12 Tags of 2014 - November

Hi Everyone

Cutting it fine again this month!  I think I have been cutting it fine all year with my Tim Holtz tags!  I am going to post the photos today and link up with the challenge and then as soon as the video has uploaded I will post that too!  I am not sure the video will make it before Tim posts his final tag of the year!

This month Tim's tag was all about celebrating the colours of Autumn and I have decided to celebrate the colours of Winter as you can see….

…….and winter to me means frost and snow and the perfect project to get all your glitter products out and go mad!!!

Tim used corrugated cardboard which I have never tried before and I loved it!  What a great product to used on a project you want to look distressed!…….and it's FREE!!!!

Here is the link back to Tim's blog to see all the fun his November tag inspired.  I am off to take a peek myself and then it is back to putting up the Christmas tree!  I have to keep stopping because today it is actually sunny and I have a fluffy jumper so I am getting pretty hot in the conservatory and you can't see the fairy lights at all ;-)

See you again soon with the video of how I made this frosted tag for November.

Thanks for popping by X

Guess What I am Making!

A glittery magical craft desk it seems!

There is a big clue with the numbers……..

I wonder what these glittered hitch fasteners could be for…….

Such a tease.  I am looking every inch a glitter ball right now ;-)  Leave your guesses in the comments below!

While I am here…..I was having a bit of a tidy up and thought you might like to see two cards I made a while ago.

These have both been made from scraps left over from scrapbooking kits.  This one was a My Minds Eye set.  I had made a couple of layouts and the scrap is just too pretty to throw away - so I had a play and ….voila!

I even made the inners match - see - no scrap too small!

So fish out all those part used kits and see what you can come up with.

Have fun and thank you for popping by X

Christmas is Coming Series - Video 3

Hi Everyone

Hope you are having a fun weekend - Mine is all about Christmas.  I am hoping to start with the decorating so to put me in the mood I am posting this Card for some last minute ideas if you, like me are running late already!!!

I started this series in the hope I would be organised for the 1st of December and that maybe I could help a few of you with your Christmas Card making too!

I have all 5 cards videoed but finding the time to edit them has been a nightmare!

This card is all about keeping it simple!  I really liked how it turned out.  Elegant….I hope you agree.  You could make it in lots of different colour ways and if you wanted to speed things up more you could draw the lines that the pine cone baubles hang from rather than sew them.  I am making a batch in Cream and Burgundy with a touch of gold sparkle.

So without further ado here is the video link:

Time to get into the Christmas spirit - I have to wash all the windows in the conservatory next and get rid of a few spiders webs before I can put up my first tree.

We have two trees in our house these days.  When we redecorated the front room a couple of years ago I wanted the tree to match so I started collecting a second set of ornaments in pastel blues, greens and silvers.  I loved my old baubles that I have lovingly collected over the years so much (they are all in jewel tones) I felt bad not getting them out of their boxes so the solution was…….a second tree!  It takes a while to get them both up but I do love them both.  I will post a couple of photos when they are done so you can see.

If you are decorating this weekend I hope you have fun actually I hope you have fun whatever you are doing!  Off to get my breakfast now….

Thank you for popping by X

From Art Journal to Christmas Card!

Hi Everyone

I am busy with a new workshop project but still finding time to get some Christmas Cards made and I have another video to share with you today.

When I made my Let it Snow Art Journal page last year I commented it would make a fab Christmas Card!  Ta Da……..it took me a while but here it is.

I decided to make a simple easel card for this one and you will see how to use clear embossing powder to create the lovely snowy background in the tutorial.

Cutting Guide:

Turquoise Card Base - 5 3/4" x 8"
Book Page Frame - 5 1/2" x 7 3/4
White Card Topper - 4 1/2" x 6 3/4"
Turquoise Easel Card Base - 5 3/4" x 8" scored in the landscape position at 4" and 6"
Book Page for base - 5 1/2" x 3 3/4"
Turquoise Strip - 5 3/4" x 5/8"

Today I have tasked myself with getting the written instructions ready for my new workshop - The kits are in the process of being produced so I am getting there!  Watch out for the photos of the samples I make along the way!  Here is the first one I made way back in the year.

Enjoy the tutorial and thank you for popping by X

One Christmas Card - Two Techniques!

Hi everyone

Time to share another tutorial!  More Christmas as you can see!….and another way to use two lovely stamp sets from Rubber Dance.

In this video tutorial I show you how to use two different techniques to achieve this look.  The Green card is gold embossed and the red card is gilded so the choice of colour and technique are yours!

I love how this looks - almost oriental.  I had an idea for the tabbed layout and it worked really well so I will definitely be trying this on other occasions.

Cutting Guide (from the bottom to the top!):

Card Base Red/Green: 11 1/2" x 8"
1st Gold Layer: 5 1/2" x 7 3/4"
1st Red/Green Layer: 5 1/4" x 7 1/2"
2nd Gold Layer: 4 1/4" x 5" scored at 1/2"
2nd Red/Green Layer: 4" x 4 7/8" scored at 1/2"
3rd Gold Layer 4" x 2 1/2" scored at 1/2"
3rd Red/Green Layer: 3 7/8" x 2 1/4" scored at 1/2"
Gold Inner 4" x 2 3/4"
Red/Green Inner: 3 3/4" x 2 1/2"

Have a look at the two lovely stamp sets I used by following this link!  Christmas Greetings (SEC4-M) and Pine Fir Yew (NP6-M) from Rubber Dance.

Here is what the inside looks like:

I really hope you enjoy this tutorial and that you give both techniques a try if you haven't already!

This month I managed to miss making a project for the Rubber Dance monthly Colour Challenge so I was determined that this one would be my effort so as the colour scheme is Red Gold and Green - perfect for this time of year I think these cards will do the trick!  I hope I have inspired you to play along.  You have until the end of the month and although it would be nice you do not have to use Rubber Dance Stamps.  So follow this link and then get your creative thinking caps on!

Hope you are having a creative week and thank you for popping by X

Sneak Peek of my latest Rubber Dance Creation

Hi everyone

I am definitely all about Christmas crafting this week!  I have two lovely sets of Christmassy stamps to get creative with this month and if you pop over to Rubber Dance you can see one of the cards I made! Here is a teaser for you……

If you are stopping by from my You Tube Tutorial then here is the link to Rubber Dance where you can pick up the cutting guide for my card and why not check out all the other lovely creations being made by my fellow team mates.

Short but sweet from me for this post!  Wishing you all a creative weekend!!

Thank you for popping by X

http://acraftproject.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/sneak-peek-of-my-latest-rubber-dance.html

Better Late than Never!!

Hi Everyone

I am finally getting round to sharing my recent trip to Cornwall with you.  I have been so hectic since we got back I am not sure where the time is going!

We had a wonderful time and the icing on the cake for me was being able to teach a workshop for the lovely Margaret at Scrapbook Magic.  I loved meeting everyone and we all had a wonderful time creating with yummy Graphic 45 papers and pretty soon we had a whole host of Pyramids appearing!

This was a great test fun for my brand new chipboard kits for this workshop and they worked a treat!  I and my class were happy not to have to cut chipboard before all the fun stuff of construction and decorating could start!!!

Here is the lovely Tilly spraying her ribbon to match the papers we were using.  I have to say that Tilly is a crafting star of the future for sure!  She is 10 and she definitely gets a 10 from me for her Pyramid!  Amazing talent.

Look at what we put inside our Pyramids!

That's what I like to see lots of happy crafters!  We had a workshop full of laughter as you can see.  Scrapbook Magic is in a lovely setting and is full to the brim with crafting goodies too!  Unfortunately the view was shrouded in mist that day but to be honest we didn't notice ;-)

For this workshop and of course to use more of our lovely Couture papers I change the design of the pages of the mini album so each page had a fold out section (not flap!!! this word put everyone in stitches) to make room for more photos or journaling.

Time for a chat before the class began and as you can see I bought lots of samples along!  So if you are a crafter living in Cornwall then please go and visit Margaret and book a workshop.  I know you will have a fun time and make some great friends as well as some lovely projects.  When I left Margaret was getting ready for a class using Christmas Clarity stamps!  Follow this link to find out more!

…and the rest of the holiday…..well there were a couple of these!

Views like this…….

….and did I mention we had one or two of these????

……..more lovely views

Where Callum did a spot of this!   Brrrrrrr……

I did paddle a bit……..until my feet went a bit numb ;-)  Paddling and surfing on the 1st November!!!!

I love this photo of a little spot we discovered…

Oh and no trip to Cornwall is complete without one or two of these!!!!

mmmmmmmmm tasty!  So a huge thank you to Margaret and everyone at Scrapbook Magic for a wonderful day and to Cornwall for great views no matter the weather and of course for hot chocolate and cream teas!!!!!!

Have a fun weekend.

Thank you for popping by x

PS I will be posting a Christmas tutorial tomorrow x

Christmas Stars tutorial for the second in the Christmas is Coming series!

Hi Everyone

Today I feel really in the mood for getting busy with some Christmas Crafting.  I am hoping to get the last of my videos in my Christmas is coming series finished off today and I am sharing the second video with you right now!

As you can see I have a few more cards made and tucked away ready to send in December.  I am thinking I might even write them and be really, really organised……I did say thinking ;-)

I am pretty sure that you can use this idea for other cards too and I am thinking it might make a fab embellishment on scrapbook page too!

Don't forget to email me for the pdf if you need it for the card sizes and it does has a template for the star on this card that will help you get your brads in the right spots!  I will send out the pdf as soon as I get the final card videoed so not long now….

I have some great news to share with you today too……Thank you to everyone who voted for me in the Crafty Academy Awards.  I won two awards so I am a very smiley person today.  I won in the Best Mixed Media and Best Tutorials categories so a huge thank you and virtual hug to you all.  It means a lot to me that you voted and has spurred me on to make lots more videos!!

Here's the link for the awards announcement video and you will find lots of links to lots of other talented winners also sharing their creativity on You Tube.  Give Betty the lovely host and organiser of the awards a thumbs up while you are there as I am pretty sure that a whole heap of organisation went into this event.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWNoOeBZ930

Hope you have lots of fun creating with the Christmas is Comings series and I will be back shortly with video and card idea number 3.

Have a fun week and thank you for popping by X

Announcing my Brand New Christmas is Coming video series!

Hi everyone

I am back from a lovely week in Cornwall….more of that later.  I am busy getting ready for my next card class in between filming for my latest set of videos.

Today I posted my first video in my Christmas is Coming series of videos.  I really hope you find them useful.  I find myself getting later and later getting my Christmas Cards made and reedy to send in December.  I came up with a plan to batch make my cards over the month of November and decided to share the fun with you on my You Tube Channel.

The idea is to post 5 or so videos with simple card ideas that you and your family can sit down and make too!  I have broken the tutorials into steps so after you have watched one you can decided who is doing which step and then sit down with a hot chocolate and a cookie or two and have some real festive fun.

Here is a simple card idea based on using your Christmas Punches or Dies.  I love this kraft and red colour combination but don't forget you can choose your own scheme depending on what inks and card stock you have in your stash.  This would look great in shades of green and cream too.

The idea is that you divide how many cards you want to make by 5 and that is how many you need to make of each design.  You may find that some of the designs aren't to your taste in which case make more of the ones you do like !!!  (hope you like some of them at least ;-) !!!!)

So have a look at the tutorial - gather you supplies and your assembly line and off you go!  Filming this series is making me feel Christmassy already!!!  There will be a pdf file with the card dimensions to save stopping and starting the videos and there may be a small template or two (not sure how many as I am still filming!)  Just email me to say you would like one and I will get it off to you as soon as I have it finished!  The dimensions are on the videos too so no problem if you want to get started straight away!

Off to make more videos!!!  Hope you are having a fun week and thank you for popping by x