Wendy's Treat Box Video

Hello, Crafters.

I know the name's are not very imaginative, but today I uploaded my video called Wendy’s Treat Box.

If you watched my video where I shared my swaps from Telford earlier this month, you may recall that I show two small treat boxes that looked very similar but I said they’d been made quite differently. 

Next Wednesday I’ll show you the second box which I'll probably call Maria's Treat Box   
Today's box has been made as a box, that is, with flaps and tabs.   

I made it quite a bit larger than Wendy’s swap for two reasons. 

Firstly because it would be easier to demonstrate and easier to be seen.
Secondly, I still have a lot of chocolates left over from those I bought for my Telford swaps.
                                    

 

I thought it’d be box three, eat one, box three, eat one! LOL! 

But I was amazingly well disciplined and finished up with lots leftover!

All my boxes were the same except I used different designs from the Candy Cane Lane Designer Series Paper (DSP) and I varied the images. 

Photographs 1 & 2 – the penguin is the image I used in the video and is from the hostess stamp set called Cozy Critters. It’s the only image I used a sentiment with because I felt it needed something extra as the owl fitted inside the square of DSP! I stamped him on a piece of Whisper White Cardstock (CS) using Basic Black Archival Ink, and coloured in the diamonds on his “sweater”, his scarf and his eyelids using a Real Red Marker Pen. I used the Owl Builder punch to punch him out.

Photograph 3 & 4 – the reindeer is from the Cookie Cutter Christmas Stamp Set. I stamped him on a piece of Crumb Cake CS using Soft Suede Ink and punched him out with the Cookie Cutter Punch. I also stamped his nose on a scrap of Real Red CS, which I cut out by hand and adhered in place with Tombow. I also adhered two non-Stampin’ Up googly eyes to him as well. When I put Tombow on the back of the image to adhere to the box, I only put it on as far as the start of his horns. 

Photograph 3 & 4 – the gingerbread girl is also from the Cookie Cutter Christmas Stamp Set. I stamped her in Soft Suede Ink on Whisper White CS, and then punched her out using the Cookie Cutter Punch. Using a scrap of Read Red CS, I punched out a bow tie for a hair bow and two buttons for her top.  I adhered these pieces in place with Tombow. Unfortunately, this was the first image I’d made and I glued it all down onto the box! I decided I didn’t like the head glued right back partly because you can’t really see her hair bow!

Photograph 5 & 6 - the penguin is from the Snow Place Stamp Set which was brought forward from last year. I stamped the penguin using Basic Black Archival Ink and I also stamped the hat from the stamp set using Real Red Ink. This set has a coordinating set of dies called Snow Friends Framelits, so I was able to die cut the two pieces but they would have been quite easy to cut out by hand if I didn’t have the dies. I used my Pumpkin Pie Marker Pen to paint his beak and his feet, and my final touch was to add some googly eyes! 

Photograph 7 - line up of all six boxes - ready to sell at my last craft show of the year which will be next Thursday, 1st December 2016!

Photograph 8 - this is the swap I received from Wendy Porter. Many thanks, Wendy.

That's about it for today. I hope you have a very happy Sunday. Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Cosy Critters

Hello Crafters.

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.

NOEL Glimmer Card Video

Hello, Crafters.

Today's video is a little bit different from normal for two reasons. 

At the end of the video, I show four other cards I've made using the same layout as the video card. 

I've included photographs of each card and includes the design I shared here on Monday. 

During the video, I also showed how to die cut a negative panel that I'll be using in next week's video - probably next Wednesday. That's surprisingly well organised for me! LOL!

Photograph 1 and video - wreath. The stamp is from Santa's Sleigh and has a set of coordinating dies, by the same name,

The wreath and the bow are both outline dies so I coloured mine. 

There are four main, different ways you can position the letters.
 
These are: straight and in a level line, straight and at different levels, at different levels and bending forwards and backwards and finally in a straight line, all at the same height. 
 
I have shown three options with my cards here.


The second photograph shows teddy bears which are also in the Satna's Sleigh Stamp set, with a coordinating die.

I stamped the teddies onto Crumb Cake cardstock using Soft Suede ink and then die cut them.

For the bow, I used the Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine which comes in the Baker's Twine Trio Pack with Garden Green and Gold.


I also used Soft Suede Cardstock as the layer between the card base and card base.

The third photograph shows the angel from the Joyful Nativity Stamp Set which has been heat enbossed in gold and then fussy cut.

The fourth photograph shows the bell from the Christmas Magic Stamp Set and is the card I shared here on Monday. 

Although this isn't my favourite card in this design, I'm really pleased that I've found a fantastic use for our Gold Wink of Stella Glitter Pen.

It paints the bell a beautiful glittery gold colour. I painted the bow in Real Red Ink and then went over it with the Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Pen. 

Although it's difficult to see the glitter, except in real life, the bells really show the true beauty of Wink of Stell Glitter Pens.

The last card is the Santa hats from the Snow Place Stamp Set and die cut using the hat die from Snow Friends Framelits Dies. I inked the stamps in Versamark, then in Real Red Ink. As soon as I stamped the images, I sprinkled them with Clear Embossing Powder and then heat set them!

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

JanB.

Corrugated Berry Basket with Penguin Video

Hello, Crafters.

I've just uploaded my video showing how to make a really sturdy Berry Basket using our Corrugated Paper.

In this video, I also show how you can paint the White Corrugated Paper so you can have any colour you choose.

As much as I love the Berry Basket, I have always been disappointed that it was a bit on the flimsy side!

I've always been looking for ways to make them more sturdy......now I've found it!

This is the video link: Corrugated Berry Basket with Penguin

There are two more items for these baskets you may be interested in.

First of all, is my storage idea with the Colour Caddy (page 136 in annual catalogue).

I couldn't get it into camera shot so I'm sharing the photographs here.

I use my Colour Caddy for my overflow ink pads which are largely the old style pads.

When the new ink pads were brought out I slowly, slowly changed over to them but still kept the old ones.

Anyway, I digress!

On the top of the Colour Caddy is a tray of four sections which are designed to hold the Ink Refill bottles............the Berry Baskets fit into these sections brilliantly.

At the end of the video I show a Corrugated White Berry Basket, which looks really lovely.

One part of the Berry Basket I was concerned about was the score line on the handle.

On one of the baskets the handle started to fold on the crease.

Unfortunately, I was off camera when I found a solution for this!

I took the other straight piece of Corrugated Kraft I had from die cutting two sets and cut off about 1.5".

I applied Tombow Glue on the corrugated side of the strip and adhered it underneath the score line on the handle.

This sorted out the problem brilliantly. I now have some beautifully sturdy Berry Baskets!

I'm not planning to do a proper challenge this week, except I'm challenging myself to post a new project each day!

I'm not sure if this is going to be as easy as it sounds though! We'll see!

Do you make New Year's Resolutions? I do and I've started my list.

It won't contain anything like must lose weight, must go the gym, etc., because I made those years ago and now they're a way of life for me.

One area I know I need to improve in, is my time management skills as I mentioned here recently.

I will reveal my list on New Year's Eve. Will you share yours?

I wish you all happy Sunday and until tomorrow, happy crafting. 

JanB.

Corrugated Paper Challenge No 1

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.

Yesterday's Craft Day

Hello, Crafters.

I hope you've had a fabulous weekend.

I had a brilliant time yesterday at Natalie's Craft Day. I call it that but it was actually organised by three demos; as well as Natalie there was Gill Moore and Cary Buckham. The day was split into three 2-hour classes with lunch after the first one. Part of my reason for wanting to attend an event that was aimed at customers, rather than demos, was to see how a craft day is organised with a view to me offering it to my customers. After seeing how much work the three of them put into the day, I know that there is no way I could offer three 2-hour classes in a day on my own! I think I would offer two 2.5 hour classes with lunch in between.

Now the fun part! Gill took the first class and we were given everything we needed to make three super Christmas cards that you'd make for those special people in your life. We were also given brief instructions on how to make the cards with all three demos on hand to help out and offer advice. For my craft day, I would supply instruction sheets in the same format as supply for my monthly classes. They're  step-by-step so that the projects are easy to replicate when the attendees are at home. I didn't complete any of my cards during this class! I chose what I thought would be the hardest one, a stunning peek-a-boo card - unfortunately, I was right. I should have moved onto the next card but I was chatting - as one does! - to the lady sitting next to me, Lesley. She completed the second card, which was also stunning, but found the final step a bit tricky. Gill helped her and the card looked fabulous! Lesley is keeping her card as a template so she can replicate it again at home. She very kindly let me draw the template in my notebook so I would also be able to do it at home.  By this time, I knew I wouldn't have time to complete a card before the two hours were up, so I decided to tidy up my work area ready for the next class.

There was a wonderful lunch laid on including home-made soup, sandwiches, nibbles and far too many cakes - means I gave into temptation big time! Thank you Natalie, Gill and Cary - you really excelled yourselves! ☺

Today's photographs are the cards I made from Cary's class. They were designed as Christmas cards and made using Whisper White and Crumb Cake Note Cards. Personally I don't send Christmas cards any smaller than A6 but love this size for thank you cards, so I changed the sentiment. We were given packs with all the card stock cut-to-size, so all we had to do was the stamping and assembling everything. I made five during the class but omitted the sentiments so I could add them later at home. I finished all ten cards before bed time last night!

The final session was making ten gift tags, a square pillow box, as well as decorating two bags- one vellum and one craft stock. I made four and bought the rest home to finish off.

Before we started the third class we had a raffle and I was thrilled to win one of the prizes. I was even more thrilled when I found it was a pack of our corrugated paper and a roll of burlap, neither of which I have in my stash! Having used the corrugated paper in the second class, I absolutely love it! It's quite fine and no where near as thick as I had imagined it to be.

The last two photographs show better detail of two of the cards that used the corrugated Card Stock.

 Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Sympathy Card Video & Craft Day Today

Hello, Crafters.

I hope you're enjoying a good crafting weekend.

I've just uploaded the video which shows how I made the sympathy card for my aunt who passed away a couple of weeks ago. I've called it: Vellum Sympathy Card. I posted the original photographs on Thursday 19th November 2015.

Today's photographs show two more cards I've made with slight changes.  The first two photographs show that I have drawn the centres of the white flowers, using a white gel pen.

The third photograph shows solid circles which is how I did the original card. Also on the third card, you can see I did some shading on the flower. Not really necessary but just something different. I did it by colouring the flower as described on the video. After it had dried I went back and coloured around all the petal lines to make those parts darker.

I think it worked well but I like the non-shaded card just as much. What do you think?

Today I'm off to Maidenbower for a craft day organised by Natalie - SIX hours of interrupted card making! Sunday isn't the best day for me but it suits so many others that I can work around it.

Since I posted the photographs of Snow Place project no. 5 - the characters with night lights - I've had a few more ideas that I'll include in the video, which I'm planning to make tomorrow and post on Wednesday.

Yesterday I started making two easel cards as special orders. The first one is in So Saffron and it's for a wedding. The second one is in Watermelon Wonder and is for a birthday. After that I have just one more special order and that should be it for me for this year.
 
I wish you all a happy Sunday. Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Snow Place No. 5

Hello Crafters.

Hubby's just gone for his first physio treatment since his car accident two weeks ago.

Unfortunately, he's been getting pains in his neck, shoulder and down the outside of his left leg!

Tomorrow I'm off to Natalie's Craft Day in Maidenbower.

As well as Natalie's two hour session, there will be two more, two hour sessions run by two other demos from outrteam.

I'm always happy to learn new card making skills that I can share with you all and I'm also keen to see how an event like this is organised and run, so I can do the same locally.

Today I have something a little different for project no. 5!

Obviously my photographs are dark because I wanted to show the characters with the lights on!

I started with four ordinary battery-operated tealights.

Using the Red Glimmer Paper I punched out four 1 1/2" circles and punched a 1/4" circle in the centre of each.

I really needed a 3/8" punch - I'd tried the 1/2" punch but it was too big.

To remedy this, I used my wonderfully sharp Paper Snips and cut 4 slits around the inside of the punched hole at the north, south, east and west points.

This allowed me to give the Red Glimmer circles a bit of a push to get over the bulbs - I'm now on a mission to find a 3/8" punch!

I don't know if you can see from the photographs but I tore the button snowman's tummy and had to adhere it together again with tape.

This happened because either, I didn't cut the slits long enough or, I didn't spread them evenly around the punched hole.

I used the Whisper White A4 Thick Card Stock for my characters and made them the same way I have been doing all week.

I have to admit, I'm getting a bit cheesed off with all the fussy cutting in the absence of the dies!

I decided to use the Tree Builder punch for the snowman's arms, which excused me from fussy cutting four arms! LOL!

Because of the position of the tie and the scarf in relation to the light bulb, I had to trim them both.

The tie looks a bit silly if you actually look at it properly but I don't think it really notices in a general overall look...............does it??

I shortened both ends of the scarf as well as the thickness of the tail but I just about managed to get it to fit.

I used my marker pens to paint the holly and berries stamp for the image on the snowman's top hat.

When deciding where to place my characters on my tealights, I stood the tealights on their sides and allowed them to roll till they stopped. I assumed the position they settled in was with the heaviest part and that's where I placed the character's "feet".

As always, I don't know what next week's challenge will be yet but I'll definitely will be doing one. In the meantime, I hope you have a great weekend. Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Snow Place No. 4

Hello, Crafters.

I had a very successful day at the Christmas Shopping Event at the Pavilion Café yesterday afternoon/evening - in more ways than one!

There were two ladies selling clothes................ whilst it was easy to resist the sweet stall and the cake stall, the temptation was just too great!

So I gave in and now have a second outfit ready for Christmas! The first outfit I bought when we went to Brussels for the Convention a couple of weeks ago!

The best-sellers for me at the fair yesterday were the Curvy Keepsake Boxes - I had some as Father Christmas's, penguins, vellum - with and without nightlights - and snowmen. I sold out of the Chocolate Pull-up Boxes - wish I'd made lots more!

There were two visitors who were very interested in my card making lessons, and I was very surprised when another stall holder approached me about them as well. Lesson learned there!
In future, I'll speak to other stall holders - maybe they'd like to learn how to make boxes for their own products! I won't know unless I ask! ☺ 

Today's card uses all three characters from the Snow Place Stamp Set as well as all the wearable adornments. I've made the snowmen as mummy, daddy and baby with the penguins as three friends! LOL!!

I started with a card base of Whisper White Card Stock with a layer of Pool Party and a top layer of Whisper White.

I punched out six Pool Party squares using the retired 1 3/8" square punch and also six Whisper White squares using the retired 1 1/4" square punch. As you can tell, I keep all basic shape punches, like squares, circles, triangles, etc., when they retire!

Using our Basic Black Archival ink I stamped the daddy snowman with his head coming close to the top of the square and the mummy quite a bit lower down. I stamped the baby at an angle because I knew I wanted him on the bottom row looking upwards.

I stamped three penguins one upright, one leaning to left and one leaning to the right. It took a little while for me to decide on positioning of the characters and which adornment each was going to have.

I used my Pumpkin Pie Marker Pen for the beaks and carrots. 

The adornments were all stamped with Pool Party Ink and then fussy cut - I really do recommend you buy the dies when you buy this stamp set! LOL! In case you're not aware, this set is being carried over when the Christmas catalogue ends on 5th January 2016. 

I adhered all the ornaments using my Two Way Glue Pen, which I also used for the Dazzling Diamonds I added to the shaded areas on the bodies.

I stamped the sentiment onto Whisper White Card Stock and layered it onto Pool Party, then adhered to card with Dimensionals.

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

JanB.