Well I wasn`t expecting this

Crafters Companion are having a one day special on Hochanda starting at 6pm today and that is the unexpected bit because I thought that the samples I had made for the show were going over to America to be launched. So here is a card I have made using the Poinsettia frame 3D embossing folder, it is such a lovely folder to use.

 

I simply embossed some mat black card and then coloured the design in using mica paints (the ones in little pots that you have to activate by spraying on water), it was so therapeutic like those adult colouring in books. The tinier tendrils and pink berries I coloured using Spectrum Noir metallic pens and a white gelly roll to dot an accent highlight on the berries.

The sentiment is cut from Crafters Companion gold luxury cardstock using Crafters Companion festive words 1 dies. 

All the embossing folders in the show are beautiful and fun to work with, its funny but I never really think to buy embossing folders and then when I use them I think I should use them more often.

 

Reach for the stars

This is a little tag card that I have made for the Little Claire shows on Hochanda today at 11 and 2. I have been making Christmas cards and gifts since the beginning of June and I think this card was one of the first.
Little Claire have some star themed stamps and this image is taken from one of those sets.

 

 

Its a bit of a fussy card but basically its the image stamped, coloured in and then fussey cut. The backing paper was cut out using my scan & cut machine but if I didn't have it I would have cut the bottom part of the tag as an oblong shape and rounded the corners with a corner punch. The sentiment is Lilly of the Valley (they have started to have shows on Hochanda). The tag card base is also featured on the Hochanda shows but Little Claire sell it direct from their website.

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We finally got the long promised rain yesterday and boy did it rain. It was like a tropical storm with thunder constantly rumbling for hours and with it came hail stones and winds which blew the BBQ and table & chairs over. It was lovely and refreshing outside but I had to shut the windows to stop the rain from coming in and then it was like an oven inside the house. Today the birds re singing again and the garden although littered with bits of tree is looking much fresher. I am spending the day with my friend and we are going on a shopping trip but Karen is a tenacious lady and once we are out we don't come home till the shops close. I have a delivery today of more secret stuff from Crafters Companion and I don't know if its for the next allocation or a magazine commission which I have taken on. To be continued...........

I`m seeing stars

OK so Christmas seems like a long way off especially when we are in the midst of a heatwave but this is the time of the year when well organised crafters start to do Christmas. This card is showcasing another of the new stamps from Little Claire and  is one of their stars stamps.

I have used my brusho pigments to create a background and then when it was dry over stamped the image. I used a really old Kanban set of snowflake stamps to create the stamped detail to the side of the card and the sentiment was made using a Inkylicious stamp.  

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Yesterdays trip to Lincoln was really enjoyable as I took the train and I just love off peak train journeys. The Chinese supermarket was fabulous and as most of the products were labelled with Chinese writing I was so glad that the shop assistant was happy to spend time with me explaining the produce. I have an old Ken Hom cook book which I love but some of the ingredients are not to be found in the ordinary supermarket. The fabric shop was less inspiring but I will call in again when I'm around. I have more secret stuff for Crafters Companion to be getting on with today (Christmas cards) and I am eagerly awaiting my Crafters Inspiration magazine but I know that once that has arrived not much work will be done for a few hours whilst I look through it again and again.

Playing chase

I will be sharing the samples that I have made for the Little Claire Hochanda show on Saturday all this week and as I showed you a cat card yesterday I thought it only right to keep the balance and show you a doggie card today.

This is such a quick and simple little card to make and the only tricky bit is masking off the card ready to colour with distress inks. The base card is sold by Little Claire and you work direct onto the card so no mat and layering. I use black Versafine ink when stamping but with silhouette stamps I sometimes need to fill in gaps and I use a black uni.ball signo pen for this.

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Today I am going to Lincoln shopping with my sister Pauline so I hope the sun isn`t too exhausting. When I used to live in Yorkshire I went to Leeds quite a lot and there was a Chinese shop in the market which sold the best Chinese take away style curry and I`ve heard that there is a Chinese supermarket in Lincoln so I`m on a mission to find it as I`ve run out of curry paste now. There is also a fabric shop in Lincoln which has the most fabulous haberdashery department so I must take a look whilst I`m there, I might not ever come out if it is as good as I`ve been told.

New Cats from Little Claire

Hello there, today I want to let you know that Little Claire have a show on Hochanda this Saturday at 11am and I have been lucky enough to play with their new stamps and make some samples. There will be a cat stamp set and a dog stamp set and so I chose to use the cat stamp set first.

 

I made a mask for the background circles using copy paper and various sized circle dies, then I laid the mask onto white card and coloured in using salty ocean and bundled sage distress inks. I stamped the image on the card making sure that no circles were visable below the image and shaded below the image. I cut the image topper down to size and over stamped the catkin foliage around the top and sides. I coloured the image in and mat and layered it onto the base card. Finally I stamped the sentiment onto a spare piece of background card, cut it out and shaded around the edge with black ink, then stuck this onto the card using 3D glue.

I do love this range of cat stamps but then I am a bit biased.

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Well I hope you have all managed to cope with this heatwave we have been having. Yesterday I harvested a load of veg we have been growing and it is a whole month early this year. We have had the luxury of being able to water our veg but the farmers are struggling with the crops in the fields and I have to say that the fields around here are yellow and very dry looking. The other day we came across some people clearing up a spillage in the road of Rape seed so that is early this year too. The poor kitties Roger and Rosie have been lethargic and just lay around looking at me as though its all my fault for turning the heating up, and I do feel for them in their fur coats. I am on school holidays now and had planned to get loads of things done but the heat has made it impossible to do any thing, well that's my excuse. Its still Christmas in my craft room although playing with snow and frosty scenes doesn't make a difference to the temperature as my craft room gets the sun all day.

Christmas in black & gold

It`s baking hot here at Hugill towers and that can mean only one thing - its time to make Christmas things. Yes I have been doing Christmas ever since this hot spell began and today I am showing you a card I have made using the Crafters Companion dimensional dies which launch today over on Hochanda. The range includes some fabulous dies, stamps, embossing folders and printed papers which would become a staple in you Christmas craft stash.

 

 

This particular die set is called sleigh (suprise, suprise) and yoou get one sleigh and one Reindeer so I cut out two Reindeer and added Reindeer which I stamped using the sleigh accessories stamp and placed them behind the pop out Reindeers. The sleigh is embossed using part of the the Christmas centrepiece embossing folder and the sentiments were cut using the festive words dies 1 & 2. The whispy gold lines were made by tearing a piece of copy paper and laying it down onto the card as a mask then rubbing along the edges with a gold ink pad. I made the front of the card using the Holly swirls embossing folder and Pebeo empire gold gilding wax.

The dies for the pop out section of the card have slits cut into them so you can easily line them up with the centre fold of the card. I did this by drawing a line on the card, cutting out the shapes and then folding the card. It isnt a difficult card but you do have to work out where all the elements will be placed before you begin cutting. 

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I am still making secret Christmas stuff for the Crafters Inspiration Christmas magazine and then more Christmas cards for future Crafters Companion shows. It is really difficult to feel Christmassy when my craft toom is south facing and gets the sun all day long. I was so hot yesterday at work (I work in a kitchen) that I had to go and stand under the fan in the walk in food store with my shirt unbuttoned for five minutes, it was heaven.