Issue 14

Issue 14 November 2012

I re land’s f i rs t onl ine craf t magazine. . . .

Inside th is issue

Place Set t ings

Chr is tmas Cards

Winter Wreath

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WELCOME to Issue 14 of Crafting Ireland!

As always we have a fun tutorial packed issue for you all. By now

you are all aware of the amazing work of our design team, and

this issue is full of their fantastic work.

Our next online Ustream class is on the 24th November. It will

take place at 6pm GMT. Timi is going to be doing a real fun

Christmas themed class. Full information can be found on our

website here.

We love that so many of you are joining in on the online classes.

We love getting to interact with so many of you from all over the

world. If you have any things you want covered in the classes

make sure to leave us a suggestion. We want to make sure we

are covering topics you all want to watch!

View all previous issues at www.craftingirelandonline.ie

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Don’t forget you can keep up to date with us on our BLOG

WEBSITE and FACEBOOK page.

Finally we want to wish all our readers a very Happy and Mer-

ry time over the holidays . Our next issue will be out on the

1st January 2013. This is to give us and our wonderful design

team a little break over the Christmas holidays. Also we are

having a design team call, check out the next page for all the

details!

We thank you all for joining us throughout the year and we

love all the support you give us.

Nico le T i m i

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Crafting Ireland is looking for enthusiastic crafters who have a passion for paper crafting and would like to share their own tutorials and ideas. What we are looking for: Two projects every six weeks with step by step

photo or video tutorials Good photography skills for suitable images

for publication in the magazine We are looking for card makers, scrapbookers,

altered art creators and any other type of pa-per crafters out there!

Keep your personal blog up to date Active participation on Social Media sites, in-

cluding Crafting Ireland’s Facebook page and blog

The term is for five issues of the magazine, starting in Issue 16

In return you will be published in the magazine

Design Team Call

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and featured as a regular contributor. You will also have a feature on our website, in-cluding a link to your personal blog. You may also receive occasional items from sponsors. To enter: Submit photos of five of your favourite pro-

jects that highlight your style and skills Try to include one project, or link to a blog

post/project that shows your ability to write a crafty tutorial

Write a short biography about yourself and tell us why you would fit on our design team

Entry is open to everyone, regardless of geo-graphic location

Email your submission to [email protected]

Submission deadline: 14th January Date of Announcement: 4th February

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E d i t o r s n o t e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 2

C h r i s t m a s G i f t B a g s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 8

W i n e G i f t Ta g s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 1 0

W i n t e r L a y o u t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 1 2

C h r i s t m a s C o n f i g u ra t i o n B ox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 1 6

C h r i s t m a s G i f t P l a n n e r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 2 1

C h r i s t m a s Tr e e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 2 3

We d d i n g S h a d o w B ox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 2 6

A l t e r e d C h r i s t m a s F ra m e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 3 0

C l a s s e s & C r o p s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 3 3

W i n t e r Wr e a t h . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 3 6

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S p o t l i g h t O n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 3 8

Fa u x P r i n t e r s B l o c k s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 4 2

Pa p e r B a g A d v e n t C a l e n d a r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 4 6

C ra f t y S t o ra g e I d e a s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 5 3

C h r i s t m a s C a r d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 6 0

W i n t e r L a y o u t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 6 2

C h r i s t m a s P l a c e S e t t i n g . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 6 6

G i f t B a g a n d F r e e Ta g D o w n l o a d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 7 2

Q u i c k a n d T h r i f t y G i f t Ta g s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 7 5

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This is a really quick and easy project. What you will need:

Brown paper bag

Christmas paper scraps

Glittery snowflakes

Tim Holtz dies (Brackets and Winter Wonderland) Step 1 Cut a piece of Christmas paper with the Bracket die for the bottom and another piece to create a flap to fold over at the top of the paper bag. Step 2 The snow man just needs some de-tailing so add some ribbon for a scarf and a glittery hat. Draw the face and buttons with black mark-er. Step 3 Decorate the bag with some irides-cent snowflakes. You could also use a gel pen to draw white dots to represent snow.

Felicia Thomas

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When you have put your gift inside you can seal the flap with a dot of hot glue to stop anyone peeking!

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For a super easy festive gift when visiting over the holidays, wine is the answer! With these simple to make wine bottle tags it can change a bottle of wine into something much more special! Added bonus, make a whole bunch ahead of time and then you can just pop them on your bottles as your running out the door!! What you will need:

Cardstock

Paper trimmer

Score tool

Circle die or punch

Corner punch

Embellishment of your choice Step 1 Cut a piece of cardstock with your paper trimmer to 2 ½ x 7 inches.

Step 2 Turn your piece of card lengthways in the paper trim-mer and using a scoring tool score your card at 2 ½ inches. You will be left with something that looks like this.

Robin Funge

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Step 3 Centre a circle die in the top portion of your tag and run through you die cut machine or alternatively use a circle punch for this job.

Step 4 Decorate your corners by using a corner punch of your choice then

embellish and stamp as you like!

Below is my masculine tag dressing up this wine bottle. There are also some different samples of wine bottle tags depending on your style or occasion.

These are also great addition to a wine bottle for a birthday or party!

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Several years ago, we had a huge snow and ice storm come through our city causing a lot of prob-lems. We had no electricity for five days! But I love some of the photos we took during this time. Turning a somewhat negative event into something positive! We are fortu-nate to have a beautiful historical park across the street from our house. And on one of the power outage days, we decided to go over there and ex-plore. What you will need:

White cardstock

Patterned paper

Embellishments

White spray mist

White glitter or glimmer chalk

Washi Tape

Step 1 I gathered a few chipboard snow-

flakes and my white spray mist. For

smaller embellishments, I spray

them in a plastic shoe box contain-

er.

Step 2 Once the snowflakes are sprayed,

sprinkle some glitter on a small pa-

per plate or tray and dip the snow-

Mary Jo Rhoda

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flake on top of the glitter be-

fore the mist dries. If you would

like to use white acrylic paint,

that works even better! Let the

snowflakes dry well on the

plate.

Step 3

As my snowflakes were drying, I

started to assemble my page.

Mary Jo Rhoda

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I frequently work using grid designs, so I laid out my photos and blocks of

patterned paper first.

Step 4 On my finished layout, you can see how I added my title of premade glitter

chipboard letters, my chipboard snowflakes to form a visual triangle, a jour-

nal block with a border sticker and inked edges, and two strips of grey

striped washi form a border at the bottom.

Adding some word stickers and another border sticker on the block of

patterned paper opposite the journal block was my final step.

You may also notice that I kept my design simple by using symmetrical as the two pages mirror each other with photo, patterned paper blocks and washi tape placement. Hope you stay warm this winter and keep the lights on!

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So…are you like me and have been hoarding a Tim Holtz configurations box or tray? Maybe you are nervous to try altering it or afraid of ‘ruining’ it? Well don’t be. Why not get out your Christmas embellishments and make a lovely decoration that you will have for every year or even give it to someone special as a present! I am thinking of giving this one to my par-ents…. ShhhH! What you will need:

A configuration type box (Mine is by Tim Holtz but you could always make your own)

Papers (these are a great way of using up scraps of papers!!)

Washi or tissue tape

Paint (I used green and red acrylics & also some Tim Holtz crackle paint)

Alcohol ink and glimmer mists (optional)

Embellishments

Step 1 First of all I got out my Christmas scraps from last year-I decided that I want-

ed to make a retro red and green Christmas decoration. If you look at Tim Holtz’s videos on Youtube where he makes over these boxes you will see that he says just cover the back and bottom of the box as these are the only bits you will really see so that is what I did.

Aideen Fallon

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Step 2 Then I went in with Mr Holtz’s tissue tape in this pretty music note design, run it across all the joints in one direction first like in the image on the left below. Then smooth it on with your fingers and go in again with your tissue or washi tape in the other direction and smooth it all down!

I added a thin layer of glue’n’seal just to give it extra strength. Now your box looks like the image on the left below. Step 3 These boxes come with a frame type lid so I painted mine up to match-first using green acrylic then red over most of the green and finally adding large areas of Tim Holtz crackle paint.

Aideen Fallon

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Step 4 Ok now for the fun part-root through all of your embellishments and pull out anything that might work with your theme! Of course I had to use some of my hoarded Tim Holtz goodies-his metal em-bellishments can be coloured using acrylics or alcohol ink, which is what I have done here. I also altered this fun Tim Holtz woodlands mini Christmas tree using glimmer mist-I bought the trees at he GBCE from cre-atewithkate.com they come as a bleached brush finish that can be coloured to match your project! Step 5 Now it is just a matter of gluing in you em-bellishments and bits and bobs. If you want to be able to change up your piece do not glue in all the pieces so that they can be moved around. I glued in everything but left plenty of little spaces to add in more treas-ures as the years go by. You can see some up close details overleaf.

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In these pictures you can see the ‘25’ numerals by Tim Holtz coloured with alcohol ink and coated with crackle accents & also these fun little Christmas lights which are meant to be buttons but are perfect as little lights. Then my little embroidered Santa was made by Geraldine and his sack of candy canes is a Maya road sack that I embellished. A Tim Holtz vial and ‘Cheer’ label makes for a fun detail and I LOVE these little plastic reindeer and Tim ‘Jingle’ token complete with a jingling charm!

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And here are close ups of a Tim ornate plate with one of his ‘Wish’ adage tick-ets in behind with a topping of glossy accents. The green light above this is a spare original light from a Christmas light set from when I was young that my dad found and gave me for my crafty makes. The little wreath complete with snow is a must for any Christmas themed project. You can see how red my little woodlands tree is and it took the colour so easily and another of my Dads retro lights accompanied by a mulberry paper poinsettia and a basic grey chipboard embellishment (I scattered a few of these chipboard pieces around the boxes. And finally, a cute candy cane and rocking horse to com-plete this piece. This was a great project and relatively quick to make - Have fun!!

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Christmas Gift Planner with clipboard I just absolutely love Christmas, but I have to admit I always leave the shopping to the last minute. Here is a quick tutorial on how to decorate a simple clipboard for all your Christmas gift ideas. Just download the gift list from here and you are ready to make sure you get everybody a nice little present. This clipboard could be something that you leave out on your coffe table and let your family and friend write you little wishlists so you won’t be stuck for ideas. What you will need:

Clipboard

Christmas patterned paper (Simple Stories Handmade Holidays)

Decorative Stickers (from the Handmade Holidays collection)

Gel medium

Step 1 Cut a piece of patterned paper to the size of your

clipboard. Cut a recangle out of the top of the

paper for the clip on the clipboard. Ink all the

edges.

Step 2 Adhere this piece of paper on the clipboard with

some gel medium.

Timi Konya

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Step 3 Choose another piece of patterned paper in a different design. Simple Stories

are great for including different sized frame and label designs on their 12x12

papers. I used one of these 6x8” piece

from the collection.

Step 4 Decorate the clipboard with some stickers and embellishments of your choice. You can download and print the Christmas gift planner to recreate this project. Have fun and as always, if you create anything using our tutuorials please share them on our Facebook page!!

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Sue shows us how to create an adorable mini christmas tree. What you will need:

Cardboard inner tube from curtain material or strong toilet tissue tube

Stamps (WOW ‘Merry and Bright’)

Embossing powder (WOW in bark)

Versamark

Distress Markers for colouring in

Other Products Used: selection of buttons and ribbons, Tim Holtz idea-ology memo pins and tape, beadazzles glitter beads, Eco Green white acrylic paint, Timber Brown Stazon, watercolour card, cardboard inner tube from curtain material or strong toilet tissue tube, 2 x strong cardboard circles (proportionate to the tube length and width), pages from an old dictionary, sand paper, Pinflair silicone and bookbinding glue, hot glue gun and Creative Expressions Acrylic glue. Step 1 Cut a piece of cardboard tubing to your required length and cut 2 strong cardboard circles to match (when joined together it will look like a cotton reel).

Take your pages from an old dictionary and cut to size then glue them onto the circles and around the tube.

Sue O’Connell

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Step 2 Leave to dry, then paint with white acrylic paint and brush over watered down brown distress ink to make it look vintage. Sand the edges.

Step 3 Stamp the tree 3 times once to decoupage the baubles and cut out. Then colour in the baubles with distress markers. Attach the decoupage and buttons with pinflair glue.

Step 4 Glue the top, bottom and tube together with a glue gun. (This will now look like a cotton reel). Leave it to dry. Pierce the top platform at the rear and place a memo pin in the hole and glue with a hot glue gun.

Glue a piece of lace to the underside top of the reel to cover the join. Glue a length of cord to the bottom of the reel. Paint with white acrylic paint and wash over with brown distress ink.

Glue ribbons and buttons to the top, bottom and tube of the reel. Decorate as you wish. Finally, place the trees into the memo pin.

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I created this gift for a wedding, but it can be

adapted to any time fo the year. You could make a

Christmas one or even a winter one.

What you will need:

Shadow box frame (I got mine in Ikea )

Patterned cardstock of your choice

Strong adhesive

Embellishments Step 1 To create a box I wanted to conserve as much paper as possible. To do this I made a false back on my boxes. I took a piece of cardstock 10.5cm x 10.5cm. I scored it at 0.5cm and then at 3cm on all four sides. Step 2 Cut in on two of the score lines on each side as seen in the photo on the right below. Also note the corners shaded—these pieces are also to be cut off.

Nicole Mullen

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Step 3 Fold all the score lines and stick the two inner flaps together. Step 4 Then glue the two outer flaps up and onto the sides. Step 5 The 0.5cm scored line will now fold over the top of these flaps. This small strip is what I used as my false back of my box! Step 6 Repeat this process for as many boxes as you want. I made two at 10.5cm x 10.5cm and two at 8cm x 8cm. For the 8cm box score at 0.5cm and at 2.5cm on all sides. I laid my boxes out like on the image on the right. You can change yours to fix your frame.

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Step 7 Lay the boxes out on the card you have chosen as your backing. To do this I cut my card to 14cm x 14cm—the size of my frame. I then laid the inner part of my shadow frame on the card on the inside of this frame. This allowed me to get my spacing. Once I had my spacing I used a strong adhesive to glue them down. Completed project: Here are the photos of the actual project I created using this technique. I used Bo Bunny Etcera papers for it. I embellished the boxes with the names of the couple getting married and the wedding date. Some washi tape added to the rest. You can really see the dimension in the image on the right.

Stacking the boxes and using random sizes adds to the fun effect.

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When it comes to Christmas I like either tradi-tional red and green colours with vintage prints or I like simple brown paper with red spotted rib-bon and raffia. I was searching through a bunch of scraps and came across these old Christ-mas papers and since this project doesn’t use a lot of paper I decided on a traditional theme. What you will need:

Picture frame

Some patterned paper

Ribbons

Embellishments

I got the frame from my local Euro shop and took out the glass so that it wouldn’t restrict the depth of the tree.

Step 1 Give the frame a light sanding to make sure the paint sticks and then paint on two coats of dark green acrylic paint. Step 2 Cut a piece of patterned paper for the background. Then use a die to cut out the oval from different design paper, these two pieces will form the background. Step 3 The tree is made from 4 pieces of paper cut to 3”, 2 1/2”, 2” and 1 1/2”

Felicia Thomas

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square. I love to make these each Christmas I put them on cards or table settings but this year I thought a framed tree would be nice. Step 4 To make your tree you fold the squares as follows -Fold your paper on each of these lines: With your paper right side up fold the center cross up (to make a val-ley fold) and for the diagonals fold your paper down (making a moun-tain fold). Push the sides in until it looks like the image on the right below.

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Take the top section and fold it back to the center line. Repeat for both sides.

Step 5 When each square is folded stack them on top of each other, starting with largest at the bottom and glue them in place. Step 6 Add some lace and seam binding to the bottom and some glitter to the tree and then put it into the frame. With some bells and ribbon it makes a pretty decoration for your door or wall.

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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 [email protected]

Card Art Kilcoole http://cardarteventskilcoole.blogspot.com/

Crafty Angels All places must be booked in advance. Crafty Angels, Cutlery Rd, Newbridge, Co. Kildare. Ph : 045-446678. http://www.craftyangels.ie

Scrapbook Store More info can be found on the website http://www.thescrapbookstore.ie/workshops.php or contact Annama-rie at [email protected]

Jackies Cardmaking Workshops http://jackiesworkshops.blogspot.com/

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

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

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

Archangels craft club Archangels Craft Club - we meet in St. Gabriels Clontarf every Tuesday 7.30 - 9.30pm and do all sorts of crafts - knitting, cross stitch, card making, beading and scrapping etc. We are in our 9th year - all very informal but it’s a place to craft with like minded individuals. We are always on the look-out for demonstrators and enjoy the social aspect of crafting (along with the tea and cake!) If anyone is interested in com-ing along to join us, or maybe there is another club out there who would be interested in doing a Christmas craft day to-gether please do contact me. Contact Christine at [email protected] or on 0857151759

Create With Kate Workshops in card making, scrapbooking and mixed media. We also are a mobile craft supplies shop. Visit createwithkate.com for more information or phone 087 984 1196.

Scrapbooking Limerick Create beautiful scrapbook pages & crafts at our crops & classes Bookings: 086 3817677 www.facebook.com/scrapbookinglimerick

The Polka Dot Craft Club Cardmaking and scrapbooking workshop Killarney

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Crop Tarts ‘Crop Tarts’ are a group of scrapbookers/card makers who have a regular crop on the 2nd Saturday of each month from 10.00 a.m. until 4.00 p.m. at “Le Cheile”, Donnycarney Community & Youth Centre, Collins Avenue East, Donnycarney, Dublin 5. We are a friendly bunch who like to share our ideas/stash/equipment etc., so each month we usually have a short demo by one of our members e.g. recent demos have included crochet flowers and colouring with Promarkers or it might just be a LO that we are especially pleased with or a new card making technique.

Get Ireland Crafting Facebook Group This group lists all the classes and crops happening around Ireland!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/538826249466103/?fref=ts Mix-Media Day with Mandy Sheridan This takes place on Saturday 2nd February 2013, from 11am until 5pm, full kit provided, €40.00 at the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel, Newlands Cross, Naas Road, Dublin (just off the M50). We will be making a mix media background scrapbook page along with a can-vas or art journal page. If you would like to book a place [email protected] with your details along with your choice of canvas or art journal. Looking so forward to meeting you!

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Door hangers and other decorations are a great way to add the feel of the season to your home. I really like winter and Christmas and love to decorate the house. Here is a quick tutorial on how to make a weatherproof (waterproof) decoration to your front door – no paper embellsihments involved. What you will need:

Polystyrene wreath

Tulle

Acrylic snowflakes

Tulle flowers

Hot glue gun

Step 1 Try to buy tulle on the roll, so the width of it is already determined. I got this roll of tulle from ebay and it was 15 cm wide and 15 meters long. Cut the tulle into same lenght

pieces. I cut mine into 50 cm long

pieces, but it depends on the size

of your wreath.

Step 3 Fold one piece of tulle into half and

loop around the wreath as shown

in the pictures.

Timi Konya

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Step 4 Repeat Step 3 until you have no tulle left.

Step 5 Arrange all the tulle around the wreath, so it looks nice and even. Put the wreath right side down and secure each piece of tulle with some hot glue. Step 6 I decorated it with acrylic snowflakes and a silver branch. I found mine in my stash. This was an old Prima branch, but I am sure that you can get something similar in home decoration stores too. You could aslo add some tulle or organza flowers. I added some bling, adhered them all with a little bit of hot glue. And there you have it, a classic white and silver winter wreath.

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Mandy Sheridan 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 [email protected]

This issues spotlight is shining on Mandy Sheridan! Here is Mandy to tell us a bit about herself and her work.... I live in Co. Wexford up in the mountains,

with my husband and two children also

with our gaggle of furbabies. I am a stay at

home momma that gets her creative time

in when the kiddos are gone to school and

bed.

When and how did you get involved

wi th paper craf t ing?

I have been creating since I was a child, my

grandmother and mother always had me painting, sewing or creating some-

thing, I never stopped. I always had a bag full of paper, paints, wools and

anything I could get my hands on to alter with me at all times.

What is your favour i te aspect of paper craf t ing?

My most favourite part of papercrafting is the endless creations and inspira-tion that comes from sheets of patterned paper, there is so much you can do! I love that it keeps evolving and pushes me to change my creating hab-its which lets me learn so much all the time.

What are the techniques that you use most o f the t ime?

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Mandy Sheridan My techniques have changed so much, I

have spent the last few years distressing

everything and inking anything that

stands still long enough but it is now

leaning towards clean edges, no dis-

tressing in sight, it is the new me at the

moment, I can see this becoming my

style for the foreseeable future.

What are your "can ' t do wi thout"

products?

I cannot do without my patterned pa-

per, buttons and a few stamps, I feel

that once I have this along with my basic tools I can create anything. Any

other product after that is a bonus.

What inspires you?

My inspiration can come from anything but mostly I will see something dur-

ing my day, like a scene, pattern in something or colour and that is what

starts the cogs in my head going. Sometimes they come so thick and fast I

cannot keep up. It’s not a complicated process for me, I like that its only 1

thing that can set that inspiration

off.

How do you descr ibe your

s ty le?

My style is quite eclectic, its chang-

es a lot depending on my mood,

some days I can do clean and sim-

ple and some days I just love to

make an inky paint mess, but the

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key I suppose that runs through everything

is that I like a bit of clutter on my projects,

I don’t do minimalist!

Do you blog? Where can we see

your work?

My blog is crafty-angel.blogspot.ie, I also

create for Docrafts and my work can be

found published in their magazine and on

their website too.

Have you any plans for the future?

I am on an art buzz at the moment, I am

going back to what I started off doing and

really loving mix media, I can see this being

my style for the next while.

I love how I can evolve something I love in-

to papercrafting and make it part of it,

looking forward to seeing where the mix

media world crosses over with card-

making, it will be fun!

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I wanted some printers blocks to use as part of my Christmas décor. But they are quite hard to find in Ireland and also quite expensive. So I cre-ated some faux ones. What you will need:

Cardboard/chipboard

Masking tape

Paint

Large chipboard letters

Good adhesive—I used multi medium Step 1 Work out the size each of your blocks needs to be. To do this I placed my letters onto the card-board and marked out the size the block for it needed to be. Cut out the cardboard for all your letters. Step 2 My cardboard was not thick enough so I layered 3 pieces of it together. I used multi medium for this and kept the pieces Clipped together while they dried. Step 3 When the glue was dry I covered them with masking tape. This was to hide the rough edges and also gives a great texture to the

Nicole Mullen

43

card, masking tape has a very slight grain texture to it which looks good when painted.

Tip: If you can use wider masking tape it makes this step a lot faster and easier. Make sure to fold around the edges neatly so it looks seamless!

Step 4 Paint over the faux blocks. I used a mix of paints to get a old aged wood col-our. Unfortunately my camera ate the photos of this stage so you will have to imagine it! However I will list what I did:

Paint a layer of gesso as a base

Then paint a light grey layer

Mix a brown paint with some white acrylic paint and dry brush this in streaks across your faux blocks.

Do the dry brushing in one direction to make it look like a wood grain

effect Step 5 I painted my letters a gold/bronze colour and then dis-tressed them with black paint.

Nicole Mullen

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Step 6 Glue the letters onto the blocks and you are done! You can use any letters for this, I had large chipboard ones so I used them. You could print letters onto paper and use them as stencils to draw your own large letters if you want-ed. You could also do this technique on to real wood instead of making faux wood blocks. You would just simply paint the wood then when dry add your letters. I have made these for my mantel for Christmas. You could however add some string to the back of them and hang them from the tree as ornaments too. Happy Christmas!!

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over 50,000 per issue. Contact us at [email protected] for

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Advent calendars are fun ways to count down to Christmas, and not only for kids! In this tutorial I am going to show you how I created paper bags from brown wrapping paper. If you have 24 paper bags you can certainly use them, but I find it hard to get them here in Ireland.

What you will need:

Brown wrapping paper (two rolls)

Christmad patterned paper (Simple Stories Handmade Christmas)

Wooden pegs

Chipboard numbers

Embellishments

Scoring board

Step 1 Cut twenty four 10”x15” pieces of the wrapping paper to create 24 paper bags. After cutting them, you might want to put a few heavy boxes on them for a day or two to flatten them out. The paper is a lot easier to work with if it is flat. Step 2 Take one 10”x15” piece and score it at: 1”, 4 ½”, 11 ½”.

Step 3 Fold it along the 4 ½” and 11 ½” score line

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Timi Konya

Step 4 Don’t fold it at the 1” line. This is marking out where to put the adhesive. You can use tape runner or other adhesive of your choice. Fold the piece on the right and glue the paper bag together.

Step 5 When it is glued together decide which side is going to be the bottom. Score a line 2” away from the bottom and score one line on each side 1” from the side.

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Step 6 Fold the 2” part up and open it as shown in the pictures below.

Step 7 Fold the flaps as in the picture on the left below.

Step 8 Fold them out and add some adhesive on the triangles. Then glue them down. (Image on right and bottom left.)

Step 9 Add a piece of tape to close the bag nicely.

Step 10 Open and stand the bag up. You will see this from the top—image overleaf, top right.

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There are three score lines on both sides. You need to fold in the middle one on each side like in the image on the right. Now it is like a real paper bag!

Step 11 Fold a 2” flap down from the top, so the bag will be closed. It is now time for decorating. I used chipboard numbers from Scrapkreatura. Advent calendar numbers come in two sheets. It is very clever that you only need to buy one set of numbers for the advent calendar.

Step 12 Take the chipboard numbers on the sheet and colour them with inks. I found it easier to ink them before popping them out from the sheet. I used Distress inks: Aged Mahagony, Fired Brick and Walnut stain.

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Step 13 My plan is to hang all 24 paper bags on twine with wooden pegs, so I needed to decorate them too. Cover the pegs with some washi tape and add some interest with stickers from the paper collection. You could use chipboard shnowflakes or anything that you like if you haven’t got stickers to match the paper collection. Step 14 Decorate the bags as you like and fill them with some lovely treats!

My bags will be held on to the twine by the top centre with the peg so I made sure to embellish over to the sides of the top flap. My advent number for each bag is over on the right side of the flap also. The numbers are the perfect size for the bags!

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Enjoy creating this fun style of advent calender. If you fill each bag with a little treat or gift your family will really love it!!

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If you would like to advertise in Crafting Ireland email us at

[email protected] 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 Cardz’n’Scraps – Cork Art Supplies http://cardznscrapz.com/ Scrapbook Store http://www.thescrapbookstore.ie Crafty Angels http://www.craftyangels.ie/store/

Scrapbook Store http://www.thescrapbookstore.ie

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

Create With Kate www.createwithkate.com

LillyPad Craft Supplies http://www.lilypadcraftsupplies.ie/

Crafty Cutting www.craftycutting.com

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

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LillyPad Craft Supplies http://www.lilypadcraftsupplies.ie/

Crafty Cutting www.craftycutting.com

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

Our design team member Robin Funge is here to share her craft room with

us!

My crafty space is our old telly room at the front of the house just off the kitchen. This room is also the home for our computer which is handy for printing computer generated sentiments, sorting photos and blogging! I like to use all sorts of old bits and pieces I have to store my supplies! Nothing re-ally matches, but that’s the fun of it! Organised chaos!! This is an old CD rack we used to have in our bedroom; I have flipped it on its side and used it to store some of my distress inks, chalks, embellishments and card candy! On top I keep some of my flowers and buttons in candy jars and fish-ing tackle boxes!

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I store some of my ribbon in bas-kets on the window sill. I keep little swatches for myself with the colours and widths of my satin ribbons and diamante buck-les for quick reference.

Underneath the CD rack I have a wood-en card stand my handyman made for me for any craft shows I do. For most of the year I keep my 12x12 papers and some of my scrap folders on it. I have cleared a section off for you to see! This is how I store my paper scraps. I keep them in folders with a few colours in each and they are easy to grab when

I need to use a small piece for a die cut shape.

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To the left of the window I have some cheap and cheerful shelving. This is the home for my coloured A4 cardstock, 6x6 patterned pa-pers, some of my cards, magazines, stickers, etc. These large boxes are filled with 3D stickers, alphas and embellish-ments all sorted by themes such as baby, wedding, masculine.

Close up of the A4 paper and how I use take away soup containers to hold some of my embellishments and alphas. I use the same storage for my magazines. These can be purchased at IKEA and are not expensive.

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I keep my patterned paper pads upside down to keep the pieces that are cut into from falling all over the place! Then I have our old kitchen table as my main work space. I try to keep every-thing I use all the time on the desk. Out of sight, out of mind!!

My big shot is just to the left of me with all my dies and embossing folders keep in the drawer next to it. Every set is kept together simply with a Ziploc bag and the picture of the dies unless it comes in its own little clear bag. I keep my small inks in an old weigh scales and just grab the dish off when I want to have a nose through them.

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I have some random old dishes and Jello moulds I use to keep embellish-ments I am using or little projects I am working on close to hand. I use a larg-er bowl to keep my pins, twine, lace and seam binding ribbon on the desk! I use this old plate and small broken tea cup (left) to keep my most used tools together. This old desert tray (right) I picked up is super handy for keeping all my rolls of tape together!

For pearls and gems I have an old bread baking mould I got from a spelt loaf I picked up at the bakery.

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Since I am a fan of Project Life scrapbooking, I keep all the stuff I use for that together on this plate. I group my clear stamps together in plastic bins according to manufacturers and keep any masks I cut out for future use in enve-lopes in-between them.

I keep my Copics and Promarkers grouped together in colours on a super cheap curtain rod I got in IKEA with these little bins that hook onto them. I use the same rods to hold my border punches and keep my other ribbons in these little hanging baskets I also picked up in IKEA!

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My larger punches are on little photo shelves from IKEA as well. My larger inks, washi tape and acryl-ic blocks are kept in random contain-ers I found around the house. Lastly, I keep my card blanks, enve-lopes and cello bags in this old bed side locker. I keep a basket of all different sizes of envelopes and cellos to pull out when I am packing cards in a hurry.

Thanks so much for joining me in my craft room!! Robin

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In this tutorial I would like to show you how to make a Christmas card using many pieces of patterned paper. Though it’s a low-budget card, it looks gorgeous. What you will need:

Patterned Paper (Basic Grey, My Mind’s Eye, Cosmo Cricket)

Chipboard (Little Yellow Bicycle)

Button (Making Memories)

Baker’s twine

Step 1 Fold a piece of 8.5x5.75 paper in half. This will be the base of the card.

Step 2 Cut patterned paper into the sizes of 3.75x5.5, 3x4.75, 2x4.25, 1.5x3.75,

1x3.25. Cut off the title.

Step 3 Cut the smallest piece to make a banner shape. Tie baker’s twine to the se-

cond largest piece, and machine stitch the pieces. As shown above, now you

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have 2 pieces – a larger piece with

baker’s twine, and a smaller one with a

banner.

Step 4 Glue the larger piece to the base, and

then put the smaller piece on it, with

pop-up glue.

Step 5 Add a title, a chipboard snow-

flake and buttons. I used pop-

up glue for the title.

Now it’s done!

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This is a quick tutorial on how to create a textured layout using you embossing folders. What you will need:

Photos

Embossing folders

Stains and glimmer mists

Washi tape

Patterned paper Step 1 Take the lightest page and tear and cut them into random pieces. Emboss them using a few different embossing folders. Step 2 For a few of the pieces I ink the embossing folder before putting it through the big shot so the ink will go into the patterns.

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Step 3 Then just randomly stick all the pieces onto the base page. Try to cover the whole page up. The layout I was doing is a 10”x8” as that’s the size of the frame will be framing it in. Step 4 Just keep on layering until it’s all covered. Ink the edges

Step 5 Glue the photo in place and then keep on layering with doily papers, washi tape and pattern paper.

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Step 6 Add a title and final touches and there you have a beautifully textured winter layout. If you try this fantastic technique from Eve then make sure to share your work with us on our Facebook page.

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I’ve never been so organised, getting ready for Christmas already. This year I decided to create some festive place settings for our Christmas ta-ble, rather than going with a traditional colour way I wanted to use white, red and natural as this year’s theme .

What you will need:

Do Crafts Home for Christmas paper pack

Do Crafts Kraftstax (20 sheets of white and kraft cardstock)

Dovecraft Grosgrain Christmas Ribbon

Red Ink

Foam Pads

Glue

Table Name Step 1 Cut kraft cardstock 3”x6”.

Step 2 Fold in half and use ribbon glued on the inside with double sided tape to

help card stand up.

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Step 3 Glue the trim of white scalloped edge to kraft. 2.75” wide 1” in height. If you

don’t have a scalloped edge then torn paper in white works well or just a

strip of white

Step 4 Cut red patterned paper 2.75” wide x 2” height. Ink edges and using foam

pads adhere to the kraft cardstock.

Step 5 Cute a white tag, ink & doodle edges. Staple ribbon and write or stamp

name.

Step 6 Using foam pads adhere the white label to the patterned paper.

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Cutlery Holder Step 1 Cut patterned paper 12” x 3.5” Step 2 Fold at 2.5” on left and

4” on right. Glue the 2”

side down.

Step 3 Glue a strip of con-

trasting cardstock with a

scalloped edged or simi-

lar to the longer edge.

Glue the outside edges

only to create a pocket.

Step 4 Stamp your favourite Christmas image onto the kraft paper using black ink. Adhere glue to the edges of the kraft cardstock and dip in glitter

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Step 5 Mount the stamped design onto red card-stock and colour in sections of the stamp with white gel pen and red marker. Step 6 Glue the stamped image to the front of

the pocket. This pocket can be used for

napkins and/or cutlery

Joy Bunting Table Decoration This table bunting can be used to hang between candles, on the back of chairs, along your table as a runner, from a shelf or even on your fire place. Step 1 Cut scalloped edge circle (or circle 3” diameter), cut patterned paper circle about 2.5” diameter, cut white circle cardstock 1” diameter. Cut 3 letters J,O,Y or more if you want your bunting longer. Step 2 Glue your letter to the white circle. Ink the edges of the red patterned paper

and bend up the edge to give a 3 dimension to bunting. Use foam pads to

adhere white circle to red paper.

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Step 3 To give the bunting a V shape bend the ribbon and adhere by using double sided tape. Step 4 Line up the 2 other kraft scallops and adhere using doubled sided tape when

happy with the placement.

Step 5 Adhere the letters/circles to the kraft

scallops by covering the ribbon .

Napkin Ring Step 1 Cut a strip of kraft cardstock 6” x 1.5”. Using a bottle of glue, roll the cardstock to bend into a circle. Either scallop white cardstock (6”x1”), use a strip of card or even lace as a second layer on the napkin ring Step 2 Place a strip or ribbon along the centre, gluing at either end. Cut 3 strips of

ribbon each one slightly smaller than the next. Loop the first (larger one) glu-

ing under the ribbon.

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Step 3 Loop second and third ribbon in same manner. When gluing the edges use a bottle again to re-tain the shape, neaten edges first and use dou-ble sided tape. Staple the edges for extra securi-ty. Step 4 Glue the centre of the loops down to create a

flower shape. You can add a brad, a Christmas

embellishment or just keep as it is.

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Here is another Christmas idea using the paperbag technique we looked at earlier on in this issue. What you will need:

Wrapping paper

Twine

Tape Step 1 You can make a bigger bag from wrapping

paper rather than normal paper. If the

wrapping paper is made from lightweight

paper, you can use a double layer of it. This will give you a stronger bag.

Step 2 Score a line from the top about 2” down. Then fold this scored 2” section of

paper into the bag. This is to strengten the top of the bag.

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Timi Konya

Step 3 Punch 4 holes and insert eyelets. Add

twine to each side. The bag now has

two handles!

Tip: You could use ribbon instead of

twine for the handles if you wished.

Step 4 Using this Crafting Ireland freebie cutting file cut out a tag. Decorate it with some washi tape. If you haven’t got an electronic cutting machine then look at the next article

for Nicoles tutorial on how to mass produce tags for Christmas gifts.

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Now the bag is ready to fill with some lovely presents.

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I always need gift tags for presents at Christmas and a lot of the time I end up having to buy them as I have no time to mass produce nice ones. This year I decided to start early and create some quick but cute thrifty tags. What you will need:

Scraps from your Christmas papers. I used scraps from last years papers from a BoBunny collection. I also had some die cut pieces from the col-lection left too.

Tags in a colour of your choice. I used pre-made ranger ones but you can

make these too

Adhesive

Christmas sentiment stamps. I used Compliments of the Season by Waltzing Mouse Stamps

Pen of your choice for doodling Step 1 Examine your paper scraps carefully. Some of mine were so small I wondered why I had kept them! Some of the papers had ornament shapes on them so I cut these out. I didn't worry about cutting around the string part at the top of the ornament. I just drew these on after stick-ing the or-naments to my tag.

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Step 2 For my tags with no ornaments on them I used a mixture of die cuts and pa-per strips. On the tag on the left I cut out a piece of a die cut and added it to the tag with some snowflake stamping and a sentiment. (Image bottom left) Step 3 For my other style of tag I used small strips of paper cut into strips and ban-ner shapes. I stamped my sentiment and layered the strips and then added some faux stitching with a black pen. (Image bottom right)

The stamping over the tags and the faux doodling add an extra little element to the tags. This method is very effective at creating fast tags, that look good and use up all those tiny scraps you just can’t let yourself throw out! I also mixed between kraft and white tags for a bit more variation.

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