Christmas Is Coming!

I don’t know where the time goes, but suddenly it’s that time of the year again!

I want to share with you a Christmas card about which I’ve had a lot of very positive feedback.  I should apologise for the length of this blog entry right now - but I want to include detailed instructions for you, in case you want to make the card yourself.

I have great fun making this card because it lets me combine two passions of mine – die cutting and the marvellous Scan N Cut.

The finished card

The base of the card is a piece of A4 card simply folded in half, which means the dimensions are 21cm X 14.8cm.  The matts and layers are simple, and of course you can use any Christmas papers you happen to have lying around.  The largest two layers in my version, the red and the patterned layers, are assembled using double sided tape.  The craft card, which measures 18.5cm X 10.5cm, is attached using foam tape to add dimension with the white layer 'flat' on top of it.

At this stage the fun begins! Using my Brother Scan N Cut machine I made the 'NOEL' sentiment.  

I used font A002 as it seems to me to be the best fit...

Then I added each letter separately...

     

Why did I do it this way, you might be wondering?  Well, it was because I wanted to make the letter 'O' in NOEL larger than the 'N', 'E' and 'L'.

The dimensions in the picture show how large the letters are...

If I'd typed the whole word in at the same time, then all the letters would increase or decrease at the same rate.  Obviously this is an incredibly useful feature to have most of the time... but not on this occasion!

When I was certain I had all the letter bases level I grouped them together, like this:

The shape for the base is 'BA-A025':

Re-sized to fit the letters:

Again, you can see the dimensions in the picture

...and then this is all welded together like this:

... and then cut out of red card:

The Christmas Pudding shown in the picture below was made using the Tattered Lace Essentials Christmas Pudding Dies.  It was die cut four times from card stock; two in craft and one each in green and in white. 

For no particular reason other than I didn't want to waste card, I decided to colour the holly berries using a red pen.  

I pushed all the waste parts out of three of the die cuts but put tape behind one of the craft card puddings to hold in the bits before I coloured in the fruity bits in the pudding a darker brown. 

This picture shows how I assembled all of the die cuts before adding some festive glitter...

The pudding fits snugly over the letter 'O' in 'NOEL' and goes on to the card base using either some gems or pearl drops in the corners.

And there you have it - a fab, fun card which I love making.  If you had a go I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!  

More shows....

Hi there


First of all, a massive and heartfelt Thank You to everyone who took the time to send messages of support and words of encouragement ahead of my first shows on Create and Craft over the Easter weekend. The shows were great fun and I was looked after unbelievably well by the lovely people in Create and Craft TV land. I did five shows over the weekend and the early part of last week. I was bowled over by the fantastic feedback I received. I had a ball, even though I was unwell during one of the shows - but just minutes later, I was fine!

I didn't post an update straight away as I first needed to speak to the guys back at Crafting.co.uk and Tattered Lace and listen to how the experts felt the shows had gone. I had a very positive meeting on Tuesday in which we looked at a plan for the next few months which will allow me to gain lots more experience of being in front of the cameras.

I've been asked to go back tomorrow (Saturday 8th April) at noon to present a Sapphire die cutting machine 60 minute Craftdown show. Later on at 5pm I'll be presenting a Ribbons Galore 60 minute craftdown show with the wonderful Bow maker, in which we'll be showcasing some fantastic deals on ribbon. I hope you can find time to watch!

Just to keep you up to date I'll be doing some shows on Sunday 17th April introducing the new Tattered Lace 'Tuck in' dies, along with some other fantastic new dies. These are a brilliant new range of dies that add so much dimension and texture to our cards. I feel excited and privileged to be able to present these new dies so soon after their launch. No time for a rest after that though - I'm being kept really busy as I'll be coming up with some new ideas for demonstrations which I'll be presenting on Sunday 24th April when I'll be doing some Border Embossing folder shows! As showtime draws nearer I'll try to give you a sneaky peak on this blog of the sort of stuff I've come up with.

I'd better go now as I still have lots to do before tomorrow. But thanks once again for your kind words and support, your messages mean so much to me. I'll post again soon with some card pictures that hopefully you'll find interesting.

Thanks for popping by,

Corrine xx

As seen on TV!

Hi there

I am super excited!

Some of you may know that I've been working with the lovely people at Craft  Channel Productions Limited and Create and Craft TV for a few months now. I submitted a video to the people behind Tattered Lace at Craft Channel Productions Limited back in November, and thankfully they liked what they saw. The next stage was a nerve wracking interview with Stephanie and Nancy a couple of weeks later. I was then invited to the studio for two screen tests, and despite my obvious trepidation at being placed in front of a TV camera for the very first time, I got the thumbs up! I was absolutely delighted when earlier this year they offered me the opportunity to join their team on the Create and Craft TV network as a guest presenter demonstrating Tattered Lace Products.

Just this week I've been given details of when I'll be making my presenting debut! My first TV appearances will be an hour slots beginning at 3pm Saturday 26th March and then two more hour long shows the next day (Easter Sunday) at 4 & 8pm. I've seen the show proposals and know I'll be demonstrating a range of the fantastic Tattered Lace dies and some of their supporting tools and products. Being Tattered Lace it will be super exciting and I truly can't wait and I'm looking forward to making a start on this totally unexpected new chapter of my life.

If you can spare the time on either of these days it would be great if you could tune in. You can watch online at www.createandcraft.tv or if you're near a TV, I'll be on Channel 36 on Freeview, Channel 674 on Sky, Virgin on 748 and Freesat on 813. Please let me know what you think and tell me how my presenting can be improved. This is the first time I've done anything like this so your feedback is very important to me.

To celebrate this excellent news I thought I'd show you a card I made this week with the new Essentials by Tattered Lace Rose Garden Panel die. I cut, embossed and layered this on a beautiful raspberry card which I matched up with some pretty flowers, a couple of twists of white mesh, and some raspberry and cream ribbon.

It's really effective - even if I do say so myself!

Wish me luck on 26th March! I'll let you know how I get on - if I survive! 

Thanks for popping by

Corrine x