Flower Power

Good Morning,

I finally finished the project I was working on over the last few weeks, so ... Phew ... and Yayyy ... but can't say more ... Shhhh. That means through Christmas I can relax and enjoy being with just family and do lots of paper cutting ... A new hobby I am obsessed with. My sister, brother-in-law and nephews are coming over from the States for a week so that will be excellent ... Lots of giggles and happy faces.

Today. on Hochanda at 11, 2, and 5, Paul Church is demo-ing new Groovi plates which are really lovely ... just my type of designs I love ... very tangled/doodley sort of design and very cute. I forgot to take photos as I went along because I was so excited to create with them, but just as well because there would have been a few too many photographs. I love the versatility the Groovi system gives us to so easily mix the plates to create beautiful art work. I created this with the new plates and some of the previous plates.

Groovi Plates Used:-

Border Plates: - Straight Border Pattern Piercing Grid 1, Cake Decorations

A5 Square Plates - Basic Straight Grid, Nested Squares, Nested Hearts, Nested Panel Boxes, Happy Birthday, Floral Circle, Friends are Like Flowers, Leafy Frame, Texture

Baby Plates - Vases

1.) The embossed line art goes as follows:

a.) Emboss the 3rd and 4th square from the outside of the nested square plate on regular parchment.

b.) On the inside of the square, in the corners, emboss part of the 4th heart from the inside of the nested heart plate.

c.) In the middle, emboss the 6th from the inside panel box of the nested panel boxes plate.

d.) On one side of the panel box, emboss the pot from the baby vases plate and decorate it using the textures plate.

e.) Emboss flowers from the floral circle plate growing out of the pot.

f.) Outside the pot and flowers, emboss the 5th from the inside panel box of the nested panel boxes plate so it creates a double outlines frame.

g.) Emboss the greeting 'Enjoy' from the happy birthday plate of the other side of the panel box.

h.) In the corner hearts, emboss the floral design from the floral circle plate.

i.) Above the panel box, emboss leaves from the leafy frame plate between the heart corners.

2.) At this point I was not sure what I wanted to do in the double outlined frames so, on the back, I will coloured the art work using distress markers while I thought about what I wanted to do in them ... should I use the border pattern plates, or more emboss line work or keep it simple and just colour?

By the time I finished colouring I decided to put some more line art in the double outlined frames for which I used the cake decoration border plate and then coloured the hearts. I didn't need to emboss the circles between the hearts as I later decided to perforate between these sections instead of colouring them. Why make life simple when we can complicate it, right?

3.) For the border around the card, I choose the 3rd pattern border on the straight border pattern piercing grid 1. Start with perforating the pattern from the front.

4.) Turn the piece over on the back, align the perforations on the basic straight grid and emboss the dots inside the border. Ignore the messy colouring as this is the back. The front is fine (I hope).

5.) On the front, using the 2-needle perforating tool, perforate between all the tiny hearts in the double outlined frames and between the corner hearts around the leaves.

6.) Cut between the perforations using the parchment scissors or Perga Cutters. A bit of madness? Yes! But well worth it.

7.) To finish, I mounted the parchment on purple parchment (13.5x13.5cm) and brown card (14x14cm) using brads and stuck this onto a folded white card (14.5x14.5cm).

Hope everyone gets a chance to catch the shows and watch amazing live demo-s by Paul and get tons of inspiration from the design teams stunning art work they created with the Groovi plates. Every time I see their art work I am completely star struck by their designs and talent. So much to learn ...

All the Groovi plates, tools, parchment is available from www.claritystamp.co.uk or www.claritystamp.com. Enjoy.

Love and laughter

Tina

Wintery Scene

Good Evening.

Jayne Nestorenko's winter scene drawings/designs are exquisite. On their own they are amazingly beautiful but when you see all the great art work created by the fabulous design team using the stamps and Groovi plates, they are absolutely out of this world and am sure most of you will fall in love with them. Barbara and Paul will be showcasing them with all the great art work from the design team and lots of inspiration on Hochanda as a 1-Day special, tonight at 8.00 and then tomorrow at 9.00, 12.00, 4.00 and 7.00.

This is what I created today and will go through the steps for those who may wish to recreate something similar. The plates I used are:-

A4 Square: Jayne's Winter Scenes and Alphabet Picture Frame

A5 Square: Nested squares and Jayne's Poinsettia Name

Border: Diagonal Border Pattern Piercing Grid 1

1.) Emboss the design on regular parchment and green parchment. I started with the nested squares plate and used the 4th and 5th squares from the outside as a guide for the size of my card.

2.) Colour on the back. I used Distress Markers.

3.) On the snowman layer, between the double square border, perforate pattern no. 4 from the Diagonal border pattern piercing grid 1.

4.) On the green parchment border layer, emboss and perforate the pattern no. 5 from the Diagonal border pattern piercing grid 1.

5.) On the last bottom, poinsettia layer, between the double square border, perforate pattern no. 4 from the Diagonal border pattern piercing grid 1.

6.) Cut between all the perforations on all the layers.

7.) Cut all the pieces to size ad mount them on green parchment and black card using brads. I have used more brads then I needed to because I wanted to use them as an embellishment too. Stick this whole piece on white scallop edge folded card. To finish off, add a bit of sparkle using the Sakura Clear Star gel pen.

 All the Groovi plates, stamps, parchment paper, are available from www.claritystamp.co.uk or www.claritystamp.com.

Enjoy.

Love and laughter

Tina

Dancing With Stars

Good afternoon.

Love love love these new Clarity Groovi Plates that Maria is showcasing today on Hochanda and it would have been rude not to have a play with them and share with you. I choose the Swing on a Star, Angels and Stars and Funky Snowflakes Plates from the new range and added a border using the Diagonal Pattern Piercing Border Plate 1.

Today's project is all about line work, very little embossing and no perforating and cutting which is quite a change from what I have been doing for the last few months. It was really lovely to take a step back and enjoy these amazing designs. Very relaxing.

1.) Emboss a circle, stars and square on regular parchment paper. I used the largest square from the Nesting Squares Plate.

2.) Emboss one of the angel's in the middle of the circle. With a white pencil, draw a ribbon so it looks like she is holding it up and dancing with it.

3.) The pencil lines work as an outline for where to emboss stars on the ribbon.

4.) Using the Basic Diagonal Grid A5 Square, emboss dots along the ribbon to make it look more magical. Rub out the pencil lines once you are happy with the ribbon.

5.) Using the Diagonal Pattern Piercing Border Plate 1, emboss the daisy border from it to make borders on the skirt and sleeves.

6.) Add some design on the dress using the Snowflakes Plate.

7.) Colour, on the back, using Distress Markers. The image is of the back of my project and looks messy but on the front, it will all look fine.

8.) Emboss half snowflakes around the circle from the Snowflakes Plate.

9.) Emboss a bigger square and emboss the daisy border from the Diagonal Pattern Piercing Border Plate 1 in the double square outline.

10.) Emboss the snowflakes.

11.) Finish the card by mounting the parchment piece on a square piece of coloured card and black card using brads and sticking this whole piece on folded white card. I added a lot of sparkle (which the photo did not capture) on the card using a Sakura quickie glue pen and ultra fine glitter powder.

Hope you enjoyed this demo and I have tempted you all to buy these plates and have a go at creating this or use it as inspiration to create something new. Take Care.

Love and Laughter

Tina

Just to Say...

Good afternoon.

Obsession with paper cutting still in progress. I designed my first template for paper cutting ... Not as refined as a lot out there by the experts but by the time I cut it and mounted it I was quite pleased.

I then decided to try it on parchment paper but did not relish tracing it out so put my parchment through my printer to get the pattern printed directly on the parchment. Perforated with the 2-needle perforating tool and cut out with my parchment scissors. Attached the pieces on red parchment paper and black card using brads through the 3D flower centres and mounted the whole piece on folded white card.

 

And original paper cut piece is:-

 

This pattern can be downloaded from www.tinacox.co.uk under the heading 'Free Patterns'. Really enjoyed creating these pieces and my mind is already ticking to create my next design.

Take Care.

Love and laughter

Tina

Snow, Snow and Snow

Good Evening.

Did you all see the gorgeous new Groovi Plates designed by Linda Williams on Hochanda as the Clarity One Day Special tonight? Aren't they absolutely yummy? Definitely a must have for every parchment crafter. And all those stunning creations by the design team and the inspiration they give us are so beautiful and we all so thankful for them.

At one point in my life (lots and lots of years ago) I used to make almost 400 Christmas cards every year - for my dad, for my sister, for my kids friends and teachers and of course for me to send out. Then life started happening and fewer and fewer were made each year and finally a couple of years ago I decided I was not going to make any to send out and instead give that amount to a charity. I still feel guilty about not making and sending but I am a lot less stresssed.

So today I will show you a few steps to create this fun card that started of with the idea I was going to put only 5 snowflakes but by the time I started making and enjoyed making them, the number grew and grew and grew and ...

All the pieces are created from regular parchment paper with all embossing and colouring from the back, perforating and cutting from the front.

1.) Emboss 3 of the beautiful heart swirly frames from the Mistletoe & Wreath Accessories Groovi Plate A5 Square.

2.) Colour the hearts and between the rectangles and scallop frames.

3.) Perforate with a 2-needle perforating tool between the swirls and hearts.

4.) Cut between all the perforations to complete this piece and set aside.

5.) Using the Squares Nesting Groovi Plate A5 Square and the Alphabet Picture Frame Groovi Plate A4 Square emboss a square and section it to create a wide enough area to sit the frames element created above and the wording above and below the section.

6.) Using this design from the Diagonal Border Pattern Piercing Grid No 1 Border Plate,

Emboss the design above and below the sectioned areas leaving out the middle holes.

7.) Perforate the holes by placing and lining up on the Diagonal Basic Piercing Grid A5 Square.

8.) With the 2-needle tool, perforate outside the embossed square.

9.) Cut between the perforation outside the square. 

Tear the previously created framed design above and below the framed areas so it fits comfortably on the square piece and cut a piece of card to fit this piece.

10.) Emboss snowflakes on a spare piece of parchment, as few or as many as you wish. I used the one snowflake only but you could use all the snowflake designs from the Mistletoe & Wreath Accessories Groovi Plate A5 Square.

11.) Perforate with a 2-needle tool around them.

12.) Cut a piece of card bigger than the square parchment piece. Layer all the pieces and use brads in the middle of snowflakes to put everything together (and hold together). Stick this to a folded white card to finish.

 

Who thinks it needs more of the snowflakes?

And this was my other creation for the show with a combination of some of the other Groovi plates by Linda in this One Day Special ...

Don't forget to watch the rest of the Clarity One day Special shows on Hochanda tomorrow for more demos by Barbara and Paul. Enjoy.

Love and laughter

Tina

Short and Simple Poppy

Good evening.

As a lot of you probably know I have an obsession with paper cutting at the moment. Before I started paper cutting, I could have spent hours perforating inside and outside designs with the 2-needle perforating tools and cutting with my parchment scissors between each perforation ... My kids thought (and probably still think) I am crazy when I could just use scissors. They are probably glad to see my using at least a scalpel if not scissors.

So today I thought I would go back to my old self and create an almost paper cut but on parchment and using some of the most traditional techniques.

With poopies still on my mind, I used the Art Nouveau Poppies Groovi A5 Square Plate. I embossed, using the No.1 tool, the middle large poppy and moved the parchment around to place the 'vase', leaf and bud around it.

Next I perforated inside and outside the outlines of the design from the front and using a 2-needle perforating tool.

My favourite part, cutting out with my parchment scissors between all the perforations and we are left with the skeleton of the design (looking almost like a paper cut).

Finally I mounted it using 3 brads on the poppy stem onto to red parchment (glossy side up and I tore the bottom edge), black card, and white card which I tore on the right edge and watercolored before mounting the whole piece on a small square card.

 

Short and Simple. Enjoy.

Love and laughter

Tina