Paper Wreaths

As it's the 1st December today, I thought it was time to think about getting the house bedecked for Christmas and in my house we have a couple of themes as I cannot walk past a cute wreath not a reindeer if I'm allowed in the decorations department of the local garden centre!

I like a wreath on every door - not just the external one and that means I can make one out of paper which wouldn't do well in the snow but is fine on an internal door (mine is going on the door to the downstairs loo to welcome guests on route to a pee!)

I started with one of the lovely jute wreath bases we have in store as I wanted to leave areas exposed and I love the rustic look these wreaths give you.

I used a bit of florists wire to make a hunging loop, but if you didn't have that then some twine would do just as well.  I also used the wire to make it easier to fasten the bow in place at the end - I simply threaded a strand of wire through the knot in a my ribbon and then cut the ends to make a faux bow.

I wrapped more of the same ribbon (recycled from a gift last year but any ribbon you fancy would work) around the middle and secured it with hot glue.   I topped that with a die cut sentiment using woodgrain cardstock in dark brown and the Lil' Inker Season's Greetings die, but you can add any sentiment you like - you'll find a selection of seasonal sentiment dies here.

Then came time to add my seasonal foliage - I did that mostly with a couple of dies - the Winter Foliage die from Sizzix and the Woodland Basics die from Wplus9 which is in our clearance section if you're looking for a bargain!   I dug out a variety of green scraps from my "it's too big to chuck it away scraps box" and cut out a load of leaves and just placed them on the wreath until I was happy with the shape and then took a quick snap on my phone so I could pop them all back in place with some hot glue.

To add some extra sparkle, I added a dot of icicle stickles to each of the berries on the berry sprig die and used it to make my mistletoe berries too by popping a large blob carefully touching the edges of each leaf and turning it upside down til they dried in a nice round shape.  For texture for my holly berries I added some red felt balls.

For the other side I added a gorgeous poinsettia (at least I can't kill a paper version!) using the Hero Arts Paper Layering Poinsettia die - I love the cut detail which matches perfectly with the holly leaves so adds some balance to an otherwise asymmetric piece.

Once the mistletoe berries were dry, I popped that in place and then added the ribbon bow to cover the hanging loop.

I'd cut so many pieces I actually made 2, and I'm going to make a few more as they make really lovely and inexpensive gifts.

 NEWS FROM THE STORE

This week we'll have restocks from Wplus9 in store as well as the latest release from Waffle Flower crafts and over the next few weeks we'll be adding more to our clearance section so keep an eye out for a bargain.


Tara

Christmas is coming waaaay too fast!

I've been in panic mode this week as I had my first Christmas party and realised I didn't have any cards to take to it so I went into batch production mode into the early hours so I had something I could take with me.  Is it just me or is Christmas creeping up on everyone else too this year?  I feel so unprepared.

So I picked one design, and whilst I love it, it wasn't quick enough, so I did a second quicker one, both are heavily die cut based as I often find that quicker than stamping when you need to batch produce.

I started with the wonderful Woodland Basics die from Wplus9 and went for a kraft base to add to the rustic feel, using a stitched circle aperture and adding some beautiful soft snowflake paper behind it from the new  Winter Wonderland paper pad from Simple Stories.

I die cut a selection of the elements using the dies in muted Christmas colours and arranged them round the bottom of the circle, finishing with a simple sentiment from the Mama Elephant's Retro Holiday Labels

Whilst I adored the look of this card, I only managed to make 6 in just over an hour, so I decided that wasn't going to get me very far down the list of 50 or so I needed to make this week, so I opted to make a quicker design using Reverse Confetti's Leafy Wreath die.

I stuck with kraft but this time embossed a stitched square die into the card base to frame my focal image in the centre.  I started by stamping another one of the Retro Labels sentiments in the centre of the card so I could use the wreath to frame it.  The die comes with lots of loose leaves and twigs so you can get a really realistic look from it, but I liked the simplicity (and speed!) of just using the main circular die.   I die cut it once from dark green card and once from lime green and layered them up (covering the back with stick-it before cutting makes this even quicker "wink")   I die cut the berry clusters in 2 sizes and added them around before covering with glossy accents and adding a little ribbon bow at the bottom to finish.   You could speed this up even more by skipping the berry die cuts and using one of our new Nuvo drops to make the berries instead.

NEWS FROM THE STORE

The restock delivery from Mama Elephant we expected last week has been held up in customs.  I am working to get it cleared and here asap.  Hopefully early this week.
The Lil' Inker Designs new release will be live tomorrow in the USA and we already have our stock of it, so it will be live tomorrow here too!
We have the new release from Concord and 9th in transit, and hope that will be here this week too along with some restocks of perfectly penned ;-)
Lawn Fawn have a new mini-release with some Valentines themed products coming on the 15th December.   Our delivery is in transit, so customs willing we should have it in store when they do. 

This will be our last delivery of stock for this year but will be ordering new releases over the holidays so we'll have new stock coming when we re-open after Christmas :-)

Festive Neutrals

Hello there :)

I'm still in Christmas mode here and exploring my Woodland Basics dies again from Wplus9. This week I've gone with a neutral colour palette for a clean and simple, rustic feel....

I had originally decided to try a cream on cream look but I felt another colour was needed.... do these colours remind you of creamy coffee?.... they do me, yum 😉
The little details in the berries and leaves allowed me to add brown accents to the arrangement which is made from layered die cuts... three or four for each piece. I love how chunky and sturdy they are so you get height without having to use tiny pieces of foam dimensionals ....

I cut a panel of cream card using MFT's double stitched rectangles and stamped it with a wood grain background similar to Concord & 9th's Barnwood, using Brown Sugar ink. The sentiment is cut and layered three times using Avery Elle's Season's Greetings die.... love how it cuts it all in one piece ... well, apart from the little apostrophe that is!!

                                                      
                                 

Well that's all from me today, catch you next week and thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

Colourful Autumn Leaves

Hello and happy Monday to you all :)

I hope you don't mind but I haven't put the Woodland Basics dies away from last week, I wanted to make an autumnal wreath and play with colour!! Yes I'm afraid it's another wreath... seems the best way to display 'all things foliage' ...

These leaves are probably a little more vibrant than you might find in the local woods but hey... we can dream right? I started by just adding lots of water to a couple of sheets of watercolour card and dropping in shades of yellows, oranges, reds and greens so they could blend and bleed a little into each other... and even some browns too. When they were dry I had great fun just cutting lots of leaves from both panels and a few acorns in the brown areas as well :) That's a whole lotta happy in that bowl *happy sigh*

Then I simply arranged all the pretty leaves into a wreath and glued them down before adding a sentiment from Altenew's Birthday Greetings set....  a few splatters and a bow of twine.. autumn card done :)

Here's another card I made using some of the leftover watercolour card.... seemed to good to discard!!

I used a square frame which I'd stamped with this woodgrain pattern to adhere over a section of the die cut piece and then backed with a piece of vellum to contrast the rough texture on the card base. I popped a sentiment strip up and used one of the acorns and a few leftover leaves to embellish...

Well that was a colourful autumnal post.... can you guess it's my favourite time of year?? !!

   

Thanks for stopping by, catch you next week :)

Jenny x

Woodland Wreath Decoration

Hello there :)

On the run up to Christmas my brain starts buzzing with ideas for gifts and decor projects I'd like to make but as always, most never see the light of day!! I have, however, followed through with one for today's project.... I've used the new Woodland Basics dies from Wplus9 to make a wreath decoration for the Christmas tree....

The dies are fabulous as they're able to span from Autumn into Winter and I wanted to try something seasonal using material scraps. I started by cutting a wreath shape in brown felt with a 3¼" and a 1¾" circle die and used blanket stitch to join them together on the inner seam first.

I added small rolls of cotton wool as stuffing for a more rounded look, before blanket stitching around the outside edge. The leaves are cut from scraps of material that are backed with interfacing (left over from another project) the dies did require a few passes through the Bigshot with a cardboard shim to make a clean cut. The cone is part material and part patterned paper for the contrast in colours... the dark paper overlay also helped to stiffen the fabric. The berries are cut from red felt and are backed with a small piece of white card.

I drew in some faint woodgrain on the wreath with a pen and attached the foliage using hot glue.... I'm quite pleased how it turned out and will definitely make more and use the bird instead of the cone on some :)

If you don't fancy sewing, you can always make your wreath flat and sandwich a piece of card between the layers to help stiffen the circle, this would be a great activity to use with fun foam or felt for Children to make on the run up to Christmas.

                                                                                            

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x