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

Poppies to Remember

Each year the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, we observe a Two Minute Silence. Armistice Day on 11th November marks the end of the First World War and is a day to remember and honour those who have paid the price for our freedom. It is a day about paying tribute not only those who died but also to their families, those who were injured and those who survived.

The poppy was adopted as a symbol of Remembrance after the First World War. When the children were younger, we would arrange play days with their friends and sit and make lots of things with poppies on. I always thought it was such a great way to sit and teach them the importance of Remembrance Day and feel proud to wear the items they made alongside the traditional paper poppy they usually got from school. The children grew up and play dates stopped happening but they never forget the importance of the day. I still create something or another with a poppy at this time of the year that I can wear and/or put on my worktable. I love poppies and are really special to me on a personal level.

So today, let's create something with poppies on. I fell in love with the Art Nouveau Poppies Groovi Plate Set (http://www.claritystamp.co.uk/Groovi/19357-/Art-Nouveau-Poppies-Groovi-Plate-Set) the minute I saw them and have been dying to use them. Today I had a day at home so was determined to create something special while I had a chance and share the step by steps if you are interested in creating it too.

1.) With the matt side down, emboss the outline of the poppy design and circle on red parchment using the No.1 embossing tool from the Art Nouveau Poppies Groovi Plate A5 Square. Front will look like this :-

 

2.) Emboss the outer two squares from the Square Nesting Groovi A5 plate so the poppy design sits on the right hand side on the square (you can have it on the other side if you wish) on the back. Front will look something like this :-

3) On the back, on the left side emboss a border of poppies from the Art Nouveau Poppies Groovi Border Plate so the front looks like this :-

4.) In the space between the inside square and the round poppy design emboss using the Large Lace Netting Groovi Plate A5 Square. Front view is :-

5.) Let's put some lace work in the square border. I choose to use the Straight Border Pattern Piercing Grid No. 2. I used the border that fits perfectly in the double outline. From the front, start with perforating with the 1-needle tool the squares without the middle perforation (if that makes sense).

6.) Remove it from the border plate, turn the parchment over to the back and line up the holes on the Straight Basic Piercing Grid A5 Square and emboss the hotes between the squares using the No.2 embossing tool.

7.) On the front, perforate the zig-zag border from the pattern piercing plate outside the outer square.

8.) On the A5 piercing grid, on the back, emboss the holes in between the perforations.


9.) I wasn't going to put colour on this piece but then changed my mind and coloured the poppies, leaves and stems in the circle and the border on the left from the back using distress markers.


10.) Using the 2-needle tool, from the front, perforate between the border poppies design in the sections in the circle design that were not coloured.
 

11.) Cut between all the perforations using parchment scissors or snips (Perga Cutters).


12.) Mount the piece on 14.5cm square Red Parchment (glossy side is up), 15cm square white card, and 15.5cm square black card using brads. Stick this piece on a folded 17.5cm square white card.


I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. All plates, tools, papers, card are available from http://www.claritystamp.co.uk.

Love and Laughter
Tina

Lots of Noel Sparkle

Good afternoon,

Over the last few days I have been playing a lot more at making a mess and learning that inky painty fingers are okay and to let it go. And, oh boy, is this lesson taking a long time to sink in. I started with wiping my hands every couple of minutes and then 10mins and now I can go on for a couple of hours before I run into the kitchen to scrub my hands.

Today Maria is on Hochanda showcasing the new Groovi Christmas Cracker plate that Pat Murphy designed for Claritystamp. I am rubbish at creating 3D items because my brain just doesn't work like that so I decided to pick a few elements from the plate and create a card. Seeing as I still have not got 'lets make a mess and scare the children' thing out of my system, I decided to do stencilling and use my new mini circle gelli plate (a new obsession) on the parchment as a background.

So here is a step by step (lots of photos because I remembered) to this card:-

1.) Stick the Jo's Bubble Stencil on A4 parchment paper using masking tape on all 4 sides. I love love love this stencil.

 

To put colour on the parchment I am using Distress stamp pads Peacock feathers and Broken China and a Clarity stencil brush.

2.) Starting with the Peacock Feathers ink pad and brush the colour on with the brush by sweeping back and forth from left to right and vice versa. Once you are happy with the colour, repeat with the Broken China ink pad but from just one side of the stencil. I went from right to left. This will be the back of your work where all the embossing and colouring is done on.

3.) Time for the mini circle gelli plate (of course, you can skip this step but I just wanted to play with mine) to add a little starry background on the largest circle. I brayered the Chipped Sapphire onto the mini circle gelli plate.

Placed the 4x4 Stars stencil over the large circle.

And pressed the mini circle gelli plate on the stencil quite firmly as I need to go through 2 layers of parchment. Because this ink pad is dye based, let it dry (or blot with tissue paper).

4.) Using the A5 Nesting Square, emboss the outmost square, leaving out the circle areas.

5.) From the Christmas Cracker plate, emboss 3 scallop circles from the plate in the large circle.

6.) Emboss snowflakes, stars, lights, trees in the circles and frame from the plate so it looks something like this. This is what mine looks on the front so far. I think I may have got carried away a bit with the snowflakes and stars because I liked doing them.

7.) Using the A4 square Alphabet Picture Frame, I embossed 'NOEL' in the frame.

8.) In the smaller circles I perforated on the front the flower design from the Diagonal Border Grid Piercing Pattern Plate1 as seen between the masking tape. You don't need to pierce the middle hole as we are going to cut out between these holes to make stars.

9) The square border was looking a little plain so I embossed between the double outside the border on Christmas Cracker plate

10.) Colour on the back the trees and between the double outline of the square and frame with green and brown felt pens (or colour pencils).

11.) Emboss the lights, stars and snowflakes.

12.) On the back, using the A5 Straight grid, I embossed a few random dots on the trees and some of the tiny stencilled circles.

13.) Using the parchment craft scissors (or snips) cut between the perforations to get the cut out stars.

14.) Add a little gold sparkle on the stars and the tops of the tree sand lights with a Sakura quickie glue pen Gold Glamour Dust.

15.) Repeat with the Diamond Glamour Dust on the snowflakes, lights, and dots on the trees. I think I love glitter.

Cut the piece to size and mount on coloured card stock using brads before sticking it on a white folded square card to finish.

Two other cards I did for the Maria's shows were a bit quicker but lots of fun to do.

That's it for today ... I better go clear up the mess on my workspace so I am ready for the chaos I may create tomorrow. Everything on here today is available from www.claritystamp.co.uk.

Enjoy.

Love and Laughter

Tina Cox