Gift Bag & Tealight Holder!

On the last post I showed you some cards I made with the Studio Calico Wonderland 6" x 6" pad. Today I'd like to show you a couple of handmade gifts.

This little gift bag is made with Kraft card which really seems to work so well with many of the papers in the Wonderland pad. The snowflake paper is from the Wonderland Collection and I added some red twine. The sentiment is a digital one from Whimsey Stamps and I added a tiny button which I coloured to match and tied with twine to the centre of the snowflake.

The bag opens up and revels a little pocket into which I put a few celebration sweets.

 Now for something different .... the papers are again from the Wonderland Collection and I think this shows just how versatile this collection is as I have gone away from Christmas completely and made a tea light holder. 

With the light lit!

Will you be making any handmade gifts for the festive season?

Jenny x

You can see more of Jenny's work on her blog: Dragonllew's Spot

Jenny followed these tutorials to make her bag and tealight holder:

Bag Tutorial

tealight holder tutorial

Wonderland Cards - By Jenny

Hi Everyone, Jenny here today!

This month Sarah gave me Studio Calico Wonderland to work with, I love the range of colours in this pad - you have your traditional reds and greens but also some lovely blues, creams and browns. There is a good mix of Winter/Christmas patterns and also more general patterns. I made a few different things to to try and show you how versatile these gorgeous papers are!

First up a nice simple card using Kraft card to mat the patterned paper onto and some twine wrapped around the paper which gives the card a nice rustic look. I have used glossy accents to highlight some of the pattern on the paper and stamped a sentiment in Rich Cocoa Memento ink.

The large snowflake has been cut from a piece of patterned paper and then covered in glamour dust and the smaller one is cut from white card, a clear button tied with some blue twine finishes the snowflake off.

Another fairly simple card - this time using one of the green papers from the Wonderland pad which is matted onto some dark green cardstock and then onto a card blank. I stamped the sentiment in Tuxedo Black Memento ink and then drew the square around the card with a fineliner pen. The snowman is a diecut which has been embossed and coloured with promarkers.

I'll be back soon to show you a gift bag and a tealight holder - both would make great Christmas gifts!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Jenny x

Colouring with Distress Inks

It's no secret that I love distress inks!
When I first met Jenny a while back now, she had just a couple of distress ink pads and confided in me that she wasn't really sure what to do with them. If you have seen Jenny's demos or taken one of her classes at our Open Days or if you follow her wonderful blog, you will know what a "whizz" she is colouring with promarkers!

So, when Jenny put together this colouring tutorial I was very happy! Although I think Jenny will always prefer her promarkers it is obvious those distress ink pads are slowly taking over her craft desk!! lol!!

Over to Jenny ...

"A few months ago I only had 2 distress inks pads, today I have a collection of 13!! It seems they have become a staple item to my crafting. I know I'm a little behind the times but they frightened me at first. I saw all the amazing results other people got with them and thought there was no way I could do the same but slowly I have gained more confidence with them and now use them on most of my cards"

For this card, I stamped the image in Memento Rich Cocoa onto some Kraft card.

I used a water brush and a piece of laminated card, or you can use a craft sheet. I pressed the ink pad onto the laminated card, making a "splodge" of colour and then used my water brush to put some water onto the ink and started to colour. I've found it best to start off pale as you can always add more colour. Remember, the more water the paler the colour. For this image I used the following distress ink colours Iced Spruce, Peeled Paint, Wild Honey, Weathered Wood, Brushed Corduroy & Festive Berries

Here's the finished card!

I have inked the edges of the Kraft using the blending tool with Brushed Corduroy ink pad (it doesn't look so dark in real life) and then mounted it onto some dark brown card, stamped Happy Birthday in memento ink and stapled a piece of jute across the card.

Have you tried colouring with distress inks?

Thanks for stopping by today!
Jenny x

My Minds Eye Nostalgia Cards

Hi All ... I hope you have been enjoying the recent good weather!

Today I'd like to show you a couple of cards the very talented Jenny has made using papers from the gorgeous MME Nostalgia 6 x 6 pad which are in stock in the shop.

These papers really are so versatile ....  at first they may appear to be quite feminine colours with the pinks and yellows but Jenny made two cards suitable for males to show you just how adaptable they are.

Jenny used Glossy Accents on the balloon and liquid pearls on the bow tie and collar. 

The 6" x 6" Nostalgia pad is available here!

Also, don't forget to check out the Bronze, silver and gold Special Offers!!

Take one chocolate box!!

Jenny has altered an empty chocolate box using the brand new fairy belle 6" x 6" papers by Prima.

This is how the box looked before I got to work!

I used Prima Fairy Belle papers to cover the box and all the edges were inked with Tattered Rose Distress ink. 

The flower was cut from more of the Prima papers using a Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and again I inked all the edges. The brad in the centre was a plain one onto which I stuck a Prima Pearl. A die cut swirl, some small punch butterflies and a couple of small pearls finished it off. I added a little bit of sparkle around the edge of the box, on the flower and butterflies with some stickles.

One very pretty box to hold some pretty things!!

Easel Cards ~ as seen at the Demo!

I hope everyone who came along to the Open Day last Saturday enjoyed themselves. Jenny's Easel Card Demonstration was very popular and I think all the ladies watching picked up a few new tips, techniques or ideas to go home and try.

As promised here are the cards Jenny made ....

This super cute easel card is the Christmas Cat's whiskers Stamp Set 

Jenny used the Christmas Bears clear stamp set and MME Breaking Free paper to create this twisted easel card.

A close up of the dimensional die cut & punched snowflakes

I think this one is probably my favourite ~ the image is from the Elfs 1 stamp (not yet on the website but will be very soon) and the paper is Fancy Pants Designs Little Sprout (in the sale!!)

The last card is the other image from the Christmas Cats stamps. These stamps really are such good value for money at £5.95!!

The other main supplies for all cards are nestabilities, promarkers and stickles.

To see more of these cards and also Jenny's tutorial for full instructions on how to make easel cards pop over to her blog.

Our next Open Day is on Saturday 29th October, full details can be found here, a date for your diary!!