Good evening.
Thank you very much to everyone for the amazing experience, kind and encouraging words yesterday. A special mention to Barbara Gray, Paul Church, Alex, the presenter, on Hochanda for the encouragement when I was preparing to flee out of the building from the nearest fire exit. I did not look up much at the cameras as I never knew which one was being used and I was too petrified to look up. But from what I have read they were excellent so really pleased everyone got to see what I waffled and stuttered about.
And a HUGE MASSIVE thank you to Emma Burns for the gorgeous scissors pouch she made for me. It even had my name on and that got me even more excited. It is absolutely stunning and such a kind and generous thing to do for me. Really really touched by the gesture and it has become a forever keepsake for me to admire. Barbara blogged the step by steps if anyone is interested in making one on http://barbaragrayblog.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/generous-friends.html
When I turned on the TV this morning to watch Barbara with the One Day Special, I heard it had sold out and the restock was sold out during Paul's show at 12.00. I am not surprised as the poetry plates are absolutely gorgeous and such a pleasure to work with. So today I will blog the step by steps of one of the samples I did for the show.
Looking at this, it looks like it was created without any problems and very smoothly... Ha! When I have spent any amount of time creating something I hate throwing it out and starting again. So I usually look for quick fixes. And it normally means adding 3D elements such as butterflies, flowers, tags, ... Now you know why so many of my cards have extra butterflies on them.
Let's start with this one and I'm sure you will see the mistake as soon as you see the photo so I will not point it out.
1.) Emboss the largest square from the Nested Squares plate and the deer from the Woodland Animals plate. This is now the back of your work.
2.) Emboss the grass from the Serenity Prayer plate.
3.) Of course I couldn't leave the landscape the way it was so decided to add some more grass from the plate and the landscape from the Sunbeam Moonbeam plate. Love this landscape and the trees are just so cute that I added a few more trees and a sun from the plate. If I was not rushing for time, I probably would have ended up with a forest in the background. I also added swirls in one corner of the square and around the square from the Calligraphy Swirls plate. This photo is of the front of the work.
4.) I coloured the design on the back using Distress Markers.
5.) Emboss the corner swirl on the back starting with the largest ball tool ad working down the tool sizes with each layer. Let the parchment rest between layers to get white embossing without the bulking of the paper. This is what mine looks like on the front.
6.) On the Straight Basic Grid, perforate on the front the design using the Groovi 1-needle tool.
7.) Turn the parchment over and stick it back on the grid after aligning the perforated holes and emboss between the perforations on the back.
8.) On the front cut between the perforations to create this lace effect.
9.) With the 2-needle tool, on the front, perforate between and outside the swirls around the square.
10.) Cut between the perforations with parchment scissors or Perga cutters.
So who picked up on my 'Uh Oh' moment? Poor soul has a grass stem going right up through his bum. OUCHY!! I needed to fix this otherwise I would not have been able to sleep through the night feeling guilty about causing so much distress to the deer.
11.) So here is my fix ... Emboss the words Serenity, Courage and Wisdom from the Serenity Prayer plate on a scrap piece of parchment and emboss a rectangular frame around them using the Nested Rectangles plate.
12.) And to finish, cut out the word tags and backing paper tags slightly larger than the parchment. Mount everything on a designer backing paper (18.5x18.5cm) and black card (19x19cm) using brads on either side of the tags. Stick this whole piece onto a folded white card (20x20cm). See everything hidden ... PHEW!
That is all for today as I think I have rambled a lot already. Enjoy.
Love and laughter
Tina
