another 'not so minimal mini'....

.... and more bunting (because you can never have too much can you!? lol)

Pennants use minis 01,02,03 and the very useful grid sketch from JOFY02... pennants are Sizzix dies, and one of my all-time-favourites dies Spellbinder 'floral flourishes'....
(and look - no sign of Iced Spruce or Evergreen Bough distress inks.. I'm moving forward! lol)

Have a good day

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bunting, buttons, JOFY, paperartsy, sizzix, Spellbinders

Deck the halls....

... with pennants and bunting... tra la la la laaaaaa la la la laaaaaaa

Usually when I'm  playing around with new products I create tags but at the moment I am creating pennants instead (as I've said before I love a bit of bunting!)...

The above pennant uses the border strip from plate05 with the words on same plate dotted about - love how this turned out - the border is really easy to repeat if you mark on the back the position of the end blocks.

The motifs stamped onto kraft card are from minis.

Speaking of minis: I used the candle on mini08 on this pennant and combined it with the border strip across the top edge:

The candle is coloured with Distress Markers- being from the same palette as Distress inks they tone in perfectly, I like them a lot...

The embellishment on the centre tag is one of the snowflakes created with the Tim Holtz Sizzix die, aged with distress inks.. they're fiddly but i love 'em!

I know I'm shouldn't choose but I think the star pennant is my favourite - stars from several plates: top banner is plate01, big stars plates07 & 08, the white star top centre is from the minis over stamped with snowflakes (also on background) plate01.

I had fun creating these and they work as inspiration for other projects...  These pennants are about 15cm long - don't you think little ones strung on a piece of ribbon around a christmas tree would look cute...

and talking of favourites - distress inks - Iced Spruce and Evergreen Bough - my 'go to' colours this christmas - possibly using them a little too much! Jo, put the inks down, and move away from the worktable.. lol

...and just in case you were wondering - christmas is about 36 days away... just sayin'.....

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bleach, bunting, Distress Inks, distress markers, JOFY, kraft, paperartsy, sizzix, tim holtz

Shake your tail feathers...

This little chap was given new, fancier, tail feathers - and then I forgot to blog him/her! shame on me! so it gets its own little blog post! lol

ps - do not adjust your sets - the photos are black & white! :o)

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bigshot, birds, sizzix

Xtra Xmassy on Sunday...

... when I'll be over at The Craft Barn teaching a christmas card class - die-cuts, JOFY stamps and a bit of christmas prettiness thrown into the mix.. still places available so if you're feeling festive, or you need a bit of festive encouragement, call the shop (01342 836398) to book a place...

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cards, classes, craft barn, die cutting, JOFY, kraft, paperartsy

Tree full of Tweets

Quick catch up:
On Saturday I had a really fun day at the Craft Barn's christmas inspiration demo day... lovely customers came and sat, chatted, and watched all the demos - a really nice day... I was creating tree decorations using Sizzix & Spellbinder dies - so.much.fun.  I displayed all my birds on a black tree so that they popped - a black tree is a bit unusual but its great for this sort of thing... and lets face it - its not the most unusual tree I have! (I think the upside down tree wins prize for most 'unusual' lol)

aaaaanyhoo... to the tune of '12 days of christmas':
Four floral birds:

Three fancy hens:

 Two steam punk doves (slightly sooty doves!  lol)

 And a county hen in a christmas treeeeeeeeeee

OK, that's quite enough singing.... on the tree there's also a robin:

Most of the birds I made with the dies were flat but a couple are lovely and dimensional:

I love these little guys! I enjoyed making the flat die cut shapes into something more dimensional. (to the shock horror of the people watching the demo I had die cut an Enid Blyton book to create them! how could I - not only had I cut up a book but it was an Enid Blyton book!?! But I'd like to think that Ms Blyton would be pleased that her book had been given a new lease of life and not ended up on a bonfire or in landfill.)

The paper I used to decorate them (apart from the steampunk & textbirds) is Festive Collection by Authentique. Die is Birds 3 from Sizzix, and Floral Flourishes from Spellbinder.

They are now going to fly away and live on the Craft Barn's christmas tree...  Fly my pretties.. Fly!  :o)

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birds, christmas, craft barn, die cutting, sizzix, Spellbinders

ah... the humble toast rack...

.... or alternatively 'when is a toast rack not a toast rack'....  I had been thinking of ways to stand stamp plates on my demo table so that they were easily accessible etc etc etc  *lightbulb* TOAST RACK!!! perfect size, easy & light to transport, easy to clean... not so easy to find! (especially if you are me who had an idea of the exact type of toast rack that was required (see above photo) and nothing else would do! lol)lol I have scoured the local charity shops - scoured I tell you lol (and now I have two the same! = happy crafter!)
Ta daaaaa:  Look how perfect they are stamp storage:

Please go and rescue the poor neglected toastrack from the back of the cupboard (or the back of your parents crockery cupboard which is where they are likely to be - these toast racks were popular wedding gifts in the 60s apparently!) dust it off and use it to stand your stamps in while you're working with them... perfect!

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JOFY, shopping, storage

When is a card not a card.....??

... when you start making a card & realise it would be better suited as something else and you turn it into an 'object'!

Like this:

I intended/planned this to be a card and/but was itching to use the box canvas - then I had a little lightbulb moment! lol   2-birds-1-stone! lol

I love these 4x6" box canvasses that PaperArtsy have in their shop - such a dinky size but lovely and chunky at the same time..  love it - I can see me using these a lot...

(tree plate1, 'noel' plate3)

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canvas, christmas, distress markers, fresco finish, JOFY, kraft, paperartsy, promarkers, ribbon

'mini' doesn't have to mean 'minimal'

I am loving the lead up to christmas - the shopping centres are starting to be prettied up. The decorations around are a little more restrained than previously (a nod to the current financial climate?) - but having said that it was good to see the shops were busy even on the Thursday evening I visited our local shopping centre (01 November - early in the christmas lead up!) - there were lots of sales that people were taking advantage of.
It was also the opening of Santa's grotto - complete with a mini parade of majorettes (little young ones - very cute!), a brass band, and a big snowman, elf and penguin - very festive! :o)

Today's project is a small card (10x10cm) but it has lots of elements (but not too many! lol)...

The main background is created with a wash of distress inks that has been splashed (I still love that effect - so simple!) and then stamped (tone-on-tone) with Mini2.  The same images was then stamped on white and the coloured with Distress Markers.  The star has been 3mounted so that the die cut flourish could be mounted underneath.  It was coloured with markers and accents of sparkly gel pen... 

The 'noel' is from plate3 stamped onto a ticket...

so there you go - mini's don't have to be minimal!

Have a good day!

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cards, christmas, Distress Inks, distress markers, gel pens, JOFY, kraft, paperartsy, Spellbinders, stamping

Tweet Tweet....

Tomorrow I'll be demo'ing at the Craft Barn as part of the Christmas Gift Minifest making these and other things - really looking forward to it!  So please come along - these are such fun days packed full of inspiration for everyone!  And lets face it we all need inspiration - christmas is only 53 days away.... eeeek! lol 
I'm feeling so festive I'm taking my christmas tree with me!
HO HO HO!!

Look forward to seeing you!

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christmas, craft barn, die cutting

I'll have a bluuuuueeee christmas..

... with all the decorations and cards I have that carry a blue theme.....

I really enjoy making cards like this - a standard size card (10.5x15cm) that opens up into something more:

(single baubles & 'noel' plate3, top scallop border & bauble garland plate6, snowflakes mini6)

Busy & varied weekend coming up - Demo'ing at The Craft Barn on saturday and then at Birds in the Barn on sunday... fun, fun, fun  :o)

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cards, distress markers, JOFY, paperartsy, promarkers, sizzix, stickles

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat..

... 53 days!!  and today is November 1st!!!!!!!!
Whoever has their finger on the fast forward button of this year could you please remove it! Thanks!

I didn't blog much last week - don't worry I didn't disappear under a collapsed pile of christmas decorations I was just busy doing other bits and pieces.. but I'm still enjoying working with my stamps (obviously! lol) and if you want to enjoy them too you can order them from PaperArtsy or you can enter the competition in the gloriously festive December issue of Craft Stamper:

I've been making samples ready for my demo at Birds in the Barn (colchester) on Sunday; I've made the star card on the left before but in blue&kraft but made this pink version for a change - I love how fresh it looks... and gotta love hanging baubles on a tag! (Card: star from plate8, greeting from plate2, corner snowflakes mini6)(tag: hanging baubles plate 3, snowflakes mini6)

 I haven't used buttons on anything for a while (shock horror!) so I made up for it on this star!

One final sample - again a version of a card I've made before but this time with more greetings and more bling!  There hasn't been nearly enough bling on cards so far.... (subtle bling obviously -not bling Liberace style!) and lets face it - its why I've sprinkled my designs with circles etc - bling placement! lol  (also the bling is a reaction to the dark days that are coming with Autumn/Winter...) (also its Christmas - Christmas *expects* bling, sparkles, glitter, etc etc etc....) (Card: tree plate4, greeting plate2)

Have a great day...

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Birds in the Barn, cards, christmas, craft stamper, JOFY, paperartsy, tags