START 2014 OFF IN STYLE, WITH A CALENDAR MAKE BY GIO....

Following on from the lovely make by Effie, plus step by steps, here is a fabulous new year step by step make by Gio, in sunny Italy..

MIXED MEDIA CALENDAR

1.  Gio started off with a piece of canvas measuring 30cm x 30cm..

2.  She glued some music and a book page to the canvas using gel medium..

 3.  Plus some doilies and left over bits and pieces..

4.  She then gessoed everything and added some crackle medium.  As the crackle shrank the canvas a little she glued the piece to some grey board to keep it in shape..

5.  Gio then stamped some Crafty Individuals stamps onto our wonderful Regency Satin white silk card and onto gessoed book pages, and cut them out..

6.  She then laid out the images on the canvas until she was happy with the composition..

7.  Followed by some mask work and some spraying with inks..

8.  When the canvas was dry Gio stamped here and there with a script stamp, and then glued down the stamped images, the calendar, and the lace border in their chosen spots.  She added a rub-on 2014, and a chain for hanging the project..


Gio used the following CI products in her glorious calendar hanging:

CI-393, Oriental Fans
CI-386, Summertime
CI-347, Butterfly Trio Panel
CI-260, Parisian Romance
CI-214, 1893 Script
CI-394, No Guarantee without the Stamp
Regency Satin White Silk Card (definitely a stamping Must Have!)
Lacewing Butterfly Mask
Elegant Swirls Mask
Beautiful Butterflies Panel Mask
Beautiful Border Mask

And here is the very pretty finished item itself..

Thank you Gio for sharing your techniques with us tonight!

Jean x

p.s. Thanks all for commenting on last week's post (Monty Moodle is a Maltese/Poodle cross).  If any of you would like to obtain a set of our latest issue of rubber stamps for free, as shown HERE, please leave a comment below, and we will pick out a lucky winner in a few days time!

p.p.s  Malcolm has finally (after much nagging) opened a little Etsy shop, which features some of his lovely photos in presentation boxes (they would make great Christmas gifts!)  You can check it out HERE.

EFFIE AMAZING ......

I have a scrumptious (had to look up how to spell that one!) Christmas project to share with you tonight by the very talented Effie of Efemera Ink, and what's more the said lady has kindly given us step by step piccies and instructions.  So go on - have a go yourself. ...

This is the fabulous finished (closed) festive 'exploding' tree ..

Plus a close-up..

And this is how you go about making it ..

1.  Cut the chipboard - one square and four triangles

2.  Use strips of paper to glue the triangles to the square, leave a small gap between the two - do this on both sides, and the triangles are now hinged to the square

3.  Cover both sides of the tree with patterned paper and stamp a part of CI-307 - (Special Child ticket) at the very top of each triangle on the outside

4.  Cut four images (from CI Image Book - 'Merry Christmas') into arch shapes, cut larger arches in cardstock and glue the images down.  Edge with german scrap, or similar.  Glue one to the outside of each tree triangle

5.  Decorate the inside of each triangle with more Santas from the mini book

6.  Use the tip of the triangle and draw four times next to each other on covered card, add a tab, cut, score, fold and glue tab down - this makes the top cap to keep the tree closed.  Attach a star on top

7.  Add a decoration of your choice in the centre - Effie used a vintage Santa figure

8.  Glue a large decorated cotton reel to the base to stand

We would love to see your similar makes using the above instructions - loving it!

Thanks Effie!

On a similar note Carol has sent over some cool pictures of a Christmassy exploding box made with lots of CI products as features..

Stars from CI-374 (I think), snowflakes from CI-241, plus other stamps CI-270 and CI-271.  Lovely make in very festive colours.  I haven't ever made an exploding anything as yet - probably about time I gave it a go!

Carol also sent over pictures of this pretty little gift sack in a similar colour scheme ..

Great use of CI-136 'Christmas Santa Smiles' both on the bag and on the friendly plastic in the centre of the rosette.  Thanks Carol.

Thanks everyone for the nice comments on my last post about the new stamps and new 'must haves' - I think this latest release will turn out to be a really popular one as you are all so enthusiastic about them all, and the appropriate items are now flying out all over the world.  If you make anything nice with them do let us know - we were delighted to see this great image by Joanna K, using our new stamp CI-399 'Winter Wonderland' (I adore this lovely stamp - which happens to be free with our current offer on spends of over £28 - visit us at www.craftyindividuals.co.uk)..

I love how Joanna has incorporated the sparkly threads behind the image - will be trying that trick out myself soon!

Before I close for tonight I thought I would share a little picture of Malc and that cheeky little Monty Moodle, taken recently at the seaside.  Malcolm is currently working on a series of photographs taken whilst 'Out with the Mont' and the final images here are a sample of the results of his snapping!

Nice and moody!

Jean x

UNBELIEVABLE - TWO POSTS IN TWO DAYS, AND NEW RUBBER TOO.....

A first for me I think - yesterday I posted the Challenge Winners for the October Challenge - details to be found by clicking HERE, and today I'm back with details about luscious new stuff now up and running on our Website.  You may be wondering where your Newsletter is, but as we are waiting for a new die to arrive from sunny USA we are putting off sending out the Newsletter until next week - so no you haven't been accidentally deleted from the mailing list!

However as the new stamps are well and truly available, and Christmas is coming fast around the corner I want YOU to be the first to check out the new rubber.  I'm truly in love with the new images, they are beautifully detailed and stamp delightfully, of course, and here they are:

Two Christmas images - both adorable - but how especially gorgeous is the one of the three little girls and their big umbrella?  Actually this is an all through the winter stamp, and not just for Christmas!

CI-398 - Santa's Sleigh Ride -

Plus a sample project -

CI-399 - Winter Wonderland (Which is also the new and current Special Offer and is free with all orders over £28 before postage) -

Again plus a sample project -

Will be using both of these stamps for my own handmade cards this year, and I love them with the addition of a CI Mask, and the Imagination Crafts Sparkle Medium!

We also have a grand new Alice Palace Christmas stamp - CI-400, Jolly Owl -

And I'm so looking forward to playing with the wise old owl too!

The other two lovely new stamps are in the 'Elements' section,

CI-401 - Ladies Who Latte -

 And CI-402 - Just Be My Friend -

Divine, very useful, and more samples to come soon!

Think I'd better go and lie down now after the double postings to recover.  Hope you like what you see?!

Jean x

p.s. Monty Moodle is now back to his old self, after the trauma of last night - thanks for all your concerns!

FIVE CHALLENGE LUCKY ONES...

This will be a bit of a quickie on the blog posting front as fireworks are exploding all around us, and Monty Moodle doesn't like it one little bit!  He's sat shaking on my knee whilst I type!

However it is certainly about time I posted the lucky Challenge participants on here, so that you can claim your free stamp as your prize.  It gets increasingly more difficult each Challenge it seems, and almost impossible to pick five out.  But here we go tonight - bit of a lucky dip:

Rachel Fisher had two lovely entries - one of which is below - well done Rachel!

Sue C made a great 'Santa in his car' card - well done Sue!

Ionabunny is next with her fabulous Penguins tin can - yipee!

Coco made a marvellous spooky scene - bravo!

And Inna created a lovely Christmas card - well done!

Thank you to all who entered, and if your project appears above please email us at info@craftyindividuals.co.uk with your address and your choice of stamp, so that we can send them out asap.

Back to soothing my poor little dog now!

Jean x

 

NEW 'USING CRAFTY INDIVIDUALS MASKS' VIDEO, AND A HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL...

We have (at long last, I hear you say!) made a new YouTube video, and as suggested some time ago by a reader, this one is all about Crafty Individuals Masks, and simple ways of using them very effectively.

To compliment the video we have acquired the fabulous Sparkle Medium, and Gel, from Imagination Crafts, which we know you will love, and also some Gilding Waxes, from Creative Expressions, both of which you can find HERE on the Crafty Individuals Website - just look at those luscious colours - scrummy, yummy!  I'm just crazy about them!  If you watch the video you will see how you can use both mediums in combination with our lovely masks.

Whilst on the subject of videos, Julie Woodward (you might have watched Julie demoing our stuff before) has a new video out too which is perfect for learning the skills to make Birthday Books (great for Christmas presents), do have a look at it HERE.  I have put links to various YouTube videos down the right hand side of this blog, so you can check back often to see 'whats new'!

Now I thought I would share a 'Trick' (for Halloween maybe?) played on Malcolm and myself this week by little 'Monty Moodle'!?  We were having problems with the materials we use in our stamp making process, so very kindly our friends, Glenda and Adrian (of Chocolate Baroque fame), offered to help us out with some replacement materials which we needed quickly to begin to make up our latest new rubber stamps. 

Glenda and Adrian live over at Barnard Castle, which is around 50 minutes away from our place at Yarm by car, so we (and little Monty Moodle) happily set off to collect the materials from them.  About 40 minutes into the journey our car lost power, a warning light came on, and we had to pull into a lay by.  Whilst we were waiting for roadside assistance to arrive (thank goodness for mobile phones) Glenda and Adrian, again so very kindly, set out to meet us at the lay by and bring us the materials we needed, as we weren't sure how long we would be and whether we would have to be taken straight back home again.

When they arrived we got out of our car to greet them and shut the doors to keep Monty safe and sound inside the car.  To our great surprise and dismay we then heard a click, and found the the dog - bless him - had managed to stand on the central locking system inside the car, and had completely locked us out of the car - with the keys, and the bewildered doggy, unfortunately still inside.

When the roadside assistance eventually arrived the jolly gentleman had to break into our car as well as fix it!!!! Oh dear!

Just look at that sweet, innocent, little face!

Now its about time we wished you all a Happy Halloween - complete with an appropriate image by lovely Lucy - soooo perfectly SPOOKY!

Back soon,

Jean x