My Craft Studio Samples for Winter Wishes CD

Hi everyone.  What a whirlwind the last couple of weeks has been!  Firstly I got a new job (thanks to everyone for their good wishes and crossed fingers!) which I will start next week and then there has been sample making and my favourite of all going to the Hobbycraft Show at the NEC.  My feet were red hot by the end of the day as it just happened that OH had bought Billy Joel tickets for that night.  I was so tired by the end of the night that I didn't even look in the Hobbycraft bags till the next day – I have never done that before!

Anyway, this week’s post is all about the samples I made for the My Craft Studio Winter Wishes CD.  As ever they were a bit of a rush but I love doing them.  I know that I can say no and not do the samples, but I am just too nosey!  Once I know there is something happening I just have to say yes so I can see what it is!  Now if I am completely honest I am not really a ‘fairy’ person, I have two nieces so I do venture there occasionally but it’s just not me as a rule.  However I did like this CD – the fairies are not adult looking and are really sweet.  It has also got lots of boxes and crackers and things on it which I just loved making – and Christmas is the one time that you can get as heavy handed as you like with glitter!  The cracker hardly took any time at all to make and I was amazed how good it looked (if you ignore the big blob of ribbon I put on mine, but more of that later!).

The first card up was the first thing I imagined when I saw the images.  It didn't work out quite how I wanted however and this ended up my least favourite card sample.  I used the Heartfelt Creations Ornamental Add On dies and some Artemio Circle Dies that came with my Happy Cut Machine.  The topper image I took into MCS and played about with until I had covered the flowers in the corners with a cut out of the background colour.  Then I used the digital punch to cut out a circle and then softened the edges to blend out to white.  I used a sentiment off the CD and made it slightly larger and then used another Artemio circle die to just cut out the middle as it was originally a snowflake shape.  In the software I chose a backing paper and then intensified the colour and adjusted the contrast to make it much darker to contrast better against the white.  I added some gems and it was done.  All in all it wasn't horrible, but it just didn't come out as well as I had hoped.  Can you spot the blooper?

Next I made one of the pillow boxes, they are so quick to make and with the lovely snowflake pattern I just roughly traced sections of the snowflake pattern with a quickie glue pen and then covered it in crystal glitter.  I traced round the gold flowers and glittered them with gold glitter and then stuck on some small cream roses from my stash that I had also added some glitter to.  I also cut out a card stand out of white centura pearl using a Joy Crafts Lattice Card Stand die as I noticed that last time I did a pillow box they put it right at the front of the set but as it was lying down you couldn't see the decoration, I did have to cut it down a bit so that the pillow box could sit on it correctly.

This next card worked out quite well and Diane from MCS kindly sent me an email saying that she particularly liked it.  I started out using the Heartfelt Creations Oval Window die and cut two of them out of white centura pearl card.  Next I measured the die to see how big I wanted the window to be and then found the a nice blue backing paper and using the digital punch feature in MCS cut the window oval out of the backing paper so I could see where everything would be on the card, in the left hand corner I used a sentiment and robin from the MCS Christmas Overture CD.  Using a backing paper and a topper that I thought would go together I digitally cut a circle out of the topper, and faded out the edges, then I made the circle larger so the faces would show through the window and not be too small then I blended the topper into the backing paper.  Before I grouped it together I used the front blue backing paper to make sure that the faces were in the correct position once I cut out the window.  Next I printed everything out on 120gsm paper as I was going to die cut through both the paper and the card beneath and didn't want the print to add too much weight to the card stock.  I used an oval die that was close to the size I wanted, but a bit smaller, to cut out the window and then using the window as a guide kept trimming it back by eye until it was the right size.  It didn't have to be too perfect as I was sticking a window on the back as well!  Then I cut out a couple of sets of the Tattered Lace Snowflake dies and a Tattered Lace Reindeer, I put the windows and the snowflakes in a box and sprayed them with Stick and Stay and then glittered them all with crystal glitter and finally put a red gem on the reindeer’s nose and then just stuck it all together.  I added a piece of acetate between the two windows so I could stick on some round glittered pearls as faux snow.

Next I made a lovely (if I say so myself) cracker and then ruined it by putting too much of the wrong ribbon on.  The crackers are really quick to cut out and make and I again followed the pattern with a quickie glue pen and crystal glitter and added a few small stick on glittered roses.  I left a gap in the glitter on the edge that I was going to stick using the red liner tape so it would stay stuck.  I was really pleased with it until I had to finish it off by securing the ends – nothing I had looked right so I used some cream ribbon, that didn't look great but I also tied the bows too big and spoiled the whole effect.  I was really short of time by now and had stuck the ribbon down with wet glue so the knots wouldn't come undone – so that’s how it had to stay!

This was my favourite card – and it didn't take too long either.  This card came out of a mistake when I was doing the window card!  I cut the window out of the card instead of separately so to cover it up and not waste the card I got out my large circle dies and cut out a circle that was larger than the window.  I then stamped in sepia some Heartfelt Creations (I just love their stamps) leaves from the Holly Berry Precut Set on to green card and then cut them out using the Ornamental Add On dies – I think I cut out 11.  On the actual card front I used the Inkylicious Happy Christmas stamp and heat embossed it in gold – I am getting braver with my stamping, I think using the Perfect Medium pad and then putting the powder makes it not seem so daunting.  I added the red glitter gems that I bought in a Hobbycraft sale last January as the holly berries and then stuck the leaves onto the card.  Next I cut out the small baubles out of two toppers (one that I had flipped so they both faced the same way) and then the larger baubles out of glitter card, I used the Spellbinders Heirloom Ornaments from 2011 for all of them.  I added an edge of wet glue round the edge of the smaller baubles and added glitter – not as neatly as I would like but I have never had a very steady hand with that sort of thing.  When everything was bone dry I brushed away all the spare glitter and taped the baubles together trapping a piece of clear thread that I wound round two tiny brads that I covered on the front by adding a couple of extra holly leaves that I cut off the stem.

And finally I did a quick gift bag.  These are so easy to do using the software.  Just measure the bag, size up the topper and sentiments and then matt and layer and add some ribbon.  And how much nicer does it look that just a plain bag to give a gift in, I like to add a name on the topper too, so it looks really personalised (I didn't on this one but I do when I use it for myself).




Phew – another massive post, it will be quite a lot shorter next week!  Let me know what you think of them, and did you spot the blooper on the first card?  I only noticed it when I had already sent the cards off and was showing my mum the photos.  Look at the bottom left corner – I forgot to add one of the gems!

Thanks for reading and have a great week.