During November, I'm running a special Prize Draw for my online customers.
The Prize is A Stampin' Up! Scoring Board!
I have set myself a challenge to try and make all my videos during November use the scoreboard.
Today's video is the first one and is a really cute little box that can hang on the Christmas tree!
To enter the Prize Draw, your name will be entered once for every £50 you spend in my online shop during November 2016.
This figure is cumulative, so if you put three orders during the month, say £48.00, ££87 and £65.00, these would total £200.00, so your name will go in four times.
The winner's name will be drawn on 1st. December 2016.
(Unfortunately, Stampin' Up! rules only allow me to sell/recruit in the UK, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Austria. I'm really sorry!)
Stampin' Up! are also running a special promotion during November as well!
They have released some fabulous Stitched Layering Framelits dies - ovals, circles and squares - that will be in the new 2017-2018 Annual Catalogue!
They have also reduced the price of some stamp sets that work well with these dies by 25%! Please visit my online shop for more details: www.janbcards.stampinup.net
You may like to check out this Stampin' Up! YouTube video which shows the Framelits. Stitched Shapes Framelits
They really look gorgeous and can't wait for mine to arrive! It'll be like having those Piercing Templates we used to be able to buy, which I loved, but now the stitched holes will be done by the Big Shot! Last of all, but by no means least, we have flowing water again!!
The specialist arrived yesterday lunchtime, with his specialist equipment - apparently it's a drill called a Mole - but was able to fix the problem himself!
Whilst we're thrilled to have running water back again, it's so frustrating that we've had to wait SIX days for specialist equipment, which wasn't needed because the engineer knew his job and fixed it himself! Grrr!!! That's about it for today. Until tomorrow, happy crafting. JanB.
I had a bit of a tough time today editing my photographs to try and make them look like they do in real life i.e. silver embossed on Whisper White and Smokey Slate Cardstock (CS)! LOL!
When I first uploaded them, the Whisper White card looked as if it was black and white!
It looked lovely but it isn't black! This card came about as a result of the project I was working on yesterday for tomorrow's video.
I made one of my samples in Soft Sky with Silver Embossed snowflakes.
I haven't yet decided on the final design I'll use for my video but I'll be working on it after I've posted today's blog. I wasn't sure which colour card would look best, or whether the snowflakes should be on coordinating CS or the opposite, so I made two cards side by side.
Although the silver on grey on grey CS was far easier to upload, I much prefer the silver on white on white CS!
I started my card base with Whisper White/Smokey Slate CS, a layer of Silver Foil/Whisper White CS and a top layer of Whisper WhiteSmokey Slate.
Using my Embossing Buddy, I wiped over the top two layers of CS and stamped the large medallion stamp from the Frosted Medallions Stamp Set, using Versamark.
Using the second to largest snowflake in the Flurry of Wishes Stamp Set, I repeated the process on some scrap Whisper White/Smokey Slate CS.
I covered them all with Silver Embossing Powder and heat set using my Heat Tool.
Then I punched out the large snowflakes using the Flower Medallion Punch.
I had a look to see what the grey on grey, grey on white, white on grey and white on white looked like to decide which I liked best.
Using Tombow, I adhered the top two card layers together and then I adhered the large snowflakes using Dimensionals.
I wrapped a piece of ribbon around both card fronts: 3/8" Silver Glitter Ribbon on the Whisper White card and 5/8" Organza Ribbon on the Smokey Slate card. I took another scrap of Whisper White/Smokey Slate CS and wiped them with my Embossing Buddy.
Using Versamark, I stamped the Happy Christmas stamp from the Seasonal Bells Stamp Set and heat set with Silver Embossing Powder. I cut both banners out by hand and adhered them to the card front using Dimensionals.
Then I attached the card fronts to the card bases.
My final touch was to add a retired Iced Rhinestone to the centre of the each snowflake. That's about it for today. I'm off to my studio now to make tomorrow's video.
To create today's card, I've used a Hostess Stamp Set called Cosy Critters.
I've also used Flurry of Wishes which has been brought forward from last year's stamp sets.
Although there is a Santa hat in the Cosy Critters, I've used the hat from another of last year's brought forward stamp sets, Snow Place, because it's smaller. The idea for this card came when I was working yesterday, on a card I'm planning for next Wednesday's video.
As it's a mechanical card, I used a retired colour Lost Lagoon so if it went wrong, I wouldn't have lost too much.
As it happened, it was very successful, so I carried on and decorated it!
I had a look through the Lost Lagoon stamped/punched images wallet to see what I could use.
I found three houses and was able to add the same sentiment that I used yesterday "from out home to yours". I also found some stamped, punched snowflakes.
To make today's card I started with a Whisper White Cardstock (CS) base, with a layer of Pool Party CS and a top layer of Whisper White CS. I dry embossed the top layer using the Softly Falling Embossing Folder and adhered the two layers and card base together using Tombow.
Using Pool Party Ink and Whisper White CS, I stamped fourteen of the small snowflakes from the Flurry Of Wishes Stamp set and punched them out using the Snow Flurry Punch.
I punched a 1.5" circle from a scrap of paper and adhered it with removable glue to where I wanted the centre of my wreath to be.
I put a small amount of glue on the right-hand side of the first snowflake and positioned it so two points of the snowflake were against the outside edge of the circle.
Then I adhered the snowflakes around the circle trying to leave the same gap between each of them.
I did a dry run before I started, so I knew approximately how much the gap should be.
When I reached the last snowflake, I was able to lift the first one and slip the last one underneath.
To create the Owl, I stamped the image once using Crumb Cake Ink and punched it out using the Owl Builder Punch.
Then, after cleaning the stamp, I stamped another image using Pool Party Ink so I could fussy cut the scarf.
I painted the scarf with my Wink of Stella Glitter Pen and adhered it to the owl.
I attached the image using Dimensionals so the owl was sitting on the bottom part of the inside of the wreath.
I stamped the Santa hat on another scrap of Whisper White CS and fussy cut it out.
I didn't use the die as I didn't want the white outside all around the edge.
I painted the fur cuff and pompom on the hat with wet glue and then covered it with Dazzling Diamonds.
Using Tombow, I attached the hat to the owl and supported the pompom with a Dimensional.
I stamped the sentiment on a piece of Whisper White CS using Pool Party Ink and layered it onto a piece of Pool Party CS.
I adhered it to the front of the card using Dimensionals. The final step was to paint all the snowflakes with Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen. Tomorrow, I shall be at the Gingham Goose Craft Market at Hayes Village Hall, Hayes Street, Hayes, Bromley, BR2 7LE.
It starts at 10.30 am until 4 pm.
If you're in the area, do pop in to say hello - it'll be lovely to see you! Until tomorrow, happy crafting. JanB.
Hello, Crafters. Good news! The insurance company have agreed to pay, without quibble, the full cost of replacing the items that were stolen from our garage last week! YAY! Now we have to wait for the garage door company to come round to check hubby's repair job and suggest any additional measures we could make to increase our level of security. Today's challenge card uses the same painting technique that I used on card no. 2. The difference today is that I die cut the Christmas tree from the top layer and put the painted Corrugated Paper behind the aperture. I think I will do Corrugated Paper as a challenge next week as well. The reason I've decided this is because I've only used the white this week and also, there are things I haven't yet tried but would like to. At the moment I only have two ideas in mind but I'm hoping I can come up with another three! Well, it's not a challenge if it's too easy, is it? LOL! I started today's card with a base of Whisper White Card Stock with a layer of Pear Pizzazz. I used the largest Christmas tree die from the Perfect Pines Framelits to cut the aperture. Then I took a piece of white Corrugated Paper that was large enough to fit behind it. Using a Dauber and Pear Pizzazz Ink, I coloured the Corrugated Paper. When it's dry, it looks and feels like baby corduroy - it's amazingly tactile. I adhered it to the back of the aperture by putting Tombow Glue all around the edge of the tree. Then I adhered this layer to the Pear Pizzazz layer using Dimensionals. I added some Cherry Cobbler Candy Dots and used the star punch from the Itty Bitty Accent Punch Pack and Cherry Cobbler Card Stock for the top of the tree. I added a rhinestone for a bit of sparkle! I tied some retired Pear Pizzazz ribbon around this top layer before adhering it to the card base using Tombow. The current Pear Pizzazz ribbon is the 0.25" Cotton Ribbon. I stamped the greeting from the Flurry of Wishes Stamp Set onto Whisper White Card Stock using Pear Pizzazz Ink. I punched it out using the Washi Tape Punch. Using the same punch, I punched out a piece of Pear Pizzazz and Cherry Cobbler to use for layering. I adhered the sentiment to the card front using Dimensionals. A simple clean cut card. I hope you have a great weekend. Until tomorrow, happy crafting. JanB.
Hello, Crafters. As I said yesterday, I've chosen our card stock weight Corrugated Paper for this week's challenge. It's been in our annual catalogue since June and I've just totally ignored it! That was until I did the craft day with Natalie a couple of weekends ago. Cary had included it in her two hour class and it was love at first sight. It's a fine corrugated paper and comes in white and kraft and is amazingly attractive. I couldn't believe my good fortune when I won a packet in the raffle at the craft day and I've been itching to use it ever since. I don't have any wildly exciting ideas in mind, I just want to experiment with it! So my first project is a clean and simple Christmas card in Lost Lagoon and Whisper White. I started yesterday's card with a base of Whisper White Card Stock, then a layer of Lost Lagoon with a top layer of whisper white. For my image, I chose the second to smallest snow flake stamp from the Flurry of Wishes Stamp Set, to be stamped on Whisper White card stock using Lost Lagoon Ink. I wanted to use a technique I've heard about but never tried, which was using our ink with embossing powder. I knew for it to be successful, I had to sprinkle the clear embossing powder onto the ink immediately I had removed the stamp from the paper. If I hesitated, the ink would dry before the embossing powder found its mark! I put my piece of Whisper White Card Stock on a scrap of paper, had my box of clear embossing powder in my left hand and my stamp in the right. I took a deep breath, inked up the stamp, stamped the image and immediately poured the embossing powder onto my image - then I heat set it. As you can see in my photographs, it worked a treat! I then layered the corrugated card stock with Lost Lagoon and a piece of 2014-2016 In-Colour Designer Series Paper Stack. All layers were adhered with Tombow but the punched snowflake is on Dimensionals. I used the sentiment from Snow Place and heat embossed it in the same way as the snow flake.
My final touch was to add a rhinestone to the centre of the snowflake. Have you used the Corrugated Paper? Do you have an opinion of it? I'd be interested to hear what you think. Until tomorrow, happy crafting. JanB.
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.
Like project no. 3, this is another card I've based on a previous non-Christmas card I've made using patterned vellum and flowers. So I changed the vellum and the flowers to snowflakes! I experimented by embossing silver on Whisper White Card Stock, silver on Smokey Slate Card Stock and silver on our Card Stock Vellum. I assembled all the snowflakes and played around with various combinations before I settled on these. They have been embossed in silver on vellum with the bottom snowflake is sitting on an identical sized snowflake in Smoky Slate Card Stock. The last photograph is as close to the snowflakes as I could get but I still don't think you can see that they are vellum.........or can you? I started my card with a base of Smoky Slate Card stock with a layer of Whisper White. I die cut the top Smoky Slate layer using the no. 6 die from the Lots of Labels Framelits Dies and adhered a piece of the snowflake design Holidays Fancy Foil Designer Vellum behind the window. I die cut Joy using the Wonderful Wreath Framelits dies and Silver Glimmer Paper. Then I stamped both the smaller two snowflakes from the Flurry of Wishes Stamp Set, on to our Card Stock Vellum, three times in Versamark and then heat embossed using Silver Embossing Powder. I did the same to the second to largest snowflake but just once. I punched the smaller snowflakes out using the Snow Flurry Punch. I also punched out two of the larger of these snowflakes in Smoky Slate Card Stock. I punched out the largest snowflake using the Flower Medallion Punch, as well as one in Smoky Slate. I adhered the large snowflake and two of the middle sized snowflakes onto the Smoky Slate ones with Tombow. Then I layered the smaller snowflakes using Dimensionals. The largest snowflake was adhered to the card front with Tombow, and the other two with Dimensionals. I finished the snowflakes off by adhering small punched circles of Silver Glimmer paper in the centre of each to tie them together with the Joy. Both the circles and Joy were adhered with Tombow. Today, I am putting my ideas for the children's crafting party tomorrow into practice and getting everything prepped. I love crafting with children because they get so totally absorbed in what they're doing - it's a real joy to watch! I hope I'm able to take some photographs to share with you! Until tomorrow, happy crafting. JanB.
Hello, Crafters.
The winner's name will be drawn on 1st. December 2016. 
They have released some fabulous Stitched Layering Framelits dies - ovals, circles and squares - that will be in the new 2017-2018 Annual Catalogue! 
You may like to check out this Stampin' Up! YouTube video which shows the Framelits. 
Last of all, but by no means least, we have flowing water again!! 
