Merry Christmas Everyone

Hello everyone, I would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas and thank you all for popping in to read my blog posts and for all your lovely comments over the year.  

With Christmas nearly here I have been busy making place settings for my Christmas Day table, you will find a short tutorial for my rustic Christmas place cards over on the papermilldirect blog.   I used this week's special offer ivory card .

That's a 30% saving on a small box of A4 ivory smooth card £6.16.

 

Once again Merry Christmas to you all.

Sylv xx

Eat,Drink & Be Merry Bottle Tag

 

Hello friends and followers, hope you are all ready for Christmas and not like me still trying to get on top of cards, shopping and presents.  I took a break from my Christmas preparations to make this bottle gift tag with a male theme using this weeks special offer from papermilldirect.   This beautiful deep red 350gsm cardstock is 50% off, that's £4.40 for a small box.

The bottle tag was cut on the Silhouette and the small tag was die cut.  Snowflakes and trees were stamped in white with a shadow reindeer stamped in black.  The greeting was stamped in burgundy on the small tag and the edges coloured with the burgundy ink too, this was attached to the bottle tag with jute string.

The joy tag was stamped in white and black ink and the reindeer embossed in white, the joy sentiment was coloured with the burgundy ink and attached to the red tag with jute string and a snowflake charm.

I used the following materials to make the bottle tag and small gift tag.

• Papermilldirect Dark Red Special Offer Card and cream linen
• Silhouette Cameo bottle tag and Tim Holtz Elisse tags die 
• Tim Holtz Alterations/Sizzix Holiday Joy Stamps and Die set, and sentiment from Crafter's Companion
• Inks Ranger Archival Jet Black and Brilliance Moonlight White, Oak House Studio Burgundy Pigment
• Papermania white embossing powder
• Jute String and snowflake charm

Off now to finish my Christmas cards and get them posted.

Maple Leaf Blues and Browns

Hi everyone this is one of my Oak House Studio DT samples made with products which will be featured on Hochanda TV.  The shows at 3pm and 6pm today.

Details of how this card was made and the fabulous products I used are listed below.

Blue and brown are one of my favourite combinations, pure colour chemistry inks in waterfall and brazil nut were used on this card to make the background.  I cut my card to size before spraying, as I wanted a mottled effect of the two colours I sprayed in short burst first with brazil nut then waterfall.  I let the card dry and added a few more sprays of waterfall so the blue wasn't overtaken by the brown.  A smaller piece of card was sprayed with waterfall and wiped over with kitchen paper to give a smooth colour, this was used to back the stamped image.

Spraying can be messy and to reduce the risk of covering everything in site with ink I use a cardboard box, one I had some craft stash delivered in which is now very colourful inside.  The box sides and the open lid help keep the ink within the box when spraying.

Inking finished I stamped the maple leaf from the new stamp set Lynnda's Leaves using the triple sky blues pigment ink pad.    The stamped image was  attached to the blue inked card and fixed to the inky background with 3D sticky pads.  A string was wrapped round the inky background and fastened behind with tape then a button and sentiment were added.  The panel was attached to a brown card again using 3D sticky pads.

A simple card but so effective with the lovely inky background.  Don't forget to add a comment to any or all blog posts on the Oak House Studio blog this week for the chance to win Lynnda's £100 goody bag, this card was showcased yesterday so pop over and leave a comment you could be the lucky winner!

Blending Colours With Pigment Inks

Another Oak House Studio blog post from me today showcasing their new stamp sets and triple ink pads. I have been playing with these pigment ink pads, using them as I use distress inks for blending colours to make a background for stamping.  

I love to make clean and simple one layer cards that can be used for any occasion, and there is a short tutorial showing how I made the card on the Oak House Studio Blog .  Pop over and leave a comment on any of the blog posts this week and you could win a £100 goody bag of Oak House Studio products.  The more you comment the more chance of winning.
 

 

I used triple Autumn Leaves and triple fruity reds pigment ink pads in the blending and stamping of the panel, stamps used Lynnda's Leaves, Texture Elements and Script Sentiments thank you stamp.

Christmas gift box and matching card

Good morning everyone, today I have my DT make for papermilldirect, a gift box and card made in traditional colours.  Talking of traditional Christmas colours the special offer added to the papermilldirect shop this week is 240 gsm red and green  card and envelope bundles.  An amazing 30% off the usual price.

 

A  downloadable file from homemade-gifts-made-easy.com was used to make the pillowbox, this was printed onto papermilldirect Christmas red cardstock, the box was cut out and assembled and the front stencilled with distress inks and wrapped with paper from Papermania's  A Christmas Carol paper stack.  The Penny Black whirl wreath die was cut three times from papermilldirect Christmas red, buff and dark green cardstock.  The ribbon and button were from my stash, from a Molly Bloom Christmas magazine a few years ago.

The card was made with the same materials and a white linen card blank.  The Christmas sentiment free with a Crafter's Companion magazine, was stamped and heat embossed in Oak House Studio detail gold embossing powder. 

Thank you for looking.

Oak House Studio New Stamps and TV Show Details

 

Hello to my friends, followers and all who pop in to see what I have been up to this week.  Today I have details of another Oak House Studio Hochanda Craft TV show showcasing two new stamp sets, Lynnda's Leaves and Winter Trees, and of course those fabulous pure colour chemistry inks and beautiful triple ink pads.

The shows will be on at 3pm and 6pm on Friday 4th December - Hochanda  TV home shopping channel on Freeview 39, Sky 663, Freesat 817.

More news too, there is a £100 Oak House Studio goody bag up for grabs to celebrate the 500th Oak House Studio blog post.  All you have to do is leave a comment on the Oak House Studio BLOG this week, each comment will count so keep adding your comments throughout the week.   There will be different blog post during the week and the winner will be drawn on 7th December.

Here are a few snippets of what I made for the show, I will be posting full details later in the week and on the Oak House Blog and Facebook Page so pop over and leave a comment for the chance to win the £100 goody bag.

So don't forget to visit the Oak House Studio Blog to see what I have been making and leave a comment on there for a chance to win £100 of stamps, inks and other goodies.

Masking and Ink Blending and Some Pretty Stamps

Good morning everyone today I have some cards using masking and distress ink blending.  I love using distress inks and as you will see from the three cards below each piece of colouring and stamping is different so nobody gets the same card, each is individual.  If you are not sure how to create a masked and blended panel pop over to the papermilldirect blog to see my tutorial.

I used papermilldirect white linen cardstock for the main masked and blended panel which was layered onto teal cardstock before attaching to a white linen card blank.  The stamps used are Paper Smoochers Reflections.
 

I like this technique for making quick CAS cards which can be used for any occasion and will be making some Christmas cards like this too.

White on White Christmas Scene

Good afternoon friends, followers and anyone just dropping in to take a peek.   Today I have another Christmassy DT make for papermilldirect.

The card was cut on the Silhouette Cameo using an SVG file from the Silhouette Store created by Lori Whitlock.   I chose papermilldirect white linen cardstock as this cuts well on the Silhouette, the sky backing and snowflake were coloured with distress inks.  The sentiment is Oak House Studio's Christmas Blessings.

I hope you are all having a brighter week than we had last week,  it was not good for sharp photographs but you can see the 3D detail which was created by layering the cut pieces with sticky fixers.

Thank you for looking today, back soon with more Christmassy makes.

Double Daisy Aperture Card

 

Hello everyone, here today with another card made with the Oak House Studio  large double daisy set, this is becoming one of my favourite stamps.  This card came about by accident, I was playing around with papermilldirect buff coloured card and stamped the daisies and embossed them with clear powder without thinking what I wanted to do with it.  I painted the inside of the daisies with bleach to enable me to colour the flowers and left it to dry.

 

The daisies were painted with Oak House Studio jubilee red pure colour chemistry ink,  I added a little to a paint pallet with some water and used a paint brush.  Rather than getting a bright red the daisies became a mixture of orange and red, more red was added to the top daisy and center of the bottom one giving a fabulous mix of oranges and reds.  The buff card inbetween the daisies looked a bit drab so I coloured it with a black marker, and the daisies really came to life.

Having seen quite a few cards recently with layered apertures I thought this a good way to show off the daisies. Apertures were cut in papermilldirect buff and black card and placed over the image, this was then mounted on orange and cream card.  Buff coloured cord was tied round and a sentiment from the Oak House Studio friendly words stamp set attached. Sticky fixers were used to stick the layers to a buff coloured card blank.

Hope you like the effect using the bleaching technique and hope you give it a try it's great fun and Oak House Studio's daisies and the sunflower stamps are ideal for this technique.

Botanical Bookmarks

 

Good evening everyone, another post from me today with this weeks stamp of the week over at Oak House Studio.  This week is the mountain ash stamp, on offer for this week only at £3.50 and free postage too, or until stock runs out.  I have been playing with this stamp today and made a few bookmarks using up off cuts of card.

 

The strips of card were first sprayed with pure colour chemistry inks - citrus lemon and jubilee red, waterfall and citrus lime, citrus lime and jubilee red.  The mountain ash was stamped onto the tags randomly using pigment ink triple ink pads - sky blues, fruity reds, triple sunshine yellows, triple meadow greens, triple vintage browns.

Each coloured and stamped strip was mounted onto co-ordinating coloured card and a hole punched for some brown cord.

Had a lovely morning getting inky and pleased with the results.  An ideal stocking filler to go with a book this Christmas.

Christmas Gift Tags

 

Hi everyone, more Christmas makes for you today.  I have been busy making cards and tags, still lots more to make but at least I have made a start.

These simple tags were made with papermilldirect smooth white card and a cute stamp I bought in a sale.  They were stamped, coloured with pencil crayons and finished with distress ink and flicks of water.

This blue tag is my papermilldirect DT offering this week using  papermilldirect buff, pale turquoise and white linen card, an inchie Dark Room Door stamp set,  Sizzix Tim Holtz tag + bookplates and holiday words script dies, the snowflake border is a Memory Box die.  

Don't forget the papermilldirect free shipping offer on orders over £30 ends tonight at midnight (18th Nov) and there are still offers available in the special offers section including 65% off A2 luxury artist pads.

Pop over to the papermilldirect blog for more inspiration and tutorials from the design team.

Holly Gift Box for a Christmas Gift Voucher

Good morning friends and followers, we are now into November and my thoughts are on Christmas.  I have been making gift boxes and cards and have a gift card box to show you today.    This box has been made with a male relative in mind and will hold a gift card voucher or small gift.  If you are making cards papermilldirect have offers on their cream envelopes at the moment, 50% off these fabulous quality envelopes, ideal for all your card making.

The box was cut using the Silhouette and a Jamie Cripps cutting file.  I used papermilldirect buff, Christmas green and post box red card.  Check out the papermilldirect blog for Christmas inspiration and tutorials by the Design team members.

  

I assembled the box and added paterned paper to the base of the inside and distressed the edges of the box with vintage photo distress ink. 

 

Thank you for looking, I will be back soon with more Christmas ideas. 

One for the Children, colour your own tags

Today's post is a DT creation for papermilldirect, we were asked to get our inspiration from Pinterest for our makes.  Christmas is great for the kids and I wanted something for them, I love these colour your own tags which are a free download from raggedyscrappin.com, ideal for the children to colour themselves in the run up to Christmas.  I wanted to present the tags in a pocket card with crayons for colouring.  I came up with this card with a box attached for the crayons.

The tags were printed onto papermilldirect smooth white card and cut out.  The card was made with smooth white card too covered with patterned paper.  The front of a 14cm square card was cut on the diagonal to form a pocket for the tags.  An oblong box was made and attached to the card to hold some crayons, a snowman from from one of the tags was coloured and used to decorate the crayon box.

The first card was trial and error , I have added a front to the design and made the crayon box the depth of the card.   Working on these for the grandchildren.

Chocolate And Citrus Lemon A Winning Combination

Hi everyone, today I have another card using the Oak House Studio stamps and inks featured in their Hochanda TV show.  The yellow daisy card was a DT make for the show.  This card used the new double daisy stamp set, rainbow words set and citrus lemon pure colour chemistry ink contrasted with the yummy chocolate pigment ink.

There is a short tutorial on the Oak House Studio blog showing how I made the card using blue to contrast with the brown.

Same card with different colour daisy and placement of sentiment

As you can see the slight change in layout and colour can make a card individual although it follows the same design style.  Pop over to the blog and check out the tutorial, the stamps and inks used are in the shop now and I am sure Lynnda will be coming up with more new goodies soon too. 

Sweet Treats For the Christmas Tree

This week we are getting festive over on the papermilldirect blog,  check it out to see what the design team have made to get us in the festive mood.  I have made a matchbook tree decoration for children young and old for my DT make.

Also this week papermilldirect  have an extra special offer for you, the Create a Calendar is a perennial favourite with customers and as an extra special treat they are having a half price calendar flash sale starting tomorrow, Tuesday 3rd at noon until Thursday 5th.

Matchbooks are easy to make, just a few scored lines and it's done.  You can go to town with your decoration, paints, inks, embossing, stamping.  I stamped and coloured with distress inks on my matchbooks and will be making more of these tree ornaments this year rather than buying them.

The matchbook can be any size you want, although original matchbooks (which held matches) were usually around 2" square and used as advertising aids for hotels, clubs etc.  I make mine to fit the project square for the chocolate holders and oblong for note books or pocket calendars.

Papermilldirect white linen card was used for the matchbox and I lined my matchbooks with post box red card, papermilldirect have a fabulous range of coloured card as well as whites and creams.

For those of you who are not sure how to make the matchbooks my tutorial on the papermilldirect blog shows you how to make them. 

Back soon with some more  festive makes.