About Me

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I'm a retired primary school teacher, who started paper crafting in 2008, when I had a fancy to make my own Christmas cards. Since then, I have tried all sorts of techniques and styles - and I kind of like them all. I have been lucky enough to be on blog teams and large design teams and to do a bit of freelance demonstrating - and I love the challenge of working with different products. My crafting style is very varied - from junk journaling and art journaling, bookbinding and journal making, to quilting and patchwork - and of course I still make cards. This variety keeps me interested - and my crafty stash growing!! I'm always seeking inspiration for new projects.

Monday 30 November 2020

Christmas Cheer

 It's almost December, so we are going to have a Christmas theme for the next few weeks at Use Your Craft Stash.  For my first share, I have a pop out card, made using some old Crafter's Companion Create a Card dies. I have used "Christmas Cheer" with the Christmas Tree, and the 5x2 sentiment "Season's Greetings". 






I used a combination of Centura Pearl Snow White Hint of Gold and Centura Pearl Chocolate card. The base card is just a little larger than 5x5.


Despite the strange times this year, I hope you are starting to feel a little festive. 

Happy crafting,

Cxxxx

Monday 23 November 2020

Zzzzzzzzzz!!

Yes - we are finally at Z!! These last few letters of the alphabet have really been a challenge!! But here is my double Z fold card with (a very poor attempt at) a Zinnia.

I used Beccy's Place tutorial, but cut my card (Crafter's Companion double sided A3 card - Polka Dots and Gingham) at 11"x6" and 11"x3". Both were still scored at 2.75" and 5.5". The mats and layers were cut from Core'dinations and Snow White Centura Pearl - which was embossed with CC Sugar and Spice A4 Delicate Floral embossing folder.

To make the zinnia, I kind of followed the instructions by Dream Posy, but to be fair, I tried to make short cuts, so it didn't really end up that good. 

I cut the petal shapes using CC Garden of Love 3D Layered Daisy, and English Country Garden Lazy Daisy, and coloured white stamens with Spectrum Noir GB6 pen. The centre of the flower was cut from Core'dinations card with CC Fringe Flower die, and rolled using a quilling tool and red tape, encapsulating a piece of floral wire inside.



 

The stamens were hot glued onto the outside of this - which was probably the main problem - I don't like the way they ended up looking. The flowers were cut in half, and then hot glued around the outside.


When this was complete, I cut off the end of the floral wire, and covered the bottom with green floral tape. The flower was attached to the front of the card, and a sentiment cut with Sara Signature Flutterby Simplistic Sentiments was stuck in the middle. 

  

Happy crafting,
Cxxx

Monday 16 November 2020

Yachting!

It's the last of our alphabet challenges - and we're onto Y and Z. Where has the last 6 months gone? I have a very quick card to share for Y, as this was another one that stumped me a bit.

So this is my Yachting card using Hunkydory Plain Sailing - Sail Away With Me, mounted onto cream card and gold glitter card.


One more week to go!!
Happy crafting.

Cxxx

Monday 9 November 2020

Xciting!!

We are nearly there with our alphabet challenges, and this week is X. I'm afraid this one is a bit of a cop out, as all I could think of was X-fold card.

So, here is my X-fold card, made using instructions from Beccy's Place. I made it larger than the one show there, starting with 8x8 card.

  

 I used Crafter's Companion Shabby Chic double sided card, and scored it in half each way, then diagonally down one of the resulting squares.

 

I then cut out diagonally opposite corner section, leaving a tab. 


I folded along the diagonal making a mountain, and then along the straight edges to make valleys.

  

You need to make four of these, and then glue to create three sided "boxes".

  

These are then glued together - apart from the last two - making sure the diagonal folds are on the base each time. This allows everything to fold up.

I used more of the Shabby Chic card for matting and layering inside, and decorated with pieces from Hunkydory In Full Plume Pretty Peacocks. Some of the flowers are cut from that card, using Crafter's Companion Garden of Love 3D Layered Daisy, and others are paper ones from my stash. The ribbon needs to be attached before the outside topper.


 



Happy crafting,
Cxxx

Friday 6 November 2020

Cheers again!!

A quick share of a card for a family birthday. I really love the colours of this topper set from Hunkydory, and they make fab cards for men - and gives me a break from endless football cards. 


For the orange background, I embossed some orange core'dinations with the Sara Signature Just for Men Checkerplate folder. The letters are cut with Crafter's Companion Kinetic Alphabet, and the little embellishments were one of those cheap £1 packs from The Range (ages ago).

Happy crafting,

Cxxxx

Monday 2 November 2020

White on white

It's the start of a new fortnightly challenge at Use Your Craft Stash, and we are up to W and X. Today's card is a W - am still pondering quite what X may entail!! So, my W card is a White on White "With Love From Me to You" Wreath of flowers.


I used an 8x8 white card blank, and cut a wreath shape with Spellbinders Grand Circles and Scalloped Circles from Snow White Centura Pearl.


The flowers were cut using Sara Signature Garden of Love 3D Layered Rose and Daisy, and Essentials Flowers For All Occasions 1, 3 and 4, from more Centura Pearl, white linen card, plain white card and white vellum. 

Looking forward to seeing all your creations, while I ponder what Xs I can find for my next project.

Happy crafting,
Cxxx