Peep-O! Happy Easter!

How do you like this cute little hen house?! It's super easy to make, let me show you how!

First, take an A4 sheet of Crumb Cake cardstock.  Along the long side, score it at 7cm, 14cm, 21cm and 28cm.  Along the short side, score it at 5cm and 14cm.

Cut as shown above.  Basically at the far right hand side you need to cut out the little pieces at the top and bottom.  Cut down the score lines at the top so you have four squares.  At the bottom, cut out the piece at the far left, and the piece third from left.

Now is the time to stamp your woodgrain on your hen house. The easiest way to do this is to fold your cardstock in half on the score line.  Ink the Woodgrain background stamp (117100) up with Crumb Cake ink, and stamp on the cardstock so the middle squares are covered.  Flip it over and do the same for the other side, so all four middle squares are stamped.  Don't worry if you get the image on parts of the top and/or bottom squares.  It doesn't matter and it won't show.

Next we need to make the door hole for our hens to go in and out! Turn your cardstock over and, with the five cm score line at the bottom, (the side with only two flaps at the bottom) fold the second flap inwards as shown above.  Centre your punch between the vertical score lines and push it in as far as it will go.  Then punch the hole out.

Now you're annoyed because you've punched a hole in your flap as well as your house - don't worry!

As you can see from the photo above, trim the flap off just below the hole, so you have a piece of flap remaining that is approximately 1cm wide. Apply glue to the small flap at the far left, and all three bottom squares apart from the one with the hole above it - see photo above.

Fix the small flap to the edge of the "wall" and fold the bottom flaps inwards to make the floor.  It doesn't matter what order you do them in, but obviously the one with no glue gets turned in last. Ta-dah! You have your hen house!

Now we need to make a little "roosting bar" for our little chick to "perch" on. Here goes:

You need to cut a square of Crumb Cake Cardstock 8.8cm or 88mm.  That's just a fraction short of 9cm.  This measurement is important as you need your perch ever so slightly smaller than the box so it slides in easily.

You then need to score it on all four sides at 1cm. Stamp the cardstock again with your Woodgrain background stamp and Crumb Cake ink pad. Cut up to make the little tabs on each of the score lines by 1cm to make little tabs and attach glue or sticky strip to these.  Punch a hole in the centre using your 1 3/8" punch (you will have to bend the flap down as you did before with the main box, but it won't punch anything out of the flap).

Fold your sides up and stick the tabs.  Your perch should now look like this.

Slide it into your hen house.

Now we need a roof to keep him warm and dry.  Let's make one!

Take a piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock measuring 9cm x 14cm.  Score it in half along the 14cm side at 7cm.  Then put the whole piece through a paper crimper (or ribbler as I like to call it, just because I love that word!) so it looks a bit like corrugated iron or something......!

Attach one half of the roof to the back flap of the box, allowing a little overhang at the back.

The front part of the  roof can be held in place with either a small glue dot or a piece of velcro if you've got some handy.

To decorate the house I used the Bird Builder Punch (117191) for the foliage which I punched in Old Olive cardstock and the flowers were made using the Boho Blossoms Punch which were punched with Melon Mambo cardstock and small pearls (119247).  The sentiment on the roof is from the Easter Blossoms stamp set (122057 - from the Spring Mini catalogue) and punched out using the Extra Large Oval Punch (119859).

The chick I have used is a Smarties Easter chick available from most newsagents and supermarkets.  Here he is nestled in his coop (he fits very cosily in the hole of his "perch" at just the right height to be seen through the "doorway", with a few other eggs that haven't hatched yet. ;O)

The "straw" to make his nest is made by cutting very thin strips (about 1-2mm) of So Saffron cardstock and feeding them through the ribbler.  Then arrange them around him and putting the other eggs on top of it.

Close the roof down with your glue dot or velcro and there you have it! A lovely little chicken coop with chocolate eggs and a little chick that's already hatched!

I hope you like this tutorial.  If you have any queries or would like to order all or any of the components to make these Easter boxes, please just get in touch.

TFL! Joanne x

March Class Now Booking!

Hello Everybody!

This is March's class which is now open for booking. This month we will be making a paper bag album using the Tickets and Tags Simply Scrapping Kit.  It's a fantastic album, if I do say so myself (!) with loads of mats for photos and journalling and 15 pull out tags and cards for additional bits and pieces.  There's also plenty of room to keep mementoes of special days.

The basic cost of this kit is £20.  That includes half a pack of Simply Scrapping (you will still have plenty left to make a few cards or embellish other scrapping projects).  There is also an option to include the ink pad that we use and also another option to include the wonderful Number It stamp set that I have used for the album's title. 

If you'd like to book on this class, it will be taking place on Saturday, 24 March at Beauchief Baptist Church, Hutcliffe Wood Road, Sheffield. All details can be found at my website HERE. 

And if you don't live close by or can't make it, FEAR NOT! I am going to offer instructions by email and/or a kit so you can still enjoy making this album yourself in the comfort of your own home.  Just keep an eye on my website and I'll let you know when the info is ready!

Any questions please get in touch.  Otherwise hope to see you there!

TFL! Joanne x

One Colour/No Colour Challenge!

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Just quickie today. I decided to have a go at this week's Try a New Technique on Splitcoast Stampers. This week the challenge was to create a card, preferably with a line drawn image, that used only one colour ink and no colouring in.  Same goes for the sentiment.  Pretty straightforward so I had a bash!

The card base is Wisteria Wonder and the embossed part is Brushed Gold cardstock. I love using both the Brushed Gold and Brushed Silver with the embossing plates.  The shine on them really gives lovely definition.  The image is from the hostess set Simply Soft.  It was stamped on Ivory cardstock - bit rougher than Very Vanilla for a more rustic look.  I finished it off with a mat of Soft Suede and my old favourite, some linen thread. The sentiment is from the You Are Loved set which is in our current mini. This is my favourite set (for now)! Added a couple of pearls to bring attention to the sentiment and there you go! All finished!

TFL! x

Rose Card

Hello Everybody!

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Here's a card I made yesterday using various techniques.

The rose image is from You Are Loved which is in our current Spring Mini catalogue.  I coloured the rose stamp with Pumpkin Pie, Real Red and Basic Gray inks and then stamped it. This was then punched out with the Large Oval punch and then I decided to use the cracked glass technique on it to make it a bit more interesting. I did this by heat embossing it with clear embossing powder three times, then, when it's cooled down, just bending the image to crack it.  Then I just wiped some more Basic Gray ink over to bring out the cracks.

What I love about this is that the Large Oval fits into the oval of the Textured Impressions Designer Frames embossing set.  This was done using our Brushed Silver Cardstock.

The Basic Gray card base was stamped with the script stamp from the Charming set (another Mini Catalogue offering) and embellished with Very Vanilla satin ribbon and Victoria lace which I dyed using Basic Gray ink to give it that shabby chic look!

The lollipop rosette was made using the Lace Ribbon Border, Boho Blossoms punch and a Fire rhinestone brad.

Once it was all stuck together I finished it off by spritzing with some more Basic Gray ink.

Hope you like it.  Any queries please just message me!

TFL! Joanne x