Tuesday, 22 September 2015

My Grandma's Teacups: Sneak peek at some of my favourite Christmas collections

I have officially caught my first really bad cold of the season. It has been a good excuse to cozy up with the September New Goods Catalogue and preview the new lines available for Christmas crafting. I know you don't want to think about Christmas yet, but if you are planning on creating homemade cards or papercrafts its time to start thinking about supplies.

Fabscraps: Christmas Joy Collection


Fabscraps has become one of my favourite paper suppliers. I love the vintage feel and muted colours in this collection. I can see some lovely cards being created with this paper.





This collection from Graphic 45 was previously released but I am glad to see it make a comeback. It features all the traditional colours and themes that I remember of Christmas' in my childhood. I have purchased the stamps and paper for a mini album I want to make before Christmas. If you are looking for a more Victorian feel for your crafts, the new "A Christmas Carol" line is already available.

Kaisercraft: Yuletide Collection



My Minds Eye: Joyous Collection

This may be one of my favourite collections this season. I love the oodles of goodies that you can get to coordinate with the paper line. It takes the guesswork out of matching up colours in embellishments.



Don't forget the trim and twine to finish off your projects. Maya Road makes beautiful twine.

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Monday, 21 September 2015

My Grandma's Teacups: 5 Ways You Never Thought To Use Your Embossing Folders

As a crafter I try to make sure that I invest in products that I will be able to get a lot of mileage from. That is why I tend to to shy away from buying oodles of premade embellishments, single purpose tools and basically anything that I am not going to be able to use for many years. There is nothing worse than buyers remorse after purchasing a really cool crafting supply only to see it languish on your workbench waiting for a purpose.

 One of the most versatile papercrafting tools that you can get are embossing folders. You can buy the expensive sizzix or cuttlebug folders (and I have many times) but if you want to build a large selection Darice makes a huge collection of folders that are just as good (and about 1/3) of the price). The reason that I am so crazy about embossing folders is their versatility. You can do so much more than just dry emboss paper.

 

These are five of my favourite techniques.

  1. Letterpress 
  2. Wax Resist
  3. Glitter
  4. Foil
  5. Double Emboss

Letterpress:

This technique involves inking directly on your folder and then embossing the paper. The inlaid areas become inked while the embossed areas remain untouched. You can also ink the alternate side for a reversed look.

This is a wonderful video that illustrates this technique well.

Letterpress with Stampin' Up! Embossing Folders


Wax Resist:

With the use of some wax paper and an embossing folder you can create amazing patterns to use as resist (it does require an iron though) luckily for me I have one that I have rarely used :)

Wax Resist Techniques | docrafts Creativity TV


 Glitter


You can never have too many ways to apply your glitter. This is such a fun technique and it makes such an impact on cards. This has a big "WOW" factor.

Foil

Whip out that Reynolds Wrap because you are going to think of at least 20 things you are going to want to make with this technique. It also looks amazing with alcohol inks applied to it.

Double Emboss

This just takes your embossing up a notch. Be sure to use a juicy Versamark pad for this so that you get a really good application.
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Friday, 18 September 2015

My Grandma's Teacups: Graphic 45 By The Sea Layouts






As I was organizing my studio (ok, I lost some stamps and was just moving piles of paper around), I came across our club layout from August. I wanted to be sure that I shared it with you because if you have not worked with this line yet drop everything and go get some before it retires. It is very vintage and classy in true Graphic 45 style. I did find the colours a bit 4th of July but it was fun to work with as a beachy backdrop to some of the summer pictures I snapped of the kids.

The collection was challenging to work with from a design perspective because even the "solids and stripes" type patterns were very busy. The images were so cute though that it was definitely worth the effort.

The layouts are from the Cricut Artbooking cartridge and I think that they were a perfect match for the playfulness of this line.








Scrapbooking
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Wednesday, 16 September 2015

My Grandma's Teacups: Copic Club #2

Have you been practicing with your Copic markers this week? I hope you are following along with our club as we explore the wonder of working with alcohol markers.

Our club met last Thursday for our second session working with Copic markers. One of our members was truant last time (something about an ear infection...geeesh...no dedication) so we did a quick recap of the types of Copic markers available and the Copic Colour Code. If you missed my post with reference to the Copic Colour Code you better take a quick peek Here. 



We attempted two new techniques in this session:


#1 Colouring and shading using only one marker

#2 Transferring ink from a dark marker to a lighter one before colouring

The first technique just requires that you lay down you base layer of ink and then go over the areas that should have a shadow several times. Its important to let the image dry between layers. You can achieve a very nice look using this technique and it is great for all of us that are just beginning to collect markers. 

The second technique was a bit harder to get the hang of. The process itself was easy, simply touch the darker markers nib against the lighter colour nib and colour, but it took some practice to get the colours that we were after. I think at the end of the day we decided it was easier to do the 3 marker technique we originally learned as the effect was quite similar.

Next Copic Club we are going to be working on FUR!!!! Lets hope I can find my Popcorn Bear stamps by then.

Hope you are enjoying playing along with our Copic Club.



Copic Markers
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