Just peachy!

I made this card in the Die cutting workshop a couple of weeks back.  It's not often I work in peach colours - not one of my favourite shades, but I picked out this colour because it was something I wouldn't usually pick (if that makes sense!).  It's all to easy to always work in your favourite colours and its nice to do something different.

This is made on an 8x8" card blank and you can create it from just one sheet of 12x12" coloured cardstock.  Firstly, cut your base panel so you have a white border on your card blank.  Then cut your white squares - I happen to have a square die the perfect size, but you can cut them by hand if you haven't.  You will need 9 squares.  Then emboss each square with an embossing folder, 9 different ones or you could use two different designs and have the corners and the middle in one and the other four in the second design... or three designs cut in rows....lots of options!

Next I stuck down all the squares.  This is probably the most difficult part of this design as you want to try and keep your borders even and your squares straight.  I find it easier to stick in my four corners first and then make sure the gaps are even on the central ones.

You can then start to cut your die cut shapes to go on top.  A handy tip is to cut them out of white first, you can then cut more than you need and play around until you have the arrangement you want.  Then you can cut them out of your 12x12" sheet, taking care to work out that you can fit them all onto what's left over.

I then stuck them on using cosmic shimmer dries clear glue and as a final touch added clear glitter onto the heart using a quickie glue pen.  The heart die is a Memory Box Die - Bingham Heart.  The corner is the Memory Box Madiera Corner.

happy crafting

Jane
www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk
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Paper Hearts

Here are the last of my heart cards.  I've used the same set of dies as I have for the last couple of day's projects, but this time working with printed papers.

I've used only papers from one paper pack - Wild Rose Studio Always and Forever paper pack.  I've used three different designs here.

Firstly I've cut the different size hearts from 2 different papers and the base layer is cut from pink plain cardstock and then embossed using the Crafts Too Love hearts embossing folder.  I've then picked out a matching paper to use as my base mat on the card.

The second card I've used strips of papers.  I started by cutting out strips from four different papers.  I cut out a base square of card that would be large enough to cut my heart shape from and lightly marked in pencil the area to cover.  I then put down cross hatches of double sided tape (I always use Stix2 as I find it has an excellent stick!).  I then laid down my first strip of paper and then matched the next one underneath so it lined up and so on until all layers were down.  At this point I could then cut out my heart die and I knew that my papers wouldn't move.  I then assembled my card.  The 'cherish' stamp is from a Hero Arts set - called Word Borders - I've had these a few years so I don't know if they are still available!

My final card is onto a large 8x8" blank.  I cut out 9 hearts with a small die trying to get a mixture of different colours and shades.  I spent some time rearranging the hearts in different ways to make sure that the colours and shades were balanced and I didn't end up with similar papers next to each other.  Once happy I used my Cosmic Shimmer Dries Clear Glue to stick them down onto a pre-cut square mount.  I then mounted this onto a complementing paper, then a white mount, then finally onto plain pink cardstock.  I really like this card - it's clean simple lines look very elegant.

Just a handy hint - if you are looking to workout what size to cut your mounts and you want to use a printed paper, as in this case they were from a 6x6" book - remember that you will need to size the next mount downwards in size - rather than working from your topper and working up as sometimes you then need a larger piece of printed paper!  Always worth planning before you cut all your various mounts.

That's the end of the hearts... well for now anyway!  Something different tomorrow - promise! :-)

Happy crafting

Jane
www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk

Embossed Hearts

You will recognise the same dies from yesterday - and a similar layout too - but this time to mix it up a bit. I've used Acrylic paints onto greyboard.  On the red and gold heart, I've used the same technique as yesterday - painted a red base coat, then added some vaseline before painting the gold top coat and once dry then wipe away as the vaseline acts as a resist.  I've then run it through with an embossing folder.  I wasn't sure how much detail I would get as it's thick grey board - but as you can see it was very detailed - this has been put through a Cuttlebug.  (The folder was one that's no longer available to buy that was in my stash).  I created my mounts the same as yesterday.  As I knew I needed to make quite a few cards in a short space of time, I stuck with the same design layout and created my mounts in the same way so I could cut out having to do lots of measuring. 

In the pink and gold card, I painted in just the pale pink for this heart and then run through with a Love heart embossing folder from Crafts Too.  The next stage required patience!  I lined up the heart over the embossing folder so it would keep firm and flat, then bit by bit I used my Versamark to ink only the raised parts of the design.  Do this a a little at a time with a very light touch, if you rush it you will just ink the lower bits.  Again because it's over paint, even if you use an antistatic bag, you may need to tidy up with a little paintbrush.  I completed it in about 5 stages, so not too long - but worth it! 

As a final detail on this card, I inked up some scrap card with my versamark and embossed it with gold and then punched out four little hearts to add to the corners - that way they match perfectly.

Fed up with hearts yet..... I'm not quite finished!... a few more tomorrow!  :-)

happy crafting
Jane
www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk
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Clean and Simple Butterflies

No ink at all on today's project!  I fancied having a play with dies and embossing folders on today's project.  I started by cutting out 9 squares out of white card - I used a die - but you could handcut them if you don't have a square die the right size.  I then made a random selection from my collection of embossing folders.  They are a mixture - some Cuttlebug, some Crafts Too, some other brands.  I tried to get a mix of patterns and embossed each square with a different pattern.  I next selected my card colour.  After trying several colours I liked this deep aubergine purple textured cardstock so I next cut a square to fit an 8x8" card blank and then arranged my squares evenly on the card and stuck them down.

I then used the off-cuts from my 12x12 card to cut out the die cut shapes.  I used four Memory Box Dies...  Bella Bouquet, Vivienne Butterfly, Kaleidoscope Butterfly and Perched Reed Bird.  I then arranged the dies onto my card and stuck down with Cosmic Shimmer Dries Clear Glue.

It made a change from getting inky... and I have a few more dies and embossing projects in mind to have a play with.  I think I might spend this evening cutting out die cut flowers as I have a big project in mind that will need lots and lots of flowers... so I think I'll start cutting a few here and there to save me having one big cut out session and getting cuttlebuggers dead arm!

happy crafting

Jane

www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk
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Poinsettia Tag

Today's creation featured the newly in stock Poppy Stamps Blooming Poinsettia Die - it creates such a beautiful poinsettia - and I look forward to using this in summery colours as a flower later in the year too!

I started with a white tag shape and added Iced Spruce, Pumice Stone and Fired Brick Distress Inks with Cut n Dry foam.  I also used That Special Touch Music note border mask (peeking out behind the poinsettia).  I then embossed the whole tag using Couture Creations Turkish Delight folder and then added more distress ink shading.  I next added highlights using Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Waxes - Gold and Patina and applied some patterns through sequin waste with Fired Brick.  Splash with water and remove the droplets with a towel to give that distressed look. 

I cut out all the pieces of the poinsettia die and coloured the three layers of petals with Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany and a little touch of Gathered Twigs Distress Inks.  It was then spritzed with water and the droplets lifted with a towel to give that mottled look.  The top piece was coloured with Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink and the leaf with Gathered Twigs and Peeled Paint with a hint of gold wax.  I curled the petals to give it some dimension and assembled onto my tag using Cosmic Shimmer Dries Clear Glue.

the picture doesn't do the shading justice - particularly the wax highlights that really glisten in real life!

happy crafting

Jane
www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk
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Let's get embossing!

oooh the excitement of a new delivery. I have a big box ready to be unpacked. This one is from Crafts Too and has their new embossing folders in it - as well as restocks of the popular Noel and Baubles folders (amongst others) - that flew out at Thetford! I'll be busy getting them up onto the web in the next few days - bear with me!.... but just had to share a sneaky peak of some of the new designs! There's also new dies from Joy Crafts and Marianne Designs and more of those gorgeous glass pendants too!

happy crafting

Jane