XMAS 2017
S I S R T A M H C COPY OUR EASY KNIT
Quick & Clever Die-cut Tricks
150 CAisRissDueS! th
Stepper Simple 20 mins Cards in
Winter Buddies
l a i c e p S g n i t f Cra Celebratio· n rtcuts o h S e v ti s e F · s y o T Cute Easy Greetings
VOTE & WINY
CRAFT HOLIDA ! UP FOR GRABS
All Your Fave Brands...
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ISSUE 311 XMAS SPECIAL 2017 £5.99
LOVE OUORK! NEW LO
Craft with the Best STEPHANIE’S LUXE LOOKS FOR CARDS
Tested for You
L STAMPING L DIE SHAPES L QUILLING L STITCH
1Y0S
WoAlour
to c nd & ble ifs mot
PAGE GET GOING PACK
HDesigner Papers HTop Templates HEasy Trace Fonts H20 Printables
to download
Xmas Special 2017 48
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“The Scandi look is one of my favourites at this time of year; I love the emphasis on nature and the intricate, folksy designs”
What’s inside... Every Month
23
Annie Sloan
FESTIVE TOPPERS
Make your friends smile with this fun digi stamp greeting
12 YOUR CRAFT CHAT 24 LIZ MOAD QUILLS 16 NEW FOR YOU Fill die-cut apertures with gorgeous 36 SUBSCRIBE TODAY metallic quilled designs 40 ASK THE EXPERTS 62 AT HOME WITH JULIE & WENDY 28 SARA NAUMANN'S MASTERCLASS 108 COMING NEXT MONTH Create show-stopping makes with 114 PEEK INTO MY WEEK intricate toppers and edgers 38 TRY SOMETHING NEW
Make It
45 FIVE CARD CHALLENGE
7 SUPERB SNOWMAN
Add a special touch to your next Christmas project with detailed and delicate dies
19 WINTER SCENE
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This festive card from Tattered Lace simply oozes vintage luxe
ADVENT TREES
Surprise little ones this Christmas with a forest made from card.
Keren Baker makes Christmas colourful this month
Our designer tries her hand at the season's latest trend: hot foiling
48 FESTIVE SET
Use your Brother ScanNCut machine to magic up a variety of foliage
63 100 BEST CHRISTMAS CARDS
We've chosen a selection of designs to help spark your festive imagination!
CB Chats To... 26 SCANDI CHRISTMAS
Cosy Club creator and author Christiane Bellstedt Myers describes her seasonal inspirations
59 HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WI
Get the latest from the Women's Institute
It's time to delve into the crafting trend of the moment
68 LET'S TALK DIGI STAMPS
And More!
31 CREATE AND CRAFT
The latest news and trends from your favourite craft channel
42 CHRISTMAS SPARKLE SET
Decorate stationery and gift wrap with your own artwork using Posca pens
72 MITTEN COOKIES
You'll be dreaming of a white Christmas with these satisfying bakes
Share it! with the rest of the CB community via 04
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BONUS GOODIES...
Plus, your craft extras this month
36 PAGE
MINI-MAG
“There's lots of projects from Crafts Beautiful to be doing instead of housework!”
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Susan Pickles, via Facebook
TREATS forYOU 8 Your Free Gift | 60 Prizes & Giveaways
51
WIN PRIZES WORTH
£2,200! 76 NORTH POLE BUDDIES
84 FESTIVE TEDDIES
79 STITCHED WITH LOVE
86 SCANDI MITTENS
Pull out all the festive stops to create this Father Christmas and polar bear duo Blend cotton and felt into vintage-style decs
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Christmas morning will be lots of fun with this pair of easy-to-stitch bears Snuggle up with these handy festive treats
89 ON TREND RIGHT NOW
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Arctic blues and icy silvers inspire this month's Northern Lights trend
90 PEARL NECKLACE
Shimmering Swarovski stones and interlaced pearls create this stunning design
94 WIRE BIRD SET
A highly unique wirework collection which is bound to have admirers flocking
96 HAND LOTION POUCH
Keep crafting hands soft and supple with a little help from The Soap Kitchen
MINI-MAG
Stitch It with Brother
Make magical stitching projects in time for Christmas
51 International Craft
Awards 2017
Vote in this year's awards and you could win a mini-break
99 Your Crafty Essentials
Find this month's templates and free papers here!
www.crafts-beautiful.com
crafts-beautiful.com 05 Contents xmas special.indd 3
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Get Christmas crafting with your Let your imagination run wild with this month's free felt kit. Create a parade of Yuletide decorations to hang around your home, including Mr and Mrs Elf, their snowy friends and a pair of sweet cherubs. Master the techniques of oversewing, French knots and fly stitches in the process – they're wonderful for decoration. We love to see how you use your free gifts, so don't forget to share them with us via email, or on our social media pages.
FREE
FREE TEMPLATE DOWNLOAD FULL SIZE
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Have hours of fun stitching this collection of ten sweet characters and festive motifs
Mr Elf
Cut out the templates provided. Pin the coat pieces and embroider as shown, before oversewing around, inserting the hands and legs. Put stuffing in the tunic, then close. Embroider the face, placing the coat in between. Oversew around the face, stuffing inside. Attach the hat with a running stitch. Secure shoes, placing stuffing inside. Lay the scarf across the neck, fold the ends over and secure. Fold the top edge into a curve and finish with a circle.
Mrs Elf
Snip two hats, removing the point on one. Place the scallop-edged trim onto the shorter one. Place the other piece behind, fold the point down and oversew up both sides, then the edges of the point. Make the face as before, but cut cheeks and insert brown hair under the hat. Pin the dress fronts onto the back and oversew, inserting the hands, legs and stuffing before closing. Assemble the shoes and scarf, fringing the end.
FRENCH KNOTS Knotted stitches on the fabric's surface Make one in another colour! Ease the knot onto the the thread to the 2 1forBring surface of the fabric, surface at the position holding it steady while pulling the knot. Wrap the thread around the needle tip twice and take it back through the fabric where it came up.
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the needle through to the wrong side. Stitch to secure or return to the surface for the next French knot.
CARDS & PAPER
Elves & Friends
FELT KIT
Little Angels
Cut out the angels. Sew running stitches on the wings, then pin behind the dress. Attach the arms, catching the wings at the back. Insert the hand piece or tree in between the arms. Sew the eyes and place the hair pieces, then oversew the edges around the top. Trap bakers twine as you go. Place the neck of the dress just inside the head and secure with running stitches. Glue a mouth and trim the dress bottom.
RUNNING STITCH
the thread 1theSecure on the wrong side of fabric, then bring the needle through to the surface to start the first stitch.
forward, take the 2theMoving needle back down through fabric then bring it up again. Keep the distance between the gaps and the stitches equal in size and continue along the stitching line.
Shining Bright
Cut two trees and set one aside. Secure a snow strip across the bottom, leaving a small gap. Secure and add detail to the small squares. Fix three circles with French knots. Pin the trees, oversewing the edges. Cut two yellow stars and, with the top pushed inside, oversew the edges, trapping twine at the top. Glue a smaller star in the middle of the large.
Perfect little stocking fillers!
e r Cute for the tree!
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CARDS & PAPER Add a special touch to your next Christmas project with highly detailed and beautifully delicate dies, as Sue Hughes demonstrates how to create an easy snow-covered scene.
Essentials... Card: red, white, silver Dies: Tattered Lace Essentials, Festive Snowman, Garland Lanterns; GoKreate XL Square Frilly Frame #5 die set; snowflakes, circle nesting dies Creative Expressions Frosty Christmas Holly paper pad Embossing powder, white Christmas sentiments Gems Adhesives
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Cut red card, 16cm square. Stamp a greeting 3cm from the top-right corner, sprinkle
Step into winter with our
SUPERB
Snowman
with white embossing powder, tap off the excess and heat. Affix to a scallop-edged blank, 17cm square. Layer blue patterned paper, 15cm square, onto white card. Die-cut a circle aperture, 5.5cm, 2cm from the top-right corner. Mount onto the card base with 3-D foam pads. Cut blue patterned paper, 4cm x 15cm, matt onto white card and secure along the lower edge of the card front. Make a snowman from white card and colour the broom and nose. Cut another
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from red, snip off the hat and gloves, then layer them onto the white snowman. Make a third from white, remove the scarf and present, colour in and stick in place. Use 3-D foam pads to attach to the card front. Die-cut the Lightbulb Garland from red and silver card. Snip off the silver lanterns and layer onto the garland, offsetting them slightly. Affix across the card. Die-cut snowflakes and secure them over the card front, adding a small gem to each. CB
Craft Shop
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Why not try a Tattered Lace Skating Snowman die instead? ÂŁ12.99, createandcraft.com/shop
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Deck the Hall with
Festive firs
Surprise little ones this Christmas with an advent forest made from card. Helen Fitzjohn’s brightly coloured trees in iced candy shades are easy to make and would look lovely displayed on a windowsill. Build up the colours using a series of small square inkpads and a blending tool. All that is left to do, is to simply pop an advent treat under each one and voila… 24 days of happy children!
Craft Cheat Trees are numbered on the front and back, so only 12 will be needed
FREE TEMPLATE DOWNLOAD FULL SIZE
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Essentials… Card, white Stamp, Folk Christmas Tree, Papermania Ink-pads: green, pink, blue Sponge blending tool Glitter Heat embossing tool Self-adhesive gems
Colour the Card
1
Print out the template onto white card, cut out and fold it up. Add white glitter or heat emboss to create the front snowy area. Cut out two further triangles. Stamp a tree
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image on the smaller one, add green ink and blend over the larger triangle, then stick both to the card front. Blend pink ink over the card and stamp circles on top. Fix on the greeting and cut out leaving a small border. Finish with circles and a bird motif.
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Line Up the Trees
1
Using the template, score, fold and cut out 12 trees. Sponge a little colour to the side panels and stamp a pattern of circles. Cut two triangles from white card the same size as the front.
2
To create a graduated tree image, dab light green onto the top section of the tree stamp, add medium green to the middle and dark green to the bottom section. Stamp the tree onto the card triangle. Once dry, blend a little colour to the edges. Stick the stamped tree triangles to the front and reverse. Repeat in pink and blue until you have four trees of each colour. Print out the bird design and advent numbers. Stamp the star circle over the numbers and trim. Colour the birds and cut out. Stamp lots of little patterned folk circles in various colours and heat
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emboss. Stick the birds and circles to the trees. Glue the number circles on: number 1 will have 13 on the back, number 2, 14 on the reverse and so forth. CB
Craft Shop Folk-style themes are perfect at this time of the year, so add Papermania’s Folk Christmas tree to your stash. docrafts.com
All-time best
Christmas CARDS
THE TOP
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W
e've rounded up a selection of our favourite designs from Crafts Beautiful and our sister magazine Papercrafter to help spark your festive imagination! If you want to craft any of these amazing greetings for yourself, you can find the easy guides at crafts-beautiful.com/ projects
“This make is perfect for those friends who you won't see to give a present, but deserve something a little more special than a normal card� Lucy Jobber, Deputy Editor
Find all the how-tos at crafts-beautiful.com/projects
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PAINTER'S TOUCH
Marker magic
The ProMarker is the perfect introduction to colouring with alcoholbased markers. The dual nibs provide a smooth and flawless finish, great for all types of art and crafts. Purchase individually for £2.75 or in packs of 12 for £27.50 with a free blender pen. winsornewton.co.uk
Designed with the artist in mind, Graphic Markers are made from the highest grade pigments to give a rich, luscious vibrancy to artwork. Each pen has a comfortable, ultra-slim shape and is presented in a case that can be interlocked so that you can build up your collection. Six pack, £24, winsornewton.co.uk
Colour code
CARD MAKER’S
COLOUR INK SPOTS
Made from water-soluble dyes in a shellac solution, drawing inks can be applied with a brush or pen offering plenty of scope to experiment with different colouring techniques. Available in packs of six colours, priced £14.95, winsornewton.co.uk
SHOP
Make your craft designs 'pop' with our pick of the snazziest colouring tools around EASY BLENDER
At last, a double-ended pencil you just flip to blend! Chameleon's unique artist quality pencils take the guesswork out of choosing the right shade for blending. Each pencil has two richly pigmented colours and a buttery smoothness to produce impressive results on paper and card. Chameleon Color Tone 25 pack, £49.99, amazon.co.uk
Happy place
Work away the stresses of the day by colouring the stunning illustrations in Clare Young's enchanting book, Colour Yourself Happy (Ryland Peters, £9.99). Get a copy at rylandpeters.com
Draw a line In The Coloured Pencil Artist's Drawing Bible (Search Press, £9.99) you'll discover how to tackle a range of subjects from still-life studies to holiday sketching and portraiture, all in easy steps. Order from searchpress.co.uk
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With an ergonomic, triangular shape Ergosoft Pencils have a comfortable grip and soft, break-resistant lead. There are 24 rich, intense colours in attractive desktop boxes and tins. staedtler.co.uk
Light touch
Spritz Dylusions Ink sprays onto your craft work to create unique backgrounds. The concentrated colourant is suitable for most porous surfaces including wood, canvas, paper clay and stickybacked plastics. Priced from £4.99 per bottle. afth.co.uk
LUXE LOOKS
Add a touch of creative sparkle with these fabulous glitter pens from Spectrum Noir. Available in a range of seasonal colours containing fine glitter micro-pigment, the markers are perfect for colouring, writing, embellishing, accenting and more! £12.99, pack of three, crafterscompanion.co.uk
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Your Crafty
Essentials!
TEMPLATES PAPERS+ BONUS CARDS HOW-TOS
Carry on your Christmas crafting with our fantastic resource guide
Pick ‘n’ PRINT
Three FREE docrafts festive papers over the page
+ find more to complete the set at crafts-beautiful.com
Copy CLEVER
Take a Peek
DISCOVER THE BEST WAYS TO USE YOUR TEMPLATES
1
Print the downloadable document as a whole or select the page number of the template you’d like, then print it individually.
Create stylish cards with your papers
2
If you don’t own a printer, you can still use the templates in the magazine, simply trace around them.
3
Full step-by-steps for these projects at crafts-beautiful.com
What’s this?
Don’t forget to scale the templates to the size stated, we make them smaller to fit on our pages.
FREE DOWNLOAD
Shape Up!
50+ PATTERNS & OUTLINES for this issue’s projects. Download them all full size at crafts-beautiful.com
Template TASTERS
Turn the pages for this month’s edit of our favourite patterns. Scale them up as directed and start crafting today!
TEMPLATES THIS WAY
Look & Learn!
Pleased with your docrafts papers? Head to crafts-beautiful.com to print even more!
BONUS TREAT
20 extra papers to prepare you for Christmas
Join our craft expert Corinne Bradd with her latest tutorials f Papercraft Geometrics f Christmas Snowglobe Shaker Card Plus 100s more videos at youtube.com/thecraftschannel crafts-beautiful.com 99
RD
Peek into
CA R A T S
m
MY WEEK...
STEPHANIE WEIGHTMAN ADDS A DECORATIVE FLOURISH TO HER FESTIVE PREPARATIONS
T Why not try these designs with the Deco Christmas collection? Sweet Illumination This lovely card was made with the Art Deco Christmas Shopping and Christmas Sentiment set, plus Christmas Scene paper. Matt blue, silver foil and white cardstock, plus a sheet from the Scene pack, then offset the figure to create a shadow. Finish with a paper rose and a dash of sparkle.
he days are getting shorter, but these crisp, sunny days are a delightful sight to behold. I'm especially loving the spiders’ webs – they look amazing first thing in the morning when the dew is dripping from them or, even better, with a bit of frost to make them sparkle. It's just magical! This pretty sight is my cue to get going with my Christmas cards – and sparkle is exactly what I'm after this year. Tattered Lace's Art Deco Christmas Collection is guaranteed to give your cards a twinkle, as well as a touch of glamour. This theme never goes out of fashion, so it's a perfect option for just about everyone. If you want to make something elegant and timeless that's pretty enough to save and bring out year after year to grace your mantelpiece, this collection is ideal.
Make Your Own...
To create your own statement piece, use Art Deco Moonlight and Sitting in the Moonlight, along with the Essentials Circles and Frame set. Create a 13.5cm circle in a 17cm square tent card, with two apertures in the centre made from pale blue square and glittered white card. Attach a blue frame, then layer acetate behind. Cut the Moonlight die from glittered and silver foil cardstock, offset and layer the die-cut to create a drop shadow, then repeat for the sentiment. Prepare two Sitting in the Moonlight dies, colour and matt onto the top, add a blue bow and embellish with glitter.
Stylish Romance The Art Deco Winter Romance set is a lovely option if you are looking to make a card for couples or a winter wedding or anniversary. Layer silver foil and white cardstock onto an A5 blank, then add the Winter Romance and Lamp Post. Tint with golden hues for moonlit charm.
Perfect partners Art Deco Christmas Shopping Code TLD0482
Art Deco Winter Romance Code TLD0493
Extra Sparkle Art Deco is all about the shimmer and sheen, so don't be afraid to incorporate generous layers of silver foil into your card creations. This example uses the Christmas Scene set along with a classic white ribbon fastened in the left-hand corner, plus diamante gems for added twinkles.
Art Deco Christmas Scene Code TLD0491
Tune into Create and Craft TV to see Stephanie Live! 114
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