Saturday 25/10 - all day workshop

Come and join us at an all day workshop making 2 beautiful projects. No experience necessary. All techniques fully demonstrated. We will be making faux leather embossed notebooks and a Shabby Chic 3 hearts wall hanger:

 

All materials and equipment are provided, all technniques demonstrated, you just need to bring a packed lunch (or there's Tesco nearby)  You keep everything you make, and get a take home pack of instructions so that you can make it again at home. Coffee/tea and cakes provided, and a lot of fun guaranteed! Total cost £36 - payable on the day.

The class is held at Valley Park Community Centre, advance booking is required. Please contact me for more info. 

Debs x

It's wedding season!

 Hi blog-hoppers! I've had a few commissions lately for cards on wedding themes, so thought I would share them with you.  The first one uses ready made tag toppers I've had in my stash for ages, and the colour theme was just right for this request. The die cuts are Spellbinders Grand Labels 4.  

The background layer is an old Hunky Dory Whispers pearl embossed card, and I ran the white top layer through an embossing folder - I love this particular one, which is swirling vines - think it's Crafts Too.  I added some punched swirls and a few gems to finish it off.

The second one uses a freebie download I've had since last year, from one of the crafting mags, think it was Papercraft Inspirations but not sure! Anyway, I've used it a lot!

This one was matted and layered on more Hunky Dory card, the darker layer is gold embossed, and the lighter layer is the whisper pearl again. Then I cut out a bunch of Kanban flowers I've had in my stash for years, curled and layerd them and added gems. The colour theme for this wedding was metallic turquoise, and I added Stickles glitter glue to the tiny flowers on the topper and all over the skirt of the dress - hard to see unless you look really close, but so pretty!

I have a class in Chandlers Ford this afternoon and another tomorrow night, and this is what we will be making - I got carried away with the flower theme after the wedding card!!

The Grand Labels 4 die came out again - Labels 4 has to be my most used die, it's brilliant! the larger flowers are made from cutting spiral circles, and I've added different sizes of spirals for interest, plus punched flowers, swirls and leaves.

OK, time to go pack the craft box! Thanks for stopping by, and happy crafting :-)

Debs x

Spotlighting rubber stamping

 Hi blog hoppers, this is the sample made for our last class in Chandlers Ford. We focused on the spotlighting technique,where you pick a part of your image and stamp it again, colour it so that it stands out. We also double embossed our spotlighted section so that it really jumped out at you, and used embossed Core-dinations card as a backing - the cards the ladies made in class were fab!  Lots of bright colours and great finished projects.

Next class is at Bella Crafts in Fair Oak this coming Saturday, this will be a Pro Markers class focused on florals and landscapes. It is a repeat of one we did earlier in the year, where we were over-subscribed, so we agreed to tun it again for those who were disappointed to not get in the first time.

Hope you all have a lovely Jubilee weekend, I'm off to do some more crafting ;-)

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

TP Mini albums - made from loo rolls!

Hi blog hoppers, it's been a while since my last post, and my only excuse is work - and not the crafty kind!

Several people have commented on how quiet I've been lately, so I resolve to try to post more often :-)

This is a pic of a recently completed mini album. We made loo roll mini albums in class a few weeks ago, and we had so much fun!  You make them by squashing the inner tubes from loo rolls ( or kitchen roll if you don't want to use loo rolls!) I ran mine through my cuttlebug to squash them as flat as possible.

I covered mine in a range of co-ordinating papers by covering the loo roll in PVA glue and wrapping paper around then trimming. If you want a pocket just fold one end up on the second side and glue only the left and right edges on that page

You can slip tags inside the ends of the loo rolls, add pockets, mini envelopes, photo corners and embellishments and tags of all kinds. I used a cropa dile to punch and set eyelets and book rings to bind the pages.  It takes a while to stamp all the tags and mount all the photos, but the end result is so cute - I have another 2 part finished :-)

Last week's class in Chandlers Ford covered mica powders and we had a lovely sparkly time dusting, painting, spritzing and spraying! I feel like I owe all my ladies' other halves an apology as they all went away with plans to stock up on mica powders and masks :-)

Off now for a cuppa and kitty cuddle - happy crafting

Debs xx

Creativity returns! Hurrah! And WOYWW

woo hoo!  Finally, after a couple of weeks of crafty inactivity, I get to craft again.  Have to confess, I didnlt really feel ike crafting much over Christmas break, which surprised me, as I had several days of 'nothingness'. However, these were spent semi-comatose in front of tv eating anything and everything to hand and watching drivel on tv - bliss!  We have had a few weeks of the 'everything that could go wrong.......' syndrome, starting just before Christmas with Hubby's car dying, so I am currently car-less while he makes use of mine. Isn't it amazing how much you take a car for granted? I hadn't realised just how much I use mine, particularly for last minute supplies for classes!!

Then the dishwasher decided to have a heart attack just in time for Christmas, my poor Brother in Law is still in hospital, having now contracted MRSA and a chest infection following his 4th or 5th surgery. And yesterday, with the storms, I spent a fun few minutes sailing across the garden hanging on for dear lifge to the canopy from our swing seat, as I tried to prevent it flying into someone else's garden, and then our fence blew down!

My work desk is a bit of a work in progress today, as I am frantically packing up kits for tonights class, having left it to the last minute (not intentional - lots of interruptions!!)

centre front is my lovely new A3 cutting mat courtesy of Santa Hubby! and on that is the sample card for tonight (more detailed pic below) and set of packing/construction instructions and box of kits.  If you look carefully at the top right of the pic you will see my Christmas oven mitts which have not yet been returned to their home for another year :-)

So this is a close up of tonight's project - a shutter card with lots of matting and layering, flowers, butterflies and mirri card.

May not get to look at everyone's desk today on WOYWW, but will hop on over to Julia's blog now and hopefully will get a chance to catch up tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOYWW 128 - Christmas boxes

So I'm a bit slow with the WOYWW pic today, if you hop on over to Julia's blog at the Stamping Ground, you get to take a peek at lots of crafters creations - it's great fun but be warned - it's hugely addictive and can swallow a whole day if you're not careful!

I've spent the morning playing with templates for Christmas gift boxes ready for an upcoming class, and you can see a couple of them on my cutting mat, and another unfinished, with a red ribbon around it and a finished icicle box next to it. Lots of punches, some gems, some Pro Markers, a box of distress inks and the ever present baby wipes! And top right, a box of wires to try out with my new toy - a Zutter bind it All! I bought this on E-bay a week ago and didn't have any binding wires to try it out.  Christmas calendars here we come!

I have some beautiful craft cd's, including the Joanna Sheen 'Ivory Cats' cd, and they have fab Calendars on them, so I'm looking forward to giving calendars to friends and family. Just have to think up ways of personalising them so they aren't just 'print and bind' pressies. Also need to find some of those big cardboard envelopes for calendars - if anyone knows where to get them, let me know!

Next I need to plan and organise my Christmas 'bake in'. My Christmas starts when I make the christmas puddings, mince pies and cake - and I'm a little late this year so need to get my act together. I started making my own Christmas puds about 20 years ago, making only one that first year from an old Family Circle recipe (anyone remember that??) which I still use - it doesn't even have metric measurements! Then family members asked 'are you making them this year?' and it grew from there. Now I make lots of them!  They take about 6-7 hours steaming, the whole kitchen gets soggy, and while they are cooking I make the mince meat (sugar and fat free - so you can have twice as many lol!!) Then I bake the mince pies (8 dozen last year!)and I play Christmas music all day long, much to my husband's disgust!

I love this part of Christmas, the traditions and rituals that are my build up to the big day. Everyone is getting home made pressies this year, and I will be baking, cutting and sticking for a few weeks!
Happy blog-hopping everyone, and thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Kitty update and WOYWW

Thanks to everyone who asked after Barney the kitty over the last few days.  He is home now on 'Mummy Watch' feeling rather sorry for himself, but I think pleased to be home judging by the limpet-like attachment to my lap!  Not conducive to crafting!

One unfortunate side effect of his having been on an open catheter is the awful stink. Good job I love him. Let's just say every surface is covered in old towels to avoid contamination!  Poor little guy is still on tons of meds and with daily vet check ups, but definitely on the mend, so I gave him a bit of a wash earlier today - not sure who got wetter - him or me!

So, crafting mojo seemed to have left the house with the Kitty, and I was forced to tidy my craft table -eeek!! found half finished projects I had set aside for later (erm.......forgot about) and that pesky quickie glue pen that disappeared suddenly, miraculously reappeared.

So here's  a pic of the 'tidy' table - bet you can't tell, huh?  the clue is in the visible table top, a rare sight around here lol lol!!

Am part way thru prep for tonight's class and the glitter is out in force :-) the little purple and lime zippy centre stage is my glitter storage bag, an old cosmetic case that is plastic lined and so doesn't let the glitter out unless I set it free!

Now I'm off to Julia's blog where she hosts the weekly sneaky peek at other crafty desks around the world, have fun desk hopping, and thanks for stopping by.


Deb x

Shaving Foam Marbled paper

A few people have asked about the shaving foam technique, so I thought I would show you what we made last night and explain how.

 This is the marbled paper we created -what's left of it! this one got torn while it was still damp.

I saw Ali Reeve demo this on C&C, and there are videos on u-tube if you take a look. It's very easy to do.  Spray a layer of shaving foam (better than gel) in bottom of an A4 plastic box (or in a clean sink so you can wash it away after). Squirt a few sprays of ink onto the foam - I use Stamps Away Colour Mist, but you can use any re-inker or alcohol inks. the only thing that doesn't work well is something like Mica mists, as they are so diluted with water they just make the foam collapse.

Use the end of a paintbrush or pencil to make swirls in the inked foam, and when you are happy with the pattern, press a piece of paper or card gently onto the foam until the underside is covered with foam. Lay it face up on your craft mat and press a clean piece of paper on top of the foam covered side and you get 2 sheets - the first impression will always be darker than the second, but it's quite nice to create different depths of colour.  Then you just wipe away the excess foam with kitchen roll, or if you're being really thrifty, use an old credit card to scrape off the foam and pop it back in the box. This sample only used a little ink, but you can use a lot and create quite a strong colour - it's fun to experiment!

These are some of the embellishments we made with our marbled card and paper, different flowers, feathers and a rosette (we ran out of time on the rosette cos we had so much fun getting messy with the foam lol lol!)  Or you can use it as background paper, or to create an accent on a card with matting and layering.



And I just had to share with you a picture of my ladies from last night's class, we had 3 generations of one family there, isn't that lovely? We all had a great time, and got VERY mucky!

thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOYWW

So I've fallen a bit behind in the blogging world........last week I was away all week working, thought I would have loads of time for crafting and blogging in the evenings. What happened? WEach evening I returned to my hotel room exhausted and all I did was eat and sleep! All those lovely crafty bits stayed in my bag, no energy and no mojo!

then this week we have had a family emergency and a poorly kitty to look after around the clock.  Have you ever seen a cat so drugged up he walks into walls and falls down? Bless him, now he's confined to the one room so he doesn't hurt himself

Anyhoo.......this is the pic of today's workdesk, with some strategically placed tissue paper to hide my DT projects that are headed off to the NEC next week!  You can just see a sneaky peek to the left and right of the pink tissue paper.

Front and centre we have the most important project right now - a cuppa!!!  In my favourite mug from Margaritaville. Front right are some masking experiments with shaving foam and spray inks, the key ingredients for tonights class!

I'm off to have a quick peek at a few more desks at Julia's before I head out for tonights class.

Happy desk hopping!

Deb x

Hallloween card - who knew tearing paper could be so scary????

I just had to show you the Halloween card we made last night.  The class had a ball making the card, learning how to 'flap' diamond top cards to get them to fold right, and adding scary pumpkins and bats!

 This is the front of the card, complete with haunted house, witch, pumpkin, black cat and or course, those bats I spent ages punching  out lol!!

The main image and wrap were torn rather than cut, to add to that grungy look, but some of the ladies in the class found tearing paper to be sacrilegous!!! It was so funny watching people trying to tear 'neatly' and some decided not to tear at all, and reverted to their scissors, using them to cut out the uneven 'torn looking' edge printed on the paper!

And as promised, this is the inside of the card, complete with 'flying' ghostie! We stuck 2 ghosties back to back, with some thread sandwiched between, and then poked a hole in the top of the card and threaded the ends thru so the ghostie 'floated' when the card was opened.  We covered the ends of the thread on the back of the diamond with another pumpkin head.

This was so much fun to do, and would work equally well for a Christmas card, with hanging snowflakes, and one lady wants to use it as a nativity, because the diamond top looks like a roof - lots of inspiration there!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOYWW 123-Halloween and Flowers

So this is my work space this morning - if you're not sure why I'm posting a photo of my messy table, hop on over to Julia's blog where she hosts the biggest snoopathon!!  You get to check out the craft desks and workspaces of other crafters. You get to see what other people are making, and feel better about your own messy (in my case) space!  lol lol

Bottom left of pic are the kits I'm getting ready for tonight's class, and just above that you can see my Halloween punch - I've been punching out gazillions of little black bats - guess what tonight's project is?????????? Witches and bats pumpkins and flying (yes, flying!!) ghosties!!

Above the punch is an empty ice cream container - great size for craft storage, so I will just have to keep eating the ice cream! Also a part-finished DT project I'm working on - not quite coming together yet.  Just to the right of centre are a few pink tissue paper carnations I've been experimenting with, I'm quite chuffed at how they turned out and they are a doddle to make, AND they squash flat to go in the post, and it just makes them look better! Will add them to a later post - thinking of dunking them in glitter to bling them up a bit!

On the far right is a bag of K&Co embellishments and a few packs of die cuts and rub on's. I've had a sort out and I'm trying to decide what to do with them, cos I don't think I'll use them. 

Oh yeah, and in the front of the pic, the placemats from last night's dinner, which is, after all, only the secondary purpose of this table lol lol!!

Happy WOYWW everyone

Debs x

CF Weds Class - Using Decoupage Twisters

Our Weds Class last week was all about using decoupage sheets in a different way. We all have them - sheets of decoupage images with borders, tags and little embellishments - something we fell in love with and then can't think how to use it!

We cut the front of the card on the diagonal and fixed the main image to mirri then on the inside face of the card so it showed over the diagonal (if your decoupage is not square, you could just mount it on a square of mirri or toning card). Front & inside of card was covered in toning paper, and we reserved the smallest layer of decoupage & cut an aperture lower right front to fit - the little swan looks great peeping through the aperture!

On the front of the card are a tag and border from the decoupage sheet, layered onto mirri, and a couple of vellum butterflies (glittered, of course!!) and the rest of the decoupage layers.  Added some card candi on the inside of the card to finish it off and balance it out - we were quite pleased with our finished design!

Debs x

Distress Inks Techniques class 310811

We had a full house for the class this week - everyone is back from holidays and raring to go!  We covered so much ground we ended up running over time but no-one wanted to go home, as everyone wanted to finish up their projects.

These are some of the papers and images we created. At the top of the pic is a scrunched, inked & embossed background paper. Below that we have 2 variations on stamped backgrounds, 1 using the Distress pads direct to paper to create a harlequin effect and the other stamped in 2 colours.

You might recognise the bleached snowman stamp from an earlier post! And finally, bottom right, we finished up with how to blend and use different layers to create depth and perspective in a scene.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the class, and went away with lots of new ideas ready to try them at home. We just ran out of time as I still had a couple of other techniques to show!  Always the way!

Today the sun is shining, and I am working on a project using heat embossing - why is it I always end up using heat on hot days????

Also, got some lovely craft pressies for my birthday last week - Hubby bought me some amazing Stampscapes stamps that I have been lusting after for some time :-) If you've never seen these stamps, check out the website Stampscapes - hopefully I will get a chance to play with them soon and then I will post some pics.

OK, off to emboss! Thanks for dropping by.

Deb x

Chandlers Ford Class - 13/07/11

We had a fun evening on Weds in Chandlers Ford.  We were a little low on numbers due to summer holidays and rehearsals for plays!

The nice thing about small numbers is that you can go slow, chat and try things out, which is what we did, and we produced some beautiful stamped and embossed vellum wraps. 

These are stamped on the front of the vellum with Brilliance ink, then dry embossed on the reverse before colouring with Pro Marker, also on the reverse. 

We also stamped and coloured the embellishments. Then we threw a whole lot of glitter over everything :-) We all came away covered in glitter, and with some beautiful samples to take home.