I rel and s f i rst onl i ne craf t magazi ne. . . .

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

Advent Cal endar
Cr eat i ng UTEE or nament s
C
h
a
l l e
n
g
e
P
ri z
e

Tut ori al s
Gi veaways
Revi ews
Chri st mas I nspi rat i on
And much more!
2

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 Tho-
mas 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/









Dont forget about our BLOG and FACEBOOK page also. The blog will con-
tain 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 tu-
torials 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 al-
bum and we hope you can all join us for the class!!











Thats all from us now, we will let you go read the magazine and enjoy!
As always, happy crafting,


4

Edi t or s not e. . . . . . . . p2
Ni ght bef or e Chr i st mas mi ni al bum. . . . . . . . p6
Ar t J our nal i ng wor ks hop r evi ew. . . . . . . . p12
Caran d' ac he c rayons r evi ew. . . . . . . . p14
St ampi ng on Canvas . . . . . . . . p18
Pi nt er est what i s i t ?. . . . . . . . p22
Submi s s i ons . . . . . . . . p28
Craf t y Queens Fl i p Fl ap t ut or i al . . . . . . . . p42
Wi nt er Advent Vi l l age. . . . . . . . p45
Cone Chr i st mas t r ee. . . . . . . . p48
Cl as s es & Cr ops . . . . . . . . p50
Bac k t o bas i c s Paper s . . . . . . . . p52
How t o st ar t a bl og. . . . . . . p56
Spot l i ght on. . . . . . . . p64
UTEE Or nament s . . . . . . . . p68
Us i ng negat i ves of di e c ut s . . . . . . . . p76
Framed advent cal endar. . . . . . . . p82
Fal l al t erabl e wr eat h. . . . . . . . p86
Al t er ed candl e. . . . . . . . p88
Feat ur ed webs i t e. . . . . . . . p91
Chal l enge. . . . . . . . p96
Chal l enge wi nner s . . . . . . . . p97
Reader gi veaway. . . . . . . . p98
6

For this album I have used Cream, red, green and
black obviously you can use your own colour
choices. I know black wouldnt be usual for
Christmas but I like the contrast. I have only made
four inner pages, but you can add more.

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 what-
ever you usually use.
Christmas papers, I used Yuletide by K&Company, Christmas embellish-
ments, 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.)


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

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








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




Felicia Thomas
8

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.









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 dont look great!)

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





10

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 inter-
est 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!














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"
12

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 Dinas 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 isnt right

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
beaut i f ul
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 Face-
book page, we would love to see you pages!
14

Creating a layout using water soluble cray-
ons

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 dache water soluble
crayons, Neocolor II.

Caran dache water soluble crayons (wax pastels) are made in Switzerland
great to use in your scrabooking or cardmaking projects. They are water solu-
ble 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 lay-
out.

You will need:
Caran dAche 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

Timi Konya
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 cray-
ons. 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.

Timi Konya
16

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 me-
dium 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 dont
match in colour.






Step 5
Die cut some shapes from white pa-
per. 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 spray-
ing 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.
18

Flourishes opened the virtual
doors on their stamping boutique
on July 27, 2007, in hopes of giving
stampers something beyond what
was on the market beautiful and
timeless images for todays paper crafter. To date, they have produced up-
wards of 100 beautiful stamp sets created on the finest photo polymer avail-
able.
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 Nesta-
bilities 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 be-
By Stacy Morgan
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 Mark-
ers on canvas, be careful, this
medium does tend to bleed a lit-
tle. Its a good idea to take a
scrap piece of paper or some tis-
sue 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.




20

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 dont plan on washing your stocking, you can add extra embellish-
ments like I did. I used a bit of glitter glue on the holly leaves. I used the Spell-
binders Layered Poinsettia Nestabilities die to create my poinsettia. The
beautiful red velvet
ribbon was a perfect
trim for the stockings
cuff. Now its set to
stuff some goodies in-
side for someone spe-
cial!



22

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 cant 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 dcor
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 hav-
ing 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!
Nicole Mullen
Nicole Mullen
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 dcor 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 wed-
ding, 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 im-
age on the right is what a
image looks like when you
pin it to your board.


24

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 pin-
board. 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 lar-
ger version of the pin.

Following
You can follow friends or other Pinterest users 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 users boards or follow them all.
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 re-
cords the source on the pin for all to see. (See image below)
Pin from permalinks this means that if you want to pin someones 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.










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.
Pin source
Pin description
26

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

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 dcor ideas.

Pinterest has a fantastic help section
that explains simply how to get the pin
button onto your Internet browser and
addresses any other issues you may have when getting up
and running with your account. You can find this help section
here.

I cant 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!



The Night Before Christmas
28
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 is-
sue were :
The Night Before Christmas
Winter Wonderland
Anne Mullan of
createwithkate.com
Aideen Fallon of www.piecesbyaideen.com
Anne Mullan of
createwithkate.com
Geraldine Reardon of littlesnippetsblog.blogspot.com
Tanya Johnson of little-scrapper.blogspot.com
Robin Funge of bosenberries.blogspot.com
Winter Wonderland
Olga Jewell craftieodamae.blogspot.com
Weenie Thomas
32
Helja Rtile
Patricia OHagan of pinky-
pinkysworld.blogspot.com
Pam Blood
craftcreationsby-
pam.blogspot.com
Weenie Thomas
32
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 ShimmerSend in your projects
with shimmer on them.

New Year CelebrationShow us your projects
celebrating the New Year. Marking the passing

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 pub-
lished 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 cant use it in the
magazine.
36

This is the first in a series of articles by
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 Agen-
cies. 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 mark-
ers are available in 346 colors and are refillable. The inks used to refill the mark-
ers, if you're feeling particu-
larly brave, can also be mixed
to create new colors, and
empty markers are sold for
this purpose.

There is also an airbrush sys-
tem available which can be
used for creating back-
grounds, colouring embellish-
ments/ribbon/etc. You can
Sandie Dunne
This is the first in a series of articles by
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 Agen-
cies. 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 mark-
ers are available in 346 colors and are refillable. The inks used to refill the mark-
ers, if you're feeling particu-
larly brave, can also be mixed
to create new colors, and
empty markers are sold for
this purpose.

There is also an airbrush sys-
tem available which can be
used for creating back-
grounds, colouring embellish-
ments/ribbon/etc. You can
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 re-
placeable 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 il-
lustrative fluidity in mind. A popular pen for manga artists, the Copic
Sketch, like the Copic Marker, can be refilled with Copic Various Inks - mak-
ing 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.

38

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 be-
long 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 mid-
tone, 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.

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 elimi-
nate any streaking on the image.








40

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 dif-
ferent colour families
merged into each other. On
my sample card I've used col-
ours from the Yellow, Yellow
Green and Green families
and blended them together.





On Paper Blending
This is the most popular blend-
ing 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 selec-
tion 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 us-
ing 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!!


42

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

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





Timi Konya
46

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:
Blue line: cut here
Blue dashed line: score here
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 pat-
terned 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.
Apply some ink with blending foam for aged effect. When
its 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.
48

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 ad-
vent calendar. Lets 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.
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 pa-
per and place it in the top of the cone
to cover the edges of the strips.
Timi Konya
50

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 craftingire-
land@gmail.com
Card Art Kilcoole
12
th
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 25
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: 26
th
November
Time: 2pm -4pm
Oil Painting with Tina Reed
Date: 19
th
November
51

Further information: https://www.craftyalley.com/catalog/workshops
Scrap n Yap
Check out Scrap n Yap on Facebook for more information.

An Siopa Bu
Check out An Siopa Buis 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 its a place to craft with like
minded individuals. We are always on the lookout for demonstrators and en-
joy the social aspect of crafting (along with the tea and cake!) If anyone is in-
terested 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


52

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 Im going to discuss some types and
uses of paper that are common in paper crafts.

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 pa-
per 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 back-
ground 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 tex-
tured types of cardstock. One of the most famous textured cardstock is Coredi-
nations. This is a cardstock with
a core matching in colour, so
when you tear or sand the sur-
face the core will show and this
leads to very interesting effects.
Timi Konya
Timi Konya
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 collec-
tions 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.

Some of the paper manufacturers are:
Graphic 45
Basic Grey
K&Company
Bo Bunny
My Minds Eye
7 Gypsies
Pink Paislee

Other types of paper used in arts include watercolour paper, cartridge pa-
per, 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 theres lots of
water involved.
Crate Paper
Kaisercraft
Little Yellow Bicycle
Websters Pages
We R Memory Keepers
Sassafras Lass
Prima
Picture credit : http://www.thewatercolourartist.com/
Image: An example of Pat-
terned paper
54

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,
doesnt 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 draw-
ing, 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 Tool-
kit you need for crafting.





















56

During one of our editorial meetings
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 dont 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. Com-
mon 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 creativ-
ity. 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;
Nicole Mullen
I am not a good enough crafter
I am not very good on the computer
I dont know how to
Why would someone read what I had to say?
I dont have the time
Lets have a look at some of these reasons and break them down.

I am not a good enough crafter Most of us dont feel that we are good at
what we do. I publish a magazine and still I dont 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 im-
prove my work.

I am not very good on the computer & I dont 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 dont think it matters if anyone reads it. But I will be looking at a later
stage how to get readers to your blog!

I dont 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-
58

ging does not take up a lot of it. Of course everyones circumstances are dif-
ferent 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 dont
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 sched-
ule.

If not then dont 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 dont be surprised
to see their logo on there!). Click on the Get Started button.

Step 2
You will be brought to create a Google ac-
count. 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
(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 usu-
ally 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 exam-
ple 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 appro-
priate and explains your product, for example Unas Hand Made Cards.

Try to make it interesting and different. However if inspiration fails you can
always just use something like Unas Crafty Corner or something nice and
simple like that. Ask friends opinions on the names you are thinking of and
60

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 mo-
ment 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.





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 back-
ground 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.
62







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

Step 8
Lets 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 DashboardYour 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
comments on your blog
Settingsthis is where you can change your blog
settings, including title, formatting options etc
Designas discussed this allows you edit how your blog looks
MonetizeThis allows you to place advertising on your blog to poten-
tially make profit from your blog
Statsthis 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!!
64


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 chil-
dren. I left my Web Designer job when we had our 2
nd
youngest child so
now I am a full time domestic goddess.

When and how di d you get i nvol ved wi t h paper cr af t i 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 - 12x12s 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 real-
ised that I could combine my love
of doodling and colouring with my
addiction to papers and as they
say - the rest is history.

What i s your f avour i t e as-
pect of paper craf t i ng?
I would have to say its the camara-
derie within the crafting commu-
nity, the people Ive met and the
friendships Ive developed since going
online with my crafts - on my blog
and other forums/galleries.

What are t he t echni ques t hat
you use most of t he t i me?
Stitching/Sewing my papers, die cut-
ting, stamping and colouring.

What are your "can' t do wi t h-
out " pr oduct s?
My Copics for a start. I use them most
every day. With embellishments my cant 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 crafters blogs, magazines, galler-
ies. Ive often stopped to look at displays in store windows because the
colour scheme caught my eye.

How do you descri be your st yl e?
I wouldnt 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 you bl og?
Yes, I blog regularly - http://
sandieshores.blogspot.com
I also own a challenge blog - http://
paperplaychallenges.blogspot.com

Where can we see your work?
Are you on any desi gn t eams?
I put most everything I make on my
blog. Im also on a number of design
66

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.

Have you any pl ans f or t he f ut ur e?
I hope to continue doing my DT work, teaching classes and demonstrating
Copic colouring, its something I really enjoy doing. I have also just been in-
vited to join WOW! Embossing as a Design Team Member and Demonstrator
so I will be working away on that.

The editors each picked one of their favourite projects from
Sadie's work to share with you below..
I l ove t hi s pr oj ect be-
caus e of t he war m col -
our s and beaut i f ul em-
bel l i s hment s . I r eal l y
l i ke mi ni al bums and t hi s
one i s a l ovel y st yl e.



I l ove t he col our s on t hi s
car d, t he combi nat i on of
kr af t , r ed and whi t e i s
j ust s uper b. I t i s a l ovel y
cl ean and s i mpl e car d
yet beaut i f ul l y det ai l ed.
The s ent i ment r eal l y be-
comes t he cent ral f ocus
and t he f l ower and
f l our i s hes ar e j ust a per -
f ect t ouch.

68

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 its a great time of year; normally lovely mild Autumn
weather with just a hint of crispness that whispers lovely thoughts of Christ-
mas 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 Christ-
mas 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 particu-
larly great, this time of year. All the dies mentioned are from Tim Holtz Altera-
tions range produced by Sizzix and are Bigz dies compatible with most die cut-
ting 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
Dies of your choice
Heat gun
A Creative Adventure with UTEE by Kate Walsh
http://createwithkate.com
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 (dont
forget to tip the extra UTEE back into the con-
tainer 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
70

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 or-
ganza ribbon.

Step 5
I did the same with the second small or-
nament, 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.
I then punched a hole in the top
and threaded sheer organza rib-
bon 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 (dont 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 win-
dow, shelf or light fixture for instant fes-
tive cheer!

Autumn & Halloween Decorations
These were done using the same tech-
niques as with the Christmas Orna-
ments.

72

Textured Tree
I first die cut the Branch Tree from chip-
board 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 VOCs and they
are great to use. Make sure you apply
with a dry brush.


Once its dry, coat with versamark and ap-
ply 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
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 Holtzs
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), dont worry about your heat gun blow-
ing some of the powder away as this is inten-
tional, it gives a great pigmented shadow ef-
fect!










74

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 Holtzs Bewitching Hour die,
placed it (with the head out) in an em-
bossing folder coated with versamark
(I used a damask pattern) and ran it
through my big shot machine (any em-
bossing 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 cir-
cle with my hole punch, drew in a pu-
pil and eyelashes and glued it on the
witchs 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






76

Welcome to our Crafting on a Budget sec-
tion. 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 pa-
per 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 1Negative 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.
Nicole Mullen
Step 1
Die cut your houses out. Take the nega-
tive 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 re-
move 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.

Nicole Mullen
78

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 snow-
flakes onto it. You could also clear em-
boss 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 pat-
terned 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.



Card 2Snowflake 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 snow-
flakes 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!!

80

Card 3Butterfly negatives
I recently had a commission for a bunch of party invitations. These invitations
involved me having to die cut 240 butterflies. Yes240 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. Thats 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.






Step 4
Lay the negative butterfly die cuts
over the top of your card and posi-
tion 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 lay-
out 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 to-
gether.

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

This card is very fast to put to-
gether 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!
82

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 be-
hind 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 cre-
ated 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.

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 Christ-
mas papers from last years pa-
per lines.

Tip to hand cut tags:
If you want to hand cut tags
the best way is to cut out 25
84

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.
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 ones tag you can place it in the vase, and so on.
86

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

What you will need:
A styrofoam wreath OR
A meter length of foam pipe insulatorI 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
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 embellish-
ments 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 ele-
ments on.

Enjoy!!
88

There are plenty of tutorials out there on altering candles. They usually in-
volve 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 rea-
sons.

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 choiceI 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
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 sim-
ply cut the strip of houses into sec-
tions or two or three houses.

Step 3
Using glossy accents glue the houses
onto the candle. I used glossy ac-
cents 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 bot-
tom 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.


90

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 glit-
ter 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 per-
fect Christmas gifts for peo-
ple.

Tip: You can decorate them in
any style, not just for Christ-
mas!!













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 some-
thing 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: youll 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.

92

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. Isnt 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
youll find product updates, project videos, news on classes and more.

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

Enjoy discovering and we hope you get inspired!

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 es-
sential supplies from. All these stores are either located in Ireland, or else
ship to Ireland with reasonable rates.
Ireland

CardznScraps Cork Art
Supplies
http://cardznscrapz.com/

Scrapbook Store
http://www.thescrapbookstore.ie

Crafty Alley
https://craftyalley.com/
Crafty Angels
http://www.craftyangels.ie/store/
Scrapbook Store
http://www.thescrapbookstore.ie
An Siopa Bui The Yellow
Shop
http://www.ansiopabui.ie/

United Kingdom

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

Artistic Stamper
http://www.theartisticstamper.com/

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

Craft Emporium
http://www.craft-emporium.co.uk
WOW Embossing Powders
http://www.wowembossingpowder.co.uk/
Wild Orchid Crafts
www.wildorchidcrafts.com


Would you like to advertise in Crafting Ireland?
We offer very competitive prices and a readership of
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Contact us at craftingireland@gmail.com for
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96

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 chal-
lenge. 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 prizesWinter 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!!
The prize for the issue 5 Scraplift challenge was
this adorable Me to You decoupage kit. The chal-
lenge 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!!
98

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!
For the next issue we would love to see more of your work. Remem-
ber the submission themes are:

Show Some Shimmer
New Year Celebration

Submi ssi on deadl i ne i s 28t h November


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