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

Studio Calico Yearbook - By Louise

Today, DT member Louise talks about her scrapbooking process!

***      ***      ***

Do you have a scrapbook process?

If so, where do you start?

- with pretty papers

- with a story

- with photos 

or 

- with a design

Each time for me it's different. Usually I tend to start with a photo and then choose my papers, but as Sarah sent me the new Studio Calico Yearbook papers to work with, this time I chose a photo that I thought would suit the papers.

After selecting your photo and papers what comes next?  

Do you have a technique in mind you want to use? Do you think about what you want to achieve? Do you refer to a layout you like or turn to a sketch? Do you just start cutting up papers and see what comes to mind?

So I'd got my papers ready and I picked out the photo I wanted to scrap, next I quickly scribbled a sketch. I don't do this all the time, but it does help to give me a starting point.

And this is how the final layout turned out.

The Ugly Sisters
Sorry, I have had to "blur out" the face of one of the children!!

 

Products used  Studio Calico Yearbook

Studio Calico - chalkboard alpha thickers

  

For this second layout I noticed that this sheet of numbers would work perfectly with a story I had recently blogged. So this time around I chose the paper to go with a story. A story that you can find here.

 

Products used  Studio Calico Yearbook

Studio Calico - chalkboard alpha thickers 

Studio Calico Mister Huey Mist - Calico White

The Studio Calico Yearbook collection is gorgeous and I am sure there isn't a theme that it wouldn't work with. It's perfect for older children, school photos and boy or girl themes. 

So where do you start?

Photos ... papers ... sketch ... technique or something else?

Please do share your layout process with us.

Jenny has been busy with another Studio Calico collection, Wonderland so pop back soon to see what she did with it!

Have a fabulous day!

Louise 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