25 September 2013

Froggy

A couple of items I've made before today but have made a version  again this week.

Firstly Mr Frog!  It's a while since I made one of these (and did any quilling) but promised one to a friend ages ago.


This chap is from Jane Jenkins 'Three Dimensional Quilling' book.  I've made a few of the animals from the book and the frog is the one that people always want to buy!

I've also made a little 'stand' composed of 10mm paper rolled into a solid coil with a cone on top, similar to his body, so that he can sit on a shelf without toppling over.



To make more of a gift of it I also made another 'bag in a box'.

Paper from the stash, combined with some lucky limeade card, matching ribbon and ink and SU sentiment and punches.

24 September 2013

Mr & Mrs (again)

A shorter post today and with a stamp I've used quite a bit recently - but it is still another card.


This is an 8x8" card as it was for a couple at work and was being passed round for everyone to write in.

Woodware Mr & Mrs stamp again with paper piecing from the stash.  I found out the colour theme was dusky pink so have used a selection of papers to suit.

As this card was bigger I've added some paper from a 12x12" piece on the base of the card, the stamp is mounted on a couple of layers and a few hearts to finish with the initials of the couple in the corner.

22 September 2013

Molly Blooms Workshop

For my final workshop of the week I visited Jobo Crafts in Weston-Super-Mare yesterday for a great workshop with Clare Rowlands who is the mastermind behind the Molly Blooms range of stamps.

Her new Winter Woodland stamps literally came in to the shop on Friday too - not sure if that was good or bad really!!

Anyway, we made 2 cards on the day.  This is the first one:
The image 'Berry Nice Molly' has been stamped, coloured and cut out.  Clare uses Copics to colour her images so it was great to use some of her colour combinations to achieve the effects like the pictures on the front of the stamp packets.

Molly is sitting on 'Pinecone Perch' which was also stamped, coloured and cut into a circle with a few bits of the image having a slight overhang on to the matt behind it.

All the card layers were distressed with Tim Holtz ink and you can see we then used some more frantage on the background picture and die cut tree to create a snow effect.

Finished with a stamped and distressed tag & some buttons etc - and that was just the morning!

For the afternoon card we used the image 'Hattie'.

Coloured in copics again and both cards have a spot of glossy accents here and there for effect.

Similar to the first card the layers were distressed and built up with ribbon, buttons and die cuts - and some great felt snowflakes for this one.

Another sentiment was made in to a tag and then more frantage snow - very much 'thing' of the moment and I love it.

A great day out thanks to the ladies from Jobo Crafts, fellow crafters and Clare who came down from Lancashire in the morning (not a wise decision in hindsight!).

A couple of weeks off from workshops now but a few more to come this year!  Best put all these new ideas to good use in the meantime.

Thanks for popping by.   Jill


20 September 2013

Japonica visit 2!

To carry on from my previous post the next workshop was with Julia Budd, the lovely lady behind the 'what's on your workdesk' blog.  She was very amusing and very worryingly a very clever judge of character - within 5 minutes she had me down as a bit of an 'OCD' crafter - I do like things to be right!!

We made a book with Julia that is currently somewhat UFO/WIP so I will feature this at another date (and be sharing with Crafty Bunch who I think might be interested).

My final workshop was with Jenny Mayes and it was rather frantic as she packed loads in but brilliant.


This first card features the new Bertie the Snowman stamp from Hobbyart.
The background has been stamped and some die cut snowflakes stuck to the back of the card layer.

The stamped image layer has been inked and stamped and Bertie was stamped again on another piece of card, coloured (except for his buttons I notice!) and added with 3D foam pads.

The picture probably doesn't do justice to the fact that we used the new 'Wink of Stella' pens for the glitter on his hat and scarf - they are soooo fab.
If you haven't seen them they are like a waterbrush but full of glitter and come in a vast amount of yummy colours.

As if this wasn't enough to be going on with we then made a second card.


This stamp is called Follow Me and we watercoloured it with Tombow pens.

Some of my colour ran a little and I possibly didn't finish the ground brilliantly because I wanted to look at the boxes and boxes of Jenny's samples before we went home - they were very inspirational.

The fantastic element on this card is the snow - I love it!!

It is another spot of frantage in the form of chunky white embossing enamel.  This will very much be featuring on more Christmas cards this year I think.

A great day and no rest for the wicked as tomorrow I am off for a Molly Blooms Day!


19 September 2013

Japonica visit 1

So, the first visit to the workshops I did on Monday (before I do another one on Saturday!!).

I visited Exmouth for a day organised by Janet who runs Japonica down there.
There were 3 workshops through the day, each with a different designer.

My first session was with Janet herself.

We used the Woodware Bethlehem stamp to make 2 cards.
This is the first DL card.  We inked a piece of card with 3 versamagic inks, including the very scrummy sounding pumpkin spice and gingerbread.

Then we stamped and heat embossed the image (the words are part of the stamp too) and coloured some of the image with pencils and shaded some of the background too.

The next stage was then to clear emboss the entire piece and add some frantage to the corners.

The card base received some of the same inky treatment before a strip of card with ribbon attached was added and decorated with stars.

A gem to finish this one off!

The second card is a 5x7" with half the front panel cut off.

Again we have stamped the image but this time on watercolour paper and added a wash over it using brilliance ink pads.  I could of added a bit more colour and know to be braver next time!

The stars are a stamp that was used a few times on the background before the image was mounted and layered on the card (with a couple more gems).

A not very well tied bow was also added - I could of spent hours trying to get this right but just stuck it on in the end.

Thanks for popping past - another project tomorrow!

18 September 2013

Fishy wishes

Off out again so a peek at the Anniversary card I made for my brother and his wife today.

I have seen lots of 'fishy' examples like this on Stampin' Up sites - this particular one was very heavily cased from Jenny from a card she bought to one of our SU days.

The fish themselves are made using the now discontinued bauble stamp and punch set - such a fab idea.  I used my winning melon mambo ink for the pink fish too!

Hearts used for mouth and flower punch petals used for the fins, a selection of circles for the eyes.

Sentiment from a passing stamp set, punched out and layered on another SU punch with pricking for added effect.

All layered on a cuttlebug embossed swirl using sparkly paper, added to dark card and finished with some yummy card candi.

16 September 2013

Woodland Folk

Well, I have barely been home for 3 days which isn't conducive to doing much at all it turns out!

Managed to not get caught in any rain whilst watching a bike race yesterday which was very surprising (although it was sooo cold), today I have completed 3 crafty workshops in Exmouth - pictures and tales to follow!

After that teaser I just have a card that I delivered on the way back from Exmouth today to my niece in Taunton.

As you can tell Gemma was 4 today.  The background of this was inspired by a post from Jenny at Stampingmoments last week.  The tree and animals are die cuts from the Papermania Woodland Folk range.  I've punched a few leaves and added peel offs for the name and age.

Happy Birthday is an SU sentiment, punched out with SU punch and mounted on foam pads.

14 September 2013

Dog in a box!

A lovely day at the cheese festival today.  Lots of fab cheese to try obviously but lots of other food products and a craft tent, combined with a visit to a couple of the great shops in Sturminster Newton that had some discounts today - and the rained held off with just a few spots as we left the car park.

Back to crafting and last week when I had my 'mad moment'  I had a couple of wedding cards to sort and today's post contains the 'other' card.

It's been a few weeks but, yes, it's another box card!!

I made one with a picture of a friends dog in a couple of months ago and it was spotted by another friend that requested one.  The picture of Buster the dog led to it being a landscape card.

This is the outside:
Some layers added and topped with paw card and SU sentiment and punches with some great paw print ribbon attached too.

This is the inside:
The picture is loaded in to DOCrafts Digital Designer which makes a pyramage (lots of layers) of the picture which lends itself well to this style of card as you don't have to worry about the depth of the layers.  The punched border is an EK Success punch.

I also made a box as its 'envelope' and it went down very well.

13 September 2013

The weekend

Well, Mr Blogger won't play ball with pics today so I think I'll pop to bed and try again tomorrow.

Only when I've had a day out at Sturminster Newton Cheese Fair though!
Have a good weekend and fingers crossed for the weather.

Jill

11 September 2013

Huge Birthday!

We had a Crafty Bunch meeting tonight but I forgot to take a pic of my sample cards in the light today so will have to wait a couple of days before posting those!

Instead, a quick post of another card made this week.

Using another of the Woodware huge words I have just stamped this 'Happy Birthday' and coloured with an array of copics - outlining them in a funky orange too.

Base card is covered in paper from the stash with the sentiment layered on black card on top.

A few little 6's added for the recipient!

10 September 2013

A football send off

A bright card but for a very sad occasion today unfortunately.

If you are local you will have read about a teenager who tragically was killed in a car accident recently. His Dad works in my department at work so we are having a collection for the family's chosen charity and all signing a piece of paper which was to be added to a card.  Of course, I volunteered to make one.

I did a bit of research as I knew he was very much in to football which was the chosen theme as people were encouraged to wear football shirts for the funeral.


No surprises that it got a bit complicated as 3 football teams were suggested.

Anyway, this is the finished card.  The background has the football club logos in faint print, some paper strips from an Anna Marie pack in matching colours also added.

The footballers are from a Papermania stamp set, the middle one is cut out separately and added with 3D pads.  All of them are coloured with Copics.

Sentiment from Stampin' Up and punched out with SU punches.

All very sad but I am pleased with the finished result.

9 September 2013

Mr & Mrs

A busy Sunday and a Monday in London later here is a quick post!

In last weeks chaos I was required to deliver 2 wedding cards, someone had so liked this card previously that they asked for 2 more.
On the day I went mad last week I didn't entirely help myself as another colleague asked if I happened to have any wedding cards and I sold one of these so had to make another!!

So, especially for Val (although I have previewed one of these before) - another Woodware giant words stamp in 2 colour ways:



7 September 2013

Stamp-a-stack

So, some feedback for the 'why weren't you demonstrating' questions!
I put my name down for a crafty day a while ago, before I was asked to demonstrate at a local craft event.  By the time I was asked it also turned out that I was 'without car' this weekend.
So, in the first instance I thought I had to pass because prep for a demo didn't really fit into the agenda as you can tell from the chaos of my previous post and not being able to get there was the final nail in the coffin.  A shame as I love demonstrating but I'll be back next time.

I was working on a plan b to still attend today's event when I was rescued by Julia who also came today and very kindly drove us - many thanks to Julia.

So ... today I have been on a Stampin' Up stamp-a-stack day with Jo Dumbleton near Wimborne.  And what a great day it was.  We made 12 cards!!  Made me realise how much you can do in a day although it does help when everything is laid out in front of you and you don't have to unearth the house to find anything.



Aren't they fab, I'm so pleased.  Even more so as I have several of the stamp sets to make some more.

It was great to use so many products and Jo's Mum kept us supplied with drinks and made a lovely lunch.





A better view of the card made using the mosaic stamp set.  This is a set I was convinced I wasn't interested in when I saw it in the catalogue but I have seen some lovely cards made with it and think this colour combo is really smart.




This is using the Gorgeous Grunge set which had sort of caught my eye and I love this card!



And just for Karen I am pleased to report that without taking Mum with me today I managed a raffle prize and came away with 3 lovely new ink pads.


6 September 2013

Crafting crazy

Back tomorrow with some more pics!

Appeared to have a mental breakdown yesterday :-).
Got a list of crafty things 'to do' at the moment.  Arranged to finish (and start obviously) a couple of things at the weekend to take in to work on Monday for people.  Lovely.  Arranged to see a friend last night then as I was sat eating tea it all came together in my head that I'm not in work on Monday!

So, a cancellation and lots of cross words later and some more projects were re-arranged in the schedule.

A lovely pampered chef night tonight so off to bed now before a Stampin' Up day tomorrow.

I was asked recently how I pack everything in that I do - it appears this week I'm not doing a very good job!!!

4 September 2013

Gift bag (or is it a box?)

On Sunday I had a lovely crafting day with a couple of friends - designed to find Lucy's 'crafting mojo' which had disappeared.

I think we have definitely succeeded given how much she has spent on new goodies as she's now got the bug.  After a spot of stamping and colouring Tracy very kindly had a little project for us.

Even more kindly we used some of the new Stampin' up Christmas papers and ribbon.

It's a bag in a box - or box in a bag!!
A little box is wrapped with paper and a border punched strip has been added round the outside.

A couple of scalloped ovals bent over the middle of the paper with a hole in for the ribbon and tag added.
I would also add a sentiment or something decorative on the front but this is pending.

I see the new DOCrafts Creativity magazine also has a version of this - a rather fun way to present a gift so many thanks Tracy.

1 September 2013

Quilling Workshops

Whilst I complete some projects and/or take photos of them I can post details of some forthcoming Quilling Workshops in Somerset.

I am running 2 workshops on Saturday 16th November at Yandles, Martock TA12 6JU, which are:

10am to 12.30pm - Quilling for beginners
2pm to 4.30pm - Christmas Quilling

All tools and materials are included and you will take away some completed projects.

The price for one workshop is £15.  If  you want to sign up for both together the cost is £25.

I am an accredited member of the Quilling Guild and have been quilling for over 20 years.  Whether you are a complete beginner or want to fine tune some techniques or learn some new shapes there is something for everyone.

Booking is essential though as spaces are limited.