Using Stamps Differently No 5 & Craft Show Today

Hello, Crafters.

The journey to the hospital was surprisingly easy yesterday morning, which meant we arrived half an hour early............but rather that than be late!

I made two videos yesterday, one showing my Dancing Dauber technique and the other showing the thumping technique.

Yesterday's technique was my biggest challenge because I struggled to find suitable stamps for the demonstration. For the  first stamp, I needed something plain and all week I knew I would use the solid tree in the Festival of Trees Stamp Set.

There were three possible patterned stamps for me to use. They were the Hardwood stamp, the seaweed stamp in the By The Sea Stamp Set or one of the snowflakes in Flurry of Wishes.

I tried Hardwood but wasn't impressed with the look; loved the seaweed but didn't think it suited Christmas (will try again some other time but not with the Christmas tree): so the snowflake won.

I inked the Christmas tree in Pool Party, immediately stamped it off and then inked the snowflake in Bermuda Bay. Before either stamp had a chance to dry, I kissed them together.

I had already checked out where I was going to place the tree to ensure I achieved a central part of the snowflake, so that it would be easy for me to copy for the other two trees.

As soon as I separated the stamps, I stamped the tree onto some Whisper White Card Stock and then stamped again for a lighter image.

I did this twice more so I finished up with six trees. I punched the six trees out using the Tree Punch and played around with all sorts of arrangements. As you can see, in the end I settled for using just three trees, which are the darker ones!

I trimmed the white edges off the three darker trees, punched three Bermuda Bay Card Stock trees and layered them together. 

I punched 3 stars using the punch from the Itty Bitty Accent Punch Pack, coated them with glue using my Two-Way Glue Pen and dipped them in Dazzling Diamonds.

I die cut three tubs for the trees to sit in using the die from the Perfect Pines Framelits Dies and did the same to them with Dazzling Diamonds as I did to the stars.

The small stars on the trees came from the Confetti Stars Border Punch. The trees were adhered to the card using Dimensionals.

For the sentiment, I inked the snowflake stamp in Bermuda Bay ink, stamped off once, then stamped onto Soft Sky card stock. Then I inked the sentiment from the Reason For The Season Stamp Set using Bermuda Bay Ink on top of the snowflake.

I die cut it using die no. 4 from the Circles Collection Framelits and layered onto a circle of Bermuda Bay Card Stock I'd punched out with my 2" circle punch. This was then adhered to the card base using Dimensionals.

The card was made with a base of Whisper White Card Stock, with a layer of Bermuda Bay and a top layer of Whisper White that had been embossed with the Softly Falling Embossing Folder.

Today I shall be at the Gingham Goose Craft Market at Layhams Farm Shop, Layhams Road, Keston, BR2 6AR. It opens at 10.00 am and closes at 4 pm. If you're local and looking for a trip out today, do pop along and say hello!

I hope you have a great weekend. Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Week 8 Challenge No. 4 - Christmas Tags

Hello, Crafters.

I was a bit short on time yesterday but what fun I had making these Christmas tags. Once I'd started, I didn't want to stop!

I used two stamp sets that are in the annual catalogue and have been carried over from last year's Christmas catalogue.

(This year's Christmas catalogue will go live on 1st. September 2015! It's jam packed with brilliant goodies!)

I digress! The two stamp sets used are Merry Everything and Festival of Trees.

I used Real Red Cardstock for the first tag and die cut using no. 2 die (the smaller the die, the smaller the number) from the Deco Labels Collection Framelits.

Then I embossed the tag using the Stylish Stripes Embossing Folder.  

As an afterthought, I decided to draw some white "stitch" lines using my white gel pen.
I'm sure this would have been easier if I had done this before embossing! DOH!

I stamped the tree in Garden Green Ink after I had stamped off once. I then stamped the garland on top with Real Red Ink.

I punched the tree out using the Tree Punch and cut it smaller using scissors. Then I punched another tree using Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper and layered with the stamped tree.

I adhered this to the tag and added the sentiment from the Festival of Trees stamp set, which had been punched out using the Word Window Punch. 

For the second tag, I stamped the sentiment from Merry Everything, die cut it with no 1 die. I used no. 2 die for the Garden green base and stamped over it, back and front, using the baubles stamp from Festival of trees.

I punched the stars from the same glimmer paper as before and put a drop of Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details in the centres of each star.

For the third tag I did almost the same, although I omitted the background stamping on the actual tag.

To get the shape, I cut a straight line from the end of the last curve at the top to the end of the last curve on the bottom. I repeated this on both sides and also on the stamped image.

For the fourth tag, I cut it in the same way as tag no 3 and then embossed it using the Woodgrain Embossing Folder. I stamped the tree and trimmed and layered as I did with the first tag.
 
The final photograph shows the reverse side of all four tags. This stamp is from Merry Everything and I cut to fit the tag. The corners were rounded using the Project Life Corner Rounder.

I hope you've enjoyed a little Christmas in July! Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Another Envelope Punch Board Pop Up Gift Card Holder

 Hello, Crafters.

This is one of the 
other Punch 
Envelope Board 
Pop Up boxes that 
I've made. 

This time I went 
with traditional 
colours. 

The DSP is from 
one of last year's 
collections. 

Every year Stampin' 
Up! release some 
really stunning designs.

I know it doesn't show 
in the photographs but
I embossed the wreath 
and the Joy in clear
embossing powder 
and it looks super.

The punches I used 
for the little snowman 
and the reindeer in 
the glitter paper are 
not Stampin' Up!
punches 

Until tomorrow, 
happy crafting.

JanB

Workshops today.

Hello Crafters.

As always, on the 
last Saturday of the 
month, it's my day 
for workshops. 

This morning's session 
was full and there were 
just two spaces left for 
the afternoon session. 

It has been such a 
super day.

We normally make 
two greeting cards 
and a 3D project 
but today we made 
one card and a 3D 
project. 

This was because 
the 3D project was 
a big project and took 
up so much time 
there wasn't time 
for a second card. 

But all my ladies 
were so pleased 
with the 3D that they 
weren't unhappy about 
making just one card.

I saw this Envelope 
Punch Board Pop-Up 
Gift Card holder 
demonstrated by US 
SU demonstrator 
Dawn Griffiths. 

She did one with 
flowers and one with 
stars and I thought 
I'd use the idea for 
Christmas.

The one shown here 
is the one we did during 
the workshops but there 
are two more designs I'm working on at the moment and will try and show you them tomorrow.

In the meantime, enjoy the weekend and happy crafting.

JanB.

Finally...........success

Hello, Crafters.

I persevered and I
Finally succeeded!

My fifth video
has now been
uploaded successfully
to YouTube!

This is the link:-
Using Punched-out Christmas Trees

I am none the wiser
as to why I was
experiencing problems!

I wonder if maybe
lots of people were
trying to upload to
YouTube when I was
trying and it was
too busy to cope??

If anyone knows, or
has any suggestions as
to why this happened,
I would be really
interested to know.

Anyway, you can
now see the three
cards I made with
my leftover trees
(from my video
Glimmer Christmas
Trees).

As always with my
videos, I give lots
of tips and tricks
whilst I'm demonstrating
how I made my cards!

Do click the link and
have a look!

If you enjoy my video,
please subscribe to my
YouTube channel by
clicking on the Subscribe
button.

In the meantime, I hope
you enjoy the weekend,

Until tomorrow, happy
crafting!

JanB