Rocket Christmas

Just had to get one more in before bed. I'm off in a minute to make a mug of Ovaltine, snuggle into my bed with my book 'The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo', it's brilliant.

Anyway.... here is my rocket tree card. The Rocket Christmas set of clear stamps. Take a selection of textured card and stamp the different shapes on the stamp set on the reverse of the card. Cut out with scissors - no need to keep it neat. I cut mine out slightly larger than the stamped image. Now turn the pieces over, edge them with contrasting coloured ink pads and arrange them on a prepared base card.

Once you are happy with your design start sticking them down. I have stuck two or three down with 3D foam pads to give it some depth.

Add some gems, stamp and cut out the base as before and stick in position. Make a shrink plastic tag and stamp the greeting, shrink and attach to one of the raised sections with some pretty ribbon.

It's easy to do and you can make your tree really tall and slender or cute and fat by adding or taking away some of the shapes. Just another way of using the stamp set (this is my favourite!). I love these colours too, I even wear them!

Bubbles for Christmas

Yes, it's me back again, twice in a week I hear you are cry!!!!

Thought you might like to see my bubble wreath peel off in action. It's a tall card, A4 card folded in half long ways, cut some Bazzill Bling to fit and attach a ribbon to the top leaving it long enough to reach the base of the card. Stick the Bazzill to the base card. Attach your bubble wreath peel off or stamp it, yes folks you now have a choice! On my sample I have used a gold peel off. Decorate with what ever you have in your craft stash, buttons, beads, gems, sequins, brads, peel off gems...I could go on. What's most important is a colour scheme... here I've chosen gold, pretty classic and always pleasing. But the design works with all sorts and even mixed up colours for a dramatic, contemporary look - try orange, purple and lime green yummmmmm!

I drew the ribbon using a stickles glitter glue bottle. Yes, it is easy, have a practise and then draw your bow in pencil. Once you start using the glitter glue from the bottle, be brave and keep it moving till you have completed tour ribbon.

I chose a nice peel off (I never use peel offs I once said in a class!!!) for my greeting to make it quick and stylish. All that you have to do now is leave it to dry.

I love making these........now you try....go on..... sparkle!

Crafty Christmas Cheer!

Here is a nice wintery scene of my back garden on the 2nd December. We had 16 inches of snow over two days. No cars, trains or planes! It was so peaceful and beautiful.

Here we are, very pleased with our Christmas wreaths from back left June, Carol, Georgina, Fizz, Gloria, Clarissa, Gill, Janet, Sandy and in the front Trisha, Claire, Sarah and me.

My last class of the year was yesterday at The Glitter Pot and we all had a fabulous lunch too! Thanks to everybody who came Fizz, Sarah, Clarissa, Trisha, June, Janet, Gill, Sandy, Claire, Georgina, Gloria and Carol who all bought some scrummy food to share. We really did have a feast! The lunch is now a regular Christmas event at The Glitter Pot so put it in your diaries ready for 2011 girls!

As you can see, we are pictured in the shop holding one of the items we made, Christmas wreaths from circles of card with stamped and cut out images to decorate them. Everybody made a fabulous work of art which I hope will always come out of the decoration box each Christmas.

I rushed home to watch Strictly Come Dancing, had a glass of wine with dinner and was ready for bed by 9.30....you girls certainly know how to tire someone out!!

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a crafty new year.

Night Owl...or an early bird?

It's 05.30 in the morning and I can't sleep. So here I am at last on my blog... long time no see.

I seem to have been making Christmas cards forever and needed a change of scene so that's why I've chosen my owl card. I drew this picture may years ago and have now made it into a stamp and I like the results especially when I can use the paper piecing technique. The stamp set is on the Woodware label of course and can be found at The Glitter Pot and other Woodware stockists (I hope!).

Christmas card making classes this year have been a very busy affair and it seems you all like my Bubble Wreath set. When customers come to my classes and show me the cards they have made (Clarissa, has done loads!) I am so impressed and just when I think I can't teach another class I look at these cards and say 'Jane, I just love everybody on my classes and must continue!" So I'm already planning next years dates at The Glitter Pot right up to September 2011 (do I get a holiday please?).

My last class of the year at The Glitter Pot is on December 11th and we go out with a festive flourish of boxes, tags and such for Christmas. I'm also planning a fun lunch that day too. We had one last year and everybody brought something to eat and shared it so I hope you will join me again on the 11th.

Must get back to finishing next summer's stamp designs once it's daylight! So watch this space.

Have a Heart hang up card

I know it's been a while....but here I am at my computer, the sun is just coming up and I've been up since 4.00 am, too many things on my mind with thoughts about cards to make and ideas to get down on paper. I have just come back from a wonderful day up in Kendal with Grosvenor Papers. The craft shop there is wonderful and I just love the girls who work there, they always look after me so well. I was demonstrating my new Christmas stamps which you can now see on the Woodware web site.

This photo is not Christmas I know but a new idea I have for making large 'hang up' cards. This heart is from a template I drew and it's about 20cm across. We made this card at The Glitter Pot last week or was it two weeks ago (time flies when you are having fun!). I cut up strips of patterned papers 2cm wide and long enough to cover the width of the card. My colour theme was green and chose a real mix of papers with texture, glitter and embossed finishes.

I also used some of Tim Holtz's crackle paint and painted a large Bazzill flower for the centre piece. I really like the paint effect but it does take several hours to dry. Try it on chipboard, grundgeboard or just about anything that has a bit of body to it. You can spritz it with distress inks after it has dried to emphasise the cracks a bit more.

The wording is from my Essential Birthdays stamp set JGCL519 by Woodware. This can be found on The Glitter Pot web site.

For the Demonstration weekend at The Glitter Pot on the 4th and 5th September I'm going to make some other shapes of 'hang up' cards perfect for Christmas using some of my new sets. So see you there, don't forget to bring your cameras, there will be lots of very clever and inspiring people at the demo weekend and you won't want to miss a thing.

Things you can do with a scallop circle....

I made this card some weeks ago at The Glitter Pot, and I've only just got round to putting it on my blog! How lazy am I. Actually, I've been very busy creating some more Christmas stamp designs and then making up the samples. They should be in the shops by early August or if we are lucky end of July. I was making the samples during that amazing heat wave we had three weeks ago, it was 28-30 degrees here in West Sussex - I think that was summer.

Back to the card... you need three different sized round scallop punches or dies, closed tweezers, a medium daisy punch, a large daisy punch, patterned paper/card (which ever goes through your punch), contrasting ink pads and PVA glue.

Punch one circle from each punch and two from the smallest punch, (you now have four circles) edge all the circles with an ink pad. Cut the circles into half, then quarters, then eighths. Holding the shape from the scallop end uppermost in the closed tweezers, roll it around the tweezer till it spirals. Take it out of the tweezer and repeat to all the shapes.

Punch four daisies from same paper. Stick the curled shapes from the point onto a daisy petal. You will now have eight shapes per daisy. You have to keep the differently sized circles together on one daisy. Make up four daisies. Put one inside the other using PVA glue. Shape the large daisy to fit in the middle. And there you are - a fabulous flower for your card.

Weekend at Craft Range

Just got back from a teaching a brilliant Floral Punch Craft workshop to 15 gorgeous ladies in Burnley, Lancashire at Craft Range. Not only was I treated like royalty, I had great fun too. I stayed with Deb and Mick and on my last day looked out of my bedroom window to see two deer walking casually round the front garden.

The shop is full of wonderful things and some very inspiring samples. The staff are lovely especially Janet who looked after me most of the time. She is a very talented lady and gave me some great ideas for card making and products to buy!!

I hope to be going back there in October to teach another FPC class. So if you are in the area why not pay them a visit and come and make some paper flowers.

A bouquet of roses

I've just finished a wedding card for a friend's son's wedding in a weeks time. Although the roses didn't take long to make, I had such trouble getting my layout right!!!! Wedding cards are so personal, especially those made by hand for a very special person in your life.

The brides bouquet is to be a hand tied posy of cream, pale pink and pale apricot old fashioned roses. I wanted it to reflect that and keep the card simple. So a large cream base card was made. I created a flat, wide hinge on the fold on the left of the card, covered it with a Magenta vellum which was held in place with a cream ribbon and an adhesive behind the rose posy.

The circles a die cut from cream and pale green card. All the leaves were punched and then stamped onto a leaf stamp to create the realistic veins, they were then shaped and added to my arrangement. I was pretty pleased with the result and my friend loved it. I hope the bride loves it too! I enjoyed making it.

New Zealand rain forest....

On my last class at The Glitter Pot we used peel offs - not a product I use a lot but these Magenta leaves are rather special. We peeled all the leaves off the backing sheet and stuck them onto pale coloured vellum, such as pink or yellow. We then sat around chatting while we cut the leaves out right up to the peel off edge. To give the leaves some movement, they were placed on a moulding mat and we used a floral punch craft tool to curl them. After the base card was decorated and covered in suitable pattered paper, we applied a nice big blob of silicone glue and took each leaf, starting with the biggest, and arranged them in a (nearly) circle pushing the end of the leaf into the glue. We finished with the smaller leaves and some seed beads in the middle. As you can see, the effect is stunning and the flowers are great made with either copper, gold or silver peel offs.

Cutting the leaves out is not too tricky, just take your time and do what I do, sit in the garden on a nice sunny day with your ready stuck leaves on the vellum and snip away. It took me half an hour to cut out one sheet of peel off leaves.

I know you would much rather see a photo of my latest card...but I must share a couple of holiday piccies with you. I had such a great time in New Zealand and have been very inspired and rather obsessed with leaves, trees and dark, damp places! This photo is of the wonderful New Zealand fern taken from above...I just love the green.

I know you would much rather see a photo of my latest card...but I must share this photo with you. I had such a great time in New Zealand and have been very inspired and rather obsessed with leaves, trees and dark, damp places! This photo is of the wonderful New Zealand fern taken from above...I just love the green. I have lots more...but won't bore you now. On the long flight out to NZ, I designed my Christmas stamps which are now be made in the US. Can't wait to get my hands on them and I hope that you will like them when they come out in August (we hope).

Shoe shop at The Glitter Pot

Following my class last week where we made shoes at the lovely Glitter Pot. I thought it only fitting that I take a photo of all the shoes we made, and don't they make a wonderful picture?

We had a lovely day and everybody said the class was very relaxing, even Gill thought so too! I love to see Gill on my classes. Always news about her sheep and her fabulous photos to look at. I'm sure she has been enjoying Lambing Live on BBC 2 this week.

We also made a fridge card and a pretty box to put it in. It makes a perfect and unusual card.

I'm off on my hols soon, going to New Zealand and I can't wait. Must buy some Ugg boots and take loads of photos. Missing you all already.

Have planned lots of new classes for my return in April so look forward to seeing you all soon at The Glitter Pot. Meanwhile keeeeeeeeeep stamping!

Fridge cards in snowy Birmingham

I have a spare five minutes and just must update my blog.....I have been busy and away a lot during the past couple of months. From heavy rain in California to snowy Birmingham.

Had a great three days demonstrating on the Woodware stand at the trade show and saw lots of wonderful Woodware customers. There were five of us demonstrating and we each did a make and take too.

My first make and take were these little 'fridge cards' I designed especially for the show. I'm making them at The Glitter Pot this Friday the 5th March and demonstrating them at The Art of Craft in Farnborough on Saturday 6th March if anybody would like to join us please come along. They are such fun little things to make and great to stick on your fridge as a little surprise for that birthday person.

The ones here are only about 6cm square which I think adds to their appeal. You need a piece of 6cm square card, a piece of patterned paper 10cm square and some wadding (the type you would use for quilting. Layer all these together and wrap the paper around the back of the card. Decorate as you wish....oh, and don't forget to add any brads to the paper before you layer up! Add ribbon and stick a piece of magnate (Woodware do A4 sheets of it now) on the back to hold everything in place.

Stick to the fridge and admire.