Day 12: PaperArtsy 12 Days of Christmas

Day 12: Featuring Jacqui Chimes 

Using Nut and Meg Plates 7 and 8

Here we are on the last day of this Christmas Feature. the Design Team has produced a huge variety of projects, cards and creative ideas which have been a fantastic inspiration to us all. I can't thank them enough for sharing with us all, they have been great to work with for this feature which has made the editorial work I needed to do quite exciting as all the different projects arrived in via mail and email.  

 I hope you will find this a great resource for your own Christmas Preparation this year, and that you will continue to spread the word and share with your friends the ideas that have been presented here.

Today we have some lovely cards from Jacqui Chimes using these 2 sets of images. A few of these use Egg and Nog which she made for us some time ago, and this is the perfect time to feature them. Some other projects also use Nut and Meg, and all are beautifully styled, and easy to make. Through this she also links to a few beautiful online tutorials from other blogs whihc I know I'll be using for future projects! Thanks for you time and expertise Jacqui. You can see more of Jacqui here at her blog.

Moggie Celebrates

by Jacqui Chimes

• Stamp cat on white card and again on red and green card. 

• Use Nestibilities die to cut circle around cat and emboss, and then sponge lightly while still in die with Aged Mahogany’ distress ink. Mount onto black circle. 

• Cut hat from red card and scarf from green card and glue in place. Decorate hat with ‘jewel’ and Stickles glitter.

• Cut a rectangle of patterned paper (Basic Grey Wassail) and mount on to slightly larger back card. 

• Cut rectangle of white card and stamp ‘words’ from Nut & Meg 8 three times. Trim closely and mount onto slightly larger black card. 

• Stamp ‘Christmas Cheer’ from Nut and Meg 3 onto white scrap, sponge edges and mount onto slightly larger black card. 

• Layer as shown onto red and black card using ‘pop-dots’ for cat and Christmas Cheer. Stamp ‘Merry Christmas’ from Egg and Nog 3 onto white square and use to decorate inside of card.

Santa in PJ's?

• Santa (SIEN9) is stamped and embossed twice once on plain white and once on patterned paper. 

• Cut out his hat coat, gloves and trousers from the patterned paper and layered them on top of the white. Boots are coloured in and background is swirls cuttlebug folder.

Goodwill

• The 3 Trees (SIEN1) are stamped with black Brilliance, clear embossed and cut out from 3 different papers.

• Middle tree is embellished with star brad. 

• Word is also embossed and little tree coloured. 

• The strip is finished with a Fiskars border punch.

Three trees

Basic Grey Wassail again this time with some white card that has been Cuttlebugged - Snowflakes design.Trees are SIEN1.

Poinsettia

• Uses unknown (very old) paper, swiss dots cuttlebug embosing folder and flower stamps (SIEN 2 and SIEN4) layered up with black brad. 

• Flowers are embossed before they are cut out. Words are also embossed.

Rose Box

• Mini Box Tutorial can be found here on how to construct the actual box. I used 2 different shades of card rather than patterned paper. For box sides cut lighter card into rectangles a little smaller than the box sides. 

• Stamp ‘snowflake’ from Nut & Meg 8 in centre using Aged Mahogany distress ink and glue to panels onto the box side. Decorate with ‘jewel’ as shown. 

• Decorate the lid using square and scalloped square cut using Nestibilities and decorate with ‘roses’. 

• Roses are made by stamping large stitched ‘flower’ from Egg & Nog 10 three times for each flower onto patterned paper (or colour your own), cutting out and following instructions from this tutorial When complete glue to lid. I used Glossy Accents and decorated the corners of scalloped square with ‘jewels’.

Elf Gift Card Holder

Construct gift card holder using template found here (instructions are not in English but it’s easy to ‘work out’). I used light green card and a darker green to edge inside pockets, to border patterned paper on front and for band and scalloped circle.

• Use Basic Grey Wassail paper to decorate front and insides as shown (I sponged the edges with Black Soot distress ink. 

• Stamp and emboss ‘Elf’ from Nut and Meg 7 three times onto white card. Colour with metallic gel pens and decorate with ‘Stickles’. Cut out 2 closely and glue to card as shown. 

• Stamp and emboss ‘Santa’s Little Helpers’ once, ‘Wanted’ once, ‘Elf's feet’ once and ‘Elves are in the House’ three times onto white card. Outline words with marker pen to match the ‘Wanted’ border and then cut out and glue to card as shown.  
  

• Decorate card with ‘Spiral Circle’ stamp from Nut & Meg 7 and ‘Christmas Cheer’ from Nut & Meg 3 as shown. 

• Use Nestibilities circle and scalloped circle for third elf and cut two strips of card (one slightly wider than the other) to go around gift card. Fold around and glue together at back (make sure it is not too tight). Glue ‘Elf’ circle to front and slip over holder to complete.

Well that was another superb line up for today and a huge thanks to Jacqui, and of course the rest of the Design Team who also contributed to this feature on previous days.

PaperArtsy Blog Giveaway: You know the deal, to be in for a chance to win Nut and Meg Plates 7 & Nut and Meg 8 on EZ mount, AND a pack of Rum and Raisin Papers, then leave a comment and we'll get the randomiser to pick a winner.This offer ends midnight GMT the day of this posting, 15 September 2009, and is open to all players worldwide.

NB. Please check back on the 'Winner' posts, as we have a couple of prizes as yet unclaimed, and it might be you!!!

Day 11: PaperArtsy 12 Days of Christmas

Day 11: Featuring Jo Capper-Sandon and Isabelle Norris

Using Nut and Meg Plates 5 and 6

Well I know many of you are great supporters of Jo and Isabelle. They are back the last time today with these 2 plates, and certainly, true to form, they have both put their own spin on the possibilities with a few little black images! How do they do it? Well who knows what goes on in their heads, but we are certainly the benefactors of their generosity in sharing their creative ideas. 

Jo creates a beautiful table setting, what a delight this would be to sit down to on Christmas day. Isabelle celebrates after Christmas Day with a page of memories to treasure in years to come.

Wonderful ideas here today, and there is no excuse not to do this for your own families this year...as you have plenty of time!!

The fairy stamp (SINM6) is an extremely popluar one, and another plate that will get used year round. Jo also used some of the elements from Nut and Meg plate 5 (left), and I love those little penguin styled birds! 

  

Fit for Royalty: Christmas Table Setting

by Jo Capper-Sandon

Napkin Ring
Tucked away in the back left of this photo.

• Cut a piece off the end of a kitchen roll tube.

• Cover it in green paper overlayed with a narrower silver piece of mirri (mirror) card.

• Stamp 'leaf' (petal taken from flower ,SIEN2), trim and add colour to indicate shadow. I used a cool grey copic marker.

• Stamp, cut out flower and cut in half. Colour and cover with irridescent stars.

• Finish with a button and rub-on stitches.

 Christmas Cracker

• Take a plain shop bought cracker or make your own.

• Stamp Poinsetta and daisy flowers (SIEN2) onto white card with black memento ink. Colour and cut in half.

• Place a blob of silicone under the daisy flower half on the straight edge and lay it ontop of the poinsetta half, at a wedge (45 degree) angle.

• Once dry glue the 3D halves onto the cracker.

• Stamp Love, Joy, Peace (SINM5) onto white card, colour border and trim. 

• Glue  onto the centre of the cracker.

• Add irridescent stars and buttons to finish.

Place Card

• Fold a piece of silver mirri (mirror) card.

• Stamp the fairy and the poinsettas onto white paper or thin card. Colour using Copics.

• Build a 3D skirt from the flowers as before. Cut off fairy legs (ouch) and glue the skirt onto the fairy top half.

• Print the name. Scribble a rough area of Copic marker. Cut out both leaving a white border, and glue the name onto the coloured panel. Mount onto the place card.

• Finish by adding rub-on stitches, button and irridescent stars (on wings and Copic panel)

 I bet you loved that project!! I did when the photos came in from Jo. Very cool, and so much fun too. You could adapt this to a little girl's birthday party too! Remember to post a comment to win some goodies including the stamps used to make this project.

Christmas Fairy Notes

by Jo Capper-Sandon

This one is pretty in pink! And if you want to make something a little differnt for a gift, then here it is!

• Stamp holly border around a plain white card square frame.
  

• Stamp and cut out fairy. Colour both.

• Cut out a rectangle of preprinted paper and cover note book. Using a matching Copic marker colour a square to act as the background for the fairy.

• Layer the fairy, the frame and the background in the position you like and glue together.

• Using 3D pads mount the framed fairy onto the note book.

• Stamp words and heart using Stazon onto the copper metal sheet. Outline the words with a teflon tool.
  

• Outline the hearts with a teflon tool, then flip over and puff out on the soft mat with a paper stump from the reverse to puff them out. Fill recess of hearts with glossy accents (to support the metal) and cover with black card. 

• Leave to dry overnight, then cut out. Glue the metal embellishments in place

• For the pen, randomly stamp 'fairy' word onto the same pre printed paper and cover the pen barrel with it. Glue in place to finish.

Thanks to Jo for those lovely items, you can see more of her work on her blog. Now we finish todays post with a Christmas Layout from Isabelle Norris, whose blog is here.

“Love joy peace”

by Isabelle Norris

• Paint a piece of white card with Viva Decor Precious Metal Colour Orange-Yellow. Once dry, Stamp the fairy (for her top which you will cut out) and the hearts (from SINM5) .

• Paint another piece of white card with Viva Decor Precious Metal Colour Gold. Once dry, stamp the fairy (this is for the skirt you will need to cut out).

• Stamp the fairy on a white piece of card and cut it out. Don’t worry about the stars at the bottom of the dress, just cut them off. Cut out the arms so you can lift them from the dress.

• Stamp the fairy on your scrapbook page (1). Glue the cut out fairy on the stamped one and colour it (except for the skirt and top) (2).The stars at the bottom of the dress which you did not cut, now appears as they would normally.

• Glue the skirt and top and add glitter glue to the wings for a very sparkling fairy (3)

• Flowers: Stamp the flowers from Egg and Nog 4 onto patterned paper. The top flower is embossed with the Cuttlebug. The raised lines are painted with Viva Decor Precious Metal paint (gold)

• Borders: top and bottom of the page, stamp the “holly and swirl” border from SINM6 and highlight with glitter glue.

• LOVE JOY PEACE from SINM5 was stamped and cut out and used as a title for the page.

Thanks again to Jo and Isabelle for today's lovely projects. We'll see you all tomorrow for the last of our 12 Days of Christmas Posts. Hasn't it gone fast!!



PaperArtsy Blog Giveaway: Please leave a comment and we'll randomly draw a name to win Nut and Meg plates 5, Nut and Meg Plate 6. All the stamps will come on EZ Mount worth £18.80. This offer ends midnight GMT the day of this posting, 14 September 2009, (lucky for someone)  and is open to all players worldwide.

Day 10: PaperArtsy 12 Days of Christmas

Day 10: Featuring Jacqui Chimes 

Using Nut and Meg Plates 2 and 3

Jacqui got a brief into on Day 8. Even though Jacqui is kind of new to the DT, she is probably one of the members who I have known since way back before we started making stamps. In fact so long, that I think we first got to know each other form swapping art way way long ago. I remember we used to play in Altered Book Round Robins together a long time back and we had a few Yahoo groups in common.
 
Jacqui has quite a varied array of styles which you can see more clearly on her blog. Most of our Design Team came to us with an Ink & The Dog Style preference, but Jacqui is one of those who can comfortably do Ink and The Dog altered vintage, and she can also do traditional cards, or squiggly ones with Squiggly Ink. Multi talented! 

Jacqui came to a recent ArtsyCrafts event, so now she is adding more metal to her projects too. She is very shy about what she does but we think it's all totally gorgeous, perfectly formed, great use of pattern and colour, and has a wide appeal.... so please post lots of comments to encourage her and let her know how fab she is! Today she is doing lots of cards and tag using some new and other older Christmas stamps. It's all beautiful! Welcome Jacqui!

A Bag Full of Snowmen

by Jacqui Chimes

This project is ideal for a bag of chocolate money or similar small gift at Christmas. Its used the snowman from SINM2 
Template for bag is from Scor-Pal.

Cut out the template from green card and score as shown in the instructions.
 

Stamp front and back with ‘Holly Garland’ from SIEN3 and the sides with ‘Seasons Greetings’ from SIEN4 in green ink. Assemble bag as instructed.

Cut a strip of white paper, distress edges and run through Cuttlebug ‘dots’ folder, then stick to front of bag at base. 

Stamp and emboss in black ‘Snowman’ from Nut and Meg 2 on Basic Grey Wassail patterned paper and colour hat, gloves, nose, buttons and scarf with markers as shown.

Glue onto card, cut out and attach to bag with double sided tape.

Tie top with co-ordinating ribbon.

Mr Snowman Tag

by Jacqui Chimes

Colour tag with wrinkle free distress technique using Faded Jeans, Broken China and Dusty Concord distress inks. Ink edges with Walnut Stain distress ink. Stamp ‘Tree’ from Egg and Nog 1 three times using Faded Jeans distress ink. Stamp ‘Seasons Greetings’ from Egg and Nog 4 with black ink. 

Using Stazon black ink stamp the ‘Snowman’ (SINM2)onto pearl metal. Back the metal with Humungo double sided tape and card. {technique from Lin Brown, LB crafts, or watch Leandra demo the technique in a video here}


Use a Teflon pointed tool to outline the snowman. Colour sections with permanent markers as shown.

Cut out and mount onto tag. 

Add co-ordinating ribbons.

Merry Christmas Tag

by Jacqui Chimes

Cover a large tag with Basic Grey Wassail patterned paper. Stamp and emboss in black ‘Merry Christmas’ from Nut and Meg 2 on Basic Grey Wassail plain paper. Round corners and glue jewels with Glossy Accents. 

Stamp and emboss flowers in black from Egg and Nog 2 and SIEN10 on Basic Grey papers and cut out. Layer as shown and glue jewel to centre. Mount ‘Merry Christmas’ and flower using foam dots. Add co-ordinating ribbons.

Santa's Stocking

By Jacqui Chimes

Stamp words from Egg and Nog 9 randomly in Pesto Adirondack ink onto green card tag. Stamp and emboss in black ‘stocking’ from Nut and Meg 3 and ‘Presents’ from Nut and Meg 8 onto four different colours of card and once onto white card. 

Cut out carefully and paper piece coloured pieces together on top of white card. (NB you could achieve a similar look using markers). Glue presents along bottom of tag and mount stocking using. Add co-ordinating ribbon

Oh Christmas Tree!

by Jacqui Chimes

Stamp and emboss ‘tree and presents’ (SINM3) with black ink onto a rectangle of white card. Mount onto slightly larger black card. Stamp and emboss again in onto green card then stamp and emboss the ‘presents’ only onto five further coloured card scraps. Cut out carefully. 

Mount tree with foam dots over the one stamped on white and paper piece ‘presents’ as shown. Stamp and emboss star from Nut and Meg 3 onto yellow card and cut out. Stick to top of tree. Add sticky jewels to tree. 

Stamp and emboss part of words from Egg and Nog 1 onto white card and tiny tree onto yellow card. Cut out tiny tree and add as shown. 

Use Cuttlebug ‘swirls’ folder to emboss white card and layer onto slightly larger black card. Layer as shown onto white card.

Baubles Tag

by Jacqui Chimes

Stamp ‘holly garlands’ from Egg and Nog 3 and Egg and Nog 9 over cream tag using Archival black ink. Use second generation print so it is not too dark. 

Colour tag with Distress inks in Aged Mahogany and Pine Needles. Stamp and emboss in gold ‘Merry Christmas’ from Egg and Nog 3 at bottom of tag. Use 

UTEE technique (3 coats of UTEE, then press an inked stamp into the molten UTEE) to make a tile in gold and add Pearl-ex powders to add toning colours. 

Stamp ‘baubles’ from Nut and Meg 3 using black Brilliance ink into hot UTEE. Edge tile with black marker pen and edge tag with gold Krylon. 

Mount tag onto slightly larger black card and add co-ordinating ribbons.

Poinsettia Tag

by Jacqui Chimes

Cover tag with Basic Grey Wassail patterned paper. Cut a label shape as shown out of plain paper and create a mask for centre.
Stamp 'Holly Garland' from Egg and Nog 3 onto label in Pesto ink and colour berries red with marker. 
Stamp and emboss ‘Seasons Greetings’ from Egg and Nog 4 onto space created by mask. 
Machine stitch all edges with black thread. 

 Stamp and emboss flower from Egg and Nog 10 in black four times on co-ordinating papers, cut out and layer with red brads. Glue as shown using Glossy Accents. Cover back of tag with card to hide stitching and add co-ordinating ribbons. 


A huge thanks to Jacqui for all her great ideas. We will see more of her another day (yes there is still more to come). Tags like these are lovely for gifts for friends, the postman, or teachers at school. You can't have too many! 

These samples were made before the new Rum and Raisin papers from PaperArtsy were printed. It's nice if you can use a Christmas palette for your tags and cards, and Christmas papers make it so much faster, and you don't have to think about the co-ordination so hard either. There are 14 patterns to choose from in our Rum and Raisin pack! 

You can still create your own papers with Inks or paints, or you can stamp directly onto papers like Jacqui has done. This year I am going to buy a couple of bulk rolls of coloured paper and stamp it up in gold or silver and black ink to have matching paper for the presents. I love it when the bits under the tree all match.  I will add the occasional image stamped an embossed from a patterned paper too, and then use those same papers on the card or tag. All this Christmas stuff is getting me really keen to start playing with these stamps. I hope you are too!

PaperArtsy Blog Giveaway: Please leave a comment and we'll randomly draw a name to win Nut and Meg plates 1, Nut and Meg Plate 2, and Nut and Meg Plate 3 PLUS a pack of Rum and Raisin  paper. All the stamps will come on EZ Mount worth £32.80. This offer ends midnight GMT the day of this posting, 13 September 2009, (lucky for someone)  and is open to all players worldwide.

Day 8: PaperArtsy 12 Days of Christmas

Day 8:  Featuring Julie Harrington

using Nut and Meg Plate 8

Julie, our talented mixed media styley Aussie is back with a few more samples using SIEN8. This stamp was designed to be used with all the others, as backgrounds, embellishments or borders, so you have seen it turn up in other places quite a bit already. The words make a great background, or look awesome stamped into UTEE as does the snowflake. The cat fitted in perfectly in yesterday's plaque, and I'm sure s/he will turn up in lots of places, and the 2 border strips are going to look fab on the new PaperArtsy Rum and Raisin Papers.
So first up is Julie Harrington

Julie was so excited to be playing with her new Viva paints, that the wall hanging featured below became a sampler of the paints. She used different colours as a base coat, and over stamped or embossed in other contrasting colours. You could have a lot of fun with this concept, tweaking it to suit the colour palette you prefer.


You can check out Julies work here, you really need to go and take a look. She has been doing some fantastic digital scrapped pages for a 7 Gypsies photo carousel, with pages that look awesome, and you can also see some of the tags with her own line of stamps she designed for us called Urban Snapshots. Julie is one talented lady, and I never have any idea what she is going to come out with next. She is into so many styles and things and its great how she jumps in boots and all to try out different ideas. Fearless.

Multi cat card
By Julie Harrington

A Quick and easy card in fact so quick and easy that Julie made it twice. I was only supposed to show you one, but I decided they were nice together!!

Stamp out the cat from plate SINM8 six times onto white card stock.
 

Cut an A4 sheet in half (to get A5 size).  Fold in half again and turn to landscape view (fold at the top of the card). 

Cut a sheet of patterned paper.  Or cut paper to the size of the card and run through a cuttlebug or similar embossing system. Secure to card front.

Stamp out the words and cut names out for each cat.
Colour the cats to match the background or to contrast with the background.
Assemble using mounting foam.

Patchwork Hanging

By Julie Harrington

What you need

1. 3 or 4 contrasting colours of Viva Decor metal paints
2. a matching Croco Crackle
3. transparent Croco Crackle
4. Uultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE)
5. embossing powder
6. Paints for stamping 
7. Brads or nail heads – whatever is to hand
8. Acrylic sheet
9. Bazzill card and ribbon.

I used Platinum Croco plus of the Precious Metal Colour Paints I used Ice Blue, Pearl Blue and Blackberry along with the Transparent Croco paint.

• Cut a square of card about the width of an A4 sheet of paper.  Measure the width of 1 edge and then calculate 1/3.  Cut small square of thick white cardstock the measured size (should be just under 2" square).
• Take 3 squares and using the blackberry, paint 2 of them.  On the 3rd paint with a mixture of blackberry and the transparent crackling paint.  Let dry.
• Take 3 more squares.  Using Ice Blue paint 2 of the squares.  On the 3rd use a credit card or similar to scrap a bit of paint lightly over the square leaving some white showing.  Then take the Pearl Blue and scrap a very small amount over the edges.
• On a 7th piece of square cardstock paint with a mixture of Pearl Blue and transparent crackling paste.  Allow to crackle overnight.
• On 8th piece of square cardstock cover card with embossing ink and then layer ultra thick embossing powder.  Heat with heatgun and then immediately (before it cools) stamp into it.  Don’t smoosh your stamp around.  Just leave it sitting in the Utee till the Utee cools.   The stamp will pop out once it cools a bit.  {Note, you can get deeper texture depending on how many layers of UTEE you use, so while the first layer is hot and molten you can adda second layer of powder, when cool shake off the excess, re melt and then stamp into it. But for this project we don't want the stamp texture to ooze the UTEE off the edges of the square card, so one layer should do it.}
• On the last piece paint with the Platinum crackling paint and let dry.
  

 Once all the squares are dry stamp on some of them using a contrasting paint (I used a silver).  Stamp on some of them using embossing ink and then embossing powder.

Assemble squares with brads, nail heads into square. You may also require an adhesive underneath. Lay up onto card, acrylic and use the ribbon as a hanger.

Thanks Julie for another great idea!

Now I'd like to introduce you to Jacqui Chimes. Jacqui has been a follower of PaperArtsy for many years, and she has been (quietly) on the DT for some time, but this is her first real public appearance for us. She makes really stunning layered cards, but you'll see much more of her on days to follow. Check out Jacqui's lovely blog, she has been playing along with us throught the 12 days of Xmas and has more samples online with Egg and Nog from last year as well as this year's Nut and Meg. She is a versatile stamper, and creates beautiful vintage style mini book projects and cards in a  in a way that looks effortless, plus she can also do thoroughly crisp, modern, beautifully finished cards. What a star. 

Chocolate Snowflake Card

by Jacqui Chimes

• Stamp ornament from Nut & Meg 8 with Stazon ink onto a square of Chocolate Metal. 
• Back the metal with Humungo tape and card stock (Tape Sandwich Technique) then use a Teflon pointy tool to go over outlines and a ‘scootchy’ tool (a technical term for a texture wheel like this) to decorate the edges. 
• Sand lightly then distress with Glimmer Mists (Walnut Gold and Iridescent Gold)
• Go over the edge with gold Krylon. 
• Cut a square of gold card and use ‘curls’ from tail of bird from Egg & Nog 8 to stamp edges with gold ‘Encore’ ink. Emboss in gold. 
• Cut bronze metallic card as shown and stamp and emboss ‘Merry Christmas’ from Egg and Nog 3 in gold at the bottom. 
• Stamp and emboss ‘Snowflake’ from Nut & Meg 8 randomly over top two thirds of card and emboss in copper. 
• Decorate the snowflake with ‘jewels’ and mount as shown with ‘pop-dots’. Tie ribbon.

Santa 

by Jacqui Chimes 

Plain card, run through the swirls cuttlebug, red is shiny as is the silver. 

Santa is coloured in with a bit of silver stickles for his trims. 

Red and silver swirls are cuttlebug border die cut apart. 

The images (SIEN9) are embossed.

All the panels are raised on sticky foam squares.



PaperArtsy Blog Giveaway: Please leave a comment and we'll randomly draw a name to win Nut and Meg Plates 8 and Egg and Nog Plate 9 on EZ Mount worth £18.80. This offer ends midnight GMT the day of this posting, 11 September 2009,  and is open to all players worldwide.

 

Day 7: PaperArtsy 12 days of Christmas

Day 7:  Featuring Jo Firth-Young 

using Nut and Meg Plate 7

 Jo F-Y is back with an adorable plaque idea with the elf. The plaque is about 8" x8" so would make a great wall hanging, or a nice display on an easel too. Jo has secretly confessed to me that she has sketched ideas for a whole wardrobe of outfits for these elves, even dungarees...so I have a vision of a row of elves on her mantlepice all dressed up to celebrate the season!! She was also dreaming of flip books where the top middle and bottom were all different, and even little tabbed clothes, like the kind we used to cut up as kids. Being a cat lover, she had to include our christmas moggie from SINM8, who makes the perfect buddy for our elf. You can see more of Jo Firth-Young here on her blog.

Elves Wanted Plaque

by Jo Firth-Young

This plaque is created using mainly Nut and Meg plate 7, but also includes stamps from other plates: Cat (SINM 8), Parcels(SINM3), Snowflakes small (SINM1) and large (SINM8). Small circles around edges are Squiggly Mini 15.
 
The Plaque:

• Cut shaped plaque from chipboard (sand the edges slightly to smooth any rough edges)

• Paint surface with Kaiser colour White acrylic paint. Colour the edges with Kaiser colour Sea Breeze acrylic paint – blending the 2 colours and leaving the centre of the plaque pale.

• Stamp the large and small snowflakes randomly (and sparingly) over the surface using a blue pearlescent ink. NB if you don't have a pearlsecent ink pad for the bubbles , you could also use a Viva Decor metallic paint to stamp the bubbles onto the chipboard. Blue Azure is perfect. 

• Spritz the surface of the plaque with Glimmer Mist – Pearl 

• Draw white lines around the edge of the plaque with Ranger Inkessesntials white gel pen.

• Drag/ smudge Blue Metallic paint Viva Decor: Blue azure, blue lagoon, Turquoise, Pearl Blue would all work well) around the edge of the plaque – smudge over the white lines to soften the harshness of the white.   
  

• Highlight some of the small stamped circles with the white pen and add spot details to the snowflakes.

• Add a hint of olive green paint to the edges to tie in with ground that the elf etc will stand on. 

• Paint chipboard snowflakes with silver precious colour metallic paint and a very pale blue acrylic paint made by adding white to a small amount of the sea breeze paint. The large snowflakes have been painted in very pale blue and the edges and centres wiped sparingly with silver shimmery paint. Set aside.

The Elf:

• Stamp elf head and feet stamps (SIEN7) onto white card. Draw elf body yourself! You can do it! It's not that hard, and if you fail, get a child to do it! A triangle makes the top, belt at the middle, with a triangle skirt with wobbly hem and trim.  Draw the arms with knobbly elbows (to match the knees) which go behind the elf's back so you don't have to tackle the problem of hands! Cut all out and attach to each other. 

• Stamp cat and cut out. Stamp the parcels 3 times and cut out (colour each set the same as they will be decoupaged). 

• Colour all these pieces – I’ve used coloured pencils and highlighted with metallic pen for belt buckle, parcel stripes, and cat’s scarf & added glaze gel pen to the holly on hat. Add shading on the images to give dimension. 

• Create some ‘aged’ paper for the signs by wiping ink (Antique Linen Distress Ink) on to white card and diluting with water.  Dry thoroughly. 
• Stamp ‘wanted’ sign onto the card, and for the other 2 phrases you will also need to add lines in the same vein as the Wanted sign to create signs. 
• Cut two rough edge strips of brown card for the sign posts – create wood grain with a brown pencil.

Putting it all together:

• Position the painted snowflakes around the edge of the card and all the stamped images in the centre of the plaque.  

• When happy with the positioning and the balance/ spacing attach some of the snowflakes with 3d foam pads and stick others directly onto the chipboard. In the middle of the larger ones add an adhesive gem. 

• Mark where the bases of the elf, cat, parcels and signs are going to sit on the plaque then remove them and add a "green ground" where they were positioned. Use green with a bit of brown pencil. Reposition and attach the pieces where marked.

• Add a bit of shadow or darkness around the feet/signs etc.  

•  The parcels are 3d decoupaged to add a bit of dimension.

Another big thank-you to Jo Firth-Young for sharing with us this fun and achievable project. I am sure it will get your heads buzzing with ideas, and i just love the shape of the chipboard.

Next for today, we have a couple of projects from Joanne Wardle, and one from Jo Capper-Sandon, so it truly is a "Day of the Jo's" here on the paperArtsy blog!

Elf House Hanging
By Jo Wardle

Cut a house shape 11cm tall x7cm wide. Cut a window approximately 4cm square. Stamp text and elf onto white card, using stamps from plate SINM7. 

Colour elf with coloursoft pencils and sansodor solution to blend and soften. Cut out. 

Colour house with vintage photo distress ink and over stamp with “wanted” stamp. 

Stamp in black little round swirl repeatedly and corner stamp onto house. Attach elf and the sign with words. Add an eyelet and some raffia.

Elf Watercolour Gift Tag

By Joanne Wardle

This is another of Joanne's Watercolour tags using the same technique as described in yesterday's post. As it was using today's featured plate, I thought I'd slip it in here.

Winter Girl

by Joanne Capper-Sandon

1. Stamp splash mini 57   randomly onto white card in soft blue and black ink.
2. Overstamp in black with USYT3 girl image.
3. Edge the card with silver peel off strips. (Yes we caught Jo using Peel offs...you heard it here first! She's going to kill me for revealing this, but it's the scoop of the year! lol)
4. Stamp Peace etc and edge with more peel off strips...should we be worried?? lol 
Position at the foot of the panel.
5. Layer stamped panel to white coredinations card which sands back to a lilac core. The dark portions are the sanded bits.
6. Colour face etc with copic markers.
7. Attach grey ribbon down LHS of card, and secure clear snowflake with pearl centre brad.
8. Embellish with lilac-grey buttons.
9. Apply glitter shards to the card.


Its Ok Jo we still love you....we all use peel offs in secret, and we all have them in our stash. I am quite partial to using the magenta ones as masks (in fact i taught that technique for quite a while a year or so ago, even in Holland!), and I was over the moon back in the day when the typewriter alphabet came out....so breathe easy. lol.  You're allowed a guilty pleasure. I'm going to bed giggling tonight.

PaperArtsy Blog Giveaway: Please leave a comment and we'll randomly draw a name to win Nut and Meg Plates 7 and Urban Snapshots YuleTide plate 3 on EZ Mount worth £18.80. This offer ends midnight GMT the day of this posting, 10 September 2009, and is open to all players worldwide.