Friends Don't Bite One Another

Good Afternoon.

Have you seen the new Groovi plates and aren't they beautiful? We could have so much fun with them. Demos by Maria and all the beautiful inspiration from the design team always leaves me in awe at not just how amazing everyone's creations are but how the same Groovi plates can be used in so many different ways depending on how everyone interprets them. I love the fact that with this system, parchment craft has become so much more accessible and easier to use by everyone and also with it you become the designer of your creations.

Today, I will go through the steps of this cat and fish card. I see this pair as friends and believe the cat is looking out for his little friend.

All the embossing and colouring on this card has been done on the back and the perforating and cutting from the front.

1.) Emboss the largest square from the A5 Nesting Squares plate followed by the cat from the A5 Feline Delights - Cat Back plate and the second largest square around the cat. This photo is what it looks like on the back of the card.

2.) To put the drapes and curtain, emboss the designs from the A4 Oooh-La-La Knickers plate that was designed by the lovely Linda Williams and the A5 Large Lace Netting plate. You can have so much fun with the set of Oooh-La-La Knickers and Bra plates and they are jam packed with so many designs that can be used on other Groovi designs that for me it a must have.

3.) Emboss the fish bowl from the A5 Meow plate on a side table created with A5 Nesting Square plate for the table top, frilly dangle with the A4 Oooh-La-La Knickers plate and the base stand with the A6 Vases plate.

4.) Emboss in the drapes, curtain, bowl, side table with shader tools, Pergamano 6mm and 4.5mm ball tools and Groovi no. 3 and 2 ball tools.

5.) On the side table base stand, emboss dots from the A5 Diagonal Basic Piercing Grid. Between the double square outline, emboss the flower design which is the 4th one on the Diagonal Border Pattern Piercing Grid 1 border plate.

6.) Colour the design on the back using Distress Markers. To choose what colours I wanted to use, I decided on my backing paper first and then picked the pen colours that matched the backing paper.

7.) Perforate (sorry I forgot to take a photo of the perforating step) using a 2-needle perforating tool between the embossed sections on the curtain. On the frilly part of the curtain and on the table cloth, perforate with a 1-needle perforating tool in each of the the 3 white embossed circle-y bits (couldn't think of what to call them and am hoping you can see which bits I trying to say. Lol). Cut between all the 2-needle perforations with parchment scissors or Perga Cutters.

8.) On the excess part of the parchment, emboss the ribbon from the A4 Oooh-La-La Knickers plate, Perforate around the bow with the 2-needle perforating tool and cut between the perforations.

9.) To finish, cut outside the square and mount it on a backing paper from the Northern Lights Designer Pack and black card using brads. Stick this whole piece on folded white card. Stick the cut out bow on the curtain with a tiny dot of Perga Glue or Pva glue that dries clear.

These are the other 3 samples I made with the new Groovi plates for the show.

 I had a really 'Mice' time making them and 'Fishing' I had more time to play.

All plates available from www.claritystamp.com. Enjoy.

Love and laughter
Tina

Groovi with Jo's Flower Stencil

Good Evening,

Over the last few days I have been doing a bit of paper cutting but today I felt like having a messy play with paints and inks but was not brave enough so ended up mixing up a bit Groovi and stencil. Claritystamp have really gorgeous stencils and I have 'invested' in quite a few of them but rarely get a chance to play with them. While going through my stencil collection, I remembered I had bought the stencil designed by Jo Rice at the open day in Leyburn last year Which I love and have not played with so here is what I came up with ...

1.) Using the Groovi A5 square nesting and circle nesting plates, emboss the largest 2 squares and largest 2 circles. Place the stencil inside the circle, stick it down with Groovi tabs and gently emboss around the stencil. If you prefer you can use a white pencil instead to go around. Remove the stencil and go over the outlines with a No.2 ball tool.

 

2.) Emboss the design from the A5 floral design plate around the outlined flower. Between the square double onlines, emboss the design from the cake decorations border plate and in the double outlines of the circles, emboss the design from the large leave netting A5 plate.

3.) Color the design from the back. I used distress markers as they are water based. In the next step I want to use bendable pencils with alcohol blending solution so it is important not to use anything that will smudge when using the blending solution.

4.) Using various colours I coloured around the floral design but not in the stencilled flower. Use the pencil as flat against the paper as possible so you do not get any harsh lines. This will make the blending easier.

5.) To blend the colours I used alcohol blending medium and a make up cotton bud. You need very little medium on the cotton bud to blend. In circular motion blend the lightest colour first and work your way through the darker colours. Instead of alcohol blending medium you can use Zest-it, Pergamano Dorso oil or Lavender oil. Instead of a make up cotton bud you can use a paper blending stump, Cut n Dry nib or even take a little bit of cotton wool and wrap it tightly around a cotton stick to give you a small cotton bud.

6.) I wanted the rest of the empty areas as lace work for which I used the A5 straight perforating basic grid. I perforated the design first as I find it easier to line it up to do the embossing later on the other side. From the front perforate with the one needle tool every other hole vertically and horizontally in the 4 corners and the stencil outlined flower.

7.) To emboss the dots around the perforations, turn the parchment over, line up the holes using pins in the corners. Stick the parchment down and remove the pins if they get in your way while embossing the dots.

This is what it looks like from the front after all the dots are embossed.

Generally though, if it is a more complicated design with more embossing than perforating, I do the embossing first as it is easier to count the dots.  

8.) Emboss the first border on the back from the straight border pattern piercing plate 2 around the 4 sides of the outside square. Turn the parchment over to the front and perforate a whole in the middle of the alternate square on the border.

9.) Cut the piece to size. I cut 2 pieces of black card (19x19cm and 15x15cm) and a backing paper from the Northern Lights Designer Paper Pack (18.5x18.5cm). Stick the parchment piece on the smaller black card using strips of the left over (why waste such beautiful paper!) backing paper wrapped around the corners. Stick this whole piece on the backing paper, larger black card and a folded white card. Thread a thin piece of ribbon through the holes of a button and tie a bow. Stick the button on the card for a flower centre.

Jo's beautiful stencil and all Groovi plates are available from www.claritystamp.com.

This coming week, the design team will be inspiring us with their beautiful samples made using the new Groovi plates alongside Maria who will be demonstrating these plates on Hochanda on Wednesday, 18th Jan, between 1-2pm and 5-6pm. Do tune in to watch the live demos or set the box to record the shows. The news Groovi plates are beautiful and so much fun.

Enjoy.

Love and laughter

Tina

Shoes, Bags and Hats

Good Afternoon.

Doesn't Christmas already seem like it was so long ago? Or is that just me! I love the Christmas season. You can never have too much glitter, sparkle and tinsel. My sister and her family had flown over for the week and this year, after a lot of years, we actually got to have a Christmas at home rather than at a hospital so it was very nice ... and relaxing.

I even managed to make some samples for Barbara's shows today on Hochanda between 2-4 and 5-6. If you can, please tune in )or if possible put on record) to watch some great demonstrations by Barbara and see the amazing samples by the design team ... lots to learn and lots of inspiration. Watch out for those scrumptious Designer Paper Pads. Each sheet is really beautiful and perfect for mounting your parchment work on without needing to spend hours looking for that perfect background.

These were the samples I created with the new Groovi plates, A5 Fashion Phrases and Elegant Expressions and Borders Shoes, Bags and Hats:-

And the step by step I have for you today:-

The Plates I used are:

A4 - Alphabet Picture Frame, Oooh-La-La Bra

A5 - Nested Squares, Ribbons & Bows, Elegant Expressions

Borders - Shoes, Bags

1.) Emboss the design. I started with the A4 Alphabet Picture Frame plate for the frame and the greeting.

Emboss the shoe in place, followed by the bag behind the shoe and gifts behind the bag using the Nested Squares plate.

 The gifts are decorated using the Nested Squares for the ribbons, Oooh-La-La Bra for the circles and Ribbons and Bows for the bow on the top gift.

In the 4 sides of the frame, emboss the elegant expressions and create boxes around them. Break the space in between these phrases using the Nested Squares plate.

2.) On the back, emboss the circles and bow on the gifts, the handbag and shoe.

Colour with Distress Markers on the back. Use the Sakura gold gel pen on the front to colour the circles and outline the diamonds on the handbag.

2.) I had also coloured the spaces between the elegant expressions but then decided I did like it so decided to perforate those spaces. Looking at it now, I do like the colours. Maybe I should have left it alone for a day or two and to decide what I wanted to do with the space. I also perforated the spaces I saw as would be open on the Shoe and Bag handle.

4.) Cut out between the perforations using your parchment scissors or Perga Cutters.

5.) To finish, cut the parchment piece to size and mount it on the cute hearts paper from the Sweet Dreams Designer Paper Pad and black card using brads and stick this onto folded square white card.

All the gorgeous new (and old) Groovi plates and Designer Paper Pads are available from www.claritystamp.com.

Enjoy.

Love and laughter

Tina