loft with Christmas bits. The bow die is from Sue Wilson again, like yesterdays. A few little pearls to flower centres to finish off.
 
 
I hope you enjoy what's left of the bank holiday weekend.

 
 
 


Sunday 16 April 2017

Happy Easter

My promise to be more organised has paid off this Easter, as I had my Easter cards made weeks ago. Which was lucky as its been a manic couple of weeks and there's been no time for crafting. First two cards are for my grandchildren.

First one for my granddaughter using a Lili of the Valley stamp. The card has been cut using a Crafters Companion tag die set. I found some old A4 cardstock in some spring colours and gingham pattern which I thought would work well. I use my Promarkers to co-ordinate and the sentiment is from Clearly Besotted. The bow is a die from Sue Wilson called Itty Bitty. You cant see in photo but I added some of my Spectrum Noir glitter pens to the egg and her wings. I punched a few little flowers from a EK Success Retro Flower punch to embellish and added a few pearls.


 
 
The second card is for my Grandson, this stamp is so old but I love it. Its Penny Black and its been used for cards for all my family over the years. Oliver's the only one who hasn't had a card using it , so I stamped and cut up each image instead of having them in a line like they are on the stamp. Each one has been coloured with Promarkers and then cut into rectangles. The sentiment is from Penny Black as well. I used some very old Papertrey Ink cardstock and inks to complete the card.
 
 
Back tomorrow with some more Easter cards, have a wonderful weekend.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday 13 April 2017

Product of the month class card 3

This is the third card from my recent class using Wow Fab Foils. For this technique I used up scraps of foil I had left over....so don't throw anything away.

 
The  background is from Creative Expressions Dotty Daisies embossing folder. The foiled square is Wow Blush foil on top of a piece of double sided adhesive. I die cut a heart shape from a piece of card covered with double sided adhesive. I then dabbed some of the foil scraps shiny side up randomly over the sticky paper. Once finished I threw on Glamour Dust glitter to fill in between the foiling. The sentiment is from Woodware and is called Just for You.

 
Back soon with some Easter cards.
 
 

Saturday 8 April 2017

Product of the month card

Good morning, hope you all have a lovely weekend planned. Todays card is the second one from my class last week using Wow Fab Foils.

 
The stamp set is from Honeydoo and is called a trio of flowers, I stamped the flower with versamagic pink grapefruit and then using a quickie glue pen I flicked the veins of the flower with the pen and waited until the glue turned from blue to clear. That's very important, it wont work if the glue is wet and not tacky. Once the glue is clear I laid pieces of copper foil over the top rubbed and pulled the foil off.
 
 
The leaves were stamped with versamark ink, then I threw bonding powder over the top. Heat with a heat gun and then whilst its still hot get the green foil on and rub. If you find you get an uneven effect I have found that running it through a die cutting machine helps to get even pressure over the image. The lattice is a die cut from one of Sue Wilsons lattice bows and I stuck some double sided adhesive to some lightweight card and run it through my machine. I took the top layer of adhesive off and then applied the copper foil. You must remember to have the copper side facing you or else it wont work. Finally, my flower centres are circle foam pads which we all have in our glue boxes, just attached to flowers, take the top off and rub some scraps of foil over and pull off. The sentiment stamp is from Woodware and is called just for you.
 
 Don't throw any scraps away, they can all be used. My other top tip for using with foil is keep a clean or new pair of scissors for foils, like you do ribbon. Any sticky stuff on scissors rips the foils and screws it up as you cut.
 
Hope you are enjoying seeing different uses with foils, back again soon with an anniversary cards using scraps of foil and glitter.....a gorgeous combo.
 
 
 

Wednesday 5 April 2017

Product of the month class

Yesterday I held the first class using the new Product of the month at Craft Plus UK. For April its Wow Fab Foils, they come in 14 colours and you can use them with either hot or cold techniques.


 Todays post features one of the cards from the class using the Stamps by Chloe Flower Border Builder stamp set and a sentiment from Sweet Dixie.

 
 I used the purple foil on top of some double sided tape, the tape was attached to the card first, then take off the top strip and apply the foil....COLOUR SIDE UP....on top of the tape and using your fingers rub and burnish the foil to the tape. Whip the foil off and you have a lovely foil strip. For the flowers I used Bonding Powder. I stamped the base layer of the stamp with a Lavender ink pad then stamped the top flower stamp with Versamark Ink and then sprinkled Bonding Powder over the top. Its similar to embossing powder, you heat with a heat gun, it takes longer as the granules are a little thicker. Then immediately apply the foil over the stamped area and rub again like on the tape or you can run I through your die cutting machine.

You are not cutting anything just applying even pressure. Remove the foil and you get a gorgeous foiled image. I have to say foiling is not the easiest thing to photograph, especially as I am only using  phone but the cards are available to view in shop for a closer look. The grass and two stems come in the stamp set. There are special offer of 10% off the Wow Fab Foils and Bonding Powder and 30% the First Edition products .

Keep an eye out for more cards during the month featuring foiling.

Brushed Blooms

I made this card quite a while ago with the stamps and dies from the Stampin Up Brushed Blooms set, that appears in the Jan/June 2021 mini b...