Even more samples on TV…

Being on a design team is all about working to deadlines. Julie Hickey does such a stunning job when presenting on Ideal World/Create & Craft TV, you really don’t get even the slightest hint of the frenetic activity behind the scenes. Now I have no idea what was happening at Craftwork Cards HQ, but I do know that the samples that I had to make up didn’t arrive as planned and had to be emailed to me at about 10:30 and I had these three samples into the post by 4:15pm for special delivery the next day for the show that evening. How’s that for pressured deadlines – and I wasn’t the only one… being on a DT isn’t all fun 😉

All three projects feature the brand new Country Garden papers. The first is a small pop-up box card with punched roses. The second is an adapted large pop-up box, with freehand cut vase filled with roses. I cut one of the sheets to resemble a table cloth, cutting the corners off the flaps and adding two pop-up triangles to create the ‘table’ surface as the card opens up. The vase and flowers are mounted on springs:
This way, the card still fits in the envelope, but depth still appears as the card opens. The card is braced by a tabbed insert that keeps it open and the table top taut. The final one is a self-closing collapsable box which I have created and decorated up. All of the papers are edged with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink for a bit of definition.

The samples all featured on the Craftwork Cards Pick of The Day shows on Tues 1st – Wed 2nd April, although if you blinked you’ll have missed them as the paper packs and card packs sold out and the samples weren’t featured in later shows. Good for CWCs, but not so much for me 😉

Botanica goes three dimensional

I’ve created these two pieces for Craftwork Cards using their fabulous Botanica kit which includes papers, die cut toppers and bows as well as the Candi – read more over at their blog!

Rose Blossom Purse Card (for Creative Expressions)

Welcome to another year on my blog, and we kick off with a card featuring the latest Creative Expressions Singles stamp – Rose Blossom Purse. The Singles range are rubber stamps pre-mounted on cling foam and cut out ready for slapping onto acrylic plates for stamping. I’ve done a simple card, concentrating on using lots of different colouring techniques for my tutorial…

Time Flies – thirty cards and a gift box

I fell in love with the ‘Time Flies Collection’ from Craftwork Cards at a recent Woodware Retailers’ Day. I got hold of the 8×8″ paper pack and the elements pack and set to work to create as many individual cards as I could using the elements and as little additional kit as I could. Using mainly Pumice Stone Distress Ink and double sided tape or glue, I made 30 cards and decorated a left-over chocolate box to make a gift box. Additional materials include foam pads; Onyx, Majestic Purple and Pewter Liquid Pearls and a bit of ribbon. A really fun project for the bits in between all the Christmas festivities, and a super collection of papers and die cuts. Several of the cog background cards are suitable for the ever elusive ‘man card’ as well. Clickable gallery follows…

UPDATE 02-JAN-14: Anyone attending CHA 2014 may just see some of these 🙂

Papercrafted Clematis Card

As I type, my head is pounding, my ears are popping, and the light-sensitive lights are on and it’s only 11:25am. Something to do with the English heatwave breaking down – there’s thunder and lightning and I love it!

Another challenge stimulated a spurt of creativity this morning – it’s another for the ‘Less is More’ blog, and this week it’s ‘hand made flowers’. This card features my handcrafted clematis flower, using the Leone-em bumble bee paper punch to create the petals and an ash leaf punch for the leaves, shaped with an embossing tool pressing into funky foam. The centre is a sun punch, with a smidge of Aubergine ProMarker underneath to darken the centre and similarly shaped. A quick mount on Bazzill pre-embossed cardstock, and a strip of thick white card with the sentiment from WOW! Everday Sentiments clear stamp set embossed with WOW! Metallic Silver embossing powder.

I’m in the process of planning a ‘Papercrafted Flowers’ workshop at my studio in Leicester – if you’re interested, let me know below and I’ll keep you informed 🙂

Lamp shade with embossing powder…

 

It’s a 3D theme over at WOW! Embossing Powders’ Challenge Blog this month, so since I’m still in the middle of preparing my final projects for college, this seems a natural progression for my design team blog post! Read more here.

College – Term 5 – Final Major Project – another paper craft light shade

Well after a flurry of activity over the last two weeks watching my new studio get installed, and then decorating it, constructing furniture and moving in – as well as emptying out and putting back to right the dining room, conservatory and some of the craft room – I have my first ‘working’ day in the studio.

Of the various things I have to catch up with, college work is one priority as I have a mid-way assessment tomorrow. Consequently, I have taken pics of my latest light shade in my series. This one features one of the patterns I gleaned from a visit to the Islamic artefacts at the British Museum, drawn into Illustrator, adapted for the round and then screenprinted in opaque white ink onto thick tracing paper, and then constructed onto a card frame. As with the previous post, here are photos of the shade in daylight, and internally lit at night.

College – Term 5 – Final Major Project – Paper crafted light shades

It’s already March, and only two weeks before we finish Term 5. One more term to go, and that’s my college course done and dusted. If it weren’t for my new studio to look forward to working in, and the list of jobs to do in the house, I know I would be dreading the end of college. Though I was unwell last week, I did carry on with my final major project. It’s grown out of looking at Islamic geometric patterns – I’ve learnt to construct geometric shapes with a compass and ruler, transferring them into Illustrator, and then finally applying them to 3D polyhedra. I settled on a truncated cuboctohedron as my main construction, and played about with various construction techniques.

Here are just four of the anticipated dozen final pieces. Some are uninspiring in daylight, but come alive when internally lit. Others inspire in both lights. I can tell you that I got a blood blister in my finger tip from all the scoring of folds. I can reveal that the shadowfold light required 360 separate knots. And that I stuck down each of the 400 petals on the frilly one! All are handcrafted (though I did use the Cricut machine to cut out the shapes to my design!) and nothing more than fabric or paper and glue. They are roughly 6-7 inches in diameter and designed to sit over an inexpensive battery powered LED light (£1 for two in Poundland!).

Arabian-style Lantern

I’ve created this Arabian-style lantern from scratch – paper crafting at its most time-consuming! For this version, I’ve used WOW! Embossing Powders to coat most of the surfaces and more pictures and instructions are here. A template for those brave enough to do the cutting is here.

Tattered Flowers in a Paper Vase

 

I’ve taken a bit of time out from designing for my college course to make this canvas featuring a paper craft vase and paper craft, die cut, hand coloured and constructed flowers. I’ll be entering it into Tim Holtz’s Tattered Floral Challenge as it is his Tattered Floral die that I used to cut the flowers from 160gsm thin card. The vase is made from the same card to my own design – SVG file available if anyone would like it…

Each flower layer was wrinkle free distressed in first a layer of Fired Brick and Festive Berries both sides, dried and then wrinkle free distressed in a layer of Fired Brick with Ripe Persimmon. They were then dried before being spritzed and flicked with water and left to dry naturally. The centres were punched and then sprayed with Dylusions Granite spray. The flowers were assembled onto florists wire and stuck together with matt multi medium and left to dry over night before being glued into the vase and onto the canvas background.

Here’s the inspiration pic, a vase of flowers in our lounge: