Dinning Room

I felt like practicing dip pen calligraphy the other day, so copied some calligraphy quotes from Pinterest.  I used my trusty 'Blue Pumpkin' nib (the Brause No.361 nib or 'Steno' nib) along with an ink reservoir which I took from a Brause Bandzug nib. This increases the time I can write for without re-dipping, by loads. This nib doesn't create lines quite as fine as the popular Brause 66EF nib, but to me it's a much more reliable, smooth nib. Love wet ink!

The third card I made yesterday features a cat die and stamp from Papertrey Ink. I made the background panel by 'smooching' Distress Inks. To do this, I put a few dabs of ink from the pad onto a non-stick craft sheet, spritzed it with water, and then lifted up some of the ink with a clear acetate sheet. I then dabbed the ink down onto my white cardstock. I liked doing it this way (rather than just rubbing the white cardstock directly into the ink) because it gives you greater control with where you put the ink, and you can see what's going on. I did this four times with four separate inks: Festive Berries, Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed. For the cat, I die cut white card, stamped the cat on it, then stamped the cat two more times on patterned paper, and cut round one for the whole body, and another for just the head which I attached with foam pads.  For the 'Happy Birthday', I put wide double sided tape from Elizabeth Craft Designs onto black ca...

So I actually managed to make three cards during my crafting session today... (I also made three different curries for dinner - it's been a cards 'n' curry kind of day!) Anyway, for my second card, I used one of Karen Burniston's brilliant die sets, the Cake Pop Up set. I cut the pop up cake die into some gorgeous My Mind's Eye Jubilee Collection Mint Julep patterned paper with foil hearts, and cut my own shapes for the three cake layers. I used the middle candle support to attach the top cake layer to, and added a larger candle from the Gift Card Accordion die set. I used the scalloped dies in the set to add icing to the cake layers, and added an extra layer which I had trimmed down, to the top of the cake stand, for dimension. I used the 'Celebrate' die from the Flourish Gift Frame die set, and one of Karen's older Sizzix dies for the curly borders. I added sequin trim (from Stampin' Up), and blended on Festive Berries Distress Ink around the edges...

I finally set aside some time for crafting today (I have so much Fire Fighting studying to do), and thoroughly enjoyed myself! I bought some Tim Holtz products this week, and had my first go at blending Distress Inks... SO much fun! I blended an orange/red/pink background first of all, using Festive Berries, Spiced Marmalade and Picked Raspberry mini ink pads. (I bought four of the Distress Ink Mini Kits, and bought another eight individual mini pads, to get the colour range I wanted, plus two storage tins.) I squirted some water from a mini mister into my hand and dropped it into the background to create some texture on it. I cut another white cardstock panel with one of the Mixed Media Thinlits dies, and coloured it by blending Cracked Pistachio, Tumbled Glass and Peacock Feathers. I layered the above two cardstock layers onto a third layer which I coloured with Walnut Stain, for a narrow border. I bought enough Mini Ink Blending Tool foam pads so that each ink has its own, which I s...

I haven't had much time for crafting lately, but I've finished the course now which I've been on all this year (I passed it, and am now an On-Call Fire Fighter!), so have finally had chance to play! I used Karen Burniston's lovely new Oval Landscape Accordion die set for the four panels, and for the oval layer. Talking of Karen , I finally got to meet her last month at the Stitches show at the NEC, England!!  Donna Wright (of Old Red Shed ) and I went down for the weekend, and met up with Karen, as well as Caz Counsell , from Karen's Design Team. We had a brilliant weekend and it was so nice to finally meet good friends!   Back to the card... I re-cut each of the panels in patterned papers, and used them to decorate the frames. The papers are from My Mind's Eye's 'The Sky's the Limit' 12x12 Collection, and from Stampin' Up. I used dies from Crate Paper's Confetti Collection 'Flowers' Die Set, for the layered flowers and leaves. T...

I had a lovely package in the post recently - new dies and stamps by  Karen Burniston  for  Elizabeth Craft Designs !  I thought the Hot Air Balloon die set would look lovely with Tanya Whelan 's new 'Wild Rose' papers for Craft Consortium . The die set includes a die for creating a pop-up step part, dies for the balloon, and extra cloud dies. (The largest cloud die is by Papertrey Ink.) I used a Sizzix die for the sentiment, using Elizabeth Craft Design's Soft Finish card stock, with double sided tape on the back. I hand cut some floral paper into a cloud outline, for the bottom of the card, and added some layers of ribbon, pom-pom trim and glitter card.strips. The new Hot Air Balloon die set. Product Links:    

I posted yesterday about a lovely new Tanya Whelan paper collection from Craft Consortium , called ' Wild Rose ' and today I have another card I made using papers from it. (It's available here and here .) I used Sizzix's Basic Step-Ups Card die set for the card base and layers, and Sizzix's 'Floral Wreath' Thinlits die set from Brenda Walton for the butterflies, banner and smaller leaves. The 'thanks' die is from Mama Elephant, and the flowers and larger leaves are from a Crate Paper 'Flowers' die set. You can see the details of the steps better here. I punched holes and added eyelets, through which I strung Baker's Twine, to hang some bunting. I stuck on the die cut elements with foam pads, and added two layers of 'thanks' die cuts, to stiffen it up a bit. The 'Floral Wreath' die set I used. Product Links: