HoHoHo its Tree time!

 

Hello!

Welcome to my little crafting place! 

I've just come back from a couple of weeks in Greece, staying in a villa overlooking the stunning Navarino Bay.  It was still hot and sunny over there with temperatures around 29 degrees, so its been a bit of a shock to the system finding that here in the UK its only 14 degrees, and wet!

view from villa overlooking Navarino Bay

 

 Anyway, just before I went away and enjoyed that sunny, warm interlude thoughts were already turning to even chillier times as I'd been busy creating for the September Spellbinders releases

I've already blogged some cards made with lovely Autumnal wax seals but I also had some Christmas 'toys' to play with...

I'd made some of my projects but forgot to add them to draft blog posts to write up while I was away.  How weird would that be to be sitting sunning myself by the pool while writing up Christmas projects?

But, better late than never, and here are a couple of cards using

BP-214 Essential Tag Accessories

S4-1376 Nested Tree Frame 

Both from The Essential Holiday collection by Lisa Horton

  These collections were released on Sept 10th and you can find them in the store now

 

Card 1

 

 

I used the Better Press Tag Accessories set for the centrepiece of the blue card.

When I heard that you can use the Glimmer machine and foils with BetterPress plates I was thrilled as the plates are so beautiful! The picture below shows what you get in this gorgeous set of press plates and dies

 

 I used the HO HO HO and one of the gorgeous ornate corner plates for this, and then layered them using dies from the Nested Tree Die set

 Items used 

etterPress Essential Tag Accessories

Nested Tree Frame Die set

 

Layering Snowflakes Etched Dies 

 Card 2

 I decided on a classic red white and gold theme for this card - the layers and the trees are all in the die set and the sentiment comes from the BetterPress set shown above.

Here's a picture of the Nested Tree set contents

 

Items used:

 

Nested Tree Frame Die set

 

 BetterPress Essential Tag Accessories

 Just a Note

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  THIS is my Affiliate link to the Spellbinders store 

-  you can use it to access the store whenever you buy from Spellbinders

It doesn't cost you anything, but I may get a little reward for pointing you there.

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,

 

 Kathy xx

 

 

Falling Leaves:Acorn Trio 1

 

 Hello!

Welcome to my little crafting place! 

I was super lucky to have some things from the brand new new Spellbinders collections for September to play with.  These collections were released on Sept 10th and you can find them in the store now

 

I chose some wax seals from the Falling Leaves collection. the cute umbrella I shared earlier and this stunning Acorn Trio seal I've made a couple of cards with so far.

Here's the first of my cards

For this project I made a layered seal using different colours of wax but I forgot to take photos as I was making it so I'm sharing some of another seal made using the September Wax Seal club release 

I bought a second furnace so that I could heat two spoons at the same time to make this easier.

This stamp was great to use for this as the impression is lovely and deep! It's also quite easy to cut out - which is a fairly simple way to make layered seals. You make the simple impressions in the colours you want to use, cut out the parts you want (easy enough with small pointy scissors), warm your base wax, then warm the actual metal seal - not too much though - just enough to hold your wax cut-outs so they don't fall out when you turn the stamper face down - now pour your base wax and stamp into it.  

The photo on the left shows all the different coloured wax leaves after they've been cut out , and the econg shows how it looks afterwards.  In fact I wasn't keen on all the green, so I cut out the inner oval shape - just pop in back onto the stamper and trim around with a craft knife - then I melted some gold wax and put the seal into that

 For the Acorn Trio I mixed some different shades of brown wax for the acorns abd some gold for the leaves,  vut out and returned the shapes to the warmed stamp and pushed it into some deep red wax,  To finish I highlighted with gold and bronze pens

 

 

Items Used:

Wax Seal: Acorn Trio

Digital paper panel
Narrow gold strip of card
Kraft card for the tag
Corrugated card from a croissant box
Wax threads
Decal sentiment

 Just a Note

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  THIS is my Affiliate link to the Spellbinders store 

-  you can use it to access the store whenever you buy from Spellbinders

It doesn't cost you anything, but I may get a little reward for pointing you there.

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,

 

 Kathy xx

Acorn Trio Christmas (Falling Leaves:)

 

 Hello!

Welcome to my little crafting place! 

I was super lucky to have some things from the brand new new Spellbinders collections for September to play with.  These collections were released on Sept 10th and you can find them in the store now

 

I chose some wax seals from the Falling Leaves collection. the cute umbrella I shared earlier and this stunning Acorn Trio seal I've made a couple of cards with so far.

This is the second of my cards and this time I made something Christmassy

For this one I made a simple seal using a warm gold shade of wax. I just used a bronze pen on the acorns and on the leaves and when that was dry I used my shiny gold pen on the acorn 'cups' and to add some gold to the leaves

I've known for a while that you can use Spellbinders' Better Press plated for hot-foiling, but finally thought I'd try it out when I saw this beauty and couldn't resist getting my hands on it! 

 

This time I just used some gold foil but II think I'll be using it a lot in the run up to Christmas and will be experimenting with other colours of foil and maybe a bit of cutting out too

 

Items Used:

Wax Seal: Acorn Trio

Sealed Poinsettia Stems Press Plate

 Just a Note

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  THIS is my Affiliate link to the Spellbinders store 

-  you can use it to access the store whenever you buy from Spellbinders

It doesn't cost you anything, but I may get a little reward for pointing you there.

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,

 

 Kathy xx

September Elemental Inspiration

 

Hello!

Welcome to my little crafting place! Here's where I share the things I've been making, and sometimes other bits of waffle!

Today I'm sharing the card I've made for the Daring Cardmakers challenge a coule of weeks ago - I've been up to my eyes in other crafting projects and imminent birthday requirements and completely forgot to post this one.

And it was even my turn to choose the mood-board! oops!

  September Elemental Inspiration

As it's the first Friday in the month it's time for an elemental challenge.

The too-short days and cold weather last way too long for my liking so I can't let go of Summer yet!  There's a hint of Autumnal shades in my mood board, but I think it still has a Summery feel - to join in just choose a minimum of three elements to inspire your card. If you choose the colour palette that would count as one element!

some ideas: the layout, squares and rectangles, wood texture, flower arrangement, vase/containers, drinks, mosaic, fruit, wheels...

I put this together using quite a lot of bits and bobs that were in my 'scraps' box:
The flowers and the jug were die cut from some inked pink and peachy papers left over from other projects
The dotty paper was from a digi printout and there was just enough to cut the vase
I always have a little envelope of green scraps for cutting stems and leaves
The background is the blue piece of inked and embossed card I made when I was trying out this lovely embossing folder a while back
For the round vase I found some paper from Studio Light that had the other colours in the design and could pull it all together

All the dies I've used , along with the embossing folder are by Spellbinders

Note

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  THIS is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store 

-  you can use it to access the store whenever you buy from Spellbinders

It doesn't cost you anything, but I may get a little reward for pointing you there.

There's a UK based shop now, so you c use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by.

 

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,

Kathy xx

 

A whole Boxful of Balls

 

Hello!

Welcome to my little crafting place! 

Here's where I share the things I've been making, and sometimes other bits of waffle!

Today I'm sharing the card I've made for my owns challenge to the Daring Cardmakers this week.  It so happened that I needed a birthday card for my nephew earlier this month so bearing that in mind I made my challenge to match his card!

I'm soooo not a football fan but here in the UK you can't get away from knowing that (unfortunately😞) the football season has started! So this week I'd like you to work with the phrase

 On or At the Ball

However, you don't have to make a football themed card!
Believe it or not, there are actually other ball games you might feature, or you could add a beach ball, or throwing a ball for a doggy friend
OR how about a different kind of ball altogether?
Meat balls, gumballs, high ball glass, disco ball - you could even create a fabulous ball gown, or a 'Strictly' style ballroom extravaganza!

 Visit the Daring Cardmakers Blog

 

 

 I made a football themed box card.

There's something satisfying about the way a fairly flat card just pops out to make a box full of 'stuff'. I kept this one quite simple with some ball shaped die cuts and football kit, plus some images from the pc carefully resized to match circle dies then printed out ready to die cut or punch!

The black and white stripes are for Newcastle United, of course and I made the paper on the pc.I made a 'belly band' in yellow and blue to match theother colours on the NUFC emblem.

Note

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  THIS is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store 

-  you can use it to access the store whenever you buy from Spellbinders

It doesn't cost you anything, but I may get a little reward for pointing you there.

There's a UK based shop now, so you c use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by.

 

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,

Kathy xx

 

Leafy Lushness

 

   Hello! 

Welcome to my little crafting place!

This time I've a card made for The Daring Cardmakers, but also featuring one of the seals I made using the Spellbincers Wax Seal of the Month. 

I do really love this Autumn Leaves seal 

  I was hunting through boxes looking for something else when I came across some 'books' of handmade papers I bought donkey's years back when Garden Centres often had lovely little craft sections in them!

I thought this red mulberry paper with gold leaves in it would make a rich and interesting background for this seal and some simple die cutd from the Sealed collections

I chose the seal with the blue background to contrast with all the red and gold, I cut the leafy sprigs in a couple of different kinds of gold card, and some in red, then made a little sentiment on the pc to match, matted onto glitter card

Very simp[le really but it may ne spotted again as a Christmas card design in the not too distant future!

 

Just a Note

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  THIS is my Affiliate link to the Spellbinders store 

-  you can use it to access the store whenever you buy from Spellbinders

It doesn't cost you anything, but I may get a little reward for pointing you there.

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,

 

 Kathy xx

Falling Raindrops; Falling Leaves Collection:

 Hello!

Welcome to my little crafting place! 

I was super lucky tohave some things from the brand new new Spellbinders collections for September toi play with.  These collections were released on Sept 10th and you can find them in the store now

This time I'm thrilled to have a project using the sweetest wax seal from the Falling Leaves collection.

As you'll see from one of the photos, I got a bit carried away making these little unbrella seals!

I decided to make a Get Well Soon card - and was singing the "Any um-ber-ellas, any um-ber-ellas, to mend today" song all the time I was putting it together! It got quite boring, as those are the only words I know! 

Items Used:

Wax Seal: Falling Raindrops

Die sets Arch Labels and Tag

 Up in the Air View 

 

Just a Note

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  THIS is my Affiliate link to the Spellbinders store 

-  you can use it to access the store whenever you buy from Spellbinders

It doesn't cost you anything, but I may get a little reward for pointing you there.

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,

 

 Kathy xx

Autumn Leaves (Spellbinders September Wax Seal of the Month club)

 

  Hello! 

Welcome to my little crafting place!

This month the Spellbincers club kits celebrate Autumn and Harvest time with all sorts of lovely goodies to use in your crafting. This time I've the first of my Wax Seal of the Month projects to share

 
As usual I started by making a batch of seals in different styles and colours, I found its a good way to focus the mind on what sort of card or other item I could make.

Here's a few of those I made. I did some simple one just stamping into the wax, and then got brave and made layered seals using different colours of wax.  I bought a second furnace so that I could heat two spoons at the same time to make this easier.

 

This Falling Leaves seal from September's Wax Seal of the Month club comes with the coral mix wax beads   

 

  I made this seal first in a bronze-brown shade by mixing different colours until the wax was a suitable shade. I then cut out the oval by leaving the seal in the stamp and using my knife to go around the edge. Often if the wax is still quite soft you can just press the edge wax off with your fingers.

Next I heated a gold mix and when it was ready, I also warmed the empty seal stamper a little. Just stand it on the edge of the furnace then press the cut out oval back into the stamper (it just falls out if you don't warm the metal a bit) Now I poured the gold wax and pressed the stamper into the wax to leave the original seal with a golden rim.

To finish I used a gold pen to highlight the leaves

 

I used a pale blue piece of card for the vertical panel.

Next I matted a piece of deeper coloured corrugated card on to coppery gold card.

I made a tassel with strands of gold and copper thread and used the special was seal circle stickers to ashere in place before adding to the card itself.  

To finish I made a sentiment using 'HELLO' from the Small Die of the Month  

   

 

Just a Note

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  THIS is my Affiliate link to the Spellbinders store 

-  you can use it to access the store whenever you buy from Spellbinders

It doesn't cost you anything, but I may get a little reward for pointing you there.

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,

 

 Kathy xx