Monday, October 27, 2025

Barn Star

 

Hello

welcome to my little crafting place!

I'd like to say my Christmas card-making is in full swing, but while I've started, the pace is more of a stutter than a swing. Still i gave it a bit of a kick start with  help of the lovely Barn Star Wreath die set.

For making a bunch of cards it's perfect - I spent a while cutting lots of the elements from the die set in differecnt colours and types of card.  I used shiny, textured, matte and glitter card, lots of gold and silver as well as my other favourite Christmas colours. 

I added a few more holly and pine stem dies from other die sets so I could cut lots of foliage at the same time,  I've quite a nice collection of poinsettia dies so I did the same with those. Then it was easy to put several cards together fairly quickly.

 
I buy most of my card, card blanks and envelopes from PDA Card and Craft - they may not be the cheapest, but the quality, variety and speedy service is second to none and I just adore these beautiful deep coloured creased card blanks. They make a fabulous backdrop for all the pretty bits!
The card was ledt plain on the first one but  I added a few spots of glitter (Glamour Dust) to the second and I think it was a mistake

 Materials

 Other
Turquoise card blank from PDA Card and Craft 
 Coloured card in various finishes
 
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, and please come back soon!
 
 Kathy xx






Tuesday, October 21, 2025

Let's Build a Snowman (with video)


 

Hello

welcome to my little crafting place! 

Just how cute are the little figures,  Christmas Tree and roly-poly snowman in the Spellbinders October Small Die of the Month club? I couldn't resist using them all to make a pop up card.

Here's the front - I will add a sentiment to it but I've not decided which yet. The ribbon goes under the hot-foiled upper panel and slides through a holder at the back to keep it in place and hold the card closed for mailing. 


 I added a white panel to the inside back of the card and a hot-foiled arch shaped piece to the inside front.

I used white glitter card for the snowy landscape - these 3 pieces are fixed in place with 'box hinges' - imagine the sliding cover of a matchbox. There are many videos and tutorials on the web about making pop ups, and I'd say that it's worth doing a search and looking at a few because you'll find the ones that work for you - some are way too complicated for me!

I made a little video to show it - it's not great but it gives the idea! I'm completely in the dark when it comes to editing videos so what you see is the whole thing,  'warts and all' 



A couple of close ups

 Materials

from Spellbinders;
 
 
  kit includes Polished Brass foil, but I used silver
 
 Other
Red card blank plus extra for front panel
White card
Blue card 
White Glitter card
Red ribbon
 
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, and please come back soon!
 
 Kathy xx





Thursday, October 16, 2025

Wax Seal Christmas Tree

   Hello


welcome to my little crafting place! 

I'm having such afun time working with some of Spellbinders October club kits and this time I'm finally getting round to sharing what I made using the tree shaped seal I made while experimenting with the Wax Seal of the Month club

I got a bit carried away this month and tried all sorts o ways to use and add to the lovely 'Merry & Bright' Wax Seal. This one kind of grew into a Christmas Tree! I can't remember my thought process but then I rarely can!  I think I'd already made one regular seal with green wax when the idea of trying to make the seal part of a tree.  Maybe I was already thinking about adding it on top of the tree die in the Small Die of the Month set... 

Anyway, I did a pour and scrape with white wax for the lettering, then had two ovens each with green wax in their spoons.  The first spoonful was used to stamp the seal into, then with the second lot I made the rest of the tree shape by pouring carefully freehand.

 If you try this, it's best to leave the stamp in place while you do the second pour, so remove the handle of the stamp and just use the stamp itself when you stamp into the green wax (if it's too hot to hold wrap the screw end in a folded piece of kitchen towel - or use heat proof gloves if you have them) - it's much   easier to see and pour the shape you want without the handle in the way

 
I wanted to keep the card simple and let the seal be the star so I matted it onto some fine corrugated card, then gold glitter card before adhering to a fern green card. I'd trimmed a couple of cms off the side to make a fat rectangle rather than square card, so used the bit I'd trimmed off to foil some of the sentiments from October's Glimmer of the Month club
To complete the card I added a small red bow below the tree and a 2 layer star at the top 


 

 Materials

from Spellbinders;
 
includes Silver Bullion powder
 
sentiment with gold foil

 Other
White Wax beads 
Mix of green Wax beads 
Fern Green 14x14cm card blank
Fine ribbed corrugated card 
Gold Glitter card card for matting 
Matte Gold card and star punches 
Narrow red ribbon

 
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, and please come back soon!
 
 Kathy xx


Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Simply Glimmering

Hello


welcome to my little crafting place! 

The Spellbinders clubs for October are simply wonderful!

The project I'm sharing today is something to show how this month's gorgeous Glimmer of the Month club plate can make Christmas card-making really eye-catching but simple.

I hot foiled the plate directly onto a deep blue card blank using the Polished Brass foil from this month's club. Next I cut a narrow panel from the same card.  folded and adhrered a strip of the foil to make the border and glued the panel to the side of the card.  I taped all four of the sentiments together and foiled them too - one to use now, the rest to use later. 

The sentiment was matted onto gold-brass coloured card and adhered in place.  I found a small pieve of matching ribbon to use, but for mailing I'd probably use a die-cut ribbon bow instead, a maybe a twine bow. Next I cut a few of the tiny elements from the Barn Star Wreath die set released a couple of months ago and added them too.  I think I'll either punch some red berries to add to the holly, or use some tiny gems - I think an extra pop of colour would be good.

 Materials

from Spellbinders;
 
  kit includes Polished Brass foil. Plate and one of the sentiments 
 
from Country Christmas Collection by Annie Williams  
leaves and pine cones

 Other
Deep Blue card blank, plus extra for panel and sentiment
scraps of coloured  card for die cutting
Ribbon

 
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, and please come back soon!
 
 Kathy xx

Tuesday, October 14, 2025

Sequined Wax Bauble

  Hello


welcome to my little crafting place! 

I love the Spellbinders clubs for October!

The project I'm sharing today is a cute bauble I made with  the Wax Seal of the Month and the lovely sparkly background is this month's gorgeous Glimmer of the Month club plate

I hot foiled a piece of deep blue card for the background using silver prism foil, added a length of narrow silver ribbon across the top, and suspended a silver die cut bauble with bow (from one of last year's Simon Hurley sets) on silver twine.

The 'Merry & Bright' Wax Seal was stamped into pale blue wax, and while still hot liberally sprinkkled with some tiny pastel coloured sequins I found in my stash.  I pressed them into the wax while the stamp was still in place using my finger. I'm not a great lover of sequins and I never buy them, but they seem to arrive here anyway!

 Materials

from Spellbinders;
 
includes Silver Bullion powder
  
 
  kit includes Polished Brass foil, but I used Prism Silver
Plate, and one of the sentiments 
 Other
Light Blue Wax beads 
Tiny pastel sequins 
White card blank 
Dark Blue for hot-foiling
Silver card for matting 
Silver ribbon
Silver baker's twine 
 
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, and please come back soon!
 
 Kathy xx

Tuesday, October 07, 2025

Trimming the Tree

 

Hello

welcome to my little crafting place! 

Just how cute are the little figures from the Spellbinders October Small Die of the Month club? Add in a lovely layered Christmas Tree and a roly-poly snowman and this is one wonderful set of dies.

Last time I showed how I made a whole bunch of well-wrapped-up kids ready to go out and build a snowman (check back for that one), so it's only right to use the tree dies along with more of my ready-made figures this time. 

Process:

Deep teal coloured card blank plus extra of the same for hot-foiling

Use the plate and sentiments from the October Glimmer of the Month and hot-foil with gold foil onto the spare teal card  (save the spare sentiments for later makes!)

Trim down and mat the panel on to gold card and adhere in place

Make up the tree - I added white glitter glue to the top pieces but you could cut them in glitter card.

Arrange the tree and figures and partially afix so you can still wind the gold twine into place under their hands and the edges of the tree.

I used 2 strands of gold twine twisted together with gluey fingers!  Arrange it on the tree and under the figures to look as though they are adding lights to the tree.

Add a punched star to the top of the tree 

Add small gems over the twine for the lights

Mat the sentiment onto gold card and add to the bottom of the card 


 Materials

from Spellbinders;
 
 
  kit includes Polished Brass foil, but I used gold
 
card for die cutting from 
 

 Other
 
Teal card blank plus extra for hot-foiling
Gold card for matting
Gold twine 
Coloured gems 
 
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, and please come back soon!
 
 Kathy xx