Janet and Megans Crafts

Christmas Carollers

2011-11-23T11:48:00.000Z

I have made this set from this weeks papers off Free Craft Downloads
They are the latest in the Character papers featuring Brewster, Beatrice and Bulmer as Carol singers
The full set of papers can be found here

The papers I used were
Christmas Carollers A6 diy decoupage
Christmas Carollers Pyramid 01
Snow flakes 04
Snow flakes 04 l
I also used
2 sheets of royal blue holographic card
1 x A5 blank greeting card
2 sheets of 350gsm smooth white card
2 sheets of 220gsm white card
2 sheets of 160gsm smooth white paper
5 silver snowflakes
some royal blue ribbon with white spots on

To make these simple gift tags I printed the Carollers A6 diy decoupage sheet on to the sheet of 220gsm white card
Cut them out individually, stuck them on to one of the sheets of royal blue holographic card then cut around them again leaving a border of the blue card. I punched a hole in the top left corner and threaded some of the ribbon through

To make this gift box I printed the snow flakes 04 backing paper on to the sheets of 350gsm smooth white card I then trimmed them to 18cm square. Using the boxer board from crafters companion I scored each side in at 4.5cm this makes it so much easier as the base is made from one edge of the score board and then the lid is made from the opposite edge so you don't have to fiddle with measurements or trying to make sure it fits. I cut to where the score lines joined then folded and stuck together

The bow for the top was made using some scraps of the blue holographic card I cut 6 strips 1cm wide and 6cm long, glued the edges together and trimmed to a point

These were then stuck to the back of the snowflake as you will see in the picture

When it was dry I just shaped it a bit better,
After I had taken the picture I decided to use a small piece of the card left over from making the box folded it in half to make a gift tag, punched a hole in the top left hand corner and threaded some of the blue ribbon through and stuck it to the bottom of the snowflake bow before adding it to the top of the box - this can be seen on the main box picture

To make the card I used an A5 size blank greeting card as my base card, to this I stuck the snowflake 04 backing paper which had been printed on the sheet of 160gsm smooth white paper, I printed the pyramid sheet on to the other sheet of 220 gsm white card, cut it out and assembled using silicone glue, when dry this was mat and layered on to snow flake 04 l paper and blue holographic card.I stuck it to the right side of the base card and stuck 3 of the silver snowflakes down the left side of the card.

I chose not to add a Christmas greeting to the front of the card.

Carol singers shaker card

2011-11-02T19:07:00.000Z

Following on from the previous card

I sometimes like to use this type of pyramid paper to make shaker cards

To make this one I used

A4 sheet of white hammered card
2 small square pieces of acetate
Snow 2 backing paper
Carol singers pyramid 2
snowman and present embellishments I had in my bits and pieces box
Happy Christmas peel off and some sparkly peel off snowflakes
some fake snow

I folded the sheet of white card in half and stuck the snow backing paper to it and trimmed the edges
I made the reverse pyramid paper up in the same way as with the previous card but on layer 4 I stuck a piece of acetate to the top of it (so the snow doesn't fall too far down)

To the back of layer 5 I stuck some foam pads all around the circle so the snow doesn't fall out then stuck it on top of the acetate on layer 4
A piece of acetate was then stuck to the back of layer 6 which would be the top layer then stuck the foam pads around the edge again
I added a small amount of fake snow to the centre of the assembled layers (on top of the acetate on layer 4) then stuck the top layer down
Give it a shake and it looks like it is snowing on the Carol singers

I stuck it to the bottom right side of the card and stuck the snowman and present to the left side along the bottom I added some more fake snow and at the top left side I added the Happy Christmas peel off then randomly stuck some of the sparkly snowflake peel offs

Brewster the singer

2011-11-02T00:18:00.001Z

Last weeks papers from Free Craft Downloads was Brewster the singer
You will find them Here
If you receive the Newsletter from Free Craft Downloads or are a member of the forum you will know there have been problems with the main gallery this past week and there is a new gallery now - which I'm sure you will find much easier to use (The majority of the papers are there some of the backing papers are still being uploaded - all papers will be uploaded by the end of this week)
You can find a video on how to use the new gallery on the forum

This is the card I have made using the latest Brewster papers

I chose the Round "Reverse Pyramid" sheet because some people are unsure what they are or how to use them Sometimes they are also known as "inverted pyramid" papers

This type of decoupage is quick, easy to cut out and use and is ideal for those who find cutting out more intricate designs too difficult

To make the above card I used

1 sheet of A4 hammered cream card

1 sheet of white pearl gold shimmer paper

An A4 sheet of blue card

Happy Birthday vertical peel off

Double sided tape

Double sided foam pads

Brewster singer 02

Guitar 06 ls l

music 02 ls l
music 01 ls (From the teen pop papers)

I folded the A4 hammer card in half to make my base card and on to this I stuck the music 01 ls paper I then cut a piece of the guitar paper and mounted this on to a piece of thin blue card and stuck it to the left side of the card. I then cut an even smaller piece of the (brewster) music paper and again mounted it on to a thin piece of blue card and stuck it on the guitar paper at an angle

I cut a thin strip of the guitar backing paper, stuck it down the centre of a piece of the thin blue card then added a vertical Happy Birthday peel off
This piece of card was then stuck on the right hand side of the card

The main image from the reverse pyramid sheet was cut out and mounted on a piece of the blue card and stuck on the music paper. This had been printed on the sheet of A4 white gold shimmer paper - it glistens lovely when it catches the light (difficult to see in a picture)

To use these reverse pyramid sheets you need to cut out the white centre before layering them up
You will see from this picture how I choose to cut the centre out
I find it easier to use a craft knife and cut from near the outside in to the middle going all around the circle

Here you can see I snipped away the inner part this makes it easier to get the scissors in and doesn't crease your paper / card then you just cut around the edge of the white circle on all 5 pieces
if you prefer you can just use a craft knife and cut around the edge of the circle - If I do that sometimes I find I slip a bit with the knife and end up cutting where I don't want to.

After cutting out all the white circles I added foam pads to the back and layered them
You will see when you print out the sheet there are numbers under the parts
you stick
6 on to 5, 5 on to 4, 4 on to 3, 3 on to 2, and 2 on to 1

The finished card

Thanksgiving Napkin Holders / Place Names

2011-10-18T21:48:00.000+01:00

This week on Free Craft Downloads there are some new thanksgiving papers for you
You can find the Backing papers Here
and the Decoupage and Pyramid papers Here

Occasionally I like to make something other than a card with the new papers so this week I came up with the idea of making some Napkin holders / Place names with a couple of the Decoupage sheets

They were easy to make and the combination of a Napkin holder and Place name card is ideal if table space is limited because you have either a small table or a table laden with goodies

This is something I will be doing for my Christmas table with some Christmas decoupage papers as I only have a small table

I used thanksgiving_decoupage
and thanksgiving03

These were printed on 350gsm smooth white card A4 size
I also used some gold and silver Capital letter peel offs

I cut the layers out but instead of layering them all up I put a spacer in between the first and second layer.This was a piece of card 6m long by 3cm wide and each end was folded up 1cm. One end was attached to the front of the largest piece of decoupage and the other was attached to the back of the second layer with double sided tape so there was a 4cm gap inbetween this is where the folded napkin goes, the rest of the layers then were decoupages on the front.
On the front of the pumpkin one I added a name in gold letter peel offs and on the Turkey one I added a name in silver letter peel offs to the back layer

Bea the witch

2011-10-10T23:59:00.000+01:00

Last week Bea the fairy made her debut on Free Craft Downloads
This week she is all dressed up as a Witch ready for Halloween
You will find the set of papers Here

I have made two cards using some of the papers

Card 1

To make this first card I used

1 5 x 5 inch square white base card

1 piece of 5 x 5 inch white card

Bea Backing paper 5

Bea Decoupage small

I also used a small black strip of card

Some gold letter peel offs to spell out Happy Halloween

I printed out a pumpkin picture that I had on my computer as well

I decided to make a 5x5 inch easel card

I stuck the backing paper to the base of the card and also to the bit that stands up

I cut out and made up the decoupage but decided to cut off the small pumpkin which I kept to one side as it was going to be used elswhere

I cut out the larger pumpkin and stuck it to the piece of white 5x5 card and cut around it

This was then stuck to the front of the easel card

When the decoupage had dried I stuck it to the centre of the larger pumpkin and cut out two of the small pumpkins from the decoupage sheet and used them as the stoppers on the main card stuck on with double sided foam pads

Along the bottom of the card I stuck a thin strip of black card and added the letters to say Happy Halloween

Card 2

To make this second card I used

A white A6 gatefold card

Bea Backing paper 5

Bea pyramid 1

I also used two strips of black card

Gold letter peel offs to spell out Happy Halloween

I used the other two small pumpkins from the decoupage sheet I used for the first card

I cut out and made up the pyramid sheet - while the sillicone was drying I stuck some of the backing paper to the central inside part of the card then stuck another piece to each of the outer sides

I added a thin strip of black card down each of the outer sides of the front of the card starting at the top left I put the word Happy then at the bottom of the right side of the card I put Halloween then closed the card and added the other two small pumpkins from the decoupage sheet to the centre

Bea makes her début on Free Craft Downloads

2011-10-04T23:04:00.002+01:00

We have a new character on Free Craft Downloads this week
Bea the fairy
You can find the first full set of papers Here

I have made a couple of cards using some of the papers

The first one is this one

I used

Bea decoupage

Bea backing paper

Present backing paper

Flower template printed on back of one sheet of the fairy backing paper

Frame

I also used a small piece of silver metalic card (5"x7")

Starting with the decoupage I printed it once on a sheet of A4 smooth white paper
I then printed it again on a sheet of A5 smooth white paper
I then mirrored the decoupage and printed it again on another A5 sheet of smooth white paper

The Bea backing paper I printed on two sheets of A4 smooth white card
On the back of one of the sheets I printed the flower template

The present backing paper was printed in draft on A4 white paper I chose to print it in draft as I only wanted a pale image to show through the apperture in the inside of the card
I printed the frame on an A5 sheet of smooth white card

To make the card up I folded one sheet of bea backing paper in half to make an A5 size finished card

The second sheet I cut out the flower shape from the back of the card then folded it so it would pop out when the card was opened I stuck the faded present sheet to the middle of the main outer card and trimmed the top and bottom
then stuck the folded aperture pop out centre to it

I cut out and made up the two smaller decoupage sheets and stuck them back to back with a piece of silver grey thread between them so it would hang from the centre of the inside of the card

I suspended the Bea decoupage from the top and stuck it down with a small piece of tape then stuck the two small presents to either side at the bottom of the flower shape

For the front of the card I cut around the frame and cut out the centre then stuck it on to the small sheet of silver metallic card I cut around the main Bea image on the A4 size backing sheet and stuck it in the centre of the frame

This was then stuck to the centre of the front of the card

I chose not to add a greeting to the card

The second card is this one

Mirror mirror on the wall ......
Bea fairy card 2
For this card I decided to combine old and new
I used the pink version of Bea decoupage
present backing paper
the 5x5 square frame resized to 7cm x 7cm
Fairy decoupage
a small piece of silver mirror card
a speech bubble with words mirror mirror on the wall......

I printed the present backing paper onto a sheet of
A4 smooth white card and "tent" folded it
I printed both the old and new fairy decoupage A5 size on white smooth paper
The pink speech bubble on to smooth white paper

I printed the frame on to smooth white card, cut it out and stuck it on to a small piece of silver mirror card
In the centre I stuck the fairy decoupage (we had quite a while ago on FCD)

This is the finished card
I stuck the small present from the decoupage sheet on to the bottom right side of the card

Again with this card I chose not to add a greeting

A few cards

2011-09-23T15:07:00.000+01:00

Just sharing some cards I have made over the past couple of days to use up some bits and pieces

The first one I used a Mandala design which I shrunk down and printed 3 of them
I was going to colour the mandala images but decided to make a black and white card instead so used a white base card DL size and layered the mandalas on to black card

This I used up a piece of black and white floral backing paper and a silhouette die cut from way back when which I found in my bits box
I added some black ribbon along the bottom and a white ribbon on the left side of it

This card used up some lacy backing paper and a floral decoupage I had made up a while ago but not used
along the bottom I added a Happy Birthday and another small floral decoupaged sticker and a cute little ladybird

Teen Pop Cards

2011-09-12T20:49:00.000+01:00

Some of this weeks papers on Free Craft Downloads are Teen pop papers which can be found in the recommended sets section.

Normally I would not have chosen purple and green together but picked up on the colour of the stage lights in the decoupage sheet and felt on this occasion the colours went well together.

To make the card I used

A4 sheet of ivory hammer effect card
Music 02 backing paper
singer 01 decoupage
11cm square of green card
7.5 x 21 cm of purple pearlised backing paper
4 small strips of purple pearlised paper 1/2 cm wide x 8cm long
2 small green brads
2 x 5mm self adhesive gems
double sided adhesive tape
silicone glue
Clear sakura pen

I folded the sheet of card in half to make an A5 size card
the "front" of the card I folded back on itself (so the inside becomes the outside)
To this I stuck the purple pearlised paper (trim edges if necessary)
on the inside of the card I stuck the music backing paper

I cut out and assembled the decoupage sheet then when dry I stuck it to the centre of the green card
using the clear sakura pen I coloured in the lights at the front of the stage and some highlights in the "singers" hair so they sparkle when they catch the light

To make the "flowers" I used 4 small thin strips of purple paper all you need to do to make these is to make a circle with each strip and glue, when dry flatten down
make a hole assemble as shown in picture then make a hole right through the centre of them and use the brad to secure them you could leave them like that but I chose to add a green gem to the centre
These were then stuck to the top and bottom right hand side of the music backing paper

These little flowers look nice made into inexpensive bows for gifts you could make in 2 / 3 different sizes / colours then open out the petals and assemble - larger one on the bottom and smallest one on the top - ideal for using up scraps of paper. They can be made from ribbon as well

The main picture was then stuck down on the left hand side only on the purple pearl paper.

Megans Teen Pop Card

Megan decided she would like to make a card from one of this weeks papers so she used the saxophone player decoupage
She folded the base card in the same way that I did mine then cut out the decoupage sheet and used foam pads to layer it up
Instead of using pearl paper Megan decided to use some purple foam then stuck the decoupage to this
She also decided to use 2 small rectangles of mulberry paper in a mustard colour (to go with the saxophone)
Then on these she stuck two mini mandala images I printed and she coloured in
On the left hand side she stuck 3 flower peel offs which she coloured the centres in a deep purple
A Happy Birthday peel off was used in the top right corner of the decoupage
Because the front of the card was quite colourful she decided to leave the inside of the card plain

Mini Mandala Card

2011-09-12T20:24:00.000+01:00

In my crafting I like using mandalas either to glass paint or shrink down and use like digi stamps on my cards
I also find them quite therapeutic to just colour in / paint

The card pictured below I made using a Mandala image which I shrunk down to a 5cm diameter

I printed the images onto a smooth white card and used three images to make this card

I coloured them using sakura gelly roll pens I did try water colour paints but was not happy with the effect

I used a DL size green base card and coloured the image in red and green and used some red pearl gems in opposite corners I used foam pads to stick them to the base card and raise them slightly

I know there is a saying "red and green should never be seen but I liked it on this card

Glass painted Tiger

2011-09-10T11:44:00.001+01:00

I haven't had much time to do any crafting for myself lately but one of the things I have done is this

I really like Tigers and have a favourite image of one in tribal flames
it's the sort of design I would like to have on the front of a car IF I had the right sort of car to put it on

I decided instead that I would glass paint the image and have it in a picture frame
It took two attempts - for now I have just put it on a clip frame back until I find the right frame for it

I used solvent based glass paints for this project and just added a gold peel off border to take the plainness off the clip frame until I find the frame I want to put it in

I'm still around

2011-09-10T11:33:00.000+01:00

I knew it had been quite a while since I posted anything on here but didn't realise how long!
I have been quite busy this past few of months or so with personal stuff and becoming more involved with the KIM Project I have been lucky enough to facilitate a few craft sessions and have thoroughly enjoyed it and it has helped me no end with confidence building not only in myself but in my crafting as well. I did Card making, Glass painting and Watercolour Mandala Painting
I have another Card making session coming up in a couple of weeks for them and I am really looking forward to it and am starting to "prep" this weekend
I will also be starting a self employment business course so that is something else I am looking forward to

K.I.M. would like your vote

2011-06-07T14:54:00.000+01:00

K.I.M. stands for Kindness In Mind and they provide Mental Health Support to Women
More info Here
Part of their funding comes from The Big Lottery fund

The National Lottery Awards of 2011 is looking for the UK's favourite lottery funded projects and K.I.M. has been lucky enough to reach the semi finals
The winner will be revealed on a special BBC1 show in the Autumn

K.I.M. would like your vote

If you would like to vote for them they you can do so here
Best Health Project - K.I.M.

Thank You

Laptop card

2011-04-11T17:59:00.000+01:00

I thought I would show you this card which I made a few days ago

I made it as a little Thank You for the Tutor of a computer course I have been attending
Great course and great fun, met some lovely people too

It was made from a template I have
I printed out a Thank you message on some white card to use as the "screen" and made the card up following the instructions

The Laptop case was made from black card as well
I cut out a window in the centre, covered it with acetate so the Thank you would show through

The finished card in it's case

A Good Innings

2011-02-08T23:01:00.000Z

Brewster is back this week on Free Craft Downloads sporting cricket whites

You can find the Papers here

This is a circular white retirement card (just shown against a green background)

Papers used were

Cricket 2

Cricket Decoupage sheet

Scoreboard sheet

All printed A5 size

I used an A4 sheet of white linen card folded in half and cut out a circle with a 14cm diameter (making sure not to cut on the fold of the card)

I slightly straightened the bottom of the card so it will stand up

I cut out a smaller 12cm circle of the cricket 2 backing paper and stuck it in the centre of the white base card

Using the score board sheet I used the "Retired" wording and also the number 35 these were stuck on to the scoreboard and in a white souffle pen I added the words "years a good innings and now"

this was then stuck on the upper left of the card and then the brewster decoupage was stuck on the lower right side

I made another 2 cards using the Brewster Cricket designs

Howzat!

Details of how it was made can be found in the Project section

on Free Craft Downloads

Bowled Over

Details of how it was made can be found in the Project section

on Free Craft Downloads

2 Cards Megan made

2011-01-27T20:16:00.000Z

Megan was recently given some lovely decoupage sheets
Here are a couple of cards she has made with 2 of the cat ones

She used 6 x 4 cards with a printed bow down the left side and some gems of various colours and sizes

Hope you like them

With Love

2011-01-27T20:11:00.000Z

Thought I would show you this I made using a hexagonal template

Here it is in its box with acetate windows

They are quite easy to make up I decorated it with some pink ribbon, red roses, red heart beads and silver bows

Tiger Birthday Cards

2011-01-05T14:23:00.001Z

Although I enjoyed making my Christmas cards it is nice to get back to making other cards now

I have started by using one of my favourite Cd's being a huge fan of Tigers I love using this disc
It is available to buy on Craft CDs it is called Tiger Tiger by Hannah Hay

Here are the cards I made from it all very easy to make.

This one was made A5 size on a black base card, I mat and layered with the backing paper and some black card edging with gold border peel offs and added a gold Happy Birthday to the top left and bottom right of the black layer

This is A5 Size I used a green base card & added some peach ribbon to both edges, I mat and layered with green card and the matching backing paper to the image I used A gold Happy Birthday peel off was added on to the bottom left and top right of the ribbon

This one was made A5 size on a black base card, I mat & layered with the backing paper & some black card edging with gold border peel offs I added a gold Happy Birthday to the top right and bottom left of the black layer

Hope you like these cards and have a look at the disc There are 10 Tiger images as well as backing papers, tags, inserts borders decoupage and much more

Back to it

2011-01-05T13:55:00.000Z

Where has the time gone to!

I hadn't realised it was so long since I posted on here, I was very busy leading up to Christmas and then have enjoyed the School Holidays relaxing and having fun with Megan
We had a lovely Christmas and New Year Hope you did too

It is nice to get back to making cards again (and not Christmas ones)
I will post the ones I have made this last couple of days in a separate post

Teen Christmas Card

2010-12-06T22:15:00.000Z

This card has been made using one of this weeks

Teen Christmas Decoupage Papers

from Free Craft Downloads

To make this card I used an A6 base card (used tent fold)

One of Lukes snowflake papers Snowflake 13

A piece of silver mirri card embossed with the cuttlebugs snowflake embossing folder

teen_christmas01 Decoupage sheet

a small pale blue bow

some small blue gems

I printed the snowflake backing paper A5 size and stuck it on the base card and trimmed the edges

In the centre of this I stuck a piece of silver snowflake embossed mirri card

In the centre of the snowflakes I stuck some small blue gems

The decoupage sheet was cut out and assembled and then stuck to the right hand side of the card

The blue bow was added at the bottom in the centre

Across the top I stuck a small Happy Christmas border peel off

I think this is more suited to a girl teen because of using the gems and Bow

You can find a Teen Christmas card suitable for a Boy and how it was made in the Project section on Free Craft Downloads

Little Christmas Stockings

2010-12-03T14:01:00.000Z

While here I thought i would show you what the Children have been making this past couple of weeks at Sunday School

Several of these little stockings were made from felt
The Children have sewn and decorated them and each have inside a small mini Chocolate bar
A small bell was added on to the hanger so they jingle as well
These have been made to be sold at the Church Christmas Fair tomorrow
They are usually bought by the families of the Children

Pine Cone Bird Feeders

2010-12-03T13:54:00.000Z

A good way of using up some pine cones and also a way for the birds to get some food during this awful weather we have been having here lately

I melted some fat in a container in the microwave

then Megan added some bird seed and gave it a good stir

She then pushed into all the little compartments of the pine cones

and put on a plate to set

When set we added a ribbon hanger to each one

They will be hung on shrubs and branches in the garden

To enable birds to have a feast

Pine Cone Decorations

2010-12-03T13:47:00.000Z

Megan and I made use of some left over pine cones from an autumn walk by turning them into decorations

I sprayed them with a silver lacquer

Then Megan dabbed them with glue and rolled them in some fake snow

We attached a ribbon hanger to each of them

Nadolig Llawen

2010-11-28T22:02:00.000Z

Here is another Nadolig Llawen card

This one was also made with one of the Nadolig Llawen papers from Free Craft Downloads

I used paper 4

I also used one of the Christmas decoupage from on the site as well

I chose to use the Church twisted Pyramid

I stuck the backing paper on to an A6 base card and trimmed it keeping the larger piece to make another card with

I cut out and made up the twisted pyramid, and stuck this on some bronze coloured card then stuck it to the bottom right side of the card

To the top left of the card I stuck a Nadolig Llawen banner backed on some bronze coloured card

Nadolig Llawen Shaker Card

2010-11-26T20:56:00.000Z

Nadolig Llawen

For those who don't know Nadolig Llawen is Welsh for Merry Christmas.

On Free Craft Downloads we have some Welsh Christmas Backing Papers, Inserts and Tags.

As some of you will know Welsh backing papers are hard to come by so it's great to have these

For this card I used a Blue base card

The paler Nadolig Llawen with snowman background

Snowman inverted pyramid decoupage

Some foiled holly leaves and berries

A Nadolig Llawen greeting

Small piece of acetate

Small amount of fake snow

I printed out the backing paper and the snowman decoupage both on A5 size paper

I stuck the backing paper to the base card and trimmed the edges

I cut out the pyramid decoupage and the centres I used some foam tape to layer the first 4 layers making sure all the edges were sealed

I decided not to use layer 6 as the edge was quite fine so I used layer 5 as the top layer, to the back of layer 5 I stuck some acetate to the back of this layer before sticking the foam tape on

I put a small amount of fake snow inside the space of the pyramid then added the top layer

This was then stuck in the centre of the base card and some foil holly leaves and berries were stuck to each of the four corners and the Nadolig Greeting was stuck under the decoupage

When the card is shaken it looks like it is snowing

Snowflake Paper Card

2010-11-23T21:51:00.000Z

Luke has been very busy following in his Dad's footsteps and has made some great snowflake papers which Bob has added to the Gallery on Free Craft Downloads
You will find Lukes Papers Here I'm sure you will agree they are really good - Well done Luke

Here is one of the cards I have made

A quick and easy card to make which I hope you will agree looks nice

I used the Snow Flakes 9 paper

From this I cut out a diagonal strip and used 3 of the snowflakes

I used a Blue mini Dl card as a base card and added a piece of blue ribbon down the centre

I stuck the strip of 3 snowflakes to a silver piece of card then in the centre of them I added a small blue gem

Under the first and above the third snowflakes I added a cream bow with a circle of very tiny beads in the centre this was then stuck on the blue base card

This is another card I made

You can find out how it was made in the Card making Project Section on Free Craft Downloads

While I was making these cards Megan decided she would like to make one as well

She used some embellishments and a foil Merry Christmas and Snow Flakes 16

Here is her card

Change of Blog Template

2010-11-09T22:54:00.000Z

Yes it is the right Blog!

Time for a change and hopefully a change for the better

I have been thinking on and off for a while about changing the template I used but I couldn't find one I liked
I know there are loads and loads out there to choose from and I think that was part of the problem too much choice there was always something I didn't like
A very good friend whose opinion I value a great deal suggested a 3 column template I quite liked this idea but wasn't so keen on having a left and right side bar so after searching and searching most of the afternoon through hundreds I came across this one so have decided to give it a try

Hope you all like it too

Brewsters Christmas Card

2010-11-08T22:03:00.001Z

A Christmas Card on a Card

I made this card using the Brewster decoupage sheet available on Free Craft Downloads
I also used some of the older papers with it

Brewster Decoupage Sheet
Flakes 3 Backing Paper
A5 Page Curl Christmas Tree Backing Paper
Christmas Tree Decoupage
Gold Peel offs

I used an A5 white base card (Tent fold) - In the bottom right corner I stuck a small rectangle of the flakes paper
I cut off the white edge of the page curl paper on the bottom right side
Then I stuck the Christmas tree page curl paper on the base card

I made up the Brewster decoupage and folded the card he is holding in half then from a small piece of white paper I made an insert for it (measured to fit)
On the inside of the insert I stuck a Happy Christmas peel off and on the opposite side I stuck a gold peel off Christmas Tree I stuck the insert in the mini card

On the front of the mini card I stuck a piece of the flakes 3 backing paper and trimmed it around the edge of this I added gold fine line peel offs

I cut out and made up the Christmas Tree Decoupage, when the silicone glue was dry I went around the edges of the tree with a clear sakura gelly roll pen and stuck some small gold star peel offs this was then stuck to the mini card

I stuck some gold corner peel offs to 3 corners of the main card (not the corner with the page curl) then stuck Brewster with his card in the centre of the main card

In the picture below you can see the opened card that Brewster is holding

Here is another one I made

You can find out which papers I used and how it was made Here in the Project Section on Free Craft Downloads

A New Year Card for 2011

2010-11-01T23:34:00.003Z

This is an easy card to make and very handy to have a couple made up to send out to people you forgot to send a Christmas card to or unexpectedly get a card from

The papers I used to make this card are :-
2011 Template 5x7 size
new_year_08_ls Backing Paper
new_year_08_l Backing Paper

I used a graphics program to“fill in” the numbers on the template
I wanted the “backing paper” to be on the front only as well as it saving on ink
When I was happy with it I printed it and cut out the bits inbetween the numbers
If you don’t have / use a graphics program another way to do it is to cut out the unwanted bits between the numbers then stick your chosen backing paper to the front of the card over the numbers then from the back cut around the edges and cut out the unwanted bits between the numbers

On the inside of the card I stuck the lighter backing paper and trimmed the edges You can see this showing through from the front of the card

On the inside I stuck a die cut champagne bottle and glasses
It says “Let’s Celebrate” on the bottle

To finish off the front of the card I used some wavy edged gold peel offs to outline the numbers (they bend better than the straight ones) and put some along the bottom of the card as well

Your greeting / message can be added to the back of the card

You will find a lot more papers in the New Year section

Some Snowglobe Cards

2010-10-18T12:56:00.001+01:00

I made These cards using the snowglobe template we now have on Free Craft Downloads

The first two use some of our Christmas designs on Free Craft Downloads

Christmas Teddy Decoupage
Snow 2 Backing Paper
Dark wood Backing Paper

Santa and Rudolph Decoupage
Snow 1 light backing paper
Light wood backing paper

I made some other cards to show that snowglobes are not just for Christmas

Old flower decoupage
Happy Birthday embossed words backing paper
Light wood backing paper

Hat and broom backing paper
Witches decoupage
Dark wood backing paper

Blue flower Decoupage
Light wood backing paper
Snow 1 light backing paper

Gold border peel offs were used around the outer edges of the cards
Ribbon Merry Christmas used on the Christmas ones
Ribbon bows used on the Best Wishes one
Ribbon flowers used on the Birthday one
Gold peel off letters used for Happy Halloween and Best Wishes wording

Brewster makes his debut

2010-10-12T12:44:00.000+01:00

Brewster is making his debut today

Some of you will have already had a sneaky preview of him but today he is making his debut on Free Craft Downloads as a newspaper vendor

You can find the Decoupage, Backing papers, Borders, Inserts and tags in the recommended sets section
Or by clicking here

In the example card I made I announced Brewster's debut on the board
When you are making your cards with him you can add a persons birthday or special announcement or personal message for someone etc
Hope you have fun with him

Iris folding card

2010-10-06T23:56:00.001+01:00

It has been a while since I have done some iris folding and had forgotten how therapeutic it is
I have recently joined a very helpful support group and earlier today we had the chance to do some iris folding

Here is the card I made

It did seem a little strange making a card with materials that were not mine but soon got into it and was quite pleased with how it turned out

I will have to dig out some of the patterns I have here and do some more

My experience with Watercolours and Mandalas

2010-10-03T22:55:00.001+01:00

Earlier today (03-10-10) I was lucky to have a try at watercolour mandala painting, something I was looking forward to but also quite nervous about, At the last moment before leaving home I was feeling that nervous I almost didn't go, I took a deep breath and told myself this was a once in a lifetime chance for me to do this and went and am so glad I did I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience

The afternoon started with an introduction from Tatiania Overduin who is from Australia, she told us a little about herself and about her watercoloured mandala painting,

We had a powerpoint slideshow about the history of mandalas how they originated from Buddist traditons and the Sanscrit meaning "making one's circular mark on paper" and were shown various ones from back in time
A lot of the mandalas are geometrical designs / paintings, what we did was "painting from within" our circle could be divided into 2 halves or into 4 it was a spiritual, reflective painting session to meditative music.

The Mandala is a form of creative meditation, an outer representation of the inner self, sometimes you may understand your personal mandala other times you may question your choice of symbols, expressions & colours.

We began our work in a calm environment listening to meditative music travelling our own journey in our minds and letting it flow through to our brushes and onto our paper

As some of you know I have been experiencing difficult times this past year or so and I have to admit I was a bit "scared" of how my painting would turn out, I was quite pleased with the result, to me it showed how I am and have been feeling.

We had some inspirational Bible texts to look at, from these and combined with the music and our feelings hopefully we would draw some inspiration
The Bible text I was drawn to was
Deuteronomy 2:7
The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast desert.These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything
Deuteronomy 2:6-8

I looked at the circle I had drawn for my painting and how I was feeling also thinking of parts of the Bible text " The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. This shows in my love of crafting and how it helps me and also "He has watched over your journey through this vast desert" from the dark times I have experienced this past year I have sometimes felt as though I have been "wandering around lost" not knowing where I was going on my life journey or which path I was to go down next where were the happy times? I decided to let my paintbrush take me on that journey and see what happened

Here is my painting I called it Wandering around lost

Some of you will know I quite often say My painting looks like a 3 year old could do better and I will forgive you for thinking the same when you first saw my painting here.
After I try to explain it I hope you will see it in the same or similar light I see it
As I said earlier our circle could be divided into 2 halves or into 4 I chose 2 halves which I called past and present
The brown area at the bottom is my dark sad time, moving up to the burning orangish section was my anger and hurt coming out, branching out to the sides were more calmer quieter happier times moving up to the top half to the reddish shades is where I am now to me the red seems a strong colour, where I am finding the strength to make important life decisions moving out to the outer edges are paler pinks which show me calmness / happiness just on the horizon and that there are good times to come.

If you look closely at the centre of the painting you should be able to see what looks like a little girl this was not intentionally painted in and seemed strange how it appeared. I was happy as a small child then as I got older and various things happened in my life I became unhappy within myself, and just seemed to plod along pleasing others and not caring / bothering about myself I now feel I want to change this I want to find "me" again and be happy with myself

I hope from that you can now see my painting in a similar light to me

Megan came with me, she really enjoyed the session as well and did a painting, she started off with a geometrical practice sheet - I love the colours she chose for this and how she painted it I have told her I am going to frame it and have it on the wall :)

This is her practice sheet

This is Megans watercolour mandala painting

She called it Meadow

She explained her "meadow" painting to me saying that she did a flower because she likes flowers and the green field and blue sky was her feeling happy, the black edge to the flower was when she was feeling sad with losing her grandparents.

Another Christmas Card

2010-09-28T17:42:00.000+01:00

I thought I had better make a start on the Christmas cards so have been busy making some today
I decided I would put this one on here for you to see

I bought the Black and Silver ribbon a few months ago thinking it would come in handy for some Christmas cards

I used 3 silver bell embroidery peel offs , these were stuck to some white paper then sewn with a metallic green thread

I used a white A5 size card, stuck a strip of the ribbon down the side of the card

I cut a piece of black card 7cm wide by 19cm long this was then stuck centrally on the main part of the card and edged with a silver border peel off

The 3 bell peel offs were stuck onto the black piece of card with foam pads

I added a small silver Happy Christmas peel off above and below the middle bell

Christmas Pudding Card

2010-09-27T16:12:00.003+01:00

I used
Christmas Pudding Template
Snowman decoupage
Brown backing paper
Print the Christmas pudding template twice once on plain white paper and once on white canvas card
Print the snowman decoupage on to glossy photo paper A5 size
I printed out the brown backing paper A5 size as well
Cut out and made up the decoupage then get on with making the card

Using the template that I printed on canvas I cut around the pudding shape and folded along the straight line
I then used a red sakura gelly roll pen to colour in the holly berries and a green one to colour in the holly leaves

From the paper template I cut out the bottom of the pudding and used it as a template on the brown backing paper and cut around it

This was then stuck to the bottom of the card

To finish off the card I added the snowman decoupage to the bottom of the pudding

* As an afterthought I used a white sakura soufflé pen to put small dots over the bottom of the pudding to look like snowflakes

Swing Card

2010-09-05T23:09:00.001+01:00

Megan made her first swing card today
On Free Craft Downloads we have started holding Bi-Monthly card challenges for forum members
Septembers is only our 2nd one and it is to make a DL size swing card
Megan asked if she could make one - as she is not a forum member she can't enter the challenge so she made one to put on here instead
She said she hopes it would help people who don't know how to make one

Cutting out the template

Folding the card

Showing the swing

Cutting the ribbon

Sticking on the ribbon

Sticking on some fairy embellishments

Writing on the reverse side

Showing the finished card from different angles

Hope you like her card

Fleur de Lis card

2010-08-10T15:42:00.000+01:00

I made this very quick and simple card from one of this weeks Papers added on Free Craft Downloads

I only used one sheet of the backing papers to make the card
I chose to use fleurdelis 02
I also used a sheet of black card and some gold peel offs

I cut the card to the size needed to make a DL card (folded size21cm H by 10cm W)
I added a piece of the backing paper to it slightly smaller so a black border could be seen (20cm by 9cm)
I cut a piece of black card to 4.5cm wide by 15cm high and added this to the middle of the fleur de lis paper
From a spare piece of the backing paper I cut out 3 of the fleur de lis as a diamond shape then stuck them to the piece of black card

I edged the fleur de lis backing paper with some gold border peel offs

Clay vase

2010-08-09T14:49:00.001+01:00

Megan went to a Clay craft workshop earlier today

This is a clay vase that she made - She really enjoyed the session - They "learnt" how to mix the clay to produce different colours, and learned that there were different types of clay for different projects etc and then were able to make something of their choice with some of the clay
Megan chose to make a mosaic effect vase with a flower in
It may be a little difficult to see on the picture but she has added a caterpillar from one of the leaves going to a petal and on the side of the vase she has added a butterfly

Front view

Back view

Glass beaded sticker cards

2010-08-08T22:22:00.000+01:00

I have managed to make a couple of quick cards tonight so thought I would add them here for you to see

I was very kindly sent the Glass beaded stickers by a friend - it was an unexpected surprise to get them
Where I am there are no local craft shops so I have never seen beaded stickers like these before They are beautiful I have had them sitting here on my desk until I had time to use some of them.

Craft CD's

2010-08-08T11:11:00.000+01:00

Craft CDs has been recently relaunched by two special friends of mine Bob and Dawn I would like to wish them well. They have many years combined experience in the craft industry working with/for others but this will be a new venture for them together as this is theirs

At the moment they have an opening offer on which is 10% off everything and are building up a good selection of craft cd's available to buy They run a points scheme on purchases where these are saved then can be used to buy cd's. UK postage is free, Orders outside of the UK postage is £5-00 per order.

I could go on explaining more but it is much better for you to visit the site have a good look around and see for yourselves

Craft CDs

Hello again

2010-08-08T10:38:00.000+01:00

It seems such a long time ago that I posted on here, I didn't think it would be this long
We had a fantastic time at Bible club week, the children had lots of fun and made some lovely things
If you would like to see some pictures of what Megan made you can see them in "Megans Crafts" in My Gallery on Free Craft Downloads
Each thing the children made had a space theme and Biblical connection
I've been catching up on things at home since the end of Bible Club and spending time with Megan as it is the school summer holiday
Hopefully now I can catch up on a bit of crafting which I have really missed doing

A very busy time

2010-07-06T08:34:00.000+01:00

Apologies for not putting anything new on here in a little while
As some of you know I am preparing for our Church Holiday Bible Club in two weeks time
This year I have been made "Craft Leader"
I am in the process of preparing a weeks craft activities for (at least) 75 children age groups 5-6 and 7-8 and 9-10 and 11+
There will be 4 craft sessions per day and 2 crafts per session
so as you can imagine there is a lot to do

I'm waiting on a delivery of 120 wooden 3" star shapes which I have to drill holes in that is going to be fun My D.I.Y skills are not brilliant

I am missing my own crafting but just not had time to do any I am hoping I can get something done over this next couple of weeks though so will put it on here when I do

Another Teenage Card

2010-06-17T00:25:00.001+01:00

I thought I would show you another card I made using the latest premium sets from Free Craft Downloads

I thought this would be suitable as a Belated Birthday Card

I chose a green A5 base card (tent fold)
I also used one of the older papers for this card music027 (page curl one)I thought this went well with the other things I've used to make the card
From the Teenage / Young Adult Set I used the Decoupage 01 image
From the Teenage / Young Adult Music Set I used both Decoupage images 2001 and 2002
Backing paper teenage2_006_ls_l
Teenage2_006_tags I just used one of them (the rest will keep for other projects)

I printed the music 027 sheet A5 size and stuck it to the front of the green base card
I printed the backing paper A5 size but trimmed it to fit more centrally
With the three decoupage images I chose not to have the backgrounds they had I just cut out the people
I used a graphics program to add the "Sorry I'm Late" wording to one of the speech bubble tags then cut it out, using double sided foam pads stuck it by the central decoupage then stuck the other people on either side
I used a gold border peel off around the teenage2_006_ls_l backing paper

I quite like mixing some of the older papers with some of the newer ones I hope you agree the older one I chose goes well with the ones I chose from the new sets.

Teenager Card

2010-06-15T16:55:00.001+01:00

This card is made using one of this weeks Premium sets from Free Craft Downloads
Both sets this week and the one from last week are ideal for teenage / young adult cards

The Link to download these premium sets can be found on the Free Craft Downloads Forum
Set 1 (Teenage/young adult) can be found by clicking HERE
Set 2 (Teenage /Young adult music) and set 3 (Teenage / Young adult football) can be found by clicking HERE

When you download the files you need to unzip them which can be done quite easily

To make the card shown here I used set 2 - music
I used Decoupage 2002
Border 5X7_04
Tags teenage2_005_tags
Backing Paper teenage2_005_ls_l

a 5x7 cream base card (tent fold)
I printed the Decoupage and Border frame on Canvas photo paper

I stuck the background paper to the base card and trimmed around the edges

I cut out the Border to use as a frame and stuck it with double sided foam pads to the backing paper on the base card

From the Tag sheet I cut out one of the small oval ones and the small square one
I cut out and assembled the Decoupage this time using some small double sided foam pads

I stuck the tags on to the card
On the square one I added a Gold Happy Birthday Peel Off
I have left the oval one blank with the intention of adding the age of the person there of who the card will be for

Teenagers / Young adults can be a difficult age group to make cards for

These Premium sets are ideal to use

Dayze of Innocence

2010-06-13T22:58:00.002+01:00

This is the name of the latest CD by Debs which features the artwork of Pamela West
The CD is available to buy on Debs website Debbees CDs
It is very reasonably priced and contains a total of 269 printable pages of various papers / decoupage /toppers / inserts etc and fabulous acetate decoupage ideal for those who have difficulty cutting out / don't like cutting out or just don't want to cut out.

I have made a couple of cards from one of the designs on the CD and thought I would put them here for you to see
Both of these cards were made using designs from "Dreams in the distance" folder on the CD The toppers and decoupage were printed on canvas photo paper

I haven't added a greeting to the first card so it could be used for various occasions I used three of the toppers and one of the backing papers with a strip of navy card and a couple of small silver peel offs.

The second card I put a get well soon greeting on it I used one of the decoupage designs with one of the backing papers and two of the bonus papers some gold border peel offs and a gold get well soon peel off and some small flowers

I will be making more cards with this CD and will post them on here when I do (I think I will have a try at the acetate decoupage next )

Glitter Card 2

2010-06-12T10:30:00.001+01:00

This is the 2nd card made with the pre printed acetate flowers

The papers I used on the card were from Free Craft Downloads
I used Green, Gold, Pink and Orange glitter glues
An a6 Size Cream base card (used tent fold)
Gold corner and border peel offs and a Gold Best Wishes one
I coloured in the flower using the glitter glues and left it to dry
I stuck the Leaves 3 paper to the base card (This was a piece I had used from another card I had made )
When the glittered flower was dry I trimmed the edge and stuck it on a piece of pink material paper I had from another card as well (again this had been printed in draft to make it paler)
This was then stuck on the right hand side of the card I put some gold corner peel offs on it and edged around the pink paper with gold border peel offs. to the left hand side I stuck a different border peel off and then in the space I added a vertical best wishes peel off

Glitter Flower Card 1

2010-06-11T17:08:00.000+01:00

I found some pre printed acetate flowers I had in one of my bits and pieces box so decided to make some cards up with them Here is the first one I made

I don't really like using glitter as I always seem to get it everywhere so I use glitter glue instead
The papers I used on the card were from Free Craft Downloads

I used Red, Green, Blue and Gold glitter glue
A 7x5 inch base cream card blank
A Piece of cream ribbon
Small amber and blue gems
Silver Border, and Happy Birthday peel offs
Backing Paper Mod Square Lt Blue
Backing Paper Blue0191

I coloured in the flower using the glitter glues and left it to dry
I stuck the Mod square backing paper to the front of the base card, then I made a bow from the piece of cream ribbon ~ to this I stuck some amber and blue small gems then left it to dry.
I stuck the Happy Birthday on to a small piece of the Blue 0191 paper
when the glitter blue was dry on the acetate flower I trimmed the edge and stuck it to a piece of the Blue0191 paper I used a small amount of silicone glue in each corner (it doesn't show through ) I put it in the centre of the card near the top and under that I stuck the bow and below that stuck the Happy Birthday

Quite an easy card to make - using up some left over bits and pieces and papers from previous cards made

Acetate Fairy Card

2010-06-08T13:16:00.002+01:00

When I had the idea for making this card I was going to pick up on the purples in the image but last minute chose not to and went with blues now seeing the finished result I'm glad I did
The card was quite easy to make and I'm pleased with the results

I have used a Fantasy fairy decoupage sheet and one of the older backing papers.from Free Craft Downloads

I used ~
1 A4 sheet of white card
Blue backing paper
The main fairy image from fantasy fairy 8 decoupage sheet
1 sheet of printable acetate
rectangle of silvery glittery mirror card
2 blue star gems
silver borders and letters peel offs
small piece of pale blue pearl effect textured paper
4 tiny blue gems

I printed the blue backing paper "Draft" to get a paler effect
I chose this backing paper because I felt it fitted with the fairy design as she was looking out to sea and also it's nice to mix old with new
I stuck the backing paper on the base card and trimmed the edges then edged it with silver wavy peel offs At the top I stuck 3 pale blue star gems on with sillicone glue and left to dry

I cropped the main fairy image and pasted it twice in a new document ( I also did this with the larger oval on the sheet reason being I now have 4 images to use on 4 different cards and not wasted any of the acetate I printed on )

I left a border of acetate along the 2 longer edges of the rectangle but scored along the edge of the image I cut the rectangle of silvery glittery mirri card a couple of millimetres smaller than the fairy image, folded along the 2 score lines and using double sided tape stuck the 2 sides to the back of the card.
The "Rough side" of acetate is printed on so I turned it over to have the smooth side showing on the card - the fairy is now facing the other way

This gave a raised effect to the acetate image (like a bubble front )

I tried to show it in this photo by "looking down on it" but it's a bit difficult to see

I made up a small rectangular topper with the piece of pale blue textured paper I used silver letter peel offs to make "Thinking of you" wording then a silver wavy edged one to finish of, then in each of the 4 corners I added a tiny blue gem (They are a bit fiddly to get the adhesive on so I did it with the edge of a cocktail stick) and left it to dry

I stuck the fairy image in the centre of the card and added the topper underneath

I really liked the effect of the silvery glittery mirri card when it catches the light
It is difficult to see from a picture on here but if you make one of these cards I hope you agree
The effect it has on the fairy's dress and wings looks lovely when it catches the light a certain way and also when it catches the light you can see the full image reflecting in the silver of the card

Celtic Digi Stamp Card

2010-05-18T22:35:00.000+01:00

I haven't had much time for crafting this past few days I've been busy gardening but I have managed to make one card tonight

I chose two of the Celtic Digi Stamps from Free Craft Downloads

I used
Celtic008
Celtic010
I also used one of the Celtic backing papers from the site too I thought it would go nice with the stamps
The one I chose was Celtic1 red

I resized the Digi stamps to 6cm x 6cm I chose to colour them with glitter pens I used a red one, and a gold one and coloured the spaces with a clear sakura gelly roll pen It's a bit difficult to see the glittery effect from the picture but when the card catches the light it sparkles quite nicely

I printed the celtic backing paper on to an A4 sheet of white card then folded in half (tent fold) in the middle of the card I added a strip of brown pearl paper and edged it with gold border peel offs running across the middle I added another gold border peel off.
After colouring the stamps I cut around the edges and used silicone glue to stick them on to the brown pearl paper to the centre of each celtic stamp I added a triangular gem red to the two outer ones and amber to the central one
I haven't' added a greeting to this card I think it's better without one and can be used for a number of occasions

Back to Digi-stamping

2010-05-12T12:18:00.001+01:00

Until recently I wasn't sure what "Digi stamping" was.
People seem to either like or loathe it.
I've decided to write this in the hope of it helping others who are unsure about Digi Stamps

I spent time looking around on various sites to see what I could find out about them and looking for images Many are available for purchase but you can find free ones too
I just couldn't seem to get past the "colouring book" thoughts then I had the problem of the actual colouring of them I do enjoy "colouring in" it's very relaxing, but when photographing for projects it looks like they have been done by a child.
The main questions I had were What are digi stamps? How are they used? What can you colour them with?
After reading a few things about them I found my answers

What are Digi stamps?
They are black and white digital images that are downloaded onto a computer
They can be manipulated before printing out
The images can be resized, flipped (mirror image)
A digital stamp is just the image there is no actual stamp

How do you use them?
Once you have printed them, digital stamps are used in pretty much the same way as traditional stamps.
They can be colored with various mediums and embellished in whichever way you choose to.
The finished images can be cut out and used in/on your crafts - handmade cards, gift tags, scrapbooks and other papercraft projects.

What can you colour them with?
When digi stamps have been printed from your computer they can be coloured in the same way as traditional stamped images.
They are printed using normal printer ink not specialist stamping inks. so there may be issues with the ink running if a "wet" colouring method is used.
Various types of pens, pencils and paints are all suitable for colouring

As with a lot of other things there are good points and bad points to using Digi stamps
Good points
A lot of them are free
Digi stamps are instantly available for download and there is no P&P charges for delivery
There is no waiting for stamps to be delivered.
Less storage and the ability to resize or flip the image.rotate and angle them.
You can use almost any coloring medium on them
The designs are either free or available at a low cost

Bad Points
There can be trouble with your ink running when you color your image,
The use of digi stamps is limited to items that can be created by using printed paper or card which will fit through your printer
Some techniques are difficult or impossible to use /do with digi stamps
A computer and printer are necessary, and a basic knowledge of using digital images.

I'm sure there must be more good and bad points to using them

There is now a section on Free Craft Downloads for Digi Stamps There are only a few at the moment but more will be added
I personally like some of the Celtic images so will be having a go with a couple of them

There is also a new Digi Stamp section on Free Craft Stuff which has sites listed on there where you can get free digi stamps

I hope this has been a help and of some use to people
Do you like Digi stamping?
Do you know of more advantages / disadvantages to using them?

Please feel free to leave comments

Teddy card

2010-05-10T23:06:00.000+01:00

I quite liked the Teddy suncatcher image on the Glass Painting site
I reduced it and printed a few of them the other day along with some of the other designs on there to use as Digi stamps its the same image Megan used in an earlier posting on here
I reduced the size to a 5cm diameter and coloured it using pencils

For the card I printed one of the Teddy Bear backing papers from Free Craft Downloads
The one I chose was teddy_bear003 which I printed on an A5 sheet of white card so when folded made an A6 size card
I cut out the teddy image I had coloured and stuck it to the front of the card near the top and added a gold peel off butterfly to each of the top corners
I used some scraps of paper and gold peel offs to make the with love topper which I put near the bottom of the card and below that added a gold coloured small ribbon
Another easy card to make

Floral best wishes card

2010-05-10T21:26:00.000+01:00

I made this quick and easy card from a topper sheet I added to the Members gallery on Free Craft Downloads

I used a yellow A6 size card as my base card (tent fold)
I cut out and made up the topper which I then added to the left hand side of the card
I added some gold border peel offs around each layer and put a green square gem in each of the 4 outer corners

To the right side of the card I stuck a vertical strip of fabric flowers and added a vertical Best Wishes gold peel off

Glass Painted Butterfly with Seed Beads and Gems

2010-05-10T18:23:00.000+01:00

I haven't done any glass painting in a while so it was really nice to do some again It's very relaxing to do.

I used Butterfly 3 design from the Glass Painting site I resized the image so that it would fit inside a (5X7) photo frame I had here and used the glass from the frame to paint the butterfly on

I outlined the image and left it to dry overnight

I chose the colours I wanted to use Orange, Light blue, Light green, Purple and Clear (I prefer to use Rainbow glass solvent based paints) I used those colours because the frame has oranges and blues on the floral parts of it.
The seed beads I used were mixed shades of blue, and some white, the gems I used were small purple ones, a couple of clear ones and a couple of amber coloured ones.
I also used a couple of larger beads for the antennae

I painted the middle part first and sprinkled in the seed beads (both blue and white) and added the larger beads to the antennae with some clear paint so they could start drying while I painted another section of the butterfly

On the light green parts I decided to use some small purple gems and put one in the centre of each light green section, these went with the purple sections I painted in alternating with the green, then I painted in the orange sections

When it was all dry I carefully wiped over the glass and put it in the frame.
I used a pale yellow glitter card for a backing on the frame

My original choice was gold mirri card which looked lovely with the frame but when I went to take the photo you could see the reflecion of the camera and me so changed my mind to the glitter card.

Our first attempts

2010-05-05T21:24:00.000+01:00

I've decided to be brave and put my first attempt here
It looked ok when I did it but now I can see the photo the colours on the wings look too stripy this is the sort of thing I will have to practice more

This design is the Parrot from the suncatcher section on Glasspainting.co.uk site

I resized the parrot to 4cm wide by 6 cm high and used two of them for this card I made

Megan thinks it's great that these designs can be made so small sometimes when I print a design for glass painting after I've finished using it she has it to colour in
She asked me to do a small teddy one for her so I used the Bear design from the suncatcher section which has a 5cm diameter

Megan coloured it in with her pencils and drew and cut out a stand to put it on

I think hers looks much better than mine does

I will keep trying and hopefully improve with practice

back to it........................

Still trying

2010-05-05T00:00:00.000+01:00

I'm still trying to get the hang of digi stamps and more so the colouring of them

Over the weekend I have printed some and been colouring them I still can't see past them being "colouring book" images though.

As I searched around for digi stamps to use I found a lot of them were for sale nothing wrong with that but I thought all the better if I could use free images so then I thought to try and make it easier on myself I would use some images I am more familiar with - these are images I use quite often in my glass painting and are available here
Even though these are Glass Painting images I think they are suitable for digi stamping as well
The images are black and white outline images, can be resized, flipped, and are of high quality.

To colour them in I have been using chalks, metallic pencils and normal pencils the next ones I do I'll have a go with watercolour pencils to see how they turn out

I'll choose a couple of the finished ones and add them on to cards I may even be brave and put them on here :-)

Stamping

2010-04-29T11:37:00.001+01:00

I'm just airing some of my thoughts with my ongoing battle with it (The best stamping I do is with my foot on the floor in frustration )

I'm not really into stamping, not because I don't like it, it's just something I seem to have difficulty with
Either because of actually stamping the image and not having enough ink on the pad so bits are missed or smudged, I'm never sure which type of ink pad should be used when and what with, then personally for me on the rare occasion when I do manage to get the image stamped properly there is the added nightmare of colouring them in it always looks like a 3 year old has done it.

Every so often I try again but have never stamped and coloured anything that I have been completely happy with My thoughts then turned to digi stamping, having heard the name here and there but not knowing anything about it I had a look around a few sites, there were some really nice images but as with stamping that "Spark" just wasn't there It just feels like colouring in a picture.

As with other things there are pro's and con's but I think that Digi stamping is the way to go for me for now - If I can overcome my battle with the colouring in then I will be more ready to face the battle with actual stamping.

To be continued ...................

Fathers Day Containers

2010-04-20T22:43:00.001+01:00

Fathers Day is not too far away (20th June in UK)

I thought it would be nice to do something other than a card

I used a couple of small empty crisp tubes
and a couple of the older backing papers we have on Free Craft Downloads
Nuts and Bolts
No 1 Dad
Nuts and Bolts Tags
No 1 Dad Tags

I printed out the backing papers on paper and the Tags on to white card
I stuck them on the tubes with double sided tape (Because the No 1 Dad one was "portrait" I had to piece it to fit around the tube but it was well matched and you can't see the join)
I cut out a couple of the tags and stuck one on the top of the tube and attached one around the middle with ribbon

The nuts and bolts one can be used for Dads to store their bits and pieces in the shed. You could make a few so he could have a set

The No1 Dad one I put Dads favourite cookies on the tag - you can make him some cookies and put them in the container. (see recipe below)

You could use one of the fishing papers and make a container for fishing bits and pieces

Easy recipe for Chocolate chip cookies

75g. (3oz) Butter
50g (2oz) Sugar
125g (4oz) Self-raising flour
50g (2oz) chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy
Fold in the flour, then the choc chips
Roll the dough into small balls and put them on a greased baking tray
flatten them slightly
Put in a preheated oven 180 C, 350 F, Gas 4
and bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly brown

Makes approx 12 - 14 biscuits depending on size

You can substitute the choc chips for something else cherries, nuts etc

A Quick Thank You Card

2010-04-20T17:41:00.000+01:00

Better late than never (I won't go into the reasons for this appearing later than I had hoped)

I think the embossed backing paper in the central window has shown up quite well in the picture

For this card I just used up some bits and pieces
I used a 3 windowed aperture card
a couple of die cut mulberry tulips I found at the bottom of my bits and pieces box
and a mini card embellishment
some pink and lilac square gems
and a Thank You peel off and some fine line silver peel offs

In the top and bottom apertures I stuck some lilac mulberry paper and added the die cut tulips
In the centre one I stuck a piece of lilac pearl paper which I had embossed using Sonia's idea which you can find here I added the mini card embellishment in the centre inside the mini card I put an insert saying "for your kindness"
Around the edge of each of the windows I put a silver fine line peel off and a small gem in each of the 4 corners I put lilac on the top and bottom ones and pink around the central one

If you don't have the double do machine to try out Sonia's idea you could still make the grid and use an embossing tool to emboss the dots

Craft Questions

2010-04-13T13:33:00.000+01:00

I thought you may like to know about this New Site Craft Questions One of the Sister sites to Free Craft Downloads.
Pop over and have a look when you have time and share the link with your crafting friends.
Feel Free to join and Ask and or Answer Questions on there.
Can't think of a question now then save the site in your Favourites

Hello

2010-04-13T13:32:00.000+01:00

Thought I would say a quick Hello and hope you have enjoyed your Easter Holidays
I know some schools are still off this week but my daughter went back to school today

I didn't get much crafting done over the holidays Megan wasn't in crafting mode either but we did enjoy lots of fun together.

I want to dig out my Double Do Embossing - Die Cutting Machine out sometime this week I haven't used it for so long and want to have a go at something a fellow crafting friend has come up with
You can find the idea HERE on her Blog I thought I would try it out and use it on a card and will probably put it on here

Happy Easter

2010-03-31T15:54:00.000+01:00

Megan has made this Easter Card to wish you all a Happy Easter

Hope you like it

Birthday Bunny Card

2010-03-25T12:33:00.004Z

After making the Easter Bunny Card in the post below this one I thought the rabbit decoupage would look nice on a birthday card for a young child
So what I did was substituted the "egg" for a "Present" and made a Birthday Card

I used the rabbit decoupage sheet from Free Craft Downloads again
I also used a couple of the older papers we have on there
Clouds 3
Grass
Scrabble tiles

I used a 5x7 cream card as my base card and printed the cloud, grass, decoupage and scrabble tiles sheets all in A5 size

I stuck the cloud paper to the base card and cut a jagged edge along the grass paper to make it look a bit like long grass when I was happy with it I stuck it to the bottom of the card.

In this picture you will see that on the 2nd layer of decoupage I have stuck a small foil present over the egg it does cover the paws of the rabbit a bit but the next layer will make it "right" again

I have coloured in the rabbits ears with a clear glitter pen used cotton for the whiskers again but this time left the eyes as they were I didn't add the wobbly eyes
as you can see the rabbit is holding a present now instead of an egg

I cut out and stuck on the scrabble tiles to make "Happy Birthday"

Here if you wanted to you could use tiles to spell out the childs name

I stuck the rabbit slightly behind the grass which I think looked better than sticking it on the grass

Hope you like this card and it's a nice way of using the decoupage sheet - year round not just for Easter
Another thought is to substitute the egg (like I did with the present) for a Heart and use different backing papers and use it as a Valentine card

Easter Bunny Card

2010-03-23T12:45:00.001Z

I really like this Easter Bunny Decoupage sheet from Free Craft Downloads this week
It is so cute I couldn't wait to use it

This is the card I made with it I also used one of the new Easter egg templates as well

"Hoppy Easter"

To make this card I used

Easter Bunny Decoupage sheet
Easter Egg Template
Painted eggs backing paper
1 sheet of A4 size Purple Card
2 Wobbly eyes
Some Black embroidery thread
"waste dots" off a gold peel off sheet
gold peel off letters and borders

I printed the Easter egg template on some purple card then cut around the edges (I chose Purple to go with the purple easter egg the rabbit was holding )

When cutting out the decoupage sheet I decided to "cut off" the rabbits whiskers - they are quite narrow but they are cuttable with a good eye and steady hand but instead I chose to add some black embroidery thread for whiskers I assembled the decoupage rabbit but before adding the last "face" layer (bit with the blue line on which was for cutting purposes ) using a cocktail stick I put some small amounts of silicone glue where the whiskers should be then stuck the thread on to them then put the last face layer on top when dry I trimmed the whiskers to a better size I also added some wobbly eyes to the rabbit and let them dryI stuck on some of the small waste dots from a peel off sheet to the egg he was holding.

I printed the painted eggs sheet A5 size - This is one of our older papers but thought it was nice to use with this card I cut out an oval shape in this paper and stuck it on to the purple base card
I edged it with a gold border peel off I also added a peel off to the edge of the purple card

When the silicone was dry on the rabbit I stuck him to the centre of the painted eggs oval added a gold bow in the centre of the bottom of the card

I added "Hoppy Easter" .........well he is a bunny and they do hop

Easter Gift Tags

2010-03-22T15:19:00.000Z

I made these Easter gift tags with the remaining rabbits from the rabbit sheet which was one of the Free downloadable sheets on Free Craft Downloads last week

I used one of the rabbits to make the card on the previous post on here then thought rather than use the others to make another card or two I would use them up by making some gift tags to add to the Easter eggs I give to people

They were very easy to make all I did was cut the rabbits out with fancy edged scissors then stuck them to some small pieces of card which had been folded in half (a good way of using up some scraps of card as well )
I punched a hole in the top left corner of each one so a ribbon can be threaded through them.

Happy Easter

2010-03-16T20:54:00.000Z

Easter is not very far away now

I thought I would make an Easter Card with some of this weeks papers from Free Craft Downloads

The papers I have used are
A Green Chick Backing paper
Yellow Chick Border
Rabbit decoupage Part 1 and Part 2
Small piece of yellow card
Gold letter peel offs

I printed out the backing paper 8x10 size and stuck it to the front of a 5x7 size card then trimmed the edges
(easier to do it that way incase there is a slight difference in the 5x7 size and saves ink)
I printed out the border 5x7 and cut it out
This was then stuck to the backing paper raised up on double sided foam pads
I printed out both sheets of the decoupage I chose the yellowish colour from sheet 2 as my base then cut out the rest of the decoupage from sheet 1 and assembled it
I stuck it to the lower part of the inside of the border
Then stuck Happy Easter lettering in Gold Peel offs on the small piece of yellow card trimmed it and added that above the decoupage
The remaining pictures from sheet 1 can be used to make other cards
If I get more time during the week I will add another one here

A Cross Card

2010-03-09T19:31:00.001Z

This card could be used as an Easter Card or as a Sympathy card

It is very quick and easy to make

I used one of the Cross Backing Papers from Free Craft Downloads

To make the card I used
Cross_006 Backing paper
A4 Cross Front Template
A piece of gold textured mirror card
Some gold fine line peel offs
5 small cream roses ( I chose cream as I thought they went with the gold better than white)
Some double sided sticky pads
Small amount of silicone glue

I printed the cross backing paper on to a sheet of A4 white card
Then I ran the card back through the printer and printed the cross template
I cut out the cross from the middle and saved it to one side

Behind the cross I fixed an A5 sheet of Gold textured mirror card

The cross I cut from the middle I measured in 0.5cm all around and cut it to make it smaller
To the back of this I added some double sided sticky pads

I stuck the smaller cross in the centre of the Gold cross
Then added some fine line gold peel offs around the edges of both crosses

I put the 5 cream small roses together and twisted one of the wire stems around the rest to hold them all in place
with the rest of the stems I curled them around an embossing tool to make a "spring"
These were then stuck with silicone glue to the centre of the cross and left to dry

I chose not to add a greeting to the card as I preferred it plain
You could add Thinking of you, Happy Easter, or With Sympathy or another of your choice

I did think of using silver card and peel offs instead of gold but decided the gold brought the colour of the small crosses out better on the backing paper

Welsh Cakes and Gift Bags

2010-02-27T22:01:00.000Z

I made these ready for St. Davids Day

They make lovely little gifts

I made a Template for a small gift bag, tag and handle
You will find it here if you want to use it
Just cut around the edges then fold the solid lines of the bag
Glue the strip on the side then fold in the bottom then glue
Add the handle either by glueing or using brads (I glued mine)
Fold the tag in half and punch a hole in the top left corner write inside as necessary
Inside mine I wrote "Dydd Dewi Sant Hapus" (Happy St. David's Day)
I threaded a ribbon through the hole and attached it to the handle of the bag

To make the Welsh Cakes you will need

225 g Self - raising flour
1 teaspoon of mixed spice
100g butter
75 g Sugar
100 g sultanas or currants (or half and half)
1 egg (beaten)

Sift the flour and mixed spice into a bowl add the butter and rub in until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
Add the sugar and sultanas/currants and the beaten egg then mix together until it forms a dough
This can be quite sticky so if you prefer to use a spoon instead of your hands it's ok
Using a rolling pin roll the dough to about 1/2cm thick then using a cutter (6-7 cm) cut into rounds
This mixture makes approx 14 -15 Welsh Cakes
Slowly heat a Griddle pan - if you don't have one you can use a frying pan then add the welsh cakes to cook cook on a low to medium heat when one side is cooked turn over and cook the other side
These can be served warm with butter on
You can sprinkle with castor sugar while warm if you want

Wrap a couple of Welsh cakes in a serviette / doiley then pop into the gift bag

St David's Day Card

2010-02-22T12:14:00.001Z

A card for St. Davids Day

March 1st.

Have you ever tried buying a card for St. David's day? It's near to impossible!

With Backing Papers and decoupage suitable for these cards we have on Free Craft Downloads you don't have to

You will be able to make your own

You can find some Welsh Dragon, Daffodil and Leek decoupage in the Other and Floral sections
Also a Welsh Flag section with backing papers inserts and tags

To make the card I used
A Leek backing paper
Welsh Flag Pyramid decoupage
Daffodil Pyramid decoupage
and Welsh Dragon backing paper

Both the Leek and Welsh Dragon papers were printed A4 size enabling me to use the remainder of them for other cards
The Daffodil pyramid sheet was printed on A5 size paper (2 were needed for this card)

I cut out and assembled the decoupage/pyramid designs and while the silicone was starting to dry I set to work on the base card
I used a 12.7 x 17.8 cm (5x7ins) size greeting card for the base to which I stuck the leek backing paper and trimmed around it
I cut a few strips off the Welsh Flag backing paper and attached double sided tape to the back of them and added these to the outer edge of the card as a border
When the silicone had dried a bit on the decoupage I stuck the Welsh dragon decoupage in the centre of the card and the 2 2daffodil ones to either side of it
From the computer I printed Dydd Dewi Sant Hapus - Happy St. David's Day in both Welsh and English then and stuck them to the card as well

This is one of the cards I made for St. David's day last year
You can find a description of how I made it Here
You will also notice a slight variation on the Greeting - Both are acceptable to use

Over on Free Craft Stuff we have a Special Occasion section in that you will find a St. David's Day section with ideas for Crafts / Things to make and do

Floral Decoupage Card

2010-02-20T11:06:00.000Z

This card was made from a Public domain image of a flower which I then uploaded into the Tile Maker that we have on Free Craft Downloads
To make the card
I used a 15cm x 15cm (5.5ins x5.5ins) square card
Beige029 Backing Paper from Free Craft Downloads
Floral decoupage sheet
A piece of brown pearl paper from my bits and pieces box
Some gold corner and border peel offs
5 small square gems

I cut out and made up the decoupage sheet then when dry I highlighted some of the darker brown areas with a clear glitter pen
I printed the backing paper (borderless) on an A5 size sheet of paper and stuck it to the front of the base card
I stuck the decoupage onto a piece of brown pearl paper 10cm x 10cm (4ins x 4ins)
This was then stuck to the base card
I chose not to put it square which you could do if you wanted to.
To the edge of the decoupage design I added some gold fine line border peel offs
To the edge of the pearl paper I added a patterned border peel off
To each of the 4 corners I added a Gold corner peel off
To the centre of the decoupage and the 4 points on the brown pearl paper I added a small square green gem

I chose not to add a greeting / occasion to the front of the card I prefer it as it is and then could also be used for any occasion

Thank You Card

2010-02-16T14:32:00.000Z

I have used some of this weeks set of premium papers from Free Craft Downloads to make my Thank You card
This is a very large set of papers available as a zip file which can be found on the Modern flowers premium set posting in the forum on Free Craft Downloads or if you prefer you can browse through the general papers via the link in the same forum posting

To make the card I used
modern flowers 2 light printed on an A5 sheet of paper
mod striped 3 printed on an A5 sheet of paper
decoupage modern flowers 2 sets printed on A5 size glossy photo paper
1 5x7 size Cream Blank greeting card
4 small strips of green ribbon
1 Silver Thank You peel off
Silver border peel offs
Double sided tape
Silicone glue
4 small amber coloured gems

I used the 5x7 size card cut a strip (approx 3.5 cm) from the right hand edge on the front only
I covered the front of the card with the flower paper and trimmed the edges
I cut a strip from the striped paper and stuck it to the outside edge of the card

I cut out and assembled one sheet of the decoupage flowers and I cut out a vase shape from the striped paper

The 2nd set of decoupage flowers I cut out the complete flower only to use and added an amber coloured gem to the centre of each flower

These flowers I stuck down the Stripe on the inside of the card

Leaving the top part unstuck I stuck the vase shape in the centre near the bottom

I stuck 4 different lengths of thin green ribbon from under the vase then stuck down the top of the vase
I stuck on the decoupaged flowers at the top of the strips of ribbon

I hope you like this finished card The set of premium papers can be used for Mothers day cards but having just lost my Mum I couldn't bring myself to make a Mothers day card so chose to make a Thank you card instead hopefully showing that the papers can be used for one of several different occasions

A sad time

2010-02-05T07:27:00.000Z

Those of you who follow the forum @ Free Craft Downloads will know why I haven't been blogging lately but for those of you who don't it is because My Mother had been ill and passed away a couple of weeks ago, this was only 4 months after my Dad passing away as well as trying to cope with this I have been having to sort out their house etc
After this weekend I am hoping to be able to start crafting again something I have missed doing - at least this is some part of my life that can go back to normal

I don't like to put too many "personal" postings on here I try to keep this just for my crafts but with not putting anything on here for a while I thought it only fair to let you know why
Thank you for taking the time to read this and hopefully I can have a new project on here next week

A Challenge Card I made

2010-01-10T12:52:00.002Z

I thought I would share with you this Card I made

It was a Challenge card

On Free Craft Downloads we have a section in the Gallery where Forum Members can post decoupage / backing sheets they have made (Images used must be in the Public Domain, Your own art work or used with permission)

To make this card I used

1 A4 sheet of White card

Challenge sheet 1

Challenge sheet 2

Gold peel offs

1 A5 sheet of acetate

A Cupid backing Paper from FCD (A5 size)

I printed & cut out the decoupage sheets,

I assembled sheet 1 and 2 seperately

While they were drying I set to work on the card

I folded the White card in half and cut out a rectangular aperture in the centre I measured the base of the decoupage picture and cut the aperture slightly larger so the backing paper could just be seen as well

In this picture you can see I used the cupid backing paper on the inside of the card I closed the card and stuck the challenge 1 decoupage sheet in the centre of the aperture this way it ensured that when the card was open / closed the design could be seen in the correct position

I then stuck the sheet of acetate to the back of the open aperture

In this picture you can see that I stuck "challenge sheet 2" decoupage to the acetate I did this by closing the card and lining up the decoupage with the decoupage on the inside of the card I also stuck a Gold border peel off around the aperture edges and some gold peel off leaves to both bottom sides

This picture shows the card slightly open so you can hopefully see the decoupage on the acetate and the back of the card

I would like to say Thank you to Suan - It was her that set us the challenge using her decoupage sheets

She has no objections to people using her decoupage sheets for Projects / Card making but the sheets are not to be sold or put on CD's to be sold

I used the cupid backing paper on the card because I thought the colour went well with the dress the lady was wearing I chose not to add a greeting to the card - another forum member said it would make a nice Valentine card - Thanks Barb a nice idea

Valentine's Day

2010-01-04T18:05:00.001Z

We are only just getting over Christmas and New Year and thoughts are turning to Valentines day
It may be a bit early for some to be thinking of this now but for some Crafters they will already be making Valentine Cards

This card I have made combines one of this weeks New Papers from Free Craft Downloads with one of the Older ones on there and the Decoupage sheet I have put in the Decoupage and Backing Sheets (made by forum members) section in the Gallery on there

I used
1 Sheet A4 white card
1 Sheet A4 Matt photo paper
1 "love" fabric embellishment
2 Gold heart embellishments
Red alphabet peel offs
4 Heart corner peel offs (coloured with pens)
Double sided tape
Silicone Glue
1 A5 size piece of acetate
Be mine teddy decoupage
Cupid - Pink (light) backing paper
Valentines day13 backing paper
A4 side heart Template

I printed the "Valentines day" backing paper on the A4 sheet of White card, I then ran this back through the printer and printed the A4 Heart template on the reverse (white) side
I cut around the edges and around the Heart shapes on the sides

I printed the cupid backing paper on the A4 sheet of white paper
I cut this to fit the central inside section of the card.
I attached it with Double sided tape and trimmed the edges

This is how the card looks when folded it opens as a gatefold card (A5 size)

Behind the cut heart part on the front of the card I have added some acetate
and at the top of the card I have put a gold fabric "Love" embellishment
which is stuck to the left hand side of the card only (Letters L&O)

This is the inside of the card - I stuck the teddy decoupage down with double sided tape so that when the front is colsed over the design is in the centre of the heart
I added some heart corner peel offs which were coloured red with peel off pens

This is how the finished card looks
I stuck the 2 gold hearts to the bottom front "inner" corners
As an example I added ME and YOU red peel offs on to the acetate You could add a persons name there if you wishe or just leave blank

I decided to go with a softer pink look for this card rather than the "Bright Red" a lot of Valentine cards are
Hope you like it

Teddy Bear Aperture Card

2009-12-31T08:22:00.001Z

I made this card from a "Premium Set" of papers

More of these sets will become available soon on Free Craft Downloads "Premium Papers" will be for members (people who are subscribed to the newsletter) to subscribe to the newsletter click here
This "Test set" can be found here It is a Zip file which includes
4 backing papers
8 Inserts
1 each of decoupage / pyramid / reverse pyramid
2 frames
2 tags

To make the card in the picture I used
The Teddy insert_03_A6 insert ( printed on a sheet of A5 white card)
The teddy background _02 (Printed on an A5 sheet of paper)
The teddy_pyramid_01 (2 of these printed on A5 card)

I cut the white centre away from the insert and edged this with a Gold border peel off (a quick way to make an aperture card)
Then to the inside back of the card I stuck on the background paper and trimmed the edges
I cut out the pyramid sheets and assembled using silicone glue
when these were dry I stuck a short length of beading wire on the back of one and stuck the other to it so when it was suspended in the aperture the teddy design was back to back.
I chose not to add a greeting to this card but will add one at a later date when I decide what the card will be used for

Decoupaged Fan Card

2009-12-30T21:34:00.000Z

I made this card using a Fan Decoupage sheet From Free Craft Downloads

To make the card I used

A slimline DL card in pale blue

Fan decoupage sheet (printed three times on sheets of 6x4 photo paper)

Gold fancy border peel offs

2. Small gold fan peel offs

3. Small gems one each of Blue, Green and Purple (to co-ordinate with the colours in the fan)

I cut out and assembled the fan decoupage sheets

While the silicone glue was drying I worked on the base card

I put the gold fancy edged peel offs around the edges of the card

Then added the gold peel offs - one to the top left corner the other to the bottom right corner

when the fans were dry enough to handle I stuck them to the base card centrally down the length of the card and stuck the coloured gems on the base of each fan

I chose not to add a greeting to this card this will be added at a later date when I have decided what occasion it will be for.

Log CabinCard

2009-12-30T21:03:00.001Z

This card was made using a Pyramid decoupage sheet I made up from a Public domain image

I used the following
1 piece of A4 silver card
Log cabin pyramid sheet
Log cabin backing paper (printed on 6x4 paper)
White border and corner and greeting peel offs
White ribbon with silver edging
3. Silver foil flowers (2 large 1 small)
7 small clear gems

I printed, cut out and assembled the Log cabin pyramid decoupage
I folded the silver card in half to make an A5 size base card
To each of the four corners I added a white corner peel off and stuck a small clear gem on them
I then stuck the white ribbon across the middle of the card
When the assembled pyramid design was dry (I used silicone glue) I put it on a piece of the backing paper then cut it leaving a border of approx 1cm all around I then stuck white corner and border peel offs to the backing paper
This was then stuck on the white ribbon on the left hand side
I stuck the silver foil flowers on the right side of the ribbon the larger ones on the outsides and the smaller one in the centre I then added a small clear gem to the centre of each of these
Just below the central flower I stuck a "With Love" white peel off on the silver base card

A Quick Hello

2009-12-30T15:08:00.000Z

I just wanted to say a quick hello and apologise for not having many projects on here for a couple of weeks or so
I have been busy looking after My Mother who is not too well so have not had a lot of time for Crafting.
She is in Hospital at the moment so I am able to do a bit of crafting now - Hopefully in the next day or two I will put a couple of cards on here
Thank you for continuing to visit Our Blog I hope you have all enjoyed Christmas and are now looking forward to the coming New Year

Janet

Craft 4 Charity 2

2009-12-01T01:00:00.002Z

The 2nd Craft 4 Charity disc is launched today and is available to purchase HERE

This year the theme is Music

You will find lots of great designs on the CD which have been kindly donated by some very well known and some new designers.

The people behind Craft 4 Charity are special friends of mine and again I wish them every success with this fund-raising project as I know how much it means to them. Once again the money raised will go to the Rett syndrome associationUK

Some of you may remember at the beginning of this year I did a blog posting showing you some cards I made from the 1st CD launched last year (If you didn't buy last years disc check out the special offer for purchasing both discs at the bottom of the purchase page of the C4C site) This year I was asked to make some step by step card samples to be included on the disc

Here are the pictures of the cards I made details of papers used and how they were made can be found on the disc

This card was made from a Funky Bears Contribution

This card was made from a Free Craft Downloads Contribution

This card was made from a Sharon Duncans Contribution

This card was made from a Diane Dorwards Contribution

This card was made from a DebBees Contribution

This card was made from an Ohh La La Contribution

The next 2 cards are not included on the disc but are made from papers/ images on the disc

Another one made from a DebBees Contribution

Another one made from an Ohh La La Contribution

I hope these card examples encourage you to buy the disc It is not "just another craft CD" but a very special one with monies raised going to a very worthwhile cause

Lady in Red Dress Card

2009-11-20T08:07:00.000Z

This card was made with some backing papers I made and a decoupage sheet

The papers used can be found in the new Decoupage and Backing sheets section in the Gallery on Free Craft Downloads (This is where members can add sheets they have made)
Decoupage sheet
Backing paper "weave"
Backing paper "curl"

To make the card I cut out and assembled the decoupage sheet
using the settings on my printer I printed the weave backing sheet A5 size and the curl paper 5x7 size by doing this I had the sizes I needed for the card.
I stuck the weave paper to an A5 white card then layered the curl paper on top I edged these with some border peel offs I had coloured with a peel off pen
I added the decoupage to the middle of the curl paper then stuck a "Just For You" peel off under it.

Happy Thanksgiving Day

2009-11-14T01:03:00.001Z

Some lovely Thanksgiving Day Papers have been added to Free Craft Downloads this week along with a couple of Thanksgiving Day Decoupage Sheets I have made a quick card using a couple of the papers

To make the card I used the following papers
Thanksgiving 02 Decoupage

Thanksgiving 6 light Backing paper

Thanksgiving 9 light Backing paper

I printed out the Decoupage sheet,cut it out and assembled using silicone glue.
While it was drying I made the rest of the card by printing the first backing paper (6) 5x7 size this I stuck to a 5x7 plain white card then the second one (9) was printed 6x4 size and layered onto the first one.
I added some gold peel off borders around the edges of both background layers, and coloured some peel off fruits with a blue peel off pen.
I printed the wording "Happy Thanksgiving Day" in Blue and gave it a lighter blue background This was stuck to the centre bottom of the card
When the decoupage was dry I stuck it to the centre of the card and highlighted bits of it with glitter pens.

Happy Thanksgiving Day

Christmas Tree Card

2009-11-10T21:15:00.000Z

The Backing Paper Builder from Free Craft Downloads has had some new additions
5 New Christmas background templates to use in your papers
Also the ability to make papers 5"x5" and 6"x6" sizes

If you haven't tried it out before I hope you take a look and try it out (You will need to allow Pop-ups if you use a pop up blocker)
You can add your own wording on the backing papers - A great way to make those cards a bit more personal

I made a 5 x 5 card using the Christmas Tree Template

I added the words Seasons Greetings, I put the paper through an embosser to emboss stars on it

I cut out and assembled a christmas tree decoupage sheet I made

I added beads for candles and small foil circles for baubles
added a few foil stars to the backing paper and some "Red" holly leaves to the corners and a gold foil star to the top of the tree
I went over the edges of the tree with a gold glitter pen for a bit of sparkle

2 Quick Cards

2009-11-05T15:07:00.000Z

I have made these cards using the Kaleidoscope Generator available from Free Craft Downloads

I haven't used it for a while so thought I would have a play with it today It is very easy to use and gives you the option to save the tiles you have made or print from your browser (The better option is to save them)
It also shows that even if you don't like to do Tea Bag Folding you can still use the tiles to make cards

Card 1

For this I used a picture of some Purple Tulips which I uploaded to the Kaleidoscope Generator and had a play with until I was happy with the pattern. (Square 8 sector 4cm size)

I saved it to my computer then printed it on to some Photo Paper
I used 3 of the tiles and left a white border around them when cutting from the paper.
I then stuck it to a 5x7 Lilac Card
To the centre of each of the tiles I stuck a small clear square gem put on an angle to make it a diamond shape
I added a silver fine line peel off to the outer edge of each of the tiles then a wavy edge silver peel off to the edge of the white part
In the top right and bottom left corners of the card I added some more of the square gems
I also added a silver vertical Happy Birthday Peel off

Card 2

For this card I used a picture of a lion face which I uploaded to the Kaleidoscope Generator and had a play with until I was happy with the pattern.

(Square 8 sector 9cm size)

I saved it to my computer then printed it on to some Photo Paper
I cut out 2 of the tiles and stuck them on to the left side of a 5x7 size cream card
To the right of them I stuck a piece of beige mulberry paper
I printed out 4 of the lion face picture (6cm x 8cm size) and decoupaged them
I added a fine line gold peel off to the edge of the decoupaged lion them then added a wavy edged gold peel off to the edge of the tiled backing, then to each corner I added an amber coloured round gem
To the right hand side on the mulberry paper I put a vertical Happy Birthday Peel off

Thank You Card

2009-11-02T21:37:00.001Z

As well as the Saucy postcard decoupage we have a few more Floral decoupage sheets which you will find in the Floral section
I used the flower old pyramid sheet

Another easy card to make

I cut out and assembled the pyramid design and added a gold border peel off to the edge of the oval shape I then put it on a pale green rectangular layer I put this on to a darker green card & added peel off borders to the pale green layer and Gold peel off corners to the base card
A Thank you peel off was put on the top of the card

Saucy but Nice

2009-11-02T21:10:00.000Z

Something a little different this week from Free Craft Downloads

Saucy Postcard Humour

A quick and easy fun card to make

This card is made as a 6x4 (15x10cm) size Gatefold card
I used one of this weeks Saucy decoupage sheets
I used saucy_postcard2

I cut out and assembled the decoupage sheet but left off the top layer

When the decoupage was dry I stuck it inside the card

Then added the top layer to the outer sides of the card

I stuck some thin ribbon on to the inner edge of the outsides of the card and put a clear flower gem over them this is so the card will closewhen the ribbon is tied
To finish off I added a Just For You peel off to the left hand side on the front.

A "Chocolate" Card & Box

2009-10-27T01:13:00.003Z

One for the Chocoholics

I have made this set using papers from Chocolate set 1 in the Recommended sets section on Free Craft Downloads

I chose to make a Birthday Card and a gift box containing 2 standard size chocolate bars

To make the card I used the template from the Set, one of the papers and the decoupage sheet. I printed the backing paper on white card then printed the template in draft on the reverse. I cut out and scored along the lines of the template
I cut out and made up the decoupage, and stuck it to the inner middle of the card. I edged it with silver border peel offs. to the corners I added some silver peel off corners
Then on the outer "Triangular" sides I added a vertical Happy Birthday peel off and a small flower gem to each side, and edged the triangular sides with silver wavy peel offs.

To make this gift box I printed one of the backing papers on a sheet of A4 white card then cut the sheet in half to make 2 A5 size pieces On one of the pieces I trimmed approx half a centimetre off one side of the length and the width
I measured in 2cm and scored lines around all four edges on both pieces of card
I folded and creased along the scored lines and cut in to the score line on one edge of each corner and stuck down using a wet glue I held the corners in place with paper clips until they had dried properly. I did this with both sheets so I had a top and bottom of a box

I put the 2 chocolate bars inside and to the top of the box I added 3 small paper flowers with a "pull ribbon" on the stems of them
I printed the tags sheet and tied one to the ribbon I put a silver with love peel off on it

The finished items

Bell Card

2009-10-26T17:38:00.000Z

If you get the Newsletter from Free Craft Downloads - Last week you will have seen that we are starting to add "Recommended Sets"
These papers won't be new but will be sets made up from different sections giving you sets of papers that will go nicely together to make a card. (Obviously you don't have to use the recommended papers) but ideal if you don't want to go looking all over the site for papers or want to make a quick card.

I chose Bells Set 1 from the Christmas Sets Section

I printed the template on a sheet of white card I then cut out the bell shape,
I printed the backing paper on some white paper then stuck it to the front of the card using double sided tape and again cut out the bell from the centre.

I printed 2 of the bells pyramid design on A5 size photo paper and made them up
When the silicone glue had dried I then glued them back to back with a piece of narrow gold ribbon in the middle. ( where there was some small "white bits" showing I just trimmed them )
I glued the ribbon on the top of the bell so the pyramid design was suspended in the aperture I then added a small gold bow over the glue so it wouldn't show.
To the gold ribbon I added some green foil stars and some foil holly leaves & berries to the top 2 corners.
At the bottom of the bell I added 3 gold foil snowflakes

Megans Christmas Card

2009-10-19T16:51:00.003+01:00

This is the card Megan made today

I made the Christmas Tree decoupage Sheet and she cut it out and assembled it herself
She added some beads for decorations on the tree and a star gem for the top
Surrounding the tree she glued some small gold stars and put a "Happy Christmas" peel off at the top and a candle/holly peel off at the bottom

I think Megan did well with this - Hope you do too

Bon Voyage Card

2009-10-19T15:08:00.005+01:00

A quick fun card made from decoupage and backing paper from Free Craft Clip Art which is a sister site to Free Craft Downloads

I used some of the Tommy Turtle Design set for this card

Decoupage sheet I cut out and assembled one of the larger designs and 2 smaller ones

Backing paper I printed a small piece of this paper (6x4 size)

The size of the card is a small DL I chose a green one to go with the Turtles design
Gold corner peel offs were used and gold lettering to say bon voyage
I roughly cut out a pond shape and stuck it on the card and edged it with a fine wavy edged gold peel off then I put one of the smaller turtles "in" the pond with the other 2 following

Penguin Birthday Card

2009-10-19T11:44:00.004+01:00

For this card I used one of the Penguin Numbers decoupage sheets from Free Craft Downloads

I used a blue small DL size card and also used 2 of the Embossed Numbers backing papers
The ones I used were
Pale Yellow
Pale Blue
The Decoupage sheet I chose was Penguin 2 Blue

When I made up the decoupage I put a peel off Gold frame around the first layer and cut around the outer edge then cut out the other pieces and assembled using silicone glue.
While the glue was drying I started on the rest of the card
I cut out the backing papers to the size I wanted and layered them on to the card I coloured a silver Happy Birthday peel off in Blue and stuck that in the left hand corner then added a pale blue ribbon to the right hand corner.
Using PSP I cropped the penguin (layer 3 of the decoupage) and pasted it in a new document I did another and flipped it so I could use them to "hold" the main part of the decoupage (if that makes sense) Then decided to give them balloons to hold so used peel off ones which I coloured blue with a peel off pen

A quick and easy card to make

Christmas Wreath Card

2009-10-16T16:43:00.006+01:00

Here is another card which can easily be made from the designs on the Christmas Booklet from Free Craft Downloads

I used the wreath & bells image (page 8 of the booklet)
I cut out and made up the pyramid design, then while the silicone glue was drying I took an old CD and glued it to piece of red card then used some fancy edged scissors to cut around it
For the base card I used an A4 sheet of dark green card folded to A5 size
I stuck the wreath / bells pyramid design to the centre of the CD then stuck that to my base card near the top
I added some "stickles - icicle" to the bells when dry it gives a nice glittery effect
I put a small silver bow on the top of the CD and a couple of bells peel offs to the top 2 corners
near the bottom I added a "Seasons Greetings" silver peel off which I had stuck to a small rectangle of red card and edged with a silver border peel off

I like the rainbow effect on the CD as it caught the light when taking the picture
Making cards like this is also a good way to use up all those old and unwanted CD's

Christmas Booklet

2009-10-11T08:28:00.006+01:00

This week on Free Craft Downloads we had something a little different - Bob produced a "Booklet" with free downloads in which is available HERE The booklet contains some Christmas designs - You can use them yourself, or pass the link on to friends to use, you could print out the sheets and pass them on to friends, maybe someone who would like to get started in crafting etc
Whatever you decide to do with it - they are lovely images to use.

For my first sample I used the design on page 14

I printed it on photo paper then cut it out and layered it, I then stuck it on to a pale green background then a slightly darker green layer to this I added a fine line gold border peel off
I used the flakes 3 design for the backing paper and stuck to an A5 size card in the centre of each of the snowflakes I added a tiny blob of "icicles - stickles" it gave a nice effect and catches the light lovely Across the top I used a holly stencil and green/red glitter pens to colour in the holly design.
I also used the bells corners decoupage design from page 6 (just used 1 so the other can be made up and used on another card)

For my second sample I used the design from page 13

Again this was printed on photo paper, cut out and made up, I used flakes 22 design for the backing on this card
I added some silver mirri card to the back of the design then added a blue fine line border peel off.
To the snowflakes paper I added some of the "waste" dots (from peel off sheets ) randomly inbetween the snowflakes,
I added silver corners and silver fine line borders
Then stuck the design to the left hand side of the card and added a silver frame to the right side with "Seasons Greetings" inside.

A couple more samples will follow over the next few days

Halloween

2009-10-01T21:19:00.004+01:00

I would like to share with you a few things I made using some of the ""Halloween" Papers from Free Craft Downloads and to show that a lot of the papers can be used for other things as well as for making cards with

I made some (Indoor) Halloween Bunting This was quite easy to make and is ideal if Children are having a Halloween party
I used 3 of the Halloween papers (I printed a few sheets of each) - they were
cat_halloween003_ls
cat_halloween003Ls_l
cat_witch_halloween001_ls_l
I printed them A4 size on white paper and folded them in half, from each sheet I got 2 Triangles I used the outer corners of the top edge as a guideline then brought them to a point at the centre bottom and cut out.
On the back of the triangles I put a strip of double sided tape then folded down the width of the tape and trimmed off the bits that stuck out
I used some black wool to attach the Triangles on to and removed the double sided tape to stick them down

Food tray
(again ideal if Children are having a Halloween party)
I used the cat_witch_halloween001_ls_l design which I printed on to white card cut a rectangle approx 28cm wide by 18cm high
then scored in approx 3cm from the edges and folded along the score lines then cut from the outer edge to the score line and stuck one side to the other (as if making a box base) These can be filled with a small selection of foods for each child

A gift bag for those "Trick or Treat" Treats
for this I used the cat_halloween002_ls paper and printed it onto a sheet of white card I used a template which I printed on the reverse of the card - cut it out and stuck together for the handle I used one of the strips of the Border sheet bats_halloween001 These can be filled with sweets and given to children as their treat

Paper chains
These were made using the border sheet I cut out the strips made a circle with one then threaded the others through and stuck down these can be used in the same way as the bunting.

"Pumpkin Lollipop"
Just for a bit of fun I printed one of the Pumpkin decoupage sheets as a 5x7 size and made it up just using the first 3 layers then stuck it to the front of a children's lollipop

Door curtain
To make this you will need to print several sheets of the Tbag tiles
I used kaleidoscope_20 and kaleidoscope_30
I used some black wool to hang them from you will need a few lengths of them to go across your door
Cut out the tiles and put 3 pieces of double sided tape on half the amount of tiles (one in the middle and one on each side)
peel the backing off the tape and stick the wool to the middle piece then attach another of the tiles on top lining up as carefully as possible alternate the designs along the wool leaving a gap between each until you have the required length (make as many lengths as required)

I'm home

2009-09-28T21:38:00.003+01:00

I thought I would pop a quick Hello on here and let everyone know I am back
For those that don't know My Father suddenly passed away a couple of weeks ago after losing his fight with Cancer. It was such a shock after only being diagnosed 3 weeks before his passing.

I would like to say Thank You - To those who sent Cards and Flowers It was very kind of you to do so and they were very much appreciated.

I have a lot of catching up to do and will try and have a project on here by the end of the week

Thank you all for being patient while I was away.

Party Time

2009-09-01T09:28:00.006+01:00

It's Party Time on Free Craft Downloads on Friday night

Bob has decided to hold a Forum Party at 8.30pm (British Summer Time) on Friday 4th September. There will be some games, and a few small prizes for the winners, it will also be an opportunity for members to socialise.

There are some new Decoupage designs on site this week as well so I have decided to make you an "Invitation" to the Forum Party.

The Invitation

I used
a 5x7 inch White rectangular aperture card
The Dog Sign Decoupage
The It's a Party Decoupage
A small piece of beige mulberry paper
Some Gold corner and border peel offs

I cut out and made up the Dog decoupage
I then did the same with the It's a party decoupage (I just used the first 2 layers)
While they were drying (I use silicone Glue) I stuck a piece of Beige Mulberry Paper to the inside of the aperture.
I added some Gold Corner peel offs to all four corners of the front of the card

When the Decoupage designs were dry I stuck down the Dog one on the mulberry paper in the centre of the aperture card.
The It's a Party one I layered on a small piece of the beige weave paper I had in my "bits" box and used a Gold peel off around the edge
I used some foam pads to stick it to the Dog decoupage so it was raised slightly

I made the insert for the card using Microsoft Publisher I chose the Brown colour scheme to go with the decoupage and the mulberry paper I used I then stuck it to the inside of the card (I quite like the way the colours darken slightly as they go from top to bottom)

The inside of the card

A Clearer Picture of the insert

Although I have used these designs as an invite to our "Forum Party" They are suitable for other occasions / types of cards as well.

If you make any cards using the designs / Backing papers from Free Craft Downloads it would be nice to see them in the Gallery You will need to be a member to post your pictures there.

If you would like to join us at the Forum Party you will need to be a member to participate.
All you need to do is Register & await approval so it may be worth you Registering in advance.

Hope to see you there on Friday

Cross Stitch Owl

2009-08-20T03:06:00.009+01:00

Something new from Free Craft Downloads this week

Cross Stitch Charts
There are a nice selection of Free Cross Stitch Charts for you this week
Bob has been busy

With each picture you get
The Picture
Pattern information sheet for 14, 16, and 18 count Aida
Chart
Thread key/chart

Cross stitching is a great hobby to have - it's very rewarding and therapeutic (it has certainly helped me through a difficult week)
These charts on Free Craft Downloads are very easy to follow and have full stitches so are ideal for beginners - they print out quite large on an A4 sheet so are easy on the eye as well - no more squinting trying to see what symbol a particular colour is

The Charts use "Anchor" threads but obviously you can use other makes of thread too
I used a combination of Anchor and DMC threads you can get conversion charts to help with thread numbers etc they sometimes say the colours may differ slightly but on the whole they match up well

I chose to do the owl simply because it was easy to do and I like it! It took me a total stitching time of five and a half hours some of you may be able to do it in less time others may take longer
Personally I don't take a lot of notice when charts give an approximate time for completion I prefer to take my time with them and enjoy doing them

The pictures below show the design in various stages

My Finished Picture

If you are interested in other free charts and hints and tips, projects etc.. We have a Cross Stitch section over on Free Craft Stuff
There you will find some sites which may be of interest to you

If you want to be kept up to date when new designs etc are added on Free Craft Downloads you can sign up for the Newsletter
If you have any questions about any designs etc or just want a chat in general you are welcome to join our Forum
If you have made cards using any of the designs and would like to show them in The Gallery please do, or you may prefer you own gallery rather than the general one (you will need to become a member in order to do so)

Interlocking Thank You Card

2009-08-14T00:06:00.004+01:00

I have been having a look through some of the older papers on Free Craft Downloads and "rediscovered" the "Cloth" section There are some really nice papers in there
I chose two of them to make this Interlocking Thank you card

1 sheet of A4 white card
1 sheet of A4 white paper
2 sheets of A5 white card
2 medium size pink gems
6 small size purple gems
Cloth18 backing paper (printed on the white card)
Cloth 10 backing paper (printed on white paper)
Interlocking template (printed in draft on the reverse of the cloth backing paper
Flower1 Purple decoupage Printed on A5 card (2 copies)

I cut out the flowers and assembled them I used 3 layers, when I stuck the layers on I turned them slightly so it looks like the flower has more petals
To the centre I added a pink gem on each of the 2 flowers I made
I then left them to dry while I made the rest of the card
I printed the cloth18 backing on one side of the A4 white card then on the reverse I printed the template in draft and cut around the faint blue lines
I folded along the faint blue dashed lines then to the outer corners I stuck 3 small purple gems on opposite 2 corners I also stuck on the 2 Flowers and edged them with a clear sakura pen for a bit of sparkle
For the inside of the card I printed "cloth10" on the sheet of white paper then put it back through the printer to print the verse on it
I trimmed it to fit the centre of the card and stuck it to the card

The Finished Card

Paper Weave Christmas Card

2009-08-05T21:11:00.005+01:00

Remember Paper Weaving from your School days
Over under over under.......... under over under over

I thought I would make a Christmas card
I have quite a few "Scraps" of papers so thought I would use some of the strips to do some Paper weaving an ideal way to use your left overs.

I used the Bell front Template (5x7 size)
1 A4 piece of red card (folded in half and cut to 5x7 size)
scraps of Christmas designs papers

There is a good selection of Basic Templates and Christmas papers on Free Craft Downloads if you haven't already seen them or just want to refresh your memory

For my base I just used plain white copier paper you could use card if you wanted in a colour of your choice
The plain copier paper works fine as the strips of paper strengthen it as they are weaved through.
My base was 12cm wide by 14cm high
Leaving a gap of 1cm top and bottom, I cut 1/2cm vertical lines down the width using a craft knife
I cut 1/2 cm strips of the Christmas papers (the ones I chose were red bells and green candy canes) then started weaving them through the base
When I had finished I put a strip of double sided tape around the outer edge so it would stick to the Card
On the red card I placed the bell template so the bell was in the centre on the front and with a pencil faintly drew around the outline of the bell (you could leave the card A4 in size and print the template directly on to it then cut out)
Using a craft knife I cut around the bell then edged the aperture with a gold border peel off
Then peeled off the strip of double sided tape from the paper weaving and fixed it to the bell, if you want to neaten the back up then just put another piece of the same coloured card over it
I also edged the outer edge of the card with one too
In each corner I used some peel off bells and added a Merry Christmas peel off centred near the bottom

And there we have it - My first Christmas card for this year
You could use any of the basic templates and any of the backing paper designs to make similar cards

Oval Card

2009-08-05T14:33:00.005+01:00

A flip card that doesn't flip

To make this card I have used the Oval Flip Card Template from Free Craft Downloads
This time I thought I would show that you can still use these templates even if you don't want the card to "Flip"

I used
Oval Flip Template
Bells 11 Backing Paper
Blue Bells Decoupage

I printed out the template then put it back through the printer to print the Bells 11 design on it
I cut out the Oval shape and around the outer edge of the rectangular bit but left the oval in the centre

Then I only cut out the top half of the oval shape then folded the rectangle in half
It will look like in this picture here on the left

You will see the very faint outline of the oval shape I used this as a guideline to add a silver border peel off around the edge of the oval

I decided to add the inner oval shape with reverse side showing so it was plain white and added a silver border peel off around the edge
To this I added the Bells Decoupage which I had made up

To finish off I added a Happy Anniversary Peel off
and a small peel off flower in the centre at the bottom

Lilly

2009-08-05T09:49:00.005+01:00

While out shopping yesterday Megan bought herself a "Rag Doll" kit

Meet Lilly

The kit contained an unstuffed Doll, a bag of stuffing, a plain white t-shirt, some gems, fabric paint and glue. (Not bad for the reduced price of £2-50)

As Megan added the stuffing we decided it would be a nice idea to add some Lavender to the stuffing to make her nice and scented so picked some from the garden then continued to add the stuffing
I sewed up the seam at the back for her
She painted a flower on grass on the T-shirt and added the gems where she wanted them then left it to dry

Megan chose the name Lilly for her and asked me to put a picture of it on the blog

Megans Flip Card

2009-07-29T14:31:00.003+01:00

Megan wanted a go at making one of the flip cards
She cut it out and made it up herself
The only help I gave her was cutting off the points on the cocktail sticks
and attaching them on to her card
Megan decided to cut off the corners of the rectangle in the centre so it would "look nice"
she wrote her own message on the back

I wasn't allowed to see it when she was making it
she wanted to keep it for my birthday then she realised I would have to see it on here
so said I could see it to put it on here then she would hide it until needed

More flip cards

2009-07-28T23:49:00.005+01:00

These cards are made in the same way as the First flip card

This one was made using a Pink Gingham paper from Free craft Downloads
I made it as a Good luck card I left the reverse blank so a personal message could be added
I decorated it with silver peel offs and some gems. I coloured the tulip peel off with metallic glitter pens

This time I used a Backing paper (printed on white card) and an image from Crafty Robots CD. I used some foil flowers and added some beads in the centre

On the reverse of this I added a pale pink piece of card with a fancy border and added some oval beads to the corners I left it blank so the card could be used for any occasion and personalised with words of own choice rather than a verse

Crafty Robots CD

If you need support or want to ask any questions about this CD you can do so Here on the Forum