Merry Christmas!

Okay, so I know I'm late & haven't blogged for aaaaagggggeeessss! but as all crafters I left everything until the last minute, ran round like a blue &*!@ fly and still managed to pull off a wonderful Christmas (even if I do say so myself).

I did, however have to clear away my craft area so that we could eat Christmas lunch as my craft desk doubles as our dining table (but only for very special occasions).  My craft stuff is now back out and I'm going to try and make a start and get ahead for next year as I think it's going to be a very busy one!

This first card was made using Sara's Signature range 'Festive Wonder', and as a huge fan of Christmas I'm sooo in love with this range I cannot begin to tell you!  The card base is made with Centura Pearl which has been cut down to create a tent fold 6x6 card (not truly 6x6 but 14.8 cm x 14.8 cm), I then marked the centre of the card and used a circle cutter to cut a 4 inch circle from the middle of the card, this was then embossed using the Festive Frame.  I cut two of the Festive flakes and glued them back to back with a bit of silver thread and hung this from the middle of the frame, I die cut a whole load of the festive trio dies from Centura Pearl hint of Silver (I used this throughout the card) and dotted these over the front of the frame putting gems in the centre of each.  Oh, you can't see it very well, but I stamped a whole flurry of snowflakes on the inside of the card and heat embossed these with Wow embossing powder in 'sparkling snow'.  I stamped a sentiment on the back and then turned the card into a tunnel card by using a spare piece of card at the bottom so that the card is self standing (picture will show you better than I can explain).

Having completed this card, I had a circle of centura pearl with a snowflake shape cut out of it and decided that this needed to be turned into a card (well, waste not want not as my mum used to say!).

I took a 7x7 card base and layered up core'dinations with paper from the 6x6 Festive Wonder pad and also used another sheet to back my snowflake cut out, I cut a larger piece of green to back the snowflake onto and so this now looked like a bauble.  I put a ribbon bow at the top, bit of matting and layering, some pearls and gems and the card was born.  The stunning poinsettia and foliage in the corner is also from the Festive Wonder range, in fact the only thing that isn't is the sentiment, which came from the Vintage Christmas Sentimentals 'home for christmas' range.

Well, I hope you like these cards, hopefully I'll be back with a couple of quick makes to show you which will hopefully get you out of a hole in the festive period!

Until then

TTFN

Rach

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When can I move in?

Okay so following on from the success of my halloween house, I have moved on to Christmas and wanted to create an elegant Christmas house for your mantel or table.

I used the Country Cottage template again, and you might recognise a whole load of other Crafters companion dies (I'll list them all at the bottom).  The house was made using Kraft card, which I stamped onto with snowflakes in a white ink (doesn't show very well but does add something to the finished effect), I also used the ink pad to swipe over all the edges of the house.  The door and window are backed with acetate, and what you cannot see is there is a door in the back of the house so that you can put battery powered tea lights, or a string of lights into the house (looks gorgeous with a string of battery powered lights inside - I got a string of 20 from Wilkos for £2.50).

What you can't see from the photos is that I glittered the edge of all the roof slats, the cotton wool has been sprayed with spray & sparkle irridescent, and the acetate icicles have also been sprayed with spray & sparkle - there is lots of sparkle to this house!

dies used:

Die'sire Icicles

Die'sire Wrought Iron

Die'sire Santa & Sleigh (sorry no link as I cannot see it on the website)

Die'sire Lamppost and sign (again no link as I cannot see it available at the moment)

Snowman & snowdog dies from the Crafters Inspiration Magazine No. 5

Sara's signature range - Festive Wonder, snowflake trio

Hope this provides you with some inspiration to create your own festive centrepieces.

TTFN

Rach

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Is it Christmas yet?

Well, I hope you've all been enjoying Crafters Companion Birthday week, there have been some incredible new products to keep you going.  I have my new sparkly scoremaster and the DVDs to get some more inspiration for future projects.

Sad tho it is I did not buy the new sparkly ultimate as I didn't want to seem disloyal to my faithful old friend that sits next to me at my crafting table and is used regularly to assist with my card making, my ultimate works and I love it!  That being said, if you don't already have one, this is the perfect time and you can bag yourself a gorgeous purple sparkly one to boot!

Anyway,  today's card was made using the freebies from the Crafters Inspiration 8 magazine, I just love those stamps of Sheena's and teamed up with a sparkly silver embossing powder, stunning! (and none of the detail of the stamp was lost).

I also used the embosallicious 'Let it Snow' folder, the die'sire scalloped tags, a bit of silver card, Centura pearl hint of silver, a ribbon (bow tied on the bowmaker of my ultimate) and you're done.  I think this card could be mass produced, changed up in little ways/colour changed, and you've sorted your Christmas cards!

Anyway, hope you have a great day & I'll be back soon.

TTFN

Rach

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Christine Haworth - Cinderella

Okay, so I know I'm behind as this has already been released, but it's never too late to share the stunning work of Christine Haworth, and how easy it is to turn the designs into beautiful cards, gifts and home decor.

This make is not a card, but a gift bag which I created using a couple of sheets of backing paper and one of the topper companions from the CD.  The joy of this bag is that you can really make it to whatever size you want/need for your gift.

Well, I hope you all got your copy of the CD's and are enjoying the wonderful images - let's see all your makes please!

TTFN

Rach

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Christine Haworth

Well, the time is here to show you what I've been working on, squirrelled away in my craft room.  On Wednesday on Create and Craft, Fiona is bringing you two wonderful CD's from Christine Haworth, together with some stunning stamps.

This card uses one of the frame card designs from the CD, together with a tag and some backing paper all made into a rather stuning side stepper card.  The embellishments are from the Die'sire wildflower trio (a huge favourite of mine!).

Well, I hope you'll be able to join Fiona on Create and Craft on Wednesday (tomorrow!) at 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.  Unfortunately, I'm working but I will have the Tivo all set to record so I can have a look back later at all the gorgeousness.

TTFN

Rach

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Halloween Haunted House

Well, as promised in my last post, I've been working using the same country cottage template from Crafters Companion to create a spooky Halloween house.

I used white A3 card for the main body of the house, cutting out the door & windows in an angular creepy looking way, and I used Spectrum Noir Pens (DR5, Black, EB3, CG3 and FL2) with my ebrush to give the house it's colour, I also sprayed the house with gold spray and sparkle (because you can never have too much glitter and I didn't want it to look too spooky).  The roof was made using Kraft card and I then cut out the tiles (part of the template) in Kraft and black, alternating to create more interest (well, I think it's interesting).

I cut out all of the embellishments on my scan n cut, using the scan feature to create the spiders webs on the side, I really love how this turned out, and I hope it inspires you to look at your templates in a different way & see if they can be used differently.

Well I hope you are all enjoying your Sunday.

TTFN

Rach

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Hello World

Cannot believe I keep leaving it so long between posts - I have been making loads of things recently (and buying with my birthday pennies), unfortunately I cannot share - yet!

But I've been looking back through my blog and realised there was a project I forgot to share when CC released their templates, and with Halloween fast approaching I thought I'd share this lovely project (well, I think it's lovely), which could easily be adapted into a scary Halloween Haunted House, in fact I might just have a go at that myself this weekend!

This was made using the Country Cottage Template, I didn't cut the windows that are templated as I wanted to change things up a bit and turn it into a garden shed.  My base card was Kraft card, which I then over stamped with a wood grain stamp in versamark and then clear embossed, gave a lovely wood grain effect to the base.  I used the Die'sire Icicles die to create the grass at the bottom (great versatility on that one!), the door was simply a piece of corrugated card on top of a larger piece of cream with a candi dot for the handle, a few embellishments and a sentiment and you're done.

I really do think this would create a great treat box for your Halloween candies, or even, with Christmas as the next holiday after that, you could have a fab time with the kids decorating it with sweets as a faux gingerbread house - once you get going the only limit is your imagination, so go have fun folks!

TTFN

Rach

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Downton Abbey

Okay, I've never watched Downton Abbey as I'm really not a fan of period dramas (except The Paradise, that was brilliant, but it got cancelled after just 2 series!).  Anyway, having said that I love card making and when I got a sneaky peek at this range from Crafters Companion at their 10th Birthday party in August I just loved it, it is very grown up and elegant and there is so much there for men you should not be lost for a male card again - ever!

Having seen the samples on the screens now, I can honestly say my fellow teamies have done the most amazing work, and I'd like to think I've contributed a little bit to that, so without further ado, here are my little contributions which were created as step by step instructions which will appear at some point on the Crafters Companion website.

With this project I wanted to show how well the collection would work with things that you may already have from CC, such as the gift bag template, this is such a fabulous size and with everything on the CD you can coordinate your gift packaging, card and anything else you fancy! (I used the downstairs CD (2) for this one)

This twisted easel was done to show off one of the gorgeous male elements that are available on the CDs and also makes use of the Regency Swirls embossing folder that you may already have, bit of gilding wax and your away! (I used the upstairs CD (1) for this card).

Anyway, I hope you've been enjoying the Downton Abbey collection on Create and Craft over the past few days and that your CD's, dies and embossing folders are winging their way to you!

TTFN

Rach

Just playing

Well, I've had a very busy week off work and spent some time with the most AMAZING people to celebrate the upcoming 10th Birthday of Crafters Companion, I say busy, but when you spend most of 2 days in a car driving, that kind of uses up your time & I also needed a day to recover!

Anyway, I'm back to it now and managed to get together with an old crafty buddy back in Plymouth, it was lovely to see Sharon & I hope we can get together more often now, it's been waaaay too long.  I even made a card!

I recently ordered the gilding waxes from Crafters Companion, and in order to make use of the discount code I had, I also ordered some embossing folders, which like any good crafter stayed in their packet being stroked and cooed at every time I went past.  Well, I finally got them out of their packets yesterday, labeled them up so I know which is which in future and decided to make a card using one of them.

This card uses the Wood Grain embossing folder, and I actually used the cardboard back of the packet as it has such a lovely colour to it.  I then used the Renaissance Gold gilding wax over the top and cut this into 6cm squares, I layered these up with Coredinations from the Neutrals set and cut out the leaves using the Diesire Wildflower Trio (again with card from the Neutrals set), the sentiment is from the Sentimentals Nature set which I stamped (memento Rich Cocoa) onto a frame cut using the Nouveaux Stamping Frame, which was inked using Brushed Corduroy distress ink.

Well, anyway hope you like it & hopefully I'll be back soon with more to show you - I have another Crafty buddy, Alison due over this afternoon so we'll see what else I can get made!

TTFN

Rach

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Where does the time go?

Wow! its been ages since my last post - sorry about that, before you know it it'll be time to start singing carols again.

Speaking of which, have you started making your Christmas cards yet?  I don't think I ever really stop, can't help it, Christmas is my favourite time of year, and Crafters Companion are releasing today a really fabulous and quirky CD from the fabulously talented Abigail Mills with a Christmas theme, it's called Romany Christmas and there are also four stamp sets with some amazing characters.

My make will actually be a tutorial on the website, so if you like the look of this one you should be able to re-create it (I will happily share how to do things if there is ever anything you want to know, just get in touch).

This is a waterfall card using a section from the CD called 'Blended Tags', there are some incredible images, which will make fabulous quick toppers for cards, or like here, you can use them in combination, the backing papers are to die for - oh who am I kidding! the whole CD is just outstanding (as always).

Anyway, hope you can tune in later to Fiona on Create and Craft (4 p.m.) for the One Day Wonder.

TTFN

Rach

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How to make a Trinket Box

Ever wondered how to put together one of the trinket boxes on the Crafters Companion CD's?  Well, I've put together a step by step for one of the ones on the new Nordic Christmas CD (they're just gorgeous!).

First, let's show you what you're going to make, here's the finished card:

Okay, so first you need to print all of the pages out (print two of the second page, it does tell you at the top of the page that you need two.

I start by making the drawers (these are labelled 'box base'), so cut these out and the wraps first, then score along all the lines using a scoreboard such as the ultimate pro and burnish all of the creases.

Drawers

Box wrap

Score on the lines

Score on the lines

 Next, snip along the solid lines on the drawers, and then glue the triangle tabs inside, this will form your drawers.

Sorry that the pictures are all over the place, hopefully you can see what was done....

Now you have your drawers, you need to make the wraps for them, so fold these up and glue along the small end and adhere this inside.  Put a draw inside each, you may want to do this as the glue dries so that you can make sure that the wrap fits well (if you use a wet glue you have a little wiggle time before its set).  You can use brads through the white dots at the front for handles, or punch holes and thread a loop of ribbon, a tassel, button.... you get the picture.

Next you need to cut out the two squares of card on the first page of the trinket box.  Glue your boxes to one of these so that there is a narrow border all the way round the drawers, you might want to dry arrange them before using glue to stick in place.

 Once your four drawers are in place (you can arrange them with one opening on each side if you like), then glue the other square of patterned card on top.

Now cut out the card, which is page 3 of the design, and score and burnish along the dotted lines

I have folded this so that the image is facing up on the base, this forms the easel top of your design.

 Next cut out the topper page of your design and create your easel design, this is very much a personal thing and you can go as mad as you like with this (especially with these stunning Christmas designs!)

Next, glue your easel to the draw base you have made

Once you have your easel on the base, you need to create a stop for the topper so that it stands up - there is a strip on the card page (page 3) of the design which you can use, raised up onto foam or 3D glue gel, or your can create rolled flowers from the last two pages of the design, which is what I've chosen to do.

Once you've created your lovely flowers, glue these into place, I also cut out some holly from the Die'sire Holly die to add an extra detail under the flowers, but again all the embellishments are down to you, there is so much scope with these lovely designs for adding your own personality.

Anyway, I hope this has helped if you were at all unsure of what goes where with these and I hope you all have loads of fun with this.

TTFN

Rach

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More Flights of Fantasy

Well, looks like you are loving this range as much as I do, there really is so much on these two CDs that every time I look, I find something else I hadn't seen before.

These next two cards are made using the card companions and toppers sections of the CD, with a little bit of backing papers thrown in, the second card even has the backing paper printed onto vellum for the flowers.

In the first card, I added some sakura glitter pen to the topper, unfortunately I don't think you can see it, but it does sparkle beautifully in the light - really think these images lend themselves to being covered in glitter!

Well, just a quick post from me today - hope you have a great Wednesday & see you again soon.

TTFN

Rach

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Flights of Fantasy

Well, as I'm blogging again, it must mean that there is another launch coming up for Crafters Companion and I've managed to un-bury myself from my craft room!

I know we probably all say it, but this really is a HUGE favourite of mine, these images from Morgan Fitzsimons are to die for, and there are so many to choose from on CD1, and then, to top it all off, you get CD2 which has even more images on, this time FOR YOU TO COLOUR YOURSELF!!!!!!  It really is such a stunning collection, but wait, there's more, there is a paper pad too, which has double sided papers and FOILED papers as well.  Excited really does not do my emotions justice, I'm already in love & I hope you will too.

Anyway, to my sneaky peaks.  This first one is from the A4 decoupage section of the CD, where there are some wonderful images, this beautiful little lady being one of them, I decided to turn her into a wall hanging, so had to put the decoupage onto a larger base.  I wanted to have the fold back frame look so used some of the backing papers printed double sided onto lightweight printable paper, cut them into triangles, rolled and glued o the edges, I wasn't happy with how they looked so I then cut out some Ivy in various greens, used some spray & sparkle irridescent to give them an early morning dew look and then weaved them around the frame, simply stunning!  I added a couple of flowers using the Forget me Not die, which I cut out of some offcuts of double sided centura pearl and then coloured up using distress inks, I put gems at the centre and dotted these around the frame as well as a bunch in one corner.  A bit of glitter on her wings and around her headdress and a ribbon for hanging and your done.

This next card is one of the card companions from the CD, these are a real go to favourite when you need to make a quick card (though I seem to make them take ages!) as everything you need is on one sheet and it's guaranteed to coordinate.  I used some core'dinations in complementary colours, the blue in the background I embossed with the Embossalicious folder 'tumbling leaves' and sanded back.  The doily has been coloured with Antique linen distress ink as I thought the white would be too harsh.  A couple of buttons finish the card off nicely! 

Anyway, hope you like these - I know you'll love the CDs and the paper pad which launch tomorrow on Create and Craft as the four day deal with Sara and Fiona!

TTFN

Rach

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Do me a favour

Well, I hope you managed to get your hands on the four day deal, in fact for some of you the goodies will have already arrived to play with!

These next makes come from CD2, which has some wonderful 3D goodies on it - these are Favour boxes (well, pyramids), and each of the selections has the designs to make two, hence my makes, which as you can see are the american/broadway ones.  These are sooo easy to put together and you can decorate or not as you see fit (the statue of liberty is one of the stamps, which I coloured with my spectrum noir pens - BGR1,2 & 3).  

They would be great for a few sweeties or for small trinkets from your travels to give as gifts, don't forget there are 12 different designs on the CD (each with two trinket boxes), so plenty of choice depending on your destination! (see what I did there!!!).

Anyway, s'pose I'd better go and get ready for work, have a great day all.

TTFN

Rach

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Have you got yours yet?

Well, I haven't had a chance to watch any of the shows yet (apart from a little bit yesterday morning & was nearly late for work!), so I hope you've got yours all ordered and can sit back and enjoy the inspiration.

Today's make is from the trinket box section on CD2, together with some embellishments from CD1 and one of the stamps from the set "Spirit of Adventure", which I coloured with my spectrum noir pens and pencils (colours below).  I also used the Die'sire Elegant Stamping Frame to frame the topper.

Pens: FS1 FS3, FS8, TB2, TB4, TB6, TN3, GB1, PP1, HB1, IB1, IG1, Blender

Pencils: 67, 70

Anyway, just a quick post from me today, hope all is well wherever you are.

TTFN

Rach

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Time Check

Well it's nearly time for Fiona to bring the totally amazing Destinations CD and stamp sets to our screens (in fact if I don't hurry up and type this, by the time I publish, she already will have).

This next sample from me is from one of the sections on CD2, which is Suitcase templates.  These are incredibly simple to put together, but leave so much scope for decoration, re-sizing, in fact whatever you could possibly imagine - you will see some incredible samples from my teamies on the launch.  However, my more humble affair is purely a decorative piece.  When I printed the Suitcase, I turned the card over and printed one of the backing papers on the other side so that the inside was decorated.  I used a magnetic closure on it (this is on the buckle piece across the middle at the back) and decorated the inside, I used the decorative elements that came with it and some additional embellishments from CD1, one of the stamps from the set, which I coloured with my Spectrum Nor pens, and a few seashells in the bottom.  

I really love how this has turned out and would happily make more of these for my globetrotting friends (when I find them!).

Have a great Monday, and enjoy the shows!

TTFN

Rach

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Take one candle

Well today's sneaky peek goes back to one of my favourite techniques for making gifts, and that is candle decorating.  Whenever people see this they are always amazed and don't believe me when I tell them how simple it is (they're not crafters!).

Anyway, today's make uses the of the Fabric Companions on CD1, fabric companions are perfect for this technique as they have faded edges which work brilliantly as they blend into the candle easily.  The image (if you're at all interested) is design 7 on the CD (or 6 if like me you are looking directly at the files and not through the interface), and is a fab Japanese image.

I presume everyone knows how to do the candle thing now, but if you don't, just send me a message and I will happily put up a tutorial for it.  for the milk carton I printed two sheets of card with designs from the CD (designer paper 7 and coordinating paper 7 both colour 1).  I then used the Sweet Treats embossing board 'special treats' to make the box (I did cut the height down so that it's just the right height for the candle, I then cut out a panel and inserted an acetate window (embossed using Kimono Oriental Birdcage embossing folder) and decorated the outside with the Kimono blossom branch and birdcage.

Well, it's less than 24 hours to go until you can get your hands on this fabulous range, so until tomorrow...

TTFN

Rach

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Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

Good job too as I live in Plymouth!  Seriously though, this next make has a very calming, seaside feel to it, okay so the beach paradise is Hawaii and I'm not going to pretend Plymouth is a patch on Hawaii (I wouldn't know as I've not been there, another thing to add to the bucket list!).

Anyway enough waffle, this is my next make for the upcoming launch of the Destinations twin CDs on Create and Craft.  You are soo going to love this one, you could lose hours just looking at all the beautiful things on the CDs and then, wow! the things you could make, they are seriously cram packed with such wonderful goodies that will become a real favourite go to, sorry, waffling again, must stop it!

This is an 8x8 card and uses one of the Card Companions from the first CD, it just goes to show that the card companions do not just have to fit on little cards, I've added a coordinating backing paper from

the CD, used a Kimono embossing folder (oriental screen), which I went over with a lovely red metallic rub on, the words are from one of the stamp sets (as are the little buttons top left) which I stamped with versamark and embossed in white.  I've used Kraft card and Neenah desert storm for most of the layering to give a sandy beach feel, and combined with a little bit of core'dinations for some contrast.

On the inside you can just about see the insert, which is a lovely feature of this CD, we now have Designer Inserts to give the cards an even more special, expensive feel.

Well, anyway, hope you have a lovely crafty Saturday and I'll be back again tomorrow with some more loveliness from these fabby CDs!

TTFN

Rach

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The most beautiful Destinations

I have been working on the most amazing launch for Crafters Companion, starting on Create and Craft on Monday as the four day deal.  Destinations is a twin CD and there are also accompanying stamp sets.  There is sooo much amazing stuff (sorry for the use of the word stuff, but it's probably the best description) cram packed into these two CDs that will help you make gifts, cards, packaging and well pretty much anything you could imagine.

This first peek of mine is from the second CD, and is one of the fabulous address books - yep, there are now address books, complete, you get front and back covers, divider tabs and gorgeously decorated pages to write on.  Just print, bind however you feel and embellish to your hearts content!

I was working on the Indian one and so this really needed to be bright and colourful as every time I see images of India on TV (never been there sadly) they are always so colourful and vibrant.  To this end I decided to bind with my Cinch and then embellish the binding (which is really the most unatractive bit) with lots of coloured ribbons.  I also cut some slits in the front cover so that I could feed ribbon through to put a pen on the front, I hid the ribbon on the inside with a stamped and embossed image cut out and stuck over the ribbon on the inside, but forgot to take a picture of this (doh!).

The pen itself (bic) I also covered with the same paper I had used as my lining paper inside the front and back covers.  It was really easy to do, just cut a strip of paper the length of the pen you want to cover (make sure that it sits below the lid or you'll never be able to put the lid on) and enough to cover the pen several times.  Wrap it round the pen so that it gets the shape, then put a line of tacky glue down the length and stick this to the pen, re-wrap the pen with the paper and put another strip down the outside edge of the paper as you come to the end of the wrap, make sure you use plenty of glue as you want it to ooze out a little so that the edge of the paper is stuck down really well, that's it! matching pen for your address book, and it looks amazing - you could of course then continue and use spray and shine to seal it, or even spray and sparkle for a fab glitzy look!

Well, hope you get your copy of the CDs early on Monday as I don't think it will last 4 days (I've seen the other makes, and they made me gasp!).

TTFN

Rach

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