Julie: Light,lacy,stencilled and spritzed!

Hello there.

How's things in your corner of the crafting world? Have you got any holidays planned?

As I'm off on a little city-break soon, I thought I'd get on with scrapping some photos of my last trip ... they won't stand much of a chance once I have some fresh new photos to work with! So I set to work with a few things from 3DJean:

.... to create a page documenting some of the beautiful lacy effects we spotted in the V&A Museum London: To mirror the laciness of the photos I layered up two paper doilies, one red and heart shaped and the other [one of these ] which I sprayed blue using a Vibez spray ink.
The photo below shows how I used another heart-shaped doily behind my title, only this time U used it as a stencil. I spritzed ink through it to create my own soft, subtle lacy effect:I experimented with another texturing technique too, this time adding interest to the plain card alphas I used for my title:

• First I painted quite a rough, thick layer of Shimmerz Pearlz [I used 'Grey Flannel'] across the lettering;
• When it was almost dry I spritzed it lightly with a spray ink;
• Then, using a scrunched-up sheet of kitchen-roll I pressed directly on top of the ink I'd just sprayed then quickly lifted the paper off.
• This action removed most of the ink and also took away spots of the paint - leaving behind a soft, dappled, marbling effect .... for very little skill!:

Another main feature I wanted to add was the clusters of Dew Drop gems scattered across the page. Because there are so many Dew Drops in the jars I could carry on adding more and more until they made a real impact ... and I've still got lots left over!

Lastly, I dotted around a few ArtChix collage images here and there, can you spot them hiding amid all of that laciness?I hope you've enjoyed this whistle-stop tour around my lacy page, if you try any of the techniques I've used remember to give me a shout, it'll be lovely to see.

I'd better go and get on with all my important holiday planning ... like working out which shoes to take and how many dresses I'll need for 5 days away ... oh and not forgetting planning what I'm going to do with all the photos I'll be taking while I'm away!

I'll be back very soon, but in the meantime, pop over to my 'notes on paper' blog where today I'm sharing a few more ideas using items if ephemera from 3DJean.

Hopefully I'll see you there ... I'll just run on ahead of you and do a quick tidy round .....

Julie :)

The Finger is Back!

A quick post.... those fingers are back!... a few note cards.... I don't think they need much explination. You can find the stamps here and the paper here.

Add any small butterfly or insect stamp! If you haven't got the right sentiment... print it out on your computor and cut out the individual letters!
Hope you like it
Effie
XXX

All Sorted!

You can never have enough rubber stamps........
I love this French Flea Market set from Purple Onion, perfect for making vintage labels to transform your everyday glass jars!
Just stamp onto scraps of paper...I used scraps of Basic Grey Koshi and a brown pigment inkpad to distress the edges.

Just how cute is that small pin stamp! I love the way it looks like it's through the paper!

There's a few more ideas in the pipeline for this set so keep looking!

Hope you like it!

Effie

XXX

Speedy, Quick and Easy ...

Hello, today I want to share a couple of cards for those moments in life when you realise you have less than 20 minutes to make a card for someone because you forgot all about it. I can't possibly be the only one who has those 'panic panic, what will I do?' moments. No? I didn't think so :)

The first card is super simple to make. Everything I used came from Jean apart from the pens and border punch. Have a dig around in your scrap box (or like me use a couple of brand new sheets of paper) and select a couple of coordinating patterns. Trim paper to fit a blank card, cut a paper doilie in half and glue onto both sides of the papers, attach to the card with dimensional foam pads. Cut a strip of paper and add a decorative edge with dies, punches or something frilly, add this to the card with dimensionals. Stamp the doodled frame, cut out and colour with a marker, use a fine tip pen in a coordinating colour to fill in the spaces in the doodled lines. Stamp a greeting onto the frame, add a couple of pretty dewdrops, attach with foam pads and your card is done.  Time taken - 15 minutes!!

I used:

DeLovely 6x6 paper pad

Small paper doilie

Doodle frame stamp

Happy Birthday stamp (may be out of stock)

Dewdrops

My second card is just as quick. On your computer print a sentiment close to the bottom of the paper, trim to fit a coloured cardblank, adhere and attach a few sparkly gemstones. Use the Doodled Heart stamps to stamp a pattern block in coordinating ink, add glitter to some of the hearts and trim. Mat onto coordinating card and add a frilly border to each long side with a die, punch etc. Tie a matching ribbon around the pattern block and attach to the card with foam dimensional pads.  Tada! one finished card in no time at all :)  This card made, written and on it's way to the post office within 20 minutes. It was only after I popped it in the post box that I realised I hadn't taken it's photograph so I had to ring the recipient and ask them for it back!!

I used:

Doodle Heart Set stamp (I think it was probably designed to cut into seperate stamps

but I love using it as a large block so have kept mine in one piece)

Kaiser Rhinestones in Hot Pink (gorgeous!!)

I Dont Only Bake

No sometimes I actually craft and to prove it here are 2 cards I made with the lovely Lost Coast Design stamps from the Mother Goose range.

For a change I have stamped the image in a lovely pastel pink. If you know my style you will definately realise that pastle pink it not my normal stamping colour choice. But sometimes it's good to work with something realy different.

More Pointy Fingers.........

I still love these stamps..............and there's more ideas to come!

I wanted to make something to display all those ATCs that were stashed away in plastic folders so this is what I came up with..

You will need..

Small pegs... mine were about 2.5cm, scraps of patterned paper and some twine.

Stamp a medium size hand onto your scraps and cut out.

Thread the twine through the spring of the peg, secure on each side with a knot... do this one peg at a time... space your pegs approx 10cm appart

Glue your stamped hands onto the pegs.......

Hang your ATCs!

Hope you like it!

Effie

XXX

It's Rude to Point!

I just love this set of stamps from Purple Onion Designs.... I have lots of ideas.. but here's one of them! You'll need a piece of florists wire, a peg and a square block of wood and patterned paper, Basic Grey Basics

Take the peg appart... Twist the wire through the spring of the peg. Stamp your pionty finger and glue to a scrap of chipboard, cut out. Cut a small circle of chipboard and cover with paper, stamp a design on...one of the Purple Onion date stamps would be perfect...................wish I'd thought of that before!
Drill a small hole in the block of wood. Cover the block with paper. Reassemble the peg

Glue the finger and the circle to the peg, glue the wire in the wooden block.... use Diamond Glaze or similar. Cute!

Hope you like it

Effie

XXX

Food or more to the point CAKE

These two cakes I make a lot they are quick and simple and there is no weighing. I found the recipe about 25 years ago and have used it quite a lot. You will need a yogurt pot.They cook in a 2lb loaf tin for 45mins - 1hour on gas mark 4,350f,1800c.
Here is the basic cake mix
1/2 packet butter
2 pots SR flour
1 pot caster sugar
2 eggs
4 tablespoons milk
Beat all the ingredience together until smooth.

Then for this CITRUS one just add
1/2 orange grated rind and juice
1/2 lemon grated rind and juice


And for the CHOC-BANANA one just add
1/2 pot grated dark choclate
1 banana mashed


And they need an icing , so for the CITRUS
2 pots icing sugar , grate in the rest of teh orange and lemon rind , combine the rest of the juices from both and add a few drops at a rime to the icing until it will be able to spread on the cooled cake.

CHOCO-BANNANA icing
1 pot dark chocolate melted with 1/8 packet of butter in a bowl over hot water , once melted add in 1/2 pot icing sugar. Decorate top of cake.

Ther are another 2 flavours for this basic cake and they are.

RUM N RAISIN
add to the mix
2 pots raisins
2 tablespoons dark rum
just before putting in the oven sprinkle over 2 tablespoons demerara sugar and 2 tablespoons flaked almonds.

TUTTI-FRITTI
For this one you need to put 1 x 340g tin pineapple slices drained and chopped in the bottom of the cake tin along with 1 pot glace cherries chopped in half and 2 pieces of stem ginger cut into small pieces. Now pour in the basic cake mix and cook.

And the answer is yes I have tried these 2 versions as well and they too are VERY nice

enjoy
jean x

ps if you dont have a spare yogurt pot just measure out 100g for every pot

Jan: When you need a quick fix......

I bet you've all been my situation this week, when you've known for ages that a card or in this case a tag needed to be done but you kept putting it aside thinking there's plenty of time. This happened to me. I know that at our monthly glue and stick group we are doing a tag swap this year, based on the months of the year. So seeing as though there are 31 days in May(and this month our group was meeting a week later, so technically June IYKWIM) you would think I would have plenty of time. No if you check the date and time on my overexposed photo you will see I had exactly 18 minutes to go! Talk about working to deadlines.

When I'm in a rush Webster's papers are a Godsend. They are so pretty and never fail to inspire me. They just need a few bits and pieces and they're done. Here I've stamped a few words, added a punched butterfly, some lace and a final spray of those gorgeous, gorgeous Shimmerz spritz (cotton candy) which gives a glorious twinkly finish to the tag. Not sure my photo does it justice.

It's raining here today so why not cheer yourself up and pop over to the shop and get yourself some pretty things to play with, remember that deadline is never far away!

Julie: Cheery Artchix cards

Hi everyone.

As I am sitting here writing this the weather is somewhat grey, dull and drab so I hope that by the time you read it the sun's shining on you like it was when I made this a set of everyday, all occasion, bright and cheery greetings cards:All of the cards feature Artchix collage elements and my latest favourite Catslife Press greeting stamp - 'Enjoy Today' [which I also used on this layout last month]. It's such a versatile greeting it can be used on cards for lots of occasions such as birthdays, weddings, Mohter's / Father's day, to a simple good luck or 'just because' message:

I added this cheery sentiment on to cards which I'd layered with bright Basic Grey 'JuneBug' papers, pretty doilies [available in the shop here] and Sassafras sticker borders [now out of stock]:

If you're not entitrely 'into' glittery embellishments then these Dew Drops gems add a pretty twinkly/glassy accents which catch all that lovely sunlight [finger's crossed] but without the bling!

The lighthearted and whimsical Artchix collage images bring a small but useful focal point to the card while picking out the key colours in my patterned papers:

Finally, for this card I coloured one of my doilies and spritzed my card with a Vibez spray ink:

It's only been during the last month or two that I've got back into making greetings cards again after a few years of onlydabbling and now I can't seem to stop! I'm really enjoying how a few simple ingredients: paper; a focal image plus a stamp can work together to form a completely finished item!

If you'd like to see some more of the cards I've been making using this new-found enthusiasm plus 3dJean products then drop by this post my notes on paper blog today where I'll be sharing some retro children's comic flavoured greetings cards. I'll have the kettle on ready for you ....

Thanks for reading today, I hope you feel motivated to make some cards in the sunshine too.

Julie :)

Man Cards ...

I don't know about you but I often struggle with making cards for men.  Little boy cards are fine, teenagers and even young men I can cope with but when they get a bit older - like Dad age - I suddenly find myself in the realms of those awful cards that your Aunty Gladys sends to your Dad with pints of beer, footballers and sailing boats on the front - I'm sure you know the kind I mean.  When I look at my small amount *ahem* considerable okay them ever increasing :) stash I see flowers, pretty colours, glitter, sparkle and in general lots of feminine embellishments and papers so perhaps this is why I struggle with male cards.

So, I set myself a challenge to make some cards for men and off I went to rummage through the shelves of Jean's shop. It didn't take me long - in fact I just clicked on the New Products link - to find some really lovely papers and stamps that I thought might make some nice cards and this is what I did.

My card

I used the Music Background stamp to create my own background paper and stamped in brown ink onto kraft cardstock, then cut it out, layered onto black card and stitched around the edge with my sewing machine. Then I used foam dimensional pads to adhere it onto a white folded cardblank

I loved this black and cream spotted paper from the October Afternoon Thrift Shop paper pad so trimmed a smaller piece, layered onto more black card and stitched around the edge. I used a Making Memories slot punch to create a hole, threaded the ribbon through (who said male cards can't have ribbon?) and tied it in a knot

After using foam pads again to adhere the panel I then created a greeting with the Birthday Wishes sentiment stamp, trimmed and then layered onto the scraps of black cardstock

As a final touch - and because a card just isn't a card without some glitter and sparkle! - I added 3 black Kaisercraft rhinestones to balance the design

I hope you're feeling inspired to make those men in your life some of their own cards, love Andrea x

Party girl!

It's no secret that I love Zettiology stamps........ this one is one of my favourites

Here she is just stamped onto patterned paper.. ( quicker than colouring in!) and used for a party invitation, name place settings and a menu!

Plain and simple but I think effective!

Party time!

Hope you like it

Effie

XXX

A Touch Of Sparkle ...

As anyone who has read my previous posts will tell you I love glitter and sparkle and it just happens that Jean carries a whole range of products that help me maintain my glittery and sparkly reputation.  Today I want to share with you a little wall hanging project I made

First I stamped this beautiful Lost Coast image and coloured it with my markers

I then stamped another image, cut out the letter 'r', covered it with shimmerz paint and then layered it over the top of the original stamp. Set that aside to dry

Next I took a chipboard minibook that I've had in my drawer for a while in the shape of a postage stamp. The front cover had an inset panel that I removed and I used this as a templete to cut out a panel in another piece using a craft knife. I painted all the pieces with regular scrapbook paint

When it had dried I painted a combination of Shimmerz paints and Pixie Dust Blingz paint all over the front panel and when that dried I used a baby wipe to sponge another layer of Blingz.

I then stacked the three layers of chipboard together to make a sturdy frame, trimmed the stamped image to fit and because it was a slightly different shape to the inset panel I added some strips of patterned paper.  Then I added a row of the dewdrop glass embellishments all around the frame, added a couple of the Kaiser rhinestones to the bottom corner and made a hanging loop with wire and some beads I had in my craft cupboard