October Newsletter

Good morning, just want to share Lisa's newsletter with you.  If you would like to receive the newsletter directly, you can email Lisa at enquiries@lisabdesigns.co.uk

Hi All,

Where has the time gone?  It seems an age since I have seen a lot of you with no class this month.

Well, I had a fabulous holiday in Spain and was well rested but must admit that my feet have not touched the ground since I have been back.

I was in Glasgow all last week with J&C Creations at the SECC Hobbycrafts show and we managed to clock up 1026 miles on the road there and back!!

                                  It is always a tiring show but we met some lovely people.

Well, it's that time again, Christmas is looming; 8 weeks away, can you believe it?
Just a reminder to all that are attending the class this month that it is this Friday 2nd November and we will be making two Christmas cards using the Butterfly Kisses stamp range from Hobby Art as well as other Hobby Art stamps.
I have loads of new Christmas stock, some New Hunkydory for quick and easy cards, Dies, Stamps, Card, Ribbons, Christmas Helidot, etc, etc.....
Both classes are fully booked, but as usual the

FULL MOBILE CRAFT SHOP

is open to everyone to call in as they wish.

The shop is open from 2.30pm to 9.30pm at Fant Hall, Barming. ME16 8NN.

Don't forget your loyalty cards!

The Christmas Party class on 7th December is booking up very quickly so please let me know if you want to attend.

As a lot of you know who have attended before we always have a lot of fun at the end of year Christmas party and as well as making two projects you get a full buffet and a whole lot of fun and don't forget one lucky winner will win the Craft Hamper with £100.00 worth of goodies in it.

If you wish to find out more about classes or follow my Show and Demo Cards and Projects you can follow me on any of the links below:

Blog: http://lisabdesignsinspiration.blogspot.co.uk/

Website: http://www.lisabdesigns.co.uk/workshops-demo-dates-cms-47.html

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Lisa.Baker.x

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LisaBDesigns

Twitter: http://twitter.com/LisaBDesigns

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/lisabdesigns/

Well that's all for now I will see a lot of you on Friday

Big Hugs

Lisa.B.X

Botanical Birthdays. part two

 

 

Happy Tuesday, blog visitors, Kirsten here.  The first thing I must do is pass on Lisa's best wishes to you all.  I had an email from her today, she is home & has spent the day getting all your orders ready for posting.  Next on her to-do list is a newsletter, so watch out for that arriving in your inboxes. 

 

My to-do list is rapidly turning into a must-do list & I'm struggling to come up with ideas for new projects, so all I have to show you this evening are two cards I made with the die cut birdcage & birds & the blue, patterned paper from the CWC Botanical paper pack.

 

 

 

 

I blended distress inks over the birds & added some doodling.  I liked the white cage against the blue, so left this one plain.  The one below I put in an embossing folder & ran it through my BigShot, before colouring it with Tumbled Glass DI.  That way, the raised areas got most of the colour.

 

For quite a while, I've been telling myself I must get a heart punch & today, while looking for something else, guess what I found in my craft stash??  These heart shaped wings are MUCH better than the hand cut ones I've made previously.

 

 

And that's it for now.  The deadline for the October is tomorrow night at 10pm, so there's still time to enter.  All the details are HERE.

The special offers are still available on the die cut silhouettes, as well as the Craftwork Cards & Nitwits collections on the website.

Thanks for looking today, I shall be back on Thursday with a new challenge.  Until then, take care.

Kirsten








       

Botanical Birthdays

 

 

A good Sunday evening to everyone, Kirsten here.  I hope you've had a great weekend.  Crafting wise, mine has been rubbish.  I have been well & truly deserted by the muse of creativity.  I managed to make three, very simple, cards today, using the CWC Botanicals collection. 

 

I hadn't used these papers before.  They're very smooth & have a glossy finish & the great thing about the white papers is that they can be coloured.  I tried Distress inks & stains, Spectrum Noir pens & watercolour pens & they all worked.

 

 

 

 

I don't have a butterfly die, so I stamped a Kanban butterfly stamp twice on the reverse of the paper & cut around the images.  Then I coloured the flowers with SN pens blended Mustard Seed & Spiced Marmalade DIs over the top.

This paper is from the other paper pack in the collection.  The flowers are Kanban die cuts.  I filled the centre of them with glitter glue.

No matter what I tried, I couldn't get a good photo of this card.  I covered the white paper with Weathered Wood DI & it looks great.  Colouring the paper doesn't obliterate the shine, so this is now a beautiful silver grey.

I found a little piece of Core'dinations card that went with the card & die cut the scallops, which I then cut into & layered three together with a brad to make the flowers.

       

That's if for today, thanks for looking.  I hope to be back on Tuesday with something else to show you.  Until then, take care.

Kirsten

PS The 25% off offer still applies to the Craftwork Cards & Nitwits collections & to the die cut silhouettes on the website.

Take Flight

 

 

Hello everyone, it's Thursday already.  I hope your week is going well so far.  If you've been getting crafty, we'd love to see your projects, so why not post a link to your blog, Flickr or Photobucket site, in the comments below?

 

I felt the need to take a little break from the Christmas cards, but had no ideas, so I grabbed some Distress Stains & went from there.

 

For those of you who haven't used the stains before, they are liquid distress inks & the most basic thing you can do with them is cover a large surface in seconds.  And that surface can be plain paper, patterned paper, cardboard, kraft card, canvas & fabric.  I chose a piece of  thin canvas.

 

 

I covered the canvas in Tumbled Glass distress stain & dried with a heat tool.  You can use the stains on a dry or a wet surface - spritz the surface with water, apply the stain & dry thoroughly.  You will get a different finish with each method.

Next I applied the Dusty Concord stain through the stencil & dried the canvas.  The stain will stay wet on the stencil, so all you have to do is wipe it off with a cloth or paper towel.  If you forget & the stain dries, simply mist the stencil with water.  That reactivates the stain & you can wipe it off easily.

 

 

Here's the canvas after I die cut it.  I edged it with Dusty Concord distress ink - because distress inks are translucent you can use them on top of the stains.

 

 

When I was playing with the stains I got an idea for a little wall hanging.  I cut a square of mountboard for the base & stamped a Kanban flourish around the edge, applied gold embossing powder & heat set.

I seldom use glitter on my projects - it's even messier than gilding flakes - but I wanted to add some bling to the bird & the cage & I thought this blue glitter went with the background.  I used the same flourish stamp & gold EP on the bird & blended Walnut Stain DI to colour it.  I embossed the cage with a crackle embossing folder & used Rusty Hinge DI on top.

Quickie glue pens are perfect for detail work & I let it go tacky before sprinkling the glitter on top.  It was very tempting to start brushing off the excess glitter immediately, but I was patient & waited for the glue to dry.

The flowers are die cut scallops of core'dinations card, wrapped tightly around a brad, then unfurled.

And here's the finished piece.  I didn't have buttons in the colour I wanted, so I used a Spectrum Noir pen.  Sorry for the poor photo, the light is terrible this week, we haven't had even a minute of sunshine.


                      


Thanks for visiting the blog.  If you're attending the Hobbycrafts show at the SECC in Glasgow, stop by the J & C Creations stand, where Lisa is demonstrating & say hello.

Until next time, take care.

Kirsten

Parisian Christmas

 

Happy Tuesday blog visitors, I hope you enjoyed your weekend.  I've had an email from Lisa.  She arrived home from her holiday yesterday & right now, she's on her way to Glasgow.  She enjoyed her holiday, but says her feet haven't touched the ground since she got home.

 

Outside of my craft room, I'm still resolutely refusing to think about Christmas, but while trying to come up with an idea the other day, I remembered the craze for hot pink & black trees & decorations the last few Christmases & that got me playing with Craftwork Cards' Tres Chic collection, the die cut silhouettes & acetate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First thing to say is that the weather is miserable at the moment; wet & very grey.  As a result, the light is terrible & getting decent photos is not easy, especially when you'[re trying to photograph acetate.

 

I cut off about half of the front of square card blank & replaced it with acetate, then started matting & layering black & hot pink card stock.  I used a snowflake embossing folder for the pink card on the front & hand cut the tree out of patterned papers.

 

 

 

 

I used a metal tool to make the gridlines on the Eiffel tour, you could also use a ballpoint pen, or the edge of a credit card, anything that will make thin lines.

 

 

Here's the second card, I just used the tree & the tower the other way round & a different elegant lady.

 

 

 I forgot to take a photo of the tree, but you can see most of it here.  And I put a black tower on the reverse of the acetate.  Not only does that cover the foam pads on the pink one, it also creates a slight shadow, which gives a little extra dimension.

 

 

 

To finish, I made two gift tags from paper scraps I had left over.  The silver snowflakes are confetti from my stash.  You can find them anywhere that sells party decorations.

           


That's it for today.  Click on the links below to see the Tres Chic items available on the website.  There's still 25% off all the CWC collections, as well as the die cut silhouettes & the Nitwits collections.

We'd love to see another entry in the monthly challenge, so have a look HERE for all the details.

Thanks for looking, until next time, take care.

Kirsten

 

 

With Love At Christmas

 

Happy Sunday, blog visitors.  I hope you're having a great weekend.

 

I've carried on making Christmas cards & tags with the Craftwork Cards collections & this time I've added two of the lovely die cut silhouettes that are on special offer on the website - 25% off. 

 

 

 

Let's start with a little Christmas romance.  I used kraft card & patterned papers from the Moorish & Sweetpea collections for matting & layering.  I stamped onto the dress with Indigo Blu's Flitter Glu & covered with silver gilding flakes.

A little tag to match the card, with more gilding flakes on the heart & the black cardstock matt.

Here is Miss Elegance doing her Christmas shopping.

And a tag to go with the card.

What do you think?  Have you tried gilding flakes yet?  I think they look great on the black silhouettes, but it has to be said; using them is a messy process.  I invariably end up with glue covered fingers & bits of flake everywhere - I've even found flakes in my hair.  The end result is worth all the mess though.  And you can't go wrong with the colours in the range, they are all gorgeous.

If you haven't used the glue & the flakes before, there are some instructions provided, but here are a few handy hints:

1. Don't put too much glue on your stamp & don't put too much pressure on when you stamp.  In my experience, it's takes a little practise to get the pressure right.  If you stamp too hard, the image will smudge, so err on the side of caution.
2. Wash your stamp IMMEDIATELY.  You do NOT want the glue to dry on your stamp.  Either put it into a dish of cold water, or spritz it liberally, the glue will usually rub off easily, then dry.
3. By the time you've washed & dried your stamp the glue on your image will be tacky.  This is ideal for adding the gilding flakes.  If the glue's too wet, you will rub it off along with the flakes.
4. Cover your image with LOTS of flakes & press them firmly into the glue before using your scrubbie to remove the excess.
5. You can be quite firm when you use the scrubbie, you need to remove all the excess flakes.
6. And when your pot of flakes is open, try not to breathe!

                   


Thanks for visiting today. Don't forget the 25% off on the CWC collections & the die cut silhouettes. Not sure yet if I'll be back tomorrow, if not, I'll see you on Tuesday. Until then, take care.

Kirsten

PS Don't forget the challenge!!