Hi Everyone, you know when everything comes at once! and you think you are just not going to get round to finishing everything, and then you do, and then wonder what all the fuss was about!! Well that was me this weekend! I had a friends birthday party, my parents Wedding Anniversary and also a buying trip down to Dorset..
The Birthday party on Saturday was an absolute blast!! Karaoke is not my thing at all, but after a couple of pints of dutch courage I found myself, NO! honestly, not even a GALLON of dutch courage could get me up and singing.. But I did have a boogie, (the old Andy "Two step" has served me well over the years!) and I think I do recall finally giving in and belting out a rendition of 3 lions!! Well, the "World Cup" is only just around the corner and I've got to get some practice in for Saturday's game against the States!!! So, to all of our American followers, Good Luck Guys!! Anyway back to my weekend.It always make me smile that your evening can go from looking like this ...to this in a few short hours!!!LOL.
I hate having to rush a card, especially for a very dear friend, but sometimes, when you know you don't have much time you stop faffing around and thinking to yourself, does this go better here?, or here?, would it look better in this colour? or that?... aarrrgghh just stick it down and get on with it!!! was what I was telling myself...Anyway here is the card I ended up making..
My friend is a complete purple freak! and over the years I have made every single card I have sent her Purple, and this year's was no exception..I started off by cutting out some shapes in Lilac & Green Mirror Card using both the large and medium Martha Stewart Pop Up Water Lily Flower Punch.And layered one of the large Lilac images on top of one of the large Green images.I then added one of the smaller images, cut in Lilac on topAnd finished off the centres with some Lilac Gem Stones.I then layered some smaller flowers on top of each other.Attached the larger flowers to my aperture cardfilling in the spaces with the smaller flowers.Finally attaching 2 larger flowers to a piece of clear thread so that the image was able to spin in the aperture.I'm glad to say that she loved it! Phew!!!It was also my parents 41st Wedding Anniversary on Monday, so I made the same style of card, this time in a dusky Pink.
Also on Monday Jo and I went off on a little buying trip down to Dorset to visit one of our suppliers, Do Crafts.. We all know how great their range of products are and the products we saw which will be coming out very soon are no exception.. So keep an eye out on the website for all the new goodies...
Thanks for checking us out..
See you soon,
Andy.

Crackle effect

Hi everyone, and how are you today? We are all probably aware that distressing is "in" at the moment, if it hasn't got Tim Holtz's name on it then it's not worth doing. Well, that's not totally true, as there are so many amazing things going on in the crafting world besides distressing.. but I must admit it is the current crafting buzz word..
So today's project features a distressing technique called Crackle which we have been teaching in our lessons this week. We called it "Slap, Crackle & Pop" as the technique involves you slapping on some paint, watching it crackle and then seeing your elements pop off of your project. There is a quick way of doing this which is to use Tim's Crackle paint..As with most things, there is more than one way to do it! So here is how we did it with products that most of us should have in our crafting stash...First of all I cut out some card shapes from the Indie Art cartridge using my Cricut Machine. These images were cut out at 2" Real Dial Size...I covered one of the imageswith some Gold Acrylic Paint.Once the paint is dry, add a generous amount of PVA clear drying glueand spread a thickish layer all over the image.Whilst the glue is still wet paint on your top coat of colour trying not to blend the paint and the glue to much.Then heat with your heat gun. This process is to dry the Acrylic paint quickly but you could quite easily just leave the paint to air dry and it will still crackle.The reason that you get a crackle effect is that the Acrylic paint dries quicker than the glue. As the paint dries the glue is still wet underneath and sort of stretches and splits the paint, forming a crackle effect. As the glue dries clear the initial undercoat of colour is revealed....I love the effect that the crackle gives but was not over the moon about the paint as it dries to a matt finish. Most Acrylics have an oil or wax in then so once dry you can always give them a buff with a kitchen towel to give them a shine. I did this but also added a bit of sparkle by way of some Iridescent Sparkle Spray. This gave the image a varnished and sparkly look.Repeat this process on the Club, Spade & Diamond using the correct coloures accordingly.I then took a 5"x5" piece of White card stock and a 5 1/4" x 5 1/4" piece of Gold card stock.I repeated the paint, heat, Glue, Paint, heat process on the White piece of card but this time using some Moss Green Acrylic Paint. I hope you get the idea that this is a distressed Poker table!!? Once dry, the now Green piece of card got a spray of the sparkle and then was layered onto the Gold piece of card.This was then mounted onto a base card with my card images mounted on top.
I punched out some card images from an EK Success border punch and positioned them down the side to complete the project...
So, something a little bit different for you to try and is great fun to do. The results are quite random and you'll get a different effect each time you do it, so why not give it a go?
Thanks for checking us out...
See you soon.

Andy..

Quilted

Hey Blogland, how's things where you are today? I hope the weather is a little better than it is here! Looks like traditional British Bank Holiday weather is on it's way!! Late May, erm feels more like late October!! As it's Pinnacle Crafts Club Members Weekend this weekend there have been lot's of things to do in preparation but I did manage to sit down and have a little creative time this week.And here is a project I came up with. Hope you enjoy it..I took a 5" x 5" piece of Pink Mirror cardand placed it colour side down onto a Martha Stewart Scoring Boardso that when I embossed the lines they would be raised on the coloured side.. I.E Embossed as opposed to debossed..Any Scoring Board you have would be suitable or even an Embossing Tool, a Ruler and a Foam Mat.. Whatever works for you..I counted 13 lines in from each side and then made a quarter turn and repeated the 13 lines.This made a criss cross pattern on the outer squaresand I then went over the inner squares, just embossing to the 13th line to complete the effect and leaving a plain square in the centre of the card.I liked the effect but wanted to add something to the edges, so using the Martha Stewart Quilted Corner and Border Punches.I firstly punched my cornersand then completed the around the page effect with the Quilted Border Punch.I punched a flower in Red Mirror card using the Martha Stewart Pop Up Water Lily Punch.. Make sure when using this Punch that you have your card stock upside down as the Punch pushes the petals of the flower downwards.I also cut a couple of leaves from the MS Frond Punch and adhered them to the Red Flower.I cut out a few leaves using the X Cut Beech Leaf Punch. You just gotta love these punches, they not only punch, but emboss at the same time. How cool is that!!
Finally mounting all of the pieces onto some embossed Silver Mirror card and adding a few gemsand a simple sentiment to complete the project..
So there you have it. I hope it will give you a little bit of inspo to come up with a project of you own..
So if you are coming to the Club Members Weekend this weekend I'll see you there, and if not, I'll see you soon in Blogland...
Thanks for checking us out...

Andy..

More punches...

Hi everyone, today I'm going to share with you some more measurements for using your Martha Stewart Corner Punches as circles... These have proved very popular, and although not difficult to work out (once you know how!), I have done all the hard work for you... So get ready to add a few more measurements to your list..
The first punch I used was one of the new ones, Lace Scroll..
You will need a 4 3/4" Circle. I cut mine from my Cricut, but any way you can cut the circle will be sufficient.Divide the circle into 8 equal sections. Because I have been making so many of these I produced myself a template to make it easier and quicker for me, which we have been taking orders for in the shop... Who knew these would be so popular.. I didn't realise that I would have to go into manufacturing is such a big way!!Colour the non dissected side of the circle with some chalks,Emboss through the Cuttlebug or Big Shot machines with a 5" x 7" Embossing Folder. I used Goochie Script on this project. I suggest the 5" x 7" Folders as your circle is 4 3/4" wide and the standard sized Cuttlebug Folders are too narrow to fit the whole of the circle on it.Then reapply some more chalk to highlight your embossing.Turn your circle over and aline your corner punch with one of the pre drawn lines, make sure the line passes into the "V" of the punch and is straight and evenand then punch through the card.Repeat this on the next line..And then all the way around the circle until the image pops out..Off set it slightly from it's original position and glue it to the frame.Next take 2 squares of White card stock measuring 5" x 5". This must be a precise measurement if you are to achieve an around the page measurement using a combination of the co ordinating Corner & Border punches.Chalk these pieces of card stock to complement your circular image.Once done, firstly punch your corners,Then line up the edger punch to connect all 4 corners to achieve the around the page effect..Apply these pieces of card stock to your base cardand mount the circular image on top.I punched out a Pop up Water Lily flower and coloured it with some chalks. Added a few gems and placed it onto the middle of my project.
And there you have it, something a little bit different to do with your corner punches..
Here are a couple more that I have been playing with...
The new Butterfly Corner and Border co ordinating punches. The process is the same i.e chalking, embossing etc and the corner also suits a 4 3/4" circle.This one was using The Eyelet Lace set..And finally for today, the Cupcake and Party Co ordinationg Corner and Punch..
I hope you like them and they give you a few ideas to take your punches to the next level..
Thanks for checking us out, see you soon..
Andy...