Welcome to my Blog

Welcome everyone, I hope to inspire you and share some of my papercraft work. You can find out where I teach and what I am up to, what inspires me and what I am working on next. I love to share new ideas and neat ways of adding creativity to your pages or cards etc

my blog

Monday, December 21, 2015

Imaginarium post


A visit from Santa 
By Sue Smyth 
and 2 tags 

Now I know you have seen these before lol 
But I don't think you will mind seeing them again plus
all of the step by steps. 


I love working on small items for Christmas, you can
really pack in lots of details and there is 
so much out there to include.

Today I have used one of the small billboards
from Imanginarium to make a Santa Decoration


I have painted all of the kit with gesso, several coats
and covered windows etc with
Dimensional magic and sprinkled liberally
with fine white glitter
(my favourite way to alter chipboard)
Remember not to cover tabs!


For the top I have created a little enamel cabochon to put
the letters for SANTA, see how to below.
Then I have made a little scroll to stamp
on.

For the base I have made Faux snow. 
I shared the recipe last year about this time. 
I have set little trees and a snowman brad into
the snow .
Add a few snowflakes from an old christmas garland 

Here it is again for those who want it.

2 teaspoons of Diamond Dust or silver coarse glitter
1 teaspoon of white gesso
4 or 5 drops of dimensional magic

stir until thoroughly mixed 
and store in air tight container.


This makes a neat and very beautiful decoration
you could also put a photo of the children
on Santa''s knee to personalize it 


Paint the oval chipboard with 2 coats of white gesso


Spray with Postbox red dylusions and dry off.


Dab with versamark and sprinkle with 
clear Utee. 


Heat set for a glossy shine.


Spritz with white dylusions while hot and 
continue to heat for 3 seconds 


Top Tip

I did not have the right size holly leaves, but
I did have some small regular leaves.
So I attacked the edges with a large 
hole punch to give the neat 
notches of holly...


Imaginarium chipboard

Santa's Tag


I have made this detailed little tag
to place on a miniature easel.
First cover the chipboard 
tag with Christmas patterned paper  


Then add details in layers to make your tag.
Because this is small you can use little pearls,
and tiny snowflakes 


Add a double embossed Happy Christmas and 
you have the most festive of all tags.

Imaginarium Chipboard


Reindeer Mixed Media Tag 



Next is a Mixed media tag, this is different to 
the one above as I have not used any paper to decorate it.



You could use this on a present for the recipient to keep
or use as a mini canvas on an easel to decorate your
house 


The gorgeous reindeer is covered
with dimensional magic and then
drenched with brown glitter for 
a wonderful shine, add some small 3mm
pearls for the spots and 
a little red one for the nose.



Take a large tag, in this case a pre used one, and 
cover with gesso.
Add stars with a stencil and texture paste for the 
sky, arrange chip trees and corners, using
the wet texture paste to adhere.


For the base place the palette knife flat on the 
texture paste and sharply pull up to
give a wonderful lumpy snow look.


Spray with inks to create a sky and snow field 
as pictured. Dry off and rub over
with turquoise glitter paste and then
white gesso for a snowy look.
Decorate with Christmas greetings
and reindeer as above 

Imaginarium Chipboard 





Happy Crafting and 
A Merry Christmas to all


Sunday, December 20, 2015

megs garden blog post

Santa is knocking on your door 
canvas 
by Sue Smyth 

For Christmas this year I have made a canvas to celebrate
the season, using the Meg's Garden microscope slide images of
Santa.


They make awesome decorations, but I wanted to use them en masse!
So I have adhered them all to chipboard, trimmed them and edged
them in gold paint and then covered the edge with
dimensional magic and dipped into gold glitter.
When dry cover each image in dimensional magic for 
shine and sturdiness.


I have altered the lovely azalea flower by wicking. 
You may have seen this in past posts.

Wicked flower
1.Spray flower with water.
2 Spray craft matt with red dylusions ink
3 Dip flower into ink and twirl 
around to control the flower of ink
4 Dry off with a heat gun.
5. Spray with adhesive and sprinkle with a little 
white glitter


The microscope slides are then adhere to a textured canvas.


Add trinkets, like keys and door latches.


Cover the holly leaves in a little gesso to soften them and tuck
under flowers with teased muslin


I have finished by layering over top chipboard 
letters.

Meg's Garden materials 



Happy Crafting 

Sue Smyth

Couture Creations


Sweet Treats for Christmas 
By Sue Smyth 



Hi Bloggers 
do you have any last minute gifts to make or little blank 
spots on the tree that need a decoration?
I have a super project for you 



This gorgeous decoration is made really simply 
from an old cookie cutter and Couture Creations 
Glitter Paper.
This one is a tree 


And this one is a ginger bread man 


You can follow my step by step below to make
 your very own and decorate with 
Couture Creations 3 mm pearls and rhinestones 


Select the easier shapes to start with.


Dry brush with gesso inside and out.
You can also add a bit of crackle medium
for an interesting shabby look.



When dry spray with a matching ink, in 
this case green


Place over glitter paper and mark
and out line with a white paint pen.
Trim out to fit the cookie cutter


Decorate the inside with pearls and rhinestones.
Use pearl drops to colour the edge and add 
further embellishment


With a crop a dile punch 2 holes in the 
top of the cookie cutter 


Thread through gold string, to hang with
before you add the cheeky gingham bow.

Couture Creations Materials 



Happy Crafting 


Thursday, December 10, 2015

couture creations blog 1


Christmas Joy Deer 
Centrepiece 
by Sue Smyth


With the Christmas season upon us, it is always great
to be able to whip up a last minute gift or decoration.
I had this MDF deer  in my stash for over a year and decided
this was the time to use it. 



Of course dies makes this a snap to do.


Add a little bit of glitter and snow and you have 
a winter wonderland


I have used some of our new glitter paper to add some
bling to the project.


I have also used our new pearl medium to 
add lustre and shine to the snowflake.


The first thing to do is paint the MDF shape with gesso 
as an undercoat. Ink the edges with a brown ink to give definition.


Next cover the Deer with dimensional magic or glue.


Sprinkle with white glitter and allow to dry


Cut 6 trees and adhere together, offset some of them to make them
resemble 2 trees behind each other.


Decorate with pearl medium for shine and dimension


Die cut Joy from red glitter paper, then cut the background
die from white cardstock, adhere both together and place over
the deer.


Add pearls for the eyes and also on the rump for spots.
Continue to decorate the base with trees and other
 die cut shapes as pictured.
Die cut the tall flourish and cut up to decorate around the base.


Couture Creations materials




Happy Crafting