Cards from December '13 Art of Craft demo

                      I promised you a step by step blog of the 'Roaring Twenties Easel card and others.
                                                                         see below.

 

First take a blank 8 x8 card and fold into an easel card by folding

the front in half as shown below

                  Then stick a strip of black card at the base of the unfolded piece, as below

Choose some pretty background paper from the Papermania, Art Deco, roaring twenties pack
gorgeous foiled papers, see below photo of the pack

Stick chosen paper on the base above the black strip, see photo below

                                         Then on the folded front piece of card mat black card
                                                      as below

The photo below is showing the velvet ribbon i used on the base, over the black strip , wind around the card and stick down at front with sellotape.
and the sellotape  wont be shown , we will add a die cut topper to cover this

 

die cut some ovals, as shown, this is for the 'stopper' for the easel, use the
smaller blue one and the black one the larger blue oval is for the topper on the front of card.
 use foam tape to 3d this as the card needs some kind of raised element to make
 the card stay in the easel position.

 above left, i have added a sentiment ' Celebrate' from
                                          the topper pack below

 

Mat & layer some more of the foiled paper and mat over the black front of card as

shown below

die cut some more pieces to use as the front element.

these are the dies and papers i used below. 

the oval , you will have already, just use the large blue one

                                       cut the die below in silver and some foiled backing paper too
                                                

                                                  cut the heart die with some of the foiled paper

one of the oblong dies i cut in half to make the topper, 

this was then stuck behind the silver die cut of the same shape

The topper is put together with those elements and placed on the front of the card as the photo below shows

maybe add a feather or two for a little pizzazz ! always make sure they are not too high, as it wont fit into
the envelope when placed flat .

*************************************************************************
The card below is a DL (tall card) i matted some purple card behind and stamped the lovely lady
in black die ink, coloured in with Artiste pens, the borders are also to be found on the same
stamp, very versatile.On this same stamp is a cocktail glass and a sentiment saying, 'To someone special'
which i have used on the forever friends card which follows this one.

***********************************************************************

This card below was a fast card made with the very versatile forever friends 6 x 6 pack

 Kraft notes design stack , it has double sided papers & pages of labels, toppers too.
great for last minute cards.

       ************************************************************************          

                                  Finally a photo below of a cute Country Companions  topper, decoupaged

                       and used for a christmas card, I cut the bunting (flags ) with the build a scene die 'tea party'
                                        for the bunting using the Kraft notes papers ( as the previous card )
                                                            for this and also for  the backing paper.

Christmas scrapbook page

I created this page today with Do Crafts 'First Noel' Christmas papers 12 x 12 pack.

The page I chose already had the poinsetta border and was calling out to be used for a scrapbook page

As you can see below, i cut out the poinsettia corner piece from another page & decoupaged

it on top. Plenty left over to use for a card too :-)

Then using a quickie glue pen and DoCrafts glitter, i sparkled up the poinsettia and berries etc

I used some lovely velum, ripped to soften edges, under that went another paper from the same First Noel
pack, tartan red ! 
the photo was put on top and all was popped under the poinsettia decoupage and stuck down. The topper is from the First Noel range, i wrapped bakers twine around it and glittered it before sticking down.
I also made a circle of bakers twine, using a small circle of card, sticking the wound twine circle to this, adding a pretty red button to the top.
 finally finished with lovely red adhesive stones to accentuate the Christmas trees on the vellum
the vellum used is below

Crafting at the john Lewis conference at odney in Cookham.

I lived in Cookham for many years , so when I was asked to go with national accounts Nikki Holt, I Jumped at the chance.
 I was also pleased to be able to try the new xcut A4 die cutting & embossing machine.
 The theme was Christmas for the conference and it was stunning, beautiful setting with real snow !!! Here are some photo's

 Above is me, trying to look like i am doing something ! Below is the lovely Nikky who doesn't need to do anything to look great !!

Build a scene die - balloon card

This card is using the balloon - build a scene die from DoCrafts.
its a very versitile die as a lot of the elements can be used separately  as this one is.

i have used an A6 white card  turned around so it opens at the bottom ( Tent style )
covered the front in DoCrafts vintage notes backing paper, then i found a nice sentiment
(special Day) also from the vintage notes range, and have matted it onto some black card and
cut out, this is stuck onto the front of the card - right hand side.
then i have used the big balloon die and cut it out in my choice of colours layering and sticking all the
pieces together to get the result seen here, stick this to the left hand side of the card as shown.
i added lavender ribbon and some adhesive stars to finish off.
this card would be nice for someone who had good results in a test or a new job, you could put a 'High Flyer' sentiment instead of the special day one,

This card has the small balloon on the top right of the photo.

for this card the square 8 x8 card is covered with a page from the DoCrafts Cronology range
and i have added the london 'Build a Scene die'

 Here - below i have added some cards made with vintage range and cronology range,
this I love you card uses a heart die - cut out with the Xpress machine and edges inked

this card is using lots of different techniques and elements

from the cronology range.

There are die cut stickers. metal embelishments 

die cut flowers and the pale blue paper has been embossed with the

coggs embossing folder

 This card below is using a stepper card with die cut stickers

 this one is a nice easy card made with cronology 12 x 12 paper, cutting out the balloon from the paper
and adding red in to the edges of the balloon and also the High Flyer sentiment before sticking to the backing paper of cogs