Felt flowers tutorial by Giò

Hi everybody,
my name is Giò and I am so happy and proud to be GD for December and January.
Today I introduce you a tutorial to make felt flowers, so easy but with a great impact.
This is the list for the material you need.

Big Shot or another cut machine
Blossom Nestabilities
White felt
Distress Ink pad - two light and two dark
Blending tool or sponge
Rhinestone adhesive
Diamond Glaze or other adhesive
Scissor



Cut the felt using the Big Shot or another cut machine.



With blending tool or a sponge color softly the flowers with the ligh Distress Ink.



With blending tool or a sponge again, give some touches of dark Distress Ink on the edges of the flowers.



With a scissor make some cut wich divide all petals, but pay attention to leave intact the centre.



With a drop of glue in the centre of the flowers give it a closer shape, don't worry if some petals superimpose.



As last step stich a rhinestone on the centre of the flowers, it will give a touch of light.



Thank so much for looking my tutorial, I hope you liked it.
I wish you all

A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Hugs

Giò

Mini Copic Marker Tutorial by Niki Estes

Hello, everyone! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! It's hard to believe a new year is almost upon us. I thought I would share a mini tutorial today showing the steps I went through to color this adorable little Henry Mouse hugging heart image that I used on my card today.

The first thing that I always do when coloring my images is to get out copic marker chart. (It's a blank chart that I printed and filled in with the copic marker colors that I own. I can't remember where I downloaded my particular chart, but you can print a very similar one here.) I use the chart to choose copic markers that coordinate with the patterned papers and colors I have chosen for my card. I am using some patterned papers from the Irresistible line by My Mind's Eye.

First, I colored the heart in using R27. Then, I added a little shading using R29.

Then, I blended the two colors by going over the heart again with the R27. Since these two colors are very close in hue, I went back over my shading a little more with the R29 also to darken the shading.

Next, I colored in Henry's tummy using E43 and shaded with E44.

I blended again with my lighter copic marker, E43. Again, these two markers are close in color so I added a little extra shading with the E44.

Then, I used the same steps (color entire area with light color, shade with darker color, and blend with light color) to color Henry's body using E44 and E47.

I colored Henry's tail using E43 and E44.

For Henry's ears, I colored the area with R30. Then, instead of using a darker marker to shade, I lightened the area using a blending pen. Blending pens don't actually blend the colors. Instead, they move the color around. So, I used the blending pen to lighten the tips of the ears and move the color down to the interior of the ear. Then, I used the R30 to add some more shading to the interior part of the ear.

Next, I added some shadows under Henry to help ground my image. I used W1, W3, and a blending pen. I started by adding some shadows with W1. Then, I added a darker area very close to my image using W3 and blended with W1. I went over the area with my blending pen to lighten it and push the color in close to my image.

For the next step, I needed a mask for my image. So, I stamped the image on some eclipse tape (a slightly tacky paper tape). You can also use a sticky note for this step.

I cut the mask out using scissors and adhered it over my colored image.

Then, I used a B02 marker and my air compressor to spray the image a blue shade that coordinates with my patterned paper. You could also sponge ink around your image.

When I was done, I removed the mask and my image is done. I save my masks so that I can use them again.

And here is my completed card. I added some rhinestones to the center of some buttons and lots of stitching on my patterned paper layers. I hope you enjoyed my mini copic coloring tutorial.

Have a great day!

Niki

My Blog

Edited to answer some questions: You can see what the copic air compressor looks like here. You can download a blank chart to fill in with your copic colors here. I personally use Papertrey Ink's white cardstock for all of my copic colored images.

Quick batch cards

Hello, it's Fran here. I needed to make some quick last minute cards that would fit in UK letter postage rate (so no thick layers) thought I'd do it as my tutorial for this month and show how fab WoJ stamps can look even when the card is very simple & basic with minimal colouring in. Thought it'd also be nice to show how watercolouring with Sakura stardust pens gives fantastic results and sparkle too.

MATERIALS:

• white square card bases 5"x5"
• cardstock in 2 colours for the mats (mine are orange & aqua) & white card for the central images
• Stamps of your choice something that you can just colour bits of and will still look good. I've used couple of the cute Herb snowmen stamps by Elisabeth Bell & also some sentiment stamps
• Ink & black sparkle embossing powder & heatgun
• Sakura stardust pens to match your colour cardstock - I've used aqua (729), orange (705), black (749), waterbrush
• Nestabilites square & scallop square die (2nd to largest of the large sets)
• Cuttlebug & embossing folder 'snowflakes 2'

PRODUCTION LINE:Making all the cards together by doing each stage in batches is alot quicker!
1. cut out all your coloured mats and matching white squares to stamp your images on 2. Stamp and heat emboss all your images onto the white squares. Then stamp and heat emboss the sentiments onto the front of all your cardbases.
3. Using the snowflakes embossing folder, emboss all the card base fronts.
4. Selectively colour parts of all images using the Sakura stardust pens to match your coloured mats. By just using 2 different colours I can just pick out bits of the scarfs etc on the snowman to colour in using the same 2 pens and just alternate them depending on the colour of the mat. so on the blue mat I've coloured his scarf blue and on the orange I've used the orange. This makes them very quick to colour in. On the hat I have used the black Sakura stardust pen - coloured along the left hand side then quickly used a waterbrush to brush it out to the rest of the hat - this gives it a bit of shading and makes it less black and flat. I did this for the scarf as well but everything else was just basic colouring in, as only small dots/areas so shading not important.

The reason I've used Sakura stardust pens is the fabulous shimmer you get and ease of use. So that coupled with the glittery embossing powder I used gives it impact without having to colour the whole image in. Here's close up of 2 of the images . . .


5. All done. Just mat & layer your images and stick them onto the cardfronts. Here's 2 of them . . .

and here are all 9 that I made probably in the same amount of time that I normally make just one in . . .


If you're more prepared than me, these could be amended to make thank you cards for all those fab presents I'm sure you'll all be receiving very soon (the WoJ gift stamp would be perfect for this I think)!

On that note, I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a stampendously happy new year!

Hugs,
Fran xx

Foldercard by Camilla

Hi there! How are things before Christmas? Hope you all can relax a bit in between and maybe make a card or two. I have made a foldercard with two pockets. Hope it can inspire you to make something like this yourself. Under is the finished card. The pockets are inside.

Here comes the tutorial.

I have written what I did on the photos, so I will be quiet a bit and let you have a look:)

(Just click on the photos to make them bigger)

(*ready)

This gorgeous image is to be found in the Whiff of Joy shop. She is called Melinda Christmas Angel.

Thank you so much for looking at my small tutorial, hope it made sence! I wish you all

A Merry Christmas

and

A Happy New Year!!

Hugs, Camilla.

Christmas Coasters by Kathy Page...

Good Morning! Today I have a very easy and inexpensive gift idea to show you. It is to make coasters out of tiles ~ these are so easy yet I think they look gorgeous and would be a great hostess gift or even a teachers gift!
First off you will need the following:
~ cleaned tiles (I got mine from Lowe's for .32 cents apiece)
~ Black Staz-on (and other colors you would like)
~ Self adhesice furniture pads (I got 200 for $1.99)
~ Some type of permanent protective finish (I used Krylon Matte Finish)
~ stamps that you want to use (I used these cute Santa images by Elisabeth Bell)
*Optional ~ distress ink and sponge

1) To start off I cleaned off my tiles with warm soapy water and dried throughly. Make sure when selecting tiles you like the way the top looks. If you want a vintagey distressed look it doesn't matter but if you want a smoother look be sure to get some without many grooves on top.
Ink your image with the Staz-on and stamp on clean tile. You can see in the photo where the distressing is from the tile grooves.

2) Next I added a sentiment on with some Blazing Red Staz-on ink.
3)At this point you can either let your tiles air dry or heat set them with a heating tool. *If you want to add some distress ink for a more vintagey look it is very important to make sure the tiles are completely dry. Here is a comparison of the distressed and non-distressed tile:
4)Next spray the tiles with a finish to protect them and make the image permanent. I like the look of the matte finish but if you like the shiny finish that works too!
5)Add 4 protective furniture foam pads to the bottom of the tiles:

To finish it off and make it presentable I just stacked them and tied some lace around it! I plan on giving these to the girls teachers with some mugs filled with gourmet Hot Cocoa. (I have made one full set distressed and one regular ~ but showed both in picture)

Well thanks so much for stopping by! This was my first tutorial so I hope you found it understandable and enjoyable!
Have a great day and be sure to stop by tomorrow for Camilla's fabulous tutorial!!