Issue 5 Crafting Ireland

Issue 5 October 2011

I r ela n d ’ s f i rs t on lin e cra f t ma g a z in e....

ue s s i s i h t e d i s n I

 Tut or i a l s  G i v ea w a ys  R e vi e ws  C hr i s t ma s In sp i r atio n A nd m u ch m or e !

Creating UTEE ornaments

ze i r P e g n e l l a Ch

A d v e n t C a l e nd a r

WELCOME to Issue 5 of Crafting Ireland!

Hello and welcome to issue 5 of Crafting Ireland.

As always we have lots of fantastic projects, tutorials, reviews and give aways in this issue. We have another fantastic mini album tutorial from Felicia Thomas with her regular column. We are also welcoming on board Sandie Dunne for a series on colouring images. Her work is stunning and her colouring is just incredible so we hope you enjoy her sharing her wisdom with us all!

We want to say a big hello to all our new readers who found us at the Great Big Craft Extravaganza, it is great to welcome you to the magazine. We were also delighted to meet so many of our readers and put faces to names. We thank you for all your kind words about the magazine and all your support.

We also have our new WEBSITE up and running so make sure to check it out. It has all the past issues of the magazine on it, along with the submission call for the next issue and submission guidelines.

Submit your work, find out more at

http://www.craftingirelandonline.ie/

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Don’t forget about our BLOG and FACEBOOK page also. The blog will contain submission and challenge reminders and some inspiration along the way. Our Facebook page is filled with competitions, news snippets and sneak peeks. If you have created something using one of the magazine tutorials please post it to our wall and let us see your fantastic work!

We are also running a USTREAM class on creating a winter themed mini album and we hope you can all join us for the class!!

That’s all from us now, we will let you go read the magazine and enjoy!

As always, happy crafting,

Ni c ol e & Timi

Editors note........p2 Night before Christmas mini album........p6 A r t J o u r n a l i n g w o r k s h o p r e v i e w. . . . . . . . p 1 2 C a r a n d ' a c h e c r a y o n s r e v i e w. . . . . . . . p 1 4 Stamping on Canvas........p18 Pinterest—what is it?........p22 Submissions........p28 Crafty Queens Flip Flap tutorial........p42 Winter Advent Village........p45 Cone Christmas tree........p48 Classes & Crops........p50 4

Back to basics —Papers........p52 How to start a blog.......p56 Spotlight on........p64 UTEE Ornaments........p68 Using negatives of die cuts........p76 F r a m e d a d v e n t c a l e n d a r. . . . . . . . p 8 2 Fall alterable wreath........p86 Altered candle........p88 Featured website........p91 Challenge........p96 Challenge winners........p97 R e a d e r g i v e a w a y. . . . . . . . p 9 8

For this album I have used Cream, red, green and black – obviously you can use your own colour choices. I know black wouldn’t be usual for Christmas but I like the contrast. I have only made four inner pages, but you can add more.

Felicia Thomas

You will need:  A4 sheets of lightweight card – because it is A4 it is easier to measure this project in centimetres.  2 Pieces of chipboard, cut to 16.5 x 10.5cm  The album has a ring binding, so rings, ribbon, elastic, cable ties – whatever you usually use.  Christmas papers, I used Yuletide by K&Company, Christmas embellishments, ribbons, charms and jingle bells if you can get them.

Step 1 Now, the first two steps of making the pages are the same for all four of them. Cut the width of the page to 16cm and then score the page 9.9cm from top and 9.9cm from the bottom.

Step 2 For page 1 you need to do the following: Score and cut a 1cm strip on the bottom left edge, fold up and glue in place (this makes the binding stronger.)

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Measure 7.5cm & cut on the lower score line from the right side.

Fold the top section down and glue on the bottom only.

s

Fold the bottom section back on itself, and then fold that section up and glue on the left and top.

Step 3 For page 2 score and cut a 1 cm strip on the top right edge, fold down and glue in place -> Fold up the bottom section and glue at the top only.

Fold down the top section and leave this as a flap (it is on the back of the page.)

Step 4 For page 3 Score and cut a 1cm strip on the bottom left edge, fold up and glue in place.

Fold down the top section and glue on the bottom edge only.

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Cut the lower section to 5cm and fold up. Glue on both sides and leave the top open to form a pocket.

Step 5 For page 4 core and cut a 1cm strip on the bottom left edge, fold up and glue in place.

Fold the top section down and glue on the bottom edge only. Cut the bottom section diagonally to form a slanted pocket – glue on right side only.

You now have 4 “Pocket” style pages, each with a different feature.

Step 6 Use a punching tool to make the holes on the first page and then use this as a template for all the other pages – this will make sure they line up.

(Lop-sided albums don’t look great!)

Step 7 I used cream card, so I have distressed all the edges with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

Step 8 I then simply matted all of my pages with my Christmas design paper.

Tip: Matting means to cut your paper slightly smaller than your page, leaving your distressed edges showing.

Step 9 Mat your chipboard pieces for your album covers – I used my sewing machine to add some interest and texture to my cover, (sew your cardstock before you glue it to the chipboard!!)

I also added some lollipop flowers with jingle bell centres!

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Step 10 For the tags I used luggage tags and covered them with my design papers, and added some silver embossing to some of them.

There is a lot of room for photos in this album, I have left some of the pages plain to allow larger photos and if you print your photos to PSV size they fit perfectly on the tags.

Enjoy creating a mini album of your own following these steps. If you do make sure to upload it to the Crafting Ireland Facebook page and let us see your work!

Tip: PSV size is wallet size 2x3"

So what exactly is art journaling? It is an artistic way of writing a diary. Art journals are illustrated journals of any theme; it can record your thoughts, your travels, quotes that you like or lyrics etc... There is no right or wrong way to doing it, you just need to start it and do it!

There are many techniques used in art journals: collage techniques, painting, drawing and colouring and it all can be done in a handmade or readymade journal. The most famous journals are Moleskine journals. Journals can be very small in size or extra large depending on what you prefer.

Timi of Crafting Ireland has attended a 3 day workshop in Harrogate, UK. It was organised by Art from the Heart shop and led by Dina Wakley.

Dina lives in Arizona, USA and she is an art journalist and mixed media artist.

Her blog is: dinastamps.typepad.com. If you want to take part in Dina’s class, you can do so easily, just visit her blog and click on her online classes. Dina has her own line of stamps that you can buy at Art from the Heart.

The 3 day workshop was fantastic. The Art from the Heart shop is full of goodies and suddenly you want to own them all. Dyan, the owner of the shop, is a Senior Ranger Educator and a brilliant organiser. Dyan has her own product lines, Dylusions: stamps, paint spray inks and more.

During the three classes we created 3 different journals and learned loads of new techniques and ideas about how to put a page together, when to stress about creating art (NEVER) and also that there are no mistakes in art.

My favourite Dina saying was: “Gesso is like underwear, you can go without it, but something isn’t right”

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Here are some pictures taken during the three days Timi with Dyan

Art journaling- the process Timi with Dina

The fantastic Dylusions paints

D i n a ’ s beautiful stamps

We had three fantastic days and I look forward to Dina coming to Europe again.

If you keep an art journal and want to share it with us, do so on our Facebook page, we would love to see you pages!

Creating a layout using water soluble crayons

Timi Konya

You know I always like to try new art supplies and use them in my scrapbook layouts. This time I have been experimenting with Caran d’ache water soluble crayons, Neocolor II. Caran d’ache water soluble crayons (wax pastels) are made in Switzerland great to use in your scrabooking or cardmaking projects. They are water soluble and react very fast with water. They are highly pigmented and come in so many colours. They are ideal for several wet and dry techniques.

In this short tutorial I am going to you show how to create a very easy but textured background, how to tint photos and embellishments, all on one layout.

You will need:  Caran d’Ache watersoluble crayons  1 sheet of white 12x12 paper or light coloured patterned paper  Stencil or template  Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso  Claudine Hellmuth Studio Extra Time Medium  Alpha stickers  Die cut shapes

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Step 1 Place the stencil on the sheet of paper and secure it with repositionable tape (optional). Apply gesso with brush or palette knife. Let it dry or dry it with a heat tool.

Step 2 When the gesso has completely dried add the colours by just scribbling with the crayons. Then brush it over with a wet brush to smooth the colours out. Let it dry.

The pattern of the stencil will be revealed since the colours react different on a layer of gesso. If you want the gesso to be completely white, you can wipe it with a baby wipe or a piece of wet cloth. Just rub the colour off the gesso and you end up with the white pattern.

Step 3 Grate a small bit of the crayons on to your craft sheet and add a little water to dilute them. Mix it with some Studio Extra Time medium. Now you have a coloured medium that you can apply onto non porous surfaces. You could probably mix it with other types of gel medium too, it is always worth a try!

Step 4 Colour the edge of the photo with the coloured medium and also tint the alpha foam stickers if they don’t match in colour.

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Step 5 Die cut some shapes from white paper. In this case I used flourishes and butterflies. Then assemble the page.

Arrange the photos where you like them. Tuck the flourishes under the photos and stick them down. Place foam dots on the back of all photos and glue them down. I ripped two strips of paper and add them to the bottom and top of the page as a frame. Add all the embellishments and alpha stickers. At this point you can certainly stop if you feel you are done.

Step 6 But I went on a few steps and added a bit more shading, framing and drips.

Just draw lines around to photos to make them pop more. Add lines of black to the edge of the layout and brush them over with a wet brush. For the drips you need to grate a little bit of the crayon, add water and just brush it on the top edge of the paper. You can help the paint flow by spraying water on it.

This is the finished layout. I will add the journaling in the white strip on the bottom all across the width of the page.

You can buy these water soluble crayons at Cork Art Supplies.

Top tip: You can use these crayons to colour in images for cards with a wet brush.

Flourishes opened the virtual doors on their stamping boutique

By Stacy Morgan on July 27, 2007, in hopes of giving stampers something beyond what was on the market – beautiful and timeless images for today’s paper crafter. To date, they have produced upwards of 100 beautiful stamp sets created on the finest photo polymer available.

Grab your Copic Markers & give this technique by Flourishes design team member Stacy Morgan a try!

What you will need:  Canvas Stocking  Brilliance Graphite Black Ink  Copic Markers in shades YG00, G82 and R29  Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia Nestabilities Template Die  Stickles Diamond Glitter Glue  Velvet ribbon or trim of choice Step 1 Create or purchase a canvas stocking. We chose one with exposed seams for an extra shabby look.

Step 2 Using the stamp set Dove and Holly stamp all over the stocking with permanent black ink. You might need to heat set your ink be18

fore you move to the coloring phase. We used Graphite Black Brilliance ink so our stocking could be washed.

Step 3: When coloring with Copic Markers on canvas, be careful, this medium does tend to bleed a little. It’s a good idea to take a scrap piece of paper or some tissue paper and place it inside your stocking before you color. This will allow any bleeding to seep onto the paper and not onto the back of your stocking.

Step 4 If you look to the left you can see that the leaves are colored with a few shades of green. I started with the Copic shade G82. Be sure to color from the middle of the leaf out, leaving a small edge of the leaf untouched and ready for your second color. Then, pick up Copic shade YG00 to color the outer edge of the leaves. Copics do not blend well on canvas, so using two more contrasting colors will give you more of a color contrast on the leaves.

Step 5 To color the berries, I used the Copic Shade R29. Once the ink from the markers dries (about 10 minutes), take the scrap paper out of the stocking. Now you can finish decorating the rest of your stocking!

Top Tip If you don’t plan on washing your stocking, you can add extra embellishments like I did. I used a bit of glitter glue on the holly leaves. I used the Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia Nestabilities die to create my poinsettia. The beautiful red velvet ribbon was a perfect trim for the stocking’s cuff. Now it’s set to stuff some goodies inside for someone special!

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Nicole Mullen The internet is a fantastic place, full of inspiration no matter what it is you are looking for. However if you are like me – online far too much and always finding things you love on the internet – you probably have encountered the same problems as me.

I see something I love. I bookmark the web page, perhaps on my lap top. I then may be on my pc so can’t access the bookmark. What I did to avoid this previously was save links in a draft email in my Gmail account. To date I still have over 298 emails in my draft folder of things I loved and wanted to be able to revisit.

These are things such as images of gardens, craft project ideas, home décor ideas, colour scheme ideas, sewing tutorials, funny websites, blogs I like to read and much, much more.

Then I discovered Pinterest – and it all changed. For the better I might add!!

What is Pinterest?

So what is Pinterest? This is what I get asked every time I mention it to a friend. Well put quite simply Pinterest is a virtual pin board. Rather than having to print off images from the internet or cut out things from magazines and manually pin them to an inspiration board Pinterest does all this for you.

Pinterest allows you to organize and share things you find on the internet. Not only that but you can even browse pin boards created by other people. This opens it up to you discovering new ideas and images and allows you to get inspiration from people who may share the same interests and tastes as you!

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Why use Pinterest?

 I personally use Pinterest for a lot of reasons;  I pin blogs I like to visit so I can find them again easily  I pin food/recipe ideas that I want to try out  I pin craft or sewing tutorials to come back and try out  I pin home décor ideas – I break this down into different rooms in my house that I want to redecorate and made a pinboard for each of them, this keeps things much easier to find. For example I may create boards called; Bedroom ideas; Kitchen ideas; Guest bedroom ideas; Bathroom ideas What could you pin? Anything you like! People use it to plan out their wedding, keep up with fashion trends, pin cute photos – the sky is the limit!

What exactly is a pin?

With all this talk of pins and pinning lets have a look at what exactly a pin is and how to pin something. A pin quite simply is an image that you add to Pinterest. There are two ways to add a pin;

 Using the ‘Pin It’ button you can install on your browsers bookmark bar 

or, Adding the image directly from your computer

Any image you pin from the internet using the ‘Pin It’ button will link the image back to the website or blog that you pinned it from. You can see how to install the ‘Pin It’ button here. The image on the right is what a image looks like when you pin it to your board.

To revisit something you have pinned you simply click on the pinned image and it will bring you directly to the source you pinned it from.

What is a pinboard?

Your pin has to go somewhere when you pin it. The place it goes is the pinboard. This is like a virtual pinboard that you would traditionally have up on a wall. You should make sure to group your pins onto different boards. Have one pinboard for recipe ideas, another for craft ideas and so on. There is no limit to the amount of pins you can add to a board.

You can edit boards and remove or change pins ones from them. You can also categorise pins to make them easier for you or other people to find.

The image above is a pinboard. You can see a thumbnail of all your pins and your description below the image. You can click on each image to see the larger version of the pin.

Following You can follow friends or other Pinterest user’s boards if you find that they are pinning things that you like. When you follow someone, you will see all of their pins on their boards shown to you in real-time on Pinterest. You can choose to follow just one of the user’s boards or follow them all.

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If you choose follow all if the user makes new boards, you will automatically follow them. Tip: You can unfollow boards and users at any time: they will not be notified.

Pinterest Tips on Pinning To make Pinterest the most useful to yourself and others, try to follow these tips when pinning:

 Always try to pin from the original source if you can find it. Pinterest records the source on the pin for all to see. (See image below)

 Pin from permalinks – this means that if you want to pin someone’s blog post make sure you have selected that post rather than just the home page of their blog. This means when people click on your pin they will be brought directly to the post rather than have to search the blog for it.

 Include a relevant pin description.

Pin source

Pin description

Repinning If you happen to be browsing Pinterest and come across something you like you can repin this pin to one of your own boards. When you repin a picture the credit for the pin will stay with the person who first pinned the image.

The pin source will stay with the image no matter how many times it is repined.

Setting up a Pinterest account To set up a Pinterest account you can visit www.pinterest.com. To register for an account you need to request an invite. This stage can take a few hours. In my case it took two days to come through – but it was definitely worth the wait! If you already know someone with a Pinterest account you can ask them to invite you and this invite will get processed a bit faster.

Once you have your account set up you can browse the internet for things to pin or just browse Pinterest. Everything on Pinterest is categorised which makes it easy to browse a general topic you may want to look at – for example home décor ideas.

Pinterest has a fantastic help section that explains simply how to get the pin button onto your Internet browser and 26

addresses any other issues you may have when getting up and running with your account. You can find this help section here.

I can’t recommend Pinterest enough for people like me who love finding inspiration and ideas online and then want to be able to keep track of them all. hope some of you find it a useful site and Happy Pinning!!

PS: Just try not to blame me for the incredible amount of time you will spend on Pinterest once you get going!

Call for submissions….Calling ALL crafters – we want to publish you!!

For each issue we will give you a list of themes to work with. We would love to see what you create inspired by these themes. When you submit an image of your project, please make sure it is clearly photographed straight-on with a neutral background or scanned.

Please make sure you only submit projects that have never appeared online or on a blog before, and it can not have been published previously.

Thank you to every one who submitted for issue three. The themes for this issue were :  The Night Before Christmas  Winter Wonderland

The Night Before Christmas

Anne Mullan of createwithkate.com

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Geraldine Reardon of littlesnippetsblog.blogspot.com

Aideen Fallon of www.piecesbyaideen.com

Tanya Johnson of little-scrapper.blogspot.com

Robin Funge of bosenberries.blogspot.com

Winter Wonderland

Olga Jewell craftieodamae.blogspot.com

Weenie Thomas

Helja Rtile

Patricia O’Hagan of pinkypinkysworld.blogspot.com

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Pam Blood craftcreationsbypam.blogspot.com

Weenie Thomas

Robin Funge of bosenberries.blogspot.com Issue 6 Submission themes For issue 6 we have two themes for you to work with. Again you can submit cards, layouts or altered art projects. The themes are: Show Some Shimmer—Send in your projects with shimmer on them.

 

New Year Celebration—Show us your projects celebrating the New Year. Marking the passing

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of the old year or welcoming in the new one with all its future prospects!

Please email your entries along with your name and blog address to craftingireland@gmail.com by the

28th November.

Remember your submitted projects can not have been published online or in any other publication before it is feature with us. Make sure your photos are good quality and on a neutral background. The photo should be a good size/resolution and clear and in focus. If an image is blurry we can’t use it in the magazine.

This is the first in a series of articles by Sandie Dunne Sandie Dunne. She will examine the art of colouring with Copic markers and share her tips, tricks and skills with us over the next few issues. Sandies amazing work and colouring can be seen on her blog.

Sandie has been doodling and colouring her whole life. In 2005 she got into scrapbooking and this then lead to her starting cardmaking in 2007. She finds this allows her satisfy her addiction to papers and colouring! She currently is on a number of design teams as well as being a Copic Demonstrator for Hill Agencies. If you are considering investing in this colouring medium Sandies advice will help you make the right decision!

The first instalment in Sandies colouring series is - Understanding the

Copic Marker System Copic markers are an alcohol based marker manufactured by Too in Japan.

There are 4 different types, though all use the same ink. The full range of markers are available in 346 colors and are refillable. The inks used to refill the markers, if you're feeling particularly brave, can also be mixed to create new colors, and empty markers are sold for this purpose.

There is also an airbrush system available which can be used for creating backgrounds, colouring embellishments/ribbon/etc. You can 36

combine your copic markers with other alcohol based markers, but you will not be able to get a smooth blend between Copic inks and other brands. Be careful not to discolour your marker tips with other marker inks.

The Copic Range Copic Wide Copic Wide markers are mainly used to colour large areas with consistency and without streaking the colours. They are thicker and bigger then the Copic Sketch and Copic Original. These have a calligraphy nib. Copic Wides are only available in 36 colours. Copic Wides have refillable ink and replaceable nibs.

Copic Original The original Copic Marker for designers, this pen has a traditional chisel tip for coverage as well as a precision nib to take colour to the edge of lines and colour breaks. The original Copic Marker is distinguishable by its rounded square colour caps.

Copic Sketch A marker pen with a brush tip, the Copic Sketch is designed with greater illustrative fluidity in mind. A popular pen for manga artists, the Copic Sketch, like the Copic Marker, can be refilled with Copic Various Inks - making it a versatile and sustainable pen. The Copic Sketch pens can be distinguished by their oval cross-section.

Copic Ciao The value Copic pen, the Ciao series is a low cost alternative to the Copic Sketch. Like the Sketch, it features a chisel nib and brush nib but the colour range is smaller than that of the Sketch range. This pen is very popular with amateur illustrators, comic artists and, more recently, crafters.

The Copic Coding System Copic have a unique coding system for their markers which consists of letters and numbers. The letters on your marker tell you what colour family they belong to: [B - Blue] [BG - Blue Green] [BV - Blue Violet] [G - Green] [YG - Yellow Green] [Y - Yellow] [YR - Yellow Red] [R- Red] [RV - Red Violet] [V - Violet] [E Earth] [C - Cool Gray] [N - Neutral Gray] [T - Toner Gray] [W - Warm Gray].

The numbers explain the qualities of light, dark, and gray colours in that marker. The first number stands for the saturation, or how vibrant the colour is. 0s will be very vibrant, while 9s will be more dull or gray. The last digit tells you how light the marker is within that saturation group. For example, a BG01 will be light and make a nice bright highlight colour. BG05 is a vibrant midtone, or middle colour. BG09 would be a strong shadow that matches that colour group. If you substitute a BG99 for your shadow, it will add a lot of gray for that colour blend and may look out of place and not blend well.

The Basics To get the best results from your Copic markers it is important to use the right inks and paper.

Memento is the preferred ink for use with Copic markers and some good quality papers include X-Press It Blending Card, Perfect Colouring Paper, Neenah, Cryogen & Make it Colourful Blending card.

Testing your ink - Stamp an image onto paper and let it dry for a few minutes.

Then take the Copic colourless blender and scribble over the image. If the ink doesn't smudge or feather then it's a compatible ink.

Testing your Paper - Stamp an image onto your paper and colour right out to the edges, laying down plenty of ink.

If the ink travels outside the lines then this is not a good paper to use.

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Testing Digital Images- Print your image as normal and test it by scribbling across it with your colourless blender. If it smudges or feathers then your ink is not compatible with Copic markers. If your printer ink isn't compatible some tricks of the trade to 'set' your ink include heat drying your image with a heat gun, heat embossing using clear embossing powder or spraying your image with hairspray and leaving it to dry for a while.

Inking Techniques The most common ways of laying down your ink are Circling and Flicking/ Feathering. Each technique gives it's own particular appearance. We will be looking into these, and other techniques, in more detail a little later in the series.

Circling Colour your image using a small circular stroke. Turn over your paper and if the colour has not saturated evenly through to the back side of the paper, then you have not applied enough colour. Using this technique will eliminate any streaking on the image.

Flicking - This is achieved by laying down colour in quick single strokes. When using this technique bear in mind that the colour will go from dark to light in the direction of your stroke.

Blending Techniques Feathering - you would use this technique is if you want to have two colours from different colour families merged into each other. On my sample card I've used colours from the Yellow, Yellow Green and Green families and blended them together.

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On Paper Blending This is the most popular blending technique and uses 3 or more shades to create highlights and shadows.

Tip-to-Tip - As you are collecting your Copic Markers you will find that until your collection is large enough often your marker selection may contain colours that are more than 3 values apart.

To create a medium value colour you would do the Tip-to-tip technique whereby you would use your lightest colour and darkest colour and combine them to give you a medium value.

This is done simply by running the nib of your lightest colour on the nib of your darkest colour. Don't panic- adding colour to your lighter coloured marker will not ruin your marker.

We hope you enjoyed this introduction to Copics and the basic tricks of using them. In the meantime you can see more of Sandies work in the

Spotlight feature of this issue of the magazine or at her blog.

In the next instalment of Colouring With Copics Sandie will be looking at

Defining Light Sources.

In the meantime enjoy your colouring!!

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This is a 3D advent calendar that you can use as a table centre piece as well.

Timi Konya

What you will need:  1 pack of 12x12 papers  1 pack of chipboard elements (optional)  24 brads In this project there are 24 little houses to make the advent calendar. You will need to make 6 houses of each of the four types. The houses are marked as: House A, House B, House C and House D. Download the templates for all the houses by clicking on the pictures.

House A

House B

House C

House D

You will need to print the templates on A4 size paper to get the true sizes.

Make sure your printer is set to print the image at the actual size and is not set to print to fit page!

Explanation of the markings on the templates: ď € Blue line: cut here ď € Blue dashed line: score here ď € Red line: only showing the measurements (you can ignore it) Trace each template on to your patterned paper 6 times and cut them out. If you know how to you could also print the templates directly onto your patterned paper.

In this video I will show you how to assemble the houses.

When you have them all assembled decorate them with chipboard elements and place one number on each house. The easiest way to do this is to prepare the numbers on your computer and just print them onto solid, light coloured paper.

When you have all the houses ready you need to prepare the mount board to arrange them on. Scrape some paint on the board with an old credit card to give some texture.

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Apply some ink with blending foam for aged effect. When it’s all dry place the houses and arrange them as you like.

Place the sweets inside. You can stabilise the houses with some Blu-tack or Sellotape as shown in the video.

Enjoy your stylish Christmas countdown!

We would love to see your projects inspired by this article. Share it with us on our Facebook page.

This is a very quick and easy tutorial on how to make a 3D home decoration. This cone tree can be a part of a table centre piece or as a part of an advent calendar. Let’s get started.

What you will need:  1 styrofoam or cardboard cone  2 sheets of patterned paper  Green paint  Hot glue gun  Edge punch Step 1 Paint the cone green, let it dry.

Step 2 Cut strips of patterned paper and punch the edges with the decorative punch.

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Timi Konya

Step 3 Spray the strips with water to soften the paper and fold

them into accordions.

Step 4 Glue the strips on the cone with hot glue.

Step 5 Fold a cone of a piece of patterned paper and place it in the top of the cone to cover the edges of the strips.

We would love to publish your classes and crops here. Whether you are a shop running crops and classes or just a group of crafty people looking for like minded people let us know. Simply email your details to craftingireland@gmail.com

Card Art Kilcoole 12th November 2011 Kilkenny Bridge Centre, Loughboy, Kilkenny Theme: Christmas Treasures Full details can be found: http://cardarteventskilcoole.blogspot.com/

Crafty Angels Adult's Cardmaking Class 19th November 12-4pm. (Kit Included). Cost â‚Ź25 All places must be booked in advance. Crafty Angels, Cutlery Rd, Newbridge, Co. Kildare. Ph : 045-446678. http://www.craftyangels.ie

Scrapbook Store November workshop featuring Basic Grey Piccadily collection More info can be found on the website http://www.thescrapbookstore.ie/ workshops.php or contact Annamarie at workshops@thescrapbookstore.ie

Jackies Cardmaking Workshops http://jackiesworkshops.blogspot.com/ Crafty Alley Card making workshop with Clare Buswell Date: 26th November Time: 2pm -4pm Oil Painting with Tina Reed Date: 19th November 50

Further information: https://www.craftyalley.com/catalog/workshops

Scrap n Yap Check out Scrap n Yap on Facebook for more information.

An Siopa Buí Check out An Siopa Bui’s website for all class information.

Inspiring Ideas Visit http://www.inspiringideas.com/ for more information.

Archangels craft club Archangels Craft Club - we meet in St. Gabriels Clontarf every Tuesday 7.30 9.30pm and do all sorts of crafts - knitting, cross stitch, card making, beading and scrapping etc.

We are in our 9th year - all very informal but it’s a place to craft with like minded individuals. We are always on the lookout for demonstrators and enjoy the social aspect of crafting (along with the tea and cake!) If anyone is interested in coming along to join us, or maybe there is another club out there who would be interested in doing a Christmas craft day together please do contact me.

Contact Christine at christinehelenokelly@gmail.com or on 0857151759

If you would like your classes or crops listed here free of charge email the details to craftingireland@gmail.com

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Paper crafts are based on paper, hence the name.

Nowadays there are so many types of paper that the beginner crafter can easily get confused. In this short article I’m going to discuss some types and uses of paper that are common in paper crafts.

Timi Konya

Paper can be classified by its weight. Printing paper is generally lightweight (60 -120 g/m2). Any paper heavier than 160 g is usually considered as card. For paper crafts usually heavier paper is used: cardstock and patterned paper are heavy weight papers. Some of the patterned papers are light weight that is generally reflected in the price too.

There are lots of companies out there producing paper products in several sizes. In the United States the size of the paper is given in inches while in Europe in centimetres. Since most of the paper craft producers operate in the U.S. the sizes of the papers are given in inches, typically: 12x12, 8x8, 6x6 or 8.5x11.

Card stock Card stock is a heavy paper usually solid in colour. It can be used as a background of a scrapbook page, base of a mini album or can be cut into pieces to make greeting cards.

The texture of the cardstock can be different too. There are smooth and textured types of cardstock. One of the most famous textured cardstock is Core’dinations. This is a cardstock with a core matching in colour, so when you tear or sand the surface the core will show and this leads to very interesting effects.

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Bazzill has a huge range of different cardstocks, from embossed to orange peel textured cardstock.

Patterned paper Patterned paper usually comes in collections and can be single or double sided. Most of the collections can be bought in 12x12 size, some of the manufactures produce 8x8 or 6x6 pads to match the 12x12. The bigger sheets of paper are perfect for scrapbooking or bigger projects. The smaller packs are great for card making or mini albums.

Image: An example of Patterned paper

Some of the paper manufacturers are:

 Graphic 45  Basic Grey  K&Company  Bo Bunny  My Minds Eye  7 Gypsies  Pink Paislee

 Crate Paper  Kaisercraft  Little Yellow Bicycle  Webster’s Pages  We R Memory Keepers  Sassafras Lass  Prima

Other types of paper used in arts include watercolour paper, cartridge paper, sketching paper etc.

Watercolour paper is a thick paper that takes water very well. It is great to use as a base of a scrapbook page when you want to use lots of paint and spray ink on the background.

Normal card stock tends to curl more when there’s lots of water involved.

Picture credit : http://www.thewatercolourartist.com/

Watercolour paper is a great supply to use for handmade journals too.

Experienced cardmakers use watercolour paper when colouring images with distress inks or watercolour pencils.

Watercolour paper can be cold or hot press. Cold press watercolour paper is textured and sucks up water fairly quickly, while hot press paper is smooth, doesn’t suck up the water that quickly, so it allows the crafter to play with blending a bit more.

Cartridge paper is a high quality heavy paper. It is used for illustrating or drawing, but certainly can be used for crafts too. It is a bit cheaper than watercolour paper and takes water well, a lot better than normal cardstock.

Have fun exploring the different types of papers and finding out what works best for your papercraft. In the next issue we will be looking at the Basic Toolkit you need for crafting.

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During one of our editorial meetings Nicole Mullen we were discussing blogging and had decided that I would write an article on how to increase traffic to your blog. However after talking to a lot of our readers at the GBCE event in Athlone I realised I needed to start at the beginning – Creating a blog.

A lot of you seemed to love reading blogs but for various reasons did not have a blog of your own. Of course if you don’t want to have a blog there is nothing at all wrong with that. However if you keep thinking you would like a blog but things are holding you back from setting one up hopefully this article will help.

Why Blog?

The very first thing you need to look at is why you want to set up a blog. Common reasons to blog can be  To sound off on your thoughts and opinions  To give advice on a topic you are knowledgeable in  To connect with like-minded people  To stay connected with friends and family  To make money through advertising/sponsorship on the blog  To have fun and show off your creativity In the crafting world most of us blog to show our work and express our creativity. I think that blogging can be very motivational as it encourages you to post your work, get feedback on it and keep working and developing your craft.

Why not Blog?

When I asked a few people about their lack of blog some of the reasons I got were; 56

 I am not a good enough crafter  I am not very good on the computer  I don’t know how to  Why would someone read what I had to say?  I don’t have the time Let’s have a look at some of these reasons and break them down….

I am not a good enough crafter – Most of us don’t feel that we are good at what we do. I publish a magazine and still I don’t feel that I am very good at what I do. Yet I blog as a way to have a record of my work and hopefully get feedback from people on it. Blogging inspires me to continuously try to improve my work.

I am not very good on the computer & I don’t know how to – I am going to show you exactly how to at a later point in this article Why would someone read what I had to say? – When I started my blog it was a way for me to document my photography and write about things that I saw that had an impact on me. It eventually moved to a crafting blog. I never started it thinking I wanted lots of followers or that I ‘needed’ people to be commenting on my blog. I did it for me as a way to show friends and family what I was doing and to give my creativity an outlet rather than keeping it all locked up in a craft room. I love now being able to go back through my blog and see my earlier work and see the progress I am making.

So unless you are only driven to create a blog to have ‘followers’, personally I don’t think it matters if anyone reads it. But I will be looking at a later stage how to get readers to your blog!

I don’t have the time – People can be under the impression that blogging takes a long time. In reality if you have made a project and have taken a photo of it and you have uploaded the photo to your blog then it will only take about five minutes to set up a blog post in its most basic form. All you need to do is insert your photo, give people a description of your project if you want , and press publish.

Personally I am very short on free time however I genuinely find that blog-

ging does not take up a lot of it. Of course everyone’s circumstances are different so if you have 5 children and need to taxi them around, feed them, clean the house and do a million and one other things then maybe you don’t have the free time.

But if you set aside some ‘me’ time once I have shown you how to create a blog and a blog post maybe you will find you can indeed fit it into your schedule.

If not then don’t worry about it, you need to make sure you are doing the best for yourself!

I don't know how I am going to start off with a tutorial on how to create blog using Blogger as it is one of the simplest to use out there. I want to show you all that it is a simple process and does not involve a lot of technical skills. If you can use a mouse and type (even if only slowly) you can get this done.

Step 1 Go to www.blogger.com (Blogger is owned by Gmail so don’t be surprised to see their logo on there!). Click on the Get Started button.

Step 2 You will be brought to create a Google account. If you don't already have a Google account you will need to complete this process and click Continue.

If you do have a Google account 58

(for example a Gmail email account) click on where it says sign in first.

Step 3 When you have completed step 2 you will be brought to the following screen – Name Your Blog!

The Blog Title is the name that will appear at the top of your blog and the Blog Address is what people will have to type to get to your blog. It is a good idea for both to be the same.

However the Blog Title you will usually type out correctly with spaces and capital letters but the Blog Address is usually written in lower case and can have no spaces. I have shown an example of this.

There is an option to check availability of the Blog Address. This is so that you can see if the address is free and that no one has it used already. If someone has used it you will have to change your address.

Top Tip: It is important to take your time with naming your blog.

Think about what you are going to use the blog for. If you are going to be using your blog to sell any of your craft work make sure the name is appropriate and explains your product, for example Una’s Hand Made Cards.

Try to make it interesting and different. However if inspiration fails you can always just use something like Una’s Crafty Corner or something nice and simple like that. Ask friends opinions on the names you are thinking of and

make sure you are happy with what you choose! When you have chosen your blog name and address click Continue.

Step 4 You will now need to choose a theme for your blog.

This is going to be how your blog looks when it is viewed. I will take you through changing your blog theme in a later stage. For the moment just pick one of them that appeals the most and then click Continue.

Step 5 Your blog is now created!

You can start posting straight away or customise how your blog looks first. We are going to look at customising our new blog first, so click on where you see ’Customise how your blog looks’.

Step 6 You should see a series of template options to choose from. You can click on each theme to see it applied to your blog so that you can see what it will look like.

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You will see different categories – Dynamic Views, Simple, Picture Window, Awesome Inc. There is also an arrow – circled on the image in white – and if you click on this arrow you will see more categories. On the image here I am on the Simple category. You can see below the main theme there are different options – outlined in a white rectangle here. These are all the simple themes you can choose from.

If you click on each one you can decide which you like the most. You can do this for each category to see which one appeals most.

For my Blog I chose the Ethereal theme in blue. To set your template you need to click on the Apply to Blog button. You will then see the Live on Blog option update to reflect your new theme.

Step 7 If you like the theme but want to change the colours you need to click on the Backgrounds button. In here you can then select the colour for your theme.

If you want to change the background of your blog click where it says Background Image None and this will open up a further option box with lots of different backgrounds you can pick from.

You can choose one of these pre-existing backgrounds or else click where it says Upload Image and upload an image from your computer to use as a background instead.

When you have chosen your background click Done and then Apply to Blog.

Step 8 Let’s have a look at our blog so far. Click on the View Blog button up on the top right of the screen and you will be brought to view you blog. What you see is what visitors to your blog will see now.

Step 9 To return to your blog dashboard click on the design button again up on the top right of the screen.

Step 10 The Dashboard—Your blog dashboard is where you can control all aspects of your blog.

 New Post will allow you to create a new post.  Edit posts will allow you to edit previous posts you had published.  Comments

- this option allows you to moderate and view 62

comments on your blog

 Settings—this is where you can change your blog  settings, including

title, formatting options etc

 Design—as discussed this allows you edit how your blog looks  Monetize—This allows you to place advertising on your blog to potentially make profit from your blog

 Stats—this is where you can see how many followers you have and how many times your blog has been viewed.

Hopefully this brief run through will help you decide if you want to set up a blog and how to go about doing it. In the next issue I will have a look at some tips for blogging and we can explore some other blog options too. If you have any questions about your blog or how to get started email us at craftingireland@gmail.com and we may be able to answer your questions in the next issue.

Happy Blogging!!

Sandie Dunne In every issue we will be spotlighting the work of an Irish based crafter. We will look at paper crafters, scrapbookers, and altered art aficionados. If you think you know someone who you think sound be spotlighted let us know at craftingireland@gmail.com.

So Sandie, tell us about yourself....

My name is Sandie Dunne and I live in Co. Offaly with my hubby and children. I left my Web Designer job when we had our 2nd youngest child so now I am a full time domestic goddess.

W hen and h o w di d y ou g e t i n vol ved w i th p ap er cr af ti ng?

I was always more into doodling and colouring than actual crafting, all of my schoolbooks were doodled on to within an inch of their lives. Then in 2005 I met some wonderful American ladies who introduced me to scrap booking, which led to my insane addiction to patterned papers. I started making mini albums as a way of downsizing my personal albums - 12x12’s were taking up a lot of space! My one claim to fame is that my mini albums were featured on Ireland AM. I started making cards in 2007 when I realised that I could combine my love of doodling and colouring with my addiction to papers… and as they say - the rest is history.

W hat i s your f av our i te aspec t o f pap e r cr af t i ng?

I would have to say it’s the camaraderie within the crafting community, the people I’ve met and the 64

friendships I’ve developed since going ‘online’ with my crafts - on my blog and other forums/galleries.

What are t h e t ec hni qu e s tha t y ou u s e m ost of th e ti m e?

Stitching/Sewing my papers, die cutting, stamping and colouring.

What a re yo u r " can ' t d o w i thout " pr odu cts ?

My Copics for a start. I use them most every day. With embellishments my can’t do without product is pearls, I use them on everything. Oh, and punches.. A girl must have punches.

What inspires you?

I pull inspiration from everywhere - Other crafter’s blogs, magazines, galleries.… I’ve often stopped to look at displays in store windows because the colour scheme caught my eye.

How d o yo u des cr i be y ou r sty l e ?

I wouldn’t say I have a particular style. I do like clean lines, but I also like over the top embellishing. I dabble with most crafting styles - Shabby Chic tests me!

Do y ou blog?

Yes, I blog regularly - http:// sandieshores.blogspot.com I also own a challenge blog - http:// paperplaychallenges.blogspot.com Where ca n w e s ee y our w or k?

Are y o u on a ny des i gn t e am s?

I put most everything I make on my blog. I’m also on a number of design

teams - Waltzingmouse Stamps, Whiff of Joy, Color Me Creative, La-La Land Crafts and Quixotic Paperie. I have recently started adding my projects to Splitcoast Stampers Gallery.

Hav e y ou any pl ans f or t he f utur e ?

I hope to continue doing my DT work, teaching classes and demonstrating Copic colouring, it’s something I really enjoy doing. I have also just been invited to join WOW! Embossing as a Design Team Member and Demonstrator so I will be working away on that.

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Edi t o rs pi cks The editors each picked one of their favourite projects from Sadie's work to share with you below..

Ti m i says..

I love this project because of the warm colours and beautiful embellishments.

I really l i ke m i n i a l b u m s a n d t h i s one is a lovely style.

Ni c ol e says..

I love the colours on this card, the combination of kraft, red and white is just superb. It is a lovely clean and simple card yet beautifully detailed.

The sentiment really becomes the central focus and the flower and flourishes are just a perfect touch.

A Creative Adventure with UTEE by Kate Walsh http://createwithkate.com When Nicole and Timi approached me at the GBCE in Athlone about possibly submitting an article, I immediately thought of the coming festive seasons as this is my favourite time of the year.

So now, as I am sitting here at my kitchen table in a beautiful part of County Mayo looking out at the pouring rain, I am trying to remind myself of all the reasons of why I love Autumn.

Seriously though it’s a great time of year; normally lovely mild Autumn weather with just a hint of crispness that whispers lovely thoughts of Christmas into the breeze, not to mention Halloween, which is becoming a bigger and bigger event here year after year so hence these projects, one for Christmas and One for Autumn / Halloween.

Tim Holtz brought out some great dies with Sizzix last year and I use them over and over again in different projects all year round, but they are particularly great, this time of year. All the dies mentioned are from Tim Holtz Alterations range produced by Sizzix and are Bigz dies compatible with most die cutting machines. The Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) I used, are Blonde Moments but any brand should give the same result.

What you will need:  UTEE  Chipboard  Die’s of your choice  Heat gun 68

 Stamps  Acrylic paint  Versamark Step 1 I first cut two pieces of chipboard approx 14cm * 15cm, large enough to cover my die. I then die cut the ornaments using the Carved Ornament Die. Step 2 I took the smaller of the ornaments and coated it with versamark, poured UTEE (Spring Sun) on top and melted it completely (don’t forget to tip the extra UTEE back into the container before you turn on your heat gun – your Hoover will thank you for it!!)

The first coat will give you a beaten gold look which is a great affect. But I want a deeper gold, so I applied a second coat

and melted it. I then assembled some text stamps (I used Blonde Moments easy mount Christmas stamps) and applied versamark.

Step 3 I then did a third coat of UTEE , melted it, allowed it to cool for a couple of seconds and pressed the stamp into it.

Step 4 I then sprinkled gold glitter onto it and brushed it into the stamped im-

age. I painted the reverse side with Eco Green Paint pure gold, punched a hole in the top and finished it off with a wide organza ribbon.

Step 5 I did the same with the second small ornament, using a different colour UTEE (Sugar Cool) and a snow background stamp.

I then rubbed silver pearl pigments into the stamped image and added bling.

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I then punched a hole in the top and threaded sheer organza ribbon through, ready for the Christmas tree!

Step 6 I did the same again for the larger ornament using Festive Gold UTEE and while melting the third coat I added small amounts of three other UTEE colours.

I used Sweet Ruby, Spring Green and Spring Orange (in spots, see photo) allowing them to melt slightly (don’t over melt as the colour will disappear into the gold).

I added bling to the coloured spots, punched a hole in the top, threaded some organza ribbon through and added an organza bow and a recycled jewellery charm!

Design Tip Extra! Make a few of these in your chosen colour scheme, and hang them at different lengths from a window, shelf or light fixture for instant festive cheer!

Autumn & Halloween Decorations These were done using the same techniques as with the Christmas Ornaments.

Textured Tree I first die cut the Branch Tree from chipboard with my Big shot machine. I then painted the front and back with brown acrylic paint, I used EcoGreen Crafts, Pure Copper.

This range of paints are fast drying and have no solvents, chemicals or harmful odours with little or no VOC’s and they are great to use. Make sure you apply with a dry brush.

Once it’s dry, coat with versamark and apply UTEE The trick to this effect is NOT to melt all the UTEE completely, it gives it a very textured bark look. Move your heat gun over the branch allowing some of the enamel to melt completely and other parts to pool into water like drops. Play with it a little until you get the effect you want.

I use this technique a lot on flowers, especially roses, specifically for the water droplet affect.

I stashed this away for a later project (watch out for it on my blog http:// createwithkate.com Tattered Leaves I first cut a piece of chipboard approx 14cm * 15cm, large enough to cover my die. I glued a 6*6 piece of patterned paper to one side 72

and trimmed around the edges. (this will be the reverse side of your leaves). I then die cut the leaves using the tattered leaves die.

On the largest leaf I used Sweet Ruby UTEE and again applied two layers.

I got an embossing folder (the Cracked folder from Tim Holtz’s Checkerboard & Cracked set) and coated the inside with Versamark.

I applied the third coat of UTEE, gave it a couple of seconds to cool slightly (otherwise you will damage your folder) and used the embossing folder as a stamp, creating an embossed pattern. I then took some green interference pearl pigments (you can use any pearl pigments) and brushed it down the centre. Voila! A fantastic patterned leaf (great as a jewellery piece!

For the other leaf I did the same but omitted the embossing folder step, as I wanted a smooth shiny finish. As I was melting the third layer, I added two different colours of pearl pigments (interference red and interference green), don’t worry about your heat gun blowing some of the powder away as this is intentional, it gives a great pigmented shadow effect!

I just painted the third leaf as I wanted contrast with the others.

Design Tip Extra! Die cut a chipboard circle ring and glue several of these leaves to the ring making sure to overlap them, tie an organza ribbon and hang, perfect for the Autumn season! You can spook it up for Halloween by adding fake spiders and snakes!

Toppers Finally, I did a quick make which is a great crafting activity to do with the kids! (my three year old loves making ‘sandwiches’ with my big shot).

I first die cut the witch and bat from Tim Holtz’s Bewitching Hour die, placed it (with the head out) in an embossing folder coated with versamark (I used a damask pattern) and ran it through my big shot machine (any embossing machine would do or you could use a rolling pin to apply the pressure).

I then rubbed some pearl pigments over the pattern, punched a white circle with my hole punch, drew in a pupil and eyelashes and glued it on the witch’s head. I then stuck the bat on her cape and curled the wings! Perfect as toppers for trick or treat bags!

If you have any questions regarding any part of these craft projects (or if you spotted a typo), you can get me, Kate, at http://createwithkate.com Happy Crafting and keep smiling, xxKate

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Nicole Mullen Welcome to our Crafting on a Budget section. Here we will be looking at how to create some Fall & Christmas decorations working on a budget and using supplies you will probably have in your crafting stash.

As I have previously mentioned in this crafting on a budget section I hate wasting paper. I am always looking for ways to use up paper scraps and I have shared some of these ways with you.

I love dies and own a nice selection of them. However die cutting a shape out leaves you with a problem. More scrap paper! This time though the scrap paper has a hole in it of the shape you used. Or perhaps its an on the edge die so there is no hole but rather a shaped strip of paper left over.

So what do we do with these shapes? Throw them in the recycling bin? Or find a way to use them? Naturally I choose option two. I am going to show you three simple cards to show you how to use these negatives.

Card 1窶年egative or a strip or on the edge die Here I have used a Tim Holtz on the edge die that die cuts out a row of houses.

I decided to work with the negative of this die to make a winter snowy scene.

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Step 1 Die cut your houses out. Take the negative strip you have left over. It will be in the shape of the roofs of the houses.

Take a white card blank and tape the negative strip to it as in the picture. I taped it about one third of the way up my card.

Tip use a tape that removes easily and wont tear your card when you remove it!

Step 2 Using distress inks I inked up the card blank going right up to the negative die line and even over the line. The beauty of the negative is that it acts as a perfect mask for this.

Step 3 I then used the houses die cut out of a scrap of paper to create a second mask.

This mask allowed me to ink up the sky of the scene without the ink getting onto the inked house skyline.

Tip: Place the second mask a tiny bit higher than the brown inked houses.

This will mean you get a slight white link left when you finish inking your sky and this will give the impression of snow on the rooftops.

Step 4 When you have the blue sky inked you can at this stage white emboss snowflakes onto it. You could also clear emboss the snowflakes before you ink the blue sky. This way when you ink the sky the clear embossing will resist the blue ink and you will be left with white snowflakes from the white card stock showing through. This is the method I used on this card.

Step 5 To complete my card I die cut the house from some candy cane patterned paper. I stuck this onto the front of my card.

The inking of the brown houses gives the impression of a row of houses in the distance and looks like a large winter village.

You can add a sentiment or any other embellishments you wish at this stage.

I coloured in the doors of the houses with a red marker and the windows in blue. You could use a white pen to add smoke trails coming from the chimneys also if you wanted.

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Card 2—Snowflake negatives This one is really quick and easy and a perfect way to make a super quick and stylish Christmas card!

Step 1 I die cut some snowflakes from DP for another project.

The paper I used was blue Bazil that had a slight raised dot pattern. You can use any paper and colour you wish Step 2 Cut the negative of the die cuts to size for a white card blank.

Adhere this negative to the white card. This will give you white snowflakes on your card!

Step 3 Stamp a sentiment on the card or embellish as you wish and the card is done!

This is a super fun and fast card to make. If you needed a lot of snowflakes for a particular project you could very easily create a few of these quick cards.

It certainly beats throwing the scraps out!!

Card 3—Butterfly negatives I recently had a commission for a bunch of party invitations. These invitations involved me having to die cut 240 butterflies. Yes—240 butterflies!!

To be as economical with paper as possible I cut my paper into squares just a bit bigger than I needed for the butterfly die. As a result of this I ended up with 240 squares of paper, embossed, inked in pink and with a butterfly negative in the centre. That’s a lot of paper to throw away so I created the following card.

Step 1 Find four squares that match in size as best as you can.

Step 2 Gather some scrap paper and a card blank in the colour of your choice. For my scraps of paper I used the scrap strip paper I created from scraps in issue 3.

Step 3 Adhere the scraps of paper to the front of the card blank in what ever arrangement you prefer.

At this stage you could use just one scrap or a few different scraps or just any other paper of your choice.

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Step 4 Lay the negative butterfly die cuts over the top of your card and position them to give you the best fit as possible.

Try to avoid gaps between them. If this happens you may need to trim the squares slightly to give the best fit possible.

When you are happy with the layout of the squares adhere them into place.

Tip: When you have the squares adhered if you feel that the line between the four squares is too obvious you could always hide it. To do this you could use ribbon, stickles or even sew over the lines to make it look like you have ‘patch worked’ the four squares together.

Step 5 Add a sentiment or any other embellishments you wish.

This card is very fast to put together and will be very easy for me to use up the huge number of butterfly negatives I have by making a batch of these cards.

I hope you now look at those die cut negatives in a new light and get some use out of them in the future!

One of the things I loved the most about Christmas as a child was getting to open a door on the advent calendar. I used to love seeing what was hiding behind the door, and I quite enjoyed the chocolate too of course!!

Now that I am all grown up the novelty of a chocolate for breakfast every morning has worn off somewhat. (After all I live in my own house and can eat whatever I want in the morning without my mum giving out!) To this end I created a simple advent calendar that will do a count down to Christmas. It is a super quick and super cheap project to make.

What you will need:  Picture frame (I used a 8x10 one)  Christmas papers  Mod Podge  Tags or tag die or the patience to hand cut 25 tags!  Embellishments  Hook or large brad Step 1 Remove the glass from your frame and put aside safely. Be careful not to cut your self.

Step 2 Cut a piece of your paper to fit the back board of the frame. This will be the main display area of your advent calendar. I used paper embellished by a cut out Santa from a different sheet of paper.

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Step 3 Glue your paper to the backing board. I use Mod Podge and made sure to bray it well to avoid any bubbles in the paper.

Apply the Mod Podge in a thin layer and make sure you cover the entire board.

Step 4 Embellish the board if you wish at this stage. I kept mine simple with just the Santa on it.

Step 5 Cut out 25 tags. I used the Tim Holtz large tag die but you can cut them by hand. I also used a mix of papers for my tags.

All the papers I used on this project were left over Christmas papers from last years paper lines.

Tip to hand cut tags: If you want to hand cut tags the best way is to cut out 25

rectangles of the approximate size you want. Fold the tag in half and take your scissors and snip off the corners. Unfold the paper and you will have a perfect tag shape and both corners will be perfectly even and symmetrical!

Step 6 Stamp numbers on your tags, one to twenty five. You could also use alpha stickers, chipboard numbers, handwrite them or die cut numbers. I also stamped some Christmas embellishments on my tags such as snowmen, Christmas trees etc. Be careful not to embellish the tags too much or else they wont all fit on your hook.

Step 7 Fix your hook to your back board. I got a small fleur de lis hook from my local hardware store and simply hot glued it onto the board. The paper does not weigh much so the hot glue should hold. If you are using a brad you will need to make sure it is long enough to hold all your tags.

Twenty five tags of the size I made is about a inch thick when put together so in my case a brad would not have worked!

Step 8 Put your back board back into the frame (but don't put the glass back in!). Put your tags on the hook and you are done!

Tip: you can embellish your frame more if you want.

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I left mine as it was save for one small embellishment.

I slightly embellished a small glass vase to match my frame. I did this so that when you remove day one’s tag you can place it in the vase, and so on.

This is a quick little project to create a wreath. This wreath has been decorated to match some fall décor, but come December I will be able to change it up a bit to match my Christmas décor. For this tutorial I used a foam pipe insulator to create my wreath form and have shown this accordingly.

What you will need:  A styrofoam wreath OR  A meter length of foam pipe insulator—I purchased a pack of 5 one metre lengths from a hardware store for €3.50. This piping works out much cheaper than styrofoam wreaths and is also much more hard wearing. In fact it will take quite a beating, where a styrofoam wreath tends to be very delicate.  Duct tape  Hot glue gun  Burlap of fabric of your choice  Pins  Embellishments for your wreath, I used lace, ribbon, G45 metal staples and fabric and skeleton leaves Step 1 Bend your foam pipe cover around into a circle shape. If you want a smaller wreath you can cut some of if off to get a circle of the diameter you want. I cut off about six inches from the end of mine.

To get the pipe to stay in a circle wrap duct tape around the join. The pipe tends to want to spring back straight after 86

bending so duct tape is the only thing I would trust to keep it into shape!

Step 2 Cut your fabric into strips. It is entirely up to you the length you want to cut it to. I cut mine to about 10 inch strips. This allowed me to wrap the fabric easily enough around the wreath without it being too long and getting in the way of itself.

Start this process at the point where your duct tape is. Put some hot glue on the tape and place your fabric on it.

You may want to use something to press the fabric into the glue. Start to wrap the fabric around the pipe adding some hot glue dabs at some points along the way to secure the fabric. Continue this process until the wreath is completely covered.

Step 3 Embellish as you wish. I used pins to hold all my embellishments into place so that they could easily be removed so that I can convert the wreath to a Christmas wreath. You could however hot glue all your elements on.

Enjoy!!

There are plenty of tutorials out there on altering candles. They usually involve stamping directly onto a wax pillar candle or stamping onto tissue paper and embedding the stamped image into the candle using a heat gun to ‘melt’ it into the candle. These two methods can be time consuming for various reasons.

It can be difficult to stamp directly onto a candle as the surface is so slick your stamp can slip. You then have to wipe the ink off and start again. Melting the tissue paper into the candle can distort the shape of the candle if you are a bit too enthusiastic with your heat gun.

So when I decided to create some Christmassy candles for my mantle piece for over the holidays I wanted something easy and fool proof! Oh and cheap :) What you will need:  Candle in a glass jar (I got mine from Ikea for €1.20  Die cut of your choice—I used the on the edge house die  Paper of your choice  Glossy accents  Mod podge  Paint brush  Scrap paper  Glitter Step 1 We are going to glue the on the edge die cut to the candle and we want 88

it to wrap the whole way around the candle.

You will have to work out how many die cuts you need for this. In my case it was one full strip of houses and just over half of a second strip.

Step 2 Because the candle jar is rounded and tapers slightly at the end the strip wont wrap around the jar in a straight line. To get around this I simply cut the strip of houses into sections or two or three houses.

Step 3 Using glossy accents glue the houses onto the candle. I used glossy accents as it dries very fast and glues paper to almost any surface!

Step 4 When you have all the houses glued on add a row of mod podge to the bottom of the candle using a paint brush.

I put my houses up slightly from the bottom of the jar on purpose to have this empty strip. This step will get messy so place your candle on a scrap of paper.

Step 5 When you have the mod podge all around the bottom of the candle sprinkle your glitter over the mod podge, making sure to get a good coating of it.

Tip: Working over the scrap of paper means you can catch all the excess glitter so that it does not go to waste!

Step 6 Let the mod podge dry for a few hours.

When it is dry run a dry paint brush over the glitter on the candle to remove any loose excess. You don't want glitter all over your house!

Your candle is now done. This literally took 5 minutes to make, excluding the mod podge drying time.

I made 6 of them at the same time for my Christmas mantle.

These altered candles are perfect Christmas gifts for people.

Tip: You can decorate them in any style, not just for Christmas!!

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Two Peas in a Bucket is a place for all scrapbookers and cardmakers from all around the world. It is a shop, online class provider, a forum, a community and a lot more.

The two founder Jeffrey and Kristina set up their site in 1999 to bring something new to the scrapbooking world and they still do. Two Peas in a Bucket was created with more than just a store in mind. Jeffrey and Kristina wanted a place where people can share their creations and discuss scrapbooking.

To be a part of this experience visit: www.twopeasinabucket.com You can browse the site without being a member, but if you wish to share your own creation you need to register. Registering is quick and free and you will enjoy lots of benefits: you’ll be informed about new products, contests and other happenings at Two Peas in a Bucket.

There are 5 sections of the site: scrapbooking, stamping, card making, digital and photography. Each section has loads to offer for those interested: blogs, forums, gallery, challenges, events and lot of free online classes.

There are great techniques taught in Two Peas in a Bucket Classes and what we really think is useful that you can buy the demonstrated products in the shop. Isn’t that fantastic?? No more searching on the internet for hours to buy something that you saw in a video.

Two Peas in a Bucket shop carries digital as well as physical products in a huge range which is a great addition to all already mentioned.

Two Peas in a Bucket runs a blog called Garden Girl Design Team Blog where you’ll find product updates, project videos, news on classes and more.

Visit Two Peas in a Bucket on Facebook and on Youtube to watch fantastic videos about products and techniques.

Enjoy discovering and we hope you get inspired!

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If you would like to advertise in Crafting Ireland email us at craftingireland@gmail.com with advertising in the subject line for more information.

Below are a list of some shops that we shopaholics like to order all those essential supplies from. All these stores are either located in Ireland, or else ship to Ireland with reasonable rates.

Ireland

United Kingdom

Cardz’n’Scraps – Cork Art Supplies

Artist Trading Post http://www.artisttradingpost.com/

http://cardznscrapz.com/

Artistic Stamper Scrapbook Store

http://www.theartisticstamper.com/

http://www.thescrapbookstore.ie

Craft Barn Crafty Alley

http://www.thecraftbarn.co.uk/

https://craftyalley.com/

Crafty Angels

Craft Emporium http://www.craft-emporium.co.uk

http://www.craftyangels.ie/store/

Scrapbook Store

WOW Embossing Powders

http://www.wowembossingpowder.co.uk/

http://www.thescrapbookstore.ie

An Siopa Bui – The Yellow Shop http://www.ansiopabui.ie/

Wild Orchid Crafts www.wildorchidcrafts.com

Would you like to advertise in Crafting Ireland?

We offer very competitive prices and a readership of over 50,000 per issue.

Contact us at craftingireland@gmail.com for advertising rates.

In every issue of Crafting Ireland we will have a crafty challenge to help you all get your creative juices flowing. We will select two winners from each challenge. We will then publish the two winners projects in the next issue.

Our generous sponsor for this challenge is Flourishes LLC. Our challenge for you this issue is a recipe. We want to see you use 1 piece of lace, 2 colours (other than black, white, kraft) and 3 snowflakes/stars on your projects.

There will be two lucky winners of this challenge and Flourishes has provided two stunning stamp sets for the prizes—Winter Bouquet and Christmas classics. Click on the images below to be brought to the store to check the stamp sets out in more detail.

Email your entries to craftingireland@gmail.com with Challenge in the subject line by December 5th.

Good luck!!

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The prize for the issue 5 Scraplift challenge was this adorable Me to You decoupage kit. The challenge was kindly sponsored by Crafty Angels.

The winner for this challenge was Aideen Fallon with the beautiful entry below! Congratulations Aideen, we will be in touch about your win!!

Create with Kate have provided these fantastic Dimension Fourth stamps as a reader giveaway to one lucky winner!!

All you have to do to be in with a chance to win is go to the Create With Kate Facebook page and ‘Like’ them and tell them that Crafting Ireland sent you!

For an additional entry become a follower of the Create with Kate blog!

The Create with Kate blog not only shows all the products they stock for us crafters, but also lists all the classes, crops and workshops they run. So if you are looking for crafting supplies or just for a class or crop to attend make sure to visit their blog!

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out on 12th December For the next issue we would love to see more of your work. Remember the submission themes are:

 Show Some Shimmer  New Year Celebration S u bm i s si o n de a dlin e i s 28th Nove mb er Article submission If you have an article or tutorial you would like to get published please email us about it at craftingireland@gmail.com.

Make sure to check out WWW.CRAFTINGIRELANDONLINE.IE for more information on future issues