More DoCrafts Makes....

Hi again crafters! Here's a quick look at some seasonal makes from my latest kit of papercrafting goodies by DoCrafts. These were on show at my most recent product demo at The Range Dundee. I'd like to thank all who came along to this - it was a really busy day, and I hope you're now all beavering away at that christmas card making... So let's see what was made with these goodies...

    First off - I made these little cuties with the gift that came with the September issue of DoCrafts Creativity Mag which consisted of patterned card blanks and small sheets of decoupage toppers. A really quick way of making a few cards to get you in the mood for a full on festive frenzy. I added a few basic die cut shapes to mat the toppers, a bit of inking and some ribbon and twine.

Next we have a couple of cards that were made with a couple of new Xcut dies. I die cut the images twice and cut them up to layer them with foam pads to give lots of depth and dimension.

   I loved making these cards and I think that die cutting with white card creates a lovely classy festive feel!

    Next up is a CAS shaker card. The bauble is actually an acetate aperture, the reindeer image having been stuck to the inside part of the card.

Subtle white sparkly glitter shaker card

    This is another stunning Xcut die which is beautiful cut from white cardstock against a contrasting dark background. This one looks like a crisp winter night with all that glittery crystalline snow in the shaker part. This card could impress just as easily by adhering the white die cut straight on top of a pink or lime green glitter card background. A nice quick make which is what you want if you are making dozens at a time.

CAS because sometimes less is more!

    Did someone mention CAS cards? I hope so because here are another two!

Here's something a bit different... I love mixing up styles and here I've combined a classic cute topper with a zap of aqua and a luxe gold geometric 3d frame and polkadot foiled paper. Very kitsch, I think you'll agree. If you can't be a bit kitsch at Christmas there's something amiss!!

Cute n kitsch

Decorated inside and out!

And here's a home decor idea. I cut the Xcut reindeer die twice on two pieces of trimmed down white A4 cardstock  (as previously used on the Peace card). I then adhered some pale blue vellum to the inside of the cardstock then glued both the A4 pieces together to make the frame of the lamp. I made a shallow box to insert in the base to hold either a couple of battery operated tealights or, my fave which is a set of tiny battery powered led fairy lights. Looks gorgeous on a dark winter's night all twinkly and sparkletastic! You could probably embellish it with some blingy gems or glitter borders but I like mine plain. I also wondered how some multi coloured LEDs would look in a lantern cut from black cardstock.... amazing probably!

You could bling me up!

    If it's an intricate detailed die you're after, what about this one? I made this easy easel card with this Xcut die set (5 pieces in total). These cards have the wow factor without too much fiddling about and again, another CAS card that doesn't take too long to put together. 

What about trying different colours of cardstock for the different parts of the card?

    While I was making this card I was trying to think if it could be used in a different context and I got the idea of turning it in to a Halloween card. All it needs is a strategically placed spooky lil' ghosty to cover up the Christmas tree by the door and job done!

    Isn't it effective!!! As I was cutting out ghosts I thought about making some cute little bunting to go with the Halloween theme....

Maybe a string of LED's would make the ghostly eyes light up. Spooky!!!!

Whatever season you're crafting for just enjoy and share. There's nothing like a handmade card or decoration to raise a smile. What you waiting for?!

Have fun crafty peeps

Love Jak xxx

Some new card samples

Hi everyone! Long time no see! Definitely my bad!!!! No excuses - life just got in the way, but I've been busy demoing with DoCrafts so without further ado, here are some cards I've been making!
Here are some July samples featuring  new Xcut embossing folders and dies and new Papermania Pigments range

Lovely embossing folder softly inked with Papermania pigment inks

This is one of my favourites for it's simplicity. Here I've used the Papermania Capsule Elements Pigments range from the A4 Paper and diecuts pack

A simple card using one of the Pigments papers and cute seaside xcut dies

Here are two samples using one of the Xcut emboss and cut folders. These are perfect for a quick make and these two samples show how different the cards can look!

Keeping it simple with contrasting coloured cardstock

and for a completely different look a shaker card in gold, black and white!

Thanks for stopping by for a nosey!

Back soon with more makes,

Love Jak xxx

Bargain Craft Haul....

    ...Who doesn't love a bargain? Especially a crafty bargain!!!! I'd been in Hobbycraft with my daughter – she's currently underway with a Copic pen collection and was buying a new addition with some pocket-money and I came across some bargain boxes of scrapbooking goodies. Hurrah! Well, obviously I couldn't pass them by... I had a good rootle through while waiting for DD to pick a pen and found some goodies that had been marked down considerably – yay! – a proper bargain. Have a look at what I picked up...

    ...There's a bit of Project Life, Pink Paislee, Cosmo Cricket, Pebbles and Crate Paper, die cut chipboard, paper and acetate embellishments, stamps, stickers, journalling cards, wow what a haul and all for under £20. Normally, I don't spend a lot on crafting supplies - I know, hard to believe but spending on new stuff makes me feel guilty about the old stuff that sits there gathering dust (let's not dwell on that though!) but, once in a while I like to have a splurge and it would have been wrong to let these babies go unloved when they could be home with me, no? Haha!!! I started with the Crate Paper Little You 6x6 paper Pad and embellishments – here's a look at some cards I made...

    I love the pastel colours of this pad and the patterns are a great size for card-making - not too intrusive. Anyhoo, I hope you like them.
    Get bargain hunting and pop by soon
Love, Jak xxx

May DoCrafts Samples...

    Well, good morning to you! I hope you're having better weather wherever you are - I'm more than fed up with being rained on every time I go outside - this must be our annual monsoon season come early this year. It usually waits until the kids break up for their summer holidays, so we're a few weeks ahead of that and hopefully that should mean we get our soaking out of the way and will return to beautiful sunshine as soon as possible. Not to worry, rain in summertime means time for guilt free crafting and I had lots of ladies attend my most recent demo because that's the thing to do of a wet Saturday afternoon. So here's some samples I made using the box of products from the previous post...

    This is actually one of my favourites for it's sheer simplicity. The glasses and lemons are cut from an Xcut mini die. They have had the cut away inner part coloured in with Artiste watercolour pens which I gave a coating of Anita's 3d Clear Gloss. I used the gloss to make some droplets too. The sentiment has been stamped  with alphas from the DoCrafts Wedding range and the pinata paper is just some yellow paper chopped into with scissors - a technique I love doing!

Here's a nice close up of the detail!

Lots of touchy feely texture!

    Next up – a few samples of cards using the brand new Metallics range. Here I used the Metallic Elements Capsule A4 Ultimate Paper Pack. As always, this pack is rammed full of papers, vellums, alphabet stickers and die cut elements. The vellum is gorgeous and so unusual - it's quite heavy/thick for a vellum and looks fab when run through an embossing folder like this one here which has been through an Xcut Dogtooth embossing folder. That foiling really catches the light and brings lots of texture to make the most of your backgrounds - I love it!

I've colourised the embossed polka dot paper with a gold inkpad. 

    These papers are really striking with lots of high contrast shine, especially when used alongside some mirri board. The ones with a white background can be coloured up too - they are lovely and smooth and take an ink pad nicely. I tried a gold ink pad which had a subtle effect knocking the contrast back a bit. You could try any colour - I'm not done experimenting yet... 

    Next – more Metallics, this time combined with a new Xcut die... called 1920s Dancers!

A twisted easel card

The simple monotone palette of the Metallics works great with the art deco flavour of this die.

This card is made by die cutting with cream coloured card stock – I used the brand new Xcut Couple in Heart die and gently coloured parts of the diecut with a small ink pad which gives a soft blurry pop of colour and draws your eye to different areas.

Here's Gorjuss!!!!!! 

There's a new range of Gorjuss stamps just been released – here are the two I got to play with...

Gorjuss is off on her hols here and is enjoying wearing here pretty sailor bathing suit. There's a lot more detail on this stamp but as she's in an aperture and stamped on the inside of the card, it's cut that lovely detail off. She is actually sitting on a rock with her feet in a little pool of water and has little fishies swimming round her tootsies!. This is the only sample I had time to make as we got our kits only a week ahead of our demos and I really didn't have a lot of time to experiment. I'm sure I'll revisit her though - she too cute not to!

Here's Gorjuss floating Up and Away combined with a vellum foil background from the Metallics pack. I kept this stamped image simple, using copper embossing powder for the image and colouring with a pale brown watercolour pen adding a pop of yellow on the her dress, the balloon and sentiment. She's adorable!

Finally one last card...  I used the large floral number dies for this one. The "sweet" bit was made from mini alphabet dies released last year. Those little alphabet dies are so useful and a great size for cards!

I hope you enjoy the samples here today and if you have recently purchased any of the products used I hope you find some inspiration here! Thankyou for popping by!

Happy crafting everyone,

Love Jak xxx

May DoCrafts demo...

Here's a box of goodies I received from DoCrafts last Friday 19th for my demo on Saturday 27th. As you can see, I've not had an awful lot of time to prep my samples but sometimes a bit of pressure brings out the creativity in us. Contained in the box is new Gorjuss stamps, Gorjuss washii tape, three new Xcut dies - one a set of numbers, some Anita's decoupage and an Ultimate A4 Paper pack - this time the theme is Metallics. This is how those products look when they come in - all shiny and new, ready to inspire card making, scrapbooking, any creative way that appeals basically. Stay tuned for product samples to follow...

Thanks for popping by,
Jak x

Something Gorjuss for Sunday...

...Hi, how have you all been? This week I've been trying out folded cards which I'll be blogging about shortly - they are something I'm not particularly familiar with but I like to have a wee challenge from time to time ... Today I'm dedicating my Sunday post to cards made with Santoro's Gorjuss range from DoCrafts. I know she's not everyone's "cup of tea" – some people feel she's a bit dark/gothic looking but she doesn't have to be, especially when you can stamp her and colour her up any way you like. Why not give her pink hair and bright clothes (Ooooh, I want to try this now I've mentioned it!!!!)?
So lets have a look at these cards...

#notgothic!   This card looks like there is a lot of work in it but to be honest, the most time consuming aspect of it is the decoupaged focal point. There's quite a few sheets of this kind of stuff in the A4 Ultimate paper pack but if you like your cards quick and simple then there's this selfie card...

Pretty straight forward - most time being spent on colouring up the stamped image on the photo frame.

Here she is in less gothic colours:-

The marble effect background has been hand painted and I've used an embossing folder to add a bit of texture to a piece of vellum from the Gorjuss 6x6 paper pack.

 A really quick gift bag!

 Ok so this one is a bit gothic, even with blue hair and dress...

This pop up card was the first one I'd ever made and yep, it took quite a while to do but the finished result has the wow factor don't you think?

 So, if you have come across my little blog before and seen a few of these makes in the past, apologies if you're disappointed to see them again but I wanted a post where all my Gorjuss makes could all come together. My next DoCrafts demonstration is on May 27th at The Range, Dundee - where I'll be making cards and projects with new DoCrafts products - one of which is a new version of Gorjuss. This time she's all ready for summer which means a brighter, less gothic palette and also the new stamps mean again you can colour her any way you like...

Stay tuned for all that soon!

Happy crafting everyone,

Jak x