Friday 22 May 2015

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
x

Tuesday 19 May 2015

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
x

Monday 18 May 2015

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
x

Sunday 17 May 2015

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
x

Saturday 16 May 2015

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
x


Friday 15 May 2015

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
x

Friday 1 May 2015

Calorie free cupcake anyone?

Well, following on from my post this morning, my next make with these stunning templates (really easy to use too) is a trinket box.  I made the template up and was staring at it, and it just looked like a gorgeous cupcake piled high with icing (just the way I like them!).  So I set about decorating the box to look like a cupcake.  This involved ALOT of ribbon, first I put loads of red liner tape around the lid of the box and ruche'd up the ribbon as I stuck it to the box.  Once I'd done that it was simply a matter of decorating with some lovely sequins for sprinkles and I made a ribbon rose to go on top and cut some leaves using the cabbage rose die from the BeBunni range.




I really hope you like it, I had such fun making it and spent several days staring at it before I could bear to part with it - may well have to do it again and will make a fab gift for anyone on a diet, you can have your cake and not eat it!

TTFN

Rach
x

Hiding under a sea of craft stuff

Wow! Crafters Companion have done it again, launching tomorrow on Create and Crafts is a whole new range of templates, remember those stunning cupcake boxes they brought last year, well they're now expanding the range.  This little beauty is the gift bag, and because I took a really rubbish photo, you cannot see that there is a real depth to it at the base so you could easily fit some jewellery in it (or stuff it with sweets!).  I've given it a magnetic clasp to hold it closed, though I need to find some better magnets.  It's made using centura pearl and then to decorate I've used the layering that comes with the template and embossed these and rubbed with gold metallic rub ons (you could use gilding wax but I've not invested in that yet), then I used my small rose die'sire quilling die to make the lovely rose (cut 3 times, 2 in white and one in gold paper) and die'sire leaf 2 die for the leaves.

You can't see it from the photo either, but this is actually really sturdy and properly a gift box.


Anyway, I'll be back later to show you another stunning template - you are so going to want them all!

TTFN

Rach
x