few more

Here are the final 3 samples for Art Of Craft

This is the Merys stencil again, I couldnt resist playing with it.

Normally I dont like stencil embossed parchment as it often looks clunky but there was enough detail to this stencil to tempt me into getting the parch tools out. I've done nothing more than embossed the stencil then used a PCA bold flexi grid to make the grid. Instead of embossing dots on the grid I used the star tool, not one of my favourite embossing tools but I didnt want to over power it the image. Finally a PCA fine flexi grid to perferate the centre of 2 flowers. In my rush to play I forgot to rest my hand on some paper towel so the parch is a bit curvy at tho mo, but a couple of days between 2 books will allow it to lie flat.


This was the last of the new stencils, another of the Merys ones and again using papers from the Springtime book. Left blank for a 3d.







For this one I've used the same Pink stencil that I used for the shaker card but repeated the pattern to make a 5*7 card. I used pastel glimmer chalks to add a small touch of colour, papers from the spring book and distressed some Core'dinations paper after running it through a cuttlebug folder.

The 3d is from Marianne Design.

New toys

I was asked to make some samples for Art Of Craft in Farnborough using some new stencils from my favourite brand, Marianne Design. The only brief was to use papers from Springtime blocks from Crafts Too and to not worry about 3ds as they'll be added later.

Ooh, now this was a challenge, normally I look at the stencil, chose a 3d then work with the colours and shapes to decide on the finished card. I suppose in my imagination I was picturing where the 3d would be and what it would be like. It's going to be interesting to see if the cards end up how I pictured them or not.


This is a Merys stencil and I could have gone on making loads & loads of samples. I can just see the flowers being cut, 3d'd then used like Primas. Sorry Jane, I might "lose" this stencil and send you a cheque for it ;o)

I've left the side bare ready for a 3d but I visualise it more stamped with a phrase/poem of some sort.

This is another Merys stencil. I've made a 5cm square gatefold then cut away along the edges of the stencil and embroidered with pale pink & blue gutterman threads and edged everything with a silver peeloff tinted with pastel pink. I'm not sure what I envisaged for the 3d but I just loved the colours in the papers and felt the stencil was so nice it deserved to be used twice. Another one that is going to be lost lol.

This is a Pink stencil, the cat & mouse should be attached but they're so sweet I wanted them separate. I have used a couple of prima flowers but I'd be more inclined to use the merys flowers so I could match colours better.

This is another Pink stencil, very very simple to sew & cut but I think with a rub on poem it's going to look great.

Another Pink stencil but this time I've used it to create a frame, cut away the inner area and turned it into a shaker card. It doesnt really look that great as it stands but I can see a floral spray 3d in the bottom corner.

This is the last of the Pink stencils, I made a gatefold, folded the fronts back and embossed the outer edges before adding some chalk. I know the 3ds are being added later but I had a beautiful Mattie clematis 3d that I couldnt resist.

This is a Merys stencil but unlike the first 2 stencils it comes as a set of 3 graduated stencils. After being embossed & cut they fit inside each other to create a flower/frame.

To me this said waterlily and I couldnt resist 3d'ing the dragonfly from the backing paper.

Another Merys, this time tho I went for an all white look. I've used the same white pearly card for everything but have used a cuttlebug folder for the central image and a flourish stamp with silver Brilliance ink & holographic ep to create some texture. Add in a small doily & a ribbon bow and I've over the moon with this card.

I've still got another Merys stencil to use and I'm itching to have another play with one of the Pink stencils....

Making a mesh/trellis in paintshop pro.

I started off by opening a new image 8cm * 8cm with a transparent background. Then I set the grid at .5cm and the foreground colour as white with a black background.

Select the pen tool and change the line width to at least 6 (the higher the number the thicker the trellis will be and dont forget if it's too thin the card may not hold the cut), use the grid lines as a guide and draw a diamond. I chose to make a diamond 1cm wide and 2cm long. The size at this point doesnt really matter as long as you have the ratio (how long to how thin) as you want it.

Select the flood fill tool, then right click inside the diamond and outside. You'll now have a black image with the outline of the white diamond.

Zoom right in so you can see all 4 points clearly then select the crop tool. Very carefully crop the image so that you have no black areas showing at the very tips of the points. Because I wasn't to the nth precise when I drew the diamond I had to crop a smidge of white away.

Save this image as a jpg, I called mine single diamond.

Minimise this image and open a new image but this time make it 12*12 inch. (or 6*12 if you have the baby cricut)

Select the flood fill tool again then click the white foreground colour in your materials swatch. The materials properties box will open now click the pattern tab. The first 2 of the thumbnails should be your saved diamond and the image you are working on. Choose the single diamond and click ok.

Now left click anywhere on your new image and it will fill up with a trellis pattern.

If your trellis looks as though the holes will be too big undo the flood fill by going to edit then undo. Click back on the material swatch and change the scale. You can also play with the rotation if you want something a bit whacky. Once you're happy that the trellis is the right size save the image, I called mine trellis master. On it's own it isnt really any good for anything but it will make making trellis images a lot quicker in the future. I'll add another tutorial tomorrow on how to turn this into shaped trellis.

Belated happy new year.

A belated happy New Year to all. Thanks to the normal chaos of Xmas I havent posted in a while. If truth be told my mojo generally does a runner once I've finished the xmas cards and doesnt come back until all the xmas choccies & nuts are eaten. Sadly my mojo didnt get back in time to rescue the sample cards I had to make for my local craft shop :( These are using the new dcwv & papermania papers & Merys stencils from Marianne Design. My local shop hasnt a web site but I know http://www.art-of-craft.co.uk/ have them for sale.

It's my sons girlfriends birthday next week and she's totally nuts about Pandas so I went on a hunt for a sweet panda stamp and one of my mates on docrafts found this gorgeous Prima stamp for me. I used an old sketch from sketch saturday, my marth stewart doily punch, prima panda stamp, tapestry clear flourish stamp, cuttlebug swirl folder, small round nestie & 3 brads.

Spoonful of Sugar challenge 27

Fab sketch on Spoon Full of Sugar this week which gave me the excuse to ditch the housework and use a Lili Of the Valley stamp I bought a couple of months ago. Now it's made I wish I'd either mounted it all on a mat gold card or stamped a faint pattern over the base card. Oh well, what's done is done, not many more xmas cards to make :o)

Imaginisce & DCWV paper, cuttlebug diecut snoflakes from cream glitter card, oval nesties, lots of gems, stickles and glamour dust.

very quick cards

These are all using buttefly kisses stamps. With either judikins black or silver ep or versacolor violet ink withblade rubbers hologram ep. I dont normally do quick cards so this made quite a change. Cant wait to finish Chrimbo cards now and get back to having fun with some stencils.

sketch saturday

This is for the sketch saturday challenge. I've used imaginisce paper with Sugar Nellies christmas honey stamp. It's hard to see on the photo but there's 2 holly sprigs and 3 red pearls at the top. A very quick and simple card but with there only being a week or 2 before I have to start sending out xmas cards I havent got as much time as I'd like.

On a roll

It's been lovely having the time to play again this week. This is one of the xmas Tildas. I've used last weeks sketch saturday sketch as it's one of my favourites. Paper is a Pebbles one which I bought months ago from Glitterpot. The pale aqua paper is from a flourish stamp I bought at the NEC.

This is another purchase from the NEC, the stamps are from Butterfly Kisses and perfect for making dangly cards. Again DCWV papers and that flourish stamp around the border of the frame. This is repeated inside but thought it looked better to photo it this way.

While I had the embossing powder & DCWV papers out I made this one. I feel as tho it's missing something but cant think what.

I'm useless at remembering the names of sets of stamps but this one is part of a clear set that comes with several snowflakes. If anyone recognises it please let me know so I can credit it.

Magnolia vs stampavie challenge

I seem to be in a purple mood at the mo and this is one made with a sketch on the magnolia v stampavie challenge blog. Paper is from DCWV stack, scallop cut on the cricut and I've stamped around Tilda with an unknown flourish stamp bought at the NEC.

Black ribbon is from Ribbon Box.

sketch saturday

My winter club kit from Magnolia arrived a few days ago and this has to be my favourite of the stamps included.

I've used this weeks sketch from Sketch Saturday with dcwv papers, brads from Trimcraft, cuttlebug folder and my favourite f&c pencils. Tildas coat ultramarine, leggings violet, legwarmers carmine rose and skates are light magenta. Edwins coat is mauve, trousers, hat & gloves indianthrene blue and skates are warm grey with a touch of ultramarine. With silver sakura for the blades and stickles for the fur trim.

friday sketchers

Nearly late for the friday sketchers challenge with this one thanks to youngest daughter borrowing my camera.

One of the new Tilda xmas stamps coloured with f&c watercolour pencils, deep red & warm grey with some glistening show writer for the fur on his clothes. DCWV papers, snowflake cut with SCAL and some green mirri.

sketch saturday

This is my attempt for this weeks Sketch Saturday Challenge

Fab layout although I feel I havent done it justice. Magnolia Mary Christmas stamp, coloured with cream & deep red f&c watercolour pencils. Greeting is an inkwell stamp stamped onto shrink plastic that's covered with still wet gold brilliance ink.

Papremania, DCWV & imaginise paper, lil bit of ribbon and a pinky red pearl from papermania.

Secret crafter challenge

I took liberties with the sketch this week at secret crafter challenge

Magnolia father xmas & bauble stamp coloured wtih leaf green & deep red f&c watercolour pencils. DCWV papers & prima flowers. The star greeting is an Inkwell stamp stamped in red stayzon on shrink plastic with ribbon slots cut freehand before being shrunk.

friday sketchers

I've been a bad blogger this week. Havent a clue where the time has got to other than middle daughter has moved out & I've been clearing the devastation she left.

I had a lil delivery of new Tildas yesterday, woohoo. The first is using the sketch on Friday Sketchers. The striped paper is DCWV and the paper underneath is just white pearl stamped with red stayzon and a clear inkadinkado stamp. Cuttlebug snowflake folder and nesties. The snowflake in the corner was cut with SCAL & my cricut using iceflake font that I'd fiddled with a bit in PSP.

This is a 5*7 card. As you can see the tree is a bit bigger than you might expect from Magnolia. I stamped tilda first then masked her before stamping over with green versafine. Lavinia holly stamp in green versafine cutout and mounted in the corner and ribbon from the Ribbon Box. Very simple as I think this stamp could make cards look too busy if I'm not careful.

3 more with stencils

Stencils really are my most favourite tool and give me great satisfaction.

This one is the Anja Window that I used for the pink & silver xmas ornament last week. This time I've backed it with some Basicgrey paper and a 3d from Marianne Design. Mounted over some sparkly white card which has been embossed using a cuttlebug folder.





This is one that I really struggled with. The stencil is a normal size but when used as a diamond it needs a big card. This is a4 folded to make 8*8 with a flap. I've used DCWV papers and embossed the candle design before cutting areas away and backing with red, green & gold mirri. Some embroidery in the corners and a few gems.

This has to be one of my favourites, it's using the same stencil as the xstitch one. I've embroidered with gutterman threads in pink and a very dark purple. Tiny 3d from Marianne and my normal gems and organza ribbon bow with some fused pearls threaded through. Corners were rounded with a Carl punch, I've had it a long long time and it still cuts perfectly every time.

Everything I've used on these 3 came from Art Of Craft. Shh, dont tell hubby but I'm sneaking off to the craft show at Cardiff tomorrow and I know they'll be there just waiting to twist my arm into buying more yummy things.

Back to my stencils

Sorry for poor photos. I cant find any batteries for my lil cheapie fuji camera and had to use hubbies all singing all dancing Canon. It's got more buttons and settings than the dvd recorder and I havent a clue how to use either ;o) I'm def a point & click girl, cant be doing with all these gizmos.

This one is a bit of a memory flash back.. cross stitch but it's done using a Mariane Stencil on to card. It should really have a kitten in the middle but I'm still in a xmassy mood. I did enjoy making it but it reminded me why I dont cross stitch any more... I keep miscounting lol. 3d is from a Mirielle book. Both were bought from Art Of Craft. Purple backing paper is from DCWV.

This is one of my favourite new stencils, it's an Anja window from Marianne Designs. Embossed onto cream pearl card, cut away then I've backed the flourish with gold card and turned the window into a shaker with some acetate & sticky pads. The 3d is also from Marianne Design. Paper is a dark blue in real life and from papermania.