Snowflake Spinner Card Video

Hello, Crafters.

A crafting friend asked if I could make a video showing how to make a spinner card, so the spinner part can't be seen until the card has been  opened, so it's a complete surprise!

I'm happy to accept challenges, and I have really enjoyed creating today's card.

My first card was using the snowman and the reindeer fron the Seasonal Chums Stamp Set and co-ordinating dies, but I thought the video would take too long with all the colouring! 

Even without all the colouring the video is one hour and seven minutes long, so I think there will  be a lot of fast forward buttons getting a workout today!

On the video I promised to put the details of the snowman card I showed, on my blog today (6th December 2017), so everyone can choose which card they'd like to make:-

1). Snowman: was stamped on Whisper White Cardstock (CS), using Basic Black Archival Ink and coloured using the following Marker Pens:-

a). Hat: Early Espresso, and hat band: Soft Suede
  
b). Holly: Wild Wasabi for the leaves and Real Red for the berries

c). Robin: Crumb Cake and Real Red for his breast

d). Carrot nose: Pumpkin Pie

e). Scarf and mittens: Real Red and Pool Party

f). Rabbit: Smokey Slate

g). Snow body: I painted over the white areas of the snowman's body with my Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen.

2). Reindeer: were stamped on Crumb Cake CS using Basic Black Archival Ink and coloured in using the following Marker Pens:-

Reindeer facing front:

a). Antlers, tail, hooves, body spots, and ear shadows: Crumb Cake

b). Ribbon: Pool Party

c). Bell: Wink of Stella Gold Glitter Pen

Reindeer facing back:

a). Antlers, tail, hooves, and body spots: Soft Suede 

b). Ribbon: Real Red

3). Holly inside the card: stamps were from Hang Your Stocking Stamp Set and coloured with Wild Wasabi and Real Red Ink 

4). Whisper White oval inside card: was die cut using die no. 3 of the Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies

5). Christmas Tree: is from the Ready for Christmas Stamp Set, and was stamped in Wild Wasabi Ink on Whisper White CS, then die cut using the Christmas Staircase Thinlits Dies.

I painted the Basic Rhinestones using the Dark Old Olive and Dark Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Blend Pens. 

The gold star if from the Metallic Enamel Shapes.

6). Christmas Blessings Sentiment: is from the Christmas Pines Stamp Set and was stamped in Cherry Cobbler Ink on Whisper White Cardstock, although it looks more like Real Red! Hmmm!!

7). Card Base and DSP: the card base is Cherry Cobbler CS, with layers of Whisper White CS, and top layers of the reindeer design from the Be Merry Designer Series Paper (DSP).

If I've missed anything please let me know.

This morning I'm off to the hairdressers, but I'd rather be at home crafting.

Does anybody else feel like this? LOL! 

Until tomorrow, happy crafting!

JanB.

Santa's Cookies!

Hello, Crafters.

Yesterday's humour continues today! 

This is my first play with the Ready for Christmas Stamp Set, and the co-ordinating Christmas Staircase Framelits Dies. 

I've seen cards made with this set where the dog has his paws up on the table, so he can eye the cookies that have been put out for Santa. 

The only way I could think of adding to this was to have one dog standing on the other dog's back!

I've been wanting to use the Cherry Cobbler and Garden Green Be Merry Designer Series Paper (DSP), particularly the design with the mittens, so I chose that as my starting point for today's card!

I started with a card base in Whisper White Cardstock (CS), with a layer of Cherry Cobbler CS and a top layer of the mitten design from the Be Merry DSP.

Using Whisper White CS and Basic Black Archival Ink, I stamped the table, the cookies, and two dogs from the Ready for Christmas Stamp Set.

Using Marker Pens, I coloured the table, the cookies and one dog using Crumb Cake - I've named him Clover! - and Smokey Slate for the plate the cookies were on. 

I went over this using my Wink Of Stella Clear Glitter pen to give the illusion it was a silver platter!

I coloured the second dog in Soft Suede, and her sweater in Cherry Cobbler - I've named her Scarlet! ☺

I used Garden Green for the Clover's sweater.
 
I had wanted to leave the stripes white but I was a bit clumsy, and ended up colouring the whole sweaters. 

To break the colour up a bit, I used my white gel pen to paint the stripes back in, add the dots, the stars and highlight the lower cuff.

I stamped the sentiment Christmas Blessings from the Christmas Pines Stamp Set, using Cherry Cobbler Ink on Whisper White CS, and mounted it onto a strip of Cherry Cobbler CS.

I started to adhere all the elements together, and for the main focal image I die cut a Whisper White CS circle using the largest Stitched Shapes Circle Famelits Die.

This was mounted onto a larger circle which had been die cut from Cherry Cobbler CS, using the Layering Circle Framelits Dies.

I adhered the two pieces together using Tombow, and then adhered it to the card front using Dimensionals.  

I adhered the table using Tombow, and I placed the feet on the table right at the bottom of the white circle. 

Using Dimensionals, I added the silver platter of cookies. 

To position Clover,  I put one large Dimensional under his tummy and a slither under his tail. 

I put his paws so they were resting on one of the feet of the table, with his back positioned for Scarlet to stand on!

I used a Glue Dot to adhere Clover's head in place. 

To fix the Scarlet in place, I used Tombow as far down her back to the end of her sweater and then added a slither of a Dimensional under her tail. 

I put her standing on Clover's back with her front paws resting on his head!


Using Dimensionals, I adhered the sentiment in place.

Inside the card I added a layer of Cherry Cobbler CS, and a top layer of Whisper White CS.

 In the bottom left hand corner, I stamped another plate of cookies and coloured them in the same way I did for the front of the card.

I added googly eyes to Clover and Scarlet, and they've worked better than I imagined they would!

This is because, when I look at the card, both dogs appear to be looking at me as is to say "Errrmm, we're just looking..............!!!" LOL!


I hope you have a lovely day, and until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Glad Tidings 2 Step Stamping Video

 

Hello, Crafters.

Today's video features the Glad Tidings card I shared here a couple of weeks ago. 

A little while ago I ran out of the Solid Red Ribbon and haven't re-ordered yet............I keep forgetting! 

So in the meantime I've been using a retired ribbon, and today I had the last 12+ inches left, with which I had to make two "bunny ears" bows. 

The first was no problem, but I didn't think I was going to make the second one! 

But I took it slowly, and persevered, and much to my surprise, I succeeded - for all to see on the video! LOL!

One thing I have learned about making videos is that it's a bad idea to re-ink an ink pad immediately before starting! 

My Wild Wasabi was amazingly dry but it held up well. 

I really must remember to re-ink my pads when I'm tidying up after crafting, not when I'm first starting!

I also wanted to share the Snowflake card I showed on my last video, which was about using the Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets.

You may know that in my Die Storage Folders,on the back of the magnetic sheets,I adhere a piece of card so I can adhere one each of the die cuts in each set of dies. 

I find this amazingling helpful, especially when I'm looking for a particular shape e.g. door handle and hinges for my recent card of the wreath on the door. 

For the Snowflake card, I wanted to know what the negative die cut looked like, but this wasn't something I'd kept!

The first thing I did was to go through all the die sets to see which ones had a suitable snowflake, and then I die cut them to see what the negative looked like. 

I wrote the name of the die set on each piece of card - so I didn't end up confused! - and have now filed them with the die sets. 

I chose four different dies for my card, and they were from Seasonal Layers Framelits Dies and Seasonal Tags Framelits Dies.

The NOEL is from the Christmas Stockings Framelits Dies, which has a thin strip of cardstock which fits across the width of a regular A6 card, but I trimmed it down for my card so I could have a snowflake towards the bottom of my card. 
 
I saved the Whisper White snowflake die cuts and adhered one inside my card. I made it stand out by painting it with my Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Pen.

I finished my card by adding a Basic Rhinstone in the centre of each snowflake. 

My UPS delivery arrived nice and early yesterday at 9.30 am - it normally arrives at lunch time!

It was my regular UPS man and he explained he had a 10.30 am delivery at a house a few doors down, so he thought he'd drop mine off, too! 

He also said it'd clear a bit of space too, as it was three boxes of Stampin' Up! goodies!

Just two days to go before I set off for the Stampin' Up! OnStage Convention in Birmingham and still have a lot to do, so until tomorrow, happy crafting!

JanB.

NOEL Eclipse Card

Hello, Crafters.

I hope you've had a great weekend.
 
My class on Saturday went really well. 

The thing I like most about my classes is that it's just like having a few friends round for a bit of crafting, chatter and a giggle or two!

The eclipse card seems to be the most popular style of card I've seen on Facebook recently, so I just had to give it a go. 

All the ladies were exceptionally pleased with this project, with all of them being very surprised at how easy it was!

When I first started on this technique, I made the Elegant Eggplant Cardstock (CS) card shown in the last photograph.

I'd seen this design on Pinterest and found several videos on YouTube.

I think this is a fabulous design, but I wanted my own design for my class. 

I used the Holly Berry Happiness Stamp Set, which has been brought forward from last year, to design my card. 

In class we used Wild Wasabi as our accent colour, and for the card I made yesterday, I changed to Real Red.

I started by stamping one of the sentiments from the stamp set, towards the bottom of the top layer. 

I used my Real Red and Wild Wasabi Marker Pens to ink the stamp. 

The sentiment we used in class was from the Christmas Pines Stamp Set, which is another set that has been brought forward from last year.

Then I used the long branches of holly, one towards the top left hand corner, and one to the bottom right hand corner. 

I checked with the Large Letter Dies to make sure the stamping just fitted into where the letters would be cut out! 

I used Wld Wasabi Ink, first generation stamping for the leaves outlines, and then Wild Wasabi Ink stamped off once for the infill stamp.

I lined the letters up on my Magnetic Platform on my Big Shot, and used a ruler to gently push them into a straight line. 

When I was happy, I put the second cutting mat on top and cranked it through. 

I removed the die cuts from the dies and also kept the centre of the O. 
 
Next I put the top layer into the Softly Falling Embossing Folder, and carefully put the centre of the O, inside the O in the embossing folder. 

I feel dry embossing the top layer really finished off the final look. 

Next I started to put my card together by adhering the top layer onto the Real Red CS layer. 

Using my tweezers I placed the letter O inside the die cut O. 

Card without dry embossing

After applying some Tombow to the inside of the centre of the O, I adhered it on to the red layer placing it very carefully into the centre of the O! 

Then I removed the O die cut, and applied some of our Foam Adhesive Strips on the backs of all the letters. 

Night in Bethlehem in Elegant Eggplant and So Saffron

These strips are twice as high as the Dimensionals and are absolutely great for this technique! 

I know there are plenty of videos on YouTube demonstrating how this technique is done, buut I'll be making my own so I can share what I have learned! 
If you haven't tried this technique, I certainly recommend giving it a try, not just for Christmas but birthday's, too. 

As long as the recipient has a short name, how easy to personalise a card, or maybe use Mum, Dad, Love, etc.

If you want to use a longer name or word, all you need to do is to make a bigger card!

That's it from me today. I hope you have a great week, and until tomorrow, happy crafting! 

JanB.

Painted Harvest Wreath

Hello, Crafters.

Although today's card isn't heavily decorated, it took four stamp sets, two die sets and two punches! 

I wonder if you recognise which stamp set the sentiment comes from? 

I found it, just by chance, in Better Together. 

Normally, when I'm photocopying my stamps sets for my reference folder, if I see one that is suitable for Christmas and non-Christmas, I do two photocopies so I have one in each section - somehow I overlooked this one!

I'm pleased with today's card, especially the door hinges and door handle, but I wonder if I should have used something like Soft Suede as my middle layer rather than Wild Wasabi, and followed through on the hinges and door handle?

I'd seen the idea of using the Painted Harvest Stamp Set as a wreath on Pinterest.

I chose to use Wild Wasabi Ink on Whisper White Cardstock (CS), and I added Red Glimmer Paper  berries. 

These were punched out using the smallest eyes on the Cookie Cutter Punch. 

I used my Paper Snips to fussy cut the wreath which was a little bit of a challenge because it was difficult, at times, to see some of the lighter branches.

If I did get any bits wrong, it doesn't show, so I'm happy!

I had planned to use the Pinewood Planks Dynamic Embossing Folderfor the top Whisper White CS layer, and then adhere the wreath to it with Dimensionals.

Then I had a change of mind and decided to go for the  Hardwood Background Stamp instead - inked in Sahara Sand, and stamped off once.

I much preferred this idea, so I put away the embossing folder, and took the background stamp off the shelf. 

Then my mind started working on the top layer being a door, so I looked through my dies for something that would pass for a door handle.

If you've seen my video where I show how I store my dies, you'll know on the reverse of each magnetic sheet is a piece of thin board. 

This is from the back  of Designer Series Paper packs, and I'd adhered onto this sheet one of each die cut produced by each die in that particular set! 

This is when my filing system really comes into its own!

As I went through my dies storage folders looking at the back of each individual folder, I found the "handle" in the Christmas Thinlits Dies. 

It's the loop to hang the stocking up with (there's also a slightly larger one in the Mitten Dies, too!). 

I continued going through checking all the folders just in case I saw something else that I thought would be more suitable! 

Then I saw the Christmas Lamp Post Thinlits, which would make brilliant "hinges" for the door!

I think everything else about today's card is self-explanatory except to say the holly I used to decorate the sentiment is from the Christmas Pines Stamp Set. 

I used my Wild Wasabi and Real Red Marker Pens to paint and then stamp the sentiment, which I then punched out usng the Pretty Label Punch.

Still using Marker Pens I painted the holly stamp as well, and  then I stamped one at either end of the sentiment.

In an attempt to make  the door handle and hinges a bit darker, I painted them with my Clear Wink of Stellla Glitter Pen.

It didn't do much for darkening them, but they do sparkle beautifully! LOL!

To decorate the inside of the card I stamped the two layers of the wreath over the bottom right hand corner, and added some Real Red berries using my Marker Pen. 
 
My final touch was to add a red bow to the wreath, and unfortunately, I've used a retired Real Red Ribbon as I've finished my reel of the current red ribbon!

I feel that I've hopped about today, so if I've missed anything please let me know so I can put it right!

That's about it for today, so until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Three Pine Cones Video

Hello, Crafters.

 I hope you're enjoying the weekend, and not being adversely affected by Storm Brian here in the UK.

Today's video was requested when I shared my Three Pine Cones card here on Thursday.

If you saw that blog, you may remember that I said "Although I used the smaller pine cones in the set, I could have used the larger ones without spoiling the finished look - in fact, it may have been better with larger cones!"

I took advantage of making the video to re-create my card with the larger cones.

As I thought, the design looks just as good, if not better! 

During the video, as I had two ready-made smaller cones left over from making the first card, I toyed with the idea of using one large and two smaller cones for the video card.

As I tested different arrangements with the same size and different sizes, I settled for the three large cones!

I'm looking forward to receiving feedback from my subscribers!

I wish you a very happy Sunday, and until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Christmas Pines

Hello, Crafters.

Yesterday afternoon I was making more Thank You Gift boxes for my October online customers; I'm pleased to say that I'm staying on top of how many I'll be needing by the time October comes to a close, so I won't have a made last minute panic! ☺

As I've made so many of these boxes now, I'm on auto pilot when I'm making them, so I have my iPad on with YouTube playing. 

A video came on showing a project using the Christmas Pines Stamp Set, which has been brought forward from last year.

In case you're not a YouTube viewer, I have mine set on Autoplay, so YouTube selects which video will play next, and the videos are all similar.

This meant that when the first Christmas Pines video had finished, it was followed by several more using the same stamp set. 

Most of the cards were clean and simple, some used die cuts, some were stamped and some were heat embossed, but they all had one thing in common, and that is they all looked fabulous. 

Hence today's card has been made using the Christmas Pines Stamp Set and the co-ordinating dies Pretty Pines Thinlits.

I started with a card base of Whisper White Cardstock (CS), a much smaller sized layer than normal in Old Olive CS and a top layer of Whisper White CS. 

I adhered the top layer to the card base using removable tape, and stamped two of the solid pine branches from the Christmas Pines Stamp Set in the top left hand corner using Old Olive Ink. 

I also stamped the sentiment using old Olive Ink and a sentiment from the same stamp set, in the bottom right hand corner of the top layer of Whisper White CS.

I played around with Crumb Cake and Soft Suede CS's and Inks to create four pine cones that I could die cut. 

Although I used the smaller pine cones in the set, I could have used the larger ones without spoiling the finished look - in fact, it may have been better with larger cones! I settled on using Soft Suede Ink, gently stamped off once, the small pine cone with the triangle pattern and Crumb Cake CS.

I stamped six pine cones like this - to allow for mistakes! - then I used Crumb Cake Ink and the other patterned pine cone, to stamp on top of the six. 

I finished stamping all six with the solid pine cone stamp in Crumb Cake Ink, and then die cut them.

I assembled the front of my card, and played with the arrangement I wanted for the three pine cones. Normally, I'd just put three in a group in the corner, but I was feeling more adventurous yesterday and adhered them using Dimensionals in the pattern you see on the finished card. 

They needed something to finish them off, and I tried several different bows from all the sets of dies I have, as well as the bows in the Cookie Cutter Builder Punch and the Holly Berry builder punch. 

I didn't find anything small enough so moved onto 1/8" ribbon which was still too wide! 

I think this Baker's Twine is Cherry Cobbler and gave my card the finished look I was after!

To decorate the inside of the card, I added Olive Green and Whisper White CS layers the same size as on the front of the crd

I adhered two die cut Pine Branches in top right hand corner, and added the fourth die cut pine cone, which leaves two more for another project!
 
I never add anything 3D inside my cards but I did on this one as I couldn't think of anything else to use!

Once I'd finished my card and was happy with it, I couldn't resist going back and painting the cones with my Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Pen!

A very plain and simple card, but easy enough to make several of them withouth taking forever and a day!

That's it for today. Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.