Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts

Tuesday, 19 September 2017

Spreading the Love

Hello, a while ago my friend, Christine, came over with Tiegan, her 14 year old daughter for a crafty session. Chris was really impressed at how tidy my craft room was as I have a habit of ignoring housework but everything was tidy and in place which meant that Tiegan could look around to see what took her fancy.


I think at first it still might have been a little daunting even though I haven't much in comparison to many crafters. Anyway, after finding that she had a friend with a birthday coming up. we selected some suitable stamp sets. As soon as she saw From the Herd, it was obvious that it would be a perfect choice. The next decision was did she want to colour the animals in or use a different technique. Once that was decided, how did she want to colour? Using ink or watercolour pencils with aquapainters or blender pens? How about Promarkers? I showed Tiegan the different effects she could get from the products. She liked the idea of trying water colouring so out came the Shimmery White card stock which is perfect for the job.


I think she made an amazing job of this and even tidied up as she went along! I normally end up finishing my card in the smallest possible space left on the table because I have so much out. We then needed to decide what the finished card would look like. Tiegan liked one I'd made for my grandaughter, where the animals looked like they were peeking through holes in a shed so that meant using the hardwood stamp. Handy tip; when using a large stamp, place it on a level workspace, ink it up and place your card on top and press down. So much easier than trying to wield a large stamp block especially if like me you have small hands.


So now we were getting clearer on how the finished card should look. Tiegan was growing in confidence and came up with some great ideas. She suggested creating "barn doors" so a gate fold it had to be. Both Tiegan and Chris were a little surprised when I started calculating sizes and where score lines needed to be placed. It perhaps didn't help that I was using inches, going down to ⅛" - I find it easier to add and subtract in ⅛" for some strange reason. I mean, we're crafting, right, how come we need maths! If you want to create a landscape oriented gatefold card, here are the basic instructions for the card base. I cut my A4 cardstock in half length wise and trimmed it to 11". It was scored at 2¾” and 8¼" along the long side.



I wish I had a good photo of the finished card. Unfortunately although I took a couple, they were too blurred to use. I really loved the ideas Tiegan had and CASE'd her card, just adding my own slight twist to it. Also instead of using ink and water colouring the farm animals, I chose to use Promarkers, which give a richer, more solid colour.  I hope you like it.





Sunday, 4 December 2016

From the Herd for a Little Monkey

Hello, goodness hasn't this year just flown by. It seems like it was only yesterday that I was anticipating the arrival of my first grandchild, yet now I'm making her first birthday card! Emily arrived on the 7th Dec, her mum, my eldest daughter Abigail, delivered her on her own whilst her partner was downstairs watching football. I'm sure it wasn't planned that way, but you know how the best laid plans can go awry!


As soon as I saw a retired stamp set called From the Herd, I knew I had to get it. I'm not sure what it is about this set but I love it... and it can still be found on various selling sites. I have the Hardwood background stamp that goes perfectly with this set

At this point I must thank Connie Lindsey as I CASE'd her design that I found on Pinterest, tweaking it just a little to suit. Cutting out the animals is a little fiddly but well worth it in the end. I did try to isolate each animal in turn to stamp directly onto the card, however it became obvious that it would take me far longer to complete; I will need to brush up on my skills in the future.