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Sunday 12 September 2010

Poppy Birthday

Hi all, I made a new card today, from one of the stamps that came in the last Crafty TSV from QVC.  The kit was made by Kanban, and included 10 packs of stamps, an acrylic block, a small black ink pad, a Cd of baking papers and a faux-croc handbag for storing the stamps in, you can take a look at the kit here.

I have not bought a QVC TSV for a while now, but loved the look of this one.  Though QVC's reliance on Kanban for their TSV's has been annoying to me lately, this one was different and I decided to give the stamps a go.

The card I used was a 6 inch square, and the background paper of black and white poppies was from the Kanban background disc, but I used 2 papers in a graphics program, placing one on the top of another and fading the top image down.

The side detail is black mirri card, punched using the Martha Stewart, Doily Lace Punch, the link is to the Joanna Sheen store where I bought mine from, but they are sold in loads of places.  I also added a strip of the backing paper and then finally placed a harlequin ribbon, from my stash) on the top.

The topper was made using the Poppy Stamp sheet, which includes the main image and two smaller poppy images that can be used to decoupage.  I coloured in the images with my Promarkers, using Poppy red, Red, and Leaf Green.  When it was stuck together, I used Black Stickles in the centre of the Poppies, and for something different, added 3D Crystal Lacquer to the 2 closed poppy flowers.  I then placed the finished topper onto mirri black card and red textured paper mats.

The topper was then placed onto the card and stuck into position.  To finish off the card I added 3 black flat back gems in the top right hand corner, and a black happy birthday peel off. Oh, before I forget I also sprayed the backing paper with Crafter's Companion Iridescent Glitter Spray.

Hope you like this weekends crafting project, I really enjoyed making cards the past two days.  Will have to show you another example when the glue has dried...

Hugs Janie xxx

Friday 27 August 2010

A Blue Christmas

Hi all, yes I have made another card, took me a little while but I finally finished it, so decided to show it off.  I hope you like it.

Firstly I got an A4 sheet of white card from my stash, I am not sure of the gsm, but it is a nice heavy weight card.  I ran it through my printer, and printed a lovely blue snowflake backing paper on both sides.  The backing paper came from another Funky Hand Craft CD called 'Yule Be Funky', which has some wonderfully different Christmas backing papers to print out.

I then measured, so that I could get a card that would fold neatly 3 times and then cut my card down to size.  I made the measurements 3.5 inch square for each panel, that's around 8.9 cm square for those who like to be metric...  lol.  I used am Xcut Corner Punch from Docraft to round the corners of the card and then scored the card using a Hougie Board to score the folds before folding them.

I used my Cricut Die Cutting Machine to cut out some silver rounded corner 3 insquares, and then cut out some white squares using the shadow feature to make them slightly bigger.  Three of the silver squares went through my Texture Boutique, using a Cuttlebug embossing folder called 'Holly Ribbons'.  I then stuck them onto the slightly larger white square, and the placed one in each of the panels on the front of the card.  I also placed one silver square un-embossed on the last panel on the back of the card.

For the embellishments on the card I used a downloaded Scrapbooking kit from Nitwits, called 'The Beary Christmas Collection', I loved the cute little bear characters, and the other parts of the kit.  I printed out what I needed onto a single sheet of A4 160gsm text and graphics paper,  printing out each image 3 times, so I could decoupage them, and making a 3in square with a Christmas greeting in, and some of the cute buttons from the Bear kit in each corner.

After decoupaging each image, I stuck them onto the squares, and then used some 3D Crystal Lacquer to highlight various sections, like noses and bells.  The silver Merry Christmas Greeting was made using the Texture Boutique once more, this time using a Sizzix embossing folder from a set called imaginatively, 'Christmas Set'.  I cut it down to size, and layered white card behind it, and placed a blue gem in the middle of the flourish beneath the words.  I then put it in the middle panel of the front of the card at a jaunty angle.  Front complete!!!

The back of the card is not so highly embellished, but is still pretty to look at.  I placed the white printed square, with greeting, on the first panel, putting 3D Crystal Lacquer on the buttons to make them stand out.  Another decoupage image went on the last panel, with a couple of silver holly peeloffs in opposite corners, with some red Stickles added for the berries.  The middle panel has some snowflake stickers I found in my crafty stash, and 'Lo... the card was complete'.

Now all I have to do is make a box. but thankfully that is for another day...

Have fun crafting...

hugs Janie xxx

Sunday 15 August 2010

Thank Whoo Val...

This card is A4 in size, so you can see it is a really big owl !!  It was made as a Thank You card for a work chum of Stuarts who brought us some fudge back from her holiday, I thought it was a lovely gesture and wanted to say how much I appreciated it.  I love fudge by the way...  but then doesn't everyone?

The Digi Stamp image and colourful papers came from a CD-Rom by Funky Hand called, Dreams Come True, part of the Papercraft Factory range.  The paper is Rey, Text and Graphic 160gsm, a super clean, bright, smooth and brilliant white almost card paper, that I buy from my local Staples store. The corners are a Mandala stamp cut into quarters, the stamp is called, Waterlily by Glenda Waterworth over at Graphicus.

Firstly I decided on an experiment, I chose the background paper from the Dreams Come True Cd and decided to run a full A4 card blank through my printer to see if it would work.  My printer takes up to 300gsm card and it worked really well, so I ended up with a funky A4 card to work with.  I am not recommending you trying this with your printers of course, it might not be such a happy result if your printer can't take the card weight.

I printed the owl image onto an A4 sheet of the paper, and then printed the funky background onto another sheet, then put the printed sheet back through again and printed the owl image over it.  So far so good....

I cut out the eyes and the beak from the unpatterned sheet and then cut round the main image leaving a nice border around the edge, makes cutting out the feet easier (sly wink).  I then cut the owl out of the patterned sheet, I actually cut off the feet to make it easier, and then used some Crafter's Companion Iridescent Spray and Sparkle Glitter Varnish to give it a lovely sparkle.  I then stuck the patterned image onto the unpatterned image.  The eyes and beak were coloured with promarkers, and then stuck them on, the beak I raised slightly, the eyes flat, though I have added some blue plastic, foamy round embellishments to the eyes. I then stuck the whole image flat onto the card base.

I printed out another sheet of paper with the same pattern I used on the owl and used the Waterlily stamp with a black ink pad.  I cut it out and then sprayed it with the Glitter varnish, and then cut it carefully into quarters and stuck a piece into each corner.  Finally adding a cheerful Thank Whoo, with some alphabet stickers that I found in my crafty stash.

I quite liked the finished result, and hope that Val does as well, when Stuart gives it to her at work tomorrow.  I am pretty sure she doesn't read this blog, so have no worries of the surprise being ruined.

See you all soon...

hugs Janie xxx

Thursday 5 August 2010

The cards I promised...

Well I said that I had done them, and at last I managed to get the camera out.  The first one you might recognise as a Messy Rabbit Stamp from Joanna Sheen, which I picked up from her sale section.  It is always good to browse there to see what she has on offer as she often has some brilliant bargains.  The stamp is actually called 'Gnome Stamp', but I thought he looked quite Christmassy and used my Promarkers to make him so.  I stamped and coloured several times, then cut them out, decoupage and placed in the colourful snowy background paper.  I then used a Martha Stewart - Punch Around The Page - Snowfall Set (M232389) on some white card to fit around the edge of the topper.  I then ran some gold mirri board through my Texture Boutique, and embossed some lovely snowflakes.  This I bordered again in white card, and stuck all the parts of the topper together. I used paper and sticky ribbon from my crafty stash, and embellished with gems and some 3D Crystal Lacquer.

The second card got in a bit of a mess, but I wanted to show it off anyway, maybe you can spot the nasty glue mess.  First off I must ask you to try and name those printed papers, I know the backing paper came from a Glenda Waterworth disc, but it was printed out a while ago and I can't remember which one.

The main flower embellishment is similar to one I saw in my Papercraft Inspiration Magazine, I must admit the photo does not do it justice, nor is it quite as good as those in the magazine.  I cut a strip of paper with a scalloped edge, rolled it up, and then cut down the scallops and folded the edges back, there is a better example in the magazine...  but it was my first go.  I used lots of my crafty stash for this one, paper, card and bits of ribbon.  I used another Martha Stewart Punch to make the paper ribbon band that goes across the center topper, this time it was the Scroll Lace Edge Punch which was part of a QVC Martha Stewart TSV.

Hope you like these latest cards, I am enjoying card making again... which is good...

hugs Janie xxx

Monday 2 August 2010

Darwin Scrapbook Page

Hi all, sorry it's been so long posting a new creation here.  I really lost my mojo for ages, couldn't get into crafting or anything.  Still kept buying new stuff though, really a crafty addict I think, but it just sat there unused...  so sad.

I decided to create a scrapbook page to try to get me into the swing again, using my Digital Scrapbook Artist (DSA) program, which I should add you can get a free trial copy of it from Daisy Trail you just have to join up and download.  It is not a full version but it will let you find out if you will enjoy using it before handing over any of your hard earned money.

I chose an 8x8 page size, as I can print that size out onto an A4 sized sheet of paper if I so wish.  The background paper came from Glenda Waterworth's new Artylicious Essence of Nature CD- Rom  using the copy and paste function to get the image into the DSA program.  I then picked out a frame I like from some of the scrap-booking elements available through Daisy Trail, this frame came from the set called Indie Chic, it is one you have to buy, but there are plenty of free element sets available, the cascading flowers also came from the same set. The letters came from a set called Berry Pie and is a nice bold font, great for a single word, as in the name of the newest member of our family, Darwin the African Grey Parrot.

There is actually not much to the page, but I hope you agree it is very effective as an introduction to a Darwin scrapbook, and after doing this I actually made 2 cards, which I will have to photograph to proudly show off to you, so maybe my mojo has finally returned.

hugs Janie xxx

Saturday 12 June 2010

Wag Tails and NitWits

Hello, I have made a new card to show off, isn't the doggy the cutest image?  I just loved it the first time I saw it in the Papercraft Inspirations Monthly Magazine for this month.  Unfortunately the article by Dawn Bibby, about a lovely crafting kit from QVC wasn't in stock.  Shame about that I thought!!!!  Then I had an idea, I looked at the name of the kit, Nitwits and typed that into a search engine...  hundreds of hits.. rofl...  hmmm...  so then I tried adding words to narrow down the search and eventually I came to Nitwit Collections and I struck gold!!!  So many gorgeous kits to choose from with some really wonderful images.  I searched through the kits and found one called FQB - Tail Wags Collection, and there were the same cute doggy images from the QVC kit.  Thank goodness for PayPal, it makes buying things on the internet so easy.

Anyway the card was a joy to make, I finished it this morning and just wanted to show it off.  I recently managed to get 'George and Basic Shapes' for my Cricut machine from E-Bay, so I printed out two of the backing papers from the Tail Wags Collection, and using the George Cart. cut out an uneven sided square from one sheet and then did the shadow version of the same square on the other backing paper.  I glued them together and then faux stitched around the edge, I then placed one of the doggy images, which I had already printed out three times and decoupaged, in the centre. I used on of my own backing paper, the brown from the Spotty Papers Collection from GTC's Crafty Corner, as the background for the card, and placed the doggy topper flat in the middle of the card.  I then cut out a buckle from the George Cart. in gold mirror, threaded  a strip of one of the Dog Tail backing papers through it...  after I had faux stitched along the edge.  I then cut out three circles in nesting sizes, from gold mirror and the two Dog Tail papers.  I cut around the edge of the papers to give a frayed look and stuck the three circles together to make a rosette, I also ran the middle rosette circle and the buckle through my Sizzix Texture Boutique to give them a spotty embossed look.  To finish the card I added three green glass flat backed gems to the collar embellishment. and one on the doggy's real collar.  Lastly I used my 3D Crystal Lacquer to highlight the nose and the eyes of the dog, giving them that lovely wet look.

I really like this card and I hope you do to...

hugs Janie xxx

Monday 7 June 2010

Firefly Fairy

Well that didn't take me long to do, putting up my first card.  Just thought I would give you a taste of things to come.

This card was so simple to make, I used a digi stamp I bought from Meljen's Designs, and printed it out, I coloured it in using my Promarker pens, I then used a clear Sakura glitter pen and water brush to paint the wings to give them a soft glittery shine.  I also used Stickles in the Crystal colour to highlight areas on the image.  The bottle holding the firefly I used 3d Crystal Lacquer, which is my preferred glaze at the moment.
I then added some small green pearl embellishments from my stash, and mounted the image on some gold mirri board.  I did some faux stitching around the edge of the image card to complete the topper.

I used a large square card and covered it with a spotty green backing paper, a freebie from GTC's Crafty Corner, which I also faux stitched around the edge.  I used double sided tape to stick the topper directly onto the card at a jaunty angle because it looked right, and there it was my card was complete.  I hope you like it.

hugs Janie xxx

Watch This Space...

Hi all, my name is Janie and I enjoy crafting.  I design digital craft images for people to download and enjoy, they are all free at the moment, so if you are interested, pop over to my sister blog GTC's Crafty Corner and see if you find anything you like.

This blog was set up to show off the cards I enjoy making, I am not sure how often I will post, but I am looking forward to sharing my crafting enjoyment with you all...

See you soon,

hugs Janie xx