CraftyCutting Shadow Box - Design Team post

Hi everyone, a little late with a post than I wanted to be, but  I had been working on a project and delighted to showcase these gorgeous shadow boxes from CraftyCutting.
The theme I chose this time was Weddings.

Lots of photos in this post and if you have any questions about materials used, just ask by leaving me a comment.

I have used lots of different brands of dies and various materials including hessian / burlap I bought near the end of last year ... have been itching to do make the bunting with lace since buying the hessian, and delighted with how it turned out now.

I wanted to keep the project as clean and simple as possible but still decided to ink the papers to give the box a slightly aged / worn feel, without being too shabby!

You can see how deep these boxes are in this photo, and I raised the heart around a third of an inch from the back panel, still giving loads of depth for the flowers and without 'hiding' the heart shape.

The heart shape is also from CraftyCutting and can be seen on my last CraftyCutting post where I covered a mini heart shaped album - yep that's one of the die cut heart shaped pages! (use the labels on my blog to locate CraftyCutting projects)

A love themed Artemio stamp used to alter the dotty papers memento ink, after which the heart was distressed with Frayed Burlap distress ink.

One final photo to show the depth - I fussed a lot about where to hang the bunting as adding it the front seemed too obvious and I like the way it hangs inside the frame.

The lace was sewn onto the bunting with a sewing machine.

Will be back with more cards shortly :)

CraftyCutting DT project - Heart Shaped Valentine Album

It's good to get inking and creating again, have to make up for lost time now.  This post was meant to be up last week but I couldn't finish it, so had to leave it for a bit - very frustrating.

Glad it's done now and I can show it.

CraftyCutting make various size and shape albums which are great fun to alter and this time I get to do a heart shaped one. It's a nice size and good for passport sized photos or a little bigger perhaps. This album measures 4'' x 4''.

I saw the new release from Nitwit collections, called Lovestruck and bought it straight away, knowing I had to use it on something... love the arrow designs on the papers and that fabric feel to the papers as always draws me in! 

Also trying to do more digital work, as this interests me too - not to replace paper crafting or physical paper itself, but to create my own composition, print it and embellish, ink etc is great fun as well.

I only have basic photoscape software, and one of these days I might give CraftArtist a try when I have some free time.

So I used papers and elements from the main Lovestruck Bundle and layered them for the different 'pages' in the album, printed them after fiddling a bit with size and layout. Mental note - don't try and do this again with an odd shape like a heart - a square album would have been a lot easier LOL!  well it's a challenge then and I did okay........

The easiest way I found to decorate album pages is to open the book ring, lay them on the table and plan your design (I numbered mine as it has a little story from start to finish and adding journal elements on opposite pages - had to keep them in some sort of order).
Use your page die cuts as templates to trace a line on the paper you wish to decorate them with, and then cut out the papers just inside the trace line. You might have to trim a bit more here and there.

I inked the edges of the hearts with antique linen distress ink, and the papers as well before adhering them to the heart shaped pages.
Adhere one sheet at a time, taking care to punch out the book ring hole before covering the other side of the page.

Now I guess this album could tell a little story for a special couple and I intend to make an album for my significant other, adding photos from special times, like a photo from where we met, where he popped the question etc etc

Each open double page I have laid out as a journal page on the left and room for photos and other trinkets to be stuck on the right.

Love the new journalling tags and the usual tags from Mary Fran's designs, they are good for all sorts of projects!

This is the back of the album:

To go along with the rustic fabric feel of the papers, I added little fabric hearts, twine and rustic ribbons.

Hope you liked this project - I am looking forward to making lots more different things this year, and will be back with some more posts later in the week.
Wrap up and keep warm everyone, another frosty night ahead, but it's meant to ease soon by the look of the forecast.

CraftyCutting Altered Cardboard Christmas Tree

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, especially after this little project was completed and I realised how soon we will start opening advent calendars!

This post is a little earlier than planned, since my altered cardboard tree is going to be at the Creative Crafts Show in Belfast, on the CraftyCutting stand. Pop along and have a nosey, as there are lots of design team projects which you can see for yourself and versatile products too.

Lots of photos again. The weather has been overcast of late, so trying to take photos of gold foiled, dark green papers was difficult, a couple taken with light in the evening but most in the day time.

The cardboard trees were covered with 12 x 12 papers - I needed the whole 12'' for the height of the tree + a bit more to finish the bottom, as the tree is just over 12'' high.

Using a crop a dile to make holes to thread the tinsel is the easiest way to secure it, randomly threading the thin tinsel through the holes.

After covering the two tree pieces on both sides, and the two star pieces on both sides, the covered sections are a teeny bit thicker, but this holds them together well, just be patient when sliding the shapes onto each other.

The 24 mini envelopes are held with tiny pegs and contain 24 advent things to do, which involve the whole family :)

Here's a snippet of number 24!!

Trying to capture the foiled papers - these were from Craft Creations

If you would like to have a go at decorating your own tree, you can purchase one here.

With all the gorgeous Christmas wrapping papers you can get, you can have loads of fun and get the whole family involved:

* Punch out the tree from your pack

* Using a pencil, use the tree shape to trace out the shape on the back of some pretty paper

* Cut out your tree shape

* Glue the paper to the card

* Do this for both sides of the two tree sections

*Push the two together, and your tree is all ready

*Cover or paint your star and add this to the tree

They make great table centre pieces and you can make up your own use for them, hang gold chocolate coins, trinket parcel boxes or add your own themes for playing charades perhaps.

That's all for today, happy crafting everyone - hope this one gets your Christmas Crafting going :)

CraftyCutting Design Team Christmas makes

So am back with these fabulous shaped greyboard door hangers from CraftyCutting, which you can purchase HERE on the website or at the RDS Knitting and Stitching Show in Dublin this week.

To demonstrate the versatility of these ready to decorate shapes, two are in a clean style and the other two are in a more rustic / distressed and slightly vintage style.

It's Christmas soon and these will make perfect gifts!

The first couple are for those good girls and boys who believe in Santa, and want him to visit this year - in blue and pink with the cutest baby deer (who of course has a red nose!)

The hangers were covered and decorated with die cuts, lettering, pearls, charms and ribbon.

...and now for the boys:

Onto the hangers which were altered as Christmas Decorations / Gifts for our homes in mind.

I loved making these, and one is a simple design in white and silver, while the other has flowers, berries and ribbon added along with some glitter..

Christmas papers, LOTS of glitter and sparkly glitter card, Christmassy Ribbon and a simple sentiment for this one

The poinsettia is a spellbinders die and those centre round things are glittery beads.

The flourish is one of my favourite ones - a Magnolia Doo Hickey die.

Tried to photograph as best I can but the overcast winter weather set in here over the last few days. Never mind, with Christmas tunes (yes I am officially in the mood!), that helps brighten the day....

Last but not least, this is my favourite of all the hangers, as I could use lots of satin ribbon and glitter and flowers and the gorgeous new foiled papers/card from Craft Creations.

The holly die is from Cheery Lynn, the berries from stash and the flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts. The Santa post card was cut from a larger stamped image - Hero Arts Stamp

and the back has been decorated too...

If you would like to see these items, pop along to the CraftyCutting stand at the RDS this week and they will be on display.

Go on, get some and decorate with funky foam shapes and letters and decorate with pretty christmas papers.

Or, if you would like to order your own personalised hanger for Christmas, pop along to my Etsy shop HERE

First Project for CraftyCutting Design Team

Hi everyone, sorry for being absent for a while, I was working away and yes there are LOADS of cards to upload and post on my blog, and today is time for something different!

I really enjoyed altering this greyboard photo frame and am excited to share my first CraftyCutting DT project.

Some of the other Team Members have already shared projects, and below are the links to their blogs - please pop over and take a look, am sure you will love them!

Sandie's Halloween Shadow Box

Karen's Halloween Shadow Box

Nicole's Summer themed Greyboard frame

Aideen's Hanging frames

So I chose a greyboard frame and some Digi Papers from MR Designs plus a special photo of my great niece :)

You can find the papers HERE - they are called Seascape.

I also used the the back stand from a CraftyCutting Shadow box kit, since I wanted the  grey board frame to stand rather than hang.

Here's how it came together...

Two versions of the same paper were pasted into word, one layered over the other, as I wanted the shell pattern to show on the front left corner but also some of the design to wrap around the frame and part of it to show on the back, for a good finish.

Adhered the top piece of the frame from the kit with the aperture part to the rearside of the paper - 160gsm paper was used so it's nice and thick!

Next, cut a cross in the centre of the aperture and bring the edges of the paper through the aperture and around the rear of the frame and stick these down very well.

                              Adhere a small piece of acetate and the photo behind the aperture:

Trim the corners of the paper before adhering them to the back of the frame too.

After adhering the photos, I trimmed down the back of the shadow box panel (into which the stand will slot) as it was a little too big.  Adhered the back shadow box panel to the front grey board panel, thus making a photo stand.

Here are some closeup photos of the decoration and bunting..

The ticket comes from Graphic 45 By The Sea papers and the shells and other decorations I have in my stash. The stamps for the bunting are tiny alphabet stamps from Craftwork Cards.

The water droplets are home made dew drops, made with a glue gun.

 That's all for today, will be back with some other posts soon.

Happy Crafting!