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Fresh Flowers
More flowers? But, of course! Today a card and chart. I will begin by explaining how and why I made this card.
I started by die cutting my mat and layering. I love that with the new Rectangles 2 I dont have to do any measuring for any A6 mat and layering. the smallest is die cut with white card. Then I positioned the larger intricate flower from the Intricate Flowers set on the white piece and secure it with low tack tape. I also die cut the branches from the Bunch of Flowers and trim off two branches and the bottom.
The reason why I used this one to die an aperture is because is a Thinlit which means that is a solide die therefore does not leave a residual embossing on the negative. The framelit, or hollow die, does leave a residual around the negative area.
I then I just die cut some more floers from both Bunch of Flowers and Intricate Flowers and assemble it all together.
Of course, you will have noticed that flower shapes are the same through out the sets of flowers, Bunch of Flowers and Flower Vases or Intricate Flowers. Well, only shape is repeated not size, even if you had all three sets you would not have any one flower in a size repeated.
I like to combine different sizes of flowers to create different effects - as in the card above -so I thought I would make three sets full of flowers so that depending on size preference one can choose one or the other.
Each set comes with different shapes but all in two sizes each: Flower Vases in 3/8" and 3/4"; Bunch of Flowers 1" and 1 1/4" and Intricate in 1 1/2" 1 3/4" (all sizes approx.).
To illustrate it I made this little chart so that you can see the sizes of each set, it is a scan of a real size printed chart and die cut flowers.
I hope this little tutorial has been helpful. -
Flower Garland
I love flowers, unfortunately I am not a very good natural flower keeper so I like to do artificial ones out o paper so that I can have flowers that last long. I am always looking for new ideas on how to make them and display them. So today I am sharing how to make flower garlands for the home.I started with an assortment of inks - Distress Inks, Distress Stains and Dylusions Sprays - a selection of flower dies - Fresh Moments: Intricate Flowers - and loads of coffee filters. Coffee filters are essential as they will hold loads of water which is needed to colour the flowers without breaking.
Die cut two filters at at time, depending on the size and intricacy of the flower you may get away with three filters. I die cut all four sizes at once using my Big Shot.I put a drop of the Distress Reinker (Spun Sugar) and then spray the yellow Dylusion. Then I sprayed water over the inks and finally place the die cut flowers - all layers together - and let them absorb the inks. Because there are two colours it will create a naturalistic look through the flowers.
Another way to add colour is to use the Distress stains directly over very wet flowers. I dont clean the plastic underneath so that a little of the other colours come through.
Also looks really nice if you soak the flowers and then just dab the distress ink pad. Or just use the Dylusions.
For a lighter effect, my favourite option is to spray the flowers with loads of water, then make a circle using the distress stains, place the flower in the centre and with the gentle help of my fingers let the colour soak through the flower. As you can see on the right loads of flowers are quickly done and each layer is unique.
There are many ways to make a garland, but sewing them together seems like a good idea for a quick and easy fix. I just put then through one by one.And you can see the finished garland bellow, over an open book. (I love how this looks, I am thinking of putting it as it is on a frame.
But you can use it to decorate so many things, like curtains or around a plain frame like bellow.
I hope you enjoy and will be making some flowers and garlands soon. it is so much fun! -
Creativeworld recap
As you probably know by now, last week a group of us went to Paperworld as Sizzix had a stand in the Creativeworld section. I flew on Wednesday and did not come back till Tuesday very late. It was really exhausting, but all in all a great experience.
The stand look great as usual.The machines centre display was clever and a great focal point. And look, for the first time one of my collections was in display. Actually there were two, Fresh Moments (which is available now)and Winter moments (which you can see on the right side of the left photo). It was a very special moment to see the dies and display up.
I was really happy to be demoing for one of our UK distributors, Personal Impressions, which is a company really close to my heart. I had a blast in no small measure because I was beside the fantastic Dyan Reaveley. Such a fun and inspirational woman.
One great thing about trade shows is that we get to meet different companies, and since I love paper getting to know the people at Garza Papel (amazing 100% cotton paper) or the guys at St Cubherts Mill was great! Specially the samples I got to take home.
Mr Pete Hughes was demoing at the Rayher stand, one of our distributors. You know, he is a big hit there, with crowds gathered around him all day long!
And behind Pete there was this lovely display made by the Rayher in house design team which was made entirely using dies from my Everyday collection, the Butterflies and Scallop Flowers. Seeing that was really surreal as I did not expected at all!
And the super talented and incredibly nice and funny Anna was demoing at our Sizzix Stand. I stalked her like crazy!Can you spot the new look of the Big Shot? Such a pretty machine. And the comes with a completely different set of dies exclusive to the starter kit, which you are going to love if you like Everyday.
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Custom Circle Die Guide
I love circles, I think they are visually very pleasing and easy to create a lot of things, you can do very clever things, like what the super talented Pete Hughes does - like dinosaurs, Toucan or uniforms! - or just use them in a much simpler way.
The thing is that many sets of framelits do come with circles as extras, ie, the centre of flowers, and as I keep all sets together sometimes is hard to find the right die for the size I need. this is why I use a custom made Circle Die Template that allows me to see all the sizes I have in one single sheet and see if they will be the right fit.
So I take a piece of card of an unpopular color for me. The reason is that way I kind of warranty that the card will always stand out against any card I will need to cut. (This will make more sense in a photo bellow.)
I place the Framelits and write the set they belong to. I secure them with low tack tape and run it through the Big Shot. Here I am using the Lovely Flowers, Old Labels and Flowers 3 framelits set.
You can keep adding more as and when you get the other circle dies. It is good to do it even though they may be repeated sizes as there may be projects in which you can do with repeated sizes.
Once you have it, it is really useful. See, I wanted to cut that flower, but not sure which circle die would fit best. So I place my circle die template on to the paper, then you can see perfectly which size will fit best and where to find the the die. Because it is die cut out of a "unpopular" color for me, it will stand out against most papers that I have.
I also keep the positives, although I dont use them half as much.
But they are useful when planning matting and layering.
And you can always add more at a later date, or even make a second sheet. Also, it is useful if you are going to a craft shop and you want to make sure you do not repeat sizes. Much easier than carrying all the dies with you.
Of course, you could do this with all of your dies. I personally dont have the time or energy to do that with any but the circles as it is my most used and universal shape. Anyway, I hope this is helpful
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Advent Diary - final part
Happy New Year!I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. My husband and I went to my parents home in Mallorca, where i grew up. It is a beautiful island and we were blessed with ten days of sunshine and warm temperatures which is unusual for this time of year even in Mallorca.
I am happy to report that I finished my Advent diary. (Previous posts here and here.)
I mostly did all the writing during the month except for the days we were away. the pictures though I had to wait until a few days ago as I did not have a computer until then.
I printed all my mobile photos the same size and by accident I prented the date and time when they were taken. Now, I would usually trim that info away, but since the aim of this project was to tell what, when and where we did this advent, I thought it was best to keep it as it would provide extra info.
For the photos I die cut extra tags out of acetate using the same Tag & Tie die from Tim Holtz, and attached them where ever possible.
Each day has number tag that is decorated with the number die cut with the Wordplay Tim Holtz die, then either a single paper tag, acetate one or a mix of them.
Of course, the 25th had many pages since it is my birthday and I did take more than usual photos.
Once completed, I joined them all with one of the Tim Holtz chain balls, I prefer those to the ring binders and those seem to stick out and are harder to store.
As you can see is a rather large tag book, but I shall treasure as it contains a record of 25 really special days.
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Christmas cards
By now everyone who has had the intention of making their own Christmas cards will have done so. Usually, I make about sixty Christmas cards and send them all, but this year i haven't had the time and energy to do so. Always leaving it for the last minute, I have had to make do with cards from my stash, duplicate cards from older projects.
I have a Christmas box in which I put stuff that is strictly seasonal stuff, half done cards from a step by step article, left overs from a blog post...
But that sill is ok, I think, because some of my closest and precious friends will get one of these. I hope they will appreciate them!
Left card: Hero Art Sizzix set; top is an old Sizzix XL dies (one that I love) and some framelits circle dies; right card is done using Tim Holtz poinsettia die and embossing folders.
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My adventdiary project
When a couple of months ago I did this advent project (which is basically a diary of the December days before Christmas) I tried to convince myself that I would indeed make the reform to write something per each day tag. I knew that was a hard task, never been good at diaries!But funnily enough all the tags are up to date though I need to finish the front covers for each day (like the above one).Since my best friend was in town for a few days, some of the days have extra tags!This is how the advent diary is looking today. Minimal changes from the original, basically the made up tags are the ones with the hole reinforcers.
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A Very British Christmas Card - Festive Blog Hop
Welcome to the Sizzix Festive Blog Hop - for one day only! It's great to be a part of it! Firstly because it's the first time the European and US bloggers have come together for an event like this, and secondly because it's the countdown to Christmas!
Here's the line up for the day, make sure you check them all out to get some truly festive inspiration...
WIN - If you'd like to be in with a chance of winning a pack of Textured Impressions Embossing Folders, simply comment on this post on our blogspot page or Tammy's post on the US Sizzix blog (depending on your location), telling us which is your favourite item from our Christmas collections! 10 lucky winners will be chosen at random from each blog on Wednesday 5th December. Check back on Thursday to see if you're a winner!
This 2012 has been a beautiful year for Britain, with the diamond Jubilee and the Olympics. It has been a pleasure to be living in the UK and be able to participate in these events. It seems fitting to make some of my Christmas cards to fit withe Britannia theme, and what better to do that with that using the Union Jack die.
I took a landscape Fabriano folded card, a beautiful handmade Italian paper, which is my preferred card for my Christmas cards as well as for the wedding stationery I have done in the past. I place the cover facing down on to the Bigz die and secure it in place with low tack tape.
This is how it looks. I love the tone on tone effect, but today I wanted something more in the colours of the season.
Then , I made an insert out of patterned paper. All the papers I used for this card are from Basic Grey's Aspen Frost collection.
Now it is starting to look more colorful!
Then I place a thin acetate on the back of the front. This is important as without it the next step would not work.
I die cut then once again the Union Jack flag using a soft blue patterned paper. Then I place the elements carefully attaching to the acetate using vellum glue.
I chose an old rub on with a Christmas message on as I wanted the sharp white that you can not replicate with anything else but a rub on. The message is directly on to the acetate so when the card opens it looks like the message floats.
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Ideal home show for Christmas
Last week I was invited to participate with a presentation at the Christmas Craft Theatre at the Ideal Home Show in London. The Ideal Home show is an event that takes place at the Earls Court exhibition centre and while the Christmas event takes place in November and it is a recent addition, the original Ideal Home show takes place in March and has been going on for more than a hundred years!Of course I chose to showcase Sizzix! These were the projects I demonstrated:
They are all made with tim Holtz dies as the brief was Christmas crafting, I choose some of his latest dies. One of them is now part of my ATFCP - All Time Favourite Craft Product! - the Tattered Poinsettia die with the matching Texture Impression embossing folder.
You can see as well that I did some boxes using another of my favourite dies from the last release, which is the Pillowbox, also one of Tim's designs. It makes making a pillowbox a treat rather than something time consuming and hard to achieve.
One of the poinsettias ended up as a candle decoration. I attached the fabric (green polyester and white 100% cotton coloured with red distress inks) to cardstock to give it a bit of stability.The lovely Leonie Pujol was the demonstrator just before me. I have known Leonie for quite a few years now, but since she moved out of London I havent since her that often. It was so great to get to see her in action in real life (and not through the TV!) She is so talented and such an inspirational person, one of the true greats of our little craft industry.
And on Sunday, Leonie was off, so Laurence Llewelyn Bowen did his thing just before me. The man is so funny and such a show man. I enjoyed it! But it was a bit daunting going on stage after him.
The show has such a lovely Christmas feel to it, with many Carol singers including a gospel choir.
The view from tthe first floor was amazing. Now I am full in the spirit of the Season!
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Journaling with texture and color
Hi again Sizzix fans!
Today I continue my art--journal adventure with Sizzix dies, Ranger products and a bit of wind in the hair. I've got a mini-tutorial for you - mixed-media journal spread with gesso, Crackle Paint, Distress Stain and Dabber Acrylic Paint... here it goes!Here is my journal page :"Intoversion - Extraversion"
And how I got this effect? Here is evetyhing done for you - step by-step!
Products:
- 657837 - Sizzix Bigz XL Alphabet Die - Word Play - Tim Holtz
- 658295 - Sizzix Framelits Die Set 4PK w/Stamps - Postage Stamps - Paula Pascual
- white cardstock and 1mm chipboard
- Distress Stain - Ranger - Tim Holtz
- Crackle Paint - Rock Candy - Ranger - Tim Holtz
- Dylussions spray - Ranger
- Gesso
- Archival Ink - Jet Black - Ranger
First step was preparing white cardstock for the background and choosing the right photo. In my page I wanted to make a simple "window" effect - and here I could use one of the dies from the Postage Stamps set.
Then I took a piece of kraft chipboard and cut out the alphabet from the Tim Holtz "Word Play" set. I kept the leftover chipboard for later use...and gathered the letters which are meant to be my texture on the page.
Using the rectangle die I made a window in one of the cardstock pieces I had. I stamped around it with Ranger Archival Ink and one of the stamps from the Postage Stamps set.
Next I took the chipboard letters and glued them making my texture and composition. When it was done I covered them with a coat of gesso and dried with a heating tool.
I took a jar of Rock Candy Crackle Paint from Tim Holtz and applied it on the letters and around my stamped "window". I let it dry to make sure the crackles will appear.
When the page was dry and crackled I applied Distress Stain in 3 colors - mostly on the crackle alphabet.
Next I added some black color from Dylussion Spray and metallic gold acrylic paint which i rubbed with my fingers in the desired places to reveal more of the crackle texture.
When the pages were dry I added little bundles of thread and glued the pages together. I added some handwritten and printed journaling - the project was ready!
I hope you liked my ideas - happy creating and see you again next week!
xoxo
Finn
