Designing, Designing, Designing

- He añadido en la columna de la derecha en Google Translate  ya que tardaba demasiado en traducirlo personalmente. -------------------------------------->

A couple of weeks ago I spent a day in London with the uber talented Julie Hickey. We spent all day shopping, talking and enjoying ourselves.

- Circa 2004 -

One of the things it kept coming in our conversation was paper craft styles and how much we liked the trend CAS, Clean and Simple. The funny thing is that both Julie and myself have been doing CAS projects since we started our journeys in this industry, which is a long time in case of Julie - in my case only ten years!

- Circa 2007 -

I remember having conversations with Julie in 2004 about Clean and simple, quick and easy, the importance of design... It is after all, our natural style.

- 2009 -

But somehow through the years, the more fussy, vintage or elaborate trends have ruled the scenes and inspiration overflown with those. Consequently, not sure if consciously or unconsciously, we created our projects to suit the trends.

- 2010 -

Inks, distressing techniques... I love them all.

- 2011 -

Now that our natural styles are back on trend, I am both happy and apprehensive. 

- 2013 -

My question is: Am I being a style butterfly? 

Or am I just simply a professional that adapts to the current industry's fashions?

- 2013 -

Whatever I am, I think I will just keep doing what I always have tried to do. Crafting things that I like the look of it, without too much care - at least consciously - about how it fits within the current trends.


------------

Talking about Julie, The last few days I have been immersed into redesigning her blog, as well as giving her a complete revamped Brand design.
We are near to be able to go live with the blog, so still a while away. So excited!

I have enjoyed it so much, that I think I may start offering my blog and brand design services.  I am no coder but I love deigning so much that I am willing to put the hours learning to code. But we will see...

Traveling, family, food, glorious food...

The last few weeks have been all systems go, mostly for personal reasons. I have officially become a godmother for the first time, as my sister daughter got baptised back in Spain, a beautiful family event.

We landed in Madrid late on a Thursday night. We spent the night on one of those sterilised hotels near the airport. The next morning we got up and pick up a rental car to drive down to the province of Albacete where my brother in law is from.

We spend some time at the Lagunas de Ruidera. It is a beautiful place of natural lakes in the middle of very dry area. It feels like a true oasis of fresh water.

And we ate, and ate, and ate.

(As per Lindsay's request: on the left, jamon serrano and bread with fresh tomato puree, choquinos (tiny cuttlefish) and a salad obviously!)

The next morning it was the Baptism. I loved the simple and profound ceremony.

 We all dressed up. My cousin Angela on the left (I only have two female cousins and one male one, so I am extremely close to Angela even though I am eight years her senior and we always lived very far away). Omar - my husband -, myself, my mum - we are obviously related! - and my gorgeous dad.

And on the left, that is my sister, my only sister and the mother of my goddaughter.
Always it feels too short when I am with any of those two.

And on the way back we got to spend 24hrs in Madrid.

I love Madrid. It is not a showy city, but it is such a wonderful city that I always feel that is really underrated specially considered alongside the more touristic Barcelona.

This is one of the old entrances to one of the best museums in the world, El Museo del Prado. It truly is, not just because it is in Spain. There you can find Velazquez, Goyas, flemish art, and one of my favourite paintings in the whole world, The Annunciation from Fra Angelico.

And, while in Madrid is not like in London where the best museums are free, El Prado is free every day for the last two hours of the day. But of course, that brings queues. Luckily, they are extremely organised and even though we joined what seemed an impossible queue, we were inside within ten minutes of opening.

After spending those two hours we went to the Temple of Debob for the sunset. The view of the Royal Palace and the Cathedral is pretty stunning.

But the highlight is obviously the Temple of Debod itself.

It is an authentic egyptian temple gifted in the seventies by the Egyptian government.

If you have been to Egypt you will see it is not the best egyptian temple, but compared to some other Egyptian on display in other European Capitals (Paris' Obelisk anyone?) this is extraordinary! As I said, Madrid is such an underrated city...

Definitely worth a visit at sunset time.

And on our last morning in this trip, we visited the Royal Historical Botanical Gardens, not very impressive per se, but certainly an incredible oasis in the middle of the city. Although to be honest, one of the things I noticed most on this trip was how amazingly green Madrid is. The most beautiful trees that I have ever seen growing in the middle of a city.

And finally, what can I say? I love my Spanish food.

(As per Lindsay's request: on the left, arroz negro a seafood dish with sepia ink! and on the right, fideua, very similar to paella but with thin noodles.) We had dinner at Bocaito and lunch at Capitan Alatriste. Both were AMAZING!

Die cut letters and a wheelbarrow to carry them!

Very soon my goddaughter is getting baptised, as I am the godmother, I got her a little piece of silver, but I also wanted to make her something she can play with and be decorative as well.

I settled on creating her name with letters that would stand up and be rather solid and a little something to put the letters in. So here is how I did it.

I took my Sizzix Serif Essentials Alphabet set of Bigz dies and die cut with my Big Shot five times each letter out of mountboard. (You can also use chipboard, but as I wanted them white it made sense to use white board - the stuff to mount print and artwork.)

Then I glued all five letters together using a strong wet glue. I like many as long as they have a fine nozzle.

Once dry, I apply a modelling paste all over the edges to disguise the layers of mount board. I like to use Grunge Paste by Paperartsy. Once the paste is dry, I sand it a bit to make it as smooth as possible.

Then, a coat of white (or any colour) acrylic paint.

Finally, I die cut the letters once again using patterned papers, this time using Basic Grey KneeHigh collection. Once I was happy with the patterns I gave then a thin coat of Matte Medium just to seal all off and hopefully make the letters last longer.

And here you have the final letters. I added a little heart just to finished them off.

Now, to make the box holder, i decided against a standard box and i went for wheel barrow. I chose the Sizzix Wheelbarrow and flowers Bigz die. I die cut two pieces of mount board with the patterned paper already attached using strong spray adhesive, making sure the patterned paper was mirrored.

In order to create the box, I use another Sizzix die, this time Eileen Hull's Scroreboards Candy Jars. And I die cut only the base.

As you can see, it is slightly too long on the sides.

No problem. A small cut either side and sorted!

I attached it to the one of the wheelbarrow pieces with strong wet glue.

 And then I attached the other wheelbarrow.

Finally I used more patterned paper from Basic Grey KneeHigh collection to cut some flowers and then I die cut the wheel using mirri silver card.

And here it is, the wheelbarrow carrying all the letters!

CD envelope using Sizzix dies

I am a keen amateur photographer, so I often get asked by my friends digital copies of the photos I have taken of them. As I buy blank DVDs in bulk for this purpose, I don't usually have any single cases around. So I came up with a DIY envelope that involves die cutting!

I used the Sizzix Bigz XL Die - Album, Accordion #2 656237. It is an old die so it may be difficult to find it. Alternatively you can use any 5" square card, and if you like the rounded corners effect, use one of the corner rounder punches.

I know you can buy the foam CD spacers stickers at the shops, but it is no fun. Much better to make your own. First, I looked for the right size die on my Circle Die Chart - you can see how I made it here - And yes, I had the right size which is one of the centres of the Winter Star flowers dies which I would never would have even thought of using but thanks to the Circle die chart I did.

 I took a large Stix2 foam pads that are 2mm. I remove the protective backing and attached a piece of washi tape. then I die cut the foam.

I placed the DVD in the middle of the card and then I glue the foam dot.
I glued the tab on the right with a glue dot at the top and another one at the bottom. This will secure the CD even further.

 To create the outside I wanted to create a label with my logo on. To do that I measure up the length and width of the die and then I replicate something similar but smaller with my logo on the computer. Then I printed out at 100%.

As you can see the print fits well inside the measurements.

As usual when die cutting something precisely, I use low tack tape - I have tried many but I always go back to the 3M Removable - to secure it in place.

And there it is after being die cut. I folded one of the sides and attach to the card.

  And there you have it. Simple.

Monthly Sizzix blog post! Embossing folders, Embosslits and Framelits and Pan Pastels

Today I am sharing the a few of my latest die designs for Sizzix from the Winter Moments collection and how they all work together and coordinate.
You can read all about it here on the Sizzix EU blog.

Hoy estoy compartiendo el algunos de mis últimos diseños de troqueles para Sizzix de la colección Momentos invierno y cómo todos trabajan juntos y coordinar.
Puedes leer todos los detalles aquí en el blog Sizzix UE.

Facebook page

A couple of weeks I decided to do a Facebook page on my papercraft designs. I will keep the personal one too, but that ones is going to be that, more personal!
At the minute there is a little content but I intend to update it with new and previously published work. Also, as I can update it from my mobile it is going to be an easy way to keep you more updated daily. But, of course, I will keep publishing on this blog!


Hace un par de semanas decidí a hacer una página de Facebook para mis diseños. Voy a mantener el profile personal también, pero va a ser eso, más personal!

De momento, no hay mucho contenido, pero tengo la intención de actualizarlo con trabajo nuevo y previamente publicado. Además, como puedo actualizar esa pagina desde mi móvil que va a ser una manera fácil de mantenerse más informado del día a día. Pero por supuesto seguiré publicando nuevos contenidos en este blog.

Bottle Tops flattened with the Big Shot: a good old technique

Flattening Bottle tops with a die cutting machine is something of an old technique. I first got my bottle tops about nine years ago. Apart from an project I did in 2010 that I forgot completely about, I hadn't done much with them.

However, this week I needed some magnets for my fridge and after some suggestions from my Facebook friends I decided to use the Bottle tops to make some magnets.

Aplanar tapas de botellas con una máquina de troquelado es una técnica de hace ya unos años. La primera vez que compré las tapas fue hace unos nueve años. Aparte de un proyecto que hice en el 2010, yo no había hecho mucho con ellas.

Sin embargo, esta semana he necesitado algunos imanes para mi nevera y después de algunas sugerencias de mis amigos de Facebook que decidí usar las tapas para hacer algunos imanes.

The unflatenned tops could be used as well they are pretty as they are. But flattened they look like rosettes and they dont have as sharper edges.

Las tapas podrían utilizarse sin aplanar, así como son. Pero aplanadas que parecen mas monas y no tienen bordes afilados.

Depending which sandwich you layer using the Big Shot platforms and cutting pads, you can get a more or less flat effect, mucho more visible in real life that on the photos.

Dependiendo de que sándwich se utilice con las plataformas Big Shot se puede obtener un efecto más o menos plano, lo cual es mucho más visible en la vida real que en las fotos.

The one on the left was flattened by using the Sizzlits layering of pads - Tab 1 and both Cutting plates.
The one on the right was flattened using the Tab 2 and just one cutting plate - I put a protective acetate sheet between the top and the platform to make sure I did not damage it.

La de la izquierda fue aplanada con el uso de la plataforma para Sizzlits - Tab 1 y las dos placas para cortar.
La de la derecha fue aplanada con el Tab 2 y sólo una placa de corte - puse una hoja de acetato protectora entre la tapa y la plataforma para asegurarme de que no dañaría la plataforma.

To cut the photo I used the second smallest die from the Sizzix Framelits Circles #2. It is a 1" die which is what you would need for standard bottle tops. I like to use Framelits because you can see exactly what you cut as the blade is right on the inner edge, perfect for photos.

Para cortar la foto que utilicé el segundo troquel más pequeño de los Sizzix Framelits Circles #2. Se trata de un troquel que mide una pulgada, que es lo que se necesita para tapas de botellas estándar. Me gusta usar Framelits porque puedes ver exactamente lo que vas a cortar porque la cuchilla está justo en el borde interior, lo que es ideal para las fotos.

With a glue dot I glued the magnet  - this one is one of the extra strong ones that Bazzill used to do, they were fabulous, such a pity they are either discontinued or hard to find. But there are other ones by different manufacturers like Basic Grey, which are thinner albeit not as strong.
To secure the magnet in place, I used the left over 3D circle foam pads from Stix2 and then place a piece of paper. This will secure the magnet in place for longer, otherwise the force of the magnet will eventually make it to come unstuck.

Con un glue dot pegué el imán - es uno de los más fuertes de Bazzill, eran fantásticos, una lástima que son ya estén descatalogados o sean muy difíciles de encontrar. Pero hay otros de diferentes fabricantes como los de Basic Grey, que son más delgados aunque no tan fuertes.
Para fijar el imán en su lugar, he utilizado el sobrante de los círculos 3D de Stix2 y luego coloque un pedazo de papel. Esto asegurará el imán en su lugar durante más tiempo, de lo contrario la fuerza del imán hace que eventualmente se despegue.

And here you have the ones I made for my fridge.
All, of course, featuring my furry baby, Wasabi.

Y aquí tenéis los imanes que he hecho para mi nevera.
Todos, por supuesto, con mi bebé peluche, Wasabi.

Where to buy my Sizzix dies

As you may know by now, the Winter dies and stamps I have designed for Sizzix are hitting the stores around the country and even abroad.


The Craft Barn

The Glitter Pot: Framelits, Embossing folders, Decorative Strips, Bigz

Country View Crafts

Cutting edge crafts

I will update them as I see more shops online carrying them.

* No affiliate links.

Monthly blog post for Tubo!

My monthly blog post for Scrapbooking with Tubo is out now! It is a very simple and quick card made with the Big Shot Starter kit. Click here to see the end result.

Mi blog mensual para Scrapbooking con Tubo esta ya publicado! Es una tarjeta muy sencilla y rápida hecha con el kit de iniciación Big Shot. Haz clic aquí para ver el resultado final.