Hello every one,  I hope your Christmas preparations are well in hand and you have a little crafting time to help you unwind. As promised I've loaded the first project onto the blog, it is a card that I designed and taught in my regular card classes in Hockley. The instructions that I write up for these classes are also in inches as we are all of an age when inches were what we learnt at school and are a lot more detailed than the ones I use for the magazine projects, as with magazines, the space is at a premium and in class I have a very different mix of abilities,so you'll notice that instruction styles will vary from card to card. In class I teach using Marvey Le plume pens for colouring as I have enough of these for every one in the class so you'll find more detailed instructions for their use although I have added the details in bold for using Pro Markers or other alcohol based pens. If the lay out is a little clunky please bare with me, as this has been cut and pasted from the original publisher format and then edited but I'll get the hang of it in the end. Hope you find the project useful Karen Making Up With Betty Materials  A4 sheet of white card, 4 1/2" x 3 1/2" piece of white card, black paper, silver pearl card, green background paper, silver Mirri board, 22" of 1cm wide black sheer ribbon, 2mm gem, Single line Happy Birthday stamp, Acid Drops AD17 Waste of make-up set. Tools  Die cut/embossing machine, swirl embossing folder, and either Black Versa fine pad & water based felt pens, e.g. Le plume, or a Black Memento pad and alcohol markers, e.g. Pro markers, basic tool kit  ink double sided tape, (DST) or similar, clear stamp blocks.     1. Take the A4 piece of white card and cut 5 3/4 x 11 1/2”. Score and fold in half to make a 5 3/4" square card. Open up the card and fold the left hand panel in half, (left edge of the centre fold), and open out again. 2. Cut 2 pieces of green background paper 2 1/4” x 5 1/4” and 1 piece 2” x 5 1’4”. Mount all of these onto the black paper leaving an even very narrow border on all 4 sides. Run all 3 of these panels through the Cuttle bug using the swirl embossing folder. 3. With the fold of the card at the top, mount the 2 larger panels, (one either side of the crease/fold in the centre of the front panel) onto the front of the card leaving an even border on all 4 sides. Mount the smaller panel onto the bottom of the inside  back panel of the card, leaving an even border on the left, bottom and right hand edges. 4. If Using water based marker pens, take the smaller piece of white card and cut a piece 4 1/2” x 3 1/2”  and using the Black Versa Fine pad, stamp Betty, the border and the quote centrally onto the card. (when using more than 1 image on a panel it quicker and easier to line up the all the stamps onto a larger block, than to stamp each one separately). 5. When well dry take the Betty stamped image, the paintbrush and pens. Draw a little of each pen onto the plastic pallet leaving a good gap between each colour. Wet the brush and remove excess water by running it over the back of your hand. Pick a little of the colour from the edge, (don’t mix the brush into all of the puddle of colour as it will be too intense), and colour in the image. (Skin colour is a   watery No 30 Rosewood pen) . To make the image dimensional, add more layers where you want shadow, (at sides, etc).  If using alcohol based pens, stamp as above but use the Black Memento pad to stamp with and colour as normal with your alcohol pens.  6. When the colouring is completely dry, use the knife and the cutting mat and cut out the inside of the     mirror. A good tip if you have any ragged edges is to gently go around the cut edges with a black pen by placing the side of the nib through the hole and gently brushing along the cut edge. Apply the silver Mirri board to the back of the hole and tape in place using DST. 7. Layer this panel onto the black paper leaving an even very narrow border on all 4 sides. Cut a piece of the silver pearl card 5” x 4” and layer the stamped panel onto it leaving an even border on all 4 sides. 8. Cut the black sheer ribbon in half, bring it around the back of the bottom front panel and fasten it in the centre where it will be hidden by the stamped panel using DST. Apply DST to the bottom 1 3/4” only of the back of the stamped panel and lining up the top of the stamped panel with the folded edge at the top of the card, layer it onto the front of the card leaving an even border right and left.. You should be able to fold the card open at the centre crease. 9. Take the remaining piece of black sheer ribbon, , bring it around the back of the bottom inside panel and fasten it in the centre where it will be hidden by the stamped greeting panel using DST. 10. Stamp the Happy Birthday Greeting onto a spare piece of white card, trim. Layer onto the black paper and trim to leave a very narrow border on all 4 sides. Layer this panel down onto the silver pearl card and trim to leave a slightly wider border. Layer this panel down onto the ribbon leaving an even border left and right. 11. Add gem to the centre of the stamped border

Oh I have been a very, very, naughty blogger! I can't believe my last post was in April, where has the year gone. In my defence, I've been a trifle busy, Christmas designs, magazine projects, a whole new range of premium card toppers, not to mention the website and a hectic schedule of papercraft shows.

Now the show season has finished and I can say a fond farewell to the A1, (most of our shows were at the other end of the country), I have plans, dangerous I know, to tell the devil too many of your plans but I'm getting used to life on the edge. In the coming weeks I'm hoping to post some projects on the blog, cards I've created for class and magazines. I've go our flickr account up and running with lots of card samples to give you inspiration, just click on the tab in the top horizontal menu bar of the website.

All the new products are now online including our brand new range of Toppers. Printed on uncoated bright white 325gsm card there are 12 designs in all, some old favourites and some brand new Characters to make you smile, available at the special introductory price of £1.00 until Christmas.

We have also added some Acid Drop gifts to the website, Fridge magnets and Key rings. They make a great stocking filler for your friends and family, or as a little something for yourself,. Just £2.25 for the fridge magnet and £1.99 for the keyring. I should, at this point, say a big thank you to Bekki for pointing out that one of the key rings was missing a decimal point on the website and was listed for the ambitious price of £199.00, just a tad overpriced I think you'll agree.


So please visit the website, check out the changes and our brand new sample tab and I'll start beavering away on the projects.

Have a good weekend,
Karen

New Designs No Available Online

In True last minute style the new sets arrived just in time to code and price them before we set off for Alexandra Palace. 4 of the 5 new sets are now available on the website and the 5th new set should be with us very soon.

I'd like to say a big thank you to every one who stopped by our stand at the show it was great to meet and talk to you all and your enthusiasm makes sitting welded to my computer a lot easier. Any one who knows me, knows I hate technology, computers and anything electronic and escaping to the shows makes it all worthwhile. I also have to give a big thank you to Elaine who bravely volunteered to help me on the Saturday, (which turned out to be our busiest day ever), as Niki had only flown back from the Peruvian Jungle the day before. Elaine jumped in with both feet and took to it like a natural, hopefully we will be able to persuade her to come to more shows in the future.

Niki made it in on Sunday, jet lagged and tired but ready for action, I'm hopefully going to persuade her to write a piece about her jungle adventures and the very good work she is involved with there setting up school and medical facilities for village children in the rainforest.

Our next show will be in Bury St Edmunds, details can be found at the top of the page or on our events page. We should have the 5th new design with us in time for that. We also have new stocks of the Ornamental Frames set ADFB1 and AD38 Dressed to kill.

Class Project Wednesday April 10th Box Book With Secret Drawer

I got a little carried away this week with the box, book and bag class I promised, even though I missed out the bag! I saw the basis for this project in a magazine, a box book with a soft cover and a secret drawer for sweets inside and my mind started working. The end result is a Book style box with a hard chipboard cover and a windowed drawer that contains another hard cover accordion book inside and a photo frame on the opposite flap.

This is a very simple project although the finished result doesn't reflect that, the kit comes, as always, with a set of full colour instructions and all the templates needed. The covers of the book are made with pre covered chipboard which takes a lot of the donkey work out of it. In the class there should be time enough to finish the book box including cover, box, drawer and frame.

 There will be enough materials to complete the book at home if you don't finish in the class, or you may want to leave the drawer empty and use it a gift box for a very special present. There is also a choice of boards available  to choose from and a very good value kit. I really enjoyed making this project and after class it will be a gift to my mother as a memento of the day we went and flew owls and hawks.

As always the class is held at; The Old Fire Station in Hockley, Essex, it starts at 7pm and finishes around 9.30pm. The cost is still £10 and includes all materials need to make the box, full colour instructions, templates, use of our tools and of course refreshments. I will also bring some craft goodies for you to purchase. This class is an easy class and is suitable for all skill levels. If you fancy having coming along and meeting other like minded people in a fun and friendly environment just drop me an email at karenosborne99@gmail.com   we still have a few places left.

Wednesday's Class Projects

 I promised the girls an inky stampy class with an antique distressed feel, and I've had fun playing around with my stamp collection and my distress pads. The purple butterfly card is using a Crafty individuals stamp and a very old stamp wording stamp by Laura Ashley. The butterflies are spot embossed with Holographic embossing powder.

 This second card is also using a Crafty Individuals stamp as well as a Sandy lion Kelly Pannaci set and a very old Stampington bottles stamp. I never throw anything away, which is good when it comes to having a wide variety of stamps and papers but not so good when it's taken over the entire house!

The last card is made with one of my favourite images, the PSX postcard stamp. See, I told you I never throw anything, I don't know if it's just me, but PSX stamps are so timeless. The images are so delicate and well drawn and the construction always makes me want to stroke them. I had a customer once who bought loads and loads of PSX stamps, she never stamped with them, they all lived in display cases that her husband made and she got a lot of enjoyment just looking at them. I still have and still use, my first ever PSX stamp, the large Pansy botanical that I bought well over 15 years ago. It's battered and blackened, but to me that doesn't matter as it shows the Stirling service it has given me over the years of classes and cardmaking and demo's. It's seen changing styles and techniques in stamping and colouring, it's been plumped, decoupaged, stamped into ultra thick embossing powder, you name it and it's done it. What's your favourite stamp of all and why?

My favourite way to spend the day

OOOOH I've been having fun today. I've been hard at work designing some new sets. 2 new sets and new batches of our ever popular ornamental frames and Alegenon are all ready at the factory and I've worked up 3 new sets which will hopefully follow them shortly. They are currently burning a hole in Niki's inbox. Keep your fingers crossed!

Harrogate, Hail and Soggy Soggy Lemurs

Well we're back from Harrogate and we seem to have brought the weather with us. It was a really great show and it was lovely to meet so many nice enthusiastic crafters. The journey home was another matter, mist, snow and heavy rain all the way home, (4 1/2 hours), unloading the car was a very soggy business. Monday dawned bright and clear and although I felt I could sleep for a week, I had to drag my sorry carcass out of bed early as my sister was taking us to the zoo, (for anyone old enough, I know it sounds like a song), to have a lecture on the monkey collection and hand feed the lemurs. It was sunny to start with but as soon as we got to the zoo, down came the rain in lashing torrents. When the rain had given us it's best shot the hailstones took over. Thankfully the lemurs where more concerned with their furry little stomachs than getting wet and came out to crawl all over us, brilliant!