Sunday 31 May 2009

Beyond the success

I often have post in the past to write in admiration of my favorite sportsperson in the whole wide world, Rafa Nadal. Today, its is a bit different, he was defeated for the first time at the French Open, the same Grand Slam that he has won four years in a row.
However, the reason why I am so fond of him is not because he is extraordinary at playing tennis -my favorite sport- nor because he is from Mallorca -where I grew up-, it is undoubtedly because of his attitude in victory and more importantly in defeat.. The respect and admiration that he professes to his arch rival Federer is truly exemplary. To illustrate this point is the fact that he said that he hopes Federer wins this years French Open.
Whether this is the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning of Nadal, nobody knows. But for me the true lesson of this guy is his attitude which is beyond the success he has had in the past or may have in the future.
Vamos Rafa!

A great day out and more Rosettes

Yesterday I had a fabulous time demonstrating the Slice at Wickford Hobbies & Crafts . I had already met John and Rene before at a trade event and already thought they were very nice people, and I wasn't wrong and the rest of team also were a joy to work with. The shop is a true Alladins cave for crafters. And they had the new large 3.5" Woodware punches, which are absolutely faboulous!

Then, on my way home I stopped at Sugar and Spice which a lovely shop very near by. Aren't South Essex crafters lucky? In that area they have got such a pick of top scrapbooking and crafting shops! apart from the mentioned ones there is Artbase, one of my old favourites, and Imagine that. And the great thing about all this shops is that they all are and feel very different, all of them stocking some different products from the next and making necessary to visit them all andspend loads of money in each and every one of them! Also, all the owners of the shops are nice people and I do enjoy seeing them and chatting, just because I love chatting about crafts!

I really, really had a fab time.

In other news, was I glad that Diversity won last night Britain's got talent? Oh yes! I love underdogs wining but also as much as I like Susan Boyle I always thought she was way over hyped. I mean, she has a beautiful voice and she knows how sing well, but only the audition was that amazing and most of it because it was unexpected from her. In the other hand, I thought that a really diverse group of young lads that train really hard to dance is a very good example for everyone. And the choreography was just amazing, it was one of those few times that an act gets better and better as the competition progresses.

And by they way, es, I know, you are tired of rosettes! But I just want to explore all possibilities on how to make them. This one was done with the Slice using Porcelain papers, which I enjoyed making.
The flower pattern has an empty center hence the use of a bigger circle for it.

Saturday 30 May 2009

Maybe I am getting boring...


With more Slice cards, this one done with Wisteria papers for today's demo at Wickford Crafts.

Friday 29 May 2009

Gift for a friend


The other day I went to my kind-of-local WHSmith to grab the UK edition of Cards and Scrapbook Trends. To be honest, I try to avoid the place as it is a large shop with a very nice stationery section that makes me to spend money.
Well, they did have the two magazines I was after, but they also stock this lovely new line of boxes, files and so much more that is so lovely that I immediately thought of Julie Hickey. So, I had to buy it for her.
To accompany the box -which is meant for photos but I think will make a lovely crafty storage- I made a simple card matching the colours using a stamp from Delish Designs.

Thursday 28 May 2009

Marrakech


You know I love Basic Grey, right? Marrakesh was one of the lines they released last Winter CHA. I love the city (and the country, Morocco) so I was intrigued when I heard there was a line with this name. The colors and some patterns certainly do it justice. Maybe not so much the elephants, but I can live with them, who knows I may go to India and be able to use them!

This is a demo card again. I was using die cutting machines and one of the shapes was the heart (combo set). The blue piece was a left over that I used to show how well the clear Basic Grey Stamps do work with Versafine inks -Blue Lagoon in this case. Because, I do think that clear stamps sometimes are a bit temparemental with certain inks, or the other way round, who knows. So i use most of the time the ones I know they work well, which are Brilliance, Archival and the mentioned VersaFine.

And that line of red crystals? Well, I usually don't use that much bling but I had those left over from one of the bling packs in which they are all linked in strips. So I decided to use them all in this card.

Wednesday 27 May 2009

Wickfort

Nest Saturday, the 30th of May, I will be demonstrating the Slice at Wickord Carfts in Essex using lovely papers and stamps as well. For more info click here.
Come along if you can!

Another Impressabilities


For this card I embossed the Snowflake Impressabilities using a silver shade of Brilliance Ink on it. It is more pearlescent in real life!
I know that the flower in the center does not quite match the snowflake background, but as i did this card at a demo sometimes I needed to improvise.
You can find all the products at Crafts U Love.

Tuesday 26 May 2009

Yes, It is me!


Omar took this photo of me on my birthday, Christmas 2008. It is one of my favoutrite photos of me, even though as many people mention, it doesn't look at all like me.
I did this layout in 8.5 x 11", which I should do more as it's so easy! That is a top tip that I learnt in my job as a graphic designer: rectangle areas are much easier to design than square.

Recently, I came across Theresa Mcfayden's blog. Actually, I knew the blog already, but forgot about it for a few months. It was nice to have a look again at some of the work of this talented lady, but more importantly, it had something that captured my attention: it was a list of things she wish she new when she started scrapbooking. It kind of reassured me that the current trend in scrapbooking is gearing towards focusing so much in photography. To be honest, I think it is great. I always felt that the photos should be the focal point of my pages as for me they are what makes the layout more valuable than say cards or other papercraft stuff.

So, is this trend going to make us to forget about paper techniques and design aspects?
What about do you think?

Monday 25 May 2009

More Slice cards


All the shapes here are cut using the Slice Basics Cartridge. I did this card as a part of my work for Dawn Bibby, when she did the TSV last friday at QVC.

Sunday 24 May 2009

Apertures


Do you like to create apertures in your cards or layouts? The Slice is the Best for apertures. Is so easy! You can position the slice anywhere you want it and make an aperture.
I made two apertures one in the paper and then one in the card, then I mount them on top of each other.

Saturday 23 May 2009

Delish designs


This is the layout we did at our Delish Designs day. I love it, but I can not take credit for the design because it's Debbie's with a few of my creative licenses!

In other news, have you seen one of the new Basic Grey products? Well is not yet out but you can check it out in their website.


A pack of 24 cardstock printed with their distress effect. I can not wait until I get my hands on all of them.

Friday 22 May 2009

Mini albums with the SLICE



If you live in the UK or just have access to the internet you will see that QVC's TSV (Today's Special Value) is the Slice.


I helped Dawn to prepare some samples as die cutting is one of my specialties. One of those samples is this little accordion mini album that is decorated with shapes from the Basics 1 cartridge included when you get the machine.


I used some lovely double sided card and Making Memories Flower Patch papers.



And the pictures are some of my current favourites. They are the ones Omar and Itook of his brother Hassan and his fiance.

Thursday 21 May 2009

When little mistakes happen


Or when little light is no good for cardmaking.
Why? Because I was really happy with this card until I took this photo and realized that there were some lettering under the inked scalloped edge! I guess I thought the ink was opaque enough to cover the letters, and so it looked under the bad light of my studio. But it wasn't, so lesson learned: put more light in the studio.
By the way I solved the situation by creating another border also scalloped in white and juts glue it over the top of the bad one. Unfortunately I have no photos of the end result.

Wednesday 20 May 2009

More Rosettes


Last Saturday while at Crafts U Love I created a couple of cards that I was quite pleased with. And that makes the blog just because, if you read the post on that day, realize that I usually not that happy how the cards I end up after a day of demos. That is why i like to make a few samples before the demo that are going to be the real samples. Making beautiful cards during demos is harder just because I try to show the technique or product rather than the design aspect of cardmaking.
But this lovely paper from Cosmo Cricket made me want to create a simple card with a big rosette in the middle, bare in mind that the size of the folded card is 6 x 6".

Tuesday 19 May 2009

More flowers



This is part two of two of the flowers I made for last week demo at Crafts U Love using just the circle nestabilities, Wisteria papers and some extras.

Yesterday I got to spend the day crafting at a trade event organized by Delish Designs UK with my friend Julie. I had a fantastic time just crafting without the pressure of being the person in charge. The Delish stuff is gorgeous and Debbie the tutor was fabulous. If you ever get the chance to do one of their retreats I think you should try them.

Monday 18 May 2009

Impressabilities


I have always loved the look of letterpress, you know the really expensive way of printing in which the ink on the pattern is debossed?

Well, one of the ways to achieve a similar effect is using a technique I always demonstrate with Cuttlebug embossing folders by inking them up using a pigment pad. The effect is good but sometimes the ink is not even and therefore the look is more of the distressed kind.

Impressabilities are an embossing stencil designed to work with the die cutting machines as they have a very intricate patterned, which would take ages to do if you tried to emboss with a light box. With the Impressabilities you get a soft embossing effect, nothing like the deep impressions that Cuttlebug embossing folders give you, yet you get a much cleaner letterpress effect if you ink them. They work best with rich pigment inks such as Brilliance and Versafine. For this card I used Red Rocket Brilliance pad on to the Paisley Impressabilities.

Other items used: Nestabilities (Oval petite, Scallop Oval petite); Basic Grey stamp (Paisley Flower); Hero Arts stamp (All Occasion Messages).
You can buy all the items from Crafts U Love here.

Sunday 17 May 2009

Nestabilities

Yesterday I was demonstrating the circle Nestabilities at Crafts U Love.
If you have followed this blog for a while you will know that I am a great admirer of many paper crafters, one of which is Jane Gill. Jane does the most wonderful flowers using punches by Woodware.
Well, Jane inspired me to create flowers out of circle nestabilities using in particular the scalloped edged ones but setting myself the challenge of only using dies from the circular shapes.
Once I started there was no stopping me and tried all sorts of different combinations with different colours, sizes...

And these are the different flowers I came up with:


They may not be up Jane's standards but I was pretty pleased for my usual quick and easy self!

The backgroung is just a rectangle of white foam board cover with Wisteria (Basic Grey) papers so that I could display the flowers with pearl pins.

By the way you can get all the nestabilities here at Crafts U Love as well as the lovely Wisteria papers here.

Saturday 16 May 2009

Making cards while demonstrating


Making pretty cards while demonstrating is not an easy job, that is why I admire those demonstrators that keep coming up with faboulous cards while showing off how to do the lastest technique or products, Julie Hickey comes to mind as the expert to achieve that, but there are many more.
Me, I still finding it challenging to show how the die cutting machines work and make pretty cards. This one card I made the other weekend while demoing and was pretty excited that came out all right. Actually it was a left over that I die cut the heart out and reuse the negative space for a blank card. The I use Basic Grey stamps and Hero Arts message, ribbon and unusually large amounts of bling.

I shall see how I get on today demonstrating at Crafts U Love!

Friday 15 May 2009

Crafts U Love

Tomorrow I will be at Crafts U Love demonstrating all sorts of lovely craft stuff, like how to make rosettes and other cute and gorgeous stuff.
Come along from 10 am until 4pm.

Listen to this!


I always like the tune of Coldplay songs, but not so much the singers voice nor the arrangements, so when I heard this... I was static.

Thursday 14 May 2009

The Big Shot


The other day I got a Big Shot and a load of Sizzix dies. I have been playing all day with them. There a no better dies than the really thick ones, the Bigz, originals or XL. The blades are so deep that can cut through really thick stuff.

So what do I think of the Big Shot? I love it! and so does Omar. We had a little die cutting session and he was almost as excited as I was.

One of things I did get was the texture plates. Some people told me that they were disappointed with they effect specially compared to the Cuttlebug embossing folders. So my expectations were not that great. But, oh Boy, was I surprised! The embossing effect is fantastic, some of the patterns come up as well as the folders while others are a little bit more subtle, but still nicely embossed.

The new borders, 12" long, from the Hello, Kitty, collection are great, there are some that are scalloped with dots and others that are just like the frills.

Hopefully, the light will be better tomorrow so I can take proper photos of the stuff I am making.

Tuesday 12 May 2009

Using left Die cutting Overs


To create the flower in the centre. It is actually from a Sizzix die that I showed you yesterday.
This one was part of the class taught at The Glitter Pot last Friday.

Monday 11 May 2009

Die cutting


I love die cuts, and when they are string robust dies, such as Sizzix ones, my love grows, becuase they became a really versatile tool. Using this Bigz die you can make lovely shaped card that zig zags and every single page is different.


This is side A.


This is side B, with a space to write the message, because without it would not be much of a card!
So, this is the sort of thing that I teach at my die cutting classes at The Glitter Pot, dawn Bibbys Design Studio or wherever I am next!

Sunday 10 May 2009

Inspiration


One of the reasons I love to demonstrate at big demo weekends is because like everyone else attending as a customer I get to see what other demonstrators do and learn and be inspired by them. Last weekend at The Glitter Pot was no exception. Stamping Caz taught me how to do a cool thing with the Cuttlebug folders that I had trying to learn but very lazy to actually research it. Francoise Read showed me her latest release of stamps and I could not resist one set, the one that contains the image above. Gaynor was doing lovely stamping and decoupage technique, she makes so beautiful. So I combined what I learnt from the three of them to create Omar's Birthday card (last Tuesday).
Yes, you may think it is a girly card, but he seem to be very pleased with it since I Wasabi seems to be in the card!

Saturday 9 May 2009

Cuttlebug


Often I make the cards for a class or a demo just the day before. You see, I started teaching cardmaking while I was working at the same shop. That meant that I could choose what to use the day before to make sure that we had enough stock for the attendees. Also, it doesn't help that I do have the tendency to leave everything for the last minute.
However, lately I have been quite good at planing my classes and demos and did this one about two weeks ago for the class last week at The Glitter Pot. I used Pebbles papers, Cuttlebug embossing folders and Nestabilities large rectangle scallop die -for the rosette-.
PS: Studio Calico has this lovely post on how to make the rossette. I did learn the how to somewhere else, Making Memories blog I think but not sure.

Friday 8 May 2009

Some die cutting


One of my favourite classes to design and teach is Die cutting. Everytime I try to come out with some different. This one was the embossing + inkpads used in the green dots border and the butterflies. It is softer look, it feels like letterpress.
All materials are available from The Glitter Pot (Pebbles papers, Cuttlebug: Butterfly combo set, Just my Type embossing border, Messages in circles Birthday).

Thursday 7 May 2009

For the real chocoholic


So last week I showed you how I used the little wraps. Well, now it is time for the large one. I buy chocolate in large quantities, little bars are only all right for the handbag.
This one holds a real size chocolate bar, so I used one of the pages of the Craftwork Cards 8 x 8 album which is already cut in the same shape as the little wraps. This one I made for Leonie Pujol, who really makes life sweeter as she is a true sweetie.

Wednesday 6 May 2009

Tuesday 5 May 2009

Happy Birthday Omar




... I know it's not a birthday card, but it has a flower and green. Life it is not perfect, as Omar well knows!

Actually, this card was the one I gave him on Saturday for our wedding anniversary, that I made using lovely vintage My Minds Eye papers, Bazzill flower and Cricut (Home decor cartridge).

Monday 4 May 2009

Flower Patch


Flower patch is one of this collections of papers that on first look I didn't love, however they did grow on me big time. Now, I love the pastel colors, the patterns...
I did this card last week for the demo weekend as it uses Cuttlebug embossing folders and I used the 8 x 8 Flower Patch (which is made by Making Memories).

Sunday 3 May 2009

Using bits and pieces


When I have a big project to do such as an article or a workshop, I end up with loads of tiny and not so tiny pieces of papers. The pity is that they end up in plastic bag forgotten for years, and when I eventually find them, the colours or patterns do not appeal to me anymore.
So, now that I am aware of that, I make myself use as much as possible leftovers within the week. That is how I made this card, with bits and pieces!

Saturday 2 May 2009

LOVE

Today is our 7th wedding anniversary. Well actually, this is not the wedding we celebrate, as we celebrate the 19th of July which was the proper family celebration. Yes, I have got married four times, all four to the same man!
Anyway, Happy anniversary Omar!

Friday 1 May 2009

Wraps to wrap


My love for the Craftwork Cards Wraps is well established in this blog. But I had never use them before to actually wrap something else than card, which can be done in amazing ways as seen in Julie's blog. By the way, Julie Hickey is the person behind the wraps, she came up with the idea and designed them, not only she is a great friend but also a card making genius.

So, I wanted to give some friends a little sweet present so I made two chocolate wraps, one for her and one for him. Since his birthday was recently, I used an old stamp with the Happy Belated Birthday on, and since there was no apparent reason for hers, I decided to go for the Just Because.

The white foiled papers are also from Craftwork cards, the flowers are Prima.
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