Christmas Advent House

As soon as I saw this little beauty complete with instructions and a template on Nichole Heady's blog I new it would be a project in the making for me.

My youngest Daughter Natalie is still at home with us and although she is 17 she still likes to have an advent calendar although she hides it out of sight not to look soft.

The house is a perfect alternative to hiding the advent Calendar what could be nicer than 25 of these little houses hanging from the Christmas tree & each one filled with a favorite chocolate and the doors numbered from 1 to 25.

As you can see I only glued down one side of the roof as I figured a Thornton's Chocolate would fit into the house just nicely.

1 down only another 24 to make.

To see more of Jaks creations visit her at http://crafterskitchen.blogspot.com/

Mixed Media Backgrounds

I absolutely love playing with different mediums and textures to create visually different backgrounds for my cards. This one I manages to create after a series of plays but am very much loving the look of it all!!

You will need –

• Red acrylic paint
• Gel crackle medium
• Light and dark Aqua acrylic paint
• Scrap of bubble wrap
• Red glitter paint or glitter mixed through gel medium
• Flocking (I used an orange)
• Clear transparency or watercolour paper

To create –

Roughly paint a sheet of clear transparency (or acetate sheet as it is sometimes called). It doesn’t need to be perfect as you will be adding to this in future layers. Also, you may prefer to use a heavy watercolour paper, it gives a similar effect but more of a matt finish.

Once dry, add a thick layer of crackle medium and leave until thoroughly dry.

Roughly paint the light aqua paint over the surface, again not being precise or worrying about completely covering the surface. This will add to the effect. Once again, leave to dry completely.Pour some of the dark aqua paint onto a flat surface and dab a section of the bubble wrap into the paint. Blot off any excess then blot randomly over the surface. Leave to dry.Once dry, paint the surface randomly with a glitter based paint. Alternatively you may like to add glitter to some gel medium – this creates exactly the same effect.Finally, while still wet; sprinkle some of the flocking onto different areas of the wet glitter paint randomly. The flocking will adhere to the glitter paint and create an extra dimension to the surface.

Both of these cards have been created using the above technique on clear transparency. For the first I have sewn scraps of patterned paper randomly to the surface of the finished background then torn away the excess.

This last one has been created using watercolour card. As you can see the effect ends up similar but has a more matt finish to it.

Rose Wedding Card

I stamped the PTI leaf image directly onto the card stock in Pallete Green Moss ink then distressed the edges of the card in a colourbox ink to match the rose, I printed my rose designs onto smooth card stock and the wording onto Vellum then matted them onto the card I tore the Mr & Mrs wording so that the vellum looked distressed and punched holes and ties white ribbon through the holes, I stock the vellum over the card using glue dots behind the ribbon so that it was invisable from the front of the card.

Below is the images that I designed for the above card you are free to use them for personal use only but please do not share my designs instead link back to my blog for people to download them they are copyright to me.

http://crafterskitchen.blogspot.com/

Click on the images to download at full size.

For more inspiration you can visit Jak at

http://crafterskitchen.blogspot.com/

Dimensional Snow Card

I've used this technique tonnes of times in my scrapbook pages to grunge them up and love the effect. The best part is how easy it is and of course how effective it looks afterwards.

Required –
· Scraps of Christmas paper (I used Basic Grey), additional scraps such as vintage sheet music.
· Gap Filler (also known as pre-mix wall putty and/or spackle)
· Rubber Stamp (I used a Stampin up jumbo roller featuring snowflakes)
· 3 pigment ink pads (preferably from the same colour family)
· Ink brush
· Other bits to complete the card such as rub on sentiments, snowflake design felt tape.

To do –

Cover a 15” by 15” pre-folded card with strips of patterned papers and/or various ephemera until you are happy with the base. Ink the edges of the card with a cocoa coloured ink pad. (Its important to do this now as its more difficult to add bits of edge colouring later).

Measure out approximately 1 tablespoon of the putty and begin to spread it out along one corner and up along the two sides.

Using the roller stamp, roller into the putty while it is still wet to leave stamped marks in the putty. Put aside to completely dry.

Once dry, put out each of the three ink pads. Begin with the lightest colour and apply ink to the bristles of the brush. Dry brush the ink liberally over the entire area of the putty, pushing some of the ink into the grooves.

Next, using the mid tone coloured ink, again apply ink to the bristles of the brush. This time only lightly dry brush the putty on your card. This second colour should enhance the edges of the grooves to bring them out more.

Finally apply the darkest colour ink to the bristles of the brush and dry brush the edges of the card and across small areas of the card to add shadow and depth to the putty. Leave to dry thoroughly.

Once dry, add the remaining elements to your card to complete.

To see more of Sharon's work you can visit her Blog at http://justmeandthem.typepad.com/

Gift Bag Card

Tutorial..

Lets take sizes... I used

2 x 9cm x 16cm white card stock

2 x 8.5cm x 15.5 cm light green card stock

2 x 8cm x 7.5cm backing paper from Victorian Romance cd ( Joanna Sheen)

Topper image cut into a circle with Nestabilities from Victorian Romance cd ( Joanna Sheen)

Scalloped Circle light green card stock

Punch out slots on both cards at the top, the best way to do this is to punch out the 1st then line this up with the next piece turn the punch upside down and align the Punch so the hole will be punched in exactly the same place keeping the 2 pieces of card together and re-punching.

Stick the next size card (mine was light green) down on top of the white card covering the slot holes, these will be re-punched.

I punched out the holes again by aligning the punch up with the first slot holes, then add the background paper the ribbon and the front embellishment.

Put the card pieces to one side until you need them.

Now to making the bag - you will need a piece of A4 paper

Along the long side of the A4 paper score at 2", 5". 7" & 10" there will be a small piece left over at the end.

Turn the paper 45% and make a score line at 2" down the length of the paper.

Fold all of the score lines before moving on to the next instructions.

At the extra edge that was left over from the first set of score lines add double sided tape, this edge will stick down on the inside of the bag as shown in the 2nd image.

At the side of the paper where the 2" scoreline is you with fold this to form the base the best way to describe how this is done is imagine you are wrapping a parcel creasing in the short sides of the bag first so that you are left with triangle points on the wider sides.

stick these triangles down with strong double sided tape.

From the open end of the bag crease both of the sides inwards as you get near to the bottom you will need to turn up the base of the bag as shown in the second image

You can see the bottom of the bag shaped so that there is a V shape in the bottom of the bag this allows the bag to open when everything is stuck in place.

The second picture is showing the bag stuck down with strong double sided tape to the back card.

Add tape to the last side and align up the card front before completely removing the tapes.

Side view of finished bag.

To see more of Jaks work you can visit her Blog at http://crafterskitchen.blogspot.com/

Using Plastic Stencils in the Cuttlebug

Hi all, Ive been really enjoying experimenting with my cuttlebug and I'm so pleased i bought one. Ive been able to drag out supplies i haven't used in a long while and use them now in an even easier way than before. So drag out all your plastic stencils and today I'll show you what i taught to all my Monday card ladies....enjoy
Open up your cuttlebug and put in your A plate then B plate on top and then your plastic stencil.

Next lay your card over the top of your stencil.

Now lay your silicone baking mat over the top of your card.

As a shim i use 4 layers of card....as you can see these are the backings off the emboss folders you get....this way you will all know exactly how thick it should be.

lastly lay your second B plate over the top to complete the sandwich and roll through. Remember to never force anything through your machine...if your silicone baking mat is thicker than mine just leave out one of the card shims....and the results.....

What i found most annoying was that hole they use to hang the stencils in the shop.....but I just cut around mine and colored it with chalks...here's a close up

Turned out like a fancy Lilly pad for my cute little frog. Well i hope this has inspired you to use some of your old supplies....see we didn't waste money buying all those stencils !! :)...Valita

A note from Julie

Wonderful Tutorial Valita and as I'm a proud owner of a cuttlebug myself I will definitely be giving this a go !!

Everybody go and check out Valita's fantastic Blog HERE it is full with inspiration!!!