Finally some sunshine

After two wet and rainy days, the sun has  finally made an appearance, just in time for us to go home. We have had a great time though, The Deep in Hull was amazing and so was the country park we found by accident at the Humber bridge.

Craft wise I've been up to nothing. But I'm looking forward to getting back to my laptop and a fast internet connection to check out the retired list and the new Stampin' Up catalogue.

Choosing new rafting goodies is always fun!

Jen. X

5 on the 25th

The 25th has been and gone, but I did make my cards, I'm just a day late blogging about them.

It may be quite odd for a paper crafter to dislike cutting out but I do. Some of my paper crafting friends love to sit in front of the television with a bit of 'fussy' cutting, but I can think of nothing worse! That could be why I love punches so much. Especially when Stampin' Up do so many punches that coordinate with their stamped images. That makes me a happy bunny. :-)

However, to make this month's 5 Christmas cards, I've used the punches alone. Using punched shapes to make pictures, known as punch art is quite new to me. The possibilities are quite endless, limited only but one's imagination and some very clever crafters out there have created some lovely ideas, one of which I have CASEd (copied and shared).

The adorable Santa is made from just a few punched out shapes. The only cutting out I had to do was Santa's nose (I just about managed that) because I have no half inch circle punch, but it is now top of my wish list!

I'll just run though how he is made, most is pretty obvious but I'll explain anyway:

Large scalloped circle is his hair/beard.

Pink oval and pink circle for his face an nose.

The bird wing from the bird builder punch for his moustache.

The hat is an oval with a notch cut out, I used the wing tip of the elegant butterfly punch.

Fur trim on his had was from the smaller scalloped circle punch.

And finally his bobble is a six petal flower punch.

I think it is all really effective. And my stash of Chirstmas cards is really quite impressive now, I do hope this means I will have a little more time before Chirstmas to make something more interesting, I may even have time to finish my wooden Noël for the mantel piece this year!

Thanks for looking

Jen. X

Card night tonight!

I'm spending the day prepping for a card workshop this evening. We are creating three cards, two of which are male themed in readiness for Fathers' Day. As always I like to make just a little treat for my ladies and that is what I have just finished. So after a browse of Pinterest I found a really cute little box that I can stuff with chocolate.

Do you remember these shaped boxes. They used to come with a frozen iced lolly in. I loved them. The shape is just so appealing to me. I was  amazed how quick and easy they were to make.

I made a tube, stapled one end flat, filled the pouch, and then stapled the other end at right angles to the first. I trimmed the excess with pinking shears, that just finished it off nicely.  The little tag was made from Stampin' Up's 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" scalloped circle punch, the stamps were from the Sweetly Framed set and the paper was a Doodlebug Designs sheet.

I shall certainly remember this little treat box as it was super quick and easy. Hopefully my ladies will enjoy them tonight!

Jen. X

Stampin' up Saturday.

On Saturday I enjoyed a very nice day out at the International Centre in Telford for a Stampin' Up regional event. I really didn't know what to expect but I'm always up for a day's craftiness! The day, as it turned out, was very informative, with information about upcoming products from the new catalogue, ideas for running your Stampin' up business and a quite inspirational presentation by Brian Pilling which, for me, helped to me understand about my barriers to getting stuff done!

One big part of the day was the swapping. The idea is to make a number of  stamped items, all the same or similar and then swap them with the other demonstrators. That way you come home with a bag full of inspiration. I have some beautiful items which have given me great ideas for future projects.

One of the tasks before the day was make a name badge. I love this sort of thing. So here is mine, a purple (of course) flower made from the blossom punch in perfect plum card. The background is the hardwood stamp. I love it and it is hanging up on my new Stampin' up lanyard making me smile!

I've been enjoying the evening visiting the blogs of ladies I swapped with and seeing the amazing work on their sites. So please if I've been to your blog and you're now checking mine please leave a comment and say hello!

Jen. x

Stamp positioning.

Hello. Today I've been experimenting with a stamp positioner. I have seen these around in the past but never really understood their purpose. But now I'm doing more stamping and especially two-step stamping with some of the lovely Stampin' Up sets, I can really see the benefit.

If you look carefully at the two picture above, you will see that in the first there is an overlap of the stem and the flower. Whilst this is not major, it irritates me and detracts from the over all effect.In the second picture, the image stamped using the stamp positioner, you can see there is no overlap and the over all effect is far more pleasing.

Now, you can buy a stamp positioner, Woodware do an acrylic one and Stampin' Up sell the Stamp-a-ma-jig. (I think I will invest in one in the future.) For a quick fix I found a Youtube video that explained how to make your own. And as it is made from 5 duplo blocks, I had the materials to hand.

So I started by stamping the stem onto my cardstock.

Then I stamped the flower head on to the acetate which was butted up to the duplo blocks. Making sure the acrylic block with the stamp attached was also butted up to the blocks.

 Then you position the image that is on the acetate exactly where you want it to be on your cardstock

 Then position your blocks around the acetate, being careful not to move it. Then slide the acetate away and stamp once more with the stamp directly onto the cardstock. Then you should have a perfectly positioned image.

Once I practised, I got quite quick and proficient at it and have made a couple of cards using this tool and technique. I like it because it now, I can decide where images will go with precision instead of the fingers crossed it goes where it should that used to happen!

Here are a couple of cards made by using the positioner. The stamp set used for both cards is Sweet Summer.

Thanks for looking,

Jen. X

The 25th again.

It is. It came round quickly this time. I managed to find time to make my five Christmas cards yesterday, whilst both girls were at school/pre-school.

I had a quick look on Pinterest and found a nice design to pay tribute to! (I now can't find the pin I saw, if I find it I'll come back and put a link to it.)

I dug out my Christmas patterned paper and cut the strips. I use the Stampin' Up envelope punch board to cut the v in the strips to mimic ribbons. The greeting is an old stamp that lurks in the Christmas box. I decided to heat emboss the greeting. I haven't heat embossed anything for a while. I had forgotten how satisfying it can be, I really enjoyed that and will make a point of doing more in the near future.

 

I'm pleased with the finished cards, and I'm chuffed how my stash of Christmas cards is growing already!

Jen. X

New home card.

Well, I have created this afternoon. A good friend has just moved into a new home so this is the card for her. 

I used the Stampin' Up sweetly framed stamp set. It is a really cute set which does for several occasions. I also have the matching label punch which, I think, finished it off nicely. I then made a matching envelope using the envelope punch board and stamped a row of cute little house across the bottom to match.

Here's the finished card and the kit I used to made it.