The weeks seem to be flying by at the moment, our show schedule for spring/summer is well under way, with Port Sunlight ans Stamp Magic under our belt and Portsmouth,Newbury and Stevenage to go. I've also got 3 magazine project spreads that I'm working on at the moment including a Christmas one, Christmas, aaaaaaaar! Ok, deep breath, here are the last projects to accompany the free cover mount giverway.

Stepper Card                     

Timing   45 minutes

Materials List

Free Acid Drops & Whatnot Set cover mount set

1 Sheet  A4 white card

A4 pre scored scalloped 3 panel step card

AD412678 Le suh paper pack Paisley Vine

Black Memento ink pad

Black Versafine ink pad

Letraset Pro Markers

18 x 3mm self adhesive black gems

1 x 2mm self adhesive red gem

Sakura Sardust pen Dark Ruby Red

How to create

1.       Take the red/gold pearl sheet from the Le Suh paper pack and cut a piece 11cm x 9cm and 2 pieces 7cm x 5cm. Layer the large red panel onto the large centre panel of the stepper card and the 2 smaller pieces onto the adjacent side panels making sure that all the top edges line up, leaving an even border on the left, top and right hand sides.

2.       Cut a piece of White card 9.5cm x 7.5cm, stamp the lady with mirror image into the centre of the card using the black Memento ink pad and colour in with promarkers.  Stamp a further image onto a spare piece of white card and colour just the hand.

3.       Stamp an additional image onto the gold sheet from the Le Suh paper pack using the Versafine ink. Allow the ink to dry thoroughly and from the gold image, cut out the including  the fingers. Layer on to the main image. Cut out the hand and wrist from the additional white image and layer it onto the main image.

4.        Cut 3 pieces of white card 4cm x 2cm and stamp the quotes onto them.

5.       Take all the stamped panels and layer them onto the black/gold pearl sheet from the Le Suh paper pack. Trim to leave a very narrow, (1mm) border on the 3 wording panels and a narrow, (2mm) border on the image panel.

6.       Cut a 1cm strip of the red/gold paper and layer  it across  the front scalloped panel 1cm  down from the fold. Layer the image panel onto the centre panel of the card leaving an even border on all 4 sides and layer on the 2 part quote onto the side panels lining up the top edges with the centre image. Layer the greeting quote centrally over the red strip.

7.       apply 1 of the black gems to each corner of the main image, 3 under both of the quotes and 4 to each side of the red strip. Apply the red gem to the ladies ear.

8.        Fold the card at the pre scored folds. Apply glitter accents to lips and nails with sakura pen and allow to dry thoroughly to avoid smudging.

 Elegant Birthday Card                    

Timing  30 minutes

Materials List

Free Acid Drops & Whatnot Set cover mount set

Left over 12" x 12" coordinating light weight printed paper.

2 Sheets A4 white card

Silver Mirri Card

Tuxedo Black Memento ink pad

Letraset Pro Markers

Sakura Sardust pen Silver Star

Lilac 1cm wide ribbon

Manual die cutting machine

How to create

1.       Cut a piece of white card 25cm x 18cm, score and fold in half to make a 12.5cm x 18cm card. Cut a piece of silver mirri card 12cm x 17.5cm and a piece of the remaining coordinating paper 11.5cm x 17cm.

2.       Layer the coordinating light weight paper onto the silver mirri card leaving an even border on all 4 side and repeat layering down onto the folded white card.

3.       Cut a piece of the silver mirri card 10cm x 10cm and emboss it using the free embossing folder. Cut a piece of the white card 7.5cm x 7.5cm and stamp the lady in the hat image onto it using the Tuxedo black Memento ink. Colour with Pro markers.

4.       Layer the stamped image into the middle of the embossed silver mirri card frame and then layer onto the card leaving an equal distance from the top, left and right hand edges.

5.       Cut a piece of white card 3.5cm x 5cm and stamp the quote onto it and layer onto silver Mirri card. Trim to leave a narrow even border on all 4 sides. Layer onto the front of the card about 1cm up from the bottom.

6.       Tie a bow with the lilac ribbon and notch the ends, affix onto card between the 2 stamped panels.  Using the stardust pen add a glittering highlight to the necklace and the bow on the hat.

To celebrate the weekend I'm adding another 2 projects from the ones I designed to go with the free covermount, there are 7 in all and I'll try to get them all out while the magazine is still available to buy at Tesco's. 

Vintage Paper Piecing Card                      

Timing    60 minutes

Materials List

Free Acid Drops & Whatnot cover mount set

6" x 6" square cream card

Core'dinations black / cream cardstock

AD412678 Le suh paper pack Paisley Vine

Cream card

White card

Black card

Black memento ink pad

Black Versafine ink

Letraset Pro Markers

3mm foam square

8 x 2mm pink gems

Tombow glue stick

Paper sanding block

How to Create

1.       Cut piece of black core'dinations card 10cm x 10cm and  using the free Embossing folder cover mount. Sand Gently over the raised black embossed design until the cream colour shows through. Sand edges of the black embossed panel if desired.

2.        Layer this panel onto a piece of cream card and trim to leave a narrow, (2mm,) border on all 4 sides. Layer again onto black card and trim to leave a very narrow, (1mm), even border on all 4 sides.

3.       Cut a piece of the pale pink Le Suh paisley vine paper  14.5cm x 14.5cm. Layer onto black card and leave a narrow, (2mm), border on all 4 sides. layer this down onto the cream card.

4.       Stamp 2 lady in the hat images onto white card using the black Memento ink pad. Clean the stamp. Stamp the same image twice onto the pink paisley vine paper and once onto a sheet of pale yellow paisley paper from the pack, using the black Versafine ink

5.       Colour 1 of the images stamped onto white card using the Letraset Pro Markers. Carefully cut out the uncoloured white image, cut a wavy line across the bottom to soften the edge of the design. From one of the pink images cut the bottom half of the image from the neck down leaving extra paper at the bottom of the image. Glue this layer over the white one, Turn over and trim the bottom edge of the pink paper to match the white one.

6.        From the yellow image cut out the entire head and hat cutting across the shoulder but around the back sleeve.  Layer down over the full image.  From the coloured lady image cut away the back sleeve and the hat, except for the part in the middle, leave extra card at the bottom so that you can turn it over and trim to match the other layers after you have glued it down.

7.       Finally cut the front of the hat, including the long top strip from one of the pink images  and glue this on top, allow to dry. Roll all of the edges gently over a pen or similar curved surface, touch up any edges with a black Pro marker if necessary and apply to the front of the card using 3mm foam squares and add the pink gems to the necklace to ass glamour and hide the joins

TOP TIP           

When paper piecing, to get a convincing looking finish don't skimp on the layers. Think of it as decoupage and you build your colour layers up accordingly one on top of the other. This adds dimension and a more realistic, rounded look.

Matching Dotty Card                        

Timing 30 minutes

Materials

Free Acid Drops & Whatnots  cover mount set

2 x A4 white card

Silver Mirri Card

Double sided brown dotty / pink paper

Worn Lipstick  distress ink pad

Tuxedo Black Memento ink pad

3mm foam pad

Baby sponge or cut n dry foam

Manual die cutting machine

1 x 3mm AB gem

How to create

1.       Cut a sheet of A4 white card 29cm x 14.5cm, score and fold in half to make an 14.5 square card. From the remaining sheet cut piece 10cm x 10cm and 4cm x 1.7mm.

2.       From the double sided brown dotty / pink paper cut a piece 14.5cm x  7cmx and a 14.5cm strip featuring a row of white dots.

3.       Take the 10cm square piece of white card and emboss the swirl border onto it using the manual die cutting machine

4.       Take the Worn Lipstick Distress pad and the sponge and swirl ink around the edges and into the corners of the stamped image panel, stopping at the inside edge of the embossed border. Start lightly, using circular movements and try to avoid leaving any hard lines, the embossed border will pick up more ink and appear darker.

5.        Using the  Tuxedo Black ink pad stamp the first part of the greeting into the top right hand corner of the embossed frame and the second part into the bottom left. Stamp the lady with the mirror image centrally into the remaining space. Colour with Promarkers.

6.       Stamp the greeting onto the smaller piece of white card also using the Tuxedo Black Memento pad.

7.       Layer stamped image panel onto the silver Mirri card and trim to leave an even, (3mm), border on all 4 sides. Layer the greeting panel onto the mirri card and trim to leave a narrow, (2mm), border on all 4 sides. Layer the remaining 2 pieces of brown dotty paper onto the silver mirri card and trim to leave a very narrow, (1mm), border on the long edges.

8.       With the fold of the card at the top, layer the larger brown dotty panel vertically onto the card leaving an even distance on both sides. Layer the image panel onto the card about 6mm down from the top edge and the dotty border across the card about the same distance from the bottom of the card. Layer on the remaining greeting panel using 3mm foam squares.

9.       Apply the 3mm AB gem to the lady's ear.

Top Tip

A good rule of thumb when you are designing your card layouts is to break up lots of vertical lines with a horizontal one. This adds interest to the card and draws your eye through your design. 

I seem to be on a bit of a computer frenzy at the moment so I'm striking while the iron is hot and posting another of the projects I designed for the free cover mount stamp and embossing folder set out with Simply Cards and Papercrafts in Tesco's at the moment.

Dotty Home Dec Hanging                   

Timing   45 minutes

Materials

Free Acid Drops & Whatnots  cover mount set

 A4 sheets of white card

12" x 12" Double sided brown dotty / pink paper

Grey board / mount board

Letraset Pro Markers

3 pink paper distressed flowers, 2 leaves, small white paper rosebud

Pink 3mm ribbon

1 x 3mm ab gem

Fine black liner pen

Paper sanding block

Black Soot Distress pad

Tuxedo Black Memento ink pad

Baby sponge or cut n dry foam

Brown medium gauge craft wire

Tombow glue stick

Paper Drill / Eyelet tool & Hammer

 How to create

1.       Cut a piece of grey board 18.5cm x 12.5cm. Cut 2 pieces of dotty paper  19.5cm x 13.5 cm. Using the Tombow glue stick, apply one of the pieces of dotty paper to the mount board, allow to Dry. Trim off excess paper with a knife and cutting board. Repeat for the other side.

2.       Sand all of the edges, going front to back only, until you have a rounded white edge. Do this to both sides.

3.       Cut a piece of white card 13cm x 8cm. Stamp the woman with mirror image over to the left hand side and the quote to the right hand side using the Tuxedo black Memento pad. Colour with Pro markers.

4.       Cut a piece of the dotty paper 13.5cm x 8.5cm. With the sponge and the Soot Black distress pad lightly buff the edges of the spotty board, the stamped white panel and the pink side of the double sided paper. With your fine black liner pen draw a line around the outside of the image panel, breaking it up with dots if desired.

5.       Layer the white stamped panel onto the pink side of the double sided paper and then down onto the spotty covered board leaving an even border on all sides.  Punch a hole in the top right and left corners of the board.

6.       Take about 1.5m of the brown craft wire, loosely fold in half. To make the heart, cross the ends over and gently fold down until the wire crosses at the bottom. Twist a couple of times to hold wire in shape. Adjust the shape of the heart as needed.  Thread one end of the wire from the back through each hole, bring the excess up to the top of the board and twist the end of the wire back around to fasten, snip of any excess.

7.       Cut 4 lengths of the ribbon long enough to make a good sized bow and tie them around the twisted wire a t the bottom of the heart. Apply the 3 pink flowers and the leaves to the bottom right hand corner and the white rose to the top left hand corner. Apply the AB gem  to the lady's ear.

Top Tip

Sanding the edges of any paper covered board gives it a much more rounded and professional finish camouflaging any rough edges and getting rid of excess paper. Gently buff the edges with ink,  or leave with the distressed paper showing, whichever look you like they both work just as well.

I think this must be a record of sorts for me, 2 posts in less than a month! As promised here is the first card project. I've selected a project for the free cover mount giverway set that is currently available on the front of this months edition of Simply Cards and Papercrafts available from Tesco stores only, it was also available on last months Simply Home made, again only available in Tesco's.

De-bossed  moonlit Monochrome Card           

Timing  40 minutes

Materials List

Free Acid Drops & Whatnot cover mount set

White 6" square card

Silver mirri card

Mid grey lightly patterned paper

Tuxedo Black Memento ink pad

Black versa colour pigment ink pad

1cm wide red grosgrain ribbon

9 x 2mm round red gems

Hard/firm rubber brayer

How to create

1.       Take a sheet of A4 white card, cut a piece 10cm x 10cm. This next bit can be a bit tricky so practise a couple of times on rough paper first. Take the free cover mount embossing folder and open it up. Cover the the half that has the black printing on the front, (the negative side), with a piece of spare paper. Ink up the brayer with the black verscolour ink pad and gently roll over the bumpy half of the embossing folder, making sure that all the raised areas are covered. Wipe off any ink from the surrounding embossing folder.

2.       Line up the 10cm square of white card with the printed side of the embossing folder, fold shut and emboss through your die cutting machine. You should have a black/grey printed de-bossed pattern on the card.

3.       Stamp the lady in the hat image into the de-bossed frame using the Tuxedo Black Memento pad. Colour the image with Pro Markers, To get the monochrome effect, colour the skin with your usual colours and then use cool grey 1 to 4 to colour in the rest of the image. To add a highlight, colour the bow on the front of the hat with red.

4.       Layer the image panel onto the silver mirri card and trim to leave a narrow, (2mm), border on all 4 sides. Cut a piece of the grey paper 14.5cm x 14.5cm. Add a border of the red grosgrain ribbon across the paper 1.5cm up from the bottom. Trim off any excess and layer the paper onto the front of the card leaving an even border on all 4 sides.

5.       Layer the picture panel onto the top left of the card about 1cm in from the left and down from the top. Layer the wording panel into the bottom right hand corner of the card.

6.       Add the red gems to the necklace of the stamped lady.

It's been a very long time between visits and I had to dust away a lot of cobwebs but here I go again grasping the whole technology nettle. I've started a new Pinterest account and boy is that addictive, I keep veering of course and staring at all the gorgeous vintage clothes out there. I think I'm going to have to add another post-it note to the monitor with FOCUS written on it. Next on the list is to update our flickr account with all the new card samples that I've made over the last few months and getting into a routine with blog postings.

I've tidied up the blog a little, there is a link at the top to my Pinterest boards and also a link on the left that will feed you onto the events page of the website so you can check out our show schedule. I've freshened up the home page on the website and included some card samples and I'm also working on a permanent projects page for the site. I can see my new computer is going to be red hot and my eye's square, not to mention a certain, already over endowed, part of my anatomy spreading from all the time spent welded to my office chair. Gym anyone!

I'll leave you with a couple of card samples from our new range of stamps and will be posting step by step instructions as soon as I have them written and a reminder that we have a stamp and embossing folder kit as a free give away on the front of this months Simply Homemade available only at Tesco Stores.

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