Craft Fair

Here are some of the lovely inspiration boards Gina had on display at the craft fair in Belfast today - taken with my phone mind you - so even worse photography than usual!

WOYWW 253

I thought I would get in early on this weeks WOYWW (for full explanation see Julia's blog HERE).  However, I will probably forget to link it up in the morning! Anyhow, I have been trying to make some sympathy cards with very little success.  I find them the most difficult of all, yet we usually sell more of them than any other kind.  On a happier note, I am being supervised by my latest little owl treat box - I got a tutorial for the basic idea on craftprojectcentral.com and just had to try it out!  Here he is again for a closer look - I just have to decide what to put inside it now!

Create a cupcake

The class this morning made four cards using the cupcake punch and stamp set.  Just to keep in with the theme we also had cupcakes for our tea break!

We also used the word window punch, scalloped border punch, the banner punch and the square lattice embossing folder.

Bird builder anniversary card

This is the final card we made at the last workshop - again using the bird builder punch. For the base card and the embossed section, we used Crumb Cake card and the brown mat was made using Early Espresso (9cm x 13cm).  The top layer was embossed in the woodgrain embossing folder and then a circle punched out using the 2.2" circle punch. This section then had a piece of the Crochet trim attached around it, before being adhered to the base card.  A piece of Very Vanilla card was embossed in the square lattice embossing folder and then the two bird bodies were punched out (opposite way round) and the wings were punched out of a scrap of Crumb Cake and Pink Pirouette card. The birds (and wings) were then raised slightly on Stampin' Dimensionals.  The flowers in the corner were punched with one of the Itty Bitty shapes punches and the leaves with the bird builder punch.  The sentiment is from the Teeny Tiny sentiments stamp set and this was punched with the large oval punch then mounted on Early Espresso, punched with the scalloped oval punch.  The tiny pink heart was made using the owl builder punch.  Pearls and rhinestones were added to the centre of the flowers and the birds eyes.

Bird builder card

This was the third card we made at last week's workshop.  The A4 sheet of Wisteria Wonder card was trimmed down to just under 6" wide, then scored 5" from one side.  We marked a spot with a pencil about 2" from the bottom on each side then pushed the edge of the card all the way to the back of the Scalloped Tag topper punch and centred the pencil mark before punching.  On the back flap you need to score along the edge and fold it over.  The patterned paper is from the Afternoon Picnic DSP pack. The bird body was punched from a strip of Wisteria Wonder card and the wing from the same piece of DSP (other side).  The happy birthday sentiment is from the cupcake stamp set, punched with the word window punch and mounted on Wisteria Wonder card, punched out with the Modern label punch.  The leafy branch was punched from Pear Pizzazz card and the Labels Collection dies were used to make the Very Vanilla and Wisteria Wonder mats.  A panel of Very Vanilla card was adhered to the inside of the card and two small circles were punched out of Wisteria Wonder card with the small circle punch from the Itty Bitty Shapes pack and rounded with an embossing tool.  To finish off the card was tied with Pear Pizzazz taffeta ribbon and  a tiny pearl added for the bird's eye.

Wetlands 2

This is another one of the cards made at the workshop last Friday, again using stamps from the 'Wetlands' set.  This time the goose image and the grass was stamped in Early Espresso and Old Olive using the brush marker pens and then the body coloured using a little bit of grey and brown on the water brush.  The front of the goose was coloured using the new chalk marker pen - its really good for colouring something white on a coloured card background, in this case the background card is Pool Party.  The 'sun' was made by sponging Summer Starfruit yellow ink through a circle punched in a scrap piece of card.  The greeting was stamped on top, using Early Espresso brown.  This panel was then mounted on a panel of Early Espresso card and stuck onto a card made from Pear Pizzazz green.  To finish off a knot was made using Early Espresso ribbon and neutral coloured trim and stuck in the top left hand corner.

Wetlands card

This is one of the cards we made at the latest workshop on Friday morning - once again I forgot to take some photos at the class - maybe next time!!!  We used Early Espresso card for the base (6" x 6") and matched it up with Summer Starfruit yellow card and paper from the Afternoon Picnic DSP pack.  The banners were cut using the new banners framelits dies in the Spring/Summer catalogue (- I had looked for dies like this at the NEC last November but couldn't find any in the sizes I wanted - so I was really pleased to find them in the new catalogue!)  The yellow one was embossed with the free embossing folder from the Sale-a-bration leaflet (just 3 weeks now left to get the free gifts!)  The very vanilla card was cut to 5cm by 11cm and stamped using two of the stamps from the Wetlands set, then Coastal Cabana and Summer Starfruit ink was lightly sponged over it to give the impression of sky and sand, then the top punched with the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch. To finished it off we put a small piece of Summer Starfruit ribbon through the tag and tied it with some Linen Thread.