Easter Cards with my new Scan N Cut!!!

Hi crafty peeps! With a heavy heart I decided it was time to retire my good ole Silhouette Portrait as it kept on letting me down by not "speaking" to my Mac and the workarounds were getting really tiresome. I had been watching the Scan N Cut with interest for a long time and when a great offer came up on Create and Craft a couple of weeks ago for the CM300, it was too good a deal to pass up. Fast forward two weeks  - I have a brand spanking new toy to play with - yay! - and it's so much fun!!! I mastered the simple cutting projects 20 mins after opening the box and have been slowly making my way through converting my old DFX files of homemade designs, through the Brother Canvas software. These are all loaded onto a USB which sits plugged in to my Scan N Cut by my crafting desk. I think I'll always use Adobe Illustrator for drawing my designs as it's the tool I'm most comfortable with - it's so easy to convert SVG files with the Canvas software - I just find it more user friendly than the Silhouette software. Mind you, I was too much of a stinge to buy the Designers Edition software upgrade so that might not have helped much. Anyhoo, this week I've been having a nosey round looking for free files to cut out and spotted these two SVG's from Miss Kate Cuttables which were on sale for 35 cents each and couldn't resist them for making a couple of Easter cards for my mum and sister. The bunny card was really easy but the Hoppy Easter easel card was defo a bit more challenging as I had to work out which bits were cut from the same colour cardstock and where to position the cardstock on the cutting mat. So, it was a baptism of fire but I'm really happy with the finished project. I hope you like them too!

Simple but effective!

Many many layers to put together but such a nice result!

Hope you are all having a lovely chocolatey Easter Sunday and get time to fit in a bit of crafting over the Easter hols!
Have fun
Love Jak xxx

Willow mixed media project

Hello everyone, thanks for popping by! I've been playing about recently with stamps, spending a bit of time exploring different ways of colouring them and different papers that take watercolour well, so there's been a lot of creativity going on, but nothing much worth taking pics of to share here. The latest project I'm going to show you all is this bit of home decor. It's a concertina box card and folds flat so could easily be sent just like a card through the post but also has lots of dimension. I've used a stamp from DoCrafts Santoro Willow range called Souvenir D'Hiver and used some DoCrafts water-colour felt pens to colour the image - scribbling the ink onto an acrylic block, adding a spot of water to the ink and applying with a small brush. I love this technique because I find the inks are really transparent and the colours are bright and lively. There are three layers to this project. The base has an embossed texture which I've coloured with Gelatos and some mica powder. I also die cut some branches and leaves which combined with the colours in the background have set a kind of autumnal feel for the project. You could make this work for any season though depending on the colours you choose. The next two layers are elements/images adhered to acetate which give depth and keep the whole thing sturdy. The papers I used for the front of the frame are also from the DoCrafts Santoro Willow 12x12 paper range which also has images you can colour in yourself so the range is very versatile. I hope you like the finished project.

Close up of the main image coloured with those lovely inks

Thanks for looking in, I have more cards to follow shortly...
Keep on crafting,
Jak xxx

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