Sunday 30 November 2014

DT post using Joanna Sheen stamps


Hi everyone Bev here with another DT post. Hope you've had a good week - I've been dog sitting for my son, James. Poppy  has been here most of this week. She has to 'help' with & inspect my makes!

Julie has sent me some lovely stamps this week - Joanna Sheen's Favourite Flowers Collection - candle.
I don't know why but these stamps just shouted 'brown paper' to me - I think to give them a vintage feel.
I stamped the main image onto the brown paper using black Archival ink. Coloured in using Inktense pencils. Ripped carefully around the image & applied frayed burlap Distress Ink to the ripped edges. This made the edges curl up, which I thought looked good, adding to the vintage feel. I applied the DI sparingly around the image.
Stamped the sentiment, using black Archival, onto brown paper. Ripped carefully around the edges & applied the frayed burlap DI to them.
I had a red card in my stash, applied some gold Rub'n'Buff around the edges.
Adhered the sentiment to some red ribbon & adhered this to the card.
This is a lovely image, would work well with any medium.
Thanks for stopping by.
Hugs,
Bev & Poppy xx




Thursday 27 November 2014

Bebunni Christmas part 2


Hello everyone..Genny here. As promised yesterday..I have now embellished two of the cards that I created yesterday. What many people had been asking about was how I decided to embellish a card. They said that they got to a point where the image and the backing paper were ready on the card...then they hit a brick wall. Even though they had lots of stash..they didn't know where to go next. While I accept that everyone has different ideas what they like to do, different styles that they like..when the blank card is front of you sometimes it can be hard to know where to start. I can only tell you what I do. There are a couple of things that I take into account. First is the question is that if the card is meant to go through an opening for the post office to fit a normal size stamp. If it does then I know that it has to go through a 5mm slot. So no large embellishments..look for thin embellishments..die cuts are great for this. As the size was a factor on both these cards, I have used diecuts to embellish both. As I said yesterday I have glittered both images..which add a little sparkle. It really isworth in investing in a small number of dies. I am very hard with myself over this...there are just so many fantastic dies out there and yes I could use them all but I have to step back and think could I use it more than a couple of times. I have seen a number of great car dies..but I don't make that many cards that involve cars..so as much as I love them I won't be adding them to my book of dies. What I did buy was a set of cog dies..I can use them on car, lorry, train, bicycle cards as well as any steam punk cards. Last year I even made a christmas tree just out of layered cogs. It is always worth bearing in mind peeloffs..they can always add a little something without adding too much height. Over the years they seem to have gone a little out of fashion but I always ignore fashions in the crafting world and always go with what I like. I always have border peeloffs in my stash and butterflies. My other tip is to lookat the image that you're working with and try to pick up some thing from there. For the top card I used snowflakes because in the image it's snowing but I've also used snowflakes in the card below but have turned them into a type of decoration. I've added red jewels in the snowflakes to tie in his red hat and the heart in the image.

I hope that this has helped a little. If you have any other questions please don't hesitate to get in touch with.me. So until next time...take care and happy crafting.

Wednesday 26 November 2014

Bebunni Christmas from Crafters Companion


Hello everyone..Genny here. Are you lost in the middle of your christmas crafting? I feel as if I'm knee deep in glitter and holly leaves..lol And all my animals are wearing a lot of twinkle. My cats insist in sitting next to me as I'm glittering and end up getting covered.

Today I'm sharing images from the Christmas Bebunni cdrom from Crafters Companion. I used the original Bebunni cdrom quite a lot and was excited to see the chrismas one. There are some fabulous images on the cd and so much more. Design sets, backing papers, borders..the list is endless. The cd is really easy to use. To me the most important thing when buying a cd is the images.I like to buy cds that I can see myself using for more than one christmas. I think that the images on this cd could be used for many years to come..they are cute but not over the top and they have a timeless quality about them


What I've tried to do with this collection of cards is to make them of a size that means that they can be posted with a normal stamp. They are 5x7 in size. Postage costs that much these days and christmas is probably the one time that you will send off such a large number of cards..so often the cost of postage has to be considered.

 What I've yet to do is to put my embellishments on to the cards. I will do that tomorrow, to share with you how I make the decisions on what to decorate with.I will also have to bear in mind it the height of the decorations that I use.To keep within postal regulations, the whole card and decoration can be no thicker than 5mm. I've found that it sometimes can be difficult to stay within that range.
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On the cards themselves, I have glittered each topper to add that necessary sparkle. I just couldn't help myself..lol.

So I will back tomorrow to share the decoration process. The reason I'm going to to do is that I've had lots of messages and conversations about how I decide to decorate. It seems that lots of people can get to this point on a card but then don't know what to do. I thought that it would be fun to share my process with you all. So until tomorrow...take care and happy crafting.

Sunday 23 November 2014

DT Post using Magic of Christmas papers




















Hi everyone - thanks for stopping by.
For this weeks make I decided to make an Advent calendar & thought that the lovely Magic of Christmas paper pad that Julie sent me would be ideal to cover it.
I used a die to cut out my matchboxes from card, but you could buy matchboxes to do this.Once I had made the matchboxes I covered the front of each box with some of the Magic of Christmas paper.
Once this was done I arranged the boxes as you can see in the photo's. I ended up with 2 parts, each with 12 boxes. I stuck each part of 12 boxes onto a piece of  card, this holds them together.
I adhered pieces of the paper pad onto the sides of the matchboxes. I inked around the edges using barn door Distress Ink, then went around with gold Rub 'n' Buff.
I placed brads on each 'drawer' to use as handles.
I stamped a number onto the each 'drawer' using Versa Mark ink pad, then used gold embossing powder.
To make the base & top I cut out pieces of thicker card, a little larger than the boxes. I covered these with some of the papers & edged with the gold Rub 'n' Buff.
Adhered the top section to the bottom section, added the base & top, making sure they were central.
Made a box for the top, covered with the papers. Edged with barn door DI & gold Rub 'n' Buff. Adhered this to the top of my Advent calendar - all that is needed now is to fill each drawer with some treats!
I enjoyed making this project & hope it inspires you to have a go.
Thanks for stopping by.
Hugs,
Bev xx


Monday 17 November 2014

Design Team Make


Hello everyone..Genny here. Today I thought it would be nice to share what you can also do with a 'christmas stamp'. Instead of making a chrstmas card I thought that the image would make a perfect birthday card for a little girl. I like stamps when you can use them for other occasions  as well as that they are designed for. I stamped the image using a memento inkpad and for a change used my watercolour paints to colour it. I then mounted the image onto some gold mirri. I glued some pink polka dot paper onto the card and added a toning border. I then embellished the card with some flowers and a heart from my stash.


Of course it would look just as good using different colourways. Shades of liilac would look good as would shades of blue. You could alter it to whatever the little girls favourite colours are. Also using this stamp you could also change the cat to the teddy

I will be back later in the week sharing some cards from the Bebunni christmas cdrom. I am currently working with this cd and as you liked the original Bebunni cd, I thought that you might enjoy a look at the christmas cd. So until then..take care and happy crafting

Sunday 16 November 2014

DT Post

Hi everyone! Hope you have all had a great week & are not getting too stressed about how quickly Christmas seems to be getting here. Grab a coffee & see what I've been making.
Here is this week's DT make using the lovely Crafter's Companion stamps & the gorgeous Magic of Christmas paper pad that Julie sent me.
I made a small gift bag from ordinary copy paper & covered it with paper from the paper pad. I inked around all the edges using barn door Distress Ink.
I stamped the image onto white card using black Archival ink, then coloured in using my watercolour pencils. Cut around the image leaving a small white border as I thought the image might 'get lost' when I placed it on the patterened paper.
Stamped the sentiment onto white card, inked around the edges with the barn door DI, adhered onto another piece of white card & cut out leaving a small border.
I arranged the image & sentiment on the bag & adhered using foam pads.
Added some sparkle with stickles & closed using some snowflake brads - which I also applied some sparkly stickles to!
A neat little bag to put a few treats in!
Hope you like it.
Thanks for stopping by,
Bev xx

Tuesday 11 November 2014

Stampendous Stamps...Design Team Makes


Hello everyone...Genny here. I hope that you'll all keeping warm..the weather here in the mountains is freezing cold...will be needing my winter socks sometime soon..lol. For todays design team makes I've decided to use some of the fabulous stamps available from Julie here at JB Crafting. All the stamps that I've used today are from the Stampendous range. Two of them feature a House Mouse design and the other is this adorable cat with the santa hat. I know that you can buy cheaper stamps but sometimes, especially with stamps..you get what you pay for. All the stamps that I have used from the Stampendous range have been brilliant. They stamp so clearly first time and the detail is amazing. As most of you know I just adore cats and share my life with 10...so I just had to have the two featuring the kitties..lol.


On all the images I have stamped using a black memento inkpad. I coloured all the images with my copic pens but could have easily coloured them using my promarkers, watercolours or pencils. I decided to colour the cats ginger just because yesterday I spent a lot of time with my ginger cat Icabod. All the papers that I've used were from my christmas stash. All the images I cut into an oval shape and mounted them onto an oval mirri mount.


All the embellishments have come from Julies shop..she has an amazing variety of christmas themed ones and you could use any of your choice to decorate your own cards. I have to say that I just love to colour images...I find it so relaxing..I always liked to colour when I was little and am lucky enough to be able to do it as part of my working life now. The other good thing about using stamps is that you can colour them to match your own ideas or colour schemes. If you fancy using say blue and silver on your christmas cards..this allows you to.
I will be sharing cards all week on the facebook page ...I hope you will enjoy the different cards..they will all be made using a stamped image. So until next time...take care and happy crafting

Sunday 9 November 2014

DT Post


Hi everyone! Time for another DT post using those lovely Crafter's Companion stamps.
I coloured a white tag using Inktense pencils then went over with water to make a wash background.
Stamped the cute image using black Archival ink, then coloured using my pencils.
Stamped the snowflake in various places using VersaMark clear ink then sprinkled with some embossing powder & heated using heat tool.
Stamped the sentiment using the black Archival.
Covered a card with a sheet from the lovely Magic of Christmas paper pad.
Added a ribbon to my tag, then adhered to the card using foam pads.
Those stamps & papers make it really easy to make a lovely card - hope you like it.
Thanks for stopping by,
Bev xx

Monday 3 November 2014

Talking to teddy...design team make


Hello everyone..Genny here. Today I have made another card using the Jayne Nestorenko stamps that I used last week. These stamps are from the same set but I've used them in a different way. Instead of having the little girl holding the cat, I cut off the cat from the stamped image and replaced it with the teddy. On the sheet there is also the basket and the view of the end of the bed. I stamped and coloured the end of the bed onto a circle of white card. The girl, the teddy,and the basket I stamped onto spare card and then coloured them and cut them out. I then decoupaged them onto the circle. I have coloured all the images with my copics..but you could colour with whichever is your favourite medium. Sometimes I use my promarkers, sometimes my watercolours or watercolour pencils. I have even coloured with my H2os. Use whatever you feel happiest with. I have coloured using greens and lilacs but it would equally nice using reds and greens or just stamped using a sepia coloured inkpad..each way would give a totally different look but each as lovely as the next. I think I will try stamping and colouring just using one colour..I will try and do it this week. You see just as I'm talking about what I've done..I come up with a new idea.
I hope that you all have a good crafting week..I will try and get back to you with my new idea. So until then..take care and happy crafting. Below is a picture of the completed card. I have used a pink backing paper from my stash and created a border using some glitter paper. I have just added a white poinsettia and a greeting from my stash.