Saturday 25 October 2014

Going Crackers!

This post is for one of the I'm a Crafters Companion facebook group members, and anyone else who's just bought the big score and wants to have a go at a very quick and simple project.

This cracker gift box is made using one sheet of A3 cardstock and doesn't just have to be for Christmas, I've done one to hold maybe a Wedding gift.  Once you understand the principle of this shape, you can size up or down to your hearts desire, maybe making mini ones using A5 card or thick paper to put on the Christmas Tree, or stack in the middle of the Christmas table.


Okay, so here's the instructions:


On the long side of the card, score at 7, 14, 21 and 28 cm

On the short edge, score at 6, 9.5 and 13 cm, then turn the card and do the same on the other short edge.

Fold and burnish all of the score lines.

On the long side, you will have 7 cm sections and then a small scored section at the end, this is where you will later glue the cracker together, first you will need to cut triangles out of the sections between the 6 and 13 cm score lines, the point of the diagonal being on the 9.5 cm score line, but not going all the way to the middle of the 7 cm section (you need to leave about 1 cm in the middle).

Once you have done the end, fold the next 7cm section and now you will cut a triangle that when opened up looks like a diamond.  Do this for all the sections, on both ends, you now have the base of your cracker.

Use a strong glue (I used collal tacky glue) to glue the cracker together.

You can now decorate your cracker however you like: I used:

For the middle of the cracker 4 mats 6.5 cm x 15.5 cm and 4 mats 6 cm x 14.8 cm

For the ends of the crackers 8 mats 6.5 cm x 5.5 cm and 8 mats 6 cm x 5 cm

Hopefully these instructions will make sense, please get in touch if they don't and I'll do step by step pictures.

Hope you're all enjoying your Saturday and the new Create a Card dies that Sara is showing off on Create and Craft today - I really will have no pennies left.... ah well, beans on toast again it is!

TTFN

Rach
x

Sunday 19 October 2014

Happy Birthday to you!

Well, this week, Crafters Companion are celebrating their 9th birthday, but instead of receiving gifts, they are giving loads away!  With every order placed during Birthday week there are free gifts, double loyalty points and free delivery, and as if that weren't enough, there are loads of special offers during the week, and some incredible new products!

One of the new products being launched this week is an incredible A3 scoring board, it will have the same box base and box lid measurements you are familiar with on the boxer board, so it will give you a wonderfully familiar feel, but on a larger scale.  This will allow you to play with the wonderful new A3 Centura pearl card and A3 Double sided cardstock - both can be found here.

Well, to kick off as it were, I decided to have a go at a pizza style box made from a single sheet of the gorgeous new A3 DOUBLE SIDED!!! centura pearl (amazing stuff - can't praise this enough, its gorgeous!).  I made the box 5 cm deep, and it really is big enough to get quite a lot in.  I used the Sweet Treats CD papers for this one, the strawberries are templates which are also on the CD - I can just imagine a large strawberry with lots of sweeties inside, or maybe jewellery for a special occasion, you could even use gems to create the seeds on the strawberry.... hmmmm

Anyhow, I digress, I used strips of one of the patterned papers and cut it with the diesire lace border 2 and then scored this to create the rosette - hope you like the combi photo, if not just let me know.


Well, hope you like my first peek at the fabby stuff happening this week!  and check out all the other wonderful items from my teamies - they are just such a creative group!

TTFN 

Rach
x

Friday 17 October 2014

Woo Hoo - see the blinkie!

Yep, if you take a look on the left hand side of my blog, you will see that there is a new blinkie!  I've finally been approved as a Spectrum Noir Accredited Colourist, boy am I chuffed! All the hard work, blood, sweat and tears has been worth it (only joking, Leann made it really easy with all of the tutorials on YouTube).

And to celebrate, I thought I'd show you a work in progress, this is an image I've coloured, but not managed to get onto a card.

The stamp is from House of Zandra and was one of the ones I picked up at Exeter recently (trying to make more of an effort to use my craft stuff instead of just hoarding it).


For those who wish to know, these are the SN colours I used:
DR6, DR5, CR11, EB5, EB6, TN7, TN6, TN4, TN3, TN2
BT7, IB2, BG3, BG1, IG1, IB1 & Blender

I have to say I really enjoyed colouring this in, and now I know how to do it properly I can get a really good result (some of my work colleagues have commented that they thought my toppers were printed as they couldn't believe they could be coloured in by hand!).

Well, that's my news for the minute - some exciting stuff coming, but I'll tell you about that another time... Ha, such a tease!

TTFN

Rach
x

Tuesday 14 October 2014

Well, it's definitely Autumn!

Okay, so the weather has taken a decided turn for the autumnal and the evenings are drawing in - I love it!

I can't be alone in loving Autumn and Winter, I was built for comfort not speed and so uncovering in summer is really not good (there is a court order in place preventing me wearing less than a t-shirt and shorts to my knees!).  But by the time Autumn arrives and I can snuggle in my jumpers (when my washing machine doesn't eat them, but that's another story!), I am happy as the proverbial pig in poo!

This next card is a homage to my favourite time of year, and in fact the image used is a Scruffy Little Cat called Autumn, so very appropriate!  I used Coredinations Colourcore Neutrals for the matting and for the Diesire Chantilly lace stamping frame, the backing paper is one of the ones from the Scruffy Little Cat 6x6 Darks paper pad.  The sentiment is from the Ashleigh stamp set (the leaves are a die set from Impression Obsession).  I coloured Autumn with both my Spectrum Noir Pens and pencils (colours below)



SN Pens & Pencils: FS5, FS4, FS3, CR3, OR1, OR2, GB7, EB3, BGR2-4, GG3, IB1, IB2, GB8, GB10, EB6, TN3, TN6, TN9, IG9, EB1, EB2, TN1, TN2, TB1, TB3, LY1, CT4, CG2, CG4, DG3, 095, 087, 089, 118, 111, 088, 076, Blender

Well, anyway I hope you like this & will watch the remaining shows on Create and Craft with Leanne and the gorgeous Scruffy Little Cats (and the pens & pencils), she will be back on Wednesday at 4 p.m.

TTFN

Rach
x

Monday 13 October 2014

Crafters Companion October Challenge - Buttons or Bows

Well, October already & soon be Christmas (YAY!!!!!!).  The challenge theme this month over at CC UK Facebook page is Buttons or Bows, and there is also a bit of a change this month to the rules:  To be eligible for the random prize draw, you do not have to use a CC product, just follow the theme for the month, to get top card honours (card of month or top 3) you still need to use CC products but there is more scope there, if you are short on a few items, I would say though with Birthday week coming up soon, this would be an ideal time to increase your CC stash!

For my Card this month all of my papers, ribbons and sentiment came from the Vintage Christmas CD, I think I actually picked something from most of the sections on the CD - Ribbons & bows, 3D bows, postcards, designer papers, sentiments etc... you get the picture, I had soo much fun with this, the images are so beautiful and print fabulously onto all of the Crafters Companion papers.  I used a 7x7 card base in cream and cut off a bit of the front, then covered the front with a backing paper, ribbon strip across the middle and then layered up the postcards (they were all matted onto Coredinations colourcore brights card) down the front.  I put the sentiment onto some green coredinations so that it looks like a tag and then raised this using 3d glue gel and put a 3D bow on it, a couple of sparkly dots at the bottom and it's job done, a really fabulous but very easy to make card.


Well, I hope you like this one and are starting to get yourself ready for the festive season!

TTFN

Rach
x

Saturday 11 October 2014

An Oldie but a Goodie

Well, some time ago now, Crafters Companion launched the Snowman & Snowdog  and Father Christmas Party Collection CDs and I was on the launch for this.  Being the naughty blogger that I am, I did not get round to actually blogging everything I had made at the time, the good news is that this means I still have lots of things to show you from my makes!


These baubles are from the CD, each one prints out onto two sheets of card, complete with loads of lovely embellishments (I cheated with the cutting out again and used the Scan n Cut, which picked up every element on the page and cut it out perfectly).  Once cut out I spray n sparkled all of the individual sides (silver).  I put a hole into two of the sides (top and bottom) before putting them together and added the ribbon at the top for hanging and then snowflakes and sparkly shamballa bead below.  Then I glued all the points with Collal Tacky glue to form the cubes you see, once together I added the holly decoration, which also came on the sheets.

I think I will be making more of these to go on our tree at home this year as I really loved how they turned out - shame I couldn't get better pictures of them, but now I have my new daylight Ruby angle poise Lamp I should be able to get better pictures next time.

There are actually 12 different baubles on the CD and 12 more on the Father Christmas CD so plenty to choose from.

Well, hope you like & see you again soon

TTFN

Rach
x




Thursday 9 October 2014

Crafters Inspiration Magazine 5

Well, I took delivery of my Crafters Companion Inspiration magazine number 5 at the weekend, and I have to say ITS AMAZING!!!  I'm not in it, but the girls have done an absolutely outstanding job, it's full of all sorts of Christmas fun, from fudge to decorations, napkins to aprons and pretty much everything in between. 

So, although I'm not in it, having received it and all of the fabulous goodies that came with it, it would have been rude not to have a play wouldn't it?  I was dying to try out an idea in my head for a present card.  I took a 7x7 black card base and printed one of the Vintage papers from the CD and matted this onto the base, then I used some Coredinations colourcore Brights in green and using the small snowflakes embossing folder I embossed only the corners so that I was left with a cross in the middle (slightly offset).  I used some Vintage photo distress ink to give it an aged feel and then used some red ribbon to create the wrapping for the present.  I cut out a scalloped tag from Kraft card and then stamped this with one of the sentiments on the stamp sheet that came with the magazine and threw on some Frantage Aged Ivory embossing enamel (possibly a little more blizzard than light flurry).  I stuck this to the middle of the card using Collal 3D glue gel and then made a bow on my Ultimate Pro and stuck this over the end of the tag again with Collal 3D glue.  The only other addition was some red pearl drops I picked up at the Exeter show.

Having made one of these cards, it would be very simple to replicate with different ribbon, different embossing folders or embellishments.


Well, hope you're liking the magazine as much as me!

TTFN

Rach
x

Tuesday 7 October 2014

And now for something completely different

I'll get back to showing you all my lovely Crafters Companion makes in just a bit, but I wanted to share something completely different for me today.

When I went to Exeter recently one stall I did find completely lovely was the House of Zandra stand.  You may be familiar with the artwork as it's been used for Katy Sue designs, with the shoes and bags etc..., but Sandra Wright has her own website now and goes to shows.  Her artwork is so different from others out there and I just fell in love with one particular image on the 'Fabulous Christmas' CD that it was my first purchase at the show.

I used one of the Invertage pages to make this card and several other images from the CD layered up onto a stepper card, copious amounts of glitter and a bit of acetate (you can't see this very well) and I think this is such a lovely card I may just have to keep it!

I did cheat with the cutting out of the individual items, they were cut on my Scan n Cut (well it has to earn it's living sometime!).

the image in this card is the one that I fell in love with, but I will say that there are so many for you to fall in love with, you will probably spend an entire afternoon just browsing the CD, anyway, if you want to get hold of the CD, or any of the stamps that they make, these can be found here (I'm so good to you).


Anyway, hope you like & will come back soon.

TTFN

Rach
x

Sunday 5 October 2014

Dream Boat

Well, I hope you all enjoyed the Moonbeam Meadow launch this week, and I'm sure some of you are already merrily making cards, it's fab isn't it?!

This card was made with the 'True Love' stamp set, coloured with my trustee spectrum noirs and mounted onto Diesire Cameo Stamping, the backing paper is from the Everyday CD, as is the little epiphany at the bottom, some ribbon and gems and you're there!

Whilst this card design looks very complicated, it really isn't and you should have a go.  I used three squares of card 6x6, which you score and crease on the diagonal, then you glue together so that they come to a point, if you google 'teepee card' there are loads of tutorials, including some youtube videos which will help.


The pens I used to colour this image are:


TN1, TN2, TN4, IG2, IG4, IG5, IG8, BT1, CR6, DR2, DG2, GG3, TB1-4

Anyway, hope you're having a fab Sunday & see you soon.

TTFN

Rach
x

Wednesday 1 October 2014

Everybody say 'aaaaawwwwww!'

Well, I hope you're all enjoying the shows on Create and Craft this week - the team have done an astounding job with all of the stunning makes, I can't wait to have a play with the Christmas CD and stamps!

Anyway, for today, here's another of my makes from the Everyday CD, which is every bit as amazing as the Christmas one, but with the added bonus that you're not humming Christmas Carols in March!


This card was made using the card companions section, which is an amazing place to start if you need a card in a hurry (and we all need those!) I teamed it with some Coredinations Colourcore pastels and my Diesire Ornamental flower frame bit of ribbon and some dew drops and your done, a great card (even if I do say so myself!) for a little one who 'pops' out unexpectedly.

Hope you all have a great day - don't forget Fiona's shows today!

TTFN

Rach
x