Friday 30 April 2010

You are My Sunshine!

Hey Blogland, and how are you today? I'm hoping that today's project will pop a little bit of sunshine into your day! As, if the weather where you are is anything like it is here in the South East of England you just might need it... A typical British Bank Holiday Weekend with cold winds blowing in from the North is forecast and the chance of rain! But the gardens need it!! yeah whatever!!!So here we are with today's project.. Sunflowers are reminiscent of late summer, but I suspect the bright Yellows and Golds would give any recipient a lift at anytime of the year and suitable for both a male or a female card...I took at A4 piece of White card and scored it at 2", 4" & 7 3/4"and folded it to form a concertina.I then cut a piece of cloud card @ 4" x 8 1/4"this was stuck to the back panel of the card.I then cut a piece of wall printed card @ 2" x 8 1/4"and stuck that to the front panel of the card.I then took some Sunflower adhesive borders, which are a new product featured in the New Do Crafts Essentials Promotion, and stuck them to the front panel. I think they look so effective against the wall background.I then cut 3 different length strips from some grey boardand coloured them Green using a Green Permanent Pen from Do Crafts, although a Copic or ProMarker Pen would work equally as well.I punched a Beech Leaf from some complementary Green card stock and stuck it to the back of the flower stem, I used the Sunflower Elements toppers to finish off the whole Sunflower.Although slightly difficult to see, the leaf punch not only cuts but it also embosses which adds an extra dimension to the project.Once I had stuck the 3 Sunflowers to the back of the card I finished it off with a Simple sentiment from the Build a Sunflower Stamp Set, adding a few gems to complete the card..
Enough to brighten any ones day I think...
Have a great day & thanks for checking us out.
See you soon
Pinnacles.

Friday 23 April 2010

Happy St George's Day!

Hi Everyone. Did you know that Today is our national day (in England)..? Me either... Shameful!!
We are more likely to celebrate the Irish St Patrick's Day with a few pints of the "Black Stuff" I.E Guinness, or the 4th of July with a BBQ than to celebrate our Englishness..So when asked for some St George's Day invitations by someone who couldn't find anything suitable in the shops, this is what I came up with.I cut out a body image from the Paper Dolls cartridge at 4 1/2" using my Cricut machine. I tend to use the Cricut card stock pack when using the Paper Doll's cartridge as the Pastels set is the only range I find with a decent skin tone shade in it.
I also cut out the body image using the blackout function on Black card and the hair,and then stuck all of the images together.I then cut out the Knight's Armor and helmet, again @ 4 1/2" this time in Silver Mirror card to give a realistic Armor effect. and stuck these ontop of the body image.I then cut out a Dragon from the Pagoda cartridge @ 3". The Dragon image on the Paper Dolls cartridge was a little too cutsie for what I had in mind and the more aggressive looking Dragon on the Pagoda cartridge was going to work much better.I cut two strips of Red Mirror card 1 1/2" wide for my Cross of St George and stuck them to a White piece for card to form the English flag,and then I attached my images.The letters were cut from Plantain Schoolbook @ 1/2" using the shadow function.
So, all the invitations done and sent out, I'm off to the party in my Japanese car and to drink Belgian Beer... Not at the same time I might add.. Japanese car and Belgian Beer, Oh this England eh!!!
Have a great Day.
See you soon.
Pinnacles.

Friday 16 April 2010

Keeping it simple... or maybe not!!

Hi Everyone, we all have to make cards or projects in a hurry sometimes..! You know, that last minute Birthday card, j'eese it's not as if it's not the same day every year! (except for leap year peeps!) is it??!! Anyway, today's project is definitely not a last minute job..
It may look simple (and effective, I hope) but it certainly takes a little time to make. It encompasses (big word!) several different techniques which I am going to be using in a Tim Holtz lesson I am doing tomorrow.. The idea came from his blog (The Twelve Tags of Christmas), take a look, it's truly inspirational..
The finished card reminds me of the film "Schindler's' List", a great film, if you haven't seen it I highly recommend it. The reason it reminds me of this film is because it is shot entirely in Black and White apart from a young girl in a Red coat, the Red Rose on the card reminds me of this..
Here's how it was made... Heavy post alert, you'll need a cuppa for this one...I cut 3 x 2" Flowers in Grunge Paper using a Flower from The Mothers' Day Cricut Cartridge.I coloured each one with Red Pepper Alcohol Ink on both sidesand highlighted areas with Cranberry Alcohol Inkto give a little more colour dimension.
Flower #1, make a cut from the edge to the centre.
Flower #2, cut out one petal.Flower #3, cut out two petals.So you have a set of flowers like this.on the back of Flower #1, apply some Glossy Accents to the back of one of the petals and over lap it with the petal next to it,holding it in place with a paperclip.Repeat this process for Flowers #2 & #3.
With the off cut from Flower #3, roll the edge of one of the petals over a pencil to give a bit of dimension.With the other petal, roll it in on itself and glue in place with some Glossy Accents, add a paperclip if required. This shouldn't take long to dry. Once it is dry, cut off the pointed end. This will become the centre of you Rose and if the end is left on then the centre will stick out too far.
Once all the layers are dry, glue them together with Glossy Accents and allow to dry, again this shouldn't take too long.Once dry I added some Fired Brick Distress Stickes.. Now I don't usually use these, favouring more the standard Stickles with a little more sparkle in them, but being true to Sir Tim's ideology of distress & age I plum pt for the distress look applying a generous amount to each petal. eeeakkkk.. It didn't look good at first, but once the Distress Stickles had dried the effect was more appealing...
This is the Rose done with for now, so you can put it to one side to dry.
Next, take Four pieces of extra thick card stock or chipboard cut to 5" squares.
Line each edge, on both sides with double sided tape.
Take a selection of designer papers cut 6" x 6". To keep the Sir Tim theme going I chose papers from one of his new paper stacks "Vintage Shabby" which is a selection of Grey's, Blue's and yes Pink's all in a "Vintage Shabby" theme, hence the name.. Doh!Lay one of your 5" cardboard square onto your paper and mitre the corner.Fold back the edges making a neat coaster.Repeat this 3 more times.Work out which will be your front and back pages
and your inside pages,and lay them face down in front of you applying double sided tape across the inside of the front and back pages.Apply some complementary ribbon across this tape.
Apply double sided tape around all the edges, this will help to hold the ribbon in placeand allow you to stick the inside covers.
I stamped a simple sentiment in Black Momento ink. Again the sentiment was from one of Tim's "Stampers Anonymous" sets.I attached the now dry Rose with a small leaf to the front of the card.Finishing off with a magnifying gem to highlight my sentiment.Here's a pic with the camera flash on to show the Rose in all it's glory..
As I said, simple in it's effect and although a lot of work to make it's totally worth it. Have fun in the lesson tomorrow ladies.
Thanks for checking us out, see you soon.
Pinnacles.