Jen Kray

Hello there! Today I've dipped into my watercolours and die cuts to create a large tag card, 15cm x 7.5cm.  This is the first time I've die cut into watercolour card and all I can say is...why have I not done this before?! I'm sure you've been doing this for years but to me it's new and I'm EXCITED!  So, I started off with a basic watercolour background for my tag, using  Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese Watercolours. I then die cut the  Tonic Beautiful Blooms and again used my watercolours on them. Then I hacked into a Tonic sentiment topper, added a few embellishments and popped it all together. A closer look at the watercolour background and some of the detail.  I used cord, watercolour paper and flower buds to make the centre of this flower. Isn't it lovely? I also used multiple layers of watercolours for a little depth on each flower.  I then cut out a Tonic sentiment topper and layered it with black card to make it pop. The finished tag card is lovely a...

TGIF!!  Craftwork Cards have recently released a really cool add-on kit - russet kraft  crates and I’ve been having some fun with them. There is plenty of inspiration on Pinterest for these lovely crates  here . I didn't want to do the normal build a crate so came up with a few ideas  Topper crate These little crates only take a minute or two to put together. You can use red super sticky tape, strong wet glue or hot glue (which I used). I made up a plain kraft one, another one I stamped with a wooden background stamp and white chalk ink, and various colours of glitter. I decided to use one of the crates as a topper storage/holder, it holds absolutely loads of toppers and the perfect size to boot! Now, anytime I need a topper, I can reach for that little crate on my desk. Having the toppers accessible means they’re a continuous source of inspiration instead of tucked away in a box somewhere. High  fives all around if you’re already doing this- I love the idea! Ch...

Happy Sunday to you!  I've been at the easel cards again and this time it's all about Craftwork Cards. It's a longer post from me today as I've made 6 different cards this week - from a tiny ATC all the way up to a very large triple easel card.  1. ATC Easel designed using Christmas Cheer. I don't know if you're meant to make easel card ATC's but it was fun making this little cutie! Here I've demonstrated just how small this is.  2. This is a  3 x 3 inch Easel Card designed using Birds & Blooms and took about 10 minute using the leftover paper from my other card creations.  3. 6 x 6 Easel Card designed using Birds & Blooms .  Once again I have opted to make a simply designed card which took no more than 25 minutes from start to finish (although I used a heat gun to dry the Stickles). For this card, the only other item used was Stickles, Star Dust. The topper on the base has been converted into a card, so there is room for your message inside....

Hi there! Brrrrr - it's getting cold here in Cornwall. I'm not looking forward to the dark and dreary winter down here; roll on Spring! ;) Today's blog showcases a couple masculine cards. Personally, this is always a challenge and takes me longer to design something I'm happy with. Luckily, both worked out. :) First up is a 15cm Easel Envelope card I designed using Craftwork Cards 'Take it Easy' collection and one of the new stamps from Craftwork Cards Stamp It! set which has now sadly sold out. I fussed about with the decoupage a little and hand cut a tag. I'd seen something similar from my friend, Nicky Gilburt and knew I needed to have a whirl with my own spin on it. The end result was this: As a coincidence, the very next day I needed another masculine card but didn't want to use the same papers. So, I flicked through my paper stash  and came up with - Time to Flourish from Graphic 45 - which isn't necessarily for men but worked out well. The sen...

So yeah, I've had family intervention. After using my Tonic Twisting Veranda and Beautiful Blooms dies over the past few days, my husband says all we need is a monorail and some fireworks and the house would look like Disneyland! I admit it, I've gone a little overboard on my recent makes. They are large, dimensional and pretty darn cool! The dies are now safely tucked away until my next inspirational moment.   Now, I've die cut in the past but nothing intricate or fussy. It's mainly been for apertures or the odd leaf or sentiment. But I've recently bought some Tonic die sets - first was the Beautiful Blooms and then Twisting Veranda.  I'm not gonna lie, it was tough getting to grips with this sort of die cutting. I intentionally stayed away from social media as I needed to figure it out myself and wanted to create something totally me.  It took nearly 5 hours to get to grips with these dies - but you have to remember I had no idea what I was doing and it's...