And the book inside:

Denise will be showing you how to make these fabulous cards and brooches (one card and one brooch for £1.50):

And Sue will be helping you create five fabulous designer cards from the Amy Butler collection for just £2:

We’ll let you know what Kathryn has planned shortly

Hope to see you on Saturday – details of the club are here.

I’ve updated the posts for my Twelve Tags for January and February with the instructions for each. I hope you’ll let me know how you get on and encourage me to get on with March and April

The kit contains background papers, inks, dabbers, peel offs, a stippling brush, toppers, stamps, threads, medals and so much more. Here are some of the demo cards:

And there was one stand out card, by Meggie:

This month for scrapbooking, Kathryn showed the group how to make either a Christmas or a pet themed paper bag book, complete with pull out tags. Just £4.00 make and take.

Here’s how to make the February tag:

 

  

Neil has been busy creating ready for Craft Club sessions this year and has hit upon an idea based on Tim Holtz’s 12 tags for Christmas: Twelve Tags for 2012. Each tag will be themed to the month it’s made in, and instructions will be posted here after the Craft Club. Here are the teaser pics for January’s tag – let us know what you think

All you need is a luggage tag (size 6), white gesso, distress inks and some paper… and a bit of sandpaper, a brush, some thick card and an embossing machine. And a Cricut would be helpful too.

Here are the instructions for making this tag:

Firstly, make your embossing template. Neil used a Cricut machine with the Opposites Attract cartridge to cut out his lettering. Any die cut system with regular alphabets will work. Cut out enough letters to make a thick template, two to three card thicknesses high. Stick them in layers onto a tag. Two layers of 300gsm card seemed to work well.

The idea is that this is thick enough to leave an impression on the tag you’re working on, but not so thick that you risk tearing it when you emboss it.

If in doubt, start with a couple of layers and then see how well it embosses.

You will probably need to put the tag you’re working on face-down on the soft embossing mat, then the embossing template with your text on face-down on top of that, and then the hard layer of the embossing sandwich. Follow the instructions for your machine, and test on scrap tags/paper first.

Now it’s time to work on the actual tag. First, coat the tag in a layer of white gesso and allow to dry. This seals the card, and allows following layers to work. White acrylic paint should do the same job. Now emboss your undercoated tag. Next apply some distress inks in complimentary colours to get a mottled effect. Use a darker colour where the text will be.

Dry the distress ink thoroughly before using fine sandpaper to rub back to the white layer – if you are careful, the lettering should highlight. If you press too hard, the embossing will flatten – if this is the case, then place your embossing template under again and rub against that. Use a distress tool on the edges of the tags to roughen them up a bit. Set aside.

Next, punch out some daisies in two sizes – roughly 11/2 in and 1 in diameter. You will need half a large and one small per snowdrop. Using the photo as a guide, cut each daisy in half (between the petals). Colour the tips of each of the small daisy petals in green, on both sides. Fold the edge petals over the inner petals until you have ‘bunny ears’. Unfold.

This stage is the most fiddly bit. You are aiming to make a cone where two of the petals are stuck together, making a little three petalled propellor shape. Put glue on the top of the first petal, and curl this round and under the last petal and stick it down. Do this for all of the flower pieces, large and small. You may find that tweezers are helpful to get into the tip of the cone and hold the petals together while the glue is setting.

Assemble the snowdrop by using a good fast drying glue. Put a small drop of glue into the inside of the large cone and push in a small cone (with the green tips). Add another drop of glue into that cone and then stick the last of the small cones in, making sure the petals are rotated to fill in the gaps of the other cone. Set aside to dry.

Colour up a piece of white card with a combination of Forest Moss and Pine Needles Distress Inks. Use an applicator tool or a piece of cut and dry foam to swirl the colour on, and aim to get a dark mottled effect. Allow to dry. Cut out the leaves and stalks and stick to your tag with glue. Neil also cut out small quadrants to curl into cones which he then stuck onto the snowdrops, before sticking them to the tag.

And here’s how to do the same:

1. Choose your design – if it is to be in line with the colour stripe, mask the card first; if it is to overflow the colour stripe, emboss first
2. Stamp your design with Versamark or other clear embossing ink and heat emboss with a clear sparkly embossing powder – this forms your resist layer
3. Mask your card/tag with low tack masking tape or large post-it note
4. Apply distress ink with a foam applicator, working from the masking tape into the stripe – aim for a dark area next to the masked area, and light in the middle
5. Apply distress ink with another colour in the same way, either blending in the middle or leaving a slight white band in the middle
6. Wipe over the coloured area with a dry tissue to remove any ink sticking to the embossing
7. Add embellishments as desired.

Colour combinations to try:
Dusty Concord with Chipped Sapphire; Tumbled Glass with Stormy Sky; Shappy Shutters

Stamps to try (if you can find some of them!):
95892 from Inkadinkadoo (as seen on the tag above)
H128 from Great Impressions (Centralia, WA)
P1603R from Personal Impressions
Mini Holidays CMS066 from Stampers Anonymous
Text stamps are our own design – contact us if you’d like to order them.

Each card follows the same process, using one colour of Tim Holtz’s Distress Inks: Chipped Sapphire, Forest Moss, Fired Brick or Dusty Concord. As distress inks are embossing inks in their own right, where the instructions say ‘dry thoroughly’ they mean it – otherwise you get an amorphous blob of embossing and that’s not what we want… Another top tip for rubber stamp images like the dove one, with lots of open space, is to place the distress ink pad flat onto the image and lightly swirl it to add ink rather than heavy dabbing that might ink up the background and spoil your printing later.

1. Select your images and text – ideally the image should overflow the tag size
2. Lightly distress the tag in your chosen colour
3. DRY THOROUGHLY (and to be sure, swipe an antistatic bag across the tag)
4. Using clear embossing ink, and clear dull matt embossing powder, stamp background text image and heat emboss (this is making a ‘resist’ layer)
5. Allow to cool
6. Distress the tag some more, aiming to get the embossed text to appear lighten – it ‘zings’ from the tag when you have the depth of colour right. If the colour isn’t deepening, check to see if you didn’t dry enough in step 3 and the tag is completely covered in clear embossing
7. Wipe over with dry tissue to remove excess ink from the resist area
8. DRY THOROUGHLY – if using a heat tool, remember the embossing powder will remelt
9. Using clear embossing ink and white embossing powder, stamp and emboss the images and sentiment – if it all goes white, you’ve missed out step 7
10. Apply distress ink pad direct to non-stick sheet or other non-absorbent surface and use as a paint palette – pick up the colour with a damp paintbrush and paint into the white outlines. Don’t forget there is still clear resist text there, so may look patchy until completed
11. Using the same distress ink, ink up the image stamp and stamp onto your card using the completed tag as a guide (clean stamp if you’re using it to emboss again!)
12. Paint the visible areas of the image either side of the tag
13. Stick down the tag with your choice of adhesive or foam pads
14. Sit back and admire your handiwork [alternatively, have another go now you've had a practice run ]

Embossing powders: I’m loving the range from Wow! Embossing Powders – the dull matt clear is fab for the background   Remember they are less static than other powders, but you need to use the antistatic bag on this technique to close down the distress ink.