Has Spring sprung?.....

Hi folks... As we approach the end of another Month of 2012, hopefully the weather will start to change and get just a tad bit warmer than of late, heralding the arrival of Spring! (Andy crosses fingers as he is fed up with these cold early morning doggie walks!!)
So, with that in mind, (spring that is, not cold dog walks!) over at the Cuttlebug Blog Spot, this week’s challenge is... Springtime..
And here is my Design Team entry...I'm not 100% sure it screams "Spring" but I guess Flowers in a pot and you can't go wrong! This was one of my other ideas!However, it was too corny for me to send in,as I put "Harold the Hedgehog" on an actual Spring, I thought that was taking the brief a little too literally!!
Anyway, let's make a start on our "How to"I started off by cutting out a pot shape from the Spellbinders Die Flower Pot's (Doh!) S5-060 using White card stock..To give it some colour I added a few shades of Distress Ink, shading in some area's to give it some definition..The colouring needs to be done on both sides as the top part of the die folds down to form the lip of the pot.I then went over the whole of the image with Glossy Accents, leaving air bubbles on the lip of the pot. Not intentionally mind, but we will cover that up later!
Whilst the pot was drying, I prepared the rest of my project.Firstly, I cut out sets of Tulips using the Marianne Creatables Die Tulips LR0209. One set in Green card stock and one in Blue.Cutting the Flower Heads off of the Blue Tulips to attach to the Green ones to make them look realistic..To add another floral springtime twist to the project, I punched into a piece of backing paper using the Martha Stewart Punch around the Page set Wild Flowers (M42-80005).Then added some gems to each of the punched out Flower shapes. I also positioned the now dry Flower Pot onto the backing paper and arranged my Tulips. Finishing off with an "ickle" Ladybird to hide the air bubbles created when using the Glossy Accents.
This lot was then matt and layered onto my base card and finished off with my sentiment...
Don't forget to pop on over to the Cuttlebug Blog spot to see what my fellow Design Team Members have come up with for this week’s challenge.
Thanks for checking us out, see you soon.
Andy.

and the winners are......

Hi Everyone... First things first... Our Blog candy Winners are....... Jovan and Jenny...Jovan wins the Autumn Set of Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Jenny Wins the Winter set..Congratulations ladies, I hope you have fun using them when you receive them.
Thanks to everyone else for taking the time to enter. There will be plenty more chances to win some Blog candy in the very near future...Anyway, here we go with Today's project.. I've been very lucky to have been given one of Martha Stewart’s new Punch All Over the Page punches called Nordic Snowflake (M42-90006) to play with.. And this is what I came up with.. Not only a card but a candle holder too...I started off by punching my design onto some printed backing paper and trimming it to size.I then mounted the sheet onto some Acetate to give the flimsy paper some stability..Next, I made my stepper card using my Hougie Board, scoring the A4 Acetate sheet at 2", 4" and then manually folding the largest part of the sheet in half. The measurement for this fold should be 7 3/4", but as the Hougie Board does not measure in 1/4" this bit had to be done manually, which really was no big deal!I then added my punched image to the back of the stepper cardand some prepared Decoupage to the front step of the cardto add some dimension to the project...The fretwork which can be created with this punch seemed perfect for creating a Candle Holder.So, I punched out my design onto an A4 piece of patterned paper, trimming off the excess and then rolled it into a cylinder before placing it over my Candle..Pretty effective if I do say so myself...Great in other colours too to match your Christmas table setting perhaps..And how about this for a backing paper for all you Scrapbookers out there!!..All in all a pretty useful Punch...
Thanks for checking us out.
See you soon.
Andy.

Embossing with a difference...

Hey Blogland.. September already eh!! Soon be Christmas..
Today, I wanted to share with you a project I made as a sample for this weeks lesson here at Pinnacles..
This week we have been playing around with Embossing.. Now, not the traditional embossing i.e with Embossing Folders. You must know me by now? and that I like to try and get a little more out of a product other than it's intended use..So here we go with a project using a Mask... These have become so popular recently due to the increased use of Mists and Inks. But is that all you can use them for?! Me thinks not!!
Here's a "how to" guide if you fancy giving this project or something similar a go..
There are several different ways to emboss a Mask, and this is what works for me using the Cuttlebug.. If you have a Big Shot, Vagabond or Grand Calibur machine then have a play with your plates to get the right combination and see what you come up with..So, I placed the Mask directly onto my Cuttlebug A Plate,followed by my 290gsm card stock,my No Shims Mat,2 x 225gsm card stock to bulk out the "sandwich",finishing off with my Cuttlebug C plate and passed the whole thing through the machine.Mmmmmm, to be honest, not much to be seen here I grant you!But, with the addition of a little bit of London Fog Memento Ink...and a bit of matt and layering.. Viola!!My intention was to make this project into an Easel card.As every Easel has to have a stand I decided to play with one of our new EK Success Deep Edger Punches... So, I took the Flower Burst Punch and a 2.5" wide strip of card stock. Normally if I was just punching a border I would start roughly in the middle of the strip of card and punch away.. But this punch looked like it had potential to do something much more interesting so I had to line it up at a specific point.. You'll see why in a mo..I chose to line up the end of my card stock with the centre of the pattern on the punch and punch a full border along the card stock..Nice eh!!?But, if you turn your card stock over and line up the end of the card stock against the same guide you used previously and punch a border,you get this!! Now, that's getting good use from a punch don't you think!?This Flower Burst border was added to my prepared Easel Card as it's stopper.To add a little bit more interest to the Flowers, and the card in general I punched out a few Butterflies using the Martha Stewart Large Monarch Butterfly Punch.Adding them on top of the Flowersand to the Embossed image which had now been added to the card.And there you go. Quite a soft and subtle project but very effective and a great way to use this Mask in a very different way than it's intended use..So good in fact that I made another one in a different colour...
So, why not give it a go?...
And don't forget, it's our 8th Birthday Celebrations on Saturday (03/09/11).. A Free Demo with the very talented Lynn Gilbert from Creative Expressions, a 40% sale on all 12" x 12" single sheet papers, 12" x 12", 8" x 8", 6" x 6", A4 and A5 backing paper stacks and all Scrapbooking Albums.. Remember, Pinnacle Crafts Club Members can add their standard Discount onto these items making them Half Price.. Not only that!! Enter our Birthday draw with any purchase on the day and you could be one of the FIVE lucky winners drawn at random who can win one of the new release Spellbinder dies of their choice... Wowzers!! Sorry, new word I've picked up!
Thanks for checking us out, and see you soon.
Andy.

From "Owl" House to your House....

Hi everyone. Yes, I am still around.. I know it's been a while since my last post but things here at Pinnacles have been a little hectic of late and finding time to blog has proved a little difficult.. But, I'm back now and I hope to share some of the projects I have been working on over the past few weeks with you on a bit more of a regular basis...
So, here we go with Today's offering...Back in January I was asked by Liz from Cricutolics to be a guest designer on her website.. Obviously, I said yes, as I think it's such an honor to be asked to showcase my work other than here on my Blog... As Cricutolics is a forum for those of us who have been bitten by the Cricut bug my project obviously had to be Cricut relate..So, here is what I came up with.I cut out the Birdhouse shape from the Stretch Your Imagination Cricut Cartridge @ 3.75". Cutting the shape in Grey card stock using the Blackout and Silhouette functions and the "normal" image in Pink card stock..Layering the images together with some Pinflair Gel to give them some dimension..I then punched a border in White card stock using the Martha Stewart Drippy Goo Punch,adding it to the base of each of the 3 Birdhouses that I had cut to act as snow...I then cut out a few Branch shapes using the Mariannes Creatables Pine Tree Branch die (LR0181) using some Green Glitter card.And then added them to my base card which I had already placed my Birdhouses onto.Next, I cut out these little Go Kreate Owl figures adding some googlie eyes to give them some character,before popping each one on it's perch and finishing off with a "From Our House" peel off as my sentiment...So, there you go.. Not only a Christmas card but I think the concept could be used as a New Home / Moving card too?!.. And, for all you Cricut fans out there, just look at all the new Cricut Cartridges that will be winging their way to us at Pinnacles very soon...
Anyway, it's good to be back and hope to see you again soon.
Thanks for checking us out.
Andy.