Tuesday 28 January 2014

New demo designs added

Take a look at this weeks demo designs, go to the "Deb's Demos" page at the left hand side bar.
 
Making Memories 
 


Shaker Cards

Materials used:-
Stampendous CRP187 Nasturtium
SSC1158 Thoughtful Wishes
3" Label punch
Brilliance Graphite Black
Tombow pens
Textura Cardstock pad (Tropical)
Glossy Accents
Acetate
Dark green gingham ribbon
A5  card blank
All available from:-
Your local Exmouth stockist is:-
 
We have a fun theme this week in Shaker cards. These can fit any occasion & your imagination can run wild with the things you can use to shake. Materials range from sugar strands (think cupcakes), sand for a beachy card, punched leaves or flowers, glitter, beads, seeds (as I have used this time)- the possibilities are endless!
I've gone for a garden look this week as I'm yearning for spring & to restore order to the quagmire which is my garden at the moment.
You need to make a window panel for the shaker part & I have stamped the "Nasturtium" at the top left corner of a piece of cream linen card, coloured with Tombow pens & cut around part of it before cutting the rest of the aperture away with a craft knife & ruler. Attach a piece of acetate on the wrong side with dsa tape. Remember to leave a wide enough frame to take the 3d foam tape which will hold the frame away from the base were the seeds will be doing their shaking.  Make sure that you have a good seal around all the edges to prevent the seeds from escaping. You'll notice that I have stamped the design on the orange inner panel (under the seeds) to add a little interest. 
I've also stamped the flowers several times & coloured & cut just the flower heads out & made a little border along the bottom of the frame.
I have used a sentiment from Thoughtful Wishes for the tag & stamped the little flower icon with a watermark pad on the card blank & the tag itself. to finish I've given the flowers & leaves a coating of Glossy Accents for a great shine.
Top tip- you may want to give the acetate a gentle wipe with an anti stat pad to prevent your shaker bits from clinging to it.

 

Wednesday 22 January 2014

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge- Black & White


We are pleased to be playing along with the Crafty Card Makers and More… this week, the challenge will be open on their blog for two weeks. If you would like to play along with us please check the Crafty Card Maker rules then use the link on the Crafty Card Makers Blog to add your card or if you are not a blogger yet you can e-mail your card to me as usual Dorothy@woodware.co.uk  and I will post it and add it to the Crafty Card Makers and more… Blog
 
Materials used:-
JGS304 Kim's Coppice
Stampendous Detail clear & white embossing powders
Versafine Onyx Black
1" Beech Leaf punch
Black & white glossy card
12 x 12 silver pearl card
A5 white linen card blank
All available from:-
Your local Exmouth stockist is:-
 
We're back with the ladies at craftycardmakers for their challenge this week & the theme is "Black & White" which is one of my favourites & such an easy one to do. Now for those of you who are fans of "Downton Abbey"  (& who isn't??!) you may well recognise where I got my inspiration! The commercial break credits!
I've taken black & white glossy card & embossed the image using the opposite colour i.e white embossing powder on black card & Onyx Black with clear powder on white. Just give the card a good wipe with an anti stat pad before embossing to avoid speckling- you want pristine results for this. I have turned one image upside down & mounted onto silver grey card. To finish I've added some punched beech leaves to which I have given some vein detail with a  DEET & the sentiment which comes with the stamp set. Pop over to craftycardmakers to see what their design team have come up with & why not join in?!
 

   


Thursday 16 January 2014

January Sketch Challenge

 
Materials used:-
Clearsnap Rollagraph Jumbo wheel-
Define It (26176)
Clearsnap Moulding mat- Deco Nautilus
Rollagraph cassettes-
Ancient Page Coal Black, Mandarin & watermark
Stampendous extra thick  embossing powder & detail gold
1.5" plum punch
2" label punch
Frantage Tea Stain mica flakes
Textura Cardstock pad (Tropical)
Hairy Manilla card
7mm pale gold organza ribbon
Copper mirror card
All available from:-
www.woodware.co.uk
Your local Exmouth stockist is:-
japonica
Time to get back to Woodware's  monthly sketch challenge & I really felt the need to "step outside the box" & do something completely different this week. So....... I got out my Utee (ulta thick embossing enamel), my moulding mats & my Rollagraphs all of which tend to get a bit neglected for a lot of the time.
I started by creating a background on a Hairy Manilla DL sized card blank using the Rollagraph, the watermark & Mandarin ink cassettes just randomly rolling over the entire surface. I rolled the background orange panel using the mandarin ink & the sentiment panel using black. 
The fun part comes with the moulding mat! Lay it onto a heat mat face up & apply some Versamark over the entire surface (this stops the enamel sticking& makes it easy to remove). After melting some clear UTEE (I used a Melt Pot) I added some jade ink & a little detail gold to give a slight  marbled effect. Pour your molten enamel onto the mat & spread quickly & thinly. Wait until the enamel has cooled & carefully peel away from the mat. This is your "Ooooh!" moment when you reveal what you have created! Of course if you're not happy you can always re- melt.  
The flower was made with the plum punch & given a coating of clear enamel (you might want to think ahead before you add any colour)& the tag was dipped into the green enamel.
I finished by adding some Mica flakes to the card design & to the centre of the flower. 
 Here's the sketch!
 


Monday 13 January 2014

Here's My Heart!


I'd been meaning to update this wicker heart for some time now so when I took it down in favour of my Christmas wreath it wasn't going back up until it had it's make over (I could do with one of those!).
Back last September I treated myself to a Melt Pot but hadn't really had time to play with it what with holidays, blogging, Christmas etc, etc. So when we were having yet another wet windy weekend it was a perfect time to get out all my Met Art stuff & go mad.
You'll see hearts - these were made from UTEE, moulding mats & cookie cutters. The butterflies were made from pouring melted enamel into a silicon mould. The large black & red flowers came from  a set of Nestabilities flower dies. I cut several sizes from plain red card, stamped with a leafy flourish stamp, sculpted & layered before assembling &  dipping into clear UTEE. The leaves you can see are made with Fimo & Martha Stewart sillicon moulds & I baked them in the Melt Pot which was handy. I painted them with Mica paints which did take a while to dry but worth it. The tiny birds were chip board shapes just coated with the black & gold enamel. Now just some random beads & a couple of touches of black ribbon & voila!! A new look to an old favourite.


Here's a closer look
 

















Here's how it looked originally


Friday 10 January 2014

Retirement

Materials used:-
JGCL556 Hours Fly By
FRS244 Country Fields
12 x 12  scrapbook paper Oslo 7
Versafine Vintage Sepia
Card Candis Westminster
6" x 6" card blank
All available from:-
Your local Exmouth stockist is:-
Happy New year to you all hope you had a good Christmas too. Isn't it great to get back to normal? Hope you had some good crafting goodies in your stocking!
Don't know about you but I always find it hard to get going again after all the Christmas cards for months beforehand. We're starting off gently with this first blog of the year with the theme of retirement (is Dorothy trying to tell me something??). I've just stamped the lovely "Country Fields" single stamp from Francoise Read onto some direct to paper treated card using Vintage Sepia. I wanted to keep a monochromatic feel to the design  so I've just highlighted with a coloured pencil. I've cut up the image into equal squares & re assembled it onto dark brown card which gives the impression of looking out of a window.
Now simply mount onto the Oslo paper & add the sentiment from Jane Gills set "Hours Fly By" which I thought very suitable for the occasion. To finish just add some Candis.  Retirement? I wish!!