MCS Magazine Issue 5 - Glamour a la Mode

Hi everyone

Hope you have all had a great week.  Last weekend I was all set to print off a load of photos for the holiday Project Life album when the chance came along to make some samples for the latest My Craft Studio magazine ... and the artwork is really lovely on this one, glamorous ladies rather than Christmas or children's themes. Not sure that my phone takes the best pictures, but here goes ...

First up was the trusty pillow box, they are so easy to print and cut out.  The hardest part is scoring the rounded edges, which doesn't long. It leaves all the time for the best bit, decorating and glittering.  I have taken a really close picture of this as I wanted you to be able to see the lovely pattern on the dark card.

Next was a simple card taken from a section of backing paper, adding the sentiment, glitter and some butterflies and finally distressing the edges.  The thing that was supposed to bring it all together was going to be faux stitching round the edge done by hand with a pen, it didn't go well!  I tried colours, Promarkers, black gel pens, and finally decided that only white would do and out of the FOUR white gel pens I had, two wouldn't work and two were too thin, so to me this looks really unfinished.  If anyone can recommend a good white gel pen I would love to hear about it!

Next was a version of the card I did for the magazine article (which I still haven't seen yet).  I did the green matt on the outside edge using MCS and again used a piece of backing paper and enlarged it to give a main focal element.  Using MCS I then added the figure then just glittered and added some gems and a sentiment.

This card took ages and didn't photograph well at all.  I selected a beautiful backing paper off the CD and then heat embossed in light gold using an Inkylicious text stamp.  I decoupaged the top part of the figure so I could stick the feathers underneath the waist of the dress.  Looking at it now I should have made the sentiment a much stronger colour.  I did all the matting and layering using the software and finished off with some glitter and gems.

This was another backing paper and I used the same bride but using the software cut away the veil using the scissor tool (it did take a while) and also cut one of the flowers out to put in her hair.  I matted the backing paper onto pink and then on to a large black card then used the Tattered Lace Mini Blooms and a flourish that I cut up finally adding some gems and a sentiment.

The final card was great in my imagination, but didn't quite come off.  I think it should have been gold card that I punched around and white at the back, I'm not sure but it may have worked better.  I took an 8x8 piece of white card and used the Martha Stewart Border Punch to do the outside edge and cut out the middle using a square die. I then enlarged the image on the software and cut it out and added a small black frame and finally stuck on the white punched frame and added some jewels I got at Hobbycraft recently.  I cut the sentiment out using a Spellbinders Tag and then cut a black version of the tag out as well and cut it in half to give the slight shadow.

Bloopers are legion in this set of cards!  On the Pillow Box I didn't print the card double sided and you can see it from the back at the bottom of the photo.  The less said about the butterfly card the better!  On the circle card I forgot to put the green matt behind the main card so you can see the white card in the middle. On the feather bride picture my stamping went a bit wobbly by her head and I didn't flatten the feathers for the picture so it looks a bit scruffy, and then the jewelled card didn't work out how I wanted.  When I saw the show the other members of the design team had made some stunning samples, I particularly loved the acetate one.  All in all 4 out of 10, must try harder for me!!!

On the brighter side MCS kindly asked me to do an article for issue 5 of the magazine (thankfully before they saw these samples!) so I put a bit about me and had to do two projects.  One is a little box that can be used for sweets or (as I use it) for a small pack of tissues.  The other is a square version of the round card above, which is quite a simple card but you can dress it up in lots of ways.  I chose Floriography as my favourite as I really love that CD, it has so many beautiful backing papers, just reminds you how good the artwork on the CDs is and how much of it you get.  It was so lovely to be asked to do the article, and I really enjoyed making the samples for it.

Hope everyone is having a great and crafty week, thanks for stopping by.

MCS Magazine Issue 4 - Eskimo Kisses

Hi everyone

I haven't been around much recently as my mum has been poorly again so the blog has had to take a bit of a back seat.  I have still been making cards though, so here are the samples I made for the show on Sunday 19 October.

I liked this CD as the characters are so cute without being sickly, I love Robins at Christmas, but all the other characters are lovely too.  When I watched the show back one of the design team had made a card with the seal looking out of the picture as if he had photo bombed it, it was really cute.

First sample was a Pillow Box, and they are so simple to cut out and decorate but they make a great gift box.  I cut out the box and added a strand of lace and on top of that a blue ribbon.  The flourish is a Heartfelt Creations die and the flowers are a pom pom die by Tattered Lace.  I stamped a piece of card and embossed some snow flakes on it before die cutting so it gives a bit of background shimmer.  Some glittered gems from my stash with a bit of Chloe's chunky glitter and it was done.

Now the photography on this one makes it look like Rudolph has a nosebleed, but it actually is red glitter!  I covered an 8x8 card with a background paper from the CD that I had added the moon to from the picture builder section, then used the Tattered Lace Reindeer and Christmas Greetings dies.  Next I  die cut the Christmas Tree and added some snow white flower soft to finish off.  I debated for a while about whether to decorate the tree but in the end decided to leave it all white.

This card is actually a tag that with the MCS software I put two side by side and then cut out.  With some peel offs, a bow and a sentiment it was finished.  Now, I did say a bow and it was made with the MCS Bow Maker that I love.  I have heard some people on line muttering about Afro Combs being the same, but I love the bow maker.  It is so small and simple to use, much easier than some of the more expensive bow makers I have bought.  Maybe it's because I am so useless at tying bows that I love it, and would recommend it to anyone who struggles tying bows like me.  I used to spend more time tying the bow than making the card, and a double bow would have been out of the question!

This card was made using a Sheena snowflakes embossing folder that I die cut into a frame and then rubbed really lightly with some teal gilding wax.  I used the picture builder section of the CD to place the tree, the seal with bauble (that I changed the colour of as it was red originally and blended into the scarf) the teddy pulling the sleigh in the background and finally placing the moon. I stuck the frame on the image then matted it all on some silver mirri card, some small die cut snow flakes and stars from a Memory Box die added the Tattered Lace Christmas Greetings die and sample four was complete.

This card almost made itself.  I embossed the front of the card with another Sheena embossing folder and then inked lightly over the top.  I have always been a bit light handed with ink but really found that the more I added the better it looked, I think I just need to be a bit braver!  Next I cut out the aperture with a Spellbinders bauble die and put the image behind it that I had made using the picture builder section of the CD.  I just love robins at Christmas.  I cut out a bright red bracket label and stuck on a sentiment from the CD that I punched out and then inked round.  Finally I added a bit of glitter to the bauble and the red beads to make the leaves look more Christmassy.  Looking at the card now I think I should have put a red bow at the top of the bauble to finish it off.

This final card was a glitterfest!  I used one of the toppers from the CD and then cut out an additional blank label for the sentiment.  The base dotty card is from Anna Marie Designs that I bought at the Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham sometime this year.  The next layer is one of the backing papers that I distressed using one of those little circular distressing tools and a bit of ripping!  Then I distressed the topper and the blank label and then glittered away using some PVA glue that I smeared on with my fingers and then some of Chloe's chunky glitter.  After adding the sentiment that was the die on a recent Tattered Lace magazine and some Card Candi, it was done.

Well that's all for this time, no massive bloopers this time, although it was a close run thing on the Tag Card, as when I first put the bow on you couldn't see the owl!  If you would, please say a little prayer for my mum as she isn't well at the moment.

Hope you all have a great and crafty week.

Samples for My Craft Studio Mega Word CD

Hi everyone

Hope you all had a great week.  I went to the Great British Craft Festival last weekend and had a really good time.  What I particularly liked was that it was nearly all paper crafts rather than painting or sewing.  I saw lots of lovely demonstrations and (as usual) spent too much money!  The shuttle bus was a bit of a saga though, the hosts asked us to get on the bus on the way there but almost everyone around said they would rather walk the ten or so minutes to the show, the lady next to me called over that it would be a different matter when we were on the way back with all our goodies and we all laughed.  So I went round my first Stoneleigh Craft show and had a good time, came out and hopped on a bus almost immediately which was great as I was taking my mum to lunch.  The bus just said 'shuttle bus' on the front and when about 9 or so people were on board we set off on what should have been a two minute journey ... except the driver left the Stoneleigh site!  A lady called to the driver and asked where he was going and he replied 'to the station' .... what!?!?!  which station?!?!  how far away was it?!??!  were just some of the questions asked.  It turns out that we had to go to Coventry Station which was 20 or so minutes away, wait at the station for 20 minutes and then drive back 20 minutes, what a faff.  I felt very sorry for the lady whose son was upset and waiting with her husband in the car park and she couldn't get back to him.  That will teach me to take the lazy way and not walk back to the car park!

Anyway on with the cards; these are for a My Paper Stash show that should be on Create and Craft today, I hope you like them.

First up was a nice simple card where I chose one of the pop out sentiments then went to the Papercraft Library - Paper Words CD and faded out two papers so they would match the sentiment.  I printed them back to back and then cut down the centre so I could fold back the paper and pop the sentiment in.  I did mess up a little bit in that I stuck down the paper near the fold back which meant I almost couldn't tuck the sentiment in, but managed to wiggle it in just enough.  To finish off I added some Card Candi and a button with some bakers twine knotted in it.

I loved making this card which actually started off with the paper, rather than the sentiment.  I found the paper on the 6th Anniversary All About Words CD and just had to use it.  This card is really quite big, so I had to make the card out of two pieces of A4 card, it's like a pumped up DL!  I inked round the sentiment and the main image and stuck the main image on to some lovely card from Pink Frog Crafts (can't remember what it's called as I bought it quite a while ago).  I made the flower buds out of the smallest Delicate Aster flower, inked then cut in half an rolled and stuck it under one of the leaf flourishes from the Cut Matt Create die sets.  I made up two of the next sized up Asters, again inked and added a pearl, then arranged the leaves and flowers over the image, and not a hint of glitz or glitter in either of the first two cards.

Now this card had LOADS of glitter!  The main image comes from the Papercraft Library - Paper Words CD again and as soon as I saw the snowflake image I knew I had to use it.  I matted and layered using the same colour as the snowflake and then used come Cosmic Shimmer PVA glue dots in silver glitter round the outside of the white layer (even though they look dirty grey in my pictures).  I went round one of the pale teal layers with the edge of a chisel tip glue pen and added some glitter and carefully used a Quickie Glue Pen on the centre element and added silver glitter to the writing already on the image.  I used one of the sentiments from the pad and cut it into a circle first of all, but that looked a bit boring, so changed it to the scallop shape using a Little B die.  To make the snowflake rosette I printed off an A4 sheet in the same pale teal colour and stamped it all over in silver glitter using a Chloe Snowflake background stamp and then cut out four pieces from the Brenda Walton Snowflake Medallion die.  I think I should actually have cut out less, so the medallion wasn't quite so folded, so you could see the stamping a bit more.  To finish it off I used some Chloe Sparklicious Glitter on the edges for a bit more bling.  Finally I punched out some snowflakes, some from silver glitter paper and some from the waste from the pale teal matting and layering that I covered in glitter, a couple of gems and it was done.

This card came from the Wonderful Wordbooks CD and I had forgotten how much fun wordbooks are.  I love the way that these print off and fold over giving you both sides of the letter.  All I added to the whole wordbook were some pop out sentiments (cut in a Labels 4 shape and on a Labels 4 matt) and some keys from the Spellbinders Lacy Hearts set.  The waste from the middle of the keys I used as hearts on the Home is Where the Heart is page.  To finish it off I inked round the letters and the sentiments a bit to give them some definition and then stuck it all together.

This is another really sparkly card but there's no glitter!  The image is taken from the Simply Sentiments CD and then chopped down so you just have the three hearts made out of roses (the pictures make the images look much brighter than they really are, in real life they look a much softer colour).  I cut a frame out with Jus-Cutz Rectangle dies and matted it on some soft pink card.  I covered the main image in a sticky sheet and then put Cosmic Shimmer (I think it's Iced Snow) on top of the whole image then rubbed it in with my fingers until there wasn't a shower of bits coming off each time.  Then I added the sentiment on top of a tulle knot (so I didn't have to do a bow) and finally added some gems that I bought from Joanna Sheen absolutely ages ago.

Last up is a really bright happy card made from the Simply Sentiments CD.  I actually did this one in Craft Artist rather than MCS as I wanted to change the colour of the big pink balloon to a yellow one, so it wasn't quite so obvious that I had chopped down the image then flipped it and stuck it together.  I used Die-Namics Pierced Fishtail Flags dies to cut out the sentiment and the bottom shapes that I had printed out in colours that matched the balloons in the main image.  To finish it off I added some confetti balloon shapes that I have had in my stash for years.

Although I used Craft Artist on the last card, looking at all the CDs to do these cards, it did remind me how good the images are on MCS CDs, some of them are really beautiful and I have earmarked some of them for up and coming cards I need to make.

Only one blooper this time; I wanted a snowflake shaped sentiment so found a die big enough and cut it out, completely forgetting that snowflakes are lacy and the die laced right through the sentiment leaving me with just a couple of black lines that you couldn't read ... doh!

Have a great week everyone and thanks for reading.

My Craft Studio Samples for Academy Magazine Issue 3

Hi everyone

 … long time no speak!  I have still been making cards but haven’t had much time to update the blog, but I am going to try to post at least once every other week from now on.  My holiday seems so long ago now, although I am still slogging through the Project Life Album, it turns out that I much prefer using the online downloads rather than using the cards in the box.  I will still use the cards from the box as the filler cards in the album, but I have so many pictures and napkins and tickets etc. that I want to fit in that there won’t be much room for too many filler cards anyway.

On with the samples … these are for the My Craft Studio Academy Magazine, Issue 3.  It was fantastic doing Christmas cards in July, although when I started finding glitter in the bathroom I knew that I needed to start tidying!  The images and colours on this CD were really lovely, there was something for everyone.  My favourite was the blue snowflake paper, which you will see quite a lot of … and after realising how easy the wine bottle covers were to make up, I think there will be a few of these made up later in the year.  I was a bit time pressured on these samples, even though we had a bit longer to make them this time, as it was my sons birthday in the middle weekend so I didn't get much done on the middle weekend ... I hope they got there in time!

The first card is taken from one of the toppers that was a really nice mixture of contemporary and traditional, I love the Santa image across the moon and it was just begging to be layered.  I printed off two of the image and used the second one to cut out the sentiment and the main image.  I went round the edge of the image and the sentiment with an embossing pen and added gold twinkly embossing powder and heat embossed them both.  To the bottom layer I added some lace and some glittery washi tape as well as lots of gems.  I glittered the image and stuck it to the main topper, a bit of matting and layering and it was done!

The second one is my favourite I think, and has lots and lots of glitter.  I covered the back and the front of the front cover of the card with paper that I lightened slightly in MCS and covered the inside with the same paper that I darkened a bit.  I cut the front of the card on a slant and then stamped Chloe’s Merry Christmas on the inside top right and filled in the letters with a quickie glue pen and glitter.  Next I die cut a Tattered Lace reindeer in brown card and some Tattered Lace Snowflakes on white paper that I had covered in a double sided sticky sheet.  To fill in the gaps I found some snowflake punches to make some smaller snowflakes then glittered one side of all of the snowflakes using pale blue and crystal glitter to match the paper.  Some of the larger snowflakes were stuck on back to back slanted front cover and some were added in the gap.  I added a couple of lines of raised glitter at the bottom of the card to give the reindeer something to stand on!  A red gem for Rudolph’s nose and the card was done.  You can’t really see it on the photos but this card is really sparkly.















Next up was something I hadn't done before … a pop up tag card.  I used the same image tag as I had for the first card as I loved the image.  I was a bit disappointed with how small the card was when I finished it, but on the bright side it would fit in an envelope when it folded down.  To start with I took a piece of dark card as the base and then printed off some of my favourite snowflake paper as the toppers for each section.  I stuck two toppers back to back and using MCS cut out the topper image on the tag as well as the sentiment as I knew the sentiment on the tag would be covered when I stuck the card together.  I folded up the card with the topper in the middle, edging the topper and the sentiment in some gold glitter and finished off with a bow made on my Bow It All, which my mother finds a hilarious piece of equipment!  She can’t imagine anyone not being able to tie a bow … well I can but it takes me so long that the ribbon is all wrinkled by the time I have got it right.

This card I put together very quickly as all the time was spent playing on MCS to get the picture right, I do like messing with the software to get the effect I want.  I used the separate images to compose the main picture, added the text and printed it off.  I wasn't very happy with the quality of the black base card as to me, it didn't look quite strong enough, but I stuck on lots of gems and bows and some big glitter for the tinsel and ended up with a nice traditional card.

The fifth item was a wine box which again the photos don’t really do justice to (that's not being big headed, I mean you can't see all the sparkles).  I used the silver version of the glittery washi tape and added some spiky flowers from using a Cheery Lynn die that I put some big glitter in the middle of and some smaller Tattered Lace flowers.  These wine boxes are so easy to put together and you can decorate as much or as little as you like.  I will definitely be personalising some of these this Christmas.

Lastly was a pillow box which was in lovely colours and again is really quick to print off and cut out.  They make great boxes for little awkward presents.  I decorated the box with more Cheery Lynn die cut flowers, Tattered Lace foliage and some lace and finished off with a sentiment from the CD.

No major bloopers this time, just a bit disappointed with the bendy large card, and I also forgot that when I put the snow on the ground for Rudolph ... you can see through his body, however galloping horses wouldn't notice (or should that be reindeer?).

I loved using this CD and hope you like the samples.

Have a great week.

My Craft Studio Samples for Academy Magazine (Issue 2)

Hi everyone

Hope everyone is doing well, I have been trying to get my Project Life holiday album going.  It is so difficult deciding which photos you want to include ... I took hundreds of photos when I was away so can't include them all, then there's the journalling and the keepsakes to fit in too.  I know everyone says that you should hand write all the journalling, but I tried and I didn't like it so I am journalling by PC!

Anyway on to the samples.  This is just a really quick description of the the cards and how I made them. Most of it will be fairly obvious to all of you who use MCS regularly, but if you don't use MCS or have any questions drop me a line and I will do my best to answer it.  Before I show you I must again apologise for my photography.  I wasn't in my usual crafting cave and it was late, so I had to use what was around as a background, so here goes:

This is a simple chocolate bar wrapper.  I took a bar of Galaxy and carefully unwrapped the outer layer.  I put some folds in the original wrapper so I could measure where my images would need to be placed.  I used the same papers for most of my samples as I thought they were really lovely, particularly the one with the script on it.  I took some of the flower images into MCS then cropped and flipped them until I had a row of flowers and then placed the fairy behind it.  I used the two doilies from the CD that I used on a couple of the samples, added a sentiment with the text function in MCS and then cut out some butterflies from the All Occasions Dies Small Butterflies Set, added a couple of pearls and it was done.

This card started with a plain 8x8 card base and I printed the whole card front and then glued it on.  I used the same doilies as before as the main focus on the card.  I took one of the topper images and faded the edges down and covered up the sentiment that came on the topper with two layers of the Nesting Scallops from Little B Dies which I pre printed with a sentiment on the PC and glittered round the edges.  I then added the four corners from the Spellbinders Moroccan Accents set and a couple more All Occasions Butterflies, added some pearls and glitter and it was done.

This was a quickie Pillow Box from the CD printed off and folded.  I glittered all round the pattern, added a couple more butterflies and the sentiment tags from my stash and it was complete.

Above and below show the back and front of bag that I embossed and cut out from the Crafters Companion Ulti Bags Board.  I used MCS to do the sentiment on the front with the fairies and used the beautiful paper again.  After inking round all the embossed lines with distress ink I cut out lots of flowers using the Flower Border and Tiny Flowers Dies By Chloe and stuck them on in all the places you could see my ropey cutting out!  I added some gems, pearls and glitter and that completed the front, with a piece of ribbon and some more flowers finishing off the back.

The fifth sample is an A5 card that I designed on MCS and then printed off whole and just folded to make the card base.  It has a doily from the CD which is printed on the card base and I cut out the tags out by hand after creating them in MCS - you will notice the similar doilies on the sentiment to the ones on the chocolate wrapper.  The card and tags looked a bit bland so I inked round all of them for a bit of definition.   I spent ages tying the bow, so long in fact that I ordered a Bow It All online in frustration!  The ribbon is looks much paler in real life, and after adding a gems from my stash, a brad to the tags and lots of glitter, it was good to go.

This is a gatefold and was a first for me after seeing something similar at a craft show at the Motorcycle Museum recently.  It was quite nice when finished, but I need to do some refining as it weighed a ton!  I started with two white 8x8 cards, stuck the backs together and then trimmed the fronts at 4 inches at both sides.  I did the matting and layering in MCS and added the lace corners before printing out and glittering the very edge.

The centre is made from three of Sue Wilson's Italian collection Decorative Frames.  It took ages to get them lined up as I wanted to be able to view them from the front and the back.  I also needed to trim them slightly so they opened and closed easily.  I added more of the All Occasions Butterflies, a ton of glitter, some pearls and a cameo from my stash, then moved on to the inside.

Above half open and below fully open.  For the matting and layering on the outside I used the same design as for the outside but removed the lace corners at the top and added the 'L' from the alphabet to all the corners as well as the fairy that matched the centre image.  The middle is one of the toppers from the CD.  Again I added the 'L' from the alphabet to the corners and spent ages using the scissor tool in MCS to cut out the top flower from the L to use as the embellishment under the sentiment.  I then glittered round all the panels and stuck them on to the base card.

There were two bloopers this time, the first was a sample which was just too bad to even show on here and the other was my 'glitter station' ended up on the floor upside down ... arrgghh!  The sample gone bad was a door hanger that read 'Katie's Room' on one side and 'If you're not a fairy ... KEEP OUT' on the other.  I tried my hand at beeswax and the melt pot, I may have been put off for life!  It was almost as much of a mess as the glittered carpet, there is so much wax on it the words are barely visible.  Oh well, beeswax obviously isn't for me!

I hope everyone has a good and crafty week.  Let me know what you think of the cards and thanks for reading.