Dimensional Floral Birthday Card

I created this card for my Mum for her birthday using an assortment of docrafts products, focusing especially on the Xcut dies 'Flowers' (XCU 503195) and the 'Rectangular Parenthesis 2' (XCU 503045) designs. The papers used for the design are a  mix of two of the April Creativity Club printables 'Daisies' which I designed for docrafts.
 

 

You could create this card for any occasion, simply change the sentiment and lettering.

 

 

I love making dimensional, layered projects so the Xcut flower and leaf dies were perfect. I only had a Little Venice Cake Company modelling mat and ball tool to hand so I used these to curl the petals and create vein effects on the leaves.

 

 

I also adore making quilled paper roses - you can find a great tutorial for these here on

Nikki Smith's blog 'What Nikki Did Next'.

 

 

Thank you for looking!

 

Jill x

 

 

 

 

 

 

World Book Day Inspired Book Marks for #docraftsmonday

This Thursday sees the worldwide celebration of everything related to books – authors, illustrators, stories and most importantly, a celebration of reading. My youngest will be going into school dressed as a character from a book (a rabbit onesie to represent the Hare in the Tortoise and the Hare!) and schools everywhere will be marking the occasion by organising a wide range of activities inspired by all things book. Find out more http://www.worldbookday.com/

Plus, it’s also #docraftsmonday again! A time to share your makes with other crafters everywhere in the weekly craft show and tell (scroll down to find out more).

This weekend, the girls and I got creative making bookmarks (click here to see the kid’s makes including a frogie template!). Our household is in a hedgehog themed grip at the moment so here are the ones I made using an assortment of docrafts goodies, including my favorite Bakers Twine…

I designed them so that they are very simple for kids to make. Simply cut a basic hedgehog shape from brown Craft Planet Funky Foam  then use Anita’s Tacky Glue to stick on short lengths of natural Baker’s Twine. Add a black button for a nose and Papermania Gunmetal Adhesive Pearls for eyes. Leave to dry then attach onto a loop of Baker’s Twine and secure onto the bookmark base. You could use the same technique to make pencil toppers and to decorate pencil holders and work books!

Share your World Book Day ideas and add them to #docraftsmonday!

Thank you for looking

Jill x


What is #docraftsmonday?

#docraftsmonday is like a weekly crafty 'show and tell'.

To get involved on Facebook:
On Monday, post a photo on https://www.facebook.com/docrafts of your recent craft project and add the hashtag #docraftsmonday.
You can see all #docraftsmonday projects by visiting the page and viewing the 'Posts by Others' section, clicking on the #docraftsmonday hashtag, or searching '#docraftsmonday' in the Facebook search box. When you see a #docraftsmonday project you like, make sure you comment or give it a Like!

What is World Book Day? (extract from worldbookday.com)

“World Book Day is a celebration! It’s a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading. In fact, it’s the biggest celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world.

This is the 17th year there’s been a World Book Day, and on 6th March 2014 children of all ages will come together to appreciate reading. Very loudly and very happily. The main aim of World Book Day in the UK and Ireland is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own. That’s why we will be sending schools (including those nurseries and secondary schools that have specially registered to participate), packs of Book Tokens and age-ranged World Book Day Resource Packs (age-ranged into Nursery/Pre-School, Primary and Secondary) full of ideas and activities, display material and more information about how to get involved in World Book Day.”

Visit worldbookday.comhttp://www.worldbookday.com/ to find out more!

For a special friend - a birthday bottle card

I have known Kerry for around 32 years since we were at primary school. She is one amazing lady and we have accumulated loads of funny special memories between us over the decades! We have experienced love, laughter, heartbreak, marriage, careers and have been blessed with four beautiful girls between us who are carrying on the tradition of female bonding.

 

The sentiment on this bottle card has been taken from the docrafts Creativity Club sentiments collection I designed and it so says how I feel...

 

"A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself."

 

Happy Birthday Hon!

 

 

I made the origami heart by following the fabulous Beckie Dreyer's origami heart

template which can be found here. Once you have had a play and mastered the technique it is

quite addictive, so much so, my Christmas cards are being designed around them!

 

 

I used the Owl collection printables I designed for the Creativity Club to create the

theme and embellished the heart with Papermania Adhesive Stones and Bow.

 

 

I am a little addicted to my die-cut machine and antiquing with inks, so once again,

these techniques have found their way in!

 

To finish the back, I added a blank die-cut heart so that I can write my message.

A Papermania Ribbon and Baker's Twine completes the design.

 

 

Thank you for looking!

 

I hope you enjoy the wine Kerry!

 

Jill x

 

 

 

 

Ombre Ruffle Rose 80th Birthday Cake

Hi, I feel a little rusty as have not had a chance to blog for a while but here goes!
I was asked a while ago to make a pretty 80th birthday cake using a colour palette of lilac
and pink and here's what I came up with...

 

The ruffles are really easy to make (and quite addictive too!). I simply cut lengths of sugar paste then used a ball tool to ruffle the edges. I then stuck them to the cake sides from top to bottom using a little water as adhesive. To create the depth of ruffle, I concertinaed the strips as I stuck them on.

 

 

To create the ombre effect, I used a graduation of colours from top to bottom.

To get the colours right, I found it much easier to create a range of coloured sugar paste balls first and lie them next to each other on my worktop. Start light then darken to suit until you get the perfect colour mix.

 

 

I created the roses by making a cone of sugar paste for the centre, then wrapping cut circles

of thin sugar paste around it, tweaking the petals as you go to achieve a natural shape.
The roses were left to dry on greaseproof paper in a Yorkshire pudding tin, then dusted with
edible pearl lustre for a pretty sheen.

 

The 80 was made but pressing a Papermania 8 and 0 clear backed stamp into a thick section of rolled sugar paste, which I then cut out, left to dry, added the sheen and mini flowers.

 

 

I made the mini flowers using a metal cutter and molded them to a 3D shape and

used these to decorate the 80 and fill in any gaps!

 

 

Thank you for looking!

 

I would like to enter this cake into the Craft Blogging Central August challenge (I know it is not specifically craft but it is sugar craft so it may count!)

 

Jill x

 

 

 

Best Dad in the World Card & Papers

This week, the docrafts Creativity Club have part 2 of my ‘All Tooled Up Father’s Day' printables collection available to members to download. My Dad is due to go in for a back operation today, so I used a selection of them to create this card to wish him luck…

 

I used a Papermania recycled A6 Kraft card blank as a base them added a series of layered die-cut shapes (mounted onto card for strength). The top rectangle was created by running the distressed cream paper through my die-cutting machine with a lovely little dotted embossing folder I found in my craft bag!

  

I created a distressed effect by dragging a Papermania brown die ink across all the edges, then assembled the pieces onto the card using Stick it 3D foam pads for dimension. To finish, I wound some Papermania string around the card, then used a blob of silicone glue to attach the 

sentiment on the top.

I loved creating this collection of papers – it was a refreshing change to design something out if my comfort zone. The initial sketch were done when my kids were zooming around at a soft play – all the other Mums were gossiping or reading their kindles, I was sketching from a box of mixed nuts and bolts! I had a few funny looks! Here are the initial sketches…

I scanned them into my pc and worked them up before converting some of them into 

paper designs in illustrator using this colour palette...

I used last week’s blue collection to make this digital card layout...

  

I would love to hear your comments - it is such a help when designing papers to hear 

other people's opinions. Thank you for looking! 

                     Jill x