Starburst Christmas card with Pine Woods Dies

Crafty Friday finally happened! We had to postpone for a week because some of the kits took SO LONG to arrive. In fact we gave up on one of them and my husband drove another one over to the lady's house; inevitably, the first kit arrived in the post the next day! It had taken nine days to arrive.

I’ll only show you one of the cards we made here as the other one was a direct copy of this. 

Yes, we were sponging again and I thought it was a good opportunity to have a go at the Starburst technique. We all began by making our templates. I always take a pretty rough and ready approach to crafting, winging it as I go. One lady, however, measured all her angles using a protractor! It was to be expected, I suppose, as she is a retired maths teacher.

These are the three stages of template making. Others have suggested making these out of window sheets or other acetate but I’m not convinced; I think that would allow ink to pool and make it more likely to smudge and blob.

We sponged on to the Pretty Peacock cardstock in whatever colour ink we had to hand. I had Pretty Peacock, of course (to me, ink pads are like Pokemon; gotta catch ’em all!)  but others achieved good results with Just Jade and the now retired Island Indigo. I really like this colour combination; Pretty Peacock, Just Jade and just a splash of red. 

 

The greeting panel is from the same die set as the sprigs of evergreen; the Beautiful Boughs dies, which was released last year but never goes out of style. 

I ran out of the red ribbon from the All The Trimmings Ribbon Combo Pack which I’d used for the samples as I’d had to donate my prepared kit due to the postal issues. Therefore, during the actual session, I used this gorgeous Just Jade gingham from the Flowers For Every Season Ribbon Combo Pack instead.

These Pine Woods Dies are one of my favourite products ever. Both of these trees have open foliage which pops out but, as you can see, the back one, in Mint Macaron, has retained these pieces. That’s because I was lazy and didn’t clean out the die. But you know what? I like the effect!

 

To get the greeting, from In The Pines, onto two separate lines, you have severa; options. The stamp set is photopolymer, so cutting it up is really easy. But that felt a bit drastic for one card. Another option is to mask each section off using tape or a sticky note, but that is fraught with danger. Instead, I inked and stamped each word separately using a Stampin’ Write Marker, cleaning the stamp very thoroughly in between. 

 

If you’d like to order anything you see here, please visit my store and, if shopping in November 2020, please use the host code RMK743TS. The host code allows me to earn Stampin’ Rewards which I use to order thank you gifts for my online customers.

In The Pines distressed texture card

 

It’s all about trees for me at the moment and I have been having LOTS of fun with the In The Pines Bundle recently.

Today I would like to show you this very out-of-character project. Why out of character? Because it uses GREY. I don’t get the whole grey craze – grey walls, grey décor, grey clothes, grey cards. We have enough grey skies in this country without adding to the gloom!

But I pushed myself to use a little bit of Smoky Slate AND Basic Grey on this card, throwing in lots of texture to make it more “me”. 

As my backdrop, I have used the In Good Taste Designer Series Paper, which is SO versatile and even better, currently available at a 15% discount (until 31st October). 

 

I love this pack, which includes lots of lovely designs which give you the look of texture without the bulk. I mean, doesn’t that background look exactly like it’s been create with texture paste? Well it’s not – it’s printed paper and perfectly flat. For a change, and a blast from the past, I distressed the edges using the side of my Stampin’ Snips.

The patterned strip is from the same pack but I wanted it darker so I brayered on top of the design with some Smoky Slate ink. This is a great way of getting more mileage out of your Designer Series Paper. Brayer it, sponge it, stamp on it, colour in the images... these are all ways you can change the colour to make it fit your project.

As I’d already committed to using two sets of dies –  the Pine Woods Dies and Beautiful Boughs, I stuck with the latter for my labels. The greeting label uses the same die as the white panel behind it; it’s just trimmed down.

And the white panel behind is embossed using the Evergreen Forest 3D Embossing Folder. This was the first time I’d used this amazing folder but you’ll be seeing a lot more of it here next week.

The tree is stamped in Night of Navy onto Smoky Slate and die-cut. I’ve also painted over it using Wink of Stella to add some shine, but I’m not sure that comes out in the photo. Finally, some bling gives it another lift.

 

Hope you like it! Please come back on Thursday for another blog hop and some more trees! And if you are in the UK and are looking for a demonstrator, please get in touch or shop at my store using the link below. This month’s host code is ET479TKQ and if you use this when spending between £25 and £149, I’ll send you a thank you gift. (If you order over £150, don’t use the code as you will get your own Stampin’ Rewards.)

Forest bathing with In The Pines

In The Pines is a bundle with my name all over it. There are few places I’d rather be than among trees.

In Japan, shinrin yoku is the art of forest bathing and recognised for its benefits on people’s physical and mental health. This isn't new-age nonsense; far from it. There are very good reasons behind it, so are you ready for some science?

Studies have shown that being among trees can not only improve your concentration and memory, but reduce your blood pressure and lower levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. On top of this, trees and plants emit phytoncides, which have antibacterial and anti-fungal properties, helping us to fight disease.

If those aren’t good enough reasons to get out into the woods, then I don’t know what is. I love to go for countryside walks but am always drawn to the trees; in lockdown, when we weren't supposed to drive anywhere for leisure, I managed to work out a four-mile walk which took me through little woodlands, although they were no substitute for ancient woodlands and my favourite Scottish pine forests. 

The pine forests of Scotland – particularly Abernethy Forest in the Cairngorms – were the inspiration for these projects using In The Pines stamp set and the Pine Woods Dies. Expect more where these came from...

This project uses the Beautiful Boughs dies, too. As you can imagine, I have a whole section of craft room dedicated to tree-themed products! The back pine cone was sponged in Soft Suede before the top layer was stuck on. I’d already made the first one so went with it. I like how only some of the “bits” have come out; I like the look of some still remaining so left them there. Easier, too!

I stamped the main tree image in Whisper White Craft ink onto Crumb Cake and cut it out using the Pine Woods Dies. To make the label, I cut it using the Beautiful Boughs dies then trimmed it down to make it slimmer. The gold trim is from the Forever Greenery Suite.

This is a simpler card which uses just the In The Pines stamp set, along with the Tasteful Labels dies, although any label dies or a punch would do a similar job.  The trees felt a little lost on the stark white background, so I gave it some depth by sponging around the top and bottom using Mint Macaron and just a hint of Pretty Peacock. 

This card is actually not inspired by Scotland but by Lea Wood nature reserve near Cromford. There's a little patch of Scots Pines at the top; if you stand in the centre and look up, you see this effect. This is a fascinating phenomenon called ‘crown shyness’ where trees avoid their branches touching each other. Not all trees do it and nobody really knows why. But don’t say I never tell you anything!

Christmas Ornament Week: Snow Front

Simple and quick - just a few stamped images on a slice of log, finished off with some white embossing paste and a ribbon. Makes a lovely woodland-themed Christmas ornaments or a posh gift tag they can hang on their tree!

When stamping directly onto wood, use bright colours as the background will darken them. For example, I used Old Olive rather than Mossy Meadow and Real Red rather than Cherry Cobbler. 

 

Christmas Ornament Week: Countdown to Christmas

It’s getting a bit late for Christmas card ideas so this week on the blog it’s Ornament Week!

I’m kicking off with this lovely wood slice ornament with a pretty cardinal, totally CASEd from USA demonstrator Fran Smith and using the Countdown to Christmas stamp set. We don’t get cardinals in this country but they look very pretty and colourful for this time of year.

I stamped the bird image and greeting (from Peaceful Boughs) directly onto the wood slice using Stazon ink, then stamped the bird again onto Whisper White. I coloured the bird using a Real Red Stampin’ Write marker then cut it out and piece it on top.

The Old Olive die-cut boughs are dipped into embossing paste for a snowy look.

Get pearls and rhinestones in any colour you like to match your project by colouring them with Stampin' Blends alcohol markers. Just be very gentle so you don’t damage the brush tip. 
 

Peaceful Boughs in metallics and white

 
Waste not, want not... here's the missing piece from the pizza box lid, refashioned into a layer for a co-ordinating card.

I made two versions of this card for my class as I know some of hte ladies prefer stamping to standing up to use the Big Shot, but I confess I like the Tin Tile Background version more; I just love the look of that embossing folder.

To get this look with the metallic thread, lay a piece of double-sided tape on your project then fold the thread around in a figure of 8 fashion. When there's enough, seal it on top with another piece of tape and cover it up with your top layer. 

Peaceful Boughs Christmas ornament in gold pizza box

I do love a woodland theme... and particularly a woodland-themed Christmas ornament, so it wouldn't be the festive season without one of these making its way into my craft classes!

I bought some MDF hearts from eBay, painted them white and then set to crafting by stamping them with the Birch Background stamp and Peaceful Boughs.

I embossed the boughs with clear embossing powder on top of the Mossy Meadow (hurrah for the Stamparatus!) and, because the Crumb Cake Birch image still wasn't quite dry that picked up some of the powder, too. I call this a happy accident! There's even a hint of glitter!

The box is die-cut (look out for the missing piece coming soon!) and given a window sheet insert which is stamped in Whisper White ink and heat set, then we wrapped our ornaments in stamped black tissue paper ready to give as a lovely handcrafted gift.

I don't like glitter because it can end up in our oceans but still have quite a bit left so I now only use it when mixed with glue or embossing powder. Here I mixed it with the clear embossing powder to stop it from going astray. It adds a touch of glitz to an otherwise quite understated project. 
 

Christmas blues with Peaceful Boughs

Got the Christmas blues already? Even though I'm a bit of a traditionalist and usually favour red and green for my Christmas projects, I do like this combo of Blueberry Bushel, Real Red and Whisper White, with a splash of silver. I used Stazon to stamp onto the silver foil because it's a permanent ink which dries quickly.

Using the Stamparatus for embossing is a real game-changer. It means you can ink the stamp more than once and stamp repeatedly to get more ink on the page before embossing. I always “double up” when embossing in white; I use White Craft ink AND White embossing powder to get a really crisp and clear look.  

Pizza box with shaker dome lid

Let's start the week off with an over-the-top, complicated project, shall we? Actually it's not as complicated as it first appears; it's just that I've overstuffed my dome and didn't have enough pizza boxes to make another one.

In fact, the hardest part of this project was cutting out the dome shape from the lid of the pizza box as you have to get through quite a lot of layers and the inside of the box has a plastic coating to make it food safe. Once that was done, it was just a case of assembling the pieces in the right order.

When die-cutting foil, you need either a really unblemished cutting plat on top, or a piece of scrap paper to protect it. Otherwise you will get imprints from the plate in the delicate foil surface. 

 

Nature's Beauty: masculine/feminine

Oops, looks like Friday’s project didn’t post! Anyway, better late than never and yes, I know I've shared a card with this very same design before but I just can't get enough of it and wanted to show you how it can look in different colourways.

Here I made a masculine version using Come Sail Away Designer Series Paper as the background, and a feminine version using polka dot pink paper from Bird Ballad. In both cases, I sponged around the edges and bottom of the DSP to give it some depth.

Even Sahara Sand was a little too dark for this project, so I stamped off onto scrap paper first. Using the Stamparatus meant I could line the stamp up perfectly to repeat the image and create a subtle background for my woodland creatures.

Shabby chic Nature's Beauty cards for a team celebration

I’m still getting lots of mileage from the Nature’s Beauty stamp set - which is raising money for Mental Health Europe and other mental health charities around the world.

I used it here to celebrate my team members this month and combined it with Countdown to Christmas - can you even tell I've used a festive stamp set?

I've repeated the background stamp in Mint Macaron on the card base of the same colour. By twisting and turning the stamp, it doesn't matter if I overlap or the image doesn't quite fit because it gives it a vintage “shabby chic” look. 

Beautiful Boughs Christmas star decoration

Feeling festive yet? Is it wrong that I have this Christmas star decoration hanging up already? I promise I'll take it down soon, ready to come out again at a more respectable time.

I made this at the weekend using the Peaceful Boughs bundle and have to say I love it. I have precisely five of these stars left which is just enough for a small, friendly class which I'll be holding in December.

The link to register will be going out in my newsletter tomorrow so make sure you're on the list if you want to join me!

Stamping the star with the Birch Background stamp was easy because the die-cut pine sprigs cover the joins. I just made sure I kept the stamp level, and turned it 180º occasionally. It was one of the very rare occasions that I used a clear block with a background stamp; normally I just leave it in the box and apply paper to stamp.