Hello again!!

Just a quick note to apologise for leaving my blog unattended for so long.  There is an awful lot going on behind the scenes at Tonic Studios which requires a lot of work and when you throw Christmas into the mix as well, lets just say my crafting has gone out of the window.  I hope to get creating later on this week and get something uploaded :)

Hope you all had a great Christmas and look forward to a Happy and Prosperous 2015.

Karen x

Tonic Gold Christmas Mega Make

Hello Everyone, you need to head over to https://www.tonic-gold.co.uk/s/the-christmas-mega-make-the-christmas-double-pop-out-card for the new tutorial, it's the Christmas Mega Make and its a beautiful double pop out card that I made for the release of the Pretoria Duocap Alphabet Dies and the Topper Dies.  There are step by step instructions and photographs and if you get stuck I am around and about if you need any help :)

Hope you like it

Karen x

Cascading Card with Beautiful Buckle Strip Dies

I've been waiting for the perfect dies to come along for me to make a cascading card so I was thrilled when these Verso Strip Dies were designed as they are perfect for the card tops. 

I took two sheets of A4 white pearlescent card and marked where I wanted to cut them, I marked one side at 8" and the other at 4".  I then joined these marks up with a pencil and cut along them diagonally.  I placed each one on my scoring board and scored at half A4.

As die cutting gives you a right side and a wrong side you need to decide where you are going to place your dies, to do this you just need to line your cards up on your workspace with the smallest edges meeting together and make a little pencil mark that can be rubbed out later.  Take one of your cards and tape the scalloped edge from the beautiful buckles in place and run it through your die cutter, match the die back up along the length to continue the scalloped edge and run it through again.  Repeat this for your other sheet remembering to place your die on the right side of your card.  Next you need to tape the pattern die down in place and die cut this, match your die up again and repeat for the rest of the card.  Again, you need to duplicate this on your other sheet making sure its facing the right way.

To make the slits for your cards to fit together you need to place each card back on your scoring board and make a tiny pencil mark at the gate A4 line on the bottom of your card.

Now you need to turn your card around and do the same for the other side but this time placing your mark on the top of your card.  As you can see from the photographs I have measured to the centre of my card then cut from these pencil marks to that centre line.

For the other sheet you need to do the exact opposite so if you've cut from the bottom to the centre on the smaller side, you need to cut from the top to the centre on the second sheet so that they will slot together.  The same goes for the other side, if you've cut from top to centre, for your second sheet you'll need to cut from bottom to centre.  Your cards will now slot together and stand up.  

You will need to measure your panels to cut your layering pieces, angling them as needed.  

As the card is so decorative in it's own right, I've kept the added decoration to a minimum with some die cut layered flowers, a gathered bow and a 'niece' die cut out of the Family Members die set.  I added the 'I Miss You' out of the Just Because Sentiment set just gluing down the curly flourish at either end so that the card will stand and the sentiment will kind of stand out on its own away from the body of the card itself.  I added a few pearls as the flower centres to finish the card.  

I hope you like it and that you continue to catch up with Jodie for more demonstrations and ideas during the coming days.  

Karen x

My Friend Card with New Release Dies

A nice simple design today on an A5 card blank.  This is another that Jodie made live on air yesterday just to show how simple but effective these dies are to use.

The Lych Gate Wish was die cut in cream card and the outer edge was die cut to the same size in gold mirror card for a backing.  This was stuck directly to the card front aligned with the bottom.  The waste that was left from that die cut was trimmed, layered and used for the top of the card and glued in to place.

I Die cut a scalloped oval from the layering set in gold mirror and a matching plain edged oval in cream which I then embossed using the small pattern on the Garland Fancy embossing folder from the Idyllics range, these were layered and stuck to the card with 3d foam pads.

The wording was die cut from the new Just Because Sentiments and trimmed down to fit in both both burgandy and gold and drop shadowed then glued to the oval.

I cut three burgandy and two gold flowers from the Windsor Widebrim die set and added pearls to the centres.  I finished this one off with a chunky hand tied bow.