My first posts as a DT for Memory Maze

To begin with I have a Birthday card that I made for my 2^nd child who turned 7 earlier this month. It was a really quick card as I was under the pump with this one. I have used pieces of plain cardstock in black and grey for the bases of this card. Dies were used to cut the shapes out of the black and grey card and a piece of watercolour cardstock was placed behind the shield shape window (it was coloured with several alcohol inks). There were 3 Memory Maze chippies used on this card; the Happy Birthday, Crazy Kid and Best Wishes sentiments.

 

The Crazy Kid chippie was painted with light green acrylic paint and then covered with green glitter glue and glossy accents. The Happy Birthday sentiment was painted with Lumier acrylic paint in indigo, and then topped with glossy accents. Check out how much shine this can add to a chippie in the pictures.

 

On the inside of the card the Best Wishes sentiment was coloured with green alcohol ink and then covered with the green glitter glue again.

 

The edges of the grey card were all inked with brown stazon ink. Once all of the pieces were prepared they were pieced together and Hey Presto!

The second item I made for my Memory Maze post will be here tomorrow. Now I will warn you that it has quite a few steps and pictures to it, so check back in tomorrow for that one.


Until Then,

 Happy Crafting,

 Jodie.

February's Stick It Down Card Challenge

With a new month comes a new lot of challenges over at Stick It Down for card makers and scrap bookers alike. Check it out for some inspiration or to join the challenge yourself. This is the sketch given for the card challenge for this month

 

Yes being February everything pretty much revolves around Valentine's Day. I guess I'm one of the lucky one's in that I have found my match in my husband. Then again, I've got a pretty special place in my heart for 2 more 'little men'. Let's face it every mother has a special place in their hearts for their kids. Anyway, my husband isn't exactly what one would call an overly romantic or incredibly metrosexual man, he's more of your manly man, if you get what I mean. So all things pink and red, and frilly really isn't his thing. So this is what I ended up coming up with.

 

It was made on some plain white cardstock, and the coloured cardstock were some off-cuts that I had in my stock (Kaiser Craft I think). The ribbon was some white velvet that I put drops of blue and green alcohol ink on to dye it. The stamps come from Kaiser Craft and were inked in Stazon ink, which was also used to enhance the edges of the cream cardstock.

 

 

I also sprinkled some very fine glitter over the front of the card in spots as you can see from the above picture. On the inside is a simple stamp from my collection.

 

 

Although Valentine's Day is the only major event in February for most, it's NOT in our household. We find that December and the first 3 months of the year are incredibly hectic here. From school holidays and Christmas to New Year's and then lots of birthdays, it is full on. I'm sure some of you out there in blog land know what I mean.

 

Until next time,

 

Happy Crafting.

 

Jodie.

 

 

Chipboard Favourites

I hope this post finds you all well. Today I would like to show you some of my favourite pieces that involve the use of chipboard. It is such a versatile product and can be decorated in so many different ways.

Here I have used chipboard pieces from my stash to decorate a card and tag. I have coloured some dove chipboard pieces in addition to using the butterfly template (the area that is left from a piece of chipboard when your desired shape; in this case the butterflies, is pushed out). I have filled this area with modelling paste and used it to create texture on the background of the card.

For the tag I have used chipboard swirls and coloured these to match the colours on the tag image. I have also coloured a chipboard sentiment to include on the tag.

For my next project I have used chipboard pieces in conjunction with metal embellishments, paper flowers, beads and trinkets to create the silhouette of my daughter Holly. These were all covered in gesso before being coloured with inks and sprays.

For one of my more recent pieces I used the chipboard letters that spell out CHRISTMAS to decorate this wreath. I glued matching papers to each of the letters and then covered them in glossy accents to give them some shine.

My next piece will always be one of my favourites for sentimental reasons. When we got married last year our 3 children were heavily involved in the day with us. As our daughter was only just 2 at the time we wanted something special for her that she would be able to carry (and not too heavy). So I came up with the idea of a wand for our little flower girl. I handmade each of the flowers on the wand in colours to match our theming. The large flowers around the center were punched out of a sheet of chipboard. This was then soaked in water briefly, so that some of the layers could be separated. They were then dried and painted and had a hole placed in the center.

For this scrap booking challenge piece you were required to use embossing (either dry, wet or both). These chipboard pieces were perfect for highlighting some of the features on our wedding pictures. The bridge, ornate frame and letters were all coloured with ink first and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

This card has been made for my uncle who has his birthday next month. He loves being out on his boat so these chipboard pieces were perfect. I've cut the bow off a tug boat piece and painted it white, and attached it to the anchor piece which has been painted with perfect pearls. The pelican piece has been added to give the beach theme some more balance. Add a tag and 'Hey Presto'.

Now technically I did not do these pieces (although I did have to help out a bit), but I wanted to show these anyway. These are gifts that my boys gave to their teachers last year for Christmas. They are small 3D frames that the boys have added some personal touches to. They have used a chipboard heart frame, coloured it and decorated it with some paper flowers and chipboard butterflies. They also made the background image themselves with a stencil, modelling paste and spray inks.



Now I hope that this has inspired you in some way to create. 

Until next time,

Jodie.



Birthday Card

Firstly I should start with Happy New Year, as it is now the 1st of January, 2015 here in Australia. I hope that you all had a great Christmas and New Year. This new year for me means the start of my first DT (design team) position over at Stick It Down. They have monthly challenges running for card makers and scrap bookers, so if you get a chance jump on over and have a go.

On the subject of design teams Faery Ink are in the process of adding to their team at the moment. These guys make some incredible digital stamps, that have a wonderful element of whimsy to them. My almost 3 year old daughter is really into all things 'Princesses and Fairies' at the moment (as well as frozen, but let's not go there right now), so I've managed to get some great pictures from these guys to do up for her.

I got this image from them and once printed Miss almost 3, immediately thought it was her. So I went along with it for a bit. I have once again used my watercolour pencils to colour this image (as I have with the last few digital images that I've included in my blog previously). I added some brown hair and eyes, some slightly rosy cheeks and gave her a light complexion. Two of her favourite colours at the moment are pink and purple, so I added those too. Throw in a little dark grey for the headband, skirt and shoes (and trimming the skivvy) and 'Hey Presto' - Miss almost 3 was complete.

I have matched this image up with some simple paper, ribbons and embellishments as I really wanted the image itself to be the focal point of the card. Some purple card with swirls and a happy birthday ribbon form the base of the card. Add some small paper flowers from D'Lish Scraps and a rose metal embellishment from My 2 Angels and card complete.

I already have my next piece picked out for me. For this image, I would like to do it up for Valentines Day. I would like to try and get a head start on cards this year. To find out more about me and my work please check out my profile. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me.

Until next time,

Happy Crafting.

Jodie.

Christmas Wreath

Wow, how quickly does time pass by at this time of year? I have a huge list of things that I would like to do before the kids finish school for the year, but finding the time to do them is something else. I did however find time to make this Christmas wreath though. Let me know what you think.

It started as a plain foam ring that you can get at almost any craft shop. This was wrapped in a layer of tightly wound raffia, that has been glued down in sections so that it doesn't unravel. I then used a number of strands separated into 3 sections and made a large plait (as some strands end in the sections you do need to add more strands in so that you can make this in one long piece). This was then wrapped around the wreath form and glued down in sections at the back (I held it in place with some sewing pins whilst the glue dried) and added a handle.

I found some Christmas papers and used these to cover some alphabet chipboard letters. I then used a file to go around the letters and neaten up the sides. These were all covered with a layer matt medium.

I had a number of ribbons in my stash that matched in with the colours from the KaiserCraft Christmas papers that I used to cover the chipboard letters. These were then wrapped and glued around the wreath.

Then it was time to decorate. Out came my stash of flowers and after gluing down the Christmas word they were glued in around these and the ribbons.

The letters needed a bit more definition to them, so I covered them in a layer of glossy accents.

I know you are all asking what the heck are those colourful bits coming from the bottom of the wreath and the answer is simple... Curlers. Yes you read right. I have these curlers for my hair and thought that I'd try to curl the ribbons on the bottom with them. I added a spritz of water to the ribbons, pulled them through the curlers and left them to dry. After an hour or so I pulled the curlers off to see if it had worked and hey presto.

 

And here's a few close-ups for you.

 

Please don't be afraid to let me know what you think. Before I leave you today I do have some news to share. I have been selected to be on the Stick It Down design team for next year. They run a monthly challenge for scrap bookers and card makers. Why not check them out?