Snowman and Holly for Christmas

Over the last couple of years it seems that Christmas has been geting colder and there have been far more snowmen around so the theme for this year's Christmas cards has to be: Snowman and Holly.
I decided to make it with some of the new ribbon that arrived with Craft Fairy last week.



To make this card you will need:

Snowman with checkered scarf rubber stamp from the Merry Stamper range on the Craft Fairy site.
Holly leaves
Candy Cane Christmas ribbon
Art and Graphic pens by Zig, Kuretake in colours 29 and 50
Some vintage Doodlebug paper : Jolly Holly stripe
Kuretake Calligraphy pen in silver for the border of the image and the card.
Stazon in Stone grey
14 cm x 14 cm base card in white plus extra for the stamped image
Foam pads
glue
Double sided tape

To make the card
Stamp (with Stazon), and colour your image on a spare piece of white card.
Edge the card with the silver calligraphy pen
Stick a piece of Christmas paper onto the bottom of your card.
Tie an esy bow in the ribbon and use the double sided tape to attach it to the card.
Attach the image and the holly leaves to the card with foam pads. Attahc a button to the holly leaves.
Draw a dot dash pattern on the edgeof the card as seen.
As an extra advantage I decide to enter it into the let it snow, Simon Says Challenge and the Paper Take Weekly challenge for Cut it Out.

Calligraphy Daisy Card

Some of you may have already purchased my new Flower drawing book and seen that there is a daisy added to the flowers that you can draw with the wonderful Calligraphy pens from Kuretake.




What I have shown you here is how to use the drawings to create a card.

The daisies are drawn on a piece of card which was 7 cm x 9 cm approx.
I used Butter and Rose to draw the flowers and Olive Green 56 in Art and Graphic pens to draw the stems and the leaves.
The daisy in the middle was drawn first when the second colour was at its strongest and the two others were then drawn. The lighter colour on the two flowers either side give some appearance of recession.
The card was then edged in the gold metalic calligraphy pen to make it look as if it had a border.
Finally I added someof the new 16 mm satin ribbon in willow to give the card some texture and luxury and a saying to finish it off.

Read My Lips Lucille

I just had to make a card out of this fabulous stamp, Read my Lips Lucille. I've had her for a while, but I really wanted a good saying to go with her. I found the one that I've added here and neadless to say, I'm over the moon. The stamp is on sale at my Craft Fairy site and it is made by the wonderful Della from I Brake for Stamps. Her Humerous Senior range is the original and the best too.

What you will need:
1 base card, 140mm x 140mm
Contrasting card for layering
Read my Lips Lucille stamp
Zig Kuretake tut pens in colours: 207 (for skin), 56, 23, 49
A button for the corner
A saying.
Feel free to copy the one that I've used. I printed it out on the computer, cut it out and layered it up.
16mm scarlet satin ribbon for the centre of the card.

I really didn't think that this lady needed my usual pinks so I went for no nonsense colours, but because it is nearly Christmas I added some reds too.

Super fun Christmas

This is a card for the grumpy old ladies in us all.

Are you all getting ready for Christmas? If you are then here’s a rather different card for you to make this month. It’s a funny one for a change.




You will need: 1 base card 140mm x 140mm,
I used white linen card.
1 piece of white card 1 piece of red card
1 piece of doodlebugs jolly holly paper
1 length of 9mm red saddle stitch ribbon
1 sentiment and the package lady stamp from the 'Censorship' sheet of unmounted rubber stamps.
Stazon in Stone Gray
A selection of pens to colour the image.
H2O waterbrush from Kuretake.
paper glue 3d foam pads.

To make the card Stamp the image onto a piece of white linen card. Colour it in and trim the card to leave a fairly generous border around the image. Stick the image card to the red card and trim to leave a thin border. Stamp the sentiment onto another piece of white card and mount onto red card and trim to leave a similar size border. Cut a piece of jolly holly paper to cover about a 1/3rd of the card and stick to the base card. Tie a knot in the ribbon and use it to cover the join. Stick the images to the card with 3d foam pads.

Getting ready for the NEC in November

Now, I know that it's a couple of weeks away, but you can never be too ready and the Hobbycrafts fair at the NEC is so big that it needs a lot of thought.

So.... if you can think of ways that I can make things better for the fair and your experience better too then leave a comment.

Port Sunlight and the Happy Stampers

Craft Fairy is off to Liverpool to set up at the Happy Stampers show in Port Sunlight. This is one of the best shows of the year as it is attended by such dedicated stampers and organised so well by such lovely people. I really can't wait!

See you all there.

A break from the norm

Cards for men are always so difficult to find so this should really help you all out. It's not the usual pretty card that I bring to you today, but a real bruiser of a card with a clear man sized message.






Don't you think that this will make a perfect card for the man in your life?

If you want to make it then you will need a 140mm x 140mm base card
Some man coloured paper
The Hypertension Harold Unmounted rubber stamp
Stazon in Stone Grey
Kuretake Art and Graphic pens Nos 260, 71, 8, 82.
Water pen.

The rest is up to you.

Who's Going to Ally Pally

Hands up if you're going to go to Ally Pally.

If you are, why not come along and visit us at the Craft Fairy stand.

We'll have lots of fantastic ribbons, buttons and bows as well as our huge range of paper flowers at knock down prices.

See you there.

Join me at the Art Stamps Fair at Newbury

Join me at the Art Stamps Fair at Newbury this wekend where I will be holding lots of Make and Take sessions on the Craft Fairy stand. What I will show everyone is how to make gift bags without needing to measure anything.

This is just an example of what you can make. I'll add more if I have the time today or tomorrow.

Lots of New Flowers Have Arrived

After months of negotiating with a company in Thailand the first of our own, Craft Fairy, brand of paper flowers have arrived.

These three packets are just three of the nine new colours that we have in stock.

Now, I chose the colour combinations myself. Did I make good choices? You tell me in your comments.

Back at Last

I must admit that I've not blogged for quite a while as the shows have taken me away from the computer. I do miss it though and so I am getting on with creating again. This is today's effort which uses the fantastic hydrangea stamp from Time To Stamp that is made by I Brake for Stamps.

To make it:

1. Colour the hydrangea stamp with the Art and Graphic Pens from Kuretake and stamp it twice, colouring up between stamping. Use the H2O water brush to move the paint a little and added some extra colour where the shadows should be.I cut the images out and then got on with the rest of the card.
2. Cut a base card 10.5cm x 28cm. Score this at the 14cm point to make a card 10.5cm x 14cm when folded.
3. Cut a piece of pink card and scored it and then cut it to fit over the join in the base card.
4. Stamp the message, which is from the Inspirational sayings plate, on a piece of card and cut it out to leavea a small border. Mounted this on to a piece of pink card. This was then stuck to the base card.
5. Stick the hydrangea images slightly overlapping on to the card with a mixture of adhesive and foam pade. The adhesive was for the bottom hydrangea and the foam pads for the upper image.
6. Decorated the lower part of the card with a broken line of green, use one of the greens that used on the stamp for colour continuity.

New Header

Have you noticed that we've got a new header? Don't you just love the fairy.? She's also the new logo on the Craft Fairy site so you'll see a lot more of her in the future.

I'd love to hear what you have to say about her so leave your comments for me to read.

A Corsage from Paper Flowers

Recently I've taken delivery of a large number of fantastic paper flowers and they are too wonderful to leave untouched in boxes until they sell. So I've decided to put my floristry training into practice and show everyone how to use the flowers to make a corsge.

You will need to set out what you need to start with:

On my table I had small yellow (it said yellow on the packet but they really are cream!) rose buds.

Small open tea roses in cream.

Medium open tea roses in fuchsia.

Large curly roses in Cream.

A couple of green hydrangea petals and some tacky glue.

First of all I cut the green flower in four as seen below.

Then I layered the smaller roses as shown below. Start with the smallest flower at the top and gradually wor down to the largest of the three.

Now twist the stems together.

Add some glue to the base of the leaf .

Glue behind the flowers as seen below.

Repeat the same steps with flowers and leaves for the other side. Lay them on the table and cross over at the centre point.


Put the large rose in the centre and then twist the wires together at the back of the corsage so that they lie flat. At this point, this is what you'll end up with.

However, I decided that it looked a little empty in the middle so I glued some green petals behind the central flower and I was happy with the way that it looked.

Challenge 82 - Kids Kardz!

I know that I don't very often make cards for boys but this time I'm making the exception because it lets me use this great stamp from the Kids Collection by The Merry Stamper.

This card was made for

Challenge 82 - Kids Kardz!

on My Time to Craft.
This fab boy stamp is from the set of Sketch kids stamps from The Merry Stamper.
I also used some of our highly desired dinosaur ribbon.
Some Kuretake Art and Graphic, double ended pens for the colouring and a waterbrush for the shading.

I do hope that you like this effort as I know what a pain it is to make cards for boys and I hope that any slug hunter that gets it will love it too.

How chuffed am I, I've just had one of my tutorials added to the Inspirational Tipe, Techniques and Tutorials blog.







So please check it out for mine and other great tutorials.

Fennel Seed Head Card

The challenge on Our Creative Corner this week is for something old that's new. Well, like almost everyone else I've got lots of things in my stash that are old and neglected. In my case it's a brayer. I bought one some time ago and I've not been able to master it at all. So this card is for you to see how you can use those bits of card that you practise on and think aren't good enough.

I am often asked for cards for men and it is always difficult to come up with anything for them. So much of the stuff in the shops is covered with beer mugs that I decided to go for something refreshing and natural. Flowers are out for most men but seeds and weeds seem to be fine. This is what you get in this card.

What you will need:


Fennel Seed Head from Stampinback
Pieces of waste card from when you've been learning to use a brayer
or some nice paper
Stazon in Stone Grey
Sentiment stamp from I Brake for Stamps
Light duck egg blue ribbon from Craft Fairy
Toning background paper for the base of the card

Happy crafting

Ribbon Flower Tutorial 2

Well! The response to my last flower tutorial was huge so it's spurred me on to do another one and as we have just added fabulous satin dot ribbons to the Craft Fairy site this was an opportunity to use them too.

So above, is the finished flower and now I'm sure that you all want to see how I made it.

First you will need to assemble your ingredients:

On my table I had:
4 strips of hot pink satin swiss dot ribbon each measuring 15 cm.
A few buttons. I hadn't yet decided which ones to use. You will need one bigger than the other though.
Cotton
A needle. Use a sharp one.
Start your flower by putting some glue on one end of the ribbon:

Fold it to the centre add glue to the other end and fold that to the centre too. Your ribbon should overlap and form a loop that the glue holds together in the centre.



Once you've done this you can layer up the pieces as seen in the picture below and now you're almost ready to sew them together.

I played around with the buttons that I had on the table and I finally chose a pink and a green button as I liked the way that they looked.
You need to be aware that you are sewing a lot of layers of ribbon together so that's why you will need a sharp needle. I started by sewing just two pieces together to get the position right.


Now layer up the pieces and sew together. Add your buttons and sew together and your flower is ready to go...

A necklace for a change

This post is a bit of self indulgence as I made myself a necklace and I wanted to share it so I decided to add it to my blog.

I bought some beads for Sandra's Accessories and she had a similar necklace on show and I decided that it looked easy enough to make. It was and here is the evidence.

It's not the best photograph as it's a scan but the light wasn't good enough to tahe a photograph.

Watercolour flowers with Kuretake Calligraphy pens

When I was at a recent show many people loved the calligraphy pens but they didn't think that they would be clever enough to use them for writing. So here's another use for calligraphy pens that needn't frighten you.
First of all you'll need at least two calligraphy pens in toning colours. I've used a light and a dark one from the Heart pouch set.
What I then did was touch the side of the lightest pen with the dark pen.

This will allow you to write in two colours.

I kept the darker edge of the pen still and moved the light side in a rough quarter turn and got a petal. I then moved the paper a bit and repeated the above. I did this until I got about 5 petals. Just remember to move the paper round every time you want a new petal.

Pull Treat for Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and, while we want that special gift from the one that we love, we also want it to be beautifully packaged. So here is an idea for making the packaging look superb and the treat inside it will seem so much better too!

This pretty pink package is made with:

a heart die cut

pink calligraphy pens
9mm pink saddle stitch ribbon
3mm saddle stitch ribbon
a sheet of heavy paper
1 sheet of medium weight card
1 flat gift

The tutorial for making this gift wrap is to be found on splitcoast stampers resource page. The flower making and pen blending technique can be seen here.

Once you have mastered the technique you can make the package bigger or smaller to suit the gift. I would love to receive this. Now, how can I persuade my husband to make it? I'll let you know if I'm successful

Ribbon Flower Tutorial

As many of you may know, we sell lots of ribbon at Craft Fairy and I have now learnt not to be amazed when customers ask me... What can I do with ribbon? So to help out those who don't know, here is my latest tutorial.


Gingham Ribbon flower:

1. You will need a 10 inch length of ribbon. I used this black and white gingham. You will need at least 23 mm ribbon for this to work. Ribbon available from Craft Fairy.
   
2. Thread in your chosen colour. I used white but red would be quite nice if you have red on your card or page.
3. Two buttons, one slightly bigger than the other.

Now comes the fun part:

Thread your needle and with small stitches, stich along one edge of the ribbon.

When you get to the end of the ribbon, pull the thread to make the ribbon into the sort of cartwheel shape that you can see in the picckie.

Sew the ribbon together at the back... No one wants to see tacking stitches.

Now sew the bigger button on first and then when it's secure sew the smaller button on top.
There we are, ready to be used.

Fairy, but with a twist

Yet more fairies. Well, yes, but with a twist as I made this using more blue and beige. I also wanted to enter the Sketch and Stash challenge with the fab layour that they have this week, and the Spoonful of Sugar challenge that is also running. That one is for lots of layers and I certainly used lots on this card. The card is again made with my soon to be released fairy images so keep on looking and as soon as they are ready you will be the first to know.

Stained Glass window card

Stained Glass window card is my choice for the latest challenge on Our Creative Corner. They have a challenge for blue and green so I thought that this fitted the bill really well. I made it some time ago but I was keeping it for something special and this challenge really is something special.
I wanted to be the first to enter. I really get a kick out of that. So silly, I know but indulge me.

Now, don't be fooled into thinking that I've put on any stitching. It's dots made with the pen. Quick and simple. Makes up for the age that I took to colour in the stamped image.

I know that you are going to want to buy it immediately so go to Craft Fairy now to get it. It's the beautiful Stained Glass Flower stamp.

And now for a gift bag

The current challenge on Our Creative Corner is for 3D projects so this is what I've decided to make. After a spat of cards, I decided to return to my earlier love and that is the gift bag. So here is the party fairy on a quick and easy gift bag.
The beautiful hot pink gingham ribbon is just in and just £1.50 for 3 metres.

Are you dying to get your hands on these Images?

Baking fairy cooks up a happy birthday.

This card is the latest from the digital images studio and they will be available to buy soon, soon, soon, I promise.

Gardening Fairy

I think that I'm going to get over excited now that I've sussed this digital imaging thing. This little gardening fairy is the latest to come out of the Craft Fairy studio and don't you just love her as much as the last one. I think that these fairies are a little like your own children. You love the first one to bits and then the second one comes along and you love them just as much.


The ribbon is from Craft Fairy naturally. It's a beautiful 9mm baby blue gingham.

The digital images are almost ready to go on the web site. Only a couple of glitches to iron out and they will be for sale.

A Spoonful of Sugar Challenge 85 Hearts

The latest challenge on a Spoonful of Sugar is for Hearts so I just had to use this really cute stamp to make a card.

This card shows you that love is not for the exclusive use of the young and I think that it is so sweet.

I used the Flaunt It sheet from I Brake for Stamps that was feartued in 'Quick Cards Magazine' last year,

So, if you already have this then get on with the cards. Valentine's Day is on the horizon.

Favourite colour combo

This challenge from Everybody Art challenge 72 is no hardship as I'm only too delighted to make a card in my favourite colours. Who isn't? So off we go with....

A pink card!!!

To make this card I used my stash papers but the cute little stamp is one of my favourites too. It's a silhouette stamp but as you can see, I've used colours on it to give it definition. Pinks natch.

This is the stamp in the raw and it can be bought by clicking on the image.